Put yourself in Eliezer Alfonzo’s place: You toil for more than 10 years in the minor leagues. When you finally get called up to the bigs, a thunderstorm makes it impossible for you to fly to join your team, so you take a three-and-a-half-hour limo ride through the storm — and then the game is rained out just as you get to the stadium. The next day, you arrive in the clubhouse and find the skipper has penciled you into the starting lineup. You’re so excited, you practically do cartwheels over to your locker — where you find your last name has been misspelled on your jersey. The day after that, even though newspaper reports have been mentioning the gaffe, your jersey still has the typo. “Hmmm,” you think to yourself, “this problem never came up when I played Venezuelan winter ball.”
And in a related item, the Giants have just gotten a résumé from that girl who won the spelling bee last week.
Whatever Blows Your Dress Up: Maria Sharapova was wearing a seriously frilly dress dress at the French Open yesterday. The skirt kept blowing up in the breeze, revealing some major camel-toe action. Uni Watch has been unable to confirm the rumors that Nike plans to plaster a swoosh on Sharapova’s crotch at Wimbledon.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Nice Negro Leagues tribute game in Milwaukee last Friday night, as the Brewers dressed up as the 1923 Milwaukee Bears and the Nationals became the circa-1940s Homestead Grays (additional pics here and here). …Genius observation by emerging Uni Watch go-to guy Bryan Redemske, who says, “Check out the wristband on Nick Peoples. Is he calling a 36 z-out, dog alpha left on two, or what? I can only hope that thing’s filled with bunt coverages and first-and-third defenses. But at this point in the season, you should probably have that figured out.” … Several readers have pointed out that Kenny Rogers wears a batting practice cap when he pitches, instead of Detroit’s regular cap. It’s tough to see in photos, because the Tigers’ BP caps are pretty much the same as their game caps, but you can spot a bit of the telltale puffiness on the BP cap’s brim here. Another giveaway: Detroit’s game cap undervisors are gray, but Rogers’s undervisor is black (on the road, too). … Michael Barrett has updated his road chest protector from this to this. Aside from the darker color and different padding style, note that protector’s collar now carries his name, which is a growing trend that’s shaping up as Uni Watch’s next documentation project. Contributions welcome. … A little birdie tells Uni Watch that the folks at Cutter & Buck, who make the Annika clothing collection, were none to thrilled to see Annika Sorenstram wearing a J. Lindeberg belt during last week’s Corning Classic. … Friday’s post about Groton prep school’s striped jerseys drew a response from Ethan Lewis, who reports that Groton’s archrival is St. Mark’s, a school that also knows a thing or two about jersey stripes. … Good article here about the Heat’s two road uniforms. … Add another name to our fraternity of catchers who wear their helmet with the brim facing forward: new A’s call-up Jeremy Brown (who perhaps got the idea from teammate Adam Melhuse). … Prediction: The tights that Terrell Owens wore a few days ago during his first Cowboys practice are what NFL pants will soon look like. No more knickers, no more socks — just leggings. … Cliff Floyd was the victim of a classic cap prank yesterday.
Why would the Nationals wear Homestead uniforms? Homestead is outside of Pittsburgh.
Are the stripes on those high school football uniforms an homage to old time football uniforms? Either way, they are super cool.
“make every shot, a power shot.”
The Grays also played in D.C. for a while in the 30s and 40s as their “home away from home” so to speak.
On the subject of Nick Peoples’ wristband, I noticed four or five other Texas players wearing them last year. Head Coach Augie Gauredo is known for bunting a lot and for his attention to detail. My best guess is that his signals are very complex or there are a lot of them to remember.
In fact, when the Expos moved to Washington, there was some sentiment for naming them the “Grays.”
It’s not a uni observation, but is anybody prepared to be confused about the venues for this year’s NBA finals? The Mavs play in Dallas’s American Airlines Center while the Heat play in Miami’s American Airlines Arena.
