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Archive for June, 2007
Man, talk about Getting It™.
The Bruins hit a home run, scored a hat trick, bowled a turkey, [insert next cliché here] with their new uniforms, which were unveiled yesterday. In an era when I almost always have some quibble about a team’s new design, I have exactly zero bad things to say about this one.
Let’s start with the logo. As most of you know by now, they took their old spoke/hub logo and added some serifs to the B. Was this necessary? No. But is it problematic? Also no — it looks fine. Joe Hilseberg argued in yesterday’s comments section that the new logo would have looked better without the black outline around the B, but I disagree. In the end, is it good or is it stupid? I suppose you could argue that it’s stupid because it appears to be a minor change solely for change’s sake, but it’s not a bad change. More like a lateral move that’s no better but also no worse than the previous design.
Anyway, all those deliberations are pretty much blown away by what they’ve done with the logo: Behold, home and road. Do those look totally classic or what? The sleeve stripes, the hem stripes, the shoulder yokes, the lace-up collars — check, check, check, and quadruple fucking check! Even in a close-up view, Reebok’s fabric/mesh panel construction is hard to discern. In other words, it looks like an old-school sweater.
Even better: the totally boss shoulder patch, which harkens back to the team’s late-1920s logo. There’s also an alternate version of the new patch logo, with “Boston” and “Bruins” reversed — not sure what this will be used for, but apparently it won’t appear on any of the jerseys. Personally, I slightly prefer the alternate version, but that’s like saying I prefer a ribeye over a porterhouse — they’re both pretty damn tasty, and I sure wouldn’t kick either of them out of bed (and if you think I’m mixing metaphors there, well, you’ve clearly never seen me around a steak).
As for the rest of the uniform, all we have for now is this mock-up — not ideal, but enough to be able to tell that they’re not experimenting with any “creative” ideas for the socks. (The same illo appears as part of this visual timeline, plus there’s some additional info here and here, and a handy Bruins logo timeline here.)
When you think back to how stressed out we all were about what Reebok was gonna do to the NHL’s unis, it’s no small irony that the Bruins have just unveiled the league’s most traditional look in ages. So clearly, there’s nothing about the new uni “system” that precludes a classic look.
Which brings us, unfortunately, to the Capitals. Although their official unveiling isn’t until tonight, I now have persmission to run this photo (you can see larger versions of it here and here, and there’s additional info here), and I can’t say I’m thrilled. Yeah, it’s better than what they had before, but that’s not saying much. Here’s what I like:
• The three stars, which mimic the Washington flag.
• The way the word “Washington” nests between the stars and the larger part of the insignia.
• The way the hockey stick t projects at a 3-D angle. I kinda dig the simple, almost minimalist puck, too.
And here’s the bad news:
• The Rangers notwithstanding, wordmarks on hockey jerseys are never the best way to go.
• How can a team called the Capitals have its logo rendered exclusively in non-capital letters?
• Can’t stand how the letter i was reduced to match the x-height of the other letters. Classic “because we can” digital-typography maneuver. Why not have the O in “Washington” dotting the i, or something like that? A lowercase i is an opportunity for a clever graphic solution. Presented with that opportunity, these designers chose to punt.
• Sorry to go all typography geek here, but in a logo filled with curvilinear forms, why did they choose to impose a pointed corner on the p? Another pointless digital exercise. Makes no sense. In fact, if they’d let the bowl of the p be ovoid, they could have evoked the shape of a hockey rink, like the old Canucks logo used to do.
• I’ll reserve judgment until I see the full jersey, but all that piping on the sleeves does not bode well.
• It’s all very nice to have a shoulder patch that simultaneously looks like an eagle, the letter W, and the capital dome. But did it occur to anyone that it (a) looks a lot like the Pontiac Firebird logo, and (b) looks even more like a bird with an oil can shoved up its ass? Just askin’.
OK, that’s enough piling on for now. Let’s hope team spokesman Nate Ewell, who’s been a very good friend to Uni Watch, doesn’t revoke Mike Forgy’s media credentials from tonight’s unveiling in retaliation.
Raffle Results: Our randomly chosen winner of the 2001 MLB Style Guide is Jesse Gavin, who just signed up for membership yesterday, entitling him to the three bonus raffle entries that helped pave his way to victory. Hang tight, Jesse — the guide is in the mail.
Meet Me in St. Louie: I’ll be St. Louis in a few weeks and would like to convene a Uni Watch party on the evening of July 10th. That happens to be the night of the MLB All-Star Game, which is always a snooze anyway. As for the venue, I’m open to suggestions. By now I think everyone knows the type of place I prefer — semi-divey, sports-friendly but not an actual sports bar, live polka band (or, failing that, a good jukebox). What say you, St. Louisans?
The occasion for my trip, incidentally, is pretty exciting: I’m going to spend a day at Liebe Athletic Lettering, which used to do the sewing and embroidery for most MLB teams. The Liebe archives are full of old sewing patterns, lettering templates, and related ephemera, and they’ve agreed to let me sift through some of it (eat your heart out, Joe Hilseberg!). Best of all, I’ll have a video crew with me, and when the dust settles we hope to have the first-ever Uni Watch video column, which will stream on ESPN.
