South Bend Cubs

12

NOTE: This review incorporates text from the previous review for the South Bend Cubs, which was posted on 2019 May 2016.

To the right you will see a picture of the Cubs Den, the team store for the South Bend Cubs. The careful observer may note that the store has a feature or two not typically associated with sports team stores, like the two Stars of David in the corners. And you probably can't see it in this photograph, but there's also Hebrew text below the rose window.

In short, this store looks an awful lot like a synagogue. There's a very good reason for that, which is that the building used to be a synagogue. It was built in 1901 and served as home to the B'nai Israel congregation until 1990. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, and as such the store is likely the only team store in the United States that's located in a NRHP building (or at least, the only one located in a NRHP building that isn't a ballpark).

So why is the team store in a former synagogue? Well, for one thing, it was available (like I said, it served as home to the B'nai Israel congregation until 1990, which is over twenty years before the building became the team store). Also, it's right next to the stadium. If you're sitting in the stands along the first base line you'll see it beyond left field. It's the building with the ad for Toyota on its roof. No, I'm not making that up. The team (then known as the South Bend Silver Hawks) moved into the then-new stadium in 1988, and renovated the former synagogue in 2012. I'm sure some people reading this have a problem with the idea of a team store in an old synagogue, and I can see where they're coming from, but all things considered I think it's a good thing. It's not like the team kicked them out. And the building sat empty for most of the time since the congregation left. Being used as a store may not be the most respectful fate for a synagogue, but it beats sitting empty and falling into disrepair.

That's not the only former synagogue nearby, incidentally. If you walk out of the team store and look ahead and about forty-five degrees to your right, you'll see the building that now belongs to Sweet Home Ministries. That building, as it happens, is another former synagogue (former home to the Hebrew Orthodox Congregation). This may make you think the stadium was built in what used to be the Jewish part of town.* Maybe it was. But if you walk around the back of the stadium until you're a bit past center field, you'll find the building that is now home to Zion Hill Baptist Church, and from what I can find that's been the site of a church (and not a synagogue) since 1873. So maybe that was just the block where all the religious buildings went. You can make your own joke about how that block is now home to a baseball stadium. Or you can speculate on how many old church and synagogue buildings were torn down to make room for the baseball stadium. Maybe a mosque or two and a Hindu temple as well. Use your imagination. Go nuts.

Anyway, as I said, the Silver Hawks started using the former B'nai Israel Synagogue as their team store in 2012. A few years later — 2015, to be precise — the Silver Hawks changed their name when they switched their affiliation from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Chicago Cubs. I suppose I can understand why, seeing as how Chicago is less than two hours away. And it's not like Silver Hawks was such a great name in the first place. But it's always a little disappointing to see a minor league team just brand itself with its parent team's name. It used to be even worse, because until this season the logo was just a variation on the Chicago Cubs' logo. This year they decided to do something a little different and put an actual cub in the logo. Truth be told they've just gone from a variant of the Chicago Cubs' primary logo to a variant of the Chicago Cubs' old secondary logo from back in the 90s. But that's still an improvement in my book.

I don't get the leaves, though. I get that they wanted to put something there. Without them the logo would look imbalanced because the top half of the circle would say "SOUTH BEND" while the bottom half just said "CUBS". But why leaves? I could understand if South Bend's nickname was "The Tree City" or "The City of Maples" or something like that. But apparently the nickname of South Bend is "Lotion City". Granted, they're not likely to be able to incorporate lotion into the logo and I'd rather not see them try. But still, I don't get the leaves.

Maybe they should replace them with some stars of David and some crosses? You know, to honor the area where the stadium was built? Maybe that's blasphemous. But if so, it's probably no worse than turning a former place of worship into your team store.

* What do you call the Jewish part of town? Li-Tel Aviv?

Final Score: 12 points.
Penalties: Offspring, 12 pts.
Bonuses: None.