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Archive for October, 2006
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.
October 23rd, 2006
(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers hangs his head during game one of the World Series last night.
October 22nd, 2006
(AP Photo/Bob Child)
West Virginia’s Rayshawn Bolden wearing mismatched sleeves during their 37-11 victory over UConn last night.
October 21st, 2006
A few days ago I discussed how the NBA’s new game ball could have potentially wide-ranging implications for the all teams that have balls depicted in their logos. As you may recall, NBA VP Christopher Arena said he didn’t anticipate any immediate logo changes, and he provided a good historical antecedent:
If you look closely at the Celtics logo, you’ll see that the ball is the pre-1970 four-panel ball. They never changed the logo when the ball became eight-panel. The eight-panel basketball is still a basketball, and represents a point in time when the franchise was created, or at least when the logo was created.
That got reader Alex Gordon thinking. For starters, as he points out, “According to the logos over at LogoServer, the Celtics had two versions of their logo in 1968 — one with the four-panel ball depicted and one with an eight-panel ball. Also, I wanted to see what other teams did once the league switched game ball designs in 1970.”
So he started digging. Here’s his analysis:
Interestingly, the Bullets, despite changing their logo from Baltimore to Capital (’73-’74) to Washington (’74-’75), never changed the design of the ball, keeping the old ball design until they became the Wizards. Yet the original Bullets logo from 1963-69 appears to show an eight-panel ball.
The Royals/Kings franchise also seemed to depict a fragment of the old four-panel ball [here are the versions used when the team was in Cincy, KC/Omaha, KC, and Sacramento], even though this logo design wasn’t in use until 1971-72, by which time the eight-panel ball had been introduced.
The logos used by the Sonics in the early 1970s and from the mid-’70s through the mid-’90s, and by the Jazz — first in New Orleans and then in Utah — also appear to depict a four-panel rather than eight-panel ball.
There seem to be other pre-1970 anomalies in which an eight-panel
design appears, even though the league had not yet adopted that game ball. These include late-1960s Bucks, the 1960 Mpls. Lakers, and the late-1960s Suns.
Lastly, why was the old Philadelphia Warrior forced to dribble what appears
to be a water polo ball back in the late 1940s? [Note that the ball was updated in the 1950s. -- PL]
It’s worth noting that just because a logo is listed on a web site as “Celtics, 1968″ (or whatever), that doesn’t mean that was the exact logo used in that year. Logos are often updated and then retroactively relabeled, passed around the web, and so on, and we don’t know if these logos were scanned from, say, an original yearbook or just downloaded from less primary source. But Gordon’s research is interesting, and appears to indicate that the NBA’s ball design and logo designs tend to develop independently of each other. Good stuff.
Next project: Someone go research all the ball-inclusive ABA logos (like the excellent Oakland Oaks mark shown above).
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Wizards unveiled their new alternate uni last night, complete with odd shoulder striping and shorts that don’t match the jersey. For some reason I find them more amusing than awful, and I kinda like how the shoulder stripes echo the franchise’s old Bullets-era design. … Keyshawn Johnson appears to be tying his jersey collar to his shoulder pads, and the shoelace he’s using (or strap, or whatever) is running right through his NFL Equipment logo patch (here’s a closer look). … You can get a sneak peek at FSU’s solid-black alternate uni, slated to debut this Saturday, toward the end of this video clip (with thanks to BJ Lanier). … Yesterday I jokingly suggested that Endy Chavez might have been wearing a nicotine patch, although I figured it was just a Band-Aid. Turns out it may actually have been a performance accessory, though, because Brian Terreson points out that Phiten — the same company that makes those annoying titanium necklaces that everyone’s now wearing — also makes these little adhesive titanium patch thingies, and it looks like that’s what Chavez was wearing. Bizarre. … Another NCAA football team with an asymmetrical helmet design: D3 Wesleyan. In an odd development, the school is celebrating its 175th anniversary, so the gridders have “175 Years” on the left side, while the right side is blank. Yes, I know I had previously excluded teams from this discussion if they had one blank side, instead of two distinct decals, but this one is so unusual that it deserves to be included. (Thanks to current Wesleyan sophomore Chris Choi for this info.). … Wanna own 13 pairs of stirrups very similar to the one depicted in the Uni Watch logo (and if you don’t, you really need to reconsider your priorities)? Look here. (Thanks to Tom Langan for the tip.) … Interesting note from Randy Miller, who writes: “I was watching an old Bud Greenspan-style documentary on the 1968 Olympics, and they showed a soccer finals match between Bulgaria and Hungary. The Bulgarian team (I think) wore a serifed number font I’d never seen before and it featured a European 7, the one with the line through the middle of it. Just curious if you’d ever seen or heard of a European 7 being used on a uniform before.” I never have. Anyone else..? … New York Times engaged in a bit of political uni watching yesterday. … Jeremy Brahm notes that the American gymnastics team at the 2006 FIG Artistic World Championships is wearing fuchsia, which has caused such a ruckus that it’s actually mentioned in the lead sentence of this article (plus there’s more discussion of the unis farther down in the piece). … Brahm also has his customary Japanese baseball report. Today’s installment: Waseda University’s baseball team uses different font sizes for uni Nos. 1 and 11. … Oops.
