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Archive for July, 2007
I was in Toronto for only 39 hours last week (about 15 hours less than I’d originally planned, thanks to a broken fan belt that left Uni Watch Ontario bureau chief Liz Clayton and me temporarily stranded in Sarnia), but it was an extremely uni-eventful visit nonetheless, beginning with Tuesday night’s party at the Imperial Pub and Library. About a dozen readers showed up, including John Edwards, Brian Kallion, Braden Liebovitch, J.C. Plante, Matt Irving, Erich Reich, Scott Ingram (who buttered me up by mentioning that he had all 10 issues of Beer Frame, the zine I published a million years ago), James Leroux (whose T-shirt drew raves), Nana Kwamie (whose Black Fives throwback, based on the 1918 St. Christopher’s Club in Harlem, was another hit), Jonah Weslak (who pointed out the irony of a Pete Rose jersey being part of the Cooperstown Collection), Jonathan Deery (who later removed his Belleville Bulls jersey to reveal something even cooler), and the aforementioned Liz Clayton (my favorite shirt of the night, although I may be a bit biased, since I’ve known Liz for over a dozen years).
Two other guys who attended the party were Paul Morris and Tommy Gough, who run Big Stick Custom Hockey Jerseys, a small shop that I visited the next day. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. Inside, however, it’s a treasure trove of jersey samples, template posters, swatch books, boxes and trays full of letters, numbers, and patches, binders full of logo crests (additional examples here and here), and the kind of stuff you’ll only see in a hockey shop. Way too much cool stuff for me to list here, but suffice it to say that I got to witness lots letter cutting, heat pressing, and jersey dispaying during my visit.
Later on that evening, I did a non-uni-related reading as part of the excellent Pontiac Quarterly series. But uniforms still managed to stalk me, because during intermission I met the lovely Amber Roga (renowned as Toronto’s finest barista), who informed me that her hometown of Kitchener, Ontario, is the home base of Barbarian Rugby Wear, which sponsors both the Canadian and German national rugby squads. You can probably guess which part of their catalog I like best.
Speaking of which: My only regret regarding the visit was that the pseudonymous sock savant known as Witesock, who lives in Toronto, was out of town, so I didn’t get to meet him. Next time.
Membership News: Thanks to everyone who weighed in yesterday regarding Dan Netser’s Pacers design. Most of you seemed to prefer this version; more importantly, so did Dan himself. So that’s the one we’re going with.
Meanwhile, today’s the last day to enroll as a Charter Member (although of course I hope people will continue to sign up after today as well). New material is being added to the design gallery on a near-hourly basis, so check out the goods, leave comments, etc.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like Jarrod Saltalamacchia is about to set the all-time record for the longest-surnamed player ever to be traded. … Interesting item here about some of the Redskins wearing soccer cleats (with thanks to Kim Kolb). … Jeremy Brahm nominates South Korean men’s basketball coach Choi Bu Yung for the title of worst coach’s shirt. … Jeremy also noted lots of interesting things on the court at the FIBA Asian Championships, including the following: The United Arab Emerites team wears “UAE” on the back but only has their flag on the front; the Philippines team wears the country name on the back; and Indonesia is going seriously old-school. … Interesting note from Jeremy Poursine, who writes: “The New Orleans Zephyrs, the Mets’ triple-A affiliate, play at Zephyr Field, which is actually in the suburb of Metairie. Someone realized that Mets and Metairie share some letters and made some hot merchandise for the team. This one spells out the whole name, while this one uses Metairie’s well-known nickname.” … Jason Palmer sent along this great photo of several players from the Mineral Wells Steam (”a Texas Collegiate League team — wooden bat league similar to the Cape Cod summer league,” he says). Gotta love how the non-game-day pitchers wear stirrups with their shorts. … Loads of great striped rugby uniforms displayed in this gallery (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … The Tulsa Drillers are retiring No. 29 and wearing a memorial patch for Mike Coolbaugh, the coach who was recently killed by a line drive (with thanks to Matt Porges). … I knew that the baseball scenes in Pride of Yankees were essentially shot backwards, because right-handed Gary Cooper was portraying the left-handed Lou Gehrig. What I didn’t realize, however — until Ethan Rowley pointed it out to me — was that the same thing was done for certain scenes in 61*, because right-handed Anthony Michael Hall was playing southpaw Whitey Ford. Rowley pulled a few screen grabs from the “Making of” segment of the 61* DVD that show how they did it, as seen here and here. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Decent view here of the Broncos’ dual memorial decal for Darrent Williams and Damien Nash.
