Saturday Open Thread

It’s funny how ridiculous uniform elements like color gradations and wraparound butt stripes can look OK — or least interesting — when applied to a sport you don’t care about, as seen here with the Pakistan cricket team, celebrating during their match against New Zealand earlier today. — Paul

72 comments September 22nd, 2007

Field of Dreams

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: Last week, in the middle of our server changeover, I got an e-mail from Chris Hill, with a subject line that read, “Homemade uniform traditions from Rochester.” For some reason it came through in teeny-tiny type that was nearly illegible, and there were 20 attached photos, all of which was more than I wanted to deal with in the midst of the site’s technical woes. I nearly deleted the e-mail altogether.

I’m glad I didn’t. What Chris had sent me was a document of a pretty amusing little project. I’ll let him describe it:

In 2006 a group of my friends and myself started playing baseball in a kid’s back yard. Within a week or so we decided to mow the grass to create an infield, and used his fence as a home run marker.

We played pickup games throughout the summer, but for the 4th of July we decided to have an All-Star Game. In order to make it official and over the top, we made up two teams: the Maplewood Steamboats and the Jambo City Harbors of Wellington. We also built a scoreboard and brought out a P.A. system and announcers for the game. We had yet to discover how to fully use the screen-printing uniform shop in town, so most of our uniforms were homemade. The Harbors even had separate batting practice uniforms, but no picture exists of us in those.

Winter came along and we decided to do the same thing with a football game. It was slightly less intense, but we once again had the same teams wearing homemade uniforms.

This past summer we all had some money and ideas, so baseball was much more enjoyable. We started off the year making spring training jerseys to wear randomly throughout the season. At some point we realized we were doing the All-Star Game wrong — it should be a game between two leagues, not two teams. So the Steamboats and harbors turned into the League of Steamboats and the Harbor Leagues. From there we created about 16 different teams, all based on inside jokes and cities someone had been to: the Douglas Gorns [that's Chris wearing No. 44; note the all-star game sleeve patch! -- PL], Joe Montana 3-D Graphichs Manipulators, Toronto Tippy Ducks, Gnomes, Tuscon Tra La Las, Mt. Rushmore Compatriots, Boise Canistorshots, Brockport USB-ports and the Ocean City Monsoons. The guy in that last photo got so into it that he had home and away jerseys made, but the shop mistakenly put the team name on the road jersey, instead of the city name, so he bought the botched jerseys at a discount and went back to have it done right, giving him a total of FOUR jerseys, when he just needed one — dedication.

Indeed. And that dedication is what I love about this project. Okay, so the uniforms kinda suck, and many of you probably think the whole thing has “Get a life” written all over it, but so what? The day you’re too cool to embrace your own little field of dreams fantasy is the day you may as well pack it in. Instead of sitting on their sofas watching the ballgame or playing with the latest EA video game, these guys built something real. I say good for them.

Raffle Results: The three winners of last night’s raffle are, in order, J. Yung (who gets his choice of an L.A. Kings jersey, a Washington Capitals T-shirt or an assortment of MLB sleeve patches), Mike Carpenter (who gets to choose from the remaining two items), and Rick White (who’ll get whatever item is left). The three winners should get in touch with me asap.

Thanks to all who entered — more raffles coming soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s comments included excerpts from this article, which suggests that the new NHL jerseys are (a) possibly causing injuries during fights and (b) tearing at the seams. I don’t have much sympathy for fight-related concerns (simple solution: ban fighting), but there’s a lot of very interesting info here — start with the sixth paragraph. … Also from yesterday: The UK has produced a really nice series of stamps documenting the history of British military uniforms. You can click through the gallery here. … We’ve all seen photos of Rich Karlis kicking barefoot. But Brendon Yarian found a photo of him doing, well, a little more than kicking. … Dynamite Hanshin Tigers uniform history site here. Even if you don’t care about Japanese baseball, this is worth checking out, because the site is nicely interactive (start clicking and you’ll see what I mean) and many of the designs are wicked cool (nice find by Scott Curl). … Yet another case of a 2 rendered in two different ways on the same jersey: the Rangers. … Still more typography news: Kansas’s university-wide move to the Trajan typeface has resulted in a backlash movement (with thanks to longtime Uni Watch pal Rob Walker, who first brought the anti-Trajan site to my attention on his own excellent blog, Murketing). … Best argument yet for a barter economy: Purple is being added to the $5 bill. Alarming details here. … The Washington Huskies will wear 1960 throwbacks on Sept. 29th. According to this page, the team wore navy back then, but it was called “Northwestern Purple.” Odd (with thanks to Rob Weber). … Who needs a game-worn jersey when you can have Sandy Koufax’s synagogue-worn yarmulke? … Good info here about the Redskins’ throwbacks, which they’ll be wearing this weekend while pounding the living shit out of playing the Giants. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Texas A&M tight end Martellus Bennett changed his uni number from 13 to 85 to honor injured Bills player Kevin Everett, but his helmet still has his old uni number. … Arguably the weirdest reason ever for choosing a particular uni number: According to this article (forwarded by Jeff Barak), Wild rookie James Sheppard likes No. 15 because he “began wearing it as a 15-year-old midget player because he already had size 15 feet.” … If your coach can grab you like this, then your jersey’s definitely a few sizes too big. … My friend Liz Danzico, who’s more or less a genius, recently started a really good site called A Brief Message, which features a series of 200-word essays about design. I wrote a little something about uniforms for today’s installment, which longtime readers will recognize as a re-hash of the very first post that ran on this here blog. My own redundant content notwithstanding, A Brief Message is well worth checking out for anyone who cares even a little bit about design, sports-related or otherwise.

