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Archive for July, 2006
Weird happenings involving Cubs second baseman Todd Walker during Friday’s Cubs/Cardinals game. He was wearing his usual No. 7 when he doubled in the bottom of the 4th, and he was also wearing No. 7 during the top of the 5th (that’s him in the lower-right corner of this shot — it’s tough to see, but trust me, that’s a 7 on his back). But he apparently changed his jersey during the bottom of the 5th, because he took the field at the start of the 6th inning wearing No. 13. When this was brought to his attention, the game was delayed while he went back into the clubhouse to switch jerseys. All of which led to some interesting chatter between Cardinals announcers Al Hrabosky and Dan McLaughlin:
Hrabosky: There’s a little delay, as Todd Walker — I’m not sure what happened, but they said something about Todd Walker wearing number 13. That’s [Neifi] Perez’s number. I don’t know if he accidentally put on the wrong uniform, but I saw him motioning, something about his jersey, came in, and took it off. [Walker emerges from the dugout and trots out onto the field.] Now he’s got number 7 on. That’s his number, number 7. Sometimes, y’know, your locker — I mean, your jersey maybe gets misplaced, and you change it midway through the game, and you put on the wrong one. I guess if you’re wearing lucky 7, 13 wouldn’t be very lucky.
McLaughlin [adopting patronizing mock-serious tone]: Now what would happen? Would that be a violation? Ejection?
Hrabosky: Well, I heard the announcement here in the press box, they said Walker was wearing number 13. You know, they took the numbers off — er, the names off. So if you weren’t paying attention and just saw the big “C” [Cubs logo] on the front…
McLaughlin [somewhat derisively]: I wouldn’t have known. I bet 40,000 others wouldn’t have realized it either.
Hrabosky: No. It happens a lot of times during batting practice. Guys’ll accidentally put on the wrong number and nobody tells ‘em. That happened to Chris Duncan the other day — he had on [Braden] Looper’s number. They were lockerin’ next to each other.
McLaughlin: I remember when we went to Philadelphia a couple of years ago, and on purpose the Cardinals wore J.D. Drew jerseys. It was J.D.’s first visit to Philly after rejecting their efforts to sign him, and of course he wound up in St. Louis.
Hrabosky: I saw a similar thing for Dick Allen’s first return to Connie Mack Stadium. During a rain delay, Leron Lee — Derrek Lee’s uncle — put on Dick Allen’s jersey, and a helmet and some glasses [Allen’s standard look, even when he wasn’t batting], and stood out there just to receive all the boos.
McLaughlin’s snide tone notwithstanding, this uni commentary could’ve been a lot worse. The same can’t be said, alas, for what was going on in the Cubs’ radio booth, where Walker’s jersey snafu led to an utterly surreal exchange between play-by-play man Pat Hughes and the perpetually befuddled Ron Santo:
Santo: So — oh, uh… Here’s what’s happened — oh, I see. They’re giving him a break, because — Walker wore the number 3, 13, jersey, and then had to come back out, change his jersey. Maybe give, uh, [Cubs pitcher Carlos] Marmol a little rest or something? I don’t know. I have no idea. He just came and, uh…
Hughes: Changed.
Santo: He’s changed. But I think, uh, the rules are you can’t change jerseys in the middle of a game. I just made that up.
Hughes: Made sense to me, Ron. I bought every bit of it. You, of course, wore number 10 your entire Cubs career.
Santo: Yup.
Hughes: Because at that time, when Ron was a young man, a lot of the women said, “Ronnie, you are a 10!” And he said to himself, “You know, that’s a pretty good number for me.”
Santo [giggling]: Well, I wore 29 in high school.
Hughes: Wow, you must have been good-looking!
Santo [laughing his head off]: I wore 29 as a quarterback, and 34 as a ballplayer. Can you imagine that?
Hughes: Now you’re 10. You’re just 10 to me, Ron.
Santo [regaining some semblance of composure]: Thanks, Patrick. And you have gone beyond, uh, my wildest dreams as far as being average. You are now above average.
Hughes: I’m above average?
Santo: You are above average. You look great today. The women out there in the stands are going, “Ooo-la-la!”
Hughes: First time I’ve ever heard that.
I know we’re all supposed to feel sorry for Santo, what with the diabetes and the amputations (insert pants/stirrups joke here), along with the Hall of Fame snub. But seriously, is there a bigger embarrassment on the airwaves than this guy? Has there ever been? Can’t even imagine what it must be like to have to listen to this hokum on a daily basis.
(Vertically arched thanks to Alex Seiver, who provided the two shots of Walker wearing No. 13.)
