Uni Watch

Hose Get Hosed

2013-05-20T12:47:18Z

Click photos to enlarge

Slump-buster move yesterday by the Giants, as everyone went high-cuffed — even skipper Bruce Bochy, as you can see in the top photo. They also opted to wear their primary cap instead of their orange-brimmed Sunday cap. Didn’t work, alas, as they got blanked by the Rockies, 5-0, but that’s what they get for wearing the solid black socks instead of the ones with the orange stripes, which surely would have resulted in a victory.

According to this piece, Bochy was asked if the high-cuffery was his idea. He said it wasn’t, “and I’m done with it.”

One other note: If you look at screen shot near the top of the page, it looks like the player on the left may have a the mark of the beast on his left sock. Or maybe not — it’s tough to say for sure. Might just be a stray piece of a napkin that got stuck on his calf or some such. Can anyone who watched the game fill us in?

Another question: Throwback games notwithstanding, when’s the last time an entire team went high-cuffed? It’s pretty rare — maybe even unheard of — to get the entire team to play along. Usually there’s one player, often a pitcher, who insists on going pajama-pantsed, no?

Meanwhile, speaking of socks, yesterday was “High Sock Sunday” in St. Louis — and it extended beyond the players. Additional photos here.

(My thanks to Sean Robbins, Richard Paloma, and Brinke Guthrie for their contributions to this section.)

+ + + + +

Uni Watch News Ticker: Good roundtable discussion about the Redskins’ team name (from Matt Busch). … Look at these awesome old soccer stickers (thanks, Kirsten). … As mentioned in Friday’s Ticker, the Rays dressed up in camouflage for their latest road trip. Here’s how they looked (from Kevin Kleinhans). … “Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse is getting a new floor,” writes Tim Stoops. “Last Thursday they showed off an older floor that was underneath the most recent floor. A fun peek at the school’s basketball history.” … New football helmet for St. Lawrence, a D3 school in upstate New York (from James Ferentz). … Nice Northwestern-striped stirrups for Hofstra (from Nate Collins). … I’ve seen lots of shots of the Hollywood Stars’ shorts over the years, but not this one. That’s one of many wonderful photos from this sensational online exhibit about baseball in L.A. Highly recommended (from Ben Traxel). … Whoa, look at the ref in this 1941 UVA football photo. Horizontal sleeve striping! Another shot from the same game reveals that the refs’ jerseys were actually cardigans. No hats, either (Nate Collins again). … Buck Showalter apparently wants the Orioles to adopt a road cap with a “B” logo (from Nick Kelly). … Nice piece on NASCAR paint schemes (from Russ Havens). … The Seibu Lions will be wearing late-1930s Tokyo Senators throwbacks in July (from Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: The Tokyo Yakult Swallows will wear green uniforms for eight games in July through September. … In Aussie football news, the Gold Coast Suns and Western Bulldogs went color-vs.-color — or is it colour-vs.-colour? — last Friday. “Beautiful to watch,” says Leo Strawn Jr. … Special commemorative kit for the Peruvian team Universitario de Deportes. Omar A. says it’s to commemorate “some old guy.” … There’s a new book out about Japanese baseball uniforms. Maybe Mark in Shiga or some other Japanese reader can get a copy and give us the scoop? (From Seiji, who didn’t give his last name.) … Someone is conducting a Big 10 football helmet bracket (from Chris Flinn). … New Mexico and San Diego State played a red-on-red ballgame on Saturday. “Good God,” says a nonplussed Frank Mercogliano. … In a related item, the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps played white-on-white the other day (from Steve Bommarito). … New kit for Paris St. Germain (Jeremy Brahm again). … Michael Jordan wore No. 45 with the Birmingham Barons, but here’s a painting that mistakenly shows him wearing No. 23 (from Mike Latona). … Someone is trying to collect every baseball card showing a memorial patch or armband. Details here and here (from Matt Wilson). … Very impressive job by Andrew Pick, who designed and fabricated his bowling team’s shirts. “I did just about everything from designing the logo, ordering custom corresponding patches, and hand-embroidering my teammates’ names,” he says. Check out the very nice results here. … Exciting news from Bill Jones, who, along with three partners, has created a set of WFL football cards. That page also has a link to a podcast in which Bill and his cohorts are interviewed by the folks from Gridiron Greats magazine. … Oooh, look at this gorgeous old pair of stirrups. … Luke Frishman recently got bar mitzvahed, and the event had a U. of Wisconsin theme. Mazel tov! … According to an item in The Sporting News, Rick Barry wanted to wear No. 24 with the Rockets in 1978 but it wasn’t available, so he wore 2 at home and 4 on the road. And look — sure enough! “Has anyone else ever done something similar to this?” asks Jarrad Tauzin. Not that I can think of. Then again, I wasn’t aware of Barry having done it until now. … Retro-ish alternates for Wichita State baseball on Sunday (from Jesse Nienke). … Check this out: The Brewers’ Barrel Man character apparently dates back to 1901! And back in the ’40s they had a live mascot with a rather awkward Barrel Man costume (both of these from Eric Schultz). … “For some reason in Saturday’s San Jose Earthquakes match against the Colorado Rapids, Chris Wondolowski was wearing two flags on his sleeve in the first half,” reports Bryan Justman. “He was down to one flag in the second half.” … Charlie Charnigo was at an antiques store and spotted an Oilers bobblehead with a “gusher” logo. I like that better than their official logo. … Rangers head coach John Tortorella knew how to blouse his baseball pants quite nicely (from Alan Kreit). … New logo for the Sun Belt Conference (from Jay Winkler). … If you’ve always wanted to see a hockey jersey design that featured two deers humping, today’s your lucky day. “No story behind it, just thought it was awesome,” says Blake Pass. … The A’s wore three different jerseys for their three-game sweep of the Royals: gold on Friday, green on Saturday, and white on Sunday. “It’s reminiscent on the ’70s, when they’d wear the white tops only for Sunday home games,” says Richard Paloma. … The Nevada State high school baseball championship came down to a G.I. Joe team vs. a tequila sunrise team — yikes. Check it out, if you dare, in the slideshow on this page (from Demetrius Anagnostis).

How a Fan Design Contest Yielded the Brewers Beloved Ball-in-Glove Logo

2013-05-20T00:20:51Z

By Phil Hecken

The announcement earlier this week that Mark Cuban was going to attempt to crowd source new uniforms for the Mavericks (and which Paul covered very nicely on Tuesday) not only brought reaction from the various professional (and amateur) designers on the board, it also brought back memories of the White Sox design-a-uniform contest back in 1981, which begat these uniforms (which the ChiSox are fauxbacking to this year). But, was that the first ever “design a uniform” contest for a Major League Baseball team?

In the comments that day, my buddy Chance Michaels wrote,

I just realized – there was a fan logo contest before the White Sox. The Brewers held one in 1977 to replace the beer barrel man.

The winner was a student named Tom Meindel, who received $2,000 from the team (almost $7,700 in 2013 dollars). His design, FWIW, was then given to a professional design firm which tweaked it and refined it.

But that can’t be the first one, can it?

As soon as I saw that, I contacted Chance and asked if he’d like to expand upon that comment and do a writeup for Uni Watch. He happily obliged. So, with that setup, I’ll now turn the remainder of this lede over to Mr. Michaels, who will give us all the details on …

. . . . . .

The Brewers Fan-Designed Logo Contest of 1977
By Chance Michaels

In the fall of 1977, the Brewers were in a funk.

The team was limping to a 67-95 season, 33 games out of first place. In eight seasons since moving from Seattle, they had never finished above .500. Fan support in Milwaukee was strong, topping a million fans four of the past five seasons (a good record in those days), but patience was wearing thin. Club president Bud Selig needed to shake things up, and nobody was safe. At the end of the season, Selig fired manager Alex Grammas, general manager Jim Baumer, and the team’s logo, the Beer Barrel Man.

The club had been using the Beer Barrel Man as its logo since 1967, years before Milwaukee had a team of its own. The character himself dates back at least as far as 1942, when he was called Owgust and welcomed patrons to old Borchert Field, although the version used by the Brewers made its debut in 1947.

But times change, and late in that 1977 season, the Brewers announced an open contest to let their fans submit designs for the Brewers’ new logo, which would accompany new (team-designed) uniforms.

One of the entrants was a graphic design and art major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire named Tom Meindel. He heard about the contest from a local television station, and decided to give it a try.

Meindel reportedly came up with the idea for the Ball-in-Glove while bored in a psychology class, sketching in the margins of his notebook. “I remember working with the M and B and I was stuck,” he later recounted. “I wasn’t going anywhere. Then I decided to start using lower case letters. The obvious thinking was to put them side-by-side, but I thought ‘let’s stack it, one on top of the other.’ It was a very crude drawing, but all of a sudden, boom, the light bulb came on. It reminded me of a baseball glove.”

His original design was rougher, more elongated. The baseball had stitching rather than the smooth seam we have today.

He mailed his design to the Brewers’ marketing department, and a couple weeks later was informed that his had been chosen as one of two finalists, chosen from nearly 2,000 entries. The Brewers flew him to Milwaukee to discuss the design with Dick Hearn the team’s vice president in charge of marketing. Meindel’s entry was refined (possibly in-house, possibly by an outside firm), and shortly after Meindel returned to Eau Claire, he received a telephone call from the Brewers informing him that his design had won.

For his creation, Meindel received $2,000, which in 2013 dollars comes to just under $7,700. He put the cash towards the down payment for a house.

Selig’s new-look Brewers experienced an instant turn-around. The 1978 Brewers, with Meindel’s logo on their caps, went 93-69, only 6½ games back of the Yankees in the AL East. Selig himself was named “Major League Executive of the Year” by United Press International, beating out his own GM, Harry Dalton. Times were looking up for the Brewers, and the new logo helped shake off the cobwebs of mediocrity that had hung off the club since 1970.

Everyone knows the rest of the story. The Brewers would win a share of the AL East in 1981 and the American League pennant in 1982, taking the Cardinals to seven games in the World Series and securing a place in Milwaukee’s hearts forever.

But times change, and Meindel’s logo fell out of favor. In 1994, to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary, the Brewers set it aside in favor of a more serious logo, with darker colors and sharper lines. Still, the BnG remained popular. In 2005, the Brewers were considering reviving Meindel’s logo in some form (we now know that they settled on an alternate uniform). The club held a “fan vote” at Miller Park, where patrons were given the choice between one of two free t-shirts at the turnstyles; the current barley-M or Meindel’s classic. The BnG won convincingly, as 63% of fans chose the classic t-shirt.

Interviewed by the Register-Guard in his new home of Eugene, Oregon, Meindel was intrigued by the persistence of his design. “For me, the way this thing keeps coming back is almost surreal,” he told the paper. “I wouldn’t compare it with any of the classics, but it has certainly withstood the test of time.”

