|
|
Posts filed under 'NBA'
So last night Kirsten and I are walking to the IFC Center in Manhattan (to see this), and there’s this guy standing there on the sidewalk, wearing one of those cheapo green molded-plastic “Irish” hats, waving his arms, and yelling, “Three-dollar beers! Cheap beer! Three-dollar beers!”
Ah, St. Paddy’s Day in New York — what a total frat party from hell charming ritual. I wore green, naturally. The fact that I also wear green on many — indeed, most — of the other 364 days of the year is of little consequence, for March 17th is a day when we can all embrace our inner drunk Irishman, a day when the world’s most deliciously verdant hue is in gratifyingly ample supply. And nowhere was this more true yesterday than at a few gazillion genuinely awful New York bars in the world of uniforms.
(And yes, smart guy, I realize there are actually 365 non-St. Paddy’s Day days this year, but that just wouldn’t have sounded right in a sentence, y’know?)
Herewith, a survey of the day’s emerald events:
• In San Antonio, the Celtics broke out their green-and-golds again. I refuse to believe Sam Cassell is truly Irish until the DNA tests come back, but it’s still a good look, no? After the game, Paul Pierce treated everyone to a Shamrock Shake at Mickey D’s.
• I’m less fond of the Bulls’ jade attire, mainly because the black trim reminds me too much of those annoying Celtics alternates (which they should just ditch in favor of the green-and-golds, am I right?).
• The Knicks’ St. Paddy’s day uni has always struck me as a bit odd. One the one hand, I love green and orange as a color combo. But it’s an autumnal color combo, and it just doesn’t feel right as we’re moving into spring (except maybe on David Lee, what with his red hair and all). Let’s just blame it on Isiah, like everything else, and go back to the drawing board.
• Did you know that Toronto has a big Irish population? Neither did anyone in Salt Lake City, until the Raptors showed up dressed like this (additional views here and here). And look, they even had celtic dancers on hand, or at least that’s what the AP caption says. I think it’s actually all the wives from Big Love.
• The Sonics — no, wait, that’s just their regular green uni.
• Over on the diamond, the Reds are the team that pioneered the special St. Paddy’s Day uni, but they couldn’t be bothered yesterday. Fortunately, several others did, but most of them went the lazy route, just using green caps (most of which had nasty logo creep and adjusta-straps) and/or green bases. Pfeh.
• I believe only two teams went with green jerseys: the Phillies and Twins. And after seeing them, the lazy route is looking better all the time, no?
And lest we forget, one team made a very special St. Patrick’s Day gesture: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the — uh, see for yourself (additional jaw-dropping views here and here).
Uni Watch News Ticker: Tommy Lasorda must’ve read yesterday’s post. He switched to stirrups! … Really interesting little piece here about how Govs. Spitzer and McGreevey and their respective wives wore virtually identical “uniforms” when announcing their resignations. … Bill Turianski has created the latest in his series of sports maps, this one showing the location of the NCAA Tournament teams. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: A bunch of new pics from the upcoming George Clooney flick Leatherheads have hit the web, and goddamn do those uniforms look sweet (additional pics here, here, here, here, and here). And check out the refs. … “I went to the SPHL game between the Huntsville (Alabama) Havoc and the Columbus (Georgia) Cottonmouths on Saturday night and took along my camera to snap some shots of the Havoc’s St. Paddy’s Day uni,” writes Zack Bennett). “Instead, I found Columbus wearing one of the more unique number fonts I’ve ever seen [additional examples here and here].” I think we should get all animal-named teams to go this route — imagine the Dolphins wearing dolphin-patterned numbers. … Cleveland news from Vince, who says a local radio station is reporting that the Browns will wear white helmets for one game next season, to honor the 1946-49 squads that won the AAFC championship four years in a row. No comment yet from the team. … Mark Milner sent along some pics of a few vintage curling sweaters and jackets, as seen hereand here. … Looks like Curtis Granderson was wearing navy tights over black socks the other day (good spot by Christian Bitto). … MLB umpire Rob Drake has a blog, and this recent entry includes some info on the umps’ uniforms (nice find by David Arnott). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Great photo here of Saginaw High in Michigan (here’s the rear view). Now they just need a seven-footer and Spud Webb to complete the effect. … Would someone please buy this man a regular cap? … Jesus, just shoot me now and get it over with.
March 18th, 2008
Let’s say a Spanish team called the Barcelona Halcones (that’s Spanish for “Falcons”) decided to hold an “American Night” promotion. And let’s further say that they decided to wear special jerseys for the occasion — jerseys that read, “Like, Halcones, Dude.”
That’s essentially what the NBA did for last night’s Spurs/Suns game, as both teams “honored” the Hispanic community by adding “Los” to their team names. At least the Suns came up with a new jersey for the occasion; the Spurs, by comparison, looked like they just slapped some iron-on patches onto their existing design.
