Royals Pitcher Can’t Take Any More, Sends Out Desperate Uni-Borne Distress Signal

Carl Keenan posted a comment yesterday about the American flag patches worn on MLB caps for Memorial Day. In case you missed it, he wrote: “During the 9th inning of the Royals/A’s game, Ambiorix Burgos came into the game to pitch for KC with his flag upside-down and on the back of the hat covering up the MLB logo, not on the left side like every other player’s.” I hadn’t seen this, so I looked at the game video. And sure enough, all the other Royals had the flag on the left side of the cap, but the left side of Burgos’s cap was blank, and he had an upside-down flag where the MLB logo would normally be.

Given all the other problems the Royals have, I don’t have heart to ask their P.R. staff about this. Plus I’m fairly certain they’d say it was simply a case of the flag patch falling off (they’re glued, not embroidered) and Burgos slapping it back on in the wrong place. That’s probably what happened, but considering the state of the team, we can’t dismiss the possibility that Burgos was sending out an S.O.S. signal. Then again, maybe it was just another case of the Royals’ legendary attention to detail.

And wait, it gets better: Steve Trachsel’s flag patch was perfectly fine in the 4th inning. But as he prepared to start the 5th, his flag had started to come loose. Eric Byrnes then hit Trachsel’s first pitch of the inning out of the yard, and he must have knocked the flag off his cap too, because Trachsel’s cap was flag-less as Byrnes circled the bases. (Thanks to Josh Hirsch for the tip.)

Meanwhile, our ongoing discussion of catchers getting their fingernails painted white drew this completely brilliant response from Andy Head: “One player who immediately jumped to mind was Kurt Suzuki, who caught for the Cal State Fullerton team that won the College World Series in 2004. He not only painted the nails, but ran stripes up the center of each finger, so it almost looked like he was dressing up as a skeleton for Halloween. Suzuki’s in the A’s organization now, playing for their AA team, the Midland RockHounds, but I couldn’t find any photographic evidence to confirm whether he still does this.”

Uni Watch News Ticker: Interesting note from Scott Merzbach, who writes: “The New Haven County Cutters of the independent Can-Am have unusual uniform numbers — they aren’t on the same plane. Players who wear double-digit numbers have the left numeral set above the right numeral.” Anyone ever seen anything like this before? Closest thing I can think of are the unequally sized numerals worn by the Quad Cities Swing (or maybe the fractional uni number famously worn by Eddie Gaedel). … Yesterday I wrote about Chad Cordero’s “Chief”-inscribed underbrim. But he’s not the only one with a message lurking beneath his visor — check out Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson. … Latest case of striped hose (good) being rendered in purple (bad): James Madison’s baseball team (thanks to Patrick Reed). … I’m not paying attention yet to the French Open, but Alisa Carrigan is. She writes: “Right before the Martina Hingis/Lisa Raymond match, the chair umpire sent Hingis off the court for a moment. Hingis came back, grabbed a pair of scissors, and left again. The commentators were guessing that she had been told to cut off one of her sponsor patches, but (apparently) I wasn’t watching closely enough, as I hadn’t noticed anything terribly egregious before she was sent off. You’ve mentioned in the past that sponsor logos can’t be larger than 4 square inches — are there any other tennis rules and regulations that might have come into play here?” Not that I can think of. And I looked at a lot of photos from Hingis’s match but couldn’t find anything amiss. … More French Open observations from Carrigan: “I noticed that all the Adidas-sponsored players are still wearing the triple-stripe [recently the subject of litigation]. Justine Henin-Hardenne even wore long sleeves, making her stripes extra visible.” This dispute is so annoying, it’s enough to make you wish Serena was playing. … No new team name — and, therefore, no new uniforms — for the Devil Rays next season. I happen to like their current design (look the color theme of this web site and you’ll understand why), so that’s jake with me. … Anyone else notice that Greg Maddux appears to wear no undershirt in warm weather? … Our recent discussion of players who wear necklaces might need some serious updating now that highly touted Mets prospect Lastings Milledge has made his MLB debut. … Latest team to have their pinstripe pattern ruined by the gussets in the new Cool Base jerseys: the Phillies. … With Ricky Williams now washing dishes in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts, Mike Sherman points out that the Argos have a proud history of serious sleeve stripe-age. … Jeremy Brahm notes that Hungary’s goaltender appeared to be wearing sweatpants during yesterday’s England/Hungary friendly match. What gives?

