In 37-ish years of watching baseball, I’ve never seen a big leaguer do what Adrian Beltre did during last night’s Mariners/Mets game. When Brian Schneider hit a soft liner over his head (sorry about the crummy image quality for all these shots), Beltre threw his glove up in the air, which is the sort of stunt usually reserved batting practice.
“You’re not supposed to do that,” mused Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen, a philosophical lilt in his voice. “You know, technically, if you throw your glove at the ball, it’s three bases. … I mean, it’s in the rulebook, if you throw your glove at the ball. Now, I’m sure the umpires will say, ‘Look, he wasn’t throwing his glove at the ball, he was just frustratedly throwing his glove in the air after the ball had already passed.’ And that’s true, but technically…”
And then his voice trailed off. But Gary Cohen, technically, didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. As the umpires correctly ruled, there’s no penalty for throwing your glove at the ball (or anywhere else) as long as there’s no contact. The relevant section of the rulebook, which I highly recommend to Mr. Cohen, can be found here.
Note that a related section of the rulebook calls for one base to be awarded if a player touches pitched ball with his mask. I remember reading an article in the late 1980s about a catcher who’d blocked a ball in the dirt and then retrieved it by nonchalantly scooping it up with his mask. The opposing manager was Gene Mauch, who scurried out to argue that this was a one-base infraction. The umpire eventually agreed, so Mauch won the argument. The only problem is that his team was losing 11-1 or something like that, and this “Win the battle, lose the war” scenario was presented in the article as a microcosm of Mauch’s entire career.
As for Beltre last night, here’s the kicker: When his glove came back down, he booted it. Rather incredibly, this guy is the A.L.’s reigning Gold Glover at third base. When I mentioned this to my ESPN colleague Jim Caple, who lives in Seattle and therefore sees Beltre play way more than I do, he responded, “He can be a little playful from time to time. If he knows he won’t confuse another fielder, he’ll occasionally try to deke the cameraman just for the fun of it.” Interesting, but it still seems pretty bush to me.
Research Project: I’m trying to compile a timeline of interesting uni-related moments in MLB All-Star Games. I’ve previously listed a bunch of such episodes here, I devoted an entire ESPN column to the 1934 uniforms, and I’ve got plenty of additional examples (Johnny Callison winning the ’64 ASG while wearing a Mets helmet, Reggie Jackson wearing a Mariners uni for the A.L. team photo in ’79 [see left], Larry Walker wearing his helmet backwards while facing Randy Johnson in ’97, etc.), but I want more. If you know of additional instances of notable uni-related moments in all-star history — or notable all-star moments in uni-related history, as the case might be — please get in touch.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Forgot to mention yesterday that the media kit from Monday’s MLB press conference included this lapel pin. Nice of them to slap the trademark symbol on a flag-based design, no? … When you’re as tall as Richie Sexson, shouldn’t they try to center your uni number a bit better? That’s a lot of acreage between the number and his waistline (with thanks to Eric Distenfeld for the pics). … That Big Brown photo with the loose horseshoe is pretty fascinating. … Interesting Japanese baseball tidbit from Jeremy Brahm: “In 1979, the Central and Pacific Leagues had their 30th anniversaries and came out with pillbox hats for each team. From what I can find, these were only used in the 1979 and 1980 Central and Pacific East-West All Star games after the season.” … Did you know Spain has an “unlucky” yellow jersey? Details here (with thanks to Patrick O’Donnell). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Check out this Indians vs. Indians shot, presumably taken during a spring training intersquad game. … Maria Sharapova’s tuxedo-patterned top has real buttons and pleats — not just printed graphics, which was what I’d been expecting. Details here, here, and here, plus more Wimbledon coverage here. … The USA hoops team’s uniforms will look like this and this. … Ryan McGhee reports that the Tacoma Rainiers and Oklahoma RedHawks of the Pacific Coast League will wear special jerseys next week and auction them to benefit the Limbs for Life Foundation, which buys new prosthetic limbs for amputees who can’t afford them in the United States and takes donated limbs to foreign countries like the Dominican Republic. … “The State Farm ad on the Wrigley Field dugout railing was apparently taped over or something on Sunday night,” notes Matt Bennum. … Paul Wiederecht sent along one of the best photos I’ve ever seen of the Golden Seals’ white skates. … Also from Paul: Great page here devoted to ballpark organists, “but nothing about Fernand Lapierre from Montreal, seen playing ‘Les Expos Sont Là’ here.” … My mention of the unusual basketball jersey crotch extension yesterday prompted this response from sporting goods impresario Terry Proctor: “While I was at Ruby’s in Rochester, we sold a set of basketball uniforms with supporter bottoms to Geneseo High School, which is about 35 miles southwest of Rochester. We got the uniforms from Powers Mfg. Co. in Waterloo, Iowa. The players HATED the supporter bottom. Needless to say, the next uniforms Geneseo bought a couple of years later were from SandKnit, sans the supporter bottom. … While searching for something else, I came across this shot of Carlton Fisk wearing some killer striped hose. I’d forgotten about that design. … Also discovered two shots of Chet Lemon wearing some interesting windbreakers under his jersey: First, check out the collar here. And then dig this shot — looks like he’s got two windbreakers on, plus the big-collared jersey. … Nice to see that my question at Monday’s MLB press conference became the basis for the last graf of this AP item. … Doug Mooney found still more photos from the 1968 World Series showing Tigers with their uni number on the left sleeve instead of the right. First there’s this shot — that’s Bill Freehan in the background but we already knew he had the left-sleeve number. Who’s that in the foreground, though — is it Jim Northrup? That’s definitely Northrup in this shot, which appears to show a left-sleeve number as well. … Tyler Kulasza just took his annual trip to Cooperstown and sent along pics of Honus Wagner’s brim-mounted flip-down shades, a pair of gorgeous Cardinals jackets (here’s a close-up), and A.J. Burnett’s no-hitter cap (what did he have written here and here?). … The Pirates and Rays will be wearing Negro Leagues throwbacks this Saturday, honoring the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Jacksonville Redcaps, respectively (with thanks to Jerry Wolper).
