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Archive for June, 2006
Two Uni Watch readers recently took trips to Japan, and both of them made stops at the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, where they took lots of photos and made assorted observations. The first of these travelers was the intrepid Scott M.X. Turner (the man who designed the logo you see at the top of this page), whose report is as follows:
• “Made an interesting discovery at the Hall of Fame: Virtually every current Japanese team uses a different fabric [as you can see in these jersey photos of the Orix Buffaloes, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Nippon Ham Fighters, Soft Bank Hawks, Seibu Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines, Hanshin Tigers, Yakult Swallows, Yomiuri Giants, Chunichi Dragons, and Hiroshima Carp]. Compared to MLB, where everyone uses the same fabric, I found this pretty exceptional. Also, some of the teams wear different fabric for their jerseys and pants.”
• “The Nippon Ham Fighters’ road uniforms have an extra ‘O’ sewn under the placket, so if a player wears his jersey unbuttoned, he’s essentially switched teams to ‘NIPPOON HAM,’ which is just too good.” (As an aside, Uni Watch notes that the same thing happened last year to Zach Day of the Rockies.)
• “Tsuyoshi Shinjo is an absolute rock star in Japan — so much so that the scoreboard at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo (home of the Yakult Swallows) doesn’t mess with Kanji when listing his name on the scoreboard…they go straight to Romanji letters.”
Our other Japanese traveler was Ken Clark, who snapped some Hall of Fame pics of asymmetrical sleeves, old jerseys, and hosiery evolution (speaking of which, check out this shot, which appears to show toe-inclusive socks!). Clark also purchased this Yomiuri Giants yearbook and generously forwarded it to Uni Watch HQ, where it’s quickly become a favorite. Lots of interesting tidbits here, including the following:
• In addition to having stretch gussets, many of the Giants’ jerseys also appear to have little flap vents. Check out the additional views here, here, here, and here. Turns out a similar flap is visible in Scott Turner’s Hanshin Tigers photo.
• Most of the Giants have personalized undershirt collars, as you can see here, here, and here.
• Uni Watch, somewhat surprisingly, kinda likes these pant stripes.
• One of the Giants’ American players, Joe Dillon, wears MLB batting gloves.
Big thanks to Scott and Ken for this peek at baseball in the Far East.
Lederhosen Corner: Longtime Uni Watch pal Rob Walker, who writes the “Consumed” column for the New York Times Magazine (and also has an excellent blog, called Murketing), checks in with a bizarre tale of logo creep from the World Cup, where Dutch fans were recently forced to remove their pants, and therefore had to watch one of the matches in their underwear, because the pants carried the logo of a brewery that wasn’t an official FIFA sponsor. Yes, really. There’s a good audio report here.
June 20th, 2006
Uni-driven pandemonium at Shea Stadium yesterday, as Baltimore outfielder Ed Rogers’s jersey figured prominently in a key play. The follies began when David Wright hit a line drive to left, which Rogers short-hopped. But the ball, instead of bouncing off of Rogers’s glove or his chest, went up his left sleeve and then briefly lodged in the back of his jersey (you can see the bulge behind his neck here), where he pawed at it until it popped loose. Completely bizarre play.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball was doing its annual Father’s Day routine to boost awareness of prostate cancer, with most players wearing blue wristbands, blue chest ribbons, or both. Umpires got into the act, too. But Uni Watch didn’t spot anyone wearing blue eye-”black,” like in some years past. Also, after all the fuss about the pink bats that MLB rolled out to promote breast cancer awareness on Mother’s Day, Uni Watch is surprised there were no blue bats yesterday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: One of the nicest things about interleague play: the annual appearance of the Phillies’ blue-brimmed caps. … Nice cap prank pulled on Fernando Rodney yesterday. … Used to be that a catcher had just one mask, which he wore for all games. But more and more catchers now have separate masks for home games and road games. And nobody’s masks are more highly differentiated than Victor Martinez’s. Check it out: home vs. road. … Eagle-eyed Bill Blevins reports that A-Rod appears to be wearing vanity-branded batting gloves. … Blevins also notes that the jersey-as-Kleenex phenomenon has been taken to new, uh, heights by T.J. Beam, who struck this pose after striking out in his first MLB at-bat on Saturday. … A-Rod isn’t the only one with personalized gloves: Check out World Cup goalkeepers Kasey Keller of the U.S. and Jens Lehmann of Germany (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Good to see Mark Prior wearing his usual stirrups during his return to MLB action yesterday. … Most of the College World Series