By Phil Hecken

You guys will recall several weeks ago I ran a “Design-A-Cap” contest, for Coach Jerome Nemanich and his Sartell Sabres, and the results were outstanding. Reader Marc Walls saw the original contest, and thought our fantastic readers could do the “Design-A-Cap” one better — to wit: Design A Whole Uniform!

Here’s Marc’s original e-mail to me explaining his idea:

Love the work you’ve been doing on the website. I really enjoyed the design a cap idea for today’s column. I saw that you had proposed a design a uni option. I think that’s a great idea, and if you’re interested I’d like to offer the school I coach to be the team you choose.

I am one of the baseball coach’s at Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee. We are looking to undergo a complete redesign, including possibly a new logo.

Here’s the catch, which I think will make it fun for uniwatchers. Our colors are purple and gold! I’ve tried with no hope to come up with uniform designs that use the purple in a way that isn’t awful, and I could really use everyone’s creativity. Our current hat is solid purple with the Chicago Cubs “C” in gold.

Intrigued, but semi-swamped with weekend entries, I did respond to Marc, who then got back to me with more of the guts of the idea, as well as a few pictures from which to base the uniform redesigns:

Our high school is planning to undergo a complete redesign of our uniforms over the next year. I’m going to make some requests, and attach some pictures to show what the team has had in years’ past.

The school has been using the same hat design for the last 20 years, the Chicago Cubs “c” logo in yellow on a white outline. The hat is solid purple. We are probably going to keep that logo, but are looking to add a few alternate logos. I’m hoping the savvy guys at UW can create some great logos for us to use. Here’s what we’re looking for:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

If we decide to use any of these designs in the future, we will definitely work out some kind of payment for all of your hard work.

* The parameters: colors are purple and gold, which I know is hard enough, without including the black.

Marc included four photographs to emphasize his points above:

“Purplemesh” … “Purplemesh 2″ … “Grays” … and “Yellowmesh”.

I got one last e-mail from Marc this week, with one or two points he wants to stress:

While we are looking for uniform ideas, we would also really appreciate any logo redesigns and cap designs. That’s almost as important as the uniform designs. And like I said, we will gladly contribute some goodies to everyone who works so hard on those mock-ups.

Well there you guys have it. Another reader has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging you to come up with not just a new cap and logo redesign, but a whole uniform redesign as well. I’m not sure what “goodies” Marc will be able to provide to the contest winner(s), but we’ll worry about that when we get there.

So, anyone who is interested, the “rules” are basically the same as the “Design-A-Cap” contest: Take Marc’s ideas and put them into cyber-reality. Just remember the “guidelines”:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

*The parameters: colors are purple and gold.

As with the Design-A-Cap contest, I would ask that when you have your design(s) ready, please send them to me and put as your “SUBJECT” line: Design A Uniform Contest. You can also E-mail me at that address if you have any questions. I won’t set a hard and fast deadline, but I’d expect the contest to be open for at least two weeks — so try to have your submissions to me by the weekend of November 14-15.

If you don’t have any “blank” templates, a few designs can be found here, here, here, and here, or you can simply google “baseball uniform builder”, which will provide ample ways to customize a baseball uniform. There are probably a bunch of other blank uni templates out there too.

OK? OK. Don’t disappoint us Uni Watchers! After seeing those Sartell Sabres Cap designs, I know how great your entire uniforms, caps and logo designs will be.

“(Obviously, I thought 1995 was a good starting point since it is still recent history, and most NFL teams wore throwbacks to celebrate the league’s 75th Anniversary in 1994).

“You may be surprised by the answer. From 1995-2009 there is not a single team that has retained the same uniform set for literally every game. All 32 teams in the league have either redesigned their uniforms, worn alternates, or worn throwbacks at some point since 1995. There were four teams that came close to retaining the same look throughout this period, though. I have outlined them below:”

Packers: Green Bay has diverted from their traditional uniform set only twice since 1995. This occurred in 2001 and 2003 when they wore throwbacks as mandated by the league for Thanksgiving Day games.

Colts: Indianapolis donned league-mandated Thanksgiving throwback uniforms in 2004. (Note: Colts have also changed their look in a couple minor ways. The team wore blue pants for several games in 1995–no longer a part of the team’s wardrobe– and permanently switched from a blue to a gray facemask).

Chiefs: Kansas City sported the same uniform until this year’s AFL Legacy celebration.

Raiders: Like the Chiefs, Oakland’s steak of uniform consistency was broken by league-mandated AFL Legacy celebration.

“As you can see, these teams were mostly eliminated for use of throwbacks that were mandated by the league, instead of issued by the team itself. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find that there is literally not a single team in the NFL that has survived the alternate/throwback/redesign craze.

“Thought this may interest readers. Thanks for all your hard work on this blog.”

Very sexy…not trying to be a whore or anything, but I gotta tell ya – I got done with them last Thursday, took them to my kids’ baseball tourney in Charleston this past weekend…the compliments and inquiries – wow! There’s Packer fans everywhere!

So what exactly did Frosty design? Check ‘em out: here, here and here.

I’m guessing those are supposed to be Packers boards? Probably no significance to the numbers either.

Thanks Frosty!

Hi Phil,

I know the moment may have passed, but with all the buzz about a possible Mets redesign for 2010, I thought I’d pass along my two-cent contribution. I first mocked up a cream-and-pinstripes combo over the summer, when the Mets rocked the oversized-NY throwbacks, so I was very happy to see that it might come to pass. I also tweaked the rest of their uniforms, the idea being to make them simple, classy, traditional, and black-less.

A couple of notes: the racing stripe on the away grays is supposed to be a little more subtle than the original ’80s version, though my ham-handed photoshop skills couldn’t really convey it. And the all-blue alternate with the blue-and-white trucker-style cap isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best I could come up with. Consider it a concession to merchandising reality.

Anyway, please do with this what you will. From my lips to Jeff Wilpon’s ears, eh?

Thanks Laurence. Next up is Bill Jones, who also missed the last “uni tweaks” but had a “Rays” tweak he wanted to share. Here’s Bill:

Hey Phil,

I love the uni tweaks! I know I’m late, but I did this almost 2 years ago had some trouble finding the MS paint file. I thought it was pretty good though, so I wanted to send it to you.

PL has mentioned that he liked the TB Devil Rays unis that featured green as a primary color. I too liked this design, and although I don’t completely hate it, I think the newer Rays unis are too sterile and flat out boring. I did, however, like the introduction of light blue, so I combined that with the deep green. I think it’s a handsome combination, one that is original and nicely captures the tropical feel without the use of aqua/teal (Does the world need more aqua? I think not!)

A couple notes…

For the logo, I kept the actual Ray that the team currently features as a sleeve patch. I also took the liberty of changing the team’s name to the St. Petersburg Rays (maybe it’s just me, but I think calling teams “Tampa Bay” is lame…the cities are Tampa and St. Pete, “Tampa Bay” is the body of water between them, and the Rays play in St. Pete). Besides, how can you argue with that two-tone interlocking S-P (for the hat), and the sweet “St. Pete” sleeve patch? I like the idea of calling the team the “St. Pete Rays”. Also, for that jersey, you may be thinking “what is going on with that that neck trim?” Well, think of the early 90’s Royals jerseys…

I’m proud of this one … and I never got around to it, but I totally envisioned a powder blue road uni (with the dark green hat…it would be killer!). Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

–Bill Jones (not the gumball helmet guy)

Good stuff Bill. Thanks again to all who have sent me their uni concepts. I expect some time in the near future to begin running your Football Uni Tweaks, so if you’ve sent me something, it’s-a-comin’ — and if you want to send me some NFL tweaks, drop me a line.

Meet Mongo

More Mongo

Game 3 of the Fall Classic and lots of college football today — and surely there’ll be some interesting uni-matchups for Jim to choose from. Don’t forget to post some of your suggestions in the comments. There will be at least ONE color-on-color matchup (and maybe more) — with those colors to be black and orange. How fitting.

Hey — how does a monster score a touchdown?

Easy, he crosses the ghoul line.

Have a safe and Happy Hallowe’en everyone.

By Phil Hecken

Well, MLB has finally begun the League Championship Series, so as the second season begins to build towards the matchup FOX would kill for a possible Yankees-Dodgers World Series (and a uni classic of epic proportions), lets take another look at what you, the readers, have dreamed up to fix your favorite teams. We tweaked the White Sox, the Brewers and the Blue Jays, plus a whole bunch of others — so let’s empty the baseball tank today and see who else needs fixin’.

First up is Hungry Hungry Hipster, who has an unique take on the Bronx Bombers. Here’s HHH:

Hi Phil!

Attached is my Yankees jersey “uni tweak.” Since the Yankees are so traditional and probably wouldn’t want a major redesign of their classic uniforms, I decided to give them a subtle update. I was inspired by the treatment the NFL ref jersey stripes got in their update several years ago. I widened the pinstripes at the top of the jersey, and they mirror the flared ends (serifs?) of the Yankee logo. :)

Next up is Matthew Mark Sajna, who has some ideas for the Indians. Here’s Matt:

Here is my idea of how to improve the Uniforms of the Indians. The first set include the home and away jerseys. These are fauxback uniform combinations, and they feature my idea for a new logo the team could intorduce as a sort of compromise for the protestors against the iconic Chief Wahoo. The second set features alternate unis for both home and away games. I brought back the red jersey as a harken back to the 70’s. Hope you like them. Thanks.

Our next submission comes to us from Jordan Fleck, who has some thoughts on the Houston Astros. Here’s Jordan (who apparently likes all capital letters):

SINCE EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE IN THE MODDE TO REINVIGORATE THEIR CURRENT TEAMS DESIGN, I THOUGHT THAT IT’D BE A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE THE ASTROS FAITHFULL A MAKEOVER. THE FIRST IS MY ATTEMPT AT USING THE CURRENT COLORS WITH A NEW SCRIPT FONT ON THE JERSEY AND A TWO TONE CAP. THE BLACK ALTERNATE WOULD BE USED FOR BATTING PRACTICE AND I DECIDED TO CREATE A BIT OF A FAUX-BACK FOR A COLT .45S JERSEY TO BE WORN ON SUNDAY GAMES.

IN THE SECOND ATTEMPT, I WENT BACK TO THE MIDNIGHT BLUE AND SUNSET ORANGE COLOR SCHEME WITH THE NEW SCRIPT FONT AND AN ORANGE AND BLUE ALTERNATE. I LIKE THE ORANGE AND BLUE TONES BUT THEY DON’T LOOK GOOD IN GREY.

Jordan also included this cool Chinese motif with his submission — not sure if that’s supposed to go with the Astros mocks, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Moving along, we have Doug Peltz, who has graced his with his concepts for the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s. Here’s Doug:

I saw your column today about making changes to MLB jerseys. I have a couple that I came up with a while ago and though I’d pass them along. I have a away alternate and an Oakland A’s home alternate. I’ve also included a new Tiger’s logo which is a combination of the old 80’s logo and the more recent Tiger crawling through the Olde English D logo. Hope you like them.

Our next submission comes from Matt McCutchan, who tweaked the Marlins. Here’s Matt:

Going for a more classic look and most importantly away from the black. If the mgmt wants to get away from the “90s teal,” I thought a UNC blue with navy highlights and just a touch of orange, the way, say, the STL Cardinals have a touch of yellow, would look nice..along with the navy piping..i hope you dig it.

Another Mets concept — a tweak on a previous concept — comes to us from Adam Wood. Here’s Adam:

Let me just start by saying that I’m a little pumped that I’m sending my first uniform design to you. Whether or not anyone gets to see it doesn’t concern me too much. Alex Rocklein made an excellent design for the Mets. However, there are a few things that I thought would be better. You will notice in the attached picture all my proposed revisions.

1) Replaced that orange button on the hats with a much more subtle blue one.
2) Got rid of the funky orange drop shadows and just gave the blue numbers an orange outline.
3) Added a number to the front of the home jersey as well as enlarged the one on the front of the roadies.
4) Took Alex’s idea for the road’s arm bands and applied the blue-orange-blue pattern to the whites.
5) On the home uniforms only, I removed the mets logo and replaced it with a Mr. Met patch.

If you want to get really detailed

6) I took the traditional “Mr. Met at bat” patch and cleaned it up by making all the cream colors to white, and changing the blue hat with an orange brim to all blue in order to better match the team.

Thanks for taking the time to check my ideas out.

Although our next submitter, Andrew Dixon missed the article containing all the Blue Jays tweaks, he sent the following along for your consideration. Here’s Andrew:

Hi Phil,

I am sending along a Blue Jays concept I came up with about six months ago. At the time, I didn’t have an email address for you, but I sent it along to Paul and asked him to forward it to you. I don’t know if that never happened or whether it did and it was so long ago it was forgotten, but I’d love to share my concept with UniWatch readers! I know I missed the day dedicated to Blue Jays posts, but hopefully you can work it in when you present the other re-design concepts!

I drew up home, away, home alternate, and road alternate concepts. I must admit I have an inexplicable affinity for the whole sans serif/no capitalization “mod” look in fonts which has recently become popular again (think the Pepsi font). The funny thing is, I always thought I hated this style – especially the trend toward not capitalizing things that ought to be capitalized – and I think part of me still does, and yet I also must admit to being weirdly drawn to it. I know it is very reminiscent of that old Padres font from 1978-1984, but what can I say? I like it, even as I know it has that kind of dated look (but that sort of font is very in right now – again, Pepsi, photobucket, etc.).

