It was about a year ago that Ryan Zimmerman pulled a unique version of the hidden-ball trick by losing a ground ball in his jersey (video of the incident is available here). Fifteen years before that, Daryl Boston of the Mets got one of history’s strangest game-winning RBIs when he came to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 13th of a scoreless game and was “hit” by a pitch that lodged inside his jersey (an account of that oddity is here).

Both of those games came to mind yesterday when Braves pitcher Jeff Bennett undressed Pittsburgh’s Jason Michaels — literally. As Michaels tried to dodge Bennett’s inside pitch, the ball buzzed Michaels’s jersey and ripped it open, leaving the hitter seriously exposed. Michaels buttoned up on his way to first base, but he somehow forgot to tuck in.

You can see the whole thing in real time here. Boy, those Atlanta announcers really get caught up in the excitement of the moment, don’t they?

The weirdest thing about this is that the exposed edge of a right-handed batter’s jersey is facing away from the pitcher (if you’re wearing a button-front shirt, look down at your chest and you’ll see what I mean). So the ball couldn’t have caught the edge of the placket, as I had originally assumed; it must have caught a billow or flap. Which means his jersey was probably too billowy to begin with. Which I guess doesn’t really amount to much when you compare it to this jersey.

Raffle Reminder:Today’s the last day to enter the raffle for a free helmet from Gridiron Memories. If you haven’t entered already, send an e-mail to uniraffle [at] earthlink [dot] net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm tonight. Only one entry per person, I’ll automatically add three bonus entries for all membership program enrollees. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Twins wore their Minnesota sesquicentennial sleeve patch over the weekend (betcha all forgot about that one, even though it was in my MLB season-preview column, right?). They were supposed to wear it last night, too, but they went with their patch-free vest look instead. My understanding is that the patch will now be removed for the rest of the season. … “Here’s Tottenham Hotspur at home in striped socks against Liverpool,” writes Gordon Wood. “Their regular white home kit does not have stripes. According to the match day report, they were wearing next season’s kit.” … Mike Pelfrey has stopped wearing his mouthpiece, because he was tipping his pitches by chewing on it. … Memo to the Phillies: Please call Joe Bisenius up to the bigs immediately (with thanks to Danny White). … Great article plus accompanying video here about the Angels’ laundress/seamstress. This is one of the best articles I’ve ever seen on this type of team employee, with loads of good details — highly recommended. … Yesterday I linked to this photo. “I’m pretty sure that’s an all-star game thing,” reports Scott Turner. “For a while, Japanese teams were divided East/West for their all-star game, rather than the current Central and Pacific Leagues.” … Someone posted this 1938 photo over on the Chris Creamer board. Not sure if that’s a logo on top of the Chicago helmets, but it sure looks that way. If so, it’s one of the earliest (and most oddly positioned) helmet logos on record. … Naru Oda and Jeremy Brahm report that the Hanshin Tigers have unveiled some really awful uniforms (here’s the rear view), which they’ll wear in interleague games. “The new unis now have 100 grams less material weight, which would enhance player’s mobility,” says Naru. “Instead of embroidered logos and names, they’re now printed. The shaded pants stripes are supposed to give the impression of a wild tiger (I question that part).” … The Houston Texans have “Take It Away!” and “Protect the Ball!” printed on the back of their practice shorts (good find by Chris Smith). … FNOB alert: Afonso Alves of Middlesbrough (with thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … Speaking of NOBs, Mike Kingery was poking around the Sporting News archives and came up with this 1963 article. Among other things, it indicates that the second and third teams to use NOBs (after the White Sox, who as we all know were the first) were the Cardinals and Braves, which I hadn’t been aware of. … With all the Mother’s Day rainouts, lots of teams wore pink ribbons in the first games of their doubleheaders yesterday, including the Indians, Pirates (tough to see, but it’s there, plus Freddy Sanchez used a pink bat), and Braves. The Braves/Bucs game had pink-accessorized umps, too. … Here’s something you don’t often see: a Little League throwback game, with the kids wearing uniforms based on the 1978 Cubs road design. “We weren’t able to pull of the white pinstripes,” writes the team’s coach, who prefers to remain anonymous, “but the classic impossible-to-read royal blue lettering on powder blue jersey was preserved. We even did the names on the back in the true to the original vertical arch.” … Not uni-related, but this video clip is pretty funny. … “On Friday, La Salle Prep in Milwaukie, Oregon celebrated Senior Day in style,” writes Travis McGuire. “They broke out the striped stirrups for the first time this season. I think they looked pretty sharp with the off-white unis.” … Speaking of striped hose, check out Chris King of Tennessee Tech (with thanks to Ernie Goens). … And still more lower-leg goodness, this time from Matt Campbell, who reports that the Toledo Mud Hens were all wearing stirrups on Sunday. He also notes that the Mud Hens had the International League’s 125th Anniversary patch on their vest chests (other teams are wearing it on their sleeves) and that Charlotte player Brad Eldred “must have left his locker in a hurry, because right before the national anthem I happened to glance in the Charlotte dugout and saw this horrifying sight.” Best of all, Matt took a bunch of dynamite shots at the traveling Minor League Baseball Museum (part of this promotion) — check out his slideshow of photos here. … We’ve all seen batters drop their bat in disgust and leave it at home plate if they don’t like an ump’s call. And then there are the players (and managers) who’ll throw stuff from the dugout onto the field after getting tossed from a game. But last night is the first time I’ve seen a catcher shed his gear in protest: Yadier Molina got into an argument and left his gear at the plate. Very short video clip here. … Have you seen these Dodgers wigs thingies? There’s a good article on the woman who makes them here (with thanks to Murketing’s Rob Walker).

