By Phil Hecken

This past week, a number of pictures from the outstanding Google-Life magazine collaboration, featuring the treasure trove of Life magazine pictures, have been again popping up on the blog. The collection, which was originally released in November of 2008, features literally millions of gorgeous pictures from Life’s archives. You can begin your search for these photos here. I’ll see you in a few hours.

The collection is still relatively new (in fact, as many of you know, UW prexy Paul Lukas already wrote two pieces featuring photos from the Life collection when it was first released). But they keep adding wonderful photos to the archive, and it continues to grow. They estimate they’ll have over 10 million images available when all is said and done. Not all of them are sports-related, of course, but many are.

I won’t spend this article reposting a bunch of pics (although I will post some), since you don’t need me to do that — you can get lost in your own little search for hours (as I know I have and I’m sure I am not alone in that). But just in case there was anyone living under a rock, or who didn’t happen to read Uni Watch when Paul first explored the Life archives, I thought we could take just a few moments to discuss the Google-Life collaboration.

The only problem, if you could even call it that, with the search function, is it doesn’t seem to have a great interface. It takes some getting used to, and finding pics can prove tricky. And once you find your photos, they’re not exactly always clearly marked. I’m hoping they’ll get around to better identifying the photos in the future, but with 10 million of them, and I’m sure many of the originals weren’t well ID’ed, that may prove a daunting task.

Lets say I want to find some New York Mets pictures. Simple enough, right? Just go to the ’start’ page, type in “Mets” in the “search” bar, and voila — five pages of uni goodness. I mean, how gorgeous is this? Awesome, right? And look, the photograph is clearly identified: “Baseball player Willie Stargell #8 (L), of the Pittsburgh Pirates, sliding in a game vs the New York Mets.” They also include the date, location and photographer’s name.

Unfortunately, however, that same search turns up this beautiful photograph, but the only identifier is “1969 Mets Baseball Team” (I am pretty sure that’s Gil Hodges on the left, but many, I’m sure, do not.) And if I change my search terms to “Gil Hodges”, I do find 10 photos, (one of which may have been taken the same day, only it’s in black in white), but I don’t find any in color. So, while finding pictures, especially with an easy search such as “Mets” turns up gold, I simply wish there were more to go on, especially with older teams or teams for which I am not familiar.

Likewise, a search for “Tom Seaver” turns up ONE (!) result, and it’s flipped! (this pic appeared in the comments this week and prompted today’s column). That’s another small beef I have with the archive. Here’s how that pic should have looked (and surely, it was correct if it did appear in the pages of Life). As several readers (I’m looking at you Squiddie) have pointed out, many of the pics are flipped, such as this Baltimore Colts pic (which I unflipped). Again, with 10 million photos, give or take, I can’t really complain about the lack of identification or a few being reversed, but it is more than a minor flaw.

A search for “Giants”, for example, will return not just sports photos, but other stuff as well, so it’s always advisable to refine your search terms. If you just wanted to keep going after that initial search, however (and why not — those pics are gorgeous), seven pages in you’d find this page, and if you click on the 18th (out of 20) thumb, well then you’d be rewarded with this fantastic pic of “The New York Giants, in dark jerseys, playing against the Dallas Cowboys in light jerseys. (December 1962).” Notice the player is wearing sneakers. Of course, he’s not identified (pretty sure that’s Frank Gifford), so the greatness of the site is somewhat diminished by the lack of identifiers.

A final, although not major complaint I do have is when one finds, say, a photo string to one’s liking. Say I just click on the “Baseball” link on the home page. The result will be thousands of photos in thumbnail form. If I click on the one from page 1 entitled Cuban Baseball Players, I get that particular photograph, with not much identification (ok, fair enough). To the right of the photograph are four additional thumbs (”Related Images”) plus a link to “more” photos. I wish they could have spread those photos and the additional links out in the same form as I get if I typed in “Cuban Baseball Players” in the search screen. The way they’ve set the board up, however, yields the photo with the four thumbs (which seem to rotate in a bizarre order when you click on them). If I click the “more” link, all I get are four new small thumbs. If there is anyone from the Google-Life page reading this, maybe you could talk to someone about this and set about to fixing it pronto? (I keed, I keed).

Anyway, in sum, I LOVE the Google-Life stuff. I just wish it were a little easier to identify and/or search for specific teams, persons, etc. And Life isn’t the only game in town as far as finding old sports photos goes. The Library of Congress (head down to the third item in Paul’s Follow-Up Roundup for linkies) has pics, as do Corbis (be sure to sign up — it’s free) and Shorpy and probably a bunch of others. But the Life archive is still relatively new, adding new pictures all the time, and just a wonderful place to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon (or a day in your office, if you know what I mean). If you haven’t yet bookmarked it, what are you waiting for?

From The Ricko Files we have four beautiful photographs today, in honor of the announcement that the Original Eight AFL clubs would be wearing throwbacks this season. (For the full story, click here. For a pretty damn cool link showing a bunch of 50th Anniversary stuff, click here.) Paul referenced the report (first item in Friday’s ticker), and announced the referees (to our surprise and delight) would also be “throwing back” to their original AFL uniforms. Some discussion ensued as to whether the AFL referees really wore orange and white stripes, or if the stripes were, in actuality, red and white. As we Uni Watchers are nothing if not a detail oriented group, we of course needed additional confirmation that the ref unis were, in fact, orange and white. Confirmation came in the form of this auction piece, which shows the unis are a beautiful orange and white stripe. Notice that the uniform on the left has what appear to be equal width stripes, while the two on the right have thicker orange stripes (as well as numbers). One is obviously the short-sleeved and the other is the long-sleeved version of the same jersey. They are distinctly different from the third jersey however. This will be evident in the photos below.

Ricko has delved deep into the Ricko files to provide us all with additional photographs showing the referees in their original orange and white. The first pic appears to be just a couple of Patriots (and, c’mon, how freakin’ gorgeous is that uniform? — I know the ‘losing’ sentiment that is attached to those, but seriously, that’s 9,000 times better than the stuff they won all their Super Bowls in). Anyway, if you look closely at the photograph, you will see in the upper right-hand corner a referee, clearly clad in the orange and white. You’ll also see the lower portion of his leg, which features a black and orange striped sock (but no stirrup!). It’s hard to tell, but the orange stripes appear thicker than the white ones on the official (ref?). The second photograph shows the Buffalo Bills in action (another gorgeous uniform), with a clear image of a referee in the background wearing the orange and white stripes and an orange cap. The stripes on his jersey appear to be of equal width. The third photograph is from a 1963 Chargers versus Oilers game (love those Oiler helmets) and notice the color of the Chargers jerseys — I’m not quite sure what color blue that is, but I know what it isn’t — ‘powder’ blue. Notice the referee (or is that a line judge?) in what could be described as red (but most likely orange) stripes, and they appear to be much thicker on the color side and thinner on the white side. Also, the cap is white. Finally, the fourth photograph is from 1961 (it says 1962, but it’s a pre-season guide, so the pic is from ‘61), Buffalo Bills versus Dallas Texans. The official does appear to have red stripes in that one as well, but don’t appear to be equal width either. Hmmm.

I can certainly see how it might be possible to think the referees and officials wore red back then, because in a couple of these photographs they sure appear red. If anyone knows more about the stripe width (as in, who on the field wore which), it’d be great if you could post it. Also, what was the distinction between the orange and the white capped officials?

Ricko sent me a note along with the photos, a portion of which I will reproduce here:

“That Bills-Texans photo is the first color action photo I ever saw from an AFL game. Imagine that, the ‘62 SI football preview. Two full seasons played and its the first color game action seen by a kid who bought every annual he could find for those two years. Saw football cards, of course (which were all posed), but no game action. Granted, I didn’t live in an AFL market, but still…

And these young guys think we’re kidding, exaggerating, bragging or telling sob stories when we talk about how tough uni-watching was back then. LOL”

Thanks, Ricko! You’re the man. These kids today, eh?

