|
|
Archive for October, 2006
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Every so often, someone writes in and says, “Why don’t you write about the designs on basketball courts, or the logos painted on football fields, or stadium design?”
As I’ve always explained to the people who raise this type of question, I’m interested in field/court/ice/arena design, but I’ve held off on writing about it because, strictly speaking, it’s not uni-related. But this type of material clearly falls within the wider boundaries of athletics aesthetics, and I recently told myself, “The next time someone raises a really good issue regarding fields or courts or whatever, I’ll run with it.”
That day came yesterday, when I got a note from Brian Hunsicker, a sportswriter for a small daily newspaper in northern Virginia. Here’s his communiqué:
On Friday night I covered a game between Woodbridge and C.D. Hylton high schools. It was Woodbridge’s homecoming, and the school celebrated by painting its yardlines black. The individual yardlines along the sideline and the inside of the numbers were painted yellow.
After the game, I asked Woodbridge’s coach in passing if it was legal, and he said it didn’t matter what color they used, as long as it was contrasting. …
Anyway, I’ve been playing or covering football for most of my life and have yet to see anything like this.
This is definitely a first for me, too. Even Boise State’s blue gridiron has white yard markers. Anyone else ever seen anything like this?
Anyway, a field with black yardlines seems perfect for Halloween, no?
Signal Flare: If Matthew T. Olson is reading this, please get in touch — thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of field graphics, anyone interested in that subject area should check out these guys. … While looking at photos of Maryland’s black jerseys and red-trimmed undersleeves yesterday, I noticed something I hadn’t picked up on before: The Terps appear to have football’s subtlest rear-helmet uni numbers (here’s another view). I like, I like. … Thanks to Mark Dagwell for pointing out this article about the 1974-75 Washington Capitals’ white pants (although the article mistakenly says they wore the white breezers with their home unis, when they actually wore them on the road). … Good catch by Billy Ramirez, who notes that the space between the Panthers’ helmet stripes is a lot narrower for players wearing the Riddell Revolution helmet — compare this and this to this and this. … Lots of Ohio State news, courtesy of Buckeyes fanatic Chad Klenk. For starters: It’s tough to see, but OSU is wearing a black “AP” helmet decal in honor of freshman Andrew Polakowski, who died in an elevator accident on October 20th. Also, as Klenk explains, “Anthony Gonzalez has worn a different helmet/facemask each year: 2004, 2005, 2006. And Troy Smith is sporting a different facemask this season than he has in the past.” … Good to see that Adidas is taking good care of its talent (with thanks to Morris Bird). … Odd catch by Eric Distenfeld, who notes that Ian Laperriere’s jersey sort of folded over on Sunday night, briefly creating the illusion that he was wearing the “C” and the “A” simultaneously.
October 31st, 2006
In case you somehow missed it on E!, the big uni-related news yesterday was that Chad Johnson wore an “ocho cinco” nameplate during pregame warm-ups (that’s “eight five,” in case you don’t habla Español). He was reportedly told he’d be fined if he wore it during the game, so teammate Carson Palmer reached over shortly before kickoff and removed the nameplate — easy enough to do, since it was only affixed with Velcro — revealing the usual “C. Johnson” underneath.
The media, predictably, is treating this as a typical wide receiver “Look at me!” stunt, like Terrell Owens’s Sharpie or Joe Horn’s cell phone. But that’s not a good comparison, because those were essentially solo pranks, while Johnson needed help to pull this one off. Who made that nameplate for him? The fabric and typography appear to match the Bengals’ standard specs, so did Reebok make it? Did the equipment manager have it made? Did the team’s stitching vendor do it? And who put the Velcro around the edges of Johnson’s regular nameplate? Someone did some major aiding and abetting here, and I’d very much like to know who it was.
Also, if this is the NFL’s latest attempt to court the Hispanic audience, they’d better wise up regarding the proper numerical translations. Fortunately, reader Jeff Israel has provided a helpful tutorial.
Paging Messrs. Krevanchi and Mihalik: An interesting footwear query came in last night from Joaquin Jang, who quoted the following bit from Scott Ostler’s column in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle:
Jorgen Klinsmann is seen as the coach who could lead U.S. soccer out of the wilderness of mediocrity, and talks have begun. Insiders say one stumbling block is shoes. U.S. soccer is a Nike operation, and Klinsmann has strong ties to Adidas. Maybe Klinsmann could do what Darryl Dawkins did one game when he had overlapping contracts with two rival shoe companies. He wore one of each.
