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Posts filed under 'Fields, Courts, Etc.'
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.
June 2nd, 2009
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).
March 3rd, 2009
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.
December 31st, 2008
[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.”
June 27th, 2008
[Editor's Note: Longtime reader Mike Cooperman attended last Saturday's Dodgers/Bosox exhibition game at the fabled L.A. Coliseum and generously offered to provide the following account of his day -- enjoy. -- PL]
By Mike Cooperman
Along with 114,298 of our closest friends, my wife and I took in Saturday night’s Dodgers/Red Sox game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The game featured some interesting Uni Watch fodder — some classic, and some we could have done without.
Why, you might ask, would the Dodgers be playing a baseball game in a football stadium, especially since the stadium configuration resulted in left field being only 201 feet away from the plate, with a 60-foot-high net?
Well, it just so happens that 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. And when the Dodgers arrived in Los Angeles, they played their first four years in the Coliseum.
Yet, neither of the above-linked logos ended up on the Dodgers’ jerseys for Saturday’s game. Instead, they wore a barely visible patch honoring the team’s official charity, ThinkCure (to which all proceeds from the game were donated). While their hearts were certainly in the right place, methinks their logo designers were not.
Between innings, the Dodgers honored influential figures from the team’s history, including several players from the late ’50s and early ’60s, who were honored alongside Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabar (since he, like the Dodgers, is originally from Brooklyn). So, how come Kareem got an authentic fitted cap, but Duke Snider got stuck with something from the gift stand?
Speaking of caps, the same marketing geniuses who had the cool idea of bringing the Dodgers back to the Coliseum also came up with this — a hybrid of the Dodgers cap in USC Trojan colors, readily available at the memorabilia shops conveniently located every 10 feet. As a Trojan alum, I absolutely do not approve, plus it feels like a rip off of this. While I had to stare at the back of that cap the entire game, at least I could look to my left and admire the classic kicks of the guy sitting next to me.
While we witnessed history — not only the largest crowd in baseball history but certainly the largest wave as well — the Dodgers missed a chance to set up a Battle of the stylized Bs. Also, I learned definitively that there is a third certainty in life: death, taxes, and no matter what logos, caps, or venues are involved, Dodgers fans still come in the 2nd inning and leave in the 7th.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Latest team planning to use a translated team name to appeal to the Latino market: the Mariners, who’ll dress up as the Marineros on May 31st. … NC State broke out some awesome striped stirrups on Tuesday (additional pics here and here, courtesy of Drew Johnson). … Yesterday I linked to this story about an April Fool’s Day prank. That led to the following response from Matt Rizzolo: “I’m actually friends with the guy pictured on the card. His name is Sensen Lin, and he’s a 25-year-old law student at NYU who I worked with this past summer at Ropes & Gray, a law firm in NYC. The kicker is that he isn’t a baseball player or even a fan, and he’s not even Japanese — he’s Chinese! He told me that they paid him about $600 for two hours of posing. Not bad work, huh?” … Got a sweet tooth? Now you can have your favorite MLB team’s logo printed on M&M’s. Too bad they felt the need to include the little “™” marks, which kinda ruins all the fun, at least for me. If the M&M’s “m” logo doesn’t have a trademark annotation, why should the MLB logos? Jeez. … The Wild will be wearing a “Team of 18,000″ patch tonight (I guess that’s sort of the opposite of “Army of One,” right?), and all fans in attendance will receive the patch as well. Details here (with thanks to Matt Myer). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Mets’ little Velcro patch, whose stitched outline is usually visible between “New” and “York” on the team’s road jersey, appears to be missing so far this year. My hunch: Because the Mets went straight from spring training to a season-opening road trip, equipment manager Charlie Samuels hasn’t had time to add the little Velcro patches. I suspect they’ll be sewn on once the team gets back to New York. … Steven Siegel got a good shot of Jose Molina wearing a knit cap under his hockey-style mask last night. … Lots of info here about the Giants’ Super Bowl ring design. As a longtime Jints fan who hates gold and loves anything silver-toned, I’m psyched to see that the ring will be white gold. … The South Carolina Gamecocks have gotten some newfangled equipment (with thanks to Franklin Beau). … Ready for the new NFL logo? Roger Goodell sure is (courtesy of Brinke Guthrie). … As you probably know by now (and as Larry Bowa has certainly been made aware), third base coaches are required to stay within the coaching box this year. But Mike Hersh notes that the 3B box in San Diego appears to have been extended. Anyone know if this is an MLB-wide thing, or are the Padres just looking to give their coach a bit of extra leeway? … It’s hard to see, but the Indians’ NOB drop shadow is now gone (although the outlining is still there).
