For most of the baseball world, Dock Ellis is “that guy who threw a no-hitter on acid.” Here at Uni Watch, he’s “that guy who wore curlers” (more on that here). But to Jay Kaplan, Ellis is a lot more.
Kaplan (who I learned about from reader Matthew Ronay) is the man behind “Ellis, D.: The Dock Ellis Experience,” a group of 15 amazing poured resin paintings based on Ellis’s life, many of them featuring some awesome uni-related content. It’s a really interesting project for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is this: If you start with one of the paintings and then click on it, you get a bunch of thumbnails showing Kaplan’s source material and visual references. It’s like getting a peek inside his creative process.
Kaplan was already planning a trip to NYC when I contacted him last month, so I got to interview him in person instead of over the phone. Even better, he brought several of the paintings with him, and they’re even more impressive in person than they are on the web, full of depth and saturation and texture. It also becomes much more apparent that the paintings’ dimensions are the same proportions as a baseball card.
Those photos were taken on June 6th, shortly after Jay and I spent some time chatting over a few beers in my back yard. Here’s what we talked about.
Uni Watch: Let’s start with you. How old are you, and where do you live?
Jay Kaplan: I’m 35, and I live in Sudbury, Massachusetts. But I’ve only been there for a year. Before that I lived here in Brooklyn for 14 years.
UW: Why’d you move?
JK: We have two kids, and it was getting tricky. I was getting sidetracked from doing my art. So now I’m, like, in the woods.
UW: Do you make a living as an artist?
JK: I’ve done so many different things to make a living — art’s been one of them.
UW: I know you grew up in Port Washington [Long Island]. Were you a sports fan growing up?
JK: Yeah. And I still am.
UW: Did you play sports?
JK: I played Little League and played baseball up through my junior year in high school. And I played soccer and a little hockey. Some basketball, but I wasn’t very good.
UW: Were you interested in art back then as well?
JK: I played music, and yeah, I did some art. We had a lot of art in our house. My great-grandmother was an interior designer, so she had bought a lot of stuff, and my parents hung work, like, salon-style, so there was art everywhere. And my grandfather was a painter.
UW: And did your interests in art and sports ever overlap, like they have with this Dock Ellis project?
JK: Here and there. When I was about 12, I took an oil painting class and I made a painting of Denis Potvin. I was a big Islanders fan, and that was right in their heyday.
UW: Have you done other sports-oriented art projects as an adult, prior to the Dock Ellis work?
JK: I did a silly thing. I really got into art in college. In high school, I’d been into writing, but then in college I took an elective — a welding elective. It was actually an African-American Studies welding class. And in that class I made a giant sculpture of Patrick Ewing. So that one and the Potvin painting were probably my two sports pieces.
UW: What led you to do that?
JK: At the time, I was so into just the act of welding, and I didn’t really know much about art, so I’d just weld anything that popped into my head. And I was really into the Knicks at the time. It’s at my parents’ house now, along with a lot of my work. The Ewing is a source of embarrassment for me now. A lot of my friends really like it, but I don’t know if they’re just making fun of me.
UW: Okay, so tell me about your fascination with Dock Ellis, and how that fascination led to this project.
JK: I was doing a lot of self-referential art…
UW: How do you mean?
JK: I used to do these performance pieces and photograph them. I made a piñata in my own likeness, and I hung it from a tree and had someone take pictures of me beating it while wearing the same clothes as the piñata, with red paper on the inside. Another time, I ate a box of crayons. And I took a Krazy Glue dropper and basically had a drop of Krazy Glue about to go into my eye.
UW: Was it actually, like, real Krazy Glue?
JK: It was, yeah.
UW: Did it go into your eye?
JK: No. I just kept it right there for the shot. Another time I filled a bottle of Glass Plus with blue Gatorade, went to a supermarket, and placed it on the shelf. Then I took it off the shelf and chugged it. So I’d done all these pieces with me in them, and I was looking for something with more of a narrative, a story. And I remembered this urban legend that someone had taken LSD and pitched a no-hitter. Then I did some research and learned that there was so much more to Dock.
UW: When was this that you began this process?
JK: Probably two and a half years ago. I’d started making these paintings using resin. I started with abstract stuff, geometric shapes. Then I went to the next logical place, naked women. And that’s when I decided to do the narrative. It took me a year to do the whole series.
UW: You said that you learned there was so much more to Dock Ellis than just “the guy who pitched a no-hitter while doing LSD.” Such as..?
JK: He was almost a black activist. He was outspoken, he had this lively personality. He was a character. He was controversial.
UW: The poured resin seems so particularly well-suited to someone who was tripping on acid, and also for the colors and design style of that time period. Was that one reason you thought he’d be a good match for this medium?
