“What If …” City Flag Colors Edition, Senior Circuit

By Phil Hecken

Last weekend, I treated you to you humored me with my attempt to bring you a look at how the American League teams would look if their uniforms used the colors (or at least the ‘major’ colors) from the flag of the City or State in which they play. In case you missed it, click here. Today, I’m back for more, with the same treatment of the teams in the National League. As with the junior circuit, there were some interesting looks. Some teams did indeed look better sporting different colors, while others were worse, much worse, or almost identical.

As with the American League, I have done my best to faithfully recreate the current uniforms using the new colors. In most cases, I have removed only the player NOB and occasionally the front numbers. In addition, since stirrups are necessary (there is no arguing or debating this point), I have included them as an essential uniform element. Sometimes I needed to remove a patch, but usually I kept them in (although in some cases I did not change the color scheme on the patch, either because it changed the nature of the patch too much or because it simply proved too difficult). With that, lets begin.

Arizona: We begin with a state flag, even though for all intents and purposes the Diamondbacks play in Phoenix. Yeah, you can see why I’m not going to show the D-Backs in that colorscheme. With the red, yellow and blue from the Arizona flag, the Snakes would sport a road uniform and a home uni that aren’t much different from their current get-up, but visually I think this one is also more appealing than the current duds. The use of the yellow as a highlighting element and on the socks really brings out the colors much better, in my humble opinion.

Atlanta: Next up, alphabetically, are the Braves, and while I’m not especially enamored of the flag itself, I LOVE the colors. The blue and yellow are really a striking combination and one which several major league teams have used in the past, only to go away from as they progressed into other uniform styles. But it’s a great one and I wish some teams would consider it or even adopt it (or return to it, as the case may be). That being said, here are the Braves in their home uniform and the road kit if they were to use those shades of blue and yellow. While some would argue the current Braves uniform is classic (and if you toss out the two disgusting alts, I’d tend to agree), I think they look even better this way.

Chicago: Like their neighbors to the South Side, the Cubs hail from the Windy City. But that’s where the similarities end — both in their uniform histories and every other way. So their uniforms may bear a slight resemblance (with the flag treatment) from a color standpoint, but that’s about all. I did several versions for the Cubs, because I really like the colors of that flag. Using the powder blue as the predominant color, here’s one version of the roadie. By using the red as the dominant color, we get this. Neither look is any where near better than their current style. The home is even worse, at least in this version. Maybe I should have used red more heavily than blue in that one. However, like I did with the White Sox, I created a powder blue version. Doesn’t work as well, as one of my (someday to be codified) “rules” is if you’re going to wear powder blue, your “base” color must also be blue.

Cincinnati: The Queen City has a rather nice flag, and I’m surprised (well, not really) that the Reds didn’t make greater use of the “block” C in the flag, opting instead for the wishbone. And while they have used a block C on their caps, they’ve used that wishbone as far back as 1905 (according to Okkonen) and probably before that in the 19th century. Anyway, the predominant colors of the flag are red (thankfully — they are called the “Reds”) and blue. So their “new” uniforms won’t be all that different from their current ones. For the home uniform it was basically a matter of slightly altering the current red, and replacing the black with the blue from the flag. For pants stripes, attempted to mimic the three “stripes” on the Cincy flag, and performed a similar treatment on the stirrups. For the road uniform, it was more of the same, although on that one I kept the pants stripes red. It’s funny, while I don’t especially mind the use of the drop shadow (because it’s black) on either current uniform, it really looks kinda awful when it’s depicted in dark blue on the “city flag” version.

Colorado: With the Rockies, pretty much all bets off are with the current colors. However, I have always liked the current font, and with new colors, we get a nice fresh look. And while red, yellow and blue are a common element in many cities’ flags, it’s an interesting twist when applied to the Rocks. For the road uniform, I think it’s a nice look. Nothing to write home about, but pretty nice. Of course, since pinstripes do not belong on a road uniform (another of my “rules”), I removed them. It renders the uniform much more plain, but that’s tough. Personally, I like the way the yellow interlocking “CR” looks an the cap. For the home uniform, I rather enjoy this look, using mostly blue for the lettering and numbers. Probably should have continued the all yellow lettering for the cap, but that could easily be corrected.

Florida: The Marlins, they of the teal and black, get a nice new treatment when we take the Florida flag colors. Mostly red and white, but with a seal of an almost ‘orange’ hue, it was my pleasure to undertake this transformation. I think the “orange” and red work well as complimentary colors, and here’s how this was conceived in the home uniform. I had to keep the teal coloration of the marlin, though, since I’ve never seen a red or orange one. Doesn’t look that bad. For some reason, for the away uni, I didn’t use any of the orange element (but adding a heavy dose of white, which is a very prominent color from the flag). The result is rather plain. This is one I’ll take another shot at someday, adding in some of that additional lighter coloration.

Houston: Take a look at that flag — now you understand why the Astros have that old school engine loaded with oranges out beyond the left field fence. Anyway, the flag is mostly aqua (I guess) and white, so the Astros’ uniforms will reflect that. Although the flag has a smidge of red in it, I elected to keep the away duds as well as the home set in just aqua and white. Not a good look. Not that their current uniforms are all that great, but the city flag treatment is decidedly not an improvement.

Los Angeles: It’s really hard to mess with an all-time classic uniform like the one sported by the Dodgers. But since my purpose was to see what all all teams would look like in city flag colors, the Dodgers must be included. Even without seeing what follows, you can probably guess it won’t be an improvement. You’d be right. First of all, for the home uniform, with red and green as two of the three colors (and I HAD to keep the front jersey number red, right?), it was hard to avoid it looking like a St. Patty’s Day fashion jersey or a Christmas special. Not that the stirrup coloring is a saving grace, but I think it’s OK. Well, not really. For the road uniform, took the opposite tack, using red as the primary color and sublimating the green as much as possible. Decidedly not good. You can’t mess with success any more than you can polish a turd (and please don’t post that “Mythbusters” episode where they prove you can, in fact, polish a turd).

Milwaukee: Kind of a busy flag, no? Another flag where I’d consider the main color to be kind of an aqua. And, of course, there’s the wheat stalk with the chaff (I’m not sure any of those are the correct terms, but work with me here), which will serve as the other color for this uniform redux. There’s also some kind of gear or ferris wheel, a boat, and some images in there. No offense to the good people of the Cream City, but you really need a new flag. OK, no editorializing here, just the unis. So, with that as our base colors, we get a home uniform that looks different than the current one. Different, not better. Not so sure using the color of the wheat helps there. So for the road uniform, I substituted the wheat (gold) color for the the red from the word “Milwaukee.” I think that’s a little better. I also removed the drop shadow to keep things somewhat more orderly. Seems like the Brewers could use both a uniform and a flag makeover. We may have some on the board who agree with that.

New York: As we saw in the American League city flag swap, the colors of the New York City flag are almost identical to those of the New York Mets (even though the accepted version is that the Mets took their royal from the Brooklyn Dodgers and their orange from the New York Giants). So, it shouldn’t be all that surprising when you see the NYC flag road uniform for the Mets. Added, obviously, orange to the bill and some sock stripes. Might be a tad busy, but it sure beats the hell out of the black they’ve added to the road uniform. Since the Mets play in the borough of Queens, I did mock ups for them with those colors as well. Despite using yellow, that road uniform and home uniform don’t look good at all. I realize that the pinstripes are their official uniform, but they haven’t worn it in a month, so I went with the “snow white” version. However, when we adopt that to the City of New York flag colors, it’s fairly similar to their current uniform. If I had more skill and time, I’d remove the black dropshadow from the home and away sets, but the intent was to keep the uniform as close to the current as possible. Meh.

Philadelphia: Hmmm. Didn’t some other Philadelphia team recently wear the City flag colors on their uniform? Not so sure how well that was received. But, in the spirit of this exercise, lets see how the baseball team from the City of Brotherly Love fares in city flag colors. Surprisingly, for the home uniform, not as bad as I had imagined. But what about the away kit? Actually, I like that one even better. I don’t think anyone will be clamoring for the Fightin’s to be changing their color scheme any time soon, but it’s not an altogether bad look. Again, although the blue is not quite as dark as I prefer, there is something about combining blue and yellow that just looks right.

Pittsburgh: OK. This one is too easy. The Pirates already proudly use their City’s colors as the basis for their uniform. Seems to be a common theme amongst the Steel City teams. I wonder if that’s deliberate? Anyway, you won’t be surprised to see the Pirates when they sport their road unis and home duds.

San Diego: Finally, a City whose flag has MUCH better colors than those being sported by the team which plays there. And since the Fathers have quite the myriad uni history, I’ll get a bit saucy here. Lets start with the homes. I made the red from the flag the dominant color, and I like it. I like red and yellow (or whatever actual shade you want to call those two colors). I think this is a definite improvement over their current colorscheme. For the roadies, and recognizing the crazy uni past the Pods have, I went with a yellow base with red wordmarks/numerals for the Friars. Yeah, it’s bright (unlike this post’s author) alright, but I also like this. Better than sand, that’s for sure. This is another team that is just begging for a uniform overhaul, and while perhaps taking the city flag colors isn’t the direction they should go, it’s better (IMHO) than what they’ve got now.