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, so MLB diamonds were awash in pink jersey ribbons, pink armbands (note how the Cool Base gussets ruin the pinstripes, by the way), pink-accessorized umpires, pink titanium necklaces, pink catcher’s gear, pink shoelaces, pink facial hair, and pink bats. I’d like to think that at least one stadium music director was enterprising enough to play the album shown at right (if you don’t recognize it, look here), but somehow I doubt it.

By now you know the drill: I dislike the pink-o-rama, Minna H. really dislikes it, and most of the rest of you are okay with it. Fine — let’s move on.

Fortunately, Mets announcers Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez provided an extended session of uni-related banter yesterday, and it was almost pink-free. Their discussion was prompted by the fact that the team’s local broadcast affiliate has been running an internet poll to let fans vote on the Mets’ all-time best uniform. Good poll, topic, right? Or it would have been, if they hadn’t limited the choices to very small sampling of the various designs the Mets have worn over the years. Anyway, the discussion was actually pretty good — let’s listen in:

Keith Hernandez: I know what my pick would be.

Gary Cohen: What is that?

KH: I love the Mets’ old road uniforms. We had to wear those darn ones with the handwriting. Remember, the “New York” handwriting?

GC: The script.

KH: I must say, I get jealous whenever I see this team out here, the present Mets, when they go on the road and play in the old-fashioned Met uniform. I never got to play in that uniform. They’re beautiful.

GC [who apparently either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about black drop shadows]: They’re a classic. And I like this pinstripe, the one they wear now, as opposed to the one they wore right at the beginning of the Mets, which did not have the numbers on the front. It’s always a bit disconcerting to me to see the uniforms with no number on the front. But these are perfect.

KH [as the director cues up a 1980s shot]: There we go, look at that. I mean, please.

GC [who also apparently wasn’t listening to what Hernandez had said a few moments earlier]: Well, the worst ones were the ones with the script “New York.” Remember those?

KH: Look at that Astro uniform behind, there. That was a stinker. [Helpfully telestrates the uniform in question, just in case anyone is missing the point.] Look at that — what a stinker that was!

GC [chuckling]: But those were their traditional ugly uniforms. I mean, you have to admit, the late ’70s into the ’80s was the worst-ever era for baseball uniforms. Probably for fashion in general.

KH: The Padres had a terrible uniform. But I loved the Oakland A’s uniforms, with Charlie O. Finley. Ronnie [Darling] does not, our colleague.

GC: He didn’t like wearing the white shoes [when he played for the A’s late in his career]. But there was nothing worse than, say, the Chicago White Sox wearing shorts.

KH: Yes, and how about the Pirates in those bumblebee uniforms.

GC: But the Pirates had those interchangeable ones. They had the black, the gold, and the pinstripes, and they’d wear them in various combinations.

KH: They were awful, awful. Awful.