Am I the only one who thinks this approach reeks of American ignorance? It’s like getting drunk on Tequila in Mexico City and then asking, “Where-o is el bathroom-o?” And it’s not like the words Spurs and Suns don’t have Spanish translations — Espuelas and Sols, respectively. Would that have been so hard? Just tossing “Los” on there is a lazy cop-out, especially since NBA jerseys don’t use definite articles to begin with (well, except for this one). And seriously, does the mere addition of “Los” really strike a chord in any Hispanic fan’s heart? If we’ve got any Latinos out there, I’d love to hear your reaction.
The NBA isn’t the only league going this route, of course. The Mets and Rangers have both lo(u)sed up their jerseys in recent years. Only the Giants and Brewers have gone the extra mile to execute the concept properly.
Then, of course, there are also designs like this, this, and this, but we’ll save them for another time. For now, let’s just hope the Angels don’t try a Hispanic Night, or else we’ll have the Los Angeles Los Angels de Anaheim on our hands.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Last week’s New Yorker had a fantastic article about superhero costumes, and how they never translate properly from a comic book to the real world. Highly recommended reading. … The AAFL’s helmet designs are on display here. I kinda like them, cuz I’m in favor of anything involving state shapes (and even more in favor of anything that shows Michigan’s Upper Peninsula). … A lightning strike knocked a tree onto Scott M.X. Turner’s car over the weekend. So what did Scott concern himself with? The firefighters’ cool NOBs, of course (which are even cooler, in fact, cuz they’re reflective). And look, Drew Bledsoe found something to do with his post-NFL life. … Scott also sent along a photo from his recent trip to New Mexico, where he wore a recent eBay score to the White Sands Missile Range. ” My belt was not in support of breast cancer research,” he adds. “It was in favor of rockabilly cool.” … Lowercase letter alert from Jeremy Brahm: ” Harper LeBel was a long snapper with the Falcons during Brett Favre’s time in Atlanta.” … Patrick Taylor reports that this cartoon ran in Friday’s Washington Post. Was it really that hard to get the Packers’ color scheme right? … According to a small item on this page, “Thursday’s [Cavs/Bulls] game was also special to Joe Smith, but not because he was returning to Chicago. Smith paid tribute to his late mother, Letha, on her birthday. On his shoes he wrote ‘R.I.P. Mom, Happy Birthday’” (thanks, Vince). … The Lake Erie Monsters wore godawful tie-dye jerseys the other day. Embarrssing photo gallery here (with thanks to Patrick Lewis and Vince). … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: MLB’s legal team apparently has nothing better to do than harass the Cape Cod League. … “I was searching around some of the local high school web sites and came across this lacrosse uniform for the McLean Highlanders in McLean, Virginia,” writes Josh Holman. “Can’t say that I’m a big fan of the design, but it does achieve that kilt look (if that’s what they are going for).” … The upcoming Uni Watch party in Seattle inspired Emerald City expat MJ Turner to send along some unusual Seattle-related pics: Jim Zorn as a Cowboy, Steve Largent as an Oiler, and Slick Watts in the ‘green rainbow’ Sonics jersey (”very rare — he was traded early in the ’77 season,” writes Turner). … According to a small item at the bottom of this page, the Braves will wear a memorial sleeve patch this season for coach Jim Beauchamp, who passed away last December (with thanks to Jonathon Binet). … Genius find by Matt Englander, who writes: “I had no idea Under Armour had made a foray into the prisoner handling market.” … Oh. My. Fucking. God. (Awesome find by Robert Eden.) … Here’s one of those “best player by uni number” pieces, as applied to soccer (with thanks to Mark Dancer). … Scott Turner found an interesting photo of Willie Mays. Is that a BP jersey-styled suit bag? … Someone on the Chris Creamer board posted a link to this awesome source for hockey socks. … Jeremy Brahm notes that Japanese golfer Momoko Ueda has been using multicolored shoelaces. … The UNC hoops team has added a memorial patch for Eve Carson, plus at least one UNC player added a handwritten sneaker memorial on Friday. … Best photo of the weekend. … Good article here about the Wisconsin hockey team’s uni numbers (with thanks to Geoff Poole). … “Here’s some serious stirrup action from Saturday’s game between my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, and West Texas A&M,” writes Jon Smith. “The teams are Division II and play in the Lone Star Conference. ACU is in white, and yes that’s purple, but come on, it looks really sweet.” … According to the fifth graf, in this story, those titanium necklaces are now MLB-licensed. Now word on whether the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny are negotiating their own licensing deals (with thanks to Todd Davis). … Major throwback action last night in Detroit. … Depressing article here about how Nike is now targeting the high school football market (courtesy of Mike Edgerley). … How cool was Tug McGraw? Check out the middle photo here (big thanks to Nina Dubin). … Rutgers and Seton Hall went color-vs.-color yesterday. … “Went to Cubs/Royals on Sunday in Surprise, Arizona,” writes Kenn Tomasch. “Felix Pie went out to center field for the bottom of the 1st wearing No. 74. But by the time he doubled in the top of the 2nd, he was wearing his usual No. 20 again, and he kept it on for the rest of the game. I have no idea why.” … Castro’s resignation must have the Cuban athletes feeling like they can push the envelope a little bit. At the IAAF World Indoor Championships on Friday, triple jumper Yargelis Savigne dressed like this, but the following day she changed he socks to this, creating a spectacularly striped landing that apparently left a bit of sand in some inappropriate places (with thanks to Vince and Bryan, who both know I like a striped sock even more than an exposed butt cheek).
