New ESPN column today — here’s the link.
Meanwhile, let’s turn our attention back to Pedro Martinez, who’s in the midst of quite a uni-centric period. First he’s ordered to change his undershirt and ends up missing a start as a result (full details here). And now he’s been fined $5000 because he had his pant cuffs stretched down under the heels of his spikes during his start last week in Boston.
Wearing your pants in this manner is indeed verboten, but this is the first time I’ve heard of anyone being fined because of it. Kudos to Major League Baseball for enforcing the rule. It would be nice if they’d also require players to wear their pants high enough to expose at least a modicum of sock, but that’s another issue.
Anyway, check out Pedro’s reaction to the fine: “Why are they going after me?” he said. “What about all the others who do it? And guys like [Boston manager Terry] Francona and [Toronto manager John] Gibbons, who just wear a sweatshirt or jacket and no jersey every night? Five thousand dollars? Like $5,000 is just nothing?”
Couldn’t agree more regarding Francona and Gibbons. If they’re going to wear baseball pants, they should get reacquainted with the concept of a jersey. Otherwise, let them wear blue jeans or Dockers (there’s no rule against it — managers can wear street clothes if they want, although it’s been about 60 years since anyone did it).
But when Pedro complains about having to pay five thousand entire dollars, he’s scaling new heights in chutzpah. Let’s do a little math: Pedro is in the midst of a four-year, $53 million contract, which averages out to $13.25 million per year. Now let’s say I make $100,000 a year. I don’t actually make that much (the uniform beat isn’t all that lucrative — yet), but let’s say I do, for the sake of argument. Given the relative size of my salary to Pedro’s, him getting fined $5000 is the same as if I was fined $37.74.
Now let’s say I got fined that amount and then whined, “Thirty-seven dollars and seventy-four cents? Like $37.74 is nothing?”
With all this mind, I propose that we take up a collection for Pedro Martinez. Let’s all chip in and raise $37.74 for the poor guy. I’m completely serious — PayPal your contribution to me (use paul_lukas@earthlink.net as the payee address) and I promise to send a check for $37.74 to Pedro, along with a note expressing our deep concern for his dire financial plight (and our heartfelt plea that he go back to wearing his pants like this). No need to go overboard — just kick in a dollar, and I’ll let everyone know when we’ve reached our goal. If there’s any cash left over, I’ll put it toward the next Uni Watch Athletics Aesthetics Party. Or buy a pizza. Or something. Anyway, rush your contribution this way, before Pedro ends up looking like this.
Flag Follies, Continued: Seems like there’s always someone who keeps wearing his American flag-adorned cap the day after the holiday. Last night there were at least two such someones: Orioles skipper Sam Perlozzo and Reds pitcher Esteban Yan, the latter of whom joined the ever-expanding ranks of players who’ve worn upside-down flags. How many more of these Keystone Kops moments do we need to have before the MLB brain trust — which is neither brainy nor trustworthy — figures out that the flag patches are transforming baseball from national pastime to national laughingstock?
(Big thanks to Andy Britten, Matt Garrett, and James T. Huening for their Yan and Perlozzo observations.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: With the rise of hip-hop culture, I always knew it was only a matter of time before someone wore one pant leg up and one pant leg down on the baseball diamond. I just never thought that someone would be Joe Torre. … Reader Matt Nelson reports that the movie The Final Season, about an Iowa high school baseball team, just wrapped up shooting on location in Iowa. Naturally, lots of attention was paid to the uniforms. … Gee, ya think maybe Jamie Moyer needs shorter shoelaces? … Elastic-free Pants Alert: Something really needs to be done about Ryan Freel. … Uni-as-Hanky Dept.: Paul Byrd was helping himself to a mouthful of undershirt and a snootful of jersey last night (with thanks to Bill Blevins for the screen-grabs). … Not uni-related, but still a great tidbit: You know how every player has his own theme music when he comes up to bat these days? I was at Shea Stadium on July 4th, and when Cliff Floyd came up for his first plate appearance, they played the Sanford and Son theme song. How awesome is that?! Unfortunately, they played some crummy hip-hop snippet for his second time up, and then he got injured and left the game, but I spent the rest of the day saying things like, “That’s F-l-o-y-d-period” and “That’s Cliff G. Floyd — and the ‘G’ is for ‘Grand slam.'”
