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Posts filed under 'MLB'
The Twins unveiled their new uni set yesterday afternoon, and reader Jeff Barak was on hand to take some photos and get some crucial info. Let’s take a look:
• The new home uni: Pretty much the same as the old one, except they’ve tweaked the insignia (personally, I never liked the old one, so I wasn’t looking for tiny incremental changes — I was hoping for an overhaul) and added the obligatory inaugural season stadium patch (nice enough — here’s a closer look). But the big news, according to Jeff Barak, who specifically asked about this, is that they’re finally scrapping the nameplates and going with direct-sewn lettering, which means no more pinstripus interruptus. So is it good or is it stupid? The NOB change alone is enough to make it good.
• The new road uni: Love the jersey, hate the two-tone cap. There’s already been some griping that the jersey looks too much like the Nats’ road design, but I’m okay with it (and let’s face it, it’s a huge improvement over the old road pinstripes). Other pluses: Direct-sewn NOBs, an anniversary sleeve patch that doesn’t suck (although it also isn’t great — enough already with the beveled numerals, and doesn’t the zero look a little too bulbous?). Only potential pitfall: The insignia breaks across the placket at a less than graceful spot. Overall, though, quite good.
• The new home throwback: Ding-ding-ding-ding! Even better than last season’s throwback, because they won’t be wearing them with that stupid red cap I hated. Plus the pins are nice, the cream base fabric is nice, the sleeve patch is nice (and yes, the cap patch is idiotic, but whaddaya gonna do — endure it for one year and then we can all pretend it never happened), and hey, NNOB! They’ll be wearing this beauty on Opening Day and then for Saturday home games. Very, very good.
• The new solid navy alternate: More of less the same as the old one, except for the insignia tweak, plus they’ll be wearing this one with a navy “M” cap instead of a red “TC” cap (or at least that’s the plan — headwear protocols tend to get very laissez faire after the first month or so). Whatever, solid alternates are always stupid.
• The new home pinstriped vest: Can’t believe they didn’t git rid of this thing. You’ve heard of addition by subtraction? Well this is subtraction by continuation. And it’ll look even worse this year, because they’re gonna put the stadium-opening patch on the upper-right chest, where it’s gonna stick out like a festering sore. ¡Estúpido!
Overall: The Twins will be a better-looking team in 2010 than they were in 2009, but not by as much as they could have been. Maybe next time they’ll have the balls to scrap the home insignia and “M” cap, which reek of 1980s.
(Further press release-y details here and here.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Hey look, they fished an old billboard out of Puget Sound! Oh wait, no they didn’t. Douchebags. … Underbill alert from Andy Chalifour, who spotted something written under Dave Dravecky’s brim. … A girls’ soccer team in Pittsburgh recently played a benefit game to raise funds to fight children’s blindness, and Tony Bruno’s niece wore a Braille NOB. … There are football gloves and then there are football gloves. “That’s Hamilton Tiger-Cat receiver Dave Stala,” says Jim Vilk. “I kind of like them, even though the first thing I thought of was Audrey Hepburn.” … Yesterday I asked about cross-sport memorials, and Lendsey Thomson came up with this one: “That’s me chucking it when I played at Bradley. On my left sleeve you will see the cross patch that was in memory of Danny Dalquist, a Bradley soccer player killed in a fire before school started in 2007. All of the Bradley teams had this patch or some variation on their jerseys.” … Latest apostrophe catastrophist: Pizza Hut. … Officially speaking, the Orioles do not have any uni changes in store for next season. Unofficially, however, they appear to have made a small tweak to their script, as discussed here. … Is there anything Nike won’t swoosh-ify? Nope (with thanks to Maks Skuz). … Did you know there’s gonna be a National High School Sports Hall of Fame opening in Larry Holmes’s hometown? I didn’t, until Kirsten told me yesterday. … My friends Charles and Carrie have started a “Brooklyn Jews” T-shirt project (available here). Nice, but it ain’t no Jewboys. … Nice shot of Terry Bradshaw wearing the 1969 centennial decal. And man, look at the size of his uni number! (With thanks to Josh McDaniel.) … Check out this interesting front-helmet logo. “It’s a semi-pro team called the Kings, but I’m not sure where they’re from,” says Brian Schulz. … Slideshow of Oklahoma’s riflery uniforms here. “The gloves and cleats are nice, but everything else looks like a knock-off Sooner uni you would find at Wal-Mart,” says Tulsa resident Jordan Guthmann. “Also, no images of the white helmet, but thankfully they took a close-up of the belt buckle. Bogus.” Press release that reads like a love letter to (or, more likely from) the Nike Propaganda Minister here. … Lots of new rugby uniforms in New Zealand (with thanks to Dylan Moran). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Wearing the wrong uniform can land you in the hoosegow. … Jason Bini says this poster is hanging on the wall at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. “It’s in the middle of a hallway filled with inspirational pro, college, and Olympic athlete photos,” he says. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Check out the tremendous old AFL and NFL patches available here (thanks, Ricko). … Lots to like in this Shorpy pic, esp. the caded collars on the jerseys and the overall feeling of texture — so much texture! That’s what got me interested in uniforms in the first place (with thanks to Stuart Greenlee). … The U.S. World Cup jersey may have been leaked. If that really is the design, I’m gonna be pretty happy — the swoosh notwithstanding, it’s a beauty. … Skeebs gave Brandon Jacobs the cow-catcher treatment for yesterday’s practice but says it was just a one-and-done kinda thing. “Would look better with a visor,” he notes.
Because selling them is easier than dusting them: After weeks of selling old indie singles on eBay, I’ve now moved on to a few select LPs and zines. Anyone who bids on the Suckdog LP and the copy of Siltbreeze gets a free dinner (well, assuming you’re willing to go a restaurant and walk out on the check, which should be no problem for anyone interested in Suckdog and Siltbreeze); anyone who bids on all five issues of The Baffler gets to hear some funny stories about Tom Frank (he and I share a birthday, which was really fucking annoying in 1998); and anyone who bids on the three copies of Disaster gets a free scan of My Wife (a hilarious one-sheet zine from the same era) featuring a Bill Callahan comic. Bid early and often, etc., etc.