teams are wearing the CWS logo patch on the right sleeve, but Georgia Tech has it on the left chest area. Either way, it’s way too big. … Auburn’s new football unis, produced by UnderArmour, will look like this (with thanks to Shane Maddox). … More Japanese baseball observations from Jeremy Brahm, who notes that Bobby Valentine’s Chiba Lotte Marines are wearing a “2005 Asia Champions” patch on their caps, sleeves, and pretty much anyplace else they can think of. … Kris Rose reports that the University of Cincinnati is ditching Nike and switching to Adidas. … Here’s something you probably haven’t seen before: Winky Wright entered the ring on Saturday night wearing a suit, instead of a robe, for his fight against Jermain Taylor. … Interesting note from sportswriter Jon Rathbun, who checks in with the following report: “I was covering a New York Collegiate Baseball League (summer wood bat league) game on Saturday and saw something I’d never seen before. Nate Carter, the third baseman for the Bolivar A’s from the College of the Ozarks, had strange black marks on the back of his cap. I got a closer look while his team was batting and it almost looks like he’s been using the back of his hat to wipe off eye black after games.” … Uni Watch has an old iBook laptop for sale. Utterly obsolete by modern computing standards, but perfectly functional for basic word-processing, e-mailing, and such. Interested? Get in touch.
June 19th, 2006
Mets third baseman David Wright keeps a blog. Now, everyone knows that you don’t want to read a player’s writing — especially a player on your favorite team — because it’s just gonna confirm how stupid or boring he is (just like those little song samples that are now played when a player comes up to bat, which are the worst thing ever because they let us know just how bad each player’s taste in music is). So despite being a Mets fan, Uni Watch has never had the inclination to check out Wright’s prose.
But Clark Farrand has been reading through some of Wright’s archives, and he’s noticed that one of last month’s entries included some major uni-related musings. Check it out:
A few people have asked about the new helmets we’re wearing this season. I like them. I consider myself an old-school type of player, but I’ll try new things. The helmets are a little flashy and futuristic with the two-tone look. But they’re also light, so I’ve convinced myself that they allow me run faster and jump higher. If I seem a little more athletic this season, it’s because of the helmets.
It’s still a little cool in New York at this time of year [this entry was written on May 5th], but hopefully they’ll also keep me from overheating during the summer months coming up. I’ll keep you posted.
I’ve also gotten some questions asking why I’m wearing my pant legs down again. It’s simple: the last time I wore my pants up, we got beat, I made three errors, and didn’t get any hits. So I’ve decided to retire that look, at least for the time being.
The veterans on the team give me a hard time about it when I wear the pants up, anyway. Of course, they’ll give me a hard time about just about anything. I guess the general feeling is that the pants-up look is a high school or college type of style. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s a high value on looking and acting like a professional in this clubhouse.
Leaving aside Wright’s questionable notion of pants professionalism (not to mention the fact that one of the veterans razzing him about the high cuffs is presumably Cliff “I Untuck My Jersey Once the Game’s Over to Show How Fly I Am” Floyd), it’s interesting to hear that the high-pants look has somehow gone from being considered old-school to being youth-associated. If the kids these days are actually showing a lot of sock — and that seems to be the case in the College World Series — that could bode well for the next generation of big-leaguers (and for all of us who have to look at them). As long as “professionals” like Wright don’t talk them out of it, that is.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like the Rock’s new movie, Gridiron Gang, will be featuring some major UnderArmour logo creep. Check out the trailer here (with thanks to Mike Fleishman). … Uni Watch’s deepest sympathies go to anyone who had to watch yesterday’s Nationals/Rockies game, which scaled new heights in retina damage. … Ben Roethlisberger, as a result of his little motorcycle oopsie, will reportedly switch to a Riddell Revolution helmet next season, probably with a special facemask. Additional details here. … Jeremy Brahm reports that Hiroyuki Nakajima of the Seibu Lions is wearing pink batting gloves and wristbands, because it’s his lucky color. … Still more Japanese baseball news from Brahm: “On June 9th, Shogo Akada forgot his to wear his game uniform, which is normally No. 9. So he had to wear his base running coach’s uniform (yes they have base running coaches in Japan). He just happened to be the same size.” … Note to New York readers: Looks like there’s gonna be some sort of Uni Watch presence in this Sunday’s Daily News sports section.
