Thanks to Phil’s recent “Worst Uni Ever” poll, you’ve seen plenty of Colorado Caribous photos lately. But most of you probably haven’t seen this one.

That shot, along with a bunch more (click on the thumbnails for larger versions), come from this site devoted to NASL jerseys, which reader Rob Bryant just brought to my attention.

In a nutshell: The site is so awesome that I might just have to become a soccer fan after all. A very small selection of the highlights (click on little pics to see big pics):

• Totally digging the chest logo used by the Montreal Olympique.

• Stripe-o-rama! That’s the Rochester Lancers, 1971. Interesting to see that they used a different font for the rear uni number.

• Love how the San Francisco Quakes used the cross stroke on the Q to form a fault line — or, better yet, to fracture a soccer ball. (As an aside, did you know there was an indoor soccer team called the San Francisco Fog? How awesome is that jersey?!)

• Sort of quaint how Minnesota teams are always named after the state, not after a particular city, as in the Minnesota Strikers. Not such a bad thing when it results in the state outline being depicted on the jersey, though.

• Check out the silver chain-stitching on this Las Vegas Quicksilvers jersey (which also has one of history’s clunkiest, most awkward NOBs).

• Uni typography doesn’t get much more quintessentially ’70s than this Edmonton Drillers design. Only problem is that the jersey is actually from 1982. Interestingly, the 1970s-esque design replaced something that was much more ’80s-ish.

• Very odd insignia for the 1980 Houston Hurricane. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a team intentionally obscure part of the type like that. But it’s probably better than this.

• The Adidas logo really ruined the elemental simplicity of this 1979 California Surf design. Looks better in this overexposed photo, since you almost can’t see the logo creep. (And speaking of the Surf, check out this shot from a game played at Vets Stadium, complete with all the MLB logos in the background. Ah, the indignities of being a minor sports league.)

• My vote for best NASL sleeves goes to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, for obvious reasons. Mmmm, tasty.

• Then again, the Toronto Blizzard had some pretty cool sleeves too.

• What happens you’re your team uses really huge-ass NOB lettering (and, as an aside a sews the apotrophe on backwards)? You run the risk of ending up with a DDNHOB (double-decker hyphenated NOB, duh)! Those jerseys are from the Hartford Bicentennials (now there’s a team name with a short shelf life), who had a very cool chest logo.

• Do you get the feeling that maybe the Detroit Cougars didn’t originally plan on using NOBs?

• On the other hand, the New York Cosmos left plenty of NOB room but didn’t know how to use it.

• So much to like in this photo of the Chicago Sting vs. the Dallas Tornado.

• Now that’s a weird number font. If you scroll through this page, you’ll see that the Clippers used all sorts of weird number treatments in their brief two-season existence.

• Starred socks! As worn by the Houston Stars, natch.

• Okay, I don’t mean to harp on the NOBs, but come on. Joe Hilseberg, where were you when this league needed you?

• I hate logo creep but love ticking stripes. So what do I make of this? Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. The team in question, by the way, is the 1980 Memphis Rogues, although they weren’t the only team using that design element.

• Interesting to see that the Philly Fury used a contrasting placket. Looked pretty good!

• Does this 1967 St. Looie Stars jersey totally look like a thrift store special or what? Yes, I’ll buy it for $6, sold!

And look, the site even has a page devoted to NASL cheerleaders. Would you believe the KC Spurs called their cheering corps the InSPURettes? And the Tampa Bay Rowdies called theirs — wait for it — the Wowdies.

And just to bring everything full circle, reader Raifie Bass has a real prize in his collection: a Colorado Caribous satin jacket!

That settles it, from now on Uni Watch will cover soccer exclusively, the end.

Research Query: Two years ago I wrote an ESPN column in which surveyed the Cowboys’ assorted uniform quirks, past and present. The following summer, I wrote similar columns about the Cubs and White Sox.

Those columns were really fun to write, and popular besides. I’d like to do more of them, but I’ve had a hard time identifying other teams that would benefit from the same treatment. Maybe the St. Looey Cardinals..?

Can you think of other teams that would fit the bill here? Remember, the operative concept here is NOT “Let’s look at this team’s entire uni history”; the idea is to find teams that have had interesting uni histories, replete with quirks and underappreciated nuances. If you go back and read those three previous columns, you’ll see that the Cowboys, Cubs, and Chisox fit this description exceedingly well. If you think any other teams qualify, don’t be shy about telling me. Oh, and please don’t bother suggesting Oregon’s football team, thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: New Aussie football kit for Port Adelaide (designed by a seven-year-old girl — no, really, read the sixth graf) and West Coast (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Check out this bizarre baseball jersey patch. That’s the Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz, circa 1940s. … Phil found some interesting shots of Teddy Ballgame wearing cut-off windbreaker sleeves and an undershirt. Here’s another. … Apparently Kareem didn’t get the memo about which shoes and socks to wear to the photo shoot (with thanks to Jeremy Richardson). … Danny Millan has started a new Brooklyn-centric clothing line. I appreciate the sentiments, although I hope the Brooklyn Nets never actually come to pass. … Remember these football gloves? Here’s the next evolutionary step (with thanks to Jonathan Mayer). … Ever wonder why David Vyborny used to use solid-black sticks? Right, me neither, but Columbus Dispatch beat writer Aaron Portzline had this to say during a recent online chat: “David Vyborny was so peeved that he didn’t get a stick deal that he used to spray paint his sticks black to keep from advertising the manufacturer. Vyborny was an interesting dude” (with thanks to Kellen Dargle). … Scandalous news out of New Jersey, where a little birdie informs me that the Devils’ throwbacks, slated to be worn on March 17th, will be lame-o fauxbacks. According to my source, they’re just using the current jersey template with green replacing the black. Also, they’re using the modern red and a darker green. Pfeh. … What team is this? Details here. … Troy Polamalu’s little embroidered cross is suddenly everywhere. Word I hear from league sources is that they’re okay with it because it’s covered by his hair, sort of like if he had a message on a T-shirt under his jersey — out of sight, out of mind — but I suspect the real story is that they don’t want to wade into the thorny thicket of religious expression. … Lots of Mets fans sent me this item about the new cream-base pinstripes, which will be officially introduced in a few weeks. The item implies that the cream pins won’t have the black drop shadow — I hope that’s true, but it does not jibe with the information I have. … Yesterday’s Portland Beavers entry inspired Craig Rockhold to send over a bunch of pics from that PCL exhibit at the San Francisco airport. … In a move that’s waaaaay overboard for a high school, Under Armour is sponsoring River Hill High in Maryland and has provided them with a different uniform for every game this season (with thanks to Jonathan Blake). … Pete Woychick recently rediscovered these two high school hoops warm-up tops in his parents’ attic. Super-offensive logo icon on one of them, but nice pieces nonetheless. Odd to see St. Joe’s abbreviated as “St. Jo’s,” no? … Throwbacks will be in the mix this season for Loyola Marymount. No images yet, but the game dates are listed in the middle of this page. … 1957 A.L. Red Book, in what looks to be tip-top condition, available here (thanks, Teebz). … Back to Uni Watch’s new favorite sport: Coachie Ballgames has done an analysis of World Cup uniforms and concluded that it’s all about the collars.

By Phil Hecken

You guys will recall several weeks ago I ran a “Design-A-Cap” contest, for Coach Jerome Nemanich and his Sartell Sabres, and the results were outstanding. Reader Marc Walls saw the original contest, and thought our fantastic readers could do the “Design-A-Cap” one better — to wit: Design A Whole Uniform!

Here’s Marc’s original e-mail to me explaining his idea:

Love the work you’ve been doing on the website. I really enjoyed the design a cap idea for today’s column. I saw that you had proposed a design a uni option. I think that’s a great idea, and if you’re interested I’d like to offer the school I coach to be the team you choose.

I am one of the baseball coach’s at Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee. We are looking to undergo a complete redesign, including possibly a new logo.

Here’s the catch, which I think will make it fun for uniwatchers. Our colors are purple and gold! I’ve tried with no hope to come up with uniform designs that use the purple in a way that isn’t awful, and I could really use everyone’s creativity. Our current hat is solid purple with the Chicago Cubs “C” in gold.

Intrigued, but semi-swamped with weekend entries, I did respond to Marc, who then got back to me with more of the guts of the idea, as well as a few pictures from which to base the uniform redesigns:

Our high school is planning to undergo a complete redesign of our uniforms over the next year. I’m going to make some requests, and attach some pictures to show what the team has had in years’ past.

The school has been using the same hat design for the last 20 years, the Chicago Cubs “c” logo in yellow on a white outline. The hat is solid purple. We are probably going to keep that logo, but are looking to add a few alternate logos. I’m hoping the savvy guys at UW can create some great logos for us to use. Here’s what we’re looking for:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

If we decide to use any of these designs in the future, we will definitely work out some kind of payment for all of your hard work.

* The parameters: colors are purple and gold, which I know is hard enough, without including the black.

Marc included four photographs to emphasize his points above:

“Purplemesh” … “Purplemesh 2″ … “Grays” … and “Yellowmesh”.

I got one last e-mail from Marc this week, with one or two points he wants to stress:

While we are looking for uniform ideas, we would also really appreciate any logo redesigns and cap designs. That’s almost as important as the uniform designs. And like I said, we will gladly contribute some goodies to everyone who works so hard on those mock-ups.

Well there you guys have it. Another reader has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging you to come up with not just a new cap and logo redesign, but a whole uniform redesign as well. I’m not sure what “goodies” Marc will be able to provide to the contest winner(s), but we’ll worry about that when we get there.

So, anyone who is interested, the “rules” are basically the same as the “Design-A-Cap” contest: Take Marc’s ideas and put them into cyber-reality. Just remember the “guidelines”:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

*The parameters: colors are purple and gold.

As with the Design-A-Cap contest, I would ask that when you have your design(s) ready, please send them to me and put as your “SUBJECT” line: Design A Uniform Contest. You can also E-mail me at that address if you have any questions. I won’t set a hard and fast deadline, but I’d expect the contest to be open for at least two weeks — so try to have your submissions to me by the weekend of November 14-15.

If you don’t have any “blank” templates, a few designs can be found here, here, here, and here, or you can simply google “baseball uniform builder”, which will provide ample ways to customize a baseball uniform. There are probably a bunch of other blank uni templates out there too.

OK? OK. Don’t disappoint us Uni Watchers! After seeing those Sartell Sabres Cap designs, I know how great your entire uniforms, caps and logo designs will be.

“(Obviously, I thought 1995 was a good starting point since it is still recent history, and most NFL teams wore throwbacks to celebrate the league’s 75th Anniversary in 1994).

“You may be surprised by the answer. From 1995-2009 there is not a single team that has retained the same uniform set for literally every game. All 32 teams in the league have either redesigned their uniforms, worn alternates, or worn throwbacks at some point since 1995. There were four teams that came close to retaining the same look throughout this period, though. I have outlined them below:”

Packers: Green Bay has diverted from their traditional uniform set only twice since 1995. This occurred in 2001 and 2003 when they wore throwbacks as mandated by the league for Thanksgiving Day games.

Colts: Indianapolis donned league-mandated Thanksgiving throwback uniforms in 2004. (Note: Colts have also changed their look in a couple minor ways. The team wore blue pants for several games in 1995–no longer a part of the team’s wardrobe– and permanently switched from a blue to a gray facemask).

Chiefs: Kansas City sported the same uniform until this year’s AFL Legacy celebration.

Raiders: Like the Chiefs, Oakland’s steak of uniform consistency was broken by league-mandated AFL Legacy celebration.

“As you can see, these teams were mostly eliminated for use of throwbacks that were mandated by the league, instead of issued by the team itself. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find that there is literally not a single team in the NFL that has survived the alternate/throwback/redesign craze.

“Thought this may interest readers. Thanks for all your hard work on this blog.”

Very sexy…not trying to be a whore or anything, but I gotta tell ya – I got done with them last Thursday, took them to my kids’ baseball tourney in Charleston this past weekend…the compliments and inquiries – wow! There’s Packer fans everywhere!

So what exactly did Frosty design? Check ‘em out: here, here and here.

I’m guessing those are supposed to be Packers boards? Probably no significance to the numbers either.

Thanks Frosty!

Hi Phil,

I know the moment may have passed, but with all the buzz about a possible Mets redesign for 2010, I thought I’d pass along my two-cent contribution. I first mocked up a cream-and-pinstripes combo over the summer, when the Mets rocked the oversized-NY throwbacks, so I was very happy to see that it might come to pass. I also tweaked the rest of their uniforms, the idea being to make them simple, classy, traditional, and black-less.

A couple of notes: the racing stripe on the away grays is supposed to be a little more subtle than the original ’80s version, though my ham-handed photoshop skills couldn’t really convey it. And the all-blue alternate with the blue-and-white trucker-style cap isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best I could come up with. Consider it a concession to merchandising reality.

Anyway, please do with this what you will. From my lips to Jeff Wilpon’s ears, eh?

Thanks Laurence. Next up is Bill Jones, who also missed the last “uni tweaks” but had a “Rays” tweak he wanted to share. Here’s Bill:

Hey Phil,

I love the uni tweaks! I know I’m late, but I did this almost 2 years ago had some trouble finding the MS paint file. I thought it was pretty good though, so I wanted to send it to you.

