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Posts filed under 'Typos/Glitches/Wrong Uni/Etc.'
The Bucs had a big halftime tribute to Mike Alstott last night. As is frequently the case in the NFL, they didn’t officially retire his number, although they certainly made sure everyone knew what that number was. Anyway, amidst all the fuss and fiddledeedee, they apparently neglected a bit of quality control regarding Alstott’s nameplate.
Or did they? Reader Brandon Creeger posted this in last night’s comments: “The orange jersey is from his rookie year (1996). For his first two home games, his jersey was misspelled. [So the typo in the retired jersey] was intentional. It was the first jersey he ever wore in the NFL.” That story appears to be confirmed here. I’d never been aware of that typo.
In other uni-related news from the weekend:
• Pink uni elements to support breast cancer research are nothing new, but New Mexico State took things to a new extreme on Saturday, replacing their regular helmet decal with a pink ribbongloves too, although that seems like an afterthought compared to the helmets. (Thanks to Sam Wasson for the pics.)
• The Bears did their annual Tang-fest thing yesterday. Lots of additional pics here.
• The Rams wore white at home, presumably to force Dallas into wearing their bad luck blues.
• Speaking of the Cowboys: Most of the attention regarding Dallas QB fingers was focused on Romo’s wittle boo-boo pinky, but check out the tape on Brad Johnson’s fingers. Never seen that on a QB before. Anyone know what that might be for?
• And Matt Garza was wearing earplugs in the 1st inning last night — unusual for a home starter. He took them out for the rest of the game. (Screen grab courtesy of L.I. Phil.)
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling of an Ernie Davis throwback Syracuse helmet from Helmet Hut, just like the ones used in The Express. For details, look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I was looking through some old files and came across something I’d written back in 2000: a review of a basketball-themed cereal. I’d completely forgotten about this, but it holds up pretty well as quasi-Uni Watch material. … Lots of photos of Shea Stadium’s dismantling (plus an old article that I hadn’t seen until now) here (courtesy of Stan Olechowski), and there’s a video report here. … And wait, still more Shea demolition pics here. … John Muir notes that the “C” on Roberto Luongo’s mask has changed from blue to white, plus his backplate features a Luc Bourdon memorial decal, much like the ones the rest of the Canucks are wearing. … Great video clip here about the woman who sews the World Series patches on the Phillies’ jerseys. … The Coyotes’ alternate jersey has been leaked. … Some Washington Nats uni gossip here (with thanks to David McGee). … Interesting piece here about making hockey helmets more team-centric, much like in football (with thanks to K.C. Kless). … “You know you’re a Uni Watch addict when you notice a Pedro porthole on Seinfeld,” writes Chris Markham. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Great Rhode Island Reds patch here (good find by Ricko). … Lots going on in this Montclair High School football photo. The “44″ is for a teammate who died a few days ago; not sure if any of the other decals are also memorial-related, or if they’re merit decals; and note the SNOB (school name on back). … Jen Muller reports that Bobby Abreu did the ceremonial “first kick” at a Red Bulls game on Saturday and wore a Red Bulls jesey for the occasion. … Justin Jarvis of Boston College has an eagle logo shaved into his head (with thanks to Dan Snider). … Attention Teebz: The inside story behind the Islanders’ fisherman logo is here, courtesy of a blogger who used to be the team’s PR rep.
October 20th, 2008
Remember my recent ESPN column about unusual uni-related moments in MLB All-Star Games? We appear to have another one on our hands — or, at the very least, an interesting mystery to figure out.
The incident in question was brought to my attention by reader Joe Alvaro, who forwarded me two photos that a friend recently showed him. The pics show the 1977 American League all-star squad sitting for a team portrait. Notice anything amiss? You might not, because it’s hard to see in that shot, but take a look at the second photo, apparently taken just as the photo shoot was disbanding, and you’ll see that one of the players was wearing a Yankees road uniform — which makes no sense at all, since the game was played at Yankee Stadium.
If you go back to the first shot, you can see that same player standing in the center of the top row, in between Dennis Eckersley (Indians) and, I think, Wayne Gross (A’s). There were five Yankees on that year’s all-star team: Reggie (second row, yawning), Willie (right next to Reggie), Sparky (top row, with his back partially turned toward the camera), Graig (I think that’s who Sparky’s talking to), and Thurman (or maybe that’s who Sparky’s talking to, which means either Thurman or Graig is missing from this portrait). Our mystery player in the road uni definitely isn’t any of those guys.
So I checked the photo against the 1977 A.L. roster and began ticking off names. I found that six players on the A.L. team weren’t present for that photo shoot: Vida Blue, Mark Fidrych, Don Money, Nolan Ryan, Frank Tanana (who was named to the team but was injured and probably wouldn’t have around for a photo shoot anyway), and either Thurman Munson or Graig Nettles.
I was hoping one of the missing all-stars would match up with our mystery player. Then we could say with some certainty, “Nolan Ryan [or whomever] misplaced his uniform, so the Yankees’ equipment staff found a spare road uniform for him to wear at the photo shoot.”