Pedro Update: As several readers have noted, sightings of Pedro Martinez wearing hiked-up pants began almost immediately after I sent him this check and this letter. That trend continued on Friday night, when Pedro made his first start in a month and, sure enough, was showing plenty of sock. No sign yet of the canceled check, however. Stay tuned.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Fans of Japanese baseball will definitely want to check out this link, which features video clips from the 1980s (with thanks to Jeremy Whiting) … According to this article (forwarded by Scott Tande), Johan Santana “draws smiley faces and balloons under the bill of his cap.” … In a related item, a trusted source with a National League team checks in with the following very disturbing news: “During spring training I hard from a New Era rep that everyone was going to black underbills for gamers next season, and BP caps and jerseys were changing. The new cap next year might be called ’slick fit’ — not sure about that, I heard it from the gift shop when I asked why their stock was so low.” If this turns out to be true, it could spell the end of the underbrim inscription as we know it. … As reported here last week, Juan Pierre’s been told to stop wearing his blue camouflage undershirt — and now appears to be going out of his way to demonstrate his compliance. … There’s a new member of the non-switch-hitting double-earflap club: Sin-Soo Choo, who had a cup of coffee earlier this season with the Mariners and is now playing in Cleveland. … The Lowell Spinners — a Red Sox minor league affiliate — honored Bosox third baseman Mike Lowell last Friday by renaming themselves the Mike Lowell Spinners for a day — just in time, coincidentally, for Keith Foulke’s rehab stint. … UCLA is changing the blue stripes and numerals on its road jersey from navy to powder blue, to match the school’s home jersey. Fans are already complaining about black outlining on the numerals, especially since there’s no corresponding outlining on the shoulder stripes. … Great video here about how Edgerrin James got the Cardinals to switch to black shoes. … Good observation by longtime Uni Watch contributor Ross Yoshida, who writes: “Check out this pic of David Cone. It appears that he’s wearing traditional stirrups OVER a 2-in-1 sewn-in faux stirrup sock! Talk about overkill.” … The 49ers are unretiring John Brodie’s No. 12 for Trent Dilfer — an odd move, since Dilfer isn’t even at top of the team’s QB depth chart.
July 31st, 2006
I’ve periodically mentioned when I’ve acquired new additions to my collection of old uniform catalogs, and several readers have asked to see more of them. So today we’ll take a little stroll through the stacks of the Uni Watch Library.
Some quick background: I generally prefer catalogs from the 1950s or older, for three primary reasons: (1) Uniform design was more interesting in those days; (2) catalog graphic design was more interesting in those days as well; and (3) the older catalogs are more likely to include fabric swatches, which makes the catalog much more appealing. I do have some pieces from the 1960s and ’70s, but those are more the exception than the rule.
As for other preferences, by now you all know what I like: stripes, socks, functional specificity. With that in mind, so here’s a quick rundown of my favorite catalogs from my collection, running from oldest to most recent:
• Sears, Roebuck catalog, 1911, 5.25″ x 7.5″, 36 pages. This is the oldest uniform catalog in my library, and was also the most expensive. How much did it cost? Too much. Then again, considering all the fabric swatches (including a few pinstripes) and cool illustrations (some of them in color), I have no buyer’s remorse.
• Iver Johnson catalog, circa early-1910s, 10.25″ x 7″ (oblong), 12 pages. The only oblong catalog in my collection. Just a dozen pages, but they all have swatches! I especially love the little “Special Discount Price” note, which somebody hand-stamped onto each page and then hand-annotated in addition — a great touch. The whole thing is kinda fragile and falling apart, so I try to handle this one as little as possible.
• Freeplay catalog, 1925, 6″ x 9.25″, 20 pages. At first glance, this doesn’t look like much — boring cover, black-and-white throughout, ho-hum layouts, no swatches. But little treasures are lurking throughout, like the amazing “Girls’ Basket Ball Pants” spread and the note that the youth unis are “For Little Fellows.” Better yet, this catalog came with a mimeographed cover letter, a swatch and braiding sample sheet, and a prepaid reply card. A cornucopia of riches!
• Rawlings catalog, 1932, 7″ x 10.25″, 8 pages. A guy I know at Rawlings found a bunch of old uni catalogs in a closet and made a killing selling them on eBay. Fortunately, he offered a few of them to me first. This was the oldest one, dating to 1932, with a great mix of swatches and illustrations. Dig how those second and third colors really pop off the page!
• Rawlings catalog, 1940, 5.5″ x 8.75″, 8 pages. Eight years later, Rawlings had moved to a smaller trim size with fewer swatches and no illustrations. Unspectacular, but still worthwhile due to the lettering and hosiery pages.
• Spalding softball catalog, 1940, 20″ x 27″, two-sided fold-out poster. It’s hard to show the full scope of this one, because it’s too big to scan, but this shot at least gives you some idea of how beautiful it is. And check out that amazing logo — is that a classic or what? Unfortunately, all the fold creases are tearing, so I’m thinking about getting this one mounted and framed.
• MacGregor catalog, circa late 1950s, 7″ x 10″, 28 pages. No swatches but still one of my favorites, thanks to the sci-fi-ish football designs, available with a huge array of striping and trim options. The basketball section is just as good, and the hosiery page features something I’ve never seen anyplace else: a little mini-stirrup for basketball!
• King-O’Shea catalog, circa late 1950s, 8.5″ x 11″, 32 pages. Similar to the MacGregor, but with a two-color design. Some very nice bits here, including a good range of basketball stripes, a choice of stirrup openings (!), and the excellent warm-up jackets page, where customers could opt for a sailor-style collar and chose from a dozen different striping patterns.