June 16th, 2006
Uni Watch has written several times about the annoying stretch gussets in MLB’s new Cool Base jerseys. But that’s nothing compared to the black underarm gussets being showcased by Georgia in the College World Series. Like a horrific car wreck that you can’t stop staring at, the design is sort of addictively nauseating (or is it nauseatingly addictive?). And now that the Bulldogs have earned one of the final berths in the CWS, we’ll probably see more of it.
And who’s behind this stroke of design genius? Guess.
Speaking of the Georgia unis: Anyone else think it’s a little weird to see the same “G” logo from UGA’s football helmet appearing on the school’s baseball cap? It’s true that lots of schools do this (including another CWS team, Miami [which really needs to lose that pant-leg logo]), and cross-sport consistency is an admirable goal, but the Georgia “G” is different, because it was specifically conceived as a football logo — in fact, the rights to it are owned by the Green Bay Packers. So it’s odd to see it on a baseball cap.
Meanwhile, in another College World Series tidbit: What’s that logo on Rice’s rear belt loop (also visible here )?
Uni Watch Book Club: Reader Kevin Zdancewicz checks in with news of a new book that should be of interest to everyone reading this: Now Batting, Number… : The Mystique, Superstition, and Lore of Baseball’s Uniform Numbers, by Jack Looney. Uni Watch hasn’t yet procured a copy, but it looks v-e-r-y promising. Full report to follow soon.
Uni Watch News Ticker: In a major uni-related tragedy, the minor league Danbury Trashers — who had the coolest hockey logo ever — are now in limbo due to their owner’s mob-related racketeering indictment (he worked in “waste management,” just like Tony Soprano — hence the team’s name). … Good catch by James Huening, who writes: “I noticed during Saturday night’s Cubs/Reds game on that Aramis Ramirez didn’t have a left-sleeve patch like everyone else. It reminded me of 2003, when he first joined the Cubs and his blue alternate jersey had the National League patch on the left sleeve, instead of on the right. … Helmet Hut, the premiere source for vintage football helmet info and authentic reproductions, has come out with an awesome line of WFL helmets. … Great article here (you may have to register, but it’s free) about the Institute of Heraldry, which designs all the logos and seals for Federal agencies. … Some of the Twins wore flag cap patches last night, in honor of Flag Day. … Hosiery Alert!: Matt Dubroff notes that France’s Zinedine Zidane appears to be wearing stirrups. … Sick of the World Cup yet, or never cared to begin with? Although not safe for work (if your boss is around, don’t click), this uni gallery should rekindle your interest (with thanks to Ed Walsh).
June 15th, 2006
Time was when you could pretty much assume that both combatants in a big boxing match would be wearing Everlast gloves, which you could easily discern by the Everlast logo on the gloves’ cuffs (and note that fighters also wore cool striped socks back then). But those days are gone. In last Saturday’s Hopkins-Tarver bout, for example, Tarver wore Everlast gear but Hopkins wore Reyes, and the logos these days appear on the gloves themselves, not on the cuffs.
