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Posts filed under 'Pockets'
What’s been the biggest change in pro football over the past 30 years? A lot of things come to mind: modern training methods, the increased size of linemen, the overall increase in athleticism and speed, the advent of video review, the increasing dominance of African-American players, the disappearance of jersey sleeves, the utter joylessness of head coaches.
But if you ask me, the biggest development — and easily the most underrated one — is the ubiquity of gloves. Almost everyone wears them now, even quarterbacks, and it’s no exaggeration to say that most of the acrobatic catches you see receivers making these days wouldn’t be possible without them. Yeah, some players in the pre-glove era wore stickum, but I saw Lester Hayes and Fred Biletnikoff in their primes, and they couldn’t make any of these one-handed catches that you routinely see guys making today. Gloves have completely redefined the passing game.
All of which came to mind during yesterday’s Cowboys/Eagles game, which featured something I’d never seen before: Philly WR Kevin Curtis took a spill along the sideline, and at first it looked like his glove had come off during the play. But as he got up, it became apparent that the glove had actually fallen apart — the upper part was still on his wrist while the lower part had been ripped right off of his hand, much to Curtis’s own confusion.
In other developments from yesterday:
• Jason Taylor’s captaincy patch was coming loose by the end of the Dolphins/Ravens game.
• As has been noted here several times in recent weeks, the “Ravens” wordmark has been missing from Willis McGahee’s black jersey in recent weeks, but it was present and accounted for on his purple jersey yesterday.
• The Redskins usually wear these socks with their burgundy pants, but they went with these — ugh.
• Now that’s a football game. But if Derek Anderson was playing with a sewn-in pocket, why did he need an oven mitt?
(Big thanks to Chad Todd and Randy Williams from the Kevin Curtis screen grabs.)
Research Project: My ESPN colleague Mary Buckheit is working on a piece about women’s volleyball uniforms — why they’re so skimpy, why some players have issues with them, why they’re so different from the men’s uniforms, whether they’re so revealing that they’ve actually led some players to develop eating disorders, that sort of thing. Here’s a note from her:
The sport of volleyball has seen it all — unitards, mesh shorts, bun huggers, long sleeves, racerback jerseys, tall socks, no socks — what’s the deal? What is the functionality of volleyball uniforms, specifically the super-short spandex? Are women really inhibited by “cumbersome” traditional athletic shorts? You know, the ones that are perfectly suitable for soccer and basketball. Do the minis really make you perform better? Would men’s statistics spike if they dared ditch their mesh or board shorts in favor of a biker boxer brief type uni? Would they tally more digs that way? C’mon.
When you see volleyball on TV, do you stop and watch for an extra second to scope out the 6-foot college coeds in 3-inch spandex shorts? If so, any feelings on what it would be like as a father of a high school volleyball player knowing guys in the gym are doing the same thing to your 16-year-old sophomore setter?
If anyone has any thoughts on this, please feel free to contact me. Thanks!
I know at least a few of you know a lot more about volleyball than I do, so please share your knowledge with Mary. Thanks.
Raffle Reminder: In case you missed it on Friday, I’m currently raffling off a bunch of stuff. 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.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out this photo of Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth. Odd to see that the insignia on Ruth’s jacket is “N.Y.,” but on Gehrig’s it appears to be just “NY” — no periods (with thanks to Bruce Menard). … A member of the Winthrop women’s hoops team has changed her uni number to honor her late fiancé (as forwarded by Jonathan Carone). … A reader who prefers not to give his real name has gotten some good pics showing exactly how the Rangers are hemming their jerseys. … Yikes. … Northwest Missouri State safety Aldwin Foster-Rettig (who already has a lengthy NOB) tore his jersey on Saturday, leading to a rather makeshift repair (with thanks to Chris Wheeler). … Michael Poplawski reports that German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen modified their jersey crest to look like a Christmas tree on Saturday. Here’s a closer view. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Wisconsin-Whitewater’s jerseys have a “Warhawks” wordmark, but it was missing from Justin Beaver’s jersey. … The Dayton hoops team has unveiled some alternate throwbacks (with thanks to Todd Herzog). … This has resulted in this. … More NFL fines assessed here. … Doug Weight, making his Ducks debut last night, was wearing a pair of Brad May’s gloves (good catch by Alex Warner). … Remember the recent Ticker item about the missing stripes on Bill Guerin’s jersey? Here’s a follow-up (with thanks to Michael Schuerlein).