189 comments September 21st, 2007

See Spot Run

Something weird is going on with the Tigers (besides the fact that they’re flushing their postseason hopes down the crapper). It involves that little orange dot on the crown of their road batting helmets. Or at least it’s supposed to be there — but lately it’s been a little more complicated than that.

The most obvious problem child is Gary Sheffield, whose dot has been way off-center in recent days. Then there’s Curtis Granderson, whose dot is several inches too far forward. But at least Sheffield and Granderson have their dots — Placido Polanco’s orange dot is missing altogether.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the helmet dots, so here’s a quick recap: Most MLB teams use them, and they’re actually included in MLB helmet decal kits. They sort of mimic the button on the top of a cap, but that doesn’t explain why the dots are sometimes used by teams that don’t have contrast-colored cap buttons. A spokesman from Rawlings, which makes all the MLB helmets, once told me that the little dots were a visual trademark of ABC Helmet (the company that originally made the helmets) and were continued by Rawlings in the interest of continuity, even though they don’t always match the caps. To my way of thinking, the dots are a silly anachronism at best, and they make no sense at all on a CoolFlo helmet, since the newfangled lids don’t are only loosely based on caps anyway.

None of which explains the situation with the Tigers. Is it some sort of superstitious good luck charm? Is it a way of sending signals that even Bill Belichick can’t steal? Is it a way to get people to stop talking about those other helmet dots? (I still get two or three questions a day about that — incredible.) If anyone knows the deal, please fill us in.

(Special thanks to Benjamin Bonnett and intern Vince Grzegorek, who brought the Tigers situation to my attention.)

MLB 2008 Update: I have a feeling this link isn’t gonna stay up for long, but for now you can see most of the 2008 MLB uni revisions — including, yes, the new Tampa design — here. Discuss.

Typography Update: Yesterday brought still more chest/sleeve typographic inconsistencies (the first two of which were contributed by Brendon Yarian):

• Check out the lower serif on the 2 worn by the mid-’80s Browns (home, road).

• Ohio State’s 4 in the mid-1970s had a lower serif on the chest but not on the sleeve (home, road).

• Dennis Jones noted in yesterday’s comments that the Cowboys have had chest/shoulder inconsistencies with a variety of numerals, including 2, 2 again, 3, 7, and 7 again.

• Yesterday I mentioned that the Jets had inconsistent 2s in the late ’60s, but the pseudonymous Graf Zeppelin pointed out in yesterday’s comments that they apparently had a similar problem 20 years later, as seen on the cover of their 1989 yearbook. That prompted a spectacularly informative follow-up comment from sj32:

The reason there are two different typefaces is because the jerseys were made by two different manufacturers. The jersey Shuler is wearing was made by Sand Knit while the “22″ jersey was made by Champion. In the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the number font on the jerseys was often determined by which company manufactured it. In that era, Sand Knit, Russell Athletic, and Champion were the primary suppliers (with King O’Shea, Southland Athletic, and Wilson supplying a couple of teams). A Champion jersey was usually identifiable by the slanted middle of the 2s and the curved 7s. Sand Knit and Russell used standard block fonts, but there were slight differences. Sand Knit produced the jerseys with the notched 5s used by Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, etc. The Russell jerseys were somewhat narrower than the Sand numbers, particularly on the sleeves.

Meanwhile, design director Scott M.X. Turner checked in with a few thoughts on the matter:

2s are the only digit where a bar — not a serif, but a bar — can shift dramatically, 45 and 90 degree angles. (7s can a bit — sometimes they’re rendered with a curve even when the number set is all straight lines.) I think that a 2’s middle bar is altered from jersey front/back to sleeve because a diagonal bar looks skinnier than a horizontal bar. Also, compressed number sets support a diagonal 2 better than a horizontal-bar 2, which tends to look squeezed when compressed. Me, I like compressed sets, but for the smaller TV numbers — either shoulder yoke or sleeve placement — it’s not as readable.