I thought that managers are permitted to wear street clothes, but that they then can’t go on the field, only in the dugout. Not true?
Even with Moyer’s shoelace issue, you have to appreciate his stirrups.
I was also at Shea on the 4th! Great game, eh?
Why do players want their pants so low and baggy enough to slip under their shoes?
Why?!?
It not only looks like they are wearing footie pajamas (I’m waiting for a player to take the field with pants that have a “trap door”) , but it seems to be a safety hazard – you could trip over all of that extra fabric, especially if it’s under your shoes!
Tighter and shorter pants would make players look thinner and faster!
They really needs to get this “Pajama Bottom” look removed from baseball – for the players own safety.
P.S. Pedro, stop crying.
In the picture of Joe Torre it looks like he has some sort of knee brace on, maybe that made the one leg ride up. Also Torre can’t seem to make up his mind about the stirrups, he showed them during him playing days, link
Then used to show them as a manager,pic from 2001 link
Now appears not to show them anymore, pic from 2004, link
Freel is also wearing a Dot Matrix Nike undershirt…The Horror…The Horror.
I like the undershirt that Freel has on and plus, that’s just a sweet-ass pic!
maybe floyd’s music is analagous to the mets season.
“im comin’ elizabeth! this is the big one!”
[quote comment=”2112″]
They really needs to get this “Pajama Bottom” look removed from baseball – for the players own safety.
[/quote]
It’s just the latest trend. Give it some time before it passes like the forgotten high top baseball spikes that were all the rage in the late 80s/ early 90s.
Eric Davis was the man.
If you like high pants, get out to Keyspan to catch the Cyclones, on the 3rd everyone on the field had their pants up (unfortunately I couldn’t spot any stirrups) I’ll send you a picture as soon as I figure out how to upload one.
About the ‘thug’ pant leg look, as in the one up one down, I can remember a handful of kids on the Canadian and a few US teams sporting this look. I’m talking one hiked to the knee and the other side looking like Marcus Giles-baggy. It wasn’t very pretty. Granted, they were a bunch of 12 year old rich white kids that probably couldn’t point Compton out in a map with only Compton listed, so hopefully it’s a phase and not a ‘stars-of-tomorrow’ type deal. But by then, I’m sure Nike’s asymmetrical pants product line will be readily available anyway.
I forgot to mention something about the England-Portugal game this weekend. England keeper Paul Robinson was wearing link. It looked very weird to me. Also, Robinson is one of four keepers in the Cup to wear Nike keeper gear including link link, Portugal’s link and Korea’s link.
In the NBA players get fined for wearing thier “shorts” to long. NFL players are inspected befor each game. Fines if your socks are too short ect.. Baseball seems to have a whatever you want attitude. They are called uniforms for a reason. Make a standard and live by it. Are the players unions that weak in the other sports and that strong in baseball? Baseball likes to talk about all it’s traditions but here they have dropped the ball.
On baseball managers not wearing a complete uniform. Unless they are going to take the field they shouldn’t have to wear a uniform. I think they should look a little different. It shows a difference between management and player.
im actually a fan of the baggy pj bottom look.
however, i can appreciate the high stirrups only when the pants are tailored to be baggy like in the gehrig/ruth era.
link
juan pierre adopts this fashion.
link
what i cant stand are tight non tailored pants with high stirrups or socks. example, el duque.
link
I was at the Nationals game last night and noticed something interesting about Nick Johnson’s pants. He has an unfortunate yellow stain on his left hip/crotch region. The stain I would assume is from when he hikes his pants up before stepping into the batter’s box. When he does this, he grabs the white pants with his pine-tar stained batting glove and bingo… unfortunate yellow stain. It reminded me of Mike Sweeney the past few years, how he always had a stain crossing out part of his name because he hits himself with his bat almost every swing… and we wonder why he has injury problems. Anyway, this made me wonder about players who continualy stain their unis from pine tar. I mean we’ve got guys like Vlad with gunked up helmets, but what about the unis and how much of a pain in the ass is it for the equipment managers to try and get that out, or do they?