GC: Now, everybody today is wearing pink because it’s Mother’s Day. [Camera shows a shot of Cohen, who’s wearing a pink tie, and Hernandez, dressed in a pink shirt.] Maybe a team needs to go to an alternate pink uniform.

KH: Well, we’ve got to expand to more teams. Commissioner, we need one more team, and we’ll be in pink.

GC: I don’t think you really want that.

KH [about to get seriously stupid]: Why?

GC [alertly heading him off]: And then, of course — and you were part of this, too — you had the powder blue road uniforms, which you wore with th–

KH [interjecting]: I liked the powder blue with the Cardinals!

GC: Yeah?

KH: I have my powder blue at home, as a matter of fact. I have that uniform. Um, in 1980, the year Whitey Herzog took over the team — Ken Boyer was fired mid-season — that was when — you’re talking about the Mets not having the number on the lower side? The Cardinals that year took that number away, below the cardinal, and put it on our shoulder. [Actually, that was made a year earlier, in 1979, which you’d think Hernandez would remember — it’s the year he won the MVP award.] And the fans didn’t like it at all, so they went back to the traditional Cardinal uniform. Actually, the Cardinals — I think it was in the ’40s — one year they went to a uniform without the bird on the bat. [1956, actually.] And the fans went through the roof! And they came back the next year with the birds on the bat, which I think is just a classic uniform. As a minor leaguer coming up in the Cardinals organization, you were taught to have great pride in those two birds perched on the bat.

GC: Did they have names?

KH: No.

GC: Don’t you think they should, after all these years?

KH: Dizzy and Daffy?

GC: That’d be perfect. Gus and Gussie.

And then the discussion turned to, you know, things that were actually taking place on the field. All in all, not a bad discussion, and I give Hernandez credit for knowing that the Cards went birds/bat-less for one season. What’s more troubling is that nobody connected with the Mets — nobody — ever acknowledges the evil of the black drop shadows. The road and pinstripe uniforms are routinely referred to as “classic,” when in fact they’re bastardized versions of the originals. Pfeh.

Raffle News: Remember, I’m raffling off a free football helmet from Helmet Hut. To enter, send an e-mail here (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm tomorrow. One entry per person. But contrary to what I originally announced, enrollees in the membership program will get the customary three bonus entries per member (don’t send three extra e-mails — I’ll automatically put your name in the hat three extra times). My thanks to the several readers who argued, persuasively, that it was unfair to remove the raffle benefit. From now on, the extra raffle entries will be restored as a standard membership benefit.

Uni Watch Extra-Curricular Schedule: NYC-area readers may want to mark their calendars for May 29th, when I’ll be participating in an evening of readings at KGB Bar in the East Village. The theme is “Design and Food” (the latest in a bi-monthly series of design-related readings sponsored by the School of Visual Arts — past installments have included “Design and Evil” and “Design and Music”), and my presentation will focus on the design evolution of the butchery chart, a subject near and dear to my heart stomach.

One of the other readers will be the design critic Akiko Busch, who I’m told will be reading a piece she wrote about a vegetable peeler (wish I’d thought of that). And the third reader — not yet confirmed but I’m told he’ll probably be on board — is a genuine titan of the graphic design world, Milton Glaser! If you’re a design geek, like I am, you can imagine how stoked I am to be sharing a bill with him. Very cool.

The event will run from 7pm-9pm, and it’s free. Hope to see some of you there.

And then a week after that, on June 5th, the Camden Riversharks will be running their “Old-Time Baseball Night” promotion. The entire team will be wearing striped stirrups (I picked them out for the team myself just last week), and I’ll be throwing out the first pitch, plus there’ll be a special pregame gathering for Uni Watch readers. And all Uni Watch readers will be able to buy box seats (normally priced from $11 to $20) for $8 apiece.

Here’s how to take advantage of the discounted ticket price:

• First, go to this link. You’ll see the Riversharks’ May schedule.

• Then use the drop-down menu to choose “June 2008.” Once you’ve done that, click on the June 5th game. And then click on “Let me pick my seats from a seating chart.” You should then see a diagram of the Sharks’ stadium.

• See the teal seats right behind home plate, and the yellow seats extending down the baselines? All of those seats are available for the $8 price. Just click on the section you want and choose your tickets from the resulting “Eligible for Sale” seat listing.

