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Posts filed under 'Japanese Baseball'
Reader Michael Kotler has noticed something really interesting going on in Japanese baseball. I’ll let him explain:
As we all know, MLB players can’t wear the number 42 (besides Mariano). But I’ve noticed that in Japan, a lot of foreign players wear 42. I looked into and it seems there are six foreigners wearing it: Marcus Gwyn of the Rakuten Golden Eagles; Marc Kroon of the Tokyo Giants; Tom Mastny of the Yokohama Baystars; Tony Blanco of the Chunichi Dragons; Brian Sweeney of the Nippon Ham Fighters; and Jonah Bayliss of the Seibu Lions.
Six players may not sound like much, but there are only 12 teams in Japan, and each team is only allowed to have four foreigners on its roster. So having one of the four players foreign players on half of the teams wearing 42 seems a little odd.
Is it just that most of these players wore 42 when they were young and wanted to continue it? Is it that they just want to wear 42 because they know they couldn’t back in the States (all except Blanco are American)? Is it that they all want to honor Jackie Robinson (which I think would be pretty cool)? Or is it just a ridiculous coincidence?
Good questions. One question that immediately came to mind was whether any of the six other Japanese teams had a Japanese player wearing No. 42. So I asked Kotler that, and he said and he promptly reported that four of the six have 42s on the roster: the Hanshin Tigers, Toyo Carp, Yakult Swallows, and Chiba Lotte Marines.
So the situation is this: Ten players in Japan wear No. 42, and six of them are non-Japanese players. Hmmmm. Mark in Shiga, Jeremy Brahm, and our other Japanese baseball experts, can any of you shed any light on this?
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to get in the raffle for the 10 free copies of Bill Henderson’s MLB jersey guide. To enter, send an e-mail to the raffle address by 7pm tonight. One entry per person, except for Uni Watch Membership Program enrollees, who can send four separate entries. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of brown pants and striped socks in Browns camp, which strikes me as a fair trade-off (with thanks to David Cummings). … Attention Teebz and all the other Canadians out there, check this out: Commonwealth Games cufflinks! … Anyone else think it’s a little unseemly for a diamond-stud earring to be worn by a first base coach? That’s long-pants pioneer George Hendrick, putting another nail in propriety’s coffin. … This installment of “Tank McNamara” won’t be running in The Washington Post. The larger question, of course, is why any installment of “Tank McNamara” is running in any newspaper, ever. … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. It’s part of this uni-centric slideshow (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … I love hot dogs, tattoos, and topless women, but this is still pretty freaky-deaky (thanks, Kirsten). … New court design for the Sixers (with thanks to F.J. Wesner). … The Pirates all went high-cuffed on Sunday, as you can see in this highlight clip. Man, I freaking love high cuffs with vests — such a great look. “The only ones who didn’t participate were relievers Matt Capps and Jesse Chavez,” notes Stu Uhlman. “Coincidence that they blew the lead and let the game get out of hand?” … New football uniforms for Pitt. Additional pics here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Orioles outfielder Willie Tasby reportedly played without shoes because he was afraid of being struck by lighting. We must find photos of this! … Yesterday’s Ticker mentioned that UNLV’s helmet stripe appeared to be changing from black to red, but I’ve been informed by several readers that that’s just a rookie thing for players who haven’t yet “earned the black stripe.” … Yikes (blame Chris Perske). … Take a good look, because I’m pretty sure we won’t be seeing these for very long. And this will become a collector’s item. … UCLA will wear throwbacks for homecoming. Details here. … Did you know the NCAA can bar a team from practicing if they use “improper attire”? I didn’t, until I came across this story last night. Key quote, from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney: “I was like dad-gum, we can’t get anything done in shorts.” Words to live by. … Wait, cancel that last item — the canceled practices have been restored. … Oh man, check out this magnificent old Broncos/Titans photo from Mike Hersh’s father’s collection. Love the old-style blocking technique exhibited by No. 74. … You think we’re obsessive? Check out this guy. … That story, incidentally, was written by Michael Schmidt, the same reporter who’s been breaking the stories about the steroid list. Good article about him here.
August 11th, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Jeremy Brahm
Now for the second part of our series on current NPB team uniforms. Today we will look at the current uniforms for each of the teams in the Pacific League.
The Pacific League also has six teams, but has always been the less popular of the two leagues. Here is a picture of the team’s uniforms in 1994. This was from an ad campaign called Sexy Pacific League.
And now here are the six teams in alphabetical order.
Chiba Lotte Marines: The Marines are situated on the east side of Tokyo Bay in the city of Chiba. The Marines have been known as the Lotte Orions until 1991 when the team moved from Kawasaki on the west side of Tokyo Bay to Chiba, and the team changed it name to the Marines and added pink to their color scheme.
After Bobby Valentine’s hiring in 1995, they went to a conventional white base with black pinstripes, which has been the team’s staple for their home uniform for the last 15 years. In addition, the patch on the left sleeve is the other logo for the Marines. Here is a shot of the home uniform from the back. What is surprising about the Marines’ home uniform is the big patch on the right sleeve. Yes that patch says “05 ASIA CHAMPION.” The Marines were is first team to win the Asia Series in 2005, which pits the champions of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China in a round robin tournament and then a final of the top two teams. But that was four years ago, it is time to move on.
This year is also the 40th anniversary of Lotte, candy and gum company from South Korea, purchasing the Marines. Here is a picture of the patch and where it will be placed on their three uniforms. The different colors of the seagulls represent the different colors of the uniforms of the team since Lotte had the team. Here is a picture of their three uniforms from the front, and the back. The home cap is all black with a silver M.
Chiba’s alternate home uniform has red and black raglan sleeves. The red and black are broken by a white and black jagged line on each sleeve, Charlie Brown like line. The red Y-neck goes all the way down the uniform to the beltline and has black outline stripes. Plus the uniform has black buttons. The lettering is in black with a red number that is outlined in silver with a red 3D shadow. Chiba’s alternate cap has a similar pattern as seen on the sleeves and it is used with their road uniform.
Chiba’s road uniform has a quick vertical gradation from black to white and similar raglan sleeves to the alternate uniform. The second logo has been copied in grey on the right chest and expanded in size. On the back the lettering is in white with black numbers outlined in silver with a red 3D shadow.
Jeremy loves their home whites, but the alternates and the visitor uniforms just look off to him. Actually, Jeremy feels their 2007 road uniforms with white pants looked great.
OK. This goes from great to very bad to AWFUL. The home uniform is nothing short of awesome, very Rockie-like. Crisp and sharp, the pinstripes and black cap look great together. The alternate home uni, with it’s “Charlie Brown” sleeves and red neck yoke (which extends through the button plackets) is just not appealing — it’s fine to be different, it’s another to be jarringly-so, and for little apparent reason (although there is some precedent to the “crown” piping on the sleeves). The road uni is just AWFUL. It’d be HORRIBLE as an alternate, but this just doesn’t belong on a diamond, especially for about half of your games. And the pink? I don’t care if it’s a nod to your team’s historical past … it’s just not good.
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks:: The Hawks, to Jeremy, have the most boring uniform in Japanese baseball. It has a white base with black lettering with two yellow sleeve stripes with a double yellow stripe down the pantleg.
Their road uniform is similarly boring to Jeremy, with a black base with white lettering and stripes and white pants.
The Hawks just announced that Softbank mobile would sponsor the team and have added a patch with a dog on their left sleeve, based on their campaign with “the Whites” (here are the home and road unis.) Both uniforms use a black hat with a yellow bill and yellow lettering.
To Jeremy, the sleeve stripes are too thick and would be fine if they were smaller, but these are just bland uniforms. Now if you put Tsuyoshi Shinjo in one, that’s entertainment. Yes, Shinjo had a gold glove and an iron on picture of himself. “I love me, some me.”
I’d disagree with Jeremy’s assessment of these uniforms being “boring,” but that doesn’t mean they’re good either. I LOVE a pure, white uniform, but with all the shit going on here, this is neither pure nor white, but boring it aint. Busy maybe. And who knew motorcycles and automobiles played for the team? I’m also not a fan of the sleeve and pant stripes being of varying widths. Obviously, the sponsor has something to do with the uni design, and while I understand it, I don’t like it. Definitely also not a big believer in the black roadie.
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters: The Fighters are located in Sapporo and only moved from Tokyo in 2004. Here is the last home uniform from their time in Tokyo. It was a similar design to that of the Minnesota Twins. Here is an example of their last road uniform before going to Sapporo.
