Ah, Punt, Pass & Kick. Like many of you, I grew up watching many a PP&K competition televised during halftime of various NFL games. I was always struck by how the participants got to wear the uniform of their hometown NFL teams. But as a Long Island kid who liked the Giants but liked the 49ers even more (a preference rooted in a Ken Willard card that I got in a box of Corn Flakes when I was seven), I always wondered if the kids had any choice regarding the uniforms they wore. Like, what if you lived in Miami but hated the Dolphins? Could you choose, say, a Steelers uniform instead? If I entered (which I never did), would I be allowed to wear a 49ers uniform?
With that question and other uni-related issues in mind, I recently asked readers to contribute any uni-related PP&K experiences they’d had while growing up. More than 30 people responded, most of whom said they never got out of the first round and therefore only got to wear T-shirts and sweatpants. But some others advanced several rounds into the competition, and a few additional folks had other visual details to share.
Most of the participants mentioned that they had fond memories of the colorfully illustrated tips booklet that was distributed to participants each year at local Ford dealerships. Jeff Ash was kind enough to scan the 1969 edition (which features some amazing visuals) and arrange it into a slideshow, which you can see here. (Jeff also found this photo of a PP&K pin on the web, although he says, perhaps semi-bitterly, “I remember nothing about a pin.”)
Here’s a good selection of additional contributions (with big thanks to all who responded):
• From Brian Flynn: “I made it to Giants Stadium as the Long Island champion representing the Jets in 2003 and 2005. Each team in the NFL has representatives who won the local contests, so yes, you must wear the jersey of the team you are representing. Once you arrive at the stadium, you check in at the practice bubble outside. They give you a uniform, which consists of a replica team jersey and gray sweatpants with the PP&K logo. The jerseys are the same kind you would buy at the store, but instead of numbers they have the PP&K logo heat-pressed on the front and the team’s logo on the back. The second time I appeared, they also gave us a tan hat with the PPK logo. The organizers of the event were very picky about having us wear it when we went out onto the field during halftime. Some of the other participants didn’t want to wear the cap but were forced to. Another interesting note: The second time I was there, they added the Pepsi logo to the sweatpants. I still have the uniform somewhere in my house.”
• From Chris Janke: “After I won the Western Massachusetts portion of the PP&K, I received a jersey in the mail, along with the rules and tickets to the Patriots game I would be competing at. The jersey had the PP&K logo on the front with two Patriots logos on the sleeves and FNOB in an unusually small font size. The jersey was the mesh kind that high schools use for practice. If I remember correctly, the number given was either the year, or 00, or something I wasn’t happy with. I’d wanted to wear No. 4 for my favorite player, Brett Favre. I think I even wore a Packers hat with the PP&K jersey during the competition. I brought cleats with me for the competition but was told by a ‘higher up’ that I couldn’t wear them because of the ‘unfair advantage over the others’ that they would provide. I finished third in the group of about 12 but didn’t advance any further (because I couldn’t wear cleats, obviously).”
• From Doc Ginn: “My older brother won the sixth grade competition one year, I believe, and received a Cleveland Browns jacket (our ‘home’ team at the time, pre-Bengals). It included a Browns patch that was the shape of the NFL shield but had the ‘Brownie’ logo within. When I won my competition, my prize was a Green Bay “autographed” football. When I got home and opened the box, I found, to my dismay, that all the ‘autographs’ were mass-printed on the ball, and a couple of them smeared as I pulled the ball from the box the first time. In fact, I remember leaving the ball in the box, because whenever I tried to remove it, I would invariably smear one of the autographs. It wasn’t that the ink was wet — it just wouldn’t stick to the leather ball very well.”
• From Robert Eden: “I recall wearing simply jeans and a T-shirt to the local PP&K competitions. I wasn’t good enough to advance to the regionals (or whatever they called it), but one year I did finish in third place locally — here’s the trophy.
• From Tommy Turner: “I participated in 1967 in Danville, Virginia. We received a Redskins gumball helmet keychain.” Tommy also provided photos of some MacGregor PP&K helmets (the kind used in PP&K nationals from 1960 through 1968) and also some Rawlings PP&K models (used from 1969 through ’73).
• From Steve Mandich: “I just wore my regular clothes for the PP&K and didn’t advance beyond the first round. I don’t remember seeing any related memorabilia, but I do remember the Punt, Pass & Kick Library book series.”
• From Bob Tusso: “My friend Paul Umhoefer won this helmet in a PP&K contest for the area around Stoughton, Wisconsin, in about 1965, when he was about 10 years old. He got second place, and seems to think that first place got a helmet and the chance to compete in a statewide contest. He doesn’t have the facemask for it anymore.”
