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Archive for June, 2008
Bryan’s busy today, so I’m on weekend duty for a change. Kind of a gimme, though, because there was a big throwback showdown in Tampa last night, with the Rays dressing up as the St. Petersburg Pelicans and the Astros doing the tequila sunrise thing. Rays mostly looked sharp. Too bad about the pajama epidemic and the nameplate interrupting the pinstripes, but how can you not love that sleeve patch?
As for the ’Stros, well, at least they were consistent — they got almost everything wrong. They wore their current helmets instead of throwbacks, straight NOBs instead of radially arched (the Astros have never in their history worn straight NOBs), belts instead of elastic waistbands, and the pants piping was laughably off-base (compare the throwback to the real thing). Sigh. Lots of additional pics here.
Meanwhile, Pedro Martinez finally kept his second button fastened, from the beginning of his workday (that shot is from the 1st inning) to the end. — Paul
June 22nd, 2008
Far right, in the background. What’s Jack Johnson doing in the Red Sox clubhouse? Furthermore, what’s Manny doing in the clubhouse? I thought he just showed up at game time, wandered out to left and went to work. I stand corrected.
The Celtics were at Fenway Park last night, celebrating in the rain with Manny, Papi, and pretty much everybody. First they had a parade or a race of some sort, then there was milling around, then — eventually — the Red Sox played. In green BP jerseys. Awesome. — Bryan
June 21st, 2008
[Editor's Note: Reader Randy Miller recently offered to guest-write an entry about a sport I know very little about. Here's his report. -- PL]
By Randy Miller
As a professor at the University of South Florida, I occasionally teach a class called Sports and Media. When I ask the students which were the first three sports to succeed on television, the answer never varies: They pick baseball, football, and basketball.
It’s a trick question, of course. The correct answer is boxing, pro wrestling, and roller derby, each of which became mainstays in televisions’s earliest days. The reason seems clear enough now — the old bulky cameras and small TV screens of the late ’40s were much better for showing a small enclosed area as opposed to the panorama of an outdoor field. No matter that only one of the three could truly be considered legitimate sport (and considering the mob influence on boxing at the time, maybe not even that).
I have a soft spot for the old roller derby unis, which had distinctive looks and interesting quirks. In the early TV days, the derby uniforms had to protect skaters while also differentiating between teams on the small black-and-white television screen. Football had yet to adopt the white-vs.-color jersey style on a regular basis, but the derby came up with an interesting alternative: The designated home team wore solid jerseys and the visitors wore stripes. In addition, each team wore distinctive numbers. For example, the Jersey Jolters wore numbers in the 20s, while the Brooklyn Red Devils wore numbers in the 60s. The San Francisco Bombers wore 31-39 with No. 40 reserved for star skater Charlie O’Connell. Males and females often shared the same number.
The jerseys were Durene with bright heavy-duty sateen shorts and light-fabric pants with leather padding for the knee, upper shin, and side of the thighs. There was also a provision for an additional pad, but many players chose not to use it, as skater Loretta Behrens recalled: “There was a pocket in the rear for a rubber sponge pad — as we called it, a butt pad — which many gals removed as it looked like we had a Kotex pad hanging out.” Not that Kotex wasn’t helpful elsewhere. “We put [Kotex] pads in our skates when our feet got sore and they soaked up sweat and protected against blisters,” Behrens said. (You can see more of her recollections on her web site.)
Eventually, the Derby settled in San Francisco, where skaters would spend a portion of the year skating in televised league games and the rest of the year traveling on a national tour. The jerseys became snazzier. Stripes no longer marked home and visiting teams but became incorporated into the familiar derby jersey style with candy-striped shoulder panels and sleeve striping. (Note the zipper on the Chiefs jersey, by the way — zippers were worn only by female skaters.) This style can be seen in pretty much any film or TV series that used roller derby as a backdrop, from Raquel Welch’s Kansas City Bomber [whose trailer is absolutely essential viewing -- PL] to The Shaggy D.A. and Fantasy Island.
The San Francisco league eventually adopted various and somewhat innovative uniform styles, including these beauties worn by the Northeast Braves. The Bombers had several looks, and the Midwest Pioneers had off-center diagonal numbers.
Today, the sport has reinvented itself with a boom of women’s roller derby teams and leagues springing up around the country. Some of these teams have, er, interesting ideas about uniforms, to say the least.
For more historic derby photos, check out Banked Track Memories. The best source for DVDs of old derby games is Gary Powers, who runs the Roller Derby Foundation.
Roller Bonus: Paul here. By coincidence, shortly after Randy submitted that entry, Kenn Tomasch checked in with a roller derby item of his own: “Arizona Roller Derby had its championship match over the weekend. Afterwards, they retired the number of one of the women, who’s moving away or otherwise leaving roller derby or something (I wasn’t quite clear). Apparently they all choose numbers that mean something to them, and 282 is the telephone prefix (not the area code — the exchange) in Sedona, Arizona, where this young lady apparently lives. I got some interesting shots of NOBs and other things that these ladies wear, which you can see here.”
