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Posts filed under 'MLB'
Many of you know Philly-based Bill Henderson as the man behind the essential MLB Game-Worn Jerseys of the Double Knit Era reference guide (which, if you don’t already own it, you should really purchase right now). But he’s also a world traveler who has spread the gospel of uniforms via his collection. Here’s a great story he recently shared with me:
My family and I lived in Japan in 2002-03. While there, I was invited to play baseball in a men’s league. I was so flattered; they saw me taking batting practice at a Tokyo batting cage (real slick — projectors with movies of real pitchers on the screen ahead of you, so the pitcher winds up and deliver and the pitch comes at you like magic right out of his hand). I was puffed up with pride that they admired my Spalding Guide swing.
Anyway, I went to practice and was shocked to discover that half the players were U.S. Military personnel — guys who could put the ball on the roof of the warehouse across the street. Me, once I hit a ball that hit the wall on two bounces. These men were just giant, a different breed from me. But they let me play! It took me three weeks to figure out that they invited me to join because they found out I had a car — a minivan at that, a rarity in Japan because of the cost and difficulty getting a driver’s license. But because I had a car, I could drive several of their best players to and from the games, which were at a field far outside metro Tokyo. To find any open space there, you have to drive 30 miles, which costs a good $20 in tolls plus gas, all of which I paid for.
I was not proud. I kept my secret to myself and played first base and got a bunch of singles and tried to make as few errors as possible.
ANYWAY … The Japanese teams we played all had fancy tailored professional uniforms. We didn’t. Not only that, we made no effort whatsoever to dress alike. There was every combination of softball garb, sweats, and cutoffs.
After a few weeks of this I couldn’t stand it any more. Like any other addict, I had brought a sizeable part of my game-worn uniform collection with me to Japan (no addict can stray far from his stash). I probably have about 20 unis with pants, so after about the third game, I began to arrive for the games dressed in FULL MLB game-worn uniforms (that’s a 2002 throwback uniform I bought from the Pirates).
Nobody on my team ever said a damn thing. But here I was, showing up every week in full 1970s Oakland A’s white (sorry, I had to wear black shoes), as an L.A. Dodger, a 1990 Texas Ranger, a 1979 Oriole with Scotty Ericson’s orange game jersey, a mid-1980s baby blue Phillies road uniform, or even as a 1986 Astro. Yes, that’s a real ’80s rainbow jersey, not a replica. I don’t have 1980s Astros pants, however, so those are Orioles pants from the 1980s. No one seemed to notice. The Japanese just stared at me — I don’t think they knew what to say.
The Rays/Yankees 2003 season opener took place in Japan while I was living there. I went in full Devil Rays regalia and attracted a lot of attention. As you can imagine, everyone there was wearing Yankees stuff … except me. Don Zimmer laughed when he saw me — he was a Rays coach that year. I danced with the Rays mascot (whatever the hell he/she/it is), got on the big TV, embarrassed my kids.
I have many more photos from this period, like me wearing MLB uniforms at every tourist site in Japan. Everyone stared at me. So I stared back.
Bill sent me that dispatch last week. Then, a day or two ago, he sent me a note on another matter, which concluded with the following: “P.S. I have been re-reading, entry for entry, EVERY SINGLE column and blog entry you have published from Jan. 2007 to present. You are one prolific dude. Good lord there is a lot of stuff there.” Despite this blatant brown-nosing, Bill gets points for putting his uni where his mouth is (or something like that) while on foreign soil. Well done, sir.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some nice footage from the 1961 World Series here. … “I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia this past week and went to the Pier 21 museum (like Ellis Island but for Canada),” writes Trevor Ulmer. “I had just missed this exhibit on an early-1900s Vancouver baseball team consisting of Japanese immigrants. The league folded during WWII, as most Japanese immigrants were forced into camps at that time. I didn’t have my camera, so I googled it today and found this. I did get to see this uniform. Hard to tell from the photo, but the fabric is very heavy, like a thicker, softer canvas-type material.” … Wanna paint your body in your school’s colors? You can’t if you go to Grassfield High in Virginia. Details here (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … The Oilers released their alternate jersey yesterday — another straight throwback. … The Browns will be wearing throwbacks this Monday against the Giants. According to this article: “[T]he only real change will be on the helmet, where the two brown stripes down the middle have been removed, leaving only a single white one. In addition, the players’ jersey numbers appear on both sides of their helmets” (with thanks to Ross Hazlett). … This rugby jersey is causing quite a stir. … Latest System of Dress team: Memphis (with thanks to Chris Yarbrough). … Hosiery note from Dan Bingham-Pankratz, who writes: “A high school coach in Racine, Wisconsin, got everyone on the team the same type of black socks, which were previously not part of the uniform, as a tribute to an injured player.” … Lots of you have been asking for a good photo of Riddell’s Revolution Speed helmet. Here’s a good view of it, as worn by Oklahoma’s Travis Lewis (thanks to Darrell Hatfield). … Michigan’s new Adidas hoops uniforms have been unveiled. … The mighty Fleer Sticker Project has posted a four-page spread from 1960, showing a bunch of early NFL youth merchandising (the full entry is here). “I hadn’t realized the NFL was merchandising its teams so aggressively as early as 1960,” says webmaster JC Helf. “I guess with the AFL coming on board that year, NFL Enterprises (which would later become NFL Properties) realized it was time to start heavily marketing the league.” … JC’s also being going thru the Sports Illustrated vault and came up with some interesting stuff, including the Blackhawks’ barber pole design, great striped sleeves being worn by Princeton and Slippery Rock (note the black-stockinged official, too), the Rams’ yellow jerseys, and some gorgeous pics of Notre Dame. … Great work by Ryan Hossner and his shutterbug galpal Bonnie Noble, who attended last night’s Blazers/Kings preseason game and noticed that Donte Green’s “2″ was upside-down. “We made sure to catch him next to Shelden Williams, so you can see the difference,” says Ryan.
October 8th, 2008
As the Cubbies and their fans sift through the rubble of yet another disappointment, reader Dave Lundborg has alerted me to something that may explain some of the team’s recent troubles.
Take a look at these photos from the 1984 National League playoffs between the Cubs and Padres. You’ll see that they all have one thing in common: a huge bulls-eye-ish patch on the Cubbies’ right sleeve. And what does that patch say, you ask? The answer can be found on this Mitchell and Ness throwback — it’s a 1984 division championship patch. And I’m embarrassed to say I wasn’t aware of it until Lundborg brought it to my attention (even though I distinctly remember watching that playoff series in my off-campus apartment during college).
The rub, of course, is that this patch was worn in 1984. In other words, the Cubbies were already patting themselves on the back even though they hadn’t really won anything yet. They even went to the trouble of creating two different versions of the patch — one with a blue ring for their home pinstripes and one with a white ring for their road blues (they didn’t wear grays that year). Jeez, talk about hubris — you’d think a team with this kind of history would know better than to engage in premature boasting. If they had advanced to the World Series, would they have swapped in a set of “1984 N.L. Champions” patches?
“I contend they lost to the Padres in large part due to that enormous patch,” says Lundborg (a reasonable analysis). “Is there another instance that you can recall where a team (in any sport) wore a division championship patch during that year’s playoffs?”
Excellent question. I can’t think of any comparable examples. Anyone..? Meanwhile, we can definitely add this little incident to the legend of the Cubbie curse.
Membership News: As I’ve said many times before, the ugliest uniform designs make the coolest membership cards. Case in point: Jeff Frank’s Oregon-themed card, shown at right — a doozy, no? The again, sometimes the most beautiful uni designs make the coolest membership cards, as in the case of Justin Sink’s inspired choice of the 1964-65 Philly 76ers motif. As always, these and all other card designs are displayed in the membership gallery.
