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Posts filed under 'Sleeves'
Maybe it’s because I’m a Niners fan, maybe it’s because the San Francisco Chronicle posted a really big photo gallery, or maybe it was just a coincidence, but I spotted an unusually large number of uni-notable details in yesterday’s 49ers/Redskins game. To wit:
• Let’s start with the obvious things we always say whenever the Niners wear their throwbacks: The pants piping is too wide (just like it was back in the day), and the Reebok logo looks particularly egregious when it interrupts the sleeve stripes.
• The Niners’ throwback socks have three white stripes. So how did Joe Nedney end up with five stripes? Must’ve worn two pairs, but he did an unusually good job of getting the stripes lined up on both legs.
• Speaking of sock stripeage, the whole biker shorts thing looks particularly stupid when you’re wearing striped hose.
• Here’s something I hadn’t seen before: Vernon Davis wore red spats (and Under Armour cleats for those of you who care about that kind of thing).
• And speaking of red, the coach’s challenge flag doesn’t look quite as stupid when the coach’s team colors include red.
• Shaun Hill threw his wristbands into the crowd after the game. Anyone know if his does this on a regular basis, or was this a new thing?
• As promised, SanFran wore old-school moustaches, just like the Niners of old. Wait — what?
• And it looks like that big wooden cross will be around for a while.
Raffle Reminder: I announced the 32 winners of the holiday raffle back on Thursday. If you haven’t checked already done so, please check to see if you’re among the winners; if your name is on the list, follow the instrux to claim your prize. Thanks again to everyone for all your contributions over the past year — it’s my pleasure to give back a little something.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Haven’t run a Ticker since last Wednesday, so we’ve got lots of stuff to catch up on. I’ll skip the “As you’ve probably seen by now” proviso on all these items, but you’ve probably seen lots of them by now. … Notre Dame wore NOBs for their bowl game on Xmas Eve. According to a press release, this move “renew[ed] a tradition from the Ara Parseghian years, when Irish teams did not have names on the backs of their jerseys during the regular season but added them for bowl games.” … That game also featured one of history’s weirdest invocations of the term “golden shower.” There’s a nice screen-grab sequence of the helmet explosion here (with thanks to Jonee Eisen). … Lots of uni-notable NBA developments on Xmas Day: (1) All 10 teams playing that day wore a snowflake patch (although it was hard to see on white jerseys). (2) The Blazers and Mavs wore holiday colors (Portland was the home team). (3) The league’s normal footwear-color rules were suspended for the day, resulting in lots of special designs and red shoelaces (at least one pair of which was apparently worn untied). Or to put it another way, it was a big mish-mash. … Steve Johnston got a great Xmas gift: “My grandfather, who played football at Riverside-Brookfield High School in Illinois, passed away this past March. My parents came across some items from his playing days and got them framed for me.” … The Yomiuri Giants have unveiled a 75th-anniversary logo (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Canada’s world junior hockey team is wearing memorial decals in honor of Luc Bourdon, who died earlier this year (with thanks to Nick Hanson). … Marcus Perkal was at the Nets/Bobcats game last Friday and noted that the Bobcats’ 5th-anniversary patch was not being worn by Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton. … Hey, if you’re gonna steal, why not steal from the pros? That’s Central Bucks East High School in Pennsylvania (with thanks to Samantha Coren). … History’s coolest basketball warmup garb on display here (big thanks to Zac Neubauer). … Roman numeral on back. That’s Ralph Sampson III, who plays for Minnesota (with thanks to John Thompson). … Interesting article about sales figures of NHL third jerseys here (with thanks to K.C. Kless). … I didn’t watch the Real Sports year-end show. Good thing, too, cuz Bryant Gumbal wore a sportscoat that would’ve made Lindsey Nelson blush (with thanks to Brett Crane). … Check this out: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in Notre Dame and USC football togs, respectively. Details here (with thanks to Frank Hanney). … Last Tuesday I mentioned that this program cover featured a stylized version of the NFL logo that I’d never seen before. Now Fleer Sticker Project prexy JC Helf has devoted an entire blog entry to this logo variation. Check it out here. … Tony Caliguiri notes that Josh Gorges of the Canadiens has been wearing heavy-duty skate protectors lately. … Greg Riffenburgh notes that Dan Marino is wearing two different shoes in this shot. “That’s a standard Nike Air Zoom Barracuda Stove on his left foot, but the right shoe is a VERY high-top version of a much older Nike football cleat (and colored very differently).” Greg also notes that the Jets used to have very large TV numbers — “and in the Red Sox font, no less.” … FNOB alert: Amdy Faye of Stoke City in the Premier League (big thanks to Shane Bua). … I have no idea what this, but it looks really cool. … The Capitals retired Mike Gartner’s number last night. Video of the ceremony is available here. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The American world junior hockey team has a player named James vanRiemsdyk — an unusual name, which makes for an unusual NOB. … Al Haris may have set a new standard yesterday for how not to wear football pants and socks. … All the following is from Phil: A high school hoops game in Detroit on Saturday night was delayed when both teams showed up in white uniforms; the only thing better than winning eleventeen gold medals is being presented with one of the NBA’s ugliest jerseys; believe it or not, Udonis Haslem’s jersey was white before he suffered this cut; it’s not often you can see color-on-color, a clear facemask, and RNOB (roman numeral on back) all in one photo; something really, really (like, REALLY) needs to be done about this.
December 29th, 2008
Kickers don’t get on the field very often, plus the Ravens had a bye in Week 2, so it’s taken a little while for the issue of Matt Stover’s black sleeve with the Gene Upshaw patch to reach critical mass. It’s been briefly mentioned in the Ticker and in the comments, but until this week I didn’t realize that Stover had been been wearing it all season long, as you can see in these shots from Week 1 (when he also wore the giant Upshaw chest patch), Week 3, and Week 4.
The whole thing seemed very odd, on a number of fronts. First, we all know the NFL usually frowns on uniform freestyling, so how was Stover getting away with this? The fact that Stover (who’s the Ravens’ union rep) was openly critical of Upshaw’s union leadership just six months ago only made things weirder.
On Tuesday I called the Ravens to get the scoop. They promised to make Stover available for an interview, which took place yesterday. Here’s how it went down:
Uni Watch: We’ve seen lots of memorials for Gene Upshaw this season — first there was a chest patch, then that was removed and changed to a helmet decal, except for the Raiders, who’ve kept wearing a smaller chest patch — but you’re the only player I’m aware of who’s worn a black sleeve and a sleeve patch. How come?
Matt Stover: That was one of the things that went out around the league. Now, being a kicker, it’s a little easier to wear a sleeve band. That’s really what it is, an arm band.
UW: It’s a band that covers your regular sleeve?
MS: Yeah. And it was made to go all the way around. And I think that became cumbersome. But what I did with my equipment guy, Ed Carroll, his lovely wife actually cut it and sewed it onto my jersey.
UW: So originally it was sort of like a sleeve around the sleeve, so to speak, and she did a little custom tailoring for you?
MS: A little tailoring work, yeah. She did such a great job. And because of that, it’s just easy to wear, it’s not a problem. It’s honorable to Gene, and what he’s done for us. And I just want the NFL to know the solidarity we had, even though, y’know, the letter that went out and all that, I just wanted to say, “Hey, look, NFL, we’re OK. Everybody’s good here.”
UW: When you refer to “the letter,” you’re talking about the e-mail that became public about six months ago, in which you were critical of Gene. Was that situation part of why you’ve chosen to wear the sleeve band, to make an extra gesture as a way of saying, “Hey, I disagreed with him, but I still respected him?” or something along those lines?
MS: Not something extra, no. I just wanted to make sure that — I mean, the letter did say that we’re supposed to wear it all year, from the NFL. So I’m going to honor that.
UW: You mean the patch?
MS: No, the arm band, for player reps.
UW: Oh, really? You mean this was the league’s idea all along, for player reps to wear the sleeve band?
MS: Yeah.
UW: But I believe you’re the only player rep who’s worn it.
MS: Well, that’s because we went the extra mile. My equipment guy asked if I wanted to do it, and I said sure. And you know, I wanted people to know that I am the player rep, I’m proud of it, and we’ve got unity, even with guys who have disagreed with Gene.
UW: I didn’t realize this was a league-initiated idea. Normally, as you know, the league is notoriously picky about uniform adjustments.
MS: I will say this: They’ve been really respectful to the death of Gene Upshaw, and what he’s meant to this league. They’ve been great. Putting the patch on the front of the jersey, yeah, that ended up being a little bit much, because with the captain’s patch and all the other things, it started getting a little bit out of hand. Then they put it on the back of the helmet, which is not bad at all. Doesn’t look too much like Nascar.
UW: But you wanted to keep something on the jersey.
MS: Yes. For respect.
UW: And again, that was the league’s idea?
MS: Yes, for union reps. And you know, I have not spoken to any of other reps around the league with regard to this, and what that meant to them, and why they’re not wearing it, and whatnot. To me, it doesn’t matter. I thought it was a good idea, so I’m wearing it.
UW: Has anyone on an opposing team, or even on your own team, said, “Hey, what’s up with your sleeve?” or whatever?
MS: They kinda look at me. One guy was starting to ask me about it right before I was getting ready to kick a field goal, and I went, “Dude, chill out — let me go kick it first, then we’ll talk about it.”
UW: This was someone on your team?
MS: Yeah.
UW: Who?
MS: I don’t remember, you know how it is in the middle of a game. He was all curious — “What’s that, Stoves?” I said, “C’mon, man, let me kick first.” So yeah, the guys wanna know what it is, and I just tell ’em, I’m the player rep and I’m just givin’ it up for Gene and the union.
Fair enough. Odd that the league never publicly announced anything about the union reps being encouraged to wear the sleeve tributes, though.
When you factor in all the other salutes (jersey patch, helmet decal, field memorial), I think it’s safe to say that Upshaw is probably the most memorialized person in NFL history. Which is pretty remarkable when you consider that the guy who basically invented the modern NFL only got a one-game helmet decal in Super Bowl XXXI.
Membership News: The good news is that we’ve gotten all sorts of cool membership orders lately (including Valerie Kyriakopoulos’s shout-out to former Browns great Leroy Kelly, shown at right; as always, you can see the full gallery of card designs here). The bad news is that a few unavoidable circumstances have kept us from processing them as quickly as I would have liked. But the good news is that about 15 cards should go out in today’s mail, and hopefully at least that many going out on Tuesday as well. My thanks to all enrollees for your patience.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s a nice shot of the U. of Washington helmet cart (with thanks to Ian Reandeau). … Michael Alper reports that Syracuse now has a women’s hockey team. You can see their uniforms here. … Mike Stevens has noticed that Titans defenders sometimes have loose strings hanging off of their jerseys (presumably similar to the laces Bill Romanowski used to wear to make his jersey tighter). I hadn’t noticed this before. Anyone else..? … New hoops uniforms for Oklahoma. … Someone posted this in yesterday’s comments, which pretty got my eyes popping out of their sockets. Here’s why: Over the past five years or so, approximately skatey-eight bijillion Pats fans have told me the story about how the Pats once had a “mascot contest” during halftime, with fans being instructed to “vote” via applause for either Pat Patriot or a proposed replacement character. Pat won, so that was the end of that, but nobody has every come up with a photo of what the proposed replacement looked like. Several people have told me, however, that the replacement guy bore at least a superficial resemblance to Flying Elvis, a description that could arguably sorta-kinda apply to this fella. Can anyone fill in some of the blanks here? … “The minor league Fort Wayne [Indiana] Wizards are moving into a new ballpark and have decided to change their name, becoming the Fort Wayne Tin Caps (a reference to Johnny Appleseed, who’s buried in Ft. Wayne),” reports the pseudonymous Sean Bratton. “The team has now become the laughingstock of the town, soon to be playing in a new downtown stadium no one wanted. I don’t think the logo looks too bad, it’s just that the name would make the Ft. Wayne Strawberry Shortcakes sound intimidating.” … Sure enough, Oregon is getting new Nike uniforms — for the volleyball team (nobody likes a tease, Ken Ocker). … Could Golden State be getting a new mascot? Who really gives a fuck? Could be (with thanks to Brendan Tarpey). … Here’s something you don’t often see: a double-decker hyphenated subscript NOB. That’s Taj McWilliams-Franklin of the Detroit Shock (big thanks, as always, to Jeremy Brahm).
October 3rd, 2008
On Sunday night I spent a few minutes going through the comments that had been posted on the site that day. One of them, posted by Benjamin Bonnet, caught my eye: “Santana is throwing so hard today, the blue piping on his right sleeve is falling apart!”
I had listened to Sunday’s Mets/Dbacks game on the radio but hadn’t seen any of it on TV, so I hadn’t been aware of any issues with Johan Santana’s sleeve. So I went online and found this. As you can see, sure enough, it looks like a bit of the blue piping on his left sleeve was coming loose.
And that might have been the end of it. Fortunately, however, reader Dan Cichalski was paying closer attention. He noticed that there was a lot more going on here than just some loose piping, and it involved both of Santana’s sleeves. Check out this screen grab that he sent me, along with these close-ups of Johan’s left and right sleeves.
That’s a new one on me — never seen anything like it. Almost looks like a backwards S, or maybe some spangles, right? Or maybe talons. Very strange.
My first thought was, “Has this been going on since the start of the season?” So I started looking at Sanatana pics from last month. The piping here looks normal enough, but this one looks like it might have some extra stitching — not as much as he had on Sunday, though — or it might just be the spot where the two ends of the piping meet and overlap.
My next thought was that I had to talk to Russ Gompers, the Mets’ stitching and embroidery guy. When a player requires some custom work (like the little stretch panels sewn into Pedro Martinez’s sleeves), he’s the guy who does it. He’s always kinda surprised and amused when I notice these little details, so I called him up and figured we’d have an entertaining and illuminating chat. Here’s how it went:
Paul: Russ, it’s Paul Lukas from Uni Watch.
Russ: Hey, Paul! How ya doing?
Paul [all smug and chummy]: Fine, fine. And I bet you can guess why I’m calling.
Russ [a bit puzzled-sounding]: Uh, actually, Paul, no I can’t.
Paul [still all wink-wink, nudge-nudge]: Well, I was watching the game yesterday, and I noticed something veeeeery interesting on Sanatana’s sleeves. And I figured you might be able to tell me about it.
Russ: Really? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Paul [spell finally broken]: Seriously?! Well let me show you these photos I’ve got.
So I e-mailed the screen grabs to Russ and then called him back a few minutes later.
“That’s some weird shit there,” he said, as he studied the pics. “Wow. I was watching the game, too, but I didn’t see that. What the fuck? It looks like a backward S. I know nothing about that, Paul, but I will check it out with Charlie [Samuels, the team's equipment manager] and get back to you.”
The only thing cooler than going over uni details with Russ Gompers is stumping Russ Gompers. Stay tuned for more info on this one.
O’s in Orange, Revisisted: As you’ll recall, I recently ran an item about the Orioles’ orange uniforms. I thought they’d been worn twice in 1971 (based on info from Bill Henderson and “Dressed to the Nines”), but Steve Dewing’s photo site suggested they’d also been worn in April of 1972. (If you missed that entry, catch up on it here.) By the end of the day, several people had posted comments quoting archival articles that seemed to confirm that the uniforms had indeed been worn in 1972 as well as ’71.
A couple of things have happened since then:
• First, Bill Henderson — whose awesome CD was my main source for the “only in ’71″ claim — checked in with a very thoughtful, articulate post in the comments section. He posted it several days after the fact, so you probably missed it — check it out here. (A lot of researchers would have gotten all defensive or uppity if their work was called into question, so Bill’s graciousness here earns him major bonus points in my book.)
• Mike Kingery (no, not that Mike Kingery) sent along this page. If you scroll down to the bottom, broadcaster/collector Ted Patterson is quoted saying that the orange uniforms may have been worn as many as 10 times.
• Charlie Frank forwarded a bunch of archival articles relating to the orange garb. Here they are, in sequence: 9/17/71 (orange uniforms, “every bit as colorful as the green and gold of the Oakland Athletics,” make their debut); 9/26/71 (the Orioles plan to “bedazzle the Oakland Athletics in the playoffs” with the orange duds [of course, that plan never came to fruition]); 10/3/71 (orange uniforms were hanging in the O’s lockers during the playoffs but were never used in the post-season); 4/18/72 (brief reference to the O’s “wearing their pumpkin orange uniforms” — confirmed for 1972 use!); 5/23/72 (”The Orioles performed in their orange uniforms. ‘We wear them in about one game per series,’ said manager Earl Weaver, ‘and the more we wear them, the less I like them,’” which would seem to lend credence to the fact that the design may have been worn around 10 times).
• My own research turned up a few items from the Sporting News archives, including this item from 5/13/72 (note the first full graf in the right-hand column) and this one from two years later — 5/3/75 — by which time the solid-orange look was already being viewed as a “What were they thinking?” misstep.
Thanks to all who helped sort this one out.
Site News: As you may have noticed, the site is loading much faster now — no more sluggishness. The only down side is that we had to eliminate the little quick-link tags (”Bold,” “Italic,” “Link,” etc.) from the commenting function. For some reason those tags were slowing down the site’s performance — not sure why. John’s working to come up with a replacement plug-in, but for now you’ll have to use standard HTML coding if you want your comment text to be bold, ital, or whatever. If you want to add a link to a photo or web page but don’t know how to do the coding, just put the URL on a separate line, all by itself. OK? OK.
Uni Watch News Ticker: While looking through the Sporting News archives for info on the orange O’s uniforms, I came across a few cool things. First, check out this letter to the editor (from 9/1/73), from a fan who apparently wasn’t too fond of this look. Totally dig that “Voice of the Fan” illo, too. And then, from 3/8/75, imagine the double-take I did when I saw this ad. These and other treasures await anyone who signs up for a free membership at Paper of Record, which has searchable archives of the entire Sporting News database. … “The IIHF World Hockey Championships are going on right now in Halifax and Quebec City,” writes Kris Fulton. “It’s the 100-year anniversary of the tournament and the first time it’s ever been held in Canada, and Nike has been stepping up with some amazing throwback jerseys.” Lots of photos here. … Interesting note from Jeff Fishman, who writes: “With the rain out of the Mets/Pirates game on April 28th, the team will face a predicament regarding their scheduled ceremonies for counting down the games remaining at Shea. The original plan had someone associated with the number to be honored (for example, Tom Seaver will presumably take down the 41, and so on). But the April 28th game has been rescheduled for August 11th, so I was wondering if the team will now have everyone switch their appointed ceremony by one game later (a potential travel nightmare, especially for those honored at the last game at the end of a homestand), or just stick to the original schedule.” Good question, especially since there will no doubt be more rainouts to come. Anyone know how other final-season stadiums with similar ceremonies handled this? … Following up on yesterday’s main entry, Todd Radom checked in with the following explanation of the W used by the Nationals vs. the one that had been used by the Senators: “For the Senators, ignore the retail Cooperstown caps in every respect. See attached for some relevant images, including a couple of game-used examples from a reliable auction house. The Senators had a lighter red and a slightly lighter blue outline, but the Senators and Nats had same angle to the W. Today’s W is of course more puffy and dimensional, and the vintage versions were often inconsistent, but the photos tell the story.” That last bit is the key — we often fall into the trap of thinking logos have always been super-standardized, when in fact they often varied widely. So trying to match a “true” Senators logo is ultimately an exercise in futility. I still think the Rangers shouldn’t have used black-underbilled Nats caps, though. … Wren Wagner noticed something else about that throwback game: Back in the late ’60s, the Oakland’s pants piping was green-gold-green (at least in that photo), but on the throwback pants it was gold-green-gold. … Extremely entertaining article here about the “uniforms” — i.e., specially modified suits — worn by New York police detectives. Great accompanying video embedded in the article page, too — highly recommended. … “I went to the U.S. women’s soccer match vs. Australia last Saturday in Birmingham, and noticed that Natasha Kai was wearing one red Nike Mercurial Vapor IV and one orange one,” writes Craig Justice. “Also to help the orange one match, she has been wearing a bright orange headband during recent matches. I think she’s been doing it for a while.” … New uniform, of sorts, for Cesc Fabregas. “Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like the actual EPL font on the back, including logo inside the numeral,” notes Matt Brukman. … “Oscar De La Hoya is a part owner of the Houston Dynamo, and on Saturday he had a Dynamo logo on his trunks, ” writes John Romero. “The funny thing is, the fight took place on the home pitch of the LA Galaxy.” … “I cover the Manchester Wolves AF2 team in New Hampshire,” writes Ian M. Clark. “On Sunday against Daytona Beach, the Wolves wore jerseys designed by patients in the pediatric unit of Elliot Hospital in Manchester. It’s hard to see in the pic, but the jerseys have some flowers and a sun on the front. In addition to the orange/dark blue shoulders with alternating colored numbers, they also had green stripes down the side. Manchester normally wears blue jerseys at home.” … The Reds really overdid that NOB lettering back in the day, no? That shot comes courtesy of Kenn Tomasch, who says it dates back to 1988 or ’89. … Got a note from one Andy Thoele, who has a pretty entertaining site devoted to souvenir batting helmets — worth checking out. … Awesome discovery by Ed Hahn, who writes: “I was watching a DVD of the 1980 Carl Sagan science series Cosmos (yeah, nerdy). Guess what appears for a few frames in Episode VIII, ‘Travels in Space and Time,’ about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? Even weirder, this particular scene was filmed in Vinci, Italy, in Tuscany.” … Remember that guy who tried to force his kid to wear a Packers jersey? Maybe he should adopt this kid. … Speaking of kids, Dave Sterling found some short video clips of Japanese Little Leaguers. Good to see they’re teaching good hosiery protocols over there.
May 6th, 2008
Whatever you think of the advertising patches that were worn in the A’s/Bosox series in Japan, one question remains: Why is uniform advertising used exclusively in these season-opening series in Japan?
Our resident expert on all things Far Eastern, Jeremy Brahm, tried to address this question in Tuesday’s comments:
Since the beginning of the MLB tours of Japan, two Japanese newspapers — the Yomiuri Shimbun (owner of the Yomiuri Giants) and the Mainichi Shinbun (which owned the Mainichi Orions, which are now the Chiba Lotte Marines — the paper currently has no ownership stake) — would split who sponsored the tour every two or three years. This has continued until recently.
Now, with the season-opening games, Yomiuri gets sponsorship precedence, because they own a portion of the Tokyo Dome and because of their historical support for MLB Tours.
The tours in the past have always had some sort of sponsorship. Now there are presenting sponsors, such as Ricoh — similar to the situation with a college bowl game.
Even after some private follow-up e-mailing with Jeremy, I don’t fully understand this, but the basic gist seems to be, “Professional baseball in Japan, including all-star tours by MLB players, has always included sponsorship, so that’s just the way it’s gonna be when you’re playing in Japan.”
Anyway: You probably know that American ballplayers have been visiting Japan for decades. The Yankees toured the Asian country in 1934 (details here), and there have been many, many all-star exhibition tours over the years. Most of these tours have had their own logos, and Jeremy has compiled some of the more recent ones: 1986, 1990, 1996, another one from 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
Some additional notes:
• I never really paid any attention to MLB tours of Japan until the autumn of 2004, when a larger version of this photo caught my eye. Although you can’t tell in that thumbnail-size shot, Carl Crawford was wearing the road jersey that Tampa would eventually wear in 2005, with different lettering than the 2004 version — and, yes, he was also wearing an advertising sleeve patch. As it turns out, all the MLB players on that all-star tour were wearing Æon sleeve patches and helmet decals (additional views here and here), along with cap patches. Plus Roger Clemens was sporting some truly awful-looking hosiery logo creep. This all looks pretty clownish to me, but hey, these were just exhibition games — they’re allowed to look clownish. Maybe it’s even better if they look clownish, just to reinforce the point that the games don’t really matter and that it’s all in fun. But I still can’t get my head around the idea of wearing uniform advertising for games that count.
• The A’s and Mariners were supposed to open the 2003 season in Japan, but the series was cancelled due to security concerns arising from the Iraq War, which had just started. Programs, however, had already been printed.
• Jeremy has also found a page showing ticket stubs from assorted MLB tours of Japan. Several of them are flat-out gorgeous — check out the full page here.
• Also from Jeremy: This 1979 All-Star Game gym bag, apparently produced for Japanese fans.
• And just to bring us back to the present, Nicholas Schiavo notes that an Oakland player — not sure who — was wearing a sweatshirt in the dugout during Tuesday’s game. And what did that sweatshirt say? “2006 MLB Playoffs.” Wonder if he got fined for not wearing the official ad-sponsored Japan Series version.
Pinstriped Mystery Solved (More or Less): Big thanks to all who responded to Monday’s entry (which focused on an old photo showing Dodgers wearing pinstripes, as seen at left) by suggesting that I get in touch with Dodgers team historian Mark Langill, a man whose acquaintance I clearly should have made long ago. I called his office on Monday afternoon and left a voicemail. When he called me back a few hours later, he said he was standing in the third base coach’s box at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the Dodgers will be playing a throwback exhibition game against the Red Sox this Saturday. (By coincidence, the Dodgers’ 1958-style uniforms for that game are being furnished by Ebbets Field Flannels, and I was actually in the Ebbets office in Seattle a few weeks ago when the Dodgers called to order the uniforms. The good news: They’re going with classic wool flannels. The bad news: They’re using NOBs, which is soooooo bogus for a 1958 throwback. Sigh.)
Anyway: I e-mailed the photo in question to Langill, who immediately identified it as a 1964 spring training shot of minor league coaches. Apparently the Dodgers had several low-level minor league teams in their system that wore pinstripes along with the classic Dodgers script (Mark isn’t sure which ones are represented in the photo, but he’s working on that), and they were wearing “L.A.” caps because that’s what everyone wore for spring training purposes.
Still not sure about the spring training pics showing jerseys with “S” and “X” instead of uni numbers, but I’m trying to get Mark to explain that too.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Cool old newspaper basketball uniform available here. … A little birdie tells me that the Braves’ long-rumored blue alternate jersey may make its debut in the team’s very first game of the season, this Sunday against the Nats. “GM Frank Wren wants it to be a big surprise,” reports my source. “The Braves have delayed putting out their merchandise catalog this year solely because the road alternate jersey is featured in it. The feeling is that by unveiling them in this fashion (nationally televised game on ESPN), sales will be through the roof as soon as the catalog is sent.” Nice to see uniforms reduced to nothing more than a sales gimmick. … Best view yet of the “Japan 2008″ logo. … Looks like Manny was back to his old, skanky “B” logo yesterday. … Speaking of Manny, according to a small item in the middle of this story, MLB wouldn’t let him use his “red-barreled, Diablo brand bat” in Japan, so “he just grabbed some ‘Japanese wood,’ in the form of a couple of SSX models” (with thanks to Tom Horgan). … The “Baseball as America” traveling exhibit is currently residing at the National Constitution Center in Philly. A bonus uniform-centric program will take place there at on Saturday, April 19th, from noon to 3pm, featuring Mitchell & Ness prexy Peter Capolino, M&N researcher (and frequent Uni Watch contributor) Jared Wheeler, and several Phillies old-timers. I’m gonna try to make it to Philly for this event. Assuming my schedule cooperates, we’ll have a Uni Watch party later that same day. Details to come soon-ishly. … Speaking of Peter and Jared, they just sent me this 1943 Sporting News item that explains the origin of the Cardinals’ birds-on-the-bat logo. … New Netherlands soccer kit here, here, and here. … Guess which sporting event I won’t be attending? (As horrifyingly reported by Mike Alper.) … According to this story, the Astros will wear green caps in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd (good find by Jason Chapman). … We all know the old pre-Photoshop phenomenon of Topps airbrushing photos of players who”d been traded. This blog recently ran a contest to pick the most egregious example from this field of choices. Results here (great discovery by Jason McCarty). … As you may have heard over the past few days, the NFL is considering a ban on long hair (that sound you just heard was Minna H. screaming in horror). … You’ve heard of throwback uniforms? Check this out: throwback police squad cars (courtesy of Billy Duss). … Well, that was fun while it lasted. … Attention Tim Witesock: Here’s the eBay auction of your dreams (with thanks to Jason Libes). … Good number-retirement cartoon from last week’s New Yorker. … More new soccer kits: Switzerland, Austria, Croatia (courtesy of Chris Palatinus). … And more discussion of the new USA black jersey here (with thanks to Mark Coale). … New policy at Northern Illinois: Football players who “skip class, show up late for team meetings or otherwise fail to live up to [head coach Jerry] Kill’s standards” have to wear a yellow shirt with pink “I Let My Team Down” lettering. Idiotic details here (as forwarded by Dan Streed). … Minnesota’s two pro soccer teams have new logos (with thanks to Joel Dunn). … Todd Taylor says this is the story behind the Rays using the same boring insignia for their home and road jerseys: “They did that intentionally, to build name recognition for the new team name. They will go to ‘Tampa Bay’ on the roads next season.” … The whole sports/gang connection refuses to die (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … The long-rumored Miami Hurricanes black alternate jersey will apparently look like this. … Wanna design a new secondary logo for the Colts? Look here. … I was going through some old files and came across a bit of info sent my way five or six years ago by SABR researcher Maxwell Kates. At the time, there was no such thing as this blog or even the Uni Watch News Ticker, so I had no place to publish little tidbits. But now, dear reader, you get to read the following: “Is it true that Wayland Moore was high on acid when he designed those uniforms worn by the Braves between 1972 and 1979? I’ve heard that story once before, but I can’t vouch for its accuracy. When Moore first designed those uniforms, the Braves were actually supposed to have worn red on the road. Hank Aaron took one look at the uniform and said, ‘I’m not wearing that. Take whatever is red, and make it blue.’ Moore complied and later altered the Braves’ road uniforms according to Aaron’s wishes. Aaron and Eddie Mathews were the only ones shown the red uniforms. Also, just out of curiosity, why did the 1985 Texas Rangers wear their 1986 uniforms for the last month of the season? I know that had the 1979 Montreal Expos made the playoffs, they would have worn the ‘racing stripe’ uniforms that were introduced by the team in 1980. That’s in Brodie Snyder’s The Year the Expos Almost Won the Pennant.” All of this is news to me — anyone know more about any of these?
March 27th, 2008
When I was in fourth grade, I signed up for a local youth basketball league. I remember the uniform very clearly, because it was so disappointing: plain red shorts with no piping or other adornments (and they were really short) and a plain yellow T-shirt with a red number on the back. The T-shirt really bugged me — why couldn’t we wear tank tops, like real basketball players? Sleeves were for amateurs.
Those memories came flooding back the other day, when reader Cory Wright alerted me to the situation at Proviso East, an Illinois high school with an interesting visual signature: Their basketball jerseys have sleeves. You might think the sleeves were part of an old-school look, but the uniform graphics are actually pretty contemporary, with modern side piping and Nike-ish collarbone horns. The jerseys just happen to be T-shirts, not tank tops.
I wondered if this was a new design for this season, so I started poking around and discovered that Proviso East has been wearing sleeves for a while, as you can see in these pics from March 2007 (that shot is a capture from this video clip), December 2005, and January 2005 (here’s another shot from the same game). I also found this and this, but I’m unsure of the dates.
Sleeved hoops jerseys are rare phenomenon. Has any NBA team ever worn them? In the college ranks, the only school that comes to mind is Evansville, but they switched to tank tops a few years ago. Then again, basketball isn’t my strongest suit, so maybe there are lots of other sleeved examples out there — please feel free to bring me up to speed.
Anyway, the Proviso thing got me thinking: Have basketball jerseys always been tank tops? I figured the earliest ones must have had sleeves, if only because cultural standards of modesty were much more conservative back in those days. But if you google “early basketball team,” you get images (many of them spectacular) like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this — not a sleeve in sight. The earliest photo I found was this one, from 1895, featuring a mix of tanks and tees. The only fully sleeved team I found was this one — from 1950, surprisingly. (Think they intentionally alternated the sneaker colors in the front row, or did it just work out that way?)
So it looks like basketball has almost always been sleeve-free. Which makes Proviso East’s sleeve-iness all the more puzzling. This is definitely a topic I’d like to explore in more detail — contributions welcome.
Research Reminder: In case you missed it late last week, I’m currently compiling examples of interesting uni-borne memorial gestures. Not just the standard black armband or uni number inside a black circle — I’m looking for things a bit more inspired. Historical precedents are good, too. Send likely suspects here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like Shaun Cody’s trying (and failing) to keep his jersey snapped into his pants (good catch by Donald Moe). … Danny Kroll was recently given a pair of game-used Miami Dolphins cleats (additional pics here, here, and here) but can’t figure out who they belonged to. Anyone..? … Dustin Burns reports that one of the officials in last night’s Blues/Red Wings game apparently lost his gear and was forced to wear a generic, numberless jersey and skates borrowed from a player. … Here’s the very definition of a flagrant foul.
December 27th, 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 if 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
Back when I invited people to apply for the Uni Watch intern’s position, one of the finalists was David Sonny. Although he didn’t make the final cut, he had already set up an interview with Bengals equipment manager Rob Recker, which I encouraged him to go ahead with. He readily agreed. Here’s how their chat went down:
David Sonny: How did you get to the position of Cincinnati Bengals equipment manager?
Rob Recker: Well, I actually started off as a trainer for OSU. While there I began to intern with the Browns, but I left for the assistant trainer job with the Bengals in 1991 and continued in that role until 2000.”
DS: And then you made the jump to equipment manager?
RR: Well up until then Tom Gray was the equipment manager and I was a guy who would help anyone out that I could. So basically in 1999 you could have called me the assistant equipment manager. After 1999, Tom Gray retired and Mike Brown offered me the promotion from assistant trainer to equipment manager.
DS: And so you took the job.
RR: Well yeah, when the boss tells you he’d like to move you from one area to another, promote you, and make you the head of a department, you don’t say no. Let me just say this, Mike Brown is a very intelligent man. He sees a lot… he sees everything. He really made it nice here.
DS: Nice? How do you mean?
RR: Well, I took over the first year we moved into Paul Brown Stadium, and at that time many people had very negative views of the franchise, which often happens when you lose. Mike Brown changed all that. There was a time when you would hear players complain about not getting a lot from the team, like clothes, shoes, gloves. Now we get players coming in from other organizations that come in and are wide-eyed in amazement about everything they get for free. I mean, players are actually shocked that they get all of this [referring to the seemingly endless amount of merchandise, from hoodies to gloves and anything else that can be ordered]. If I need anything for this department, I just have to ask Mike Brown, he has never once said no to anything.
DS: So what do you feel your goal is?
RR: For players to get everything they need to perform on the field. I need to do what needs to be done for us to win, whether that means getting a player the shoes he requests, gloves, pads, whatever makes that player feel comfortable on and off the field.
DS: What are your thoughts on the new NFL logo?
RR: It is what it is. I like the old NFL logo, it has a sort of classic look to it, but things change. I like the new one too; it is going to be a ton of work for me switching over, though. It’s on everything [begins pulling out business cards, jerseys, nameplates, helmets, stationery, etc.]. I have to make sure that all of the old logos are replaced by next year so that we’re in compliance.”
DS: What about other logos, such as Reebok?
RR: A big part of my job is making sure that product is on the field. Like I said, it is what it is, don’t underestimate just how much money that company makes, and puts into the game. It is my job to make sure that it looks its best.
DS: I’ve noticed that on the fieldwear and fanwear, the Reebok logo seems more toned down than in the past…
RR: Yeah, the logos seemed to get out of hand a while back. But the NFL is very strict and there are now more restrictions on logo size and placement.
DS: So what about the helmets? I have seen the decals for sale to make your own and such…
RR: We no longer use decals on our helmets. That was one of the first things I changed when I was promoted in 2000. It got to a point where we were just wasting time; I would have three or four guys out there repairing helmet decals for two or three hours straight the Monday after a game. The paint holds up better and looks better, now I just have a guy look over all the helmets after a game and anything that is too scratched or damaged we just send away to have painted. The helmets are my favorite part of the uniform, they are important to me.
DS: And the uniforms…
RR: I like the new uniforms; I liked the old uniforms as well. It’s funny, I had just developed new patterns [different tailoring cuts for different positions -- one for linemen, one for wide receivers, and so on] for all of the old uniforms and then we made the switch. I don’t think people realize just how tough that is; the patterns didn’t transfer over at all, so I had to make a whole new set. The new uniforms were not designed for football players though. Designers came in and came up with something that could be marketed to fans, which makes it difficult. The stripes on the sleeves, for example — I still am not satisfied there, because each pattern ends up affecting the stripes in a different way, which you just can’t get right. Take Justin Smith — he came to me early on and we sat down to discuss what he wanted in a uniform cut. Justin is very specific, he doesn’t want loose material and doesn’t want sleeves, so I basically have to butcher every one of his uniforms to get it right, and look at the stripes [laughs], count them.
DS: So you do most of the alterations yourself?
RR: I wouldn’t say that I do most of them. I will hem a jersey if a player comes to me, but there are times when you get 10 to 15 guys coming to you wanting their jersey to be hemmed — then I’ll send them out. It’s a time thing.
DS: But you do the custom jobs yourself, correct?
RR: Yeah, I’ll sit down with a player and go over anything he wants done and I’ll make most of those alterations myself.
DS: And what about repairs?
RR: I’ll do most of those myself. If something is ripped, I’ll just whip out the sewing machine and take care of it. I can usually just add a small amount of fabric behind the tears and stitch it up, but there are times when it becomes more extensive. When that happens, we weigh whether it’s worth the time fixing it or if we’re better off just getting a new uniform.
DS: And if a player gets a tear on the field [during a game]?
RR: Oh, I’ll just grab my needle and thread and stitch it up right on the sidelines, I did that for Rudi [Johnson] a couple games ago.
DS: And if the tear it too extensive to repair on the field?
RR: Well, we have a backup jersey on hand. If something were to happen, though, it’s either fix the uniform, get a new one on him, or he has to come out of the game. It’s as simple as that.
DS: How do you keep the jerseys so tight to the pads?
RR: We run strips of double-sided tape across the pads and pat the jersey down. Some teams use Velcro, but I prefer tape. It really adheres and keeps the jersey from moving around.”
DS: So who are the players who really care how they look out there?
RR: Carson [Palmer], Chad [Johnson] and Rudi [Johnson]. They are my fashion designers.
DS: While we’e on the subject of Chad, where did he get the black and orange chinstraps?
RR: Not from me, that’s for sure. He went out and bought them himself.
DS: And…
RR: And the NFL called me complaining about it. He’s a grown man, I supply him with the correct chinstrap, and he chooses whether or not to wear it. Chad is a smart kid, he knows what he is doing… and he is going to do it anyway.
DS: What do you think about it?
RR: I really like the look; I think the whole team would look great with them. If I could do it I would have the whole team wearing them.
DS: Anything else interesting about Chad’s uniforms?
RR: Before one game a couple of years ago he comes to me and says ‘I want sleeves.’ He wanted, you know, baggier, looser sleeves. It was a fashion statement. I told him ‘Chad, they’re going to be grabbing all over you if you go out wearing sleeves.’ But he insisted, so I made up a jersey with sleeves for him.
DS: How did that work out for him?
RR: After the first few plays he came running to me on the sideline saying ‘Rob! Rob! They are grabbing all over the sleeves, I needs another jersey.’ I said, ‘No shit.’ That experiment lasted one drive.
DS: Anything else?
RR: Shoes, he has more shoes than he can ever possibly wear.
DS: Was there anything you tried during the uniform change that you still wish you could get right?
RR: Striped socks. Mike Brown and I both love simple striped socks. We tried really hard to get that to work, we were going for a similar sock stripe that the team used to wear. After some time we just decided that with the modern uniform the striped socks just looked out of place, especially with the Bengals’ stripes.
DS: One last thing before I go: facemasks.
RR: Oh yeah, we have tons of those, especially with all the new helmet styles and manufactures. For instance, look at the difference between the Revolution kicker’s facemask [left] and the standard kicker’s facemask [right]. The Revolution facemask attaches at the bottom, so it has a completely different look. It also has less eye protection and you could easily get your whole hand in there. Then look at Willie [Anderson]’s facemask — I’m surprised no one else wears it. It’s much lighter than most facemasks out there and provides great protection. It is the look, everyone is making a fashion statement these days, even with the facemask.
DS: Like L.T.?
RR [laughing]: Yeah, just like L.T. His facemask is a personal statement, just like a lot of these guys with shoes. It provides no more protection, but the look is what he wants.
=======
Speaking of the Bengals, David came up with an interesting story while doing research for the interview — look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Phillies finally unveiled their new alternate uni yesterday, and it looks pretty damn sharp. My only gripe: Since the design is based on this, why did they use this font on the back? … Quite a week for memorials, as decal maven Chris Willis reports that the Browns will be wearing a “BW” decal for Hall of Famer Bill Willis, who died earlier this week. … Fun factoid: If the Cowboys had worn their usual white at home last night (instead of their blue throwbacks), the Packers would have had to remove their Lambeau Field 50th-anniversary patches from their green jerseys, because the patch is only meant to be worn at Lambeau. And then they would have put the patches back after the game. But since the Cowboys wore blue, the Packers wore white and didn’t have to fuss with the patches. Details here. … As expected, both teams wore a “21″ decal — which turned out to be huge — in memory of Sean Taylor. … Speaking of Taylor, check out what someone did to a McFarlane figure of him (nice find by Timothy Fesmire). … Texas prison guards are getting new uniforms (rare non-sports contribution from Brinke Guthrie). … According to this article, next season NFL players will have the option of wearing a new high-tech helmet design. The good news is that it offers a very high degree of head protection; the bad news is that it looks like a cheap Halloween costume. … Yesterday I imagined what sort of horn-based helmet design would be worn by a football team called the Unicorns. I was kidding, but Mike Stegemoller actually found a European team with that name. Unfortunately, they have a boring helmet design (and even more unfortunately, they wear the McDonald’s logo on their thighs).
November 30th, 2007
There are certain topics that seem to come up every few weeks in the comments section. One of them is the issue of players who’ve worn their full names — first and last — on their jerseys. Many examples have been put forth over the course of various discussions, but nobody’s tried to compile a comprehensive list. I’m going to try to begin one now, with the proviso that this is just a starting point — I’m hoping we can all make lots of additions as they occur to us.
Oh, and before we get to the list: For years I’ve used wording like “names on the backs of jerseys” and “player names on uniforms,” even though there’s a simple abbreviation available: NOB, which stands for “name on back.” Teams like the Yankees have NNOB, or “no name on back.” I’ve always resisted using these two terms in a Uni Watch context, because they seemed too jargon-y and are used primarily by collectors of game-used memorabilia, which has never been my scene. But now I’m giving in and accepting them, plus I’m inaugurating a new term to the lexicon: FNOB, for “full name on back.” Cool? Cool.
Now then, here’s the beginning of our FNOB list, broken down by sport:
Football: The classic example of the FNOB on the gridiron remains Jim and Jack Youngblood, conveniently captured together in this photo. While their first and last names were stacked, more recent NFL FNOBs have taken the one-line approach, as seen in these photos of Darrent Williams, Mike Anderson, Tank Johnson, and Dave Brown (as you can sorta see here and here).
Basketball: Isiah Thomas had a stacked FNOB at one point during his career. But that can’t compare with the typographic mishmash sported by Marques Johnson, whose FNOB wasn’t just stacked — it was straight on top and arched below. (Special thanks to Todd Krevanchi for bringing both of these to my attention.)
Hockey: As discussed in the comments section a few weeks ago, the Howe family had lots of FNOB action during their days with the Aeros and Whalers. Rangers teammates/siblings Dave and Don Maloney also went the FNOB route, although I could only find a good photo of one of them. And I’m fairly certain the Sutter brothers had FNOBs, although I haven’t been able to find any photos yet.
Baseball: The sport that’s usually the richest source of material for any uni-related discussion is oddly barren on the subject of FNOBs. I’m pretty sure Andy and Alan Benes wore their full names at some point when they were both on the Cardinals, but I haven’t found any photos, and I can’t think of any other FNOB examples from the diamond, although I’m fairly certain there must be others. Help me out here, people — what am I overlooking? (Bonus points to my ESPN.com colleague Bomani Jones, who says, “If Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a twin brother named James and the Rangers signed him, something tells me they’d have to find a new uniform guy.”)
However long our list ends up being, I think we can all agree that it’s already too long, because FNOBs almost always look like crap. I can make an exception for the Youngblood brothers, especially since their first names were smaller than their surnames (in terms of both length and type size), lending a certain elegance to their stacked FNOBs. But almost every other example I showed is an eyesore. I mean, c’mon, was anyone ever gonna mistake Gordie Howe for one of his kids? Jeez.
Major Hosiery Discovery!: Late last night, this photo was posted in the comments section. The intended point was that yet another team used Dymo Tape labels to keep track of their helmets, but I immediately noticed the seams in Frank Robinson’s stirrups. For years I’ve been writing that Robbie had extra material sewn into his stirrups so he could pull them up higher (this was first reported in Ball Four, and I’ve essentially been repeating that claim), but this is the first time I’ve ever seen photographic confirmation of it. Viva visual documentation!
 Roster Restoration Update: I’ve now restored about 65 of the 90 names that were recently wiped off of the membership roster by a software glitch. That still leaves about 25 to go, and I’d like to get as many of them as possible. So if you haven’t already done so, all members should PLEASE check the roster listing. If you don’t see your name there, e-mail me your name, membership uni number, membership level, and why you chose your number. If your name linked to a photo, please re-send it. And if you’d like to help speed up the process a bit more, pick out your card from the design gallery and send me its URL. Big thanks for everyone’s help.
As for today’s showcase card, it’s based on, of course, your current Stanley Cup champions.
Uni Watch News Ticker: It took about 17 seconds for many, many readers to determine that the photo on this 1968 baseball card was taken at the 1964 All-Star Game. The clue? The seats in the background are from Shea Stadium, site of the ’64 ASG. Thanks to all who helped solve the mystery. … Longtime Uni Watch pal (and mascot stalker) Liz Clayton recently took this photo of a woman wearing Cubs earrings. … I think I’ve finally figured out the inspiration behind the new NFL ref jerseys. … Yesterday’s entry about alpha-numeric uni numbers led Ian McLarty to remind me about netball, a girls’ sport popular in many British commonwealth countries. Instead of uni numbers, the players wear letters designating their positions. Details on the sport’s uniform history are here. … And then there’s this, from Bob Jaye: “In a college all-star game following the 1971 season (Senior Bowl, perhaps), the South team had two quarterbacks who’d both worn No. 7 during their stellar careers. So Florida’s John Reaves wore 7R and Auburn’s Pat Sullivan wore 7S, respectively. Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo.” … I’m not sure how I’ve gotten this far without knowing about eFootage, but it’s a friggin’ gold mine of old stock footage. Simple case in point: this five-minute recap of the 1952 NFL Pro Bowl, which features red, white, and blue goalposts, red officials’ uni numbers, and Lenny Moore’s white spats, among other highlights. Loads of other stuff lurking in the eFootage archives, too – have fun poking around (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … The Cleveland Plain Dealer invited readers to redesign the Indians’ uniform, and the results aren’t pretty (thanks, Vince). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Vincent Jackson wore sky blue cleats on Sunday, and there’s no way that simple spat job is gonna save him from a fine. … Matthew Self has put together an excellent slide show of old SMU football photos. Check out all 31 pics here. … Decent article here about the uniform numbers worn by assorted L.A.-based athletes (with thanks to Eric Borer). … Cool note from Wayne Yeung, who’s one lucky fella: “My girlfriend is part of the Columbia University Business School’s women’s touch rugby team, and she recently sent me a photo of their team’s awesome hosiery.” Man, two different ribbing patterns! … Speaking of hosiery, check out the socks worn by the Bondurant-Farrar Ladyjays high school volleyball team, from Bondurant, Iowa. … Do you know what widgets are? Yeah, neither do I, but those of you who do will presumably be interested in HockeyWidgets.com, which according to Adam Tilsner has “a calendar with a different jersey for each day. The site has around 9,000 jerseys to choose from. There’s also a widget to display any jersey in their database. They have widgets for Yahoo dashboard as well.” I have exactly zero idea what any of this is about, but I’m sure those of you who aren’t as elderly tech-clueless as I am bring us up to speed. … Here’s something you don’t see very often: two-color football socks with the white on top instead of below (with thanks to David Chisholm). … Good catch by Chris Skumin, who notes that Mike Timlin’s left-sleeve piping goes right through the Majestic logo. … Corey Davis notes that Sabres goalie Jocelyn Thibault is still wearing this mask from his Penguins day, complete with his old uni number. … Get ready for a new rallying cry of “Ditch the black!” this Thursday, because Anthony Tessein says Rutgers will be wearing black jerseys to go alone with the black pants they wore last Saturday. So much for the “Scarlet” Knights. … Cheri Chandler has posted an unusual bit of family history — a Canton Bulldogs patch supposedly salvaged from her husband’s great-grandfather’s letterman jacket — here. … Latest System of Dreck team: Washington. … If you were posing for a team portrait, why would you wear your jersey backwards? (As spotted by Andy Beaton.) … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The Seahawks’ green sleeve piping was missing from Matt Hasselbeck’s jersey on Sunday. … Guess which city I won’t be visiting today.
October 16th, 2007
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