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Posts filed under 'Headwear'
By Phil Hecken
Well, MLB has finally begun the League Championship Series, so as the second season begins to build towards the matchup FOX would kill for a possible Yankees-Dodgers World Series (and a uni classic of epic proportions), lets take another look at what you, the readers, have dreamed up to fix your favorite teams. We tweaked the White Sox, the Brewers and the Blue Jays, plus a whole bunch of others — so let’s empty the baseball tank today and see who else needs fixin’.
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First up is Hungry Hungry Hipster, who has an unique take on the Bronx Bombers. Here’s HHH:
Hi Phil!
Attached is my Yankees jersey “uni tweak.” Since the Yankees are so traditional and probably wouldn’t want a major redesign of their classic uniforms, I decided to give them a subtle update. I was inspired by the treatment the NFL ref jersey stripes got in their update several years ago. I widened the pinstripes at the top of the jersey, and they mirror the flared ends (serifs?) of the Yankee logo. :)
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Next up is Matthew Mark Sajna, who has some ideas for the Indians. Here’s Matt:
Here is my idea of how to improve the Uniforms of the Indians. The first set include the home and away jerseys. These are fauxback uniform combinations, and they feature my idea for a new logo the team could intorduce as a sort of compromise for the protestors against the iconic Chief Wahoo. The second set features alternate unis for both home and away games. I brought back the red jersey as a harken back to the 70’s. Hope you like them. Thanks.
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Our next submission comes to us from Jordan Fleck, who has some thoughts on the Houston Astros. Here’s Jordan (who apparently likes all capital letters):
SINCE EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE IN THE MODDE TO REINVIGORATE THEIR CURRENT TEAMS DESIGN, I THOUGHT THAT IT’D BE A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE THE ASTROS FAITHFULL A MAKEOVER. THE FIRST IS MY ATTEMPT AT USING THE CURRENT COLORS WITH A NEW SCRIPT FONT ON THE JERSEY AND A TWO TONE CAP. THE BLACK ALTERNATE WOULD BE USED FOR BATTING PRACTICE AND I DECIDED TO CREATE A BIT OF A FAUX-BACK FOR A COLT .45S JERSEY TO BE WORN ON SUNDAY GAMES.
IN THE SECOND ATTEMPT, I WENT BACK TO THE MIDNIGHT BLUE AND SUNSET ORANGE COLOR SCHEME WITH THE NEW SCRIPT FONT AND AN ORANGE AND BLUE ALTERNATE. I LIKE THE ORANGE AND BLUE TONES BUT THEY DON’T LOOK GOOD IN GREY.
Jordan also included this cool Chinese motif with his submission — not sure if that’s supposed to go with the Astros mocks, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
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Moving along, we have Doug Peltz, who has graced his with his concepts for the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s. Here’s Doug:
I saw your column today about making changes to MLB jerseys. I have a couple that I came up with a while ago and though I’d pass them along. I have a away alternate and an Oakland A’s home alternate. I’ve also included a new Tiger’s logo which is a combination of the old 80’s logo and the more recent Tiger crawling through the Olde English D logo. Hope you like them.
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Our next submission comes from Matt McCutchan, who tweaked the Marlins. Here’s Matt:
Going for a more classic look and most importantly away from the black. If the mgmt wants to get away from the “90s teal,” I thought a UNC blue with navy highlights and just a touch of orange, the way, say, the STL Cardinals have a touch of yellow, would look nice..along with the navy piping..i hope you dig it.
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Another Mets concept — a tweak on a previous concept — comes to us from Adam Wood. Here’s Adam:
Let me just start by saying that I’m a little pumped that I’m sending my first uniform design to you. Whether or not anyone gets to see it doesn’t concern me too much. Alex Rocklein made an excellent design for the Mets. However, there are a few things that I thought would be better. You will notice in the attached picture all my proposed revisions.
1) Replaced that orange button on the hats with a much more subtle blue one.
2) Got rid of the funky orange drop shadows and just gave the blue numbers an orange outline.
3) Added a number to the front of the home jersey as well as enlarged the one on the front of the roadies.
4) Took Alex’s idea for the road’s arm bands and applied the blue-orange-blue pattern to the whites.
5) On the home uniforms only, I removed the mets logo and replaced it with a Mr. Met patch.
If you want to get really detailed
6) I took the traditional “Mr. Met at bat” patch and cleaned it up by making all the cream colors to white, and changing the blue hat with an orange brim to all blue in order to better match the team.
Thanks for taking the time to check my ideas out.
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Although our next submitter, Andrew Dixon missed the article containing all the Blue Jays tweaks, he sent the following along for your consideration. Here’s Andrew:
Hi Phil,
I am sending along a Blue Jays concept I came up with about six months ago. At the time, I didn’t have an email address for you, but I sent it along to Paul and asked him to forward it to you. I don’t know if that never happened or whether it did and it was so long ago it was forgotten, but I’d love to share my concept with UniWatch readers! I know I missed the day dedicated to Blue Jays posts, but hopefully you can work it in when you present the other re-design concepts!
I drew up home, away, home alternate, and road alternate concepts. I must admit I have an inexplicable affinity for the whole sans serif/no capitalization “mod” look in fonts which has recently become popular again (think the Pepsi font). The funny thing is, I always thought I hated this style – especially the trend toward not capitalizing things that ought to be capitalized – and I think part of me still does, and yet I also must admit to being weirdly drawn to it. I know it is very reminiscent of that old Padres font from 1978-1984, but what can I say? I like it, even as I know it has that kind of dated look (but that sort of font is very in right now – again, Pepsi, photobucket, etc.).
The other idea I had was to alternate shades of blue in the lettering: Blue Jays, after all, exhibit more than one shade of blue in their feathers, so, between the lettering and the use of powder blue for the road alternate, I’ve employed three shades of blue in this design.
One final note: had I had the expertise, I would have tried to mimic the original Blue Jays font by having a white line pass through the middle of all the letters in the word “blue jays,” just like it does/did in their original wordmark. However, I couldn’t get that to work in MS Paint, which is what I used, without making it look bad/unprofessional, so I gave up. If someone can do that to this design, I’d love to see what it looks like.
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Winding down, our next submitter is Dwayne White, who has some Cincinnati Reds concepts. Here’s Dwayne:
Phil:
I love the articles about the MLB uniform updates.
I decided to tackle the Cincinnati Reds. I am not much of a fan of the “faux old-timer” look that the Reds are currently sporting. I grew up following the Reds in the late-’60’s and ’70’s of The Big Red Machine era. I always loved their traditional look, but the pullovers went on to long.
On the jerseys, I “ditched the black” drop shadows and went with the MLB Block font that the Reds used from the 1960’s until 2007. I felt it was a more traditional look with an updated style. I am not a fan of the current font that the Reds are currently using. The guys at The Clink Room did a good job, but it is not my cup of tea.
The road jersey is a button-down version of The Big Red Machine uniform. The home alternate jersey is a cream-colored vest look from the mid-’60’s. I like the cream colored jersey of the Giants and I went with that look for the vests. In my opinion, not every team can wear vests. Much like every team can’t wear pinstripes like the Yankees do. The Reds and Pirates vests have a deep tradition and I thought I’d incorporate that look. I also included a pinstriped cap to go with the vests, but a red cap can also be worn.
The home jersey is a crisp, bright snow white color with the contrast of red. The Sunday alternate jersey is my favorite. The bright red with the contrast of white, devoid of any black or drop shadows, is an upgrade without too many bumperstickers. Plus, it can be worn with the white, gray or the pinstriped pants.
I also went with the 4 inch player names on the back instead of the traditional 3 inch letters. That also harkens back to the mid-’60’s up until 2007. I like the name under the numbers, but not in an arch like the Reds have used, but no trim was used.
I hope you enjoy my concepts.
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Our next submission also comes from a reader, Christopher Parke, who missed the Blue Jays fixin. But that’s OK, he’s got a uni concept anyway. Here’s Chris:
Your recent blog post about revamping the blue jays awful uniforms got me in a creative mood. I used the ideas and designs of the contributors in your post (including yours)and some of my own ideas. The MS Paint file is attached. What do you think?
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The penultimate tweak comes from Geoffrey Waterman, who has conceptualized the Seattle Mariners. Here’s Geoffrey:
Hi!
I don’t really think the Seattle Mariners need to much to change their uniforms, but with the Sonics gone and a new soccer team that incorporates very similar colors that the Mariners use, plus the Seahawks, I thought they could use some color change.
I decided to go with a combination of the M-trident logo from the olden days and colors similar to then as well as from the baseball-M’s logo era. I chose to use a different font (partly because the one they use now is difficult to find) because I wanted to find something that reflected the metropolitan aspect of Seattle while not being hoity-toity. And for the numbers I wanted to use something similar to the ones used in their current alternate, a little more curvy and visually appealing.
With the home uniform I didn’t want to add much except for the change in font, number and color scheme (enough damage already), so I kept the blue piping, blue belt and the blue hat on white, with a similar arch to the team name and player name. I liked the non-capital “seattle” of the powder-blue Pilots unis, so I took that idea but with the “Mariners” for home, keeping the capital M to match the capital S on the hat. I also introduced a side stripe for the pants (followed down into the stirrups) and the sleeve stripes that made the Pilots uniforms so sexy.