San Francisco: Another kind of plain flag, but definitely workable. One of the nicer things about the San Francisco home uniform is that it’s not pure white — tis cream. So if we keep the cream base, and take the brown and yellow (from the eagle and border) plus the blue, we get a very nice looking uniform. (The yellow crown on the cap is a shout out to Stuby). Now those may look too “Padre-ish,” but since the Pods don’t use those colors anymore (either in their current look or in my city flag look), that is what we get. For a slight twist on the cream home base, instead of straight gray, for the road uniform, I made the base a with a slight blue hue (from the “SAN FRANCISCO” on the flag). I think that one looks pretty damn sharp. However, since the current uniform is also a classic, I can’t argue the city flag colors look better, but they’re certainly pretty good.

St. Louis: For our penultimate uniform, we find another instance where a the colors of a city flag closely match that of the team (was this intentional? — hard to say, since the animal for which the team is named is a cardinal, and cardinal is indeed, red). Surely, it’s convenient, if coincidental. Even the yellow in the flag is replicated by the yellow in the bat. But as a result, the uniforms won’t differ much at all from those currently worn by the Redbirds. Other than changing the stirrup stripes, the home uniform is virtually identical to the current one. For the road uniform, I added red to the crown of the cap and played slightly with the stirrup stripes. But basically, city flag = team uni colors with the Cards.

Washington (DC): OK, if there was ever a city flag I would have expected to be red, white and blue, it would be Washington, D.C. Nope. Just red and white. So, making the Nationals uniforms, with their red, white, blue and gold only two colors will take a bit of chicanery. Lets start with the road uniform. I already like the red better than their current blue. Since the cap and “Washington” are in a nice, matching script, this looks fine. Those god-awful beveled numbers don’t look so hot (this part of the uniform is just CRYING for a reworking), and I removed that stupid beveled interlocking “DC” patch altogether. Fix the number font, and this is a winner. OK…on to the home uniform. Decency dictates that I remove the beveling from the wordmark, for unless you have two or three colors, it looks AWFUL. Well, it looks awful anyway (no offense, Todd Radom, I’m sure they told you they liked that design), but it looks better in one, solid color. Same problem with the beveled number on the back as on the roadie, but it’s better on the home, because at least the fonts work together. I did need to add a black border around the number font however, but at least that’s not BFBS, but black for necessity’s sake.

Well, there you have it. The National League rendered in city flag colors. I don’t want to say this ‘project’ was a complete waste of time, because I think we did see a few uniforms that look better in different colors (or at least the colors of their flags). But since we won’t be seeing any of these teams move to these colors any time soon, the project was more fun, and more for my own edification, than as an appeal to teams to change up their uniforms (or at least the colors). Still, some of these do make you think that maybe, just maybe, what they’re wearing now needs a change. What do you think?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one is probably way too easy, but then again, maybe not. As always, the clues are right there for you on the scoreboard. Location, Date and Final Score, please. Ready? Guess The Game.

Once again, if anyone has any scoreboards they’d like to contribute, please shoot me a line.

When football season rolls around, are you guys interested in a “GTGFTS” edition? I’m not so sure how that would play out, but it may be worth a shot. Let me know if you’re interested in that.

Alternate jerseys. No stirrups. T-Ball. Must be softball. Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

That’s all for today, folks. Couple announcements and a whole mess of different stuff coming tomorrow. Have a great Saturday.

81 comments August 1st, 2009

Darning The Sox In The Night (when there’s nobody there)

By Phil Hecken

Today, I’d like to introduce what I hope will become a semi-recurring feature here at Uni Watch. I’d like to take a look at certain teams, teams that seem to be in need of a unichange. Whether that involves a tweak, a logo change, a complete overhaul, or some combination of those elements, I’d like to work with some of the ‘graphic artists’ we have and (much to your chagrin, submit some of my own work) to come up with some changes to the uniforms of certain teams. I don’t know whether I’ll announce the “upcoming” teams in need of a change, or whether I’ll just ask for suggestions and go from there. Maybe both. After you’ve read this article, if you’re interested in participating in any capacity, drop me a line.

Today, I’ll be joined by three great readers, James Huening, who has been a great help in gathering photographic evidence of many of the current and former uniforms you’re about to see below, Robert Marshall, who has tweaked a design or two of mine and who has come up with his own unique spin on what he’d like this week’s team to don for their uniform, and Michael Emody, who’s created a number of unique and sometime throwback-ish (fauxback?) designs (and is the genius behind the lead photo). As if the title and the header pic weren’t enough of a tipoff, today we’re going to be looking at the Chicago White Sox as a team who may just be a candidate for some uniform improvement.

Before we go any further, though, I want to direct your attention to this fantastic article on the White Sox uniform history, authored by none other than UW Prexy, Paul Lukas. It’s an excellent primer for what follows, and the knowledge gleaned and shared by Mr. Lukas in that work will greatly assist in understanding why the Sox are a perfect candidate for a uniform change. So take a few minutes, read the article, then come back here and we’ll begin.

Great article by Paul, yes? Yes. So, lets begin with the Sox’ current uniforms. For their home uniform, the wear a pinstriped uniform in black, gray and white, with “Sox” in Olde English script on their left breast. As often as not, they will break out a black alternate top, also with a script “Sox”. For their road uniform, the team from the South Side wear a grey based uniform with black and white accents, and “Chicago” spelled out across the chest in script. Also, with the roads, they will break out the black alternate with alarming regularity. They rarely show sock, but when certain players do, they’re black. I’m sorry, what was the name of your team again? Clearly, this will not do.

Not that the current uniforms are all that bad; in fact, personally, I feel they’re one of the nicer uniform sets in the bigs, although the use of that softball top should be curtailed. Not eliminated however. As much as I despise alternates, this one does have a time and a place. We’ll explore that below. But, for a team who has changed uniforms with alarming regularity, and the current set has been in use since the beginning of the last decade, it’s time for a change. But to what? Let’s see what we can come up with.

If you read Paul’s piece (and I know you did), you’ll have a pretty good idea of the uniform history of the Sox. Clearly, over the years, the boys from the Windy City have really been all over the map in terms of uniform design. Some of these have been very good, some have been pretty basic, while others have been fairly wild, and others have been, well, what the fuck? pretty unique. They have worn pinstripes, they’ve worn powder blues, they’ve donned predominantly blue, predominantly red, uniforms with a black dominate, and some combination of colors over the years. They’ve even worn all dark blue uniforms (which sometimes looked black), and even changed the sock stripe patterns over the years. Still not convinced this is a team that could use a uniform change? It’s only been close to 20 years since their last one — they’re due.

Finally, before we look at the proposed changes, we must also look at one phemenon (which the Sox of course invented), and in which they still partake with regularity — the wearing of throwback uniforms. Why do they wear throwbacks so often? Perhaps the Sox themselves are auditioning uniforms of yesteryear (yes, I know that’s a Negro League throwback, but it’s still a throwback) with an eye towards the future. Most recently, they’ve worn their pennant-winning 1959 duds, and, because they were chosen to play in this year’s Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati, they got to break out their 1964 powder blues. In the past they’ve worn throwbacks from other years of their myriad (and other Chicago teams) histories, including the first ever throwback in history. Yeah, this team is crying out for a new (or old) look.

So, let’s have a look-see at some proposed uniform changes. There won’t be a lot of “ground rules” on this one, because some of the designs are very close to being throwbacks (but with a twist or two), while others are more “fauxbacks” — which we never clearly defined — but basically is a uniform which was never worn, but is evocative of a feel or style from years gone by. We’ve also come up with a few ’sorta’ new uniform concepts, but we’ve avoided entirely new uniforms altogether. Perhaps that is for another column. Finally, since the team is called the “White Sox,” we’ve insisted upon actual socks being worn, that they be predominantly white, (either sanitary or stirrup) and sometimes, they be at least two different primary colors. OK then, we’ll begin at the beginning.

We start with the road uniform, and we basically begin with some tweaks of the current roadie. Let’s start by putting the team back in red with red socks and white sanis. Gotta have stripes on those bad boys. Lets flip the sock/stirrups next. Hmmm. OK, they do have a history of not wearing white sanis, but maybe that’s a bit much. Of course, one of the “future” uniforms I have proposed, is putting teams whose main color is not blue in “powder” uniforms. If we’re going to turn the Sox red, then maybe they should think about a powder red road uniform. Interesting.

