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Archive for March, 2007
It’s not often that I use an item from the comments section as the basis for the next day’s lead item. But yesterday’s comments had a pretty amazing contribution from Brian Crisp, who posted some photos of the Houston Buffalos, an old minor league team from Houston’s pre-MLB days. Lots of good pics (I’ll get to more of them in a sec), but the one that blew me away was this shot of a Buffs player wearing shorts.
As regular readers may recall, at least one other minor league team has worn shorts: the 1950 Hollywood Stars. When writing about them back in August, I said the Stars were the first professional baseball team to go shorts-clad, but the caption to the Buffs photo says the shorts were worn “for parts of the ’49 & ’50 seasons as a gate-juicer for some bad teams,” which would predate the Stars by one season. Anyone know if there are any earlier examples out there?
(And yes, the White Sox wore shorts for one game in 1976, but everyone knows about that already.)
Crisp also linked to gallery with lots of other great Buffalos photos, including this, this (note the zip-front jersey), this (from a 1932 uni), this (1931), this, and this (I think this is the only time I’ve seen a baseball jersey with uni numbers on both sleeves [Update: I'd forgotten about the 1979-80 Cardinals]).
Incidentally, while the shorts photo was new to me, it’s pretty obvious that it’s served as a recent inspiration for someone else.
Corner Kick: Speaking of athletes in shorts, the U.S. men’s soccer team unveiled its new alternate jersey yesterday. The consensus in yesterday’s comments section and among the several readers who e-mailed me was that the new design sucks (Ronald Charles was particularly incensed about the prospect of this jersey/shorts combo). I’m too soccer-indifferent to render any kind of worthwhile judgment, but I will say this: The last time a saw a blue jersey with white pinstripes, it didn’t look so hot.
Radio Free Uni Watch: Me, talking uniforms, tomorrow morning 9 a.m. eastern, on Springfield, Missouri’s KADI.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Fun piece here about the shoes Washington wore in the Pac 10 tourney (with thanks to Dave Sizer). … The sports world’s latest really stupid trademark-related legal flap involves Roberto Clemente’s uniform number. … Golf news from Jeff Heckelman, who reports Geoff Ogilvy, Johan Edfors, and Hideto Tanihara will be wearing gold shoes at the Masters.
March 22nd, 2007
If you read the February 26th issue of Sports Illustrated, you may have seen the photo displayed at right. Taken in 1965, it shows several Dodgers taking part in spring training drills in Vero Beach. The version printed in the magazine was pretty small — almost exactly the same size as the one shown here on the screen, in fact — so even if you did see it, you probably didn’t pay much attention to it (except maybe to think, “Whoa, now that’s how stirrups should look!”).
But reader Bob Jaye looked a little closer, and he found something veeeeery interesting — something, in fact, that has developed into quite a mystery. To get a better view of what he discovered, check out a larger version of the photo.
As you can see, it appears that at least two of the guys in the foreground have the letter S where their uniform number would normally be. The guy on the left probably has an S too, although it could conceivably be a 5 or a 9. What’s up with that? As Jaye wrote to me, “It’s rough enough to be given a high number like 87 in spring training, but having to share an alphabetical character with at least two other players must have been downright deflating.”
I’m figuring the S stands for spring training (although it clearly wasn’t a team-wide thing, because the guy in the background of the photo has a regular 7). Wondering if maybe it was something I’d just missed before, and I went back and looked at lots of old Dodgers spring training photos. Came up with loads of really great shots (as seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and — my favorite — here), but nothing like the “S” photo.
I had the nagging feeling that this might be one of those things that everyone knew about except me, so I showed the photo to a few friends, none of whom could explain it. Then I forwarded it to uniform designer Todd Radom and Hall of Fame researcher Tom Shieber, and was surprised when they were both stumped. So then I queried the Society for American Baseball Research’s membership — again, no dice.
Shieber, who loves investigating stuff like this, decided to consult some higher authorities, starting with former Dodgers GM and legendary baseball soothsayer Buzzie Bavasi, who’s now, like, a million years old (actually 91). Then he contacted more recent Dodgers GM Fred Claire, who immediately began consulting some of his contacts (”He’s like a bulldog, hot on the trail,” says Shieber). For now, the best guess from this brain trust is that the “S” may have referred to the Dodgers’ Spokane or Santa Barbara farm clubs, which trained at Vero Beach along with the big league team in those days, although nobody seems completely satisfied with that explanation. The wheels are still turning on this one — stay tuned.
