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Posts filed under 'Cycling'
Yesterday’s ESPN column generated so much response that I’ve created an FAQ page for it. To see it, scroll down to the entry immediately after this one.
One comment that came up repeatedly — and occasionally comes up in other e-mail I receive — was that I’m a prime exemplar of “the media’s east-coast sports bias” (it’s particularly amusing when someone thinks this is why I don’t like Nike in general or Oregon’s football uniforms in particular). As I usually explain in such instances, hey, no bias here — my favorite state is Wisconsin, I rooted for the Kareem-led Lakers when I was a kid, and my favorite NFL team is the 49ers, for chrissakes.
There’s one area, however, where the charge is at least somewhat accurate: Since the major-level pro sports leagues and big-time collegiate sports all started in the east and midwest, I’m sometimes guilty of forgetting that there’s plenty of sports history — and, hence, uniform history — out west. It’s just that most of it was at the minor league level. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
That point was recently driven home to me when Bob Andrews tipped me wise to a site chronicling San Diego’s sports history. Can’t say I’d ever given much thought to that concept, or to the notion that San Diego even had a particularly deep sports history. But I’m gonna try to make amends by highlighting some of the better uni-related details from the site.
Let’s start with the city’s baseball history. Check out the creased pants in this shot (which supposedly dates from 1887, although I have my doubts about that), and the amazing front bibs in this one (of more believable 1887 vintage). You get a real feel for the mix of baseball and western-style architecture in this shot, and San Diego’s long history as a Naval port city is plenty evident in this one (taken aboard the U.S.S. Alert in 1918).
Of course, San Diego’s biggest baseball legacy is the Padres, who were Pacific Coast League team for over 30 years before the club’s current MLB incarnation. Check out these pics from 1936, 1948, 1949 (love that zipper), 1950, and 1957. Cool stadium shot here, too.
Turning to football, Russ High School sure liked that big “R” on its jersey, as seen in these great shots from 1902, 1903 (dig those crazy-ass socks on the dude at far left), and 1904. Meanwhile, check out the San Diego High player on the right in this 1921 shot: He’s got some some sort of tape wrapped around his thighs, his hip pads are tied together, and he’s got his keys hanging from his belt (which doesn’t match his teammate’s belt color). I sense the work of an overprotective mom.
Skipping forward several decades, it’s pretty obvious that those early Chargers uniforms were miles ahead of what the rest of the AFL was wearing. Can you even figure out who their plain-helmeted opponents are here? Incredibly enough, it’s the 1962 Oakland Raiders, hopelessly uni-outclassed. Similarly, who are the Chargers playing here? Answer: the 1963 Boston Patriots (who supposedly had Pat Patriot on their helmets, but I guess the AFL had some sloppy quality control).
There’s a lot more here, including boxing, soccer, cycling, tennis, golf, rowing, even surfing. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you San Diego — Uni Watch sports capital of the day!
Raffle Reminder: Lots of people had the day off yesterday for MLK Day, so you may have missed the announcement that we’re doing another Distant Replays raffle. For full details, scroll down to the “ITEM! January Raffle” section of yesterday’s entry.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s something I haven’t seen before: padded/quilted uni numbers — additional views here and here — as worn by the UK’s Farnham MH Knights (whose head coach, Steve Rains, provided the photos). … The minor league Cincinnati Cyclones, who are affiliated with the Canadiens, wore Canadiens-themed jerseys on Friday night. “I thought the front of the jerseys looked really nice,” says Kris Rose, who provided these photos. “The backs, however, were a bit of a train wreck. The stripes going around the jersey made the numbers REALLY hard to read when the team was playing. Some sort of outlining would have helped a lot.” … Latest racer-backed women’s hoops team: Colgate (with thanks to Stewart Small). … Duke’s David McClure had a nameplate typo on Sunday night (good catch by Matt Palombi).
