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Archive for August, 2006
We have something very, very special today, people, and it begins with a quiz: What do Reggie Jackson and Manny Ramirez have in common?
Probably quite a bit, at least in terms of their slugging credentials. But from a Uni Watch perspective, they share something more unique: They’re the only players I’m aware of who’ve worn a stick-pin on the field of play.
You may remember Manny’s pin, which made its appearance this season. Back on Opening Day, he wore a pin on his jersey, right between “Red” and “Sox,” which upon further Uni Watch inspection turned out to be a little cherub swinging a bat. (Despite extensive pestering, I was never able to get an explanation for this.)
As for Reggie, his pin-clad moment was recently brought to my attention by reader Scott Merzbach, who discovered it while watching a tape of the 1974 World Series. In Game 3, as Reggie stepped up to bat in the bottom of the 1st, announcers Monte Moore and Tony Kubek noticed something on his waistband:
Moore: Reggie’s wearing an Oakland A’s World Series
pin on his uniform, it looks like. Is that one right there, on his…?
Kubek: Yeah, it surely is, where his belt buckle would be.
Moore: That’s what they pass out to all the press people here, a three-leaf shamrock.
If you’re unfamiliar with World Series press pins, you’re not alone — they’re a very spcecialized corner of the memorabilia realm. The short version is that since 1911, each World Series team has produced a pin for media members. These were originally meant to serve as official credentials that would admit journalists to the press box; in recent years they’ve become more of a ceremonial souvenir for VIPs. Similar pins have also been produced for All-Star Games. (For lots of additional info and great photos, look here.)
I knew very little about press pins myself until about a year and a half ago, when I visited uniform designer Todd Radom and saw his great press pin collection. At my request, he’s graciously agreed to whip up a little press pin primer for us:
Legend has it that overflow crowds during the 1911 World Series, including friends of Giants manager John McGraw, were making themselves at home in the press box. The newly formed Baseball Writers of America decreed that anyone seeking admittance to the press box at the World Series needed some form of identification, and the press pin was born.
The first All Star Game took place in 1933, but the first All Star press pin came in 1938 — a celluloid button produced by the host Cincinnati Reds. Leland’s auctioned one off a few years ago for close to $5,000.
In the early days of the World Series, press pins were distributed exclusively to members of the press corps, and were manufactured in extremely limited numbers. Today they’re also given to VIP guests and business partners of MLB, but they’re still not mass-produced, and they’re not available for sale to the general public, which enhances they’re collectors’ appeal.
Early examples visually reflect the era in which they were manufactured, replete with flourishes and ribbons. One especially interesting early pin is the 1919 White Sox version, featuring “Black Sox” owner Charles Comiskey.
With the advent of the LCS (not to mention the wild card), numerous clubs now produce press pins in anticipation of a World Series appearance. So most pins in the last 30 years or so have been designed without a specific date. Hence the 2004 pins were inscribed with “16th World Series” for St. Louis and “10th World Series” for the Red Sox, instead of “2004.”
Some pins that are produced in advance seep out onto the market without ever having been used — these are called phantoms. One such example is the pin for the 1951 Dodgers, who were done in by Bobby Thomson’s famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
Another interesting Dodgers pin: the 1952 design, which was a great example of optimism. “Next year” would have to wait until 1955.
My own collection consists of about 140 World Series and All-Star Game pins, including 15 World Series phantoms and the complete All-Star run 1959 to present. I love them because they’re beautiful pieces of art, and they are frozen in time. The 1945 Cubs “Victory” pin, for example, represents the moment that World War II had just ended and optimism was abundant — even for the Cubs, who still haven’t won.
While this is all very interesting, none of it would matter from a Uni Watch perspective if Reggie hadn’t worn the 1974 A’s pin on his waistband (or, most likely, if the A’s hadn’t switched from belts to waistbands in 1972). So in addition to all the other things Reggie’s accomplished, add one more thing to the list: Thanks to him, press pins are now part of the Uni Watch universe.
(Giant foam-fingered thanks to Scott Merzbach and Todd Radom for their invaluable contributions.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Cycling-related note from Tim Root, who writes: “The new jerseys for the US national mountain bike team (currently at world championships in New Zealand) look quite horrible.” … Bryan Redemske notes tht A-Rod was wearing Jorge Posada’s wristbands last night, and has been doing so at least since August 10th.
August 23rd, 2006
Halls of fame and sports museums are often the best places to see old uniforms, but they don’t always allow you to take photos. Fortunately, reader Chris Hilf had no such problems (or just ignored the rules) when he recently visited the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, which houses the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. Here are some of the shots he took and was generous enough to share:
• Really old catcher’s gear. Compare that chest protector to these!
• 1939 Pirates jersey. Odd to see the Bucs not wearing black and gold, right? They didn’t adopt that color scheme until 1948. Also, note the centenial sleeve patch, which most MLB teams wore in 1939.
