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Archive for July, 2008
Several readers have spoken highly of this 1969 book, which chronicles the first half-century of the NFL, so I tracked down a copy. Sure enough, tons of great stuff. Here are some highlights:
• First and foremost, there’s a section devoted to the evolution of the uniform, featuring a kickass series of illustrations showing what was worn by the 1920 Decatur Staleys, the 1921 Packers, the 1926 Duluth Eskimos (my favorite of the bunch), the 1948 Rams, and so on. There are some major surprises here — did you know, for example, that the Giants once dressed like this? Or that the Bears, for one season, wore this? Yabba-dabba-doo! The Lions, on the other hand, haven’t changed that much.
• Check out this illo of Lenny Moore, circa 1957. Naturally, the caption mentions his famous spats, but there’s also this: “The yellowish substance on the shoes is a resin many ball carriers dab on their fingers to get more tack on the ball.” This is the earliest reference to stickum I’ve ever seen. Also from the caption: “The sweat band on his wrist was borrowed from tennis.” So are they saying Moore was the first NFLer to wear a sweatband? Major discovery!
• There’s also a series of awesome poster-style illustrations devoted to over a dozen important NFL historical figures, including Johnny U, Crazy Legs Hirsch, John Mackey, Jim Brown, Don Hutson, Chuck Bednarik, Gino Marchetti, Leo Nomellini, Louie the Toe, Gale Sayers, Cal Hubbard, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, Night Train Lane, and Elmen Tunnell.
• Great padding/gear photo here.
• Did you know the Redskins used to wear their Indian-head logo on their chest, sort of like the Blackhawks? Look!
• There are lots of photos showing Lucite facemasks. Note that in this shot, the backfield is Lucite-masked, while the linemen have conventional cages.
• I’m fascinated by the berets and bow ties that early officials wore, as seen here, here, and here.
• Here’s the oldest, rattiest jersey I’ve ever seen. And the 8 appears to be upside-down!
• Rare shot here of the Browns’ block-shadowed numbers.
• We’ve all seen this SI cover featuring Y.A. Tittle. But I’d never seen that helmet in action until I saw this photo (note the light-colored nighttime ball, too). Also, oddly, they chose to use Tittle and his helmet as the subject for this illustration. The caption includes the following note: “Although Tittle wore high top shoes, low cuts were becoming the most popular shoes. With the mandatory taping of ankles, the high cuts were no longer necessary.” I’d never heard about mandatory ankle taping before, or its effect on footwear styles!
• Love the striping and shoulder yokes here.
• Check out this shot of the overtime coin toss from the famous 1958 championship game. No wonder the Giants lost the game — their captains were taking refuge in a sideline cape while Johnny U was rarin’ to go. Bad form, no?
• You don’t often see pics from the early-’70s Pro Bowls, back when they wore “A” and “N” helmets.
• Hey, Jim Bakken — fasten your chinstrap!
Want to get your own copy of this fine volume? Look here.
And now a note from Vince: I’m looking for unique sports-related T-shirts, not unlike the beautiful Brewers shirt Paul linked to last week. Anything different, timely, relatively unknown, undiscovered, or featuring great design would be welcomed. Have a favorite tee you’d like to share with the world, own a company that makes kick ass shirts, or know of somewhere to get some great gear? Drop me a note with the pertinent details. Thanks much.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Paul here. Fascinating story here about a factual error in one of the Steelers’ Super Bowl ring designs. … Dig these great high school hoops unis from 1972. Love those big bullseye numbers (with thanks to Chris Markham). … Mark Jones sent along this photo from the 1966 Cotton Bowl. Note that the two LSU players have mismatched pants striping. … Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho will wear No. 80. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a number that high on a soccer jersey,” says Greg Riffenburgh. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Dodgers print Andy LaRoche’s NOB in all caps, while the Pirates style his brother Adam’s NOB with a small cap. … When I visit Portland next month, I hope most of the locals can spell better than whoever created these jerseys at the Highland Games (with thanks to Ryan Hossner). … Andrew Ferguson reports that BU basketball has a new 100th-anniversary logo, although it isn’t clear yet if it’ll be worn as a patch. … Can’t remember if we’ve covered this already, but just in case: Miami will supposedly be wearing this alternate jersey this season — yikes (with thanks to Mike Camello). … Got an interesting note from Mike Frentz, who attends the same church where Marc Sagmoen is a youth pastor. Sagmoen, as some of you may recall, is the outfielder who was called up by the Rangers and issued No. 42 on April 15th, 1997 — the same day the number was retired by MLB (we’ve discussed this previously here on the site; for details, scroll down to the middle of this entry). Mike writes: “On April 15, 2007 (a Sunday, as it happens), [Sagmoen] brought in the jersey he wore for that one game, the 10th anniversary of his MLB debut. As he tells the story, he’s sitting there in the on-deck circle in the 4th inning of his big league debut. As he and Mickey Tettleton get loose, Mickey says to him, ‘Take your jersey off.’ Marc is confused, even after Mickey repeats the message. Finally, exasperated, Mickey points to the Jumbotron, where President Clinton is making the announcement that Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 will be retired across baseball. ‘Now batting, number 42…’ … Anyway, the question I the question I wanted to ask is this: Marc claims that this incident makes him the only player in the four major pro sports to play one game and then have his jersey number retired. Can you verify this, or come up with counterexamples for me to show him? I’m not talking about ceremonial comeback stints or numbers that were never used again (like Eddie Gaedel’s 1/8). The player must have played exactly one game and then had his number formally retired.” Good question. Anyone..? … I work for ESPN.com, so how come it took Stu Taylor to tell me that the site is doing a college football helmet poll? … See that little chest patch on Kyle Boller’s jersey? The Ravens are giving that to players who attended at least 85% of the team’s off-season workouts (plus they get a piece of candy, a gold star, and a nice note from the teacher to show their parents). Here’s a closer look (with thanks to Jack Krabbe). … Gibby Davis notes that Shawn Marcum appears to have a more southerly Pedro porthole. … Paul Wiederecht sent along this shot of the 1989 Pittsfield Mets. Thank got the parent club never used that striped waistband. And what’s with the one guy with the striped pants? … Good info here on Roger Federer’s Olympics attire (with thanks toBrinke Guthrie). … Here’s something you don’t often see: a Little League team in Negro Leagues throwbacks (with thanks to Michael Miller). … Scott Novosel sent along this shot from a 1976 all-star tour of Japan. Look at all the National Leaguers wearing pillbox caps! … David Sonny notes that Johnny Cueto has switched from a black glove to a red one. … DC report from John Muir, who writes: “On Thursday, July 17th, my girlfriend and I went to the 47th Annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park, the first to be held in the new stadium. I had to use my cell phone camera, because her camera battery died. Those shots, and several scans from the official program, can be found here. Some notes from the game: Democrats took the left dugout, Republicans the right; Dem. Batting helmets were blue, Reps. Red; all Congressmen wore the uniforms of their home MLB, minor league, local college (some of them were alma maters), or hometown travel team; Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) wore a No. 9 Mets home alternate, with solid blue cap and high blue socks; Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Cali) wore No. IX, in reference to Title IX; Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Az) donned the Diamondbacks road brick, with full black tights; Rep. Joe Buca (D-Cali) wore a Dodgers home jersey and cap, but with oddly piped pants; former Florida GOP Rep. Lou Frey Jr., who’s slated to be inducted into the Congressional Baseball HOF, was in attendance — he wore Dodgers off-white throwback.” … Good soccer uni site here (with thanks to A.C.). … And here’s a compendium of Olympics posters dating back to 1896 (as forward by Marcus Ramsey). … Thanks to everyone who came down to KGB last night — hope you had as much fun as I did.
July 23rd, 2008
How great is Ricko? This great. Maybe you were doodling uniform drawings in your notebook or devising new logos for your favorite team, but Ricko basically doing proto-Okkonen-esque work back around 1960, three decades before Okkonen’s book was published. “These look quite juvenile,” he says, “but keep in mind I was just a kid.” Sorry, dude, false modesty doesn’t suit you. I mean, look at this stuff — totally obsessive, totally brilliant. Dude even documented the AFL All-Star Game uniforms!
“These ones show how tough it was, almost 50 years ago, to get things right,” say Ricko. “Nothing was in color — not TV, not newspapers. Maybe an SI cover or article, or Sport magazine (if you wanted to wait for it) or gum cards (ditto). If the play-by-play guys didn’t say the colors of the unis in the new AFL, you didn’t have a clue. Hence the incorrect black-gold Art Powell for ’63. Saw the new unis on a B&W TV and figured Al Davis (who had coached at Army) had decided that the Raiders ought to LOOK like Army. On a later telecast, after I’d already made that card, an announcer said the Raiders were in ’silver pants and helmets’ — that’s how I learned they’d changed their colors. Davis had, in fact, styled the Raiders unis after the Black Knights, but had changed from the earlier Raider black and gold.”
As for the outline template, Ricko says it’s “based on one of the drawings of Jim Brown in the cover story from this issue of SI, which I’m pretty sure I no longer have, so, I can’t show you the original. Anyway, by 1963 I realized it made more sense to just start a clippings file.” Speaking of which, here’s the latest batch of treasures from that stash:
• Nice little item here about the Astros’ 1971 jerseys. Love how the jersey is referred to as a “blouse.”
• This one’s a little hard to believe: According to the photo caption in this 1967 article, Rusty Staub would change his shoes after reaching base. Would the umps really tolerate the delay that must have caused? (And if you ever saw Rusty “run,” you know that it would take a lot more than a footwear switcheroo to help him move around the bases.)
