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Archive for July, 2007
[Editor's Note: Eriq Jaffe is one of several Uni Watch readers who specialize in modifying (or simply "modding") the uniforms on their video games. I'm not a gamer myself, but I'm intrigued by the design-it-yourself ethos exemplified by Eriq and other modders. He recently offered to write an overview of his modding practices and it turned out to be fascinating stuff. Enjoy. -- PL]
By Eriq Jaffe
Ever since I can remember, I’ve messed with, or modified, my video games, whether it’s coming up with a cheat code for nearly unlimited cash in Ghostbusters or spending countless hours manually inputting team stats from my Neft & Cohen into SSI Computer Baseball, I’ve never been able to help myself.
Why? I think it’s got something to do with leveraging technology to create a sports-themed fantasy world. From the time I was 6 or 7 years old, I would set up fairly elaborate universes of dice-based football leagues, and I had full uniforms — and, in many cases, historical uniforms — that I would design and then laboriously map onto players by re-coloring traced photographs (unfortunately, none of that work survived a cleaning purge a number of years ago). And, yes, some of the teams featured purple as their primary color. And now, thanks to the fine folks at Electronic Arts — as well as a number of other talented people in various modding communities — I am able to fully indulge my passion for changing my games (and, probably, violating my license agreements).
It’s safe to say that I spend more time creating uniforms for MVP 2005 than I do actually playing it. There are many other things that you can mod with MVP 2005 — and pretty much anything that can be changed is changed by somebody. There are people who specialize in ballparks, “cyberfaces,” and a whole host of other esoterica. But me, I’m a uniform junkie, so I focus on modding the unis. The rationale for a particular modification can vary, but here are some of the common reasons:
- To improve on the quality of the work that’s already there. All of my mods are done in what’s called “2x,” which means that the textures are twice the resolution of the stock textures — this provides for a much sharper-looking uniform, although at the risk of overpowering slower computers.
I have a tremendous soft spot for uniforms that are generally considered to be ugly (that’s what happens when you grow up as a White Sox fan during the ’70s and ’80s as a White Sox fan), and that tends to be a theme in my work. Be it re-creating uniforms from 1999’s infamous “Turn Ahead The Clock” promotion (additional examples here, here, here, here, and here, and let’s not forget those worse-than-2007 All-Star uniforms) or painstakingly rendering White Sox uniforms the late ’70s (those are from 1978, to be specific — the number of sock stripes varied from year to year during that period), I can’t seem to stop glorifying some of the more unattractive chapters from baseball’s past.
I also have a morbid fascination with defunct sports leagues and franchises. I know more about the USFL than most people would consider healthy, and I’ve recreated some vintage Pacific Coast League uniforms (additional examples here, here, here, and here), although that tends to be a bit harder, as finding good image sources can be tricky.
The actual process is a bit more tedious. First off, I have to research what the uniforms looked like. I find that Bill Henderson’s “Double Knit Era Collectors Reference” to be the best source, along with Google Images, eBay, and my own collection of baseball cards. Once I have a clear idea of what the jersey needs to look like, I’ll refer to Chris Creamer’s site for the logos and wordmarks (as well as my own private stash of logos that I’ve collected over the years).
Once all those parts are collected, it’s off to Photoshop, where I assemble the various jersey components using a series of templates that I have downloaded, created, or modified to suit my own workflow. This is the monkey work — cut, paste, shift, color, apply a little bevel here, a little drop shadow there. All in all, there are 28 different pieces that need to be created to create the uniform itself, as well as 36 items for the jersey lettering and numbering (a few teams, such as the Dodgers, require an additional set of “front” numbers, since they differ from the ones on the jersey backs). Mercifully, I have that part more or less down to a science at this point.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of others who have managed to crack open file formats and write tools to deal with them, we are able to modify the games. Some of the tools were written specifically for MVP (such as FuzzOne’s brilliant MVP Studio — you have to create an account on that site to download it), some tools are from other EA Sports communities (particularly the NBA Live and NHL players), and some are from non-sports games entirely. Some tools have fairly easy-to-understand GUIs, some are command-line driven, but once you get used to them, it’s actually pretty easy.
