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Posts filed under 'WNBA'
Remember that April Fool’s joke I pulled exactly two months ago? Maybe it wasn’t a joke after all. Or maybe it gave somebody some ideas.
That’s the question floating around the web at the moment, because a Madden video preview released on Friday shows the Seahawks wearing the same neon green jersey design that we had whipped up for the April hoax. I got a ton of e-mails about this over the weekend, and it’s also attracting attention in the blogosphere.
So is it real? Personally, I don’t think so. I’m not aware of this design being in the works for on-field use, plus unusual alternate jerseys have shown up in Madden before, plus-plus this particular design has already been for sale as a fashion jersey, so it wouldn’t be such a leap for them to plug it into Madden. Still, I’ll try to contact the Seahawks today and see if they’ll comment on this, just in case.
As dire as a green Seahawks jersey would be, something potentially worse is unfolding in a league most of us don’t pay much attention to: The Arizona Replublic is reporting that the Phoenix Mercury — that’s a WNBA team — has inked a seven-figure sponsorship deal with an identity-theft security company (which I won’t name, cuz why should I give them free publicity unless they give me a seven-figure sponsorship deal?). The crux of the deal is that “Phoenix” and “Mercury” will no longer appear on the team’s jerseys. Instead, the jerseys will carry the name of the corporate sponsor, much like a European soccer team. All of this will supposedly be announced today at 1pm. Other WNBA are reportedly pursuing similar deals.
I realize this move probably says more about the WNBA’s desperate financial straits than anything else. I also realize the WNBA isn’t exactly a trend-setter that sets the bar for other pro leagues. Still, it’s disturbing to see professional basketball team — one backed by the NBA’s muscle, at that — going this route. It would be one thing if they were just wearing ad patches, but the full jersey-sponsorship routine? Feels like a small but telling breach in the wall between North American sports uniforms and advertising.
I’d call for a boycott, except nobody reading this attends WNBA games anyway.
Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day for the SportsCrack.com T-shirt raffle. Details here.
Gross Research Request: John Maine and Brad Penny have both vomited in between innings within the past week, and now I’m trying to compile a list of athletes who’ve tossed their cookies during a game. I’ve already got Donovan McNabb, Cade McNown, Jahvid Best, Pete Sampras, David Beckham, Larry Holmes, Dorenzo Hudson, Tom Gordon, Jay Buhner, Ray Oyler, and Glenn Hall (pregame, but close enough). If you know of other examples to add to the list, please get in touch. Thanks, and apologies to anyone skeeved out by this topic.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s one of the greatest panoramic team portraits I’ve ever seen. That’s the 1909 Browns — not sure which I like better, the caps or the sweaters (courtesy of Bruce Menard). … Josh Hamilton has an interesting way of personalizing his batting gloves (with thanks to Nick Hanson). … Two good shots from the NASA archives: First, German-turned-American rocketry whiz Dr. Verner von Braun visits the Huntsville Boys Club, and here’s a shot of the 1943 Glenn Research Center team (with thanks to Zac Neubauer). … Former Lions player Terry Barr died last week, and Matthew Earle notes that his uni number often appeared to be off-center. … Umpiring note from Brian Profitt, who writes: “I recently attended a PCL game in Las Vegas and noticed a chest protector-shaped patch, with ‘CC’ in the middle, on the umpires’ left sleeves. I’ve been to numerous games this year and this is the first time I’ve noticed this.” Anyone know the story behind this? … The Mets traded Ramon Castro over the weekend, just as Ed Hoyt had noticed something interesting about his catching gear: “Older photos show him wearing his name and number on the collar of his chest protector. But in this more recent photo, taken on May 27th, his collar reads, ‘BMNM 11.’ He apparently has worn this before, as seen in this shot from when Willie Randolph was still managing the team. The only meaning behind that abbreviation that we at the Crane Pool Forum [a Mets discussion site] were able to find were (1) Bimini Capital Management, which trades under BMNM, and (2) ‘Barcollo ma non mollo,’ which translated from the Italian I think means ‘I stagger, but I don’t give up.’” I have a hunch that neither of those is the right answer. … Pretty wild Canucks sweater here (with thanks to Greg Buchanan). … Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad discusses his pants and socks here (with thanks to Nathan Eberhardt. … Noel Basnight sent along some really cool cartoons devoted to specific ballparts, including Metropolitan Stadium, County Stadium, and Shea. … Frank Albanese was watching the 1980 NLCS and noticed that Joe Morgan appeared to have a C instead of a G on his NOB. … Cool Wisconsin throwback helmet decal set here (as spotted by Nicole Haase). … Jason Dulin found this Pirates jersey at a thrift shop for $5. The tagging suggests that it’s the real deal, as does the ghost of the now-removed nameplate, suggesting the jersey had been recycled in Pittburgh’s minor league system. … Why bother having striped socks if you’re gonna wear the socks so low? That’s the Chicago Machine lacrosse team (with thanks to Steve Johnston). … Tim Graham says this is what he wore to Friday’s night’s Orioles game. … Possibly the most nauseating instance of stirrups ever can be found three seconds into this video clip (no thanks to Johnny Garfield). … Good hockey jersey site here. … As several readers have pointed out, the Magic will probably scrap their anniversary patch to make room for the O’Brien Trophy patch in the NBA Finals, just as the Lakers did last year. … Boise State will unveil new football uniforms today. …
June 1st, 2009
So I was looking through the membership card gallery the other day, and I was suddenly struck by something I’d never noticed before: Most of the drop shadows and block shadows fall down and to the right — call it the five o’clock shadow.
