Brooklyn Cyclones

35

You're probably wondering what anything in this logo has to do with a cyclone. The answer is, of course, nothing. That's because the Brooklyn Cyclones are not named after a cyclone. They are named after The Cyclone. The Cyclone, you see, is the name of a roller coaster at Coney Island. The Cyclone is a wooden roller coaster dating from the 1920s, and is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) roller coasters in America that you can still ride. The Cyclone is so old, in fact, that it is on the National Register of Historic Places. This would be a lot cooler had we not learned last week about that stupid duck.

"The Cyclone" is also the name of a roller coaster in Crystal Beach, Ontario; the name of a roller coaster in Gold Coast, Queensland; the name of a roller coaster in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island; the name of a roller coaster in Long Beach, California; the name of a roller coaster in Charlotte, North Carolina; the name of a roller coaster in Atlanta, Georgia; and the name of a roller coaster in Houston, Texas. There is, as you can see, about as much originality in naming roller coasters as there is in naming sports teams. The Cyclone at Coney Island, for the record, is the oldest of all these Cyclone coasters, and some of the others even copy its design. There are also roller coasters by other names that copy its design. So apparently, there's about as much originality in designing roller coasters as there is in naming them. But still, you can't hold that against Coney Island's Cyclone any more than you can blame Boston's baseball team for copying the name of Pawtucket's baseball team.

Armed with the knowledge that this is named after The Cyclone and not a cyclone, you should now see that the logo does indeed get some inspiration from that which it is named after. At the bottom of the logo you can clearly see a bit of the coaster. Yes, children, that really is a roller coaster. I know you little whippersnappers think roller coasters look like all those fancy metal ones you see at places like Busch Gardens, and they don't have all that scaffolding. Well, let me tell you something, you little whelp: when I was a boy that's what all roller coasters looked like! Furthermore, they only operated in the winter! That's right: When I was a boy, we rode roller coasters uphill in the snow!

Or at least, other people did. Me, I'm scared of heights. I have very little use for most roller coasters. About the scariest roller coaster I've ever been willing to get on is the little Scooby-Doo coaster at Kings Dominion, which— what's that? There's no Scooby-Doo roller coaster anymore? Well, it has been a while since I made it up there. They probably demolished it to make room for some lame-ass Dragon Ball Z ride or someth— Excuse me? You don't know who Scooby-Doo is? Jeez, what is wrong with kids these days? Okay, two things: First, stop interrupting me when I'm typing. Second, Scooby-Doo was only one of the best cartoons made in the 1970s. What was so great about it? Nothing, actually. In fact, it kinda sucked. Most cartoons in the 1970s kinda sucked, if you want to know the truth. You kids don't know how lucky you have it these days.

So I probably wouldn't be interested in getting on the Cyclone at Coney Island. I particularly wouldn't want to get on it if the drawing in the logo is accurate. It looks like the thing just barely manages to crest a peak, then the track ends. I know safety standards were a little more lax in the 1920s than they are today, but surely they were required to actually finish laying the track before they could sell tickets, right? Surely the thing wouldn't be a landmark, and wouldn't have numerous copies of it, if everyone who rode the thing plummeted to their death? If nothing else, having to replace the cars for every ride would have to get expensive after a while.

But even with the disturbing (and hopefully inacurrate) rendering of the roller coaster, this is a good logo. It has a good retro look to it. It has a reference to the logo's namesake without getting silly. I could do without the baseball, but it's a minor distraction and does at least keep the logo from being too symmetrical. They resisted the temptation to do anything silly, like make the word "Cyclones" look like cars on the track (which, in light of the missing track, would have been particularly bad). It's nothing flashy, and it may not win any awards as the best logo out there. But in its own understated way it's better than at least three quarters of the other logos out there, and I'm confident that if they're still using this logo in fifty years, it'll still be better than at least three quarters of the other logos out there then as well.

Final Score: 35 points.
Penalties: Equipment, 13 pts; Diamond, 16 pts; Letter, 24 pts.
Bonuses: Logo, -12 pts; Local, -6 pts.