But now I’m not so sure, because I don’t think our mystery player looks like any of the MIA players. We can immediately rule out Munson, Nettles, Blue, Ryan, and Fidrych, and I’m pretty sure it’s not Tanana either (who, remember, was injured anyway). That leaves Don Money — I couldn’t remember what he looked like, so I googled him and came up with this. Again, doesn’t look like our mystery player.
So who was wearing that Yankees road uni, and why? It couldn’t have been a batboy or anything like that, because you wouldn’t put a batboy in the center of the top row of a team portrait. If you’ve got ideas, or if you’ve spotted a flaw in my logic, speak up.
Raffle Redux: Our friends at SoccerPro.com have given me another $100 gift card to raffle off. Just like last time, it can be applied to any of their replica soccer jerseys and gear. To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the raffle address (not to the usual Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm eastern this Friday, September 5th.
Rules are the same as they were for last month’s raffles: If you’re enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program, you can send in up to four e-mails; everyone else gets one e-mail (and I’ll be checking multiple e-mailers against the membership roster, so don’t bother trying to cheat). I’ll announce the winner next Monday.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The NFL announced yesterday that all players will wear a Gene Upshaw memorial patch on their jerseys this season. That article says everyone will wear it on “left chest” area, but I’m assuming they’ll move it to the right side for teams that already have patches in that region this season (Lions, Titans, Rams, Steelers, Jets, etc.). But then what about the captaincy patches, which are worn on the right? I’m trying to find out what the deal is with that — as you may have noticed, the captaincy patches haven’t been worn in the preseason, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be worn when the regular season begins this Thursday. I’ve got a call in to the NFL office about this — will advise. … If you choose to believe a leak of questionable origin — and I’m not saying you shouldn’t — the NBA’s OKC team’s logo will look like this. … Several readers have noted that the raised-felt “C” logo patch has frequently been missing from Geovany Soto’s catcher’s helmet this year, presumably because of friction from the straps of his mask. Now they’ve apparently given up on using the raised felt patch and have instead given him standard decal, as you can see in this screen grab that Bryan sent me over the weekend. … We’ve talked several times about those clear anti-scuff helmet decals that players have been wearing in practice. But Ray Rice was wearing one in a game last Thursday (with thanks to Rick Friedel). … DI-AA Western Carolina has new uniforms (with thanks to Chris Geis). … Lots of cool striped socks at the Australian Football International Cup, as seen being worn by the UK, Nauru, China, and South Africa. The various team captains make for a colorful display (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: The Women’s Baseball World Cup recently took place in Japan. Weirdest team uni was India, whose home uni didn’t even say “India,” except on the cap brim. … The Canucks have released 10 finalists for Curtis Sanford’s new mask design. Plus they’ve posted staff picks and a gallery of past Canucks masks (with thanks to John Muir). … Interesting video clip here about a Blue Jays jersey storage room (with thanks to Ted Stempak). … Interesting eBay listings here and here. … Great article here on college trophy rivalries (with thanks to Susan Freeman). … Some really good shots of Oregon’s reflective uniforms here and here (with thanks to Steve Sundell). … Awesome (but somewhat lengthy) video clip here showing how LSU’s equipment manager applies stripes and decals to the team’s helmets. Amazing stuff (big thanks to Derek Ponamsky, who says there’s more where this came from). … Not really uni-related, but still interesting and fun (courtesy of Jeffrey Waszak). … The Pedro porthole was in full bloom on Sunday. … Speaking of Pedro, Nicholas Schiavo notes that he was wearing an orange undershirt and solid-black cap while sitting on the bench on Friday, while the rest of the team was wearing the black/blue cap. Even worse, he’s become the latest player to start wearing those Phiten-branded socks. Fortunately, that particular disease hasn’t yet spread throughout the team. … Bill Henderson has acquired what he believes to be a prototype for the first knit pullover Royals jerseys for the 1973 season. “Notice the V-neck trim — solid blue, not blue-white-blue like on the team-worn versions. Also note the sleeve end trim — it is a soutache braid, nearly like that on the sleeve ends of the last flannels of 1972. But the real kicker is, to me, the Wilson tag in the collar which has the vertical red line next to the size marking — the style