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Posts filed under 'History'
The more you poke around in various archives, the more surprising it becomes that nobody ever came up with a dedicated uniform column or beat before I did. There’s certainly been plenty of uni-related material published over the years, and some publications have even pursued extended uni-centric themes. We’re going to look at two of those publications today.
The first example is the May 16, 1962, edition of The Sporting News. I came across this issue when Ricko told me he remembered TSN running a Willard Mullin-style uni-centric comic or cartoon on the front page during the ’62 season. I poked around and, sure enough, found this (not just Mullin-style, but actually by Mullin).
The cartoon is awesome — if you haven’t already done so, take a second to read all of it — but that wasn’t the only uni-related content in that issue of TSN. The front page also featured this article about 19th-century uniforms (here’s the jump), which was accompanied by lots of little sidebar items: This one is about the short-lived 1800s practice of each position being assigned a different-colored cap; this one is about the sloppy uniform standards of the 1890s; this one shows a Cooperstown exhibit of an 1876 uniform; and this one shows the cover an 1890 uniform catalog that I would sorely love to own. Note that the caption indicates that point collars on jerseys were no longer used by 1911, but subsequent Okkonen research indicates otherwise (there are several additional examples, too). Once again, I’m not playing “Gotcha!” here — just providing yet another example of how hard it can be to pin these things down, and how skeptical we should be of pronouncements that claim to establish definitive dates for poorly documented eras.
A quarter-century after that Sporting News issue, Sports Illustrated ushered in the 1989 baseball season with, among other things, a lengthy examination of uniforms in its April 5, 1989, issue. The special section was called “Fabric of the Game,” and it’s worth reading — start here, and then move on here, here, here, and here. As you can see, there are also lots of sidebars devoted to things like stirrup styles, the ever-evolving White Sox, some of history’s more questionable design decisions, and so on. Most of it is pretty good — worthwhile reading. If you have a hard time making out the type in the pages I’ve uploaded, go to this link, click on “Show Thumbnails,” scroll ahead to pp. 112-13, and then click “Zoom In” for a better view as you page through the material (or you can read the text-only version — no photos or other graphics — here).
It was almost exactly 10 years later that I approached SI with the idea for Uni Watch. They were very receptive, and I even wrote two pieces for them, but they both got bumped when “more important” stories came up. Then MLB floated an idea about possibly putting ads on jerseys (I remember reading that article on the subway while on my way to cover a non-uni story for a design magazine — funny how certain things can stay with you like that), and I figured, “Great, that’s my beat!” but my SI editor assigned the story to someone else. Between that and the two bumped articles, I was getting the pretty clear message that SI wasn’t taking Uni Watch or me very seriously, so I told them, “Y’know, this doesn’t seem to be working out” and took the column to The Village Voice instead (much lower visibility, natch, but it turned out to be a good incubator for the project’s voice and vision). In retrospect, maybe I should have approached The Sporting News — Uni Watch would’ve been a nice continuation of what I now realize has been their longstanding devotion to uni-related material.
Uni Watch News Ticker: “I teach 4th grade and come across sport books and picture books all the time,” writes Ryan Simmelink. “I came across the book Oliver’s Game by Matt Tavares, which is about a grandpa who had a shot at playing with the Cubs back in 1941. Tavares must have done some research, because many of his pictures are very detailed and accurate. In this picture, you can see the zipper on the jersey. This one is baggy and shows the vest. And this one shows the correct wishbone-C on the caps.” … Very interesting photo here from the 1968 Tangerine Bowl. As you can see, it appears that Ohio University was using “OHIO” as their NOB (excellent find by John Schaefer). … Brian Hilemon notes that Jake Peavy saluted Greg Maddux by going shin-cuffed and faux-stirruped on Wednesday night. … Good video report here about the Oregon equipment room (with thanks to Adam Reinwald). … Totally digging the buttons on Melaine Walker’s track suit (additional views here, here, here, and here). I assume they’re just ornamental, not functional, though. Anyone know for sure? … Wanna compare the Hornets’ old and new color schemes? Look here (old on the left, new on the right). … Two small but telling photos of Andy Chalifour: Here’s Glenn Hubbard wearing a cheekbone mask on his helmet, and Charlie O’Brien apparently wearing a brimless catcher’s helmet (plus some startlingly orange gear). … Bowling Green, Kentucky, is getting a new A-level baseball team, and you can vote on what it should be named. Naturally, I voted for Cave Shrimp, not only because it sounds great but also because the crustacea in question are described as “sightless albino shrimp,” which presents some awesome uni and logo possibilities. … Chris Coste’s mask used to have a Liberty Bell and a Phillies “P,” but lately he’s switched to a plain mask (sorry, no photo). Why? Branding, of course. For details, look here (with thanks to Jon Cannella). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: FNOB alert in Buffalo. … The Giants have overhauled their history section. Lots of cool photos (with thanks to Chris Gilligan). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: News (but no photos) here about the Lightning’s goalies will be wearing on their masks this season. … Phillies will be wearing 1970s throwbacks tonight. … Some really interesting info regarding recent Saints prototype designs here (big thanks to Trev Trahan). … Nice view. Details here (with thanks to Matt Shevin). … This site in a nutshell. … Sorry, no Portland report today — haven’t had time to write it up. It’ll run next week.
August 22nd, 2008
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… Four or five years ago I was bidding on these two uniform swatch books on eBay. I didn’t win, but I had a hunch that the winner might be a dealer, so I e-mailed him and asked if he was looking to sell them. “I’m a collector, not a dealer,” replied the guy, whose name was Mike Hersh. He explained that he worked in the design department for Ralph Lauren/Polo and used old sports catalogs for research, reference, and inspiration. Although he didn’t specify, I got the impression that he had quite a few of these catalogs — a lot more than I did.
Mike lived here in NYC, so I suggested that we get together for a little show-and-tell with our catalog collections. As I recall, he was a bit stand-offish, saying something like, “I’m a little busy right now — maybe later on.” He gave me his phone number, so I called him a month or two later. Got his voicemail, left a message, but never heard back from him. I figured it just wasn’t in the cards, but I kept his phone number on a Post-it stuck to my computer monitor for at least the next two years, maybe three (I even got a new computer during this period and actually transferred the Post-it from the old monitor to the new one), just to remind myself that there was a guy out there with a way better uniform catalog collection than mine.
When I wrote this entry about my uni catalogs in July of 2006, I included a little shout-out to Mike (see the third-to-last graf before the Ticker), hoping it might draw him out of the woodwork. Never heard from him, though. A few weeks after that, I regretfully discarded the Post-it with his phone number, which had morphed from motivational to just annoying.
Now fast-forward to last month — a full two years after that entry about my catalogs. Out of the blue I get a note from Mike Hersh, inviting me to come over and see his stash. Amazing! Had he been following Uni Watch all this time and finally decided it was worth his while?