• When you select your seats and click “Add to Cart,” the screen will initially show the regular ticket price. But when checking out, enter the promotional code “stirrups” in the appropriate field, and you’ll get the special $8 Uni Watch price. Whoo-hoo!

Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out Nick Swisher’s underbill inscription — it refers to his nickname, Dirty 30. … Speaking of underbills, many readers have noted that Bronson Arroyo is still using a gray model. … Bill Curran sent along some non-sports logos that probably should’ve gone back to the drawing board — look here, here, here, and here. … Follow-up on Thursday’s entry: Good info on silver-bar umpire masks here (with thanks to Neal Greenberg). … Nice little item on stirrups in the New York Times, complete with a photo-linked shout-out to yours truly (although I had nothing to do with he piece). … Here’s a new one: Several readers have noted that John Maine appeared to have his ears tucked into his cap the other day. … I haven’t been paying attention to the NBA playoffs, so I don’t know why Chris Paul has “Brian!” written on his sneakers, but I assume most of you do (photo courtesy of Chris Flinn). … Latest Shorpy gem: Check out those jackets being worn by the 1914 Philadelphia A’s (with thanks to Bob Andrews). … Honda F1 driver Rubens Barrichello had a special helmet design and car paint job for his 257th start on Sunday, which is the record for starts by an F1 driver (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Interesting discussion here about lacrosse officiating uniforms. … Good breakdown of Euro 2008 road kits here (with thanks to Max Rosenthal). … Creative use of baseball gloves here (blame Ryan Gray). … Interesting sleeve-patch dispatch from Jeff Barak, who writes: “Several sources, including Bill Henderson’s CD, list the Twins’ 25th-anniversary patch as having been worn in the 1985 season, probably because it has ‘1961-1985′ right on it. But I think it was actually worn in 1986. Here are some things to back that up: First is a game-worn 1986 jersey with the 25th-anniversary patch on it. Here’s another 1986 gamer, also with the patch. Next up is a 1985 Kent Hrbek jersey without the patch. And here’s a 1986 team-issued card set that features the same logo as the one on the patch.” … In sports, as in life, it’s important to not lose your head (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … “I was flipping through channels the other day and saw the German Bundesliga game between Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “Wolfsburg player Marcelinho dyed the Wolfsburg logo into his hair (here’s a closer view).” On other occasions, he’s dyed his hair red and Belgian-themed (which was a mistake — he wanted it to be German-themed but got the colors wrong). … Yikes. … “Looks like Nate Burleson is using those titanium elbow sleeves, popular among baseball players, as calf warmers,” notes Jonathon Binet). … Just what the world needs: a Gillette-sponsored zamboni, as seen in Boston (with thanks to William Sodeman). … Last Thursday I linked to this photo Randy Johnson wearing No. 34 in 1993 but didn’t explain why he briefly wore that number instead of his usual No. 51. The reason, as noted in this story, is that he wore 34 for his final start of the ’93 season as a tribute to Nolan Ryan, who’d suffered a career-ending injury a few days earlier (nice find by Matthew Buscemi). … If he hadn’t already been banned for other reasons, I’d say Pete Rose should be banned for having worn a mesh-backed cap (with thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … Mark Mihalik notes that Kaz Matsui has some seriously padded baserunning gloves. “They’re basically this batting gloves with some crazy padding (similar to soccer goalie gloves) added to the palm and fingers, and they seem to slip over his normal batting gloves,” he writes. “I’m guessing that the first base coach keeps them handy until Kaz reaches base.” … Lots of good observations from Mike Engle: an undertongue-inscriped uni number; Albert Belle’s “50-50″ batting glove vanity strap (presumably added after his 1995 season of 50 homers and 50 doubles); and Tony Parker’s “VII VII VII” ring finger tattoo (he was married on 7/7/07). … Douglas Mulliken notes that the “LA” cap logo in this photo appears to have been raised/3-D/etc., way back in 1977. Was this a common thing back then? I thought the raised cap logos didn’t start showing up until the 1990s. … Giants rookie Kenny Phillips is wearing No. 21 as a tribute to Sean Taylor (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Jay Winkler notes that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car has a throwback Mountain Dew logo. … Several readers noted that yesterday’s rain delay gave WGN an excuse to broadcast footage from Jim Maloney’s 1965 no-hitter, which provided excellent views of the Reds’ subscript NOBs. For those unfamiliar with this style, additional examples are shown on this page (click on the Nuxhall and Rose thumbnails). It’s also worth noting that reader Ryan Whitacre used this style as the basis of his membership card. … “I’ve never seen an E for a baseball player number,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “Hopefully it meant he was an everyday player, not an error on every play. The picture, which is from 1949, is of Hiroshi Ohshita, who played for the Tokyu Flyers at the time. … Also from Jeremy: Golfer Miho Koga has problems with pollen and has been wearing a mask on the course. … Still more from Jeremy: Marco Andretti’s car is being sponsored by the new Indiana Jones film, so they’ve designed a new driving suit for him. … And one more: “In 2005, Japan’s Environmental ministry promoted its ‘Team Minus 6%’ Global Warming Campaign, which led to a promotional jersey with minus-6 as a uniform number.” … Goaltender observation from Jim Neilly: “Marty Turco has been wearing two goalie helmets throughout the playoffs; a black helmet at home and a white one on the road. I can’t recall any goalie doing this before. What’s more interesting is that at some point this season he wore the black helmet with the white road sweater. So did he begin this helmet-swapping just for the postseason? Have any other goalies done this before?”

