joe said:

“In Chicago [Blackhawks] tickets were harder to get than bears tickets.”

Yeah, go on and blame Bettman for that, will you? It was Bill Wirtz’s damn fault he was stuck in the 1970’s with his policy of not televising home games (except for the playoffs on pay-per-view) and not even knowing how to properly promote a team. His son, Rocky has done better, planning to telecast all 82 games and getting the Winter Classic to The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field where they will more than likely break out the vintage 1940’s barber pole unis for that game, as will the 1928 Red Wings duds as well. Oh, did I tell you that licensed items have gone up in Blackhawk Country, too?

umm, never said that was Bettmans fault, the point was the tix were incredibly hard to get because they were popular.

corrected

joe said:

“In Chicago [Blackhawks] tickets were harder to get than bears tickets.”

Yeah, go on and blame Bettman for that, will you? It was Bill Wirtz’s damn fault he was stuck in the 1970’s with his policy of not televising home games (except for the playoffs on pay-per-view) and not even knowing how to properly promote a team. His son, Rocky has done better, planning to telecast all 82 games and getting the Winter Classic to The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field where they will more than likely break out the vintage 1940’s barber pole unis for that game, as will the 1928 Red Wings duds as well. Oh, did I tell you that licensed items have gone up in Blackhawk Country, too?

umm, never said that was wirtz’ fault, the point was the tix were incredibly hard to get because they were popular.

“In Chicago [Blackhawks] tickets were harder to get than bears tickets.”

Yeah, go on and blame Bettman for that, will you? It was Bill Wirtz’s damn fault he was stuck in the 1970’s with his policy of not televising home games (except for the playoffs on pay-per-view) and not even knowing how to properly promote a team. His son, Rocky has done better, planning to telecast all 82 games and getting the Winter Classic to The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field where they will more than likely break out the vintage 1940’s barber pole unis for that game, as will the 1928 Red Wings duds as well. Oh, did I tell you that licensed items have gone up in Blackhawk Country, too?

Christopher said:

Thomas said:

I’m going to sound like a crazy person, because I didn’t get a screenshot and I don’t know how to describe it, but I really want to know what it was:

Did anyone else notice that it both dugouts, against the back wall, there were charts with what looked like rules or descriptions of uniforms? There were different colored stars, and each had an oval underneath, with the oval looking almost like a pant leg schematic. In one close-up shot of Lou Pinella, I could see it over his shoulder, and I noticed the word “Outfielders” written below a group of about six of these star/oval designs, which led to me to uni-centric conclusion. (Of course, that could also be wishful thinking.)

But did anyone else see this?

This is the best I could find:

http://www.baseballr...

http://www.baseballr...

See the thing in the back? Look like what you’re talking about. No idea what it is.

I do have an idea… might it be the chart of how they’re supposed to line up before the game when being announced? It looks like a drawing of all the players.

I’d suppose such a chart would exist somewhere?

Wow. Thanks a bunch for the screenshot, as well as the excellent theory. The Pinella shot, I think, happened when Marmol was in the game, so the 13th inning. But that’s exactly what I was talking about. Appreciate it.

So I just saw this picture on Page2 and was wondering what on earth is on Jason Varitek’s legs here? I presume something to do with catching. Maybe knee braces he slides on over his pants while behind the plate? Anyone?

Varitek wears knee sleeves, like so:

http://www.comparest...

Sorry if the link doesn’t work, first time trying to insert one. Anyway, after he left the game, he pulled them out from beneath his pants and had them around his ankles. I was surprised to see them, because even as a long-time Sox fan, I had no idea he wore them. It must be because he’s so rarely removed from regular season games, and rarely has the chance to sit back and relax on the bench.

Look at the numbers for any of the years before the jordan era the NHL was outdrawing the NBA by a wide margin per game. Only the bulls had over a 10,000/game avarage in 73. there were tmeas in teh NBA getting 5000/game, and the NBA areans held more people than the NHL ones since most were used for both and they added floor seating for basketball since the court is so much smaller then the ice surface.

Stuby said:

joe said:

Ricko said:

“hockey was bigger than hoops from the time hoops started until jordan took over”? Where, on Earth Two? Certainly not is U.S. here on Earth One.

