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Archive for August, 2009
The Uni Watch Blog is currently on summer break. I’ll still be posting material on Page 2, so you can look for my byline over there. Or you can sign up for my mailing list, which I use to notify folks when I have new ESPN content.
If you hear any news about new college football uniforms (especially for BCS teams), let’s have it. For just about any other uni-related news, please hold your fire until the site returns to daily posts on September 1st. See you then, OK? OK! — Paul
August 13th, 2009
In late July I got a note from longtime reader Richard Craig, who’d stumbled upon an interesting uni-related attraction in an unlikely place:
Last weekend I was cruising through the wine country out here in California, doing a few tastings but mostly just enjoying the scenery. Driving along the Silverado Trail in Calistoga, I was just about to sail on past the Silver Rose Winery when at the last moment I noticed a little sign near the driveway. I did a double-take, hit the brakes and went inside.
It turns out that the guy who runs the winery has a private collection of football helmets that he’s recently put on display in the lobby of the winery. He’s got old leather helmets and NFL “helmet evolution” sets (check out the Redskins, Eagles, and Giants progressions at left). He also has helmets from the USFL, the CFL, the Arena league, even the XFL.
It was a surprise to find this in a winery (though if you own a winery, I’m sure you can afford a helmet collection). I got the guy’s contact info in case you’re interested in talking to him.
And that’s how I recently found myself speaking with Derrick Dumont, who, I think it’s safe to say, is the only vintner in America who also has a world-class football helmet collection. Here’s how our discussion went down:
Uni Watch: You’re obviously a football fan. Did you play football when you were younger?
Derrick Dumont: I did play Division II college, back I the early ’80s. Always loved the sport.
UW: What position?
DD: I was a receiver. Even after college, I was always looking for flag football leagues to play in. I think the last time I played in an organized flag league was about 12 years ago, when I was 37.
UW: How long have you been in the winery biz?
DD: We’ve had the property since 1985, and I joined the family business in ’93. We’re what you call a resort winery — we have a small hotel on-site with 20 guestrooms, as well as a small winery where we produce less than 2000 cases a year.
UW: And how’d you get into the helmet thing?
DD: Prior to joining the family business, I had another job that involved a lot of travel, and — well, actually, to tell the story properly, you have go back to fourth grade, when I was on my first team and my dad helped me paint all the helmets so they all matched.
UW: A Pop Warner team?
DD: This was actually just organizing our own little group to play against another elementary school. Even in our pick-up games when I was a little kid, I’d paint my own jersey out of a T-shirt so I could pretend to be a particular player.
UW: So you were thinking in uni-related terms very early on. Was that important to you, to have your helmet be just so?
DD: Yes, definitely.
UW: And when your dad helped you paint your team’s helmets, did you ask him to help you, or was it his idea? Like, was he saying that you kids needed to look good out there?
DD: No, it was me asking for his help, because I wasn’t very good at spray-painting. I designed a little “A” for our logo, because our school was called Addison. So we made a stencil, sprayed it on, and sprayed a stripe. He showed me how to do that.
UW: It must have killed you when the paint got chipped or got dirty during the game, right?
DD: No, it held up fine. Our collisions weren’t that intense.
UW: Do you still have that original helmet?
DD: No. But that’s how I got started.
UW: Did you also collect the little mini gumball helmets?
DD: Yeah, I had those for a while. And football cards. I don’t know what happened to all that stuff. Then, a few years after I got out of college, I went to visit one of my old roommates. And he had his high school helmet, plus our college helmet. And I said, “Wow, how did you get that? That is so cool!” And I thought, “I’ve gotta do that. I need to make replica helmets for all the teams I played for.”
UW: So he had made these helmets himself? He hadn’t gotten them from the schools?
DD: Exactly, he did it himself. And I thought that was the greatest thing, so I started with that, making my Pop Warner, high school junior college, and college helmets, and from there it just kinda went crazy.
UW: So all the helmets that you have displayed at the winery — you made all of those?
DD: A few of them were bought. But 95% of them I’ve made. Some of them were beat-up old helmets I found garage sales and flea markets. And when I was traveling for my old job, whenever I was in a town I’d look up the oldest sporting goods store, tell them about my project, and we’d go down in the basement and find these brand-new helmets that were 20, 30 years old.
UW: And you’d buy those?
DD: Sometimes they just gave them to me! Most of the time they’d charge me a little, almost nothing, because they didn’t know what to do with ’em. And they knew I wasn’t going to be using them on my head, or on anyone else’s head, so they felt comfortable letting them go like that. So then I’d sand them down, repaint them, and then I either painted the logo, made the logo, or was able to obtain the logo.
UW: When you say “obtain,” you mean you got a decal?
DD: Yeah. Because those are usually pretty readily available. And I’ve always tried to keep things matched up, so that I’m using the right helmet for the era of a particular logo.
UW: In other words, you wouldn’t use a 1990s Riddell helmet for a 1960s Redskins design.
DD: Exactly.
UW: And I can see from the photos that you obviously keep the facemasks era-appropriate as well.
DD: Yes. So, slowly but surely, I’ve been able to keep the collection growing, adding the USFL designs, and then the WFL from the ’70s, and the XFL. And since I was born in Canada, I’ve added the Canadian Football League, back to the ’60s. Now I’ve gotta look at this new UFL. I haven’t done any of the girls’ leagues yet.
UW: I’ve gotta get you talking with Bill Jones. He’s this guy in Texas who’s the king of gumball helmets — he makes them himself, and he’s found every obscure league you can imagine. Like, if there’s a women’s over-50 league in Australia, he’s done their helmets. And he’s always looking for more — it’s like an addiction with him. I think that’s where you’re headed.
DD: Possibly, yeah.
UW: How many helmets do you have displayed there at the winery?
DD: About 250. And I have a few hundred helmets on hand that I can make into new designs. I still have some gaps to fill — I don’t have all of the 1960 designs from the AFL, for example, and I’ve only done about half of the arena league. So it’s still a work in progress.
UW: What’s the story with the leather helmets?
DD: Those aren’t replicas — those are old, original helmets that I’ve managed to acquire. I’ve got one for every decade that leather helmets were used.
UW: When did you start displaying your helmets at the winery?
DD: In early June.
UW: Oh, so it’s a very new thing.
DD: Yes.
UW: So up until now, you’ve just been pursuing this privately, in your basement or whatever.
DD: Exactly.
UW: Did you have them displayed, like in your rec room or something like that?
DD: Some of them. But most of them were just sitting in boxes until we decided, “Well, we need something to attract people to our winery.” You know, we’re a small operation here in Napa Valley, and we need a reason for people to come to our tasting room instead of all the other ones out there.
UW: So you saw a way for your collector obsession to be put to use as a bit of marketing.
DD: Yeah, that’s what we’re hoping. Actually, we’re going through a bit of a transition here, because our goal is to become more of a wine sports bar.
UW: Does your helmet museum have an official name?
DD: Right now we’re just saying, “Silver Rose Presents 100 Years of Pro Football History.”
UW: You don’t charge admission for this, do you?
DD: No.
UW: Have you tried to promote via the local media?
DD: One of the local papers wrote something, but I haven’t really had a chance yet to publicize it. But we’ve updated our sign out front — originally it just said, “Football Helmet Museum,” but now it includes a blue helmet.
UW: So how has the response been so far? Has anyone come in specifically to see the helmets?
DD: There have definitely been people who’ve come in because they saw the sign. And a few of the locals came by when that article ran in the local paper.
UW: What about people who were coming for the wine and didn’t realize that they’d be surrounded by all these football helmets?
DD: It’s been amazingly great. People are pretty impressed — they think it’s cool. Some of them are a bit confused, they’ll say, “Why football helmets?” And we’ll just say, “Well, we want to be different than everyone else.” Other wineries might have some fancy artwork or Ansel Adams photos, but we’re kind of bucking the trend with our sweaty football helmets.
UW: I guess it really is bucking the trend, or even somewhat counterintuitive, because the standard perception is that the intersection of football and alcohol begins and ends with beer. You think of football fans drinking beer, sports bars serving beer, and obviously there’s lots of beer advertising during NFL games. When you think about football fans, you don’t usually think about wine. For that matter, when you think of wine, you don’t generally think about football.
DD: We haven’t had any problem in that regard. When people see how many helmets we have and the history behind them, they appreciate it. And I’ve put together a catalog that has a picture of every helmet on our wall, the story behind it, what style it is…
UW: Oh, you’ve put together a guide to the museum, sort of a program?
