As most of you know, I’ve been trying to compile a visual catalog of hockey red line designs. It’s an interesting project, because the blue lines are always solid blue, but red line styles are all over the map. It’s sort of a stealth design element on the sports landscape.

How did we end up with such a multiplicity of red line designs? A hint comes from reader Matthew Clement, who recently sent me the following note:

The red lines were originally broken up with white in order to differentiate the red line from the blue line on black and white TVs. Perhaps this is common knowledge, but I only figured it out last year when Montreal played in Colorado and the local sports station broadcast the second period in black-and-white as a tribute to the old days of hockey.

I had never thought about that, but it makes perfect sense. Interestingly, now that we live in a color TV world, some red lines have gone back to solid red. You can see that in some of the photos linked in the following alphabetical list of arenas, which features all of the current NHL rinks along with some minor league and college facilities. I’ve tried to show current designs as much as possible, although I probably missed the mark in a few cases. And that’s fine — I’m mostly interested in showing the range of red line possibilities, past and present.

So:

• Air Canada Centre (Toronto): Checked.

• American Airlines Center (Dallas): Red stars on a white background. A few years ago it was checked.

• BankAtlantic Center (Sunrise, Florida): The home of the Panthers uses white panther pawprints on a red background (here’s another view), which is a reverse-field version of their previous design.

• Bell Centre (Montreal): Checked.

• General Motors Place (Vancouver): A diagonal check.

• Giant Center (Hershey, Pennsylvania): The home of the Hershey Bears is using little white Calder Cup outlines on a red background. You can see the arena’s crew actually creating the red line in this video clip.

• Gwinett Center (Duluth, Georgia): This is the home of the ECHL’s Gwinett Gladiators, so the red line features little white gladiator swords.

• Honda Center (Anaheim): This season they’re going with large, inward-pointing white arrows. But in the past they’ve had smaller outward-pointing arrows (or are those supposed to be duck footprints?), interlocking triangles (additional views here and here), and solid red.

• HP Pavilion (San Jose): Checked.

• HSBC Arena (Buffalo): Checked.

• Jobing.com Arena (Phoenix): Worst arena name ever, but I really like their northwestern-striped red line.

• Joe Louis Arena (Detroit): Checked>

• Kohl Center (Madison, Wisconsin): This year it’s white diamonds on a red backgound. Last year it was target circles.

• Madison Square Garden (New York City): Checked.

• Mellon Arena (Pittsburgh): White diamonds on a red background.

• Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, New York): Checked.

• Nationwide Center (Columbus): Lots and lots of little white stars. A few years back it was a simple checked treatment.

• Olympic Center (Lake Placid): When the Miracle on Ice took place in 1980, the red line featured red diamonds on a white background>

• OSU Ice Rink (Columbus): White stars on a red background. That’s the fourth design in as many years, because the past three seasons have featured white parallelograms (2008-09), block “O” logos (2007-08), and solid red (2006-07).

• Pengrowth Saddledome (Calgary): Diagonal checks. Used to be standard rectangular checks.

• Pepsi Center (Denver): White diamonds on a red background.

• Philips Arena (Atlanta): Remember that row of arrowheads that used to run along the bottom of the Thrashers’ jerseys? They’re not on the jerseys anymore, but they’re still on the red line.

• Prudential Center (Newark, New Jersey): Checked.

• RBC Center (Raleigh, North Carolina): Black dots on the red background, just like their lower-jersey pattern. Used to be solid red.

• Rexall Place (Edmonton): Red diamonds on a white background.

• St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa): White lightning bolts on a red background.

• Scotiabank Place (Ottawa): Checked. Used to have a different design, although I can’t make out what it was.

• Scottrade Center (St. Louis): Solid red.

• Sommet Center (Nashville): Looks like it’s diagonally checked. Used to be solid red. And I’m not sure what was going on here — are those diamonds?

• Staples Center (Los Angeles): Checked, but it used to be solid red.

• Tate Rink (West Point, N.Y.): The home rink of the Army hockey team uses white stars on a red background.

• TD Garden (Boston): This year they’re going with lots of small white diamonds on a red background. Other designs in recent years have included solid red, checked, and a modified checked pattern in which the white checks alternated with spoke-B logos. I’m not positive, but I think the white checks have also been shaped like the NHL shield.

• United Center (Chicago): Last year solid red, this year long rectangular checks.

• Verizon Center (Washington, DC): When the Caps play, it’s white stars on a red background. But they apparently use a more conventional treatment for non-Caps games.

• Wachovia Center (Philadelphia): Three parallel red lines.

• Winnipeg Arena (Winnipeg): Back when the Jets were still playing, the red line was more white than red.

• World Arena (Colorado Springs): Three red parallel lines.

• Xcel Energy Center (St. Paul): Long, rectangular checks.

And that’s it for now. Do you know of other designs floating around out there? Let’s have ’em.

And it seems to me that we have a few questions worth answering:

1) Is Matthew Clement’s info about white-checked red lines being a response to black-and-white TV accurate? If so, were red lines routinely solid red in the pre-TV era?

2) And if that turns out to be true, which was the first team to go with a non-solid red line?

3) Were there any solid-red holdouts, even in the black-and-white TV era?

4) Which team was the first to use a non-checked design?

I love this — more than 10 years’ after Uni Watch’s debut, we’re just now exploring a whole new branch on the athletics aesthetics tree.

(Big thanks to everyone who contributed photos and info, including Daron Jones, Rob Leavell, Kyle Speicher, Jeff Emhuff, J.D. Vercett, Mike Vanne, Ryan Yanoshak, Rich Canulli, Jon Strauss, David Kendrick, Philip Krawec, Matt Hiett, Mike Bielen, Zak Kapotes, Michael Kearney, Vincent Vignola, Kevin Zdancewicz, Nicole Haase, and Bryan Grupp.)

Culinary Corner: I don’t drink coffee — never learned to like the taste. But I love the smell of coffee, I love coffee ice cream, I love coffee shakes and malts, I love coffee milk (the official state drink of Rhode Island, don’tcha know), I even like making coffee for Kirsten in the morning. Basically, I like everything about coffee except coffee.

Maybe that explains why I like instant espresso powder so much. I’m told it makes crappy espresso, but that doesn’t matter because that’s not what I use it for. Here’s what I do with it:

• I put about a 1/4-cup of it in my brownie batter, thereby transforming my brownies into mochies. (This pretty much works with any chocolate-based baking recipe — cupcakes, cookies, frostings, whatever.)

• I dust it on ice cream, where it provides a nice bitter counterpoint and a hint of micro-granular texture. (Kirsten actually keeps some in a salt shaker for this purpose.)

• I put a few tablespoons of it into the spice rub I use for steak, pork, and chicken. Adds a complex undercurrent to the proceedings.

I’ve read that espresso powder is also good in stews, but I haven’t tried that yet (maybe this weekend). Anyway, just get some and mess around with it — it’s surprisingly versatile, sort of like Joe McEwing.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As a few thousand of you informed me yesterday, Maryland and South Carolina will be wearing camouflage-accented uniforms (and cleats!) for their games on Nov. 14th (not against each other), as a post-Veterans Day gesture. Lots of additional info and photos here, here, here, and here. … Packers kicker Mason Crosby went to high school in Georgetown, Texas — which, as it happens, uses the same helmet logo as the Pack (good spot by Ken Singer). … What’s worse than a lacrosse team dressed in pink? An opposing team dressed in lime green plaid (blame Jim Atherton). … Latest step in Nike’s nefarious world-domination scheme: a robot that graffitis the roadway (thanks, Kirsten). … Yesterday I said that the Broncos’ yellow striping looked like the lone color element in an otherwise black-and-white photo. Nathan Haas decided to take that concept literally. … Best Halloween costume ever? (As submitted by my ESPN colleague Dave Schoenfield.) … Remember this photo of Boomer Esiason with a No. 63 helmet? Steve King says it was a tribute to veteran Bengals tackle Joe Walter, who was waived during that season. Esiason also wrote the number on his helmet with a marker. … Who’s that in the helmet hat? It’s Doug Keklak’s brother, with a young Kek himself in the background, circa early 1980s. … Expect to see lots of Kinesio tape in Boston this season (with thanks to AJ Chalifour). … “While at the farmers’ market in Los Angeles, I happened upon a small exhibit in a glass case about Gilmore Field (home of the Hollywood Stars) and Gilmore Stadium,” writes Patrick Woody. “Both buildings were located adjacent to the Market, and Gilmore Stadium sat on the site of what is currently CBS Television City. Anyway, there were some cool items in the case. Sadly, there were no Stars shorts.” … Mark Maxwell says this poster has been appearing on campus at Ohio University — looks like an upgrade from last year’s road uni. … “Not sure what this is, but it was on the camera in the dugout during Yanks/Halos,” says Matt Harris. … “Meet the Raiders of Rider High School in Wichita Falls, Texas,” writes Andy McNeel. “You’ll notice the gorgeously simple and strong ‘ROHO’ logo on their helmets, which stands for ‘Ride On, Honorable Ones.’” … Andy also sent along this photo — note the unusual NOB. “It makes my brain hurt to try to think about what ‘P.R.I.D.E.’ stands for, or why it deserves NOB status,” he says. “I swear, all of these high schools are within about a 70-mile radius of Wichita Falls. Fans of uniform oddity-watching (much like bird watching) need only go to Wichita Falls on any given Friday night, point their wagons any which direction toward any given set of stadium lights on the horizon, and they will not be disappointed.” … The term “in perpetuity” is almost never a good thing, but it seems particularly depressing here. … Here’s another high school that uses Bucco Bruce — with one slight modification, as Matt Lanzoff explains: “I attended that school in the late ’90s and was a junior the year of Columbine massacre. In the wake of that incident, the school chose to remove the sword from the logo (in order to fight school violence) but keep Bruce.” … And here’s a college that uses Bucco Bruce. Background, from Ben Teaford: “In fact, they got into trouble with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the use of the logo. Tampa Bay told them they couldn’t use it anymore, so the school’s president challenged Tampa to a game to decide who got to use the logo. Tampa refused the challenge and soon after changed their logo. I remember reading about it in Sports Illustrated at the time (just one of those small blurbs towards the front).” This account is confirmed in the fifth graf here.

You ignored it before, you can ignore it again: I’ve put another big batch of old indie and punk singles up on eBay, including some serious rarities. You know what to do.

Several Chicago Bears players apparently have a few issues with the Soldier Field turf. I confess that I’m not particularly sympathetic — a crummy field surface is kinda old-school, right? Still, it would be nice if the grounds crew could at least center the midfield logo on the 50-yard line, instead of the 45. (Thanks to Alan Borock for the photo.)

New ESPN column today — the annual NFL season preview, with lots of good stuff. Look here.