“Dawkins played before I began following the NBA,” says Jang, “so I’d never heard of him wearing two different shoes at the same time. Have you? Any photographic evidence of it?”
As many of you know, I’m not particularly sneaker-centric, so this was all news to me. I did some very quick photo research but the pics of Chocolate Thunder that I found all showed him wearing matched footwear. Also, it’s worth noting that several of the items in Ostler’s column are clearly meant to be jokes, and this might be one of them. Any sneaker-heads out there care to enlighten us?
Horn-Toot Dept.: The one-two punch of the Bill Buckner and Kenny Rogers stories has resulted in some nice media coverage for Uni Watch. Check out these testimonials from the Baltimore Sun, Newsday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Showing off? Nope (well, okay, maybe a little) — I just wanted you all to see that more and more people are starting to Get It™, which is good news for those of us who already do. Also, reader input and contributions are a huge part of Uni Watch — I literally couldn’t do it without you folks — so feel free to take a share of the credit for those glowing reviews.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Really love your team’s colors? Home Depot will let you paint your house with them (tip o’ the cap to the always-colorful Mike from Queens). … Paul Stastny has changed his uniform number from 62 to 26. “62 was to honor his dad (in reverse, since Peter wore 26), but now he’s just going with the direct approach,” explains John Griebel. … “Technically, these qualify as a uniform change,” says Nicole Haase. Full details here. … Why doesn’t Chris Hovan just get it over with and wear a toga already? … Good stuff you may have missed from recent Comments sections: Nice article here about college football merit decals (with thanks to Jill Horn). … Tony LaRussa appears to have been wearing some sort of stick pin just under the “StL” logo on his undershirt. … Adam Vinatieri was wearing an undershirt with striped sleeves yesterday. Anyone know the brand? … John Muir notes that Vancouver goalie Robert Luongo’s alternate mask features the team’s old Johnny Canuck logo on the side. Full details on that seldom-seen logo here.
October 30th, 2006
I don’t usually blog on the weekend, but I’m making an exception today, because Newsday sports media columnist Neil Best has written a nice article about Uni Watch for his Sunday column, so I want to have some fresh content up for any Newsday readers who might be checking out the blog for the first time. So, for Newsday readers, welcome aboard. Look around, check out the archives, enjoy all the photo links — hope you’ll all become regular visitors. (And if you’re curious about the Bill Buckner and Kenny Rogers columns that Neil Best referred to, you’ll find them here and here.) As for everyone else, enjoy today’s bonus content.
Now then: I don’t know if readers Chris Hilf and Mark Morabito know each other, but they should. They recently e-mailed me on the same day to tell me about the great new digital archive that the University of Pittsburgh has recently made available on the web. It’s includes a treasure trove of fantastic Pitt sports photos (especially once you start poking through the yearbooks and media guides), many of which are very much in keeping with Uni Watch’s sphere of interest. Among the many highlights:
• Check out the rear pants stripes being worn by Stanford in this 1933 Pitt/Stanford game. And if I’m not mistaken, that’s the ref over toward the right, wearing what appears to be a cardigan and some seriously baggy knickers.
• If Dan Marino forgot his uni number, he could just look down at his towel.
• The first thing you notice about this photo of Tony Dorsett is how some of his merit decals are chipped, and how the ones on the back of his helmet appear to be a different color pattern than the ones up front. Less obvious: the MacGregor chinstrap (never see those anymore), and the fact that his name appears to have been screen onto his jersey — right over a seam.
• This is the Western University of Pennsylvania basketball team, circa 1897. No shorts! Looks like they borrowed those quilted knickers from the football squad.
• The women’s hoops team had “P”-emblazoned socks in the 1970s (and also featured pinstriped unis with a weird sash-like “Pitt” panel).
• Insert Homer Simpson drooling noise here.
And although I’ve mentioned this before, it bears repeating: Anyone who cares about Pitt sports, or about athletics aesthetics in general, should check out this site, which aims to resurrect Pitt’s old script logo (a nice echo of our own campaign to get the Mets to ditch the black).
October 29th, 2006
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
World Series MVP David Eckstein of the St. Louis Cardinals displays his championship gear.
October 28th, 2006
I don’t know what the record is for most mentions of chain-stitching in a week, but I think we’re about to break it.
