1953 World Baseball Cup

The first World Baseball Cup was held in 1953. Since the MLB put it together, they decided on two cathedrals of baseball, Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. The MLB filled up 8 teams from 8 different countries. This tournament is the only one in history that didn't have any form of qualifying. This tournament wasn't promoted very well, and the teams played in front of half emptied stadiums. The tournament was also the coldest on record. Being played the first month of March, many players were glad to go to spring training in Florida.

Everyone expected the USA to win the whole thing, and they breezed through the group stages. Japan was the favorite to advance out of Group B. A Puerto Rican team lead by a young kid named Roberto Clemente helped Puerto Rico advance. Cuba was the biggest surprise of the tournament, going 2-1 in the group stages, and knocking out Japan in the semi-finals. Jackie Robinson had the game winning run in front of the Yankee Stadium crowd, scoring the first title for the Americans

World Baseball Cup

I'm finally done with school, and felt like this was a good time to release my project I've been working on or months.Do you guys remember this project? Last summer I really wanted to do a project that took a year by year series of concepts and they evolved over time. I chose a world baseball tournament. My idea was to go from 1953 to 2013 and make a tournament every 4 years. Back then, I planned out my series and set off.

But it was clunky, the template was bad, the stories were long, and I lost interest quickly because I had gotten some facts wrong.

But now I'm back! 

Some back story. The MLB got together with the IBAF, the governing body for baseball, in 2005 and then started doing the World Baseball Classic. 16 teams would play around the world, then go to the US and do knockout rounds, all during spring training. But here is my story, what if the MLB got together with the IBAF in 1953. I rebranded them as the IBF. The Baseball World Cup was founded in 1938, but was never on a big scale. This would be the biggest scale, essentially the most competitive competition in baseball history. There are some rules.

Starting in 1953, every 4 years the World Baseball Cup would be held in early March. Qualifying would take place the year before. There will be a rotating host. These hosts are stadiums in the samen city, region, or country. Each group would get one stadium as their base, so they didn't have to travel until the knockout rounds. 95% of the stadiums I use existed when they would host the games. The few that aren't would've been renovated or built for the tournament(most are only off by a year, but it's worth noting). A player is eligible to play for a country by birthplace, heritage, or citizenship. Currently there are 16 tournaments. The teams performance are based on random group draws and players of that era. The number of teams in each tournament grew as I saw acceptable. The uniforms also evolve with the times. If this tournament existed in real life, I imagine baseball would be a lot bigger, but for sake of argument, other than the tournament, everything else would be the same.

So sit back and enjoy because this is already one of my favorite series I've made.

A-League - Domestic Cups

So this was included in the first post, and some of you really waned to know about the domestic cups. The top two are the leagues. The Westfield FFA Cup currently exists, and is between all the teams in the A-League and the teams that qualify from the regional leagues. The Kiwi Cup would be a round robin between the 3 New Zealand teams.

But the State Cup is new. I had this idea very early on. The premise would be an 8 team tournament featuring one from each state and territory. The teams would qualify in their own state before the final tournament.

Here's a breakdown of teams from the two leagues I made. Clearly the top 3 have a tougher time, but it would even out with expanded qualification from lower leagues. Just something I had an idea for, and thought I should share for the finale.

A-League - Sydney Olympic

There is a team called Sydney Olympic, but you won't really see much of a carryover. The team was heavily suggested for the 3rd Sydney team. I really don't like the Sydney Olympic logo, and I remember thinking "oh i can totally use the teal on that logo. Then when I went to make the concept, I realized that there wasn't much, but I decided to run with it anyways. The crest is a diamond with the team name and an Olympic torch. it's divided diagonally like the kits. 

I wanted to do a Monaco style slash before I finished, and so Olympic are the team it fell to. I copied the kits Arsenal wore last year, because they look so nice. The away has horizontal stripes in alternating colors.

But that's it! That's the 28th and final team from this series. Thank you all for the support and comments. I have one more design to post but here are the logos together.

A-League - South Melbourne

I think I've kept you guys waiting long enough! I'm gonna finish up this series tonight.

The 3rd Melbourne team option was a toss up between South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights. I went with South Melbourne just as a toss up. The team was founded by Greeks, so I wanted to carry over the blue and white stripes from the flag. Their current crest is a train wreck, so I wanted to give them a new look. I did a crest with a Fulham style vertical lettering and stripes. The gold stars from the current logo also made the jump.

The kits are basic. Blue Umbro striped kits with white socks to give it some flavor. The clash is a throwback to their first kit, which were white shirts and a big red V. I realize this is essentially a mix of the other two Melbourne team's clashes, but I went with history. That's sort of why I included as much blue as I did.

A-League - Wollongong Wolves

The Wollongong Wolves were the long term name of the club in the city of Wollongong. They used to play in the top league before the A-League was formed, and since they have been kicking around the regional leagues. The team is currently the South Coast Wolves, so I went back to the old name due to the amount of teams in this league, and the more specific name. The logo was an idea I had that looked like the Arkansas State logo, but it evolved to what you see below. I did a beveled border, with a red and black inside and a wolf I drew from scratch on the bottom. I used some logos like the Timberwolves as a reference.