Raffle Results: The winner of the Jim Parker Memorial Helmet Raffle is Anthony Giaccone. Congrats to him, and thanks to all who entered.

Special Notice for NYCers with a Clue: As you may be aware, the band that made one of history’s most perfect records is playing at Southpaw this Saturday, and I happen to have two extra tickets that I’d be happy to sell at a discount. If you’re interested, please speak up.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod, it doesn’t get much better than this short 1953 movie about hockey. Stop whatever you’re doing now and watch it. No, not later — NOW. Well, except for Teebz, since he probably watched it in second grade (awesome find by Frank Mercogliano). … Anyone know why the base umps in Monday’s Bosox/Chisox game were wearing red caps? (As spotted by Steven Johnston.) … The Cowboys are color-coordinating their practice jerseys (with thanks to Stephen King). … Terrelle Pryor had a shout-out to Michael Vick on his eye-black the other day (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … A jersey snafu turned out to be very costly for a Chinese soccer team (with thanks to B. Cheng). … Justin Eller has put together a new site devoted to UVa football, including coverage of uniforms; programs, media guides, and other printed matter (I especially like some of the old ticket stubs); and tons of game photos, among other useful data. Nicely done. … The CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toromto Argonauts both wore throwbacks for the annual Labour Day Classic on Monday. “Of particular note is the fact that the Tiger-Cats accurately wore yellow throwback helmets,” writes Doug Brei. “This differed from their throwback-wannabe helmets during the CFL’s league-wide ‘Retro Week’ earlier in the season. The correct color is yellow, not black.” The Argonauts, meanwhile, dressed like so. … Nice little gallery of old Taylor University photos here (with thanks to Tim Lofton). … Whoa, looks like someone got a bargain (nice find by Ryan Perkins). … The Nets are finally first at something! Unfortunately — but not surprisingly — it’s something pretty douchebag-ish. … Relatively amusing assessment of NBA logos currently ongoing (with thanks to Robert Saietta). … In a related item, there’s a new sci-fi novel in which almost every planet in the galaxy has a corporate sponsor, which I’m sure Mark Cuban would be all in favor of. … Justice Sonia Sotomayor wore one of those white lace collar thingies for her first day of work at the Supreme Court, thereby maintaining the protocol of America’s two other female Justices. Further info, including a video report, here. … David Brown reports that the San Francisco Airport currently has a really nice exhibit on the Pacific Coast League. Although it’s out of focus, look at the beaver jumping through the program cover at the bottom of this shot. … Great shot of George Gervin’s old warm-up shirt (with thanks to Matt Mitchell). … Oooh, check out this awesome vintage Bengals sweater (click on the thumbnails for the full effect). … Kenn Tomasch nominates these guys as history’s worst-dressed chain gang, and it’s hard to disagree. That’s from a USFL game in 1984. … You know, I don’t even think it deserves to be called Shea. … Yesterday I mentioned that Mississippi Valley State was wearing a Steve McNair memorial decal. As several readers pointed out, all SWAC teams are wearing it. … New hoops uni for Washington State.

When Kirsten and I were working on our Candela Structures exhibit from last fall through this past spring, one of our most helpful sources was a woman named Mary Ellen Coghlan. We first encountered her when we posted some research queries on a World’s Fair message board, where she was an active participant and used Lady Met as her avatar. She responded to our queries and helped get the ball rolling on our research.

Over the next several months, Mary Ellen would periodically pop out of the ether and send me a helpful note. “You should get in touch with this guy, because I think he has lots of Candela photos,” she’d say, or “This guy’s father worked on the World’s Fair — I’m sure he could provide you with some good information,” and then I wouldn’t hear from her again for a while. Her leads always turned out to be useful, and each time I found myself wondering, “Hmmm, why didn’t she tell me about that guy, like, five months ago?”

Mary Ellen didn’t respond to my repeated requests for a quick phone chat, so we maintained this odd system in which she sort of parceled out little morsels of information to me. Maybe she was testing me, making sure I was worthy. In any case, by the time our show opened back in May, I’d come to think of her as our guardian research angel, so of course I invited her to the opening reception. She didn’t respond to that either, and she didn’t show up at the reception (or at least didn’t identify herself — I had no idea what she looked like or if she even lived in the New York area), but she later sent me a note indicating that she’d seen the exhibit and approved of how it had turned out. Nice.

And that might have been the end of that. But Mary Ellen popped out of the ether again about five weeks ago by sending me a note on Facebook, of all places (we had never communicated via that method before). “Hey Paul,” she wrote, “check out my piece of Shea Stadium.”

My heart jumped and sank at the same time. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what was in that photo. And if I was right, it meant Mary Ellen was in possession of the one baseball artifact I would give almost anything to own.

“OK, I’ll bite,” I wrote back. “What is it?”

“It is an exterior panel that hung on the cables outside of Shea in 1964,” she responded, confirming my initial reaction. “They were blue & orange.”

Mary Ellen was referring, of course, to the amazing corrugated metal panels that adorned Shea Stadium for the first 16 years of its existence. I’ve written about them several times over the years and had always been told that they’d been discarded shortly after they were removed in 1980. So how did Mary Ellen get one?

Through the simplest means imaginable, as it turns out: She bought it on eBay less than two months ago. And for a ridiculously reasonable price, too. Or to put it another way, one of my holy grails was up for auction right under my nose and I didn’t realize it. That bruise on my ass is where I’ve been kicking myself for the past few weeks.

I congratulated Mary Ellen on her purchase, to which she blithely replied, “Someday I will bring the Shea organ in from my garage into my house too. I miss Shea Stadium. Can you tell?”

Wait a minute — she also had the organ from Shea? Jane Jarvis’s organ?!

At this point I sort of half-begged, half-demanded that Mary Ellen let me interview her. To my pleasant surprise, she readily agreed. Here’s how it went down:

Uni Watch: Tell me a little about yourself. Did you grow up in New York City?

Mary Ellen Coghlan: No. I’m from New Jersey, Bergen County.

UW: And did you attend the World’s Fair yourself?

MEC: You know, the funny thing is that I attended the Fair before it opened. My father was known as “The Bamboo Man” in the 1960s. He sold bamboo from our house in Upper Saddle River, and he became this quirky ’60s icon to some people. He got to be a guest on Johnny Carson…

UW: Talking about bamboo?!

MEC: Yes. He was also a guest on To Tell the Truth. Bamboo became the rage when he was selling it.

UW: Was this for tiki bars and things like that?

MEC: No. For people to grow in their homes. It’s a very hearty plant. Everyone was into Japanese stuff back then, in the late ’50s, early ’60s. It’s a lovely plant. Anyway, he was contacted by the African pavilion at the Fair, because they wanted some bamboo. I didn’t even know they had bamboo in Africa. But anyway, when he delivered it, I went along for the ride. And it was this crazy thing, running around the World’s Fair a couple of weeks before it opened.

UW: So this would have been in early 1964.

MEC: Yes.

UW: How old were you then?

MEC: Ten years old.

UW: And what did you think of the Fair?

MEC: Oh, I was blown away by it. It was a kid’s delight. When we got back home, I wanted my mother to bring us back to the Fair when it was open, but I never got there. She figured we’d all get lost at the Fair, and that was not gonna happen.

UW: So you didn’t even get to go back and see your father’s bamboo? What a shame. Now, how does Shea Stadium play into all of this?

MEC: Well, I’ve always been a Mets fan, and the Fair was right next door.

UW: Did you attend lots of Mets games during that period? Did you go to Shea during that first season in 1964?

MEC: Probably. I don’t recall specifically, but my father took us to Yankee Stadium and to Shea, and I remember how Shea had those confetti panels on the outside. It was so amazing! I’m very sad that it’s gone. I’m not a big fan of Citi Field.

UW: I hear ya, Mary Ellen. Now, how did you acquire one of the confetti panels?

MEC: Well, I always search eBay for things relating to Shea Stadium and the World’s Fair, or any of my other quirky interests. I’m a big fan of the Brown Derby restaurant in L.A., for example. Anyway, someone on the Baseball Fever web site had posted that one of the panels was available on eBay. So I checked it out, and the guy selling it explained how he’d gotten it. He’d gone to a Mets/Dodgers game at Shea in 1980, which was the year they took the panels down, and he saw the panels laying in a pile. I think he said they were near the bullpen. He was there with a buddy of his — he grabbed a blue one and his buddy grabbed an orange one. They threw ’em in the trunk of their car and drove home with them. He’s a professor or teacher in California now, and the panel was in his parents’ garage in Queens, and they were finally giving him the ultimatum — “You’ve gotta get rid of this thing.”

UW: When did put the listing up on eBay?

MEC: Pretty recently — in early July.

UW [incredulous]: Of this year? Like, last month?

MEC: Right.

UW: You’re lucky I didn’t know about it — I would have bid a lot!

MEC: I was so surprised that it showed up there. And to be honest with you, I didn’t think I was going to win.

UW: How many other bids were there?

MEC: Eight, I think.

UW: What was the starting price?

MEC: A hundred dollars.

UW: And your winning bid?

MEC: A little over $500.

UW: How high would you have been willing to go?

MEC: I would have gone to $1000. I can’t believe I got it for barely half of that — I thought for sure I’d be outbid. I think maybe he didn’t title the auction properly. He just wrote “Shea Stadium — Original Blue Rectangle.”

UW: Yeah, that doesn’t really tell the full story. So once you won the auction, how did they ship it to you?

MEC: As soon as I paid for it, I jumped into my pickup truck and got it. I didn’t want someone else to make him an offer on the side and I’d be screwed! It was still at his parents’ house in Queens. When I arrived to pick it up, his mother said, “I can’t believe anyone would pay for this thing. It’s been kicking around in our garage for years.”

UW: Was it a hassle to transport? How big is it, how heavy is it?

MEC: It’s three feet by four feet. And it weighs nothing — I think it’s just corrugated aluminum. I thought it would be corrugated steel, and I was worried that it would be a real struggle. But it’s not heavy at all, you can lift it with one hand, no problem. [Here it is being held by Mary Ellen's niece and nephews. -- PL]

UW: Interesting.

MEC: I’m sure it’s original, but I’d like to get it authenticated somehow, just to be sure. It has drips of orange paint on the back — that seems pretty convincing.

UW: What about the orange one that the seller’s buddy took — does he still have it?

MEC: I asked his mother that, because I figured I’d buy the orange one too. But she said he’d thrown it in the trash years ago.

UW: Seriously?!

MEC: Yeah. It would’ve been great to have a blue one and an orange one together.

UW: So yours is maybe the only one left, like, anywhere.

MEC: To my knowledge it is, yeah. Nobody on Baseball Fever was aware of any others that have survived. I’m sure someone else has gotta have one or two in a garage, I would think. But who knows.

UW: Do you have any other memorabilia from Shea?

MEC: I bought a set of seats. And I bought something from the dedication at the stadium’s groundbreaking — it’s a Lucite block with a shovel embedded in it.