• From Lee Whitaker: “I participated in my local competition (Paoli, Pennsylvania) in the mid-’70s. I won my age group at the local competition and advanced to the district final, where I finished fourth. For the local event, I competed in my Pop Warner uniform (think classic Patriots with red jersey and red pants), because the PP&K was held following our game. The local ‘awards’ ceremony was held in the showroom of the local Ford dealership, where I got to shake the sales manager’s hand and get my picture taken with Bill Bergey (#66) of the Eagles.”
• And from David Murphy: “My dad entered me in PP&K back around 1970. I was no athlete, but it made my day when my placekick sailed low but good enough for third place in my age group. … The kids who made the regional competitions wore those replica unis, complete with colored socks. They even wore replica helmets! To this day, I’m a sucker for those helmets whenever I see one selling for a dollar at a thrift store. Got dozens in my attic.”
Great stuff, people. Thanks for sharing.
Victory Lap: Got a note early this morning from Giants equipment director Joe Skiba that I thought you’d all like to see:
I just wanted to thank the Uni Watch fans out there for an incredible season. It means the world to me that fans out there pay attention to all the little details — and also important ones — that go into the equipment side of sports. Every day I read the web site and the blogs to learn what is being used and worn by athletes across the leagues. Hopefully I have made Giants fans out of you, and fans of mine as well (haha)! I hope you’ll share in the celebration of this tremendous win — you guys deserve it as well.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember those great old curling sweaters that I recently wrote about? Reader Graham Bakay reports that the vintage threads have been banned by the geniuses at the Alberta Curling Federation, who really need to get a ticket for the clue train. … Did you know that the Rams wore a jersey patch during home games in 1988? According to this page, the patch reads, “Drug use is life abuse” (nice find by Erik Little). … Good analysis here of how Nike botched its entry into the hockey market.
Very uni-unusual day in college football on Saturday, with all sorts of anomalies running rampant on the gridiron. Let’s start with Notre Dame’s 1977 throwbacks. Personally, I prefer this green-and-gold combo better than the one they wore on Saturday. But oh, those sock stripes — you know I loved those, although it was distressing to see how many players left their socks at ankle-level.
A sampling of other uni observations from Saturday:
• Oregon went solid white, which looked kinda chalky. Better than their usual visual carnival, natch, but the green helmet was the one really good component of this uniform — here’s hoping they go back to it next week.
• Florida wore a memorial decal for walk-on defensive back Michael Guilford, who died in a motorcycle accident last week (and whose nickname was Sunshine).
• Florida State wore a red “BV” helmet decal in honor of team videographer and cancer victim Billy Vasini, who’s currently in hospice care.
• No photo, but Vince says Michigan State’s Peter Clifford “pulled an L.T. and wasn’t wearing an American flag decal on his helmet” (a handy coincidence, since the Chargers had a bye this week, so we all might’ve gone through missing-decal withdrawal if not for Clifford).
• Graham McCulloch says that Michigan’s Mario Manningham’s surname was direct-sewn onto his jersey, instead of being on separate nameplate. I couldn’t find a good rear-view shot of Manningham, although this photo suggests that the lettering may indeed have been direct-sewn. If so, it would mark a change from how Manningham’s name has been applied in the past.
Intern Update: In case you missed it last week, Vince will soon be moving on to greener pastures, so I’m in the market for a new intern. For further details, scroll down to the “Help Wanted” section of last Wednesday’s post.