• 1950s Pittsburgh Hornets uniform. “I don’t know if you can tell,” writes Hilf, “but the shorts are satin!” Dig the sleeve patch, too.
• 1940s Hornets jersey. Judging by this photo and the previous two, the Hornets appear to have switched to black and gold around the same time the Pirates did.
• Photo of Roberto Clemente and his kids. Start those kids wearing stirrups at an early age!
BBQ Update: It has been brought to my attention that yesterday’s announcement of a barbecue party in my back yard would’ve been a lot more useful if I’d mentioned that my back yard is in Brooklyn, New York. Sorry for the omission. Again, this rousing event will be on September 3rd, which is the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. If you want to attend, send an e-mail to unibbq at earthlink dot net. I’ll get back to you regarding address, time, etc. And since Pedro never cashed our check, the party’s beer budget is starting off at $78.66.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Now here’s a great item up for auction (with thanks to Todd Krevanchi). … Also wouldn’t mind adding a copy of this to the Uni Watch library. … Good article here about Fidel Castro’s Adidas logo creep. … The NFL requires players to have their jerseys tucked in. But Mike Murray notes that Orlando Huff of the Cardinals had his jersey cropped super-short over the weekend. … Justin Downey plays in the semi-pro Garden State Football League, which he says has “some of the nicest football unis out there — see for yourself.” So I did, and I still haven’t fully recovered. … Try to ignore the logo creep bonanza while checking out the weirdest hockey mask ever. The photo comes our way via Boris Shubinsky, who says the mask was designed by the goalie’s father, and that the design is currently being worn by only two or three netminders in the world. Bizarre. … Weird scene last night in Louisiana, where some of the Cowboys’ throwback jerseys included the “Cowboys” wordmark above the front uni numbers, and some didn’t, plus some players apparently didn’t even have the NFL Equipment logo patch at the base of the collar. … Jeremy Brahm isn’t the only one keeping an eye on Japanese baseball happening: Scott M.X. Turner (who designed the logo at the top of this page, don’tcha know) notes that the socks, tailoring, and white caps being sported by the winners of this year’s Koshien high-school tourney all look endearingly retro.
August 22nd, 2006
We have a lot of ground to cover today, kids, beginning with something you almost never see: the same uniform mistake made by two different players on consecutive days.
The follies began on Thursday night, when Gary Matthews Jr., who’s a switch-hitter, wore a left-handed batting helmet while batting right-handed for his first at-bat, leaving his left ear exposed. Nobody appeared to notice, and Matthews grounded out without incident. He switched to a proper helmet for the rest of the game.
The following night, in Baltimore, Brian Roberts — another switch-hitter — stepped up to the plate in the 7th inning wearing a left-handed batting helmet — which would have been fine, except he was batting right-handed. He took one pitch, and then someone brought the problem to his attention, at which point he trotted over to the on-deck circle and traded in the lefty helmet for a righty one.
The Roberts incident prompted a small earflap discussion between Orioles broadcasters Fred Manfra and Buck Martinez:
Manfra: That flap makes a difference. That has been such a, uh — well let’s just say at times a career-saving addition to the batting helmet, that flap.
Martinez: Yeah, it’s interesting how it came into being. A lot of players were very reluctant to wear it. I know Ernie Whitt, who’s the first base coach for the Blue Jays, he wore the traditional baseball cap, without the earflap, for a long time, and he was grandfathered in. If you had played with it when the new rule came in, you could stick with that old baseball cap. Ernie wore that cap, and he didn’t have that flap on his helmet for a long time. And you remember Bob Montgomery for the Red Sox, he wore that skullcap inside his baseball cap.
Manfra: Right.
Martinez: This has been a tremendous improvement for protecting hitters. If you see minor league hitters, they wear both flaps.
Martinez’s “analysis” here is so garbled, a translation is in order. First of all, when he says Whitt used to wear a “traditional baseball cap,” he appears to be referring to a basic flapless helmet. The grandfathering Martinez mentions is set out in Rulebook section of 1.16(c), which states: “All players entering the Major Leagues commencing with the 1983 championship season and every succeeding season thereafter must wear a single ear-flap helmet (or at the player’s option, a double ear-flap helmet), except those players who were in the Major League during the 1982 season, and who, as recorded in that season, objected to wearing a single ear-flap helmet.”
The last player to invoke this clause — or so it appeared at the time — was Gary Gaetti, who went flapless for a few games with the Red Sox in 2000 and then retired. But then Tim Raines, who had retired after the 1999 season, came out of retirement. His 2002 season, with the Marlins, now stands as the end of the flapless batting helmet era.
As for Martinez’s mention of Bob Montgomery’s “skullcap”: Much as earflaps were grandfathered, so were batting helmets themselves. Players who didn’t want to wear them could instead opt to wear a plastic insert, sometimes called a liner, inside a regular cloth cap. Montgomery, who retired in 1979, was the last player to go this route. You can see his cap/insert setup here.