72 comments May 31st, 2006

Nail Salon Chain Plans Licensing Deal with MLB

A few days ago I posted photos of Johnny Estrada with his fingernails painted white, to make his signals easier for the pitcher to see. Reader Howard Corday then posted the following comment: “This weekend, Toby Hall of the D-Rays actually got his fingernails painted white on the mound. They brought out what looked like a bottle of Wite-Out and painted each nail in his right hand.” That got me curious, so I poked around in some recent game video and found the incident in question, which took during a mound conference on May 26. Third baseman Aubrey Huff applied the Wite-Out right there on the mound, with clearly visible results.

This is the part where I say, “What’s next, pedicures?”

Uni Watch News Ticker: Last Thursday I wrote about MLB’s new hot-weather Cool Base jerseys, which are mesh instead of double-knit and are supposedly indistinguishable from regular jerseys. Not so fast — turns out the Cool Bases have stretch gussets that look bad enough on a white jersey and even worse on a pinstriped model, as was painfully evident during yesterday’s Cubs game (thanks to David Schmitt for that last photo). … Most MLB players wore American flag cap patches yesterday, in honor of Memorial Day, although a few players were flag-free (nothing as bizarre as Miguel Tejada’s upside-down flag from last year, though). The umpires had flag patches too, which I think might be a new thing — anyone remember if the umps have been flag-clad in past seasons? Another thing that I’m pretty sure hasn’t happened before: The Padres celebrated the holiday by wearing their camouflage outfits, which they normally wear only for one game in April. … Lots of additional info here about Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond’s throwback catcher’s helmets (thanks to Steven Lobejko). … Speaking of catcher’s helmets: Amidst all the fuss about Frank Robinson replacing Matthew LeCroy with Robert Fick in the middle of an inning on May 25, most observers failed to note that Fick wore his helmet with the brim facing forward. This makes him the latest addition to our small fraternity of front-brimmed backstops (the other members of which are, of course, Jason Phillips, Kevin Cash, and Adam Melhuse). … Several readers have asked what Chad Cordero has written on the underside of his exceedingly flat brim. The answer: “Chief,” a nickname that was bestowed upon him by a college teammate. … More logo creep in college baseball (courtesy of David Schmitt): Check out the UnderArmour-branded socks being worn by USF and Pepperdine. … Wondering why the number on Hanley Ramirez’s helmet didn’t match his uni number on Sunday? OK, so you probably weren’t, but here’s the story anyway: As Ramirez was leading off the game, he discovered his helmet was cracked, so he ran back to the dugout and used Alfredo Amezaga’s helmet instead. … At some point we’ll make all sorts of Uni Watch merchandise available on this site. For now, though, there are still a few XXL T-shirts left from the Uni Watch party back in March, featuring this design. Sorry, all other sizes are sold out — XXL is all that’s available. Interested? Get in touch.

65 comments May 30th, 2006

“A” Hole: First Letter of Alphabet Goes on Strike

The letter “A” appears to be engaging in a labor action against MLB helmets. First, as reported here last week, it was Ervin Santana who wore an “A”-less lid; now it’s Braves catcher Brayan Peña, whose helmet was blank when when he batted in the 9th inning of Saturday’s game against the Cubs. Oddly, Peña’s “A” was fully present and accounted for earlier in the game. Keep your eye on A’s and Diamondbacks games to see where this wildcat strike turns up next.

Manicure Corner: Coupla days ago I asked if anyone had photos of Ramon Hernandez with his fingernails painted white (so the pitchers could see the signs better). Nobody’s come up with pics of Hernandez, but Erica Davis sent along this 2005 photo of the same phenomenon being exhibited by Johnny Estrada. “I don’t know if he’s kept up this practice while with the Diamondbacks,” she writes. Some quick photo research reveals, sure enough, he has.

