Special World Series Uni Watch column on ESPN today, addressing two issues that have been discussed at great length around here lately. Here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Back when I was a kid, it wasn’t unusual to see baseball cards that showed players going the unsightly (and, let’s face it, wussy) route of wearing windbreakers under their jerseys. Look through this great book and you’ll see lots of examples of this unfortunate phenomenon, all of which look like total crap, what with the wrinkles and the puffiness. Many of these shots appear to have been taken on cold February days during spring training, but others were taken in MLB stadia, which makes the windbreaker thing pretty inexcusable. Some players were even repeat offenders.
I’ve seen first and third base coaches wear windbreakers under their jerseys on cold days, but I’d never seen a player do it in a game — much less an important, high-profile game — until last night, when Jim Edmonds wore this under his jersey, resulting in some very unseemly sleeve striping (additional views here and here). All of which presents an interesting conundrum: Which is worse — the windbreaker or the accursed Nike-pox sleeves Edmonds wore in Game 1?
Uni Watch News Ticker: MLB will have new batting practice jersey and cap templates next season. The new designs haven’t been circulated yet, but a little birdie who’s actually handled one of the prototypes tells me this: “They will be New Era caps with the same material as previous years, but with a slight modification: Above the ear, there will be an arch, semi-circle, or piping, the same as the teams’ secondary color (like the orange on the edge of the Mets BP bill). The material in that crescent is a stretchy spandex fabric.” Can’t, uh, wait. … Jeremy Brahm notes that Valencia CF of the Spanish La Liga uses a very interesting font for its uni numbers and nameplates. … Brahm also reports that a French soccer team has been wearing “Non au racisme” (”No to Racism” in French) on their jersey collars (here’s another view) but has been told to stop. … Still more from Brahm: Check out these Australian rugby unis. … And yet another Brahm-ism: The fringe sport of netball, where the players wear letters designating their positions, instead of uni numbers. A history of the sport’s uniforms is here. … Brahm has also found some European 7 examples (here’s another). … Really great article here about Alexander Ovechkin’s tinted visor and how yellow goalie pads can disrupt a shooter’s concentration — highly recommended (with thanks to AJ Brandt). … On Friday I mentioned that Keyshawn Johnson is tying his collar to his shoulder pads, which prompted Brett Baker to respond thusly: “I’m pretty sure he picked this up with the Cowboys. I noticed a few years ago that the Cowboys have a special reinforced patch just below the NFL Equipment logo. This patch also has two eyelets in it that the players then run a string through, apparently to tighten down their jerseys even more than they already are.” Some quick photo research reveals that Keyshawn didn’t do this during most of his Cowboys days, but he appears to have started doing it toward the end of last season. … Cool auction item here (with thanks to Patrick Van Hull). … Some great super-retro hockey sweaters available here (hat trick for Chris Kourtis). … Not uni-related, but impressive nonetheless: Although the Yankees haven’t yet released their 2007 schedule (they’re traditionally among the last teams to do so each season), reader Ian Isanberg has compiled it based on the other teams’ schedules. (And people think I obsess too much about things…) … The Buckner column has generated lots of media reaction, including podcast from Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket in Dallas (with thanks to Austin Henley for the tip). … Underbill update from Bryan Redemske, who says, “Must be pretty easy to for Nippon Ham Fighters manager Trey Hillman to know which lid is his.” … Ditch the Black isn’t the only uni-related web campaign — check this well-designed site, which aims to resurrect Pitt’s script logo. … Speaking of Pitt, several readers have noted that many of the team’s skill-position players appear to have had their gold jersey side panels tailored to be narrower than the side panels worn by the linemen. … Minnesota’s 1960 throwbacks, complete with uni numbers on the helmets, looked pretty damn cool against North Dakota State on Saturday. … FSU’s solid blacks, on the other hand, looked ridiculous. … Big minus points to West Virginia’s mismatched Nike undersleeves, too (additional views here, here, and here). … But the weekend’s all-ugly prize goes to Clemson, for obvious reasons. … Interesting article about Packers merchandising here (with a small sidebar here). … Several people in Saturday’s Comments section asked about NCAA merit stickers. The article I wrote on this topic last year is available here. … Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel really needs to leave this stuff to the professionals. … Quantum physics has conclusively determined