• Speaking of soccer cleats, check out Joe Namath in the Orange Bowl (his last college game).
• We’re all familiar with football players spatting their shoes with tape. But several MLB players were doing it in the ’70s, including Dave Parker, Pops, Ed Herrman, Jay Johnstone, and Ed Ott (who apparently used gold tape in Pittsburgh).
• You probably think of Fred Biletnikoff wearing No. 25 (and lots of stickum). But he wore 14 in his rookie season. Here’s a much later shot of him and Cliff Branch dipping into the glue pot.
• Always good to have color images of the White Sox’s white stirrups from the 1959 World Series. And speaking Chisox stirrups, you’ll never find a better shot of the early-’70s design than this one.
• Some great Washington Senators images here: Gil Hodges exhibiting some serious stripeage and Hondo Howard wearing the white spikes the Sens wore in 1971 (not shown in Dressed to the Nines, but they wore ’em, as confirmed in this Denny McLain shot). As for this card, Ricko explains: “Wasn’t it nice of Calvin Griffith to leave his last D.C. uniforms behind for the new Senators to use during spring training? With the hats and socks they’d take into the regular season.”
• And just because I like Ricko’s artwork so much, here are a few more of his illustrations. “I kinda liked Lionel Taylor when I was 14,” he says. He apparently liked Broadway Joe, too.
That’s enough for this time around. Lots more soon.
Two Reminders: Remember, I’ll participating tonight as part of a “Sports and Design” reading series at KGB. It’s free, and it starts at 7pm.
Also, don’t forget my latest research project: Next time you see a home plate ump “cleaning” the plate by kicking the dirt off of it, instead of bending over and using his whisk brush, please make a note of the date, inning, and batter, and then let me know. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember the NFL’s 1994 throwback program? Ronnie Poore somehow got his hands on all of the official style-guide sheets and sent them my way. Some of them don’t match up with what the teams eventually wore (the Niners sheet, e.g., shows a blank helmet, which isn’t what the team wore), but that just makes it all more interesting. You can see a slideshow of all 28 style sheets here. … Ever wonder about the history of the foam finger? Me neither, but here it is anyway. … The Blackhawks held a convention last weekend, and Ryan Connelly notes that the jerseys worn by past and present players had a little convention patch — a nice touch (plus it appears that Stan Mikita has rather Lindsey Nelson-eque taste in sportscoats). … Jeremy Brahm, who’s previously noted the problem of Portland Timbers jerseys ripping during play, says the phenomenon hasn’t been fixed. … No idea how legit this is, but someone is claiming that the new Hornets jerseys will look like this (blame Chris Mycoskie if it turns out to be hooey). … Check out this shot of the 1925 Pirates — even the scouts are in uniform (with thanks to Jerry Wolper). … Here’s another Pirates team shot, this one from 1903. Man, dig those double-breasted jackets (big thanks to Phil Johnson, who also says he was just in Pittsburgh and was puzzled to see that the “Heinz” in Heinz Field is AWOL). … Interesting article here about the tailor to the U.S. Olympic team (with thanks to Dwayne White). … Most of you have never heard of Anne Occi, but she’s a household name to those of us who work with baseball logos and such, because she’s essentially the overseer of, and gatekeeper for, all of MLB’s new designs. Never seen an article about her until now (with thanks to Bill Erdek). … Peter Colvin and I both wanna know how the hell you can have your uni number retired from the NBA Summer League? … Check out what the Austin Blue Sox — an amateur team in Austin, Minnesota — are wearing on their shins (with thanks to Brian Schulz). … Interesting article, plus an embedded video, here about the guy who makes championship boxing and wrestling belts (nice find by Xavier Otero). … You know those clear plastic throat guards that hockey goalies wear? Eric Borer reports that umpire Kerwin Danley, who missed six weeks of action after taking a fastball off his jaw, is now wearing something similar on his hockey-style ump’s mask. … Good UGA equipment slideshow here (with thanks to Brent Hardman). … Russell, Under Armour, and Nike, all at once — ooof (with “thanks” to Jonathon Binet). … Following up on an item from yesterday: Sure enough, Bobby Layne did wear No. 22 for the Longhorns — look here (big thanks to Jim Parker). … Lots of photo links to Va. Tech’s new football uniforms here. … Scroll down to the bottom of this page for loads more vintage base ball photos (with thanks to Ian Hoadley). … Naomi Campbell apparently has a good throwing arm (at least when throwing cell phones at subordinates), so it’s no surprise to see her taking a turn at bat. Additional crimes against nature here and here. … The pine tar phenomenon has trickled down to high school baseball in Iowa (with thanks to Jesse Gavin, who also notes that this team — Davenport Assumption — is a pretty good approximation of what the Braves would look like if they wore vests).
