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Archive for April, 2009
Lots of problems for Edinson Volquez last night. In addition to having his second button unfastened, he untucked, plus he had what reader David Sonny describes as “the biggest batting helmet ever, making him look like a sloppy life-sized bobblehead.”
New ESPN column today — look here. — Paul
Requiem for Ol’ Griz: Yesterday’s entry featuring Ned Paynter’s comics generated a ton of favorable response, including the following note from Ned’s nephew Bruce Jaynes:
Thank you so much for your treatment of my uncle’s illustrations. You did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of his work. … The best part of the day, and I don’t want to get all mushy here, has been the reaction within my family. My uncle, as talented as he was, could be a real motherfucker. A little would go a long way. His final year was spent in pain, anger, and a dementia that too frequently brought us to our boiling point. When he passed, it was certainly a relief for everyone involved, and we haven’t really had a proper mourning period for him. My family has been sending emails and messages all day celebrating the recognition of Ned’s work. So consider today’s post as the wake that the Ol’ Griz never had. Thanks again.
Wow. I don’t mind admitting that it makes a fella feel just a little bit proud to get a note like that. Thanks, Bruce, and doubleplusthanks for sharing Ned’s artwork, which is among the most special material ever to appear on this site.
Uni Watch News Ticker: What is this? It’s from this. “Too bad they’re not in the actual team colors,” says Tris Wykes. … Bizarre baseball/football crossover photo here (great find, Phil). … Lots of cool stuff on sale at Ebbets Field Flannels. … Is Syracuse getting new basketball uniforms? Shmaybe (with thanks to Sean Keeley and Jeff Landset). … What’s the point of wearing navy stirrups with navy sannies? Lots of additional pics of the same team here (with thanks to Charlie Shields). … The Falcons will be wearing 1966 throwbacks for one game this season (with thanks to Will Resinger). … Elena Elms pointed me toward this cool-looking new book. … NFL uni number news is trickling out for several teams, including the Vikings, Chargers, Cardinals, Dolphins, and Bucs (scroll down to “Number Five in Your Program”). … Bengie Molina has made a small modification to his cap and another to his jersey. To see what they are, scroll down to the boldface “When the season began” graf on this page (with thank to Brinke Guthrie). … Over on the Chris Creamer board, someone pointed out that Andruw Jones had worn a logo on his batting gloves that looked very much like the Brewers’ old ball-in-glove logo. Another contributor to that board explained: “It’s a logo he used exclusively on his batting gloves and cleats. Kind of a play on the Gold Glove awards he won, I think. The logo does look a lot like the Brewers logo but has the #25 stitched in the palm.” … Also from the Creamer board: QBs in the Colorado spring scrimmage had white stripes on their helmets. … Here’s an excellent shot of AJ Pierzynski’s unusual catching helmet (with thanks to Steve Johnston). … Former AFL player Ernie Barnes, who also painted some killer sports scenes (among other things), has died. There’s a great gallery of his work here (with thanks to Jeff Ash). … Haverhill Brewery, located in Massachusetts, is introducing a new baseball-themed beer. Unfortunately, nobody told them that “home run” is two words and that ballplayers don’t wear fingerless cycling gloves, although I do like their uni concept (with thanks to Ben Wideman). … Lots of cool gas station signs displayed here (with thanks to Alan Saunders). … We’ve now sold over 450 “I’m Calling It Shea” shirts, and donated over $1000 to a local food bank. I look forward to seeing both numbers rise in the weeks to come.
April 30th, 2009
A few weeks ago I got a package in the mail from reader Bruce Jaynes. Inside were copies of several dozen comics and illustrations, along with a cover note, which read as follows:
I wanted to pass along these uni-related comics created by my late uncle, Ned Paynter. Like most longtime baseball fans, he despised most of the modern changes and longed for the game of his youth. As a way of venting his disgust, he created an alter ego called “The Grizzled Veteran” — a crusty, Ty Cobb-like columnist who had a chip on his shoulder and an ever-present frown.
My uncle followed that up with the “Hey, I Didn’t Know That!” series, which was his take on little-known baseball arcana. His disdain for the modern uniform was a constant theme in both series.
I really loved, as I’m sure you do, the muted colors, killer illustrations, and snappy text in Ned’s work. I wrote back to Bruce and asked about his uncle’s backgroud — had he been a professional graphic artist, a writer, or what? Here’s what he wrote back:
He was a journalism major but ended up a history professor. … He would do freelance writing (mainly on architecture — his other great love) and contributed commentaries on San Diego’s KPBS radio. As for his art, he was influenced by early Sporting News and Street & Smith’s illustrations, and was a big fan of R.Crumb. But other than the illustrations in his high school yearbook, he wasn’t published. His cartoons were mainly done for the amusement of family and friends.
The amazing thing was that he could draw characters without a photo to prompt him. I remember watching him do an “Ol’ Griz” piece and marveling at how he could sketch DiMaggio, Feller, Griffey, Rodriguez, etc. by memory. The details on Pudge alone — sunglasses, turned helmet, chest protector — are incredible.
But wait, it gets better: Bruce also included a second batch of material, and this one went waaaaay past the boundaries of the cranky-old-fan shtick. Dig:
The second bactch is from the fictitious East Central Saskatchewan League. Its genesis came from the time we spent with my dying grandfather, who’d grown up on the central Canadian prairie. As he drifted in and out of consciousness, he would talk about the different towns in the area. As a way of coping, my uncle and I would come up with imaginary team names for the towns, complete with team colors and ballpark designs.
The town of Esterhazy had a potash mine, so they became the Ashers [additional Ashers content here]. Spy Hill became the Agents, for obvious reasons. Saskatoon was a hub for the CP Rail, so they became the Switchmen. My uncle’s illustrations are quite clever, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy his take on the uniforms.
This batch, despite being rendered in black-and-white, is pure gold. Ned came up with fictitious game accounts, “legendary” lore, stadiums running the gamut from old-school to newfangled (oops, that one wasn’t built) to fantastical, a columnist who covered the league with a jaundiced eye, and game notes.
There’s so much life in these pages, so much inspiration and imagination — amazing stuff. Big, big thanks to Bruce for sharing his uncle’s work with us, and to Ned for totally making my day, even if he’s not around anymore to hear my praise. RIP, buddy.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Not clear why this Madden screen shot shows the Eagles using a helmet number (and off-center, at that), but I assume it’s just a Madden error, not a portent of things to come in Philly (as spotted by Brendon Yarian). … Nice look at early-’70s basketball cards here. … The classics never die. Brian Codagnone spotted that signage on Rt. 93 north of Boston on Saturday. … Hey, Terry Proctor, when did Sand-Knit make these?! (As found by Roger Faso.) … Also from Roger: I’d never seen Mr. Met wearing catching gear — until now. … The FIVB has changed its Beach Volleyball Tour logo from this to this. Ooops, wait, I mean this. Details here (thanks, and apologies, to Jeremy Brahm). … New uniform controversy at Oregon, but it’s not what you think (with thanks to Kenny Ocker). … Newly minted Jets QB Mark Sanchez threw out the first pitch prior to Monday’s Mets/Marlins game. … Even the great Satchel Paige wasn’t immune from getting his buttons mixed up (with thanks to Justine DeCotis). … Also from Justine: Mismatched uniforms — but, thankfully, high cuffs — at the Mets’ Dominican training complex. … EA is introducing a “team builder” feature for NCAA Football 10. Video report here (with thanks to Patrick Runge and Ethan Crooks). … Not sure why Jamie Costello waited so long to tell us this, but he dressed up as Mike Nolan last Halloween. “I DIY’d a pair of headphones into a coach’s headset (using cardstock, tape, and Motorola logos I printed), made myself a little lapel pin out of cardstock and a 49ers logo I printed out, and made a custom pink slip which I laminated and put in my suit pocket (because he’d just been fired),” Jamie says. “I also printed a generic-looking coach’s play sheet and laminated that. Finally, I got a little piece of red fabric and tied it up to look like a challenge flag, which I kept in my back pocket. I wore a plain suit with a red tie and carried around a 49ers glass all night. For people who got it, they thought it was a great costume. Not sure what the other 95% of the people thought.” … Larry Bodnovich knows I like shoulder yoke striping, so he sent along these shots of OSU, circa 1960 or ’61, OSU ’65, and Dartmouth 1957 or ’58 (and look at those stripes on Princeton!). … Interesting that the Chargers and Bills had their draft picks pose with throwback jerseys. … Meanwhile, Alphonso Smith’s photo-op jersey had an upside-down I. … I don’t much care about spring football scrimmages, but I might make an exception for team with uniforms as nice as UCLA’s (with thanks to Erkki Corpuz). … Nice hockey ref billboard treatment at the IIHF Men’s World Championships (with thanks to Steve Alvarado). … As most of you know by now, the Red Sox have gone back to wearing red sox (and sleeves) on the road. But here’s a question: What will they do this Friday, when they’ll presumably be wearing their solid-navy Friday road jersey? Will they wear red hose with that (ugh — not a good idea), or are they now start packing a separate set of navy sox on road trips, just for use on Fridays? Or will they wake the fuck up and scrap the alternate jersey already because it’s a nothing but a douchebag merchandising move? Never mind, no chance of that happening. … Wait, update: According to this piece from today’s Boston Globe, the Bosox “will go back and forth [between red and navy socks] throughout the season.” Doesn’t say they’ll do so specifically because of the navy alt jersey, but I’m willing to bet that’s what will drive it. … Jeremy Brahm has uploaded a bunch of his Japanese baseball photos to Flickr. … Great work by Dan Cichalski, who found shots of Adrian Beltre wearing flat soles in the field and spikes at the plate in the same game. Both shots are from 9/1/07. … A reader who didn’t give his full name submitted an interesting question: Why do so many left-handed pitchers wear No. 57? In raw numbers, the split isn’t so pronounced — nine lefties on MLB rosters currently wear 57, compared to seven righties — but when you consider how there are so many more right-handed pitchers out there, the nine-to-seven ratio is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. Anyone..? (Answers involving Heinz ketchup are not acceptable.) … Lots of uni number news for the Chiefs (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie).