that there’s no way to look cool when you have a big, stupid patch on your cap (no matter how awesome your socks are). … A sleeve patch the size of Connecticut doesn’t really help either (especially when you’re supposed to be projecting an air of authority [and especially-especially when your right sleeve is tailored extra-short]). … Serious high school football sock stripeage exhibited by the Brazosport Exporters (courtesy of Seth Harris). … According to the Boston Globe, the Titans might stick with the monochrome outfits. Further details in the “Coming over to the dark side” section of this page. … Nice catch by Jeff Greco, who writes: “I was enjoying the 1994 kids baseball classic Little Big League on HBO, in which 12-year-old Billy Heywood inherits the Minnesota Twins from his grandfather, Thomas Heywood. Toward the end of the film, I noticed that the Twins are wearing a “TH” sleeve patch — a fictional memorial to the owner who passed away. Just thought it was a nice touch.” Indeed. … Super-high whites yesterday on Miami WRs Randy McMichael and Chris Chambers (the latter of whom had worn extremely low whites last week). … Excellent site for Japanese baseball caps here, including shots of logo-inclusive labels and logo cap pins (with thanks, as always, to Jeremy Brahm). … J.J. Carton notes that Chad Johnson has had multiple facemask styles this season — compare this to this. … Scary example of logo creep in yesterday’s Chicago Marathon — or, rather, the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon — as men’s winner Robert Cherulyot slipped on a logo at the finish line and cracked his head on the pavement. Video of the whole depressing episode, which I can only hope will lead all Chicagoans to transfer any assets they currently have with LaSalle Bank, here.
#1 by Steven on 10.23.06 9:29 am |
whats up with the column today
#2 by Paul Lukas on 10.23.06 9:32 am |
If you mean the blog, there were some technical difficulties that forced me to take it down and re-post it (which unfortunately meant that two or three comments were lost — my apologies to the people who wrote those comments).
If you mean that ESPN column, wait and see.
#3 by Adam in Chicago on 10.23.06 9:39 am |
I think you can see my building behind Cherulyot in that film - brick, far right hand side.
#4 by John on 10.23.06 9:42 am |
Just to add to the Chad Johnson comment - he has actually worn three different mask styles because he has worn two different helmet styles - both picutures in the column show him wearing a Schutt helmet - one with a standard two-bar and one with the extra protection version. Johnson has also worn a Riddell Revolution helmet in some games with the original version of the 2-bar mask as worn by Peyton Manning, U of L’s Jeff Brohm and others as shown here:
#5 by John on 10.23.06 9:45 am |
Sorry, let’s try that link again:
#6 by Beefalo on 10.23.06 9:45 am |
Anyone else notice that T.J. Houshmandzadeh was wearing white shoes in the 1st part of yesterday’s game but switched over to black shoes later? Been trying to find photos, but so far, no luck…
#7 by Banker Bill on 10.23.06 9:47 am |
Clemson looked awful this weekend. I wouldn’t know anything about any of the World Series unis - haven’t watched an inning of it.
Interesting that Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to wear white at home instead of the dark jerseys. I wonder why…..
#8 by John on 10.23.06 9:53 am |
Okay, so I’m an idot when it comes to the link button. One last try; otherwise you can find photos on the Bengals site for weeks 1 and 3:
http://assets.bengal...
#9 by Mike W. on 10.23.06 9:53 am |
I believe Chad Johnson’s helmet/facemask changing is trying to protect his head due to the concussion he had early this season.
#10 by Matt on 10.23.06 9:59 am |
did you guys see Dick Jauron wearing the old school bills hat yesterday? I thought it was weird because the team wasn’t wearing the old school uni’s. Is this allowed?
#11 by Ted H. on 10.23.06 9:59 am |
No question the windbreaker is worse than the Nike undershirt. At least the undershirt isn’t a piece of outerwear.
I wonder why players don’t layer-up properly, instead of putting jackets on underneath their jerseys. Seems like a basic principle of dressing oneself…
#12 by Jim Bauerle on 10.23.06 9:59 am |
FSU wasn’t the only team to wear all black this weekend. Purdue always wore it at home for the first time in awhile. They had already switched to black pants on the road this year.
Sadly, like FSU, the all black failed us in a defeat.
#13 by ken on 10.23.06 10:04 am |
so what is the verdict on Placido Polanco’s headgear ? I keep waiting to see the WS logo on it.
#14 by Elwood on 10.23.06 10:05 am |
Speaking of windbreakers and such, what do you guys think of managers and coaches who use such items and abandon a jersey altogether? On the one hand, yes, it’s kinda a silly for a manager to even have a jersey and a number in the first place, but on the other hand it somehow feels wrong to me for a manager to just wear a team color undershirt and a jacket/sweatshirt no matter how hot or cold it is.