The kits are classic head to red. I put some Nike touches to it. The clash is bright yellow and black, which is almost the literal opposite of the homes.

A-League - Adelaide City

This was one that was suggested a lot. The team is really old and they have a classic crest. This wasn't much of a rebrand, but a not to acknowledge them as the 2nd team of Adelaide. I cleaned up the crest, because there isn't any clean version that I could find online. The kits are the standard Juventus kits that the club has sported for their history. The clash was black, but when I posted Fremantle, I realized that that game would be fairly hard to watch. I went ahead and made it green, because the color isn't used as much and would work as a clash.

A-League - Ballarat Red Devils

So I finished my A-League series! I took a few weeks off because, if you didn't know, cranking out 28 concepts is not particularly easy. I took some time off to work on my next project because I was more interested in that than soccer for a few weeks. That being said, this guy sucks.

I appreciate every comment I get, both good and bad. But this one really killed me. First of all, I have a life. I don't get much time on the computer some days, and honestly, this series fell out of favor. I was always going to put everything into my last few concepts. I don't really do concepts for anyone but myself, especially for someone this rude for me taking my merry time to post concepts. Lastly, I'm not the one who made a lot of mid major cities in Queensland. I'm not done with the series, so for you, here's a team from Victoria.

Finally to the concept. I found out this team was originally colored red for Liverpool, but currently wear a kit like Manchester United. It all fits into the Red Devils nickname the current team has. I almost made this team a 4th Melbourne team but decided that this cold be something really cool. The logo is a squat badge with a crossed pick axe and pitchfork, to represent both city and club.

The kits are very plain, but I thought were striking enough. They're modeled after ManU, and so is the team, because red/white/black is a damn good look. And that's coming from a Chelsea supporter. The clash was me thinking yellow and red is underrated. I played around with some Nike type designs but ended up making hoops with red and yellow.

North Wilkesboro Speedway

A while ago, of all places, North Wilkesboro Speedway was trending on facebook. It was because this video of a guy flying his drone over the dilapidated speedway surfaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyfn-_AW1h4

The track was one of those good ol' tracks in the south that hosted NASCAR events since the beginning, but got pushed out of the sport due to not being in a major market. My dad went to the last Winston Cup race there, in 1996. The track would probably need millions put into it to even host anything, let alone the top racing series in the country.

But I'm coming to the rescue! The track lies pretty close to the other true short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville. My thinking is that nostalgia would be the driving force into restoration. Many drivers think that more tracks like this should be put on the schedule, so here's my attempt to make it.

So North Wilkesboro is outside a small town of the same name. There isn't much of a population, but neither does Bristol and Martinsville. The track lies right next to some houses and a highway. There isn't much parking, so that would be the biggest thing. There is space, so a ramp from the highway and pedestrian bridges from a massive parking lot on the other side of the highway would be two things that would help the track. 

The track itself may need to be scrapped. It needs new stands, to be weeded, and paved. But the somewhat flat track still remains. My plans is to keep the track the same, and build around it. The walls are old, and would need to be replaced. Since the incident at Daytona with Kyle Busch, I made sure every inch of wall that could be hit from the track was protected. The walls would also be painted like the old days, red and white stripes to add to the nostalgia. The infield would be completely paved and have a garage for teams, a media building, and a tunnel leading outside, where the haulers would be. My thinking was to make the inner buildings one story for sight lines. The tunnel would be somewhat shallow, since only cars, and emergency vehicles would have to go through. The haulers take up a lot of space, and would have more space for 3 series to run at in a weekend.  The tunnel would also make the stands go completely around, and no wall would have to be temporary. Outside the track, they would repave over all the empty areas for easy walking capability.

Now to the stands. I designed this after a football stadium. The current covers about 3/4ths of the bottom bowl. I would raise it up, then complete it around. Raising it helps the fans get out through tunnels under the stands leading to the outside. There would also be a walkway on top of the stands that more people could walk around, or head up to their 2nd deck seats. There would be ramps to the ground level near the press boxes that tower over the stands. I put a big video board on the end zone, so there wouldn't need to be several. There would be advertisements behind the end zones to keep the sound in for the surrounding area too, and for highway advertisement for tickets. Finally, I put a lot of solar panels because I think renewable energy should be put into any new stadium built.

I made the initial plans a month ago, but I finally finished the master plan, and thought everyone would love to see just how this turned out.

2015 Sprint Cup Cars for Nascar Racing 3

Like I have done the last 3 years, I have made a complete 2015 Sprint Cup Series car set for Nascar Racing 3! It took several months and long breaks, but I finally finished the last cars today. There's pictures below for examples. The Toyotas seen are on the old body, which has since been updated to the new Camry's. If you're interested, the download link to the cars is below! You just drag and drop them into the cars folder of Nascar Racing 3's folder in your computer.