April 29th, 2009
Man, what does Majestic have against the Nationals? In the team’s latest uni snafu that can be traced back to the outfitter’s factory, Mike Hinckley’s 8 was upside-down last night (note how the beveling is on the wrong side). Kudos to reader Jason Shaffer for being today’s winning contestant on “Spot the Nats’ Uni Faux Pas™!”
And that’s all for today, cuz I have a bunch of other stuff I need to deal with. No content, no comments, no foolin’ — sorry. Back tomorrow with some really good stuff, promise. — Paul
April 28th, 2009
The weirdest thing about the 49ers’ new uni set, which was unveiled on Saturday, is how little media coverage it’s gotten. Newspaper photos have been scarce, and even the team’s web site had only one small photo and a really low-quality video report — frustrating for me, since the Niners are my favorite NFL team. So we’ll have to make due with a bit less visual support than we’re used to seeing around here. With that in mind, here we go:
• The new colors: For those keeping score at home, the team’s red has changed from Pantone 194 to Pantone 187C, and the gold has changed from 874 to 872. The new tones are more throwback-y/classic/Montana-ish/etc., but I don’t care for them as much. This feels like tradition simply for tradition’s sake. Is it good or is it stupid? Stupid (but my TV is probably too old for me to be able to tell the difference anyway).
• The new helmet: Basically, they’ve restored the red-white-red stripe and the gray facemask (both of which were used from 1964-1995, plus recent throwback games) but kept the revised “SF” oval that was introduced in 1996. Here’s how the new helmet looks compared to last year’s main helmet, and compared to the throwback helmet the team has worn in recent years. I think they got it right in terms of the stripe and the facemask (I know some of you hate gray masks, but I always hated the red mask) and I’m agnostic about the two logos — they’re both fine by me. Good or stupid? Good.
• The new jerseys: First the good news: Ditching the drop shadows and going back to one-color numbers is addition by subtraction. Ditto for removing the “SF” logo from the sleeves. Now the bad news: (1) That chest wordmark is a disaster. For starters, it’s an awkward design — always has been. In addition, putting a logo with a number right above the uni number looks idiotic. If they had to have a chest logo (which they didn’t), why not use the “SF” mark, or come up with a new “Niners” mark? This is the worst possible choice they could have made. (2) What is the freaking deal with the truncated sleeve stripes? It’s not just the tailoring on that one jersey — the stripes are actually shown that way on the team’s official style guide sheet and in Madden (the helmet striping and facemask in that shot are wrong, so don’t be thrown by them). Look, if you can’t fit real stripes on your sleeves armholes, just don’t bother with them. This half-assed compromise just doesn’t cut it. So while I’m glad to see the drop shadows being scrapped, the overall effect still leans toward stupid.
• The new pants: The worst thing about the Montana-era uniform was that the pants piping was ridiculously wide. The team has stayed true to that look in recent throwback games, but the new pants piping appears to be much more reasonable. No more “SF” logo on the hips, either. A major improvement. Very, very good.
I’d been hoping they’d be going back to striped socks, but no such luck — same red-topped hose as before. Dang.
So, upgrade or downgrade? Bit of a mixed bag, sez I. I can live with it. But it’s veeeeery tempting to sneak in the locker room with an Xacto knife to cut the chest wordmark out of every jersey in the joint.
Meanwhile, here’s a question: Is there a name for the type of color-white-color striping that the Niners are restoring to their uniforms? When I was a kid, this stripe pattern was practically synonymous with the NFL, at least to me, so for now let’s call it NFL striping. (If this stripe design has its own name in the uni biz, or if you’d like to propose a better name, I’m listenin’.)
In 1975, when I was in sixth grade, 10 of the league’s 26 teams used NFL striping on their helmets and/or pants (that’s not including the Jets and Colts, because their striping was — and still is — on a white background, which somehow feels like a different thing to me). Twenty years later, in 1995, the count was 10 out of 28 teams. But then several teams, including the Niners, started moving away from NFL striping. As of last year, the count was seven out of the league’s 32 teams (the Browns, Texans, Titans, Lions, Cowboys, Packers, and Saints; we could also include the Bears for their dark pants, but I don’t think they wore them at all last year).
Now the Lions have moved away from NFL striping as well, but the Niners have reclaimed it. Interesting to see them moving against the grain on this particular stripe pattern.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Last week I mentioned that Texas Tech had recently worn throwbacks. Turns out their video department made a throwback-style highlight reel of the game, and it is hands down the best sports-related video I’ve seen this year. Stop what you’re doing and check it out here (major thanks to Kirk Heard). … Kevin Wright was watching the 1996 NHL All-Star Game and noticed that the Great One was wearing a CCM helmet instead of his usual Jofa model. … Gerry Dincher asks, not unreasonably: If MIT’s teams are called the Engineers, why is their mascot a sinister beaver? … Dave Battafarano coaches this high school team in Wilmington, Delaware. “All players and coaches are required to wear pants at the knee and must show three stripes when we are in our grays,” he says. “We are the only HS team in Delaware to wear stirrups and sanitaries, and naturally the only to have stripes. We get a ton of comments, mostly compliments. People are amazed when they see the half-moon sanitary showing and many have no clue what they are.” Well done, Dave, but now teach those kids how to blouse their pant cuffs properly. … The Red Sox wore five different uniforms in their first 15 games (Jesse Pugh broke out his abacus to tally that one). … Uni typos aren’t a new phenomenon as you can see in these Spokane Indians photos from 1908. Over three decades later, Spokane’s baseball community was still a bit spelling-challenged. Love those uniforms, though (big thanks to Pacific Northwest baseball guru Dave Eskenazi, who’ll be throwing out the first pitch for for the A’s/Mariners throwback game on May 2nd, when the teams will be dressing up as the Oakland Oaks and Seattle Rainiers). … I gotta get me one of these (with thanks to Nolan Brett). … This has gotta be a joke, right? Apparently not (with thanks to John Muir). … Classy. … Small piece on bank logos here. … Here’s what Terence Kearns wore to Friday’s Mets/Nats game. … According to this page, the Red Sox may live up to their name on the road before the season is out. Key quote, from Bosox chief operating officer Mike Dee: “Socks are not usually a prime consideration when you design uniforms, because two years ago we had 25 guys who wore their pants down to their shoes.” Okay: (1) Asshole. (2) Two years ago you had Mike Timlin, Jason Varitek, and Coco Crisp. (3) Are you aware of your team’s name? (4) See #1 (with thanks to Mark Sullivan). … Lots of cool old football screen shots from helmet historian Jim Parker. In no particular order: a backwards helmet numeral, inverted lightning bolts, inconsistent helmet number fonts, the Packers still wearing their old navy accessories in their forest green era, and — here’s the doozy — Amos Marsh wearing totally “WTF?” TV numbers, not just once, but twice! Plus it looks like the TV number didn’t color-match the sleeve stripes. … Bob Wilson posted the following on the SABR listserv the other day: ” The A’s 1953 uniforms were very similar to those of 1952, except for having much smaller numerals on the back. For those who remember the Phillies uniforms of those days, with their extra-large numerals, the 1952 A’s had ones about as big as that, whereas with the 1953 A’s they were sized more like those of most other teams. Anyway, that’s the way it was for their 1953 home opener, but some of the [’52] variety began to appear as the months rolled by. This circumstance was an early indicator of the team’s deepening poverty — they couldn’t afford to replace torn shirt but fortunately had some left around from 1952. … Then things got worse next year, according to two books where it’s claimed that the A’s never paid for their 1954 uniforms.” Never heard any of that before. … Also from SABR-L, this time from David Vincent: “The owner of the Carolina League champion Potomac Nationals wears a uniform for Saturday home games and ‘coaches’ first base. He grew up in Brooklyn at the time that [Jackie] Robinson made his debut. His name is Art Silber, a retired banker, and wears No. 42 for the Potomac team. His goal, as he has told me multiple times, is to be the last No. 42 in pro ball. He only has to wait out Mariano Rivera for that dubious honor.” … Major tavern crisis on the horizon in Europe, as the leading beer coaster purveyor has gone bankrupt (with thanks to the world’s greatest cat-sitter, Laura Forde). … Good article here about minor league equipment managers (with thanks to Brett Crane). … Here’s another view of the Jags’ original jersey concept, which was later scrapped (with thanks to Jared Pike). … Completely hilarious uni-centric video about “baseball of the future” here — not to be missed (with thanks to my ESPN editor, Dave Schoenfield). … New York State and surrounding environs logo mash-up by Jeremiah McElwain. … Jeff Demerly reports that he wore gold sanitaries — and gold shoelaces! — back in his Little League days, circa 1974. “Our coach worked at a sporting goods store and always liked color,” he says. “My last year, we