#15 by Eric on 10.23.06 10:06 am |
Those rugby uniforms are practice jerseys for the Kangaroos, Australia’s national rugby league team (different from rugby union, a more popular game in outside of Australia and some parts of England). Their game uniforms (and those of the Kiwis, New Zealand’s national team) can be seen here.
#16 by Joe Hilseberg on 10.23.06 10:07 am |
As is the new tradition at Maryland, the football team sported the all red combo for homecoming this weekend.
#17 by a arauz on 10.23.06 10:21 am |
I’m sure the NFL is ok with the old-skool Bills hat as i’m sure they’re selling those too. Anything that’ll make’em more ‘bills’ goes, i’m certain of it. (Of course, we can also imagine that the Bills organization will be bringing back those togs next season and this is just a ‘precursor’) Nah, it’s probably just about the cash!
#18 by Max Dugan on 10.23.06 10:25 am |
Here’s one of the posts that was lost when Paul brought down the site.
Regarding Houshmandzadeh wearing white cleats, then changing to black, from the Cincinnati morning rag:
The Bengals wore orange jerseys with white pants Sunday, and wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh paired white cleats with orange-and-black accents with the ensemble.
But after losing his footing on a couple pass routes in the first half, Houshmandzadeh changed cleats at halftime.
“I run good routes and for me to slip like I did is unusual,” he said. “I’m superstitious, so I switched the cleats. The only answer could be the cleats, not my feet.”
Houshmandzadeh wore black cleats with orange accents and caught six passes for 57 yards during the second half, including the 1-yard touchdown reception - his fourth in four games - that gave the Bengals the lead with 8:07 remaining in the game.
#19 by a arauz on 10.23.06 10:25 am |
Don’t fret Jim, look at it this way: in the future the FSU grads will be working for the Purdue grads. :)
#20 by AD on 10.23.06 10:25 am |
since black seems to be the most disliked uni color here besides of course purple, is there a black uniform out there that gets a thumbs up from the uniwatchblog?
#21 by Bob on 10.23.06 10:26 am |
North Dakota State
Paul, no mention of the “Bison” on the back of the helmet…..don’t remember seeing a logo like that before
#22 by frankenslade on 10.23.06 10:31 am |
This wussy windbreaker issue reminds me of a pet peeve I had to endure through 2 managers in Philadelphia: the manager wearing a pullowver windbreaker with the sleeves pushed up. Jim Fregosi is the first manager I remember sporting this look consistently, and Terry Francona would follow. They constantly wore the windbreaker with the sleeves pushed up. Larry BOwa would also fall prey to this bad look:
http://media.theinsi...
With Fregosi, especially, it seemed like some attempt at a quack 1950s-style weight-loss program, like he hoped to sweat away pounds while sitting in the dugout. Francona, since moving to the Red Sox, has acquired a slightly less wussy and at least more stylish short-sleeve version:
http://mirrorimageor...
#23 by john on 10.23.06 10:38 am |
Polka-dotted shirts MUCH worse that the windbreakers. AT least one could blame the weather. How about the whole ski mask thing? Overall, though, two of the best uniform presentations in all of MLB.
#24 by Paul Lukas on 10.23.06 10:39 am |
I have no problem with black when it’s a longstanding part of a team’s color scheme. The Raiders, Spurs, SF Giants — these teams can stake a historical claim to black. But when a team just adopts black as a marketing ploy (Mets, Flyers, FSU), they know where they can stick it.
#25 by todd krevanchi (krvanch) on 10.23.06 10:42 am |
i thought for sure that someone would have had this on one of the weekend open threads, but during the pitt/rutgers game on saturday night, rutgers kicker jeremy ito had a jersey on in which the “R” in rutgers was reversed to mirror image. i have yet to find a picture.
#26 by Chris on 10.23.06 10:42 am |
Maybe this picture will put to rest all the talk about Todd Jones having one sleeve that’s shorter than the other. The right sleeve is just bunched up around the collar.
#27 by Chris on 10.23.06 10:47 am |
http://us.i1.yimg.co...
/a>
Link
#28 by Lou on 10.23.06 10:50 am |
I find this trend to be utterly irritating. If the rule is that all personnel wear uniforms, then WEAR THE UNIFORMS! Why wear the pants even? Perhaps a nice pair of khakis would be more comfortable!