DD: Right. I’ve put together a catalog, in a binder, so people can take a look and get more information about the helmets.
UW: What about women? I’d think that the wine demographic has a higher concentration of women than you’d normally find among football fans. If a couple comes in, does the guy get all excited when he sees the helmets and then the woman is sitting there rolling her eyes?
DD: Not really. I mean, maybe a couple of times, but overall it’s been really well received. A lot better than I expected, in fact. That’s what’s been so exciting.
UW: You were worried it might not go over so well?
DD: I wasn’t 100% sure how people would take it. But I’ve been very pleasantly surprised. It’s made me proud of what I’ve accomplished.
UW: You should be! What about your family, what do they think? Are you married?
DD: Yes, and I have four boys. They all play football. In fact, everyone in the family is a football fan, including my wife.
UW: And what has she thought of your hobby over the years?
DD: She’s been pretty supportive. She’s just glad to have a little more room in the house now that I’ve moved the helmets over to the winery.
UW: What about your kids? Do they share your passion for getting a uniform just right?
DD: Yeah, when they’re getting ready for game, they have their little rituals, just like I did when I played.
UW: What sort of rituals did you have?
DD: When I was in high school, I always had to tape my shoes so they looked nice and white. I’d tape ’em up and then repaint the stripes on ’em. And I always used knee pads for my hip pads, before they got a little stricter about the padding. If I could’ve gone without padding, I probably would have.
UW: How much money would you estimate you’ve spent on this hobby over the years?
DD: Hmmmm… [Long pause.]
UW: Ballpark.
DD: I’d say I average about $30 a helmet. So that figure, times 250 helmets, means about $7500. Actually, it could have been a lot more — I’m kind of a stickler about price, so I’ve turned down some helmets that I’ve seen for sale, because I thought they were overpriced.
UW: And do those helmets now haunt your memory?
DD: Yeah. I passed up some beat-up old Riddell helmets, and now you don’t see those anymore, even on eBay.
UW: What about college football helmets? You have lots of pro leagues represented in your collection, but not much in the way of college.
DD: I’ve done a few college helmets, but only ones were I really liked the logo or the history, like the Michigan and Texas. Air Force, too. But I’ve really concentrated on pro football.
UW: What if you want to expand the museum? How much more room for on the walls do you have?
DD: I still have some open hooks…
UW: Yeah, how’d you come up with that hook system? It looks ingeniously simple.
DD: I saw something similar somewhere — where was that? Anyway, I saw something where they just had the hook in the earhole, and it gives it just a little tip especially when you’re looking up, so it works really well. I haven’t counted exactly how many open hooks I still have, but my guess would be about 20 or so.
UW: And you mentioned that you wanted to have a wine sports bar. Would that be in this same space, where the helmets are now?
DD: Yeah.
UW: And do you envision expanding that concept, where you’d have maybe a chain of these wine sports bars or something ike that?
DD: That is a possibility — replicating this concept. Especially when you have companies like Helmet Hut creating such amazing helmet product. I think I’m pretty fussy, but I think the Helmet Hut product is absolutely perfect.
UW: Do you know those guys personally?
DD: No.
UW: They’re really amazing people, and they’re such sticklers for historical details.
DD: Yeah, I’ve bought some of their helmets and have really been blown away by how authentic they are. And it’s great that they sell the old facemasks, and even the old clips for the facemasks, because those can get brittle and break, so it’s great to have a place to buy those. For someone like me, it’s a dream come true. And, actually, it’s helped me start my own custom-helmet business, which is called Your Helmet Your Way.
UW: And how is that different from Gridiron Memories?
DD: They aren’t taking the logo thing as far as I am. If someone wants to do a replica of their high school or Pop Warner helmet, I’m willing to do just one, as long as they can get me a photo. No one was really doing that, so I’ve got a little niche there. I started that a little over a year ago.
UW: And how has that gone?
DD: Surprisingly well, considering how the economy has gone. Some corporations have actually hired me to do helmets for them.
UW: You mean, like a company’s logo on a football helmet, as a promotional item, even if they never had anything to do with football?
DD: Right.
UW: Wow, you’re gonna be way past the wine business before you know it. That’s really interesting. And do you promote this operation of yours within the museum at the winery?
DD: I do have one small display for the business, yes.
========
Faaaaascinating. Big thanks to Derrick for sharing his collection, and to Richard Craig for tipping me wise to this great story. But I’m still sticking with beer.
Uni Watch Stirrup Club Update: Comrade Robert Marshall has just returned from the front lines of the stirrup revolution. He offers this report of the proceedings:
1) Our third-party supplier fed me some misinformation. Turns out the cardinal stirrup is not a “standard” design but a special order, and as such it takes four weeks to produce, not two. When this is coupled with the upcoming Uni Watch vacation, we need to offer up the next selection before our current order arrives in order to stay on our monthly schedule.
2) My disappointment with our previous dealer (for numerous reasons) has led me to take steps to ensure we have a direct connection with Twin City Knitting. How will that affect things? First and foremost, it means cheaper hosiery for all, and I should also be able to accommodate a wider variation of size requests. But most importantly, it means I now have TCK’s ear, and I am already trying to work on new offerings to better satisfy the people. No matter how abstract the message may sometimes be here, do not doubt my commitment to the spread of right proper hosiery through direct action.
3) This months choices are pure chicago, with four separate offerings. That’s right, we were able to handle two, so I am going to try to offer four per month from now on. So what with the increased choices, and the previously stated changes, I beg of you, even if you think you know what to do, please read the abbreviated instructions carefully, and follow the directions precisely.
Raffle Results: The 10 winners of the Bill Henderson MLB jersey guide are Brennan Barber, Eric Buettner, Bryan Duklewski, David Frost, Rob Ullman, Chris Stoppel, Bill Sour, Chris Milea, David Jackson, and Jerry Meyerowitz. All of you should contact me asap with your shipping addresses. Thanks!
Uni Watch News Ticker: A New Jersey politician doesn’t like the Nets’ new road jersey (with thanks to Timothy Collins). … Oooh, check out the cool cartoon on the cover of this year’s Patriots media guide (with thanks to Yancy Yeater). … New Bobcats unis visible in this video clip. Apparently they’ll have pinstripes. … New logo for the 2009 FIVB Men’s Club World Volleyball Championship, to be played in Qatar in November (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … The Red Sox had to buy a vowel over the weekend (great find by Tom Mulgrew). … More slop from the UFL here (with thanks to Marc Altieri). … It’s tough to see for sure, but Gabe Greenbaum says this minor leaguer is wearing stirrups with no sannies! … Are you an artist? Wanna create something for the Marlins’ new ballpark? Then you’ll wanna take a look at this page (thanks, Kirsten). … Ray Emery’s new mask is a tribute to Philadelphia boxing (with thanks to Enrico Campitelli Jr.). … Great article saluting single-bar facemasks here (big thanks to Larry Kurtze). … Here’s one guy’s assessment of the best Steelers by uni number (with thanks to David Potter). … The saga of the A’s helmet decals continues. Looks like Adam Kennedy is back to the old helmet style, plus his decal appears to be sitting a bit low (good spot by Brandon Davis). … The Massachusetts lottery has introduced a new Patriots-themed scratch-off ticket, and Bob Kraft presented a jersey to Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy Cahill with a “Massachusetts” NOB and the number 351, for all of the cities and towns in the state (with thanks to Scott Davis). … Excellent spot from Brent Hardman, who notes that Bengie Molina appears to have a small pocket, or something like that, sewn into the chest of his jersey. … Brent also sent along this great shot of himself and his son at Falcons training camp. “One fan dressed in full uniform (old logo) in the 90-degree heat, while the actual team was practicing in helmets and shorts,” he says.
Nineteen days isn’t so long: Beginning tomorrow, Uni Watch will go on summer hiatus through the end of August. We’ll be open for business again on September 1st. No need to send Ticker contributions during this period, although college football news is very welcome. I’ll have at least two ESPN columns running while the blog is inactive. If you want to stay up to date, sign up for my mailing list, which will keep you in the loop.
Enjoy the break — see you in a few weeks.
August 12th, 2009
Reader Michael Kotler has noticed something really interesting going on in Japanese baseball. I’ll let him explain:
As we all know, MLB players can’t wear the number 42 (besides Mariano). But I’ve noticed that in Japan, a lot of foreign players wear 42. I looked into and it seems there are six foreigners wearing it: Marcus Gwyn of the Rakuten Golden Eagles; Marc Kroon of the Tokyo Giants; Tom Mastny of the Yokohama Baystars; Tony Blanco of the Chunichi Dragons; Brian Sweeney of the Nippon Ham Fighters; and Jonah Bayliss of the Seibu Lions.