With the away uniform, the changes were much the same as with the home, including the pants stripes, but I kept a straight blue stirrup for simplicity’s sake. It is the away uni, after all.
The alternate uniform is a few ideas mixed together. it has the sleeve and pants stripes from the home uniform, with stirrup stripes that match the sleeves. I did the jersey in the blue but with yellow sleeves (not a vest!), and did just the trident logo and a number on the front—it is supposed to be a home alternate.
Thanks! Hopefully someone else did some Mariners mock-ups to compare. Like I said, though, not that they need it.
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Next up is Ben Traxel, one of our Sartell Sabres “Design A Cap” contest participants. Ben has seemingly way too much time on his hands, as I think he’s tweaked every MLB team (or is on his way to so doing). However, they’re really outstanding efforts, and you’ll wanna check each one out. So, take a deep breath, and enjoy the creativity that is Ben:
Phil,
As you can see, I’ve been working waaaay too long on this and not enough at my job lately. Part of the sickness I guess. At least I’ve been having fun along the way! I’ve got some more started but these are the ones I have finished. I really liked the Brewers changes the other day and wanted to tweak my tweaks after seeing the awsome designs posted, but alas, I left them alone. I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with Frosty and RPM in the process too. Well, here’s an explaination of each of the ones I’ve gotten to so far (I will do them all but it might take till next season!).
Process: I generally tried to look at the past of each team (that has a past) and use what is already available instead of completely redoing scripts, logos, colors, etc. In some cases I’ve gone all the way though. I prefer the city letter on the hat, mascot on the homies, and city on the roadies. I started doing this before all the tweaking began on the blog, with my versions of 70s alt unis. This was inspired by the Royals powder blues this year. Had to do sansabelts to make it “complete” but I suppose they could be used with belts as well. After you started posting the White Sox, I took it to another level and began adding the dailies to go with my alts. I never really liked having alts but now I’ve kind of changed my tune and am okay with one worn occasionally. Stirrups with stripes are a must. I am tired of boring grays and boilerplate designs that seem to be the same on each team so I tried to make something unique for the whites and grays for everybody. I am not afraid of bright colors as you will see…….here goes.
Brewers: home … road … alt. Current design looks to be off the shelf by people who have no sense of history or passion for baseball. Definately needs a redsign. Put the old M back on the hat. Go with colors from the originals. I recycled the BREWERS which could be this design or the block font. Either one works, but I chose this one. Could do without the lower case e, but none the less, looks okay. Barrel man needs a comeback so I put him on the state map for the sleeve. Added the hops to get something from the current set. Colored sanis need to make a comeback here also.
White Sox: home … road … alt. I put the alt together before you even had your White Sox tweak post. I always dug the collars from the late 70s so I had to include them. This is the only team that doesn’t have stirrups but the stripes certainly add to the overall getup. I created a new hat logo with a C that I think turned out pretty good. Never liked the big S and smallish O and X on the current logo so I combined them to make it work better for the alt. I know the three concepts don’t match each other but since they are never worn together I never thought that really mattered.
Cubs: home … road … alt. Obviously the pinstripes didn’t need much help as they have become a classic even though they really didn’t come around until later in the franchise existance. I just modified the logo a little, going back to an older version. The bear sleeve patch was always cool and needs to be a fixture. The roads is where the Cubs always seem to have had touble as they tend to change quite regularly. I went with a powder blue that is not quite as electric as some and it looks to work quite well. The horsecollar and red CHICAGO made the whole design come together. I tried some combos of blue lettering/numbering but the red by far stood out. I hope they never bring back the red cap bill. I know a lot of people don’t like pins on dark jerseys but the white ones from the 70s look mighty fine with the white pants in my opinion on the alts. Added the powder sanis to make it complete.
Pirates: home … road … alt. This is one team that vests work on. Either a team is a vest team or they are not. Hint Rockies? Not much to tweak here, but add the colored sanis and make all letters in PIRATES the same size. The Roadies are one of my favorites. The horsecollar being contrasted with the gray really came to life with the double yellow stripe. Hasn’t been done in decades and I fell in love once I started messing with it. The yellow alt with the red trim is of course taken from the late 70s. Kind of fun and should be a big seller for the fans….IMO don’cha know.
Rays: home … road … alt. Here is one team with no history to go off of. To me this means no horsecollar which has ties to the ancient past. Being in Florida, they definately need to brighten their look and do away with their drab getup they have. The sunburst is cool, stick with that. Kept the Devil Ray logo on the sleeve as well. The colors though are brighter, happier, beachier, Floridaier. Created a “watertable” on the whites and made their version of power blue more acqua for obvious reasons. They definately need to have more fun. Maybe they were a little gunshy during their latest overhaul after that first disaster!
Orioles: home … road … alt. Like the Pirates, not much to tweak here. My biggest beef is that damn bird they keep sticking on the hat. It didn’t work before, it didn’t work when it was a cartoon, and it doesn’t work now. Nothing more wimpy than that birdmark. So. In the beginning they had a B on the hat. There is still nothing more classic than a basic letter as the hat logo. Stick the old block B back up there an don’t worry about the Red Sox claiming it is a copied B idea from them. It was their once, do it again. The cartoon duck thing, older style that looks much classier, works well on the sleeve. Other than that, These guys are good, keeping the city name on the grays of course.
Padres: home … road … alt. Similar to the Rays, this team needs color. They had it once and I think they need it again. I always liked the brown/yellow scheme but it does lead to a bid of a toilet bowl conotation so I stayed away. Electric powder is the way to go for these guys. The alts obviously play off the past and I chose the best remaining wordmarks for the dailies. The sleeve patch is also a classic and should be kept but the hat has always had issues. They never seem to be satisfied with the interlocking SD, how it should be connected, the exact font, etc. I created a new hat logo with the setting sun SD. This is another beachy team and colors need to be used to make this statement.
One more thing, I created my own template in Autocad where I do all my work. It is what I know best so I just stay with that. Well, there you have it. For now. I will be doing more, and will get them to you when I get another good batch. We might not be in baseball season at that time, but oh well. Always enjoy your weekenders.
Wow, Ben, those were awesome. But wait … He isn’t done yet — Ben also sent me mock ups (without descriptions) for the following — and I’m sure if he’s reading this post, he’ll tell us all about the following in the comments:
Oakland A’s: home … road … alt.
Arizona Diamondbacks: home … road … alt.
Florida Marlins: home … road … alt.
Texas Rangers: home … road … alt.
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Whew…that’s some work by the avid (or is it rabid?) UW readership. Great stuff one and all. I apologize for the length of this post, but I had so many great uni tweaks I wanted to put them all into one post — didn’t realize it was gonna be this long, but hey — more for you to enjoy. Thanks to all the submitters. Let them know how you feel about their tweaks!
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 Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, is back from the boonies for his “NC2A matchups”. He is gonna have a tough time with his uni matchups today — there are some outstanding potential ones, and a possible bunch of clunkers. Now, I don’t always agree with his choices, but he’s pretty discerning in his picks. How bout some nominees from you guys today? Scan the wires, check out the obscure games, find the doozies. You don’t want him to put USC/ND or The Red River Rivalry in the one spot, right? Post picks of your top (best and worst) games for his consideration down below. Thanks!
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Aight…as the season winds down, we’re gonna get a little tricky with this scoreboard. Not all that tricky, but it might give you pause. Teams are pretty obvious, but that’s where the ease ends. Or maybe not. You guys are too good at this game to be stumped, especially with this one. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. As always, and if possible, please do NOT post the date of the game but link to Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet and post a link to the answer. If that’s not possible, but I believe it is, link to a newspaper story or something similar which details the game. OK? OK. Ready. Guess The Game.
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 ATTENTION UNI TRACKERS — If you’re on of those insane lunatics, like me, who has kept track of your teams’ uniform combinations for all 162 (or, if you track the Twins, all 163) games this season, think about gathering all of your data, plus a final writeup, for your tracking. I may post my Mets tracking tomorrow, depending upon the size of the post. I’m hoping to gather everyone’s tracking and (if Paul gives me the OK), possibly place them into one big file for inclusion in the archives. When you have your stuff ready, send them to me with the subject line “UNI TRACKING – (your team)”. If you made it this far, I thank you for all your efforts. You don’t need to be terribly brief in your write-up, but please don’t compose a novel either. Make sure you list any particular trends or unique factors. I can tell you this: The Mets sucked this year, but not surprisingly, they had better records in certain combinations — now, had they worn those combinations more or less often, would their record have been any different? Who is to say. All I know is, when all was said and done, the Mets wore TWELVE different combinations this season, sporting (shockingly) winning records in six of them. Stay tuned (if you care) for the full writeup.
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 Ah…don’t ya hate it when those young whippersnappers think they’re faster and smarter and better lookin’ than you are? Pretty sure Mick does. Unfortunately, he’s wrong. But does this mean that Mick is only half-fast? Enjoy your Saturday Benchies. And remember, any resemblance between Mick and Rick is, well, purely coincidental.