#29 by Chris on 10.23.06 10:51 am |
Also looks as though Pudge is tying his shoelaces through his pants.
http://us.i1.yimg.co... 72218924mh024_world_series__10_30_41_pm.jpg
#30 by Chris on 10.23.06 10:53 am |
Sorry for the fact that I cannot link these damn photos.
http://us.i1.yimg.co...
#31 by Ryan B. on 10.23.06 10:56 am |
By my record, the Boilers are a sad 1-3 with the black pants this season and 4-0 when wearing the gold pants. As a Mets fan, I now have TWO “Ditch the Black” campagins. Get rid of the black on the Mets’ uniforms and get rid of the black football pants for Purdue! :)
#32 by Natron on 10.23.06 11:01 am |
I noticed something strange while watching my Gophers barely slip past Division 1-AA North Dakota State. It’s possible that this is a common occurance in 1-AA (or even !-A, and I just never noticed it). If this is a regular thing, I’m sure somebody will let me know!
The NDSU players wore Nike, but the coaches wore Under Armour.
What’s going on there?
#33 by Joe W. on 10.23.06 11:05 am |
Anyone else notice the MLB logo on the new style hats this World Series have a raised white outline (Tigers) on the MLB logo on the back as opposed to a flat embroidery style on the old ones? Don’t have a photo but it was pretty obvious watching HD.
#34 by Gene F. on 10.23.06 11:05 am |
The mention of rugby kits reminded me of a dreadful oversight in this blog - there is, as far as I can see, no mention of the garish kits worn by Australian Football League teams. This link shows the present jumpers, or tops, worn by each team, and a click on the jumper brings you to the history of the team’s home and away jumpers.
Go Lions!
#35 by Jonathon on 10.23.06 11:06 am |
anyone notice the crap-tastic “bass boat” paint scheme on the univeristy of cincinnati’s football helmets last night? black helmet, but with red glitter mixed in. it looked like a really expensive bowling ball.
check out the photo gallery from this link:
http://gobearcats.cs...
they also sported black on black, but at least they won, unlike dur-pue and free-shoes-u
#36 by Timmer on 10.23.06 11:13 am |
What are the chances that Kenny Roger’s tendancy to wear the dark underbill spring training cap have something to do with the substance on his hand last night?
#37 by Kenny on 10.23.06 11:13 am |
I noticed that North Dakota State is one of the latest victims of Nike’s uniform design. The pictures show the home jersey has stayed the same for the past three seasons, but their away jerseys have changed each year
Home
Away 2004
Away 2005
Away 2006
Pretty interesting that they changed each year and it differs from the home design too
#38 by Gene F. on 10.23.06 11:14 am |
Here’s that footy link:
http://bomberblitz.c...
#39 by C.N. on 10.23.06 11:23 am |
The Nike dot-matrix sleeves are far and away worse than the windbreaker, in my opinion.
Also, Paul, kudos for getting the plural form of “stadium” right. I thought I would never see that again.
#40 by Kenny on 10.23.06 11:23 am |
Let’s try again
Home
Away 2004
Away 2005
Away 2006
#41 by Kyle on 10.23.06 11:26 am |
The Maple Leafs were wearing their alternate jersey. The Leafs and the Habs are the only teams that have white alternates, meaning that despite the dark at home uniform switch, teams still have to pack both sets of unis when passing through those cities on road trips.
#42 by C.N. on 10.23.06 11:29 am |
This helmet scheme is actually a fairly common occurrence and I’m surprised no one here seems to have ever noticed it, as evidenced by this and particularly the comments after West Virginia’s win last Thurs. evening.
#43 by Buckeye Mike on 10.23.06 11:29 am |
I think the windbreakers to dot sleaves depends on the team. those ones from the Cards, not so bad. I could live with them. They look better than that windbreaker. but I think they dot sleaves look really stupid on some teams (re:Pitt)
#44 by Steve on 10.23.06 11:31 am |
Well, thank God the bank logo was unharmed during that fall. It would have been a shame for people to look at the logo-emblazoned banners around the logo-emblazoned finish line to see who was sponsoring the marathon. Ugh.. Just sickening.
#45 by Matt B on 10.23.06 11:34 am |
Those Sevilla details are neat. In contrast, it looks like the (English) Premiership imposes a particular font for all teams’ names/numerals for all teams from mighty Arsenal and Chelsea down to lowly Watford.
See also Arsenal: tinyurl.com/ykcz67
Ek: there’s something hinky with the linking function. Successive links “eat” the previous one.
