Lightening Belt

I generally don’t read sports magazines, in part because there’s plenty of sports info available on the web, and in part because I already think enough about sports as it is. So while I was aware that last week’s issue of Sports Illustrated had a bunch of Mets on the cover (I think I heard a reference to it during a Mets radio broadcast), I didn’t actually look at a copy of the magazine.

But Marc Beck and Chris Andringa did — and they didn’t like what they saw. Andringa’s gripe was with the players’ footwear — “Who wears full uniforms [for a photo shoot] and then just throws on a ratty pair of sneaks?” A fair critique, but Beck picked up on something more subtle: Look closely and it appears that several of the players were wearing heavily worn brown belts.

Some quick background: The Mets usually wear black belts. They’re supposed to wear blue belts when wearing their blue caps, and a few players follow this rule, but most of them just stick with the black belt.

So how’d the players end up wearing brown belts for the photo shoot? Most likely the shoot took place someplace other than the Mets clubhouse, and whoever provided the unis forgot to provide belts. So the players probably just wore the belts from their street clothes, or else they wore the photo crew’s belts, or something like that. The funny thing is that the SI folks didn’t Photoshop the belts to black — would’ve been simple enough. Probably figured nobody would notice, which of course means they didn’t reckon with Uni Watch readers. Big thanks to Marc and Chris for their sharp observations (and for sending me scans of the magazine cover, because every newsstand I visited was sold out by the time I started investigating this one).

Uni Watch News Ticker: Ted Lilly of the Blue Jays had the initials “DJM” inscribed on his cap last night. Not sure why, but I’ve made a few inquiries — more details once I have them (with thanks to Riley Anderson for the tip). … Latest protest against the Sabres’ new logo came in the form of this cartoon, which ran in yesterday’s Buffalo News (with thanks to Jon Muck). … Interesting sponsorship boondoggle at the World Lacrosse Championships, where the Canadian team has the name of their equipment supplier, Warrior, on the back of each player’s jersey, with player surnames relegated to the back of the helmet (big thanks to Tom Langan, who began his communiqué by saying, accurately, “The World Lacrosse Championships are underway and I’m sure you had no idea”). … Some interesting similarities on the back of the American team’s jerseys, too. … Yesterday’s comments section included a note about Rangers catcher Gerald Laird wearing a white mask on Saturday. You can see screen-grabs here, here, and here. This is the latest example of Mizuno, which is Laird’s equipment outfitter, providing a catcher with two different masks — a colored one for home (where Laird looks like this) and a gray-ish one for the road. Another catcher who does this: Victor Martinez (home, road). … Matt Frost reports that Rice is changing its football unis from this and this to this, this, and this. “I don’t know if they’re getting rid of the winged helmets, but the new head coach seems to be dumping all remnants of the old program (which went a stellar 2-10 last year), so it’s probable.” … You know how a boxer will often have his name printed on his trunks? I’d love to see the guy on the right in this photo do that — his name is (deep breath) Sod Looknongyangtoy (and he had a bit of a rough night on Saturday).

59 comments July 18th, 2006

Do Smart-Asses Who Skip Classes to Pass Gases Make Passes at Lacrosse Lasses Wearing Glasses?

I’ve written on ESPN about players who wear glasses and goggles in the major team sports (and in the movies). But longtime reader Todd Krevanchi has discovered some seriously weird eyewear in the world of women’s lacrosse. They’re essentially goggle-masks, and they look pretty damn cool, in a Road Warrior-ish sort of way.

The strange thing is that male lacrosse players wear fully masked helmets, which makes this a rare case of a sport where women wear less protection than men. According to this Wikipedia entry, that’s because “most contact is forbidden [in women’s lacrosse], whereas in men’s lacrosse, full-body contact is an essential part of the game. As a result, women players wear much less protective gear — for example, only the goalkeeper wears a helmet.” The same entry indicates that the goggles (which are available in a surprisingly wide range of styles and brands) became mandatory in 2003; prior to that, many teams didn’t wear them.

Uni Watch Book Club: Anybody who likes Uni Watch should check out Julian Montague’s current book, Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification, an eccentric little volume that has nothing to do with sports but everything to do with programmatic classification systems (which is what uniforms are) and minutiae obsession as its own reward. Seriously, it’s completely brilliant, and should appeal to precisely the same part of your brain that appreciates Uni Watch. Once you read it, you’ll never be able to look at a shopping cart the same way again. (And yes, if you buy a copy via the Amazon link shown at left, then I get, like, a nickel or something. But that’s not why I’m touting the book. Really.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: Lastings Milledge’s huge necklace pendant, which he wore in his MLB debut on Tuesday (and became talk radio fodder on Wednesday afternoon), was conspicuously absent last night. … Good catch by Tom Safford, who writes: “Here’s a photo of the Marietta College Pioneers celebrating their win of the NCAA Division III World Series. Musta been the socks!” Indeed. … The flap over Ambiorix Burgos’s upside-down flag is, uh, raging out in Kansas City (and you thought the only thing that raged in KC was the crowd at Arthur Bryant’s when they run out of brisket). This page even includes video of a TV news report on the situation. Can it be mere coincidence that Royals GM Allard Baird was fired yesterday? … Anyone know the story behind the “ND” logo on Johnny Estrada’s backplate? … Anyone else think it’s sorta lame-o that Willie Randolph wears a Mets wristwatch during games? I’ve never understood why managers need to wear any watch, but wearing your own team’s timepiece scores particularly high on the dork-o-meter, like wearing a band’s T-shirt to their concert. Does he have a little Mets pen-and-pencil set on his office desk, too? Memo to Willie: When the big hand gets to the 12, that means it’s time to release Matsui already.

33 comments June 1st, 2006