that was used through the end of the flannel era, and last seen in 1973, which is when I would surmise this jersey was made. While it’s possible that a fan could have ordered this as a souvenir in 1973, retail sale versions of MLB jerseys were very, very rare in those days. I am 99% sure it is a prototype.” … The Des Moines Register is running an Iowa State helmet poll (with thanks to Jack Coyier). … No photo, but Dave Shucosky notes that Denny Bautista still has a “D.” initial on his red vest’s NOB, even though Jose Bautista was traded, making Denny the team’s lone Bautista. … Team Handball is going to use “smart ball” technology at the 2009 Men’s World Handball Championship in Croatia (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … A big Uni Watch shout-out to Wynn Pelzer of the Fort Wayne Wizards, whose stirrups are a thing of beauty (courtesy of Stanton Smith). … The Edmonton Eskimos will be wearing green helmets this Friday (thanks to Roy Ellingsen). … Anyone know what that yellow decal is on the back of Arizona’s helmets? … “This is John Afoa of the All Blacks,” writes rugby specialist Caleb Borchers. “Apparently the All Blacks take that extra little step, and initial the gear they give out.” … “The Kansas Jayhawks are touring Canada, playing three exhibition games against Canadian Universities,” writes Moe Khan. “It looks like they’re wearing a different uniform, along with no names on the jersey. Any news on them getting a new look?” That’s news to me. Anyone..? … Vince Young had his number retired by the Longhorns the other day. Since he’s an NFL/Reebok guy, he had to tape over the Nike logo on the pullover he wore for the occasion. If you don’t see this as a symptom of something very, very wrong in our culture, I’m afraid you and I just aren’t living on the same planet. … Pitt used to have this panther-head logo, but then it was revised like so. Now Chris Hilf says the old design is making a comeback: “Our family was at the game Saturday (season tickets, natch) and we saw the old logo everywhere — on the sideline, on the tunnel where the team enters, on the pants, etc. When we ran into someone we know who works in the athletic dept., they told us Steve Petersen is quietly returning to the old panther head logo, with no announcement.” … The whole “Los” thing is lame, and so is the use of a nickname on a team’s jersey. Add those two strains of lame-itude together and you get this. … Bill Monti has a very odd Phils/Pirates hybrid cap. “I got from a family friend when I was roughly 10 or 11 (so, 1983 or ’84). It just so happens that this family friend is the grandson of Pirates Hall of Famer Kiki Cuyler. The grandson was employed by (or owned, I don’t recall) a company that created licensed merchandise. This hat was either an intentional misprint, so to speak, as a gag, or (more likely) simply a mistake with the wrong ‘P’ embroidered on. There are no tags whatsoever on the inside, which probably indicates that it was pulled from the production line before they would’ve been applied. The only identifying mark is a brand name, ‘Natural Season,’ on the plastic adjusta-strap on the back. Unfortunately, since I got it when I was so young, I didn’t really take good care of it. I’m pretty sure the first thing I did was put a crease (or three) in the bill.” … I’m sticking to what I said over on ESPN last week: I think the new Colorado jerseys, with their raised-dot shoulder panels, look pretty cool. Can’t say the same about the pants, however. … Reprinted from Sunday’s comments: Now here’s a cool uniform. … The Marlins all went high-cuffed yesterday, for good luck. That’s Dan Uggla wearing the accursed Phiten-logo sox. … Joe Hilseberg, you’re gonna hate this: Check it out. Is that the lamest job of nameplate sewing ever or what?
September 2nd, 2008
Looks like we’re gonna have to give an honorary Uni Watch membership to former MLB player Denny Hocking. While watching Friday night’s Twins/Angels game, he noticed something that almost everyone else missed, namely that Twinkies shortstop Adam Everett had a big typo on his jersey. According to this article, Hocking sent a text message to the visiting clubhouse attendants at Angel Stadium, who in turn notified Minnesota equipment manager Rod McCormick. He had a new jersey waiting for Everett as he came off the field after the 4th inning, so Everett played the rest of the game with a correctly spelled insignia.
Too bad Hocking was such a spoilsport. Wouldn’t it have been better if he’d kept quiet about the typo, just to see if anyone on the field would have noticed? Or would that have poor uni-watching etiquette for someone in his position (i.e., a former player with the ability to notify the proper authorities, as opposed to just a random observer)? And what if Everett had, say, hit a homer his first time up and superstitiously refused to change jerseys once the typo was discovered? Would McCormick have insisted that he change jerseys anyway, just for professionalism’s sake?
