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Archive for July, 2009
by Phil Hecken and Jim Vilk
I’m joined this fine Friday by DIYer and memorabilia collector Jim Vilk, who’s about to regale us with a fascinating story of his days working at the Richfield Coliseum, the Coliseum’s subsequent demise, and the trove of treasure Jim and his brother were able to secure in the hours prior the wrecking ball felling that once-proud structure. Fittingly, with Paul visiting The Mistake By The Lake The Forest City this weekend, Jim will take us inside (literally) the Coliseum and, after a quick history lesson, show us some of the things left behind, for the taking.
* * … Train wheels runnin’ through the back of my memory … * *
So, then, with that brief intro, here’s Jim:
With Paul coming to Cleveland this week, I did some math and realized he is here during a milestone year in Northeast Ohio sports history. The upcoming 2009-10 NBA season will be the 40th for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The year 2009 also marks 15 years of Cavs basketball at Quicken Loans Arena, or “The Q” (formerly Gund Arena) and 15 years of Indians baseball at Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field, or “The Jake,” as some of us still call it). Not only that, but 2009 marks 10 years of the new and not-so-improved Browns playing football at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Browns’ last title was 45 years ago, but it wasn’t the city’s last. The Cleveland Crunch won the National Professional Soccer League title 15 years ago at Cleveland State’s Convocation Center. Take what you can get C-town, it counts.
That’s nice, I suppose. I’m a Pittsburgh fan, though, so most of it means bubkes to me. I do like the Cavs, but not nearly as much as I did when they spent 20 years playing ball amidst the serene, pastoral landscape of Richfield, far from the bright lights of the big city. Nestled in northern Summit County, the Richfield Coliseum was located almost halfway between Cleveland and the Akron-Canton area. I say “was,” because it’s been 10 years since they tore it down — but not before my brother Tom and I got a lot of great memorabilia.
The milestones continue. It’s been 35 years since the building opened with a Frank Sinatra concert, 30 years since Sports Illustrated said, “No arena was more beautiful than The Coliseum, a magnificent structure in Richfield, Ohio,” 20 years since “The Shot” by Michael Jordan and 15 years since the place closed with a Roger Daltrey concert. In between were many more concerts, truck pulls and rodeos, circuses and ice shows, boxing and wrestling matches, hockey and arena football games, some great indoor soccer (as we talked about recently) and of course, the good, bad and ugly years of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Tom and I worked as vendors there, and even shared a souvenir stand for a few years. He started a year after the building opened, so he was there for “The Miracle of Richfield.” I officially started in 1983. Unofficially, I got to work the 1981 NBA All-Star Game, which was cool. Tom stayed at the Coliseum all the way to the end, and even works at “The Q” to this day. I quit in 1992 to get on with my life’s work, but asked to come back in 1994 to work the Cavs’ playoff run. I lost my seniority but gladly sold soda in the seats for the final games.
When the building closed it sat for five years while they figured out what to do with it. There was talk of it becoming an outlet mall, a prison, a workout facility, you name it. Finally, the Gund brothers sold it and the surrounding land to what is now the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They didn’t implode the building. Rather, they gutted the interior, then took a wrecking ball to the exterior.
A day before the wreckers came, my brother got a call. We knew one of the guys doing the interior work, and he said we could come in and take anything we could fit into our vehicles. Everything that was left would be buried on site. Tom hopped in his pickup and I got in my station wagon (if that’s what you want to call a Saturn SW1). When we got there, it took a few minutes to get over seeing the gutted remains. Memories came back and flooded our minds. Once we started finding things, though, our reaction quickly turned to joy; we were like kids on Christmas morning.
The first items we found (by the way, the items you’ve seen so far are things Tom and I bought or received as giveaways) were in the employee locker rooms. We took two types of patches from the ushers’ and security guards’ uniforms. I liked the ushers’ patches, which were issued when the Coliseum was ten years old. The blue and gray depiction of the building was a definite alternative to the simple blue-and-green patch. Both were good in their own way, though.
Next, we snagged some warm and toasty dark blue coats the parking lot attendants wore. I wore mine as my winter coat for a few years before I had to retire it. The simple design made it go with almost anything. The big white Coliseum logo on the back sure started a lot of conversations in public. I lost count how many times strangers started reminiscing with me when they saw it. Then we found a brown coat worn by the ticket takers. The brown welcome patch harkened back to the original logo.
Speaking of uniforms, the vendors had a few nice ones. Unfortunately, I don’t have those anymore. The only one I still have is the ugliest of the set — a red-and-green-striped bowling shirt with a horizontal strip of black thrown in for bad measure. We had a cool yellow polo shirt before that and a nice blue-white-and-orange rugby shirt afterward, but those are gone for some reason. Tom still has his rugby shirt, though.
* * … Ancient footprints are everywhere … * *
Anyway, on to the good stuff. We went out to the arena floor and grabbed a few sections of floor seats. My set actually gets some use in our basement. Tom has the rest tucked away in the bowels of his home. Then, we headed to a storage area, where we found a giant NBA logo and some floor stickers for the playoffs. We almost left the room, until we saw some rolled up fabric. Good thing we were curious, because we ended up finding the banner for the scorers table, as well as the banner for the Cavaliers’ 75-76 division title.
After that, we went up to the main concourse and stopped at our old location between sections 208 and 209. Tom grabbed the sign for it, while I took the “Drive Safely” sign above the exit. I like to keep it in my garage as a reminder to, you know, drive safely.
Finally, we headed up to the infamous loge area. The Coliseum was one of the first arenas to have a set of luxury boxes. Problem is, they put them way at the top of the building. That turned out to be the reason for the building’s early demise — the corporate types ended up with the worst view of the game. Whatever. We didn’t find much up there, until we got to a meeting room which contained a scale model of “The Q.” Well, if it was a full scale model, someone got to it before us and dismantled it. We found almost half of the seating area, which makes it kind of worthless. That didn’t matter to my brother, who never met a piece of memorabilia he didn’t like. Actually, with a little creativity some DIYer could turn it into a retro-looking baseball stadium. (Ah, if I had the time…)
By this time, our vehicles were filled beyond capacity. We left the building for the absolute last time, and I saluted as I drove out of the parking lot. It wasn’t the last time I’ve been on the site, however. The national park was just going to let trees grow naturally, but someone noticed birds were starting to use the land as a migratory pit stop. Now they keep the area trimmed for birds and bird watchers alike. You can walk around there, but the ground settled where the arena was, so that’s fenced off for safety. The small threat of poison ivy was enough to keep me from venturing around … until this past winter. We had lots of snow, so I put on my big rubber boots and hiked from the road to the fence (quite a feat in shin-deep snow over tall grass). I got to the approximate area outside of sections 208-209, noticed the calm around me, then closed my eyes and listened for the distant echoes of cheering fans. I think I heard a few — if nothing else I felt them.
Okay, what’s a Jim Vilk story without a little DIY? Most of you have seen my Lego tribute to the Miracle of Richfield and my latest indoor soccer game, but very few people have seen my first attempt at a Coliseum/Cleveland Force tribute. I made this from an old table hockey game, using cardboard cutouts for the players and clothes pins covered in hockey tape for the bases. It’s a bit primitive, but I thought I should dig it out of the closet and share it with you anyway.
Oh, and you hockey fans – that inflatable Cleveland Crusaders guy was goalie Gerry Cheevers, in case you were wondering.
* * … Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb … * *
Thanks, Jim, for that trip down memory lane. You got some great stuff out of that old place. And thanks for the brief history lesson too — like many readers, I’m sure we weren’t aware of the great events hosted inside the Coliseum. And I, for one, wholeheartedly express support for a future DIY of turning that scale model of the Q into a retro baseball park. Maybe next spring?
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK…there’s going to be a theme with today’s post, starting with the scoreboard. So, right off the bat, in case you don’t recognize the stadium, there’s your hint. That’s the only hint you should need, since this one is probably pretty easy, especially if you know how to cheat. Try not to, OK? Ready? Guess The Game. As always, date, location and final score, and let us know how you came about your answer.
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 Did I mention there’s a bit of a theme today? Well, even today’s Benchies plays along with that theme. Ricko did this one a long time ago (notice the stirrups on Ozzie), so take it for what it’s worth. And it’s pretty funny. So, on that note, enjoy a special Friday edition of Benchies.
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 Uni Watch News Ticker: Uni Watch Prexy Paul Lukas checks in first with this, heads up from the Buccaneers, who will be unveiling their 1976 throwback uniforms at 11:00 am today … Also noticing this was Wayne Edward Koehler who provides the “heads up” from The St. Pete Times … Mr. Lukas also notes these pics from Pats practice, ad patches everywhere … In a related story, Tom Adjemian checks in with this little story on the Pat’s Jersey Ads, with another pic. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm notes “The Japan Volleyball Federation (JVA) has just released logos for their men’s and women’s national teams. The women’s logo is on the left ‘Hinotori (Phoenix) Nippon (Japan)’ and the men’s is on the right ‘Ryuujin (Dragon King) Nippon (Japan).’ This is in collaboration with Tezuka Productions or the company that owns the rights to the Seibu Lions logo.” … More jersey sponsor news comes from Nick Houser who advises that the Cincinnati Bengals have signed a practice jersey deal with SpongeTech Delivery Systems according to the Cincinnati Enquirer (via twitter) … Ribby Paultz found this interesting article in which Russian airline “Aeroflot ditches ‘revolting’ hostess uniforms and reveals: ‘We will only hire attractive girls’.” Says Ribby, “‘Bout time.” … Following up upon a ticker item yesterday about Tadahito Iguchi’s batting gloves, Robert Steinau produced a picture of him from his days as a member of the Phillies … In addition, Jeremy has also supplied pics of him as a member of the White Sox, and also his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines … Sneakerhead Matt Powers called me from Fenway Park yesterday to report that Rajai Davis is still wearing the logoed stirrups (here’s a better view from a different game) … Aaron Bolerjack writes: “I’ve been a Manchester United fan for a long time, and a Uni Watch supporter since the Page 2 days. Can’t believe that nobody from one camp or the other hasn’t jumped on this yet — A few weeks ago, Man U announced their new 09/10 home uniform, which they claimed was ‘reminiscent of the shirt worn by Manchester United’s 1909 FA Cup-winning team. This new design features a similar sash across the front. The club has used the same design components to honor that historic accomplishment of 100 years ago, the first of its eleven Cup titles.’” Here’s the problem, according to Aaron: The 1909 shirts looked like this (WHITE shirt, LONG sleeves, RED chevron and cuffs); The 2009/2010 shirts look like this (RED shirt, SHORT sleeves, BLACK chevron, BLACK neck ring, NO cuffs). “Ironically, the 2009/2010 goalkeeper’s jerseys (designed to CONTRAST with their teammates) are a LOT closer to the original design,” he continues. “Please help me bring attention to this travesty.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: reader Brian makes an astute observation — Is a commemorative bat really a the right type of memorabilia to celebrate a perfect game? … Jake Elwell found this bit about “These blogging sisters were featured in the Times style section today. I note they recently posted some fun uni-related stuff your readers might like (scroll down a bit).” … Zac Neubauer was fortunate enough to go to the Giants game on Monday night and got an up close look at the Sue Burns patch. Sadly, the ones on the ushers were either stapled or safety pinned on … Bill Scrowther notes, “I noticed during Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star game that each MLS player had their team’s crest on their left sleeve, which can be seen here.” Bill adds, “However, the second goalkeeper (Zach Thornton) for the MLS side had his crest on the front of his jersey, right chest. What made him so special? My only thought is maybe it has to do with him only being added to the roster on Monday.” … Check out this collection of old baseball photographs from the University of California Library system (with thanks to Robert Ruszczyk … Jim Zorn “lays down the law,” according to Alain Nana-Sinkam, who notes that in the last graf of the Chris Cooley blog, there are to be no cutoff sweats. “We have retained a seamstress to take care of that for you,” he states. … Hayden Jackson thinks, we “might enjoy this photo set of a book my grandfather owned about Babe Ruth called ‘Babe Ruth: The Idol of an American Boy’.” I’d say so … Chris Hodge found this incredibly cool gallery of old photos of the Bears at Wrigley Field. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: the Buffalo Bills have “officially” unveiled their throwback uniforms for next season (thanks TJ), and they’re already on sale — although there is some question as to the actual sleeve striping (if they’ll even have noticeable sleeves, that is) … OCD DIYer Robert Marshall, whose team apparently won their softball game yesterday, sent this awesome pic of his hosiery (at least I think that’s his legs) … Matthew Dubroff, Philly fan, loves his Phillies — but “then I saw this t shirt that is embarrassingly stupid. If this starts a trend if nickname jersey/shirts … god help us all.” And finally, the previously mentioned Matt Powers sent along the following: DWade has decided to join the mothership. Matt continues, “And for a sneakerhead, this news is like winning the lottery, going out with Kim Kardashian, and dunking on Gheorge Muresan after coming home from Spring Break and watching Sixth Sense for the first time.” He explains that these are often thought of as the best of all 23 Jordan signatures. And finally, a super rare retro. Thanks Matt, I don’t know what we’d do with out you.