Link to the cars

A-League - Sunshine Coast Heat FC

A few things about this concept. In the poll that the people filled out with team name suggestions, Sunshine Coast's top choices were Fire and Heat. I convinced myself that I liked the Heat better, but that was before I realized the Fire is the current team there. And honestly, I just went with it. Everyone is gonna chew me out for the decision, but again, I liked it better. I wanted to use a warm colored gradient originally for the A-League logos, but decided on the green and gold. That idea was moved to this concept. From yellow to maroon, this team has some warm colors. The crest is a diamond with a banner, and SCH monogram.

The kits I thought could be kind of unique. I couldn't think of a team with red/yellow/red for their kits, and I didn't want to do a gradient on this one, despite seeing how it looked, so I went with the look below. The clash is white because all the warm colors are pretty similar and this would be different enough.

A-League - Brisbane Strikers

I wanted to have another Brisbane team, just because they can most likely support two teams. OVERWHELMINGLY, the Strikers were the team suggested on my poll the most for this spot. The Brisbane Strikers were a major Australian team before the federation formed the A-League. So it would be cool if they had a chance to come back to the top. Their logo is a lightning bolt, and a soccer ball, with "Strikers" crossing over top. I gave them more of a presentable shield with all the current aspects, thrown together without a soccer ball.

One thing I noticed right away was the color scheme. I could have a lot of fun because they have 4 colors used almost all the same amount. I wanted to basically make them look like Arsenal South. The kits are pretty similar to their current looks too.

A-League - Gold Coast United

I didn't realize how big Gold Coast was until I did the concept, but they still were once a part o the A-League before folding. I relegated them, but really wanted Gold Coast to carry on the United name for logistical reasons. The big beach there is named Surfer's Paradise, so I played the crest off that. Making a surf board shape, I did a logo similar to one you'd see in Italy.

The kits are Reebok, something different and something I haven't done before. The template is pretty weird with tons of angles and stuff. I chose Telstra as a sponsor because it's the same colors. I tried to keep the home kit like the one of the former team, and then the clash was just a color scheme I hadn't used yet.

A-League - Christchurch Saints FC

What's a soccer league without a team called the Saints? There was some confusion on the poll about this team. Expand the A-League suggested Canterbury, and I thought it was a suburb of Sydney(Melbourne too). All the responses were to the tune of "Which Canterbury?" Well turns out Christchurch, New Zealand is in the Canterbury Region itself. Christchurch would be home to the 3rd and last Kiwi team. I needed to be different from the yellow and blue teams from New Zealand, so I went with red. My idea was something so boring, it looks like the team had been created 80 years ago I went with a sash, and from there on it decided the fate of the jerseys.

The home kit would potentially be iconic, white with a red stripe and red shorts, something that really could be rare. Just like River Plate. I went navy on the road to look like the flag of the country, and that it wouldn't ever clash with Auckland City.

A-League - Ipswich Dons FC

 I was working on all of these, and in my head I had a checklist of things I wanted. I wanted a team with halves as their shirts, and a team with claret and blue as a color scheme. The name Dons was suggested in the poll, and the more I saw it the more I loved it. I wanted it to seem like this team was somewhere in the English system. The logo is in quarters. There's an FC, a ball, a cross from the Queensland flag, and some stripes.

The kits are simple, they're halves with a normal and a darker shade so there wouldn't be much contrast between the two sides. The kits are New Balance, even though I think they should still fund Warrior.

A-League - Darwin FC

When I first started doing these, I had an idea of a logo not confined by a crest. I tried my best to draw out what I wanted, a boomerang over text. In my head, it was maroon and orange, something really unique. Think of it like an Aussie version of Milwall FC in London. This idea fell to Darwin because the colors seemed to fit the one somewhat major city in the Northern Territory. I looked at boomerang art, and tried to match it. I put a kangaroo, and some circular patterns on it.

The kits are basic. I used a Puma template and played around with some things. The kits are head to toe maroon, then orange and black on the clash. The sponsor is Air Asia, since the club is the closest to the Southeast Asia region.

A-League - Sporting Fremantle

So this would be Western Australia's second team, and it needed to be done. All these comments about how Western Australia looked a little lonely on the map I posted must not know how empty it is. But the name Sporting came up a lot in the poll i sent out. I finally got a chance to use it for the 2nd Perth team. I couldn't use any cues from the AFL team based in Fremantle because they're a purple, and so is the Perth Glory. I wanted to use the swan from the WA flag. Fremantle is located at the mouth of the Swan River, so it was fitting. The swan is on a yellow circle, and yellow and black would be the same scheme as Wellington so I went with a Pittsburgh Penguins color scheme.

The kits are pretty simple. I went with umbro so it was gonna be really simple. I wanted this team to be black because gold colored jerseys would look pretty bad in real life. I thought a black/white/black look would be the best alternative. The clash is light blue since not many teams use it, and it would never be worn against Sydney. I put some sublimated hoops to spice it up a little.