More Memorable Moments in
Parrot History – by the Fine Mr. R. Michal
I'd like to add my compliments to Dr Bob for his artistic ability.
Years and years
ago, I had an artist friend of mine develop a logo for the Outs,
based on an idea
I had. The logo was an Eskimo swinging a baseball bat (which today
is probably un-PC)
with the words Alaska Outs arcing over like a rainbow. It looked
great. In the days
when we rolled the dice and used cards to play the games, we had to
send out hard-copy
playing instructions to our road opponents----that's right, we depended
on the
mail. On my instructions, I had that logo up at the top so that the
whole league
could see it. One year out of the blue at one of the conventions, Dr
Bob presented
me a porcelain beer mug that he had made with the yellow-&-black
Alaska Outs
logo on it. I still have that mug sitting on my desk at home, and I
can't conceive
ever getting a better baseball gift from anyone.
Another time, Dr Bob gave me a painting of an Alaska Outs player
at the plate. I
still have that one too in my baseball room. I always cringe a bit when
I sit back
and look at it, however. Not because it's bad art, but because the
player is adorned
in his yellow-&-black uniform, looking like a Pittsburgh Pirate
from the late
1970s. Fact is, I couldn't stand those uniforms of the Bucs in those days, with
their funny looking pillbox caps. So, how did the Outs get stuck with
black-&-yellow
to begin with? That in itself is another story......
Way back in the old days before the explosion of computer use, I
was leafing through
one of those airline magazines while sitting on an airplane. An ad in
the magazine
caught my eye. It said I could have my message printed on a baseball
cap. I thought,
What a great idea, and I couldn't wait to
send in to get an Alaska Outs baseball
cap. So when I got home, I sent in my money for a cap, with the
instructions that
it should be red-white-&-blue (because the Outs were
should say Alaska Outs on it. I also ordered a cap for my brother Jon's team, the
Chicago Orphans, in some other color combination. I couldn't wait
for my package
to arrive. Finally it came, and I raced inside my house and ripped
open the envelope......only
to reveal that both caps were yellow, with simple white block
lettering over the
bill with Alaska Outs on one and
anyway, the Outs marketing department regrouped and changed our team
colors from
red-white-&-blue to yellow-&-black, and so a la Pittsburgh Pirates. To this
day the Outs have remained in yellow-&-black, but a lot more
restrained than
what the Bucs wore in the late '70s!