Help Wanted: Several readers — most recently Oswaldo Perez — have suggested that I write something about the uniform modifications that can executed in video games like NBA Live and MVP 05 Baseball. I don’t play video games myself, but apparently you can create old-school uni designs (sometimes really old-school), complete with period details.
I agree that this is a worthwhile topic. But since I’m not a gamer, I’m not the right guy to write this piece. So if any of you out there are (a) well-versed in this phenomenon, (b) reasonably literate, and (c) willing to contribute a blog entry, please get in touch.
Raffle Reminder: As of this writing, only seven people — seven! — have bought virtual raffle tickets for the authentic Tracy McGrady All-Star jersey that I’m giving away (additional pics here, here, and here). So if you want to get in on this, you may not have much competition. The terms: $3 for one virtual raffle ticket, or two for $5, five for $10, a dozen for $20, or fifty for $50. PayPal your ticket purchases to me at paul_lukas at earthlink dot net (or, if you don’t like PayPal, mail payment to Paul Lukas, 671 DeGraw St., Brooklyn, NY 11217 and e-mail me so I know it’s on the way). Tickets will be sold until this Friday, 5pm eastern. I’ll announce the winner on Monday the 26th.
Radio Free Uni Watch: I’ll be talking uniforms on Springfield, Missouri’s KADI this Friday at 9 a.m. eastern time. It’ll be streamable here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Nice little slideshow on the state of NFL uniforms here (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … Perfection. … Matt Lozar notes that Butler has some major typography issues for player names on jerseys. Sometimes they use small type, sometimes large, and at least one player has a bit of an arc. … I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Dice-K’s jersey insignia is riding mighty low. … Manny appears to have switched to a white snood. … Maybe I just missed it before, but have those blue stripes always been there on Ryan Howard’s shoes? … There’s something really weird about seeing Don Zimmer wearing modern wraparound shades. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Giants are doing a rally cap giveaway on April 20th. I’ve never really cared for rally caps, but there’s something particularly fucked up about a cap designed to be inside-out. Like, is everyone really too lazy to do this themselves? And shouldn’t the logo be backwards, and the brim curling the other way? This is the very definition of a failed concept. … Also from the comments: I thought Eric Gagne was wearing one long sleeve and one sleeve cut off. But it turns out he’s actually wearing a compression sleeve. … Bluffton University will play baseball despite their fatal bus crash, and will wear all-black uniforms in memory of those who died. … The Hagerstown Suns have unveiled a new alternate uniform (with thanks to Uni Watch minor league empress Kora Manheimer). … Latest bit of NHL uni “news” that doesn’t really say anything new here. … I’ll be off the grid most of today (spending my birthday with the parentals), so talk amongst yourselves. Back tomorrow.
March 21st, 2007
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Got an interesting note the other day from reader Steve Shanabruch: “Check out these football and baseball patches that my digital illustration teacher designed for Upper Deck, the card company. According to his blog, ‘On this project they asked me to create a set of embroidered patch designs they could sew onto uniform swatches they would then use on a special set of trading cards.’”
Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want a uniform swatch with a patch that wasn’t originally part of the uniform, this project interests me because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of digital media in patch design. Take, for example, the 30th-anniversary patch that the Mariners will be wearing this season: It looks really great as digital art, but a lot of the detail (especially the two stadiums in the foreground) is lost in the embroidered version.
I’ve noticed lots of similar examples in recent years. And it seems to me that one reason for this is that digital illustration programs allow a designer to include all sorts of small details that wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago — and maybe that was for the best, because many of those details don’t translate very well to the finished product. If you look at designs that Shanabruch’s instructor has created for Upper Deck, most of them seem to avoid this problem, because they’re fairly simple and don’t have many teeny-tiny elements. (Most of them are also much too cartoon-ish for my tastes, but that’s a separate issue.)
My go-to guy for patch design questions, as he is for so many other uni-related issues, is Todd Radom, who’s designed loads of MLB and NFL patches over the years. So I gave him a ring to pick his brain about patch design:
Uni Watch: What sorts of things do you have to think about when designing a patch?
Todd Radom: There are always going to be translations to be made between the art and the patch. You’re giving this piece of art to National Emblem, or whoever’s gonna embroider the thing, and the way they interpret it will determine what the final product looks like.
UW: So how can you ensure that the interpretation will be, y’know, accurate?