This and That: Interesting stuff from reader Charlie Lockett: “The new England soccer kit is launched this weekend and for what i believe will be the first time, each kit is individually tailored to each player, like a suit! Some really interesting preview videos you might enjoy” … Today’s NC2A regional final between the Heels and the Sooners may be more about Blake and Tyler than NC and OU … Texas Ranger Michael Young states, “I played for the Cubs. Our uniforms were green.” … They’re still doing that pink thing in hockey? … This may have already been posted, and if it was, my apologies, but the Chiefs will be wearing the Texans unis this year, and some are not happy about it (again, apologies if this exact story was already posted) … The Jags will be getting really shitty uniforms this fall, but at least they have low expectations for the upcoming season … Speaking of new uniforms, the Russians are getting some for their national soccer team … Yesterday’s post got me thinking “Go Terriers” (no, not really) … Speaking of hockey, this is REALLY cool — why didn’t they have cool stuff like this when I was a lad? … “We haven’t bowled a single game as a team and we already have equipment companies calling us, so the word is getting out” … A bit of uni news can be found in the “Briefly” section of this 49ers article … Do people still skateboard? If so, here are some skateboard logos … and finally, Brawn scores with Virgin.

Everybody enjoy your Sunday. I gotta work, my brackets are all busted (there’s more red ink there than in the stimulus package), and it’s supposed to rain. Cheers!

Last week I linked to an eBay listing for an old article about NFL helmet carts. I ended up winning the item (I was the only bidder, rather amazingly) and am now the proud owner of the article in question, which was clipped from the Nov./Dec. 1972 issue of the trade magazine DuPont Refinisher News (a publication that was founded in 1928 and still exists today). As many of you know, I’m almost as fond of trade magazines as I am of uniforms, so for me this is a case of two great tastes that taste great together.

The article (which you can read here, here, and here) has some interesting details. To wit:

• The carts were manufactured by a Beverly Hills operation called Sportoys, Inc. I tried googling them but came up empty. Is it possible that manufacturing NFL helmet carts was insufficiently lucrative to ensure the company’s survival? Shocking!

• Very cool that they included all the helmet rivets. But note the square facemasks — it would be interesting to know when the rounded versions started appearing.

• Speaking of the facemasks, note that they’re all gray, since colored facemasks hadn’t yet made their NFL debut (Chargers in ’74, don’tcha know).

• If you look at this photo, you can see that they appear to have applied the Bears’ helmet logo backwards flopped the negative. The photo should look like this.

• According to the text, each helmet received a primer, followed by six to eight coats of paint, then a polishing compound, and then a final clear-coat layer. That’s a lot of paint!

• The last line of the article notes, “What’s more, some major league baseball teams employing similar carts.” This implies that the NFL was ahead of MLB in the headwear-cart development sweepstakes, which is odd, because I’d always thought of these carts are more of a baseball thing than a football thing. I guess I thought that because the baseball carts actually came onto the field of play in the middle of a game to deliver a reliever to the mound, and as a result they became part of the fabric of the sport, while I’ve always perceived the football helmet carts to be little more than kitschy promotional thingies that only get trotted out at halftime or something like that. They seemed more peripheral to the game, while the cap carts seemed more integral (at least in their heyday).

As a result of this perception, I had assumed that the MLB carts came first and that the NFL carts were copycats, but maybe it was the other way around. As it happens, when I wrote an article about MLB bullpen buggies last year, I was unable to determine exactly when the first cap-based cart debuted, and the DuPont article doesn’t indicate when the first helmet carts appeared. But if anyone wants to get crackin’ on research, it would be good to know the chronology of these uni-based vehicles.

Raffle Reminder: I’m raffling off a copy of the excellent new book Remember the AFL. Details here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Ernie Davis statue at Syracuse won’t be Nikefied after all. … Look what happens when you cross an oriole with a raven (with thanks to Joe Hilseberg). … Sean Wilson took a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Looie and was particularly captivated by the pics of the A-B bowling team (here’s a closer look). He also shot a very short video of A-B branding run amok. … Interesting article on soccer sponsorships here (with thanks to Mark Coale). … Got an e-mail last night from Alan Kreit. Subject line was “ultimate fnob.” No text, just a photo attachment. So stupid, it’s sort of brilliant. … That Phil Knight, he sure is a master of suspense. … If you download this Carlos Zambrano radio interview and skip ahead to the 6:30 mark, you’ll hear a petty amusing discussion of Zambrano’s pants (nice find by James Huening).

The more you poke around in various archives, the more surprising it becomes that nobody ever came up with a dedicated uniform column or beat before I did. There’s certainly been plenty of uni-related material published over the years, and some publications have even pursued extended uni-centric themes. We’re going to look at two of those publications today.

The first example is the May 16, 1962, edition of The Sporting News. I came across this issue when Ricko told me he remembered TSN running a Willard Mullin-style uni-centric comic or cartoon on the front page during the ’62 season. I poked around and, sure enough, found this (not just Mullin-style, but actually by Mullin).

The cartoon is awesome — if you haven’t already done so, take a second to read all of it — but that wasn’t the only uni-related content in that issue of TSN. The front page also featured this article about 19th-century uniforms (here’s the jump), which was accompanied by lots of little sidebar items: This one is about the short-lived 1800s practice of each position being assigned a different-colored cap; this one is about the sloppy uniform standards of the 1890s; this one shows a Cooperstown exhibit of an 1876 uniform; and this one shows the cover an 1890 uniform catalog that I would sorely love to own. Note that the caption indicates that point collars on jerseys were no longer used by 1911, but subsequent Okkonen research indicates otherwise (there are several additional examples, too). Once again, I’m not playing “Gotcha!” here — just providing yet another example of how hard it can be to pin these things down, and how skeptical we should be of pronouncements that claim to establish definitive dates for poorly documented eras.

A quarter-century after that Sporting News issue, Sports Illustrated ushered in the 1989 baseball season with, among other things, a lengthy examination of uniforms in its April 5, 1989, issue. The special section was called “Fabric of the Game,” and it’s worth reading — start here, and then move on here, here, here, and here. As you can see, there are also lots of sidebars devoted to things like stirrup styles, the ever-evolving White Sox, some of history’s more questionable design decisions, and so on. Most of it is pretty good — worthwhile reading. If you have a hard time making out the type in the pages I’ve uploaded, go to this link, click on “Show Thumbnails,” scroll ahead to pp. 112-13, and then click “Zoom In” for a better view as you page through the material (or you can read the text-only version — no photos or other graphics — here).

It was almost exactly 10 years later that I approached SI with the idea for Uni Watch. They were very receptive, and I even wrote two pieces for them, but they both got bumped when “more important” stories came up. Then MLB floated an idea about possibly putting ads on jerseys (I remember reading that article on the subway while on my way to cover a non-uni story for a design magazine — funny how certain things can stay with you like that), and I figured, “Great, that’s my beat!” but my SI editor assigned the story to someone else. Between that and the two bumped articles, I was getting the pretty clear message that SI wasn’t taking Uni Watch or me very seriously, so I told them, “Y’know, this doesn’t seem to be working out” and took the column to The Village Voice instead (much lower visibility, natch, but it turned out to be a good incubator for the project’s voice and vision). In retrospect, maybe I should have approached The Sporting News — Uni Watch would’ve been a nice continuation of what I now realize has been their longstanding devotion to uni-related material.

Uni Watch News Ticker: “I teach 4th grade and come across sport books and picture books all the time,” writes Ryan Simmelink. “I came across the book Oliver’s Game by Matt Tavares, which is about a grandpa who had a shot at playing with the Cubs back in 1941. Tavares must have done some research, because many of his pictures are very detailed and accurate. In this picture, you can see the zipper on the jersey. This one is baggy and shows the vest. And this one shows the correct wishbone-C on the caps.” … Very interesting photo here from the 1968 Tangerine Bowl. As you can see, it appears that Ohio University was using “OHIO” as their NOB (excellent find by John Schaefer). … Brian Hilemon notes that Jake Peavy saluted Greg Maddux by going shin-cuffed and faux-stirruped on Wednesday night. … Good video report here about the Oregon equipment room (with thanks to Adam Reinwald). … Totally digging the buttons on Melaine Walker’s track suit (additional views here, here, here, and here). I assume they’re just ornamental, not functional, though. Anyone know for sure? … Wanna compare the Hornets’ old and new color schemes? Look here (old on the left, new on the right). … Two small but telling photos of Andy Chalifour: Here’s Glenn Hubbard wearing a cheekbone mask on his helmet, and Charlie O’Brien apparently wearing a brimless catcher’s helmet (plus some startlingly orange gear). … Bowling Green, Kentucky, is getting a new A-level baseball team, and you can vote on what it should be named. Naturally, I voted for Cave Shrimp, not only because it sounds great but also because the crustacea in question are described as “sightless albino shrimp,” which presents some awesome uni and logo possibilities. … Chris Coste’s mask used to have a Liberty Bell and a Phillies “P,” but lately he’s switched to a plain mask (sorry, no photo). Why? Branding, of course. For details, look here (with thanks to Jon Cannella). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: FNOB alert in Buffalo. … The Giants have overhauled their history section. Lots of cool photos (with thanks to Chris Gilligan). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: News (but no photos) here about the Lightning’s goalies will be wearing on their masks this season. … Phillies will be wearing 1970s throwbacks tonight. … Some really interesting info regarding recent Saints prototype designs here (big thanks to Trev Trahan). … Nice view. Details here (with thanks to Matt Shevin). … This site in a nutshell. … Sorry, no Portland report today — haven’t had time to write it up. It’ll run next week.

