Gwinnett Braves turn into Gwinnett Stripers
Finally. After a long wait, the Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta Braves AAA affiliate in the International League) unveiled their new identity today. In an attempt to boost their attendance the club changed its name to Gwinnett Stripers. Remarkably as the name wasn’t one of the six names that were on the final six in the name-the-team contest.
Many fans weren’t happy with the fact that the Braves would change their name, but according to a local newspaper, the club has thrown a curveball to the fans by ignoring their will.
The name Striper refers to the striped bass, a kind of fish that is living in nearby Lake Lanier.
In the past few weeks, the club fooled many by spreading around hints about the six remaining names of the name-the-team contest. One of the tweets was the one below, referring to the name Gobblers.
We can't wait for you to feast your eyes on our new look! pic.twitter.com/1RK8H6z8E7
— Gwinnett Stripers (@GoStripers) December 5, 2017
“It’s a take-off from big mouths,” said North Johnson, the team’s general manager. “The whole piece of that is we wanted a good, local tie-in. We wanted something indigenous to the area, something completely ours. There’s not another sports team named Stripers we’ve been able to find. Ultimately, we loved the concept of Big Mouths. We just couldn’t grasp saying Big Mouths. We weren’t concerned with the connotation of Big Mouths, it just didn’t flow well. You try to say Big Mouths and it just doesn’t flow. … As soon as (Stripers) came out, everybody went, ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’ We did research on striped bass at Lake Lanier and found out Lake Lanier is one of the best striped bass places in the entire world. That just made sense.”
Anyhow, with the new name comes a whole new look.
The new uniforms were showed by several minor leaguers but there was one big name among them: Hall of Fame pitcher and knuckleballer Phil Niekro.
There will be two main colors: Dark blue and sea-green. Red will be an accent color.
The Stripers’ main hat logo is a leaping fish biting a baseball, which is attached to a treble fishing hook. There are a few alternate logos; one with a striper jumping through a G, one with a fishtail hitting a baseball and one with a worm on a fishing hook.
The uniform designs are, not surprisingly, striped. There also is a retro jersey patterned after the 1970s Atlanta Braves jerseys, like the one worn when Hank Aaron hit his record-breaking 715th career home run in 1974.
The team comes with four new caps, all of them in navy. You can see them below. Clockwise: Home, road, alternate fishtail and alternate worm.