July 22nd, 2008
It was hot in NYC yesterday. Like, really hot. So hot you could feel your eyeballs perspiring and your nuts liquefying. So hot you could break a serious sweat just by breathing. Plenty humid, too. Very, very muggy. Did I mention it was hot?
So I confess that I questioned the wisdom of wearing a second set of hosiery yesterday. Still, the notion of playing softball without stirrups was unthinkable, so it was time for another rummage through the Uni Watch sock drawer.
This week’s design: royal blue, medium-cut.
Ideal for feeling like a member of: According to reader Paul Wiederecht, who gave me these stirrups a while back, these hose were originally the property of the 1978 Mets.
Color-coordination factor: Easy.
How they looked: Not too shabby, right? Nice and bright, with a pretty perfect color-to-white ratio (and yes, I know there’s a hole in the back of that tee, but I’ve had it since 1989 and have lived with a variety of cats in that time — rips and tears happen).
How I felt: Like Craig Swan, who was the N.L. ERA leader in ’78 and had pretty nice stirrup stylings.
How I played: 1-for-4 and a run scored. Did I mention it was really, really hot?
Before I went home, I noticed a gal on an adjacent field wearing these awesome hoop socks. Not a bad one-sock option for a hot day.
(Special thanks to Collateral Gammage for the pics.)
Research Project: Next time you see a home plate ump “cleaning” the plate by kicking the dirt off of it, instead of bending over and using his whisk brush, please make a note of the date, inning, and batter, and then let me know. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Pin-up artist extraordinaire Rob Ullman created this 1969 Chisox rendition for Uni Watch reader Maks, and threw in a modern version to boot! … Rob, incidentally, is now offering a line of T-shirts. If you’re interested in them, and/or want to have Rob create a pin-up illo for you, contact him here. … Last question in this interview with Dwight Smith addresses his sock superstitions. … The annual Oldtime Baseball Game, a charity matchup in which Boston-area college players wear classic flannels, is coming up next month. Details here. … A little birdie tells me Texas Tech’s men’s basketball program will be outfitted by Under Armour this season. … Speaking of Texas Tech, Jon Arnold sent along this. “It’s only a replica, and I can only find it at one store, but it shows a white collar on Tech’s black jersey,” he says. “In the past it has been black, like the rest of the jersey.” … My pal Friederike Paetzold sent along some pics of artwork by a guy named Brian Jungen, who makes Native American/tribal-inspired pieces out of Air Jordans (additional examples here, here, and here). If you want to see more, check out Jungen’s site. … Here’s Babe Ruth in a different sort of uniform (with thanks to Jim Nedelka). … The Temple “T” logo is celebrating its 25th anniversary (with thanks to Morris Levin). … The Mariners and Indians wore 1989 throwbacks on Saturday. Additional pics here, here, here, here, and here. … Meanwhile, the White Sox wore throwbacks yesterday in honor of Harold Baines (additional pics here, here, here, here, and here). … God I hate it when teams wear BP jerseys for a regular-season game, as the Orioles did yesterday. … Miguel Cabrera is still wearing those Phiten-branded socks. Someone in the MLB office, please make this stop, now … Too bad I can’t afford this awesome-looking uniform catalog. … A-Rod had some helmet decal issues yesterday. … And Tim Lincecum had tag issues (thanks, Brinke). … Who does these stirrups belong to? Giants pitcher Geno Espineli, who tossed a scoreless frame yesterday in his MLB debut yesterday, that’s who. Let’s all wish him continued success (with thanks to Matt Garcia). … “I used to be a student equipment manager at the Univ. of Minnesota, with the football team,” writes Tris Wykes. “The Buffalo Bills trained at our complex when they were in Minnesota for the Super Bowl vs. the Redskins. One night, I went in and tried on Mark Kelso’s enormous helmet — the one with the ProCap on it.” … Last week I linked to the NYC Diamond Jubilee patch that the Mets wore on their dugout jackets in 1973. That prompted this response from Alec Orenstein: “The patch lists all the boroughs of New York, but Staten Island is listed as Richmond. That’s fine, because Staten Island is Richmond County. But following that logic, Brooklyn should be listed as Kings, because Brooklyn is Kings County. But instead it simply says Brooklyn.” … Hilarious account here of American synchro swimmer Christina Jones behaving like a materialistic moron getting lots of free Olympic swag. Key quote, from an on-site photo assistant: “We definitely want the Nike logo to show.’’ Of course you do (with thanks once again to Brinke Guthrie). … Sage Bray participates in one of those “vintage base ball” leagues where everyone dresses in period costume (there’s a full photo gallery here). “One element you may particularly dig, although it may not be historically accurate, is that we wear white jersey lacing for home games and black lacing for road games,” he says. “I believe we’re the only team in the league with any sort of home/road uni distinction.” … Remember this shirt? The guy who makes them says he has a new batch in stock (plus he has this design in the works). If you want in, give him a shout and tell him I sent ya. … Uni-numerical mystery from Matt Walker, who notes that the Longhorns are retiring a bunch of numbers, including No. 22 for Bobby Layne. Thing is, Layne wore 22 in the NFL but, as Matt writes, “the only number I’ve ever known him to wear as a Longhorn is 41.” Anyone know more about this? … David Holland sent along lots of great Baltimore Bullets-related stuff. First, dig the classic old logo on Gus Johnson’s jersey. Next, check out this team photo and note that half the players have an older logo (capital B) and the other half have the newfangled one (lowercase b, outstretched hands on the double-l). And how can you not love this, this, this, and this? … Several readers are reporting that Lou Piniella’s jersey featured his All-Star Game sleeve patch yesterday. No photo yet, though. … This is beyond awesome (great find by John Muir). … Best baseball outerwear photo ever? Could be. That’s Ernie Shore in the plaid coat and Grover Cleveland Alexander in the sweater (big thanks to Bob Andrews). … Two interesting tidbits from Jim Parker, beginning with a UCLA tale: “In the mid- to late 1950s, UCLA’s legendary head football coach Henry ‘Red’ Sanders would purchase the team’s home powder blue jerseys in a lighter shade of blue each successive season, until they were almost as pale as the visiting teams white jerseys (although the jerseys were still blue enough for players and fans to tell the two teams apart). Several years later, UCLA’s longtime equipment manager revealed why: Players and fans could tell the two teams apart, but it was virtually impossible to make the same distinction on the black-and-white game or ’scout’ films. In these films of the UCLA games, the offense and defense immediately blended into one indistinguishable group after every hike of the ball.” Next up from Jim, a little noted NFL factoid: “This is somehow a well-kept secret and oddity among most uni experts, but in 1949, at the owner’s insistence, the L.A. Rams wore red unis, complete with a red helmet. They lost in the NFL championship to the Eagles that year and went back to their traditional blues the following season.” … Remember those basketball capes I recently showed? Ryan Priest sent along this 1964 Evansville shot. “As you can see,” he writes, “unlike the capes you featured, these are robes with sleeves. (It was Evansville after all. Everything had sleeves.) ccording to an e-mail I received from UE Athletic Equipment Manager Daryl Buente, ‘Coach McCutchan’s team always wore pullover warmup jackets during pregame warmups and full-length robes, with snaps all the way down, on the bench. Until 1968, there were robes of many colors: red, green, yellow, light blue, and gray. In the ’50s, the robes were two solid colors, white and purple. When I was a freshman in fall 1968, Coach McCutchan bought orange robes and kept them until he retired in ’77.’ He went on to tell me that he gave Jerry Sloan the last robe in his possession (a gray one) upon his retirement as a player.”
July 21st, 2008
Paul’s smoking athletes story was a while back on Page 2, but here’s one from Saturday. Golfers are the easiest to catch on camera, obviously. I think it’s because, while golfing is a very nice skill, it doesn’t take that much athletic ability to do it. You don’t have to be fast or tall or strong, necessarily, and you certainly don’t have to curtail your smoking to be good at it. It’s just a nice long walk with a pause every so often to whack a ball around. Plus, this picture makes Dana Quigley look like the prototypical country club shark — visor, golf shirt, leather skin and all. — Bryan
July 20th, 2008
(This entry isn’t 100 percent about uniforms, though the team in question is one of the cooler nicknamed teams in professional sports. If any of this offends you, I’m sure there’s something else going on around the internet that will suit your fancy.)
The AP photo caption: “Pitcher David Price opens for the Montgomery Biscuits during their game Tuesday, July 1, 2008, at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Ala. The No. 1 draft pick in the 2007 baseball draft, Price, is creating a lot of excitement in the Double-A Southern League.”
Hmm … Price opens for the Biscuits? Is that like how I saw Brian May open for Guns n’ Roses during the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1992? If that’s the case, I can only imagine how exciting the Biscuits themselves are. Remember, “Price is creating a lot of excitement in the Double-A Southern League.”
You know what else creates excitement in the Double-A Southern League? Thirsty Thursdays, where dogs and beers are a dollar. Temper your enthusiasm. — Bryan
July 19th, 2008
Now that, my friends, is a T-shirt. That design (here’s a closer view) is one of three superb Brewers-centric tees being offered by reader David Tuttle via his new site, Tararrel & Sons. For the Wisconsin-illiterate, “tararrel” rhymes with “barrel,” which is why it’s found in the lyrics to “The Beer Barrel Polka.”
But I digress. The real story here is Tuttle’s T-shirts, which include a Rob Deer tribute and the obligatory vanity design rendered in a Yount-era motif. Get ’em all here.