For those of you who’ve already applied, hang tight. I can’t acknowledge everyone, but I’ll be getting in touch with a handful of finalists soon. And my sincere thanks to all applicants — it’s humbling to see how many people want to work on Uni Watch.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Iowa State’s official logo specs and identity standards are available for viewing in this PDF file (with thanks to Brian Castile). … Andrew Flynn was recently at the Packers Hall of Fame, where he snapped a shot of the team’s 1962 yearbook cover. Obviously, they tinted those facemasks in the photo (colored facemasks didn’t debut until over a decade later, with the 1974 Chargers), although it’s hard to fathom why they would’ve done that. … Always good to start ’em young (good find by Jay Kuperstein). … Mike Orr noticed a bunch of interesting South Carolina high school football quirks over the weekend: (1) Chester High uses some really big-ass rear helmet numbers. (2) One of the Chester players has a helmet number that doesn’t match his jersey. (3) Lugoff-Elgin uses the biggest TV numbers I’ve ever seen. (4) The Lugoff-Elgin QB is apparently a Sean Taylor fan. … Victory Pennants prexy Morris Levin just scored this excellent postcard showing the Phillies’ uniform history (here’s the other side). Interestingly, the player images on the front of card are also used on the Phils’ web site. … If Curt Schilling’s gonna insist on wearing a Cool Base jersey, could he at least stop saluting the crowd, so we wouldn’t have to look at that stupid underarm mesh insert? … Good article here on the NFL’s latest uniform cop. … Dave Madison says Kevin Youkilis had the Majestic wordmark — instead of just the Majestic logo — on the left sleeve of his road jersey during Games 4 and 5 of the ALCS, suggesting that he might have been wearing a replica jersey. I don’t see any wordmark here, here, here, or here, but it does look like he might have had a wordmark under the logo here. I’m trying to get that photo enlarged so we can get a better look. … I reported lat week that Wisconsin would be wearing this throwback outfit on December 3rd, but the auction for the unis is already underway (with thanks to Nicole Haase). … Mark Coale reports that the Hershey Bears wore 70th-anniversary sweaters on Saturday. A nice idea, except the crest looked like a glorified sleeve patch. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Adalius Thomas has been wearing one red glove and one blue. Additional views here and here. … I don’t care how many field goals you kick — this is still a really bad look. … The Devil Rays’ uni-unveiling event is gonna be a real, um, barn-burner (as noted by Morris Levin). … Dave Eskenazi, who’s contributed many Pacific northwestern baseball pics in the past, has now provided some gorgeous old hockey photos from that same region, as seen in these shots of the Portland Rosebuds, Seattle Metropolitans, Victoria Aristocrats, and Vancouver Millionaires. That’s Lester Patrick — “Yes, that Lester Patrick,” as Eskinazi puts it — here. … The Saskatchewan Roughriders wore throwbacks yesterday (with thanks to Garry Sum). … Two weeks ago I reported that the Wisconsin women’s hockey team was using this design. What I hadn’t noticed in that photo — but what Andy Seeger has now pointed out — is that the “C” and “A” designations are stacked under the uni numbers, which looks awful-and-a-half. … Matthew Lepke notes that Bryce Salvador is wearing Blues-branded boot protectors. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The Broncos’ socks are supposed to have just a thin band of orange between the navy and white areas, but Brandon Marshall apparently wore navy leggings and white sanitaries with orange tape in between (additional pics here, here, and here, and the tape he uses is probably something like this). … And we conclude with a nice little video report on USC’s equipment staff (as provided by Ryan Whitacre):
Meanwhile: We all know about the futuristic uniforms that most MLB teams wore in 1999. You may also recall that about six months ago I linked to a hilarious SportsCenter diatribe about said uniforms. That video mentions that the ’99 Turn Ahead the Clock program was actually based on a “futuristic” Royals/Mariners game from the previous season.
I hadn’t been aware of that game, or else I’d forgotten about it, until I saw it mentioned in the SportsCenter report. And I’d forgotten about it yet again until yesterday, when the pseudonymous TC (the same guy who brought us all the cool stuff in this report) sent me a two-minute video taken from a 1998 installment of This Week in Baseball, which provides lots of jaw-dropping footage from the Royal/Mariners game in question. TC has asked that the video not be YouTubed, but he’s allowed me to make screen grabs.
Some quick background: The game was played on July 18, 1998, at the Kingdome. It was a simple one-game promotion by the Mariners, much like today’s throwback games. And the time-warped year was supposedly 2027 (as opposed to the 1999 futuristic program, which was set in 2021, because the whole thing was sponsored by Century 21).
Now then:
• The Mariners’ design was at least vaguely similar to what they wore for the Century 21 promotion the following year. But the Royals’ concept of futurism underwent a big change from 1998 to 1999.
• Both teams wore special helmets for the game. The M’s put big-ass uni numbers on the front and a logo decal on the earflap side, while the Royals did the reverse.
• Both teams looked like they stole their pants piping from the NFL.
• The M’s wore their jerseys untucked and their caps backward (except, apparently, for their pitchers).
This promotion strikes me as idiotic but harmless, which is more than you can say for the 1999 program, which was a corporate boondoggle for Century 21.
Photo Follow-Up: A few days ago I linked to the photo shown at left (here’s a larger view) and wondered what was up with Willie’s non-pinstriped Mets home uni (a design that didn’t yet exist in 1976, when the photo was taken). Quite a few readers suggested that Willie was actually wearing a road uniform (the Mets used the same script insignia on their home and road jerseys that year), and that the photo was simply overexposed, creating the illusion of a white home design. Okay, but then why was Hank wearing a road uniform as well? What circumstance could have brought both of them together in road attire in 1976 (when Mays was a National League coach and Aaron was still an active American League player)?