21 comments May 28th, 2006

Nike in High-Level Negotiations to Stencil Swoosh on Michigan Capitol Dome

Okay, so I wasn’t planning to post anything this weekend, but some amazing stuff has come in, beginning with a Logo Creep Alert from reader Jeremy Whiting, who’s noticed that the University of Michigan baseball team may have set the record for the most swooshes per athlete: two on each shoe and one each on the helmet, the jersey, the back of the pants, the back of the cap, the undershirt collar, and — get this — the belt (one guy even appears to have gone out of his way to make sure his belt swoosh is exposed, instead of being hidden behind a belt loop). And check out the catcher’s chest protector, which is double-swooshed. As you can see in the photo shown at right, not even the bat boy is safe. His T-shirt kinda says it all, no? Maybe they should just make that the team’s jersey and get it over with.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Pitchers continue to run afoul of MLB’s ban on Nike’s dot-patterned undershirts. On May 23, Jeff Nelson of the White Sox made his season debut wearing black sleeves with silver spots (it’s hard to see, but you can sort of get an idea here) and was told by ump Jim Joyce that the undershirt would have to go. So he went down into the clubhouse (another really crummy screen-grab, sorry) and re-emerged a few minutes later wearing proper sleeves (thanks to Steve Johnston for for the tip). Then on Friday night, Pedro Martinez pitched the first inning of the Mets/Marlins game wearing dot-patterned black sleeves and was then confronted by ump Bill Miller as he walked off the mound. When he came out for the bottom of the second inning, the offending portions of his sleeves had been snipped away. … Further evidence, as if you needed any, that pro athletes aren’t exactly brain surgeons: When Carlos Beltran struck out to end the game on May 25, he wasn’t wearing his batting gloves. According to a report in Newsday (kindly forwarded by Dan Herr), Beltan “hit without batting gloves, possibly for the first time in his career, because he broke the strap on one of them in the on-deck circle and decided to quickly toss aside the other.” Yeah, there’s a bright move — crucial situation, game on the line, so go up there without your gear. Would someone please explain to Beltran that he won’t be called for delay of game if he goes back to the dugout for another pair of gloves? … A week or so ago I mentioned how NFL officials wear uni numbers, plus small letters designating their position (as opposed to NCAA officials, who just wear big letters). But Doug Brei points out that NFL crews used to wear position-specific nameplates back in the early 1980s, an experiment that was, thankfully, short-lived. … Always a nice touch to see a catcher wearing white tape on his fingers, so the pitcher can see the signs better (although not as cool as when Ramon Hernandez painted his fingernails white a few years back — anyone got a photo of that?). … Major pants damage on Aaron Hill Friday night. … I’ve written before about unbuckled belts in the NFL (there’s a whole column devoted to that topic here), but it’s rare that you see a loose or untucked belt flap on the baseball diamond, as Jeff Francis was exhibiting on Friday night. Think he’ll get a call from Nike about putting that exposed leather to logo-intensive use?

81 comments May 27th, 2006

Hard Hat Zone

Everyone knows John Olerud used to wear a helmet while playing the field, and so have a few other MLB players over the years. But check out this shot of a 1973 Clemson University game — the pitcher’s wearing a helmet! Dan Snider, who sent me the photo, explains: “They were in the process of building what is now the Athletic Department building (the Jervey Athletic Center), so the entire team wore helmets that year in case of falling debris from the construction.”

Helmeted pitchers are rare but not unheard of. When Pirates GM Branch Rickey introduced helmets in 1953, he envisioned them replacing caps altogether, so he coated the fiberglass lids with wool flocking to simulate the look of a cloth cap and had his players wear them in the field — even pitchers. That experiment didn’t last long. More recently, though, college pitcher John Fortenberry, who lost an eye after being struck by a batted ball, has worn a helmet and cage-style mask.

And then of course there’s Tom Glavine…..

Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of pitchers and helmets, Reds pitcher Elizardo Ramirez bats right-handed, but he stepped up to the plate on Tuesday night wearing a left-handed helmet (i.e., with the earflap on the wrong side). The ump brought this to his attention, so he walked over to the dugout to get a proper helmet — but the new one was also left-handed, forcing him to return to the dugout yet again. Finally, he returned to the plate with his earflap where it belonged. The kicker: He singled on the next pitch (big thanks to Trace Tendick for the tip). … The “LA” patch on the Dodgers’ left sleeve has been missing from Kenny Lofton’s jersey in recent games (although it was there earlier in the season). … Last week I talked about the growing trend of athletes looking like comic book superheroes (the full discussion is toward the bottom of this entry). Latest case in point: Adam Melhuse’s catching gear. … Anyone who digs striped socks (not that I’d know anything about that myself) needs to see — or maybe enroll at — Pacific Lutheran University, a Division III school in Tacoma, Washington. … On the subject of the weird doohickey on Kenji Johjima’s catching helmet (apparently intended to help keep his mask’s strap in place — initial discussion here), Jay Greening checks in with this: “I don’t know who makes it, but I can vouch for its usefulness, in a roundabout way. I have quite a sizeable head (7-7/8, ‘roid-free), and when I caught in high school, given the shape and size of my helmet, the strap was slipping literally with every pitch. If I had to throw to 2nd or 3rd, the mask came off and went flying to my left. So I made a thin roll of athletic tape, about 3 inches long, then taped it to my lid. The strap went below the roll and held in place. As for why he didn’t wear it in Japan, didn’t his team have the raised logo on the helmet? [Sure enough, they did.] That could have served the same function.” … Still more mood indigo at Shea yesterday, as the Mets wore blue for an amazing fourth straight game. That streak will presumably end tonight, as the team goes on the road, where this is their official look.

I won’t be posting much, if at all, over the long weekend. Have a great holiday, and see you back here on Tuesday.

55 comments May 26th, 2006

If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Wear a Totally Bogus Synthetic Fabric

A few months ago, something called a “Cool Base” jersey began showing up in Major League Baseball’s online merchandise listings. According to the sales copy, “The 2006 season brings an innovative jersey to the playing field! The Cool Base jersey provides temperature control to keep the wearer cool, dry and comfortable. These jerseys feature authentic decorations and will be worn on-field during hot game days. They feature a technologically advanced fabric with stretch-mesh gussets for the ultimate in cool performance comfort.”

Leaving aside for a second the question of who actually got paid cash money for invoking the term “authentic decorations,” I’d forgotten all about these jerseys until last night, when I got an e-mail from someone who works for the Texas Rangers (and who prefers to remain anonymous): “Tonight our team wore new jerseys for the first time at home (they wore them once on this last road trip too, I believe). They are mesh, not double-knit. The mesh is basically the same as the batting practice jersey, except without the underarm ventilation. These jerseys are infinitely cooler in the Texas heat than the normal jerseys, and it is nearly impossible to tell the difference unless you’re up close.”

How pathetic is this? If it’s too hot, stick a frozen cabbage leaf under your cap, like that Korean pitcher from last season. I’ve always maintained that if I ever become a professional ballplayer — excuse me, when I become a profressional ballplayer — I’ll claim to have a skin allergy to polyester and insist on having a cotton uniform. (Yes, I know: Seinfeld, George Costanza, blah-blah-blah, let’s move on.) And there’s actually some precedent for this, although the allergy ran the other way around: When Ken Singleton joined the Expos in 1972, he suffered an allergic reaction to the team’s wool uniforms and had to be fitted with a double-knit polyester model, while his teammates continued to wear wool. The Expos eventually switched over to double-knits the following season, becoming one of the last teams to do so.

Meanwhile:

• Another none-too-balmy evening at Shea Stadium, another blue-capped, blue-sleeved game for the Mets. That makes three blue-clad games in a row — unprecedented in the team’s black-accessorized era! And keep in mind that the blue outfit includes blue socks, an important consideration now that the Mets have acquired Orlando Hernandez (who just went from the outhouse to the penthouse, uni-wise).

• Yesterday’s item about the apparent padding on Jay McKee’s skates brought this info from Markus Kamp: “That’s some form of ankle protection, helpful when blocking shots. There are a few on the market that look less taped-on than McKee’s.” (And as an aside, this discussion reminded Jeff Attkisson of the protective shoes he wears when umpiring behind the plate. The panel over the laces helps to protect against foul balls.)

