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, with Tim Brulia and Rick Pearson

It struck Ricko and me at about the same time. We were trading E-mails before the Denver Broncos played the San Diego Chargers in their throwbacks this past Monday, and exchanging some barbs about the uniforms as depicted on the 1960 AFL section of the Football Uniforms Past and Present website — that website is an invaluable tool, and the amount of incredible research that has gone into it cannot be undervalued — and Ricko asked me, “you don’t think the Broncos are gonna wear brown pants with white stripes, do you?” Now, I wasn’t born when the Broncos played that first season, but I did know they only had one pair of pants. Yet, on the 1960 section of FUPP, those pants are depicted as having white stripes (which would have made infinitely more sense, only it didn’t happen).

Then we looked more closely at some of the other uniforms — and Ricko informed me they were wrong too. In fact, it occurred to him (and it hit me at about the same time): “Did the NFL actually use the FUPP site to base a good number of their AFL throwback uniform upon?” Could they have been that lazy? Were they relying on a (very good, but not infallible) website to dictate the look of their throwbacks? Certainly, the Houston Oilers, who are depicted as having blue numbers and blue stripes on their socks (for their road uniform) — which is also wrong — could have been the NFL’s model. When the Titans came out wearing their road throwbacks, sure enough they were wrong. In fact, they really butchered the socks, (those are the home socks).

Anyway, this got us (and by us, I mean Ricko) to thinking … just how many of those 1960 uniforms depicted on FUPP were not correct? As it turns out — EVERY SINGLE ONE had something that is incorrect — some mistakes are minor, some are major — but every single one of them is incorrect. And that is a shame, because FUPP is such a great site, but really, accuracy is of paramount importance. As it turned out, the Broncos did wear the correct pants for their game, but many believed they screwed up. Had FUPP correctly depicted the gold pants stripes, perhaps no one would have even noticed. But the fact that many felt the Broncos were actually “wearing the wrong pants” speaks volumes about the importance of making sure the historical record is correct.

One of UW’s outstanding research historians, Tim Brulia, who has compiled two historical columns for the UW archives (”White At Home in the NFL” and “Pro Football Uniform History” — both of which can be found on the right hand side of the UW main page, under “Research Projects”), is actually planning on working with and expanding upon the efforts begun by the FUPP website. I will now turn the column over to Tim, who will explain a bit about that and more. Here’s Tim:

“What is my stake in all of this? I am trying to extend the great work the FUPP site did when it was first launched. But in order for a site to have teeth, it must be accurate, as close to 100% accurate as possible. With a site like FUPP, every little nuance, and detail (colors, stripes, numeral fonts, patches, logos, etc.) has to be accurate.

“In my research, I have used the Proquest archives of the New York Times that are available online. When I was a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), they made available the Proquest archives of the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. I utilize the Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg, PA and their vast microfilm collection of PA newspapers, including the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia papers. When I get a rare chance to make it to Washington, I also use the microfilm newspaper collection from the Library of Congress. As well as various historical football pictorial books. Not to mention various contributions from others along the way. I thank all the facilities and generous people for the help.

“Currently, I am working with a contributor who is doing the graphic work on the pre-1959 uniforms. The aim is to complete these sets of unis. From here, we hope to revise the corrections that need to be made that is currently shown on FUPP and bring the uni combos that have been worn since 2003 up to date. When will all of this see the light of day on a website? Frankly, it is too early to tell. But even after our dream becomes reality, our work will never be done. There will always be something that we missed or we need to fix.”

Thanks Tim. I will now turn the remainder of this section over to Rick Pearson, who will explain the importance of “getting it right” when it comes to stuff like this. Through Ricko’s tireless efforts this past week, he has reworked every single AFL uniform template for the 1960 season. This has come about by using his personal recollections, the study of numerous photos and clippings from “The Ricko Files” and the experience of being a “uni watcher” from birth. I’m often impressed, usually wowed, suitably satiated, and never bored by what we as a Uni Watch community bring to the table. But what you’re about to read and see, which is the culmination of that lifetime of paying attention to the little things that really DO matter, is one of the most amazing efforts I have ever seen, and not just on UW. If he and Tim (and others) collaborating now and into the future produce results like those below, then the historical record will have found in Tim and Ricko an equal to Marc Okkonen.

And with that, here’s Ricko:

I’d just turned 14, with six or seven years of serious uni watching (lower case) already under my belt. It was a black and white world, except for Sports Illustrated, SPORT magazine, baseball and football cards (the latter being almost worthless) and Preview Annuals. One NFL game a week on TV and only a half-hour weekly highlight show on Saturday mornings. So if you didn’t see it on Sunday, you pretty much weren’t gonna see it.

And then along game this new American Football League. Lots of ink, mostly about how stupid and lame-brained the idea was. Precious little detail. Hard to know who the players were, much less anything about team colors or unis. Such things were of little or no concern to most people. No “gamers” on sale anywhere. No fan hats. Nuthin’.

Anyway, here comes this loopy new league, with lots of new names and faces, and plenty of familiar old ones.

I parked myself in front of the TV every Sunday. Actually had one in my bedroom, a bit of novelty for a kid back then, and I watched the AFL, making sketches of their unis. What color were they? Well, that required something of a science in itself. Scarlet and royal look almost alike on b&w TV…unless they’re on the field at the same time. If you knew “A” was red, then you could figure “B” (although when together, royal generally did look a bit darker).

You needed to be around for the beginning of the telecast. That was the time, if ever, the announcers would “set the scene. “ Maybe half the time, though, they didn’t bother to describe the unis at all.

Gradually, I figured them out. Logic indicated the Oilers were in powder blue (though yellow gold was something of a possibility). Eventually, announcers confirmed the blue. The Titans certainly wore old gold pants. One announcer said they were in “maize and blue, like Michigan.” My ass, they were. Those pants were WAY too dark to be “maize” as Wolverines knew it. And so it went. And sometimes you’d guess. Educated guesses, but still guesses. And look for details. Is there a feathered edge on those stripes? Especially on socks. That could be a tough one. Not a ton of close-ups back then.

Wasn’t until maybe the third time I saw the Broncos that someone said they were in brown and gold. Until then, I was thinking maybe navy and gold. Or navy and the light orange we now call “Tennessee Orange.” I had reckoned the Patriots were in royal (not wanting to be the “Redcoats,” as many of you have mentioned) and that the Bills had chosen red and silver. Why not, it was a great look at Georgia at the time, and had served the 49ers well the season before. Then I learned it was just the opposite, probably when they played each other and I could compare the “grays”. Or when an announcer bothered to tell us what the hell the teams were wearing.

After a full season of carefully watching all or part of probably every ABC telecast, I had everything pretty much down. Then it was just a case of waiting until the end of the following summer to check preseason magazines (and hope for SOME quality in football cards) to check my findings … even though the magazines would all be black and white, too (it wasn’t until SI’s pro football preview in ’62 that I finally saw a color photo an AFL game).

And somewhere along the line it occurred to me that maybe no one else what recording the things I was recording … and that maybe someday it all would mean something to someone. Guess maybe now it finally does.

So that’s it. The photos I’ve supplied Phil all are from 1961 publications (unless noted), so they have to be 1960 games. Tough to find a camera that will photographs next year’s games.

And I have nothing but respect for FUPP. When I first saw the site, the mistakes irritated me. Then I came to realize they had taken on an outrageous task and very probably just hadn’t had the time to search for everything. I wish I’d know of them sooner, I’d have been glad to help.

What DOES irritate me is that it almost appears that the NFL simply went to FUPP for a lot of its input for the Legacy project. You like to think they’d have bothered to, oh, I dunno, look through their own photo files…or send someone to probe the local newspaper archives.

When Paul visited me a year ago, I kidded about being available to consult with the NFL on the AFL’s 1960 unis for the 50th celebration “for a reasonable fee.” We both laughed, and then he said, matter-of-factly, “They don’t care.”

He was right. The league doesn’t. The Broncos, though, put some extra effort into it. And whether we liked the ’60 duds or not, they got it right. All things considered, that’s exceptional. Also unusual, unfortunately.

Phil here. Before we return to Rick’s write up, I want to show you what Rick did to fix the FUPP 1960 AFL team graphics. So, here, for the first time, are all Eight Original AFL teams, properly rendered by color, stripe, helmet, etc. OUTSTANDING effort Rick! And here are each of those eight teams individually:

Boston Patriots … Buffalo Bills … Dallas Texans … Denver Broncos … New York Titans … Houston Oilers … Los Angeles Chargers … and Oakland Raiders.

Tremendous, tremendous job on those Rick. OK — I now return you to the sage uni watcher, Mr. Pearson, who has some notes on those templates:

Notes on the Revised Templates:

1. Wide red band on Patriots socks.

Back then it took me a while to realize that was the top of the crew socks many of the Pats chose to wear. In some games, they wore crew socks that ended with a pair of red stripes, which totally garbled the leg striping.

2. Titans and Raiders helmets.

Raiders wore the same as the Bears at the time. Titans wore something different altogether. It might have been MacGregor, but I don’t remember any other teams wearing it (and I probably should have made theirs a darker blue, because they were). That blue-helmets-darker-than-blue-jerseys thing.

3. Raider numbers were same font as Oilers.

Most uni historians don’t get that right. They assume that Raiders were more like the Bears…probably because the uni was patterned after them.

4. Have not double-checked the specific versions of block numbers for teams that wore them.

Titans and Chargers are right, I believe. The others may well need adjusting.

5. Raiders gold.

You can see on my “Kids Cards” that I had the Raiders’ gold wrong. It had a bit of sheen to it, and I thought it was metallic old gold, like UCLA or Notre Dame. It wasn’t until I saw the 1962 cards (’61 Raider cards all were hand-tinted black & white PR photos and pretty useless) that I learned positively that it was yellow-gold.

6. One-year wonders.

Only Bills and Raiders were unchanged for second season.

In 1961…

* Titans went to white-added loop unis used for the Legacy games.

* Patriots changed loops to royal around white, and lost the white road socks. And, of course, the three-corner hat was gone.

* Chargers changed all bolts to yellow-gold edged in blue.

* Texans ditched white high road socks.

* Oilers changed to block numbers with no contrasting edge on numbers or sock stripes, either home or road.

*Broncos had no TV numbers on home jerseys.

Well, that’s it for the history lesson. All I can say is “WOW”. Outstanding effort Mr. Richard Pearson. It’s clear to me that the once and future FUPP website will be getting an outstanding resource in you, and when combined with Tim Brulia’s yeoman research and a quality graphic artist, we can look forward to an historical record that will rival that of Marc Okkonen. (And maybe even surpass it). Tip of the cap to you gentlemen, for this first salvo. I’m sure the project, when it finally does come to fruition, will be well worth the wait for those uni watchers (and non-uni watchers) who have been waiting for something like this since … well — forever.