As you may recall, the topic first came up on Monday in my latest ESPN column, when I reported that the Cardinals were the only remaining MLB to chain-stitch their insignia directly onto their jersey, while the Astros and Phillies chain-stitched their logos onto patches that were then sewn onto the garment. (Other MLB teams don’t employ chain-stitching at all.)
That prompted a reply from Kevin Gee, who insisted that the Astros used direct-embroidered chain-stitching, with no patch, and provided visual evidence to support his claim. So I apologized to the good people of Houston and added the ‘Stros to the direct-embroidered camp, along with the Cardinals.
But now Uni Watch Graphics Director Scott M.X. Turner (who, incidentally, has whipped up a nifty design for a Uni Watch temporary tattoo — stay tuned for ordering details soon) has brought an even more esoteric distinction to the debate. Here’s the note he sent me yesterday:
Regardless of whether Houston’s is directly embroidered, it’s a cheaper, crappier chain-stitch. St. Louis’s is the old-fashioned circular (or “swirl”) chain-stitch — i.e., gorgeous. The story is that up until recently, the Cardinals’ uniforms were done by a few older women who’d been chain-stitching commercially forever. The last one retired a few years ago.
Houston’s chain-stitch is a modern, non-circular variety — clunky and mass-produced. That’s why, even though it’s directly embroidered, it feels like a patch rather than direct embroidery.
Here are two pix showing the difference ‘tween old swirl chain-stitch and modern machine chain-stitch. This one is an old Mitchell & Ness Curt Flood jersey (done by one of the old ladies); this one is a Stall & Dean Portland Beavers jacket (made offshore).
Wow, great info. I know you’re all eager to rush off to your sewing machines and knitting bees, so I’ll stop here and let you get on with it.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Footwear fanatics may be interested to learn that Jeremy Brahm has tracked down the company that makes Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s cleats. Looks like they do some pretty rad stuff. “It is an eight-person company in the rural Nara prefecture,” Jeremy reports, “which is kind of surprising, because normally the star players are wearing Mizuno, Asics, SSK, Nike, etc. This one was for Tyrone Woods of the Chunichi Dragons. I guess his goal was to hit 50 home runs, but he finished with 47.” … Jeremy also notes that the Nippon Ham Fighters’ Hichori Morimoto, who as you may recall dressed up like a Martian during the Japanese All-Star Game, celebrated Nippon’s Japan Series victory by donning a speed skating outfit. … Cricket report from Peter Bonnett, who was watching Wednesday’s New Zealand/Pakistan match and noted that the “7″ on James Franklin’s uni number looked like this — a much wider, fatter 7 than the skinnier version worn by several of his teammates. … Excellent tip from Matt Brukman, who reports: “The main library here at NC State has a photo exhibition of the baseball team over the years, going back to 1899. All manner of unis are evident — most notably changes to the school’s name and sock/stirrup design.” Great stuff. … Look for an article about Uni Watch in this Sunday’s Newsday (big thanks to Uni Watch publicist Carrie Klein for helping to make this possible). … In case you missed it in yesterday’s Comments section: Sporting News columnist Dave Kindred goes a bit overboard about Anthony Reyes ironing his cap brim (and also takes a totally uncalled-for potshot at Reyes’s socks) here. … Also from yesterday’s Comments: small uni tweaks upcoming for Duke (with thanks to Richard Grossman), and a quick back-and-forth on Cal’s yellow football unis can be found toward the end of this interview (good catch by Comments section stalwart Minna H.). … Now that Guillaume Latendresse has become the first NHL player ever to wear uni No. 84 (which was the last sub-100 number to have been worn), SI.com’s Brian Cazeneuve has put together a fun article picking the greatest player to wear each number (with thanks to Brian Goff). … What’s the point of wearing knee pads if they don’t even cover your knees? … According to a thread on the Chris Creamer boards, the NBA Live 07 video game indicates that this season’s NBA All-Star Game unis will look like this, this, and this — ugh. … Yesterday’s New York Times featured an amazing locker room photo of the 1968 Cardinals, and it’s hard to know what to focus on — the uniforms or the other clothes. Note that the roster included Elvis Costello, shown second from back right. … Good analysis from Al Saunders, who writes: “In the picture that opens the article about the Staal family in the new Sports Illustrated, none of the three brothers wearing NHL jerseys have the right socks on. Jordan’s [second from right] should have gold/white/black/gold stripes instead of red/white/red, Eric’s [second from left] should have black/white/black stripes instead of being plain, and Marc’s [far left] should have white/red/white instead of white/silver/black. I’d be willing to bet that Marc’s socks are the road version of the Sudbury Wolves socks that his brother Jared [far right] is wearing, as Marc also plays for that team.” (Credit an assist to Greg Capece, who picked up on the same thing.) … Next time Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh claims there’s a “war against religious expression” in America, kindly direct their attention to John Rodriguez’s batting glove. … Footwear guru Mark Mihalik broke out the slide rule last night and computed that Albert Pujols has worn at least seven different sets of cleats this season.