More on pine tar: Jay Buhner used to put a big splotch of the stuff link, so he could use it to keep his throwing hand dry while playing the field.
But none of this is the equipment manager’s problem, because that’s not who launders the unis — the clubhouse boys (or, in some cases, the batboys) do the team laundry. One batboy has told me, “Everytime someone slides, we cringe.”
I was at Shea on July 4th too..and actually, as I was waiting for the fireworks, I spotted someone with a David Wright jersey that had arched lettering on the player name…something i’ve never seen on a Mets jersey before. I was half convinced it was you knowing your love for that style and now that you mention you were at that game…WAS that you?
Interesting batting gloves in the Giants-Rockies game last night – Josh Fogg (pitcher for the rockies) batted with no gloves, and then I saw someone (Helton I think) doing the one glove only look. Todd Greene wasn’t catching for the Giants, but he’s been doing the one glove all season. Sorry, no time to find pictures.
About the Cliff Floyd walk-up music…I was at a Reds home game on June 11 and I noticed that they don’t have player walk up music. The organist plays a short tune and that’s it. Classic baseball. Any other parks that still do this and not play player “theme music”?
[quote comment=”2122″]im actually a fan of the baggy pj bottom look.
however, i can appreciate the high stirrups only when the pants are tailored to be baggy like in the gehrig/ruth era.
link
juan pierre adopts this fashion.
link
what i cant stand are tight non tailored pants with high stirrups or socks. example, el duque.
link
I don’t mind the baggy pants with the stirrups or pulled up socks look, like you said it can be reminiscent of a classic era. But a fan of the pajama bottoms look? I think you might be on the wrong blog; I’m sure team nike has a blog somewhere…
Jose Canseco was wearing NFL Equipment gloves while batting when he played for the Surf Dawgs the other day:
link
[quote comment=”2128″][quote comment=”2122″]im actually a fan of the baggy pj bottom look.
however, i can appreciate the high stirrups only when the pants are tailored to be baggy like in the gehrig/ruth era.
link
juan pierre adopts this fashion.
link
what i cant stand are tight non tailored pants with high stirrups or socks. example, el duque.
link
I don’t mind the baggy pants with the stirrups or pulled up socks look, like you said it can be reminiscent of a classic era. But a fan of the pajama bottoms look? I think you might be on the wrong blog; I’m sure team nike has a blog somewhere…[/quote]
yeah, i run it… obviously you havent checked my uri…
speaking of that, we should all make a habit of clicking on at least 1 or 2 ads everytime we check this site. by doing so, we help paul and this great blog he writes.
So on the ESPN column story about the University of Nebraska pitchers…what does the underbill say? I’ve been trying to read it for about 20 minutes using Photoshop and Illustrator. Oh, and I’m at work.
[quote comment=”2123″]we’ve got guys like Vlad with gunked up helmets [/quote]
Does anyone know when/by whom this practice originated?
The first player I remember doing this is link. Yes, I know that picture sucks, but you can kinda tell that the helmet was pine tarred-up. (On a side note, the picture reminds me that he used to always wear the single red stripe on his right leg.)
I may kick in if we can get a guarantee on more pizza for the next party. Was damn harsh at the last one (I held back a bit, which proved to be a mistake) people rushed the table like they had never seen a pie before – either that or some very hungry homeless dude managed to infiltrate the proceedings. I ended up having another beer for lunch, which could have been worse.
Anyway. Good job on the blog, Paul, it’s nice to get a dose of Uniwatch on a more frequent basis. Hope we do the party (or, um, “conference” as I sold it to my wife) again next year.
“That’s F-l-o-y-d-period†and “That’s Cliff G. Floyd — and the ‘G’ is for ‘Grand slam.’â€Â
I think the “G” would be for Gimpy. Again.
It says “Get Wehrle and Opitz the fuckin ball”
link
[quote comment=”2134″]I may kick in if we can get a guarantee on more pizza for the next party. Was damn harsh at the last one (I held back a bit, which proved to be a mistake) people rushed the table like they had never seen a pie before – either that or some very hungry homeless dude managed to infiltrate the proceedings. I ended up having another beer for lunch, which could have been worse.
