The Major League Baseball logo, commonly called the “silhouetted batter,” is the official emblem of Major League Baseball (MLB). The mark depicts a white silhouette of a batter in a batting stance, set against a red, white, and blue background, and has served as the league’s visual identity for over half a century.
Design and History
The logo was designed in 1968 by Jerry Dior, a graphic designer working at Sandgren & Murtha, a New York-based marketing and design firm. The league hired the firm to create a mark celebrating the centennial of professional baseball. Dior produced the design in a single afternoon using magic markers and layout paper. His supervisor at the time, Alan Siegel, described the design as “very dynamic, colorful, modern and distinctive,” and it was approved by the league committee immediately. [1]
The logo was adopted in 1969 to honor professional baseball’s centennial. In 1969, players wore the design as a patch on their uniforms, and for the 1970 season, the logo was promoted as the official mark of the league. [2] Dior’s design was created as the core visual asset of MLB’s then-new licensing program. [2]
Because the work was done as a work-for-hire assignment, Dior received no royalties and no public credit for four decades. He was finally recognized by Major League Baseball in 2009, following stories published by The Wall Street Journal and ESPN. [1]
Over its long history, the logo has changed very little. Dior himself noted in an interview that the mark “hasn’t changed one bit, except for pointy nose. It was a square nose when I first did it. It’s pointy now.” [1] Design commentator Todd Radom has observed that all changes to the mark over the years have been small and imperceptible to most observers. [2]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo’s red, white, and blue palette was a deliberate choice. According to Todd Radom, the design “served to amplify the message that baseball was still America’s Pastime,” a message that carried particular weight during the Vietnam War era and at a time when the NFL was surpassing MLB in popularity. [2] The white silhouette of a batter waiting for a pitch is rendered against a red and blue background. [1]
The design has been widely influential. Alan Siegel, Dior’s supervisor, later used the same template for his own design of the NBA logo the following year. Paul Lukas, the uniform and logo columnist for ESPN, has noted that the red, white, and blue silhouette format “has essentially become synonymous with sports design.” [1]
Typography and Design
The logo is a purely pictorial mark and contains no lettering or wordmark. The design consists of a stylized batter silhouette facing an oncoming baseball. [3] The mark is rendered in three colors: red, white, and blue. [1] MLB filed a trademark for the red, white, and blue silhouetted-batter logo in 1968. [4]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
