Thus, Tuesday’s report from MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy that the team is expandings its use of the ball-in-glove is welcome news. According to McCalvy, the Brewers will wear this new jersey on most Sundays, which means it will be in the regular rotation and we will get the pleasure of seeing it more often than just the occasional retro night.

McCalvy also noted that the ball-in-glove logo will be appearing on the navy blue background that the Brewers’ modern jerseys use, as opposed to the lighter blue that the team wore in the 80s. This is both positive and negative; while part of the allure of the old logo is the bright colors, the fact that they are placing it on the current color scheme suggests that it may become a more permanent part of the team’s ensemble.

These jerseys will also be replacing the gold alternates that the team had been wearing, which is a welcome relief. While they were not quite as bad as San Diego’s Sunday camos, they were still an eyesore and never seemed to match the gray or white pants very well. Other teams appear to have realized this as well, as many teams have adopted darker-colored alternates that contrast much better with their lighter-colored pants (see: Boston’s navy, Colorado’s purple). And though there are of course teams that resist this trend, I am hopeful that this will push even more teams down this road, as this navy blue should provide a cleaner look than the gold did.

With this addition, we are left with a smaller and simpler rotation of uniforms, which McCalvy mentions in his article. The white and gray standard jerseys will presumably remain untouched, with the navy and gold wheat design remaining the team’s primary option. However, the team’s two other uniforms (aside from this new alternate) are the pinstriped retros, which are also great. They contain the retro coloring with the lighter blue that the 80s jerseys and logo featured, and the hat has the ball-in-glove logo.

An additional benefit, if this continues, is that we may be getting a full redesign of the Brewers’ jerseys. The wheat logo is uninspiring, although it isn’t terrible as it does reference the team’s nickname, the city’s history, and the ballpark sponsor. It just does not provide a dynamic look, and it could absolutely be improved upon. At this point, it appears as if more of the jerseys contain the ball-in-glove than the wheat (the three alternates compared to the two standard ones)—although the actual jersey rotation for this year has not been completely confirmed, as all we have to go on is McCalvy’s report. If the Brewers do in fact continue down this road, they should be in for a big aesthetics upgrade.

While I am a fan of the team’s offseason moves from a long-term and strategic perspective, they are realistically unlikely to have much of an impact on the team’s on-field performance this year, so watching them may not be that much more pleasurable an experience. Watching them in this jersey, though, will be a big pleasure, and if this leads to more of this logo in the future, it may very well be the most important decision of this offseason.

I dove into the archives in an attempt to answer the question of how something so absurdly and plainly wrong could be allowed to happen. Rumblings that the Brewers fanbase was growing dissatisfied with the ball-in-glove logo began with a 1989 story in the Milwaukee Journal by Lawrence Sussman, in which he quoted a bunch of Glendale barflies, many of whom couldn’t find the interlocking m and b, and one who called it “a puzzle.” Sussman quotes a cardiologist who preferred the aggressively racist screaming Milwaukee Braves mascot from the 1950s. “That was a good looking Indian,” added the cardiologist.

Sussman’s article offered the conclusion that the ball-in-glove logo was too unprofessional, too childish, not manly enough, and not intimidating enough. The Milwaukee Sentinel’s Bud Lea disagreed in a later column, saying it “may be the most distinctive sports logo of ‘em all,” but the seed was nonetheless planted. For the club’s 25th anniversary in 1994, the ball-in-glove logo was ditched for the interlocking M-and-B logo that lasted until the turn of the millennium and the current Miller-brand inspired look took over.

The 1994 look is austere and cold compared to the cartoonish look of the ball-in-glove logo. The colors are dark and drab, particularly in contrast to the brightness of the Brewers’ previous look. The few people who liked it — just 65 of 301 to call into the Milwaukee Sentinel‘s PressLine gave a positive review — praised its “classiness,” preferring its simplicity to the unorthodox look of the ball-in-glove. But there is a thin line between classy and boring, and most judged the Brewers’ new look to be on the wrong side of that line.

“A total of 236 people who phoned in to say they didn’t like the new logo gave a variety of reasons,” Meg Jones of the Sentinel wrote. “It looks like gang symbols, is similar to other teams’ logos, and is difficult to decipher.” The best comment came from Mary Wallace of Fox Point, who told the Sentinel, “I don’t like the new Brewers logo, nor do I like the new Bucks logo. I think you guys must have something going with the Crayola company and the color purple.” Even outfielder Darryl Hamilton joined in with the criticism. “I think the color selection is nice, but I don’t like the idea of changing the logo. I think we have one of the best logos. It’s original. I think changing it is drastic.”

The only way a logo that faced such backlash from day one could have survived is with an unprecedented run of winning from the Brewers. Of course, Milwaukee saw nothing of the sort in the mere six years the redesign lasted. The Brewers finished 424-481 (.468) in that span, never once finishing with a winning record but never losing more than 90 games either. It was a perfectly dull and mediocre stretch, fitting for the look they trotted onto the field.

On February 5th, 1994, the Milwaukee Sentinel published a letter from eight-year old Laura Grube, another Fox Point resident unhappy with the club’s new look. Laura wrote:

“I think the new Milwaukee Brewers’ logo looks too plain. It is also hard to read. It looks too old-fashioned. What’s wrong with the old logo? The old logo was clever. Who in the world made up the new logo?

I guess I’m hard to please, but even my dog agrees. She doesn’t like the new logo either.”

See that, Brewers? Ditching the ball-in-glove made little girls and dogs sad. Way to go, idiots.