The Sox wore the black prominently for a number of years, so how might they look if we replaced the white outline with black. That’s interesting as well. Although I personally detest two-tone hats, I will admit that on some teams, they do work. So, let’s add a black crown with red brim (and eliminate the stirrup in favor of a full sock). That’s kind of cool, no? Would it look better with a solid black cap? I don’t think so. We could probably safely change the belt to black though.

Keeping with the current thought line of tweaking through adding (or subtracting color) but keeping the current uniform in tact. Let’s work on the home uniform. Notice, we keep the black/red style, both for the cap and the outline, and we return the stirrups, with a slightly different pattern. That red belt has to go — for the home uniform anyway — so here she is with black belt. Nice. Very evocative of the 1959-era unis.

I’ll take a break now, and turn the floor over to Michael Emody who has some different ideas for the Sox.

We begin with Mike’s “throwback” to the 1940’s era uniforms which were quite elegant in their own right. Two versions here, both with the “Big S” surrounding the “o” and “x” in both black and blue hues. The black features the “TV numbers” on the sleeve while the blue has the uniform number on the right breast. For the road uniform, Mike has come up with several. The first two feature the same 1940’s logo, one in gray and the second in a powder blue evocative of the shade they wore in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both feature the uniform number on the right side, and the left sleeve contains the current “white sock on a diamond” which is found on today’s uniforms. The gray uniform is predominantly blue based, with blue striped stirrups, while the blue is rather 1970’s-esque, featuring red stirrups and a red sleeve patch. Taking both of those road uniform concepts a bit further, Mike created two similar unis, but flipped the sock and stirrup combinations, which are reminiscent of the 1969-1970 uniforms. Great concepts Mike.

Moving along, Mr. Emody has gone with additional ‘fauxbacks’ from a different period in White Sox uniform history. This home and away set, which he has nicknamed “Blue Monday,” which brings back visions of the late 1960-early 1970 uniforms. The home features blue pinstripes, blue belt, black shoes, and blue TV numerals and lettering in the Olde English style. The road is powder blue with blue TV numbers, and a white “Chicago” in script with the word “White Sox” on the tail (very reminiscent of the late 1960’s powder blue). The stirrups are blue with white and powder blue stripes (like the home), and black shoes. The pants and shoulders have a blue and white stripe. Finally, Mike created two additional road options, both of which are gray. The first takes elements from the 1950’s black and red color schemes, with “Chicago” in script with a tail featuring “White Sox” (a la the roadies from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s), including a more modern numeral underneath the script insignia and on the left side of the jersey. The second uniform set is similar, only white has been swapped for black, and a TV number has been added to the right sleeve. A black “white sox” patch is found on the left sleeve of both uniforms, and the stirrups are black with red and white stripes and white sanitaries.

Great, great designs, Mike. Interestingly enough, I first noticed Mike’s White Sox uniform tweaks when he posted this in the comments one late evening, shortly after I had posted my first uni tweak. Recognizing we were “on the same wavelength” with the Sox, we began this collaboration.

Lets now take a look at some additional possibilities for new Sox uniforms. The boys from Chicago obviously like their throwbacks, as evidenced by the many number of throwback uniforms they’ve donned over the years. So what if we were to outfit them in a modern uniform with an old-style feel? Notice, no stirrups. But, nice stripage on the socks. We can change the sock colors or patterns. They wore that particular style (obviously not with a modern cut) back in the teens, and would continue to wear it (largely unchanged) until 1931. Not a fan of that style? No worries.

In 1932 through 1935, the Sox introduced this jersey design. So how about we modernize the uniform using that as a base? Well, we’d have this design. Again, no stirrups. And again, we can change the sock pattern.

Obviously, when fully half of your name is “Sox,” the socks are uber-important. The fashion trends of baseball have of course, largely relegated hosiery to being an anachronism. But, if any team should wear socks, and proudly, well — the White Sox should. Lets take a look at that powder read proposal again, this time, with an eye towards returning this beautiful sock styling from the 1970s. They wore that sock with both the red pinstripes and the powder blues of that era. But the powder blues, frankly, don’t cut it with a red base. So let’s put them in powder reds. Interesting. A slight twist on that pattern is to remove the circle and replace it with the current shoulder patch, like so. If we were to equip the Sox in real old school off-white stirrups, we’d get something like this.

Couple other “fauxback” possibilities exist. The White Sox only wore this particular uniform for one year, 1930. Don’t know why they shifted away from it, but it provides an interesting uniform possibility. Finally, in terms of really harking back, they might consider this possibility, which could be worn as an away uni. Crisp and clean, but yet still fairly modern despite it’s age.

Certainly, some food for thought. And now on to Robert Marshall.

Moving on, I’m now joined by Uni Watch OCD DIYer, Robert Marshall, who is fixing to fix ALL the major league teams uniform stylings, but for today, he’s just going to share with his vision for the “perfect White Sox uniform.” When I asked him if he were excited to help fix the Sox, he was more excited than Wilt Chamberlain in a sorority house. Since “rpm” (and several new variations of his ‘handle’) loves him some Sox, he’s taken great care to craft what he feels would be the ultimate uniform for the South Siders. One home, one road, no alternates. However, he does provide several cap options and a special “Sunday” option for the sanitaries. With that, I give you Robert:

i make no apologies for being old school in my aesthetic, especially in baseball, a sport so bound by tradition. and i am not normally so dogmatic unless i hear lunacy when it comes to taste (to each his own), but here are the chicago white sox as they should be, case closed, no debate, might as well close the comments section. if you disagree, you are wrong, lay of the goof-balls. it keeps what works, and draws from the past to fix what does not. take the tv numbers off, fix the hat and ‘rups (not all teams need stripes, but these do), add a patch and this is fabulous. if there is curiosity on the road digs, it’s grey not blue for the cornmother’s sake.

Love that graphic, Robert. Looks like he keeps that face in a jar by the door (either that or it’s a ripoff of Charles M. Schultz). Pretty schweet huh? Kind of in line with what it seems a lot of Chicagoans are pining for, at least in terms of the home. The home uniform would be evocative of the “Go Go Sox” (the uniform was worn from 1951 through 1963), while the road would be of the 1969-1970 vintage. A black cap (with four variations) would be worn with both, the current shoulder patch, and white socks and sanitaries with thin black and red stripes. For Sundays, the sanitaries would switch to black.

I have to say, Robert, a fine, fine job.

Winding down, one cannot but think of the White Sox without noting that for a fairly long period, they wore an all dark uniform. Although it was dark blue, it sometimes appeared almost black. Even when the Sox were going through their crazy fauxback/throwback phase from 1976 through 1981, they occasionally donned the all dark uniform. So — could they pull the look off in the 2000’s?

They wear that black alternate jersey enough — why not pair it with some black pants? Of course, there are stirrups on that mockup — it would be MANDATORY for any all dark uniform today to have full socks (or stirrups) of contrasting color. In order to pull it off, they’d need some form of white stirrup (the last of those two having gray sanitaries). Of course, so long as the socks were of contrasting color, you could skip the stirrups and just wear … gasp … white socks. How might that look on the field of play? Something like this, perhaps? Might actually be doable.

Of course, if they’re going to throw back to the all-dark look, they may as well kick it old school style with the lettering as well. Or, maybe not.

Well — there you have it. A look at the Chicago White Sox with some suggestions for a new look for the team. You’ll notice we didn’t opt for anything completely new, since the Sox have so many wonderful (and not so wonderful) styles and colors from years past to choose from. They could take any number of them and update their current style basing that update off the unis from the past.

Remember Paul’s article? The one you all read before reading this piece? In case you’ve forgotten, Paul concluded the article by stating, “Finally, it’s worth noting that Uni Watch has always loved this logo. Too bad the only uniform element it ever appeared on was a BP jersey.” Well, just for Paul, here is a mockup of that uniform.

What do you folks think? Time to don some new Sox, or are we just writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear? Special thanks, of course, have to go to James Huening for his photographic research, and Michael Emody and Robert Marshall for their mockups. Great stuff guys.

Big Uni Watch Gathering Tonight in Cleveland!: Remember, Uni Watch readers will be enjoying an evening together, tonight at 7pm, at the Prosperity Social Club. Paul believes one of “our more prominent Pittsburgh-based readers may be in town for the proceedings, which should put the Rust Belt quotient into the red zone.” Should be a great time, wish I were there with you guys.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Despite all the fun being in Cleveland this evening, the game being depicted on today’s scoreboard is obviously not being played in Cleveland. It’s also been featured on UW before, albeit in the comments a loooonnnng time ago. So, there’s one way of securing the answer. The other ways are up to you. It might take you less time to find the answer the “old fashioned way” than to search for the thread in which this appeared. So, with that said, Guess The Game. As per usual, we need date, location and final score, but don’t post that in the comments — just link to the game — and for good measure, let us know how you went about solving they mystery.

It’s just kind of Chicago type of day, Cleveland festivities notwithstanding. So, even today’s Benchies carries that theme. It’s an oldie (Ricko informs me Lou Holtz was still coaching the Irish when he crafted this one), but it’s even more apropos today. So, enjoy a special Thursday Benchies.