• Harv-Al catalog, 1966, 8.25″ x 11″, 78 pages. This Canadian catalog has some truly amazing stuff, including curling sweaters, 13 pages of totally boss jackets, and letter-embroidered girls’ basketball hose. Some weird equipment offerings, too: Check out the “Scoop Models” on this page (especially item No. 299). They’d even sell you a set of beanies!
• Unique catalog, 1970, 8.25″ x 10.5″, 16 pages. Another Canadian catalog, this one devoted entirely to hockey. Not all that remarkable, frankly, but I couldn’t resist the toque page, and a layout like this one is bound to set off a small endorphin rush.
• Champion catalog, 1971, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages. A real page-turner, from the football socks and the Lady Champion line to the amazing “Design Your Own Football Jerseys” spread (left page, right page).
So where do I find all these catalogs? eBay, mostly, although a few of them have come my way through other channels. As often happens with eBay niche bidding, I’ve become aware of other collectors who are often bidding against me again and again. One of these people, a guy named Mike Hersh, apparently has a huge collection. He does design work for Ralph Lauren clothing and uses the catalogs for research and reference. He lives in New York, and I’ve been trying to get him to let me come over so I can see what he’s got and maybe write about him, but so far no dice. Mike, if you’re reading this, we’re overdue for that summit meeting, buddy.
Years from now, will anyone be collecting the catalogs of today? It’s always hard to imagine contemporary design being collectable, but that seems especially true in the case of current uni catalogs. Reader Ryan Barto recently pointed me toward this page, where you can download all sorts of Nike catalogs. They’re not particularly appealing, and not just because of all the swoosh-o-rama bullshit. They lack any sense of charm or playfulness, which is what makes the old catalogs so nice.
But I suppose even a Nike catalog could look quaint 20 years from now, when viewed through the lens of nostalgia. And there’s something great about a striping chart, even in 2006.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Sabres, desperately trying to quell the rapidly building negative reaction to their crummy new logo, attempted to generate a bit of goodwill yesterday by announcing the unveiling of a throwback third jersey. … In case you missed it, yesterday’s comments section included a logo anti-creep alert regarding Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson, whose cap didn’t have the MLB logo on the back on Wednesday night. … By coincidence, yesterday Yahoo Sports ran this All-Star Game photo, which shows that the MLB logo was missing from Johan Santana’s jersey. … Yesterday’s comments also included a lot of chatter about facial hair. You can find some background on that topic here. … Several NBA teams will have anniversary logos next season, including the Pacers, Nuggets, Cavs, and Sonics (clearly the best of the bunch). The Cleveland mark will appear on the team’s new throwback uni; not sure if the others will actually be worn on the court, although the league’s usual protocol is for such logos to appear only on warmup outfits. … I’ve got jury duty today, so talk amongst yourselves. Or better yet, quick, someone file a suit against Major League Baseball demanding the elimination of pajama pants — I’ll pretend to be impartial.
July 28th, 2006
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Tsuyoshi Shinjo is going to need his own wing in the Uni Watch Museum of Athletics Aesthetics. As we’ve already discussed over the past few months, his farewell tour in Japan has seen him wearing collared undershirts, checkered wristbands, and the opposing team’s uniform. But he really outdid himself in last week’s Japanese All-Star Game.
It started with the pre-game photo, where all the players wore their uniforms — except for Shinjo, who wore a flashy shirt and shades (that’s him in the back row, third from the right). Then, during the game, he wore red camouflage wristbands, a matching undershirt, special shoes, and — the real showstopper — an oversized belt buckle with a scrolling LED message, which read, “Never Mind Whatever I Do, Fan Is My Treasure” (here’s another view). He later gave the belt to a fan. For good measure, he also swung a swirl-painted bat. Here’s the full effect, and here’s a video of his first at-bat, where you can actually see the belt buckle message as it’s scrolling. There’s also a Shinjo highlight video here, and you can see his belt buckle scrolling as he makes a diving catch here.
Somewhat amazingly, Shinjo wasn’t the game’s biggest spectacle. That title goes to his Nippon Ham Fighters teammate Hichori Morimoto, who dressed up as the anime character Piccoro — just a bit bizarre, to say the least. There’s some video of him midway through this clip.
(Big thanks to Uni Watch Far East Correspondent Jeremy Brahm, who provided most of the above links.)
Help Wanted Received: Über-thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday’s call for help in tabulating all the “worst uniform ever” emails. Seriously, I was blown away by how many of you volunteered your services — just the latest proof that Uni Watch readers are the coolest.