Actually, no. In fact, Mike says he didn’t even know Uni Watch existed until a month or so ago (when we first corresponded several years back, I apparently told him I was obsessed with uniforms but didn’t mention that I wrote about them). So why’d he decide to get in touch? Turns out a friend of his was googling Mike’s name and stumbled across the little shout-out I had put in that 2006 entry. The friend told Mike, who realized the author of the entry was the same guy who’d been bugging him years earlier (i.e., me). He began reading some material on the site, liked it, and decided it was finally time for us to have a sit-down.
So I recently went over to Mike’s apartment, and lemme tell ya, it was worth the wait — he’s got some seriously amazing stuff. In addition to hundreds of uniform catalogs (we’ll get to those in a sec), he has some great vintage jerseys (I’ve gathered some of the nicest ones into a slideshow here), a super-cool price tag printer (inner view, front plate), a nifty little letterpress (note to Joe Hilseberg: Look what it’s called), tons of old block prints (see also here, here, and here), one of those totally boss Blatz displays (always wanted one of those myself), and a shitload of other stuff. Basically, if it’s related to sports and/or design, he collects it. He’s even got a bunch of Aussie rules football scarves (additional examples here, here, and here).
Some quick background on Mike: He’s 40 years old and grew up in Philly, where his parents were sports fans (”My father had all these old autographed leather chinstraps from the Eagles,” he says). They eventually got into the memorabilia biz, so Mike has spent plenty of time setting up tables and booths at collectibles shows, where he’s developed a good eye and a good feel for prices, appraisals, and so on. It’s also where he developed the collecting bug.
Mike studied design and illustration in school and has worked for a variety of clothing companies, including Polo, Abercrombie, and Hilfiger (at the moment he’s the director of men’s and women’s graphics for Polo’s rugby brand). All of those lines are fairly sporty, and Mike has specialized in coming up with graphics for T-shirts, hats, labels, hang tags, etc. — that’s where the old catalogs come in.
“If I want to design something, I’ll look at these old catalogs for inspiration,” he explains. “So if we want to do something based on, say, a 1930s football jersey, it’ll look authentic, instead of just mixing together various ‘retro’ elements from different eras. And if someone else at the company needs some visual reference, I’ll bring in one of my catalogs and charge them a usage fee.” (Man, I gotta get in on that racket.)
I don’t have the time or space to give the full scope of Mike’s knowledge and expertise, but trust me, this is all just a snapshot of the Mike Hersh Experience. His various collections offer a nearly inexhaustible supply of potential Uni Watch content (he’s like Ricko, only about 1200 miles closer to my house), but for now we’ll just stick to those catalogs, several of which he let me take home so I could scan and photograph them.
I’d love to give you a page-by-page breakdown of these gorgeous publications, but that would be too involved. Instead, I’ve chosen six catalogs and created a slideshow for each one. Here they are in chronological order: Wilson, 1939-40 (slideshow here, or you click on these thumbnails and then click on “All Sizes” to see super-sized versions); Lowe & Campbell, 1952-53 (slideshow, thumbnails); Southern, 1959 (slideshow, thumbnails); Wilson, 1960-61 (slideshow, thumbnails); Sand-Knit, 1972 (slideshow, thumbnails); and Champion, circa 1980 (slideshow, thumbnails). In addition, I scanned a bunch of pages from this old Rawlings fitting guide (slideshow, thumbnails), which isn’t really a catalog, but it’s certainly related. And how can you resist illustrations like this?
As for the catalogs that first led me to cross paths with Mike — the ones he outbid me on years ago — they’re nice but not particularly amazing. Good thing I didn’t win that auction — if I had, Mike and I would probably never have met.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the raffle for 1996 Atlanta Olympics banner. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Spent last weekend in and around Binghamton. Amidst all the spiedies, shuffle-bowl, diners with great signs, amazing bars with friendly dogs, time-warped department stores, ice cream stands, state border markers (that’s the Pennsylvania side; here’s the New York side), and town line markers, I was very happy to find an entire wall of old baseball photos from the region. The Binghamton-Endicott-Johnson City area used to be home to the Triple Cities Triplets, a Yankees farm team, so many of the pics were of players who eventually made it to the Bronx, like Clete Boyer. There were also older shots from the pre-Triplets days, and this one, from the days when Johnson City was known as Lestershire. (All pics by Collateral Gammage, who saved the day when my camera went on the fritz.) … Tony DeLaTorre — whose name presents endless NOB possibilities, no? — notes that Orioles rookie Lou Montanez’s NOB is rather straight (”and no, it’s not because his arms are raised,” he adds). … Yesterday I asked if anyone knew more about this sleeve patch, which prompted a near-immediate response from Todd Radom: “The patch celebrates Detroit’s 250 anniversary. It’s the same one that the Tigers wore in 1951.” … Speaking of Todd, there’s a good interview with him here. … Tons of Nike art files available for download here, and Nike’s autumn catalogs can be accessed here (with thanks to Joe Hilseberg, who also pointed me toward the latest dispatch from the Color Mafia). … Here’s a 1980 Inside Sports article about the Durham Bulls’ uniforms (with thanks to Mike Pinkowski). … More uni-numbered Red Sox stirrups here and here (with thanks to Gabe Butler). … This photo from Houston’s Fan Day was posted in yesterday’s comments. Note that Johnson (second row from the back, far right) has a different nameplate typeface than everyone else. … As many of you know, the California Seals debuted in 1967 with a “C”-based logo and then became the Oakland Seals in December of that year, switching to an “O”-based logo. All of that is explained here. What’s not explained, however, and what I’ve never seen before, is the road jersey shown here (taken from this eBay listing), with the big “Seals” lettering. “I’m guessing that picture was taken before the season started,” says Teebz. “As far as I can tell, that road jersey was never actually worn in an NHL game. If it was, I’ve never seen a picture of it.” Must have been a prototype. … Insta-photoshopping in response to breaking news is fine, but not if you’re putting a defunct cap design on a traded player (good catch by Michael Miller). … Next year’s All-Star Game logo has already been turned into a patch. No stupid “TM” or “®” marks, either (with thanks to Jonathan Chin). … Oh man, this is soooooo gorgeous. … This one isn’t quite as nice but is still interesting. … Jeffrey Moulden notes that Brady Quinn has been practicing in a Schutt helmet, instead of his usual Riddell Revolution. … New helmet for Carson Palmer, too (compare to his old model). … I’d give anything for one of these (circa-1910 photo courtesy of Antonio Bradley). … Eric Longenhagen is a sophomore at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, an intern with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, and an avid Uni Watch reader. He checks in with the following story: “Phillies reliever Rudy Seanez was scheduled to make a rehab appearance for us on Monday. He needed a size 7-1/4 home hat, but the merch. dept. was out of it. We called all over the Lehigh Valley, looking for a sporting goods store that had the right hat in the right size. No dice. So we tried to give him a flex-fit hat that looks exactly like the home hat — almost (the New Era logo is white instead of red, and the MiLB logo is all blue instead of red/blue). Seanez noticed these differences and refused to wear the hat. I have been openly nerdy when it comes to uniform-related topics, so I was told to ‘fix it.’ I took the flex-fit hat and Sharpied the white New Era flag red — simple enough. The problem was the blue embroidery on the MiLB logo. I eventually ook a small tack from an office bulletin board and used it to spread red tempera paint over the blue area. As far as I know, Mr. Seanez had no clue I had doctored his hat, and he pitched a perfect 8th inning.” … Best example ever of a two-part insignia creating the illusion of a typo (with thanks to Mike Petriello). … SI has five different covers for its college football preview issue, all viewable here. As Brent Hardman points out, all five covers feature teams sponsored by the same sportswear maker. Coincidence? … Mike Kemezis notes that Chinese Taipei’s batting helmets appear to have a raised logo patch (additional views here and here), similar to what the Cubs wear. … The Braves unveiled their Skip Caray memorial patch yesterday. It didn’t get to make its on-field debut, however, because the Braves/Cubs game was rained out. … Tom Farley sent along some absolutely incredible color football photos from the 1930s. This one is from the Marquette/Wisconsin game on 10/1/32 and shows that monochromatic uniforms go back further than we think. Can anyone tell me more about what the ref is holding? The next one shows a Packers/Cardinals game from either 1935 or ’36. And here’s the most astonishing one of the bunch: a Milwaukee high school team, circa mid-1930s. Great stuff.
