Which Got Lower Ratings Yesterday, the Pro Bowl or the Pro Bowlers Tour?

While you were doing something comparatively productive with your life (like, say, taking a nap, or scratching your ass), readers Joshua Brisco and Aaron McHargue were actually paying attention to the Pro Bowl. When you’ve stopped laughing, take a look at some of the things they noticed:

• Tony Romo’s sleeves were flaring outward a bit. Why? Because he slit them at the armpits.

• Vince Young’s skullcap featured the old NFL logo.

• DeSean Jackson was doing the one eye black thing (which he apparently used to do back in college.

So there you have it: proof positive that wasting three-plus hours of your life can result in some marginally interesting material. But that’s nothing compared to what Jared Pike did: He attended the Pro Bowl! I didn’t have the heart to ask if he actually paid for the tickets, especially since he sent some interesting photos:

• “I had a blast uni-watching at the NFL Experience before the game,” says Jared. “This kid was at the ‘Kick a field goal’ booth. The tape was covering a Chad Pennington NOB.” That has to be one of the best fan modifications ever.

• “There were plenty of loyal (and accurate) Miami Dolphins fans in attendance, but a FNOB Dan Marino? Seriously? To distinguish him from the other Marinos?”

• “The Bethune Cookman College marching band, otherwise very good, spoiled their halftime show by forming a Michael Jackson figure grabbing his crotch.”

• “I know this will be your favorite: The gentleman in front of us had a Miami Dolphins yarmulke.”

Major thanks to Joshua, Aaron, and Jared for their valuable public service. I look forward to their extensive Olympic biathlon coverage.

Coming tomorrow: Some major uni-historical breakthroughs. Seriously.

ESPN reminder: In case you missed it, my ESPN column about my recent trip to the Twin Cities is available here, and I don’t mind saying I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. Enjoy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As you may have heard by now, CBS has nixed a Super Bowl ad that showed a guy in a Packers jersey and a guy in a Vikings jersey making out. … What’s with the super-high uni number? It’s a guy from a radio station WSAI, which is 1360 on the AM dial (with thanks to Paul Wiederecht). … Mako Mameli sent along a bunch of screen shots from the 1991 AFC Championship Game, including Mark Kelso wearing the ProCap, a McNOB, the Bills’ kickoff specialist wearing two different brands of white shoes, Torin Dorn with two pairs of gloves, and some inconsistent NOB action. Coupla other things regarding that last link: First, for the image on the left, note that there’s no space between the period and “Davis.” And for the image on the left, note the large-ish American flag decal for Desert Storm — bigger than the ones used nowadays. Frankly, I thought the Desert Storm flags had been added for Super Bowl XXV and didn’t realize they were already in place during the playoffs. Anyone know if they had been added prior to the conference championship weekend? … New uniforms and logos for the single-A Wilmington Blue Rocks — including some totally bitchin’ striped stirrups (with thanks to Chris Ray). … Speaking of striped socks, how long has the Michigan State hoops team been wearing these vertically striped hose? (As noted by Nicklas Lane.) … Nice throwback for Xavier last Thursday (with thanks to Kevin Hastings). … Rob Perkey has found another catcher who wears his helmet brim facing forward: Robinzon Diaz. … New uniform set for the Chiba Lotte Marines (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Here’s the logo for spring training games that the Dodgers will be playing in Taiwan. … If you go to the Life photo archives and search on the term “football dummies,” you get some pretty bizarre images. “Many of the dummies are listed as having been made by Marty Gilman of Gilman, Connecticut,” notes Lance Smith. “A quick Google search shows there’s still a firm called Gilman Gear that makes athletic equipment.” They’ll be getting a call from me shortly. … One of the best things about the NFC Championship Game was the big Sir Saint backdrops behind the goalposts at the Superdome. And now they’ve put Sir Saint on a cap. But jeez, ya think that NFL logo on the back is big enough? (With thanks to Terence Kearns.) … Love the little mascot uniform in this 1896 baseball team portrait (great find by Craig McGlone). … Good article about English Premier League sleeve badges here (with thanks to Timothy O’Malley). … Love the Sears sign in this 1953 photo. But what’s that Coke sign at left say? “Home of Atlanta Crackers” — that’s Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta, where the Crackers and Black Crackers both played. Those photos are from the excellent Atlanta Time Machine site, which was pointed out to me by Blair Thompson. … Latest league to rip off Jerry Dior’s MLB logo concept: the Women’s National Volleyball Association (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Washington Huskies wore some BFBS alternates on Saturday. … Paul Brandt sang the national anthem at Saturday’s Flames/Oilers game while wearing a Flames jersey with a note instead of a uni number (thanks, Kek). … There are two notable aspects to this Sonny Jurgensen photo. The first one is obvious but don’t overlook the fact that the TV numbers are on the shoulders — unusual, because the mid-’60s Eagles wore northwestern-striped jerseys with TV numbers on the sleeves. Ricko says the Sonny shot is from an early-’60s preseason game, circa ’61 (here’s another photo from the same game, pre-jersey tear), but Tim Brulia says the Iggles wore this style for a few late-’50s regular season games, and that this design marked the first time a team put TV numbers on the shoulders. … Really interesting story about purple Lego pieces (great find by Matthew Edwards). … Unfortunately, I didn’t win this catalog, but I’m intrigued by a few of the photos in the auction listing, including these horrific softball uniforms and the very interesting basketball shorts shown at the top-left of this page. Never seen that circular bullseye insert before. Hey, Terry Proctor, what can you tell us about that style? … Terence Kearns found a site with some very cool soccer-themed T-shirts. … Alex Ozenberger reports that Miramar High in Florida has one of the weirdest hodgepodge uni designs ever — Flying Elvis on the chest, bizarre-o number font, Oregon-style diamondplate (which is reflective, natch), and vertically striped socks. … Typo alert: BYU’s Charles Abouo’s NOB was misspelled on Saturday. And yes, they were wearing pink for cancer awareness (with thanks to Christopher Jones). … Daniel Caceres recently purchased a Cowboys jersey with an odd mix of old and new NFL logos. … Tremendous video clip featuring a 1970 Browns/Bengals game here. Among many other details, check out the jacket being worn by the guy holding the down marker (awesome find by Brinke Guthrie). … More standout video goodness: highlights from the 1962 NBA All-star Game. That’s the introductory segment — see the right sidebar for links to the first half, third quarter, and fourth quarter. Note that No. 4 on the East squad appears to have been wearing a mask. Not positive who that was, but I think it was Dolph Schayes (big thanks to Charlie Panian). … While looking for something else, I came across this shot of Reggie McKenzie wearing glasses on the sidelines. … Also stumbled upon this shot of Johnny Unitas in his first Chargers practice, circa 1973. Love how Johnny U is still wearing his old black high-tops. Also, kinda funny that the Chargers’ practice shirt was a tee with the team’s helmet. … Small item on this page indicates that Nate Schierholtz, who has mostly batted bare-handed up until now, will go with batting gloves this season (as noted by Tremaine Eto). … John Sobotka was watching some old World Cup footage and noticed that the German goalkeeper in 1966 was wearing a newsboy’s cap. … Nice find by Philip Garza, who found this New England Pats bike on eBay. … One sport I neglected to check out while I was in Minnesota: iceball (with thanks to Eric Baukol). … Nick Hanson attended Saturday’s Florida Everblades game and noticed that goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu’s pants didn’t match those of his teammates. … The mighty Fleer Sticker Project scores again, this time with a gorgeous set of NFL helmet-themed Hormel trays. Amazing stuff. … Brinke Guthrie says he remembers seeing a late-’60s white rain poncho covered with all the then-current NFL team logos. “Key point: It had reflective aluminum-y material on the inside, so it reflected your body heat,” he says. Anyone know more? … Interesting story about how Joe Robbie is being prepped for the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl here.

205 comments February 1st, 2010

The Who Cares Pro Bowl

By Phil Hecken

The Pro Bowl (tonight, 7:20pm EST, ESPN) hasn’t always sucked. But now it does, and even the most avid of Uni Watchers will be hard pressed to call this event a “must see.”

If you actually care to watch, today (tonight actually) the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl takes place in Hawaii…er, Miami, the site of next week’s Super Bowl XLIV. Seeking to fix what was broken, but for all the wrong reasons, the NFL has decided this year to play their year-end spectacular before the Super Bowl, and on the mainland. At least when the NFL played the game in Hawaii, the players viewed it as a joke with a nice vacation thrown in. Now? It’s just a joke. There must be some connection between the declining quality of the game itself and the uniforms, right?

This year, it’s even worse — and I’m not going to go on a rant here — but good lord, moving the game to pre-Super Bowl, to try to generate some excitement, has actually worked to the game’s disadvantage. You see, none of next weekend’s Super Bowl combatants are allowed to play in tonight’s game — which makes sense — but it means that, automatically, the following players are eliminated: (from the Colts): Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Jeff Saturday, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, and Antoine Bethea; (from the Saints): Drew Brees, Jonathan Stinchcomb, Jahri Evans, Jonathan Goodwin, Jonathan Vilma, Darren Sharper, and Roman Harper. So, right off the bat, that’s 14 players, including BOTH Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, who were selected to be the starting quarterbacks. That means we’re left with a matchup of Matt Schaub and Aaron Rodgers.