As long we’re talking about travel: I’m also tentatively planning on a Uni Watch party in Toronto for July 24th. The venue has already been chosen, but I can’t seem to find the scrap of paper where I wrote it down. Further details to follow.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out questions 8 and 9 in this Q&A session with Orlando Hudson. … Yesterday I mentioned that I wasn’t sure which uniforms the Carolina and California Leagues wore in their interleague all-star game in 2006. Potomac Nationals spokesman Andrew Bashuk reports that the players wore their regular team unis, and adds the following: “We finished the first half of the season on the road, so our two all-star players were supposed to bring their white uniforms with them because they’d be going straight from Frederick, where we finished the first half, to Salem, where the all-star game was. But one of them forgot his white jersey. So while the rest of the Carolina League wore white, there we were, wearing our blue BP jerseys.” … The U.S. uniforms for the upcoming Women’s World Cup have been unveiled (home, road). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Add So Taguchi to the list of Japanese players wearing toe socks. … The Atlanta Hawks new uniforms will be revealed this Sunday. … John Cropp was poking through the University of Georgia archives (where he found an awesome shot of the school’s 1895 football squad) when he came across this shot, which dates back to 1910. According to the archive listing, the game being played is called pushball, which is beautifully, almost poetically, self-explanatory. If you do a Google image search on the game’s name, you come up with some amazing stuff (although not much uni-related action). There’s even this. Not bad for a game that, according to this Wikipedia entry, “never attained any considerable vogue.” … The Harrisburg Senators wore Parrothead-themed jerseys last night. … Alain Nana-Sinkam recently visited the Iowa Hall of Pride, where he photographed some cool uni-related stuff, including a very primitive football helmet and — the real prize — an incredibly basketball referee’s cardigan (which would be worth the price of admission even without the accompanying stirrups). … Bit of a cock-up on the shirt-tag front yesterday in Arlington, where Vicente Padilla’s tag was flapping in the breeze (further embarrassing views here, here, and here). “The Comcast broadcasters even drew attention to it,” writes the pseudonymous Texas Gal, “wondering if the Rangers had a fashion consultant, and saying the other team should complain and make him fix it.” … Also at Arlington yesterday: Apparently the scoreboard operator ran out of 7s.
June 22nd, 2007
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: In Monday’s Ticker I mentioned the Florida State League All-Star Game, where players wore generic all-star unis instead of their regular team designs. That led to a note from Doug TKTK, who informed me that the single-A Carolina and California Leagues have their respective all-stars play each other, with league uniforms. That discovery in turn led me to this page, which has a surprising amount of info about the past few years’ worth of minor league all-star games — and that’s where things got interesting.
For starters, I learned that although the Florida State League wore those awful East and West unis this year (there’s a full gallery here), the FSL stars wore their regular team unis last year and the year before that (which means some idiot had to go out of his way to create those East and West disasters they wore this time around).
That got me curious about some of the other low-level minor league all-star games, so I started combing through the archives. For the most part, the leagues have their players wear their regular team designs, but there were some exceptions and inconsistencies, as follows:
• NY-Penn League (short-season A): Standard team uniforms in 2005. Odd move last year, however, as players wore the jerseys of their parent clubs (this was actually discussed here on the blog at the time, but I’d forgotten about it). This year’s game isn’t until August, so we’ll have to wait and see how they handle it.
• California and Carolina Leagues (A): 2007: As noted above, these leagues had their players wear league-branded uniforms this year (check out the awesome star-patterned uni numbers on the California jerseys, shown at the top of this page and visible at full size in this gallery). It’s not clear what the players wore last year, but in 2005 they had regular team uniforms, so the league unis are apparently a fairly new thing.
It’s worth remembering, incidentally, that the “real” All-Star Game hasn’t always featured regular team uni designs. For the inaugural mid-season classic in 1933, the American League stars wore their regular uniforms, but the National Leaguers wore special all-star attire.
Incidentally, in the course of my research I discovered a historical all-star oddity that I’m currently trying to figure out. More details, I hope, tomorrow.