It’s worth noting, incidentally, that not all typos are created equal. In this case, the severity was magnified by the fact that the Twins use vertically arched lettering on their insignia, so the mis-sequenced letters disrupted the curvature of the arch, as you can clearly see here and here. All the more surprising, then, that nobody noticed the mistake before Hocking did.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Short article here about Habs coach Guy Carbonneau’s neckties (with thanks to Dan Smith). … Check this out: soccer stirrups! (Thanks to Ryan Yanoshak.) … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: What’s with all the cover-up tape in these photos? For the answer, look here. … Cool gallery of SMU helmets here. … Did you know U.S. soliders have had “uniform envy” regarding the Marine Corps? I didn’t, until Matt Locatelli sent me this. … The Hornets have a new court to go along with their new uniforms (with thanks to Mike Etheridge). … Non-sports logo news from Jon Springer, who reports that Giant Foods has gotten a brand makeover. … Chaz Noerenberg notes that Kyle Orton has been alternating between loose cuffs and tight cuffs during the preseason, and also points out that Kevin Jones had a new take on the double-socked look the other night. … Good article here about track athletes wearing jewelry. … Another uni-related treat from the SI archives: The 4/9/56 issue featured a bunch of uni illustrations for the coming season, as seen here, here, here, and here (with thanks to Jim Cooper). … “I was at the August 14th Mets/Nats game at Nationals Park,” writes John Muir. “Almost every hallway and open space has some sort of old-time DC baseball photo/painting/advert. I managed to grab a few shots on my way out after the game — they’re in this gallery.” … Also from John: Some ex-NHLers are circumventing the smoking bans at various arenas. … My annual college football season-preview column will run later this week on ESPN, but it will only cover Division I-A, so I’ll cover a few smaller schools here, including Idaho State. Last year they dressed like this and home and like this on the road. But now they’ve got new home jerseys, road jerseys, and pants. New helmets, too: That’s the old one on the right and the new one on the left (big thanks to Frank Mercogliano for all of this). … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Several Eagles linemen have reinforced horizontal ribbing on their shoulders, similar to what the Bears have had for several years now. … The Mets did the Hispanic thing on Friday night. … The Blue Jays’ black-jersey insignia usually looks like this (note the blue outline, which actually has a black border, but that blends into the surrounding jersey, so you can’t see it), but Jose Bautista’s insignia had a white outline on Saturday. Michael Priest and Hovan Patey both report that third base coach Nick Leyva has had similar problems this season. … Great collection of old hockey programs here (no need to click — they’ll start flashing automatically; with thanks to Mario Morgado). … Here’s something I’d never seen before: soccer positions listed on shorts (with thanks to Kel Hinkle). … Several readers have noted that Vikings RB Adrian Peterson changed his facemask from this to this on Saturday. For additional details, check out the discussion that ensued in last night’s comments (driven primarily by Matt Powers) here. … Jeff Ash has uploaded some really nice illustrations from this book, which he says taught him how to play baseball when he was a kid. You can see a slideshow of the illos here. … Informative video clip here on Oregon’s equipment room. … Several uni-related items in the new issue of GQ, including a short item on longtime Uni Watch faves No Mas, a “Please redesign the Ravens’ helmet” feature (look here, here, and here), and a stunningly inaccurate Cowboys illustration (with thanks to Matt Powers for the scans). … What the hell was going on with Bob Lily’s armpad? … Here’s a rare color view of the Chargers’ “San Diego All America City” helmet crest from the early ’60s. … The Giants never wore white shoes with their original “ny”-logo helmet. But Spider Lockhart apparently did a bit of footwear freelancing.
August 25th, 2008
It remains one of the sports world’s enduring mysteries: Every year the NFL selects the best players at each position, gathers them together for an all-star game in Honolulu, and then humiliates them by dressing them in the most god-awful uniforms imaginable. I’m not gonna bother going over every unsightly detail of this year’s design, because it’s pointless — every new Pro Bowl uniform is the worst ever, until the next one is unveiled. It’s almost like the league is saying, “Yeah, okay, so you get your free trip to Hawaii, you get to party with hula girls, you get to drink piña coladas out of a coconut shell, but don’t think you’re gonna get out of this without paying a certain price.”
As you know, medical research has concluded that only 17 people on the planet have the gene required to watch the entire Pro Bowl without falling asleep (and five of them, perversely, are African tribesmen who don’t own television sets), so there’s a good chance you missed at least a few of Sunday’s more noteworthy details. Here’s a quick guide:
• By far the most significant development — and I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, boys and girls, either in the comments section or in e-mails to me — is that all the players were wearing a new pants design, with added seams and panels on the rear thigh (here’s the AFC version), kind of like a football version of MLB’s Cool Base jersey gussets. I’m not sure if this was for added flexibility, ventilation, or both, but man did it look like shit. Let’s hope this wasn’t a test drive for league-wide implementation next season.
• As many of you are already aware, Derek Anderson had quite a little adventure with his jersey patches. A few days prior to the game, he was photographed with his left shoulder patch upside-down. On game day it was fixed (or, more likely, he’d just switched to a different jersey) but now the patch on his right shoulder was askew. Not only that, but compare that last photo, which shows the facemask pointing down roughly to five o’clock, to this shot, which appears to show the facemask oriented more toward four o’clock. Just how many defective jerseys did Anderson wear in one week? (Big thanks to Dominic Atencio and John Boris for the screen grabs.)
• The Chargers’ official lightning bolt logo use to be white outlined in gold, but this season it was changed gold outlined in light blue and navy. So why were all the San Diego players in the game wearing the now-defunct white logo on their shoulders? Interestingly, the jerseys for sale at NFL.com got it right.
• Terrell Owens wore at least two different pairs of cleats: white trimmed with blue and silver (plus, as Nick Hanson notes, he also wore a cross necklace).
• Speaking of cleats, look what Tony Romo was wearing.
• That’s quite a pustule Peyton Manning had on his knee.
• No photo, but Osi Umenyiora still had the Super Bowl XLII decal on the back of his helmet. Anyone notice if the Patriots players had it too?
• The new NFL logo finally made its on-field debut, on the MVP trophy (although it looks like they used the old logo here). And it’s good to see that Adrian Peterson’s uni number gets gunked up in the Pro Bowl, just like in a regular game.
• And that’s finally that.
Next year, let’s have some throwbacks, shall we?
Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out who’s wearing striped socks — the astronauts who are currently up in space (with thanks to Rob B). … A nice selection of Karl Ehrhardt’s sign work is shown in this video clip (a forwarded by Matt Edwards). … Got an on-site query yesterday morning from Ryan Perkins, as follows: “I’m in a restaurant in Jackson, Mississipi, sitting by a huge picture of Kent Hull (who was from Greenwood, Mississippi). I can clearly read ‘Wet Rat’ printed on the tongue of each side of his Reebok Pumps. Did some Googling and found nothing. Any idea if this was on all the pumps or if this was custom-done for Hull? And either way, what did it mean?” Anyone..? … Wake Forest was wearing new kicks on Saturday. Lots of interesting details on these sneakers, including a very subtle Skip Prosser memorial — for the full scoop, check out this page, written by Uni Watch charter member Zach Smith. … Northern Kentucky’s women’s hoops team will be wearing 1970s throwbacks this Saturday. Full details here (with thanks to Steve Hensley). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Lots of coverage here about Rick Pitino changing suits in the middle of a game the other day. … The Aussie rugby team sure looks sharp — yes, even with that little purple ribbon on the guy’s leg. Anyone know what that’s for? … Good interview here with the principals of Plan B Branding, the San Diego-based design firm that’s responsible for a lot of current minor league uni designs (with thanks to Greg Victor). … The Staten Island Yankees have unveiled a new logo for every day of the week. Okay, not quite, but almost. “Looks like a cartoon version of the classic Yankee stuff,” says Tyler Kepner. “I’d actually like the block SINY thing, if it were for a sleeve patch and not a cap logo. Also: A short-season class A team with FIVE cap styles? That’s a little much, no?” Indeed. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Fascinating college hoops game recently, featuring Grand Valley wearing throwbacks against Northern Michigan, whose jerseys have no lettering — just huge uni numbers fore and aft (and those aren’t throwbacks — those are their regular unis!). … Seth Horowitz spotted this at a Yankees game last year. … Doug Keklak reports that Penguins fantasy camper get to wear the team’s original scarf-clad penguin (although the color scheme is an odd choice).
February 12th, 2008
There was a classic moment during yesterday’s press conference to unveil the Blue Jays’ new road and alternate uniforms. It came when they trotted out old-timers Lloyd Moseby and John Mayberry to model the team’s new 1979 powder blue throwbacks, which will be worn for Friday home games. At one point Moseby was asked what it felt like when he first wore that uniform back in the day. The prop boy must not have been holding the cue cards high enough for Moseby to see, because instead of giving a scripted reply, he chose to ad lib: “The uniform sucked, okay? So we ain’t gonna go there.”
After a moment of nervous laughter from the audience, followed by a beat or two of silence, Moseby added, “’Course, it was big to put on any uniform,” but it was too late — his point had been made, namely that these things were ugly back then and they’re still ugly now. I know many of you have some sort of nostalgic and/or kitschy fascination with this uniform, but come on — it’s totally minor league. With the centered crest and the pullover style, it looks and feels more like a hockey jersey than a baseball jersey. Plus they’ll be wearing it at home, which means we’ll be treated to blue-vs.-gray games — ugh. (Moseby, incidentally, gave some additional choice comments about the design to a Canadian reporter after the unveiling ceremony.)
While the original design had pants with a double-snap waistband, the throwback has more traditional belted pants (Moseby approved of this change: “When dirt got in your snaps, they wouldn’t work”). The mock-up in the MLB Style Guide shows a striped belt, presumably to simulate the striped waistband, but the belts at the unveiling were solid blue, which is probably for the best. On the other hand, I give them credit for sticking to one aspect of the original design: NNOB.
As for the new road jersey, I like it. Yeah, it doesn’t match the home design, but I count that as a plus, because the home design blows. I see at least four reasons to like this revision: 1) vertically arched lettering; 2) the ascension of blue from trim color to main color; 3) uni numbers finally appearing on the front of the jersey; 4) a pretty cool number font (soooooo much better than the old one). Problems? I count one: They’ve retained the super-clunky NOB typography. But at least it’s blue now, which is mild improvement. Now if we could just get them to wear a blue cap.
Finally, if you believe in omens, there was a bad one: The “N” in “Toronto” is supposed to look like this, with the shadowed side of the bevel down and to the right. But the “N” on the jersey that Jeremy Accardo was wearing was upside-down. Nice going, guys.
(Special thanks to the Chris Creamer board, where many of the above-linked photos were first posted.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Homeless man update from Mike Hennessy, who writes: “At a news conference sometime over the weekend, Belichick wore his regular sweatshirt with the hood cut off. I think with this he has hit rock bottom.” … Speaking of Belichick, for a few weeks now his headband has featured a Pats logo that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I kinda like it, especially since the “New England” part of the team’s name usually doesn’t get much play. Anyone know more about this logo? … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Steve Smith threw his cleats into the crowd after Sunday’s game. … Great catch by Jeremy Iwen, who noticed that the first “R” in Dominique Barber’s nameplate was backwards a few weeks back. … Ray Lewis memorialized Sean Taylor on his eye black last night.