As I started looking at photos, I realized that five o’clock shadows are standardized throughout most of the sports world. The primary exception among current teams is the New York Rangers, whose block shadows go down and to the left (a protocol that holds for all their jerseys). For everyone else, it’s down and to the right, down and to the right, ad infinitum.
I was curious about how this phenomenon became so entrenched. Was it because we read from left to right? Was it because the sun sets in the west, casting an eastward shadow? Was it a something designers consciously considered when coming up with uniform designs, or did they just reflexively go with the five o’clock format without even thinking about it?
I posed those questions to Todd Radom and Scott M.X. Turner, both of whom have designed a few uniforms in their day. Here’s an edited version of their responses:
Todd Radom: Agreed, drop shadows traditionally fall off to the bottom right, and I can only assume that this is a logical function of [our culture's] left-to-right thing. Are there any drop shadows in the new Israeli baseball league that go from right to left? [I don't think so. -- PL]
My 2 cents: Bottom-right is the way to go. And the shadow should be connected to the top layer of lettering, as opposed to just being set off. Also, I think any drop shadow should be darker than the layer on top, so white drop shadows on a black background, for instance, make no sense at all.
The 49ers numbers achieve drop shadow perfection for my money.
Scott M.X. Turner: What Todd said, basically. The Rangers’ bottom-left look has become so iconic that it doesn’t strike me as odd (though it does feel counterintuitive when I do Rangers treatments for Uni Watch cardbacks).
I agree block shadow is a better idea than drop shadow. … I’m not as sold that the bottom layer needs to be darker, however — the St. Louis Browns stuck orange under brown back in the ’40s, and Cleveland did it in 1970 with red under navy [and let's not forget this -- PL]. I guess it depends on whether you’re trying to convey a shadow or a block. If it’s a shadow, then Todd’s right, should be darker; block, then most anything goes.
Unlike the well-documented histories of pinstripes, certain colors, and logos, I’m not sure there’s a way to know for sure why shadows came out lower-right. Just that most of us designers agree that’s the way it feels right. And nine times out of ten, the feel’s more important than the math.
Todd also pointed out what may be the oddest configuration of all: the one used by the late-1950s Washington Senators, whose block shadow ran up and to the right. I’m unaware of any other team having done this. But then again, until a week or so ago I hadn’t given much thought to this topic to begin with.
And that’s the thing — once you start thinking about a subject like this, all sorts of things start jumping out at you. With my “shadow radar” more finely tuned in recent days, I’ve suddenly noticed a few more left-leaning shadows. During my recent visit to Lelands, for example, I turned over this New Jersey Knights jersey and immediately fixated on the nameplate. And when preparing yesterday’s ESPN column about “one and done” designs, I was got a little rush of excitement when I saw the shadow configuration on Wisconsin’s one-day design from 1995.
My feeling is that while drop and block shadows often look good (especially on a membership card), they can also add unnecessary clutter to a design. And while I haven’t done a formal tally, my sense of things is that more teams are employing shadows these days than in the past, because they’re so easy to execute digitally. I’m fairly certain teams like the Mets, Dolphins, and 49ers, all of which added drop shadows within the past decade, wouldn’t have done so if it hadn’t been so easy for a designer to call everyone over to his computer and say, “Look, what if we just did this…” I’m not saying there’s no place for shadows, but most of them these days come with the distinct echo of “Because we can.”
Raffle Results: I’m happy to announce that the winner of the Helmet Hut raffle for a free college football helmet is Vertically Arched member Mike Brodsky. Mike, please get in touch with me pronto to claim your prize.
Thanks to all who entered. And I can absolutely promise, incidentally, that next month’s raffle is gonna be a mind-blower.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Creepy Nike product placement of the day — and one of the best ever — here (with mega-thanks to Chris Dominiak). … The Jets, who were originally known as the Titans, will be having a, uh, Titanic throwback game on October 14th. Lots good Titans info is available here (and be sure to check out the JetsTV video link, which features some fantastic Titans footage — special thanks to Mike from Queens for that link). … Cool-sounding exhibit of military uniforms currently on display in Delray Beach, Florida. Details here (with thanks to Jeff Fishman). … Speaking of military unis, check out this. … Yesterday Todd Radom e-mailed me an article about various lowlights in Phillies uniform history (it’s not web-accessible, alas), and one passage in particular caught my eye: “June 10, 1972. Trying to inject some life into a 19-29 club at the start of a homestand, gimmick-obsessed team vice president Bill Giles suggested that, since the Phillies had been playing better on the the road than at home, they ought to try their road uniforms at the Vet. Giles’ plan bombed. The Atlanta Braves’ 15-3 victory included Hank Aaron’s 649th home run, a grand slam.” The Braves were wearing the “feather” design on the road that year, so it wasn’t gray-vs.-gray, but still — two teams wearing road uniforms? I’d never heard about this before. Anyone else? … When not serving me cocktails, doing my laundry, and changing Tucker and Caitlin’s litterbox, Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek moonlights at a dental office. And who should come in for a root canal yesterday but a VP of Sales for Reebok. “He was dressed head to toe in Reebok stuff,” reports Vince. “Shorts, shoes, socks, and the logo was EXTREMELY prominent.” While he was in the chair, Vince slipped him some nitrous oxide and nabbed this Cleveland Browns cap from his briefcase. Then he put a Uni Watch temporary tattoo on his arm, etched a Nike swoosh onto one of his front teeth, and doubled his bill. All in a day’s work. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Major hosiery development Wednesday night, as Esteban Loaiza was wearing special stirrups with the A’s logo on the side. Best photo so far (provided by Roger Faso) is here — you can just barely make out the logo on Loaiza’s left ankle. Anyone got a better shot? I can’t do screen grabs from my backup computer (main machine’s still in the shop, grumble-grumble), but I’m told that there were some close-up views in the first inning. … Here’s a quote for the ages: “It was an interesting lesson to learn in how quickly a fire can happen.” To appreciate the full context, look here (with thanks to Peter Bliao). … The Trenton Thunder unveiled a new identity system yesterday. … And Cleveland State unveiled a new logo (as noted by Josh Yetmar). … Golf report from Dan Sherman, who writes: “At the first round of the FedEx cup, close to 50 golfers were wearing blue belts with silver buckles inscribed with ‘IFF,’ for ‘Ian and Friends Foundation.’” Details here. … I’d heard about the Denver Bears’ “strike zone uniforms” before, but I’d never seen them — until now (with thanks to George McClure). … Can someone please tell the Mariners to stop wearing their BP jerseys in actual games? They did it again last night. … Here’s one I hadn’t been aware of: As you know, the Steelers switched from block numbers to their current font in 1997. But for the first game of that season — and only the first game — they kept their old block lettering for the nameplates, before switching to their now-familiar rounded font in Week 2. … Tired of seeing your favorite team’s baseball cap rendered in all sorts of weird colors? You’re not the only one (good find by Dave Miller). … Latest MLBer to wear toe socks: Brendan Ryan of the Cardinals. This and several other uni-related tidbits can be found in the last four paragraphs of this article. Meanwhile, the second text section of this piece reports that Ryan has some unusual taste in eyewear. (Both items sent my way by Elena Elms, who I’m pretty sure has a crush on Ryan.) … Mike Lowell has been wearing a Jeff Bagwell-style padded batting glove lately. “It was made by using an old piece of catching equipment, an idea conceived by the Red Sox trainers,” says AJ Chalifour. … Got an e-mail last night from Jay Gordon, who’s the editor-in-chief of Uniforms magazine (!), which features lively columns like “The Uniforms Laboratory” and “Ask the Uniforms Guy” (who, for some inexplicable reason, isn’t me). Granted, none of the uniforms are sports-related, but it still looks pretty damn cool. … Jason Cruz notes that there sure seems to be a lot of stuff going on on Lauren Jackson’s shoes. Anyone know what the “153″ is for?
August 24th, 2007
Look closely at the photo shown above and you’ll notice something odd: The player (who happens to be Titans linebacker Ryan Fowler) has cut holes in the tips of his shoes, and his sock-covered big toes are poking out.
Football players are known for modifying their equipment, but I’d never heard of this one before. And it turns out that it’s actually quite common, at least according to a faaaaaaascinating article that ran in yesterday’s Nashville Tennessean (helpfully brought to my attention by reader Wade Harder), which explains that many players cut holes in their cleats — sometimes for performance-related reasons, sometimes to avoid damaged toenails. Here are some of the choicer bits:
It’s an NFL equipment oddity and something most fans would never notice. But in a locker room where players pay attention to every last uniform detail, at least a dozen Titans lace their cleats and then cut slits or even gaping holes over the big toes.
Some players believe it might make them better because it helps them feel lighter, faster, able to change direction more quickly. If nothing else, they at least feel more comfortable.
“I like tight shoes, and it kind of makes you feel like you’re out there with no shoes on at all,” said cornerback Kelly Herndon, who cut slits that make an X at the tips of both his cleats. “You want something light, and as tight as possible so you can move around better. If that means cutting them to make them tighter, that’s what you do.”
Linebacker Ryan Fowler has gone to the extreme. Both of his entire big toes hang out through man-made holes cut in his cleats.
Fowler said he’s not worried about someone stepping on his exposed toes. He’s more worried about moving around effectively. … “Also, a lot of times when you change directions and you stop, your toe hits the front of your shoe and toenails crack and you get an in-grown toenails. … It’s for comfort as well.”
[...]
Cornerback Eric King said he feels a little faster with the tight shoe, so he doesn’t mind breaking out the scalpel.
Cornerback Michael Waddell started experimenting after seeing some of his teammates perform shoe surgery. After he puts on two pair of socks and has his ankles taped, sometimes a little relief at the front end is nice, he said.
This probably qualifies as the coolest, most Getting It™ article of the year so far, so let’s give credit to Tennessean reporter Jim Wyatt, who wrote it (and to his editor, for not saying, “What the hell is this? An article about shoe surgery? We’re not running that!”). You can read the full article here.
And the Titans aren’t the only ones with one little piggy sticking out of their shoes. When the Tennessean article was briefly discussed in yesterday’s comments section, Mike from Queens pointed to this short item about Jets safety Kerry Rhodes, and a few other readers offered enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that cleat-cutting is a fairly standard practice.
Who knew? Not me. Do Reebok, Nike, and all the other shoe companies realize that the players are cutting up their footwear? How long before these companies start manufacturing cleats with pre-cut toe holes?
And it’s a shame that the late artist Don Martin Don Martin didn’t live long enough to be aware of this phenomenon. The guy was obsessed with toes (like, really obsessed), whether barefoot or shoe-clad. He would’ve had a field day with this.
August Raffle Announcement: With college football just around the corner, our good friends at Helmet Hut and Gridiron Memories have generously volunteered to raffle off one of their NCAA helmets — a selection that includes over 500 designs — to a lucky Uni Watch reader.
To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by next Thursday, August 23rd, at 10 p.m. eastern. I won’t actually be reading these e-mails, so don’t bother including any messages or questions. One entry per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch Membership Program by the time of the drawing will automatically get three bonus entries (i.e., members will get their names put in the hat three times even if they don’t send an e-mail entry, or four times if they do).
I’ll announce the winner a week from today.
Speaking of the membership program, I believe we’re now completely caught up on card designs (including the one shown at right, which is based on Belmont Park jockeys’ silks). If you’ve signed up and don’t see your card in the design gallery, and/or if you don’t see your name listed on the active roster, please let me know.