April 3rd, 2008
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Last week, in the middle of our server changeover, I got an e-mail from Chris Hill, with a subject line that read, “Homemade uniform traditions from Rochester.” For some reason it came through in teeny-tiny type that was nearly illegible, and there were 20 attached photos, all of which was more than I wanted to deal with in the midst of the site’s technical woes. I nearly deleted the e-mail altogether.
I’m glad I didn’t. What Chris had sent me was a document of a pretty amusing little project. I’ll let him describe it:
In 2006 a group of my friends and myself started playing baseball in a kid’s back yard. Within a week or so we decided to mow the grass to create an infield, and used his fence as a home run marker.
We played pickup games throughout the summer, but for the 4th of July we decided to have an All-Star Game. In order to make it official and over the top, we made up two teams: the Maplewood Steamboats and the Jambo City Harbors of Wellington. We also built a scoreboard and brought out a P.A. system and announcers for the game. We had yet to discover how to fully use the screen-printing uniform shop in town, so most of our uniforms were homemade. The Harbors even had separate batting practice uniforms, but no picture exists of us in those.
Winter came along and we decided to do the same thing with a football game. It was slightly less intense, but we once again had the same teams wearing homemade uniforms.
This past summer we all had some money and ideas, so baseball was much more enjoyable. We started off the year making spring training jerseys to wear randomly throughout the season. At some point we realized we were doing the All-Star Game wrong — it should be a game between two leagues, not two teams. So the Steamboats and harbors turned into the League of Steamboats and the Harbor Leagues. From there we created about 16 different teams, all based on inside jokes and cities someone had been to: the Douglas Gorns [that's Chris wearing No. 44; note the all-star game sleeve patch! -- PL], Joe Montana 3-D Graphichs Manipulators, Toronto Tippy Ducks, Gnomes, Tuscon Tra La Las, Mt. Rushmore Compatriots, Boise Canistorshots, Brockport USB-ports and the Ocean City Monsoons. The guy in that last photo got so into it that he had home and away jerseys made, but the shop mistakenly put the team name on the road jersey, instead of the city name, so he bought the botched jerseys at a discount and went back to have it done right, giving him a total of FOUR jerseys, when he just needed one — dedication.
Indeed. And that dedication is what I love about this project. Okay, so the uniforms kinda suck, and many of you probably think the whole thing has “Get a life” written all over it, but so what? The day you’re too cool to embrace your own little field of dreams fantasy is the day you may as well pack it in. Instead of sitting on their sofas watching the ballgame or playing with the latest EA video game, these guys built something real. I say good for them.
Raffle Results: The three winners of last night’s raffle are, in order, J. Yung (who gets his choice of an L.A. Kings jersey, a Washington Capitals T-shirt or an assortment of MLB sleeve patches), Mike Carpenter (who gets to choose from the remaining two items), and Rick White (who’ll get whatever item is left). The three winners should get in touch with me asap.