The other idea I had was to alternate shades of blue in the lettering: Blue Jays, after all, exhibit more than one shade of blue in their feathers, so, between the lettering and the use of powder blue for the road alternate, I’ve employed three shades of blue in this design.

One final note: had I had the expertise, I would have tried to mimic the original Blue Jays font by having a white line pass through the middle of all the letters in the word “blue jays,” just like it does/did in their original wordmark. However, I couldn’t get that to work in MS Paint, which is what I used, without making it look bad/unprofessional, so I gave up. If someone can do that to this design, I’d love to see what it looks like.

Winding down, our next submitter is Dwayne White, who has some Cincinnati Reds concepts. Here’s Dwayne:

Phil:

I love the articles about the MLB uniform updates.

I decided to tackle the Cincinnati Reds. I am not much of a fan of the “faux old-timer” look that the Reds are currently sporting. I grew up following the Reds in the late-’60’s and ’70’s of The Big Red Machine era. I always loved their traditional look, but the pullovers went on to long.

On the jerseys, I “ditched the black” drop shadows and went with the MLB Block font that the Reds used from the 1960’s until 2007. I felt it was a more traditional look with an updated style. I am not a fan of the current font that the Reds are currently using. The guys at The Clink Room did a good job, but it is not my cup of tea.

The road jersey is a button-down version of The Big Red Machine uniform. The home alternate jersey is a cream-colored vest look from the mid-’60’s. I like the cream colored jersey of the Giants and I went with that look for the vests. In my opinion, not every team can wear vests. Much like every team can’t wear pinstripes like the Yankees do. The Reds and Pirates vests have a deep tradition and I thought I’d incorporate that look. I also included a pinstriped cap to go with the vests, but a red cap can also be worn.

The home jersey is a crisp, bright snow white color with the contrast of red. The Sunday alternate jersey is my favorite. The bright red with the contrast of white, devoid of any black or drop shadows, is an upgrade without too many bumperstickers. Plus, it can be worn with the white, gray or the pinstriped pants.

I also went with the 4 inch player names on the back instead of the traditional 3 inch letters. That also harkens back to the mid-’60’s up until 2007. I like the name under the numbers, but not in an arch like the Reds have used, but no trim was used.

I hope you enjoy my concepts.

Our next submission also comes from a reader, Christopher Parke, who missed the Blue Jays fixin. But that’s OK, he’s got a uni concept anyway. Here’s Chris:

Your recent blog post about revamping the blue jays awful uniforms got me in a creative mood. I used the ideas and designs of the contributors in your post (including yours)and some of my own ideas. The MS Paint file is attached. What do you think?

The penultimate tweak comes from Geoffrey Waterman, who has conceptualized the Seattle Mariners. Here’s Geoffrey:

Hi!

I don’t really think the Seattle Mariners need to much to change their uniforms, but with the Sonics gone and a new soccer team that incorporates very similar colors that the Mariners use, plus the Seahawks, I thought they could use some color change.

I decided to go with a combination of the M-trident logo from the olden days and colors similar to then as well as from the baseball-M’s logo era. I chose to use a different font (partly because the one they use now is difficult to find) because I wanted to find something that reflected the metropolitan aspect of Seattle while not being hoity-toity. And for the numbers I wanted to use something similar to the ones used in their current alternate, a little more curvy and visually appealing.

With the home uniform I didn’t want to add much except for the change in font, number and color scheme (enough damage already), so I kept the blue piping, blue belt and the blue hat on white, with a similar arch to the team name and player name. I liked the non-capital “seattle” of the powder-blue Pilots unis, so I took that idea but with the “Mariners” for home, keeping the capital M to match the capital S on the hat. I also introduced a side stripe for the pants (followed down into the stirrups) and the sleeve stripes that made the Pilots uniforms so sexy.

With the away uniform, the changes were much the same as with the home, including the pants stripes, but I kept a straight blue stirrup for simplicity’s sake. It is the away uni, after all.

The alternate uniform is a few ideas mixed together. it has the sleeve and pants stripes from the home uniform, with stirrup stripes that match the sleeves. I did the jersey in the blue but with yellow sleeves (not a vest!), and did just the trident logo and a number on the front—it is supposed to be a home alternate.

Thanks! Hopefully someone else did some Mariners mock-ups to compare. Like I said, though, not that they need it.

Next up is Ben Traxel, one of our Sartell Sabres “Design A Cap” contest participants. Ben has seemingly way too much time on his hands, as I think he’s tweaked every MLB team (or is on his way to so doing). However, they’re really outstanding efforts, and you’ll wanna check each one out. So, take a deep breath, and enjoy the creativity that is Ben:

Phil,
As you can see, I’ve been working waaaay too long on this and not enough at my job lately. Part of the sickness I guess. At least I’ve been having fun along the way! I’ve got some more started but these are the ones I have finished. I really liked the Brewers changes the other day and wanted to tweak my tweaks after seeing the awsome designs posted, but alas, I left them alone. I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with Frosty and RPM in the process too. Well, here’s an explaination of each of the ones I’ve gotten to so far (I will do them all but it might take till next season!).

Process: I generally tried to look at the past of each team (that has a past) and use what is already available instead of completely redoing scripts, logos, colors, etc. In some cases I’ve gone all the way though. I prefer the city letter on the hat, mascot on the homies, and city on the roadies. I started doing this before all the tweaking began on the blog, with my versions of 70s alt unis. This was inspired by the Royals powder blues this year. Had to do sansabelts to make it “complete” but I suppose they could be used with belts as well. After you started posting the White Sox, I took it to another level and began adding the dailies to go with my alts. I never really liked having alts but now I’ve kind of changed my tune and am okay with one worn occasionally. Stirrups with stripes are a must. I am tired of boring grays and boilerplate designs that seem to be the same on each team so I tried to make something unique for the whites and grays for everybody. I am not afraid of bright colors as you will see…….here goes.

Brewers: home … road … alt. Current design looks to be off the shelf by people who have no sense of history or passion for baseball. Definately needs a redsign. Put the old M back on the hat. Go with colors from the originals. I recycled the BREWERS which could be this design or the block font. Either one works, but I chose this one. Could do without the lower case e, but none the less, looks okay. Barrel man needs a comeback so I put him on the state map for the sleeve. Added the hops to get something from the current set. Colored sanis need to make a comeback here also.

White Sox: home … road … alt. I put the alt together before you even had your White Sox tweak post. I always dug the collars from the late 70s so I had to include them. This is the only team that doesn’t have stirrups but the stripes certainly add to the overall getup. I created a new hat logo with a C that I think turned out pretty good. Never liked the big S and smallish O and X on the current logo so I combined them to make it work better for the alt. I know the three concepts don’t match each other but since they are never worn together I never thought that really mattered.

Cubs: home … road … alt. Obviously the pinstripes didn’t need much help as they have become a classic even though they really didn’t come around until later in the franchise existance. I just modified the logo a little, going back to an older version. The bear sleeve patch was always cool and needs to be a fixture. The roads is where the Cubs always seem to have had touble as they tend to change quite regularly. I went with a powder blue that is not quite as electric as some and it looks to work quite well. The horsecollar and red CHICAGO made the whole design come together. I tried some combos of blue lettering/numbering but the red by far stood out. I hope they never bring back the red cap bill. I know a lot of people don’t like pins on dark jerseys but the white ones from the 70s look mighty fine with the white pants in my opinion on the alts. Added the powder sanis to make it complete.

Pirates: home … road … alt. This is one team that vests work on. Either a team is a vest team or they are not. Hint Rockies? Not much to tweak here, but add the colored sanis and make all letters in PIRATES the same size. The Roadies are one of my favorites. The horsecollar being contrasted with the gray really came to life with the double yellow stripe. Hasn’t been done in decades and I fell in love once I started messing with it. The yellow alt with the red trim is of course taken from the late 70s. Kind of fun and should be a big seller for the fans….IMO don’cha know.

Rays: home … road … alt. Here is one team with no history to go off of. To me this means no horsecollar which has ties to the ancient past. Being in Florida, they definately need to brighten their look and do away with their drab getup they have. The sunburst is cool, stick with that. Kept the Devil Ray logo on the sleeve as well. The colors though are brighter, happier, beachier, Floridaier. Created a “watertable” on the whites and made their version of power blue more acqua for obvious reasons. They definately need to have more fun. Maybe they were a little gunshy during their latest overhaul after that first disaster!

Orioles: home … road … alt. Like the Pirates, not much to tweak here. My biggest beef is that damn bird they keep sticking on the hat. It didn’t work before, it didn’t work when it was a cartoon, and it doesn’t work now. Nothing more wimpy than that birdmark. So. In the beginning they had a B on the hat. There is still nothing more classic than a basic letter as the hat logo. Stick the old block B back up there an don’t worry about the Red Sox claiming it is a copied B idea from them. It was their once, do it again. The cartoon duck thing, older style that looks much classier, works well on the sleeve. Other than that, These guys are good, keeping the city name on the grays of course.

Padres: home … road … alt. Similar to the Rays, this team needs color. They had it once and I think they need it again. I always liked the brown/yellow scheme but it does lead to a bid of a toilet bowl conotation so I stayed away. Electric powder is the way to go for these guys. The alts obviously play off the past and I chose the best remaining wordmarks for the dailies. The sleeve patch is also a classic and should be kept but the hat has always had issues. They never seem to be satisfied with the interlocking SD, how it should be connected, the exact font, etc. I created a new hat logo with the setting sun SD. This is another beachy team and colors need to be used to make this statement.

One more thing, I created my own template in Autocad where I do all my work. It is what I know best so I just stay with that. Well, there you have it. For now. I will be doing more, and will get them to you when I get another good batch. We might not be in baseball season at that time, but oh well. Always enjoy your weekenders.

Wow, Ben, those were awesome. But wait … He isn’t done yet — Ben also sent me mock ups (without descriptions) for the following — and I’m sure if he’s reading this post, he’ll tell us all about the following in the comments:

Oakland A’s: home … road … alt.

Arizona Diamondbacks: home … road … alt.

Florida Marlins: home … road … alt.

Texas Rangers: home … road … alt.

Whew…that’s some work by the avid (or is it rabid?) UW readership. Great stuff one and all. I apologize for the length of this post, but I had so many great uni tweaks I wanted to put them all into one post — didn’t realize it was gonna be this long, but hey — more for you to enjoy. Thanks to all the submitters. Let them know how you feel about their tweaks!

Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, is back from the boonies for his “NC2A matchups”. He is gonna have a tough time with his uni matchups today — there are some outstanding potential ones, and a possible bunch of clunkers. Now, I don’t always agree with his choices, but he’s pretty discerning in his picks. How bout some nominees from you guys today? Scan the wires, check out the obscure games, find the doozies. You don’t want him to put USC/ND or The Red River Rivalry in the one spot, right? Post picks of your top (best and worst) games for his consideration down below. Thanks!

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Aight…as the season winds down, we’re gonna get a little tricky with this scoreboard. Not all that tricky, but it might give you pause. Teams are pretty obvious, but that’s where the ease ends. Or maybe not. You guys are too good at this game to be stumped, especially with this one. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. As always, and if possible, please do NOT post the date of the game but link to Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet and post a link to the answer. If that’s not possible, but I believe it is, link to a newspaper story or something similar which details the game. OK? OK. Ready. Guess The Game.

ATTENTION UNI TRACKERS — If you’re on of those insane lunatics, like me, who has kept track of your teams’ uniform combinations for all 162 (or, if you track the Twins, all 163) games this season, think about gathering all of your data, plus a final writeup, for your tracking. I may post my Mets tracking tomorrow, depending upon the size of the post. I’m hoping to gather everyone’s tracking and (if Paul gives me the OK), possibly place them into one big file for inclusion in the archives. When you have your stuff ready, send them to me with the subject line “UNI TRACKING – (your team)”. If you made it this far, I thank you for all your efforts. You don’t need to be terribly brief in your write-up, but please don’t compose a novel either. Make sure you list any particular trends or unique factors. I can tell you this: The Mets sucked this year, but not surprisingly, they had better records in certain combinations — now, had they worn those combinations more or less often, would their record have been any different? Who is to say. All I know is, when all was said and done, the Mets wore TWELVE different combinations this season, sporting (shockingly) winning records in six of them. Stay tuned (if you care) for the full writeup.

Ah…don’t ya hate it when those young whippersnappers think they’re faster and smarter and better lookin’ than you are? Pretty sure Mick does. Unfortunately, he’s wrong. But does this mean that Mick is only half-fast? Enjoy your Saturday Benchies. And remember, any resemblance between Mick and Rick is, well, purely coincidental.

