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Archive for September, 2006
Saturday Open Thread
(Photo by Wendi Kaminski/NBAE via Getty Images) This is a picture from the Los Angeles Clippers media day. We’re unsure whether they are throwbacks, alternates or the official away jersey (it was the only away jersey at media day, however). 100 comments September 30th, 2006
White Glove Treatment
Lots of good uni-related action last night in Major League Baseball, beginning in St. Louis, where Brewers pitcher Chris Spurling took the mound in the bottom of the 7th wearing a white glove. As we’ve discussed before, this is technically against the rules (position players can wear light-colored gloves, but not pitchers), although it’s rarely enforced. But this umpiring crew apparently felt they needed the exercise. So as Spurling warmed up, the umps conferred, pointed at him, and then came over for a closer look, which of course attracted the attention of nimble-minded Cardinals announcers Dan McLaughlin and Al Hrabosky:
Sound familiar? If you go back two months to the transcript of Todd Walker’s jersey snafu, you’ll find that McLaughlin pulled exactly the same routine. Basically, when a situation annoys him and he has nothing useful to say, he snidely mentions the attendance and suggests that the whole incident is a waste of everyone’s time, especially his. Dude clearly needs to get his priorities straight. Meanwhile, up in the Bronx, the underbill inscription phenomenon got a small amount of airtime during last night’s Yankees/Orioles game, as play-by-play man Michael Kay noticed that Yanks starter Darrell Rasner had something scribbled under there. Here’s the short discussion Kay had with color commentator Al Leiter:
Uni watchery and lame-o hard rock references all in one sound bite, not too shabby. (Big thanks to Laura Koenig and Eric Ritschdorff for the tips.) Uni Watch News Ticker: The Bucks unveiled their new uniforms yesterday. And while the Xmas-esque color scheme is a bit problematic, it’s clearly a major upgrade over what they had before. … Speaking of Milwaukee, my radio interview on WUWM’s Lake Effect radio show, recorded last month at the Milkwaukee Uni Watch party, finally aired on Wednesday night. You can access the audio file here. … Joe Poll was poking around the Broncos’ web site and turned up this article about equipment manager Chris Valenti. The site also includes this 2005 Q&A session that Valenti conducted — good stuff. … Has anyone else noticed how bad Pedro Martinez’s karma has been since he failed to cash our check? 144 comments September 29th, 2006
Sock Exchange
Got a communiqué on Tuesday evening from Uni Watch Wisconsin bureau chief the Rev. Nørb, who was listening to the Cubs/Brewers game on the radio at work. Nørb reported that Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker had just held delivered a “rambling dissertation” about “the days when men were men and wore their pants up high,” so I went over to MLB.TV to check out the archived audio file. Uke began with what we might refer to as Hosiery 101:
Okay, so that’s all pretty basic. But then Uecker segued into a truly sensational story that I’d never heard before. Check it out:
Now that’s a great story. Anyone ever heard of anything like this before? Incidentally, the Cubs and Dodgers still use precisely the same shade of blue today, officially spec’d for both teams as Pantone 294. Uni Watch News Ticker: Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s long farewell tour finally ended a few days ago, and Uni Watch Far East correspondent Jeremy Brahm has the details: “For Shinjo’s final regular-season game, he came out wearing No. 63 [his original number back when he entered Japanese professional baseball with the Hanshin Tigers] instead of his usual No. 1. This forced catcher Ryuuichi Watanabe, who normally wears No. 63, to change his number for a day to 68.” … Speaking of Japanese baseball: They’ve got some really small unis over there. … Another interesting note from Brahm: a bit of logo anti-creep in the soccer world. … The Raptors officially unveiled their new purple-free home uni yesterday, although the design has actually been an open secret ever since the NBA 2K7 game came out. … Meanwhile, the Bucks are due to unveil their own new purple-free uniforms today. … Gorgeous Rawlings uniform swatch catalog was auctioned off on eBay yesterday. Unfortunately, I was outbid. 121 comments September 28th, 2006
Underbill Update No. 389
As most of you know, I’ve been mildly obsessed this season with the growing phenomenon of MLB players who write things under their cap visors. (For those who missed it, here’s the ESPN column I devoted to this topic a few months back.) Then, in a separate underbill development, a few weeks ago I passed along news from a National League source who said there would be changes to all MLB caps next year — including a switch from gray underbills to black. I originally assumed there was no connection between these two stories, and that the switch to black was due to the increasingly popular school of thought that black underbills are better for reducing glare. But last week on Chris Creamer’s message boards, buried in the midst of a long discussion of the Diamondbacks’ new logos (which I’ll have more to say about soon, promise), there was this:
