I wrote pretty regularly for Fast Company magazine from 2004 through 2007. But I guess they must not have me in their Rolodex anymore, because nobody told me about this article, which they just posted on their web site (not sure if it’s also in the printed mag, but I don’t think so).
Anyway: The author — an NFL fan named Ken Carbone, who also happens to be a graphic designer — posits that too many of today’s helmet designs are bland and formulaic. He heaps particular scorn on the Redskins, Bucs, and Pats:
Among the weakest designs are the Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers , whose visually complicated logos become a graphic mess when televised and, I imagine, even if you’re sitting on the fifty-yard line. At the very the bottom of the list are the New England Patriots. The Patriots’ helmet is plastered with their logo, which comes dangerously close to looking like a wind-swept John Kerry dressed up like a Minute Man. If there was ever a time to go with the obvious this is it. Why not really play the patriotic card and star and stripe the helmet?
These certainly aren’t the three NFL helmets at the top of my “Please revise now!” list (I’d probably pick some subset of the Bengals, Panthers, Titans, Lions, and Bills). I’d also quibble with the notion that the Washington and Tampa Bay logos are “complicated” or “a graphic mess when televised,” and I’d love to know what Carbone thought of Pat Patriot compared to Flying Elvis.
But whatever — unlike most critics, Carbone is willing to propose his own alternatives, and that’s where things get interesting. He prepared these sketches and gave them to a graphics guy who created more polished digital versions — voila!
The Pats design is laughably bad (unless the rest of your uniform looks like this), and the Bucs execution is obviously way too Raiders-ish (bad rookie mistake there, Ken — don’t create a design that looks a lot like another team’s design). Gotta admit, though I’m totally digging the Redskins treatment. Never would’ve guessed that the headdress motif would translate so well to a helmet shell.
All in all, a silly article that’s mostly a lark, but that ’Skins design is like the nibble on the end of the line that’s gonna keep me fishing all day. Are there other teams that could be revamped as effectively as Carbone’s done with the ’Skins? Hmmmmm….
The best video you’ll see this year (or at least today): No Mas has produced a super-cool animation about Dock Ellis and his fabled no-hitter on acid, narrated by Ellis himself. The full vid will be available tomorrow, but here’s a short excerpt:
Uni Watch News Ticker: Ladies and gentlemen, you Nike riflery uniforms, all in one place. … Remember the football sweater knitting guide I scanned and posted last week? Ricko found a baseball version on eBay (yes, those “jackets” are actually knitted sweaters) and sent it to me to scan. You can access the full publication here. … Whoa, who would’ve thought the Broncos had a throwback helmet cart (big thanks to Jason Krause). … “I was briefly following this VW bug through Columbus this morning and couldn’t help but laugh,” writes Jason Lawrence. “As you probably know, OSU applies buckeye leaf decal to the left side of the helmet first, then eventually to the right side only after the left side is full. The funniest part about this guy’s error is that if he’d applied the stickers correctly to the left side, he wouldn’t have had to bother custom-cutting a sticker around his gas-cap door.” … Lots of Fort Hood memorial decals on tap for this weekend (big thanks to decal maven Chris Willis). … Further evidence of Troy Polamalu’s cross habit. That shot was taken by Steve Harrison two weeks ago. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Separated at birth? (As spotted by eagle-eyed Jim Vilk.) … Way back in late September I asked about these Arkansas merit decals. Not sure if we ever got a good answer, but here’s one from Sean Patton: “They are not crosses — they are supposed to be sledgehammers. Back in the summer, the strength coaches started a reward for players during two-a-days. They would pick the players, four or five a day, who showed the greatest effort during practice, and those players would be given a sledgehammer (a real one, not a decal) and would get to hit a huge flat boulder that was set up at the outdoor practice fields. Each player would try to take a chunk of the rock off with their allotted number of swings. So the decals are sledgehammers.” In other words, your reward for working hard at practice is being put on a prison-style chain gang. … Tyler Kepner notes that Padres GM Jed Hoyer needs to update some logos on his wall. … The Hornets are going to unveil a Mardi Gras-themed uniform a week from today. I’ve seen the design, and it’s the bomb. … Arkansas has signed an outfitting deal with Nike. … Remember Craig Anders(s)on and the extra “S” that appeared and then disappeared from his NOB? Turns out it’s still on his stick (great catch by Michael Putlack). … Chris Cocuzza had an authentic Randy Moss Raiders jersey and wanted to convert it to a Louis Murphy jersey (same uni number). So he got himself a $15 lettering kit, had his sewing-skilled grandma remove the “Moss” nameplate from the jersey and then had her remove the letters from the nameplate. Then he sewed the new letters onto the ’plate and sewed the ’plate back onto the jersey — presto! … Here’s a craigslist listing you don’t see every day: football pumpkins (amazing find by Steven Brown). … The Florida Panthers will finally unveil their alternate jersey on November 23rd. If you believe the folks on the Chris Creamer site, it will look something like this. … More World Cup kits, for Greece, Germany, Mexico, and South Africa (with thanks to Stephen Wong).
Back around 2002, I wrote a column about collectibles for a magazine too embarrassing to mention. The column was eventually discontinued because the editor felt I wasn’t coming up with enough “found in the attic” stories — i.e., stories about amazingly valuable collectibles that had been gathering dust in someone’s attic until they were discovered and then sold for many thousands of dollars. I tried to explain to the editor that stories like those don’t grow on trees, but somehow he was unmoved, and that was the end of the column.
Too bad I didn’t know about this game-worn Jim Brown Syracuse helmet back then. Here’s the deal: The helmet was originally given to the father of a young Syracuse family by a close friend of former Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder shortly after the 1956 season. It was a gift to an expectant father, who put it away for what he was sure would be his new son. When his wife gave birth to a girl instead, the helmet stayed tucked away in the family attic, where it remained until the daughter, now grown and caring for her elderly father, discovered it more than four decades later.
The helmet was eventually acquired in 2001 by Curtis Worrell and Jim Parker of Helmet Hut. It was the crown jewel in their helmet collection, but with Parker’s recent death, Worrell has decided to sell the helmet and give the proceeds to Parker’s widow. It’s currently up for auction at Game Used Universe (which, as you may have noticed, is a new Uni Watch sponsor, although that’s not why I’m writing this piece — the helmet is a great story, and the Helmet Hut folks are great people).
The auction runs through this Thursday, just in case you have an extra 30 grand burning a hole in your pocket. And even if you don’t end up bidding, you can check out these great Jim Brown pics here.
New ESPN column today — my annual college hoops season preview, and it’s a doozy, with coverage of over 50 teams. Major thanks to all of you who provided info. Here’s the link.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day for the poster raffle. Details here.