March 10th, 2008
By Vince Grzegorek
About a week ago, I wrote a blog for my humble little alternative weekly in Cleveland about why no reasonable fan should care that LeBron’s new Nike kicks are inspired by the Bronx Bombers. Even after the flak Bron Bron caught for wearing a Yankees cap at Jacobs Progressive Field during the Indians’ divisional series against the Yankees, I didn’t think the new shoes, replete with pinstripes, would be such a big deal. At least, I didn’t think they should be.
Of course, as the days went by and news from the blogs reached those who write for our daily newspapers, and those who produce our local daily news shows, James’s new shoes became quite the story yesterday. Locally, the Plain Dealer dedicated almost a full page of the sports section to comments received about the footwear (check out the full list of the “eloquent” comments here). Nationally, the story got play on SportsCenter, and the boys at PTI debated whether LeBron has taken his love of all things pinstriped too far, ultimately declaring that the King should have reigned in that love a little bit. [Sounds like a slow news day to me. — PL]
My take: Ideally, we’d all like our hometown athletes to be beacons of our city in all regards. So it would be great if LeBron was a rep for the Indians, Browns, Lake Erie Monsters, and even the new Cleveland Gladiators. Hell, he should be out pimping the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art too! Instead, LeBron parties with Jay-Z in Vegas, Tom Brady wears a Yankees hat, and Paul Pierce shows his support for the New York Giants.
Still, I think LeBron’s new shoe is nothing to get upset about. In fact, LeBron and Nike have made many shoes together. There’s an entire site dedicated to his shoes. And that’s where I found that Nike and LeBron have also made an OSU style shoe. As you can read here, that doesn’t mean James is heading off to OSU after this year to play for Thad Matta. It doesn’t mean he’s slighting his hometown Akron Zips in any way. In fact, Nike and LeBron made another shoe that has a map of Akron on the sole!
LeBron is at the point of his career where his role as a Nike-sponsored businessman is fast approaching or surpassing his role as basketball player. He’s made no secret of his desire to be a billionaire, and if he’s going to get there, Nike will play a big role in that, which means this is hardly the last set of sneakers they’ll collaborate on. Would I prefer that LeBron didn’t love the Yankees and instead made a shoe based on the Tribe? Sure. But the sad truth is that our athletes owe us nothing outside of the sports they play. I’m in no mood to watch the Cavs cross their fingers over some ping pong balls in the lottery, so I want LeBron here, no matter whose baseball cap or shoes he’s wearing.
Research Request: Paul here. Many, many people over the years have told me about the time the Patriots held a logo “election” during halftime of a game back around the late ’80s, when Pat Patriot was still the man. They supposedly had one guy dressed up as Pat, someone else dressed up as a proposed newfangled spokescharacter (not Flying Elvis), paraded them both around the field, and had the fans vote by applauding. Or maybe they had giant cardboard cutouts of the two logos, instead of live actors (I’ve heard the story told both ways). Either way, the new logo was booed off the field.
I’ve heard this story enough times to believe that it’s true. Only problem is that nobody has ever provided a photo of the losing logo. If anyone can provide any visuals on this, please get in touch. Thanks.
While we’re at it: Another prototype that I’ve often heard about but never seen is the new Chiefs helmet that a play-by-play man supposedly held up in front the camera during a game about 20 years ago. If you’ve got it, let’s see it!
Uni Watch News Ticker: Good article here about how the Chargers’ equipment manager tried to prepare for the cold weather in Foxboro (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … The Sean Taylor mourn-athon continues. … Check out the third “news” item at Thebrushback.com (good find by Mike Nachreiner). … A set of 1936 White Sox pants — plus the accompanying belt! — were just up for sale on eBay (with thanks to Jason Libes). … Check out the collar on the guy on the right in this shot. “Looks like Count Chocula,” opines Greg Riffenburgh. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Dallas Stars are wearing an “MM” decal on their helmets and backplates in memory of front office employee Matt McKee, who died of cancer last week. … Marc Rabinowitz was watching a replay of the 1996 NHL All-Star Game and noticed that John Vanbiesbrouck’s mask-mounted camera was actually painted to match his mask. … As many of you are already aware, the NBA All-Star Game uniforms will look like this and this. Definitely looks like one of those designs that can’t be properly assessed via an illustration — I’ll reserve judgment until I see some photographs Ah, screw it, let’s just beat the rush and start hating them now. … Meanwhile, the Chinese Basketball Association recently had its own all-star game (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … This just in: All players in the Pro Bowl will wear Sean Taylor’s No. 21, plus the competition committee will consider a proposal to have the entire league wear No. 21 next season, and the American flag will be redesigned to have 21 stars and 21 stripes. … Speaking of memorial gestures, I know everyone’s upset about Heath Ledger, but these brokeback moments are getting out of hand. … Awesome audio slideshow here about a 1952 game in which the Harlem Globetrotters suffered a rare loss — at the hands of a sleeve-clad Seattle Chieftains team (spectacular find by Sam Wasson). … Speaking of the Chieftains, we’ve all seen football jerseys with crotch extensions, but I’d never seen one on a basketball jersey until Warren Humphrey showed me this page — scroll down to the bottom for the horrible truth, then check out the rest of the pics for lots of sleeve-o-rama action. … Really interesting high schhool football helmet discovered by Jimmy Neilly. “The team is the Mount Diablo Red Devils,” he writes. “Two of the three prongs of a pitchfork are wrapped around the sides of the helmet, and then the middle prong is used as their helmet stripe.”