TR: One thing you always have to keep in mind is that Pantone flat colors do not seamlessly translate to thread colors. Also, I try to keep all of the line weights, if not necessarily simple, then practical. You want to have thick lines that will not disappear when they turn into thread. Also, I keep in mind that in a live environment, like if you go to a ballgame, these patches are tiny little things.
UW: Yeah, but they’re more visible on TV.
TR: And that was my next point. I think the ultimate determining factor is not how it feels in your hand or how it looks in person, but how it translates into broadcast. So you always have to think practically, and you have to think that when it gets translated into patch form, it’s going to take on some dimension that changes things. Now, I’m looking around my office here — you’ve been here, and as you’ll recall, I have a bunch of patches that I’ve created and I have them framed on the wall. And to me, some of them are just an absolute seamless transition from art to patch, and some are not. You constantly learn about the challenges of that transition. Also, keep in mind that, for the most part, sleeve patch designs are utilized in other applications — in print advertising, on little enamel pins, signage, whatever — so you need to think in a very versatile way.
UW: Do you think the flexibility and “You can do anything” factor of digital illustration make it easy to get carried away with things that might not translate as well?
TR: Absolutely. There has to be a certain amount of self-editing.
UW: Did you design any patches in the pre-digital era?
TR: That’s a good question. Hmmm — yes, I did.
UW: And was that a different process, because you didn’t have the technical flexibility or the wide range of options offered by the computer?
TR: Not really. Also, embroidery techniques have changed over the past 15 years, in lockstep with design capabilities.
UW: You mean the creative side and the production side have both gotten more sophisticated at roughly the same rates?
TR: Yeah, it’s sort of a parallel evolution.
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It’s worth noting, incidentally, that the translation from art to patch isn’t always a downgrade. Case in point: the patch that the Brewers will be wearing this season. The digital version looks nice enough, but the actual patch is much better, thanks to all the texture and depth provided by the embroidery.
What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate: For reasons that we can’t quite figure out, I’m suddenly receiving a small avalanche of old e-mails, most of them dated in the March 5th-15th range. It’s not clear why I didn’t receive them when you originally sent them, but if you sent me a good photo contribution or asked a good question and I never wrote back or acknowledged your communiqué, this is probably why. Now that I’m receiving them, I’ll try to deal with them as efficiently as I can.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The No Mas blog has a nice little bit here about Antero Nittymaki’s mask. … As an aside, No Mas has become my favorite sports commentary on the web. The blog, most of it written by Dave “Large” Larzelere, just oozes intelligence, plus it’s funny, caustic, and has a voice that’s completely its own. There’s occasionally coverage of stuff I don’t care about, like pro wrestling, but whatever — the rest of the material is as sharp as anything in sports media today. Essential reading. Check it out here. … Amazing archival find by Larry Cauley, who was going through some old family photos and found this. Man, there are so many things to love about this shot — the noseguards, the stripes, the varsity sweaters, the pennants, the coach with the stopwatch. One for the ages! … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Good article here about Barry Zito’s glove, which might be ruled illegal because of the dark leather with contrasting white laces. … Are there any NHL players besides Ryan Smyth who wear blue blade holders? (Good catch by Matthew Guggenheimer.) … Remember Curtis Granderson’s “Don’t Think, Have Fun” underbill inscription from last year? He discusses it briefly in the third item of this Q&A page (with thanks to Laura Koenig). … Latest university to tell a high school team, “Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!”: Wyoming. … More news you may have missed from yesterday’s comments: The Tigers have a kid in camp who has an MLB logo tattoo. … And Tony LaRussa has a tattoo as well, which is sort of a frightening thought. … Score one for the anti-corporatization movement. … “Heres something odd (and, in my opinion, stupid),” writes Michael Alper. “Northern Illinois introduced a new men’s basketball head coach today. At the presser, they had him pose with a jersey. This coach never will wear a NIU jersey in a game. Lame.” … Good exhibit here on the history of ice skates and their impact on Canadian culture (with thanks to Stephen Tod). … Now that David Wells has been diagnosed with diabetes, will he end up wearing an insulin pump on his belt, like Jason Johnson? … At first I thought there was a missing letter, but it turns out that that’s the guy’s actual name (not unlike this).