It sure has. If anything, looking around Miller Park on any given home game makes me think he’s being modest.

. . . . . .

Thanks, Chance! Great writeup (as always). Well, folks — two things — how great is that and was this the first ever ‘crowdsourced’ uniform or logo design contest ever held (for any sport)? Even if it wasn’t (or was), it would be great to have a list of them so put on your thinking caps and lets find out!

Uni ~~Tweaks~~ Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We begin today with Andy Cusack, who did up a whole batch of ChiSox unis, with a nice throwbacky feel:

Hi.

I’ve been a White Sox fan my entire life. I think I’m in the same boat as most other Sox fans in that I don’t dislike their current uniforms. But at the same time, they just don’t feel exactly right. There seems to be some disconnect with our glorious mess of a uniform history. The silver and black is just a little too stark for my taste.

Long story short: I created a series of uniforms that both give a nod to different eras of the team’s history (It’s be pretty obvious that each is rooted in a uniform of the past). But they also attempt to tie everything together into something that is at least a little cohesive.

I believe if the White Sox employed a uniform system like this, they wouldn’t have to bring back a past uniform to wear as an alternate as they’ve been doing the past few seasons with the ’59, ’72 and ’83 varieties. And I think they look pretty sharp.

Hope you enjoy these.

-Andy

. . .

Next up is Zachary Schwartzer, who retweaked the new U of Arizona Wildcat football unis:

Phil,

The U of A football team will be releasing new football uniforms very soon. It’s been confirmed by Greg Byrne on Twitter that there will be 4 different helmets, the 4th being the copper helmet they used last year. Rumors have it there will also be an alternate uniform to match with the copper helmet. Here is my concept for the new U of A uniforms.

Sincerely,
Zachary

. . .

We close today with Chris Powers who has added an alternate to the classic Tigers uniforms:

Hi Phil,

I know the Tigers’ unis are sacred, but I was inspired by all of the orange uniforms that were on display last week. I think this concept turned out quite well even if they’d never be used in a million years. It features a two-color script based on their primary wordmark and other lettering to match. I also included the headspoon that both current jerseys have. Stripes are a callback to the stripes on the 1980s away unis. Also if they’re not careful, they could inadvertently end up as the Tiggers considering where the “G” lands on the placket.

I am especially proud of the sleeve patch I created using the ‘80s design style and the cat from the ‘90s that is used as an alternate logo and by some of their farm teams. It could be used on the away uniforms, but I’d leave the home as-is. Hopefully the patch would bring the blessings of 1984 and not the quagmire of 2003.

~Chris Powers

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

ASG Smocks

Looks like the 2013 National and American League Batting Practice jerseys have been released for both teams. As in the past, the colors borrow from the colorscheme of the host team, which this year is the Mets, so we have a royal and orange set. Not too bad, as far as softball tops go:

…And on that note, that’s it for today. I prepped this post early Saturday, so apologies if there was any other breaking uniform news on Saturday that I missed. Feel free to break stuff in the comments below. Thanks (as always) to Chance for a fantastic historical lesson. You guys have a great Sunday and a better week, and I’ll catch you next weekend.

Follow me on twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

One For The Road

.. … ..

“Obviously the NBA will just retroactively declare that the New Orleans Hornets were always called the Pelicans and were an expansion team, while the Charlotte Hornets simply suspended operations much like the Cleveland Browns, then changed their name to the Bobcats, only to change back. Obviously.”
–(THE) Jeff Provo

And Finally(!) — The Last of the UWFFL Contest Entries

2013-05-18T12:41:13Z

By Phil Hecken, with Rob Holecko

Well, Uni Watch readers — we’ve made it (almost). We’re now to reveal the final sets of contestants for the UWFFL — today’s final two teams are coastal teams, one from the east and one from the left — the Tampa Terror and the San Francisco Reign Fire. I know I’m really excited to reveal the final team (the Reign Fire) because of the possibilities of the helmet art — we also have a very special treat from Rob. More on that below.

Once again, I want to thank Rob Holecko for all his work on this, and all the great submitters for taking such an interest in this contest. And now, I will turn this over to Rob, who’ll take you through the final two groups of entries, complete with polls (so be sure to view all of the entries for each team and then be prepared to vote — write down your favorite if you have to, so you can easily vote on it after each of the sections). Click on each graphic to enlarge.

Ready? OK — here’s Rob:

. . .

Hello again from the UWFFL. We are back with the results from last week’s voting and the submissions for the final two teams. Next week we’ll have (barring any further run-off votes being necessary) the results for these final two teams as well as laying out what the future holds for the UWFFL when we pick it back up in July or so.

First off, here are last week’s winners. In the second run-off for the New York Sharks voting, Robert Kramer defeated Adam Cain and claimed his first victory.

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~

In the competition for the Seattle Superbeasts, it was a runaway and Wes Peters notched his fifth victory.

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~

And for the San Diego Storm, Brett Callero defeated Wes for his third win.

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~

That brings us to the last batch of teams to vote on: Tampa and San Francisco.

First the Tampa Terror. Here are the ten entries, with voting below:

___________________________________

Brady Ivie

___________________________________

Brendan Jang

___________________________________

Brett Callero

___________________________________

Brian in NOLA

___________________________________

Dan Hutcheson

___________________________________

Jeff Provo

___________________________________

Robert Kramer

Design Sheet

___________________________________

Ryan Liszewski

___________________________________

Trent Daniel

___________________________________

Wes Peters

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~

And finally the twelfth team, the San Francisco Reign Fire.

For the Reign Fire, we had a little help from 970 KDSF in San Francisco, the official broadcast partner of the Reign Fire. They co-sponsored with us this portion of the contest and their afternoon drive program, The Dick Schaefer Show (no relation to the GUD’s Bill Schaefer) interviewed some of the entrants and gave them a chance to talk about their submissions. We gave all of the entrants the opportunity to be on their program, but it was totally optional, and when making your voting selections you shouldn’t hold it against those that chose not to take part. But for those that did, we have included the audio of their interview with their submissions and you can listen to it below and let it give you just a little more insight into the designers’ processes.

We thank 970 KDSF for their interest in the contest and look forward to their continuing coverage of the San Francisco Reign Fire as they compete in the UWFFL this fall.

___________________________________

Andrew Seagraves

___________________________________

Brady Ivie

___________________________________

Brendan Jang

___________________________________

Brett Callero

___________________________________

Curtis Peddle

___________________________________

Dan Hutcheson

___________________________________

Elizabeth Eicher

___________________________________

Robert Kramer

___________________________________

Trent Daniel

___________________________________

Wes Peters

___________________________________

Unfortunately, not every contestant was available for interview purposes. But, just to wrap things up, give one last listen here:

~ ~ ~ ~

Well, there you have it, good luck to the Tampa and San Francisco entries, congrats to Robert, Wes, and Brett for their wins, and to the rest of you be sure to vote and discuss in the comments your favorite designs. We’ll see you next week!

___________________________________

Thanks, Rob (and nice interviews!). OK readers — unless there is a run-off, this is the last you’ll be voting on the UWFFL (at least for a while, I promise), so lets send them out in a blaze of glory OK? And make sure you thank all the contestants and also Rob for helping to organize this. And of course, let the submitters know how they did. Back with the results next weekend.

Uni ~~Tweaks~~ Concepts

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We begin today with Bryan Ross, with a Penn State University redo:

Hey Phil,

I was looking at Penn State’s uniforms and felt they needed an update. With the home uniform, the major change I made wwas adding the logo to the side of the helmet and a blue back plate with PennState font added. Another change was keeping the simple helmet stripe and tying it into the side of the pant leg giving the socks the same look to bring it all together.

Basically the thought throughout was to give some subtile updates while keeping with the classic look. See what you think.

Bryan Ross,
Graphic Designer

. . .

Next up is Brian F (from NOLA), who has retrofitted the Rays:

Phil-

I hope this is the right place to send these to. I want to like the Rays, I lived in Tampa for a while and generally like the area, but everything about the team just seems generic. Everyone uses the navy blue now-a-days and I think there needs more green in baseball. The Rays were close a few years ago with their road grey’s, but the green and blue were too dark. I don’t love the wordmark they used, but it’s better that the current one. The other is using the wordmark from the throwback the clock, which is very Floride like.

Brian from NOLA

. . .

We close today with Brett Knowles some logos for the St. Louis Metro football club:

Phil,

Love reading your stuff. Been following logos/uni’s most of my life and always thought I was odd for that. It turns out, there is quite the following.

With the upcoming Chelsea/ Man. City game being played here at Busch Stadium next month, talk has resurfaced about the possibility of MLS in St. Louis.

I came up with a logo about two years ago and have attached it. In case it wasn’t obvious, no photoshop was used, just good old MS Paint!

Let me know what you think if you get a chance. I know it’s not perfect, but I would love to see it incorporated in some way by someone who actually knows graphic design.

Thanks!

Brett Knowles

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

Stirrup Fridays…

Because we love the stirrup here at Uni Watch, this section is devoted to those of us who sport the beautiful hose on Fridays — a trend popularized many years ago by Robert P. Marshall, III. For many of us, it’s become a bit of an obsession, but a harmless one — a reflection of our times. Where we once had Friday ties, which has been replaced by Casual Friday — we now have Stirrup Fridays. It’s an endearingly simple concept — no matter where you work (or even if you don’t) — break out a fresh pair of rups to compliment (or clash with) your Friday attire.

Smaller set than normal today.

. . . . .

James Poisso:

Phil,

I’ve never been able to identify these stirrups, but they look nice.

James Poisso

. . .

Joaquin Jang:

Hi Phil,

I graduated from grad school on Thursday so I figured I would celebrate Stirrup Friday a day early. I’m clicking my heels, not just because I graduated, because I got to wear some sweet stirrups too!

Joaquin

. . .

John K.:

Phil,

Broke out the classic Orioles look to celebrate their great run in the ESPN uni bracket. Going back to “Baltimore” on the away jerseys a few years ago was a great (and seriously overdue) move. They just need to add the classic socks/stirrups, and get rid of the white panel on the hat.

I was in meetings all day yesterday and did not get a chance to vote. Not sure if I will be able to vote today, either. A difficult decision: Vote partisan for the very good looking Os, or the truly iconic and beautiful Cards. The Cards could almost win on stirrups/socks alone.

John

. . .

Robert Brashear:

Comrades,

I have joined the revolution

Bucco stirrups in the big apple

Robert Brashear

. . .

And that ends today’s look at Stirrup Friday — all of you who participate, send me your pics and a brief (~50 words) description of their relevance, and I’ll run ‘em here on Saturday (and sometimes Sunday too!). Be sure to visit Robert’s House of Hose for news on rups.