Six players may not sound like much, but there are only 12 teams in Japan, and each team is only allowed to have four foreigners on its roster. So having one of the four players foreign players on half of the teams wearing 42 seems a little odd.
Is it just that most of these players wore 42 when they were young and wanted to continue it? Is it that they just want to wear 42 because they know they couldn’t back in the States (all except Blanco are American)? Is it that they all want to honor Jackie Robinson (which I think would be pretty cool)? Or is it just a ridiculous coincidence?
Good questions. One question that immediately came to mind was whether any of the six other Japanese teams had a Japanese player wearing No. 42. So I asked Kotler that, and he said and he promptly reported that four of the six have 42s on the roster: the Hanshin Tigers, Toyo Carp, Yakult Swallows, and Chiba Lotte Marines.
So the situation is this: Ten players in Japan wear No. 42, and six of them are non-Japanese players. Hmmmm. Mark in Shiga, Jeremy Brahm, and our other Japanese baseball experts, can any of you shed any light on this?
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to get in the raffle for the 10 free copies of Bill Henderson’s MLB jersey guide. To enter, send an e-mail to the raffle address by 7pm tonight. One entry per person, except for Uni Watch Membership Program enrollees, who can send four separate entries. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of brown pants and striped socks in Browns camp, which strikes me as a fair trade-off (with thanks to David Cummings). … Attention Teebz and all the other Canadians out there, check this out: Commonwealth Games cufflinks! … Anyone else think it’s a little unseemly for a diamond-stud earring to be worn by a first base coach? That’s long-pants pioneer George Hendrick, putting another nail in propriety’s coffin. … This installment of “Tank McNamara” won’t be running in The Washington Post. The larger question, of course, is why any installment of “Tank McNamara” is running in any newspaper, ever. … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. It’s part of this uni-centric slideshow (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … I love hot dogs, tattoos, and topless women, but this is still pretty freaky-deaky (thanks, Kirsten). … New court design for the Sixers (with thanks to F.J. Wesner). … The Pirates all went high-cuffed on Sunday, as you can see in this highlight clip. Man, I freaking love high cuffs with vests — such a great look. “The only ones who didn’t participate were relievers Matt Capps and Jesse Chavez,” notes Stu Uhlman. “Coincidence that they blew the lead and let the game get out of hand?” … New football uniforms for Pitt. Additional pics here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Orioles outfielder Willie Tasby reportedly played without shoes because he was afraid of being struck by lighting. We must find photos of this! … Yesterday’s Ticker mentioned that UNLV’s helmet stripe appeared to be changing from black to red, but I’ve been informed by several readers that that’s just a rookie thing for players who haven’t yet “earned the black stripe.” … Yikes (blame Chris Perske). … Take a good look, because I’m pretty sure we won’t be seeing these for very long. And this will become a collector’s item. … UCLA will wear throwbacks for homecoming. Details here. … Did you know the NCAA can bar a team from practicing if they use “improper attire”? I didn’t, until I came across this story last night. Key quote, from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney: “I was like dad-gum, we can’t get anything done in shorts.” Words to live by. … Wait, cancel that last item — the canceled practices have been restored. … Oh man, check out this magnificent old Broncos/Titans photo from Mike Hersh’s father’s collection. Love the old-style blocking technique exhibited by No. 74. … You think we’re obsessive? Check out this guy. … That story, incidentally, was written by Michael Schmidt, the same reporter who’s been breaking the stories about the steroid list. Good article about him here.
August 11th, 2009
I only caught the last few minutes of the Hall of Fame Game last night. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of internet photo galleries, I can bring you the uni-related highlights anyway:
• In recent weeks, it had looked like the Bills were gonna go with this pants stripe pattern. But they ended up going with this instead.
• The Titans’ much-discussed Steve McNair memorial decal is innocuous enough. And Tennessee’s coaching staff wore memorial collar pins.
• Take another look at that helmet photo. Notice anything? No NFL logo! In fact, the NFL shield was absent from both teams’ helmets. That’s nothing new for the Bills, whose throwback helmets have been shield-free for years now. It’ll be interesting to see if the Titans — and/or other teams partaking in the AFL throwback series — continue to eschew the league logo.
• Now go back to that Jeff Fisher shot. See how the logo on his shirt is all faded? That’s not a glitch — both coaching staff wore shirts with “distressed” emblems. I hate that faux-vintage approach (if you want a beat-up old Bills shirt, spend some time in thrift stores like I do), but I do find it interesting that they’d use that look for the coaches — a much more casual look than the usual coaching attire.
• The officials looked so damn great. A few people in last night’s comments were griping about the socks or the uni numbers not being fully accurate, but AFL officials had a wide range of looks over the years — they didn’t have just one standardized number font, e.g. I’m perfectly fine with how they’ve handled this.
• The red gloves that were worn by members of both teams reeeaaaally don’t belong in a throwback game.
• Bills owner Ralph Wilson wore his Hall of Fame blazer. But hey, Ralph, we gotta talk about those sneakers.
I’m sure there was a whole lot more that I missed, but I was busy catching the world debut of the Pedestrians. More on that later. For now, enjoy the onset of football season try not to melt today.
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off 10 free copies of Bill Henderson’s amazing MLB jersey guide. To enter, send an e-mail to the raffle address by 7pm tomorrow. One entry per person, except for Uni Watch Membership Program enrollees, who can send four separate entries. I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday.
Research Project: We’ve all long lamented the fact that there’s no online database for NBA uniform history. Now reader Chuck Myron wants to do something about that. He’s willing to do the archival research, but he’ll need help creating the illustration templates and the web site itself. If you’re interested in helping him out, contact him here. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some guy on eBay is selling some really great baseball-themed Cuban pin-up posters. I just bought this one, and there are additional examples here, here, here, here, and here. … Bizarre coincidence: In last week’s ESPN column, I mentioned that I’d met a collector named Michael Ono, who’s been collecting USC alum autographs. Got a note from him on Friday, thanking me for including him in the column, with a twist: Turns out that he’s been the creative services manager for the A’s for nearly a decade (”I thought I was the only one who knew about the various discrepancies in our logo,” he says) and even designed their 40th-anniversary patch last year. So when I interviewed him at the convention, I was talking to a professional logo guy and didn’t even realize it. Small world and all that. … Red Sox third base coach DeMarlo Hale appears to be wearing the same flapless Wilson helmet design worn by A.J. Pierzynski (good spot by Andy Chalifour). … New logo for GW hoops (with thanks to Dan Franko). … Whoa, check this out: a black Ohio State hoops uni. The design was never worn on the court (thankfully), but it’s still interesting (with thanks to Dylan Glickman). … Small change for Iowa football, where the chest wordmark has been replaced by a collar logo (with thanks to Matthew Nelson). … The Raiders have posted a bunch of archival photos, many of them spectacular, on their web site. Check out image No. 9 and you’ll see them playing against a decal-less Broncos team. Preseaon, perhaps? (Major thanks to Mako Mameli.) … Didn’t know AT&T Park had a Giants uni display until Brinke Guthrie sent me these pics. … I might actually watch soccer if it was played by kangaroos. That’s the logo for the bidding for the 2018-2022 World Cups in Australia (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Those Adidas college football practice jerseys, first seen on Tennessee, are also being worn by other schools, including Notre Dame, Kansas, and Indiana. … New football uniforms Louisville. In addition to the new striping, Louis Samuels notes that the QBs already have hand-warmer pockets — odd for August, no? … And according to the very last sentence on this page, Pitt will be unveiling new Nike uniforms today (with thanks to CJ Giannuzzi). … Here’s a NickNOB. That’s Yuji Nakazawa of the Yokohama F Marinos in the J-League (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Matthew Hiett notes that Braves first base coach Glenn Hubbard still has the 4ALS decal on his helmet. … Lots of good shots of Babe Ruth as a pitcher here (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Scott Little sent a bunch of scans from a Tokyo Giants mag. Among the highlights: a guide to the uniforms worn by the stadium staff at the ballpark and some sort of “design the uni contest” (look here, here, and here). … Also from Scott: Maybe the best “Official [whatever] of the [league]” sponsorship ever and some killer furniture. … Ricko sent me scans of a ticket brochure from the old Minnesota Buckskins of World Team Tennis. “I was league PR director and a minority owner in the Buckskins,” he explains. “I didn’t do the paintings, but I did design the unis and the logo (well, drew the intentionally unisex character and my dad did the lettering, by hand). Note that the women are shown wearing two different colors — brown was to be the road uni. Men’s road would have flip-flopped the brown and gold on the uni shown. All moot, though, cuz the majority owner didn’t wanna pop for the custom unis.” … Super-cool interactive map on old Indiana basketball gyms here (great find by Ben Traxel). … Dr. John C. Barnes notes that UNLV appears to have changed their black helmet stripe to a red stripe. … Mark Teixeira was missing the 2 on his helmet last night (as spotted by Mike Lafferty). … “This watch ad ran in various football game programs, including those at Dartmouth, in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” says Tris Wykes. “It ran with the image reversed year after year, and they failed to correct it. That’s Columbia at Harvard, in case you’re wondering. Interesting that the helmet logos weren’t airbrushed out.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Chris Cooley’s latest blog entry is all about uniform fines. … Check out this completely amazing vintage SF Giants apron! It’s available for sale here. … The Cowboys have been engaging in some haircut-based rookie hazing. … The long-rumored new Arizona State jerseys look like this. … Ladies and gentlemen, your new Philadelphia 76ers. … Someone on the Chris Creamer board showed a small scan showing that Broncos-style vertically striped socks were briefly featured in the Wilson catalog.
