There Is No Joy in Mudville (and no mud, either)

hey paul, just wanted to say Lovin the blog man, keep up the good work!,

May God Bless You,

Jamie

Synthetic dirt?! Are you kidding me?! Like I said previously, only little leaguers possess the decency to respect the game.

A school where I used to work had FieldTurf. That stuff shreds your skin if you slide on it (or just fall on it). It’s lethal, and it looks like shit, too.

man i got post zapped!

oh well

tonight i went to the 3AM showing of spiderman 3 in the IMAX (unbelievably badass by the way for all you fellow spidergeeks)

but in one scene spidey takes off his boots and it turns out he wears stirrups!

Regarding having dirt at home plate, maybe its so that people can “dig in” like they are accustomed to doing which isn’t really possible on the field turf.

In the picture on the main page, it looks like the Eagles are playing the ’98 Mets (White pants, Black Jersey with Blue Piping, and Blue Sleeves)

Having your jerseys regimented? That is awesome! Every single team in every professional sport should do that. It’s organized, and every will know what to expect. Kudos to the D-Backs, but I’m still pissed at them for taking away Darron Sutton (tv announcer) from the Brewers.

[quote comment=”80983″]Regarding having dirt at home plate, maybe its so that people can “dig in” like they are accustomed to doing which isn’t really possible on the field turf.[/quote]

Also, I’m pretty sure it’s for the catcher as well. Catching on dirt is bad enough, could you imgaine the weird bounces you’d get from a curveball in the turf?

[quote comment=”80989″][quote comment=”80983″]Regarding having dirt at home plate, maybe its so that people can “dig in” like they are accustomed to doing which isn’t really possible on the field turf.[/quote]

Also, I’m pretty sure it’s for the catcher as well. Catching on dirt is bad enough, could you imgaine the weird bounces you’d get from a curveball in the turf?[/quote]

Excellent point — I hadn’t thought of that.

[quote comment=”80984″]In the picture on the main page, it looks like the Eagles are playing the ’98 Mets (White pants, Black Jersey with Blue Piping, and Blue Sleeves)[/quote]

that would be the ’99 mets…they went nameless in ’99

[quote comment=”80983″]Regarding having dirt at home plate, maybe its so that people can “dig in” like they are accustomed to doing which isn’t really possible on the field turf.[/quote]

those are to keep his lycra from riding up…

it’s too bad they didn’t do the entire field in FieldTurf, then they could’ve played without rainouts.

I remember in jr high we played on a field which was entirely pebbles in the infield. You only forgot to wear sliding pants once playing there. Also, last weekend I took my daughter to the petting zoo which is right next to a large complex of baseball diamonds and from a distance it looked like the mounds were not dirt, but man made (wood?) and covered with carpet. Perhaps the fields are softball/baseball diamonds so they need fake mounds. I’ll have to go back and look.

DITCH THE BLACK.

ALSO…DITCH THE BLUE.

It’s early, but the Mets are a .500 team (3-3) in black hats, a .250 team (1-3) in blue hats, and a .765 juggernaut (13-4) in the black/blue hats.

There’s a great striped stirrup on a Lotrimin-Ultra TV ad I saw yesterday. Its just a brief shot but it looks very similar to the one in the Uni-Watch logo at the top of this page.

I don’t know where to start with that Warrior win last night. I’m a fan going back to the Rick Barry – Cliford Ray days. An unbelievable win, but I don’t remember seeing confetti like that or players donning special T-shirts (albeit an impromptu move) after a first round win. But hey, we all got to see which players wear wife-beaters under their jerseys.

The Tonka (That’s what Minnatonka is refered to) field was all over the news yesterday. The University of Minnesota baseball coach was envious saying he only wished he had a stadium that nice.

What I like about the Tonka field, all $3.5 million of it is that it was privatly funded and the largest sponsor who bought naming rights, Cambria Counters, instead of putting the company name on the stadium, they chose Veterans Stadium instead becasue they said if it weren’t for the vets, we would be able to play baseball in such a nice place. They did however manage to put their name on the canopy to the concession stand, but after their concession not to name the stadium after themselves, I think that’s OK.

Navy has the same FieldTurf baseball field. According to this release (link), they’re one of three in the NCAA, along with Louisville and Washington State.

had a meeting yesterday so i missed all posts from noon on… just finished…
some points…

PL, you had the page 2 salty blurb. its a shame youre at the mercy of the dot com web masters, cuz SI.com had one about it early in the am, and they linked to a usa today article.

dpnation, yeah its a good thing cuz im the niketalk guy, but its a good thing cuz, lets just say, you posess many of the characteristics that are pleasing to the heterosexual male. that adds to the allure…
hating dook, loving nike, into athletics, on this site, this is a great core…

many years ago, when i was young, ignorant and superficial, i had this listing of girlfriend criteria… its quite funny.
1. college educated
2. funny- can make me laugh
3. can make 7 out of 10 from the free throw line
4. can throw accurately from short to first

Get a room, you two.

Belhaven College in Jackson, MS has the same field turf, but even their home plate area is the brown turf. It was a serious downpour one game we played them and the umpires never cancelled it.

lake minnetonka minnesota… home of former us tennis star david wheaton… its a shame he never achieved the same status of jim courier. that would have been a good US rivalry, pre agassi/sampras.

[quote comment=”80999″]Get a room, you two.[/quote]

from office space?

I went to Giants Stadium earlier this year for a trip with my Sports Marketing class and got to see the field turf up close, and it was really nice. It’s springy and rather soft in comparison to other materials, even grass in my honest opinion. That being said, I like the new field there. It looks pretty nice but I think they should have chosen dirt for the infield instead, those players are going to be getting a ton of fast bounces and it might be a bit dangerous to visiting teams who aren’t used to it.

I had a really weird dream last night.
The Mets were playing the Diamondbacks like they should have, but something was different. The Diamondbacks were playing with their red jerseys, but they had red pants on, too. Also, the Mets were wearing their black and blue cap, but had on a black jersey, with blue pants! It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen. You could probably describe it better as a nightmare.

[quote comment=”81001″]Belhaven College in Jackson, MS has the same field turf, but even their home plate area is the brown turf. It was a serious downpour one game we played them and the umpires never cancelled it.[/quote]

I play in a summer softball league where we play on a FieldTurf Football field (Home Plate in the corner of the endzone, three games at once. It’s a general disaster waiting to happen, but what can you do). As far as sliding on the Turf, when it’s wet, it’s like a Slip ‘n Slide. You just take off. When it’s dry, it’s like sliding on asphalt and I have the scars on my legs to prove it (I’m just not smart enough to remember to A) Wear long pants instead of shorts or B) DON’T SLIDE!!!!)

The Braves only wear their red alts on Sundays, not the regement of the D’Backs but a more simple version

The link of the Frontier League (independant minor league) play on field turf.

Kudos to Reggie Bush for once again stepping up to help high school athletics in the New Orleans area. As someone who grew up just outside of the city, my HS football team played many teams from the city. And, needless to say, the condition of some of the unis was very poor well before Katrina hit due to a lack of funding and community support for their programs.

But, regardless of the equipment, those kids played their hearts out even when they were down 56-0. Reggie has truly been a blessing for the city…not just the football team.

Don’t forget the problem of all those little black pellets in your shoes.

[quote comment=”81011″]The link of the Frontier League (independant minor league) play on field turf.[/quote]
Wow, it’s pretty weird to see a soccer field on the baseball diamond (look at the pic at the bottom right).

Also regarding Chillicothe: I guess within 10 minutes of a heavy rain this field is ready to go. I work for a Frontier League Team and several years ago we had to cancel an entire SERIES because of 1 day of rain. It’s costly to install this type of field but valuable in the sense that, barring a 3 hour deluge, you’re going to get a game in.

Rutgers just got an all-turf field this year installed. Looks exactly the same at that high school. As of right now the field is the main picture on the athletics site.

link

[quote comment=”81009″]The Braves only wear their red alts on Sundays, not the regement of the D’Backs but a more simple version[/quote]

The Orioles wear their Black Alts. on Friday home games. And NO Ditch the Black here.

What happens when someone vomits or bleeds on field turf? How do you clean it up?

At the start of this NHL season, the Buffalo Sabres put out a schedule of when they’d be wearing their alternate jersey.

link

I help coach Armstrong Tennis (my alma matter), so when we had a match on tuesday vs MTKA I saw the MTKA field in person…Pretty Sweet! Great Soundsystem, Look, Feel, Stands…Amazing!

Appalachian State University has its new baseball stadium has fieldturf

[quote comment=”81019″]What happens when someone vomits or bleeds on field turf? How do you clean it up?[/quote]

Same way you’d clean your carpeting at home. Water, soap and a sterilizer/sanitizer. Some places even have a Zamboni(TM) type machine that vacuums the turf

Six years ago when I was a junior in High School we got to play the first game on the Ravenna Ravens new field turf. It wasn’t bad except for the rug burn and the rubber in you eyes. They say its supposed to settle down after playing on it.

[quote comment=”80994″]DITCH THE BLACK.

ALSO…DITCH THE BLUE.

It’s early, but the Mets are a .500 team (3-3) in black hats, a .250 team (1-3) in blue hats, and a .765 juggernaut (13-4) in the black/blue hats.[/quote]

I have noticed this trend … it seems to go back a couple years. i am excited to see the blues, but they often seem to struggle in them.

[quote comment=”80993″]I remember in jr high we played on a field which was entirely pebbles in the infield. You only forgot to wear sliding pants once playing there. Also, last weekend I took my daughter to the petting zoo which is right next to a large complex of baseball diamonds and from a distance it looked like the mounds were not dirt, but man made (wood?) and covered with carpet. Perhaps the fields are softball/baseball diamonds so they need fake mounds. I’ll have to go back and look.[/quote]

I played on those carpet covered wood mounds. Well I played on some. Anyways, they are so you can adjust to no mound in softball. Also the length of the mound can adjust so that you could have young kids play and move the mound up and then move it back to full length for the older kids. I must say I didn’t like it, as I was basically throwing from on top of a box. Also they were green. Who has ever heard of a green pitchers mound?

The more I see all-turf baseball fields, the less I like them. I don’t like the seam patterns and weird shine they get in the sunlight.

I’ve seen a few fields like that. There’s one field in Boston that has a brown turf infield, but I think the cutouts around the bases are real dirt.

I have also been to Gill Stadium in Manchester, NH. It’s a baseball stadium (home of the Fisher Cats for a season or two) that is converted to multi-use. When I have to referee a football game, the second-base cutout is replaced with a patch for football, and you can easily roll an ankle in the seam when working that sideline.

And it’s nice to see Boston College’s athletic font get some love on the backs of Tonka’s uniforms.