Add in the following guys who won’t play “due to injury” (Philip Rivers, Chargers; Tom Brady, Patriots; Wes Welker, Patriots; Jake Long, Dolphins; Brian Cushing, Texans; Jairus Byrd, Bills; Nate Kaeding, Chargers; Brett Favre, Vikings; Steven Jackson, Rams; Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals; Sidney Rice, Vikings; Andre Gurode, Cowboys; Kevin Williams, Vikings; Lance Briggs, Bears; Charles Woodson, Packers; Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Cardinals; and Patrick Willis, 49ers.) That’s 17 more. So, of the players selected to the Pro Bowl in 2010, fans won’t get to see 31 of them. Yeah, that seems like a good deal. If you’re still interested, here’s the full roster. Now, traditionally, lots of players somehow found themselves “injured” and unable to play, but they still enjoyed their Hawai’ian vacation. But there were never THIS many players selected to play in the game who will not. Good move, NFL.

But it wasn’t always that way. Although it has now become the least consequential and likely least watched “all star game” of the major sports (and maybe even hockey, too), the Pro Bowl has actually been played, in one form or another, for decades — beginning with “all star games” first staged in 1939, between the NFL champion and a team of all-stars compiled from the other teams. From 1939 through 1942 (when WW II took it’s toll on the players and the game), the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears (twice) and the Washington Redskins all took turns scrammaging against the best of the rest.

The first true Pro Bowl took place on January 14, 1951, when stars from the NFL’s National and American Conferences faced off against each other. Accounts of what the players wore during the game are sketchy, however, it was likely blue (for the Nationals) and red (for the Americans). It was certain that during this game the tradition of having the National Conference wear blue (helmets), while the American Conference wore red. Both teams wore dark uniforms (or, I should say, the game was “color vs. color”). Another game would be held in 1952, and according to the game program, it was color on color again, with the National Conference wearing blue and the American Conference wearing Red. The third Pro Bowl game was played in 1953, this time with the American Conference donning white jerseys. Although the program covers for 1952 and 1953 depict white helmets, each team appears to have worn the color of their respective conference (blue for National, red for American).

Beginning in 1954, and continuing until 1970, the NFL would divide the teams up into the “Eastern” and “Western” conferences (this followed NFL procol, which had changed the names from American and National after the 1953 season). For the most part, the NFL kept the teams in their red and blue color designations (including the helmets), although several years had the players donning gold helmets (which occurred from 1967 through 1970) and wearing the NFL decal on the sides — the East wore a red-white-red tri-stripe and the Western a similar blue-white-blue tri-stripe. Players brought their own game helmets to the game, which were then spray-painted and decorated for the contest. (For the 1970 game the helmets featured the 50 NFL logo, which celebrated the first 50 years of NFL football.)

When the AFL came into being in 1960, that league began playing All Star Games as well, beginning in 1962 and up until 1970. Following the merger of the two leagues for the 1971 season, one Pro Bowl for the entire league was once again played. We’ll take a look at the uniforms from 1971-2009 (and also, for today’s game) in a moment.

Wikipedia, the always trustworthy source, sums up the uniform designations thusly: “The teams are made of players from different NFL teams, so using their own uniforms would be too confusing. The players each wear the helmet of their team, but the home jerseys and pants are either a solid blue for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, while white jerseys with blue or red accents, respectively, for the away team. While it has been speculated that the color of Pro Bowl jerseys is determined by the winner of the Super Bowl, this is untrue.

“The design of Pro Bowl uniforms is changed every two years, and the color and white jerseys are rotated along with the design change. This has been Pro Bowl tradition since the switch to team specific helmets, which started with the January 1979 game. The two-year switch was originally created as a marketing ploy by Nike, and has been continued by Reebok, who won the merchandising contract in 2002.

“In the earliest years of the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets, as they do now. The AFC All-Stars wore a solid red helmet with a white A on it, while the NFC players wore a solid white helmet with a blue N on it. The AFC’s red helmets were paired with white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC’s white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants. Two players with the same number who are elected to the Pro Bowl can wear the same number for that game. [In the games early years], all players were required to wear different numbers, regardless of what jersey number they wore on their regular team. This changed … when players wore the jersey number on their regular team jersey, thus initially resulting in virtually every wide receiver on the field being numbered 80 or 81, a situation that, predictably, created significant confusion. Thus, it is recommended — although not required — that players use different jersey numbers, and generally when two players share a number, the less experienced one will wear a different number for the game.”

So anyway, back to the uniforms, throughout the 1971-2009 history. Back in the first several years, as mentioned, the teams simply wore “N” or “A” helmets, with the NFC wearing blue jerseys and white pants. This continued until 1979, when players began wearing individual team helmets on top of their respective teams’ uniforms. No matter what the year, the uniforms remained a constant: AFC in team specific helmets with white jerseys and red pants with white-blue-white stripes, NFC in team helmets with blue jerseys and white pants with blue-red-blue stripes.

This set pattern persisted until 1989, when the NFL kept the same basic color schemes for both conferences, but added stars down the pants stripes (plus an “N” or an “A”) and contrasting colored outlines around the teams’ jersey numbers. This particular style lasted until 1994

Here’s where it all went to hell. Beginning in 1995, when the AFC was outfitted in garish costumes, and the NFC followed suit, uniform design has been, shall we say, lacking. The 1995 game featured the NFC in a “half blue/white” jersey blue pants (with the leotard look to boot), but for 1996 and 1997, they would switch to white pants. The AFC would stick with red pants throughtout the there year run, but in 1995 they wore red undersocks (for the dreaded leotard look), while in 1996 and 1997 they stuck with high white socks. One can only assume the jersey style was influenced by the CFL’s American contingent, since they sported small off-center numbers on the front of the jerseys. Mercifully, the three year run of that jersey design ended after, surprisingly, three years. Those uniforms were manufactured by Wilson.

1998 would usher in a new set of uniforms for the Conferences, with the AFC being outfitted in a solid red jersey for the first time. If one doesn’t count the 1995-97 jerseys as “white,” the NFC wore white jerseys for the first time. These two jersey sets weren’t all that bad (aesthetically), although they did feature rounded, drop-shadow numbers for both teams. Those uniforms lasted for three years as well, from 1998-2000. This was Nike’s uniform set.

The NFL would begin it’s “two and done” run of uniforms in 2001-02, and these were lackluster at best. The AFC was outfitted in red fading to white jerseys (in a gradient pattern) with white pants. The NFC, on the other hand, wore white fading to blue jerseys (in the opposite gardient pattern) atop blue pants. These uniforms were so bad that very few photos exist on the Interwebs of them. Perhaps that’s for the best. Reebok manufactured these uniforms, and would continue to do so through today.

2003-2004 didn’t get much better. Returning to a somewhat more traditional look, the AFC wore white over white, with garish side panels and football shaped designs on the pants. For its part, the NFC was outfitted in monochrome blue, in the reverse pattern of the AFC, also featuring the side panels and amorphous pants design.

A new uniform design would begin in 2005-06, with Reebok contining to trend towards the modern look. The AFC returned to wearing red jerseys, with same color side panels and a “Broncos-esque” pants swoosh atop white pants. While the AFC would have red top socks for a more balanced look, the NFC would sport a reciprocal white over blue uniform, complete with blue socks, for that special dancer look. Both jerseys would feature rounded numerals, and six stars would adorn the jersey and pants side panels, three each on the top and bottom. In a typical “mirror” image, the AFC’s white numbers had a white-blue outline, while the NFC would feature a solid blue outlined in white and red. As far as recent uniforms go, these weren’t too bad.

2007-08 would usher in new uniforms again, with the AFC returning to white over red and the NFC donning blue over white. Continuing the “modern” look and feel, this uniform set would include bumper sticker paneling under the arms and down the side panels, and the pants stripes would also include white and blue panels within the stripes for both teams. But the most interesting feature of these uniforms was undoubtedly the jersey design, which included similarly colored darker stars superimposed on the solid jersey, gradually moving from fully filled-in stars to outlined stars from top to bottom. Whether these new jerseys were following the jersey patterns of the moment or driving them is still up for debate.

We conclude our tour of the Pro Bowl uniforms with last year’s gems, which will be worn again this year. In the final game (at least for the next few years) in Aloha Stadium, the NFC sported a predominantly blue getup, while the went with mostly white over white. However, the uniforms were not without little quirks: while the front side of both unis were solid blue or white (providing a splendid monochromatic appearance for the NFC), the back of the NFC uniform was white (leading to an odd white vs. white appearance from certain angles). The AFC, in mirror-like fashion, had mostly red backs. Both sets of jerseys were textured with stars and had an odd number font. Fortunately, we’ll be graced with these lovelies again in 2010.

That will end the lookback at the Pro Bowl uniforms of the past several decades. Certainly today neither they, nor the game, approach their former, um…greatness. So now, if you do choose to watch the game tonight, in it’s new and temporary home in South Florida (what’s the name of the Stadium now?), you can at least appreciate some of the tradition that has gone into (and the ‘innovation’ that has become) these uniforms.