The home uniform is white with white pants and has a black raglan sleeve that extends to the collar only on the left sleeve. The raglan area is highlighted with a gold stripe and has a teal blue line at the sleeve edge. Also the team entire team logo has a patch on the left sleeve. FIGHTERS is written with an arched teal lettering with gold outlines and black shadows. On the right sleeve is Nippon-Ham in black with gold outlines, the sponsor of the team. On the back lettering and numbers are in black with gold outlines.
The road uniform is essentially the same except that it is in grey with grey pants with Hokkaido in white with black outlines on the right sleeve and Nippon Ham in arched white lettering in white with gold outlines and black shadows. (Here is the back of the uniform.)
The Fighters also have an alternate uniform that is all black with white or grey pants. The teams’ F logo is placed over the heart. Numbers are in white on the back only. Jeremy has only seen this in warmups. Home and road cap is in black with the secondary logo.
The Fighters have had some special edition uniforms for the We Love Hokkaido Series in the summer. Here is the 2008 edition uniform and cap. And finally, the 2007 edition uniform. Shinjo even had a special uniform that he wore before the 2nd game of the 2005 Japanese All-Star game.
The Fighters uniforms to Jeremy are very sharp.
Although I am not a fan of asymmetrical uniform sleeve design, these aren’t too bad. The teal and gold are aesthetically pleasing, and not overdone as colors. Bonus points for having a gray away uniform too. You know I am not a fan of alternate uniforms, but, despite the pullover and sheeny-look, this one is definitely better than most.
Orix Buffaloes: The Buffaloes are based in Kobe and Osaka and was created from a merger of the Orix Blue Wave and Kintetsu Buffaloes in 2004. Ichiro Suzuki played for the Blue Wave, while Hideo Nomo played for the Buffaloes. The merger of the two teams was odd because the team had two home uniforms Kobe 2005 (white), 2006 Kobe, and Osaka 2005. The team still plays games in Kobe, but has moved their offices to Osaka and now only use the Osaka uniform as their only set.
Additionally, the Blue Wave had to kill a mascot, Buffilead, which was designed by Hanna Barbera. Instead they kept Neppie. You should see him with the shell around his neck.
Additionally, the Kintetsu Buffaloes are probably the only team in the world who changed logos on a mascot. “What do you mean?” you say. They changed uniform and shoe companies at one time and the mascot changed with them. Here are the Buffaloes in Mizuno and then in Asics. That is logo creep.
But getting back to the uniforms, the Buffaloes home uniform has a white base with dark blue raglan sleeves all the way to the collar. Each sleeve has a single red sleeve stripe. Orix has its company logo on the right sleeve. The white Y-neck is outlined in dark blue. The team logo is outlined in yellow and numbers on the front of the uniform are dark blue. On the back the lettering is in dark blue on a radial arch, while the numbers are dark blue with a yellow outline.
The road uniform has changed this season and the Buffaloes have ditched the yellow (old version).
ORIX is spelled out in white on the chest with dark blue buttons and white numbers. The Buffaloes script is on the right sleeve. On the back the lettering and numbers are in white. The batting helmet for Orix has always had three red stripes, (1989), the 1990s, from the brim to the halfway point on the left side of the helmet.
Their home and road cap has a dark blue base with the logo outlined in yellow. But look carefully at this cap — the front half of the hat has red dividing lines for the panels, but the back does not. Jeremy has never seen that before.
Jeremy thinks Orix looks good but he’d prefer to have the yellow back on their road uniform.
I liked a previous version of the home uniforms (possibly influenced by the “gag” jersey I bought, and which I’m wearing in the by-line). Look at this stunningly simple design. Too bad they wear this new uniform now. They also wear this raglan sleeved number, which is garnished with this cap — so what’s with the red? I know they have that red stripe on the sleeve, but it doesn’t seem to go with the other colors on the uni. Although possibly a nod to the past. (And they obviously have a lot of uniform history in the past — of both the Blue Wave and Buffalo variety). However, Jeremy informs me the red is actually part of Orix’s parent company’s color scheme, in addition to Kintetsu, (but Kintetsu does not sponsor the team anymore).
Saitama Seibu Lions: The Lions are located in the Northwestern Tokyo suburb of Tokorozawa. The Lions have been very successful since their move in 1978 to Tokorozawa and were known for their baby blue road uniforms. But this year the Lions have ditched the baby blue altogether and have gone in a new direction, back to the past.
The new design has a new font for the logo, a darker blue called “Legends Blue” and a brand new design. The old logo looked like this.
The home uniform is minimalistic, almost Detroit Tigers like. But it does have the new paw logo patch on the left sleeve, Saitama Seibu in red on the right sleeve, 13 white stars on the inside of the back of the neck for the number of Championships that the Lions have won overall. The back of uniform has dark blue lettering and numbers.
The road uniform is a grey base with a dark blue outline around the Y-neck. Also has a single dark blue sleeve stripe on each sleeve. The Lions script is in dark blue and dark blue numbers. The paw logo, Saitama Seibu and 13 stars are all the same as the home uniform.
The dark blue cap with the white L will also be used on the road. Their batting helmet appears to be matte black.
Jeremy has only known the Lions in baby blue, and he does like to the look of these uniforms, but he hates the font for the script.
This is, by far, my favorite of all the uniforms. But, if you had asked me to judge them by their previous uniform incarnations and Nikified designs, I would have absolutely hated them. Just goes to show you that Nike, when pressed, can make something gorgeous. I’m sure there will be some backlash in Japan, as this is a radical departure from this. You won’t hear any complaints from me.
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles: The Gold Eagles are based in Sendai in the Northeast (Tohoku) part of the country. They play their home games at the Kleenex Stadium Miyagi, so there could be crying in baseball. The Eagles are the youngest team in the Pacific League as they started in 2005 and were created because of the merger of Orix and Kintetsu, which would have created an odd numbered league of five. Rakuten bought an expansion franchise license to make the Pacific League have six teams. The owner of Rakuten, Hiroshi Mikitani attended Hitotsubashi University and Harvard University, whose school colors are crimson, and that is the name of Rakuten’s holding company, Crimson Group. Therefore crimson is one of the team’s primary colors.
The Eagles’ home uniform has a white base with crimson lines. The team script is written in crimson with yellow shadows and has crimson numbers outlined in yellow underneath the script. Each player’s name and number are crimson with yellow outlines. This number font is similar to what the BayStars used to use.
The Eagles have added a 5th season patch to the left sleeve. Also, Rakuten’s logo is on the right sleeve. Jeremy asks, “Does it look weird to have a logo for a company with a heart over your heart?”
The road uniforms are basically a flipping of the colors, a crimson base with white stripes. Rakuten replaces Eagles and is in white with yellow shadows, which make it a bit difficult to read. The player names and numbers are in white without the yellow outlines. These are paired with white pants.
The third uniform, which is only used for Interleague games, has more crimson than the regular model. There are white pit stains, yellow stripes, crimson panels, crimson numbers and player name’s in crimson block letters with yellow outlines. The team’s E logo has been converted to crimson instead of the traditional white, and is outlined in yellow. RAKUTEN is in small letters underneath the E. And the IRIS patch has been moved to the right part of the chest.
Rakuten wears a crimson cap at home and on the road with a white E with yellow outlines.
According to Jeremy, the Eagles have an old school look, even with the road colored tops. Jeremy would like to see a grey road uniform with the crimson, as he thinks it would look nice.
This uniform doesn’t do much for me either way. The colors are gorgeous, but I am not really enjoying the (seemingly unnecessary) thin piping all about the place. As a design element, I don’t really like it, and it doesn’t appear to have any functionality. The cap color and design are pretty cool though. And I do like the numeral font, which appears to be “copperplate gothic” or something similar. I wish they had a gray away uniform, but what are you gonna do?
~~~~~~~~~~Jeremy’s Wrapup: Considering that there are only 12 teams in Japan, they have some pretty interesting uniforms in my opinion. So, remember when you hear that Yu Darvish pitches for the Nippon Ham Fighters, you can picture him before he joins your team.
Just remember some Japanese teams have worn some different things: the Daiei Hawks, the Nippon Ham Fighters (here too), the Nittaku Home Flyers, the Taiyo Whales and the Crown Lighter Lions.
Here are also a couple of photos of the Pacific League from the early 80s. This was with the Exciting League Pa (Pacific) campaign: Exciting League Pa photo uniform, Shinji Mizushima. Mizushima is a huge baseball fan and manga artist who has done numerous stories on baseball. He is wearing a uniform with sections of each of the team’s uniform colors. And here is an Exciting League Pa poster. There are no other examples of this that I can find.