July 31st, 2007
Man, I go away for a week and an entire league goes down the toilet.
The trouble started just a few hours after I put up the “Gone Fishing” sign, when the Predators unveiled their new jerseys. I don’t mind the stripes on the sleeves so much (indeed, I’m on record as being a fan of this), but the piping down the front of the jersey is ridiculous. Even worse, check out the back. Oh, great — as if a big Reebok logo weren’t bad enough, now it has to be showcased in its own contrast-colored panel (you can bet someone at Reebok got a nice Christmas bonus for coming up with that one). What an embarrassment.
Bad went to worse a few days ago, when the new Panthers jerseys were bestowed upon an unwitting populace. Hmmm, look familiar? Same utterly pointless piping down the front, same contrast-colored logo creep on the back. And can someone please explain the point of having horizontal sleeve stripes that don’t even wrap all the way around the sleeve?
Unfortunately, there’s more to come. I’ve seen another team’s new design that’s based on exactly the same template (sorry, I’m not at liberty to disclose which team, but it’ll be unveiled soon enough). When I first saw it, I thought, “Man, you’ve gotta work pretty hard to come up with something that stupid,” but that was before I’d seen the new Preds and Panthers jerseys.
The thing that makes all of this unforgivable is that it’s empirically unnecessary — despite Reebok’s new tailoring, the Bruins are going with an old-school design, and the Blue Jackets concept is a case study in how to modern can still be tasteful. So don’t blame this one on Reebok. Blame the teams for being too weak and lemming-like to come up with anything decent, and blame the league for allowing this template nonsense.
Oh what the hell, let’s blame Reebok too.
I’d like to come up with a good name for this front piping. Some folks are already referring to it as an “apron,” but I think we can do better than that. Anyone care to contribute another term?
![842976[1].gif](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1263/939708218_fb62fa86d3_t.jpg)
Uni Watch Demographic Study: Many of you folks are apparently very nosy curious about each other, so Joe Drennan has generously volunteered to compile a Rolodex-style spreadsheet of the site’s readership. Completely voluntary, natch. If you’d like to participate, please list your name, the name you use when posting comments (if applicable), occupation, and location. If you want to include your e-mail address, and/or if you have a personal web site, feel free to include that info as well. Send all of this data to Joe (not to me, please) at jpdren99 at smumn dot edu. A copy of the resulting file will be sold to every marketing firm I can think of made available to all participants.
Indy Frock: Got an interesting membership card request the other day from Dan Netser, who wants his design patterned after the 1973 Indiana Pacers. This presented something of a challenge: Should the center and outer stripes be truncated (which matches their height on the actual jersey but looks kinda weird on a rectangular card) or extended (which looks less awkward but doesn’t really match the original design)? Scott prefers the former, I’d go with the latter, but we both agree that each option has its pros and cons, so we’ve decided to get input from you folks. What say ye, people — which option do you prefer? Is there some other solution we’re overlooking?
As long as we’re on the topic: Last week’s travels have left me a bit behind on mailing out membership kits, but I expect to catch up this week — thanks in advance for your patience. Meanwhile, there’s lots of good new stuff in the membership design gallery, including this (based on the early-’60s Reds) and this (mid-’90s Canucks alt, don’tcha know). Check out the full gallery here, and remember, you can click on any design to add a comment, read others’ comments, or explain what the design is based on.