EA uses “.fsh” (”fish”) files as their container of choice — one .fsh for the uniform and one for the letters and numbers. There’s a specialized application known as FshEd that I use to insert the various components into a the .fsh files. The completed .fsh files are then packed into another container format (this one known as a “.big” file) using gfxpak (which I linked to a screenshot of above). There is yet another .big file that contains the “preview” in the jersey select screen of the game, but that’s just one 125×125 picture — small potatoes.
Game time! Finally, I get to fire up MVP and see how close to right I’ve gotten things. Most of the trial and error comes from limitations when dealing with the 3D models — some jersey elements will tend to stretch a bit oddly, or have other strangeness. Sometimes, a jersey cannot be 100% accurate due to these restrictions — for example, the Don Wilson memorial patch on my 1975 Astros jerseys should have been positioned higher up on the shoulder, above the rainbow stripes. Unfortunately, due to the model, that doesn’t work in MVP, so I had to move it down — acceptable losses, I guess. Sometimes, the tweaking can take a long time. I don’t even want to think about how many I hours I spent just to get the stripes on these sleeves to line up with the stripes on the shoulders – that’s four different uniform pieces I had to juggle around (nudge the stripes on the left sleeve a couple pixels over, pack everything into the container files, play a game, rinse, repeat) to get that working. If the jersey is right, I take a screenshot using a program called Fraps (good old Print Screen doesn’t work with a lot of DirectX and OpenGL games), and then package the mod up for distribution.
Then I bask in internet-based glory!
If you want to get into this for some twisted reason of your own, the best thing to do is find a modding community for whatever game you’re interested in — if it’s on the PC, somebody’s probably modding it. For MVP, the biggest and best community (IMHO) is MVP Mods. Poke around, ask questions, see what other people are doing, grab some templates and tools, and start showing your work. Don’t worry if your stuff seems a bit unprofessional or off-the-wall, because somebody’s probably already tried something stranger, and one of the best ways to learn is through constructive criticism. If you can’t afford a copy of Photoshop, don’t fret — good results can be achieved through freeware programs like the GIMP or Paint.NET (you’ll need a plug in to handle Photoshop files for that one). While every internet community will have its share of bad eggs (except Uni Watch, of course), most people are happy to help the inexperienced — the more the merrier, y’know?
(I would be remiss at this point if I didn’t thank and recognize some other standouts of the MVP modding community: Kccitystar, whose templates have been the basis for most of my work; Royal Blues, for trading tips and techniques; FuzzOne, for making some indispensable tools; and Pirate and SeanO, whose stadiums add an incredible amount of realism to the game experience. Without these people, I probably couldn’t indulge myself to nearly the same extent as I do.)
Friendly Reminder: Paul’s on vacation. If you have questions, observations, or contributions, send them to Vince.
Uni Watch News Ticker: First, let me say that I know a lot of hockey news has been going on, including new Predators uniforms, but I know little to nothing about hockey, and I’m sure Paul is going to take a crack at it all when he gets back, so I’m leaving it out for now. If Paul were here, however, I wonder what he would have to say about this (with thanks to Rob B.)… Dario Sala seems intent on pissing off MLS and Adidas. First, he wore the FC Dallas away jersey in goal, which was nixed by Adidas because it wasn’t an official Adidas goalkeeper jersey. Then, he wore the dark jersey with green trim, but was told he couldn’t do that because it was too similar to DC’s black uniform. Now? Now he wears the white top that the coaches use for training. Brilliant, I say! (nice assist by David Walker)… Jeremy Brahm has gone on uni-overload this weekend, sending the following contributions – Norichika Aoki wearing a silver glove in the Japanese All-Star game, a great gallery of All-Star hats being made by NPB, memorial crape bands (see picture 3) being worn by the Brazilian athletes competing in the Pan-American Games for victims of the Sau Paulo TAM plane crash, and the new uniforms for the Japanese gymnastics teams… Jon Lauer reports that the Washington Wild Things wore retro Blue Jays jerseys on Saturday night, leaving the grounds crew no option but to wear the coaching staff’s regular uniforms… Awesome looking hockey jerseys (or sweaters, for you purists) from the Israel Ice Hockey Federation, Paul’s really missing out here (great catch from Avi Berliner)… Yesterday’s Open Thread focused on the Negro League throwbacks worn by Detroit and Kansas City on Saturday night, and luckily Mike Bendert was at the game and sent along his photo gallery… Patrick Nance passed along some logos from the Texas Collegiate League that he thought were pretty spiffy. Agreed… Some nice contrast in shorts style between Brazil and Canada at the Pan-Am Games… Finally, FANTASTIC argyle pattern socks on Boca Junior.