October 20th, 2006
The World Series starts this weekend. And for reader Brad Bierman, that means only one thing: a new World Series sleeve patch will make its appearance.
Not that Bierman is in any suspense regarding what the patch will look like, mind you — he’s already got one, in fact, which he’s mounted on his complete display of World Series sleeve patches. And that’s just a small portion of his patch collection.
Bierman, a former radio sportscaster who lives outside of Philly, approached me back in March at the Uni Watch Athletics Aesthetics Party, where he showed me photos from his extensive stash of jersey patches. He later sent me a bunch of other patch-centric info, most of which I haven’t yet fully followed up on (sorry, Brad — it’ll happen, I promise).
Anyway, with the baseball’s season-ending showcase about to start, here’s Bierman’s commentary on some World Series patches from the past two decades:
1987: The first year of a WS jersey patch. It was worn only by the Cardinals, not by the Twins.
1989: Always wondered how MLB managed to add the great “Battle of the Bay” slogan for the A’s/Giants Series in such a short time between the LCS and the WS.
1991: The Twins had to remove their 30th-anniversary patch from their right sleeve in order to make room for this patch in the Series.
1994: No World Series because of the strike, but there was still a patch, which resembled the 1993 and 1992 designs.
1995: In an attempt to put something “hip” into marketing its glamour event after the 1994 strike, MLB also used an alternate WS logo, adding the
“Welcome To The Show” phrase first uttered by Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) in the 1988 movie Bull Durham.
1997: Neither the Marlins nor the Indians actually wore this patch on their jerseys. Each club had its team logo patch on the left sleeve; the Marlins had their version of the Jackie Robinson 50th-anniversary patch on their right sleeve, and the Indians’ right sleeve had the 1997 All-Star Game patch. The WS patch was worn on jackets and by the umpires.
2000: Always wondered why MLB couldn’t have added “Subway Series”
somewhere to the WS patch, as was done for the same market Bay Area series in 1989. With modern marketing the way it is, most likely the logo had already been released to so many places and could not be changed.
2005: A rare use of the MLB logo with the blue and red colors fields reversed. [Probably my favorite of all the WS patches, because the autumnal color scheme is perfect for the Fall Classic. -- PL]
When I asked Bierman if he also had a full set of World Series cap patches, which have been appearing in the Series since 1996, he replied, “I do not have the cap patches — I hate the whole concept. An extra patch does not belong on such a small uniform piece.” Now that’s hardcore — zero tolerance, baby!
Bierman offered the following thoughts on patch collecting:
Acquiring patches pre-Internet meant working directly with the few dealers out there or seeing them at sports card/memorabilia shows, especially the annual National Show each summer, and a few big regional shows in the northeast (Murf Denny deserves a mention here, as I was able to get patches early on from him), or from equipment managers, especially in the pre-memorabilia craze that began to hit in the mid- to late 1980s.
Since the eBay era arrived, it has made collecting the last 8-10 years a whole new ballgame. Have met a few incredible people that share an intense “patch passion” and knowledge. This includes Richard Feltoon in New Jersey — found him through a Miami Dolphins fan web site looking for their 30th-anniversary patch of the undefeated 1972 team, worn in a Monday Night game in 2002. Great guy (who also happens to be the official online/retail outlet for all Gumby-related products).