August 10th, 2009
Whole bunch of stuff today, including NFL news, new Benchies & two “Guess The Game” quizzes, uniform news and more below. Make sure you check out the whole post (if you feel like skipping the unitracking bit). The non-tracking stuff starts with the bold “FOOTBALL IS BACK” section.
By Phil Hecken
We’re back with round two, day two today (if you didn’t see yesterday, look here). A few late stragglers who nevertheless got their tracking in under the deadline bumped up the two-day total. That’s good (but there’s a lot in this section). So, lets get it started:
 We start today off with Billy DePriest, who tracks the Orioles:
It’s hard to draw any conclusions with the O’s uniform choices, since they are a pretty bad team overall. But here are the stats as of 8/2:
At home, they are 25-21 (.543) wearing their standard white uniforms which is by far their best uniform, record wise. They are 3-5 (.375) wearing the black alternate jersey, which is worn every Friday.
As you know, the O’s are wearing “Baltimore” on their standard away jersey this year, which has become their “worst” jersey. They are an awful 13-29 (.310) in standard grays, and an identical 3-5 (.375) wearing the black alternate jersey on the road on Fridays.
Interestingly, on July 17th (a Friday), the O’s wore gray at Chicago because the Sox were wearing their black alternates. No surprise, the O’s lost.
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 Our next tracker is Patrick Campbell, who keeps tabs on the Braves:
Phil,
I’ve attached a screen shot of my spreadsheet for the Atlanta Braves. Through July 31, the Braves record is:
Overall: 52-51
Home White: 22-23
Sunday Home Red: 5-1
Road Blue: 19-18
Road Gray: 6-8
Negro League Throwbacks: 0-1
The Negro League throwbacks could be classified as road grays, however, I decided to give them a separate classification. The Braves continue to favor the blue jerseys on the road. The grays were used exclusively in Milwaukee, even when the Brewers chose to wear their white jerseys on Sunday. The grays will probably see some use in San Diego, where the Padres sometimes wear blue.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is George Lesko, another of our Pirates trackers:
I didn’t submit the first time but here is mine for the Buccos.
Trends
1. Great in the home whites. W-L records suggests that we should stray from the black (Friday) or pinstripes (Sunday). At least they aren’t red.
2. Horrible on the road. Period.
3. Undefeated in the 1909 throwbacks and the Negro League Homestead Grays throwbacks
4. Broke out W-L record for each uniform by starting pitcher.
5. Games in yellow are ones I’ve attended this year (4-2) … 5 home whites and 1 pinstripes
George sent along the following screen caps which can be used in conjunction with his points above: Cap I, Cap II, Cap III, and Cap IV
~ ~ ~
 Moving on, we have Timothy Killeen who is a Phillies tracker:
The Phils seem to play better in their away grays according to their record, but it can be deceiving as they’ve certainly turned it around from their dismal home white/cream winning percentage when last I checked in. While there may not be any clear cut uni-related anomalies in overall win/loss record, there do seem to be some uni-trends with starting pitchers. For one, Phils fans would probably love to make sure that Cole Hamels never wears the day-game cream uniform for the rest of the season. He’s currently 0-3 in 4 starts with that uniform. We’d prefer instead that he only pitch during home night games, as he’s 4-0 in white. On the other hand, should Bretty Myers return to the rotation from injury, we’d like to see he and Jamie Moyer only pitch in away games as they are a combined 10-2 in 15 starts while wearing the grey.
Here’s a screen shot of my work as of August 1st
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Andrew Greenwood “Greenie” who is a Brewers tracker:
Phil,
Don’t have much right now for insight into what and why (getting ready to move), but I’ve got the general idea for you. All totals through Sat. July 25th. Spent some time last night recreating the Milwaukee Bears unis they wore yesterday. I think I got it pretty close.
You sure did, Greenie. Here’s a screenshot of the pitchers’ totals, and the record by uniform.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Justine DeCotis, who is a Red Sox tracker:
This year, the Red Sox have worn a ridiculous 12 uni combos. They play the best in the classic home uni with a .700 winning percentage. They have never lost in the alternate navy road uni with the Sox cap and red socks, but have only worn it three times. The weirdest combo so far was on May 30th, they wore the road grays with the hanging Sox cap. That hideous cap is usually only paired with the red and navy alternate jerseys. Maybe the choice of Brad Penny, who started that game.
Justine has broken her tracking down into home games and away games, and two great graphics detailing the caps and socks as well as the jersey and cap combinations, and the winning percentages associated with all.
~ ~ ~
 Moving along, our next tracker is U2Horn, who has been keeping tabs on the Rangers:
The Rangers have been wearing their white jerseys at home more recently, possibly because it’s so damned hot in Arlington in July. Even with 7:05pm starts, game time temperatures are often in triple digits. Kevin Millwood continues to prefer the home whites and road grays, while Vicente Padilla seems to prefer the Blue jersey both at home and on the road. In fact, the Rangers haven’t worn the gray jerseys for any game not started by Millwood since May 19.
So, for the uni combos they’ve worn more than a couple of times, their best combo is the traditional home whites (they’ve now won 7 in a row in them), while the worst combo is the traditional road grays.
And U2 has of course, provided the Uniform Chart and the screenshot of his spreadsheet for our reference.
~ ~ ~
 Our next tracker is Gregg Girard, who like me, is a Mets tracker:
Phil. Here you go.
Like Phil, I’m uni-tracking the Mets. (Your sympathy is welcome.)
Well, I made one bold prediction back in May: Santana will never wear black. Unfortunately for Johann and me, I was wrong. In the three Santana in black starts (all on the road), he went 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA.
As I said in May, I am searching for patterns, both in terms of victories and behind actual uniform selection. A losing record tends to negate the former, but I was able to dig out a few notables: the Mets home winning percentage is .528 overall, but it rises to .636 and .625 when they wear snow white/blue and black, respectively. Wearing their classic pinstripe/blue combination, they are a dreadful 1-4. As Phil noted in May, that combo seemed to be the regular Sunday uniform, but after wearing them for three straight Sunday losses, they haven’t worn them on Sunday since June 21. In fact, they didn’t wear pinstripes until July 31, when they put them on for a Friday night loss to the D-backs.
~ ~ ~
 Continuing on, we have Dwayne White, one of our Marlins trackers:
Phil:
Here is my Marlins run-down up to August 1st.
There really is no rhyme or reason for the way that the Marlins use the black, alternate jersey. That is unless it is “Pitcher’s Choice”, which I did not track. It probably shouldn’t be called an alternate because they wear the black one on the road more than the grey jersey. They wore the black jersey 29 times as opposed to 22 times for the grey one on the road.
The only two times that the Marlins wore the black jerseys at home, they lost both night games. The first time the black jersey was worn this year, The Fish lost the game after 11 straight, season opening, victories.
Dwayne sends along six wonderful tracking sheets: Marlins Combos; a breakdown of the uniform winning percentages; and individual tracking for April, May, June, and July.
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 Next up is Shawn Tunick, who is yet another Braves tracker:
Hey i saw your pic for uni tracking thing was the braves, so i guess you already have one, but this is my superfluous edition, all i can add to last edition is that they have worn their gray on the road more than the blue (thank god) as the weather warms up.