Reader Jared Wheeler works for Mitchell & Ness, where he conducts historical research to help ensure that the company’s reproductions are as accurate as possible. I’ll be conducting an interview with him soon, but for now here’s a bunch of killer hockey photos he recently sent my way:
• “Here are some photos of the first ‘all-star’ game in 1934, which was a benefit game for Ace Bailey of the Maple Leafs,” says Jared [this was 13 years before the first ‘official’ NHL All-Star Game — PL]. “Check out how the Leafs wore ‘Ace’ on their jerseys. And here’s a shot of Bailey himself after two brain surgeries. After he was hit from behind on December 12, 1933, in a game against the Bruins, some of the B’s started wearing protective headgear.”
• “This is a is a 1937-1938 photo of Milt Schmidt wearing a crude mask. Here’s a later photo of Schmidt — look how his captain’s C is between the two numerals. Both photos ran in Sport magazine in 1948.”
• “Here’s a shot of the Red Wings’ diamond-shaped captaincy patches. And dheck out the in a diamond-shaped sleeve designation here. The ‘R’ team, by the way, is the amateur New York Rovers. This shot was taken at training camp in Lake Placid in 1948.”
• “Two interesting World War II-era shots here: The Red Wings wore a ‘V’ patch, for victory (you can see it on both sleeves), and some Maple Leafs players prepared for war in their sweaters.”
• “Is that a back pocket on the player at far right?”
Awesome stuff. And in the non-uni category, Jared even found another shot of an athlete smoking (and baling hay): That’s Bobby Hull.
Signal Flare: Do you work for Under Armour? If so, I have a quick question for you. Please drop me a line here. Thanks.
And you should’ve seen the notes that came in from Tom Tancredo and Lou Dobbs: Of all the reactions to yesterday’s entry about Los Spurs and Los Suns (most of which were posted in the comments section, although a few readers e-mailed me their thoughts directly), the most interesting and thoughtful one was an e-mail from Pablo Souki. Check it out:
I grew up in Venezuela, speaking Spanish. Of the American major sports leagues, I followed MLB very closely, the rest not at all. Some of the team names were always translated back then, like Cerveceros and Gigantes, who seem to have gotten it right. Others were not. The Yankees were always the Yanquis (phonetic translation, I guess, but nothing else), the Phillies were always the Filis, the Dodgers were the Dodgers.
I get the feeling (no hard evidence of any kind here, just me remembering my childhood) that the ones who were translated were the ones who had a literal translation: The Reds were the Rojos, the A’s the Atléticos, the Blue Jays the Azulejos, and so on. This seems to have changed with the Marlins, though — there was an actual translation for Marlins, but I don’t remember ever using it.
If I had to guess, I would say that the other translations had happened at earlier times, when we had no access to U.S. broadcasts of games, only translated ones. Cultures were less intertwined, and names were translated. By the time the Marlins and Rockies appeared, we could watch games on satellite TV and were more used to English terminology. However, this theory is destroyed by the fact that the Devil Rays were always the Mantarrayas. So maybe “Peces Espada” was just too cumbersome a translation for “Marlins.”
Two other notes: First, Spanish is spoken so differently in terms of syntax and jargon from country to country (the word used in Venezuela for “receipt” is used in Argentina for “pastry”, for instance, and words that are perfectly common in one country are terrible swear words in others) that I would be hard-pressed to believe that my childhood experiences hold true elsewhere. ESPNdeportes.com itself has such a variety of nationalities that the inconsistencies from one column to the next are huge. As a matter of fact, some writers use the “Los” article before team names, others don’t. All of this just illustrates the point that “Latino” encompasses so many nationalities that it is very hard to get something like this right. But we have been all thrown in the same group, whether we like it or not.
Second, I have never seen a Latin team wear “Los” on its uniform., The Caracas Lions don’t wear “Los Leones,” just “Leones.” The La Guaira Sharks only wear “Tiburones,” no “Los.” So maybe that is the best reason to not add the “Los” to any team’s shirt.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The web site Improbable Soccer is running a series on team crests. The first installment is here. Expect new updates every day or two. … Did you know Navy once wore this helmet? Details here. … Unlikely stirrup alert: There’s a TV commercial currently running for the MLB 2K8 video game. Just past the 30-second mark, the voiceover (Denis Leary, I believe) says, “I wanna have the most fun you can have with those funny baseball socks on,” accompanied by a shot of the ’67 Cardinals in all their striped-stirruped glory (nice find by Chris Flinn). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Jerry Rice doesn’t mind if the Niners unretire his number so Isaac Bruce can wear it. … Gonzaga pitcher Cory Powell wore a helmet/mask combo the other day. “He recently took a comebacker in the orbital bone,” writes Matt Camino, who sent me the photo (which was taken by his fiancé, Meghan Moran). “He apparently wore a plastic mask like the ones NBA players wear after he first got hit, and now he wears the helmet and facemask to prevent it from happening again.” … Thing of beauty. … Excellent column here about a baseball card photographer who works for Topps (with thanks to Minna H.). … Just what the world needs: Billy Crystal in pinstripes. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The A’s wore a way snazzy jersey patch yesterday. … Interesting note from Brian Vigue, who writes: “I played high school football in the mid-’60’s — and I wore a leather helmet! It wasn’t left over from the ’40s but was supposedly the latest technology at the time. There were at least three different helmets used by team members: the leather helmet, a suspension bubble-type thing, and an oblong close-fitting plastic job that kind of looked like Otto Graham’s. Many schools we played at the time also used the leather helmet.” … If you click on this link, you’ll download a PDF of a daily tournament update from the International Baseball Federation. Most of it is very official-looking, except for this amusing handwritten addendum from the Canadian coach. Also of uni-note: Check out the second numbered item here (with thanks to Bob Timmerman). … “Montreal’s going to have a new junior hockey team next year and they introduced their new jerseys today,” writes Paul Richard Cook. Full details here, and there’s a video clip that includes some previous Montreal junior hockey logos here.