I have six large boards with all the MLB team commemoratives (minus most memorial patches), and two boards for the NFL teams. I have a smaller NHL board (Flyers and some league-wide patches), four major college bowl game national championship patch years, the first two new NCAA basketball Final Four patches started in 2005, and a few NBA anniversary patches and NBA Finals. A great patch I won on eBay this summer came from another nice guy I got to know through eBay in California (unfortunately, he had to sell part of his collection to raise funds): an original 1973 Yankee Stadium 50th-anniversary patch, (as seen on an SI cover that summer).
Big thanks to Brad for sharing his collection and his expertise. Now let’s hope the Mets are the other team that’ll be wearing that 2006 World Series patch this Saturday.
Mea Culpa Dept.: Yesterday’s entry about the logo implications of the new NBA ball had two omissions: (1) My list of teams with ball-inclusive logo designs should have included the Kings; and (2) I inexcusably neglected to mention that the guy who brought this issue to my attention in the first place was reader Alex Gordon. He’s also done some interesting historical research regarding older NBA logos and balls, which I’ll present as a follow-up item either tomorrow or next week.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of patches, was that a nicotine patch that Endy Chavez was sporting last night, or did he just cut himself shaving? … “Logo creep or creepy logos?” That’s what Rob Schmoll wants to know after seeing this story about a new plan to make MLB logos available for placement on caskets and urns. … Kudos to Wade Harder, who’s come up with a really unique example of a football helmet with a logo on one side and a number on the other: “For the 1987 football season, Vanderbilt wore the split scheme with the school’s logo on the right side of the helmet and number 73 on the left side, a tribute to the death of teammate Paul Lomanto. I remember this because my family actually had Vanderbilt season tickets at the time.” … Eric Glickman has noticed that the logos of the last six teams to defeat the Yankees in the postseason spell out how the Bombers have fared in October since winning it all in 2000. … The Rockies will be switching to CoolFlo helmets next season — further details in the “On the Rox” section toward the bottom of this page. … Thomas Harding, who broke that Rockies news for MLB.com, also sent along this photo, which shows Bobby Layne with his crotch extension exposed. Wait, make that his jersey’s crotch extension. … Bryan Redemske notes that Carlos Delgado wears a really tiny glove for infield practice. … Horn-Toot Dept.: Yesterday’s Bill Buckner column on ESPN was a big hit.
October 19th, 2006
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: As I’m sure everyone here is well aware, the NBA has a new game ball. Most of the media coverage of the new ball has centered on players’ complaints about it. But there’s a more pressing matter that nobody seems to have addressed: What happens to all the teams who have basketballs depicted in their logos?
This is no small matter, because the overwhelming majority of NBA teams have ball-inclusive logos. In addition to the Lakers, you’ve got the Hawks, Celtics, Cavs, Mavs, Pistons, Warriors, Pacers, Clippers, Heat, Nets, Knicks, Hornets, Magic, Sixers, Suns, Sonics, Raptors, Jazz, and Wizards (the only logo where the ball appears twice) — plus the Eastern and Western Conference logos! Many teams have the ball depicted on their uniforms, too.
Leaving aside the obvious point that maybe it’s time for NBA logo designers to come up with some more imaginative tropes, the issue of logo-to-ball consistency is an interesting one. Are any of these teams thinking of updating their logos to match the new ball? Will these old logos now start to become retro by default? Did the NBA think about all this when the new ball design was in development?
I posed those questions to the league office, where NBA VP for Apparel Christopher Arena provided the following response:
This was discussed, as it relates to all balls in team and event logos for the NBA, WNBA, and D-League. Some of our new franchises — the Los Angeles D-Fenders in the D-League, for example — will be using the new ball design in their logos. But we have not had any existing teams approach us about changing their logos, and we are not proactively pursuing them to change.
If you look closely at the Celtics logo, you’ll see that the ball is the pre-1970 four-panel ball. They never changed the logo when the ball became eight-panel. The eight-panel basketball is still a basketball, and represents a point in time when the franchise was created, or at least when the logo was created. We anticipate that eight-panel balls will continue to represent the game of basketball for some time — we just happen to have a new ball for game play. I would anticipate many of our event logos (draft, etc.) eventually converting to the new ball when applicable.
This strikes me as a perfectly reasonable response. My hunch, though, is that as we all grow more accustomed to the sight of the new ball (which, incidentally, I think looks pretty cool), more and more teams will decide that their logos look a bit incongruous, and will use the new ball as an excuse for a logo makeover. Everyone meet back here in three years and we’ll see if I’m right.