There is nothing superfluous about multiple people tracking the same team. OK there is, but I still love it.
~~~
 Next is Brandon Davis, an A’s tracker:
The A’s are 25-24 in the home whites and 19-19 when the starter gets a decision. The team is 1-4 in home blacks but 0-4 when the starter gets a decision. In other words, there’s no reason for a starter to ever pick the blacks again this season (although the sole win was the biggest comeback in team history). The team is awful on the road at 22-33 (11-22 when the starter ges a decision) but they’ve won both throwback games. The A’s are 2-6 when wearing a special ribbon, jersey, or cap (not including throwbacks) and the starter has always gotten the decision.
BLACK JERSEYS: The A’s are 1-4 in the black home alternate set and only four starters have donned them (the A’s will start their twelfth starter on Saturday, August 8 if you’re wondering). The team didn’t even notch a win in the blacks until July 20, AFTER the All-Star break. Has any other team waited that long to win in a set that is part of the regular uniform rotation?
HELMET DECALS: The A’s are 10-8 since switching helmet decals on their green and gold helmet on July 21 (having gone 37-48 before). Jason Giambi wore the logo before his was changed on June 30. He went on the disabled list on July 20 and the next day the A’s all had the new decal. He’s been released so ironically Giambi wore the new decal but never matched his teammates.
JERSEY NUMBERS: Four members of the A’s have changed their uni number in-season due to a number of switches: Nomar Garciaparra (5,1), Eric Patterson (4,5,12), Scott Hairston (21,12), and coach Mike Gallego (12,4). Not to mention returners who had different numbers last season: Kurt Suzuki (24,8), Rajai Davis (38/11), Cliff Pennington (56,26), Sean Gallagher (39,36), and bullpent catcher Casey Chavez (69,99).
Brandon includes two excellent tracking sheets: Oakland Pitchers’ Jerseys and a Regular Uniform Tracking sheet.
~ ~ ~
 We continue with Chris Mehler, self-described “Die Hard (literally) Cubs fan:”
Hey Phil,
Sorry I am just getting back to you…been a busy week! Well here it is:
As is well known, the starting pitchers of the Cubs pick that days jersey and The Cubs only wear white, gray and blue jersies with a solid blue cap. So, Carlos Zambrano ALWAYS wears the blue alt. (I wonder how his psyche was a couple years ago when the Cubs for just that year got rid of their blue alternates?) Rich Harden mostly wears the blue alt. Luckily, there is some uni-sense as Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly both only wear white at home and gray on the road. You can see some trends happening: both blue sets (home and road) are doing quite well. The best? white pinstripes and the worst? gray! So, they need to ban the gray jersey for the rest of the year.
Bringing us right up to date, Chris sends four screenshots of his tracking: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Jeff Barak, Twins tracker:
The Twins records in each jersey through the end of July are:
Home Whites 13-7
Blue Alternates 19-8 overall, 11-6 at home, 8-12 on the road
White Vest 4-2 (worn only twice since April 28)
Saturday Throwbacks (worn with red caps) 4-5
Road Gray 13-18
The Twins wore the 4 ALS patch on July 4th on their Saturday Throwbacks.
Sunday July 5th was “Armed Forces Day” and each player wore a cap with the name of a branch of the armed services. The caps varied in color, with some of them even being white.
They also wore the blue ribbon patch on Father’s Day with their blue alternates at home.
A note of interest was the Twins wore their blue alternates for six consecutive days on the road in July going W,L,L,W,L,L, so it’s not as if they were keeping a winning streak alive at the time. Five different pitchers started during the run of blue jerseys, with Scott Baker pitching the first and last games of the six.
My tracking method remains the same as before, the mighty pen and notepad.
~ ~ ~
 And squeaking in at the last moment is Alex “Insert Name Here” Poterack, who tracks the Brewers:
Sorry I’m getting this in so late; I hadn’t be able to do much uni-tracking lately ’cause I was moving, but I updated everything today, and here’s the latest:
I believe it was Nietzsche who said, “From chaos comes order”. The Brewers’ uniform usage, however, can only be described as “From order came chaos”. Where the Crew’s starting rotation all began the season with clearly defined uniform preferences, they have since departed from these, and each pitcher has worn each of the three main jerseys (home white, road gray, blue alternate) at least once. They do seem to be adopting some patterns, however: Yovani Gallardo seems to be wearing the whites at home and blue alts on the road; Suppan seems to be doing the opposite, wearing the alts at home and grays on the road; and Manny Parra has exclusively worn the blue alternates since coming up from the minors. Some news to report: the Brewers have since worn two new jerseys since my last uni report. Against the Giants on June 27th, they wore their “Cerveceros” jerseys. While these were whites in the past, and they also wore white ones for spring training, this year they wore blue Cerveceros jerseys. On July 25th, they wore Negro Leagues jerseys, which were cream colored with royal blue raglan sleeves. They are undefeated in these one-off jerseys, and their record in the other jerseys is as follows:
Home Whites: 17-14
Home White (Red Caps): 1-0
Blue Alternates: 17-23
Blue Alternates (Red Caps): 0-1
Road Grays: 13-11
Road Grays (Red Caps): 1-1
Retro Friday: 1-2
Blue Cerveceros: 1-0
Negro League Throwbacks: 1-0
And here is Alex’s updated tracking sheet.
~ ~ ~
OK. That concludes our uniform tracking, round 2, part II. I want to thank each and everyone who is not only tracking their teams uniform combinations, but also for sending them in to me and for providing (for the most part) such great graphics and spreadsheets. The last round will come after the season has concluded, and perhaps some or all of our trackers’ efforts can be entered into the UW logs for posterity. I’ll see if this is something Paul would be amenable to, so everyone who’s tracking, great work and keep it up for the home stretch!
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  FOOTBALL IS BACK tonight, with the Hall of Fame Game! (A decent writeup of the game can be found at the always trustworthy Wikipedia.) Kickoff is at 8:00 pm (eastern time) on NBC. This will mark our first on field glimpses of the AFL throwback uniforms which will be seen sporadically throughout the season. Apparently, the Oilers have been designated as the home team, so the Titans Oilers will wear these beauties saving these bad boys for the road. The Bills, who have worn their dark (home) throwbacks as an alternate for the past few seasons will be wearing this again this season for their home games and this for tonight’s game. I believe there was some concern expressed on the boards recently that the Bills’ stripes aren’t correct. I believe the Bills will be wearing the uniforms they wore in 1965, (the season they won their second consecutive AFL championship), although photographic evidence shows these pants stripes were worn in 1965. (Here’s another look at the pants, although that is a 1965 card, the photo may have been from 1964.) Although this photo is from 1967, the Bills pants remained unchanged from 1965. For a great look at the ‘65 Bills, check this out.
Meanwhile the Oilers will be throwing all the way back to 1960. The Oilers won the first AFL championship following the 1960 season. Although black and white, here’s a pretty good photograph of the 1960 team. A really in-depth writeup of the Houston Oilers can be found here. Finally, here’s a brief writeup of the Oilers “Legacy” uniforms.
Nice way to kick off the season. I’m sure there’ll be a few comments on the uniforms tonight, so make sure you check back in during the game.
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one might not the be the easiest ever, but I’m sure you’ll all be able to solve it without too much trouble. Certainly, the location shouldn’t pose a problem, and there are more than enough clues right in the picture to solve the rest. Obviously, location, date and final score please, and a quick description of how you went about ascertaining same. Ready? Guess The Game.
Now, because this is my last weekend post until next month, I’m gonna give you guys a bonus GTG, which may be a little harder. The clues are there, (and I apologize if they’re hard to read), so give it a shot. (Hint: hold down “CTRL” and use the scroll button on your mouse to magnify the image) Ready? Guess The Game. Location shouldn’t be any trouble, but date and final score might be.
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 Since you got five Benchies yesterday (a “Monday” thru “Friday” offering), today we’ll give you:
Saturday Benchies
Sunday Benchies
Ay, carumba. Thanks, Ricko.
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 The “What If” (City Flag) American and National League posts from the past couple of weekends generated a few positive E-mails. One or two readers suggested that I try to incorporate more of the city flag into the uniform mockups, so I gave it a shot for the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds (in fact, I believe on of our readers had also done a similar mockup for the Reds a couple of weeks ago — I forget who it was, but if you’re reading, please post your creation again!).
I also received an E-Mail from reader Sean Wilson, who had previously created a Colorado Rockies City Flag Color Logo and Uni Mockup of his own. Great stuff, Sean.