August 13th, 2008
Last month I ran Book Club entries on a pair of football books that came out around 1970 (look here and here). That led several readers to point me toward another title from that same period: Murray Olderman’s The Running Backs, which came out in 1969. It’s a doozy of a book — nearly 600 pages, with lots of visuals of Uni Watch interest. Here’s a sampling:
• Lots of books show diagrams of plays. But this one supplements those diagrams with little player illustrations that are too adorable for words. Next time I see a coach diagramming a play on a chalkboard, I’m gonna be really bummed if he doesn’t include little figures like these.
• Here’s something you rarely see: a color photo of Steve Van Buren.
• I love how the Bears’ white-jersey sleeve striping is instantly recognizable, because it hasn’t really changed much over the decades.
• Less iconic but still surprisingly consistent: Check out this old Chicago Cardinals photo. The white double-striping on the red pants went largely unchanged until the team’s recent disastrous makeover.
• Really interesting facemask here.
• Can anyone tell me more about this sleeve patch?
• Can never have too many pics of Y.A.’s kitchen-sink helmet.
• Here’s a very nice shot of the Rams’ yellow jersey.
• True story: When I was six or seven years old, I reached into a box of Corn Flakes and pulled out a “3-D football card” of this guy — 49ers fullback Ken Willard. He instantly became my favorite player, and the Niners became my favorite team. I remain a Niners fan today, and it’s all because of that football card (which, alas, I no longer have).
• Good view here of the Vikings’ seldom seen purple pants (in b&w, thankfully).
• Speaking of the Vikes, check out these two photos of Tommy Mason — completely different uni number typography.
• And speaking of typography, check out the uni numbers on the Redskins (the dark jerseys) in this photo. Not quite the same as what the Pittsburgh Pirates use, but definitely related. Ditto for this shot.
• Here’s a tremendous view of the Colts’ old helmets, back when the horseshoes were on the back of the shell. I really like this view, because it basically simulates what you see when a horse is galloping away from you.
• Love the sock ribbing in this shot.
• Was Mel Farr wearing a noseguard of some sort, or was he just presaging the key line from “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard”?
• Here’s something I’ve never seen before: Red Grange with his name written on his pants. From now on we’ll refer to this as NOP.
• Still hard to believe the refs used to wear these caps.
• Here’s a rare early shot of O.J. wearing No. 36.
• Ouch.
Want your own copy? You can get one for almost nothing.
Uni Watch Northwest Road Trip: My original thought for this weekend’s Uni Watch party in Portland is that we should just have a picnic on sidewalk outside of Nike HQ, where we could lob spitballs at their security guards or something like that. But then I thought maybe the guards might be able to shoot lasers out of their swoosh-shaped eyes, so we’ll stay in Portland instead. Specifically, we’ll be convening at 2pm this Sunday, the 17th, at Kay’s. As is always the case with these excursions, some of you will salute this choice of venue while others will decry it (the latter group citing an assortment of concerns that inevitably boil down to “It’s about 15 minutes farther away from my house than this other place…”), but this isn’t open to a vote. Kay’s it shall be.
Oh, and for those of you who’d like to meet a higher-profile ESPN.com columnist than me, Portland’s own Rob Neyer will be on hand. He’ll be the one doing Jell-O shots off of his groupies’ stomachs while I sit there listening to the rest of you telling me about your jersey collections. Should be a blast — see you there.
“Try it on, stand in the mirror and dig yourself”: Speaking of Stumptown, our newest advertiser (as seen in the right-hand rail) is the Beaverton-based Pennant Race, whose very cool tees are worth checking out. At least one member of the Pennant Race crew will swing by the party on Sunday, but in the meantime please consider favoring them with your custom (read: buy some shit). Thanks.
Raffle Reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, I’m currently raffling off a unique piece of Olympics memorabilia. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I’ve linked several times over the years to this photo of Carlton Fisk, with his hand-inscribed uni number clearly visible on his stirrup. Hadn’t noticed numbered hosiery being worn by Bosox players from that period, however, until David Fitzgerald sent me this shot. And then, the very next day after David got in touch, I came across this. … Take another look at the photo David sent me and you’ll see evidence of another subject I’ve occasionally brought up: Yaz’s custom-enlarged earhole. In that photo it’s just slightly larger than normal, but he later hollowed it out to near-freakish proportions. Why even bother having an earhole if you’re gonna do that? Anyone know why he did it? … Lots of fun details in this shot of Reggie: The chipped paint on the brim, the “JAX” on his batting glove, and — my favorite — the “JAX 44″ i.d. label on his brim. … “The Islanders held a fan open-house last Saturday,” writes John Muir. “The proceedings included the official introductions of Doug Weight and 2008 1st-round pick Josh Bailey, who was presented with a gag jersey. Got a laugh from the crowd, but, there was no real point to it.” … Wanna design a mask for a backup goalie? Look here. … Some good pics among the otherwise predictable content in this gallery of late-career uni cameos. … Coupla uni-related questions in the middle of this Q&A page with Ryan Theriot. … FNOB news (courtesy of Michael Sullivan, who points out, accurately, that the supposed “league rule” cited in the article was actually changed prior to last season). … Why would you compete while wearing your wedding ring? (Thanks, Vince.) … Pedro porthole was in evidence yet again yesterday, but not for the entire game. Sorry, no photo of the porthole. … Is it just me, or does Bill Hohn look like he’s wearing a phony press-on mustache? … Remember when Jarrod Washburn had to go put on a belt? It happened again on Saturday. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Many of you may know the story of the 1964 game when the Vikings and Lions both showed up wearing white jerseys, but most of you have probably never seen photos of it before. The Vikes were the home team, so they had someone run over to their practice facility to get the team’s purple jerseys. After a quick wardrobe switcheroo during the second quarter, they were solid grape. Über-thanks to Larry Wiederecht for these tremendous screen grabs. … Big Ben’s shout-out to Charlie Batch has gotta be the biggest injury tribute ever.