A few years ago, NASCAR mandated a helmet law — every pit crewman who goes over the wall needs a brain bucket. Trouble is, everyone’s favorite governing body didn’t say what kind of helmet. Just, “wear a helmet.”

Kevin Harvick’s team is currently sporting a BMX/skateboard-style lid. Interesting choice. I think I’d opt for something with a little more protection, though. Something like this, maybe (I’d keep the shark, of course). This would be good, though I worry about visibility, and I think some of the Giants wore this one last year. And let’s not even get into this one.

Ultimately, though, all of the helmets in the world won’t help if Danica Patrick decides to take you out at the knees. Easy joke? Sure. But it’s Sunday morning. And that’s how things are sometimes.

Be nice to your moms today — and wear pink from head to toe! — Bryan

Former Oregon track and field coach — and Nike co-founder — Bill Bowerman spent a good deal of his time away from the track making shoes. Until Nike existed in its infancy (and for a time afterward), many Oregon runners had custom-cobbled spikes made by Bowerman.

So when Barack Obama hits the campaign trail in Oregon and shows up at the Oregon Twilight track meet on Friday night, you’d think maybe he’d change shoes. Nah — just line up and head for the hurdles. To be completely fair, he did hit a taco place for lunch, a software company after that, and at least one town hall meeting before heading to Hayward Field. But still … can’t find the guy some track-appropriate kicks anywhere? (Bonus points, though, for getting over a hurdle in any fashion. Even thinking about it would kill McCain, and I don’t even want to think about Clinton trying it.)

But here is where the photographic gold is mined. I would be willing to bet this is the only time Paul would be OK with the use of this particular jersey. Because it’s kinda cool.

Interesting side note: Until Bowerman started making shoes for his athletes, Adidas was the preferred brand for the team. Asics were worn perhaps more frequently — because they were cheaper — but Adidas shoes got most of the race duties. but they were expensive and hard to secure in large numbers. And so Bowerman took his wife’s waffle iron and a rubber mixture and headed to the garage … you know the rest. — Bryan

Remember back in March when I said there’d occasionally be days with no content, no commenting, no nothing? Today is one of those days. Go back to sleep, get back to work, go play outside, etc., etc. Bryan will be here on the weekend, as usual, and I’ll be back on Monday.

In recent years, home plate umpires’ masks have been soild black — the padding, the bars, the stripes, everything.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed a change: Some umps’ masks have silver bars, and other have tan padding — sometimes just on top (although I think the upper padding is actually being covered by a plastic visor insert there, so it’s hard to be sure), sometimes just the inner padding, sometimes all over). It’s a small thing, but it’s really jumped out at me during some centerfield camera shots — the ump’s head is suddenly much more visually prominent.

If you google “umpire’s mask,” most of these design options show up, as seen here, here, here, here, and here. But none of those have the colored bars. (Of course, several umps prefer the hockey-style mask, but that’s a whole different discussion.)

I know several of you out there are umpires. Care to enlighten us regarding this development? Have colored bars and padding been available on the sub-MLB level for a while now? Did color-accessorized masks actually surface in MLB prior to now and I just hadn’t noticed?