Here is the RU baseball field…

link

I personally love FieldTurf (we’ll see it only once this year…at Oregon State), and I know our players like to play on it as well, since we have regular Astroturf in Holt Arena.

The worst part, and our equipment guy HATES this, is the little black rubber pellets are hard to get out of socks because they sort of hook onto the fabric. I usually hang with the kickers during Friday walkthroughs, and I kick a few field goals with them, and I’m a sock only kicker, and it took FOREVER to pick out all the little pellets.

As for vomiting, all FieldTurf field have a zamboni-like device called a fluffer that can also suck up and clean any sort of problems such as that….it is way better then puking on the turf we have, in which in 1998 we stopped the game and dispatched a couple of maintenance guys with a bucket and a mop….that was really gross as I remember it.

That being said, FieldTurf is really nice….

Frank

Kansas State has the same link. Makes me wonder – What is the point of having a warning track if it is just painted a different color…

dont the Twins or Rays have field turf as parts of the warning track? I seem to remember the announcers mentioning it during a recent Indians game.

Up in the Seattle area for the weekend (near Vancouver, Canada) and I don’t know if anybody is aware that the Canucks got eliminated last night (not too many hockey fans in here I’m discovering), but I’m picking up some Canadian radio stations and it seems like that whole area is outraged that the Canucks lost. Well, blowing a 2-0 lead in game 4 and losing in OT is idiotic! Then coming out flat in last night’s elimination game was an embarrassement! Serves them right, it almost seems they didn’t even deserve to be in the playoffs. So anybody out here reading this can officially say buh-bye to Orca Bay’s ugliest uniforms in the NHL.

The ‘Nucks need to bring back the jerseys they wore in 94 with the skate where Canucks was spelt out in the blade. They were udly but classic.

I just added this to today’s ticker, but I’ll put it here as well, just in case: I’ve got a short piece about tomorrow’s Mayweather/De La Hoya fight up link.

[quote comment=”81031″]Here is the RU baseball field…

link

Look at the HUGE ledge where the dirt meets the grass of the mound and home plate. a bunt in front of home is never going to get onto the turf.

I found the vido of the Tonka field link

My alam mater linkin Louisville, Kentucky (Chris Burke, Paul Byrd…but who wants to be a name dropper) just installed this same set up on their new field. I was shocked at first, but considering the amount of rain the area gets during the spring, this should save 5 rainouts a season.

On thing I hate is the use of brown turf to “simulate” where the dirt would have been. I say use dirt or green turf.

link
link

I am so sick of the Tom-Brady-in-a-Yankees-cap issue. Its a non-story folks. What, are you afraid Brady’s going to go play for the Yankees or something?

No one outside the stretch of I-95 between Boston and New York gives a rat’s ass.

OK, I’m done.

Yesterday someone asked what this new bat was that David Wright had switched to: link

Ever since he came up to the big leagues, and even as recent as 4/21/07, David was using a Rawlings Big Stick bat. Now it seems he’s switched to the same bat company that both Carlos Beltran’s and Paul LoDuca get their bats from. Marucci Bat Company in Louisiana.

link

I was a little pissed when I heard that the Badgers were putting in the new field turf when they renovated Camp Randall a few years ago… but the renovations and the field look great. I know I am biased, but going to a Badger game at Camp Randall in Madison, WI is one of the best experiences ever. The atmosphere is incredible. Madison is one of the best college towns in the nation. link is a pretty good article about Camp Randall history.

I play baseball at Northeastern Univesity in Boston, and we have FieldTurf as our playing surface. Although we still have dirt cutouts for the bases, I believe we may be thinking of making those FieldTurf as well due to the face that we still had games cancelled this year due to the cutouts freezing in the cold weather and being unable to take care of them properly. From a baseball standpoint, it is necessary for a northern baseball team such as us to have FieldTurf as our surface because even if we get a light snowfall, we can simply plow our field in time to play games if necessary. Also, rainfalls are less of a problem because you only have to tarp the cutouts and it is a much quicker process than rolling out the huge tarp that full dirt infields require.

Our turf is somewhat older than most other surfaces that are newer, so from my experience we don’t have as much a problem with getting the black filling in our shoes, and the pieces that do come up simply stick to your uniform but are easily brushed off. It does not hurt at all to slide or dive on as previously noted, even I as a pitcher have slid on it and it actually is pretty comforatble for a sliding surface.

As a playing surface, it gives true lines on ground balls, the only time there is a bad hop is if it hits a cutout, and it actually can slow ground balls up that are hit quite hard making it much better for pitchers to play at. Once they are rolling though, they will roll forever and it does bounce quite high, as we have a bunch of ground rule doubles and triples at our ball park.

Sidenote: The University of Washington is another school that has the all FieldTurf infield, however they still have a grass outfield.

I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???

[quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Can you dress up as a sausage?

Didn’t link the first jersey…
link

You gotta go retro Friday jersey. It’s got the pinstripes, Brewers on the front and that grat MB logo on the shoulder and the anneversary patch on the other side. The only thing the BP jersey has going is it’s sleeve patch.

i am probably really late on this, but do the golden state warriors and washington wizards have the same numeral typeface? everytime i see either team, i think that washington just has a boldface version of GS’s numbers…

I would definitely go with the jersey over the BP jersey. It looks great with the pinstripes and the arched Brewers lettering.

[quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Sorry about that sausage remark. I think you should wear the BP jersey for tailgating activities, then switch to the ‘gamer’ when you go into the yard.

The Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, SC has a whole complex of FieldTurf fields. I play club baseball at Wake Forest University and tomorrow and Sunday we play in a regional tournament there with UNC, Georgia, and Florida State. If you go to their website you can see pictures of the fields, pretty neat because all the fields are replicas of classic ballparks.

link

[quote comment=”81058″][quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Sorry about that sausage remark. I think you should wear the BP jersey for tailgating activities, then switch to the ‘gamer’ when you go into the yard.[/quote]

Ding Ding Ding…we have a winner!!!

I once played on a carpeted basketball court. Very hard to get used to the bounce, plus no diving for loose balls.

Hmm, long time.

Anyway, as far as the Arizona wearing purple, I was driving home last night listening to the All Night ESPN bunch talk about the Thursday ARZ/Mets game. They, don’t recall the names, were talking about how so many ‘displaced’ Met fans were at an Arizona home game, saying the line “You’re supposed to be cheering for the team in purple.” Didn’t sound to me as if it was a joke either. Either the change hasn’t settled home yet, or the purpley legacy is just too strong to shake.

[quote comment=”81003″]lake minnetonka minnesota… home of former us tennis star david wheaton… its a shame he never achieved the same status of jim courier. that would have been a good US rivalry, pre agassi/sampras.[/quote]
Also home of the infamous Vikings Sex Boat…

[quote comment=”81060″][quote comment=”81058″][quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Sorry about that sausage remark. I think you should wear the BP jersey for tailgating activities, then switch to the ‘gamer’ when you go into the yard.[/quote]

Ding Ding Ding…we have a winner!!![/quote]

Are beers $1 also??

Hey, Distant Replays, I have a favor to ask. Can you please restock the MEMPHIS CHICKS t-shirt. Also, can you print it on a HANES BEEFY-T.

Thanks for listening!

I know Winona State University [Winona, Minnesota] plays softball on their football field which is turf. Unlike the Tonka baseball field their pitching mound is not cut-out making it a little difficult to pitch there. And in softball we normally wear shorts when we play so sliding is unbearable because you get those black rubber pieces in places they shouldn’t be!

(This is my first post but I’ve been reading since November. Great blog!)

Reason #642 the Mavericks got their keisters kicked last night: Their (sports bra type) warmup jackets were mismatched!

Some of them said “Mavericks” below an Adidas logo and others had the team logo above an Adidas logo. Can’t find a photo, though. Anyone else notice this?

[quote comment=”80997″]Navy has the same FieldTurf baseball field. According to this release (link), they’re one of three in the NCAA, along with Louisville and Washington State.[/quote]

That’s correct on Washington State. Here’s a photo of link (named for WSU legends Buck Bailey and Bobo Brayton). Not the best angle, but you can tell from here that the home plate dirt is quite different from the baselines and infield.

WSU was also one of the first college football teams (I believe Nebraska was the first, then WSU) to install FieldTurf in the football stadium.

Back in 2001 when the Giants wore link alternate nightmares, they were only worn on Fridays. There was also a road version (can’t find a picture).

Legend is that owner Peter Magowan was so upset that Bonds hit #71 while wearing black that he eliminated the unis the following season.

[quote comment=”81014″][quote comment=”81011″]The link of the Frontier League (independant minor league) play on field turf.[/quote]
Wow, it’s pretty weird to see a soccer field on the baseball diamond (look at the pic at the bottom right).[/quote]

Here is an interesting piece of FYI for you Field turf guys link a D-3 school in my home town of Washington PA has the largest continuous piece of artificial surface in the world. So Washington Pa is known for have the whiskey rebellion, Pony Baseball, and the largest peice of artificial surface, Niiiiiiiiccccceeee. But, at the same time, they have dirt at all of the infield bases. (The feild is used for baseball, softball, lacrosse, and soccer).

[quote comment=”81046″]Yesterday someone asked what this new bat was that David Wright had switched to: link

Ever since he came up to the big leagues, and even as recent as 4/21/07, David was using a Rawlings Big Stick bat.

Now it seems he’s switched to the same bat company that both Carlos Beltran’s and Paul LoDuca get their bats from.

Marucci Bat Company in Louisiana.

link

Yeah Joey, that was me. You definitely deserve a Uniwatch gold star for that detective work. Thanks!

[quote comment=”81040″][quote comment=”81031″]Here is the RU baseball field…

link

Look at the HUGE ledge where the dirt meets the grass of the mound and home plate. a bunt in front of home is never going to get onto the turf.[/quote]
that ledge has got to be good for one out per game for the home team. “sharp grounder in the hole, OH! The runner’s down!! That’ll leave a mark. That’s a ground out 7-3 for those of you scoring at home. One down in the top of the 2nd.”

now this is a sick last name on a jersey

link

[quote comment=”81068″]Hey, Distant Replays, I have a favor to ask. Can you please restock the MEMPHIS CHICKS t-shirt. Also, can you print it on a HANES BEEFY-T.

Thanks for listening![/quote]

like this one?
link

[quote comment=”81064″][quote comment=”81003″]lake minnetonka minnesota… home of former us tennis star david wheaton… its a shame he never achieved the same status of jim courier. that would have been a good US rivalry, pre agassi/sampras.[/quote]
Also home of the infamous Vikings Sex Boat…[/quote]
Isn’t that also where Appolonia “purified” herself in “Purple Rain”?

