A Name That Will Fly

aking time out from demolishing downtown buildings to erect a new baseball stadium while simultaneously preparing to play the 1998 season at Tim McCarver Stadium, the Memphis Triple-A baseball team announced its name and unveiled its logo last week.

The Memphis Redbirds clearly identifies the team with its major-league affiliate, the St. Louis Cardinals, while still paying homage to the long tradition of baseball in Memphis. The logo, designed by Trace Hallowell, creative director at Thompson and Company, incorporates a traditional-looking baseball player, lovingly called "Nostalgia Man," in front of an oval design.

"We are going to do a lot of things in this organization to try to link the old with the new, to try to bring the nostalgic, good feel that we all have had about the great game of baseball," says Redbirds president and general manager Allie Prescott.

The Redbirds uniform will read "MEMPHIS" across the front in block letters with a small cardinal perched on top of the "H." The caps -- red at home and blue on the road, just like the parent club -- will have an "M" on the front. A practice jersey, which will be worn during batting practice, displays the team nickname in a red script and looks like a good bet to become a popular local shirt.

Merchandising is a big part of the game, even for a ball club which will be operated as a not-for-profit organization. The Redbirds have hired former Casual Corner president Allen Israel to head up their retail operation.

"We're excited about the potential in retail. To be able to attract a guy who ran Casual Corner for 25 years is a statement that we think retail is going to be a huge opportunity for us," Prescott says. The Redbirds will dedicate 11,000 square feet in the stadium complex to retail operations. "Allan is going to design it. It's his baby. We'll have videos, we'll have music, we'll have interactive games, and we'll have tons of merchandise."

The name and logo announcement, coming just a few weeks after annoucing the affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals and a day before the first demolition work on the site where the new stadium will be built, infuses the Memphis sports market with a positive story at a time when Oilers players continue to blow off goodwill visits to the city.

"I see an enormous amount of support for what we're doing," Prescott says. "I'd like to think it's because we're trying our best to do things the right way. Certainly there is some spinoff from the frustration with what's happening with the NFL franchise here and their inability to get on the right track for whatever reason. I think greed in professional sports has really offended a lot of people."

Like the logo, the baseball stadium (which won't have a name until Prescott and his staff find a "naming partner") will be a blend of old and new. "Our architect tells me that it's okay to say this," Prescott says proudly. "We are about to build the best ball park that's ever been built in the United States below the major-league level. I think Memphians are thrilled about this story."

Prescott was general manager of the Double-A Memphis Chicks during their most successful seasons (1980, '81, and '82). He knows how to sell minor-league baseball. Or at least he did back then, before major-league baseball alienated a large percentage of its fan base, before the first casinos were built in Tunica.

"I don't think I'm concerned [about competition from the casinos]," Prescott says. "I hope I'm not naive about it. I think we're going to create an amenity downtown that everybody is going to want to sample and I think that once they sample it, they're going to come back and come back and come back."

He plans to treat casino players as just another group to whom he can sell tickets. "I think we are going to offer something else for their players to do," Prescott explains. "They're building airports and golf courses, they're going to have people down there on extended stays. And if we are a hit like I think we're going to be, we'll shuttle those people up here for an evening at the Elvis club, the Rendezvous, the Hard Rock -- take in a ballgame and get them back to their hotel down there."

But before the Redbirds play downtown, they have to get through the 1998 season at Tim McCarver Stadium. Prescott thinks the team can be profitable in its first season, even at the old stadium in the fairgrounds. To do that, he says they need to draw between 400,000 and 500,000 fans. "That's possible," he says. "We'd like to sell 5,000 season tickets. I believe we can do it."

Tim McCarver was once an American Legion stadium and, despite additions over the years, it barely qualifies as a Triple-A ballpark. Upkeep in recent years has been sporadic.

"We're going to try to be wise with our expenditures, but the bottom line is we wouldn't invite people unless we were proud of it," Prescott says of the old facility. "We are going to do whatever it takes to put that ballpark's best foot forward. That goes far beyond clean-up, paint-up, fix-up. We're looking at ways to make everything better. It won't be like what you saw this year, I promise you."

The site of the new stadium is only a few blocks from the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, which will be a major thoroughfare for many of the fans Prescott hopes to bring to Memphis for Redbirds games.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we sold 500 or 600 season tickets in eastern Arkansas," Prescott says. "Two things are going on there: Those people are thrilled about what's going on in downtown Memphis -- this is their entertainment center. And those people love the St. Louis Cardinals."

At the many public appearances Prescott makes throughout the Mid-South, he has had to explain why team owners Dean and Kristi Jernigan chose to build the new stadium downtown.

"That used to be the first question I got. Now I never get the question," Prescott says with a smile. "Even people who have moved their families and their businesses to eastern Shelby County, they've all known in their heart of hearts that downtown needs to work for this city to be great. I think everybody is proud that downtown is finally reaching its potential. We hope to be a real big part of helping it to go even further than people dreamed it could."

A year ago, the future of professional baseball in this city was in question. Today a state-of-the-art stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals Triple-A ballclub is going up in the shadow of the downtown bank buildings. As Joaquin Andujar, a former Cardinals pitcher, once said about the American pastime, "You never know."