Back in late April, I ran an entry on the Orioles’ orange uniforms. Several of the comments that day came from a guy I hadn’t seen before on the site. He called himself Ricko, and one of his posts in particular led me to raise an eyebrow:

I have two four-drawer lateral files full of MLB, NFL, and college football clippings dating back to the ’50s. I know, cuz I’m the one who clipped them and saved them. Most times if the uniform was unique and there was no date on the clipping, I’d write the year on it somewhere. I’ll dig through my files over the weekend and see what I can find. I have an SI midseason photo of Ken Holtzman pitching all-kelly, from the A’s Bando/Rudi World Series era. And it’s just as ugly as the Orioles orange. Maybe uglier.

Envisioning a field trip in which I’d end up dancing barefoot through all these incredible clippings, I quickly dashed off a note to Ricko to find out more. Alas, he said he lived in Minnesota, so I couldn’t just drive over for a quick visit. I asked him more about his files, and here’s what he wrote back:

Period covered is generally mid-’50s to late ’70s or so. So I kinda have the beginning of the double-knit (baseball) stretch pants (football) era covered.

Files were created cuz I used to do sports artwork (painter, cartoonist).
Need a photo of Joe Womack or Larry Garron or Paul Blair in a sleeveless Orioles vest? Or an opening-week SI clipping saying that in 1971 the Orioles experimented with orange shoes but the players didnt’ like them? I can probably find you one.

LOL, I get steamed a team can’t even get its own history correct. Those Jets Titans throwbacks? Wrong color gold. That combo was light gold, similar to Steelers, etc. The colors they chose are correct for the FIRST Titan unis only. When they went to shoulder stripes, they brightened and lightened the gold. What, they’re so dense they can’t look at old football cards?

I’m really not a cranky old man. Just amazed at inaccuracies. Broncos never wore Tennessee Orange, for example. That’s the creamsicle orange the Bucs wore. My former partner was Denver Post sports editor at the time. Broncos ordered “Burnt Orange,” thinking they’d get Texas orange (wanted to wear same color as Texas). Instead they got the Orioles-Browns-Giants orange that everyone else got. And being thrifty (as those early AFL teams were), they just went with them.

Here’s a story you’ll like. In my pro sports PR days I met the Houston Oilers’ original PR guy (name fleeting — “Jack Harrigan,” maybe). He thought the Oilers maybe should wear black and gold (”black gold,” right, good thought). Nope, Bud Adams pointed to a big turquoise ring he always wore. “I want them to wear this color,” he said. Presto, columbia blue for the Oilers.

Why haven’t I been to your site sooner? Just found it. Was searching on “stirrup socks.”

I don’t claim to know everything. But the sports and time period I DO know, I know pretty well. And I have lotsa photos to lead to (hopefully) accurate findings. … I can probably provide stuff you wouldn’t believe. I was a freak about it. Have index cards I made (hand colored) for NFL/AFL unis from mid ’50s to early ’60s. Watched stuff like a hawk. For example, no stripe on Raiders helmets til ’62. Period. I can bury someone in photos who claims there were stripes prior to that.

Holy shit. Clearly, this was someone I needed to get to know better — like, a lot better. Just one problem: Ricko said he didn’t have a scanner, so there was no way for him to digitize his clippings and send them my way. So I basically told him, “Get yourself a scanner. Now. And then get back to me.”

And that might have been the end of it. When a week passed — and then another, and another — I figured Ricko was either a serial exaggerator or one of those old-school eccentrics who can’t deal with “sophisticated technology” like scanners (you know the type). I hear from people like this all the time, people who talk a big game but then don’t deliver.

Then, exactly four weeks after our initial correspondence, I got an e-mail from Ricko, with some scanned attachments. A few minutes later came another. And then another. And another. For the next 24 hours, it was all Ricko, all the time, with no less than 33 communiqués arriving during that span. Another 40 or so have come along since then, making for a full-blown Ricko-O-Rama.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Most of the material Ricko’s sent has been primo. There’s waaaaaay too much of it to fit in one entry, so here’s the first installment of the Ricko Files, which should become a regular feature around here (and would have debuted much sooner, except I was waiting for Ricko to provide a photo of himself, which he finally did a few days ago). Without further ado:

• Here’s the Sporting News’s season-opening uniform descriptions — A.L. and N.L. — for 1962. The interesting thing is that the Mets are listed as wearing “white with orange piping” at home (no mention of pinstripes) and “gray with orange trim” on the road. Obviously, that never happened; to my knowledge, the only time the Mets have ever worn orange trim was in the Civil Rights Game back in March. Also, note the mention of the “black belt,” when the team always wore blue belts in the early days. (This isn’t the only instance of the Mets’ inaugural uniforms being erroneously described, by the way: In January of ’62, Casey Stengel posed for this photo, which showed the Amazin’s set to wear striped stirrups and a flashier chest insignia. By the time pitchers and catchers reported a month later, the design had changed.)

• We all know that the A’s began wearing green and gold in 1963, when the team was still in Kansas City. But here’s an amazing tidbit: According to this Minneapolis Star clipping, KC’s original technicolor duds were made of nylon! But wait a minute — there’s nothing nylon-y about this photo, dated August of ’63. Ricko explains: “The first gold uniforms were actually satin, much like Dodgers uniforms you’ve shown. I know the A’s actually wore them because I watched the game on TV the night the Minneapolis Star photo ran. Even in black and white, it was easy to see they were, indeed, shiny satin.” I suspect the “satin” Ricko refers to was actually the nylon mentioned in the newspaper clipping, but either way it’s a major addition to the historical record. Anyway, they soon switched to standard flannels during that season. (Also, note that the team’s white shoes, striped stirrups, and yellow sanitaries aren’t shown in the clipping, because they didn’t appear until four years later.)

• Check out the stirrup stripes on Jim Hunter in that 1967 SI cover — tough to say if there are only two yellow stripes or if there’s a third one that’s obscured by his pants, right? Ed Charles definitely had three stripes, but the width and spacing look different than Hunter’s. And here’s Campy, clearly wearing two fairly narrow stripes. All these photos came from the same season, 1967.

• As long as we’re talking about the A’s: Here’s the solid-kelly photo Ricko referred to in that early e-mail to me, and here’s Vida Blue wearing odd cleats that look like an Adidas/Ridell hybrid.

• Here’s an amazing 1980 article with all kinds of info on stirrups — stop whatever you’re doing and read it now. Tons of valuable info here, including the tidbit that the American League wanted to fine players who lengthened their stirrups back in the late 1960s, but umpires didn’t feel like it was their duty to enforce the rule, so they didn’t bother. The mishmash of sock/pant stylings we see today can probably be traced to this chapter in history. Also: Calvin Griffith was so disgusted by the Twins’ hosiery stylings that at one point he took away the team’s stirrups during spring training. And sure enough, Ricko found a photo of Rod Carew wearing stirrup-less sanitaries! Unfuckingbelievable.

• Speaking of modified stirrups, I’ve written many times about Frank Robinson and others extending their stirrups by adding a loop of fabric on the bottom. But instead of adding fabric below, some players appear to have cut fabric away from the top of the foot opening, which is particularly easy to spot when the stirrups are striped. That’s Pete Richert, from the 1969 World Series.

• Here are some new (to me) pics of the Orioles wearing solid orange.

• More O’s pics, this time focusing on headwear: First, a few shots of the rarely seen 1963 “B” logo. And here’s Jim Palmer in the 1975-76 alternate cap.

• In recent months I’ve run lots of Robert Riger’s football illustrations. But he also did baseball work, as seen in this 1961 MacGregor ad.

