Lodi Crushers

The Lodi Crushers, based in Lodi, California, played in the California League from 1966 through 1969, and the name returned for a final season in 1984. The nickname came from a name-the-team contest that drew 173 submissions; five different fans landed on Crushers, a deliberate double meaning nodding to hard-hitting ballplayers and to the grape-crushing wine industry at the heart of the Lodi economy.

The franchise itself was a bargain: when the league needed an eighth team for 1966, a group of Lodi locals bought the dormant Salinas franchise for all of $2,500. The Crushers spent three seasons as a Chicago Cubs affiliate and one with the newly arrived Oakland Athletics. Pitcher Jophery Brown went 18-9 in 1968, tying for the league lead in wins, and earned a September call-up to Chicago; he later became one of Hollywood's most celebrated stuntmen. The best prospect to wear the uniform was 19-year-old George Hendrick, who hit .307 for the 1969 club on his way to an 18-year big league career with four All-Star selections and two World Series rings.

Lodi's baseball roots reach back to the California State League of 1904-05, when the city fielded a team wonderfully recorded in the archives as the Lodi Melon Rollers. Professional baseball stayed in Lodi under a parade of later nicknames through 1984, all at little Lawrence Park, before the franchise moved on and eventually settled in Rancho Cucamonga.

Our design is adapted from the Crushers' original script wordmark found in the team's own game materials, a genuine piece of Lodi baseball graphics brought back to life rather than a modern invention.