As promised, a bunch of cards mailed out last Friday, and a bunch more should mail out tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Preseason NBA note from Tony Laurenzana, who writes: “My season ticket representative told me that the Pacers will be wearing retro uniforms for the upcoming preseason game this Wednesday against New Orleans. It will be at Pepsi Coliseum, where the team first played (1967-1974).” … Saturday’s a press passes for the MSU/Iowa game showed the Iowa helmet logo backwards. … The first few seconds of this video clip show Brian Westbrook getting his helmet inflated (with thanks to Maks Skuz). … Latest player to wear the Riddell Revolution Speed helmet: Danny Clark (thanks, Joe Skiba). … Check out the amazing uniform worn by Pahokee High in Florida. The socks, the pants, the jersey, the rear helmet logo (big thanks to Ronnie Poore). … The Wild have a really lame new mascot. Depressing details here (with thanks to Ben Kmetz). … All you sneakerhead types will want to check out this. … “Apparently Sony Pictures is afraid that college students aren’t watching Seinfeld anymore,” writes Ben Wideman. “They’ve launched the Seinfeld Campus Tour to get people excited about the show again. I visited the tour bus at the Rose Bowl on Saturday and was excited to see that the exhibit included David Putty’s famous Devils jersey from the ‘face painter’ episode” (and yes, we all know you can quote chapter and verse from that episode and many others, but please don’t, thanks). … The Maple Leafs unveiled their new alternate jersey yesterday. As expected, it’s a straight throwback job. … Oh-so-tantalizing news from Josh Holman, who writes: “I was going through the 2009 Nike Fall Football Catalog and noticed there’s a new ’secret’ jersey called the Enforcer, which will make its debut during this years Army/Navy game — so secret that they don’t even show you a picture of it.” … According to this message board post (sent my way by Steven James DeBlasi), the Jets “have announced that they … will unveil an away Titans uniform next season.” I have my doubts about that, at least in terms of a game uni, although a fashion replica isn’t such a stretch.
October 7th, 2008
If you look at the breakdown of NFL teams wearing white at home recently compiled by reader Tim Brulia, you’ll see that the Raiders and Seahawks are listed as the league’s “only white jersey virgins.”
We’ll have to revise that entry, because the Seahawks now stand alone after the Raiders wore white at home for yesterday’s game against the Chargers — unprecedented! And for an intriguing footnote, check out this page (pointed out by Timothy Fesmire), which suggests that the Raiders may wear white at home all season long next year — with silver numbers! Does this have something to do with next year’s observance of the AFL’s 50th anniversary? Hmmmm, intriguing.
Other notes from yesterday:
• I’ll never get sick of those Titans throwbacks. A little sock stripeage goes a long way, no? Lots of additional pics here.
• Chad Johnson’s orange chinstrap made a reappearance. You can also spot a glimpse of it in the background of this shot.
• Can anyone explain why the officials in the Bears/Eagles game were wearing their cold-weather black slacks? Gametime temp was in the 60s, so there’s really no excuse.
• As for the the events in Flushing, at least my team went down wearing their proper colors (yeah, pins would’ve been nice, but I’m OK with the snow whites; apparently one fan disagreed). The postgame stadium-closing ceremony, for all its flaws (and there were several), nonetheless prompted a few sobs in at least on Brooklyn living room, as lots of Mets old-timers were brought onto the field wearing period-appropriate jerseys. Oddest sight was Nail Dykstra, who apparently is so fully entrenched in his new corporate Dow Jones lifestyle that he’s now incapable of wearing an untucked shirt. Nice bit at the end, as all old-timers stepped on home plate one last time, including Mr. Say Hey, who reached down and touched the plate instead of stepping on it. Our own Scott M.X. Turner was on hand for the events (as you’ll recall, he also attended the final game at Yankee Stadium — wonder how many people can claim that dual status [well, aside from this fella]?) and will have a fuller report in a day or two. And hey, L.I. Phil, thanks for all the screen grabs, esp. given the emotionally trying circumstances. Meanwhile, my congrats to the Crew — if the city I live in couldn’t make it to the dance, then I’m glad my favorite American city did.
In Which I Present a Uni-Related Story About a Certain Political Party and Its Vice-Presidential Candidate Without Making Fun of Anyone, So Now You Can All Stop Calling Me Biased and Partisan and Everything, Thank You Very Much: You may have noticed that Sarah Palin was wearing a Phillies windbreaker-ish thingie during a campaign appearance on Friday, as seen at right. What you probably didn’t know is that a Uni Watch reader played a pivotal role in this wardrobe choice. Here’s the story from the man himself, reader Eric Trager (who was also the source of this 2007 entry):
Sarah Palin came to Philadelphia on Friday to greet a group of supporters at Center City’s Irish Pub before the presidential debate. Through my affiliation with the University of Pennsylvania College Republicans (I’m a graduate student in political science), I had volunteered to drive one of the press vans for the motorcade. Anyway, about two hours before Palin was set to depart for the event, one of her assistants came down to the hotel lobby and said that Palin wanted to wear a fleece with a local team’s insignia to the bar. “Anyone happen to know where we can get that?” she asked the group of volunteers.
It seemed like fate. As a lifelong Republican and avid collector of sports paraphernalia, finding officially licensed team gear for my party’s vice-presidential candidate seemed like the one menial task for which I had unknowingly spent my entire life preparing. So I immediately volunteered, driving Palin’s assistant in one of the campaign’s Chevy Suburbans to the local Modell’s. As a Mets fan, I naturally wanted to steer Palin away from Phillies gear, so I strongly recommended various Flyers and Eagles tops (”This is an Eagles town,” I said with conviction). But, after the assistant said that Palin preferred something red, I relented and picked out a small Phillies windbreaker that Palin wore later that night.
The reason Palin wanted to wear red was almost certainly because she’s signed on for the glorious socialist revolution, as epitomized by our College Vault book raffle. Welcome aboard, Comrade Sarah! It fills my heart with godless pride to announce that Comrade Gregory Holt is the first-place winner of the raffle (he chose the Michigan book), with Comrade Mark Frantz in second place (he opted for the Ohio State volume, no doubt because he supports the concept of socialized education via state universities), and Comrade Robert Erdtmann will get the Notre Dame volume. More glorious state-sponsored giveaways coming soon.
Research Project: My recent mentions of the Tommie Agee home run marker in Shea Stadium and the Ted Williams home run seat at Fenway prompted Ryan Patrick to send this photo of a Jimmy Wynn HR seat in the Astrodome. Let’s compile a list of all such markers, past and present. To contribute, send me a note (but please DON’T tell me about the markers at Vets Stadium, the Metrodome, the Mall of America, or Turner Field, cuz a few bizillion people have already told me about those — thanks).
Uni Watch News Ticker: With the world economy teetering on the brink, the Montreal Canadiens have helpfully agreed to sponsor Canada’s monetary system. … Holy shit do I want this sleeve patch. It comes from this eBay listing (big thanks to Scott Johnson). … We all know Dave Concepcion’s NOB lettering barely fit on his back. But in this shot, the lettering is actually on his sleeve (good spot by Robert Eden). … “Honey, could you make the coffee?” That’s Joe Beimel wearing one of those team robes (as spotted by Mike Petriello). … The 49ers are retiring Steve Young’s number. … Keith Owen has a friend who ordered a Carlos Delgado bobblehead and ended up with this. … According to the second entry on this Q&A page, the Ravens will not be wearing their solid-black uniform this season. … Steal an MLB uniform, get arrested. … Jeremy’s Corner: a new UEFA logo and some new uni-related volleyball regulations from the FIVB. … A few days ago I asked if anyone knew which college football team was the first to wear NOBs. According to the second graf on this page, it was Maryland (excellent work by Matt Shevin). … My ESPN column about Shea Stadium prompted a great story from Andrew Snyder: “My dad worked the hand-operated scoreboard for the Mets’ AA affiliate, the Victoria (TX) Toros, who moved the next year to Jackson, MS to become the Jackson Mets. One day in 1974, a ladder broke and he fell, breaking his collarbone. The Mets sent him an autographed ball as a get-well present (additional photos ). While the 1974 Mets weren’t quite as good as the 1969 Mets, their manager was Yogi Berra, Willie Mays was a coach, and they had Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Tug McGraw, among others.” My favorite detail in this story is the metered postage strip — look closely and you’ll see that it includes details of the Mets’ upcoming schedule! So cool. … Not sure if we’ve linked to this before, but Tom Wallwork reports that there’s now a Michigan Helmet Project site. I was surprised to see this design — do the Habs know about this? … I assume they gave a bunch of these to Matt Millen on his way out the door (with thanks to Steve Moeller). … And put Chad Pennington down for a box of these (as forwarded by Jeff Johnson). … The Raptors have a new alt jersey (note the maple leaf on the back). Additional details here. … New hoops uniforms for Iowa State (with thanks to Corey Munson). … FNOB alert: Alabama’s BJ Scott (with thanks to Alex Seiver). … Patrick Guay found this at a church bazaar just outside of Montreal. … Interesting video here about the design process behind the Sabres’ new alternate jersey and merchandising line (with thanks to Doug Leake). … David Fitzgerald says this shot of Yaz shows him homering off of Tom Seaver in the 1975 All-Star Game. How could he possibly have been hitting without a helmet? … Latest uni-related cartoon from The New Yorker. … Good slideshow of the new Sacramento Kings jerseys here. … Readers John Freeman and Scotty Banks were poking around the nooks and crannies of the stadium during the UNC/Miami game and came across this helmet cart (additional pics here). “It wasn’t used during the game, and I’ve never seen one at a Hurricanes game, which got us wondering if it’s an old Dolphins cart,” says Freeman. “And no, we didn’t get to drive it around.” … Not uni-related, but I’ve been meaning to mention that I recently made a picnic ham in my smoker, and it turned out so great that I think it’s possibly the single best thing I’ve ever cooked. Looked like a lump of coal from the outside, but it sliced up really nicely. Deee-lish. Although I cooked it more than three weeks ago, the memory of it is so strong that it’s almost enough to keep me from dwelling on the Mets’ collapse. … But not quite.