July 23rd, 2007
The Tigers looked pretty snazzy in their Detroit Stars jerseys during the 13th annual Negro League Tribute Game on Saturday night. –Vince
July 22nd, 2007
Dennis Rommedahl was presented with his Ajax Amsterdam jersey this week. It still appears that the kit was poorly designed for players with long last names, with the white letters overflowing onto the white fabric, despite the fact that similar problems have happened before. Not to mention, it will probably look illegible from a good distance, reading something like “squiggle-OMMEDAH-squiggle.” –Vince
July 21st, 2007
[Editor's Note: Long before this site existed, reader Mark Mihalik had already earned the title of Uni Watch Lifetime Achievement Scholar, primarily for his observations regarding footwear. He doesn't contribute as often as he did in those days, but he recently sent a manifesto that made it clear he hasn't lost anything off his fastball. Enjoy. -- PL]
[Intern's Note: With Paul gone, we'll take a few days to recognize some of the writing contributions of your fellow readers. This is the first of three that you can look forward to, along with a new entry by yours truly early next week. -- VG]
By Mark Mihalik
One thing I’ve been following over the past year or so is baseball players who wear basketball sneakers or cross-trainers with modified, cleated outsoles. Here’s an update on what I’ve noticed recently:
First of all, Frank Thomas is still wearing Nike Shox Ups this year with the Jays (just in all black instead of white and green like last year). I’ve recently noticed that Eric Chavez (pictured wearing sneakers here, here, and here) had switched to normal, unmodified baseball cleats for a while (he’s wearing Nike’s baseball Huarache 2k4 shoe here), but now he’s back to his old tricks. Chavez is pictured here wearing the original basketball Huarache 2k4, and he’s in the Huarache 64 basketball sneaker here (I added pictures of the original shoes and Nike’s MCS plates that were built into both sneakers).
None of that was too surprising — I figured all of these modifications could’ve just been done by MLB equipment managers, which is what I assumed was the case with Orlando Cabrera (here, here, and here), Jermaine Dye, and Jim Thome in the past.
But then I was watching the College World Series and I noticed that UNC’s Dustin Ackley is wearing a pair of Air Jordan 11’s with cleats added. Now, most of these modifications have been done on Nike shoes, so I suppose it is possible for Nike to make the customized shoes for their MLB players, but I find it hard to believe that they’d do the same for a college athlete.
But then I did a little snooping around, and found something interesting: Custom Cleats Inc.
If you look around the company’s site, you can see that anyone can provide them with a pair of sneakers and a pair of cleats or just a pair of sneakers, and they’ll put cleats on your sneaker for $89. Interesting stuff. I don’t know if they’re responsible for any of the footwear of the pro or college players that I mentioned, but I think they’d be worth contacting. [Agreed. I'll get on it soon. -- PL]
Friendly Reminder: Paul’s on vacation. If you have questions, observations, or contributions, send them to Vince.