This and That: Did we ever get a linkie to the new UNLV basketball unis? I don’t remember. Forgive me if we did … I know this was posted (at least in the comments), but worth another look-see: SI takes a look at the AFL legacy unis … Speaking of AFL throwbacks, the Patriots and Titans Oilers will be wearing them this Sunday … Big game at Big Bend today, when the Irish meet the Trojans, and will the Irish break out the green like they did before the ‘77 matchup? … This is a few days old, but the Huff Post has a nice breakdown of Broncos Unis through the years … In one of those moments where “you remember exactly where you were,” it was 20 years ago today (don’t you feel old now?) … It’s gotta be the unis, right? Nope. Both football teams from Mizzou are winless in 2009, despite both wearing throwbacks last weekend … Fresh on the heels of Paul’s post yesterday on the Winter Olympics melted records medals, the London Olympics of 2012 has unveiled it’s logos — yawn … Wanna own one of them game-used, unwashed Bronco uniforms from last weekend’s Legacy game? Here’s your chance … If you’re not a baseball fan, or don’t live in the northeast, or reside in my condo (which has no heat, thank you very little), you might not know it was cold at Yankee Stadium last night — like really cold — Lots of Fudd’s and hoodies on the participants … “Bullpen? What Bullpen?” … For every king, a crown … Apparently the porthole was closed, but the velcro wasn’t … Looks like the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium will be a little shorter now, but let’s hope the Steinbrenner’s don’t hire this guy to replace this guy … Rafa, dude, what’s up with the shorts? Did they belong to A-Rod’s outfit? … Does this remind anyone of this? … And finally, what happens when you go to an adidas school, but you’d rather wear Jordans? Well, if you’re Marcus Jordan, what do you think? (thanks to James Huening for the tip.)

Alrighty then, that’s a wrap for this fine Saturday. Enjoy the football, because it looks like mother nature may deprive you of baseball. Oh, right, I guess there’s hockey and some other stuff too. Unitrackers, start your engines, and lets see some of them gridiron matchups you hope Jim will pick as his top 5 (or worst). Have a great Saturday

By Phil Hecken

OK, it’s time to announce the nominees for the “Design A Cap” contest (the contest is now closed, but if you missed the original article, click here). Hopefully, one of the caps you’re about to see will be chosen by Coach Nemanich for his team, the Sartell Sabres. Lots to get to today, so lets begin.

Our first nominee comes from Adam Hainsfurther. Here’s his submission. And here’s Adam:

I went with a bit of a hockey fans touch on this. This is a logo similar to an alternate logo for the Buffalo Sabres, using the S provided to us by Coach Nemanich. After throwing the S in front of Sword I proceeded to change the colors of both the S and the sword in four different combinations of Navy, Royal, White, and Silver. This is what I came up with (note: I rendered up the white hat thinking what the hell, personally I’d go with the silver before the white one, but the Navy and Royal versions are my two favorites)

Next is Wesley Willis, who has two submissions, a home and an away. Here’s Wesley:

My name is Wesley Willis of Boaz, AL, and I am a avid reader of Uni Watch and I read it every day.

Here are my submissions for the home and away caps for the Sartell Sabres.

The logo, which is maintained throughout both caps, is a classic-looking letter S with a black sabre through its center from the lower-right hand area to the upper-left hand area. The home cap is all royal blue with an white S and black sabre, and the away cap is a white cap with a royal blue bill and royal blue S and black sabre. I hope that you and Coach Nemanich both like what I’ve produced here, and thank you for your consideration. I created these two files in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.

Our next cap entry comes from Keith Dow. Keith submitted this cap for consideration. Here’s Keith:

Since Indiana football isn’t on IU’s basic cable today for some strange reason, this contest was a perfect timewaster. Expect a few of these since I have a ton of fun making them.

Moving along, we have Sam Stuber who offers this submission. Here’s Sam:

My name’s Sam Stuber and here’s my design. Hope mine wins!

Our next entry comes from Nat Overholtzer. Nat didn’t include any write up with his submission, but he did include this cap. Thanks, Nat!

Continuing along, we have an entry from Ed Westfield, Jr., who came up with these four designs. Here’s Ed:

Here is my entry for Sartell Sabres cap contest. I went with the
Virgina motif…Thank you.

Our next cap comes from Chad Anderson, who came up with this design. Here’s Chad:

Here’s an entry in the Design A Cap Contest. I might try another.

The next submission comes from Josh Skattum, who provided only logos. Here are logo one and logo two. Josh explains:

Hello I am currently living in Sartell, MN and frequent the site quite a bit. I have to say I was surprised to read a story posted on Uni Watch from not only my home state, but hometown. Here are a couple of my suggestions, both are taken from the Buffalo Sabres design.

Next up is R. Scott Rogers, who has multiple submissions contained within his entry. Scott has quite the explanation:

Here is my entry in the cap contest for the Sartell Sabres. I grew up in Minnesota, and so have seen Sartell’s football and boy’s hockey uniforms in the past, and I drew some inspiration from those unis, which have nicely balanced royal and white with touches of gray or silver.

Working from Coach Nemanich’s suggestions, I imagined an “S” logo that could convey both the jaunty swooshing of a movie swordsman, a Zorro or Rob Roy, with the dynamic stance of a fencer. To bring in Coach Nemanich’s U-Va inspiration, I wanted to put a sabre blade figuratively in the hands of the Sartell “S”. I drew an “S” with a single fluid line that could be carved by a swordsman, with bulbs at each end like a fencer’s hands, and then put a cavalry sabre blade into the “S”’s hands. I angled the blade to give a sense of depth, to balance the slightly askew “S”, and to allow the “S” logo to work with either “Sabres” or “Sartell” jersey scripts in the future. (Outlined and drop-shadowed versions of the scripts on white and royal.)

I kept the double-outline of Sartell’s current cap logo, in part for continuity and to allow for better visual balance with the team’s white uniforms, and in part because the introduction of a gray-and-black blade in the blue or white letter requires the double outline. I’ve supplied images of the logo in Sartell’s current scheme of royal and white-and-royal caps, but I would suggest replacing one of these with a royal-and-gray cap to maintain a stronger connection to the school’s athletic identity.

I believe that my script “S”, which falls somewhere between the flatter cursive “S” used by the St. Paul Saints on their jerseys and the rounder one used for the 2001 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, allows this cap logo to integrate with the current uniform set without clashing, and also gives Coach Nemanich a strong logo to grow into as the team moves into its next uniform purchase.

In addition, I intended the cap logo to have at least the potential for use in other sports; I think it could work both on football helmets and on boys and girls hockey shoulder patches.

If four-color embroidery is prohibitive, the blade could be rendered in a single flat color that matches the outer outline, either black or gray. (I would choose gray.) The logo thus rendered loses a sense of depth and motion, but the image of the sabre blade remains clear.

Moving along, we have our next entry courtesy of Jason Epstein, who provides us two separate design concepts: concept one and concept two. Here’s Jason:

I read your online column everyday, great stuff!

Please see attached jpeg for my initial submission for the cap design contest.

Moving along, we next have Ben Smith who has provide us with this entry. Here’s Ben:

Here’s my submission, thanks for the challenge I had fun. — Pomegranates are too much work to enjoy.

Next up is Jeff Bahry, who also just provided logos. Here are logo one and logo two. Here’s Jeff to explain:

Please find the attached two logo concepts for the Sartell Sabres. I used Corel X3, so the the color may not appear Royal on your screen. But, you get the idea.

GO SABRES!

Our next submission comes from Doug Smith, who is decidedly old-school with his entry. Here’s Doug:

Hope you guys like it! Love UniWatch!

Our next entries come from Eric Davila who has three options: option 1, option 2, and option 3. Here’s Eric:

Here are a few ideas I wanted to send in for the design contest. Hopefully they will like them.

Next up is Joseph Baker, who has provided both a logo and a cap mockup. Here’s Joe:

I have attached my cap design ideas. I hope you enjoy them.

Thanks, joe baker

Next up is Daniel Carroll, who offers this submission. Here’s Daniel:

Thanks for putting this contest online!

Moving on, we have our next entry from Greg Gangemi, who came up with this design. Here’s Greg:

Attached is the hat concept that I came up with for the Sartell Sabres.

And now we have Jeff Pudlo, who has 2 logos and 2 caps: logo one, logo 2, which correspond to cap one and cap 2. Here’s Jeff:

Two designs, both included along with corresponding logos.

Our next submission comes from Vincent Hecker, who provides both a cap logo and a cap design. Here’s Vincent:

I dont know if you are still taking submissions for the cap design contest but i figured id send my work to you anyways. Basically all i did was redesign the S logo that the school already uses to make it look more sharp. Then I incorporated the sabre/sword logo behind the S. I guess that goes along the Virginia logo affect that the coach is looking for.

Im sorry that this work was all done in Microsoft paint (poor college student, cant afford photoshop), but i think it came out well for the best part. I have included the logo only in the first file. The second file is the logo as it would look on the hat. When i shrunk the logo down in paint to put it on the hat it really blurred out though.

Let me know what you think. I would appreciate the feedback from you and the coach.

And our penultimate cap submissions come from Dan Grieve, who has created both a white cap and a blue cap. Dan didn’t provide any commentary, but the two hats are just great. Thanks. And as a last minute addition, Dan also came up with two ‘alternate’ submissions, white alt and blue alt.

And finally, we have several submissions from Larry Torrenz, who not only created caps and logos, but (even though we didn’t ask for it) uniforms as well. So here are black jersey (with caps), blue jersey, gray road, and home white, as well as a school name alternate and a white alt; Larry also included a full uni mock and two wordmark/logos, here and here. Whew. Here’s Larry:

Thought I would take a whack at the logo request. Decided to keep it simple, with a little flair on the lettering.

Thanks for all the good work keeping the Uni-Watch followers well fed with uni-goodness…

*Got One Late entry (rec’d last night after I’d gone to bed), but I’ll throw it in here right now. It comes from Shane Wisniewski, who simply provided this sketch with no comments.

Well, there you have it. All I can say is HOLY SHIT WOW! What an outstanding effort from all of these designers. Every one of them is each outstanding in it’s own right, and I’m sure Coach Nemanich will have a difficult time choosing one. I hope that one of them will be selected as the “winner,” but they’re all great.

My thanks (deep, deep thanks) to each and every person who participated in this contest. Since the reaction was so great, I hope we can have a similar contest in the near future.

Like one of the designs? Make sure to cast your vote for the winner in the comments.

After taking a weekend off to enjoy watch the Gophers, the Cardiac Kids Twins, and enjoying a Monday evening with #4, Ricko’s back with the Boys from Benchies. Who knew Mike was a ‘Bama fan? Not me … I always thought he was a guy who loved the Beavers. Anyway, here is your fresh Saturday Benchies. Welcome back Mr. Pearson, we missed ya.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Well, we’re into baseball’s second season, so what will today’s scoreboard game be? A post season game? Hmmm… Possibly. You’ll just have to decide that for yourself. However, when you see the picture, that answer should be clear. Please be sure to post a LINK to the answer, using Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac, k? Ready. Set. Guess The Game. Feel free to send me more scoreboards so we can keep the game going into the off-season. Just Drop me a line. Thanks.

I get a lot of E-mail from UW readers, and I appreciate it, and try to read it all. Most of it is in response to a request or a contest submission, or what have you, but occasionally I get a random E-mail that turns into something neat. Case in point. Reader Ted Machnik sent me the following earlier this week:

Hi Phil:

I’m not handy with with templates and such, but I’m wondering if you could get your friend, Paul Soto, to come up with a couple of renderings of the Washington Nationals in the Expos original colours, trim, and fonts, circa 1969.

I think the scripted “W” would look very good on a tri-color cap. On the unis, “nats” where “expos” use to be. I would be curious to see how it would look.

Thanks.

Ted

Well, one thing led to another — I contacted Paul (”Pretty Boy Paulie“) with Ted’s request, and well, Paulie didn’t disappoint! So, I’m happy to share with you Paul’s Washington Expos, circa 1969:

For reference, here’s what the Expos looked like in 1969. Paul didn’t (yet) take a crack at the roadies, but he did a smashup job on the homes. He created four different logos for the Nationals based on the combined Nats & Expos script/wordmark. But he wasn’t done. He also mocked up six possible home unis. You can check them out here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Great work Paulie, and fantastic suggestion Ted!

Aighty then. That’s gonna do it for today. Everyone have a great Saturday. Our man on the street, Jim Vilk is gonna be out in the boonies (for real) this weekend, sans access to the Interwebs. So, I’m temporarily taking back the “Top 5 and 1 Worst College Football Matchups,” so to help me out, everyone pick one best and one worst game today. Remember, it’s the overall matchup, so if one team looks great but the other, not so much, it doesn’t qualify. OK? OK. Thanks.

I recently Ticker-linked to this 1972 photo of an odd Padres cap, with a particularly wide-spanning yellow panel. That item has now prompted some interesting responses — let’s take a look:

• First, several readers have pointed out that the same cap can be seen in this card (and most of them pointed out the huge crowd in the background)k. Y’know, I’ve looked at that card a few jillion times over the years and never noticed the unusual cap.

• Richard Craig has generously scanned a bunch of photos of Padres players wearing the wide-span cap. Most of those are head shots from a ’72 program, plus he also found one action shot. “The player shots include some amazingly unmemorable Padres (including Enzo Hernandez, he of the lifetime OPS of .550 in more than 2600 plate appearances),” Richard notes.

• The most intriguing communiqué comes Robert Walker. “That cap was only used in ’72, only on Sundays, and (from what I have found) only for home games.”