JK: Yeah, definitely. It all seemed to fit together so well. [You can see a slideshow documenting the making of this painting here. — PL]
UW: Have you done LSD yourself?
JK: Um… I, uh … No comment.
UW: Did you do LSD specifically as “research” for this project, in the course of making the art?
JK: No.
UW: You’ve got some great uniform depictions in there. When I saw the Reggie Jackson painting, with that Oakland A’s uniform, that’s when I knew I had to get in touch with you. And hey, did you know that those early-’70s Pirates pullovers were the first pullovers ever worn in major league baseball?
JK: No.
UW: Yeah. Whether you realized it or not, you were documenting a really transformative period in baseball — striped waistbands replacing belts, pullovers replacing button-fronts, polyester replacing flannel. Were you aware of any of that?
JK: Not really, no. But I did do a lot of research to make it somewhat accurate to the era. I was hoping to capture the ’70s, when he pitched.
UW: What sort of research?
JK: Just looking at tons of pictures. There’s so much on the web now.
UW: Did you collect baseball cards as a kid, and did you go back and look at them?
JK: I did, yeah.
UW: I’m a little older than you, and I got interested in baseball around 1971, ’72, so I grew up watching precisely this period we’re talking about. Like, I remember watching Dock Ellis pitch. But you grew up after this period. So as you were doing all this research, were thinking, “Damn, I wish I’d been around to see that”?
JK: I have a lot of ’70s nostalgia in me, because the house I grew up in was really tricked out ’70s-style. So I sort of feel like I was there for it.
UW: You also have a piece showing Ellis in his curlers. When did you learn about that episode?
JK: There this great book, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball…
UW: Right.
JK: So I read about it there, and in other articles about him. I just thought it was an interesting thing to do, to wear curlers on the field. And he even used that to show racial bias, because the commissioner said, “You can’t do that, can’t wear curlers,” but he let white ballplayers wear wigs or hairpieces.
UW: I love how, if you click on one of the paintings, you get all those smaller images. Are those the source images?
JK: Those are some of the inspiration behind each painting. Sometimes I feel like maybe it gives away too much. But at the same time, I don’t know — if you just see the paintings, you might not get as much of the story.
UW: So it’s sort of like footnotes.
JK: Yeah.
UW: And for the painting called Side Show, the source images are mostly these mustachioed ballplayers. What was that all about?
JK: Well, he pitched the no-hitter against the Padres. So the main image was based on the original San Diego Chicken, which was a radio gimmick. I wanted to draw a parallel between the chicken, which was a side show to the game, and a mustache, which I think of as a side show to a face. And mustaches were so prevalent back in that period.
UW: Right, because the A’s started that whole thing. And of course they also started the Technicolor-uniform trend.
JK: Yeah, I was so excited to do that Reggie Jackson piece, just to match that green and that yellow. I knew that in the resin, it would really pop.
UW: You nailed it, too.
JK: You probably can’t tell from the image on the web, but I actually did his glasses frames in inlaid metal, to accentuate them.
UW: Yeah, I noticed you used some unusual media, like Ping Pong balls. What’s that about?
JK: The Ping Pong balls were from this story when Dock fell from grace and drugs kind of overtook him later in his career. He finally went to rehab, and he was in such a bad state that he would actually sniff Ping Pong balls to try to get high.
UW: Really? What did he think he was gonna get out of that?
JK: I don’t know, but when I drilled holes in them and filled them with resin to make the eyeballs for that painting, they were really stinky. I think they’re made out of some kind of crazy plastic.
UW: No no no, they’re made out of reed or something, aren’t they? Definitely something organic.
JK: Really? Huh. [Actually, Jay was right: They’re made of celluloid, which is a thermoplastic. — PL]
UW: Anyway, so you did that not just because it was visually appropriate, but you were referencing an incident from his life.
JK: Yeah, I just took all this information about him and processed it through my head and tried to come up with images to go with them, and tried to make it work. But it didn’t have to be super-precise or literal.
UW: Let’s get back to the Reggie Jackson piece for a second. Why did you include him?
JK: Dock had a little history with Reggie in, I think, the ’76 All-Star Game [actually 1971 — PL]. At mid-season he had a really good record. Like he was 11-0 or something, and Vida Blue was having a great year too, and Dock said, “They’ll never start two black pitchers, two brothers in this All-Star Game.” And it became a big thing in the press, and it turned out that they both did start. And during that game, Reggie Jackson hit that famous home run off of Dock, the moonshot that hit the light tower in Detroit.
UW: But Reggie wasn’t wearing that green jersey in that game — he was wearing a vest.