March 20th, 2007
As many of you have heard by now, Miami will have new football uniforms next season. Naturally, it’s premature to judge a set simply on the basis of an illustration schematic, but that’s never stopped us before, so let’s take a look:
• Jerseys: The uni numbers are supposedly wider, although it’s hard to tell from the illo. The bigger issue is that handlebar piping, which looks pretty bad on the front (where you can bet that it won’t look nearly so slick and streamlined when it’s stretched over a 300-pound lineman’s torso) and totally bogus on the back. Nameplates look kinda small too, although I’ve gotta believe the type will be bigger on the actual jerseys. Meanwhile, count all the seams and panels — it’s a friggin’ crazy quilt!
• Pants: I’m gonna say it right now: I love — love — how the top stripe sort of crosses over the smaller stripe. Looks so damn cool. Did I mention that I love it? I wish the top stripes didn’t wrap all the way around to the butt cheeks, but maybe it’ll create a sort of faux belt effect — need to see it on an actual player before deciding how much to hate it. And what’s that little logo on the rear-center belt loop? Closer inspection reveals it to be the team’s secondary ibis/hurricane logo. I’m generally opposed to putting any logo in that spot (the only other example I can think of is the Rice University baseball team), but having a storm cloud emerging from the players’ butt cracks seems like a particularly bad idea, y’know?
All in all, on a scale of one to five quacks (one being relative normalcy, five being a full-on U. of Oregon nightmare), I’d rate this a fairly tame 2.5.
NBA Raffle Reminder: In case you missed it on Friday, I’m raffling off a Tracy McGrady NBA All-Star jersey. Entries are running fairly slow at the moment, so your odds of winning aren’t too shabby, at least for now. For details, scroll down to the “Yet Another Raffle” section of Friday’s entry.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The player names on the back of the North Texas State jerseys sure are big. … System of Dress undershirt sighting here (good catch by Bryan Redemske). … Fascinating note from Matt Fitzpatrick, who recently took a tour of Chase Field, the Diamondbacks’ stadium: “The tour guide said the team decided last season to add a red Sunday jersey for this year and filed the proper paperwork with MLB. The league responded by asking if the Diamondbacks would instead consider a complete overhaul and sent out a representative to make a presentation to the team. MLB wanted colors that better reflected the region, but the guide noted that Arizona merchandise sales had dropped to 29th in the league last year. He said his info came straight from the team president and he seemed pretty reliable. I know that leagues always have input but I am disturbed by the idea that they are now initiating uniform changes.” … Jeremy Brahm notes that Chunichi Dragons catcher Masaumi Shimizu wears his uni number on this throat protector. … Also from Jeremy: Amusing crackpot-ish article here about cricket team colo(u)rs. … And yet one more from Jeremy: “Hichori Morimoto has been named an ambassador for the Hokkaido Shinkansen Construction Promotion Association. So to enter the field, he wore a special bullet train hat, which matches the one shown on the Association’s home page.” … The Red Sox, who wore green jerseys for St. Patrick’s Day, plan to wear them again on April 12th as a tribute to Red Auerbach. Whatever you think of the symbolism (hmmm, Red Auerbach, Red Sox), I believe this is the first time a team has uni-memorialized someone from another sport since 2000, when the Expos wore that black “9″ for Rocket Richard. … Good news from Flushing, where an inside source reports, “The Mets’ black uniforms are to be used less this season. How much less isn’t yet clear.” … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Good PDF article here about U. of Wisconsin’s seemingly never-ending battle against motion-W logo ripoffs. … Good article here about USC’s Ryan Francis memorial patch. … If you skip ahead about two-thirds of the way through this podcast, you’ll hear some interesting comments about uniform numbers from John Madden (with thanks to Uni Watch ukulele songstress Christine Freeman). … A few days ago there was a good discussion in the comments section about official scorers wearing zebra-striped shirts at college and high school basketball games. But Brian Temke noticed an interesting variation on this theme during the Pitt/VCU game: The scorer was wearing a zebra-striped vest. … For those sad, benighted few who might not get the reference in today’s headline, click here.
March 19th, 2007
The Dodgers were one of many MLB teams that wore green caps and/or jerseys yesterday. Others included the Phillies, Red Sox, Royals, Mariners, White Sox, Padres, Cubs, Pirates, Braves, Cardinals, and Mets (who actually wore two distinct green caps for their two split squad games). The best look of the day, however, belonged once again to this guy, who’s shaping up as Uni Watch’s early choice for MVP.
March 18th, 2007
Heads up: That’s Guy Martino of Kennedy High in Cedar Rapids, playing in the Iowa state tourney (with thanks to Jesse Gavin, who also notes that Martino’s teammate Eric Schultz wears tights and that the Bishop Heelan team wears “Pride” on their jerseys, instead of player names).