That’s a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. A Sunday-specific cap way back in 1972? I thought the notion of specific uni elements for specific days was a much more modern phenomenon. So I wrote back to Robert: “Were you aware of this at the time, or is it something you’ve become aware of more recently? Is this well-known among Padres fans?” Here’s his response:

I’ve known of the alternate “Zimmer” cap for a while, and somewhere along the line I read about it being a Sunday special. Not too many fans know about this, as there aren’t too many “hardcore” fans like me. I don’t have much in terms of photo evidence besides old Topps cards. But all the photos of the cap that I have seen are from day games, and the only day games in San Diego at the time were Sunday and the occasional “Businessman Special” on Thursday.

After wearing the wide-span chevron cap for Sundays in 1972, the team introduced the tamed-down chevron design as their primary cap in 1973. That cap was used until 1979.

Hmmmm. Hey, Richard Craig, were you aware of this Sundays-in-’72 thing? “Nope, but I was only seven years old at the time,” he says. “All I knew was that they were funny-looking caps, especially in comparison with the later, more minimal front panel. Of course, every aspect of those uniforms was funny looking, even to a kid who didn’t know any different. It all just contributed to our long-held civic inferiority complex about the Padres.”

Can anyone else confirm or refute the Sunday protocol? Does anyone know of any other MLB cap designs that featured wide-span front panels? And did the change in the front panel from ’72 to ’73 reflect a change in cap manufacturers? All subjects for further study.

Finally, one other item regarding the early-’70s Padres: When Richard Craig was scanning those cap photos, he also came across this shot of the team’s proposed Washington uni design. “I’ve read that the team colors would have been purple and gold,” he writes — yikes.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of very cool varsity jackets available on eBay — look here, here, here, here (I really like that one!), here, here (unusual color, great details), here, and here. … And while searching on “varsity,” I came across this very cool-looking game. … Nate Robinson has apparently changed his uni number from 4 to 2 (with thanks to Steve King). … Good time-lapse video of the NLDS logo being applied to the Dodger Stadium field here (with thanks to Dan Cichalski). … Shawn Dzwonkowski has scanned a bunch of pages from an old Sheboygan Red Skins media guide. … My Page 2 colleague Kurt Snibbe created this alternate NFL logos the other day. It took Bill Jones about 24 hours to gumball-ize them. … Didn’t realize Visa was now sponsoring the Niners’ practice jerseys. Fuckers (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Hey, look what happens if you cross a horse with the Batmobile! Actually, that’s a horse training system (thanks, Kirsten). … Oooh, you know I like this. “I stumbled across it in Reminisce, a nostalgia magazine aimed at the AARP demographic,” says Jerry Adams. “I left the caption on, although it appears that nobody really knows what school this is.” … Not uni-related, but this home-movie clip of San Francisco, circa 1958 is gorgeous — the clothes, the signage, the saturated colors. Total eye candy (big thanks to my buddy Shane Arbogast). … We’ve all seen photos of the Wilson football factory, but I figure it’s always fun to see a few more. … Caddies in the President’s Cup have been wearing Giants jerseys. Additional details here and here (as reported by Mike McAllister and John Okray, the latter of whom also reports that Tiger Woods looks swell in argyle). … Ya doesn’t have to call me Johnson, but it would be nice if you could at least spell it correctly. That’s Ryan Johnson of the MLS San Jose Earthquakes (screen shot courtesy of Josh Manck). … Got some spare basketball jerseys lying around? Turn them into produce bags (Kirsten again). … Okay, so I love the vertically striped socks as much as anyone, but maybe they should wait until Sunday, y’know? For more on the Broncos’ throwbacks, go here, click on “Video and Audio,” and then click on “Past Meets Present.” … Anyone know why Evander Holyfield had “Head” on his waistband for his 1994 fight against Michael Moorer? Answers involving snarky mentions of head-butting don’t count (as spotted by Tim Donovan). … Also from Tim: Phillies vendors wear Phillies-style uni numbers. … The whole “We won, let’s untuck!” thing is bad enough, but last night Orlando Cabrera untucked after a loss (as noted by Jen Muller).

Baseball caps are such a pain. They cost too much, they mess up your hair, they blow off in the wind, and I’m constantly losing them because I leave them behind in the movie theater or wherever. But there’s a guy in Japan who has solved all those problems — see for yourself.

Kirsten spotted that vid about two weeks ago. Intrigued, I asked Jeremy Brahm if he could serve as interpreter. Here’s his translation:

Really, Danny has not taken his hat off in 20 years.

“Even when I’m eating dinner, I don’t take off my hat. Even when I enter the bath, I don’t take the hat off either.”

Why do you think this person hasn’t taken his hat off for 20 years? Well, here is the reason: Really, it is his hair that looks like he’s wearing a hat. He has had this hairstyle for 20 years.

When walking down the street? Surprising. When going to the temple? “That’s your hair isn’t it? You can do that to your hair?” Surprising.

When going to a public bath? “Take off your hat when entering, please… What is this? It’s your hair [laughing].”

Shampoo time. He’s really getting it into his roots. Right after washing, he gets started to style his hair. He doesn’t use any sort of styling gel, but it looks just right.

What’s the reason for him to have this hairstyle? In the past, he couldn’t [afford to] buy a hat, so he felt sad and chose to do this.

I know I speak for everyone here when I say that some MLB team really needs to sign Danny to a contract, just so we can see the team logo being shaved into his hair.

In case you missed it yesterday: If you’ve been looking for a bunch of overpriced 1980s and ’90s indie singles, I’m selling a bunch of them on eBay, and I’ll be adding more soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Did you know the Steelers have an annual fashion show? It’s true. … “Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo has decided to emulate Ed Belfour and Marty Turco, so he’s been matching his mask to his jersey depending on the game location,” says John Muir. “Through the first three games he’s paired his regular blue lumberjack mask with the home blue set, and the throwback ‘natural’ mask with the road whites. Seeing that he’s 0-3 to start the season, he might want to go back to preseason mode (throwback mask at home, went 3-0).” … You know how the Cubs use that felt logo appliqué on their helmets? Here’s a good view of how the Phillies used to do the same thing (with thanks to Chris Lamping). … Mike Bream notes that the town of Oak Park, Illinois, has updated its police car design, and likens it to the Vikings going from their old uniforms to their current set. Is this a nationwide trend? … Broncos coaching apparel and end zone design get some attention here. … Here’s a video of Patrick Lalime discussing his new mask (with thanks to Spencer Seaner). … Jeremy Richardson reports that the 2010 UEFA Futsal championships (that’s indoor soccer, kids) will be played on a black pitch. … Actual quote from some genius who thinks I didn’t take the NFL’s pink gear seriously enough: “Without women, there would be no marriage, there would be no ESPN, there would be no football, there would be no anything.” Yes, that’s why we need a cure for breast cancer — to ensure the survival of football. … Speaking of pink, here’s the stocking stuffer of the year: a swine flu plush toy (thanks, Kirsten). … Also from Kirsten: Ever wish you could draw a few stick figures and have them magically transform into a photo? Probably not, because it seems to good to be true. But look! … Want to turn your life into a giant product-placement infomercial? I hope not, for your sake (actually, for all our sakes). But if you’re determined to flush your life down that particular toilet, here’s how to do it. Further depressing details, featuring Darren Rovell’s patented lack of any critical analysis whatsoever, here (blame Brinke Guthrie).

Tech issues: We had some problems with the commenting function earlier today, but I think it’s fixed now. Fingers crossed.

The great thing about Monday Night Football is, uh… wait, it’ll come to me. Oh! The great thing about Monday Night Football is that it allows the entire country to see what local fans have been seeing all along. Case in point: Until last night, I didn’t realize that Packers coach Mike McCarthy liked to keep a Sharpie hanging from the back of his cap. But I sure know it now, because eight or nine readers sent me screen grabs of it.

Had McCarthy been doing this all along and we just hadn’t noticed? I did some quick research and discovered that the answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes, as you can see to varying degrees in these photos. But in those shots, he appears to have clipped the pen to the adjusta-strap, while last night it looked like he had a little bonus pen-holder loop custom-sewn onto the cap. How functionally specific is that?!

All of which raises several points of concern:

• Who sewed the little loop onto the cap — Reebok? The Packers’ team seamstress? The backup QB?

• Why the hell would anyone wear a pen in his cap anyway? Seems like an awkward arrangement at best, sort of like Belichick keeping the red challenge flag in his sock. Someone might want to inform these coaches of a new invention called pockets.

• Is more than one coach at a time allowed to wear a pen in his cap? Is the pen-equipped cap marked with a special green decal?

Meanwhile, note that McCarthy wore a blue Sharpie and a red Sharpie last night, but never a pink Sharpie. Why does Mike McCarthy hate breast cancer research?

(Thanks to everyone who contributed screen shots, esp. Steve Beard, Michael Kinney, and Bill Blevins.)

Little records with big holes, continued: I’ve put a bunch more indie 45s up for sale on eBay, and I’ll be adding a coupla more later in the week. Bid early and often, etc.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Hershey Bears wore Calder Cup champions jerseys on Sunday, which seems a little in-your-face, no? (As spotted by Denis Kirstein.) … Really interesting 1913 football team portrait here. The shoulder pads appear to be sewn into the jerseys! Never seen that before (with thanks to John Weghorst, who also pointed me toward this awesome shot of the 1919 Potomac Boat Club and maybe the coolest lifeguard photo ever). … Hey, check out this odd shot of Nicky Fotiu, wearing what appears to be a hybrid of the Rangers’ mid-’70s pants and socks and their standard jersey. “My guess it’s one of those 1976 pre-season ‘don’t want to show the folks the new unis yet’ games,” says Joe DeAngelis. … If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you’ll see that this term’s Supreme Court docket includes a case with interesting sports merchandising implications (big thanks to Jeff Fishman). … The FAMU Rattlers go with TNOB (with thanks to Shaun Tunick). … Tim Burke notes that Ohio University went NNOB on Saturday — weird, since they had NOBs the week before. … Check this out: the Korean flag, made out of sushi. Additional food-based national flags here (nice find by Kirsten). … Today’s Twins/Tigers game has its own logo. … OK, so you’ve seen all the Snickers ads with the cutesy phrases in the Snickers design motif. The point, of course, is that the Snickers logo is instantly identifiable, no matter what the letters are. All of which is particularly interesting in light of this analgesic product. … Think things can’t get any worse for the Rams? You’re right! Wait, no, you’re wrong. … The Dolphins’ orange jerseys are being revived (with thanks to Ted Hill). … Very cool shot of the NLDS logo being applied to the grass in Philly (big thanks to Nicole Haase). … Yet another weird college football NOB. “That’s T-Bob Hebert, LSU’s starting center,” explains Derek Ponamsky. “His dad is Bobby Hebert, who played in the NFL. There are no other Heberts on LSU’s roster, which makes this NOB even better.” Um, yes, “better,” okay. … The Cavs shot a bunch of media pics yesterday, providing the first look at their 40th-anniversary patch. I’ll have more to say about this and other NBA news later this week. … Whoa, guess I won’t be writing for Gourmet again. … Speaking of the fast-changing media world, bloggers are now being required to reveal any connections with stealth advertisers or freebie providers, so I’d like to go on record here and disclose that I’ve been on the Nike payroll all along and am actually the guy who designed all of Oregon’s recent uniforms. What can I say, uni news was slow and I need to spice things up. The only problem now is, what do I do with all these Air Jordans they gave me?

Uni Watch’s Highest Rating: If you’re a Tony Millionaire fan (and if you’re not, you really need to do something about that), his new monograph is absolutely essential. It features tons of beautiful drawings from all phases of his career, tragi-comic background stories, and magnificent production values all the way through. An absolute bargain at Amazon’s discounted price of $26, with free shipping. Don’t miss.

By Phil Hecken

Lots more uni tweaks/redesigns/overhauls from you guys today. Good stuff. Interesting Stuff. Fun Stuff. It turned out there were so many people who wanted to tweak the Blue Jays, they’re getting their own column. Lets get started.

In the first set of tweaks, I mentioned there were numerous submissions for the Toronto Blue Jays. While there seems to be much love for the powder blues (although they really need to realize that is 1-NOT a home uniform and 2-NOT a pair of pajamas), there seems to be some universal disdain for the lack of actual blue in the Blue Jays these days. And of course, there is always great admiration for the back-to-back World Series champion uni worn in the Blue Jays heydays. So, not surprisingly, many of the readers would like to ditch the black (I mean, c’mon — this is the best they could do) and would like to return to something along these lines (the one Joe Carter is wearing, not Gene Tenace). Some fans have really had enough, expressing their distaste for the black in interesting ways

So, with the Blue Jays in need of an obvious change, what do the readers offer? There are some really interesting ones to follow. So, let’s take a look-see:

You may remember last time out we had a submission for the Twins from Matt Keller. He also provided me with one for the Jays:

I’m not legally eligible for a prize being 16, but I mess around in photoshop on occasion. (Here’s) a plain, but I think a clean looking Blue Jays uniform. It was made before the Twins uni, and if I could do it again, I’d like to change the numbers to something a little more retro.