FYI: Our web hosting company will be performing some maintenance for about four hours tomorrow night, beginning at roughly 11pm eastern. We may (or may not) have some connectivity problems during that period, so don’t be alarmed if things are sluggish for a few hours.
August 12th, 2008
We often talk discuss yearbooks and programs, but we don’t often talk about media guides, in large part because they’re not documented very well on the web. But now someone has put together an online exhibit of Nebraska football media guides from 1964 through 1990, and there’s a ton of great stuff. Here’s a sampling:
1964: Even in black-and-white, the two Ns — one on the field, one in the stands — is pretty inspiring.
1965: Even though I know the ’Huskers wore that cutesy number font back in the ’60s, I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it.
1967: I’m frankly a bit astonished that they had a black player pose next to a blonde white cheerleader for this cover shot in 1967.
1969: Interesting shot here. As you can see, the helmet shows the NCAA’s 100th-anniversary decal, which many teams wore that year. The thing is, Nebraska didn’t wear that decal on the side of their helmet — they wore it on the front (as seen, ironically, in several photos from the following year’s media guide cover).
1970: This year’s guide featured a cool little gallery of logos, many of which I hadn’t seen before.
1973: Some pretty cool typography and illustration here.
1974: This was the year Herbie Husker was ready for his close-up. Inside there was a page explaining his evolution.
1975: After two years of putting illustrations on the cover, they switched to one of history’s most boring photos. Seriously, does that look like a bad high school yearbook photo or what?
1976: That’s more like it.
1977: I like the de facto Big Eight helmet gallery. Less fond of the de facto cap ad they ran the following year.
1980: “By far my favorite,” says reader Ethan Rowley (who works in the Nebraska athletic dept.), and it’s hard to argue with him. Is this a media guide or a poster for a Richard Pryor film?
1982: The bare midriff was in full force in the early and mid-’80s.
1987: Very odd front cover. Almost feels more like a back cover, no? Also, note that the bare midriff is now covered by a T-shirt.
1989: The season hasn’t even started and they’re already lobbying for the Heisman. That’s pretty standard stuff nowadays, but I think it was much more “innovative” in 1989. Is this when the whole Heisman process started going down the crapper?
(Thanks to the aforementioned Ethan Rowley and also to Brian Hansen, who both told me about this online exhibit a few days ago.)
Raffle Results: The winner of the $100 gift card from SoccerPro.com is JK Chaney, who should contact me asap to claim his prize. And as for everyone who didn’t win…
Yet Another August Raffle: Here’s something you don’t see every day: a banner from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. It currently belongs to reader Mike Burnett, who explains how he acquired it:
These banners were all over the place in Atlanta, with different corporate logos on them, and in different colors. I was working at a theatre there at the time. As the games were drawing to a close, they started disappearing — even the bigger ones off the freeway. Knowing what my group had to do to get ours (several scout vehicles at the ends of streets, headset walkie-talkies, a pickup, an 18-foot extension ladder, and some quick legwork by our greaseman), I can only imagine how big a hassle it was getting one of the freeway models.
Anyway, it’s 8′6″ long and two feet wide — too large for my home, and it’s been making move after move with me. Seeing as the Olympics are coming up, and those things clutter — err, dcorate — the towns of the Olympics, I thought it might make a nice raffle prize.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know what to say. It’s not every day a reader offers to raffle off something he stole from the Olympics (nor is it every day I run a raffle listing that includes the word “greaseman”). If you’re as stirred by Michael’s generosity as I am, and if you’d like him to hand off this treasured item to you like a veritable 4-by-400 relay baton, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address, please) by 10pm eastern this Wednesday — that’s the day after tomorrow, August 13th.
I liked the way we handled the entries for the soccer raffle, so let’s try that again: If you’re enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program, you can send in up to four e-mails; everyone else gets one e-mail (and I’ll be checking multiple e-mailers against the membership roster, so don’t bother trying to cheat). The winner will be announced this Thursday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: According to the second graf of this story, the Dodgers will soon be marketing Manny Ramirez caps with built-in dreadlocks. … Scott Mason sent along some photos of pages from this book. I’ve gathered them into a slideshow here. … Awesome hockey facemask here. … Here’s a good video report on the new Michigan uniforms. Depressing to see that even the equipment manager gets stuck with the triple-stripe treatment (with thanks to David Horn). … Judging by the way Phil Hughes has been dressing during his rehab stint in Scranton, the Yankees need to reactivate him quick (with thanks to Jeff Landset). … “Baylor’s new coach, Art Briles, had the the Bears in Packers pants last week,” reports Matt Mitchell. “Up until two-a-days, they had been strictly old gold for the past 15 years or so. No word as to whether these will see game use. If so, it would certainly look better with coordinated headgear.” … “There’s gottta be a point-shaving joke here somewhere,” says Todd Fisher. … “I’m a sucker for the old minor league uniforms with a name down the placket,” writes Pacific northwest baseball guru Dave Eskenazi. “The 1911 Western League St. Joe Drummers not only had the vertical nickname on the shirt, but also the stylized ‘SJ’ on the chest, and ‘St Joe’ on the hat (quite unusual). I’d never seen this uniform until I stumbled across this series of real photo postcards.” … Do you know what the Boston Cannons have in common with the Dallas Cowboys? (More to the point, do you even know what sport the Boston Cannons play?) Look here (with thanks to Travis Holland). … We’d previously seen USF’s new road jersey, but here are the homes. Lots more pics in this gallery. … Kelvin Torve will forever be the answer to a trivia question (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Lots of game-used jerseys and helmets were on sale at LSU’s annual fan day (with thanks to Derek Ponamsky). … Potentially disturbing news from Jerime Wargo, who writes: “My friend’s brother works for Reebok. He’s in production, not design, so I usually don’t get any design info from him that I haven’t seen somewhere else first. But this afternoon the following nugget was passed along to me: ‘So, word in Reebok/Adidas world is that the Miami Dolphins contacted them today to totally reimage them. We’re talking new logo, new color scheme, and new uniforms. Why? Because, according to their front office, they want to be “tough,” and unfortunately orange and teal don’t go along with tough.’ It seems to me this is bound to end in disaster.” It also sounds like yet another reason (as if any were needed) to hate Bill Parcells. … Check out what Houston’s football jersey looked like in 1946 (awesome find by Susan Freeman). … In Friday’s comments, someone noted that the mesh on the Giants’ jerseys is now running all the way to the collar, instead of just up to the yoke seam. I asked Joe Skiba about it, and he said, “That’s a permanent change. I’ll have some more goodies up my sleeve as the season goes on.” … Kinda weird to see a team wearing throwbacks in a preseason game. Not unprecedented, but pretty unusual nonetheless. … Two new jersey patches on display in Saturday’s Rams/Titans game: The Rams’ Georgia Frontiere memorial (sure would’ve been a lot smaller if she’d had a less flashy signature), and the Titans’ 10th-season patch (which was missing from a few jerseys, but that’s the preseason for ya). … Wearing red can give you an advantage with the refs (with thanks to Doug Mooney). …
August 11th, 2008
Some people are compulsive documenters who pore over their files and scrapbooks; others are no good at documentation but are big on eyewitness testimony, repeatedly saying, “Trust me, kid, I saw it, I was there.”