Phil’s Final Thoughts: If anyone is still interested, the “grafic” I used for the header is the “famous” Atom Boy. But I’ll let Jeremy explain it a bit more:
The picture that you have is from the Yakult Atoms in the 1960s. They used AstroBoy on the left sleeve, because Sankei is part of the Fuji Sankei Broadcasting group and AstroBoy was on their networks. Sankei sold the team to Yakult then became the Yakult Atoms before returning to the Swallows. Technically in Japan AstroBoy is called Atom Boy, but semantics.
I wanted to express my deep and sincere thanks to Jeremy Brahm for all his work on this piece (or, actually, two days worth of pieces). There is a tremendous amount of information on Japanese uniforms I am certain he left “on the cutting room floor” so to speak, and this was really just scratching the surface. His patience and willingness to help, not just with this, but also with the “April Fool’s Day” bit, as well as pinching in for me with the volleyball article a couple weeks ago, was greatly appreciated. Hopefully you guys (and gals) enjoyed the bits on the rising sun unis as much as I did. Thanks again, Jeremy!
~~~~~~~~~~Although technically Monday Opening Day is still the greatest day of the year (and in my and many other people’s estimation, should be a national holiday), the Major League Baseball season kicks off tonight, when your World Champion Philadelphia Phillies host their division rival Atlanta Braves. Some pretty cool tickets for the event, huh. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the champs will be wearing very special unis (with “Phillies” outlined in gold) and a World Series Champion patch on the right sleeve.
If you didn’t already read it, you need to check out Paul’s latest ESPN column in which he gives the rundown of all the new uniforms and changes for the 2009 season. It’s my favorite column of the year. But then again, there is baseball … and then there is every other sport. Tomorrow I will continue one of my own personal traditions involving Opening Day, and that is watching The Natural. Any of you guys have an Opening Day traditions (like going to a game, playing hooky from work/school, popping in a dvd, or, if you’re a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, counting the days to the Steelers open training camp dreaming that this is your year)? Let’s hear ‘em.
~~~~~~~~~~This and That: It’s On! … OK, so that photo is from 2005, that’s what we have to look forward to on Monday night, as the two teams in the NC2A Final Four with the best uniforms advanced to the finals (just don’t tell Sparty they’re 0-4 against the Heels in the Tourney in history) … This… is… SPARTA! … So, UW favorite Corey Wimberly won’t be making the trek north (or is it west) with the big club, but there’s still reason to watch the A’s this season … So, their uniform may actually depict a tropical storm warning, but the back in black Hurricanes punched their ticket to the playoffs yesterday … the PawSox are the best organization in MiLB, and here’s a nice little piece on their owner … Quick — what ballpark is this? … So, Jay Cutler is now a Bear without a deep threat — so how about Plaxico for your #1? … Has NBA “Green Week” gone too far? It has when playa’s Pimp their Priuses … In an article only slightly shorter than Joe Torre’s new book, or this column, we learn Joe Girardi may be on the hot seat for the Yankees this season … Are you a Cincinnati Reds fan (it’s OK, you can admit it) — Here’s how your season shapes up (links go to MLB previews for the other 29 teams) … This just in! Canada is pretty good at hockey, winning 13-1 at the World Hockey Championships — ok, so it was a victory over China, by the Canadian women, but still — a win’s a win … and finally, does anyone else think Jonathan Papelbon needs to be a little more focused?
Enjoy your Sunday. Enjoy opening night. Hell, just enjoy!
April 5th, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Jeremy Brahm
“Architecture beautiful. Society on cutting edge of progress.” — Mr. Baseball
Today we take a look at Japanese baseball uniforms. I’ve always had a fleeting fascination with them, ranging from my first memories of Sadaharu Oh in the 1970’s, to movies like “Mr. Baseball,” and to a good buddy who spent four years in Japan and who reported back to me on the crazy shit things he’d seen there. The 2006 and 2009 WBC, and of course the Olympics, also provided a glimpse into the Japanese (team) uniforms. But I’ve always known some of the uniforms to be classic, staid, beautiful, while others are … well, let’s just say not as “traditional” as American uniforms tend to be.
The professional baseball association in Japan is called Nippon Professional Baseball. Like the United States, Japan has two leagues, divided into the “Central” and “Pacific”. Each league consists of six teams. The Pacific League uses the designated hitter style of play. Similar to MLB, the Japanese baseball season is eight months long with games beginning in April (today, in fact), and a Championship held in October. However, teams play only 144 games, as compared to the 162 games of MLB. The biggest difference, to my mind, other than the style of play (which will be covered a little below), is the corporations with interests outside baseball own the teams, and teams are identified with their owners, not where the team is based (with the exception of the Yokohama BayStars).
While baseball is pretty much a universal sport, even halfway across the globe, there are some slight differences between the MLB and the Japanese league. In Japan, tie games are allowed, and a smaller baseball, strike zone, and playing field are used. In addition, the Japanese baseball is wound more tightly and is harder than an American baseball, while the strike zone is narrower “inside” than away from the batter. Almost half of the Nippon league teams have “undersized” home fields. Finally, teams are limited to no more than 4 foreign-born players.
And to whom else would I turn for assistance with this article — of course, our expert on all uniforms Japanese, Jeremy Brahm. I had originally planned to make this column a one-day affair, but Jeremy has really efforted quite the plethora of information, so I’ll spread it out over two days, plus the usual “This and That” and some bonus material on the Final Four. Here’s Jeremy:
As more and more Japanese players have been coming to the States to play in the majors, Japanese baseball or Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) has been getting more publicity and Uni Watch over the years has shown which teams have been changing their uniforms over the years. Plus with the repeat of the Japanese team at the World Baseball Classic, I was asked by Phil to do a write-up on Japanese baseball. With the start of the Japanese season today, we will have a two part series on the NPB this weekend. Today we will look at the current uniforms for each of the teams in the Central League, also I will give you some interesting tidbits as well. We will look at the Pacific League on Sunday.
The Central League has six teams and listed in alphabetical order:
Chunichi Dragons: The Dragons are based in Nagoya. Chunichi is an acronym for central (chu) and Japan (nichi). The Dragons are part of the Chunichi media conglomerate, which dominates the Nagoya area in central Japan. The Dragons home script is based on Brooklyn Dodgers script, which they started using around the 1952 season. The script also caused an oddity with the movie, “Mr. Baseball”. The D on the Dragons hat at the time was this and was used on the Japanese poster for the movie. But on the poster for the movie in the United States, the D was different. Supposedly someone in MLB complained about the D being similar to the Dodgers and that it may confuse people with the Dodgers. Of course we know that the Dodgers do not have a D on their hat.
Getting back to today, Chunichi’s home uniform is a white base with dark blue lettering and numbers. They also have an expanding line from the collar to the end of the sleeve. Plus, they have dark blue side panels on each side. They use a slight radial arch for the player names. There is a Chunichi Newspaper patch on left sleeve on the home uniform.
Their road uniform is basically a reverse of the home uniform except for the white pants and the interlocking CD and Dragons logo on the left sleeve. The Dragons use a blue cap with a white button on the top for both home and road games.
Jeremy thinks that this is a simple and solid look for the Dragons.
I’m not such a fan. Let’s start with the good. I do like the cap and the interlocking “CD“. The side piping, not so much. And I don’t know what this is, but it scares me. And I hate that there is apparently no gray away jersey. Unfortunately, this is not atypical Japanese baseball attire, and we’ll be seeing more of this type of uniform below.
Hanshin Tigers: Based in Nishinomiya, are considered the Chicago Cubs of Japanese baseball. The Tigers have won few championships over the years, but their fans are some of the most hardcore fans you will ever see. The Hanshin pictograph stands for Osaka (Saka) and the Shin stand for Kobe (Ko) because this train company’s trains run between Kobe and Osaka with Nishinomiya in between the two. The Tigers are known for their pinstriped home whites that have changed infrequently over the years. But in 2007 the Tigers changed their home uniforms slightly to add yellow highlighting around their script and numbers and added black pit stains. The pants are also pinstriped with yellow and black side striping. Their home cap changed from an all black hat with white lettering, to a yellow brim with a white T and a yellow H, which they had had in 1979-1983 for their road hat. Both uniforms have the Tigers’ logo patch on the left sleeve.
The Tigers’ road uniform is grey and has no pinstripes but black pit stains with a white outline. The pants have a black stripe highlighted with white. The Tigers road cap is silver brimmed with a silver H and a white T.