But the biggest failing of Martinez’s commentary is that he hints at the story of the earflap’s origin without actually explaining it, leaving his listeners hung out to dry. Luckily, smart people like you read Uni Watch, so you can get the full scoop, which goes like this: Double-earflap helmets began appearing in Little League in the late 1950s. According to Peter Morris’s essential A Game of Inches (see link at right), Jim Lemon of the Indians was reported to have worn an “‘earmuff’ or Little League helmet” — presumably a double-flap model — in 1960, which provoked “much merriment” among teammates and opponents. As for the single flap, that came about in 1963, when Earl Battey of the Twins — who’d twice had his cheekbones broken by pitches — created a makeshift flap by attaching a metal plate to his helmet in 1963. (I’ve been looking for a photo of this for years — anyone?) Tony Gonzalez of the Twins had a real single-flap model made for himself the following year.
(Special thanks to readers Brian Dascenzo and Bryan Redman, who brought these two helmet happenings to my attention.)
Throwback Special: The Mets celebrated the 20th anniversary of their last World Series championship by wearing 1986 throwback unis on Saturday and Sunday. Although racing stripes and pajama pants are a brutal combination (note the black belt too, instead of the proper blue), the team nonetheless got a bunch of subtle details right, including the use of nameplates instead of direct-sewn player names (ugly but historically accurate) and the blue cap button that the team wore back in those days (instead of the current orange button, which was introduced in 1997). They even removed the orange dot on the batting helmets, so they were solid blue to match the caps — an impressively detail-obsessive move.
The throwbacks prompted some good uni chatter in the Mets’ broadcast booth, where the two color commentators — Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez — are both alums of the 1986 team. On Saturday night, there was this exchange during the 8th inning:
Hernandez: Another thing about those pipes, piping, on the uniforms. You’ll notice the piping that runs down the side of the torso on the jersey top — it’s very important that you line up the stripes. Very important. [Darling and play-by-play man Gary Coehn crack up.] I used to make sure that my piping lined up with my pants, so it was all one line. [Well, sometimes.] Very critical.
Cohen: You don’t wanna be off-center with your piping.
Hernandez [as the camera shows Michael Tucker's perfectly aligned piping]: Look at that. Look how pretty that looks. Perfect!
Cohen: Perfect piping, every time.
Not bad, as uni banter goes (although if they really wanted to be on the ball, someone should’ve pointed out that the last time the Mets wore 1980s throwbacks, in 2002, the piping was missing from the waistline region). And there was more at the outset of Sunday’s game, as Orlando Hernandez took the mound:
Cohen: El Duque is old enough that he could have worn those racing stripes in his prime.
Hernandez: Oh, look at that, he’s lined up! I’ll tell you, that’s a “W” right there, I’m guaranteeing it.
Darling: Nice! You are the, uh, Le Cosini, the Le Cosini of, uh, uniform wearing.
Hernandez: They’re back to the purple buttons on top, Gary, the hats. I mean not the purple, the orange. The Mets’ hats. [Actually, they're still wearing blue buttons, except for El Duque, who has orange.]
Cohen: That would be out of uniform for 1986. Gotta have a blue button.
Hernandez: I liked those uniforms, I’m sorry.
Cohen: Well, you looked good in it.
Hernandez: Well, that’s debatable.
[Brief tangent to discuss non-uni matters. Then...]
Cohen: Let’s check in with another uniform expert, Chris Connor.
Connor: I do agree about the piping, El Duque certainly got it right today. But he’s wearing the blue socks. Now that’s different from the ‘86 uniform — no stirrups. Willie Randolph was asked about that the other day and he said, “Ah, my legs are too skinny to wear stirrups, my calves have atrophied.” He said back in the day when he used to put two or three pairs of socks on, the stirrups were alright, but now he wouldn’t go that route. And the other thing too about El Duque, you’ll notice he has the pants right below the knees. I was talking to [former Mets broadcaster] Ralph Kiner yeterday about the uniforms and he said back in the day, no player would ever wear his pants down to his shoetops the way some of the players do now. And that actually helped umpires in reading the strike zone — looking at the bottom of the player’s pants, right at the knees. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why you have inconsistent strike zones these days.
Hernandez: That’s a very good point that Ralph made right there, and I’m glad Chris brought that up. Because when you wear your pants at the knees, the umpire does get a clearer view of where your knees are in the strike zone.
Cohen: So why wouldn’t you just hike your pants over your knees, to shrink the strike zone?
Hernandez: That would look like you have knickers on or something.
Cohen: But anything to get an advantage, right?
Hernandez: I draw the line there, I’m sorry, Gary.
(Big thanks to John Ekdahl, Chris Herles, and Bruce Rosengrant, who all contributed crucial tips and info for the preceding section.)