December 17th, 2007
New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile: When NFL teams go the throwback route, the retro uniform usually includes at least some of the colors from the team’s regular color scheme.
That’s why yesterday’s move by the Eagles is so interesting. To mark the team’s upcoming 75th season, the club unveiled a commemorative logo (which will be worn as a patch on the home and road jerseys) and a throwback outfit — complete with its own helmet — that bears exactly zero resemblance to the team’s current look. Green? Silver? White? Fuhgeddaboudit.
The colors, however incongruous they may appear, are rooted in Eagles and Philly history. The team originally wore blue and yellow — the same colors found on the Philly city flag — back in 1933, and the original design has long been featured in historical illustrations like this (here’s a fridge magnet version) and has also been available for purchase as a throwback garment.
Too bad the new throwbacks don’t have long sleeves like the originals did. And why is the yoke so shiny? Like, is it made of recycled Schmidt’s cans or what? Still, I kinda dig the Nordic colors, especially since they’ll only be worn once (Sept. 23rd, against the Lions), and the helmet is sort of endearingly clunky. I like that they went without TV numbers, too. And best of all … wait for it … striped socks! Now let’s hope they don’t screw up the look by Philly tagging it. (You can see a bit more of the throwbacks in this three-minute video, and there’s an extended sequence beginning at the 21-minute mark of this video.)
Incidentally, the Eagles also unveiled a virtual museum yesterday (strong suggestion: click on the “Skip Intro” button), and it’s got some killer stuff, including footage of Steve Van Buren running through the blizzard in the 1948 NFL title game, and Bob Brown playing in some serious mud. Kudos all around.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Ryan Dempster is really setting new standards in cold-weather gear (but hey, good for him for keeping his pants high-cuffed, even if it means his shins are chilly). … Carlos Guillen’s game has apparently gone straight down the crapper ever since the league office told him to tuck his pockets back in. … Speaking of things that need to be tucked in. … The saga of Curt Schilling’s bloody sock is getting weirder all the time.
April 26th, 2007
A really interesting subject came up in yesterday’s comments section: uniform cameos, meaning players who made very brief and easily overlooked appearances with a given team. It’s a great topic, and one that really shows the power of a uniform. Take Pete Rose, for example: It’s one thing to remember that he briefly played with the Expos in 1984, but actually seeing him in a Montreal uniform is pretty jarring. Uni cameos also serve as useful refresher courses in sports history — did you remember, for example, that Mike Piazza was a Marlin for about 10 minutes in 1998, or that Harmon Killebrew finished his career with a forgettable season in Kansas City? I confess that I had no idea Fergie Jenkins once wore a Phillies uni. And even if you know that Randy Johnson came up with the Expos, it’s still a bit of a mind-fuck to see him wearing Montreal threads.
The uni cameo is a flexible concept, so I want to narrow it down a bit. Like, okay, so Todd Zeile played 34 games with the Expos, but so what? The guy played for a gazillion different teams, so it doesn’t seem unusual to see him in any particular uniform. But seeing Franco Harris as a Seahawk, Curt Schilling as an Astro, Brett Favre as a Falcon, or Roger Maris as an Indian are all sort of hard for me to wrap my brain around. And of course certain player/uni pairings will just never compute, no matter how hard I stare at the photographic evidence.
To a certain extent, the question of what qualifies as a uni cameo is a function of personal perspective. The Pete Rose and Randy Johnson cases, for example, might not seem so unusual to someone who grew up in Montreal. Similarly, the sight of Willie Mays in a Mets uni seems perfectly normal to me, since I was a very enthusiastic eight- and nine-year-old Mets fan during Willie’s short tenure with the team. Also, it seems to me that more recent uni cameos (like, say, Armando Benitez as a Yankee) don’t pack as much of a punch, for three primary reasons: (1) Recent examples are fresher in our memories, so they don’t have as much of a surprise factor; (2) modern media coverage ensures that we’ll see much more of a player in a given uniform today than we would have 10 or 15 years ago, further diluting the impact; and (3) players move around so much these days that a cameo stint with a team doesn’t look as weird as it once did — nobody stays in one place long enough to establish a base-level look in the first place.