Reader Bill Tyrrell may have provided the answer. Check out the note he sent me last night:
The first game that I ever attended was the 1976 Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown between the Mets and Brewers (August 9th). I vividly recall that both teams wore their road uniforms. According to Retrosheet, the Mets were coming back from a series in Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee had stopped in Cooperstown between series in Boston and Oakland [which would explain why both teams wore road attire]. … The Mets wore their pillbox caps that day. The only part that doesn’t figure is that the photo appears to have been taken at night — the HoF game was played during the day.
Faaaaascinating. And here’s a little postscript from Bill: “Although a coach at the time, Mays made a pinch-hitting appearance and singled. Aaron had one at bat, striking out swinging before we gave him a standing ovation.”
Membership News: After a few marathon data-entry sessions, I believe every membership enrollee is now listed on the active roster. The only exception is Patrick Ratliff (let me know which number and design you want, at your convenience). For everyone else, if you signed up in the past week and don’t see your name on the roster, let me know.
It’ll take a while to get all the new orders printed, laminated, and mailed, so bear with us — thanks. Meanwhile, we now have our first non-charter member, Sean Sandoloski, who signed up yesterday. And so the new era begins.
Also: Several early enrollees have mentioned they now regret their original card-design choices and wish they had asked for something else. You can request a new design when renewing your membership next year, of course. But if you’re suffering from a serious case of buyer’s remorse and can’t wait until then, existing members can get a redesigned card for $15 (which, I assure you, is a very fair price, given the amount of time and effort that go into creating these things).
As an aside, I should mention that Scott and I are both having a blast with this project. A lot of the requests you’ve given us have been really interesting and imaginative, and we usually learn something even from the simple requests. Thanks for making this endeavor such a success.
Tech Crap: If you’re reading this, you’ve successfully managed to access the site (duh). But I’m continuing to get sporadic reports of people who can’t log on — aftershocks from Wednesday’s server problem, apparently. If this happens to you, or if you hear of it happening to someone else, try googling “Uni Watch” and then entering the site via the Google link. If that doesn’t work, type the site’s full URL into a fresh browser window (including the “http://www” at the beginning) instead of using a bookmark or a shortened version of the URL.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Reebok is planning to open an hockey-themed store (with thanks to Neal Schaffer). … David Conely notes with digust that KG left the stickers on his cap when throwing out the first pitch at Fenway the other day. And several readers noted with even greater disgust that they gave him a home jersey with his name on the back — sacrilege! … Great article here about Penn State’s equipment manager. Click on the photo for a cool slideshow (nice find by Bryan Koval). … The 49ers’ memorial helmet decal for Bill Walsh will look like this. … More info on those new Utah hoops unis here (as forwarded by Bryan Packer), and larger images here. … This year’s Little League World Series uniforms are shown in this PDF file (nice find by Tony Lombardo). … “Snapped some interesting shots on a recent trip to Graceland,” writes Patrick Woody. “Elvis was a big sports fan, and his entourage would play football and baseball games in full uniforms. Note the stirrups with the football pants, which could be accurate — or just the result of the exhibit curator being clueless.” … Big Blazers fan Clark Farrand notes that first-round pick Greg Oden was given a number-inclusive jersey for his NBA Rookies photo shoot but second-rounders Taurean Green and Josh McRoberts had to go number-free. “I guess I kind of understand, in that since they haven’t earned roster spots yet, they haven’t been assigned numbers,” writes Farrand. “But wouldn’t you think that if they were considered good enough to be sent to the photo shoot, they would at least give them temporary or expected numbers in case they do make the roster?” … According to a small item buried on this page, Marlon Anderson wanted to wear No. 8 with the Mets, but that number, while not officially retired, is out of circulation, in deference to Gary Carter. … New uniforms this year for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Further details, and a link to a photo gallery, here (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … New design for Tulsa as well (additional view here, with thanks to Tod Meisner, who also reports that Rice’s new helmet will look like this). … And new Air Force unis too (additional pics and info here). … Brandon Hall turned up a site featuring some amazing vintage NFL posters. For the full selection, look here and here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: I’d forgotten that the 1976 pillbox cap trope also extended to the World Series umpires. … Riley Anderson reports that plate ump Kerwin Danley worked the first half of Tuesday night’s Angels/Mariners game with his fly unzipped. No photos yet, but Vince is working on it. … The Nationals had Walter Johnson’s grandson throw out the first pitch last night and then wore throwback caps, which I thought looked pretty good.
Several people have contributed good info about the College World Series, but I’m gonna save that until tomorrow or Thursday. Today we’re going to look back a bit further than college baseball — all the way back to Little League.
That topic was inspired by a note I got last week from reader Wally Steidley, who said he coached Little League in Wylie, Texas. “My assistant coach and I are huge fans of Uni Watch,” he wrote, “so we took it upon ourselves to spend a little extra and get our boys outfitted like real baseball players. We have some limitations from the league but put together a pretty nice combo, including stirrups and sanitary socks. All the other teams went with the one-color soccer sock, so we really stood out as the finest uni’ed team in the entire league.”