Of course, it’d be great if the new ball served as an excuse to resuscitate and revise the greatest NBA logo of all time.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s entry looked at high school football helmets with a logo on one side and a uni number on the other. But Jesse Gavin has come up with a school that wears two distinct logos: Cedar Falls High in Iowa, which has this on one side and this on the other. … And it turns out that mismatched helmet decals aren’t limited to the high school ranks after all, as explained in this report from Scott Musa: “Christopher Newport University [a NCAA D3S school in the USA South Conference] has a CNU on the left side and their school logo (three sails, but they look like triangles) on the right.” … Note to self: Don’t ever attend a Chicago-area game involving Simeon High or Libertyville High (whose opponents appear to have kidnapped Flying Elvis and put him on their helmets). This retina damage brought to you by John Waller. … Taking in a Clinton High game in Oklahoma wouldn’t be too bad, though (with thanks to Cale Challis). … The University of Wisconsin has forced an Iowa high school to change its logo, because it was too similar to the Badgers’ logo. Further info here (good catch by Jesse Gavin and Matt Nelson). … Great catch you may have missed in yesterday’s Comments section: Scott Player’s single-bar facemask was up by his forehead as he tried to tackle Devin Hester. … And yes, Neil Rackers did indeed have a Band-Aid on his forehead.
October 18th, 2006
Yesterday I mentioned that Bolivar High in Missouri wears a yellow decal on the left side of their helmet and a white uni number on the right, and asked if anyone knew of any football teams with mismatched helmet decals.
It turns out that this basic format — logo on one side, uni number on the other — is hardly unique in the world of high school football. Within hours of yesterday’s post going up, readers had identified several similar schools, including Kings High School in suburban Cincinnati (logo, uni number), Fort Madison High in Iowa (logo, uni number), Wooster High in Ohio, and La Salle High in Milwaukie, Oregon. Several other readers said they knew of additional examples but didn’t have photos.
Granted, that’s not a huge number of schools, but it’s a lot more than the number of pro or college teams that design their helmets this way (i.e., zero). I was about to ask if anyone knew why this trope appears to be limited to the high school ranks when it hit me: merchandising. High schools don’t sell replica helmets, helmet-shaped ice buckets, helmet-shaped lamps, or any of that other crap. If they did, they’d probably want the school logo on both sides. Just another case of the merchandising tail wagging the uni dog.
Thanks to all who contributed, especially Matt Lanzoff, Scott Mason, and Tim Snyder.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of high school football, if for some reason I had to go back to high school, I’d try to enroll at Sullivan South in Tennessee, where they know a thing or two about how to dress a football team (except maybe for that facemask, but don’t tell Blane Gallatin I said that, since he’s the one who provided the photo). … According to this article, Reebok’s new NHL uni template will be unveiled at this season’s All-Star Game (which means we’ve all got three months to perfect our suicide plans). … Boston College coach Tom O’Brien has a small quip about FSU’s all-black unis at the very bottom of this article (with thanks to James Harvey). … Nice little uni-centric blog entry, including a look at the NFL’s old uniform and equipment guidelines, available here. … Todd Krevanchi notes that UConn’s women’s hoops team is switching from this to this. … And Jonathan Carone reports that Liberty now looks like this (here’s another view). … We all know by now that the Cowboys have two different sets of silver pants. But Ryan Mackman wonders if they were mixing and matching last Sunday, or if it was just the way the light was reflecting on that shot. … The best thing about last night’s Mets/Cards rainout is that it gives me another excuse to link to this. … Great soccer tidbit from RJ Charles, who writes: “Interesting occurrence in England this past weekend. Chelsea had two goalkeepers injured during their game vs. Reading, forcing captain John Terry to don the third-string goalkeeper’s jersey and protect the net for the final minutes of the game. His usual uni number is 26, but the jersey he put on had No. 40. Too bad Reading couldn’t even get a shot off on him before the game ended.” … Always good to hear from Uni Watch Tennessee bureau chief (and Ralph Lauren Polo devotee) Luke Pellegra, who reports that the Tennessee hoops team, which previously looked like this, is adding some completely unnecessary black trim this season. Different side panels, too (old, new). Looks like they have some typographic issues to work out on the numeral “2,” however, at least judging by the media day pics — compare this to this (the latter of which matches the style used last season) … Speaking of media day photo shoots, here are some more shots of those crummy new OSU unis (tip o’ the cap to Michael Keys). … Good observation by Chaz Noerenberg, who notes that the uni number of Matt Leinart’s jersey clearly has a white edge, while many of his teammates’ numbers don’t. Noerenberg thinks this indicates that the black trim on Leinart’s number “must be screened onto the white twill, much the way the Swingman replicas are produced,” but I think maybe it’s just a case of crummy quality control. Joe Hilseberg, if you’re reading this, fill us in! … Did Neil Rackers have a Band-Aid on his forehead last night? … New ESPN column tomorrow (a day earlier than usual), and I don’t mind telling you that it’s a doozy. Seriously, people, prepare to have your little uni-centric worlds rocked to the core — this one’s gonna be big.