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This and That: Did we ever get a linkie to the new UNLV basketball unis? I don’t remember. Forgive me if we did … I know this was posted (at least in the comments), but worth another look-see: SI takes a look at the AFL legacy unis … Speaking of AFL throwbacks, the Patriots and Titans Oilers will be wearing them this Sunday … Big game at Big Bend today, when the Irish meet the Trojans, and will the Irish break out the green like they did before the ‘77 matchup? … This is a few days old, but the Huff Post has a nice breakdown of Broncos Unis through the years … In one of those moments where “you remember exactly where you were,” it was 20 years ago today (don’t you feel old now?) … It’s gotta be the unis, right? Nope. Both football teams from Mizzou are winless in 2009, despite both wearing throwbacks last weekend … Fresh on the heels of Paul’s post yesterday on the Winter Olympics melted records medals, the London Olympics of 2012 has unveiled it’s logos — yawn … Wanna own one of them game-used, unwashed Bronco uniforms from last weekend’s Legacy game? Here’s your chance … If you’re not a baseball fan, or don’t live in the northeast, or reside in my condo (which has no heat, thank you very little), you might not know it was cold at Yankee Stadium last night — like really cold — Lots of Fudd’s and hoodies on the participants … “Bullpen? What Bullpen?” … For every king, a crown … Apparently the porthole was closed, but the velcro wasn’t … Looks like the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium will be a little shorter now, but let’s hope the Steinbrenner’s don’t hire this guy to replace this guy … Rafa, dude, what’s up with the shorts? Did they belong to A-Rod’s outfit? … Does this remind anyone of this? … And finally, what happens when you go to an adidas school, but you’d rather wear Jordans? Well, if you’re Marcus Jordan, what do you think? (thanks to James Huening for the tip.)
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Alrighty then, that’s a wrap for this fine Saturday. Enjoy the football, because it looks like mother nature may deprive you of baseball. Oh, right, I guess there’s hockey and some other stuff too. Unitrackers, start your engines, and lets see some of them gridiron matchups you hope Jim will pick as his top 5 (or worst). Have a great Saturday
October 17th, 2009
Whole bunch of stuff today, including NFL news, new Benchies & two “Guess The Game” quizzes, uniform news and more below. Make sure you check out the whole post (if you feel like skipping the unitracking bit). The non-tracking stuff starts with the bold “FOOTBALL IS BACK” section.
By Phil Hecken
We’re back with round two, day two today (if you didn’t see yesterday, look here). A few late stragglers who nevertheless got their tracking in under the deadline bumped up the two-day total. That’s good (but there’s a lot in this section). So, lets get it started:
 We start today off with Billy DePriest, who tracks the Orioles:
It’s hard to draw any conclusions with the O’s uniform choices, since they are a pretty bad team overall. But here are the stats as of 8/2:
At home, they are 25-21 (.543) wearing their standard white uniforms which is by far their best uniform, record wise. They are 3-5 (.375) wearing the black alternate jersey, which is worn every Friday.
As you know, the O’s are wearing “Baltimore” on their standard away jersey this year, which has become their “worst” jersey. They are an awful 13-29 (.310) in standard grays, and an identical 3-5 (.375) wearing the black alternate jersey on the road on Fridays.
Interestingly, on July 17th (a Friday), the O’s wore gray at Chicago because the Sox were wearing their black alternates. No surprise, the O’s lost.
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 Our next tracker is Patrick Campbell, who keeps tabs on the Braves:
Phil,
I’ve attached a screen shot of my spreadsheet for the Atlanta Braves. Through July 31, the Braves record is:
Overall: 52-51
Home White: 22-23
Sunday Home Red: 5-1
Road Blue: 19-18
Road Gray: 6-8
Negro League Throwbacks: 0-1
The Negro League throwbacks could be classified as road grays, however, I decided to give them a separate classification. The Braves continue to favor the blue jerseys on the road. The grays were used exclusively in Milwaukee, even when the Brewers chose to wear their white jerseys on Sunday. The grays will probably see some use in San Diego, where the Padres sometimes wear blue.
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 Next up is George Lesko, another of our Pirates trackers:
I didn’t submit the first time but here is mine for the Buccos.
Trends
1. Great in the home whites. W-L records suggests that we should stray from the black (Friday) or pinstripes (Sunday). At least they aren’t red.
2. Horrible on the road. Period.
3. Undefeated in the 1909 throwbacks and the Negro League Homestead Grays throwbacks
4. Broke out W-L record for each uniform by starting pitcher.
5. Games in yellow are ones I’ve attended this year (4-2) … 5 home whites and 1 pinstripes
George sent along the following screen caps which can be used in conjunction with his points above: Cap I, Cap II, Cap III, and Cap IV
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 Moving on, we have Timothy Killeen who is a Phillies tracker:
The Phils seem to play better in their away grays according to their record, but it can be deceiving as they’ve certainly turned it around from their dismal home white/cream winning percentage when last I checked in. While there may not be any clear cut uni-related anomalies in overall win/loss record, there do seem to be some uni-trends with starting pitchers. For one, Phils fans would probably love to make sure that Cole Hamels never wears the day-game cream uniform for the rest of the season. He’s currently 0-3 in 4 starts with that uniform. We’d prefer instead that he only pitch during home night games, as he’s 4-0 in white. On the other hand, should Bretty Myers return to the rotation from injury, we’d like to see he and Jamie Moyer only pitch in away games as they are a combined 10-2 in 15 starts while wearing the grey.
Here’s a screen shot of my work as of August 1st
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 Next up is Andrew Greenwood “Greenie” who is a Brewers tracker:
Phil,
Don’t have much right now for insight into what and why (getting ready to move), but I’ve got the general idea for you. All totals through Sat. July 25th. Spent some time last night recreating the Milwaukee Bears unis they wore yesterday. I think I got it pretty close.
You sure did, Greenie. Here’s a screenshot of the pitchers’ totals, and the record by uniform.
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 Next up is Justine DeCotis, who is a Red Sox tracker:
This year, the Red Sox have worn a ridiculous 12 uni combos. They play the best in the classic home uni with a .700 winning percentage. They have never lost in the alternate navy road uni with the Sox cap and red socks, but have only worn it three times. The weirdest combo so far was on May 30th, they wore the road grays with the hanging Sox cap. That hideous cap is usually only paired with the red and navy alternate jerseys. Maybe the choice of Brad Penny, who started that game.
Justine has broken her tracking down into home games and away games, and two great graphics detailing the caps and socks as well as the jersey and cap combinations, and the winning percentages associated with all.
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 Moving along, our next tracker is U2Horn, who has been keeping tabs on the Rangers:
The Rangers have been wearing their white jerseys at home more recently, possibly because it’s so damned hot in Arlington in July. Even with 7:05pm starts, game time temperatures are often in triple digits. Kevin Millwood continues to prefer the home whites and road grays, while Vicente Padilla seems to prefer the Blue jersey both at home and on the road. In fact, the Rangers haven’t worn the gray jerseys for any game not started by Millwood since May 19.
So, for the uni combos they’ve worn more than a couple of times, their best combo is the traditional home whites (they’ve now won 7 in a row in them), while the worst combo is the traditional road grays.
And U2 has of course, provided the Uniform Chart and the screenshot of his spreadsheet for our reference.
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 Our next tracker is Gregg Girard, who like me, is a Mets tracker:
Phil. Here you go.
Like Phil, I’m uni-tracking the Mets. (Your sympathy is welcome.)
Well, I made one bold prediction back in May: Santana will never wear black. Unfortunately for Johann and me, I was wrong. In the three Santana in black starts (all on the road), he went 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA.
As I said in May, I am searching for patterns, both in terms of victories and behind actual uniform selection. A losing record tends to negate the former, but I was able to dig out a few notables: the Mets home winning percentage is .528 overall, but it rises to .636 and .625 when they wear snow white/blue and black, respectively. Wearing their classic pinstripe/blue combination, they are a dreadful 1-4. As Phil noted in May, that combo seemed to be the regular Sunday uniform, but after wearing them for three straight Sunday losses, they haven’t worn them on Sunday since June 21. In fact, they didn’t wear pinstripes until July 31, when they put them on for a Friday night loss to the D-backs.
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 Continuing on, we have Dwayne White, one of our Marlins trackers:
Phil:
Here is my Marlins run-down up to August 1st.
There really is no rhyme or reason for the way that the Marlins use the black, alternate jersey. That is unless it is “Pitcher’s Choice”, which I did not track. It probably shouldn’t be called an alternate because they wear the black one on the road more than the grey jersey. They wore the black jersey 29 times as opposed to 22 times for the grey one on the road.
The only two times that the Marlins wore the black jerseys at home, they lost both night games. The first time the black jersey was worn this year, The Fish lost the game after 11 straight, season opening, victories.
Dwayne sends along six wonderful tracking sheets: Marlins Combos; a breakdown of the uniform winning percentages; and individual tracking for April, May, June, and July.
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 Next up is Shawn Tunick, who is yet another Braves tracker:
Hey i saw your pic for uni tracking thing was the braves, so i guess you already have one, but this is my superfluous edition, all i can add to last edition is that they have worn their gray on the road more than the blue (thank god) as the weather warms up.