January 24th, 2008
It’s not often that I run a lead item with no photo links. But reader Mark Snider sent me a really interesting communiqué the other day, and it deserves showcase treatment, even without pics. Check it out:
The Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League recently hosted the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. It was the Stampede’s NBA Affiliate Night [a promotion designed to highlight the relationship between NBA clubs and their D-League affiliates], so Idaho was wearing the black road uniforms of their NBA Affiliate, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Mad Ants wore the red uniforms of the Detroit Pistons.
But Mouhamed Sene, assigned to the Stampede by their other NBA affiliate, the Seattle Super Sonics, wore his green road Sonics uniform. Turns out that the Sonics didn’t want their contracted player wearing the colors of their division (and Pacific Northwest) rivals from Portland. So at times, you had Idaho players wearing black and green uniforms, with Fort Wayne’s team in red. Unfortunately, no photos of the game yet.
There was a similar situation earlier in the season, when Idaho was on the road and was supposed to wear their Sonics uniforms in a game at Rio Grande Valley, where the Vipers were wearing yellow New Orleans Hornets uniforms. But Idaho had an assigned player from Portland, and the Blazers didn’t want him wearing Seattle’s colors. So Idaho wore their regular road red uniforms instead. Apparently the D-League and NBA didn’t take into account assigned NBA players from different teams when they established the NBA Affiliate Nights.
Interestingly, Brian Thompson reports that a similar case of bad planning unfolded at a recent Ontario Hockey League game:
In conjunction with the Windsor Spitfires’ final year at historic Windsor Arena, they’ve brought back their 1950s jerseys for Sunday games. But the Plymouth Whalers only brought their white jerseys to last Sunday’s game, so after the first period the officials made the Spitfires switch to their red jerseys, which happened to clash with their retro socks.
I’m sure there’s a lesson here of some sort, but I’m too busy obsessing over the fact that there’s simply no excuse for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants’ uniforms not to use this fabric for their uniforms. I happen to have several yards of the stuff (that photo is actually a scan of the material) — anyone want to make a jersey out of it?
Annals of Human Folly, Vol. 879,351: Remember that chunk of plastic that came off of Ahmad Bradshaw’s helmet on Sunday? Giants equipment director Joe Skiba tells me he actually picked up the wayward fragment from the Lambeau Field turf — and then threw it away.
Are you fucking kidding me?! Here’s an artifact with “Hall of Fame Exhibit” written all over it, and Skiba treats it like a cigarette butt. As Scott Turner remarked when I told him about this tragicomic turn of events, “Why didn’t he just chuck the Mona Lisa in the trash while he was at it?”
I fully expect the next edition of Skiba’s online video series to address this woeful error in judgment. But I won’t be around to see it, because I’m so distraught over this episode that I’m about to go put my head in the oven.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I love The Power Puff Girls, and apparently so does R.W. McQuarters. I was pretty sure he rotated his cartoon Band-Aids from game to game, but this is the first time I’ve seen a clear shot of him wearing a non-SpongeBob strip. Also, I didn’t know this, but McQuarters’s Band-Aid ritual dates all the way back to his college days at Oklahoma State, as you can see in this 1996 shot (which was kindly provided by Clint Spaulding). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: At the 58-second point of this video clip, you can see one of those chemical hand-warmer thingies fall out of Brett Favre’s pocket. … Just when you thought you’d seen everything (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … Interesting mystery uncovered by John English, who sent along this photo gallery from the 1979 American League Red Book. As you can see, two of the Chisox players have red-brimmed batting helmets — never seen that before. Anyone know more about this? … Ewww. … Double-ewww. … All those Packers wearing sewn-in pockets on their jerseys prompted Noel Blaha to send in this shot of Benie Kosar — note the high pocket placement. “During the cold-weather games, one of his hands would seemingly be on top of the other in two different pockets, rather than one pouch,” writes Noel. … “You recently mentioned that the New York Rangers wore three different colored jerseys during a practice,” writes Danny Kroll. “But yesterday here in Pittsburgh, the Capitals wore six different colors during their morning skate.” … Remember, I’ll be deconstructing the finer points of trade magazines tonight at Union Hall in Park Slope, 8 p.m.