PL has mentioned that he liked the TB Devil Rays unis that featured green as a primary color. I too liked this design, and although I don’t completely hate it, I think the newer Rays unis are too sterile and flat out boring. I did, however, like the introduction of light blue, so I combined that with the deep green. I think it’s a handsome combination, one that is original and nicely captures the tropical feel without the use of aqua/teal (Does the world need more aqua? I think not!)

A couple notes…

For the logo, I kept the actual Ray that the team currently features as a sleeve patch. I also took the liberty of changing the team’s name to the St. Petersburg Rays (maybe it’s just me, but I think calling teams “Tampa Bay” is lame…the cities are Tampa and St. Pete, “Tampa Bay” is the body of water between them, and the Rays play in St. Pete). Besides, how can you argue with that two-tone interlocking S-P (for the hat), and the sweet “St. Pete” sleeve patch? I like the idea of calling the team the “St. Pete Rays”. Also, for that jersey, you may be thinking “what is going on with that that neck trim?” Well, think of the early 90’s Royals jerseys…

I’m proud of this one … and I never got around to it, but I totally envisioned a powder blue road uni (with the dark green hat…it would be killer!). Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

–Bill Jones (not the gumball helmet guy)

Good stuff Bill. Thanks again to all who have sent me their uni concepts. I expect some time in the near future to begin running your Football Uni Tweaks, so if you’ve sent me something, it’s-a-comin’ — and if you want to send me some NFL tweaks, drop me a line.

Meet Mongo

More Mongo

Game 3 of the Fall Classic and lots of college football today — and surely there’ll be some interesting uni-matchups for Jim to choose from. Don’t forget to post some of your suggestions in the comments. There will be at least ONE color-on-color matchup (and maybe more) — with those colors to be black and orange. How fitting.

Hey — how does a monster score a touchdown?

Easy, he crosses the ghoul line.

Have a safe and Happy Hallowe’en everyone.

By Phil Hecken

Well, MLB has finally begun the League Championship Series, so as the second season begins to build towards the matchup FOX would kill for a possible Yankees-Dodgers World Series (and a uni classic of epic proportions), lets take another look at what you, the readers, have dreamed up to fix your favorite teams. We tweaked the White Sox, the Brewers and the Blue Jays, plus a whole bunch of others — so let’s empty the baseball tank today and see who else needs fixin’.

First up is Hungry Hungry Hipster, who has an unique take on the Bronx Bombers. Here’s HHH:

Hi Phil!

Attached is my Yankees jersey “uni tweak.” Since the Yankees are so traditional and probably wouldn’t want a major redesign of their classic uniforms, I decided to give them a subtle update. I was inspired by the treatment the NFL ref jersey stripes got in their update several years ago. I widened the pinstripes at the top of the jersey, and they mirror the flared ends (serifs?) of the Yankee logo. :)

Next up is Matthew Mark Sajna, who has some ideas for the Indians. Here’s Matt:

Here is my idea of how to improve the Uniforms of the Indians. The first set include the home and away jerseys. These are fauxback uniform combinations, and they feature my idea for a new logo the team could intorduce as a sort of compromise for the protestors against the iconic Chief Wahoo. The second set features alternate unis for both home and away games. I brought back the red jersey as a harken back to the 70’s. Hope you like them. Thanks.

Our next submission comes to us from Jordan Fleck, who has some thoughts on the Houston Astros. Here’s Jordan (who apparently likes all capital letters):

SINCE EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE IN THE MODDE TO REINVIGORATE THEIR CURRENT TEAMS DESIGN, I THOUGHT THAT IT’D BE A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE THE ASTROS FAITHFULL A MAKEOVER. THE FIRST IS MY ATTEMPT AT USING THE CURRENT COLORS WITH A NEW SCRIPT FONT ON THE JERSEY AND A TWO TONE CAP. THE BLACK ALTERNATE WOULD BE USED FOR BATTING PRACTICE AND I DECIDED TO CREATE A BIT OF A FAUX-BACK FOR A COLT .45S JERSEY TO BE WORN ON SUNDAY GAMES.

IN THE SECOND ATTEMPT, I WENT BACK TO THE MIDNIGHT BLUE AND SUNSET ORANGE COLOR SCHEME WITH THE NEW SCRIPT FONT AND AN ORANGE AND BLUE ALTERNATE. I LIKE THE ORANGE AND BLUE TONES BUT THEY DON’T LOOK GOOD IN GREY.

Jordan also included this cool Chinese motif with his submission — not sure if that’s supposed to go with the Astros mocks, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Moving along, we have Doug Peltz, who has graced his with his concepts for the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s. Here’s Doug:

I saw your column today about making changes to MLB jerseys. I have a couple that I came up with a while ago and though I’d pass them along. I have a away alternate and an Oakland A’s home alternate. I’ve also included a new Tiger’s logo which is a combination of the old 80’s logo and the more recent Tiger crawling through the Olde English D logo. Hope you like them.

Our next submission comes from Matt McCutchan, who tweaked the Marlins. Here’s Matt:

Going for a more classic look and most importantly away from the black. If the mgmt wants to get away from the “90s teal,” I thought a UNC blue with navy highlights and just a touch of orange, the way, say, the STL Cardinals have a touch of yellow, would look nice..along with the navy piping..i hope you dig it.

Another Mets concept — a tweak on a previous concept — comes to us from Adam Wood. Here’s Adam:

Let me just start by saying that I’m a little pumped that I’m sending my first uniform design to you. Whether or not anyone gets to see it doesn’t concern me too much. Alex Rocklein made an excellent design for the Mets. However, there are a few things that I thought would be better. You will notice in the attached picture all my proposed revisions.

1) Replaced that orange button on the hats with a much more subtle blue one.
2) Got rid of the funky orange drop shadows and just gave the blue numbers an orange outline.
3) Added a number to the front of the home jersey as well as enlarged the one on the front of the roadies.
4) Took Alex’s idea for the road’s arm bands and applied the blue-orange-blue pattern to the whites.
5) On the home uniforms only, I removed the mets logo and replaced it with a Mr. Met patch.

If you want to get really detailed

6) I took the traditional “Mr. Met at bat” patch and cleaned it up by making all the cream colors to white, and changing the blue hat with an orange brim to all blue in order to better match the team.

Thanks for taking the time to check my ideas out.

Although our next submitter, Andrew Dixon missed the article containing all the Blue Jays tweaks, he sent the following along for your consideration. Here’s Andrew:

Hi Phil,

I am sending along a Blue Jays concept I came up with about six months ago. At the time, I didn’t have an email address for you, but I sent it along to Paul and asked him to forward it to you. I don’t know if that never happened or whether it did and it was so long ago it was forgotten, but I’d love to share my concept with UniWatch readers! I know I missed the day dedicated to Blue Jays posts, but hopefully you can work it in when you present the other re-design concepts!

I drew up home, away, home alternate, and road alternate concepts. I must admit I have an inexplicable affinity for the whole sans serif/no capitalization “mod” look in fonts which has recently become popular again (think the Pepsi font). The funny thing is, I always thought I hated this style – especially the trend toward not capitalizing things that ought to be capitalized – and I think part of me still does, and yet I also must admit to being weirdly drawn to it. I know it is very reminiscent of that old Padres font from 1978-1984, but what can I say? I like it, even as I know it has that kind of dated look (but that sort of font is very in right now – again, Pepsi, photobucket, etc.).

The other idea I had was to alternate shades of blue in the lettering: Blue Jays, after all, exhibit more than one shade of blue in their feathers, so, between the lettering and the use of powder blue for the road alternate, I’ve employed three shades of blue in this design.

One final note: had I had the expertise, I would have tried to mimic the original Blue Jays font by having a white line pass through the middle of all the letters in the word “blue jays,” just like it does/did in their original wordmark. However, I couldn’t get that to work in MS Paint, which is what I used, without making it look bad/unprofessional, so I gave up. If someone can do that to this design, I’d love to see what it looks like.

Winding down, our next submitter is Dwayne White, who has some Cincinnati Reds concepts. Here’s Dwayne:

Phil:

I love the articles about the MLB uniform updates.

I decided to tackle the Cincinnati Reds. I am not much of a fan of the “faux old-timer” look that the Reds are currently sporting. I grew up following the Reds in the late-’60’s and ’70’s of The Big Red Machine era. I always loved their traditional look, but the pullovers went on to long.

On the jerseys, I “ditched the black” drop shadows and went with the MLB Block font that the Reds used from the 1960’s until 2007. I felt it was a more traditional look with an updated style. I am not a fan of the current font that the Reds are currently using. The guys at The Clink Room did a good job, but it is not my cup of tea.

The road jersey is a button-down version of The Big Red Machine uniform. The home alternate jersey is a cream-colored vest look from the mid-’60’s. I like the cream colored jersey of the Giants and I went with that look for the vests. In my opinion, not every team can wear vests. Much like every team can’t wear pinstripes like the Yankees do. The Reds and Pirates vests have a deep tradition and I thought I’d incorporate that look. I also included a pinstriped cap to go with the vests, but a red cap can also be worn.

The home jersey is a crisp, bright snow white color with the contrast of red. The Sunday alternate jersey is my favorite. The bright red with the contrast of white, devoid of any black or drop shadows, is an upgrade without too many bumperstickers. Plus, it can be worn with the white, gray or the pinstriped pants.

I also went with the 4 inch player names on the back instead of the traditional 3 inch letters. That also harkens back to the mid-’60’s up until 2007. I like the name under the numbers, but not in an arch like the Reds have used, but no trim was used.

I hope you enjoy my concepts.

Our next submission also comes from a reader, Christopher Parke, who missed the Blue Jays fixin. But that’s OK, he’s got a uni concept anyway. Here’s Chris:

Your recent blog post about revamping the blue jays awful uniforms got me in a creative mood. I used the ideas and designs of the contributors in your post (including yours)and some of my own ideas. The MS Paint file is attached. What do you think?

The penultimate tweak comes from Geoffrey Waterman, who has conceptualized the Seattle Mariners. Here’s Geoffrey:

Hi!

I don’t really think the Seattle Mariners need to much to change their uniforms, but with the Sonics gone and a new soccer team that incorporates very similar colors that the Mariners use, plus the Seahawks, I thought they could use some color change.

I decided to go with a combination of the M-trident logo from the olden days and colors similar to then as well as from the baseball-M’s logo era. I chose to use a different font (partly because the one they use now is difficult to find) because I wanted to find something that reflected the metropolitan aspect of Seattle while not being hoity-toity. And for the numbers I wanted to use something similar to the ones used in their current alternate, a little more curvy and visually appealing.

With the home uniform I didn’t want to add much except for the change in font, number and color scheme (enough damage already), so I kept the blue piping, blue belt and the blue hat on white, with a similar arch to the team name and player name. I liked the non-capital “seattle” of the powder-blue Pilots unis, so I took that idea but with the “Mariners” for home, keeping the capital M to match the capital S on the hat. I also introduced a side stripe for the pants (followed down into the stirrups) and the sleeve stripes that made the Pilots uniforms so sexy.

With the away uniform, the changes were much the same as with the home, including the pants stripes, but I kept a straight blue stirrup for simplicity’s sake. It is the away uni, after all.

The alternate uniform is a few ideas mixed together. it has the sleeve and pants stripes from the home uniform, with stirrup stripes that match the sleeves. I did the jersey in the blue but with yellow sleeves (not a vest!), and did just the trident logo and a number on the front—it is supposed to be a home alternate.

Thanks! Hopefully someone else did some Mariners mock-ups to compare. Like I said, though, not that they need it.

Next up is Ben Traxel, one of our Sartell Sabres “Design A Cap” contest participants. Ben has seemingly way too much time on his hands, as I think he’s tweaked every MLB team (or is on his way to so doing). However, they’re really outstanding efforts, and you’ll wanna check each one out. So, take a deep breath, and enjoy the creativity that is Ben:

Phil,
As you can see, I’ve been working waaaay too long on this and not enough at my job lately. Part of the sickness I guess. At least I’ve been having fun along the way! I’ve got some more started but these are the ones I have finished. I really liked the Brewers changes the other day and wanted to tweak my tweaks after seeing the awsome designs posted, but alas, I left them alone. I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with Frosty and RPM in the process too. Well, here’s an explaination of each of the ones I’ve gotten to so far (I will do them all but it might take till next season!).

Process: I generally tried to look at the past of each team (that has a past) and use what is already available instead of completely redoing scripts, logos, colors, etc. In some cases I’ve gone all the way though. I prefer the city letter on the hat, mascot on the homies, and city on the roadies. I started doing this before all the tweaking began on the blog, with my versions of 70s alt unis. This was inspired by the Royals powder blues this year. Had to do sansabelts to make it “complete” but I suppose they could be used with belts as well. After you started posting the White Sox, I took it to another level and began adding the dailies to go with my alts. I never really liked having alts but now I’ve kind of changed my tune and am okay with one worn occasionally. Stirrups with stripes are a must. I am tired of boring grays and boilerplate designs that seem to be the same on each team so I tried to make something unique for the whites and grays for everybody. I am not afraid of bright colors as you will see…….here goes.

Brewers: home … road … alt. Current design looks to be off the shelf by people who have no sense of history or passion for baseball. Definately needs a redsign. Put the old M back on the hat. Go with colors from the originals. I recycled the BREWERS which could be this design or the block font. Either one works, but I chose this one. Could do without the lower case e, but none the less, looks okay. Barrel man needs a comeback so I put him on the state map for the sleeve. Added the hops to get something from the current set. Colored sanis need to make a comeback here also.

