The Hudson Valley Renegades, High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees in the South Atlantic League, will play three games as the Hudson Valley Big Apples in 2025. The temporary moniker is an homage to the team’s parent club, which plays 69 miles to the south in New York City, as well as to the agriculture found in upstate New York. New York is the second-largest producer of apples in the US, averaging 29.5 million bushels annually.
The logo features an anthropomorphic apple named Empire, “a nod to New York’s status as the Empire State and to the popular apple variety developed at Cornell University in the 1940s,” per the team. Empire is carrying a Statue of Liberty torch and waving a number one foam finger, set against a navy and yellow color palette meant to emulate the New York state flag.
The Big Apples will play July 26, August 15, and September 4. The on-field debut of the brand will coincide with the 237th anniversary of the day New York ratified the U.S. Constitution and officially became a state.