Okay, that’s enough for today, but there’s a lot more where this came from — expect a new Ricko installment about once a week or so. At some point down the road I’ll probably do an interview with Ricko (whose real name, incidentally, is Rick Pearson), and I’m still waiting for him to provide a photo of his file drawers (digital cameras are another high-tech phenomenon he hasn’t yet embraced). Stay tuned.

Many Marks, Many Beasts: Ronnie Belliard has pulled his pant cuffs back down (that photo is from yesterday), but the impact of his swoosh-emblazoned socks, which I wrote about last Thursday, continues to reverberate.

First, Mike Engle reports that Miguel Cabrera has been wearing the Phiten logo, of all things, on his socks lately. I had actually linked to this photo of Cabrera way back in May, but I didn’t realize what the logo was or that its appearance more than a one-time phenomenon. This is strictly a Cabrera thing, not a Tigers thing (no logos for Curtis Granderson or Micahel Holliman), but why isn’t the equipment manager telling him he can’t wear the Phiten-branded hose? It’s total bullshit — looks like crap, adds to logo creep, and why the hell is Phiten making socks anyway? Can’t they just stick to their titanium placebo necklaces? This needs to be nipped in the bud — like, yesterday. I know several people in the MLB office read Uni Watch, so could someone kindly place a call to Detroit and tell the Tigers that Cabrera’s logo-branded socks are a uniform violation?

Meanwhile, Nile Smith reports that the USA softball team — which once upon a time were a model of stirrup perfection — have gone straight to Nike hell. “I’m watching them play Tennessee on ESPN,” he wrote on Thursday evening, “and all of the USA national team players have navy blue socks on with a swoosh on them. Even worse the pitcher Abbott has the Nike socks with red Adidas spikes.” I haven’t been able to find pics of this, but this shot, from another game, shows the problem. Ugh — for a socks-centric guy like me, these developments are like watching your favorite grove of trees all succumb to Dutch elm disease simultaneously.

Two Housekeeping Items: Response to my proposal for a Uni Watch gathering this Thursday evening in Times Square was exceedingly meager, so we’ll scrap those plans and aim for a weekend gathering sometime in the not-too-distant future.

On another matter, if reader Ronald Charles is reading this, please contact me asap. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: With C.C. Sabathia now in Milwaukee, it’ll be interesting to see whose uni is baggier: Sabathia’s or Prince Fielder’s. … “Aston Villa, who are in the English Premier League, got permission to not have a sponsor on their jersey and instead will have the name and logo of the Acorns Children’s Hospice,” reports Andrew Kennedy. … Faaaaascinating logo creep conspiracy theory here. … No need for me to bash Nike when the rest of the world is doing it for me (with thanks to Greg Trandel). … Another great photo of the star-stirruped ’Stros (courtesy of JC Helf, who got it from Steve Dewing’s awesome photo site). … You already knew that Washington State wears different helmets at home and on the road. But now they’ll have different helmet decals. Details here (courtesy of Eric Read). … “I thought it was interesting how the Bucks handled the last name of rookie forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute,” writes Erkki Corpuz. “What really caught my attention was the small ‘A’ in the middle. At UCLA, they had his name in all caps.” … My ESPN.com colleague Rob Neyer has been reading Ed Mickelson’s autobiography and reports that it includes the following passage about the 1950 Meridian Millers: “It was very hot in the Southeastern League and the team appeared in baseball pants that resembled Bermuda shorts. The pants were cut off just above the knee, allowing a little air to circulate. I don’t think the guys really wanted to wear them, but they appeared that way for the remainder of their games that season. Their attendance increased somewhat as a result of the shorts, for some people were interested in seeing grown men play ball in these funny cutoffs and knee socks. But baseball has long and lasting traditions which are hard to break, and Meridian went back to the normal attire for the 1951 season.” Neither Rob nor I had ever heard about this team wearing shorts. The only shorts-clad teams I’m aware of the are the Chisox and the Hollywood Stars, although Rob says, “I do recall something about a Texas League team (Fort Worth?) wearing shorts at some point.” If anyone has additional info, photos, etc., please speak up. … Cool 1920 Suquamish Indian baseball team photo here (with thanks to Dan Klempner). … I’ve linked several times to this UK soccer uni site, and now Michael Dove has pointed me toward an interview with the site’s creator. … Chris Parkin notes that the visiting bat boy in Thursday’s Bosox/Yankees game was wearing an EMC ad patch, which the Sox wore during their Japanese series against the A’s back in March. Surprising they wouldn’t have removed the patch so many months later. … Good interview here with the Wisconsin hoops team’s equipment manager (with thanks to Karl G. Anderson). … The Rugby World Cup logo is getting a facelift (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … China Eastern Airlines flight attendants are getting new uniforms (courtesy of Chris Bisbee). … Lots of stories about the Garmin’s new Tour De France uniforms — look here, here, and here (with thanks to Eric Burtis). … Morris Levin was in Yorba Linda, California, the other day, where he proved that a picture really is worth 1000 words. … Decent photo gallery of NFL uni cameos here (as forwarded by Bryan Stabbe). … Speaking of uni cameos, you’ll never see Serge Ibaka with this jersey again. Same goes for Russell Westbrook (good observation by Andrew Schall). … The Titans have changed their primary jersey designation from navy to light blue, which I count as a major downgrade (although, as several readers have noted, at least it provides a connection to the franchise’s Oilers days). … Gorgeous old NOB lettering here (nice find by Greg Riffenburgh). … Footwear maven Mark Mihalik notes that A.J. Pierzynski was wearing camouflage-patterned cleats on July 4th. In addition, Mark is working on a new site focusing on unique baseball cleats and customized shoes not available to the public. “It’ll basically be a photo-oriented blog with minimal writing,” he writes. “I’ll mostly just post pics of custom shoes, unique team-colored footwear, and special event sneakers and cleats (like Pierzynski’s cleats or All-Star versions of shoes).” Mark has a great eye for this stuff, so I’ll let everyone know when the site is up and running. … Speaking of sneakers, good Wimbledon footwear wrap-up here (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … And speaking of cleats, Jamison Nash sent along an old photo of Bobby Bell wearing the coolest cleats I’ve ever seen on a football field. Are those awesome or what? If anyone knows more about these, do tell. … Terry Proctor came up with a shot of a label from his old sporting goods store, although he’s still looking for one of the embroidered versions. He also adds this: “Did you ever hear of a flannel color called ‘Yale Grey’? I vaguely remember it. According to a 1960s price list I recently found, it was a light-brown color for baseball uniforms.” That’s news to me. Anyone else..? … Fairly routine article here about the Red Sox’s uniforms (with thanks to Kristopher Hunt), and another one about their laundry here (courtesy of Mike Hennessy, who also found an old 1988 shot of Brady Anderson wearing a double-flap helmet). … Jeremy Brahm reports that Orix Buffaloes pitcher Ryota Katsuki, who normally wears No. 17, recently forgot to bring his uniform with him on a road trip, so he had to use the BP coach’s uniform, which was No. 102. … ” Late in Saturday’s Mets/Phils game on Saturday night, the guys in the booth were making a big deal about the red webbing on Fernando Tatis’s first baseman’s mitt,” writes Dave Bailey. “I paused the DVR to get a picture of it — turns out it’s an Albert Pujols model!” … Good article (including a quote or two from me) in this article about the Mets’ revolving-door use of uni No. 6. … Think I’m the only one worried about logo creep and corporate influence? Check out this cartoon from last week’s New Yorker. … Still more corporate encroachment on sports: Check out the “Phelps Sorry About Cap” section toward the bottom of this page. … Dominic Brown of the Lakewood BlueClaws is my kinda ballplayer (with thanks to Kevin Clark). … The whole “We won, so let’s untuck our jerseys now!” thing looks even stupider when you’re wearing baggy Negro Leagues throwbacks. Undershirt logo creep doesn’t look so hot either (additional throwback pics here. here, here, and here). … Underbrim update: Barry Zito definitely had something written under his brim on Saturday. Back in his A’s days, he’d write “Fitz,” which stood for “Fearless in the Zone.” Not sure if that’s still what he’s up to. … In case you missed it, the umps wore star-spangled caps over the weekend too. … The Cowboys have unveiled a Texas Stadium final-season logo, although it’s not yet clear whether it’ll be worn as a jersey patch. … Great photo here of Hot Rod Hundley in a sleeved West Virginia jersey (with thanks to David Cline, who also sent along a rather odd photo of the U.S. swim team wearing baseball-style jerseys). … Big pile of old flannel jersey available here, an awesome set of pinstriped pants here, and a totally boss old ref’s jersey, complete with button-through sleeve cuffs and a killer sleeve patch, here.