White Sox: home … road … alt. I put the alt together before you even had your White Sox tweak post. I always dug the collars from the late 70s so I had to include them. This is the only team that doesn’t have stirrups but the stripes certainly add to the overall getup. I created a new hat logo with a C that I think turned out pretty good. Never liked the big S and smallish O and X on the current logo so I combined them to make it work better for the alt. I know the three concepts don’t match each other but since they are never worn together I never thought that really mattered.

Cubs: home … road … alt. Obviously the pinstripes didn’t need much help as they have become a classic even though they really didn’t come around until later in the franchise existance. I just modified the logo a little, going back to an older version. The bear sleeve patch was always cool and needs to be a fixture. The roads is where the Cubs always seem to have had touble as they tend to change quite regularly. I went with a powder blue that is not quite as electric as some and it looks to work quite well. The horsecollar and red CHICAGO made the whole design come together. I tried some combos of blue lettering/numbering but the red by far stood out. I hope they never bring back the red cap bill. I know a lot of people don’t like pins on dark jerseys but the white ones from the 70s look mighty fine with the white pants in my opinion on the alts. Added the powder sanis to make it complete.

Pirates: home … road … alt. This is one team that vests work on. Either a team is a vest team or they are not. Hint Rockies? Not much to tweak here, but add the colored sanis and make all letters in PIRATES the same size. The Roadies are one of my favorites. The horsecollar being contrasted with the gray really came to life with the double yellow stripe. Hasn’t been done in decades and I fell in love once I started messing with it. The yellow alt with the red trim is of course taken from the late 70s. Kind of fun and should be a big seller for the fans….IMO don’cha know.

Rays: home … road … alt. Here is one team with no history to go off of. To me this means no horsecollar which has ties to the ancient past. Being in Florida, they definately need to brighten their look and do away with their drab getup they have. The sunburst is cool, stick with that. Kept the Devil Ray logo on the sleeve as well. The colors though are brighter, happier, beachier, Floridaier. Created a “watertable” on the whites and made their version of power blue more acqua for obvious reasons. They definately need to have more fun. Maybe they were a little gunshy during their latest overhaul after that first disaster!

Orioles: home … road … alt. Like the Pirates, not much to tweak here. My biggest beef is that damn bird they keep sticking on the hat. It didn’t work before, it didn’t work when it was a cartoon, and it doesn’t work now. Nothing more wimpy than that birdmark. So. In the beginning they had a B on the hat. There is still nothing more classic than a basic letter as the hat logo. Stick the old block B back up there an don’t worry about the Red Sox claiming it is a copied B idea from them. It was their once, do it again. The cartoon duck thing, older style that looks much classier, works well on the sleeve. Other than that, These guys are good, keeping the city name on the grays of course.

Padres: home … road … alt. Similar to the Rays, this team needs color. They had it once and I think they need it again. I always liked the brown/yellow scheme but it does lead to a bid of a toilet bowl conotation so I stayed away. Electric powder is the way to go for these guys. The alts obviously play off the past and I chose the best remaining wordmarks for the dailies. The sleeve patch is also a classic and should be kept but the hat has always had issues. They never seem to be satisfied with the interlocking SD, how it should be connected, the exact font, etc. I created a new hat logo with the setting sun SD. This is another beachy team and colors need to be used to make this statement.

One more thing, I created my own template in Autocad where I do all my work. It is what I know best so I just stay with that. Well, there you have it. For now. I will be doing more, and will get them to you when I get another good batch. We might not be in baseball season at that time, but oh well. Always enjoy your weekenders.

Wow, Ben, those were awesome. But wait … He isn’t done yet — Ben also sent me mock ups (without descriptions) for the following — and I’m sure if he’s reading this post, he’ll tell us all about the following in the comments:

Oakland A’s: home … road … alt.

Arizona Diamondbacks: home … road … alt.

Florida Marlins: home … road … alt.

Texas Rangers: home … road … alt.

Whew…that’s some work by the avid (or is it rabid?) UW readership. Great stuff one and all. I apologize for the length of this post, but I had so many great uni tweaks I wanted to put them all into one post — didn’t realize it was gonna be this long, but hey — more for you to enjoy. Thanks to all the submitters. Let them know how you feel about their tweaks!

Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, is back from the boonies for his “NC2A matchups”. He is gonna have a tough time with his uni matchups today — there are some outstanding potential ones, and a possible bunch of clunkers. Now, I don’t always agree with his choices, but he’s pretty discerning in his picks. How bout some nominees from you guys today? Scan the wires, check out the obscure games, find the doozies. You don’t want him to put USC/ND or The Red River Rivalry in the one spot, right? Post picks of your top (best and worst) games for his consideration down below. Thanks!

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Aight…as the season winds down, we’re gonna get a little tricky with this scoreboard. Not all that tricky, but it might give you pause. Teams are pretty obvious, but that’s where the ease ends. Or maybe not. You guys are too good at this game to be stumped, especially with this one. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. As always, and if possible, please do NOT post the date of the game but link to Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet and post a link to the answer. If that’s not possible, but I believe it is, link to a newspaper story or something similar which details the game. OK? OK. Ready. Guess The Game.

ATTENTION UNI TRACKERS — If you’re on of those insane lunatics, like me, who has kept track of your teams’ uniform combinations for all 162 (or, if you track the Twins, all 163) games this season, think about gathering all of your data, plus a final writeup, for your tracking. I may post my Mets tracking tomorrow, depending upon the size of the post. I’m hoping to gather everyone’s tracking and (if Paul gives me the OK), possibly place them into one big file for inclusion in the archives. When you have your stuff ready, send them to me with the subject line “UNI TRACKING – (your team)”. If you made it this far, I thank you for all your efforts. You don’t need to be terribly brief in your write-up, but please don’t compose a novel either. Make sure you list any particular trends or unique factors. I can tell you this: The Mets sucked this year, but not surprisingly, they had better records in certain combinations — now, had they worn those combinations more or less often, would their record have been any different? Who is to say. All I know is, when all was said and done, the Mets wore TWELVE different combinations this season, sporting (shockingly) winning records in six of them. Stay tuned (if you care) for the full writeup.

Ah…don’t ya hate it when those young whippersnappers think they’re faster and smarter and better lookin’ than you are? Pretty sure Mick does. Unfortunately, he’s wrong. But does this mean that Mick is only half-fast? Enjoy your Saturday Benchies. And remember, any resemblance between Mick and Rick is, well, purely coincidental.

This and That: Did we ever get a linkie to the new UNLV basketball unis? I don’t remember. Forgive me if we did … I know this was posted (at least in the comments), but worth another look-see: SI takes a look at the AFL legacy unis … Speaking of AFL throwbacks, the Patriots and Titans Oilers will be wearing them this Sunday … Big game at Big Bend today, when the Irish meet the Trojans, and will the Irish break out the green like they did before the ‘77 matchup? … This is a few days old, but the Huff Post has a nice breakdown of Broncos Unis through the years … In one of those moments where “you remember exactly where you were,” it was 20 years ago today (don’t you feel old now?) … It’s gotta be the unis, right? Nope. Both football teams from Mizzou are winless in 2009, despite both wearing throwbacks last weekend … Fresh on the heels of Paul’s post yesterday on the Winter Olympics melted records medals, the London Olympics of 2012 has unveiled it’s logos — yawn … Wanna own one of them game-used, unwashed Bronco uniforms from last weekend’s Legacy game? Here’s your chance … If you’re not a baseball fan, or don’t live in the northeast, or reside in my condo (which has no heat, thank you very little), you might not know it was cold at Yankee Stadium last night — like really cold — Lots of Fudd’s and hoodies on the participants … “Bullpen? What Bullpen?” … For every king, a crown … Apparently the porthole was closed, but the velcro wasn’t … Looks like the seventh inning stretch at Yankee Stadium will be a little shorter now, but let’s hope the Steinbrenner’s don’t hire this guy to replace this guy … Rafa, dude, what’s up with the shorts? Did they belong to A-Rod’s outfit? … Does this remind anyone of this? … And finally, what happens when you go to an adidas school, but you’d rather wear Jordans? Well, if you’re Marcus Jordan, what do you think? (thanks to James Huening for the tip.)

Alrighty then, that’s a wrap for this fine Saturday. Enjoy the football, because it looks like mother nature may deprive you of baseball. Oh, right, I guess there’s hockey and some other stuff too. Unitrackers, start your engines, and lets see some of them gridiron matchups you hope Jim will pick as his top 5 (or worst). Have a great Saturday

Two Fridays ago I spent a few hours up at the NBA offices, where they showed me all the new gear for this season. Some of the new designs have already been unveiled, like the new Sixers uniforms, Portland’s “Rip City” alternates, etc. — I won’t go into those here. I’m also going to save some of the changes for my NBA season-preview column on ESPN, which will be running in about two weeks. But here’s a smattering of news to get you in the mood:

• The Cavs are once again doing one of those “CavFanatic” alternate uni designs. This time it’s the late-’80s design in 1970s colors. Dig the special tagging.

• By now you’ve seen Charlotte’s new pinstriped uni set. What you probably haven’t seen is that they’ll once again be doing a NASCAR version. Again, special tagging.

• Two uni-borne memorials for the Pistons: a jersey patch for Chuck Daly and that rear-collar “Mr. D” for Bill Davidson. As I mentioned in the Ticker last week, the Davidson memorial will be permanent.

• Speaking of memorials, the Pacers have added a patch for Mel Simon, although they haven’t yet worn it in their preseason games.

• Here’s a good look at the anniversary patches being worn by the Cavs and Kings.

• The Heat have made three changes to their shorts. First, the old format of having the NBA logo on the left leg and the team logo on the right leg has been reversed (that’s so the shorts match up with the jersey, where the NBA logo appears on the right-chest area). Second, the team logo on the red alternate shorts has been changed from the flaming ball to the flaming “MH.” And third, team logos have been added to the waistband on all three shorts designs.

• Last year the Nuggets wore green jerseys as an environmental-awareness thing. That initiative has been retired for this season, although a broader uni-based environmental program may be put in place for 2010-11.

• These are the new compression shorts and calf sleeves that many players will be wearing. So if you see any players looking like extras from Tron, now you know why.

• The rim design has been updated. In addition to the superficial changes, the new version has breakaway functionality on the sides as well as the front.

That should be enough to keep you busy for now. More NBA news coming soon-ish.

Never thought they’d actually play a game: I was out having dinner with friends last night so I missed Matt Holiday’s rock the UFL’s auspicious debut. Fortunately, Marcus Hall took a bunch of screen shots and Mike Sullivan actually created a new blog just to catalog all his UFL complaints, so you can get a sense of just how tragic the whole affair was. Man, Jim Fassel must have burned a lot of NFL bridges in order to have been reduced to this.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Hey, check it out, it’s Elvis playing football. The “E.P. Entp.” on the jersey stands for “Elvis Presley Enterprises,” natch (great find by Bruce Menard). … Last year, Mike Walker of the Jags wore No. 81 and a “Walker” NOB. This year, however, he switched to No. 11 and “Sims-Walker” (the hyphenated NOB reflecting a nod to his late father) — at least for the first three games of the season. But last week he was back to just “Walker” (good work by Jonathon Binet). … Not uni-related but still very cool: a directory of world license plate styles (great find by Jordan Guthmann). … Two good items from Michael Jaworski: (1) The local history museum in Stuart, Florida, is currently featuring a very good baseball exhibit, with a nice photo gallery. And (2) Florida is adding a women’s lacrosse team in February, but they’re already playing exhibition games. “I assume these are their actual game uniforms, but don’t know for sure,” says Michael. “They have SNOB, although I wish it was on the front, above the uniform number, like in basketball.” … I’ve seen lots of girls’ teams wearing candy-cane sock stripes, but never a boys’ team — until now. That’s a Pop Warner squad from Watertown, New York (with thanks to Dave Northrop). … The Florida Panthers came up with rock tour-style T-shirts for their preseason schedule (as noted by Scott Marcusky). … Update to an item from yesterday: Here’s a color version of what the Padres would have looked like if they’d become the Washington Stars. As you can see, the color scheme would have been red, white, and blue — not purple and gold, as reader Richard Craig had stated yesterday (big, big thanks to fellow SABR member Maxwell Kates). … “I got married a few weeks ago,” says Doug McConnell. “When my fiancé, now wife, couldn’t find any suitable cake toppers, I decided to use these little guys instead.” … “Here is the logo for the 2018 and 2022 Japan World Cup bids,” says Jeremy Brahm. “I don’t know why they needed Astroboy, but he is the ‘Special Ambassador.’” … Incidentally, I recently interviewed Jeremy for a Uni Watch Profiles segment, which will be running soon. … The end zones in Denver this weekend will feature alternating filled-in diamonds — nice.

By Phil Hecken

Lots more uni tweaks/redesigns/overhauls from you guys today. Good stuff. Interesting Stuff. Fun Stuff. It turned out there were so many people who wanted to tweak the Blue Jays, they’re getting their own column. Lets get started.