There is nothing superfluous about multiple people tracking the same team. OK there is, but I still love it.
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 Next is Brandon Davis, an A’s tracker:
The A’s are 25-24 in the home whites and 19-19 when the starter gets a decision. The team is 1-4 in home blacks but 0-4 when the starter gets a decision. In other words, there’s no reason for a starter to ever pick the blacks again this season (although the sole win was the biggest comeback in team history). The team is awful on the road at 22-33 (11-22 when the starter ges a decision) but they’ve won both throwback games. The A’s are 2-6 when wearing a special ribbon, jersey, or cap (not including throwbacks) and the starter has always gotten the decision.
BLACK JERSEYS: The A’s are 1-4 in the black home alternate set and only four starters have donned them (the A’s will start their twelfth starter on Saturday, August 8 if you’re wondering). The team didn’t even notch a win in the blacks until July 20, AFTER the All-Star break. Has any other team waited that long to win in a set that is part of the regular uniform rotation?
HELMET DECALS: The A’s are 10-8 since switching helmet decals on their green and gold helmet on July 21 (having gone 37-48 before). Jason Giambi wore the logo before his was changed on June 30. He went on the disabled list on July 20 and the next day the A’s all had the new decal. He’s been released so ironically Giambi wore the new decal but never matched his teammates.
JERSEY NUMBERS: Four members of the A’s have changed their uni number in-season due to a number of switches: Nomar Garciaparra (5,1), Eric Patterson (4,5,12), Scott Hairston (21,12), and coach Mike Gallego (12,4). Not to mention returners who had different numbers last season: Kurt Suzuki (24,8), Rajai Davis (38/11), Cliff Pennington (56,26), Sean Gallagher (39,36), and bullpent catcher Casey Chavez (69,99).
Brandon includes two excellent tracking sheets: Oakland Pitchers’ Jerseys and a Regular Uniform Tracking sheet.
~ ~ ~
 We continue with Chris Mehler, self-described “Die Hard (literally) Cubs fan:”
Hey Phil,
Sorry I am just getting back to you…been a busy week! Well here it is:
As is well known, the starting pitchers of the Cubs pick that days jersey and The Cubs only wear white, gray and blue jersies with a solid blue cap. So, Carlos Zambrano ALWAYS wears the blue alt. (I wonder how his psyche was a couple years ago when the Cubs for just that year got rid of their blue alternates?) Rich Harden mostly wears the blue alt. Luckily, there is some uni-sense as Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly both only wear white at home and gray on the road. You can see some trends happening: both blue sets (home and road) are doing quite well. The best? white pinstripes and the worst? gray! So, they need to ban the gray jersey for the rest of the year.
Bringing us right up to date, Chris sends four screenshots of his tracking: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Jeff Barak, Twins tracker:
The Twins records in each jersey through the end of July are:
Home Whites 13-7
Blue Alternates 19-8 overall, 11-6 at home, 8-12 on the road
White Vest 4-2 (worn only twice since April 28)
Saturday Throwbacks (worn with red caps) 4-5
Road Gray 13-18
The Twins wore the 4 ALS patch on July 4th on their Saturday Throwbacks.
Sunday July 5th was “Armed Forces Day” and each player wore a cap with the name of a branch of the armed services. The caps varied in color, with some of them even being white.
They also wore the blue ribbon patch on Father’s Day with their blue alternates at home.
A note of interest was the Twins wore their blue alternates for six consecutive days on the road in July going W,L,L,W,L,L, so it’s not as if they were keeping a winning streak alive at the time. Five different pitchers started during the run of blue jerseys, with Scott Baker pitching the first and last games of the six.
My tracking method remains the same as before, the mighty pen and notepad.
~ ~ ~
 And squeaking in at the last moment is Alex “Insert Name Here” Poterack, who tracks the Brewers:
Sorry I’m getting this in so late; I hadn’t be able to do much uni-tracking lately ’cause I was moving, but I updated everything today, and here’s the latest:
I believe it was Nietzsche who said, “From chaos comes order”. The Brewers’ uniform usage, however, can only be described as “From order came chaos”. Where the Crew’s starting rotation all began the season with clearly defined uniform preferences, they have since departed from these, and each pitcher has worn each of the three main jerseys (home white, road gray, blue alternate) at least once. They do seem to be adopting some patterns, however: Yovani Gallardo seems to be wearing the whites at home and blue alts on the road; Suppan seems to be doing the opposite, wearing the alts at home and grays on the road; and Manny Parra has exclusively worn the blue alternates since coming up from the minors. Some news to report: the Brewers have since worn two new jerseys since my last uni report. Against the Giants on June 27th, they wore their “Cerveceros” jerseys. While these were whites in the past, and they also wore white ones for spring training, this year they wore blue Cerveceros jerseys. On July 25th, they wore Negro Leagues jerseys, which were cream colored with royal blue raglan sleeves. They are undefeated in these one-off jerseys, and their record in the other jerseys is as follows:
Home Whites: 17-14
Home White (Red Caps): 1-0
Blue Alternates: 17-23
Blue Alternates (Red Caps): 0-1
Road Grays: 13-11
Road Grays (Red Caps): 1-1
Retro Friday: 1-2
Blue Cerveceros: 1-0
Negro League Throwbacks: 1-0
And here is Alex’s updated tracking sheet.
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OK. That concludes our uniform tracking, round 2, part II. I want to thank each and everyone who is not only tracking their teams uniform combinations, but also for sending them in to me and for providing (for the most part) such great graphics and spreadsheets. The last round will come after the season has concluded, and perhaps some or all of our trackers’ efforts can be entered into the UW logs for posterity. I’ll see if this is something Paul would be amenable to, so everyone who’s tracking, great work and keep it up for the home stretch!
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  FOOTBALL IS BACK tonight, with the Hall of Fame Game! (A decent writeup of the game can be found at the always trustworthy Wikipedia.) Kickoff is at 8:00 pm (eastern time) on NBC. This will mark our first on field glimpses of the AFL throwback uniforms which will be seen sporadically throughout the season. Apparently, the Oilers have been designated as the home team, so the Titans Oilers will wear these beauties saving these bad boys for the road. The Bills, who have worn their dark (home) throwbacks as an alternate for the past few seasons will be wearing this again this season for their home games and this for tonight’s game. I believe there was some concern expressed on the boards recently that the Bills’ stripes aren’t correct. I believe the Bills will be wearing the uniforms they wore in 1965, (the season they won their second consecutive AFL championship), although photographic evidence shows these pants stripes were worn in 1965. (Here’s another look at the pants, although that is a 1965 card, the photo may have been from 1964.) Although this photo is from 1967, the Bills pants remained unchanged from 1965. For a great look at the ‘65 Bills, check this out.
Meanwhile the Oilers will be throwing all the way back to 1960. The Oilers won the first AFL championship following the 1960 season. Although black and white, here’s a pretty good photograph of the 1960 team. A really in-depth writeup of the Houston Oilers can be found here. Finally, here’s a brief writeup of the Oilers “Legacy” uniforms.
Nice way to kick off the season. I’m sure there’ll be a few comments on the uniforms tonight, so make sure you check back in during the game.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one might not the be the easiest ever, but I’m sure you’ll all be able to solve it without too much trouble. Certainly, the location shouldn’t pose a problem, and there are more than enough clues right in the picture to solve the rest. Obviously, location, date and final score please, and a quick description of how you went about ascertaining same. Ready? Guess The Game.
Now, because this is my last weekend post until next month, I’m gonna give you guys a bonus GTG, which may be a little harder. The clues are there, (and I apologize if they’re hard to read), so give it a shot. (Hint: hold down “CTRL” and use the scroll button on your mouse to magnify the image) Ready? Guess The Game. Location shouldn’t be any trouble, but date and final score might be.
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Since you got five Benchies yesterday (a “Monday” thru “Friday” offering), today we’ll give you:
Saturday Benchies
Sunday Benchies
Ay, carumba. Thanks, Ricko.
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 The “What If” (City Flag) American and National League posts from the past couple of weekends generated a few positive E-mails. One or two readers suggested that I try to incorporate more of the city flag into the uniform mockups, so I gave it a shot for the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds (in fact, I believe on of our readers had also done a similar mockup for the Reds a couple of weeks ago — I forget who it was, but if you’re reading, please post your creation again!).
I also received an E-Mail from reader Sean Wilson, who had previously created a Colorado Rockies City Flag Color Logo and Uni Mockup of his own. Great stuff, Sean.
If any of you have creations or suggestions along these lines, please give me a shout. I love this stuff.
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 The planned “Fixing The Brewers” piece, which had been scheduled to run next weekend, will be pushed back to September, as UW will be in hiatus until then. I have already received many fantastic submissions for this post, and I’ll be sending out an E-mail to all the graphic artists who have contacted me so far and have expressed interest in participating. This would be along the lines of The White Sox uniform piece which ran at the end of last month.
If you would like to take part in this (basically, it’s going to be an opportunity for anyone who is interested in ‘creating, tweaking or overhauling’ the uniforms for the Milwaukee Brewers to do so — and the efforts will be showcased in September), please contact me and put in the subject line “Brewers Uniform Concepts.” Also, if you don’t care about, or don’t want to participate in the Brewers redux, and there is another team you think needs a uniform overhaul, let me know. We will announce the next team to be “fixed” when the weekend UW returns next month.