Last fall I ran a rundown of old uni-related New York Times articles, which made it clear that uniform coverage was alive and well decades before the advent of Uni Watch. Now Doug Mooney, who did the archival research for that piece, has come up with a bunch of additional old articles from a variety of newspaper sources. There’s some great stuff in this batch — here’s a chronological breakdown:

• October 18, 1931, The New York Times, John Kieran’s “Sports of the Times” column: This column is a hodgepodge of disparate items, the first of which is about the Army football team’s uniforms (the practice unis were heavier than the game-day attire, so the team would feel lighter and faster) and footwear. Details here.

• January 24, 1937, The New York Times, “First Basketball Game of 1892 to Be Reproduced at the Garden”: Could this have been the first throwback game? The story describes plans to celebrate basketball’s 45th anniversary by staging a re-enactment of the first game ever played. According to the article, “The players will be garbed just as they were first that first game — turtle-neck sweaters, handle-bar mustaches, shin guards and the like, while peach baskets will serve as the targets.” Full text here.

• July 30, 1943, The Sheboygan Press, “Sports Uniforms of Nylon Will Be Used After War”: Nylon was hard to come by during World War II, because most of it was reserved for making parachutes, tents, ropes, and other military provisions. In this article, the DuPont company, which developed nylon, forecasts that the material will become common in sports uniforms once the war is over — a prediction that turned out to be correct.

• December 14, 1946, The New York Times, “Expanding Demand Seen for Uniforms”: This article describes a speech given at the annual dinner of the National Association of Uniform Manufacturers (could someone please build me a time machine, so I can attend?), where an industry executive predicted that uniforms would gain great prominence in coming years. He was mostly talking about service uniforms, for repairmen and the like, not sports unis, but it’s still pretty interesting. Look here.

• August 30, 1959, The New York Times, Letter to the Editor: Hilarious letter from a recent immigrant who “[can't] help wondering why the umpires are forced to carry out their respective duties dressed in black suits that look heavy, uncomfortable and — pardon me — somewhat silly in the grueling heat of a three-hour game.” It would be another decade before umps stopped wearing neckties, and much longer before the letter-writer’s suggestion (”a lightweight, loose-weave shirt and summer slacks”) became the standard that we now see today. Full text of the letter is here.

• January 11, 1961, Ironwood Daily Globe, “Tigers Change Uniform Style”: We’ve discussed several times how the Cardinals’ birds-on-the-bat logo took a one-year hiatus in 1956. A similar situation unfolded in Detroit in 1960, when the Tigers replaced their old English “D” with a “Tigers” insignia. That experiment lasted only one year, and this article describes the move back to the “D” logo. Look here.

• July 30, 1972, The Odessa American, “Bellard Here to Charge Aggie Batteries”: This article is about Emory Ballard, then the new football coach at Texas A&M. Amidst lots of other Aggie chatter, there are two paragraphs devoted to the team’s new uniforms, including news that the team would be wearing white helmets, because “maroon is a hard color to duplicate.” Full text here.

• February 7, 1973, Sheboygan Press, “Football Uniforms Fashion Items”: Fun article about the latest in “modern” football attire. Key quote: “Striped kneesocks are big, and so are terrycloth wrist bands, originally intended to just soak up sweat.” Full amusing details here.

• February 5, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, “Als Will Try Popular Colors”: Really interesting article about how the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes planned to switch their color scheme to red, white, and blue, because that’s what the city’s more popular teams — the Canadiens and Expos — were wearing. Kind of amazing to think that the Expos were more popular than, uh, anything. Also discussed in the article: the Als’ new logo (apparently this one). Full text here.

My continued thanks to Doug for all his great archival research.

Seattle Update: Next week’s Uni Watch gathering in Seattle will take place on Friday, March 14th, 7:30pm, at the Pyramid Alehouse. Looking forward to meeting lots of you there.

In other administrative news, you may have noticed that we have a new advertiser at the top of the page: Black Fives. In what I consider to be very classy move, Black Fives prexy Claude Johnson has configured the ad to link to the company’s home page, not to its merch page, so he’s looking to spread awareness, not just to sell stuff (although he’s certainly got plenty of stuff to sell). Claude’s Black Fives blog is a consistently good read, and I’ve been very impressed by my interactions with him. He’s documenting an important and overlooked chapter in sports history, and I hope more people will get hip to what he’s doing.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Brett Favre tribute-a-thon has spun so far out of control that I’m half-expecting the Packers to be wearing a memorial patch for him next season. … Fun rumination on NFL typography here … A Cleveland inventor has come up with a visor designed to keep your eyes focused on the rim, not on the ball. Details here, and the inventor’s site is here (thanks, Vince). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Is a Colts soap dispenser the one thing that’s really been missing from your life? Then the NFL Hardlines VI Trade Show is for you. Details here, and there’s a photo gallery of dubious products here. … Stirrups alert from Yankees camp: Ian Kennedy. … Speaking of the Yankees, they played a navy-vs.-navy game against the Twins yesterday, while the Rockies and Chisox went black vs. black. … If you don’t like mandatory helmets for baseball coaches, you might not like this either (with thanks to Ryan Connelly). … “I received an e-mail today telling me I could order a commemorative jersey for the 20th anniversary of the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA),” writes David Ballenger. “I don’t even know where to start with this horrid design. How long do you have to be riding directly behind someone to have the time to read a paragraph on the back?” … Good video here on the Canadiens’ equipment manager and arena staff. Only catch: It’s in French. Still, there’s some pretty cool visual footage (with thanks to Jean Gagnier). … align=”right” padding-left=”10px” FREE!: this and this. Naturally, I approve of all the green, although I kinda miss the silver. Additional details here and here. … This year’s MLB undershirt template from Nike will apparently look like this. … According to this page, “[Tiger] Woods donned a batting helmet and Braves jersey (tucked into shorts) and stepped into the batter’s box when [John] Smoltz threw three simulated innings at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.” No word on whether Woods insisted on a swoosh-emblazoned helmet. … Nick Waters took some photos of Georgetown’s new SOD uni (additional pics here). “Not sure if they’ll debut them on Saturday or at the Big East Tournament next week,” he writes. … Minna H. reports that the Minnesota high school state hockey tourney is underway, with plenty of interesting uni designs. There’s a full gallery here. … Yee-IKES (horrifying find by David Sonny). … Shorpy continues to delivery the goods. Note the lack of uni numbers and the ump’s backwards cap. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The Yankees’ official retired numbers page shows Yogi Berra wearing a Mets cap (which of course pleases me no end).

As many of you know, kickers and punters are exempt from shoe color rules, so it’s not unusual to see a punter wearing black cleats while the rest of the team is wearing white, or a kicker wearing one black shoe and one white. But Mike Comeau noticed two particularly interesting things about Falcons kicker Morten Andersen last night:

(1) He wears one Nike shoe and one Reebok. Not sure how common it is for someone to be wearing two different brands. (2) The shoe on his kicking (left) foot was black, just like the rest of the Falcons. It was his plant (right) foot that differed from the rest of his team. Usually it’s the kicking foot that is “out of uniform” because the kicker is more comfortable with a particular shoe.

That last bit is a genius observation. Why would Andersen need a special plant shoe? And why would it have to be white? And it’s not like this is his lucky left shoe that he’s been wearing for years, because he was wearing something else just last month. Weird.

Meanwhile, several readers report that Dallas Clark of the Colts was once again playing without the American flag decal on his helmet last night. No visual evidence yet, but here’s a shot of a flag-free Clark from last week. If Clark’s flagless status from last night can be confirmed, that means our streak of at least one NFL player being sans flag for every week of the season remains intact.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Bizarre story out of Tennessee, where a high school hoops team was cited for wearing illegal uniforms, resulting in 18 technical fouls being called. The resulting free throws were the deciding factor in the game. Details here. … More numbers on shorts: the Butler hoops team (with thanks to Mike Miller). … While researching something else, I came across this awesome Cardinals helmet prototype on the Helmet Hut web site. … Latest chapter in the NHL jersey debacle here. … When the Blackhawks introduced John McDonough as the team president, they gave him an honorary jersey. But David Soline notes that they didn’t use a lowercase “c.” … The Browns will be wearing their throwbacks this Sunday. … What’s the point of beach volleyball if you can’t wear a bikini? (With thanks to Jeremy Brahm.) … Todd Radom, Tom O’Grady, and I are all quoted in this article about the state of uniform design. … Jim Pericotti reports that the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, are wearing a Stanley Cup patch on the back of their jersey.