October 27th, 2006
Toward the end of my latest ESPN column, I discussed the evolution of the Cardinals’ “birds on the bat” insignia. They’ve worn various iterations of this design nearly every season since 1922. The lone exception: 1956, when they wore a “Cardinals” script on both their home and road uniforms — a one-year aberration that has never been satisfactorily explained.
But apparently the Cards originally had a different road design planned for that season. The evidence has been discovered by uniform designer and longtime Uni Watch comrade in arms Todd Radom, who was recently trolling around on eBay and came upon an auction for the Associate Press photo shown above (here’s a slightly larger view), dated February 25th, 1956. As you can see, it shows Stan Musial modeling what turned out to be the new home uni and holding a completely different road design (rendered in “pearl-gray,” according to the caption), which apparently never got out of the starting gate. This is a major a find — a lost chapter in Redbirds history!
The most amazing thing, of course, is that the team reversed course and came up with a completely new road design sometime between late February and Opening Day — an unthinkable proposition nowadays, when teams have to commit to a uni design nearly a year in advance. It’s similar to the situation presented by this photo of Casey Stengel, taken on January 19th, 1962, showing a different uni than the one the Mets would wear just a few months later.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Great article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal about this uniform cleaning product. Unfortunately, the article isn’t available online unless you’re a WSJ subscriber. But if you want to see it, send me an e-mail here (note that this is not the usual Uni Watch address) and I’ll send a copy back your way. (With thanks to Uni Watch Savannah bureau chief Rob Walker, who runs the excellent Murketing blog.) … The Bill Buckner double curse story was apparently brought up on ESPN’s Cold Pizza show yesterday, and has also been added to the Buckner’s Wikipedia entry, which I guess means it’s really hit the big time. … Speaking of which: My Kenny Rogers column was briefly mentioned by a caller on WFAN’s Skipper and Gilligan show yesterday (apologies to Phil Mushnick for stealing his joke), so I called the station to tell them I’d be happy to discuss the matter on the air. Got connected to a producer and could almost feel his eyes glazing over as I explained the Rogers situation to him — a card-carrying member of the Doesn’t Get Itâ„¢ camp. He took my number and said he’d get back to me, and then of course he never did. … In case you missed it from yesterday’s Comments section: The Predators have become the first team to test-drive Reebok’s new hockey template, but only for practices. Full details here. … Apparently nobody could come up with a screen shot of Terry Glenn’s Ohio State merit decal from Monday night. Dang. … Many of this year’s new college hockey designs are displayed in this message board thread (with thanks to Mike Burger). … An inside source with the Mets has this depressing news about MLB’s new batting practice jerseys: “The new BP jersey is slightly different. It’s like the All-Star jerseys, the ones used during the HR Derby. The one-button top. I know the Mets’ will basically be the same, but with a thick black ’stripe’ from the armpit down, like NFL jerseys.” All together now: ARRRRGGHHHH!
October 26th, 2006
Okay, so I didn’t expect the NHL to come up with an All-Star Game jersey design as cool as the one shown at right, which was used 1950 (here’s a closer look, plus the rear view). I didn’t even expect them to do something as tasteful as the design they used in 2004, which was unexpectedly simple and straightforward.
But I’d kinda hoped for something better than this and this, which began circulating yesterday — especially since this is also supposedly Reebok’s new jersey template that most (or maybe all) NHL teams will be using next season.
Quick initial reactions:
• Those side panels are a disaster, especially since you know there’ll be matching panels on the breezers.
• The horn-shaped stretch panels that taper up toward the collar mean it’s just a matter of time before something like this comes to the NHL.