But that still leaves us plenty of fertile ground. In fact, I like this topic so much that I’m probably going to devote an ESPN column to this in the near future. So let’s compile as big a list as possible — send suggestions, links, and so on this-a-way. Big thanks in advance to all contributors, and bonus thanks to those who got the ball rolling yesterday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Great tidbit from a reader who prefers not to be named: “Rob Cucuzza, the Yankees’ equipment manager, said that Gary Sheffield was very particular about his uniform, including some bizarre alterations. For example, he said Sheffield ‘would ask for 1/16th of an inch to be taken off his sleeve, but not from the bottom of the sleeve.’ Instead, Sheffield would ask to have the sleeve taken off his jersey, get the 1/16th of an inch taken from the top of the sleeve, and then have the sleeve re-attached. When you think about it, maybe it makes a little sense to give more room at the top of the shoulder, but I’ve never heard of anything like that.” … More on Carlos Guillen and his inside-out pockets: According to the second item on this page, the fine that Guillen was threatened with was $1000. And then there’s this: “Guillen usually wears one pocket out, either the left or right, ‘depending on who’s pitching.’ He called it a superstition and doesn’t see the point of having to change.” (With thanks to longtime Uni Watch Motor City bureau chief Doug Kalemba.) … Mark Liyeos notes that all the cold weather has brought a welcome resurgence of home plate umps wearing blazers. … You know your mesh jersey is too see-through when you can make out the undershirt logo through the jersey (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: For the second time in four months, I forgot that the 1983 Cowboys were not the only NFL team whose captains wore “C” designations. There’s at least one other example: the 1994 Patriots. … Turns out the President isn’t the only one who gets free swag. “It’s from the National Book Festival Author’s breakfast, whatever the hell that is,” writes Marcus Ramsey. “Here’s the thing: That looks like a Clippers jersey, but Baron Davis plays for Golden State and Diana Taurasi plays for Phoenix.” … Really interesting link here describing how baseball caps are made (with thanks to David Soline).
April 20th, 2007
Yesterday’s post about baseball captains and “C” designations got me thinking about football. As most of you know, the C often shows up in college football but it’s rarely seen in the the pros. The only NFL example I’m aware of is the 1983 Cowboys, where the C was worn by Danny White, Bob Breunig, Drew Pearson, and Ron Fellows.
And that’s usually where the discussion stops. But in a timely coincidence, reader Erik Little sent me something the other day that I don’t recall having seen before. It’s a 1993 football card that shows Junior Seau of the Chargers with “Captain” spelled out on his chest.
I did a bit of photo research and found that the Chargers had at least three “Captain”-emblazoned players in 1992: Seau, Marion Butts, and Stan Humphries. It appears to have been a one-season thing (the “Captain” patch doesn’t appear in photos from ’91 or ’93), but I’m surprised I don’t remember it, because 1992 was a good year for the Chargers: It was the season they began 0-4 and then won 11 of their final 12 to win the AFC West, which was a big story at the time. Then they won one playoff game. So I probably saw my share of Chargers game action that year. But somehow I have no recollection of this particular captaincy designation.
Little discovered several other interesting football cards, incidentally:
• Remember our discussion of football players wearing sunglasses? Here’s another one: Mel Gray.
• Check out Ernest Givins’s personalized towel.
• Terance Mathis had only one sleeve stripe, while the rest of the Jets had two (and note the placement of the Champion logo, which makes it clear that this was a designed as a one-stripe sleeve, not a two-striper that was cut short).