Now then, before we get to today’s Uni Watch news ticker, a few bits of scheduling business:
Uni Watch Road Show Update: I’ll be in Milwaukee on Thursday evening and will be happy to meet readers at the fabulous Art Altenburg’s Concertina Bar beginning at 7pm. There will also be someone on hand from WUWM (Milwaukee’s public radio station) to interview me about the new Bucks and Admirals uniforms, and I’m sure they’ll want to get some local opinions as well, so clear your throat before coming on down.
Holiday BBQ: I’m going to throw a cookout party at Uni Watch Gardens (i.e., my back yard) on the afternoon and evening of September 3rd — that’s the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Everyone reading this is invited, at least theoretically, but my yard has a pretty limited capacity, so here’s the deal: If you want to attend, send an e-mail to unibbq at earthlink dot net (note that this is not the usual Uni Watch address). Be sure to state if you’ll be bringing any guests. Once I get a feel for how many people want to come, I’ll get back to you with details regarding time, place, directions, and so on. If more people want to attend than I can accommodate, I may have to prioritize the invitations according to the order in which people responded to this notice, so if you want to be on board, speak up now.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Major uni-watching from SI.com columnist Don Banks: Check out the fourth and fifth bulleted points on this page. … Whenever I think of ballplayers who inscribe numbers or initials on their caps, I instinctively think of Jose Lima, who had all sorts of numbers (most of them shout-outs to injured teammates) written on his cap in the late 1990s. The bad news is that I’ve never been able to find a good photo of this; the good news is that Jeff Tripodi just provided one for me. … Several folks have asked why I haven’t had any coverage of the Little League World Series. And here’s the answer: The Little League World Series is, for the most part, a disgusting spectacle that teaches adults to act like children and children to act like idiots. I prefer not to associate myself with it. … The Bruins are nixing their Pooh bear alternate jersey and will instead wear a vintage jersey for home games against Original Six opponents. Full details in the middle of this page. … Gotta love the news that Jamie Moyer has been traded to the Phillies. Since Moyer always wears stirrups, hopefully this means we’ll see a revival of the Phils’ Liberty Bell stirrup logo. We should find out on Tuesday night, when Moyer’s slated to make his Phillies debut. … The latest Japanese baseball observation from Jeremy Brahm: The Rakuten Golden Eagles have hearts on their pants. … Interesting note from J.D. Arendshorst, who writes: “Matt Hasselbeck came out for the warmup for Sunday’s Seahawks/Colts preseason game with white shoelaces in his black shoes. The announcers showed this (in the 2nd quarter) and briefly mentioned that the officials made him switch shoelaces before game time, since — evidently — shoelace color must match shoe color. He came out for the game wearing the standard black laces.” This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a shoelace rule in the NFL (which certainly would’ve been news to this guy). And Hasselbeck’s worn white laces in the past. Anyone else know anything about this? … Speaking of football laces, kinda looks like Aaron Brooks has removed the laces from his pants fly, no? … Good work by Jeff Scott, who writes: “Preston Wilson signed with the Cards Friday morning and was in the lineup Friday afternoon. Looks like his jersey was made up by the Wrigley clubhouse guys, who clearly don’t get much practice sewing names onto jerseys –the letterspacing was way off [see top photo here]. His jersey from Sunday [the lower photo] is consistent with the Cards’ style.” … Last week I mentioned that the Vikings were wearing mesh nameplates. Matthew Wolfram reports that the Bears appeared to be doing the same thing on Friday, although photographic confirmation has so far proven elusive. … The Titans wear their wordmark logo just above the front uni number. But that logo was missing from Vince Young’s jersey last night, and may have been missing from Lendale White’s jersey as well (good catch by Jack Byers). … No comment.
August 21st, 2006
I don’t usually post on the weekend, but I’m gonna make an exception today, because last night there were two separate instances of broadcasters discussing a topic that we just covered here on the blog a few days ago: colored baseball gloves.
The first example came during the Mets/Rockies game (which I attended with my pal Tim, as you can see in this shot, taken in the 6th inning by one of those roving “fan photo” people who now patrol most MLB stadia), where Mets announcers Ron Darling, Gary Cohen, and Keith Hernandez took a keen interest in Jose Mesa’s purple glove:
Darling: Jose Mesa comes on for the Colorado Rockies. An interesting glove color there he chose…
Cohen [sounding very much like someone who read Wednesday's Uni Watch post]: He used to wear, when he was with the Phillies — as Tucker grounds one down to Helton for the first out — when he was with the Phillies, he wore a red one at home and a blue one on the road, so he’s just, y’know, matching the color scheme.
Darling: You gotta be, you better be really good to have a purple glove. Tell you that right now.
Hernandez [not wanting to be left out but having nothing useful to contribute]: Like a Monet or, uh… [uncomfortable pause] or a nice pastel color or something.
Cohen [displaying a surprising knowledge of art history]: You were looking for water lilies?