September 29th, 2008
I have a new ESPN feature today, but it’s not uni-related, so we’ll continue here as usual.
So: I generally like Jerry Manuel. He cuffs his pants high, he’s clearly very smart, and he appears to be comfortable with who he is (a stark contrast to Willie Randolph, who always sounded defensive). I hope the Mets bring him back next season, no matter how the rest of this week plays out.
But there’s one aspect to his game — an aspect that’s a crucial part of any manager’s visual repertoire — that’s really been bugging me: I hate the way he changes pitchers.
When Manuel wants to bring in a fresh arm, he hops out of the dugout, starts jogging, and quickly signals to the bullpen by raising his hand and waving it, like he’s hailing a cab or something. When pointing to the ’pen, he waggles his finger around, sort of like an umpire signaling a home run. All the while, he’s still jogging, which he continues to do until he reaches the mound.
Here’s what I don’t like about it:
• Manuel’s too jumpy to leave the dugout. In this shot, you can see that he’s already gone into his trot before the batter (who had walked) has reached first base! Similarly, when Jon Neisse gave up that salami to Jason Marquis on Monday night, Manuel had left the dugout and already signaled to the ’pen before Marquis had reached home plate. Dude, show a little patience and let the batter finish doing his thing before you start doing your thing. Maybe Manuel thinks his quick dash looks decisive, but to me it just makes him look like an overprotective parent scurrying out to rescue a vulnerable child. Which leads us to…
• Once he’s on his way to the mound, he signals to the ’pen way too quickly. He always does it before reaching the baseline chalk (which seems like bad form), and often well before the next hitter has been announced (which is bad strategy). Look, in this shot he’s still on the warning track in front of the dugout — he hasn’t even reached the foul territory grass yet! Leaving aside the question of why anyone would be a big hurry to call for anyone in the Mets ’pen, the whole thing feels too rushed, too premature. Is he afraid that the pitcher or catcher will talk him out of it if he doesn’t make the call before he reaches the mound?
• I hate the little finger-wave signal. It looks bad enough on its own (always makes me think of this or this), but it looks extra-bad when combined with the rush out of the dugout. When my team’s just given up a big hit, the last thing I want to see is the skipper looking panicky. That’s how I always feel when I see Manuel scampering out there and waving his hand — almost seems like he’s waving a white flag instead of just his index finger. What’s wrong with a nice, slow walk to the mound? At a moment like this, I want calm, steady leadership, not a frenzied “Oh my god, the ship is sinking, get me a reliever right away, HEEELLLLLLPP!!!” Looks like amateur hour out there.
Manuel’s particular approach notwithstanding, the act of a manager signaling for a new pitcher is one of those great little visual protocols that are unique to baseball. There’s the overhand method (raise arm about three-quarters and decisively point), the underhand method (half-extend arm at hip level and cock wrist repeatedly), and, my favorite, the crossover method (extend one arm and tap inner forearm with fingers of opposite hand). Next time you’re practicing these moves in the mirror — we all know you do it, just like we know you practice football ref signals, so don’t bother denying it — try Manuel’s delivery and see how it compares. I think you’ll agree that it’s unworthy of serious consideration. Does anyone know if he used to do it this way back when he managed the Chisox?
One other Manuel-related protocol worth mentioning: Soon after he took over for Randolph, Mets pitchers who were being removed from a game got in the habit of waiting on the mound for the new pitcher to arrive before departing for the dugout. The idea was to show solidarity with the next guy and metaphorically hand off the baton to him (or maybe just to say, “If my ERA goes up because you let these runners score, you’re totally paying for my next batch of HGH”). I liked this approach, which I believe was much more common in the 1970s and ’80s, but now the Mets appear to have stopped doing it. Too bad.
Juicy Oregon Scoop Hoax Tease: So two nights ago I got a note from someone named Alex. Mr. Alex said he had some news relating to this recent Ticker item about Nike breaking out a new look for Oregon at some point this season. Here’s what Mr. Alex wrote:
I just graduated from Oregon. During my final class this summer, we had a group project. One of my group members told me about his uncle, who is personal friends with Phil Knight. During dinner one night, Phil told my friend’s uncle and his dad about the Oregon uniforms. They are going to be a solid, one-piece uniform (unitard) with a very space/tech edge. “Very strange-looking” was my friend’s description. And apparently they will be worn at homecoming versus UCLA [which is on October 11th].
Whether it will be all-black, including helmets, as someone mentioned in the comments following that article you posted to, I am not sure. But my friend said that is solid inside information from his uncle.
Hahahahahahahaha. My compliments to Mr. Alex for being able to type that last sentence without, like, rupturing a kidney from laughing so hard. An inside tip from a reader’s friend’s uncle’s close personal friend Phil Knight isn’t quite as good as this, but it’s getting there.
Naturally, I was suspicious, especially since it seems fishy that Phil Knight would have friends over for dinner without inviting me, am I right? So I went ahead and did some checking on Mr. Alex (who has a last name but asked me not to use it), and it appears that he is indeed a recent Oregon grad, so that part of his story checks out. Of course, that doesn’t mean he isn’t pulling my leg, or that the story, even if Mr. Alex is on the square, hasn’t morphed a bit on its way from Phil Knight to the uncle to the friend to Mr. Alex.
But here’s the thing: I’ve predicted for a while now that the advent of a football unitard was only a matter of time, what with the skintight jerseys and the ever-widening superhero design trope. Frankly, I think it makes a lot of sense, at least from a practical standpoint, although it will no doubt look uglier than a festering sore. And if such a one-piece uniform were to debut, who better to showcase it than the Ducks? As completely unconfirmed and unsubstantiated rumors from semi-anonymous readers’ friends’ uncles’ close personal friend Phil Knight go, this one sounds pretty plausible.
If any of you Nike people reading this would like to confirm or deny, I won’t use your name either.