Our next submission comes from Ben Sibley, a man of few words, but great suggestions:

A modern twist to a classic uniform

Thanks

Blue Jays Logo

Blue Jays Home

Blue Jays Road

Blue Jays Alternate

Next up is UW Stalwart and a gentleman who aided me with a column a ways back, our Calgary lawyer, Mike Styczen “Mike 2″ (who is also a Blue Jays tracker). I’m not sure if Mike wasn’t being tongue-in-cheek with his submission:

For your ongoing column on MLB uniform redesigns, I’ve got one (attached) for the Blue Jays.

Its not very imaginative. They already have their perfect uniform in their past, 1989-1996, and the logo dates back to their founding. The fans loved it, they won two World Series wearing it. I don’t see any need to change a thing.

Um…thanks Mike. Moving along, reader Brian Cheung (who posts as “Random Reader”) is a man of many words. That’s fine, I enjoy when you guys explain your work. Here’s Brian:

Hey, LI Phil:

I just want to thank you for commenting on my mock-up Blue Jays road jersey. For a while now, I always wondered how they’d look with more blue in their jerseys and I finally decided to put my creative skills to use.

I’m actually a Yankees fan but I’ve just been bothered in recent years by all the black in the Blue Jays uniforms, that wacky font they use for numbers, and how the road jerseys and home jerseys don’t have matching fonts. To put it simply, I felt they could look a whole lot better.

I’ll start with their current road jersey first. I thought of it as being a step in the right direction for Toronto, since it employs a little more blue than the previous uniform in 2007, with that funky “Toronto” script in silver, graphite and white. After seeing this photo, I edited it by adding some red around the front logo and the numbers. I also made the cap blue, the sleeves blue, and tried to add blue accents in on the cap. I was quite surprised primary logo by changing the silver and graphite to shades of powder blue, in order to include a reference to the past in their current logo. I also darkened the blue jay itself, changing it from that light shade of blue to something more of a royal blue. I changed the blue border to red because red was always a color present in their logos and I thought their current logos looked very bland without red as an accent. I did the same with the road cap; I eliminated the silver and replaced it with powder blue and I also included some red to serve as a border.

Next was the jerseys. I actually used to like that wide font they use for names and that strange-looking font for numbers. But I got tired of seeing them and I suppose someone in the Blue Jays felt the same; the road uniforms changed in 2008 as the numbers were now in a different font, along with the logo on the front. But the road uniforms still had that italicized font. What I decided to do was employ the font used on the roads (I believe it is called Agency FB) and apply it to their home uniforms. I gave the nameplates the same font so that names don’t look like they take up half the uniform. I added powder blue to the numbers and gave them a red border. I kept the beveling effect as I see it as being a modernization of the classic Blue Jays number front, with that line running inside each number (I always thought it was cool and whenever I saw them, I always associated them with the Blue Jays). I altered the wordmark on the road uniform to make it powder blue—a nod to how the Jays once wore powder blue uniforms on the road. Originally, the wordmark was supposed to be royal blue but I realized the Jays would look too much like the Texas Rangers; I had to change it to powder blue to give the uniform its own look that won’t be mistaken for that of the Rangers.

For both the home and road, I got rid of the black socks, belts, and piping and made them blue. I also changed their all-black alternate uniform to make it an all-blue one. The team is named the Blue Jays after all, so it would only make sense to have some uniform have a lot of blue in it.

Hope you enjoy. I tagged most of the images just so others won’t try to pass my work as theirs.

Still more Blue Jays tweaks came in, this one from Matt Murray (who you may recall had earlier offered submissions for the Milwaukee Brewers). I have to say, this is some impressive work for someone who’s still in high school! Here’s Matt:

Phil,

Attached are some Blue Jays uniform ideas. These concepts for the Blue Jays mix in a throwback look similar to the current Friday uniforms. I was also sure not to include the script “Jays” anywhere in these uniforms because THAT ISN’T THEIR TEAM NAME! I also kept the concept free of black. I reverted back to the old “bird on ball” logo for the caps. I opted to keep the maple leaf on the sleeves because that is pretty much the only thing I like with the current uniforms. It’s something that signifies the uniqueness of the franchise as the only team North of the Border. Both powder and gray away concepts are included. I haven’t gone to school for graphic design or anything like that, nor have I graduated high school! But I think it’s the thought that counts with the uni concepts. Hopefully I “get it!”

Still on the Blue Jays train, next up is Brian Arnold, who I think sent me these a loooooong time ago when Paulie Soto and I did our Fauxback column. If he did, and I neglected to post them, I apologize. Anyway, getting the play they deserve, here’s Brian:

I sent this link as a email a while ago when you did an entry about “fauxbacks”. I just saw your recent call for submissions, so I’ll send it again, maybe it will get some attention this time. Blue Jays Home and Blue Jays Road.

Thanks,
Brian

Phew…next to last in the Blue Jays tweaks, we have Sean Wilson. Here’s Sean:

Blue Jays. Changed base color to blue instead of black and killed the ridiculous beveling on the wordmark.

Liked what you did with some of the NFL unis, especially the Falcons. On the Bengals, though, you’ve got to have the tiger striped pants stripe

Finally, we have UW Graphic Artist extraordinaire, Paul “Pretty Boy Paulie” Soto to round things out. Here’s Paul:

The Blue Jays have always had modern uniform designs. They never quite had an “old school” look. So what I wanted to give them here was a “classic” look. Complete with script wordmarks and serifed/bold numerals. Royal blue is their primary color, sky blue is their secondary and I kept the dreaded black as an accent color. An actual Blue Jay does have a black trim on their feathers. So, I can live with the black as long as it’s not the primary color. Plus I only regulated it to the road uniform. I feel it appears more appropriate there. We need more striped socks in the league so why not give ‘em some. Here we have blue socks with alternating stripes that has white/sky blue at home and white/black on the road. The last time I did a Blue Jay uni modification I used a primary logo that combined two of their best logos in their history. It would be a dream to see them use that logo on their home caps and as a primary logo. The road cap features a script “T” that is loosely inspired by their current alternate cap. Stay “classy” Toronto.

“What about you, Phil? Don’t you have a Blue Jay mockup?” Well, sadly for you I do. I was never fond of the original wordmark/script, but I did love the bird. And I hate the current home and road scripts, with their beveling and black and gray. I was also not fond of the second generation font with the additional red. So I took their classic white and gray uniforms, and found the font to match those found in the Toronto Subway system. A very nice and basic font, but it’s classy and businesslike but not too formal. So — here’s the home and away look, with royal blue cap (also can use a sky blue cap at home and sky blue cap with sky blue trim and stirrups on the road). I just couldn’t bring myself to return the Jays to powder blue.

Well, there you have it. Obviously the Blue Jays should be the next MLB team to undergo a major overhaul. As we say, lots of “retro-inspired” designs, and a few who simply want to return the “blue” to the Blue Jays. My thanks to everyone who sent in a submission, and next time, we’ll get to the rest of the MLB overhauls.

OK, in case you missed it, last week, with the help of James Huening, I ran what we hope to be the first of several ‘unofficial’ polls to determine how we feel on uniforms. Don’t bother voting anymore, the poll is officially closed now. That poll, “Rate the NFL Home Uniforms” was an unmitigated success. We’ll have the results next week, but James wanted to give us a quick look at some of the preliminary results.

“Well, the votes are in. Some of the final results are still being tabulated, but the Uni Watch community has spoken and a team has been chosen as having the best home uniforms in the NFL. And it was truly a hard-fought battle for the top spot.

“If you recall, we asked you to rate each team’s home uniform from zero to five points. We also asked you to nominate a team as having the best uni and another as having the worst. Our top team averaged 4.24 points per response, barely edging out our second place finisher at 4.21. In addition, #1 was mentioned by 15% of you as having the best uni, compared to 12% for #2.

“The rest of our top five was equally competitive. The third, fourth and fifth place finishers’ average scores were 4.07 (9% of you thought they were the best), 4.05(6%) and 3.83(7%).

“So, to everyone who participated, thank you. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done this without you and the response was overwhelming. We were hoping for 500, but we collected nearly 2,000 completed surveys! And people from literally all over the world checked in. We received responses from every continent. Yes, that includes Antarctica.”

Thanks, James. So now that the votes are in — which uniform do you think was rated THE BEST in the NFL? We’ll tell you next week, but why not give an early guess. Just post “Best: (insert team) ” down below.

In addition, a special thanks goes out to Adam Walter, who’s doing most of the heavy lifting on this endeavor, with his incredible data crunching and analysis.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: As the MLB season winds down this weekend, I’m running out of scoreboards…so, either you guys will have to keep sending me some, or we’ll be putting the game on a temporary hiatus. No worries today though, as SlimandSlam hooked me up with this one (although partial credit has to go to Squiddie)– and while in and of itself, it’s tricky, a little detective work on your part (read: the photo you’re about to see was run in one of my earlier columns) will help you solve it. Remember, PLEASE do not post the actual score and date, but rather, use Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac to link to your answer (if possible). Ready? Guess The Game. I think tomorrow we’ll try a football scoreboard, but I’m not sure how that will go over. Let me know what you think.

A Little Bit of This and That: Somehow we all missed the fact that the official team outfits for Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics team were unveiled in Vancouver, and some are calling them, “Hoser chic,” while others are suggesting it smacks of a Conservative conspiracy and others noting similarities to an iconic Canadian military symbol. … The Oregonian is getting a lot of mileage out of their Dress The Ducks thingy, even encouraging opposition fans to clothe the U of Zero Ducks in the worst possible combo … This item was posted earlier this week, but it proves once again that worst uniform polls should be decided by UW readers — in fact, in the coming weeks, we’ll be doing just that — stay tuned …Turns out they had to update the poll after readers had other thoughts about those worst unis … This article on the Islanders’ affiliate the Bridgeport Sound Tigers states they will wear uniforms this year that resemble those of the Islanders’ 1980 Stanley Cup dynasty. Unfortunately, no pics accompanied the article — little help? Teebz? … Apparently, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Which means every team, league and sport will be getting in on the pink uniform action … We all know that the Mets sucked this year, but according to NBCNewYork.com, the real villain in the 2009 Mets season was the shade of white used in the Mets’ home uniforms (sorta old news, but a nice shout out to Paul Lukas and the blog in the fourth graf) … If you thought the San Francisco 49ers were mixing too much purple into the red and too much yellow into the gold, well, you’re not alone … Pretty much no one knows that the NBA was segregated for it’s three first years of existence, which may not seem odd until you realize that Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in the same year the NBA was founded. Roger Murdock Kareem Abdul Jabbar is directing a tribute to the Harlem Rens, the “greatest team you never heard of.” (since you read UW, you have heard of the Preston Rivulettes). The Documentary will be called “On The Shoulders of Giants,” and there are sure to be some great unis in it … The soon to be defunct UFL unveiled its helmet art yesterday — and I hope the league is around long enough for someone to work on a full uni breakdown column with me … The FAU Owls, who have one of the best unis in college football, will be playing their 100th football game ever today … Pretty cool look at the Princeton University logos here … Did you ever want to know how Ice gets laid? If you said “a couple drinks, sweet talk and Flunitrazepam,” you’d be wrong. … When you play the “fourth” sport in a big city and you haven’t been relevant since the mid-80’s, what do you do? Why, rebrand yourself of course.

That’s a wrap for today. Next weekend I hope to have the “Design A Cap” submissions all flickr’ed and ready, we’ll have the results of the voting on the “NFL Home Uniform” poll, and more. And that’s just next weekend. And there’s even more good stuff coming tomorrow. Nice college football today, and still some meaningful baseball in Detroit and Minnesota (where the Twins are hoping for one last miracle before they shut the dump down cede ownership to the Mall of America). That could get very interesting because if the Twins and Tigers end up tied, the Twinks are supposed to host a tiebreaker on Monday — but there’s a twist, because the Dome might be busy. So they’d have to play Tuesday. Hmmmm.

Anyway, let the folks who mocked up some new Jay’s unis know what you think, and don’t forget to take a guess at what we, the Uni Watch community, thought was the best home uniform in football. Oh, and think pink.

By Phil Hecken

There seemed to be great interest by UW readers in developing new concepts for Major League Baseball teams, following previous columns in which readers tweaked the ChiSox and the Brewers (see here and here). I put out the call for you guys to send me your submissions for any MLB team, and you didn’t disappoint. In fact, there were so many submissions, it’s going to take two posts to get to them all. But we will. So, lets see what everyone came up with, shall we?

The first two in this batch were actually featured before, but I wanted to include them in this post so they’d receive full comparison:

Jason Krause had a couple mock-ups for his hometown team, the Colorado Rockies:

I based these Colorado Rockies jersey mockups off of the old school logo of the hockey Colorado Rockies before they became the New Jersey Devils. I made them a pull-over top such as the Blue Jays and the Cards from the 70’s.

I created two different home looks, as well as an alternate that pays homage to the Colorado Flag. The black jerseys are also a big hit out here, so I created a look for one of those.

Alex Rocklein sent me some mockups for the New York Mets. Very interesting. Says Alex, “I attached some Mets uniform concepts. Some are outrageous, but there is considerably less black.”

Indeed, when it comes to the Mets, less black is usually much better. He has come up with three new uniform concepts: a clean new home and away set, with all the black removed (but where are the stirrups???); and two alternates. The first, featuring pinstripes (I guess we can say they’ve reduced the once venerable pins to an alt) and a royal blue top with “New York” in fancy block letters. As you know, I’m not a fan of the “alternate/softball” tops, but if the Mets could replace the black tops with this one, I’d be 100% behind it. Finally, Alex came up with another home alternate, and it is considerably more colorful. He combines a new alternate cap, featuring a blue crown and an orange bill, with a new orange alternate top (plus he has put the script “Mets” on the blue alternate).

