The 2025 Minor League Baseball season will see one fewer affiliated workforce named for its mother or father membership. After this season, the Mississippi Braves will relocate to Georgia to change into the peach-themed Columbus Clingstones, the brand new affiliate of the Atlanta Braves within the Double-A Southern League.
The nickname attracts on Georgia’s slogan, “The Peach State,” which it earned by being the third-most prolific producer of the pitted fruit within the US, behind California and South Carolina. Peaches have been first planted within the state within the 1700s. Clingstones are a specific number of peach, named for the way in which the flesh of the fruit sticks to the pit.
“Not solely is the clingstone cute and attractive, it’s additionally very cussed because it clings to the pit of the peach, very like our ballclub’s going to cling to the group right here in Columbus,” stated Clingstones GM Pete Laven, quoted by Ben Hill on MiLB.com.
The suite of logos, created by Dan Simon of Louisville-based Studio Simon, options an anthropomorphic peach character, a cap emblem C that evokes the form of the fruit, and a roundel with a peach tree manufactured from a baseball bat trunk and baseball-shaped peaches. Not surprisingly, the logos and uniforms are set in a colour palette that evokes a peach tree, peach and inexperienced.
Based on Simon, one of many challenges related to growing a model based mostly on a peach was discovering a reputation that steered away from peaches’ tenderness and vulnerability, however reasonably accentuated a sort of energy. The identify Clingstones (as differentiated from freestones, the place the peach flesh separates simply from the pit) was the answer—after a specific amount of digging.
“I had not heard of the phrases clingstones and freestones previous to lastly unearthing them in my analysis,” he stated. “It was a problem as a result of I didn’t come throughout that data on the outset—it was solely after a number of matches and begins.”
One other problem in growing a complete suite of logos based mostly on a peach was discovering topics for secondary logos.
“When it got here to secondary logos, not quite a lot of concepts got here to thoughts,” Simon stated. “There aren’t any accoutrements which might be related to peaches.”
After experimenting with secondary marks based mostly on peach baskets and pies, Simon and the workforce determined to he concentrate on the character himself. To that finish, the suite of logos options a number of variations of the character.
“That’s how we fleshed that out,” Simon stated. (Pun supposed?)
The character is just not but named—that can seemingly be decided by followers—although Simon indicated that he would advocate for the identify “Fuzzy.”
The colour palette is each sort of apparent and distinctive on the identical time.
“The colours all labored collectively properly,” Simon stated. “I don’t suppose I’ve ever executed a model identification the place peach was one of many colours. Due to colours I used to be going to make use of, peach for the peach, inexperienced for the leaf, these colours grew out of that.” (Pun supposed, possibly?) “They only ended up wanting actually good collectively and feeling recent.” (Actually simply unsure in regards to the puns now.)
As a journalist, I felt compelled to ask an vital query in regards to the improvement of this identification: Had been there inside conversations about the truth that peach emojis are related to a part of the human anatomy?
“So that you’re telling me I mustn’t anthropomorphize an eggplant both?” Simon requested, laughing.
However significantly…
“It got here up that that’s what a peach emoji is typically used for,” Simon stated. “And my reply to that was, so? It didn’t negatively have an effect on this identification. C’mon, it’s butts!”
The Clingstones are certainly one of 35 Minor League Baseball groups owned by Diamond Baseball Holdings, which bought the Mississippi Braves in 2021. The transfer away from the Braves nickname leaves simply 10 of 120 affiliated Minor League Baseball groups named for his or her mother or father golf equipment.
The Clingstones will play at Synovus Park in downtown Columbus, with their residence opener April 15, 2025.