UW: So now that you have the confetti panel, what are you going to do with it?

MEC: I have an old bar in my house, and I have all sorts of World’s Fair signs and things like that in there. I’ll probably put it in there. When I pass away years from now, I’ll leave it to the Baseball Hall of Fame, if they want it.

UW: Now, what’s the story with this organ?

MEC: It’s in my garage. It weighs a ton!

UW: How’d you get that?

MEC: Again, on eBay, for about $500. The person selling it lived way upstate, between Syracuse and Buffalo. I called her up and she said, “The person we purchased the house from used to work at Shea Stadium, and they took the organ when the Mets were getting rid of it in 1979,” which I think was the last year Jane Jarvis played there. [That's correct, at least according to Wikipedia. -- PL]

UW: So was this the original organ at the stadium?

MEC: I don’t think so, because I’ve looked at some photos of Jane Jarvis from 1964 or ’65, when she started playing there. It’s a Thomas organ, and I have the serial numbers, so I have to contact Thomas to see if they can trace it.

UW: Can you play the organ?

MEC: No. It’s just another, like, dopey thing I’ve bought.

Raffle Reminder: Speaking of which, all membership enrollees will get three bonus chances to win the college football helmet from Gridiron Memories that I’m currently raffling off. For details, look here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Hill on Hill! (Good spot by Dylan Buell.) … Here’s more on David Wright and the S100. Meanwhile, Shane Victorino tried the S100 on Thursday night, but Rawlings didn’t send him a double-flap model, so we got to see the rare sight of Victorino going single-flapped. After two ABs, he went back to his usual helmet. Further details in the last section of this page (with thanks to Bernie Langer). … Steve Luft notes that the Blackhawks have changed the design of their red line. … Here’s a fantastic look at the anti-drugs patch that the Rams wore in 1988 (big thanks to William Schaefer). … What’s going on here? Jonathan Sluss explains: “Throwback uniforms were presented to players from the Old Dominion teams of the 1930s (the last decade of football there before this year). The colors are green and yellow because the school was then known as William and Mary Norfolk Division. This page has a short video about this, and also includes a shot of a great old letterman sweater at the very end, plus the accompanying article has a neat story about how they accepted an invitation to play Miami even though the invitation was intended for the main William and Mary campus.” … The baseball season is almost over, and Clint Glaze just noticed a uni change that the rest of us all overlooked: The Padres removed the city name from their sleeve patch. Sure enough, this change is reflected in the graphics shown in the MLB Style Guide, but it wasn’t called out as one of the uni changes for this season. Kudos to Clint for picking up on something the rest of us missed. … Douchebag alert from Scott Holcomb, who spotted Bo Jackson addressing the Auburn football team with Band-Aids covering the Under Armour logo on his T-shirt. … Speaking of douchebaggery, the Swedish Hockey League has finally figured out exactly what the world needs: ads on goalie pads (with thanks to Tyler Hull). … The Mavericks are unveiling an alternate jersey on Sept. 21st. … I’ve seen all the new MLB designs for next season and can report that another team is going to have a powder blue alternate jersey, plus one team is adding a powder blue alt cap. And no, I can’t say anything more than that, so don’t ask. … Didn’t realize the Cardinals wore striped belts in the early 1980s. Those photos both come from a book that Jim Vilk was nice enough to give me when I met him in Cleveland earlier this summer. … If you click through the first four photos in this gallery, you’ll see that C.J. Wilson wears a red glove when the Rangers wear their red jerseys, and a blue glove the rest of the time (good spot by Rachel Johnson). … Benji Boyter reports that Tennessee’s offensive line includes two brothers named Cody and Cory Sullins. “They use first and third initials on their jerseys — CD Sullins and CR Sullins,” he says. No pic yet. … The Orioles did the Negro Leagues thing on Saturday, dressing up as the Baltimore Elite Giants. Nice job with the batting helmets. In fact, they even went the extra mile with the catcher’s helmet. Some nice video footage here, if you’re so inclined. … Three years ago, City Reliquary founder and all-around good guy Dave Herman gave me this very excellent Xmas present. Unfortunately, it has languished in my T-shirt drawer since then, because (a) it’s too big, and (b) I almost always wear blue Levi’s, so I prefer not to go blue-on-blue. I’ve been meaning to scan the logo, change the colors, and create a new Zazzle version for myself, and I finally got around to doing it a few days ago (with a big assist from Kirsten, who retraced the logo in Illustrator) — voila! I made a tote bag too, but I haven’t actually ordered that for myself yet. … Major thrift shop score by Jeff Santos, who found some authentic — and maybe game-used — Phoenix Suns throwback shorts at a Goodwill store in North Attleboro, Mass. Only $3.99! … Bobby Cox once again wore the wrong cap on Sunday (with thanks to Joseph Stuhrenberg). … Prince Fielder’s belly is now so big that it’s generated its own force field. … The Bears have demoted Will Ta’ufo’ou to the practice squad, thereby denying us the chance to see more of this great NOB. … Here’s one I’ve never seen before: Surrattsville High in Maryland uses the Superman logo on their helmets (with thanks to Marc Nelson Jr.). … Good article on UNC’s championship rings here (with thanks to Benn Wineka). … And speaking of UNC’s national titles, here’s a nice group shot of their championship jerseys (as forwarded by Joey Morris). … The Titans aren’t the only team wearing a Steve McNair memorial decal. They’re also wearing one at Mississippi Valley State (good spot by Chris Buttgen). … Ever seen this Bills logo before? How about this Oilers logo? Scott Little put these and a bunch of other obscure AFL logos on this page. I’d definitely seen the Bengals one before, but most of the others are new to me. … Remember the old “America Needs Farmers” decal that Iowa wore back in the Hayden Fry days? They were wearing it again on Saturday — albeit a much smaller version — apparently because Fry was in attendance at the game. “I had thought that the NCAA banned such stickers and that was why Iowa stopped wearing them in the first place,” says Scott Mason. Anyone know more about this? … Meanwhile, as you may have noticed in that last shot, Iowa has history’s hugest rear-helmet uni numbers.

by Phil Hecken and Jim Vilk

I’m joined this fine Friday by DIYer and memorabilia collector Jim Vilk, who’s about to regale us with a fascinating story of his days working at the Richfield Coliseum, the Coliseum’s subsequent demise, and the trove of treasure Jim and his brother were able to secure in the hours prior the wrecking ball felling that once-proud structure. Fittingly, with Paul visiting The Mistake By The Lake The Forest City this weekend, Jim will take us inside (literally) the Coliseum and, after a quick history lesson, show us some of the things left behind, for the taking.

So, then, with that brief intro, here’s Jim:

With Paul coming to Cleveland this week, I did some math and realized he is here during a milestone year in Northeast Ohio sports history. The upcoming 2009-10 NBA season will be the 40th for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The year 2009 also marks 15 years of Cavs basketball at Quicken Loans Arena, or “The Q” (formerly Gund Arena) and 15 years of Indians baseball at Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field, or “The Jake,” as some of us still call it). Not only that, but 2009 marks 10 years of the new and not-so-improved Browns playing football at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Browns’ last title was 45 years ago, but it wasn’t the city’s last. The Cleveland Crunch won the National Professional Soccer League title 15 years ago at Cleveland State’s Convocation Center. Take what you can get C-town, it counts.

That’s nice, I suppose. I’m a Pittsburgh fan, though, so most of it means bubkes to me. I do like the Cavs, but not nearly as much as I did when they spent 20 years playing ball amidst the serene, pastoral landscape of Richfield, far from the bright lights of the big city. Nestled in northern Summit County, the Richfield Coliseum was located almost halfway between Cleveland and the Akron-Canton area. I say “was,” because it’s been 10 years since they tore it down — but not before my brother Tom and I got a lot of great memorabilia.

The milestones continue. It’s been 35 years since the building opened with a Frank Sinatra concert, 30 years since Sports Illustrated said, “No arena was more beautiful than The Coliseum, a magnificent structure in Richfield, Ohio,” 20 years since “The Shot” by Michael Jordan and 15 years since the place closed with a Roger Daltrey concert. In between were many more concerts, truck pulls and rodeos, circuses and ice shows, boxing and wrestling matches, hockey and arena football games, some great indoor soccer (as we talked about recently) and of course, the good, bad and ugly years of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tom and I worked as vendors there, and even shared a souvenir stand for a few years. He started a year after the building opened, so he was there for “The Miracle of Richfield.” I officially started in 1983. Unofficially, I got to work the 1981 NBA All-Star Game, which was cool. Tom stayed at the Coliseum all the way to the end, and even works at “The Q” to this day. I quit in 1992 to get on with my life’s work, but asked to come back in 1994 to work the Cavs’ playoff run. I lost my seniority but gladly sold soda in the seats for the final games.

When the building closed it sat for five years while they figured out what to do with it. There was talk of it becoming an outlet mall, a prison, a workout facility, you name it. Finally, the Gund brothers sold it and the surrounding land to what is now the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They didn’t implode the building. Rather, they gutted the interior, then took a wrecking ball to the exterior.

A day before the wreckers came, my brother got a call. We knew one of the guys doing the interior work, and he said we could come in and take anything we could fit into our vehicles. Everything that was left would be buried on site. Tom hopped in his pickup and I got in my station wagon (if that’s what you want to call a Saturn SW1). When we got there, it took a few minutes to get over seeing the gutted remains. Memories came back and flooded our minds. Once we started finding things, though, our reaction quickly turned to joy; we were like kids on Christmas morning.

The first items we found (by the way, the items you’ve seen so far are things Tom and I bought or received as giveaways) were in the employee locker rooms. We took two types of patches from the ushers’ and security guards’ uniforms. I liked the ushers’ patches, which were issued when the Coliseum was ten years old. The blue and gray depiction of the building was a definite alternative to the simple blue-and-green patch. Both were good in their own way, though.

Next, we snagged some warm and toasty dark blue coats the parking lot attendants wore. I wore mine as my winter coat for a few years before I had to retire it. The simple design made it go with almost anything. The big white Coliseum logo on the back sure started a lot of conversations in public. I lost count how many times strangers started reminiscing with me when they saw it. Then we found a brown coat worn by the ticket takers. The brown welcome patch harkened back to the original logo.

Speaking of uniforms, the vendors had a few nice ones. Unfortunately, I don’t have those anymore. The only one I still have is the ugliest of the set — a red-and-green-striped bowling shirt with a horizontal strip of black thrown in for bad measure. We had a cool yellow polo shirt before that and a nice blue-white-and-orange rugby shirt afterward, but those are gone for some reason. Tom still has his rugby shirt, though.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We went out to the arena floor and grabbed a few sections of floor seats. My set actually gets some use in our basement. Tom has the rest tucked away in the bowels of his home. Then, we headed to a storage area, where we found a giant NBA logo and some floor stickers for the playoffs. We almost left the room, until we saw some rolled up fabric. Good thing we were curious, because we ended up finding the banner for the scorers table, as well as the banner for the Cavaliers’ 75-76 division title.