[quote comment=”81043″]My alam mater linkin Louisville, Kentucky (Chris Burke, Paul Byrd…but who wants to be a name dropper) just installed this same set up on their new field. I was shocked at first, but considering the amount of rain the area gets during the spring, this should save 5 rainouts a season.

On thing I hate is the use of brown turf to “simulate” where the dirt would have been. I say use dirt or green turf.

link
link[/quote]

Ryan D. I guess there is another Louisvillian reading Uni Watch. All though Green and White is a better uni combination then Green and Yellow. LOL.

[quote comment=”81018″]

The Orioles wear their Black Alts. on Friday home games. And NO Ditch the Black here.[/quote]

I am petty, but it drives me nuts how it seems like many of the people that post on this site don’t really get Paul’s “Ditch the Black” idea. The reason Paul wants the Mets to get rid of all the black on the uniforms is because black isn’t one of the ballclub’s colors. It has nothing to do with the color black itself.

I don’t think Paul would ever suggest the Orioles get rid of their all-black jerseys (even though they are hideous–sorry Minna) because black is a standard color the Orioles have used as part of their color scheme for decades.

On the other hand, the Mets basically “whored” themselves out in the late nineties to what was popular and what sold merchandise at the time, and they did so by adding black to the colors of the uniforms. That’s the part that Paul, and I, and certainly lots of other fellow readers and Mets fans are saying.

Please, UniWatchers, get this through your heads!

[quote comment=”81011″]The link of the Frontier League (independant minor league) play on field turf.[/quote]

I can’t believe someone else knows about the Paints field. Jason are you a fellow southern Ohio Uniwatch reader?

I think the main reason for the turf field at VA Memorial is because the Paints are in the process of building their own field, and VA is used quite a bit with high school state tournament games, and now high school soccer game. The Paints don’t own VA Memorial, so I’m sure that when they leave the city of Chillicothe doesn’t want to hire a huge groundskeeping staff.

[quote comment=”81011″]

I can’t believe someone else knows about the Paints field.[/quote]

…or even the Frontier League in general. How’s this…my hometown Evansville Otters totally pwned your Paints for the championship last year. Long live the Frontier League!

[quote comment=”81044″]I am so sick of the Tom-Brady-in-a-Yankees-cap issue. Its a non-story folks. What, are you afraid Brady’s going to go play for the Yankees or something?

No one outside the stretch of I-95 between Boston and New York gives a rat’s ass.

OK, I’m done.[/quote]

i-95 actually doesn’t go into Boston, it’s west of Boston (and part of the rt 128 beltway).

sorry, I had to be a wiseguy :)

As a Boston sports fan, I really don’t care if he was wearing a Yankees hat. He’s not from New England, so I wouldn’t expect him to like the local teams.

[quote comment=”81078″]now this is a sick last name on a jersey

link

Not half as sick as those disgusting advertisements on the helmets and (worse) the sleeves! It’s like the players on both sides are representing not their countries, but some corporation!

And Jeff in #73, I really liked those black SF jerseys with lettering that looked like it was just an outline. The link do this and it looks great. I’ve been looking for a game-used black Giants home jersey and can’t find one. They had a similar design in spring training, but then a year or two ago they put names on the back, which ruined it for me. ^^;

And as for the Field Turf, I’d love to see some of it out here in Japan. You may wonder how they maanged to find space for baseball fields in a place as crowded as this, and what happens is that they use riverbanks which aren’t strong enough to support multi-story buildings. Unfortunately these places don’t exactly drain well, and even in the heat of summer you know you won’t be getting your game in if it rains the morning of the game.

[quote comment=”81071″][quote comment=”80997″]Navy has the same FieldTurf baseball field. According to this release (link), they’re one of three in the NCAA, along with Louisville and Washington State.[/quote]

That’s correct on Washington State. Here’s a photo of link (named for WSU legends Buck Bailey and Bobo Brayton). Not the best angle, but you can tell from here that the home plate dirt is quite different from the baselines and infield.

WSU was also one of the first college football teams (I believe Nebraska was the first, then WSU) to install FieldTurf in the football stadium.[/quote]

I don’t think thatt WSU was the second to get FieldTurf. I know that UW had it before WSU…so maybe you’re confusing UW’s Husky Stadium with WSU’s Martin Stadium. Sidenote: As a Husky Alum, I find it incredibly awesome that Martin Stadium is named after a HUSKY! Nothing like having your rivals stadium named after one of your fellow alumni.

I think the reason for the dirt around home plate and mound is the wear and tear on the turf would require that it be regularly replaced.

The field in my town is the same way. Dirt around the plate and on the mound and turf everywhere else. But no reddish turf to simulate dirt. All green, all over. I hate it.

How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link

[quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

And I misspoke…it’s a FieldTurf infield.

How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

Well, they had a full dirt infield, but the White Sox had it at old Comiskey Park in the early 1970s, until Bill Veeck returned and gor rid of the plastic grass in 1976.

The Astros are actually quite regimented in what uniforms they wear and when.

For day home games, they wear red hats and white uniforms with no pinstrips and red font: link

For night home games, they wear white uniforms with pin strips and black hats and black font with gold outline: link

For road games, they wear grays with red font and ‘Houston’ written across the front and black hats: link

For Sunday home games, they wear red jerseys with ‘Astros’ written in gold across the front and black numbers outlined in gold coupled with white pants and black hats: link

For Sunday road games, they wear similar red jerseys but with ‘Houston’ written in gold across the chest and with gray pants (hats remain the same): link

The team followed this consistently until last season in the summer when the Astros wore their red ‘Houston’ uniforms for ALL away games starting in June. The reason for this is that this was the team’s Cool Base jerseys (Cool Base versions of the road grays were never manufactured): link

Not sure if the Astros will follow this protocol this year or not. Time and the summer heat will tell.

And finally, in 2000 (and only in 2000), the Astros had black alternates and the team followed the same uniforms protocol with these that they do now with the reds (these were replaced by the Sunday reds in 2001). This is the ONLY picture I could find of those: link

I think they look pretty good. I’m so sick of the color red….

[quote comment=”81066″][quote comment=”81060″][quote comment=”81058″][quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Sorry about that sausage remark. I think you should wear the BP jersey for tailgating activities, then switch to the ‘gamer’ when you go into the yard.[/quote]

Ding Ding Ding…we have a winner!!![/quote]

Are beers $1 also??[/quote]
Awesome call! BP jersey for tailgating, and then authentic jersey for the game it shall be. Leave it to my fellow Uni Watchers for coming through in the clutch.
And no…beers are still the insane $6.50 for a stay cold plastic bottle even though the beer is brewed two damn miles from the park.

And no harm done on the sausage comment. If I could dress up as one, I would

P.S. Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, so put all your money on the Chorizo to win the sausage race.

[quote comment=”81044″]I am so sick of the Tom-Brady-in-a-Yankees-cap issue. Its a non-story folks. What, are you afraid Brady’s going to go play for the Yankees or something?

No one outside the stretch of I-95 between Boston and New York gives a rat’s ass.

OK, I’m done.[/quote]
No one in New York or Boston gives a rat’s ass either.

Re: the coolbase jerseys. Do all teams have all jerseys available in coolbase and regular double knit poly? My first thought is that they don’t, I remember Paul pointing out that a lot of the Tigers were all bundled up for the playoff series against the A’s with coolbase jerseys. Like Matthew just said, the availability of coolbase is probably the biggest factor in deciding which jersey to wear. That being said, any idea which of the Met’s jerseys are coolbase and which aren’t?

The SkyDome has a FieldTurf warning track, but the baselines are obviously dirt. One thing that I’ve noticed at the dome is the areas where the outfielders stand, you can see all those little black pellets have come up and the turf looks much darker. Its not as obvious on TV as it is in person. However, with all the traffic on the infield “dirt”, all that red turf is going to go black in a hurry. You can see it starting already in link

Mets’

[quote comment=”81103″]Re: the coolbase jerseys. Do all teams have all jerseys available in coolbase and regular double knit poly? My first thought is that they don’t, I remember Paul pointing out that a lot of the Tigers were all bundled up for the playoff series against the A’s with coolbase jerseys. Like Matthew just said, the availability of coolbase is probably the biggest factor in deciding which jersey to wear. That being said, any idea which of the Met’s jerseys are coolbase and which aren’t?[/quote]

I’m not sure about this year, but I believe each team only had one Cool Base jersey manufactured last year (or the Astros did anyway since all home games are played in climate controlled, retractable roofed Minute Maid Park, thus negating the need for a home Cool Base). I would like to see the Astros wear the road grays more this year as I get so friggin sick of red all the time.

[quote comment=”81062″]I once played on a carpeted basketball court. Very hard to get used to the bounce, plus no diving for loose balls.[/quote]

My junior high court had that. When they put it in, I remember them specifically advertising/announcing that it offered 98% of the bounceback of a wood court. We’d still dive on it, and really, it was fine to play on. The only weird thing was the sound of the ball bouncing.

[quote comment=”81103″]Re: the coolbase jerseys. Do all teams have all jerseys available in coolbase and regular double knit poly? My first thought is that they don’t, I remember Paul pointing out that a lot of the Tigers were all bundled up for the playoff series against the A’s with coolbase jerseys. Like Matthew just said, the availability of coolbase is probably the biggest factor in deciding which jersey to wear. That being said, any idea which of the Met’s jerseys are coolbase and which aren’t?[/quote]

I think only the link

There is a New York City park near where I live that has a strange-looking configuration of FieldTurf on its diamond: no infield “grass” (meaning green FieldTurf), the entire infield is “dirt” (brown FieldTurf), and the mound is green!

Aside from that weird-looking diamond, my impressions of the FieldTurf over the past couple of summers have been positive. It seems to behave a lot like grass when you are running on it. (However, a frisbee will bounce off of it like it does off of concrete!)

The main problem I can see with FieldTurf is the one of sanitariness. Andy mentioned bleeding; I am thinking of the much more common occurrence of spitting. On a grass field, you basically spit whenever necessary. On a FieldTurf field, I don’t feel comfortable doing that — and I feel worse thinking about how many people DID feel comfortable doing that!

[quote comment=”81104″]The SkyDome has a FieldTurf warning track, but the baselines are obviously dirt. One thing that I’ve noticed at the dome is the areas where the outfielders stand, you can see all those little black pellets have come up and the turf looks much darker. Its not as obvious on TV as it is in person. However, with all the traffic on the infield “dirt”, all that red turf is going to go black in a hurry. You can see it starting already in link[/quote]
Isn’t this just asking for trouble. The guy that link is testament to warning tracks that don’t warn.

[quote comment=”81092″]I don’t think thatt WSU was the second to get FieldTurf. I know that UW had it before WSU…so maybe you’re confusing UW’s Husky Stadium with WSU’s Martin Stadium.[/quote]
Actually, both schools installed it during the summer prior to the 2000 season. To get nit-picky, WSU did, in fact, have theirs installed first (I was working for the athletic department at the time), although it was only a matter of a couple weeks’ difference.