January 16th, 2007
Last year I wrote an ESPN column about an odd NFL trend that was unfolding in Philadelphia: the unbuckled belt. And now I’ve noticed that the Eagles are the prime exemplars of a new midsection-based phenomenon: the exposed shirttail tag.
The Iggles aren’t the only ones with exposed tags, but they’re definitely the ones who’ve raised it to an art form. Once you start looking, you’ll find that the exposed tag is more the rule than the exception in Philly. It appears to know no demographic boundaries, being featured by offensive players and defensive, speedsters and bruisers, black players and white, at home and on the road. (If that’s not enough, you can see additional examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
Now, every NFL jersey has an NFL Equipment tag down by the hemline. The thing about the Eagles’ jerseys is that the tag appears to have been moved upward, or maybe the jersey has been cropped to have a shorter hemline — compare this to this.
The Philly tag, as I think we should now start calling it, is related to another trend I’ve noticed this season: the exposed midriff. All over the league, players are showing an alarming amount of abdominal skin. This is apparently due to many jerseys being seriously cropped, sometimes with elasticized hemlines that tend to ride up. It’s all a far cry from the days when players kept their jerseys from coming untucked by wearing snap-on crotch extensions (a photo of which has proven to be surprisingly elusive — anyone..?).
One last note: Speaking of exposed tags, take a close look at this photo (which was provided by reader Rob Montoya). That’s a Reebok logo on the Wyoming player’s hemline tag. But Wyoming is a New Balance school this year, as you can see by the “NB” logo on the player’s chest. Looks like Wyoming had some old Reebok jerseys laying around and just slapped New Balance logos on them when they switched manufacturer affiliations. Bogus!
Uni Watch News Ticker: Last week I noted the logo similarities between the Atlanta Thrashers and USA Rugby. Now Steve Seitz points out a similar separated-at-birth connection between the Red Wings and USA Cycling. … Hilarious logo creep alert from Cort McMurray, who writes: “My brothers are traveling through Asia. They snapped this photo outside of an apartment complex in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.” … I had to attend this food-writer shindig in Manhattan last night, so thankfully I didn’t see the Broncos wearing their blue-on-blues (which were making only their third regular-season appearance).
October 10th, 2006
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a new hosiery hero in our midst. That would be Brian Tallet of the Blue Jays, who on Tuesday night earned himself a lifetime Uni Watch exemption by wearing some picture-perfect stirrups. Here’s a closer look — note the bloused cuffs (which didn’t drape exactly right, but I blame that on the polyester, not on Tallet). Very, very nice.
Bill Blevins, who provided the screen-grabs, reports that Yankees TV announcers Michael Kay, Al Leiter, and Ken Singleton “spent over a minute talking about the fact that Tallet wore actual stirrups in the proper manner. The talk was entirely pro-stirrup, and I did not detect irony in their tone.” Apparently they also showed a quick video clip of Leiter wearing stirrups back in his Blue Jays days (although that couldn’t have been too exciting, since Leiter’s stirrups in those days were exceedingly uninspired). Unfortunately, the MLB.TV game video is from the Toronto broadcast, where the announcers didn’t even mention Tallet’s fine example.
Tallet’s an interesting case. In his minor league days, he sometimes wore stirrups and faux stirrups (nice cuff level, despite the bogus hose). I’ve been unable to find pics from his 2002 and 2003 cups of coffee with the Indians, he was definitely long-pantsed during his two Cleveland appearances in 2005. Then he caused a stir at the beginning of this season — his first with Toronto — by showing some stirrup, which upon closer inspection turned out to be of the faux variety. But as the season progressed, he shifted to full-fledged pajama mode, and as recently as two weeks ago he appeared to be a lost cause. Who’da thunk he’d end up with the season’s best sock stylings so far?