After that, we went up to the main concourse and stopped at our old location between sections 208 and 209. Tom grabbed the sign for it, while I took the “Drive Safely” sign above the exit. I like to keep it in my garage as a reminder to, you know, drive safely.

Finally, we headed up to the infamous loge area. The Coliseum was one of the first arenas to have a set of luxury boxes. Problem is, they put them way at the top of the building. That turned out to be the reason for the building’s early demise — the corporate types ended up with the worst view of the game. Whatever. We didn’t find much up there, until we got to a meeting room which contained a scale model of “The Q.” Well, if it was a full scale model, someone got to it before us and dismantled it. We found almost half of the seating area, which makes it kind of worthless. That didn’t matter to my brother, who never met a piece of memorabilia he didn’t like. Actually, with a little creativity some DIYer could turn it into a retro-looking baseball stadium. (Ah, if I had the time…)

By this time, our vehicles were filled beyond capacity. We left the building for the absolute last time, and I saluted as I drove out of the parking lot. It wasn’t the last time I’ve been on the site, however. The national park was just going to let trees grow naturally, but someone noticed birds were starting to use the land as a migratory pit stop. Now they keep the area trimmed for birds and bird watchers alike. You can walk around there, but the ground settled where the arena was, so that’s fenced off for safety. The small threat of poison ivy was enough to keep me from venturing around … until this past winter. We had lots of snow, so I put on my big rubber boots and hiked from the road to the fence (quite a feat in shin-deep snow over tall grass). I got to the approximate area outside of sections 208-209, noticed the calm around me, then closed my eyes and listened for the distant echoes of cheering fans. I think I heard a few — if nothing else I felt them.

Okay, what’s a Jim Vilk story without a little DIY? Most of you have seen my Lego tribute to the Miracle of Richfield and my latest indoor soccer game, but very few people have seen my first attempt at a Coliseum/Cleveland Force tribute. I made this from an old table hockey game, using cardboard cutouts for the players and clothes pins covered in hockey tape for the bases. It’s a bit primitive, but I thought I should dig it out of the closet and share it with you anyway.

Oh, and you hockey fans – that inflatable Cleveland Crusaders guy was goalie Gerry Cheevers, in case you were wondering.

Thanks, Jim, for that trip down memory lane. You got some great stuff out of that old place. And thanks for the brief history lesson too — like many readers, I’m sure we weren’t aware of the great events hosted inside the Coliseum. And I, for one, wholeheartedly express support for a future DIY of turning that scale model of the Q into a retro baseball park. Maybe next spring?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK…there’s going to be a theme with today’s post, starting with the scoreboard. So, right off the bat, in case you don’t recognize the stadium, there’s your hint. That’s the only hint you should need, since this one is probably pretty easy, especially if you know how to cheat. Try not to, OK? Ready? Guess The Game. As always, date, location and final score, and let us know how you came about your answer.

Did I mention there’s a bit of a theme today? Well, even today’s Benchies plays along with that theme. Ricko did this one a long time ago (notice the stirrups on Ozzie), so take it for what it’s worth. And it’s pretty funny. So, on that note, enjoy a special Friday edition of Benchies.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Uni Watch Prexy Paul Lukas checks in first with this, heads up from the Buccaneers, who will be unveiling their 1976 throwback uniforms at 11:00 am today … Also noticing this was Wayne Edward Koehler who provides the “heads up” from The St. Pete Times … Mr. Lukas also notes these pics from Pats practice, ad patches everywhere … In a related story, Tom Adjemian checks in with this little story on the Pat’s Jersey Ads, with another pic. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm notes “The Japan Volleyball Federation (JVA) has just released logos for their men’s and women’s national teams. The women’s logo is on the left ‘Hinotori (Phoenix) Nippon (Japan)’ and the men’s is on the right ‘Ryuujin (Dragon King) Nippon (Japan).’ This is in collaboration with Tezuka Productions or the company that owns the rights to the Seibu Lions logo.” … More jersey sponsor news comes from Nick Houser who advises that the Cincinnati Bengals have signed a practice jersey deal with SpongeTech Delivery Systems according to the Cincinnati Enquirer (via twitter) … Ribby Paultz found this interesting article in which Russian airline “Aeroflot ditches ‘revolting’ hostess uniforms and reveals: ‘We will only hire attractive girls’.” Says Ribby, “‘Bout time.” … Following up upon a ticker item yesterday about Tadahito Iguchi’s batting gloves, Robert Steinau produced a picture of him from his days as a member of the Phillies … In addition, Jeremy has also supplied pics of him as a member of the White Sox, and also his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines … Sneakerhead Matt Powers called me from Fenway Park yesterday to report that Rajai Davis is still wearing the logoed stirrups (here’s a better view from a different game) … Aaron Bolerjack writes: “I’ve been a Manchester United fan for a long time, and a Uni Watch supporter since the Page 2 days. Can’t believe that nobody from one camp or the other hasn’t jumped on this yet — A few weeks ago, Man U announced their new 09/10 home uniform, which they claimed was ‘reminiscent of the shirt worn by Manchester United’s 1909 FA Cup-winning team. This new design features a similar sash across the front. The club has used the same design components to honor that historic accomplishment of 100 years ago, the first of its eleven Cup titles.’” Here’s the problem, according to Aaron: The 1909 shirts looked like this (WHITE shirt, LONG sleeves, RED chevron and cuffs); The 2009/2010 shirts look like this (RED shirt, SHORT sleeves, BLACK chevron, BLACK neck ring, NO cuffs). “Ironically, the 2009/2010 goalkeeper’s jerseys (designed to CONTRAST with their teammates) are a LOT closer to the original design,” he continues. “Please help me bring attention to this travesty.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: reader Brian makes an astute observation — Is a commemorative bat really a the right type of memorabilia to celebrate a perfect game? … Jake Elwell found this bit about “These blogging sisters were featured in the Times style section today. I note they recently posted some fun uni-related stuff your readers might like (scroll down a bit).” … Zac Neubauer was fortunate enough to go to the Giants game on Monday night and got an up close look at the Sue Burns patch. Sadly, the ones on the ushers were either stapled or safety pinned on … Bill Scrowther notes, “I noticed during Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star game that each MLS player had their team’s crest on their left sleeve, which can be seen here.” Bill adds, “However, the second goalkeeper (Zach Thornton) for the MLS side had his crest on the front of his jersey, right chest. What made him so special? My only thought is maybe it has to do with him only being added to the roster on Monday.” … Check out this collection of old baseball photographs from the University of California Library system (with thanks to Robert Ruszczyk … Jim Zorn “lays down the law,” according to Alain Nana-Sinkam, who notes that in the last graf of the Chris Cooley blog, there are to be no cutoff sweats. “We have retained a seamstress to take care of that for you,” he states. … Hayden Jackson thinks, we “might enjoy this photo set of a book my grandfather owned about Babe Ruth called ‘Babe Ruth: The Idol of an American Boy’.” I’d say so … Chris Hodge found this incredibly cool gallery of old photos of the Bears at Wrigley Field. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: the Buffalo Bills have “officially” unveiled their throwback uniforms for next season (thanks TJ), and they’re already on sale — although there is some question as to the actual sleeve striping (if they’ll even have noticeable sleeves, that is) … OCD DIYer Robert Marshall, whose team apparently won their softball game yesterday, sent this awesome pic of his hosiery (at least I think that’s his legs) … Matthew Dubroff, Philly fan, loves his Phillies — but “then I saw this t shirt that is embarrassingly stupid. If this starts a trend if nickname jersey/shirts … god help us all.” And finally, the previously mentioned Matt Powers sent along the following: DWade has decided to join the mothership. Matt continues, “And for a sneakerhead, this news is like winning the lottery, going out with Kim Kardashian, and dunking on Gheorge Muresan after coming home from Spring Break and watching Sixth Sense for the first time.” He explains that these are often thought of as the best of all 23 Jordan signatures. And finally, a super rare retro. Thanks Matt, I don’t know what we’d do with out you.

Hope everyone who was able to attend the UW gathering in Cleveland had a great time. Thanks to Paul for letting me steer the ship in his stead yesterday and today. Of course, you’re stuck with me for the weekend too. Be sure to check back Sunday for a couple of announcements on “uni tweaks” and “uni tracking” and a bit of potpourri. Have a great Friday everyone. — Phil

Last Thursday I drove out to the Meadowlands to see Giants equipment director Joe Skiba, who wanted to show me a bunch of new gear and give me a tour of the team’s brand-new training facility. And lemme tell ya, he showed me some eye-opening stuff — almost none of which I’m allowed to share with you.

I know, nobody likes a tease, but Joe swore me to secrecy. Plus he bought me lunch. Plus-plus, no joke, he showed me this dumping ground near the training site and made lots of chatter about how “you could easily leave a body here and nobody would ever know.” Yikes — message received.

Here’s what I’ve been permitted to say:

• The red alternate jersey has been retired. The Giants will not be wearing any alternates or throwbacks in 2009 or 2010, but they have a doozy of a throwback slated for 2011 — which I can’t describe.

• Remember how some Giants players had a different jersey cut last season (no nameplate, lower placement of the NFL Equipment logo, etc.)? All Giants jerseys this season will feature that cut. One problem last year was that some players’ sleeve stripes looked sort of curvy instead of straight, but that has been addressed and should no longer be an issue.

• These new jerseys will be made of a new high-tech fabric. I usually roll my eyes at this kind of thing, but the new fabric really does look and feel different than the standard NFL material (or at least it does in person — I doubt you’ll be able to tell the difference on TV). Interestingly, the fabric is being made is Israel, which means the team’s game jerseys will carry “Made in Israel” tags — probably a first for an American pro sports team. And that’s all I can say about it for now.

• When the Giants wear blue jerseys on the road (in Dallas, say), Skiba plans to have them wear these pants (which are normally worn only with the white jersey), instead of these pants (which are normally worn with the blue jersey, whether at home or on the road). I like this idea.

• Skiba continues to tinker with the nose bumpers. Here’s what he has in mind for this season.

OK, I better stop there before Skeebs drives out and throttles me for giving too much away.

Fortunately, I have full clearance to show photos of the new training site, which is located maybe half a mile from Giants Stadium and looks pretty damn swank. Among the highlights:

• When the players enter the facility, this is the first thing they see. Too bad about the logo (a major turd in the punchbowl, no?), but that photo is a gem.

• There are also classic photos in the cafeteria and outside the film screening room (each of those photos represents one of the team’s championships; I didn’t have room to include the one for Super Bowl XLII).