JK [sheepishly]: There might be a few, uh, holes in the story.
UW: Well, that’s OK — artistic license and all. Didn’t mean to be such a stickler. I was just sayin’.
JK: Yeah, my audience is an art world audience. They’d never know the difference. Anyway, Reggie stood there watching the home run, which infuriated Dock.
UW: Nowadays, it happens practically every game. I mean, Manny Ramirez does it twice a week. I guess Reggie was kind of a pioneer there.
JK: But it really pissed off Dock.
UW: Which is kind of interesting. Because culturally speaking, the whole “standing and admiring your home run” thing is part of a demonstrative or hot dog-ish approach to sports that’s very black, very much part of the black approach to sports. And the people who don’t like it and criticize it are almost invariably white fans and white media people. So it’s interesting that Dock Ellis, being a very racially aware athlete, frowned upon something that was, in essence, very black.
JK: I don’t think he judged people based on color. He loved Pete Rose, for example. I think he just didn’t like being shown up, by anyone.
UW: Yeah, but what I mean is, you and I say, “showing him up,” but a lot of black fans and athletes would say, “That’s not showing anyone up — that’s just my style, that’s being an entertainer,” blah-blah-blah. And what white fans call “classy,” black fans often consider just “boring.” I’m not coming down on either side; I’m just saying the same thing can be perceived differently by different groups. It definitely speaks to a cultural gap.
JK: Yeah.
UW: Anyway, that soured him on Reggie?
JK: Definitely. At one point a bunch of major leaguers were going to do a tour of Viet Nam, and Dock didn’t wanna go because Reggie was going. The next time he faced Reggie again [which was several years later, because Ellis didn’t pitch in the American League until 1976 — PL], he hit him in the face. Intentionally. Broke his glasses and I think broke his jaw.
UW: And that was years after! Wow, note to self: Don’t cross Dock Ellis.
JK: Exactly.
UW: Have these pieces been shown in a gallery yet?
JK: No, I’m trying to find a place for them now. I’ve got some hopefuls. I’m feeling positive about it.
UW: Assuming you find a gallery, will you show the source images, the backstory, the way you have on the web?
JK: I don’t think I would, unless I maybe did it in the catalog.
UW: So it’s a very different kind of exhibition on the web than it would be in person. I mean, obviously, duh, everything’s different on the web, but what I mean is that the quantitative amount of material you’d be showing would be different.
JK: Yeah. At one point I wanted to get video of the no-hitter, and I contact all these different people, but it turns out that game wasn’t televised. There was some home video that someone shot from the stands — Bob Costas showed some of it on his show one time — and I tried to get that, but I couldn’t. The Hall of Fame sent me some other footage of Dock pitching, and I thought of doing something with that, but I decided not to.
UW: In the course of this project, did you make any attempts to contact Dock himself?
JK: I didn’t. I thought about it, but I wanted it to be based on just the story. Like I said before, at first I kind of treated it like an urban legend. I didn’t want to get too close to it.
UW: Did you contact Donald Hall, who wrote Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball?
JK: No.
UW: If this project eventually ends up in a gallery and gets some media, it’s certainly conceivable that Dock Ellis could become aware of its existence. If he were to come into a gallery, or even just visit your web site, what do you think he’d make of all this?
JK: I don’t know. It’s an interesting question, because I spent so much time thinking about him. I was completely absorbed by him — it’s like he’s become a big part of my life somehow. I’d hope he would like it. I know he has a good sense of humor. I read something where he was signing baseballs with some sort of LSD reference. I’d hope he wouldn’t be offended, and that he’d be happy that someone was glorifying his life and accomplishments.
UW: Let’s say you get a gallery, and they do a big opening reception. Would you want Dock to attend the opening?
JK: That would be great, yeah — I’d be into that. He’s actually a drug counselor now, in California, and one of the galleries I’m looking at is in L.A., so yeah, that would be cool.
UW: I know artists hate to be asked this type of question, but do you have a favorite piece among the 15?
JK: I like Kool-Aid and Kools. It’s so iconic, and the idea is so clear to me. It sort of expresses this contradiction that was a big part of Dock’s personality, that he could be angry and loving. Dock smoked Kools, and Kool-Aid can be spiked with acid, so it all kind of fit together.
[That was all the questions I had, so I turned off the tape recorder. But we kept on chatting and drinking, and at some point the talk turned back to sports, so I turned the tape back on. — PL]
JK: Lately I’ve gotten into NASCAR.
UW: Interesting. Do you know any other artists who are into it?
JK: Actually, I’ve got two friends who started their careers based on their interest in NASCAR.
UW: How so?