#46 by Chris Doran on 10.23.06 11:46 am |
Mildly disagree on the Flyers… Yes they switched to an black jersey to sell some merchandise; but black has always been a part of their color scheme.
#47 by redemske on 10.23.06 11:56 am |
Two things:
The Jim Edmonds’ jacket is worse than the dots, but here’s why. A bulky jacket under a jersey — and presumably on top of something else — probably restricts movement somewhat. Maybe not a ton, but maybe just enought to not hit a 95 mph fastball. The dots are just ugly, but they won’t hurt performance.
The Nike-Under Armor thing at North Dakota State is probably pretty simple. At smaller schools ( I went to Northern Iowa), the school’s apparel and equipment contract may be different from the coach’s deal. There was a time when the UNI baseball team had Nike shirts and workout gear, but Mizuno spikes.
#48 by Kerry on 10.23.06 12:15 pm |
Paul, and everyone else, HERE’S A LINK to a I-AA message board that I frequent. The link is to a thread solely dedicated to pictures of uniforms so you can probably find some really interesting, up-to-date info there on uniforms in the I-AA football community.
FYI, there is also another thread on the board talking about your Bill Buckner story as well as this site. Hopefully we have directed several more people here that will become frequent readers (incidentally, there were already a lot of people on that board that read this site daily).
#49 by Zach on 10.23.06 12:17 pm |
Also noticed from the pictures on the front page of ESPN right now that Rogers was wearing a Coolflo jersey last night. Silly.
#50 by Luke on 10.23.06 12:24 pm |
I thought the same thing Timmer, the underbill is black and the bill will stay curved much easier…both of which would make something easier to conceal.
#51 by AJ on 10.23.06 12:30 pm |
Don’t have any pictures, but as a big Cards fan, I noticed earlier in the season that Edmonds (and I think a few other Cards players) wore that jacket under his jersey when it was cold. I think this was at the beginning of the season, as it is still cold in St. Louis and a few other cities when the season starts. Not saying I like the look, but it is definitely not the first time Edmonds has worn it.
#52 by Ted H. on 10.23.06 12:39 pm |
This is brilliant — but did anyone see Rodgers going to his brim during the game? I didn’t notice anything suspicious, but it’s not the sort of thing you would think of unless looking for a particular reason. Either way, his hat looked awful. I hope this isn’t what the new black-brimmed New Era hats will look like.
#53 by Kevin on 10.23.06 12:42 pm |
Why doesn’t someone tell him how ridiculous that looks.
#54 by BJ on 10.23.06 12:45 pm |
$
I’m sure Nike decided NDSU wasn’t a big enough merch market to warrant sponsoring the whole Athletic Department. Unfortunately, this leaves smaller teams to come up with their own sponsors. For example, NDSU’s baseball team wears Mizuno. Their men’s basketball team wears Wilson Athletic. But it’s not just a small-school thing.
At Florida, our revenue sports wear the Swoosh. But for some reason that has never been reasonably explained to me (though I suspect it has something to do with Coach Becky Burleigh), the soccer team wears Adidas Unis.
At Auburn, whose football team just jumped from Nike to Under Armour over a spat about spats, the basketball team wears a combo of Nike shoes and Russell Athletics Unis.
#55 by Paul Lukas on 10.23.06 12:45 pm |
Special World Series installment of Uni Watch is now up on ESPN — look here.
#56 by Kevin on 10.23.06 12:45 pm |
I didn’t see that part of the game, but did the umps even inspect his hand? It is pretty clear just by the ESPN.com photos that it is not dirt - dirt isn’t shiny like that. I thought the MLB rules were clear that a foreign substance meant you were thrown out of the game, with no leeway.
#57 by Kevin on 10.23.06 12:49 pm |
Nice work Paul and fellow Uni Watchers. I could see this actually leading to some sort of punishment against Rogers, although this is MLB, so probably not.
#58 by WVU Tom on 10.23.06 12:50 pm |
Well, I was away for the weekend — and I come back today shocked to see my beloved Mountaineers got the Saturday open thread pic, as well as some hearty discussion. WVU has made some sad changes to the uni the last few seasons (thanks in part to everyones favorite sports apparel manufacturer), but as long as their winning, I’m going to try and not complain too much…
Just to clarify some discussion points from Saturday:
WVU has not made changes to the helmet, the “metallic sheen” that someone mentioned was due to the rain/drizzle at UCONN friday night.