The great thing about Ricko is that he fits both categories. If you read the comments section, you know he’s constantly saying he was in attendance (or glued to the TV screen) when a certain uni-related incident took place, and he often has the clippings to back up his claims. Here’s the latest batch of selections from that clipping database:
• Note the hand-lettered “A” on the socks in these Namath-era Crimson Tide shots.
• Speaking of the Tide, Ricko says, “Alabama was one of the first teams with several players wearing Pumas. It was Namath’s junior year. The white eyelet placket and tongue didn’t last long.”
• Call it spatting, call it taping — by any name, Ricko says this is the earliest example he’s ever seen. And it isn’t just any player — it’s Jim Thorpe, playing for the Canton Bulldogs. “Can’t say exact year,” says Ricko, “but he signed with them in 1915, and his last season with them was 1920.”
• The 1970s Pirates appear to be a bottomless pit of Ricko fodder. The latest exhibits: Willie Stargell wearing white shoes in the 1978 All-Star Game [Correction: As several commenters immediately pointed out, it appears to be a 1973 photo — odd, considering the caption], an awesome ad for Brookes spikes, and a montage of virtually every possible combo from the bumblebee era.
• And here’s an interesting Pirates tibit: As you know, the Buccos changed uniforms in the middle of the 1970 season — a change that included switching from black caps to gold caps. But they stuck with black batting helmets for the balance of that season, even after changing everything else — the helmets didn’t change to gold until the next season. (Also: Looks like Manny Sanguillen may have been wearing belted pants with his sleeved pullover in that photo. Not surprising that a lot of mixing and matching would have taken place after the mid-season uni switcheroo.)
• “This one comes under the heading of ‘Players Bending Team Rules When It Isn’t a Regular Game,’ ” says Ricko. “Y’know, like an ASG or a Japan Tour. But I did a double-take the first time I saw it, thinking maybe the Reds had worn red shoes for an opener at Riverfont or something. But after looking at it, I realized it was posed. It’s too perfect — the ump, for instance. Also, the only #24 Pirates had in ’71 was a pitcher named John Lamb. Unless he was pinch-running, he’d probably have been wearing a jacket. But it IS 1971 — note the button-front Reds jersey — well before the team allowed anything but plain black shoes. So it appears Concepcion (who later wore red shoes and white shoes in ASGs) decided to show how great the Reds’ unis would look if they wore those new red Adidas the White Sox and Phillies were introducing that year. And he was right.”
• But wait — here’s Don Gullet, circa 1971. Maybe they (or at least he) wore red spikes after all!
• You may recall that my recent Cubs column included an entry about the Cubbies inscribing each player’s uni number inside his helmet logo. Turns out they weren’t the only team to do this, as seen in this photo of Tommy Helms.
• Entertaining 1981 SI essay about football helmet logos. Among other things, the Bengals’ helmet is described as looking “like a varicose pumpkin,” a line I wish I’d thought of myself.
• And last but not least, here’s another of Ricko’s early uniform illustrations (in case you missed them, there’s a bunch more here), this one from the 1961 Army/Navy game.
And now I have a sad announcement to make: After five weeks, of sifting through all the e-mails Ricko has sent me, I’ve finally caught up with him — no more clippings! I think we can all agree that this has all the makings of a Greek tragedy, or at least a serious case of withdrawal. Ricko, my man, rev up that scanner and gimme another fix, pronto.
Raffle-O-Rama: For all you soccer fans who say I never write about your favorite sport … well, I’m still not writing about it. But I’ve got a soccer-centric raffle for you. The folks at SoccerPro.com have given me a $100 gift card that can be applied toward any of their licensed gear. To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address, please) by 10pm eastern this Friday, August 8th.
Normally I automatically add three bonus raffle entries for all enrollees in the Uni Watch membership program. But I know many readers and members don’t care about soccer, and I don’t want to end up with a raffle winner who isn’t a soccer fan, so we’re going to handle things a bit differently this time: If you are enrolled in the membership program, you may send up to four e-mail entries; only one entry for non-members. I’m trusting you all to handle this on the honor system (i.e., if you’re not a member, please don’t enter more than once), so don’t fuck it up by cheating, OK? OK.
I’ll announce the winner next Monday, when I’ll also be announcing yet another raffle.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of soccer jerseys, check out this new new soccer top from Zanzibar. “It’s so repulsive and tacky that I had to send it your way,” says Pat Murray. … If you really love your team, bleed for it. Further details here (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The pestilence of those Phiten-branded socks is spreading. … “Twin Enterprises has a line of hats comprised of most of the teams in the NHL (and some now-defunct teams),” writes Sam McCullough. “The fronts are all fairly standard and comprised of basic, distressed primary logos, and the back, is usually a team wordmark, and in some cases a secondary logo. But the Islanders cap features the far more badass stripe design element from the team’s jerseys.” … Another season, another Syracuse football uni. … You know how you buy a new cell phone or an iPod and it’s covered with a thin plastic film that you peel off? That’s the first thing I thought of when Jacob Reed sent me this photo. … The Chico Outlaws recently wore these uniforms for Aloha Night (with thanks to Lizzie Fox). … No matter how many times I look at it, the O’Brien Trophy looks like a beach ball perched on a trash can. … Remember Andy Messersmith’s “Channel 17” NOB? Listen to this, from Brent Hardman: “Driving to work this morning I was listening to AM 750 WSB, which is Atlanta’s biggest bews/talk station and until recently was the Braves’ radio flagship. They were talking about longtime Braves announcer Skip Caray, who died on Sunday. Apparently the host of the show, Mark Arum, suggested that the Braves retire the number 17 to honor Skip and all of the old announcers who used to broadcast all of the games on TBS when it was known as Channel 17. The remarks were then relayed to the Braves announcing crew doing the game on the West Coast for Peachtree TV, and they talked about it during the broadcast and thought it was a great idea. How weird is that? I’m not sure if they would really ever do it, or more importantly if they should (kinda doesn’t seem right to have the 17 up on the outfield wall with numbers of the great Braves of the past and Jackie Robinson). It just made me wonder if there were other instances of teams retiring numbers for such abstract things as TV stations.”
August 5th, 2008
Several readers have spoken highly of this 1969 book, which chronicles the first half-century of the NFL, so I tracked down a copy. Sure enough, tons of great stuff. Here are some highlights:
• First and foremost, there’s a section devoted to the evolution of the uniform, featuring a kickass series of illustrations showing what was worn by the 1920 Decatur Staleys, the 1921 Packers, the 1926 Duluth Eskimos (my favorite of the bunch), the 1948 Rams, and so on. There are some major surprises here — did you know, for example, that the Giants once dressed like this? Or that the Bears, for one season, wore this? Yabba-dabba-doo! The Lions, on the other hand, haven’t changed that much.