JK: They were both interested in the aesthetics of it. This one guy, my friend Nathan, he did a lot work that almost looked like the way the patches are everywhere [on the jumpsuits]. And this girl Kristin Baker, she was into the way a car looks when it’s crashed, and her paintings were abstract, but they kind of had this crashing vibe. This was back in the ’90s — I think they’ve both gotten away from it now.
UW: Have you ever thought of a NASCAR-related project?
JK: There’s this one driver, Travis Kvapil, who drives the No. 28 car. For a while he didn’t have a sponsor, so he just put “11 million” on the hood of the car, because that’s what it would cost to sponsor him.
UW: Sort of like “Your Ad Here.”
JK: Exactly. So I saw that, and I thought that would be great if I, as an artist, could sponsor that car and just do some artwork on that car.
UW: So let’s say you’re a gazillionaire and you go ahead and do this. What would you put on the car?
JK: Maybe some kind of op-art thing that’s forms a vibrating pattern, so other drivers get mesmerized and crash when they’re coming up behind you. Or you could just do a minimalist thing, or just something ridiculous, like popcorn all over the car. And at the end of the race, the drivers always mention the sponsor — like, “Yeah, this Office Depot car really came through for me today.” So it would be incredible to hear them say, “This Jay Kaplan art car was was just great.” It would be a great juxtaposition between corporate America and art.
UW: Have you ever discussed this idea with anyone?
JK: I did work for Jeff Koons at one point…
UW: Well, he certainly has enough money to do it.
JK: Definitely. And it was so great when he put a float of his rabbit sculpture in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. I still know him and his wife, so I mentioned the idea to his wife. I e-mailed her about it, thinking maybe she’d tell him and he’d do it.
UW: Any response?
JK [laughing]: No response.
UW: Are you aware of the recent taxi art project here in New York?
JK: No.
UW: It started last year, I think. Lots of New York cabs got outfitted with these big floral decals. It’s not quite the same thing as what you’re talking about, but it was an interesting project.
JK: Was it cool?
UW: I didn’t like the designs, frankly, but I really liked the idea of using taxis as a means of creating public art, especially since so many taxis also carry advertising.
==========
And that’s where we left it. Jay hasn’t yet found a gallery for the full 15-painting set, but he’ll be showing four of the pieces, along with some non-Dock artwork, in this group show, which will have an opening reception this Saturday from 6pm-10pm. He’ll be on hand, and I’ll be swinging by as well.
Uni Watch News Ticker: New York’s sanitation workers are getting new uniforms (with thanks to Neil Berger). … The Arkansas Travelers, double-A affiliate of the Angels, are changing from blue caps to red after winning the first-half division title (with thanks to John Evans). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Novak Djokovic, an Adidas-sponsored athlete, wore Nike sneakers at Wimbledon and whited-out the swooshes. Details here. … While looking for something else, I came across this photo Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio. Note the connective strap on Ted’s stirrup. … Also came across this shot. Look closely and you’ll see that the ump is wearing his cap backwards, even though it has a abbreviated brim. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. … Super-detailed guide to spotting fake NFL “authentics” here (nice find by Drew Wagner). … Good photos here, here, and hereof the Tigers’ one-year tiger-head style from 1927 (with thanks to Doug Mooney). … Early Astros prototype? Marc Swanson isn’t saying. … Thinnest stirrups ever? … Slow news day in Denver. … Chris Flinn reports that baseball-snagging guru Zack Hample snared a few BP balls at Shea a few days ago and was surprised to discover to find that they were All-Star Game balls. (As an aside, I had no idea there was a “baseball-snagging guru” out there, but the guy actually has a blog devoted to the topic — cool.) … “Many UFC fighters have started wearing tape wraps around their gloves to match the corner they’re assigned (blue corner has blue tape, red corner has red tape),” reports Mike Miller. “Probably helps the judges tell the fighters apart for scoring.” … Good gallery of USA Olympic basketball jereys here (with thanks to Erkki Corpuz). … Did you know the MLB logo was designed by DC Comics artist Jim Sherman? That’s what this page claims (with thanks to Dave Sikula). … Pesky Pirates patch problem persist for Jack Wilson. He must really love that one undershirt (with thanks to Bill Blevins). … Kudos to the U. of Minnesota, who’ve told Victoria’s Secret not to include them in Vicky’s pink collegiate product line. Details here (and nobody’s happier about this than Minnesota resident and scourge of all things pink Minna H.). … Mariners and Padres will be wearing 1978 throwbacks tomorrow night. … Nice photo gallery here of Cal football uni history — a history to which these are now being added. … I’m an architectural intern in Philadelphia and each summer there is a softball league comprised of architecture firms, contractors, and real estate firms,” writes Eddie Layton. “In general the league is very laid back and unorganized, although a few teams do have a semblance of uniforms or others (like ours) just try to all wear the same color T-shirt. This past week, however, we played a firm that had some pretty classic uniforms. I’ve attached a couple of pictures that my fiance took while we were playing.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Why did Bruce Boisclair (one of the least baseball-y names ever, by the way) pose for a photo with an aluminum bat?