Uni Watch News Ticker: In a move that begs the question, “Will Willie Nelson or Woody Harrelson be in attendance?”, Drew Samuelson notes that on July 20, the Lake Elsinore Storm will be wearing hemp jerseys as part of a “Goin’ Green” promotion that will include organic and healthy concessions, ecological tips, and green fireworks, whatever that means… On Saturday, August 25, the New Hampsire Fisher Cats, the AA affiliate of the Blue Jays, will play one game as the New Hampshire Primaries. That was their original name after their creation in 2003, but an uproar led to a quick name change (very electoral thanks to Bryan Widell)… Fantastic article passed on by Bill Ardizoia about Helmet Hut’s contributions to the uniform (and more specifically, helmet) reproductions for the upcoming movie about Ernie Davis entitled, “The Express”, great read… P.J. Mallardi thinks that BJ Surhoff’s old UNC baseball uni looks pretty cool, especially the helmet… A Uni Watch secret agent has told us that Rice’s football helmet this fall will now be navy and white with an Old English “R”, which would be a fantastic change in my opinion… This might be the coolest piece of fan clothing you can own if you really like Brazilian water polo… Reprinted from yesterday’s comments section, the Tennessee Valley Vipers will be wearing camouflage jerseys for a military appreciation night this Saturday… Enjoy your weekend folks.
July 20th, 2007
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Sometimes I’ll come across a book that isn’t really about uniforms, or even about sports, but is nonetheless very much a Uni Watch type of book. That was the case last summer when I reviewed The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America (still highly recommended), and it’s even more so with Blackstock’s Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant.
Some quick background: Gregory Blackstock is a 61-year-old Seattle pot scrubber who’s also a self-taught (or, if you prefer, “outsider”) artist and musician (there’s more info on him here). He specializes in “visual lists” — basically detailed illustrations that show all the types of a particular animal or tool or technique or whatever. Just as many of us are detail-oriented collectors (either of jerseys or of other ephemera), Blackstock collects things by documenting them in his drawings. And like any good collector, he finds commonalities and groupings where the rest of us might miss them — who knew there were so many kinds of hoes or trowels, for example? He’s essentially created his own series of systematic classification systems, which is very Uni Watch-ish indeed.
Blackstock also adheres to some fairly rigid self-imposed protocols, my favorite of which is his devotion to the definite article — almost all of his drawings have a title or heading that begins with “The” (although he occasionally breaks this rule). Some of his drawings are a bit drab, others bright and festive, but they all exhibit significant attention to detail, and many of them border on information overload — the mark of a completist (and, again, very much in keeping with Uni Watch).
As for uniforms, I was happy to see that the book’s clothing chapter (”The Hats,” “The Shoes,” “The Masks”) began with this opening page. Unfortunately, the one drawing actually devoted to uniforms is among the least inspired in the entire book. Too bad.
Despite that one shortcoming, the book is incredibly charming, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it will probably strike a familiar chord in many of you (it certainly did in me). Just as many of us obsess over knowing, documenting, and communicating every last bit of uni-related knowledge, Blackstock obsesses over, well, everything. That’s both the blessing and the curse of his artistic niche: He has an endless supply of source material, but he’ll never be able to keep up with all of it. I picture him waking up at 3 a.m. and thinking, “Damn — there’s a trowel design that I totally forgot to include in that drawing!” Or, “Should I do separate drawings for the mustards, the ketchups, and the relishes, or should I just do one drawings called ‘The Condiments’?”
I’m fairly certain Blackstock didn’t choose this niche so much as it chose him. Again, I think many of us, myself included, can probably relate. In any case, it’s an amazing book — Uni Watch’s highest rating.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Bit of a footwear snafu for Celtic on Tuesday (with thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … Nats backstop Brian Schneider plans to swap his old Expos mask for one of Sidney Crosby’s jerseys. Details here (courtesy of Kim Kolb). … The Brockton Rox are planning to wear “Kiss-inspired jerseys,” whatever that means, next month. Details here (with thanks to Rick Subrizio). … I think it’s safe to say that never before have we had a situation where two MLB managers are wearing slings, but that’s the case now with Willie Randolph and John McLaren. But Matt Hessling has noticed an inconsistency regarding McLaren: “Whenever he is shown in the dugout, pregame, postgame, or even arguing a call, he is wearing the sling; however, when he makes a pitching change, the sling is off, no matter the throwing hand of the pitcher.” … You know the titanium necklace phenomenon has gotten out of hand when umpires are wearing them (Rick Reed in this case). … More details here regarding the logo-festooned vests that the NFL wants photographers to wear. … Good article here on sponsor advertising on Tour de France jerseys.