Meanwhile, congrats to Vernona Elms, who on Friday became our 300th member. We probably won’t get to 500 before A-Rod does, but maybe we can beat him to 756. Friendly reminder: If you join by tomorrow (or if your snail-mailed order is postmarked by then), you’ll have a “Charter Member” seal added to your card when you renew next year.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember our rundown of all-stars who wore the wrong helmet? Here’s another one: Johnny Callison of the Phillies wearing a Mets helmet while winning the 1964 ASG with a 9th-inning homer. … Spectacular shot here of the 1921 Seattle Metropolitans. Dig that chest insignia! … Good two-minute video segment here about how the Tour de France jerseys are stocked with drugs in secret pockets prepared for each rider (with thanks to Brendan Hunt). … Big surprise. … Annual AIDS awareness game in San Francisco last Friday, with the Giants and Marlins wearing red ribbons. … Reprinted from Saturday: The Pirates style John Van Benschoten’s two-word surname as one word on his nameplate (presumably because they don’t have room to add a space). Turns out they’ve done this consistently throughout his career, as seen here and here. Poor guy can’t even have his accurate name on his jersey. … In a related item, check out this note from Todd Davis (reprinted from yesterday’s comments): “[According to] the Cubs/Reds WGN broadcast, Reds SS Dave Concepcion was issued jersey number 57 when he came up in 1970, but they couldn’t fit his name around the 57 (the Reds had those massive name letters) so they changed it to 13 in order to have enough room.” The thing is, lots of other Venezuelan players have worn 13 in honor of Concepcion (including Edgardo Alfonzo, Ozzie Guillen, several others), so the Reds’ early-’70s player-name typography had a ripple effect that was felt for decades. … Matthew Lepke notes that the Vikings are wearing gray facemasks, but it’s just a training camp thing. In a related item, the Vikes will be wearing throwback attire on Sept. 30th, to coincide with Chuck Foreman’s induction into the team’s ring of honor. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Looks like Vlad Guerrero is slitting his right sleeve. … Ken Tobler reports that the U. of North Texas will have a new uniform this season. They’re revealing the various components one element at a time, and gee, do you think you can figure out who the manufacturer is? … “Eat my bike shorts!” (Thanks, Vince.) … Vince also found this photo of Liverpool goaltender Bruce Grobbleaar, who wore a mask when he played with Southampton after breaking his nose. … Yesterday’s Mariners/A’s throwback game was a mix of good and bad (additional pics here, here, here, here, and here, plus Beau Lynott sent along a bunch of screen grabs, which you can see in this slideshow). Most obvious mistake: Both teams should’ve been wearing elasticized waistbands, not belts. Subtlest mistake: The A’s player names should have been straight, not arched. Nicest touch: The A’s coaches wore white caps. … NFL note from Lee Wilds, who writes: “The Titans have added a fourth jersey color this year [for training camp]. They have previously worn navy for defense and white for the offense while QBs wore red, but this year the defensive unit is rotating in a light blue version.” And yes, that’s an advertising patch on the Titans’ practice attire — nothing new there, as they’ve been wearing it for several years now. … Tom K notes that Alex Cintron had helmet decal issues yesterday (and that was his first at-bat, which means the equipment staff was totally asleep at the switch). … The always excellent Helmet Hut has just come out with a line of Florida State reproductions, including several designs I’d never seen before. The full listing is here.
July 30th, 2007
When the Green Bay Packers saw how well this rider filled out a football jersey and asked him to come to training camp, Tour de France officials realized their drug testing policies might have a few holes.
[Insert your Tour de France, blood doping, drug testing, or steroids joke here.] –Vince
July 29th, 2007
First, another gigantic jersey sighting, this time in San Diego, where a huge Tony Gwynn jersey drapes over the side of the County Administration Building in honor of Gwynn’s entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. I wonder if this company made the uniform. (Thanks to Chris Coleman for the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL heads-up.)
