MLB team logo history and the horrors of the 1950s

Enterprising Redditor Paul_Lazzaro

So check it out -- I love love love logos. Good logos, bad logos, the ones with hidden arrows, the ones with unintended suggestions, the mid-2000s movement logos where there's always a visual surprise with the word forming a picture or there being some clever thing that most people never get. All of them.

But this collection of MLB team logos is something special. It's special because it was only at this exact moment that I've been able to connect the dots on the worst era in sports logo history. I present to you:

THE 1950S

It's true. The 1950s were possibly the worst time in American history, other than the two decades immediately preceding and all the years before and after the Civil War. Let's not get bogged down in facts, though. I don't know what you know about the 50s, but I know: poodle skirts, the birth of rock and roll, and the rise of the Cold War.

What I didn't know is the collective wisdom of people that make decisions about logos was so, so horrendously terrible and regrettable. I've pulled the logos in question from the logo collection above to show you exactly what I mean.

Consider: this is NOT the most offensive Braves logo. (!)

That's Brownie the Elf in orange and brown, of course. He would eventually just turn into an orange bird and delight Baltimore residents nevermore.

I wonder if anyone in the clubhouse that wears those low-profile/no show socks (guilty!) are glad those effeminate things weren't around when the team name was devised. At least this one has that dad's-dirty-gym-socks look to it that reminds fans about their favorite thing about baseball.

Alternate explanation: LOOK HOW WHITE THESE SOCKS ARE. DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE BLACK SOX.

Yeah so this is actually an awesome logo because it reminds me of that wonderful skit of Conan O'Brien playing old-time baseball. Apologies for the pixelation in these, by the way. They're all clipped from the above combined image.

One of the most offensive logos ever designed. And they made it worse!

The logo is a hat, with a P on it. The logo, a hat. With a P on it. Pretty sure this is some higher-order inception shenanigans going down.

"Can we PLEASE just add some bats to this? WHO DO I HAVE TO FIRE TO GET THIS PIRATE WITH BATS?!"

Even the glorious logo history of the St. Louis Cardinals is tainted in the 1950s with this Christmas card reject. What the hell, STL?

Consider: THIS IS NOT THE WORST TIGERS LOGO OF ALL TIME!