New Orleans Baby Cakes Mascot Fulfills Commitment To The Minor-League Snarl

The AAA baseball team formerly known as the New Orleans Zephyrs will henceforth be known as the New Orleans Baby Cakes. This is undoubtedly a unique mascot, one that will surely draw internet ire the same way that fellow New Orleanian King Cake Baby (deservedly) did, but Baby Cakes is a good mascot. It’s regionally specific, comes with a fresh color scheme, and is not a horrifying man-baby-monster like King Cake Baby. However, I’m less interested in this baby’s role in supplanting intimidating animal-centric hegemony than I am in his snarl.

The Baby Cakes’ new logo was designed by Brandiose, a San Diego sports marketing firm that has designed the logos of over 50 teams, including our friends the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. As Brandiose exec Jason Klein told Slate last year, they aim to be polarizing:

“Teams that don’t have huge budgets need to make a splash,” Klein said. “They have to cheat with things that get them a ton of publicity.”

Brandiose has designed the logos of some of minor league baseball’s most notoriously wacky teams, such as the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Hartford Yard Goats, and the Akron RubberDucks. They are all campy mascots, but their true unifier is the minor-league snarl.

Grrrrrrrrr.