November 17th, 2009
Two weekends ago I was in Cooperstown, where Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber was kind enough to give a private behind-the-scenes tour to me, Kirsten, and my old college pals Jeff Katz and Ben McTernan. Naturally, I dressed for the occasion (thanks, RPM).
Most of our time was spent in the Hall’s archives, basically a huge storage area where they keep everything that isn’t currently on display. Since they display only about 15% of their collection at a time, the archives are essentially a huge trove of goodies that most visitors never get to see. Also, because the Hall holds onto everything once it’s accessioned, the archives also feature loads of items that will never be displayed because they’re sort of silly or of dubious historical value. Naturally, these items were my favorites.
Among the highlights:
• Here’s Tom holding Joe Rudi’s suitcase. For some reason I was particularly fond of this item, maybe because it’s green and gold.
• I was very pleased to see that Tom maintains a binder of patches, organized by team and by subject.
• What are these? They’re old season passes that many ballparks used to issue, and holy shit are they beautiful.
• Were were these two items worn by the same player? Nope. Tom was nice enough to let me hold the Babe’s jersey, which had this nice chain-stitched i.d. label.
• As for Gehrig’s cap, there’s something really nice about that smaller “NY” logo, no? Wish they’d go back to that.
• What are those notches around the Louisville Slugger logo? Each one represents a home run that Babe Ruth hit that year (sorry, I forget which season it was). Incredibly, the notches were added by a collector, not by Ruth. Correction, the notches were added by Ruth with each tater he hit. The collector added that label, though. Maybe that’s why Tom allowed me to pose with the lumber. (That’s Tom in the background, looking slightly concerned that I might swing and cause a big crash or something.)
• Why does the Hall of Fame have a shovel? Because it’s from the Dodger Stadium groundbreaking.
• The Hall has a huge collection of baseball-related artwork, most of it endearingly cheesy. For some reason I really liked this painting, although I no longer remember why. Maybe beause of the belt buckle!
• These Brooklyn bricks got me a little misty-eyed.
• We spent some time in the photo library (but not too long, cuz it’s refrigerated in there), where Tom showed us some gorgeous old pics.
• Tom was also proud to show us a few recent displays out in the public areas of the museum, including an exhibit devoted to baseball in the Olympics. I was especially fond of this jersey. Is that a beauty or what?
There was a lot more, but we were too busy having fun to take photos. Speaking of which, special thanks to Kirsten, who took most of the above-linked pics. You can see her full set from our visit here.
Raffle Results: The three winners of the poster raffle are, in order, Evan Shanley, Art Savokinas, and Brian Jones, all of whom should send me their shipping addresses pronto.
For those of you who didn’t win (or didn’t enter the raffle), Infojocks designer Jeremy Yingling has an offer to help cushion the disappointment: If you follow and mention @infojocks on Twitter, he’ll forward you a coupon good for 20% off any poster order.
Sponsor Shout-Out: As you may have noticed, T-shirt operative Miss Wit (aka Brooklyn’s own Deb Goldstein) is selling a fairly brilliant T-shirt. Just sayin’.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s Virginia Tech’s riflery uniform, as photographed by Shawn Brown, who attended the unveiling. … Lots of cool sports-related artwork from an illustrator named Paul Rogers. Much of his work is clearly a homage to former Wrigley/Cubs art director Otis Shepard (with thanks to Ryan Connelly). … What’s the deal with the weird gray panels on RPI’s hockey socks? Almost looks Photoshopped, but Mike Adams says he got the pics from the team’s official web site. … Here’s how not to wear a Dallas Stars jersey (as spotted by Craig Ward). … New World Cup soccer kit for Japan (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Cool contribution from Chad Wilson, who writes: “Over the weekend, my hometown high school, the Glen Oaks Panthers in Baton Rouge, clinched their first district/region championship since 1995 and they posted this picture in the local paper. Check out the striped socks — and cleats! — on No. 1.” … Here’s what the Stephen Colbert speedskating sponsorship patch looks like (with thanks to Matt Englander). … Okay, it’s official, civilization as we know it is totally fucked (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … And in case that last link didn’t convince you, here’s just what the world needs: a soccer player with his Twitter feed printed on his cleats (as forwarded by Jordan Guthmann). … Is it possible that an NFL official really had pom-poms on the brim of his cap? Ron Amadeo took that screen shot (also this one), and I kinda suspected him of sending me a Photoshopped hoax, but then he showed me this wire service shot. Anyone..? … Not sure if anyone posted this in the weekend comments, but here’s what Texas A&M’s Fort Hood memorial decal looked like. … Steve Cook attended Sunday’s Eagles/Cowboys game and spotted this dude in the crowd. Love the “NFL” on the collar — like, just in case you didn’t know which league those logos belonged to. … Blackhawks will be wearing camo warm-ups tomorrow night. I’m sure Native Americans in Illinois and elsewhere will appreciate the juxtaposition of an Indian head the U.S. military. Why not just rename the team Manifest Destiny for a night and get it over with? … UNC broke out the throwbacks last night — nice! More photos here. … Tons of great old hockey imagery on this Canadian archive site, including cool photos, even cooler trading cards, and more. Worth exploring (big thanks to Alan Kreit). … “Must be the shoes,” says Brinke Guthrie. … Speaking of Monday Night Football, Wyatt Silverman notes that Troy Polamalu had a little cross embroidered above his nameplate. Has it been there for years and nobody ever noticed because of his hair? If anyone knows more, please speak up. … Aussie rules football news from Drew Douglas, who reports that Adelaide Crows have a new logo and road kit and the Brisbane Lions have a new logo. … Here’s a breakdown of all the EPL kits from last weekend (with thanks to Michael Orr).