New ESPN column today (here’s the link) — see you over there.
Uni Watch Northwest Road Trip: I’ll be in Portland next month and am looking to have a Uni Watch gathering, probably on August 15th. Haven’t settled on a venue yet, but I’m leaning toward this place. Details to follow as the date draws nearer.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of old sports photos from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls here. Steven Brown is particularly fond of this one — note how the second guy from the left in the back row has a different jersey insignia than the other players. … We’ve talked a lot about first initials on NOBs, but here’s a question from Tyler Kepner: “Does anybody in MLB wear an initial on the back anymore? I thought of this the other day when I was watching O’s/Red Sox at a restaurant in Toronto, and a guy named Cabrera was pitching for the Orioles. He didn’t look tall enough to be Daniel, plus his uni number was wrong, and I was just so bothered that he didn’t have a first initial (F., in his case). Two RHPs on the same staff, at least the younger guy should have the initial.” I can’t think of any initials at the moment — anyone..? … Aaron Kamsler sent along his favorite jersey tag, from a 1994 Lions throwback gamer worn by Chris Spielman. … I’ll be doing another full-blown Ricko Files entry next week (and the week after that, and the week after that…), but here’s a quick dispatch from him: Check out this shot of Blue Moon Odom — never seen the 1969 anniversary patch on a windbreaker like that. Also, note the black spikes (”Not uncommon for the A’s during spring training,” says Ricko) and white sanitaries (”Less common”). … Shorpy for President (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … There’s a new book coming out about the old AFL, and the publisher has been nice enough to provide me with a dozen sample pages, which you can see in this slideshow. I’ll have a copy to raffle off next month. … Bill Mauldin reports that Southern Miss will apparently be adding facemask decals to the mix this fall. Details here. Note that both the text and the embedded video (skip ahead to the 3:10 mark) mention that Southern Miss will be “one of only two teams” doing this, but it’s not clear, at least to me, who the other team is. Anyone..? … No photos yet, but Florida International is apparently going to have a Broncos-esque design this season. Details here. … This trend of presenting jerseys to coaches is lame enough to begin with, but as Chris Crater noted in last night’s comments, the two numerals on Terry Murray’s jersey aren’t even the same size — the zero’s way bigger than the eight. Nice job, guys. … Also from last night: Most injured MLBers who go on minor league rehab assignments bring their single-flapped helmets with them, but not Big Papi, who’s currently rehabbing with Pawtucket. And while the Pawsox usually wear that Red Sox font for their rear uni numbers, Keith Thibault notes that Big Papi’s number was rendered in standard block numerals. … Utah unveiled their new football design yesterday. Full coverage here, here, and here. … Mickel Yantz has been working on a new site devoted to Seahawks uni history. … Ryan Ludwick’s All-Star Game helmet snafu is explained toward the bottom of this page (with thanks to Elena Elms).
July 18th, 2008
[Editor's Note: Pittsburgh-based reader Doug Keklak recently got a DVD set of a notable chapter in uniform history and put together an entry based on his many observations. Enjoy. -- PL]
By Doug Keklak
Last Christmas I was lucky enough to get the 1979 World Series DVD set, which contains the full game broadcasts, not just the half-hour tape that MLB Productions used to put out.
The DVD quality is spotty at times, and my screen shots are simply cell phone pics of my PC, so the image quality here isn’t the greatest, but I think they’re good enough to have a conversation about the topic. Here are the highlights:
• When you hear the term “Stargell Stars,” you tend to think about the pillbox caps. But they were apparently awarded on batting helmets too. I don’t if they were a different composition (cloth on caps, stickers on helmets) because it’s hard to tell. [Also: Note Matty Alexander's hand-numbered sweatbands. -- PL] Since Manny Sanguillen wore his cap under his helmet, you can see his cap stars under his helmet brim.
• I dug these dugout jackets, especially with the black pants.
• The O’s white jerseys had some real radial arching that you didn’t see on the gray or orange jerseys. Compare Tippy Martinez in white vs. gray.
• Speaking of Baltimore’s NOBs, holy letter spacing, Batman!
• Here are some shots of Gary Roenicke’s faceguard.
• Even though I’m a Pittsburgh fan, Rick Dempsey was always one of my favorite players (I was a catcher), and I was slightly obsessed with him being one of the last (and ultimately the very last) catchers to wear a cap under his mask, instead of a helmet (additional shots here, here, and here).
• Growing up in the Pirates’ mix-and-match era, I always thought it was odd that the black jerseys used a different NOB font. Shorter names (three to five letters) were often rendered in much larger lettering, but not always. I couldn’t get a good grab of Ed Ott, but his was larger too.