Cool, I thought — teach ‘em young and all that. So when Steidley offered to send me some photos, I said, “Sure, let’s have ‘em.” That’s when I discovered that he’d left out one pertinent detail. He hadn’t just dressed up his team like real ballplayers — he’d dressed them as one of history’s most idiosyncratic teams: the A’s. Here’s Steidley‘s rundown:
We had some challenges getting the kids to wear everything correctly, but it was worth it, as everyone in the league noticed our classic stirrups and gold sanitary socks. We did have to explain the stirrup and how to wear them to the kids, but the parents thought it was a cool look, so they helped us out by requiring that they wear them correctly. You will also note the white cleats, which were difficult to find, but we talked the parents into them.
The gold belts were used because last year we were the Pirates, and the parents didn’t want to have to buy more belts. I gave in because my assistant coach and I had already purchased helmets, with MLB sticker packs, and fronted the money for the socks and stirrups. This is something we’ll be able to fix with next year’s team.
Amazing. So now there’s a bunch of nine-year-olds in Texas who think “real” ballplayers wear yellow sanitaries and white cleats. That should warp their little minds quite nicely. Still, Steidley’s devotion to uniform protocol is admirable. After Jason Giambi arranges to have Bud Selig bumped off, could we maybe get Steidley in line to take over the Commissioner’s chair?
Membership Update: I’ve added about two dozen more rear-card designs to the membership roster and to the card gallery (including, as you can see at right, our first referee-based design). My continued thanks to all who’ve joined.
Uni Watch News Ticker: One of the San Diego Union-Tribune columnists wrote a bit of a Padres uniform manifesto yesterday (with thanks to Josh Berliner). … And a St. Looie columnist has weighed in on the suits-on-the-sidelines situation (with thanks to Luke Pellegra). … Good photo here (helpfully provided by Tom Konecny of the Toledo Mud Hens’ uni-laundering scene. The accompanying article isn’t really about uniforms, though. … One last Father’s Day oddity: Ray Durham wore one of those light blue wristbands on his head during BP (with thanks to Bosox bloggerJere). …Ehan Lewis notes that the NFL recently held its annual NFL Softball Challenge event. If you’ve always wanted to see Jeff Lurie swinging a bat (among other sights), a full gallery of pics is available here. … Nice find by Ethan Rowley, who came up with this portrait of Cardinals greats, which functions as a de facto timeline of the team’s uniform. According to …this article (forwarded by Wes Johnson), “[Minnesota] Gophers football coach Tim Brewster made it clear that there will be only one change in the team’s uniforms this fall: the letter ‘M’ on the helmets will be much bigger.” Which means it’ll look even more like an upside-down W than it already does. … Excellent slide-show essay on the history of — and problems with — U.S. soccer uniforms here. … Latest player spotted wearing Oakley Thumps during BP: Bartolo Colon (great shot by Zach Gibson). … Member Eric Bonus has scanned and uploaded an excellent 1987 article about hockey uniform numbers. … More really disturbing Chris Cooley hot pants pics here. … Carlos Delgado went high-cuffed last night, and it was a thing of beauty. Take note, class: His pants didn’t break right at the knees but, rather, just slightly down the shins. This is exactly — exactly — how it should be done. Such a splendid example of the form that I’m willing to overlook the lack of stirrups. … Pitt’s new secondary logo has been leaked. …Michael Maurino works for the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays and recently attended the Florida State League All-Star Game, where the teams wore East and West jerseys that almost make the Pro Bowl look good by comparison — especially when you factor in the number font — yeesh. The guy wearing double-zero in that last photo is Francisco Cervelli of the Tampa Yankees, who normally wears 34, but that was taken by Omar Malave, who managed the West team. Anyone know which other minor leagues use generic all-star unis instead of letting the players wear their regular team attire? … The Angels are giving away an item I’ve never seen before: wristbands with a built-in watch. If you haven’t seen it already, check out the super-cool animated Watch Your Back ad, now running near the top of the right column.
Coupla things I’ve been meaning to get to, all of them slightly bigger than typical Ticker fare but not quite weighty enough to merit full-scale blog entries of their own. So without further ado…
Got a great tip recently from Joel Brigham (who does some writing for these guys), who pointed me toward this site, where you can digitally design your own basketball uniforms. Start by choosing one of the stock templates on the right, then custom-colorize it using the options on the left. “I spent HOURS messing with it the other day,” he writes, and it’s easy to see why once you start using the site. I like some of Joel’s designs better than others, but it’s a nifty tool either way. Have fun, and don’t blame me (well, not more than you already do) if you get nothing else done today.