Hernandez [eager to show his own art knowledge]: Alright, Manet. [Discussion mercifully ends.]
Meanwhile, out in Minneapolis, Twins announcers Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven were taking notice of David Riske’s glove:
Bremer: Riske with that almost white glove. I’ve never seen a glove like that used, particularly on the mound.
Blyleven: And it must not affect the hitters, or I’m sure someone would have said something by now, that that is, you know, too much like a baseball, that type color.
Bremer: Kyle Lohse [who used to pitch for the Twins] had a light brown glove, but this thing is almost gray, a light gray.
Actually, as we discussed a few days ago, Rulebook section 1.15(a) specifically prohibits pitchers from wearing white or gray gloves, so it’s surprising that Riske’s being allowed to wear one, regardless of whether anyone’s complained. (Special thanks to Ken Tobler for the Riske tip.)
Meanwhile, two quick non-baseball notes: The Browns wore non-striped socks with their white jerseys yesterday — a bad sign. And Evander Holyfield, who’s worn purple gloves and/or trunks for most of the past decade, did it again in his comeback bout last night. Sad, very sad.
Okay, that’s it — see you on Monday.
August 19th, 2006
First and foremost: Yes, I am aware that today’s post looks a little different. Not sure why, but we’re working on it and hope to have it fixed soon.
New ESPN column today — here’s the link. (They’ve been having some technical problems on the ESPN site too, so if the link doesn’t work, try a different browser.)
Meanwhile: Bit of a punctuation slip-up yesterday in Houston, where the name on the back of Cubs pitcher Ryan O’Malley’s jersey was missing the apostrophe (a gaffe that looked even worse when it appeared side-by-side with a properly punctuated TV graphic). The slip-up was likely the result of a rush job: The Cubs played 18 innings the night before and had to use Rich Hill, who’d been scheduled to start on Thursday, so O’Malley was an emergency call-up. Toss in the fact that the team was playing an afternoon game on the road and it’s not surprising that the apostrophe got lost in the shuffle.
Punctuation and diacriticals always pose tricky problems for equipment managers. We take it for granted nowadays that players like Magglio Ordoñez and Abraham Nuñez will have the tilde over the n on their uniforms, but the use of tildes was largely unheard of during the first decade or two of player names appearing on jerseys. The first player I can recall wearing one was Willie Montañez in the late ’70s, and he’d already been in the bigs for over a decade by that point.
Some other players aren’t so lucky. The proper styling of Carlos Beltrán’s name, for example, is to include the accent over the a. Some media outlets print his name that way, but not his employer. This same problem afflicts the nameplates of many other Latino players.
Then there’s the question of what to do with names that include Mc, Le, and the like. Take, for example, Mark McGwire: When he broke in with the A’s, his name was styled with a small superscript c. But when he moved to the Cardinals, his name was rendered as all uppercase, with a space between Mc and Gwire (sometimes a really big space, sometimes not big at all). Then-teammate Joe McEwing got the same treatment, then saw his name styled with a superscript c during his stints with the Mets and Royals.
A similar evolution has taken place with Paul LoDuca’s name. When he was with the Dodgers, it was rendered in uppercase letters, with a space (sometimes big, sometimes small). But with the Marlins he wore a lowercase o, which is what also appears on his back with these days with the Mets (who sometimes appear to add a tiny space for good measure).
To my knowledge, there’s never been a ballplayer whose name included an umlaut, circumflex, cedilla, or ring accent. Can’t wait to see who gets to be the first equipment manager to contend with those.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s post about colored gloves prompted a good response from Jordan Sidwell, who writes: “I noticed in the Bobby Abreu photo that his glove had the silver Rawlings Gold Glove patch, which is given to Gold Glove winners who are Rawlings endorsers. Others who I’ve noticed wearing it are Cesar Izturis, Torii Hunter, and Alex Rodriguez (whose glove also has custom pocket stamping).” … Carlos Zambrano was recently spiked in the heel while covering first base but, according to this article (forwarded by Elena Elms), was saved from serious injury by the Venezuelan flag on the back of his shoe: “‘He was lucky,’ [Dusty] Baker said. ‘That Venezuelan flag saved him. That’s what he stepped on. It got all shoe, didn’t cut him. It was about 2 inches away from a possible Achilles.’” … Good article here about the Tigers wearing those useless titanium necklaces and creepy tinted contacts (with thanks to longtime Uni Watch pal Doug Kalemba). … The Bobcats unveiled a new alternate uni yesterday. Of course, the real story there is the sight of Adam Morrison wearing stripe-less socks — shocking! … Soccer news (courtesy of Robin Fishbein): Italy is delaying the addition of the fourth World Cup championship star to its jersey. … Meanwhile, there’s a major footwear controversy on the German team (with thanks to Pete Bonnett). … Jesse Gavin notes that Celtics rookie Kevin Pittsnogle has repeatedly been photographed with his uni number either blank or covered up (here’s another example). “Looks like they either they haven’t decided what number they want him to wear or else they didn’t have enough numbered jerseys on hand,” writes Gavin. … Turns out there’s a Yahoo group devoted to female basketball players wearing high socks. … While searching for illustrations of teachers to use at the top of this page, I came across this great photo of 1930s track star Aileen Meagher, nicknamed “The Flying Schoolmarm” (full details here). … Shinjo’s latest wristbands (courtesy of Jeremy Brahm, who also sent along an interesting shot of vertically striped wristbands). … Underbill update: Craig Hansen’s got something written under there (with thanks to Chris Mills).