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Reprinted From Last Evening’s Comments: (Thanks to Tony Miller for the tip) “Notre Dame has new practice football uniforms. See the last paragraph-plus (featuring a mention of Uni Watch by name) here.” Good GOD are those things horrid. Can’t wait to hear Paul’s take on them.
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 So, we’re going on vacation for a little while, but not until the end of next week (details here, in case you missed it). But this is my last weekend post until next month. Paul will still bringing you top notch stuff all next week though, so make sure you keep checking in.
I’ll be glad for the weekends off, but I’ll still be keeping tabs on things, so if you have any questions, or would like to submit anything, from a City Flag jersey to the Milwaukee Brewer uniform fix, to a “Guess The Game” submission or a new Indian Caveman uni combination we haven’t yet seen, please gimme a holler. Also, when we return, football season will be in full swing, so if you’re interested in working with me on some football pieces (especially historical stuff or uniform changes/upgrades, etc.) let me know in the next couple weeks and we can work on stuff while the board is on hiatus. OK? OK!
Thanks everyone, for everything! Have a great Sunday and I’ll see you the first weekend in September! And make sure to check out the HOF game tonight — love to get everyone’s first impressions of the Legacy unis.
August 9th, 2009
By Phil Hecken
Ok, in this final weekend before UW’s Vacation, we have round 2 of our MLB Uniform Tracking. If you missed the first batch, they can be found here and here. Good stuff. But, we’re two months further along, and it’s time for another look at the tracking — with warmer weather, streaks (good or bad), or just whim, a few teams have altered their usual rotations (if they had any) and others have fallen into different patterns. The Mets, for example, had worn pinstripes every Sunday at home until the last week of June. They haven’t worn them again on Sunday (at all) and have only worn them once, when they became Los Mets for Latin Appreciation Night. Other teams have broken out special uniforms, Negro League tributes and throwbacks, and our trackers are on top of it all. So lets get started.
~ ~ ~
 We kick off with Doug Keklak “Kek” one of our Pirates trackers:
The Pirates had a rough month of July, going 8-17 overall. Through 7/31, they were 44-58. They have performed best in the home whites with a 20-10 mark. They are a terrible 15-33 in the road grays, thanks in part to a dismal 1-12 July. July was the best month thus far for the Friday black alts as they were 4-1 which gives them a 5-10 mark on the season (3-4 at home, 2-6 on the road). The team is 1-5 on the season in the Sunday home pinstripes.
Special issue: the Buccos are 3-0 in special uniforms this year, going 1-0 in 1909 throwbacks and 2-0 in Homestead Grays throwbacks. The Pirates are 2-2 in the stars and stripes cap and won the game they played in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police cap.
Doug provides us with two spreadsheets which nicely document the past two months of uniform tracking.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Scott Curl “ChiScott” who has been tracking the White Sox:
Hi Phil -
Here’s my tracking update for the White Sox through July 31.
Quick Note: The other day I emailed Sox VP of Communications, Scott Reifert, and asked him just how the Sox go about picking which jersey they pair up with their home and road pants on any given night – since each team varies, was it based on the choice of a pitcher, the equipment manager, a team/coaching decision, day of the week, etc.? He wrote back and told me that aside from pre-planned “event” games (Negro League tributes, throwback games, etc.) jersey choice is strictly up to the game’s starting pitcher.
Recent trends: Whole lotta black lately. Mark Buehrle pitched his perfect game in black on July 23, and the Sox have played well (29-26 this season) while wearing the alternate black jerseys. Interestingly, Buehrle made the rare choice to go with pinstripes this past Sunday, and the result was also rare: an ugly home loss for him. Coincidence??? (Cue the Theramin music.)
The other trend has been to go almost completely away from the official road grays. Not counting “Stars and Stripes” cap games, the team has only worn their official grays in 15 games this year, and they lost 10 of them (their last win in the gray official road uniform was May 31).
Event Unis: We’ve now seen the Sox play in several “event” uniforms – two different “stars and stripes” combos, the Negro League tribute uniforms, the 1959 throwbacks, and the Civil Rights game 1964 throwbacks. The Sox are 5-2 so far in “event” unis.
Tracking: As for my sheet, I changed my layout so that the row colors now reflect the jersey worn for that game. Each row color-corresponds to a particular uniform combo, depicted on the right. I think it makes it much easier to see at a glance what they were wearing over the course of the season.
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Scott Gladin, who’s been tracking the Braves:
In the first installment of Uni Tracking back in May, the Braves seemed to be definitively better in the Home Red and Away Blue Uniforms. However, as the team has started to play better baseball, the uniforms have started to somewhat even out. They still are showing a better record with the alternates, but the average runs scored and allowed are much closer together.
~ ~ ~
 Moving on, we have Ben Teaford who is an Indians Tracker:
Thru Sunday 8/2 the Indians have worn an amazing 11 different uniform combinations on the season (4 more since my last update). So while they may be near the bottom of the standings, they’ve got to be near the league leader in that category. The four new unis they’ve worn are the 80’s throwback (although these look so much better with stirrups, don’t you think?), they wore the Stars & Stripes cap with their home whites, and they had a home and home with Detroit in the unis of the Cleveland Buckeyes negro league team.
Mostly they have stuck to the traditional home white and road grays, something that has become more pronounced as the season has progressed though. They’ve only worn the home blue alternates 3 times since June 1st and when they wore the blue road alternate at the Angels on July 28th, it was the first time they had worn those in over a month. Cliff Lee loved the traditional unis, so with him sadly out of the picture now, we may see the blue alts come back in.
Ben also included, per my request, a screengrab of his tracking sheet; unfortunately, it’s a little hard to read, but trust me, he’s got it ALL in there. And here is a nice chart of all those combos.
~ ~ ~
 Next up, Michael Jaworski “MtJaws”, who tracks the Marlins:
Now that we are at approximately 100 games into the 2009 season, the Florida Marlins have settled in with decent trends for their uniforms. Thru Sunday, August 2, the Marlins are 55-50. In their Home White uniforms, the Fish are 30-23, plus two other rained out starts in white uniforms. In their Road Grey uniforms, Florida is 9-12. In their Alternate Black uniform, they are 0-2 at Home, and a winning 17-12 on the Road. The black has seen lots of action on the road, but at home, the black hasn’t been seen since late May, presumably due to the heat. In color vs color games, the Marlins are a nice 6-2, with only one of those games at home. Included in those records above are the 4 games wearing the red Stars & Stripes hats. FL won 3 of those games.
With nearly every home game in white, the decision to wear grey or black on the road seems to rest with the starting pitcher. In all 10 of Ricky Nolasco’s road starts, the team is in black. For the other starters, they’ve mostly split between wearing grey or black. Josh Johnson does favor the road black in 7 of his 10 road starts.
The biggest surprise to me was seeing that the Alt Black has only appeared twice at home. I thought I’d seen it more often than that. I don’t mind the Road Black Alt, but I wish it wasn’t worn more often than the traditional grey. Maybe the last third of the season will change the numbers.
Mike also included very detailed tracking sheets: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV; he also included a record by uniform and a breakdown of uniform by pitcher.
~ ~ ~
 Although he didn’t include a detailed writeup, Mike Vamosi did a nice breakdown of the Royals:
Royals UniWatch Record as of Aug. 6, 2009
Powder Blue (Day Home): 7-11
White (Primary Home): 17-22
Salute to Negro League Home: 0-1
Overall Home: 24-34
Royal Blue (Road Day): 5-10
Gray (Primary Road): 13-21
Salute to Negro League Road: 0-1
Overall Road: 18-32
Overall: 42-66
~ ~ ~
 Next up is Kenny Montross who is an Astros tracker:
Howdy Phil,
I’ve always been curious how my teams did in different uniforms but had never even thought to keep track myself until I saw the posts back in May. I started keeping track of the Astros in Excel. That seemed a little confusing so this last week I made a graphic representation.
The Astros have worn a total of 5 different jerseys (white with pinstripes, ’snow’ white, red ‘Astros’, red ‘Houston’ and gray) and 6 different hats (black, red, ‘patriotic’, ‘go green’, Houston Fire Depart. and Apollo 11) in 10 combinations. As you can tell, the ‘Stros like their one off caps. I like them too, as long as they wear them at home. They’re 3-0 with these hats at home, but 1-3 away from the juice box. That could also be because the only ’special’ cap they wore away was the clashing bright red patriotic cap. Some one in the Astros organization also seems to like softball jerseys. I personally can’t stand them. Not only does the team look bad in them, they play worse too. They are 25-29 in the softball jerseys and 28-26 in the more traditional jerseys.
Bring on the special hats and gray and white jerseys!
~ ~ ~
 We move on to Mike Styczen, our resident Blue Jays tracker:
What can you say about the Blue Jays – after an exciting first couple of months, they’re showing us that they’re basically a .500 team. As I write this, they’re 51-54, and they’re within a game or two of .500 in every jersey and hat combination.