Raffle Results: Paul here. I hate it when broadcasters say things like, “If you’re Sabathia, you don’t want to walk him here” or “If you’re Bobby Cox, I think you have to bunt here.” If, if, if — dude, what if I’m not Bobby Cox? Such an annoying communication style.

However: If you’re Jason Whitt, you just won yourself a free T-shirt from SportsCrack — congrats.

Uni Watch News Ticker: (Mostly compiled by Paul) … Ya know, I try to fight the good fight and all, but then there’s crap like this. Sigh. … Nice overview of Colt .45s/Astros uni history here. … Yesterday’s Ticker item about Alain Nana-Sinkam’s family reunion logos prompted Rich Frank to send in the logos he prepared for his own family reunion a few years back. … New road kit for Man U (with thanks to Christopher Burks). … Good NOB note in the second graf of this page (with thanks to Kenn Tomasch). … New football uniforms for Southern Miss (with thanks to Raymond Reeves). … New logo for the A-10 championship. … A Maple Leafs fan has started a petition to get the team to go back to its old-school logo. Further details here (with thanks to Dave Abbatoy). … Former intern Vince Grzegorek recently got a tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame storage basement, resulting in an excellent article and photo gallery. … Sad news out of Ohio, where a company that makes chenille letters for varsity jackets is closing (as forwarded by Kevin Mueller). … Hmmm, does Adidas manufacture Korean police uniforms, or does it just look that way? (Good spot by Hadyn Green.) … Larry Wiederecht sent along some interesting scans from a magazine that was published in 1970 to mark the opening of Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. First, here’s Richie Hebner without his vest jersey. Interesting to see how far the black area extended on his undershirt. And second, here’s an ad from Matthews International, the same company I reported on in last week’s ESPN column on HoF plaques. … Robert Marshall doesn’t just order those stirrups for the Uni Watch Stirrup Club — he also gets his softball team, the Unemployed Youppi, to wear them. Those pics are from a recent 5-3 win over the Newport 100s. Okay, it was actually a 36-6 loss, but at least the Youppi looked sharp. … Several readers noted that Joba Chamberlain didn’t have the Yankee Stadium cap patch again last night. … Also from last night’s Yanks game: Robbie Cano wears Phiten socks, although he usually keeps his pants hiked up so we can’t the the logo creep (with thanks to Brian Erni). … Bills safety Donte Whitner will wear a pink mouthguard this season in honor of his late mother (with thanks to Casey B.). … The Eagles have added a Jimmy Johnson memorial design to their practice field (as noted by Adam Brodsky). … Another sleeve-roller: Carmelo Martinez. “I remember that it drove me nuts every time he got into a game when I was a kid,” says James Huening. … The A’s will be wearing 1929 throwbacks on August 16th (with thanks to Brandon Davis) … Jim Wooley checks in with a mention of Rick Reilly’s most recent column on espn.com, “if you haven’t seen it yet. I totally agree with his comments regarding the putting on the t-shirts and hats after you’ve won the championship. I’ve never liked this.” … Everyone’s favorite sneakerhead, Matt Powers asks, “If you remember this, than (sic) check this out too.” Matt also has this juicy nugget concerning the GI Joe movie and Nike: “Check this out — much like what Nike did with the Transformer films, they are releasing kicks that coincide with the movie,” complete with similar toy packaging. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm noticed Tadahito Iguchi’s batting glove, it is designed to look like a noh theater mask. First on the left. Jeremy tried to find some up close photos, but now it is part of a giveaway in Chiba. … Finally, Pittsburgh’s own Doug Keklak, has forwarded this classic (which I believe was posted in the comments at one time, but is always worth another look-see): the Chicago Bulls logo-robot conspiracy.

227 comments July 30th, 2009

“What If …” City Flag Colors Edition, Junior Circuit

By Phil Hecken

What if … your favorite baseball team had different colors? Specifically, what if, instead of adopting the colors they currently wear, instead they chose the predominant colors from the city (or State) flag for the colors in their uniforms? Recently, reader Hungry Hungry Hipster had been doing “city flag jerseys” (I think they’re soccer kits, but I suppose they could be for any number of sports), and that got me to thinking — what if baseball teams had adopted the colors of their city and how might those teams look if they were dressed in those colors with todays uniforms? While you know I am not a graphic artist, I spent the greater part of a week attempting to see how major league teams would look if they donned a bit more local flavor. I think what follows turned out OK.

Aside from a quick and interesting history lesson in some city’s flags, I learned a couple of other things about how teams would look dressed all local-like. Some teams don’t look all that bad, some don’t look all that good, and some don’t look all that different (as we’ll see). I’d even go so far as to say that some teams look better sporting city flag colors. It will come as no surprise that the Steel City already dresses its teams in city colors, while others bear a striking resemblance (whether this is intentional or not is a debate for another day).

Aside from adding stirrups and sock stripes, and in most cases removing the “PLAYER” name from the jersey (and an occasional patch), I attempted to faithfully recreate a teams current uniform scheme, so as to better give a visual perspective. In each case, I’ll note any changes I made to a uniform (some were necessary) but what follows is a “What If…” segment. Lets begin with the junior circuit:

Baltimore: The Orioles, whose name is ornithologically derived, are obviously black and orange. It’s a classic uniform, no doubt. But the flag of Baltimore is yellow/gold (for the most part) and not all that far off from the current Orioles colorscheme. Adding the yellow and dropping the orange everywhere but on the bird logo and that of the shoulder patch yields this uniform. It’s not a bad look at all. On the stirrups I added the yellow/gold sanitaries, instead of white and some stripes as well. Hard to argue removing the orange in favor of the yellow, but it’s not a bad combo if you used the Baltimore City flag colors.

Boston: OK. The “Red Sox” is obviously in reference to hosiery the Boston team (usually) wears, so it’s very tough to make any kind of case for putting the Boston City flag colors on the Red Sox uniform. But I gave it a shot, just for shits and giggles. Obviously, you’d need to keep the “Red Sox” patch on the shoulder, so I left that alone, but here’s how the road uniform would look in the aqua (?) and yellow of that city’s flag. Not good. And the home uniform? Not much better, although that’s not a completely horrible color scheme. Just not on a team called the “Red Sox.”

Chicago: OK, here it starts to get very interesting. The women’s professional soccer team, the Chicago Red Stars already use the city colors (not to mention the flag itself) as the basis for their uniform. And, as you will see later this week, the Chicago White Sox have reinvented themselves about 100 times over their history with different uniform schemes and colors. So how might the White Sox look wearing a uniform sporting their city’s colors? Well … here is how they would look if they used the blue element in their uniforms. And, here is the red element. But what if we combined the two? Well then, you’d have something like this. Whoa. I’ve seen that look somewhere before. Did the 1970’s White Sox chose the colors from their City flag for their uniforms? Hard to say, with absolute certainty, because they’d worn red before in their history and also powder blue, but never at the same time. Was this a semi-conscious effort, or just dumb luck? Or perhaps, one from column A and one from column B. Either way, it’s food for thought.

Cleveland: Here is an example where the current uniform colors are almost identical to the colors of the Cleveland flag. So the uniforms wouldn’t look all that much different. Did the powers-that-be who came up with the current uniform color scheme reference the city flag? Probably not, since the red, white and blue in the flag have often been used in the teams uniforms, but then again, maybe that was intentional. But either way, the Indians wouldn’t look too much different than they do now. That being said, here’s the road uniform (with stirrup stripes attempting to mimic the flag pattern) and home uniform (for the home, I picked up the green “laurels” from the city flag for additional effect).

Detroit: Wow. Lots of colors in that city flag. Too many to really put onto a uniform that is currently only two colors (not counting white or gray as a color). But we can use the red and blue and try to work them in there. What you get is a home uniform that takes on a full additional color from it’s current state. Looks kind of busy, even though it’s only one more color than they have now. However, that same effect, even with the addition of yellow in the Old English “D” on the cap, looks much better when applied to the road uniform. I might have overdone it a bit on those away uni stirrup stripes, but I wanted to see how the socks would look if they mimicked the flag’s pattern more closely. Probably should have kept them plain dark blue.

Kansas City: I’m actually not quite sure which flag is correct for this fine city, and since it’s very similar to this flag (in terms of the color scheme), I used both. Being partial to those cities which choose to incorporate the colors of the flag of the United States into their city flag, I rather like how the Royals might look if they were to sport the Kansas City flag’s colors. The blue goes from “royal” to “navy” and the gold becomes red. Here’s the home uniform and the road uniform in city flag colors. I kind of like this. There is a slight problem in reconciling the team name (”Royals”) and removing the royal blue color from the uniform. But it’s interesting.