Why a team would have one variety on the home jersey and the other on its road jersey, that’s anybody’s guess. The easy default answer — that back in the day (meaning 1980 and prior, generally), the manufacturer just used whatever was lying around — works some of the time. But there have to be instances when a decision was made that one 2 looked better than another.

By the way, the very best example, of different number sets front and back is the late ’60s UCLA basketball jersey — the Lew Alcindor era. Front was a squat, boxy style, and the back was an elegant, narrow vertical style. Maybe they adopted this to make Alcindor look taller — I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Pretty sure that before Alcindor, the front style was also the back style.

Speaking of typography, a new documentary film about the typeface Helvetica (called, of course, Helvetica) is currently screening here in New York. I saw it two nights ago and loved it. No team I can think of has ever used Helvetica on its uniforms, which helps explain why the movie has no sports-related content, but there are several good interludes with graphic designer Michael Beirut, who I know has done some work for the Jets, plus plenty of detail-driven bits that should appeal to anyone who Gets It™. Recommended viewing.

Unusual Research Request: I’m looking for someone in the New York area who can read lips. Sports fan preferred; availability for watching lots of mid-October sports in the company of an ESPN reporter of my approximate height and build essential. If you know of anyone who fits the bill, please get in touch. Thanks.

Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the raffle for the L.A. Kings jersey, the Washington Capitals T-shirt, and the bunch of MLB sleeve patches. To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by this 10 p.m. eastern tonight. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow. One e-mail per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program by the time of the drawing will automatically get three bonus entries.

Oh, and by the way: Last month I was saying that there’d be a real doozy of a raffle in September. This isn’t it — the doozy is yet to come. Just waiting for one last piece to fall into place.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Forgot to mention that my Financial Times article about the Lelands sports memorabilia auction house (research for which was documented here) was published on Saturday. The article is here, and there’s a sidebar here. … Several unusual wristbands in this shot (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Pat Ratliff notes that Devin Hester is up to his old double sock tricks. I forgot to mention that Giants equipment director Joe Skiba showed me something last Friday that may explain this phenomenon: Several of the Giants’ players have socks sewn into the bottom of their pants and then wear an additional pair of socks over that. That’s probably what Hester is doing. … As a big fan of green and gold, I have a soft spot for Norfolk State’s design. Go Spartans! (With thanks to Bruce Soltys.) … We’ve previously mentioned how MTSU uses huge nameplate lettering for short surnames, but you can’t fully appreciate the absurdity of it until you see this (with thanks to Chad Cate). … Brad Bierman just alerted me to a uni-related attraction I hadn’t previously been aware of: the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society Museum, which looks pretty cool. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Phillies used to have a raised helmet appliqué, just as the Cubs still do. … We’ve all seen baseball players who wear state or national flags on their gloves. But here’s something I haven’t seen before: Clay Buchholz wears the Texas state flag inside his glove (genius catch by Randy Williams). … Here’s a rare sight: a pitcher who wears No. 0. He’s even got it on his undershirt collar (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm).

344 comments September 20th, 2007

Deuces Wild

Yesterday’s entry about inconsistent number typography prompted good assortment of follow-up contributions, most of them involving the numeral 2. Check it out:

• The Florida Gators’ 2 has a bottom serif when appearing on the shoulder (home, road), but the serif vanishes when the numeral is used on the chest (home, road). They used to have a similar problem with their 5s — compare the top of the numerals here to the one here — but that’s now been remedied.

• The Florida situation was reversed on the Rams’ pre-2000 jerseys: The 2 had a lower serif when used on the chest (home, road) but not when used on the sleeve (home, road).

• Same thing for the Bradshaw-era Steelers: Compare the assorted 2s visible in this photo, and in this one.

• The Griese-era Dolphins used a 2 with a lower serif on the front of their jerseys, but the 2 was often serif-free on the back (often — but not always).

• The 1982-83 Sixers were notoriously inconsistent with their 2. Compare Moses Malone and Bobby Jones in this shot, and compare Earl Cureton (front row, third from left) to all the other 2-inclusive uni numbers in this team portrait.

• There’s also some indication that the Namath-era Jets used different 2s on their home and road jerseys, although I’m not yet convinced that this ever happened in the same season. But there definitely appears to have been some 2-related confusion on the white jersey in 1968, as seen in this team photo — check out 42 and 23 in the front row, for example.

Interesting to see that all of yesterday’s and today’s examples have involved 2 and/or 5. Those numbers are obviously typographically related, but why the inconsistencies? Why use one 2 on the chest and a different one on the sleeve? All you type-inclined folks out there (Todd, Scott, Eriq, Original Jim, Steve, Steve’s nephew, etc.), please fill us in.

(Thanks to all contributors, especially Todd Krevanchi, Michael Lewis, Jeff Sandman, and Mike Engle.)