[quote comment=”81109″][quote comment=”81103″]Re: the coolbase jerseys. Do all teams have all jerseys available in coolbase and regular double knit poly? My first thought is that they don’t, I remember Paul pointing out that a lot of the Tigers were all bundled up for the playoff series against the A’s with coolbase jerseys. Like Matthew just said, the availability of coolbase is probably the biggest factor in deciding which jersey to wear. That being said, any idea which of the Met’s jerseys are coolbase and which aren’t?[/quote]

I think only the link[/quote]
uh-oh

Maybe I’m colorblind or something, but I swear the other night on TV it looked like the Cardinals were wearing navy caps and black batting helmets during a road game. Am I crazy? What colors do they wear?

[quote comment=”81098″][quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

And I misspoke…it’s a FieldTurf infield.[/quote]

I thought Cooper Stadium, home of the link, and link, home of the Omaha Royals and the College World Series, had this type of set up for a couple of years. I see by some research that this is no longer the case. Can anyone corroborate my recollection?

Wasn’t the Astrodome half-turf, half-grass when it opened?

I’ll have to look it up. . .

Also, I was on the field at Giants Stadium (check out the Sept. 16, 2002 SI cover and look at that little dot at the right-hand 40-yard-line under the flag to see me), way back when it was all grass. One of the 49ers coaches/employees looked left and right, bent down, grabbed a clump of grass and PUT IT IN HIS POCKET.

That boggled me.

Picture link: link

[quote comment=”81115″]Maybe I’m colorblind or something, but I swear the other night on TV it looked like the Cardinals were wearing navy caps and black batting helmets during a road game. Am I crazy? What colors do they wear?[/quote]

Cardinals wear Navy caps on the road along with matching batting helmets. They’ve been doing this link

[quote comment=”81079″][quote comment=”81068″]Hey, Distant Replays, I have a favor to ask. Can you please restock the MEMPHIS CHICKS t-shirt. Also, can you print it on a HANES BEEFY-T.

Thanks for listening![/quote]

like this one?
link

Nice underbill writing on Jackson’s cap – it appears to be “BO # 1”. Very nice self promotion.

In other news, does anyone follow horse racing? I always enjoy the different silks the jockeys wear. It seems the sport could have easily sold out to sponsors. Like, instead of Dominican’s jockey wearing the black fleur-de-lis silk, he could be wearing a Bank of America logo. Thank God it’s still traditional. The link would be an interesting Uni Watch subject, IMHO.

And finally, I start a new job on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay current on each day’s comments like I can at here! And for you Dallasites, in particular Matthew S. and the suburban Robert, this Horned Frog is headed east from Fort Worth to conquer Dallas – watch out because I’m bringing the TCU purple with me.

[quote comment=”81117″]Wasn’t the Astrodome half-turf, half-grass when it opened?

I’ll have to look it up. . .

Also, I was on the field at Giants Stadium (check out the Sept. 16, 2002 SI cover and look at that little dot at the right-hand 40-yard-line under the flag to see me), way back when it was all grass. One of the 49ers coaches/employees looked left and right, bent down, grabbed a clump of grass and PUT IT IN HIS POCKET.

That boggled me.

Picture link: link

No Anthony, it was completely grass. The grass thrived at first, but outfielders complained that the windows in the ceiling of the Dome caused a glare and it made it impossible to track down fly balls. So the team coated the windows in an translucent (but not transparent) paint that allowed some light in, but not enough to keep the grass alive. To solve the problem of dying grass, the team contacted the Monsanto company and just like that, Astroturf was born.

A new type of Logo link that I haven’t seen before

[quote comment=”81117″]Wasn’t the Astrodome half-turf, half-grass when it opened?

I’ll have to look it up. . .

Also, I was on the field at Giants Stadium (check out the Sept. 16, 2002 SI cover and look at that little dot at the right-hand 40-yard-line under the flag to see me), way back when it was all grass. One of the 49ers coaches/employees looked left and right, bent down, grabbed a clump of grass and PUT IT IN HIS POCKET.

That boggled me.

Picture link: link

The link was ALL grass when it opened.

From link:
“At first, the Astrodome had real grass. The first Astros game, an exhibition with the New York Yankees, demonstrated that the semitransparent cream-colored panels in the roof made fly balls too difficult to see. So, the ceiling tiles were painted, but the grass died. This led to the installation of plastic grass known as Astroturf. It was ready for Opening Day, 1966.”

[quote comment=”81119″][quote comment=”81079″][quote comment=”81068″]Hey, Distant Replays, I have a favor to ask. Can you please restock the MEMPHIS CHICKS t-shirt. Also, can you print it on a HANES BEEFY-T.

Thanks for listening![/quote]

like this one?
link

Nice underbill writing on Jackson’s cap – it appears to be “BO # 1”. Very nice self promotion.

In other news, does anyone follow horse racing? I always enjoy the different silks the jockeys wear. It seems the sport could have easily sold out to sponsors. Like, instead of Dominican’s jockey wearing the black fleur-de-lis silk, he could be wearing a Bank of America logo. Thank God it’s still traditional. The link would be an interesting Uni Watch subject, IMHO.

And finally, I start a new job on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay current on each day’s comments like I can at here! And for you Dallasites, in particular Matthew S. and the suburban Robert, this Horned Frog is headed east from Fort Worth to conquer Dallas – watch out because I’m bringing the TCU purple with me.[/quote]

Ian, congrats on the new job (I’m looking for a new job myself), but now I might have to wear my SMU blue and red more regularly now just to counteract your presence. 21-10….yeah I can still say that for a few more months until the Mustangs travel to Ft. Worth this fall.

[quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

Wasn’t there a major league park that had that setup for a while in the 70s? I think maybe Candlestick?

[quote comment=”81122″][quote comment=”81117″]Wasn’t the Astrodome half-turf, half-grass when it opened?

I’ll have to look it up. . .

Also, I was on the field at Giants Stadium (check out the Sept. 16, 2002 SI cover and look at that little dot at the right-hand 40-yard-line under the flag to see me), way back when it was all grass. One of the 49ers coaches/employees looked left and right, bent down, grabbed a clump of grass and PUT IT IN HIS POCKET.

That boggled me.

Picture link: link

The link was ALL grass when it opened.

From link:
“At first, the Astrodome had real grass. The first Astros game, an exhibition with the New York Yankees, demonstrated that the semitransparent cream-colored panels in the roof made fly balls too difficult to see. So, the ceiling tiles were painted, but the grass died. This led to the installation of plastic grass known as Astroturf. It was ready for Opening Day, 1966.”[/quote]

More pictures of the Astrodome when it had grass:

link

Hofstra’s University Field link and link (for picture) has ‘Competition Turf’ (which is very similar to FieldTurf, but not the same) for the infield, and grass for the outfield.

Also, Hofstra is replacing it’s AstroTurf football field with FieldTurf. However, since the field hockey team can not play on FieldTurf, they are building them a whole new AstroTurf complex on the other side of campus. This will add to the soccer field, Jets indoor facility, and Jets outdoor practice fields as spaces which use FieldTurf. Only the softball stadium and baseball outfield will keep the grass.

The oddest setup I’ve seen for field space (using FieldTurf, since it is the subject of today’s conversation) is the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University. The women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and baseball teams all share a complex, using portable fencing for part of the baseball and softball field. You can get a good overhead from Google Maps here link

[quote comment=”81127″]Also, Hofstra is replacing it’s AstroTurf football field with FieldTurf. However, since the field hockey team can not play on FieldTurf, they are building them a whole new AstroTurf complex on the other side of campus.[/quote]

Why can’t the field hockey team play on FieldTurf? Nickerson Field at Boston University (and the former site of link is FieldTurf and I’m positive that the link play their home games there (Check out the mask on the goalie – last picture).

link in Edmonton has a turf infield and a grass outfield. I finally went to a Cracker Cats game last year, and other than the field it’s a beautiful ballpark. I only wish I lived here when the Trappers still played here, and were the A’s farm team.

[quote comment=”81129″]Why can’t the field hockey team play on FieldTurf? Nickerson Field at Boston University (and the former site of link is FieldTurf and I’m positive that the link play their home games there (Check out the mask on the goalie – last picture).[/quote]

So much for being “positive” about something. The BU Field Hockey team plays at link on the campus of MIT, which is actually an “old-fashioned” AstroTurf surface.

[quote comment=”81118″][quote comment=”81115″]Maybe I’m colorblind or something, but I swear the other night on TV it looked like the Cardinals were wearing navy caps and black batting helmets during a road game. Am I crazy? What colors do they wear?[/quote]

Cardinals wear Navy caps on the road along with matching batting helmets. They’ve been doing this link[/quote]

I notice the depiction of ball players went pajama pants in 2004. I guess in 200 years people will think we stopped wearing stirups as a society in 2004.

[quote comment=”80989″][quote comment=”80983″]Regarding having dirt at home plate, maybe its so that people can “dig in” like they are accustomed to doing which isn’t really possible on the field turf.[/quote]

Also, I’m pretty sure it’s for the catcher as well. Catching on dirt is bad enough, could you imgaine the weird bounces you’d get from a curveball in the turf?[/quote]

Ding, ding, ding! Exactly. The ball would kill the Catcher/Ump when the pitcher bounced a splitter or curve

I play softball on a field almost just like that ….

link

Tons of pics, I’m sure i’ll take heat for the unis, but what the hell…..

The Turf is REALLY easy to slide on but like someone said before it can be BRUTAL on your skin.

Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..

Didn’t Villanova change its main field from AstroTurf to FieldTurf?

paul in all the pictures you see the players wearing the hurache 2k5 metal cleats, why do they wear the metal on the turf?i would think you would get no traction just like in football they wear turf cleats

By the way, the track and tennis courts you see in the picture of LIU Brooklyn are actually on the roof of the Wellness Center, a building that appears to be five or six stories tall.

Link: link

[quote comment=”81137″]paul in all the pictures you see the players wearing the hurache 2k5 metal cleats, why do they wear the metal on the turf?i would think you would get no traction just like in football they wear turf cleats[/quote]

link used to wear spikes on turf because he said it gave him the traction he needed while hitting.

[quote comment=”81134″]
Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..[/quote]

You mean January through December?

It seems like in the late ’80s and into the ’90s natural grass was making a real comeback, as most newer stadiums were choosing to use it over the old astroturf, but the new field turf is definately taken over. C’mon! I know the artifical surface has to be easier to maintain, but is anything better than a natural playing surface?