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but some players weren’t wearing mismatched sleeves, but rather only one sleeve. I’m not sure which is worse.
Slaton
#59 by julie on 10.23.06 12:52 pm |
looks like a smiley face on the wvu sleeve to me.
:)
#60 by Stew on 10.23.06 12:56 pm |
I have noticed that Chad Johnson not only has two different facemasks but three all with different helmets too. He has worn the two shown in the column today but also the new riddell helmet as well. I have been wondering why for weeks. There seems to be no real reason for this.
#61 by Andrew F on 10.23.06 12:58 pm |
I’m at a I-AA school myself (Hofstra). Each team is responsible for getting their own unis, cleats, gear, whatever. The school does not have a contract with any one company to provide uniforms for the team, nor are they “sponsored” by any company. Football wears Nike, softball wears Speedline unis and Adidas cleats along with TPS gear, and basketball wears (or at least used to wear) Anaconda Sports unis and Reebok shoes. So until a big name comes through and decides to drop some cash on a mid major school, teams will be responsible for purchasing their unis and equipment from wherever they can get the best deal. And in many cases, while it may have a company logo on it, the school still has to pay for them. So the coaches wearing UA may just come from them buying the stuff from a catalog and getting it embroidered, like the rest of us humans do.
#62 by Chad on 10.23.06 1:07 pm |
I’m assuming slaton wore only one sleeve because his right arm is the one he primarily carries the ball in, and ball to skin probably provides better grip than ball to spandex…which leads to the question, why wear the other sleeve at all, did it really keep him that much warmer?
#63 by Miguel on 10.23.06 1:09 pm |
Long-ass blog entry and a long-ass Page 2 article, both chock-full of links.
Kudos - you have outdone yourself, Mr. Lukas!
#64 by Paul Lukas on 10.23.06 1:13 pm |
Thanks, man. And now I’ll be taking the next few days off….. Kidding.
#65 by ACC on 10.23.06 1:13 pm |
Isn’t Marketing always considered for uni changes?
I have no problem with black being added as a secondary/complimentary color. Exceptions are Oakland A’s and Detroit Lions.
#66 by eli on 10.23.06 1:16 pm |
As a Clemson fan and uni fan in general I knew that the Tigers purple would not be too popular but for my money it looked Great on sat. night. Where are the skins maroon pants the white on white is nice but not every time.
#67 by Jeff on 10.23.06 1:23 pm |
Paul and Friends, you may want to cover your eyes.
Mismatched sleeves, shoulder piping, horizontal front stripes, solid blue back.
I present recent EPL entrant, Reading FC
http://www.arsenal.c...
http://www.arsenal.c...
#68 by Kenny on 10.23.06 1:25 pm |
Maybe it was cuz he was knocked silly earlier this year
#69 by Buckeye Mike on 10.23.06 1:27 pm |
Ok, so I was watching The game last night, and I noticed that Kenny Rogers has a different hat from the rest of the team. It appears to be a BP hat.
HAHAHA sorry, it hadn’t been said yet, and it seems like we were getting 2 per day after each time he pitched. sorry, had too
#70 by Jeff on 10.23.06 1:29 pm |
I believe they dropped Nike this year for football. Their new uni template is USC-ish but there is no discerning logo creep. Plus, they finally updated the wordmark on their jersey to reflect the school’s new font.
Old: http://www.hofstra.e...
New: http://www.hofstra.e...
#71 by RWitteman on 10.23.06 1:31 pm |
Re: Kenny Rogers “loading” by going to his cap.
Didn’t see the game last nite, but didn’t need to to know that the Gambler was touching his hat regularly.
As any fan of a team for which Kenny has pitched can attest, he touches his hat repeatedly between every pitch. When he was with the Twins, a friend and I put the over/under at 4.5 touches per pitch. His routine alternates “tugging” on the brim and “pushing” the back of the cap down on his head. A slightly less annoying variation of the the Nomar glove tug-fest between pitches.
It’s entirely possible that he’s loading either from the bill (his thumbprint would be the most likely surface affected) OR from the back. Given that the BP hats are more of a “jersey-type” perforated material, he might be loading the meaty part of the hand below the thumb from the side of his hat. The offending substance could be spread on the inside of the hat/brim and the more porous nature of the hat should allow easy passage to the part of the hand that appeared to be “stained” in the pictures from last night (and in earlier outings).
Note: given Fox’s prediliction for “massive close ups” of various individuals between pitches, the camerawork may have missed Rogers’ movements. But unless he’s modified a long standing habit very recently, he was doing it - whether or not it meant anything.