In the first set of tweaks, I mentioned there were numerous submissions for the Toronto Blue Jays. While there seems to be much love for the powder blues (although they really need to realize that is 1-NOT a home uniform and 2-NOT a pair of pajamas), there seems to be some universal disdain for the lack of actual blue in the Blue Jays these days. And of course, there is always great admiration for the back-to-back World Series champion uni worn in the Blue Jays heydays. So, not surprisingly, many of the readers would like to ditch the black (I mean, c’mon — this is the best they could do) and would like to return to something along these lines (the one Joe Carter is wearing, not Gene Tenace). Some fans have really had enough, expressing their distaste for the black in interesting ways

So, with the Blue Jays in need of an obvious change, what do the readers offer? There are some really interesting ones to follow. So, let’s take a look-see:

You may remember last time out we had a submission for the Twins from Matt Keller. He also provided me with one for the Jays:

I’m not legally eligible for a prize being 16, but I mess around in photoshop on occasion. (Here’s) a plain, but I think a clean looking Blue Jays uniform. It was made before the Twins uni, and if I could do it again, I’d like to change the numbers to something a little more retro.

Our next submission comes from Ben Sibley, a man of few words, but great suggestions:

A modern twist to a classic uniform

Thanks

Blue Jays Logo

Blue Jays Home

Blue Jays Road

Blue Jays Alternate

Next up is UW Stalwart and a gentleman who aided me with a column a ways back, our Calgary lawyer, Mike Styczen “Mike 2″ (who is also a Blue Jays tracker). I’m not sure if Mike wasn’t being tongue-in-cheek with his submission:

For your ongoing column on MLB uniform redesigns, I’ve got one (attached) for the Blue Jays.

Its not very imaginative. They already have their perfect uniform in their past, 1989-1996, and the logo dates back to their founding. The fans loved it, they won two World Series wearing it. I don’t see any need to change a thing.

Um…thanks Mike. Moving along, reader Brian Cheung (who posts as “Random Reader”) is a man of many words. That’s fine, I enjoy when you guys explain your work. Here’s Brian:

Hey, LI Phil:

I just want to thank you for commenting on my mock-up Blue Jays road jersey. For a while now, I always wondered how they’d look with more blue in their jerseys and I finally decided to put my creative skills to use.

I’m actually a Yankees fan but I’ve just been bothered in recent years by all the black in the Blue Jays uniforms, that wacky font they use for numbers, and how the road jerseys and home jerseys don’t have matching fonts. To put it simply, I felt they could look a whole lot better.

I’ll start with their current road jersey first. I thought of it as being a step in the right direction for Toronto, since it employs a little more blue than the previous uniform in 2007, with that funky “Toronto” script in silver, graphite and white. After seeing this photo, I edited it by adding some red around the front logo and the numbers. I also made the cap blue, the sleeves blue, and tried to add blue accents in on the cap. I was quite surprised primary logo by changing the silver and graphite to shades of powder blue, in order to include a reference to the past in their current logo. I also darkened the blue jay itself, changing it from that light shade of blue to something more of a royal blue. I changed the blue border to red because red was always a color present in their logos and I thought their current logos looked very bland without red as an accent. I did the same with the road cap; I eliminated the silver and replaced it with powder blue and I also included some red to serve as a border.

Next was the jerseys. I actually used to like that wide font they use for names and that strange-looking font for numbers. But I got tired of seeing them and I suppose someone in the Blue Jays felt the same; the road uniforms changed in 2008 as the numbers were now in a different font, along with the logo on the front. But the road uniforms still had that italicized font. What I decided to do was employ the font used on the roads (I believe it is called Agency FB) and apply it to their home uniforms. I gave the nameplates the same font so that names don’t look like they take up half the uniform. I added powder blue to the numbers and gave them a red border. I kept the beveling effect as I see it as being a modernization of the classic Blue Jays number front, with that line running inside each number (I always thought it was cool and whenever I saw them, I always associated them with the Blue Jays). I altered the wordmark on the road uniform to make it powder blue—a nod to how the Jays once wore powder blue uniforms on the road. Originally, the wordmark was supposed to be royal blue but I realized the Jays would look too much like the Texas Rangers; I had to change it to powder blue to give the uniform its own look that won’t be mistaken for that of the Rangers.

For both the home and road, I got rid of the black socks, belts, and piping and made them blue. I also changed their all-black alternate uniform to make it an all-blue one. The team is named the Blue Jays after all, so it would only make sense to have some uniform have a lot of blue in it.

Hope you enjoy. I tagged most of the images just so others won’t try to pass my work as theirs.

Still more Blue Jays tweaks came in, this one from Matt Murray (who you may recall had earlier offered submissions for the Milwaukee Brewers). I have to say, this is some impressive work for someone who’s still in high school! Here’s Matt:

Phil,

Attached are some Blue Jays uniform ideas. These concepts for the Blue Jays mix in a throwback look similar to the current Friday uniforms. I was also sure not to include the script “Jays” anywhere in these uniforms because THAT ISN’T THEIR TEAM NAME! I also kept the concept free of black. I reverted back to the old “bird on ball” logo for the caps. I opted to keep the maple leaf on the sleeves because that is pretty much the only thing I like with the current uniforms. It’s something that signifies the uniqueness of the franchise as the only team North of the Border. Both powder and gray away concepts are included. I haven’t gone to school for graphic design or anything like that, nor have I graduated high school! But I think it’s the thought that counts with the uni concepts. Hopefully I “get it!”

Still on the Blue Jays train, next up is Brian Arnold, who I think sent me these a loooooong time ago when Paulie Soto and I did our Fauxback column. If he did, and I neglected to post them, I apologize. Anyway, getting the play they deserve, here’s Brian:

I sent this link as a email a while ago when you did an entry about “fauxbacks”. I just saw your recent call for submissions, so I’ll send it again, maybe it will get some attention this time. Blue Jays Home and Blue Jays Road.

Thanks,
Brian

Phew…next to last in the Blue Jays tweaks, we have Sean Wilson. Here’s Sean:

Blue Jays. Changed base color to blue instead of black and killed the ridiculous beveling on the wordmark.

Liked what you did with some of the NFL unis, especially the Falcons. On the Bengals, though, you’ve got to have the tiger striped pants stripe

Finally, we have UW Graphic Artist extraordinaire, Paul “Pretty Boy Paulie” Soto to round things out. Here’s Paul:

The Blue Jays have always had modern uniform designs. They never quite had an “old school” look. So what I wanted to give them here was a “classic” look. Complete with script wordmarks and serifed/bold numerals. Royal blue is their primary color, sky blue is their secondary and I kept the dreaded black as an accent color. An actual Blue Jay does have a black trim on their feathers. So, I can live with the black as long as it’s not the primary color. Plus I only regulated it to the road uniform. I feel it appears more appropriate there. We need more striped socks in the league so why not give ‘em some. Here we have blue socks with alternating stripes that has white/sky blue at home and white/black on the road. The last time I did a Blue Jay uni modification I used a primary logo that combined two of their best logos in their history. It would be a dream to see them use that logo on their home caps and as a primary logo. The road cap features a script “T” that is loosely inspired by their current alternate cap. Stay “classy” Toronto.

“What about you, Phil? Don’t you have a Blue Jay mockup?” Well, sadly for you I do. I was never fond of the original wordmark/script, but I did love the bird. And I hate the current home and road scripts, with their beveling and black and gray. I was also not fond of the second generation font with the additional red. So I took their classic white and gray uniforms, and found the font to match those found in the Toronto Subway system. A very nice and basic font, but it’s classy and businesslike but not too formal. So — here’s the home and away look, with royal blue cap (also can use a sky blue cap at home and sky blue cap with sky blue trim and stirrups on the road). I just couldn’t bring myself to return the Jays to powder blue.

Well, there you have it. Obviously the Blue Jays should be the next MLB team to undergo a major overhaul. As we say, lots of “retro-inspired” designs, and a few who simply want to return the “blue” to the Blue Jays. My thanks to everyone who sent in a submission, and next time, we’ll get to the rest of the MLB overhauls.

OK, in case you missed it, last week, with the help of James Huening, I ran what we hope to be the first of several ‘unofficial’ polls to determine how we feel on uniforms. Don’t bother voting anymore, the poll is officially closed now. That poll, “Rate the NFL Home Uniforms” was an unmitigated success. We’ll have the results next week, but James wanted to give us a quick look at some of the preliminary results.

“Well, the votes are in. Some of the final results are still being tabulated, but the Uni Watch community has spoken and a team has been chosen as having the best home uniforms in the NFL. And it was truly a hard-fought battle for the top spot.

“If you recall, we asked you to rate each team’s home uniform from zero to five points. We also asked you to nominate a team as having the best uni and another as having the worst. Our top team averaged 4.24 points per response, barely edging out our second place finisher at 4.21. In addition, #1 was mentioned by 15% of you as having the best uni, compared to 12% for #2.

“The rest of our top five was equally competitive. The third, fourth and fifth place finishers’ average scores were 4.07 (9% of you thought they were the best), 4.05(6%) and 3.83(7%).

“So, to everyone who participated, thank you. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done this without you and the response was overwhelming. We were hoping for 500, but we collected nearly 2,000 completed surveys! And people from literally all over the world checked in. We received responses from every continent. Yes, that includes Antarctica.”

Thanks, James. So now that the votes are in — which uniform do you think was rated THE BEST in the NFL? We’ll tell you next week, but why not give an early guess. Just post “Best: (insert team) ” down below.

In addition, a special thanks goes out to Adam Walter, who’s doing most of the heavy lifting on this endeavor, with his incredible data crunching and analysis.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: As the MLB season winds down this weekend, I’m running out of scoreboards…so, either you guys will have to keep sending me some, or we’ll be putting the game on a temporary hiatus. No worries today though, as SlimandSlam hooked me up with this one (although partial credit has to go to Squiddie)– and while in and of itself, it’s tricky, a little detective work on your part (read: the photo you’re about to see was run in one of my earlier columns) will help you solve it. Remember, PLEASE do not post the actual score and date, but rather, use Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac to link to your answer (if possible). Ready? Guess The Game. I think tomorrow we’ll try a football scoreboard, but I’m not sure how that will go over. Let me know what you think.

A Little Bit of This and That: Somehow we all missed the fact that the official team outfits for Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics team were unveiled in Vancouver, and some are calling them, “Hoser chic,” while others are suggesting it smacks of a Conservative conspiracy and others noting similarities to an iconic Canadian military symbol. … The Oregonian is getting a lot of mileage out of their Dress The Ducks thingy, even encouraging opposition fans to clothe the U of Zero Ducks in the worst possible combo … This item was posted earlier this week, but it proves once again that worst uniform polls should be decided by UW readers — in fact, in the coming weeks, we’ll be doing just that — stay tuned …Turns out they had to update the poll after readers had other thoughts about those worst unis … This article on the Islanders’ affiliate the Bridgeport Sound Tigers states they will wear uniforms this year that resemble those of the Islanders’ 1980 Stanley Cup dynasty. Unfortunately, no pics accompanied the article — little help? Teebz? … Apparently, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Which means every team, league and sport will be getting in on the pink uniform action … We all know that the Mets sucked this year, but according to NBCNewYork.com, the real villain in the 2009 Mets season was the shade of white used in the Mets’ home uniforms (sorta old news, but a nice shout out to Paul Lukas and the blog in the fourth graf) … If you thought the San Francisco 49ers were mixing too much purple into the red and too much yellow into the gold, well, you’re not alone … Pretty much no one knows that the NBA was segregated for it’s three first years of existence, which may not seem odd until you realize that Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in the same year the NBA was founded. Roger Murdock Kareem Abdul Jabbar is directing a tribute to the Harlem Rens, the “greatest team you never heard of.” (since you read UW, you have heard of the Preston Rivulettes). The Documentary will be called “On The Shoulders of Giants,” and there are sure to be some great unis in it … The soon to be defunct UFL unveiled its helmet art yesterday — and I hope the league is around long enough for someone to work on a full uni breakdown column with me … The FAU Owls, who have one of the best unis in college football, will be playing their 100th football game ever today … Pretty cool look at the Princeton University logos here … Did you ever want to know how Ice gets laid? If you said “a couple drinks, sweet talk and Flunitrazepam,” you’d be wrong. … When you play the “fourth” sport in a big city and you haven’t been relevant since the mid-80’s, what do you do? Why, rebrand yourself of course.

That’s a wrap for today. Next weekend I hope to have the “Design A Cap” submissions all flickr’ed and ready, we’ll have the results of the voting on the “NFL Home Uniform” poll, and more. And that’s just next weekend. And there’s even more good stuff coming tomorrow. Nice college football today, and still some meaningful baseball in Detroit and Minnesota (where the Twins are hoping for one last miracle before they shut the dump down cede ownership to the Mall of America). That could get very interesting because if the Twins and Tigers end up tied, the Twinks are supposed to host a tiebreaker on Monday — but there’s a twist, because the Dome might be busy. So they’d have to play Tuesday. Hmmmm.

Anyway, let the folks who mocked up some new Jay’s unis know what you think, and don’t forget to take a guess at what we, the Uni Watch community, thought was the best home uniform in football. Oh, and think pink.

By Phil Hecken

There seemed to be great interest by UW readers in developing new concepts for Major League Baseball teams, following previous columns in which readers tweaked the ChiSox and the Brewers (see here and here). I put out the call for you guys to send me your submissions for any MLB team, and you didn’t disappoint. In fact, there were so many submissions, it’s going to take two posts to get to them all. But we will. So, lets see what everyone came up with, shall we?

The first two in this batch were actually featured before, but I wanted to include them in this post so they’d receive full comparison:

Jason Krause had a couple mock-ups for his hometown team, the Colorado Rockies:

I based these Colorado Rockies jersey mockups off of the old school logo of the hockey Colorado Rockies before they became the New Jersey Devils. I made them a pull-over top such as the Blue Jays and the Cards from the 70’s.

