Reno Aces

83

I think it's fair to say that if you try to explain Reno, Nevada in one word or less, that word would have to be "gambling". Check out the Wikipedia page for Reno and in the "Economy" section you will see four paragraphs talking about gambling, and then four sentences talking about everything else. Better still, go to the official City of Reno, Nevada website, and the banner at the top has pictures of the "Biggest Little City in the World" arch and a bunch of casinos. Go to the "Activities for Visitors" part of the "Things to Do" page at Reno's website, and the three links are "Dining", "Gaming", and "Special Events". In short, the notion that there's nothing to do in Reno but gamble isn't just the jaded opinion of many an outsider, it's also the unspoken stance of the city itself. Furthermore, the very foundation of the town was the result of someone building a toll bridge to connect nearby Virginia City with the California Trail. In other words, the entire history of this place can be summed up as taking money from people coming from other places. I don't say this critically. I grew up near Washington, D.C. I can relate.

Given this history, it was very likely that any team name for a baseball team in Reno was going to have a gambling related theme. The team settled on "Aces", which is probably a good choice given some of the alternatives. (I really don't care to think about what sort of logos "Reno Craps" would have led to.) As for the logo, some kind of playing card theme is the obvious way to go. They didn't go with the obvious. The logo vaguely hints at playing cards via the placement of a diamond on the "A", but aside from that the logo is generic baseball references: the team name in baseball script, a BIC background, and the words "baseball club" at the bottom for those of you who can't figure out that a team whose logo is written in baseball script and has a baseball in the background is a baseball team.

In other words, it's a real yawner of a logo. Is this deliberate? The casinos are all glitz and "Come here! We're exciting!" The logo seems to be saying, "If you really want to come to a baseball game you can, but wouldn't you rather be gambling at one of our fantastic, shiny casinos?" This probably helps the city's bottom line in the long run (unless there are slot machines at the ballpark, and to be honest that wouldn't surprise me), but it can't be good for the team's bottom line. Maybe the casinos have "suggested" the baseball team shouldn't try too hard to attract fans, if you know what I mean. It doesn't seem to have stopped the Las Vegas 51s from having a good logo, but maybe the casinos there are a little more secure in their position. I know plenty of people from the East Coast who have flown to Las Vegas for a vacation. I can't think of any that have flown to Reno. I don't personally gamble, but I definitely get the impression that Reno isn't even playing second fiddle to Las Vegas in the gambling business. It's playing viola, and Las Vegas is both first and second violin. Heck, Las Vegas may be the whole damn string quartet, leaving Reno to be the bass viol. With that in mind, the Reno casinos could easily be more concerned about competition for your entertainment dollar than Las Vegas casinos are. And I can see the baseball team taking those "concerns" seriously. It's bad enough when the bent-nosed guys show up at your doorstep with a violin case. You don't even want to think about the weapon they must be hauling in that bass viol case.

Final Score: 83 points.
Penalties: Script, 7 pts; Equipment, 13 pts; Diamond, 16 pts; Obvious, 17 points; Letter, 24 pts; Logo, 6 pts.
Bonuses: None.