What’s it worth to ya?: Remember last Wednesday’s discussion of the value of design? Scott Misner, whose comment a few days earlier prompted that discussion (but who did not participate in the Wednesday dialogue — he was busy with work-related stuff) has checked in with a lengthy essay in which he expands on his original comment and responds to some of the points made in Wednesday’s comments. Check it out here.
Mooooo!: Yesterday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak was a smashing, gut-busting success. Thanks to all the Uni Watch readers who said hello! I’ll post my photos tomorrow, so send me yours if you want them to be included.
Your productive day is now over: Dave Holz sent me a link to some absolutely stunning 1930s color photography from the Library of Congress. It’s not uni-related, but it’s flat-out the most compelling imagery I’ve seen in ages. Be warned — once you click on this link, you won’t get anything else accomplished all day. Enjoy.
Uni Watch News Ticker: In case you were under a rock for the past 72 hours, we now know what a bunch of the Nike rivalryrevelry riflery designs look like, including the full Ohio State uni, the Virginia Tech jersey, the TCU uni, most of the gloves, and probably a lot more stuff that I’ve missed. Oh, and each riflery school gets its own stupid-ass comic book slogan, and Nike helped prime the pump for today’s Virginia Tech uni unveiling by parking this unassuming little buggy on campus. Nicely done. … Now that’s a uniform, as worn by Jon Solomonson, circa 1973. The other kids’ helmets had only one stripe, but they had to find a smaller lid to fit Jon’s noggin, and it had three stripes. He says he later removed the extraneous striping so he could match his teammates. … Now that the Yanks have won their 27th title, Joe Girardi plans to change his uni number. … Best Twitter feed ever (thanks, Kirsten). … 11/11 isn’t just Veterans Day — it’s also “the date that most closely resembles corduroy,” at least according to these folks, who’ll be holding their annual Grand Meeting on Wednesday right down the avenue from my house. … Nice story about a Sidney Crosby jersey here (with thanks to Nate Budziszewski) …. Jay Danbom lives in Dickinson, North Dakota, where those college softball players recently drowned. He responded to the tragedy by designing a memorial ribbon (”Ashely Neufeld’s initials are in red because she was from Canada,” he explains), which was worn by his rec hockey team. … Bit of a poppy controversy in Old Blighty (with thanks to Mark Coale). … Okay, so this is pretty damn cool. Details here (with thanks to Braden Lerwill). … Check out the major helmet-stripe damage on Alphonso Carreker’s helmet, circa 1988. … Many college football refs wore blue sleeves on Saturday, for prostate cancer awareness. … There’s gotta be an easier way to represent your team on your goalie pads than this (with thanks to Laura Pond). … Bruce Menard was looking through an auction site and turned up a really nice 1911 Cubs jersey and an even nicer 1920s Cubs jacket. … This is a gown made of Arizona Cardinals jerseys. Lots of additional details here (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Interesting discussion on the Chris Creamer board: Someone pointed out that the far-right Lightning player in this photo isn’t wearing the the NHL collar logo. That prompted someone else to post that Robyn Regehr has never had the NHL logo on his collar since the league went to the Edge template. … The Japanese women’s volleyball team will be wearing new uniforms — including a very odd upside-down pouch design — at the Grand Champions Cup next week (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Super-cool collection of bicycle chain guards here (great find, Kirsten). … More excellent info on the nature of flannel fabrics here (with thanks to Dave Grob). … Double sock stripes! Additional creamsicle pics here. … New soccer kit for Argentina (with thanks to Tomas Abrate). … Torn helmet decal yesterday for DeAngelo Williams (screen shot courtesy of Corey Davis). … “Jesuit High School of Portland, Oregon, has a successful cross country team that has the athletes put a cross on their face,” reports Jeremy Brahm. … Sorry there’s so little NFL info in today’s entry. I was off the grid all day yesterday due to the beefsteak. Priorities, priorities…..
I’d never seen another player wearing an improvised flap until scrolling through yesterday’s comments, where Larry Wiederecht posted a link to an eBay auction for this 1964 wire service photo.
Wow! Never seen that before, so I immediately e-mailed the photo to uni designer Todd Radom and Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber, who’d never seen it either. Lots of info to process here — one thing at a time:
• Oliva played on the Twins, same as Battey, so the Minnesota equipment staff had some experience in making this type of helmet attachment. Which begs the question: Did any other Twins wear the improvised flap?
• Hard to be sure what the flap is made of. Metal? Plastic?
• Fascinating to see that Oliva resisted wearing the attachment because he thought it looked goofy. Forty-five years later, we’re going through the same safety-vs.-aesthetics issue with the S100 helmet. Some things never change.
• The caption mentions that Oliva grudgingly wore the flap in batting practice, but it’s not clear whether he ever wore it in a game. Ricko, can you shed any light on this?
• I have never been able to determine exactly when ABC Helmet began making helmets with real earflaps. I had always wondered whether Battey’s improvised flap in 1963 had led ABC to start making flapped helmets in ’64. But judging by the Oliva photo, that’s not what happened. Hmmmmm…
Big thanks to Larry for finding this photo — a major piece of the helmet history puzzle.
And now we have a truly ridiculous number of extra-curricular announcements (anything to take my mind off of last night’s ballgame)…
About freakin’ time: Many of you have asked me to give the DIY posts their own category/tag/etc. Unfortunately, we were using an old, creaky version of WordPress and had maxed out the number of categories — I couldn’t add any more. But Johnny Ek upgraded us to a new version of WordPress a few days ago and, as you can see in the right rail, our list of categories now includes “DIY Projects.” If you click on that link, you’ll get all our past DIY entries grouped together in one spot. Sorry it took so long to achieve something so simple.
Twitch, or Twat, or whatever the hell it’s called: Speaking of the tech upgrade, you may have noticed that there’s now a little “Follow us” link on the right side of your browser window. That’s because John has finally dragged me — semi-kicking, quasi-screaming — into the world of Twitter. Each new daily post here on the site automatically generates a new toot with a link to that post, plus I may occasionally flutter during the day, but I don’t expect to do it all that often (I mean, shit, this here web site should be enough of a soapbox for whatever I want to say, right?). Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, feel free to join the party.
And hey, as long as we’re talking about tech stuff: John is currently running some analytics to help us get a better grip on our traffic and readership. You can help by adding the Alexa add-on to your browser (it’s quick and painless, promise) and then filling out the little form thingie when your browser reboots. If you’d rather not, that’s fine; but if you’re willing, Firefox users can add Alexa here, and IE users can find it here. Thanks.
Beefsteak Update: This Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak event is sold out, although I’m told there may be some tickets available at the door. Keep an eye on this page for updates. For those of you who were smart enough to buy tix in advance, I’ll see you on Sunday.
