United Baseball Association

[TrapperJohn]

Hey y'all. Inspired (as I know many of you have been) by the cool UBA project created by Megildur on the SportsLogos concept forum, I decided to build a UBA of my own—a sort of alternate history modern Major League... plausible, but fictional.

This is a far less ambitious project than my previous post on here, which didn't seem to draw much attention (this one https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=296873). Some of the teams in my UBA league are retreads from that one, and others are just tweaked versions of other people's excellent work (I'm loathe to post those, as I deserve no credit for them, but will do so anyway in case people happen to prefer my tweaks to cap logo size, arm logos, name changes, etc.). But there were enough original team identities in the mix that I figured I'd post them here, in case other people wanted to use them for their leagues. Hope some of you find them useful, in any event!

I'll post the teams in this thread—36 major league squads, split into an Eastern and Western league. Hopefully they carry a sense of (plausible, fictional) history. I'll also post a quickstart of the league, which includes five minor league levels (all stemming from my previous Continental Baseball League project), real-life owners (Peyton Manning in Nashville! Drake in Toronto! A bunch of boring billionaires almost everywhere else!), and completely customized rosters and managers—curated names, nicknames, facegens, etc. to add some (plausible, fictional) realism and avoid extreme oddities.

[TrapperJohn]

Eastern League — Atlantic Division

The Baltimore Clippers are of my own invention (although I found the logo art, not being an artist myself); I wanted something seafaring with a sort of timeless air, and a yellow-and-black color scheme was appealing to me. The Boston Silvers is a name I've loved since seeing a version of it in a football concept thread on another site—an homage to the famed silversmith, Paul Revere, and an unusual name that still feels as though it could have been adopted in 1900. The Montreal Monarchs borrow a logo from artist Punchy_Gungus at SportsLogos, and wordmarks from SFGiants' default saga; I designed the caps and uniforms to be a little Expos-esque for some historical familiarity. New Jersey has a team—the Knights—although having recently watched the free stream of Ken Burns' 'Baseball' on PBS I'm already itching to move them to Brooklyn. It's an unusual color scheme, but I found a logo I liked somewhere in the recesses of the internet and built around it for an old-timey gold-and-slate look. The New York Emperors—well, that's a direct steal from Megildur, and the team that inspired the whole project. I made jerseys and caps based on his inspired artwork before realizing that other, better jersey-and-cap makers on these forums would do it for me—posting my versions here in case anyone wants them. I've always had trouble naming Philadelphia teams, but—thanks again, Ken Burns—I went way, way back for an 1800s legacy sort of name in the Federals. You get the alliteration, the history, etc. Designed this set in dark blue and cream based on a (red, I think?) logo I found with a little googling. Anyway: here's the Atlantic Division.

[jparker2112]

I can't wait for the QS!!! I LOVED the CBL!

[Insomniac]

Originally Posted by jparker2112

I can't wait for the QS!!! I LOVED the CBL!

Agreed on both counts. Can't wait to see more.

[TrapperJohn]

Thanks for the feedback! Hope some of these are useful to folks. Here, now:

Eastern League — Central Division

This division is made up mostly of retreads from other people's work, so I won't dwell on it long. The Cincinnati Buckeyes are based off of TxRanger's excellent work—another team with a classic, century-old feel—with caps I made myself to create more consistency with the feel of this league. The Cleveland Spiders are among the hottest concepts on this forum—I used this version, which I tweaked from others' work, in my prior CBL project. The Detroit Wolverines are a straight-up theft from Hockey13Playa's awesome USBL project—I just played with the cap and wordmark sizes and changed the jersey textures, essentially. The Nashville Stars are an adaptation of the best minor league identity in the game—I just tweaked colors and sizes from the real thing. The Pittsburgh Ironmen come from a basketball concept created by the great artist behind Unofficial Athletic... I de-hooped the logo, changed the colors, and melded it into a preexisting letter logo (can't remember who designed that interlocking P & I—sorry). The most original (original with me, that is) team in the division is the Toronto Lakers. I used a sleek anchor logo created by Punchy_Gungus at SportsLogos as a base, and was able to recreate a stitched (NBA) Lakers wordmark image I found after deep googling for the home jersey; the caps are similar to those I used for the Toronto Kingfishers in the CBL. Not a ton to say here—this division is probably the least original and/or interesting in the league from an art standpoint. Hope folks enjoy, and rediscover some excellent design work by some of the best logo artists here and elsewhere. Better stuff to come in the remaining divisions, hopefully...