And now…here’s …

~~~~~~~~~~

Comrade Marshall’s Rupdate:

Comrades!

First off, my apologies for not being part of the post last week, I dropped the ball in coordinating with Phil. That being said I was also busy all week defending the stirrup revolution. Apparently there is a snake in the revolutionary grasses phishng the stirrup movement. Clearly this thief has intimate knowledge of what we do here, and to be honest, I was really hurt that someone would try to rip-off an operation that is set up to benefit rather the gouge Uni Watch readers. I was close to saying fine, I’ll raise prices blah blah blah, but I came to my senses and realized that just because there is one weasel out there, the rest of us shouldn’t suffer. Besides, there is 92 bucks in the revolutionary accounts, let him do his worst. The bottom line is after reflection, everything is all systems normal except one thing, the Stirrup Friday Image winner now gets a buy one/ get one prize. I hope that prize is okay with everyone.

Let’s get on with the Stirrup Friday shots, and begin with last week since the pixtures were so great. On top of Phil’s killer Met’s game shot, there was great stuff all around, and I will talk to Soukie about what I will do for him and his usual Gem, but let’s award Nathan Stewart with the shot of the week for those killer chops that go so well with the 70′s orioles look. As for this week, clearly Joaquin Jang’s graduation shot might be the shot of the year, that was super sweet Joaquin, you were a hands down choice.

As for actual hosiery, The Cardinals and Braves are back in stock, and I expect the 1959 “beer shower” World Series Go-Go Sox sometime this week, but since they are not here yet I will run the 69 Padres and 48 Senators as “new” this week even though they are in stock and there will be no waiting. If the beer showers get here as expected, I will have another new stirrup for everyone based on the feedback I have gotten next weekend.

From each according his stirrvp, to each according his strype

And finally…

• For reasons that apparently have something to do with today’s Armed Forces day, the Pirates wore camo last night. Looked awful. But not as bad as the way the Astros (their opponents) lost in epic fashion. Game photos are here, if you dare.

• Here’s how Johnny Football looked in that jersey with the Heisman patch on it.

• If you’re not a fan of *instant replay* in baseball, then you’re not going to be happy with what MLB is considering for 2014.

• Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres wore their 1984 throwbacks last night against the Nats. Of all the 20+ year old unis they could throw back to, those are my least favorite. More photos are here.

• In honor of actual Armed Forces day, the Angels will be wearing camo today.

• The Bobcats have begun their conversion to the Hornets.

• And finally, the Preakness Stakes is today. There was some discussion in yesterday’s comments of a horse called Titletown Five, whose name is a reference to Green Bay. Check out the silks! And here’s a photo of the silks (not the same jockey who’ll be riding today, but same silks).

That will do it for today. Quick programming note for tomorrow: I’m scheduled to open the summer place today, which, among other things, means meeting the cable guy to hook up the Interwebs. As with all things, this is not a given. Also, the computer out there was built before some of you were born, so…

I’ve already prepared tomorrow’s post so there will be stuff tomorrow (and a great lede from none other than Chance with another wonderful historical uni/logo look back). But there might not be anything NEW from today (may need to upload the post from my phone), including a QOTD. Just warning you.

Everyone have a great Saturday, and I will catch you tomorrow one way or the other.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace

One For The Road

.. … ..

“Sweet Mother of Jesus. This is getting scary. Not too long ago – a couple of years? – I asked you in this space about your hometown, and you sent me the same wiki link you just sent this morning. I (now) remember the picture 2nd Street! I need to buy a walker. And maybe a bib.”
–Conn Nugent

Leak of Possible New Football Uni for the Aggies

2013-05-17T12:41:52Z

Hmmm, is this a new Texas A&M football uniform? Could be, according to a reader who prefers to remain anonymous:

I recently visited Adidas HQ in Portland and saw these uniforms in their football room. The helmets start black up top and turn to maroon toward the bottom. Facemask is the same way.

Interesting. I ran the photo past an Aggies-obsessed friend of mine. Here’s what he had to say:

If I had to wager, I’d guess they’re looking for something to trot out for their big Sept. 14 home game against Alabama, which is one of the most anticipated games in A&M history. Last year, that was the only game they wore the all-whites for. They wore the all-black ones for their first big game against a highly ranked team, Mississippi State.

Sumlin definitely seems to try to fire the team up with that kind of stuff.Now you’re gonna ruin the surprise and they’re gonna lose and Johnny’s not gonna win two Heismans and then I’m gonna wage a campaign for the Mets to wear black and purple uniforms.

(Update: Several commenters are pointing out that this is essentially the same uni A&M wore against Mississippi State last year. Only the pink arm sleeve is now. Ah well…)

Speaking of Johnny Football, he threw out the first pitch at last night’s Padres game, so they gave him a jersey with a Heisman sleeve patch (photo courtesy of Jared Bremseth, click to enlarge):

And as long as we’re talking college football: Memphis is letting fans vote on two new proposed uni options, and Michigan won’t have alternate uniforms this season.

+ + + + +

Purple Amnesty Day: Today is the seventh anniversary of the first entry ever published on this site. In keeping with longstanding tradition, that means today is also the one day of the year when the prohibition on purple-inclusive Uni Watch membership cards is lifted. So if you’ve been waiting to order the Vikings- or Lakers- or LSU- or Rockies-themed card (like Greg Cornwall’s LSU helmet treatment, shown at right), now’s your chance. Sign-up details, as always, can be found here. I’ll accept purple-inclusive orders until midnight Eastern tonight. (Of course, non-purple orders are also welcome.)

Bizarre chromatic coincidence: Today is also “Wear purple for lupus” day.

And hey, membership cards and purple aside — seven years! That’s pretty amazing. My thanks to each and every one of you for helping to make Uni Watch such a fun, successful project.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Another uni-notable thing about today’s date: It’s the birthday of Carlos May, the only athlete I’m aware of to wear his birthday on his jersey (my thanks to Brendan the Aspie for pointing this out in yesterday’s comments). … Bloody Nolan! “That’s from Sept. 8, 1990,” says Andy Chalifour. “Bo Jackson led off the second inning by hitting Nolan Ryan’s first pitch back to the mound. Ryan misplayed it and the baseball hit him in the mouth. Nolan Ryan refused to leave the game and went on to pitch through the seventh inning.” … Faaaascinating piece on how apostrophes are frowned upon in place names. … Rays pitcher David Price has been suffering from allergies that have been traced to the team’s uniform-laundering system (from Brian Mazmanian). … Buried within this story is the news that the Warriors will likely retain their sleeved jerseys for next season. … Good piece by Chris Creamer on the American and National League logos being updated. … Mets pitching prospect Zach Wheeler, who hails from Atlanta, was wearing a Falcons cap while in New York for a cortisone shot. … For the first time ever, Ebbets Field Flannels has done a college baseball throwback jersey — for Illinois State, 1969. … Dobyns-Bennett High School in Tennessee has some seriously weird baseball pants. “The head coach is the cousin of my best childhood friend, but I still haven’t had the balls to ask why these were even thought of, let alone produced game use,” says Daniel Hargis. … The Stockton Thunder (ECHL) will mark their first appearance in the Kelly Cup finals with this jersey patch (from Richard Paloma). … Did you know there’s a blog devoted to U.S. military uniforms? I learned that from this story about the military’s latest camouflage debacle. “And we thought the Jags had problems,” says Chris Weber. … Here’s a gallery of cycling shoes from the Giro d’Italia. “Sweet Jesus!” says a rapturous Sean Clancy. … Latest sports-themed soda display is for the Blackhawks. “Now that’s you honor Native American heritage,” says Jamie Uthe, with an indeterminate level of irony. … In a vaguely related item, check out this Blackhawks-themed barber chair. I happen to have that exact chair in my living room — only, you know, without the team design theme (from Brian Crago). … Small item at the bottom of this page informs us that the Rays are wearing camouflage on their current road trip. That’s, like, on the plane and the bus, not on the field (from Kevin Kleinhans). … All U. of Oregon teams will wear an “AR” memorial patch in memory of Alex Rovello, an Oregon tennis player who died last week (from Maks Skuz). … A Papa John’s delivery guy in Brooklyn was allegedly selling cocaine while in his Papa John’s uniform. At least this finally explains the longstanding mystery of why anyone in Brooklyn would order Papa John’s. “Yeah, gimme a large extra-cheese, half pepperoni, half coke.” … Ladies and gents, your Hillsboro Hops. The team’s inaurgural uniforms were unveiled yesterday (from Christopher Ouellette). … Did you know there were college football teams in Ireland? There are! And one of them is facing criticism for wearing Penn State jerseys (from Chris Flinn). … The Cardinals are giving away striped socks this Sunday and have produced a fun video to promote the giveaway (from Joe Mueller).

Battle of the Uniforms: Voting is still open in the LCS round until 9am Eastern. The World Series round, which looks like it will feature the Cardinals (no surprise there) vs. the Orioles (huge surprise there!), should be up and running by noon-ish today.

He Shoots, He Score(board)s!

2013-05-16T11:45:56Z

Like many of you, I’ve always had a certain fascination with scoreboards. So I was pretty jazzed when Reader Cory Gibson-Bath recent tipped me wise to a new site devoted to illustrations of NHL scoreboards, past and present. I wanted to know more, so I got in touch with the site’s creator, CanuckFanatic92 (he prefers not to give out his real name). Here’s the transcript of an email interview I conducted with him:

Uni Watch: How old are you, where do you live, and what do you do for a living?

CanuckFanatic92: I’m 21 and I live on Vancouver Island, which is in British Columbia, and I am trying to search for a job.

UW: Have you always been interested in scoreboards?

CF92: Yes, ever since I saw the old scoreboard at Pacific Coliseum during highlights of the 1994 Stanley Cup on TV many years ago. It just intrigued me how the technology has come such a long way since that time.

UW: How did you get the idea of creating a website devoted to scoreboard imagery?

CF92: A friend convinced me to create the site after I showed him some of my renderings of scoreboards. He was like, “You gotta put these on a website!” And I was like, “Yeah, you’re right, they’re no use to anybody if they rot on my hard drive.”

UW: I know you’ve contributed to the Frozen Faceoff site. Was that site an inspiration for your site?

CF92: Frozen Faceoff has inspired me to get the work out there, but I’ve been quietly making these textures since approximately 2008. I haven’t shown them publicly until last month, however.

The original plan for these was to get them “modded” into the NHL series made by EA. Unfortunately, due to the way the 3-D model files were made, one could only modify the existing shape of the model, not add onto it.

UW: Your site only shows hockey scoreboards. Do you care about other sports, and do you plan to show their scoreboards on your site at some point down the road?

CF92: At some point there is going to be that person who will request scoreboards from MLB or the NBA, and I realize I’ll have to direct my attention to these scoreboards in the future. In short, I am open to the idea. Lately, I’ve also been thinking of putting up team banners, like retired numbers and championships.

UW: Do you have any specific goals for the site? Like, do you want to document every single NHL scoreboard ever, or something along those lines?