What’s been the biggest change in pro football over the past 30 years? A lot of things come to mind: modern training methods, the increased size of linemen, the overall increase in athleticism and speed, the advent of video review, the increasing dominance of African-American players, the disappearance of jersey sleeves, the utter joylessness of head coaches.
But if you ask me, the biggest development — and easily the most underrated one — is the ubiquity of gloves. Almost everyone wears them now, even quarterbacks, and it’s no exaggeration to say that most of the acrobatic catches you see receivers making these days wouldn’t be possible without them. Yeah, some players in the pre-glove era wore stickum, but I saw Lester Hayes and Fred Biletnikoff in their primes, and they couldn’t make any of these one-handed catches that you routinely see guys making today. Gloves have completely redefined the passing game.
All of which came to mind during yesterday’s Cowboys/Eagles game, which featured something I’d never seen before: Philly WR Kevin Curtis took a spill along the sideline, and at first it looked like his glove had come off during the play. But as he got up, it became apparent that the glove had actually fallen apart — the upper part was still on his wrist while the lower part had been ripped right off of his hand, much to Curtis’s own confusion.
In other developments from yesterday:
• Jason Taylor’s captaincy patch was coming loose by the end of the Dolphins/Ravens game.
• As has been noted here several times in recent weeks, the “Ravens” wordmark has been missing from Willis McGahee’s black jersey in recent weeks, but it was present and accounted for on his purple jersey yesterday.
• The Redskins usually wear these socks with their burgundy pants, but they went with these — ugh.
(Big thanks to Chad Todd and Randy Williams from the Kevin Curtis screen grabs.)
Research Project: My ESPN colleague Mary Buckheit is working on a piece about women’s volleyball uniforms — why they’re so skimpy, why some players have issues with them, why they’re so different from the men’s uniforms, whether they’re so revealing that they’ve actually led some players to develop eating disorders, that sort of thing. Here’s a note from her:
The sport of volleyball has seen it all — unitards, mesh shorts, bun huggers, long sleeves, racerback jerseys, tall socks, no socks — what’s the deal? What is the functionality of volleyball uniforms, specifically the super-short spandex? Are women really inhibited by “cumbersome” traditional athletic shorts? You know, the ones that are perfectly suitable for soccer and basketball. Do the minis really make you perform better? Would men’s statistics spike if they dared ditch their mesh or board shorts in favor of a biker boxer brief type uni? Would they tally more digs that way? C’mon.
When you see volleyball on TV, do you stop and watch for an extra second to scope out the 6-foot college coeds in 3-inch spandex shorts? If so, any feelings on what it would be like as a father of a high school volleyball player knowing guys in the gym are doing the same thing to your 16-year-old sophomore setter?
If anyone has any thoughts on this, please feel free to contact me. Thanks!
I know at least a few of you know a lot more about volleyball than I do, so please share your knowledge with Mary. Thanks.
Raffle Reminder: In case you missed it on Friday, I’m currently raffling off a bunch of stuff. For details, scroll down to the middle of Friday’s entry. As always, you can increase your odds of winning by joining the Uni Watch membership program.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out this photo of Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth. Odd to see that the insignia on Ruth’s jacket is “N.Y.,” but on Gehrig’s it appears to be just “NY” — no periods (with thanks to Bruce Menard). … A member of the Winthrop women’s hoops team has changed her uni number to honor her late fiancé (as forwarded by Jonathan Carone). … A reader who prefers not to give his real name has gotten some good pics showing exactly how the Rangers are hemming their jerseys. … Yikes. … Northwest Missouri State safety Aldwin Foster-Rettig (who already has a lengthy NOB) tore his jersey on Saturday, leading to a rather makeshift repair (with thanks to Chris Wheeler). … Michael Poplawski reports that German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen modified their jersey crest to look like a Christmas tree on Saturday. Here’s a closer view. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Wisconsin-Whitewater’s jerseys have a “Warhawks” wordmark, but it was missing from Justin Beaver’s jersey. … The Dayton hoops team has unveiled some alternate throwbacks (with thanks to Todd Herzog). … This has resulted in this. … More NFL fines assessed here. … Doug Weight, making his Ducks debut last night, was wearing a pair of Brad May’s gloves (good catch by Alex Warner). … Remember the recent Ticker item about the missing stripes on Bill Guerin’s jersey? Here’s a follow-up (with thanks to Michael Schuerlein).
Back when I invited people to apply for the Uni Watch intern’s position, one of the finalists was David Sonny. Although he didn’t make the final cut, he had already set up an interview with Bengals equipment manager Rob Recker, which I encouraged him to go ahead with. He readily agreed. Here’s how their chat went down:
David Sonny: How did you get to the position of Cincinnati Bengals equipment manager?
Rob Recker: Well, I actually started off as a trainer for OSU. While there I began to intern with the Browns, but I left for the assistant trainer job with the Bengals in 1991 and continued in that role until 2000.”
DS: And then you made the jump to equipment manager?
