SI

John Oliver Unveils Unusual New Identity for Tigers' Minor League Team

An unusual rebrand from the late-night host.

Kyle Koster

John Oliver and the 'Last Week Tonight' crew are getting into minor league baseball.
John Oliver and the 'Last Week Tonight' crew are getting into minor league baseball. / Last Week Tonight
In this story:

Earlier this year, comedian John Oliver announced that he and the Last Week Tonight staff were seeking a minor league baseball team that would be willing to let them get creative with some branding. The Erie SeaWolves, a Detroit Tigers' Double-A affiliate bravely decided to play ball despite the stipulation that they'd be kept in the dark while Oliver tinkered around with the brand identity. If this all sounds slightly strange, just keep in mind that it's minor league baseball and there are absolutely no bad ideas in any of their brainstorms.

Oliver unveiled what he and his team came up with on Sunday night and there's not a single person on the world—including Erie—that could have predicted it.

The SeaWolves will henceforth be playing as the Erie Moon Mammoths for select games.

Where does a moon mammoth even come from? Per MLB.com:

In the summer of 1991, a scuba diver named George Moon was combing the depths of Lake Pleasant in Erie County, Pa. When he broke the surface, he was carrying with him an almost three-foot long bone. Moon had no idea then that what he’d stumbled across was the shoulder blade of a creature that had walked the land in Erie something like 12 millennia ago. He also had no idea that this prehistoric discovery would one day somehow become a part of baseball history.

It turned out what Moon had found was just a small part of a very large mammoth, and on further dives that Moon and others made into that part of Lake Pleasant, about 80 percent of the massive mammal’s remains were found, including both its tusks.

One need not know or appreciate the backstory here to like the merchandise, which features a top-notch logo.

The Moon Mammoths take the field for the first time on July 19.

More MLB on Sports Illustrated

feed

Published
Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

Home/MLB