Thanks to all who entered — more raffles coming soon.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s comments included excerpts from this article, which suggests that the new NHL jerseys are (a) possibly causing injuries during fights and (b) tearing at the seams. I don’t have much sympathy for fight-related concerns (simple solution: ban fighting), but there’s a lot of very interesting info here — start with the sixth paragraph. … Also from yesterday: The UK has produced a really nice series of stamps documenting the history of British military uniforms. You can click through the gallery here. … We’ve all seen photos of Rich Karlis kicking barefoot. But Brendon Yarian found a photo of him doing, well, a little more than kicking. … Dynamite Hanshin Tigers uniform history site here. Even if you don’t care about Japanese baseball, this is worth checking out, because the site is nicely interactive (start clicking and you’ll see what I mean) and many of the designs are wicked cool (nice find by Scott Curl). … Yet another case of a 2 rendered in two different ways on the same jersey: the Rangers. … Still more typography news: Kansas’s university-wide move to the Trajan typeface has resulted in a backlash movement (with thanks to longtime Uni Watch pal Rob Walker, who first brought the anti-Trajan site to my attention on his own excellent blog, Murketing). … Best argument yet for a barter economy: Purple is being added to the $5 bill. Alarming details here. … The Washington Huskies will wear 1960 throwbacks on Sept. 29th. According to this page, the team wore navy back then, but it was called “Northwestern Purple.” Odd (with thanks to Rob Weber). … Who needs a game-worn jersey when you can have Sandy Koufax’s synagogue-worn yarmulke? … Good info here about the Redskins’ throwbacks, which they’ll be wearing this weekend while pounding the living shit out of playing the Giants. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Texas A&M tight end Martellus Bennett changed his uni number from 13 to 85 to honor injured Bills player Kevin Everett, but his helmet still has his old uni number. … Arguably the weirdest reason ever for choosing a particular uni number: According to this article (forwarded by Jeff Barak), Wild rookie James Sheppard likes No. 15 because he “began wearing it as a 15-year-old midget player because he already had size 15 feet.” … If your coach can grab you like this, then your jersey’s definitely a few sizes too big. … My friend Liz Danzico, who’s more or less a genius, recently started a really good site called A Brief Message, which features a series of 200-word essays about design. I wrote a little something about uniforms for today’s installment, which longtime readers will recognize as a re-hash of the very first post that ran on this here blog. My own redundant content notwithstanding, A Brief Message is well worth checking out for anyone who cares even a little bit about design, sports-related or otherwise.
September 21st, 2007
Lots of ground to cover today, beginning with the excellent time I had last Friday at Giants Stadium, where I spent the afternoon interviewing equipment director Joe Skiba. This will end up as a video column on ESPN.com later this week, but here are some notable factoids:
• As you can see above, your typical NFL team has a lot — like, a lot — of facemasks on hand. (Here’s a larger view.)
• How tight are NFL jerseys these days? So tight that Osi Umenyiora’s jersey and pads fit fairly comfortably on me. Keep in mind that Osi outweighs me by over 100 pounds. For the record, Jared Lorenzen’s jersey was a big roomier.
• Speaking of Umenyiora, it turns out he likes to have his jersey partially untucked in the back (sort of like Wayne Gretzky), so Skiba has the back of his jersey tailored with a diagonal hem.
• Think the Giants’ blue helmet looks stupid with their red alternate jersey? Skiba has something in mind for you. I’m not allowed to talk about it, because team management hasn’t yet green-lighted Skiba’s idea, but let’s just say it would be a pretty revolutionary move if it came to pass. (And no, it’s not a solid-red helmet.)
• Skiba clued me in to a new footwear regulation I hadn’t been aware of: Prior to this season, a player’s shoes had to be predominantly black or white (depending on the team’s official shoe color) but could be accented with team colors. Since the Giants’ official colors are blue and red, this meant that some players’ shoes were black with red accents and others were black with blue. This year, however, the NFL has required each team to settle on one accent color. The Giants chose red (a mistake, in my opinion), so no more blue-accented cleats for Big Blue.
Big thanks to Joe for taking time out of his busy schedule to make himself available. On top of that, he turned out to be a real character in front of the camera, which should result in a very entertaining video. Joe, if you’re reading this, you da man and all that.
NHL Roundup: Meanwhile, a slew of additional NHL unveilings took place over the weekend. I’m just about NHL’d out (it’s only a 30-team league, but it seems like they’ve trotted out about 387 uniforms over the past two months), but protocol demands a full accounting, so here’s a quick rundown, in roughly descending order of quality:
• Coyotes: Plenty to like here — simple, basic, a classic in the making (lots of photos here). The only fly in the ointment: the way the panels and seams have forced the “C” and “A” designations to move too close to the crest.