They’re maintaining their uniform pattern so far so far this season – grey on the road, white for home night games, black for home day games, throwbacks for friday home games. Even with the malaise that’s set in, Cito hasn’t felt the need to shake things up uni-wise.
Record to date, by combination, is here, and Screenshot of tracking spreadsheet is here.
Thanks again, Mike
~ ~ ~
 Moving on, CJ Giannuzzi is one of our Pirates trackers:
The white pinstripes are always worn on sunday day games. The black and white alts are worn on friday nights at home and the black and grays are worn on friday nights away. I did not include those throwbacks they wore for the Royals series. If I’m correct they wore it all series.
And here is a nice screen shot of CJ’s tracking.
~ ~ ~
Our last tracker today is Gregg Girard, who like me, is a Mets tracker:
Phil. Here you go.
Like Phil, I’m uni-tracking the Mets. (Your sympathy is welcome.)
Well, I made one bold prediction back in May: Santana will never wear black. Unfortunately for Johann and me, I was wrong. In the three Santana in black starts (all on the road), he went 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA.
As I said in May, I am searching for patterns, both in terms of victories and behind actual uniform selection. A losing record tends to negate the former, but I was able to dig out a few notables: the Mets home winning percentage is .528 overall, but it rises to .636 and .625 when they wear snow white/blue and black, respectively. Wearing their classic pinstripe/blue combination, they are a dreadful 1-4. As Phil noted in May, that combo seemed to be the regular Sunday uniform, but after wearing them for three straight Sunday losses, they haven’t worn them on Sunday since June 21. In fact, they didn’t wear pinstripes until July 31, when they put them on for a Friday night loss to the D-backs.
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OK, that’s all for today for the Uni Tracking. Tomorrow will conclude the second round. If you are tracking and haven’t yet sent me in your data, please try to do so by early this evening, so I can include it in tomorrow’s post. If you can’t, you can either save it for the season-ending wrap up or send it do me during the UW hiatus, and I’ll try to include it in a future post. Send me your stuff in an email and we’ll set something up.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Today’s GTGFTS might be a little tricky, but it shouldn’t be any trouble for you guys. As always, location, date and final score are needed. Today’s scoreboard comes courtesy of James Huening (thanks, JTH). James is therefore, prohibited from playing along today. Ready? Guess The Game. Once again, if anyone wants to send in scoreboards for future games, please do so. Also, with football season approaching, does anyone want to try a football “Guess The Game” game? Don’t know if it’s quite as much fun as baseball, but we can give it a shot. And for this game, as always, don’t post the answer directly, but do try to tell us how you solved the mystery.
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Since this is my penultimate post before the vacation, I’m gonna give you a weeks worth of Ricko’s finest Benchies today. Well, five days worth, anyway…a work week’s worth (say that five times fast). And, it’s a serial.
“Monday” Benchies
“Tuesday” Benchies
“Wednesday” Benchies
“Thursday” Benchies
“Friday” Benchies
Back tomorrow with a Saturday and a Sunday.
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So, last night the Blue Jays did their Flashback Friday thing — but with a twist. They wore white throwbacks, commemorating their 92-93 World Championship Winning teams. The unis looked really sharp, although today’s cut and style (long, baggy pants without stirrups) kinda tarnished the look. Of course, their opponents, the Orioles, wore dark tops (although, one could make an argument the O’s were throwing back to 1993. OK, not really.)
Lots of players from the 92-93 teams were on hand, including Joe “Touch ‘em all” Carter, Dave Winfield, and Pat Borders (pictured with Carter). Former (and current) Manager Cito Gaston was also on hand, but for some reason, chose to wear the current BP top (in lovely black and slate).
Hey, at least the old timers did not do the jersey tuck. While I will admit those unis were not my favorite MLB uniform of all time, they sure beat what they’re wearing these days. Good stuff!
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That’s gonna do it for today. I’ll have Part II of Round 2 tomorrow, a bunch of announcements and goodies, and of course, Guess The Game and “Benchies.”
Everyone have a great Saturday.
August 8th, 2009
Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I was in Baltimore two weeks ago and now Baltimore’s own Joe Hilseberg has found a site that has what he describes as “the greatest local collection of jerseys I have even seen!”
The site is Parkway Pastimes, and it’s run by some serious collectors of Baltimore/DC game-used gear. Plug “jersey” or “helmet” into the site’s search engine and you get hundreds of results. Among the many, many highlights (for all these pages, click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the photos):
• Here’s a full, intact set of the O’s solid orange uniform. And here’s a prototype for a different orange design, which I’d never seen before.
• But if you really want to see a cool orange jersey, look at this one.
• Speaking of orange, check out the Rawlings sleeve patch on this jersey, along with the 30th-anniversary patch on the other sleeve.
• Joe says, “I think this jersey design only made it on the field one time. Angelos hated the orange neck trim.”
• Dig the lowercase lettering on this NOB.
• Speaking of NOBs, remember that brief period when the Caps used negatively arched lettering? Note that the lettering appears to be direct-sewn, which means the nameplate shown at NHLuniforms.com is apparently wrong.
• Here’s a gorgeous jersey from the minor league Orioles days.
• And speaking of the minor league O’s, look at this incredible sleeve patch!
• Jeez, ya think the Terps were trying to rip off the Nats jersey design or what?
• Here are two different Brooksie helmets, both with the shortened brim.
• Unusual finds here: two Senators caps, both with old-fashioned protective insert liners.
• I don’t think Mike Devereaux has ever shown up on our running list of MLB players who’ve worn faceguard attachments. But he appears to have had one.
• Maybe my favorite thing on the site: an old Colts marching band uni from the AAFC days when green was one of the team’s color.
• Look at all the different Caps socks these guys have collected.
• If you search on “pants,” you’ll see lots of Washington Bullets warmup pants — including one from Manute Bol. Check out the inseam listing on the tagging!
• Check out the totally boss Bullets warmup jackets here, here, and here.
• Love this killer Colts championship jacket.
And so on. There’s a lot more on the site — have fun poking around on it.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Jays wore their annual Canada Day uniforms yesterday, complete with CNOB and a flag sleeve patch. Additional pics here. … The Des Moines Register has put up a gallery of old Little League photos from the 1950s and ’60s, many of which feature interesting cap and jersey designs. Highly recommended clicking — check it out here (big thanks to Ryan Simmelink). … Very nice Forbes Field cartoon here (with thanks to Joel Basknight). … Latest installment of the North Stars uni history project is up (with thanks to Cole Jones). … Two new Australian soccer teams: the North Queensland Fury (here’s their road kit) and Gold Coast United (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: A store in Japan is hosting a Yomiuri Giants exhibit that includes a gallery where six designers have come up with new Giants uni concepts. … Good story here about Charlie Hayes’s 1994 facemasks. Didn’t realize he’d worn the Rip Hamilton-style version (big thanks to Bo Baize). … Recently spotted at Shea: Someone in a Mets jersey with “Buckner 86″ on the back (with thanks to Dan Herr). … Great shots of Hank Aaron serving as a Korean batting instructor, circa 1982, on this page (Jeremy again). … Andy Bruinewoud recently visited the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and took some photos. … Boy, this really makes me proud to be from Long Island (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Ryan Church was wearing some seriously ridiculous bell-bottoms yesterday (thanks, Phil). … Just what I always wanted: a baseball map of Taiwan (Jeremy yet again). … Tyler Kepner asked Brian Bruney about his blank-backed cap: “Wish I had a more exciting report for you,” he writes, “but Bruney said he simply
wears the same hat for everything — spring training, pre-game, in-game –
and the iron-on logo on the back peeled off.” … Wow, I didn’t remember this patch being so big. … Interesting question posed by Derek Blodgett, who asks: “What’s with the upside-down triangle and NHL team logos? Three teams use the triangle: the Penguins, Sharks, and Predators. Is there any significance to that?” Hmmmm. … With the all the AFL throwback hoopla just around the corner, Phil reports that the excellent Remember the AFL site has been expanded. Worth checking out. … Speaking of something worth checking out, look at this players-vs.-umps episode of Family Feud (genius find by Chris Flinn). …That new football stadium in Dallas finally has a logo. … RIP, Thin Man.
Holiday Schedule: We’ll have regular content tomorrow. Phil was planning something for Saturday, but I insisted that he take the holiday off, so instead we’ll just have a photo that captures the spirit of America (I really wanted to use that one, but the date kinda ruins it for July 4th purposes). And then Phil will do his usual thing on Sunday. OK? OK.
July 2nd, 2009
Back on April 27th, I ran a Ticker item about this page from a 1958 MacGregor catalog. “Dig item G914,” I wrote. “Who’s Ted Sowle?” A reader helped fill in some of the blanks with this comment, but that didn’t address the question of the headgear shown in the old catalog. Had Sowle designed it, or had it been named after him for some other reason?
I got an answer a few days later, when I received an e-mail from one Ted Sowle. But no, not that Ted Sowle. Here’s what the note said:
Ted Sowle was my grandfather. He passed away in 1971, just before I was born. I was researching his past when I came across your question about him. … He holds many patents regarding the safety of, primarily, football athletes. A very creative guy and a hell of a football coach (was asked to coach for Notre Dame but turned it down, or so I’m told).