January 22nd, 2008
By Bryan Redemske
There’s a guy in my office who rattles off lineups and stats when you start talking about baseball teams from the 1950s and ’60s. There’s another guy who talks about the various stadiums teams played in. Me, of course, I think of uniforms. And not just uniforms, but the way they were styled in particular eras. While the first guy’s mental Rolodex is fluttering from stat to stat, I’m picturing Al Kaline (right). While the second guy talks about the the monuments at Yankee Stadium, I think about the Mick, and how totally awesome he looked in pinstripes.
At this point, both guys usually leave because I’m rubbing my fingers together, eyes closed, and mumbling, “Wool flannel … so pretty … so scratchy … so baggy… .” And so on.
All weirdness on my part aside, this is actually how I think of different eras in sports. Pre-WWII baseball? Longish sleeves soft-crowned hats. And then there’s the ’70s. It’s like a long, tight, polyester nightmare. Things toned down in the ’80s, but the Straw pops into my head every time. Lots of sock, still tight, still slightly garish. For the current era, it’s Manny. Sigh.
Take a minute and consider your own mental filing system. Is your old-school football reference point this guy? The sleeves shortened for Unitas’s era, then the pads got really big in the ’70s. The college kids thought it necessary to show off their abs during that same period, something that continued well through the ’80s and into the ’90s. And that’s how I think of college football through the era — a faceless, teamless guy in big pads with exposed abs.
Three hockey images come to mind: Original Six, expansion/Gretzky, Crosby.
Basketball? Short and tight to longer to ridiculous. And also, unfortunately, shiny. I now generalize the entire high school basketball-playing population because of nylon dazzle fabric.
As a cyclist, I’m forced to render that sport’s past in uniform-based context as well. Really old guys (pre-mid-’50s) all look like this, Eddy Merckx represents almost every rider through the ’70s, and then there’s the tragic ’80s and early ’90s. And then there’s this. He has a category to himself.
Research Projects: Paul here. Earlier this week I posted pics of Marquette’s untucked jerseys. But as someone on the Chris Creamer board pointed out the next day, De Paul also went untucked back around 1981, as seen here and here — I hadn’t been aware of that. Aside from the pajama-era White Sox, have there been any other untucked teams? Obviously, I’m not counting hockey or other sports where the jerseys are meant to be untucked — I’m talking about teams that showed off their shirttails in an otherwise tucked-in league.
Also: Yesterday’s comments included a link to this pink helmet, which is essentially a scarlet letter that has to be worn by the player who comes up on the short end of a scoring game during practice (full details about halfway down this page). So it’s sort of like the pink knapsack routine in baseball, except it’s more uni-based. Can anyone think of any other uni-based scarlet letters?
Raffle Reminder: You know the drill — $250 Distant Replays gift card. E-mail your entry here by 10 p.m. tonight. One e-mail per person. Winner announced on Monday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: “Two CBA teams, the Oklahoma Cavalry and Great Falls Explorers, have had their road uniforms disappear this season,” writes Chuck Miller. “In Oklahoma’s case, fired head coach Micheal Ray Richardson simply took the road unis until he was rehired a week later; in the Great Falls situation, the circumstances are unknown. Anyway, this caused both the Cavalry and Explorers, on the road, to wear the road uniforms of their host teams, as can be seen by these photos of Albany versus Oklahoma (Albany is in the yellow) and Albany hosting Great Falls (ditto).” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Great gallery of New Jersey high school hockey jerseys here. … We’ve all seen plenty of shots of Cleveland’s elfin mascot, Brownie. Until now, though, I hadn’t seen one where he had spikes on his stockings (with thanks to Brendon Yarian, who also passed along this shot of a Bears jersey with what appears to be an upside-down “3″). … As I mentioned in my ESPN column a few weeks ago, I don’t like uni memorials that include the deceased’s signature — seems a bit creepy. But Motherwall FC in Scotland apparently feels differently, as they’ve just tributed Phil O’Donnell by embroidering his autograph onto their jersey. Full details here (with thanks to Patrick O’Donnell). … Interesting note from Travis Edwards, who writes: “My boss and I were talking about football jerseys, and he had told me about some team (unsure who they were) who used to have footballs on the sides of their jerseys. They used to run the wing offense and when they would run, everyone would have their hands to their sides acting as though they had the ball. Now, was he jerking me around, or can you help me to identify who that team was?” … The Central Hockey League held their All-Star Game a few nights ago, and Scotty Hockey sent along a pic of both uniforms. … Hmmm, separated at birth? (Good find by Ronnie Poore.) … Good note from Steve Shanabruch, who writes: “Twins pitcher Pat Neshek has a blog, and he often has auctions for game-used items. The funny thing is, the winner isn’t the person who bids the most money, it’s the person who offers the best baseball cards (he’s a huge collector). Anyway, one of the recent auctions was for a luggage strap that he used for road games last season, inscribed with the last name ‘Dahmer.’ I figured he was using the name of a serial killer as his alias, but it turns out his alias was ‘Cy Dahmer,’ because if you say it fast, it sounds like ’side-armer,’ which is how he pitches.” … LeBron James has a new sneaker, and Vince has written his take on them. … Yesterday’s lead item regarding prototypes prompted Andrew Schimmel to send in n this shot from the Florida Panthers’ uni unveiling back in May of 1993. “Note that the red sweater has blue numbers with a yellow outline,” he writes. “The Panthers never used this color combo for the red sweater at any point. Also, the gloves have claws printed on them. I would tend to think they weren’t serious about actually using such gloves — I believe it was only for the unveiling ceremony.” A shame, because I think the claws look pretty cool! … Very unusual hoops jersey being worn by Fairfax High in L.A. Here’s another view, with a T-shirt underneath (with thanks to Hunter Franks). … We all know the Lakers wore short shorts a few weeks back. But until now, I didn’t know that there was an “I saw the short shorts” T-shirt, which you can have for your very own (nice find by Matt Shervin). … Latest reason to love Wisconsin. … “Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing unveiled their 2008 car on Wednesday,” reports Dane Drutis. “You can also see David Coulthard and Mark Webber wearing their new fire suits. I believe this is the first time F1 drivers have worn their car numbers on their driving gear. It’s somewhat odd that Coulthard will drive car No 9 but is wearing 09 — why the zero, I wonder? As for the stripe running from right shoulder to right ankle, you be the judge.” Personally, I dig the stripe, but I’m sure that’s no surprise to anyone here. … Latest installment of “Equipped with Joe Skiba” is up on the Giants’ home page, and it’s a really good one — enjoy. … Lots of crazy helmet decal action in this Shrine Game practice photo gallery (with thanks to Nick Noyes). … Latest example of handwritten uni numbers on socks: Denison Cabral of the Baltimore Blast (courtesy of Jen Muller). … Alarming news from Jere Smith, who writes: “I work for a children’s book publisher. One of the books slated to come out in ’09, for kindergartners, is about getting dressed for a baseball game. It shows your basic T-ball outfit, and each page shows a different piece of the uni. When it gets to the all-important ankle-ish area, they’ve put the poor girl in those white socks with the blue vertical stripe down the sides that end at the shoe line. The climactic scene shows the dad appearing, also in full identical uni, right down the fake stirrups.” … I’m going to be out off the grid again for most of today, so contact Bryan if you have any major site problems. I’ll be back on Monday.
January 18th, 2008
Whenever there’s an NBA throwback game, I inevitably get a few e-mails from people complaining that they should have shortened the shorts for maximum retro effect. The Lakers must have been listening, because last night they took the court wearing short shorts, just like in the old days. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the courage of their convictions, because they switched back to full-length shorts in the second half.
So how did it look? Some people have already complained about the compression shorts that were peeking out from beneath many players’ trunks, but that didn’t bother me (especially since compression shorts are often visible on players wearing full-length shorts too). My gripe was that the jerseys were too billowy — they should’ve been tailored snugger, to match the shorts.
For the most part, though, I thought they looked great. Take a look at both teams in this shot — it’s no contest. Same goes here and here.
The key — as always, boys and girls — is the socks. The shorter shorts look dynamite as long as you’ve got some socks covering up some of that lower-body real estate, but this look is problematic.
Once the Lakers went back to the contemporary shorts in the second half (which I think they did just because everyone likes to do that idiotic MJ shorts tug), everything turned predictably sloppy-looking — the baggy look just doesn’t work, people. Memo to David Stern: Make everything two sizes smaller, go buy a Val-U-Pak pack of tube socks, and get back to me in 2008.
Membership Update: Speaking of the turning of the calendar, if you made a new year’s resolution back in January to join the Uni Watch membership program in 2007 (an unlikely scenario, since the membership program didn’t yet exist in January, but still…) — or if you’d just like to ring out the year on a high note — today’s your last chance.