Raffle Reminder: The drawing for the free copy of the 2001 MLB Style Guide will take place tonight (after I get back from seeing this guy). Entries — one per person, please — can be e-mailed here and will be accepted until 10 pm eastern. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow. And remember, everyone who’s signed up for membership automatically gets three bonus entries.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Give ‘Em an Inch Dept.: First NFL coaches get the right to wear suits, and the next thing you know Rams coach Scott Linehan is walking around in a Russell polo shirt (nice catch by Mike Korczynski). … Haven’t oohed and ahhed about this guy in a while. … A little birdie tells me the 49ers will probably be switching to black shoes this season. … The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yanks will wear Pocono Raceway jerseys next month. … This smeared eye black thing — as shown in these pics of Alfredo Amezaga, both taken yesterday — is getting seriously out of hand (with thanks to Perry Gattegno). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: In response to yesterday’s Ticker item about Reggie Jackson wearing a Mariners uni for the AL team portrait prior to the 1979 All-Star Game, Steve J. Rogers came up with the portrait, and sure enough, there’s Reggie. … Greg Hanson and his buddies play a video game called Forza Motorsport, and some of them have created some pretty cool team-based car designs. As usual, I know zero about video games, but I like the designs, so I’ve put a bunch of them in this gallery. … Lucas Burdick provided these shots of Scott Eyre and Willie Eyre wearing odd Cubs/Rangers combo jerseys, apparently as part of an Illinois Sate Lottery commercial. No script, unfortunately — anyone know the supposedly storyline here? … Jeremy Brahm reports that Brazil’s teams will wear these uniforms in the Pan Am Games. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The NHL has officially decided to stick with dark at home, white on the road (scroll down to the last graf of this page). … Kevin Gee says that when Reggie Willits came to bat left-handed in the bottom of the 7th in last night’s Angels/Astros game, he was initially wearing a right-handed batting helmet (he’d been hitting right-handed all game up to that point, but the ‘Stros had just brought in a righty pitcher). “Brad Ausmus [the Houston catcher] patted him on the head and reminded him he was wearing the wrong helmet, prompting him to go back to the dugout and get another one,” says Kevin. Unfortunately, the Anaheim broadcast, which is the only one I have access to, cut away to an aerial shot while this was happening. Did anyone in Houston happen to Tivo the game?
June 21st, 2007
The College World Series is currently taking place in Omaha, which happens to be the home base of reader Bryan Redemske. Bryan’s a longtime Ticker contributor (he works at a newspaper, so he often sees wire-service photos before I do, and he once forwarded me the amazing shot of a Nebraska pitcher with a vulgarity on his underbrim, which almost ran in his paper until they Photoshopped it at the last minute), but I’ve never seen him as jazzed up as he is for the CWS. As he put it in an e-mail to me the other day, “Fire up the F-150, round up the kids, park on some guy’s lawn for $15, and bring the SPF 50. It’s time for some ping.”
Bryan’s prepared a pretty detailed assessment of the CWS teams. So without further ado, I hereby turn over the floor to him (with the caveat that he wrote this on Sunday, before any teams had been eliminated):
Some general observations: Most of the teams wear stirrups, which is cool. Most of them even have them on right. A lot of guys wear flat bills. Memo to flat-billed guys: You look like idiots. Signed, Everybody.
As for the specific team uniforms, we have to start with Cal State Fullerton, which is easily the class of this year’s CWS uniforms. They’ve had the same design for a while now, and for good reason. While some don’t like orange and blue, I think it works. Orange is used only as an accent color, which makes it much more tolerable. The grays are pretty solid, too. I’m generally not a huge fan of gray pinstripes in any application, and the Fullerton wordmark is on the small side, but there are bigger fish to fry in Omaha. The blue alternates are great, too.
The high of Fullerton, unfortunately, leads to the disappointing low of Oregon State. The Beavers have a serious identity crisis: Half their gear is made by Wilson, the other half by Nike, so nothing matches. The Nike pinstriped grays are just short of criminal. Huge rear number, too. And then the “OS” hat … it didn’t match either. And the OSU hat, their regular lid, also doesn’t match anything. The only thing that saves the team from disaster is its standard white uniform.
Arizona State has a pretty good thing going right now. Their primary home and away uniforms are simple and classy. Basically, just change the cream to gray, and you have the roadies. There’s a yellow jersey, though, so they’re not entirely without fault [and let's not forget the maroon version -- PL].
On some level, I’m sure it’s really cool to have “Eaters” on your jersey, as the UC Irvine Anteaters do. Unfortunately, I think it’s the same level as those white South Carolina hats that just say “Cocks.” Every high school baseball player within two hours of Omaha is pining for a UC Irvine shirt that says “Go Eaters” or “Eaters All the Way!” or maybe “Eaters for Life.” Anyway, the Anteaters’ colors are pretty great — blue and white mainly, with a little bit of gold in there — but their uniforms are a total mess. The home whites are clearly based on the MLB batting practice template of a few years ago, complete with contrasting shoulder gussets and piping; the roadies are a gray version of the homes, but with more yellow. The caps are the only thing good about the entire wardrobe.
Mississippi State coach Ron Polk is old-school. You’d think he’d prefer the classic look, like how Stanford has had the same uniforms for about 400 years. Well, you’d be thinking wrong. Of the Bulldogs’ three uniforms, the only constant is the hat — the classic interlocking MS in white on a maroonish background. It should be easy to build a uni around that, but apparently it’s not. The home whites have “State” across the chest, in a strange, oddly spaced font. The number font, however, is totally different. And crappy. And there’s weird piping and contrast-colored inserts on the sleeves and armpits. The alternate maroon jersey has the same contrasting pattern (in gray, this time), but a completely different “State” and number font. Finally, the all-gray uniform harkens to days past — nice, but what’s up with the thick-ass piping?
