FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Mary Washington celebrated her 311th birthday by joining the minor leagues of baseball. At an event held at her former home in downtown Fredericksburg, the city's new minor league baseball team, the Fredericksburg Nationals, unveiled logos for 2020 featuring the grandmother of America.
After playing in Prince William County for 35 years, the Washington Nationals’ advanced Class-A affiliate team, the Potomac Nationals, relocated to Fredericksburg, leading to the creation of a new brand identity. Though not originally intending to keep "Nationals" as part of the name, the people of Fredericksburg made it very clear they wanted that part of the name to remain, and thus the Fredericksburg Nationals were born.
"We knew from the start was that we wanted to find a way to incorporate both George and Mary Washington in our logos," Executive Vice President/General Manager Nick Hall said.
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Mary grew up in Fredericksburg and is a persona that has long defined the town, with a university and a hospital named after her.
Players of the Mary Washington baseball team modeled the team's new jerseys for the 2020 season at the unveiling event. The home white jerseys and the alternate red jerseys feature the team's promotional name, the FredNats, while the alternate blue jerseys feature an image of George Washington swinging his cherry tree ax as a bat.
Fans have been quick to point out the choice to feature Mary as a southpaw, a quirk that has not been able to be historically corroborated due to the lack of knowledge regarding the appearance of George's mother. Available paintings of Mary all seem to feature different physical traits.
Dan Simon, the logo creator, did work off of descriptions given to him by staff at the Mary Washington House, a museum in Fredericksburg dedicated to all things Mary Washington.
Hall said the inclusion of Mary Washington in team logos is both an homage to her importance in the city of Fredericksburg, as well as a nod to the greater efforts of the sport of baseball to be more gender inclusive.
"We aren't where we need to be yet, but we're making huge strides," Hall said.
The 2019 Major League Baseball Racial and Gender report card gave the league a "C" grade for gender hiring practices, with seven women having on-field coaching roles in 2018; four were women coaching in the minor leagues.
In the MLB's 150 year history, there have been no female general managers or managers.
The Fredericksburg Nationals are one of only a few minor league teams to have women in the top positions of power. Lani Silber Weiss, daughter of Chairman/CEO Art Silber, is the team's President/COO.
A minor league team in The Idaho Falls, the Chukars, also recently announced the inclusion of a female likeness in a temporary logo. All Sunday games in 2020 will be Madres days as the team will compete as the Madres de Idaho Falls.
Hall would not say whether Mary Washington will be involved as a team mascot, but said mascot decisions would likely be revealed in February.