I’m probably the first writer to cover the sports uniform beat on a regular basis — or even to conceive of uniforms as a legitimate sports beat to begin with — but that’s not to say uniform coverage didn’t exist prior to the advent of Uni Watch (indeed, I cited a key 1970s example just the other day). Reader Doug Mooney recently found a bunch of uni-related articles in the archives of the New York Times, and they clearly show that uniform coverage was alive and well in the 1950s. Here they are, listed chronologically:

• April 2nd, 1950: “Hollywood Sets New Baseball Fad; Players Wear Shorts, Rayon Shirts.” This article is about, of course, the Hollywood Stars, who wore shorts in 1950 (additional info here). Key quote, from one of the Stars’ players: “Let ’em razz us, they’ll all be wearing them in another year or so.” Uh, right. Full text available here and here.

• February 26th, 1956: “Cards Redesign Suits.” This short AP item is of particular interest, because it refers to the uniforms that the Cardinals unveiled in this photo. As you may recall, the road jersey shown in that shot — the one with the “St. L.” insignia — was never used, and the circumstances surrounding it have never been fully explained. I devoted a blog entry to that subject about a year ago.

• August 12th, 1956: “What’s a Man to Wear Afield?” The subheading of this article, which ran in the paper’s Sunday magazine section, reads, “If he is a member of the Cincinnati Redlegs, he wears a vest instead of a shirt and pants with built-in knee pads,” which gives you an idea of the subject at hand. To provide some context, this was the season when Cincy’s uniforms changed from this to this. Key quotes: “The Redlegs’ new uniforms are as spectacular, in terms of costume, as the rabbit ball was in terms of window-breakage when Babe Ruth single-handedly revised baseball” and “The pitchers, whose arms supposedly so exceptionally precious, of course, are expected to wear their [under]sleeves long, to avoid chills, vapors or other calamities.” Lots of other good details regarding fabrics, tailoring, performance features, and more. And here’s a tantalizing tidbit: At one point the article mentions that Branch Rickey “attempted to put the Pittsburgh team into shorts, like lady softball players.” I’d never heard about that one before. Anyone else? Essential reading, available here.

• February 24th, 1958: “Giants Favor New Slim Look for Men in Gray Flannel Suits.” This item — written by Gay Talese, no less! — is one of those filler stories that writers come up with on slow days during spring training. Of course, one man’s filler is another man’s front-page news, and this article does not disappoint. Key quote: “[Ray] Kolas, who works for Wilson Sporting Goods, twirls his tape measure around 600 players each season. He keeps a measurement chart report on each player that would do credit to Brooks Brothers. For instance, on his chart of the Detroit pitcher Jim Bunning, Kolas noted: ‘Taper shirt — has small hips (no seat).’ ” Several other gems too, all available here.

• February 1st, 1959: “Major League Fashion Note: New Flannel; Nylon-Wool Fabric Reduces Uniform Weight by Half.” We all know that the Pirates were the first team to switch to solid-polyester double-knits, in 1970. But when did synthetic fibers first start being incorporated into MLB uniforms? According to this article, it was in 1959, when most teams went from solid wool to a 60/40 wool/nylon blend. The article also includes loads of uni-related ephemera, including this classic: “Yogi Berra, Yankee catcher and a dude, tops the best-dressed players with eight pairs of pants. Relief pitchers and bullpen catchers are not hard on clothes, except pants seats.” Get the full scoop here and here.

I know that’s a lot of material to read. But trust me — these are all well worth your time.

Alpha-Numeric Update: On Monday I wrote about this unusual uniform number (details here). That led to this note from Bob Jaye, which ran in Tuesday’s Ticker:

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.

Intriguing, right? I didn’t have time this week to go hunting for a photo. But Bob’s brother, Davis Jaye, did. He contacted the Senior Bowl, whose offices were only too happy to provide him with these pics of Sullivan and Reaves. Big thanks to both Jaye brothers for their stellar contributions to the historical record.

Roster Restoration Update: We’re still missing 17 names from the membership roster (in case you’ve missed it, about 90 names were wiped off the list by a software glitch, and I’ve been trying to get everything back to normal). So if you haven’t already done so, all enrolled 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.

Meanwhile, anyone recognize today’s showcase card? It’s from the Arena League’s Colorado Crush.

Uni Watch News Ticker: My article on bullpen buggy history, which was posted yesterday on ESPN, is here. … Big kerfuffle in Florida over the proposed new uniforms for workers at Miami-Dade International Airport. Full details, plus an amusingly worded reader poll, here (nice find by Jonah Bamel). … Bowling Green’s athletic director discusses why the school changed its helmet design this season here (with thanks to Tom Konecny). … If you’ve ever wanted to dress up Steve Spurrier, here’s your chance (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … I did a blog entry on World Series press pins about a year ago, but now Zach Siron has found a bunch of them for sale on eBay. Some real beauties, too. Look here, here, here, here, here, and here. Plus Zach also found an All-Star Game press pin and Gabby Hartnett’s lifetime pass (”which were apparently given out to players who had retired with much acclaim, local sportswriters, or other similar stars,” says Zach). Great stuff. … Florida State will be wearing their black uniforms against Duke next weekend. … The Green Bay Press-Gazette just posted a small gallery of Packers photos from 1942. Of particular interest: The ref’s beret (note the separate stripe pattern on the sleeve cuff, too), the uniforms being worn by the Western Army All-Stars (they’re the ones with the stripes), and these totally cool dusters.

The e-mails started arriving at Uni Watch HQ right after the end of Saturday’s Kentucky/LSU game. While the rest of the country was buzzing about Kentucky’s upset victory, Uni Watch readers were puzzling over something that had briefly appeared on their TV screens. Of the dozen or so readers who got in touch, Rob Kustal summed it up best:

With :02 left in regulation, before the big field goal missed by LSU, CBS showed vintage footage of Kentucky, circa 1950 or so. I didn’t even catch the specific story, because I was so distracted by what I thought I saw: I swear it was a player wearing a jersey number reading ‘1A.’ My friend thought he saw the same thing. It could’ve been a funky-looking 14, or maybe 17, but it certainly looked like 1A.

And that’s exactly what it was. What was this all about? The answer is buried on this page, devoted to Kentucky football history. The pertinent passage reads as follows:

During the course of his legendary career, Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was known as an innovator of introducing changes in the game of football. One change Bryant introduced during his tenure at Kentucky was the use of a unique number system to identify twins Harry and Larry Jones, who both lettered three years (1950-52) with the Wildcats. Harry wore 1A and Larry wore 1B. Harry led the Wildcats in all-purpose yardage in 1951 with 964 while Larry led UK in kickoff returns (21.1 avg) in 952.

Maybe someone should have said, “Yo, Bear, here’s an innovation for ya: If you want to tell them apart, howzabout giving them No. 1 and No. 2?” or something like that. In any event, this wasn’t the only time a team used numbers and letters in tandem. In 1952, LSU used an alpha-numberic system based on the players’ positions. And then there’s this YMCA basketball team, circa 1900, which Vince wrote about back in January.

But the Kentucky situation is unique because, as far as I can tell, it’s the only time that an alpha-numeric format — or any non-standard numbering format — was used for just a couple of players, instead of team-wide. A silly idea at the time, but great Uni Watch fodder half a century later.

(Special thanks to Jeremy Brahm, who provided the “1A” screen shot.)

Flap Follow-Up: Last Thursday’s entry on Earl Battey and his improvised earflap led to a nice shout-out from Blake Meyer, who runs the superb TwinsCards.com site. He put out the call among his people, one of whom, Pat Bones, came up with those two elusive Battey photos from the 1963 Twins yearbook. The pics aren’t great, but the flap is there if you’re looking for it. Big thanks to Blake, Pat, and the TwinsCards.com network for coming up with these.

