The truth: Yankee Stadium has never meant that much to me. Part of it is that I’m a Mets fan, and part of it is that the renovated stadium bears little resemblance to the original structure (which I’m old enough to have seen plenty of times on TV, although, unfortunately, I never attended a game there). But the biggest part of it is that the Yankees — and, by extension, the stadium — have become such a loathsome symbol of American corporate excess and jingoism. Even the admirable things about the organization, like the uniforms, have been waved like some idiotic flag of superiority for so long that the underlying tone is bluster, not class. The message emanating from River Ave. and East 161st (esp. the owner’s suite) isn’t “We strive for excellence”; it’s “We’re the goddamn Yankees, and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves.”
I’d be the first to admit that the place is not without its charms. When you go to a game in the Bronx and hear that live organist and Bob Sheppard’s voice and all that, you think to yourself, “Hey, this is so cool!” But by the time they do the 27-minute-long rendition of “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch (which they still insist on doing for every freaking game), you realize that the organ and Sheppard and the postgame Sinatra and all the rest are really just code — they’re signifiers for an era when white America could happily enjoy being the biggest bully on the playground. That’s what the Yankees have always represented: the supremacy of empire, the arrogance of wealth, the strong not just defeating but utterly smashing the weak.
In case you hadn’t noticed, all of those supposed verities have been called into question on the larger American stage lately. Like it or not, a lot of things most people have treated as entitlements for generations (cheap gas, a white-majority populace, the ability to say, “We’re the goddamn United States and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves,” etc.) are changing. Of course, most people don’t like it, and they’d rather be in denial about it than actually deal with it, and few places provide a better oasis from reality than Yankee Stadium, where people can pretend it’s still 1957.
Or at least that’s what it would provide for those people if they could afford to go there. Kind of ironic that the Yanks are passing the torch to a new gold-leafed stadium with ticket prices only corporate execs will be able to afford just a few days after an economic meltdown that no doubt has many corporations rethinking their luxury box expenditures, all while the Yanks are missing the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. If you can’t see the parallels between all of that and America’s willfully oblivious descent down the crapper, well, I hope you have fun driving that SUV of yours.
Such treatises notwithstanding, they put on a good show for the stadium’s farewell. A few notes:
• Nice to see plenty of old-timers in period-appropriate uniforms (although it would’ve been better if Whitey Ford had hiked up his cuffs — that elastic gap was painful to see). And someone please get Yogi an undershirt.
• Biggest surprise of the evening, at least for me: Dave Winfield fills out his uniform a lot more than he used to. Like, a lot more.
• Several hours prior to the game, they let fans walk on the warning track — a nice gesture. A few people apparently indulged their “robbed him of a home run” fantasies, but anyone wearing an NOB replica should be barred from such shenanigans, no?
• Good spot by Larry Wiederecht and L.I. Phil, who noticed that Reggie Jackson was wearing this old N.Y. Giants logo on his cap while being interviewed in the ESPN booth during the game. Earlier, during pregame festivities, he’d shown off a different cap to the world’s single most annoying Yankees fan.
Our own Scott M.X. Turner attended the game, by the way. I expect I’ll have some first-hand observations from him to pass along tomorrow.
Raffle Results: The winner of the Remember the AFL book is John Flanagan. Congrats to him, and everyone else can look forward to the College Vault book raffle, which I’ll crank up tomorrow or Wednesday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: New System of Dress uniforms for Dayton. Here’s the rear view (with thanks to Matthew Hager). … Remember when I raffled off a futuristic Royals jersey a while back? You can get an entire futuristic Royals uniform, including a batting helmet, here. … Interesting advertising hubbub at Wrigley Field (with thanks to James Huening). … Friday’s entry on Lon Keller’s artwork led sports historian Chuck Miller to check in with the following: “I recently discovered that not only did Spencer Advertising create program cover art for colleges and high school sports, their work was also used by semiprofessional basketball teams like those who played in the Eastern League [which later became the Continental Basketball Assocation]. I have found several examples of such art, mostly by artists like Lon Keller, Larry Tisdale, Fred Fixler and the like. They can be viewed at this link on my CBA Museum homepage.” … “I work with the Potomac Nationals, formerly the Alexandria Dukes of 1979-1983,” writes Paul Barrett. “We were affiliated with the Pirates in Alexandria for the ‘81-’83 seasons, and I found this little beauty in the storage closet along with other treasures (T-shirts, programs, stat sheets, mini-bats). The tag reads, ‘ Since 1920 • NEW ERA • Custom Made For JOHN GILMORE Sporting Goods • Fairfax, VA • Medium-Large • MFG. in USA.’” … Decent article here about UNLV’s NNOB jerseys (with thanks to John Barnes). … It’s nice that Manny has a mouthguard with his name printed on it, but why is he wearing a mouthguard to begin with? … No, branding isn’t getting way out of hand, not even a little bit (with thanks to Paul Ricciardi). … Lots of old Portland Beavers pics here. … Uni Watch is one of several uni-related media projects mentioned in this article. … Oklahoma State’s getting a new court design (with thanks to Andrew Joseph). … The Canadiens are wearing a 100th-anniversary patch. … Check out these photos of the recent Greer/Greenville game — matching Gs (good spot by Jon Pohlman). … Not sure if we’ve covered these specific examples before, but Baylor has not just one but two roman-numeraled NOBs (with thanks to, appropriately, James Spears IV). … Giants equipment director Joe Skiba has revived his series of