Uni Watch Party Update: We’ll be gathering on Sunday the 15th, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. Ryan Connelly’s coming all the way from Pittsburgh to attend, so all you NYCers really have no excuse not to show up.
Uni Watch News Ticker: As had been rumored earlier in the week, Ohio State will be wearing throwbacks on November 21st. This photo made the rounds yesterday, although it’s unclear if that’s the design that will be used on the 21st. I’m sure someone will leak the appropriate info shortly. … Chris Douglas-Roberts has a mighty long NOB (as spotted by James Savage). … Nicole Haase notes that Marquette’s retired number banners show each number in jersey-appropriate type and colors. … Steven Tatar sent me 20 more photos from his visit to that varsity jacket factory. … The Ducks (Anaheim, not Oregon) wore camouflage jerseys during warm-ups on Tuesday, as a military-appreciation gesture (with thanks to John Muir). … It’s one thing to put a ski jump in an outdoor stadium, but how about inside the Boston Garden? Brian Codagnone, quoting from a museum exhibit at the TD Garden Sports Museum, explains: “In the 1930s, when the ski craze first swept the East, sportsman Walter Brown became obsessed with the idea of hosting a winter carnival at Boston Garden. Stumped by the cost and difficulty of importing snow for indoor use, Brown one day passed a fish market, where he noticed a handsome cod packed in ice that was ‘chopped up so fine it looked like corn snow.’ The merchant showed him his grinding machine and Brown super-sized the concept, ordering larger versions that could handle 500 tons of ice. In December 1935, a five-story ski jump was erected in the Garden rafters and hundreds of amateur skiers showed up, unaware it was intended for professional jumping demonstrations. The concept of indoor slopes and annual ski shows caught on, and were copied at Madison Square Garden and other arenas.” … Chris Paul has been wearing a captain’s “C” (here’s how it looks on the road). “David West also wore a ‘C’ for the home opener vs. the Kings (it’s hard to see, but it’s there) but he didn’t wear one during the Spurs, Celtics or Knicks road games,” says Jason Hijuelos. … Check out Henrik Lundqvist’s lastest mask design (with thanks to Matt Harris). … England’s new rugby kit is the color of the beast (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Truly sensational video clip on old hockey sweaters here (big thanks to Ethan Crooks). … Mariano Rivera wore a road BP jesey at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday’s workout (good spot by Jonathon Binet). … I’m still calling it St. James’ Park (with thanks to Matt Beahan). … What brand are these jerseys? … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. Also, note that Moe Drabowski, at far left, is wearing his jersey tucked in, even though that jersey design was meant to be worn untucked (nice find, Phil). … Eric Romain notes that Sean Avery has already worn three different helmets this season. … Bill Scrowther found some excellent old photos on Utah’s state history site. Among the highlights: three separate examples of vertical placket lettering (look here, here, and here), a Budweiser-sponsored baseball team, and some very odd basketball pants. … Check out the second service listed on this page — a cure for logo creep! How awesome would it be if a few thousand jersey owners engaged her services? (Thanks, Kirsten.) … Further evidence of how corporate footwear deals make everyone behave like douchebags. … It was a very uni-uneventful World Series, but here’s a great tidbit from AJ Chalifour: All Series long, Mark Teixeira was wearing a pink MLB logo on his jersey.
Okay, let’s get right to it: the Broncos/Pats game. I saw most of the game and have pored over a buttload of photos from various sources. After all of that, my thoughts are as follows:
• First and foremost, whether the Broncos looked “good” or “bad” (I think there was some of both) is not the point. The point is that they were revisiting a chapter from their history — a chapter most of us had never seen, and that almost nobody had seen in color, a chapter that has become semi-legendary and is therefore worthy of further study, even if only as a re-enactment. That’s the value of a project like this, even if the uniforms in question look like shit. And I’m not saying they did look like shit, mind you — I’m just saying that’s not the real issue at hand.
• The vertically striped socks were fun, but where were the whites? The early-’60s Broncos (like every other pro team of that era) wore mid-level whites with their hose, and NFL rules still require mid-level whites today. True, many players nowadays have reduced the white component to just a sliver, but the Broncos didn’t even try yesterday — they just went with full-length stripes, which took things from sublime to ridiculous and, more importantly, was historically inaccurate.
It’s easy to blame the players and the equipment staff for this, but I also say, “J’accuse!” to Reebok, because they could easily have made the socks half-white and half striped (like these, only striped instead of solid). Hell, they gave the socks a white foot –why not bring the white up to the proper level? A major botch by everyone involved.
• The white-free hose led to some tomfoolery on the field, as Jabar Gaffney went candy-striped, plus I noticed a few players wearing two pairs of socks with the stripes misaligned, creating a sort of harlequin effect.
• Also worth noting that the short pants worn by so many of today’s players resulted in the stripes extending above the knee, which is not a good look. Not quite as bad as this, but getting there.
• Temperatures in Denver were below freezing but the officials stuck with their throwback attire, including the white knickers, instead of going for the cold-weather slacks. Good for them.
• Y’know, helmets with TV numbers on the side always look so damn cool. I realize teams would rather have a logo on the side, and it’s hard to argue with that, but I wish more teams could find a way to marry the two approaches, like the Chargers used to do.
• Okay, so you wouldn’t want to see that Denver uni every week, and probably ditto for the color scheme, but someone on the Chris Creamer board created this — not bad!
• Very cool that they had this flying at the stadium.
Amazing but true: I know this is gonna be hard to believe, but apparently there were also some other games in the NFL yesterday. Here are some of the visual highlights:
• Rare event in KC, as the Chiefs and Cowboys played a throwback game with no white jerseys. And since nobody has a black-and-white TV anymore, I see nothing wrong with it — let’s see more color-on-color matchups. Lots of additional pics here and here. (This game was uni-notable for another reason, as I’ll get to in a minute.)
• Chad Ochocinco finally broke out the pink chinstrap (or was it black strap a pink cup?). Meanwhile, his teammate Dan Skuta, who wears No. 51, had a No. 46 helmet. (Screen shot courtesy of Michael Kinney.)
• Love those Rams throwbacks (additional photos here). Interestingly, they didn’t spring for new helmets — they just swapped out the ram horn decals, as described in the opening graf of this story.
• Joe Skiba had told me that the Giants’ ghosted Reebok logos would no longer be a problem, but apparently he was mistaken. Naturally, I think it’s great. Too bad every team can’t have this “problem.”
• In that same game, David Garrard’s NOB was stretched into an arc (probably because the jersey had been glued or Velcroed to his pads). Not sure if the last “R” in his name was backwards or just stretched into a new shape, but it looked bad either way. (Thanks to Matt Takimoto for the screen shot.)