And then, by yet another coincidence, I got a note the very next day from longtime Uni Watch follower The Rev. Nørb, who informed me of yet another derby-related news item, this one involving a trademark dispute. I eagerly await Jeremy Brahm’s report on Japanese roller derby, which I figure should be arriving any day now.
Pedro Update: I’m holding off on coming up with an official Uni Watch name for Pedro Martinez’s perpetually unfastened second button until we can confirm or reject Roger Faso’s claim that the point of the missed button is for Pedro to pull out his cross pendant and kiss it (which I’ve never noticed him doing, but Roger says he’s seen it). Meanwhile, Alexander Yellen notes that the missed button, by any name, has been part of Pedro’s repertoire for a while, as seen in these shots from the 2004 World Series.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the raffle for the Don Larsen perfect game tickets. Details here. I’ll announce the winners on Monday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Now that’s a rally cap (thanks, Vince). … If you thought Nike’s bike-path decals were brilliant, check out Adidas’s latest viral marketing scheme (see sixth graf). … Really interesting article here about what it costs to outfit the Brewers (with thanks to Jason McDowell). … Yesterday I linked to this 1989 article about the Raleigh Athletic Equipment Company. That prompted the following reminiscence from Paul Wiederecht: “My mom, who worked in the Yankees front office from 1954-57 remembered that as the place that took care of the Yanks’ and all road clubs’ uniforms in New York. Back in the early ’70s she was looking for material to make a homemade KC Royals uni for my younger brother Larry, and she took all of us kids to Raleigh’s plant. What a place for a bunch of baseball-obsessed kids! Yankees unis, helmets, shoes, etc., as well as other baseball and football equipment all over the place!” Paul also pointed me toward this article (which begins with a vignette set in Raleigh’s plant) and this vintage ad. … C.J. Nitkowski, now pitching in Japan, recently had some trouble with his glove (with thanks to Tyler Kepner). … “Levi Leipheimer, the current U.S. road race [cycling] champ, rides for Astana, who wear teal and yellow (like the Kazakh flag),” writes Nolan Brett. “In his most recent race, he was wearing a green jersey (signifying points lead, I think) with the Astana crest on it (teal and yellow), with his red/white/blue shorts, helmet, and bike — not pretty. Plus, for the ultimate in bike geekery, note the red hoods on his brake levers to match the handlebar tape. Never seen those before. Very cool custom touch.” … Miuke Bonasia reports that Hickory Crawdads catcher Andrew Walker is a Uni Watch kind of guy (photos by Billy Crowe). … Two new Kentucky football replica jerseys have hit the market: home and road. “They’ve eliminated the basketball-esque striping and added the striping on the sides,” says Jeremy Branham (not to be confused with Jeremy Brahm). “It also appears that ‘KENTUCKY’ is in a larger point size.” … UNLV has just unveiled new football uniforms too, and holy shit are they awful. Further details here. … “In just the third game of the Appalachian League season, Elizabethton Twins coach Jeff Reed forgot his helmet in the 3rd inning,” reports Matt Nelson. “The umpire noticed the problem and had a bat boy bring him a helmet in between pitches.” … Did you know that the four major leagues and the Collegiate Licensing Company are all members of a trademark-watchdog group called CAPS (short for “Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports Logos”)? I knew nothing about this group — which, oddly, is headquartered in Idaho — until Richard Stover pointed me here (although the site apparently hasn’t been updated in several years). Interestingly, the MLB section notes that “TM” and “®” symbols shouldn’t be used on embroidered products, which means the trademark symbol on the Cubs’ jersey patch isn’t just anomalous — it’s contrary to MLB’s own stated protocol.
June 20th, 2008
New ESPN column today. It’s my Cubs treatise, and I can pretty well guarantee that it includes at least one item that will surprise just about everyone reading this. Here’s the link.
I’m not the only one who’s been in a Chicago state of mind lately. As several readers informed me yesterday, our good friends at Nike have taken a keen interest in the Windy City. So keen, in fact, that they’ve slapped 10 large advertising decals, including the one shown above, onto Chicago’s lakefront path. And in an impressive display of efficiency and focus, the swooshkateers didn’t waste time bothering to ask anyone’s permission (because, obviously, it would never have been granted). Further nauseating details here.
You shouldn’t have to hate Nike as much as I do to be completely offended by this latest display of corporate hubris. This is vandalism of a public space, period, and should be treated as such: Local officials should charge Nike with a crime, because that’s exactly what it is.
Meanwhile, I wonder if Nike remembers that Chicago is also the city where marathoner Robert Cheruiyot suffered a concussion after slipping on an advertising decal at the Chicago Marathon finish line. What a wonderful bit of synergy for their jogging-path ad campaign!
