The Chesapeake Baysox, Double-A affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles, will take the field as the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers for some games.
And let’s get this out of the way first thing, so we can get on to talking about the logos that weren’t deleted in a couple of hours: the first version of the announcement included a secondary logo that reminded some people (or many people, if the Internet is to be believed) of a portion of the female anatomy.
Some saw an oyster. Others saw something unexpected. We see an opportunity to turn viral laughs into positive impact.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, 10% of all Oyster Catchers merch sales will support @IamCervivor. https://t.co/ApGfw9gBsn
#GoBaysox #MerchForGood pic.twitter.com/ncFPPEh1Y4— Chesapeake Baysox (@BaysoxOfficial) March 22, 2025
The Baysox, as the Tweet indicates, quickly realized what had happened, and (nobly, I may add) pledge to donate 10% of all Oyster Catchers merch will go to support Cervivor, a program that brings together cervical cancer survivors to help educate both people with cervical cancer, their families, and the general public. The logo has now been removed from the official press release on the alternate identity.
Lots of ink has already been spilled about the now-deleted logo, and I’m not going to rehash the crude jokes and memes. I do think it’s funny that the logo made it all the way through the design and approval process, but I don’t want that to distract from the genuine good the Baysox are trying to do because of it.
Okay, now that’s out of the way.
This is the first alternate identity of the recently-renamed Eastern League team, known from 1993 through last season as the Bowie Baysox, reflecting their home city of Bowie, Md., but Chesapeake represents the whole of the region. This renaming brought with it new logos (natch) and the addition of teal to the Orioles’ black-and-orange color scheme. The Oyster Catchers alternate identity retains the color scheme.
The primary logo for the Oyster Catchers depicts an oystercatcher (natch, again), a small bird that resides in the Chesapeake Bay area for the entire year, and travels north for their breeding season, clutching a baseball bat (the official press release describes it as a “branch shaped like a baseball bat” but I’m not seeing the “branch” portion of that, if I’m honest). I think the use of teal here is better than the use of teal on the Baysox’s primary look.
I really appreciate the look they’re going for — if the colors were brighter, this wordmark would not look out of place on one of those airbrushed t-shirts that it feels like every boardwalk in America has. The press release doesn’t mention this connection, instead saying that the wordmark “shimmers like the Bay itself, capturing the beauty and spirit of the region.” To me, the wordmark looks too much like one of those airbrushed designs for me to think that the resemblance is unintentional.
Somewhat frustratingly, we’re yet to see the full uni, which will be released today at Baysox Fan Fest. The jersey, however, is available on the Baysox’s team store. It’s primarily teal, becoming black towards the bottom (maybe the pants will be black?), with a water pattern. This rendering has the offending logo on the right sleeve — time will tell if that will remain on the uniform formally unveiled to the public.
I’m not really digging this design — I think the teal works as an accent color, but as the base with orange on top, it looks kind of muddy.
Anyway, what do you think of the Baysox’s new alternate identity? Comment down below.
They were the Bowie Baysox for over 30 years and just rebranded to “Chesapeake.” They play in Eastern Prince Geoege’s County which does not border the Chesapeake Bay.
I wonder if this is preparing the ground for shopping for a new stadium in Anne Arundel County near Annapolis.
As for the logo, I have think that they knew what they were doing and it was stunt
Yeah, I hadn’t realized they’re rebranded either. They’ll always be Bowie to me.
And that stadium isn’t awful or outdated. No reason to move and unless there’s some locals in Annapolis with deep pockets, I don’t see how a new stadium gets funded to move the team 15 mins down Route 50.
They’re putting a lot of improvements into the existing stadium so I don’t think they’re going anywhere. The team said itself of the geographical name change that it was done to appeal to the wider area
I can’t find the baseball in that secondary logo.
A lot of women have that complaint about the men in their lives.
Regarding the logo, that is.
This wins comment of the day!
Nailed it
I came to the comments to say essentially this. Good on you for beating me.
I see what you did there.
Reminds me of the Everybody Loves Raymond episode “Marie’s Sculpture.”
Deep cut
That oyster catcher looks quite menacing. Sinister, even.
The Baysox have always had teal..er, turquoise in their color scheme, mostly as an accent.
link
I like how the bird is outlined in turquoise. Nice touch.
This also isn’t the first alternate identity. They’ve been the Bowie Crab Cakes,
link
the Baysharks,
link
and they also became the Bowie (pronounced Boh-ee instead of Boo-ee) Baysox when David Bowie died.
link
I’m sure there were others, but this was just a quick search.
What design firm designed the new look? Perhaps it’s run by an all male team.
It makes perfect sense that the logo is a mitt, especially for anyone who watches Letterkenny…
link
As a Marylander, it was obviously an oyster. But yeah, I can see that too. I applaud them for owning it (and benefitting charity [so quickly that I wonder if it all was a pre-planned stunt]) after initially deleting everything, but last I checked, no merch with that logo was available from the online team store. Bummer.
The opportunity to render a pearl as a baseball was inscrutably overlooked. But I airbrushed a LOT of t-shirts in my day, and that script just screams, “Summer Vacation”!
The orange lettering on the teal + black jersey…. woof.
I can’t be the only one who thinks this entire “controversy” seems suspiciously likely to have been completely intentional from the beginning? The way they just happened to have another, much more well-designed logo (the bird) as well, the way the baseball in the offending logo is weirdly blurred as if they knew it couldn’t look too obviously baseball-like lest people not mistake it for the… well you know. With all the ever more absurd alternate identities (not to mention primary identities in some cases), MiLB teams have clearly been engaging in a no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity, race-to-the-bottom-for-attention kind of marketing strategy lately, this seems totally in line with that.
Must have been planned from the start which is kind of sad. I do like the bird logo but that jersey is appalling instead of appealing.
Either someone who designed this slept through anatomy class or this was a crudely done stunt by a minor league team trying to get fans to come to a DC suburb for a night out.
I showed the secondary logo to my Wife briefly after it went viral and she said, “We need stickers.”