For the roughly four dozen of you who haven’t yet received your membership kits, you’ll be happy to hear that I plan to get your cards printed today. Figure another week for trimming, laminating and envelope-stuffing. Thanks for your patience.
Uni Watch News Ticker: If you click here and scroll up to the 12-minute mark, you’ll find a not-too-bad interview I recently did with the MLB Video guys (with thanks to Todd Krevanchi for reminding me to post the link). … Spectacular work by Richard Craig, who checks in with the following report: “At the beginning of last night’s Braves/Giants game, Jeff Francoeur’s name was misspelled on his jersey. He must have been clued in and switched jerseys later on, because suddenly his name was correct again. I know his name is easily misspelled, but wouldn’t you think he’d notice while suiting up?” … Major NBA hairstyling story here (with thanks to Vince, who also notes that there’s been some hair-related rookie hazing at Patriots camp). … A year ago I did an entry about the Oldtime Baseball Game, an annual charity event in which the players wear flannel throwbacks. This year’s installment of the event just took place, and there’s a great photo gallery here. … More amateurs. … Todd Krevanchi notes that Shanna Zolman-Crossley was wearing a full-length Under Armour-ish undershirt the other day. … Matt Craig wonders why Darrell Royal had No. 20 on his jacket sleeve during the 1970 Cotton Bowl. Anyone..? … Decent breakdown of all the current and pending NHL uni changes here (with thanks to Kim Kolb). … Oliver Perez fell victim to the classic bubble gum prank last night (as captured by James Fleming). … Great contribution from Jared Wheeler, who writes: “The Houston Colt .45s had a minor league team named the .22s — check out the caps on John Hoffman and Dave Adlesh.”
August 17th, 2007
Tuesday was a very good day.
I arrived in St. Louis at about 9:40 a.m. and headed straight for Liebe Athletic Lettering. This was just a “getting acquainted” visit, so I could get the lay of the land in advance of my video shoot the next day. It turned out to be an amazing facility, with patches, insignia, nameplates, and rolls of twill fabric all over the place.
Liebe is a subcontactor: They don’t manufacture jerseys, but the big manufacturers send their garments here to have numbers, letters, patches, and piping sewn onto them. For a long time they did most of MLB’s on-field jerseys; now, sadly, Majestic has taken all of that work in-house, but Liebe still does a lot of MLB’s retail authentics (including most of Mitchell and Ness’s throwback product), along with game-day and retail work for pretty much every big pro and college sports entity other than MLB. With the lovely Marcia Meyer as my tour guide, I was given complete access to the entire place, which means I was pretty much like the proverbial kid in the candy store. A very small sampling of highlights and observations:
- Although a lot of Liebe’s embroidery is now done by computerized machinery, an astonishing amount of the company’s sewing is still done by hand, primarily by women who look like they’ve been doing it forever. For example, although the main insignia on the Cardinals’ jerseys is done by machine (that’s just a sample piece of cloth, not an actual jersey), the finishing details, like the dark outlining, are all done manually.
- Back in the pre-digital days, the main embroidery work used to be done by hand too. Each logo had a pattern like this — basically a sheet of paper or plastic with lots of pinholes. The patterns would be positioned over a jersey and then a worker would smear some pigment over it, which would pass through the pinholes and replicate the pattern on the fabric. That would be the guide for the sewers to follow.
- Nowadays, sleeve patch designs are digitized and fed into a computer. But as recently as 25 years ago, the designs were blown up to six times their normal size to form a pattern. Every line on these diagrams represents a stitch. I can’t say I fully understood the explanation of the process, but the patterns were used to create rolls of paper with punches in them, like player-piano rolls. The punch rolls were then fed into the machine that would stitch the patch. The patterns, which are gorgeous pieces of artwork in their own right, aren’t used anymore, but they’re still floating around in old files, many of them dating back to the ’50s and ’60s.
- Here’s a nice little detail that nobody would normally know about: The Cardinals’ equipment manager arranged to have special patches sewn onto the shirttails of the Cardinals players and coaches attending the All-Star Game. This is a sample run of the patches.
- I spoke with a heat-press operator who griped about how little material there is to work with when pressing numbers onto football jersey sleeves. Check out his high-tech method of getting the sleeves to stay put on the press mount.
- Nowadays, all the letters, numbers, and logo appliqués are cut either by a laser cutter or a water jet. But they used to be die-cut, and Liebe still has drawers and drawers full of stamping dies (additional examples here and here). For some reason I found myself particularly charmed by this one, so the next day one of the plant managers used the die-stamper, three pieces of cloth, and a small heat-press to assemble a little Expos logo for me (look at an enlarged version and you can clearly see the cloth edges).
- The company has loads of old job order files. Here’s an old Rawlings order form for the 1989 Mets. Among other details, note that Lenny Dykstra wanted his sleeves shortened by half an inch, Keith Hernandez’s captain’s “C” was being removed, and lots of players wanted their pant legs to be a bit tighter.
I could go on, but you get the idea — it was basically a smorgasbord, a feast, an orgy of uni-related arcana. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to head downtown to the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, where assistant curator Brian Finch was waiting for me (along with Jeff Scott, who runs the excellent Birdbats site). After gawking at Brian’s World Series ring — which dwarfed the rest of my hand — I had him lead me to the museum. Here’s a sampling of highlights:
- Pretty much every version of the birds on the bat insignia that you can imagine is represented in the museum, including this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one (that’s actually replica that was made for an old-timers’ game, not an original 1927 model), this one (note the royal outline on the birds), and this one.