What say YOU, Uni Watch community? How freakin’ great was this? Big round of applause for both Ricko and Timmy B!

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. Oregon continued on its winning streak, remaining unbeaten in PAC-10 play and taking Washington behind the woodshed this week, with a 43-19 buttwhoopin’. Look for Oregon to move up from the 11-spot in the rankings and into to the Top 10. The Ducktracker is now updated.

Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:

5. USF/Pitt: Bulls are growing on me, while Pitt is a script away from being awesome-looking.

4. Indiana/Northwestern: A lack of Northwestern striping kept this from being rated higher.

3. Tennessee/Alabama: Oh, Bama…if you would have let the Vols wear orange you could have been #1.

2. Auburn/LSU: Tigers win this battle of the unis…

1. Iowa State/Nebraska: Cyclones blew me away with this look, while the Huskers remain classic.

And the worst one: Ball State/Eastern Michigan: A battle of winless teams in more ways than one.

OK that’s all for today. Apologize for the lack of “extras” but needed to get this loaded early. Everyone have a great Sunday. Don’t forgot to nominate your Worst Uni Ever (see yesterday’s post for details). Two legacy games today, plus the ALCS resumes, following the rainout yesterday.

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

As you may have noticed, there was an extra color on NFL gridirons yesterday. We all knew it was coming, and it was pretty much what we expected. In other words: snoozers.

My general feeling was: (1) It looked like crap, and (2) I didn’t really care because it was 75 degrees and sunny here in NYC, so there was no way I was gonna spend the day watching teevee. Caught about 15 mins. of the Giants game before going hiking in Staten Island. (Yes, hiking in Staten Island — it exists! We even saw three whitetail deer. In Staten Island!)

Anyway: It could have been pinker, because Chad Johnson/Ochocinco had been toying with the idea of a pink chinstrap, but instead he just went with standard white — something of a surprise, because at various points in the past he’s gone with a black version and an orange version (most recently during a preseason game a little over a month ago, which earned him a fine).

Ochocinco’s chinstrap maneuverings have been of particular interest to reader Henry Chan. I’ll let him explain:

In 2007, I came up with the idea to make Johnson an orange and black “Bengal-striped” chinstrap. The idea didn’t come completely out of the blue: Back when I was in University in the late ’90s, I created a company called “Strap It On Sports” — “SioSports” for short — with the idea of making custom-painted chinstraps for NCAA football teams (I figured I would start with college and hopefully work my way up to the NFL). I made a couple of prototypes based on my hometown CFL Calgary Stampeders and then sent letters with hand-drawn mock-ups to various NCAA schools. The chinstraps were customized with the school logo on the chin cup, along with the player’s name and/or number. Unfortunately, I received no response and the idea kind of faded. I no longer have the mock-ups, either.

Anyway, back to Chad Johnson. I figured if he was willing to wear an orange chinstrap (which incidentally was an Adams 50 “youth” model and not a Adams 100 “pro” model), then he might be willing to wear one with black tiger stripes, so I ordered an orange chinstrap and began to customize it. Unfortunately, the paint didn’t adhere very well to the plastic chin cup or the straps, and the idea again faded.

However, this past summer I tried using a black Sharpie instead of paint, and it worked perfectly. After experimenting with a few different designs, I was able to come up with the first Bengal-striped chinstrap, customized for Chad Ochocinco. On September 17th I sent the chinstrap to Chad, c/o of the Bengals, in the hopes that he might wear it for a game (hopefully he won’t make me pay for the fine), or at least a practice.

Very cool. Personally, I’m surprised the NFL has been so tight-assed about chinstrap colors and designs. They already allow bright-colored gloves and color-trimmed shoes, yet they cling to plain white chinstraps. I’m not saying I want them to allow other colors and patterns; I’m just saying I’m surprised they haven’t done it. And I bet the eventually do it in the not-too-distant future, whether Ochocinco wears Henry’s chinstrap or not.

Research Reminder: In case you missed it last week, I’m trying to gather as many different hockey red line designs as possible. I’m not talking about the center ice logo — I mean the red line itself, which is sometimes solid, sometimes checkered, and sometimes imprinted with little icons relating to the home team. If you have any red line designs to contribute, please send them here. Thanks.

Culinary Corner: Why pay 50¢ at the convenience store for a bag of chips when you could spend far more time, energy, and money making your own, as Kirsten and I did on Saturday? The great thing about cooking them yourself is that you can make them as dark as you want — and believe me, I want.

So here’s what you do: Go buy a few nice-sized baking potatoes (preferably russets, but any tuber will do). No need to peel them — just slice them really thin with a mandoline or food processor or whatever. Soak the slices in water for two hours and then dry them as best you can. A salad spinner is ideal for this, but only losers eat salads so I assume you don’t have one of those. Just use paper towels.

Meanwhile, take the widest pot you own, pour in a few inches of vegetable oil, and heat it until it registers 380º on a candy thermometer (if you don’t have a candy thermometer, just stick your finger in the oil until nothing’s left but the bone). Working in batches, put the spud slices in the oil. Don’t crowd them in the pot — if they touch, they’ll stick together. When the chips reach your desired shade of golden brown (figure three-ish minutes), use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a rack or paper towel. Let the oil heat back up to 380º and then start the next batch. While those slices are cooking, transfer the first batch of cooked chips to a big bowl.

Repeat all steps until the bowl is full or you run out of potato slices. Toss cooked chips with salt. Transfer chips and self to sofa in time for Monday Night Football. Serves 1.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Padres wore jersey patches promoting their charitable foundation yesterday. … New masks for Jonas Gustavsson and Dan Ellis (with thanks to Matthew Gahm and Dirk Hoag, respectively). … Jeremy Lewis reports that Pearl Jam’s current tour features team-based T-shirts for each stop on the tour. “The number corresponds to the date the show was played,” he explains. … Sanchez-o-rama! That’s Jonathan at bat and Freddy on deck, as recently snapped by James Allen at Dodger Stadium. … Totally gorgeous basketball warm-up shirt available here. … Man, if you’re gonna steal an NFL team’s design, why would you choose the Bengals? Those are the Lincoln University Blue Tigers, a historically black college in Jefferson City, Missouri (with thanks to Jason Walker). … So now Adidas logo creep has spread to deodorant. “Guess which brand was on sale?” says Timothy McGlone. … And speaking of Adisas logo creep (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … More NOB inconsistencies, this time for Pitt (with thanks to Chris Hilf). … Mike Menner notes that the Twins have already produced a printed version of their 2010 schedule, and that it includes this logo. A sensible person might reasonably conclude that this logo will be worn as a sleeve patch next season, but of course I can’t confirm anything of that sort. … How do you make the lame-o blackout thing even lamer? Put a nickname on your jersey and color-reverse your helmet stripe (as noted by Brian Davis). … One one-handed D1 hoops player? Sure, why not? (With thanks to Chad Todd). … Chris Speakman, who runs the excellent Sports Propaganda operation, has a new line of screen prints available from Topps. … Hmmm, is hockey headed for its own Gazoo helmet? The funny thing about using Messier as your helmet spokesguy is that he looks the same without a helmet as he does when he’s wearing one (with thanks to Ryan Harrington). … Interesting NOB available here. “Looks like a FNOB, but it’s actually the jersey of Ovince Saint Preux — who, according to my research, is now an MMA star,” says Nathan Haas. … Four of Southern’s football jerseys were stolen prior to Saturday’s game against Jackson State, prompting a quick uni switcheroo (with thanks to Prentice James). … Now that the UFL has unveiled its helmet designs, Bill Jones has gumball-ized them. “Also,” he adds, “I have been working on sets of NCAA helmets. I have recently uploaded some the FCS and D2 sets that I have completed, as well as the Asian baseball sets that Jeremy Brahm helped me with, to my Flickr stream. I hope to have my FBS and FCS throwbacks uploaded this month, and then I will start on a D3 set.” … Showtime has aired the third installment of its AFL series, so Mako Mameli has added new images to his screen shot set. Dig the alternating-color yard line numbers in KC! … Also from Mako: Really interesting article here about the Broncos’ throwback field design. Highly recommended reading. … Texas A&M went with white helmets on Saturday. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Rochester Amerks wore some awesome throwbacks on Saturday. … “I was browsing eBay today when I came across a photo slide being sold by the Topps Vault,” writes Paul Carr. “The picture shows Don Zimmer, supposedly from 1972, wearing a very strange Padres cap I have never seen before. The cap is similar to the one they wore for most of the 70s, but the yellow panel in front is HUGE, going all the way back to Zimmer’s ears.” Anyone know more about this? … It’s gotta be the shoes, or something. … Hmmm, is this a hint of what the 2010 BP caps will look like? … Classy move by David Wright, who closed out the season by wearing blue stirrups yesterday — nice (pics courtesy of Steve Wojtowicz). … Kellan Walski spotted this guy at yesterday’s Pats game. “Turns out the guy knew someone who worked at a sporting goods store and was willing to put in the work on the custom job,” he says. “The numbers were custom-cut to be able to fit three across without looking too squished. Beneath all of that customization is a Lawyer Milloy jersey.” … Apple (the computer company, not the record label) is suing Woolworths (the Australian supermarket chain, not the defunct five and dime retailer) due to some logo similarities, although that seems like a stretch to me (with thanks to John Muir). … The Capitals have made changes to their banners and retired numbers (with thanks to William Yurasko). … NOB of the year, right? And yes, it’s his real name, although maybe he should change it to “Ah, Shit,” given the state of the Rams this year (nice find by Tyler Hull). … Hey, did you know there’s a blog that’s tracking the demolition of Yankee Stadium? Love the straightforward URL (with thanks to Kevin Rozell).

By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson

You may have heard the phrase before, since I used it last weekend quite a bit. “Just One More Bumper Sticker” syndrome is a phrase my running mate, Rick Pearson (aka “Ricko”) and I use to describe a (typically) football uniform that has one unique (or semi-unique) design element, but instead of just plain leaving well enough alone, the designers have to add one (or more) unnecessary, superfluous or extraneous element(s) rendering the entire uniform … well … not good. The “design” may look great on paper, or more likely, in Adobe or some other photoshop-type program, but it fails when actually put on a human being. Stick with me here.

With the official first weekend of NFL football finally upon us, and with Paul’s most-awaited column of the year (in my opinion, anyway) posted last Wednesday, Ricko and I are going to look at some of the uniforms on the NFL that suffer from OMBS (”one more bumper sticker”) syndrome, or are just a tweak or two away from looking REALLY good. We’re not touching the classics, we’re not talking about changing colors, logos or helmets — we’re just going to look at several teams whose uniforms are thisclose to being very good or great. Today, we will examine the five most egregious violators of uniform protocol — the Cards, Falcons, Bills, Rick’s own Vikings and the Bengals. With just a few minor tweaks (OK, in some cases they may be more than minor), we can improve these uniforms. Of course, many of you will disagree, but that’s OK because these are just our opinions. But when all is said and done, we think you’ll agree, the minor changes we’re suggesting will be changes for the better. OK? Good, let’s set the ground rules.