I created two different home looks, as well as an alternate that pays homage to the Colorado Flag. The black jerseys are also a big hit out here, so I created a look for one of those.

Alex Rocklein sent me some mockups for the New York Mets. Very interesting. Says Alex, “I attached some Mets uniform concepts. Some are outrageous, but there is considerably less black.”

Indeed, when it comes to the Mets, less black is usually much better. He has come up with three new uniform concepts: a clean new home and away set, with all the black removed (but where are the stirrups???); and two alternates. The first, featuring pinstripes (I guess we can say they’ve reduced the once venerable pins to an alt) and a royal blue top with “New York” in fancy block letters. As you know, I’m not a fan of the “alternate/softball” tops, but if the Mets could replace the black tops with this one, I’d be 100% behind it. Finally, Alex came up with another home alternate, and it is considerably more colorful. He combines a new alternate cap, featuring a blue crown and an orange bill, with a new orange alternate top (plus he has put the script “Mets” on the blue alternate).

OK, you may remember seeing those before, but the rest are all brand spankin’ new.

Another longtime reader, a Yankees fan no less, Kenny Jacobson saw the above section on New York Mets uniform concepts (when I first posted it), and, having already done some up, thought I’d like to repost them. With pleasure, Kenny, with pleasure. Here’s Kenny:

I’d posted these in the comments this summer but maybe you could get them out there.

I’m a Yankee fan but would really like to see the Mets go back to a classic look.

Home

Road

and if you MUST…

Alt

Got another submission from Uni Creator Alex Rocklein, (see above for his first uni tweak of the Mets) who this time has been working on some fixes for the Oakland A’s. I’ll let him explain:

I updated the primary (A’s in the circle) because the one they use now is outdated. I added cream to the scheme (now looking similar to their rivals across the bay) and added some piping because, let’s face it, who doesn’t like some piping?

I kept the away set relatively the same because I think it’s one of the most underrated sets in baseball. Threw some alts in there for the sake of having them. I feel like the solid color alts need to be limited by teams because when you watch a Cubs/ChiSox game in which its royal blue on black it feels as though I’m watching Spring Training or a couple of Thursday Night Slow-Pitch Softball games.

Also, matched the A’s “A” from the logo to the one on the hat (right now they use two different “A”s).

Another uniform concept submission comes from reader Daniel L. Dennis, who has got some proposals for the Texas Texases Rangers. Here’s Dennis:

I read the blog quite often, and I hope these are along the lines of what you’re looking for.

First of all, the Rangers erred greatly in not having their team name on their home jerseys. The Texas Texases (as Paul is fond of calling them) need an identity, but this minor facelift would probably suffice. It’s simple, it’s elegant, and above all, it’s somewhat unique (no comparison to the Angels, please – besides, I think the Rangers were using this typeface first).

Here’s the home jersey. All I did was go back to red as the primary color, and arch the team name like they did in 1972 with the original wordmark. Back then, the bigger “R” and “S” stood for “Robert Short” – today, they don’t really stand for anything, but it’s a nice treatment IMHO.

The away jersey is pretty much – well, gray. But the wordmark gets the same treatment.

Now for the alternate jersey. Seems like every team needs one. This time, I got rid of the blue (too many bad flashbacks to the Dallas Cowboys of the ‘70s, who always seemed to lose when wearing their blue jerseys), and went with the primary red.

Not sure I’m sold on the NNOB treatment, but at least it stands out.

Sleeve patch stays the same, and stripes on the pants go red and blue. Same with the sleeve stripes on the home and away. The red alt can keep the white trim.

This is what Nolan’s boys need to be wearing next year – and it wouldn’t take that much to pull it off. Oh, yeah, and I got rid of that gawdawful typeface for the NNOB.

Now don’t go selling this to the Rangers!

I received two concepts from “losalkyle,” who tweaked the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. A man of few words, this sentence accompanied his Padres tweak: “Take the light blue in their primary logo and make it the uni color.” The next one was simply an attachment, with the subject “Mariners Powder Blue.” That should be pretty self-explanatory. Here it is. If you’re reading this and want to identify yourself, please do!

Next up is Matt Keller, who actually sent me two submissions, but the second one is going to wait for the next batch. His first tweak is for the Minnesota Twins. Here’s Matt:

I’m not legally eligible for a prize being 16, but I mess around in photoshop on occasion.

1st off, I’ve eliminated those dreadful pinstripes from the Twinkies’ away uniforms. I think what I’ve done is pretty O.K. looking.

Our final uniform tweak for today comes from Matt Murray, who unfortunately missed the Brewer tweaks which ran a couple weeks ago. But I promised Matt I’d include his mockups of the Milwaukee Brewers in the next set of uniform concepts. So, here’s Matt:

Mr. Hecken,
Attached are my uniform ideas for the Milwaukee Brewers. I might be a little late, but I think can still contribute to the discussion.

I like the Brewers current color scheme, but I think the current script and wordmarks are just a failed attempt at a classic look. I combined the navy and gold scheme with throwback lettering to create a modern look that reflects the past of the program. Both the home and away caps have the ball and glove “mb” logo, and the beloved beer barrel man on the sleeve. I’m a big fan of thick piping on pants and sleeves, but not on the front of the jersey. I used cream for the home threads and a powder blue(ish?) grey for the road uniforms to further compliment the historical aspect. A red mock-up is included. Thanks!

OK, that’s going to do it for this first batch of uniform concepts from the fantastic UW readership. The next batch will be coming real soon. One interesting thing about this exercise, while I didn’t call for any specific teams whose uniforms needed updating/changing/tweaking, I got (so far) a bunch of submissions for the Toronto Blue Jays. How I didn’t see this team as the obvious choice for a uniform upgrade in the first place is beyond me, but I give myself a huge “DUH” for neglecting to ask for specific submissions for them. Let me tell you, the four or five I have received so far are tremendous. So, if anyone else wants to try their hand at tweaking the Toronto team, send em along. Of course, any teams you want to upgrade are fine as well.

As long as we’re on the topic of upgrading/tweaking, it sounds like it’s official that the Miami Marlins will be getting new uniforms when they move into their new digs (there’s a link in that article to the New York Times article [registration required]) where owner Jeffrey Loria mentioned the new unis. Now, I don’t want to step on Paul’s toes in calling for reader submissions for new Miami Marlins uniforms, since he’s been known to have done those type of things on the mothership. However, if you have done, or in the process of doing a Miami Marlins mockup, feel free to send it my way as well.

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Apparently so. Yesterday evening, several readers reported seeing Chris Berman state that the oft-rumored Seahawks alternate lime green jersey is a reality. Will it actually be worn this Sunday? And, will if so, will be paired white pants, as in the Wikipedia entry? Or, blue pants, or, heaven help us, lime green pants? And, what color will the jersey numbers be: White? (just imagine this) or blue? Perhaps we’ll know more tomorrow or later this evening. But if Boomer reported it, Wiki posted it, and Madden mocked it … it must be true, right?

It’s the end of the world as we know it.

[*late night edit: I just watched the repeat of the "2 Minute Drill" and here's what Berman said: "The Seahawks will unveil their bright green -- I guess '80s retro-ish green uniforms -- It'll be a 'Green Day'. I think they'll have the time of their lives." (The latter reference was because Boomer spent a portion of the segment discussing LPs {"albums to those of you under 30"}.) So that's what we have to go on. Who knows -- PH]

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK, got another submission from our resident ’scoreboard finder’ SlimandSlam, who has brought to you another good one. Shouldn’t have too much trouble with the teams or the stadium, but the game itself may prove more elusive. As usual, please post the answer in the form of a linkie from Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet. Date, location and final score please. Ready? Guess The Game. Anyone interested in football? I think we’ll try a football scoreboard guessing game tomorrow…see how that goes. Thanks, Slim!

UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game. Tomorrow marks the debut of his first tracking graphic on UW. It will be a regular feature through the end of the Ducks season. Sounds like a fun little idea. Assuming the Ducks wear the rumored throwbacks tomorrow against Cal, this will be updated with the final score. Otherwise, Mike will insert whatever uni they choose to wear. Check back tomorrow to see the result and the uni they wore!

Ah, time for Mick and Mike to relax and (presumably) enjoy a game on the tube. And that’s a biiiiiiiig couch, innit? Enjoy the wit and wisdom of Mick in today’s Saturday Benchies. Yakitty-yak…don’t talk back.

This and That: Seems that the Huskers will be donning vintage 1962 uniforms today, complete with black numbers on white helmets. According to the article, “Fans are wearing red, as usual, but retro red. Women are asked to wear red dresses and carnations.” Good times, good times, except, Nebraska hopes, for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Unis and helmets should look like this. … The Yom Kippur religious observance is going to force New York football fans to have to choose between games this Sunday — first time the Jets and Giants have kicked off at the same time (other than when playing each other) since 1984; both teams are 2-0, and the Titans (Jets) versus Oilers (Titans) are wearing AFL throwbacks … And speaking of throwbacks, Navy plays Western Kentucky on CBS today, with Navy to wear replica 1959 uniforms — it’s in honor of the dedication of the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium — check out the program cover from that day! … The Florida State Seminoles will wear white at home for the first time — ever — against USF today; not just the normal white over crimson, but white over white! Nice. Of course, the best thing about FSU games are the uniforms worn by the fans sitting in the stands … The Turkeyfoot Middle School, which, not coincidentally, is located on Turkeyfoot Road, is under pressure to change its name — no, they’re keeping “Turkeyfoot,” but they may be dumping their mascot and nickname, because that is much worse than “Turkeyfoot.” Try saying “Turkeyfoot” five times fast … The LeBron James farewell to Cleveland Cavaliers 40th Season is just jam packed with giveaways, and here’s the list … Reader Ed Westfield shot me a note, “In Any Given Sunday, the Miami Sharks never wore white jerseys on the road, or anywhere. So, I wanted to see what it would look like.” … Let it be known: it is NOT OK to profit of Tim Tebow’s name or likeness! Is that clear? Unless, of course, it’s the University of Florida that’s doing the profiting, natch [*NOTE...I was alternately getting a "404 not found on website" and the article, so if it comes up 404, I apologize] … Speaking of the Gators tho, ESPN has posted an “instant classic” video game, sure to be great fun for all Gator haters … Of course, political correctness is still the hot topic at UND, where the school must get permission from the two Sioux tribes in North Dakota in order to keep using the nickname, “Fighting Sioux,” or face NCAA sanctions, including being banned from post-season play — and they need it by October 1st … Wanna have more shoe combinations than Oregon has uniform possibilities? (Like, 2 million possible combinations???) Now you can. … Here’s a little uniform story that slipped below the radar: seems that UW readers are not the only ones who want to ditch the black — especially when your team is called the “Cardinals” and, “We have the Cardinal as a mascot and our colors are red and white. I don’t understand why you would want to change that.”

OK folks…that’s a lot to digest. Still time to participate in the Design A Cap Contest that started last weekend — just follow the directions there if you’re still interested. Some great college football matchups today, including a bunch of throwbacks — wonder if any of them will make the Top 5 uni matchup list tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

By Phil Hecken

Welcome back to part two of the Milwaukee Brewer makeover series. If you missed Part I, featuring some amazing mock ups by Chance Michaels and David Frost, be sure to take a look-see.

We’re on to part two today, however, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. So, let’s get it started.

We begin today with an amazing effort from David Timmerman, who happens to be the Editor of the Grant County Herald Independent, and who has been sending me many submissions over the past month or so. David has a lot to say, so I’ll let him say it in his own words:

Taking up your challenge on changes to the Brewers uniforms, I tried to mix some history into the current uni set, staying away from wholesale changes. A lifelong Brewers fan, I wanted to see some history incorporated into the mix, some more subtle than others.

Thoughts on current uniforms

When the Brewers unveiled their newest jersey in the spring of 2000, it was supposed to usher in a new era with a new ballpark, but due to an unfortunate crane failure which took the lives of three construction workers, as well as the roof in right field, Miller Park was still a year away from opening. So the Crew took the field in the new unis to say goodbye to historic Milwaukee County Stadium.

After jettisoning the ‘Notre Dame’ look of an intersecting M and B (and eliminating the moldy green bats of the fairly generic logo) they came out with one harkening to a past – not the Brewers past, mind you, but a past. And I liked the logo very much – That B for Brewers is certainly unique and rich feeling, as is the M that graces the hat. I like the touch of barley under the M as well.

The logo is similar to the one for Miller Park, which hovers over the scoreboard. Now why they didn’t make that logo more animated (like having the balls rotate, or the lights blink for a homer) I have no idea.

When it came to the jerseys, I was less than thrilled by final version, mainly due to font selection which I blaming on Laurel Prieb, who was one of the VP’s at the time, related to the ownership of the Minnesota Twins, and more importantly, married to Wendy Selig-Prieb, team president and Bud’s daughter. That choice of Garamond/Times/serifed typeface, similar to what the Washington Capitals were using at the time should never grace a uniform, but there it is. I have to note that it is the same font chosen for the seats and rows within the park as well.

Now I think uniforms should stick with tradition as much as they can, but I also don’t want teams trying to look to a past that they never had. Most teams usually incorporate a block-style for the numbers, and while I would never want the Packers to alter their uniforms, I think the Brewers should have some leeway. Now what I would love to have is a toned-down version of what the Brewers had in the 90s, liking the shape of the numbers, which did have too much layering going on. Since I cannot find that, I went with a font, SquareSlab, that I find is similar to what the Eagles used when they revised their unis.