video reports. The 2008 season premiere is here. … Aussie rules football fans have chosen their favorite jumper (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm, who also sent pics of the odd diagonal pinstriping worn by the Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Dolphins). … “This is South African rugby player Percy Montgomery wearing a test cap,” writes Caleb Borchers. “Announcers are always talking about someone’s games for the national teams as ‘caps,’ but you rarely see the actual cap any more. Certainly a little on the dorky side, but an interesting uni tradition, particularly because rugby players don’t wear caps on the field. There are links to some other caps here, here, here, and here.” … Interesting info on the Seahawks logo here. … Pictograms for the 2010 winter Olympics will look like this, and there’s a video about the development of the graphics here (courtesy of Jeremy again). … The Sabres’ third jersey is now official (additional photos here). … So is the Blues’ third jersey (more pics here. … Rutgers University: institute of higher learning. … Mike Chamernik notes that Mitch Maier has been wearing one of those extended-earflap facemasks. … Ken Malone has started a new site NFL uni-related site. “Our primary purpose is to get laughs through the medium of NFL uniform details,” he says. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, so someone please give it the once-over and give us a full report. … Just what the world needs: a palm swoosh (with thanks to Dave Sizer). … That UGA rear-helmet motif sure is popular (with thanks to Michael Hardman). … Speaking of UGA, they’ll be wearing black this weekend. … Dude, are you wearing pantyhose or what? … Martin Gramatica was wearing his wedding band yesterday. … Man, do I love this. … I’m less fond of this. … How do you make this look good? Have it play against this. Additional crimes against humanity here and here. … “The Hiroshima Toyo Carp are moving into a new stadium next year, and while the stadium is being built, the manhole covers in the area where the new stadium will be have been given Carp designs,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “The funny thing is that they missed a spot — the where the arrow is pointing should be red, to match the undershirt on the right arm. There’s also a one-color version.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Check out the uniform on this yearbook vendor. That’s Opening Day at Shea Stadium, 1965. … Morris Levin recently scored a pair of authentic Phillies stirrups, so naturally he wore them to work. Okay, so he didn’t actually wear his pants that way in the office — only for the photo shoot (”I came out of the elevator into PNC’s lobby with my pants hiked up and my friend Peter pretty much fell over on Market St laughing”). But still, if this doesn’t start a casual Friday revolution, I don’t know what will. … Check out this bizarre NOB from a Rangers preseason game. Can anyone think of another NOB that included a mix caps, small cap, and lowercase? I certainly can’t (good spot by Casey Wurzbach, who also noticed some decal peelage at Great American Ballpark). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Interesting to see that the Seahawks’ Gene Upshaw memorial decals are all partially covered by their neck bumpers (additional examples here, here, and here).
September 22nd, 2008
If you read the Ticker on a regular basis, you’ve probably noticed the semi-regular contributions from Tyler Kepner, who’s the Yankees beat reporter for The New York Times (that’s him above, with his son Michael). I don’t recall exactly when he started writing to me, but I quickly realized he wasn’t like most other beat reporters. He’d start by passing along a uni-related observation about the Yankees, and then he’d add an opinion about his favorite NFL helmet, or his latest NBA pet peeve, or whatever. He had no shortage of opinions, and his observations tended to be good ones. I remember thinking to myself at one point, “Damn, good thing he’s already got a good job, or else he’d have mine.”
When I recently asked Tyler if I could interview him, I figured we’d talk about some of his uni-related faves and obsessions, some of his behind-the-scenes observations, and so on. But I didn’t realize there was also a completely amazing story lurking in his personal background — a story that would be interview-worthy all by itself, even if he wasn’t particularly uni-attuned. Check it out:
Uni Watch: How old are you, and where do you live?
Tyler Kepner: I’m 33, and I live in Wilton, Connecticut.
UW: How long have you been the Yankees beat reporter for the Times, and how did you get that gig?
TK: I started in 2002, so this is my seventh year covering the Yankees. Just to give you a quick résumé: When I was around 13 years old, I started a baseball magazine out of my home in Philadelphia. The Phillies were great to me — by the time I was 15, they let me start coming around to do interviews.
UW: What was the magazine called?
TK: KP Baseball Monthly. The “KP” stood for Kepner and then the other kid who started it with me, but then I just changed it to Kepner Publishing when he left. At the time I had no idea that it was an old army term, like being on KP duty. Kitchen patrol — nobody my age knew what that meant. We had a really cool logo, you would have liked it. My friends and I did it, but it was kind of my show. We got a lot of publicity, because people loved the idea of a kid following his dream and being in the clubhouse and stuff. I did that for 64 issues, up until mid-college or so.
UW: Every single month? You kept up a monthly schedule for that many years?
TK: Except for February. We’d do a combined Jan/Feb issue. On July 8th, 1990, ABC World News Sunday did a piece on us and said [switching to official-sounding newscaster voice], “Tyler publishes 11 times a year, except for February. It’s baseball’s off-season, and he has exams. Back to you, Forest.” We got covered in the Times too, and other places.
UW: Wow, I totally missed the boat on that. I wasn’t aware of it, never saw any of the media coverage you got. How many pages did this magazine usually run?
TK: Usually 22, maybe 24.
UW: You were a zine publisher! Did you have ads?
TK: I think we had one ad during the entire time.
UW: So it was a total labor of love. That’s great.
TK: Well, my parents basically footed the whole thing.
UW: How many copies would you typically print?