Paul, do you give annual Uni Watch awards? If so, when are they? If not, you definitely should.
Watching ESPN hilights this morning I saw that Barry Bonds had a rather large “BONDS” on the back of his batting helmet. Is this a Giants standard or was it more PR for him? They didn’t show any other players’ helmets from behind.
In response to the post above regarding the arenas for the NBA finals, I submit that the bigger questions is what airline are the teams going to use to go between Miami and Dallas?
Jason Kendall has had his name on his catcher’s gear for both season with the A’s although he started 2006 out with his number instead of his name – he has since switched back.
To Jim Bahel, the Giants put their player names on the back of the helmets rather than player numbers.
If American Airlines had held on to TWA’s naming rights of the Trans World Dome when they bought the airline, then there would have also been the American Airlines Dome in St. Louis. Instead they dropped the naming rights, and now the building is called the Edward Jones Dome (or “The Ed”)
In the Nick People’s picture you can see the spot where he wipes his face on his jersey quite clearly.
Re: The helmets… different teams do things differently… The mets have names in the small type on the front brim of the helmets. Since it’s inconspicuous, there are often nicknames there. When Andres Galarraga was a non-roster invitee, his helmet said “BIG CAT…” can’t think of any others offhand.
Jorge Posada has his name on his chest also
The wristband with plays and pitch calls is becoming more and more common. I have seen them at high school and junior college and colleges games.
I think the all-time best “catcher with his name on his chestplate” honor goes to Dan Wilson, who simply wore Wilson brand equipment. No personalization required!
some MLB notables tonight…
first off, in the yankee/red sox game.. the boston bat-boy is wearing a navy blue logo-less batting helmet… strange…
also, the only yankee in uniform wearing their pants the proper knee-high length is skippy the third baseline ball boy… he has always fashioned his pants that way
lastly, does anyone out there know why the numeral “6” on the nationals unis has a gold “speck” in the top portion of the number??? no other numerals on their unis has this conspicuous gold speck… clearly visible on levon hernandez’ uni tonight…
nybatt
Gregg Zaun has his chest protector personalized as well. However, his doesn’t say ‘Zaun,’ his says ‘Z-Man.’ Here is the link
Funny about the gum prank – they were playing the Giants, and that prank is an old favorite of SF pitcher Jason Schmidt. The Mets’ announcers were laughing about the prank but failed to mention the Schmidt connection. I would guess the Giants’ guys did.
Speaking of Livan Hernandez, are the logo’s on his glove in this picture blacked out. It looks like a Wilson glove.
link
In regards to Eliezer Alfonso [sic], the Giants clubhouse crew might actually be doing him a favor, as the previous E. Alfonzo in black and orange was run out of town on a rail. A very thick, load-bearing rail.
I’d be pissed as hell of the Alfonzo incident.
In the the picture of Michael Barrett with his new chest protector he has tape on his fingers to help the pitchers see the signs.
Are you allowed to say “camel-toe” on a family internet site?
Freehawk, you just did.
Prediction on the T.O. tights – that will be the last time he wears a swooshed garment, other than his shoes, on the field since those tights are not “NFL Equipment”.
And no I don’t think you should be able to say “camel toe” on this site…”moose knuckle” would be more appropriate.
Yeah, camel toe is all good because this is more of a jovial, casual blog, not a documented ESPN article. ‘Cause we say ‘damn’ does that make it not a “family” thing? What the hell, do kids know what that even means anyway? Settle, plus, who doesn’t wanna see Maria in all her glory???
Some college baseball teams have been going to the wristband signals this year in order to thwart sign-stealing. After all, many college coaches signal each pitch to the catcher and a random-number wristband makes it much tougher to steal them.
Get a freaking life. Seriously, who cares about Skippy the batboy
also, the only yankee in uniform wearing their pants the proper knee-high length is skippy the third baseline ball boy… he has always fashioned his pants that way
Get a freaking life. Seriously.