Faaaaaascinating. If this is true, it raises some interesting points: • Black brims wouldn’t eliminate underbill inscriptions, since players could still use silver Sharpies (although I agree that fewer players would do that, because there’s just something counterintuitive about writing on a black surface). • Why is the MLB office so worked up about underbill scribblings anyway? Assuming you can see them at all, they’re usually illegible, so what’s the problem? They’re a charming quirk, and are among the very few ways that a player can personalize his uniform without being all “Look at me!” about it. Eliminating them — or trying to — is a short-sighted move. • Whether it’s the White House or the MLB office, anytime someone is paranoid about “media backlash,” it’s a pretty safe bet they’re doing something stupid. Meanwhile, we can add two more players to the ranks of the underbill scribblers. The first is Nationals reliever Jon Rauch, who’s got something fairly elaborate — although it’s not clear what — written on his home and road caps. The second is Cleveland’s Shin-Soo Choo (already notable for his double-flapped batting helmet), whose underbill notation appears to be written in Korean. If the closing days of this season really do constitute the twilight of the gray underbill, Rauch and Choo may go down as the last players to take full advantage of it. (The Choo pics, incidentally, are courtesy of Toronto photographer Aaron Reynolds, who’s generously offered to make his vast photo archive available for Uni Watch research purposes — thanks, man!) Uni Watch News Ticker: We weren’t the only ones talking about logo leaks yesterday — look here. … Bryan Redemske has gotten an advance copy of this book (due out in about three weeks) and says the photos feature some fantastic uni details, including a shot of Honus Wagner with a little “P P” collar embroidery — never seen that before. Full report to follow when I can get my hands on a copy. … Monday’s nomination for the worst prep uniform ever brought several competing picks, the most notable of which was Riverside High in South Carolina (props to Ronnie Poore). … Speaking of high school teams, great article here about high school teams that use college or pro helmet logo designs (with thanks to P.J. Mallardi). … Notes you may have missed from yesterday’s Comments section: Rice players will wear a “39″ helmet decal for the rest of the season, in memory of teammate Dale Lloyd, who died on Sunday (with thanks to Richard Grossman). … And Adam Denob noticed that Panthers kicker John Kasey was wearing a watch in Sunday’s game against Tampa. 144 comments September 27th, 2006
The Future Looks (B)Leak
In case you missed it in yesterday’s Comments section, there was a lot of chatter about the new Reds and Diamondbacks logos. The discussion was primarily due to a Deadspin item that appeared yesterday, which in turn was prompted by a long thread last week on Chris Creamer’s message boards, which had itself been fueled by the logos being leaked on the Fanhome boards (which I’d never even heard of before — there’s only so much of this stuff a guy can keep up with). I have plenty to say about both logo sets, but that’s not what I want to talk about today. Instead I want to talk about the issue of leaked info, confidentiality, and how sports designs are disseminated. All this seems particularly timely because control of sensitive information is a huge topic in the world right now: Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s, is back in the news with a much-discussed article in which he encourages leaking as a form of dissent; Hewlett-Packard’s chairwoman resigned last week after it was revealed that the company had engaged in some highly questionable practices to discover and neutralize the sources of unauthorized media leaks; the White House continues to criticize the New York Times for having disclosed the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program last winter (and we now know that Times editors were actually summoned to the Oval Office by President Bush, who personally urged them — unsuccessfully — to withhold the story); access to classified information is also a major sticking point in the ongoing saga of how terrorism suspects should be tried; and on the sports scene, two San Francisco Chronicle reporters are facing possible jail time for refusing to name the confidential sources who leaked them the BALCO grand jury testimony. (By coincidence, several of these news items, and several other leak-related tidbits, were discussed yesterday in this article, which I didn’t even notice until I’d already written most of this post.)
