DH Stands for Designated Hitter Design History
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: I love how throwaway-ish Ticker items can sometimes take on lives of their own. Case in point: On Wednesday I linked to the Yankee Stadium vendor’s uniform shown at right (here’s a larger view); on Thursday I followed up with this photo, which shows vendors actually wearing the outfit; and now reader Paul Wiederecht has provided a wealth of interesting background info.
Wiederecht is a graphic designer who’s worked a lot in TV news and televised sports. And what does that background have to do with the vendor’s uniform? I’ll let him explain it himself:
I saw that vendor’s shirt used from 1968-72 at games I attended. Sorry, no pics, but I think I may be able to shed some light on the shirt’s design history.
Much of the Yankees’ look during the team’s CBS ownership era can be attributed to Lou Dorfsman, who was CBS’s creative director for more than 25 years. Except for the eye logo, which was the inspiration of his predecessor, William Golden, Dorfsman was responsible for CBS’s corporate and on-air look. His contribution to graphic/interior and set/broadcast/advertising design is legendary, he set the high standard that artists like me have trying to measure up to our whole careers.
Anyway, back to the shirt: If you look here, you’ll see an example of the three-dimensional wall treatment in the CBS employee cafeteria, which was executed by Herb Lubalin (a typographer of note in his own right). You will see many design similarities [between the wall treatment and the vendor’s uniform], and similar design treatments can been seen in many Yankees publications from that era. I would not be surprised if Dorfsman used Lubalin’s design studio for many Yankees projects, possibly even this shirt.
Dorfsman sas also responsible for the “look” of the stadium — the blue seats, the use of Helvetica for signage around the building, plus he had the walls and facade painted white. My mom, who worked in the club offices from 1953-57, said the previous paint color was “[Dan] Topping money green,” which can be seen in the scenes shot at the stadium in the 1959 film “The FBI Story.”
I know I’ve gone on a bit here, but I don’t think Mr. Dorfsman has gotten his due for his efforts on this subject. If you look at Yankees material since, it dosen’t measure up.
As a big graphic design fan geek myself, I already knew about Dorfsman’s role at CBS. And of course I knew that CBS had owned the Yankees. Until now, however, I’d never connected the dots to see the obvious link between the Dorfsman and team. But now it seems obvious — just look at this again, and then look at this.
Awesome work by Wiederecht to flesh out the details of this story — nicely done.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Did you know Colorado State’s basketball court design featured ram horns? I didn’t, until Jeff Bethune alerted me to the second two photos in this gallery. … Pete Carroll now has his own clothing line. … Josh Miller reports that the Suns will be wearing “Los Suns” jerseys for a Latino Heritage game next month. … David Tyree refuses to take off his helmet. … I think Tom O’Grady mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating: The Blackhawks’ red and black sleeve stripes are supposed to be of equal thickness, but the team’s goalies have thicker black stripes — weird (with thanks to J D Vercett for the latest round of pics). … Yesterday I asked why lacrosse players were wearing green shoelaces. The answer is here (courtesy of Chris Drouin). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Good article here about the UGA football team’s uni number selection process. … Who’s that big guy in the sidecar? It’s Big Papi on his way to the White House the other day, riding with the police escort (with thanks to Matt Englander). … Jimmy Neilly notes that Mike Smith was still wearing his Stars mask when making his Lightning debut on Wednesday. … Dontrelle Willis was wearing the Tigers’ home cap with the road uni the other day (good spot by James Yeh). … “The Arena League commissioner was on the radio today, and he mentioned that their refs would be wearing helmets this year,” reports Chris Flinn. “He also said he thought it might carry over to the NFL.” … In response to the recent City Hall shooting in Kirkwood, Missouri, the Cardinals wore Kirkwood caps the other day. … A reader who prefers to remain anonymous informs me that today is the 48th anniversary of the opening of the first Playboy Club, featuring what Wikipedia describes as “the first service uniform registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” … Several readers are reporting that the Bruins have come up with four competing designs for next season’s alternate jersey, and that one of the designs was briefly shown during the broadcast of last night’s game (big thanks to Jeffrey Israel for the video clip). … Great article here about Butch Goring’s old helmet (with thanks to Craig MacHenry).
151 comments February 29th, 2008