Uni Watch Midwestern Road Trip Update: Last week I said I was tentatively planning to convene Uni Watch parties in Minneapolis on May 11th and Chicago on May 12th. Those dates are now solid — mark your calendars and all that. The Minneapolis shindig will take place at Nye’s at 7:30pm on the 11th; details on the Chicago party to follow shortly (please, no more venue suggestions — I have more than enough to choose from). Looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember when Brian Urlacher wore this cap during Super Bowl Media Day? Turns out it was one expensive cap. … Speaking of uni-related disciplinary actions, MLB appears to be cracking down on inside-out pockets (a topic explored in depth here). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Shawn Green’s superscript Y has reappeared. … But that’s nothing compared to the typographic alignment problems on the back of Bill Hall’s jersey (with thanks to Milwaukee’s finest, Nicole Haase). … The National League’s BP jersey for the All-Star Game was unveiled yesterday. … More Virginia Tech caps on display yesterday, first on Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel and then on Mark Buehrle and Ozzie Guillen during the news conference after Buehrle’s no-hitter (with thanks to Chris Ashworth and Tim Donovan, respectively, for the screen grabs). … Anthony Memme notes that Jonathan Papelbon had something — maybe “LOL”? — written on his underbrim last night. … Yesterday I asked for action shots of bowlers wearing ties, and Scott Johnson came through with several.
April 19th, 2007
Back in February, we were all surprised to learn that the numbers, letters, and insignia on MLB’s new batting practice jerseys were heat-applied, not embroidered. At the time, Jared Hartung of the Arizona Daily News-Sun described this discussion that he had with the Texas Rangers’ equipment manager: “He said he and fellow equipment managers have to learn how to use a heat press again because the jersey tops can’t handle the heavy numbers and stitching. ‘It’s been years since any of us have used a heat press,’ he said. ‘It’s going to take some time to get used to.’ ”
The company responsible for that, it turns out, is Fiberlok, a Colorado operation that specializes in heat-applied graphics. According to a news report that aired last week on a Denver TV station, Fiberlok’s prexy contacted MLB after he heard that the new BP jerseys would be made of lighter, flimsier material, which he figured would make a good match for Fiberlok’s signature product, a flocked nylon appliqué called Lextra. You can see the video of that report, which includes some interesting shots of the Fiberlok factory, here. (One note: The report concludes by mentioning that Fiberlok is creating a “top-secret” logo for the All-Star Game. Since this has been around for months, I assume they’re referring to the graphics for the all-star BP jerseys, which, let’s face it, nobody really cares about anyway.)
Also worth investigating: the Fiberlok web site. In addition to a photo of the company’s glamorous headquarters, it also features a heat-transfer timeline, some interesting logo-application photos, and some serious close-up views.
If you’d like to become better acquainted with Fiberlok’s graphics, here’s your chance: Majestic recently sent me an authentic David Wright BP jersey (front, back), size medium, complete with all tagging, and I’m going to raffle it off as our latest giveaway. No virtual raffle tickets to buy this time, either — I’m making this one a total freebie. Just send an e-mail (one entry per person) to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by Friday evening, 9 p.m. eastern. I’ll announce the winner on Monday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday I jokingly suggested that readers attending cold-weather games might need a visit from the Uni Watch St. Bernard. I’m happy to report that Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner has taken that idea to heart. … Anheuser-Busch is putting Red Sox logos on bottles of Bud and Bud Light. Full details here (with thanks to Dominic J. Litten). … Jeremy Brahm notes that the Yokohama Bay Stars have added the logo of the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), the team’s parent company, to their pants. … Oh dear (as spotted by Jesse Gavin). … Check out the logos on Kenji Johjima’s shinguard — not sure I’ve ever seen anything like that before. … It’s nice that the Red Sox got period-appropriate flannel uniforms for members of their 1967 championship team at yesterday’s Opening Day festivities. But look how many things they got wrong — adjusta-strap caps, names on their jerseys, low-rise stirrups, inconsistent undersleeve colors, and so on. Several of the old-timers didn’t make much of an effort in the pants-cuffing department either. And all those white sneakers — ugh. … New