Jeremy thinks that the Tigers look better without the yellow highlights, but still it is a solid look.
This is a great uni. This is not. It’s still a lot better than many Japanese uniforms, tho, although I cannot in good conscience overlook the pitstains. Aside from that, though, this is a pretty solid uni set. I love the logo, and especially these dutifully attired fans of the ballclub. Overall, good stuff.
Hiroshima Toyo Carp: The Carp have always been confused for the Cincinnati Reds because of their caps, which have almost always had a similar design to the Reds. As the Carp move into the Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium (yes that is the official name), the Carp have gone a little retro with their design. This is the 2008 home uniform and this is the 2008 road uniform. For 2009, their home whites will get rid of the red pinstripes and add black highlights to the red script, lettering and numbers. The Hiroshima script on the home uniform is a patch on the left sleeve. Also it appears that the Carp will continue to have a Mazda patch on their right sleeve.
The road uniform is a red shirt with white pants, lettering and numbers. The Carp script patch is on the left sleeve. Their caps also have black highlights on the C.
Jeremy still thinks the Carp are the Reds, and the Reds are the Carp.
I like this one, perhaps best of all, but there are of course pros and cons to the Crap Carp. The old unis definitely look like the Reds, although not with the white cleats. The old roadies are even more “Red-like,” but still acceptable as a uni. I like that they removed the pins from the new unis, but WTF is up with that “belt/sansabelt” thing? Jeebus — looks like a bomb got dropped on it. The new caps don’t need the black, but it’s not bad. Overall, a nice uniform set.
Tokyo Yakult Swallows: As the “second team” in the Tokyo area the Swallows have always had a tough time overcoming the Giants popularity. Plus their red pinstripes with blue lettering was hard on the eyes. But in 2006, the Swallows ditched the pinstripes for a much better look. With this season being the 40th anniversary of the Yakult Honsha buying the team, a dairy products company, the Swallows have come out with a new uniform set.
The home uniform has a white base and has a lot of things going on. First the Swallows script, which is probably one of the worst in all of sports, has been greatly highlighted with dark blue and creating a 3D look for the logo. Zett the uniform manufacturer has its logo over the players heart. The 40th anniversary logo is on the right side of the chest. The sleeve have a winglet like an airplane in dark blue and red line goes out from the collar to the shoulder and merges with the silver line going downward to the pants. The side panels have a red patch about half way up from the bottom of the uniform, and also the single red button at the neck and the swallow’s head patch on the left sleeve. There is the Yakult logo on the left sleeve and Tokyo on the right and their pants have a little winglet near the belt line, a lightweight blue stripe down the pants and a red flare at the bottom of the pants. At the back you can see the two tone font for the names and numbers. No other team in Japanese baseball has this font.
The road uniform is similar to the home uniform except that it is a grey base uniform with blue lines going downward. The Yakult and Swallows wordmarks have been swapped. The pants have red pinstripes. The Swallows hat is the same as it was before, blue hat with a red Y and blue S and red top button and holes.
Jeremy thinks their uniforms look great.
I disagree. I actually don’t mind the two-tone modern font, but there is just way too much shit going on here. It also looks like they’ll have about 19 different uniform choices. I know, I know — they’re celebrating an anniversary and a couple of those are probably throwbacks, but still. Plus, this reminds me of this and this (which isn’t such a bad thing), but I definitely liked their clean, crisp, plain white unis better. Not quite “FAIL” for the new unis, but close.
Yokohama BayStars: Located just south of Tokyo, the BayStars also are introducing a new uniform set this year. Last year’s home uniform to Jeremy was a classic, with blue pin striping. The new uniform set, however, looks like this. The home uniform has a white base with a silver/grey Y neck stripe, which goes down to the sternum on the front. The sleeves each have blue and silver lines with a reflective star and a notch in each sleeve, which Jeremy calls a “Hama-notch”. Also, the BayStars script has been replaced with a singular B over the heart and YOKOHAMA underneath it. The number has been moved from the bottom left to the right chest.
The uniform is a pullover which has not been seen in a while. The BayStars pants have a half stripe of blue and silver on the right side, but have BAYSTARS spelled out on the left in addition to a small stripe of blue and silver. The fonts for the BayStars players’ names have changed as well from this to this, which have dark blue lettering and dark blue numbers. The home cap is deep blue with a light blue B. This is going on their batting helmets, which is for the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama.
For the road uniform, the BayStars have gone to a darker grey with white pin striping and a dark blue Y neck. Yokohama is written in cursive across the chest and BayStars is also in cursive as a patch on the left sleeve. The back of the uniform has black lettering with dark blue numbers. The road cap features a light blue brim and dark blue hat with a dark blue B.
Jeremy likes the home uniform, but to him the road uniform may become like the Mavs silver uniform that looked horrible on television.
What was wrong with this? That’s right, nothing. Instead, they have crap like this. Looks like a night shirt or something my dad wore in the 50’s. Seriously, this is the worst of the Central League teams. And what’s up with the name on the pants leg? I don’t mind the away cap, probably because it reminds me of this (which I HATE), but has become so ingrained in my psyche that on some subliminal level, it no longer repulses me. I guess if a team has BFBS long enough, the full brain-washing will become complete. Why do the BayStars have black in their uniform anyway?
Yomiuri Giants: The Giants could also be known as the “Japanese Yankees.” This year is the 75 anniversary of the Giants and there are two logos: this and this. The cap logo is an intertwined Y and G which also forms their mascot “Jabbit” or Giant rabbit.
The Giants have had a very traditional white uniform with black lettering highlighted with orange for their home uniform (and yes Sadaharu Oh was spelled OH, not Ō.)
In 2006, adidas signed a contract to supply the Giants with uniforms and well, they changed a little. First of all the script completely changed on the front and they added three semi stripes to the pants for adidas. If you look at the Giants homepage, they are still using the old script but the uniform has the new one, just weird. The fonts on the back can make it almost impossible to read at times. On their batting helmets the team has “Giants Pride.” One good thing that the Giants have added is a Captain’s C to the right sleeve, while leaving the Yomiuri on the left.
The road uniform for the Giants this season is new, but is very similar to the home uniform. Except for the following differences: black pit stains and the base color for the uniform is a very light grey. You can see the difference between the two here. These were the uniforms for the Giants on the road in 2008.
Jeremy thinks he prefers a bit of a darker grey than what the Giants have, but they still look like the Giants have over the years.
Another one I’m not completely hating … especially when viewed straight on. However, the 3 stripes on the pants ruin whatever good feelings might have been engendered. It’s certainly not the worst uniform of the league, by any means, but a far cry from what God-zilla wore. The old script “Giants” isn’t too bad, but the pitstains detract from the look. Well, at least the cap remains true to the old unis.
That’s all for day one. We’ll be back tomorrow to look at the Pacific League unis.
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NCAA Thoughts: This seems like a good seat to watch the Final Four … As you must know by now, the Final Four is set. Two semi-finals today pit Michigan State versus Connecticut in the early game, followed by Villanova vs. North Carolina in the night cap. Who will win? Will it be the teams with the best unis? Let’s see if that holds true. We’ll pick the team with the best unis and see how we do.
Game 1: Michigan State against U Conn — Gotta go with State here. As much as I think the Big East is the strongest conference in the tourney, and as bad as these unis are (although the color is beautiful), they’re still better than this mess. State wins in a close one.
Game 2: Villanova versus North Carolina. No contest. I can’t go with the two-tone collar (even though they did destroy Dook). The argyle still rocks, and even the NC2A patch looks good on those beauties (even if Tyler Hansbrough is a douchebag, and I don’t like these warmup unis). Carolina by 10. Sorry, ‘Nova … Big East goes 0-2 in the Final Four
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This and That: Beautiful new Citi Field played host to the inaugural preseason game between the Mets and Boston Red Sox last evening, a rainy affair between the two teams. Of course, perhaps fittingly, the Mets wore their snow whites with black and blue caps, (*sigh*) while the BoSox wore their BP jerseys. I could go for this about 63 times this season — Gary approves … Meanwhile, across town, the New Yankee Stadium (NYS for short) opened its gilded doors to spectacular vistas made possible by the retro frieze. Everywhere you looked, there were gaudy, senseless monuments to avarice and excess historical touches and bazillion dollar electronics (and ads…lots and lots of ads). Having bankrupted their parents with the cost of tickets, kids of all ages were forced to wear replica jerseys while their heroes paraded around in patchless jerseys and caps (save these pictures, kiddies, because the Yankee unis won’t look this clean and perfect for long). Their opponents, the Cubs, looked resplendent in their blue BP jerseys … The Chicago Machine have unveiled a new logo — who are they? Why, they’re Chicago’s pro lacrosse team, of course … Your World Champions are heading home, and one has to wonder, “Is Charlie Manuel with child?” … More on the Christmas tree Nugget unis in this article … Speaking of the “green” initiative (or whatever the NBA is calling it), the Bobcats obliged, the T-Wolves got T-shirts, and wore their green accented blue unis, and so did the Hawks, and the Celtics, who also wore their regular unis … is this a rose colored lens, or did Andy Murray wear pink? (phew) … Paul already showed the Herb Score patch, but there’s another look at it in this story about Fausto Carmona’s suspension … Did you know that New firefighter uniforms, which include the option of a full-length skirt, hijab headscarf and a turban, have been launched? If that isn’t exciting enough, there’s a whole thread devoted to it — jeebus, who knew anyone could get so wound up about uniforms? … Apologies is this was already posted, but the Fathers are celebrating 40 years in SD … “$500 for a freakin’ pink monkey? Who do they think they are?