• The Pirates had Bill and Don Robinson on the roster, but there were inconsistencies regarding the use of first initials. In black, they both had the initial; in yellow, however, neither of them had it. Bill had the initial on the home whites, but Don didn’t play in that game and the whites weren’t used again in the Series, so I’m not sure about his initial. (Incidentally, Bill was traded to the Phillies in ’82 but Don continued to sport the “D.” on his jersey well after that.)
• Everyone knows that this Pirates team was called “The Family,” after the Sister Sledge song. This even extended to the dugout.
• Many Uni Watch readers know about this Kent Tekulve T-shirt. But here’s the original Tekulve T-shirt. And look: Tekulve even batted (back when closers pitched more than one inning and actually had to bat).
• Question for Baltimore fans: I know who Wild Bill Hagy is, but who’s this guy?
• Although I always remember this as one of the more colorful World Series, the O’s only sported their orange jerseys in Games 1 and 7. (During the Game 7 broadcast, Keith Jackson erroneously referred to them as “goldenrod,” which I think is actually closer to the Pirates’ yellow.) As for the Pirates, they sported four different combos — Games 1 and 5: yellow cap, black jersey, yellow pants, black stirrups; Games 2, 6, and 7: black cap, yellow jersey, black pants, yellow stirrups; Game 3: black cap, white jersey, white pants, black stirrups; and Game 4: black cap, yellow jersey, yellow pants, black stirrups. If I seem a tad obsessed with this, it’s because I tried out for the old ESPN game show 2 Minute Drill back in 2001. My specialty category, if I would have made it to the end of the show, was the ’79 series. The month leading up to my tryout I watched the half hour highlights of this series EVERY DAY.
• The pillbox cap was never a good look when worn backwards (that’s Manny Sanguillen, who was nearing the end of his career). The only shots I’ve seen of the pillbox under catchers’ masks are from these baseball cards: Gary Alexander and Milt May.
• Mascot Watch: old skinny Parrot vs. new fat parrot. I like Jolly Roger better than either of them!
• Why the hell was Bill Madlock watching the end of Game 7 in what appears to have been a laundry room?
• Good thing fans aren’t allowed to rush the field following baseball games anymore. You might not be able to tell from the upper-left portion of this shot, but trust me, the video shows Steve Nicosia beating the hell out of some kid.
One other note about the mix-and-match era: When the mix-and-matches debuted in 1977, there were no names on the back. I remember seeing pictures of Goose Gossage, in his only season with the Bucs, with no name on his jersey. I read somewhere, but cannot verify 100%, that the National League instituted a rule that a team’s road uniform had to have names on the back and since the Pirates didn’t have just one road combo — they wore all their uniform elements at home and on the road — they put the names on all the jerseys. Whether or not that is true, the names were on all colors of the jerseys through the end of the mix-and-match era. [This is basically correct: The N.L. mandated NOBs for road jerseys in 1979, so that's when the Bucs added them throughout their set. But in ’77 and ’78 they were NNOB, as seen in this shot of Goose Gossage in the 1977 All-Star Game. -- PL]
If you want to see even more screen shots from the ’79 Series, I’ve got them grouped by game here.
Raffle Reminder: Paul here. I’m raffling off two copies of the Yankee Stadium: Baseball’s Cathedral DVD. To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name and address to uniraffle [at] earthlink [dot] net (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address, please) by 10pm tomorrow. One entry per person, but everyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing will automatically get three bonus entries. I’ll announce the winner on Monday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Latest smoking athlete: soccer player Dimitar Berbatov (with thanks to Iain Landon). … The European Junior Championships of American Football 2008 are currently underway in Spain, and Peter Nilsson notes that Denmark is using country-name NOBs and a really weird helmet design. … “I’ve been reading Mark Bowden’s The Best Game Ever,” writes Rob Andrews. “It includes this picture of Vince Lombardi, circa 1958, when he was a Giants coach. Obvious Yankee influence here — was this standard? I haven’t seen a NY Giants picture with a jacket like that before. Is it a Giants jacket at all? Maybe something Art Ditmar left around the locker room..?” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Latest addition to our roster of brimless-helmeted catchers is Mike Fitzgerald. … Jared Wheeler says this is not a satin Dodgers uni. “It was worn by Whitey Ford on an amateur team that traveled in 1946,” he says. “It was dubbed Brooklyn vs. the World.” Additional info here and here. … Birthday girl Nicole Haase has discovered a site devoted to soccer patches. “When I was a kid, whenever you played in a soccer tournament, you received a patch,” she says. “I have a bunch saved at home, including this one — the guy who’s mentioned on that page ran that tournament with my dad for about 20 years. I’m kinda shocked I never thought about these patches as uni-related ephemera before. My brother had a team warmup jacket with them sewn all over it.” … Nick Wollen reports that the single-A Boise Hawks — a Cubs farm team — have periodically been wearing really nice 1908 Cubs throwbacks (additional pics here and here). … This NBA Live 09 screen shot suggests that the Timberwolves are getting new uniforms (with thanks to Josh Skattum). … Chris Markham, who specialized in custom-painted electric football figurines, sent along pics of his latest project: the ’63 Chargers, complete with the “San Diego All-America City” crest on the helmet. … Mark Mihalik’s new footwear-centric site has a good breakdown of Easton’s signature cleats from the All-Star Game. … “Just wanted you to see for youself that we’re not all a bunch of slobs out here in Los Angeles,” writes Chad Peiken. “I bought a bunch of powder blue stirrups for my co-ed softball team (different cuts and sizes) and here I am with my girlfriend/1st baseman. A lot of my other teammates have taken to wearing them as well, so little by little we’re changing the hearts and minds of the public.” … Oh. My. God. (courtesy of Paul Ricciardi) … There are rumors that UW (that’s U. of Washington, not Uni Watch) may be changing uni outfitters (with thanks to John Hansen). …Photo gallery of Braves uni history here (as forwarded by Dan Phillips). … Jim Parker sent along another shot of those UMich football socks with the “M” logo — sweet. … Anyone know of a supplier who makes patches? If so, please get in touch.