TK: Well, it grew. We got two big publicity bounces. One was on, like, November 13th, 1989, somewhere in there, when the Times wrote about us, and then Sports Illustrated for Kids wrote something. After those two articles, we got up to about 600 copies. We had a pretty good subscriber-retention rate, I guess.
UW: Was this, like, photocopies, or mimeographed, or professionally printed, or what?
TK: It was all photocopied. I didn’t know how to type until I was about 15 or 16. But I had very good printing, so I hand-wrote all the articles.
UW: Wow!
TK: It was fun, man. We always wanted color covers, but color printing cost a ton, so my little brother would draw a picture, and usually I would spruce it up a little bit. He was pretty good, I wanted it the way I wanted it. Anyway, then we’d color it in by hand.
UW: For all 600 copies?!
TK: Well, that was the thing. I’d have a bunch of my friends come over — maybe a dozen kids — and we’d have a ton of Magic Markers, and I’d say, “Okay, this is Cal Ripken, so everyone carefully fill in the logo, and the lettering…”
UW: So you had 600 black-and-white xeroxed covers…
TK: Right.
UW: So each one was individually hand-colored and unique and one-of-a-kind!
TK: Yeah. So we could never have a player depicted on Astroturf, because it would be too hard and take too much time to show the solid green. We had to show them on grass, because it was easier to just scribble up and down to show that.
UW: Sort of a textured green, instead of a solid green, because otherwise it would cut down on your efficiency.
TK: Exactly. One time my best friend came over, and I didn’t realize he was colorblind. And I’m like, “Why is Robin Yount’s hair green?” So a couple of people out there have an issue of KP Baseball Monthly with Robin Yount’s green hair.
UW: So even though the colors were wrong on those couple of copies, you still sent them out.
TK: We had orders to fill, man!
UW: Right, the show must go on. And now those copies are collector’s items.
TK: We had some famous subscribers, too. I always wanted to be a sportswriter, so I would just mail copies out to sportswriters. That’s how we got in the Times — I never asked for publicity, but I sent copies to George Vescey because I used to read his column in the school library. And he passed it along to his editor, who thought it would make a fun article. Anyway, I got a lot of really important advice from people who then decided to become subscribers. George Will somehow got hold of a copy, and he gave it to the commissioner, Fay Vincent, which was a big thrill for me, and he ended up subscribing. Bob Costas, Jayson Stark — I’d been reading Jayson’s stuff for years, and he became a great friend, giving me lots of advice, telling me about the business. He told me, “You’ll never wear No. 32 for the Phillies, but this job is the next best thing,” and he was right. Bill Lyon, who wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer once sent me a $100 bill and wrote, “Consider this my subscription for life.” I still have that bill, actually — it’s the spare money at my house, in case I have to pay for something and don’t have any cash.
UW: It’s your “In case of emergency, break glass” money.
TK: Yeah. The only person who never responded was Chris Berman. I probably sent issues to him for a year, and he never wrote back. But everyone else was so kind, and so encouraging. And the Phillies were so good to me — I’ll always be grateful. In 1990, I probably got 10 or 12 day passes. By ’91, I would pretty much ask for a pass for a whole series, and after that they just gave me daily passes and then a season pass. And by ’95 I worked for them, getting back to my résumé. I stopped the magazine in January of ’95 and wanted to get an internship, but the strike had just happened and teams weren’t doing internships, so I couldn’t get one. But the Phillies said, “We can’t pay, but if you wanna come down and work for free…” I was living at home, so I said sure. I worked for the Phillies that summer. And they’re such a class act, they ended up paying me a bit anyway. The next year I got a Boston Globe internship, which was very valuable. Same thing the next year at the Washington Post. Then I covered the Angels for a California paper, from September of ’97 through September of ’98. After that I moved up to Seattle and covered the Mariners until December of ’99. Met my wife out there. Then I moved back to New York, joined the Times, covered the Metsies for two years, and now the Yankees.
UW: When you were doing your magazine, were you aware that you were part of a larger self-publishing movement, the zine movement?
TK: No, I had no idea.
UW: But you know what a zine is now, right?
TK: Are they online magazines or something?
UW: No. They barely exist now, because they’ve largely been supplanted by blogs, but they’re basically just self-published, do-it-yourself magazines. They’re usually not about mainstream topics like baseball. That’s how I got started writing myself. They were originally inspired by punk rock — you know, just like anyone can start a band, anyone can start a magazine. And back in the day, a lot of them were hand-lettered. That’s why I really got excited when you said you hand-wrote your magazine — that’s so old-school zine-stye!
TK: I didn’t really know anything about that. I eventually started typing the articles. But even then, I’d still do the headlines by hand. I’d try to make each headline in a different style that matched the team. Like, if one article was about a guy on the A’s, I’d try to do the headline in A’s-style lettering.
UW: Did you have uniform-related coverage in this magazine?
TK: Well, I was very precise about the uniforms on the covers. That was my thing — I wanted to make sure they were accurate. I did a few articles here and there where I’d rank the coolest hats or the coolest logos. And we did a “How to Draw Team Logos” thing. Remember when you were a kid, there were those things like “How to Draw Huckleberry Hound”? It was like that. All my doodling in school and stuff was team logos, so I became an expert on most of them. [I also found this "Create Your Own Uniform" item, and there's some uniform news on this page. -- PL]
UW: Do you still have those doodles?
TK: I dunno. My mom saves everything, so she might still have them. Anyway, I knew, just from doing them, how to draw the logos in stages, and I could tell people how to do them.