Ricko sets the parameters:

* We see it more as “editing” than redesigning.

* We stay inside the current design elements.

* That means…
> No color changes.
> No logo changes.

* We just clean up the overkill, the excess in “bumper stickers”, show a little restraint.

* We will consider past unis in making minor modifications.

* No dark monochrome combinations will be considered. (Well, Rick thinks there are a few that work OK)

Rick also wants to stress that we’re “not saying EVERYONE should make these, not at all. Just that if a few did, it would diminish the now-getting-routine proliferation of panels, yokes, wandering piping and meandering pants stripes.”

Many of the new looks are fun, and we left them alone. We’re also giving the Broncos a “full and complete pardon,” since, although that uniform may have been the precursor to the side panel and truncated stripe madness, they were the originator of that look. That’s good enough for us — you invent it, you keep it, it’s yours. We just think if a few teams would pull back on such things a little, there’d actually be more variety in NFL uniforms.

Ready?

Arizona Cardinals: The southwest birds underwent a major uni overhaul only a scant few years ago, going from one of the all time classics to one of the worst OMBS teams. Seriously — WTF? You’ve got shoulders that are a different color (on the roads) than the rest of the uni, little “panels” within those shoulder blotches, weird stripes running down the sides of the jersey, and some amorphous truncated stripe on the pants. Too much. So, what can we do to improve this cacophony of offensive visual malacuity?

Lets start by removing the side panels truncated pants “stripe”. This way, we keep the feel for the uniform, but remove the extra bumper stickers. Oh yeah, adding striped socks is a must too. The Cards don’t look too bad in red pants, so we take the same approach there — ok, maybe they need a real stripe. You want to add a throwbackish stripe instead (and some ‘matching’ socks)? Maybe that’s pushing it. Personally, I loved the ‘all white look‘ of the last generation of uniforms, so if I had my way, I’d remove the shoulder red, give them some real shoulder stripes, and stick the old logo on there for good measure. But that’s probably just wishful thinking.

For the home uniform, while it’s already better now than the road (at least being solid red, for the most part), it still suffers from the random white panels & unneeded black piping — plus those awful pants. If we remove the bumper stickers, and properly stripe the pants, here’s what we get. Not bad, right? Only other tweak you could make is to put the Cardinal logo back on the sleeve.

We start with the Cardinals because they seem to exemplify the alarming trend of making the pro’s unis look like NCAA Division II schools. Let’s keep that sort of stuff back in the college game. But the Cardinals are far from alone.

Atlanta Falcons: The southeast birds very much like the Cardinals. And again, this is only one or two less bumper stickers away from being a really good uniform. Especially when you consider that this season, the Falcons are throwing back with this beauty. Their current uni set (notice the beautiful throwbacks in that template) is light years away from anything resembling an NFL uniform, but with a few minor changes, it would look pretty damn good.

Simply removing the multicolored “chips” in the shoulders, and eliminating the superfluous side piping and truncated pants stripes yields a very respectable uni set. Of course, those shoulder colorizations could certainly go too.

One element about the Falcons uniforms is, if you take away the extraneous junk, you can dress them in several different (although no monochrome red or black) unis and they’ll look good in all of them. Seriously. All-white, black over red (hey, we like the red pants), red over black (just make sure the socks are a different color), red over white, white over red (even looks good without stripes), or black over white. It’s all good! They like to play mix-and-match, and we like that. Just get rid of the extra bumper stickers.

Buffalo Bills: OK, we think most of us agree this is the worst uniform in the NFL. It’s always running neck and neck with the Bengals (we’ll get to them shortly), but surely, it’s up there. It would probably take more than the removal of a few bumper stickers to get them looking anywhere near as good as the AFL throwbacks they’re sporting this season, but we’ll give it a shot. We can certainly improve the uni without too much effort. As with the first two offenders, we’ll need to remove the side panels and start there.

Simply getting rid of the panels is an immense improvement. But it’s still not very good. Yet. See, the Bills are one of those teams who think monochrome white (not terrible) or monochrome blue (awful, awful, awful) is a good look. Simply pairing the white top with blue pants is an improvement. Conversely, pairing the blue top with white pants is much better. (Ricko tweaks that look a tad further by adding the logo to the jersey and moving the TV numbers to the shoulders.) But it’s still a mess — two different colors (and not all that complimentary either) of blue, red helmet, shoulder “yoke” (for lack of a better term). Feh.

We strive to keep at least one unique element when tweaking the uniforms, and it appears as though the Bills are alone in that shoulder yoke. But do they really need a two color yoke on their road unis? No. So, lets keep the outline and decide on one color blue for the jerseys and pants. Not a fan of the navy? We’re not either, they’re more of a royal blue kind of team. See? Much better.

We’ve eliminated the visual cacophony that is the current uni. Now, lets fix the home jersey by simply keeping the minor adjustments and putting them in a more appropriate royal blue. Is it as good as this? Hell no. Like most people on the planet, we’d prefer they adopt that full time. But is this better than this? You be the judge.

On a quick side note, Ricko and I disagree on at least one point concerning the Bills. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a red jersey (with throwback helmet) or especially in their current lids. Rick, however, remembers the Bills in royal blue, so to him, that red jersey is anathema. Hey, we can’t always be in agreement.

Minnesota Vikings: One of the more egregious offenders in the bumper sticker syndrome department. Actually, the Vikings have what appears to be a very cool and unique element to their uniforms — the attempted “replication” of the helmet horn on the jersey sleeve. Or, at least that’s what we’d like to believe. But, like the others, they take it too far by adding the ridiculous panel. And then there’s the pants. Piping and truncated striping again. Make it stop.

Our solution for the Vikings is relatively simple. Ricko simply removes the superfluous side panel to create the illusion of a horn, and of course, gives them normal pants stripes. I took that a bit further by putting an actual horn on the sleeve. Either way, it’s an improvement.

For the away jerseys, you could put the actual Viking on the sleeve, continue the “shoulder treatment” (as Ricko suggested), or go with purple horn (similar to the home mockup). I really like Ricko’s idea the best here.

Simple, keeping a nice unique design element (viking horn replicated on shoulder), and cleaning up the excess bumper stickers. Done.

Cincinnati Bengals: Viewed by many as the worst uniform in all of football (or at least a close second to the Bills), this could easily be a great and distinctive uniform, but for all the extra clutter bumper stickers. I mean, c’mon … seriously? Yet, the Bengals are very unique in distinct with their “tiger stripe” helmet and shoulder pads, but they get carried away with the panels, piping, etc. Our solution to the Bengals is surprisingly simple, but it fits in with the above teams. Lets dump the junk and focus on a truly cool element. And give them some real pants stripes. And no monochrome black.

The Cincy club is another who like to “mix and match” various tops and bottoms. That’s OK. We’ll start with the white over white. Now, damn! That’s a pretty good looking uniform, right there. But the white jersey, currently is the only one without the stupid panel down the side, so that’s an easy fix. How about black over white? Nice right? Keeps the stripes prominently but not to the point of beating a dead horse. And since real bengal tigers are more orange than black, Ricko thinks the orange jersey should be their main jersey, rather than the alt. I think we could all enjoy seeing this six or eight times a season. The key element here, though, is the white pants — they really look good with any of those three jerseys.

What about the black pants? Well, we’d prefer they don’t wear them, but as long as they will, we need to put on real stripes and make sure the socks are not black. What about on orange top? We’re getting a little crazy, here but OK. Still beats what they wear now. Finally, they don’t actually wear orange pants, but again, how about we replace those black ones? It’s a tad loud, but it could work. Better orange than black.

And we’ve still kept the unique helmet and shoulder stripes, which are the essence of the Bengals, and the beginning of a much better uniform. At least we think so.

Lime Green Hawks? On another note, the rumor mill is still ablaze about a possible Seahawks alternate — the one Paul wrote about on April Fool’s Day. Paul alluded to it in his NFL preview column, and we’ve all seen the leaked Madden screen grab. Even UW’s resident Seahawk uber-fan, and the man behind greenglare.com, Michael Princip has come up with a concept.

God save us all. Of course, Ricko and I are on opposite ends of this one — Ricko thinks the snot lime green alt (NOW rumored to be paired with lime green PANTS) would be ‘fun’ while I think it may be “ok” if worn ONLY ONE TIME and then permanently retired (unlike the Browns brown pants). This retina searing getup can only be a blight on the game, in my opinion.

And if you’re all hoping to see this, even once, whether it be with white or “blue” (not quite sure what that color is) pants … Be careful what you wish for. Can you imagine a whole UNIFORM in that color? That could set the earth a-spinning off its axis. Seriously.

OK, that’s going to do it for this week’s “bumper sticker” piece. I’ll be back with Ricko soon to offer some more modest tweaks to some of the other NFL teams. The worst offenders have been fixed. But our work is not yet done. Let us know what you think.

Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:

#5: How classic is Notre Dame vs. Michigan? And the game was pretty classic too.

#4: Iowa vs. Iowa State. A lot of yellow, but it works, so let it brighten your day.

#3: USC vs. TOSU. You probably won’t see this matchup in January, so enjoy it now.

#2: PSU vs. Syracuse. Love the contrast of blue and white vs. white and orange.

#1: UCLA vs. Tennessee. Very cool. Don’t change a thing, either one of you.

And the WORST uni matchup is….

Mizzou vs. Bowling Green. All black vs. brown pit stains? Bleah.

Thanks Jim. I’ll make sure to provide dissenters with your E-mail addy on request.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: I’m pretty sure I never gave you this one as a game before. If I did, in advance, I apologize. It’s probably not all that difficult anyway, but you never know. Teams are obvious, stadium should be obvious … all that’s left is determining when the game was played and the final score. As always, use a link Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac to post your guess. And, please let me know if you want to try a “Guess The Game” for football, since the season has now begun (don’t know how that would play out, but we can try it if you’re all up for it). OK? OK. Ready? Guess The Game.

Two words: “Foot Fault”

Whew. We wind down this post with a nice, full-color edition of Benchies. Of course, on ‘opening weekend’ of the NFL, the boys are out on the gridiron. Ricko didn’t fix their unis, tho — they’re fine just as is. So, without further ado, here’s your 11 Panel Sunday Benchies.

That’s a wrap. Are you ready for some football?

If you’re interested in sending me a MLB “uni tweak,” you know what to do. Probably gonna have a post on those I’ve received so far real soon. And, next weekend, all you graphic artists get ready, because we’re gonna have a contest … with an actual prize. So stay tuned. Have a fantastic Sunday everyone.