(The added tragedy of all this, of course, is that even if this unsubstantiated rumor turns out to be true, I won’t be able to see the uniforms, because I’ll be on tour with the Forewords on October 11th. Phil Knight’s gonna have to cook me a really good dinner to make up for this one.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: The audio is NSFW, but get a set of headphones or something so you can hear George Brett talking about a very special kind of uniform disaster. … Patrick Ryan notes that Prince Fielder appears to be wearing official Brewers boxers. … New mask designs for Martin Gerber (additional info here) and Patrick Lalime (all pics poached from the Chris Creamer board). … Cute. Details here (with thanks to Matt Bachovchin). … For those who are wondering, Joe Skiba says he’s not sure yet if the Giants will wear a memorial patch or decal for Dick Lynch, but they’ve got a bye this week, so they’ll certainly have enough time to come up with something nice by their next game. … Great old movie poster here (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … Mike Verna reports that These guys have moved from Tucson to Reno and are now these guys. … Once upon a time, nobody was required to wear white (with thanks to Tim Powers). … The Canadiens have unveiled their centennial initiative, which among other things will feature six different throwback jerseys. There’s a photo gallery here, and an additional gallery here that shows what the 2009 All-Star Game jerseys will look like as well. … Turns out we all missed a great little detail Colorado/CSU game back on August 31st (but fortunately Johnathan Valdez didn’t): Colorado was wearing a helmet decal showing the American and Colorado flag (here’s another view). Not clear whether CSU was wearing it too. … Pretty funny uni-related Minnesota Wild commercial here (even if it’s a total stylistic rip-off of the “This is SportsCenter” campaign, but I won’t blame Jeff Barak for that). … Check out the Sabres’ new ice: no center slug! (Thanks to Mark Kluczynski.) … Still more about Saints punter Steve Weatherford and his wedding band and wristwatch: According to the “Watch Your Jewelry” item in the middle of this page, Weatherford wasn’t wearing the bling during pregame warm-ups, so he apparently puts it on specifically for the game (with thanks to Rachel Bicicchi). … Several cool old high school football pics from Nick Zajicek: Faux stirrups don’t look any better on the gridiron than they do on the diamond; nice helmet logo here; and this is the team from Brownwood, Texas — the stars on the shoulders represent the school’s number of state championships. … Mike Menner was at last night’s Twins/Chisox game and was given a 2009 schedule (apparently next year’s MLB schedule was announced last week, which seems much earlier than usual, no?). As you can see, it does say “Early Schedule,” so maybe it’s preliminary or something. Anyway: “The schedule features a logo for the last year in the Metrdome and a graphic that could be new formal signage for the new ballpark, Target Field.” I’m not supposed to tell you this, or even know about it, but since they’re already pimping it on that schedule I will happily confirm that the Metrodome logo will be worn as a home sleeve patch next season. … Hey, speaking of schedules: The MLB schedule is all done by computer these days. But it used to be done by hand by Henry and Holly Stephenson, a husband-and-wife couple whose daughter Katie happens to be a good friend of my Forewords bandmate Liz Clayton (not quite as good as knowing about the new Oregon uniforms via a reader’s friend’s uncle, but whaddaya gonna do). Upon being introduced to Katie during one of Liz’s social events in 2004 and being told what her parents did for a living, I peppered her with questions about the schedule-making process, her parents’ methodology, etc. She basically ended the conversation by saying, “Everyone thinks it’s really complicated, but it’s not. They do most of it just by sitting down with a bunch of index cards while watching MacGyver.” This was right when the Stephensons were in the process of losing the schedule contract, so I asked Katie for their phone number, because I was certain I could save their gig if I wrote a heart-tugging piece about this adorable couple slavishly working over the MLB schedule (I figured I’d probably leave out the MacGyver part). Unfortunately, they didn’t want to be interviewed, so that was the end of that. A pity…. Collateral Gammage and I will be attending tonight’s Mets/Cubs game, where I’ll probably get to see Jerry Manuel doing the “Oh, waiter, another basket of bread sticks, please!” routine way too many times. Weather’s supposed to be iffy, so please do an anti-rain dance for us. Thanks.
September 25th, 2008
Remember this guy, who appeared in this photo and this photo, and how we spent a few days puzzling over who he might be and how he got into those photos?
Now reader Larry Wiederecht may — may — have solved the mystery. The key piece of evidence is in this short video clip from Game 5 of the 1976 American League playoffs. If you look behind jim Wohlford, you see someone lurking in the on deck region who bears at least some resemblance to our previous mystery man (it’s hard to see in the screen grabs, but the KC guy is wearing glasses, just like the ASG guy).
The next batter after Wohlford was George Brett, and that’s obviously not who’s shown in the KC photos. So I showed the screen grabs to Royals fanatic Rob Neyer, who said he didn’t recognize the mystery man. “My guess? Husky batboy.”
That’s Larry Wiederecht’s guess, too. In fact, it was his guess regarding the ASG photo all along (i.e., that a batboy appeared in the photo, probably as a placeholder for a player who wasn’t there). I had resisted that idea for a couple of reasons, but the KC shots definitely add weight to that theory, especially since our batboy — if that’s what he is — is wearing a visiting uniform in both photos.
Mystery solved? I wouldn’t go quite that far. But I’d say we now have a much stronger hypothesis than we had before. And if anyone can come up with other late-’70s Yankee Stadium pics that show a road batboy who fits this profile, then we may be able to put this one in the “Case Closed” file.
Socialist Wealth-Redistribution Raffle: As promised, I’m going to raffle off those three College Vault books. The winner will have his choice of Michigan, Ohio State, or Notre Dame. The second-place winner will have next choice, and the third-place winner will get the remaining book.
To enter, send a check to the Communist Party a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch address, please) by 10pm eastern this Friday. If you’ve enrolled in the membership program, you can become eligible for a free tour of the Kremlin send up to four separate e-mail entries; non-members are limited to one entry. I’ll announce the winners next week.
Uni Watch News Ticker — Guaranteed 100% Politics-Free!: The Forewords (my lecture/slideshow collaboration with architectural spy extraordinaire Liz Clayton) finally have a web site. … In a vaguely related item, Liz and I went to Shea last night with the Junior Socialist League a bunch of Can’t Stop the Bleeding people, including webmaster Gerard Cosloy (who wore Mets kicks) and longtime Mets fans Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley (whose band, Yo La Tengo, is named after a Mets anecdote). Best moment in an otherwise dreary evening came when three guys in David Wright jerseys burned an American flag headed for the exits in unison during the 8th inning, allowing me to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, David Wright has really left the building.” … Nike is getting out of the Olympic swimwear biz. … Matt Lesser notes that the Cincinnati Bearcats are wearing a hammer and sickle “Joni” memorial decal in memory of long-time benefactor Joni Herschede. And although we’ve seen this before, Matt also sent along a particularly good shot of the reflective piping on NHL practice jerseys. … Congrats to reader Mike Edgerley, who won Chad Bradford’s jersey in the Rays’ “Jerseys for Allah” “Shirts Off Our Backs” promotion on Sunday. “There’s a piece of Velcro inside the buttonholes that’s supposed to prevent the jersey from saying ‘RAAYS,’ but you know how that works,” he says. … Several good finds by Andy Chalifour: the best photo I’ve seen so far of Terrence Long’s mask; Pete Rose in his Trotsky phase; and Mo Vaughn with a hand-inscribed cap memorial to Reggie Lewis. … If you listen to the first 10 seconds or so of this video clip, you’ll hear Giants radio man Bob Popa reading passages from The Communist Manifesto giving a trenchant analysis of the Bengals’ uniforms (with thanks to Robert Tusso). … The Mets are switching their triple-A affiliation from New Orleans to Buffalo. As a result, according to this article, “The Bisons are expected to go to new uniforms, likely some sort of blue to reflect the Mets’ primary color” (with thanks to Joe Pitzonka). … I haven’t seen the latest episode of The Golden Age of Baseball (the When It Was a Game-esque series currently running on most Fox Sports outlets), but Joe Nocella reports the following: “The latest episode has five- to seven-minute segment on the golden age of baseball uniforms. Nice color shots of old uniforms, and there is a brief glimpse of the Cubs vest jersey. There’s also a mention on how Willie Mays (and another SF Giant player) changed the way pants are now worn. It said how Willie and this other player went to a San Francisco tailor in the mid-’60s