CF92: To be honest, documenting every single NHL scoreboard was one of my goals, but photographs of the old analog clocks are pretty hard to come by. So that goal has, so far, been an uphill battle.

UW: What do you base your illustrations on? Like, do you have a lot of old scoreboard photos, or what?

CF92: I base my illustrations on the best shot I can find of the target scoreboard. Usually the best angle is a head-on shot of it. My photograph cache probably has around 300 photos, and dozens of screencaps from videos.

Another factor I have to take into account is scale. I go mad if I don’t have the scale exactly right, especially with the new scoreboards, which sometimes don’t have their dimensions listed.

UW: What software do you use to create the illustrations, and how long does a typical illustration take to create?

CF92: Photoshop, obviously. Without it I’d be stuck using MS Paint. An “average” scoreboard can take up to a week. My personal best on a single illustration is two hours and 15 minutes.

Recently, for the dot-matrix display illustrations, I’ve been using Paint Shop Pro 3 (a program from 1993!) to enlarge the designs to fit onto the scoreboard texture, and it enlarges them in a way the image doesn’t lose its “blockiness.”

UW: Has this project taught you anything about scoreboards that you didn’t already know?

CF92: It’s taught me how the design of scoreboards went from supplementing the game experience to being eye candy in the blink of an eye. Scoreboards have gotten noticeably uglier as the years have gone by. They went from four-sided technological marvels to gargantuan, oversized television screens within a decade.

UW: Any other things you’re particularly interested in besides scoreboards? Any other websites besides this one?

CF92: I’m also interested in hockey uniforms, and especially the NHL ice surfaces like what Frozen Faceoff does. Also, I’m a lover of old fire trucks.

UW: Anything to add?

CF92: I know the “Clapping Hands” (like the one from Maple Leaf Gardens) will end up in my request jar at some point. I’ll get it drawn up and animated someday!

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Accursed color reminder: Tomorrow is Purple Amnesty Day — the one day of the year when you can order a purple-inclusive Uni Watch membership card. The 24-hour window will run from midnight to midnight (Eastern time). I’m bracing for the onslaught. Do your worst!

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Interesting article on how athletic shoes can increase the risk of injury. … There’s a debate going on, or at least a discussion, regarding whether any ’Skins player should ever wear Sean Taylor’s number (from Tommy the CPA). … Check out Lou Holtz’s hat, circa 1988. When did that lower-right serif disappear from the logo? (From Jerry Kulig.) … New kit for Norwich City (from Justin Hale). … Now that Cooperstown High School has changed the name of its teams from Redskins to Hawkeyes, the Oneida Nation has donated $10,000 to help cover the cost of new uniforms (from Stephen King). … Flag-desecration uniforms for Wichita State baseball, to support the Wounded Warrior Project (thanks, Phil). … New away kit for Stoke City (from George Chilvers). … Shame on the state legislature of South Carolina, which will now allow ads on school buses (from William Lyon). … Check this out: a model of Yankee Stadium made from 75,000 matchsticks (thanks, Brinke). … Gaelic football will soon start using electronic Hawk-Eye technology to help judge scoring plays. “Seems like this could be a perfect fit for MLB and the NFL as well,” says Micahel Clary. … “I was in the Toledo Mud Hens Swamp Shop the other day and they had these nifty uniform guides on the wall,” says Jacob Kubuske. “For some reason there wasn’t one for the road unis.” Too bad about the pants. … The Chiefs’ practice jerseys have an ad patch for the University of Kansas Hospital, and Ryan Stone isn’t happy about it: “The Chiefs are a Missouri team playing in a stadium funded in part by Missouri taxes. There is a deep rivalry between Missouri and the leech state to our west. Why would this franchise choose to polarize a majority of its fan base with these ridiculous patches?”

Battle of the Uniforms: Voting for Round Three will remain open until 9am Eastern today. The fourth round — essentially the two league championship series — will be up and running by noon-ish.

A Utah-Buffalo Connection?

2013-05-15T12:10:41Z

Last week I wrote about some uniform catalogs I acquired from the collection of the late Mike Hersh. One of those catalogs — a Spanian catalog from 1971 — had an interesting detail that I neglected to mention.

If you look at this page, second row, second stirrup from the left and this page, third row, sixth sleeve from the left, you’ll see a stripe pattern that’s labeled as “Utah style.” I immediately recognized it as the pattern worn by the Bills in the 1960s. But I’d never seen or heard it referred to as “Utah style” or “Utah stripes” (or as anything else), even though I own several dozen uniform catalogs from that period. Was this a common term, like Northwestern stripes or UCLA stripes?

My go-to guy for this sort of question is sporting goods scholar Terry Proctor, so I shot him a note. Here’s his response:

I believe that Utah used that pattern in the late 1950s or early 1960s, since Buffalo didn’t adopt the style until 1964. … Although not as well known or popular as Northwestern striping or UCLA inserts, they would be referred to as “Utah stripes” in the trade, because of the association with the Utes.

Interesting. I did a few quick photo searches and couldn’t find any old Utah football photos showing this stripe pattern. So I called Utah’s media relations department, where two extremely helpful people offered to investigate for me. One of those people looked in old Utes yearbooks dating back to 1905. But while she found photos showing all sorts of stripe patterns, none of them matched the pattern shown in the Spanjian catalog. (In fact, the Utes mostly seem to have worn Northwestern striping over the years.)

So I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a dead end on this one. Anyone have any additional info and/or photos? And have any other teams worn this stripe pattern?

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Knishery update: Remember that Knicks/Knish T-shirt design I was toying around with? Again, this shirt isn’t available, but it’s still a fun concept, so I’ve kept tinkering with it — just for fun, you understand — and made the knish look a bit more, well, knish-like (click to enlarge):

Although this is just a concept, I’m nonetheless curious to gauge its appeal. Can I see a show of hands?

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Uni Watch News Ticker: The Twins and Brewers will wear these very nice minor league throwbacks on May 30. The game will be at Target Field, which means the Twins will be wearing gray at home. “We wanted our two St. Paul-born players (Mauer and Perkins) to have a chance to wear the hometown name across the chest,” explains team president Dave St. Peter. … According to an Emory University Sports Marketing Analytics study, teams that stop using Native American mascots take a one- or two-year financial hit followed by long-term financial gains, and “no long-term negative effect on brand equity.” … Meanwhile, many Native Americans in Virginia have no problem with the Redskins’ team name (from Tommy the CPA). … This is awesome: an infographic showing which bumblebee uni combo the Pirates wore for each game of the 1979 season. Further details here. … New away kit for Utrecht (from Brett Stone). … New volleyball uniforms for the Japanese women’s national team (from Jeremy Brahm). … Latest college baseball team to let fans choose the uniforms for a given game: Virgnia Tech (from Steve Hicks). … Uniform designer Todd Radom was interviewed by ESPN baseball columnist Buster Olney in this podcast. Todd’s segment starts at about the 19:30 mark. … More Negro Leagues video footage, including an amazing-looking pregame comedy routine by Goose Tatum, here (from Jake Kessler). … And while we’re at it, here’s a 1946 promotional film from the Pacific Coast League (from Adam Jackson). … Jimmy Mac collects A’s flannel vests from 1968-71 and would like to hear from other A’s collectors. If that’s you, contact him here. … What the hell could this Orioles “B.O.” button has been about? (From Comrade Robert Marshall.) … Carl Yastrzemski’s grandson, who plays for Vanderbilt, turned down the chance to wear No. 8 and wears 18 instead (from Scott Ingalsbe). … Blake Gantz had a little back-and-forth with Mark Cuban regarding the Mavs redesign. … Kevin Durant was wearing a SuperSonics cap the other day (from Jimmy Couto). … All U. of Hawaii men’s teams will be called the Rainbow Warriors after all (from Bill Sodeman). … Arguably the ugliest uniforms in sports history are making a comeback — sort of (thanks, Phil). … Speaking of ugly uniforms, check out the 1979 Charleston Charlies (from Doug Ford). … We’re getting our first look at the Jags’ helmet on the practice field, and it looks about as stupid as you’d expect (Phil again). … The Fremantle Dockers (Aussie football) will wear this unusual design during the 2013 Indigenous Round vs. the Melbourne Demons on May 26. “The Indigenous Round is played annually ‘with the aim being to celebrate the contribution of all indigenous players to the AFL,’” explains Leo Strawn Jr. … Good spot by Kevin Kennaley, who writes: “The Giants are in Toronto for a quick two-game series, which meant that Melky Cabrera, who’s now with the Jays but was with the Giants last season, got his World Series ring from them before the game, as well as a handful of bats from before his suspension last year — one of which he used in last night’s game. He went four for five against his old team.” … Also from Kevin: “During his recent end-of-season press conference, Canucks GM Mike Gillis had a bottle of Canucks-branded water.”

Battle of the Uniforms: Voting in the second round remains open until 9am Eastern. The big surprise is that the vote between the Yanks and A’s is going right down to the wire, which I’m rather pleased about. The next round should be up and running by noon.

And If You Ask Nicely, He Might Buy You a Hot Dog

2013-05-14T11:38:57Z

As we’ve all learned by now, Mark Cuban is not your typical professional sports franchise owner. For one thing, he has a blog. And yesterday he used that blog to invite fans to redesign the Mavericks’ uniforms for the 2015-16 season.

Not bad, right? It’s actually a pretty progressive move — until you get to the part where Cuban reminds you that he’s, you know, Mark fucking Cuban:

Who will own your design? The minute you post it [on Cuban's blog], the Mavs will. If you think it’s horrible that the Mavs will own your design, do not post. If you think it’s cool that the Mavs could possibly use your design and you will have eternal bragging rights, then post away. If we really like your design and you, I may even throw in some tickets. If we don’t use your design, it will still be here on this site for now and ever more for you to glance longingly at.

Now, this isn’t the first time a team has crowdsourced its uniform design. The White Sox did it in 1981 (for details, check out this ESPN column I wrote in 2011), and the Brewers just did it a few months ago with their YOUniform promotion (okay, so that was only for a spring training uni, but still). And yes, once you submit something to an NBA team, of course they’re going to own it. No surprise there.

But there’s something distinctly uncharitable about Cuban’s tone, like he’s doing the fans a favor by granting them the privilege of doing free design work for him. And then maybe — maybe — the winner will be rewarded with some free tickets. So instead of creating something that sounds fun, he’s created something with a strong undercurrent of contempt. Granted, that seems to be what he’s best at, but jeez. The whole thing reads like the King pissing on the peasants from his balcony and then telling them to be grateful he didn’t shit on them instead.

The ink was barely dry on Cuban’s blog post when I received an email from reader Stu Taylor, who had this to say:

This is awful. … The guy is a millionaire if not a billionaire, and he’s trying to get the main branding outlet of his team done for free. … There are plenty of extremely qualified professional designers the Mavs can tap for this. I’m rooting for a flood of under-considered designs to lampoon the whole process. I’m a die-hard Mavs fan (and graphic designer) and have been a huge fan of Cuban, but this is a bush league move.