North Carolina is one of Nike’s black-jerseyed “elite” teams, and that design turned out to be even uglier than expected. When that jersey stays hidden, however, the Tar Heels are pretty easy on the eyes. Their look is, if nothing else, pretty consistent, with a nice vertically arching “Carolina” on three of their jerseys (sleeveless white, sleeveless gray, sleeved blue), and the sleeved whites and grays have “Tar Heels” in cursive. The latter two have some seriously thick piping, and don’t look near as good as the first three.
I like Rice’s simple, classy uniforms. The whites have “Rice” in an Old English font on the chest; the grays have “Rice” in an Old English font on the chest. Are you noticing the consistency here? The only way Rice can go wrong is by wearing the blue jersey, which has some seriously bad shoulder stripes that take away from a simple design.
Louisville has been the source of some nasty-looking uniforms over the years, but I was only moderately offended when I saw the Cardinals’ baseball togs. The black jersey and cap are very simple, but the white vests are really simple. But what the hell is that extra triangle of black doing in the armpit? And white shoes? Please. They work in very few places. At least it’s after Memorial Day. [Brian submitted this piece before the Cardinals' red jersey made its appearance, but I think we can safely say that he would not approve of the shoulder stripes. -- PL]
Talk about a Herculean effort! Serious thanks to Bryan for what is probably the most in-depth analysis of college baseball uniforms anyone’s ever written, and bonus thanks to Jesse Gavin, who attended a few CWS games and provided several of the pictures I linked to.
Plumber’s Job Available in DC: Leaks of sensitive information are a way of life in Washington. The Capitals discovered that yesterday, when several views of their new jersey (no, not this bogus one) began circulating on the web. By now many of you may have seen them, but I’ve decided not to show them here, because (a) the colors are off, (b) the uni numbers, pants, and socks aren’t visible, so it’s hard to get the full effect, and (c) the team was nice enough to invite me to the official uni unveiling on Friday, and even let me designate a surrogate to attend in my place when I said I couldn’t make it myself, so it’d be bad manners to spread the leak further. I’ll have plenty to say when the full uni is unveiled.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yet another glitch for the Giants, who called up Luis Figueroa on Monday and then sent him up to bat with no name on his back. … Interesting article here (forwarded by Mark Snider) about the minor league Boise Hawks’ new uniforms, including the following tidbit: “Boise has new uniforms, logos and color scheme this season, moving away from the blue, white and red it used to wear. However, as a Chicago Cubs farm team, the team must wear blue cleats — it’s an organizational dictate — all Cubs’ minor league teams must wear blue shoes.” … More football players playing softball, this time at Brett Favre’s annual charity event (full photo gallery here, courtesy of Jeff Ash). … Nice catch by Chris Creamer, who documented this case of inconsistent Rs. … Norm Johnson checks in with a good story: “I was watching the Pirates vs. Mariners game tonight, 6/19. Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus had an interesting uniform tidbit about the ‘79 All-Star Game, which was played in the Kingdome. Apparently, Reggie Jackson’s uniform arrived in time for the game itself, but not in time for the American League team picture. According to Niehaus, he posed for the AL team picture in a Mariners jersey!” Anyone got a photo of this? … Nicole Haase was in Baltimore over the weekend, and noted approvingly that the Orioles’ mascot wears bona fide stirrups (but also, unfortunately, has a bad case of cap logo creep). … UConn is looking for a new uni supplier (with thanks to Keith Thibault). … First-hand report from a source on the field at Shea Stadium, who writes: “Jeff Cirillo had his fly open during his last at bat on Tuesday, and then he zipped it up after the first pitch.” The latter maneuver, alas, isn’t visible in the game video. … Proud Portland resident Jeremy Brahm has provided some shots of the interesting skyline-patterend jersey worn by the Portland Winterhawks this past season (additional pics here and here). The team also had a special 25th-anniversary Saturday jersey, as seen here, here, here, here, and here. … Take a hockey player off the ice and he totally loses his mind (disturbing find by Vince Grzegorek).
June 20th, 2007
Several people have contributed good info about the College World Series, but I’m gonna save that until tomorrow or Thursday. Today we’re going to look back a bit further than college baseball — all the way back to Little League.
That topic was inspired by a note I got last week from reader Wally Steidley, who said he coached Little League in Wylie, Texas. “My assistant coach and I are huge fans of Uni Watch,” he wrote, “so we took it upon ourselves to spend a little extra and get our boys outfitted like real baseball players. We have some limitations from the league but put together a pretty nice combo, including stirrups and sanitary socks. All the other teams went with the one-color soccer sock, so we really stood out as the finest uni’ed team in the entire league.”
Cool, I thought — teach ‘em young and all that. So when Steidley offered to send me some photos, I said, “Sure, let’s have ‘em.” That’s when I discovered that he’d left out one pertinent detail. He hadn’t just dressed up his team like real ballplayers — he’d dressed them as one of history’s most idiosyncratic teams: the A’s. Here’s Steidley‘s rundown:
We had some challenges getting the kids to wear everything correctly, but it was worth it, as everyone in the league noticed our classic stirrups and gold sanitary socks. We did have to explain the stirrup and how to wear them to the kids, but the parents thought it was a cool look, so they helped us out by requiring that they wear them correctly. You will also note the white cleats, which were difficult to find, but we talked the parents into them.