Request for Technical Assistance: I’ve been using iShowU to make video captures (works great!) but have been having trouble transferring the resulting video clips to YouTube. The initial upload goes fine, but then, after the video is processed, I usually get a “Failed” message (except for two instance when the processing was successful, but I’ve been unable to duplicate those results). Same thing happens with Google Video. I think it has to do with the compression, but I’ve tried several different formats (Apple Intermediate Codec, Sorensen Video 3, Jpeg 2000, etc.) — no dice. If anyone knows more about this and wants to give me some free advice, I’m all ears.

May Raffle: It isn’t football season, but that hasn’t stopped our friends at Helmet Hut from generously offering up an giveaway item from their vast inventory. The lucky raffle winner will get to choose any non-autographed helmet from Gridiron Memories (Helmet Hut’s retail arm) — NFL, NCAA, WFL, whatever.

To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle [at] earthlink [dot] net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by next Tuesday, May 13th, at 10pm. Nobody will be reading the text of these e-mails, so bother to include anything other than your name. Only one entry per person, and please don’t try double-entering from multiple e-mail addresses or anything like that — there’s nothing lamer than cheating on a free raffle, and we’ll probably figure it out anyway. I’m no longer using raffles as a way to build memberships, so no more bonus entries for membership program enrollees.

I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday.

Speaking of the membership program, today’s spotlight member is Conor Clougherty, who hopes to become an NFL ref one day. Sharp-memoried readers may recall that I interviewed Conor last year about officiating attire. For those who missed it, that entry is available here.

You can see other new card designs, as always, in the membership card design gallery. Also, as I promised/threatened a week or two ago, I’ve updated the membership roster — no more “Membership Level” column, and charter members now have their names shown in bold (if I missed anyone, please let me know).

Uni Watch News Ticker: Intern emeritus Vince Grzegorek stopped by Uni Watch HQ last night — our first face-to-face meeting after a year and a half of me exploiting him working together. Scott M.X. Turner showed up too, although he pulled the cold shoulder routine when Vince failed to guess the exact fiber content of his jacket. … Great story here about a jersey worn by two future Hall of Famers (with thanks to Joey Morris). … “I saw this the other day on my way to work,” writes Eric Westover. “I didn’t know Nike made trucks.” … Here’s an updated listing of special MLB jersey dates (some of which, as you can see, have already happened), courtesy of our friends at Jersey-Joe.com (who are selling many of the special jerseys here)… You might know that author Tom Wolfe is partial to white suits, but I didn’t know that he also favors vertically striped socks until I got this shot from Craig Freeman. … Awesome gallery of old Federal League hockey logos here (with thanks to Andy Head). … The Blackhawks recently announced a new radio deal, which led — of course — to a jersey photo op. … Greg Riffenburgh notes that there’s an odd sleeve seam (or extension..?) on Willie McGinest’s jersey. … Here’s something I haven’t seen before: Kenji Johjima appears to be wearing a Mariners logo on the brim of his catcher’s helmet (with thanks to Andrew Thomason). … Chris Glover reports that Brian Barton of the Cardinals gave the first baseman a whuppin’ had to change belts while running the bases last night. … “The Nippon Ham Fighters are going to wear special uniforms in July for the ‘We Love Hokkaido Series,’” reports Jeremy Brahm. … According to the “Miscellaneous Items of Interest” listing at the bottom of this page, Randy Johnson wore No. 34 for part of the 1993 season. I’d never seen a photo of that until Doug Kyed sent me this.

Last month I ran an entry about Michael Princip and his clear-shell helmet tribute to Joe Washington. That piece was of particular interest to reader Jeff Fedenko, who wrote in to let me know that he has a big collection of clear-shells. Even better, Jeff lives in Brooklyn, just a few miles from my apartment, so a few weeks ago I went over to his place, where he and his daughters (that’s Micah on the left and Taitu on the right) welcomed me for a very enlightening evening of football helmet show-and-tell.

Clear-shell helmets are painted and decaled from the inside. The original idea was that they wouldn’t need to be repainted so often, although they turned out to be susceptible to other problems, like scuffing and breakage. Jeff has collected lots of them (that’s just a sampling of his collection) and says he can spot them a mile away, although I found it difficult to get a photo that captures their visual distinctiveness. Jeff also creates his own custom helmets by stripping the paint off of old-clear shell models and then adding his own paint and decals. This one will be a Rice design, and he’s prepping this one for a UMich paint job.