Obviously, the question of whether we all get to see the Diamondbacks’ new sleeve logo a month or two ahead of time isn’t quite as earthshaking as any of those other issues. But the principles are the same, and it’s something I think about a lot, because leaked and/or confidential uni-related info comes my way pretty frequently — sometimes because I seek it out, and sometimes because it seeks me out. In fact, as you may recall, I’m the one who broke the story that the Diamondbacks would be getting a design overhaul in the first place, after a source at the team’s pro shop got in touch with me last month. (I didn’t have visuals, just a verbal description. If you want to see how I reported it, scroll down to the “Battlefield Report” section of this ESPN column.) I don’t say that to toot my own horn; indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of you knew about the Dbacks facelift long before I did. I’m just explaining that these are questions I deal with on a semi-regular basis. First, a bit of background. Each major sports league produces a “style guide,” which shows the official logos, colors, and uniform treatments for every team. These are used primarily by merchandising licensees and media outlets. In the past, the style guides were produced as printed volumes and looked sort of like catalogs; more recently the leagues have stopped printing the guides and have instead put all the information on password-protected web sites. In Uni Watch’s early days, the leagues were usually happy to provide me with style guides if I asked nicely, I think in part because the column was such a small enterprise in those days and I was writing for a fairly obscure media outlet, at least in terms of the sports world (the Village Voice’s now-defunct sports section, which was buried in the back of the paper, amidst the phone sex ads). In short, I think the leagues didn’t really take me seriously, so they could basically pat me on the head and say, “Here you go, here’s your style guide, now run off and place nice.”
Nowadays, of course, Uni Watch runs on ESPN.com. You’d think the leagues would be more eager to work with me now that I’m part of the world’s biggest sports media company, right? Wrong. Most of them are much more restrictive now. In fact, I don’t currently have official access to any league’s style guide (although I have unofficial access for one league, and another league is generally happy to show me anything I ask to see). Part of this, I think, is that I’m often critical of the leagues, plus I bug them for lots of picky information — they file me under P, for pest. And part of it, I’m sure, is that the internet has made it much easier to spread uniform and logo information, and has given rise to communities that are very hungry for that information (like all of you reading this), so things can often spin out of control. That’s how the Reds and Dbacks logos were revealed: Someone downloaded the logo pages from Major League Baseball’s style guide web site, uploaded them to an image-hosting server, and then announced them on the Fanhome message board. Who did this? I have no idea, although I can tell you it wasn’t me. It could have been me, though, because I saw the logos a few days before they began appearing on various message boards. I also saw the full Cincinnati and Arizona uniforms, which to my knowledge haven’t hit the internet yet. So why didn’t I write about the logos when I first saw them? Because they were provided to me under the condition that I not go public with them. I gave my word, and my word is good. (As a journalist, I’m frequently given information on an “embargoed” basis, which means I’m not allowed to talk about it until a specific date — that’s similar to what happened here.) When the logos began circulating last week, I stayed mum, because the designs were still confined to a very small subculture, and I thought it wasn’t my place to give them wider exposure. Obviously, that’s a judgment call. Similarly, when the Deadspin link appeared yesterday, I said to myself, “Okay, lots of people read Deadspin, so now the logos are really public — I can talk about them now.” That’s a judgment call, too. The full uniforms, meanwhile, haven’t been yet been leaked in any public forum I’m aware of, so I’m keeping mum about them.