• Speaking of the screening room, it’s basically a small theater. As you might expect, the seats are very wide. And hey, no cup holders!

• There’s a huge photo montage that was too big for me to capture. Skeebs was all excited to show me the last photo in the sequence, just to see if my head would explode.

• The “ny” logo is everywhere — on walls, on trash cans, even on this drainage plate.

• The new locker room is really nice. It’s shaped like a football, with a ring of honor along the top molding.

• The old practice bubble has been dismantled and replaced by a fancy new practice hangar. Interestingly, the goalposts are suspended from the ceiling by cables, so there’s no anchor post connected to the crossbar. Maybe that’s common for indoor practice fields, but I’d never seen it before and thought it was really neat.

That’s most of it. At one point we hopped in a high-tech vehicle and scooted back over to Giants Stadium, where Joe wanted to show me a few additional things. The best part: this impromptu photo gallery. Recognize anyone in those photos? According to Skeebs, this is Tom Coughlin and this is Jeff Feagles. And this? That’s a young Joe Skiba on the right, with his brother Ed (who works with Joe in the Giants’ equipment room) on the left. Look at those perfectly positioned pads and wristbands — no wonder they got into the equipment game.

Membership Update: Kudos to Jason Bernard, who requested one of the coolest membership card treatments we’ve had so far: the Steelers’ “golden triangle” design. That’s one of several new designs you can see in the membership card gallery. As always, you can make the membership scene by signing up here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Now that’s a tattoo (awesome find by Kirsten). … Decent article on MLB cap styles here (with thanks to Matt Shevin). … Brazilian soccer uni history broken down here (with thanks to Brett Fujisaki). … Doug McConnell was shopping for fetishwear innocently browsing at the mall and spotted these Phillies shirts being sold at Victoria’s Secret. “Is this specific to the Phillies or does Victoria’s Secret have an MLB-wide deal?” he asks. … New football uniforms for Baylor. … Some very nice vintage CFL video and photos (with thanks to Richard Musterer and Jim Vilk, respectively). … What’s worse than a soccer team with a Burger King-sponsored jersey? The underside of the jersey. Depressing details here (with thanks to Dave Tyrrell). … New jerseys for the Quad City Mallards of the IHL (with thanks to Matt Linder). … David Beckham wore short sleeves last night. “That’s notable because he NEVER wears short sleeves, no matter the weather,” notes Kenn Tomasch. “Don’t know if it was too hot, if the kit man didn’t bring a long sleeve shirt, or what.” … Colt Brennan of the Redskins is helping to provide uniforms for a Pop Warner team in Hawaii (with thanks to William P. Barrett). … God, I really hate those filled-in NOB letters. … Want to see just how far triple-A baseball is from the big leagues? The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are the Phillies’ top affiliate and dressed their players in tuxedo jerseys for last night’s game (with thanks to Ryan Harrington and Dan Stahl). … Very cool slideshow of Google logos here (nice find by Matt Carlson).

Great time in Baltimore on Wednesday night, as over a dozen readers convened at Racers. Here’s a rundown of who was on hand:

• Joe Hilseberg start e-mailing me about uni-related matters way back in 2005, so it was a treat to finally meet him. He said he thought long and hard about what to wear before settling on a Ripken jersey with a ’94 sleeve patch, but his attire was nothing compared to his storytelling (highlighted by the instant-classsic “All my friends have numbers” monologue — Joe, you’ve gotta do that as a podcast or something). Plus he bought me a beer and I didn’t get around to returning the favor — next round’s on me, buddy.

• Here’s Jack Krabbe, who works in coporate sales for the Orioles, and his lovely fiancée Kerry (former O’s pitcher Mike Flanagan’s daughter, don’tcha know), who were super-friendly and were happy to talk about meat, so you know I got along great with them. Jack got lots of positive attention for his Terps tee.

• Back in 2007 I ran an interview with pocket schedule collector Claude Jacques. He lives in Virginia but made the trip with his wife, Sharon. Claude’s jersey was from TPS Turku, a Finish hockey team. Bonus points for the Johnny collar and the Abba sponsorship. Oh, and dig Claude’s CIA cap — cool.

• About halfway through the party, I was ordering a drink at the bar when this tall, demonstrative guy with a big Fu Manchu ’stache marched over, shook my hand, and launched into this incredible stream of compliments. “I’m such a big fan, I really love what you do,” the whole bit, for about three minutes. Such was my introduction to Suvo Sur — or as I think I’ll be calling him from now on, the Suvo Sur Experience — who turned out to be the most infectiously enthusiastic Uni Watch reader I’ve ever met. Seriously, the next time I’m feeling sluggish or blue, I’m just gonna think of Suvo — the guy’s got enough energy and inspiration for both of us. And as you can see, he’s also got a Schalke 04 jersey.

• Suvo brought along his buddy Zack Bronder. His Saigon Kick jersey had these really cool shimmery numerals.

• Al Stone wore a gorgeous Maine hockey jersey, accessorized with a tasteful fig leaf.

• On the left is Matt Walter. On the right, Kevin Brotzman, who runs the swell O’s uni number site NumerOlogy. Kevin’s Angry Bird cap (taken from this late-’60s logo) was the source of significant discussion and even a bit of controversy. Personally, I’m on record as opposing any logos featuring birds with teeth, although I might have made an exception in this case if they hadn’t botched the infinite Angry Bird regression. I’m fairly certain Kevin knew I’d feel that way and simply wore the cap to provoke me.

• Lots of people wore Orioles gear, but Adam Casalena stood out thanks to his cool armband.

• For a guy who lives in Baltimore, Dan Sliwinski sure wore a lot of Midwestern gear: a Milwaukee Admirals jersey, Detroit Lions cap, Cubs tee, and even Lions socks. He also brought along a bunch of show-and-tell material, including Barry Sanders with white pants and Joe D. with an NOB. Speaking of which, Dan also brought along his youth league football jersey, complete with NOB lettering that his Mom added (he said he was still mortified all these years later that she put the letters were below the yoke seam, but I think it’s OK).

• Sean Combetti wore a game-used Baltimore Skipjacks jersey (and apparently had some sort of Canadian T-shirt on underneath it, although that’s only visible in the photo because I used a flash). I asked him who Mathieson was and he said he had no idea, but I’m pretty sure it was this guy.

• The evening’s crowning touch: Bartender Skip Phillips, who had no idea that a bunch of uni enthusiasts would be dropping by, was wearing an AC Milan jersey. He told me he had a few hundred more jerseys and home and that one of his kids is named Beckham. He’d never heard of Uni Watch, but he definitely knows what it is now.

As for other Baltimore highlights, Kirsten and I were very pleased with our motel’s neon sign, and we were particularly fond of Faidley’s, where we enjoyed the signage and displays almost as much as the oysters and crabcakes.

On Tuesday night we attended the Mets/O’s game at Camden Yards, where I was surprised to see so many Mets fans in attendance. Was also surprised when a local fan sitting next to us pointed out a ballpark detail I hadn’t been aware of: All the ads on the stadium’s outfield wall have white borders and little squiggly things in the corners.

I’m told that this design motif is the work of Peter Angelos’s wife, who thinks it adds a nice old-timey feel to the ballpark. Interestingly, if you look at old photos of Camden Yards, the borders and squiggles are nowhere to be found. Anyone know when they were introduced?

One other detail about the ballpark’s outfield wall: The distance measurements are displayed in surprisingly small type. Interesting.

Obligatory Friday mention: This is the part where I remind you that the City Reliquary will be open from noon to 6pm tomorrow and Sunday, for those of you who want to check out the Candela Structures exhibit. This is the next-to-last weekend that the show will be up for viewing.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Latest NFL team planning to put sponsorship patches on their practice jerseys: the Giants. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Good piece on the patches being worn at the FIFA Confederations Cup. … Eleven more illustrations from The Professionals have been added to this set (with continued thanks to Jim Mellett). … Speaking of vintage NFL graphics, Michael Princip just scored a copy of the First Illustrated NFL Digest, which includes this uni breakdown. Note that the Saints helmet doesn’t include the center stripe and that their home jersey is listed as white. Also: Check out those division names. … Back in April I posted a note from former MLB pitcher Jeff Bajenaru, who said his NOB was misspelled during his 2004 debut with the White Sox. He’s now provided visual proof. He also provided pics of a crazy ad-infested Mexican jersey, but at least they spelled his name right on that one. Note the awesome team name! … As many of you already know, the University of Miami has scrapped its old logo and replaced it with the athletic dept. logo. “In a release to employees, they claim that ‘Our bold new look is perhaps the first time an academic and health institution uses a symbol of its celebrated athletics program,’” writes Pablo Souki. “I will not elaborate on whether this is a good or bad thing.” Note that the memo includes a link to the school’s new graphic style guide — recommended. … Matt Mitchell whipped up this design for Shoeless Joe, and the first thing that caught my eye is that Joe’s jersey had two unfastened buttons. Also, kudos to Matt for getting the apostrophe correctly oriented. … In 2008 there was a charity baseball game pitting old CFL players against Canadian law enforcement personnel. The CFL players had a big CFLPA logo on the back of their fitted caps. Additional info and pics can be found in the first nine photos of this set. Apparently more such games are planned for this year. … And speaking of the CFL: In 1989, Rocky Dipietro of the Hamilton Tiger Cats broke the all-time receptions record, which prompted an on-field ceremony that featured his family wearing FNOB jerseys. … As you probably know by now, there’s a new Lingerie Football League, featuring full-contact rules. What you might not know is that there’s also a World Bikini Football League, which plays flag football rules (arguably more titillating, since all that grabbing for the flags could “accidentally” lead to grabbing something else). … Really nice 1934 Spalding catalog available here. Look at those masks! (With thanks to Mike Hersh.) … Love the “T”-branded socks in this photo (nice find by Brandon Roberts). … And speaking of socks, give it up for the St. Alban’s baseball team in DC. … Erik Schwab reports that his friends’ band, the Swellers, has created a T-shirt design featuring a Red Wings logo with a nail and a flat. Nice job with the vertically arched NOB, right? … And speaking of T-shirts, isn’t this type of design how Obama of Dreams got in trouble? Details here (with thanks to James Huening). … The Tour de France officials have changed the look of their stages and finish lines (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … The Indians are awarding a wrestling belt to the “player of the game” each day. Details here (thanks, Vince). … Also from Vince: The Iranian soccer team has been wearing green armbands in support of the election protests. … Everyone’s been raving about Arizona State’s stirrups at the CWS. Too much sani, natch, but still, gotta like it. … The Grand Rapids Griffins are holding a design contest to create a one-off jersey (with thanks to Doug Brei). … Logo creep alert from Tom Valentino, who notes that this video clip from NBA Live 10 shows an Adidas logo on Dwight Howard’s jersey. Hmmmmm. … If you won the World Series last year, wouldn’t you plaster lots of celebratory photos of your star players on your media guide’s cover this year? I think it’s safe to say that that’s what most teams would do, but look at this year’s Phillies media guide. Just a simple overhead shot of the championship parade — very nice, very classy. Impressive. … Key passage from this 1991 article about the Twins: “In uniform, [Scott] Erickson always pulls the stirrups of his outer socks down into his spikes, leaving no visible trace of his white sanitary socks. He looks as if he’s wearing dress socks and shoes. ‘The socks are a sore subject,’ says [Kirby] Puckett. ‘He’ll kill you if you make fun of his socks’” (good spot by Austin Gillis). … The annual Congressional baseball game took place on Wednesday night, with lots of elected officials donning MLB and NCAA uniforms. Lots of additional photos here. … Check out this patch! Comes from this jersey. … And whoa, look at this patch, from this jersey! Anyone know what that patch logo is for? … OK, best patch of all, from this jersey. Anyone know more about the Mantle/Maris brand, or league, or whatever it was? … I assume this jersey was meant to be worn untucked. Here’s the road version. … Gorgeous old track jersey here. … What’s worse than a Yankees replica jersey with an NOB? See for yourself. Alan Kreit spotted that selling for full price at a local Dick’s Sporting Goods. … Excellent footwear project by Chad Todd, who writes: “Preparing for the arrival of my Orioles stirrups, I decided I needed some sneakers to go with them. But I didn’t want to pay $90 for Orioles-colored Nike trainers, so I googled ’sneaker paint’ and found someone who simply suggested using acrylic paint. I headed out to the store and found these shoes for $30. After applying some tape around the edges, I began to paint. This doesn’t come close to any of the DIY projects mentioned on Uni Watch, but I love the results. Can’t wait to wear these with my stirrups once they arrive.” … Remember Marty Hick’s “fantasy” basketball league? “I found an interesting page in that same notebook,” he writes. “Away from the uniform drawings, I found color strips for the league I created. Reminds me of the stakes I painted for our 12-man croquet league.” … Claude Jacques (featured in today’s Baltimore party report) sent along this bizarre shot of a Swedish hockey player wearing red skates in the 1976 Canada Cup. “The player in question is Per-Olov Brasar, who ended up playing six seasons in the NHL with the North Stars and Canucks,” says Claude. “Funny thing is that the announcers didn’t say a word about the odd-colored skates even though the cameraman zoomed in on them for a good 5-10 seconds.” … Dan Sliwinski (also featured above) found a memorial patch I hadn’t been aware of. The Dodgers wore that in 1987, for coach/scout Don McMahon, who died of a heart attack in June of that season. … Interesting article about the Twins’ uniforms here (with thanks to Karl Anderson). … Livan Hernandez continues to wear blue undersleeves on the road, even though the Mets’ official road sleeve color is black. … More crossover jersey concepts from Ben Traxel. … Check out these soccer snafus: inconsistent uni number placement for the Egyptians and a total mishmash of typeface and NOB treatments for North Korea (as spotted by Morris Levin). … Coupla CWS articles about UNC’s white helmets and an Arkansas player’s sweatbands (with thanks to David McGee).