• Blackhawks: Pretty true to the classic version. But this is probably the best example yet of how old-school waistline striping just doesn’t work with Reebok’s new rounded shirttail hem (additional photos here). Which brings up a question: What exactly is the rationale for the rounded hem? For all the chatter about the new uniform system’s innovative fabrics and streamlined tailoring, I’ve yet to hear an explanation for this particular (and particularly annoying) element.
• Ducks: As of my last writing, we had only seen this, but now a bunch of practice session photos have surfaced (additional views here). Yeah, the wordmark is weak and the stripes are a joke, but I still like the color scheme and the lack of extraneous bells and whistles. Whatever you thought of last year’s version, this update is certainly no worse.
• Stars: I actually love the road uni. And I don’t mind the simplicity of the home design (additional pics here). But like many other observers, I don’t understand why they’re highlighting the city name at home and the team name on the road. Feels like some promising ideas that weren’t taken to full fruition.
• Flyers: Road whites are silly but harmless; home design looks like a black tunic (additional pics here). Oh, and according to an item buried on this page, “Privately, some of the players said the new jerseys were too snug. So the Flyers are ordering them two sizes larger than usual for most players.” Nice to know the Edge system is being subverted before the season even starts.
• Thrashers: Pointless apron-striping (which has ruined what I once considered the league’s most underrated road jersey) plus the worst left sleeve in sports equals a mess. Additional evidence here.
• Oilers: Which one looks more like a practice jersey — home or road? Answer: both.
• Sabres: Looked like crap last year; looks like crap this year (further damning evidence here).
• Blues: For those who’ve been wondering, this is the design I knew about a few months ago (I got to see one of the jerseys when I was visiting the Liebe factory back in July) but wasn’t at liberty to discuss. Some people in the comments section have said they’re okay with it, which surprises me, because I think it’s a total train wreck. From the idiotic apron strings to the super-annoying Ree-box, it reeks of overdesign — especially when you factor in the way the apron strings are extended on the pants (additional pics here). Embarrassing.
In addition, we now have our first view of the Rangers’ new design on an actual human being. Compare that to this and the new wordmark looks awfully compressed, no? And again, the rounded hemline ruins the non-rounded stripes. I’m starting to think they would’ve been better off going back to the drawing board.
Fuck it, they should all just do this and get it over with.
Raffle-O-Rama: Speaking of the NHL, here’s a little tale that speaks volumes: About 10 days ago I got a note from a PR guy working for the NHL. This wasn’t one the league’s staff publicists — it was a guy from a PR agency that had apparently been retained by the league. He wanted to make sure I knew all about the league’s exciting new uniform system, with its high-tech fabrics and innovative tailoring. Then he asked if I’d like to have one of the jerseys so I could see for myself, and of course I said yes. He didn’t ask which team I preferred, and I didn’t make any special request, but I figured it’d probably be either a Rangers or Islanders jersey — y’know, since I live in New York and all.
A few days later, a package arrived. Can you guess what was inside? Take a look.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful — it was nice gift, after all. But you’ve gotta admit, it takes a special kind of cluelessness to send me a jersey from the one team that features the one color I can’t stand. This kinda sums up everything wrong with the NHL these days, no? (So does this: You’d think a video game would gain its legitimacy from the sport, not the other way around.)
Anyway, I’m gonna raffle off the jersey, and I won’t even make fun of whoever wins it. Specs: Size 52; includes all tagging; blank on the back. And since winning a Kings jersey brings to mind a bunch of old vaudeville jokes (“First prize is a week in Philadelphia; second prize is two weeks in Philadelphia”), I’ll make it more interesting by tossing in some extra goodies: The first prize winner will have a choice of the Kings jersey, a Capitals T-shirt (size L, blank on the back), or a bunch of MLB sleeve patches. A second-place winner will have a choice or the remaining two prizes, and a third-place winner will get the remaining prize.
