Baseball fashionistas rejoice: Brewers bring back classic logo
With the Brewers embarking on their 50th season in Milwaukee in 2020, the team has introduced a new logo and uniforms. And while the “new” primary logo has some minor updates, it is a throwback to one of baseball’s most popular logos ever, one with a clever bit of mystery to it.
Yes, the Brewers’ ever-popular ball-in-glove is back full time, to rave reviews throughout the baseball world (based on social media, at least).
The changes to the logo — connecting the webbing of the glove to the thumb, adding more realistic stitching to the ball, and changing the color from the original royal blue to the navy blue the team has used in recent seasons — tweak the original that the team used 1978-93. The revamped ball-in-glove replaces the “script M and barley” logo had used in recent years.
New threads: A thread. #glovestory pic.twitter.com/b6S21C4ROs
New threads 🔥 pic.twitter.com/E11dSKtlQM
The team also will have four new uniforms, including a cream-colored home uni and a navy road jersey, but all will feature caps with the beloved logo that was submitted by University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire art student Tom Meindel in a team-sponsored contest.
The beauty of that logo, beyond its simplicity, is the hidden image of the team’s initials — a lowercase “m” and “b” — that combine to form the glove. (You knew that, right?) Discovering that “secret” has resulted in aha moments for baseball fans — and Brewers players — for more than 40 years.
“I had actually been in the organization for probably five years before I figured it out,” the Brewers’ Ryan Braun admitted to reporters Monday at the logo unveiling. Braun has been with Milwaukee since the 2005 draft. “I don’t think I actually figured it out but somebody told me, which was kind of a shock. But I’m glad that, after all these years here, I finally know what’s going on.”
Brewers manager Craig Counsell also recalled his getting in on the secret. “Like everybody else, I think the key thing is you have to say, ‘I didn’t see it at first,'” he said. “Then at one point we all have this epiphany, ‘It’s an M and a B, right? It’s not just a glove.’ So I was along that crew.”
How old were you when you realized the glove is also an “m” and a “b”? #glovestory
The Brewers occasionally wore the throwback logo since reintroducing it in 2006, and while the team said it was open to anything during discussions to change things up for the 50th anniversary season, it became clear the ball-in-glove had to make a full-time comeback.
“We always knew the fans loved the ball-in-glove,” president of baseball operations Rick Schlesinger said, citing retail sales and interest in giveaways and promotions.