- This is the Cards’ 1956 road jersey — the only year since 1922 that the team hasn’t worn some version of the birds on the bat. But they made up for it by including the super-cool Slugger Bird sleeve patch.
- It’s easy to forget that St. Louis was once a two-team town, so it was nice to see some Browns uniforms (additional pics here, here, and here.
- How awesome is the “Cardinal Organization” logo on this check?
- The Bowling Hall of Fame is in this same building, and they had some wicked cool shirts, as you can see here, here, here, here, and here.
After crashing for a bit at my hotel, it was off to the Uni Watch party. Small-ish turnout this time, but some very nice folks:
- Here’s Jeff Baxter, who I’d previously met at the Cards HoF, wearing what I believe is an actual game-worn Cards throwback jersey.
- Best attire of the night: Marty Hick and his old-school St. Louis Cardinals necktie. Marty also brought along some incredible show-and-tell materials, but I’m gonna save that for another day.
- To my surprise, two of the Liebe brothers showed up — a super-nice gesture that really impressed me. Here I am with Bill Liebe, whose grandfather founded the company about 80 years ago in his basement.
By 10:30 or so, I was pretty wrung out, so I scooted hotel-ward for some shut-eye. The video shoot the next day went extremely well, although I’m told that it will be boiled down to only three or four minutes after editing — a shame, since we taped so much great material. (I didn’t expect a half-hour feature, but I was hoping we’d clock in somewhere around the eight- to ten-minute range.) Not sure when it will be posted on ESPN.com — maybe as soon as next week, or more likely two weeks after that. I’ll keep you posted.
Membership Update: Scott’s been turning out some killer work, as you can see in the card gallery. We’re now over 250 members, and counting. Can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am over the way this project is evolving and growing — my thanks to all.
Signal Flare: Yo, Jeremiah McElwain — if you’re reading this, please get in touch. Thanks.
Uni Watch News Ticker: How great is my intern? This great: I got home from St. Louis yesterday afternoon and found a big package waiting for me, with a Cleveland return address. Inside was this old NFL serving tray, circa 1971. Wow. Thanks, Vince. … Some serious logo creep upcoming for the WNBA (with thanks to Matt Edwards). … “Looks like the Argentina women’s soccer team, which is competing in the Pan Am games, is wearing the uniforms of their male counterparts,” writes Jonathon Binet. “Why else would they still have the two stars above the AFA crest? The two stars represent the nation’s two [men's] World Cup wins in 1978 and 1986.” … JR Boucicaut of ModSquadHockey swears that this rendering of the new Sharks logo is legit. Personally, I think it’s an upgrade, if only because the tape goes all around the stick blade (which, as we’ve discussed before, wasn’t the case with the old logo). … Eli Ganias saw this MasterCard ad on the subway. He doesn’t understand it, and neither do I. What exactly is the point being made here — that you become “more than a fan” when you buy a cap with your credit card? … Several readers noted that Bruce Froemming (known, of course, for his tactful repartee) still had the All-Star Game logo patch on the side of his cap during last night’s Tigers/Mariners game.
July 13th, 2007
The WNBA preseason begins today, and the league kicked things off yesterday by unveiling a new set of uniforms for all the teams. The truth: I don’t really give a rat’s hairy little tuchis about the WNBA, and I know most of you don’t either. But the new designs still provide some useful object lessons — most of them, unfortunately, negative.
WNBA teams already face serious visual identity challenges, because many of them are affiliated with, and aesthetically modeled after, NBA teams. So why make things even worse by imposing the same design template on every club in the league? If you’ve got a league that’s struggling for recognition and high-profile coverage, wouldn’t it make sense to allow your teams to develop their own unique looks? But instead each WNBA team now has an elongated design panel running down from the jersey through the shorts; each team now has player names appearing below the uni number (a fun device when used sparingly; pointless overkill when imposed league-wide); each team name will appear on the players’ butts; and so on. In other words, these aren’t really individual teams with their own distinct characters — they’re just interchangeable pieces of Team WNBA. Or at least that’s the message this kind of design program creates.
The template might be tolerable if it were a good template — but it’s not. Each team has its own piping pattern (described on the league’s web site as “a dramatic pattern design formed from core elements of each team’s logo”), and some of them are pretty embarrassing. I mean, c’mon, what is this? Or this? I do like this one, but the shape of the jersey panel is still so weird and forced-looking — it all feels like a badly failed experiment. (You can see more images of the new uniforms here.)
This hive-mentality approach is the unfortunate hallmark of small, new-ish leagues these days, because they insist on having the league office coordinate all the uniform designs. Fun logo characters like Pat Patriot and odd uniform quirks like the Steelers wearing their logo on only one side of the helmet could never happen in leagues like the WNBA or the AFL, because the uniforms are all created under the same roof. I understand why they do it — they’re trying to create a league-wide brand identity — but I think it’s a serious miscalculation. If you’re an upstart trying to compete with the major sports, you don’t need a league identity — you need lots of distinct team identities. People don’t say, “Hey, let’s go to the WNBA game tonight!” They say, “Hey, let’s go see the Mystics tonight!” Or at least that’s the idea.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Holders for placekicks usually go bare-handed, so I was surprised to see this photo. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a double-gloved holder before. … There are a lot of odd things in this photo, but the one that interests me most is that the ump is wearing his uni number on his ball bag (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Kudos to Phil Richardson, who’s got his entire Little League team wearing striped stirrups (additional pics here and here). … Yet another case of a municipal icon being draped in a jersey: Check out this photo gallery (with thanks to Aaron Stilley). … Willie Harris is back in the bigs, this time with the Braves. As you may recall, he’s that rarest of creatures: a non-switch-hitter who wears a double-flapped batting helmet. … Good discussion of college softball uniforms here. … Juhem Navarro notes that Tigers closer Todd Jones has some issues with MLB’s uniform regulations (but then he lots of issues, so I don’t take his opinions too seriously). … Interesting rugby news from Caleb Borchers, who writes: “The French have just changed their national rugby jerseys from this to this, and seem to have done it to force New Zealand’s famous ‘All Blacks’ into not wearing all black if the two meet in this year’s World Cup. If all goes as expected such a matchup would be in the Finals of the tournament.” Further details here. … This should be fun. … Nice documentation here of Julio Lugo wearing Jason Varitek’s jersey during pregame warm-ups. … Enough already. … Coming tomorrow: a really interesting story about golf (and believe me, I never thought I’d be typing those words).
