The Modesto Nuts have been amusing fans with their game and logo since 2005. Before that they had been the Modesto Athletics. Having switched affiliations to another team the baseball team from Modesto, California needed a new name.
Fans helped with ideas as usual. The most appropriate one turned out to be the name “Nuts”. Nuts are grown in the area and they make up most of the exports. So the club decided to pay tribute to the dominating industry.
The Minor League Baseball club, known today as the Modesto Nuts, was established in California in 1946 under the name Modesto Reds. For its first two seasons in the California League, the club didn’t have any affiliations, yet in 1948 they became a farm team of St. Louis Browns. However, a year after the Reds had already started a new affiliation — with Pittsburg Pirates, which lasted only for three years, but during that period the club managed to win its first League title.
While staying under the Reds name, the franchise has changed two more MLB affiliates — Milwaukee Braves and New York Yankees. In 1961 the Reds were renamed Modesto Colts, as back then they were the affiliate club of the Houston Colt 45s, but only for two seasons. The Modesto Reds name was brought back in 1966 and stayed unchanged up to 1974. In 1975 the new partnership started, and the team became a minor affiliate of Oakland Athletics, hence the name of the club was changed to the Modesto A’s.
The current, Modesto Nuts, name was adopted in 2005, following the affiliation with Colorado Rockies. Under the new name, the franchise won five Division titles and three League ones.
The Modesto Nuts can boast of a well-designed and lighthearted logo. It shows two nuts, an almond (Al the Almond) and a walnut (Wally the Walnut). They are depicted with a bat and a baseball. The nuts are wearing baseball caps of red color with the letter “M” in white in honor of one of the teams that played in the city from 1966 to 1974 ‒ the Modesto Reds.
There is also the team’s name in the logo ‒ a stylized wordmark “NUTS” in block letters of red color outlined in light beige and “Modesto” in white above it in an arch. This element is rather significant as in the city there is an actual arch with the word “Modesto”. For more than 100 years it has been welcoming drivers to the city.
Everything is meaningful and balanced in this eccentric logo.