Uni Watch could go on at length here about various subtleties, such as the way tape on the cuffs led to the logo creep on the glove proper, the way Everlast increased the size of the cuff logo back in the 1950s when boxing became popular on television, and the whole sub-topic of glove colors, but that will have to wait for another day. For now, Uni Watch is happy to yield the floor to reader Mike Weippert, who recently provided a mini-treatise on this very topic. So:
Logo creep in boxing gloves has gotten a bit out of control lately. For instance, there’s this odd character, which debuted on Grant gloves several years ago. Prior to the logo’s advent, Grant gloves looked like this; when the new logo was introduced, the gloves initially looked like this, but now the logo has swollen and the word “Grant” has been dropped. Now, Grant gloves are some of the best in the business, a true puncher’s glove, but this hideous cartoon has completely taken over the glove.
Reyes gloves, another fixture of the fight game, have featured the “Hecho en Mexico” logo. More recently, though, the wording of the logo has changed to “Cleto Reyes Professional” (same design, just different slogan). If you look closely here, you can see Oscar De La Hoya wearing the new logo, and Ricardo Mayorga wearing the old one.
Then there are Winning gloves, a Japanese brand gaining popularity in the U.S., particularly on the West Coast, which have smaller but distinctive logos.
Of course, logo creep in boxing goes way beyond the gloves, from Larry Holmes wearing the Sasson jeans logo on his trunks to Bernard Hopkins wearing “GoldenPalace.com” on his back. And then there’s Julius Francis, who wore an ad for the British newspaper The Mirror on the soles of his shoes for his 2000 match against Mike Tyson. The Mirror’s brain trust figured Francis’s soles would get plenty of exposure — which turned out to be a prescient analysis.
June 14th, 2006
With the French Open finished and Wimbledon now just a few weeks away, the big news is that the tourney’s ballboys and ballgirls — who’ve previously worn green with unfortunate purple trim — will be getting a makeover when the tournament starts later this month. The full story came in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, whose content isn’t available online, so here are the pertinent bits:
For the past 30 years, the rule for on-court officials, including umpires, ballboys, and ballgirls, has been to wear green, to blend in with the finely trimmed grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. … [But this year they'll] sport Polo Ralph Lauren shorts, skirts, pants, and blazers in navy blue, with Wimbledon’s logo on the shirt sleeve and Polo’s pony on a breast pocket or shirt front. …
Wimbledon’s fashion awakening has been years in the making. Tournament organizers say they realized some time ago that the green-polyester blazers and beige pants for on-court officials were seriously behind the times [and let's not forget the purple ties]. The outfits were manufactured by Britain’s Wood Harris Ltd., a maker of uniforms for security guards and catering companies. …
Polo says its inspiration was Wimbledon attire from the 1930s and 1940s, when players wore white pants and jackets on court. Polo’s original idea was to dress linesmen [who in the past have also worn green] in white shirts. But Wimbledon officials vetoed it, fearing white shirts on a sunny day would distract players. Instead, linesmen will wear a blue-and-white pinstripe dress shirt with a white collar.
The best quote comes from Wimbledon marketing director Rob McCowen, who insisted that the deal had nothing to do with money and then said (apparently with a straight face) that his favorite thing about Polo is, “They don’t have big brand logos all over their shirts.”
Uh, right. McCowen might want to look at those drawings one more time. If he looks closely, in fact, he’ll see that Polo has actually annexed a bit of sartorial territory from him: The ballboys’ and ballgirls’ wristbands, which used to have the Wimbledon logo, are now slated to carry the Polo mark.
One thing Uni Watch hasn’t been able to confirm: net judge attire, either for this year or in the past. This photo suggests that net judges may have worn the same green jackets as everyone else, or maybe it was a darker jacket — tough to say for sure, considering how much colors can vary on the web. Anyone know more about this?
Meanwhile, moving from the court to the courtroom, it turns out that Adidas-sponsored players will be allowed to wear the company’s three-stripe design at Wimbledon, and it’s a fair bet that Nike and other companies will answer by increasing the size of the logo patches on their own sponsored players.