Now let’s see if we can return the favor: Blake and his people want to know what’s up with this 1968 baseball card. It appears to have been taken at an all-star game, but the ’67 game was in Anaheim, so the A.L. players would have been wearing home whites and the N.L. would have worn road grays, instead of the other way around. Maybe it’s from the ’66 game..? Insights welcome.

Research Project: I’m trying to compile a list of uniform quirks and eccentricities that aren’t part of a team’s official uni specs but have nonetheless become part of the team’s established protocol. Examples would include the Cowboys’ Dymo Tape helmet nameplates (as seen at right) and jersey tie-downs, the Giants’ rounded nameplates, the Bears’ horizontal shoulder darts, the Steelers’ heavily ribbed socks, the Red Wings’ preseason use of straight nameplates, and so on. Care to contribute some additional examples? You know what to do.

Uni Watch News Ticker: We’ve often talked about city flags appearing on sleeve patches or serving as the basis of team color schemes. Now Scott Greene has found a page featuring dozens of city flags, most of which I’d never seen before. Did you know Detroit’s flag looked like this? Or that Long Beach’s looked like this? Fascinating stuff — highly recommended. … Speaking of flags, last week I asked if anyone had a shot of the American flag flanked by an Adidas flag during the singing of “God Bless America” at Yankee Stadium. Now Tim Walsh has provided this, which must surely rank among the most offensive examples of logo creep ever. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: David Carr’s penchant for wearing gloves has led to a new blog. … Susan N. Freeman found an amazing 1929 photo featuring these totally rad Texas Tech uniforms. … Nate Allen lost his shoe the other day (good spot by Greg Riffenburgh). … Last week I linked to a great Sports Business Journal article about the NFL cracking down on uniform violations, but you had to register for a free trial subscription in order to access the story. Now I’ve got a scan of the print version of the article — print quality isn’t top-notch, but it’s legible. Highly recommended reading. … Great catch by Dennis Gray, who noticed that Manny Fernandez’s lace-up collar didn’t have any laces the other night. He doesn’t always go lace-free, so it’s not clear if this was a matter of personal preference or just an oversight. … Dave Eskinazi sent along this old Spalding Tour photo. At first glance the most salient details are the classy chest insignia, the white belt, and the colored pants. But take a closer look at the detailing on the sleeve cuffs. “Never seen anything like it,” says Eskinazi, and neither have I. … “There is so much wrong with this photo, I don’t know where to begin,” writes Jordan Cutler. For the record, that’s Geo Soto playing for the triple-A Iowa Cubs. … In the “Oh. My. God.” department, the Wisconsin hoops team will honor their 1941 NCAA championship squad by wearing throwbacks on December 3rd, and I may just have to fly out to Madison for that one, because we’re talking about some serious striped-sock action (with thanks to Damion Beth and Karl G. Anderson). … Thomas Langan reports that the Hofstra lacrosse team honored former teammate Nick Colleluori, who recently died of lymphoma, by wearing lime green uniforms (the color of the lymphoma ribbon), all with No. 27 (Colleluori’s number), back on October 7th. … Has Dartmouth always had these weird helmet stripes? (As spotted by Zevi Lowenberg.) … Old Dominion will return to football competition in 2009, and their just-unveiled uniforms appear to be a total rehash of the current Miami design. Of course, Miami will have moved on to a new uni by 2009, so ODU is basically getting sloppy seconds here (with thanks to Charles Pritt). … Here’s something I don’t recall having seen before: Evander Holyfield had his surname on his shoes during Saturday night’s bout against Sultan Ibragimov. … No comment. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Western New Mexico has taken the very odd step of putting their helmet decal on the back of the helmet. … Reprinted from Saturday night’s comments: Lots of inconsistencies in Auburn’s nameplate typography (as noted by Kris McInnis). … Since the NFL fines players for having their jerseys untucked, can’t the NHL do something about Jaromir Jagr, who keeps wearing his jersey tucked in? Looks like crap. … Rutgers wore black pants on Saturday. Doesn’t look bad, but also doesn’t look like Rutgers. … The Jets’ Titans throwbacks looked nice, but oddly collegiate, no? (First person to comment, “That’s appropriate, since the Jets play like a college team” gets tossed from the site, so please be more creative than that.) … Major wardrobe malfunction yesterday in Chicago, where Adrian Peterson of the Vikings had his pants come down in the fourth quarter (nice work by Aaron Etshokin). … According to Dressed to the Nines, in 1974 the Red Sox wore an alternate uniform, featuring a multicolored cap and non-striped stirrups. Not sure I’d ever seen a photo of this design until Andy Given came up with this shot of El Tiante (which he found in this excellent gallery of Red Sox pics). … Not sure why, but the Chargers’ new powder-blue alts didn’t quite wow me. I think it’s because the blue panel on the pants creates a blue overload. … Meanwhile, guess whose American flag helmet decal was missing yet again. … Attention all fans of design (which pretty much means everyone reading this): This is National Design Week, which among other things means free admission at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum here in NYC. … Several readers think Santana Moss was wearing a collared shirt under his jersey yesterday. Personally, I’m dubious, but you can kinda see it here. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we went through a similar discussion regarding the Saints’ Will Smith last year. … Interesting volleyball hosiery here (with thanks to Steven Trujillo). … Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero was wearing a ski cap under his mask last night. … Brandon Bowker works at a book store where a copy of this title recently came through. “Check out those socks!” he says. Indeed. … Remember our recent examination of Todd Helton and his Mizuno-ized Nike cleats? Here’s a great close-up from last night’s Rockies/D-backs game. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Nice little video clip here about Martin Gerber’s new mask.

When I was 16, I started reading a new sports magazine. In one issue, their Q&A column included the following question: “I keep hearing about this nude female mud wrestling thing, but I don’t understand it — what’s the deal?” The magazine’s answer: “The tricky part is finding the nude female mud. After that it’s pretty self-explanatory.” In another issue they had an article on sports etiquette — the polite thing to do when playing baseball, the polite thing to do when playing football, and so on. The last section, devoted to “Dangerous Sports,” read like this: “The only polite thing to do when engaged in dangerous sports, like auto racing, hang-gliding, cliff-diving, and so on, is to die. After all, that’s what everyone’s waiting around for.”

The magazine in question was Inside Sports, which launched around 1980. As the above-quoted passages suggest, it was clever and irreverent way before ESPN developed a reputation for those qualities, and it also featured serious, smart reportage. The two big sports mags back then were Sports Illustrated and, my favorite, the now-defunct Sport (which had published a letter of mine when I was 13, something I was insufferably pleased about for weeks), but Inside Sports was much more intelligent and ambitious than either of them, featuring an editorial voice that I now recognize as having been derived from Esquire, Rolling Stone, and other non-sports mags.

The golden age of Inside Sports, if you want to call it that, didn’t last very long. The intelligence and cleverness soon flattened out, and the magazine became much more conventional, so I stopped reading it. It was later sold (several times, I think) and become a struggling fringe player in the sports media world. I don’t recall when it finally went belly-up, but I’d long since moved on.

I still have fond memories of those early issues, however. So I was intrigued when reader Mike Cesarano (who compiled the Mets uniform breakdown featured on the Ultimate Mets Database site) recently got in touch with the following communiqué:

Paul, remember the magazine Inside Sports? I remember seeing a prototype of a new Yankee uni modeled by Phil Rizzuto in an issue of that magazine in 1980 or 1981. I remember that it was black and white with a red N on the right breast and a red Y on the left breast. … It would be cool to track down a pic of this. I’ll look but I thought you might remember the same pictures.

I didn’t remember this at all, but I encouraged Mike to find the issue in question. He said he’d investigate on eBay and get back to me.

That was back in mid-August. I’d forgotten about the whole thing until two nights ago, when Mike e-mailed to let me know he’d found a copy of the issue. He attached a bunch of scans — and they’re doozies.

Here’s the scoop: For their April 30th, 1980 issue, Inside Sports commissioned fashion designers Geoffrey Beene, Halston, and Oscar de la Renta (or as Fitzy likes to call him, “Oscar de la Go Fuck Yourself”) to create new baseball uniforms for the Cardinals, White Sox, and Yankees. Then they had those teams’ TV announcers — Jack Buck, Harry Caray, and Phil Rizzuto, respectively — model the unis and had Roy Blount Jr. chronicle the proceedings. The results, rather predictably, were pretty brutal, as you can see here, here, and here.