RR: Well up until then Tom Gray was the equipment manager and I was a guy who would help anyone out that I could. So basically in 1999 you could have called me the assistant equipment manager. After 1999, Tom Gray retired and Mike Brown offered me the promotion from assistant trainer to equipment manager.
DS: And so you took the job.
RR: Well yeah, when the boss tells you he’d like to move you from one area to another, promote you, and make you the head of a department, you don’t say no. Let me just say this, Mike Brown is a very intelligent man. He sees a lot… he sees everything. He really made it nice here.
DS: Nice? How do you mean?
RR: Well, I took over the first year we moved into Paul Brown Stadium, and at that time many people had very negative views of the franchise, which often happens when you lose. Mike Brown changed all that. There was a time when you would hear players complain about not getting a lot from the team, like clothes, shoes, gloves. Now we get players coming in from other organizations that come in and are wide-eyed in amazement about everything they get for free. I mean, players are actually shocked that they get all of this [referring to the seemingly endless amount of merchandise, from hoodies to gloves and anything else that can be ordered]. If I need anything for this department, I just have to ask Mike Brown, he has never once said no to anything.
DS: So what do you feel your goal is?
RR: For players to get everything they need to perform on the field. I need to do what needs to be done for us to win, whether that means getting a player the shoes he requests, gloves, pads, whatever makes that player feel comfortable on and off the field.
DS: What are your thoughts on the new NFL logo?
RR: It is what it is. I like the old NFL logo, it has a sort of classic look to it, but things change. I like the new one too; it is going to be a ton of work for me switching over, though. It’s on everything [begins pulling out business cards, jerseys, nameplates, helmets, stationery, etc.]. I have to make sure that all of the old logos are replaced by next year so that we’re in compliance.”
DS: What about other logos, such as Reebok?
RR: A big part of my job is making sure that product is on the field. Like I said, it is what it is, don’t underestimate just how much money that company makes, and puts into the game. It is my job to make sure that it looks its best.
DS: I’ve noticed that on the fieldwear and fanwear, the Reebok logo seems more toned down than in the past…
RR: Yeah, the logos seemed to get out of hand a while back. But the NFL is very strict and there are now more restrictions on logo size and placement.
DS: So what about the helmets? I have seen the decals for sale to make your own and such…
RR: We no longer use decals on our helmets. That was one of the first things I changed when I was promoted in 2000. It got to a point where we were just wasting time; I would have three or four guys out there repairing helmet decals for two or three hours straight the Monday after a game. The paint holds up better and looks better, now I just have a guy look over all the helmets after a game and anything that is too scratched or damaged we just send away to have painted. The helmets are my favorite part of the uniform, they are important to me.
DS: And the uniforms…
RR: I like the new uniforms; I liked the old uniforms as well. It’s funny, I had just developed new patterns [different tailoring cuts for different positions — one for linemen, one for wide receivers, and so on] for all of the old uniforms and then we made the switch. I don’t think people realize just how tough that is; the patterns didn’t transfer over at all, so I had to make a whole new set. The new uniforms were not designed for football players though. Designers came in and came up with something that could be marketed to fans, which makes it difficult. The stripes on the sleeves, for example — I still am not satisfied there, because each pattern ends up affecting the stripes in a different way, which you just can’t get right. Take Justin Smith — he came to me early on and we sat down to discuss what he wanted in a uniform cut. Justin is very specific, he doesn’t want loose material and doesn’t want sleeves, so I basically have to butcher every one of his uniforms to get it right, and look at the stripes [laughs], count them.
DS: So you do most of the alterations yourself?
RR: I wouldn’t say that I do most of them. I will hem a jersey if a player comes to me, but there are times when you get 10 to 15 guys coming to you wanting their jersey to be hemmed — then I’ll send them out. It’s a time thing.
DS: But you do the custom jobs yourself, correct?
RR: Yeah, I’ll sit down with a player and go over anything he wants done and I’ll make most of those alterations myself.
DS: And what about repairs?
RR: I’ll do most of those myself. If something is ripped, I’ll just whip out the sewing machine and take care of it. I can usually just add a small amount of fabric behind the tears and stitch it up, but there are times when it becomes more extensive. When that happens, we weigh whether it’s worth the time fixing it or if we’re better off just getting a new uniform.
DS: And if a player gets a tear on the field [during a game]?
RR: Oh, I’ll just grab my needle and thread and stitch it up right on the sidelines, I did that for Rudi [Johnson] a couple games ago.
DS: And if the tear it too extensive to repair on the field?
RR: Well, we have a backup jersey on hand. If something were to happen, though, it’s either fix the uniform, get a new one on him, or he has to come out of the game. It’s as simple as that.
DS: How do you keep the jerseys so tight to the pads?
RR: We run strips of double-sided tape across the pads and pat the jersey down. Some teams use Velcro, but I prefer tape. It really adheres and keeps the jersey from moving around.”
DS: So who are the players who really care how they look out there?
RR: Carson [Palmer], Chad [Johnson] and Rudi [Johnson]. They are my fashion designers.
DS: While we’e on the subject of Chad, where did he get the black and orange chinstraps?
RR: Not from me, that’s for sure. He went out and bought them himself.
DS: And…
RR: And the NFL called me complaining about it. He’s a grown man, I supply him with the correct chinstrap, and he chooses whether or not to wear it. Chad is a smart kid, he knows what he is doing… and he is going to do it anyway.
DS: What do you think about it?
RR: I really like the look; I think the whole team would look great with them. If I could do it I would have the whole team wearing them.
DS: Anything else interesting about Chad’s uniforms?