Friendly Reminder: By the time most of you read this, I’ll be off on vacation. I’ll be back on the 26th, or maybe the 27th. Membership orders will still be processed during my travels, so go ahead and keep sending them in, but Vince will be steering the ship in all other respects, so if you have questions, observations, or contributions, send them to him. And treat him right — if not for him, the site would probably have to go on vacation too.
Have fun while I’m gone. See you Toronto readers next Tuesday!
July 19th, 2007
You’ve heard of a player’s uniform prompting a warning letter, and then there are the uniforms that lead to fines. But Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen has taken uni-related insubordination to a new level: In a roundabout way, his uniform got him suspended.
Here’s the deal: Yesterday the Marlins announced that Olsen would be suspended without pay for two games due to “conduct detrimental to the team” — code for “getting into a fight with teammate Sergio Mitre during the 5th inning of Sunday night’s Marlins/Nationals game” (and possibly also code for “being a total asshole for two seasons now,” but we’ll get to that in a sec). The beauty part is spelled out in this Palm Beach Post article, the crucial passage of which reads as follows:
The trouble apparently began with a faulty button on Olsen’s jersey. After Olsen came off the mound in the middle of the fifth inning, he tore off his jersey, threw it at a clubhouse attendant and demanded a new one. Sources said Mitre admonished Olsen for his behavior. That led to the scuffle while third baseman Miguel Cabrera was at bat.
The Miami Herald’s version is that “Mitre was trying to calm Olsen, who was upset over a broken button on his uniform top.” Alas, neither Olsen’s jersey tirade nor the scuffle itself is visible on the game video. I watched the preceding half-inning to see if the broken button was evident, and it did look like Olsen’s lower jersey might have been flapping open a bit (here’s another view), but he apparently wears it pretty loose down there all the time, so it’s tough to be sure which was the offending piece of plastic.
In any case, this is, to my knowledge, the first time a button has led to a suspension, and maybe the first uni-related suspension, period. There’ve been plenty of equipment-related suspensions and ejections, of course — corked bats, pine tar in the glove, that sort of thing — but I can’t think of any other instances when a uniform issue resulted in a player being put on the shelf.
As for Olsen, if it hadn’t been this, it probably would’ve been something else. By all accounts, he’s a short-tempered prick who’s gotten into fights with teammates at least twice before and was fined just last month for making an obscene gesture to fans in Milwaukee. The press obviously can’t stand him either — my favorite bit is in the Herald’s story, where writer Clark Spencer straight-facedly refers to him as a “cigarette-smoking southpaw” who “bristled when asked if he had ever thought about enrolling in an anger management course.” Hey, what’s not to love?
(Special thanks to Uni Watch bake-off queen and membership enrollee Elena Elms for bringing this situation to my attention.)
Travel Reminder: I’ll be heading off for an eight-day vacation starting tomorrow. During that time, please send tips, contributions, and questions to Vince, not to me. Fresh content will continue daily, and membership orders will be still be processed.
