Uni Watch Profiles: Jay Kaplan

For most of the baseball world, Dock Ellis is “that guy who threw a no-hitter on acid.” Here at Uni Watch, he’s “that guy who wore curlers” (more on that here). But to Jay Kaplan, Ellis is a lot more.

Kaplan (who I learned about from reader Matthew Ronay) is the man behind “Ellis, D.: The Dock Ellis Experience,” a group of 15 amazing poured resin paintings based on Ellis’s life, many of them featuring some awesome uni-related content. It’s a really interesting project for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is this: If you start with one of the paintings and then click on it, you get a bunch of thumbnails showing Kaplan’s source material and visual references. It’s like getting a peek inside his creative process.

Kaplan was already planning a trip to NYC when I contacted him last month, so I got to interview him in person instead of over the phone. Even better, he brought several of the paintings with him, and they’re even more impressive in person than they are on the web, full of depth and saturation and texture. It also becomes much more apparent that the paintings’ dimensions are the same proportions as a baseball card.

Those photos were taken on June 6th, shortly after Jay and I spent some time chatting over a few beers in my back yard. Here’s what we talked about.

Uni Watch: Let’s start with you. How old are you, and where do you live?

Jay Kaplan: I’m 35, and I live in Sudbury, Massachusetts. But I’ve only been there for a year. Before that I lived here in Brooklyn for 14 years.

UW: Why’d you move?

JK: We have two kids, and it was getting tricky. I was getting sidetracked from doing my art. So now I’m, like, in the woods.

UW: Do you make a living as an artist?

JK: I’ve done so many different things to make a living — art’s been one of them.

UW: I know you grew up in Port Washington [Long Island]. Were you a sports fan growing up?

JK: Yeah. And I still am.

UW: Did you play sports?

JK: I played Little League and played baseball up through my junior year in high school. And I played soccer and a little hockey. Some basketball, but I wasn’t very good.

UW: Were you interested in art back then as well?

JK: I played music, and yeah, I did some art. We had a lot of art in our house. My great-grandmother was an interior designer, so she had bought a lot of stuff, and my parents hung work, like, salon-style, so there was art everywhere. And my grandfather was a painter.

UW: And did your interests in art and sports ever overlap, like they have with this Dock Ellis project?

JK: Here and there. When I was about 12, I took an oil painting class and I made a painting of Denis Potvin. I was a big Islanders fan, and that was right in their heyday.

UW: Have you done other sports-oriented art projects as an adult, prior to the Dock Ellis work?

JK: I did a silly thing. I really got into art in college. In high school, I’d been into writing, but then in college I took an elective — a welding elective. It was actually an African-American Studies welding class. And in that class I made a giant sculpture of Patrick Ewing. So that one and the Potvin painting were probably my two sports pieces.

UW: What led you to do that?

JK: At the time, I was so into just the act of welding, and I didn’t really know much about art, so I’d just weld anything that popped into my head. And I was really into the Knicks at the time. It’s at my parents’ house now, along with a lot of my work. The Ewing is a source of embarrassment for me now. A lot of my friends really like it, but I don’t know if they’re just making fun of me.

UW: Okay, so tell me about your fascination with Dock Ellis, and how that fascination led to this project.

JK: I was doing a lot of self-referential art…

UW: How do you mean?

JK: I used to do these performance pieces and photograph them. I made a piñata in my own likeness, and I hung it from a tree and had someone take pictures of me beating it while wearing the same clothes as the piñata, with red paper on the inside. Another time, I ate a box of crayons. And I took a Krazy Glue dropper and basically had a drop of Krazy Glue about to go into my eye.

UW: Was it actually, like, real Krazy Glue?

JK: It was, yeah.

UW: Did it go into your eye?

JK: No. I just kept it right there for the shot. Another time I filled a bottle of Glass Plus with blue Gatorade, went to a supermarket, and placed it on the shelf. Then I took it off the shelf and chugged it. So I’d done all these pieces with me in them, and I was looking for something with more of a narrative, a story. And I remembered this urban legend that someone had taken LSD and pitched a no-hitter. Then I did some research and learned that there was so much more to Dock.

UW: When was this that you began this process?

JK: Probably two and a half years ago. I’d started making these paintings using resin. I started with abstract stuff, geometric shapes. Then I went to the next logical place, naked women. And that’s when I decided to do the narrative. It took me a year to do the whole series.

UW: You said that you learned there was so much more to Dock Ellis than just “the guy who pitched a no-hitter while doing LSD.” Such as..?

JK: He was almost a black activist. He was outspoken, he had this lively personality. He was a character. He was controversial.

UW: The poured resin seems so particularly well-suited to someone who was tripping on acid, and also for the colors and design style of that time period. Was that one reason you thought he’d be a good match for this medium?

JK: Yeah, definitely. It all seemed to fit together so well. [You can see a slideshow documenting the making of this painting here. — PL]

UW: Have you done LSD yourself?

JK: Um… I, uh … No comment.

UW: Did you do LSD specifically as “research” for this project, in the course of making the art?

JK: No.

UW: You’ve got some great uniform depictions in there. When I saw the Reggie Jackson painting, with that Oakland A’s uniform, that’s when I knew I had to get in touch with you. And hey, did you know that those early-’70s Pirates pullovers were the first pullovers ever worn in major league baseball?

JK: No.

UW: Yeah. Whether you realized it or not, you were documenting a really transformative period in baseball — striped waistbands replacing belts, pullovers replacing button-fronts, polyester replacing flannel. Were you aware of any of that?

JK: Not really, no. But I did do a lot of research to make it somewhat accurate to the era. I was hoping to capture the ’70s, when he pitched.

UW: What sort of research?

JK: Just looking at tons of pictures. There’s so much on the web now.

UW: Did you collect baseball cards as a kid, and did you go back and look at them?

JK: I did, yeah.

UW: I’m a little older than you, and I got interested in baseball around 1971, ’72, so I grew up watching precisely this period we’re talking about. Like, I remember watching Dock Ellis pitch. But you grew up after this period. So as you were doing all this research, were thinking, “Damn, I wish I’d been around to see that”?

JK: I have a lot of ’70s nostalgia in me, because the house I grew up in was really tricked out ’70s-style. So I sort of feel like I was there for it.

UW: You also have a piece showing Ellis in his curlers. When did you learn about that episode?

JK: There this great book, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball…

UW: Right.

JK: So I read about it there, and in other articles about him. I just thought it was an interesting thing to do, to wear curlers on the field. And he even used that to show racial bias, because the commissioner said, “You can’t do that, can’t wear curlers,” but he let white ballplayers wear wigs or hairpieces.

UW: I love how, if you click on one of the paintings, you get all those smaller images. Are those the source images?

JK: Those are some of the inspiration behind each painting. Sometimes I feel like maybe it gives away too much. But at the same time, I don’t know — if you just see the paintings, you might not get as much of the story.

UW: So it’s sort of like footnotes.

JK: Yeah.

UW: And for the painting called Side Show, the source images are mostly these mustachioed ballplayers. What was that all about?