Another issue I had with the unis was the lack of either piping or striping. Very few teams incorporate neither on their jerseys, the Cardinals come to mind, and I think their main reason is, beyond tradition that is, because their chest graphic is so large and detailed, it would be over-doing it. Otherwise, I think every team should have one of them, but since the Cubs utilize stripes, and the retro jerseys have it as well, I went with piping.

I just couldn’t decide on whether to go with a single pipe, or dual-colored piping, much like the Braves. On the road jersey, it felt like a bit much, but looked good on the home jersey. I went with multiple stripes on the sleeves to harken back to 1970, which was a remnant from the Pilots.

Another thing was the color scheme. There have been three Milwaukee Brewers teams in the history of the city. The first was the 1901 team that played for only the inaugural season of the American League, jetting to St. Louis to become the Browns, who then became the Orioles. The second, and more famous of the first two was the American Association Brewers, who were the ones implementing the BarrelMan logo. Bud Selig had always wanted to return to those days, which included a blue-red color scheme, which was probably copied from parent club, the Braves. But strapped for cash, Selig had to go with the Blue-Gold color scheme of the Pilots when they were moved from Seattle.

Now on the current Brewers uniform, the gold has shiny specks in it, and is a truer gold. But Baseball players shouldn’t sparkle! Although I love the 80s Brewers, I didnt want to go with the yellow. So what I tried to go with was something slightly lighter than the ‘old gold’ the Jets used on their throwback Titans of New york unis last year.

Road Version – One of my biggest complaint for specifically the away unis was the fact that they removed Milwaukee. In understand that maybe this was done to have one cut for patches on the uniforms, but if you can have multiple colors for the dark blue, alternate uniforms, as well as the throwback unis, you can cut Milwaukee and slap it onto front. For the road jersey, I altered the grey, adding more blue, and darkening them a little. I wish I could mock-up one that was alittle shinier, similar to Georgetown’s unis and harken back to the late 1940s satin jerseys teams wore for nighttime games on television, but that may be a bit gaudy. I brought back BarrelMan for the road uniforms….I also think he may look good on a hat….

I wanted to set these uniforms apart from others, so I reversed the lettering, making it white. Like I said, I like the M, so I kept that on the hat. Another area I had a conflict was on the back – I really like having the numbers in white, but I wondered if it conflicted with the numbers in blue on the front. Also, what to do with the piping. I show both here……

Home uniforms – Similar to the road uniforms, there are a few changes. We stick with ‘Brewers’ across the chest, and I retain the gold drop shadow, although part of me wants to alter the tail under the letters to make it much larger. I bring back a revised ball and glove to the hat – The ‘fingers’ would be raised as on many new hat logos. I had real conflicts about this – do you alter the logo in any way, make it look more like a glove, make the M and the B more subtle? (David even added a red version of the uniform — [PH]) What color do you make the elements? Is it even a good idea, or should this log be saved for the throwback jerseys? I like the new Curly B, and would like that on the hat, but in the end I went with modifying the ball in the logo to simplify it, but wouldn’t be against somehow incorporating a metal stud in the shape of a ball…I also don’t think the home team needs nameplates on the back. The teams in the 80s didn’t need them, and it seems to be the only think the Yankees and Red Sox can agree on, so it should be good enough for the Brewers…

Different colors – I thought another alternative could be ‘colorizing’ the jerseys, going red, or blue, or green for St. Patty’s Day.

Pretty good start, right? Well, David had more — much more — in store for me. We’ll get back to him in a little bit, but let’s see what else we have.

Moving along, our next few sets of uniforms come with a little less description, but the effort is top notch.

Next up is Paul Radetsky, who simply writes: “This a first attempt at something like this … I’ve done some uni-design for All-Stars for the league my son played in … (I’m a) Graphic Designer by trade.”

And what did Paul create? Only this amazing concept set.

He didn’t describe it, but it’s obviously a complete home, away and alternate set. The home jersey is actually a vest, with pinstripes, and a unique font. The cap is a fauxback, featuring a blue brim, white crown (with blue back) featuring the classic “ball in glove” logo. On the sleeve, Paul has added a throwback Milwaukee state patch with the “ball in glove” (BIG) logo contained within. The away set returns the word “Milwaukee” to the chest, in the same font as the home, and keeps the sleeve patch the same. He uses a solid blue cap featuring the current Brewer “M” logo. Finally, the alternate is a solid blue jersey, featuring not a wordmark but the “ball in glove” logo on the left side of the chest, same patch as on the home and away, and a third cap similar to his home proposal, only this cap features a blue brim, gold crown (solid all around) and the “old school” BIG logo. Two sock options are provided — one a solid blue sock with the BIG logo, and the second, a blue stirrup with gold sanitary (real nice throwback element there). Each of these elements is shown clearly on his mockup.

Stellar job Paul!

Our next submitter is reader and poster Andrew “Greenie” Greenwood who has some nice ideas to share. Here’s Andrew:

I’m bringing back the ball and mitt. The colors are the gold used back in the 80’s and a brighter blue than they use now. Ball and mitt on hat, current brewers script on home chest with new colors. Home jersey is not white, but more of an eggshell. (I love the cream of the Giants, and that off-white skews toward orange, so i figure the Brewer’s cream should skew toward gold, making it an eggshell color.) Blue sleeves on away grey jersey with blue belt. Milwaukee written vertically arched in blue and gold on the chest, both with blue socks. Also kept the M on Wisconsin outline as a sleeve patch for the home team.

And with that intro, here is Andrew’s creation. When I first saw it, I thought Greenie was going for a “vest” on the away jersey, so I asked him about that. Turns out, as usual, I was wrong. “Those blue sleeves were actually inspired by the Milwaukee Bears throwback they wore this year,” explains Andrew. “It looked so nice on the field, I wanted to bring back the look. The slightly different blue that I used is actually from those Bears jerseys too.”

Superb job, Greenie.

We now return to David Timmerman, who liked the idea of tweaking the Brewers so much, he continued to send me submissions. He continued to fine-tune his home and roads, and added some new powder blues (a nice harkback). His next missive went like this:

Well, I worked on revising my template, so I am ready for future projects. In addition, I made revisions to the home Brewers jersey:

• Increased the size of the tail under the name on the front of the jersey
• Increased size of B on ‘Brewers’ nameplate, also skewed the rest of the name for better arching over number
• Eliminated the gold piping (looked like too much after I revised the piping template)
• Added stripes to the sanis
• Fine-tuned the Ball & Glove logo (two-tone ball has ying-yang look about it)

I didn’t say what I did with the Powder Blue unis, but I increased the flag from the Road Milwaukee logo, and only kept the ‘Pilot’ striping. (As with many of David’s creations, he sent me a second powder blue concept — [PH].) To tell the truth, the toughest part was deciding on the hat (ball&Glove versus others, what color).

This is my latest, with striped sanis since I know you guys love the sanis, and a yellow brim (could not go with a yellow front, and still not crazy about it…). Also, I felt that maybe in these high-definition times, the color I had utilized for the powder blue was too vibrant, so I scaled it back, maybe as the unis looked like when they were unveiled in the flannel days…

Sorry, don’t mean to be a bother, just a fun project to work on…

No bother at all David, they keep getting better. But David is still not finished. We’ll be back with the next batch in a sec.

The next to take the plunge was Zach Davis, who, like all who submitted suggestions, did a tremendous job. Zach states, “My basic idea was to take the pre-strike Brewers uniform and update it for 2010. I tried to keep everything classic yet modern at the same time and logically evolve things as if the mid-’90s redesign never happened. Of all the Brewers logos I’ve always loved the old ‘Wisconsin’ logo, so that takes center stage with a newly designed ‘M’. The Ball-in-glove logo goes through some color shifting — the yellow outline becomes white and I’ve added a yellow outline to the glove itself. In doing that I absolutely fell in love with the ‘ball’ part of the ball-in-glove, so I’ve separated it and made it the official third logo (and replaced the ‘Milwaukee Star’ in the ‘Wisconsin’ logo with it) and I think it looks fantastic, even slightly harkening back to the Pilots. All the fonts are new and I threw in a custom script logo for the hell of it. The uniform set is classic without (hopefully) being either too stodgy or too ‘retro’ and I especially liked being able to give a nod to the Pilots in the styling of the third/sunday uniform. The caps are nods to the history of baseball in Milwaukee, combining stylings of the Brewers with that of the Milwaukee Braves.”

Here’s a “full look” at Zach’s masterpiece. Another tremendous effort from a dedicated Uni Watcher. Great fonts, and I love how a couple of our submitters, like Zach, are “harking” back to the old Wisconsin outline logo.

Next up is Kevin Callahan who is the Creative Director for Alterra Coffee (alterracoffee.com) here in Milwaukee.

And here is what Kevin created for his Brewers redux.

Kevin states, “As you can see I am a big fan of the “Barrel Man”, which I feel is a much stronger and livelier logo than the much ballyhooed “mb Glove”. The glove logo is simply clever and that’s all. Barrel Man is clever and has a personality that is lacking in the glove logo.

“I kept the Pilots’ Blue and Gold even though Red, White and Blue would be more traditional. While it is imperative that the city name be on the road uni, I understand that “Milwaukee” is possibly too long.”

Fantastic job on those Kevin. Can’t say I am a huge fan of the abbreviation (although, there is certainly precedent for that sort of thing in baseball). And here we have another submitter who has put a logo, rather than a wordmark, on the “alt” jersey. Nice work!

Winding down, our penultimate submitter is Steve Prestegard, who has a slighly different take on the new look for the Crew. Here’s Steve:

I freely admit to being not much of an artist. I can visualize concepts, but the execution … well, to quote John McKay, I’m all for it.

While there are certainly better concepts out there, I think the concepts are off the mark in one important area. None of them use the colors of beer, and they usually use colors that are quite overused — namely, navy blue and red. (Arguably, those colors and the royal blue and gold are more befitting of beer cans than beer.) The colors in this concept are black (for dark beer), gold (lager) and cream (the head).

The first one is a very simple Germanic M (yes, it looks very similar to Detroit’s D) using black and gold. The next two are home (cream) and home alt uniforms, followed by road (tannish-gray) and road alt unis.

Anyway, do with these what you will. Ein prosit.

Thanks for those Steve. Those were actually sent to Paul, and were part of an inline message, so I apologize for them having a “black” background — not sure what happened, but, especially with the black alts and cap, it makes them more difficult to see. Still, you guys will get the idea.

Winding this massive post up, we return, one last time, to David Timmerman, as he completes his masterpiece of uni concepting:

Well, here I am once again with my thoughts on the Brewers jerseys. In my reimagining of the jerseys, I would have four jerseys for the team (Home White, Road Grey, ‘Ghost of the 70’s’ muted powder blue, and 80’s throwback striped.

I have never been a fan of the full-color alternate unis, which look too much like a team’s batting jerseys in my eyes (The ‘Black’ Sox are one of the few exceptions). The Cubs especially look awful in those royal blue outfits (well, at least even more putrid then they normally look for this long-time Brewers fan). So if I was the owner of the Brewers, those navy alternates would be on a truck for the clearance rack.

But, looking to make a buck off anything (and taking a positive cue from the college and NFL practice unis unveiled) I would put some style into the spring training / batting practice jerseys. I like the choice for batting practice caps made a few years back, and think some choices on the batting jersey, which is also worn exclusively during spring training, could lift sales.

So here is what I came up with — retaining the darker tones that usually grace the practice uniforms, while tossing the stripes and piping. I have added muted blue strips below the armpits, similar to some football uniforms, but these are not meant to reach out of the pit onto the front of the jersey, merely run down the sides. With Milwaukee training in Arizona, these strips would be made of a highly breathable, and stretchable material, and utilize ‘Dry’-Cool’ fabrics.

Since they will be used for spring training, going with a block letter/number combo to reduce costs. Also, unlike the the regular season jerseys, no drop shadowing. Thought about making the front numbers blue or gold, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. Also, going with a simple sock.

During spring training, would go with the powder blue pants (matching the armpit strips), but they would be worn above any pants before a game. Also went with a pullover with a button instead of a full jersey..

I also wanted to add some detail to the jersey, but couldn’t decide what to do. Thought about placing letters on the front (R for rookie, C for captain) as well as incorporating some small stripes on the sleeve or front to represent each year the player had been with the team…

Still not quite finished, David came back up for air and asked, “what did you think was better, the bright powder blues, or the more muted look?” Obligingly, I told him, and he even created a uniform just for me, which he called “Powder Phil.” Flattered was I by this gesture, but it’s really just combining a couple disparate elements from his different concepts.

Thinking David was done, I was ready to call it a post, but, hey, what’s one more missive and one more concept? Here’s David, one last time:

to annoy you, whipped up one more jersey, this one more reaching out to my creative side then necessarily looking to to create a new Brewers jersey, per say.

Being an amateur historian of certain Wisconsin teams, I know that teams from the state that wear blue and gold often place their numbers in a circle at some point in their history. Marquette, who often tried something new when it came to uniform design, had blue circles around the numbers. The Packers, when they were still using Blue and gold, before they donned their namesake green, first encircled their numbers in a gold ball on the front of their jerseys.

So I thought, why not the Brewers? Baseballs are round, and what better way to determine the arch of the nameplate on the back than with a circle. I decided to add a tint to the home jersey, because I think a few teams can pull that look off, and also incorporate the jersey number on the pants as well.