Have a great Saturday…enjoy the hoops and the final spring training (or are these now “exhibition”) games.
April 4th, 2009
Whatever you think of the advertising patches that were worn in the A’s/Bosox series in Japan, one question remains: Why is uniform advertising used exclusively in these season-opening series in Japan?
Our resident expert on all things Far Eastern, Jeremy Brahm, tried to address this question in Tuesday’s comments:
Since the beginning of the MLB tours of Japan, two Japanese newspapers — the Yomiuri Shimbun (owner of the Yomiuri Giants) and the Mainichi Shinbun (which owned the Mainichi Orions, which are now the Chiba Lotte Marines — the paper currently has no ownership stake) — would split who sponsored the tour every two or three years. This has continued until recently.
Now, with the season-opening games, Yomiuri gets sponsorship precedence, because they own a portion of the Tokyo Dome and because of their historical support for MLB Tours.
The tours in the past have always had some sort of sponsorship. Now there are presenting sponsors, such as Ricoh — similar to the situation with a college bowl game.
Even after some private follow-up e-mailing with Jeremy, I don’t fully understand this, but the basic gist seems to be, “Professional baseball in Japan, including all-star tours by MLB players, has always included sponsorship, so that’s just the way it’s gonna be when you’re playing in Japan.”
Anyway: You probably know that American ballplayers have been visiting Japan for decades. The Yankees toured the Asian country in 1934 (details here), and there have been many, many all-star exhibition tours over the years. Most of these tours have had their own logos, and Jeremy has compiled some of the more recent ones: 1986, 1990, 1996, another one from 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
Some additional notes:
• I never really paid any attention to MLB tours of Japan until the autumn of 2004, when a larger version of this photo caught my eye. Although you can’t tell in that thumbnail-size shot, Carl Crawford was wearing the road jersey that Tampa would eventually wear in 2005, with different lettering than the 2004 version — and, yes, he was also wearing an advertising sleeve patch. As it turns out, all the MLB players on that all-star tour were wearing Æon sleeve patches and helmet decals (additional views here and here), along with cap patches. Plus Roger Clemens was sporting some truly awful-looking hosiery logo creep. This all looks pretty clownish to me, but hey, these were just exhibition games — they’re allowed to look clownish. Maybe it’s even better if they look clownish, just to reinforce the point that the games don’t really matter and that it’s all in fun. But I still can’t get my head around the idea of wearing uniform advertising for games that count.
• The A’s and Mariners were supposed to open the 2003 season in Japan, but the series was cancelled due to security concerns arising from the Iraq War, which had just started. Programs, however, had already been printed.
• Jeremy has also found a page showing ticket stubs from assorted MLB tours of Japan. Several of them are flat-out gorgeous — check out the full page here.
• Also from Jeremy: This 1979 All-Star Game gym bag, apparently produced for Japanese fans.
• And just to bring us back to the present, Nicholas Schiavo notes that an Oakland player — not sure who — was wearing a sweatshirt in the dugout during Tuesday’s game. And what did that sweatshirt say? “2006 MLB Playoffs.” Wonder if he got fined for not wearing the official ad-sponsored Japan Series version.
Pinstriped Mystery Solved (More or Less): Big thanks to all who responded to Monday’s entry (which focused on an old photo showing Dodgers wearing pinstripes, as seen at left) by suggesting that I get in touch with Dodgers team historian Mark Langill, a man whose acquaintance I clearly should have made long ago. I called his office on Monday afternoon and left a voicemail. When he called me back a few hours later, he said he was standing in the third base coach’s box at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the Dodgers will be playing a throwback exhibition game against the Red Sox this Saturday. (By coincidence, the Dodgers’ 1958-style uniforms for that game are being furnished by Ebbets Field Flannels, and I was actually in the Ebbets office in Seattle a few weeks ago when the Dodgers called to order the uniforms. The good news: They’re going with classic wool flannels. The bad news: They’re using NOBs, which is soooooo bogus for a 1958 throwback. Sigh.)
Anyway: I e-mailed the photo in question to Langill, who immediately identified it as a 1964 spring training shot of minor league coaches. Apparently the Dodgers had several low-level minor league teams in their system that wore pinstripes along with the classic Dodgers script (Mark isn’t sure which ones are represented in the photo, but he’s working on that), and they were wearing “L.A.” caps because that’s what everyone wore for spring training purposes.
Still not sure about the spring training pics showing jerseys with “S” and “X” instead of uni numbers, but I’m trying to get Mark to explain that too.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Cool old newspaper basketball uniform available here. … A little birdie tells me that the Braves’ long-rumored blue alternate jersey may make its debut in the team’s very first game of the season, this Sunday against the Nats. “GM Frank Wren wants it to be a big surprise,” reports my source. “The Braves have delayed putting out their merchandise catalog this year solely because the road alternate jersey is featured in it. The feeling is that by unveiling them in this fashion (nationally televised game on ESPN), sales will be through the roof as soon as the catalog is sent.” Nice to see uniforms reduced to nothing more than a sales gimmick. … Best view yet of the “Japan 2008″ logo. … Looks like Manny was back to his old, skanky “B” logo yesterday. … Speaking of Manny, according to a small item in the middle of this story, MLB wouldn’t let him use his “red-barreled, Diablo brand bat” in Japan, so “he just grabbed some ‘Japanese wood,’ in the form of a couple of SSX models” (with thanks to Tom Horgan). … The “Baseball as America” traveling exhibit is currently residing at the National Constitution Center in Philly. A bonus uniform-centric program will take place there at on Saturday, April 19th, from noon to 3pm, featuring Mitchell & Ness prexy Peter Capolino, M&N researcher (and frequent Uni Watch contributor) Jared Wheeler, and several Phillies old-timers. I’m gonna try to make it to Philly for this event. Assuming my schedule cooperates, we’ll have a Uni Watch party later that same day. Details to come soon-ishly. … Speaking of Peter and Jared, they just sent me this 1943 Sporting News item that explains the origin of the Cardinals’ birds-on-the-bat logo. … New Netherlands soccer kit here, here, and here. … Guess which sporting event I won’t be attending? (As horrifyingly reported by Mike Alper.) … According to this story, the Astros will wear green caps in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd (good find by Jason Chapman). … We all know the old pre-Photoshop phenomenon of Topps airbrushing photos of players who”d been traded. This blog recently ran a contest to pick the most egregious example from this field of choices. Results here (great discovery by Jason McCarty). … As you may have heard over the past few days, the NFL is considering a ban on long hair (that sound you just heard was Minna H. screaming in horror). … You’ve heard of throwback uniforms? Check this out: throwback police squad cars (courtesy of Billy Duss). … Well, that was fun while it lasted. … Attention Tim Witesock: Here’s the eBay auction of your dreams (with thanks to Jason Libes). … Good number-retirement cartoon from last week’s New Yorker. … More new soccer kits: Switzerland, Austria, Croatia (courtesy of Chris Palatinus). … And more discussion of the new USA black jersey here (with thanks to Mark Coale). … New policy at Northern Illinois: Football players who “skip class, show up late for team meetings or otherwise fail to live up to [head coach Jerry] Kill’s standards” have to wear a yellow shirt with pink “I Let My Team Down” lettering. Idiotic details here (as forwarded by Dan Streed). … Minnesota’s two pro soccer teams have new logos (with thanks to Joel Dunn). … Todd Taylor says this is the story behind the Rays using the same boring insignia for their home and road jerseys: “They did that intentionally, to build name recognition for the new team name. They will go to ‘Tampa Bay’ on the roads next season.” … The whole sports/gang connection refuses to die (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … The long-rumored Miami Hurricanes black alternate jersey will apparently look like this. … Wanna design a new secondary logo for the Colts? Look here. … I was going through some old files and came across a bit of info sent my way five or six years ago by SABR researcher Maxwell Kates. At the time, there was no such thing as this blog or even the Uni Watch News Ticker, so I had no place to publish little tidbits. But now, dear reader, you get to read the following: “Is it true that Wayland Moore was high on acid when he designed those uniforms worn by the Braves between 1972 and 1979? I’ve heard that story once before, but I can’t vouch for its accuracy. When Moore first designed those uniforms, the Braves were actually supposed to have worn red on the road. Hank Aaron took one look at the uniform and said, ‘I’m not wearing that. Take whatever is red, and make it blue.’ Moore complied and later altered the Braves’ road uniforms according to Aaron’s wishes. Aaron and Eddie Mathews were the only ones shown the red uniforms. Also, just out of curiosity, why did the 1985 Texas Rangers wear their 1986 uniforms for the last month of the season? I know that had the 1979 Montreal Expos made the playoffs, they would have worn the ‘racing stripe’ uniforms that were introduced by the team in 1980. That’s in Brodie Snyder’s The Year the Expos Almost Won the Pennant.” All of this is news to me — anyone know more about any of these?