March 17th, 2007
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, which means MLB teams will be wearing green uniforms. Some minor league hockey and basketball teams will probably get into the act too, along with some college baseball teams, and green unis have already been on display this week in the NBA.
But anyone can throw on a green jersey or cap. It takes real commitment to do what the UHL’s Kalamazoo Wings have been doing for the past quarter-century: Every St. Paddy’s Day, they dye their ice green (additional views here and here, plus there’s a whole gallery here).
Clifford Zang, who first brought the hielo verde to my attention, says he thinks the Wings “might be the first team to have changed the color of their ice, although I couldn’t find any proof of that.” He also pointed me toward this excellent interview with the team’s GM, who explains how the promotion came about, how they color the ice, and how they’ve spun off some related ideas (like pink ice for Valentine’s Day).
But the Wings aren’t the only team who’ll have green ice this weekend. Reader Ian Borkowski, who lives in Oregon, checks in with the following report:
The Portland Winter Hawks and the Seattle Thunderbirds (both of the Western Hockey League) will be holding a joint Turn Back the Clock weekend on Friday in Seattle and then on Saturday in Portland. Seattle will wear green 1967-75 Totems sweaters (likely these) and Portland will wear white Buckaroos sweaters (likely these). But the Winter Hawks — my beloved Winter Hawks — are going to ruin it all by playing on green ice for the Saturday game.
Now, I’m not anti-Ireland or hatin’ on the Irish here — far from it. But if you stop for a moment and think about the Portland/Seattle rivalry, green has always been the color of the enemy — Seattle! Except for the Seattle Breakers in blue and orange, green has been a primary color for the skaters up north. Has Portland management forgotten that we used to play Kermit the Frog’s “It’s Not Easy Being Green” when the T-Birds would step on the Memorial Coliseum ice?
My, my — who knew green could be so fraught? As it happens, green is my favorite color, but I’ll be spending tomorrow night with some friends at Spanish/Portuguese restaurant, where I expect the only thing green will be the olives.
Yet Another Raffle: I trust that most of you have entered our latest Distant Replays raffle, which is keyed to the NCAA tournament. But listen up, cuz I’ve got something special to give away in the meantime: a Tracy McGrady authentic NBA All-Star jersey, complete with tagging, the All-Star logo on the chest, the Rockets logo on the back, and so on.
Much like the NHL All-Star jersey I raffled off back in January, I’m gonna set this one up as a fund-raiser. Here’s the deal: $3 for one virtual raffle ticket, or two for $5, five for $10, a dozen for $20, or fifty for $50. PayPal your ticket purchases to me at paul_lukas at earthlink dot net. If you’re not PayPal-ish, you can send cash or a check to Paul Lukas, 671 DeGraw St., Brooklyn, NY 11217 (just e-mail me to let me know the $$$ is in the mail, and I’ll include you in the drawing even if the envelope doesn’t arrive by the deadline). Tickets will be sold until next Friday, March 23rd, at 5pm eastern. I’ll announce the winner on Monday the 26th.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yet another team that will be wearing green this weekend: Arizona State’s baseball team, which will be donning green caps (here’s how they looked last year). Randy Policar, the school’s Assistant Sports Information Director, adds the following: “It looks like we’ll be wearing nine different jerseys this season, which may be an NCAA record. We have old-school cream homes, classic white homes, maroon BP tops, maroon alternate, old-school gray roads, sleeveless gray roads, a black alternate jersey, a gold alternate jersey, and we also will be doing a Negro League-style throwback jersey this year.” I’m not sure that’s really the sort of record a team should be shooting for, y’know? … Really good article here about all the zeroes and double-zeroes in college basketball. … This particular instance of logo creep makes perfect sense to me. … Reader Bryan Duklewski has turned up some pics of lovable Colts stalwart/drunk Art Donovan wearing a dark helmet (and a clear facemask) and wanted to know the story behind that. Said story is available here. … Jeremy Brahm reports that the Champ Car World Series is changing its logo from this to this — a nice improvement, I’d say. Further details here. … Stirrups alert: Mike Bacsik. … Nice little bit of propaganda about the new MLB caps here. … 2002 Olympic downhill champion Fritz Strobl ended his career yesterday by dressing up as Mozart for his final run at the World Cup finals. Could’ve been worse. … Casey Hannigan was checking some photos of former Vanderbilt point guard Mario Moore, who’s now playing in Slovenia, and found “the ugliest uniforms I think I have ever seen.” He makes a pretty strong case. … “Boston College’s Sean Marshall (No. 23) wore a T-shirt under his jersey for every game this season, and he did it again in the first half of Thursday’s game against Texas Tech,” writes David Conley. “But in the second half he came out with no undershirt for the first time all season and actually had a terrific half.”