But what if someone had forwarded the logos and/or uniforms to me with no strings attached? Would I have leaked them then? Maybe, maybe not — it would depend on the specific circumstances. Why? A better question might be, Why not? Here are the usual answers to that question: • “Leaking a design before its scheduled unveiling shows no respect for the designer.” This argument, which has been promulgated primarily by the design world, doesn’t really work for me. Some of my best friends are designers, but the designer is ultimately just a contractor working for a client. The client is the one who owns the design and calls the shots, and in this case that’s the team or the league. Which brings us to… • “Leaking a design can screw up a team’s marketing plan.” I have even less sympathy for this position. Sports marketing these days is insipid on so many different levels — if anything undercuts a team’s plan, or just raises the marketing staff’s blood pressure, I’m inclined to think that’s probably a good thing. Fans are tired of everything in sports seeming calculated and scripted, and that includes uniform programs. The level of secrecy about team designs has become offensive, since the designs ultimately belong to the fans — not legally, of course, but emotionally, because the fans are the ones who’ll be rooting for the colors, the logos, the uniforms. Teams need to remember that they’re not just business entities — they’re also civic entities (that’s why we all get so worked up about this stuff to begin with), and fans have a legitimate civic interest in seeing their teams’ designs. So in this case, I lean toward Daniel Ellsberg’s position that leaking can sometimes be a legitimate form of dissent, and a way for fans to claim some sense of empowerment in an increasingly alienating sports world — or at least a way of fucking with people who probably deserve to be fucked with. (That sound you just heard is my file being moved to E, for enemy.) Besides, I’ve yet to hear of a single case in which leaking caused any harm other than annoying a bunch of suits. When the Sabres’ new logo was leaked back in June, it prompted fan outcry, a petition drive, political cartoons, and lots of hairpiece jokes. But did the Sabres make any changes? No. By the time they finally unveiled the new uni two weekends ago, managing partner Larry Quinn was telling reporters, “In retrospect, we couldn’t have done it any better. [The leaks have] been a great guerilla marketing campaign.” And here’s something else to consider: As many of you know, new uniform designs can often be seen in video games well before the design’s official unveiling. And why is that? Because teams and leagues want to milk every last licensing penny out of their designs. So please don’t tell me a design is too “sensitive” to be shown ahead of time when you’re already making money off of it in the video game market. You can’t have it both ways.
• “What’s the rush? We’ll all get to see the design eventually.” As simplistic as it may sound, I think this is actually the best reason not to leak a design. Does it really matter whether we see the Diamondbacks’ new logos now or in November, when they’re slated to be officially unveiled? Nah. If a league representative showed me a new uniform design and said, “Listen, you can do what you want with this, but I’d appreciate it if you could just wait and let us handle it our own way,” I’d probably oblige. It’s a certainly a more honest approach than trying to convince me that the fate of western civilization — or the Western Conference — hangs in the balance. Your thoughts? I’m listenin’. 125 comments September 26th, 2006
Monday Morning Uni Watch
It was no surprise that those Bills throwbacks looked awesome yesterday (you can bask a bit more in their magnificence here, here, here, and here). But it was surprising, at least to me, that the throwback helmets were completely blank in the back — no NFL logo, no American flag, not even the usual warning decal. The rear helmet view was so plain that the molded lower contour on the Riddell Revolution helmets — a contour that I’d frankly never noticed before — suddenly appeared much more prominent. After a bit of photo research, it turns out that the Bills’ throwback helmets were blank last season as well. Not only that, but the Chargers’ throwback helmets are blank on the back side too, all of which is very odd, since the throwback jerseys still have Reebok sleeve logos, the NFL Equipment collar logo, etc. How did the helmets earn a logo creep exemption? Other NFL notes from yesterday: • Byron Leftwich had the two-towel thing going on. • More hosiery shenanigans from Clinton Portis: Look