• Just what the world’s been waiting for: pink spats.
I hear there were some baseball games yesterday too, but none of those games featured vertically striped socks, so the hell with ’em.
End of an Era: The color-on-color aspect wasn’t the only unusual aspect of that Cowboys/Chiefs game. Reader J.J. Lauderdale explains:
The Chiefs’ wearing of their Dallas Texans throwback helmet snapped a 548-game streak of the Chiefs wearing nothing but their red shell, arrowhead logo, and white facemask — a streak that began on September 15, 1974, against the Jets. The Chiefs had worn gray facemasks in 1973 before changing to white in ’74.
This is the longest streak in NFL history for a team continuously wearing one helmet with no throwback, no change of logo, no change of facemask color, etc. If you ask people who had the longest streak, most people guess the Cowboys, Steelers, or Raiders and never get to the Chiefs. But many of the teams with the more classic helmets had their streaks broken during the 1994 throwback season (the Steelers, Raiders, and Cardinals, for example), when they wore throwbacks or blank shells. The Chiefs, however, wore their regular lids in 1994, keeping their streak intact.
The four next longest streaks in history are:
• Cardinals, 1960-1994: They wore that bird head logo on a white helmet for 499 straight games before using the blank shell for a throwback game against the Browns in 1994.
• Raiders, 1964-1994: Wore their current helmet for 446 straight games before going retro for the 1994 75th-anniversary season.
• Browns, 1975-2005: 434 straight games for the white-facemask version of their helmet. Then they switched to a gray mask.
• Cowboys, 1977-2004: 432 straight games between the 1976 bicentennial helmet (the one with the red stripe) and the first time they donned the white throwbacks.
Now that the Chiefs’ streak has been broken, the longest current streak belongs to the Bengals. They’re at about 238 games, dating back to 1994 (not sure exactly which week they last wore the 1994 throwback helmet, so it may be off a week or two).
Stellar research there by J.J. — thanks, buddy.
New Sponsor: As you may have noticed, we have a new advertiser at the top of the page: Homage Clothing, which produces some nifty T-shirts, many of them Ohio-themed. Check out their stuff, and thanks for continuing to support all our advertisers.
Singles Going Steady Fast: Today’s the last day for this batch of indie singles that I’m selling on eBay. I’ll put another batch up for sale later this week.
Uni Watch News Ticker: You know, uniforms are cool and all, but I’ve recently felt like my life was missing something, sort of an undefined emptiness that I didn’t know how to fill. Then Kirsten turned me on to this, and life is much, much better now. … New mask for Jason LaBarbera, continuing his Metallica theme (as spotted by John Muir). … You know what’s great about pink? Everyone loves it (with thanks to Mark Tang). … Also from Mark: Some great old photos from the Northeastern photo archive, including fantastic team portraits of the football and hockey squads, plus a spectacular Bruins photo. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Someone has created a very cool New Jersey Devils maize maze. … Yup, no question, Rush Limbaugh is gonna be great for the Rams. … Fascinating chapter in college football history is described in this video clip — highly recommended (big thanks to Brian Willette). … Jim Ransdell, who does the excellent Sports Design Blog, was recently interviewed on NPR’s Studio 360 program on the subject of this year’s NFL throwbacks. … Bears’ dark-blue pants are discussed in the last entry on this Q&A page (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Hmmm, didn’t MLB retire No. 42? (As spotted by Doug Steffenson.) … Jordan Farmar has changed his uni number from 5 to 1, which is the number he wore in college (with thanks to Matthew Wolfram). … “This is the most confusing uniform confrontation ever,” says Bill Blewett. “That’s the Lyman Raiders vs. the Phillip Scotties out here in South Dakota. It was a home game for Lyman (I think).” … Jeremy Brahm reports that the Rakuten Golden Eagles gave their rookie pitcher Hiromichi Fujiwara a necktie for being the “Promising Newcomer (rookie).” … Nice collection of cages from old catchers’ masks (thanks, Kirsten). … The Colorado Eagles of the CHL did the pink thing the other night, but the real news is that the ref got in on the act. “The linesmen were in the normal zebra stripes, though,” says Michael Putlack. … Nothing enhances the view of a football field like a nearby power plant. That’s from a bunch of power/energy-related photos by the great photographer Mitch Epstein. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Big Klu as an Angel. … Some interesting info and photos regarding the Twins’ new ballpark here (with thanks to Brad Lappin). … Harvard goalie Ryan Carroll’s backplate reads “In fide et in bello fortes,” which translates to “Strong in faith and war” (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Dan Hastings came across a Seahawks logo he’d never seen before, and neither had I. Looks like it was modeled on this old Eagles logo. Anyone ever seen the Seahawks version before? … Not sure I’ve ever seen baseball pants with the team name printed down the side. … Complete President’s Cup apparel wrap-up here. … Happy Thanksgiving to Teebz and all our other Canadian readers.
We have a lot to cover today, boys and girls, so let’s get started:
• The Giants continue to have issues with their Reebok logos, which of course amuses me no end. Alas, this is probably the last we’ll see of this particular problem. I can’t divulge all the details, but let’s just say it’s been addressed and shouldn’t happen again. Too bad.
• What are those orange tabs in Mark Sanchez’s helmet? Are those the radio speakers? If so, I’ve never seen them stand out so clearly like that.
• Speaking of helmet radios, Michael Vick didn’t have a green dot yesterday (presumably because he wasn’t always used as a QB, right?).
• And speaking of the Eagles’ radio-equipped helmets, they don’t just have a green dot — they also have an extra i.d. label.
• No photo, but I was really surprised to see Tennessee cornerback Ryan Mouton returning punts bare-handed — no gloves! (Not sure if he also went gloveless while playing defense.) As it happens, he fumbled twice, which makes me wonder if he’ll be wearing gloves — or returning punts — next week.
• Similarly, it’s surprising to see Rams TE Daniel Fells going gloveless — and with the old-school tape loops on his fingers to boot!
• Oh, right — this. Frankly, I don’t have a lot to say about it, other than the obvious: It’s a very poor piece of design, and it takes the Seahawks’ inexplicable fascination with that neon-snot tone (which I have never liked — not on the pants, not on the logo eyeball, not on the gloves) to its logical conclusion. In other words, they’ve taken the worst element in a bad identity package and blown it up to its full potential. Congrats!
When Phil, Michael Princip, and I first proposed this design as an April Fool’s joke last spring, it was just a fun prank. We didn’t realize a bunch of idiots in the Seattle front office would take it as some sort of frat-boy dare. This would be flattering if it weren’t so depressing.