I’d be remiss without pointing out that by far the best and most comprehensive site (and from which many of the photos in this article were borrowed) is mmbolding.com. If you want to read a description of every Pro Bowl (and All Star Game) ever played, that’s the spot. If you want to simply look at more pro bowl photos, several of which were not in this article and which are fully captioned check out the Flickr album I put together.

Of course, I would be ESPECIALLY REMISS if I didn’t include something from The Ricko Files today. The one and only Rick Pearson was all over the AFL All-Star Games in the early 1960s, producing his famous “Kid Cards” for the 1962 and 1963 All Star games. Note that, unlike the NFL, the AFL teams wore their own helmets for the first two AFL All Star Games (the AFL played their first all star game in 1962).

There is ONE good thing about the NFL moving the Pro Bowl to today — it means that after this exhibition is over, the football season is not. I guess by playing it tonight, the NFL hopes to keep the interest up and fill the void during the week off between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl. And think of the Pro Bowl this way: you can watch ESPN all day long, after checking out the X-Games, you segue right into the Pro Bowl, and then back to the closing ceremonies of the games. Perfect day, right?

Remember the “Reebok Pump”? Yeah, I don’t either. Here’s Rick:

Technology is wonderful, and some of it is classic, timeless, unforgettable. And the Internet makes all things possible, accessible. So we use it to find any little advantage we can.

Here’s your full-color Sunday Benchies.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: You’d think that in honor of the Pro Bowl being played today, I could find a scoreboard photo from a Pro Bowl game. You’d be wrong. So, you’ll just have to settle for the following instead. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location and final score, please, and be sure to link to your answer. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

Our next round of Uniform Tweaks, Concepts and Revisions is upon us again. We’ll be examining all sports now. So, if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way. Since most of you guys have been sending submissions for the Official NFL Jersey Tweaks Contest, (which is separate from the normal uniform tweaks section), it’s a smaller batch today. Remember, the deadline for the contest is February 1, (this Monday), so the contest WILL be closed down after that date.

Our first entrant today is Thad (who would prefer I don’t use his last name), and Thad has a couple tweaks for Da Bears:

Hello,

I’m a life-long Bears fan and love the uniforms but I have a couple tweaks that would make the set flow better.

I didn’t change anything on the navy jersey because it’s perfect. However, I adjusted everything else, though this set still looks like the Bears. The white pants now have an orange-blue-orange striping pattern, as do the stripes on the white jersey and socks. The navy pants now are white-orange-white.

While this doesn’t change too much on the home set (other than making the pants and jersey striping match if they ever go monochrome again), it makes the striping on the away set more uniform and makes it conform better to the rest of the look. It always bugged me that the stripes on the navy jersey are outlined, but the stripes on the white ones weren’t. If the Bears do the traditional monochrome on the away set, all the stripes match.

Thanks.

(And if you do use this, just refer to me as Thad.)

Next up is Ronnie Poore, who has some ideas for the N’awlins Saints:

I gave the Saints uni a bit of a tweak. Added a white divider stripe on the pants (never liked the Steelers style wide stripe). This makes the pants stripes match the helmet stripes. Also darkened the pants so the gold better matches the helmets. I’ve attached 2 images, one with plain socks, one with stripes…take your pick.

Ronnie Poore

Moving along, we have my new Deep Freeze buddy, Ben Traxel, who knows I’m an Islander fan and couldn’t resist mocking up a new logo, just for me:

I mocked this up quickly last night…just for you, Phil. :) It was quick and dirty, just for fun.

Ben

That’s all for today. Today’s second submitter, Ronnie Poore also sent me a bunch more tweaks that we’ll get to in the next round. If you have any last minute submissions for the ‘win a jersey’ contest, again, tomorrow is the deadline. Keep the regular tweaks coming, though, since that part of the weekends will remain (as long as I have submissions). Send both your regular tweaks and your contest tweaks to me at the same address, but if you’re submitting something for the contest, please be sure to label the subject: “UNI WATCH NFL JERSEY DESIGN CONTEST.” Thanks!

Meet Flat Tyler. Time for a little love for Ryan Connelly, who send me the following E-mail, which is pretty damn cool:

You guys have heard about “Flat Stanley,” a project kids do for school? They take pictures of this paper guy all over the place? A lady at work (Nancy), has a lady in her group that works in Denver. Well, the lady in Denver has a 6 year old grandson that had a “Flat Tyler” project. The kid’s name is Tyler, and the project (I think, I wasn’t paying ALL that much attention at the time) is to send Flat Tyler out to friends around the country and get pictures in various places. Nancy got it and knew I was going to the Penguins game last Tuesday (Malkin 3 goals, Crosby 6 pts), and asked me to take pics of Flat Tyler at the game. So I took it one step further for the little guy, and made him a little Penguins jersey. Took the image from this page.

I copied the image multiple times into an Excel spreadsheet, sized them down to Flat Tyler’s size, and printed them out. I cut the arms off of the first jersey image to use for the body, then cut the arms off of the other image so that I could angle them on to Tyler’s arms. Then I taped the jersey together and paper-clipped the jersey onto Flat Tyler, so that the real Tyler could take it off and on and do whatever the hell he wanted with it.

So there, quickie little DIY project I wanted to share. Enjoy the pics!

P.S. Those were NOT taken from my seats! I was a “a little” further up. HAHA

Thanks RyCo40…nice job for Tyler!

This next section is a repeat from yesterday, so if you saw it then, you can feel free to skip it today. But if you didn’t, please give it a quick read. Thanks.

You may remember Kenny Ocker, the Uni Watcher who scored the fantastic interview with Casey Martin last month. Well, he’s back at the U of O and he needs your help. I’ll let Kenny explain:

Dear Uni Watch Community,

Kenny

No, thank you Kenny. What say you, fellow Uni Watchers, can you help a brother out?

That’s all for today folks. I want to thank everyone for their nice comments on yesterday’s post — looks like there will be a uni stadia watch II down the pike. If anyone wants to assist me with a column on the old ball parks, I’d love to work with you (all but Parc Jarry & Exhibition Stadium, tho — I already have a co-conspirator on those). Give me a holler. In fact, if you have any ideas for a future column, let me know. RIP, JJ

Have a great Sunday, folks. Enjoy the Pro Bowl.

217 comments January 31st, 2010

Auction Action

Bruce Menard recently informed me that the folks at Heritage Auction Galleries have a ton of good stuff in their current auction catalog. Here’s a sampling:

• According to the auction listing, Robin Roberts wore this throwback replica while throwing out the first pitch at the 1976 All-Star Game. I’ve never heard about this before. Anyone know more?

• Totally digging the typography on this 1929 World Series program cover. And dig that little bear!

• And speaking of World Series programs, here’s a doozy.

• Here’s a rarity: A Pro Bowl helmet from the days when the players wore conference-specific headgear.

• Love all the quote-marked nicknames in this poster.

• I’m always a sucker for these college all-star uniforms. Rare to see one that includes the pants and the helmet. And man, those “4″s!

• Oh man, check out these killer Giants programs. Interesting uni note: Check out the shin of the Jints player in the lower-right illo — looks like he has a pad under his sock.

• Oh, for the days when the Bears played a beer-sponsored team.

• When I was at the National in Cleveland a few months ago, one of the most drool-inducing items I saw was this Tulsa Oilers hockey jersey. Here it is, up for auction.

• Never seen anything like this Ottawa Senators jacket or this Blackhawks jacket.

• Also new to me: This amazing Red Wings cardigan, with a white version to boot. Looks like they have the American flag facing the wrong way on the left sleeve, though.

• Remember the barber pole design that the Blackhawks wore in the Winter Classic? Here’s the original. But I think I like this design even better.

• If you’ve been wondering what to get me for my half-birthday (coming up next Monday, don’tcha know), this jacket wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

• Worst hockey jersey ever? Eh, close enough.

• Best hockey program cover ever? Eh, close enough.

• Lots of great ticket stubs on offer, including tix from the 1971 World Series, the ’51 Series, the ’57 Series, the 1962 Mets home opener, and more.

• Gorgeous hockey officiating sweaters here and here

• Not sure what this has to do with sports, but it sure is purty.

Want to see more? You can download the auction catalog as a PDF here.

And look, there are still a few hairs I haven’t pulled out: My Earthlink e-mail finally appears to be behaving, so forget about the alternate address I’ve been using for the past few days and go back to my usual addresses. And please keep your fingers crossed.

About Time: Big congrats to Jerry Dior, who’s finally been recognized as the designer of the MLB logo. He’ll be honored on the field at Yankee Stadium today and at Shea on Friday. I’ve written about Jerry several times (to see those columns, look here and here) and have always been impressed by what a gentleman he is — a class act all the way. I’m glad he’s finally gotten the recognition he deserves.