• We all know that the A’s have been wearing white shoes for over 40 years now. So when Michael Turner recently wrote to ask if I had any photos of the A’s wearing green shoes in the early ’80s, I said, “Nope,” and privately wondered what the hell he could have been thinking about.
Shows what I know. Turns out there are quite a few shots of the A’s wearing dark shoes on the road in 1982, although it’s tough to say if they include green — maybe (here’s another potential candidate), maybe not.
Interestingly, Dressed to the Nines (which I obviously should have consulted before so blithely dismissing Turner’s query) shows the A’s wearing green footwear on the road in 1983, and what appears to be black cleats in ‘81. But for 1982 — the year in which all those photos were taken — they’re listed as only wearing white. (And yes, almost all those photos were of Rickey Henderson, but I also found dark-shod pics of other players, so it wasn’t just a Rickey thing.)
When the Padres recently wore their early-’70s throwbacks, which were made by Majestic, you may recall that the pants featured real belts instead of the period-appropriate elastic waistband. That prompted the following note from one of Majestic’s competitors, who prefers to remain anonymous:
We actually bid that job. We had a gold fabric that was a little less brassy than the one Majestic used. The problem is that Majestic gives each team such a large marketing credit that most clubs want to get all of their uniforms as near as free as possible. It’s very frustrating for us, because we really feel like we are being “played” by clubs a lot of the time, but Majestic hands over the big money to squash guys like us. Ninety percent of the time, these [throwback] projects are being handled by the [team’s] marketing department, and they generally lack the experience to execute a uniform’s details flawlessly.
A few days ago I asked about the origins of “Clemson cut” pants, which brought this response from DJ Gordon:
My father, Doug Gordon, was the head equipment manager at Clemson University from around ‘83 to ‘94. The “Clemson cut” pant was originally made by a clothing company called Powers. The rep from Powers would come help my father fit the entire baseball team with their pants. The Clemson cut is called so because Clemson was one of the first schools to fit players by their waist, calf, thigh, and inseam sizes. They were custom-fit for each player to fit their legs. Most players got three pairs each, due to the fact that they always wear the white-styled pant. The web site you have shown [in the link above] is odd to my father, because the Clemson cut pants never had stirrups in them. I myself am an equipment manager at the University of South Carolina, so I just happen to have an interest in the whole uniform genre.
Gotta love that — the family that equipment-manages together, uh, what rhymes with that? Too bad about the whole calf/inseam thing, though — this may have been ground zero for the ruination of baseball hosiery.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Very telling fold of the fabric here (as spotted by David Fleming). … “I went to my brother-in-law’s senior art show at Washington University in St. Louis this past weekend,” writes Dan Brown. “While I was there, I saw this painting by Elena Rodriguez.” Man, someone needs to commission Elena for a big mural, pronto! … Veeeery interesting blog entry here regarding the cost of English Premier League sponsorships (with thanks to Dominic Litten). … Here’s an eBay auction with another jersey featuring the number on the “wrong” side. … Some really sensational uni-related bits (and, by any standard, some very cruel moments of sexism) in this video of Babe Ruth teaching women who to play ball (nice find by Crhis Manes). … Good article here regarding cyclists pulling their socks up high (as forwarded by Lee Wilds). … Yesterday I linked to a photo gallery from the shooting of the Ernie Davis biopic. Turns out that a reader who prefers to remain anonymous was watching the film shoot through a fence and took some great additional pics, as seen here, here, here, and here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: I didn’t realize that the Rockies originally had logo-emblazoned stirrups! The photo is taken from this timeline. … Cathy Reeder sent along some interesting Florida Little League photos, including shots of a kid with mismatched socks, a kid with no socks, and a team that wears its uni numbers on the caps. … Remember Frank DiPino? Yeah, I barely do either, but apparently he wrote, “Get Somebody OUT!” on his underbill, and you can have that cap for your very own here (nice find by Eric Stangel). … Not only do the Diamandbacks and Astros now have similar color schemes, but as Chris Shastid points out, they have similar problems regarding the integrity of their lettering across the placket. … The Yokohama Bay Stars will be wearing these uniforms during the Japanese interleague games. “They’ve added a brick-red panel and color to the cap, plus a gold neckline,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “But look at the serif on the 2 — it would look fine without it, but it is huge.” … Great contribution from Larry Brunt, who writes: “I’ve been reading a bunch of baseball picture books with my four-year-old, including Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man, by David Adler. The illustration that accompanies the text of him taking himself out of the game that ended his streak is here. I’m quite impressed that the artist (Terry Widener) included the historically accurate sleeve patch the Yankees wore in 1939 for baseball’s centennial.” … Thomas Harris notes that there’s some good stuff going on in the Coastal Plain League (”The Nation’s Hottest Summer Collegiate Baseball League”), including some killer stirrups being worn by the Thomasville HiToms and the completely endearing logo being used by the Columbia Blowfish (who also appear to have one of history’s greatest mascots). Even the league’s logo gets it right. … Bosox pitcher Julian Tavarez has been wearing Big Papi slippers in the clubhouse (where he’s also been spotted wearing a “Manny Being Manny” T-shirt) and even in the dugout on days when he’s not pitching.
