Have you ever gotten a random expansion in your MLB saves, which comes up as something ridiculous like "Indianapolis Surf Dawgs" or "Jacksonville Pacifics"? Hopefully I can help. This thread is dedicated to 30 all-new teams that (hopefully) look like they could fit in with a modern MLB game. Hopefully something here strikes your fancy! You can download the entire set here:
Caps
Jerseys
Logos
In addition, I've added individual zip files for each team so you can download just what you need:
Austin Violets
Buffalo Beacons
Charlotte Flyers
Columbus Explorers
El Paso Blackbirds
Hartford Oaks
Indianapolis Racers
Jacksonville Anchors
Las Vegas Scorpions
Louisville Colts
Memphis Lions
Montreal Monarques
Nashville Stars
New Mexico Suns
New Orleans Crescents
New York Burros
Newark Cherries
Norfolk Navigators
Oklahoma Oilers
Omaha Thunder
Ottawa Lynx
Portland Beavers
Reno Silver Sox
Sacramento Solons
Salt Lake Bees
San Antonio Marshals
San Bernardino 66ers
Syracuse Blizzard
Tucson Saguaros
Vancouver Cascades
--------
-------
INDIANAPOLIS ROUNDERS
Logos/Uniforms (Imgur)
Indy is not really one of the cities on the doorstep of MLB expansion or relocation, but from my perspective that's just a problem of location - the Midwest is fairly saturated for baseball at the moment, with the Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers and Indians all not
too far away. I wouldn't expect the 31st or 32nd team in MLB to be there, but they would crack the list eventually, so if you want to expand your league up to, say, 36, this is a good city to go to.
I have always struggled with naming teams in Indiana, so when I thought of this name I jumped at the chance. For the first few years of this save, they were the uninspired Indianapolis Maroons - I kept the same shade of maroon and added a lot of black to go with. There are a few reasons why I like the name Rounders here:
- it's vaguely reminiscent of the city's history of auto racing without explicitly referencing it; wheels are round, and the cars go 'round and 'round really fast. (No one would accuse this name of being complicated. 
) Using a name like Racers, which everyone has tried - myself included, featuring a god-awful checkerboard uniform - has never produced a concept that I actually like, and it sounds too similar to the Pacers (who are also in reference to auto racing, namely the pace car)
- because this is specificially Indianapolis, and not Indiana as a whole, I can make reference to its sometimes-nickname of Circle City. That refers to its history as a planned city; it was purposefully built to be the capital of Indiana, and the center of the city is built as a grid around Monument Circle with streets radiating out from the center in eight directions.
- most specifically, it refers to the genesis of baseball and its roots in the English game of rounders
- and it's unique! That means something beyond just doing something random for the sake of randomness, because it's still carefully chosen.
Here are the logos:
There's quite a bit going on in the primary, but it's similar to the official primary logos of a few MLB teams, like the Twins, Rangers and Mariners. The centerpiece of the identity is seen there as a letter O - this symbol that is both a wheel and an abstract representation of Monument Circle, with streets radiating out from the center in eight directions.
Apologies for posting white logos on a white background since they're literally invisible here, but you can visit
the imgur link to check them out on a black background too. Anyway, you've got four options for a secondary here - the R from the primary, an I in the same font (which you'll also see on the road uniform), the wheel by itself, and the wheel superimposed over Indiana. (That sorta counteracts what I said earlier about this being an Indianapolis-specific team, but we will roll onward).
Jerseys and caps:
A fairly simple set of uniforms and caps - I would expect an Indianapolis team to try to follow a fairly traditional path. There's a pullover look to it even though it isn't a pullover, and the Indiana/wheel logo is a left shoulder patch. I use the R cap for them both home and away, but I've thrown in an I cap for those who want it.
On to the next team:
NASHVILLE STARS
Logos/Uniforms (Imgur)
It was announced yesterday that a group of people aiming to bring MLB to Music City would use this name (article here). Nashville is never a city that was on my radar for real-life expansion, but these things move quickly and often in surprising directions, so who knows? The South is probably a part of the country that could use another team, and although Charlotte is maybe the more obvious choice Nashville is a city on the rise in a lot of ways. At first glance, calling a team the Stars might seem uninspired, but I think it's a perfect name for Nashville:
- as mentioned in the article, this group is partnering with the Negro League Museum, and Stars was a name for dozens of teams in that era of baseball's history
- it's also in fitting with the city's history of music given the number of stars it has produced, without sounding overly minor-league like the name "Sounds" does
- and the name lends itself perfectly to a piece of iconography that is uniquely Tennessee, and that Nashville's other pro sports teams have already implemented. Civic unity!
Here's my take.
I dislike the Sounds name, but not the current logo, so I decided to repurpose it. The most obvious change is the addition of Tennessee's three stars, which appear on its state flag and reference the three unique "Grand Divisions" of Tennessee that could easily have been separate states but aren't. Nashville's other major pro teams, the Titans and Predators, also use three stars as a motif somewhere in their imagery, so this I think is a realistic choice. They replace a fairly bland "cap logo inside baseball". The team colors are by no means original within MLB, but they match the colors of the state flag, so it was a natural choice to keep the Sounds' navy and red.
Four different choices here for a secondary logo. The first is the Sounds' real-life cap logo and it's the cap logo I'm using as well. (It's already got a white outline to it although that's nigh-on impossible to see.) This is my personal choice for the Stars' secondary logo in my game but there are options here for everybody. We've got the Three Stars isolated and two different versions of an N inside a guitar pick shape. Yeah, I know in changing the team to the Stars it has less to do with music than the Sounds do, but the Predators also have a guitar-pick logo (this one) so there is definitely precedent here.
Jerseys and caps:
Kind of another "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" scenario with the home uniform. The Sounds' current home white is one of my favorite MiLB uniforms so I didn't mess with it too much, just adding the three-stars logo to the left shoulder. Two different versions of the road gray because I honestly can't decide which way I want to do it myself. The navy blue cap with the N is intended to be the primary cap both home and away, but the cap with the white front panel can be used as a home alternate (I don't recommend it with a gray uniform).
--------
That's all for now! I have several more of these saved up but I've already spent longer on this post than I wanted to.