NHL Update: As promised, I called the NHL yesterday to inquire about whether the refs’ armbands would be changing to silver, as the league had announced back in January, or if they’d be staying orange, as suggested by first few preseason games. Here’s the response I got from Dave Baker, the league’s Officiating Manager: “It is my understanding that [Officiating Director] Stephen Walkom is working with CCM/Reebok to re-design the officials’ uniform for the 2008-2009 season. What that will look like, I cannot say, as Stephen is involved in this and not me.” Okay, but what about this season? “Well, all the jerseys were distributed at camp for this season,” wrote Baker, “so I believe any changes were put off for this season until the 2008-2009 season to allow CCM/Reebok to design something that is acceptable by Stephen and the League.” In other words, he had no idea what the hell I was talking about (neither did the publicist who forwarded my query to him), which shows once again how the NHL is really on top of things.

I also posted a query to the message board at nhlofficials.com, where linesman Jean Morin posted a reply late last night: “The referees will wear the orange armbands for the regular season. There were a lot of rumors about this change last year, but that’s all they were, rumors.” That’s untrue — the league office specifically told me back in January that they’d be making the switch to silver this season. Looks like we’ve got serious case of confusion with a side order of revisionist history.

Meanwhile, Dave Delisle has provided the closest thing to a rational explanation for the new rounded hemlines:

I work at EA Canada, where NHL 08 is produced. After implementing the new jerseys into the game, I noticed the hemline’s intended effect: They raised the sides to accommodate the skating stride. The old jerseys would ride upwards when the stride was extended. Some players tucked their jerseys in to accommodate a better stride. Remember, the new jerseys were originally intended to be entirely tucked in, until the players cried foul.

Incidentally, when I saw all the jerseys, I cringed at two-thirds of them. Everyone here groaned at the Canucks jerseys — the fallout was what we predicted.

Uni Watch Bonus Material: As most of you know, I occasionally contribute non-uni material to ESPN.com. Every now and then, however, they somehow fail to recognize the genius in the nuggets I send their way. One such item was a little missive about Barry Bonds, which I rather liked but they chose not to publish. Rather than let it die a quiet death, I’m gonna publish it here:

Call it the Prodigal Slugger Syndrome: If you’re a serious home run hitter, you end up back where you started. Take Babe Ruth — he began his career with the Boston Red Sox and ended it with the Boston Braves. Jimmy Foxx was a two-time MVP with the Philadelphia A’s but didn’t call it quits until he’d played one last season with the Phillies. Willie Mays first patrolled center field for the New York Giants, and then limped into retirement after a year and a half with the Mets. And Hank Aaron broke in with the Milwaukee Braves, so where did he play his final two seasons? With the Brewers, of course.

So it seems inevitable that Barry Bonds will be heading back to Pittsburgh, where his tumultuous career began. Only problem is, the Prodigal Slugger Syndrome dictates that you must return to your original city but to not to your original team. Since there’s only one baseball team in Pittsburgh, here are some other Steel City teams Bonds could play for:

Pittsburgh Steelers
Pros: Everyone’s head looks big in a football helmet. … Compared to most NFL players, Bonds is a model citizen. … A 16-game season is about all he’s capable of handling these days anyway. … New sensation at halftime: home run derby!

Cons: New teammates might not be too understanding about some of Barry’s, um, proclivities. … “So what are these ‘two-a-days’ I keep hearing about?”

Pittsburgh Penguins
Pros: Pens desperately in need of good attendance draw. … Hot new broadcast slogan: “He shoots up, he scores!” … Admit it, you’ve always wanted to see Bonds get punched in the face.

Cons: Major potential for controversy if Bonds tries to drink steroids straight from the Stanley Cup. … “Wait a minute, you mean this game is actually played on ice?”

Pitt Panthers Basketball Team
Pros: All the coeds, keggers, and “Girls Gone Wild” DVDs one aging athlete can handle.

Cons: All the coeds, keggers, and “Girls Gone Wild” DVDs one aging athlete can handle. … Frat-house hazing could take further toll on already declining skills. … Slight NCAA eligibility problem.