Los Angeles: Ah ha … the first true quandry i faced, because the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim aren’t technically from Los Angeles. But this is the flag of the City of Anaheim. And it’s pretty boring. So I chose the LA flag for the Angels. I probably should have worked with a few more combinations than the one I eventually chose. But since the Angels refuse to acknowledge any city at all on their jersey, they only get one mockup. The stirrup stripes might have been a bit much, but again, I wanted to replicate the city flag colors on them.

Minnesota: Yet another slight bit of complexity here, since the Twins are one of those teams who don’t have a “city” in which they play (at least officially), but a state. So, do I use the State flag’s colors, or those of Minneapolis or St. Paul? Gotta go with what’s on the front of the uniform, of course, so that’s the Minnesota State flag. And, since the flag is predominantly blue, that means the Twins uniforms will have that as their main color. I actually like home uniform better with the blue lettering than the current red. As far as the road uniform, I stuck with the red with blue outlines for city name and numbers. However, since pinstripes do not belong on road uniforms, I had to remove them.

New York: The “New York” comes from playing in New York City, so we’ll go with the New York City flag here. But, don’t dey play in da Bronx? Yep. But the flag of Bronx County looks almost identical, at least from a color perspective. So, for those fans of the Mets (or any team really, but especially Mets fans) who hate the Yankees, you may want to look away. Here’s the vanuted pinstripes using the NYC flag colors. There’s not much difference using the colors of the Bronx flag, but here is that rendering. After ‘creating’ this, I couldn’t even bring myself to do an away uniform.

Oakland: Now this is really interesting. The colors of Oakland’s flag are pretty similar, eerily so, to those of the Athletics. Why so eerie, you ask? We’ve already seen that some teams may (or may not) have chosen to incorporate their cities flags’ color scheme into their uniform, so why is Oakland so special? Because, the A’s sported their color scheme since they played in Kansas City! And I highly doubt Charley Finley knew when he introduced the world to yellow and green on a baseball uniform that he’d be moving his team to Oakland. Or did he? Certainly something to ponder, if nothing else. Anyway, here’s the A’s home uniform and their road uniform in city flag colors. Looks so different from their current get ups. (Note to self…NEVER put stripes on the A’s socks again.)

Seattle: That is an, um, interesting flag. Lots of swirly stuff (what’s that? waves you say? gotcha). And what color is that, anyway — teal? aqua? OK. It’s that City’s flag, and it’s in two colors, so lets work with it. I tried to render this uniform using just the teal and white, but it looked awful. So, I re-added the current blue for a bit of color contrast. Here’s what we get. I give you the Seattle Mariners in city flag gory glory. This would be one team to whose city flag colors I would never recommend changing.

Tampa (Bay): For the Rays, I had to render their flag in both the Tampa colors and those of St. Petersburg as well. The Sunshine State’s west coast seems to have some very interesting flags, don’t they? I really dig that St. Pete flag, but with FIVE dominant colors, there’s no way to render the uniform with all of them (so we’ll stick to the socks). Anyway, lets tackle the Tampa version first. With four colors in their flag, and none more dominant than another, I thought I’d just use them all. Probably not a great idea, but it’s not like the Rays have any great uniform history to begin with. I think their original had more colors. Anyway, with that in mind, I didn’t feel so bad putting four colors in their current uniform. As for the St. Pete version — I got all all five colors in there, albeit two of them were relegated to the stirrups. Interesting and colorful, if nothing else.

Texas: Well, not much to say or do here. The Texas Texases wear their State flag on their uniform, so it’s no surprise their colors stem from it. Both the home uniform and the road uniform don’t change under the “city flag colors” renderings.

Toronto: Rounding out the junior circuit is the only team from north of the border. The Toronto flag is kinda cool, though. And since there is no black in it, I get to render the BLUE Jays in a more appropriate color colour. The nice blue and red in the flag aren’t exactly new colors for the Jays, but they are slightly different from what they have now, or what they wore in the past. So, here’s the home uniform and the road uniform. I’m NOT liking the beveled numbers however (and the letters are no picnic either). Just for the hell of it, and since the Jays once wore powder blue on the road, I thought I’d see how they look if we rendered their uniform in the colors of their flag. I probably should not have. Because here’s what I came up with. Not good. I do think the “Toronto” and the numbers look better when rendered in a solid pattern however. But that’s about the only good thing I can say.

Well, there you have it. The American League rendered in the colors of the flags of their cities. (Please don’t beat me up too bad for the graphics — I’m NOT a graphic artist, nor do I claim to be one — I just wanted to give an idea of how these things would look). I’m NOT saying I’d advocate any of the teams change their colors (well — maybe one, but I’ll have more on them this week, along with some guest artists). But as an exercise in futility, I thought it might be interesting to see how the leagues would look if they took their colors from the flag of the place they play. I’ll be back at some point with the National League. But that’s all for today. Let me know what you think!

Last evening, the Crew & Bravos engaged in a little Negro League throwback game. Ever vigilant, Brewer fans extraordinaire Johnny Okray and Nicole Haase were all over this, with Johnny sending me some pics and Nicole actually attending the game and taking a few pics from the stands. Johnny begins:

I know you know the Brewers threw back to the 1923 Milwaukee Bears, and the Braves threw back to the 1919-52 Atlanta Black Crackers today for a Negro League tribute of sorts. I say “of sorts” because I bet those teams never wore their unis as baggy as the guys do today. Anyways, I just wanted to send you a picture of the mound today. The Crew always like to change their mound logo when the uni changes, and today was no different. Here are a few more:

Untuck ‘em.

The hat looks awesome, but when are they going to make throw back shoes?. Other wise this picture would be awesome!

Thanks Johnny. He notes that additional photos can be found at Yahoo Sports and on The Mothership.

Next up is Nicole, who was at the game, and has a nice little writeup on it:

The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the Atlanta Braves in their third annual Negro Leagues tribute game. The Brewers wore the 1923 uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears and Atlanta wore the 1926 uniforms of the Atlanta Black Crackers.

The cream and blue unis were, in my opinion, a definite upgrade for the Brewers from the white with black pinstripes unis they’ve worn during the past two year’s Negro League games.

The Bears jersey had the look of a vest with undershirt, but wasn’t actually. The pants featured color butt-pocket flaps and belt loops. For most everyone around me, the hat was the star of the uni.

The Black Crackers jerseys were very simple, with red piping on the jersey and a simple red “Atlanta” across the chest and a red A on the navy hat.

Only Nate McClouth and Casey Kotchman of the Braves and Prince Fielder (shown here with Kotchman) ruined the look by not wearing high pants/socks. Kotchman appeared to have elastic in the bottom, but wore them at the ankle. Taking it a step better, in this picture of the guys in the dugout, on the far left you’ll see Jeff Suppan wearing real stirrups to complete the look.

Aside: Braves’ young phenom Tommy Hanson has TH branded cleats. And the BF and I met Ryan Braun after the game while getting dinner.

Full gallery here.

Thanks Nicole! Also, be sure to check out her website, which is awesome, and which she bills as “Sports…from a chick’s perspective.” Great stuff.

In case you missed it yesterday, it’s almost that time again — time for round two of the Uni Tracking we began at the beginning of the season, and you guys so aptly displayed graphically and in print in May and June. Response to the first call for “uni trackers” was tremendous, and I’m interested to see how everyone’s team is faring now that we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the season. So, if you’re one of the many insane dedicated people who put yourselves through this exercise, contact me this week and I’ll think about how we’ll go about round 2 of the tracking. I think we need to keep the “replies” a bit shorter, but we still need the important info. I’ll come up with “guidelines” in the next week, and let you know when the next round (figure the second weekend in August) will transpire. Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. I look forward to your updated tracking and trends. When you send me your email, please put Uni Tracking in the “subject” line. Judging from the number of e-mails I got on this (all of one), I’m hoping interest in this is not waning. Simply contact me and let me know if you’re still interested — I’ll get back to you with the “specs” when I come up with them. OK? OK???? OK.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK. Today’s scoreboard should NOT be that difficult, since you should be able to narrow everything down right from the get go. The scoreboard itself, the teams, and the player pictured are all clues. It’s just a matter of narrowing it even further. And that shouldn’t be all that difficult. Ready? Guess The Game. As always, link to Retrosheet of Baseball Almanac, and tell us what it was about the picture that led you to your answer.

Since we had ARATT (”all Ricko, all the time”) yesterday, we’re only going to have one Sunday Benches today. I’m pretty sure the boys of Benchies don’t wear their city uni colors on their softball uniforms, but hey, you never know. So, with that introduction, I present you with Sunday Benchies for today. Enjoy.

The MLB Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is today, and the Hall will be welcoming Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and Joe Gordon (from “pre-1943″) days. You can read more about it here. Will be interesting to hear Rickey’s speech — and whether he’s just Rickey being Rickey … Brinke Guthrie (“eknirb” “=bg=”) notes that the San Francisco Giants will honor Sue Burns, their deceased senior general partner, on Monday. … And finally, Doug Keklak (”Kek”) draws our attention to this trip down memory lane. Thanks, fellas.