The gold belts were used because last year we were the Pirates, and the parents didn’t want to have to buy more belts. I gave in because my assistant coach and I had already purchased helmets, with MLB sticker packs, and fronted the money for the socks and stirrups. This is something we’ll be able to fix with next year’s team.
Amazing. So now there’s a bunch of nine-year-olds in Texas who think “real” ballplayers wear yellow sanitaries and white cleats. That should warp their little minds quite nicely. Still, Steidley’s devotion to uniform protocol is admirable. After Jason Giambi arranges to have Bud Selig bumped off, could we maybe get Steidley in line to take over the Commissioner’s chair?
Research Project — Last Call: If anyone wants to tip me wise to any bizarro minor league uniforms, I’m still taking submissions — hit me.
Membership Update: I’ve added about two dozen more rear-card designs to the membership roster and to the card gallery (including, as you can see at right, our first referee-based design). My continued thanks to all who’ve joined.
Remember that members get three bonus entries in this week’s raffle, which is for a copy of the 2001 MLB Style Guide. If you haven’t already entered, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net.
Uni Watch News Ticker: One of the San Diego Union-Tribune columnists wrote a bit of a Padres uniform manifesto yesterday (with thanks to Josh Berliner). … And a St. Looie columnist has weighed in on the suits-on-the-sidelines situation (with thanks to Luke Pellegra). … Good photo here (helpfully provided by Tom Konecny of the Toledo Mud Hens’ uni-laundering scene. The accompanying article isn’t really about uniforms, though. … One last Father’s Day oddity: Ray Durham wore one of those light blue wristbands on his head during BP (with thanks to Bosox blogger Jere). … Ehan Lewis notes that the NFL recently held its annual NFL Softball Challenge event. If you’ve always wanted to see Jeff Lurie swinging a bat (among other sights), a full gallery of pics is available here. … Nice find by Ethan Rowley, who came up with this portrait of Cardinals greats, which functions as a de facto timeline of the team’s uniform. According to … this article (forwarded by Wes Johnson), “[Minnesota] Gophers football coach Tim Brewster made it clear that there will be only one change in the team’s uniforms this fall: the letter ‘M’ on the helmets will be much bigger.” Which means it’ll look even more like an upside-down W than it already does. … Excellent slide-show essay on the history of — and problems with — U.S. soccer uniforms here. … Latest player spotted wearing Oakley Thumps during BP: Bartolo Colon (great shot by Zach Gibson). … Member Eric Bonus has scanned and uploaded an excellent 1987 article about hockey uniform numbers. … More really disturbing Chris Cooley hot pants pics here. … Carlos Delgado went high-cuffed last night, and it was a thing of beauty. Take note, class: His pants didn’t break right at the knees but, rather, just slightly down the shins. This is exactly — exactly — how it should be done. Such a splendid example of the form that I’m willing to overlook the lack of stirrups. … Pitt’s new secondary logo has been leaked. … Michael Maurino works for the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays and recently attended the Florida State League All-Star Game, where the teams wore East and West jerseys that almost make the Pro Bowl look good by comparison — especially when you factor in the number font — yeesh. The guy wearing double-zero in that last photo is Francisco Cervelli of the Tampa Yankees, who normally wears 34, but that was taken by Omar Malave, who managed the West team. Anyone know which other minor leagues use generic all-star unis instead of letting the players wear their regular team attire? … The Angels are giving away an item I’ve never seen before: wristbands with a built-in watch. If you haven’t seen it already, check out the super-cool animated Watch Your Back ad, now running near the top of the right column.
June 19th, 2007
As you can see, the ticket stub shown at right is from 34 years ago, almost to the day. That date happened to be Father’s Day, 1973 — a day that my family spent at the ballpark.
Looking back, this could not have been much of a treat for my father. Egged on by one of those “Take Dad to Shea for Father’s Day!” ads, I had gotten the bright idea that I would pay for his ticket. But I was so pleased with myself for ponying up the entire $2.75 (no small sum for a nine-year-old whose weekly allowance was a quarter and who wasn’t yet big enough to make extra cash mowing lawns around the neighborhood) that I neglected to consider that he still had to pay for my ticket. And my Mom’s ticket. And parking, and gas, and hot dogs. Plus he had to deal with holiday traffic, which must have been a real bitch. Pop, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry — my heart was in the right place, honest. I just hadn’t thought it all through.
Anyway, the Mets won, thanks in part to recent call-up named Ron Hodges, who hit his first major league homer. I remember reading in the paper the next day that Yogi Berra — then the Mets’ manager — said, “The kid’s got some pop, he’ll hit some more of those,” or words to that effect. And he did — exactly 18 more over the course of a 12-year career, to be exact. To this day, I still don’t understand how such a marginal player managed to stay on a big league roster for more than a decade.
The ticket stub, as you can see, is light blue, which happens to be MLB’s designated Father’s Day color (to promote prostate cancer research, don’tcha know). Among yesterday’s highlights:
• Players have been wearing light blue sweatbands on Father’s Day for years now (I first recall seeing it in either ’99 or 2000), but I think this is the first year that the sweatbands were “DAD”-inscribed — sometimes lengthwise, sometimes crosswise.