November 10th, 2009
By Phil Hecken & James Huening
Back with my wingman, and UW pollster, James Huening again today, to bring you our nine finalists in the “Worst. Uni. Ever.” poll. You selected the nominees, and you voted (oh, boy did you vote), and now we’ve narrowed it down to the nine worst. One last round of voting will decide the winner of perhaps the most inauspicious title in all uniformity: Worst Ever.
Not much else for me to say, so I’ll turn it over to James who’ll take you through the final piece of the process. Here’s James:
~~~
Last weekend, we presented our candidates for worst uniform in the history of ever (or at least in the history of North American team sports). We asked you to vote in a survey to determine the finalists. More than 2,600 responses were received, which means this was our most successful survey to date.
The field has been narrowed down. We’ve got our nine finalists. Now it’s up to you to decide what is the worst (North American) uniform ever.
So without further ado, let’s meet the finalists.
In the Major League Baseball category: the 1978 San Diego Padres.
From the National Basketball Association, the expansion Toronto Raptors.
Representing the National Football League, we have the Seattle Seahawks‘ lime/electric/snot/neon green alternate.
The National Hockey League gave us our only truly close race. Only a handful of votes separated our top vote-getter from the second place finisher. And that top vote-getter is the “Flying V” of the Vancouver Canucks.
The next category is for Short-lived Uniforms. These are the ones that lasted a handful of games at most. It seems fitting that the 1976 Chicago White Sox get that “honor.”
Next, the Minor Leagues. This one wasn’t even close. The Tucson Toros absolutely ran away with this vote. Is it any wonder?
The University of Oregon Ducks and their mix & match “diamondplate“ look are representing the NCAA in our poll.
Our soccer representative is another runaway winner. The Caribous of Colorado got nearly triple the votes that the other two contestants did.
Last up, we have the Orlando Thunder of the WLAF representing the Miscellaneous Pro Football category.
Full results are here, here and here.
Now that you’ve met the contestants, please tell us which is the worst of the worst. There are more pictures in the poll. You can click on them to see the full-size versions.
The poll can be found here. Time to vote!
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Awesome work, James. Big round of applause to Mr. Huening for undertaking the monumental task of tallying more than 2,600 votes. But our work here is not quite done. We still need to pick a “winner.” So follow the link provided above and cast your final vote for the “Worst. Uni. Ever.” The future of the world is depending on you We’ll have the results next week. And may the worst uniform win.
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OK, I’ve been receiving a LOT of NFL uniform tweaks from you guys (thanks!)…so many that if I don’t start running a few with each post, well…there will be a couple of weekends of JUST uniform tweaks (and we really don’t want that, do we?). I kid, I kid. But many of these are really good, and so, today I will begin to mete out the first buhch I received.
Our first set of tweaks comes from John Mattson, who writes:
Here’s my shot at
Bengals (also here and here), Vikings, Falcons, and Cardinals.
It am not a graphic designer and it is done on the simple Paint application on all windows PCs.
Thanks for all your great work. Let me know your thoughts.
Next up is Andrew Greenwood (”Greenie”), who sent me the following just as we were beginning our polling:
Phil,
In anticipation of the news that the Buffalo Bills were the lowest scoring team in UniWatch’s first ever jersey poll ranking, I’ve come up with this new design. Simply put, the Bills need yellow. There is no yellow in the AFC East, and there are already enough teams that wear red and blue. Since the Rams dumped this color pairing when they switched to the metallic gold, it’s a team identity up for grabs. Also, this color scheme compliments the only other Big 4 team that Buffalo has, the Sabres. Simple helmet logo (someone on UniWatch had the idea to get rid of the red line on the logo, and I believe you did your quick and dirty best to show it), classic NFL helmet striping blue-fat white-blue, two fat shoulder stripes for contrast, and a UNIFORM stripe pattern on all three pants. Two more fat stripes on the sack finishes the look. Can’t wait for the poll results.
(I actually voted the Jags and Cards lowest, but I think the Bills will edge them out. Go Pack!)
Next up is Shaun Tunick, who sent me a few different concepts, in a couple of different e-mails (so this may sound somewhat ‘cut and pastish’). We’ll look his tweaks for the Broncos, Patriots, Falcons and Giants now:
Tweaks for the Broncos and Pats, for the Broncos i took out the weird side to chest stripe/panel, and changed the color scheme back to the royal blue and orange, and then switched the jersey back to orange… i mean they have never had a blue jersey before, so why should they? i also replaced the horn stripe thing on the pants with the striping from the 1977 orange crush uniforms. also, i got rid of the weird helmet stripe. for the patriots, all i really wanted to do was get rid of the really frickin annoying blue side panel on the away jersey, and i ended up taking it off and also the piping from the home jersey. edited the pants stripes a little.
[PH here - Shaun did two Falcons mockups -- an original and a revised edition, which he describes below -- his first version is here]
i wanted to change the pants piping, i hate how it flares out at the bottom but i just didnt want it to look like complete garbage. i really like the striping that you guys did on the bengals, cant remember what it is called… but i meant to get rid of the piping on the pants. something like what they wore 97-02 would look great too. and on the jerseys the one thing i was thinking about was getting rid of the black, i dont really mind the piping there.
And about the helmets, i just wanted to see what a red mockup of the current helmet would look like, and i just threw the mid 80s helmet in there for kicks because that is IMO the best set theyve had… the one with the logo resting on the shoulder stripes, something that would never work today.. On the pants, it is silver, something that they started in 78 and then decided to ditch with the new uniforms.
Hey sorry forgot to throw in the giants, i edited the away jersey just a bit… anyway thanks a bunch for checking this out!
Moving on, we have a submission from Ed Westfield, Jr. (”Eddie Atari”), who wanted to fix the Giants. Here’s Ed:
I liked Phil & Ricks’ NFL uni tweaks, and I have another one for the
Giants. I’ve said before that there is not enough blue in the road
kit, so how about… BLUE PANTS?!
Here’s my Photoshop mockup.