July 17th, 2008
So I’m watching the All-Star Game last night with my buddy Large from No Mas. We haven’t seen each other since February (he lives in California these days), so I’m trying to not to get all Uni Watch on him. No need to make a pest of myself by pointing out every single pair of white shoes or other uni anomalies when we can enjoy universal pleasures like making fun of Dan Uggla, imagining what the youth of America is thinking about all the Viagra and prostate-shrinkage commercials, wondering how many pitches it will take for Billy Wagner to blow the lead, and despising Tim McCarver.
So when Ryan Ludwick came up in the eleventeeth inning, or whatever it was, with about 17 things wrong with his batting helmet, I held my tongue. Instead of saying, “Holy crap, look at that!” and pointing out all the aberrations Ludwick was wearing on his noggin, I just said, “I bet Dan Uggla’s sister got made fun of a lot when she was growing up” and reached for another drink.
Inside, though, I was thinking, “I bet my readers are all over this.” And I’m proud to say that you did not disappoint. Fourteen of you e-mailed regarding Ludwick’s headwear, and many more posted comments about it. For those who missed it, here’s Ludwick’s helmet, and here’s what was unusual about it:
• It’s red, which is the Cards’ home helmet. The National League was the road team last night, so he should have been wearing a navy lid.
• Although it’s hard to see in that screen shot, Ludwick was wearing a Coolflo helmet, which none of the Cardinals normally wear. (Albert Pujols also wore a Coolflo last night, but at least it was navy.)
• The weirdest thing is that Ludwick’s “StL” logo was red outlined in white, instead of white outlined in navy. If you look again at the Pujols shot, it’s obvious that they used a road helmet decal on Ludwick’s helmet.
Ludwick wasn’t the only National Leaguer improperly wearing a home helmet, by the way. Aramis Ramirez wore the Cubs’ solid-blue model instead of their red-brimmed road version. Fellow Cubs Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome wore the proper helmet, however.
As for Uggla, that was some performance — I’m afraid all the Viagra in the world isn’t gonna help him now. Personally, I was rooting for the N.L. to run out of pitchers and be forced to put Uggla on the mound (whoever took over at second base would have to qualify as a defensive improvement, no?), but ya can’t have everything. And here’s a tidbit that only one reader caught: Uggla wasn’t even wearing his own wristbands. Maybe that was his problem right there.
(Thanks to Bob Sherron for the Cards screen grabs, and to Brett Crane for bringing Uggla’s wristband to my attention.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Another brimless catcher: Jim Essian (with thanks to Andy Chalifour). … Another very stripe-centric football team: Ray High School in Corpus Christi (additional pics here, here, and here). “I’m almost positive they’ve worn an entire ‘candy-stripe’ uniform,” says Todd Hotz. “I’m looking for it.” … According to the third item in this web chat transcript, Idaho State will be wearing solid black at home, and the helmet will be tweaked (with thanks to Mark Snider). … “TCU’s top-ranked baseball team has been wearing throwback uniforms for Sunday home games for the past three years,” reports Mark Rybczyk. “They do a pretty good job and, I know that Coach Jim Schlossnagle requires his team to wear the stirrups on Sundays. I especially like the hats, which use a very old TCU Logo.” These are so nice, I won’t even complain about the purple. … With the Spectrum in Philly now slated for the glue factory, the Phantoms (AHL) and Kixx (MLS) will be wearing a farewell season patch (with thanks to Chris Ashworth). … New football uniforms on the way for Vanderbilt. … Jim Parker sent along a photo of some amazing UMich socks from 1953 — love to see more of these.
July 16th, 2008
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