RR: Before one game a couple of years ago he comes to me and says ‘I want sleeves.’ He wanted, you know, baggier, looser sleeves. It was a fashion statement. I told him ‘Chad, they’re going to be grabbing all over you if you go out wearing sleeves.’ But he insisted, so I made up a jersey with sleeves for him.
DS: How did that work out for him?
RR: After the first few plays he came running to me on the sideline saying ‘Rob! Rob! They are grabbing all over the sleeves, I needs another jersey.’ I said, ‘No shit.’ That experiment lasted one drive.
DS: Anything else?
RR:Shoes, he has more shoes than he can ever possibly wear.
DS: Was there anything you tried during the uniform change that you still wish you could get right?
RR:Striped socks. Mike Brown and I both love simple striped socks. We tried really hard to get that to work, we were going for a similar sock stripe that the team used to wear. After some time we just decided that with the modern uniform the striped socks just looked out of place, especially with the Bengals’ stripes.
RR: Oh yeah, we have tons of those, especially with all the new helmet styles and manufactures. For instance, look at the difference between the Revolution kicker’s facemask [left] and the standard kicker’s facemask [right]. The Revolution facemask attaches at the bottom, so it has a completely different look. It also has less eye protection and you could easily get your whole hand in there. Then look at Willie [Anderson]’s facemask — I’m surprised no one else wears it. It’s much lighter than most facemasks out there and provides great protection. It is the look, everyone is making a fashion statement these days, even with the facemask.
RR [laughing]: Yeah, just like L.T. His facemask is a personal statement, just like a lot of these guys with shoes. It provides no more protection, but the look is what he wants.
=======
Speaking of the Bengals, David came up with an interesting story while doing research for the interview — look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Phillies finally unveiled their new alternate uni yesterday, and it looks pretty damn sharp. My only gripe: Since the design is based on this, why did they use this font on the back? … Quite a week for memorials, as decal maven Chris Willis reports that the Browns will be wearing a “BW” decal for Hall of Famer Bill Willis, who died earlier this week. … Fun factoid: If the Cowboys had worn their usual white at home last night (instead of their blue throwbacks), the Packers would have had to remove their Lambeau Field 50th-anniversary patches from their green jerseys, because the patch is only meant to be worn at Lambeau. And then they would have put the patches back after the game. But since the Cowboys wore blue, the Packers wore white and didn’t have to fuss with the patches. Details here. … As expected, both teams wore a “21″ decal — which turned out to be huge — in memory of Sean Taylor. … Speaking of Taylor, check out what someone did to a McFarlane figure of him (nice find by Timothy Fesmire). … Texas prison guards are getting new uniforms (rare non-sports contribution from Brinke Guthrie). … According to this article, next season NFL players will have the option of wearing a new high-tech helmet design. The good news is that it offers a very high degree of head protection; the bad news is that it looks like a cheap Halloween costume. … Yesterday I imagined what sort of horn-based helmet design would be worn by a football team called the Unicorns. I was kidding, but Mike Stegemoller actually found a European team with that name. Unfortunately, they have a boring helmet design (and even more unfortunately, they wear the McDonald’s logo on their thighs).
See that photo of Jason Taylor over there? It’s not really him — it’s an “8-metre, animatronic version of [him], the biggest animated human figure ever made,” at least according to the photo’s caption. That photo and this one (also of the “animatronic version”) began circulating on the AP wire on Monday, in advance of this weekend’s Giants/Dolphins game in London.
As you can see in the pics, the jersey features a patch — presumably the one that the two teams will be wearing on Sunday. But I couldn’t make out the wording underneath the NFL logo until Tuesday, when the New York Times ran a much larger version of one of the photos. That’s when I saw this.
I knew Bridgestone was sponsoring the game, but would the teams actually be wearing the company’s wordmark this Sunday? If so, it would mark the first appearance of uniform advertising in an NFL game. Temples pounding, palms sweating, I checked with Giants equipment director Joe Skiba, who reassured me that the teams would indeed be wearing a patch similar to the one shown in the photos but that it would not feature the Bridgestone logo.
After I got back down off the ledge, I wondered why games played overseas always seem to present these sorts of problems. Remember, the only time advertising has appeared in MLB uniforms was when regular-season games were played in Japan — first in 2000, when the Mets and Cubs wore AIU sleeve patches and am/pm helmet decals, and then again in 2004, when the Yankees and Devil Rays wore the Ricoh logo on their sleeves and helmets.
The answer, of course, is that most other parts of the world are much more comfortable with uniform advertising than we are here in North America. Hell, the ad patches used in the now-defunct NFL Europe make that Bridgestone patch look almost quaint by comparison (additional examples here, here, here, and here).