August 17th, 2006
As of this writing, there have been a whopping 170 comments in response to yesterday’s post (and only a few of them were people double-commenting to apologize for their typos), so you might have missed No. 162, in which a pseudonymous reader reported thusly: “Bottom of the 1st in the Giants/Padres game tonight and the Giants’ announcers (Jon Miller and FP Santangelo) just spent a few minutes discussing Matt Morris’s glove. Apparently Morris usually pitches with a black glove, but tonight [i.e., last night] he is sporting a brown model. Santangelo reported that he discussed it with Morris pregame, and Morris said he is 1-1 with the brown glove and wants to get it over .500 (the black glove is 7-9).”
Colored gloves have been in the news lately, mainly because of Bobby Abreu, who retained his Phillies-colored glove — red with blue stitching — even after joining the Yankees. Naturally, the official Uni Watch position is that colored gloves are an affront, and that everyone should stick with basic brown. You wanna wear some other color? Fine, just make sure your glove is made out of plastic, or vinyl, polysomethingorother. But if you want to wear real leather, stick to the natural tones — that steer didn’t moo and graze and get herded down to the slaughterhouse just to suffer the indignity of having his skin dyed blue (or red, or whatever).
Alas, baseball’s rulebook is disappointingly lax on this point. The only restriction is set out in rule 1.15(a): “The pitcher’s glove may not be white, gray, nor, in the judgment of an umpire, distracting in any manner.” The “distracting” qualifier has generally been interpreted to mean that the pitcher’s glove must be solid-colored, not two-tone, and has occasionally resulted in pitchers having to switch gloves at the outset of a game.
At least two current pitchers like to color-coordinate their gloves. The first is our friend Pedro Martinez, who frequently wore blue witih the Dodgers (faux stirrups alert!), blue again with the Expos (the red stitching is the sort of thing that can get a glove banned under the “distracting” rule; also, note Pedro’s then-trademark slit sleeves, now banned), and red — or at least red-ish — with the Red Sox. Now that he’s with the Mets, he often wears blue.
But Pedro (who has routinely swapped in a black glove for the colored models) has nothing on Jose Mesa, whose glovely colors date back to his days with Cleveland, where he wore red at home and blue on the road. He then wore blue with the Mariners, black with the Giants, red at home with the Phillies (and blue on the road), and black with the Pirates (too bad he’s a pitcher, or he could’ve worn this). All of this, however, was just a warmup for the horror he unveiled upon joining the Rockies.
Call for Questions: After the recent debut of the Uni Watch Profiles series (the next installment of which will feature Jon Springer, the man behind the amazing Mets by the Numbers site), several readers wrote in to request that I include myself on the list of future interviewees. I like this idea, so I’ve drafted longtime Uni Watch contributor and correspondent Todd Krevanchi to pepper me with questions. In addition to coming up with his own queries for me, he’ll also ask questions on your behalf. So if there’s anything you want to know about me, or about Uni Watch (aside from the questions already addressed on our FAQ page), e-mail them directly to Todd (that way I won’t see the questions in advance), and he’ll include the best ones in our interview. Remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers — and hopefully I’ll manage to avoid any of those — so feel free to ask whatever’s on your mind.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s an old uniform catalog I won’t be bidding on. … Who says you can’t have eyes in the back of your head? (With thanks to Jeremy Brahm.) … For the second consecutive year, the Bengals have posted their game-by-game uniform schedule on their web site, a move that other teams would be wise to follow. Of course, the real problem is that the Bengals look like crap no matter which uni they wear.
August 16th, 2006
Quick, which guy in this photo looks like a football player, and which one looks like he got lost on his way to clown school? How about in this photo?
Granted, nobody expected much from the first on-field look at the Vikings’ new uniforms. But still, could those side panels and pants “stripes” possibly look any worse? To fully appreciate the new design’s visual chaos, check out these two photos: Here’s a group shot of the Raiders — clean, basic, classy. And here’s a group action shot of the Vikings, which could practically induce motion sickness.
And here’s a trashy little detail you might not have noticed: In an apparent NFL first, it looks like the Vikes’ new unis have mesh nameplates. (Kudos to Todd Davis for pointing this out.)
The good news is that the Vikings already play in a dome, so they’re well positioned for what now looks like their inevitable move to the Arena League.