About yesterday’s post: As you may have seen, I ended up taking down yesterday’s interview with Joe Hilseberg, at his request. Many of you have asked why, but the specifics are private. All that matters is that Joe is a stand-up guy who had good reason to make the request, so I honored it. I want to make it clear that there was no pressure put on me by any outside parties, nor was this a case of a source coming back to me and saying, “Oh shit, I didn’t think you’d print that!” This was simply a friend of the site ending up in a tough spot through no fault of his own, so I helped him get out of it. End of story.
No, I can’t tell you more, and no, I can’t e-mail you a transcript of the interview, so please don’t ask. Let’s move on, shall we?
Uni Watch News Ticker: With Georgia Tech wearing throwbacks tonight, I’ll be appearing at 6pm eastern on the school’s flagship station, WQXI 790. I’m told we’ll be discussing the topic of throwbacks in general. … Check out this totally rulin’ 1959 Wilson advertising poster that I scored yesterday on eBay. I’ll post better photos of it when I get the actual item from the seller. … Big, big kudos to Andrew Shieh, who came up with a photo of last weekend’s Navy placekicker jersey typo. … Good catch by Jonathon Binet, who notes that the sleeve patches worn by many of the Nationals are curling and puckering. Additional views here, here, here, here, and here. … In yet another great catch, Dustin Ray has noticed that MLB umpires’ “EG” memorial patch for Eric Gregg is disappearing from many umps’ sleeves, often leaving behind a sticky residue. … Speaking of memorials, this obituary for longtime MLB exec Syd Thrift mentions that he’s the one who got underbills changed from green to gray (or so Thrift always claimed — some other sources dispute this). … On Monday I mentioned that many NFL players’ waistband towels now feature the Wilson wordmark (instead of the Wilson “W,” as had been the case for the past several years). That prompted the following note from a source at Wilson: “Good catch on the towels. We did change to the script Wilson logo this year, to match our current branding (I know…logo creep). If someone’s still wearing the ‘W,’ I assume it’s because the team had old inventory and is just using them up. Each team receives 528 towels per year and a lot of the northern teams seem to go through their allotment slower than southern and/or dome teams.” … While he was at it, the Wilson sourced added this: “If you look closely this year, you’ll see that NFL game balls have the team names stamped on them, below the NFL shield panel. In the past, the home team supplied the balls for both teams; this year, each team will supply their own footballs when they are on offense (similar to college).” … The Raptors have finally confirmed what everyone already knew: no more purple. … Here’s something you don’t often see anymore: the old ABC helmet logo, as worn on Sept. 9th by Ken Huckaby. … The Cardinals retired Bruce Sutter’s No. 42 on Monday night — an odd move, since 42 was already retired for Jackie Robinson. … In case you missed it in yesterday’s Comments section: With the Falcons having signed Morten Andersen Tuesday, lots of readers are wondering if the ageless kicker — who hasn’t played in the NFL since 2004 — will wear his old-school Dungard facemask. … Nice piece here making fun of the Vikings’ unis (with thanks to Jennifer Hayden). … Lots of negative reader reaction yesterday to the new U.S. cycling uniform, and it’s easy to see why. … Cork Gaines notes that there was some serious logo creep discussion in yesterday’s Doonesbury (where the item being discussed for adornment is a prosthetic leg). … Browns WR Josh Cribbs is inviting a fine by wearing an unapproved memorial tribute to a recently deceased teacher (thanks to Dave Sterling for the tip). … Webmaster John Ekdahl has added several new features to the Comments section, including the use of gravatars. For details on that, go to yesterday’s Comments and scroll down to Nos. 139 and 144.
September 21st, 2006
We have something very, very special today, people, and it begins with a quiz: What do Reggie Jackson and Manny Ramirez have in common?
Probably quite a bit, at least in terms of their slugging credentials. But from a Uni Watch perspective, they share something more unique: They’re the only players I’m aware of who’ve worn a stick-pin on the field of play.
You may remember Manny’s pin, which made its appearance this season. Back on Opening Day, he wore a pin on his jersey, right between “Red” and “Sox,” which upon further Uni Watch inspection turned out to be a little cherub swinging a bat. (Despite extensive pestering, I was never able to get an explanation for this.)