• Check out this illo of Lenny Moore, circa 1957. Naturally, the caption mentions his famous spats, but there’s also this: “The yellowish substance on the shoes is a resin many ball carriers dab on their fingers to get more tack on the ball.” This is the earliest reference to stickum I’ve ever seen. Also from the caption: “The sweat band on his wrist was borrowed from tennis.” So are they saying Moore was the first NFLer to wear a sweatband? Major discovery!
• There’s also a series of awesome poster-style illustrations devoted to over a dozen important NFL historical figures, including Johnny U, Crazy Legs Hirsch, John Mackey, Jim Brown, Don Hutson, Chuck Bednarik, Gino Marchetti, Leo Nomellini, Louie the Toe, Gale Sayers, Cal Hubbard, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, Night Train Lane, and Elmen Tunnell.
• Great padding/gear photo here.
• Did you know the Redskins used to wear their Indian-head logo on their chest, sort of like the Blackhawks? Look!
• There are lots of photos showing Lucite facemasks. Note that in this shot, the backfield is Lucite-masked, while the linemen have conventional cages.
• I’m fascinated by the berets and bow ties that early officials wore, as seen here, here, and here.
• Here’s the oldest, rattiest jersey I’ve ever seen. And the 8 appears to be upside-down!
• Rare shot here of the Browns’ block-shadowed numbers.
• We’ve all seen this SI cover featuring Y.A. Tittle. But I’d never seen that helmet in action until I saw this photo (note the light-colored nighttime ball, too). Also, oddly, they chose to use Tittle and his helmet as the subject for this illustration. The caption includes the following note: “Although Tittle wore high top shoes, low cuts were becoming the most popular shoes. With the mandatory taping of ankles, the high cuts were no longer necessary.” I’d never heard about mandatory ankle taping before, or its effect on footwear styles!
• Love the striping and shoulder yokes here.
• Check out this shot of the overtime coin toss from the famous 1958 championship game. No wonder the Giants lost the game — their captains were taking refuge in a sideline cape while Johnny U was rarin’ to go. Bad form, no?
• You don’t often see pics from the early-’70s Pro Bowls, back when they wore “A” and “N” helmets.
• Hey, Jim Bakken — fasten your chinstrap!
Want to get your own copy of this fine volume? Look here.
And now a note from Vince: I’m looking for unique sports-related T-shirts, not unlike the beautiful Brewers shirt Paul linked to last week. Anything different, timely, relatively unknown, undiscovered, or featuring great design would be welcomed. Have a favorite tee you’d like to share with the world, own a company that makes kick ass shirts, or know of somewhere to get some great gear? Drop me a note with the pertinent details. Thanks much.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Paul here. Fascinating story here about a factual error in one of the Steelers’ Super Bowl ring designs. … Dig these great high school hoops unis from 1972. Love those big bullseye numbers (with thanks to Chris Markham). … Mark Jones sent along this photo from the 1966 Cotton Bowl. Note that the two LSU players have mismatched pants striping. … Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho will wear No. 80. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a number that high on a soccer jersey,” says Greg Riffenburgh. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Dodgers print Andy LaRoche’s NOB in all caps, while the Pirates style his brother Adam’s NOB with a small cap. … When I visit Portland next month, I hope most of the locals can spell better than whoever created these jerseys at the Highland Games (with thanks to Ryan Hossner). … Andrew Ferguson reports that BU basketball has a new 100th-anniversary logo, although it isn’t clear yet if it’ll be worn as a patch. … Can’t remember if we’ve covered this already, but just in case: Miami will supposedly be wearing this alternate jersey this season — yikes (with thanks to Mike Camello). … Got an interesting note from Mike Frentz, who attends the same church where Marc Sagmoen is a youth pastor. Sagmoen, as some of you may recall, is the outfielder who was called up by the Rangers and issued No. 42 on April 15th, 1997 — the same day the number was retired by MLB (we’ve discussed this previously here on the site; for details, scroll down to the middle of this entry). Mike writes: “On April 15, 2007 (a Sunday, as it happens), [Sagmoen] brought in the jersey he wore for that one game, the 10th anniversary of his MLB debut. As he tells the story, he’s sitting there in the on-deck circle in the 4th inning of his big league debut. As he and Mickey Tettleton get loose, Mickey says to him, ‘Take your jersey off.’ Marc is confused, even after Mickey repeats the message. Finally, exasperated, Mickey points to the Jumbotron, where President Clinton is making the announcement that Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 will be retired across baseball. ‘Now batting, number 42…’ … Anyway, the question I the question I wanted to ask is this: Marc claims that this incident makes him the only player in the four major pro sports to play one game and then have his jersey number retired. Can you verify this, or come up with counterexamples for me to show him? I’m not talking about ceremonial comeback stints or numbers that were never used again (like Eddie Gaedel’s 1/8). The player must have played exactly one game and then had his number formally retired.” Good question. Anyone..? … I work for ESPN.com, so how come it took Stu Taylor to tell me that the site is doing a college football helmet poll? … See that little chest patch on Kyle Boller’s jersey? The Ravens are giving that to players who attended at least 85% of the team’s off-season workouts (plus they get a piece of candy, a gold star, and a nice note from the teacher to show their parents). Here’s a closer look (with thanks to Jack Krabbe). … Gibby Davis notes that Shawn Marcum appears to have a more southerly Pedro porthole. … Paul Wiederecht sent along this shot of the 1989 Pittsfield Mets. Thank got the parent club never used that striped waistband. And what’s with the one guy with the striped pants? … Good info here on Roger Federer’s Olympics attire (with thanks toBrinke Guthrie). … Here’s something you don’t often see: a Little League team in Negro Leagues throwbacks (with thanks to Michael Miller). … Scott Novosel sent along this shot from a 1976 all-star tour of Japan. Look at all the National Leaguers wearing pillbox caps! … David Sonny notes that Johnny Cueto has switched from a black glove to a red one. … DC report from John Muir, who writes: “On Thursday, July 17th, my girlfriend and I went to the 47th Annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park, the first to be held in the new stadium. I had to use my cell phone camera, because her camera battery died. Those shots, and several scans from the official program, can be found here. Some notes from the game: Democrats took the left dugout, Republicans the right; Dem. Batting helmets were blue, Reps. Red; all Congressmen wore the uniforms of their home MLB, minor league, local college (some of them were alma maters), or hometown travel team; Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) wore a No. 9 Mets home alternate, with solid blue cap and high blue socks; Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Cali) wore No. IX, in reference to Title IX; Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Az) donned the Diamondbacks road brick, with full black tights; Rep. Joe Buca (D-Cali) wore a Dodgers home jersey and cap, but with oddly piped pants; former Florida GOP Rep. Lou Frey Jr., who’s slated to be inducted into the Congressional Baseball HOF, was in attendance — he wore Dodgers off-white throwback.” … Good soccer uni site here (with thanks to A.C.). … And here’s a compendium of Olympics posters dating back to 1896 (as forward by Marcus Ramsey). … Thanks to everyone who came down to KGB last night — hope you had as much fun as I did.