Anyway, now that we know the power of a Uni Watch April Fool’s rumor, next year I’ll be sure to propose something more useful, like the Mets ditching the black, or universal single-payer health care, or Guy Fieri developing laryngitis. Promise.
(Thanks to everyone who submitted tips and screen shots, including Bryan Stabbe, Mako Mameli, Max Sellman, Wayne Koehler, Steve Cadger, Chad Todd, and Mat Bernstein.)
Busy Week: On Wednesday, my annual NHL season-preview column will be running on ESPN.com. In addition, I’m going to have a companion column devoted to goalies’ new gear (not just masks, but also pads and blockers) — not sure yet if this bonus column will be running on ESPN or here on the blog. Plus I have a small NFL-related item running on the Page 2 index page right now (scroll down to the lower-left corner).
I’ll post updates here on the blog as things sort themselves out. Stay tuned, etc.
That’s all I can stand, I can’t stands no more: My Earthlink account had yet another major hiccup on Friday, the two primary results of which are as follows: (1) If you sent me anything between noon-ish on Friday and early Saturday morning, I probably didn’t receive it. And (2) I’m changing e-mail accounts.
So as of right now, Uni Watch’s new e-mail address is uniwatching [at] gmail dot com. All Ticker contributions and other uni-related correspondence should go to that address. I also have a new my personal address: plukas64 [at] gmail dot com (but please don’t use that one for uni-related stuff).
I’m keeping the Earthlink addresses active for a while and am forwarding them to my Gmail account, but please update your address books now. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the very nice throwbacks that Oregon wore on Saturday. But just in case, there are plenty of photos available here. … Here’s a great shot of the thick memorial armband that the Pirates wore in 1932 in remembrance of team owner Barney Dreyfuss (with thanks to Bruce Menard). … New mask for Brett Johnson (with thanks to Zack Tanner). … Hey, is this the first time Arkansas has worn merit decals? (As spotted by Justin Bates.) … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: First 10 mins. or so of this podcast features Greg Coleman talking about his role as a NFL uni cop. … Steelers will be wearing their throwbacks twice this season. … Unusual scene in the ring on Saturday night, and Vitali Klitschko and Chris Arreola both wore black trunks for their WBC heavyweight title bout. … The Cubs wore that little cub-head patch on their left sleeve for most of the 1960s, but here’s Lou Brock wearing it on his right sleeve — weird (good catch by Matt DeLeon). … Speaking of sleeves, those green sleeve patches worn by college football coaches two days ago were part of a muscular dystrophy initiative. … Small item at the very end of this page indicates that the Cavs will be wearing a 40th-season patch this season (thanks, Vince). … Speaking of the NBA, I was up at their offices on Friday and saw all the new stuff for this season, and some for next season. Lots of interesting things in the works — stay tuned. … Ryan Simmelink has created a new web site called Baseball Backs, in which he creates Photoshopped versions of MLB rear-jersey views. … Some cool old University of New Hampshire sports photos here (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Good eye by Chris Mangan, who notes that several NHLers are using a new brand of stick — a brand whose name sounds pretty damn good to me. Anyone know more? … Hey, remember how Sheldon Brown wore a Jason mask for pregame intros last week? That’ll cost him (with thanks to Kenny Ocker). … Terry Proctor sent along a nice Ruby’s Sporting Goods ad that ran in the Rochester Amerks program in 1965. … Happy High Heeb Holy Days to those of you who are observing (although if you’re really observing, shouldn’t you be off starving yourself in a corner and contemplating your sins, not reading a sports blog?).
In late July I got a note from longtime reader Richard Craig, who’d stumbled upon an interesting uni-related attraction in an unlikely place:
Last weekend I was cruising through the wine country out here in California, doing a few tastings but mostly just enjoying the scenery. Driving along the Silverado Trail in Calistoga, I was just about to sail on past the Silver Rose Winery when at the last moment I noticed a little sign near the driveway. I did a double-take, hit the brakes and went inside.
It was a surprise to find this in a winery (though if you own a winery, I’m sure you can afford a helmet collection). I got the guy’s contact info in case you’re interested in talking to him.
And that’s how I recently found myself speaking with Derrick Dumont, who, I think it’s safe to say, is the only vintner in America who also has a world-class football helmet collection. Here’s how our discussion went down:
Uni Watch: You’re obviously a football fan. Did you play football when you were younger?
Derrick Dumont: I did play Division II college, back I the early ’80s. Always loved the sport.
UW: What position?
DD: I was a receiver. Even after college, I was always looking for flag football leagues to play in. I think the last time I played in an organized flag league was about 12 years ago, when I was 37.
UW: How long have you been in the winery biz?
DD: We’ve had the property since 1985, and I joined the family business in ’93. We’re what you call a resort winery — we have a small hotel on-site with 20 guestrooms, as well as a small winery where we produce less than 2000 cases a year.
UW: And how’d you get into the helmet thing?
DD: Prior to joining the family business, I had another job that involved a lot of travel, and — well, actually, to tell the story properly, you have go back to fourth grade, when I was on my first team and my dad helped me paint all the helmets so they all matched.
UW: A Pop Warner team?
DD: This was actually just organizing our own little group to play against another elementary school. Even in our pick-up games when I was a little kid, I’d paint my own jersey out of a T-shirt so I could pretend to be a particular player.
UW: So you were thinking in uni-related terms very early on. Was that important to you, to have your helmet be just so?
DD: Yes, definitely.
UW: And when your dad helped you paint your team’s helmets, did you ask him to help you, or was it his idea? Like, was he saying that you kids needed to look good out there?
DD: No, it was me asking for his help, because I wasn’t very good at spray-painting. I designed a little “A” for our logo, because our school was called Addison. So we made a stencil, sprayed it on, and sprayed a stripe. He showed me how to do that.
UW: It must have killed you when the paint got chipped or got dirty during the game, right?
DD: No, it held up fine. Our collisions weren’t that intense.
UW: Do you still have that original helmet?
DD: No. But that’s how I got started.
UW: Did you also collect the little mini gumball helmets?
DD: Yeah, I had those for a while. And football cards. I don’t know what happened to all that stuff. Then, a few years after I got out of college, I went to visit one of my old roommates. And he had his high school helmet, plus our college helmet. And I said, “Wow, how did you get that? That is so cool!” And I thought, “I’ve gotta do that. I need to make replica helmets for all the teams I played for.”
UW: So he had made these helmets himself? He hadn’t gotten them from the schools?
DD: Exactly, he did it himself. And I thought that was the greatest thing, so I started with that, making my Pop Warner, high school junior college, and college helmets, and from there it just kinda went crazy.
UW: So all the helmets that you have displayed at the winery — you made all of those?