I’m usually a Giants purist, but I actually like this, especially with
the red/grey/blue stripe in tact. Note: It should ONLY be worn with
white jerseys…
Last up for today is a first batch from Uni Watch’s #1 Broncos fan, a man who simply goes by Denver Gregg. He first sent me a batch, of (surprisingly) Denver Broncos mockups. We’ll look at those today. Here’s Gregg:
Hiya Phil
You do a great job with the weekend site!
I’ve been a Broncos fan as long as I can remember, and there has always been something that’s bothered me about the unis. I remember doing a copper and silver redesign in 1973 (long since mercifully lost). Anyway I decided to do a 2010 re-design, incorporating elements of current and past unis. I’ve kept the elements I like in the current set – especially the number and letter typefaces, the colors and matching the helmet color to the principal jersey color. I know my MS paint skills aren’t that great, so there are a few things that look a bit off (like the hue of the orange). There’s something in this set from each of the five generations of Bronco uniforms.
I did four variations on the socks. Denver2010 is probably a bit too out there. Denver2010a may look too similar to another team’s 75th anniversary throwback attire. I don’t really like Denver2010c, but it’s needed to balance out Denver2010b.
I also took the liberty of changing the helmet logo. The first one I remember is the horse coming through the ‘D’. I thought that was too busy and had the drawback of a horse facing the wrong way on one side of the helmet. When I saw the “amoeba horse” of the 1960s in old pictures, I was horrified – regardless of its eye color. I don’t like all the swooshes on the cyberhorse. So I took the best past element and isolated it. It probably needs work, but the idea could be worth pursuing.
I fully understand if (1) you have other stuff on deck; and (2) this isn’t up to snuff from a craftsmanship standpoint. If you have time to give me feedback, though, that would be great.
That’s gonna do it for today on the NFL tweaks. I’ve got LOTS more in store for you in the coming weeks, so if you sent me something and it’s not in this batch — don’t despair — it’s coming. For anyone else interested in sending in mockups, gimme a shout.
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 Our man in the street, Jim Vilk (taken at the Kent State/Akron game) brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:
5. Oklahoma/Nebraska: I miss seeing this every Thanksgiving weekend.
4. Furman/Auburn: Tigers are back, and bringing some snazzy Paladins with them.
3. LSU/Alabama: Best conference with another of the best uni-matchups.
2. Washington/UCLA: Even without the Bruins throwing back, this is a Top-Fiver.
1. Duke/UNC: It’s awesome, baby!
And the worst matchup: Navy/Notre Dame: It’s like going to a dance with your twin – it just ain’t right.
And as a special bonus pick, Jim awards “UW Honorable Mention to” Tulsa/Houston: Now Leon’s not the only one seeing red when it comes to Tulsa unis
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK — back to football today. Not sure if you guys like these, but this one may be interesting. You should be able to determine the location and the teams with ease. So it’s just a date and a final score that’s needed. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Place a link to the answer from pro football reference. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line and help a fella out, k? Thanks!
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 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. Unfortunately, the Ducks winning streak came to a screaching halt yesterday, as they were upset down in Palo Alto by the Cardinal. In their second loss of the season (a possible derailment of their bullet train to the Rose Bowl), one stark fact emerges: White unis=bad. Might be safe to say this is the last time they’ll be outfitted in both white pants and jerseys in 2009. Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker.
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 You knew the Boys of Benchies liked football and baseball, but today we find they also have an affinity for a non-major sport. They’re up to their usual hilarity and hijinx when one of the Original Six makes an appearance in their hometown. That Mick…he kills me. On that note, Enjoy Your Benchies for today.
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Couple last things: Pacific Rim Correspondent Jeremy Brahm reports that even Japan is doing the Olde Tyme Baseball thing — check out that catchers’ mask! … Yesterday, both Oregon/Stanford and USC/ASU featured games where the officials were wearing one blue sleeve (sorry, no screen grabs) — it could best be described as a “long” blue sleeve worn on the right arm, underneath their regular official’s jersey (sort of like Jacoby Ellsbury in reverse). Anyone know what was up with that? … No Legacy Games today in the NFL, but we can all look forward to the Buccaneers busting out Bucco Bruce and the creamsicles in the Battle of the Bays (and that’s the early FOX game).
That’ll do it for today. Everyone have a great Sunday, and don’t forget to cast your vote for the WORST UNIFORM EVER.
November 8th, 2009
I’ve written several times about Earl Battey of the Twins, who in 1963 attached a metal plate to the side of his batting helmet, thereby becoming the first MLB player to wear an earflap.
I’d never seen another player wearing an improvised flap until scrolling through yesterday’s comments, where Larry Wiederecht posted a link to an eBay auction for this 1964 wire service photo.
Wow! Never seen that before, so I immediately e-mailed the photo to uni designer Todd Radom and Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber, who’d never seen it either. Lots of info to process here — one thing at a time:
• Oliva played on the Twins, same as Battey, so the Minnesota equipment staff had some experience in making this type of helmet attachment. Which begs the question: Did any other Twins wear the improvised flap?
• Hard to be sure what the flap is made of. Metal? Plastic?
• Fascinating to see that Oliva resisted wearing the attachment because he thought it looked goofy. Forty-five years later, we’re going through the same safety-vs.-aesthetics issue with the S100 helmet. Some things never change.
• The caption mentions that Oliva grudgingly wore the flap in batting practice, but it’s not clear whether he ever wore it in a game. Ricko, can you shed any light on this?
• I have never been able to determine exactly when ABC Helmet began making helmets with real earflaps. I had always wondered whether Battey’s improvised flap in 1963 had led ABC to start making flapped helmets in ’64. But judging by the Oliva photo, that’s not what happened. Hmmmmm…
Big thanks to Larry for finding this photo — a major piece of the helmet history puzzle.
And now we have a truly ridiculous number of extra-curricular announcements (anything to take my mind off of last night’s ballgame)…
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off three cool posters from Infojocks Sports Graphics. Details here.