I’d be interested to hear what atheletes (at any level) who have experience with both surfaces perfer to play on. If I ever was one, I’m certainly not much of an “athlete” now, and personally don’t have any experience playing on the newer artifical surfaces.

link in Memphis, used for minor league baseball until 2000 had the turf infield + grass outfield. It was a AA ballpark for the Memphis Chicks until Memphis got a AAA team in 1998. The Redbirds played there until link opened in 2000

[quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

The turf infield grass outfield setup was fairly common in the minors during the turf craze that started in the 70s and went on into the 80s. Basically, people wanted the advantage of less field maintenance on the part of the field that got used most, but they also wanted the aesthetic of lots of real grass. Seemed just weird to me.

As for all-turf baseball fields, Skyline College, a JC just south of San Francisco, has one where the only dirt is on the mound and around the plate. The stupidest part about it is the turf warning track, as someone mentioned above. However, close behind is the link. That may just be me. I love how link.

[quote comment=”81143″]link in Memphis, used for minor league baseball until 2000 had the turf infield + grass outfield. It was a AA ballpark for the Memphis Chicks until Memphis got a AAA team in 1998. The Redbirds played there until link opened in 2000[/quote]
I forgot to mention, that occasionally you’d see the ball hit the edge of the turf and take a crazy bounce. It seemed that the players didn’t really like it.
The reason the grass was installed was because the Royals at the time had their AA team in Memphis and they wanted to train their infielders for playing on the turf at Royals Stadium.

[quote comment=”81142″]It seems like in the late ’80s and into the ’90s natural grass was making a real comeback, as most newer stadiums were choosing to use it over the old astroturf, but the new field turf is definately taken over. C’mon! I know the artifical surface has to be easier to maintain, but is anything better than a natural playing surface?

I’d be interested to hear what atheletes (at any level) who have experience with both surfaces perfer to play on. If I ever was one, I’m certainly not much of an “athlete” now, and personally don’t have any experience playing on the newer artifical surfaces.[/quote]

Okay, here’s a unique perspective (though not exactly “athletic”). . .

I played in the marching band at Boston University for 4 years. For the first 3 years, Nickerson Field was AstroTurf and it was like marching on concrete. My knees ached after 2 hours rehearsals and after performances. Senior year they tore up the turf and replaced it with FieldTurf. Guess what . . .No more knee problems! It was exactly like marching on grass (which I did in high school). Even the bugs got confused and we had some problems with swarming gnats!

Okay, now that I’ve revealed the depths of my band-geekiness . . .

[quote comment=”81105″]Mets'[/quote]
A’s

Uni Watch nation: I need your help!

My men’s field hockey team needs new kits for this season and I managed to get involved in the process, I just had to. Our team colors are yellow and navy, and have a proud tradition of wearing striped socks for over 80 years, interrupted only for a brief period in the 1980’s when we couldn’t find them anywhere.

link is what the manufacturer send us as a first mock up. I wasn’t happy with several things. First, the socks are not properly stripped. Second, I just hate yellow shorts, so thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s out of the question. Plus I just hated the template used by the manufacturer, I think it failed the “is it good or is it stupid” test. I don’t care for the excessive piping on the shirt.

So fellow uni watchers, I call upon thee for help, any suggestions, mock ups, etc will be more than welcome.

Thanks

Another Boston school chips in on the From Boston College’s web page about their new field hockey venue:

The renovation project at the Newton Campus practice field is precipitated by the recent conversion of Alumni Stadium from AstroTurf (non-filled) to Field Turf (filled). The removal of the non-filled turf system at Alumni leaves the Field Hockey program at a competitive and recruiting disadvantage. The NCAA strongly recommends the use of irrigated non-filled nylon turf for regular season Division I Field Hockey. It will not allow post season competition on surfaces other than non-filled turf.

To get an idea what we have been wearing in the past, check link out. (The mock up kit is also there).

Oops! Hit enter too soon. Should read ‘Another Boston school chips in on the field turf issue. From Boston College’s…..’

[quote comment=”81153″][quote comment=”81105″]Mets'[/quote]
A’s[/quote]
I’m not entirely sure what you’re getting at here, but the apostrophy in Mets’ is possessive, while in A’s it’s used as a contraction. I think the possessive would be Athletics’, or A’s’.

[quote comment=”81141″][quote comment=”81134″]
Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..[/quote]

You mean January through December?[/quote]

Funny, really funny. (sigh)

More like November through February….

[quote comment=”81141″][quote comment=”81134″]
Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..[/quote]

You mean January through December?[/quote]

Ever been to Seattle in the Summer months? We sure have a bad rep for weather up here, but that’s mostly from people who either have never been here, or only came in the winter/spring. It rains more in NYC than Seattle.

[quote comment=”81143″]link in Memphis…[/quote]

link has a stadium named after him?! No!

Very interesting stuff about the turf field. I’m guessing other sports use parts of the field too? Soccer, football, etc.? Kind of all crammed into one area. Anyway, I’ve played on that surface before and cant imagine sliding headfirst into a base. Feet first, I can kind of see. But headfirst is multiple ‘strawberries’ waiting to happen. I thought UWashington had the stranges field layout…but this may take it.

In no way am I a fan of purple, but I’m already very tired of the red craze in sports. If there were two baseball teams out there that ‘should’ use purple, it’d be the Rockies and DBacks. Both mountains and desert do have a purple-ish look to them at times. Actually, I guess the Royals can be added in there too, but lets not get crazy.

I am of the gambling sort, and BoDog is a decent site. I use someone else, but mainly because I dont feel like switching. I do like the fact that the BoDog owner basically said ‘screw you’ to the US Government and kept taking US residents’ bets (at least last I heard). Of course, he’ll never be allowed in the country…but what does he care if it’s going to make him a Billion+ dollars.

[quote comment=”81062″]I once played on a carpeted basketball court. Very hard to get used to the bounce, plus no diving for loose balls.[/quote]

My middle school had a carpet court for a long time, then they switched to those plastic tile things. I can’t tell you which was worse to play on. Both tore you up if you slid on them, and both were hard as a rock.

The football/soccer field here at case was recently redone with FieldTurf. my athletic experiences have only been with intramurals and goofing around with friends, but i do like it. it doesn’t tear up your legs anymore than dry ground does when you slide. you can wear regular cleats on it without any problems(besides the black pellets). the only problem is getting used to the way the ball bounces and rolls, especially for soccer.

p.s. anythings better than an all dirt infield when it rains (personal grounds crew experience)

[quote comment=”81051″][quote comment=”81050″]I am also requesting the help of the Uni Watch faithful. I am going to the Brewers/Pirates game tonight. (It’s retro friday, $1 hot dogs, half price tickets, and Jim Gantner bobble head night so how could I not go?) I am just wondering your opinions on what I should wear to support the Crew tonight.

2007 Retro Friday Jersey or link???[/quote]
Can you dress up as a sausage?[/quote]

Neither, wear Chorizo

[quote comment=”81140″][quote comment=”81137″]paul in all the pictures you see the players wearing the hurache 2k5 metal cleats, why do they wear the metal on the turf?i would think you would get no traction just like in football they wear turf cleats[/quote]

link used to wear spikes on turf because he said it gave him the traction he needed while hitting.[/quote]

I’m Keith Hernandez…..

[quote comment=”81176″][quote comment=”81140″][quote comment=”81137″]paul in all the pictures you see the players wearing the hurache 2k5 metal cleats, why do they wear the metal on the turf?i would think you would get no traction just like in football they wear turf cleats[/quote]

link used to wear spikes on turf because he said it gave him the traction he needed while hitting.[/quote]

I’m Keith Hernandez…..[/quote]

link!!!

[quote comment=”81084″][quote comment=”81018″]

The Orioles wear their Black Alts. on Friday home games. And NO Ditch the Black here.[/quote]

I am petty, but it drives me nuts how it seems like many of the people that post on this site don’t really get Paul’s “Ditch the Black” idea. The reason Paul wants the Mets to get rid of all the black on the uniforms is because black isn’t one of the ballclub’s colors. It has nothing to do with the color black itself.

I don’t think Paul would ever suggest the Orioles get rid of their all-black jerseys (even though they are hideous–sorry Minna) because black is a standard color the Orioles have used as part of their color scheme for decades.

On the other hand, the Mets basically “whored” themselves out in the late nineties to what was popular and what sold merchandise at the time, and they did so by adding black to the colors of the uniforms. That’s the part that Paul, and I, and certainly lots of other fellow readers and Mets fans are saying.

Please, UniWatchers, get this through your heads![/quote]

I know that, It was meant with Sarcasm. Plus I enjoy seeing people get fired up over little things.

Texas Tech has a real grass outfield, with astroturf infield.

Texas Tech

[quote comment=”81163″][quote comment=”81143″]link in Memphis…[/quote]

link has a stadium named after him?! No!

[/quote]

Ok, I was skimming through the comments with a few thoughts swirling around my head, but this is what caught my attention. I have to second that anguished cry. McCarver has a stadium named after him????

Ok. Down to business. That FieldTurf stuff looks crappy, but ah, Minnetonka. My first boyfriend went to Minnetonka. The memories. Natron, is Nate Hill you? Just curious.

Anna, welcome aboard. Are you located in MN, too?

I am going to say it. This will probably finally get me banned, but link, the black Mets’ jerseys look good.

Johnny O., I back the dual jersey suggestion if you can’t be the chorizo.

nico, those striped socks from the past have got to stay. They are excellent. The mock-up? Not so much. Maybe Joe H. can help you out; he’s got the skillz.

[quote comment=”81148″][quote comment=”81142″]It seems like in the late ’80s and into the ’90s natural grass was making a real comeback, as most newer stadiums were choosing to use it over the old astroturf, but the new field turf is definately taken over. C’mon! I know the artifical surface has to be easier to maintain, but is anything better than a natural playing surface?

I’d be interested to hear what atheletes (at any level) who have experience with both surfaces perfer to play on. If I ever was one, I’m certainly not much of an “athlete” now, and personally don’t have any experience playing on the newer artifical surfaces.[/quote]

Okay, here’s a unique perspective (though not exactly “athletic”). . .

I played in the marching band at Boston University for 4 years. For the first 3 years, Nickerson Field was AstroTurf and it was like marching on concrete. My knees ached after 2 hours rehearsals and after performances. Senior year they tore up the turf and replaced it with FieldTurf. Guess what . . .No more knee problems! It was exactly like marching on grass (which I did in high school). Even the bugs got confused and we had some problems with swarming gnats!