March 16th, 2007
Here in Brooklyn, we’ve got a lot of Orthodox Jews. And as you may know, Orthodox wives usually wear wigs, in keeping with traditional Jewish notions of feminine modesty (additional info here). Every now and then, however, you’ll see an Orthodox woman wearing a snood — basically a glorified hairnet (additional info here) — instead of a wig. And back in 2004, when there was a bit of a wig crisis, snoods were suddenly everywhere.
And that made me happy, because I love the word snood. It sounds like one of those inherently humorous Dr. Seuss words — snood, snood, snood. I’ve always hoped I’d have some occasion to work it into a Uni Watch article, and now I finally have.
What I never imagined (but maybe should’ve guessed) was that the snood-clad athlete in question would be Manny Ramirez. Check out the head wrap he’s been wearing for the past two days. That ain’t no standard-issue MLB do rag like the one he wore last year, and it ain’t that Nike skullcap he was wearing earlier this spring, either. That there, my friends, is a snood.
Notwithstanding Manny’s amusing efforts to fit his new headwear under his cap and helmet, or the none-too-enthused reaction coming out of Boston, his snoodery raises some interesting questions. Has he converted to Orthodox Judaism? Is he considering trans-gender surgery? With Passover fast approaching, will he be hosting a Seder? Does he know where to pick up a nice loaf of challah?
Let me be the first to predict that Manny will be wearing Muslim garb by next week.
Charge Ahead Back: Now that the Chargers have officially unveiled their new uniforms, I’m less enthusiastic than I was before. My main concerns:
• Shoulder bolt positioning: Look at Kassim Osgood (No. 81) and Nick Hardwick (No. 61) in this photo — their shoulder bolts are horizontal! Looks ridiculous.
• Shoulder bolt orientation: I’d assumed that the inconsistencies we all saw in the preliminary photos would be cleared up by the time of the official unveiling. But compare the jagged points on the three jerseys’ shoulder bolts. On the home design, the top points are facing forward and the bottom points are facing back. Same goes for the road jersey. But on the powder blue alternate, the top points are facing back and the bottom points are facing forward. Personally I prefer the powder blue’s orientation, but the bigger issue is that this needs to be consistent.
• Road socks: Unitards are for uni retards.
• Helmet: What the hell is that wordmark doing on the back of the helmet?
Personally, I still like the number font, the white helmet, and a few other elements, but this is no longer the clear success I initially thought it was.
Want to see more? A video of the unveiling is available here.
Raffle Reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, the good folks at Distant Replays have provided us with three more gift cards — $200, $100, and $50 — and we’re raffling them off via a March Madness-based contest devised by Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek. For details, scroll down to the “Distant Replays Gift Card” section at the end of yesterday’s entry.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Spectacular breakdown here of Pittsburgh hockey uniform history, including the Hornets, Pirates, and Yellow Jackets (courtesy of Chris Hilf). … Richard Grossman recently took a tour of Petco Park, which includes an exhibit on San Diego’s baseball history. Along the way he snapped this photo. Wondering what the insignia stands for? Look here. … Reprinted from Tuesday’s comments: The AHL’s Syracuse crunch will be wearing an orange shamrock on St. Paddy’s day, to protest SU’s exclusion from the NCAA tourney. Details here. … Also from Tuesday: This 18-second video shows the main advantage of wearing a double-flapped batting helmet. … Came home from shooting pool on Tuesday night to find the following note from Adam Lecowicz: “So the Bulls are wearing green and the Celtics are wearing white in Chicago. It’s seriously taking me 30 seconds to figure out what’s going on because my instincts keep telling me it should be the other way around. It’s worse than the NHL suddenly wearing dark colors at home. I think my head is going to explode if I keep watching.” … We think of team-branded merchandise as a fairly recent phenomenon, but Uni Watch auction consultant David Brown has turned up a Cleveland Indians apron from 1948! … Good article here about golfer Shingo Katayama and his cowboy hat (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Check out the batting helmets worn by the Springville (Utah) Red Devils high school team (as spotted by Paul Bridge).
March 15th, 2007
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