Fun with Astros vs Phillies Programs

 As we get ready for the World Series, here are a few fun Astros programs where the Astros played the Phillies from the 1960's:

I miss the days when some teams would publish programs that poked a little fun at their opponents, like in this case where they have some fun with Phillies manager Gene Mauch:

Not quite sure what is going on here, other than I assume the space capsules refer to their current positions in the standings:

I think this sums up the fact that neither team was having a good year and that they were looking forward to the offseason:

Even before they became the Astros, the Colt .45s had some fun with their programs:

By the way, love the Colt .45s merch:
 

 

 

As some other bloggers have pointed out, this feels like an odd World Series matchup for those of us of a certain age.

I'll never completely get used to the fact that the Astros are an AL team, even if they have represented the AL in 4 of the last 6 years.

In my mind, this is how the NL is supposed to look since this is what I grew up with:

Heck, even the first official regular season game played in the Astrodome was against the Phillies:

 

 

Looking back at some of these old programs shows how much more interesting they were when the home teams handled their programs.  These programs have much more personality than what we have for this year's World Series program:

Yawn!

 

Once MLB took over the World Series programs in 1974 with this program, the covers have been very generic

 

 

I miss the days when each team put out its own program for the Series, as they were a lot more interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

1970 All Star Game Program

To finish up my look back at some vintage baseball programs that feature team logos, I'm going to review one of my favorite program covers - the 1970 All Star Game program:


This is the only program cover that I've come across that features all of the team logos from both leagues. As we've seen with some of the other covers I've reviewed, some of them would have all of the teams from either the AL or NL, but this is the only time all the team logos appear together on one cover.

I like the clean white background with all 24 team logos surrounding the Baseball logo (which apparently was used during the 1960s). For the most part, these were the team logos that were being used when I started to follow baseball, so looking at this program with all of these logos takes me back to that era.

Professional Baseball Logo from the 1970 All Star Game AL Media Guide

It seems that for a while from 1969 to at least 1970, the familiar Major League Baseball logo included the notation "Professional" instead of "Major League" Baseball:

I first spotted this logo on a 1969 Padres program last week



and have now found another version on the back of the 1970 American League All Star Game Media Guide:


This gives us two publications from two different years which used the term "Professional" instead of "Major League". If anyone has any information on why "Professional" was used for a period of time instead of "Major League", I'd appreciate hearing from you.

For the 1970 All Star Game Fan Ballot, the MLB logo was used, and the copyright under the logo reads Major League Baseball Properties:


so why the "Professional" logo on the back of the All Star Game Media Guide?

I could see "Professional" being used in the context of covering both Major and Minor League Baseball combined, but the examples of the logo being used are on publications that are specific to the Major Leagues. I'm wondering if Professional and Major League were used interchangeably, or whether there is any significance associated with using one instead of the other.

If the design of the AL Media (Facts and Figures) Guide looks familiar, its because its the same design that was used on the 1969 Royals program


except that in 1970 the Brewers replaced the Pilots and moved the Twins, Yankees, and A's over one hour on the clock dial to keep the teams in alphabetical order by city.

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.

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.