Uni Watch News Ticker: On-site report from Bob Weston, who sent me the following text message from Monday night’s Reds/Cubs game: “I swear it looks like there’s’ a space between the E and the R on Ryan Theriot’s jersey. No camera.” … Rumor-mongering note from a reader who didn’t give his full name, as follows: “I’ve heard from a few friends that, at one point, the Bengals were thinking of switching from the striped helmets to ones with two airbrushed tiger eyes (one on each side).” I’ve never heard about this. Anyone else? … This is just too funny. … Those new NHL practice socks are, um, not a good idea (as spotted by Chris O’Connor). … Our recent mentions of college/pro all-star games led to this note from Jay Danbom: “My grandfather played in the 1937 game against the Green Bay Packers. I have his all-star game uni. I’m on the road right now for my job, but I did happen to scan pictures from the program about a year ago and meant to email them to you, so here they are.” … A reader who prefers to remain anonymous recently visited the Hockey Hall of Fame and forwarded two photos of interest: this gorgeous 1923-24 Ottawa Senators jersey, and Wayne Gretzky’s Team Canada jersey, adornd with a little Canadian flag pin. … Shane Pappas notes that Arizona State’s Troy Nolan has been doing the striped belt routine. … Can’t keep the old-school facemask brigade down. Yesterday it was Morten Andersen; today it’s Scott Player, the man whose facemask can double as a chinstrap. … Good catch by Bryan Redemske, who notes that Carlos Silva has been wearing vertically ribbed socks. … Nice rundown of World Series rings here. … Derek Hinson notes that the Crimson Tide, who wore white shoelaces last year, have switched to black this season. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Here’s the red “no contact” jersey that Derek Lowe recently wore in pregame warmups. … Richard Craig has found the perfect Uni Watch stocking stuffer: uniform history fridge magnets (additional examples here and here).

211 comments September 19th, 2007

Consistently Inconsistent

A small trend has been brewing on the typography front. It began a few weeks ago, when I ran a Ticker item (contributed by William Yurasko) about Florida International’s use of the numeral 2 — it looks like this when appearing on the front or back of their jerseys, but like this when appearing on the sleeves.

I figured that was pretty much an isolated thing. But the comments that day included a post from Eriq Jaffe, who pointed out that the Packers have had differing chest and sleeve treatments for the numeral 5 (additional views here, here, here, and here) — a distinction that apparently dates back several decades.

Now Drew VanNess has pointed out another numerological anomaly. The team this time is Georgia Tech, and the numeral is 2. But instead of a chest/sleeve distinction, this time it’s home vs. road. Check it out: On the Yellow Jackets’ gold jerseys, the 2 looks like this and this; but on their white jerseys, it looks like this and this. This wasn’t the case last year, when the 2 was the same on the home and road jerseys (on the sleeves, too), and the school hasn’t changed uniform outfitters (it’s still Russell), so why the new 2? Odd.

I’m interested in compiling more of these typographic inconsistencies. So if you know of any additional cases, let’s have ’em.

And as long as we’re talking type, Chris Marcinko has noticed that the lettering used for Ben Roethlisberger’s nameplate is more compressed than the font worn by his teammates. Compare the letter R here to the one here and the difference becomes pretty apparent. There have been plenty of other examples over the years of compressed typography being used to accommodate longer surnames, but I hadn’t noticed this one before.

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off an L.A. Kings jersey, a Washington Capitals T-shirt, and a bunch of MLB sleeve patches (for further details, scroll down to yesterday’s post). To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the regular Uni Watch address) by this Thursday, September 20th, 10 p.m. eastern. I’ll announce the winners on Friday. One e-mail per person, but all enrollees in the Uni Watch membership program will automatically get three bonus entries.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Caught a web-video feed of last night’s Islanders/Thrashers game and was surprised to see the refs wearing orange armbands. Weren’t they supposed to switch to silver this year, as they did in the last All-Star Game? I reported on this myself back in January. Not sure if the orange is just a preseason thing of if the league has changed its mind about this, but I’ll make some calls today. … Check out these two Florida high school teams — one with FSU’s helmet logo and one with Miami’s old hurricane flag logo. “Several players from the Southeast Seminoles have gone on to play for Florida State, so obviously FSU doesn’t mind them ripping off the logo,” writes Aaron Bassett. … Quit the mishmash of colors going on in this photo gallery (with thanks to Joe DeLong). … I have seen the new Devil Rays uniforms. Can’t show them to you, but I can confirm what’s been reported (the team is now just the Rays) and what’s been rumored (the new colors are navy, yellow, and light blue). As for the design, it’s a total snooze — not wonderful, not awful, just booooooring. I already miss the current design, which I think has been badly underrated (esp. the home set). … Yesterday’s college all-star shot of Paul Hornung prompted Jared Wheeler to scan and send an article about the College-Pro Gridiron Classic, the game in which that uniform was worn. You can access the pages from the article here (click on the thumbnails to access each two-page spread, and then click on “All Sizes” to get a larger, more legible version of each page). … Nice element-by-element comparison here between Colorado State’s recent throwbacks and the originals on which they were based (with thanks to Rob Montoya, who also notes that LSU wideout Brandon LaFell is wearing Nike Total 90 Laser soccer cleats). … I have two video links to share with you. Neither one is truly uni-related, but both are at least somewhat equipment-oriented, and both are completely amazing. Plus they’re only 29 and 49 seconds long, respectively. Click here and here — you’ll thank me later, I promise (with thanks to David Brown and Jeremy Brahm). … Middle Tennessee State QB Joe Craddock had a bit of a nameplate malfunction on Saturday (with thanks to Andrew Jones). … The Sharks’ new jerseys, officially revealed yesterday, look really, really good. But they’ve done that thing again where the jersey has been posed and photographed in a way that hides the rounded shirttail hem. When worn, I think the straight striping and non-straight hemline will be a bad match, as they’ve been for other teams. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Riddell has a $1000 football helmet in the works. … Mexico’s national soccer team is changing its colors, because players have been having a hard time picking out the green jerseys on the green field. Details here (with thanks to Robin Fishbein). … The All Blacks always wear black, right? Wrong (as forwarded by Chris Flinn). … When the Red Wings unveiled their new jerseys, they said they were moving their “C” and “A” designations to the other side of the jersey because they couldn’t place it across a seam on the usual side. But if that’s the case, how come the Flyers can do this? … “I was at the Seahawks/Bucs game two weeks ago and I noticed that Shaun Alexander came out during pregame warmups in bright green elbow pads,” writes Dave Sizer. “The color was pretty bad, but they even had the NFL logo on them. Thankfully, when he came out for the game, he was back to the regular blue ones.” … Morten Anderson is back with the Falcons — and he’ll presumably bring his old Dungard facemask with him.