December 4th, 2007
Back in March I wrote an ESPN column about athletes wearing sunglasses. At the time I wasn’t aware of any football players who’d worn shades on the field, but readers provided several examples that I later listed in a follow-up item: Mark Clayton (who wore sunglasses with the Dolphins and the Packers), Derrick Mayes, and Vai Sikahema. The most intriguing tidbit, though, was that Raymond Berry of the Colts had worn a set of homemade sun goggles during the ’50s and ’60s. But although several people told me about Berry’s eyewear, none of them provided a photo, and my own research efforts came up empty. But now, thanks to reader Jason Taylor, we’ve got a photo — and more.
Let’s start with the photo itself, which is a doozy. Eat your heart out, LaDainian Tomlinson — your tinted visor’s got nothing on this!
But here’s the kicker: The actual goggles recently sold on eBay for about $155. According to the auction listing, “With no commercially available product to address or correct his vision and sun-sensitivity problems, Berry took the initiative to make his own. Utilizing Bausch & Lomb swim goggles as frames, he inserted heavy shaded lenses supported by trainer’s tape and a primitive headstrap.”
How did the Hall of Fame miss out on this?
The Issue That Just Won’t Die: In case you were too busy scarfing down leftovers to read Friday’s comments, it’s now clear that Dallas Clark’s American flag decal has been missing for quite some time — not just on Thanksgiving or the week before that, but all the way back to Week 8.
In an incredible stroke of luck, it turns out that bench coach Bryan Redemske actually knows Dallas Clark, because Bryan’s wife and Clark went to high school together. So we’ve got an inside line on this one — stay tuned.
Austin Reminder: Uni Watch gathering tomorrow night, 7:30 p.m., at the Salt Lick. BYOB (not to be confused with FNOB).
Uni Watch News Ticker: While researching something else, I noticed that you can see the brand on Tony Romo’s flak jacket right through his jersey. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Note the inconsistent 7s here. … Speaking of numbers and typography, remember a few months back when we discussed the differing treatments of the 5 on the sleeve and chest of the Packers’ jerseys? Adam Seabury was just at the Packers Hall of Fame, where he discovered yet another version of the 5. He also snapped great pics of jerseys, helmets (check out the odd facemask here), pants, socks (someone please break into that display and steal those for me, pronto), cheerleaders’ outfits, programs, and a lot more. There’s a slideshow of all his pics here. … Great historical slideshow here of the Turkey Day Game between Kirkwood and Webster Groves, a centurty-long St. Louis Thanksgiving tradition. Some of the older pics are amazing — worth clicking through. … “I was at the Oregon/UCLA game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday,” writes Ryan Whitacre, “and at least one member of the Oregon fan base was exhibiting some classy dress. We can only hope this will filter down to the athletes themselves.” … Virginia retired Tiki Barber’s number on Saturday. … “These pics are of a few old mining company baseball and basketball teams from the 1910-1930,” writes longtime Uni Watch pal Doug Kalemba. “According to my grandfather (who is 96!), each mine had its own team, many filled with ringers who got cushy jobs in return for playing. The competition between these teams was serious business, with games often ending in brawls (or worse). My grandfather was a catcher and played for a few different teams. He claims a lot of the players were good enough for the bigs but never caught a break.” … While researching something else, I came across this photo from the 1959 NFL title game. Take a look at Jim Patton (No. 20) — the “2″ on his helmet appears to be backwards. … Aaron Levine notes that in this fight between Stan Jonathan and Paul Stewart, Stewart has NNOB and really big uni numbers, while the rest of the Nords have NOBs. … Man, those Browns throwbacks looked my-t-fine (additional pics here, here, and here). But John Ryder notes that the “c” on Willie McGinest’s jersey was almost as big as the other letters on his nameplate, while the “c” on Brandon McDonald’s jersey was teeny-tiny. … Jeremy Brahm, ever alert to unusual uniforms in far-off parts of the world, notes that the Singapore Slingers of the National Basketball League of Australia have an interesting design for their shorts and rear jersey. … Has anyone else noticed that Sheldon Brown practically wears a towel on his chinstrap? … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Adrian Peterson is the latest Bear to have suffered a torn helmet decal.
November 26th, 2007
Major typo in the English Premier League yesterday, as David Bentley of Blackburn played an entire match with “Betnley” on his back (plus it wasn’t exactly the most graceful arc). As Dan Winkler explains, “David Bentley is one of Blackburn’s best players. He’s been with them for a few years and, in fact, scored a hat trick against Man U a few years ago, so it’s not like he’s the soccer equivalent of a September call-up or was just acquired in a trade. That’s what makes this mistake especially odd.”
By coincidence, there’s another EPL typo of sorts unfolding these days. It involves West Ham’s John Paintsil. Reader Iain Landon explains:
When Paintsil signed with West Ham from the Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv, all of his documentation, including his UK travel paperwork and work permit, had his name as ‘Pantsil’ — note the missing ‘i.’ According to English FA regulations, the name on his shirt has to match his registration, so John Paintsil has become John Pantsil. He only has a handful of appearances for West Ham so far this season, so I haven’t been able to find a photo, but the details of the story are verified here and here.
