League selects Pioneers logo

Dave Keine, a pitcher who recently signed with the Pecos League's Las Cruces Vaqueros, was named the winning designer in the league's Clovis Pioneer logo submission contest.

When the Clovis Pioneers take the field, they’ll be doing it in hats and jerseys designed by the friendly opposition.

Dave Keine, a pitcher who recently signed with the Pecos League’s Las Cruces Vaqueros, was named the winning designer in the league’s Clovis Pioneer logo submission contest.

The logo, now prominently displayed on clovispioneers.com, features the face of a pioneer man with a raccoon hat, shadowed by a baseball.

“They said they wanted a Pioneer, so the first thing I looked for was a Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett type,” said Keine, who tried out for the Vaqueros last year but was derailed by an arm injury. “I tried to go with the interlocking logo. I tried to go for a clean look on that.”

Clovis will wear black hats with the interlocking “C” and “P” in white, outlined in purple and orange. The home jerseys will be white, and the road jerseys orange with purple as a complementary color.

“We need to be different,” Pecos League Commissioner Andrew Dunn said. “Everything in Clovis is purple, and we need purple in the uniforms, but another color gives the Pioneers their own identity.”

Dunn said merchandise will soon be available for the Pioneers, with hats available Jan. 15 and jerseys Jan. 20 on the team website.

The Clovis Pioneers will play in the newly-formed Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs, an independent league with play expected to be in the “Rookie” level of minor league baseball.

“I’m thrilled,” said Keine, a 6-foot-3, 165-pound righthander who played at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. “I’ve still got to go through the spring training process, but I’m confident. I’ve got the itch.”

Other Pecos League teams include the Vaqueros, Alpine Cowboys, Carlsbad Bats, Roswell Invaders, and White Sands (Alamogordo) Pupfish.

The Pecos League season begins May 10, when the Pioneers host the Roswell Invaders in a 7:05 p.m. game at Bell Park. May 11 will feature another Pioneers-Invaders game, along with Carlsbad visiting Alpine and White Sands visiting Las Cruces.

The league originally planned for eight teams and a 74-game schedule, but complications derailed a Del Rio, Texas franchise and a traveling team was eliminated to keep the number of teams even.