#1 by Roger on 06.26.08 8:23 am |
“JK: Definitely. At one point a bunch of major leaguers were going to do a tour of Viet Nam, and Dock didn’t wanna go because Reggie was going. The next time he faced Reggie again [which was several years later, because Ellis didn’t pitch in the American League until 1977 — PL], he hit him in the face. Intentionally. Broke his glasses and I think broke his jaw.”
Actually, the Dock Ellis beaning of Reggie Jackson occurred in 1976, Jackson’s lone season with the Orioles. Ellis’ AL career began with the Yankees in 1976.
#2 by Greg V. on 06.26.08 8:33 am |
“Ellis, D.” - brilliant!
The poured resin artwork is amazing. Nice job, Jay.
#3 by Peter Wunsch on 06.26.08 8:34 am |
Why do I get the feeling that those All-Star game balls being used for BP at Shea will be sold by MLB as “Officially Used All-Star game balls?”
#4 by Ricko on 06.26.08 8:47 am |
I’ll almost guarantee that someone at the U of Minnesota observed (cuz they’re a pretty marketing savvy bunch), “Hey, this fooball team could suck again this year. The last thing we need is people showing up at games in pink as some soft of comment about how MUCH we suck, and that maybe our new uniforms should have been from Victoria’s Secret.”
#5 by Jim on 06.26.08 8:51 am |
Was at the DET Tiger / STL Cardinal game last night. 2.5 hour rain delay, game got over at 1am. Ouch. Anyways, STL SS Ryan had really nice striped stirups on which made him stick out among his teammates. Looked good, except that he had 2-3 buttons undone, and had a flat brimmed hat. Which I kept yelling at him to fix…
Another uni note from the game, during the rain delay Todd Jones came out of the clubhouse with a Ordonez uni on and pretended to hit a home run from a fake pitch and actually rounded the bases on the tarp. It was pretty cool. The stadium played along and played the home run music and graphics for him. He also slid into home plate getting completely soaked.
#6 by Rick White in Cedar Park, TX on 06.26.08 8:53 am |
Nice softball unis. I think the solid black shorts look better than the white or black with white stripe shorts.
#7 by Andy Head on 06.26.08 8:56 am |
Fresno St. starting pitcher Justin Wilson didn’t have a button on the top of his cap last night — just the little metal stem sticking up. I couldn’t find a good picture of it in a quick search this a.m…
#8 by LI Phil on 06.26.08 8:57 am |
and? did he?
#9 by Ilana Hardesty on 06.26.08 8:58 am |
Speaking of pink: http://www.boston.co...
#10 by Ricko on 06.26.08 8:58 am |
I congratulate their thoroughness—getting matching socks and all—but they look more like soccer unis.
#11 by Jim on 06.26.08 9:00 am |
Of course not, he should have heard me, the third base coach heard me. So I told him to tell Ryan to fix his hat.
#12 by Cosmo on 06.26.08 9:01 am |
Paul, I hate it when people nitpick on this site, but at one point (starting with “JK: Right, because the A’s started…” I believe) you got your “JK”’s and “UW”’s mixed up. I only point this out because I got confused, and thought others might as well.
#13 by Joey Guns on 06.26.08 9:09 am |
Because Steiner Sports needs to make even more money!
#14 by GoTerriers on 06.26.08 9:14 am |
From the “Small World” files, and not that anybody here gives a rat’s ass, either, but I think I went to day camp with today’s interview subject back in the 80’s . . . And if it’s the same guy, he’s selling himself short as an athlete (at least back in the day) . .
Once again, UniWatch bringing everyone back together again . . very weird
#15 by LI Phil on 06.26.08 9:21 am |
do those
soccer kitssoftball unis say team awesome?#16 by Jim on 06.26.08 9:22 am |
That’s what I read, and that, my friends, IS awesome.
#17 by Paul Lukas on 06.26.08 9:30 am |
Correct. Typo on my part. Now fixed. Thanks!
#18 by art on 06.26.08 9:32 am |
Peter Max painted a car for Dale Earnhardt back in 2000:
www.weds.0catch.com/...
I don’t recall any other drivers crashing because of it, but there must have been some giggling fits out on the track.