UW: My impression is that you’re for more interested in uniform details than the average beat reporter. Would you agree with that assessment?
TK: Yeah. Marty Noble, who works the Mets beat, notwithstanding.
UW: Right, he’s very uni-aware.
TK: But yeah, most other guys don’t pay much attention to it, I don’t think.
UW: When did you first become interested in uniforms? Like, did you play sports as a kid, and if so did you take particular care with your own uniforms?
TK: Oh yeah, yeah. I played baseball all the way through the end of high school and summer leagues and stuff, and I was always disappointed because I never played for a team that had belts and button-front jerseys. Always the pullovers and the elastic waistbands. The best thing was making the all-star team, because then you’d usually get your name on the back, and the uniform would be more satin-y, like a double-knit kind of thing, instead of just a glorified T-shirt. I loved the stirrups, and I was always pissed when they’d give you the ones that were just one racing stripe.
UW: The dreaded ribbon stirrup.
TK: Right. That didn’t do anything for me. And they’d usually come off, out the back of your shoe, so I’d tape them onto the bottom. Anyway, I always tried to get the uniform number I wanted, usually 20 for Mike Schmidt or 32 for Steve Carlton. One year I got No. 3, which I didn’t like, because I was a pitcher, and pitchers don’t wear single digits.
UW: Josh Towers!
TK: Well, that’s true, but I didn’t like it. So I tried to make my 3 into 31 by creating a 1 with some green tape.
UW: You added a numeral with tape? Now, surely it must have bugged you that the resulting 31 was off-center.
TK: It was a little off-center, and it was just a plain, straight-up 1 — it didn’t have the little fringe on the top or anything like that. [I believe he's referring to serifs. -- PL]
UW: What level was this?
TK: Middle school.
UW: And what did your coach think about you modifying your jersey like this?
TK: He didn’t care. Anyway, it kept peeling off, so I gave up. I figured Dale Murphy wears 3, so that’s cool.
UW: You interact with big league ballplayers every day. What would you say is the typical ballplayer’s attitude toward his uniform, and especially regarding the types of details we discuss on Uni Watch?
TK: I think most of them are very interested in the fit.
UW: Freedom of movement and so forth?
TK: Yeah. And at least half of them have their own sense of style. You see a lot less of that with the Yankees, though, because there’s so much less room for improvisation. Basically it just comes down to the length of the pants and the kind of socks. I got a kick when Matingly and Guidry were coaches and they wore stirrups, because they played in the stirrup era. I asked the clubhouse manager and he said, “Yeah, we carry the stirrups, but nobody ever asks for them.”
UW: I’ve discovered, as I’m sure you have, that people can sometimes react negatively, or at least with some confusion, when you bring up uniform-related issues with them. Do you every find yourself wanting to ask a player why he wears his uniform a certain way, but then you think, “Nah, I’d better not ask him that” because you’re worried he might think it’s a stupid question?
TK: Nah. Some guys do act a bit puzzled when you ask them why they wore stirrups or whatever, but I’ll still ask.
UW: What about your editors? Do you ever present uni-related material or story ideas to them, and they don’t get it?
TK: No, they like offbeat stuff like that. Last season we did that little article about Matsui’s toe socks and that got a lot of attention, they loved it. I always think I should come up with more ideas like that, but then more pressing things come up, like Joba’s rotator cuff.
UW: Hey, get your priorities straight, man! I gather newspaper blogging has made it easier to cover these sorts of topics, since there are no space limitations. If you don’t have room for it in you newspaper article, you can just put it in “Bats” [the Times's baseball blog].
TK: Yeah, that makes it a lot easier for topics like Mike Mussina’s 1980s T-shirts.
UW: What about other writers? Do you guys ever sit around talking about stirrups, or are you the only one who notices?
TK: That’s pretty much my category. That and ballpark scoreboards are the big thing I’m known for in the press box. I’m always railing against the scoreboards — there’s only a small handful of them that keep a running line score at all times. If someone hits a home run, or if they’re showing commercials between innings, they’ll take the line score down. It drives me nuts. Fenway shows it at all times, and Seattle. Yankee Stadium. I’m always telling the Yankees, “Please, you’ve gotta keep a dedicated line score.” The most important aspect of any scoreboard is to have a SCORE available, but people don’t seem to realize that.
UW: Do you ever mention something like that in the press box, and everyone else kind of looks at you?
TK: Yeah, there I go again.
[At this point Tyler went off on a long-ish rant about the scoreboards in Kansas City (he likes), old Vets Stadium (he misses), and just about every other park (they mostly suck). Too involved to reproduce here, but let's just say he has some v-e-r-y strong feelings about scoreboard protocol.]
UW: Who is the most uniform-cognizant player you’ve ever encountered?
TK: Great question. Let me think. Gary Sheffield would drive the clubhouse people nuts. He had I think 32 pairs of shoes. And then he wanted gray shoes on the road, so he head 32 pairs of those too. He was always getting alterations to his jersey, and they were so subtle, you couldn’t even notice them. He’d want the sleeve brought up a little, or let out a little…
UW: Take a quarter-inch off the sleeve length, that sort of thing?
TK: Yeah. There’s this guy from Riddell or one of those companies — he’s always around the clubhouse, wonderful man. And if a guy gets traded to the team or needs changes or whatever, he fixes them up. And Sheff would give him all this work to do, and it would all get turned around in a day. Sheff, he was the most particular in terms of needing everything just so.