Research Reminder: My thanks to everyone who contributed thoughts, anecdotes, and historical notes regarding football gloves yesterday. If you have anything to contribute that would help document the history and culture of this largely overlooked uni element, don’t be shy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Hadn’t noticed until now that Wisconsin is using those rounded-corner nameplates. Good view of them in the next-to-last photo in this gallery (as spotted by Ben Simon). … According to the fourth graf of this story, the Predators’ new alt jersey includes “a dark checkerboard pattern that can only be seen at close range” (with thanks to Nick Church). … You may know that Chad Ochocinco wore gold shoes and gold gloves on Sunday, but did you know he also had two fingers taped together? Never seen a receiver do that before. Anyone have any insights? (As spotted by Bob Wilzbach.) … Lenny Dykstra, financial genius. … A freelance designer is suing NYU for allegedly stealing her logo design. … Now that’s a helmet (with thanks to David Cline). … New Irish national rugby kit (with thanks to Joe Alvernaz). … Colorado will be wearing 1937 throwbacks this weekend. Additional info here, and there’s a photo gallery here. … Dave Forbes notes that Jeff Garcia previously wore No. 7 with the Eagles but will have to take a different number in Philly this time around because Michael Vick is now wearing No. 7. … Corey Zoldan reports that the following note appeared in the U. of Maryland school paper: “The [baseball] team will be ditching its red and yellow jerseys in favor of pinstripes, because [coach] Bakich wants to be able to sell future recruits on the opportunity to ‘play in the Terrapin pinstripes.’” Uh, right. … What’s worse than an Argentine soccer team with Walmart-sponsored jerseys? An Argentine soccer team with Walmart-sponsored socks, which must surely qualify as a new low for civilization (with thanks to Dario Moretti, writing all the way from South America). … We’ve talked several times over the years about the ribbed seams found on some Bears’ linemen’s shoulder areas. Now Aaron Schlesinger notes that the Eagles appear to be doing something similar. … Hey look, it’s minor league hockey. And the refs are wearing those stupid orange sleeve stripes that debuted during last season’s all-star game. … Good article about Vanderbilt’s merit decals here (with thanks to Lee Wilds). … Last week’s New Yorker featured two cartoons — appearing on facing pages! — that were very Ticker-worthy.

Highest Recommendation: I have a good friend — let’s call him Jim — who I’ve known for over a decade. Jim is a trained engineer and an experienced manager who’s particularly strong on strategy, marketing, product development, and finance. I’ve never met Jim’s parents, but they sure must have raised him right, because Jim is — and I’m not exaggerating here — the nicest, most congenial, most stand-up guy I’ve ever known. Really. In other words, he’s as much of an asset in the clubhouse as his is on the field.

Jim is currently between jobs. I can say with absolute certainty that he’d be a major plus for any company. If you’d like to see his résumé and some position papers he’s written, please get in touch and I’ll send them to you. Thanks.

243 comments September 16th, 2009

Imagine That: A Blue Jay Wearing Blue

I hate the DH — hate it — but even I think it should always be used in the All-Star Game, regardless of where the game is played. Who wants to see a pitcher hit in an All-Star Game?

But Bud Selig and Co. don’t see it that way. Good thing, too, because pitchers’ at-bats are the best bets for all-star uni anomalies. Sure enough, when Roy Halladay came up to bat last night, he wore a blank navy blue helmet instead of Toronto’s usual black lid. The rear view revealed that it was Evan Longoria’s helmet with the Rays logo decal removed (note the MLB logo rendered in Rays colors). And look the announcers actually picked up on it. I’m tellin’ ya, everyone’s a uni watcher these days. Now we just have to teach Buck and McCarver the difference between a sticker and a decal.

Meanwhile, now that base coaches have to wear helmets, that provides a new avenue for helmet oddities — especially since managers often serve as coaches in the All-Star Game. Joe Torre, for example, didn’t bring a Dodgers helmet to St. Looey, but it was kinda cool to see him in a Cards helmet again.

In more mundane developments:

• Ichiro was wearing some nifty silver cleats. Here’s a closer view.

• Lots of players in white shoes, including David Wright, Albert Pujols, and Dan Haren.

• The scoreboard showed Jason Bay of the Red Sox in a Pirates cap. It also misspelled George Hendrick’s name (particularly unforgivable when you consider Hendrick used to play for the Cardinals).

• The Prez wore a Chisox jacket and Levi’s for throwing out the first pitch. (Unfortunately, Fox showed him throwing the ball but didn’t show where it went, presumably because they didn’t want to let anyone see in case the President tossed a two-hopper, or hit Keith Olbermann’s mom in the face, or whatever. Total chickenshit move on the part of Fox and/or the White House staff. As it turned out, his pitch made it on the fly, just barely, as you can see toward the end of this video clip. )

• It’s great that Willie Mays wore a Giants cap with his suit, but couldn’t they have gotten him a 5950 instead of a BP model?

• A bunch of Cardinals greats, all of them wearing red blazers, were introduced before the game. It wasn’t until I checked the photo wire that I realized the blazers weren’t identical. That’s Lou Brock with the bird on the bat.

One footnote to the game: Tim Wakefield brought along a special catcher’s mitt but didn’t get into the game. Too bad.

(Thanks to everyone who contributed screen shots and other info, especially Luis Roldan, Maks Skuz, Bryan Heaton, Jeremy Brahm, Mark Haarmann, and of course Phil.)

Raffle Results: The winner of the Man City jersey is Matt Argo. Matt, if you haven’t already done so, please give me a shout. Thanks.

Uni Watch Rust Belt Tour: I’ll be in Cleveland later this month to cover the National Sports Collectors Convention for Page 2, so let’s have a Uni Watch gathering on the evening of Thursday, July 30th. Figure 7pm, probably at the Prosperity Social Club, but I’ll confirm the time and place in a day or two. Naturally, Uni Watch intern emeritus Vince Grzegorek will be on hand, which will mark only the second time he and I have been in the same room, whoop-whoop. See you there.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out this awesome durene shirt I recently scored on eBay. Love the stripes, natch, and the felt lettering is hot-cha-cha. … Brian Harkness is a national semifinalist in KFC’s charity T-shirt design contest. Please vote for his entry (No. 6, “Stand with the Colonel”) so he can get a lifetime supply of really bad fried chicken. … In a vaguely related item, Justin Rectenwald, knowing my fondness for chicken tails, sent me some pics of his wife’s Brazilian cousin Eduardo, aka Master of the Fried Chicken Tail. “Seriously, this guy cooked non-stop,” writes Justin. “These were like little crunchy chicken candy, filled with gooey, chicken fatty goodness.” Let’s see the Colonel top that! … Here’s an excellent site devoted to Super Bowl tickets (with thanks to HHH). … Wilco’s summer tour program includes this nifty little scorecard. Love the note at the top. … I know we’ve covered this before, but please remind me: What’s the handwritten “63″ for? … Comi-tragic story here of how MLB design honcho Anne Occi convinced the Devil Rays to wear the worst uni design in baseball history. Highly recommended reading (with thanks to Ken Guckenberger). … Color change for Stockton, a D3 school (with thanks to Tim Smith). … Rob Ullman was nice enough to send me a copy of his new hardcover sketchbook, Atom Bomb Bikini, which includes lots of his cheesecake uni portraits. You can buy it here. … Best view yet of Carlos Peña’s upside-down sleeve patch. … Regarding yesterday’s ESPN column, Craig Ramirez notes that the guy sitting on the right end of the front row, I.D’d as trainer Bill Zeigler, looks exactly like Rafael Palmeiro (who, just for the record, was 12 yrs old when that photo was taken). … The Lakewood BlueClaws are dusting off their BruceClaws promotion. Assuming they use the same jersey design from last year, the uni will look like this. … Here’s a site devoted to Kansas high school football helmets (with thanks to Patrick Chippeaux). … Looks like the Steelers’ old golden triangle design is a bit hit with Bud Selig. … How come nobody had told me about Batting Stance Guy? … In the spirit of last week’s Tecmo Bowl entry, Eric Trager has written a piece about the logos and graphics used in the baseball video game Hardball 5. Check it out here. … HHH has created still more city flag jerseys. … Brinke Guthrie scanned two ads from the 1990 World Series program. As you can see, the idea that you could buy the same gear that the pros wear was still quite a novelty at that point. And speaking of novelties, dig those Angels logo stirrups!

298 comments July 15th, 2009

We All Know Ichiro Would’ve Won

I know, that screen shot looks like it’s from a video game, but it’s actually Carlos Peña from last night’s home run derby, where his Rays logo sleeve patch was upside-down (it’s supposed to look like this). Peña’s BP pitcher had an inverted patch as well, as you can see here.

Me, I didn’t see any of it cuz I was off at Keyspan Park watching Wilco and Yo La Tengo (whose frontman, Ira Kaplan, wore a Mr. Met T-shirt and lobbed a bunch of baseballs into the crowd because, as he put it, “That’s why you come to a baseball stadium, to get a foul ball, right?”).

Thanks to Tim Graham, Kevin “Lunchbox” Monahan, Greg Riffenburgh, and Tim Burke for their eagles eyes and screen shots. Thanks also to Phil, who notes that the A.L. and N.L. caps bore at least superficial resemblances to certain past and present team logos.

New ESPN column today, revisiting a topic we first debated here last fall, but now with some new information added to the mix. Look here.

Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day for the Man City soccer jersey raffle. Details here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: “Strange things going on with Michael Owen at Monday’s Manchester United training,” writes Mike Orr. “Articles have him taking on the coveted No. 7 shirt for United (previously worn by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and George Best). But in two separate photos today he appears to have a 15 and 19 training shirt on. No clue what’s up with all that.” … Lots of good stuff in this 1984 All-Star Game slideshow. … Lots of CFL retro action in store for the Calgary Stampeders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and B.C. Lions (with thanks to Richard Musterer). … “I had one of the weirdest uni experiences while watching the U.S. military all stars,” writes Paul Friedlander. “They had camo pants, brown jerseys, and camo helmets. Some of them wore camo hats, others wore brown. To make it even weirder, they had a couple of ‘Latin Stars’ playing with them wearing red jerseys and gray pants. But the craziest part was the back: the NOBs were important names linked to their uni numbers.” Bizarre, right? Additional examples here, here, and here. … HHH has added more designs to his collection of city flag jerseys. … Super-cool Michigan hockey jersey, circa 1947 (with thanks to Tom Wilcox). … Luis Castillo had a piece of gum on the back of his batting helmet on Sunday. Additional views here. … Jim Ransdell found a notebook where he’d designed some modern NBA logo concepts back when he was in high school, over 20 years ago. … Chris Cooley has some thoughts about the NFL’s uni rules. Scroll down to No. 3 on the “Ten Things I Think I Think” list on this page (with thanks to Jake Reed). … Steve Mandich has updated his collection of All-Star Game ballots.

289 comments July 14th, 2009

Chasing Dreams in Magazines

By Phil Hecken, turning two with Larry Wiederecht

I’m rejoined today by Larry Wiederecht (“Lwiedy”), my double play partner, as today we look the pages of another All Star Game program, this time from the Midsummer Classic in Milwaukee, 1975. Although this would be the first time the Milwaukee Brewers would play host to the game, it was not the first All Star Game to be held at County Stadium, Wisconsin. That honor belonged to the 1955 Milwaukee Braves. The ‘75 game was the 46th playing of the classic, and the game was played on July 15th, 1975. Additional information on the actual game can be found here. I love this really neat patch from the game, featuring the words “All Star Game 1975″ in blue and gold on one circle, and the swinging “barrelman” on the other. (Although, Larry notes that the patch not worn on the uniforms, but rather was based on the press pin from that year [third row, fifth from the left].)

So, without any additional ado, let’s get into Larry’s ASG pics:

‣ Rather boring team photos (by All-Star standards). The American League and the National League. The only real uni anomaly that I know of (Vida’s all gold get-up) didn’t even show up. These came from the ’75 Series program.

‣ Less than dramatic cover artwork by a fellow named Robert Deuel

‣ Obligatory welcome letter from the Commissioner, Owner, used car salesman.

‣ Nice piece on the history of Milwaukee baseball

‣ Like in the 1972 program, Medalist/Sand Knit shows their wears

‣ No way I have Suzy Q’s in center (nice home plate, too)

‣ If you are going to use little action shots of Garvey & Cey, at least put them by their own head shots. Sutton, Seaver & Gossage were “misplaced” as well

‣ The Hammer takes in a little USC-UCLA

‣ One of the most recognizable ad campaigns of all time. Always wondered if you couldn’t just put a bullet through the shank, though.

‣ Hey Johnny O, can you still get a Graf/s?

‣ Also a staple of AS & Series programs are the ring ads

‣ With a lot of help from ChampionshipRings.net and a little deductive reasoning, I came up with the following list (top to bottom then left to right)

1971 Dallas Cowboys
1971 Utah Stars
1971 or 1972 Boston University Hockey
1966 SMU
1967 Philadelphia 76ers
1958 Baltimore Colts
1959 Oklahoma Sooners Orange Bowl
1970 USC Rose Bowl
1967 Southern Illinois NIT
1964 St. Louis Cardinals
1969 Minnesota Vikings NFL Champions
1965 Los Angeles Dodgers
1968 New York Jets
1953 New York Yankees
1972 Boston Bruins (World, not Stanley Cup Champs?)
1970 or 1971 Nebraska Cornhuskers Football
1967 St. Louis Cardinals
19?? UCLA Basketball (Pick a year)
1966 Baltimore Orioles

‣ Finally, a nice little pullout program poster.

And that’s not all, Larry also found us some pretty nice pics from that game:

‣ Pretty good staff leading the NL. Over 50 years of managerial experience, seven world championships and nearly a dozen pennants.

‣ Yeah they shook hands, but they never looked at each other.

‣ Speaking of Thurm, missing was his familiar gear. He must have borrowed from the Brewers.

‣ Don’t know how often this combo was worn, but it wasn’t often.

‣ Bernie Brewer’s sister, wife? She’s Bonnie Brewer.

‣ Don’t really know what Billy’s black armband is for.

‣ Hank’s 24th and final All-Star Game.

‣ Yaz pinch hits with a cap insert. He even had to explain to home plate ump Bill Haller what he was wearing.

‣ Gary Carter corrals the final out in left wearing his batting/catching helmet.

Thanks again, Larry. Those are awesome. See ya again soon when we look at our next All Star Game Program!

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one is difficult, but not impossible. The location should be easy, and there are other clues right there on the scoreboard. You shouldn’t need any hints with this one. Date, location and final score are required. Based on the comments yesterday, if you do get the answer, shoot me an email but post something like “I GOT IT” in the comments. This way, people can take guesses throughout the day. I’ll post the winner’s name and some of the good “deductive” guesses at the end of the day. Ok? Ok! Good luck. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard

Another Uniform Tracker has answered the call. Matthew Bohman “Namhob” is a Cincinnati Reds tracker. Here’s his update:

Phil,

The Cincinnati Reds have had their fair share of uni shenanigans in the past, but nowadays they have kept it pretty standard with a traditional home, away, and softball alternate home uniform. Thankfully, baseball’s oldest franchise has avoided the dreaded away alternate and in doing so has kept many a Laundromat in business on the road. At home, there seems to be 2 rules the Reds follow: 1) the traditional “Sunday Red” is alive and well in Cincinnati and 2) for every home series, the red alternates have to make at least one appearance. The only deviation from this rule so far has been a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday series against the Astros where the Reds wore home white every game (which didn’t stop the Astros from wearing their red alternates for EVERY GAME of that series). Actually, looking through the Astros games for the first 2 months I have counted 24 away games and they have only worn their away grays twice! And one doesn’t even count as an away gray since they were wearing the Stars & Stripes hat on Memorial Day! Hint to the Astros, you are undefeated in your away grays; try them on sometime!

Sorry, back to the Reds…Being an excel spreadsheet junkie, I am tracking the Reds 3 different ways*: overall record by uniform, game-by-game, and per pitcher. For being an average ballclub, the Reds are .500 in both the home whites and the red alts. They’ve had some success on the road this year and it shows with a 14-11 record. As it stands, they are still undefeated in wearing anything apart from the home whites, road grays and red alts (1-0 is undefeated, am I right?). That will probably change as they are expected to get fancy for July 4th and September 11th as well as the Civil Rights game against the ChiSox on June 20th (they’ll be wearing throwbacks of the 1964 Cincinnati Reds). In the end, I predict they will finish 2-2 in the “special attire” category to remain at .500.

* As of June 1, 2009

In case you missed yesterday’s post…a NOB research project, by UW Historian/Research Architect, Timmy Brulia:

Hello All,

This is Timmy B, the guy who created the “NFL White At Home” database that chronicles what teams have worn their white jerseys at home in the NFL since 1957, and the “Pro Football Uniforms 1933-1958″ database, which describes the uniform designs for each team in the NFL and AAFC from that era.

My next attempt at a database is for all the teams that have worn the player’s name on the backs (NOB’s) of their jerseys in the “Big 4″ sports of football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Specifically, when they started doing it.

Up until 1960, there was only one documented example of a team with the NOB, the defunct New York Americans of the NHL in the 1926-27 season. Then in 1960, the Chicago White Sox began wearing NOB’s on the backs of their away blouses. Later that year, the upstart American Football League featured several teams that wore them at the start of the season. From all indications, by season’s end ALL teams wore NOB’s in the AFL. The Raiders went so far as to feature the players’ FIRST name as well as their last.

When the AFL merged with the NOB-less NFL in 1970, the NFL absorbed the idea and adopted the look for all 26 teams.

The NBA, already with several teams sporting NOB’s, took a shining to the idea and also made NOB’s mandatory starting with the 1971-72 season.

Not wanting to be left behind, the NHL adopted a league wide NOB policy in 1977-78 (with ONE notable exception which we’ll get to later).

Finally the National League, in 1979, mandated that all 12 teams at least have NOB’s on the teams’ road jerseys. To my knowledge, the American League never has adopted an NOB mandate. However, the NL’s rule seems to have been “waived” or not enforced as the Ddogers went NOB-less for several years earlier in the decade.