Personally, I love the idea of soliciting fan designs. But Cuban’s approach here, as usual, is strictly blowhardus maximus. And would it kill him to pay a professional fee to the winning design?

One other thing of note: Among all the NBA owners, Cuban has been the loudest advocate of putting advertising on uniforms. Interesting that he didn’t mention that in his blog post (“Be sure to leave room for an ad patch,” or whatever). Maybe he just forgot.

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Correction: Yesterday I wrote that the bat manufacturer MaxBat had made and shipped several pink bats with the MaxBat logo, in violation of MLB rules. That prompted a note from MaxBat VP Jim Anderson, who said, “We didn’t supply pink bats. We supplied black bats with pink logos [like those shown at left — PL] to some of our customers. There are no restrictions for logo colors. Therefore a pink, orange, yellow, blue, red, silver, gold, etc. logo is legal, and we didn’t violate any rules.”

Duly noted. But there seemed to be considerable confusion about which bats were and weren’t allowed on Sunday, and most MaxBat-supplied players opted not to use the pink-labeled lumber. Again, the real culprit here is MLB, which never should have had any restrictions on the pink bats (or maybe just never should have allowed any pink bats, period) in the first place.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

Anyone who reads “Collector’s Corner” each Tuesday has probably figured out that I am a sucker for anything NFL + Dave Boss. So imagine my reaction when I saw the poster shown above — all NFL teams in one painting! Check it out here.

Here’s the rest of this week’s haul:

• Ron Jaworski and Bill Bergey (I think) appear in this 1979 Eagles poster by Damac.

• Someone say Damac? Got your 1979 Miami Dolphins poster right here.

• Steelers fans, you’ll look snazzy on the links with this Steelers/NFL Alumni golf bag.

• Ever seen these? Vintage 1940s circular Japanese baseball cards.

• Love the look of these 1970s NFL helmets on this Thermos.

• Nice set of 1976 NFL glasses from Mobil.

• This one is for Paul: a signed photo of the 49ers RB Ken Willard, from the 1960s.

• This NFLPA sleeping bag from 1972 would’ve been great for those camp-outs back in the day.

• This may be the first dress ever featured on Collector’s Corner: It features all the 1960s MLB logos.

• Gumball helmet buggies! One for the Titans and one for the Falcons (with mismatched colors for the sticker and helmet shell).

• You know I love any old Sears/NFL gear, and this old Dolphins zip-up cardigan is as nice as they come.

Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: ’Skins WR Josh Morgan is in favor of keeping the team’s name. Jim Rome and John Feinstein disagree (both from Tommy Turner). … Here’s a piece on NBA compression sleeves and other cover-up gear. … Odd move by the Aussie football team St. Kilda, which will wear a heritage guernsey with the opposing coach’s name (from Craig Snyder). … Here’s something I’ve never seen before: a purple tequila sunrise uni! That’s Brownsburg High School in Indiana (from Randy Rollyson). … And wait, here’s another high school wearing the tequila sunrise, this time in black, red, and gray. That’s Satellite Beach High in Florida (from Joshua Pryor). … Truly horrid G.I. Joe jerseys for WVU baseball (from Terry Wehrend). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Jason Kipnis of the Indians was standing too close to the dugout heater on Sunday and burned a hole in his pants. Video coverage here (from Tim Forstser). … Remember my recent post about Carlos Peña’s armbands? On Sunday he went pink over orange. Yuck. … Did you know there used to be Bobby Orr-branded lemonade? It’s true! (From John Muir.) … Back in March, we saw a handful of the G.I. Joe caps that MLB teams will be wearing on Memorial Day. You can now see more of them here. As R. Scott Rogers posted yesterday, “Those would be great hats — for Armed Forces Day. Which is Saturday, May 18. Raises the question: If MLB actually ‘honors’ and ‘supports’ our troops, why does the league completely ignore the one national holiday that actually honors currently serving soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardsmen?” … This is very cool: a Tumblr devoted to hockey scoreboard design. I’ll be conducting an interview with the site’s editor shortly. … Hamilton Nolan was on vacation or something for a few weeks, but now he’s back. Boy is he good. And if you prefer him on a lighter topic, he’s still really good. … A CC Sabathia fan wore a Yanks/Indans Frankenjersey yesterday (from Paulie Sumner). … Georgia Tech baseball fans have been invited to choose the team’s uniform for tonight’s game (from Britton Thomas) … “Florence is the host city of the 2013 Cycling World Championships, so the event’s logo is an image of Pinocchio in the cycling rainbow stripes,” reports Sean Clancy. “Yes, the fictional Pinocchio was from the Tuscan region, but having him associated with pro cycling is priceless.” … The Lake Erie Crushers will wear Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man costumes on the same night. What, no Wonder Woman? (From Rick Grayshock.) … The Mets signed Rick Ankiel off the scrapheap yesterday. He’ll no doubt be released in a month or two, but meanwhile this piece includes a quote explaining how he chose his new uni number: “I was a big Doc Gooden fan when I was younger, so even being able to wear 16 is cool. It’s exciting. I asked what numbers were available. There weren’t that many. When 16 was one of them, it was a done deal right away.” … In a related item, Ankiel’s gear didn’t arrive in time for last night’s game against the Cards, so he had to borrow pitcher Jonathon Niese’s glove — which may have cost the Mets last night’s game. … “Seattle has been rather disappointed in the way it’s been treated by the NBA lately,” says Adam Schechter. “There was a little rally tonight at a popular local music venue, and these shirts were available.” … The Packers have assigned No. 1 to Matt Brown, an undrafted QB out of Illinois State. If he makes it onto the regular season roster, he’ll be only the second player in team history to wear that number, after Curly Lambeau in the 1920s. “Understandably, this has caused some consternation in fan circles,” says Chance Michaels. … Rhode Island’s baseball team appears to be channeling the Rays. Nice stirrups, though (from Eric Hoffman). … Yesterday’s vote to make Minnesota the 12th state to recognize marriage equality led to the creation of a logo with clever use of negative space (from Geoff Poole). … New kits, including a bizarre faux-denim look, for Marseille (from Danny Garrison). … Back in 1989, Washington State’s football field had directional indicators on both sides of the 50-yard line (from Paul Deaver). … It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but new Eagles coach Chip Kelly appears to have a marker attached to his whistle (from Kurt Esposito). … Here’s something you rarely see: Negro Leagues video footage. Note that they’re wearing the Hale America “Health” patch, just like MLB teams did in 1942 (big thanks to James Ashby). … About a gazillion readers got in touch yesterday to inform me that the Kentucky “penis tongue logo” controversy from 1994, which I mentioned with an air of skepticism in yesterday’s Ticker, was indeed real. But only Robert Hudson provided substantiation. … Never seen this version of Brownie the Elf before. Brian K. says it’s from a 1948 pennant.

The Battle of the Uniforms rolls on today. Voting on the first round is still open until 9am Eastern. We’ll have the second-round match-ups posted sometime between 10am and noon.

I’m Sure Their Mothers Are Very Proud

2013-05-13T15:00:54Z

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, which means MLB diamonds were awash in pink ribbons, pink wristbands, pink shoes, pink shoelaces, pink batting gloves, pink necklaces, pink sleeves, pink-laced baseballs, and so on, all in the service of raising awareness of breast cancer. Reed Johnson of the Braves even wore pink sanitaries under his stirrups, which I believe is a first.

Lurking beneath all of this, however, was a subplot that didn’t get as much coverage as it should have (although Phil briefly mentioned it yesterday).

Here’s the deal: You know those pink bats that players use on Mother’s Day? It turns out that Louisville Slugger is the only bat manufacturer allowed to put its logo on those pink bats — an exclusive status that it purchased by making a large donation to the breast cancer charity group Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Other bat manufacturers can make plain pink bats, as long as they have “no ribbons, corporate logos, distinguishing marks or names of charities are included on the bat.” The bat manufacturer MaxBat violated this rule by producing pink bats with its own logo and shipping them to several MLB players. Those players were told that they couldn’t use the pink bats because of the MaxBat logos. Just to make things messier, two of those players are Nick Markakis of the Orioles and Trevor Plouffe of the Twins — both of whose mothers are breast cancer survivors.

After Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports broke this story on Friday night (his piece is excellent — highly recommended reading), MLB issued a clarification, stating that MaxBat and any other bat manufacturers could include their logos on a pink bat — as long as they made a contribution to Komen for the Cure.

What a disgrace. There’s plenty of blame to go around here. In descending order of loathsomeness:

• MLB: I’m not sure which is worse — designating an official bat of cancer awareness or then deciding that you can blackmail other manufacturers into making a donation to your designated charity. The whole thing is disgusting and really shows how the culture of branding and sponsorship has overtaken any semblance of common sense. I mean, for fuck’s sake, the idea here is supposedly to help save lives, not to worry about logos or to push some bullshit corporate marketing agenda.

• Louisville Slugger: Once Jeff Passan broke the story, Louisville Slugger issued a bunch of tweets and statements trying to save face. They pointed out how much they’d donated to cancer research over the years, blah-blah-blah. But the whole point of charity and philanthropy is to be, you know, charitable and philanthropic. You don’t do it with one eye on your image and another on your balance sheet, and you sure as shit don’t do it as part of marketing plan designed to freeze out your competitors. If Louisville Slugger really cared about cancer research, they wouldn’t worry about whose logo was on a freaking bat and they wouldn’t want any sort of exclusive status. They’d welcome pink bats from other manufacturers, logos or no logos.

• Komen for the Cure: By now people are starting to realize that Komen is primarily just a cog in the corporate marketing machine. (There was even a movie about that in 2011. You can see the trailer here.)

• MaxBat: This whole mess could have been avoided if MaxBat had simply shipped plain pink bats, without their logo, per MLB’s rule. On the other hand, it’s a ridiculous rule, and we wouldn’t have known about all this if MaxBat hadn’t violated it. So I’m kinda glad they did.

A Louisville-based journalist suggested that the whole thing was no big deal because MLB would look the other way if anyone used one of the banned bats. We’ll never know, though, because Markakis followed the absurd rule and didn’t use his pink-labeled MaxBat. Ditto for Plouffe. Ditto for for Adam LaRoche. So congrats, MLB and Louisville Slugger — you maintained your precious brand integrity.

I’m lucky enough not to have had my life touched by breast cancer. But cancer, in its other varied forms, is no abstraction for me. It killed my grandmother, my brother, and both of my sisters-in-law. It would have killed my father if an intestinal problem hadn’t killed him first. It is currently killing one of my dearest friends, who I’ll be visiting this weekend, probably for the last time. I want the motherfucker solved and cured; I don’t want a bunch of corporations behaving like 12-year-olds over who gets the credit and how much additional pink merch they can sell along the way.

