Get clingy: New Atlanta Braves affiliate unveils peach-themed name, logos
Clingstones, meet the Clingstones. Columbus, Georgia’s new Minor League team.
The Columbus Clingstones will debut in 2025 as the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Southern League team comes into being via the relocation of the Mississippi Braves, currently playing their final homestand at Trustmark Park in the Jackson suburb of Pearl. Columbus was last home to a Minor League Baseball team in 2008, the final season of the Class-A Columbus Catfish.
Georgia is the Peach State, of course, and the Clingstones name and logo set pays tribute. Clingstones, along with freestones, are the two primary categories of peach. Freestones separate easily from the pit; clingstones, as the name would suggest, cling to it.
Pete Laven, currently in a dual role as Mississippi Braves and Clingstones general manager, noted that the clingstone peach has a long history in the Columbus region. It also has strong intangibles.
“Not only is the clingstone cute and tasty, it’s also very stubborn as it clings to the pit of the peach,” he said. “Much like our ballclub’s going to cling to the community here in Columbus. They’ve had a lot of different iterations of Minor League Baseball here, but it’s never been set up to succeed like this, with the commitment by the city, [ownership group] Diamond Baseball Holdings and, of course, having the Atlanta Braves [as an affiliate].”
The purposely alliterative Columbus Clingstones were brought to life by veteran Minor League Baseball logo designer Dan Simon, head of Louisville-based Studio Simon. In brainstorming the identity, Laven said he and Simon and the team’s ownership group had a peach-centric outlook from the start.
“I don’t think there’s another team in professional sports who has a peach as their main logo or the main color for the uniforms. That’s something that’s really going to set us apart, and we’re going to embrace that,” said Laven. “I think [Clingstones] goes well with the tone of our industry, because it makes people think when they see the name, ‘What is the correlation? Where did that come from?’”
The Clingstones’ primary logo features a beaming, bat-toting, anthropomorphic clingstone peach. The home cap logo manages to make a peach resemble a “C”, against a black background and with a green bill. The uniforms are standard home whites and road greys, but a monochromatic alternate uniform features peach-colored pants and tops.
“I don’t think anybody’s done [a uniform] in full peach,” noted Laven. “I think we’ll be the first.”
The Clingstones’ names, logos and uniforms were announced as part of a Friday night concert hosted by the city of Columbus, sandwiched between sets by Tommy Prine and a Zac Brown tribute band. The unveil marked the latest chapter in Columbus’s professional baseball history, which dates back to the 19th century and often included teams in the South Atlantic and Southern Leagues. The Clingstones will play at Synovus Park, located on the site where the city’s previous stadium, Golden Park, once stood. And, to an extent, still stands, as various aspects of the old stadium will be incorporated into the new one.
“I think the fan amenities are going to blow people away. Things they hadn’t seen at Golden Park,” said Laven. “But at the same time, it’s important for us that people still feel that history. Babe Ruth played at this stadium. Ty Cobb. Frank Thomas is from Columbus. So is Tim Hudson. … We’re definitely going to pay tribute to 100 years of Golden Park, but Synovus Park is going to be about the next 100 years.”
The Columbus Clingstones will open the 2025 campaign on the road before playing their home opener on April 15, pitted against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. It’ll mark the start of a vibrantly-hued new era.
“We’re going to embrace the color peach in everything we do,” said Laven.