October 17th, 2006
Cold weather can make people do funny things, and it was plenty damn cold on Friday in Detroit, where the Tigers and A’s bundled up for Game 3 of the ALCS.
Latino players, like Placido Polanco, are usually the ones who have the most trouble with low-temp games (although at least Polanco didn’t go the full-on ski mask route, like Aramis Ramirez did back in April). On Friday, top honors for cold weather resourcefulness went to Venezuelan native Marco Scutaro, who looked like a Sherpa during infield and batting practice and then — in a true stroke of genius — wore his knit cap over his baseball cap during the game (here’s another view). This move left some readers aghast, but I loved it. Scutaro even made sure the cap’s A’s logo was facing forward, and the cap actually had an MLB logo on the back! Hey, if it was good enough for Jose Theodore, then why not for Scutaro? It’s not like he was pulling a Steve Wallace or a Mark Kelso. (Okay, so that’s a bit of a stretch anyway, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to reference the ProCap.)
But here’s something that’s tough to figure: Despite the frigid conditions on Friday, several of the Tigers were wearing Cool Base jerseys, as you can tell from the telltale underarm gussets visible here on Kenny Rogers, Brandon Inge, and — yes — Placido Polanco.
Theodore and Scutaro get my votes for history’s coolest-looking cold weather maneuvers. Care to nominate someone else? You know what to do.
Research Query: I was in a bar on Saturday, around 6pm, and the Alabama/Miss game was on one of the TVs. No sound, though. I was telling the person on the next barstool all about Alabama’s special Bear Bryant commemorative houndstooth collar pattern when the TV suddenly showed a close-up still shot of someone’s shin, with a $2 bill taped to his sock. Again, the sound was off, so I couldn’t hear what this was about, although my impression was that it had something to do with one of the placekickers. Anyone know the full story here?
Uni Watch News Ticker: Genuinely frightening college football design partnership in the offing here (but I won’t shoot the messenger, who in this case is Ben Trattner). … Paul Hirsch notes that there’s a small bit about Cal’s various uni combos toward the bottom of this page (scroll down to the “Bears play dress-up” section). … Bolivar High in Missouri has yellow decals on one side of their helmets and white uni numbers on the other (plus they appear to be very generous with the merit decals). “I can’t think of another team that has different decals on each side of the helmet,” says Josh Cooper, who brought this anomaly to my attention. I can’t think of one either (and no, the Steelers don’t count, since they simply have no decal on one side). Anyone else? … Latest MLBer with something illegible scribbled under his brim: Braden Looper. … Kansas State has unveiled what appears to be history’s worst basketball uniforms. Further depressing details here. … No comment. … Ditto. … The good news is that the Sabres broke out their alternate throwbacks on Saturday night. The bad news is that the throwbacks now have uni numbers on the chest, just like the Buffaslug jerseys. … Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo began Friday’s game wearing green-and-blue pads that matched Vancouver’s throwback uni. He wasn’t feeling comfortable in that gear, however, so he came out for the second period wearing his regular pads (but still had the retro-colored glove and blocker). Further details in the last three paragraphs of this article. (Big thanks to AJ Brandt.) … Missed most of last night’s Mets/Cards game because I had a prior commitment to see Okkervil River at the Bowery Ballroom, where reader Ryan Armbrust actually recognized me, based solely on the occasional photo of me that’s appeared on this site — a Uni Watch first (unless you count that time Phil Knight crossed over to the other side of the street when he spotted me coming toward him down the sidewalk)! Fortunately, the immense social-geekitude potential embodied in such an encounter was mitigated by the fact that Armbrust was wearing a really cool vintage 49ers T-shirt.
October 16th, 2006
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