Jeff, who works as a phys ed teacher in the New York City school system (and is also a big NBA jersey collector), also has a massive library of football-related books, magazines, and catalogs. I could spend hours poring over his stuff, and he’s invited me to do just that at a later date — an invitation I will certainly accept. For now, though, here’s a look at a few things I documented during last week’s visit:

• This book is a treasure trove of great photos (the caption reads, “Fur-bearing businessmen rom Oshkosh check their fuel supplies before entering City Stadium for the Championship Game”) and illustrations (here’s another). Here’s a rare shot of the Vikings’ seldom-seen purple pants, and check out all the different goalpost striping patterns here, here, and here. Also, a small mystery: Jeff grew up in Wisconsin but isn’t sure why the scoreboard at City Stadium (Lambeau’s predecessor) featured two feathers. Anyone know?

• Here’s another one of those padded-cown helmets (and a closer view). According to this catalog, MacGregor’s version was called the Absorblo.

• Here’s another MacGregor catalog, with a good explanation of the clear-shell product.

• I never found the helmet section of this catalog, because I got distracted along the way.

Major, major thanks to Jeff for graciously welcoming me into his home and sharing his wonderful collection with me. I think we’ll be featuring him again in the not-too-distant future.

Yo buddy, ya want a cheap watch?: I’ve got a couple of electronics-y items to sell — one old, one new, both functional. I could put them on Craigslist, but I want to give Uni Watch readers first crack at them. Here’s the inventory:

• Epson C120 ink-jet printer: Basic ink-jet printer. Mac- and Windows-compatible. Still in box, never opened (got it as a freebie for buying something else, but I have no need for it). Lists for $90, sells on Amazon for $40. Yours for $35 if you want to show up at my door and pick it up; if you want me to ship it, you’ll have to pay the freight (the box weighs 11 pounds). Oh, and in addition to the ink cartridges that come with the printer, I’ve got an extra black cartridge that fits this printer, so I’ll throw that in too.

• Apple eMac computer: Purchased in 2004, used heavily up until a few months ago, but still works fine (I just wanted to upgrade). This machine produced most of the material on this site, so think of it as the blogging equivalent of a game-used jersey (I’ll even autograph it if you want). … Specs: Mac OS 10.3.9; 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor; 512 MB memory; 40 GB hard drive; optical drive plays and burns CDs and DVDs but burns CDs only; MS Office 2004 and Photoshop Elements are installed, along with all the usual Mac stuff; does not have a wireless card; power cord, keyboard, and mouse included (duh). … Way too bulky and heavy for me to ship (I don’t feel like finding a box, wrestling with an acre of bubble wrap, etc.), so this one is a pickup-only deal — swing by Uni Watch HQ, slip a cool C-note into my hands, and it’s yours.

If you’re interested in either of these, please get in touch pronto.

Santana Update: No word yet from Russ Gompers regarding Johan Santana’s sleeve piping. Several readers have pointed out that lots of players have frayed piping (indeed, Steve Hicks notes that Prince Fielder was allowed to wear remarkably shoddy piping for a Sporting News cover shoot just a few weeks ago), but I’m not yet convinced that Santana’s piping was frayed — this looks like extra stitching to me, esp. on the right sleeve. Bryan found this and this look like fraying, but I’m not sold on that — I think they could be those little extra-embroidered spangle thingies. Still hoping Russ can provide us with the definitive word soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: “You’ve probably already seen this article about the VW ads on DC United jerseys,” writes Matthew Algeo (actually, no, I hadn’t). “It made me think of another soccer team that had ads on their jerseys: the Pennsylvania Stoners of the American Soccer League. Back in 1980, the Allentown-based team wore jerseys with the name of a local business on the front: Alpo, the dog-food maker. It made for a lot of bad jokes, which was ironic, because the Stoners were good — they won the ASL championship that year. The Stoners (love that name) were one of the first U.S. pro sports teams to do this. (I think the only one that did it before was that minor league hockey team in Buffalo that incorporated a Pepsi logo into their uniform design.) Also, I’d forgotten — or maybe never realized — that all the jerseys had ‘Stoners’ on the back, instead of player names.” … “I followed a link off of Shorpy that lead me to this vintage poster site,” writes John Ervin. “This