Newsday columnist Neil Best posed an interesting question on his blog the other day:

Why are baseball outfields deepest in centerfield and shallowest in left and right? Why not a uniform distance all the way around?

In fact, why not have centerfield be the shortest distance from home and the areas just inside the foul poles be the farthest?

This way you reward people for hitting the ball straight, and decrease the benefit for hitting a ball barely fair (home run) versus barely foul (strike).

How about a wall that simply follows a straight line connecting foul pole to foul pole?

Best’s readers have posted some good comments, especially the one pointing out that the Dodgers wanted to build a dome in Brooklyn that would have been 380 feet to all fields. I’ve known about this proposed stadium for many years (it would have been about half a mile from my apartment, right where Bruce Ratner is now trying to build the new Nets arena; at the time, though, Robert Moses vetoed it, which is why the Dodgers ultimately left for California) but didn’t realize until now that the outfield wall would have been the same distance all the way around.

And really, why not? Why should a 360-foot shot down the line be a home run (as is the case in just about every “normal” ballpark) while a 360-foot shot to straightaway center is a can of corn?

The primary effect of a uniform-distance outfield wall is that would de-emphasize the importance of a centerfielder. The CF would still have to cover ground to his left and right, but he’d no longer have to cover more ground behind him than the corner outfielders.

Best’s suggestion for a straight outfield wall running pole to pole is particularly intriguing to me, because there’s a small park near my house where I’ve occasionally played softball. Because the field is sort of wedged in between a few surrounding roadways that run at odd angles, the back wall runs in a straight line across the outfield, just like Best’s suggestion. Last year I hit a home run to straightaway center and felt like a real stud until I realized it would’ve been a routine fly ball on regular field. Then I thought to myself, “Yeah, but a ball hit that same distance down the line on a regular field would’ve done the job.” Something about this didn’t sit right, but I couldn’t fully articulate what it was.

The most interesting question raised by all of this is something we all know but rarely discuss, namely the fact that there are no official guidelines for configuring a baseball outfield. I’m not saying either of Best’s proposals is superior to the accepted format of ballpark design (in fact, I don’t think I like either of them), but I do think they’re good food for thought. Discuss.

Raffle Results: The winner of the SportsCrack T-shirt is Jeff Cohen. Thanks to all who entered. More raffles coming soon.

Bonus ESPN Coverage: I attended yesterday’s WNBA press conference, where the Phoenix Mercury’s jersey-sponsorship deal with LifeLock was officially announced. I whipped up a quick ESPN column for the occasion — look here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: I called the Seahawks yesterday but didn’t get an answer regarding the lime green jerseys. Hang in there — I’m still on it. … Check this out — Bill Belechick in Boston Patriots gear (with thanks to Jack Krabbe). … Those new Boise State football uniforms look reallllly bad. … Lots of cool Dodgers memorabilia on view in this gallery. Accompanying article here (with thanks to Michael Vines). … No more Gatorade in the dugout for the Cubbies (with thanks to James Huening). … You know things are out of hand when the Islanders’ draft party has its own logo (with thanks to John Muir). … It’s possible I’ve linked to this before, but just in case: amazing home movie footage of the 1929 World Series (big thanks to Robert Ruszczyk). … Most of you are probably familiar with this famous photo of Paul Brown checking out Bengals helmet prototypes. Now gumball maven Bill Jones has created mini facsimiles of all the helmets in the photo. … XYZ! (As spotted by Elena Elms.) … Brian Kerr found this Iowa State helmet cart “on an abandoned tennis court on campus” the other day. … Also from Brian: EA has introduced a new team builder function for their NCAA football game. … And speaking of EA, they may have inadvertently leaked the new Washington State uniforms (with thanks to James Blethen). … Got a note from Phil yesterday, subject line “WTF?” Inside was a link to this. Anyone care to explain? … Additional info on the Washington Huskies’ new uniforms here (with thanks to Lee Ziegler). … New football uni set for New Mexico too: home goes from this to this, road goes from this to this (with thanks to Rob Montoya). … I’m visiting an old friend in New Jersey today — sort of. Details later. Play nice while I’m away.

And I’m back, just in time to get snowed in.

First and foremost: Major, major props to Phil for keeping everything running without a hitch during my absence. You da man, buddy.

Pittsburgh was a hoot. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow, but today I want to showcase the work of reader Steve K. As you may recall, he’s the guy who provided us with a bunch of amazing 1970s NFL screen grabs back in December. He’s back with more, and there’s some killer stuff in this batch. Dig:

• Check out the directional hashmarks in these shots from Arrowhead Stadium — they’re shaped like little arrowheads. And the sideline yard markers were printed in Chiefs colors! Never seen that before.

• Remember that shot of Mike Williams with the initial at the end of his NOB? That was from 1975, and it turns out they were still using that same format for him in 1977 (good shot of Joe Washington’s double-decker FNOB, too). Even better, here’s a similar NOB treatment for Gary “Big Hands” Johnson in 1975. “Interestingly, he was the only Johnson on the Chargers that season,” says Steve.

• Great view here of Bob Griese as four-eyes. Also, note his orange-filled TV numeral — different than what his teammates were wearing in the same game. Just one of many Miami inconsistencies during that 1970s.

• “There have only been four players in NFL history with the surname ‘Seymour,’ and Paul Seymour was the only one to play for the Bills,” says Steve. “So why did he need an initial for this 1974 game against the Raiders? Interestingly, his white jersey did not have the ‘P.’”

• Speaking of NOB inconsistencies, Mike McCoy’s home NOB in 1975 had a superscript “c” while his road jersey was all-caps with a space

• Here’s a weird one. “That’s Barty Smith from the 1975 Packers,” says Steve. “Green Bay also had a Barry Smith, who wore ‘B. B. Smith,’ but I couldn’t get a clean shot of his NOB.”

• Still more Packers NOB minutiae: Steve thinks John Hadl’s nameplate was very off-center. It’s a little off, but if you measure it, I think you’ll find that it’s not as bad as it looks. I agree that it feels off-center, though, because of the white space in the “L” and unbalanced weight between the “2″ and the “1.” Scott and I wrestle with this sort of issue all the time when working on Uni Watch membership cards.

• The interesting thing about this goalpost shot is that it’s from a 1975 game in Minnesota. I have a vague recollection of home teams putting the visiting club’s name on the goalpost like this back in the day, but I wouldn’t swear as to how common it was. Seems almost quaint by today’s standards, no?

• Who’s even more anonymous than a replacement player during the 1987 strike? A replacement player with no NOB. The other St. Louis players were fully nameplated, including Leonard Smith (who went FNOB because the team also included Lance Smith).

• “That same game was probably Ray Brown’s only FNOB game in his 20-year, 261-game career,” says Steve. “Why the first name? Because the Cardinals also had Ron Brown that day (a replacement player, not the former Rams sprinter). He was released after the game.”

Big thanks again to Steve for taking the time to prepare these screen grabs, and for his eagle-eyed attention to detail.