#19 by Paul Lukas on 06.26.08 9:36 am |
Not nitpicky at all — thanks for the correction! Now fixed.
#20 by Eddie on 06.26.08 9:41 am |
“do those soccer kits softball unis say team awesome?”
Yes they do, and the socks have “awesome” going down the side…
And yes they do look a little more like soccer unis than softball, but I give it to them for pulling it off.
#21 by Stuby on 06.26.08 9:41 am |
That is the worst looking softball field I have ever seen.
#22 by Eddie on 06.26.08 9:51 am |
and it was terrible to play on - grounders were taking hops all over the place… lucky no one took one in the mouth or groin…
#23 by Dustin on 06.26.08 9:52 am |
Thank goodness the Sox went away from the style in the ticker (Paciorek). Who thought it was a good design to have pants numbers, again?
#24 by John on 06.26.08 9:53 am |
Oh no, did you see the new Cal football helmets? They’re going with the center stripe, which is bad enough, except that the stripe will start out really fat in the back and come to a point…basically like UNLV or the Denver Broncos and the opposite of Louisville. I HATE center stripes that taper. What a terrible trend. I was hoping it would die off, but it seems to be growing. Terrible look.
#25 by Kek on 06.26.08 9:59 am |
Ah, why do I get the feeling that MLB-hating is the latest hobby of uni-watchers?! Not sure if ranks up there with Nike-bashing, logo creep and throwbacks not being 100% accurate! But give it time!!!!
First all the blue/pink cancer stuff, now these stars and stripes hats. I actually think the hats are a neat idea, just like the pink/blue, when done on special occasions, it’s OK by me.
I also think it’s unfair to criticize MLB on the pricing of the hats being higher than the normal cap. If you look back at any other special, event cap (ASG, American Flag, World Series, Opening Day, etc, etc) those caps almost always retail more than the normal 5950. This is a different cap completely as it’s a. a different color and b. has the flag logo incorporated within the logo. Why shouldn’t it retail for more?
I have plenty of beef with MLB. I don’t like interleague play, I don’t think the ASG should determine home field advantage in the world series, there should be a salary floor so that you don’t have teams like the Pirates not spending money and being uncompetitive, I think the postseason games start way too late and they should bring SOME day games back in the mix, I think the DH should be abolished, etc, etc, etc.
That being said, but merchandise and pricing and…God forbid, donating portions of proceeds to charity aren’t at the top of that list.
#26 by Stuby on 06.26.08 10:03 am |
John, I agree. I hate the tapering helmet stripe. The worst I’ve seen (although the ones you mentioned are pretty bad) is Southern Miss - its like an intertwined tapering stripe. just awful…
http://goldeneaglefa...
Cal’s helmets are just a bad idea.
#27 by Jim on 06.26.08 10:05 am |
I think it’s talked about more right now because it’s the only major sport playing at the moment…
#28 by LI Phil on 06.26.08 10:09 am |
dougie…
excellent points all (especially on interplague) and the recent mlb-bashing…of which i think im guilty as well (at least as far as the throwbacks go)…
but i DO think the point about the ‘official ASG ball’ ending up at steiner or eBay is valid…
the bigger question, of course, is WHY they’re even using said balls at this point in the season…does anyone know if this is standard practice or if this is just some flukey deal?
#29 by Ricko on 06.26.08 10:14 am |
That’s Nike, out to eradicate all stripes from all uniforms for all time.
Stripes = adidas…bad.
Phil Knight must (you know) a little bit (in his, y’know) whenever he sees the Niners’ Montana era (and before) jersey sleeves and socks…not to mention the NBA warmups this past season. God, I bet those gave him coniptions.
#30 by svh on 06.26.08 10:18 am |
kind of a weird request here, but can anyone tell me where to find the official uniform templates (home, away, alts) of the round rock express?
#31 by Jim on 06.26.08 10:22 am |
Not the exact game, but this is what Ryan looked like last night, stirups, unbuttoned, and flat brimmed. Same as last night, except for the hand up his butt.
Question: if you decide to wear stirups in MLB, are there options you can wear, or is there only one kind that is allowed. Like, can you wear different kinds in different games, just as long as everyone wears the same? Or does the team have one style and that’s it.
#32 by Teebz on 06.26.08 10:23 am |
Not to nitpick either, Paul, but Mr. Layton’s fiancée took the pictures.
Unless, of course, he lives in California or Massachusetts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! :o)
#33 by Rick White in Cedar Park, TX on 06.26.08 10:28 am |
Try emailing Avery Holton, the Director of Communications for the Express. You can get Avery’s email address from here.