May 2nd, 2007
I’ve got a short ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile, here’s a quick quiz: When Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 was retired on an MLB-wide basis 10 years ago, which players were exempt because they were already wearing 42 at the time the new protocol was announced?
That question (which I’ll answer in a sec, but go ahead and see how many of the 42ers you can come with without googling) is apropos for today, because for the first time in a decade, No. 42 will once again be issued by MLB equipment managers. The commissioner’s office announced late yesterday afternoon that one player from each team will be allowed to wear the number on April 15th, the anniversary of Robinson’s 1947 debut.
The move originated with Ken Griffey, who wore 42 for one game back in his Mariners days (and who somehow managed not to pull a hamstring while calling the MLB offices to propose the idea), and was approved by Bud Selig (who’s finally put his imprimatur on something that passes the “Is it good or is it stupid?” test). Kudos to both of them. So far at least three players have said they’ll wear the number — Torii Hunter, Mike Cameron, and Barry Bonds — along with Mets skipper Willie Randolph (as noted toward the end of this page).
It seems pretty safe to assume that every team will have a designated 42er — imagine the stink if a team chose to opt out. But the Dodgers have gotten permission to go a bit further: The entire team will wear 42 (good thing they put the names back on the jerseys this year). It’s not yet clear whether the Yankees will be allowed to have an additional 42er, since Mariano Rivera already wears that number.
Rivera, of course, is the most obvious name among the grandfathered 42ers from 1997, and the only one who’s still active. The others, in roughly descending order of prominence:
• Mo Vaughn, who wore 42 specifically in honor of Robinson, was still with the Red Sox in 1997. He later took the number with him to the Angels and Mets. (He also has “42″ sewn into the cuffs of his dress shirts, but I can’t find a photo that shows it.)
• Jose Lima was with the Astros in 1997. He kept wearing 42 with the Tigers but wore a succession of other numbers as he moved to the Royals, Dodgers, Royals again, and Mets. (He actually requested 42 from the Mets during spring training last year, and wore it for one day, but the MLB office put the kibosh on that, ruling that he’d given up his claim on 42 when he’d worn other numbers with the Dodgers and Royals.)
• Butch Huskey was another player who wore 42 as a conscious Robinson tribute. Along with Vaughn, he shares the record for having worn 42 for the most teams over the past decade. He was with the Mets in ’97 and continued wearing 42 with the Mariners. He then wore 44 with the Red Sox but went back to 42 upon joining the Twins (which would seem to refute the reasoning MLB used in the Lima situation). Huskey asked for 42 when he joined the Rockies but was told no, because team owner Jerry McMorris wanted to keep the number completely out of circulation. Huskey was later in spring training with the Indians, where he was assigned No. 35, although he didn’t make the club.
• Scott Karl was with the Brewers in 1997. Like Huskey, he had to give up the number when he was traded to the Rockies.
• A few 42ers you’ve probably forgotten: Tom Goodwin, Lenny Webster, Mike Jackson, Dennis Cook (sorry for the tiny photo, but that’s a shot from April 20th, 1997, five days after Robinson’s number had been retired), Jason Schmidt (odd photo cropping, I know, but you can see all the necessary elements), Buddy Groom (sorry, no photo, but he wore 42 for the A’s that year), and Kirk Rueter (no photo, Giants).
And there’s Marc Sagmoen, who according to this page was wearing forty-deuce back in 1997 (but that page is hardly authoritative, since it doesn’t list several of the other 1997 42ers). Now, Sagmoen’s entire career consisted of 45 plate appearances during that 1997 season, and the only photo I’ve been able to find (not reproducible here, alas) shows him wearing 30something. That jibes with the account given in this book, which lists him as having worn No. 37.
But over on the Chris Creamer boards, where there’s an ongoing thread regarding the one-day lifting of the 42 retirement, somone just posted this: “I remember that the last guy to wear 42 for the Rangers was a white guy who had just been called up from the minors a day or two before the number was retired. He felt he wasn’t worthy of continuing to wear the number and switched to 37 or something in that area.” That appears to be confirmed by the third question on this Q&A page. So while Sagmoen apparently wore No. 42 for a day or two prior to the number being retired, it’s not clear if he wore it, even for a day, after it was retired. Anyone know more about this?