Second, I know we all love Saltalamacchia, but this guy deserves some major props also. — Vince
July 28th, 2007
By Vince Grzegorek
There’s a lot of down time in baseball, whether you’re in the dugout or the bullpen, and ballplayers inevitably find ways to amuse themselves. While this often involves practical jokes among players, there are other times when the hijinks are done to amuse fans as well as teammates.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Jeremy Brahm sent me this pic of Hichori Morimoto’s Muitai from the first Japanese All-Star game (here’s another view). What struck me was that the day before, while I was at the Western Reserve Historical Society, Scott Longert had told me a story of former Indian Ron Pruitt wearing a conehead for the National Anthem during a game in the ’80s. If there was a conehead in Cleveland two decades ago, and one far away in Japan today, might there be more to be found?
Of course there were. In fact, the famous 1970s Saturday Night Live skit has provided the impetus for many a ballplayer (and fan) to don the conical headgear. Here’s a partial rundown:
- The most obvious example, of course, are the fans of David Cone who show up to the ballpark with coneheads.
- Former Mariners reliever Bill Caudill used to wear a conehead while sitting in the bullpen during games.
- Former Astros relievers Larry Anderson, Dave Smith, and Charlie Kerfeld (scroll down to “Coneheads”) used to all wear coneheads during games in the 80s while sitting in the bullpen.
- Players and fans of the St. Paul Saints once donned coneheads on Conehead Night (middle of article) inspired by team co-owner Bill Murray (near end of article).
Here’s to hoping that “Mango” doesn’t take off in the same way.
Uni Watch News Ticker: After Jonathan Smith was waived by the Patriots, we finally have the answer to the question, “What number will Randy Moss wear this season?” #81 (thanks to Jeff Israel, who can wear whatever number he wants)… Starting this season, the men’s football and basketball teams of Kansas will have uniforms that have the same official font as the university (Trajan). Other uniforms will be replaced with the correct font as they wear out (a very normal font thanks to Scott Johhnson)… Scott also noted that South Dakota State University will have new Nike football uniforms starting this year… A couple of people mentioned that Temple will have new football uniforms as well this season (check out the photo gallery for the totally bitchin’ helmets)… Joe Bonneau passed on this gallery from The Smoking Gun featuring mugshots of people wearing jerseys and other sports paraphernalia… Reprinted from yesterday’s comments section, “The 10 Most Expensive Sports Collectibles” list on Forbes has some cool uniform and equipment related items… I was at the Fausto vs. Beckett, Indians vs. Red Sox game and was glad to see that Fausto continues to leave the stickers on the underbrim of his hat. … Breaking News!: Despite being listed as merely “Questionable” for today’s blog, Paul Lukas is sufficiently recovered from his vacation to check in with a brief report (see below). Try to act like you remember who he is.
Home Sweet Uni Watch: Thanks, Vince. I’m back, kids, so straighten up and stop shooting spitballs behind the substitute teacher’s back. It was good to get away but it’s even better to be back on terra Brooklyna, so please join me in thanking Vince for minding the store in my absence. Thanks also to Joe Hilseberg, Mark Mihalik, and Eriq Jaffe, whose excellent pinch-hit contributions helped keep things interesting while I was on the road, and to all the great people I met earlier this week in Toronto (full report to follow next week). Bonus thanks to Uni Watch mascots Tucker and Caitlin for the warm welcome upon my return.
Although I stayed true to my goal of not checking out the site even once while I was away, Uni Watch was nonetheless close to my heart for most of the past week. While rummaging through a thrift store in the rural Midwest last Saturday, for example, I came across this poster, featuring a ton of uni-related items, which of course I felt obligated to document. Check it out: There’s an early full-face helmet; an early uniform; Tom Dempsey’s shoe; anniversary patches for the Seahawks, Steelers, Broncos, Lions, AFL and NFL; the Broncos’ vertically striped stirrups; and Bob Griese’s eyeglasses. There was also this Seahawks poster, featuring a good shot of the Native American imagery that the team’s identity is based on.