March 27th, 2008
Remember back in July when I wrote about the “futuristic” Royals/Mariners game from 1998, which led to all the similarly themed games in 1999? I’m happy to announce that one of the game-used Royals jerseys from that game is now in my possession. And within a week, one of you will have it in your possession.
I’ll get to the jersey in a minute. But first, that entry back in July led to a lot of interesting responses regarding that futuristic game, beginning with a missive from Mariners marketing VP Kevin Martinez, who’s a regular Uni Watch reader. He corrected one of my points (I had written that the umps wore their regular uniforms, but Martinez noted that they actually had metallic silver shirts) and then provided some backgound info:
It was Ken Griffey Jr.’s decision to wear the jerseys untucked and caps backward. Junior also spray-painted several teammates’ shoes and gloves silver. The uniforms, while certainly bold, got even more out of control when our players decided to cut the sleeves off the undershirts. The photo of Dan Wilson, who did not cut his sleeves, is a better representation of how the unis were supposed to look.
Our intent with the promotion was to simply to do something fun for one of our 81 home games and try something that had never been done. We drew over 42,000 for a game against the Royals — a fairly successful promotion. MLB took the idea and sold it to Century 21 the next season. We did not participate at home, only on the road. We did it once in ’98 and we were done with it.
Working in this game for 16 seasons now, it remains one the most memorable (and strangest) nights in my career. Watching the players in the clubhouse alter their jerseys and spray-paint shoes and gloves is something I will never forget … or repeat.
Reader Tim Conley offered some additional recollections:
I actually watched that game live. The M’s did wear their jerseys untucked for awhile, but [Royals manager] Tony Muser complained to the umpires and eventually got the umps to force Seattle to tuck in their jerseys. His reasoning was that an M batting with his jersey untucked was more easily hit by a pitch and could earn a cheap trip to first base.
But the most intriguing response came from my ESPN.com colleague (and massive Royals fan) Rob Neyer. Not only had he attended the game, but he’d bid on — and won — one of the Royals jerseys that were auctioned off after the game. “It’s just been hanging in my closet ever since,” he wrote, “and it’s so Godawful-ugly that I really don’t know why I still have it.” Then, in an incredibly magnanimous gesture, he offered to donate the jersey for me to raffle off, as long as I let him write a small accompanying essay. This is sort of like saying, “I’ll do this really nice thing for you, but only if you also let me do this other really nice thing.” So course I said yes. With no further ado, I hereby turn the floor over to Rob:
Ah, the summer of 1998. I was crazy in love, I wasn’t burdened with a job that occupied a great deal of my time, and, for perhaps the first time in my adult life, I was blessed with a small bit of discretionary income.
I was living in Seattle then. It was the 18th of July, and the Royals were in town. The Royals were my team. For that game, the Mariners came up with what they called “Turn Ahead to the Future” — 2027, supposedly — and the most visible feature would be “futuristic” uniforms. And I have to say, from my perch in the upper deck the Royals’ jerseys really didn’t look so bad. They were sleeveless, which I’ve always liked, and nicely complemented by coordinated undershirts. I don’t mind canary yellow when it’s accompanied by Royal blue. So you’ll understand why I bid $75 on Jose Rosado’s jersey.
Why Rosado? Because I didn’t figure I could afford Johnny Damon’s jersey, and because I didn’t know just how good Sal Fasano would someday become (yes, that’s a joke). Rosado, meanwhile, was only 23, and just one year earlier he’d been Kansas City’s lone All-Star. On a generally boring, veteran-laden team, Rosado was one of the few interesting players.
So I bid on Rosado’s jersey, as well as that of coach Frank White (a reminder of better seasons). Then I waited. A few weeks later, a notice arrived in the mail: I had won! A check was dispatched, and soon a package arrived.
OMFG. Trust me: As bad as those jerseys might look in the photos, when you’re holding one in your hands it looks much, much worse. Oh, there’s nothing terribly wrong with the basic design, especially if you’re not averse to bright yellow and Royal blue. But what I couldn’t see from my upper-deck perch was that all the emblems and numbers on the jerseys were ironed on, just like cheap T-shirts. I couldn’t see that the fabric was some beastly synthetic not designed for laying against one’s skin [that would be nylon Dazzle, more commonly found in the NBA -- PL]. What I also didn’t know is that my $75 didn’t get me the Royal blue undershirt. And let me tell you, without the undershirt the jersey was not only unwearable, but practically unbearable, too.
Which I suppose is why it’s not been worn since the 18th of July, and instead rested on a hanger in various closets — Seattle, Boston, Seattle again, and finally Portland — for nearly a decade. If you enter the raffle, I wish you only the best of luck. But I have to say something I wish somebody’d said to me, way back in the summer of ’98: caveat victor.
Rob’s being a little too harsh there. For starters, while most of the graphics are indeed screen-printed (including, ugh, a replica-esque Majestic logo on the back), the numbers and “ROSADO” lettering are sewn, not screened. And hey, it doesn’t look so ba – okay, yes it does. But in a cool, “so bad it’s good” sort of way. It’s tagged as a size 44, but it fits bigger than that (it fit nicely on Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner, who’s a 48).
This fine garment — a one-of-a-kind artifact from one of baseball’s oddest chapters — is being raffled off as of right now. To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch address) by next Tuesday night, October, 2nd, at 10 p.m. eastern. One e-mail per person, please, but everyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing will automatically get three bonus entries (and if ever there was a good reason to sign up, this raffle is it). I’ll announce the winner a week from today.
Big thanks to Rob for his generosity, and good luck to all raffle entrants. I hope you’re as jazzed about this as I am.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Japanese throwback jerseys are now available here (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … Lots of good non-wire-service pics of the Eagles’ throwbacks here. … Nice little gallery of Schutt Ion pics here. Not sure what school that is, but I’m sure lots of you folks do (with thanks to Matt Olson). … Iowa State will unveil its new uniforms today. A little birdie tells me that none of these helmets made the cut. … We’ve talked many times about how an American flag sleeve patch should always be positioned with the blue field facing forward. Some teams get this wrong, but you wouldn’t expect one of them to be the Air Force Academy women’s soccer team (with thanks to Frank Mercogliano). … The 49ers have signed Michael Lewis. Thing is, as David Robins notes, they already have another Michael Lewis (plus Keith Lewis), which should make for an interesting nameplate decision. Last time I can remember this happening was when the Mets had two Bobby Joneses a few years back. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Great Bruins goalie mask photo gallery here. Be sure to click through to the last image, which shows Gerry Cheevers wearing a Massachusetts Bicentennial patch. … Speaking of which, comments section stalwart Teebz has a great series of NHL patch roundups on his blog — look here, here, and here. … Decent NHL uni-history gallery here, including one of the best Cooperalls shots ever. … … Jere Smith reports that the Fenway 8 is back, and is now right-side up! … Did you know American Indians have a distinctive foot shape? Nike did (as jointly spotted by Vince and Minna H.).
September 26th, 2007
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: Last week, in the middle of our server changeover, I got an e-mail from Chris Hill, with a subject line that read, “Homemade uniform traditions from Rochester.” For some reason it came through in teeny-tiny type that was nearly illegible, and there were 20 attached photos, all of which was more than I wanted to deal with in the midst of the site’s technical woes. I nearly deleted the e-mail altogether.