The “lucky” intern turned out to be Mike Orr. I figured he’d do part of the job and then I’d hand off the project to someone else to pick up where he left off. But in a truly heroic effort, Orr spent most of yesterday slogging through all of the nearly 600 responses — many of which featured multiple nominations and lengthy diatribes — and broke them down into a neat, easy-to-follow document. The fruits of his labors will be featured either in next week’s ESPN.com column or in the column two weeks after that.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Good article here about Mike MacDougal’s cap problems. … Remember the Devil Ray with the giant “W” taped to his windbreaker? An explanation comes from Cork Gaines: “It was Jae Seo, and it appears that the ‘W’ was from some prankster teammates. Seo has yet to earn a ‘W’ with the Rays, and his teammates felt he deserved one.” Ouch. … Good story from Shawn Dzwonkowski, recalling a 1999 game in Milwaukee: “I had third-row seats behind the visiting team’s on-deck circle. While Ken Caminiti was on deck, he pulled his batting gloves out of his back pocket and, unbeknownst to him, the pocket was hanging out! Being an observant fellow, I pointed this out to my friends. We all gawked and snickered, and then one of my friends started shouting, “Hey, Caminiti, your pocket’s hanging out!” He continued shouting this several more times, and then Caminiti reached around, tucked his pocket back in, and kindly turned and thanked us.” Given what we now know about Caminiti, they’re lucky he didn’t fly into a ‘roid rage and brain them with his bat. … David Sonny asks, “Could Antione Winfield not ‘cage the snake,’ if you catch my drift?” … Bill Blevins notes that Akinori Otsuka has “JAPAN” printed on his glove. … More news about Bob Wickman’s plus-sized physique, courtesy of Patrick Lindsey: “When Wickman got traded to the Braves last week, the team was in Philly. The Braves didn’t have any uniforms in his size, so they had to call Majestic and have someone drive his uniform down to the ballpark from the factory, which luckily was in Bangor, Pennsylvania, which is only a short trip. As for the pants, he wore a spare pair of Chad Paronto’s.”
July 27th, 2006
The spirit of Uni Watch was alive and well in Major League Baseball broadcast booths two nights ago, as several announcers turned their attention away from the play-by-play and toward weightier uni-related matters. It started in Denver, where Rockies broadcasters Drew Goodman and George Frazier engaged in the following bit of chatter about Anthony Reyes’s stirrups:
Goodman: Anthony Reyes, he’s gone old-time, George — looks like Red Schoendienst!
Frazier: You didn’t have a choice when I came up with the Cardinals. That’s the way you had to wear your uniform, with all the stripes showing.
Goodman: You know what? That’s blinding.
Frazier: I think it looks great.
Goodman [clearly unable to cope with the magnificence of baseball hosiery]: It, it just looks different.
Frazier: That’s ’cause everyone’s used to looking at the baggy pants, and…
Goodman [flustered, stuttering]: Even when the guys wear the — I mean, look at Jamey Carroll. He has ‘em pulled up, but it’s all black.
Frazier: Those stripes on those socks have been there an awfully long time. When a call-up came up with the Cardinals, Red Schoendienst said, “Show the stripes. You haven’t been here long enough.”
Let’s not dignify Goodman’s stupidity with further discussion. In any case, this banter was nothing compared to what took place in the top of the 4th inning of the Mets/Cubs game, as Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez held forth on a wide variety of uni-related topics. It started with Greg Maddux at the plate and Juan Pierre on deck, as the camera zoomed in on Pierre’s shins:
Cohen: Hey, look at those!
Darling: Those are like football socks.
Cohen: Stirrups! Nobody wears stirrups anymore.
Darling: Maddux right there, he has the…
Cohen: Faux stirrups. Which is also old-fashioned — just not as old-fashioned as the actual stirrups themselves. [Maddux strikes out, Pierre comes to bat.] Now explain for the youngsters, who’ve never seen this before, how you wear stirrup socks. [Camera shows a stadium poster of Tommie Agee’s stirrups.] Are you guys old enough to remember?
Darling: Absolutely. Yeah, I wore stirrups — didn’t know anything but that.
Hernandez: I was a guy who’d cut ‘em under the soles, where the seam was. They’d always give you the ones like Pierre has — too low, they’re ugly. You gotta get ‘em higher. So you’d put an elastic band, you’d sew it in at the bottom of the stirrups, where you cut ‘em. Then you get a little elevation! You always gotta show your stripes. That was the one thing, when I came over here, the Mets didn’t have stripes on their socks, and it so disappointed me, because I was used to the Cardinals’ stripes…
Cohen: The Cardinals are famous for the stripes. Rick Ankiel, before he melted down, used to wear those striped socks.
Hernandez: The Red Sox and the Cardinals have the best socks in baseball. [Hernandez is apparently unaware that the Red Sox hose have been stripe-free for several years.]
Cohen: But nobody sees them anymore.
Hernandez: Exactly.
Darling: You talk about stirrups, I bet there are a lot of young players now who wouldn’t know what sanitaries are. You’d come in and there’d be a big box of sanitary socks that you would wear underneath your stirrups.
Hernandez: The clubhouse guys would all have about six pairs of sanitaries in our lockers, on the hooks.
Cohen: They still have sanitary socks. But you know what they’re used for now — putting balls or bats in, to protect them.
Darling: Or rosin. They use it on the on-deck circle. [Camera focuses on Jose Reyes’s shins.]
Hernandez [sarcastically]: That’s a great style right there.
Cohen: You can’t even see the shoes, much less the socks.
Hernandez: Who’s his tailor?
Darling: There’s a seamstress somewhere saying, “You’ve gotta bring that up a notch!”
Cohen: These days, you walk around the clubhouse and all you see are guys stretching out their pants and taking the elastic out of the bottom.
Darling: The one thing that’s different now, a lot of the players wear their uniforms a lot baggier than they did in the ’70s and ’80s. [Pierre walks. Camera shows the ballboy.]
Cohen: There are the solid-colored socks.
Hernandez: Is that how you wore yours, Ron?