Tab Hunter: Yesterday’s note about the Oakley “O” logo appearing on NCAA visor tabs but not in the NFL prompted an interesting communiqué from Dustin Pomprowitz: “I used to intern for a team in arenafootball2, and when I had free time I assisted the equipment manager with pregame tasks. We used to use trimmings from spare helmet-stripe decals to cover the Oakley logo so it looked like a solid-colored, brandless tab. We did this either because the equipment manager didn’t like seeing them in the first place, or else that’s what he learned when working in the NFL.”
Meanwhile, it looks like the Oakley logo will have some visor-tab competition in the NCAA this season. Players at Auburn — which is now being outfitted by Under Armour — are now sporting “UA” visor tabs, and Greg McMillin notes that several Ole Miss players now have Nike visor tabs. Given that Tab has recently been rebranded as an energy drink, it’s probably only a matter of time before someone comes up with Tab visor tabs.
Research Request: If anyone has a DVD or VHS of the 1974 World Series (I’m particularly interested in Game 3, bottom of the 1st), please get in touch asap.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yet another high-cuffs outing from Pedro Martinez last night, but still no sign of the cancelled check. Looks like he doesn’t want our money. … Speaking of Pedro, although he left last night’s game with a right calf strain, he appears to have been wearing some sort of pad or shinguard on his left leg, as you can see here. … Yesterday was NASA Night in Houston, so the Astros wore special caps (further details here and here). Interestingly, the caps did not have the MLB logo on the back. … Reggie Bush has been fined for wearing Adidas cleats in the Saints’ first preseason game. … Latest player to have his undershirt tag sticking out: Salomon Torres (good catch by Chris Hilf). … According to this Q&A column, the Cubs will restore names to the backs of jerseys next season (with thanks to Chris Thomakos).
August 15th, 2006
With our first full weekend of NFL preseason action now in the books, a few quick observations are in order. To wit:
• Several dozen readers wrote in to express alarm over the sight of the Colts wearing solid-top socks on Thursday night — a serious downgrade from the striped socks they’ve been wearing for the past couple of seasons. Recent Uni Watch Profiles subject Witesock has the depressing explanation: “Pine Sports (the Colts’ sock supplier) told me earlier this summer that the Colts did not renew their striped sock order. The NFL is still moving backwards in terms of sock design.” Indeed.
• Many readers also pointed with dismay toward the Browns, who wore solid-topped hose, instead of striped, in their first preseason game. Here’s the deal on that: The Browns used to have two different kinds of striped socks — this design, which was meant to be worn with the dark jerseys (note how the sock stripes match the sleeve stripes), and this design, which went with the white jerseys (again, note the sleeve/calf parallelism). Their current uni set still includes that second sock design, but not the other one. The solid-top format is now their official dark-jersey sock. Too bad.
• Several teams have switched to black cleats, including the Cards, Browns, and Bills (the big surprise of the group). Kudos to all.
• I hadn’t realized the Saints would be wearing a Louisiana-shaped jersey patch this season (here’s a closer look). It’s similar to the patch they used to wear on their sleeves and hips (both of which are now emblazoned with the fleur de lis.
• Other teams with new jersey patches: the 49ers, Cards, and Browns (kinda big, no?).
• The Bengals still can’t get that white side panel to look consistent (well, unless “consistently awful” counts). On some players, it stops at the underarm; for others, it extends up toward the nameplate.
• The most subtle uni revision of the season: The Titans now have a belt-buckle sleeve, which means there are now three teams wearing this utterly useless accessory (the other two being, of course, the Jets and Broncos). The kicker is that the Titans actually have three different belt sleeves, depending on which pants they wear.
• A few visor-clad players appear to be wearing the Oakley “O” logo on their visor tabs. In the past, this logo has only appeared on the tabs of NCAA players, because Oakley hasn’t been an official NFL licensee (so NFL visor tabs have typically been clear, black, or team-branded). Not sure if the “O” — which I’ve only spotted on a few NFL visors so far this preseason, not all of them — reflects a new branding arrangement between the league and Oakley or just a typical case of preseason regulatory laxity. I’m looking into it.
• In another logo creep development, reader Brooks Reuter writes: “It appears that Adidas is up to the same tricks that have gotten them in trouble in tennis. These gloves are obviously Adidas gloves, with the three stripes all the way around the palm. But as I’m sure you know, only the Reebok logo is allowed to be visible on NFL gloves. This could get interesting, as I cannot see the NFL allowing this design to play during the regular season.”
• Still as gorgeous as ever (despite the sack); still as hideous as ever.
Of course, all of this is just a warmup for the real “treat”: tonight’s game in Minnesota, which will mark the on-field debut of those horrific new Vikings uniforms. Can’t wait.