About freakin’ time: Many of you have asked me to give the DIY posts their own category/tag/etc. Unfortunately, we were using an old, creaky version of WordPress and had maxed out the number of categories — I couldn’t add any more. But Johnny Ek upgraded us to a new version of WordPress a few days ago and, as you can see in the right rail, our list of categories now includes “DIY Projects.” If you click on that link, you’ll get all our past DIY entries grouped together in one spot. Sorry it took so long to achieve something so simple.
Twitch, or Twat, or whatever the hell it’s called: Speaking of the tech upgrade, you may have noticed that there’s now a little “Follow us” link on the right side of your browser window. That’s because John has finally dragged me — semi-kicking, quasi-screaming — into the world of Twitter. Each new daily post here on the site automatically generates a new toot with a link to that post, plus I may occasionally flutter during the day, but I don’t expect to do it all that often (I mean, shit, this here web site should be enough of a soapbox for whatever I want to say, right?). Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, feel free to join the party.
And hey, as long as we’re talking about tech stuff: John is currently running some analytics to help us get a better grip on our traffic and readership. You can help by adding the Alexa add-on to your browser (it’s quick and painless, promise) and then filling out the little form thingie when your browser reboots. If you’d rather not, that’s fine; but if you’re willing, Firefox users can add Alexa here, and IE users can find it here. Thanks.
Beefsteak Update: This Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak event is sold out, although I’m told there may be some tickets available at the door. Keep an eye on this page for updates. For those of you who were smart enough to buy tix in advance, I’ll see you on Sunday.
Uni Watch Party Update: We’ll be gathering on Sunday the 15th, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. Ryan Connelly’s coming all the way from Pittsburgh to attend, so all you NYCers really have no excuse not to show up.
Uni Watch News Ticker: As had been rumored earlier in the week, Ohio State will be wearing throwbacks on November 21st. This photo made the rounds yesterday, although it’s unclear if that’s the design that will be used on the 21st. I’m sure someone will leak the appropriate info shortly. … Chris Douglas-Roberts has a mighty long NOB (as spotted by James Savage). … Nicole Haase notes that Marquette’s retired number banners show each number in jersey-appropriate type and colors. … Steven Tatar sent me 20 more photos from his visit to that varsity jacket factory. … The Ducks (Anaheim, not Oregon) wore camouflage jerseys during warm-ups on Tuesday, as a military-appreciation gesture (with thanks to John Muir). … It’s one thing to put a ski jump in an outdoor stadium, but how about inside the Boston Garden? Brian Codagnone, quoting from a museum exhibit at the TD Garden Sports Museum, explains: “In the 1930s, when the ski craze first swept the East, sportsman Walter Brown became obsessed with the idea of hosting a winter carnival at Boston Garden. Stumped by the cost and difficulty of importing snow for indoor use, Brown one day passed a fish market, where he noticed a handsome cod packed in ice that was ‘chopped up so fine it looked like corn snow.’ The merchant showed him his grinding machine and Brown super-sized the concept, ordering larger versions that could handle 500 tons of ice. In December 1935, a five-story ski jump was erected in the Garden rafters and hundreds of amateur skiers showed up, unaware it was intended for professional jumping demonstrations. The concept of indoor slopes and annual ski shows caught on, and were copied at Madison Square Garden and other arenas.” … Chris Paul has been wearing a captain’s “C” (here’s how it looks on the road). “David West also wore a ‘C’ for the home opener vs. the Kings (it’s hard to see, but it’s there) but he didn’t wear one during the Spurs, Celtics or Knicks road games,” says Jason Hijuelos. … Check out Henrik Lundqvist’s lastest mask design (with thanks to Matt Harris). … England’s new rugby kit is the color of the beast (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Truly sensational video clip on old hockey sweaters here (big thanks to Ethan Crooks). … Mariano Rivera wore a road BP jesey at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday’s workout (good spot by Jonathon Binet). … I’m still calling it St. James’ Park (with thanks to Matt Beahan). … What brand are these jerseys? … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. Also, note that Moe Drabowski, at far left, is wearing his jersey tucked in, even though that jersey design was meant to be worn untucked (nice find, Phil). … Eric Romain notes that Sean Avery has already worn three different helmets this season. … Bill Scrowther found some excellent old photos on Utah’s state history site. Among the highlights: three separate examples of vertical placket lettering (look here, here, and here), a Budweiser-sponsored baseball team, and some very odd basketball pants. … Check out the second service listed on this page — a cure for logo creep! How awesome would it be if a few thousand jersey owners engaged her services? (Thanks, Kirsten.) … Further evidence of how corporate footwear deals make everyone behave like douchebags. … It was a very uni-uneventful World Series, but here’s a great tidbit from AJ Chalifour: All Series long, Mark Teixeira was wearing a pink MLB logo on his jersey.
November 5th, 2009
By Phil Hecken and James Huening
The long awaited “Worst. Uni. Ever.” nominees were submitted (both in last weeks comments as well as dozens of e-mails) and now, James is ready to bring you your selections in a knock-down, drag-out poll format. After receiving literally hundreds of nominees (many of them the “usual suspects” but some we never expected), James has devised the following poll, the link to which appears below. We’ve broken them down into nine categories, the winners of which will “face-off” shortly thereafter in a cage death match to find the absolute worst of the worst, as voted by you. Sounds complicated? Not really.
Simply read James’ descriptions and the pictures of your worst uniform nominees below, as broken down by category. We’ll take the top vote-getters in each category and have them all go up against one another. So with that, lets take a look at each of the nine categories, followed by the poll. James takes it from here:
~~~In the Major League Baseball (MLB) category:
1. First up we have the Cleveland Indians and their solid red uniforms that were worn from 1974 to 1977.
2. Next are the Houston Astros‘ beloved “Tequila Sunrise” uniforms.
3. This one’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser: the New York Yankees’ venerable pinstripes.
4. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ original unis.
5. The 1997-2000 Anaheim Angels.
6. Finally, the 1978 San Diego Padres.
~~~Our next category is the National Football League (NFL):
1. Our first contestant is the Buffalo Bills.
2. Joining them are the Cincinnati Bengals.
3. We go back to the dawn of the AFL for our next nominees, the original Denver Broncos uniforms, which have been on display this season as throwbacks.
