1969 Expansion Team Programs - Royals and Padres

Two of the four 1969 expansion teams utilized designs on their scorecards that featured team logos. The Kansas City Royals scorebook featured the 12 AL teams surrounding the American League logo:


Just in case anyone didn't recognize the logos, the program identifies the team insignias, and makes the point that there will be more MLB players coming to Kansas City to play the Royals than previously came to town to play the Athletics (who had moved to Oakland the previous season):


The Padres score card featured the other 11 NL team logos surrounding the Padres logo against a background featuing San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy and now named Qualcomm):


If you take a look at the scoreboard, you will see an interesting MLB logo celebrating the 100th Anniversary of "Professional" (not Major League) Baseball:


I have never seen the MLB logo using the term "Professional" before. This is what we are all used to seeing:


The "Professional" logo was not used on the uniform patch that was worn in 1969:



Even looking back at the MLB logo variations produced by Fleer (which had a patch in 1969 for the 100th Anniversary), there was never a version that used the word "Professional":


The "Professional Baseball" logo must have been short lived as I have never seen it used anywhere else.

Taking a look at the other two expansion teams, the closest the Seattle Pilots got to featuring other teams on their program was a version of the program that included other team's stars such as Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, and Denny McClain:


Another Pilots program cover that year featured the domed stadium that was to be built as one of the conditions for Seattle gaining an expansion franchise:


And finally, the Expos had a very plain looking design, with just a circular black and white picture on the bottom half of cover:


Its interesting that only the Padres note that Major League Baseball was celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 1969. The rest of the expansion teams make no mention of it, at least on the covers of their programs.

1969 California Angels Program - Inspired by Fleer Quiz Cards?

In addition to the program that showed the American League West Division alignment, the Angels had another scorecard in 1969 that included all the American League team logos that looks somewhat similar to something I've covered in considerable detail on the blog:



The 1969 - 1971 Fleer Quiz cards:


Even though the colored borders don't match up for most of the teams, the Twins


and Royals do match:


Whenever I see a picture of this program, I can't help but think of the Fleer Quiz cards given the similar design with team logos inside a white circle surrounded by a colored border. Given the similarity to the Fleer Quiz Card design, this is one of my favorite program covers.

Learning Geography with Los Angeles / California Angels Scorecards

This 1963 Los Angeles Angels Scorebook shows the geographic disadvantage that the Angels had in their early years as the only American League team on the West Coast:


Unlike the Dodgers and Giants who played each other in the NL, the Angels were by themselves out West in the AL, and had to travel across at least half of the country each time they played a road game.

While the Angels were waiting for their stadium to be completed in Anaheim, they shared Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers, but referred to the stadium as Chavez Ravine as seen on the program.

By the late 1960s with the A's moving to Oakland in 1968 and the addition of the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots in 1969, travel improved for the Angels in terms of having a few teams located closer to them as this 1969 Angels program shows:


Once again the Angles scorecard features a map, this time showing the teams in the newly created American League West Division.

The map design was also used on the Angels 1969 Media Guide,


with the main difference being the Media Guide used the older version of the Angels lettering


while the program features the new lettering with the lower case "a" and a halo:

1963 Cleveland Indians Scorecard - Chief Wahoo and his Amazing Bat Arrow!

In looking for programs that utilize team logos in the design, I came across this great cover of a 1963 Cleveland Indians Scorecard:


I like how Chief Wahoo is using one of his special baseball bat arrows to take aim at the opposing teams. I'm not sure who he's trying to hit though, since the bat is aimed right at the Orioles, but he seems to be eyeing the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Although not a design featuring other teams' logos, I also liked the cover of this Indians Pictorial magazine from 1965 with the various uniforms represented.


With over 250 photos, I would imagine this would be a great item for an Indians fan who is interested in the team's history over its first century.

The item is currently listed on ebay here.

The Indians later issued another program featuring logos from the other teams in the American League in 1974:


While certainly more colorful than the 1963 program, it isn't nearly as interesting as the earlier version as Chief Wahoo is no longer hunting the other teams (or shilling wide-track Pontiacs).

1962 & 1969 Chicago Cubs Programs

During the two seasons that the National League added expansion teams in the 1960s, the Chicago Cubs reflected the changes on the covers of their programs.

In 1962, with the addition of the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s to the National League, the Cubs program showed the caps for all 10 NL teams, with the teams shown in alphabetical order by city except for the 2 new teams which are shown at the bottom of the program:


The Cubs used a similar style in 1969 with the addition of the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres, as well as the newly formed East and West divisions. Once again caps are used to represent the teams, with the 2 expansion teams being listed at the bottom of the program:



The expansion years were the only years that the Cubs featured the rest of the League's logos on their programs. In the other years during the 1960's, they had some great looking covers



but the Cubs were the only team represented on the cover.

These programs come from Cubs By The Numbers, which has a great look at Cubs programs from as far back as 1898 through 2010. I highly recommend checking out the site if you enjoy seeing the covers of old programs.