June 13th, 2006
Like Moses coming down from the mountaintop with the Ten Commandments, the NCAA periodically issues new rules and regulations, and they just came out with the latest set of pronouncements for college hoops. Three of them are uni-related — check it out:
Undergarments. (Rule 3-4.14, page 63) –Compression pants may not extend below the game pants. Shirt sleeves may not extend below the elbow. Rationale: This will eliminate the use of undergarments that extend to the ankle and long sleeves.
Arm Sleeves. (Rule 3-5.7, page 65) — Arm sleeves are illegal unless worn for medical purposes. Rationale: Sleeves are unnecessary and inappropriate equipment without permission from a trainer or physician.
Wristbands and Headbands. (Rule 3-5.15, 3-5.16, page 64) — Wristbands and headbands must be either the dominant color of the game jersey or white. The color shall be uniform for the entire team. Rationale: This eliminates the problem of finding headbands the same as the dominant color of the game jersey and requires team uniformity.
Uni Watch loves how the “rationales” all basically reduce to “Because we said so.” Anyway, the most notable thing is that there will be no more leggings, which isn’t exactly a bad thing.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Illinois’s new football unis will look like this. Looks an awful lot like last year’s Clemson design (or just looks awful), no?. … The trend of jersey nibbling (not to be confused with jersey Kleenex-ing) now appears to be spreading. Don’t these guys get enough meal money? … Nice contribution from Daniel Herr, who sends along this 1981 photo … check out the league’s 35th-anniversary patch on the shorts. … Speaking of NBA patches, the little flame on the end of the Heat’s home jersey insignia really does make the O’Brien Trophy patch look a little too close for comfort. … The Twins tried out a really bad idea on Saturday, pairing red caps with blue sleeves. … Two good observations from Jeremy Brahm: (1) “In the World Cup, it looks like the Netherlands will have flag patches on their uniforms for both themselves and their opponents,” as can be seen here in their match against Serbia and Montenegro. … (2) Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s latest stunt: checkered sweatbands. … Remember last year when David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were wearing each other’s wristbands, and then a few of the Yankees got into the act too? Looks like we’re in for more of that, as A-Rod was wearing Jorge Posada’s wristbands a few nights ago. … Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal is wearing an odd sleeve style in the World Cup — sorta looks like the sleeves have been slit up the sides.
June 12th, 2006
With the Belmont Stakes taking place tomorrow, Gretchen Atwood checked in a few days ago and asked if Uni Watch planned any coverage of New York State’s “odd rules for jockey silks.” When Uni Watch confessed a deep and abiding ignorance of the subject, Atwood pointed Uni Watch toward this page, which includes the following: “In most places there are no restrictions on how silks can look, but in New York, where the New York Jockey Club regulates colors, the rules are very stringent.”
The next stop was the New York Jockey Club’s silks registration page, which has a series of interesting links. This page lists some very basic rules; this PDF file shows the 52 jacket-design templates and 19 sleeve-design templates that are eligible for registration; and this PDF file is the silk-colors registration form, where applicants are supposed to draw their design onto an endearingly crude template. It’s all rather impressively geeky.
Uni Watch knows relatively little about the ponies, but there’s no denying that silks (which are actually made of nylon, not silk) look totally cool — the old ones, the current ones, even the illustrations of them. Check out this gallery — amazing stuff. Want a set of your own? These guys appear to have the goods. And if you want some good historical background, look here.
As for the Belmont, you can see the lineup of silks (and, yes, the horses too) here. Uni Watch is particularly intrigued by the designs being worn by the jockeys for Sacred Light, Bluegrass Cat, Deputy Glitters, and SunRiver.
Coming up any day now: Full Uni Watch coverage of greyhound silks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Good article here about Wisconsin high school softball unis, some of which are sleeveless (with thanks to Louis Mercer). … Dwyane Wade’s shorts fell down during last night’s NBA Finals game, revealing his super-padded compression shorts (screen-grab courtesy of Uni Watch webmaster John Ekdahl). … Speaking of the NBA: As is customary, the Mavericks are wearing a jersey patch of the Larry O’Brien Trophy on their upper right chest area. But the Heat are the one team that wears the NBA logo on that side, so they’re wearing the trophy patch on the other side.
June 9th, 2006
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