If any of you have creations or suggestions along these lines, please give me a shout. I love this stuff.
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 The planned “Fixing The Brewers” piece, which had been scheduled to run next weekend, will be pushed back to September, as UW will be in hiatus until then. I have already received many fantastic submissions for this post, and I’ll be sending out an E-mail to all the graphic artists who have contacted me so far and have expressed interest in participating. This would be along the lines of The White Sox uniform piece which ran at the end of last month.
If you would like to take part in this (basically, it’s going to be an opportunity for anyone who is interested in ‘creating, tweaking or overhauling’ the uniforms for the Milwaukee Brewers to do so — and the efforts will be showcased in September), please contact me and put in the subject line “Brewers Uniform Concepts.” Also, if you don’t care about, or don’t want to participate in the Brewers redux, and there is another team you think needs a uniform overhaul, let me know. We will announce the next team to be “fixed” when the weekend UW returns next month.
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Reprinted From Last Evening’s Comments: (Thanks to Tony Miller for the tip) “Notre Dame has new practice football uniforms. See the last paragraph-plus (featuring a mention of Uni Watch by name) here.” Good GOD are those things horrid. Can’t wait to hear Paul’s take on them.
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 So, we’re going on vacation for a little while, but not until the end of next week (details here, in case you missed it). But this is my last weekend post until next month. Paul will still bringing you top notch stuff all next week though, so make sure you keep checking in.
I’ll be glad for the weekends off, but I’ll still be keeping tabs on things, so if you have any questions, or would like to submit anything, from a City Flag jersey to the Milwaukee Brewer uniform fix, to a “Guess The Game” submission or a new Indian Caveman uni combination we haven’t yet seen, please gimme a holler. Also, when we return, football season will be in full swing, so if you’re interested in working with me on some football pieces (especially historical stuff or uniform changes/upgrades, etc.) let me know in the next couple weeks and we can work on stuff while the board is on hiatus. OK? OK!
Thanks everyone, for everything! Have a great Sunday and I’ll see you the first weekend in September! And make sure to check out the HOF game tonight — love to get everyone’s first impressions of the Legacy unis.
August 9th, 2009
By Phil Hecken
Ok, in this final weekend before UW’s Vacation, we have round 2 of our MLB Uniform Tracking. If you missed the first batch, they can be found here and here. Good stuff. But, we’re two months further along, and it’s time for another look at the tracking — with warmer weather, streaks (good or bad), or just whim, a few teams have altered their usual rotations (if they had any) and others have fallen into different patterns. The Mets, for example, had worn pinstripes every Sunday at home until the last week of June. They haven’t worn them again on Sunday (at all) and have only worn them once, when they became Los Mets for Latin Appreciation Night. Other teams have broken out special uniforms, Negro League tributes and throwbacks, and our trackers are on top of it all. So lets get started.
~ ~ ~
 We kick off with Doug Keklak “Kek” one of our Pirates trackers:
The Pirates had a rough month of July, going 8-17 overall. Through 7/31, they were 44-58. They have performed best in the home whites with a 20-10 mark. They are a terrible 15-33 in the road grays, thanks in part to a dismal 1-12 July. July was the best month thus far for the Friday black alts as they were 4-1 which gives them a 5-10 mark on the season (3-4 at home, 2-6 on the road). The team is 1-5 on the season in the Sunday home pinstripes.
Special issue: the Buccos are 3-0 in special uniforms this year, going 1-0 in 1909 throwbacks and 2-0 in Homestead Grays throwbacks. The Pirates are 2-2 in the stars and stripes cap and won the game they played in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police cap.
Doug provides us with two spreadsheets which nicely document the past two months of uniform tracking.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Scott Curl “ChiScott” who has been tracking the White Sox:
Hi Phil -
Here’s my tracking update for the White Sox through July 31.
Quick Note: The other day I emailed Sox VP of Communications, Scott Reifert, and asked him just how the Sox go about picking which jersey they pair up with their home and road pants on any given night – since each team varies, was it based on the choice of a pitcher, the equipment manager, a team/coaching decision, day of the week, etc.? He wrote back and told me that aside from pre-planned “event” games (Negro League tributes, throwback games, etc.) jersey choice is strictly up to the game’s starting pitcher.
Recent trends: Whole lotta black lately. Mark Buehrle pitched his perfect game in black on July 23, and the Sox have played well (29-26 this season) while wearing the alternate black jerseys. Interestingly, Buehrle made the rare choice to go with pinstripes this past Sunday, and the result was also rare: an ugly home loss for him. Coincidence??? (Cue the Theramin music.)
The other trend has been to go almost completely away from the official road grays. Not counting “Stars and Stripes” cap games, the team has only worn their official grays in 15 games this year, and they lost 10 of them (their last win in the gray official road uniform was May 31).
Event Unis: We’ve now seen the Sox play in several “event” uniforms – two different “stars and stripes” combos, the Negro League tribute uniforms, the 1959 throwbacks, and the Civil Rights game 1964 throwbacks. The Sox are 5-2 so far in “event” unis.
Tracking: As for my sheet, I changed my layout so that the row colors now reflect the jersey worn for that game. Each row color-corresponds to a particular uniform combo, depicted on the right. I think it makes it much easier to see at a glance what they were wearing over the course of the season.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Scott Gladin, who’s been tracking the Braves:
In the first installment of Uni Tracking back in May, the Braves seemed to be definitively better in the Home Red and Away Blue Uniforms. However, as the team has started to play better baseball, the uniforms have started to somewhat even out. They still are showing a better record with the alternates, but the average runs scored and allowed are much closer together.
~ ~ ~
 Moving on, we have Ben Teaford who is an Indians Tracker:
Thru Sunday 8/2 the Indians have worn an amazing 11 different uniform combinations on the season (4 more since my last update). So while they may be near the bottom of the standings, they’ve got to be near the league leader in that category. The four new unis they’ve worn are the 80’s throwback (although these look so much better with stirrups, don’t you think?), they wore the Stars & Stripes cap with their home whites, and they had a home and home with Detroit in the unis of the Cleveland Buckeyes negro league team.
Mostly they have stuck to the traditional home white and road grays, something that has become more pronounced as the season has progressed though. They’ve only worn the home blue alternates 3 times since June 1st and when they wore the blue road alternate at the Angels on July 28th, it was the first time they had worn those in over a month. Cliff Lee loved the traditional unis, so with him sadly out of the picture now, we may see the blue alts come back in.
Ben also included, per my request, a screengrab of his tracking sheet; unfortunately, it’s a little hard to read, but trust me, he’s got it ALL in there. And here is a nice chart of all those combos.
~ ~ ~
 Next up, Michael Jaworski “MtJaws”, who tracks the Marlins:
Now that we are at approximately 100 games into the 2009 season, the Florida Marlins have settled in with decent trends for their uniforms. Thru Sunday, August 2, the Marlins are 55-50. In their Home White uniforms, the Fish are 30-23, plus two other rained out starts in white uniforms. In their Road Grey uniforms, Florida is 9-12. In their Alternate Black uniform, they are 0-2 at Home, and a winning 17-12 on the Road. The black has seen lots of action on the road, but at home, the black hasn’t been seen since late May, presumably due to the heat. In color vs color games, the Marlins are a nice 6-2, with only one of those games at home. Included in those records above are the 4 games wearing the red Stars & Stripes hats. FL won 3 of those games.
With nearly every home game in white, the decision to wear grey or black on the road seems to rest with the starting pitcher. In all 10 of Ricky Nolasco’s road starts, the team is in black. For the other starters, they’ve mostly split between wearing grey or black. Josh Johnson does favor the road black in 7 of his 10 road starts.
The biggest surprise to me was seeing that the Alt Black has only appeared twice at home. I thought I’d seen it more often than that. I don’t mind the Road Black Alt, but I wish it wasn’t worn more often than the traditional grey. Maybe the last third of the season will change the numbers.
Mike also included very detailed tracking sheets: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV; he also included a record by uniform and a breakdown of uniform by pitcher.
~ ~ ~
 Although he didn’t include a detailed writeup, Mike Vamosi did a nice breakdown of the Royals:
Royals UniWatch Record as of Aug. 6, 2009
Powder Blue (Day Home): 7-11
White (Primary Home): 17-22
Salute to Negro League Home: 0-1
Overall Home: 24-34
Royal Blue (Road Day): 5-10
Gray (Primary Road): 13-21
Salute to Negro League Road: 0-1
Overall Road: 18-32
Overall: 42-66
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Kenny Montross who is an Astros tracker:
Howdy Phil,
I’ve always been curious how my teams did in different uniforms but had never even thought to keep track myself until I saw the posts back in May. I started keeping track of the Astros in Excel. That seemed a little confusing so this last week I made a graphic representation.