closely and you’ll see that he was wearing burgundy leggings over white shin pads and no socks (here’s another view). • As if the Vikings didn’t have enough problems: purple gloves. • Here’s something I’ve been meaning to investigate: There are always all sorts of people on the sidelines wearing garish vests — the guy with the red X, the guy with the orange K, and so on. Does anyone know which vest symbols match up with which specific duties? Uni Watch News Ticker: In what is no doubt an NHL first, the Rangers and Panthers wore Puerto Rican flag patches for their exhibition game on Saturday, which was played in San Juan. … Latest Japanese baseball observation from Jeremy Brahm: Check out the bizarre glove worn by Osamu Hamanaka. … “Here’s the worst prep uni ever,” says Uni Watch Nebraska bureau chief Bryan Redemske. “It’s from St. Cecilia High School in Hastings, Nebraska. I challenge you to find a worse one.” … LSU, which usually wears white at home (and also on the road, natch), broke out the rarely seen purple jerseys for Saturday’s game against Tulane. … My latest eBay score: this super-cool 1928 uniform ad (better pics to follow when I actually receive the item). … Unfortunate news out of Toronto, where Brian Tallet’s totally bitchin’ stirrups are already a quickly fading memory. He was pajama-pantsed during yesterday’s game, and Mike Priest took a truly disturbing photo of him in the bullpen. Didn’t realize MLB was now offering boot-cut pants. … Latest Nike brainstorm: Outfitting the English rugby team in longjohns. Full details here. … And Nike also appears to be taking their mismatched-sleeve program to new extremes (with thanks to Seth Harris). … To give credit where it’s due: Jonathan Carone notes that Nike has actually improved the look of D-IAA Liberty, which has gone from this and this to this and this. “We no longer look like an Arena League team!” he says. … Classy move yesterday by the Nationals, who all wore their pants hiked up high in honor of teammate Nick Johnson, who broke his leg on Saturday. … The Padres ran their annual “Shirts Off Their Backs” charity promotion yesterday, marked by a special Swinging Friar right-sleeve patch. … If you didn’t check the site over the weekend, be sure to scroll down to webmaster John Ekdahl’s Ryder Cup coverage — great stuff. 158 comments September 25th, 2006
Ryder Cup Weekend
I know some of you don’t consider what the teams wear “uniforms” in the traditional sense, since they don’t have numbers and it isn’t exactly a fast-moving contact sport. But for the sake of this post we’re going to call them uniforms. Ryder Cup teams actually have a long history of uniforms, although they didn’t match quite as much as they do today. The earliest example I could find was this picture of the American team on top of the Savoy Hotel in London in 1929 Cup (the second Ryder Cup). During the early Cups, the two teams generally wore matching suits at photo shoots, like in this 1935 picture, but their golf course attire didn’t match exactly (additional photo here). The Ryder Cup was cancelled from 1939-1945 during World War II, but it resumed in 1947. Interesting piece of transportational history in the span of four years: In 1949, the American team boarded the SS Queen Elizabeth (that’s Sam Snead second from left, and Ben Hogan fifth from left) and four years later they made the transcontinental trip by plane, always in full uniform. More Team Photos:
The golf course uniforms did not originally have the Ryder Cup logo. The United States team appears to have added it in 1963, as shown here on Arnold Palmer (who wasn’t wearing it in 1961). Irish golfer Christy O’Connor was sporting a logo in 1965 and Englishman Eric Brown wore one in 1957, but it’s difficult to tell whether those are Ryder Cup logos or an English team logo. If anyone has further information on this, please let us know. With a few exceptions, the United States team has been wearing blue or red since the advent of color photography. Here’s Jack Nicklaus pulling off the blue plaid pants in 1973 and Tom Watson showing off the baby blue in 1981. Paul Azinger is sporting the red vest in 1991. Here’s Payne Stewart (God rest his soul) in ‘93 with navy pants, and this is the entire team in navy pants after the victory (note the Ryder Cup on the sweaters). The Europeans don’t have team colors and pretty much wear every color on the spectrum, since they represent an entire continent. (The European team was English-only until 1973, when they added the Irish, and then expanded to include all of Europe in 1979.) They’ve worn brown, red, pink, light blue, yellow, baby blue, salmon, and navy blue just to name a few colors. Here’s some recent Ryder Cup uni history: 1997 – Valderamma, Spain