To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the regular Uni Watch address) by this Thursday, September 20th, 10 p.m. eastern. I’ll announce the winners on Friday. I won’t be reading the e-mail entries, so please don’t include messages or attachments. One e-mail per person, but all enrollees in the Uni Watch membership program will automatically get three bonus entries.
Speaking of membership, the recent server snafu put a damper on news from that front, but Scott and I have kept working on applications. With two exceptions (hang in there, Joseph Mays and Charlie Hildbold — we’ll get to you soon), every enrollee should now have his or her membership kit. If you haven’t received yours, let me know. And for all you folks who recently told me you were planning to sign up once the server issues were settled, I look forward to receiving your orders.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Nike and Ohio State have struck a huge deal. And it includes some penalties for swoosh obstruction. … Reprinted from Thursday’s comments: Awesome Yellowknife jersey at the beginning of this photo gallery. … Good article here about the Astros’ visiting clubhouse manager, who has a huge bobblehead collection (with thanks to James Poisso and Kevin Gee). … While researching something else, I came across this photo of Paul Hornung wearing a college all-star jersey — apparently the same design shown in that Mitchell and Ness video that Vince linked to last Friday. … From 1921 through 1951, the Cubs held spring training on Catalina Island, a small island off the California coast that was owned by William Wrigley. Joaquin Jang has provided me with a link to an excellent half-hour video about the Cubbies’ history on the island, and it’s filled with tons of great visuals plus some nice little uni-related factoids (the Cubs used to leave behind their spring training uniforms each year for the island’s high school team to use, e.g.). The only catch is the size of the video file — my computer took over two hours to download it. But it’s worth it, so just start the download before you go to bed or something like that. The link is here. … AJ Brandt reports that U.S. Airways has been creating a fleet of NFL-themed jets, with liveries honoring the Eagles, Cardinals, Steelers, and Panthers. Not sure if the flight attendants have to dress the part, but I wanna make it clear right now that I’ll travel on a leaky raft before I fly on a Bengals plane. … Tyler Kepner wrote a nice little item at the bottom of this page about Ian Kennedy’s stirrups. … The Padres wore 1990s throwbacks on Saturday — the last installment of their season-long throwback program. … Small uni number switcheroo for the Mets. … Things have been suspiciously quiet over at Oregon, but Clark Farrand says that may be changing soon: “On the radio pregame show for the Oregon/Fresno State game, they had a guest ‘insider’ (whose name/title I didn’t catch) who said that the white helmets announced last year were ready and that they should be broken out in the next few weeks. Interestingly enough, they were considered for the Michigan game last week, but the team wanted the focus to remain on the game and not have helmet hype overshadow anything.” … Todd Davis notes that Pitt is now in the unusual position of having the exact same wordmark on its jersey and helmet. … Interesting note from Alejandro Macri (writing all the way from Buenos Aires), who notes: “The South African rugby national team is using green and yellow mouth protections as part of their uni design. It’s very disturbing to see green and yellow in these men’s teeth, but it may be the beginning of a new trend.” … Everyone got a kick out of this over the weekend. … You probably know Jason Varitek has “TEK” printed on his chest protector collar. But did you know he also has it inscribed on his mask? (With thanks to Corey Paske.) … Also from Corey: This is a shot of Wisconsin hockey coach Mike Eaves. Anyone know what the “SP” tag logo on the jersey is for? … Garrett Malcolm reports that last week’s Derek Lee bobblehead giveaway at Wrigley Field depicted Lee with a gray underbrim. … Dave Lewellen notes that Trent Green’s sleeves had stripes for Miami’s Week 1 game against the Redskins, but the rest of the Dolphins were stripe-free. … Wish I’d been near a TV for Saturday’s Iowa/Iowa State Game. The Cyclones