4. And of course, we have the Seattle Seahawks and their new alternates.
~~~The National Basketball Association (NBA) is well represented:
1. Starting with the Atlanta Hawks’ 1995-99 uniforms.
2. Staying in the mid-to-late-90s, we have the Cleveland Cavaliers
3. The Detroit Pistons
4. The Houston Rockets
5. The early 90s and the Philadelphia 76ers are not to be forgotten.
6. We’ll head back to the mid/late 90s for the NBA’s two Canadian Representatives: the Toronto Raptors
7. And Vancouver Grizzlies
8. This decade is not completely off the hook, as you can see from the Washington Wizards’ recently-retired alternates.
~~~Plenty of National Hockey League (NHL) unis got nominated.
1. We start with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and their whimsical “Wild Wing” alternate.
2. Staying in California, but going back farther in time, the California Golden Seals had a look that seemed as though it was inspired by UCLA football.
3. Moving to the present day, we have the Atlanta Thrashers alternate.
4. Back to California for the Los Angeles Kings and their “Burger King” jersey.
5. The Nashville Predators and their mustard-colored alternate that was worn from 2001 to 2007 are up next.
6. Next, let’s see the New York Islanders and the “Gorton’s Fisherman” jersey.
7. Back down south for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their 1996-99 alternate.
8. Our only Canadian nominee in this category is the “Flying V” of the Vancouver Canucks.
9. And rounding out this category, the Phoenix Coyotes alternate some refer to as the “Picasso” sweater.
~~~Our next category is for Short-lived Uniforms, whether they were intended to be permanent and scrapped after a handful of wearings or they were intended only to be worn once.
1. We’ll lead things off with the Baltimore Orioles and the orange jerseys and pants they wore for two games in 1971.
2. Joining them are the Chicago White Sox “short pajamas” that were worn in 1976. Nobody really seems to be able to agree on how many times they were worn. Most accounts have them being mothballed after a single wearing, but some say they were worn as many as four times.
3. Next up, the New York Mets and their “Mercury Mets” outfit that was worn as part of the Turn Ahead The Clock promotion in 1999.
4. The Philadelphia Phillies gave us the “Saturday Night Specials” for one game in 1979.
5. The only non-baseball nominee in this category is the Dallas Mavericks “trash bag” alternate uniform worn for a single game in 2004.
~~~We’ll turn to the Minor Leagues now:
1. Starting with the American Defenders of New Hampshire whose regular uniforms feature a camouflage motif.
2. The El Paso Diablos wore yellow, pinstriped uniforms with red pillbox caps in the early 1980s.
3. Our final nominee here is the 1980 Tuscon Toros According to an account I read, the back of the jersey was turquoise.
~~~There are way too many college teams out there to really pinpoint the worst one, so we limited things to the “big two” — NCAA Divison I football and men’s basketball:
1. First, we’ll have a look BYU football’s 1999 redesign
2. Next up, we have Florida A&M football
3. Turning to basketball, NC State’s “leotard” experiment makes an appearance.
4. It wouldn’t be a worst uni poll without Oregon football’s “diamondplate” mix & match set.
5. We’ll close out this category with a pair of football teams dressed from head to toe (or head to knee, at least) in orange: Syracuse
6. And UTEP.
~~~Now we head to the world of Soccer.
1. First, we have the Caribous of Colorado from the NASL. Their innovative jerseys featured fringe.
2. The early days of MLS gave us the Kansas City Wiz (who later became the Wizards).
3. Our third and final soccer nominee is Team USA for their 1994 World Cup unis.
~~~Our final category is Miscellaneous Pro Football.
1. From the CFL’s south-of-the-border expansion days are the Memphis Mad Dogs.
2. The Orlando Rage represent Vince McMahon’s XFL.
3. And we’ll wrap things up with another nominee from Orlando, the 1991-92 Orlando Thunder.
~~~Whew. There you have it. YOUR nominees for the category of “Worst. Uni. Ever.” Only one can win, but you can help narrow it down by voting in the poll below for your worst uniform in the nine categories. Once we have those nine, we’ll resubmit them to you so that we can, once and for all, determine what is the Worst. Uni. Ever.
On to the poll then: GO HERE FOR THE WORST UNIFORM EVER NOMINATIONS POLL.
Thanks again to James Huening for working on this and for coming up with the poll format. We’ll keep the nomination poll open for a week, and have the “playoffs” for the worst ever uni shortly after that. Thanks in advance for your participation!!!
~~~~~~~~~~Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Hokie dokie. Got a football scoreboard today, which comes from reader Billy Duss. Not sure about the difficulty level on this one — kinda one of those “you had to be there” or have seen the game to get it. But we like that here. Definitely one to make you think about it. As always, please find a LINK to the game, which you can post down below in the comments, and not the game itself. As always, date, location and final score, if possible. Ready? Sure. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.
~~~~~~~~~~ Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:
5. Texas/Oklahoma State — A real orange bowl, eh?
4. Tulane/LSU — Green Wave a little too green, but that light blue redeems them.
3. Temple/Navy — A wise old owl didn’t need to tell me to add this to the list.
2. UCLA/Oregon State — My color palette special of the day.
1. Ole Miss/Auburn — Nothing scary about this Halloween matchup at all.
And the worst matchup of the day: San Jose State/Boise State– At least the field looked nice…
~~~~~~~~~~ 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. And what a game it was yesterday. Your #10 Ducks took the #5 Trojans behind the woodshed (are we sensing a pattern here?) and basically put a lock on the PAC-10 and punched their ticket to Pasadena…for the Rose Bowl. Look for them to really move up in the rankings now. Only disappointment was the Ducks outfits — no new carbon-steel helmets, nor black and orange (what — they’d look too much like another Oregon school?) for Hallowe’en. Anyway, Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker. Thanks Mike!
~~~~~~~~~~Ah…yesterday we got to meet Mike’s cousin, Mongo. Well, today, the big guy is back with more of his unique brand of humor. Mongo’s humor that is:
More Mongo
Still More Mongo
Remember, Mongo only pawn in game of life.