Scott and I kept processing membership orders while I was away, incidentally. If you haven’t checked out the membership design gallery lately, take a look — there’s some interesting stuff in there, including our first three unnumbered designs (representing the 1928 Detroit Tigers, Augusta National caddies, and Minnesota Twins bat boys). Remember, if you sign up by next Tuesday, you’ll have a “Charter Member” seal added to your card when you renew next year, whoop-whoop.
The most interesting uni-related communiqué I received during my getaway came from an ESPN reader named Joshua Lanning, who pointed me toward this photo and wondered if Denny Mac was wearing a plastic trash bag for an undershirt or what. McLain was frequently photographed doing the windbreaker-as-undershirt thing, but that doesn’t appear to be what he was wearing in that cover shot. Reminds me of that NFL lineman who tried to lose weight during training camp by putting on a rubber suit and then driving around with his car’s heat on full blast — and then passing out. Can’t recall who this was, unfortunately. Little help..?
Getting back to McLain: He was (and apparently still is) a first-class scumbag, but no amount of Mob connections, bad checks, pension-fund raids, or jail time can change the fact that the dude totally knew how to wear stirrups (further evidence here, here, here, here, and here). He was also, of course, a musical genius. Perhaps a pardon is in order?
July 27th, 2007
By Vince Grzegorek
While my esteemed boss used up all the Uni Watch frequent flier miles on trips to St. Louis, Toronto, and his vacation, I was left in charge of the blog and with the task of foraging for stories only as far as my trusty Dodge Stratus would carry me. That didn’t turn out to be a bad thing, though, since I ended up hot on the trail of some archived uniforms nearby at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland.
A quick backstory: While browsing through the searchable collection of the WRHS, I came across nine uniforms from around 1920 that weren’t on display. There were no pictures, just a short description of the color and text on each one. My interest piqued, I got in touch with Scott Longert, Associate Curator for Sports History, and asked if I could come down and have a look. He was gracious enough to say yes and spend some time with me last Friday. (All photos courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society, of course.)
I wasn’t sure what I was going to find when I got down there. These jerseys were close to 90 years-old and were from amateur sports leagues, so it was possible that I would walk in to discover torn and tattered pieces of fabric, or faded remnants of what had once been great uniforms. All I had were the brief descriptions and the fact that the pieces were made by the Favorite Knitting Mills, a company that produced a ton of uniforms during the period and sponsored many more amateur teams, including the Favorite-Knits, a powerhouse of early-1920s football.
My worries were soon assuaged as Scott unveiled the collection donated by George and Ann Yanda in 1999. The jerseys, which belonged to George’s father, also named George, were in outstanding condition and provided a brief survey of early semi-pro and amateur attire for both basketball and football.
In almost every case, the team was either playing for or sponsored by a local Cleveland company. There was the “Fry Marvel” jersey, which had a nice little twist with inverted coloring on the letters and background on the front; the “Meter Lab” jersey, which looked almost as sharp as any sweater you would buy in the mall these days; the “Victory Auto Service” jersey, which almost screamed “Badass”; , the “Illuminating” jersey, the most boring example of the bunch; the “ChaLmps” jersey, which had a gorgeous design; the “Circles” jersey, which was the only one to have a last name on the back (as you can see in the lead photo); and the “Suchan Alleys” jersey, which had a beautiful-looking font on the front and back.
The prize was to be found, however, with two inconspicuous but beautiful football jerseys that had just a simple “I” on the front. After chatting with George Yanda about his father’s career, I found out that George Sr. played for the Cleveland Indians football team, which played in both the early NFL and the American Association of Professional Football. So these jerseys were probably worn sometime around 1922 or later when the Indians merged with the Canton Bulldogs to become the Cleveland Bulldogs.
