CNBC.com The Miners Win The Title!

We called it the Minor League Baseball Logo Contest, but we should have called it a "Miner" contest, as the Southern Illinois Miners bested the Wichita Wingnuts, 55 percent to 45 percent, in the final matchup that ended this morning at 9 am ET.

There was nothing minor about this contest after all. The Miners beat out 63 other teams in a single elimination tournament for the best logo award, which was determined by the readers of this blog, who voted more 700,000 times in total. The finale alone yielded more than 165,000 votes, a CNBC.com poll record.

The Miners were given a No. 3 seed to start the tournament. Along the way, they beat the Carolina Mudcats, the West Tennessee DiamondJaxx, the Grand Prairie AirHogs and the Augusta GreenJackets before prevailing over the Wingnuts.

Southern Illinois Miners

It didn't look good against the Wingnuts, who jumped out to a huge lead. At the close of the business day on Tuesday, the Wingnuts, had a tremendous lead on the Miners. But throughout the night, the team gained support and pushed into the lead in the early morning hours.

"I know the Wingnut jumped out to a big lead early on, and my chances were starting to look dark, but miners are used to working in the dark," Big John the Miner, the logo himself, told CNBC.com, in an exclusive interview, after the victory. "I grabbed my pick axe and started chipping away at the lead."

To congratulate Big John, who is only a one-year-old, CNBC will present him with a plaque to commemorate the occasion of being named the best logo in minor league baseball (Any resemblance of the real plaque to the image in this post will be pure coincidence!).

"I'd like to thank the fans of Southern Illinois and the amazing support they've shown their team since day one," said Miners owner Jayne Simmons. "This is a unique honor, and we're very proud of it."

Those who want to get gear of the winning logo can click here.  Full disclosure: I don't get a cent of anything they sell.

Questions?  Comments?