~~~~~~~~~~ Bit of a “special” treat for you, since yesterday was Hallowe’en. Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, put together a special assemblage of Hallowe’en-inspired college football games for us that took place. Here ya go:
Happy Halloween matchups.
5. Miami, Fla./Wake Forest
4. Cincinnati/Syracuse
3. Grambling…uh, I mean Georgia/Florida
2. S. Carolina/Tennessee
1. Coastal Carolina/Clemson
Spooky…thanks, Jim.
~~~~~~~~~~And finally, in case you missed it, the Montreal Canadiens trotted out their barberpoles yesterday. Beauty, eh?
Good stuff there. Thanks to Jim & Rick & James & Mike and everyone else along the way. Don’t forget to vote for the WORST UNI EVER nominees. You can even post your guesses as to who you think the nine finalists will be in the comments, if you want.
And for all you uniform designers, and wanna-be designers, if you missed yesterday’s column, be sure to check it out — a chance for you to design a baseball uniform, logo and cap!
One legacy game today: Titans (Jets) versus Dolphins — should be cool to see the fish in something other than dropshadow for a change — you’ll be reminded how good they once looked, and could look again, if they wanted to make that look permanent. Game IV of the World Series tonight. Don’t forget to push your clocks back, if you haven’t already! That extra hour of sleep is so awesome, no? Of course it is.
Everyone have a great Sunday!
November 1st, 2009
Tremendous moment at Yankee Stadium yesterday, as my ESPN colleague Jim Caple and CC Sabathia had the following exchange during an afternoon press conference (you can watch the exchange by skipping ahead to the 7:02 mark of this video clip):
Caple: CC, this is a little [bit of a] goofy question. It’s always been considered a great honor to wear the Yankee pinstripes, and there’s been a lot of speculation that since you are such a broad-shouldered, broad-chested man, that perhaps you have more pinstripes on your jersey than any Yankee in history. I’m wondering whether you’ve ever considerd that? Have you ever counted the pinstripes and where you think you may rank with the other Yankee greats?
Sabathia [smiling]: I don’t know. I mean, I never thought about that, never counted ’em. I do know I probably have the biggest uniform in the history of baseball, though. Proud o’ that.
By “a lot of speculation,” of course, Caple was referring to this column I wrote last December (to my knowledge, nobody else has ever addressed the topic). As you can see, Sabathia handled the question rather adroitly, but others were less amused. Over on WFAN (New York’s top sports talk station), afternoon blowhard Mike Francesa abruptly terminated the station’s coverage of the press conference after Caple’s query, declaring it the dumbest question he’d ever heard, and then dispatched a gopher to determine who’d had the temerity to pose such a worthless query within the hallowed halls of Yankee Stadium. (If you watch the rest of the presser video, you’ll see that the more “serious” questions were real deep-thought material like, “Does the weather forecast concern you?” and “What does it mean to be the ace of a staff?” — soooo much more illuminating that Caple’s question.)
And if the press conference question was enough to raise Francessa’s blood pressure, then he’ll probably bust an artery when he sees this video clip that Caple and I shot at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon. (And yes, you can all go ahead and crucify Jim for his jersey choice, but the wardrobe dept. was a bit strapped yesterday.)
Naturally, I’m pleased that Caple has revived this discussion. My only gripe: He asked the question almost apologetically, labeling it “goofy” before the fact. Never apologize, Jim — no compromises, no apologies! In fact, Caple tells me that several reporters asked him for further details on the pinstripe topic after the presser was over, which just goes to show that there are other media folks who take uni-related storylines seriously, even if a certain radio windbag doesn’t.
Research Request: Got this note yesterday from reader Bruce Genther:
I am writing and illustrating a book on the various professional franchises that have called Baltimore home and the uniforms they wore during their tenure. The sports include baseball, football, basketball, hockey, indoor and outdoor soccer, lacrosse, and indoor football. Almost finished, but information on the 1992-98 Baltimore Spirit soccer uniforms is hard to come by, so I would like the membership’s help. Any photos, descriptions, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Any and all information can be sent directly to me via e-mail. Thanks very much.
Stirrup Club Reminder: Robert Marshall has a new set of stirrups — and football socks! — available for order. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: A high school x-country runner was disqualified for wearing black compression shorts with white stitching, which violated a rule against contrast-color stitching. … A Massachusetts high school is changing its logo because it looks too much like Virginia Tech’s (with thanks to Scott Kaplan). … Dana Czerwinski notes that Nebraska’s sleeve stripes were slightly off-white on Saturday. Anyone know more about that? … New rugby kit for Fiji (”Pretty epic,” says Adam Hainsfurther). … Another pair of interesting practice socks for Raheem Brock (with thanks to Jonathan Mayer). … Speaking of socks, why not get some for your furniture? For further examples, click on “Products” here (nice find, Kirsten). … Tremendous little video clip of Blackhawks logo crests being chain-stitched in a Quebec City factory here. It’s in French, but whatever, chain-stitching is the universal language of beauty, non? (Big thanks to Matt Smith.) … The first time I wrote about my uni catalog collection, way back in July of 2006, I included a paragraph about this Harv-Al catalog. Yesterday I got the following note from Bernadette Lipkin: “My son found your 1966 Harv-Al Catalog on the internet. What a great surprise! My husband is the ‘Harv’ in the Harv-al; his partner at that time was ‘Al’ Rimer, who passed away years ago. They were both young entrepreneurs from Winnipeg. The company was owned by my husband until 2002, when it was sold to Badger Athletic Teamwear of Statesville, North Carolina, where my son now works. I believe the company was started in 1950 or so. In 1972 a branch was opened in Fargo, North Dakota, and then it was moved to Ranger, Texas, in 1979 for marketing and business reasons. What a lot of memories come back when seeing the catalog out there!” … Now there’s a supermarket name! Too bad they don’t sell uniforms (great find by the Baroness Karen McBurnie). … If you liked the curling photos in yesterday’s entry, you’ll love this old curling footage from 1952 (great find by Nathan Haas). … Josh Jedwab has created a set of Mets-themed hockey jerseys. “I’ve lurked around uni web sites long enough to know that people like what they like and hate what they hate, so feedback isn’t my primary aim here. The fact is, I like them. What’s more, I like them enough to be interested in having a prototype of each one fabricated.” Anyone know a likely source where he could get that done? … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Ricko posted some pics of Lincoln High, a Minnesota school that wore vertically striped hose in the early ’60s. … Check out this old shot of Johnny Ramone in a Miami Dolphins tee (and yes, some fan in an Adidas tee, who cares). That’s from this photo exhibit, which is half a mile from my house. I’ll be checking it out shortly. … The Lakers got their rings (further ring info here, and additional photos here and here) and raised their banner last night, and then wore their Opening Night championship patches while beating the Clippers. … We also got our first look at the new NBA officiating attire, which looks very odd from behind.