switched to red, white, and blue. That team picture was taken after a practice, so you can’t see the total package, which included numbers on our pants like the Astros. We were certainly the most ‘original’ team in our city league.” … Last week’s issue of Time Out New York included this photo. Never seen that Mets skirt before. … The Washington Huskies have unveiled their new football uniforms. More pics here. … Stirrups and uni-numbered shower shoes! That’s Roger Maris, natch (with thanks to Jesse Spector). … Footwear note from Brian Erni: “On Saturday SNY did a report on which players wear plastic cleats as opposed to players who wear metals (for example, Jose Reyes always wears plastics, Luis Castillo wears metals). Jeremy Reed — who wears metals so he can dig in better in the box — said that when he played with Adrian Beltre in Seattle, Beltre would actually wear flat turf shoes in the field when they would play in Minnesota, Tampa or Toronto and would actually switch cleats to metal spikes before he hit so he could dig in better. Would be great to find photographic evidence of this!” … The Padres wore 1969 throwbacks on Saturday, and holy shit did those striped hose look totally sexy. Broadcaster Mark Grant was dressed for the occasion, too. Too bad about the badly inaccurate rear view, though (Grant screen shot courtesy of Mike Hersh). … Ladies and gentlemen, only three words are appropriate here: Oh. My. God. … Anyone know why Mike Richards had “PP” printed on his teeth the other day? (Screen shot courtesy of Ryan Connelly.) … The Denver Post ran a big series of articles about Denver-area uniforms yesterday. Start here for the mainbar, and then check out the side articles about the Nuggets, Broncos, CU Buffs, and local athletes’ opinions. … Here’s next season’s AHL All-Star Game logo. … The New York Mets, lamest, dumbest, most embarrassing franchise on the planet. Can’t we just send the Wilpons on an all-expenses-paid excursion the Chechnya or something? … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Usain Bolt wore this jersey while throwing out the first pitch at Fenway on Saturday. The uni number, of course, refers to the average number of runs given up by the Yankees’ bullpen each game. … Recently acquired this old uni catalog. Nothing momentous, but a few interesting tidbits: (1) Check out the padded facebar at 10 o’clock — never seen that before. (2) Note that the ventilation grommets on two of these sneakers are on the rubber strip, not on the canvas. Sloppy illustration, or did Chucks used to be designed that way? (3) The football footwear page included a listing for little press-on uni-number tabs. Hey, Terry Proctor, were those common back in the day? And (4) Dig item G914, described as the “Ted Sowle Model” of eyeglass protection. Who’s Ted Sowle? Beats me. Anyone..? … Now I’ve seen everything (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Was out having a few beers at O’Connor’s on Friday and found myself sitting next to a gent named Ryan McManus. As you can see, he had an extremely nifty T-shirt, plus he had this cap, which I’d never seen before. He said it was from a now-defunct Massachusetts bar called the b-Side. Awesome MLB logo treatment on the back, too. … We’ve previously noted that the Pirates’ collar piping extends down the jersey’s inner flap. But it turns out that it doesn’t extend all the way down (good spot by Tim Collins). … “I went to the NFL draft over the weekend,” says Will Slade. “They had an AFL 50th Anniversary Booth and handed out brochures that detailed the ‘Legacy Games.’ In addition, some of the NFL employees had AFL logo lapel pins. Here’s a photo of the officials’ uniforms and the Broncos’ uniform.” … Stan Olechowski was visiting his galpal as Delware Valley College and snapped pics of some cool items, including this button and this jersey, which has a cool rounded insignia and a beautiful, fascinating label. Anyone know more about who S&C might be? … Two AFL find by Tom Park: First, this is from a Chargers/Titans preseason game in August of 1960. Odd that the official was wearing a plain white jersey, no? Even odder: Joe Namath wearing what appears to be a practice jersey (NNOB, no green trim on the sleeves) on 12/6/69.
April 27th, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson and Mike Engle
OK. Today we’re onto the American League powder blue review. Lots to get to today. If you missed the senior circuit’s review, click here.
Chicago White Sox: The Pale Hose actually wore three separate and distinct sets of blue uniforms (four, if you want to believe Ricko). The first two, however, were quite similar, worn from 1964 through 1968. For the first three years, they sported a block “CHICAGO” in vertically arched black lettering across their chest, and for the final two years, a script “Chicago” in blue with “White Sox” spelled out in the tail under Chicago. Caps were black for three years, blue in the final two, and the stirrups changed slightly. In addition, the 1967-’68 set had uniform numbers on the front, while the earlier set had TV numbers. The third set of blue uniforms were worn from 1971 through 1975 and were actually quite similar to their 1967-68 predecessors in that they basically replaced the blue with red (but returned to TV numbers). All piping and stirrups, plus the cap, which had been blue before, were red (mirroring the red of the home uniforms of this period). Bonus question: Was this uniform, worn in 1969 an 1970, powder blue? It’s a question that has been posed on the boards before but has never been sufficiently solved — if it were blue, it’s a VERY light shade of blue. What do you think?
RP: So I’ll begin with the 1964-66 White Sox. They were seen as “interesting” and a “typical Bill Veeck gimmick” by most, but in truth they looked pretty good. Better after the switch from black hats, etc., to navy, especially the ’67-68 version. Now, as to the “red hat” era that began in ’71, I realize the jury is pretty much split, but I liked them. That may be prejudiced some by the fact that I always liked Dick Allen and Jay Johnstone, and they both wore that uni (also both wore the Phillies powder blues) and by the fact then when they were introduced, red adidas came as part of the package. Colored cleats had arrived in MLB. Grade: B
ME: The White Sox, in general, get the Powder Blue for Powder Blue’s Sake award. The first powder blues, the block Chicago and especially the script Chicago with WHITE SOX in the tail, looked really good, but would have looked equally good on gray bases. And those socks…wow. I don’t want to say anything good about them, because Mr. Lukas could do that for me, more lustily. If the South Side Blues ended here, they’d get Grade: B+. But then along came those godforsaken bright red Frankenjerseys on the powder blue. Yikes, that’s REALLY hurting my eyes. Since the Sox went through so many identity crises before my lifetime, I’ll give this a “temporary insanity” mulligan and save it from the city cellar (and, by result, the big league cellar). Grade: D+
PH: Count me as among those who particularly liked the early powder blues (especially when the script Chicago was introduced), since, well, it’s blue on blue. It’s not too obnoxious deep a powder blue (since it’s either cotton or wool flannel, and not polyester), but it’s blue alright. I need to give out two separate grades once again, and the 1960’s blue gets a nice solid mark. Grade: B+ Once the Sox went to the red on blue, however, it instantly became a nightmare. Much like the Cardinals and Phillies, the powder blue doesn’t ‘react’ well with the red. Maybe because it’s not a dark blue, or maybe because the solid red on the pastel offends my sensibilities, the look was … just … not … good. With the red on blue — Grade: D
Kansas City Royals: One of the “longest tenured” powder blue-wearing teams, Kansas City also had two distinct “phases” of their uniform: From 1973 through 1982 the Royals sported a block “KANSAS CITY” in vertically arched lettering across their chest. A knit pullover jersey and sansabelt pants, these uniforms featured thin blue and white piping on the sleeves, and thicker blue and white stretch material at the waist, with blue stirrups and undersleeves. From 1983 through 1991 the Royals sported a script white “Royals” across their chest, minimal sleeve striping (also blue and white), dropping the sansabelt & pullovers for botton down jerseys and belts. Blue shoes were worn with both uniform sets.
ME: The Royals look good in powder blue. That being said, one of the good-looking teams has to be overrated. Unfortunately, I give the “overrated” tag to Kansas City. (Rick and Phil, please don’t shoot me.) After four years of looking fine in gray, they made their blue debut with their vertically arched KANSAS CITY tops. This variation gets all of my little dislike for the Kansas City blue look. In all the pictures I’ve been able to find, the powder blue just looks too light. There is no contrast between the blue base and the white lettering, so it looks sort of half-baked to me, and it’s prone to the problems the Angels, Braves, and Rays have with their respective softball tops. That’s not good company. Add the fact that it’s a pullover, and this top looks too much like a basketball warm-up shirt. Grade: B- Those jerseys left a lot of room for improvement, and the Royals really nailed it with the button-down powders, as seen on Bo Jackson. That powder blue base really got richer, and hey, what do we have here? Why, it’s a team wordmark in white, and I can see it! It’s a great look, but it’s not my favorite. (That honor goes to the Phillies, as discussed yesterday.) However, it’s good enough for me to give it a Grade: A. And on a more-than-slightly related note, the Royals’ home alternate top (wouldn’t you know, it’s powder blue too) is the best “softball top” in the Majors today, and there is no argument on that one.