But even if you’ve never dealt with cancer in any capacity, it shouldn’t be hard to see how this episode reflects everything that’s wrong with corporate branding and sponsorship in sports. Given the number of folks who ended up with egg on their faces here, MLB will probably change the rule next season. But what really needs to change is the mentality that led to the rule in the first place.

(My thanks to reader Marty B. for the photo of Reed Johnson’s pink sannies.)

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OMFG: My latest One-Man Focus Group column is about a comically bad product line from Cracker Jack. I had fun with this one, and I think you will too. Enjoy.

Show & Tell update: Participants, objects, and stories from the latest installment of Show & Tell are now available on the S&T website.

Membership reminder: Purple Amnesty Day — the one and only day of the year when you can order a purple-inclusive Uni Watch membership card — is this Friday. Mark your calendars, etc.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: “Word on the street” is that the ’Skins are scrapping the neck roll on their white jersey. I asked the editor of that site what he meant by “word on the street,” and he said, “One Redskins employee told me, ‘Oh, yeah, Nike confirmed the change a few weeks ago,’ and then a few other employees agreed with him.” So there you go. … Here’s a good photo gallery of the Bills’ rookies getting fitted for their new helmets and other gear, and here are similar galleries for the Broncos and Chargers (all from Rocky Lum). … New kit for the Leicester Tigers (from Josh Jacobs). … Also from Josh: Awesome new striped socks for the Seacoast rugby squad. … “I live in Foxborough, Mass., about a mile from Gillette Stadium,” writes Jon Conti. “I brought my car in for a repair at Rodman Ford, which is across the street from the stadium and whose lot serves as a parking area during games. Tucked away downstairs in their service department is this random display case of old NFL helmets. Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone around to provide some history as to how and when they got the collection. But I believe the Rodman family has had the dealership for decades and has a business relationship with Kraft, so I’m assuming they also were tied in with the Sullivans back in the day.” … The Dalai Lama wore a purple, swoosh-emblazoned, U. of Portland visor the other day. “That’s wrong on so many levels!” says Mark Snider. … New kit for Bayern München (from Todd Usher). … “Here’s a music video by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, the guys behind the hit song ‘Thrift Shop,’” says Andy Otto. “In this song, titled ‘Flight,’ Macklemore attacks Nike, challenging Phil Knight, the Swoosh, and Jordans. It talks about the obsession with the brand and its cult status.” … No photo, but an interesting observation from Beni Boyter, who writes: “While watching Round One of the Players Championship, I noticed something I’ve never seen before. Tiger Woods was leaning over to putt on the 17th hole and the camera was at an angle behind him. The middle belt loop on his pants featured his interlocking ‘TW’ logo. I have followed golf and specifically Tiger for years. I also work in men’s golf merchandising and have three pairs of pants from this year’s Nike TW collection. Those pants don’t feature this logo, but Tiger’s do. Looks like another chance for Nike to put one of their logos somewhere on their products.” … New 10th-anniversary logo for the Australian soccer team Adelaide United. “I have to say I’m impressed with the look of the whole thing,” says Adelaide resident Kasey van Puijenbroek. “Fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.” … New logo for Paris St. Germain (from Mark Fisher). … Cardinals closer Jason Motte had season-ending arm surgery last Tuesday. But he showed up in a local bar in a Cards jersey a few days later (from Jim Walaitis). … New logo for Nissan (from Mike Cooperman). … This is pretty funny: a history of ballpark nachos (rare non-Pittsburgh-centric contribution from Jerry Wolper). … Oregon athletics is auctioning off its VW bug helmet car (from Andrew Greenblatt). … Norris Cole of the Heat suffered a torn jersey on Friday night (screen shot by Kawika Asuncion). … Steven Wojtowicz notes that Ike Davis has been using Justin Turner’s bat. … Wanna see some fascinating uniforms? Check this out. That photo was taken on Friday in Karachi, Pakistan. Not sure if the uniformed guys are police or EMTs. Either way, pretty wild uni. … The 16th item on this trivia list is about the Kentucky Wildcat logo. I’d never heard that one before, and it sound apocryphal. Anyone care to chime in? (From Kurt Esposito.) … The Cubs’ batboy had an upside-down helmet logo on Saturday (good spot by Frank Manganello). … Odd move on Saturday by the Reds, who wore their “Los Rojos” jersey and their road BP cap. … Here’s a nice shot of international volleyball officials’ jersey patches (from Jeremy Brahm). … New bullpen buggy for the Rochester Red Wings (from Ryan Hare). … The Florida Gators softball team has been wearing striped white stirrups over white sannies (from Kevin Wright). … Someone at last Tuesday’s Isles/Pens game showed up wearing a Nets-style Islanders jersey (from Aaron McHargue). … Check out this UNC baseball player wearing a shinguard on one leg and a foot guard on the other. Alex Kupchak says that’s actually one piece of equipment, with the lower portion detached and worn on the other foot. … Here’s another cream-vs.-white college baseball game: Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt, from Saturday (from Josh Claywell). … As most of you know, the Indians have been wearing the solid-navy block-”C” helmets for all games this season. “But for Saturday’s game, catcher Carlos Santana wore a blue helmet with a red bill and the block ‘C,’” says Chris Marcinko. “That’s a look that hasn’t been worn since the mid-1980s.” Sorry, no photo. … Someone has been committing a string of bank robberies while wearing a Jets jersey (thanks, Brinke). … The Red Sox’s game notes still use the outdated Blue Jays logo (from John Sheehan). … Here’s a really unusual baseball jersey format. “I wonder if this was an economical way to recycle a jersey — by sewing a patch over the top of the old name instead of removing it,” speculates Pete Woychick. … Maple Leafs’ goalie James Reimer took a shot to the facemask in the first period yesterday. “He came out for the second period with a different mask,” says Aaron McHargue. “Then, seven minutes into the second period, he put his original back on after the equipment manager made adjustments. Within a minute, he put the replacement back on.”

Battle of the Uniforms: My ESPN.com colleague Jim Caple and I have put together a “Battle of the Uniforms” project that will roll out today (similar to the “Battle of the Ballparks” series that Jim handled last year). Basically, we’ve set up a uniform bracket, and readers will get to vote on the winners. There will also be sidebars written by me and Jim, slideshows, videos, and so on. CHeck it out here.

When Football Research is Really GUD

2013-05-12T10:59:11Z

By Phil Hecken

Happy Mother’s Day to all.

I had originally planned on just having an open thread for today, but as fate would have it, I was approached by various members of the Gridiron Uniform Database (GUD) during the past week — the main GUD guys are Timmy Brulia, Bill Schaefer, and Rob Holecko, and they’ve done incredible research on compiling the most comprehensive list of football uniforms worn throughout the history of the NFL (and other leagues). Their collective thirst for knowledge is insatiable. I was first contacted by Bill, who had uncovered a bit of “lost” NFL history, and that’s going to be our first segment today; subsequent to that, Bill, Tim & Rob (and others) had thought they uncovered a major bit of lost history, but in the end, it turned out just to be pretty interesting. That will make up the second segment. Bill will be talking about a research project for the first ever NFL game played outside on North America.

So before you call/visit/text/Skype mom later today, sit back and enjoy this bit of unearthed gridiron good…er GUDness:

. . . . . .
The 1976 Mainichi Star Bowl
By Bill Schaefer

One of our GUD viewers sent us a link to an NFL Network show about the “Top 10 Quarterbacks of the 1970s.”

During the clips for the Cardinals’ Jim Hart, a portion showed Hart wearing an unusual patch on his right shoulder. Soon after the link to the Youtube video was posted in our Forum on GUD, another one of our viewers enlightened us that this was from a preseason game in 1976 in Japan.

I did some digging. This was the Mainichi Star Bowl between San Diego and St. Louis on August 16, 1976.

A newspaper article was not helpful in determining the nature of the patch. It was helpful, however, in showing that St. Louis also wore a patch on its left shoulder – clearly the typical Bicentennial patch worn by Cincinnati and Washington in the 1975 Hall of Fame Game as well as by Dallas and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl at the conclusion of that same season in January, 1976.

I went ahead and tried to create a rough, digital version based on what I could make out from the newspaper photo and the TV grab. When I first looked at it, I was thinking it resembled a wooden-handled hammer on the orangish-yellow background. But the more I stare at it, and took into consideration the locale of the game, the image began to look like a crane or an ibis. Some kind of white/grey bird with a curved orange beak and brownish legs. Shrunk down to the required size to add to our images, I think it works pretty well, but I’d still like to get more specifics on it. I’m also including a peek at what the updated version of the 1976 Cardinals image will look like soon.

I cannot discern any writing on the patch however I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some. Also, who’s to say that, even if there were to be writing, that it’d be in English? Considering the Bicentennial patch on the left shoulder, it seems extremely likely to me that the second patch in question either represents some nationalistic Japanese logo or a corporate logo for either the Mainichi Newspaper Company or the Sports Nippon News Company – the co-sponsors of the game.

Two questions still remain:
A) What, exactly, was the second patch?
B) Did San Diego wear either, or both, as well?

It doesn’t seem logical that St. Louis would wear 2 patches for the game and San Diego wouldn’t wear any especially when you consider that, when looking at the ticket for the game, San Diego seems to have been the primary draw among fans in Japan. Why wouldn’t they have worn the patches? I tend to lean towards the option that they did wear the patches but in a more typical location on the front of the jersey – left and right of the collar’s bottom.

With this being the first ever NFL game played outside of North America, I figured, incorrectly, that getting information on it would be easier than it has been.

Any help the UW community can throw us would be appreciated. Please send any new information directly to Rob, Tim, or myself using the Contact Us emails available on GUD.

. . . . . .

Thanks, Bill — readers? Can you help in any way?

Next is a collaborative article, which Rob has crafted into a short article for our edification, which gives a little insight into how those crazy GUD dudes get into their research:

. . .

Did the Browns wear brown pants in the early ’60′s
By Rob Holecko

Finally today, a behind the scene look at some possible GUD research that turned out not to be.

Friday afternoon our Bill Schaefer was watching the NFL Network and they aired a show called Top 10 Most Versatile and there was a segment on the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik. They show some old clips of him running through what appears to be the Cleveland Browns defense, however it seems they are wearing brown pants.

You can see the footage in question from 26:55 to 26:59 of the video here at YouTube.

According to previous GUD research, the Browns only wore white pants until they debuted their orange pants in 1975, and they only wore brown pants for a handful of games in 2008 and 2009. Bill thought it possibly could have been a preseason game, but the Eagles didn’t play the Browns in the preseason during Bednarik’s career, so we determined it must have been a regular season game.