The purpose of the database is to be an easy to follow guide as to WHEN teams started to wear NOB’s, either before a league-wide edict, or especially in MLB, when there were gaps from exactly when they first started wearing NOB’s, then dropped them, and then added them. So if you’re wondering when – say the Braves – started wearing NOB’s (1963), when did they stop, and when did they resume the NOB’s. So, as an example, the Braves entry might look like this (years may NOT be correct):

Braves: 1963-1964, 1976-current.

or for hockey:
Rangers: 1970-71 thru 1976-77 (home only), 1977-78 to date.

What I am asking of you, the Uniwatch faithful, is for your help. I think I can cover the NFL and the NHL pretty well. However, for the NBA and especially MLB, if you can send me any photo samples with some verification as to when certain teams started and/or stopped wearing NOB’s it would be hugely appreciated and I will make sure to give you props in the database with your particular contribution(s).

To close, as promised, the NHL exception for 1977-78. In 1977, John Zeigler took over as NHL President, succeeding the long tenure (30 years) of Clarence Campbell. One of Zeigler’s first actions was to mandate that all NHL teams get with the program and affix NOB’s on the team sweaters, both home and away. 17 of the 18 teams complied, with no problem. One did not. The Maple Leafs owner, the crusty Harold Ballard, refused to follow the edict. They went half a season before Zeigler finally said to Ballard, put ‘em on or be fined. Finally, Ballard complied, by having blue NOB’s on the away blue sweaters! Zeigler, said, “Not funny” and then was ready to clamp Harold with some fines. At last, some time in late February, Ballard and the Leafs followed orders, but only for the blue jersey, with white letters. However, Ballard said to Zeigler, I will not do it for the home whites as he had an iron-clad clause with the Maple Leaf Gardens program printers NOT to adorn NOB’s on the home jerseys. Zeigler relented but ordered Ballard to comply fully starting with the 1978-79 season, which he did.

Thanks and again any and all help will be appreciated!!

You can reach Timmy by emailing him with any info.

Last FINAL Call For the RPM Stirrup Club: Got a note from Robert Marshall, the bobble boy. “phil, could you give a last call on the oriole stirrup, and make mention this weekend that i sent out this email to people that contacted me, and that if they didn’t get this email, that they should get in touch with me again? i think everyone is on here, but maybe i missed someone. i will be placing the order tuesday, so get in before then, i will not order extras. and they take tck 2 weeks to manufacture, so you should have them in less then 3 weeks from tuesday.” So, here’s that last call:

1) Cost $11 per stirrup. We will go through paypal, and use his rpmarshall art email address. Mr. Marshall does not intend to profit from this, but he doesn’t want to lose either. One of you sent Robert a payment for $10 (that is fine, don’t send him an extra 1$, you can work it out on the next pair), and those paypal bastards took $.60. but the breakdown is this: $7 for stirrup/$1 shipping from tck/$.50ish per envelope/ $.50ish paypal/$1.75 shipping to you (he just shipped a pair 1st class)=$10.75, which leaves $.25 for Robert’s gas/time/cover overruns, and he thinks that is more then fair. So, if you want 3 pairs, Robert will know by the $33 total. Make sure you give him a shipping address through paypal if you can. Please make this as easy on him as possible.

2) No, you are not obligated to buy every stirrup. They are calling it a “club”, and it would be nice if people were “generally” in, but nobody is in a must buy position. Robert will continue to add to this email list, and you will get emails every time they go for another ‘rup. If you want off the list, tell him, and he will take you off. Sure, you may occasionally get duplicate info, but it is easier for him to just have a general email to all involved, and not respond individually, he does not want to turn this into a job, he just want to get us all the stirrups we want :)

3) Clearly the next three ‘rups are the red sox, cardinals, and a’s, a popular, yet distant third choice. Robert provided this graphic with some other possible upcoming rups, most were suggested, others he just added to round out the image. He says we knock out the mlb’s first, then go from there, but we might mix in a crazy one here or there. Also the opening size will vary, this first pair is a 5″, and Robert has a feeling people will be happy with this size, it shows sani without getting crazy (staying classy), but we will more or less match the opening to the era. Or if 24 people get in, he can order twelve (min) 5″ and twelve 7″, he will make as many people happy as he can.

From The Jeremy Brahm files: Bunch of stuff from UW’s Pacific Rim Correspondent today: Here is a picture of the new Speedo LZR Hybrid swimsuit. This one is being made in Japan … Who says golf is dull? Japanese LPGA Golfer Sakura Yokomine is bright in the rain. While Megumi Kido, well it says on her shirt. I Love Golf. Or Chie Arimura hearts golf … Here is a pdf of the FINA swim cap guidelines for the 2009 World Championships. And the Rules in press release … Yowsa! Check out this photo of the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) Lotte Giants … And finally — Remember the Expos helmets with the odd panels? How about this from the defunct KBO Sammi Superstars in 1984. Awesome Jeremy.

A brief candle; both ends burning…An endless mile; a bus wheel turning…A friend to share the lonesome times…A handshake and a sip of wine

So say it loud and let it ring…We are all a part of everything…The future, present and the past…Fly on proud bird — You’re free at last.

The above is for a friend. Everyone have a good Sunday. Peace.

78 comments June 7th, 2009

From the Pages of the ’72 ASG Program

By Phil Hecken, with Special Guest Larry Wiederecht

This fine day, I’m joined by one of UW’s finest contributors, Larry Wiederecht. Better known to you all as “Lwiedy,” Larry’s extensive knowledge of uniforms and sports history is the equal of many, if not all, of the Uni Watch family. Whether it be his early loves, the Kansas City Royals, the Kansas City New York Islanders or the Washington Redskins, or his more current favorites and ‘home’ teams, Larry’s keen eye, intricate nose for detail, and general disdain for the current direction of uniforms and uniform design provide us all with a fantastic perspective and is a welcome addition to any uniform discussion.

You all know Larry from his posting, but let’s take a minute to meet Larry the man:

Phil Hecken: You’ve been into baseball forever. Can you elaborate a bit?

Larry Wiederecht: I’ve been involved in organization baseball every year (except 1986) since 1972. ’86 was spent finishing school and working for Tampa Bay’s CBA club, the Thrillers. Played through 1985 in college (Eckerd), when it was pretty obvious I had completely “mined the ore” of my ability which was far less than originally anticipated.

PH: What do you do now?

LW: Although I’m now in hotel management/accounting, I have been associated with a half-dozen baseball organizations since 1987. Mostly in the Florida State League, sometime with the office staff but mostly as an official scorer. Cardinals, MiLB, Blue Jays, Phillies/Threshers, Phillies (rookie) and for the past two years with Rays as the back-up to the back-up official scorer. That has amounted to about two dozen games since 2007. This year I can add NCAA to the scoring resume as I will be handling the Big East Tournament in a couple of weeks. It usually adds up to about 100 games each year.

PH: I love that you’re the official scorer for the Rays. That made for some interesting comments during the season and World Series.

LW: Well, let’s not over do it, a scorer for the Rays. It’s certainly a departure from Class-A ball. I did miss doing the division clincher last year by just one game.

PH: How’d you find UW?

LW: A fellow with the Threshers turned me on to UW in 2007 and I can recall really beginning to participate in January 2008. My biggest UW regret was messing with Teebz over Islanders jerseys. Didn’t know just whom I was dealing with and got crushed. Never made a hockey comment since.

PH: So, UW’s right up your alley, then?

LW: I guess I’m lucky that UW is primarily a product of a pair of 40-somethings like Paul and you (with contributions from many others). Just a bunch of grumpy old men bitching about the good old days. Seriously, it’s remarkable how often they come up stuff that right up my alley. For years, I thought I was the only one who obsessed over vertical-arched lettering on nameplates.

PH: You’re not alone Larry. But don’t give me any credit for UW. That’s Paul’s baby. I’m just happy he lets me share in this wonderful obsession. I’ve been trying to get you to work with me for ages, and I’m just happy this is the first of our collaborations. Want to let the readers know what’s in store?

LW: I do have a couple of projects that I’d like to share with UW audience, one being this All-Star bit. I have every program back to 1969, because that’s when baseball really started (or so says a Royals fan). But it’s really what my budget has allowed. I do have a fairly extensive collection of collectables but most rarely have too much interest because the scope is pretty narrow to what I like (which as most know, is not much). Anyhow, I hope the readers enjoy the selections we are planning of the next couple months leading up to the game this year in St. Louis and feel free to let us know what could make them better.

Thanks, Larry. As he said, we plan to corroborate on a series of posts dealing with All Star Games past, leading up to the Mid-Summer Classic. For this edition, Larry has scored an original 1972 All Star Game program, and has scanned several of the pages for our enjoyment. We begin with the cover. What a beautiful piece of art, huh? And I love that pure-70’s font that was so common (actually, I think it was just becoming common at that time). As we take a look inside, some bullets:

* Larry asks, “Who’s that fellow on the right?

* Larry’s not sure, “but I think this was Sand-Knit’s first venture into MLB unis. Also the illustrations make some references to some not so obvious players.”

* A look at the 1972 AS ring.

* Who says Ty Cobb hated all that was good in the world.

* Recognize anyone on this page?

* Larry’s personal favorite. Full page love for official scorers. There was a time when doing that was a big deal, obviously not so much these days!