Also, remember that the next Uni Watch party will take place next Tuesday, July 24th, in Toronto, upstairs at the Imperial Pub and Library.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s entry about the Astros and Colt .45s prompted a contribution from Todd Radom, who forwarded some great pics of an Astrodome groundskeeper and a Colts Colts usher and event staff. … College football news from Idaho State media czar Frank Mercogliano, who writes: “While at the Big Sky Conference meetings [Monday], the coordinator of officials explained that referees will be emphasizing all players must wear their pants below the knee, and they must have their knee pads on. Apparently, there is an infection that some players have been getting from cuts on their exposed knees. Also, Portland State will have new uniforms, and with Jerry Glanville as their head coach, it should come as no surprise that they will wear black. Also, Sacramento State will be debuting a new helmet later this year with new jerseys (they altered their logo slightly).” No pics yet. … Longtime Uni Watch pal and softball comrade Josh Neufield drew this illustration to accompany a Washington Post article about Yankees fans who go to Shea Stadium just to annoy Mets fans. Note the striped tube sox and the complete absence of black from the Mets gear — that’s why Josh is my buddy. … Not quite uni-related, but still pretty interesting. … Still more sloppiness in San Francisco, as the team’s Rod Beck memorial sleeve patch was missing from Bengie Molina’s jersey last night (good catch by Tom Shieber). … Logo creep alert out of Brainerd, Minnesota, where Matt Konrad snapped this shot of a Paul Bunyan statue. No word on whether Babe the Blue Ox was wearing a Reebok nose ring. … Kudos to New York Times Yankees beat writer Tyler Kepner, whose Tuesday-night blog entry was very stirrups-centric and even included a little shout-out to Uni Watch. Thanks, bud. … While researching something else, I happened upon this photo of Mo Vaughn from August of 1999. Anyone know what the “T” on his cap might have been for? … Some killer new designs in the membership card gallery, including this and this. Check out the full gallery here.
July 18th, 2007
For years, if I’ve needed an old Astros photo, the first place I’ve looked has been Astros Daily, an excellent blog with loads of great images. What I hadn’t realized, however, until reader James Poisso recently pointed it out to me, is that the site includes a page of video links, which provide a priceless historical survey of what is arguably MLB’s most visually interesting franchise. There’s too much material to describe fully, but here are a few highlights:
- If, like myself, you’ve only seen Colt .45s uniforms in still photos, check out the very first video link on the page, which features lots of footage showing the Colts’ basic uni plus jackets, ushers’ uniforms, and related merch.
- You probably know that the Astrodome’s roof had to be painted when outfielders couldn’t pick up the ball against the original ceiling design (which in turn led to the development of Astroturf, because the facility’s original grass wilted and died when sunlight could no longer shine through the painted roof). One of the videos actually shows the roof being painted!
- As you might imagine, there’s plenty of footage showing the tequila sunrise design, including some good shots of the original bullseye version.
- According to Dressed to the Nines, the tequila sunrise jerseys were always paired with dark stirrups. But check out this shot of Larry Dierker — he’s definitely wearing orange hose, and they appear to be striped to boot.
And there’s a lot more. Recommended viewing.
Membership Announcement: Lots of you have asked if an additional column can be added to the membership roster, indicating the team and era that each card design was patterned after. I didn’t originally think we’d need to include that kind of info, since I figured the card designs would all be based on familiar uniform designs and that their sources would therefore be self-explanatory. But of course it hasn’t worked out that way — we’ve got throwback designs (the one shown above is a 1970 Indians treatment), minor league designs, soccer and cycling designs, etc. So yes, I now see it would be a nice idea to include this information, so everyone can see what a given card design was based on.
But here’s the thing: The roster chart is already pretty big and unwieldy — I don’t want to add another column to it. But if you go to the card design gallery and click on a given card design, you’ll get the Flickr page for that design — and you can add comments to that page. So I hereby invite all members to click on their own card designs and add an explanation for your design inspiration (turns out member Anthony Giaccone already did this several weeks ago). If all goes well, we’ll have all the team-based card pages annotated in short order.