OK. That will do it for today. Enjoy your Sunday.

91 comments July 26th, 2009

Robert Marshall Isn’t the Only One Placing Orders with Twin City Knitting

Major development in Oakland yesterday, as Rajai Davis wore A’s logo stirrups. Truth to tell, I think that’s a bit much — just stick with the solid green ’rups. But the larger issue is that this really speaks to how MLB has completely lost control of lower-leg styling. It’s bad enough that you’ve got a mishmash of low cuffs, high cuffs, solid socks, and stirrups, but now you’ve got Davis wearing fashion hose that aren’t part of Oakland’s official wardrobe and were never intended to appear on an MLB diamond. Frankly, I’m surprised A’s equipment manager Steve Vucinich provided these for Davis. I’ll try to find out more from him today.

New ESPN columns today — look here (that one has two video segments) and here.

The First Rule of Binghamton Fight Club Is Don’t Talk About Binghamton Fight Club: As you’ve probably heard by now, the big uni news in Mets-ville is that Tony Bernazard removed his uniform, so to speak, during a recent upstate jaunt (artist’s rendering at right by our own John Ekdahl). Having attended college in Binghamton, I can confirm that it is indeed a fine place to get nekkid, although I tended to do it in the company of attractive young coeds, not minor league baseball players. Of course, that’s only because the town didn’t yet have a minor league baseball team back then, but you can’t have everything.

Meanwhile, I’ve already reserved my copy of Tony Bernazard’s Nudist Guide to Upstate New York, coming soon to a bookstore near you. If you can’t find a copy, don’t worry — I have a feeling Tony will soon have a lot more time on his hands to write a sequel.

Speaking of the Mets, the answers to yesterday’s quiz can be found here. Be honest when tabulating your score, or else I’ll send Tony to kick your ass.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As you may be aware, the President of Kenya went on the telepromompterizer last night to push for his socialistical health care program. If only the gummint would just butt out and let the medical biz rely on proven market-driven solutions, like advertising on Bears jerseys. … So much better that way, no? … Looks like JC Romero has something written inside his rally cap (with thanks to Doug McConnell). … Good article on a minor league clubbie here (with thanks to Scotty Johnson). … If you go to this page and click on “2012 Football Jersey Rule,” you’ll download an interesting PowerPoint file on new jersey regs going into effect in Nebraska (nice find by David McGee). … The Bruins co-sponsor the annual New England Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach. If you skip ahead to the 10th image in this slideshow, you can see the team’s logo executed in sand. … Hey, checo out Wilt as a long-jumper — and dig that cap! (Good find by Matt Mitchell.) … Ben Shaykin’s wife is conducting some research regarding baseball fans’ feelings about “God Bless America” being sung at baseball games. If you’d like to participate, look here. … Shaun Tunick notes that Braves coach Glenn Hubbard’s helmet had an All-Star Game decal. Maybe he grabbed McCann’s helmet? Also: The upside-down N on has been fixed. … Totally gorgeous American Legion baseball uni here. … The Chargers have released their uniform sked for the upcoming season (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … Very nice slideshow-plus-video of Padres uni history here (with thanks to Justin Canoya). … The Red Sox are retiring Jim Rice’s number. … Here’s why you should never mix columbia blue, kelly green, and maroon. That image is from from this tremendous site, which is devoted to NC State program covers (big thanks to Joey Morris).

186 comments July 23rd, 2009

Night of the Living Black-Clad Ankles

Here’s something that’s been going on for a couple of weeks, so I’m surprised nobody else has noticed (or at least nobody has spoken up about it): Diamondbacks outfielder Alex Romero has brought a new twist to the high-cuffed look. Instead of just wearing red socks, he appears to have short black socks over his red hose. The resulting effect is sort of like low whites in the NFL, only they’re low blacks.

But is Romero really wearing socks? Maybe it’s just black ankle tape, especially since he appears to wear the black tape (or socks, or whatever) even with the D-Backs’ black alt uniform. But why wear the tape over the socks, instead of under? Doesn’t that ruin the socks? And why not wear tape that matches the sock color? Is this all some sort of superstition, or what?

I called Diamondbacks equipment manager Roger Riley and left a message but haven’t heard back from him yet — will advise. While we’re waiting, I did some quick photo research, which suggests that Romero had gone pajama-pantsed until very recently, so it’s not clear if he’s always employed the tape-over-hose motif.

Meanwhile, this raises an interesting question: Does this look good? I think you could argue that it does — black is a D-Backs team color, after all (even though it probably shouldn’t be). At the very least, this presents some interesting possibilities for two-tone baseball socks, which used to be fairly common. Personally, I’m in favor of anything that gets more players to hike up their pants. And if it takes two-tone hose to get them to do it, that works for me.

ITEM! Celebration Planned for NYC’s Best Triple-A Team: On July 21st, I’m going to be participating in an evening of Mets-themed readings and presentations at the Two Boots on Grand Street in Manhattan. Other participants will include Jon Springer of Mets by the Numbers, Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing, and Mets historian/author Matt Silverman. First pitch at 7pm; not sure who’s reading first. Also not sure of the topic on which I’ll be holding forth, although I’m thinking of administering a Mets uniform quiz. One thing I am sure of: the T-shirt I’ll be wearing. See you there.

Quick Shout-Out: Yo, Joe Alvaro, please give me a shout. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Junior Griffey usually wears dark batting gloves, but last night he wore one white glove for his first plate appearance, as a tribute to Michael Jackson. And his walk-up music was “Billie Jean.” He went back to his usual glove protocal for the rest of the game (with thanks to Matt McBride). … A little birdie tells me all MLB teams will be using a new template for next season’s batting practice caps. No visuals yet. … Speaking of BP caps, here’s what they’ll look like for the All-Star Game. … I’ve run plenty of photos of Gary Roenicke’s faceguard. But here’s something new: According to the seventh-to-last graf in this article, mask was taken from Bert Jones’s football helmet. Only problem with that story is that Roenicke’s mask doesn’t seem to match any of the designs that Jones wore (with thanks to Bryan Duklewski). … The college football video game market is being hit by a very interesting lawsuit (with thanks to David Muir). … And speaking of lawsuits, do these two logos look similar to you? The Rays think they do. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Someone sees a connection between the South African national soccer jersey and a certain art supply package. … Doug Keklak notes that the Adam LaRoche’s NOB is solid on his home and road, but there’s a bit of a space on his black alt. As for brother Andy, he’s solid on the road and at home, with a very slight hint of a sliver of extra space on the Sunday alt. … Meanwhile, check out the varying amount of space between the insignia and the uni number on Adam LaR. And Joel Hanrahan. … MLS has unveiled its MLS Cup 2009 logo for this November’s match in Seattle (with thanks to Markus Kamp). … Bit of an armband controversy in the rugby world (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … eBay finds: really nice soccer pins, a cool hoops jersey, and a great practice tee. … Remember that brief period when NFL officials wore the full name of their positions on their backs? … New football uniforms for Air Force and Wyoming (with thanks to Mike Althouse and Brendan Fitzgerald, respectively). … Speaking of college football, apparently there was a rumor floating around that Tennessee might wear black jerseys at some point this year, but that rumor has now been debunked (with thanks to Lee Wilds). … And in Division II news, new uniforms for Northern State. Lots of additional photos here. … “I recently changed my Twitter background to an SF Giants background from TwitterBackgrounds.com,” writes Evan Aczon. “I was checking it today and found that the player in the background was a college player, not a Giants player. Any idea what uniform that is?” Nope. Anyone? … Yesterday I said gumball maven Bill Jones would no doubt be creating a set of Tecmo Bowl helmets. Sure enough, he’s already designed the decal sheet, along with an additional sheet for a more recent video game called Blitz — The League. … “Saw this guy on my way to work Tuesday morning,” writes Jeff Meyers. “Not sure if its a DIY job or something he bought. Couldn’t get on the other side of him to see if there was a logo on both sides. You can insert your own Ben Roethlisberger joke wherever you like.” … Jason Varitek is auctioning off his Captain America gear (with thanks to Greg Beaulieu). … “Last weekend in my hometown of Michigan City, Indiana (birthplace of Don Larsen by the way), was the annual Drum and Bugle competition featuring the best bands from around the country,” writes Dylan Buell. “We have our 4th of July parade during the day, which all these bands march in, and then the competition takes place in the evening on our high school football field.” He took lots of pics of the band uniforms, many of which are very interesting, which you can see here. … Has anyone else noticed that Jayson Werth’s home jersey has really long sleeves? Like, really long (as spotted by James Allen). … Another Tecmo follow-up, this time from Gus Money, who writes: “Tecmo Super Bowl, which followed Tecmo Bowl, officially licensed teams and players were included. But the members of the Quarterback Club (a self-selected group of starting NFL QBs of the era) were not part of the NFLPA license and therefore did not appear in the game, sorta. These players were represented simply by the title ‘QB .’ In admiration of said game, I created this jersey last season.” … Meanwhile, HHH, who got this Tecmo ball rolling in the first place has sent along a ton of additional material, including video of a guy playing the Tecmo theme song on guitar, metal-style, pics of three people with Tecmo tattoos (look here, here, and here), and — wait for it — nearly 100 screen shots from Tecmo Super Bowl, plus a lengthy essay extolling the game’s virtues. I’ve put the essay here but haven’t edited it or linked up specific images to specific text passages because, y’know, there’s only so many hours in a day. Enjoy.