After discussion amongst Bill and myself and with Larry Schmitt and Brad Sullivan, we determined that due to the TV sleeve numbers it had to be from either the 1960, ’61 or ’62 seasons, and by process of elimination we determined that if that picture did in fact show the Browns wearing brown pants it must have been from the September 30, 1962 game between the two teams at Franklin Field. This would have been a major discovery in the Sports Uniform world — could the Cleveland Browns actually have wore brown pants in a game in 1962!?

But why had this never come up before? A quick Google search showed that there was absolutely no mention of this anywhere — was this solely a one game occurance and the whole world simply forgot that it ever happened? No something fishy was afoot.

And then our lead historian Tim Brulia chimed in with the answer that rendered our whole discussion moot and proved why he truly is our lead historian:

“Guys…SLOW DOWN!!! This was a clip from the 1960 Championship Game between the Packers and Eagles. Jim Taylor is the man carrying the ball. For whatever reason, the Packers yellow is showing up as abnormally dark. Look at the packed crowd at Franklin Field. I think Forrest Gregg (76) is in the clip, too.”

Just like that we were again reminded how precarious it can be trying to infer colors from black and white photographs. If you look at a B&W picture and get it in your head that those grays are a particular color, it can be hard convincing yourself otherwise. If we look again at that screenshot, but closer, it sure does looks like it is the Cleveland Browns wearing brown pants — the sleeve stripes, the plain helmet. But it truly is just the logoless Green Bay Packers in a yellow that is showing up darker than it should be.

And thus the GUD’s quest for truth and ongoing research continues…

. . . . . .

And thank you Rob.

Well, dear readers, there you have it. A special research treat for your Mother’s Day. You have your homework assignment — you know what to do.

A Banner Day at ~~Shea~~ Citi…

I’m pleased to present you a SECOND guest entry today, this one comes from our friend Shannon Shark, who runs the fantastic site, The Mets Police, a “fan advocacy blog for the followers of the New York Mets.” Shannon lives and dies with the exploits of the boys from Queens, much more so than Paul or I, so he’s always on top of their doings, and mostly mis-doings these days.

Yesterday was “Banner Day” at Shea, a practice the Mets had undertaken for decades (from 1963 until, I believe 1995 or 1996, when they just stopped doing it). Shannon was one of those who were instrumental in bringing back Banner Day for the Mets 50th Anniversary in 2012, and they continued the tradition by again holding it this year. I asked him, since he was at this game and taking lots of photos, if he’d do a review of the 2013 Banner Day for Uni Watch, and he happily obliged. So, without further ado, here’s @MetsPolice with his rundown:

. . . . . .

I showed up at Banner Day at 9:30 and was a little worried about the turnout given the forecast.

When you line up you are given a sticker. I was given a sticker that will make it very easy to start campaigning for Banner Day 2014 although from what I am hearing I don’t think Banner Day is on any kind of bubble, and is now back for the foreseeable future.

I promised everyone it wouldn’t rain (I stuck to my “it never rains on Banner Day” guns and got away with it until the middle of the 9th, which was quite good enough.) The Mets served us coffee and donuts.

The line itself is a great hang. Mr. Met came by. I had a length conversation with a Mets Executive. I took lots of pictures.

Once you’re on the field it’s really cool. It’s hard to put to words but it’s just fun. And then you stand before the judges.

Banner Day is all about fathers and sons. As I am writing you this my son is standing next to me wondering what we can do for next year and asking if I have any ideas. Mission accomplished: he had a great day!

I reminded him that I barely had an idea for this year, but we did pretty well with Smurphy. Smurphy was mine, but at the last second it dawned on me that a cute kid might do better with the judges than a fat guy, so we swapped banners. Turns out both Josh Lewin (radio) and Kevin Burkhardt (TV) mentioned us on the broadcasts.

Matt Harvey is getting lots of love, and it was nice to see my #imwith28 hashtag on someone else’s banner.

Whether you think Byrd is the word, or you just dressed as a chicken it was a great day. Maybe for Banner Day 2014 Keith Hernandez will have his number retired and his mustache unretired.

In the end, only 99 banners were part of the parade, down from around 300 last year. That’s disappointing, but I think this video will convince everyone it’s a great time and more folks should participate next year.

. . .

Thanks Shannon — Aside from his blog, which is great, Shannon tweets on behalf of many of the Mets faithful, and even if you’re not a Mets fan, he’s a great follow. So follow him @MetsPolice.

Uni ~~Tweaks~~ Concepts

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We begin today with Coachie Ballgames, who decided he didn’t quite like the new Dolphins logo:

Hi Phil,

The new Miami logo is no fun. I made these two to keep the goofy spirit of the now-gone Dolphs logo alive.

Regards,

Coachie Ballgames

. . .

Next up is Matt Cunningham, who decided he didn’t quite like the new Stan Musial patch:

Phil,

I really like the Stan Musial memorial patch that the Cardinals are wearing this year. When you look at it though, you can not really make out his number 6 because his signature is covering much of the middle of the number.

I like the signature but I made it a bit smaller and then moved it lower on the number. Now you can see his famous 6 more clearly.

If I know the uni watchers, I bet I am not the only one who was bothered by this.

Matt Cunningham
Peoria, IL

. . .

We close today with Scott Michael Nystrom who has an idea for what the Rams would look like if they were treated like an expansion franchise in St. Looie:

Phil,

Consider the hypothetical that the Rams left their identity in LA when they moved, like the Sonics or Browns. This would require St. Louis to form its own, which I took from the 1934 franchise and this colorization on UW previously. I modernized it slightly with a helmet logo and pants stripes but kept the white/red look and white sleeves. I liked the result (more unique than football Cardinals and regional than Rams), but the color combination and triple-stripes from the 1934 look does make it feel like the classic Patriots—not that having someone wear white/red while NE sticks to navy/silver is wrong at all.

Scott Nystrom

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

Stirrup Fridays…

Didn’t get to this yesterday, because, well, I was at the Mets game with Paul on Friday night — but — it gives me the chance to show off one of my own rare Stirrup Fridays entries, which is below.

. . . . .

Anthony:

Comrades Phil and Rob,

I’m sorry I’m getting it in this late, but I decided to take the revolution on the road. My friends and I left California for New York, and while there, I decided to tweak the Yankees crowd by supporting the visiting Red Sox. My bravery is unquestionable in the face of promoting the revolution on enemy territory.

Anthony

. . .

Gary Alexander:

Hi Phil,

It’s a few days late. But I will be wearing them again, this week.

My first purchase from Comrade Marshall arrived. Giants throwbacks. Looks great with my Friday orange Pedro Sandoval jersey.

btw, I love working for myself. You don’t have to explain things.

Gary Alexander

. . .

Michael Clary:

Phil:

Here’s a couple ebay auctions for Stirrup Nation:

1959 Stan Musial Game Worn Stirrup (singular)

and

Vintage Red Stirrups.

-Clarybird

. . .

James Poisso:

Phil,

Stirrup Friday – Mother’s Day Edition (with thanks to Commrade Robert).

James Poisso

. . .

Soukie Outhavong:

Comrades,

Finally, a nice day to go cruisin’ with the little guy.

Soukie

. . .

Glenn Simpkins:

Phil,

Stirrup Friday…

Or as close to it as I can get, since I am without means to purchase them from Comrade Marshall.

Glenn Simpkins

. . .

Nathan Stewart:

Phil,

A pic of my stirrups and me getting ready to do PA duties on the final day of the Charleston Miracle League, as well as, a pic of my daughter and me on the same day! I’m wearing the ’55 Orioles to go with my ’76 jersey and cap.

Nate Stewart

. . .

Phil Hecken:

Comrades,

Broke out the never issued Mets-prototype stirrups for Friday night’s Mets/Bucs game.

The rups were the best looking thing out there, unless of course, you are a Pirate fan. The Mets played ugly.

PH

. . .

Parting Thoughts…

• First and foremost, congratulations go out to one of our colorizer extraordinaires, George Chilvers, whose lifelong devotion to the Wigan Football club was finally rewarded after decades of futility, as that club pretty much pulled off the upset of the century yesterday. Good for you, George. Now you can die in peace!

• Next comes this pretty amazing photo from Douggie Keklak, who simply writes, “So much Johnstown goodness in this pic!!!!” I’m not so sure that’s a good thing, but that is a great old photo.

• And, finally, today is, of course, Mother’s Day. Which means it’s baseball’s turn to break out the pink accessories. Not a fan of that, of course, even if in theory (and possibly practice) it’s for a good cause. But whatever. Of course, no good cause should be without controversy. Which is why, according to ‘Yahoo Expert’ Jeff Passan, “the use of pink bats on Mother’s Day, has turned into another ugly example of corporate greed.”.

• In another new twist, apparently MLB will also be breaking out pink-stitched baseballs today. I’m not sure if they will be used ceremonially, or if they’ll be a part of the action for every pitch. I can’t imagine those will be as easy to pick up as a standard baseball (batters need to ‘see’ the rotation on the ball to determine what type of pitch is coming — or at least that is the theory). Be interesting to see if batters fare poorly today. Put me down as “not a fan” of this either. Good cause or not, I don’t know how safe it will be to have one of those balls headed for your eye socket at 95 mph. Lets hope we don’t find out.

And that’s going to do it for today, folks. Everyone have a wonderful day, a great Mother’s Day, and a fine week. I’ll catch you next weekend.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken

Peace.

One For The Road

.. … ..

“Wigan was much the deserving team. City, as is so often the case in key matches, played like five were hung over, five had food poisoning, and one was just served with divorce papers. I’ve trained our youngest son to be a devoted City fan. When the time comes, I will not blame him if he puts me in a dangerously substandard retirement home.”
–Cort McMurray

The UWFFL Heads West – Seattle & San Diego

2013-05-11T11:04:42Z

By Phil Hecken, with Rob Holecko

We’re closing in on our last four sets of teams for the UWFFL, and because four is just too many for one day, we’re going to have two more for the penultimate UWFFL post today — and those two teams “hail” from the West Coast — Seattle and San Diego. To be precise, the teams are the Seattle Superbeasts and the San Diego Storm.

I want to thank Rob Holecko for all his work on this, and all the great submitters for taking such an interest in this contest. And now, I will turn this over to Rob, who’ll take you through the next two groups of entries, complete with polls (so be sure to view all of the entries for each team and then be prepared to vote — write down your favorite if you have to, so you can easily vote on it after each of the sections). We’ll do these alphabetically, and some submitters sent in more than one graphic. Click on each graphic to enlarge.

Ready? OK — here’s Rob:

. . .

Greetings and salutations from the UWFFL. We are back with another group of winning designs to congratulate and another selection of teams for you to vote for. First, for those of you who maybe haven’t been around for every UWFFL column that has been running in recent weeks, I wanted to reset exactly what the UWFFL is. We’ve had a few emails from people that may not be exactly clear on this project, so I wanted to clear up any confusion that may still be around.