I’m glad I didn’t. What Chris had sent me was a document of a pretty amusing little project. I’ll let him describe it:
In 2006 a group of my friends and myself started playing baseball in a kid’s back yard. Within a week or so we decided to mow the grass to create an infield, and used his fence as a home run marker.
We played pickup games throughout the summer, but for the 4th of July we decided to have an All-Star Game. In order to make it official and over the top, we made up two teams: the Maplewood Steamboats and the Jambo City Harbors of Wellington. We also built a scoreboard and brought out a P.A. system and announcers for the game. We had yet to discover how to fully use the screen-printing uniform shop in town, so most of our uniforms were homemade. The Harbors even had separate batting practice uniforms, but no picture exists of us in those.
Winter came along and we decided to do the same thing with a football game. It was slightly less intense, but we once again had the same teams wearing homemade uniforms.
This past summer we all had some money and ideas, so baseball was much more enjoyable. We started off the year making spring training jerseys to wear randomly throughout the season. At some point we realized we were doing the All-Star Game wrong — it should be a game between two leagues, not two teams. So the Steamboats and harbors turned into the League of Steamboats and the Harbor Leagues. From there we created about 16 different teams, all based on inside jokes and cities someone had been to: the Douglas Gorns [that's Chris wearing No. 44; note the all-star game sleeve patch! -- PL], Joe Montana 3-D Graphichs Manipulators, Toronto Tippy Ducks, Gnomes, Tuscon Tra La Las, Mt. Rushmore Compatriots, Boise Canistorshots, Brockport USB-ports and the Ocean City Monsoons. The guy in that last photo got so into it that he had home and away jerseys made, but the shop mistakenly put the team name on the road jersey, instead of the city name, so he bought the botched jerseys at a discount and went back to have it done right, giving him a total of FOUR jerseys, when he just needed one — dedication.
Indeed. And that dedication is what I love about this project. Okay, so the uniforms kinda suck, and many of you probably think the whole thing has “Get a life” written all over it, but so what? The day you’re too cool to embrace your own little field of dreams fantasy is the day you may as well pack it in. Instead of sitting on their sofas watching the ballgame or playing with the latest EA video game, these guys built something real. I say good for them.
Raffle Results: The three winners of last night’s raffle are, in order, J. Yung (who gets his choice of an L.A. Kings jersey, a Washington Capitals T-shirt or an assortment of MLB sleeve patches), Mike Carpenter (who gets to choose from the remaining two items), and Rick White (who’ll get whatever item is left). The three winners should get in touch with me asap.
Thanks to all who entered — more raffles coming soon.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s comments included excerpts from this article, which suggests that the new NHL jerseys are (a) possibly causing injuries during fights and (b) tearing at the seams. I don’t have much sympathy for fight-related concerns (simple solution: ban fighting), but there’s a lot of very interesting info here — start with the sixth paragraph. … Also from yesterday: The UK has produced a really nice series of stamps documenting the history of British military uniforms. You can click through the gallery here. … We’ve all seen photos of Rich Karlis kicking barefoot. But Brendon Yarian found a photo of him doing, well, a little more than kicking. … Dynamite Hanshin Tigers uniform history site here. Even if you don’t care about Japanese baseball, this is worth checking out, because the site is nicely interactive (start clicking and you’ll see what I mean) and many of the designs are wicked cool (nice find by Scott Curl). … Yet another case of a 2 rendered in two different ways on the same jersey: the Rangers. … Still more typography news: Kansas’s university-wide move to the Trajan typeface has resulted in a backlash movement (with thanks to longtime Uni Watch pal Rob Walker, who first brought the anti-Trajan site to my attention on his own excellent blog, Murketing). … Best argument yet for a barter economy: Purple is being added to the $5 bill. Alarming details here. … The Washington Huskies will wear 1960 throwbacks on Sept. 29th. According to this page, the team wore navy back then, but it was called “Northwestern Purple.” Odd (with thanks to Rob Weber). … Who needs a game-worn jersey when you can have Sandy Koufax’s synagogue-worn yarmulke? … Good info here about the Redskins’ throwbacks, which they’ll be wearing this weekend while pounding the living shit out of playing the Giants. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Texas A&M tight end Martellus Bennett changed his uni number from 13 to 85 to honor injured Bills player Kevin Everett, but his helmet still has his old uni number. … Arguably the weirdest reason ever for choosing a particular uni number: According to this article (forwarded by Jeff Barak), Wild rookie James Sheppard likes No. 15 because he “began wearing it as a 15-year-old midget player because he already had size 15 feet.” … If your coach can grab you like this, then your jersey’s definitely a few sizes too big. … My friend Liz Danzico, who’s more or less a genius, recently started a really good site called A Brief Message, which features a series of 200-word essays about design. I wrote a little something about uniforms for today’s installment, which longtime readers will recognize as a re-hash of the very first post that ran on this here blog. My own redundant content notwithstanding, A Brief Message is well worth checking out for anyone who cares even a little bit about design, sports-related or otherwise.
September 21st, 2007
Something weird is going on with the Tigers (besides the fact that they’re flushing their postseason hopes down the crapper). It involves that little orange dot on the crown of their road batting helmets. Or at least it’s supposed to be there — but lately it’s been a little more complicated than that.
The most obvious problem child is Gary Sheffield, whose dot has been way off-center in recent days. Then there’s Curtis Granderson, whose dot is several inches too far forward. But at least Sheffield and Granderson have their dots — Placido Polanco’s orange dot is missing altogether.
It’s been a while since I’ve written about the helmet dots, so here’s a quick recap: Most MLB teams use them, and they’re actually included in MLB helmet decal kits. They sort of mimic the button on the top of a cap, but that doesn’t explain why the dots are sometimes used by teams that don’t have contrast-colored cap buttons. A spokesman from Rawlings, which makes all the MLB helmets, once told me that the little dots were a visual trademark of ABC Helmet (the company that originally made the helmets) and were continued by Rawlings in the interest of continuity, even though they don’t always match the caps. To my way of thinking, the dots are a silly anachronism at best, and they make no sense at all on a CoolFlo helmet, since the newfangled lids don’t are only loosely based on caps anyway.
None of which explains the situation with the Tigers. Is it some sort of superstitious good luck charm? Is it a way of sending signals that even Bill Belichick can’t steal? Is it a way to get people to stop talking about those other helmet dots? (I still get two or three questions a day about that — incredible.) If anyone knows the deal, please fill us in.
(Special thanks to Benjamin Bonnett and intern Vince Grzegorek, who brought the Tigers situation to my attention.)
MLB 2008 Update: I have a feeling this link isn’t gonna stay up for long, but for now you can see most of the 2008 MLB uni revisions — including, yes, the new Tampa design — here. Discuss.
Typography Update: Yesterday brought still more chest/sleeve typographic inconsistencies (the first two of which were contributed by Brendon Yarian):
• Check out the lower serif on the 2 worn by the mid-’80s Browns (home, road).
• Ohio State’s 4 in the mid-1970s had a lower serif on the chest but not on the sleeve (home, road).
• Dennis Jones noted in yesterday’s comments that the Cowboys have had chest/shoulder inconsistencies with a variety of numerals, including 2, 2 again, 3, 7, and 7 again.
• Yesterday I mentioned that the Jets had inconsistent 2s in the late ’60s, but the pseudonymous Graf Zeppelin pointed out in yesterday’s comments that they apparently had a similar problem 20 years later, as seen on the cover of their 1989 yearbook. That prompted a spectacularly informative follow-up comment from sj32:
The reason there are two different typefaces is because the jerseys were made by two different manufacturers. The jersey Shuler is wearing was made by Sand Knit while the “22″ jersey was made by Champion. In the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the number font on the jerseys was often determined by which company manufactured it. In that era, Sand Knit, Russell Athletic, and Champion were the primary suppliers (with King O’Shea, Southland Athletic, and Wilson supplying a couple of teams). A Champion jersey was usually identifiable by the slanted middle of the 2s and the curved 7s. Sand Knit and Russell used standard block fonts, but there were slight differences. Sand Knit produced the jerseys with the notched 5s used by Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, etc. The Russell jerseys were somewhat narrower than the Sand numbers, particularly on the sleeves.