217 comments September 18th, 2007

Monday Morning Uni Watch

Lots of ground to cover today, beginning with the excellent time I had last Friday at Giants Stadium, where I spent the afternoon interviewing equipment director Joe Skiba. This will end up as a video column on ESPN.com later this week, but here are some notable factoids:

• As you can see above, your typical NFL team has a lot — like, a lot — of facemasks on hand. (Here’s a larger view.)

• How tight are NFL jerseys these days? So tight that Osi Umenyiora’s jersey and pads fit fairly comfortably on me. Keep in mind that Osi outweighs me by over 100 pounds. For the record, Jared Lorenzen’s jersey was a big roomier.

• Speaking of Umenyiora, it turns out he likes to have his jersey partially untucked in the back (sort of like Wayne Gretzky), so Skiba has the back of his jersey tailored with a diagonal hem.

• Think the Giants’ blue helmet looks stupid with their red alternate jersey? Skiba has something in mind for you. I’m not allowed to talk about it, because team management hasn’t yet green-lighted Skiba’s idea, but let’s just say it would be a pretty revolutionary move if it came to pass. (And no, it’s not a solid-red helmet.)

• Skiba clued me in to a new footwear regulation I hadn’t been aware of: Prior to this season, a player’s shoes had to be predominantly black or white (depending on the team’s official shoe color) but could be accented with team colors. Since the Giants’ official colors are blue and red, this meant that some players’ shoes were black with red accents and others were black with blue. This year, however, the NFL has required each team to settle on one accent color. The Giants chose red (a mistake, in my opinion), so no more blue-accented cleats for Big Blue.

Big thanks to Joe for taking time out of his busy schedule to make himself available. On top of that, he turned out to be a real character in front of the camera, which should result in a very entertaining video. Joe, if you’re reading this, you da man and all that.

NHL Roundup: Meanwhile, a slew of additional NHL unveilings took place over the weekend. I’m just about NHL’d out (it’s only a 30-team league, but it seems like they’ve trotted out about 387 uniforms over the past two months), but protocol demands a full accounting, so here’s a quick rundown, in roughly descending order of quality:

• Coyotes: Plenty to like here — simple, basic, a classic in the making (lots of photos here). The only fly in the ointment: the way the panels and seams have forced the “C” and “A” designations to move too close to the crest.

• Blackhawks: Pretty true to the classic version. But this is probably the best example yet of how old-school waistline striping just doesn’t work with Reebok’s new rounded shirttail hem (additional photos here). Which brings up a question: What exactly is the rationale for the rounded hem? For all the chatter about the new uniform system’s innovative fabrics and streamlined tailoring, I’ve yet to hear an explanation for this particular (and particularly annoying) element.

• Ducks: As of my last writing, we had only seen this, but now a bunch of practice session photos have surfaced (additional views here). Yeah, the wordmark is weak and the stripes are a joke, but I still like the color scheme and the lack of extraneous bells and whistles. Whatever you thought of last year’s version, this update is certainly no worse.

• Stars: I actually love the road uni. And I don’t mind the simplicity of the home design (additional pics here). But like many other observers, I don’t understand why they’re highlighting the city name at home and the team name on the road. Feels like some promising ideas that weren’t taken to full fruition.

• Flyers: Road whites are silly but harmless; home design looks like a black tunic (additional pics here). Oh, and according to an item buried on this page, “Privately, some of the players said the new jerseys were too snug. So the Flyers are ordering them two sizes larger than usual for most players.” Nice to know the Edge system is being subverted before the season even starts.