JK: Well, he pitched the no-hitter against the Padres. So the main image was based on the original San Diego Chicken, which was a radio gimmick. I wanted to draw a parallel between the chicken, which was a side show to the game, and a mustache, which I think of as a side show to a face. And mustaches were so prevalent back in that period.

UW: Right, because the A’s started that whole thing. And of course they also started the Technicolor-uniform trend.

JK: Yeah, I was so excited to do that Reggie Jackson piece, just to match that green and that yellow. I knew that in the resin, it would really pop.

UW: You nailed it, too.

JK: You probably can’t tell from the image on the web, but I actually did his glasses frames in inlaid metal, to accentuate them.

UW: Yeah, I noticed you used some unusual media, like Ping Pong balls. What’s that about?

JK: The Ping Pong balls were from this story when Dock fell from grace and drugs kind of overtook him later in his career. He finally went to rehab, and he was in such a bad state that he would actually sniff Ping Pong balls to try to get high.

UW: Really? What did he think he was gonna get out of that?

JK: I don’t know, but when I drilled holes in them and filled them with resin to make the eyeballs for that painting, they were really stinky. I think they’re made out of some kind of crazy plastic.

UW: No no no, they’re made out of reed or something, aren’t they? Definitely something organic.

JK: Really? Huh. [Actually, Jay was right: They’re made of celluloid, which is a thermoplastic. — PL]

UW: Anyway, so you did that not just because it was visually appropriate, but you were referencing an incident from his life.

JK: Yeah, I just took all this information about him and processed it through my head and tried to come up with images to go with them, and tried to make it work. But it didn’t have to be super-precise or literal.

UW: Let’s get back to the Reggie Jackson piece for a second. Why did you include him?

JK: Dock had a little history with Reggie in, I think, the ’76 All-Star Game [actually 1971 — PL]. At mid-season he had a really good record. Like he was 11-0 or something, and Vida Blue was having a great year too, and Dock said, “They’ll never start two black pitchers, two brothers in this All-Star Game.” And it became a big thing in the press, and it turned out that they both did start. And during that game, Reggie Jackson hit that famous home run off of Dock, the moonshot that hit the light tower in Detroit.

UW: But Reggie wasn’t wearing that green jersey in that game — he was wearing a vest.

JK [sheepishly]: There might be a few, uh, holes in the story.

UW: Well, that’s OK — artistic license and all. Didn’t mean to be such a stickler. I was just sayin’.

JK: Yeah, my audience is an art world audience. They’d never know the difference. Anyway, Reggie stood there watching the home run, which infuriated Dock.

UW: Nowadays, it happens practically every game. I mean, Manny Ramirez does it twice a week. I guess Reggie was kind of a pioneer there.

JK: But it really pissed off Dock.

UW: Which is kind of interesting. Because culturally speaking, the whole “standing and admiring your home run” thing is part of a demonstrative or hot dog-ish approach to sports that’s very black, very much part of the black approach to sports. And the people who don’t like it and criticize it are almost invariably white fans and white media people. So it’s interesting that Dock Ellis, being a very racially aware athlete, frowned upon something that was, in essence, very black.

JK: I don’t think he judged people based on color. He loved Pete Rose, for example. I think he just didn’t like being shown up, by anyone.

UW: Yeah, but what I mean is, you and I say, “showing him up,” but a lot of black fans and athletes would say, “That’s not showing anyone up — that’s just my style, that’s being an entertainer,” blah-blah-blah. And what white fans call “classy,” black fans often consider just “boring.” I’m not coming down on either side; I’m just saying the same thing can be perceived differently by different groups. It definitely speaks to a cultural gap.

JK: Yeah.

UW: Anyway, that soured him on Reggie?

JK: Definitely. At one point a bunch of major leaguers were going to do a tour of Viet Nam, and Dock didn’t wanna go because Reggie was going. The next time he faced Reggie again [which was several years later, because Ellis didn’t pitch in the American League until 1976 — PL], he hit him in the face. Intentionally. Broke his glasses and I think broke his jaw.

UW: And that was years after! Wow, note to self: Don’t cross Dock Ellis.

JK: Exactly.

UW: Have these pieces been shown in a gallery yet?

JK: No, I’m trying to find a place for them now. I’ve got some hopefuls. I’m feeling positive about it.

UW: Assuming you find a gallery, will you show the source images, the backstory, the way you have on the web?

JK: I don’t think I would, unless I maybe did it in the catalog.

UW: So it’s a very different kind of exhibition on the web than it would be in person. I mean, obviously, duh, everything’s different on the web, but what I mean is that the quantitative amount of material you’d be showing would be different.

JK: Yeah. At one point I wanted to get video of the no-hitter, and I contact all these different people, but it turns out that game wasn’t televised. There was some home video that someone shot from the stands — Bob Costas showed some of it on his show one time — and I tried to get that, but I couldn’t. The Hall of Fame sent me some other footage of Dock pitching, and I thought of doing something with that, but I decided not to.

UW: In the course of this project, did you make any attempts to contact Dock himself?

JK: I didn’t. I thought about it, but I wanted it to be based on just the story. Like I said before, at first I kind of treated it like an urban legend. I didn’t want to get too close to it.

UW: Did you contact Donald Hall, who wrote Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball?

JK: No.

UW: If this project eventually ends up in a gallery and gets some media, it’s certainly conceivable that Dock Ellis could become aware of its existence. If he were to come into a gallery, or even just visit your web site, what do you think he’d make of all this?

JK: I don’t know. It’s an interesting question, because I spent so much time thinking about him. I was completely absorbed by him — it’s like he’s become a big part of my life somehow. I’d hope he would like it. I know he has a good sense of humor. I read something where he was signing baseballs with some sort of LSD reference. I’d hope he wouldn’t be offended, and that he’d be happy that someone was glorifying his life and accomplishments.

UW: Let’s say you get a gallery, and they do a big opening reception. Would you want Dock to attend the opening?

JK: That would be great, yeah — I’d be into that. He’s actually a drug counselor now, in California, and one of the galleries I’m looking at is in L.A., so yeah, that would be cool.

UW: I know artists hate to be asked this type of question, but do you have a favorite piece among the 15?

JK: I like Kool-Aid and Kools. It’s so iconic, and the idea is so clear to me. It sort of expresses this contradiction that was a big part of Dock’s personality, that he could be angry and loving. Dock smoked Kools, and Kool-Aid can be spiked with acid, so it all kind of fit together.

[That was all the questions I had, so I turned off the tape recorder. But we kept on chatting and drinking, and at some point the talk turned back to sports, so I turned the tape back on. — PL]

JK: Lately I’ve gotten into NASCAR.

UW: Interesting. Do you know any other artists who are into it?

JK: Actually, I’ve got two friends who started their careers based on their interest in NASCAR.

UW: How so?

JK: They were both interested in the aesthetics of it. This one guy, my friend Nathan, he did a lot work that almost looked like the way the patches are everywhere [on the jumpsuits]. And this girl Kristin Baker, she was into the way a car looks when it’s crashed, and her paintings were abstract, but they kind of had this crashing vibe. This was back in the ’90s — I think they’ve both gotten away from it now.

UW: Have you ever thought of a NASCAR-related project?

JK: There’s this one driver, Travis Kvapil, who drives the No. 28 car. For a while he didn’t have a sponsor, so he just put “11 million” on the hood of the car, because that’s what it would cost to sponsor him.

UW: Sort of like “Your Ad Here.”

JK: Exactly. So I saw that, and I thought that would be great if I, as an artist, could sponsor that car and just do some artwork on that car.

UW: So let’s say you’re a gazillionaire and you go ahead and do this. What would you put on the car?

JK: Maybe some kind of op-art thing that’s forms a vibrating pattern, so other drivers get mesmerized and crash when they’re coming up behind you. Or you could just do a minimalist thing, or just something ridiculous, like popcorn all over the car. And at the end of the race, the drivers always mention the sponsor — like, “Yeah, this Office Depot car really came through for me today.” So it would be incredible to hear them say, “This Jay Kaplan art car was was just great.” It would be a great juxtaposition between corporate America and art.

UW: Have you ever discussed this idea with anyone?

JK: I did work for Jeff Koons at one point…

UW: Well, he certainly has enough money to do it.

JK: Definitely. And it was so great when he put a float of his rabbit sculpture in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. I still know him and his wife, so I mentioned the idea to his wife. I e-mailed her about it, thinking maybe she’d tell him and he’d do it.

UW: Any response?

JK [laughing]: No response.

UW: Are you aware of the recent taxi art project here in New York?

JK: No.

UW: It started last year, I think. Lots of New York cabs got outfitted with these big floral decals. It’s not quite the same thing as what you’re talking about, but it was an interesting project.

JK: Was it cool?

UW: I didn’t like the designs, frankly, but I really liked the idea of using taxis as a means of creating public art, especially since so many taxis also carry advertising.

==========

And that’s where we left it. Jay hasn’t yet found a gallery for the full 15-painting set, but he’ll be showing four of the pieces, along with some non-Dock artwork, in this group show, which will have an opening reception this Saturday from 6pm-10pm. He’ll be on hand, and I’ll be swinging by as well.

Uni Watch News Ticker: New York’s sanitation workers are getting new uniforms (with thanks to Neil Berger). … The Arkansas Travelers, double-A affiliate of the Angels, are changing from blue caps to red after winning the first-half division title (with thanks to John Evans). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Novak Djokovic, an Adidas-sponsored athlete, wore Nike sneakers at Wimbledon and whited-out the swooshes. Details here. … While looking for something else, I came across this photo Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio. Note the connective strap on Ted’s stirrup. … Also came across this shot. Look closely and you’ll see that the ump is wearing his cap backwards, even though it has a abbreviated brim. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. … Super-detailed guide to spotting fake NFL “authentics” here (nice find by Drew Wagner). … Good photos here, here, and hereof the Tigers’ one-year tiger-head style from 1927 (with thanks to Doug Mooney). … Early Astros prototype? Marc Swanson isn’t saying. … Thinnest stirrups ever? … Slow news day in Denver. … Chris Flinn reports that baseball-snagging guru Zack Hample snared a few BP balls at Shea a few days ago and was surprised to discover to find that they were All-Star Game balls. (As an aside, I had no idea there was a “baseball-snagging guru” out there, but the guy actually has a blog devoted to the topic — cool.) … “Many UFC fighters have started wearing tape wraps around their gloves to match the corner they’re assigned (blue corner has blue tape, red corner has red tape),” reports Mike Miller. “Probably helps the judges tell the fighters apart for scoring.” … Good gallery of USA Olympic basketball jereys here (with thanks to Erkki Corpuz). … Did you know the MLB logo was designed by DC Comics artist Jim Sherman? That’s what this page claims (with thanks to Dave Sikula). … Pesky Pirates patch problem persist for Jack Wilson. He must really love that one undershirt (with thanks to Bill Blevins). … Kudos to the U. of Minnesota, who’ve told Victoria’s Secret not to include them in Vicky’s pink collegiate product line. Details here (and nobody’s happier about this than Minnesota resident and scourge of all things pink Minna H.). … Mariners and Padres will be wearing 1978 throwbacks tomorrow night. … Nice photo gallery here of Cal football uni history — a history to which these are now being added. … I’m an architectural intern in Philadelphia and each summer there is a softball league comprised of architecture firms, contractors, and real estate firms,” writes Eddie Layton. “In general the league is very laid back and unorganized, although a few teams do have a semblance of uniforms or others (like ours) just try to all wear the same color T-shirt. This past week, however, we played a firm that had some pretty classic uniforms. I’ve attached a couple of pictures that my fiance took while we were playing.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Why did Bruce Boisclair (one of the least baseball-y names ever, by the way) pose for a photo with an aluminum bat?

221 comments June 26th, 2008

LT, as in ‘Lookee There’

LaDainian Tomlinson doesn’t play in preseason games. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t doing anything uni-notable — it just means most of us can’t see what he’s up to. Fortunately, reader Ryan Luz — who happens to be an assistant equipment manager at U. of San Diego — has been paying close attention, and he’s noticed a some interesting new developments regarding LT’s headwear:

Okay, so you know what LT’s normal facemask and visor look like — just the standard dark tint and a standard three-bar facemask, like this. Within the last week or two, however, he began wearing a new at training camp. This new visor was reflective and blue.

Then he did something I’ve never seen before — well, two things, actually. First, he wore this new facemask that’s like nothing I’ve seen before. Just very odd, very unique, something I’ve never seen in all of my football equipment managing days.

But the weirdest thing isn’t the facemask. If you look closely at this photo again, you’ll see he’s wearing TWO visors. It appears as though he’s wearing the new blue, reflective visor underneath the old standard tinted visor. This is another thing I’ve never seen before.

Since LT doesn’t play preseason games, it’s not yet clear if this is just some practice thing, or if he will use this configuration in games. Meanwhile, I’m currently scouring the internet trying to find what type of facemask that is, but neither Schutt nor Adams shows that mask on their sites, and I’m 90% sure it isn’t a Riddell, because they stick mostly with the traditional masks.

Some quick background: Wearing a tinted visor requires special permission from the NFL (in Tomlinson’s case, it’s because he has a light-sensitivity condition that can lead to migraines), but nobody is allowed to wear a colored or reflective visor. Ronnie Brown, for example, was fined for wearing this sunburst-patterned visor in 2005. So is Tomlinson’s dual-visor setup a way for him to hide the contraband visor behind the kosher one? Bizarre.

Tampa Struck by Lightning Crummy Uniforms Again: The Lightning unveiled their new jerseys over the weekend (there’s a slideshow here and a short video clip here). No question that the new chest logo is better than the old one, if only because it’s more legible, but it still looks like clip art. This isn’t so much an upgrade as a correction — it’s what the original design should have looked like in the first place. The rear view is neither wonderful nor objectionable — compared to the old version, it strikes me as a wash. The really weird thing, which nobody has yet adequately explained: The road jerseys have front uni numbers, but the home set doesn’t. Is this the NHL version of the Red Sox wearing player names on their road jerseys but not at home? Very strange. All in all: Still a dreadful-looking team, although marginally less dreadful than before.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the armpit “victory stripes” are included in the new design.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Can’t understand why I make such a fuss over corporate sponsorships? Look here. … Must be a real joker in the ESPN.com art department. As of about midnight eastern last night, the site’s front page looked like this. Take a closer look at the photo composite — credited as an “ESPN.com illustration” — and tell me what you see under the dog’s eye (good spot by Erik Kenerson). … As you may recall, about 10 days ago Jeff Francoeur began a game with his name misspelled on his back and then switched to a properly spelled jersey later in the game. David Sonny reports that similar situation unfolded yesterday in Cincinnati, where Ryan Jorgensen came to the plate in the 1st inning with his name misspelled as ‘Jorgenson.’ After hitting a grand slam, he returned to the game with his name spelled correctly. … Nice site here devoted to soccer footwear (with thanks to Brad Elliott). … Classic promo giveaway at last Thursday’s Tigers game: a cap with an attached wig, in honor of Magglio and his locks. … Interesting sponsorship-logo dispute unfolding in NASCAR. … MLB coaches may start wearing helmets next season. … Good vs. Stupid Alert: According to a small item buried in this blog entry, the Blues’ new uniforms will have “stripes on the front of the pants” (good find by Kyle Joecken). … This trend of teams wearing BP jerseys for actual games is getting way out of hand. … Two Bears observations from Chris Radford: “(1) Rex Grossman is buckling both chin straps this preseason. The first time ever (including college). (2) Devin Hester has switched to a Schutt/AHIR style helmet after wearing a Riddell his rookie year. Most likely due to the fact that University of Miami players wore Schutt/AHIR style helmuts in college and he finally felt comfortable to ask for that style of helmet.” … The Red Wings wore this throwback jersey back in 1993. But John Baranowski was looking at this photo and noticed that the top stripe appears to have been a lighter color. Anyone know more about this? … Some really cool Blackhawks patches here (as found by Mike Priest). … A little “Los” goes a long way. … Luke Larson was clicking through GoalieCards.com (which looks like a really great site) and came across this. Was it common for practice jerseys to have corporate sponsors back then? … Here’s a bit of Mariners news I hadn’t heard before, from Jon V. Buerstatte: “In 1992, when the new owners completed their purchase in mid-season, the M’s had an ‘opening day’ celebration. To mark the occasion, the M’s wore their usual white home uniforms, but with ‘Seattle’ on the jerseys instead of ‘Mariners.’ That had great significance at the time, because the team was constantly the subject of relocation rumors and the new ownership wanted to send a strong message that the team was the Seattle Mariners, not just the Mariners.” I’ve never seen these “Seattle”-ized home whites, and they’re not shown in either the Okkonen or Henderson guides. Buerstatte hasn’t been able to provide a photo yet, but he did come up with this article, which confirms his account. Anyone got a photo? … On Friday I mentioned that the Steelers used block lettering for their nameplates for the first game of the 1997, before switching to their rounded font. That prompted the following from Ryan Hemminger: “In a related tidbit, the Steelers also used black type for the names, instead of their customary gold, for their road jerseys during the entire 1997 season. I was excited to see them return to the gold names in 1998.” … My recent ESPN column about uniform prototypes included coverage of the black helmets that the Saints wore during the 1969 preseason. Now Tim Fesmire has found this poster — check out the Saints player at lower left. You can bid on that poster here. … In 1964, the Jets wore this helmet design, with a white logo decal instead of the more familiar green decal they began using the following year. I’d never seen any photos or video of the ’64 design until Saturday, when Jay Braiman sent a bunch of screen grabs from the new Jets Complete History DVD. “It’s no wonder they reversed the colors of the decal the following year,” says Jay. “Whether because of the film quality or otherwise, it’s barely visible. Unfortunately, no footage on the DVD of the 1963 jet-plane helmets.” You can see a slide show of Jay’s screen grabs here. … The Astros retired Jeff Bagwell’s number yesterday, and Nicholas Roznovsky got some good pics of the three jerseys Bagwell was presented with, his number inscribed in the infield dirt, and the great little jersey pin that all fans received. As for Bags himself, nice to see him dressing so formally for the occasion. … Speaking of retired numbers, great story here from my friend George Ferrandi, who grew up in Baltimore and attended the game when Brooks Robinson’s number was retired: “They gave out little ‘one size fits all’ jerseys for kids. Alas, I don’t have mine anymore, unless it’s buried in my mom’s attic. This was during my high fandom period, when I went to every home game and wore a hoodie covered with O’s buttons to middle school. (O yeah. “O” was also my rating on the coolness and popularity meter.) This was also the period when I personally took in a wounded Baltimore oriole and named it Brooks. I nursed it back to health but then tried to make it a pet — with tragic results. A traumatic story for another day.” … If you go to this page and scroll down the section headed “The Longest Name” (it begins two paragraphs from the bottom), you’ll find some excellent info about how the Rangers’ equipment manager handled the challenge of fitting Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s name on a jersey. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: a Bengals-themed corn maze. Details here. … The Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison is currently running an exhibit called World Series Wisconsin, with special emphasis on the 1957 Milwaukee Braves (who won the World Series) and the 1982 Brewers (who won the A.L. pennant). Plenty of uniforms and other memorabilia. There’s a really good video clip about the exhibit here (with big thanks to Uni Watch organic farming priestess and Badger State booster Julie Lindemann). … Braves pitcher Jose Ascaino had some serious undershirt tag issues yesterday (screen grab provided by Jeff Scott, who says, “How could you not feel that on your neck? Wouldn’t it be a distraction?”). … Scott Turner and I were playing softball yesterday, and he mentioned how the Mets used to suit up at their hotel during spring training, take taxis to Al Lang Field, and then climb out of the cabs in full uniform. This was all news to me, so Scott provided this photo. How cool is that?! … Wisconsin isn’t the only school policing its school logo (with thanks to Andrew Flynn). … Not uni-related, but Brett Myers’s latest attempt at community building is too good not to mention. Priceless audio link (NSFW) here.

277 comments August 27th, 2007

Switching to a Completely Predictable Color Scheme Is the New Black

Jerry Glanville has always been such a blowhard. The whole “Man in Black” thing, leaving a ticket for Elvis, driving a replica of James Dean’s car — a shtick as hackneyed and cornball as that has to be earned, and anyone with a head coaching record of 62-71 hasn’t earned jack.

But Glanville and his shtick are back this year, because he’s the new head coach at Portland State, which unveiled its new uniforms yesterday. And in the year’s 9473rd-biggest surprise (right after Lindsay Lohan’s latest rehab stint, and in front of Karl Rove’s refusal to answer a subpoena), the team’s previous green-based color scheme has given way to black. (As an aside, check out the kid on the left — he’s wearing NFL gloves, which means they’re made by Reebok. A rare chink in Nike’s promotional armor!)

It could’ve been worse. According to this release, Glanville originally presented his own uniform design (also black, I’m sure), but that one was discarded after Nike came up with their design. “When Nike presented their new look, I realized I may be in the wrong business designing uniforms,” said Glanville. Yeah, because you probably wouldn’t have come up with quotes like this one, from Nike creative director Todd Van Horne: “We (at Nike) huddled together and said ‘there’s energy here.’ We needed to bring that energy very visually to the field.” Don’t you love it when marketers talk like that? Yeah, Portland State has energy — unlike all those other football teams, which presumably have, like, no energy at all, right?

Such bullshit notwithstanding, the most interesting thing about the new design is the helmet, which features a center spear instead of flanking side logos. The most obvious corollary is probably the Redskins’ old feather design — not a bad pedigree. I kinda like it.

As for Glanville, I’ll say this much for him: If the Vikings or Ravens want to hire him, I’ll gladly contribute a letter of recommendation.

Membership News: Scott’s been busy with non-Uni Watch work (that boy needs to get his priorities straight), so the membership gallery hasn’t had any new designs for the past few days, but expect to see more designs added by the end of the week, including some real doozies. Meanwhile, I mailed out two dozen membership kits yesterday and should send out about 45 more today and tomorrow. And congrats to new member J.J. Carton, who last night became our 400th (!) enrollee.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Indiana is memorializing Terry Hoeppner with a helmet decal (with thanks to Mark Fightmaster). … I’ll be interviewed tonight at 10pm eastern on the Face Off Hockey Show, whose principal, Scott Wasilewski, sent along this photo of NASCAR drivers Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann wearing NAPA-branded Canadiens jerseys. … “UnderArmour has made a couple of changes to Texas Tech’s football jerseys for 2007,” writes Aaron Dickens. “The jersey numbers will be much thinner than last season and the UA logo will be black instead of white.” … Oh my. … You probably saw this spotlighted in my ESPN column from last week, but just in case: UniformViolation.com is pretty damn cool. … Everything leads back to Bill Buckner (good find by Jere Smith). … “The Harrisburg City Islanders of the United Soccer Leagues Second Division have what may be the most useless names I’ve seen on a team’s jersey — they’re in blue here,” writes Chuck Nolan Jr. ” Also, Harrisbuirg has worn pink jerseys and Cincinnati (from the same league) has worn pink socks.” Ewwww. … The St. Paul Saints have added a black armband to mark the I-35W bridge collapse. It’s interesting that minor league teams are usually more showy and “wacky” that MLB teams, but in this case the Saints’ response to the bridge tragedy is much more restrained than the Twins’ gesture. … Speaking of memorials, have you noticed that the umpires have been wearing “SC” sleeve patches? That’s in memory of former ump Shag Crawford (father of current ump Jerry Crawford), who recently passed away. … The Thai police department is punishing slipshod officers with a novel twist on the scarlet letter (nice find by Matt Brosseau). … AJ Connelly notes that Terrell Owens “has opted for something from Jimi Hendrix’s wardrobe! Something needs to be done about this before Reebok spots it and make it de riguer in the NFL on Sundays.” … Someone broke a record of some sort last night. It had nothing to do with uniforms, so if you have strong opinions about the record-breaker, please post them on a more appropriate forum, not here. Thanks.

247 comments August 8th, 2007

…But I Know What I Like

If you’re a regular reader of this site, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance that you used to doodle uniforms or at least logos in the margins of your notebooks back in junior high. No shame in that — I did it myself, and so did uniform designer Todd Radom. But when it comes to uniform doodling, we’ve all got nothing on Marty Hick.

I met Marty a few weeks ago at the Uni Watch party in St. Louis (he’s the one who wore the super-cool St. Louis Cardinals necktie). At one point during the party he went outside and then returned carrying a cardboard box. When I asked him what was in it, he was all noncommittal. “I’m can’t show you yet,” he said. “I need a few more drinks before I’ll be ready for that.”

A few beers later, I asked Marty if he was ready to give me a peek at his stash. Still a bit wary but now clearly eager to share, he hauled the box onto the bar, reached in, and pulled out a big stack of notebooks — notebooks filled with amazingly detailed uniform drawings.

I flipped through the notebooks as Marty explained that he’d been making these drawings for years. But I soon stopped listening to him, because I was too busy engrossing myself in the drawings, which were incredible. There were stripe patterns and studies, comparative pants concepts, logo redesigns, Olympics uniforms, baseball sleeve treatments, all-star designs, NFL sock comparisons, some bizarre corporate brand uniforms, and more. It was a mother lode of obsessive-compulsive uniform illustrations.

The most interesting artistic trope in Marty’s drawings was his habit of combining home and road designs in the same drawing (additional examples here, here, here, and here), which created a weird In-Betweener or Lokai and Bele effect. When I asked him why he did that, he replied, “To save ink.”

By this time Marty’s initial reticence had given way to exuberant self-promotion. “Look, look at that!” he said as I flipped the pages. “Look, a logo on the Bears’ pants! Who else would think of doing that? Nobody! Look at that Islanders concept! Look at that Rams redesign! And look, here’s where I reconfigured the American and National Leagues in three divisions each — years before they actually did it themselves!” Somehow this all came off as charming instead of egotistical. I mean, really, how could you not be charmed by this? (You can see even more of Marty’s work in this slideshow.)

It was pretty obvious to me that Marty didn’t create all this artwork because he wanted to; like all creative visionaries, he did it because he had to. So I got his address and then, when I got back to my hotel room, I immediately ordered him a copy of Blackstock’s Collections, the book of obsessive “visual lists” that I reviewed a few weeks back. In the spirit of Blackstock’s work, as well as his own, I hope he’s doodled a few drawings in the margins.

Membership News: Lots of cool new stuff in the membership gallery, with lots more to come in the next few days. Remember, you can click on your card’s icon to explain what the design is based on and why you chose it, and you can also leave comments for anyone else’s design.

Meanwhile, every enrollee should now be listed on the membership roster. If you’ve signed up and don’t see your name listed, please let me know and I’ll make things right.

I’m happy to report, incidentally, that we’ll soon have a very special raffle — one that will make all you glad to have those three bonus raffle entries that come with membership. Details soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Oklahoma will have player names on the jerseys this season. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Although not truly uni- or logo-related, this is really, really cool. Details here. … Dennis Hurley has created a gallery of Cork City FC uniforms. … Brandon Roberts notes that Kentucky appears to have a new white helmet stripe this season. … College hockey report from Tom Konecny, who writes: “Though no official announcement from the school, the top two pics on this page appear to be the new Bowling Green State University hockey jerseys.” … The Bengals have once again published their jersey schedule for the upcoming season. Why can’t every NFL team do this? … In a vaguely related item, Chris Gilligan reports that this year’s N.Y. Giants season tickets show the team’s uniform history (additional images here and here). … Despite what you might think, I had nothing to do with this video (but Vincent Barone says his sister did). … Remember how we all noted some inconsistencies in the shoulder lightning bolts on the Chargers’ new uniforms when the design was unveiled a few months back? Check out this commercial, which shows the new uniforms in action. Not only do the bolt styles vary from player to player, but compare this view of LT to this view — and it’s the same play! … The Lakers have a new 60th-anniversary logo. … The Nats and Cards wore Negro League throwbacks on Friday. Interestingly, the Nats had throwback caps but cheated by using their navy road helmets, even though it was a home game. … Justin McGrail notes that the Celtics are plastering Kevin Garnett’s image everywhere in a numberless jersey. … Chaminade University is sponsoring a logo design contest (with thanks to Chris Chaussee). … “The Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League wore special jerseys during pregame warm-ups to honor longtime coach Brian Kilrea’s 2000th back in February,” writes Joe Dunman. “Luckily they didn’t all wear the jerseys during the actual game — the play-by-play guy would have gone crazy.” … Several readers have asked about this photo, which recently ran in SI and appears to show Hank Aaron wearing a two-digit number starting with 5. Now, the Hammer actually wore No. 5 when he first came up, later switching to his familiar 44, but I can’t find any info about him wearing fifty-something (or fifty-anything). Joe Hilseberg notes that neither of Aaron’s minor league teams was called the Braves, so that rules out that possibility. Anyone know more about this? … Might just be the lighting, but it looks like the Wizards are changing their trim from bronze to gold. … Willie Randolph added a “B.R.” inscription to his cap the other day, in memory of Bill Robinson. … Interesting NHL logo-o-rama site here. … Syracuse has unveiled a helmet revision, and if you squint a bit and break out the magnifying glass, you might just notice it. … Matthew Hackethal recently came across some old 1986 Topps stickers that show some of the Braves wearing really shitty-looking mesh-backed caps. “The photos appear to have been taken during batting practice (Dale Murphy’s shows him leaning against a batting cage),” he writes. “I’m wondering if this was just a spring training thing or did it continue in to the regular season.” Anyone..? … This always cracks me up. … In fact, it cracks me up so much I’ll show another example. … Not quite uni-related, but an interesting superstition. … Chosen logos (nice find by Matthew Scher). … The batting helmet from Bonds’s 755th homer is heading for the Hall of Fame (thanks, Vince). … June Jones apparently has some unorthodox coaching methods (thanks again, Vince). … Here’s something you don’t often see: an NHL/NASCAR connection (the trifecta for Vince). … Someone has tracked Florida State’s record by uniform combo (with thanks to Bob Jordan). … Rutgers has apparently tweaked their football jersey (compare to last year’s version). … The following item was buried in yesterday’s column by Newsday’s Ken Davidoff: “The commissioner’s office issued a memo last month to remind teams that proper uniform tops are to be worn at all times. That means that managers such as Boston’s Terry Francona can no longer go with the sweatshirt look.” I’ll believe that when I see it. … We’ve seen the Steelers’ 75th-anniversary logo before, but here’s how it looks on their jersey. … Several readers reported seeing a green dot on the back of many players’ helmets during yesterday’s Steelers/Saints Hall of Fame Game. Haven’t been able to find a photo. Anyone know more about this? … This site got an insane number of hits over the weekend, and I can’t figure out why. Not complaining, mind you — just mystified. Links from my Friday ESPN column account for some of the increased activity, but there’s gotta be more to it than that. Did some big mainstream site link over here without my being aware of it?

161 comments August 6th, 2007

Just My ’Type

Wednesday’s comments section featured a really great discussion about a 1981 contest sponsored by the White Sox, who invited fans to submit design proposals for the team’s 1982 uniforms. Some of these ideas were produced as prototypes and modeled. That led to further discussion of other MLB prototypes that were produced but never made it onto the field of play, and soon people were saying, “Paul, this would make a great column topic.”

I agree, and now I’m planning to write about this for ESPN. If you know of other prototypes — not just drawings or Photoshop concepts, but actual uniforms that were manufactured with an eye toward potential use — speak up. And don’t limit yourself to baseball, since prototypes have also existed in other sports. For example:

• NFL: The most famous NFL prototype is probably this, which the 49ers introduced at a press conference in 1991. Fan reaction was so intensely negative that the design was withdrawn after one day. There’s a decent roundup of other football helmet prototypes here, but I don’t have any images of full-uniform prototypes. Anyone..?

• NHL: The Blues were ready to roll out this design as an alternate jersey in 1996, until coach Mike Keenan put his foot down. More recently, the Caps were reportedly close to going with this. Anyone got better images of that one, and/or any other team protos?

• NBA: Sigh. As usual, basketball is the least-documented sport here. I can’t think of any NBA prototypes. Little help..?

Should be a great topic — my thanks to everyone who got the ball rolling during the comments thread.

Membership Update: Big arts and crafts day yesterday at Uni Watch HQ, as I trimmed, laminated, and mailed out several dozen membership kits. I’ll do some more today and should be completely caught up by Monday.

Today, incidentally, marks four weeks since the membership program opened for business. In that time, the active roster has swelled to 191 members, and our design gallery is now starting to look like a really cool stamp collection. My continued thanks for all the support — I’m really pleased with how the first month of this project has played out.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s entry about Ted Lilly being AWOL when he was due to bat prompted the following from ballpark historian and longtime Uni Watch pal Todd Radom: “This is DIRECTLY adjacent to the Cubs’ home dugout, literally three steps away. Does it solve the mystery? No, but I needed some rationalization to have taken this photo last year.” … Dubya’s latest jersey: a University of Arizona softball. “Not quite sure why he got the number 7,” writes Chris Falvey. “This is Arizona’s 8th national championship.” … Not uni-related but still plenty interesting. … Roush Racing and the Red Sox ownership group have marked their new partnership with a really pathetic-looking “baseball-themed” car. Look closely and you’ll see that they didn’t even get the 9s right. … Truly insipid 1980s Cabbage Patch Kids commercial viewable here, notable for the fact that the doll has a fairly legit-looking uniform but the players are wearing nausea-inducing knockoffs. … Uni Watch-esque assessment of Wimbledon attire here. … Eric Bangeman reports that Australia’s World Cup unis will look like this (here’s the previous design). “These are made by Canterbury and have grip panels like the new Nike jerseys from England and France, although the Australian jerseys will reportedly have the grip panels in position-specific places,” says Eric.

198 comments June 29th, 2007

Paternity Case

As you can see, the ticket stub shown at right is from 34 years ago, almost to the day. That date happened to be Father’s Day, 1973 — a day that my family spent at the ballpark.

Looking back, this could not have been much of a treat for my father. Egged on by one of those “Take Dad to Shea for Father’s Day!” ads, I had gotten the bright idea that I would pay for his ticket. But I was so pleased with myself for ponying up the entire $2.75 (no small sum for a nine-year-old whose weekly allowance was a quarter and who wasn’t yet big enough to make extra cash mowing lawns around the neighborhood) that I neglected to consider that he still had to pay for my ticket. And my Mom’s ticket. And parking, and gas, and hot dogs. Plus he had to deal with holiday traffic, which must have been a real bitch. Pop, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry — my heart was in the right place, honest. I just hadn’t thought it all through.

Anyway, the Mets won, thanks in part to recent call-up named Ron Hodges, who hit his first major league homer. I remember reading in the paper the next day that Yogi Berra — then the Mets’ manager — said, “The kid’s got some pop, he’ll hit some more of those,” or words to that effect. And he did — exactly 18 more over the course of a 12-year career, to be exact. To this day, I still don’t understand how such a marginal player managed to stay on a big league roster for more than a decade.

The ticket stub, as you can see, is light blue, which happens to be MLB’s designated Father’s Day color (to promote prostate cancer research, don’tcha know). Among yesterday’s highlights:

• Players have been wearing light blue sweatbands on Father’s Day for years now (I first recall seeing it in either ’99 or 2000), but I think this is the first year that the sweatbands were “DAD”-inscribed — sometimes lengthwise, sometimes crosswise.

• Big Papi really outdid himself with the wristbands: one on the left and two on the right (with a bracelet in between the latter two).

• Many umps wore the blue wristbands too.

• The blue ribbons are old hat by now, but I was mildly surprised to see that they even put one on Terry Francona’s pullover.

• Intern Vince Grzegorek (who took his dad to yesterday’s Indians/Braves game) spotted something I don’t recall having seen before: Santiago Casilla wore a ribbon on his cap.

• As has been the case for the past couple of years, several players also wore blue ribbon temporary tattoos, including Manny Delcarmen, J.D. Drew (who had them on both arms), and Hector Carrasco. (Big thanks to Kelly O’Connor for linking to the Drew and Delcarmen pics in yesterday’s comments.)

That’s all nice enough. But the best thing about this promotion has always been when players wear eye blue instead of eye black. The king of that style yesterday was Felix Pie. If that doesn’t stop prostate cancer, nothing will.

Capital Idea: Here’s a cool opportunity for someone in the DC area. The Capitals will be unveiling their new uniforms this Friday, June 22nd, at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington. The event begins at 5:30 pm, with the actual unveiling slated for about 6:40. I’ve been invited to attend but am unable to make it, so Caps media director Nate Ewell has very graciously consented to allow a Uni Watch representative to attend in my stead.

The surrogate in question will be permitted (indeed, required) to take photos and notes, and will then prepare a summary report that I’ll post on the blog the following Monday. If you’d like to represent Uni Watch at this event, send me a note explaining why you’re the right person for the job. Please include your full name, address, phone number, and age. Thanks. No more applications, please — member Mike Forgy, a longtime Caps season ticket holder, has been selected for the job.

June Raffle: I’ve got an extra copy of the 2001 MLB Style Guide, which shows the official specs and colors for each team, and I’m going to raffle it off for free. This particular copy has a great history: It was raffled off once before, at the 2006 Uni Watch Athletics Aesthetics Party in Brooklyn, where it was won by Mets by the Numbers impresario Jon Springer, but he recently gave it back to me so I could give it away again. Since then, the cover has gotten some light scratches from Uni Watch mascot Tucker (I think he was expressing his displeasure with the Rockies’ solid-purple alternates), which is sort of the Uni Watch office equivalent of a grass stain on a game-used jersey.

This is a free raffle: Just send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by 10 pm eastern on Thursday, June 21st. One entry per person. But everyone who’s signed up for membership by 9 pm Thursday will automatically get three extra entries. If you’re a member and don’t bother to e-mail an entry to the raffle address, you’ll still get three entries. I’ll announce the winner on Friday, OK? OK!

Speaking of membership, Scott is busily catching up on the next batch of cards, and I should be able to add the rear designs to the roster page within a few days. I’ve also created a gallery of all the current back-card designs, which will be updated as Scott creates each new one.

As for the actual cards, just about everyone in the first batch should have received their cards by now. If you still haven’t received yours by, say, Wednesday, let me know. The new batch should start shipping out by the end of this week.

We’ve also decided upon a little bonus benefit that will come into play down the road: All members who join by the end of July will have a special “Charter Member” designation added to their cards when they renew next year.

Uni Watch News Ticker: A few of my recent ESPN columns have mentioned Chuck Kinder, who wore No. 100 for WVU in 1963, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood. Now Craig Mullen has turned up a video clip about Kinder — nice find. … Really interesting note from Chad Stegemiller, who writes: “Friday’s Indianapolis Star had an article about the 40th year of baseball having a state championship. They included a photo showing Arlington High School and Jasper High School playing in the 1967 state semifinals. I immediately noticed the Jasper players having ‘Jasper’ on their back instead of numbers (plus I am sure you will like their choice in hosiery). Unfortunately, there are no front views of Jasper’s jerseys.” … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Good article here about the history of NASCAR uniforms. … Andrew Daull found some great Cooperalls footage at the 3:10 mark of this video. … On Friday I asked if anyone knew about the little gold circle on the back of Bobby Abreu’s belt. An inside source from an American League clubhouse responded thusly: “It’s a Phiten titanium disc that has become very popular around clubhouses. I’m not sure how well they would work being on the belt (and thus having several layers of clothing between it and the skin) but many players seem to like it, and I even know one photographer who has two on his elbow to help with some pain he was having — he says the stuff works.” And in a related item, several MLB players also believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Barry Bonds’s negative drug tests. … Faaaaascinating note from Ryan Hemminger, who writes: “As I was sitting in the gallery at the 10th hole at Oakmont watching Tiger Woods line up a shot on the green, I noticed that he was wearing one black sock and one white sock. I thought that it was odd, and I figured it must be some sort of superstitious thing he does. However, later in the afternoon, at hole number 5, I noticed that Vijay Singh was also wearing two different colored socks — one navy blue and one white [as you can sort of see here — PL]. I can’t confirm with photographic evidence (the USGA is VERY strict about not allowing cameras on the course), but is this some sort of trend among pro golfers, or just an odd coincidence?” Anyone know more about this? … Lots to like in this photo of Dunbar High (Kentucky) baseball team (with thanks to Scot Williams). … Bizarre scene at Steelers fantasy camp, where one of the participants was an amputee with a prosthetic leg, which was emblazoned with a Steelers logo (nice find by Dennis O’Neil). … Redskins long snapper Ethan Albright gave up his uniform number to a teammate in what this article describes as a “private barter transaction” (with thanks to Tim Nichols). … Speaking of the ‘Skins, when Chris Cooley played with his fly unzipped last year, I figured it was an honest mistake. But having now seen the hot pants that he’s wearing during Redskins minicamp, I’m convinced that the guy is a serious fetishist (with thanks to Stewart Snelson). … Kudos to Chris Manes, who found this great old photo of the Suns’ 1960s cheerleading uniforms. … According to the second paragraph on this page (forwarded by Rory Gustison), the Patriots are considering “wearing the team’s throwback red jersey and old helmets for at least one game” in 2009. Yes, three seasons from now. … Very odd scene in Japan, where Warren Cromartie — who first played baseball for the Expos and then for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan — recently participated in a pro wrestling event and wore a Giants-style uniform for the occasion (it said “Samuraiman” across the chest). Afterward, he held a press conference, where, as Jeremy Brahm puts it, “he looked almost just like he did when he played in Japan.” … Fernando Rodney’s cap tag was sticking out yesterday. … Very odd find by Patrick Sharon, who was recently at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and noticed that a Lee Roy Selmon jersey on display had one orange letter. Just a hunch: I’m guessing that the original heat-pressed white letter peeled off, leaving some discolored fabric in its wake.