Kept the piping to a minimum, and modified the tail under ‘Brewers’ which looks more classic, or generic, depending on your opinion

I thought about incorporating a circle with payer number on the sani, thus making it more likely players would actually show them off, but have not in this example. I also kicked around using the ball and glove on the hat, making it fit entirely in the circle, but did not in this version.

I am not certain any team had a similar design, but please let me know if I am wrong (not counting the old star on the back of the Hollywood Stars) Also, maybe you think this look would fit better with another team…I could alter it to that club.

OK. That’s really all from David. But what a tremendous effort on this part, huh?

I apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to give all the submitters their due. If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for your patients.

Just truly great stuff from all those who participated. I actually had three more people who had contacted me about ‘fixin’ the Brewers’ but after the initial contact and interest in the project, they didn’t get back to me. Still though, quite an impressive array of jerseys.

And moi? Did I have any ideas for Brewers concepts. Sadly for you, I do. Lots of them, but I’ll spare you the gory details and just show you the two I’d like to see someday. Like many of the submitters, they borrow heavily from the Brewers past. For the roadie, I’d love to see something like this: powder blue, blue stirrups with gold sanis, script “Milwaukee” and for a cap logo — the Wisconsin outline, which is replicated on the sleeves. For the homes, how about this? A cream-tinged uniform (after all, Milwaukee is the “Cream City”), with the BIG logo as a sleeve patch and topping an all blue cap. Once again, stirrups are blue with gold sanis. The original road “BREWERS” wordmark adorns the front.

That’s really all for today folks. Big, big round of applause for all who submitted their designs. Let them know you appreciate their efforts, and tell them what you think.

With baseball season winding down, if you’d like to submit your suggestions for “uni concepts” for your favorite (or any team), please send them my way. I’ve already received a bunch of submissions for different teams, and I will be sure to feature them and more at a future date.

Got a note from regular James Huening on an event that may be of interest to golfers and charitable types out there. Johnny O, you down with this?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: You guys may have noticed that we have a weekend visitor who goes by the name of “SlimandSlam”, who enjoys the GTG bits a lot, and is frequently one of the first (if not the first) to guess the game. Well, “Slim” contacted me this past week and graciously offered a few scoreboards up to me. So, for that, I’m quite grateful. This will be the first of those. As always, we need date, location and final score, all of which can be done by posting a link from Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac. So, here we go with Slim’s first submission. Ready? Guess The Game. Thanks Slim!

Well, football season is here and that means for the boys of Benchies, it’s touch football time. What? You thought they only played softball? They’ve been away from the game for a while tho, so things could get dicey. On that note, enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

OK, that’s it. Good college football today (Go Trojans!), and “Super Saturday” hopefully some tennis, weather permitting, for all two of us tennis fans. And tomorrow, a full schedule of NFL games. Plus, there’s a few baseball teams still worth watching AND there’s golf playoffs, where they narrow the field down to 30. Not to mention other sports as well. Basically, a uni watcher’s dream, this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday.

By Phil Hecken

Welcome back, everyone!

It all started a few scant weeks ago when I and a couple of other posters decided that the Chicago White Sox uniform needed “fixing.” While reaction to that post was mixed, it was also met with a call for other teams who could use either a uniform tweak, overhaul or to just plain start from scratch. There were many obvious candidates.

Based upon that sentiment, I asked readers for suggestions as to which team might be next in line for fixin,’ and it was decided that the Milwaukee Brewers were a good next candidate. I received many submissions from readers with their suggestions, some of which we’ll examine below. What follows, then, are the first batch of suggestions for a New Crew. Due to the large number of submissions I received, this is merely part one of a two-part series. We begin with the man who suggested the Brewers tweak, and a long-time reader and poster who’s been passionate in his call for a revamp of the Brewers uniforms for years.

No Milwaukee Brewer uniform overhaul would be complete without the man who has, for the past eight years, been clamoring for the Brewers to change things up, Chance Michaels. Chance is a UW stalwart, a Cream City affectionado, a Milwaukee-phile, and more. He’s written on the Brewers and Packers on several of his websites, and I’m sure you’re familiar with his “online museum of the American Association Milwaukee Brewers”, borchertfield.com. The last of the designs featured today were first seen on that blog several months ago. What follows now, though, are Chance’s earlier design concepts, the ones that began his passionate desire to fix the Brewers.

I asked Chance to describe his creations. “My experience with re-designing the Brewers goes all the way back to the late 1970s, when I first realized that their pinstriped uniforms, then just a few years old but comprising the entirety of my baseball awareness, weren’t the only uniforms the club had worn. I came across an old pennant featuring the Beer Barrel Man, and I was hooked. Later research on the BBM led me to its origins in the 1940s, to the minor league Brewers of the American Association, where the current ballclub got its name, and ever since then I’ve been hooked.”

He continues, “In 1996, I submitted my first concept to the team – a recolored BBM sleeve patch to replace the ‘Motre Bame’ crossed-bats logo – in the form of a fan letter. Never heard back from them, but I’ve been trying ever since.” Fast forward to five years later: “In 2001, I started working on new designs for my True Blue Brew Crew. I brought back to the Ball-and-Glove, but dropped the pinstripes in favor of classic piping. I also created a modern version of the old American Association Brewers, and I’ve been playing with refining that design ever since. I still haven’t given up hope of getting the Beer Barrel Man on the Brewers’ sleeves.”

Lets take a look at what’s he created.

Chance’s first uni-concept, entitled “True Blue,” had a distinctly retro feel to it, and returned the “Milwaukee” wordmark to the road jersey. Chance explains the philosophy behind the concept: “Building off the very successful ‘Retro Fridays’ uniform, this concept draws largely from the Brewers’ great past, the days of Bambi’s Bombers and Harvey’s Wallbangers, Rollie and Paul and Gumby and Rockin’ Robin, giving the classic a modern twist.” Of the original Brewers colors and wordmark he notes, “The design touches fans in a very deep way, telling us of the glory days ahead by reminding us of the best years of the franchise.”

Of the logos, he adds, “The ‘Ball and Glove‘ logo of the American League glory days signifies a tradition, a bond between the Brewers and the fans. This is what most Milwaukeeans think of when they think of the Brewers. Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, Cecil Cooper, Rollie Fingers, Gorman Thomas and Don Sutton all played with this logo on their caps. The Beer Barrel Man logo is synonymous with Milwaukee baseball from the American Association days to Hank Aaron’s final playing days. Not only does it link to that tradition, but it also provides the team with the opportunity for a mascot logo, which has been very successful for the Reds, Orioles and Mets since they re-introduced their mascots.”

But Chance wasn’t merely satisfied with his first efforts, introducing a second concept he calls “A New Classic” (here is the road version). According to Chance, “This concept draws largely from the American Association Milwaukee Brewers, a powerhouse for fifty years and Milwaukee’s first great baseball team. From 1902 through 1952 they were dominant in their league, and it was that success that paved the way for the Braves to move from Boston in 1953.”

Mr. Michaels views the “New Classic” as having four distinct advantages:

1. A timeless design, guaranteed not to go out of style. Many teams have become very successful by rediscovering their 1940s and 1950s designs (such as the White Sox, Giants, Reds, Pirates and Indians) or creating a new design with a classic flavor (such as the Mariners and Angels). The Brewers are fortunate that they can do both at the same time, by honoring their namesake.

Baseball is the most traditional of sports, with a long and cherished tradition, and a team’s look should reflect that.

2. The excitement of an expanded color scheme. Red was a traditional American Association Brewer color from its inception. The Brewers, by adopting it, can honor that tradition. Coupling it with the contemporary Blue and Gold, the Brewers would have a color scheme not only unique in Major League Baseball, but offering many great opportunities for merchandising. These are colors that will never go out of style.

3. The Beer Barrel Man logo. The Beer Barrel Man logo is synonymous with Milwaukee baseball from the American Association team to Hank Aaron’s final playing days. Not only does the Beer Barrel Man link to that tradition, but it also provides the team with the opportunity for a mascot logo, which has been very successful for the Reds and the Mets since they re-introduced their mascots.

4. A clean, solid design that is both contemporary and classic. The simple wordmark appeals to the timeless nature of baseball, while the dark, classic colors are very popular with fans and the general public. The piping allows the team color to shine through. The lack of names on the back signifies a return to tradition (names are a relatively new addition to the Brewers uniform, not being present on Hank Aaron’s back or Robin Yount’s when he smacked his 3,000th hit).

Chance has proposed to top the Brewers in this classic cap, first worn by the American Association Brewers, but made more famous by the Milwaukee Braves. He’s also provided a slightly modified alternate cap which could be incorporated into the uniform set as well.

Well done, Chance, well done. But wait, we’re not quite done with Chance Michaels and his Brew Crew reworks just yet. He has a third set of concept unis, which we’ll explore in detail a little later on.

Piggybacking on Chance’s tremendous efforts, we have a great UW DIYer, David Frost (aka “Frosty”), who’s created some actual Brewers concept jerseys (and ALSO taken the amazing step of taking one of Chance’s concepts and made that into a real-life jersey as well!)

Frosty has been featured on UW before, so I’m sure you are all familiar with his awesomeness. If you guys have any questions about his work, or are maybe looking to have him do up a custom jersey just for you, drop him a line.

So, let’s see what David has created. First up is this amazing pinstripe jersey (here’s the back), which is basically a perfect replication of Chance’s proposed “True Blue” road jersey, only with pinstripes. Says Frosty, “I made this jersey last year… (it) is more like a retro ‘I wish’ for the old Milwaukee script. I always wanted the Brewers roadie to be pinstriped when I was a kid as well (I mean…the home jerseys were…shouldn’t there be SOME uniformity there rather than a completely different look?), so I found the gray with royal pins and went with it. The patch is the old Harvey Kuehn patch from the year he died. Take that off…and ya got a winner.” Outstanding.

Frosty wasn’t done, though. He also made this incredible jersey (here’s the back), borrowing from Chance’s mockup. David explains, “here’s my current project – Thanks to the fantastic talent of Chance Michaels. This ‘beer script’ is exactly that – and exactly beer. When Chance first did the art, he had a standard outline around it. I decided to tweak it with a drop-shadow to add a more classic beer label look. The colors? The original American Association Brewers were navy and red. Not that the big leagues need more of this combination, but I thought it would work best.”

As you might be able to tell from the pictures, at the time, that was still a work in progress. “What else is needed?” David asks. “1) A classic barrel man patch on the left sleeve (and I mean the OLD one); and 2) For this jersey to be done on ecru. What is ecru? It’s the color that most people call ‘cream’, but in the trade, the color is called ECRU. A cream-colored jersey for the Cream City…NO BRAINER.”

After David sent me these, I figured, “wow — just wow” that’s amazing. Little did I know he would not only finish off that second jersey, adding the barrelman logo to the sleeve — but he still wasn’t done DIYing.

Frosty struck out on his own this time, creating a THIRD Brewer concept jersey (of course, complete with barrelman on the sleeve). David says this jersey “was made possible thanks to some of the current Phillies braid I came across. The finish down the shoulders has always been a classy look to me, so I went with that, a classic front font in red/white, and our barrelman again on left sleeve.”

When you combine those three with the photo of Frosty at Miller Park in another of his creations … well, I’m not real good with math but that’s a LOT of amazing DIYs.

Thanks Frosty!

Returning to Chance’s Brewer redesign proposals, I will draw your attention to a new set which appeared back in May on his blog. Some of you have probably seen it before, but it too is an outstanding effort.

Chance has “made no secret that I am no fan of the current Brewers uniforms. They’re sterile and plain, designed by committee, but worst of all they have no connection with Milwaukee’s rich baseball history.” But his new uni proposal seeks to change all that. “Here’s my proposal to give the current bearers of the name the unique and modern look they deserve, while at the same time honoring the whole of that history, including (and especially) the American Association Brewers.”

His vision for the new home uniform as well as it’s road counterpart build upon his earlier efforts, and he has arrived upon a primary logo (along with the uni concpts) he has sent to Brewers’ management for their consideration. Chance contiunes:

The details, in no particular order:

Sleeve patch: For me, it all starts with bringing back the one, the original, the Beer Barrel Man. Symbol of Milwaukee baseball since at least 1901. Time he finally made the sleeves.

Wordmarks: The script font on the home jersey is Saloonkeeper, based on the script used by Leinenkugel’s. It’s surprisingly similar to the script used by the Brewers in the 1940s. The road wordmark is based on a 1930s Pabst Blue Ribbon label – I’m terribly fond of that one.

Colors: The color scheme utilizes the blue and gold influenced by the current colors (the only thing I really flat-out love about the current scheme). I’ve moved the home uniform to a light cream to reflect Milwaukee’s nickname as The Cream City, as well as the various historical baseball teams known as the “Creams” and “Cream Citys“.

Accent Striping: I included the shoulder piping not only because it has an historical precedent, but would also create a pattern currently unique in the majors. Another way to instantly identify the team. The Brewers used a similar thick piping from 1996-1999, and it looked great.

Number font: The numbers are what I call a simple square block. Again, they could be as easily identifiable as the San Francisco Giants’ numbers are, without either drawing too much attention or sacrificing legibility. FWIW, I’m basing these on a number font worn by the Packers in the 1940s.