Memphis Musings: As we all know by now, the St. Louis Cardinals require all players in their minor league system to wear their pants hiked up high. So imagine my surprise when I attended a Memphis Redbirds game on Friday night and saw the pitcher — and only the pitcher — sporting the pajama-pants look. The explanation: The pitcher was St. Looie starter Mark Mulder, who was making a triple-A rehab start and was apparently exempt from the pant protocol. Would’ve been a lot cooler if Mulder had just gone along with the program, instead of big-leaguing it like a prima donna.
In other Memphis news, the Redbirds batboys were wearing facemasks. But the real story was Uni Watch reader Luke Pellagra, who turned out to be a very interesting case study in uniformity. I saw Pellagra on three consecutive days during my stay in Memphis, and on all three occasions he was wearing the same basic attire: a Cardinals baseball cap, a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt (complete with logo creep), a long-sleeve T-shirt under that, and a white T-shirt under that. The Polo shirt was always either red (in which case the long-sleeve tee was navy) or navy (in which case the long-sleeve tee was red). The cap color always matched the color of the long-sleeve shirt.
And you all thought Witesock was weird. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that the thought of a Uni Watch reader accumulating a dresser drawer full of Ralph Lauren Polo shirts is waaaaaaaaay more disturbing than any hosiery fixation could ever be (although there’s no truth to the rumor that Pellagra is the guy featured in this article [with thanks to Paul Burclaff for the link]).
Incidentally, the temperature in Memphis was just shy of 100 degrees on two of these days, and the humidity was in the 90s on the third day. So the whole city was basically a sauna, and this dude’s wearing three shirts. “It’s just what I’ve gotten used to,” said Pellagra when I asked him about it. “If I don’t wear three shirts, I feel, uh…”
Naked?
“Yeah.”
Right. Sartorial quirks notwithstanding, Pellagra’s a super-nice guy, and it was great to meet him during my stay in Memphis. He’s about to begin his sophomore year at the University of Tennessee, where he’s studying sports administration, in hopes of becoming an agent, … la Drew Rosenhaus. We should all root for him to succeed, if only because his Polo-driven look would certainly be an improvement over Rosenhaus’s purple tie.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Plenty of throwback action over the weekend, as the Mets and Nationals donned Negro Leagues unis on Friday night (here’s another view) and the Pirates and Cards did likewise on Saturday night. … More super-cool Japanese high school stirrups courtesy of Jeremy Brahm here,
here, here, and here. … Anguished logo creep confession from University of Alabama media relations rep Jeff Dunnavant, who writes: “I’m ashamed to say I’m partly responsible this mock-up of our 2006 women’s soccer media guide cover. You’ll have no problem whatsoever determining which athletics company sponsors Alabama soccer, as the company’s logo appears an amazing 36 times in the photo. Please don’t excommunicate me!” Too late, Jeff — your reservation in uni purgatory is now confirmed. … Interesting note from Jeremy Ellermeier: “Every day durning fall camp, the Nebraska coaches give out a yellow jersey to the top performer on offense, defense, and special teams. Interestingly, when Clayton Seivers recived the yellow jersey, he apparently got some yellow socks to go with it.” … Eric Ritschdorff notes that “Robinson Cano had a problem keeping his shirt tucked in during his at-bat in the top of the 7th on August 10th against the White Sox. It looked as though the ump made a point to tell him to tuck it in. He did, but it was partly hanging out on his right hip side.” … Good tip from Michael Lindsay, who recently came across a cool exhibit at the Salt Lake City Library, called Diamonds in the Rough, described as “a popular interactive exhibit that reveals the colorful 100-year history of Japanese-American baseball through memorabilia, photos and artifacts. … The exhibit’s visit to Utah is sponsored by the motion picture The American Pastime, which tells the story of Japanese Americans herded into the Topaz internment camp during WWII, where they turned to baseball as a way to deal with their plight.” Lindsay took a few photos with his camera phone, which you can see here, here, and here. … Another pink link: The Portland Beavers held a “Strike Out Breast Cancer” promotion yesterday, featuring this jersey design (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm. … Remember last month when Bosox starter Kyle Snyder pitched an entire inning with his undershirt tag sticking out? On Friday it was Wilfredo Ledezma who had the tag showing, which generally made him look ridiculous during the entire 7th inning (good catch by Tom Kot). … How the hell did purple find its way back into the Devil Rays’ color scheme? … Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks — one of only three current Tampa players to have worn the team’s old creamsicle unis back in the day — is campaigning for the team to revive the orange attire this season as a Thanksgiving Day throwback (with thanks to Mike Edgerley). … In a stunning development that may cause the Earth to wobble clear off its axis, Buck Showalter has worn a uniform jersey — instead of his usual windbreaker — for three consecutive games! Sorry, no photos (presumably because conventional cameras aren’t equipped to record paranormal phenomena), but the tip comes straight from a source in the Rangers’ dugout. … Logo Creep Alert: Check out Fidel Castro’s convalescence outfit. Some socialist he’s turning out to be!
August 14th, 2006
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