* I’m guessing this is an ad but no print of any kind, but it’s great! Anyone going to the game will know exactly where to get a late night stack of pancakes.

* BTW, for those too young to recognize the sign, it was this (a great logo they never should have dropped).

Great stuff Larry, and thanks for sharing! I’ll be back again with Mr. Wiederecht from time to time as the 2009 All Star Game nears with more excellent bits from him.

The 1972 All Star Game itself was a pretty good affair, going into extra innings before the National League ultimately prevailed. The box score and more can be found here, and an additional write up is here. Hammerin’ Hank, playing in front of the hometown fans, gave them all a real thrill when he slugged a home run in the sixth inning of the contest off of Cleveland’s Gaylord Perry, (a shot he called his “most dramatic” of his career — of course that was before he hit #715). Here’s one more shot of the shot.

Nice little writeup of the game is also found on MLB.com:

The All-Star Game came to the South in 1972 as Atlanta hosted its first Midsummer Classic. Hometown hero Hank Aaron pleased the crowd with a two-run homer to left in the sixth inning, which gave the NL a 2-1 lead. In the eighth, the AL got some power from an unexpected source as Kansas City’s Cookie Rojas teed off on Expo hurler Bill Stoneman with a runner on, putting the AL back on top at 3-2. But Wilbur Wood of the Chisox couldn’t hold the lead in the ninth, as the NL managed to scrape out a run to tie the game and send it to extra innings. In the 10th, Mets relief specialist Tug McGraw put down the AL 1-2-3, and in the bottom of the inning, Baltimore’s Dave McNally allowed a lead-off walk to Nate Colbert of the Padres, who was bunted over to second by Chris Speier of the Giants. That brought up Joe Morgan and the Reds’ second baseman drove the first pitch into center on a line, scoring Colbert with the game-winning run.

The Mets own Tug McGraw ended up being the winning pitcher in the game, and he is shown here with his National League teammates, Cincinnati’s Joe Morgan (#8), Chicago’s Ron Santo and Pittsburgh’s Manny Sanguillen.

The “official logo” of the contest mirrored the typography of the All Star Game program. Nolan Ryan, who at this time was pitching for the California Angels (and who was selected to the game), is featured on this baseball card, which shows the ‘historical commemorative patch’ for the game.

Typically, photos from this game are somewhat difficult to find. However, the amazing Steve’s Baseball Photography Pages, hosted by Steve Dewing (and which have been linked numerous times on UW, and have been undergoing a recent update), has some fantastic pics from that 1972 game. In no particular order, here are some of those shots:

* Several members of the AL squad, many of whom would later become HOFers … From the end of that line, here’s Rod Carew & Reggie Jackson chatting.

* Not a bad group: Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell, Hank Aaron & Willie Mays … Bench would later take the mic for NBC.

* Pretty good arms here: Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, former teammates and current HOFers … Picking up the hardware: Joe Morgan and Joe Torre, and is that Danny Murtaugh? And who’s that behind them? Is that Clemente, Aaron & Pops?

* Couple action shots: Dick Allen manning first … Al Oliver pops up and Pops lets fly the bat … Here’s a great one: Carlton Fisk and Chris Speier (with Speier wearing an Astros helmet) … Sweet Lou Pinella taking his licks … Manny Sanguillen behind the dish (and I’m pretty sure that’s Cookie Rojas at bat) … finally, the Post Game Celebration with Tug, Manny and Cesar Cedeno.

* Bonus pic (which entered the comments a short time ago): did we ever conclusively figure out who this guy was?

OK…that’s it for the main article. Thanks again to Larry for those program grabs. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find one or more photos from Steve’s website and to find one (or more) uniform you love … and just say why. You can literally get lost on that site for hours, and the shots are pure gold! In addition, there are a number of photographs where the player(s) is not identified. If you have questions about a certain player, or the year of a uni, or something, post ‘em! I’m not even sure I got all the players correct from the 1972 ASG pics I linked to. Happy hunting!

What about Bob(ble)? Our OCD DIYer, Robert Marshall has been furiously working on the first batch of custom bobbleheads. Here’s an “in progress” peek. On Friday, Robert reported to me, “it is a dusty nightmare, and am going to start the painting tonight, should be sending these out mid to late next week.” Freakin’ sweet. The man is an incredibly talented artist (he shared with me a bunch of his stuff, including some absolutely amazing stained glass, which I hope to feature, along with some of his other art, in a future post). If you haven’t yet ordered a bobble, you need to seriously consider it. I’m sure either Paul or I will have early reports from the first batch of bobble-recipients when they arrive. Great stuff, Robert!

And now, a call to those keeping track of “their” team and the records for the different uniform variations your team has been wearing. I had originally planned on having those keeping track sharing their findings around the All Star Break, but let’s do this twice during the season, and once at season’s end. If you guys who are keeping track of such things can report to me (in whatever form you’ve been keeping it and however you’re deciding to do it) in the next week or two (actually, I’d like to post on this the weekend of May 30-31). Feel free to contact me directly and I’ll discuss the column with you. I’d like to include some of your thoughts along with your ‘unikeeping.’

As you are all no doubt aware, I’ve been tracking the Mets and their myriad uniform combinations. Although there is a possibility of eight different uniform combinations, as of Saturday, they have worn six. Because I am a lunatic, I’m keeping track of this two ways: graphically*, with a big chart, as well as in an Excel spreadsheet. (I actually write it all down first onto a steno pad, because, ya know, I’m insane old school).

* (graphic up to date as of their last home stand)

Currently, the Mets record in the snow whites with blue caps has been 5-1; the record in snow whites with black/blue caps is 4-4; donning the actual “official” home uniform of pinstripes with blue caps they sport a 1-2 record; fortunately, they have NOT worn the pinstripes with black/blue caps thus far, but they have worn the even more awful home black jersey & cap with white pants three times, going 2-1 in that combo. On the road, the Mets have three possible uniform combinations, although one of the three is extremely unlikely to be seen. In their standard gray jersey and black/blue cap, the Mets sport a 7-4 record. In the road black jersey & cap with gray pants they are 2-3. They have not worn the gray jersey with blue cap thus far this season.

So…what do the uniforms say about the records? It’s too early to tell, but it’s obvious there are certain combinations in which the Mets have a better record than others. Do the uniforms have any effect on that record? Who knows. When we do our two-month review, I’ll update the Mets records and further elaborate on their uniform preferences. Like many teams, the Mets tend to wear certain uniform variants on certain days of the week, breaking out their pinstripes on Sundays, and there seems to be a preference for “black Fridays,” (although they’ve worn black on other days of the week) so, given another two or so weeks to get a better perspective, we can delve further into the uni-combos and resultant records, and try to draw conclusions from there.

So any of you who’ve been doing the same (in whatever fashion you’ve been doing it) … if you can please contact me within the next two weeks, I’d like to include your findings in a column.

And today marks the Third Anniversary of the launch of the Uni Watch blog. Wow. To borrow a line from Robert Hunter, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” To see how it all began, check out the First Pitch Paul ever tossed. I’d like to be the first of many to offer my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to Mr. Lukas for embarking on this venture, for providing us all with our daily dose of uniform news, notes and quotes, and for sharing his own obsessive study of athletics aesthetics (and he’s obviously not the only one). It’s been a great and fun ride so far, Paul.

All the best to you and your many wonderful readers who make this blog such a unique and wonderful place! Congrats on your first three years!

This and That: For some reason, the writers of this article feel that NASCAR has the ‘best’ All Star ‘game’ — as a bonus, you get to see a pic of MJ in this getup … Seriously, I know it’s a “team” thing, but please, for the love of god, PLEASE STOP THIS … Beantown favorite Jim Rice recently toured the HOF in preparation for his July induction, and he learned something about uniform numbers: “Babe Ruth wore No. 3 and Lou Gehrig wore No. 4, and that’s because of where they were in the batting order” … I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but adidas makes catchers gear? … Pink may be the “new red” but it’d be hard to imagine AJ Foyt parading around Indy in a pink car … Art imitates life? Does this remind you of this? OK, me neither, but still … OK — what exactly are those two things on either side of “BACK” supposed to be? Bats? Syringes? Something else? … Philllies … “You throw like a girl!” is not only not an insult, it’s a compliment in this league where one girl shuns softball because “I don’t like the chanting and the uniforms they wear.” … Which way did they go? They went that way … Oh how I wish the Mets could play all their games during the day — how great will those look in blue? And not a bad day at the dish either (3-5, 3 RBI) — Even Johan is checkin’ out the ‘rups … The weathervane has been painted, and the lady is a champ, which is great, because only the usual degenerate gamblers and assorted lowlifes will be at the Belmont now … This is a perfect example of how to ruin a beautiful uniform with piping and striping … Ever wonder what happened to Bjorn Borg? Well, you don’t have to wonder anymore … The Phillies and Nationals played their Jackie Robinson tribute game last night … Wow…is this kid even old enough to have a drivers’ license? … You don’t think bobbleheads are powerful? Well, the Pirates had Nate McLouth bobblehead night yesterday, and guess who went deep? … Anyone know what those things at the base of the numbers on the MLS jerseys are? Looks like all the teams have it. — And apparently it’s not exclusive to the MLS — Other teams from different leagues seem to have some symbol at the base of their numerals. Are those all logos or adverts? I never noticed that before.

