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MiLB teams celebrate 2020 invincibility

'Undefeated' T-shirts put positive spin on difficult times
After the Bowie Baysox unveiled an "Undefeated" tee, teams such as the Salem Red Sox, Rochester Red Wings and Toledo Mud Hens followed suit.
By Benjamin Hill @BensBiz
July 9, 2020

At 5 p.m. on June 30, the news that many had feared finally became official: there would be no 2020 Minor League Baseball season. Amid the immediate and inevitable outpouring of sadness for the present and anxiety for the future, the Bowie Baysox found a silver lining. The Baysox, the

At 5 p.m. on June 30, the news that many had feared finally became official: there would be no 2020 Minor League Baseball season. Amid the immediate and inevitable outpouring of sadness for the present and anxiety for the future, the Bowie Baysox found a silver lining.

The Baysox, the Orioles' Double-A affiliate that debuted in 1993, have lost at least 58 games in every season of their existence. But 2020 would be a different story. The inability to play games meant the inability to lose; therefore, the Baysox were, and would remain, undefeated. A T-shirt commemorating this unprecedented accomplishment went on sale less than a half-hour after the season was canceled, with the team humbly explaining -- or perhaps hoping -- that it was "THE HOTTEST T-SHIRT IN BAYSOX HISTORY." The scuttled season was rebranded as an "Undefeated Tour," with the back of the shirt listing the entire schedule that never was.

Baysox assistant general manager Phil Wyre said the idea for the shirts had been hatched several weeks earlier, as the season's cancellation began to look more and more like a foregone conclusion.

"We [in the front office] were throwing the idea around," he said. "We contacted 108 Stitches, who do some of our merch. We knew they had a concert tour type of design already. We wanted our undefeated schedule to look like all the stops of a band's tour, all the stops we would have made in 2020."

The Baysox, working in concert with 108 Stitches, finalized the T-shirt's design on June 29. At 5:20 p.m. the following day, they joined the chorus of teams that tweeted the season had been canceled. Eleven minutes later, the tone abruptly shifted as Bowie announced that it was, in fact, undefeated.

"We've received orders from 30 states across the country. There have been news mentions all over the place and our local media picked it up and ran with it," Wrye said. "It's been really cool for us, not the sort of stuff we necessarily see a whole lot of. The adage is to take your lemons and make lemonade, and I think we did a pretty good job of that."

Even in these unprecedented times, a basic maxim still holds throughout the Minor League Baseball industry: if one team has a good idea, other teams will borrow it. After the Baysox announced their "Undefeated" T-shirt, 108 Stitches offered the same basic template to other MiLB clients. Thus, teams including the Greenville Drive and Portland Sea Dogs are selling similar shirts.

Meanwhile, a variety of teams offered variations on the theme. First up was the Salem Red Sox, who delivered an "Undefeated" shirt along with one designating 2020 as "The Longest Spring Training Ever."

A pair of International League icons, the Rochester Red Wings and Toledo Mud Hens, soon entered the fray. The latter took things further and declared themselves to be not just undefeated but 2020 International League champions. (One can only assume that the other IL clubs did not agree with the Mud Hens' brash declaration.)

Of course, not all teams decided to go the "Undefeated" route. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Durham Bulls, for example, took an antagonistic, not-quite-profane T-shirt stance toward this accursed year. "Unflockingbelievable," proclaimed the Pelicans. "This is some bullshirt," retorted the Bulls.

The Class A Short Season Eugene Emeralds soon unveiled a saucy quartet of tees, simultaneously declaring themselves champions (of social distancing) while also turning the "Undefeated" concept on its head via the commemoration of an "0-76" season caused by COVID-19.

But it all comes back to the Baysox, the first Minor League team to employ sartorial snark as a season cancellation coping mechanism.

"Sure, bragging rights are great," Wrye said, "but, especially now, it's great to do things that other teams can benefit from as well. We share everything in this business, because what works for one will work for others. We're all still looking for that next great idea."

Benjamin Hill is a reporter for MiLB.com and writes Ben's Biz Blog. Follow Ben on Twitter @bensbiz.

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