and had their pants tailored to a tighter, more form-fitting way, because they did not like the baggy pants that were customary at that time. The commentator said that this caused a change in how players wore their pants.” … Yesterday I mentioned that Martin Gramatica should be watched carefully cuz he has a suspiciously foreign-sounding name was wearing his wedding band on Sunday. But as several readers pointed out in the comments, his holder also wore a wedding band — and a wristwatch for good measure! … Soccer note from Dana Prey, who writes: “I noticed that David Beckham isn’t wearing his traditional #7 playing with the England squad (vs. Croatia) — instead, he’s #17. This might have to do with the fact that he’s been regulated to a sub, but still.. who would take his famous #7 away?” … See this jersey? Steven Samuels spotted someone wearing a road version, with a wishbone-C logo tossed in. … Daniel Pritchard notes that I neglected to mention that Arizona wore red pants on Saturday, which coach Stoops broke out just before gametime. … Finally, a good close-up view of the patch that the Colts wore in Week 1 (big thanks to Brad Bierman). … The Vanderbilt and Auburn soccer teams will wear pink cuz they’re commies and hate America to support breast cancer awareness this weekend. … Here’s something new (at least to me): sports-themed trash cans (thanks, Milesofsparks). … Nice little piece here on giant inflatable sports statues (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … News flash: Dog bites man, wags tail too. … David Arnott reports that the 49ers’ famous one-day prototype helmet design has surfaced on eBay, supposedly autographed by legends like Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, and Mike Cofer (the latter tossed in just to show that legends aren’t what they used to be). … More here about UGA’s black uniforms. … Miles Eakins notes that many NHL teams would make excellent laborers on the commune I’m starting are using non-Edge practice jerseys. “In fact,” he writes, “these jerseys are old CCM models with the old NHL shield from years back.” Some other teams, however, are using Reebok practice jerseys. Anyone know more about this? … Speaking of Reebok and the NHL, John Muir reports that the “RBK” mark on goalie gear has been replaced by the Reebok logo. … Also from John: Curtis Sanford is wearing his new fan-designed mask. … NOB typo for the Bruins. No photo, alas (with thanks to Chris O’Connor). … I have a feeling I may have linked to this before, but just in case: Great archive of old panoramic photos here, including a whole section devoted to sports. Dane Drutis says he’s particularly fond of this one, while I like this and this. … I know about the Texas A&M tradition of chanting “Property is theft!” while shooting all the landlords the 12th man. But is it usually observed like this? I feel like I need a refresher course on this one — someone please bring me up to date (with thanks to Daniel Dingerson for the screen grab). … Yesterday I linked to a photo of this cap, which had this John Gilmore Sporting Goods tag. That prompted the following from reader Dave Gilmore, Jr.: “John Gilmore is my uncle (my dad’s older brother). or many years he had his own sporting goods outfit and was partners with Brooks Robinson. Needless to say, we have a lot of cool stuff around (he’s got one of Brooks’s Gold Gloves). He was also tied to Reebok, worked for the Redskins for many years, and is very connected in the college basketball community. Most of his sports friends know him as ‘The Gov.’ He’s given us a lot of cool stuff over the years: dugout jackets, TONS of hats (most of which, sadly, my little brother and sold on eBay a few years ago). Anyway, he’s not in great health so I just want you to know it was a comforting sign to see someone enjoying his work.” … Check this out: Cal Angels mittens! Brett Crane, clubhouse manager of the Orem Owlz (the Halos’ Pioneer League affiliate) got them from a pitching coach who’d been with the organization since the early 1990s although you’ve gotta wonder about what kind of anti-American wuss would wear mittens. … Ryan Perkins thinks Marion Barber’s helmet/mask is really snug around his face, or his face is really bloated relative to his mask, or something like that (”It looks like he’s a broken nose, black eye or cracked tooth waiting to happen,” he says). He’s spotted the same thing going on with Brandon Jacobs, which of course is where Joe Skiba comes in. His response: “Concerning Barber, it looks as if his dreads are giving the helmet some rise as well as the forward appearance. We had that issue with Amani Toomer and Michael Barrow when they had dreads. As for Jacobs, nothing special at all. I squeeze him into an Air Advantage large with 3/4-inch (smallest) front pads. I like to give him a nice secure fit.” But now Ryan has another question: “Steve Smith’s front helmet pads are riding down a good bit, and it looks disheveled and unnatural. You have two weeks to get on top of this and remedy this aesthetic travesty — make us proud, Skeebs.” Back to Skiba: “That will be a running change on the New Schutt XP. You see this all over football players wearing the helmet — they have to secure that pad down more.” … Idaho is getting new cheerleader uniforms. … Faaascinating item from Jeremy Brahm, who writes: “After the Nankai Hawks sold the team to Daiei, Nankai turned the Osaka Kyujo into a model home center.” Hear that, Steinbrenners? Toss a few model condo units in there and you can branch into the real estate market. Well, once we solve the mortgage crisis.
September 23rd, 2008
The truth: Yankee Stadium has never meant that much to me. Part of it is that I’m a Mets fan, and part of it is that the renovated stadium bears little resemblance to the original structure (which I’m old enough to have seen plenty of times on TV, although, unfortunately, I never attended a game there). But the biggest part of it is that the Yankees — and, by extension, the stadium — have become such a loathsome symbol of American corporate excess and jingoism. Even the admirable things about the organization, like the uniforms, have been waved like some idiotic flag of superiority for so long that the underlying tone is bluster, not class. The message emanating from River Ave. and East 161st (esp. the owner’s suite) isn’t “We strive for excellence”; it’s “We’re the goddamn Yankees, and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves.”
I’d be the first to admit that the place is not without its charms. When you go to a game in the Bronx and hear that live organist and Bob Sheppard’s voice and all that, you think to yourself, “Hey, this is so cool!” But by the time they do the 27-minute-long rendition of “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch (which they still insist on doing for every freaking game), you realize that the organ and Sheppard and the postgame Sinatra and all the rest are really just code — they’re signifiers for an era when white America could happily enjoy being the biggest bully on the playground. That’s what the Yankees have always represented: the supremacy of empire, the arrogance of wealth, the strong not just defeating but utterly smashing the weak.
In case you hadn’t noticed, all of those supposed verities have been called into question on the larger American stage lately. Like it or not, a lot of things most people have treated as entitlements for generations (cheap gas, a white-majority populace, the ability to say, “We’re the goddamn United States and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves,” etc.) are changing. Of course, most people don’t like it, and they’d rather be in denial about it than actually deal with it, and few places provide a better oasis from reality than Yankee Stadium, where people can pretend it’s still 1957.
Or at least that’s what it would provide for those people if they could afford to go there. Kind of ironic that the Yanks are passing the torch to a new gold-leafed stadium with ticket prices only corporate execs will be able to afford just a few days after an economic meltdown that no doubt has many corporations rethinking their luxury box expenditures, all while the Yanks are missing the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. If you can’t see the parallels between all of that and America’s willfully oblivious descent down the crapper, well, I hope you have fun driving that SUV of yours.
Such treatises notwithstanding, they put on a good show for the stadium’s farewell. A few notes:
• Nice to see plenty of old-timers in period-appropriate uniforms (although it would’ve been better if Whitey Ford had hiked up his cuffs — that elastic gap was painful to see). And someone please get Yogi an undershirt.
• Biggest surprise of the evening, at least for me: Dave Winfield fills out his uniform a lot more than he used to. Like, a lot more.
• Several hours prior to the game, they let fans walk on the warning track — a nice gesture. A few people apparently indulged their “robbed him of a home run” fantasies, but anyone wearing an NOB replica should be barred from such shenanigans, no?
• Good spot by Larry Wiederecht and L.I. Phil, who noticed that Reggie Jackson was wearing this old N.Y. Giants logo on his cap while being interviewed in the ESPN booth during the game. Earlier, during pregame festivities, he’d shown off a different cap to the world’s single most annoying Yankees fan.
Our own Scott M.X. Turner attended the game, by the way. I expect I’ll have some first-hand observations from him to pass along tomorrow.