Anyway. Good job on the blog, Paul, it’s nice to get a dose of Uniwatch on a more frequent basis. Hope we do the party (or, um, “conference” as I sold it to my wife) again next year.[/quote]
thats funny! i missed the pie altogether. youre right though, people swarmed it.
maybe i’ll bring yocco’s next time, i know paul loves him some yocco’s.
i sold it as “an espn party”. some people thought people like jay-z and paris hilton were gonna be there.
That’s kind of a low blow for Pedro to call out Terry Francona like that about his sweatshirt. Francona always wears the sweatshirt. Ever since his stroke a few years ago, the meds he takes always leave him with a chill, so he wears the sweatshirt. He wears is during the hottest days of the year, and during his press conferences.
Did anyone else notice that the French sub in yesterday’s WC game took something off his stomach and stuck it on on his hand right before he went in the game. I can’t for the life of me figure out what it was or what purpose it could possibly serve. Any ideas?
More Ozzie pics:
link (I miss those 1990s Reds unis.)
link
link
When I wrote about pine-tarred helmets back in 2004, I tried unsuccessfully to determine who was the first player to tar up. Guillen was definitely among the first few players to do it. So was John Kruk. But a conclusive “This guy was absolutely THE first” determination proved impossible.
Terri,
I noticed that French sub as well. It was very peculiar…
I can’t find any evidence online yet, but the three suspects are Louis Saha, Sidney Govou and Sylvain Wiltord. Can someone who TIVOed the match check? They were subbed in at 85, 72 and 69 minutes respectively.
Jim Leyland also seems to link in favor of the batting practice jersey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear a normal team jersey. It seems clear from link that he doesn’t even bother to put it on, so it isn’t like he has it on under the BP jersey, all he has under there is a long sleeved (non-Nike, mind you) undershirt.
With regard to different batting music, I was watching my Tigers put a whooping on the Rocket last Tuesday, and Brandon Inge also came out to “Sanford & Son’!! By the same token, the rest of the night he came out to Chamillionaire’s “Ridin'”. But I heard it in the background and mentioned to my buddies how great it would be if ballplayers had a good sense of humor and picked grabass songs more often.
I’ve never seen Don Cooper (White Sox pitching coach) wear anything but link jersey/jacket .
It’s hard to tell from these pictures, but it zips about halfway down and has pockets like a pullover jacket. It also has his link like a batting practice jersey.
Well, I really screwed up my html tags. Here’s what I was trying to say:
I’ve never seen Don Cooper (White Sox pitching coach) wear anything but link jersey/jacket link.
It’s hard to tell from these pictures, but it zips about halfway down and has pockets like a pullover jacket. It also has his link like a batting practice jersey.
[quote comment=”2145″]Jim Leyland also seems to link in favor of the batting practice jersey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear a normal team jersey. It seems clear from link that he doesn’t even bother to put it on, so it isn’t like he has it on under the BP jersey, all he has under there is a long sleeved (non-Nike, mind you) undershirt.[/quote]
actually, that is a Nike undershirt, it just isn’t the dot-matrix one. its the (obviously) Tigers version of this
link
Another great ESPN article, Paul. Tho I did get a sense of deja vu from it.
Now, I’m no Ad-Wizard, but why would a basestealer like Juan Pierre wear a baggy uniform? Wouldn’t that slow him down on the basepaths? That’s why Olympic swimmers don’t wear baggy swimsuits (or do they now???)
[quote comment=”2144″]Terri,
I noticed that French sub as well. It was very peculiar…
I can’t find any evidence online yet, but the three suspects are Louis Saha, Sidney Govou and Sylvain Wiltord. Can someone who TIVOed the match check? They were subbed in at 85, 72 and 69 minutes respectively.[/quote]
It was Saha, and it appeared to be some sort of tape. Dunno what for, but it might have been to cover up his wedding band, just a wild guess…
[quote comment=”2142″]More Ozzie pics:
link (I miss those 1990s Reds unis.)
link
link[/quote]
Actually, that’s not a stripe. and I’m a White Sox fan, so I’m about 99.9% pretty sure about this: judging by the Rangers cap, that picture was taken in 1993. In 1992, in a play in shallow leftfield, Ozzie ran out there on a flyball and crashed into the leftfielder Tim Raines. This was 12 games into his ’92 season, and it really f’ed his knee that he missed the rest of the season. From then on, he wore a red knee brace.