You may have to register with Flickr in order to leave a comment. But it’s easy and free, and Flickr is a cool site that you really ought to be part of anyway, so it’s a win-win.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Scroll down to the end of this Q&A session with a Cardinals beat writer to see what the Redbirds think of the new BP caps (good find by Jordan Hirschfield). … Excellent catch by Avi Berliner, who spotted the following tidbit buried within this Wall Street Journal article: “Alex Marvez, president of the Pro Football Writers Association … winces at the new [NFL] rule requiring photographers to wear red vests with small Canon and Reebok logos. Mr. Marvez calls the idea of using working press members as advertising vehicles ‘really alarming.’ Neither company is paying a specific fee for the vests, but Canon Inc. is an official sponsor of the league (it pays a rights fee to be associated with the NFL) and Reebok International Ltd., owned by Adidas AG, is a league licensee (it makes merchandise with NFL logos, including jerseys, pants and photo vests).” … Always good to hear from Mike from Queens, who notes that USA Softball has some very odd batting helmets (additional views here and here). … Tour de France note from member Mike Edgerly, who writes: “Members of Team CSC are sporting black Live Strong-style wristbands that say ‘Harden the fuck up.’” Details toward the bottom of this page (and I swear, if today’s comments section devolves into a series erection jokes, I’m gonna pull the plug on the site, so don’t even think about it). … It’s well documented that Bob Feller will do anything for a buck, but this seems like a bit much. … “Could there be an uglier uni matchup?” asks Vince, referring to yesterday’s Brazil/Nicaragua contest at the Pan Am Games. … A reader who didn’t give his full name notes that Matt Holliday appeared to have one sleeve shorter than the other last night. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: With the Sharks and Ducks having added orange to their color schemes, Kris McInnis figures it’s time for every NHL team to go orange.
July 17th, 2007
HBO’s Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts Of Flatbush debuted last Wednesday, but I was in St. Louis at the time and didn’t get around to seeing it until Saturday. Aside from all the relatively familiar sentimental musings about my home borough (I teared up, right on cue, during the sequence where Dem Bums finally won the Series in ’55), there was a wealth of interesting uni-related material. Check it out:
- I wrote about pinned-on uniform numbers in my last ESPN column. But check out this shot, which shows prospects being evaluated either at a tryout session or during spring training. As you can see, some of them have numbers pinned over the pre-existing uni numbers. Kinda feels like the baseball version of this.
- Here’s a spring training shot. Note the two guys with the big “VB” on their jerseys, which I assume stood for Vero Beach.
- There was a roughly 20-second sequence that showed the Hollywood Star wearing their pinstriped shorts (here’s another view). Oddly, the voiceover narration made no mention of the shorts — the script simply noted that L.A. was a minor league town until the Dodgers arrived. Very strange.
- Interesting shot here. Note that Jackie Robinson and Junior Gilliam are wearing sanitaries but no stirrups.
My only gripe: There wasn’t any footage of Burt Shotton managing in street clothes.
Travel Advisory: In the 14 months since this site launched, I’ve gotten out of town for a long weekend here or a work-related trip there, but I haven’t taken a proper vacation. That will change this Thursday, when I head off for — well, never mind where I’m heading. The point is that I’ll be visiting friends, road-tripping hither and thither, and not thinking too much about uniforms. My goal is to not log on to the site even once during the eight days I’ll be gone. We’ll see how realistic that turns out to be, but you get the gist — I need a little break.
But fear not — things will continue apace. While I’m gone, several teams of bio-engineered chinchillas, fortified on Balco-quality “nutritional supplements,” will be running on treadmills to keep all the wheels and gears turning. A crew of illegal immigrants, working under the dual threat of deportation and being forced to watch Lou Dobbs broadcasts, is at this very moment learning to mimic my writing style, so fresh content will continue to appear each day. And the major sports leagues have all agreed to hold off on any major uni-related announcements until my return.
The one major change is that Vince will be in charge of things while I’m gone, and will also be assembling Ticker material. So from the 19th through the 26th, if you’ve got a question, an observation, or a contribution, don’t send it to me — send it to Vince at uniwatchintern at gmail dot com. Vince will also be equipped with a Bat Signal-like communication device to get in touch with me, so in the unlikely event of an emergency (Jose Cruz Jr. going on the DL, for example, or Bruce Froemming splitting his pants), I’ll be brought up to speed.