• I collect old uniform catalogs, and here’s one from 1940 that I just won on eBay. Really more of a fold-out sales flier than a true catalog, but check out that amazing Spalding logo!

• New Uni Watch installment on ESPN today — look here.

52 comments May 25th, 2006

Uni Watch Exclusive: Someone Actually Watching NHL Playoffs!

Just when you’re thinking the world begins and ends with baseball, along comes a note from reader Mike Shanahan, who’s picked up on a hockey-related factoid. To wit: “The OLN broadcast crew had a close-up of Jay McKee’s skates during Tuesday night’s Sabres/Hurricanes game. They showed how he wears some kind of padding over his top laces and ankle. I don’t know what they said about it on TV, because I muted it in favor of Rick Jeanneret’s far superior radio call, but a friend told me they were speculating that he used them to reduce the sting of blocking so many shots. Looks like his teammate Toni Lydman wears something similar [here are the two of them together], but only on his right skate. I don’t know of anyone else wearing these pads, although Chris Pronger seems to have something fishy on the front of his skates.” Anyone know what these pads are, or who makes them?

Metscetera: Very promising developments in Flushing, where the Mets have been resplendent in their blue caps and blue sleeves for two consecutive games (Sunday and Tuesday), both of which were played on cool, brisk evenings. The significance there is that aesthetically challenged equipment manager Charlie Samuels, who has ruinously been entrusted with the task of deciding what the team wears each day, has previously said that he thinks the blue cap clashes with the club’s black dugout jacket, and has therefore idiotically refused to break out the blue gear except on very warm afternoons when he expects nobody to wear a jacket. The fact that the team’s worn blue on consecutive jacket-friendly evenings suggests that Samuels might finally be getting a clue, and not a moment too soon.

New ESPN column tomorrow, but I’ll still have a little something here as well.

68 comments May 24th, 2006

A New Tool — or Doohickey — of Ignorance

Kenji Johjima of the Mariners, like most catchers, wears his helmet backwards, but he often turns it around to face forward when congratulating a pitcher at the end of a game. Lots of other catchers do this too — nothing unusual about it. But something caught my eye when I saw this photo of Johjima at the end of Sunday’s Mariners/Padres game (here’s a larger view). What’s that little strip of plastic or rubber on the front — which is normally the back — of his helmet?

I nosed around a bit and found this. Apparently it’s designed to help keep the mask’s horizontal strap in place. Looks like Johjima’s been wearing it all season, even back in spring training. Johjima wears Nike gear, so maybe they’re the ones who came up with this (but he also wore Nike while playing in Japan and doesn’t appear to have worn the helmet attachment during those days). Or maybe the doohickey comes from Rawlings, which makes the helmet. Anyone know of any other catchers who wear this thing?

Speaking of catchers’ headwear: As longtime ESPN.com readers may recall, last year I tried to document as many instances as possible of catchers who wore brimless helmets, and came up with Duke Sims, Ron Hodges, Dave Valle, Bob Boone, Jim Sundberg, and Carlton Fisk (see the illustration at lower-right). Now Andrew Jobe has come up with another example: Ivan Rodriguez.

Getting back to Johjima, note that there’s no Mariners logo on his helmet. And that’s not the only logo-less helmet floating around out there: Alex Chiu points out that there was no Angels logo on Ervin Santana’s batting helmet last Sunday. Okay, so it was his first time batting, but if they managed to put his uni number on the back of the helmet, how come they couldn’t get the team logo on the front?

Correction: In Sunday’s entry, I wrote that the throwbacks recently worn by the Pirates and Indians were made by Majestic. But as I’ve now been duly apprised, they were actually made by AIS Uniforms, whose production coordinator, Steve Due, writes: “Those uniforms were cut from the patterns we made for the movie Babe. At present we’re knocking out period jerseys, warm-up suits, coaches’ shirts, etc. for the movie We Are Marshall. We also made everything for 61* and lots of other movies.” The company’s next MLB throwback project is a Negro Leagues tribute game between the Brewers and Nationals on June 2nd.

60 comments May 23rd, 2006