And sadly, red has not been a White Sox color since 1990.
[quote comment=”2109″]Even with Moyer’s shoelace issue, you have to appreciate his stirrups.[/quote]
You also gotta give him kudos for repping white laces with black cleats…always a classy look.
[quote comment=”2157″]And sadly, red has not been a White Sox color since 1990.[/quote]
Yes, but thankfully those 80s softball unis and the nondescript 90s ones with the “pigtail” C caps are now just memories.
Although it would be nice to see them go back to the black and red of the Go-Go days.
[quote comment=”2163″]those 80s softball unis and the nondescript 90s ones[/quote]
Er… make that early 80s/late 80s. They’ve been sporting the current look since the last week or so of the 1990 season.
Buck Showalter of the Rangers wears some type of warm-up jacket. It reminds me of a golf wind jacket.
Chuck,
I’m a fan of the link myself.
Fight On!
[quote comment=”2156″][quote comment=”2144″]Terri,
I noticed that French sub as well. It was very peculiar…
I can’t find any evidence online yet, but the three suspects are Louis Saha, Sidney Govou and Sylvain Wiltord. Can someone who TIVOed the match check? They were subbed in at 85, 72 and 69 minutes respectively.[/quote]
It was Saha, and it appeared to be some sort of tape. Dunno what for, but it might have been to cover up his wedding band, just a wild guess…[/quote]
It’s possible the French players were wearing something like this
link
I’ve heard of patches like this to help with oxygen intake or something with endurance athletes.
It kinda seems like an adhesive magnetic braclet or titanium necklace based on the description: The power is in the mind of the wearer.
I think we’re omitting the most obvious piece of commentary appropriate for this blog entry by Paul.
Pedro’s griping about financial strife is vividly reminiscent of KG’s I-can’t-feed-my-family-on-$21million-a-year charade.
You’re welcome,
Cpt. Obvious
[quote comment=”2171″]Pedro’s griping about financial strife is vividly reminiscent of KG’s I-can’t-feed-my-family-on-$21million-a-year charade.[/quote]
That was Latrell Sprewell, not KG.
[quote comment=”2150″]actually, that is a Nike undershirt, it just isn’t the dot-matrix one. its the (obviously) Tigers version of this link[/quote]
Whoops, my bad, didn’t see the swoosh there at first, but now that you mention it I guess it is there. Damnit.
Pedro is telling Terry Francona to wear MORE clothing (the jersey), which isn’t trying to make him suffer from his stroke meds.
[quote comment=”2131″][quote comment=”2128″][quote comment=”2122″]im actually a fan of the baggy pj bottom look.
however, i can appreciate the high stirrups only when the pants are tailored to be baggy like in the gehrig/ruth era.
link
juan pierre adopts this fashion.
link
what i cant stand are tight non tailored pants with high stirrups or socks. example, el duque.
link
I don’t mind the baggy pants with the stirrups or pulled up socks look, like you said it can be reminiscent of a classic era. But a fan of the pajama bottoms look? I think you might be on the wrong blog; I’m sure team nike has a blog somewhere…[/quote]
yeah, i run it… obviously you havent checked my uri…
speaking of that, we should all make a habit of clicking on at least 1 or 2 ads everytime we check this site. by doing so, we help paul and this great blog he writes.[/quote]
I happen to agree with Todd. I don’t so much mind Logo Creep and love the long baseball pants look.
See attached pics….
link
link
Another reason to pay less attention to pieces of tape underneath the bill of MLB players caps and more to another great breakthrough in “customized” sports branding.
The guys in Beaverton hit another home run…
link
This is true cool. Customize your own dri-fit sleeves? Awesome.
Uniwatch 06 or Gameplan 99
Fun stuff man and we thought Nike was incapable of dropping our jaw in a positive manner.
T.
Nice catch Tom…
This rules !!!
Uniwatch 06 or Gameplan 99…
But I thought Gameplan was started in 2004 or at least that’s what I remember reading in GDUSA’s April 2004 issue.