I remember Sean Henn, when he was on the Yankees a few years back, told me how the Yankees had this minor league director or coordinator named Rob Thomson who would go around to all of the Yankees’ minor league affiliates, and everyone knew that they had to look exactly right if he was coming, because he was a stickler. All the minor leaguers had to wear stirrups that showed the white in the front. They were also required to have pant legs that stopped six inches above the top of the white under the stirrup. And the pants had to be pulled up, then folded over and bloused, not bunched up. Also, no facial hair at all, no sideburns below the ear, cap on straight, and only Adidas shoes. Or shoes with blacked-out logo if they weren’t Adidas.
UW: Wow.
TK: Sometimes you can tell little things about guys when they come in. Like when Kenny Lofton joined the Yankees, I remember he had “K-Lo” written all over his shoes and everything. I mean, who calls him K-Lo? I always thought that was funny. Then you’ve got the guys who just stock up on equipment, and you wonder why. Like Jason Giambi, he’s got like three dozen bats just strewn in there. Guys’ locker etiquette is interesting, too — some guys are messy, other guys are very precise.
UW: You mentioned earlier how you’d tape down your ribbon stirrups to keep them from coming loose. Do you see things like that in the clubhouse, things that the average fan wouldn’t know about but that the average Uni Watch reader would love to see? Taping this, buttoning that, or whatever?
TK: They all wear different T-shirts under their jerseys. Someone will say something like “Attaboy” during batting practice and the next thing you know someone’s made it into a T-shirt and everyone’s wearing it under their gamers. When LaTroy Hawkins came in during spring training, he wore a “Joba Rules” T-shirt, just like the fans — I thought that was really cool.
UW: You cover the Yankees, and the Yankees are always talking about the “mystique of the pinstripes.” Even their players talk that way, especially when someone gets traded and he says, “Ooh, now I get to wear the pinstripes.” Do they really feel that way, or are they just blowing smoke?
TK: I think that’s real, actually, because the tradition is unmatched. They take it pretty seriously. It can get taken too far, though, like when you see a writer write something like, “Xavier Nady wore pinstripes for the first time..,” except it was a road game, so he wasn’t really wearing pinstripes. You’ve gotta be careful with that kind of stuff.
UW: Do you think it bugs the Yankees players that they don’t have their names on their jerseys?
TK: Nobody’s ever mentioned that. I think they think it’s kinda cool.
UW: When the Mets removed the player names in 1999, some of the players reportedly didn’t like it.
TK: Well, the whole Mets uniform thing is…
UW: Let’s not even go there.
TK: When I was in Seattle, Ken Griffey basically ran the clubhouse. So unless you were a veteran starter like Jamie Moyer or Jeff Fassero, Griffey would decide what uniform they wore. Once Freddie Garcia got to 10 wins, he was allowed to decide, too. But if it was someone like Ken Cloude, Griffey would be the one who’d tell the clubhouse guy, “OK, we’re wearing blue today,” or whatever.
UW: What are you favorite uniforms?
TK: So much of this is wrapped up nostalgia, but I always thought the Padres’ brown uniforms were so cool. The Brewers’ old logo, which they still wear on Fridays or whatever, that’s great. And I loved the original Expos cap, which looked like a beanie — I always liked that. The Braves have screwed up their look so much, with the red jersey and all, but their plain white one is nice, with the double lines down, uh, what do you call that?
UW: The placket.
TK: Yeah, the piping down the placket. I don’t like much about the Braves, but I do like that uniform. The Dodgers are classic. You can’t go wrong with the Detroit Tigers. Oh, and the Pirates’ vest — I love that, and those great numbers they use.
UW: It’s such a sad-sack franchise that nobody takes them seriously, but they look sensational, I agree. What about least favorite?
TK [unhesitatingly]: The Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are a disgrace. And I’ve gotta watch them 19 times a year. It just drives me nuts! And I was friends with this guy who worked for them when they changed over [to their current look], and I’d say to him, “You can’t go black — you’re the Blue Jays! You can’t have black Blue Jays, it doesn’t make any sense!” And he’d say, “Oh it’s marketing, people like to buy stuff in black,” and all that. And the numbers are weird, all tilted, and the lettering on the back is silly. I’m not crazy about the Brewers either, because the name on the back is hard to read, and the uniform is so boring compared to what it should be, which is just the old version that they now use as a throwback — they should wear that every day. But the Blue Jays are by far the worst. Are they gonna wear those weird gray ones anymore?
UW: No.
TK: Well, that’s good. But I could go on about the Blue Jays — their look just really offends me. Any team that wears black unnecessarily. Oh, and the worst example of that is probably the Oakland A’s, with that black jersey.
UW: Especially since their basic look is really good.
TK: Their basic look is so nice. Oh, and I hate that logo with the elephant wearing sunglasses, because the single greatest logo is the one with the elephant on the ball with the bat in its trunk.
UW: Is that one you can draw really well?
TK: Yes, I can draw that one perfectly.
UW: And can you tell other people how to draw it?
TK: I don’t know about that. It’s a tough one. A lot of steps. But that is my all-time favorite logo, and I wish they’d use that more, because their basic logo is so boring — that brings nothing to the party. And right near the press elevator, they have the elephant logo, but instead of standing on a baseball, he’s standing on a globe, and it says, “World Champions 1989,” and I think it’s the coolest championship logo.
UW: What about other sports?