As for Reggie, his pin-clad moment was recently brought to my attention by reader Scott Merzbach, who discovered it while watching a tape of the 1974 World Series. In Game 3, as Reggie stepped up to bat in the bottom of the 1st, announcers Monte Moore and Tony Kubek noticed something on his waistband:
Moore: Reggie’s wearing an Oakland A’s World Series
pin on his uniform, it looks like. Is that one right there, on his…?
Kubek: Yeah, it surely is, where his belt buckle would be.
Moore: That’s what they pass out to all the press people here, a three-leaf shamrock.
If you’re unfamiliar with World Series press pins, you’re not alone — they’re a very spcecialized corner of the memorabilia realm. The short version is that since 1911, each World Series team has produced a pin for media members. These were originally meant to serve as official credentials that would admit journalists to the press box; in recent years they’ve become more of a ceremonial souvenir for VIPs. Similar pins have also been produced for All-Star Games. (For lots of additional info and great photos, look here.)
I knew very little about press pins myself until about a year and a half ago, when I visited uniform designer Todd Radom and saw his great press pin collection. At my request, he’s graciously agreed to whip up a little press pin primer for us:
Legend has it that overflow crowds during the 1911 World Series, including friends of Giants manager John McGraw, were making themselves at home in the press box. The newly formed Baseball Writers of America decreed that anyone seeking admittance to the press box at the World Series needed some form of identification, and the press pin was born.
The first All Star Game took place in 1933, but the first All Star press pin came in 1938 — a celluloid button produced by the host Cincinnati Reds. Leland’s auctioned one off a few years ago for close to $5,000.
In the early days of the World Series, press pins were distributed exclusively to members of the press corps, and were manufactured in extremely limited numbers. Today they’re also given to VIP guests and business partners of MLB, but they’re still not mass-produced, and they’re not available for sale to the general public, which enhances they’re collectors’ appeal.
Early examples visually reflect the era in which they were manufactured, replete with flourishes and ribbons. One especially interesting early pin is the 1919 White Sox version, featuring “Black Sox” owner Charles Comiskey.
With the advent of the LCS (not to mention the wild card), numerous clubs now produce press pins in anticipation of a World Series appearance. So most pins in the last 30 years or so have been designed without a specific date. Hence the 2004 pins were inscribed with “16th World Series” for St. Louis and “10th World Series” for the Red Sox, instead of “2004.”
Some pins that are produced in advance seep out onto the market without ever having been used — these are called phantoms. One such example is the pin for the 1951 Dodgers, who were done in by Bobby Thomson’s famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
Another interesting Dodgers pin: the 1952 design, which was a great example of optimism. “Next year” would have to wait until 1955.
My own collection consists of about 140 World Series and All-Star Game pins, including 15 World Series phantoms and the complete All-Star run 1959 to present. I love them because they’re beautiful pieces of art, and they are frozen in time. The 1945 Cubs “Victory” pin, for example, represents the moment that World War II had just ended and optimism was abundant — even for the Cubs, who still haven’t won.
While this is all very interesting, none of it would matter from a Uni Watch perspective if Reggie hadn’t worn the 1974 A’s pin on his waistband (or, most likely, if the A’s hadn’t switched from belts to waistbands in 1972). So in addition to all the other things Reggie’s accomplished, add one more thing to the list: Thanks to him, press pins are now part of the Uni Watch universe.
(Giant foam-fingered thanks to Scott Merzbach and Todd Radom for their invaluable contributions.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Cycling-related note from Tim Root, who writes: “The new jerseys for the US national mountain bike team (currently at world championships in New Zealand) look quite horrible.” … Bryan Redemske notes tht A-Rod was wearing Jorge Posada’s wristbands last night, and has been doing so at least since August 10th.
August 23rd, 2006
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