Raffle Results: The winner of the Remember the AFL book is John Flanagan. Congrats to him, and everyone else can look forward to the College Vault book raffle, which I’ll crank up tomorrow or Wednesday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: New System of Dress uniforms for Dayton. Here’s the rear view (with thanks to Matthew Hager). … Remember when I raffled off a futuristic Royals jersey a while back? You can get an entire futuristic Royals uniform, including a batting helmet, here. … Interesting advertising hubbub at Wrigley Field (with thanks to James Huening). … Friday’s entry on Lon Keller’s artwork led sports historian Chuck Miller to check in with the following: “I recently discovered that not only did Spencer Advertising create program cover art for colleges and high school sports, their work was also used by semiprofessional basketball teams like those who played in the Eastern League [which later became the Continental Basketball Assocation]. I have found several examples of such art, mostly by artists like Lon Keller, Larry Tisdale, Fred Fixler and the like. They can be viewed at this link on my CBA Museum homepage.” … “I work with the Potomac Nationals, formerly the Alexandria Dukes of 1979-1983,” writes Paul Barrett. “We were affiliated with the Pirates in Alexandria for the ‘81-’83 seasons, and I found this little beauty in the storage closet along with other treasures (T-shirts, programs, stat sheets, mini-bats). The tag reads, ‘ Since 1920 • NEW ERA • Custom Made For JOHN GILMORE Sporting Goods • Fairfax, VA • Medium-Large • MFG. in USA.’” … Decent article here about UNLV’s NNOB jerseys (with thanks to John Barnes). … It’s nice that Manny has a mouthguard with his name printed on it, but why is he wearing a mouthguard to begin with? … No, branding isn’t getting way out of hand, not even a little bit (with thanks to Paul Ricciardi). … Lots of old Portland Beavers pics here. … Uni Watch is one of several uni-related media projects mentioned in this article. … Oklahoma State’s getting a new court design (with thanks to Andrew Joseph). … The Canadiens are wearing a 100th-anniversary patch. … Check out these photos of the recent Greer/Greenville game — matching Gs (good spot by Jon Pohlman). … Not sure if we’ve covered these specific examples before, but Baylor has not just one but two roman-numeraled NOBs (with thanks to, appropriately, James Spears IV). … Giants equipment director Joe Skiba has revived his series of video reports. The 2008 season premiere is here. … Aussie rules football fans have chosen their favorite jumper (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm, who also sent pics of the odd diagonal pinstriping worn by the Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Dolphins). … “This is South African rugby player Percy Montgomery wearing a test cap,” writes Caleb Borchers. “Announcers are always talking about someone’s games for the national teams as ‘caps,’ but you rarely see the actual cap any more. Certainly a little on the dorky side, but an interesting uni tradition, particularly because rugby players don’t wear caps on the field. There are links to some other caps here, here, here, and here.” … Interesting info on the Seahawks logo here. … Pictograms for the 2010 winter Olympics will look like this, and there’s a video about the development of the graphics here (courtesy of Jeremy again). … The Sabres’ third jersey is now official (additional photos here). … So is the Blues’ third jersey (more pics here. … Rutgers University: institute of higher learning. … Mike Chamernik notes that Mitch Maier has been wearing one of those extended-earflap facemasks. … Ken Malone has started a new site NFL uni-related site. “Our primary purpose is to get laughs through the medium of NFL uniform details,” he says. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, so someone please give it the once-over and give us a full report. … Just what the world needs: a palm swoosh (with thanks to Dave Sizer). … That UGA rear-helmet motif sure is popular (with thanks to Michael Hardman). … Speaking of UGA, they’ll be wearing black this weekend. … Dude, are you wearing pantyhose or what? … Martin Gramatica was wearing his wedding band yesterday. … Man, do I love this. … I’m less fond of this. … How do you make this look good? Have it play against this. Additional crimes against humanity here and here. … “The Hiroshima Toyo Carp are moving into a new stadium next year, and while the stadium is being built, the manhole covers in the area where the new stadium will be have been given Carp designs,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “The funny thing is that they missed a spot — the where the arrow is pointing should be red, to match the undershirt on the right arm. There’s also a one-color version.” … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Check out the uniform on this yearbook vendor. That’s Opening Day at Shea Stadium, 1965. … Morris Levin recently scored a pair of authentic Phillies stirrups, so naturally he wore them to work. Okay, so he didn’t actually wear his pants that way in the office — only for the photo shoot (”I came out of the elevator into PNC’s lobby with my pants hiked up and my friend Peter pretty much fell over on Market St laughing”). But still, if this doesn’t start a casual Friday revolution, I don’t know what will. … Check out this bizarre NOB from a Rangers preseason game. Can anyone think of another NOB that included a mix caps, small cap, and lowercase? I certainly can’t (good spot by Casey Wurzbach, who also noticed some decal peelage at Great American Ballpark). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Interesting to see that the Seahawks’ Gene Upshaw memorial decals are all partially covered by their neck bumpers (additional examples here, here, and here).
September 22nd, 2008
If you read the Ticker on a regular basis, you’ve probably noticed the semi-regular contributions from Tyler Kepner, who’s the Yankees beat reporter for The New York Times (that’s him above, with his son Michael). I don’t recall exactly when he started writing to me, but I quickly realized he wasn’t like most other beat reporters. He’d start by passing along a uni-related observation about the Yankees, and then he’d add an opinion about his favorite NFL helmet, or his latest NBA pet peeve, or whatever. He had no shortage of opinions, and his observations tended to be good ones. I remember thinking to myself at one point, “Damn, good thing he’s already got a good job, or else he’d have mine.”
When I recently asked Tyler if I could interview him, I figured we’d talk about some of his uni-related faves and obsessions, some of his behind-the-scenes observations, and so on. But I didn’t realize there was also a completely amazing story lurking in his personal background — a story that would be interview-worthy all by itself, even if he wasn’t particularly uni-attuned. Check it out:
Uni Watch: How old are you, and where do you live?
Tyler Kepner: I’m 33, and I live in Wilton, Connecticut.
UW: How long have you been the Yankees beat reporter for the Times, and how did you get that gig?
TK: I started in 2002, so this is my seventh year covering the Yankees. Just to give you a quick résumé: When I was around 13 years old, I started a baseball magazine out of my home in Philadelphia. The Phillies were great to me — by the time I was 15, they let me start coming around to do interviews.
UW: What was the magazine called?
TK: KP Baseball Monthly. The “KP” stood for Kepner and then the other kid who started it with me, but then I just changed it to Kepner Publishing when he left. At the time I had no idea that it was an old army term, like being on KP duty. Kitchen patrol — nobody my age knew what that meant. We had a really cool logo, you would have liked it. My friends and I did it, but it was kind of my show. We got a lot of publicity, because people loved the idea of a kid following his dream and being in the clubhouse and stuff. I did that for 64 issues, up until mid-college or so.
UW: Every single month? You kept up a monthly schedule for that many years?
TK: Except for February. We’d do a combined Jan/Feb issue. On July 8th, 1990, ABC World News Sunday did a piece on us and said [switching to official-sounding newscaster voice], “Tyler publishes 11 times a year, except for February. It’s baseball’s off-season, and he has exams. Back to you, Forest.” We got covered in the Times too, and other places.
UW: Wow, I totally missed the boat on that. I wasn’t aware of it, never saw any of the media coverage you got. How many pages did this magazine usually run?
TK: Usually 22, maybe 24.
UW: You were a zine publisher! Did you have ads?
TK: I think we had one ad during the entire time.
UW: So it was a total labor of love. That’s great.
TK: Well, my parents basically footed the whole thing.
UW: How many copies would you typically print?
TK: Well, it grew. We got two big publicity bounces. One was on, like, November 13th, 1989, somewhere in there, when the Times wrote about us, and then Sports Illustrated for Kids wrote something. After those two articles, we got up to about 600 copies. We had a pretty good subscriber-retention rate, I guess.
UW: Was this, like, photocopies, or mimeographed, or professionally printed, or what?
TK: It was all photocopied. I didn’t know how to type until I was about 15 or 16. But I had very good printing, so I hand-wrote all the articles.
UW: Wow!
TK: It was fun, man. We always wanted color covers, but color printing cost a ton, so my little brother would draw a picture, and usually I would spruce it up a little bit. He was pretty good, I wanted it the way I wanted it. Anyway, then we’d color it in by hand.
UW: For all 600 copies?!