• Big Papi really outdid himself with the wristbands: one on the left and two on the right (with a bracelet in between the latter two).
• Many umps wore the blue wristbands too.
• The blue ribbons are old hat by now, but I was mildly surprised to see that they even put one on Terry Francona’s pullover.
• Intern Vince Grzegorek (who took his dad to yesterday’s Indians/Braves game) spotted something I don’t recall having seen before: Santiago Casilla wore a ribbon on his cap.
• As has been the case for the past couple of years, several players also wore blue ribbon temporary tattoos, including Manny Delcarmen, J.D. Drew (who had them on both arms), and Hector Carrasco. (Big thanks to Kelly O’Connor for linking to the Drew and Delcarmen pics in yesterday’s comments.)
That’s all nice enough. But the best thing about this promotion has always been when players wear eye blue instead of eye black. The king of that style yesterday was Felix Pie. If that doesn’t stop prostate cancer, nothing will.
Capital Idea: Here’s a cool opportunity for someone in the DC area. The Capitals will be unveiling their new uniforms this Friday, June 22nd, at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington. The event begins at 5:30 pm, with the actual unveiling slated for about 6:40. I’ve been invited to attend but am unable to make it, so Caps media director Nate Ewell has very graciously consented to allow a Uni Watch representative to attend in my stead.
The surrogate in question will be permitted (indeed, required) to take photos and notes, and will then prepare a summary report that I’ll post on the blog the following Monday. If you’d like to represent Uni Watch at this event, send me a note explaining why you’re the right person for the job. Please include your full name, address, phone number, and age. Thanks. No more applications, please — member Mike Forgy, a longtime Caps season ticket holder, has been selected for the job.
June Raffle: I’ve got an extra copy of the 2001 MLB Style Guide, which shows the official specs and colors for each team, and I’m going to raffle it off for free. This particular copy has a great history: It was raffled off once before, at the 2006 Uni Watch Athletics Aesthetics Party in Brooklyn, where it was won by Mets by the Numbers impresario Jon Springer, but he recently gave it back to me so I could give it away again. Since then, the cover has gotten some light scratches from Uni Watch mascot Tucker (I think he was expressing his displeasure with the Rockies’ solid-purple alternates), which is sort of the Uni Watch office equivalent of a grass stain on a game-used jersey.
This is a free raffle: Just send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by 10 pm eastern on Thursday, June 21st. One entry per person. But everyone who’s signed up for membership by 9 pm Thursday will automatically get three extra entries. If you’re a member and don’t bother to e-mail an entry to the raffle address, you’ll still get three entries. I’ll announce the winner on Friday, OK? OK!
Speaking of membership, Scott is busily catching up on the next batch of cards, and I should be able to add the rear designs to the roster page within a few days. I’ve also created a gallery of all the current back-card designs, which will be updated as Scott creates each new one.
As for the actual cards, just about everyone in the first batch should have received their cards by now. If you still haven’t received yours by, say, Wednesday, let me know. The new batch should start shipping out by the end of this week.
We’ve also decided upon a little bonus benefit that will come into play down the road: All members who join by the end of July will have a special “Charter Member” designation added to their cards when they renew next year.
Uni Watch News Ticker: A few of my recent ESPN columns have mentioned Chuck Kinder, who wore No. 100 for WVU in 1963, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood. Now Craig Mullen has turned up a video clip about Kinder — nice find. … Really interesting note from Chad Stegemiller, who writes: “Friday’s Indianapolis Star had an article about the 40th year of baseball having a state championship. They included a photo showing Arlington High School and Jasper High School playing in the 1967 state semifinals. I immediately noticed the Jasper players having ‘Jasper’ on their back instead of numbers (plus I am sure you will like their choice in hosiery). Unfortunately, there are no front views of Jasper’s jerseys.” … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Good article here about the history of NASCAR uniforms. … Andrew Daull found some great Cooperalls footage at the 3:10 mark of this video. … On Friday I asked if anyone knew about the little gold circle on the back of Bobby Abreu’s belt. An inside source from an American League clubhouse responded thusly: “It’s a Phiten titanium disc that has become very popular around clubhouses. I’m not sure how well they would work being on the belt (and thus having several layers of clothing between it and the skin) but many players seem to like it, and I even know one photographer who has two on his elbow to help with some pain he was having — he says the stuff works.” And in a related item, several MLB players also believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Barry Bonds’s negative drug tests. … Faaaaascinating note from Ryan Hemminger, who writes: “As I was sitting in the gallery at the 10th hole at Oakmont watching Tiger Woods line up a shot on the green, I noticed that he was wearing one black sock and one white sock. I thought that it was odd, and I figured it must be some sort of superstitious thing he does. However, later in the afternoon, at hole number 5, I noticed that Vijay Singh was also wearing two different colored socks — one navy blue and one white [as you can sort of see here -- PL]. I can’t confirm with photographic evidence (the USGA is VERY strict about not allowing cameras on the course), but is this