Like a lot of Americans, I don’t really follow horse racing but still get a kick out of the Kentucky Derby, mainly because it’s a good excuse for a party. So on Saturday I baked a derby pie, put Uni Watch designated raceday tomato Amanda Madden on my arm, and headed over to Watch Your Back impresario Brian Corrigan’s pad, where a TV/BBQ party was in full swing. In between bites of grilled chicken and swigs of beer (no mint juleps for me this year), I made the following observations:
Winning jockey Calvin Borel looked fairly sharp, bow tie and all. I kept wondering what happened to the propeller on his beanie, though. Also: I know it was muddy out there, but why did he have four pairs of goggles (here’s another view)? Was he switching them on the fly during the race? If anyone knows more about how this works, fill us in.
I liked how the tape on some of the horses’ ankles created the equine equivalent of striped socks.
From there I headed over to the Mendez Boxing Club in Manhattan, where I joined No Mas principals Dave Larzelere and Chris Isenberg to watch the Mayweather/De La Hoya bout. It was a pretty raucous scene, never more so than when Floyd donned that big-ass sombrero for his ring entrance. He also wore the Mexican colors on his robe, trunks, and shoes, plus his cornermen were wearing “Mexico Loves Mayweather” T-shirts, all of which seemed like an obvious ploy to steal De La Hoya’s Mexican-identified mojo. Since turnabout is fair play, I was hoping Oscar would come out in blackface and some gangsta tattoos, but wit has never been the Golden Boy’s strong suit. Anyway, it was way too loud at the Mendez for me to hear any explanation that Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant might have offered for Mayweather’s Mexican-themed attire. Did they discuss it?
Meanwhile, anyone know the story behind the little portraits appearing on Mayweather’s WBC belts? Like, are they the faces of the current champions in the various weight divisions? The faces of fighters Mayweather beat to win his titles? If anyone knows, kindly fill us in.
Missing Persons Dept.: Hey, Ben Nickerson, if you’re reading this, please get in touch asap. Thanks.
Uni Watch Midwestern Road Trip Update: I’m happy to announce that the venue for this Saturday’s Uni Watch Chicagoland party will be the Montrose Saloon. So the weekend party itinerary is now set: We’ll be convening in Minneapolis this Friday evening, 7:30pm, at the very wonderful Nye’s Polonaise Room. And then, precisely 24 hours later, I’ll see all you Chi-town folks at the Montrose. Looking forward to it.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Not sure how we all missed this until now, but someone on the Chris Creamer boards alertly noticed that the Mariners have switched from using nameplates (that photo is from last season, and so are this, this, and this) to direct-sewn lettering (as additionally seen here, here, here, and here) — a major improvement. … Good slide show here on the history of sponsorship in the German Bundesliga soccer league (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Interesting eBay items here, here, here, and here. … The Giants did the Gigantes thing for Cinco de Mayo. … Interesting note from Kel Hinkle, who writes, “I was at my daughter’s softball game on Saturday and the opposing team’s pitcher wore a mask.” Yikes — looks like Hannibal Lechter on the mound! … Bit of golf attire commentary here (as spotted by Seth Horowitz).
The WNBA preseason begins today, and the league kicked things off yesterday by unveiling a new set of uniforms for all the teams. The truth: I don’t really give a rat’s hairy little tuchis about the WNBA, and I know most of you don’t either. But the new designs still provide some useful object lessons — most of them, unfortunately, negative.
WNBA teams already face serious visual identity challenges, because many of them are affiliated with, and aesthetically modeled after, NBA teams. So why make things even worse by imposing the same design template on every club in the league? If you’ve got a league that’s struggling for recognition and high-profile coverage, wouldn’t it make sense to allow your teams to develop their own unique looks? But instead each WNBA team now has an elongated design panel running down from the jersey through the shorts; each team now has player names appearing below the uni number (a fun device when used sparingly; pointless overkill when imposed league-wide); each team name will appear on the players’ butts; and so on. In other words, these aren’t really individual teams with their own distinct characters — they’re just interchangeable pieces of Team WNBA. Or at least that’s the message this kind of design program creates.