Meanwhile, design director Scott M.X. Turner checked in with a few thoughts on the matter:
2s are the only digit where a bar — not a serif, but a bar — can shift dramatically, 45 and 90 degree angles. (7s can a bit — sometimes they’re rendered with a curve even when the number set is all straight lines.) I think that a 2’s middle bar is altered from jersey front/back to sleeve because a diagonal bar looks skinnier than a horizontal bar. Also, compressed number sets support a diagonal 2 better than a horizontal-bar 2, which tends to look squeezed when compressed. Me, I like compressed sets, but for the smaller TV numbers — either shoulder yoke or sleeve placement — it’s not as readable.
Why a team would have one variety on the home jersey and the other on its road jersey, that’s anybody’s guess. The easy default answer — that back in the day (meaning 1980 and prior, generally), the manufacturer just used whatever was lying around — works some of the time. But there have to be instances when a decision was made that one 2 looked better than another.
By the way, the very best example, of different number sets front and back is the late ’60s UCLA basketball jersey — the Lew Alcindor era. Front was a squat, boxy style, and the back was an elegant, narrow vertical style. Maybe they adopted this to make Alcindor look taller — I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Pretty sure that before Alcindor, the front style was also the back style.
Speaking of typography, a new documentary film about the typeface Helvetica (called, of course, Helvetica) is currently screening here in New York. I saw it two nights ago and loved it. No team I can think of has ever used Helvetica on its uniforms, which helps explain why the movie has no sports-related content, but there are several good interludes with graphic designer Michael Beirut, who I know has done some work for the Jets, plus plenty of detail-driven bits that should appeal to anyone who Gets It™. Recommended viewing.
Unusual Research Request: I’m looking for someone in the New York area who can read lips. Sports fan preferred; availability for watching lots of mid-October sports in the company of an ESPN reporter of my approximate height and build essential. If you know of anyone who fits the bill, please get in touch. Thanks.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the raffle for the L.A. Kings jersey, the Washington Capitals T-shirt, and the bunch of MLB sleeve patches. To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by this 10 p.m. eastern tonight. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow. One e-mail per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program by the time of the drawing will automatically get three bonus entries.
Oh, and by the way: Last month I was saying that there’d be a real doozy of a raffle in September. This isn’t it — the doozy is yet to come. Just waiting for one last piece to fall into place.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Forgot to mention that my Financial Times article about the Lelands sports memorabilia auction house (research for which was documented here) was published on Saturday. The article is here, and there’s a sidebar here. … Several unusual wristbands in this shot (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Pat Ratliff notes that Devin Hester is up to his old double sock tricks. I forgot to mention that Giants equipment director Joe Skiba showed me something last Friday that may explain this phenomenon: Several of the Giants’ players have socks sewn into the bottom of their pants and then wear an additional pair of socks over that. That’s probably what Hester is doing. … As a big fan of green and gold, I have a soft spot for Norfolk State’s design. Go Spartans! (With thanks to Bruce Soltys.) … We’ve previously mentioned how MTSU uses huge nameplate lettering for short surnames, but you can’t fully appreciate the absurdity of it until you see this (with thanks to Chad Cate). … Brad Bierman just alerted me to a uni-related attraction I hadn’t previously been aware of: the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society Museum, which looks pretty cool. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Phillies used to have a raised helmet appliqué, just as the Cubs still do. … We’ve all seen baseball players who wear state or national flags on their gloves. But here’s something I haven’t seen before: Clay Buchholz wears the Texas state flag inside his glove (genius catch by Randy Williams). … Here’s a rare sight: a pitcher who wears No. 0. He’s even got it on his undershirt collar (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm).
September 20th, 2007
Even as the NHL’s popularity and media profile have done their death spiral into the crapper, I’ve continued to treat hockey as the fourth major sport. But it’s getting harder and harder to do that as each miserable new uniform design gets unveiled. There two more yesterday. One at a time:
• Avalanche. Chalk up another one for the apron string template. It’s pretty much the same design as the Panthers, right down to the idiotic Ree-box on the back. And it’s not like I can’t deal with any kind of modern hockey treatment — I still say the Blue Jackets new uni is really sharp. Over on the Chris Creamer board, someone whipped up a Photoshop version of how the Columbus approach could have worked for the Avs — so much better than what we’re all now stuck looking at. (And in case you’re wondering: Back when the Panthers originally unveiled their design, I mentioned that there would be another team, which I couldn’t name, using precisely the same design. This is not that team, which means there’s yet another iteration of this crappy template still to come.)
• Maple Leafs. Simple to a fault. No extraneous piping, thank the lordy, but also no hemline striping, no shoulder patches, no contrasting shoulder yoke, no visual interest of any kind except for those sleeve stripes. I’m okay with the road version, since there’s inherent contrast in the white-blue-white sequence of the jersey, breezers, and socks. But the home design’s solid blue cries out for hemline sripes, or breezer stripes, or something to break up to solid wall of cyan. Otherwise, we’re essentially left with this. Meanwhile, that rounded shirttail looks really, um, suave.
In addition, there were sneak peeks of the new designs from the Ducks (whose official unveiling is slated for today) and the Sabres (Saturday), but I’ll hold off on those until I see the full treatment.
I can already hear some of you saying, “Lukas, you’re impossible to please. You say the Avs’ design is too busy, too cluttered, and then you slam the Leafs for being the exact opposite.” Okay, so maybe I am hard to please, but there’s something to be said a middle ground between super-busy and super-minimalist. A few teams, like the Blue Jackets, have gotten this right. Most of the others have blown it.
Old Glory Update: Yesterday I reported that LaDainian Tomlinson and Willie Parker had both played without the American flag decal on their helmets (Tomlinson just for one game, Parker for more than a full season). It didn’t occur to me that there might be more than a coincidental connection between those two players, but now I’ve gotta wonder after seeing this article (great find by Doug Leake).
Meanwhile, as I also mentioned yesterday, I contacted the NFL to inquire about the flag’s status as part of the league’s uniform specs. Here’s the response I got from a league spokesperson:
The American flag decal on the helmet is a part of the NFL uniform specs. If it was not on Willie Parker’s helmet, it will be moving forward. (I spoke with the Steelers. They said that if it was not on there, it will be.)
I have a feeling this means at least three people are now gonna be annoyed at me: Willie Parker, the Steelers’ equipment manager, and the NFL spokesguy. New slogan: Uni Watch, the Official Pain in the Ass™ of the National Football League.
Uni Watch News Ticker: You know those Optimus Prime helmets the Giants have been wearing? Bill Blewett thinks he’s found a prototype version. … Yesterday I referred to USF’s memorial decals but didn’t have a photo. Now, thanks to Randy Miller, I do. … Vince found this video of Canucks players weighing in on the team’s new uniforms. … Really interesting photo submitted by Jeremy Brahm, who sent along this shot of Japan Railways East’s uniform. Never seen text on the pants like that. And I love the “JR” chest logo. … Also from Jeremy: a very baggy pullover. … Amazing old youth football team photo from Doug Mooney. Check out the shoes on No. 14! … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Aaron Rowand wearing “Beer Pong Champ” armbands. And if there’s such a thing as a beer pong uniform, I’m not sure I wanna know. … You probably know that former 49ers lineman Steve Wallace wore the ProCap helmet attachment. What you might not have known — and what I didn’t know myself until William Weir brought me up to speed yesterday — is that the ProCap didn’t hold up too well under game action. … Did you know that the Library of Congress has a huge baseball card collection? I didn’t, until Bo Baize mentioned it to me yesterday. Loads of great stuff — look here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an item on the ten best Georgia high school football helmets (including the Johnson-Savannah Atom Smashers, who wear “nuclear orange”). Details here. … The New Era folks have officially lost their fucking minds (as spotted over on the Chris Creamer boards). … Good catch by Greg Riffenburgh, who writes: ” I found this picture of Sweden’s Caroline Seger wearing two different colored shoes at the Women’s World Cup in China. The shoes are Nike’s Mercurial Vapor III.” … The Titans’ light-blue yoke tapers down the sleeve — except on offensive lineman Michael Roos’s jersey, where the light-blue panel seems to bulge and get wider on the sleeve. He’s at far left in this photo (good spot by Raleigh McCool). … The Dodgers have unveiled a 50th-anniversary logo (that’s 50 years in L.A., natch), which I assume will be used as a sleeve patch next year. … Logo creep alert from David Cline, who says, “Can’t we ogle the babes without having to be subjected to the swoosh?” … I’ll be spending tomorrow afternoon at Giants stadium, where I’ll be interviewing Jints equipment manager Joe Skiba. If you have any questions you’d like me to pass along, let me know.
September 13th, 2007
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