some sort of trend among pro golfers, or just an odd coincidence?” Anyone know more about this? … Lots to like in this photo of Dunbar High (Kentucky) baseball team (with thanks to Scot Williams). … Bizarre scene at Steelers fantasy camp, where one of the participants was an amputee with a prosthetic leg, which was emblazoned with a Steelers logo (nice find by Dennis O’Neil). … Redskins long snapper Ethan Albright gave up his uniform number to a teammate in what this article describes as a “private barter transaction” (with thanks to Tim Nichols). … Speaking of the ‘Skins, when Chris Cooley played with his fly unzipped last year, I figured it was an honest mistake. But having now seen the hot pants that he’s wearing during Redskins minicamp, I’m convinced that the guy is a serious fetishist (with thanks to Stewart Snelson). … Kudos to Chris Manes, who found this great old photo of the Suns’ 1960s cheerleading uniforms. … According to the second paragraph on this page (forwarded by Rory Gustison), the Patriots are considering “wearing the team’s throwback red jersey and old helmets for at least one game” in 2009. Yes, three seasons from now. … Very odd scene in Japan, where Warren Cromartie — who first played baseball for the Expos and then for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan — recently participated in a pro wrestling event and wore a Giants-style uniform for the occasion (it said “Samuraiman” across the chest). Afterward, he held a press conference, where, as Jeremy Brahm puts it, “he looked almost just like he did when he played in Japan.” … Fernando Rodney’s cap tag was sticking out yesterday. … Very odd find by Patrick Sharon, who was recently at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and noticed that a Lee Roy Selmon jersey on display had one orange letter. Just a hunch: I’m guessing that the original heat-pressed white letter peeled off, leaving some discolored fabric in its wake.
June 18th, 2007
Either Marcus Giles thought that taking off his pants would help Bud Black win his argument, or he’s taking after his brother.
Seriously, I love all the uniform readjustment that has to happen after a good brawl. Shirts need to be tucked in, pants need to be fixed, and I think I saw one of the Cubs yesterday have to completely reloop his belt. — Vince
June 17th, 2007
I just learned about netball yesterday. Apparently “GA” and “GS” and whatever are positions in the game, and players wear their designation on their uniforms. –Vince
June 16th, 2007
By Vince Grzegorek
Most of you know that I live in Cleveland, and that I tend to mention Cleveland sports every once in a great while. And at the risk of sounding like a complete homer, and even though the Spurs closed out the series last night, I wanted to dedicate an entry to one of the cooler uni-centric stories that came out of the NBA playoffs and finals — and it just happens to concern the Cavs.
A few weeks ago I sent a note to Paul mentioning that the Cavs had hung some huge jerseys from the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland. According to the story, they were 35′ x 25′, weighed 102 pounds each, and had “Rise Up” on the nameplates. Decent enough Ticker fodder, but nothing earthshaking, right?
But then I started to think more about the background of the jerseys. Who had the idea? How long did they take to make? How do you go about making absurdly huge jerseys? Are they exact replicas? So I got in touch with Michael Thom, Director of Merchandising for the Cavs, and he was gracious enough to explain exactly how these huge jerseys came to be.
Apparently, the display was the result of a marketing brainstorm on how to take the “Rise Up” campaign (which has been this postseason’s marketing slogan) to the public. The first thought was to drape various statues around the city with oversized jerseys, an idea Thom said came from a similar marketing campaign done by Adidas for the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas. But they decided that Cleveland’s statues were too widely dispersed across the city in nooks and crannies — they wanted a more prominent location.
The Terminal Tower, situated directly across from the arena, was an obvious choice for its size and prominence in the city’s history. After the location was set, the four huge jerseys went from concept to production to installation (the latter of which, incidentally, was the most costly step in the process) in just under two weeks, and were launched with a celebration on April 20. (In addition, they made a inflatable 15-foot version, which was featured at a fanfest and then was placed next to the arena for fans to sign.) They hang from the 37th to the 34th floors, so unless you work on a high floor of an adjacent building or have a good set of binoculars handy, this is what they look like.
But Thom was kind enough to pass on some great photos of the huge jerseys lying on the ground at Action Sports America (a company that apparently specializes in making big jerseys) just after they were finished being put together. Additional views here and here.
These photos helped answer my big question: Are they exact replicas? The answer, of course, is no. The navy alternates don’t have the same side paneling and detail as the real jerseys. Even the Adidas guide for retailing the replica jerseys has the same mistake. Thom lamented that since everything had to be done in under two weeks, and materials and sewing time were at a premium, some things couldn’t be reproduced exactly. Unsurprisingly, however, the Adidas logo is nice and noticeable.
One of the few questions that Thom couldn’t answer (in addition to: What size do you think the jerseys are?) was where the jerseys would end up once they’re taken down. Because of their size, no real good suggestions have emerged for preserving them for posterity, although he did say they will obviously need to be dried out and cleaned. Any Cavs fans have a 35-foot-high room in their house that needs some unique décor?