The Astros have worn a total of 5 different jerseys (white with pinstripes, ’snow’ white, red ‘Astros’, red ‘Houston’ and gray) and 6 different hats (black, red, ‘patriotic’, ‘go green’, Houston Fire Depart. and Apollo 11) in 10 combinations. As you can tell, the ‘Stros like their one off caps. I like them too, as long as they wear them at home. They’re 3-0 with these hats at home, but 1-3 away from the juice box. That could also be because the only ’special’ cap they wore away was the clashing bright red patriotic cap. Some one in the Astros organization also seems to like softball jerseys. I personally can’t stand them. Not only does the team look bad in them, they play worse too. They are 25-29 in the softball jerseys and 28-26 in the more traditional jerseys.
Bring on the special hats and gray and white jerseys!
~ ~ ~
 We move on to Mike Styczen, our resident Blue Jays tracker:
What can you say about the Blue Jays – after an exciting first couple of months, they’re showing us that they’re basically a .500 team. As I write this, they’re 51-54, and they’re within a game or two of .500 in every jersey and hat combination.
They’re maintaining their uniform pattern so far so far this season – grey on the road, white for home night games, black for home day games, throwbacks for friday home games. Even with the malaise that’s set in, Cito hasn’t felt the need to shake things up uni-wise.
Record to date, by combination, is here, and Screenshot of tracking spreadsheet is here.
Thanks again, Mike
~ ~ ~
 Moving on, CJ Giannuzzi is one of our Pirates trackers:
The white pinstripes are always worn on sunday day games. The black and white alts are worn on friday nights at home and the black and grays are worn on friday nights away. I did not include those throwbacks they wore for the Royals series. If I’m correct they wore it all series.
And here is a nice screen shot of CJ’s tracking.
~ ~ ~
Our last tracker today is Gregg Girard, who like me, is a Mets tracker:
Phil. Here you go.
Like Phil, I’m uni-tracking the Mets. (Your sympathy is welcome.)
Well, I made one bold prediction back in May: Santana will never wear black. Unfortunately for Johann and me, I was wrong. In the three Santana in black starts (all on the road), he went 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA.
As I said in May, I am searching for patterns, both in terms of victories and behind actual uniform selection. A losing record tends to negate the former, but I was able to dig out a few notables: the Mets home winning percentage is .528 overall, but it rises to .636 and .625 when they wear snow white/blue and black, respectively. Wearing their classic pinstripe/blue combination, they are a dreadful 1-4. As Phil noted in May, that combo seemed to be the regular Sunday uniform, but after wearing them for three straight Sunday losses, they haven’t worn them on Sunday since June 21. In fact, they didn’t wear pinstripes until July 31, when they put them on for a Friday night loss to the D-backs.
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OK, that’s all for today for the Uni Tracking. Tomorrow will conclude the second round. If you are tracking and haven’t yet sent me in your data, please try to do so by early this evening, so I can include it in tomorrow’s post. If you can’t, you can either save it for the season-ending wrap up or send it do me during the UW hiatus, and I’ll try to include it in a future post. Send me your stuff in an email and we’ll set something up.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Today’s GTGFTS might be a little tricky, but it shouldn’t be any trouble for you guys. As always, location, date and final score are needed. Today’s scoreboard comes courtesy of James Huening (thanks, JTH). James is therefore, prohibited from playing along today. Ready? Guess The Game. Once again, if anyone wants to send in scoreboards for future games, please do so. Also, with football season approaching, does anyone want to try a football “Guess The Game” game? Don’t know if it’s quite as much fun as baseball, but we can give it a shot. And for this game, as always, don’t post the answer directly, but do try to tell us how you solved the mystery.
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Since this is my penultimate post before the vacation, I’m gonna give you a weeks worth of Ricko’s finest Benchies today. Well, five days worth, anyway…a work week’s worth (say that five times fast). And, it’s a serial.
“Monday” Benchies
“Tuesday” Benchies
“Wednesday” Benchies
“Thursday” Benchies
“Friday” Benchies
Back tomorrow with a Saturday and a Sunday.
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So, last night the Blue Jays did their Flashback Friday thing — but with a twist. They wore white throwbacks, commemorating their 92-93 World Championship Winning teams. The unis looked really sharp, although today’s cut and style (long, baggy pants without stirrups) kinda tarnished the look. Of course, their opponents, the Orioles, wore dark tops (although, one could make an argument the O’s were throwing back to 1993. OK, not really.)
Lots of players from the 92-93 teams were on hand, including Joe “Touch ‘em all” Carter, Dave Winfield, and Pat Borders (pictured with Carter). Former (and current) Manager Cito Gaston was also on hand, but for some reason, chose to wear the current BP top (in lovely black and slate).
Hey, at least the old timers did not do the jersey tuck. While I will admit those unis were not my favorite MLB uniform of all time, they sure beat what they’re wearing these days. Good stuff!
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That’s gonna do it for today. I’ll have Part II of Round 2 tomorrow, a bunch of announcements and goodies, and of course, Guess The Game and “Benchies.”
Everyone have a great Saturday.
August 8th, 2009
In the beginning, there was Okkonen, and it was Good. Because up until then there had been no record of base ball raiment. And so began the Period of Great Enlight’nment, and there was much rejoicing.
And then, after a number of epochs, Okkonen joined forces with the mighty Shieber of Cooperstowne, and thus the two of them begat Dress’t to the Nynes. And this too was Good, for now the Master’s Wisdomme was available to all, even those who did not have a printed copy of the Illuminated Manuscript.
But as Time went by, certain scholars dared to voice a near-Heresy: The Wisdomme, they said, was flaw’d. In some places it was Mistak’n; in many others it was Inkomplete. And the Master’s colourful engrayvings, which had long been celebrayt’d as powerful tools to convey the Wisdomme to future generations, began to be seen as Too Limit’d, for they showed no Posterior View, nor did they show Fyne Detail, among several other Problemmes. Worst of all, the Master had been so fatigued by the initial compiling of the Wisdomme that he could not continue with the task in subsequent seasonnes. And so there was Diskontente across the land. And this was Not Good.
And then there came Henderson.
Henderson did not claim to proffer the Master’s Wisdomme. Indeed, he did not provide Informations regarding millinery, or trousers, or the all-important stockings, or for any raiment prior to the much-despis’d Age of Synthetux. But he did provide significant Knowledge on the subject of blouses — their colours, their regalia, their strypes. And instead of engrayvings that simulat’d the raiment, he employed a Great Magick that stopp’d time and show’d how the raiment actually look’d, in all its great Scope and Varyetee. And this was Very Good.
Even better, Henderson added new Informations to his Knowledge every 26 moons. And these became known as the Great Updaytings, and the period between them became known as the Time of Much Anticipashonne, so eager were the people to learne about the blouses.
I have journey’d here to informe you, O my children, that the latest Time of Much Anticipashonne has now ended, and the Great Updayting is now upon us. And this is Very, Very Good.
Those benight’d souls who are Unf’miliar with Henderson may wish to study the teachings I present’d at the time of the last Updayting, and may also want to hie themselves to the Sample Informations that Henderson has gen’rously put forth. Those who are already acolytes would do well to proceed directly to the Marketplace.
At this pointe I must acknowledge that this latest Updayting includes a preamble that I myself penned at Henderson’s gracious request. And it was a request I felt privileg’d to grant, so high is my esteem for all things Hendersonian.
Indeed, Henderson’s gen’rosity of spirit knows no bounds, for he has announc’d the following Gifts to the People:
I) Great Fortune will shyne upon ten of our citizens this seasonne, for Henderson shall bestow upon them the latest Great Updayting without imposing any tariff or barter, which should be cause for Great Merriment throughout the land. All who wish to be el’gible for this speculation should dispatch a mess’nger to these coordinates by dusk on Tuesday next. I shall proclaim the ten winners on the morrow. (As is custom’ry, only one mess’nger per citizen, I prithee, except for those who have been induct’d into the Programme of Fellows, who may send up to four.)
II) For those who fail to win the speculation, fear not! For all citizens who read this broadsheet shall be able to secure a Discounte of five dollarres by employing the cryptograph “paulhatespurple” at the time of tariff. I confess that I am not certain of this term’s Meaning, but Henderson’s maneuv’rings are sometimes beyond my ken.