I suppose you could say there’s a “When in Rome…” factor at work here, but I think it should be the other way around. The whole point of playing these games overseas is to help promote our culture in foreign lands, right? So as long as we’re teaching them about football (or baseball, or whatever), why not teach them that ads have no place on a team uniform — even when it’s on an 8-metre animatronic figure.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Big congrats to longtime Uni Watch contributor Joe Hilseberg, who recently got married and, as promised, prepared uniform-style vests for himself and his groomsmen. “And on my honeymoon in Aruba,” he adds, “we rode a party bus one night and you have to see the sock action on this crazy woman who was the guide!” … On Monday I passed along a reader query about Kevin Youkilis possibly having the Majestic wordmark under his Majestic sleeve logo. Upon closer inspection, however, it appears that it was just a shadow. … There’s been a discussion of helmet memorial decals over on the Chris Creamer board, including a link to something I had completely forgotten about: the Pete Rozelle memorial worn in Super Bowl XXXI. … The Nationals have unveiled a new radio network logo (with thanks to Kyle Donnelly). … Minor league hockey note from Jeff Seals, who writes: “I went to the Las Vegas Wranglers’ home opener on Sunday night and they broke out their new home jerseys. The front features a poker chip design with the individual player’s number inside the chip. On the outside of the chip it says, ‘Las Vegas Wranglers.’ What’s different is that the left shoulder has big TV numbers, but the numbers are non-existent on the right arm. The back of the jersey has a black nameplate with white lettering.” … Blake Meyer, who runs the superb TwinsCards.com site, informs me that several of his contributors have banded together to create the very similar (and similarly excellent) VikingsCards.com, which features all sorts of old cards, old photos, and so on. Highly recommended. … WFAN radio clown Chris Russo, who’s already shown himself to have a single-digit IQ on umpteen occasions, further undermined his own credibility yesterday when he opined that Joe Giarardi might not be the right guy for the Yankees managerial job because “he’s one of those managers that worry about how the players wear their socks.” … Sure is weird to see Big Papi with a glove. … Speaking of gloves, Kaz Matsui was using at least two different ones during yesterday’s workouts, as seen here and here (with thanks to Bryan Redemske). … Kudos to the Missouri State High School Activities Association, which recently determined that “it is evident there is a problem with numerous schools wearing illegally-styled uniforms” and then prepared “[a]n extensive power point presentation” to help address the problem. Details here (with thanks to John Vernickas). … Good roundup of San Antonio-area high school football helmets available for download in this PDF file (courtesy of Blain Fowler). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Looks like some of the Rangers are having their rounded shirttails modified to straight horizontal hems. … Brian Schulz recently reminded me of a phenomenon I’d largely forgotten about: semi-pro football, a subculture comprising over 700 teams nationwide. Some of the uniforms and logos are simply copies from pro or college teams, but others are more original. You can access a bunch of semi-pro helmet designs here, and lots of additional semi-pro info is available here. … Those of you who think I engage in gratuitous Nike-bashing certainly won’t change your minds now (nice find by Jeff Farrell). … The Bears will be wearing their orange alternate jerseys this Sunday.
Very uni-unusual day in college football on Saturday, with all sorts of anomalies running rampant on the gridiron. Let’s start with Notre Dame’s 1977 throwbacks. Personally, I prefer this green-and-gold combo better than the one they wore on Saturday. But oh, those sock stripes — you know I loved those, although it was distressing to see how many players left their socks at ankle-level.
A sampling of other uni observations from Saturday:
• Oregon went solid white, which looked kinda chalky. Better than their usual visual carnival, natch, but the green helmet was the one really good component of this uniform — here’s hoping they go back to it next week.
• Florida wore a memorial decal for walk-on defensive back Michael Guilford, who died in a motorcycle accident last week (and whose nickname was Sunshine).
• Florida State wore a red “BV” helmet decal in honor of team videographer and cancer victim Billy Vasini, who’s currently in hospice care.
• No photo, but Vince says Michigan State’s Peter Clifford “pulled an L.T. and wasn’t wearing an American flag decal on his helmet” (a handy coincidence, since the Chargers had a bye this week, so we all might’ve gone through missing-decal withdrawal if not for Clifford).
• Graham McCulloch says that Michigan’s Mario Manningham’s surname was direct-sewn onto his jersey, instead of being on separate nameplate. I couldn’t find a good rear-view shot of Manningham, although this photo suggests that the lettering may indeed have been direct-sewn. If so, it would mark a change from how Manningham’s name has been applied in the past.
Intern Update: In case you missed it last week, Vince will soon be moving on to greener pastures, so I’m in the market for a new intern. For further details, scroll down to the “Help Wanted” section of last Wednesday’s post.
For those of you who’ve already applied, hang tight. I can’t acknowledge everyone, but I’ll be getting in touch with a handful of finalists soon. And my sincere thanks to all applicants — it’s humbling to see how many people want to work on Uni Watch.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Iowa State’s official logo specs and identity standards are available for viewing in this PDF file (with thanks to Brian Castile). … Andrew Flynn was recently at the Packers Hall of Fame, where he snapped a shot of the team’s 1962 yearbook cover. Obviously, they tinted those facemasks in the photo (colored facemasks didn’t debut until over a decade later, with the 1974 Chargers), although it’s hard to fathom why they would’ve done that. … Always good to start ’em young (good find by Jay Kuperstein). … Mike Orr noticed a bunch of interesting South Carolina high school football quirks over the weekend: (1) Chester High uses some really big-ass rear helmet numbers. (2) One of the Chester players has a helmet number that doesn’t match his jersey. (3) Lugoff-Elgin uses the biggest TV numbers I’ve ever seen. (4) The Lugoff-Elgin QB is apparently a Sean Taylor fan. … Victory Pennants prexy Morris Levin just scored this excellent postcard showing the Phillies’ uniform history (here’s the other side). Interestingly, the player images on the front of card are also used on the Phils’ web site. … If Curt Schilling’s gonna insist on wearing a Cool Base jersey, could he at least stop saluting the crowd, so we wouldn’t have to look at that stupid underarm mesh insert? … Good article here on the NFL’s latest uniform cop. … Dave Madison says Kevin Youkilis had the Majestic wordmark — instead of just the Majestic logo — on the left sleeve of his road jersey during Games 4 and 5 of the ALCS, suggesting that he might have been wearing a replica jersey. I don’t see any wordmark here, here, here, or here, but it does look like he might have had a wordmark under the logo here. I’m trying to get that photo enlarged so we can get a better look. … I reported lat week that Wisconsin would be wearing this throwback outfit on December 3rd, but the auction for the unis is already underway (with thanks to Nicole Haase). … Mark Coale reports that the Hershey Bears wore 70th-anniversary sweaters on Saturday. A nice idea, except the crest looked like a glorified sleeve patch. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Adalius Thomas has been wearing one red glove and one blue. Additional views here and here. … I don’t care how many field goals you kick — this is still a really bad look. … The Devil Rays’ uni-unveiling event is gonna be a real, um, barn-burner (as noted by Morris Levin). … Dave Eskenazi, who’s contributed many Pacific northwestern baseball pics in the past, has now provided some gorgeous old hockey photos from that same region, as seen in these shots of the Portland Rosebuds, Seattle Metropolitans, Victoria Aristocrats, and Vancouver Millionaires. That’s Lester Patrick — “Yes, that Lester Patrick,” as Eskinazi puts it — here. … The Saskatchewan Roughriders wore throwbacks yesterday (with thanks to Garry Sum). … Two weeks ago I reported that the Wisconsin women’s hockey team was using this design. What I hadn’t noticed in that photo — but what Andy Seeger has now pointed out — is that the “C” and “A” designations are stacked under the uni numbers, which looks awful-and-a-half. … Matthew Lepke notes that Bryce Salvador is wearing Blues-branded boot protectors. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The Broncos’ socks are supposed to have just a thin band of orange between the navy and white areas, but Brandon Marshall apparently wore navy leggings and white sanitaries with orange tape in between (additional pics here, here, and here, and the tape he uses is probably something like this). … And we conclude with a nice little video report on USC’s equipment staff (as provided by Ryan Whitacre):
As you know, I’ve been trying to compile a list of teams with unique messages printed on their nose bumpers. That project is still ongoing (contributions still welcome), but along the way it’s yielded an interesting anomaly, thanks to the research efforts of reader Daniel Weimann.