Membership Update: Paul here (thanks for handling the lead entry today, Vince), with the latest membership news. If your uniform number is clickable on the membership roster, your card has been mailed out — I’d think many if not most of you should be receiving them by now. For those whose numbers aren’t yet clickable, Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner is now back from vacation and working on the next batch of cards as we speak. I figured he’d have a lot to do upon his return — you know how stuff piles up when you’re out of town — so I told him, “No rush.” To which he responded, “To me, there is a rush — people are waitin’ for them!” Is this guy the sweetest, most inspirational lug you’ve ever seen or what?
Meanwhile, I’ll announce a new raffle on Monday, which means a membership benefit will come into play: All enrollees will get three bonus raffle entries.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Not to knock Vince’s fine lead entry, but the best uni-related thing you’ll read today will almost certainly be this absolutely essential article about North Carolina’s myriad baseball uni combos. Crammed with interesting details and info, it’s earns Uni Watch’s highest rating. … Got a note yesterday evening from Jen Muller (who publishes a pretty sharp Yankees-centric blog), with a subject line that read, “Bobby Abreu’s belt (or why I spent the afternoon taking pictures of Bobby’s ass).” Her note was as follows: “Going through some pictures I took at last Saturday’s Yankees/Pirates game, I noticed that Bobby Abreu had some sort of gold circle on his belt. I took my camera again to this afternoon’s game, and sure enough, there it was again. Here’s a different angle. Do you have any clue as to what this is?” Nope. Anyone else? … Latest ridiculous example of the Nike branding juggernaut: If UCI wants to have its merch (which is made by New Balance) sold during the College World Series, all the gear will have to carry a swoosh, because Nike is the CWS’s official merchandiser. Completely offensive details here. … McFarlane has come out with three new Cubs figurines, but Brian Newport has spotted problems in two of them: Greg Maddux doesn’t wear his stirrups like this, and they somehow dressed Derek Lee in home pinstripes with a road cap. “I suppose if the Cubs aren’t cursed on the field, they’re cursed on toy store shelves,” says Newport. … Excellent interview from last year with the Indians’ equipment manager here (courtesy of Clevo’s own Vince Grzegorek). Best quote: “I had a player once who complained that the Chief Wahoo on his cap was not straight. He went through a whole box of a dozen caps, looking for one that he thought the Chief Wahoo was straight. But they all looked straight to me.” Please — everyone knows Chief Wahoo is gay. … Great eBay find by Robert Eden: a 1940s football official’s uni — with a button-front jersey! … Lots of other great stuff on eBay right now, including a bizarre solid-orange 1930s baseball uni (sponsored by Gulf Oil) and 22 yards of pinstriped wool flannel fabric (make your own unis!). Plus lots of nice vintage uniforms here, here, here, here, and here, some amazing varsity-style jackets here and here, and an absolutely killer Blackhawks sweater here. … Colorado State’s football team will wear 1957 throwbacks for their first home game this fall (with thanks to Rob Montoya). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: MLB won’t allow the Royals to wear powder blues at home (scroll down a bit to find the appropriate item on the page). … Speaking of KC, a source who prefers to remain anonymous claims to “have it on very good authority that the Royals will be returning to blue shoes/belts for next season.” … Great tidbit from yesterday’s comments: This week’s Sports Illustrated cover photo originally included reliever “Bazooka” Joe Smith, but he was cropped out of the final shot. … Chelsea FC’s new away kits will look like this. … Matt Lyon passed along this item about how the Astros’ recent draft signees were brought in for a round of BP and given uni numbers corresponding to the round in which they were taken, which led to some odd situations (number-centric part of the article begins in the fourth graf). … Great little tidbit in last night’s comments, courtesy of Matthew Self: “Adam Melhuse was traded from the A‘s to the Rangers a few days ago. He was interviewed by Rangers play-by-play man Josh Lewin before tonight‘s game. When Lewin asked him what the biggest uniform thing for him to get used to was, Melhuse replied that it was weird for him to look down and not be wearing white cleats anymore.” … Manny went high-cuffed last night. … David Chisholm notes that the Adidas striping on the NBA refs’ sleeves forced their O’Brien Trophy patches to be awkwardly off-center. … The Marlins wore 1997 throwbacks last night, and several readers noted that they didn’t include the Jackie Robinson patch that all MLB teams wore that season. Near as I can figure, however, the Marlins never wore the Robinson patch with their vest jerseys in ‘97. The patch was on their home pinstripes and road grays, but the right sleeves of their vest undershirts appear to have been blank all season long (additional pics here and here), and they weren’t smart enough to put the patch on the front of the vest, like the Reds did. … Note, incidentally, that the Marlins’ version of the Robinson patch was teal, instead of blue like everyone else’s, which always struck me as a very inappropriate liberty to be taking. … Also: While looking for Marlins pics, I found this shot, which shows Kevin Brown saluting injured teammate Alex Fernandez with a cap-inscribed “32″ (not so unusual) and Charles Johnson doing the same with a notation on his catcher’s helmet (very unusual). … “Check out the outfield the Cubs had on Thursday when the last out was recorded,” writes Chad Peiken. “Are Pagan, Pie, and Soriano celebrating the victory, or their hosiery choice?”
June 15th, 2007
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