I’m not even going to discuss the uniforms, because they’re ridiculous. In fact, the whole concept was pretty stupid, but it’s worth remembering that uniform coverage was pretty much non-existent back then, so this was uncharted territory (you can see the entire article here, here, and here, and I strong recommend check out the joke in the next-to-last paragraph). There’s all sorts of interesting uni-related chatter, and Blount — then, as now, a very good writer — gets off some good lines along the way (his simple assessment of the Padres’ uniforms (which at the time looked like this): “Remember those Buicks with all the extra chrome?”). The most telling passage comes when he sums up the state of uniform design:

Light, bright, tight, stretchy double knits have replaced voluminous flannel; pullover shirts have tended to replace button-ups; and elastic waistbands have supplanted most belts. (How many sentences like that do you read in sports magazines?)

Poor Blount, feeling all self-conscious (and, probably, worried about being called gay) just because he was writing about uniforms. He couldn’t have foreseen the advent of something like Uni Watch. But in his small way, he and Inside Sports helped lay the groundwork for it.

Friendly Reminder: As of next Monday, Uni Watch reveille will blow at 10:15 a.m., not 9:00 a.m. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As we all know by now, Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s 14-letter surname is the longest in MLB history. It is not, however, the longest in professional history (i.e., including the minors). That distinction apparently belongs to Eric Stuckenschneider (16 letters!), who played in the A’s and Dodgers systems in the 1990s. He never made it to the bigs, but he must have been invited to spring training one year or something like that, because Eric Walker has turned up pics of an A’s jersey with Stuckenschneider’s name. Spotting phonies has never been my strongest suit, but this looks pretty authentic to me, right down to the tagging. Anyone more versed in game-worn jerseys care to weigh in? … Cubs backstop Geovany Soto has his nickname on his chest protector collar (as spotted by Jon Aubry). … Kevin Wright reports that the Milwaukee Admirals will have pink ice on October 19th, 24th and 27th (for breast cancer awareness, natch). “I’ll be in attendance for at least two of these games so I’ll be sure to take some great pictures,” he says. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Here’s the anti-cancer decal NHL teams are wearing. … Weirdest injury in years. … Good find by Mark Loveland, who notes that Uni-watching extrends to politics. Be sure to check out the first comment — definitely someone who Doesn’t Get It™. … According to an item at the very bottom of this article (which I first saw on the Chris Creamer board), the Titans will wear navy jerseys with light-blue pants this Sunday, which means they’ll look like the far-left design shown here. … Yesterday I linked to this photo, showing the bizarre color scheme of Waukegan High in Illinois. Jonathon Tillis has now provided an explanation: “Waukegan High split into two schools for a while: Waukegan East, whose colors were yellow and purple, and Waukegan West, whose colors were yellow and green. Around 1991 the schools merged back together. They couldn’t eliminate the purple without upsetting the East students and the same for the green with the West students. So they kept all three colors.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Martin Gerber is waiting for his mask to be painted, so for now it’s solid black. … Rank (or at least superstardom) has its priveleges (with thanks to Jesse Swanko). … Lots of late-breaking items from Douglas Mooney: Manny Corpas was just cooling off; the Panthers have had to delay some uniform number changes because the new jerseys weren’t ready; Devin Hester blacks out the swoosh during photo shoots because he hasn’t yet signed a shoe deal; and a bit of field hockey controversy regarding a statewide protective eyewear rule in New York.

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: I love ripple effects. Case in point: Two or three weeks ago I got an e-mail from Ronnie Poore, telling me that he’d spotted something interesting in a photo that had run in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. He no longer had his copy of the magazine, and neither did I, but he offered to ask around his office to see if anyone else had one. Eventually he wrote back to say he’d come up with a copy — did I want it? Sure, I said. So he mailed it to me, along with a letter explaining what had caught his eye in the photo he’d previously mentioned. I ended up linking to the photo — a shot of the 1965 NFL draft — in this past Monday’s Ticker, where I noted, as Poore had in his letter to me, the stirrups on the little figurines.

And that could have been the end of it — a typically wonderful example of a Uni Watch reader going the extra mile to bring a small detail to the attention of the larger readership. Nice.

But then the ripple effect kicked in. The day after I ran that Ticker item, I got a truly magnificent response from Vinnie Dinolfo, as follows:

The figurine was a bendable toy named Johnny Hero, which came out shortly after GI Joe. All 14 NFL teams were available as a Johnny Hero doll, which came complete with a miniature football uniform, plastic helmet, plastic shoes, and plastic football. I received the Cleveland Browns Johnny Hero for Christmas around 1966. The doll had socks, shoes, pants, a jersey, and shoulder pads to go along with the helmet and football. All the parts were removable. The white Browns pants were shiny satin and the jersey and socks were a T-shirt-like material. My Mom ironed the front and back numerals onto the brown football jersey (the Browns always wore white jerseys at the time, so that caused me slight disappointment). I chose No. 86, for Gary Collins. The brown sock was supposed to be worn under the smaller white sock, as my father pointed out. Apparently, whoever dressed the dolls shown in the 1965 draft photo put the socks on in the wrong order.

The best part of the uniform was that all of the stripes on the jersey, pants, socks, and helmet were perfect (which can’t be said about the current Browns socks). Johnny Hero was slightly larger than GI Joe and would lead the Browns to victory over GI Joe (wearing those helmets from the bubble gum machine) in my imaginary NFL title games. Unfortunately, the Johnny Hero doll was made of foam rubber and wire. The foam rubber eventually dried up and disintegrated, so the wires became exposed. I eventually lost all the uniform pieces that outlasted my doll. And sadly, the Browns have yet to win the NFL title since my Johnny Hero-worshipping days.

Wow. I’d never heard of Johnny Hero dolls before, so I went to eBay and typed “Johnny Hero” into the search engine. And that’s when the ripple became a tidal wave. Johnny Hero’s default outfit was a boring track suit, but you could customize him to be a member of just about any NFL or AFL team, and many of the little uniform sets available for sale were completely amazing. A quick search turned up kits for the Giants, Steelers, Vikings, Niners, Chargers, Lions, Colts, Cowboys, Packers (that sound you just heard was my pulse thumping a bit faster), Jets, Rams, Redskins, Pats, Eagles, Bears, Bills, Raiders, Oilers, and, yes, the Browns (with the never-used logo helmet!). Yeah, they got a few of the details wrong, but whatever — I think the uni sets still look wicked cool. You can get a closer look at the level of craftsmanship by checking out the close-up photos here and here.

You say you’re more of a baseball fan? No problem — you could also dress up Johnny Hero as a member of the Pirates, Phillies, Red Sox (looks like they cut corners by using those same stirrups for the Cardinals), Yankees, Indians, Senators, Angels (note the franchise’s old “LA” helmet logo), Orioles, Mets, Tigers, Twins, Giants, Dodgers, or Cubs.

I don’t know why, but many things are really appealing when rendered in miniature, and that definitely applies to these little uniform sets. Does anyone out there collect these?

(Update from this morning’s comments: Lots of great Johnny Hero info, including an FAQ section, care instrux for the uniform sets, “anatomical” details, lots of pics of the dolls dressed up in the uniforms, and a whole lot more, here. Wish I’d found this before writing today’s entry.)

Speaking of Heroes…: A tip of the Uni Watch cap to New York Times writer David Picker, who’s just written one of the most complete and informative uni-related articles I’ve ever seen. It’s about those five-toed Japanese socks, which several of the Red Sox are wearing (and not just the team’s two Japanese pitchers). The article covers just about every conceivable base and provides a wealth of invaluable info — essential reading. Check it out here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Yankees held a pregame memorial ceremony for Virginia Tech last night, plus they put the VT logo on the field, on their caps, and, although it’s hard to make out, on Jorge Posada’s shoulder pad (with thanks to Vincent Barone for that screen grab). … According to this item about the NFL’s new anti-concussion measures, “The NFL rule requiring every player to wear a chin strap that is completely and properly buckled to the helmet will be strictly enforced.” Does that mean that the many players favoring this style will have to buckle up? Or does “completely and properly buckled” simpy mean at least one connection on each side? Stay tuned. … While researching something else, I came across this photo of Alex Delvecchio. Note that his captain’s C is outlined, rather than solid. (It’s also on the “wrong” side, but that was pretty typical for him — well, usually). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Still more great photos from the Ernie Davis biopic shoot here.