Major League Baseball logo

The Major League Baseball logo was designed by Jerry Dior in 1968 and was included on all on-field uniforms of Major League Baseball employees beginning in the 1969 season.

The Major League Baseball logo.

Creation

According to Dior, the logo was created in a single afternoon. Contrary to popular belief, the silhouette was not modeled after Harmon Killebrew or any specific player, but was drawn with reference to photographs of several players. The silhouette was chosen specifically because its ambiguity: the batter could be right- or left-handed and of any ethnic background.

Controversy

For many years, the authorship of the logo was a matter of some dispute as two graphics designers laid claim to creating the piece: Jerry Dior (working for the marketing firm of Sandgren & Murtha ) and James Sherman, who is probably better known publicly as a comic book illustrator. In November, 2008, ESPN writer Paul Lukas managed to clear the matter up and Dior's authorship is no longer in doubt. Upon closely examining the logo, Sherman declared:

"That's not my logo, and I was totally unaware that it existed," he said. "The logo I created was very similar, but I designed it in the early 1980s. All I can say is that I was so sports-unaware that I didn't know about the earlier logo. I feel like a total idiot now that I didn't know about it. I'm flabbergasted."

Popularity

The logo has not been changed in the years since its adoption, except that individual teams sometimes alter the coloring to match their uniform colors. Since its adoption, the basic model of an athlete in silhouette flanked by red and blue has also been incorporated in the logos of the National Basketball Association, Women's National Basketball Association, American Hockey League and the Indy Racing League.