And with that, O my children, I leave you to commence the rejoicing. Remember not to spill mead on your keyboards.
In case you missed it on Wednesday…: You still have a few days to stock up on methadone before the site goes on vacation. Details here.
Live chat reminder: You still have a few hours to pretend you’re busy working before today’s live web chat, which will take place at noon eastern.
Uni Watch News Ticker: What do you do if you have a huge jersey collection? Make a rap video about it (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … Several old Formula 1 helmets shown in this article. … New basketball court for Virginia Tech (with thanks to Jonathan Sluss). … An Islanders jersey was featured on Michael & Michael Have Issues — sort of. “Because of licensing restrictions, the Reebok logo on the left wrist was blacked out and the chest logo was replaced by a number,” explains John Muir. “Oddly, they kept the Stanley Cup shoulder stripes. Hooray for an Isles jersey doing something positive in the media!” … Indiana will be wearing a 125th-anniversary patch this season (with thanks to Kyle Donnelly). … If you click the “Video” link near the top of this page, you’ll see a nice little report about Oregon football players getting outfitted for the upcoming season (with thanks to Dave Anderson). … Did you know that the Mariners’ relief pitchers have been displaying gladiator helmets in their bullpen? I didn’t (maybe because it never occurred to me that Shawn Kelley was a gladiator), but whatever, now they’ve been told not to do it anymore. … Jorge Posada wore a “15″ on his mask last night, as a tribute to Thurman Munson (with thanks to Tal Yellin and Ryan Farrell). … Repeated from last night’s comments: Enough is too much. … Speaking of too much, check out Adidas’s new practice jerseys for Tennessee. Not sure if any other schools are wearing this template, but we’ll presumably find out soon (with thanks to Scott Gleeson Blue). … Matt Powers plans to head to Balty for next Wednesday’s A’s/O’s tilt. If any of you Charm City readers want to meet up with him, give him a shout. … Two of the worst uni tropes — camo and pink — have been commingled in a Scottish soccer kit (blame Neil MacLeod). … The Titans’ memorial decal for Steve McNair will look like this.
August 7th, 2009
Time for another bunch of vintage NFL screen shots from reader Steve K., who continues to document unusual uni-related items from the 1970s (if you’ve missed the previous entries featuring his work, they’re here and here). Here we go:
• If you think John Hadl’s NOB looked off-center in this shot (which was featured in one of Steve’s earlier reports), check him out here — yikes.
• Oilers DB Willie Germany wore some white tape stripes on his thighs.
• Note the small type on Emery Moorehead’s NOB, circa 1977. “Only a few Giants had this font that season, including Moorehead and OL Jim Pietrzak,” says Steve. “From 1977-80, the Giants had numerous inconsistencies in their NOB fonts which, I’ll document another time.”
• Alfred Jenkins’s NOB type wasn’t small — it was missing altogether in this 1977 shot.
• Speaking of missing uni elements, here’s Rick Upchurch wearing a blank helmet in 1975 — shocking! But he had a logo-clad helmet in the second half of the same game.
• Meanwhile, here’s Upchurch’s teammate Billy Van Heusen with no space between the two part of his surname.
• On the other end of the spectrum, check out James McAlister’s NOB with a wide space. This appears to have been Philly’s standard style in 1975.
• Speaking of the Eagles, check out the livery on this helicopter — interesting mix of the helmet wing and an eagle’s head.
• Steve has documented several instances of the mid-’70s Chargers NOBs with the first initial coming after the surname, and here’s another one. “That’s little-known OL Booker Brown,” says Steve. “Oddly, there was no other Charger with the surname Brown on the team in 1975.”
• “We all know that the NFL changed the end zone markers from from flags to orange pylons beginning in 1974,” says Steve. “But the Broncos appear to have used striped pylons for this 1975 game against the Eagles.”
• We’ve had plenty of discussion about the inconsistencies in the Dolphins’ numerals over the years, but here’s a particularly glaring example: Check out the TV numbers in this shot.
• 1970s coaching attire was always good for a laugh (especially when the coach in question was Bum Phillips). And even if the coach was dressed conservatively, there was usually someone on the field to remind you which decade you were in.
That’s enough for now. More stuff coming from Steve soon.
Friendly Reminder: If you’ve been uni-tracking a team for Phil, he wants to hear from you asap. Full details here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: New sleeve patches for Navy. Further details here (with thanks to Mike Althouse and Kevin Whisman, respectively. … Mike Hersh picked up some cool stuff at the National in Cleveland last week, including this awesome 1939 Eagles photo and a great view of some killer Michigan logo socks. … John Moist was vacationing in Philly and spotted a waiter wearing faux stirrups at the Old City Tavern. “They are required to wear white socks,” he says. “I told him about Uni Watch and that this photo may appear. Sorry, didn’t get his name. Also, another waiter had swoosh socks. I did not take his photo.” … Big news from Jeff Ash, who writes: “I am working on a Packers photo history book that may be of interest to uni enthusiasts. Titletown’s Team won’t be out until November, but it will have more of the old Packers photos I’ve posted at the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s web site over the last couple of years. We also will be putting some of that material online.” … I don’t like Nike, but I might make an exception in this case (big thanks to Chad Todd). … Here’s a patch I’d never seen before, because it was never worn on the ice. The Flyers wore it for promo photos after their 1975 Stanley Cup championship. Here’s one more view (nice find by Paul Richard Cook). … Here’s an article about which UK soccer team has the most sponsor patches (with thanks to Craig Sallinger). … Michael Chamberlain is the track announcer at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston. “In our first race this Saturday, the #2 horse is named Uni. 6-1 odds on the morning line, and I will certainly plan on picking him in my tip sheet and will probably put a couple of bucks on him also to honor the Uni Watch site.” Thanks, Michael! … Small item buried within this guide to NYC museums: “On the second floor of the American Wing [at the Met], there’s an open storage area where art is displayed in glass cases while galleries undergo renovations. There you can admire a fraction of the museum’s thousands of rare baseball cards, donated by electrician Jefferson R. Burdick. (The rest, including a 1909 Honus Wagner valued at more than $2 million, are stored in the archives.) Until 1993, the cards were available for viewing by appointment only: It’s rumored that practice stopped because fanatic card collectors would pocket the valuable ones” (big thanks to Laura Forde). … Coupla good finds on the Chris Creamer board, including a new 50th-anniversary logo for the Lakers, an upcoming white-out for FSU, and new cleats for Matt Hasselbeck. Didn’t he get in trouble a few years back for wearing white shoelaces with black shoes? … NOBs have been restored at Iowa State, which had been NNOB for the past two seasons (with thanks to Chris Andringa). … According to Dressed to the Nines, “In 1895, a number of ballplayers, including future Hall of Fame outfielder Jesse Burkett, experimented with baseball caps that had green-tinted, transparent bills. The idea was to allow the fielder a better range of view while protecting him from the glare of the sun, but apparently the see-through bills never caught on.” I knew about that. But I didn’t know that a variation on that concept was still being sold in the Sears catalog in 1923 (nice find by David Neuman). … Apparently nobody has told the folks at AFLAC (or at FSN Rocky Mountain) that the Orioles no longer have “Orioles” on their road jersey (with thanks to Matt Hiett). … Tim Burke notes that Rays catcher Michel Hernandez was missing his manta ray sleeve patch last night. … “Does he tear EVERYthing?” asks Brinke Guthrie. … Entertaining survey of high school team logos here (with thanks to Kurt Esposito). … The Titans will wear a Steve McNair memorial decal this season. … Vicente Padilla was sporting the Pedro Padilla Porthole last night (as spotted by Jay Shive). … Paul Getz II notes that the Phillies have stopped wearing their World Series championship sleeve patch. … Can someone please order one of these for Luis Castillo? … There’s a blog devoted to the Arizona Wildcats equipment staff (with thanks to Eric Sing). … Speaking of the Mets, had a great time at Shea yesterday with Phil. Two uni-notable items: (1) Cards catcher Jason LaRue wore navy shinguards with a red chest protector, and (2) Bobby Parnell had been with the Mets all season long without coming up to bat, until the bottom of the 8th yesterday. He promptly got a base hit, at which point they showed him on the jumbotron, which is when I saw that he had his own batting helmet. Just think how many times that helmet has been packed, unpacked, put in the helmet rack, put back in the helmet bag, taken on the road, etc., all season long, just waiting for its chance to finally be used in a game. I take a lot of shots at Charlie Samuels, but I give him credit for having a helmet for every player, even the ones who might never get a turn at bat.
August 6th, 2009
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