Lincoln Saltdogs

74

NOTE: This review incorporates text from the previous review for the Saltdogs, which was posted on 2013 May 12.

Just so we're clear on this, the team's name is not Salty Dogs. The team's name is Saltdogs — no y, no space. The "salt" part of the name comes from the fact that there are salt flats nearby. The "dog" part comes from the fact that the original owner had pet dogs. Yes, that's one of those things I throw into these reviews that sounds like a joke but is in fact true. From what I've read, they started with the idea that the team name would be Salt[insert animal here], and pretty soon they had it narrowed down to either Saltdogs or Saltcats, and since the original owner had pet dogs they went with the former.

As you can guess form the above, there is no such thing a salt dog. If you do a web search, you will mostly find references to this team and to salty dogs of various sort (the cocktail, the sailor, and so forth). You will also find some references to the SaltDogg, which is contraption you use to spread salt on a road, sidewalk, whatever. It's a brand name (so another case of a made-up word), and in case you're wondering they range in size from massive, truck-mounted spreaders intended for sale to cities and towns all the way down to little two-wheeled push spreaders that you would presumably use on the walkway from your house to your car. I imagine if you live somewhere like Vermont or North Dakota such a thing could come in handy. Virginia and North Carolina, two states I've lived in? Not so much.

As for the logo, I see what they were going for and I like what they were going for, but I'm afraid they missed the mark. The main element is the head of a dog that's looking right at you. This usually works very well — consider such logos as the AHL Chicago Wolves or the SPHL Birmingham Bulls — but something isn't quite right here. It's aiming to be a fairly realistic rendering, but then they go and make it perfectly symmetrical. It would be a lot stronger, I think, if they added some imperfect elements. In particular, the teeth just don't look natural, and the little heart-shaped, bright red tongue isn't helping either.

Then they write the team name is the standard "sports block letters" font. The font makes it look like a high school team. The fact that the team colors are navy blue and gold (a color scheme which, for whatever reasons, is more common in high school and college sports than pro sports) only heightens the effect.

Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad logo. It's just not nearly as good as it could be. It's almost more frustrating than if it was just a bad logo, because I really feel like just a couple of minor tweaks could make it one of the best logos in minor league baseball. But because they get a few details wrong, that simply isn't the case.

Final Score: 74 points.
Penalties: Compound, 34 pts; Humanoid, 30 pts; Name, 10 pts.
Bonuses: None.