River Bandits, L'Kings meet in logo contest

By Steve Batterson | Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Midwest League’s closest rivals on the field will be rivals in cyberspace today.

New-look logos of the Quad-City River Bandits and Clinton LumberKings will meet today in the quarterfinals of a national contest to select the top logo in minor-league baseball.

Both teams advanced to the final eight of the 64-team March Madness-style bracket with convincing wins Tuesday.

The Bandits’ new mascot, an as-yet unnamed raccoon, ignored a 12th seed in its bracket and earned 57 percent of the 9,779 votes cast to oust the top-seeded Modesto  (Calif.) Nuts. Clinton’s rejuvenated Louie the LumberKing moved on by claiming 56 percent of the 17,739 votes cast in its matchup with the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Iron Pigs.

The wins moved the clubs into a head-to-head competition for a Final Four berth in the contest hosted by CNBC.com sports business reporter Darren Rovell. Balloting runs from 8 a.m. today through 8 a.m. Friday and is open to anyone. It can be accessed through either CNBC.com or darrenrovell.com.

Two of the final eight teams are owned by River Bandits owner Dave Heller, whose Columbus Catfish are involved in a quarterfinal match in the other half of the bracket.

“If nothing else, I guess it shows that I know a good logo when I see one, and I do feel like we have two of the best,” Heller said.

Rovell’s contest is in its second year. Last season, he simply picked the best logos but this year he turned the selection process over to the public through unscientific online balloting.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.