Oklahoma City's Triple-A baseball team has been known as the RedHawks for almost two decades. But, following the Los Angeles Dodgers' purchase of the franchise in September, fans will have to get accustomed to a new team name.
Mandalay Baseball, LLC announced Wednesday the franchise will immediately replace the Oklahoma City RedHawks moniker and will now be known as the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
"The Dodgers are an internationally known brand, so they don't do this kind of thing lightly. But they also thought that this was the best way possible to plant their flag here, so that we could really connect the dots with this new affiliation," said Oklahoma City Dodgers president and general manager Michael Byrnes. "This gave us a chance to use the Dodgers font as inspiration, while still finding ways to make it unique to Oklahoma City."
The Oklahoma City franchise has been a Triple-A affiliate since 1962 as the 89ers and the RedHawks. The Dodgers are the fifth major league team to have been associated with the franchise. Previous affiliates include Houston Colt .45s/Astros (1962–1972, 2011–2014), Cleveland Indians (1973–1975), Philadelphia Phillies (1976–1982), and Texas Rangers (1983–2010).
The team's new logos and jerseys incorporate elements of the Dodgers franchise and the Oklahoma City location.
"We didn't just want to slap 'Oklahoma City' over an existing Dodgers logo and call it a day," said Ross Yoshida, Los Angeles Dodgers Director of Graphic Design. "We wanted to tailor the Dodger brand to something that people in Oklahoma City could take pride in, hence elements like the homage to Bricktown on the primary logo and the SkyDance Bridge patch on the home uniforms."
Find more information on the Oklahoma City Dodgers at okcdodgers.com.