Okay, now that I’ve revealed the depths of my band-geekiness . . .[/quote]

I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. We would normally practice on the intramural fields which were natural grass, but some nights we got booted cause they had to actually be used for IM sports. When I started we used to practice in the football stadium parking lot on those night. But then decorative islands were installed in the parking lot so we couldn’t use that anymore. When this happened we actually got to go to the football facility. They had an astroturf field outside and an indoor field with fieldturf (which we got to use when it was raining). The parking lot, astroturf, and fieldturf had its advantages for practices as we couldn’t create those perfectly spaced bald patches that arise when you practice on grass (and therefore help you cheat your way into the correct position). But the parking lot and astroturf sucked, definitely knee pain and everything just went too fast. The fieldturf was nice and springy. The best surface by far was link

All right, my hat-savvy friends. I am thinking of buying link instead of link. How do I size my head?

[quote comment=”81199″][quote comment=”81148″][quote comment=”81142″]It seems like in the late ’80s and into the ’90s natural grass was making a real comeback, as most newer stadiums were choosing to use it over the old astroturf, but the new field turf is definately taken over. C’mon! I know the artifical surface has to be easier to maintain, but is anything better than a natural playing surface?

I’d be interested to hear what atheletes (at any level) who have experience with both surfaces perfer to play on. If I ever was one, I’m certainly not much of an “athlete” now, and personally don’t have any experience playing on the newer artifical surfaces.[/quote]

Okay, here’s a unique perspective (though not exactly “athletic”). . .

I played in the marching band at Boston University for 4 years. For the first 3 years, Nickerson Field was AstroTurf and it was like marching on concrete. My knees ached after 2 hours rehearsals and after performances. Senior year they tore up the turf and replaced it with FieldTurf. Guess what . . .No more knee problems! It was exactly like marching on grass (which I did in high school). Even the bugs got confused and we had some problems with swarming gnats!

Okay, now that I’ve revealed the depths of my band-geekiness . . .[/quote]

I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. We would normally practice on the intramural fields which were natural grass, but some nights we got booted cause they had to actually be used for IM sports. When I started we used to practice in the football stadium parking lot on those night. But then decorative islands were installed in the parking lot so we couldn’t use that anymore. When this happened we actually got to go to the football facility. They had an astroturf field outside and an indoor field with fieldturf (which we got to use when it was raining). The parking lot, astroturf, and fieldturf had its advantages for practices as we couldn’t create those perfectly spaced bald patches that arise when you practice on grass (and therefore help you cheat your way into the correct position). But the parking lot and astroturf sucked, definitely knee pain and everything just went too fast. The fieldturf was nice and springy. The best surface by far was link[/quote]
Are the “decorative islands” those things with the bushes between the cars?

[quote comment=”81075″][quote comment=”81046″]Yesterday someone asked what this new bat was that David Wright had switched to: link

Ever since he came up to the big leagues, and even as recent as 4/21/07, David was using a Rawlings Big Stick bat. Now it seems he’s switched to the same bat company that both Carlos Beltran’s and Paul LoDuca get their bats from Marucci Bat Company in Louisiana. link

Yeah Joey, that was me. You definitely deserve a Uniwatch gold star for that detective work. Thanks![/quote]

Ryan Howard also uses Marucci bats.

Neither of these links is going to work, but you can cut and paste these URLs:
link
link

[quote comment=”81119″]And finally, I start a new job on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay current on each day’s comments like I can at here! And for you Dallasites, in particular Matthew S. and the suburban Robert, this Horned Frog is headed east from Fort Worth to conquer Dallas – watch out because I’m bringing the TCU purple with me.[/quote]

Welcome to Dallas, I.V.!

[quote comment=”81199″]I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. [/quote]

how dare you call yourself a band geek as a member of the blue band! its the FRIGGIN’ BLUE BAND!!! thats like saying eddie vedder is a band geek cuz he’s in pearl jam!

“victory we predict for thee im ever true to you dear ol white and blue.”
“we dont know the god damn words.”

Or [quote comment=”81203Ryan Howard also uses Marucci bats.

Neither of these links is going to work, but you can cut and paste these URLs:
link
link

…Or not. You’ll just have to trust me.

[quote comment=”81204″][quote comment=”81199″]I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. [/quote]

how dare you call yourself a band geek as a member of the blue band! its the FRIGGIN’ BLUE BAND!!! thats like saying eddie vedder is a band geek cuz he’s in pearl jam!

“victory we predict for thee im ever true to you dear ol white and blue.”
“we dont know the god damn words.”[/quote]
trying to keep up here, so you’re a tar-heel b’ball fan and a Penn State band fan? Anything else we should know about?

Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)

[quote comment=”81201″]
Are the “decorative islands” those things with the bushes between the cars?[/quote]

That photo appears to be pre “islands” we used the parking lot to the left of the staduim. Also, in case you wanted to know the IM field are the ones in the very top left of the picture with the cars parked on them.[quote comment=”81204″][quote comment=”81199″]I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. [/quote]

how dare you call yourself a band geek as a member of the blue band! its the FRIGGIN’ BLUE BAND!!! thats like saying eddie vedder is a band geek cuz he’s in pearl jam!

“victory we predict for thee im ever true to you dear ol white and blue.”
“we dont know the god damn words.”[/quote]

I thought you were a Tarheal Todd? My older sister went to UNC.

[quote comment=”81212″][quote comment=”81201″]
Are the “decorative islands” those things with the bushes between the cars?[/quote]

That photo appears to be pre “islands” we used the parking lot to the left of the staduim. Also, in case you wanted to know the IM field are the ones in the very top left of the picture with the cars parked on them.[quote comment=”81204″][quote comment=”81199″]I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. [/quote]

how dare you call yourself a band geek as a member of the blue band! its the FRIGGIN’ BLUE BAND!!! thats like saying eddie vedder is a band geek cuz he’s in pearl jam!

“victory we predict for thee im ever true to you dear ol white and blue.”
“we dont know the god damn words.”[/quote]

I thought you were a Tarheal Todd? My older sister went to UNC.[/quote]
Tarheal? sp? When I did it it came out Tarhell! ;p

[quote comment=”81210″]Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)[/quote]

Well, Teebz, you can guess what I will be wearing. Although, I am half-tempted to wear something else just to shock everybody. Maybe all white. That would be too funny.

I can’t believe it’s a week from today. The Twin Cities’ Uni-Watch Party is going to rock Nye’s like it’s never been rocked before.

I better check out their beer list….

[quote comment=”81215″][quote comment=”81212″][quote comment=”81201″]
Are the “decorative islands” those things with the bushes between the cars?[/quote]

That photo appears to be pre “islands” we used the parking lot to the left of the staduim. Also, in case you wanted to know the IM field are the ones in the very top left of the picture with the cars parked on them.[quote comment=”81204″][quote comment=”81199″]I was also a band geek. Was in the Penn State Blue Band. [/quote]

how dare you call yourself a band geek as a member of the blue band! its the FRIGGIN’ BLUE BAND!!! thats like saying eddie vedder is a band geek cuz he’s in pearl jam!

“victory we predict for thee im ever true to you dear ol white and blue.”
“we dont know the god damn words.”[/quote]

I thought you were a Tarheal Todd? My older sister went to UNC.[/quote]
Tarheal? sp? When I did it it came out Tarhell! ;p[/quote]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me

Hm. No beer list, but here is the link. Lots of good Polish food. Yum.

[quote comment=”81034″]dont the Twins or Rays have field turf as parts of the warning track? I seem to remember the announcers mentioning it during a recent Indians game.[/quote]

I haven’t made it out to a game at Tropicana Field yet this season, but as of last season the Trop had clay where it should be infield, 1st and 3rd base lines, the mound and warning track…It would be a great place to watch a game if there wasn’t a roof, but I understand the need for it down here, too many potential rain outs and having the Dome at a constant 72degree’s is hella better than sitting in a Concrete stadium for hours in the hell that is a Tampa area summer

[quote comment=”81216″][quote comment=”81210″]Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)[/quote]

Well, Teebz, you can guess what I will be wearing. Although, I am half-tempted to wear something else just to shock everybody. Maybe all white. That would be too funny.

I can’t believe it’s a week from today. The Twin Cities’ Uni-Watch Party is going to rock Nye’s like it’s never been rocked before.

I better check out their beer list….[/quote]
PINK would shok everyone…

[quote comment=”81160″][quote comment=”81141″][quote comment=”81134″]
Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..[/quote]

You mean January through December?[/quote]

Ever been to Seattle in the Summer months? We sure have a bad rep for weather up here, but that’s mostly from people who either have never been here, or only came in the winter/spring. It rains more in NYC than Seattle.[/quote]

Shhhh! Hey, I’m from Seattle, too, but I thought that was our little secret to keep outsiders away from our city. We ran our Rain Machine (TM) every Monday Night Football just to keep the legend alive!

On another note, I checked out that SI.com link someone posted earlier and ran across John Grahame’s hockey mask. I have no idea if it’s tacky or all kinds of awesome in a sorta Southern redneck way.

[quote comment=”81222″][quote comment=”81216″][quote comment=”81210″]Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)[/quote]

Well, Teebz, you can guess what I will be wearing. Although, I am half-tempted to wear something else just to shock everybody. Maybe all white. That would be too funny.

I can’t believe it’s a week from today. The Twin Cities’ Uni-Watch Party is going to rock Nye’s like it’s never been rocked before.

I better check out their beer list….[/quote]
PINK would shok everyone…[/quote]
i’m going to stop posting as my fingers are already “working for the weekend.”

Oops. John Grahame’s hockey mask link

[quote comment=”81200″]All right, my hat-savvy friends. I am thinking of buying link instead of link. How do I size my head?[/quote]

I should perhaps read the Sizing page posting. I do have an additional question. My head is between 22″ and 22 1/4. Should I go for a size 7 or a size 7 1/8?

Never mind. They are both out of stock. Maybe I will get link instead.

Ok. I have to say, they have more sizes out of stock than in. That’s frustrating.

I wish I could fit it into my schedule to attend the uni watch party in MN. I’d have quite the problem though, do I wear my old school Hawks knit sweater, 1980 USA jersey, Green North Stars, my FDNY hockey jersey, stay classic with Cubs pinstripes, or to piss Paul off the Fisherman Islanders jersey?

[quote comment=”81222″][quote comment=”81216″][quote comment=”81210″]Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)[/quote]

Well, Teebz, you can guess what I will be wearing. Although, I am half-tempted to wear something else just to shock everybody. Maybe all white. That would be too funny.

I can’t believe it’s a week from today. The Twin Cities’ Uni-Watch Party is going to rock Nye’s like it’s never been rocked before.

I better check out their beer list….[/quote]
PINK would shok everyone…[/quote]

I was thinking that, but that would mean actually buying something pink. I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

Hey, MetsfanAZ, I think you need to get out of work, already. You forgot to un-italicize.