[Cole]

Also looking forward to this and was a big fan of the CBL.

[TrapperJohn]

Eastern League — Southeast Division

This sextet features more of my own (or my-own-ish) designs than the previous division. The Atlanta Scouts are an identity I really like, and one which I've never come across before. I see them as an old, old team—"Scouts," perhaps, was once premised on appropriated Indian imagery, but over time and an evolving sense of empathy & dignity came to be replaced by a mockingbird (a scout, of sorts, at home in the southeastern U.S.). I absconded with the logo art from sleuthpanther's innovative ACAF college project on SportsLogos (original here: https://i.imgur.com/bxt7VeP.png), and changed the color scheme for an old school, all-American red-white-and-blue motif. I like this one for its simplicity, and because I think 'Scouts' is a terrific, underutilized name. The Carolina Pilots, by contrast, have been done a million times—the name is perfect; the concept is perfect; I just picked and chose from the great artwork others have put together and made some little tweaks. The Miami Tropics are a holdover from my last CBL project—can't get enough of the hot pink - teal - frosty neon blue - black combination. It's quite Miami, right? New Orleans is another city where I always struggle to come up with a decent name (not being a huge fan of singular concepts like "Brass," "Rhythm," "Krewe," et al.). Kept it simple for the Crescent City—the Crescents. It's what they could have been named in 1920, or any time. The logo comes from a SportsLogos Pelicans concept; I subbed in the crescent fleur-de-lis and made some other changes. Stole the party-time NOLA wordmark as well—it can't be improved upon. The Tampa Bay Tiburons are one I'm slightly proud of; probably the oddest name in the league, but what early-baseball names *weren't* a little odd? I decided that "Tiburons" would be likelier than the more-accurate "Tiburones," with an E, because I suspect that there would have been an effort to halfway-anglicize the Spanish word for shark. I managed to make the home jersey wordmark myself, even though I generally suck at that sort of thing, since "Tiburons" does not seem to exist in script form anywhere on the internet. They had to be orange and white, and will remain so until the Buccaneers realize the error of their ways. Finally, the Washington Sentinels are another CBL retread. I almost said screw it and reanimated the Senators—maybe I still will. But I like this simple look, reminiscent of a bizarro Nationals set, that incorporates the city flag into the jersey arms. Here's the art:

[Dizezed]

Loving these sets, especially Atlanta. Do you have the TB you used for Tampa Bay's caps? Would love to use that as a secondary logo for that set.

[TrapperJohn]

Sorry Dizezed—I thought I knew where I got that image from (was sure it was an sfgiants32 design), but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Here is a close facsimile... apologies that it's a little crude, but maybe it'll do the trick regardless. If I come across the original design, I'll post that here.

[Dizezed]

That works for what I need it for, thanks so much!

[TrapperJohn]

Western League — Heartland Division

Here's the next divisional sextet; not the most creative group, but hopefully something in here for folks to like. The Chicago Hitmen are an identity that's been done many times before; I'm into the black-and-white look for this squad, and made these jerseys and caps (inspired by various elements others have used before) using a free Godfather-themed font. The Kansas City Blues have been done before, too, of course—I can't claim credit for anything but minor tweaks to this set, which came from the sfgiants defunct saga. The Milwaukee Muskies use art originally created by Tyler Rodgers for his NHL Super League; I used this team for my older CBL project. The Oklahoma City Tatankas are probably my favorite fictional OOTP creation ever—they are a Hockey13Playa original, and just totally inspired in terms of logo design, jersey design, and city/team name match. I put them in every league I start. The St. Louis Showboats are another favorite; there have been a number of iterations on here, but I finally landed on a set I was happy with after doing some of my own photoshopping (particularly to the letter U as a smokestack). Finally, the Twin Cities Timbers—another retread from my CBL project—are mostly notable for their flannel away unis. The next division, rest assured, will have more wholly original squads for y'all to make use of!

[TrapperJohn]

... And because Megildur one-upped me (or thousand-upped me) by coming out with a New Orleans Crescents identity that blows mine out of the water, I went ahead and created a new set based on his artwork, which I'm subbing into the set I'd posted on here previously. Here you go.

[Clemente21PIT]

Nice work with putting these designs together. I'd love to work with the template you've used recently, specifically the one that does such a good job with the textures for New Orleans. Any chance I could get access to it? Thanks