As I chatted with George about his father’s playing days, times of little pay and a lot of travel, times detailed in books like Pro Football’s Rag Days, it was amazing to know I had seen the uniforms sitting right in front of me, and it was even more amazing to see how incredibly well-preserved they were. Stored in a basement for decades, and then stored at the Historical Society for the last 8 years, the jerseys can now see the light of day, and we can get a full-color glimpse into those Rag Days.
Tangential Bonus Material: Unfortunately, the jerseys I viewed are not on public display, but the WRHS still has plenty of amazing things, including the restored Chief Wahoo from the top of old Municipal Stadium (with beautiful striped stirrups just for Paul). Also, Scott tells me that there will be a major Cleveland Indians exhibition next summer that will collect photos, uniforms, and artifacts from the team’s extensive and storied history. Stay tuned for details. And finally, the Western Reserve Historical Society has a baseball speaker series running in August that will include talks by Cleveland’s VP of Public Relations, Bob Dibiasio, and former sportswriter, Burt Graeff.
Uni Watch News Ticker: That mysterious guy Paul has sent along a couple more contributions: First, my Ohio State Buckeyes beat Michigan again in this rating of college football uniforms; and second, the Long Beach Armada had planned a Michael Vick jersey bonfire, but had to cancel. Now, you can exchange a Michael Vick jersey for a free ticket on Animal Awareness Day, and then use the jersey as a pooper scooper or wee-wee pad… Curtis Granderson respects uniform history (thanks to Bill, no last names, please)… How often do you see an athlete advertise for another sport? Well, Ben Curtis just might be the most blatant example ever. “Go NFL!” (a teal deal thanks to Alexander Collazo)…Roger Faso passed on a great photo gallery of a game played to historically accurate uniform standards (except for the shoes)… A nice piece on Manny’s barber and the “LMontro 99″ wristbands sent along by Chris Flinn… The new 125th anniversary logo for the International League looks very spiffy, and very Scott Turner-esque (solid assist by Doug Brei)… An article on South Africa’s new Rugby World Cup jerseys can be found here (hard-hitting thanks to Josh Rubin)… Majestic will become the official outfitter of Minor League Baseball starting at the beginning of the 2008 season according to Matt Hoffman… A Uni Watch shout out to Ryan Finley, who gave a nice shout out to Uni Watch in this azstarnet.com blog entry about Arizona’s uniforms (thanks to Chris Pastore)… Matthew Linder alerted me to this Ebay listing for a Cleveland Lumberjacks jersey that he called “amazing”. I can think of a few other descriptions as well.
July 26th, 2007
[Editor’s Note: Some of the photo links in the story may come up as “Access Denied” — or they may not. If they do, highlight the URL in your browser window’s address line (command-a), cut it to your clipboard (command-x), re-paste it right back into the browser window (command-v), and then hit enter. Should solve the problem. Annoying, I know, but it’s worth it. Apologies for any hassle. — PL]
A few years ago I wrote an article about for Fortune magazine about the history of the jet age. It included the following passage:
Since 1938, the federal Civil Aeronautics Board had controlled the industry’s routes, schedules, and prices, which were generally kept artificially high to protect the airlines. This left the carriers with little to compete over except whose flight attendants had the sexiest outfits (a trend begun in 1965 by Braniff, whose stewardesses would shed several layers of their uniforms during a flight, a routine known as the “air strip”).
I wasn’t able to work any other uni-centric comments into the article. And that didn’t seem like such a tragedy, because airline uniforms had always struck me as stiff polyester nightmares that were boring at best, tacky at worst.
This view is not shared by Cliff Muskiet, a Dutchman who works for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and is at least as obsessed with stewardess uniforms as I am with, say, striped stirrups. For years he’s been updating his web site (note the super-cool domain name — I may as well retire right now), which, as he straightforwardly explains, “is about me and my stewardess uniform collection.” That collection now includes over 600 uniforms drawn from nearly 300 airlines.