DD: A few of them were bought. But 95% of them I’ve made. Some of them were beat-up old helmets I found garage sales and flea markets. And when I was traveling for my old job, whenever I was in a town I’d look up the oldest sporting goods store, tell them about my project, and we’d go down in the basement and find these brand-new helmets that were 20, 30 years old.
UW: And you’d buy those?
DD: Sometimes they just gave them to me! Most of the time they’d charge me a little, almost nothing, because they didn’t know what to do with ’em. And they knew I wasn’t going to be using them on my head, or on anyone else’s head, so they felt comfortable letting them go like that. So then I’d sand them down, repaint them, and then I either painted the logo, made the logo, or was able to obtain the logo.
UW: When you say “obtain,” you mean you got a decal?
DD: Yeah. Because those are usually pretty readily available. And I’ve always tried to keep things matched up, so that I’m using the right helmet for the era of a particular logo.
UW: In other words, you wouldn’t use a 1990s Riddell helmet for a 1960s Redskins design.
DD: Exactly.
UW: And I can see from the photos that you obviously keep the facemasks era-appropriate as well.
DD: Yes. So, slowly but surely, I’ve been able to keep the collection growing, adding the USFL designs, and then the WFL from the ’70s, and the XFL. And since I was born in Canada, I’ve added the Canadian Football League, back to the ’60s. Now I’ve gotta look at this new UFL. I haven’t done any of the girls’ leagues yet.
UW: I’ve gotta get you talking with Bill Jones. He’s this guy in Texas who’s the king of gumball helmets — he makes them himself, and he’s found every obscure league you can imagine. Like, if there’s a women’s over-50 league in Australia, he’s done their helmets. And he’s always looking for more — it’s like an addiction with him. I think that’s where you’re headed.
DD: Possibly, yeah.
UW: How many helmets do you have displayed there at the winery?
DD:About 250. And I have a few hundred helmets on hand that I can make into new designs. I still have some gaps to fill — I don’t have all of the 1960 designs from the AFL, for example, and I’ve only done about half of the arena league. So it’s still a work in progress.
UW: What’s the story with the leather helmets?
DD: Those aren’t replicas — those are old, original helmets that I’ve managed to acquire. I’ve got one for every decade that leather helmets were used.
UW: When did you start displaying your helmets at the winery?
DD: In early June.
UW: Oh, so it’s a very new thing.
DD: Yes.
UW: So up until now, you’ve just been pursuing this privately, in your basement or whatever.
DD: Exactly.
UW: Did you have them displayed, like in your rec room or something like that?
DD: Some of them. But most of them were just sitting in boxes until we decided, “Well, we need something to attract people to our winery.” You know, we’re a small operation here in Napa Valley, and we need a reason for people to come to our tasting room instead of all the other ones out there.
UW: So you saw a way for your collector obsession to be put to use as a bit of marketing.
DD: Yeah, that’s what we’re hoping. Actually, we’re going through a bit of a transition here, because our goal is to become more of a wine sports bar.
UW: Does your helmet museum have an official name?
DD: Right now we’re just saying, “Silver Rose Presents 100 Years of Pro Football History.”
UW: You don’t charge admission for this, do you?
DD: No.
UW: Have you tried to promote via the local media?
DD: One of the local papers wrote something, but I haven’t really had a chance yet to publicize it. But we’ve updated our sign out front — originally it just said, “Football Helmet Museum,” but now it includes a blue helmet.
UW: So how has the response been so far? Has anyone come in specifically to see the helmets?
DD: There have definitely been people who’ve come in because they saw the sign. And a few of the locals came by when that article ran in the local paper.
UW: What about people who were coming for the wine and didn’t realize that they’d be surrounded by all these football helmets?
DD: It’s been amazingly great. People are pretty impressed — they think it’s cool. Some of them are a bit confused, they’ll say, “Why football helmets?” And we’ll just say, “Well, we want to be different than everyone else.” Other wineries might have some fancy artwork or Ansel Adams photos, but we’re kind of bucking the trend with our sweaty football helmets.
UW: I guess it really is bucking the trend, or even somewhat counterintuitive, because the standard perception is that the intersection of football and alcohol begins and ends with beer. You think of football fans drinking beer, sports bars serving beer, and obviously there’s lots of beer advertising during NFL games. When you think about football fans, you don’t usually think about wine. For that matter, when you think of wine, you don’t generally think about football.
DD: We haven’t had any problem in that regard. When people see how many helmets we have and the history behind them, they appreciate it. And I’ve put together a catalog that has a picture of every helmet on our wall, the story behind it, what style it is…
UW: Oh, you’ve put together a guide to the museum, sort of a program?
DD: Right. I’ve put together a catalog, in a binder, so people can take a look and get more information about the helmets.
UW: What about women? I’d think that the wine demographic has a higher concentration of women than you’d normally find among football fans. If a couple comes in, does the guy get all excited when he sees the helmets and then the woman is sitting there rolling her eyes?
DD: Not really. I mean, maybe a couple of times, but overall it’s been really well received. A lot better than I expected, in fact. That’s what’s been so exciting.
UW: You were worried it might not go over so well?
DD: I wasn’t 100% sure how people would take it. But I’ve been very pleasantly surprised. It’s made me proud of what I’ve accomplished.
UW: You should be! What about your family, what do they think? Are you married?
DD: Yes, and I have four boys. They all play football. In fact, everyone in the family is a football fan, including my wife.
UW: And what has she thought of your hobby over the years?
DD: She’s been pretty supportive. She’s just glad to have a little more room in the house now that I’ve moved the helmets over to the winery.
UW: What about your kids? Do they share your passion for getting a uniform just right?
DD: Yeah, when they’re getting ready for game, they have their little rituals, just like I did when I played.
UW: What sort of rituals did you have?
DD: When I was in high school, I always had to tape my shoes so they looked nice and white. I’d tape ’em up and then repaint the stripes on ’em. And I always used knee pads for my hip pads, before they got a little stricter about the padding. If I could’ve gone without padding, I probably would have.
UW: How much money would you estimate you’ve spent on this hobby over the years?
DD: Hmmmm… [Long pause.]
UW: Ballpark.
DD: I’d say I average about $30 a helmet. So that figure, times 250 helmets, means about $7500. Actually, it could have been a lot more — I’m kind of a stickler about price, so I’ve turned down some helmets that I’ve seen for sale, because I thought they were overpriced.
UW: And do those helmets now haunt your memory?
DD: Yeah. I passed up some beat-up old Riddell helmets, and now you don’t see those anymore, even on eBay.
UW: What about college football helmets? You have lots of pro leagues represented in your collection, but not much in the way of college.
DD: I’ve done a few college helmets, but only ones were I really liked the logo or the history, like the Michigan and Texas. Air Force, too. But I’ve really concentrated on pro football.