TK: I’ve always liked the Boston Bruins’ uniforms, for some reason, because they’re so simple. I’m a Flyers fan, but they really screwed up by going to black. My favorite helmet is the Bengals. Coolest helmet ever, if you ask me. Which you are. The stripes are so neat. When it came out in ’81 or so, I was just starting to follow sports, and I didn’t even know they used to have a helmet with just the word “Bengals” on it. Very stark-looking helmet. I don’t know why they ever would’ve gone that. Their uniform is a bit weird now, but I love the helmet. Football helmets are even cooler than baseball hats, because it’s like an open template to do whatever you want. You know what’s really neat, when the 49ers wear the Montana-era jerseys. You look at them now, and it doesn’t seem like it would look that different, but then you compare them side-by-side and the Alex Smith-era jerseys are so ugly. I liked in ’94, when they wore that throwback uniform all the way through to the Super Bowl. That was kinda gutsy. I was gonna say, “ballsy,” but that wouldn’t be good.
UW: That’s OK, on my blog you can say that.
TK: It was cool — “We’re winning with this, we’re gonna keep wearing it all the way to the Super Bowl.”
UW: Only Super Bowl winner not to wear TV numbers.
TK: Really? Wow.
==========
Well, at least I got to slip in one factoid Tyler wasn’t already aware of. Big thanks to him for making time for me in his busy schedule, and for sharing some old copies of his magazine — really, really special stuff.
Raffle Reminder: I’m raffling off a copy of the excellent new book Remember the AFL. Details here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Two good spots by Andy Chalifour: First, here’s Jim Essian wearing not just a brimless helmet, but a brimless helmet with the A’s logo. And speaking of logos, look at the batting glove on Ozzie Guillen’s left hand — much older than the uniform design he’s wearing. … David Stoops reports that Youngstown State (DI-AA) has new uniforms this year. … “The SEC has either required or requested that schools put the round SEC logo on their fields,” notes Patrick Campbell. “The logo is placed on both 25 yard lines, just inside the numbers. The interesting thing is that instead of using the SEC colors (light blue and yellow) for the logo, the conference is allowing the use of school colors for each field (much like MLB allows team colors for their logo on MLB caps and jerseys): Auburn used navy blue with an orange border and white letters, Mississippi State’s logo is maroon with white border and white letters, and Alabama has crimson with white/crimson border and white letters.” … Good restroom sign at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. Note the stirrups (with thanks to Matt Brukman). … There was a quick helmet modification during Sunday’s Steelers/Browns game, as a Pittsburgh staffer remove the stripe from a helmet and inflated the helmet’s inner bladder. Ryan Connelly captured the sequence here. … John Muir reports that the Oilers’ rookies have been wearing 30th-anniversary patches on their shoulders. The same design is at center ice. … Jon Cannella notes that the Charlie Manuel’s Wikipedia entry includes the following: “At a game against the Lotte Orions on June 19, 1979, he was hit in the face by a pitch from Soroku Yagisawa. The pitch crushed his jaw. … To protect his bruised jaw, Manuel wore a helmet equipped with a football face mask.” Intrigued, I poked around and found this and this. … Tulsa will be wearing throwbacks this weekend (with thanks to Tod Meisner). … Craig Bates has put together a slideshow of photos of his jersey collection (a mix of football, baseball, and a bit of hockey). Lots of good stuff, including some close-ups of interesting tags and patches. … The new Ernie Davis statue at Syracuse depicts Davis wearing a swoosh-emblazoned jersey, even though Nike didn’t even exist when Davis played (with thanks to Jeff Landset). … Odd observation from Jared Simon, who writes: “I’ve noticed in the last two Packers games that Mike McCarthy has had a red pen tucked into the back of his hat during the first half and then it switches to a blue pen when he comes out for the second half. Has he always been doing this or has it been just a coincidence?” … Brian Bennett was cleaning up around the house and came across some uni-related posters from the early 1990s, apparently produced by Kellogg’s. There’s a small slideshow of the full posters and some detailed views here. … Ugliest rugby uniforms ever? Could be (with thanks to Dave Inman). … And people wonder why I don’t like purple (courtesy of Tom Konecny). … Latest schools switching to the System of Dress: Oklahoma State (with thanks to Brian Ray) and Illinois (here’s another view). … Remember Jason Hillyer, who wanted (and received) a Uni Watch membership card as a wedding gift from his bride, Alison Cherubini? The two of them recently took a behind-the-scenes tour of Cooper Stadium in Columbus (aka “the Coop”), which is soon to be replaced. They took a buncha pics of banners, jerseys and other stuff (you can see a slideshow here), the most interesting of which was this one. Jason explains: “The modern day ‘Safe’ and ‘Out’ signals were developed for the player seated just to the left of the man with the bat (kind of in between front and back row), William Hoy. He was deaf, so when looking to the umpire for the call for a play at a base, the ump would motion Hoy off the field with his thumb if Hoy was out, or tell Hoy to stay there by making a palms down motion with both hands apart, a motion that morphed into the ’safe’ sign we know today.” … Here’s something I’ve never seen before: an audio style guide of the triple-A Oklahoma Redhawks’ new logos and uniforms, narrated by the designer. Further details here. … It was gray vs. gray again at Miller Park yesterday. … Tom Hedrick notes that Delwyn Young’s uni number on his helmet was upside-down last night. … “What looks more rinky dink than having a SNOB (sponsor name on back)?” asks Caleb Borchers. “Having such puny corporate sponsorship that each player gets a different SNOB.” … The Pedro porthole was closed last night (with thanks to Phil Hecken, who also came across this really cool old Bruins photo — anyone know the players and/or year?).