PH: Absolutely, positively, my favorite of the powder blues. Of course, royal blue (they’re the Royals, get it?) and powder blue, plus only white, are a great combination in my mind. Whether it was the original sansabelt poly-blends, or the later button down’s and belts, this was the perfect powder blue uniform. I don’t think they could have improved it even by adding a small royal blue outline around the white numbers and letters. It worked just fine without it, thank you very much. Best of the baby blues, baby. Grade: A+
RP: Ah, the Royals. For my money they got it right. I know some lament the white-only lettering but I gotta say, it looked SO cool in person. Just a gutsy move, trusting the new intensity of powder blue doubleknit compared to the preceding era of poly blends and flannel to make the white letter and numbers pop. Head-and-shoulders the best of all the powder blues. They used it only as a road color, meaning they treated the same as if were gray, and they did it beautifully. (Totally as an aside… if the Royals had waited just two years longer to return to gray, or had George Brett retired two years earlier, he would likely have been the only post WWII Hall of Fame player to have played his entire career without ever wearing a gray uniform). Grade: A
Milwaukee Brewers: Moving along, the Brewers went through three or four phases of powder blue, the first was from 1970 through 1971, when they wore powder blues with yellow lettering “borrowed” from the Seattle Pilots (who moved to Milwaukee following their very short stint in Seattle). By 1972, they had adopted more of their “own” identity, keeping a blue-outlined yellow block “BREWERS” font from 1972 through 1977 (first with a blue cap and white sanitaries, followed by a two-tone yellow/gold cap and yellow sanitaries). Hammerin’ Hank wore this uniform set. Then, from 1978 through 1984, the Brewers adopted a script “Milwaukee,” in blue outlined in yellow gold, kept the two-tone cap, and returned to white sanitaries. Except for 1970-71, all of their uniform sets had blue shoes, sansabelts and pullovers. The 78-81 uniforms featured blue and gold piping down the pant legs, and an equal-width stretch belt and sleeve hem, also in blue and gold.
PH: Yet another uniset I really like. That’s because the ONLY color that goes with powder blue besides royal blue is yellow gold. Now, the Crew had the misfortune of spending not one, but two full seasons wearing the old Pilots uniforms (more on them later), both for their homes and their road uniforms (did they really “borrow” the two lower case “e’s” right from the Seattle unis?) Nevertheless, they were blessed with having good colors. I actually like their second generation uniforms (with blue cap and white sanis) the least, and despite the garish appearance of the yellow sani era, I prefer them the most. But they had their most success in the ball in glove, script Milwaukee era unis and those rank up there as well. Very good, but not great. Grade: B+
RP: The Brewers are an example of what just seems to be some kind of visual rule … powder blue works best in concert with royal blue better than with any other color. I guess we could call it “spectrumally sound” or something. Even the years when they farted around with yellow-gold sanitaries and yellow-gold softcaps (even yellow gold stripes on their adidas and Pumas) it just kinda worked. Grade: C
ME: They started off with the Seattle Pilots’ uniforms, obliterated some nice details, ended with Pilots’ skeletons with Brewers’ wordmarks, and passed themselves off as a different team. Grade: 0%, a symbolic measure for openly uni plagiarizing. The Brewers finally got their own uniforms with the vertically arched lettering “BREWERS” wordmark, which looks OK by itself, but the yellow cap panel is annoying and the yellow sanitaries show why they cannot go outside the Oakland Athletics’ clubhouse. Grade: B. But it gets better. From 1978 on, they lost the yellow sanitaries and got themselves a gorgeous script Milwaukee wordmark for their fronts. Add the ingenious logo (which took me a LONG time to see the MB inside the ball glove), and I’m ready to officially wash their hands of the old Seattle Pilots’ blood. Grade: A-, and only a stupid yellow front cap panel away from making it a Milwaukee/Kansas City coin flip for Best of the DH League.
Minnesota Twins: Interestingly enough, the Minnesota Twins wore powder blue for 14 years, from 1973 through 1986, and the uniform basically remained unchanged for all 14 years of use. Red letters and numbers (numbers and wordmark outlined in dark blue), dark blue cap, thick dark blue, thin white and thick blue stripes on the sleeve hems and sansabelts, and thin red, white and blue piping on the pant legs and dark blue stirrups. About the only thing that changed were their toppers. More on that below.
ME: I’ve seen a lot of hate for these uniforms, but I don’t think they’re that bad. I think the vertically arched lettering NOB’s are too big, and this helmet based on a non-existent hat (and check the coach in the background) is TERRIBLE. For God’s sake, color that T in TC navy! By itself, I see a pretty average looking powder blue uniform, but with the odd choices of accessories, Grade: C-, but I’d love to grade these higher just to applaud the lack of road pinstripes.
RP: Oh, ick, we have to talk about the Twins. Around here we’re subjected to this uni far longer than we wanted … For many of us that was anything longer than one game. Especially because the first year of Twins doubleknits the roads were gray, and they was gorgeous, one of the really classy first attempts and creating a doubleknit uni that looked good — and appropriate — on a major league team. But evidently they couldn’t stand looking good when tacky was possible, because switched the road ensemble to powder blue. Not coincidentally (in my opinion, anyway) that’s when the Twins entered their most prolonged period of suckiness. To make it worse, they then added that red crown hat—first at home then later, (for god’s sake, why?) on the road, too—and the descent toward looking like the team from “up dere at da Techncial College in Fulda” was complete. Plus, they wore three different batting helmets (yes, that’s Rod Carew with a mustache) with those blues and for those used to this, something about this (in gray OR powder) was just out of time, out of place and out of whack. Grade: F
PH: What can I say about the Twinkies that hasn’t already been said? Nothing. I don’t like ‘em (red doesn’t go on powder blue). ‘Nuff said. Grade: C
Seattle Mariners: The second Seattle ballclub, although alphabetically, they come before the Pilots, the Seattle Mariners donned the powder blues from 1977 through 1984. While not all these years had identical jerseys (they were constantly futzing with the look from 1977 through 1980, starting with the white outline around “Seattle” and blue, gold and white sleeve and sansabelt piping, then adding gold-white-gold (with thin blue stripes) on the sleeve and belt, and a gold outline around the wordmark. (Cap looked like this from ‘77-’80, and this from ‘81-’84). From 1981-1984, they added thick royal and gold stripes down the arms and replicated that on the waist and pant legs (adding an additional blue band on the waist). They also added a second layer of blue around the gold (which surrounded the blue) in their wordmark.
RP: I liked the Mariners version with yellow-gold as the predominant color in the waistband. A different choice, and for that reason it worked. Kinda, anyway. Give ‘em credit for trying something. Grade: D
ME: Wow, these Seattle Mariners are the powder blue problem children. They always seemed to have some problem with their look. One day, they had too many layers and borders in the wordmark; another day, it was too many stripes on the sleeves. But the pants take the “cake” with the wide Expos-esque stripes down the side, but featuring yellow instead of red. Yuck. The Mariners never got it right in powder blue, and not even Ken Griffey, Jr. could have made those uniforms look good. Grade: C-
PH: Another team ‘born’ in powder blues, I always liked the Mariners in their powder blue, and for the same reason as I like Milwaukee: the baby blue goes well with yellow/gold and royal blue. I definitely prefer the older version of the jersey, ya know, the one without the lame and unnecessary fat ass stripes, but at least the colors are still good. Nothing really special or horrible about the uni, but when I think of the original Mariners, I’ll always remember them in their powder blues & trident caps. Grade: B
Seattle Pilots: Ah yes, baseball’s one year wonders, the Seattle Pilots. In 1969, the Pilots donned these blue uniforms for road games. Nautically themed, the sleeves featured the stripes of a ship’s captain, four of them, with a ship’s wheel patch on the front. Yellow gold was the color of the letters (which were lower case) and numbers, outlined in dark blue. Shirts were button down. Pants had a thin stripe of yellow surrounded by two thinner stripes of blue. The famous cap contained the “scrambled eggs” design.
PH: It’s a shame the Pilots only lasted one year, as I really liked their uniforms. The blue was not too powdery (because it wasn’t on a polyester blend, I don’t think), and the shirts were button down. The yellow nicely complimented the powder and royal. The ship captain’s stripes were a great element. About the only complaint I even have is I was not a fan of the scrambled eggs on the cap, since, while I “get” why they were there, I found superfluous and cluttersome. But it was unique, both then and now, so that keeps the grade high. Grade: B+
ME: Most underrated powder blue. Easy to underrate them because they only lasted a year, but they looked really good. The sky blue works for the pilots because pilots fly planes … in the sky … which is usually blue. The sleeve stripes, sock stripes, and the hat stripe (and eggs) made everything look cohesive with the yellow type. The whole uniform’s a bit avant-garde and possibly over-designed, but it’s really well put together. I like the look. Grade: A-
RP: One-year wonderful, those PILOTS. Some much going on: more-than-usual sleeve and sock striping, scrambled eggs, logo and caps-lower-case lettering/number in yellow-gold. They tried everything … and damned if it didn’t work. The wanted a maritime version of a baseball uniform and they got it. Oh, sure, maybe if the team had lasted, in another year or two they’d have scrapped some of the brick-a-brack (sic) cuz if might have gotten old. But as MLB’s ultimate one-off team … perfect. Grade: B+
Texas Rangers: Winding down now, the Texas Rangers wore powder blue from 1976 through 1982, keeping the same basic design throughout, the sole exception being 1977, when they wore a black memorial band and a “4″ (here’s another view). The uniform was basic, with “TexaS” spelled out in vertically arched red lettering (with white outline), along with thick red, white and blue stripes on the jersey hem, waist, and down the pants legs. Jersey was pullover, with two-buttons at the top. When the hell did they wear this jersey with the capital letters tho?