Darling: No, I wore my pants kind of low, and I had stirrups. [Image of Darling, circa mid-’80s, appears on the screen.] See, there’s the stirrups. [Image of Daring is replaced by contemporaneous image of Hernandez.]
Hernandez: There, look at that! Now that is…
Darling: You look like you’re doing the merengue!
Hernandez: I like my socks. That looked pretty hot. [Camera shifts to a fan wearing a Hernandez jersey.]
Cohen: Bet that guy’s not wearing stirrups.
Darling: He’s just hoping for Livan Hernandez to be traded here.
Cohen: If that happens, he won’t be wearing 17 [Hernandez’s old number], I can tell you that. Because if Keith got upset when Jose Lima wore 17…
Hernandez: When [Dae Sung] Koo wore 17 last year, I got hot. I read Charlie the riot act. [This is a reference to Mets equipment manager Charlie Samuels, who assigns the uni numbers.]
Darling [cracking up]: Well it really worked, because then he gave it to Lima!
Cohen: Y’know, talking about Juan Pierre, he doesn’t just have the stirrups, he also does something else that nobody else does: He wears his hat under his helmet, which guys used to do, but I can’t think of anyone else who does it now. [Pierre is in fact the only current MLBer who does this.]
Hernandez [getting back to socks]: Another thing, look at that shot there, it gives the umpire a good look at your knees for calling balls and strikes. There’s a difference in color there. If you wear the long, baggy pants, he might…
Cohen: Misinterpret where your knee is?
Hernandez: Yeah, it’s gonna be camouflaged.
Cohen [a tad dubiously]: Yeah.
Hernandez: I’m serious! The umpire needs to know where the knees are!
Cohen: Then he should wear his pants up around his thighs.
Hernandez: Well…
Cohen: Then the umpire would think the strike zone was even higher.
Hernandez: Then you’d have people fainting in the stands. You can’t have that. [Inning ends.]
Cohen [as camera shows Pierre’s legwear one last time]: Take your stirrups and go to the bottom of the 4th.
It’s hard to know what to say about all this, except that Hernandez is actually right for a change. (Indeed, compare to his stirrups to mine and you’ll see a marked similarity.) The real problem, which you can’t really discern from the transcript, is that the entire discussion was held with this sort of tongue-in-cheek, “Can you believe we’re actually talking about this?” tone. This, of course, just trivializes the issue, instead of treating it like the national security matter it so obviously is. Rest assured none of these guys will work for the forthcoming Uni Watch Network, which should be launching shortly.
As if all this Monday-night uni chatter weren’t enough, there was still more last night: According to Chris Andringa, “In the top of the 3rd inning, the WGN announcers (Brenly and Kasper) mentioned how fans may notice that Juan Pierre was no longer wearing his ‘blue camo’ undershirt, because Pierre received a letter from the ‘fashion police.’ Therefore, his undershirt was solid blue. Brenly had a minor conniption about it, sarcastically commenting how he was glad Pierre was allowed to wear his normal shoes, because the shoes ‘were at least 51% solid blue’ and added a disgusted sigh while questioning how ‘they’ (the fashion police) could actually come up with a quantitative percentage of the amount of blue in an undershirt.” (Big thanks to Andringa for that report, and bonus points for his excellent deployment of “conniption.”)
And just to exemplify Gary Cohen’s mention of players stretching out their pants, this item appeared yesterday.
Underbrim Update: Good analysis by Andrew Dillon: “Both Detroit daily papers have run little features [here and here] about Marcus Thames and his mother, Veterine. She was paralyzed when he was five years old and has never seen him play ball in person. I imagine the ‘VET’ on his underbrim is some sort of tribute to her.”
Meanwhile, lots of readers have pointed out that our latest underbrim scribe is Bobby Howry of the Cubs. James Huening provided this large screen-grab — “not that you’ll be able to decipher anything,” he wrote. But thanks to the magic of Photoshop, I brightened up the shot to reveal the word “Kids,” which is presumably part of a larger message (like, say, “Kids, don’t grow up to be Cubs fans”).
Uni Watch News Ticker: Big thanks to everyone in yesterday’s comments section who identified John Pacella as the mystery Met whose cap always used to fall off, as seen here and referenced here. … Good catch by Dan Lichterman, who notes that Nick Punto wears a Cool Flo helmet when batting right-handed but uses a conventional lid when batting from the left side. … Interesting note from Curt Wilson, who writes: “This year marks the 100th game between two high schools — Easton, Pennsylvania, and Philipsburg, New Jersey — played annually on Thanksgiving morning. To celebrate the 100th game, the two teams will be wearing throwback uniforms.” … Someone really needs to button up. … Mike MacDougal made his White Sox debut last nite, threw 11 pitches, and kept his cap on his head for every one.
Tomorrow: Full coverage of Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s Japanese All-Star Game antics.
July 26th, 2006
Royals closer Mike MacDougal had an interesting problem on Saturday night: His cap kept falling off, again and again — on six of the nine pitches he threw in his one inning of work. On one occasion he actually caught the cap in midair, but the other times he had to pick it up (including once when the ball was in play and he really should’ve been paying attention to that, not to his cap).