#72 by MetsFan AZ on 10.23.06 1:33 pm |
I like reading the threads on the weekends. This gets brought up twice a day at least. Please let Kenny Rogers not pitch again. There was also someone asking “Who makes the baseball sleeves with the dots?” Kind of a “weekend uniwatcher” vibe.
#73 by Vegas4BOC on 10.23.06 1:33 pm |
Anyone know why the Dallas Stars wore their whites at home vs. chicago Blackhawks this past friday night?
http://images.sports...
#74 by Kenny on 10.23.06 1:33 pm |
The Golden Boy getting smashed
Interview after game
#75 by Kenny on 10.23.06 1:36 pm |
just realized they are both on the first page
#76 by Chris Hilf on 10.23.06 1:51 pm |
You know, that Tigers thing is really interesting. I work for Duquesne University, and the Tigers sued us because our D is too close to theirs. I bet our lawyers didn’t realize they have bene screwing with TWO DIFFERENT D’s when we were defending ourselves….
#77 by Chris on 10.23.06 1:51 pm |
Ok, in looking for more pictures to back up the fact that Todd Jones DOES NOT get his right sleeve tailored shorter, I came across this picture. What’s written on his left hand? The photo is from Game 4 of the LDS vs. the Yankees.
http://us.i1.yimg.co...
#78 by J W Buchanan on 10.23.06 1:53 pm |
Regarding repeat-windbreaker-offenders, I seem to recall that one year Tom Seaver appeared on his card in just the windbreaker and a Mets cap. No jersey.
#79 by Nolan on 10.23.06 1:55 pm |
Mentioned in the ESPN article. I have never noticed the Cardinals logo was stitched directly onto the jersey.
Not knowing a thing about embroidery, is this just too cost prohibitive for other teams? Or are they just lazy?
#80 by Minna H on 10.23.06 2:04 pm |
Paul, Paul, Paul. When will you learn? Rod Carew can wear whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants! He is Rod Carew! Besides, he doesn’t look nearly as bad an the other examples.
FSU all-black = ugly.
Purdue all-black = classy.
Decisive ruling: All-black only works with a true black, not with whatever the crap color that was that FSU was wearing.
I don’t know why baseball managers have to wear the uni. Looks funny. I prefer Francona’s look.
Overall, I like the monochromatic look except in cases like Clemson. That’s too much, even for me.
Sorry for the random, scatter-shot approach. Still sick, so the brain is still muddled.
#81 by Mitch on 10.23.06 2:14 pm |
I was reading a Yahoo! column today and noticed this at the bottom (quite intersting, and gross…):
Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco said he coats himself in grease to insulate against the cold. He’s not the only one, getting the idea from teammate Ivan Rodriguez. “I tried it the last game against Oakland and it worked,” Polanco said.
Who the hell thought to do that, and has anyone ever heard of this technique before? We shouldn’t be worring about Kenny Rogers doctoring the ball, but check it anytime that Poloanco gets a ground ball!
#82 by barney on 10.23.06 2:18 pm |
Very happy to open today’s blog and see my all-time fave - Rod Carew. Despite the windbreaker on the card (doesn’t matter in spring training), he should be a member of the Uni-Hall-of-Fame. In his autobiography, he describes in detail the respect the has for the uniform, what it represents, and how fortunate he was to be able to wear one. He used to keep a brush in the dugout to sweep dirt off his uniform between innings if he had to slide into a base or dive for a ball!
#83 by Brett on 10.23.06 2:20 pm |
Why won’t any reporters come out and say it? Kenny Rogers was cheating!
Interview any pitcher from college… to the minors… to the pros. I pitched for 15 years… a pitcher knows how long their finger nails are… they know how strong their calouses are on their release fingers… they know how sweaty their palms are… they know everything about their pitching hand/arm. A 41 year old pro would probably be even more aware of this stuff!
He said he didn’t notice it… every pitcher out there knows he lied with that statement. And lies are only used when someone feels the need to hide something!! Rogers should have been out of the game in the first inning.
Congrats to FOX! I bet someone in their camera crew saw it when he pitched last time and they were ready to catch him at the start of this outing!
If he is allowed to pitch in Game 6 (which I don’t think he should) they need to do a search of him between every inning!!
#84 by JJD on 10.23.06 2:21 pm |
I thought this was interesting because I can’t recall seeing a Ferrari driver in anything other than red, but Felipe Massa was wearing a special green-and-yellow drivers suit for the Grand Prix of Brazil.