Ted offered to send me some of his grandfather’s patents — an offer I readily accepted. And sure enough, he designed the eyewear protector shown in the old catalog page (you can see the rest of that patent’s paperwork here). That design was apparently a refinement of a similar contraption he’d patented nine years earlier (full paperwork here).
Ted sent me nine patents in all, and they fell into three broad categories. The two designs I just showed you related to eyewear protection. There were also two harnesses, patented less than a year apart, that were designed to provide hip and body protection for football players, although the gear kinda looks more like S&M fetishwear (full paperwork here and here).
The other five patents were all faceguard-related, and that’s where things got interesting. Remember these photos from the Life archive? That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this (paperwork), this (paperwork), and this (paperwork). But the Life photo sequence is from 1951, while Sowle’s patents are from several years later (and, as I eventually discovered when I read the fine print, are not based on a plexiglass concept).
Sowle’s other two facemask patents, which he received in the 1960s, featured pivoting action — one for a single pivot-mounted bar (paperwork) and the other for a slightly more elaborate assembly (paperwork).
Looks like ol’ Ted was quite the inventer. Had he been a trained engineer or designer, or did he just link to tinker? “Not an engineer — just a coach who cared, I guess,” said the younger Ted.
Amazing stuff, right? Very DIY, when you think about it. Meanwhile, I had lots of additional questions: Did Sowle patent other inventions? Did any of his designs gain widespread acceptance? Were there any designs that he felt were unjustly ignored or underrated? Did he design any non-sports items?
At this point Ted referred me to his father (the elder Ted’s son), who he said would be better equipped to answer these queries. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard back from him yet, but I’ll post some follow-up material if and when he responds. Until then, enjoy these beautiful patent drawings and be on the lookout for other mentions of Ted Sowle in vintage equipment listings.
The advertiser I’ve always dreamed of: As you may have noticed, we now have a dedicated stirrup and sock vendor selling quality hosiery over in the left rail. That would be the aptly named Socks Rock, and I don’t mind saying this is pretty much my dream come true in terms of site sponsorship. Please welcome them aboard and give them a look. Thanks.
Bobble Shoppe Reminder: In case you missed it last week, the amazing Robert Marshall is now offering hand-casted, custom-painted bobblehead dolls to Uni Watch readers. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Our friends at Ebbets Field Flannels have started a new blog devoted to uni-related issues. Best of luck with the new venture, Jerry. … Small item buried within this column: “Man of the Weekend was Red Bulls forward John Wolyniec. As seen on MSG, the Staten Island native and former Fordham star was set to enter as a sub, Friday, when he removed his warm-up jacket to reveal a red jersey. His team, however, was wearing its white jerseys. Wolyniec quickly changed, entered” (with thanks to Joshua Paster). … Reprinted from Monday’s comments: This must have been a very odd ballgame. Additional info here. … Good find by Gabe Butler, who writes: “I was browsing on eBay this morning when I stumbled across this replica jersey for a team that played in my hometown in the late 1960s and ’70s. My dad actually played for their junior team before they folded and still has his jersey hanging up at home! Anyway, I read the thread and the guy said he got the jersey made at this site. I poked around it looks like they have some pretty cool stuff.” Indeed — worth investigating. … Those Yankees, nothing but class. … Interesting background info on the 49ers’ new sleeve stripes here (with thanks to Tim Fesmire). … Ryan Connelly recently realized one of his longtime dreams by playing — and scoring a goal! — on the Mellon Arena ice. Photos here. … And so it has come to this: The swoosh has infiltrated the Presidential sock drawer. … Y’know, there are some problems that even striped stirrups can’t solve (with thanks to Chris Chaussee). … Lots of apostrophe catastrophe action over on NHL.com (as spotted by James Huening). … The IFAF (that’s World Federation of American Football) is will be holding its Junior World Championship tournament in Canton, starting in late June. Lots of not-very-inspiring uni photos here (with thanks to Tom Pachuta). … Menswear designer Paul Smith is a cycling enthusiast, and he L.A. shop now has an exhibition of cycling jerseys. Addition info in the second graf of this story (thanks, Vince). … If you’ve always wanted to see Alex Ovechkin in a football helmet, this is your lucky day (with thanks to Ethan Crooks). … Here’s a major, major find: Over 60 photos from the Expos’ very first game (über-thanks to Jean Gagnier). … Here’s Rob Ullman’s latest, a portrait of Tyler Kulasza’s girlfriend, Emily. Love the low-rise Chucks! … Maybe this is common knowledge, but not to me: For a while, Rick DePietro’s mask featured a depiction of Madison Square Garden (left photo, the ear panel). Apparently the mask was later sent back for a touch-up (good spot by Joe DeAngelis). … Really wonderful slideshow of vintage baseball photos here — highly recommended (big thanks to Mike Couillard). … Pricey, but possibly probably worth it. … Nice mash note to the old Bengals identity program here. … Great article in yesterday’s Ausin American-Statesman about Len Barrell’s 1914 uniform (with thanks to Martin Kohout). … New football uniforms for South Alabama (with thanks to Doug Simpson). … New Celtic International away kit (with thanks to JK Chaney). … What happened to the ball that Bobby Thompson hit for his famous home run in 1951? We’ll never know for sure, but there’s a new book that explores the likely answer, and Ken Davidoff has written a very interesting review of it. … Uni number news for the Patriots (with thanks to Tom Adjemian). … Lots of interesting sock action and the Mid-Penn Conference Track and Field Championships (with thanks to Ryan Farrell). … Hey, guess what, some uniforms are ugly (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Petersburg, Indiana, is the hometown of Gil Hodges, and now it’s also the home of a big Hodges mural. Those pics were taken by Ryan Bowman, who notes that the mural appears to show Hodges wearing a white Dodgers jersey with blue placket piping, which is a design the Dodgers never wore during Hodges’s tenure, although they did wear a road grays with that design. Further info on the mural here. … Look, it’s a bunch of new Bundesliga kits (with thanks to Alex Peerenboom). … Fun rundown of “mistaken identity” baseball cards here. … Hey, check this out: stirrups vs. stirrups! That’s Cleveland pitcher Jeremy Sowers (whose hosiery heroics were first mentioned here last week) and Corky Miller of the Chisox (whose membership in Stirrup Nation is news to me) facing each other last night. … And if that weren’t enough, Luke Hochevar made his debut with the Royals last night, and look what he was wearing. There’s definitely a little trendlet at work here — I think the hosiery pendulum may finally be ready to start swing back the other way (thanks, Phil). … Also from Phil: Alex Cora played first base in the 10th inning of last night’s Mets/Braves game and apparently didn’t have a first baseman’s glove of his own to wear. Phil breaks down the proceedings: “He warmed up with a light brown mitt, then got handed a darker brown mitt, which he didn’t like and threw back. After that, he motioned to the dugout to look for his glove and then called time as the first batter (Chipper) was stepping in. Then he jogged to the dugout and came back with a regular fielder’s glove, which he wore for the entire inning, including while holding Chipper on at first.”
May 13th, 2009
If you were to go back and check every rugby item ever to appear in the Ticker, you’d probably find that about 70% of them were contributed by reader Caleb Borchers, who regularly peppers me with rugby-related items in the faint hope that someone will, y’know, give a shit. He realizes most of the other readers here aren’t rugby fans, but he nonetheless continues to contribute material, and I salute him for his steadfast commitment. Today is his day in the sun, as he’s gone off on an impassioned rant that I’ve decided merits lead-entry status:
As a rugby fan, there are some things that I suffer through that I realize few others care about. Primary amongst them is the horror that is mismatched head gear. To explain: Many rugby players wear head gear (or a scrum cap) to protect against cauliflower ear. One such player is Nathan Sharpe, who wears blue/purple headgear that matches his club (Western Force) jersey. Looks fine. But when he gets the call up to the Australian national team, he doesn’t see the need to buy a new cap. I figure this is attributable to either (a) supreme laziness, (b) supreme cheapness, or (c) supreme superstitiousness. All of which leads to (d) supreme stupidity. I mean, really, you’re selected to represent your country at the third largest sporting event in the world (and getting paid well to do it), and you can’t take the time and spend the $100 bucks to buy a green cap?
Fortunately, not every player feels this way. For example, there’s the bright uni beacon of hope represented by the Waldrom brothers of New Zealand. They make sure the cap matches the team at all times, no excuses. It would be easy for Scott to take the yellow/black he wears in the regular season and keep it with the All Blacks, but he doesn’t — he gets a black/white cap, because the All Blacks don’t wear yellow. How hard is this? (Another grudging pat on the back goes to Matt Giteau, who also cares about color matching but ruins it with those girly ribbons on the cap.)
In other news: Rugby fans and commentators tend to be no-nonsense people. As a result, Adidas’s decision to force NZ teams to wear home and away jerseys has sort of hit the fan. The stupidest part of it all is that two of the teams have a gray away jersey. That doesn’t sound bad to outsiders, but any NZ fan immediately gets nightmare flashbacks to the All Blacks World Cup loss to France in 2007, for which Kiwis still blame two factors: the referee and the All Blacks wearing something other than all black.