I looked at the video of MacDougal’s three other appearances this season (he’d been on the DL until the All-Star break). In those games, he threw a total of 26 pitches, and his cap came off only once. So what happened on Saturday — wrong-sized cap? Too much Brylcreem? In any case, the Royals were apparently so disgusted by MacDougal’s antics that they traded him to the White Sox yesterday, so now he’ll have a new cap to keep on his head.
MacDougal’s case of cap dropsy, whatever its cause, is hardly unique. Before Jim Bouton was famous for writing Ball Four, he was famous for losing his cap with every pitch. He even joked about it in the book — check out the caption. And during the late 1970s or early ’80s, the Mets had a pitcher whose cap always fell off, although I can’t recall who it was — Ed Glynn, maybe? Neil Allen..? Someone help me out here. Whoever it was, I remember reading an article that discussed how fans were always sending the player suggestions for keeping his cap on — hair gel, various glues and stickums, bobby pins — but none of them ever worked.
Speaking of wayward caps: I’m a little late getting to this, but Dodgers coach Mariano Duncan’s cap had quite an odyssey on July 17th. It started when Duncan got tossed from the game for chirping from the dugout and then came out to argue and had to be restrained from reaching umpire Angel Hernandez, who had ejected him. During the course of the argument, Duncan removed his cap and threw it at Hernandez, who caught it and immediately trotted over to the edge of the grandstand, where he tossed the cap into the crowd. A lucky fan stowed the cap under his seat, while Hernandez went back to his post, looking rather smug. The cap, meanwhile, probably set some sort of single-game record for being handled by the most people in the least amount of time.
And caps aren’t the only things that have been flying. In Sunday’s Giants/Padres game, gloves were taking flight. It began in the bottom of the 8th, when Ray Durham slid hard into catcher Rob Bowen. Bowen’s glove was knocked off by the collision (you can barely see it next to the on-deck hitter’s foot here — sorry for the crummy image quality), and the ball skipped to the backstop. As the pitcher retrieved the ball, baserunner Steve Finley got caught in a rundown between third base and home — with Bowen still without his glove. Bowen took the rundown’s final throw barehanded and then put a gloveless tag on Finley.
In the very next half-inning, Armando Benitez gave up a game-tying home run. Nothing new there, except that this time Benitez flipped his glove in the air and then swatted at it as it came down (which “several teammates privately called unprofessional,” according to this article).
Uni Watch News Ticker: As if Brett Myers didn’t already have enough problems, check out this note from Jean Lefebvre: “After the first pitch of Sunday’s Braves/Phillies game, home plate umpire Jerry Meals called time, took a few steps towards the mound, and called out to Myers. Meals and Myers exhanged a few words, and Myers then rubbed his right hand over his left to demonstrate something to the ump. Myers has a tattoo there, and I assume Meals thought it was a watch or bracelet and wanted him to remove it.” … Doug Donahoo took this photo at a Kansas City T-Bones minor league game — note the MLB logo on the base. The weird thing is, the T-Bones play in the Northern League, which isn’t MLB-affiliated. “Are the T-Bones stealing the bases out of the dumpsters of Kauffman stadium?” asks Donahoo. … Angel Pagan is still having problems with his batting helmet logo. … Brilliant catch by Eric Ritschdorff, who notes that Jaret Wright wore a lefty batting helmet when he pinch-ran on Saturday, even though he bats right-handed. … Yesterday’s comments section had a mention of Mike Pelfrey’s blue mouthguard. Good photos here, here, here, and here. … Update on Dontrelle Willis’s underbrim: The inscription on Sunday read, “KEEP ME SAFE” (maybe he saw what’s been happening to Mike MacDougal’s and Mariano Duncan’s caps). … Soccer news, courtesy of Brandon Vogel: “Tottenham Hotspur released their alternate kits and, in a REAL throwback (to the 19th century), they’ll be wearing chocolate and gold.” … Jay Sandora notes that the CoolFlo helmet appears to have been patterned after Shane Battier’s head.
July 25th, 2006
With the Mets finally back home, it’s time to revisit our Pedro Martinez Relief Fund project. As you’ll recall, Pedro was recently fined $5000 for stretching his pant cuffs down under his heels, and then he whined about the size of the fine, so I decided to take up a collection to help ease his financial distress. My original goal was to raise $37.74 (proportional to $5000 for someone making $100,000 a year, as opposed to Pedro’s annual salary of $13.25 million), but we ended up raising more than twice that much — $78.66, to be exact. Since Pedro’s obviously a hardship case, I decided to send him the full amount.
I happen to have a Paymaster machine for “special occasion” payments, and this occasion is about as special as they come. As you can see, the Paymaster makes the check look very official-like. I signed the check, enclosed it with this cover letter, and mailed it off to Shea Stadium.
Now we sit back and wait to see if he cashes it. Stay tuned.