1999 – The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts
2002 – The Belfrey, England
2004 – Oakland Hills, Michigan
And here’s what been happening in the 2006 Ryder: Wednesday: The Europeans used Wednesday’s practice session to break out the teal sweaters, while the American squad wore navy rain jackets. Later on, the Americans wore classic black tuxedos (additional photo here) and the Euros wore matching white tuxedos (more photos here and here) to the Ryder Cup Gala Dinner at Citywest Hotel and Golf Resort in Dublin. Many of the American wives wore red dresses (more photos here and here). Thursday: The practice sessions on Thursday saw the Americans in brown vests with flags located on the upper back. The Europeans wore blue striped polos for the morning practice. Team photos were next on the schedule, with the Euros wearing the same blue polos for one and navy jackets with yellow racing stripes for the other. The Americans wore the same brown vests as they had been wearing earlier. Opening ceremonies began later in the afternoon as both teams walked out together. The U.S. team sported navy sportcoats and the Europeans went with green. Much has been made about the Europeans’ choice of color, but my belief is that they wanted to pay homage to Ireland (hosting for the first time) without stepping on any toes. The WaGs (wives and girlfriends) are definitely having fun this week. The girls have been wearing matching outfits the last few years, as seen here in 1997, 2002 and 2004. This year the American women wore these outfits for the opening ceremony, while the European women wore these. Let’s just hope they didn’t walk on any greens. Friday: The morning matches began with the Americans wearing argyle sweater vests and gray polos underneath. Most of the Americans went vest-free for the afternoon matches. The European team started the day with green sweater vests, but some of them went long-sleeve only. Most switched to brown for the afternoon matches. The WaGs were in uniform as well, with the American girls wearing these outfits (more photos here and here) and taking a cue from their husbands by switching it up for the afternoon. The European women wore this on Friday. Saturday: Saturday’s matches started out with a little confusion, as it was difficult to tell the difference between the US and European unis without looking closely. Perhaps they should adopt a “home team picks unis first” policy for future Cups. The rain brought out the jackets and the Euros seem to be a step ahead of the Americans in fashion as well as performance on the course. The American Rain Jackets are a little dull compared to the sharp looking European ones (here’s another view). Afternoon matches saw a change to light purple for the European squad, while the US stuck with the unis from the morning. Check out the detail on the European players’ pants. The WaGs were at it again on Saturday. Here’s a good picture of Sergio Garcia’s girlfriend sitting with Luke Donald’s girlfriend. Paul Casey’s girlfriend is matching as well. The American girls were in all black, probably to match the mood. You have to think the Ryder Cup will return to Ireland in the near future after views like this. Sunday: The final day of the competition and the format was singles matches. It was raining early, which brought out the first short-sleeve rain jackets. Stewart Cink wore the American version and Sergio Garcia was in the Euro version (additional views here and here). Some of the European team wore red vests and some went with the light pink shirt on its own (more photos here and here). This is the European long-sleeve version. This European is not in uniform. Photographic evidence supports that the United States did in fact show up, just not on the scoreboard. Most of the Americans wore red striped shirts with navy vests. Some Americans went without the vests, the long-sleeve version is here. It didn’t seem to matter what they wore this weekend, as the results were usually the same. Fantastic performance by Darren Clarke, who recently lost his wife to cancer and went undefeated (3-0-0). Truly a class act and one of golf’s great gentlemen. Heartfelt congratulations to him. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this long entry, and congrats to European Team who thoroughly dominated the U.S all weekend. 47 comments September 24th, 2006
Sunday Open Thread (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Greg Maddux was sportin’ Brad Penny’s jersey in the dugout before Saturday’s game. 45 comments September 24th, 2006
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