#34 by Kek on 06.26.08 10:30 am |
Fair enough, the ASG baseballs is odd, but could it be an honest mistake by someone at Rawlings? I recently took the Camden Yards tour and they talked about how there is a clubhouse guy that rubs the balls up with a special mud. Perhaps that person at Shea opened a case of game balls from Rawlings and noticed they were ASG balls and that’s why they ended up in BP. Perhaps Rawlings sent them to the wrong NY ballpark? I think these are valid questions/points that need to be considered before we all just get cynical.
As with ebay and steiner, buyer beware.
#35 by Chad on 06.26.08 10:31 am |
u of minnesota does have some pink stuff already https://www.nmnathle...
#36 by coogrfan on 06.26.08 10:33 am |
Agreed, especially since they had such a good looking helmet to begin with.
“If it ain’t broke…”
#37 by Ricko on 06.26.08 10:36 am |
…and if that team is a bad as it was last year, you could see a lot of that pink stuff in the stands. God, they were awful.
Truly, if it weren’t for needing to field teams in all the major sports to share Big Ten revenue, Minnesota and the University of North Dakota should exchange conferences. From the looks of things, they’d both finish around .500.
#38 by Ricko on 06.26.08 10:40 am |
And I’m guessing this wish they didn’t. But I’d venture this also would be their thinking, “At least it’s not from Victoria’s Secret, for god’s sake.”
#39 by Ricko on 06.26.08 10:40 am |
I meant in football.
#40 by John on 06.26.08 10:45 am |
Why did Boiscalir pose with the aluminum bat? Because he NEEDED it! He hit a grand total of 10 homers in a very short career.
#41 by Nick Niiedzwiadek on 06.26.08 10:49 am |
Those all star balls are going to become a problem. Hitters use the seams to decipher the spin on the ball and thus the pitch, and the seams on these balls are much to simialar to the cream color of the ball’s leather. I have a feeling that if this is not changed this years all star game will be a very low scoring game.
#42 by T.A. on 06.26.08 10:50 am |
UW: Which is kind of interesting. Because culturally speaking, the whole “standing and admiring your home run” thing is part of a demonstrative or hot dog-ish approach to sports that’s very black, very much part of the black approach to sports. And the people who don’t like it and criticize it are almost invariably white fans and white media people. So it’s interesting that Dock Ellis, being a very racially aware athlete, frowned upon something that was, in essence, very black.
Pretty racist categorization there Paul.
#43 by PhillyGuy on 06.26.08 10:54 am |
Best baseball name ever: Wade Boggs
#44 by lwiedy on 06.26.08 10:54 am |
Wouldn’t POSSIBLY bilking the public rank a little higher in importance that having someone bat for the pitcher? Point is, unless you’re willing to say MLB does everything just right, why would your beefs be any more worth stating (as you did) than anyone else bringing up more current concerns?
Sure, assuming the ASG ball fraud is very much jumping to a negative conclusion, but dismissing those who are turned off by MLB’s completely inappropriate response to questions regarding their charitable commitments is just off base.
#45 by PhillyGuy on 06.26.08 10:57 am |
NFL 2008-09 UNIFORM QUESTION:
Will this year’s jerseys feature the new NFL shield logo at the neck? Will it still be that goofy-looking NFL Equipment shield or will it go back to the better-looking shield-alone style like in the 1990s?
I want to purchase an authentic this year, but won’t do it if the jerseys offered at NFL.com, JerseyJoe, etc. still have the NFL Equipment/old logo shield at the neck (assuming the game-worn jerseys will have the new logo).
ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.
#46 by Stuby on 06.26.08 10:57 am |
Van Lingle Mungo
#47 by Bouj on 06.26.08 11:01 am |
Only speaking for myself, I would never begrudge any of these sports leagues from trying to market themselves and make money, but as the episode with the Vet caps showed, it’s the disconnect that MLB has that is a problem.
Paul’s question about fans thinking it’s a money grab highlights the idea among fans that MLB is just out to make money on every little thing. If they keep doing the same thing, be indignant about any questions about their intentions, and then refuse to address criticism, then they should expect people to call them out for it. It’s entirely possible people have become too cynical, but there’s a lot of cause for it.
#48 by Kek on 06.26.08 11:01 am |
Yeah, I’m sure Bob Gibson would have kicked a little ass had a batter, black or white, admired a home run hit off him. I don’t think that happened much because they knew they’d get one right at the ear the next time up!
#49 by Ricko on 06.26.08 11:01 am |
Bobby Bonds
…or Garth Iorg
#50 by LI Phil on 06.26.08 11:03 am |
reggie jackson showed up a pitcher?
#51 by Ricko on 06.26.08 11:05 am |
Worst?