I will engage in one major bit of Uni Watch business while I’m away, however: Next Tuesday, July 24th, I’ll be passing through Toronto and will convene a party upstairs at the Imperial Pub and Library. Festivities will commence at 8 p.m. — hope to see all you Ontarians there.
Membership Update: I want to take a minute to point out some of the really great details that Uni Watch art director Scott M.X. Turner has been working into the membership cards lately. When recently asked to do an old-school Patriots treatment, for example, Scott did some photo research and noticed that the Pats routinely featured wide-spaced lettering on their nameplates back in the day, so he matched that style. And dig this EPL design, complete with the logos on the numerals! It’s little details like these that have made this project so much fun for us — and, we hope, for you.
One thing I’ve noticed is that designs that looked horrible as actual uniforms look really great on the back of a membership card. In addition to the Blues treatment shown above, check out this and this (plus comments section stalwart Teebz wanted us to do the Islanders’ seasick typography for his card, which I’m sure would’ve looked totally boss, but the type was too tricky to render, so Teebz settled for an all-star design [based on this]).
As always, you can see the growing gallery of card designs here. The active roster is here, and details on how you can join are here.
Lone Star Shout-Out: Member Jon Smith is interested in meeting other Uni Watch devotees in the Austin area. Feel free to contact him here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Uni-related quote of the day, from Barry Bonds after yesterday’s Giants loss: “It’s an embarrassment for me to be wearing this [expletive deleted] uniform ’cause of the way I’m playing.” Not sure, but I think the expletive was “polyester.” … Big non-sports uni news out of the UK, where it’s recently been announced that trial judges will no longer wear wigs. Additional info here (with thanks to Bernie Langer). … Big article here about the jeweler who made Barry Bonds’s earring. … Latest minor league theme-night brainstorm: Star Wars Night, courtesy of the West Michigan Whitecaps (further details here). … The new Lightning logos will apparently look like this (a minor improvement, I’d say, but I’d rather have seen an overhaul). And the Sharks’ name/number treatment will now look like this (thanks in both cases to JR Boucicaut). … On Friday I ran a photo of this 1971 serving tray, which Vince was nice enough to pick up for me at a yard sale. That prompted the following note from Richard Stover: “That tray was a Shell gas station promotion. For a fill-up, they gave you a glass [additional examples here and here). I remember getting a Broncos glass from my sister, who had moved to Colorado, so it must have been a nationwide promotion. A few extra bucks and you could buy a tray. I’m 50 years old, and like almost everything else I had as a kid, I replaced my cracked, broken tray with one purchased on eBay. But my New England Patriots glasses somehow survived.” … Garrett Malcolm was attending a Padres/Orioles game in San Diego and happened upon a gent wearing this jersey. “He told me that it was game-worn, and was from the early ’40s, when the Orioles were a minor league team. The number on the back was 7, and I think you’ll agree that it is just a beautiful piece of work.” Indeed. (Quick, someone put a drool cup under Joe Hilseberg!) … Anthony Pellegrino attended a Phillies game on Friday night and snapped a pic of a combo you don’t see very often (thankfully): stirrups and mandals. … Vince notes that someone did a really bad radial arching job on Curtis Thigpen’s jersey (compare to this). … Good catch by Andrew Stebbins, who notes that the MLB.com shop lists this as a Chad Cordero jersey, when it was actually Francisco Cordero who made the All-Star team. … Several sources are reporting that Kansas’s new football jersey will look like this. … The Brewers did their annual Cerveceros promotion yesterday (with thanks to Jared Simon for the screen grab). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Short TV news clip here regarding Wisconsin’s attempts to police its motion-W logo. … Also from yesterday: Jose Reyes has been wearing orange shoelaces. … Still more from yesterday: Adam LaRoche’s pirate sleeve patch was partially torn off on Saturday night.
July 16th, 2007
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