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.

By Phil Hecken

Last weekend, I treated you to you humored me with my attempt to bring you a look at how the American League teams would look if their uniforms used the colors (or at least the ‘major’ colors) from the flag of the City or State in which they play. In case you missed it, click here. Today, I’m back for more, with the same treatment of the teams in the National League. As with the junior circuit, there were some interesting looks. Some teams did indeed look better sporting different colors, while others were worse, much worse, or almost identical.

As with the American League, I have done my best to faithfully recreate the current uniforms using the new colors. In most cases, I have removed only the player NOB and occasionally the front numbers. In addition, since stirrups are necessary (there is no arguing or debating this point), I have included them as an essential uniform element. Sometimes I needed to remove a patch, but usually I kept them in (although in some cases I did not change the color scheme on the patch, either because it changed the nature of the patch too much or because it simply proved too difficult). With that, lets begin.

Arizona: We begin with a state flag, even though for all intents and purposes the Diamondbacks play in Phoenix. Yeah, you can see why I’m not going to show the D-Backs in that colorscheme. With the red, yellow and blue from the Arizona flag, the Snakes would sport a road uniform and a home uni that aren’t much different from their current get-up, but visually I think this one is also more appealing than the current duds. The use of the yellow as a highlighting element and on the socks really brings out the colors much better, in my humble opinion.

Atlanta: Next up, alphabetically, are the Braves, and while I’m not especially enamored of the flag itself, I LOVE the colors. The blue and yellow are really a striking combination and one which several major league teams have used in the past, only to go away from as they progressed into other uniform styles. But it’s a great one and I wish some teams would consider it or even adopt it (or return to it, as the case may be). That being said, here are the Braves in their home uniform and the road kit if they were to use those shades of blue and yellow. While some would argue the current Braves uniform is classic (and if you toss out the two disgusting alts, I’d tend to agree), I think they look even better this way.

Chicago: Like their neighbors to the South Side, the Cubs hail from the Windy City. But that’s where the similarities end — both in their uniform histories and every other way. So their uniforms may bear a slight resemblance (with the flag treatment) from a color standpoint, but that’s about all. I did several versions for the Cubs, because I really like the colors of that flag. Using the powder blue as the predominant color, here’s one version of the roadie. By using the red as the dominant color, we get this. Neither look is any where near better than their current style. The home is even worse, at least in this version. Maybe I should have used red more heavily than blue in that one. However, like I did with the White Sox, I created a powder blue version. Doesn’t work as well, as one of my (someday to be codified) “rules” is if you’re going to wear powder blue, your “base” color must also be blue.

Cincinnati: The Queen City has a rather nice flag, and I’m surprised (well, not really) that the Reds didn’t make greater use of the “block” C in the flag, opting instead for the wishbone. And while they have used a block C on their caps, they’ve used that wishbone as far back as 1905 (according to Okkonen) and probably before that in the 19th century. Anyway, the predominant colors of the flag are red (thankfully — they are called the “Reds”) and blue. So their “new” uniforms won’t be all that different from their current ones. For the home uniform it was basically a matter of slightly altering the current red, and replacing the black with the blue from the flag. For pants stripes, attempted to mimic the three “stripes” on the Cincy flag, and performed a similar treatment on the stirrups. For the road uniform, it was more of the same, although on that one I kept the pants stripes red. It’s funny, while I don’t especially mind the use of the drop shadow (because it’s black) on either current uniform, it really looks kinda awful when it’s depicted in dark blue on the “city flag” version.

Colorado: With the Rockies, pretty much all bets off are with the current colors. However, I have always liked the current font, and with new colors, we get a nice fresh look. And while red, yellow and blue are a common element in many cities’ flags, it’s an interesting twist when applied to the Rocks. For the road uniform, I think it’s a nice look. Nothing to write home about, but pretty nice. Of course, since pinstripes do not belong on a road uniform (another of my “rules”), I removed them. It renders the uniform much more plain, but that’s tough. Personally, I like the way the yellow interlocking “CR” looks an the cap. For the home uniform, I rather enjoy this look, using mostly blue for the lettering and numbers. Probably should have continued the all yellow lettering for the cap, but that could easily be corrected.

Florida: The Marlins, they of the teal and black, get a nice new treatment when we take the Florida flag colors. Mostly red and white, but with a seal of an almost ‘orange’ hue, it was my pleasure to undertake this transformation. I think the “orange” and red work well as complimentary colors, and here’s how this was conceived in the home uniform. I had to keep the teal coloration of the marlin, though, since I’ve never seen a red or orange one. Doesn’t look that bad. For some reason, for the away uni, I didn’t use any of the orange element (but adding a heavy dose of white, which is a very prominent color from the flag). The result is rather plain. This is one I’ll take another shot at someday, adding in some of that additional lighter coloration.

Houston: Take a look at that flag — now you understand why the Astros have that old school engine loaded with oranges out beyond the left field fence. Anyway, the flag is mostly aqua (I guess) and white, so the Astros’ uniforms will reflect that. Although the flag has a smidge of red in it, I elected to keep the away duds as well as the home set in just aqua and white. Not a good look. Not that their current uniforms are all that great, but the city flag treatment is decidedly not an improvement.

Los Angeles: It’s really hard to mess with an all-time classic uniform like the one sported by the Dodgers. But since my purpose was to see what all all teams would look like in city flag colors, the Dodgers must be included. Even without seeing what follows, you can probably guess it won’t be an improvement. You’d be right. First of all, for the home uniform, with red and green as two of the three colors (and I HAD to keep the front jersey number red, right?), it was hard to avoid it looking like a St. Patty’s Day fashion jersey or a Christmas special. Not that the stirrup coloring is a saving grace, but I think it’s OK. Well, not really. For the road uniform, took the opposite tack, using red as the primary color and sublimating the green as much as possible. Decidedly not good. You can’t mess with success any more than you can polish a turd (and please don’t post that “Mythbusters” episode where they prove you can, in fact, polish a turd).

Milwaukee: Kind of a busy flag, no? Another flag where I’d consider the main color to be kind of an aqua. And, of course, there’s the wheat stalk with the chaff (I’m not sure any of those are the correct terms, but work with me here), which will serve as the other color for this uniform redux. There’s also some kind of gear or ferris wheel, a boat, and some images in there. No offense to the good people of the Cream City, but you really need a new flag. OK, no editorializing here, just the unis. So, with that as our base colors, we get a home uniform that looks different than the current one. Different, not better. Not so sure using the color of the wheat helps there. So for the road uniform, I substituted the wheat (gold) color for the the red from the word “Milwaukee.” I think that’s a little better. I also removed the drop shadow to keep things somewhat more orderly. Seems like the Brewers could use both a uniform and a flag makeover. We may have some on the board who agree with that.

New York: As we saw in the American League city flag swap, the colors of the New York City flag are almost identical to those of the New York Mets (even though the accepted version is that the Mets took their royal from the Brooklyn Dodgers and their orange from the New York Giants). So, it shouldn’t be all that surprising when you see the NYC flag road uniform for the Mets. Added, obviously, orange to the bill and some sock stripes. Might be a tad busy, but it sure beats the hell out of the black they’ve added to the road uniform. Since the Mets play in the borough of Queens, I did mock ups for them with those colors as well. Despite using yellow, that road uniform and home uniform don’t look good at all. I realize that the pinstripes are their official uniform, but they haven’t worn it in a month, so I went with the “snow white” version. However, when we adopt that to the City of New York flag colors, it’s fairly similar to their current uniform. If I had more skill and time, I’d remove the black dropshadow from the home and away sets, but the intent was to keep the uniform as close to the current as possible. Meh.

Philadelphia: Hmmm. Didn’t some other Philadelphia team recently wear the City flag colors on their uniform? Not so sure how well that was received. But, in the spirit of this exercise, lets see how the baseball team from the City of Brotherly Love fares in city flag colors. Surprisingly, for the home uniform, not as bad as I had imagined. But what about the away kit? Actually, I like that one even better. I don’t think anyone will be clamoring for the Fightin’s to be changing their color scheme any time soon, but it’s not an altogether bad look. Again, although the blue is not quite as dark as I prefer, there is something about combining blue and yellow that just looks right.

Pittsburgh: OK. This one is too easy. The Pirates already proudly use their City’s colors as the basis for their uniform. Seems to be a common theme amongst the Steel City teams. I wonder if that’s deliberate? Anyway, you won’t be surprised to see the Pirates when they sport their road unis and home duds.

San Diego: Finally, a City whose flag has MUCH better colors than those being sported by the team which plays there. And since the Fathers have quite the myriad uni history, I’ll get a bit saucy here. Lets start with the homes. I made the red from the flag the dominant color, and I like it. I like red and yellow (or whatever actual shade you want to call those two colors). I think this is a definite improvement over their current colorscheme. For the roadies, and recognizing the crazy uni past the Pods have, I went with a yellow base with red wordmarks/numerals for the Friars. Yeah, it’s bright (unlike this post’s author) alright, but I also like this. Better than sand, that’s for sure. This is another team that is just begging for a uniform overhaul, and while perhaps taking the city flag colors isn’t the direction they should go, it’s better (IMHO) than what they’ve got now.

San Francisco: Another kind of plain flag, but definitely workable. One of the nicer things about the San Francisco home uniform is that it’s not pure white — tis cream. So if we keep the cream base, and take the brown and yellow (from the eagle and border) plus the blue, we get a very nice looking uniform. (The yellow crown on the cap is a shout out to Stuby). Now those may look too “Padre-ish,” but since the Pods don’t use those colors anymore (either in their current look or in my city flag look), that is what we get. For a slight twist on the cream home base, instead of straight gray, for the road uniform, I made the base a with a slight blue hue (from the “SAN FRANCISCO” on the flag). I think that one looks pretty damn sharp. However, since the current uniform is also a classic, I can’t argue the city flag colors look better, but they’re certainly pretty good.

St. Louis: For our penultimate uniform, we find another instance where a the colors of a city flag closely match that of the team (was this intentional? — hard to say, since the animal for which the team is named is a cardinal, and cardinal is indeed, red). Surely, it’s convenient, if coincidental. Even the yellow in the flag is replicated by the yellow in the bat. But as a result, the uniforms won’t differ much at all from those currently worn by the Redbirds. Other than changing the stirrup stripes, the home uniform is virtually identical to the current one. For the road uniform, I added red to the crown of the cap and played slightly with the stirrup stripes. But basically, city flag = team uni colors with the Cards.