March Raffle: Our friends at SoccerPro.com are back on board for another raffle. The winner will get his or her choice of any soccer jersey shown here, home or road. To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address, please) by this Friday, March 6th, at 10pm eastern. One entry per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing can send four entries. I’ll announce the winner next Monday.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Okay, so I’ve tried to catch up on all the e-mails, comments, and news that went down while I was away, but I’m still catching up on a few things, so forgive me if this Ticker overlooks some obvious stuff and/or repeats some stuff you already know. … The Phillies are going to wear gold-trimmed jerseys on Opening Day (with thanks to Joseph Chiaccio). … Good background info on lots of college mascots here (with thanks to Ryan Connelly). … Check this out: An untucked jersey was up for auction and nobody bid on it (great find by Scott M.X. Turner). … And hmmm, what have we here? Possibly a Royals prototype. … Here’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Revolution helmet used as a windshield decal (good spot by Alan Borock). … Here’s a Blackhawks goalie who doesn’t have thicker sleeve stripes than his teammates (with thanks to John Muir). … Lots of great old Tennessee football pics here. If you check out the links toward the bottom of the page, you’ll find lots of program covers, ticket stubs, and so on (great find by Luke Pellegra). … Aaron Stilley has created a Kansas City Scouts blog. Among his finds is this passage from the 1/27/75 edition of the Kansas City Star: “The Scouts will wear players’ names on the back of the home uniforms for the rest of the season. The road uniforms will remain nameless. The home team, for reasons of program sales, has the option of forbidding them.” … Aaron also turned up this photo of Gary Bergman. Look closely at that helmet decal — is that a men’s room symbol? … Jason Terry wore a protective glove on his non-shooting hand on Sunday (with thanks to Michael Korczynski). … I recently asked if anyone could get pics of the Pacers prototype jerseys rumored to be displayed at Conseco Fieldhouse. “That didn’t sound right to me, as I have spent HOURS perusing the cases at Conseco, and would have been struck by something so awesome,” says Tim Lofton. “But I checked it out anyway. There are a few pieces that look like prototypes, and a couple more things that might have fallen under that category. Anyway, I took about 45 pics and I’ve got a GREAT gallery of vintage barnstorming and pro jerseys from the ’20s to today.” You can see his tremendous photo gallery here. … “I went to Phillies Phantasy Camp last month,” writes Rob Riegert. “Prior to the trip, all the campers go to Citizens Bank Park to be fitted for uniforms. I overheard someone ask about stirrups, only to be told, ‘No, we only give you redsocks. No one wears stirrups anymore, except maybe Moyer.’ Now that I knew the trip was BYO-stirrups, I bought some online. I didn’t wear them the first day — I was afraid of being brought up on charges in Kangaroo Court for the non-standard uniform. But I was feeling more sure of myself on days two and three, so I busted them out and got nothing but compliments. I did bungle it somewhat with the black cleats, but I still thought the look was pretty sharp. One of my teammates followed my lead on the last day. You can see him in the background. I think we were the only two out of 140 campers.” … Paul Kalomiris says he was recently at a hockey game and saw someone wearing a Blackhawks jersey with Homer Simpson’s face in place of the Indian’s profile. No photo, alas, but I think he’s referring to this. … Glossary question: Someone suggested that I add the term “squatchee,” which supposedly refers to the little button on top of a baseball cap. Two thoughts here: (1) I could find only one mention of this term on the web, and (2) I once asked a New Era exec if there was any special term for the button on the cap, and he said, “No, it’s just the button.” I’d be willing to add “squatchee” if a decent number of people use it, but I don’t want to use it just because Bob Brenley once used the term on a broadcast. Anyone out there familiar with this term? … Gumball helmet king Bill Jones has started a gumball blog, which looks really good. … Also from Bill: The new Ottawa entry in the Can-Am Baseball League is conducting a logo-design contest. … South Carolina has a new baseball uni set, which can be seen in the background here. They also have a new stadium, which is showcased in this photo album. … Remember how Southern Miss added logos and stripes to their facemasks last year? Here’s the company that came up with that concept. … The Chiefs will supposedly wear a Dallas Texans throwback next season. … There’s a new independent baseball league in Japan. The uniforms are nothing special, but I really like the league logo (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … New crest for English soccer here (with thanks to Mark Coale). … Martin St. Pierre of the Providence Bruins has his nickname — Saintsy — embroidered onto his gloves (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Justin Bowers and his wife were recently in Ireland and visited Croke Park, the national stadium for Gaelic games (Gaelic football and hurling) and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. “The stadium is incredible,” he writes. “An 82,300-capacity stadium set right in suburban Dublin, bordered on all sides by houses, not parking lots. They have an excellent museum that details the history of Gaelic Games and their importance in Irish culture, plus we also toured Croke Park itself. One very cool area we got to see was, of course, the dressing rooms. In Gaelic games, the teams that compete are divided up by county, so the dressing room had jerseys from all the counties. I also bought myself a County Kerry jersey [here's the rear view].” … Chris Edwards notes that the Stetson hoops team has an interesting NOB format: white lettering on a colored nameplate. … Hosiery observation from the Rev. Nørb, who recently had a very good seat for a Bucks/Wizards game and noticed that Nick Young of the Wizards had two NBA logos on the outside of his black road socks — an upper one and a lower one. “Now you’re saying, ‘Well, geez, Nørb, he was probably just double-bagging his socks for some reason, which is curious, but not necessarily newsworthy,’” says Nørb, “to which i respond, HA! I don’t believe this is the case! Nick Young has only got the ONE logo on the INSIDE of his socks, which would not be the case if he were wearing two pairs of socks!” Hmmmmm. … Mike Chamernik reports that one of Comiskey Park’s old pinwheels is at the Sports Authority on La Salle Drive in Chicago. … Bryan Duklewski notes that Cool-Flo helmets are nowhere to be seen at Orioles camp this spring. “Even players who used Coolflo last year have been using the normal helmets in spring training this year,” he writes. … The Nats’ new mascot is wearing the team’s “DC” sleeve patch on the wrong sleeve (with thanks to William Yurasko). … “How many games did Kevin Durant play as a Texas Longhorn?” asks Matt Mitchell. “It’s easy to remember since it’s the same as his jersey number, which was retired prior to last Wednesday night’s win over Texas Tech. Current Longhorns wore T-shirts emblazoned with the number 35 on the back and the initials ‘KD’ on the front during warm-ups.” And then there were these sneakers. … Bit of a typo on Roque Santa Cruz’s NOB (with thanks to Marcio Kogut). … The NBA’s annual Noche Latina promotion kicks off tonight, with Los Lakers hosting the Grizzlies (who’ll just be wearing their regular road jerseys). The full Noche Latina schedule can be found on this page. … I’m sure you’ve all weighed in on this. My take: Thanks to the patch design, it makes the cap look like an adjusta-strap model. … “We got this mailer from a politician who’s running for Rahm Emmanuel’s vacated seat in the House,” says James Huening. “The rip across the infield dirt is courtesy of Erin, my wife. She took one look at that pink Cubs cap, declared that she will not be voting for this candidate and started to tear up the leaflet. I managed to get it away from her before she could do any more damage.” … Last week I linked to photos showing LSU baseball’s new chest patch, commemorating their new stadium. But now Chris Mycoskie reports that the patch has moved to the right sleeve and has been replaced on the chest area by an SEC patch. This change appears to hold true throughout their uni set. … Tough to see in these pics, but Spencer Pierce says Betis goalkeeper Ricardo’s NOB is actually R1CARDO. … Two accused bank robbers tried to use uni-numeric code while communicating with each other, but it backfired. … Very odd to see Nate Odoms wearing a wristwatch during practice (good spot by Greg Riffenburgh). … You like risky sports? Try auto polo (big thanks to Jay Winkler). … Okay, this Reebok wordmark thing has officially gotten out of hand (disturbing find by Brooks Simpson). … Remember how LaTroy Hawkins initially wore No. 21 with the Yanks last season, as a tribute to Roberto Clemente (before Paul O’Neill fans hounded him to change it)? Obviously, he can’t wear No. 42 while playing for an MLB team, but he can — and is — for the WBC (with thanks to Dan Cichalski). … Good article here about Indiana’s basketball uniforms (courtesy of Dan Netser).

New ESPN column today — look here.

Meanwhile … I recently got a note from reader Steve K., as follows:

A friend of mine was moving and his wife made him give up his boxes of old videos. Of course he kept all the Japanese porn for himself, but he knew I was a sports fan and offered me the rest. Most of them are ‘This Week in the NFL’ and ‘Game of the Week’ episodes and a bunch of other NFL Films stuff, spanning from 1971 to about 1979. Should make for a lot of interesting screen grabs!

To call the resulting screen shots “interesting” is to severely understate the point, because Steve (who, as you’ll see in a minute, has a very good eye) has come up with a body of material that’s every bit as compelling as Ricko’s contributions. In fact, if he keeps it up, I may have to inaugurate a new “Steve K. Files” series. For now, though, here’s what we’ve got:

• “This is from 1971, Week 1, Jets at Colts,” writes Steve. “Norm Bulaich had a big game, but the more interesting part of this is that he wore an NOB jersey during parts of the game but went NNOB during other parts. The NNOB jersey appears to be an old-school pre-1970 NFL jersey with the larger numbers, because it doesn’t even allow room for a nameplate.”

• “Check out how big the nameplate font was in these shots of the Bills and Jets (1972, Week 1) and the Jets again (1973, Week 2),” notes Steve. “I believe the Jets, Bills, and Patriots, all from the AFC East, used this ultra-large font at various times during the 1971 through 1974 seasons. The Jets seemed to use it inconsistently, as some players had more normal-sized fonts than others. By 1975, this font was gone for good, although I sort of like it.”

• “In Week 1 of the 1971 season, the 49ers wore white jerseys with plain white sleeves — no stripes, no TV numbers! This was NOT their customary road jersey. Except for the Bengals (who didn’t add TV numbers until their 1981 makeover), I can’t remember another instance in the 1970s when an NFL team did not have TV numbers.”

• “Check out the letter spacing on those Browns NOBs” [and the official's picture-perfect stirrups -- PL].

• “Look at the wild rain jackets the Giants are wearing on the sidelines! That’s from 1971, Week 1.”

• “It’s a little hard to see, but here’s an FNOB being worn by the Bucs’ Maulty Moore in 1976. They also had a Manfred Moore.”

• “Here’s another FNOB: Joe Owens, from the 1973 Saints. Oddly, there were no other players named Owens on the Saints that year.”

• “A lot of the 1973 Colts had NOBs that were literally abutting the numbers, plus Doughty’s NOB looks like it may be a bit off-center.”

• “Speaking of off-center NOBs, look at Craig Morton.”

• Check out Mike Williams from the 1975 Chargers — his first name initial comes after his surname. I think I’ve only seen that one other time in the NFL (Browns during the 1981 preseason).” [This is an absolute stunner for me. Never would've believed it if Steve hadn't provided visual evidence. -- PL]

• “When the Rams played their final game in the L.A. Coliseum in 1979, one end zone said ‘Good Bye,’ the other ‘Good Luck.’”

• “Here’s Lions head coach Don McCafferty in swanky 1973 duds, including a zip collar.”

• “Halftime show at New Orleans’ Tulane Stadium in 1973. Dog was NNOB, but at
least he had stripes on his sleeves. Is that T-shirt logo big enough?”

• “I hadn’t realized Archie Manning wore a single-bar facemask.”

• “Here’s Saints coach John North from 1973, with the Sir Saint logo on his jacket.”

Amazing stuff, no? Big thanks to Steve for all this great material.