[quote comment=”81229″]I wish I could fit it into my schedule to attend the uni watch party in MN. I’d have quite the problem though, do I wear my old school Hawks knit sweater, 1980 USA jersey, Green North Stars, my FDNY hockey jersey, stay classic with Cubs pinstripes, or to piss Paul off the Fisherman Islanders jersey?[/quote]

You can’t come even for an hour? I have to warn you that if you were to wear the North Stars’ jersey, you would be leaving without it.

Enjoy link pictures.

I think that the dirt home plate cutout on a fieldturf field is one of the DUMBEST things that I’ve seen recently. Why paint the turf to simulate dirt when you have the real thing right next to it? Didn’t it occur to anyone how dumb that would look?
I thought the U. of Miami had a combo field (turf infield, grass outfield)in the late 80’s, but I couldn’t find the proof.
The trend toward fieldturf is a bit disturbing. People praise it now, but how long did it take for people to catch on that astroturf was evil on the knees and toes?

[quote comment=”81231″][quote comment=”81222″][quote comment=”81216″][quote comment=”81210″]Minna, what is the preferred dress code for next Friday? All black? I was thinking of wearing my Reggie Bush jersey with some black pants. :o)[/quote]

Well, Teebz, you can guess what I will be wearing. Although, I am half-tempted to wear something else just to shock everybody. Maybe all white. That would be too funny.

I can’t believe it’s a week from today. The Twin Cities’ Uni-Watch Party is going to rock Nye’s like it’s never been rocked before.

I better check out their beer list….[/quote]
PINK would shok everyone…[/quote]

I was thinking that, but that would mean actually buying something pink. I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

Hey, MetsfanAZ, I think you need to get out of work, already. You forgot to un-italicize.[/quote]
i SUCK that’s all there is to it. how do i do this?

sorry about all the italics

I live in Cambridge, it’s quite a hike for simply taking in one beer, and since I’m Irish, it’s never just one beer.

[quote comment=”80981″]A school where I used to work had FieldTurf. That stuff shreds your skin if you slide on it (or just fall on it). It’s lethal, and it looks like shit, too.[/quote]

I dont agree, I plaid many a soccer game on the stuff and i gotta tell you, its a million times better than sliding on a shitty hard dirt field or the old astro turf stuff, the worst part is getting the rubber pellets in your cleats

Now that I think of it, the party should really be at Dummy’s Bar and Grill in Forest Lake as I think the name of the bar is fitting in an odd way.

ok…
here goes…
attended neither PSU or UNC… (but i drank a hell of a lot at both places… more so in state college than in chapel hill)
Millersville University (PA) class of 95 undergrad
Lehigh University (PA) class of 99 grad

I have no greater favorite sports team than each years Tar Heel basketball team and despise the program that rat face puts on the floor each season.
College football? I give my fandom to Penn St. and Tennessee.

The blue band just rocks the hell out of the battleship…

How about now? I swear I do this like once a week. Now? Now? I give up

I’m going to become one of the silent uni watchers.

Anna, welcome aboard. Are you located in MN, too?

Indeed I do live in MN [right downtown MLPS actually]… and I’m a HUGE Twins fan!

[quote comment=”81218″]]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Welcome fellow Mountaineer! I lived about a block from the stadium while attending WVU, and there’s nothing I miss more than waking up to the sound of the drums as the band warmed up on Saturday mornings during football season.

[quote comment=”81005″]I went to Giants Stadium earlier this year for a trip with my Sports Marketing class [/quote]

Which school is offering a Sports Marketing class?

[quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?

How about link for wrong.

[quote comment=”81238″]I live in Cambridge, it’s quite a hike for simply taking in one beer, and since I’m Irish, it’s never just one beer.[/quote]

Ah, ok. I see. I was getting you mixed up with the guy who is flying in for his in-laws’ wedding. Yes, that would be a bit pricey to pay for a chat and a few beers.

I wouldn’t have to fly in, that’s Cambridge, MN, up near North Branch

[quote comment=”81225″][quote comment=”81160″][quote comment=”81141″][quote comment=”81134″]
Personally I LOVE the turf. Here in the Seattle areait allows us to play even in the wet, cold months…..[/quote]

You mean January through December?[/quote]

Ever been to Seattle in the Summer months? We sure have a bad rep for weather up here, but that’s mostly from people who either have never been here, or only came in the winter/spring. It rains more in NYC than Seattle.[/quote]

Shhhh! Hey, I’m from Seattle, too, but I thought that was our little secret to keep outsiders away from our city. We ran our Rain Machine (TM) every Monday Night Football just to keep the legend alive![/quote]

Good point. Traffic is bad enough.

The snow during the MNF game last year was pretty awesome too. A pain in the butt to get home from though….

my high school, Shorewood in Shoreline, WA, added Field Turf this year. It might be hard to tell at this angle but our batters boxes are turf and the mound is dirt. Also, we have grass outfield. For 10 years before this, we had Astro Turf with dirt pits at each base, home plate and the mound.

[quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not

sorry again, my link isnt working…

link

[quote comment=”81031″]Here is the RU baseball field…

link

One of the most beautiful baseball stadium views I have ever seen.

[quote comment=”81235″]The trend toward fieldturf is a bit disturbing. People praise it now, but how long did it take for people to catch on that astroturf was evil on the knees and toes?[/quote]

But that’s the point of FieldTurf… It is safer on your knees and toes because it acts more cushioned like grass

[quote comment=”81203″]

[quote comment=”81119″]And finally, I start a new job on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay current on each day’s comments like I can at here! And for you Dallasites, in particular Matthew S. and the suburban Robert, this Horned Frog is headed east from Fort Worth to conquer Dallas – watch out because I’m bringing the TCU purple with me.[/quote]

Welcome to Dallas, I.V.![/quote]

Ah, I forgot about Philly Bill, my fellow Texas transplant. Although I’ve lived in Texas for 10 years, I’m sure there will be plenty of surprises upon moving across the Metroplex.

And for you anti-pink jersey crowd, at lunch I was behind a woman wearing a pink Dallas Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki jersey. The pink was bad enoughÃ¢â‚¬Â¦but come on. A Mavs jersey – a DIRK jersey – on this, the day of mourning for the Mavs?? Astounding.

[quote comment=”81251″]How about link for wrong.[/quote]

Joe! You have to warn a gal before linking to something like that! My last post was for you, too.

Anna, most excellent! Are you coming to the Uni-Watch Party next Friday at eight? Nye’s Polonaise Room. Then there will be two women at least.

Maybe I will wear link, link, link, link, and link. Ooooh, or link instead of pants.

Then, one of the other Uni-Watchers would have to put me out of my misery.

MetsfanAZ, don’t be a lurker–I would miss you.

[quote comment=”81153″][quote comment=”81105″]Mets'[/quote]
A’s[/quote]
Yankees

[quote comment=”81254″]I wouldn’t have to fly in, that’s Cambridge, MN, up near North Branch[/quote]

Joe! That changes everything. According to MapQuest, you are only an hour away. If Teebz can make it from Winnipeg (right, Teebz?), you can certainly make it from Cambridge, MN. Ah, well. Too bad. Looks like I won’t be getting that North Stars jersey after all.

[quote comment=”81262″][quote comment=”81203″]

[quote comment=”81119″]And finally, I start a new job on Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay current on each day’s comments like I can at here! And for you Dallasites, in particular Matthew S. and the suburban Robert, this Horned Frog is headed east from Fort Worth to conquer Dallas – watch out because I’m bringing the TCU purple with me.[/quote]

Welcome to Dallas, I.V.![/quote]

Ah, I forgot about Philly Bill, my fellow Texas transplant. Although I’ve lived in Texas for 10 years, I’m sure there will be plenty of surprises upon moving across the Metroplex.

And for you anti-pink jersey crowd, at lunch I was behind a woman wearing a pink Dallas Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki jersey. The pink was bad enoughÃ¢â‚¬Â¦but come on. A Mavs jersey – a DIRK jersey – on this, the day of mourning for the Mavs?? Astounding.[/quote]

Ian K., did you do your Uni-Watch duty and whap her upside the head? I hate that crap. Unless she WAS wearing pink in mourning. I have always claimed that I will show up to my friends’ funerals in pink because it is the saddest color of all.

[quote comment=”81264″][quote comment=”81153″][quote comment=”81105″]Mets'[/quote]
A’s[/quote]
Yankees[/quote]
I was correcting my “Met’s”. I don’t know what you guys are doing.
(btw – I am quietly patting myself on the back for unitalicizing.) clap… clap

I had a recent experience with a turf baseball field. It was odd. The Chelsea High School baseball team played a game at Eastern Michigan University (against another high school, not against EMU!), and EMU has a turf field. Well, half a turf field, anyway.

The EMU field differs from the Minnetonka field in that the infield is link — no dirt for the mound or home plate. And it seemed weird in that the outfield isn’t turf — it’s link. It was really odd, especially because the game was a few weeks ago, and the grass was still a bit brown, so it didn’t even come close to matching the vibrant green of the turf.

Chelsea built a link just a couple years ago — it’s generally considered one of the nicer high school facilities in the state — but I am happy to note that they stuck with real grass and real dirt.

However, Chelsea’s grass football field is being replaced by turf this summer. The grass hasn’t been holding up the last few years; ever since they built a new high school in a nearby low area, the drainage in the area has been screwed up, and the field has suffered. Last year’s second-round playoff game, played in a downpour, really put the last nail in the link. (And they had to host one more game after that.)

[quote comment=”81263″][quote comment=”81251″]How about link for wrong.[/quote]

Joe! You have to warn a gal before linking to something like that! My last post was for you, too.

Anna, most excellent! Are you coming to the Uni-Watch Party next Friday at eight? Nye’s Polonaise Room. Then there will be two women at least.

Maybe I will wear link, link, link, link, and link. Ooooh, or link instead of pants.

Then, one of the other Uni-Watchers would have to put me out of my misery.

MetsfanAZ, don’t be a lurker–I would miss you.[/quote]

I may make it to the party, I just got a real grown-up job and I don’t know my schedule yet, but I’m marking it on my calendar!

Just spotted a couple of RARE Wayne Gretzky jerseys on ebay. The first is the infamous original third jersey from the LA Kings 95-96 season, and the second is a “Ninety-Niners” jersey. Apparently Gretzky and some of his buddies did a barnstorming tour during the 94 lockout, and these are what they wore, or at least a replica of it. Don’t know if the Kings third is a replica or authentic.

link

Has anyone ever noticed the gloveflap on the wrist of Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer (link below). I’m guessing it’s used when blocking balls. I am a pretty regular reader and watch alot of baseball, but I have never seen that on a glove. Beyond that, why is Mauer covering his head while he is wearing a helmet. The picture was in the local paper and one of my students asked the same question. Sorry about the grammar, I’m a social studies teacher, not english.

link

Sounds like there are quite a few of us in the Seattle area.