July 23rd, 2008
It was hot in NYC yesterday. Like, really hot. So hot you could feel your eyeballs perspiring and your nuts liquefying. So hot you could break a serious sweat just by breathing. Plenty humid, too. Very, very muggy. Did I mention it was hot?
So I confess that I questioned the wisdom of wearing a second set of hosiery yesterday. Still, the notion of playing softball without stirrups was unthinkable, so it was time for another rummage through the Uni Watch sock drawer.
This week’s design: royal blue, medium-cut.
Ideal for feeling like a member of: According to reader Paul Wiederecht, who gave me these stirrups a while back, these hose were originally the property of the 1978 Mets.
Color-coordination factor: Easy.
How they looked: Not too shabby, right? Nice and bright, with a pretty perfect color-to-white ratio (and yes, I know there’s a hole in the back of that tee, but I’ve had it since 1989 and have lived with a variety of cats in that time — rips and tears happen).
How I felt: Like Craig Swan, who was the N.L. ERA leader in ’78 and had pretty nice stirrup stylings.
How I played: 1-for-4 and a run scored. Did I mention it was really, really hot?
Before I went home, I noticed a gal on an adjacent field wearing these awesome hoop socks. Not a bad one-sock option for a hot day.
(Special thanks to Collateral Gammage for the pics.)
Research Project: Next time you see a home plate ump “cleaning” the plate by kicking the dirt off of it, instead of bending over and using his whisk brush, please make a note of the date, inning, and batter, and then let me know. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Pin-up artist extraordinaire Rob Ullman created this 1969 Chisox rendition for Uni Watch reader Maks, and threw in a modern version to boot! … Rob, incidentally, is now offering a line of T-shirts. If you’re interested in them, and/or want to have Rob create a pin-up illo for you, contact him here. … Last question in this interview with Dwight Smith addresses his sock superstitions. … The annual Oldtime Baseball Game, a charity matchup in which Boston-area college players wear classic flannels, is coming up next month. Details here. … A little birdie tells me Texas Tech’s men’s basketball program will be outfitted by Under Armour this season. … Speaking of Texas Tech, Jon Arnold sent along this. “It’s only a replica, and I can only find it at one store, but it shows a white collar on Tech’s black jersey,” he says. “In the past it has been black, like the rest of the jersey.” … My pal Friederike Paetzold sent along some pics of artwork by a guy named Brian Jungen, who makes Native American/tribal-inspired pieces out of Air Jordans (additional examples here, here, and here). If you want to see more, check out Jungen’s site. … Here’s Babe Ruth in a different sort of uniform (with thanks to Jim Nedelka). … The Temple “T” logo is celebrating its 25th anniversary (with thanks to Morris Levin). … The Mariners and Indians wore 1989 throwbacks on Saturday. Additional pics here, here, here, here, and here. … Meanwhile, the White Sox wore throwbacks yesterday in honor of Harold Baines (additional pics here, here, here, here, and here). … God I hate it when teams wear BP jerseys for a regular-season game, as the Orioles did yesterday. … Miguel Cabrera is still wearing those Phiten-branded socks. Someone in the MLB office, please make this stop, now … Too bad I can’t afford this awesome-looking uniform catalog. … A-Rod had some helmet decal issues yesterday. … And Tim Lincecum had tag issues (thanks, Brinke). … Who does these stirrups belong to? Giants pitcher Geno Espineli, who tossed a scoreless frame yesterday in his MLB debut yesterday, that’s who. Let’s all wish him continued success (with thanks to Matt Garcia). … “I used to be a student equipment manager at the Univ. of Minnesota, with the football team,” writes Tris Wykes. “The Buffalo Bills trained at our complex when they were in Minnesota for the Super Bowl vs. the Redskins. One night, I went in and tried on Mark Kelso’s enormous helmet — the one with the ProCap on it.” … Last week I linked to the NYC Diamond Jubilee patch that the Mets wore on their dugout jackets in 1973. That prompted this response from Alec Orenstein: “The patch lists all the boroughs of New York, but Staten Island is listed as Richmond. That’s fine, because Staten Island is Richmond County. But following that logic, Brooklyn should be listed as Kings, because Brooklyn is Kings County. But instead it simply says Brooklyn.” … Hilarious account here of American synchro swimmer Christina Jones behaving like a materialistic moron getting lots of free Olympic swag. Key quote, from an on-site photo assistant: “We definitely want the Nike logo to show.’’ Of course you do (with thanks once again to Brinke Guthrie). … Sage Bray participates in one of those “vintage base ball” leagues where everyone dresses in period costume (there’s a full photo gallery here). “One element you may particularly dig, although it may not be historically accurate, is that we wear white jersey lacing for home games and black lacing for road games,” he says. “I believe we’re the only team in the league with any sort of home/road uni distinction.” … Remember this shirt? The guy who makes them says he has a new batch in stock (plus he has this design in the works). If you want in, give him a shout and tell him I sent ya. … Uni-numerical mystery from Matt Walker, who notes that the Longhorns are retiring a bunch of numbers, including No. 22 for Bobby Layne. Thing is, Layne wore 22 in the NFL but, as Matt writes, “the only number I’ve ever known him to wear as a Longhorn is 41.” Anyone know more about this? … David Holland sent along lots of great Baltimore Bullets-related stuff. First, dig the classic old logo on Gus Johnson’s jersey. Next, check out this team photo and note that half the players have an older logo (capital B) and the other half have the newfangled one (lowercase b, outstretched hands on the double-l). And how can you not love this, this, this, and this? … Several readers are reporting that Lou Piniella’s jersey featured his All-Star Game sleeve patch yesterday. No photo yet, though. … This is beyond awesome (great find by John Muir). … Best baseball outerwear photo ever? Could be. That’s Ernie Shore in the plaid coat and Grover Cleveland Alexander in the sweater (big thanks to Bob Andrews). … Two interesting tidbits from Jim Parker, beginning with a UCLA tale: “In the mid- to late 1950s, UCLA’s legendary head football coach Henry ‘Red’ Sanders would purchase the team’s home powder blue jerseys in a lighter shade of blue each successive season, until they were almost as pale as the visiting teams white jerseys (although the jerseys were still blue enough for players and fans to tell the two teams apart). Several years later, UCLA’s longtime equipment manager revealed why: Players and fans could tell the two teams apart, but it was virtually impossible to make the same distinction on the black-and-white game or ’scout’ films. In these films of the UCLA games, the offense and defense immediately blended into one indistinguishable group after every hike of the ball.” Next up from Jim, a little noted NFL factoid: “This is somehow a well-kept secret and oddity among most uni experts, but in 1949, at the owner’s insistence, the L.A. Rams wore red unis, complete with a red helmet. They lost in the NFL championship to the Eagles that year and went back to their traditional blues the following season.” … Remember those basketball capes I recently showed? Ryan Priest sent along this 1964 Evansville shot. “As you can see,” he writes, “unlike the capes you featured, these are robes with sleeves. (It was Evansville after all. Everything had sleeves.) ccording to an e-mail I received from UE Athletic Equipment Manager Daryl Buente, ‘Coach McCutchan’s team always wore pullover warmup jackets during pregame warmups and full-length robes, with snaps all the way down, on the bench. Until 1968, there were robes of many colors: red, green, yellow, light blue, and gray. In the ’50s, the robes were two solid colors, white and purple. When I was a freshman in fall 1968, Coach McCutchan bought orange robes and kept them until he retired in ’77.’ He went on to tell me that he gave Jerry Sloan the last robe in his possession (a gray one) upon his retirement as a player.”