wore gorgeous throwbacks (lots of additional pics here and here), and the Hawkeyes added an “ANF” decal (that’s for “America Needs Farmers,” don’tcha know), much nicer than the one originally worn during the Hayden Frye era (with thanks to Matthew Lepke for the decal screen grab). … Awesome collection of game-worn hockey jerseys here (with thanks to Joe Hilseberg). … Advertising on NFL uniforms? It’s already happening, if you count the Vikings’ cheerleaders. … The Nationals wore a sleeve patch over the weekend to mark their final homestand at RFK Stadium. … Speaking of the Nats, great article here about how the team’s script “W” logo is imprinted onto the outfield grass. … Attention A.J. Connelly (and anyone else interested in chinstraps): At the 49-second mark of this video there’s a shot of 1942 Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich wearing a really weird chinstrap. Jeff Lindquist, who brought this to my attention, also found another view, though not as good, here. Anyone know more about this? … Steven Wyder notes that Julio Lugo usually has a light brown smudge on his left sleeve/shoulder area, a phenomenon that dates back to his days with the Dodgers and Devil Rays (tough to see, but it’s there). “I think it’s pine tar — he must rest the bat there in the on-deck circle or something,” says Steven. … True, I loved striped socks — but I might make an exception for Billy Corgan (disgusting find by Nate Gruz). … Speaking of non-sports socks: “I live in Calgary,” writes Steve Francis, “and one of the attractions here is the Family of Man statue downtown. As a part of an arts festival currently underway, one of the artists has knit socks around the legs of most of the statues.” Seems more like leg-warmers, actually, but still pretty cool. … Derek Lowe risked a fine the other day by wearing a red jersey during warm-ups the other day, to signify “no contact.” Details (plus a revelation about Grady Little being cited by MLB’s uni police) toward the end of this page (with thanks to Eric Borer). … The Bills wore Kevin Everett T-shirts under their jerseys yesterday. The tees will be auctioned off for charity. … The Steelers wore their throwbacks yesterday — and sure enough, for the first time since Super Bowl XL, Willie Parker was wearing an American flag decal, although it remains to be seen whether it’ll be there on his regular helmet next week. … LaDainian Tomlinson’s helmet flag, however, was still AWOL. … Another black chinstrap for Chad Johnson yesterday. … Several readers have noted that the Longhorns have switched their uni numbers screen-printed to tackle twill this season. … Good catch by Jesse Gavin, who spotted Jon Kitna wearing a crucifix necklace yesterday.
September 17th, 2007
You probably know that the Devil Rays played a few “home” games in Orlando last week at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, which, despite having only 9000 seats, was no doubt an upgrade over Tropicana Field (and where, as you can see at right, Richard Petty threw out the first ball for one of the games). Reader Andrew Ranck attended one of the games and documented some interesting factoids regarding the 246th stadium to host an MLB game:
The field in front of the dugouts had logos commemorating the 10th anniversary of the complex (who knew). The on deck circles had MLB logos on them, and they seemed pretty worn. I’m guessing they may have been spring training holdovers, but they didn’t seem to get much use anyway.
Left field had a collection of pennants representing some of the Rays’ regular sponsors. Also the area beyond the left field fence was grassy, with families spread out on blankets and kids running around.
Center field was pretty bare, and the scoreboard gave little batter information. Besides the line score and the current count, we only saw the batter’s uniform number and batting average. Right field had a temporary Jumbotron, which only displayed the basic graphics from the player intros and whatnot. In the foreground of that last photo, you can see the soft drink race, which took place after the 4th inning.
The only beers for sale that I could find were 24-ounce cans (for $8.50!). The Anheiser-Busch products had Rays logos on them. This surprised me, because Disney is known for not selling that much in the way of A-B products, because Busch Gardens and Sea World are main competitors.