Weimann was looking through photos of Division III teams (a smart move, since I suspect the best nose bumper material will be lurking amidst the D2, D3, and high school ranks) when he came upon Saint John’s, a D3 school in Minnesota. There’s nothing particularly unusual about the school’s nose bumper — it just reads, “Saint John’s.” The unusual thing is right above the bumper, where each player is wearing his name.
I’ve never seen anything like this, unless you count the tape stripes that many NFL teams use during training camp. It looks reaaaaaallly Mickey Mouse, especially on the Johnnies’ white road uni, where the combination of the name decal and the solid-white uni creates the unmistakable impression of a Wednesday-afternoon practice session. The luckiest guy on the team is clearly the fella in the middle of this photo, because his name is short enough to be relatively inconspicuous (especially compared to his lengthily surnamed teammate in the foreground).
Even more curiously, Saint John’s doesn’t use player names on its jerseys, either at home or on the road. So the helmet decals are the players’ only name-based identification. Do they use first initials for same-surnamed players? Have they ever had to use compressed typography for really long names? And it must be discouraging to see your family name get all scuffed and scratched and nicked, no? And most importantly, if you insist on putting names on the helmet, why not put them on the back? If anyone knows the story behind this, please fill us in.
If you want to see more pics, there’s a good collection of photo galleries here. Meanwhile, as an aside, we can add the Saint John’s logo to our list of creative uses of negative space.
Update: Shortly after today’s entry went up, Vince reminded me that Jeannette High School in Pennsylvania also puts player names on the front of the helmet, although they use smaller script lettering, as seen here, here, and here.
Intern Alert: In case you missed it yesterday, I’m in the market for a new intern. For details, scroll down to the “Help Wanted” section of yesterday’s post.
Uni Watch News Ticker:Page 2 has a big “Innovations” package running today, and I contributed a piece about bullpen car(t)s (not sure what time it’s being posted — certainly by early afternoon, maybe much sooner). My thanks to all of you who contributed info on this topic over the past week. … Notre Dame will wear green throwback jerseys and gold pants this Saturday, in honor of the 1977 championship team. The effect will presumably be something like this. … Nebraska is abandoning its ritual of having defensive starters wear black shirts during practice. Details here. … Excellent story here on the history of football helmet industry — highly recommended (with thanks to Richard Craig). … More good volleyball socks here (with thanks to Eric Martin). … According to an item on this page, Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard had two more jerseys tear on him Sunday night (with thanks to Jeff Barak). … I know some of you think I go on a bit much about logo creep, but come on (thanks, Vince). … Someone whose name I’ve misplaced (sorry about that) sent me this baseball card, which shows quite a gap between the number and the nameplate. … When the Rockies wear their black vests in the World Series (which will probably be every game, since neither the Indians nor the Red Sox have a black jersey), they’ll apparently wear the WS logo patch on their chests, not on their undershirt sleeves. … I might make an exception to my purple rule for the Cornell Rams of Cornell College, Iowa (with thanks to Noel Blaha). … We all know the Browns wear an “AL” memorial patch for Al Lerner. But David VanSlyke has noticed a detail I’ve never been aware of: “For game-issued jerseys from 2006 (not sure about other seasons), the ‘AL’ has an ever-so subtle script ‘E,’ which I believe stands for Edward — as in Alfred Edward Lerner.” … NSFW alert: I’ll be attending a sports-themed burlesque show on Friday night. Looks like they’ll be making some creative uses of uniforms. … Major find here: I’d occasionally heard that Deacon Jones had worn just his first name on his jersey while playing for the Chargers, but I’d never seen visual evidence of it — until now (big kudos to Gyula Nemeth). … Central and South American teams often use ads instead of nameplates. But Jean Oliva reports that the Cibao Giants of the Dominican Winter League have taken a different approach: They’re using ads instead of uni numbers. Numbers appear only on the front of the jersey (sorry, no photo of that).
The Patriots are setting all sorts of offensive records this season, but they may also be leading the league in unusual regulatory sanctions. First there was the video-spying incident. And now comes the news that two of the Pats — including Tom Brady — have been fined for not buckling their chinstraps.