244 comments July 8th, 2009

Return to Charm City

Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I was in Baltimore two weeks ago and now Baltimore’s own Joe Hilseberg has found a site that has what he describes as “the greatest local collection of jerseys I have even seen!”

The site is Parkway Pastimes, and it’s run by some serious collectors of Baltimore/DC game-used gear. Plug “jersey” or “helmet” into the site’s search engine and you get hundreds of results. Among the many, many highlights (for all these pages, click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the photos):

• Here’s a full, intact set of the O’s solid orange uniform. And here’s a prototype for a different orange design, which I’d never seen before.

• But if you really want to see a cool orange jersey, look at this one.

• Speaking of orange, check out the Rawlings sleeve patch on this jersey, along with the 30th-anniversary patch on the other sleeve.

• Joe says, “I think this jersey design only made it on the field one time. Angelos hated the orange neck trim.”

• Dig the lowercase lettering on this NOB.

• Speaking of NOBs, remember that brief period when the Caps used negatively arched lettering? Note that the lettering appears to be direct-sewn, which means the nameplate shown at NHLuniforms.com is apparently wrong.

• Here’s a gorgeous jersey from the minor league Orioles days.

• And speaking of the minor league O’s, look at this incredible sleeve patch!

• Jeez, ya think the Terps were trying to rip off the Nats jersey design or what?

• Here are two different Brooksie helmets, both with the shortened brim.

• Unusual finds here: two Senators caps, both with old-fashioned protective insert liners.

• I don’t think Mike Devereaux has ever shown up on our running list of MLB players who’ve worn faceguard attachments. But he appears to have had one.

• Maybe my favorite thing on the site: an old Colts marching band uni from the AAFC days when green was one of the team’s color.

• Look at all the different Caps socks these guys have collected.

• If you search on “pants,” you’ll see lots of Washington Bullets warmup pants — including one from Manute Bol. Check out the inseam listing on the tagging!

• Check out the totally boss Bullets warmup jackets here, here, and here.

• Love this killer Colts championship jacket.

And so on. There’s a lot more on the site — have fun poking around on it.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Jays wore their annual Canada Day uniforms yesterday, complete with CNOB and a flag sleeve patch. Additional pics here. … The Des Moines Register has put up a gallery of old Little League photos from the 1950s and ’60s, many of which feature interesting cap and jersey designs. Highly recommended clicking — check it out here (big thanks to Ryan Simmelink). … Very nice Forbes Field cartoon here (with thanks to Joel Basknight). … Latest installment of the North Stars uni history project is up (with thanks to Cole Jones). … Two new Australian soccer teams: the North Queensland Fury (here’s their road kit) and Gold Coast United (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: A store in Japan is hosting a Yomiuri Giants exhibit that includes a gallery where six designers have come up with new Giants uni concepts. … Good story here about Charlie Hayes’s 1994 facemasks. Didn’t realize he’d worn the Rip Hamilton-style version (big thanks to Bo Baize). … Recently spotted at Shea: Someone in a Mets jersey with “Buckner 86″ on the back (with thanks to Dan Herr). … Great shots of Hank Aaron serving as a Korean batting instructor, circa 1982, on this page (Jeremy again). … Andy Bruinewoud recently visited the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and took some photos. … Boy, this really makes me proud to be from Long Island (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Ryan Church was wearing some seriously ridiculous bell-bottoms yesterday (thanks, Phil). … Just what I always wanted: a baseball map of Taiwan (Jeremy yet again). … Tyler Kepner asked Brian Bruney about his blank-backed cap: “Wish I had a more exciting report for you,” he writes, “but Bruney said he simply
wears the same hat for everything — spring training, pre-game, in-game –
and the iron-on logo on the back peeled off.” … Wow, I didn’t remember this patch being so big. … Interesting question posed by Derek Blodgett, who asks: “What’s with the upside-down triangle and NHL team logos? Three teams use the triangle: the Penguins, Sharks, and Predators. Is there any significance to that?” Hmmmm. … With the all the AFL throwback hoopla just around the corner, Phil reports that the excellent Remember the AFL site has been expanded. Worth checking out. … Speaking of something worth checking out, look at this players-vs.-umps episode of Family Feud (genius find by Chris Flinn). …That new football stadium in Dallas finally has a logo. … RIP, Thin Man.

Holiday Schedule: We’ll have regular content tomorrow. Phil was planning something for Saturday, but I insisted that he take the holiday off, so instead we’ll just have a photo that captures the spirit of America (I really wanted to use that one, but the date kinda ruins it for July 4th purposes). And then Phil will do his usual thing on Sunday. OK? OK.

178 comments July 2nd, 2009

Monday Morning Uni Watch, MLB Edition

Phil already covered the Civil Rights Game in yesterday’s post (if you missed it, scroll down for his analysis), but there are a few additional details I want to go over today. To wit:

• They kinda botched the Reds’ NOB font, along with the number-to-letter size ratio. More to the point, though, isn’t it bizarre that the Reds used an “uphill” arch for their subscript NOBs back in the day? The subscript format is weird enough on its own, but it would’ve looked so much better with an inverted, “downhill” arch (like the word “Carolina” here). Anyone with decent Photoshop skills want to show us how that might have looked?

• We’re so used to seeing the Reds using the wishbone C logo that I’d kinda forgotten all about the rounded C version, which they used from 1961 through ’66.

• Phil mentioned D.J. Carrasco’s stirrups, but reader Steve Johnston let me know that Carrasco’s hose prompted the following exchange between Chisox broadcasters Steve Stone and Ken Harrelson:

Steve Stone: He’s got some high socks.

Ken Harrelson: I tell ya, if I were a pitcher today, there’s no way in the world I’d be wearin’ those loooong pants, all the way down. I’d be wearin’ socks like that.

Stone: I’d be wearing as much white…

Harrelson: Exactly!

Stone: … as I possibly could and try to get the baseball to come out of some aspect of whiteness.

Harrelson: No question about it. I would be wearin’ those things up to my behind. [Both men chuckle.]

Stone: High leg kick, anything you can do to add a little deception.

Harrleson: Big high white socks and a psychedelic-colored glove. Got get ’em, kid!

Stone: Hey, if they let you do it, do it.

Two thoughts here: First, this reminds me of the 1967 controversy over the Washington Senators’ white cap and socks, which I described three summers ago. And second, I’m all in favor of anything that gets players to wear more stirrups, but wouldn’t a white pant leg pulled all the way down to the shoetops achieve the same effect that Stone and Harrelson are advocating?

• Kinda looked like the “SOX” lettering on some of the Chicago caps was applied as a patch, not as direct-embroidered letters. You can sort of see what I’m talking about here and here. I know, I know, most of you are thinking that’s just a blur effect from the video, but I swear I saw it on several of the caps (but not on all of them).

• Speaking of the Chisox caps, here’s something I hadn’t realized: Back in the day, their cap logo had lots of breaks in the lettering (look at that X!). This isn’t shown in their official throwback cap, what a surprise. Wasn’t done for the Civil Rights Game caps either.

• Oh, and one other thing they botched: wrong TV number font.

But hey, it’s certainly a lot better than what they wore for the past two Civil Rights Games.

Research Request: If anyone has any decent game shots of this Kings uni, please get in touch. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Back in college, I played in a touch football league whose championship game was called the Soup Bowl. We’ve all seen those sorts of joke game names — the Salad Bowl, the Toilet Bowl, etc. But apparently there really was a game called the Spaghetti Bowl, which was played between Army and Air Force personnel stationed in Italy in 1945. Use the navigation tabs at the upper-left corner of that page to learn more. … Nice shot here of yellow Rams jerseys and plexiglass faceguards (with thanks to John Muir). … Steve Dewing notes that Dick Allen apparently had scar tissue on his eyebrows. … And so it goes. … Steve May says the vintage goalie mask discussion threads and photos on this site are amazing, and a quick perusal indicates that he’s right. Highly recommended. … Schutt has come out with a head-cooling helmet, which should put a major dent in cabbage leaf sales (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Interesting post on old football cards here (with thanks to Mike Thomas). … Not sure if this has just been added or if it’s been there all along, but one of the Shea parking lots is now marked with the spots where the original Shea’s home plate, pitching rubber, and bases had been. … What’s that on T.O.’s cap? Guess (with thanks to Mike Engle). … Looking for a good pair of striped stirrups? Quick, buy these (with thanks to Dustin Bornman). … SportsCenter typo on Friday night, as they misspelled the name of my favorite city (as spotted by Jason Heminger). … The BC Lions have unveiled some 1960s throwbacks (with thanks Richard Musterer). … I’ve previously shown the logos that the NBA will be using for its preseason games in Monterrey and Beijing. They’ve also got one for Taipei (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Interesting survey of Japanese professional badges. … Still more from Jeremy: Here is the logo and ball for the 2009 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. … Check out these batting gloves used to belong to Howie Kendrick of the Angels. Never seen that padding on the palm and index finger before (with thanks to Brett Crane). … Here’s how the W on the Dexter Fowler’s NOB is supposed to look. Now compare that to the W on his vest jersey — looks like they used an upside-down M (great catch by Todd Davis). … Great shot of the 1935 Green Lake women’s hoops team, as seen on the wall of Red Mill Burgers in Seattle by Jeremy Brahm. … A blogger is taking a comprehensive look at the Stars/North Stars uniforms. It starts here and continues here (with thanks to Nicole James). … Great uni cameo shot from Steve Dewing’s site: Boog Powell as a Dodger. … I really ought to know this, but what’s the deal with the shorts patches in this shot? … I bid on this but didn’t win it — dang. … UFC fighter Diego Sanchez has been wearing the Sacramento Kings logo on his shorts (with thanks to the Chris Creamer forum). … Those light-blue Father’s Day ribbons looked particularly odd on the Padres’ camo jerseys. … The Phillies wore theirs to the left of their memorial chest patch, while the Angels wore it to the right of theirs. … And look, Bobby Cox had one on his dugout jacket. … Josh Willingham wore “JON” on his armbands yesterday, which I assume was a memorial gesture for his brother. … Things apparently got a little freaky-deeky at Shea yesterday. … Bob Feller will turn 91 this fall, but that didn’t keep him from pitching yesterday at the Hall of Fame Classic yesterday in Cooperstown. Further details here. … Another player wearing those annoying Phiten-branded socks: Jorge de la Rosa. … OK, we all know Prince Fielder likes a baggy jersey, but come on — that’s a tent! And look how low his Cool Base armpit vent is extending. … I’ve finally figured out why I don’t like this year’s Orioles cap logo. The old version included a few touches of gold, while the new version doesn’t. I realize that fewer colors makes for easier printing, but c’mon, a gray beak? Looks so drab. Also, the word “oriole” derives from the word “golden”! Rich Frank, if you’re reading this, I expect to see the gold tones restored forthwith! … A Seattle couple renewed their wedding vows at Safeco yesterday, and chose some rather odd attire for the occasion. … Wladimir Klitschko has been wearing the Hugo Boss logo on the front and back of his waistband for years now, but he wore “fit & geimpft” for Saturday’s bout against Ruslan Chagaev. According to this story, that’s German for “fit and vaccinated,” apparently a reference to Chagaev having recently tested positive for hepatitis. … Tiger Woods faced an oh-so-vexing decision yesterday (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Good catch by Matthew Hiett, who writes: “During Sunday night’s Dodgers/Angels game, ESPN showed this graphic for the Freeway Series. But the picture for Anaheim is actually Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Orlando, not Disneyland in California.” … Clayton Kershaw had an interesting variation on the Pedro porthole last night: Instead of his second button being unfastened, he had trouble with his third button. Greg Riffenburgh has already dubbed this the Kershaw crevice. … Speaking of Kershaw, here’s a great catch by Kevin Gee: If you look at the MLB logo on the back of Kershaw’s jersey, you can see there’s some extra stitching around it. Turns out all the Dodgers have this extra stitching. Gee speculates it’s because the Dodgers have moved their player tagging from the shirttail/jock tag area to the inner collar, probably due to the flimsiness of the Cool Base material. … If you’ve been dying to own a 1986 game-worn Phillies St. Paddy’s Day uniform, today’s your lucky day (with thanks to Adam Brodsky). … Interesting stories about CWS footwear and throwbacks (with thanks to David McGee). … “My girlfriend Bonnie and I had a few rainy days this weekend and filled them by making DIY Blazers uniforms — ’88 Drexler for me and a ’77 Walton for her,” writes Ryan Hossner. “Took around 12 hours with all of the stenciling and painting.” Full step-by-step slideshow here.

153 comments June 22nd, 2009

The Revolution Will Not Be Is Being Televised

Latest member of Stirrup Nation: Marlins pitcher Burke Badenhop (whose name is a perfectly baseball-ized version of Boris Badenov). He’s apparently been wearing them all season long — and also last year, and also in the minors — but I wasn’t aware of it until Milwaukee broadcasters Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder had the following conversation during last night’s Brewers/Marlins game:

Brian Anderson: Badenhop’s wearing the old-fashioned stirrups. You don’t see guys wearing the stirrups very often. That’s a lost art, the stirrups. Those are old-school. Normally guys just wear, y’know, the black socks, the full socks.

Bill Schroeder: Right. I didn’t think they made ’em anymore.

Anderson: I think they’re making a comeback.

Schroeder: I think you have to special-order those online.

Anderson: Gotta go to the, uh, the retro department?

Schroeder: Right. Those are not in the, uh, the sanitary sock bin in the clubhouse. [Chuckles. Anderson chuckles back, although nobody has said anything funny.] That’s not an option.

Anderson: Those are a custom job, you say?

Schroeder: Yeah.

Anderson: I’ve seen a few players wearing them, though, you know. I think there’s a little bit of a comeback comin’.

Schroeder: Yeah. Have to go to a local sporting goods store, maybe, pick some up.

Anderson: That was the best day of the year, wasn’t it? Go get your uniform…

Schroeder: Yup.

Anderson: …get those stirrups wrapped up.

Schroeder: You ever cut the bottoms of the stirrups and put the elastic in?

Anderson: Yeah.

Schroeder: So you just had that one strip goin’ up.

Anderson: And then, you know, when you get to high school, and you get all the hand-me-down stuff, you know. And so they’ve been through the bin a few times. They’re all stretched out and then you’ve actually gotta flip ’em over your foot to get ’em back down again. Did you ever do that?

Schroeder: Probably not.

Anderson: Big leaguer.

Schroeder: I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.

Anderson: Oh, you take — so, the stirrup is high. [Schroeder chuckles for some reason.] So you pull it down, then you loop it…

Schroeder: Right!

Anderson: …wrap it around your foot…

Schroeder: Gotcha.

Anderson: … and it brings it down into this position.

Schroeder: Doesn’t that bundle up under your foot?

Anderson: Well it does, but you, you’re more impressed with the aesthetics than you are with the…

Schroeder: Not when you’re catching.

Anderson: …the wad in your foot. That’s one of those things you probably didn’t have to deal with at Clemson, or in the majors.

Schroeder: Oh, yeah. I player high school ball. Remember?

Anderson: You did? I thought you went straight from Little League to Clemson.

==========

And from there things got seriously silly. Gotta admit, I’d never heard of the looping/bunching maneuver that Anderson described. Anyone else?

(Special thanks to reader Geoff Poole for alerting me to this one.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: Now you can urge the Mets to wear blue more often and help cure cancer at the same time. … A Cleveland-area drive-in movie theater won a restraining order against a local sports complex because of the latter’s bright lights (thanks, Vince). … Also from Vince: some really stupid flag-based shenanigans at Canton. … In 1953, the New York Giants toured Japan. This promotional belt buckle was produced for the occasion (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Greg Riffenburgh spotted a particularly good shot of David Carr wearing tape instead of his wedding band, or tape over his wedding band (did we ever settle on which one it was?). … I think I’ve linked to this before, but just in case: Good visual history of the Cincinnati Bearcat mascot here (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … The Binghamton Mets will be holding a Star Trek Night promotion this Friday (with thanks to Mike Verna). … This list of MLBers discussing their walk-up music choices would be a lot better if they’d included Cliff Floyd explaining why he once chose the Sanford & Son theme (with thanks to Jon Alviani). … Further development on the uni advertising front (with thanks to Ryan Patrick). … In Tuesday’s France/Nigeria friendly match, French players wore Braille NOBs, in honor of Louis Braille’s 200th birthday (with thanks to Julien Papa). … Whoa, check out the Chargers’ white throwbacks! … John Okray notes that Jeff Soupan was having sleeve patch troubles the other day, although it was corrected later in the game. … Also from John: “PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a recent Brewers game. He was there promoting the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, and he had the PGA Championship trophy (the Wannamaker Trophy) behind the mound. Question is, how often do people bring out props, or trophies, or other things to the mound to throw out the first pitch?” … Dan Cichalski saw this small memorabilia display at the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine, last week. … I’ll be dealing with a family situation today, so Phil will be minding the store. Please treat him right. Thanks.

281 comments June 3rd, 2009