• There’s plenty of fuel here for conspiracy theorists who are worried about the league switching to tucked-in jerseys: the lack of horizontal hemline striping; the NHL logo’s migration from the rear hemline to the front collar; the front tagging. By coincidence, however, I was interviewing a Reebok executive yesterday afternoon (for a business article about textiles — not uni-related), so I asked him about the new NHL jerseys, and he said he was “fairly certain” there were no plans for the league to move away from the untucked look.
Of course, All-Star Games are often painful to look at anyway (a gallery of past designs, many of them regrettable, is here). The real issue is what the new teamplate will mean if teams are forced to adopt it next season. Over on the Chris Creamer boards yesterday, aspiring designers were busily coming up with their concepts of what the league might look like next season — judge the results for yourself here, here, here, here, here, and — gasp — here.
Meanwhile: Notes from last night’s World Series game:
• Albert Pujols broke out the white cleats (which he had previously worn in the All-Star Game).
• Jim Edmonds began the game wearing Nike-pox undersleeves but then added a windbreaker, as he’d done in Game 2.
• Several players are clearly wearing special 5950 caps with black underbills (including Joel Zumaya, who’s got something written under there; after tweaking the brightness and contrast, it appears to be “BELIEVE”). Jim Leyland’s got one, too. This is apparently a precursor of the black-underbilled cap that will reportedly become the standard next season. But I want to stress that this is not the same black-underbilled cap that Kenny Rogers has been wearing — Rogers wears a BP cap, as you can clearly see from the thicker, puffier brim. He was wearing it again last night, in fact. In case you missed it, he was asked about this at a press conference on Monday and said the wool 5950s always shrink and give him a headache, so he prefers the polyester BP caps.
• Fans of Detroit’s mismatched “D” logos will enjoy the confusion on the MLB.TV post-game set: jersey D on the wall, cap D on the glass on the table.
Uni Watch News Ticker: For serious conspiracy theorists only: Brad Diesburg notes that Kenny Rogers had a smudge on his belt buckle during his ALCS start against Oakland. … There’s a new book devoted to UK soccer uniforms (with thanks to Perry Michael Simon for the tip). … In case you missed it in yesterday’s Comments section: Check out this hilarious photo (spotted by Jeff Hannaford). Notice any conflict between what the players are wearing and the sign on the wall? … Fun note from Brett Baker, who writes: “That article about the Vikes dropping (so to speak) their purple pants reminded me of a similar reaction from my beloved Cornhuskers. Back in 1986, Nebraska and Oklahoma were set to battle it out for the Big 8 title in Lincoln. The players were looking for a little extra motivation, so they elected to wear, for the first time in Husker history, an all-red uniform. The crowd went crazy and it worked for a time, as Nebraska jumped out to an early lead, but eventually Barry Switzer worked his Sooner magic and OU prevailed. The Huskers have not worn that combo since. I’m also including one of the greatest pictures in Husker history, from a game against K-State in 1998. Amazingly, a facemask penalty WAS NOT called.” … “This is wrong on so many levels,” opines Bryan Redemske. The team in question is the Waukegan (Illinois) Bulldogs. … It’s nice that Carlos Delgado won the Roberto Clemente Award yesterday; it’d be even nicer if he could learn something from the hosiery stylings of the trophy. … Japan Series notes from Jeremy Brahm: (1) Masaru Takeda appears to have made an in-game jersey change, because two photos of him from the same game show him with and without patches on his right sleeve, and (2) Michihiro Ogasawara tore an armpit seam. … Brahm also notes that at least two Italian women’s volleyball teams have exposed gaps in their rear jersey designs, and another team has vertical nameplates.
October 25th, 2006
Yesterday’s ESPN column about the different versions of the Tigers’ old English D logo (which, incidentally, should have included a shout-out to Jeffrey Sak, who first brought this issue to my attention about a year and a half ago) prompted a really fascinating response from Steve Diamond, a product designer at Nike (yes, Nike). Check it out:
I’ve been designing MLB product for a long time now, and your article about the Detroit “D” was funny, but also sad. Funny because I know how MLB works and the mess they have created, but sad because there are even more variations to the “D,” as well as the fact that there are 29 other teams that have similar or even worse problems.
Basically, years ago logos were not passed from vendor to vendor in formats such as embroidery tapes (what an embroidery machine uses to create the artwork for a cap logo or chain-stitch a jersey logo) and die patterns (like a cookie cutter that cuts out tackle twill to be appliqu�d to a jersey). A new vendor typically had to copy an existing jersey to get it right. So, essentially the jersey/caps of today are copies of copies of copies.