(Big thanks to everyone who contributed to the fund [in amounts ranging from $12 to 45¢]: Joshua Jacoby, Chris Pendleton, Blair Hough, Matthew Butch, Matthew Edwards, Baldemar Mejia, Jesse Spector, David Smith, Larry Kurtze, Wayne Yeung, Randy Silver, Darin Ficorelli, Edward Cooney, Anthony Zydzik, Jennifer Muller, David Weinberger, James Muscato, Breck Witte, Ryan Hickox, Robert Goldberg, Matt Konrad, Mike Orr, Steven Wyder, Mark Baldwin, Liam Roche, Colin Flowerdew, Edward Hahn, Andrew Frey, Aaron McCabe, Wanda DeJesus, Brian Rowland, Robert Eden, Jarrod Boyd, Minna Hong, Steven Ducker, Christopher Hilf, and Dave Sterling.)
Underbrim Update: On Thursday, a Tigers spokesman told me that he’d checked with Marcus Thames and that Thames preferred not to talk about what was scribbled under his brim. But on that very same day, Thames talked about it in this Detroit News article, which includes the following quote: “Under my ball cap I’ve written, ‘Do something every day to help the club win.’ It doesn’t have to be a hit.”
If you look again at Thames’s cap, it’s hard to see anything that could match that slogan. Think he made it up, just to provide a good quote? Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser. (Thanks to Jonathan Bulluck and Mike Honer for the article link.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: It took a long time, but the umpires are finally wearing an “EG” sleeve patch in memory of Eric Gregg (but maybe they should’ve put a white outline on the version appearing on their black jerseys). … Good articles here and here about all the young Red Sox pitchers with high uni numbers (with thanks to Robb Fluet). … Speaking of the Red Sox, they designated Willie Harris for assignment last week, a major blow to the small contingent of non-switch-hitters who wear double-earflap helmets. … Ty Keller sent along this article about Bobby Crosby, which includes a mention of his recent switch from stirrups to long pants: “[It’s] the result of a bone bruise on Crosby’s left ankle. He’s had to wear some of Eric Chavez’s high-tops, and the high socks and high-tops clash. He’s looking forward to getting back to his old dressing style. ‘This feels weird,’ Crosby said of the long pants legs. ‘I really don’t like it.’” … Friday’s Ticker item about the belts on the 1957 Kansas basketball unis led Uni Watch logo designer and all-around swell guy Scott M.X. Turner to submit a few basketball belt pics of his own: “I’m sure you have catalogs with lots of belted shorts, but these are just so groovy. This one, this one, and this one are from a 1961 MacGregor catalog. This one is from a 1925-26 Horace Partridge catalog, and features an actual leather belt with beltloops, not the satin sewn-ons used in the ’50s and ’60s.” … Reader Scott McDonald checks in with disturbing news from the 45th annual “Roll Call” Congressional Baseball Game. “Basically, different members from the House and Senate get together every summer (the two parties play each other) and play a baseball game to raise money for charities,” he writes. “I was at this year’s game, which at Washington’s RFK Stadium on June 29th, and I noticed that the manager for the Democrats, Rep. Mike Doyle — #14 in this pic — was wearing the hideous Nike spotted undershirt.” Scandalous! Someone haul this guy in front of the House Ethics Committee, pronto. … Ever wonder what kind of unis they wear in the Alaskan League? Bryan Redemske found some old photos of MLBers who paid their minor league dues up in the Last Frontier, including Barry Bonds (pre-’roids, obviously), Jason Giambi (ditto), Dave Winfield (note the zipper-front jersey), and Tom Seaver. … Check out this awesome sock-o-rama. … Latest player to do the pants-tucked-into-the-shoes thing: Vlad Guerrero. … Orlando Hernandez switched from long sleeves to short sleeves in between the 1st and 2nd inning’s Saturday’s Mets/Astros game, but this switcheroo had nothing to do with Nike’s accursed speckle pattern — El Duque just found the long sleeves to be too warm. … Good catch by Jesse Spector, who writes: “In the fourth inning of Friday’s Devil Rays/Orioles game, they showed someone in the Tampa dugout with what looked like a giant letter ‘W’ on his windbreaker in white tape. I think it was Jae Seo.” … Sam Werner and Marc Beck note that the Astros logo was missing from Chris Burke’s helmet when he batted in the 6th and 9th innings on Friday night (but not during his earlier at-bats in the 1st and 4th). … Bizarre scene on Saturday in Cincinnati, where Ryan Freel got hit by a pitch — sort of. As he tried to avoid the ball, it went inside his vest armhole and lodged in his jersey (here’s another view). With the ball still rattling around his midsection, Freel trotted down to first base, where he nonchalantly unbuttoned his jersey, produced the ball, and flipped it to the ump. (Thanks to Dan Bingham-Pankratz for the tip.) … Looks like Dontrelle Willis had a new underbrim inscription yesterday. Details to follow — stay tuned. … Good to see the White Sox wearing their 1906 Sunday throwbacks — I believe for only the second time this season — yesterday. … Bob Wickman sure fills out his new Braves jersey. … The Giants had their annual AIDS awareness game yesterday, with red ribbons being worn by most Giants and Padres players (but not all of them). … Great video clip here, showing Chiefs first-round pick Tamba Hali being fitted for his first set of KC gear (with thanks to Tim Burgess). … You want throwbacks? Now this is a throwback!
