Jupiter Hammerheads

88

I was briefly very excited when I read about where the Jupiter Hammerheads play. The name of their home grounds is Roger Dean Stadium. The name "Roger Dean" may not mean anything to you if you're not into progressive rock, but those of you who like 20-minute rock songs which include flute solos and lyrics about Hindu scriptures will recognize the name as belonging to the man who painted many of Yes' album covers. It turns out he also dabbles in architecture. Look at the pictures on that link if you haven't already. Even if you don't like the style, you must admit that a baseball stadium designed by this man would be a sight to see.

Sadly, the stadium has nothing to do with this Roger Dean. Instead, the stadium is apparently named after a car dealer. Seriously. Go to the website for the stadium (which I'm not linking here because it's not nearly as interesting as the link in the previous paragraph), and it explains that "Roger Houston Dean (Mr. Dean) was born in 1915 and served as a naval officer in World War II. He started his career as an Auto Dealer with Ford Motor Company in 1947. Mr. Dean was one of the first Mega Dealers in the United States." Now, I'm not saying anything bad about Roger Houston Dean. But I was hoping for a stadium worthy of topographic oceans, and this is just another case of a company buying naming rights. I can't help but be disappointed.

The Jupter Hammerheads, as it turns out, are one of four, count 'em, four teams to call Roger Dean stadium home. The other three are the Palm Beach Cardinals (who, like the Hammerheads, play in the Florida State League), and the Gulf Coast League affiliates for the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.* I'm not entirely certain how this works. I can see how two teams would share a stadium — basically, there'd be a game there every day, with one team at home while the other was on the road. But four teams? All I can figure is that every day features a day game with one of the GCL teams and a night game with one of the FSL teams. If anyone reading this knows the answer, let me know.

You may note, incidentally, that although two Florida State League teams play in the same stadium, they don't actually use the same geographic moniker. In case you're wondering about that, Jupiter is in Palm Beach County. There is also a city called Palm Beach, but it's smaller than Jupiter and the stadium isn't particularly close to it.

Now, about the shark in the logo. You have to look fairly close to realize that the shark is indeed a hammerhead. At first glance, I honestly thought it was a run-of-the-mill shark that just happened to have a humongous nose. I was looking at a fairly small copy of the logo, but you can't assume most people seeing the logo have a much better look at it. It was only when I got a look at a bigger copy of the logo that I...well, at first I thought it was a run-of-the-mill shark that just happened to have a humongous, deformed nose. I did eventually see that it was supposed to be a hammerhead, but even now that I know that, it doesn't take much for it to look like the shark with the deformed nose.

What I'm saying here, in short, is that the shark is poorly drawn. The rest of it is okay, but then again, nothing else in the logo is that tricky. They need to get someone else to design a new one.

My recommendation? Get Roger Dean, of course. I always thought Yes and Asia had pretty cool-looking logos. Maybe he can give these guys one, too.

*

If you're wondering what these teams are called, they are simply known as the Marlins and the Cardinals. If the need to distinguish them from other teams arises, then they are referred to as the Gulf Coast League Marlins and the Gulf Coast Cardinals. That's how the Gulf Coast League works. It's a rookie league, and it's not there to make money, so no effort is put into any sort of "branding" for the teams as entities in their own right.

Final Score: 88 points.
Penalties: Script, 7 pts; Scenery (the lighthouse), 11 pts; Equipment, 13 pts; Cartoon, 57 pts.
Bonuses: None (no, not even the Local bonus...the range of hammerheads is far too big for it to count).