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off two pairs of tickets to a Manhattan screening of Don Larsen’s perfect game, including the original commercials. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Someone please sign this guy, quick (with thanks to stirrup-spotter Drew Samuelson). … What does Lance Armstrong do with his Tour de France yellow jerseys? He frames them (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … Rob Gugliotta notes that the “NBA” icon on the Celtics’ championship banners is sometimes solid, sometimes not. Anyone know what that’s about? … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: new logos for Louisiana Tech. … Christmas-in-June Alert: The Red Sox will be wearing green jerseys tomorrow, in honor of the Celtics’ championship. … New blog devoted to vibrating football games here. … “Looks like Tony Gwynn was playing in sneakers-turned-cleats years ago,” writes Greg Riffenburgh. … According to this page, Adidas is about to unveil a bunch of new European soccer kits, along with a cool-sounding photo book (with thanks to Michael Kearney). … Akron’s hoops team will be getting new Lebron-branded uniforms. … In vaguely related item, Jamil Smith says, “I hope LeBron doesn’t sue these guys.” … “Pitcher’s masks have become more and more common in Michigan high school softball,” reports Lisa Lark. “Not mandatory, but several pitchers in the state finals had them on.” … Kate Plimpton was recently in Roswell, where she stopped in at a local historic house and learned that the Roaswell Lions won the 1956 Little League World Series. ” I dig the thickness and texture of the uniform,” she says. … “These pre-draft workouts provide an opportunity to see players wearing logos they may never be paid to wear,” notes Jay Dickson. “A quick search revealed this and this.” … Can’t really argue with this (spotted at yesterday’s Bosox/Phillies game by Paul Kamras). … Jeremy Brahm reports that the Japanese Olympic field hockey team will be wearing this design in Beijing, and the women’s weightlifting team will be wearing this. … Also from Jeremy: Volleyball captains are usually designated by having their front uni number underlined. But Venezuelan captain Andy Rojas wears the underscore on his back. … Carlos Borge passed along this great 1989 article about the company that cleaned, pressed, and mended the Yankees’ uniforms. Never heard of this operation before — anyone know more about them?
June 19th, 2008
By Bryan Redemske
Florida State was eliminated from the College World Series on Monday night, robbing a national television audience of the chance to see an all-yellow uniform. Of course, that loss also took away viewing opportunities for five other unseen Florida State jerseys. You know, because they have eight different jerseys.
Eight jerseys. Remember when the Marlins came into the National League in 1993 with multiple jerseys and hats? What seemed like overkill then is pretty much par for the course at the College World Series. The roots are likely in the laundry room, where uniforms would have to be washed after every game of a three-game road trip. And, let’s face it, doing laundry all night sucks. So why not bring another uniform set? Or maybe two extra sets! Perfect!
Or how about eight? Now you’re onto something. Here’s a team-by-team look at this year’s College World Series:
Stanford — It’s best to get the Cardinal out of the way early, because it’s the simplest. Here’s the entire wardrobe: home, away. That’s it. Note the pullover tops, remnants of a long-ago era and now part of the program’s tradition. Also note the black front number on the home uniform. It’s the only black on either set, and seems out of place. But that’s also a longstanding tradition [plus it's in keeping with, say, the red number on the front of the Dodgers' jersey, which has no chromatic reference anywhere else in the team's uniform system -- PL].
LSU — Speaking of longstanding tradition … Omaha felt strange without LSU fans milling about, drinking all of our beer. The Tigers are back, and they brought their purple and yellow along. The yellow jerseys are the same as they were in the late-1990s glory days, while the whites are similar. There’s a purple jersey in the wardrobe, but LSU has stuck to yellow and white over the last month or so.
Fresno State — Here’s the surprise team of the series. From an attire standpoint, it’s probably my favorite. The Bulldogs have four jerseys (white, gray, blue, and red), two pairs of pants, and two hats. But everything matches, so any combination can be worn together. It’s like Oregon football, but without the whioe burning-retina thing. Also, the Bulldogs appear to have merit stickers on their helmets. Or else a pox of some sort. [Late-breaking footnote from reader Dana Czerwinski, who points out that the Bulldogs also seem to have some button issues. And eagle-eyed Hunter Franks has spotted something interesting: a "TM" symbol on the team's cap. -- PL]
Rice — The Owls keep it simple, with “Rice” across the front of their jerseys in Old English. It’s the same on the home and away sets, and also the blue alternate. There’s a pinstriped set this year, too, but it doesn’t come out much. I like it as a complement to their other jerseys. Same for the blue alt — nice.
Georgia — Beware, we’re deep into Nike territory here. Sure, Fresno State is a Nike school, too, but not like this. The armpit-stains jersey is here, and it won’t get better until this entry is done. There’s lots of it ahead. Georgia wears white jerseys and caps most of the time but went with the red alternate for the CWS opener. That’s the second red jersey they’ve worn this season — here’s the other. It looks like they got a new one halfway through the schedule, as the script one hasn’t been seen in a while. There’s also a gray uniform and a black jersey kicking around somewhere, along with a red-crowned hat with a black bill. The Nike pits thing is troublesome, but because of that cut, teams with those jerseys are forced to compress or shrink their logos or wordmarks on the front, which effectively clutters the hell out of things.