• Thrashers: Pointless apron-striping (which has ruined what I once considered the league’s most underrated road jersey) plus the worst left sleeve in sports equals a mess. Additional evidence here.

• Oilers: Which one looks more like a practice jersey — home or road? Answer: both.

• Sabres: Looked like crap last year; looks like crap this year (further damning evidence here).

• Blues: For those who’ve been wondering, this is the design I knew about a few months ago (I got to see one of the jerseys when I was visiting the Liebe factory back in July) but wasn’t at liberty to discuss. Some people in the comments section have said they’re okay with it, which surprises me, because I think it’s a total train wreck. From the idiotic apron strings to the super-annoying Ree-box, it reeks of overdesign — especially when you factor in the way the apron strings are extended on the pants (additional pics here). Embarrassing.

In addition, we now have our first view of the Rangers’ new design on an actual human being. Compare that to this and the new wordmark looks awfully compressed, no? And again, the rounded hemline ruins the non-rounded stripes. I’m starting to think they would’ve been better off going back to the drawing board.

Fuck it, they should all just do this and get it over with.

Raffle-O-Rama: Speaking of the NHL, here’s a little tale that speaks volumes: About 10 days ago I got a note from a PR guy working for the NHL. This wasn’t one the league’s staff publicists — it was a guy from a PR agency that had apparently been retained by the league. He wanted to make sure I knew all about the league’s exciting new uniform system, with its high-tech fabrics and innovative tailoring. Then he asked if I’d like to have one of the jerseys so I could see for myself, and of course I said yes. He didn’t ask which team I preferred, and I didn’t make any special request, but I figured it’d probably be either a Rangers or Islanders jersey — y’know, since I live in New York and all.

A few days later, a package arrived. Can you guess what was inside? Take a look.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful — it was nice gift, after all. But you’ve gotta admit, it takes a special kind of cluelessness to send me a jersey from the one team that features the one color I can’t stand. This kinda sums up everything wrong with the NHL these days, no? (So does this: You’d think a video game would gain its legitimacy from the sport, not the other way around.)

Anyway, I’m gonna raffle off the jersey, and I won’t even make fun of whoever wins it. Specs: Size 52; includes all tagging; blank on the back. And since winning a Kings jersey brings to mind a bunch of old vaudeville jokes (”First prize is a week in Philadelphia; second prize is two weeks in Philadelphia”), I’ll make it more interesting by tossing in some extra goodies: The first prize winner will have a choice of the Kings jersey, a Capitals T-shirt (size L, blank on the back), or a bunch of MLB sleeve patches. A second-place winner will have a choice or the remaining two prizes, and a third-place winner will get the remaining prize.

To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the regular Uni Watch address) by this Thursday, September 20th, 10 p.m. eastern. I’ll announce the winners on Friday. I won’t be reading the e-mail entries, so please don’t include messages or attachments. One e-mail per person, but all enrollees in the Uni Watch membership program will automatically get three bonus entries.