Washington (DC): OK, if there was ever a city flag I would have expected to be red, white and blue, it would be Washington, D.C. Nope. Just red and white. So, making the Nationals uniforms, with their red, white, blue and gold only two colors will take a bit of chicanery. Lets start with the road uniform. I already like the red better than their current blue. Since the cap and “Washington” are in a nice, matching script, this looks fine. Those god-awful beveled numbers don’t look so hot (this part of the uniform is just CRYING for a reworking), and I removed that stupid beveled interlocking “DC” patch altogether. Fix the number font, and this is a winner. OK…on to the home uniform. Decency dictates that I remove the beveling from the wordmark, for unless you have two or three colors, it looks AWFUL. Well, it looks awful anyway (no offense, Todd Radom, I’m sure they told you they liked that design), but it looks better in one, solid color. Same problem with the beveled number on the back as on the roadie, but it’s better on the home, because at least the fonts work together. I did need to add a black border around the number font however, but at least that’s not BFBS, but black for necessity’s sake.

Well, there you have it. The National League rendered in city flag colors. I don’t want to say this ‘project’ was a complete waste of time, because I think we did see a few uniforms that look better in different colors (or at least the colors of their flags). But since we won’t be seeing any of these teams move to these colors any time soon, the project was more fun, and more for my own edification, than as an appeal to teams to change up their uniforms (or at least the colors). Still, some of these do make you think that maybe, just maybe, what they’re wearing now needs a change. What do you think?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one is probably way too easy, but then again, maybe not. As always, the clues are right there for you on the scoreboard. Location, Date and Final Score, please. Ready? Guess The Game.

Once again, if anyone has any scoreboards they’d like to contribute, please shoot me a line.

When football season rolls around, are you guys interested in a “GTGFTS” edition? I’m not so sure how that would play out, but it may be worth a shot. Let me know if you’re interested in that.

Alternate jerseys. No stirrups. T-Ball. Must be softball. Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

That’s all for today, folks. Couple announcements and a whole mess of different stuff coming tomorrow. Have a great Saturday.

By Phil Hecken

Today, I’d like to introduce what I hope will become a semi-recurring feature here at Uni Watch. I’d like to take a look at certain teams, teams that seem to be in need of a unichange. Whether that involves a tweak, a logo change, a complete overhaul, or some combination of those elements, I’d like to work with some of the ‘graphic artists’ we have and (much to your chagrin, submit some of my own work) to come up with some changes to the uniforms of certain teams. I don’t know whether I’ll announce the “upcoming” teams in need of a change, or whether I’ll just ask for suggestions and go from there. Maybe both. After you’ve read this article, if you’re interested in participating in any capacity, drop me a line.

Today, I’ll be joined by three great readers, James Huening, who has been a great help in gathering photographic evidence of many of the current and former uniforms you’re about to see below, Robert Marshall, who has tweaked a design or two of mine and who has come up with his own unique spin on what he’d like this week’s team to don for their uniform, and Michael Emody, who’s created a number of unique and sometime throwback-ish (fauxback?) designs (and is the genius behind the lead photo). As if the title and the header pic weren’t enough of a tipoff, today we’re going to be looking at the Chicago White Sox as a team who may just be a candidate for some uniform improvement.

Before we go any further, though, I want to direct your attention to this fantastic article on the White Sox uniform history, authored by none other than UW Prexy, Paul Lukas. It’s an excellent primer for what follows, and the knowledge gleaned and shared by Mr. Lukas in that work will greatly assist in understanding why the Sox are a perfect candidate for a uniform change. So take a few minutes, read the article, then come back here and we’ll begin.

Great article by Paul, yes? Yes. So, lets begin with the Sox’ current uniforms. For their home uniform, the wear a pinstriped uniform in black, gray and white, with “Sox” in Olde English script on their left breast. As often as not, they will break out a black alternate top, also with a script “Sox”. For their road uniform, the team from the South Side wear a grey based uniform with black and white accents, and “Chicago” spelled out across the chest in script. Also, with the roads, they will break out the black alternate with alarming regularity. They rarely show sock, but when certain players do, they’re black. I’m sorry, what was the name of your team again? Clearly, this will not do.

Not that the current uniforms are all that bad; in fact, personally, I feel they’re one of the nicer uniform sets in the bigs, although the use of that softball top should be curtailed. Not eliminated however. As much as I despise alternates, this one does have a time and a place. We’ll explore that below. But, for a team who has changed uniforms with alarming regularity, and the current set has been in use since the beginning of the last decade, it’s time for a change. But to what? Let’s see what we can come up with.

If you read Paul’s piece (and I know you did), you’ll have a pretty good idea of the uniform history of the Sox. Clearly, over the years, the boys from the Windy City have really been all over the map in terms of uniform design. Some of these have been very good, some have been pretty basic, while others have been fairly wild, and others have been, well, what the fuck? pretty unique. They have worn pinstripes, they’ve worn powder blues, they’ve donned predominantly blue, predominantly red, uniforms with a black dominate, and some combination of colors over the years. They’ve even worn all dark blue uniforms (which sometimes looked black), and even changed the sock stripe patterns over the years. Still not convinced this is a team that could use a uniform change? It’s only been close to 20 years since their last one — they’re due.

Finally, before we look at the proposed changes, we must also look at one phemenon (which the Sox of course invented), and in which they still partake with regularity — the wearing of throwback uniforms. Why do they wear throwbacks so often? Perhaps the Sox themselves are auditioning uniforms of yesteryear (yes, I know that’s a Negro League throwback, but it’s still a throwback) with an eye towards the future. Most recently, they’ve worn their pennant-winning 1959 duds, and, because they were chosen to play in this year’s Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati, they got to break out their 1964 powder blues. In the past they’ve worn throwbacks from other years of their myriad (and other Chicago teams) histories, including the first ever throwback in history. Yeah, this team is crying out for a new (or old) look.

So, let’s have a look-see at some proposed uniform changes. There won’t be a lot of “ground rules” on this one, because some of the designs are very close to being throwbacks (but with a twist or two), while others are more “fauxbacks” — which we never clearly defined — but basically is a uniform which was never worn, but is evocative of a feel or style from years gone by. We’ve also come up with a few ’sorta’ new uniform concepts, but we’ve avoided entirely new uniforms altogether. Perhaps that is for another column. Finally, since the team is called the “White Sox,” we’ve insisted upon actual socks being worn, that they be predominantly white, (either sanitary or stirrup) and sometimes, they be at least two different primary colors. OK then, we’ll begin at the beginning.

We start with the road uniform, and we basically begin with some tweaks of the current roadie. Let’s start by putting the team back in red with red socks and white sanis. Gotta have stripes on those bad boys. Lets flip the sock/stirrups next. Hmmm. OK, they do have a history of not wearing white sanis, but maybe that’s a bit much. Of course, one of the “future” uniforms I have proposed, is putting teams whose main color is not blue in “powder” uniforms. If we’re going to turn the Sox red, then maybe they should think about a powder red road uniform. Interesting.

The Sox wore the black prominently for a number of years, so how might they look if we replaced the white outline with black. That’s interesting as well. Although I personally detest two-tone hats, I will admit that on some teams, they do work. So, let’s add a black crown with red brim (and eliminate the stirrup in favor of a full sock). That’s kind of cool, no? Would it look better with a solid black cap? I don’t think so. We could probably safely change the belt to black though.

Keeping with the current thought line of tweaking through adding (or subtracting color) but keeping the current uniform in tact. Let’s work on the home uniform. Notice, we keep the black/red style, both for the cap and the outline, and we return the stirrups, with a slightly different pattern. That red belt has to go — for the home uniform anyway — so here she is with black belt. Nice. Very evocative of the 1959-era unis.

I’ll take a break now, and turn the floor over to Michael Emody who has some different ideas for the Sox.

We begin with Mike’s “throwback” to the 1940’s era uniforms which were quite elegant in their own right. Two versions here, both with the “Big S” surrounding the “o” and “x” in both black and blue hues. The black features the “TV numbers” on the sleeve while the blue has the uniform number on the right breast. For the road uniform, Mike has come up with several. The first two feature the same 1940’s logo, one in gray and the second in a powder blue evocative of the shade they wore in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both feature the uniform number on the right side, and the left sleeve contains the current “white sock on a diamond” which is found on today’s uniforms. The gray uniform is predominantly blue based, with blue striped stirrups, while the blue is rather 1970’s-esque, featuring red stirrups and a red sleeve patch. Taking both of those road uniform concepts a bit further, Mike created two similar unis, but flipped the sock and stirrup combinations, which are reminiscent of the 1969-1970 uniforms. Great concepts Mike.

Moving along, Mr. Emody has gone with additional ‘fauxbacks’ from a different period in White Sox uniform history. This home and away set, which he has nicknamed “Blue Monday,” which brings back visions of the late 1960-early 1970 uniforms. The home features blue pinstripes, blue belt, black shoes, and blue TV numerals and lettering in the Olde English style. The road is powder blue with blue TV numbers, and a white “Chicago” in script with the word “White Sox” on the tail (very reminiscent of the late 1960’s powder blue). The stirrups are blue with white and powder blue stripes (like the home), and black shoes. The pants and shoulders have a blue and white stripe. Finally, Mike created two additional road options, both of which are gray. The first takes elements from the 1950’s black and red color schemes, with “Chicago” in script with a tail featuring “White Sox” (a la the roadies from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s), including a more modern numeral underneath the script insignia and on the left side of the jersey. The second uniform set is similar, only white has been swapped for black, and a TV number has been added to the right sleeve. A black “white sox” patch is found on the left sleeve of both uniforms, and the stirrups are black with red and white stripes and white sanitaries.

Great, great designs, Mike. Interestingly enough, I first noticed Mike’s White Sox uniform tweaks when he posted this in the comments one late evening, shortly after I had posted my first uni tweak. Recognizing we were “on the same wavelength” with the Sox, we began this collaboration.

Lets now take a look at some additional possibilities for new Sox uniforms. The boys from Chicago obviously like their throwbacks, as evidenced by the many number of throwback uniforms they’ve donned over the years. So what if we were to outfit them in a modern uniform with an old-style feel? Notice, no stirrups. But, nice stripage on the socks. We can change the sock colors or patterns. They wore that particular style (obviously not with a modern cut) back in the teens, and would continue to wear it (largely unchanged) until 1931. Not a fan of that style? No worries.

In 1932 through 1935, the Sox introduced this jersey design. So how about we modernize the uniform using that as a base? Well, we’d have this design. Again, no stirrups. And again, we can change the sock pattern.

Obviously, when fully half of your name is “Sox,” the socks are uber-important. The fashion trends of baseball have of course, largely relegated hosiery to being an anachronism. But, if any team should wear socks, and proudly, well — the White Sox should. Lets take a look at that powder read proposal again, this time, with an eye towards returning this beautiful sock styling from the 1970s. They wore that sock with both the red pinstripes and the powder blues of that era. But the powder blues, frankly, don’t cut it with a red base. So let’s put them in powder reds. Interesting. A slight twist on that pattern is to remove the circle and replace it with the current shoulder patch, like so. If we were to equip the Sox in real old school off-white stirrups, we’d get something like this.