I will grant that hockey can point to Howe and Hull as mainstream legends during that time, but basketball can claim, among plenty of others, Mikan, Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Irving, Bird, Johnson…

I was not talking about individuals, I’m talking about the leagues, the NHL was bigger then the NBA until the Jordan explosion of the NBA. Remember prior to MJ the NBA finals we played on *late* night tape delays.

And in a good part of the U.S. at that time, hockey wasn’t on TV at all.

well said, mr. greenlee

i also fail to see how a league that had only 6 teams until like 1967 was more popular than hoops…although to be fair…neither sport was very popular at all, what with football and baseball…they were almost ‘time fillers’ to get us from late fall/early winter until spring

the NBA wasn’t exactly full of teams at that point either, and what they had was very unstable, with teams coming in and out. they went to 10 teams in 51, 9 in 53, 8 in 54, 9 in 61 (bulls). The NHL was stable since the 30’s People whine that too many teams get in the NHL playoffs, 16 make it, same in hoops, but there are less NBA teams, a higher % of NBA teams make the playoffs.

LI Phil said:

Stuby said:

joe said:

Ricko said:

“hockey was bigger than hoops from the time hoops started until jordan took over”? Where, on Earth Two? Certainly not is U.S. here on Earth One.

I will grant that hockey can point to Howe and Hull as mainstream legends during that time, but basketball can claim, among plenty of others, Mikan, Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Irving, Bird, Johnson…

I was not talking about individuals, I’m talking about the leagues, the NHL was bigger then the NBA until the Jordan explosion of the NBA. Remember prior to MJ the NBA finals we played on *late* night tape delays.

And in a good part of the U.S. at that time, hockey wasn’t on TV at all.

well said, mr. greenlee

i also fail to see how a league that had only 6 teams until like 1967 was more popular than hoops…although to be fair…neither sport was very popular at all, what with football and baseball…they were almost ‘time fillers’ to get us from late fall/early winter until spring

And there is the real truth of it. Neither was big, relatively speaking.

In defense of my earlier point, how could basketball get so many more mainstream legends without the NBA being popular than the NHL? Would seem to be impossible.

I do give the NHL credit for expanding properly. Given their small number of original teams, creating an entire new division was brilliant. It established instant new rivalries among those teams, between the new teams against the storied teams and, equally as important, guaranteed an expansion team would play in the Stanley Cup finals, and it stayed that way for a number of years. Looked really stupid at the time but, long term, was a master stroke.

the NBA finals were on tape delays until 82. Most people thought of the NBA until the 80’s as nothing but a league of pot smoking tall freaks. The league was in trouble until johnson/bird, and exploded with Jordan. Hockey was drawing full houses in almost every game until bettman arrived and diluted the talent by moving the game south. In chicago hawks tickets *were* harder to get than bears tickets. Bettman f’d everything up with his lets go to the sunbelt idea. there shouldnt be any teams south of St louis. Basketball is falling back into irrelevance as hockey did in the 90’s until now. its bigger now, but at the rate its having scandals that might not last.

joe said:

Ricko said:

“hockey was bigger than hoops from the time hoops started until jordan took over”? Where, on Earth Two? Certainly not is U.S. here on Earth One.

I will grant that hockey can point to Howe and Hull as mainstream legends during that time, but basketball can claim, among plenty of others, Mikan, Russell, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Irving, Bird, Johnson…

I was not talking about individuals, I’m talking about the leagues, the NHL was bigger then the NBA until the Jordan explosion of the NBA. Remember prior to MJ the NBA finals we played on *late* night tape delays.

And in a good part of the U.S. at that time, hockey wasn’t on TV at all.

no, just on CBS (last I checked national, and back then one of the few nationals)as a game of the week with the finals getting air time also.

Not to be outdone, in the AAA All Star Game, Rochester Red Wing Darnell McDonald is wearing an Indianapolis Indians batting helmet.

I saw a couple of hitters in that one. The Pawtucket Red Sox uni had patches on both sleeves and on the left chest. Guy looked almost NASCAR-esque.