MLB and the clubs never kept accurate records, so [in the 1990s] MLB attempted to compile a “style guide” to digitally keep records of each team’s logos, in an effort to alleviate this problem. (This was also a legal move to accurately register each team’s trademarks.) However, they created marks that looked good for printing and web usage but never attempted to duplicate the actual marks used on the caps and jerseys. This added to the mix of logos being used by different manufacturers, furthering the mess.
Going back to Detroit, currently there are at least four Detroit “D” logos that I have seen — two used on the field and two that MLB created for their style guide.
You also touched on the Cardinals and Yankees. As you can see, the Cardinals have similar problems with the use of the “StL,” and the Yanks top all teams with five different versions of the “NY” in circulation.
As Majestic moves more and more of its Authentic jersey production overseas, the uniforms and logos will become more standardized, but we will lose the uniqueness and beauty of crafted chain-stitching and zig-zag stitching that is hard to duplicate in Asia.
On the other hand, New Era still makes all of its Authentic 5950 caps in the U.S., but their problem is the opposite: They have such a mix of old and varied machines that all their caps fit so different. Go check out a store with a Yankees Authentic 5950 and compare a handful in your size. Then look at the logos on all of them. You�ll see a variety of embroideries — the same basic NY, but some skinny, some fat, etc. This is due to older embroidery machines stitching “loose” and brand-new machines stitching “tight.” Again, overseas you would find rooms filled with all the same year, same model machines churning out consistency.
Hope that helps. Unfortunately for me, I can’t enjoy a baseball game, as I constantly think about junk like this. I’m just glad you didn�t talk about color — don’t get me started on that.
Wow — please join me in thanking Steve for all that great info.
The lesson, of course, is that logos aren’t quite so immutable as we like to think they are, especially when rendered in fabric. And as the preceding account suggests, the sports world has been a particularly poor steward of its own graphic heritage, especially when compared to other industries. Small example: Back when I worked in book publishing, about 15 years ago, I edited a book that included a short interview with the great Paul Rand, who designed a slew of iconic corporate logos. Asked if there was anything he wished he could go back and change, he said he’d drawn the little bow in the UPS logo by hand and regretted not using a compass — but when he’d asked UPS if he could go back and tweak the design, they’d said no. And that’s precisely how you avoid having multiple old English Ds floating around.
Then again, this all points to a big reason why I started Uni Watch in the first place: to help document the sports world’s design history. So we should be glad that the teams and leagues have left us with such an entertaining mess to untangle.
Research Request: I was out of the house last night and didn’t catch the Giants/Cowboys game, but lots of people wrote in to say that Terry Glenn had an Ohio State buckeye merit decal on the back of his helmet. Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo of this. If anyone DVR’d the game and can get us a screen grab, that’d be swell. Apparently the best views came during pregame warm-ups and after the Giants intercepted Drew Bledsoe with 1:33 left in the first half.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of the Tigers’ various logos, this guy’s pretty on top of the “D-lemma,” as he calls it. … There’s a poll here on the best NFL logos. … The Phillies signed 700-year-old pitcher Jamie Moyer to a two-year extension yesterday, which as many readers have already noted means two more years of exposure for Philly’s seldom seen Liberty Bell stirrups. … Bit of speculation here about why the Vikings weren’t wearing their purple pants on Sunday. … In case you missed it in yesterday’s Comments section: Baseball players aren’t the only ones to wear windbreakers under their jerseys. Check out Steve Grogan! … Also from yesterday’s Comments section: a close-up of the little eyelet-equipped jersey patch that the Cowboys use to tie down their jerseys to their pads. … Contrary to what I wrote in yesterday’s ESPN column, the Astros do not chain-stitch their jersey insignia onto a patch and then sew that onto the jersey. They embroider directly onto the jersey (just like the Cardinals do), as seen in this shot, provided by longtime Uni Watch contributor Kevin Gee. (Here’s another view.) … Mizzou will be wearing solid-gold uniforms this weekend. … The Bears will be wearing their orange alt jerseys this Sunday. … Bonus points to the first Comments section contributor who can explain why I referenced Emerson in today’s entry title. … Even more bonus points for anyone who can explain why the hell there’s a Warhol-ized Emerson portrait floating around on the web (which you must admit looks very nice at the top of the page).
October 24th, 2006
|
|