Clicking through Muskiet’s collection, it’s hard not to admire his hyper-obsessive tendencies. For each basic uniform design, he shows the uni on a mannequin and provides close-ups of fabrics, patterns, and badges (sometimes buttons and buckles, too). And just as I try to do with Uni Watch, he’s attempted to document some of the industry’s design history — check out, for example, this amazing page of old TWA uniforms, or some of the early-’70s American Airlines designs shown here.
Many of the stewardess uniforms fall into the same design categories as sports uniforms. You’ve got your classy simplicity (much like the Yankees), your characterless bores (Brewers), your occasional burst of slightly upscale perfection (Canadiens), your “What were they thinking?” disasters (Devil Rays), and plenty of other familiar tropes.
Such metaphorical connections notwithstanding, there’s also at least one design that’s directly sports-related: In 2006, Deutsche BA crews wore a special Puma-designed outfit, complete with logo creep, to help promote the World Cup (additional pics at the bottom of this page). And while not a sportswear design per se, the easyJet crew sure looks like they’re heading straight to the stadium (additional pics here).
It’d be easy to make fun of a guy like Muskiet — surrounded by his mannequins, fussing over his collection of dresses and skirts, providing grist for any number of Freudian mills. Ultimately, though, he isn’t all that different from you or me, obsessing over the visual details of his chosen field and enjoying the satisfaction that comes with collection and display. I prefer to see him as a fellow traveler (no pun intended).
Friendly Reminder: Paul’s on vacation. If you have questions, observations, or contributions, send them to Vince.
Uni Watch News Ticker: In a small item perfectly related to today’s post, the TSA has announced new uniforms for the TSO (thanks to J. Cutler)… Paul ‘enjoyed’ his vacation by sending me the following contributions: Coach Randy Shannon of the Miami Hurricanes has taken the names off the back of the jerseys this year to reinforce the ‘team-first’ approach… The new Duke football uniforms… The new North Texas football uniforms will be unveiled August 4th… An interesting Ebay auction… Why should new Met Ruben Gotay hope that he succeeds wearing the #6? Check the end of this article to find out (Once again, thanks to some guy named Paul for the contributions. Here’s to hoping he sticks around)…. In some corporate logo news, the Barclays eagle may be disappearing after 317 years thanks to concerns from its merger partner, ABN Amro (thanks to Matthew Hackethal)… The University of Michigan got a signing bonus for switching to Adidas, which may be the first time something like this has happened (mucho dinero thanks to Bill Tway)… Purple, purple, and more purple (a “don’t tell Paul you sent this” thanks to Matthew Strauss)… Mike Bonasai reports “The Greenville Drive honored neighboring city Spartanburg and Upstate South Carolina baseball history as playing as the Spartanburg Peaches. The Peaches jerseys were auctioned during the game to raise money for the Friends of Duncan Park, an organization out to save the oldest baseball stadium in South Carolina.”… Many, many people noticed that Glenallen Hill wore a helmet while coaching at first base for the Rockies after minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh died after getting hit by a ball this week (Bill Sour, who was at the game and sent me this pic)… Andrew Lupton found this patch showing the logo from the ‘71/’72 Houston Rockets… Many, many people noticed that the Mariners were wearing their batting practice jerseys for the second part of a double-dip against the Rangers last night… Todd Davis noticed that Ubaldo Jimenez doesn’t know how to wear stirrups… Finally, the new Sharks logo is out.