Florida State — Eight jerseys, huh? Here they are: White, pinstriped, white again, gray, pinstriped gray, red, yellow. Okay, that’s only seven — there’s another red jersey, too, but pics are hard to find. I really like the “FS” logo jerseys, which are the most current set. The others, with “Seminoles” across the front and Nike pits on the side, can go away any time now. Oh, like Monday … ouch.
North Carolina — The Tar Heels have undergone the same unneccessary uniform explosion as Florida State. But, sadly, they fell short of the eight-jersey mark. UNC has three white jerseys (and two different vests), one Carolina blue top, one navy top, and one gray jersey. Not sure if last year’s godawful black model might be available, too. And let’s not forget the two different white caps, the navy blue cap, the gray cap, and the Carolina Blue cap. Maybe we should. This makes me long for the days of old. Or just makes me like Stanford more.
Miami — Finally, the Hurricanes are here to calm the waters with a mere six jerseys. That includes, of course, a sleeved and sleeveless version of the same jersey, à la the Twins. Then there’s green, orange, gray, and — regrettably — black. Always with the black.
And that’s the College World Series, minus paying $20 to park on some dude’s lawn and then walking a mile to the stadium, or $7 for a milkshake (after waiting in line for 30 minutes), and then, finally, coming home with severe sunburn on half of your body. I love June.
While we’re on the CWS, though, here’s a note from Elena Elms, who spotted a uni-related item on this Q&A page. Here’s the pertinent passage
Q. So I was wondering…what’s up with the Michael Jackson approach to Carolina baseball? I’ve noticed that the position players wear a single white glove underneath their fielding gloves. The gloves look similar to batting gloves. I was wondering, what’s Nike’s newest baseball innovation? I guess they must be effective, because I’ve seen a variety of the players wearing them; including this past weekend, where I’m surprised that the gloves didn’t permanently fuse to their hands as a result of the sweltering heat.
A. For the last two years, Nike has picked a color to emphasize with their college baseball apparel and equipment. In 2007, that color was black, which resulted in a major Tar Heels abomination. The company also produced black bats that were used — with a varying degree of enthusiasm — by several players last year. This season, the color of choice is white. That means white bats, white batting gloves (which is what Jennifer noticed), and even white spikes. As you might have noticed, Nike sent the Tar Heels some custom white spikes with Carolina blue accents that are a vast improvement over last year’s black jerseys. The white shoes made the trip to Omaha, and it’s a safe bet that you could see them at some point during the College World Series. What’s next for Nike? I don’t know, but let’s hope their color choice for 2009 isn’t red.”
Wait, Nike issues blanket colors and templates to every team it supplies? No way! Thanks for the tip, Elena.
Second Time Around: Paul here, with a buttload of follow-ups. First, regarding my newly acquired vintage jersey of uncertain origin (left), several people wrote in to say it looks a basketball warm-up shirt. “Yeah,” I told all such correspondents, “but how do you explain the uni number, since 7 isn’t kosher for scholastic hoops?”
That pretty much stumped everyone, except for Terry Proctor, who responded, “Up until 1962, high school basketball players could wear the digits 6,7,8, and 9 in any combination. But starting with the 1961-62 season, those digits became illegal for use (that rule is still in effect for high school and college basketball). So a player wearing #7 in the 1950s is entirely feasible. The rules were made by the National Federation of High School Sports Federations (NFHS) and the NCAA, which usually parallel each other’s rules changes.”
I hadn’t known when that rule went into effect. Also hadn’t suspected that the jersey was pre-1961 (I figured mid- to late ’60s). As for Terry, he added, “I know a little about athletic uniforms — I’ve been selling them since 1967. My friend and I do mostly high school and junior league teams in the Rochester area. I worked in Rochester for 23 years at the former Ruby’s Sporting Goods. We used to outfit the Rochester Americans hockey team.” I asked if he’d be willing to do a Uni Watch interview, and he quickly agreed, so expect to hear more from him later on.
Meanwhile, reader Paul Kosman has helped establish a new benchmark for the earliest appearance of the ® symbol on the Cubs’ jersey logo. My previous working date has been 1982, but Paul provided me with this 1981 card. The photo had to have been taken in either 1979 or, more likely, 1980 (prior to 1979, the Cubs’ chest logo had a narrower blue circle, and there was no red circle on the chest patch), so 1980 is my new benchmark. Paul’s theory is that the trademark symbol arrived along with the thicker blue circle in 1979 — a good hypothesis, if we can prove it. For now, though, I’m going with 1980.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that someone had suggested in last Friday’s comments that the Tribune Company might have imposed the ® symbol after they bought the team. But that ownership change took place in 1981, so this latest visual evidence would appear to blow a hole in that theory. Meanwhile, just for fun, Paul also scanned the covers of the Cubs’ 1977 and ’78 media guides, which, as you can see, underwent their own ®-symbolic evolution.