Thanks to Andrew for the first-hand report. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to give a similar account of the proceedings at the Trop, that might be amusing.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Big kudos and thanks to Trevor Williams of the Brainerd Dispatch, who attended the Uni Watch party in Minneapolis two Saturdays ago and then wrote this very nice article about it. … Lotsa stuff you might have missed over the weekend, beginning with Boise State’s new football jerseys, which were unveiled late on Friday. They’ll look like this, this, this, and this. Further details here. … Also from Friday: Roger Clemens warmed up for his minor league season debut wearing high cuffs and white-striped Adidas cleats but later switched shoes and pant styles. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Friday’s blog entry about Chris Sampson being told to remove his hospital bracelet (in case you missed it, look here) should have included a reference to Rob Mackowiak, who hit two home runs while still wearing his hospital bracelet on the day his baby was born back in 2004 (full details here). … It was Armed Forces Night in Milwaukee on Saturday, with the Brewers and Twins wearing military-themed caps. … Interesting thread on the Chris Creamer boards regarding the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, an AF2 team with a pretty innovative helmet design. … More arena football news from Michael Alper, who notes that Kenny Higgins of the Nashville Kats (again with the stoopid spelling) is wearing red shoes, even though there’s virtually no red in the team’s uniform. … The Orioles are denying reports that they’ll put “Baltimore” on their road jerseys next year (as forwarded by Jason Reddish). … Antiques Roadshow recently had a nice little segment on this medal. Details here (with thanks to Jeremiah Conway). … Anyone know why a manufacturer would refer to this pant style as a “Clemson Cut”? Also, who knew there was a hidden interior stirrup in there? (Good find by Rick Subrizio.) … Grant Emerson notes that Angel Pagan’s helmet logo appliqué has been crooked lately. … Club Deportivo Chivas USA has a new jersey sponsor. Full details here (with thanks to Jeffrey Israel). … If you’re interested in Tennessee high school uniforms, tons of photos are available here (courtesy of Marc Walls). … Texans cornerback Jason Simmons came up with a novel way to sell his uniform number to new teammate Ahman Green. … Ronnie Poore noticed something interesting in this photo of the 1965 NFL draft: The little figurines on each desk are wearing stirrups, instead of football-style socks. Most NFL players did wear stirrups in those days, but they also wore shin-length white socks over them — odd that the figurines didn’t get that final finishing hosiery touch. … Good story here about this Texas company, which makes varsity/letterman jackets. Further background info here. (With thanks to Matt Mitchell.) … Follow-up report from Jen Muller, who recently provided the photo of Dane Richards with his name misspelled: “At a Red Bulls ‘meet the team’ event on Saturday, I had a chance to ask Richards if he knew his name was spelled incorrectly on his jersey. He said he had no idea until he saw it later on the internet. Maybe he’s a Uni Watch fan.” … Check out the socks on Dong Tam Long An of the Vietnamese soccer league, who’s been playing in the AFC Champions League this year (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). … Can’t say I thought much of Cory Spinks’s trunks or glove colors during his fight against Jermain Taylor on Saturday night. Weirdest bit: When Spinks’s trunks started slipping down, his corner tried to secure them with tape around the waistband — never seen that maneuver before. Meanwhile, check out the fringe on Taylor’s trunks. … Former Knick John Starks is promoting a new line of basketball warm-up pants, which are supposedly easier to pull off in one motion. Details in the “Starks to NBA” section about two-thirds of the way down this page (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … Lots of great stripes on display in this rugby photo, taken by Rick Collins. … Odd logo/number format being worn by the Texas City Stings (good catch by Seth Harris). … A little birdie tells me that the U. of Texas hoops team will go to Nike’s tight-fit jerseys next season. … Matthew Lepke notes that as of yesterday, Ron Gardenhire was still wearing his Mother’s Day ribbon on his windbreaker. … Matt Meltzer and I both want to know what’s printed on Dice-K’s left undersleeve. … Seth Horowitz forwards the following, from yesterday’s NY Post: “Tom Nieto, the Mets’ catching instructor, now has a tilde over the ‘N’ in ‘ÑIETO’ on the back of his jersey. He didn’t have one in his previous two years with the Mets but had it switched this season so that it would be properly pronounced.” … Nike’s latest brainstorm: a new and “improved” design, featuring a black jersey, for the Miami baseball team. … Awesome stirrup display by Brian Garman of the UC Bearcats (with thanks to Buckeye Mike, who says he’s known Garman since they were both about five years old). … Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner and I attended last night’s Yanks/Mets debacle. The shameful truth: I was cold, tired, and depressed by the game’s proceedings, so I left in the middle of the 8th inning. Let the record show that Scott stayed to the bitter end.
May 21st, 2007
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