July 21st, 2008
Lemme tell ya, nothing screams “deep blues authenticity” like a screening of a 50-year-old ballgame in which almost everyone in the stadium was white (although it’s arguably grittier than some of the other entries on the B.B. King’s calendar).
Such was the incongruous setting for last night’s screening of Don Larsen’s perfect game, which I attended with my buddy Michael McMahon. Reader Michael Gawley, who’d won free tix in last month’s raffle, came over and introduced himself, along with his pal Walt, whose T-shirt was a point of significant interest. Turns out it’s a campaign device for Heisman hopeful Beanie Wells. Walt said he made it himself. Want your own? Look here.
But I digress. Here are some notes I took regarding the screening of the game itself:
• I’d say slightly less than half of the players wore batting helmets. Among those who did, all of their helmets appeared to be flocked.
• Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Wolff, now in his 80s, was in attendance at the screening and did a little Q&A before the game was shown. When the screening got to the top of the 9th, they switched from the TV audio to Wolff’s radio call of the final three outs (I caught a glimpse of him at his table and he was beaming as he listened to himself). When Carl Furillo led off the 9th by flying out to Hank Bauer in right field, Wolff said Bauer was on the edge of “the cinder track” (or maybe “the cinder path” — couldn’t be sure), rather than the warning track. Never heard that term used in that context before before.
• The screening included all of the original commercials, which was actually the thing I was most excited to see. What I didn’t anticipate is that almost all of the commercials would be for Gillette razors, the official World Series sponsor. There was one ad for ballpoint pens after the end of the 6th inning, but every other spot was for Gillette. Incredibly, no two of them repeated. Most of them mentioned that for $1 you could get a pack of Gillette blades and a free “vest pocket-sized” baseball encyclopedia, which looked like a must-have, so when I got home I went straight to eBay and promptly located a copy.
• One of the Gillette ads featured former screwball master Carl Hubbell (long since retired by 1956), who was introduced, rather uni-intriguingly, as “Ol’ Square Pants himself.” I’d never heard of this sobriquet applied to Hubbell, so I did a bit of googling, which got me nowhere (although I’m now familiar with the handful of web sites that mention both Hubbell and SpongeBob). Anyone know the story behind this nickname?
• Roy Campanella had an open batting stance from the right side, which was extremely atypical prior to the 1990s.
• Sal Maglie came to the set/stretch position in the most bizarre manner of any pitcher I’ve ever seen — no words can do justice to it, but buy me a drink at the next Uni Watch party and I’ll try to pantomime it. For all I know, maybe Larsen came to the set in an unusual manner too, but of course he never had to pitch from the stretch in this game. (Speaking of which: Larsen had no windup to speak of — just a step-and-throw delivery, almost like a quick-pitch. Prior to the screening we were told that he’d scaled back his windup and adopted this more streamlined delivery just a few weeks earlier.)
• Mind-blowing factoid I’d never heard before: While Larsen was pitching the game of his life, his wife was filing for divorce. Insert “That makes his perfect day even better!” joke here.
• Vin Scully sounded almost exactly the same then as he does now.
• According to a little caption that was shown toward the end of the screening, there are only five pre-1965 ballgames whose broadcasts still exist in their entirety, and four of them are World Series games. Can that possibly be true? If so, it’s a sad commentary on the state of sports history and archiving.
My thanks to B.B.’s publicist John Seroff for letting me know about this unique event, and for providing the raffled tickets — much obliged.
Shortstop Can’t Stop Shorts: Amidst all my recent posts about baseball shorts, I forgot that I’d linked to this 1949 photo of the Mobile Bears a little over a year ago. Fortunately, Paul Deaver found that photo on his own. Plus he found this page (see the fifth graf), although I’ve been unable to turn up any visuals on that team. But it’s becoming clear that shorts were a more widespread minor league phenomenon that we realized.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Iowa’s newly renamed hockey team has an unfortunate antecedent. Details here (with thanks to Greg Wyshynski). … Key excerpt from this article about C.C. Sabathia: “One of the first players Sabathia met in the clubhouse was first baseman Prince Fielder, who at 5 feet 11 and 270 pounds is no longer the biggest man on the roster. ‘When I first walked in, he asked me if I needed to borrow some (uniform) pants,’ Sabathia said. ‘He’s probably the only guy with a pair I’d fit in’” (with thanks to Nicole Haase). … Mike Eckert notes that Miguel Cabrera was wearing Edgar Renteria’s sweatbands last night, but he really needs to get rid of the fucking Phiten-branded socks, NOW. … I noted yesterday that Jose and Argenis Reyes both have “Reyes” NOBs (no initial), but Matt Edwards notes that Jose has a “Reyes” strip of tape on the brim of his batting helmet while Argenis has “Argenis.” No photo yet. … The controversy regarding the Celtics’ championship banners continues. Yesterday I relayed the explanation that the “NBA” icon was solid green if the Celts won the title on the road and outlined if they won it at home, but several readers have poked holes in that one. Here’s a banner-by-banner analysis, as compiled by Darrell Hatfield. … The Brewers apparently have a different mound icon for every occasion. Here’s what they had over the weekend (with thanks to Ryan Connelly). … Shorpy does it again. … Best thing I’ve learned while researching baseball shorts (or maybe just the best thing in human history, period): Check out this 1950 L.A. Times article about the Hollwood Stars’ shorts, scroll down to the last full paragraph, and check out the name of the Pacific Coast League’s president at the time. When you stop laughing, you can read the rest of the article here. … Let’s say your mad about local zoning ordinances, and you want to paint your house an annoying color as a silent protest. What color do you paint it? Purple, of course (with thanks to Steve Laga). … Wednesday was “Jason Giambi Mustache Day” at Yankee Stadium. Photo gallery here … Scott M.X. Turner sent along a bunch of photo scans from this awesome book: First, check out this 1962 team photo. Note the white outlining on the NY logo — that was scrapped for subsequent editions of the team’s dugout jacket. Next, look at this shot, taken at the Polo Grounds (which means it’s either 1962 or ’63). Is that a flocked Mets batting helmet? Never seen that before. And finally, when skipper Wes Westrum resigned, he took his jersey with him. … Half-hour highlight video of the 1952 World Series available here, and the 1960 Series is here (great find by Roger Faso). … Best newspaper correction ever (courtesy of birthday girl Alleen Barber). … More awesome tag designs from Scott Little. … Someone out there is coming up with a bunch of NHL redesigns |