Couple other “fauxback” possibilities exist. The White Sox only wore this particular uniform for one year, 1930. Don’t know why they shifted away from it, but it provides an interesting uniform possibility. Finally, in terms of really harking back, they might consider this possibility, which could be worn as an away uni. Crisp and clean, but yet still fairly modern despite it’s age.

Certainly, some food for thought. And now on to Robert Marshall.

Moving on, I’m now joined by Uni Watch OCD DIYer, Robert Marshall, who is fixing to fix ALL the major league teams uniform stylings, but for today, he’s just going to share with his vision for the “perfect White Sox uniform.” When I asked him if he were excited to help fix the Sox, he was more excited than Wilt Chamberlain in a sorority house. Since “rpm” (and several new variations of his ‘handle’) loves him some Sox, he’s taken great care to craft what he feels would be the ultimate uniform for the South Siders. One home, one road, no alternates. However, he does provide several cap options and a special “Sunday” option for the sanitaries. With that, I give you Robert:

i make no apologies for being old school in my aesthetic, especially in baseball, a sport so bound by tradition. and i am not normally so dogmatic unless i hear lunacy when it comes to taste (to each his own), but here are the chicago white sox as they should be, case closed, no debate, might as well close the comments section. if you disagree, you are wrong, lay of the goof-balls. it keeps what works, and draws from the past to fix what does not. take the tv numbers off, fix the hat and ‘rups (not all teams need stripes, but these do), add a patch and this is fabulous. if there is curiosity on the road digs, it’s grey not blue for the cornmother’s sake.

Love that graphic, Robert. Looks like he keeps that face in a jar by the door (either that or it’s a ripoff of Charles M. Schultz). Pretty schweet huh? Kind of in line with what it seems a lot of Chicagoans are pining for, at least in terms of the home. The home uniform would be evocative of the “Go Go Sox” (the uniform was worn from 1951 through 1963), while the road would be of the 1969-1970 vintage. A black cap (with four variations) would be worn with both, the current shoulder patch, and white socks and sanitaries with thin black and red stripes. For Sundays, the sanitaries would switch to black.

I have to say, Robert, a fine, fine job.

Winding down, one cannot but think of the White Sox without noting that for a fairly long period, they wore an all dark uniform. Although it was dark blue, it sometimes appeared almost black. Even when the Sox were going through their crazy fauxback/throwback phase from 1976 through 1981, they occasionally donned the all dark uniform. So — could they pull the look off in the 2000’s?

They wear that black alternate jersey enough — why not pair it with some black pants? Of course, there are stirrups on that mockup — it would be MANDATORY for any all dark uniform today to have full socks (or stirrups) of contrasting color. In order to pull it off, they’d need some form of white stirrup (the last of those two having gray sanitaries). Of course, so long as the socks were of contrasting color, you could skip the stirrups and just wear … gasp … white socks. How might that look on the field of play? Something like this, perhaps? Might actually be doable.

Of course, if they’re going to throw back to the all-dark look, they may as well kick it old school style with the lettering as well. Or, maybe not.

Well — there you have it. A look at the Chicago White Sox with some suggestions for a new look for the team. You’ll notice we didn’t opt for anything completely new, since the Sox have so many wonderful (and not so wonderful) styles and colors from years past to choose from. They could take any number of them and update their current style basing that update off the unis from the past.

Remember Paul’s article? The one you all read before reading this piece? In case you’ve forgotten, Paul concluded the article by stating, “Finally, it’s worth noting that Uni Watch has always loved this logo. Too bad the only uniform element it ever appeared on was a BP jersey.” Well, just for Paul, here is a mockup of that uniform.

What do you folks think? Time to don some new Sox, or are we just writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear? Special thanks, of course, have to go to James Huening for his photographic research, and Michael Emody and Robert Marshall for their mockups. Great stuff guys.

Big Uni Watch Gathering Tonight in Cleveland!: Remember, Uni Watch readers will be enjoying an evening together, tonight at 7pm, at the Prosperity Social Club. Paul believes one of “our more prominent Pittsburgh-based readers may be in town for the proceedings, which should put the Rust Belt quotient into the red zone.” Should be a great time, wish I were there with you guys.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Despite all the fun being in Cleveland this evening, the game being depicted on today’s scoreboard is obviously not being played in Cleveland. It’s also been featured on UW before, albeit in the comments a loooonnnng time ago. So, there’s one way of securing the answer. The other ways are up to you. It might take you less time to find the answer the “old fashioned way” than to search for the thread in which this appeared. So, with that said, Guess The Game. As per usual, we need date, location and final score, but don’t post that in the comments — just link to the game — and for good measure, let us know how you went about solving they mystery.

It’s just kind of Chicago type of day, Cleveland festivities notwithstanding. So, even today’s Benchies carries that theme. It’s an oldie (Ricko informs me Lou Holtz was still coaching the Irish when he crafted this one), but it’s even more apropos today. So, enjoy a special Thursday Benchies.

Raffle Results: Paul here. I hate it when broadcasters say things like, “If you’re Sabathia, you don’t want to walk him here” or “If you’re Bobby Cox, I think you have to bunt here.” If, if, if — dude, what if I’m not Bobby Cox? Such an annoying communication style.

However: If you’re Jason Whitt, you just won yourself a free T-shirt from SportsCrack — congrats.

Uni Watch News Ticker: (Mostly compiled by Paul) … Ya know, I try to fight the good fight and all, but then there’s crap like this. Sigh. … Nice overview of Colt .45s/Astros uni history here. … Yesterday’s Ticker item about Alain Nana-Sinkam’s family reunion logos prompted Rich Frank to send in the logos he prepared for his own family reunion a few years back. … New road kit for Man U (with thanks to Christopher Burks). … Good NOB note in the second graf of this page (with thanks to Kenn Tomasch). … New football uniforms for Southern Miss (with thanks to Raymond Reeves). … New logo for the A-10 championship. … A Maple Leafs fan has started a petition to get the team to go back to its old-school logo. Further details here (with thanks to Dave Abbatoy). … Former intern Vince Grzegorek recently got a tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame storage basement, resulting in an excellent article and photo gallery. … Sad news out of Ohio, where a company that makes chenille letters for varsity jackets is closing (as forwarded by Kevin Mueller). … Hmmm, does Adidas manufacture Korean police uniforms, or does it just look that way? (Good spot by Hadyn Green.) … Larry Wiederecht sent along some interesting scans from a magazine that was published in 1970 to mark the opening of Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. First, here’s Richie Hebner without his vest jersey. Interesting to see how far the black area extended on his undershirt. And second, here’s an ad from Matthews International, the same company I reported on in last week’s ESPN column on HoF plaques. … Robert Marshall doesn’t just order those stirrups for the Uni Watch Stirrup Club — he also gets his softball team, the Unemployed Youppi, to wear them. Those pics are from a recent 5-3 win over the Newport 100s. Okay, it was actually a 36-6 loss, but at least the Youppi looked sharp. … Several readers noted that Joba Chamberlain didn’t have the Yankee Stadium cap patch again last night. … Also from last night’s Yanks game: Robbie Cano wears Phiten socks, although he usually keeps his pants hiked up so we can’t the the logo creep (with thanks to Brian Erni). … Bills safety Donte Whitner will wear a pink mouthguard this season in honor of his late mother (with thanks to Casey B.). … The Eagles have added a Jimmy Johnson memorial design to their practice field (as noted by Adam Brodsky). … Another sleeve-roller: Carmelo Martinez. “I remember that it drove me nuts every time he got into a game when I was a kid,” says James Huening. … The A’s will be wearing 1929 throwbacks on August 16th (with thanks to Brandon Davis) … Jim Wooley checks in with a mention of Rick Reilly’s most recent column on espn.com, “if you haven’t seen it yet. I totally agree with his comments regarding the putting on the t-shirts and hats after you’ve won the championship. I’ve never liked this.” … Everyone’s favorite sneakerhead, Matt Powers asks, “If you remember this, than (sic) check this out too.” Matt also has this juicy nugget concerning the GI Joe movie and Nike: “Check this out — much like what Nike did with the Transformer films, they are releasing kicks that coincide with the movie,” complete with similar toy packaging. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm noticed Tadahito Iguchi’s batting glove, it is designed to look like a noh theater mask. First on the left. Jeremy tried to find some up close photos, but now it is part of a giveaway in Chiba. … Finally, Pittsburgh’s own Doug Keklak, has forwarded this classic (which I believe was posted in the comments at one time, but is always worth another look-see): the Chicago Bulls logo-robot conspiracy.

By Phil Hecken

What if … your favorite baseball team had different colors? Specifically, what if, instead of adopting the colors they currently wear, instead they chose the predominant colors from the city (or State) flag for the colors in their uniforms? Recently, reader Hungry Hungry Hipster had been doing “city flag jerseys” (I think they’re soccer kits, but I suppose they could be for any number of sports), and that got me to thinking — what if baseball teams had adopted the colors of their city and how might those teams look if they were dressed in those colors with todays uniforms? While you know I am not a graphic artist, I spent the greater part of a week attempting to see how major league teams would look if they donned a bit more local flavor. I think what follows turned out OK.

Aside from a quick and interesting history lesson in some city’s flags, I learned a couple of other things about how teams would look dressed all local-like. Some teams don’t look all that bad, some don’t look all that good, and some don’t look all that different (as we’ll see). I’d even go so far as to say that some teams look better sporting city flag colors. It will come as no surprise that the Steel City already dresses its teams in city colors, while others bear a striking resemblance (whether this is intentional or not is a debate for another day).

Aside from adding stirrups and sock stripes, and in most cases removing the “PLAYER” name from the jersey (and an occasional patch), I attempted to faithfully recreate a teams current uniform scheme, so as to better give a visual perspective. In each case, I’ll note any changes I made to a uniform (some were necessary) but what follows is a “What If…” segment. Lets begin with the junior circuit:

Baltimore: The Orioles, whose name is ornithologically derived, are obviously black and orange. It’s a classic uniform, no doubt. But the flag of Baltimore is yellow/gold (for the most part) and not all that far off from the current Orioles colorscheme. Adding the yellow and dropping the orange everywhere but on the bird logo and that of the shoulder patch yields this uniform. It’s not a bad look at all. On the stirrups I added the yellow/gold sanitaries, instead of white and some stripes as well. Hard to argue removing the orange in favor of the yellow, but it’s not a bad combo if you used the Baltimore City flag colors.