212 comments June 18th, 2007

Uni Watch Book Club: The Brooklyn Dodgers

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: Last night I worked a volunteer shift at the very wonderful City Reliquary, where the gift shop featured a book I hadn’t noticed before: Mark Rucker’s Brooklyn Dodgers, a pictorial history of my home borough’s most storied franchise. After flipping through the pages for a few minutes, it became apparent that this was a mandatory purchase. Here are some of the reasons why:

• This shot, taken in 1868, shows something I haven’t seen before: Look closely and you’ll see that the players are wearing little cuff clips on their trousers, much like what urban cyclists sometimes wear.

• Check out the neckties on display in this 1884 team portrait. And this page shows contrasting neckwear styles.

• Somehow the lace-up jersey style always looks better on guys with bushy moustaches, no?

• Wanna learn something amazing? Read the caption to this illustration.

• Excellent view here of the old style of wearing your fielding glove on your belt while batting.

• I would give anything for this sleeve style to come back into vogue.

• Here’s the best view I’ve ever seen of the Dodgers’ 1916 tattersall plaid design from 1916.

• Think this sleeve logo is big? How about two of them!

• Here’s the earliest photo I’ve ever seen of a player wearing a windbreaker under his jersey (or maybe just the earliest windbreaker photo I’ve ever seen, period).

• Spectacular view here of the white slacks that umps wore on Sundays and holidays in the early 1940s.

And as long as we’re talking about historical stuff: You know how old fruit crates used to have really amazing labels? Roger Faso has turned up an artist named Ben Sakoguchi, who creates baseball-themed paintings in the style of those old fruit designs. Check out Sakoguchi’s full web site here.

Membership Update: Big day yesterday, as we topped 100 memberships — check out the ever-expanding active roster here. My thanks again (and again and again) to all who’ve signed up. If you’ve been thinking about getting on board, full details are available here.

Regarding benefits: T-shirts for those who’ve signed up at Level Two or above have been ordered and should start arriving right about now. Membership cards, fridge magnets, and digital art CDs will begin shipping this weekend. By this time next week, I hope to be completely caught up on everything. Thanks again (and again and again) for your patience.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Wednesday’s note regarding the Diamonbacks’ uniform schedule led to this communiqué from a source with the Astros: “Now, the ’Stros are wearing the brick red jerseys almost exclusively on the road as opposed to the gray. The road brick red is the only Cool Base we have and the owner likes the red. There has been a trend as we get down the stretch in previous years that we would wear them for certain games that did not fit the usual alternate jersey schedule. Red was usually only worn on Sunday. However, last road trip the owner asked for red on the road. BUT, we played the DBs and they had wore their red jerseys on Sunday… making us switch to gray for one game. Luckily we don’t change helmets or caps or pants.” … Good catch by Willet Hossfeld, who notes that Tyler Clippard appears to have removed the button from the top of his cap. … My two cents regarding the disastrous London Olympics logo: It reminds me of this. … The minor league Elmira Jackals have unveiled new home and road unis (much to the disgust of Bryan Long, who quips, “How boring are these things?”). … Reprinted from Wednesday’s comments: Randy Moss was asked about his temporary practice jersey number (6) and had this to say: “Sometimes you can be able to go back and get your number and sometimes you can’t. They really told me 6 was the available number that they have back in the equipment room, so I said, ‘Just give me a number and I’ll make it.’ I guess there is a little buzz around right now with me and number 6. I don’t really care about a number, all I care about is suiting up and going out here and winning on Sundays.” His official roster/jersey number is still to be determined. … Meanwhile, Todd Krevanchi notes that Moss has been getting rather creative with his gloves. … Latest Japanese baseball weirdness contributed by Jeremy Brahm: Hichori Morimoto in stilts. … Good view here of Rafael Nadal’s personalized sneakers (as spotted by Brinke Guthrie). … Good little comedy video here, showing what the NHL’s “super-sleek” third jerseys might look like (nice find by Jeremy Brahm). … Follow-up to Vince’s tattoo entry yesterday: Ryan Howard has a huge brand on his arm. Full details here (with thanks to Michael Milici). … Very nice early uniform catalog (extremely similar to one that I already have, so I won’t be bidding on it) here, and some great vintage unis and accessories up for auction here, here, here, and here. … Meanwhile, here’s a vintage print ad and a uniform company uniform print ad that I bought. … All NASCAR cars will feature a memorial decal for Bill France this week (with thanks to Adam Denobriga). … Steve Robeson reports that the Caps are having a fire sale of old merch. … Photo of the day (courtesy of Jon Klevorn). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Orioles will wear Negro Leagues uniform on September 6th. Details here. … Yancy Yeater reports that the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League will be wearing 1979 Cubs-inspired throwbacks tomorrow night. … It’s really small and hard to see, but it looks like Santa Clara had some killer basketball unis back in 1911 (taken from this article, which was forwarded by Tim Sheehan). … Today’s installment of the always-entertaining No Mas blog featured this shot of the first Hagler/Antuofermo, and you know damn well what part of the photo I immediately fixated on.

142 comments June 8th, 2007

Very Tragic

There’s nothing new about a tragedy from the “real world” being commemorated on a sports uniform. Sometimes the gesture is confined to one team, like the Rockies wearing a “CHS” sleeve patch after the Columbine High School shootings, or the Astros wearing a space shuttle patch following the Columbia disaster. But sometimes the response is more widespread — after Hurricane Katrina, for example, all MLB teams wore Red Cross helmet decals, and several college football teams wore a Gulf states decal.

But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like the uni-based response to the Virginia Tech shootings. It began with the Nationals wearing VT caps on Tuesday night and has really snowballed from there. Here’s what I’ve seen so far (and I bet there’s plenty more that I’ve missed):

• College Baseball: The most obvious response has come from Virginia Tech itself, where all of the school’s teams will wear a memorial patch for the rest of this year. The first team to wear it has been the Hokie baseball team. Meanwhile, Auburn and Alabama wore VT colors on Friday.

• College Football: It isn’t football season, but several schools are holding their spring scrimmages right about now. Ohio State wore the VT logo for their game on Saturday. Kentucky did the same thing, and Michigan State wore a red VT helmet decal (here’s a closer look). Meanwhile, over at Penn State, Joe Paterno had a VT cap, and Penn State’s student cheering section even formed the VT logo. (Special thanks to Jesse Gavin for letting me know about a couple of these that I hadn’t been aware of.)

• MLB: On Friday, Paul Bako wore a VT wristband and Kevin Youkilis donned a VT cap during batting practice. On Friday night, the Red Sox wore the VT logo on their sleeves and caps. And on Saturday night, Angels pitcher Joe Saunders — MLB’s only Virginia Tech alum — got special permission from the Commissioner’s office to wear a VT cap.

• NBA: Allen Iverson wore a memorial patch on his protective sleeve last night.

• Golf: Several PGA players have been sporting the VT logo, including Charley Hoffman, Jason Dufner, Mark Calcavecchia, and Johnson Wagner (a VT grad).

• NASCAR: The VT logo was displayed on lots of cars over the weekend, including those driven by Ward Burton,