OK, you may remember seeing those before, but the rest are all brand spankin’ new.

Another longtime reader, a Yankees fan no less, Kenny Jacobson saw the above section on New York Mets uniform concepts (when I first posted it), and, having already done some up, thought I’d like to repost them. With pleasure, Kenny, with pleasure. Here’s Kenny:

I’d posted these in the comments this summer but maybe you could get them out there.

I’m a Yankee fan but would really like to see the Mets go back to a classic look.

Home

Road

and if you MUST…

Alt

Got another submission from Uni Creator Alex Rocklein, (see above for his first uni tweak of the Mets) who this time has been working on some fixes for the Oakland A’s. I’ll let him explain:

I updated the primary (A’s in the circle) because the one they use now is outdated. I added cream to the scheme (now looking similar to their rivals across the bay) and added some piping because, let’s face it, who doesn’t like some piping?

I kept the away set relatively the same because I think it’s one of the most underrated sets in baseball. Threw some alts in there for the sake of having them. I feel like the solid color alts need to be limited by teams because when you watch a Cubs/ChiSox game in which its royal blue on black it feels as though I’m watching Spring Training or a couple of Thursday Night Slow-Pitch Softball games.

Also, matched the A’s “A” from the logo to the one on the hat (right now they use two different “A”s).

Another uniform concept submission comes from reader Daniel L. Dennis, who has got some proposals for the Texas Texases Rangers. Here’s Dennis:

I read the blog quite often, and I hope these are along the lines of what you’re looking for.

First of all, the Rangers erred greatly in not having their team name on their home jerseys. The Texas Texases (as Paul is fond of calling them) need an identity, but this minor facelift would probably suffice. It’s simple, it’s elegant, and above all, it’s somewhat unique (no comparison to the Angels, please – besides, I think the Rangers were using this typeface first).

Here’s the home jersey. All I did was go back to red as the primary color, and arch the team name like they did in 1972 with the original wordmark. Back then, the bigger “R” and “S” stood for “Robert Short” – today, they don’t really stand for anything, but it’s a nice treatment IMHO.

The away jersey is pretty much – well, gray. But the wordmark gets the same treatment.

Now for the alternate jersey. Seems like every team needs one. This time, I got rid of the blue (too many bad flashbacks to the Dallas Cowboys of the ‘70s, who always seemed to lose when wearing their blue jerseys), and went with the primary red.

Not sure I’m sold on the NNOB treatment, but at least it stands out.

Sleeve patch stays the same, and stripes on the pants go red and blue. Same with the sleeve stripes on the home and away. The red alt can keep the white trim.

This is what Nolan’s boys need to be wearing next year – and it wouldn’t take that much to pull it off. Oh, yeah, and I got rid of that gawdawful typeface for the NNOB.

Now don’t go selling this to the Rangers!

I received two concepts from “losalkyle,” who tweaked the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. A man of few words, this sentence accompanied his Padres tweak: “Take the light blue in their primary logo and make it the uni color.” The next one was simply an attachment, with the subject “Mariners Powder Blue.” That should be pretty self-explanatory. Here it is. If you’re reading this and want to identify yourself, please do!

Next up is Matt Keller, who actually sent me two submissions, but the second one is going to wait for the next batch. His first tweak is for the Minnesota Twins. Here’s Matt:

I’m not legally eligible for a prize being 16, but I mess around in photoshop on occasion.

1st off, I’ve eliminated those dreadful pinstripes from the Twinkies’ away uniforms. I think what I’ve done is pretty O.K. looking.

Our final uniform tweak for today comes from Matt Murray, who unfortunately missed the Brewer tweaks which ran a couple weeks ago. But I promised Matt I’d include his mockups of the Milwaukee Brewers in the next set of uniform concepts. So, here’s Matt:

Mr. Hecken,
Attached are my uniform ideas for the Milwaukee Brewers. I might be a little late, but I think can still contribute to the discussion.

I like the Brewers current color scheme, but I think the current script and wordmarks are just a failed attempt at a classic look. I combined the navy and gold scheme with throwback lettering to create a modern look that reflects the past of the program. Both the home and away caps have the ball and glove “mb” logo, and the beloved beer barrel man on the sleeve. I’m a big fan of thick piping on pants and sleeves, but not on the front of the jersey. I used cream for the home threads and a powder blue(ish?) grey for the road uniforms to further compliment the historical aspect. A red mock-up is included. Thanks!

OK, that’s going to do it for this first batch of uniform concepts from the fantastic UW readership. The next batch will be coming real soon. One interesting thing about this exercise, while I didn’t call for any specific teams whose uniforms needed updating/changing/tweaking, I got (so far) a bunch of submissions for the Toronto Blue Jays. How I didn’t see this team as the obvious choice for a uniform upgrade in the first place is beyond me, but I give myself a huge “DUH” for neglecting to ask for specific submissions for them. Let me tell you, the four or five I have received so far are tremendous. So, if anyone else wants to try their hand at tweaking the Toronto team, send em along. Of course, any teams you want to upgrade are fine as well.

As long as we’re on the topic of upgrading/tweaking, it sounds like it’s official that the Miami Marlins will be getting new uniforms when they move into their new digs (there’s a link in that article to the New York Times article [registration required]) where owner Jeffrey Loria mentioned the new unis. Now, I don’t want to step on Paul’s toes in calling for reader submissions for new Miami Marlins uniforms, since he’s been known to have done those type of things on the mothership. However, if you have done, or in the process of doing a Miami Marlins mockup, feel free to send it my way as well.

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Apparently so. Yesterday evening, several readers reported seeing Chris Berman state that the oft-rumored Seahawks alternate lime green jersey is a reality. Will it actually be worn this Sunday? And, will if so, will be paired white pants, as in the Wikipedia entry? Or, blue pants, or, heaven help us, lime green pants? And, what color will the jersey numbers be: White? (just imagine this) or blue? Perhaps we’ll know more tomorrow or later this evening. But if Boomer reported it, Wiki posted it, and Madden mocked it … it must be true, right?

It’s the end of the world as we know it.

[*late night edit: I just watched the repeat of the "2 Minute Drill" and here's what Berman said: "The Seahawks will unveil their bright green -- I guess '80s retro-ish green uniforms -- It'll be a 'Green Day'. I think they'll have the time of their lives." (The latter reference was because Boomer spent a portion of the segment discussing LPs {"albums to those of you under 30"}.) So that's what we have to go on. Who knows -- PH]

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK, got another submission from our resident ’scoreboard finder’ SlimandSlam, who has brought to you another good one. Shouldn’t have too much trouble with the teams or the stadium, but the game itself may prove more elusive. As usual, please post the answer in the form of a linkie from Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet. Date, location and final score please. Ready? Guess The Game. Anyone interested in football? I think we’ll try a football scoreboard guessing game tomorrow…see how that goes. Thanks, Slim!

UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game. Tomorrow marks the debut of his first tracking graphic on UW. It will be a regular feature through the end of the Ducks season. Sounds like a fun little idea. Assuming the Ducks wear the rumored throwbacks tomorrow against Cal, this will be updated with the final score. Otherwise, Mike will insert whatever uni they choose to wear. Check back tomorrow to see the result and the uni they wore!

Ah, time for Mick and Mike to relax and (presumably) enjoy a game on the tube. And that’s a biiiiiiiig couch, innit? Enjoy the wit and wisdom of Mick in today’s Saturday Benchies. Yakitty-yak…don’t talk back.

This and That: Seems that the Huskers will be donning vintage 1962 uniforms today, complete with black numbers on white helmets. According to the article, “Fans are wearing red, as usual, but retro red. Women are asked to wear red dresses and carnations.” Good times, good times, except, Nebraska hopes, for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Unis and helmets should look like this. … The Yom Kippur religious observance is going to force New York football fans to have to choose between games this Sunday — first time the Jets and Giants have kicked off at the same time (other than when playing each other) since 1984; both teams are 2-0, and the Titans (Jets) versus Oilers (Titans) are wearing AFL throwbacks … And speaking of throwbacks, Navy plays Western Kentucky on CBS today, with Navy to wear replica 1959 uniforms — it’s in honor of the dedication of the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium — check out the program cover from that day! … The Florida State Seminoles will wear white at home for the first time — ever — against USF today; not just the normal white over crimson, but white over white! Nice. Of course, the best thing about FSU games are the uniforms worn by the fans sitting in the stands … The Turkeyfoot Middle School, which, not coincidentally, is located on Turkeyfoot Road, is under pressure to change its name — no, they’re keeping “Turkeyfoot,” but they may be dumping their mascot and nickname, because that is much worse than “Turkeyfoot.” Try saying “Turkeyfoot” five times fast … The LeBron James farewell to Cleveland Cavaliers 40th Season is just jam packed with giveaways, and here’s the list … Reader Ed Westfield shot me a note, “In Any Given Sunday, the Miami Sharks never wore white jerseys on the road, or anywhere. So, I wanted to see what it would look like.” … Let it be known: it is NOT OK to profit of Tim Tebow’s name or likeness! Is that clear? Unless, of course, it’s the University of Florida that’s doing the profiting, natch [*NOTE...I was alternately getting a "404 not found on website" and the article, so if it comes up 404, I apologize] … Speaking of the Gators tho, ESPN has posted an “instant classic” video game, sure to be great fun for all Gator haters … Of course, political correctness is still the hot topic at UND, where the school must get permission from the two Sioux tribes in North Dakota in order to keep using the nickname, “Fighting Sioux,” or face NCAA sanctions, including being banned from post-season play — and they need it by October 1st … Wanna have more shoe combinations than Oregon has uniform possibilities? (Like, 2 million possible combinations???) Now you can. … Here’s a little uniform story that slipped below the radar: seems that UW readers are not the only ones who want to ditch the black — especially when your team is called the “Cardinals” and, “We have the Cardinal as a mascot and our colors are red and white. I don’t understand why you would want to change that.”

OK folks…that’s a lot to digest. Still time to participate in the Design A Cap Contest that started last weekend — just follow the directions there if you’re still interested. Some great college football matchups today, including a bunch of throwbacks — wonder if any of them will make the Top 5 uni matchup list tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

By Phil Hecken

Little bit of a different entry today. While I don’t normally have readers contact me with requests for my graphical talents, mainly because I don’t have any, (usually the fantastic graphics in my pieces are done by others), what follows was one of those rare times. Shortly before Uni Watch went on Summer Vacation, I received an e-mail from Jerome Nemanich, who is the head baseball coach in Sartell, MN. Jerome approached me with a most intriguing idea — help him design a cap for his baseball team. Flattered though I was, I immediately thought this was a job for you guys. Here’s what took place in that original e-mail and how this contest came to be:

Phil,

My name is Jerome Nemanich, I’m the head baseball coach in Sartell, MN. I was wondering if you could help us with a possible new hat logo for the 2010 season. I follow your work on Uni watch.

I enclosed our alternate hat mock-up from the game from last year (look here and here.). Our main hat had the same S, just all Royal with white “S” and white eyelets. I’ve also enclosed a couple of ideas I’ve had. The old Spokane Indian “S” and possible going with the UVA look. Our nick name is the Sabres.

We have three uni tops-

White — looks like old royals sleeveless, 3 color shadowd lettering script.

Blue — Like Texas Rangers blue with Pittsburgh font.

Grey — Same as blue, a different font. Piping is Blue/White/Blue.

I can’t offer cash but will offer a lid if you come up with a cool idea.

Thanks,
Jerome Nemanich

Tempted as I was to try my hand at designing a cap logo, I wrote Coach Nemanich back and asked if he thought the “design a cap” might be something the graphic designers (and readers) who frequent UW would like to try their hand at. Jerome wrote back that he’d have to check with his AD, but thought it wouldn’t be a problem. Turns out, he thought a “Design A Cap Contest” might just be a great idea. I also asked him about his teams uniforms, sensing perhaps a “design a uni” contest might follow, but alas, ’twas not to be. Jerome wrote:

I like all the work that I’ve seen you do on Uni watch, we won’t get new Uni’s for 3 more years but I may be ok with a contest down the road with Uni’s too. I just got the new Russell catalog for 2010 today, boy are there some ugly uni’s coming out. They also have a pullover mock button down jersey so they can sew the artwork across the jersey better. There are actual buttons on the front but they don’t open.

Ah well, the unis will have to wait, but he gave the go-ahead for the Design A Cap contest.

So, lets see what you guys can come up with! You’ve seen what they have worn, and you see the ideas that Jerome has in mind. That leaves a pretty open canvas to give it a shot. You could probably use the templates Coach provided or you could always use one of these.

I won’t set a time limit on this contest, but I would hope everyone could get me your submissions within the next couple of weeks. And if Mr. Nemanich likes your design, he’ll send you a cap for your efforts! Pretty schweet, huh?

So get your crayons out, fire up your computers, or use your protractors — as long as you can come up with a design, and you can e-mail it to me, it will be considered. You can also send me multiple submissions. In a couple of weeks (or whenever the contest appears to be over), I’ll post your submissions.

