Saraperos de Saltillo

81

NOTE: This review incorporates text from the previous review for los Saraperos, which was posted on 2015
June 7.

Sarapero is another one of those made-up words you sometimes see in sports, like Steeler or Laker or CornBelter. It's not really a recognizable word in any context other than the team's name. In the case of the English words I just listed, they don't even follow the normal rules of English: a suffix generally used on verbs has instead been added onto a noun. From what little I can gather on the interwebs, there's nothing unusual about adding the suffix -ero to the end of a noun in Spanish. In fact I might be wrong; sarapero might even be an actual word (it would mean "one who makes sarapes" if it was). But if you google sarapero the only thing you'll see are references to the team. Well, that and a Twitter feed for someone named Sara Pero.

A sarape, incidentally, is a blanket-like shawl. You've seen pictures of people wearing them, I'm sure. It's apparently one of the things that Saltillo is known for in the same way that Pittsburgh is known for steel or Chicago is known for corruption. So I suppose if you think that the name "Pittsburgh Steelers" makes sense, then you probably think "Saraperos de Saltillo" makes sense as well. Me, I've never figured out whether I think "Pittsburgh Steelers" makes sense, so don't ask me what I think of this one.

Incidentally, sarapes are not the only thing Saltillo known for making. It's also known for making cars. This has apparently earned it the nickname "The Detroit of Mexico". I'm sure that once upon a time that sounded like a flattering comparison, but these days I don't know that any city boosters anywhere are saying to each other, "You know what city I want us to be compared to? Detroit!" So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that's a nickname they don't use in their Chamber of Commerce brochures these days.

The nice thing about the name "Saraperos" is that it's easy to see what to do with your logo: you put a sarape in it. And once upon a time, that's exactly what they did, as the logo to the right demonstrates. However, that apparently made a little bit too much sense, so back in 2015 they adopted a new logo which had just the barest hint of a sarape in it. And this year, they replaced that logo with one that has no hint of it at all. Instead, it's just got baseball seams. Look, guys, I get that sarapes don't necessarily make for great logos, but you're the ones who decided to name the team after them in the first place. Maybe you should try a little harder next time.

Oh, who am I kidding? Given the direction these logos are going, the next logo probably won't even have the word sarape in it. It'll probably just say "Ros". And the logo after that? Probably just solid white.

Final Score: 81 points.
Penalties: Ers, 26 pts; Alliteration, 5 pts; Script, 7 pts; Equipment, 13 pts; Letter, 24 pts; Logo, 12 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -6 pts.