Finally, I suddenly got a flurry of returned calls yesterday from the Chicago Athletic Association. First I heard from their attorney, who wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing some sort of exposé. Then I heard from their COO, Rich Wharton, who pointed me toward their historian, Ron White, who agreed to answer my questions about the connection between the CAA logo and the Cubs logo.
Ron turned out to be a real character. I don’t know if he smokes a pipe, is absent-minded, or wears a corduroy jacket with suede elbow patches, but let’s just say none of that would surprise me. Amidst lots of unrelated ramblings about woodpeckers, track meets, and Germans masquerading as Poles, he managed to convey the following points:
• The CAA adopted a red “C” logo on a white field in March of 1892.
• About six months after that, they added a black circle around the C.
• In 1908, it was proposed that the black circle be changed to blue, because blue would look better when rendered in stained glass, but the club’s membership voted down this change.
• In 1916 and ’17, prior to America’s entry in the first World War, there was a huge outpouring of patriotism and support for the French and British air forces, which were fighting the Germans in Europe. Both those air fleets used red, white, and blue roundels on their fighter planes — red with a blue center for the French and blue with a red center for the Brits (for more on roundels, look here). The CAA decided to change their black circle to blue as part of this wave of support.
• William Wrigley, who’d been a CAA member since 1895, was part of a syndicate that purchased the Cubs in 1916 (he became the principal owner after buying out other shares in 1920). But it’s not clear exactly when or how he began using the CAA logo as part of the Cubs’ identity system — Ron said the logo just sort of “drifted” into the team’s graphics, “and no one ever questioned it, because [Wrigley] was part of the [CAA].” But when exactly did this drift take place? If you look at the team’s uniform progression beginning with 1916, you’ll see that the now-familiar red “C” didn’t appear on the team’s uni until 1937. Even more confusingly, the team used a similar C way back in 1908 and a “C-ubs” treatment in 1909, well before Wrigley was involved with the team. It’s unclear whether these marks had anything to do with the CAA. It’s also unclear whether Wrigley used the CAA-derived mark — i.e., the one with the red C — for non-uniform purposes (programs, signage, stationery, etc.) between 1916 and 1937. If anyone has has any pre-1937 documents showing the Cubs using CAA-inspired graphics, please let me know.
Ron promised to send me copies of some early paperwork relating to the CAA logo, so hopefully I’ll have some additional info soon. Based on my conversations with him, though, it’s clear to me that there was never any sort of legal arrangement between the CAA and the Cubs. So the ® on the Cubs’ uniform has nothing to do with the CAA.
Incidentally, those people who first advocated the blue circle back in 1908 were right about the stained glass.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Awesome DIY project by Jeff Barak, who writes: “When I was a kid I bought several of the 1973 Fleer Baseball Big Signs. As an adult, I was able to add a few of the missing ones at a baseball card show, and I eventually got the rest of them off of eBay. But a couple of teams changed logos shortly after the set of signs came out and, as time passed, more expansion teams joined MLB, so my set of signs again started to feel incomplete. So I decided to make an ‘update set’ for the Fleer Big Signs in the style of the originals.” Jeff eventually showed his creations to JC Helf, webmaster of the completely amazing Fleer Sticker Project site, who featured Jeff’s designs in a recent entry. You can also see JC’s entry on the original Big Signs series here — all highly recommended. … Interesting tidbit in the middle of this story about Yadier Molina’s latest injury. The relevant passage (spotted by Ryan Johnston) reads, “Molina had a mild concussion in September of last season, prompting bullpen catcher Jeff Murphy to improvise a hybrid catcher’s mask. For better protection, he merged the shell of the hockey-style mask with the padding from a traditional mask. … Since the Wings beat the Pens, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell had to settle a bet by wearing a Wings sweater. Details here (with thanks to Morris Levin). … Hadn’t seen this before: gumball-style helmets modeled after the Riddell Revolution design (big thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … “Took this photo over the weekend during the introductions of a softball all-star game,” writes Steve Johnston. “Kind of speaks for itself. Love the expressions from the girls standing in line next to her.” … When the Bills play occasional home games in Toronto over the next five years, they’ll be wearing this patch. Details here. There’s also some discussion about possibly adding a uni-borne memorial for Tim Russert. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Georgia Tech football uni poll here. … I was walking through an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx yesterday afternoon when a lot of yelling and cheering emerged from a bar. Maybe it was because Italy’s Antonio Cassano got a little carried away celebrating his squad’s victory over France yesterday (thanks, Bryan). … In case you missed it, Mets GM Omar Minaya, asked why he fired Willie Randolph at the team’s hotel instead of at the stadium, said, “I don’t believe in firing a manager after the game in uniform,” becaus that would be a “disrespect.” So after losing his first game as interium skipper last night, Jerry Manuel quipped, “I made it through. I’m going to have to sleep in this uniform, though.”
June 18th, 2008
As many of you know, we’re lucky to have a trademark attorney in the Uni Watch readership. That would be Anthony Verna (who, in addition to his legal practice, has a blog devoted to trademark law). After my little ramble last Friday about the the circle-R trademark symbol that appears on the Cubs’ home jersey patch (if you missed that spiel, look here), Anthony generously offered to help sort out the situation — an offer I happily accepted.