Meanwhile, back on our side of the pond:
• The Chargers’ season-long streak of having at least one player without an American flag decal was kept intact, as Chris Chambers was flag-free for the third week in a row. LaDainian Tomlinson, however, was flag-clad for the second consecutive week.
• Speaking of the Chargers, someone needs to tell Antonio Cromartie that men don’t look good in sheer hose.
• And speaking of hosiery, Dwight Smith had some serious sock layers going on.
• Charles Woodson, who’s been pushing the uni-related envelope all season, really outdid himself yesterday. Was he wearing tzitzit or what?
• I remain opposed to this look for the Giants, but there were a few interesting details. As Joe Skiba had promised, the “ny” nose bumper logo, which is usually blue outlined in red, was red outlined in blue. And yeah, okay, I can deal with red gloves, red shoelaces, and red undersleeves, but red spats? Enough already. (That player, incidentally, was Kawika Mitchell, and the screen grab comes courtesy of Randy Williams.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Where do college football uniforms go after they’ve been used? Often to Europe, as seen with this Mississippi State jersey being used by the London Olympians, and this Duke jersey worn by the Coventry Cassidy Jets (also note the personalized “MOM” memorial, all found by Stefan Schubert). … Tons of great historical baseball pics in the New York Public Library’s A.G. Spalding Collection (with thanks to John Ervin). … I’m trying to figure out how they’re going to screw this up. … Hannah Krug notes that the Princeton women’s hoops team has their logo in an interesting spot. “The worst part is that it doesn’t even look like a tiger,” she says. “I’m more reminded of a mole rat.” She also notes that Maryland’s jerseys have a normal back, but Marissa Coleman ties her up into a faux racer back. … The Kitchener Rangers wore special Remembrance Day jerseys on Sunday (with thanks to AJ Brandt). … And CFL teams wore poppy decals yesterday (with thanks to Tim Capper for the screen grab). … Not positive about this, but I think Miguel Cotto is the first fighter I’ve seen with a boxing glove depicted on his waistband (it’s on the back, too). … Cal wore really nice throwbacks (which are now being auctioned off) on Saturday. …Mild hilarity on Saturday night, as Trevor Fulkerson wrote to tell me that an Angels turn-ahead-the-clock jersey was up for auction on eBay. Exactly 21 minutes later, David Linder wrote to tell me that he was the winning (and, incredibly, only) bidder. … “I was browsing through a photo gallery of the 1930 World Cup and ran across this picture of the team from Bolivia,” writes Chuck Nolan Jr. “I assumed they were just wearing special shirts for the team portrait, but then I saw this photo , which would seem to confirm that they wore the shirts during the game.” … It’s amazing how Georgia’s black jersey (which I was fine with) really accentuated the black pants stripe, which up until now I’d barely even noticed. … Awesome socks being worn by Dorchester High in Boston (with thanks to Skott Daltonic). … Duke wore throwback jerseys and helmets on Saturday but ruined it by going monochromatic. … Sure didn’t take long for eye-black messages to go from this to this (that’s Mississippi State’s Eric Butler, as spotted by John Wilmoth). … Mark Graban found an interesting old pic of Donny Baseball with mismatched numerals on his helmet brim. Not only that, but look closer at it appears that the “3″ was applied over the “2.” … Jeremy Kaufman notes that Michigan State’s Mark Dell has “Focus” written on his wrist tape. … not a good idea. … The 49ers are already wearing a memorial helmet decal for Bill Walsh. Will they add another one tonight for former coach Dick Nolan, who died yesterday? … Fascinating note from Morris Levin, who writes: ” Topps just released its 2007 Update & Highlights set (it’s what used to be “Topps Traded”). Check out the cards for Francisco Rosario and Kyle Lohse. They must not have had game pics in Phillies jerseys because the uniforms are clearly airbrushed. Rosario is wearing his black Blue
Jays cleats, but more telling is the team wordmark on the front. The Topps art department placed a Phillies logo in there and neglected to remove the underline, which is part of the official logo but does not appear on the jerseys.”
Long-Overdue Thanks: About two months ago, after we changed web-hosting companies, I asked for volunteers to help fix all the non-ASCII characters that had gotten garbled during the server changeover. Six readers answered the call, which was great — and I failed to publicly acknowledge them until now, which is not so great. So for the record, I owe a big debt of gratitude to Chris Schoenthal, Chris Roberts, Mark McGinnis, Matt Edwards, Forrest Carpenter, and Kyle Joecken. Mea culpa for not thanking them until now.
November 12th, 2007
Yesterday afternoon at about 5:30 I got on an airplane. After I landed (never mind where), I went straight to a live theater performance thingie. After that I mingled with friends for a bit. It wasn’t until about 1:30 a.m. that I got to my host’s house. I was reeeaaaaaally tired (for reasons not worth getting into, I hadn’t slept the night before, plus I’m fighting a respiratory infection), and my plan was to crash without even bothering to check my e-mail. But then I thought, “Oh, what the hell,” and I broke out my laptop.
