Brewers 101: The Logos

The Mid-Nineties (The Dark Ages of Baseball Design) (1994-1999)

Remember this logo? I bet you sort of wish you didn’t. (photo from: sportslogos.net)

Seriously folks, these were trying days for baseball for a lot of reasons. We were hurtling towards a new century. Society demanded progress. Baseball needed to keep up with modern times and many fans foudn the game too pastoral. This led to some horrible, horrible things: sleeveless jerseys, drop shadows, those teal hats the Marlins had,’ Turn Ahead the Clock Nights’ – not to mention that the Devil Rays multi-color logo ACTTUALLY EXISTED.

The Milwaukee Brewers were no exception to the lost ages of baseball history. 1994 was the 25th year of the Milwaukee Brewers franchise, and with that brave new world the team officials felt that it needed a brave new logo. The team turned to designers within Major League Baseball to get the job done.

What they came up with was like nothing else in the history of Milwaukee baseball – but probably not as great as they would have hoped. The colors shifted to a darker navy blue and paired it with a dark green and gold. It sort of

Yeah…that seems legit. (photo from: thirdcoastdigest.com)

brought together everything about Wisconsin Professional sports into a strange amalgam of unintersting design.  The lettering was changed from the block letter and cursive into what can only be described as ‘futuristic Gothic’ – sort of modern, sort of nostalgic, but thoroughly odd. The intertwined letters M’ and ‘B’ sat on a diamond field (because it’s baseball, get it?!) and crossed bats behind it. Ugh.

That logo did not survive on the cap past 1996, as the team moved back to the letter ‘M’, which varied in white or gold. The diamond/crossed bats/M and B made an appearance under the lettering on the alternate navy jerseys, which looks very cluttered – but remember that it’s the nineties and everything makes more sense then.

Let’s be honest for a minute: nobody really likes this period in Brewers logo history. It’s overly commercial, the green bill makes it look like a little league team, and the whole thing is detached from the team legacy. If I could give it one positive point, it would be that this unfortunate set-up did serve as a bridge between the kitschy, folksy Brewers logos of old up to the contemporary logo that the team has now.