September 16th, 2008
Several readers alerted me to an interesting bit of logo-related chatter between Fox broadcasters Tom McCarthy (that’s him on the right, pantomiming “I’m with Stupid”) and Eric Karros (on the left) during Saturday’s Brewers/Phillies game. Here’s a transcript:
Tom McCarthy: The Milwaukee Brewers are trying to end the longest playoff drought in Major League Baseball. In fact, if you look longest droughts in sports, the Brewers, 26 years since their last postseason appearance. That’s when they went to the World Series in 1982. … And y’know, [current Brewers skipper] Ned Yost and [current bench coach] Ted Simmons were part of that team, wearing that logo right there, which is, to me, the best logo in baseball. That logo was designed by Tom Meindel, who was an art history major at the University of Wisconsin back in the day, just on a whim. He submitted it, they decided to keep it, and now they’ve reintroduced it to the Milwaukee community this year.
[McCarthy then narrates a bit of flashback footage from the 1982 World Series. Then they return to the game at hand.]
Eric Karros: I’m still marveling that you knew the history of the hat. I mean, what the heck were you doing? Were you just studying…
McCarthy: It’s my favorite logo in Major League Baseball.
Karros: Alright. Okay. I’ll go with that. So you don’t know the origin of all the other logos? I mean, I’m not gonna get a dissertation on…
McCarthy: I can give you the fact that, y’know, the Mets logo is blue because of the Dodgers and orange because of the Giants. That’s all I really know about that.
Karros: Awright, we gotta get off the hats, because this — I, I don’t know anything about the hats, and you’re just making me look bad.
McCarthy: Well, let me ask you, which logo do you like better?
Karros: I like that, the one on the right is good. I like the Brewer hat. [Of course, they're BOTH Brewer hats, but clarity doesn't appear to be Karros's strongest suit. -- PL]
McCarthy: It’s sharp!
Karros: Yeah, it is sharp. I don’t know if I’d necessarily wear it to the mall or anything, but…
McCarthy: Well, I have worn that logo to the mall.
[At this point McCarthy tells a story about a big hit that Ned Yost hit back in that 1982 season and explains how the Brewers pulled out the division title on the last day of the ’82 season]
Karros: Okay, I’m gonna ask this question: Did you research that, or…?
McCarthy: I did.
Karros: Okay, okay. ’Cause if you’da known that too, I’da gotten up right now, I’da taken off this headset and walked out. I was done.
McCarthy [chuckling]: I did not wake up this morning and it came to me. I did research it.
A few thoughts here:
• The Brewers do not have the longest current MLB postseason drought. The Nationals/Expos do. They last made the playoffs in 1981. I suspect the Fox producers are more to blame for this than the broadcasters.
• McCarthy got a lot of things right in his storytelling, but he got one thing seriously wrong: The Brewers didn’t reintroduce the ball-in-glove logo this year — they’ve been wearing those Sunday throwbacks since 2006, and the throwbacks were officially announced and unveiled in December of 2005.
• There’s something really sad about the way Karros essentially ridiculed McCarthy for, essentially, having some knowledge and supplementing that knowledge with a bit of research. In other words, McCarthy was behaving like a professional who takes his job seriously, plus he’s a fan of the game and has a favorite logo, and for some reason this meant Karros felt obliged to make fun of him (yo, Eric, maybe if you’d done a little homework before a game, you might be able to participate in these sorts of discussions). I find this depressingly emblematic of a disturbing tendancy in American life. Again and again in our civic discourse, our political discourse, our professional discourse, etc., expertise and knowledge and preparation are increasingly poo-pooed and derided.
I realize nobody likes a know-it-all, but McCarthy wasn’t coming off that way — he was just making conversation (if you could hear the audio, you’d see what I mean). I also realize America has a proud middlebrow/anti-intellectual tradition — a tradition I generally like, respect, and identify with on many levels — but it’s getting way out of hand these days, and Karros’s commentary captures it in a nutshell. If he can’t take his job seriously (and is going to razz someone who does), why is he even in the booth to begin with? Yeah, he was kinda-sorta kidding when he said he’d take off his headset and walk out of the booth, but he was also kinda-sorta indicating his inability — indeed, his refusal — to engage with a situation that would require him to flex his brain. It’s not just that he Doesn’t Get It™; it’s that he behaved like a lunkhead who’d rather bring the world down to his level than try to raise up his own level. That needs to stop. And not just in the broadcast booth.
Signal Flare: Yo, Chris Gale, if you’re out there, please get in touch. Thanks.
Membership Drive/Raffle Update: I’m happy to report that we’ve racked up well over 20 new membership orders since last Thursday (including one from Nate Kettlewell, who’s our 600th member), which means I’ll be putting those three College Vault books up for a raffle. Thanks for the great response, and I hope people will continue to enroll.
I’ll conduct that raffle next week, but this week I want to raffle off a copy of Remember the AFL, a gorgeous new volume that’s one of the best-looking football books I’ve ever seen. It runs nearly 450 pages and is loaded with great photos, well-researched text, and lots of trivia tidbits. Great production values, great material. A slideshow of some sample content from the book (including a new-to-me shot of the Broncos’ vertically striped socks) is available here.