July 24th, 2006
Major League Baseball needs to impose some serious quality control on the uniform front, because it looks like some second-rate gear is ending up on the field. First, as we discussed here yesterday, it was Esteban German diving for a ball and ending up with a broken belt. Something very similar happened yesterday in Detroit, where Kenny Rogers dove for a ball in the 5th inning and one of the buttons on his jersey popped off. He spent the rest of the inning with an embarrassing case of jersey gap, as you can see to varying degrees here, here, and here. (Unfortunately, the MLB.TV video is from the White Sox broadcast of the game, which didn’t have many front-view shots of Rogers; reader David Chisolm, who was presumably watching the Tigers broadcast, assures me that Rogers’s jersey was “flying open whenever he threw a pitch.”)
A broken belt on Wednesday, a broken button on Thursday, and I’ve been spotting a high-than-average number of torn pant legs, too. Who’s making this crap, Old Navy? I don’t wanna sound like Grumpy Old Curmudgeons R Us, but you know damn well this kind of thing never happened in the days of wool flannel unis. Memo to Majestic: Bring the unis back up to spec, pronto, before someone bends down for a grounder and ends up breaking his zipper fly.
Underbrim Update: In what’s shaping up as a disturbing trend, Marcus Thames has become the latest player to decline to provide Uni Watch with an explanation for his cap annotations. “Marcus would prefer to keep that personal,” said a Tigers spokesman after checking with Thames, who now joins Ted Lilly and Ambiorix Burgos on the speak-no-evil roster.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Georgia Tech will wear throwbacks against Virginia on September 21st. … Jonathan Carone notes that the Duluth Huskies, who play in the college-level Northwoods League, are sporting some excellent sock stripeage. … The Padres and Astros will be playing in 1976 throwback unis on August 3rd, which should be good news for whoever’s selling sunglasses at the stadium. … Soccer note from Robin Fishbein: “On August 16th Italy will play its first soccer match since winning the World Cup — a friendly against Croatia. National teams traditionally add one star above their national federation crest for each World Cup , so the August 16th game will be the first one in which Italy will wear a jersey with four stars.” … Genius logo creep catch by Chris Velardi — look here. … Fantastic note from Matthew Spencer, who writes: “I was eating at a local Italian restaurant tonight when I went to use the bathroom. I’m washing my hands and notice the picture hanging to my left doesn’t match the pictures of Italy that are all over the bathroom, and I realize it’s a picture of the ’57 Jayhawk basketball team, complete with Wilt in the middle. What then caught my attention was the their uniforms, specifically their belts. I apologize in advance for the less-than-fantastic picture quality — I was using my camera phone.” … The Cleveland Browns’ long-rumored uni changes are now official.
July 21st, 2006
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile, for the second time in three days, our topic topic du jour is belts. This time it’s because of events that took place in the 1st inning of yesterday’s Bosox/Royals game, where Esteban German dove for a ball and came up to find his belt had come undone, apparently because the buckle had broken. Someone was quickly dispatched from the dugout to take the old belt from German and give him a new one.
But whereas German’s original belt was leather, the new one was adjustable elastic with leather tips (like this and this), which occasioned the following bit of banter from Royals radio broadcasters Brian McRae and Ryan Lefebvre:
McRae: Those leather belts, the sweat gets on that leather and makes it kinda flimsy. They don’t last too long, the leather ones. They’re bringing [German] one of the ones that do last — not sure what you’d call that material, kinda like elastic. That’ll work.
Lefebvre: Let’s be honest — it’s a Little League belt! In the big leagues, you’re supposed to wear leather.
McRae: Leather belts look good, but they don’t last.
Lefebvre: But it’s all about looking good, though, isn’t it?
This Lefebvre guy sounds like he’s got his priorities straight.
Look through sporting goods listings these days and you’ll see almost nothing but the elastic belts, a distressing number of which are being used as vehicles for logo creep (both from the usual suspects and from more reputable companies that should really know better). But as Lefebvre suggested, most MLBers wear leather, as evidenced by the reflective shine on the belt’s rear section (note the logo creep on the socks, by the way). Every now and then, however, you’ll see the telltale adjusta-size buckle indicating that a player’s wearing an elastic model, which looks so totally pathetic.
At least MLB players never play with their belts undone, like some NFL players do. (For more on that phenomenon, look here.) But there’s at least one MLBer who has a distinctive belt style: Jon Lester, whose front belt tip is usually flapping to an unusual degree, as you can see here and here.
Early baseball belts were surprisingly decorative, although that style didn’t last. (For further details, scroll down to the second section of this page.) Nowadays all belts are solid-colored, but there’s some variation in belt loops or tunnels. The Braves have had piping on their belt tunnels for years, and this season the Rangers added piping as well. My favorite quirk: The Tigers have more belt loops than any other team.
(Big thanks to David Chisholm and Lee Leslie for tipping me wise to the Esteban German incident.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Kudos to Mark Dagwell for pointing out this excellent site, devoted to the history of Australian rules football uniforms. … A few days ago I ran images of Rice’s new football uniforms (here, here, and here), but it wasn’t clear if they’d also have new helmets. Seth Harris reports that they will, and that they’ll look like this (here’s that same logo in color). … Reasonably decent rundown here of Pittsburgh Pirates uni history (with thanks to Terrence Adams). … Jim Tracy’s pants aren’t exactly setting a good example. … Andruw Jones needs some major remedial work too.
July 20th, 2006
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