Joliet Slammers

33

If you've heard of Joliet, it's probably because of the prison. It was featured in The Blues Brothers, was used as a filming location for Prison Break, and has been mentioned in numerous songs and TV shows over the years. It's not that Joliet has nothing going for it other than having a prison, but there's not much about the place that stands out other than the prison. And truth be told, I'm not completely certain why that prison is so famous. Probably because it's so close to Chicago, I guess.

Anyway, about the only other claim to fame Joliet has is that its the location of the first Dairy Queen. And since "Joliet Blizzards" doesn't sound like a great name for a baseball team, I guess the team didn't have much choice but to name itself after the prison. So they went with "Joliet Slammers" instead. And since you can't make a really good logo out of a prison, they decided that instead they'd— no, they actually went with the prison. (The watchtower in the logo actually looks like the watchtowers at the prison, incidentally.) And it looks...okay, I suppose. Better than you'd expect from hearing that the logo was of a prison.

That prison also plays a role in what has got to be the strangest thing I've ever seen available as term merchandise for a sports team. They sell replicas of the prison. Seriously. I have no idea how big the thing is (it's hard to establish scale in the photo), but the thing costs forty bucks, and says "Joliet Slammers" on the front. I'm trying to decide whether this is insane, inspired, or inbetween. Presumably they wouldn't be selling them if people weren't buying them, which argues in favor of inspired.

For the team, that is. As for the buyers, I'm leaning to one of the other options, and probably not "inbetween".

Final Score: 33 points.
Penalties: Equipment, 13 pts; Diamond, 16 pts; Name, 10 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -6 pts.