In March we announced the UWFFL — the Uni Watch “Fantasy” Football League. It will technically be “fantasy” football, but fantasy football done Uni Watch style. Instead of drafting NFL players and scoring points based on their performance on the field like in traditional fantasy football, teams will be facing off and Uni Watchers will vote on their uniforms in head-to-head matchups when the season starts in the fall. The best teams will make the playoffs and eventually compete in the UWFFL Bowl, while the three last place teams will be “relegated” to the minors to be replaced by three new teams from the minor leagues in 2014. We held a contest for desiging the uniforms for the twelve existing franchises which is just wrapping up this week and next with your voting. For those of you who didn’t or haven’t won yet, we’ll have more opportunities this summer for you to design uniforms for a minor league or an entirely original expansion franchise.

Also breaking news here we are thinking about also — if Phil is down with it — possibly starting up comparable hockey & basketball leagues this fall as well as baseball in 2014. Let us know in the comments your thoughts and/or interest in that. The 2013 UWFFL football season will be fourteen regular season weeks, but if we do add these other sports leagues, we may shorten it to a 10- or 12- game season and make UW fantasy sports a year-round thing with as little overlap between the four sports as possible. It’s all up to how much interest there is among everybody. Tell us what you think, and we’ll have more about these other sports later this summer!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anyhow it’s now time to announce last week’s winner and also bring in two more groups of teams to vote on.

First off we had a run-off for the Top 4 vote getters of the previous week’s New York Sharks entry, and the top two vote getters, Adam Cain and Robert Kramer are still in a virtual dead heat, only separated by three votes:

Therefore we will have an unprecedented second run-off for these two entries

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now here are the other results from last week:

Trent Daniel’s entry for the Chicago Cyclones won by about twenty votes over Brett Callero.

___________________________________

Brett, however, prevailed over runner-up Jeff Provo with his Minnesota Mustangs entry.

___________________________________

And finally Wes Peters picked up another win with the Texas Timberwolves.

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now the final rounds of voting. This week we will vote on the Seattle Superbeasts and the San Diego Storm, and next week we’ll close it out with Tampa and San Francisco.

Here are the entries for the Seattle Superbeasts. Vote below:

___________________________________

Brady Ivie

___________________________________

Brendan Jang

___________________________________

Dan Hutcheson

___________________________________

Lewis King

___________________________________

Wes Peters

___________________________________

Yossi Katz

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And here are the entries for the San Diego Storm. Vote below:

___________________________________

Adam Hainsfurther

___________________________________

Andrew Seagraves

___________________________________

Brady Ivie

___________________________________

Brendan Jang

___________________________________

Brett Callero

___________________________________

Curtis Peddle

___________________________________

Dan Hutcheson

___________________________________

Jeff Provo

___________________________________

Johnny Woods

___________________________________

Wes Peters

___________________________________

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

OK, good luck to the entrants this week for the Seattle and San Diego teams, as well as to Adam and Robert for their second run-off in the New York voting. Congratulations to Daniel, Brett and Wes for winning for their entries for Chicago, Minnesota and Texas respectively, and we’ll see you next week!

___________________________________

Thanks Rob (and all the submitters). OK readers, you know what to do. And let the concepters know what YOU think of their efforts.

Brew Crew Redux

Last weekend, we were treated to a really wonderful writeup on the Brewers throwbacks by my buddy Chance Michaels (with whom Paul and I had the pleasure of joining at the Mets game last night, dontcha know). I made Chance promise to follow up on that experience with an additional article I am running today. He obliged, gentleman and scholar that he is — and below is that follow up. So, without further ado, here’s Chance:

. . . . . .

The Big Day, Part II
By Chance Michaels

Finally, the big day. One year after I first suggested that the Brewers should consider holding a Turn Back the Clock event to honor the old American Association Brewers’ first pennant, the day had come.

It was a lovely Sunday in Milwaukee, and the roof of Miller Park was open. I was joined by Paul Tenpenny and Dennis Pajot, the two regular contributors to my site. Despite the fact that we have been collaborating for years, I had never met the gentlemen in person, and so the game felt a little like I’m sure the Uni Watch meet-ups do for Paul.

My first stop was the mobile studio for Newsradio WTMJ, parked just outside the home plate gate. At about 12:10, I spoke on air with host Doug Russell, who had interviewed me for OnMilwaukee.com the previous May and started the whole adventure. We had a great conversation about fandom and history, not to mention carrying our childhood sports loyalties with us across the country (he to Houston, where he had been working until recently, me to Brooklyn).

From there, it was a quick trip to pick up our complimentary tickets will call, and with a stop at the gate to snag our commemorative Corey Hart retro uniform bobbleheads, we went into the park.

The atmosphere was fun; ragtime music over the loudspeakers and photos of the old club on the JumboTron. Before the player introductions, the team played a short historical video introducing the fans of 2013 tp the club of a century before.

We settled into our seats behind home plate (two rows behind the radar gun) and waited for our first peek at the uniforms. I was very pleased with the results.

Despite the bobblehead’s pajama look, everyone on both teams wore their pants high-cuffed, showing off plenty of sock. Almost everyone, that is: Cardinals starter Jamie Garcia, who managed to ruin an otherwise-great look. Even players known for dragging their pants in the dirt, like Ryan Braun, managed to look respectable. Cory Hart was on the 60-day DL and didn’t actually play in the game, but he looked pretty good on the bench. Completely unlike his bobblehead.

Perhaps most amazing about the jerseys was the letter on the front. Not only did they get the style right, they used felt instead of tackle-twill. Check out the texture!

The biggest concession to modern style was numbers on the back, something the original Brewers wouldn’t adopt for a decade, but the large navy block numbers were well in keeping with the uniform’s style.

The Brewers also played around with the in-game graphics: they used a block “M” for the Brewers on the scoreboard and on the back of the mound, although they didn’t change the logo behind home plate.

I was surprised to notice, as the game went on, that the Brewers had removed the decal from their batting helmets, opting for solid navy. The Cardinals wore their regular helmets.

Have to admit that I was a bit disappointed in the caps. Once it was clear that New Era’s white caps would clash with Majestic’s cream jerseys, the Brewers had decided to revert to navy blue caps (perfectly in keeping with the 1913 look). They did decide to make one concession to modernity and place a cream “M” logo on the front. I didn’t mind the idea, but New Era’s execution was a little off. Once again, they made it too large, too squat, a variation on their standard monogram that drives me up the wall every time I see it.

But that’s a minor quibble.

I had the honor of wearing an original 1913 jersey while being interviewed on FOX Sports Wisconsin in the third inning. Surely that’s at least eight of my fifteen minutes of fame used up. My pal Paul also appeared on-camera, wearing a 1943 Brewers jersey.

Of course, the throwbacks were for sale, although the cap substitution happened so late in the game that they were selling the white caps alongside the jerseys, and no blue caps were available. Interestingly, the Brewers’ were also selling team-issued white caps in the game-used section of the store; late switch indeed.

I think the Brewers really nailed the essence of the 1913 uniform. I couldn’t have been happier with the game, except of course the final score. I already have plans to pitch some new TBTC events for next year…

. . . . . .

Great job (again) with that Chance — good to see you at the game, and great to hear about your big day! Thanks for sharing.

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Got a small set again today, but with two of the stalwarts AND a new colorizer who took on the very first image (and the image that is used for the splash for this segment) of “Colorize This!”

Click on each image to enlarge.

. . .

We begin today with Dillon Levi West, who colorized the splash — and it’s full size — Dillon, if you’re out there and want the full size b&w to colorize, it’s here:

. . .

Next up is Pete Woychick with a two-fer (and of course, a story):

Phil

I wasn’t able to get to this one in time for April 15; better late than never?

I almost didn’t bother with the second photo—an unidentified Tarheel player in a nondescript pose—until I thought “What if the uniform was Carolina blue, instead of white or gray?” On closer inspection, a couple of things stood out. First, I like the way the second button goes through the top of the R in “North.” Second, I’m no tailor, but that doesn’t appear to be “standard” wool flannel; it almost looks like. . .cotton?!?

Cheers!
—Pete

. . .

And we close today with another colorizer-extraordinaire, George Chilvers. You’ll never guess the subject material:

Hi Phil—

I don’t know if you’re running a “Colorize This” this week, and if you do what day it will be on, but on Saturday I will be at Wembley watching my little team, Wigan Athletic, play in the FA Cup Final. A dream for any football supporter and one I never thought I would ever see.

So it seems fitting that I should go back 90 years for my subject to the first FA Cup Final at Wembley in 1923. I don’t know if readers are aware of the tale, but the stadium opened and the first major event was to be the FA Cup Final between Bolton and West Ham. The stadium was scheduled to hold 100,000 but so many turned up that chaos ensued. Estimates put the actual crowd at between 125,000 and 200,000. Obviously they spilled onto the pitch and there was a massive task to clear it for the game, which went ahead with crowds thronging the touchlines. It was the last FA Cup Final that wasn’t ticket only.

The iconic image of the day is a white police horse pushing the crowds back, but as this picture shows it was a big concerted effort by the British bobbies to get the playing area clear. We have here three of the Bolton team waiting, while it must be said that everyone seems quite light-hearted about the situation – I’m not sure these days crowds would be so tolerant.

Anyway – as a favour to a Wigan supporting Uni Watcher, could anyone who doesn’t have an allegiance to Man City please give a little cheer (and if it suits anyone a little prayer) for the Latics to bring home the Cup. :)

Best wishes,

George

… .. …

And that will conclude this shorter “Colorize This!” Thanks as always to George & Pete, and welcome aboard Dillon. And how about a little cheer from the UW faithful for Wigan! Lets keep those colorizations coming Uni Watchers!

That’s it for today Uni Watchers — due to the lateness of my arrival home from last evening’s Mets game, I didn’t have time to put together a “Stirrup Fridays” piece — but that will run tomorrow, so fear not.

Everyone have a great Saturday and I will catch you guys tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken

One For The Road

.. … ..

“Here in Washington we know that (Redskins owner Daniel) Snyder is one of history’s all-time assholes, non-dictator division. The man does reprehensible stuff, and gets called out on it, all the time. For example, when it’s pointed out that he has made a practice of suing elderly people who cancel season-ticket pledges into penury, Snyder doesn’t take to the air and announce ‘I will NEVER stop suing doddering grandparents into the poorhouse, and you can print that in all caps’.”
–R. Scott Rogers

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