Players have been going partially unsnapped for years now, of course (for further details on this and other aspects of chinstrap protocol, look here), a problem that the league has apparently made a concerted effort to eradicate this season. League officials say the issue is safety, not style, but I kinda think that’s just a smokescreen. After all, a few players still wear the old two-point strap, so wouldn’t this still offer more protection than the two-pointer? Methinks to NFL brain trust just doesn’t like seeing those straps flapping around out there.
The league is supposedly issuing chinstrap warnings before levying penalties, which means anyone fined for this infraction is a de facto serial offender. That’s hard to believe in Brady’s case, at least based on the photographic record. Do a Google image search on him and about 90% of the pics that come up show him fully buckled, with only the occasional exception. Sudden thought: Most of the players going unsnapped these days are black (including Ty Warren, the other Patriot who’s been fined). Could the league have singled out Brady simply to avoid charges of racism? Hmmmmm.
Speaking of Warren, he was fined for going unsnapped in the Pats’ game against the Bills on September 23rd. Must not have made a particularly big impression on him, because he was unsnapped again this past Sunday.
For more info on these and other uni infractions, visit our friends at UniformViolation.com.
Intern Position Available: I’m pretty much a self-sufficient guy. I work for myself, and by myself, at home. Delegating has never been my strong suit. When something needs to be done, I’d usually rather do it myself than explain the task to someone else.
About a year ago, however, I was lucky enough to encounter someone who helped bring me out of my shell — someone who showed me that I don’t always have to do everything myself, that it’s okay to trust others, and that I don’t need to maintain complete autonomy over every little thing. For the first time in ages, I allowed myself to surrender a bit of control. I don’t mind admitting that I was a bit nervous about it at first, but in the end it turned out to be an eye-opening experience.
And that’s how I started dating Jenny Strasburg. Lovely gal, but it didn’t work out. Too bad.
Oh, and around that same time I hired Vince Grzegorek to be the first Uni Watch intern. Pretty good hire, right? But after nearly a year of making my life easier and making Uni Watch a much better project than it would otherwise have been, he’s now getting ready to move onward and upward in the media world. So I’m gonna need a new assistant, starting roughly at the end of November.
Here’s the deal: I’m looking for someone who’s passionate about sports in general and uniforms in particular (duh), with a really good eye for detail (double-duh) and an affinity for historical minutiae. A big part of the job involves research, so please be adept at creative googling, willing to go to the library, and unafraid to pick up the phone and call a team’s media relations office. The right person will also be a good writer who wants to become even better, will have some interest (and maybe proficiency) in graphic design, and will be willing to commit substantial time and energy in return for no pay and meager non-cash benefits (how’s that for a great deal?). Ideally, this person will also have a bunch of wonderful qualities that I didn’t even realize I was looking for. Helpful but not essential: HTML literacy, Mac fluency, NYC-area residency.
Also: If you don’t have good writing or research skills but live in NYC and still want to help out, I’d be willing to sign someone on to assist with other tasks, like processing membership orders and basic site maintenance. I promise you’ll never have to make me coffee, primarily because I don’t drink coffee. I make no promises about asking you to run out for a 12-pack of Diet Coke, however.
Interested? Then e-mail me with a short explanation of why you’re the right person for the job. Please note that I don’t want to see your résumé, I don’t care how big your jersey collection is, and it makes no difference to me whether you’ve been reading Uni Watch since 1999 or just discovered it last week. I simply want to hear you tell me why you’re the right choice to be my right-hand man (or woman, as the case might be).
Finally, if you want to learn more about the job from the guy who currently holds it, feel free to e-mail Vince with any questions. He’ll be happy to give you the inside scoop, and he’ll keep your discussions confidential if you don’t want me to know about them.
Uni Watch News Ticker: USC’s John David Booty is trying to protect his broken middle finger with a glove. … While looking for a FNOB photo of Brent Sutter, Chesky Bevo came across this. What’s that symbol above the uni numbers? … Captaincy note from Giants equipment director Joe Skiba: “The NFL sent us blue [captain’s] patches for home and road jerseys, and some red ones for the red jerseys. But I called the league and got permission to use the red patches for the away uniforms. Are we the only team with two different-colored patches?” Not sure — anyone..? … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Daniel Sedin was showing some garter the other night. … Also from yesterday: As if NHL players haven’t been complaining enough about too much moisture ending up in their gloves and skates, there’s now talk of them using heated skate blades. No, really! And Wayne Gretzky’s a big fan. … Thank god we’re more than halfway through the month of October, which means all pink uniforms will soon be behind us. For now, though, Sharks goalie prospect Thomas Greiss is wearing a pink mask. Details about two-thirds of the way down this page (with thanks to Paul Locatelli). … Loads of NHL patches for sale here. … Longtime Uni Watch pal Kevin Walsh is showcasing some awesome terra cotta uniforms on about two-thirds of the way down this page on his awesome site, Forgotten NY. … Nick Maibroda reports that NASCAR driver Patrick Carpentier was given a Canadiens jersey with NASCAR-style numbering the other day. … You think maybe Indians pitcher Jenson Lewis’s parents have a lot of furniture from these guys? … Oregon has been practicing in white helmets this week, and the white lids (which appear to have green nose bumpers) may finally make their long-threatened game debut this weekend. Details here (with thanks to Dan Coleman). … Paul Locatelli notes that Joe Thornton’s helmet appears to have a old-style downward-sloping NHL logo, not the new version. … This year’s World Series cap patch will look like this. … Lots of great White Sox uni footage, from many different eras, in the second half of this video. … Bizarre and disturbing photo here (as spotted by Eric Distenfeld).