Anthony ended up sending me a fairly lengthy explanation. With his permission, I’ve taken the liberty of shaping it into the following Q-and-A:
What’s the point of the ® symbol?
The simple answer is this: Companies whose trademarks are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office must use the symbol or else the registration may be lost. That symbol is the only symbol that shows that a company’s trademark is registered with the USPTO.
Okay, but why register a trademark to begin with?
The basic answer is to show to the world what the mark signifies. It shows the source of goods or services and the quality of those goods or services. (Please, no joking about how the Cubs have played over the last century or so!)
But do you have to use the ® every single time your mark appears?
Many trademark attorneys advise their clients to place the ® symbol everywhere (in fact, an employee at a company that’s a client of mine complained about having to make sure that the symbol was always there). There may be times when there might be a business-related reason not to include the symbol, but I advise my clients to keep those to a minimum. For example, would anyone want to buy a CD by a band whose name is followed by the ® symbol? The symbol should certainly be on items such as advertisements, press releases, web sites, etc.
Okay, so how does this all apply to the Cubs? When did they register their logo?
The Cubs’ first registered trademark that I can find comes from May 20, 1969. It’s the familiar logo where “Cubs” is in a circle and the “C” is bigger than the rest of the word.
But if you look at photos from the 1970s, the Cubs didn’t use the ®. If they registered the mark in 1969, why did they wait until the early ’80s to add the symbol?
It’s hard to say why. My only guess would be that an aggressive trademark attorney joined their corporate structure around the time the symbol started appearing.
Alright, so that covers the Cubs. But what about other teams — don’t all major-level sports teams register their logos?
I think so. (The old Hartford Whalers were an exception — their logo was never registered. The NHL started the process once the team moved to Carolina and was renamed the Hurricanes but never finished.)
Then why don’t all these other teams wear the trademark symbol?
They’ve chosen not to. As a trademark lawyer and a sports fan, I like the example of the New Jersey Devils. Their red “NJ” logo has been registered since January 10, 1984, but of course the ® symbol isn’t on their uniform. And why should it be? The uniform itself tells us that they are the New Jersey Devils. They do use the symbol, however, on their licensed goods. To me, this strikes the right balance. We already know, as sports fans, who the mark belongs to, so the appearance of the symbol seems redundant to me on the uniform when worn on the field. But using it in all other areas, such as licensed goods, is an effective way to communicate that the mark is a registered trademark and that the goods or services represented by the mark come from the proper companies.
So you’re basically saying that the Cubs’ logo is no more (or less) trademarked than any other team’s logo, but that the Cubs engage in a bit of overkill by taking the extra step of using the ® symbol on their uniform?
Yes.
So there you have it: Just about every team could add the symbol, but the Cubs are the only ones who’ve gone to that extreme. Let’s hope it stays that way. Big thanks to Anthony for helping to explain this complex situation.
Personally, I still suspect the symbol began appearing on the uniform more or less by accident (i.e., the company making the chest patches based their embroidery pattern on a logo sheet that happened to have the trademark symbol, and it’s been stuck there ever since), but I suspect we’ll never know for sure.
One thing we can try to determine, though, is exactly when the symbol began appearing on the uniform. The earliest instance I’ve found of the symbol appearing in a positively dated photo is 1984. But the photo for this 1983 baseball card was almost certainly taken in 1982 (Jenkins didn’t pitch for the Cubs in ’81, so it couldn’t have been taken then), so ’82 is now my benchmark year. If you have any old Cubs yearbooks, programs, or any other photographic evidence that would help sort this out, please get in touch.
Pedro Update: I’m not declaring a winner yet in the “name Pedro’s missing button” sweepstakes, because one of the submissions raises some interesting questions. In yesterday’s comments, Roger Faso wrote, “Pedro unbuttons that button to whip out his crucifix and kiss it. I say we call it the Jesus Hole.” This is the first time I’ve heard anyone suggest a reason for the open button. If true, it will definitely affect the name we assign to this phenomenon.
Just one problem: I’ve never noticed Pedro pulling his necklace out through the area of the second button. Has anyone else? I wrote to Roger and asked if he’d actually seen Pedro doing this, or if he was just speculating, or joking, or what, but so far no response. Stay tuned.
Special Raffle for NYC-Area Readers: We’ve all seen the final few pitches of Don Larsen’s perfect game. But how’d you like to see the entire game (well, beginning in the top of the 2nd), complete with the original play-by-play commentary and even the original commercials? A screening of precisely that will be taking place on Thursday, July 10th, at 6pm. It’s at B.B. King’s in Times Square (odd venue, right?), and the ticket price is $30 (crazy, right?), but I’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away.
To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to uniraffle [at] earthlink [dot] net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm eastern this Friday. Please enter only if you’ll actually be able to use the tickets yourself. Since that stipulation will narrow down the pool of entrants considerably, there will be no bonus entries for membership program enrollees on this raffle — one person, one entry, period. I’ll announce the winners next Monday.