And that’s when I discovered what I’d missed.
In case you were even further off the grid than I was: Four Virginia Tech jerseys were missing prior to the start of last night’s game against Georgia Tech. Since the Hokies were wearing white, the host Yellow Jackets provided some of their white jerseys for the Va.Tech players to wear. The replacement jerseys were “customized” with handwritten nameplates (all rendered in cap-lowercase, which gave an eighth grade arts and crafts feel to the proceedings), plus the Yellow Jackets wordmark and Russell Athletic logo were blacked out and little Nike swooshes were drawn in (backwards, for some reason). Virginia Tech won handily, which means Georgia Tech lost to their own uniforms.
The incident apparently got big play on SportsCenter, where they did a little mini-feature on other jersey snafus, including “Angees” and “Gretkzy” (not really the best comparisons) and the time MJ wore No. 12 because his jersey had been stolen (better). Although I haven’t yet seen the report, they apparently didn’t mention anything about umpires whose uniforms get lost in transit, which might be the most apt comparison of all.
Anyway: I had nearly 100 e-mails waiting for me when I opened up the laptop. About 20% were of the “What the fuck is going on in that game?” variety, another 60% began with some variation on “I’m sure you already know this, but…,” and most of the rest were eager to inform me of a “hot scoop” (a few of these are still trickling in, which is pretty amusing). Plus two people were very angry about SportsCenter “totally ripping you off,” and two more wondered why I wasn’t appearing on SportsCenter myself at that very moment.
The bad news is that I have a lot of social obligations today and don’t have time to give this topic the full treatment it deserves. The good news is that there’s loads of other coverage out there. Here’s where to look:
• Last night’s comments provided a running stream of info on the situation, as Uni Watch readers kept passing along updates and reactions. If you pick up the discussion here, you’ll get a good sense of how things unfolded.
• If you’d rather have mainstream media coverage, there’s a good boilerplate treatment of the situation in this article.
• There’s a decent video recap of the incident here.
• Reader John Okray took lots of screen shots, which you can view in this fine slide show.
As for me, I have two major thoughts here, the first of which is that the whole thing is wonderful — and not just because it’s such good Uni Watch fodder. As many of you know, one of my biggest gripes about contemporary sports is that everything seems hyper-calculated and pre-scripted. But there was nothing in the script about this, and that’s what makes it so much fun. And I love that the handwritten nameplates were done in cap-lowercase, instead of all-caps, which perfectly captured the spontaneity and playfulness of the situation.
Unfortunately, there was one major turd in the punchbowl: those handwritten swooshes. I wasn’t watching the game, but according to several readers’ accounts of the game broadcast, Nike’s people specifically insisted that the Russell logo be blocked out (which I can sort of understand) and that the little swooshes be drawn in. If that’s true, it’s beyond pathetic, and goes a long way toward canceling out the playfulness. Nike didn’t manufacture those repurposed jerseys, so what exactly was the point of adding the swoosh? If your answer (or Nike’s) is, “Because Virginia Tech is a Nike school,” then you’re pretty much affirming what I’ve been saying all along — i.e., that the brand has become more important than the school or the uniforms. And that gives this fun story a bittersweet aftertaste.
One last thing, for now: Lots of readers have asked if anything like this has ever happened before. I’m honestly unsure — there are plenty of examples of players wearing someone else’s number, like the MJ example cited above, but I’m not sure about players wearing their opponents’ jerseys — that might be a first. If anyone knows more, this is definitely a topic for further research.
(Extra-special thanks to readers who provided screen grabs and other crucial info, especially John Okray, Miguel Rodriguez, and Bryan Redemske.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: The single-A Casper Rockies have renamed themselves the Casper Ghosts — and will wear a glow-in-the-dark cap. Details here and here. … The Gamecocks’ memorial decal referred to in yesterday’s Ticker will look like this. Further details here (with thanks to Andy Shain). … Speaking of decals, Chris Willis, who runs Athletic Decals (the company that provides most NFL and NCAA helmet decals), checked in yesterday with this tidbit: “We produced some decals honoring the San Diego firefighters. These will probably be worn by SD State for this weekend’s game with Wyoming, and SDSU equipment manager Nick Pettit got enough so Wyoming could wear them too. Now, don’t bet on them being there, though — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve busted it getting a decal out and someone ends up ‘kiboshing’ it at the last minute.” … Yesterday I mentioned that the Lakewood Blue Claws have a new secondary logo. Now Dan Cichalski tells me they’ll be using it on a Friday-night vest, which looks really cool. … Joe Girardi will wear No. 27 with the Yankees, to symbolize the team’s quest for a 27th championship. … Bob Sherron notes that Amare Stoudemire’s NOB has some letter-spacing issues. … Eric Stangel found something interesting on eBay: a game-used Astros St. Patty’s Day jersey. And check out the NOB! Anyone ever seen any game photos of this jersey?
November 2nd, 2007
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