RP: Oh, yeah the Rangers wore powder blue, too, didn’t they. Stripe on the pants sure was nice and wide, huh. Remember seeing them playing the Tigers on TV on a Saturday game of the week in Detroit (mid ‘70s, sometime) wearing white pants with their powder jerseys. That was, well … goofy. Next patient, nurse. Grade: D
PH: One word: meh. Red doesn’t belong on powder blue. Fat stripes are ridiculous (at least they didn’t put them down the shoulders and from the armpit to the waist). I’m not a fan, at all, of the two-tone cap, although I don’t mind the font — kind of ‘old Texasy’. But, really, this uniform is “FAIL”. So that’s what they get. Grade: F
ME: It’s not a problem with the powder blue, it’s that front font. Just doesn’t look like a major league team to me. And the Henley tops…ugh. Grade: B for AAA ball, but D+ on the Major League level.
Toronto Blue Jays: Our study on powder blue concludes with the second Canadian team to sport the colors, and the Jays wore blue for a fairly long time. From their inception in 1977 through 1978, the Jays jerseys said “TORONTO” across the front, and in 1977 this was solid blue, while in 1978, a white outline was added. From 1979 through 1988, and the wordmark was changed to “BLUE JAYS.” Jerseys were always pullover, and the colors were always navy blue and white, appearing in thick stripes around the waist and thinner stripes on the sleeves. The same striping pattern which appeared on the sleeves was repeated on the pant legs.
PH: Like the Royals, who got it right by using their namesake color in their name, so too did the Blue Jays. I was more of a fan of the second generation of jerseys, the ones with BLUE JAYS and the bird & ball logo, but I liked both versions. And while I was never a fan of the font, it was one of the more unique and easily identifiable of all sports fonts (at least for the sport of baseball). Born blue, they remained blue until 1988. That’s a long time, and that’s how I’ll always remember them. Not necessarily fondly, but well enough. Grade: B
ME: Yeah, I guess Blue Jays should be blue. (Definitely not black, cough-cough.) And for whatever it’s worth, this pullover top makes the best t-shirt of this bunch. My favorite thing about those uniforms is the font. It’s a complement to the old graphic identity that I think electric stovetops look like the Blue Jays, and not the Blue Jays look like electric stovetops. It’s obvious that changes were made throughout the Blue Jays’ blue run, and I should have an opinion as to whether they look better with TORONTO or BLUE JAYS on the front. But the changes are too hard to see, so I don’t think I have a definite opinion either way. The white front panel is OK; the chest logo is less OK, and even less OK when the buttons pushed the logo off to the side. Grade: B (with a reduction down to B- with the non-centered chest logo)
RP: Loved the BLUE JAYS road. So “70s” and so appropriate to the team nickname. Always wished the home trim (sleeve ends, waist and pant stripes) had been royal-powder-royal, though. The extra “weight” would have been good. So much white was a little “fey” for a bird as ballsy as a blue jay. Uncle Charley has spoken. Grade: C
Phew … well, there you have it. Day 2 of the powder review. What do you think? Did we hit one out of the park or take a third strike looking? Feel free to let us know how we did, and what YOU thought about the time when men were men, and players wore pastels.
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OK…that’s all for today. My great thanks to Mike and Ricko for providing me with a three generational perspective on the powder blue. Hope you enjoyed it.
Yesterday, I know the draft went on (and continues today), there was a bunch of uni news too (like the Pods throwbacks), and as many (or most) of you probably know by now, the San Francisco 49ers introduced new uniforms. Paul will have his full review of those this week, plus a very full ticker on Monday, I’m sure. Happy 39th birthday Robert Marshall!
Everyone enjoy your Sunday.
April 26th, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson and Mike Engle
A couple of weeks ago, following my post on the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle, there were remarks made about the “powder blue era” in baseball (and one look at the NL All-Star team of that year shows why). Now, I grew up with the powder blues, so seeing this brought back a tide of memories (some good, some bad, and some … well … nightmares). So, I wanted to see how these powder blues would be viewed today, by three generations of Uni Watchers — and I’m joined by sexagenarian Rick Pearson (aka “Ricko”) and twenty-something and ex-pat Mike Engle, who’ll give their perspectives on this era of baseball. (Make sure to check out their pics in the by-line.) I’ll both serve as moderator and commentator, and — since I’m young enough to be Rick’s son, and old enough to be Mike’s dad — provide a three-generation view of these blue bad boys.
Rick will offer his opinions, except where noted, on how he viewed those uniforms at the time of their introduction (he notes privately to me his views have changed in his advanced age), and Mike, having never “experienced” them when they made the scene, will offer the opinions of a different generation — one that may view the blues in much the same way as my generation viewed the time before television, and Ricko’s generation viewed the time before electricity. I’ll introduce the cast of characters, first, and then we’ll look at the baby blue uniforms, by league. We’ll tackle the National League first (since the 1941-42 Cubs were the first team to sport such uniforms), today, and then move on to the American League tomorrow. Age before beauty means Ricko has the floor first:
Rick Pearson: LI Phil, inventive sort that he is, suggested a three-generation look at powder blue road unis in MLB. This is an interesting idea, though given the three folks he chose for the piece he ends up—using a MY THREE SONS template—as square-jawed Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray was C.C. Beck’s model for Captain Marvel, btw) , with Mike Engle as goofy little Ernie and Ricko as irascible old Uncle Charley. The upside of that, of course, is that if I sound opinionated, cantankerous and crusty, it’s okay; it’s only me staying in character. I’ll now turn the floor over to young Michael. Mike?
Mike Engle: Damn it, Rick and Phil, thanks for the archaic pop culture reference that goes straight over my head because Nick at Nite runs after my bedtime. That’s class. [/sarcasm] Regardless, I have to say, after flipping through the ancient, dusty, yellowing history book scanning old pictures on the internet, wow! What an era! When I was five, I remember asking my dad, “How do the teams know what to wear?” He’d reply: “Home wears white, visitors wear gray.” A beautiful simplicity (well, usually) that does not apply today, when we’re subject to seeing teams in the buff, blue teams wearing black, teams “without” a road uniform, and even cravings for cardboard in pizza boxes pizza in cardboard boxes. Though the white v gray rule will be disregarded in this “sky blue review,” there’s plenty to see and talk about here nonetheless: uniforms from the heavens, uniforms that need to stay in the Clubhouse in the Sky, and uniforms that are, well, as unique as a blue duck. So without further ado, let’s fire up the time machine and welcome our first team down the catwalk, the 1941-42 Chicago Cubs.
The 1941-42 Chicago Cubs, who started off the powder blue ‘experiment’ (but did not begin the ‘craze’). This past week, Paul linked to this newspaper article describing the outfits in less than glowing terms. “Have the Cubs developed a pantywaist inferiority complex?” the article asks. My less than good Photoshop (actually, MS Paint) skills show how the uniform in color may have looked. (Or not, since after that mockup, Larry Bodnovich provided me with screen grabs showing the 1942 Cubs in action [here's a closeup]. Obviously they were much closer to gray than the powder blues which would follow decades later.) But perhaps because of the comments like those contained in the article, or perhaps because polyester doubleknits hadn’t reared their ugly heads, powder blue as a replacement for a gray road uniform would not return to the baseball diamond until the 1960’s. It’s tough for me to comment on these, but just from what I’ve seen, there are pros and cons — pro: zipper! con: vest. I HATE vests. But that’s just me.
Mike Engle’s take: The powder blue vests are total flops. Just not a good look at all. (I’m not sure I particularly like the look of baseball vests at all, but powder blue vests? Gross.) The wordmark is a good idea (it was kept for the subsequent sleeved gray road uniforms, and looks pretty good), but terribly executed because it rides too low, across the belly instead of the chest. This could have been a really good uniform, but instead, it looks kind of stupid, and probably looked embarrassingly out of place and time in the early ’40s.
Ricko’s thoughts: Despite what some think, I wasn’t around for the Cubs flirtation with powder blue, but they don’t look too bad. I like the white lettering edged in royal. I suspect, though, based on the stories I’ve seen (”panty waist” unis) they might have been jussssst a bit ahead of their time. It took the coming of color TV to make baseball more…colorful. At least they hold the distinction of being the only powder blues vests ever in MLB.
And now, on to the rest of the national league.
Atlanta Braves: The Braves wore powder blues from 1980 through 1986, remaining essentially unchanged for that period. The only major change occurred after 1980, when they wore a two-toned cap and “rounded” ‘A’ in their script “Atlanta.” From 1981 through 1986, their cap was solid blue and the “A” in Atlanta was pointy. The uniforms also appeared to be a slightly darker blue.
