Major League Baseball logo

The Major League Baseball logo.

The Major League Baseball logo was designed by Jerry Dior in 1968 and was included on all on-field uniforms of Major League Baseball employees beginning in the 1969 season.

Creation

According to Dior, the logo was created in a single afternoon. Contrary to popular belief, the silhouette is not modeled on any specific player^[1] but was drawn with reference to photographs of several players.^[2] The silhouette was chosen specifically because of its ambiguity: the batter could be right- or left-handed and of any ethnic background. ^[2]

Controversy

For many years, the authorship of the logo was a matter of some dispute as two graphic designers laid claim to creating the piece: Jerry Dior^[3] (working for the marketing firm of Sandgren & Murtha ) and James Sherman,^[4] who is probably better known publicly as a comic book illustrator. In November, 2008, ESPN writer Paul Lukas managed to clear the matter up and Dior's authorship is no longer in doubt.^[2] Upon closely examining the logo, Sherman declared:

"That's not my logo, and I was totally unaware that it existed... The logo I created was very similar, but I designed it in the early 1980s. All I can say is that I was so sports-unaware that I didn't know about the earlier logo. I feel like a total idiot now that I didn't know about it. I'm flabbergasted."^[2]

Popularity and influence

The logo has not been changed in the years since its adoption, except that individual teams sometimes alter the coloring to match their uniform colors. Since its adoption, the basic model of an athlete or equipment used for the sport in silhouette flanked by red and blue has also been incorporated in the logos of the National Basketball Association (with Jerry West as its player model), Women's National Basketball Association, American Hockey League, National Lacrosse League, Indy Racing League, and Major League Gaming. It has also been parodied in Major League Eating.

Alan Siegel, who oversaw Dior's logo, deliberately based his NBA logo design off the MLB's in 1969 because NBA Commissioner J. Walter Kennedy wanted a family relationship between the sports as being All-American.^[5]

References

1. ^ "MLB Miscellany: Rules, regulations and statistics". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/rules_regulations.jsp. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Lukas, Paul (2008-11-10). "The mystery of the Major League Baseball logo designer". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/081105. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
3. ^ Davis, David (2008-10-23). "The Man Behind the MLB Logo". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122453063968851133.html. 
4. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=lEWHfXUwUAwC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=%22james+sherman%22+%22major+league+baseball+logo%22&source=web&ots=nA0shQcFJH&sig=eJp2MagVTFRi69neqmYiNC6futs
5. ^ Crowe, Jerry That iconic NBA silhouette can be traced back to him Los Angeles Times (April 27, 2010). Retrieved on 5-22-11.