Uni Watch News Ticker: Remember Elena Elms, who sent me those awesome stirrup-frosted cookies back around Christmastime? She whipped up some more baseball-themed baked goods for her office this week, in dual celebration of Opening Day and Easter. “This is my first year for the shortbread baseball cookies (in the cap cups), and the Marshmallow Peeps in baseball helmets,” she writes. “If you look closely, you’ll see the retro baseball print and the baseball-shaped buttons on my dress.” … Tom Konecny notes that the Bowling Green Athletics home page is currently showing a new football helmet design (here’s the old/current one), although no official announcement regarding a new design has been made. … The WNBA’s Washington Mystics unveiled their new uniforms yesterday, and Stewart Small got plenty of photos (additional views here and here). Additional info here (courtesy of Neil Shaffer). … This should be fun (with thanks to Gypone Bubeck). … “Saw a very interesting facemask while watching the Champions League match between Roma and Manchester United,” writes Daniel Herr. “It was worn by one of the Roma players, Cristian Chivu. Here’s a pic from a match against Milan, when he was wearing the same contraption. Never seen anything like it before.” … Speaking of alternate uni components upstaging the primaries, the Blue Jays have now worn their alternate caps for both of their games, while their regular cap has yet to make its season debut. … Wow (details here). … Mike Comeau reports that umpire Jim Wolf wore a knit cap last night. … Another game, another night for Shawn Green’s superscript “Y.” … Jeremy Brahm reports that Oregon State has a new identity system. Additional info and graphics are available in this superb PDF file. … Kenny Rogers, true to form, was wearing last year’s BP cap while hanging out in the dugout yesterday (good catch by Bryan Redemske, who also notes that many of the Tigers were foolishly wearing Cool Base jerseys in yesterday’s cold weather, but not Nate Robertson). … Reprinted from last night’s comments: The Lakers, who usually wear black shoes on the road, decided to wear white last night (additional views here, here, and here). … Forty-two bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in today’s headline.
April 5th, 2007
By Vince Grzegorek
The Colts may have gone to Disney World after winning the Super Bowl, but a much more important trip waits for them around the corner: a trip to the White House.
In what has become a presidential tradition of welcoming championship teams to Washington, the Indianapolis Colts will eventually visit with President Bush to celebrate their victory (they have been officially invited, but no date has been set). And in a reciprocal tradition, the Colts will undoubtedly present the President with a gift of a commemorative jersey (it’s just poor form to show up to a dinner party empty-handed).
If you thought that Chad Johnson had cornered the market on jerseys with alternate names, then you obviously haven’t been paying attention to these White House ceremonies. President Bush has jerseys with a whopping six different name combinations, including the common “Bush,” the official “President Bush,” the simple “G.W. Bush,” the lengthy “President G.W. Bush”, the brilliantly brief “W,” and one funkified “The Prez.” Take into account the assorted numbers gracing these jerseys — based on, variously, Bush’s rank, his presidential ordinal, or the year — and you’ve got a man begging to be fined by the uniform police (or applauded by Uni Watch).
It’s no wonder that President Bush has amassed such a varied collection of personalized jerseys. In any given year, he can receive one jersey each from the winner of the four major sports, and countless other jerseys from one of the many NCAA Champions Days that are hosted at the White House. His jersey collection can grow by the minute at these events, with lines of teams waiting to present him with jerseys one after another.
So when did this tradition start? Good question. It’s one that I posed to the White House media office, which couldn’t find an answer. It’s one that I asked Tom Shieber, Senior Curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame, who couldn’t find an answer. It’s one that I asked countless presidential libraries, and if you guessed that they didn’t know the answer, you would be right. What we do have is a lot of circumstantial evidence, which basically means that we don’t know when the tradition started, but we have a good guess.
And the evidence points to…(cue dramatic music and close-up) the Gipper! Championship team visits with the president weren’t uncommon before Reagan’s administration, but they were infrequent at best, and jerseys weren’t the gift of choice at the time. For example, Don Holloway of the Gerald Ford Library said that the Indiana University basketball team visited the White House after their championship in 1976 but presented a signed basketball, not a jersey. According to Dave Stanhope of the Jimmy Carter Library, the President received T-shirts, not jerseys, from the Georgia Tech football and Louisville basketball teams that visited the White House.
The jerseys that these pre-Reagan presidents did receive were on campaign stops and various appearances, not from championship teams. For example, Gerald Ford received a Villanova jersey from the school’s young republican club. And Meri-Jo Borzilleri (who told me she too couldn’t find the origins of the tradition) writes in this story, “Richard Nixon’s library records show jerseys from the Philadelphia Eagles and Division III college Gustavus Adolphus,” and “Lyndon Johnson’s library has a New York Knicks jersey.”
So, the transition from T-shirts and assorted gifts to jerseys, and from sometime occurrence to presidential sports tradition, seemed to happen with the beginning of Reagan’s administration. Sure, Reagan racked up the jersey count with many non-championship related events (Bowling Green, University of North Dakota, University of North Dakota different view, Texas, Capitals, and Eureka College [where Reagan himself played football]), but he also received jerseys from the championship Hurricanes, Lakers, and Twins. (Reagan also was presented with George Gipp’s sweater from Notre Dame in another full-circle sort of moment.) Searches of the speech archives of the American Presidency Project also show that Reagan was the first president to perennially invite championship teams to the White House.
So what happens to all of these jerseys? They make up a small percentage of the 1,000 or so gifts that the president receives every month, but they end up first in the White House Gift Office, and then in storage at the National Archives until the end of the administration, when they are shipped to another temporary storage until the presidential library is ready. Then they will be stored again (likely) or displayed (rarely) until some lowly intern comes calling for information on jerseys (just me).
Not the shirt off my back… Just as not all championship teams make it to the White House (the Buccaneers didn’t go after their Super Bowl), not all teams give the President a jersey. Most professional teams do, but college teams and other groups sometimes push the envelope with other sports-related swag. Check out some highlights below…
Ohio State Buckeyes helmet, Richard Petty #43 hat, “Surfboard One” from Pepperdine, USC Volleyball, Racing Helmet, Racing Suit from Tony Stewart, Soccer Ball (Pele and Nixon), Hockey Glove, Jackets, Basketballs (Meadowlark Lemon and Mrs. Ford), Lacrosse Sticks (has GWB43 on the head), More Jackets, More Jackets, Golf Head Covers, and even Speedos. Plus the Islanders once presented President Reagan with a goalie stick that was inscribed, “The Puck Stops Here.”