July 25th, 2007
[Editor’s Note: Uni Watch Baltimore bureau chief Joe Hilseberg recently toured two excellent sports facilities that feature loads of uni-related exhibits. He took loads of pics and was happy to oblige when I asked him to write some accompanying text to go with them. His report follows. — PL]
By Joe Hilseberg
Over the past month I’ve made two visits to the Sports Legends Museum in Baltimore. It’s like a mini Hall of Fame and is an ideal place to go if you want to wrap you brain around Baltimore/Maryland sports and get a feel for what they mean to the community. I also finally took the Camden Yards Stadium Tour. I took a lot of photos, but here are some particularly noteworthy shots from both the museum and the stadium tour:
- Babe Ruth statue: The interesting thing here is that the 18-year-old Babe is depicted with a right-handed glove. You would initially think the sculptor had made a huge mistake, but he actually paid very close attention to detail. When Babe was 18, he was still Attending St. Mary’s School in Baltimore and most likely could not afford a glove of his own. It was very common back then for teams to share gloves, which often meant lefties had to make due with a righty glove. Kudos to the sculptor.
- Center field ivy wall: I asked the tour guide why the ivy didn’t grow all the way to the top, and he said it was because that’s where ESPN like to hang banners and put logos. I’d rather have the ivy.
- Oriole figurine: This is the original bird from the 1954 welcome float (a photo of which is shown above the bird).
- Brooks Robinson’s short brim helmet: Wondering why Brooks wore the short brim? Here’s his own explanation, which I pulled off of a site he posted on: “Back in the early ’70s, the Commissioner’s Office made it mandatory for anyone coming into the big leagues to wear an earflap on your helmet. If you were already in Major League Baseball you had a choice whether to do that or not. Of course, I wanted to wear the flap because it gave me more protection. … But when I got the helmet with the flap and put it on, it seemed like the bill was a little longer than my normal hat … and consequently when I went up to hit I could see the brim and part of the flap. It made me lose my concentration. I took care of it by taking a hacksaw blade and cut about 1 ½ inches off the brim and about half an inch off the flap. That’s how I got my short brim.”
- Gordon’s Stores jersey: This was a rec league team, sponsored by a local dry cleaning operation. Al Kaline played for them — and for several other local teams — in 1951-52. According to something I found online, Kaline said, “I’d play a game in one end of town, then my father or uncle would drive me to another game. I would change uniforms in the car on the way. Sometimes I’d play three games a day. I never got enough.” He went to the Tigers right from high school, so these teams served as his minor leagues, which shows just how strong the baseball landscape was in Baltimore back then.
- Awesome sweater and cap: These belonged to “Home Run” Baker [so known for his league-leading HR totals of 11 in 1911, 10 in 1912, 12 in 1913, and 9 in 1914 — PL].
Friendly Reminder: Paul’s on vacation. If you have questions, observations, or contributions, send them to Vince.
Uni Watch News Ticker: On the heels of yesterday’s fantastic analysis of uniforms in video games by Eriq Jaffe (and what a great job he did) we get the commercial and ridiculous side of the coin in this Xbox 360 trailer for NHL ‘08 that advertises the new Rbk Edge Uniform System. John Staton, who passed along the video, said, “The mind boggles.” My mind actually just threw up in my mouth a little bit… Paul Sipes passed on this photo essay of the atrocious history of US soccer uniforms… Here’s a podcast and article from Chris Murphy about a Narka, Kansas baseball uniform from the 1940’s… Tony Parker’s wax sculpture at the Grevin Wax Museum in France wears a Spurs uniform featuring the French flag down the sides. The real Tony Parker modeled the same awful uniform for this pic (Merci to Spencer Koch)… Interesting article about the preponderance of jersey rip-offs surrounding the Major League All-Star Game… Michael Boriotti has noticed that Milton Bradley is missing the MLB logo patch on the back of his jersey (watch the ’sliding grab’ video for proof)… In a completely unsurprising move, Nike has suspended the release of the new Michael Vick shoe (a Fido-friendly thanks to Greg Riffenburgh)… During the Tour de France I have always loved how the female presenters coordinate with the jersey they are awarding…Reprinted from yesterday’s comments section, the men’s USA basketball team scrimmaged this weekend, giving us a chance to see their jerseys in action… Scroll to near the end of this column to find out why Jason Richardson wears #23 (thanks to Richard Hochroth)…
July 24th, 2007
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