Gordon Windhorn, Jr.
(Oh, Gordon, don’t forget, squash match at 2:30. Cheerio.)
#52 by Ian K on 06.26.08 11:06 am |
Thanks for the pictures Eddie, but is that you in the green shirt batting? Keep those hands together on the bat handle, son!
There’s this one driver, Travis Kvapil, who drives the No. 28 car. For a while he didn’t have a sponsor, so he just put “11 million” on the hood of the car, because that’s what it would cost to sponsor him.
I don’t know much about Nascar, but this tidbit was intriguing. Is there a trademark ™ symbol next to “million”? So the guy put his own temporary logo on the car and trademarked it?
#53 by Kek on 06.26.08 11:08 am |
Well, if you don’t want to be “bilked” don’t buy the hats or other merchandise. As for my beefs, if you notice for the most part, they have to do with the on-the-field product of the game of baseball, the integrity of the game, etc. My point was there are bigger fish to fry.
#54 by Stuby on 06.26.08 11:09 am |
I can’t decide whether J.J. Putz is one of the best or one of the worst.
#55 by LI Phil on 06.26.08 11:12 am |
was said (in a different way earlier) but i don’t think dock cared whether reggie was black, white, blue or green…nobody shows up a pitcher
…beers kickin’ in when you said that?
#56 by GoTerriers on 06.26.08 11:13 am |
Buddy Biancalana
#57 by Ricko on 06.26.08 11:14 am |
Hmmm…according to Baseball Almanac web site, on this day in 1916, the Indians added numbers to the backs of their unis to match the scoreboard, and Jack Graney became the first player in the 20th century to come to bat wearing a number.
LI Phil, don’t ask where my seats were…or something.
I wasn’t there.
Mom made me go to vacation bible school.
#58 by Stuby on 06.26.08 11:15 am |
Biff Pocaroba
Juan Tyrone Eichelberger
#59 by MPowers1634 on 06.26.08 11:15 am |
This picture has been previously linked to:
http://d.yimg.com/us...
However, I had to chuckle when the guys on PTI referred to it as a “skullet” the other day!
#60 by coogrfan on 06.26.08 11:16 am |
You know, something just dawned on me about the new Cal uni’s. Take a look at that pants stripe, does it remind you of anything?
http://img.photobuck...
Here’s a hint:
http://img.photobuck...
A 2-3 foot swoosh is pretty unsubtle, even for Nike. What’s next? A uni literally covered head to toe in swooshes?
#61 by Ricko on 06.26.08 11:16 am |
John Boccabella
Biff Pocoroba
#62 by Chipper4MVP on 06.26.08 11:23 am |
http://www.easports....
Captain Patches in the new Madden Game…courtesy of Bob Sanders.
#63 by Jim on 06.26.08 11:26 am |
Boof Bonser
#64 by Walaitis on 06.26.08 11:28 am |
Bull Durham
#65 by Walaitis on 06.26.08 11:29 am |
Wouldn’t that be a PERFECT reason why the balls are showing up now? Test them in a “harmless” setting (BP) to see if the can be picked up in game conditions (big park, fans in stands).
#66 by Ricko on 06.26.08 11:31 am |
Looking forward to the Rays in Jacksonville Redcaps unis.
http://www.nlbpa.com...
Appears to be basic red and gray, with Northwestern style stripe stirrups and nice piping.
Home they and the Pirates (Crawfords) to it as well as KC and SF did last weekend.
#67 by The Ol Goaler on 06.26.08 11:33 am |
Kiki Cuyler
Dizzy Dean
Boog Powell
Bake McBride
One can go on all day… heck, I didn’t even mention Orval Overall of the 1908 World Champion Chicago Cubs!
#68 by Kek on 06.26.08 11:33 am |
I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I found the striping on the redesigned Broncos uni to look more like swooshes. I also remember there being people that thought Nike snuck a swoosh inside the Bronco’s nostril. http://upload.wikime... It really looks that way, but I don’t know if Nike actually designed the logo.
As for the new Cal unis, in general, I don’t like yellow jerseys and this case is no different. Don’t mind having yellow pants to go with the blue jerseys. I don’t like the bear claw logo and I especially don’t like the helmet stripe. I always have thought helmet striping should be consistant from front to back.
Other than that, the uniform isn’t that bad. Not a great improvement, but not an abomination either. I guess it could have been a lot worse.
#69 by Geo on 06.26.08 11:33 am |
Dock Ellis fans may want to know that he is awaiting a liver transplant as he is suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. A May 13, 2008 LA Times article by Helene Elliott provides the full story.
#70 by Paul Lukas on 06.26.08 11:33 am |