Sometimes the gifts can get out of hand, as you can see from this list of all the items Youngstown State gave President Clinton during their visit.
Tangential Bonus Material: President Grant was the first to welcome a professional team for a White House visit, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. President Arthur was the first to bring a Major League team for a visit, the Cleveland Forest Citys. The University of North Alabama football team visited President Clinton at the White House in 1996, marking the first time a NCAA Division II championship team had such an honor.
Vice Presidents sometimes get in on the jersey action, too.
President Clinton and his family received 186 jerseys during his administration, including: Women’s World Cup, Arkansas basketball, and University of North Dakota (awesome geometric design!)
Steve Rushin wrote a column (full text here) on visiting the National Archives and discovering all of the famous and forgotten sports memorabilia that is stored there, including President Lincoln’s handball, Billie Jean King’s rhinestone skirt she wore against Bobby Riggs, and Pele’s New York Cosmos jersey.
Finally, want to see what other jerseys President Bush has added to his collection?… Steelers, Marlins, Florida Men’s Basketball, Angels, Cal State Fullerton Baseball, Rice Baseball, UCLA Soccer, University of Maryland Women’s Basketball, Washington Volleyball, UConn Men’s Basketball, Spurs, LSU Football, Patriots (blue), Patriots (white), Miami Football, Syracuse Basketball, Pistons, Maryland Men’s Basketball, Air Force Football, Stanford Volleyball, New Jersey Devils, University of Minnesota-Duluth Women’s Hockey, UConn Women’s Basketball, Detroit Shock, University of Portland Women’s Soccer.
Sometimes he even signs them and sends them home with the team.
Uni Watch News Ticker (from Paul): Now that Dre Bly’s been traded, his biker shorts stylings will be moving to Denver. … Conditions have been so windy at the Tennis Channel Open that several players have resorted to wearing long sleeves (additional view here, with thanks to Ed McGrogan). … Majestic Athletic, which makes all the MLB uniforms, has been sold. … Speaking of Majestic, they’re marketing a line of throwback fleeces this year. … Keeper of the flame. … Et tu, Yogi? … You’ve got to be kidding me.
March 2nd, 2007
In the spring of 1998, when I was the marketing/branding columnist for Fortune magazine (yes, really), I attended the American Marketing Association’s annual New Products Conference. Three then-new brands were singled out for special praise: Colgate Total, Dannon Water, and — drumroll, please — the WNBA, which at the time looked like a huge success.
Nowadays, of course, the WNBA is right up there with NFL Europe and televised billiards in the snooze-o-rama sweepstakes. And judging by the following note, which I received yesterday from a source at a WNBA team, it looks like they’re getting a little desperate for attention over there:
Yesterday I was able to see the designs for the Adidas redesign. If you care to, you will have a field day.
Here’s the good: All teams will now have the name of the city on the front of the road jerseys instead of the team name [as is already done by several teams]. Also, surnames will be below the numbers on the back, Ã la “The City.”
The bad: Adidas has taken a portion of each team’s secondary logo and created an abstract “tribal” design. This design wraps around the sides of the tops and shorts. The team nickname will be on rear of the shorts and the secondary logo will be on the rear of the top, just below the collar.
The tribal designs are absolutely horrendous. There are a couple of decent looking ones (Detroit Shock, Chicago Sky), but the others are just nasty. I saw four different ones for the Connecticut Sun. One used the “S” in this logo and it looked like a “Snakes on a Plane” ad. Another one used the flame from the sun — when it wrapped around the ass, it looked like two giant cartoon hands copping a feel.
At our team, we had our PR company come up with some alternate designs, because the ones given to us by the league were too ugly to consider. Unfortunately, I don’t have any visuals to show you — they were taped up on the GM’s wall. I’ll see if I can get him to e-mail them to me.
Sounds pretty bad, but there’s a larger point here worth emphasizing: By imposing this “tribal” effect on all of the teams, the WNBA is essentially creating a league-wide template, and that is seriously bad news, because it diminishes the teams’ individual identities. Little subtleties that can become part of a team’s aesthetic signature (like the Tigers using lots of thin belt loops while most other MLB teams use wider belt tunnels, or the Giants using rounded edges on their nameplates while most other teams’ are rectangular) a precisely the sorts of things that fall between the cracks when a league imposes a template.
Of course, many WNBA unis are already based on their NBA counterparts, so they don’t have much individuality to start with. But that’s all the more reason not to rob them of what little distinctiveness they have left.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Truly disturbing note from Brent Smith, who writes: “I share your contempt for some of the things Nike does, so it pains me to bring this to your attention. The whole one-sleeve thing has now invaded the Division II level. This is Harding, a Church of Christ school (like this isn’t a sin!) in northeast Arkansas. They play in the Gulf South Conference, one of the power conferences in D2. The picture speaks for itself.” Indeed. … The Canadiens will retire Ken Dryden’s No. 29 and Serge Savard’s No. 18 this season. … Good catch by Jon McKay, who notes that Jerious Norwood was wearing mismatched gloves last Sunday. … The invaluable Football Uniforms Past and Present web site, which had tragically vanished from the internet several months ago, now appears to be up and running once again. … The latest chatter about the Devil Rays’ on-again/off-again brand redesign is available here. … In case you missed it buried in yesterday’s Comments section, the scoop on Takashi Saito’s gold belt buckle is that it’s a Mizuno belt, popular with Asian players. The Japanese and Korean teams both wore this design during the World Baseball Classic, as you can see here, here, here, here, and here. … We’re not the only ones who have problems with Nike (with thanks to Andy Dowland for the tip).
September 14th, 2006
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