TK: Well, that was the thing. I’d have a bunch of my friends come over — maybe a dozen kids — and we’d have a ton of Magic Markers, and I’d say, “Okay, this is Cal Ripken, so everyone carefully fill in the logo, and the lettering…”
UW: So you had 600 black-and-white xeroxed covers…
TK: Right.
UW: So each one was individually hand-colored and unique and one-of-a-kind!
TK: Yeah. So we could never have a player depicted on Astroturf, because it would be too hard and take too much time to show the solid green. We had to show them on grass, because it was easier to just scribble up and down to show that.
UW: Sort of a textured green, instead of a solid green, because otherwise it would cut down on your efficiency.
TK: Exactly. One time my best friend came over, and I didn’t realize he was colorblind. And I’m like, “Why is Robin Yount’s hair green?” So a couple of people out there have an issue of KP Baseball Monthly with Robin Yount’s green hair.
UW: So even though the colors were wrong on those couple of copies, you still sent them out.
TK: We had orders to fill, man!
UW: Right, the show must go on. And now those copies are collector’s items.
TK: We had some famous subscribers, too. I always wanted to be a sportswriter, so I would just mail copies out to sportswriters. That’s how we got in the Times — I never asked for publicity, but I sent copies to George Vescey because I used to read his column in the school library. And he passed it along to his editor, who thought it would make a fun article. Anyway, I got a lot of really important advice from people who then decided to become subscribers. George Will somehow got hold of a copy, and he gave it to the commissioner, Fay Vincent, which was a big thrill for me, and he ended up subscribing. Bob Costas, Jayson Stark — I’d been reading Jayson’s stuff for years, and he became a great friend, giving me lots of advice, telling me about the business. He told me, “You’ll never wear No. 32 for the Phillies, but this job is the next best thing,” and he was right. Bill Lyon, who wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer once sent me a $100 bill and wrote, “Consider this my subscription for life.” I still have that bill, actually — it’s the spare money at my house, in case I have to pay for something and don’t have any cash.
UW: It’s your “In case of emergency, break glass” money.
TK: Yeah. The only person who never responded was Chris Berman. I probably sent issues to him for a year, and he never wrote back. But everyone else was so kind, and so encouraging. And the Phillies were so good to me — I’ll always be grateful. In 1990, I probably got 10 or 12 day passes. By ’91, I would pretty much ask for a pass for a whole series, and after that they just gave me daily passes and then a season pass. And by ’95 I worked for them, getting back to my résumé. I stopped the magazine in January of ’95 and wanted to get an internship, but the strike had just happened and teams weren’t doing internships, so I couldn’t get one. But the Phillies said, “We can’t pay, but if you wanna come down and work for free…” I was living at home, so I said sure. I worked for the Phillies that summer. And they’re such a class act, they ended up paying me a bit anyway. The next year I got a Boston Globe internship, which was very valuable. Same thing the next year at the Washington Post. Then I covered the Angels for a California paper, from September of ’97 through September of ’98. After that I moved up to Seattle and covered the Mariners until December of ’99. Met my wife out there. Then I moved back to New York, joined the Times, covered the Metsies for two years, and now the Yankees.
UW: When you were doing your magazine, were you aware that you were part of a larger self-publishing movement, the zine movement?
TK: No, I had no idea.
UW: But you know what a zine is now, right?
TK: Are they online magazines or something?
UW: No. They barely exist now, because they’ve largely been supplanted by blogs, but they’re basically just self-published, do-it-yourself magazines. They’re usually not about mainstream topics like baseball. That’s how I got started writing myself. They were originally inspired by punk rock — you know, just like anyone can start a band, anyone can start a magazine. And back in the day, a lot of them were hand-lettered. That’s why I really got excited when you said you hand-wrote your magazine — that’s so old-school zine-stye!
TK: I didn’t really know anything about that. I eventually started typing the articles. But even then, I’d still do the headlines by hand. I’d try to make each headline in a different style that matched the team. Like, if one article was about a guy on the A’s, I’d try to do the headline in A’s-style lettering.
UW: Did you have uniform-related coverage in this magazine?
TK: Well, I was very precise about the uniforms on the covers. That was my thing — I wanted to make sure they were accurate. I did a few articles here and there where I’d rank the coolest hats or the coolest logos. And we did a “How to Draw Team Logos” thing. Remember when you were a kid, there were those things like “How to Draw Huckleberry Hound”? It was like that. All my doodling in school and stuff was team logos, so I became an expert on most of them. [I also found this “Create Your Own Uniform” item, and there’s some uniform news on this page. — PL]
UW: Do you still have those doodles?
TK: I dunno. My mom saves everything, so she might still have them. Anyway, I knew, just from doing them, how to draw the logos in stages, and I could tell people how to do them.
UW: My impression is that you’re for more interested in uniform details than the average beat reporter. Would you agree with that assessment?
TK: Yeah. Marty Noble, who works the Mets beat, notwithstanding.
UW: Right, he’s very uni-aware.
TK: But yeah, most other guys don’t pay much attention to it, I don’t think.
UW: When did you first become interested in uniforms? Like, did you play sports as a kid, and if so did you take particular care with your own uniforms?
TK: Oh yeah, yeah. I played baseball all the way through the end of high school and summer leagues and stuff, and I was always disappointed because I never played for a team that had belts and button-front jerseys. Always the pullovers and the elastic waistbands. The best thing was making the all-star team, because then you’d usually get your name on the back, and the uniform would be more satin-y, like a double-knit kind of thing, instead of just a glorified T-shirt. I loved the stirrups, and I was always pissed when they’d give you the ones that were just one racing stripe.
UW: The dreaded ribbon stirrup.
TK: Right. That didn’t do anything for me. And they’d usually come off, out the back of your shoe, so I’d tape them onto the bottom. Anyway, I always tried to get the uniform number I wanted, usually 20 for Mike Schmidt or 32 for Steve Carlton. One year I got No. 3, which I didn’t like, because I was a pitcher, and pitchers don’t wear single digits.
UW: Josh Towers!
TK: Well, that’s true, but I didn’t like it. So I tried to make my 3 into 31 by creating a 1 with some green tape.
UW: You added a numeral with tape? Now, surely it must have bugged you that the resulting 31 was off-center.
TK: It was a little off-center, and it was just a plain, straight-up 1 — it didn’t have the little fringe on the top or anything like that. [I believe he’s referring to serifs. — PL]
UW: What level was this?
TK: Middle school.
UW: And what did your coach think about you modifying your jersey like this?
TK: He didn’t care. Anyway, it kept peeling off, so I gave up. I figured Dale Murphy wears 3, so that’s cool.
UW: You interact with big league ballplayers every day. What would you say is the typical ballplayer’s attitude toward his uniform, and especially regarding the types of details we discuss on Uni Watch?
TK: I think most of them are very interested in the fit.
UW: Freedom of movement and so forth?
TK: Yeah. And at least half of them have their own sense of style. You see a lot less of that with the Yankees, though, because there’s so much less room for improvisation. Basically it just comes down to the length of the pants and the kind of socks. I got a kick when Matingly and Guidry were coaches and they wore stirrups, because they played in the stirrup era. I asked the clubhouse manager and he said, “Yeah, we carry the stirrups, but nobody ever asks for them.”
UW: I’ve discovered, as I’m sure you have, that people can sometimes react negatively, or at least with some confusion, when you bring up uniform-related issues with them. Do you every find yourself wanting to ask a player why he wears his uniform a certain way, but then you think, “Nah, I’d better not ask him that” because you’re worried he might think it’s a stupid question?
TK: Nah. Some guys do act a bit puzzled when you ask them why they wore stirrups or whatever, but I’ll still ask.
UW: What about your editors? Do you ever present uni-related material or story ideas to them, and they don’t get it?
TK: No, they like offbeat stuff like that. Last season we did that little article about Matsui’s toe socks and that got a lot of attention, they loved it. I always think I should come up with more ideas like that, but then more pressing things come up, like Joba’s rotator cuff.
UW: Hey, get your priorities straight, man! I gather newspaper blogging has made it easier to cover these sorts of topics, since there are no space limitations. If you don’t have room for it in you newspaper article, you can just put it in “Bats” [the Times’s baseball blog].