Boston: OK. The “Red Sox” is obviously in reference to hosiery the Boston team (usually) wears, so it’s very tough to make any kind of case for putting the Boston City flag colors on the Red Sox uniform. But I gave it a shot, just for shits and giggles. Obviously, you’d need to keep the “Red Sox” patch on the shoulder, so I left that alone, but here’s how the road uniform would look in the aqua (?) and yellow of that city’s flag. Not good. And the home uniform? Not much better, although that’s not a completely horrible color scheme. Just not on a team called the “Red Sox.”

Chicago: OK, here it starts to get very interesting. The women’s professional soccer team, the Chicago Red Stars already use the city colors (not to mention the flag itself) as the basis for their uniform. And, as you will see later this week, the Chicago White Sox have reinvented themselves about 100 times over their history with different uniform schemes and colors. So how might the White Sox look wearing a uniform sporting their city’s colors? Well … here is how they would look if they used the blue element in their uniforms. And, here is the red element. But what if we combined the two? Well then, you’d have something like this. Whoa. I’ve seen that look somewhere before. Did the 1970’s White Sox chose the colors from their City flag for their uniforms? Hard to say, with absolute certainty, because they’d worn red before in their history and also powder blue, but never at the same time. Was this a semi-conscious effort, or just dumb luck? Or perhaps, one from column A and one from column B. Either way, it’s food for thought.

Cleveland: Here is an example where the current uniform colors are almost identical to the colors of the Cleveland flag. So the uniforms wouldn’t look all that much different. Did the powers-that-be who came up with the current uniform color scheme reference the city flag? Probably not, since the red, white and blue in the flag have often been used in the teams uniforms, but then again, maybe that was intentional. But either way, the Indians wouldn’t look too much different than they do now. That being said, here’s the road uniform (with stirrup stripes attempting to mimic the flag pattern) and home uniform (for the home, I picked up the green “laurels” from the city flag for additional effect).

Detroit: Wow. Lots of colors in that city flag. Too many to really put onto a uniform that is currently only two colors (not counting white or gray as a color). But we can use the red and blue and try to work them in there. What you get is a home uniform that takes on a full additional color from it’s current state. Looks kind of busy, even though it’s only one more color than they have now. However, that same effect, even with the addition of yellow in the Old English “D” on the cap, looks much better when applied to the road uniform. I might have overdone it a bit on those away uni stirrup stripes, but I wanted to see how the socks would look if they mimicked the flag’s pattern more closely. Probably should have kept them plain dark blue.

Kansas City: I’m actually not quite sure which flag is correct for this fine city, and since it’s very similar to this flag (in terms of the color scheme), I used both. Being partial to those cities which choose to incorporate the colors of the flag of the United States into their city flag, I rather like how the Royals might look if they were to sport the Kansas City flag’s colors. The blue goes from “royal” to “navy” and the gold becomes red. Here’s the home uniform and the road uniform in city flag colors. I kind of like this. There is a slight problem in reconciling the team name (”Royals”) and removing the royal blue color from the uniform. But it’s interesting.

Los Angeles: Ah ha … the first true quandry i faced, because the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim aren’t technically from Los Angeles. But this is the flag of the City of Anaheim. And it’s pretty boring. So I chose the LA flag for the Angels. I probably should have worked with a few more combinations than the one I eventually chose. But since the Angels refuse to acknowledge any city at all on their jersey, they only get one mockup. The stirrup stripes might have been a bit much, but again, I wanted to replicate the city flag colors on them.

Minnesota: Yet another slight bit of complexity here, since the Twins are one of those teams who don’t have a “city” in which they play (at least officially), but a state. So, do I use the State flag’s colors, or those of Minneapolis or St. Paul? Gotta go with what’s on the front of the uniform, of course, so that’s the Minnesota State flag. And, since the flag is predominantly blue, that means the Twins uniforms will have that as their main color. I actually like home uniform better with the blue lettering than the current red. As far as the road uniform, I stuck with the red with blue outlines for city name and numbers. However, since pinstripes do not belong on road uniforms, I had to remove them.

New York: The “New York” comes from playing in New York City, so we’ll go with the New York City flag here. But, don’t dey play in da Bronx? Yep. But the flag of Bronx County looks almost identical, at least from a color perspective. So, for those fans of the Mets (or any team really, but especially Mets fans) who hate the Yankees, you may want to look away. Here’s the vanuted pinstripes using the NYC flag colors. There’s not much difference using the colors of the Bronx flag, but here is that rendering. After ‘creating’ this, I couldn’t even bring myself to do an away uniform.

Oakland: Now this is really interesting. The colors of Oakland’s flag are pretty similar, eerily so, to those of the Athletics. Why so eerie, you ask? We’ve already seen that some teams may (or may not) have chosen to incorporate their cities flags’ color scheme into their uniform, so why is Oakland so special? Because, the A’s sported their color scheme since they played in Kansas City! And I highly doubt Charley Finley knew when he introduced the world to yellow and green on a baseball uniform that he’d be moving his team to Oakland. Or did he? Certainly something to ponder, if nothing else. Anyway, here’s the A’s home uniform and their road uniform in city flag colors. Looks so different from their current get ups. (Note to self…NEVER put stripes on the A’s socks again.)

Seattle: That is an, um, interesting flag. Lots of swirly stuff (what’s that? waves you say? gotcha). And what color is that, anyway — teal? aqua? OK. It’s that City’s flag, and it’s in two colors, so lets work with it. I tried to render this uniform using just the teal and white, but it looked awful. So, I re-added the current blue for a bit of color contrast. Here’s what we get. I give you the Seattle Mariners in city flag gory glory. This would be one team to whose city flag colors I would never recommend changing.

Tampa (Bay): For the Rays, I had to render their flag in both the Tampa colors and those of St. Petersburg as well. The Sunshine State’s west coast seems to have some very interesting flags, don’t they? I really dig that St. Pete flag, but with FIVE dominant colors, there’s no way to render the uniform with all of them (so we’ll stick to the socks). Anyway, lets tackle the Tampa version first. With four colors in their flag, and none more dominant than another, I thought I’d just use them all. Probably not a great idea, but it’s not like the Rays have any great uniform history to begin with. I think their original had more colors. Anyway, with that in mind, I didn’t feel so bad putting four colors in their current uniform. As for the St. Pete version — I got all all five colors in there, albeit two of them were relegated to the stirrups. Interesting and colorful, if nothing else.

Texas: Well, not much to say or do here. The Texas Texases wear their State flag on their uniform, so it’s no surprise their colors stem from it. Both the home uniform and the road uniform don’t change under the “city flag colors” renderings.

Toronto: Rounding out the junior circuit is the only team from north of the border. The Toronto flag is kinda cool, though. And since there is no black in it, I get to render the BLUE Jays in a more appropriate color colour. The nice blue and red in the flag aren’t exactly new colors for the Jays, but they are slightly different from what they have now, or what they wore in the past. So, here’s the home uniform and the road uniform. I’m NOT liking the beveled numbers however (and the letters are no picnic either). Just for the hell of it, and since the Jays once wore powder blue on the road, I thought I’d see how they look if we rendered their uniform in the colors of their flag. I probably should not have. Because here’s what I came up with. Not good. I do think the “Toronto” and the numbers look better when rendered in a solid pattern however. But that’s about the only good thing I can say.

Well, there you have it. The American League rendered in the colors of the flags of their cities. (Please don’t beat me up too bad for the graphics — I’m NOT a graphic artist, nor do I claim to be one — I just wanted to give an idea of how these things would look). I’m NOT saying I’d advocate any of the teams change their colors (well — maybe one, but I’ll have more on them this week, along with some guest artists). But as an exercise in futility, I thought it might be interesting to see how the leagues would look if they took their colors from the flag of the place they play. I’ll be back at some point with the National League. But that’s all for today. Let me know what you think!

Last evening, the Crew & Bravos engaged in a little Negro League throwback game. Ever vigilant, Brewer fans extraordinaire Johnny Okray and Nicole Haase were all over this, with Johnny sending me some pics and Nicole actually attending the game and taking a few pics from the stands. Johnny begins:

I know you know the Brewers threw back to the 1923 Milwaukee Bears, and the Braves threw back to the 1919-52 Atlanta Black Crackers today for a Negro League tribute of sorts. I say “of sorts” because I bet those teams never wore their unis as baggy as the guys do today. Anyways, I just wanted to send you a picture of the mound today. The Crew always like to change their mound logo when the uni changes, and today was no different. Here are a few more:

Untuck ‘em.

The hat looks awesome, but when are they going to make throw back shoes?. Other wise this picture would be awesome!

Thanks Johnny. He notes that additional photos can be found at Yahoo Sports and on The Mothership.

Next up is Nicole, who was at the game, and has a nice little writeup on it:

The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the Atlanta Braves in their third annual Negro Leagues tribute game. The Brewers wore the 1923 uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears and Atlanta wore the 1926 uniforms of the Atlanta Black Crackers.

The cream and blue unis were, in my opinion, a definite upgrade for the Brewers from the white with black pinstripes unis they’ve worn during the past two year’s Negro League games.

The Bears jersey had the look of a vest with undershirt, but wasn’t actually. The pants featured color butt-pocket flaps and belt loops. For most everyone around me, the hat was the star of the uni.

The Black Crackers jerseys were very simple, with red piping on the jersey and a simple red “Atlanta” across the chest and a red A on the navy hat.

Only Nate McClouth and Casey Kotchman of the Braves and Prince Fielder (shown here with Kotchman) ruined the look by not wearing high pants/socks. Kotchman appeared to have elastic in the bottom, but wore them at the ankle. Taking it a step better, in this picture of the guys in the dugout, on the far left you’ll see Jeff Suppan wearing real stirrups to complete the look.

Aside: Braves’ young phenom Tommy Hanson has TH branded cleats. And the BF and I met Ryan Braun after the game while getting dinner.

Full gallery here.

Thanks Nicole! Also, be sure to check out her website, which is awesome, and which she bills as “Sports…from a chick’s perspective.” Great stuff.

In case you missed it yesterday, it’s almost that time again — time for round two of the Uni Tracking we began at the beginning of the season, and you guys so aptly displayed graphically and in print in May and June. Response to the first call for “uni trackers” was tremendous, and I’m interested to see how everyone’s team is faring now that we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the season. So, if you’re one of the many insane dedicated people who put yourselves through this exercise, contact me this week and I’ll think about how we’ll go about round 2 of the tracking. I think we need to keep the “replies” a bit shorter, but we still need the important info. I’ll come up with “guidelines” in the next week, and let you know when the next round (figure the second weekend in August) will transpire. Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. I look forward to your updated tracking and trends. When you send me your email, please put Uni Tracking in the “subject” line. Judging from the number of e-mails I got on this (all of one), I’m hoping interest in this is not waning. Simply contact me and let me know if you’re still interested — I’ll get back to you with the “specs” when I come up with them. OK? OK???? OK.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK. Today’s scoreboard should NOT be that difficult, since you should be able to narrow everything down right from the get go. The scoreboard itself, the teams, and the player pictured are all clues. It’s just a matter of narrowing it even further. And that shouldn’t be all that difficult. Ready? Guess The Game. As always, link to Retrosheet of Baseball Almanac, and tell us what it was about the picture that led you to your answer.