Send them to me and please put in the “SUBJECT” line “Cap Contest”. If you have questions about the contest, post them in the comments (that way others who may have the same questions can see them) or you can always e-mail me. Obviously, Coach Nemanich will be the one with the final say in the design.

Good Luck!

OK, last weekend Ricko and I gave you our five NFL uniforms most in need of a tweak (or one less bumper sticker), and tomorrow you are going to be treated to an OUTSTANDING new uniform idea from Ricko. But today, I’m going to bring you a few more NFL teams whose uniforms don’t really suffer from the OMBS (”One More Bumper Sticker”) syndrome, but are oh so close to being just right — at least as far as their uniforms go. Some of these teams are just missing one small detail, others suffer from perhaps one too many details (OMBS), and others simply just don’t quite “get it.” With that, then, here are a few more teams who could use a teensy tiny fix or two:

New Orleans Saints: The Saints have some classic unis, and i really like them. They’re not BFBS, but there is just one little problem. Maybe two. First, when they wear black pants, the pants are devoid of any kind of stripe, and they like to wear black leggings, giving them the leotard look. They also have the propensity towards the monochrome leotard look (although, to my knowledge, this season they haven’t broken out the black pants yet). But we know they will, it’s only a matter of time. So, to fix the Saints, I propose they place a simple stripe on them, and ditch the black leggings in favor of white striped socks. It’s not even a new concept, they used to sport a similar look. And there was nothing wrong with that look. One other slight tweak I would offer for the Saints (other than never wearing monochrome black), would be to add a white stripe to the thick black stripe on their pants (they currently look like this). Finally, the fact that the old gold on the helmet or the pants does NOT match the old gold numbers really bothers me. So, as long as we add the stripe to the gold pants, lets get that gold on the jersey to match the gold on the helmet. See? Minor tweaks can really make that uni sharp!

Carolina Panthers: Most, if not all, of you will disagree with me on this one, I’m sure, but I really dislike the pointy, truncated pants stripe. I know, I know, they’ve always had this look. I also greatly dislike how some players have truncated sleeve loops, while others sport full loops. The full loops look much better. So what’s my tweak? It’s real simple: Eliminate the pointy pants stripes, and just make sure everyone has full shoulder loops (even if you have to taper them). And as far as uniforms go, I think that all white uniform is one of the BEST in the NFL. All it needs is real pants stripes.

St. Louis Rams: I never really liked the Rams switch in color and uni scheme after they won Super Bowl XXXIV. However, in the past couple of years, they gone away from wearing their standard gold pants and have begun wearing blue and white pants. The blue pants are worn with short white socks and blue leggings, producing the dreaded leotard look, and both the blue and white pants have stripes while the gold ones do not. Some of you may like this quirkiness, but I do not. I’m fine with them having three sets of pants to choose from, so long as they don’t pair the blue pants with the blue top. But lets get some consistency. The fix? Lets put a stripe on the gold pants. Much better. For the blue pants let’s narrow that stripe a tad and give them some white socks with a complimentary stripe. Finally, for the white pants, lets put a classic Rams stripe on there. There you go — three pairs of pants, not quite identical, but with much more consistency. I’d still like the yellow-gold and royalish blue to return, but keeping the current colors, this works better.

Cleveland Browns: I’m not going to touch their sleeve striping — Ricko will take care of that tomorrow. But, I do need to get to work on those “new” brown pants. Remember last preseason when the Browns broke out the brown pants? Well, Coach Mangenius apparently likes them, and he plans on having the team wear them on a semi-regular basis this year. But, unlike the leotard look, at least he’s had the good sense to put them in white socks. But, they’re still wearing those godawful brown pants. The solution? Well, a stripe on the pants is a start. But, should the order be orange-white-orange, or white-orange-white? Neither one of those looks all that great. What about simply two orange stripes which would replicate the brown-orange-brown-orange pattern on the sleeve and the socks? It’s a tough call. Maybe they just shouldn’t wear brown pants. That’s what the football gods are saying anyway. But if they ARE going to wear them, they need some kind of striping. And for the love of god, whatever they do this year, don’t go brown over brown. We’ve already heard the Mr. Hankey jokes. Let’s not let them come to fruition. (And on a completely unrelated note with the Browns, they were one of the few teams to sport the beautiful and classic white over white look — can’t they just stay with that as often as possible? That has to be one my my top-10 all time great NFL looks)

New England Patriots: Ok, here is what they should wear full time. But that’s not gonna happen. The Pats are one of those teams who feel that a side panel (even worse on the road uniform) is necessary. It’s not. I’m also not a fan of those weird, wide pants stripes. Solutions? First, lets remove that garish side panel. If you noticed the pants striping pattern in the throwbacks, it consisted of three thin stripes. Well, they could sorta go for that look or even “thinify” the wide stripe on the pants? Even if we keep the total stripe width the same, adding more red and white to them is a better look, IMHO. The home jersey just needs the red ‘pinstripes’ removed, but the pants stripe is still a little too arena league for me. So, we can simply add one strip of silver down the middle, or thinify the stripes with two blue stripes or keep a nice patriotic blue-red-blue pattern. Frankly, I think the red-blue-silver-blue-red looks pretty sharp.

Baltimore Ravens: Moving towards the penultimate tweak, the Ravens tweak is simple. They have a black-purple-black stripe on the white pants, but like the Saints, their black pants are stripeless and they like the leotard look. They also like the all-black leotard look. Solution? Simple, some kind of stripe on the pants, and white socks. It’s not like they didn’t sport that type of look at one time. Hell…they could call it their fauxback uni.

Tennessee Titans: OK — the final tweak. I don’t really so much mind the navy over white and I LOVE the white over powder blue. I really think that’s one of the all time good looks in the game, even though it’s relatively new. However, I hate their other looks, no matter if it’s navy over navy, powder over powder or mix and match. So I’m not touching those. But for the two combos I do like, how about we simply remove the “yoke”? Now that’s a classic look, right? How about on the white over powder? Man, that looks like an NFL uniform right there. I won’t say I love their helmet (a few teams sport the “fading stripe” look), but just imagine what would happen if they went with a solid center stripe? Too Penn State-ish? Not for me.

Mercifully for you, thus endeth my uni tweaks. But I think you’d have to agree with at least a couple of them. Each team still retains it’s unique color scheme, but I simply remove or tweak what I feel is the one or two things wrong with an otherwise excellent or pretty damn good uniform. I’m sure you’ll disagree, at least on a couple. That’s fine. If teams would just knock off the monochrome look, or the leotard look, I’d be happy. And if those few teams who feel stripes are anthema, well, I took it upon myself to correct that. Feel free to tell me where to go. I’m ready. Fire away.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Once again, I gotta apologize in advance if I gave you today’s Guess The Game game already. I don’t think so. Even so, it would have been a while ago. Pretty sure also that this one came from Squiddie. Anyway, you know what to do. Date, location and final score. Please link to Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac if applicable. Ready? Guess The Game. Got a couple new ones from SlimandSlam (he’ll be doing the honors tomorrow), but I’m still always looking out for new scoreboard games. If you have one, send ‘em my way. Thanks.

Ricko’s back with Benchies, but I’m pretty sure this one come from his “way back machine.” But that’s OK, because they’re all new to us. And even Ricko’s oldies are still goodies. So, now, we take you back in time when the greatest two-sport athlete ruled the ad world too. I think you know who I’m talking about. Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” Groucho Marx

Whew. Another short post. But if you made it this far, you made it to the end. Don’t forget to try your hand at the “Design A Cap” contest — maybe you’ll win a prize. Don’t worry about the quality of your work or the skill of your craftsmanship. But do give it a shot! This should be a really fun contest and I bet we get a number of great submissions.

Have a great Saturday. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow — got a really kick-ass post with Ricko you will NOT want to miss.

By Phil Hecken

Welcome back to part two of the Milwaukee Brewer makeover series. If you missed Part I, featuring some amazing mock ups by Chance Michaels and David Frost, be sure to take a look-see.

We’re on to part two today, however, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. So, let’s get it started.

We begin today with an amazing effort from David Timmerman, who happens to be the Editor of the Grant County Herald Independent, and who has been sending me many submissions over the past month or so. David has a lot to say, so I’ll let him say it in his own words:

Taking up your challenge on changes to the Brewers uniforms, I tried to mix some history into the current uni set, staying away from wholesale changes. A lifelong Brewers fan, I wanted to see some history incorporated into the mix, some more subtle than others.

Thoughts on current uniforms

When the Brewers unveiled their newest jersey in the spring of 2000, it was supposed to usher in a new era with a new ballpark, but due to an unfortunate crane failure which took the lives of three construction workers, as well as the roof in right field, Miller Park was still a year away from opening. So the Crew took the field in the new unis to say goodbye to historic Milwaukee County Stadium.

After jettisoning the ‘Notre Dame’ look of an intersecting M and B (and eliminating the moldy green bats of the fairly generic logo) they came out with one harkening to a past – not the Brewers past, mind you, but a past. And I liked the logo very much – That B for Brewers is certainly unique and rich feeling, as is the M that graces the hat. I like the touch of barley under the M as well.

The logo is similar to the one for Miller Park, which hovers over the scoreboard. Now why they didn’t make that logo more animated (like having the balls rotate, or the lights blink for a homer) I have no idea.

When it came to the jerseys, I was less than thrilled by final version, mainly due to font selection which I blaming on Laurel Prieb, who was one of the VP’s at the time, related to the ownership of the Minnesota Twins, and more importantly, married to Wendy Selig-Prieb, team president and Bud’s daughter. That choice of Garamond/Times/serifed typeface, similar to what the Washington Capitals were using at the time should never grace a uniform, but there it is. I have to note that it is the same font chosen for the seats and rows within the park as well.

Now I think uniforms should stick with tradition as much as they can, but I also don’t want teams trying to look to a past that they never had. Most teams usually incorporate a block-style for the numbers, and while I would never want the Packers to alter their uniforms, I think the Brewers should have some leeway. Now what I would love to have is a toned-down version of what the Brewers had in the 90s, liking the shape of the numbers, which did have too much layering going on. Since I cannot find that, I went with a font, SquareSlab, that I find is similar to what the Eagles used when they revised their unis.

Another issue I had with the unis was the lack of either piping or striping. Very few teams incorporate neither on their jerseys, the Cardinals come to mind, and I think their main reason is, beyond tradition that is, because their chest graphic is so large and detailed, it would be over-doing it. Otherwise, I think every team should have one of them, but since the Cubs utilize stripes, and the retro jerseys have it as well, I went with piping.

I just couldn’t decide on whether to go with a single pipe, or dual-colored piping, much like the Braves. On the road jersey, it felt like a bit much, but looked good on the home jersey. I went with multiple stripes on the sleeves to harken back to 1970, which was a remnant from the Pilots.

Another thing was the color scheme. There have been three Milwaukee Brewers teams in the history of the city. The first was the 1901 team that played for only the inaugural season of the American League, jetting to St. Louis to become the Browns, who then became the Orioles. The second, and more famous of the first two was the American Association Brewers, who were the ones implementing the BarrelMan logo. Bud Selig had always wanted to return to those days, which included a blue-red color scheme, which was probably copied from parent club, the Braves. But strapped for cash, Selig had to go with the Blue-Gold color scheme of the Pilots when they were moved from Seattle.

Now on the current Brewers uniform, the gold has shiny specks in it, and is a truer gold. But Baseball players shouldn’t sparkle! Although I love the 80s Brewers, I didnt want to go with the yellow. So what I tried to go with was something slightly lighter than the ‘old gold’ the Jets used on their throwback Titans of New york unis last year.

Road Version – One of my biggest complaint for specifically the away unis was the fact that they removed Milwaukee. In understand that maybe this was done to have one cut for patches on the uniforms, but if you can have multiple colors for the dark blue, alternate uniforms, as well as the throwback unis, you can cut Milwaukee and slap it onto front. For the road jersey, I altered the grey, adding more blue, and darkening them a little. I wish I could mock-up one that was alittle shinier, similar to Georgetown’s unis and harken back to the late 1940s satin jerseys teams wore for nighttime games on television, but that may be a bit gaudy. I brought back BarrelMan for the road uniforms….I also think he may look good on a hat….

I wanted to set these uniforms apart from others, so I reversed the lettering, making it white. Like I said, I like the M, so I kept that on the hat. Another area I had a conflict was on the back – I really like having the numbers in white, but I wondered if it conflicted with the numbers in blue on the front. Also, what to do with the piping. I show both here……

Home uniforms – Similar to the road uniforms, there are a few changes. We stick with ‘Brewers’ across the chest, and I retain the gold drop shadow, although part of me wants to alter the tail under the letters to make it much larger. I bring back a revised ball and glove to the hat – The ‘fingers’ would be raised as on many new hat logos. I had real conflicts about this – do you alter the logo in any way, make it look more like a glove, make the M and the B more subtle? (David even added a red version of the uniform — [PH]) What color do you make the elements? Is it even a good idea, or should this log be saved for the throwback jerseys? I like the new Curly B, and would like that on the hat, but in the end I went with modifying the ball in the logo to simplify it, but wouldn’t be against somehow incorporating a metal stud in the shape of a ball…I also don’t think the home team needs nameplates on the back. The teams in the 80s didn’t need them, and it seems to be the only think the Yankees and Red Sox can agree on, so it should be good enough for the Brewers…

Different colors – I thought another alternative could be ‘colorizing’ the jerseys, going red, or blue, or green for St. Patty’s Day.

