Pioneers logo finalists selected

There’s no telling who will wear the uniforms of the Clovis Pioneers, but there are finalists for what logo will represent the city’s return to professional baseball.

The Pecos League has displayed 17 logos on clovispioneers.com as part of its team logo contest.

League Commissioner Andrew Dunn said submissions came mostly from Clovis, but some were obviously created by professional designers.

The Clovis Pioneers will play a 74-game season in the eight-team Pecos league from May to August of next year, with games scheduled at Bell Park.

Dunn said the logo would likely incorporate purple, orange and black to help balance out color palettes for the league. No other Pecos League team uses orange as a main color.

The league will later announce a way to vote for top logos. The winner will receive season tickets, and the club keeps all rights to the logo.

One of the designers, Scott Knauer of Clovis, said he’d go to games whether he won season tickets or not, and probably would have submitted his logo had no prize been offered.

“I thought it would be fun to be considered to be designing something for Clovis,” said Knauer, who works at a Clovis print shop and graduated from Clovis High School in 2001. “It’s exciting to get a baseball team, even though it’s minor league.”

The original Pioneers played in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, mostly in the West Texas-New Mexico League, and enjoyed brief Major League affiliations with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

The Pecos League is an independent league, with play comparable to rookie league designation —Dunn said the play will be above NCAA Division I. Clovis native John Harris will manage the Pioneers.

Dunn added that the season will start earlier due to various scheduling conflicts. The Pioneers will host the Roswell Invaders May 10 for a two-game homestand, and have an off day before visiting Roswell for a two-game set May 13-14.