RP: First off, I never understood the Braves dropping the red from the roads. It wouldn’t have looked all that great, but it just seemed odd to totally lop off part of the color scheme in an era of such rampant color. Other than that, what can be said other than, “the Braves wore powder blue for a while.” Zzzzzzzz … Grade: D
ME: the Hank Aaron template with the contrast raglan sleeves and the feathers would have made for a funky powder blue [that's Phil's attempt at how that would have looked.]. But instead, reality gives us the blandest of the powder blues). Even though technically, there are two versions of Braves powder blue, it registers as one dull, insipid time in the team’s history in between Hank Aaron and the tomahawk revival. I’ll take the “modern,” pointy A over the round A because (a) it doesn’t result in Hank Aaron’s cap getting “left over” and stuck with these lifeless duds, (b) they still have the pointy A today, so I’m used to it and I like it, (c) it flat out looks cooler, or (d) all of the above. Grade: C (everything else, relatively, is memorably good or memorably bad)
PH: I’m in agreement with both Rick and Mike on these. One thing I do like about them (and which will become apparent as the list progresses) is that I think, with very few exceptions, the only color which goes well with powder blue is actually … blue. The Braves pretty much stuck to that blue-blue script, so they are in no way shape or form on the bottom of my list. On the other hand, there’s nothing about them which stands out either (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). I prefer the seemingly deeper blue and pointy “A” to the two tone cap and rounded A. Grade: C+
Chicago Cubs: The Cubs (aside from their ‘experimentation’ from 41-42) wore powder blue from 1976 through 1981. For 1976 and 1977, they went with a solid powder blue uniform with block “CHICAGO” across the chest (1976 had the patch Bill Madlock is wearing and 1977 featured the cub head. In 1978, they changed from solid blues to pinstriped blues, (keeping the cub head and from 1979 through 1981 kept the pinstripes but added a red ring around the little bear.
ME: Without the pinstripes, they look like scrubs. Seriously, take the number off, and I see a medic for a Chicago Cub Scout troop, not a Chicago Cub ballplayer. With the pinstripes, they’re my least favorite of the powder blues. Ernie Banks would never have wanted to play two in those pajamas, he’d hope for a rain-out each and every time so he could, you know, stay in HIS classier-looking pajamas. My least favorite. Grade: F
RP: Ah, the Cubs. The solid royal roads were just kinda….they’re … not good, not bad. Just solid. But, oh those powder blues with white pins. Personally, I loved em. Not so much because they were so good-looking but they gave something unique a shot, and it sure as hell was distinctive to them. However, lest you think me a total moron, I will admit that probably was a bit too MUCH powder-and-pins. I submit a photo showing that “alts” back then might have been a good idea. Here’s Larry Bowa in a BP jersey and, when you pair those pants with a solid royal jersey … it ain’t too bad. Grade: C
PH: The Cubs weren’t exactly blessed with ‘classic’ road unis in the 1970’s — even this gray 1972 jobby, with its centered numbers (blecch) and red piping, is nothing to write home about. But the solid blue uniforms weren’t without their charm. As noted before, I prefer blue numbers and letters on a powder blue uni, and these fit the bill. Certainly not the worst of the blues, they were about average. On the other hand, these things beg the question: “Pinstripes on powder blues? Really?” Pinstripes DON’T belong on road uniforms, and they look absolutely ridiculous on powder blue. Ruins whatever good feelings I may have had from the previous two years, and totally brings these down a full grade. Not that they were starting from a very high grade to begin with. Grade: D
Montreal Expos: Yet another club with two distinct iterations of powder blue uniforms. From 1969 through 1978 the Expos wore a simple blue uniform with thin red white and blue piping on the sleeve hem and pants legs, blue numbering (and they even had button down jerseys) and black shoes. In 1979 they switched to red numerals. Then, abruptly, they changed. From 1980 through 1991, they added fat, red and blue stripes from their shoulders to their sleeves, down the sides of their jerseys and extending down their pant legs. In addition, they donned blue shoes.
PH: Well, they went from having one of the nicest uniforms to the worst. Let’s look at the good. First of all, they were born blue, (how’s this for a pre-Photoshop job?) never had much flair on the uniforms in the early years, and always kept the button down jerseys. Black shoes in the early days were a huge plus. I really have to split my grade on this uni set into two groupings — pre fat stripes and post. For the early years, I loved this uniform — Grade: A. Then, beginning in 1980, something went horribly wrong. Those fat-assed stripes turned a gorgeous uniform into a garish joke. Whatever focus group thought this was a good look must have been given one too many mushrooms. Because it’s not. Grade: C-
RP: The Expos were born in powder blue, should have stayed in powder blue til the end. Just looked so right and seemed so right, right down the tri-color hat that, at first, some smarty pants SI writer suggested was minus only a propeller to be perfect. The second version with the broad two-color stripe on the shoulder and continuing all the way down the jersey and pantlegs was the better idea. Considerably more “snap” than the original set (although the original look was worn by one of the great young outfields I ever saw: Warren Cromartie, Andre Dawson and Ellis Valentine). Grade: B+
ME: Got better with time. Let’s go in reverse chronological order. The ones with the long, thick stripes down the side were the best. They completed the Expos’ look, matching the tone set by the wild cap. Add the red numbers, and you have a nice balance of red and blue throughout the uniform. The earlier variations are too blue, and would have looked better with the all blue cap the last Expos wore. While the skinny piping looks nice, it’s too old school for an otherwise new school uniform. (Basically the reverse Washington Nationals, who have an overly-old school cap for a new school uniform.) The red number is better than the blue-with-white-outline number (which looks too dark to match), which is better than the original single-layer royal number. Considering their tweaks from start to finish: Grade: a steady crescendo from B- to A-.
Philadelphia Phillies: The Fightin’s wore their powder blues for a looooooonng time, basically unchanged, from 1973 through 1988 (some sleeve patches changed or disappeared, and they wore white shoes [according to Okkonen] in 1975, with reddish-maroon shoes the rest of the years. Caps and shoes were dark red, with a like colored stripe, surrounded by thin white stripes running down the shoulders and arms, inside of the jersey, and down the pant legs. In 1973, and then again in 1987 and 1988, the jerseys had buttons — the remaining years they featured zippers.
ME: My favorite powder blue?: Philadelphia Phillies, Mike Schmidt era. It’s not just my favorite powder blue uniform — It’s arguably my favorite baseball uniform ever! Maroon and powder blue look amazing together, and the Helvetica font goes perfectly with the curly P logo on the heart and cap. Add vertical arched NOB’s, a well-weighted white border to make the maroon pop out of the blue and match the piping, and REAL BELTS!, and you get an A+ awesome uniform. Grade: A+
PH: Ugh. Perhaps I’m letting my NL East prejudice creep in here, but these things were awful. First of all, the only thing that looks good with baby blue is another shade of blue, preferably dark blue. Certainly NOT burgundy (or maroon or dark red — or whateverthefuck color that is). Yeah … all you West Ham and Aston Villa fans can hate me too. And I don’t care if you think it looked great on Garry Maddox and Dick Allen (I’m not about to tell them it didn’t), but it just so pales in comparison to the current and past Phillies unis. Not a fan of the mix of blue and maroon, didn’t like the baseball in P on the cap or the jersey. Hate the head to toe stripage. Just nothing about this uni is likeable. Sorry. And Rick, they wore white shoes in 1975. Grade: D
RP: I liked the Phillies in powder blue. In my mind, burgundy and powder shouldn’t have worked but it did. Beyond obvious memories of Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton in those unis, I also think of guys like Garry Maddox, Dave Cash and Tug McGraw. Didn’t like the white shoes with them in ’76 or whenever it was. Grade: C
St. Louis Cardinals: The final National League team (yea, the Brewers are in the senior circuit now, but they weren’t when they wore powder blue) for today, the Cards wore powder blues, basically unchanged, from 1976 through 1984. (In 1976, they sported pill box caps and a patch on their left sleeve.) Their uniform was almost an exact replica of their home unis, with polyester pullover jerseys, thin, red, white and blue stripes on the sleeve hems, collars, and pant legs, and an elastic waist band also in red, white and blue. In 1979 and 1980, they wore TV numbers on their sleeves. Their wordmark was the classic Cardinals’ script with birds on bat. They wore red shoes throughout.
RP: Umm…no. Maybe because the Cardinals have such a history of classic unis, maybe because there was navy in there with the red and white…don’t know exactly why, but…just…no. Members of the Gas House Gang must have cringed during that era. Grade: F
ME: This is the “powder blue that never should have happened.” Lou Brock looks so out of place, out of time in powder blue. Dizzy Dean didn’t wear powder blue. Neither did Rogers Hornsby or Stan the Man. Thanks for trying, St. Louis, but now you know to stick to gray for the road. Grade: C-
PH: Our final selection for today. The Cards fall into the same problem as the Phillies, and that is that red doesn’t go with powder blue. Not quite as bad as the Fightin’s, but still not a good combo. Toss in the red shoes, the poly pullovers, the TV numbers … and what you have is not a good look. You can’t just toss on the classic “birds on bat” on the poly pullover and have it work. Rarely will I say that the Mets unis blow away the Cards’, but when the Cardinals wore powder blue, few teams looked as bad. Grade: C-
Well, there you have it. Day one of the true blue review. Obviously, the three of us have widely divergent opinions, as we’re sure you all do. Don’t like what we said? Think one (or all) of us is full of shit? Let’s hear about it.
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Because You Nick asked for it: If you didn’t read the link, basically Nick asked for some mock-ups of Mets uniforms, sans all blue. This proved to be a tougher task than originally thought. And, originally, I didn’t know he had wanted to see said mock-up without a black jersey. So a black jersey is included. For my first attempt, I took a rear view of the uni, removed the blue, and kept the white outlining for the numbers. Here’s the result. Moving on, I took on a frontal view of the uniform, keeping the white outlines and removing the drop shadows. Not satisfied, I removed the white outline, just for shits and giggles, and this is the result. My verdict? The first one looks like a Giants ripoff (and not a good one at that), the second is just not a good look, and the third looks like an Orioles alternate. Not that the BFBS combo is any good anyway, but removing all blue from it is just wrong. And not an improvement.
I next moved to the snow white home uniform (also known as an alternate), but at least it’s white and a uniform, not a softball outfit. I won’t even attempt to do a mock-up on the pins, so you will just have to settle for the snow whites. Well, here is what I came up with. Again, I removed the drop shadow and replaced the blue with black. While this doesn’t look as bad as the BFBS jersey treatment, it’s still not the Mets. It’s not the Giants either, but it sure does look a lot like the G-men did when they played in New York. Again, removing the blue is not an improvement in any way. Their snow whites with blue caps and sleeves is not a bad look as it is. This is. Finally, I tacked the road grays and removed the blue (and drop shadows). The result is very interesting. I’m pretty sure I have seen that look somewhere before. I understand the Mets were trying to ‘recreate’ the old Brooklyn and New York teams who moved west when they entered the National League in 1962. It was a great look then and a great look (well, if they actually still looked like that) now. Removing the blue, in my opinion, is NOT a good way for this team to go. And that’s the end of this edition of “Phil’s Mets Uni Concepts.”
Or is it? In honor of today’s topic, I wondered how bad the Mets would have looked had they succumbed to the powder blue craze of yesteryear. Well I got my answer when I mocked that up. Thank god they stuck to the gray. Because here’s what they would have looked like in powder blue. They’d get an F.
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That’s all for today, folks. Enjoy the draft. Discuss the new football unis. Tell us how bad the powder review is. But above all, enjoy your Saturday. Rick & Mike and I will be back tomorrow to discuss the American League.
April 25th, 2009
Quite a few of you have been sending me notes saying, more or less, “What’s with all the attention to Josh Outman and Corey Wimberly? Where’s the love for Brendan Ryan? His stirrups are striped, y’know!” Really? I hadn’t noticed!
As I’ve patiently explained to these people, I haven’t mentioned Ryan so much this season because (a) I’ve given him plenty of attention in past seasons, and (b) I wish he’d show more of his white sanitaries. But Mets announcers Gary Cohen and Ron Darling apparently had no such compunctions yesterday, as they used a Ryan at-bat in the bottom of the 7th as the launching point for a wide-ranging, often awkward discussion of lower-leg stylings. Here’s a transcript:
Ron Darling: This kid brings some nice energy to the ballclub, doesn’t he? Old-timer with those socks pulled up. I think those socks by the Cardinals have to be one of the best in baseball, don’t they?
Gary Cohen [apparently unaware of current uni specs in Boston]: Those and the Red Sox.
Darling [equally clueless]: Red Sox are good. Trying to think, who else..?
Cohen: Did you see, by the way, I was watching, uh, uh, I was watching part of the Yankees/Oakland game yesterday, and one of the kids for Oakland, I think it was Outman, was wearing the stirrups — the green with the gold? Oh my! It looked like a picture out of the ’60s!
Darling: That’s right. I, I, they’re great, because they have the sanitary socks for, I mean… Guys don’t wear it now. They more wear the kind of soccer kind of sock, which is all one color. You see Delgado has it on, Reyes have [sic] them on. But it is, I, I used to wear that, that green and gold, and it’s pretty funny. See look, they’re more like soccer socks now. Just one full sock that they wear under their uniform.
Cohen: Right, but generally, when guys wear stirrups, they’ve got white socks, white sanitary socks underneath the stirrups. But this is the gold sanitary sock under the green stirrup. I, I, I, I’ve never seen look. Not for a long time anyway.
Darling: I tell, I tell you the hardest thing about getting used to in going to Oakland was not only that, the gold sanitary sock, was the white shoe.
Cohen: Mmm, the white shoes, yeah. Well, you felt like Joe Namath.
Darling: Exac… [Chuckles so hard he can't complete the word.] By the way, when I was playing football, everyone had to get those Riddells that Joe Namath had.
Cohen: Joe Willie White Shoes. [Long pause; one can almost hear both men's brains recalibrating.] And then there was Billy White Shoes Johnson.
Darling [clearly relieved to have something to respond to]: There you go.
Cohen [wandering far off the reservation now]: Everyone wanted to spike the ball like Billy White Shoes Johnson.
Darling: You know what’s pretty funny is, is that, you know, the NFL has stopped all the, uh, uh celebrating, or tried to stop all the celebrating. I couldn’t wait for Billy White Shoes Johnson to score a touchdown.
Cohen: Well, that’s because it was unique. I think, you know, when it starts to become a little over the top, they had to rein it in.
Darling: You weren’t an Ickey Shuffle fan? [Chuckles heartily at this reference.]
Cohen: You know, but even that was cute at the time. But you know, when guys are retrieving cell phones from goalposts, it’s, y’know, it starts to get a little out of hand.
Darling: Signing the football?
Cohen: Yeah, exactly. [Both men snicker to themselves, very satisfied to have identified this cultural microtrend and established their superiority to it. A long pause ensues.]
Darling: My favorite, and I won’t remember his name, it’s too bad. He played for the Philadelphia Eagles, and he scored a touchdown, and he used the goalpost as a heavy bag. [Chuckles. Cohen chuckles back.] He just stood there and uppercutted the heavy bag. It was great.
Cohen: That’s great as long as you don’t break your hand. [Both men chuckle. Discussion moves on to other matters for about 70 seconds.]
Darling: I was given the name of the Eagle. It was Vai Sikahema.
Cohen [clearly nonplussed to be back on this topic]: Ah. I would’ve had trouble just pronouncing that name. [Darling laughs heartily. Discussion mercifully moves on to other topics.]
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So the morals of the story are as follows: (1) Mets announcers are incapable of discussing uni-related matters without making fools of themselves. (2) Gary Cohen apparently never saw Barry Zito pitch while he was with the A’s. (3) Even in broadcaster discussions, Josh Outman’s stirrups get more attention than Brendan Ryan’s. Sorry St. Looie fans, but whaddaya gonna do.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember Ozzie Guillen’s “OPD” cap from spring training? It sold for $400. … “Just wanted to let you in on the stupid way our baseball team at Marksville High (Marksville, La.) wears/ secures their pants,” writes Chris LaHaye. “Most started doing this last season and, sadly, it carried over to this year. No one can give me a good reason for wearing them like this except it looks ‘tight.’” Of course, once you see the team’s full uniforms, you realize that the pants are the least of their problems. … Oh. My. God. Details here (with thanks to Jim Ransdell). … “Versus did a piece about the Sutter brothers in between periods on Wednesday night, and they showed them in these Rawlings jerseys,” says Doug Keklak. “I hadn’t known that Rawlings actually made any hockey gear.” … Also from Doug: Check out this 1972 shot. “That’s the pee wee team that won the Greater Johnstown School District elementary school league. Apparently, uniforms weren’t a priority, as I’m pretty sure those numbers are made with tape!” says Doug. … The Oilers are redesignating their classic throwbacks as their primary home uni for next season. … A few days ago there was some chatter in the comments about the common use of red and blue on the electoral map, which is interesting in light of this photo — why are so many people wearing red? There was no mention of it in the article, so I did a bit of googling and learned that red is the color of the same-sex marriage movement in Maine. I am not trying to start a debate on the merits of same-sex marriage, so let’s not go there, thanks, but I do think it’s interesting that they’re using what’s usually thought of as the right-wing color to advocate what’s usually thought of as a left-wing cause. … John Grupp of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review interviewed me yesterday on the topic of Nyjer Morgan’s stirrups (I resisted the urge to suggest that he talk to Gary Cohen and Ron Darling). Article will run on Sunday, I’m told. … It’s that time of year again (courtesy of Matt Sajina). … Okay, I think the human race — or at least the advertising/marketing community — has now officially hit rock bottom (with thanks to Jim Roddy). … Lenny Dykstra, classy as always. Note the flapless Darren Daulton catcher’s helmet. Caption says the photo is from 1990, which was before the Daulton/Dykstra car crash, so it’s not like this was a “Sorry, dude” move or anything like that. Hmmmm (with thanks to Andrew Dixon). … Nicole Haase thinks she’s found the secret to Manny Parra’s problems. … Yesterday’s Jags coverage prompted this from Jared Pike: “I’ve been a Jaguars fan ever since they were announced in 1993, when family members bought season tickets right off the bat. As a result, they got insider newsletters, detailing the team’s early history (with interesting headlines like, ‘Jaguars Soon to Have Players’). Here’s one when they unveiled their new non-automotive logo and uniforms. The article claims that the uni is distinctive because it is the first ever to feature three-color numbers. Interesting, huh? Verifiable, maybe — but moot, since they’ve taken a step backwards with their new two-color numbers. I’ve also attached some promotional artwork, showing a prototype Jaguars helmet being raised in hypothetical victory, and a Sporting News cover showing the original uni design that was later scrapped.” … Ben Fortney sent me this shot from the 1981 World Series and asked if I knew what the patch was for. Answer: That’s the Los Angeles bicentennial patch that the Dodgers wore that season. … Joe Alvaro tried his hand at a NYC logo mash-up. Here’s a version in which he swapped out the Knicks in favor of the Giants. … Now that’s a program cover. Lots of similarly wonderful CFL programs displayed here and here (big thanks to Terry Paffenroth). … In a remarkable feat of glandular control, Ex-Phillie Kevin Millwood has managed to create a Harry Kalas memorial sweatstain on his cap.
April 24th, 2009
Before I talk about the Jaguars’ new uniforms, I want to take a sec to talk about their old ones. As I’ve said many times, I thought the Jags’ original set was among the best uniforms of its generation — contemporary colors and typography but a very classic deployment of those elements. I especially loved the use of gold trim, which provided a nice bit of warmth to the home and road designs. I had always thought that if they were smart enough to leave this uniform alone, it would eventually be regarded as a modern classic.
Alas, they weren’t smart enough to do that. Let’s look at the emperor’s new clothes:
• The new wordmark: Quick, what did the Jags’ old wordmark look like? Right, I can’t remember either. And face it, unless you’re getting a note on their letterhead, who really cares? That said, this looks OK. Not great, mind you (the little whiskers, or slash marks, or whatever the fuck those are supposed to be, would be laughed out of any undergrad design class), but OK. Good or stupid? Good enough.
• The new helmet: As you’ve probably heard by now, they’ve sprinkled some sort of magic pixie dust on the shell, so it mostly looks black but does this teal color-shift when the light hits it, sort of like the hull of a bass fishing boat (or, as someone has astutely pointed out in today’s second comment, a motorcycle helmet). Way too soon to know how this effect (which is also embedded in the logo decals, facemask, and the type on the nose and neck bumpers) will look on TV or to a QB trying to locate a receiver downfield, which are really the only two contexts that matter. It actually could be cool, although I think it’s more likely to be either ridiculous or indiscernible from a distance. Maybe good, probably stupid, but too soon to say.
• The new jerseys. Leaving aside the asinine seam horns that wrap around to the back (which are too insipid to even discuss — I mean what is that, a zipper?), I really hate the colors. The gold is gone, and so is the warmth it used to provide. It’s bad enough that this looks idiotic, because of the horns, but does it also have to look so cold and drab? Forget about the graphics and just compare the color palettes of new vs. old. It’s no contest — the old one feels rich and organic, while the new one feels mechanistic and plain. Over on the Chris Cream board, someone did a quick Photoshop mock-up of how gold could have been retained as an accent color — still a dumb design, but so much more appealing. Can’t say I’m a big fan of the new number typeface, either. What a disaster. I weep for the loss of the old design. Really, really stupid.
• The new pants: Well, at least they’re not as bad as what the Falcons, Vikings, and Cardinals are wearing. In fact, they’re fine from the front, but I don’t know about those upright tildes on the sides. In theory, they’re not really so different than, say, the Chargers’ lightning bolts, but in practice they look pretty bad, especially in conjunction with the jersey wraparound thingie. I get that it’s supposed to look all sleek and streamlined, but the effect is lost on the big linemen. Oh, and it’s hard to see, but the helmet logo is repeated on the hips, which on the one hand seems like overkill but on the other hand is a rare sighting of gold in this uni design, so I guess I’ll take what I can get. Stupid.
• The socks: They’re going with just one sock design — white on the bottom, black on top — for both home and away, which means major leotard-age on the road. I’m not sure, but I think this is the first time a new NFL uni set has been specifically designed to create the leotard effect. In other words, this is the first time a design team has said, “No, the primary visual function of football hosiery is NOT to provide contrast between the pant cuff and the sock.” Dumb beyond words, but it’s what they’ve already been doing for years anyway. Stupid.
Two final notes:
1) You may have heard team owner whatshisname saying, “From now on we will wear THIS design at home, and THIS design on the road, and you’ll always know what to expect and you’ll always recognize us,” blahblahblah. The implication was that a new uni set was needed to establish a stable visual identity. Yeah, right, as if it was the old uniform’s fault that the team chose to play mix-and-match all the time. This whole “Now you’ll always know what we’ll be wearing” thing is a red herring, a crock — they could just as easily have established a firm identity by sticking with the old wardrobe and using it the way it was meant to be used, instead of treating it like a Garanimals set.
2) Am I the only one who’s getting really fucking tired of Reebok and Nike constantly telling us that every new uni set is “30% lighter” than the last one? At this rate, the uniforms will soon weigh exactly zero ounces, or maybe have an anti-gravity component. It’s even lamer when you hear an NFL team saying things like, “They developed this just for us,” as if Reebok would really develop a fabric technology for one team and withhold it from the rest of the league. Skip the tech lab chatter — nobody cares. Just show us how it looks and tell us who’s responsible for the lame-o graphics so we know whose house to egg.
Shit, man, this whole thing is depressing. Is it too late to go back to this?
In case you missed it yesterday: My ESPN piece about the new steakhouse in Yankee Stadium is here.
Another follow-up from yesterday: If you’re a past or current member of the military, I’m interested in hearing what you think of sports teams wearing camouflage uniforms (my thanks to the many military personnel who responded to this request yesterday). Again, this is only for military past or active military members. If that’s you, feel free to voice your opinions here. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Bizarre scene last night in Toronto, as Texas pitcher Darren O’Day got into the Jays/Texases game but wore someone else’s NOB. O’Day had been claimed on waivers earlier in the day and had just arrived in Toronto during the eighth inning of the game (I think he stopped along the way for some poutine), but they didn’t have a jersey for him, so he had to wear Kason Gabbard’s No. 30 jersey (which was apparently laying around even though Gabbard is now in triple-A). Naturally, O’Day promptly gave up the game-winning hit. There’s excellent coverage of this incident, including some good video, here (with thanks to the many, many readers who contributed info and screen grabs on this one.) … Speaking of the Rangers, Ron Washington’s NOB is almost as bad as Salty’s. Looks like an NBA NOB! (Screen shot courtesy of Nolan Brett.) … Check this out: Trevor Hoffman going high-cuffed for a minor league rehab game in Nashville. … Ken Davidoff’s excellent blog reports that the Yanks have somehow convinced Modell’s to sponsor each Yankee stolen base (maybe because Modell’s has so much experience dealing with shoplifters..?). And people wonder why sports fans are cynical (or why some of us think the magical free market isn’t the solution to all of life’s problems). … Three different No. 5s? Ben Traxel saved that from an old newspaper clipping. “Not surprising in our town that the black kid is the one without a matching uniform, even with a black coach,” he writes. “Surely someone could have come up with a spare #5 for him.” … Also from Ben: “I saw these posters in a shoe store window back in the mid-’80s. At the time, I went in and asked the owner if I could have them when they were done with them. Ended up with these five. The back of this one lists the participants. Don’t think I’d necessarily label Collinsworth a ’speedster.’” … These KC Chiefs bikes are used at the team’s training camp in River Falls, Wisconsin. Here’s reader Jason Gomez posing with one of them. … Speaking of the Chiefs, they’re practicing without helmet logos, because Todd Hailey wants them to earn their arrowheads. … Never thought I’d have a reason to type the words “Hello Kitty” on this site, but look! … Lots of cool old Packers stuff here. … Awesome basketball warmup jacket (mislabeled as a baseball jersey) here. … Fun team name: the Albany Lawmakers. … Ever eat here? Then you gotta think about getting this. … Man, I don’t know what Sand-Knit was thinking with this (but I’m sure Terry Proctor will tell us). … If you’re into the Padres’ brown/gold color scheme, you may want to consider buying this. … Sooooo much to like about this! … It is absolutely essential that a Uni Watch reader ends up with this — someone buy it NOW! … And here’s one of the greatest cheerleading sweaters I’ve ever seen. … If not for the sun damage on the left sleeve, I’d probably snap this up myself. … One of those soccer teams you’ve never heard of is holding a scarf design contest (with thanks to Patrick Runge). … If you go to this page and click on the video link for the 1990 Freedom Bowl, you’ll see something really bizarre: a reverse-field color match-up, with one team wearing green jerseys and gold pants and the other one wearing gold jerseys with green pants “One of the hardest games to watch,” says Todd Dole. … Note the “P” and “C” columns in this amazing scoreboard photo. “P” is obviously for pitcher, but did scoreboards also list catchers back in the day? If so, why? If not, what is the “C” for? (As submitted by Steve Cook.) … Vince was checking out this Tony Mandarich video and noticed that he wore an “Evil” label on his nose bumper. … History’s weirdest media guide cover? Could be (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Not uni-related, but the seemingly endless flood of Lenny Dykstra stories (here’s the latest one) is like a car wreck that you can’t stop staring at. Sad, compelling stuff. … You probably know that the old AAFC included a team called the New York Yankees. You might not know that they took more than just their name from the baseball team (good find by Joe DeAngelis). … Outmania! “Seeing the stirrups and white spikes in person — wow, a thing of beauty,” says Tyler Kepner, who covered yesterday’s Yanks/A’s game. … Here’s another quilt made out of running shirts. It was made by Kevin Pazdernik’s mom. “Once she ran out of running shirts, she moved on to general sports quilts,” he says. “What can I say, my mom loves to quilt!” … The 49ers will officially unveil their new duds this weekend, but word is slowly leaking out beforehand. … Yesterday was Earth Day, so the Astros wore green caps and the Red Sox recycled (get it?) their St. Paddy’s Day getup (plus they added a recycling logo sleeve patch). … A recession is such a good time to buy a $100,000 suit (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Okay, people, because you demanded it, and in honor of JG Ballard’s recent death: a veritable snuff-film sequence of Bryan Redemske’s cycling crash. … The NHL playoffs, as depicted by Rob Ullman.
April 23rd, 2009
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