I’ll be attending the screening myself, by the way, so maybe we can convene a Uni Watch gathering afterward. More details on that later on.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I’m completely stoked over my latest vintage jersey. No idea what it was used for (soccer?), but it’s totally boss (extra-special thanks to Scott Turner, who tipped me wise to this one after spotting it on eBay). … Father’s Day follow-up: A few of the White Sox players wore blue face paint on Sunday (with thanks to Steve Johnston). … Good article here about the Yankees prospect who can pitch with either arm and wears a glove with six fingers and two webs (with thanks to Eric Stengel). … Latest accessory for rodeo clowns: faux stirrups (good catch by Benjamin C. Graff). … I’ve heard about Tony Conigliaro wearing a “Tony C.” NOB, but I’d never seen it until now (great find by Rich Kauffman). … Logo creep alert from Greg Riffenburgh, who notes that Czech soccer coach Karel Brückner had a Puma logo on his shirt collar the other day. … Also from Greg: Bit of a dust-up regarding the new TSA uniforms. … Great stripe-o-rama submission from John Calabrese. The player is Daultan Leveille of the St. Catherine’s Falcons. … Many of you have seen this already, but Michigan’s new Adidas football jerseys will apparently look like this and this. … “I was watching the Tigers/Giants game Monday night,” writes Alan Topolski. “They were highlighting different moments in Giants history, and they highlighted July 5, 1987, when Kevin Mitchell made his Giants debut by homering at Wrigley. The equipment manager must have been given very short notice, because Mitchell had NNOB!” … I’ll be off the grid for most of today (interviewing for a Mets coaching position, natch), so play nice. Back tomorrow.
June 17th, 2008
Okay, so I know I’ve been obsessing over buttons quite a bit lately, and I also know some of you think I write too often about the Mets. But this thing with Pedro Martinez has officially crossed over into freaky-deeky territory.
Quickly, the backstory: As many of you are aware, when Pedro made his very abbreviated first start of the year on April 1st in Florida, his second button was unfastened. Two months, two days, and one calf injury later, he returned to the mound in San Francisco — with his second button undone yet again.
Martinez’s third appearance of the year was eight days ago in San Diego. I didn’t watch that game, but he seemed to be fully buttoned, at least judging by this photo. So I chalked up the other two instances to bizarre coincidence and figured that was the end of that.
Pedro returned to the mound yesterday. And guess what returned with him: the phantom second button. Like, whiskey tango foxtrot?!
That got me wondering about Pedro’s previous start — the one in San Diego where the photo had shown him fully buttoned. So last night I checked out some video from that game, and look what I found. As it turns out, Martinez was fully buttoned in the 1st inning but reverted to his new signature style in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th (after which he was removed from the game, presumably for remedial button-fastening lessons).
So Pedro is now four-for-four with this new look of his. Is it some sort of ritualistic superstition? A secret shout-out to Lefty Grove or Leo Durocher? (Pedro is rather lippy, after all.) More to the point, what shall we call this style — a hole-in-two? The jersey unshored? Petey’s problem? Post your suggested terminology in today’s comments and I’ll give a free Uni Watch membership (or, for existing members, a new card design) to the person who comes up with the one I like best.
Something else about Pedro yesterday, by the way: no Father’s Day ribbon. Lots of blue ribbons and armbands elsewhere throughout MLB, though. I don’t know about you, but my prostate feels better already.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Weekend throwback scorecard: Awesome to see the cartoon Oriole cap logo, and even nicer that they went to the trouble of making throwback helmets — except they made them wrong (the white panel should look like this). Interesting to see that they kept the Jim McKay memorial armband. And look — no MLB logo on the back of the jerseys or the caps! … Meanwhile, over in the Bay Area (where the Giants had the MLB mark on jerseys but not on caps), Barry Zito had something poking out of his waistband. I was hoping they’d go with the orange sanitaries, but no such luck. … And in Cleveland, the Indians went with belted pants when an elastic waistband was called for. This was the weekend’s only throwback game featuring both teams in retro attire, as the Padres stuck to their regular batting helmets and used belted pants and radially arched nameplates (with no MLB logo) when they should have gone with striped waistbands and a vertical arch. Major bonus points, however, for including the 1978 All-Star Game patch. Jeff Mouldin was at the game and has dozens of additional pics (including several of Heath Bell’s brown-on-gold stirrups) here. … More on the Padres’ uniforms, from Mike Hersh: “I noticed most of the Padres didn’t like their brown undershirts with the mock-turtleneck collar. Most of the guys looked like they used scissors to cut the neckline. Edgar Gonzalez did the worst job of it. And Edgar’s younger brother, Adrian, decided to say screw it and just wore a white undershirt.” … Want to make your own vintage socks? Okay, you probably don’t, but this piece is still pretty interesting (with thanks to Joe Hilseberg, who also pointed me toward two old-school “base ball” uniform sources, here and here). … “Hens and Hogs Night” in Toledo last Thursday, with the Mud Hens wearing Harley-inspired jerseys (courtesy of Wayne Koehler). … Civil War regiment? Nope — it’s a circa-1900 baseball team. Amazing jackets! (Big thanks to Jim Herrmann.) … Kevin Brotzman notes that this story on Jonathan Ogden’s retirement includes the following passage: “Ogden recalled getting handed a white Ravens baseball cap with black block lettering when his name was announced during the draft. ‘I’m like, “What is this?”‘ he said, drawing hearty laughs from the crowd. ‘We didn’t have colors, we didn’t have logos, we didn’t have nothing. And I remember coming to minicamp and my first rookie card, I got a white helmet on.’” … “One of my friends lives in Austria and his local team is FC Blau Weiss Linz (Blue White Linz), a lower level Austrian team,” writes Chris Cruz. “I was watching a video clip of the team and noticed that although the team was sponsored by ‘Lenze,’ one guy (the captain) was wearing a shirt sponsored by ‘is.’” I’d never seen such a thing before, but apparently it’s not unheard of in Austria for a specific player to have a contract with a different sponsor.” … While searching for something else, I came across this photo of Gaylord Perry. Looks like he cut his collar). … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: The Cubs apparently wanted to use zippered jerseys for last Thursday’s throwback game, but MLB wouldn’t let them — or at least that’s what it says in the bottom-left of this page, which was printed on the inside front cover of the program for Thursday’s game (and was generously scanned and forwarded by Kasey Ignarski). … Steve Sundell reports that NASA has a new spacesuit manufacturer (and no, it’s not Nike). … NPR’s Marketplace program ran an interesting sneaker-history piece the other day. Listen to it here (with thanks to Jonna Pedrioli). … “The Grizzlies ‘celebrated’ Friday the 13th by wearing special jerseys with slash marks across them,” writes Aaron Wiens. “They also all wore the number 13.” … Steve Ashpole reports that Green River Community College has two interesting stirrup designs: Packers-striped (additional view here) and team-monogrammed (additional pics here, here, and here). … The Carolina Mudcats celebrated Rocky Mount Night this week by wearing 1960’s era Rocky Mount Leafs uniforms from the old Carolina League. Lots of pics here. … No photos, but a troubling communiqué from Jeremy Brahm: “I’ve noticed a problem with Nike’s soccer uniforms: They are tearing on the front of jerseys. I’ve attended numerous Portland Timbers games this year and have seen three uniforms tear in front of me, and one during a televised road match. I have seen one of the Nike uniforms at the Euro2008 tournament do the same. The tear happens on the front of the jersey, around the numbers. Maybe it’s because of the numbers are heat-pressed as opposed to being sewn? But then you’d think that the sponsor logo would do the same, but it always seems to be below the sponsor’s logo.” … “I found this page, which details the uniforms worn this past season by the soccer EPL’s latest member, Hull City,” writes Geneva Fox. … Argentina NT and Uruguay NT played a friendly basketball match the other day, and Alejandro Macri (writing all the way from Buenos Aires!) reports that Uruguay used a zero for all sub-10 numbers. Here’s a good view of the Argentine design. … Has MLB always sold sleeve patches online? If so, I wasn’t aware of it, but they’re definitely doing it now (as discovered by Chris Brown). … Gorgeous (but expensive) 1912 baseball equipment catalog available here. … Very odd item here: a raglan-styled vest. Did it originally have full sleeves that were later cut off? Why would you construct a vest with vestigal raglan “sleeves”? … Here’s something I’ve never seen before: a Spalding uniform tape measure. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Cool little site documenting ice cream sundae helmets here. … Here’s something I hadn’t seen before: a short video clip showing a very young Shaq in his McDonald’s All-American uni (nice find by Dominick Carfello. … I met Gabriel Urist at a party on Friday. He’s a metalsmith who does all sorts of sports-themed jewelry — NBA-related, mostly, but he told me he just got an MLB license and will be producing lots of baseball stuff soon (he’ll have a booth at the All-Star Game’s FanFest blowout). His stuff is way too blingy for me, but he struck me as an interesting guy, and I plan to stay in touch with him.
June 16th, 2008
There’s been much discussion and praise tossed around in these parts during the great baseball throwback siege of 2008. It started with the Cubs and Braves on Thursday, followed with the Orioles and Giants on Friday, and peaked dizzyingly on Saturday with the Indians and Padres. Whee!
But it’s time to stop now. Not the praise — if that floats your boat, go for it. It’s time to stop the throwbacks if they’re going to be done like this. Or like this. Or even like this. The colors and fonts and hats and everything may be right, but until the uniforms are cut properly, it’s just a different costume. The point of the “throwback” is to display an old look. This isn’t old, it’s sloppy. This, for example, is a throwback. This is not. Tighten the pants and jerseys, get those cuffs up — not like this — and show some stirrup. And quit whining about comfort. Polyester on 90-degree days is uncomfortable no matter how it’s cut. Deal with it.
Now get off my lawn, you damn kids! — Bryan
June 15th, 2008
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