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Hope everyone who was able to attend the UW gathering in Cleveland had a great time. Thanks to Paul for letting me steer the ship in his stead yesterday and today. Of course, you’re stuck with me for the weekend too. Be sure to check back Sunday for a couple of announcements on “uni tweaks” and “uni tracking” and a bit of potpourri. Have a great Friday everyone. — Phil
July 31st, 2009
By Phil Hecken
Today, I’d like to introduce what I hope will become a semi-recurring feature here at Uni Watch. I’d like to take a look at certain teams, teams that seem to be in need of a unichange. Whether that involves a tweak, a logo change, a complete overhaul, or some combination of those elements, I’d like to work with some of the ‘graphic artists’ we have and (much to your chagrin, submit some of my own work) to come up with some changes to the uniforms of certain teams. I don’t know whether I’ll announce the “upcoming” teams in need of a change, or whether I’ll just ask for suggestions and go from there. Maybe both. After you’ve read this article, if you’re interested in participating in any capacity, drop me a line.
Today, I’ll be joined by three great readers, James Huening, who has been a great help in gathering photographic evidence of many of the current and former uniforms you’re about to see below, Robert Marshall, who has tweaked a design or two of mine and who has come up with his own unique spin on what he’d like this week’s team to don for their uniform, and Michael Emody, who’s created a number of unique and sometime throwback-ish (fauxback?) designs (and is the genius behind the lead photo). As if the title and the header pic weren’t enough of a tipoff, today we’re going to be looking at the Chicago White Sox as a team who may just be a candidate for some uniform improvement.
Before we go any further, though, I want to direct your attention to this fantastic article on the White Sox uniform history, authored by none other than UW Prexy, Paul Lukas. It’s an excellent primer for what follows, and the knowledge gleaned and shared by Mr. Lukas in that work will greatly assist in understanding why the Sox are a perfect candidate for a uniform change. So take a few minutes, read the article, then come back here and we’ll begin.
* * S O X * *
Great article by Paul, yes? Yes. So, lets begin with the Sox’ current uniforms. For their home uniform, the wear a pinstriped uniform in black, gray and white, with “Sox” in Olde English script on their left breast. As often as not, they will break out a black alternate top, also with a script “Sox”. For their road uniform, the team from the South Side wear a grey based uniform with black and white accents, and “Chicago” spelled out across the chest in script. Also, with the roads, they will break out the black alternate with alarming regularity. They rarely show sock, but when certain players do, they’re black. I’m sorry, what was the name of your team again? Clearly, this will not do.
Not that the current uniforms are all that bad; in fact, personally, I feel they’re one of the nicer uniform sets in the bigs, although the use of that softball top should be curtailed. Not eliminated however. As much as I despise alternates, this one does have a time and a place. We’ll explore that below. But, for a team who has changed uniforms with alarming regularity, and the current set has been in use since the beginning of the last decade, it’s time for a change. But to what? Let’s see what we can come up with.
* * C H I S O X * *
 If you read Paul’s piece (and I know you did), you’ll have a pretty good idea of the uniform history of the Sox. Clearly, over the years, the boys from the Windy City have really been all over the map in terms of uniform design. Some of these have been very good, some have been pretty basic, while others have been fairly wild, and others have been, well, what the fuck? pretty unique. They have worn pinstripes, they’ve worn powder blues, they’ve donned predominantly blue, predominantly red, uniforms with a black dominate, and some combination of colors over the years. They’ve even worn all dark blue uniforms (which sometimes looked black), and even changed the sock stripe patterns over the years. Still not convinced this is a team that could use a uniform change? It’s only been close to 20 years since their last one — they’re due.
* * G O G O S O X * *
Finally, before we look at the proposed changes, we must also look at one phemenon (which the Sox of course invented), and in which they still partake with regularity — the wearing of throwback uniforms. Why do they wear throwbacks so often? Perhaps the Sox themselves are auditioning uniforms of yesteryear (yes, I know that’s a Negro League throwback, but it’s still a throwback) with an eye towards the future. Most recently, they’ve worn their pennant-winning 1959 duds, and, because they were chosen to play in this year’s Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati, they got to break out their 1964 powder blues. In the past they’ve worn throwbacks from other years of their myriad (and other Chicago teams) histories, including the first ever throwback in history. Yeah, this team is crying out for a new (or old) look.
* * W H I T E S O X * *
 So, let’s have a look-see at some proposed uniform changes. There won’t be a lot of “ground rules” on this one, because some of the designs are very close to being throwbacks (but with a twist or two), while others are more “fauxbacks” — which we never clearly defined — but basically is a uniform which was never worn, but is evocative of a feel or style from years gone by. We’ve also come up with a few ’sorta’ new uniform concepts, but we’ve avoided entirely new uniforms altogether. Perhaps that is for another column. Finally, since the team is called the “White Sox,” we’ve insisted upon actual socks being worn, that they be predominantly white, (either sanitary or stirrup) and sometimes, they be at least two different primary colors. OK then, we’ll begin at the beginning.
We start with the road uniform, and we basically begin with some tweaks of the current roadie. Let’s start by putting the team back in red with red socks and white sanis. Gotta have stripes on those bad boys. Lets flip the sock/stirrups next. Hmmm. OK, they do have a history of not wearing white sanis, but maybe that’s a bit much. Of course, one of the “future” uniforms I have proposed, is putting teams whose main color is not blue in “powder” uniforms. If we’re going to turn the Sox red, then maybe they should think about a powder red road uniform. Interesting.
The Sox wore the black prominently for a number of years, so how might they look if we replaced the white outline with black. That’s interesting as well. Although I personally detest two-tone hats, I will admit that on some teams, they do work. So, let’s add a black crown with red brim (and eliminate the stirrup in favor of a full sock). That’s kind of cool, no? Would it look better with a solid black cap? I don’t think so. We could probably safely change the belt to black though.
Keeping with the current thought line of tweaking through adding (or subtracting color) but keeping the current uniform in tact. Let’s work on the home uniform. Notice, we keep the black/red style, both for the cap and the outline, and we return the stirrups, with a slightly different pattern. That red belt has to go — for the home uniform anyway — so here she is with black belt. Nice. Very evocative of the 1959-era unis.
I’ll take a break now, and turn the floor over to Michael Emody who has some different ideas for the Sox.
* * M I K E S O X * *
 We begin with Mike’s “throwback” to the 1940’s era uniforms which were quite elegant in their own right. Two versions here, both with the “Big S” surrounding the “o” and “x” in both black and blue hues. The black features the “TV numbers” on the sleeve while the blue has the uniform number on the right breast. For the road uniform, Mike has come up with several. The first two feature the same 1940’s logo, one in gray and the second in a powder blue evocative of the shade they wore in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both feature the uniform number on the right side, and the left sleeve contains the current “white sock on a diamond” which is found on today’s uniforms. The gray uniform is predominantly blue based, with blue striped stirrups, while the blue is rather 1970’s-esque, featuring red stirrups and a red sleeve patch. Taking both of those road uniform concepts a bit further, Mike created two similar unis, but flipped the sock and stirrup combinations, which are reminiscent of the 1969-1970 uniforms. Great concepts Mike.
Moving along, Mr. Emody has gone with additional ‘fauxbacks’ from a different period in White Sox uniform history. This home and away set, which he has nicknamed “Blue Monday,” which brings back visions of the late 1960-early 1970 uniforms. The home features blue pinstripes, blue belt, black shoes, and blue TV numerals and lettering in the Olde English style. The road is powder blue with blue TV numbers, and a white “Chicago” in script with the word “White Sox” on the tail (very reminiscent of the late 1960’s powder blue). The stirrups are blue with white and powder blue stripes (like the home), and black shoes. The pants and shoulders have a blue and white stripe. Finally, Mike created two additional road options, both of which are gray. The first takes elements from the 1950’s black and red color schemes, with “Chicago” in script with a tail featuring “White Sox” (a la the roadies from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s), including a more modern numeral underneath the script insignia and on the left side of the jersey. The second uniform set is similar, only white has been swapped for black, and a TV number has been added to the right sleeve. A black “white sox” patch is found on the left sleeve of both uniforms, and the stirrups are black with red and white stripes and white sanitaries.
Great, great designs, Mike. Interestingly enough, I first noticed Mike’s White Sox uniform tweaks when he posted this in the comments one late evening, shortly after I had posted my first uni tweak. Recognizing we were “on the same wavelength” with the Sox, we began this collaboration.
* * O L D S O X * *
 Lets now take a look at some additional possibilities for new Sox uniforms. The boys from Chicago obviously like their throwbacks, as evidenced by the many number of throwback uniforms they’ve donned over the years. So what if we were to outfit them in a modern uniform with an old-style feel? Notice, no stirrups. But, nice stripage on the socks. We can change the sock colors or patterns. They wore that particular style (obviously not with a modern cut) back in the teens, and would continue to wear it (largely unchanged) until 1931. Not a fan of that style? No worries.