October 28th, 2009
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.
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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!
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 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!
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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.
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 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.
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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.
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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.)
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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
October 17th, 2009
I recently Ticker-linked to this 1972 photo of an odd Padres cap, with a particularly wide-spanning yellow panel. That item has now prompted some interesting responses — let’s take a look:
• First, several readers have pointed out that the same cap can be seen in this card (and most of them pointed out the huge crowd in the background)k. Y’know, I’ve looked at that card a few jillion times over the years and never noticed the unusual cap.
• Richard Craig has generously scanned a bunch of photos of Padres players wearing the wide-span cap. Most of those are head shots from a ’72 program, plus he also found one action shot. “The player shots include some amazingly unmemorable Padres (including Enzo Hernandez, he of the lifetime OPS of .550 in more than 2600 plate appearances),” Richard notes.
• The most intriguing communiqué comes Robert Walker. “That cap was only used in ’72, only on Sundays, and (from what I have found) only for home games.”
That’s a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. A Sunday-specific cap way back in 1972? I thought the notion of specific uni elements for specific days was a much more modern phenomenon. So I wrote back to Robert: “Were you aware of this at the time, or is it something you’ve become aware of more recently? Is this well-known among Padres fans?” Here’s his response:
I’ve known of the alternate “Zimmer” cap for a while, and somewhere along the line I read about it being a Sunday special. Not too many fans know about this, as there aren’t too many “hardcore” fans like me. I don’t have much in terms of photo evidence besides old Topps cards. But all the photos of the cap that I have seen are from day games, and the only day games in San Diego at the time were Sunday and the occasional “Businessman Special” on Thursday.
After wearing the wide-span chevron cap for Sundays in 1972, the team introduced the tamed-down chevron design as their primary cap in 1973. That cap was used until 1979.
Hmmmm. Hey, Richard Craig, were you aware of this Sundays-in-’72 thing? “Nope, but I was only seven years old at the time,” he says. “All I knew was that they were funny-looking caps, especially in comparison with the later, more minimal front panel. Of course, every aspect of those uniforms was funny looking, even to a kid who didn’t know any different. It all just contributed to our long-held civic inferiority complex about the Padres.”
Can anyone else confirm or refute the Sunday protocol? Does anyone know of any other MLB cap designs that featured wide-span front panels? And did the change in the front panel from ’72 to ’73 reflect a change in cap manufacturers? All subjects for further study.
Finally, one other item regarding the early-’70s Padres: When Richard Craig was scanning those cap photos, he also came across this shot of the team’s proposed Washington uni design. “I’ve read that the team colors would have been purple and gold,” he writes — yikes.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of very cool varsity jackets available on eBay — look here, here, here, here (I really like that one!), here, here (unusual color, great details), here, and here. … And while searching on “varsity,” I came across this very cool-looking game. … Nate Robinson has apparently changed his uni number from 4 to 2 (with thanks to Steve King). … Good time-lapse video of the NLDS logo being applied to the Dodger Stadium field here (with thanks to Dan Cichalski). … Shawn Dzwonkowski has scanned a bunch of pages from an old Sheboygan Red Skins media guide. … My Page 2 colleague Kurt Snibbe created this alternate NFL logos the other day. It took Bill Jones about 24 hours to gumball-ize them. … Didn’t realize Visa was now sponsoring the Niners’ practice jerseys. Fuckers (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Hey, look what happens if you cross a horse with the Batmobile! Actually, that’s a horse training system (thanks, Kirsten). … Oooh, you know I like this. “I stumbled across it in Reminisce, a nostalgia magazine aimed at the AARP demographic,” says Jerry Adams. “I left the caption on, although it appears that nobody really knows what school this is.” … Not uni-related, but this home-movie clip of San Francisco, circa 1958 is gorgeous — the clothes, the signage, the saturated colors. Total eye candy (big thanks to my buddy Shane Arbogast). … We’ve all seen photos of the Wilson football factory, but I figure it’s always fun to see a few more. … Caddies in the President’s Cup have been wearing Giants jerseys. Additional details here and here (as reported by Mike McAllister and John Okray, the latter of whom also reports that Tiger Woods looks swell in argyle). … Ya doesn’t have to call me Johnson, but it would be nice if you could at least spell it correctly. That’s Ryan Johnson of the MLS San Jose Earthquakes (screen shot courtesy of Josh Manck). … Got some spare basketball jerseys lying around? Turn them into produce bags (Kirsten again). … Okay, so I love the vertically striped socks as much as anyone, but maybe they should wait until Sunday, y’know? For more on the Broncos’ throwbacks, go here, click on “Video and Audio,” and then click on “Past Meets Present.” … Anyone know why Evander Holyfield had “Head” on his waistband for his 1994 fight against Michael Moorer? Answers involving snarky mentions of head-butting don’t count (as spotted by Tim Donovan). … Also from Tim: Phillies vendors wear Phillies-style uni numbers. … The whole “We won, let’s untuck!” thing is bad enough, but last night Orlando Cabrera untucked after a loss (as noted by Jen Muller).
October 8th, 2009
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