UW: What if you want to expand the museum? How much more room for on the walls do you have?
DD: I still have some open hooks…
UW: Yeah, how’d you come up with that hook system? It looks ingeniously simple.
DD: I saw something similar somewhere — where was that? Anyway, I saw something where they just had the hook in the earhole, and it gives it just a little tip especially when you’re looking up, so it works really well. I haven’t counted exactly how many open hooks I still have, but my guess would be about 20 or so.
UW: And you mentioned that you wanted to have a wine sports bar. Would that be in this same space, where the helmets are now?
DD: Yeah.
UW: And do you envision expanding that concept, where you’d have maybe a chain of these wine sports bars or something ike that?
DD: That is a possibility — replicating this concept. Especially when you have companies like Helmet Hut creating such amazing helmet product. I think I’m pretty fussy, but I think the Helmet Hut product is absolutely perfect.
UW: Do you know those guys personally?
DD: No.
UW: They’re really amazing people, and they’re such sticklers for historical details.
DD: Yeah, I’ve bought some of their helmets and have really been blown away by how authentic they are. And it’s great that they sell the old facemasks, and even the old clips for the facemasks, because those can get brittle and break, so it’s great to have a place to buy those. For someone like me, it’s a dream come true. And, actually, it’s helped me start my own custom-helmet business, which is called Your Helmet Your Way.
UW: And how is that different from Gridiron Memories?
DD: They aren’t taking the logo thing as far as I am. If someone wants to do a replica of their high school or Pop Warner helmet, I’m willing to do just one, as long as they can get me a photo. No one was really doing that, so I’ve got a little niche there. I started that a little over a year ago.
UW: And how has that gone?
DD: Surprisingly well, considering how the economy has gone. Some corporations have actually hired me to do helmets for them.
UW: You mean, like a company’s logo on a football helmet, as a promotional item, even if they never had anything to do with football?
DD: Right.
UW: Wow, you’re gonna be way past the wine business before you know it. That’s really interesting. And do you promote this operation of yours within the museum at the winery?
DD: I do have one small display for the business, yes.
========
Faaaaascinating. Big thanks to Derrick for sharing his collection, and to Richard Craig for tipping me wise to this great story. But I’m still sticking with beer.
Uni Watch Stirrup Club Update: Comrade Robert Marshall has just returned from the front lines of the stirrup revolution. He offers this report of the proceedings:
1) Our third-party supplier fed me some misinformation. Turns out the cardinal stirrup is not a “standard” design but a special order, and as such it takes four weeks to produce, not two. When this is coupled with the upcoming Uni Watch vacation, we need to offer up the next selection before our current order arrives in order to stay on our monthly schedule.
2) My disappointment with our previous dealer (for numerous reasons) has led me to take steps to ensure we have a direct connection with Twin City Knitting. How will that affect things? First and foremost, it means cheaper hosiery for all, and I should also be able to accommodate a wider variation of size requests. But most importantly, it means I now have TCK’s ear, and I am already trying to work on new offerings to better satisfy the people. No matter how abstract the message may sometimes be here, do not doubt my commitment to the spread of right proper hosiery through direct action.
3) This months choices are pure chicago, with four separate offerings. That’s right, we were able to handle two, so I am going to try to offer four per month from now on. So what with the increased choices, and the previously stated changes, I beg of you, even if you think you know what to do, please read the abbreviated instructions carefully, and follow the directions precisely.
Raffle Results: The 10 winners of the Bill Henderson MLB jersey guide are Brennan Barber, Eric Buettner, Bryan Duklewski, David Frost, Rob Ullman, Chris Stoppel, Bill Sour, Chris Milea, David Jackson, and Jerry Meyerowitz. All of you should contact me asap with your shipping addresses. Thanks!
Uni Watch News Ticker: A New Jersey politician doesn’t like the Nets’ new road jersey (with thanks to Timothy Collins). … Oooh, check out the cool cartoon on the cover of this year’s Patriots media guide (with thanks to Yancy Yeater). … New Bobcats unis visible in this video clip. Apparently they’ll have pinstripes. … New logo for the 2009 FIVB Men’s Club World Volleyball Championship, to be played in Qatar in November (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … The Red Sox had to buy a vowel over the weekend (great find by Tom Mulgrew). … More slop from the UFL here (with thanks to Marc Altieri). … It’s tough to see for sure, but Gabe Greenbaum says this minor leaguer is wearing stirrups with no sannies! … Are you an artist? Wanna create something for the Marlins’ new ballpark? Then you’ll wanna take a look at this page (thanks, Kirsten). … Ray Emery’s new mask is a tribute to Philadelphia boxing (with thanks to Enrico Campitelli Jr.). … Great article saluting single-bar facemasks here (big thanks to Larry Kurtze). … Here’s one guy’s assessment of the best Steelers by uni number (with thanks to David Potter). … The saga of the A’s helmet decals continues. Looks like Adam Kennedy is back to the old helmet style, plus his decal appears to be sitting a bit low (good spot by Brandon Davis). … The Massachusetts lottery has introduced a new Patriots-themed scratch-off ticket, and Bob Kraft presented a jersey to Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy Cahill with a “Massachusetts” NOB and the number 351, for all of the cities and towns in the state (with thanks to Scott Davis). … Excellent spot from Brent Hardman, who notes that Bengie Molina appears to have a small pocket, or something like that, sewn into the chest of his jersey. … Brent also sent along this great shot of himself and his son at Falcons training camp. “One fan dressed in full uniform (old logo) in the 90-degree heat, while the actual team was practicing in helmets and shorts,” he says.
Nineteen days isn’t so long: Beginning tomorrow, Uni Watch will go on summer hiatus through the end of August. We’ll be open for business again on September 1st. No need to send Ticker contributions during this period, although college football news is very welcome. I’ll have at least two ESPN columns running while the blog is inactive. If you want to stay up to date, sign up for my mailing list, which will keep you in the loop.
I only caught the last few minutes of the Hall of Fame Game last night. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of internet photo galleries, I can bring you the uni-related highlights anyway:
• In recent weeks, it had looked like the Bills were gonna go with this pants stripe pattern. But they ended up going with this instead.
• Take another look at that helmet photo. Notice anything? No NFL logo! In fact, the NFL shield was absent from both teams’ helmets. That’s nothing new for the Bills, whose throwback helmets have been shield-free for years now. It’ll be interesting to see if the Titans — and/or other teams partaking in the AFL throwback series — continue to eschew the league logo.
• Now go back to that Jeff Fisher shot. See how the logo on his shirt is all faded? That’s not a glitch — both coaching staff wore shirts with “distressed” emblems. I hate that faux-vintage approach (if you want a beat-up old Bills shirt, spend some time in thrift stores like I do), but I do find it interesting that they’d use that look for the coaches — a much more casual look than the usual coaching attire.