Meanwhile, there’s a bunch of new designs up for your perusal in the membership card design gallery, including today’s showcase design, which is based, of course, on the back of an Ohio State helmet.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Zazzle is running a 20% sale on all apparel from now through January 7th, making this a good time to snag yourself a Uni Watch T-shirt. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Bizarre (and bizarrely appealing) eBay item here. … More eBay stuff: some amazing old basketball unis, vintage sliding pants, an old Wilson baseball uni ad, and an incredible baseball uniform in Uni Watch colors. … Robert Gelles is a neckwear designer. He’s also a daily Uni Watch reader, which explains why his company is selling this (here’s a more detailed view), this (detail), and this (detail). … “This picture is from the 3A Texas High School football State Championship game,” writes Tory Humphries. “The orange team is the Celina Bobcats, and the word on their socks is ‘Bobcats.’ ” … I knew the Dodgers were wearing a 50th-anniversary patch next season, but I didn’t know what each element of the patch symbolized until Austin Chung sent me this. … Jim Burt always stretched his jersey as tight as possible. But Chris Flinn notes that in this shot, it almost looks like his nameplate has been stretched (or, more likely, they spaced out the lettering to match his stretch-spaced number). … According to the last paragraph of this item, Syracuse will have new football uniforms next season (so what else is new?). … Ever seen a hockey player wearing eye black? I never had, until Cullan Foote sent me this 1967 shot of Kent Douglas. … Several readers noted that Maryland’s punter was wearing a yarmulke during the Emerald Bowl. … If you skip to the halfway point of this video clip, you’ll see BYU kicker Mitch Payne peeling the “Y” logo off his helmet to give to a young fan at the conclusion of the Las Vegas Bowl (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … Ryan Perkins reports that the NFL Network ran a commercial with this image prior to Saturday’s Giants/Pats game. Too bad the Colts no longer wear white facemasks. … Totally bizarre gold shorts stripe being worn by one of the teams in the BJ League (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm, who also passed along some frightening pics from the Master League, the league for retired Japanese baseball players — look here, here, and here, ). … No sooner did I write about basketball players wearing sleeves than Evansville broke out their old sleeved jerseys on Saturday night. Details here. … “The 1988 A’s had a pitcher named Todd Burns,” writes John English. “He wore No. 54, and for some reason his uni numbers were different from everyone else’s on the club. The 4s were thicker and the 5s looked like upside-down 2s [as opposed to this]. This has bugged me for 20 years and while I don’t expect anyone else will know why this happened, it doesn’t hurt to ask.” … Bryan Widell reports that Manchester City captain Richard Dunne had problems with peeling numerals on Sunday. … Buried on this page is the following tidbit of Pittsburgh Pirates news: “The gold ‘P’ on the Pirates’ cap suddenly is taking the place of the angry, bearded pirate on just about all of the team’s printed matter.” Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end for the pirate logo, who’s always struck me as too cartoon-ish (good catch by Timothy Collins). … The Penguins’ goalies plan to wear old-school brown gear for tomorrow’s Winter Classic game. Details here (with thanks to Steve Laga). … And according to an item on this page, Penguins execs “are so pleased with the look of the retro-themed uniforms the club will wear in the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day that the Penguins will seek permission to make that design their alternate look [next season]” (as spotted by Mike Reilly). … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Several people have mentioned to me that Daryl Johnston was forced to wear a Packers helmet during the 1994 Pro Bowl, after his own helmet was stolen. But I’d never seen visual confirmation until Nolan Brett came up with this. I’m gonna see if my ESPN photo editor can get us a full-size version. … Good view here of Vince Young’s blue chinstrap cozy, which is team-branded. … And we close out the year with a communiqué from Miguel Durón, the winner of our last raffle. He chose an Earl Campbell-era Texas Longhorns helmet from Gridiron Memories as his prize. “Here’s a pic of my 18-month-old daughter rocking it,” he writes. “She looks much cuter with it on than I do.” That’s so damn adorable, I’m not even gonna say anything about the purple shirt. Everyone have a happy and healthy holiday, and remember, New Year’s Eve is for amateurs.
December 31st, 2007
The nice thing about co-owning an NBA team is that you can work out with the players whenever you want. And of course you’ll get an official team practice jersey to wear — hey, you’re a part owner, you can raid the pro shop for whatever gear you want. High-five! But wait, the practice jersey features the logo of the company that manufactured it, and you have a longstanding promotional arrangement with a rival company. That’s a slight dilemma, but everyone knows what a savvy businessman you are, so you’ll come up with a smart and elegant solution.
That was the situation facing Michael Jordan yesterday. And here was his smart and elegant solution: He slapped a piece of white tape over the Adidas logo on his chest, although I think it’s fair to say that this maneuver went straight into the “Not fooling anybody” file, especially since he didn’t bother covering up the Adidas stripe treatment (presumably because they ran out of white tape).
I don’t know if Jordan’s still contractually forbidden to wear non-Nike gear, or the very idea of flashing a non-swoosh logo simply gives him a rash, but this little episode really highlights the continuing absurdity of how sportswear companies have become entangled with leagues and athletes. Did Jordan really think nobody would notice the piece of tape, or understand why it was there? Didn’t this actually draw more attention to the fact that he was wearing Adidas gear than if he hadn’t worn the tape to begin with? Couldn’t he have avoided this problem altogether if he’d just turned the shirt inside-out or worn a some other shirt? Oh, but then the Bobcats logo wouldn’t have been visible, so he wouldn’t have been promoting his team and its merch. What a mess — the whole situation reeks.
I’ll have more to say about logo creep tomorrow. Meanwhile, how much you wanna bet that some kid out there is gonna start wearing a piece of tape over the Adidas logo on his Bobcats jersey, just like his idol, MJ?