The Oracle Checks In: When I linked yesterday to this vintage basketball warm-up top and mentioned its snap-on nameplate, I was pretty sure I’d be getting a follow-up note from Rochester sporting goods maven Terry Proctor (that’s him at left). Sure enough, he sent me a note yesterday afternoon, as follows:

That photo of the Wilson warm-up jacket brings back many memories of that style. Wilson used the smaller “gripper” snaps, which made sewing the name onto the separate piece of tackle twill much easier. The only company we used that also used the gripper snaps was Russell. Powers, SandKnit and Spanjian all used the larger jacket-type “dome” snaps, which made sewing the letters on very difficult, because the foot of the sewing machine had trouble fitting around the dome. We eventually had the tags attached only at the top, for easier sewing. By the 1970s we changed from snaps to Velcro, which made the whole process a breeze.

Also: In the 1970s, the Coane Mfg. Co. of Philadelphia, which made a full line of quality uniforms (they did the Philadelphia Warriors and the early years of the 76ers) came up with a fleece tag that we sewed directly onto the jersey or jacket. Then you applied individual die-cut letters made out of the hook-sided velcro material. These letters would not fall off during play and were very easy to change if you had a new player. We used them mostly on basketball and baseball uniforms. They didn’t work out for football but they were a great idea in their day.

Terry has loads of stories like these. You might even get to read some of them if I ever get off my lazy ass and transcribe the phone interview I did with him last month. Soon, soon….

Uni Watch News Ticker: Indiana State wore powder blue throwbacks the other night. Note that the “I” is actually the shape of Indiana (with thanks to Dave Reding). … The trend of giving a personalized jersey to a newly hired coach, even though coaches don’t wear jerseys, has spread to soccer (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Amazing series of old NFL posters available here. … Trey Phillips notes that Saints receiver Lance Moore often wore one eye black sticker over the past season (but not always). … Matt Englander has brought another sports-themed illustrator to my attention: Paul Schoeneck. … Great time-lapse video showing the Winter Classic rink being set up at Wrigley Field here (with thanks to Greg Riffenburgh). … Faaaaaascinating rugby observation from Caleb Borchers who notes that the Harlequins, a club in London, wear their first and last initials on their shorts. But if there are two players with the same initials, they use the first initial and the first two letters of the players’ surnames, as in the case of Nick Evans and Nick Easter. … Vintage Riverfront Stadium groundskeeper’s uniform available here. … You know how boxers always do those cheesy stare-downs at press conferences and weigh-ins? Here’s the lamest one yet. That’s WBA flyweight champ Takefumi Sakata with the gauze mask. “On his blog, he says it is just to protect from catching a cold,” says Jeremy Brahm. “I know from personal experience that the Japanese will wear their masks while going to work, riding the bus or train, etc. I wore one over a weekend and couldn’t stand it.” … Matt Powers recently took his family down to Fordham, where his sister works in the Athletic Dept. After watching Colgate and Norfolk State play a color-on-color women’s hoops game at beautiful Rose Hill Gymnasium, they walked around the campus and saw some old framed football programs (here’s another) and this memorial to the Seven Blocks of Granite. … For a few months now there have been all these rumors about the Mets possibly going to a dark-gray alternate jersey next season. As I’ve explained to everyone who’s asked me about it, there’s no truth to this rumor — they may add some dark-gray fashion/replica merch to sell to suckers (just like every other team is doing), but the on-field attire has no significant changes for next season. Then, two days ago, I got a note from a reader who I won’t embarrass by printing his name here, breathlessly telling me that he’d just taken these photos of a dark-gray Mets jersey at a local Sports Authority outlet. I told him it was just a fashion jersey, to which he replied, “But it sells for the same $80 as the other jerseys!” After I explained to him that fashion jerseys sell for $80 and authentics sell for a shitload more, he went away, but he apparently gave the same spiel to several bloggers who pounced on the “story” (including this clown at The Daily News, who really should know better), which in turn led even more readers to write to me. So I’ll say it one more time: Contrary to what a few people apparently think, the Mets are NOT adding a dark-gray alternate jersey next season. And that’s the last time I’ll be addressing that rumor (unless it, y’know, turns out to be true or something).

Holiday Schedule: Phil will have an entry tomorrow, I’ll be back on Friday, and then Phil handle the weekend, as usual. My thanks to everyone who helped make 2008 a very good year for Uni Watch, and remember not to make any New Year’s resolutions you can’t keep.

[Editor's Note: Reader Mike Miller recently attended the the 2008 Carolina League/California League All-Star Game in Myrtle Beach and provided such a thorough report that I've decided to run it as a guest-written entry -- enjoy. I'll see you down at the Ticker. -- PL]

By Mike Miller

The game took place at BB&T Coastal Field, home to the single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Here’s a rundown on the visual aspects of the game.

Batting Practice Jerseys. Nothing too remarkable here. Carolina League, as the home team, had powder blue — err, Pelican blue — jerseys with gold and navy trim and “Carolina” across the front. The design was straight out of the current MLB BP jersey template. (Yes, that’s Roger Clemens’ kid Koby in this shot.) Many of the players had BP jerseys with different numbers than their game uniforms, so I think the jerseys were pre-numbered then had nameplates added when the rosters were finalized.

The California League BP jerseys were similar, except with navy blue as the primary color and “California” across the front. Their numbers were three-layer, with powder blue, then white, then gold. Both leagues’ BP jersey had the all-star logo on the left sleeve.

Game Uniforms. The Carolina League got everyone to wear home whites. The California League couldn’t meet the challenge, with half of their players wearing a colored alternate instead of the road grey.

A few cool and weird tidbits:

• Wilmington probably has the only gold front number on a white uniform of any team in baseball.

• The Stockton Ports, which are an A’s affiliate, go with white cleats, just like the parent club (but they don’t all wear stirrups).

• Although Myrtle Beach wears powder blue caps at home and on the road, they have black batting helmets. I was told that helmet manufacturers don’t make helmets in powder blue and that the team basically didn’t want to pay the money to paint them all that color.

• The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have a fissure across their cap bill.

• Salem’s jerseys are faux vests (white jerseys with black sleeves). Compare them to the real deal here.

• Winston-Salem, a White Sox affiliate, have White Sox sleeve patches.

• There were a few quality stirrup sightings. The best was Sean Doolittle from Stockton.

Field Markings and Stadium. The logo they painted behind home plate was not the actual all-star logo, but a watered-down version (the full version is much more detailed, with a palmetto tree and crescent moon, which of course are taken from the South Carolina state flag).

The grounds crew had some nice touches, outlining the home plate area and coaching boxes in red, white, and blue, plus they painted each league’s name in the coaching box closest to that team’s dugout. And before the game, the crew put down a stencil of the Pelicans’ “MB” cap logo of behind home plate. So after they watered that area, the logo was clearly evident.

The stadium has a “beach area” down the left field line, where folks can watch the game from beach chairs. They even have a few lifeguard chairs for good measure. Since the main scoreboard is in left field next to the outfield bleachers, they put in a manual scoreboard on the right field foul line so the bleacher folk and beach-dwellers could actually see the score. It’s got to be one of the largest flip scoreboards in history, like the ones you used in gym class. The poor ballboy (blue shirt between the B and S) has to get up after every pitch to change the count.

Some cool things around the concourse too, including a list of every Pelicans player who’s made it to the majors and each year’s Opening Day lineup.

Finally, the gift shop had a heat press for those who wanted a personalized jersey. It got some work while I was watching.

Uni Watch News Ticker: A little birdie informs me that SMU, now being coached by June Jones, is returning to traditional white helmets, and that the new uni “will look similar to throwback Bills — royal jerseys and white pants at home, solid white on the road.” Can’t show any photos yet, but I can tell you it looks pretty hot. Official unveiling to come in the next couple of weeks. … Joe Alexander loves No. 11 so much that he might not play if he can’t get that number (with thanks to Josh Exine). … Pink caps are getting bashed in Boston. … John Blatchford recently attended the http://www.ishof.org/”>International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida and sent along some photos (look here, here, here, and here). Lots of info on their current “History of Swimwear” exhibit is in this PDF. … Some interesting uni-related content in this video clip about what the UGA baseball team does on an off-day. … Chris Warfford notes that Team Slipstream, in addition their argyle cycling outfits, “are going to have one of the most colorful team photos ever. They’ve got five national title-holders that will be representing their nations during the grand tours, and those riders will be allowed to wear kits that reference their national titles, in addition to the argyle. Of course, we haven’t seen the new kits with the Garmin logo (that will be resolved soon), but if the Giro d’Italia is any indication of the kits, very few colors will be left out of the team photo.” … Not sure if I’ve run this link before, but here’s a good site for UK soccer kits (with thanks to Patrick Murray). … I just scored this nifty old uniform ad. “Preferred by the leaders of Boyville” — how totally great is that?! … Totally love this label (which is on this old uniform). … The Western Michigan White caps are going to wear Star Wars uniforms on Saturday. … Footwear observation from Brian Jud, who writes: “I noticed the SportsCenter commercial with Pierce, Garnett, and Allen shows them wearing road jerseys with white sneakers, when everyone knows the Celtics wear black sneakers on the road. More details here. … Sartorial justice: Maria Sharapova and tuxedo-themed Nike outfit were beaten yesterday by Alla Kudryavtseva, who later said, “I don’t like her outfit. It was one of the motivations to beat her” (good find by Brinke Guthrie). … You know how UMich always wears special shoulder logos for bowl games? Here’s an article on the company that puts them on the jerseys. … Bill Sour was watching the 1984 film Supergirl, which includes a scene in an abandoned amusement park. “I did a double-take when I saw a bunch of bumper cars with NFL helmets on them. After further review there it was, an NFL-themed amusement park ride [additional pics here and here]. I’d kill to find one of these old rides.” Very cool, but they got the Falcons’ logo backwards. … “George Shinn had wanted to own an NHL expansion team in Raleigh, but got pushed aside in favor of Felix Sebates, the NASCAR owner,” writes Tris Wykes. “So he came to Hampton Roads and whipped up ticket and suite deposits and civic interest in his proposed team, the Rhinos. They were in the hunt before being turned down by the NHL in January of 1997. There were billboards and T-shirts and Coke cans with the Rhinos logo. The character’s name was Rhocky.” … By now most of you have seen the Timberwolves’ new logo (which continues the NBA’s odd practice of including a basketball in the vast majority of its logo designs). According to this article, they’ll be unveiling a new uni set in August. … “Sometime last year, I sent along the only unearthed picture of Auburn sporting the hideous orange jerseys from 1979-82,” writes Kris McInnis. “But I was doing some attic shuffling and have found a few more good color shots from a couple of old university yearbooks. I can’t imagine there’d be anymore of these laying around that are actually in color. These shots differ from the original one I sent along, as most feature striped sleeves that are not seen on the tear-a-ways.”