The template might be tolerable if it were a good template — but it’s not. Each team has its own piping pattern (described on the league’s web site as “a dramatic pattern design formed from core elements of each team’s logo”), and some of them are pretty embarrassing. I mean, c’mon, what is this? Or this? I do like this one, but the shape of the jersey panel is still so weird and forced-looking — it all feels like a badly failed experiment. (You can see more images of the new uniforms here.)
This hive-mentality approach is the unfortunate hallmark of small, new-ish leagues these days, because they insist on having the league office coordinate all the uniform designs. Fun logo characters like Pat Patriot and odd uniform quirks like the Steelers wearing their logo on only one side of the helmet could never happen in leagues like the WNBA or the AFL, because the uniforms are all created under the same roof. I understand why they do it — they’re trying to create a league-wide brand identity — but I think it’s a serious miscalculation. If you’re an upstart trying to compete with the major sports, you don’t need a league identity — you need lots of distinct team identities. People don’t say, “Hey, let’s go to the WNBA game tonight!” They say, “Hey, let’s go see the Mystics tonight!” Or at least that’s the idea.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Holders for placekicks usually go bare-handed, so I was surprised to see this photo. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a double-gloved holder before. … There are a lot of odd things in this photo, but the one that interests me most is that the ump is wearing his uni number on his ball bag (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Kudos to Phil Richardson, who’s got his entire Little League team wearing striped stirrups (additional pics here and here). … Yet another case of a municipal icon being draped in a jersey: Check out this photo gallery (with thanks to Aaron Stilley). … Willie Harris is back in the bigs, this time with the Braves. As you may recall, he’s that rarest of creatures: a non-switch-hitter who wears a double-flapped batting helmet. … Good discussion of college softball uniforms here. … Juhem Navarro notes that Tigers closer Todd Jones has some issues with MLB’s uniform regulations (but then he lots of issues, so I don’t take his opinions too seriously). … Interesting rugby news from Caleb Borchers, who writes: “The French have just changed their national rugby jerseys from this to this, and seem to have done it to force New Zealand’s famous ‘All Blacks’ into not wearing all black if the two meet in this year’s World Cup. If all goes as expected such a matchup would be in the Finals of the tournament.” Further details here. … This should be fun. … Nice documentation here of Julio Lugo wearing Jason Varitek’s jersey during pregame warm-ups. … Enough already. … Coming tomorrow: a really interesting story about golf (and believe me, I never thought I’d be typing those words).
Every week or so, like clockwork, someone e-mails to ask me where they can find striped stirrups for their softball team. Or vest jerseys for their kid’s Little League team. Or caps with some sort of special embroidery. I happen to know where to find all of the above, and plenty more, but it usually means sending people to a variety of specialty suppliers.
From now on, though, I’ll probably just point people toward a site brought to my attention by reader Matt Ciccone: Essesco.com. The site itself doesn’t look like much, but start clicking around and you’ll find that they’ve basically created a compilation of athletic apparel catalogs, and it looks like they’ve got just about everything covered. You want baseball or softball unis? They’ve got a ton of options, including uniforms made by Rawlings, Reebok, Majestic, and a bunch of lesser-known brands. You want belts and stirrups? You want jackets and windbreakers? Trophies and ribbons? It’s all here.
And it’s not just baseball — they’ve also got football, basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, track, and swimming uniforms, plus warm-up suits, cheerleading outfits, and a lot more. The site’s interface leaves a lot to be desired (they need a designer, like, yesterday), but if you’re looking to outfit a team, they’ve probably got what you’re looking for — or even what you didn’t realize you were looking for.
Numerology Update: Big, big thanks to everyone who helped out with the “Who wore what number for what reason?” project. Thanks to your efforts, we now have a complete roster from 0 to 99 (including a few bonus numbers you might not have thought of). I literally couldn’t have done it without you, people — thanks a heap.
The full numerical rundown will form the basis of my next ESPN column, which should run tomorrow.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of buying uniforms and such, reader Alan Kreit recently got a pair of stirrups for his Little Leaguer son, Ethan (he says he bought them here). Unfortunately, Ethan wore his pants a bit lower for his actual game, but he still looked better than his teammates. … Wanna see something really weird? Check out the Mizuno-ized versions of MLB jerseys shown here and here (with thanks to Dwayne White). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Mariano Rivera has a Bible verse called out on his glove (with thanks to Jeff Spry for the screen shot). … Also from yesterday: Wondering why the White Sox wear black socks? You’re not alone. … More trademark litigation silliness (with thanks to Seth Horowitz). … Pretty cool Boston Marathon attire — especially if you’re gonna get married (further details here, with thanks to Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek). … Northeastern State has unveiled a new logo.
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