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the holiday raffle. For details, scroll down to the middle of Friday’s entry. As always, you can increase your odds of winning by joining the Uni Watch membership program. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow.
And hey, speaking of raffles: Are you excited about the Pro Bowl? Right, me neither. But the NFL is raffling off a free trip to its annual snooze-a-thon all-star game, and let’s face it, a free trip to Hawaii is a free trip to Hawaii, even if it does entail watching the world’s lamest football game. Plus the Pro Bowl is a uni watcher’s dream (assuming you dream about the really bad design), so it’s a win-win. To enter, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Vikings’ solid-purple look will not be repeated (that good news brought our way by Chad Burma). … Weird sequence of events yesterday, beginning when Kenn Tomasch sent me a note reporting that Steve Young’s orange jersey didn’t have stripes in 1985 like the rest of the Bucs had. Upon further investigation I discovered several other anomalies, to wit: Young appears to have ghosted sleeve stripes here and here; some of Tampa’s linemen didn’t have sleeve stripes either; kicker Donald Igwebuike (one of my all-time favorite sports names) had stripes, but his sleeve connected to his jersey down around his belly; if you factor in the sleeves, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen another NFL jersey look as mesh-y as this. … Michael Vick may not be in the NFL anymore, but he’s leaving quite a trail in his wake. … Looks like a Georgia Southern player was wearing a one-sleeved undershirt the other day (with thanks to Bob Jaye). … The Rutgers football team’s equipment manager is retiring (with thanks to Bruce Soltys). … Greg Riffenburgh notes that Minnesota’s Anthony Herrera appeared to be violating the NFL’s “only one footwear trim color allowed” rule the other night. … If you can’t prevent a concussion, at least you can know if you’ve gotten one. … Todd Krevanchi notes that Houston is using different font sets for its front and back uni numbers, and you can see in the 2s here. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Awesome old newsreel footage shot in the Red Wings and Rangers locker rooms here.
December 19th, 2007
Okay, it’s official: The Bears have a serious problem with their helmet decals. It’s been brewing for a couple of seasons now, as the occasional player has shown up with a broken wishbone-C logo on his noggin. But last night it was practically a pandemic, as Alex Brown, Olin Kreutz, and Adrian Peterson all sported headwear malfunctions.
Giants equipment czar Joe Skiba has mentioned to me that helmet decals get more brittle in cold weather. But the NFL has been playing winter games for decades, and I don’t ever recall seeing a rash of decal destruction like the one currently being exhibited by da Bears. Decal guru Chris Willis, if you’re reading this (and I know you are), any idea what’s going on here?
Speaking of helmet decals, both teams were still wearing the “21″ memorial decal for Sean Taylor. No surprise that the ’Skins would continue to wear it for the rest of the season (they’re still wearing their “21″ jersey patch, too), but I raised an eyebrow upon seeing the Bears wearing it, since NFL deaths don’t usually get the league-wide memorial treatment for more than one week. In fact, none of the league’s three off-season deaths (Darrent Williams, Damien Nash, and Marquise Hill) resulted in league-wide remembrances. The last player to get memorialized by all 32 teams was, I believe, Pat Tillman in 2004, and that was only for one week.
Two other notes from this game:
• Mike Engle notes that Todd Collins was sporting double sock stripes.
• And Todd Davis points out that Mike Sellers appears to be the latest convert to the Schutt Ion helmet (here’s another view).
(Special thanks to John Okray for the screen grabs.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Giants equipment director Joe Skiba cryptically advises us that we keep an eye on Plaxico Burress’s nose bumper this Sunday. … Speaking of Skiba, he’s been featured in a series of video reports on the Giants’ web site. You can see the latest one, which is about tailoring footwear for specific field conditions, is available on the team’s home page. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Twin City Knitting is marketing a set of team-logo stirrups. Very nice, although I’d prefer to see a higher foot opening. … The Royals’ powder blue alt jersey doesn’t look as bad with the white pants as I had expected. Certainly no worse than any other solid-over-white MLB combo (although that isn’t saying much). … Speaking of the Royals, Steve Johnston reports that Alex Gordon is switching uniform numbers, going from 7 to 4. … Here’s something you don’t often see: Kari Lehtonen wearing a practice jersey that he had already autographed (with thanks to Jeff McRae). … Coupla excellent NOB finds by Jere Smith: First, check out Rudy Tomjanovich wearing “Rudy T.” And if you go to the 1:18 mark of this video clip, you’ll see several views of Elvin Hayes wearing “E” (complete with the world’s biggest quote marks), as seen here and here. … Great Uni Watch party last night in Boston — big crowd, really great people, and a reporter from the Globe was there to cover the event. Only problem is that I kept getting distracted by a TV screen that was featuring the Bruins/Habs game, which was a serious thing of uni beauty. Full party details coming next week. … It has come to my attention that communiqués sent to me via the “Contact” link at the top of the page haven’t been getting through lately. So if you want to get in touch, just e-mail me directly.
December 7th, 2007
|
|