Speaking of membership, the recent server snafu put a damper on news from that front, but Scott and I have kept working on applications. With two exceptions (hang in there, Joseph Mays and Charlie Hildbold — we’ll get to you soon), every enrollee should now have his or her membership kit. If you haven’t received yours, let me know. And for all you folks who recently told me you were planning to sign up once the server issues were settled, I look forward to receiving your orders.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Nike and Ohio State have struck a huge deal. And it includes some penalties for swoosh obstruction. … Reprinted from Thursday’s comments: Awesome Yellowknife jersey at the beginning of this photo gallery. … Good article here about the Astros’ visiting clubhouse manager, who has a huge bobblehead collection (with thanks to James Poisso and Kevin Gee). … While researching something else, I came across this photo of Paul Hornung wearing a college all-star jersey — apparently the same design shown in that Mitchell and Ness video that Vince linked to last Friday. … From 1921 through 1951, the Cubs held spring training on Catalina Island, a small island off the California coast that was owned by William Wrigley. Joaquin Jang has provided me with a link to an excellent half-hour video about the Cubbies’ history on the island, and it’s filled with tons of great visuals plus some nice little uni-related factoids (the Cubs used to leave behind their spring training uniforms each year for the island’s high school team to use, e.g.). The only catch is the size of the video file — my computer took over two hours to download it. But it’s worth it, so just start the download before you go to bed or something like that. The link is here. … AJ Brandt reports that U.S. Airways has been creating a fleet of NFL-themed jets, with liveries honoring the Eagles, Cardinals, Steelers, and Panthers. Not sure if the flight attendants have to dress the part, but I wanna make it clear right now that I’ll travel on a leaky raft before I fly on a Bengals plane. … Tyler Kepner wrote a nice little item at the bottom of this page about Ian Kennedy’s stirrups. … The Padres wore 1990s throwbacks on Saturday — the last installment of their season-long throwback program. … Small uni number switcheroo for the Mets. … Things have been suspiciously quiet over at Oregon, but Clark Farrand says that may be changing soon: “On the radio pregame show for the Oregon/Fresno State game, they had a guest ‘insider’ (whose name/title I didn’t catch) who said that the white helmets announced last year were ready and that they should be broken out in the next few weeks. Interestingly enough, they were considered for the Michigan game last week, but the team wanted the focus to remain on the game and not have helmet hype overshadow anything.” … Todd Davis notes that Pitt is now in the unusual position of having the exact same wordmark on its jersey and helmet. … Interesting note from Alejandro Macri (writing all the way from Buenos Aires), who notes: “The South African rugby national team is using green and yellow mouth protections as part of their uni design. It’s very disturbing to see green and yellow in these men’s teeth, but it may be the beginning of a new trend.” … Everyone got a kick out of this over the weekend. … You probably know Jason Varitek has “TEK” printed on his chest protector collar. But did you know he also has it inscribed on his mask? (With thanks to Corey Paske.) … Also from Corey: This is a shot of Wisconsin hockey coach Mike Eaves. Anyone know what the “SP” tag logo on the jersey is for? … Garrett Malcolm reports that last week’s Derek Lee bobblehead giveaway at Wrigley Field depicted Lee with a gray underbrim. … Dave Lewellen notes that Trent Green’s sleeves had stripes for Miami’s Week 1 game against the Redskins, but the rest of the Dolphins were stripe-free. … Wish I’d been near a TV for Saturday’s Iowa/Iowa State Game. The Cyclones wore gorgeous throwbacks (lots of additional pics here and here), and the Hawkeyes added an “ANF” decal (that’s for “America Needs Farmers,” don’tcha know), much nicer than the one originally worn during the Hayden Frye era (with thanks to Matthew Lepke for the decal screen grab). … Awesome collection of game-worn hockey jerseys here (with thanks to Joe Hilseberg). … Advertising on NFL uniforms? It’s already happening, if you count the Vikings’ cheerleaders. … The Nationals wore a sleeve patch over the weekend to mark their final homestand at RFK Stadium. … Speaking of the Nats, great article here about how the team’s script “W” logo is imprinted onto the outfield grass. … Attention A.J. Connelly (and anyone else interested in chinstraps): At the 49-second mark of this video there’s a shot of 1942 Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich wearing a really weird chinstrap. Jeff Lindquist, who brought this to my attention, also found another view, though not as good, here. Anyone know more about this? … Steven Wyder notes that Julio Lugo usually has a light brown smudge on his left sleeve/shoulder area, a phenomenon that dates back to his days with the Dodgers and Devil Rays (tough to see, but it’s there). “I think it’s pine tar — he must rest the bat there in the on-deck circle or something,” says Steven. … True, I loved striped socks — but I might make an exception for Billy Corgan (disgusting find by Nate Gruz). … Speaking of non-sports socks: “I live in Calgary,” writes Steve Francis, “and one of the attractions here is the Family of Man statue downtown. As a part of an arts festival currently underway, one of the artists has knit socks around the legs of most of the statues.” Seems more like leg-warmers, actually, but still pretty cool. … Derek Lowe risked a fine the other day by wearing a red jersey during warm-ups the other day, to signify “no contact.” Details (plus a revelation about Grady Little being cited by MLB’s uni police) toward the end of this page (with thanks to Eric Borer). … The Bills wore Kevin Everett T-shirts under their jerseys yesterday. The tees will be auctioned off for charity. … The Steelers wore their throwbacks yesterday — and sure enough, for the first time since Super Bowl XL, Willie Parker was wearing an American flag decal, although it remains to be seen whether it’ll be there on his regular helmet next week. … LaDainian Tomlinson’s helmet flag, however, was still AWOL. … Another black chinstrap for Chad Johnson yesterday. … Several readers have noted that the Longhorns have switched their uni numbers screen-printed to tackle twill this season. … Good catch by Jesse Gavin, who spotted Jon Kitna wearing a crucifix necklace yesterday.

263 comments September 17th, 2007

Sunday Open Thread

Stanford and San Jose State are both wearing “BW” memorial decals in honor of Bill Walsh this year. Coincidentally, they played each other yesterday, marking perhaps the first time that two teams played each other wearing the same memorial decal in a non-league-wide memorial situation.

(The San Jose State “BW” decal is kind of hard to see in this pic, so I circled it in yellow. It’s right to the left of the number on the back of the helmet. If you find a better view, you know what to do.) –Vince

142 comments September 16th, 2007

Saturday Open Thread

Happy Half-Way to St. Patrick’s Day, brought to you by the team looking most forward to that day, or just about anything else that means this season is over. In fact, I think these guys have driven Ozzie to get a head start in the dugout.

More views here, here, and here. –Vince

138 comments September 15th, 2007