National League Team Logos from 60 Years Ago - 1951 Giants & Dodgers Programs

Following up my previous post on the 1951 American League programs which featured team logos, there were also at least 2 National League teams whose programs also featured logos from all the teams in the league:



Just like the AL was celebrating its anniversary (50 years), the National League was celebrating its 75th anniversary in 1951. It appears the milestone anniversaries were the reasons why the Yankees and Red Sox programs were similar to each other, and why the Giants and Dodgers are very similar in design as well.

Taking a look at the logos, the Giants logo is the one they used until the early 1980's


when it was replaced by this


which has evolved into the current logo:


The Dodgers logo really hasn't changed much:


other than adding a few more red lines and changing the script slightly:


Even though both the Giants and Dodgers moved from New York to California in 1958, neither team made significant changes to their logos.

The Phillies are back to using a similar script to what they had in 1951


after having changed their style to this for during the 1970s & 1980s:


The Cardinals continue to utilize a logo featuring 2 Cardinals on a bat:



The Cubs logo is still almost the same


with the main difference being that the logo now has a blue circle around it


The Reds logo also hasn't changed significantly




as the team changed back to having the name Reds inside the "C" instead of Mr. Red who appeared inside the "C" from the early 1970's until the early 1990's:


The Braves and the Pirates are the two teams whose current logos don't really look much at all like they did back in 1951.

The Braves have moved twice since they were in Boston in 1951, first moving to Milwaukee in 1953, and then Atlanta in 1966. During that time, their logo has changed from an Indian chief with a full headdress


to a single feather


to a logo that features a Tomahawk:


The Pirates have gone through a number of different buccaneers since this fellow appeared


starting with this logo in the 1950's


which then changed to this in 1960:


In 1968, the Pirates switched to this logo


which remained until 1987 when it was replaced by this:


Finally, in 1997 the team changed again to the logo that is still being used today:


Its interesting to see that some team logos have not really changed much over the last 60 years, while in some cases teams made changes and have since come back to a similar design.

American League Team Logos from 60 Years Ago - 1951 Yankees & Red Sox Programs

As I've covered just about every Fleer, Topps, and other card / sticker release featuring team logos over the past 3 years on the blog, I'm going to switch gears a bit and start reviewing some vintage programs, media guides, and books that feature baseball team logos on their covers.

To start things off, here is a 1951 Yankees program which features the classic Yankee logo as well as logos from the other 7 AL teams that were playing back then:



The Yankees logo is essentially the same logo they still use today, and the Red Sox logo is also very similar to their current design.

Speaking of the Red Sox, they had a similar program design in 1951:


Both programs note that 1951 was the 50th Anniversary of the American League.

Looking at the other team logos, Chief Wahoo was being used by the Indians back in 1951, and his look hasn't changed much since then.




The Tigers on the other hand, have a different looking tiger logo than they did in '51.




Although its not used in their primary logo, the A's still utilize the elephant in some of their alternate logos




The White Sox stopped using the wing sock logo in the late 1960s.


The two remaining teams are no longer located in the same cities that they represented in 1951. The Washington Nationals became the Senators in the mid 1950's,



then moved to Minnesota in 1961 to become the Twins:


and the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Orioles.


Taking a look back at these logos from 60 years ago, its interesting to see that some remain relatively unchanged while some other teams have completely changed their identities.

More Rare Orioles Uniform Pictures with Help From The Baltimore Sun Archives

Following up last month's posts on the Orioles all orange and vest uniforms, I've come across a few more pictures to add to the collection:


Here we have an odd picture of Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair, and a young girl's head on Andy Etchebarren's body. The picture comes from this blog where the young girl in the photo shares some of her other pictures taken with various Orioles players. Apparently this was a cardboard cutout for fans to have their picture taken as an Oriole at one of the annual Bethlehem Steel Family Nights that used to be held at Memorial Stadium. Its interesting that the cutout that was used for taking pictures was a uniform that the team rarely wore.

Turning to the all orange uniforms, we can add Earl Weaver to the list of Orioles that were photographed in the rarely seen uniform:


Here is the back of the photo, which shows it was taken from the same game as the Brooks Robinson photo that I previously found:


Here is another shot of Earl from the same game after finishing the argument pictured above:



Also from that game, we have Frank Robinson hitting home run # 501 and being congratulated by Brooks Robinson:


Here is an article on what the player's thought about the uniforms from the night they debuted:


Its interesting to note that apparently Boog Powell skipped infield practice and Frank Robinson also stayed out of sight after putting on the uniforms. By far the best quote is from Chico Salmon: "I like 'em...It brings out the blackness in me".


The last line of the article mentions that Brooks Robinson's Sporting Goods store filled the order for the uniforms. Here is a picture of Brooks looking at warehouse space for his company:



And finally, the all orange uniforms are making an appearance on TV this week. The MLB Network is airing a show called MLB Network Countdown - Top 40 Memorable Uniforms, and the Orioles all orange uniforms made the list. The hour long show is a fun look back at some of the classic and memorable uniforms from the past. It is airing a few more times this week, so I highly recommend the show if you get the MLB Network.