• The officials looked so damn great. A few people in last night’s comments were griping about the socks or the uni numbers not being fully accurate, but AFL officials had a wide range of looks over the years — they didn’t have just one standardized number font, e.g. I’m perfectly fine with how they’ve handled this.
• The red gloves that were worn by members of both teams reeeaaaally don’t belong in a throwback game.
• Bills owner Ralph Wilson wore his Hall of Fame blazer. But hey, Ralph, we gotta talk about those sneakers.
I’m sure there was a whole lot more that I missed, but I was busy catching the world debut of the Pedestrians. More on that later. For now, enjoy the onset of football season try not to melt today.
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off 10 free copies of Bill Henderson’s amazing MLB jersey guide. To enter, send an e-mail to the raffle address by 7pm tomorrow. One entry per person, except for Uni Watch Membership Program enrollees, who can send four separate entries. I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday.
Research Project: We’ve all long lamented the fact that there’s no online database for NBA uniform history. Now reader Chuck Myron wants to do something about that. He’s willing to do the archival research, but he’ll need help creating the illustration templates and the web site itself. If you’re interested in helping him out, contact him here. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some guy on eBay is selling some really great baseball-themed Cuban pin-up posters. I just bought this one, and there are additional examples here, here, here, here, and here. … Bizarre coincidence: In last week’s ESPN column, I mentioned that I’d met a collector named Michael Ono, who’s been collecting USC alum autographs. Got a note from him on Friday, thanking me for including him in the column, with a twist: Turns out that he’s been the creative services manager for the A’s for nearly a decade (”I thought I was the only one who knew about the various discrepancies in our logo,” he says) and even designed their 40th-anniversary patch last year. So when I interviewed him at the convention, I was talking to a professional logo guy and didn’t even realize it. Small world and all that. … Red Sox third base coach DeMarlo Hale appears to be wearing the same flapless Wilson helmet design worn by A.J. Pierzynski (good spot by Andy Chalifour). … New logo for GW hoops (with thanks to Dan Franko). … Whoa, check this out: a black Ohio State hoops uni. The design was never worn on the court (thankfully), but it’s still interesting (with thanks to Dylan Glickman). … Small change for Iowa football, where the chest wordmark has been replaced by a collar logo (with thanks to Matthew Nelson). … The Raiders have posted a bunch of archival photos, many of them spectacular, on their web site. Check out image No. 9 and you’ll see them playing against a decal-less Broncos team. Preseaon, perhaps? (Major thanks to Mako Mameli.) … Didn’t know AT&T Park had a Giants uni display until Brinke Guthrie sent me these pics. … I might actually watch soccer if it was played by kangaroos. That’s the logo for the bidding for the 2018-2022 World Cups in Australia (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Those Adidas college football practice jerseys, first seen on Tennessee, are also being worn by other schools, including Notre Dame, Kansas, and Indiana. … New football uniforms Louisville. In addition to the new striping, Louis Samuels notes that the QBs already have hand-warmer pockets — odd for August, no? … And according to the very last sentence on this page, Pitt will be unveiling new Nike uniforms today (with thanks to CJ Giannuzzi). … Here’s a NickNOB. That’s Yuji Nakazawa of the Yokohama F Marinos in the J-League (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Matthew Hiett notes that Braves first base coach Glenn Hubbard still has the 4ALS decal on his helmet. … Lots of good shots of Babe Ruth as a pitcher here (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Scott Little sent a bunch of scans from a Tokyo Giants mag. Among the highlights: a guide to the uniforms worn by the stadium staff at the ballpark and some sort of “design the uni contest” (look here, here, and here). … Also from Scott: Maybe the best “Official [whatever] of the [league]” sponsorship ever and some killer furniture. … Ricko sent me scans of a ticket brochure from the old Minnesota Buckskins of World Team Tennis. “I was league PR director and a minority owner in the Buckskins,” he explains. “I didn’t do the paintings, but I did design the unis and the logo (well, drew the intentionally unisex character and my dad did the lettering, by hand). Note that the women are shown wearing two different colors — brown was to be the road uni. Men’s road would have flip-flopped the brown and gold on the uni shown. All moot, though, cuz the majority owner didn’t wanna pop for the custom unis.” … Super-cool interactive map on old Indiana basketball gyms here (great find by Ben Traxel). … Dr. John C. Barnes notes that UNLV appears to have changed their black helmet stripe to a red stripe. … Mark Teixeira was missing the 2 on his helmet last night (as spotted by Mike Lafferty). … “This watch ad ran in various football game programs, including those at Dartmouth, in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” says Tris Wykes. “It ran with the image reversed year after year, and they failed to correct it. That’s Columbia at Harvard, in case you’re wondering. Interesting that the helmet logos weren’t airbrushed out.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Chris Cooley’s latest blog entry is all about uniform fines. … Check out this completely amazing vintage SF Giants apron! It’s available for sale here. … The Cowboys have been engaging in some haircut-based rookie hazing. … The long-rumored new Arizona State jerseys look like this. … Ladies and gentlemen, your new Philadelphia 76ers. … Someone on the Chris Creamer board showed a small scan showing that Broncos-style vertically striped socks were briefly featured in the Wilson catalog.
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.
~ ~ ~
Our next tracker is Patrick Campbell, who keeps tabs on the Braves:
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.
~ ~ ~
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
~ ~ ~
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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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.
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
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:
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.
We start today off with Billy DePriest, who tracks the Orioles:
Our next tracker is Patrick Campbell, who keeps tabs on the Braves:
Next up is George Lesko, another of our Pirates trackers:
Moving on, we have Timothy Killeen who is a Phillies tracker:
Next up is Andrew Greenwood “Greenie” who is a Brewers tracker:
Next up is Justine DeCotis, who is a Red Sox tracker:
Moving along, our next tracker is U2Horn, who has been keeping tabs on the Rangers:
Our next tracker is Gregg Girard, who like me, is a Mets tracker:
Continuing on, we have Dwayne White, one of our Marlins trackers:
Next up is Shawn Tunick, who is yet another Braves tracker:
Next is Brandon Davis, an A’s tracker:
We continue with Chris Mehler, self-described “Die Hard (literally) Cubs fan:”
Next up is Jeff Barak, Twins tracker:
And squeaking in at the last moment is Alex “Insert Name Here” Poterack, who tracks the Brewers:
FOOTBALL IS BACK tonight, with the 
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? 
Since you got five Benchies yesterday (a “Monday” thru “Friday” offering), today we’ll give you:
The 
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 
So, we’re going on vacation for a little while, but not until the end of next week (details 