Massa’s normal get-up
Massa’s Brazil scheme
#85 by Elwood on 10.23.06 2:31 pm |
It’s expensive and complicated. The only other teams I know that have it are the Phillies and the Blackhawks.
#86 by Jonathon on 10.23.06 2:32 pm |
auburn is going to under armour for almost ALL of its sports, startin this year. the mens and womens hoops teams will both wear under armour. the only exception, so far, appears to be volleyball, which still wears mizuno (a big player in the volleyball world)
auburn will probably still wear nike shoes for basketball, however. i don’t think under armour has developed a hoops sneaker, yet.
#87 by todd krevanchi (krvanch) on 10.23.06 2:33 pm |
the first thing i thought of was the temporary tatts that tv poker players get between their thumb and index fingers so its visible on the “pocket cam”.
#88 by Riley on 10.23.06 2:39 pm |
Did Kenny Rogers cheat? I sure as hell don’t know. Maybe he did , maybe he didn’t. I for one have always kind of enjoyed the cat and mouse game of pitchers and pine tar. Yes, I am nostalgic for “old-school” forms of cheating. Sad, but true. In any case the touching the cap thing probably has nothing to do with it. I fool around with my ball cap all the time when I’m nervous or anxious watching a game. I can only imagine how much fiddling I’d be doing if I actually had to pitch one.
#89 by Mr. Met on 10.23.06 2:52 pm |
Windbreakers: OVER the jersey. Revolution shirts: UNDER the jersey. So from the standpoint of, which is worse as it pertains to Jim Edmonds’ use, I would have to go with the windbreaker.
I actually like the Revolution undershirts (have a Mets’ one myself), but I do agree that some are ridiculous. In particular, the Pirates, Cubs and Rangers versions are garish.
I’m surprised that the Mets haven’t released a version with blue sleevs and black dots…… :P
#90 by Jonathon on 10.23.06 2:57 pm |
also, auburn football did not jump from nike to under armour. auburn wore russell for a very long time. auburn originally wore nike shoes, but switched to new balance shoes in 2005. this year, auburn wears under armour jerseys and under armour shoes.
2004 (russell jersey, nike shoes)
http://auburntigers....
2005 (russell jersey, new balance shoes)
http://auburntigers....
2006 spring game (old russell jersey, under armour shoes)
http://auburntigers....
2006 fall practice (u.a. jersey, u.a. shoes)
http://auburntigers....
#91 by Andy F. on 10.23.06 3:12 pm |
It seems as though some of the Tigers and Cards were wearing new undershirts last night. I didn’t notice them being worn in game 1 though. You can kind of see it here . It has a gray insert starting on the inside elbow area and going up towards the shoulder. Better view here. The Cardinals version had blue inserts, but I can’t find a photo of it. It could be Nike debuting next years line like they did with the dot matrix sleeves in last years World series. Anybody else notice?
#92 by Lou on 10.23.06 3:31 pm |
How about the possibility that what was on Kenny Rogers hand was merely the ink that he uses to color the white panel black? He does pull on his hat enough, and if the ink were even a little wet, some of it would come off onto his hand. Look at how he tugs on the hat. It is entirely possible that that is all it was.
#93 by nastykjn on 10.23.06 3:32 pm |
That’s actually an old lineman trick in football. Linemen don’t like sleeves. Not only does it insulate your skin against the cold but for D-lineman it makes it hard for O-linemen to grab you.
As far as Kenny Rogers and FOX I think it was somewhat irresponsible of Joe Buck to bring it to Tony LaRussa’s attention during the game. Yeah, I know that LaRussa already knew about it but what if he didn’t? It like the Brent Musberger incident when he let everyone in on USC using the “shaka” symbol to denote coverages except Musberger didn’t call down to the opposing coach to ask him if he had picked up on it.
#94 by Mark in Shiga on 10.23.06 3:39 pm |
Several of the amateur teams I’ve played for in Japan have that stitching for the entire uniform, including the numbers on the back! For two-toned numbers, the main body of the number is like this, with the border embroidered all the way around it. It’s extremely well-done and I’ll try and get some photos of it.
In fact, have any MLB teams ever worn jerseys made by Descente? Not only do they do a great job with the chain-stitching, but the jersey material is quality — their pinstripes shirts have a complicated mesh system where there are no holes on the stripes.
#95 by Kenny on&