Monday, February 24, 2014

2014 MLB Slogans Post

The new slogans are trickling in! I'll keep this post as the current list through 2014 and will notify you whenever a new one is added. Slogans that are new for this year (five as of this writing) are in bold and get new commentary. For teams without a new slogan, refer back to last year's list for my commentary on the old one.)

American League:

Baltimore: "Together We Play." (See last year.)

Boston: No slogan. But that '13 Champs logo is looking as good as ever. (Note: I instinctively went to write "California" as the AL's third team alphabetically. Excuse me while I remove the home run balls from the screen in left.)

Chicago: "Passion. Pride. Tradition." This was their "side of website" slogan two years ago. Now the hashtaggy shittiness has been removed from the top with this taking its place. If I haven't said it before, this slogan just seems like a hybrid of every one the Yankees have ever used.

Cleveland: No slogan. (I don't think they've had one since "Are you in the Tribe?" which left after 2011.)

Detroit: "Who's Your Tiger?" (See last year.)

Kansas City: "Be Royal." Well, I can't say that I hate it. Pretty basic, but not offensive. How should I be royal, though? Will fans be wearing crowns to the game? What if the team's in last place?

Houston: "It's a Whole New Ballgame." (See last year.)

Los Angeles: "Angels Baseball." (I'd say see last year but I never really talked about this non-slogan. And I won't start now.)

Minnesota: "This is Twins Territory." (See last year--this one's been going in some form since at least 2008 when I first started doing these posts.)

New York: "Our History. Your Tradition." Has the usual transparent pomposity, but let's delve into this fan-team separation strategy. So the history belongs to them. We didn't do shit there. But the tradition is somehow ours and, presumably, not theirs. How do you figure? Isn't "Yankee tradition" something that would belong to the team itself? They want to claim the history as having nothing to do with the people who witnessed it, yet they're happy to say that the tradition is someone else's. While all the other teams seem to be including their fans, making them feel like part of the team, the Yankees are saying, "Call it whatever the hell you want but we're over here doing the actual stuff, and you're over there giving us lots of your money (as you've always done!)." There has to be a deeper meaning to this that I'm missing. Anybody?

Oakland: "Green Collar Baseball." (See last year.)

Seattle: "The Stars are Aligned." Oooooh! Cool! The Mariner marketing folks are clearly back at work after a recent hiatus! This one is a sentence, one that's telling you how it is. It doesn't bother with any blatant baseball puns, but it's letting you know to expect good things. It has already been decided, Seattle and surrounding vicinity. I almost feel like they thought really hard about going with "The Stars are Aligned, Motherfuckers," but finally decided America just wasn't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it. The "stars" also seem to refer to King Felix and Cano, as they're pictured below the slogan. But the team logo, the compass rose, kind of looks like a star too. (I also just noticed that when it appears between Seattle and Mariners, as on the top of their site, the west-pointing arm of the compass looks like a nod to the old Mariners trident, facing "the past" aka "left." Coincidence?) (Also note that last year's slogan, "True to the Blue," remains in hashtag form.)

Tampa Bay: No slogan.

Texas: No slogan. (But I just noticed they, like many, use an "area" in some capacity, calling their social media fan-type club "Rangers Republic."

Toronto: No slogan.


National League:

Atlanta: "Always Brave." (See last year.) [3/6/2014: Slogan is gone, maybe a new one is in the making....]

Arizona: No slogan.

Chicago: "Committed." (See last year.)

Cincinnati: "This is Reds Country." See last year.

Colorado: No slogan.

Los Angeles: "Live. Breathe. Blue." Wow, the Dodgers can't sit still, always giving us something new and usually blue. Almost like they're desperately trying to find that one that sticks. This one's a little odd, because while they seem to be implying that you should "live and breathe" Dodger baseball, aka "Blue," it leaves out some key words. And you can't go "Verb. Verb. Noun." I'm thinking, "Okay, they want me to live. Check. They want me to breathe. Doin' it. They want me to...blue?" It reminds me of Beavis and Butt-Head going "testes, testes, one, two...three?" Or it feels like "I lived, I breathed, I blew." Back to the drawing board, Dodgers.

Miami: No slogan.

Milwaukee: No slogan.

New York: No slogan. (Last year's is gone and they've got a new design over there, maybe something new is in the works.)

Philadelphia: No slogan. (What's up with these guys? Lately they've had a championship banner of some kind up there so maybe that's why they stay slogan-free. I don't think there's been one since I started this in '08, but I feel like they used to have some "red"-related slogan. Like "red means go" or something. Anyone remember it?)

Pittsburgh: "Pride. Passion. Pittsburgh Pirates." (See last year.)

San Diego: No slogan.

San Francisco: "All Together. Stronger Together." And on the side: "Giant Together." This is their third (fourth, and fifth) version of a "together" theme in the last few years. They're firmly in the "together with the fans" camp, unlike the Yanks with their "we use chemical weapons against our own people" stance. The "Giant Together" is okay I guess, but what's with this "All" and "Stronger" thing? Couldn't hey just go with "All" and "Strong"? Or are they saying the team's better with the fans on board? I don't know, there's just too much going on here. I just know I'm part of the team, I'll ignore the specifics.

St. Louis: No slogan.

Washington: No slogan.


For other past years' slogans, just search "slogan" at the top of this blog and they all will come up.

Also note: I only include slogans that are on the banner/sidebar of teams' official web sites. If you know any that a team has, like on their TV or radio ads or billboards or wherever, feel free to put them in the comments section.

Comments:
Mom here:
1. Seattle: The ancient Mariners traveled by the stars.
2. Los Angeles: Live (I'm alive); breathe (I'm doin' it); blue (uh-oh, I'm choking on a piece of steak and about to die).
3. New York: Morons.
 
Here's one the Yankees rejected: "No, it's NOT 1965 again. So stop saying that!"
 

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