[Editor’s Note: Today we have a guest article from our own Jerry Wolper, with an update on an offer from HBO’s John Oliver to rebrand a MiLB team. Enjoy! — PH]
On the May 4 Last Week Tonight, John Oliver did a segment about Minor League Baseball promotions that even included some talk about the Syracuse Devices.
Last Week Tonight did a whole thing on Minor League Baseball and it was outstanding. pic.twitter.com/2fDBNpKa3g
— Nate Gilbert (@NateGilbert) May 12, 2025
If you watch, you’ll note that the segment ends with an offer to rebrand a minor league team. Oliver’s conditions were, “You can’t ask us any questions, give us any notes, and you have to do what we come up with.”
47 minor league teams responded, and on Sunday’s show, Oliver announced that the show will come up with a new identity for the Erie SeaWolves.
Just went you think this Detroit Tigers season couldn’t get any more fun, you find out John Oliver is re-branding the Erie Seawolves with a new name, mascot and theme night 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/xsxNEfFsQT
— Ron W (@FIPmyWHIP) May 19, 2025
According to the Erie Times-News, the first step will be a conversation between the show and Major League Baseball about “the licensing and legal details.” Once that’s settled, the process can begin.
SeaWolves president Greg Coleman told YourErie.com that he found out by watching the show. “I honestly thought I would find out in an email first, but basically finding out via television was pretty surprising.”
And milb.com says that “Anything is possible at this point, but Coleman said he expects the ‘Last Week Tonight’ rebrand to be more of a single-day event than a total long-term overhaul of the franchise’s identity.”
So we’ll see where it all goes, but there should be something to watch in Erie.
Aren’t there a lot of teams called The Seawolves? This is encouraging.
This reminds me a bit of Stephen Colbert’s involvement with the OHL Saginaw Spirit several years ago, although Oliver’s endeavor is somewhat more involved. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. I don’t know if Oliver is a big baseball fan, but I know that he is a huge soccer fan.
I’m a little surprised that he didn’t talk at all about the mass takeover of MiLB team ownership by Diamond Baseball Holdings, which seems like something Oliver would be interested in. The segment I saw was about 10 minutes long, so I’m not sure if it’s the whole thing or not.
This segment was just a freestanding bit of fun.
Diamond Baseball Holdings took over many of the Collegiate Summer Leagues as well.
He’s a Mets fan. They interviewed him on SNY during a game recently.
link.
Is this a Franchise Rebrand or just a new identity like Copa De Diversion?
This is going to be awesome. And based on the mascots his show has created over the years, that will be the best part.
Too bad Paul did not get a mention throwing out the first pitch with his brannock device tattoo.
“Single day event”? Clearly they were not listening to John Oliver. This is for all the marbles, guy. Gonna be great, no doubt!
I’m sure it will be a politically motivated nickname. This guy is a hack
Erie County went to Trump 50-49 in November, so doing anything overtly political would be commercial suicide. Hopefully, MiLB’s legal team will let them know what is/is not appropriate.
I doubt it will be anything overtly political. Probably just something silly, with the goofiest name and animal mascot they can think of.
It’s worth noting, however, that this team (under the same owner) did run an “Alternative Facts Night” promotion in 2017, in which they claimed that they had won the previous year’s league championship, that they would draw 1.2 million fans to the game, and that they would build a new right-field wall and force the Akron Rubber Ducks to pay for it. (link)
He’s a hack because you have different political opinions?
Is that what he said?
It is what was alluded to in the comment. We can’t even keep Uni-Watch from becoming political. Come guys, some of us come here to get away from it.
Been to Erie to see the USS Niagara, a ship that was prominent during the war of 1812. Given how important Lake Erie, and that area was during the war of 1812, it would be a cool to something along that theme. Given that Oliver is British, it would be great for his show, and make some pretty funny headlines, if the name was based on the war of 1812. It has to be nautical, that much is sure, a long history of shipbuilding in that area.
The obvious correct choice is the Erie Olivers. Although the Erie Hazards would make for some creative alternate logos.
I didn’t see any timeline for this but I assume it’s a few months away, July-August-ish? I’ve been wanting to get down to Erie for a game but it will probably be next month. Here’s hoping Mr. Oliver does a good job!
If anything I’d assume they’re looking at like NEXT July-August. I’m sure the turnaround times for MiLB stuff is shorter than MLB, but three months is an awfully short time to get a name, design, uniforms, and merch done. Now, I haven’t had a chance to watch the segment yet, so it’s also possible he made mention of a timeline, idk