York Times Yankees beat reporter and Uni Watch enthusiast Tyler Kepner asked A-Rod about his high-socks look last night and got the following response: “We were on a back field in the middle of spring training, just being goofy. I was with my buddy Pepe, from Miami, and I just put them up. He said, ‘You look like a Notre Dame football player,’ and I just stuck with them after that.” … Last night’s Indians/Angels game, relocated to Milwaukee because of the snow in Cleveland, was technically a home game for the Tribe, so they wore their home whites and red-brimmed caps. But why did they wear their road batting helmets? According to a paragraph in this story (helpfully forwarded by Tim Bennett), “Complicating matters was the fact that the Indians’ travel bags were already packed with their road gear. [Home clubhouse manager Tony] Amato and his staff had to [swap] out those uniforms with the home ones. To save time, the team decided to just bring its road batting helmets, which are all blue, rather than the home ones, which have a red brim.” … Also, reader Josh Yetmar reports that the broadcast of that game included some shots of a shirt that was for sale at the game, which read, “Milwaukee Indians: Established 1989, Reestablished 2007.” I was hoping to get a screen grab, but I haven’t been able to find the shot within the telecast. Anyone..? … Here’s a better view of the Twins’ Herb Carneal memorial patch design (with thanks to Matthew Lepke). … Kevin Gee checks in with a report regarding Big Papi: “Evidently there’s something sticking out of his back pocket — you see it when he leaves the on deck circle and heads toward the box. It looks like a Palm Treo or an XM radio — something with an antenna that’s short and stubby. Someone called in to ‘Baseball This AM’ [an XM satellite radio show] suggesting it might be a Tens unit or an iPod — they’re researching it as they cover the BoSox game [Wednesday] on XM radio. They keep going on and on about it on that show. I’ll keep you updated as I find out more.”
April 11th, 2007
Spent yesterday up in Binghamton (accompanied by the estimable Mr. Bill Scanga, Vice President of Collections for the thoroughly wonderful City Reliquary), where I gorged on spiedies (see photo at right) and watched the B-Mets get shut out by the Portland Sea Dogs. Considering it was just a single minor league game, there seemed to be an unusually high number of uni-related tidbits on parade:
• The B-Mets all wear their pants high.
• An odd inconsistency: The Mets’ jersey graphics are all dark navy on orange — except for their nameplates, which are royal on orange. So the uni numbers and nameplates don’t match. (Look closely and you can also see that Juan Samuel’s jersey was very mesh-y — probably a Cool Base. This was much more apparent in person.)
• Speaking of inconsistencies, the Sea Dogs don’t all wear the same numeral font.
• And speaking of uni numbers, Keoni DeRenne’s number is riding mighty low, no?
• Carlos Gomez appears to have been wearing a royal sock under his navy sock. (Note the pocket flappage, too.)
• And here’s the real prize of the evening: Ladies and gentlemen, behold Brandon Nall, a pitcher who wears No. 2! I just about jumped out of my chair when I saw that.
The Red and the Black: Earlier this year I reported that a source with the Reds had told me that the team would be eliminating black from its uniform next season, and possibly adding some navy blue. More recently, some of the Reds’ broadcasters have reported that there will be no navy next season after all. In e-mails to me, many readers have interpreted this to mean that the team’s unis won’t be changing at all, and that black will still be part of the team’s color scheme.
Yesterday, however, I received the following note from David Sonny: “It looks like you were right about the Reds removing black. Today I was talking to the owner of a local Cincinnati sports clothing store. It became apparent that he wanted those Reds hats to sell. He looked at me straight in the face and said ‘The Reds are getting new uniforms next year. The black is completely gone so the purists will be happy again.’”
Of course, this still doesn’t address the navy issue, but it seems pretty clear that the black is on the way out (and not a moment too soon).
Cookout Update: The weather report for this Sunday’s Uni Watch cookout is looking iffy, so we might have to move it to Labor Day (or, in a worst-case scenario, bump it back a week). I’ll make a decision one way or the other on Saturday and send a note to everyone who RSVP’d. If you RSVP’d but don’t have weekend e-mail access, send me your phone number and I’ll call you.
With the holiday weekend looming, I might post something on Sunday or Monday — or I might not. Either way, back on Tuesday for sure.
September 1st, 2006
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