And there you have it. Big thanks to Caleb for filling us in on the nuances of a sport none of us actually care about follow, and for do so in an entertaining manner to boot.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Today’s the last day to bid on my Flushing in Flushing T-shirt. … Lastings Milledge’s switch to wearing No. 85 was first reported way back in February, but it still looks really weird. … Kevin McMahon saw this crazy MLB bobblehead shirt selling for $13 and couldn’t resist. “It was too cool to pass up,” he says. “Now I need to decide if I want to keep it, or give it as a birthday gift to my baseball-loving brother. Would it be a serious or a gag gift though? Not quite sure.” Lots of additional photos here. … Here’s the 1915 Avalon (Pa.) High School baseball team. Love that placket lettering (with thanks to Jason Bernard). … Who’d be dumb enough to wear a purple Yahoo! Sports jersey? Mark! Teixeira, as it turns out. He played! stickball in Tampa! for some sort! of Yahoo! promotional thingie! … Interesting shot of JFK conducting the coin toss at the 1961 Army/Navy game. Note that the Navy captain has “Beat Army” on his shoulders (with thanks to David Ryan and CJ Fleck). … Also from CJ: Excellent pair of stirrups available here. … The Raptors apparently printed their tickets before the Thunder’s logo was finalized (with thanks to Andy Rawlings). … Phil already mentioned that the Rochester Amerks painted their ice pink, but here’s a tremendous batch of photos showing the ice-coloration process (with thanks to Greg Netherwood). … Excellent 49ers helmet cart photo here with thanks to Jamison Nash). … The second question on this Q&A page brings up a very interesting Avs-related uni question (nice find by Harvey Lee). … Umbro has release the new England home kit at the Reed Space Annex in lower Manhattan. “The pop-up shop will be up thru Wednesday and it looks great,” says Stephen Wong. “They are raffling off new limited- edition Reed Space kits every day.” … Tremendous article here on the history and origins of Barrel Man, who may date back as far as 1901! Great photos, too (big thanks to Jeff Ash). … Reprinted from the weekend comments: Dan Aykroyd did the ceremonial puck drop at Friday’s Devils/Blackhawks game, and they gave him a jersey with a misspelled NOB (screen grab courtesy of James Huening). … If you liked my subway signage style guide, you’ll probably also like the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is filled with pages like this. Download it here (big thanks to Paul Deaver). … No comment. … Ross French sent along pics of a Western Michigan baseball jersey that appears to have been a salesman’s sample. “It’s similar to what the 1955 club wore, but of course baseball unis can go for years without significant changes,” he writes. “If anyone has any insights, I would love to hear them.” … Interesting F1 note from Al Stone, who writes: “The cars from Brawn GP finished first and second on Sunday. Brawn GP sprang up in recent weeks to buy Honda’s old F1 program when the manufacturer stepped down. What makes this sorta uni-interesting is that Brawn has been looking for a sponsor, since Honda’s sponsors had dropped off. So the Brawn GP cars were relatively sponsor-free (just a Virgin logo and a few small Bridgestone logos that were barely visible). This team will no doubt have a different livery for the next race and the rest of the season, so this is probably the only time that this car will race looking as it did, and it won the top two spots.” … Stunning news from Brian Poulos, who writes: “MLB Tonight on the MLB Network uses a graphic during game highlights where the MLB Network logo (derived for the MLB logo) becomes animated and swings the bat. I am here to say that the MLB logo silhouette is a LEFTY BATTER.” … Paul Wiederecht found more good stuff in the Life archives: The Twins had two batboys who were actual twin brothers, and there was some sort of crazy variety show that featured lots of MLBers wearing dress shoes and Chucks. … Two interesting items in this photo, taken at the Indiana state high school basketball tournament on Saturday: The home team, Jac-Cen-Del, has an usual color combo of red and sky blue, and the other player has great socks. “Unfortunately, I think this was the only player on the Triton team to wear those socks,” says Adam Morris. … The Mets gave their new stadium a test drive yesterday, and several readers report that the replica jerseys in the gift shops all featured this patch, not the Domino’s patch. Again, these are just replicas, not authentics, and my understanding is that the team will still be wearing the other patch on the field. … John Weghorst sent along pics from his old 1982 Topps sticker book. Check them out here. … Super-cool old baseball uni available here. … And here’s something you don’t often see: vintage zebra-wear — and another! … Guess who really likes this old basketball jersey. … I’m on the road for the next coupla days, so Phil will be minding the store today and handling tomorrow’s content. See you on Wednesday.
March 30th, 2009
By Phil Hecken (with a big assist from Ricko)
There are certain things certain athletes always do (or did) — or almost always do (or did) — in the way they wore their uniforms, or the way they dressed for their sport. In some cases, they were the first to do what they did. In others, it was just them, and their way.
Beyond that, there isn’t much need for introduction, so here we go. We’ve numbered the athletes, and included a picture of their ‘trademark.’ The hint and the picture will hopefully lead you to guess at the star. Keep track, and the answers will be at the end. Good luck!
1. He spatted his shoes (as if didn’t look quick enough?).
2. He cut off his sleeves, super short, showing those guns.
3. He was the first to wear white cleats in pro football (well, Fred Williamson of the Raiders wore ‘em, too, in ‘64).
4. Wore knee pads (or were they huge elbow pads?) around his shins.
5. One of the first to have his pants tapered, and pull his stirrups up high.
6. Before George Scott and John Olerud, he wore his batting helmet playing defense.
7. First to wear a batting glove during regular season (a golf glove, actually).
8. The first great big man wore some great big knee pads.
9. Cut those sleeves off super short (Tommy McDonald did earlier, though).
10. White tape on baseball cleats, football-style, inspired by his facemask, evidently.
11. That one wristband, way up high. And he did rise above things.
12. In the 60’s, was totally color-coordinated, even his spikes.
13. Oh, them golden slippers.
14. Combined two pair of stirrups, leading the way to the high-stirrup era.
15. Short pants and stickum-covered socks. Stickum-covered everything, actually.
16. A houndstooth hat while prowling and growling the sidelines.
17. Just how much pine tar can one helmet handle, anyway?
18. This was the Afro of Afros, or probably the most remembered.
19. Oh, that’s just a doo-rag being…
20. Now, this mustache was a real “Schwinner”. Or did he sing barbershop on the side?
21. Somehow, he seemed bjorn to wear this headband.
22. “Well, sometimes it really hurts when the center snaps that pigskin.”
23. “Afterward, let’s, like, hang out at the beach and dig for, like, clams or something.”
24. Appropriately for the classic imagery of his “plus-fours”, at his funeral the bagpiper disappeared into the early morning mist.
25. Before his big NBA contract, he couldn’t afford new socks.
26. Two words: Sunday. Red.
27. Always hit the links in all-black or black & white.
28. Playing with her, you should never be so stupid as to ask, “You’re pink, right?
29. He liked white trim: kneehighs, wristbands and a drawstring on the fly…so to speak.
30. Old lady Voorhees’ kid musta been a fan of the guy who marked the stitches he woulda had.
So, how did you do? Some of them were, admittedly, quite tough, others were easy. Here’s the answers, by picture:
Answer 1.
Answer 2.
Answer 3.
Answer 4.
Answer 5.
Answer 6.
Answer 7.
Answer 8.
Answer 9.
Answer 10.
Answer 11.
Answer 12.
Answer 13.
Answer 14.
Answer 15.
Answer 16.
Answer 17.
Answer 18.
Answer 19.
Answer 20.
Answer 21.
Answer 22.
Answer 23.
Answer 24.
Answer 25.
Answer 26.
Answer 27.
Answer 28.
Answer 29.
Answer 30.
And now a quick word from Paul: Anyone out there ever submit an unsolicited uniform or logo proposal to a team? If so, did you ever hear back from the team’s front office (even if only via a “No thanks” form letter), or did you get no response at all? If you’ve any sort of experience of this nature, I want to hear from you. Thanks.
February 8th, 2009
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.”
• “Here’s Bobby Orr wearing No. 5 in an All-Star Game with his No. 4 gloves, and wearing No. 27 — with No. 37 gloves! — in an exhibition game prior to his rookie season.”
• “Another All-Star Game shot, this one from the 1976 ASG in Philly. Both teams wore the bicentennial patch, which was also worn by the Steelers and Cowboys in Super Bowl X.”
• “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.”
• “Here are some great old sweaters: Seattle Metropolitans, circa 1919 (here’s a tight shot of the crest), New York Americans, mid-1930s (plus a rear view), and Philadelphia Quakers, circa 1930. We got these shots from the Hall of Fame.” [As an aside, what's the deal with that little collar ribbon on the Seattle sweater? -- PL]
• “Two Rangers wearing improvised facemasks: Ivan ‘Ching’ Johnson, circa 1930s, and Walt Tkaczuk, 1977-78.”
• “Look at the two jersey logos in this shot. It appears that the face on Hull’s logo is much darker.”
• “Some random old stuff: the Montreal Wanderers, circa 1914; the 1928 Detroit Cougars; and the first indoor arena game, which was in Quebec in 1893.”
• “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.
March 11th, 2008
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