The cap logo: I’ve always wanted to use a bottlecap in a Brewers concept. And the block “M” on the bottlecap clearly references the Milwaukee Braves and the American Association club… okay, maybe I’m officially overthinking this one.

Just amazing Chance and David. Thanks for sharing your efforts.

That will conclude the first part of “A New Crew,” but there are many more new designs I have received from the fantastic Uni Watch readership. They will appear in the next installment due to appear next weekend. I’m still truly amazed at the abilities and efforts that have gone into them (I even did a couple myself which will probably pale in comparison). Let us know what you guys think! Thumbs up? If these don’t quite strike your fancy, the next part will have something for everyone, from the classic to the serene to the sublime. And everything in between.

There’s a few weeks left in the MLB season (and next week is part II of the Brewers Redux), so rather than just pick ONE new team for your “uni reworks”, if anyone has ANY team (and I’ve already received a few submissions for teams that AREN’T the Brewers) they’d like to submit a “redesign” for, drop me a line. I’ll be glad to feature them throughout the remainder of the season (and probably post season) too. Check back tomorrow for two new teams, and make sure to check back next Saturday for the rest of the Brewers reworks. You won’t be disappointed!

It’s that time of year again, when the courts at the US Open are full and fans are guaranteed of seeing at least one winning team — even if they’re playing doubles and not baseball — in Flushing Meadow. My doubles partner and UW West Coast Correspondent Brinke Guthrie joins me once again for his look at this year’s Open fashion.

The US Open is good for lots of tennis-uni news, and at the Uniwatch West Coast Tennis Bureau, we like that. We don’t much care for those tacky patch deals, tho.

Murray, still with Fred. James Blake has a new custom Fila line, & it’s named for his late dad. McEnroe’s got the retro thing going.

Mr. Brooklyn Decker (that guy’s not too obvious) in Lacoste, but not in 2010 — he’ll be in Babolat.

The Fed’s look is here, with Nadal & Serena here. Serena’s sneakers have 3 little trophies, too, and The Fed’s say “5″ on the tongue, all part of the brand. Um, he even has his own pillowcases at the fancy hotel he stays at.

adidas checks in with ugly stuff. Oops, check that: got Daniela and Ana? Is Ana still in tennis? Forget that, she lost in the first round. Got Wozzi?

PS- this looks like something you’d throw up after a night on the town.

Sam Querrey of the US wearing shoes he designed at adidas’ request — note the flag on the tongue. (check this and this)

Thanks Brinke. Whaddya say? Fed takes the sixth? Ties Tilden? Stands one behind Sears?

I can’t see anyone (even A-Rod) standing between Raj and #16.

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Little different twist on today’s game — I don’t KNOW the answer. But I’m sure you guys do. I usually have the answer ahead of time, and if i don’t, I figure it out, just like you. But for this one, I said, “screw it, let them tell me.” Actually, I just didn’t have enough time to figure it out so, if as and when you do (and I know you will), walk me thru it, would ya? You know what do to…date, location & final score, via Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet. Thanks. Ready? Guess The Game.

While UW was away, the Ricko kept himself real busy. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be an announcement any day now concerning a Benchies Blog. But that day isn’t today. Instead, we have an installment of a Saturday Benchies for your reading pleasure. Ah, baseball cards … how I miss thee.

Alright, that’s about all for this first Saturday after break. Big things afoot in the sporting world this fine Saturday and lots more good stuff on here tomorrow. Have a great day.

As several readers have noted, Aaron Heilman has been wearing deluxe logo-emblazoned stirrups lately. There’s a story behind that — a story in which Uni Watch and I have a minor role.

It began in mid-July, when Heilman had already been wearing standard, logo-free stirrups for about a month. That’s when I got the following note from Jeff L., a Uni Watch reader whose sister happens to be married to Heilman:

I always hoped [Aaron] would someday don stirrups and even started bugging my sister about it when he was in spring training. I had been planning to bring him some stirrups when my wife and I visited them this summer, but he jumped on the stirrup train before I got there. … I nervously check the TV highlights to make sure he has not fallen off the wagon. …

I have an order holding with a local sporting goods store for a dozen of Twin City Knitting’s MB700 stirrups with the Cubs logo on the side. I first saw them on Uni Watch. I’m going to give him a couple pairs when the Cubs come to L.A. (where I live) in August. Maybe they make it onto the field, maybe not. I think it’s worth the cash for the extras.

My problem is I’m not sure what size he wears. I think 7″, but maybe not. I have to get a dozen in the same size, and I’d like the order to go out early next week so they will be here in time for the August series. Do you know anyone in the Cubs equiptment dept. who might be able to find out? Obviously I could ask Aaron himself, but I don’t want to jinx anything, and I’d also like to surprise him.

I don’t have a contact in the Cubbies’ equipment room, and I didn’t want to ask anything that might get back to Heilman and ruin Jeff’s surprise. So I told Jeff I was pretty sure Heilman was wearing either 5-inchers or, more likely, 7-inchers (I confess that I gave more emphasis to the 7″ model because that’s my personal preference). He thanked me, asked me to keep the whole thing private, and that was that.

Fast forward to last Saturday, when several readers told me Heilman was wearing the logo hose. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “I wonder if that was Jeff’s doing.” Sure enough, I got another note from him on Tuesday:

As you have heard by now, Aaron is wearing the “C” logo stirrups that I ordered for him. Thanks for confirming his 7″ style. I would never have even known they existed if I hadn’t seen them on Uni Watch.

Interestingly, just before I gave the stirrups to him, he had actually gone back to wearing long pants in a recent game against the Dodgers. I met up with him for dinner afterward and presented him with two pairs of the logo stirrups but was resigned to thinking this phase was now over. To my surprise, he thought they were cool and has been wearing them ever since. Apparently some of his teammates think they’re cool too. Could a stirrup revival be next?

Jeff has now given me permission to write about all of this, so here we are. Kudos to him for going the extra mile with his brother-in-law.

As for Heilman, he’s always struck me as more interesting than the average ballplayer. In his Mets days, his entry music was “London Calling” (leading to lots of stains in Scott Turner’s underwear), and now this — nice.

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off a free college football helmet from Gridiron Memories. For details, look here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: In case you missed it yesterday afternoon, here’s my annual college football column on ESPN. … Whoa, look at the bizarre facemask worn by Hub Reed of the Pistons during the 1964-65 season (great find by Jeremy Brahm). … New football uniforms for Towson. … The longest NOB in sports has a new home (as noted by Adam Elkana-Hale). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: New mask for Pascal Leclaire. … Cool slideshow of the Predators’ logos being prepped for on-ice application here (with thanks to Nick Church). … “While you were out, I made my annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair,” writes Steve Young. “As I was walking around, I stumbled upon the booth for Living History Farms. It’s a living museum that demonstrates farm living throughout Iowa’s history. Part of the museum is a simulated 1870s town called Walnut Hill, with a baseball team, the Bluestockings, and they had a Bluestockings uni on display.” … Good Luc Robitaille jersey story here (with thanks to Andrew Kleinhans). … No photo, but an interesting observation by Michael Jaworski: “Bobby Cox was wearing a catcher’s mitt while in the dugout throughout Thursday’s night’s Marlins/Braves game, or at least he just got ejected in the 8th. The dugouts down here are the only MLB dugouts without any kind of rail or fence, so Cox wears the mitt in case a line foul ball comes at him in the dugout. I’d never seen that before.” … Bizarre observation from James T. Huening from last night’s Bears/Browns game: “Just as I started asking myself ‘Why am I still watching this game?,’ I noticed that Bears third-string QB Brett Bazanez doesn’t have George Halas’s initials on his left sleeve. That’s odd. Wait a minute — he has them on his right sleeve.” … Nice little video clip about the Penn State equipment staff prepping the team’s helmets, and another one about some classic helmets from the team’s past (both courtesy of Bryan Koval). … After wearing a single-flapped S100 on Tuesday and a double-flapped S100 on Wednesday, David Wright went back to a Cool-Flo yesterday, almost certainly making him the first MLBer ever to wear three different helmet styles in three consecutive games. … So much going on in this softball shot. The third basegirl has a mask, a bow in her hair, and nail polish, the runner has a mask and a Little League patch, and can someone please explain why softball players still wear short? (With thanks to Matt Mitchell.)

Holiday Schedule: Phil will offer his usual 13-course tasting menu over the weekend, and I’ll have some sort of content on Monday — maybe a real entry, more likely just a photo from my Sunday barbecue party. Either way, comments will be open. Back to regular content on Tuesday.

Remember this entry about how the A’s used one logo on their caps and a slightly different one on their helmets? Several readers have noticed that the cap version of the logo, which has slightly more severe angles, now appears to have spread to all of Oakland’s helmets. So yesterday I sent a quick note to A’s equipment manager Steve Vucinich: “Have you made a small adjustment in your batting helmet decals that you’d like to tell me about, hmmm?”

Here’s his response:

You guys are too good! After one of your readers noticed the different logo on Giambi’s helmet, we investigated the situation and found that Rawlings had changed their decal supplier. The new company decided they would make the logos as specified on the official ‘MLB club logo and uniform graphics’ sheet. So we were wrong for the past few years and now stand corrected! We have since replaced all the old/incorrect logos with the right ones.

So now the team’s cap and helmet logos match — all because of Uni Watch. Well done, people.

New ESPN column today (not tomorrow, as I had originally thought). I’m heading to Shea to meet up with Phil for today’s Mets/Cards debacle game, so I won’t be around when the column goes live, but just poke around on Page 2 sometime after 12:30pm or so — shouldn’t be hard to find.

But meanwhile, here’s a big announcement to ruin your day: Everyone goes on vacation in August, and I’ve decided that Uni Watch needs to get in on that action, especially considering how hectic the spring and summer have been for me and those close to me. So beginning next Thursday, August 13th, this site will go on hiatus for the rest of the month. There will be no new content and no commenting during this period — just a static home page with a “Gone Fishin’” note. We’ll reopen for business on September 1st.

I know this will mess with many people’s daily routines (including mine), but I think that’s a good thing. We could all use a little break, and this is the right time to do it, before football season starts.

I’ll have at least one ESPN column running while the blog is down, probably on August 20th, and will likely have one or two other ESPN items running as well. I’ll link to those from the home page as they come up, so you can check the site from time to time, or you can just sign up for my mailing list, which I use to notify folks when I have new ESPN content.

No need to send Ticker contributions while the site is on hiatus — with one important exception: I am very much in the market for any news regarding new college football uniforms for the upcoming season (esp. for BCS teams) and will happily accept any contributions on that front. Many thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.

And hey, if you spot something so mind-blowing that you just have to share it, go ahead. But honestly, if it’s just a simple “So-and-so’s sleeve patch was missing last night,” save yourself the trouble and go do something fun with your friends or family, or plant something in your garden, or cook something you’ve never made before, or go for a bike ride, or surprise your mom with a phone call. We’ll both be better for it.

Chat Correction: Friday’s web chat on ESPN.com will be at noon (not 1pm, as I had previously indicated). The chat page is here, but please don’t submit any questions until the chat actually starts. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Einsteins in the Mets’ marketing department strike again (with thanks to Tom Mulgrew). … No photo, but a good observation by Robert Gelles, who writes: “Adam LaRoche was with the Red Sox for six days, all home games. Friday night, just a few hours after LaRoche was traded back to the National League, David Ortiz was interviewed re: his steroid issue. In the background, you could see LaRoche’s gray road uni, which he never wore, hanging in his locker.” … Vince found some Indians stirrups on eBay. … Distant Replays founder Andy Hyman interviewed me for his new blog. … Robert Marshall has added some new videos and photos to his bobblehead project. If you want him to make a custom-designed bobblehead for you, get in touch with him here. … Not uni-related, but my buddy Jeff Katz, who happens to be the deputy mayor of Cooperstown and the author of this excellent baseball book, has a great blog project called “Maybe Baby,” which is basically a “What if..?” approach to rock and roll history. Really good stuff — check it out here. … New logo for North Dakota athletics. … What’s that on the official’s cap? It’s a breast cancer awareness logo, which the zebras will wear, along with pink wristbands, for certain games in October (with thanks to Mark E. Kluczynski). … The Titans have been practicing in their Oilers throwback gear (with thanks to Lee Wilds). … It’s a little hard to make out, but this is a Cyrillic NOB. “It’s from CSKA Moscow’s jerseys from Super Series ’86 against the LA Kings,” says Kevin Wright. “As far as I know, this series was the only time the Red Army wore Cyrillic NOBs during a tour against NHL teams. All the other years I’ve seen had names translated to the Latin alphabet or, rarely, NNOB.” … Latest member of Stirrup Nation: Lastings Milledge. “The shoes don’t really go with that look, though,” notes Doug Keklak. Actually, the shoes violate MLB color standards (with thanks to Jerry Wolper). … Bizarre-o soccer kit for Club Tijuana, a team in Mexico’s Liga de Ascenso, or second division (with thanks to Sy Hart). … With the arena league now kaput, Coachie Ballgames has provided a posthumous arena logo roundup. … Mario Carr sent over a bunch of pics from his Little League days. … Small notice on this page about USA Hockey unveiling its jeseys for the 2010 Olympics on August 17th (thanks, Teebz). … “You still see a good number of Aaron Rowand jerseys at White Sox games,” says Scott Schaaf, “but never one quite like this.” … Here’s a very cool slide show full of great historical images of the teams that have graced Dublin’s Croke Park, which is the national stadium for Gaelic football and hurling (Coachie Ballgames again).