NFL Rookie Trading Card Pics were taken yesterday. Couple pics made the wire: Pat White, Miami Dolphins … Derrick Williams, Brandon Pettigrew & Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions … Mark Sanchez, New York Jets … and finally, from the You Cannot Be Serious File, while finding the NFL rookie pics, I came across this story on the AFP wire: “Aspiring players for the Lingerie Football League (LFL) relax after taking part in training drills during an open tryout
session by the New York Majesty team in Freeport, New York, May 14, 2009. The LFL, a 10-team nationwide American football league, featuring women playing football in their underwear, will start in September 2009 for a 20-week season.” Are they serious? WTF? Apparently, they have uniforms. Jeebus.

Have a super Sunday. Happy Birthday UW!

103 comments May 17th, 2009

Monday Morning Uni Watch

The NHL isn’t the only league that can stage an outdoor hockey game. This past Saturday, the Kontinental Hockey League, which is primarily Russian (further details here) staged its all-star game in Moscow — smack in the middle of Red Square.

Lots of interesting visual details here. In no particular order:

• Wrigley Field makes a nice backdrop to a hockey game, but it’s hard to compete with the Kremlin. Like, really hard.

• The KHL’s all-star uniforms are certainly no worse than what we’ve seen in recent years from the NHL — no extraneous nonsense. From the side, in fact, they’re almost too plain.

• Those Russkies sure have a funny alphabet. (Of course, one word was rendered in perfect English — you can see it just under the collar.)

• Game-time temperature was about 10ºF, and it dropped several more degrees during the game, so there was a lot of this. (That’s Jaromir Jagr, incidentally — I guess he’s not tucking in his jersey anymore.)

• The frigid conditions probably explain why there were so many empty seats. But even if they’d been at full capacity, the bleachers set up for the game could only accommodate 3000 people. As a result, the atmosphere apparently didn’t live up to the backdrop, at least according to several accounts that I read.

You can supposedly watch the entire game here, although that link hasn’t worked so well for me. As a backup, there are plenty of shorter clips available on YouTube.

Party Update: The venue for this winter’s Uni Watch gathering (which, as previously announced, will take place on Saturday the 24th, 2pm) will be Sheep Station — same place as last winter. Looking forward to meeting lots of you there.

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling of a free jersey from SoccerPro.com. Details here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Best candy name ever. That page comes from this 1949 candy catalog, which in turn is part of this collection of retro graphics — all very good stuff. … Wayne Chism of Tennessee wore some rad socks against Gonzaga last Wednesday night. “I didn’t see the game, but my dad, knowing my Uni Watch obsession, brought it to my attention,” says Jason Werth. “Not sure if he’s worn them before. Also, according to dad, the announcer made some comment about someone having to be secure or confident in order to wear socks like that.” … Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber was looking at this photo of Jim Rice and became intrigued by his necklace pendant. Looks like the letters might say “RICE,” but what about the rest of the pendant? Anyone recognize this design? … Several readers noted that Tim Tebow’s NOB was badly off-center on Thursday night. … “Soccer player Lassana Diarra has been signed by Real Madrid to replaced the injured Mahamadou Diarra in midfield,” writes Chris Cruz. Rather than doing a FNOB or “L. Diarra” treatment, they have given him a jersey with his nickname.” Further details here. … Here are some shots of the last guy to wear No. 5 for the Red Sox, and here’s Rocco Baldelli with his new jersey. The navy border around the red numeral looks a lot thicker than usual, no? … The sixth graf of this story assigns blame for the whole pink-for-breast cancer thing (with thanks to Brandon Yarian). … Really interesting tidbit from Nick Hanson, who writes: “At last week’s International Power Showcase High School Home Run Derby, the hitters wore their home state’s two-letter abbreviation instead of a uniform number. For example, this is Bryce Harper, a sophomore from Las Vegas High School in Nevada.” … Greg Netherwood notes that Clark MacArthur of the Sabres has an interesting NOB. … Gorgeous views of the Cubs’ raised helmet logos with the old-style inscribed uni numbers here and here (with thanks to Jere Smith). … Turns out Oregon had diamondplate-patterned gloves for their bowl game (good catch by Matt Calvert). … “Before Hideo Nomo retired last year, he created an amateur club team in Osaka,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “I saw photos of the team’s uniforms the other day and thought the white one was one of the strangest baseball designs I’d ever seen.” … Also from Jeremy: “For the Italian Volleyball League Series A All-Star game in November, the floor was painted like an Italian flag.” … Chris Flinn says he got an e-mail from the Giants the other day that included this attachment. Gonna take a lot more than spam to sell Plaxico jerseys at this point. … “Here’s a video clip shot at Shea Stadium in 1984, from a bad movie called 7 minutes in Heaven,” writes Paul Wiederecht. “It’s got faked-up Expos uniforms, huge NOBs, and a game taking place at Shea in the morning.” … Denny Jones notes that injured Titans center Kevin Mawae wanted to listen in on the play call as he watched his team on offense near the of their game against the Ravens on Saturday, so he picked up one of the radio-equipped helmets and eavesdropped. … Collateral Gammage and I checked out this exhibit of vintage matchbooks on Saturday, and there were lots of sports-related pieces in the show, including die-cut team-logo matchbooks, an old football player series, a Brooklyn Dodgers series, and one for Joe Namath’s Restaurant. Sorry about the image quality, but I only had my camera-phone, and the combination of the glass exhibit case the plastic display sleeves made for a lot of glare. … Korea’s WBC uniforms have been unveiled (with thanks to Dan Kurtz). … According to this story, there’s a disproportionately high rate of ADD among MLB players. … Color-on-color games from Saturday: Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M and Georgia Southern vs. College of Charleston (with thanks to Matt Watson and Benji Boyter, respectively). … Some of you probably knew this already, but the Canadiens’ web site has a great history section, which includes an excellent sweater timeline (big thanks to Mike Kemezis). … Doug Blanchard has created uni illustrations for all the teams in Slap Shot and Rollerball. Regarding the latter set, Doug says: “Clear shots of the Paris and Rome unis are available only in the ‘making of’ feature — James Caan’s Houston team does not play them in the movie although they are shown briefly in video sequences depicting moments in his career. Pittsburgh is mentioned in another video sequence, but they are not shown (it is Rome’s purple unis that are briefly seen).” … Longtime reader Doug Keklak very generously sent me a copy of this excellent book about signs in and around Pittsburgh. The book is based on this web site. Great, great stuff — highly recommended. … Great old shot of the Polo Grounds in this shot of Sammy Baugh coaching the Titans. … Several readers have noted that Donovan McNabb has a black Dymo Tape label just above his fine-print warning decal. It appears to say, “PRIMARY OFF #1 MCNABB,” which I assume means that this is McNabb’s preferred radio-equipped helmet (screen grabs courtesy of John Zajac). … McNabb also had a play yesterday where his chinsnap broke just before the snap. He played that down strap-less and then ran over to the bench for a new chinstrap. … Peter Greenberg tipped me wise to the work of Kevin McNeil, an artist who does really nice charcoal and pastel illustrations. Check out more of his work here. … Two uni number-related items at the very end of Ken Davidoff’s Sunday column. … On Friday I linked to pics of the NFC’s Pro Bowl design. Here’s the AFC version. Fortunately, nobody actually watches the Pro Bowl, so these awful designs will go largely unseen. … Tris Wykes reports that Wyclef Jean was shown wearing Magic and Habs jerseys on last night’s 60 Minutes. … Here’s a double-flapper I hadn’t been aware of: Junior Felix. But he was a switch-hitter, so it’s not as unusual as a non-switch going double-flapped (with thanks to Dustin Pomprowitz). … Cool old catalogs available here, here (note the sliced baseball diagram), here (gorgeous cover), here, and here. … Early contender for stupidest illustration of the year. … Instead of color on color, how about white on white? That’s the Buffalo Bandits vs. Toronto Rock, of the National Lacrose League. Additional pics here (with thanks to Chris Coulson). … Interesting back design for Denmark’s women’s volleyball team (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Major find by Michael Romero, who’s come up with an addition to our list of MLB players with faceguards attached to their helmets: Tony Fernandez, from the 1989 ALCS. … Lots of good NOB finds by Doug Keklak: Mike Santorelli (there are no other Santorellis on the Predators’ roster, so what’s up with that?), Jess Williams, and Maurice and Mike Pouncey. … Also from Doug: “Last week, someone in the comments was wondering about a poster that was in the office on the old show Coach. I was able to get a couple of grabs.” … Hadn’t noticed this before: The NHL All-Star jerseys apparently feature numbers on the sleeves. “I did some research,” writes Mike Kemezis, “and while the Canadiens have hosted 11 previous all-star games, they’ve hosted only three such games since the change in format (it used to be the Stanley Cup winner vs. an all-star team). Those years were 1969, 1975, and 1993, which are the years listed on the sleeves.”

155 comments January 12th, 2009