Pretty good start, right? Well, David had more — much more — in store for me. We’ll get back to him in a little bit, but let’s see what else we have.

Moving along, our next few sets of uniforms come with a little less description, but the effort is top notch.

Next up is Paul Radetsky, who simply writes: “This a first attempt at something like this … I’ve done some uni-design for All-Stars for the league my son played in … (I’m a) Graphic Designer by trade.”

And what did Paul create? Only this amazing concept set.

He didn’t describe it, but it’s obviously a complete home, away and alternate set. The home jersey is actually a vest, with pinstripes, and a unique font. The cap is a fauxback, featuring a blue brim, white crown (with blue back) featuring the classic “ball in glove” logo. On the sleeve, Paul has added a throwback Milwaukee state patch with the “ball in glove” (BIG) logo contained within. The away set returns the word “Milwaukee” to the chest, in the same font as the home, and keeps the sleeve patch the same. He uses a solid blue cap featuring the current Brewer “M” logo. Finally, the alternate is a solid blue jersey, featuring not a wordmark but the “ball in glove” logo on the left side of the chest, same patch as on the home and away, and a third cap similar to his home proposal, only this cap features a blue brim, gold crown (solid all around) and the “old school” BIG logo. Two sock options are provided — one a solid blue sock with the BIG logo, and the second, a blue stirrup with gold sanitary (real nice throwback element there). Each of these elements is shown clearly on his mockup.

Stellar job Paul!

Our next submitter is reader and poster Andrew “Greenie” Greenwood who has some nice ideas to share. Here’s Andrew:

I’m bringing back the ball and mitt. The colors are the gold used back in the 80’s and a brighter blue than they use now. Ball and mitt on hat, current brewers script on home chest with new colors. Home jersey is not white, but more of an eggshell. (I love the cream of the Giants, and that off-white skews toward orange, so i figure the Brewer’s cream should skew toward gold, making it an eggshell color.) Blue sleeves on away grey jersey with blue belt. Milwaukee written vertically arched in blue and gold on the chest, both with blue socks. Also kept the M on Wisconsin outline as a sleeve patch for the home team.

And with that intro, here is Andrew’s creation. When I first saw it, I thought Greenie was going for a “vest” on the away jersey, so I asked him about that. Turns out, as usual, I was wrong. “Those blue sleeves were actually inspired by the Milwaukee Bears throwback they wore this year,” explains Andrew. “It looked so nice on the field, I wanted to bring back the look. The slightly different blue that I used is actually from those Bears jerseys too.”

Superb job, Greenie.

We now return to David Timmerman, who liked the idea of tweaking the Brewers so much, he continued to send me submissions. He continued to fine-tune his home and roads, and added some new powder blues (a nice harkback). His next missive went like this:

Well, I worked on revising my template, so I am ready for future projects. In addition, I made revisions to the home Brewers jersey:

• Increased the size of the tail under the name on the front of the jersey
• Increased size of B on ‘Brewers’ nameplate, also skewed the rest of the name for better arching over number
• Eliminated the gold piping (looked like too much after I revised the piping template)
• Added stripes to the sanis
• Fine-tuned the Ball & Glove logo (two-tone ball has ying-yang look about it)

I didn’t say what I did with the Powder Blue unis, but I increased the flag from the Road Milwaukee logo, and only kept the ‘Pilot’ striping. (As with many of David’s creations, he sent me a second powder blue concept — [PH].) To tell the truth, the toughest part was deciding on the hat (ball&Glove versus others, what color).

This is my latest, with striped sanis since I know you guys love the sanis, and a yellow brim (could not go with a yellow front, and still not crazy about it…). Also, I felt that maybe in these high-definition times, the color I had utilized for the powder blue was too vibrant, so I scaled it back, maybe as the unis looked like when they were unveiled in the flannel days…

Sorry, don’t mean to be a bother, just a fun project to work on…

No bother at all David, they keep getting better. But David is still not finished. We’ll be back with the next batch in a sec.

The next to take the plunge was Zach Davis, who, like all who submitted suggestions, did a tremendous job. Zach states, “My basic idea was to take the pre-strike Brewers uniform and update it for 2010. I tried to keep everything classic yet modern at the same time and logically evolve things as if the mid-’90s redesign never happened. Of all the Brewers logos I’ve always loved the old ‘Wisconsin’ logo, so that takes center stage with a newly designed ‘M’. The Ball-in-glove logo goes through some color shifting — the yellow outline becomes white and I’ve added a yellow outline to the glove itself. In doing that I absolutely fell in love with the ‘ball’ part of the ball-in-glove, so I’ve separated it and made it the official third logo (and replaced the ‘Milwaukee Star’ in the ‘Wisconsin’ logo with it) and I think it looks fantastic, even slightly harkening back to the Pilots. All the fonts are new and I threw in a custom script logo for the hell of it. The uniform set is classic without (hopefully) being either too stodgy or too ‘retro’ and I especially liked being able to give a nod to the Pilots in the styling of the third/sunday uniform. The caps are nods to the history of baseball in Milwaukee, combining stylings of the Brewers with that of the Milwaukee Braves.”

Here’s a “full look” at Zach’s masterpiece. Another tremendous effort from a dedicated Uni Watcher. Great fonts, and I love how a couple of our submitters, like Zach, are “harking” back to the old Wisconsin outline logo.

Next up is Kevin Callahan who is the Creative Director for Alterra Coffee (alterracoffee.com) here in Milwaukee.

And here is what Kevin created for his Brewers redux.

Kevin states, “As you can see I am a big fan of the “Barrel Man”, which I feel is a much stronger and livelier logo than the much ballyhooed “mb Glove”. The glove logo is simply clever and that’s all. Barrel Man is clever and has a personality that is lacking in the glove logo.

“I kept the Pilots’ Blue and Gold even though Red, White and Blue would be more traditional. While it is imperative that the city name be on the road uni, I understand that “Milwaukee” is possibly too long.”

Fantastic job on those Kevin. Can’t say I am a huge fan of the abbreviation (although, there is certainly precedent for that sort of thing in baseball). And here we have another submitter who has put a logo, rather than a wordmark, on the “alt” jersey. Nice work!

Winding down, our penultimate submitter is Steve Prestegard, who has a slighly different take on the new look for the Crew. Here’s Steve:

I freely admit to being not much of an artist. I can visualize concepts, but the execution … well, to quote John McKay, I’m all for it.

While there are certainly better concepts out there, I think the concepts are off the mark in one important area. None of them use the colors of beer, and they usually use colors that are quite overused — namely, navy blue and red. (Arguably, those colors and the royal blue and gold are more befitting of beer cans than beer.) The colors in this concept are black (for dark beer), gold (lager) and cream (the head).

The first one is a very simple Germanic M (yes, it looks very similar to Detroit’s D) using black and gold. The next two are home (cream) and home alt uniforms, followed by road (tannish-gray) and road alt unis.

Anyway, do with these what you will. Ein prosit.

Thanks for those Steve. Those were actually sent to Paul, and were part of an inline message, so I apologize for them having a “black” background — not sure what happened, but, especially with the black alts and cap, it makes them more difficult to see. Still, you guys will get the idea.

Winding this massive post up, we return, one last time, to David Timmerman, as he completes his masterpiece of uni concepting:

Well, here I am once again with my thoughts on the Brewers jerseys. In my reimagining of the jerseys, I would have four jerseys for the team (Home White, Road Grey, ‘Ghost of the 70’s’ muted powder blue, and 80’s throwback striped.

I have never been a fan of the full-color alternate unis, which look too much like a team’s batting jerseys in my eyes (The ‘Black’ Sox are one of the few exceptions). The Cubs especially look awful in those royal blue outfits (well, at least even more putrid then they normally look for this long-time Brewers fan). So if I was the owner of the Brewers, those navy alternates would be on a truck for the clearance rack.

But, looking to make a buck off anything (and taking a positive cue from the college and NFL practice unis unveiled) I would put some style into the spring training / batting practice jerseys. I like the choice for batting practice caps made a few years back, and think some choices on the batting jersey, which is also worn exclusively during spring training, could lift sales.

So here is what I came up with — retaining the darker tones that usually grace the practice uniforms, while tossing the stripes and piping. I have added muted blue strips below the armpits, similar to some football uniforms, but these are not meant to reach out of the pit onto the front of the jersey, merely run down the sides. With Milwaukee training in Arizona, these strips would be made of a highly breathable, and stretchable material, and utilize ‘Dry’-Cool’ fabrics.

Since they will be used for spring training, going with a block letter/number combo to reduce costs. Also, unlike the the regular season jerseys, no drop shadowing. Thought about making the front numbers blue or gold, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. Also, going with a simple sock.

During spring training, would go with the powder blue pants (matching the armpit strips), but they would be worn above any pants before a game. Also went with a pullover with a button instead of a full jersey..

I also wanted to add some detail to the jersey, but couldn’t decide what to do. Thought about placing letters on the front (R for rookie, C for captain) as well as incorporating some small stripes on the sleeve or front to represent each year the player had been with the team…

Still not quite finished, David came back up for air and asked, “what did you think was better, the bright powder blues, or the more muted look?” Obligingly, I told him, and he even created a uniform just for me, which he called “Powder Phil.” Flattered was I by this gesture, but it’s really just combining a couple disparate elements from his different concepts.

Thinking David was done, I was ready to call it a post, but, hey, what’s one more missive and one more concept? Here’s David, one last time:

to annoy you, whipped up one more jersey, this one more reaching out to my creative side then necessarily looking to to create a new Brewers jersey, per say.

Being an amateur historian of certain Wisconsin teams, I know that teams from the state that wear blue and gold often place their numbers in a circle at some point in their history. Marquette, who often tried something new when it came to uniform design, had blue circles around the numbers. The Packers, when they were still using Blue and gold, before they donned their namesake green, first encircled their numbers in a gold ball on the front of their jerseys.

So I thought, why not the Brewers? Baseballs are round, and what better way to determine the arch of the nameplate on the back than with a circle. I decided to add a tint to the home jersey, because I think a few teams can pull that look off, and also incorporate the jersey number on the pants as well.

Kept the piping to a minimum, and modified the tail under ‘Brewers’ which looks more classic, or generic, depending on your opinion

I thought about incorporating a circle with payer number on the sani, thus making it more likely players would actually show them off, but have not in this example. I also kicked around using the ball and glove on the hat, making it fit entirely in the circle, but did not in this version.

I am not certain any team had a similar design, but please let me know if I am wrong (not counting the old star on the back of the Hollywood Stars) Also, maybe you think this look would fit better with another team…I could alter it to that club.

OK. That’s really all from David. But what a tremendous effort on this part, huh?

I apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to give all the submitters their due. If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for your patients.

Just truly great stuff from all those who participated. I actually had three more people who had contacted me about ‘fixin’ the Brewers’ but after the initial contact and interest in the project, they didn’t get back to me. Still though, quite an impressive array of jerseys.

And moi? Did I have any ideas for Brewers concepts. Sadly for you, I do. Lots of them, but I’ll spare you the gory details and just show you the two I’d like to see someday. Like many of the submitters, they borrow heavily from the Brewers past. For the roadie, I’d love to see something like this: powder blue, blue stirrups with gold sanis, script “Milwaukee” and for a cap logo — the Wisconsin outline, which is replicated on the sleeves. For the homes, how about this? A cream-tinged uniform (after all, Milwaukee is the “Cream City”), with the BIG logo as a sleeve patch and topping an all blue cap. Once again, stirrups are blue with gold sanis. The original road “BREWERS” wordmark adorns the front.

That’s really all for today folks. Big, big round of applause for all who submitted their designs. Let them know you appreciate their efforts, and tell them what you think.

With baseball season winding down, if you’d like to submit your suggestions for “uni concepts” for your favorite (or any team), please send them my way. I’ve already received a bunch of submissions for different teams, and I will be sure to feature them and more at a future date.

Got a note from regular James Huening on an event that may be of interest to golfers and charitable types out there. Johnny O, you down with this?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: You guys may have noticed that we have a weekend visitor who goes by the name of “SlimandSlam”, who enjoys the GTG bits a lot, and is frequently one of the first (if not the first) to guess the game. Well, “Slim” contacted me this past week and graciously offered a few scoreboards up to me. So, for that, I’m quite grateful. This will be the first of those. As always, we need date, location and final score, all of which can be done by posting a link from Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac. So, here we go with Slim’s first submission. Ready? Guess The Game. Thanks Slim!

Well, football season is here and that means for the boys of Benchies, it’s touch football time. What? You thought they only played softball? They’ve been away from the game for a while tho, so things could get dicey. On that note, enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

OK, that’s it. Good college football today (Go Trojans!), and “Super Saturday” hopefully some tennis, weather permitting, for all two of us tennis fans. And tomorrow, a full schedule of NFL games. Plus, there’s a few baseball teams still worth watching AND there’s golf playoffs, where they narrow the field down to 30. Not to mention other sports as well. Basically, a uni watcher’s dream, this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday.