The weather is getting colder, which means we’re once again seeing lots of helmet decal problems. The poster boy for this phenomenon yesterday was Lance Briggs, whose “C” was flapping in the breeze during Sunday’s Bears/Packers game.

But that’s nothing compared to what happened on Saturday to Minnesota RB Shady Salamon, whose helmet decal was literally knocked clean off of his hat by a vicious head-to-head hit. The play in question has been preserved for posterity here — wait for the slo-mo replay to see a piece of Salamon’s brain Salamon’s decal landing several feet away from the point of impact. This ranks up there with this all-time great photo (here’s another view of the same play — the flying numeral is near the ball-carrier’s hands) in the knocked-his-block-off sweepstakes.

Please join me in thanking reader John Okray, who provided all of the Briggs and Salamon screen grabs and video captures. Great work, Johnny.

Vuke Revisited: No explanation yet regarding Pete Vuckovich’s mismatched cleats, but two readers had some interesting uni-related stories to tell about Vuke. First, from Jeff Ash:

I worked on the sports desk at the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper in Madison in the ’80s. One night, we ran a picture of Vuke from spring training. We picked the photo from a negative and didn’t see it full-size until the paper came up.

Unseen on the negative was that Vuke had drawn the finger on his glove. He was flipping our readers the bird in full color.

It is the only time in my 30 years in the business that we ever stopped the presses, but we stopped them immediately. One of our production guys grabbed the plates and etched out the finger as best we could. Those were the more primitive days before Photoshop. Wish I’d kept the papers as proof.

And then there’s this from Doug Keklak:

One of the things I always remember from Vuke’s days as the Pirates’ pitching coach was that no matter the weather, he always, ALWAYS wore that dugout jacket. And this was before all those breezers and windshirts and stuff were around — this was the heavy, quilted/lined Starter/Majestic jacket. One of the cool parts of this story was something his son once told me (we both worked at the Pirates clubhouse store in a Johnstown mall): The only time Pete went sans jacket was when they wore Homestead Grays Negro League throwbacks. He said that out of respect he didn’t wear the jacket and cover the jersey. Pretty cool.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Great 1937 Idaho Vandals team portrait here. Really interesting stripe patterns there (with thanks to Geoff Baker). … The Flyers will unveil their third jersey tomorrow. … Turns out I’m not the only one who thinks the words “Nike” and “toilet paper” belong together (courtesy of Brinke Guthrie). … Auburn’s Virgil Starks memorial decal, first worn on Saturday, looks like this. … While vintage-shopping over the weekend, I came across this beautiful nurse’s cape, which featured a really wonderful shoulder patch. … “I was at the Arkansas/Southeastern Louisiana basketball game last night and saw something I’d never seen before,” writes Charlie Shields. “SLU’s starting five wore uniform Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.” … Oh goodie, the first down line is now a vehicle for corporate advertising, hoo-fucking-ray (with thanks to Michael Romero). … Some very cool old footage in this video tribute to Herb Score (with thanks to Mike Menner). … Douchebags. … Good article here about the Pens’ light-blue alternates (with thanks to Chris Hilf). … Arizona State wore late-’70s throwback helmets on Saturday. Here’s a close-up, courtesy of Randy Policar. … ” Please, please, find a photo of the Mississippi Valley State basketball warm-ups,” writes Brian Cobb. “They are short-sleeve hooded (yes, HOODED) sweatshirts with ‘VALLEY’ printed midway down the back. They’re the most ridiculous garments I’ve ever seen grace a basketball court.” If anyone has pics, let’s see ’em. … Super-wide nameplate lettering on 1980s Giants center Jim Clack (as captured by Jere Smith, who says he spotted something similar on the jersey of Green Bay’s Randy Scott in footage of a 1985 game but wan’t able to get a screen shot). … Two nice finds by Josh Handler, both from Game 3 of the 1997 ALCS: Jeff Juden wearing No. 7 on the mound and Brady Anderson wearing a helmet-borne shout-out to teammate Eric Davis, who was battling colon cancer at the time. … My friend Rob Walker (who runs the excellent Murketing site) had a good column about logo creep in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine. … How does a placekicker’s jersey become a hot-selling item? When a rock star wears it (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … Jonathan Sluss reports an interesting detail regarding the Virginia Tech women’s soccer team: “It appears they wear merit decals on their right sleeves. I am not aware of any other soccer teams that do this. The decal they use is what’s known as ‘Hokie Tracks’ — basically turkey footprints, which are used around campus and by some club teams, but this is the first instance I can think of them being used by a varsity team.” … Rather rote video treatment of personalized eye black messages here (with thanks to Trey Phillips). … We all know the Padres almost moved to DC in 1974, which is why Topps made cards like this one. What you might not know — and what I didn’t know until Morris Levin told me about it yesterday — is that new uniforms had been made for the team’s new locale: “In the first edition of Total Baseball (published in 1989 and edited by John Thorn and Pete Palmer), the Padres team history on page 88 reads: ‘Owner C. Arnholt Smith decided early in 1974 to sell the franchise to a buyer who planned to move the team to Washington, DC. New uniforms had been manufactured and the club’s files were packed for the move…” Anyone know more about these uniforms? … New Sens alts have been leaked. … One of major problems in American pop culture right now is that every good idea gets overdone to death until you no longer remember that it was a good idea to begin with. Case in point: This was clever, but this is asinine, and you just know he’s gonna keep doing it every fucking week now. Way to go, Jevon — you’ve gone from creative to lame-o in the space of seven days. … Nice eBay find by Jared Peterson. Note the chain-stitched NOB! … The Pirates wore NOBs in 1991, so Doug Keklak want to know why Jim Leyland going NNOB on the day they clinched the ’91 N.L. East title. And in case you’re wondering: The right-sleeve patch is a memorial H for former equipment manager John Hallahan, and the left-sleeve patch is a now-forgotten alternate logo based on the team’s 1987 centennial patch.

[Editor's Note: As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the writings of Dave "Large" Larzelere, which appear daily on the No Mas blog. He e-mailed me during yesterday's Giants/Packers tilt to say he was feeling rather uni-inspired and asked if he could pen today's lead entry, an offer I was only too happy to accept. Here's his essay; my own report follows after his. -- PL]

By Large

Could any true football fan of a certain age who watched the Packers/Giants game last night honestly say that their enjoyment wasn’t keenly heightened by the mere sight of those two iconic uniforms doing battle against the freezing backdrop of Lambeau Field? The way the colors and logos so vividly hearkened to championship games played by these same two teams in the NFL’s glory years lent an inescapable air of nostalgia to the contest and a powerful sense of the sport’s past being present, a feeling that all too often seems lacking in this day and age of the league’s generally wretched marketing aesthetic.

The fact that the Giants wore their whites and the Packers their home green-and-yellows made for an interesting historical note, for it gave them a striking likeness to their 1961 NFL Championship showdown at Lambeau (then called City Stadium), which the Pack won in a Paul Hornung-fest, 37-0. That was an important year for Green Bay, marking the first NFL title of the Lombardi era, and it was also an important year for both the Packers’ and Giants’ uniforms, with each team wearing helmet logos for the first time — the very same logos they wore last night. Of course, the Packers only ever have sported one logo on their helmets, while that classic Giants helmet logo survived until 1975 and made its triumphant return in 2000.

For a generational uni-comparison, check out this shot of Frank Gifford and this shot of Hornung in their teams’ respective ’60s road and home looks, and then move on to Lawrence Tynes and Brett Favre yesterday. The colors are certainly brighter now, particularly with the Packers, and there are many subtle differences that I’m sure the average Uni Watch devotee is far more hip to than I am. The overall similarity is amazing, though. So when, I wonder, is the last time that an NFL playoff game was reprised almost a half century later and saw the two teams looking so similar to their bygone editions?

Well, if it had been left up to the Chargers, the answer to that question might have been “Oh, a couple hours earlier.” The championship game history between the Packers and Giants got a lot of press last week, while the same history between San Diego and the Pats was largely ignored. The great Chargers of the John Hadl-to-Lance Alworth era beat the then-Boston Patriots 51-10 in the 1963 AFL Championship Game at San Diego’s great Balboa Stadium. I managed to find only one picture of a Pats/Bolts game from that season, but it’s from an exhibition played in August. Anybody out there have pictures from the 1963 AFL title game? Of course, even if the Chargers were in white for that game — a uniform whose jersey and helmet would at least bear a passing resemblance to they sported yesterday the Pats couldn’t hold up their end of the time-travel bargain in any way whatsoever. Such a shame that the best of yesterday’s four teams was by far the weakest link in the uniform department. To that, I say: Help them, Pat Patriot, you’re their only hope.

Chip Off the Old Blockhead: Paul here. Gotta love how the paint and decals were flying yesterday at Lambeau. Brandon Jacobs’s “ny” logo got seriously torn, but we’ve seen that happen a jillion times this season. The real story was Ahmad Bradshaw, who not only lost one of his front helmet numerals but also had a helmet collision for the ages in the fourth quarter, when a big chip of paint, decal, and maybe brain matter came loose, peeled off, and went flying (here’s another view), leaving Bradshaw with a badly scarred lid (additional pics here, here, and here).

Better yet, in case you missed the play, we’ve got it on video. Check it out here.

Coupla other NFL notes:

• How much do I love stripes? So much that I kinda dig those undershirts that the teams were wearing yesterday.

• What the hell was Favre using on his nose?

• For those who are wondering: Pats are the designated home team for the Super Bowl, and will presumably wear their blue jerseys, meaning the Jints will wear white.

(Extra-special thanks to Ryan Whitacre, James Wortham, and Bobby O’Brien for their screen grabs, and to Matt Moschella for the video clip.)

Raffle Results: The winner of the $250 gift card from Distant Replays is Patrick Stickney, who should contact me to claim his prize. Thanks to all who entered, and watch for more raffles coming soon.

Friendly Reminder for NYCers: I’ll be presenting a lecture/performance on the pleasures of obscure trade magazines (like, say, this, this, this, this, and this) tomorrow nite at 8 p.m. at Union Hall in Park Slope. Four other people will be discussing similarly eccentric and entertaining topics (like this one), and the event is free. Hope to see lots of you there.

Uni Watch News Ticker: By now most of you know that many Cowboys players tie their jerseys to their shoulder pads. But that’s nothing compared to this old high school shot. Love the Band-Aid on the forehead, too (with thanks to Steven Brown). … Our recent discussion of prototypes prompted JD Denison to send along this. I have my doubts as to its authenticity, but it’s still pretty cool. … The Air Jordan XXIII will apparently feature an argyle pattern, presumably as part of a UNC tribute (with thanks to Seth Snyder). … Larry Weiderecht sent along some vintage uniform ads the other day. First there’s this one, for Rawlings youth football attire. Love how the text mentions that the jerseys “are great for just knocking around in between games” — still a novel concept at that time. Then there’s this one. Interestingly, the text notes that “16 major league teams suit up in Wilson uniforms … 9 for both home and road.” It had never occurred to me that a team might have different outfitters for their home and road unis. Why would that be the case? Anyone..? … Speaking of kids’ uniforms and related merchandising, check out all the great material Jon Helfenstein has assembled here (click on the individual images for larger versions) — addictive stuff. … Jeremy Brahm is intrigued by the logo for the 2008 FIVB World Congress: “The panels form a U, an A, and an E, for ‘United Arab Emirates,’ where the Congress will be held.” … Also from Jeremy: a gallery of Naomi Yotsumoto’s table tennis outfits (she’s featured in the shots with the green boxes). … Jeremy also notes that Ricoh is sponsoring MLB’s season-opening series between the Red Sox and A’s, which presumably means we’ll be seeing advertising on the sleeves and helmets again — ugh. … Lots of new MLS uniforms were unveiled at Friday’s draft (with thanks to Steven Lewis). … According to this item, the Raptors are working on an alternate jersey for next season. … The Bobcats wore special NASCAR-themed alternate uniforms on Saturday (additional views here and here). I’d been told about these before the season started but wasn’t allowed to talk about them and had forgotten about the whole thing until I saw the pics. I generally like checkerboard patterns, but the NASCAR connection is way too forced. And besides, shouldn’t the Pacers have first dibs on racing-related tie-ins? Not one of the NBA’s better ideas. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: North Dakota State had a really interesting football uni back in the late ’60s. On first glance it looks like they’re wearing short white sleeves with longer-sleeved undershirts, but it’s actually all one piece with contrast-colored upper sleeves. … Roman Karmazin, fighting on the Trinidad/Jones undercard, wore the name of slain NYPD officer Ruslan Timoshenko on his trunks Saturday night. … Karmazin’s opponent, Alex Bunema, was wearing one of those annoying loincloth/skirt getups, and so did another undercard fighter, DeMarcus Corley. … And let’s not even get into this guy (although it’s worth noting that he had a Yankees logo on his trunks). … “The U.S. men’s national soccer team beat Sweden, 2-0, on Saturday night,” writes Andrew Ghassemian. For some reason, Landon Donovan (our captain) decided to go with the orange cleats.” … Japanese golfer Ryo Ishikawa, who wore camouflage pants as an amateur last year, will not be allowed to wear them on the Japanese pro tour (with thanks to, of course, Jeremy Brahm). … Good article here about QBs and gloves (with thanks to David Sonny). … Faaaascinating article here about how Flying Elvis was designed, although the designer and the guy who wrote the article both seem to think that Elvis is cool and that Pat Patriot was lame, which should give you an idea of how clueless they both are. … Chris Yandle reports that Louisiana’s basketball team wore NOBs on Saturday night, after going NNOB this season up until then. … UConn wore silver-gray alternates yesterday. … Happy MLK Day, folks. I have a dream of a world without logo creep, of a Mets uniform set featuring only orange, blue, and white, and of the New York Football Giants winning one more championship for my old man, a lifelong Jints fan who turns 84 this week and probably never thought he’d get to see his team in another Super Bowl. Whoo-hoo, Big Blue!

Anyone got a spare n? That was the question yesterday in Buffalo, where Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw spent most of the game with only a partial logo on the left side of his helmet. And that was only the most obvious of the Giants’ many decal problems yesterday, as several players were missing one of their front helmet decals, including Bradshaw, Chris Snee (left side of the photo), and Michael Strahan (sorry, no photo), plus Madison Hedgecock tore part of his red stripe. It was a friggin’ horror show out there.

Jints equipment director Joe Skiba says he has no idea what was behind the epidemic. “But I know for a fact Bradshaw camps out in front of the heaters and leaves his helmet there,” he points out, which may have something to do with it.

Naturally, we can’t discuss decal problems without mentioning the Bears, who contributed their weekly serving of torn Cs, courtesy of Brian Urlacher and Adrian Peterson.

(Thanks to everyone who contributed screen grabs, including Nick Boscamp, Ryan Perkins, LeRoy C. DePas, and Matt Ryburn.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: Did you know Sammy Sosa originally wore No. 11 upon joining the Cubs? I didn’t, until Joe Drennan sent me this photo. … When the Diamondbacks introduced their new uniforms a year ago, several people said “db” sleeve patch reminded them of the logo used by the magician David Blaine (although I thought it looked more like, y’know, a different kind of snake head than the one the team intended to evoke). Now reader Mark Shelton reports that he was at the team’s pro shop the other day and saw a sign announcing that all authentic jerseys with the “db” logo were now 75% off. “When I asked an employee why they were doing that, I was told they were removing the ‘db’ logo due to a complaint from David Blaine,” he writes. “I bought a road gray jersey with Randy Johnson’s name and number, normally going for $255, for $63.75.” Interestingly, the 2008 MLB Style Guide still shows the sleeve patch, but maybe they haven’t updated the specs yet. … Vince has confirmed that the Browns aren’t changing their uniforms next season. … The Lakers and Sixers both wore home throwbacks on Friday night. … Robert Eden found two really interesting college football photos, both involving Nebraska. First, look at this shot, showing a Nebraska/Minnesota game from 1932. The ’Huskers didn’t have front-jersey uni numbers yet! And does that big-ass “N” look amazing or what? Next, look at this Nebraska/Missouri game from 1978. Turns out Mizzou was wearing uni numbers on the hips several years before the Cowboys and Packers introduced this style to the NFL. … Chris Skumin notes that Julius Jones had a memorial message written on his eye black Saturday night. Anyone know who it was for? … “UNC basketball walk-on (and football RB/WR) Greg Little made his season debut for the ’Heels Saturday afternoon,” writes Benji Cauthren. “Nike hadn’t shipped his jersey to the team yet, so he had to wear a two-year-old design.” … Great article here about the Penguins’ equipment manager’s preparations for the upcoming Winter Classic outdoor game (with thanks to Paul Blackham). … And here’s a good piece about the Giants’ cold-weather preparations. … Brendan Fougere notes that Brent Celek’s TV numbers have been creeping forward, especially when compared to his teammates. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: The Manitoba Moose’s NOBs are all caps, but one player has a very odd cap/small-cap format. … “My Ohio Bobcats left their home shirts in Athens on the trip out for the Rainbow Classic,” writes Tim Burke, “which resulted in a dark vs. dark championship game against the St. Mary’s Gaels, who apparently did the same thing.” … Florida Gulf Coast University is making a strong bid for weirdest basketball uniforms of the season: They’ve got blue trim on one side and green on the other, and “FGCU” instead of NOBs (great find by Mike Miller). … Open discussion tomorrow, regular content resumes on Wednesday. Merry Xmas to all, and be sure that the stocking you’re hanging has stripes.

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).

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.

Big uni-related story in the NFL yesterday was the range of Sean Taylor memorials. Here’s a quick rundown:

• The Redskins wore a “21″ jersey patch. The Redskins’ coaching staff and owner wore it, too.

• In addition, Clinton Portis wore a Taylor tribute T-shirt under his jersey (here’s another view).

• John Eubanks wore a Taylor do-rag. At first I thought this was one of the towels that fans were given, but now I think it was actually the sleeve from a Taylor jersey.

• All teams wore a “21″ helmet decal. This led to some pretty crowded rear-helmet groupings, especially for the Broncos (who already had their dual memorial for Darrent Williams and Damien Nash) and Browns (who added that “BW” decal this week in memory of Hall of Famer Bill Willis — not to be confused with the “BW” decal for Bill Walsh that the 49ers have been wearing all year).

• I was hoping we’d see some facemask stripes, like Taylor sometimes wore. Didn’t happen, but Antonio Pierce of the Giants did something similar: He taped Taylor’s uniform number onto his mask. This was the only personalized tribute to Taylor that I spotted. (Special thanks to Ryan Perkins for the screen grab.)

Meanwhile, in non-Taylor developments:

• Tommie Harris had “Psalms 91″ (which also happens to be his uniform number) written on his Breathe Right strip.
• The Jets took the unusual step of wearing their Titans throwbacks on the road in Miami.

• Joseph Addai was showing some serious skin in the 2nd quarter.

• No photo yet, but I saw for myself that Dallas Clark’s American flag decal was still missing — a particularly egregious omission when you consider that the equipment staff had to add the Sean Taylor decal to his helmet, so you’d think they would’ve noticed the missing flag. Bryan, whose wife went to high school with Clark, is still working on getting the full story on this one.

• Also no photo, but several readers reported that Braylon Edwards was wearing white shoes and going bare-calved, NCAA-style, early in the Browns/Cards game. Then he added brown socks but still had white shoes. He eventually switched to black shoes like the rest of the Browns.

Uni Watch Calendar Update: Several meet/greet opportunities coming up over the next week. Here’s the deal:

• December 6th: Marc Spears of the Boston Globe and I will be fielding questions from students in a media seminar class this Thursday at Boston University. I’ll be convening a Uni Watch party at 8:30 that evening at Boston Beer Works, which is right across from Fenway Park. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to attend the seminar class, which begins at 6:30, the professor has graciously agreed to accommodate a few extra people. If you’re interested, get in touch and I’ll let you know where to go.

• December 10th: The completely wonderful City Reliquary, of which I am a proud card-carrying member, will be holding its annual benefit gala at the Automotive High School Auditorium, and I’m one of the two featured speakers this year. I’ll be doing a Power Point presentation about Brooklyn Dodgers uniform history, but the real attraction is the other speaker: Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and Boggs. The evening will also feature a short documentary film, a live samba band, and — if you shell out a lot of extra $$$ — dinner at Bamonte’s, one of Brooklyn’s oldest and most storied red-sauce Italian restaurants. Full details here.

• Sometime in January: I’m going to be one of four presenters at the inaugural edition of a new speaking series called “Adult Education,” which is being curated by my longtime pal Carrie McLaren (editrix of the excellent consumer-culture magazine Stay Free), who describes the series as “sort of grownup show-and-tell,” complete with visual aids. The theme of this first installment will be “Micro-Genres”: Carrie, who’s mildly obsessed with chimps, will be talking about people who’ve tried to raise chimps as part of the family; longtime Uni Watch pal Liz Clayton will talk about painfully obvious fast-food restaurant conversions (she has an entire site devoted to this phenomenon); Jim Hanas will talk about “meta tourism” (i.e., photos of tourists taking photos); and I’ll be talking about the strange world of trade magazines (Elevator World, Hay and Forage Grower, American Funeral Director, Demolition, and so on, each of which is as obsessively subject-specific as Uni Watch is). The exact date is still TBA, but it’s definitely going to be on a Tuesday in January, and the venue will be Union Hall, which is conveniently located around the corner from Uni Watch HQ. Further details on this one as they become available.

Membership News: I’m happy to announce that we’ve now gone over 500 enrollees. But I can’t announce who the 500th member is because that was a gift membership and the gift-giver has asked that I keep the order secret until Christmas.

Speaking of which, remember, this Wednesday is the deadline for ordering a discounted gift membership for the holidays.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of pics here from the upcoming hoops movie Semi-Pro (with thanks to Mike Nachreiner). … Bizarre uniform sighting here (courtesy of Eric Trager). … Looking for new and creative ways to lace up your cleats or sneakers? Look here (with thanks to Mike Blinn). … Roman numeral alert: Charlie Coley III of Charlotte (with thanks to intern emeritus Vince Grzegorek). … “Once upon a time, Marquette had a football team,” writes proud Badger State booster Nicole Haase. “Here’s a pretty cool collection of 1940s program covers.” … “Check out the difference in the helmet stripe thickness for the two players in green, who play for Mentor Lake Catholic High in Ohio,” writes Tim Snyder. “I figure it’s some kind of merit award, but they also use more conventional merit decals.” Anyone know more about this? … Paul Bridge reports that Utah Valley University, which will have D-1A status by 2009, has some new logos. Details here. … Very odd NOB typography being for Jonathan Zebina of Juventus (and, presumably for the rest of their players): The “Z” and the “E” look like a “2″ and a backwards “3.” It’s apparently so fraught with confusion that the “E” ended up being applied backwards for Saturday’s game against AC Milan (all this courtesy of Jeremy Brahm). … Mizzou’s Stryker Sulak had some sleeve patch problems on Saturday (with thanks to James Wortham for the screen grab). … Nice little recap of Lakers uniform history here (as forwarded by Matthew Wolfram). … Ryan Perkins notes that R.W. McQuarters of the Giants had some helmet decal issues yesterday. … Several readers noted that Wabash wore some ill-advised pants in Saturday’s D-III quarterfinal game. … Georgia will wear black in the Sugar Bowl. … Speaking of black, Texas A&M’s hoops team wore their black alts yesterday. … “The Barbarians, an invitation-only rugby club that plays a handful of matches per year, took on the newly-crowned world champions South Africa,” writes Eric Bangeman. In addition to wearing classic black-and-white uniforms, the Barbarians ask each player to wear the socks from his home club, which makes for some interesting hosiery contrasts.”

It was another one of those Uni Watch red-alert moments last night, as about a dozen readers e-mailed me all at once and another half-dozen or so posted all at once in the comments section. The cause? Jason Strudwick of the Rangers got in a fight and his nameplate came loose during the fisticuffs, revealing some nasty-looking adhesive residue on the underside.

All of which is very entertaining. But here’s my question: Since when have the Rangers been using nameplates? I always thought they used direct-sewn NOBs. NHLuniforms.com has always shown them that way (compare that treatment to this one), and so do most pre-2007 game photos (here’s another) and game-used jerseys (the most recent of which that I could find is from 2003-04 — definitely no nameplate there). Hell, we’ve even made sure to go nameplate-free when designing Rangers-themed membership cards.

But if you look at photos from this season, sure enough — they’ve suddenly got the telltale fabric strip. It’s on the white jersey, too. Is this a previously unnoticed additional reason to loathe the new Reebok jerseys? Have other teams made similar switches? If anyone knows more about this, please fill us in.

And as if the deficiencies of nameplates weren’t already clear enough (extra seams, loose threads, puckering, etc.), now we can add an additional problem to the list: They come loose during fights.

Meanwhile, speaking of the Rangers, the story of their re-hemmed jerseys has finally been picked up by a local beat writer. For the full scoop, scroll down to the “Hems stops haws” section of this page.

And in further NHL news, Rich Eakin reports that the Penguins will be giving new, non-moisture-repellant jerseys to all of their players — not just to the select few who ask for them. For details, scroll down to the “Replacement jerseys” section here.

(Special thanks today to Matt Harris and Doug Walton for their Strudwick screen grabs, and to Aman Loodu for pointing out the hemming story.)

And Next Week We’re Installing a Hot Tub: Lots of new site-related developments to report today. For starters, for those of you who are into the social-bookmarking thing, you’ll find buttons for Digg, Del.icio.us, Facebook, Furl, Spurl, Newsvine, Technorati, and YahooMyWeb at the bottom of each post. And in response to reader demand, we’re now offering a full RSS feed, instead of a partial feed.

But the biggest news is that my new right-hand man has been chosen. It’s Bryan Redemske, whose name is probably familiar to many of you because he’s a longtime Ticker contributor. He also wrote most of this entry about the College World Series back in June. The depths of his Uni Watch-ishness can be measured by a note he sent to me last night: “Be sure to mention that all of my cycling T-shirts have ‘Bryan’ embroidered on the left sleeve.”

Bryan is, if anything, overqualified for the position. He works in the sports department of the Omaha World-Herald, where he does some copyediting, some page layout, and a bit of writing (and where his ready access to wire-service photos will no doubt come in handy). In other words, he’s already a seasoned media professional, so I can’t very well call him my “intern.” We’ll have to come up with a new title for him, like research monkey assistant editor or something like that. By any name, he’ll be easing into the job over the next two weeks or so, and his first lead entry will probably run later this week. Please join me in welcoming him to the Uni Watch team.

The timing of Bryan’s hire is perfect, because intern Vince Grzegorek has some big news, too: He’s scored a staff position with Cleveland Scene, the city’s alterna-weekly paper, and will be starting there in two weeks. He says he’ll still contribute Uni Watch entries, which will be great if he can swing it (I suspect his new bosses will be keeping him pretty busy). Here’s to you, Vince — big congrats on your new gig.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday I linked to this photo of Tamba Hali’s chinstrap popping off. That prompted Doug Simpson to send me what he described as “the mother of all chinstrap blowups,” from September’s ’Bama/Western Carolina game. … In another follow-up, yesterday I asked why Remembrance Day poppy pins had switched from green-centered to black-centered in recent years, which led Lorne Giesbrecht to send me to this page, which has lots of good info (and also led Jeff Ingalls to send me a photo of his poppy tattoo). … Also from yesterday: I asked what was up with these leg sleeves, prompting this follow-up from John Simmons: “He appears to be wearing a cut-off version of Adidas Powerweb shorts. You can even slightly see the yarn at the bottom of the calf sleeve from where he must have cut it.” … Brent Hardman notes that UGA captain Knowshon Moreno’s captain’s “C” suffered from a bit of a tight squeeze on Saturday (additional views here and here) — a problem not shared by teammate Matthew Stafford, because his single-digit uni number allows for more space. … New Mexico wore practice jerseys for a recent exhibition game because their new unis weren’t ready yet (with thanks to Rob Montoya). … Decal impresario Chris Willis reports that Marshall will wear this memorial helmet decal this weekend. In addition, he says CFL teams may wear poppy decals this weekend. … I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Louisiana Tech sure does have small nameplate typography. … Chris Drouin notes that the Oakland Christian High soccer team in Michigan has “Christian” on their shirttails. … The FIVB has worked with Mikasa to produce a new volleyball for the Beijing Olympics. Details here (courtesy of Jeremy Brahm). … Kenn Tomasch recently visited Max’s Sports Bar in Glendale, Arizona, which claims to have the nation’s largest collection of football helmets (including some real doozies). He’s put together a fantastic account of his visit here. … Indiana coach Bill Lynch was wearing a National College Football Day pin — nearly lost among a sea of logos — the other day (with thanks to Todd Usher). … Man, Joe Torre’s cap at his press conference yesterday was right off the shelf (additional holographic view here). And Bryan Redemske, paying immediate dividends, notes that Torre’s dress shirt had “Joe”-monogrammed cuffs. … Yet another player with an upside-down 8: Ryan Gomes (with thanks to Josh Feldman). … Mike Raymers found something interesting: a Roanoke Valley Rebels jersey from the Eastern Hockey League, circa 1970s. I think it’s safe to say that logo would never get off the drawing board today. … Want to make cake shaped like a jersey? Then you’ll want this (genius find by Ryan Thompson). … I could definitely get used to this. … Check out the nameplates in Pakistan.

I didn’t intend to use the same headline for the third consecutive Monday, but it’s not often that a simple mid-season NFL gameday offers as many uni-related observations as yesterday did.

• Loved those Redskins throwbacks, especially the nice, thin pants piping and, of course, the striped socks. And lookie here — an actual sleeve! But why was Clinton Portis wearing white shoes?

• I’m more conflicted about the Eagles’ throwbacks. I loved the striped hose, natch (although a few players took them a bit too far), and I like the basic graphic scheme, but I’ve gotta believe this design looked a lot better when it wasn’t rendered in shiny fabric. Also, it’s hard not to notice that a uniform with such pale colors works a lot better when worn by someone with, um, pale skin. Compare this to this and you’ll see what I mean. Remember, these uniforms were based on a design created back in the 1930s, when the league was almost completely white. Also, the color scheme was based on the Philadelphia city flag, which was in turn based on the Swedish national flag, and Swedes are pretty much the palest people on earth. No surprise, then, that the design looks a bit odd on black players, who currently comprise about 70 percent of the league. (And please: I know there are some people who can’t read anything about any aspect of race without getting bent out of shape, but there’s absolutely nothing in the preceding paragraph that’s even remotely racist.)

• Speaking of striped socks, good to see the Browns going with this look again. Additional views here, here, here, and — just barely, but effectively — here.

• The Patriots wore those stupid silver alternates yesterday, which just look like they need another spin in the washing machine.

• The Rams broke out their rarely seen white pants. And so did the Bucs. In the same game (which also featured an interesting hosiery malfunction).

• At first I thought Marvin Harrison had a little piece of black tape on his lower-right chinstrap hookup (his right, our left). Then I looked at photos from last week and saw that it’s actually a little pice of rubber tubing with either “89″ or “68″ written on it. Anyone know what that’s about?

• Another week, another game with LaDainian Tomlinson not wearing the American flag on his helmet (it’s tough to see there, but trust me). Willie Parker, however, appears to be back among the flag-clad.

• Chad Johnson, who wore black chinstraps for the season’s first two games, went with standard white yesterday.

• As expected, Morten Andersen made his 2007 debut with his old Dungard facemask present and accounted for.

• Antonio Pierce usually wears a red “ny” on his chinstrap. Yesterday it was blue (”Just to change it up,” says Jints equipment director Joe Skiba). No photo yet.

Membership News: Some new designs in the membership card gallery, with more to follow later today. Incidentally, if you’re looking for something unique, the following numbers aren’t yet represented on the membership roster: 48, 62, 64, 69 (!), 70, 73, 74, 82, 84, 85, 90, 91, 95, and 96.

Research Project: I’m thinking of doing a column that will basically be a Uni Watch glossary — definitions and explanations of uni-related terminology. Entries could include everything from fabric and embroidery terms (tackle twill, soutache) to striping designations (UCLA inserts, Northwestern stripes), typographic terms (vertical arching), uniform and equipment element names (nose bumper, nameplate), and slang-ish terms that have gained parlance here on Uni Watch (logo creep, Ree-box). Most of these are already familiar to people who read this site ,natch, but I think it’ll make a good topic for the larger ESPN audience, which isn’t quite as savvy (yet).

If you’d like to nominate a term for inclusion in the glossary, let me know. Please don’t invent any new terms — what I’m looking for here are words and terms that are already somewhat established. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: “I was watching Little Big League (the movie where the kid inherits the Twins from his dead grandfather) on cable the other day,” writes Matt Usedom. “I noticed that they actually made a ‘TH’ sleeve patch for their ‘dead owner,’ Thomas Heywood.” … Decent article on jersey-wearing protocol here (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Several readers have noted that Nike’s recent NFL-related commercials (first the one with the Chargers and the Bears, and now the “Leave Nothing” clip with Shane Merriman and Stephen Jackson) are very strange, because the Reebok logo is clearly visible on the uniforms. Now Austin Cochoon has picked up another uni-related oddity: “In the ‘Leave Nothing’ spot [available on YouTube here], at about the 47-second mark, while Jackson is running against the Seahawks, the second Seahawks player coming off the block is wearing #80. It’s hard to see in the YouTube version, but trust me, it’s clearly visible on the television [indeed it is -- PL]. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The only person allowed to wear number 80 for the Seahawks is Steve Largent. I don’t count the brief Jerry Rice stint. Not only is the number 80 retired for the Seahawks, but he player appears to be a defensive back, which makes the number choice even more ludicrous.” … “There’s a change in the official patch licensee for MLB,” reports patch maven Brad Bierman. “The new company is a Dallas company called the Emblem Source [taking over for National Emblem -- PL]. They work directly with Majestic, and did the RFK stadium-closing patch, for example. I have assisted them in lending original patches from my collection that are being replicated to the exact detail.” … Here’s something the NHL and Reebok apparently didn’t count on: Many of the Penguins (and, presumably, other teams) are complaining that the new water-resistant jerseys are repelling moisture so well that all the sweat and ice spray ends up in the players’ gloves and skates. Details here. … Still more NHL problems: The red part of Scott Gomez’s “A” began peeling off and then vanished completely the other night. … And speaking of the Rangers, what’s with the inconsistent name typography? Also, note that Steve Hutchinson and Mike Rupp are wearing tape on their socks — wasn’t that supposed to be unnecessary with the new hose? (With thanks to Jesse Spector, who took that photo himself.) … Remember the upside-down 8 on Fenway Park’s exterior wall? Greg Niforos reports that it’s now missing. Maybe someone in the Sox front office is a Uni Watch reader..? … No photo, but Joe Skiba reports that USC linebacker Keith Rivers was wearing a “10″ helmet decal the other night, presumably in honor of injured teammate Brian Cushing.

HBO’s Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts Of Flatbush debuted last Wednesday, but I was in St. Louis at the time and didn’t get around to seeing it until Saturday. Aside from all the relatively familiar sentimental musings about my home borough (I teared up, right on cue, during the sequence where Dem Bums finally won the Series in ’55), there was a wealth of interesting uni-related material. Check it out:

• I wrote about pinned-on uniform numbers in my last ESPN column. But check out this shot, which shows prospects being evaluated either at a tryout session or during spring training. As you can see, some of them have numbers pinned over the pre-existing uni numbers. Kinda feels like the baseball version of this.

• Here’s a spring training shot. Note the two guys with the big “VB” on their jerseys, which I assume stood for Vero Beach.

• My favorite shot in the entire show: Jackie Robinson in an absolutely killer UCLA football uniform.

• There was a roughly 20-second sequence that showed the Hollywood Star wearing their pinstriped shorts (here’s another view). Oddly, the voiceover narration made no mention of the shorts — the script simply noted that L.A. was a minor league town until the Dodgers arrived. Very strange.

• Interesting shot here. Note that Jackie Robinson and Junior Gilliam are wearing sanitaries but no stirrups.

My only gripe: There wasn’t any footage of Burt Shotton managing in street clothes.

Travel Advisory: In the 14 months since this site launched, I’ve gotten out of town for a long weekend here or a work-related trip there, but I haven’t taken a proper vacation. That will change this Thursday, when I head off for — well, never mind where I’m heading. The point is that I’ll be visiting friends, road-tripping hither and thither, and not thinking too much about uniforms. My goal is to not log on to the site even once during the eight days I’ll be gone. We’ll see how realistic that turns out to be, but you get the gist — I need a little break.

But fear not — things will continue apace. While I’m gone, several teams of bio-engineered chinchillas, fortified on Balco-quality “nutritional supplements,” will be running on treadmills to keep all the wheels and gears turning. A crew of illegal immigrants, working under the dual threat of deportation and being forced to watch Lou Dobbs broadcasts, is at this very moment learning to mimic my writing style, so fresh content will continue to appear each day. And the major sports leagues have all agreed to hold off on any major uni-related announcements until my return.

The one major change is that Vince will be in charge of things while I’m gone, and will also be assembling Ticker material. So from the 19th through the 26th, if you’ve got a question, an observation, or a contribution, don’t send it to me — send it to Vince at uniwatchintern at gmail dot com. Vince will also be equipped with a Bat Signal-like communication device to get in touch with me, so in the unlikely event of an emergency (Jose Cruz Jr. going on the DL, for example, or Bruce Froemming splitting his pants), I’ll be brought up to speed.

I will engage in one major bit of Uni Watch business while I’m away, however: Next Tuesday, July 24th, I’ll be passing through Toronto and will convene a party upstairs at the Imperial Pub and Library. Festivities will commence at 8 p.m. — hope to see all you Ontarians there.

Membership Update: I want to take a minute to point out some of the really great details that Uni Watch art director Scott M.X. Turner has been working into the membership cards lately. When recently asked to do an old-school Patriots treatment, for example, Scott did some photo research and noticed that the Pats routinely featured wide-spaced lettering on their nameplates back in the day, so he matched that style. And dig this EPL design, complete with the logos on the numerals! It’s little details like these that have made this project so much fun for us — and, we hope, for you.

One thing I’ve noticed is that designs that looked horrible as actual uniforms look really great on the back of a membership card. In addition to the Blues treatment shown above, check out this and this (plus comments section stalwart Teebz wanted us to do the Islanders’ seasick typography for his card, which I’m sure would’ve looked totally boss, but the type was too tricky to render, so Teebz settled for an all-star design [based on this]).

As always, you can see the growing gallery of card designs here. The active roster is here, and details on how you can join are here.

Lone Star Shout-Out: Member Jon Smith is interested in meeting other Uni Watch devotees in the Austin area. Feel free to contact him here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Uni-related quote of the day, from Barry Bonds after yesterday’s Giants loss: “It’s an embarrassment for me to be wearing this [expletive deleted] uniform ’cause of the way I’m playing.” Not sure, but I think the expletive was “polyester.” … Big non-sports uni news out of the UK, where it’s recently been announced that trial judges will no longer wear wigs. Additional info here (with thanks to Bernie Langer). … Big article here about the jeweler who made Barry Bonds’s earring. … Latest minor league theme-night brainstorm: Star Wars Night, courtesy of the West Michigan Whitecaps (further details here). … The new Lightning logos will apparently look like this (a minor improvement, I’d say, but I’d rather have seen an overhaul). And the Sharks’ name/number treatment will now look like this (thanks in both cases to JR Boucicaut). … On Friday I ran a photo of this 1971 serving tray, which Vince was nice enough to pick up for me at a yard sale. That prompted the following note from Richard Stover: “That tray was a Shell gas station promotion. For a fill-up, they gave you a glass [additional examples here and here). I remember getting a Broncos glass from my sister, who had moved to Colorado, so it must have been a nationwide promotion. A few extra bucks and you could buy a tray. I’m 50 years old, and like almost everything else I had as a kid, I replaced my cracked, broken tray with one purchased on eBay. But my New England Patriots glasses somehow survived.” … Garrett Malcolm was attending a Padres/Orioles game in San Diego and happened upon a gent wearing this jersey. “He told me that it was game-worn, and was from the early ’40s, when the Orioles were a minor league team. The number on the back was 7, and I think you’ll agree that it is just a beautiful piece of work.” Indeed. (Quick, someone put a drool cup under Joe Hilseberg!) … Anthony Pellegrino attended a Phillies game on Friday night and snapped a pic of a combo you don’t see very often (thankfully): stirrups and mandals. … Vince notes that someone did a really bad radial arching job on Curtis Thigpen’s jersey (compare to this). … Good catch by Andrew Stebbins, who notes that the MLB.com shop lists this as a Chad Cordero jersey, when it was actually Francisco Cordero who made the All-Star team. … Several sources are reporting that Kansas’s new football jersey will look like this. … The Brewers did their annual Cerveceros promotion yesterday (with thanks to Jared Simon for the screen grab). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Short TV news clip here regarding Wisconsin’s attempts to police its motion-W logo. … Also from yesterday: Jose Reyes has been wearing orange shoelaces. … Still more from yesterday: Adam LaRoche’s pirate sleeve patch was partially torn off on Saturday night.

New ESPN column today, and it’s a doozy — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: Does fabric adhesive not stick as well to polyester as it does to wool? That’s the obvious question after yesterday’s Independence Day ballgames, where an unusually high number of MLB players didn’t have the little American flag cap appliqués that everyone was supposed to be wearing. A small sampling of the many, many flagless players includes Todd Jones, Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Joe Kennedy, Chris Sampson, and Miguel Cairo (center of the photo).

I suspect that many of these players began the day with a cap flag, but then it fell off. That’s what apparently happened to Tim Wakefield, who was flag-clad at the start of yesterday’s game but flag-free by the end. It’s also what happened to Junior Griffey (early, late), and it was about to happen to Tigers reliever Jason Grilli, whose flag was about to fall off when he was mercifully removed from the game.

The best flag situation involved Padres started Chris Young, whose flag began to come loose in the top of the 7th. That’s when he felt the urge to adjust his cap, causing the flag to come loose and flutter down to the ground (it appears as a blur just below Young’s ear here, and in front of the r on his jersey insignia here). Without missing a beat, Young picked it up and put it in his back pocket.

Best flag of the day: The amazing patriotic dessert that Uni Watch medieval studies chair Andrea Boffa brought to my Independence Day cookout. Tasted even better than it looked. A bit of rain eventually forced us to move indoors, where Uni Watch mascots Tucker and Caitlin were unimpressed.

(Special thanks to readers Jeff Cohen, Jim P., and the pseudonymous commenter Liberty for their cap-related contributions.)

Membership Update: Big news on the membership front, as we’re now offering NBA designs. Most teams are available (although the purple brigade is, of course, off-limits), and we’ll consider throwback requests on a case-by-case basis (hint: Scott’s particularly partial to old teams like the Syracuse Nationals and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. Longtime Uni Watch antagonist/hero the Rev. Nørb has already gotten the ball rolling with this Miami Floridians treatment — or, more technically, a Miami Heat throwback design, since the Floridians didn’t have names on their jerseys — which is the most horrifically garish card we’ve created so far. (It could have been worse: Nørb originally threatened to picket outside of Uni Watch HQ if his demand for a purple-centric card wasn’t met.)

We’re now well over 200 members, incidentally. David Fetterman was the one who pushed the odometer to the double-century mark, so Scott has added a special milestone seal to the front of his card. We look forward to see who the 300th member will be.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Interesting eBay find by Robert Eden, who writes: “In the 1980s, Nebraska bought its uniforms from Russell (no freebies like today) in lots, numbered 1-99. To save money, the jerseys were blank aside from the numbers. The ‘N’ on the sleeves, and the stripes that replaced the ‘N’ in later years, were screened onto the jerseys locally. It surprises me that a big-time college football team would be taking these seemingly amateurish steps to get its game uniforms ready to go. Anyway, the jersey in this auction was never used or screen-printed. Nebraska had a few retired numbers in the ’80s (they have since been unretired), so when the school received a shipment of jerseys numbered 1-99, the equipment manager pulled out those with the retired numbers and effectively stuck them in a closet. He held onto them and now they’re being sold here and there. The jersey looks so odd with only the numbers on it.” … Member Korryn Mozisek notes that Lance Berkman now appears to have the Texas state flag on his batting gloves. … According to a thread over on the Chris Creamer boards, images from NBA Live 08 indicate that the Sixers are tweaking their black jersey and the Pacers are adding a gold alt. … Member Steve Patterson recently made some screen grabs from a DVD devoted to Broncos history. As you might expect, he provided several shots of the infamous vertically striped socks (additional views here and here), but the most interesting thing was the officials’ uniforms. I knew that AFL officials wore red and white stripes, instead of black and white, but I didn’t realize that their uni numbers were sometimes black and sometimes orange. I also didn’t know that AFL chain gangs used conventional black and white stripes. And speaking of the chain gang, check out this guy — he’s got a button-through cuff, which is something I’ve never seen before on zebra-striped jersey. Patterson adds: “The DVD also included an interview with Frank Tripuka where he’s talking about how the jerseys were all too small, so they had to cut holes in the sides for full arm movement.” … How much does Sarah Land like Orlando Hernandez’s high-cuffed look? This much: “Whenever El Duque pitches in a night game, and I am home, I whip out a pair of knee socks that I have and roll up some old sweatpants to recreate his look. I don’t sport this look, however, if there is company over, so I don’t want to submit a picture. But let me tell you, wearing socks up and pants up feels as awesome as it looks.” … Clare Perretta reports that the Houston Chronicle recently ran what may rank as the best photo ever of Craig Biggio’s skanky helmet, plus a good shot of a rip in Lance Berkman’s pants. … Mark Swienki recently came across a great web site devoted to Sulphur Dell, the ancient Tennessee ballpark that was once home to the Nashville Vols. The site includes a dynamite photo gallery, the highlight of which is a shot of a Mobile Bears player wearing shorts. But there’s plenty of other great stuff in the gallery — highly recommended. … As some of you discovered last week, the Dressed to the Nines online exhibit recently disappeared when the Baseball Hall of Fame reconfigured its web site. But don’t fret — the exhibit is still there, but it has a new URL. Its home page is now here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: This year’s World Series sleeve patch will apparently look like this. … Not sure if this has come up before, but here’s a good site devoted to Manchester United’s uniform history. … A source in the Texas Rangers clubhouse checks in with the following: “Interesting streak going on right now with us, as we’ve worn the blue alternate (Cool Base) jersey 13 games in a row. Why? Nobody has really talked about it, but I would guess it has to do with the recent success of the team: 9-4 in that span. Anyway, I thought this was worthwhile because I don’t remember seeing a team doing this before. I’m intrigued to see which starting pitcher decides to break the streak. And for the record, the clubhouse staff is all for it as it means less scrubbing!” … The Flyers will unveil their new uniforms on Sept. 16th (with thanks to Mike Shaw). … Not uni-related, but still of interest (thanks, Vince).