Almost every team has an unused alt logo or alternative team name. Here’s a fascinating one: the unused logo for the Cereal City Krunch, which would have been adopted if the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays (Low Class A; Midwest League) had stayed in the Cereal City.
You probably don’t know the backstory. Back in the day the owners and the management of the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays — including Alan Stein and current Omaha Storm Chasers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League President/GM Martie Cordaro — were angling for a new ballpark in Battle Creek to replace C.O. Brown Stadium for the 2007 season. As part and parcel of a new ballpark the team would undergo a name change and new branding, and the Devil Rays employed Plan B — now Brandiose — to work on the new branding.
The result was the Cereal City Krunch, with a look built around brightly colored images inspired by 1950s cereal-box designs. Jason Klein has more on the design here (and we encourage you to check it out), but suffice it to say it would have been fascinating to see how the baseball world and local baseball fans reacted to the design. Alas, it was not to be: the new ballpark never came through, the Devil Rays were sold to a Midland (Mich.) group and became the Great Lakes Loons, and the summer-collegiate Northwoods League moves into C.O Brown Stadium. Most of that Devil Rays crew went on to bigger and better things as well.
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