To be eligible to win a copy of this excellent tome, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch address, please) by 10pm eastern this Friday. If you’ve enrolled in the membership program, you can send up to four separate e-mail entries; non-members are limited to one entry. I’ll announce the winner next week.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Two Fridays ago I went into the offices of MLB Video to be interviewed about all sorts of uni-related stuff. The first part of that interview (the rest, I’m told, is still being edited and produced) is available here. … The NFL wised up and removed those huge-ass Gene Upshaw memorial patches for yesterday’s games. Instead, everyone’s now wearing rear-helmet decals, which is how it should’ve been handled in the first place. The lone exception: The Raiders are still wearing the patch (plus they’re also wearing the decal), but the patch they’re now wearing is clearly smaller than the one everyone was wearing last week. … Following up on an earlier discussion, here’s a game-used jersey showing that Cesar Cedeno did not wear a tilde back in the 1970s after all (with thanks to Jared Wheeler). … Another follow-up: On Friday I asked about this sleeve logo, which I’d never seen before. Several readers (led by Trevor Botting and James Huening) identified it as the Wilson Staff golf logo (which has evolved a bit and now looks like this. Jimmy Wright even provided a photo of his Neil Smith jersey with the logo. The question now is why the hell would an NFL team have a golf logo on its jerseys? … Yet another follow-up from Friday: I mentioned that the Shea Stadium outfield wall was light-colored with black distance numbers (instead of dark with white numbers) for the first seven home games of 1967 and asked if anyone had a photo. Nicholas Schiavo came up with this shot from the 1968 Mets yearbook. It’s blurry, but those are definitely black numerals on the outfield fence. Nicely done, Nicholas! … That same yearbook also feaured this page. Note that the big photo in the center is flopped — the scoreboard should be in right-center, not left-center. … Check out this amazing old helmet/mask setup (with thanks to Brendon Yarian). … I think we’ve run this photo before, but you’ve gotta love the multiple double-decker FNOB action (with thanks to Zane Tuck). … Another double-decker FNOB: Marques Johnson. … Awesome photo find here by Matt Beahan: “There’s a jersey with NNOB, one with standard NOB, Rudy Tomjanovich (#45) with his first name, not to mention at least 4 different styles of sock striping on the Sixers players alone! Never seen anything like that before.” … The problem with having a shirt sponsor is that it can go belly-up. As a result, West Ham had to cover up their sponsor logo for Saturday’s match against Albion. And since Albion is still in the process of negotiating a sponsorship deal, making this a sponsorship logo-free match — the first in over two decades for top-division EPL teams, says Les Motherby. … More EPL oddities from Les: “On Saturday, the referee decided that Hull City’s all-slate grey away kit was not dissimilar enough to Newcastle United’s black and white uniforms, so the Tiger’s wore Newcastle’s white adidas road shorts and socks.” … David Gardner says this new book is really good. … Maryland has new endzone art, based on the state flag. And although I can’t go into specifics, I can tell you that a similar motif will be appearing on a Maryland team’s uniform next year. … If you really love a brand, bleed for it (with thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … Here’s a shot of John and Yoko I’d never seen before, getting all Habsed out. … “We went over the typical NBA rookie photo shoot stuff a few weeks back, but I don’t think this came up,” says Clark Farrand. “What the hell is that?” Good question. Anyone..? … Check this out (courtesy of Brinke Guthrie): Tim Lincecum shines his own cleats! … Great mural here celebrating 150 years of Aussie-rules football. Click on various sections for more info (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy, several Japanese baseball notes: Yomiuri reliever Mark Croon has been testing a pink glove in practice; Alex Ramirez has been wearing striped wristbands; this page features a pictorial history of the Softbank/Nankai/Daiei Hawks uniforms; and the Rakuten Golden Eagles wore a special uniform, with a very odd vertical insignia, for their Fan Club days back in July. … Here’s something you don’t see every day: a football coach in a cast and on crutches. Details here. … Last week I mentioned that my Page 2 colleague Kurt Snibbe had created some logo tweaks for NFL helmets. Gumball helmet king Bill Jones liked these so much that he went ahead and created gumball decals based on Kurt’s designs. … Dig the tremendous sleeve patch on this old American Legion jersey (with thanks to Alan Hoffman). … Some really nice old CFL video footage here (with thanks to Richard Musterer). … If this fit me, I’d totally bid on it. Same goes for this. And this is fun (note how the text begins, “No time to lose, Mr. Manager of American Legion Post Teams…”). … Frank Klemm notes that Brett Favre’s captaincy patch was coming loose yesterday. … LSU running back Charles Scott wore his gloves in his belt loops on Saturday. Don’t think I’ve ever seen someone do that while carrying the ball (good spot by Greg Riffenburgh, who also sent along this article about OSU merit decals). … Frank Gore had some very odd sock action going on yesterday. Also, compare his gloves and cleats in that photo, which was taken in the second half, to the gloves and cleats he was wearing in the first half. It’s not often that you’ll see a player pull off that kind of switcheroo. … By now you probably know that Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs tossed a no-hitter last night against the Astros. You might also know that the game was originally slated to be played in Houston but was relocated to Miller Park in Milwaukee due to Hurricane Ike. What you might not know is both teams wore gray pants, even though Houston was the designated home team (presumably because they’re heading off on a road trip afterward and probably didn’t want to pack an extra set of pants). Let that be a lesson to you, kids: If you wear gray for a home game, even at a neutral site, you’re asking for it. There’s another Cubs/’Stros game at Miller Park this afternoon. Ya think the ’Stros are having their white pants shipped up for that one? … Phil Hecken got a screen grab of Willie Parker’s ripped pants from last night. … RIP, DFW.
September 15th, 2008