Since we had ARATT (”all Ricko, all the time”) yesterday, we’re only going to have one Sunday Benches today. I’m pretty sure the boys of Benchies don’t wear their city uni colors on their softball uniforms, but hey, you never know. So, with that introduction, I present you with Sunday Benchies for today. Enjoy.

The MLB Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is today, and the Hall will be welcoming Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and Joe Gordon (from “pre-1943″) days. You can read more about it here. Will be interesting to hear Rickey’s speech — and whether he’s just Rickey being Rickey … Brinke Guthrie (“eknirb” “=bg=”) notes that the San Francisco Giants will honor Sue Burns, their deceased senior general partner, on Monday. … And finally, Doug Keklak (”Kek”) draws our attention to this trip down memory lane. Thanks, fellas.

OK. That will do it for today. Enjoy your Sunday.

We haven’t heard from Ricko in a while. Well, we hear from him everyday on the boards with his anachronistic tirades and bad jokes sage advice and well placed humor. But, we haven’t had him help out with an entry in a while. He’s got a few opinions, ya know — of course, when you’re been on earth long enough to have caught the first two acts of Our American Cousin in ‘65, you tend to look at certain things and just know there’s a “right way” and a “wrong way” to do things. And then, there’s Ricko’s way. In this installment, we’re going to look at “Ricko’s Rules” as they apply to stirrups, pant lengths, cleats, alternates, and other things about the great game of baseball. As you will see below, Rick’s got his opinions on the way things should be. I may agree with some, and I may disagree with some, but you gotta admit — the man has a point. I’ll be back after you read the rules with my thoughts on this. Here’s Ricko:

Ah, rules, don’t you hate ‘em.

So let’s call these “Rules of Thumb,” some of them anyway. Or maybe “Perspective on What Was Cool and Not Cool in the Era When Stirrups Weren’t an Optional Part of an MLB Uniform”. For this discussion, we’ll focus largely on the ‘60’s and ‘70s’, since that’s when players started individualizing the way they chose to wear their hose and britches.

From there, they’ll morph (or maybe that’s “devolve”) into some that apply to Today’s Style Guide or Lack Thereof.

Okay…

1. The Lower the Stirrup the Higher the Pants Can, and Should, Be. Exhibit A: Big Red Machine. Exhibit B: Mr. Cub. Exhibit c: Brendan Ryan (although his pants are just a smidge too short).

2. If You Pull Your Stirrups Up High, Your Pants Should Come Down to Meet Them (or even overlap them a bit). The Outman look, or Arizona State in recent CWS would have been considered Geekdom of the highest order in the waning days of the Stirrup Era. Very Little League. Hawk Harrelson, one of the earliest proponents of high stirrups and tight pants did it very well, most of the time. Even he pushed “geeky” from time to time, though. Same could be said for Vida Blue, who came along a few seasons later, who most times did the whole high stirrups/short pants thing to too much of an extreme.

3. Pants Rarely Look Good (with Stirrups) Lower Than Mid Calf. This was sorta of the routine look for a lot of nondescript MLBers at the time. Oh, some great players opted for it, but visually was just kinda “I put on my uniform and don’t care about how I look.”

4. Black Cleats Look Better With White Laces. Exceptions: Shoes with large, obvious logo identifiers, or if solid black footwear has become a team trademark. Exhibit B: Big Red Machine.

5. High or Medium Cut Cleats Should Never Be Worn With Stirrups. See Buckner, Bill, 1986 World Series (Stooooopid). If you do wear ‘em, wear stirrup-less high socks of a similar or identical color so the big, clunky things aren’t so obvious …or cover ‘em up with the pajama bottoms look. Think of your image. And if the whites are HIGH TOPS, well, cover ‘em or get over to the basketball court where you belong.

6. White Cleats Look Good Only with Stirrups and Lighter-Colored Sanitaries…or with Pajama Pants…and are Best When Part of an Overall Uni Design. Examples: Oakland A’s beginning in late ‘60s, Tequila Sunrise Astros, Padres, both Taco and pre-Taco. Marginal: Giants orange sanis with white cleats (home only) in late ‘70s, early 80’s. Bad: 1975 Phillies, 1970’s Angels and last Senators keeping regular unis and just switching to white cleats for the hell of it.

7. Sanis NEVER NEVER NEVER Darker Than (or Similar Degree of Light-to Dark as) Stirrups. As much as I enjoyed the White Sox taking a shot at it in ’69 and ’70, it still looks like they’re wearing galoshes (rubber rain boots, for those who don’t know “galoshes”).

8. Do NOT Let Stirrup-less Dark Socks Show With Light Colored Shoes. Unless you LIKE looking like an 80-year-old working in his yard in Boca Raton. Or the girls phy. ed class at Our Lady of the Perpetual Self-Gratification. Then, hey, go for it. But you really should go with pajama pants or stirrups (with light-colored sanis). I mean, seriously, think of your image.

9. Pants Way, Way High (the football pants look) is Okay But Not Let’s Get Ridiculous About It. If your pants don’t overlap your socks (which should only be low, low stirrups or stirrup-less, btw), then you should you should be playing corner for the Packers.

10. You’re Either a Sleeveless Team or You’re Not. Stop with the alternate “vests,” already. And for the love of God, if you MUST wear a vest, at least make sure the undershirt is a different color from the vest. (Although even purple sleeves don’t save that thing.)

11. Pitchers Don’t Get to Pick the Jersey du Jour. Oh, please, wear the frickin’ uniform the team says to wear. Can you imagine the havoc if such nonsense had been around during the nine-basic-combos bumblebee Pirates era, or the A’s white-gold-seafoam days? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

12. NEVER Dark-on-Dark. Alts appear to be here to stay. So, could we at least always have one of the teams in any game be in white or gray (depending on who’s the home team, of course)? Would avoiding this be so hard?

13. Blue Jays and Royals Need to Lose the Powder Blues at Home. Yeah, they’re fun, but — hello — those were ROAD uniforms. Says something about that era, though, doesn’t it…that many teams’ road unis were more memorable than their homes.

There you go, 13, a good place to stop.

Now, don’t beat me up too badly. This is just to give some perspective on today’s styles…based on the way things went in the years when color TV, double knit and logos-on-cleats changed the way baseball looked.

And that photo of me? At 55+ softball a couple years ago, I decided to wear as many colors as possible on my birthday. Hey, if you can’t have fun…

Other than that, how was the play? Thanks Rick, for this installment of “Ricko’s Rules.” Gotta say, I am wont to agree with almost all of your points. Although I grew up in the “high stirrup” era, I have since come around to liking the style of the generation of players immediately preceding that. Perfect example being Ernie Banks, who, no matter what year uniform he’s wearing, the stirrups were always perfect. Today’s players would do well not only to wear stirrups, but to emulate Mr. Cub.

I note Rick didn’t address some things I’d consider “my rules,” although if anyone were to ask me, (but no one did), I’ll tell you a couple anyway. 1) PINSTRIPES do NOT belong on a road uni. Period. No exceptions. As a codicil to this rule, I would add also that pinstripes do not belong on vests. 2) “Vests” as they exist today should be eliminated. They are not vests, but rather sleeveless jerseys. And, 3) A uniform is just that — Those wearing it should also be uniform. I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t mind if a team has a certain “look,” but I hate it when individual players feel they can go styling every which way — you say it’s individuality, and you’re right — but it’s a team game. Dress like a team, not 25 individuals who happen to roughly resemble each other. I’d rather 25 guys ALL dressed like ManRam than to have 25 different stylists all dressing as they see fit. I’m sure most of you disagree with me on that one, but that’s my rule. The aforepictured Colorado Rockies violate all three of these rules in one fell swoop. In fact, if I were to ever have to nominate a “worst baseball uniform ever,” that would certainly be a nominee. I have more rules, but I’ll leave you with those three.

So what do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree with the sage prophet of Uni Watch? Do you have any “rules” of your own? Let’s hear it. I’m sure Ricko will be back with more rules for other sports too, so if baseball stirrups and cleats aren’t your thing, fear not.

Research Request: In working on Ricko’s Rules, Mr. Pearson told me he’s 99.99% certain that during an All Star Game, at least one Cleveland Indians player sported a monochrome blue uniform(!). Now, most of you are aware that during the 1970’s, the Indians did sport the infamous all-red uniform from 1975 thru 1977. However, I was unaware they ever wore an all-blue get up. If they did wear such a thing, it most likely would have been during the same years, although the Indians wore a blue jersey from 1975 through 1985. What I’m looking for, particularly from you guys who have past All Star Games on tape or dvd, or anyone who may remember this, is photographic evidence of the all-blue uniform. If such a beast does exist, please either post it in the comments or shoot me an e-mail. Thanks!

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: In honor of today’s “guest speaker,” I actually found a scoreboard that may predate Ricko. While you can probably easily figure out the year and the location, the actual date of the game may prove more difficult. As always, date, location & final score please, and do let us know how you went about figuring it out. OK? Guess The Game.

And, since today’s topic deals with, among other things, the wrong way to wear stirrups, today’s “Benchies” is rather apropos. Check out Mick — he’s the one on the right — and his lower leg stylings, which are in stark contrast to the big guy, Mike, seated next to him. Here’s Today’s Benchies. Enjoy.

It’s almost that time again, as we head for the homestretch of the final third of the season — the time when you know whether your team is a contender or a pretender. Sadly, it looks like the Mets are playing the role of pretender this year. And I, for one, lay partial blame on the uniforms. As of last night, they had worn the black caps and jerseys six straight games, dropping five. Tell me there’s not bad karma there. Of course, they could have worn orange unis and the results would probably have been the same. They’ve also decided to drop their practice of wearing the pinstripes on Sundays. Don’t ask me why, it’s only their “official” home uniform. But there is probably some cause and effect thing going on there too. Or maybe not. But hey, that’s why the OCD among us track the uniforms. And now it’s time for the second round. Response to the first call for “uni trackers” was tremendous, and I’m interested to see how everyone’s team is faring now that we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the season. So, if you’re one of the many insane dedicated people who put yourselves through this exercise, contact me this week and I’ll think about how we’ll go about round 2 of the tracking. I think we need to keep the “replies” a bit shorter, but we still need the important info. I’ll come up with “guidelines” in the next week, and let you know when the next round (figure the second weekend in August) will transpire. Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. I look forward to your updated tracking and trends. When you send me your email, please put Uni Tracking in the “subject” line. OK? OK.

Have a great Saturday everyone! Sic semper tyrannis!