In 1932 through 1935, the Sox introduced this jersey design. So how about we modernize the uniform using that as a base? Well, we’d have this design. Again, no stirrups. And again, we can change the sock pattern.
Obviously, when fully half of your name is “Sox,” the socks are uber-important. The fashion trends of baseball have of course, largely relegated hosiery to being an anachronism. But, if any team should wear socks, and proudly, well — the White Sox should. Lets take a look at that powder read proposal again, this time, with an eye towards returning this beautiful sock styling from the 1970s. They wore that sock with both the red pinstripes and the powder blues of that era. But the powder blues, frankly, don’t cut it with a red base. So let’s put them in powder reds. Interesting. A slight twist on that pattern is to remove the circle and replace it with the current shoulder patch, like so. If we were to equip the Sox in real old school off-white stirrups, we’d get something like this.
Couple other “fauxback” possibilities exist. The White Sox only wore this particular uniform for one year, 1930. Don’t know why they shifted away from it, but it provides an interesting uniform possibility. Finally, in terms of really harking back, they might consider this possibility, which could be worn as an away uni. Crisp and clean, but yet still fairly modern despite it’s age.
Certainly, some food for thought. And now on to Robert Marshall.
* * B O B B Y S O X * *
 Moving on, I’m now joined by Uni Watch OCD DIYer, Robert Marshall, who is fixing to fix ALL the major league teams uniform stylings, but for today, he’s just going to share with his vision for the “perfect White Sox uniform.” When I asked him if he were excited to help fix the Sox, he was more excited than Wilt Chamberlain in a sorority house. Since “rpm” (and several new variations of his ‘handle’) loves him some Sox, he’s taken great care to craft what he feels would be the ultimate uniform for the South Siders. One home, one road, no alternates. However, he does provide several cap options and a special “Sunday” option for the sanitaries. With that, I give you Robert:
i make no apologies for being old school in my aesthetic, especially in baseball, a sport so bound by tradition. and i am not normally so dogmatic unless i hear lunacy when it comes to taste (to each his own), but here are the chicago white sox as they should be, case closed, no debate, might as well close the comments section. if you disagree, you are wrong, lay of the goof-balls. it keeps what works, and draws from the past to fix what does not. take the tv numbers off, fix the hat and ‘rups (not all teams need stripes, but these do), add a patch and this is fabulous. if there is curiosity on the road digs, it’s grey not blue for the cornmother’s sake.
Love that graphic, Robert. Looks like he keeps that face in a jar by the door (either that or it’s a ripoff of Charles M. Schultz). Pretty schweet huh? Kind of in line with what it seems a lot of Chicagoans are pining for, at least in terms of the home. The home uniform would be evocative of the “Go Go Sox” (the uniform was worn from 1951 through 1963), while the road would be of the 1969-1970 vintage. A black cap (with four variations) would be worn with both, the current shoulder patch, and white socks and sanitaries with thin black and red stripes. For Sundays, the sanitaries would switch to black.
I have to say, Robert, a fine, fine job.
* * B L A C K S O X * *
Winding down, one cannot but think of the White Sox without noting that for a fairly long period, they wore an all dark uniform. Although it was dark blue, it sometimes appeared almost black. Even when the Sox were going through their crazy fauxback/throwback phase from 1976 through 1981, they occasionally donned the all dark uniform. So — could they pull the look off in the 2000’s?
They wear that black alternate jersey enough — why not pair it with some black pants? Of course, there are stirrups on that mockup — it would be MANDATORY for any all dark uniform today to have full socks (or stirrups) of contrasting color. In order to pull it off, they’d need some form of white stirrup (the last of those two having gray sanitaries). Of course, so long as the socks were of contrasting color, you could skip the stirrups and just wear … gasp … white socks. How might that look on the field of play? Something like this, perhaps? Might actually be doable.
Of course, if they’re going to throw back to the all-dark look, they may as well kick it old school style with the lettering as well. Or, maybe not.
* * E N D S O X * *
Well — there you have it. A look at the Chicago White Sox with some suggestions for a new look for the team. You’ll notice we didn’t opt for anything completely new, since the Sox have so many wonderful (and not so wonderful) styles and colors from years past to choose from. They could take any number of them and update their current style basing that update off the unis from the past.
Remember Paul’s article? The one you all read before reading this piece? In case you’ve forgotten, Paul concluded the article by stating, “Finally, it’s worth noting that Uni Watch has always loved this logo. Too bad the only uniform element it ever appeared on was a BP jersey.” Well, just for Paul, here is a mockup of that uniform.
What do you folks think? Time to don some new Sox, or are we just writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear? Special thanks, of course, have to go to James Huening for his photographic research, and Michael Emody and Robert Marshall for their mockups. Great stuff guys.
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 Big Uni Watch Gathering Tonight in Cleveland!: Remember, Uni Watch readers will be enjoying an evening together, tonight at 7pm, at the Prosperity Social Club. Paul believes one of “our more prominent Pittsburgh-based readers may be in town for the proceedings, which should put the Rust Belt quotient into the red zone.” Should be a great time, wish I were there with you guys.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Despite all the fun being in Cleveland this evening, the game being depicted on today’s scoreboard is obviously not being played in Cleveland. It’s also been featured on UW before, albeit in the comments a loooonnnng time ago. So, there’s one way of securing the answer. The other ways are up to you. It might take you less time to find the answer the “old fashioned way” than to search for the thread in which this appeared. So, with that said, Guess The Game. As per usual, we need date, location and final score, but don’t post that in the comments — just link to the game — and for good measure, let us know how you went about solving they mystery.
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It’s just kind of Chicago type of day, Cleveland festivities notwithstanding. So, even today’s Benchies carries that theme. It’s an oldie (Ricko informs me Lou Holtz was still coaching the Irish when he crafted this one), but it’s even more apropos today. So, enjoy a special Thursday Benchies.
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 Raffle Results: Paul here. I hate it when broadcasters say things like, “If you’re Sabathia, you don’t want to walk him here” or “If you’re Bobby Cox, I think you have to bunt here.” If, if, if — dude, what if I’m not Bobby Cox? Such an annoying communication style.
However: If you’re Jason Whitt, you just won yourself a free T-shirt from SportsCrack — congrats.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: (Mostly compiled by Paul) … Ya know, I try to fight the good fight and all, but then there’s crap like this. Sigh. … Nice overview of Colt .45s/Astros uni history here. … Yesterday’s Ticker item about Alain Nana-Sinkam’s family reunion logos prompted Rich Frank to send in the logos he prepared for his own family reunion a few years back. … New road kit for Man U (with thanks to Christopher Burks). … Good NOB note in the second graf of this page (with thanks to Kenn Tomasch). … New football uniforms for Southern Miss (with thanks to Raymond Reeves). … New logo for the A-10 championship. … A Maple Leafs fan has started a petition to get the team to go back to its old-school logo. Further details here (with thanks to Dave Abbatoy). … Former intern Vince Grzegorek recently got a tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame storage basement, resulting in an excellent article and photo gallery. … Sad news out of Ohio, where a company that makes chenille letters for varsity jackets is closing (as forwarded by Kevin Mueller). … Hmmm, does Adidas manufacture Korean police uniforms, or does it just look that way? (Good spot by Hadyn Green.) … Larry Wiederecht sent along some interesting scans from a magazine that was published in 1970 to mark the opening of Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. First, here’s Richie Hebner without his vest jersey. Interesting to see how far the black area extended on his undershirt. And second, here’s an ad from Matthews International, the same company I reported on in last week’s ESPN column on HoF plaques. … Robert Marshall doesn’t just order those stirrups for the Uni Watch Stirrup Club — he also gets his softball team, the Unemployed Youppi, to wear them. Those pics are from a recent 5-3 win over the Newport 100s. Okay, it was actually a 36-6 loss, but at least the Youppi looked sharp. … Several readers noted that Joba Chamberlain didn’t have the Yankee Stadium cap patch again last night. … Also from last night’s Yanks game: Robbie Cano wears Phiten socks, although he usually keeps his pants hiked up so we can’t the the logo creep (with thanks to Brian Erni). … Bills safety Donte Whitner will wear a pink mouthguard this season in honor of his late mother (with thanks to Casey B.). … The Eagles have added a Jimmy Johnson memorial design to their practice field (as noted by Adam Brodsky). … Another sleeve-roller: Carmelo Martinez. “I remember that it drove me nuts every time he got into a game when I was a kid,” says James Huening. … The A’s will be wearing 1929 throwbacks on August 16th (with thanks to Brandon Davis) … Jim Wooley checks in with a mention of Rick Reilly’s most recent column on espn.com, “if you haven’t seen it yet. I totally agree with his comments regarding the putting on the t-shirts and hats after you’ve won the championship. I’ve never liked this.” … Everyone’s favorite sneakerhead, Matt Powers asks, “If you remember this, than (sic) check this out too.” Matt also has this juicy nugget concerning the GI Joe movie and Nike: “Check this out — much like what Nike did with the Transformer films, they are releasing kicks that coincide with the movie,” complete with similar toy packaging. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm noticed Tadahito Iguchi’s batting glove, it is designed to look like a noh theater mask. First on the left. Jeremy tried to find some up close photos, but now it is part of a giveaway in Chiba. … Finally, Pittsburgh’s own Doug Keklak, has forwarded this classic (which I believe was posted in the comments at one time, but is always worth another look-see): the Chicago Bulls logo-robot conspiracy.
July 30th, 2009
Most of you have probably seen Gaylord Perry’s career-spanning jersey, shown at right. But anyone can slap a bunch of logos on a single jersey — that’s easy. It takes a loose screw serious devotion to do what reader Ian Haggerty did when attending the Hall of Fame inductions in Cooperstown last Sunday: He decided to salute his favorite player, Rickey Henderson, by wearing one piece of apparel or accessory for each stop in Rickey’s well-traveled career — including all nine major league teams, two independent league teams, and one minor league rehab stint.
It’s hard to see all the items in that one photo, so here’s a breakdown, with Ian’s comments on each item, presented in the order of the teams Rickey played for:
• A’s jersey (with NOB): “Team shown on his Hall plaque, most of his numbers were with them, so they deserved to be the most visible part of the outfit. After I bought the jersey, I freaked out a bit, because I remembered that the green jersey was newer and wasn’t positive he wore it. Looked it up, and saw that it came around in 1994 I believe, and photographic evidence of him wearing it.”
• Yankees cap: “My favorite team, his second-most ABs and numbers with them, and he was playing for them at the time that I became a fan. Had to give the Yankees their due, and I already owned about 10 Yankees hats, so then it was just a matter of choosing which one. So I went with my fitted field hat, which was pretty beat up from years of use.”
• Blue Jays baseball seam wristband: “Found a website with the wristbands, knew that I would need something for each wrist to be able to keep all of the items visible. Since it was a smaller piece, but still a cool one, I thought it would be good for team he only played half a season with, but won a World Series with.”
• Padres turtleneck: “Who wears a turtleneck in July? This moron did! My sister helped me by cutting off the sleeves, but it was still pretty warm. But it was a nice addition and easily visible, so it worked.”
• Angels right flip-flop: “Most disappointing part of the outfit. I couldn’t find anything with the flying-A Disney logo, so I went with the current logo. Not a fan of the Angels, so I kept it on the foot so I could walk all over them (I know, I’m a loser).”
• Mets belt buckle: “One of my favorites, actually. As a Yankees fan, I don’t hate the Mets — I really don’t care about them. Kind of like the Nationals to me. But the belt buckle is cool because the baseball behind the logo spins, so it kept me entertained.”
• Mariners wristband: “I know, wrong logo for the time he played with them. But it’s a cool logo, and it cost only $3.95. Plus I had an open wrist for something to put on there, and he only played there half a year with them, so it wasn’t too flashy.”
• Red Sox left flip-flop: “Worst part of the outfit for me to wear, because I’m a Yankees fan. But I had to wear something, because Rickey played for them. Kept it on my left foot, so it wasn’t next to my interlocking NY tattoo on the inside of my right ankle. It gave me blisters — that’ll teach me to wear Red Sox stuff. (Incidentally, I was originally going to do Dodgers and Angels sneakers, and Mets and Red Sox socks, but I was worried the shoes would cover up the socks too much, so I went with the flip-flops.)”
• Dodgers necklace: “You can barely see the team’s logo on it because it’s kind of small, so I went with the team he played on last, and a team that he didn’t do much with in terms of stats.”
• Newark Bears pin (Atlantic League): As an employee of the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League, I figured this would be an easy item to get. But they didn’t have any merchandise available online, so it was more difficult then I expected. Then I went to the Atlantic League All-Star game on June 23rd and was reminded by co-worker (and daily Uni Watch reader) Adam Cobb to go to the store at the game, where I found the pin. It was the last piece of the outfit that I acquired.”
• San Diego Surf Dawgs jersey tee (Golden State League): “I bought this T-shirt back in 2005, when he with played for the Dawgs.”
• Portland Beavers earring: “After I got the Bears pin, I figured I was done. But after talking to my father and brothers, we decided that I should look into all the minor league stops Rickey made. Coming up through the A’s system, he played for the Boise A’s, the Modesto A’s, Jersey City A’s, and Ogden A’s, so I decided the A’s jersey covered that. Then I looked up his minor league rehab stints and found he only made two of them: One in 1985 with the Fort Lauderdale Yankees (already represented by the Yankees cap) and another in 2001 with the Portland Beavers (a Padres affiliate). So I went on the Beavers web site, purchased the earrings, forced one of them through my ear (which used to be pierced, although I hadn’t worn an earring in six years), and I was ready to go.”
Fortunately for all concerned, Rickey never made that long-threatened comeback, so we’re spared the sight of Ian wearing an Orioles navel ring or whatever.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day for the SportsCrack T-shirt raffle. Full details here.
Cleveland Reminder: Uni Watch party tomorrow night, 7pm, at the Prosperity Social Club. See you there.
Uni Watch News Ticker: New football field designs for Arkansas and Western Kentucky. … Rick Friedel notes that Tom Zbikowski wore three different uni numbers last season. … Madison’s new minor league hockey team will be called the Ice Muskies (with thanks to Jeff Ash). … Some very nice early-1900s panoramic Indians team portraits here (with thanks to Marc Swanson). … The bullpen buggy lives! That shot was taken at the Memorial Day Parade in Bayville, N.Y., and forwarded to me by Todd Radom. … Lots of truly hideous minor league hockey jerseys on display here (nice find by Chris Flinn). … As we covered last year around this time, the Ravens award a purple hammer patch to players who attend 85% of the off-season workouts. But now there are players with two patches. Anyone know the story? (As spotted by Rick Friedel.) … The past few days I’ve shown photos of several Royals players who rolled up their sleeve cuffs in the 1980s. Now comes this from Joe Barker: “The Royals weren’t the only team in Missouri to have players roll up their sleeves. In the early ’90s, Cards outfielder Felix José always rolled his sleeves up. As a kid, I used to do it when I played Little League, because José was one of my favorite players.” … The West Michigan Whitecaps will wear Star Wars jerseys on August 1st (with thanks to Wayne Koehler). … Yesterday’s post about the Three-Letter NOB Team prompted Bill Kellick to contribute rear-view pics of Kent Nix and John Alt. … Just when you thought the Mets couldn’t get any more embarrassing, they release a line of player-designed apparel (although I’m fairly certain the “design” process in this case consisted of looking at a mock-up and saying, “Yeah, OK, that’s fine”). And just to underscore the hilarity, they got Daniel Murphy’s name wrong on the web listing. I ask you, where’s Tony Bernazard when you need him? … Check out this baseball T-shirt quilt. “Most of the shirts come from many years of trips to all the major league ballparks,” says Beau Craig. “My mom felt I would grow into the extra large shirts she had purchased, but unfortunately I did not. So my fiancé turned these unused shirts into an art project. It currently looks great on my bed and will soon be a great addition to a sports-themed man cave.” … Alain Nana-Sinkam, who runs the fine Classic Old School operation, recently attended a family reunion. “This year I decided to do a team theme,” he says, “so I gave each family member a uniform number (starting with #1 and #2 for Granddad and Nana — those are retired, since they’ve passed — all the way up to 33 and 34 for the littlest babies). I then did logos for each family, based on where they’re from.” … New football uniforms for Montana State. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Great view of Dick Allen’s HOB (hometown on back). … Also from yesterday: Rare shot of Rollie Fingers in a Bosox uni. … Michael Kemezis spotted this at last nights Rockies/Mets game (and says the new NOB appeared to have been rendered in torn-up napkins). … Live organ transplant? Nope — that’s Astros pitcher Jeff Fulchino, who had a ground ball lodge in his jersey last night (with thanks to Paulie Soto). … This Flickr set includes several shots of Fenway bat boys not wearing batting helmets, which looks much better but is against MLB regulations (with thanks to Christopher Leopardi). … The Red Sox retired Jim Rice’s number last night. … You know how you occasionally see stories about “the stupidest thief ever”? Here’s one about the stupidest jersey thief (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Single-digit pitcher? Sort of — that’s Mark Loretta, who was pressed into service to get one out during last night’s Dodgers/Cards blowout.
Be nice to the substitute teacher: Phil will be minding the store while I’m in Cleveland — treat him right. I’ll be back in the saddle next week.
July 29th, 2009
We all have our niche obsessions, and Noel Basnight has one that’s really, really specific, even by Uni Watch standards. I’ll let him explain:
I have my own opinions about uniforms from all sports, but there was something about pro football jerseys that caught my eye back in my heavy ball-watching days: last names that contained only three letters.
I don’t know if it was how diminutive they seemed, how infrequently they appeared on the screen, or just their sound. Ker, Ard, Kab, Nix, Jax. Terrific!
So the Three-Letter Name team was born. As with any elite organization, there are ground rules for membership. These were established by me and are fluid enough to be broken at my whim:
• Member surnames cannot exceed three letters (gotta be pretty strict with that one).
• Player has to have appeared in a pro football uniform that actually had his name on its back. I believe this became mandatory in the NFL starting in 1970, following the merger, and the AFL used NOBs from the league’s inception. So, if a player retired before these benchmarks, too bad.
• Player has to have played at least three full seasons. Arbitrary but works for me.
• Player has to have been retired at least three full seasons.
These rules were devised in an attempt to give the roster some air of exclusivity while still allowing for enough participants to sustain the team’s existence. For example: There were several players surnamed “Lee.” Establishing the above-state membership criteria whittled the pool down to a more manageable number.
Although I didn’t realize it until Basnight got in touch with me, I’ve always been a little intrigued by three-letter NOBs, too. Back in the day, there was something about Billy Ard’s jersey that always seemed inexplicably fascinating, for example. I’ve never had a similar feeling about short NOBs in other sports, maybe because NFL nameplates usually stretch the full length from shoulder to shoulder, even if the NOB is really short (well, usually), which just accentuates the shortness of the name.
Working within his above-stated parameters, Basnight has come up with the following roster of charter team members: Billy Ard, John Alt, Bryan Cox, Fred Cox, Tom Day, Bob Dee, Ernest Dye, Tim Fox, William Gay (not to be confused with this William Gay), Ray Guy, Jack Ham, Garth Jax, Billy Joe, Vyto Kab, Clarence Kay, Crawford Ker, Wade Key, Ernie Koy, Amp Lee, Jacky Lee, Charley Leo, Mark May, Ray May, Ron Mix, Kent Nix, Blaine Nye, Jimmy Orr, Bobby Ply, Johnnie Poe, Darrol Ray, Terry Ray, Don Shy, Les Shy, Mel Tom, and Charles Way.
As you can see, rear-view photos of these players are relatively rare and often of less-than-stellar quality. If you find pics of any of them (game pics, please, not just a photo of a disembodied jersey), you know what to do. Thanks.
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off a free T-shirt from SportsCrack. Full details here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Wade Boggs wants his number to be retired. … With Matt Holliday no longer on the A’s roster, Nomar is reclaiming No. 5. … Cole Jones has posted the latest entry in his North Stars uni-history project. … Reggie Granados found a web site devoted to Phillies fans with personalized jerseys and also reports that the Jonas Brothers were presented with 76ers jerseys last week. … While researching something else I found some pics of Redskins lineman Mark May wearing an unusual face-protection rig (here’s another view). Anyone know more about this? … Luke Pellegra sends this passage from a Tennessee football site (I’m printing the excerpt because the site requires registration): “[T]here will be some changes in the [Vols'] road uniform, as Tennessee is expected to wear orange pants on the road like they did a year ago at UCLA. Now, it’s not clear whether or not they will wear them at Alabama, because it has been thought that Tennessee will wear orange jerseys this year on the road in Tuscaloosa.” … Graham Henry, head coach of the All Blacks, appears to be wearing Adidas eyeglasses. ” What’s next,” asks Caleb Borchers, “logos on wedding rings? Dentures?” … Add Curt Schilling to the underbill inscription club. … Here’s a new one: David Cone appears to have worn real stirrups over faux stirrups. … Remember the fuss over Marcin Gortat’s tattoo? Here’s the inevitable fallout (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … New gridiron surface for Kansas. … Assuming the UFL ever actually gets off the ground, their uniform outfitter will be GameWear. Never heard of them? Me neither, but here they are. … I had passed this along to Phil, since it was a follow-up on something from last weekend, but then it showed up in yesterday’s comments, so here it is: The Indians wearing navy tops and red pants. Now we just need to find a color version. … Good spot by Matt Edwards, who noticed Troy Tulowitzki wearing a camo-bodied undershirt last night. … And so it has come to this: a soccer team sponsored by a soccer video game (meta-thanks to Alan Borock). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Yesterday I posted this photo of Bret Saberhagen with his sleeve cuffs rolled up. That prompted Larry Wiederecht to note that the rolled-sleeve look was common in KC in the 1980s, as seen in these pics of Bo, the Bull, Mark Gubicza, and Frank White. … Awesome find by Louis Griffel, who came up with this rare “Tony C” shot of Tony Conigliaro. … Remember Brian Harkless, who entered the KFC T-shirt contest (his design was No. 6)? He won second place, entitling him to free KFC for a year. The first place winner, of course, got free KFC for a month. … No. 99, No. 1, same difference (good catch by Blain Fowler). … The Giants unveiled their Sue Burns memorial patch last night.
July 28th, 2009
During last Tuesday’s Mets-themed shindig at Two Boots, Scott Turner (who’d been “accidentally” spilling beer and pizza on me all night in retaliation for my having declared him ineligible for the Mets uni quiz) sidled up to me and whispered, “I know what those Iraqi baseball uniforms are going to look like.”
He was referring, of course, to Iraq’s fledgling baseball team, whose inaugural uniforms are being made by Jerry Cohen of Ebbets Field Flannels.
“Oh,” I said, “Jerry showed you the design?”
“He didn’t show it to me — I worked on it myself.”
I raised an eyebrow, added a few more points to Scott’s column in the Coolest Guy on the Planet sweepstakes, and then got swept up in the rest of the evening’s frenzy (read: had several more beers). I’d forgotten all about our little exchange until Friday, when Jerry Cohen sent me this.
I sent Scott a quick note: “So you designed these?” Here’s his reponse:
Sort of. Jerry was given instructions — royal cap and jersey with new Iraq flag, gray pants, royal stirrups (check with Jerry on that, but yes, I think they asked for stirrups, or at least blue socks that would be visible). He passed that on to me with further instructions (general layout) and I put it all together. So I didn’t really design them, but what you see is me bringing instructions to fruition. I’m not the architect or developer here — I’m the contractor.
We both worked to make this as EFF Traditional as we could — the piping, the clean look, the lettering and numbers. We’d have preferred something in the national colors — red, black, green and white — and a shot at designing something timeless. But you work for your client. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is the Iraqi team feeling good about what they’re wearing. Jerry’s and my wishes don’t matter.
Not an earthshaking design from an aesthetic standpoint, natch, but it’s interesting to hear about the process, no?
Unfortunately, I then had to run upstate for the weekend (later on maybe I’ll tell you all how I had a chance to score free tickets to the induction ceremonies in Cooperstown and blew it because I forgot to bring my cell phone), so I didn’t get to ask Jerry about the socks, or follow up with Scott about the TNOB. I’ll try to get more info from them later. Meanwhile, look for a finished jersey to be unveiled shortly on The Rachel Maddow Show, which has been covering this story’s progression.
Short-Notice Raffle: Our friends at SportsCrack are once again offering a free T-shirt to Uni Watch readers — winner’s choice of any tee they carry. To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address, please) by 5pm this Wednesday, July 29th (please note that this is a shorter raffle period than usual, and also an earlier closing time on the final day). One entry per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing can send four entries. The winner will be announced on Thursday.
Clevo Reminder: Remember, Uni Watch gathering in Cleveland this Thursday, 7pm, at the Prosperity Social Club. I believe one of our more prominent Pittsburgh-based readers may be in town for the proceedings, which should put the Rust Belt quotient into the red zone. Looking forward to it.
Uni Watch News Ticker: “Slight change” in store for Clemson’s football uniforms, according to a small item buried on this page — just search on the word “uniform” (with thanks to Benji Boyter). … Al Cummings attended a USA/Ireland rugby match way back in May. “One of the US players had his shorts ripped to shreds while pulling out of a tackle and needed to go to the bench for substitute shorts,” he says. … Back on Friday I mentioned that this softball helmet seemed to have a molded ponytail channel. I soon heard from Matt Savoie, who works for Schutt and informed me that the helmet in that photo was this Schutt model. The molded channel is called the Ponytail Port, a Schutt exclusive. … Vintage untucked-design hoops jersey here (thanks, Scott). … Nick Merklin notes that Joba Chamberlain didn’t have the Yankee Stadium cap patch on Friday night. … Did Brett Saberhagen always pitch with his sleeves rolled up, or just in that photo? … Those high-tech swimsuits that rewrote the record books have been banned. … Perfect gift for the Cowboys fan who has everything (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Weird scene prior to Friday night’s Braves/Brewers game, as Ryan Church somehow ended up wearing Matt Diaz’s BP jersey (with thanks to Bo Brewer). … “I found an entire rack of baseball and softball jerseys at a vintage shop in Barcelona,” says Ed Westfield Jr. “I think they might be for Japanese corporate teams. Can anyone identify these further?” … Interesting report from Adam Chkautovich, who writes: “October 9-11, there will be a ‘world record’ baseball game. You know where this is going — they’re going to try to play 48-hour-long game here in St. Louis. Interesting thing about it is that they are going to re-create the 1944 World Series matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns, including retro jerseys.” … The Giants will wear a memorial patch for owner Sue Burns today. … The Longhorns will wear throwbacks on Thanksgiving night. “The jerseys say ‘We Are Texas,’” says Ryder Kouba, “but the school’s famous Cronkite-narrated motto is ‘We’re Texas.’ Fuck Nike.” … John Wagner put his Uni Watch Stirrup Club hosiery to good use over the weekend. “The other teams went nuts for them,” he says. … Meanwhile, Greg Riffenburgh wore his new stirrups to an Angels game. … Some very unusual umpire attire on display here. Must have been a case of the umps’ luggage being lost — a topic we’ve covered before (screen shot courtesy of Chris Creamer). … Stomach-turning note from Tris Wykes, who writes: “During my time as a football student equipment manager at Minnesota, we used to give offensive tackle Mike Giovinetti a hard time about his hairy back. One day, he had a teammate shave his number into it (he’s posing there with running back Chuck Rios). The hirsute numerals were a big hit throughout the program.” … More Pat Patriot info here (with thanks to Mike Cooperman). … Lots of rumors about the Browns wearing brown pants this season (with thanks to Alex Kinkopf). … Andy Lasiewicz lives in China and took some baseball pics in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Among the more notable details: a uni number on the thigh, an unusual catcher’s helmet, and some team names in English, others in Chinese. … Here’s an awesome shot of a very long NOB. Bonus shot here (big thanks to Mako Mameli). … Andy Rawlings sent along a bunch of really great MISL pocket schedules. … The Twins’ new stadium will include bronze statues of Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew, both of whom recently donned period uniforms and posed for photos that will be used by the sculptor (with thanks to Karl Anderson). … Despite my steadfast opposition to logo creep, I’d never complain about seeing the old ABC helmet logo anywhere, anytime. That scan, taken from an unused ABC logo decal, comes our way courtesy of Christopher Lampling. … Just what the world needed: DNOB — domain name on back. That’s from Saturday’s Burnley/Portland Timbers match (with thanks to Michael Orr). … New football uniforms for North Dakota. Key quote, from UND coach Chris Mussman: “Nike has a uniform builder; we played around with it and presented the uniform to the staff. That’s how we came up with it. It didn’t take that much time.” … Speaking of stirrups, check out this gorgeous pair of Colt .45 hose (awesome find by Paul Hirsch). … A new ACC rule change may lead to color-on-color football games (with thanks to Benji Boyter). … Let’s please have a round of applause for the incredible job Phil is doing on the weekends. Dude packs as much info into two days as I do into five. Kudos, buddy.
July 27th, 2009
By Phil Hecken
What if … your favorite baseball team had different colors? Specifically, what if, instead of adopting the colors they currently wear, instead they chose the predominant colors from the city (or State) flag for the colors in their uniforms? Recently, reader Hungry Hungry Hipster had been doing “city flag jerseys” (I think they’re soccer kits, but I suppose they could be for any number of sports), and that got me to thinking — what if baseball teams had adopted the colors of their city and how might those teams look if they were dressed in those colors with todays uniforms? While you know I am not a graphic artist, I spent the greater part of a week attempting to see how major league teams would look if they donned a bit more local flavor. I think what follows turned out OK.
Aside from a quick and interesting history lesson in some city’s flags, I learned a couple of other things about how teams would look dressed all local-like. Some teams don’t look all that bad, some don’t look all that good, and some don’t look all that different (as we’ll see). I’d even go so far as to say that some teams look better sporting city flag colors. It will come as no surprise that the Steel City already dresses its teams in city colors, while others bear a striking resemblance (whether this is intentional or not is a debate for another day).
Aside from adding stirrups and sock stripes, and in most cases removing the “PLAYER” name from the jersey (and an occasional patch), I attempted to faithfully recreate a teams current uniform scheme, so as to better give a visual perspective. In each case, I’ll note any changes I made to a uniform (some were necessary) but what follows is a “What If…” segment. Lets begin with the junior circuit:
Baltimore: The Orioles, whose name is ornithologically derived, are obviously black and orange. It’s a classic uniform, no doubt. But the flag of Baltimore is yellow/gold (for the most part) and not all that far off from the current Orioles colorscheme. Adding the yellow and dropping the orange everywhere but on the bird logo and that of the shoulder patch yields this uniform. It’s not a bad look at all. On the stirrups I added the yellow/gold sanitaries, instead of white and some stripes as well. Hard to argue removing the orange in favor of the yellow, but it’s not a bad combo if you used the Baltimore City flag colors.
Boston: OK. The “Red Sox” is obviously in reference to hosiery the Boston team (usually) wears, so it’s very tough to make any kind of case for putting the Boston City flag colors on the Red Sox uniform. But I gave it a shot, just for shits and giggles. Obviously, you’d need to keep the “Red Sox” patch on the shoulder, so I left that alone, but here’s how the road uniform would look in the aqua (?) and yellow of that city’s flag. Not good. And the home uniform? Not much better, although that’s not a completely horrible color scheme. Just not on a team called the “Red Sox.”
Chicago: OK, here it starts to get very interesting. The women’s professional soccer team, the Chicago Red Stars already use the city colors (not to mention the flag itself) as the basis for their uniform. And, as you will see later this week, the Chicago White Sox have reinvented themselves about 100 times over their history with different uniform schemes and colors. So how might the White Sox look wearing a uniform sporting their city’s colors? Well … here is how they would look if they used the blue element in their uniforms. And, here is the red element. But what if we combined the two? Well then, you’d have something like this. Whoa. I’ve seen that look somewhere before. Did the 1970’s White Sox chose the colors from their City flag for their uniforms? Hard to say, with absolute certainty, because they’d worn red before in their history and also powder blue, but never at the same time. Was this a semi-conscious effort, or just dumb luck? Or perhaps, one from column A and one from column B. Either way, it’s food for thought.
Cleveland: Here is an example where the current uniform colors are almost identical to the colors of the Cleveland flag. So the uniforms wouldn’t look all that much different. Did the powers-that-be who came up with the current uniform color scheme reference the city flag? Probably not, since the red, white and blue in the flag have often been used in the teams uniforms, but then again, maybe that was intentional. But either way, the Indians wouldn’t look too much different than they do now. That being said, here’s the road uniform (with stirrup stripes attempting to mimic the flag pattern) and home uniform (for the home, I picked up the green “laurels” from the city flag for additional effect).
Detroit: Wow. Lots of colors in that city flag. Too many to really put onto a uniform that is currently only two colors (not counting white or gray as a color). But we can use the red and blue and try to work them in there. What you get is a home uniform that takes on a full additional color from it’s current state. Looks kind of busy, even though it’s only one more color than they have now. However, that same effect, even with the addition of yellow in the Old English “D” on the cap, looks much better when applied to the road uniform. I might have overdone it a bit on those away uni stirrup stripes, but I wanted to see how the socks would look if they mimicked the flag’s pattern more closely. Probably should have kept them plain dark blue.
Kansas City: I’m actually not quite sure which flag is correct for this fine city, and since it’s very similar to this flag (in terms of the color scheme), I used both. Being partial to those cities which choose to incorporate the colors of the flag of the United States into their city flag, I rather like how the Royals might look if they were to sport the Kansas City flag’s colors. The blue goes from “royal” to “navy” and the gold becomes red. Here’s the home uniform and the road uniform in city flag colors. I kind of like this. There is a slight problem in reconciling the team name (”Royals”) and removing the royal blue color from the uniform. But it’s interesting.
Los Angeles: Ah ha … the first true quandry i faced, because the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim aren’t technically from Los Angeles. But this is the flag of the City of Anaheim. And it’s pretty boring. So I chose the LA flag for the Angels. I probably should have worked with a few more combinations than the one I eventually chose. But since the Angels refuse to acknowledge any city at all on their jersey, they only get one mockup. The stirrup stripes might have been a bit much, but again, I wanted to replicate the city flag colors on them.
Minnesota: Yet another slight bit of complexity here, since the Twins are one of those teams who don’t have a “city” in which they play (at least officially), but a state. So, do I use the State flag’s colors, or those of Minneapolis or St. Paul? Gotta go with what’s on the front of the uniform, of course, so that’s the Minnesota State flag. And, since the flag is predominantly blue, that means the Twins uniforms will have that as their main color. I actually like home uniform better with the blue lettering than the current red. As far as the road uniform, I stuck with the red with blue outlines for city name and numbers. However, since pinstripes do not belong on road uniforms, I had to remove them.
New York: The “New York” comes from playing in New York City, so we’ll go with the New York City flag here. But, don’t dey play in da Bronx? Yep. But the flag of Bronx County looks almost identical, at least from a color perspective. So, for those fans of the Mets (or any team really, but especially Mets fans) who hate the Yankees, you may want to look away. Here’s the vanuted pinstripes using the NYC flag colors. There’s not much difference using the colors of the Bronx flag, but here is that rendering. After ‘creating’ this, I couldn’t even bring myself to do an away uniform.
Oakland: Now this is really interesting. The colors of Oakland’s flag are pretty similar, eerily so, to those of the Athletics. Why so eerie, you ask? We’ve already seen that some teams may (or may not) have chosen to incorporate their cities flags’ color scheme into their uniform, so why is Oakland so special? Because, the A’s sported their color scheme since they played in Kansas City! And I highly doubt Charley Finley knew when he introduced the world to yellow and green on a baseball uniform that he’d be moving his team to Oakland. Or did he? Certainly something to ponder, if nothing else. Anyway, here’s the A’s home uniform and their road uniform in city flag colors. Looks so different from their current get ups. (Note to self…NEVER put stripes on the A’s socks again.)
Seattle: That is an, um, interesting flag. Lots of swirly stuff (what’s that? waves you say? gotcha). And what color is that, anyway — teal? aqua? OK. It’s that City’s flag, and it’s in two colors, so lets work with it. I tried to render this uniform using just the teal and white, but it looked awful. So, I re-added the current blue for a bit of color contrast. Here’s what we get. I give you the Seattle Mariners in city flag gory glory. This would be one team to whose city flag colors I would never recommend changing.
Tampa (Bay): For the Rays, I had to render their flag in both the Tampa colors and those of St. Petersburg as well. The Sunshine State’s west coast seems to have some very interesting flags, don’t they? I really dig that St. Pete flag, but with FIVE dominant colors, there’s no way to render the uniform with all of them (so we’ll stick to the socks). Anyway, lets tackle the Tampa version first. With four colors in their flag, and none more dominant than another, I thought I’d just use them all. Probably not a great idea, but it’s not like the Rays have any great uniform history to begin with. I think their original had more colors. Anyway, with that in mind, I didn’t feel so bad putting four colors in their current uniform. As for the St. Pete version — I got all all five colors in there, albeit two of them were relegated to the stirrups. Interesting and colorful, if nothing else.
Texas: Well, not much to say or do here. The Texas Texases wear their State flag on their uniform, so it’s no surprise their colors stem from it. Both the home uniform and the road uniform don’t change under the “city flag colors” renderings.
Toronto: Rounding out the junior circuit is the only team from north of the border. The Toronto flag is kinda cool, though. And since there is no black in it, I get to render the BLUE Jays in a more appropriate color colour. The nice blue and red in the flag aren’t exactly new colors for the Jays, but they are slightly different from what they have now, or what they wore in the past. So, here’s the home uniform and the road uniform. I’m NOT liking the beveled numbers however (and the letters are no picnic either). Just for the hell of it, and since the Jays once wore powder blue on the road, I thought I’d see how they look if we rendered their uniform in the colors of their flag. I probably should not have. Because here’s what I came up with. Not good. I do think the “Toronto” and the numbers look better when rendered in a solid pattern however. But that’s about the only good thing I can say.
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Well, there you have it. The American League rendered in the colors of the flags of their cities. (Please don’t beat me up too bad for the graphics — I’m NOT a graphic artist, nor do I claim to be one — I just wanted to give an idea of how these things would look). I’m NOT saying I’d advocate any of the teams change their colors (well — maybe one, but I’ll have more on them this week, along with some guest artists). But as an exercise in futility, I thought it might be interesting to see how the leagues would look if they took their colors from the flag of the place they play. I’ll be back at some point with the National League. But that’s all for today. Let me know what you think!
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 Last evening, the Crew & Bravos engaged in a little Negro League throwback game. Ever vigilant, Brewer fans extraordinaire Johnny Okray and Nicole Haase were all over this, with Johnny sending me some pics and Nicole actually attending the game and taking a few pics from the stands. Johnny begins:
I know you know the Brewers threw back to the 1923 Milwaukee Bears, and the Braves threw back to the 1919-52 Atlanta Black Crackers today for a Negro League tribute of sorts. I say “of sorts” because I bet those teams never wore their unis as baggy as the guys do today. Anyways, I just wanted to send you a picture of the mound today. The Crew always like to change their mound logo when the uni changes, and today was no different. Here are a few more:
Untuck ‘em.
The hat looks awesome, but when are they going to make throw back shoes?. Other wise this picture would be awesome!
Thanks Johnny. He notes that additional photos can be found at Yahoo Sports and on The Mothership.
Next up is Nicole, who was at the game, and has a nice little writeup on it:
The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the Atlanta Braves in their third annual Negro Leagues tribute game. The Brewers wore the 1923 uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears and Atlanta wore the 1926 uniforms of the Atlanta Black Crackers.
The cream and blue unis were, in my opinion, a definite upgrade for the Brewers from the white with black pinstripes unis they’ve worn during the past two year’s Negro League games.
The Bears jersey had the look of a vest with undershirt, but wasn’t actually. The pants featured color butt-pocket flaps and belt loops. For most everyone around me, the hat was the star of the uni.
The Black Crackers jerseys were very simple, with red piping on the jersey and a simple red “Atlanta” across the chest and a red A on the navy hat.
Only Nate McClouth and Casey Kotchman of the Braves and Prince Fielder (shown here with Kotchman) ruined the look by not wearing high pants/socks. Kotchman appeared to have elastic in the bottom, but wore them at the ankle. Taking it a step better, in this picture of the guys in the dugout, on the far left you’ll see Jeff Suppan wearing real stirrups to complete the look.
Aside: Braves’ young phenom Tommy Hanson has TH branded cleats. And the BF and I met Ryan Braun after the game while getting dinner.
Full gallery here.
Thanks Nicole! Also, be sure to check out her website, which is awesome, and which she bills as “Sports…from a chick’s perspective.” Great stuff.
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In case you missed it yesterday, it’s almost that time again — time for round two of the Uni Tracking we began at the beginning of the season, and you guys so aptly displayed graphically and in print in May and June. Response to the first call for “uni trackers” was tremendous, and I’m interested to see how everyone’s team is faring now that we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the season. So, if you’re one of the many insane dedicated people who put yourselves through this exercise, contact me this week and I’ll think about how we’ll go about round 2 of the tracking. I think we need to keep the “replies” a bit shorter, but we still need the important info. I’ll come up with “guidelines” in the next week, and let you know when the next round (figure the second weekend in August) will transpire. Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. I look forward to your updated tracking and trends. When you send me your email, please put Uni Tracking in the “subject” line. Judging from the number of e-mails I got on this (all of one), I’m hoping interest in this is not waning. Simply contact me and let me know if you’re still interested — I’ll get back to you with the “specs” when I come up with them. OK? OK???? OK.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK. Today’s scoreboard should NOT be that difficult, since you should be able to narrow everything down right from the get go. The scoreboard itself, the teams, and the player pictured are all clues. It’s just a matter of narrowing it even further. And that shouldn’t be all that difficult. Ready? Guess The Game. As always, link to Retrosheet of Baseball Almanac, and tell us what it was about the picture that led you to your answer.
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Since we had ARATT (”all Ricko, all the time”) yesterday, we’re only going to have one Sunday Benches today. I’m pretty sure the boys of Benchies don’t wear their city uni colors on their softball uniforms, but hey, you never know. So, with that introduction, I present you with Sunday Benchies for today. Enjoy.
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The MLB Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is today, and the Hall will be welcoming Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and Joe Gordon (from “pre-1943″) days. You can read more about it here. Will be interesting to hear Rickey’s speech — and whether he’s just Rickey being Rickey … Brinke Guthrie (“eknirb” “=bg=”) notes that the San Francisco Giants will honor Sue Burns, their deceased senior general partner, on Monday. … And finally, Doug Keklak (”Kek”) draws our attention to this trip down memory lane. Thanks, fellas.
OK. That will do it for today. Enjoy your Sunday.
July 26th, 2009
 By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson
We haven’t heard from Ricko in a while. Well, we hear from him everyday on the boards with his anachronistic tirades and bad jokes sage advice and well placed humor. But, we haven’t had him help out with an entry in a while. He’s got a few opinions, ya know — of course, when you’re been on earth long enough to have caught the first two acts of Our American Cousin in ‘65, you tend to look at certain things and just know there’s a “right way” and a “wrong way” to do things. And then, there’s Ricko’s way. In this installment, we’re going to look at “Ricko’s Rules” as they apply to stirrups, pant lengths, cleats, alternates, and other things about the great game of baseball. As you will see below, Rick’s got his opinions on the way things should be. I may agree with some, and I may disagree with some, but you gotta admit — the man has a point. I’ll be back after you read the rules with my thoughts on this. Here’s Ricko:
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Ah, rules, don’t you hate ‘em.
So let’s call these “Rules of Thumb,” some of them anyway. Or maybe “Perspective on What Was Cool and Not Cool in the Era When Stirrups Weren’t an Optional Part of an MLB Uniform”. For this discussion, we’ll focus largely on the ‘60’s and ‘70s’, since that’s when players started individualizing the way they chose to wear their hose and britches.
From there, they’ll morph (or maybe that’s “devolve”) into some that apply to Today’s Style Guide or Lack Thereof.
Okay…
1. The Lower the Stirrup the Higher the Pants Can, and Should, Be. Exhibit A: Big Red Machine. Exhibit B: Mr. Cub. Exhibit c: Brendan Ryan (although his pants are just a smidge too short).
2. If You Pull Your Stirrups Up High, Your Pants Should Come Down to Meet Them (or even overlap them a bit). The Outman look, or Arizona State in recent CWS would have been considered Geekdom of the highest order in the waning days of the Stirrup Era. Very Little League. Hawk Harrelson, one of the earliest proponents of high stirrups and tight pants did it very well, most of the time. Even he pushed “geeky” from time to time, though. Same could be said for Vida Blue, who came along a few seasons later, who most times did the whole high stirrups/short pants thing to too much of an extreme.
3. Pants Rarely Look Good (with Stirrups) Lower Than Mid Calf. This was sorta of the routine look for a lot of nondescript MLBers at the time. Oh, some great players opted for it, but visually was just kinda “I put on my uniform and don’t care about how I look.”
4. Black Cleats Look Better With White Laces. Exceptions: Shoes with large, obvious logo identifiers, or if solid black footwear has become a team trademark. Exhibit B: Big Red Machine.
5. High or Medium Cut Cleats Should Never Be Worn With Stirrups. See Buckner, Bill, 1986 World Series (Stooooopid). If you do wear ‘em, wear stirrup-less high socks of a similar or identical color so the big, clunky things aren’t so obvious …or cover ‘em up with the pajama bottoms look. Think of your image. And if the whites are HIGH TOPS, well, cover ‘em or get over to the basketball court where you belong.
6. White Cleats Look Good Only with Stirrups and Lighter-Colored Sanitaries…or with Pajama Pants…and are Best When Part of an Overall Uni Design. Examples: Oakland A’s beginning in late ‘60s, Tequila Sunrise Astros, Padres, both Taco and pre-Taco. Marginal: Giants orange sanis with white cleats (home only) in late ‘70s, early 80’s. Bad: 1975 Phillies, 1970’s Angels and last Senators keeping regular unis and just switching to white cleats for the hell of it.
7. Sanis NEVER NEVER NEVER Darker Than (or Similar Degree of Light-to Dark as) Stirrups. As much as I enjoyed the White Sox taking a shot at it in ’69 and ’70, it still looks like they’re wearing galoshes (rubber rain boots, for those who don’t know “galoshes”).
8. Do NOT Let Stirrup-less Dark Socks Show With Light Colored Shoes. Unless you LIKE looking like an 80-year-old working in his yard in Boca Raton. Or the girls phy. ed class at Our Lady of the Perpetual Self-Gratification. Then, hey, go for it. But you really should go with pajama pants or stirrups (with light-colored sanis). I mean, seriously, think of your image.
9. Pants Way, Way High (the football pants look) is Okay But Not Let’s Get Ridiculous About It. If your pants don’t overlap your socks (which should only be low, low stirrups or stirrup-less, btw), then you should you should be playing corner for the Packers.
10. You’re Either a Sleeveless Team or You’re Not. Stop with the alternate “vests,” already. And for the love of God, if you MUST wear a vest, at least make sure the undershirt is a different color from the vest. (Although even purple sleeves don’t save that thing.)
11. Pitchers Don’t Get to Pick the Jersey du Jour. Oh, please, wear the frickin’ uniform the team says to wear. Can you imagine the havoc if such nonsense had been around during the nine-basic-combos bumblebee Pirates era, or the A’s white-gold-seafoam days? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
12. NEVER Dark-on-Dark. Alts appear to be here to stay. So, could we at least always have one of the teams in any game be in white or gray (depending on who’s the home team, of course)? Would avoiding this be so hard?
13. Blue Jays and Royals Need to Lose the Powder Blues at Home. Yeah, they’re fun, but — hello — those were ROAD uniforms. Says something about that era, though, doesn’t it…that many teams’ road unis were more memorable than their homes.
There you go, 13, a good place to stop.
Now, don’t beat me up too badly. This is just to give some perspective on today’s styles…based on the way things went in the years when color TV, double knit and logos-on-cleats changed the way baseball looked.
And that photo of me? At 55+ softball a couple years ago, I decided to wear as many colors as possible on my birthday. Hey, if you can’t have fun…
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Other than that, how was the play? Thanks Rick, for this installment of “Ricko’s Rules.” Gotta say, I am wont to agree with almost all of your points. Although I grew up in the “high stirrup” era, I have since come around to liking the style of the generation of players immediately preceding that. Perfect example being Ernie Banks, who, no matter what year uniform he’s wearing, the stirrups were always perfect. Today’s players would do well not only to wear stirrups, but to emulate Mr. Cub.
I note Rick didn’t address some things I’d consider “my rules,” although if anyone were to ask me, (but no one did), I’ll tell you a couple anyway. 1) PINSTRIPES do NOT belong on a road uni. Period. No exceptions. As a codicil to this rule, I would add also that pinstripes do not belong on vests. 2) “Vests” as they exist today should be eliminated. They are not vests, but rather sleeveless jerseys. And, 3) A uniform is just that — Those wearing it should also be uniform. I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t mind if a team has a certain “look,” but I hate it when individual players feel they can go styling every which way — you say it’s individuality, and you’re right — but it’s a team game. Dress like a team, not 25 individuals who happen to roughly resemble each other. I’d rather 25 guys ALL dressed like ManRam than to have 25 different stylists all dressing as they see fit. I’m sure most of you disagree with me on that one, but that’s my rule. The aforepictured Colorado Rockies violate all three of these rules in one fell swoop. In fact, if I were to ever have to nominate a “worst baseball uniform ever,” that would certainly be a nominee. I have more rules, but I’ll leave you with those three.
So what do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree with the sage prophet of Uni Watch? Do you have any “rules” of your own? Let’s hear it. I’m sure Ricko will be back with more rules for other sports too, so if baseball stirrups and cleats aren’t your thing, fear not.
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 Research Request: In working on Ricko’s Rules, Mr. Pearson told me he’s 99.99% certain that during an All Star Game, at least one Cleveland Indians player sported a monochrome blue uniform(!). Now, most of you are aware that during the 1970’s, the Indians did sport the infamous all-red uniform from 1975 thru 1977. However, I was unaware they ever wore an all-blue get up. If they did wear such a thing, it most likely would have been during the same years, although the Indians wore a blue jersey from 1975 through 1985. What I’m looking for, particularly from you guys who have past All Star Games on tape or dvd, or anyone who may remember this, is photographic evidence of the all-blue uniform. If such a beast does exist, please either post it in the comments or shoot me an e-mail. Thanks!
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: In honor of today’s “guest speaker,” I actually found a scoreboard that may predate Ricko. While you can probably easily figure out the year and the location, the actual date of the game may prove more difficult. As always, date, location & final score please, and do let us know how you went about figuring it out. OK? Guess The Game.
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And, since today’s topic deals with, among other things, the wrong way to wear stirrups, today’s “Benchies” is rather apropos. Check out Mick — he’s the one on the right — and his lower leg stylings, which are in stark contrast to the big guy, Mike, seated next to him. Here’s Today’s Benchies. Enjoy.
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 It’s almost that time again, as we head for the homestretch of the final third of the season — the time when you know whether your team is a contender or a pretender. Sadly, it looks like the Mets are playing the role of pretender this year. And I, for one, lay partial blame on the uniforms. As of last night, they had worn the black caps and jerseys six straight games, dropping five. Tell me there’s not bad karma there. Of course, they could have worn orange unis and the results would probably have been the same. They’ve also decided to drop their practice of wearing the pinstripes on Sundays. Don’t ask me why, it’s only their “official” home uniform. But there is probably some cause and effect thing going on there too. Or maybe not. But hey, that’s why the OCD among us track the uniforms. And now it’s time for the second round. Response to the first call for “uni trackers” was tremendous, and I’m interested to see how everyone’s team is faring now that we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the season. So, if you’re one of the many insane dedicated people who put yourselves through this exercise, contact me this week and I’ll think about how we’ll go about round 2 of the tracking. I think we need to keep the “replies” a bit shorter, but we still need the important info. I’ll come up with “guidelines” in the next week, and let you know when the next round (figure the second weekend in August) will transpire. Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. I look forward to your updated tracking and trends. When you send me your email, please put Uni Tracking in the “subject” line. OK? OK.
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Have a great Saturday everyone! Sic semper tyrannis!
July 25th, 2009
Way back in March, I conducted an interview with David Frost, who’s one of the more accomplished DIYers out there. Then I was lazy about transcribing the tape, and then David sent me a bunch of additional material that was sort of overwhelming, and then, as many of you know, my life got very complicated in May and June. So the whole thing got back-burnered, which was embarrassing for me and no doubt very frustrating for David. Now I’ve finally put the whole package together, and I think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait.
You can see a bunch of David’s jerseys here, here, here, and here. And he’s provided some tips and step-by-step insights into his DIY process here.
Here we go:
Uni Watch: How old are you, where do you live, and what do you do for a living?
David Frost: I’m 35. I’m originally from Milwaukee, but now I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. What brought me here is that I worked in minor league baseball for 13 years. I was lucky enough to build a couple of different ballparks and be part of a front-office staff. Basically, if a town was building a new ballpark, I was on the list of “Guys who can help you get your franchise started.”
UW: So are you a minor league executive, or a consultant..?
DF: I was until about four years ago. But then I got married and had a family, and working minor league baseball hours wasn’t going to cut it in terms of having a family. So I got out, and now I’m in real estate property management.
UW: Now tell me about all these jerseys you’ve made. As I’m sure you’re aware, yours are much more professional-looking than some of the other DIYs we’ve featured on the site. That doesn’t mean they’re better, but they do have a more polished look.
DF: Thanks, I appreciate that — that’s what I strive for. In college I worked as a buyer at a sports store, so I knew a little bit about uniforms and manufacturers, and that helped me get into working in minor league baseball, where I really cut my teeth in merchandising. I also have background in art, so I’ve also designed some minor league and college logos. But when I say, “designed,” I was more of the drawing guy, and then I had a friend who could put the drawing on the computer and make it look better.
Anyway, as a jersey collector, one of my biggest frustrations is that I always wanted one of the early Milwaukee Brewers jerseys. So about five years ago, I asked my mother-in-law to teach me how to sew. She’s a quilter, and at that time I just wanted to sew a patch on a jersey. So she showed me how to do that, and then I started looking at the jerseys in my collection, and I’m thinking, “OK, that’s a zigzag stitch, this is this stitch…”
UW: Oh, so she showed you on a machine, not just by hand?
DF: Right.
UW: Do you have a machine of your own now?
DF: Well, my wife has a machine that had never been used. So I’m looking at all my jerseys and now the wheels are really turning. I’m thinking to myself that if I can just get my hands on some twill and some piping, I might be able to make the Brewers jersey myself. So that was the very first jersey I tried, and man, it was a grease fire. I should have been practicing more on other materials first.
UW: You were like the guy who runs a marathon without stretching first.
DF: Exactly. So I really practiced a lot. Believe it a not, I was stitching underwear.
UW: I believe we’re veering into the realm of too much information, David.
DF: Right. Anyway, I got a bit more confident, and I started calling up some of my old friends in the [sportswear] manufacturing world — places like Rawlings, AIS, or what have you — and said, “Hey, I’m just looking for scraps.” So I might get a box that had a piece of twill, and I’d start pinning it up the way I wanted it. The heat press I’d bought for the local minor league park 10 years earlier was still there, and they let me use it. So using that method, I was able to complete my collection, and I’ve also been able to create new jerseys that I put up on eBay. And I’ll say in my listing, “If you have a jersey you want me to make, shoot me an e-mail.” And I thought I’d get people asking for their old high school jersey. And I did get some of that, but what I really got a lot of was, “Hey, Mitchell & Ness doesn’t make this specific year of Padres jersey — can you do that?”
UW: So you just get jersey blanks?
DF: Yes. I used to spend a lot of time looking for blanks on eBay, but then I realized I could call upon my old relationships with vendors and salespeople. And they provide me with the blanks. So if I need, say, a white jersey with navy pinstripes, I can just call up this one guy, and I’m basically like one of his regular accounts. I get a great rate, I know it’s going to be a quality jersey, and that’s basically my canvas.
UW: What about logos and patches and things?
DF: Anything tackle twill, I cut by hand.
UW: I’m looking at a photo of a Braves jersey that you did, and the Braves script almost looks embroidered.
DF: I made that by hand. What I do is, I get the logos from Chris Creamer’s site. And all I know how to use is Adobe Illustrator — I don’t know CAD or anything like that. So I tweak the logos as needed and then I print them on card stock to make a stencil.
UW: And what about sleeve patches?
DF: Some I make, some I do the Willabee & Ward thing. See that gray jersey that has “Socks” on it? That pair of socks is basically a logo that I ripped from Creamer and then I cut all the pieces individually.
UW: So that’s not a stitched patch — it’s pieces of tackle twill?
DF: Exactly. Like on that Braves jersey we were just talking about, the tomahawk is all twill. I went in there and added all the little red pieces, all the gold pieces. And then for some of the border, I set the sewing machine for a really thin setting, almost like a chain stitch, and went from there.
UW: And what about heavy-duty things, like this Milwaukee script baseball jacket?
DF: That’s tackle twill as well. The jacket itself is something I found on eBay for $11. It was some kid’s high school letterman jacket — it had a swimming patch on it and all this other crap, which I removed. But it fit me perfect. I mean, that’s a jacket I wear every day. I just went home to Milwaukee, and people were stopping me, saying, “Where did you get that jacket?” And I’m like, “Well, if I told you I made it, would you believe me?” and they just laugh. And I say, “If you want, look me up on Facebook or eBay.”
UW: OK, so now I’m looking at this early Astros jersey, with the shooting star. Now, on the original version that the team wore back in the 1960s, the tails or streamers on the star were all chain-stitched, which I gather is something you were not able to do.
DF: That is correct. About 99% of what I do is tackle twill. I have dabbled with felt a little bit lately, but I’m very upfront in saying I use today’s materials. So sometimes I’ll get someone who says, “I want an old White Sox jersey with a zipper,” and I’ll say, “Well, I don’t know how to do zippers — yet.” For some people, that’s a dealbreaker; for others, they don’t care as long as you can give them the basic look. And the look is definitely something I can do.
UW: What about something like the captain’s stripes on the Pilots and Brewers jerseys?
DF: Oh, that’s actually a good story. To make those, I take a gold piece of twill, and then the blue is a piece of 3/8″ braid. I have a stencil that I use for this, to make guide marks on the twill, and then I use Liquid Stitch to glue the braid onto the twill nice and straight. It dries overnight, and then I stitch it to the twill. And then the twill has the heat-adhesive bottom, so I can position it how I want it and then stitch it onto the sleeve.
UW: So you started doing this about five years ago. How many jerseys would you say you’ve done in that time?
DF: Probably 80 or 90.
UW: Do you wear these around, or keep them in the closet, or what?
DF: My personal collection is about 50 jerseys, and I made about half of those. I’ll wear them when I’m playing cards with the guys on a Saturday night or something like that.
UW: And mot of the others you made either in response to specific customer requests, or just to put up on eBay?
DF: Right.
UW: What do you charge?
DF: It depends on the jersey. I just got an inquiry from a guy who wants a 1943 Senators jersey. And that’s basically just putting one row of horseshoe piping or braid around the collar, a navy “W,” and the “Health” patch, which I can find on eBay for maybe $7. So a jersey like that, I’d say maybe $85. Now something like that Braves jersey, that’s much more intricate. That would be $260, which is the most I’ve ever charged.
But the main thing is that I enjoy it. It’s turned into my late-night hobby, which I like. My wife will be sitting on the couch watching The Bachelor, and I’ll be next to here cutting out letters. So that’s gonna be a big part of our quality time together. Wait, don’t write that, Paul. Seriously, though, I watched the World Series last year, but I didn’t actually watch much of it — I mostly just listened to it.
UW: A lot of Uni Watch is written under similar circumstances. You’re taking it to a different level than most of the other DIYers, because you’re using real blank jerseys instead of a long-sleeve tee from Wal-Mart, plus you’re using real braid, and so on.
DF: I have some customers who’ll send me their old shirts, and I’ll reproduce them. Being from Wisconsin, for instance, I’ve made a lot of older Green Bay Packers jerseys.
UW: Right, with the padded elbows and all.
DF: Right, and that guy sent me a J. Peterman sweatshirt — you know, Peterman, the guy Elaine worked for on Seinfeld — and he dyed it himself, because he was really anal about the color. And he said, “If I dye it, will you do the rest?” And I said, “I’d be honored.” I’ve now done five more jerseys for him, for his kids.
UW: Were you surprised to see other people making their own jerseys?
DF: Very much so. But the thing is, I’m not just making them for myself or even for my customers. With my kids playing travel ball, I’m kind of like the team mom. There was this tournament a year or two ago where they had to have a sleeve patch, and the coach said, “OK, we need to have this patch on all the jerseys by tomorrow — who can do it?” And he’s looking at all the moms. And I just raised my hand and said, “Give ’em to me.” And he says, “Does your wife sew?” And I say, “Just give ’em to me.”
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Thanks for all the info and photos, David — and thanks also for your patience. Sorry it took so long to get your story out there. And again, if you missed the link near the top of the entry, there’s a step-by-step example of how David creates a jersey here.
Research Request: My Page 2 colleague Patrick Hruby is going to be spending a day with one of the Smithsonian’s curators and checking out their sports collection. “I’m going to focus on strange and unusual stuff, and also the stories around and behind acquiring and preserving items,” he tells me. “For instance: they have a condom with Mickey Mantle’s picture on it (reason #1,021 why the Mick was fortunate Deadspin did not exist in his era). I’m just wondering if you have suggestions of things to look for or ask about.”
I’m not all that familiar with the Smithsonian’s collection, but maybe some of you folks are. If so, please feel free to contact Patrick directly. Thanks!
Uni Watch News Ticker: FSN Florida was in such a hurry to salute Mark Buehrle’s performance yesterday that they made a rather unfortunate typo when describing his accomplishment (brilliant screen capture by S. Finch). … Speaking of yesterday’s perfecto, this article includes the nugget that Buehrle and the home plate ump in yesterday’s game, Eric Cooper, both wear No. 56 (with thanks to James Huening). … Big kudos to Brandon Davis, who pointed out something I’d forgotten about: Rajai Davis wasn’t the first one to wear those A’s logo stirrups. Esteban Loaiza wore them back in 2007. … Meanwhile, I heard from A’s equipment manager Steve Vucinich, who explains the situation as follows: “Rajai needed a new pair of stirrups and saw the logoed stirrups and decided to try them. He had four RBIs — a Rajai record! — which cemented the thought of wearing them daily the rest of the year. Loaiza might have been the first to wear the logo stirrups.” … And sure enough, Davis was wearing the logo-emblazoned hose again last night (screen shot courtesy of Chris Gordon, who also notes that Mark Ellis was wearing a gray-underbrimmed cap). … Bryan’s latest cycling crash? Nope, it’s a shot from the 1930 Tour de France. Lots of additional pics here (nice find by Vince LoBosco). … I may have linked to this in the past, but just in case: Here’s a nice site devoted to Phil Neel, the artist who drew all of Auburn’s program covers from the 1950s through the ’80s, along with ticket art and other graphics. Great, great stuff (big thanks to Jeff Hunter). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: According to this game report, Manny wore civvies under his uniform on Wednesday. Key passage: “‘I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit,’ said Ramirez, who arrived at his locker and peeled off his Dodgers shirt and white pants to reveal street clothes.” … Very cool NFL lunchbox available here (with thanks to Marc Swanson). … Jesse Gavin checks in with lots of observations from the Iowa State Softball Tourney, including teams wearing basketball-style tank tops, tie-dye-ish jerseys, pinstriped shorts (ugh), bizarro piping with a sublimated clipper ship, and odd helmet striping, plus a player wearing No. 02 and a facemasked pitcher. Also, Jesse didn’t mention this, but it looks to me like the baserunner’s helmet in this photo has a molded ponytail channel. I’ve seen ponytail holes before, but never a separate channel like that. … Good article on the Vikings’ equipment manager here (with thanks to Brian Schulz). … Remember, Doug Keklak is putting together a western PA Uni Watch outing to a minor league ballgame. If you want in, contact Kek pronto. … Speaking of Kek, he was watching a documentary about Barrett Robbins and noticed that Robbins and his TCU teammates all had first initials on their NOBs in the early 1990s. … Shortest hockey pants ever? Could be, could be (with thanks to Gabriel Manga). … “Green is the new pink,” says Kenn Tomasch, who reports that the Chicago Red Stars will go green this Sunday. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Next year’s MLB All-Star Game logo has been released. … Tons of awesome baseball photos in the University of California archives (with thanks to Mike Hersh). … With AC Milan and Chelsea set to play a match in Baltimore, The Baltimore Sun has posted a tremendous slideshow of Baltimore soccer history (with thanks to Coachie Ballgames). … My Page 2 buddy Jim Caple muscled in on my act yesterday by writing a story about Ebbets Field Flannels outfitting the Iraqi baseball team. … The Mets announced that they’ll deny press-box access to New York Post reporters in retaliation for the Post having published nude photos of Tony Bernazard. As soon as this news came over the wire, all the other NYC papers promptly published the photos too so they could avoid having to cover the Mets anymore this season.
July 24th, 2009
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