TK: Yeah, that makes it a lot easier for topics like Mike Mussina’s 1980s T-shirts.
UW: What about other writers? Do you guys ever sit around talking about stirrups, or are you the only one who notices?
TK: That’s pretty much my category. That and ballpark scoreboards are the big thing I’m known for in the press box. I’m always railing against the scoreboards — there’s only a small handful of them that keep a running line score at all times. If someone hits a home run, or if they’re showing commercials between innings, they’ll take the line score down. It drives me nuts. Fenway shows it at all times, and Seattle. Yankee Stadium. I’m always telling the Yankees, “Please, you’ve gotta keep a dedicated line score.” The most important aspect of any scoreboard is to have a SCORE available, but people don’t seem to realize that.
UW: Do you ever mention something like that in the press box, and everyone else kind of looks at you?
TK: Yeah, there I go again.
[At this point Tyler went off on a long-ish rant about the scoreboards in Kansas City (he likes), old Vets Stadium (he misses), and just about every other park (they mostly suck). Too involved to reproduce here, but let’s just say he has some v-e-r-y strong feelings about scoreboard protocol.]
UW: Who is the most uniform-cognizant player you’ve ever encountered?
TK: Great question. Let me think. Gary Sheffield would drive the clubhouse people nuts. He had I think 32 pairs of shoes. And then he wanted gray shoes on the road, so he head 32 pairs of those too. He was always getting alterations to his jersey, and they were so subtle, you couldn’t even notice them. He’d want the sleeve brought up a little, or let out a little…
UW: Take a quarter-inch off the sleeve length, that sort of thing?
TK: Yeah. There’s this guy from Riddell or one of those companies — he’s always around the clubhouse, wonderful man. And if a guy gets traded to the team or needs changes or whatever, he fixes them up. And Sheff would give him all this work to do, and it would all get turned around in a day. Sheff, he was the most particular in terms of needing everything just so.
I remember Sean Henn, when he was on the Yankees a few years back, told me how the Yankees had this minor league director or coordinator named Rob Thomson who would go around to all of the Yankees’ minor league affiliates, and everyone knew that they had to look exactly right if he was coming, because he was a stickler. All the minor leaguers had to wear stirrups that showed the white in the front. They were also required to have pant legs that stopped six inches above the top of the white under the stirrup. And the pants had to be pulled up, then folded over and bloused, not bunched up. Also, no facial hair at all, no sideburns below the ear, cap on straight, and only Adidas shoes. Or shoes with blacked-out logo if they weren’t Adidas.
UW: Wow.
TK: Sometimes you can tell little things about guys when they come in. Like when Kenny Lofton joined the Yankees, I remember he had “K-Lo” written all over his shoes and everything. I mean, who calls him K-Lo? I always thought that was funny. Then you’ve got the guys who just stock up on equipment, and you wonder why. Like Jason Giambi, he’s got like three dozen bats just strewn in there. Guys’ locker etiquette is interesting, too — some guys are messy, other guys are very precise.
UW: You mentioned earlier how you’d tape down your ribbon stirrups to keep them from coming loose. Do you see things like that in the clubhouse, things that the average fan wouldn’t know about but that the average Uni Watch reader would love to see? Taping this, buttoning that, or whatever?
TK: They all wear different T-shirts under their jerseys. Someone will say something like “Attaboy” during batting practice and the next thing you know someone’s made it into a T-shirt and everyone’s wearing it under their gamers. When LaTroy Hawkins came in during spring training, he wore a “Joba Rules” T-shirt, just like the fans — I thought that was really cool.
UW: You cover the Yankees, and the Yankees are always talking about the “mystique of the pinstripes.” Even their players talk that way, especially when someone gets traded and he says, “Ooh, now I get to wear the pinstripes.” Do they really feel that way, or are they just blowing smoke?
TK: I think that’s real, actually, because the tradition is unmatched. They take it pretty seriously. It can get taken too far, though, like when you see a writer write something like, “Xavier Nady wore pinstripes for the first time..,” except it was a road game, so he wasn’t really wearing pinstripes. You’ve gotta be careful with that kind of stuff.
UW: Do you think it bugs the Yankees players that they don’t have their names on their jerseys?
TK: Nobody’s ever mentioned that. I think they think it’s kinda cool.
UW: When the Mets removed the player names in 1999, some of the players reportedly didn’t like it.
TK: Well, the whole Mets uniform thing is…
UW: Let’s not even go there.
TK: When I was in Seattle, Ken Griffey basically ran the clubhouse. So unless you were a veteran starter like Jamie Moyer or Jeff Fassero, Griffey would decide what uniform they wore. Once Freddie Garcia got to 10 wins, he was allowed to decide, too. But if it was someone like Ken Cloude, Griffey would be the one who’d tell the clubhouse guy, “OK, we’re wearing blue today,” or whatever.
UW: What are you favorite uniforms?
TK: So much of this is wrapped up nostalgia, but I always thought the Padres’ brown uniforms were so cool. The Brewers’ old logo, which they still wear on Fridays or whatever, that’s great. And I loved the original Expos cap, which looked like a beanie — I always liked that. The Braves have screwed up their look so much, with the red jersey and all, but their plain white one is nice, with the double lines down, uh, what do you call that?
UW: The placket.
TK: Yeah, the piping down the placket. I don’t like much about the Braves, but I do like that uniform. The Dodgers are classic. You can’t go wrong with the Detroit Tigers. Oh, and the Pirates’ vest — I love that, and those great numbers they use.
UW: It’s such a sad-sack franchise that nobody takes them seriously, but they look sensational, I agree. What about least favorite?
TK [unhesitatingly]: The Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are a disgrace. And I’ve gotta watch them 19 times a year. It just drives me nuts! And I was friends with this guy who worked for them when they changed over [to their current look], and I’d say to him, “You can’t go black — you’re the Blue Jays! You can’t have black Blue Jays, it doesn’t make any sense!” And he’d say, “Oh it’s marketing, people like to buy stuff in black,” and all that. And the numbers are weird, all tilted, and the lettering on the back is silly. I’m not crazy about the Brewers either, because the name on the back is hard to read, and the uniform is so boring compared to what it should be, which is just the old version that they now use as a throwback — they should wear that every day. But the Blue Jays are by far the worst. Are they gonna wear those weird gray ones anymore?
UW: No.
TK: Well, that’s good. But I could go on about the Blue Jays — their look just really offends me. Any team that wears black unnecessarily. Oh, and the worst example of that is probably the Oakland A’s, with that black jersey.
UW: Especially since their basic look is really good.
TK: Their basic look is so nice. Oh, and I hate that logo with the elephant wearing sunglasses, because the single greatest logo is the one with the elephant on the ball with the bat in its trunk.
UW: Is that one you can draw really well?
TK: Yes, I can draw that one perfectly.
UW: And can you tell other people how to draw it?
TK: I don’t know about that. It’s a tough one. A lot of steps. But that is my all-time favorite logo, and I wish they’d use that more, because their basic logo is so boring — that brings nothing to the party. And right near the press elevator, they have the elephant logo, but instead of standing on a baseball, he’s standing on a globe, and it says, “World Champions 1989,” and I think it’s the coolest championship logo.
UW: What about other sports?
TK: I’ve always liked the Boston Bruins’ uniforms, for some reason, because they’re so simple. I’m a Flyers fan, but they really screwed up by going to black. My favorite helmet is the Bengals. Coolest helmet ever, if you ask me. Which you are. The stripes are so neat. When it came out in ’81 or so, I was just starting to follow sports, and I didn’t even know they used to have a helmet with just the word “Bengals” on it. Very stark-looking helmet. I don’t know why they ever would’ve gone that. Their uniform is a bit weird now, but I love the helmet. Football helmets are even cooler than baseball hats, because it’s like an open template to do whatever you want. You know what’s really neat, when the 49ers wear the Montana-era jerseys. You look at them now, and it doesn’t seem like it would look that different, but then you compare them side-by-side and the Alex Smith-era jerseys are so ugly. I liked in ’94, when they wore that throwback uniform all the way through to the Super Bowl. That was kinda gutsy. I was gonna say, “ballsy, |
