Missoula Osprey

46

For the most part, I love the name Missoula Osprey. The name of any bird of prey works great as a team name, so clearly the name Osprey must. Missoula is well within the osprey's range (although that range is too big for me to give the team the "local" bonus). The name isn't nearly as overused as most birds of prey – in college sports there are seventy-six teams called the Eagles, twenty-eight called the Hawks, fifteen called the falcons, and seven called the owls, but just two called the Osprey(s). (Both "osprey" and "ospreys" are acceptable plurals for singular "osprey".) If there is any problem with the name, it's the fact that "Missoula" ends with a vowel and "Osprey" starts with one, which ever-so-slightly messes with the flow of the name. However, it's no worse on this front than football's Philadelphia Eagles on this point.

But the logo...oh, they really did drop the ball here, didn't they? The bird itself (and the fish being carried in the bird's talons) is okay, and if that was the whole logo I'd have no complaints. But everything else looks kind of amateurish. The trees look ridiculous, randomly-placed, and inconsistently-sized. The baseball diamond in the back is pointless, and the fact that home plate and first base are clearly shown but second and third bases are obscured doesn't help any. (Nor does the fact that if you look closely you can see that first base is a rectangle instead of a square.) The shadow effect on the name is clumsy and looks like something out of a 1980s desktop publishing program. The banner with "BASEBALL" written on it is pointless and hard to read (is that really medium grey text on a medium blue background?), and somehow it manages to look off center despite being perfectly centered. All in all the logo gives the impression that a professional artist drew just the bird and the team's owner liked it but felt it needed more, and gave some teenaged kid the task of sprucing it up.

Yes, I understand that this is a rookie league team, and that the team probably doesn't have the same budget for logo design that the San Diego Padres have, but there are Pioneer League teams that have logos that are at least on par with the rest of minor league baseball. And as I said, the team does have a promising start. They just blew it on the follow through.

I can't honestly say I have a suggestion on how to fix this. I mean, sure, get rid of everything but the osprey itself and start again, but then what? I'd be fine leaving it like that, but I know that most people would want to see a bit more than that, and I'm not sure what that bit more should be. The name, I guess, but written in a more impressive fashion. The baseball diamond? Ditch it. The word "Baseball"? Away with it. Maybe we can still have a tree or two as a background element, but only if properly drawn, and I'm far from certain that's the best answer. I'm open to ideas if anyone has them...or at least, I would be if I could actually fix the logo. Since I can't, maybe it's best we just move on and forget about this one for now.

Final Score: 46 points.
Penalties: Scenery, 11 pts; Diamond, 16 pts; Obvious, 17 pts; Logo, 12 pts.
Bonuses: Name, -10 pts.