Hey Paul…when can you make it out this way for a Uni-Party in Seattle? We’ve got a great ballpark to see, too.

link in Wichita, Kan., has a plastic infield and grass outfield. The stadium is host to the National Baseball Congress tournament at the end of summer, which is known for its 24 hours of baseball. It took a while to get accustomed to the fake grass, but all the baseball really took a toll on the real stuff. Me, I like all the baseball and can live with the plastic. L-D is an old, but really comfortable ballpark.Among the awards the tournament used to give out was one for the best-looking uniforms.

[quote comment=”81277″]Sounds like there are quite a few of us in the Seattle area.

Hey Paul…when can you make it out this way for a Uni-Party in Seattle? We’ve got a great ballpark to see, too.[/quote]

Love to. In general, I hold parties in various cities as I’m passing through them for work-related reasons, and right now, unfortunately, I have no Seattle travel plans. HOWEVER… I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.

[quote comment=”81249″][quote comment=”81005″]I went to Giants Stadium earlier this year for a trip with my Sports Marketing class [/quote]

Which school is offering a Sports Marketing class?[/quote]
My high school does (High Point Regional in Sussex, NJ), it’s basically a glorified Marketing class with some sports aspects tied in. I’ll be going to college for it as well at Johnson & Wales University.

[quote comment=”81279″] HOWEVER… I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.[/quote]

Two weeks would be around the time of great celebration – the one year anniversary of the birth of Uni Watch Blog. I’m anxiously awaiting said announcement…

[quote comment=”81279″] I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.[/quote]

the uni watch road show?
id love to see that! have an espn cold pizza camera crew follow PL around the country. or at least have a weekly segment on cold pizza…

[quote comment=”81278″]link in Wichita, Kan., has a plastic infield and grass outfield. The stadium is host to the National Baseball Congress tournament at the end of summer, which is known for its 24 hours of baseball. It took a while to get accustomed to the fake grass, but all the baseball really took a toll on the real stuff. Me, I like all the baseball and can live with the plastic. L-D is an old, but really comfortable ballpark.Among the awards the tournament used to give out was one for the best-looking uniforms.[/quote]
Did anyone find any pics of grass fields with just the cutouts around the bases like a turf field? I played on one in the city playoffs in LL. I thought it was the coolest thing. I was 12.

[quote comment=”81273″]Just spotted a couple of RARE Wayne Gretzky jerseys on ebay. The first is the infamous original third jersey from the LA Kings 95-96 season, and the second is a “Ninety-Niners” jersey. Apparently Gretzky and some of his buddies did a barnstorming tour during the 94 lockout, and these are what they wore, or at least a replica of it. Don’t know if the Kings third is a replica or authentic.

link

link[/quote]
That Kings jersey is truly an eyesore. The Ninety-Niners jersey is a thing of beauty, however.

[quote comment=”81258″][quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not[/quote]

I went to Penn State, we referred to WVU’s band as the band of that team we always beat.

i dont know about the baseball field, but i played most of my HS lacrosse career on field turf. Its nice in the spring, but it gets brutally hot in the summer and you feet roast in your cleats. I love playing on it, but it does tear bare flesh

Those pink gloves are for girls. and they sell to.

Cold Pizza? How can you watch that crap?

[quote comment=”81284″][quote comment=”81279″] I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.[/quote]

the uni watch road show?
id love to see that! have an espn cold pizza camera crew follow PL around the country. or at least have a weekly segment on cold pizza…[/quote]
Cold Pizza is changing their name to ‘First Take’ on Monday. Why? I have no idea. Its a pretty stupid name for a show. Hopefully, someone will sabotage the graphics to be ‘First Toke’.

[quote comment=”81283″][quote comment=”81279″] HOWEVER… I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.[/quote]

Two weeks would be around the time of great celebration – the one year anniversary of the birth of Uni Watch Blog. I’m anxiously awaiting said announcement…[/quote]

Gold star for Ian. Yes, I’m hoping to time the announcement with the site’s one-year anniversary, which is May 17th. But that depends on a few things getting done between now and then — we shall see.

There’s another Uni Watch-related anniversary coming up, incidentally: May 26th, 1999 was the date that the very first Uni Watch column was published in the Village Voice. So a few wks from now will be Uni Watch’s 8th “birthday,” so to speak.

Now that I’ve said that about cold pizza, I really hope that’s not Pauls announcement.

[quote comment=”81288″][quote comment=”81258″][quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not[/quote]

I went to Penn State, we referred to WVU’s band as the band of that team we always beat.[/quote]

and i always thought that the shape of west virginia
link

was similar to the shape of this
link

[quote comment=”81293″]Now that I’ve said that about cold pizza, I really hope that’s not Pauls announcement.[/quote]

No worries there.

[quote comment=”81290″]Cold Pizza? How can you watch that crap?[/quote]

the only reason i used cold pizza, is because that is the type of program that would include a uniwatch update. plus i think PL was on it about 3 years ago. i never get to watch it, as im at work when its on…

[quote comment=”81111″][quote comment=”81104″]The SkyDome has a FieldTurf warning track, but the baselines are obviously dirt. One thing that I’ve noticed at the dome is the areas where the outfielders stand, you can see all those little black pellets have come up and the turf looks much darker. Its not as obvious on TV as it is in person. However, with all the traffic on the infield “dirt”, all that red turf is going to go black in a hurry. You can see it starting already in link[/quote]
Isn’t this just asking for trouble. The guy that link is testament to warning tracks that don’t warn.[/quote]

Correction, its a testament that he didnt heed the warning, all of the catches people make at the wall, how od you think they know where they are? not onyl the feel, but the contrast as well.

[quote comment=”81129″][quote comment=”81127″]Also, Hofstra is replacing it’s AstroTurf football field with FieldTurf. However, since the field hockey team can not play on FieldTurf, they are building them a whole new AstroTurf complex on the other side of campus.[/quote]

Why can’t the field hockey team play on FieldTurf? Nickerson Field at Boston University (and the former site of link is FieldTurf and I’m positive that the link play their home games there (Check out the mask on the goalie – last picture).[/quote]

I went to Trinity and when we had our fieldturf installed, they also installed the old stuff for girls lax and field hockey, apparently, from what I heard, field hockey is much better on the old astorturf than the new field turf

[quote comment=”81298″][quote comment=”81290″]Cold Pizza? How can you watch that crap?[/quote]

the only reason i used cold pizza, is because that is the type of program that would include a uniwatch update. plus i think PL was on it about 3 years ago…

[/quote]Indeed I was. Right around this time of year, too — the reason I remember that is because they had a Cinco de Mayo band playing right there in the studio.

This was in 2004, when Uni Watch was still running at Slate.com. It wasn’t a bad segment (I have it on DVD somewhere), and I kinda thought they’d ask me back, esp. since the column moved to ESPN.com shortly thereafter. But it never happened.

[quote comment=”81229″]I wish I could fit it into my schedule to attend the uni watch party in MN. I’d have quite the problem though, do I wear my old school Hawks knit sweater, 1980 USA jersey, Green North Stars, my FDNY hockey jersey, stay classic with Cubs pinstripes, or to piss Paul off the Fisherman Islanders jersey?[/quote]

I was thinking of wearing my Islanders’ Fisherman jersey too!

[quote comment=”81196″]Natron, is Nate Hill you? Just curious.[/quote]

Paul requested that I expose myself… so to speak.

[quote comment=”81098″][quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

And I misspoke…it’s a FieldTurf infield.[/quote]

Another example: my high school, Grosse Pointe South, in Grosse Pointe, MI. FieldTurf was installed on the football field about three years ago, and I think this is the second year with the FieldTurf baseball infield. The funny thing about ours is that the first and third base lines are grass, but the baselines between first, second and third are continuous dirt. My friends on the baseball team really like the FieldTurf, and are excited that it’s been rumored to be going into the outfield soon. Of course, the state is broke, so the school district doesn’t have enough money to pay teachers, but we can install all this…

I wish to return this to actual uniforms, by bragging about GPS’. The home baseball uniforms are blue, with white pants, a solid blue cap, and–the best part–Vertically Arched Lettering. Makes me happy every time I see them. The road grey vests are nice, and feature something I can’t remember seeing before, anywhere. The hats are grey with a blue bill. They match up nicely with the rest of the grey in the uni.

Hey Paul…

Whatever happened to the “Players in uniforms that mess with your mind (OJ in a Niners uniform, etc) feature?

[quote comment=”81273″]Just spotted a couple of RARE Wayne Gretzky jerseys on ebay. The first is the infamous original third jersey from the LA Kings 95-96 season, and the second is a “Ninety-Niners” jersey. Apparently Gretzky and some of his buddies did a barnstorming tour during the 94 lockout, and these are what they wore, or at least a replica of it. Don’t know if the Kings third is a replica or authentic.

link[/quote]

The Kings alts are loving referred to as the “Burger King jerseys” in hockey circles. The pictures shown are from a replica jersey (hardly worth the $100 US).

The 99ers jerseys is certainly worth the $155 US. It is a pro jersey, and would be worth every penny to a collector.

[quote comment=”81299″][quote comment=”81111″][quote comment=”81104″]The SkyDome has a FieldTurf warning track, but the baselines are obviously dirt. One thing that I’ve noticed at the dome is the areas where the outfielders stand, you can see all those little black pellets have come up and the turf looks much darker. Its not as obvious on TV as it is in person. However, with all the traffic on the infield “dirt”, all that red turf is going to go black in a hurry. You can see it starting already in link[/quote]
Isn’t this just asking for trouble. The guy that link is testament to warning tracks that don’t warn.[/quote]

Correction, its a testament that he didnt heed the warning, all of the catches people make at the wall, how od you think they know where they are? not onyl the feel, but the contrast as well.[/quote]
that’s my point. there was no contrast. he said later that the track was synthetic something that didn’t feel different than the turf in his spikes. that’s why he never slowed down. with different colored fieldturf there is no difference whatsoever.

[quote comment=”81309″]
The Kings alts are lovingly referred to as the “Burger King jerseys” in hockey circles. The pictures shown are from a replica jersey (hardly worth the $100 US).

The 99ers jerseys is certainly worth the $115 US. It is a pro jersey, and would be worth every penny to a collector.[/quote]

Corrections shown in bold. My brain has left the building.

[quote comment=”81044″]I am so sick of the Tom-Brady-in-a-Yankees-cap issue. Its a non-story folks. What, are you afraid Brady’s going to go play for the Yankees or something?

No one outside the stretch of I-95 between Boston and New York gives a rat’s ass.

OK, I’m done.[/quote]
Why exactly did you bring it up then?

Im sure this has been said, but i played football on that field turf shit and i hated it. I felt slower and it was a bitch to touch the ground without protectiong. I would have just quit if my baseball team had fieldturf because thats just fucking retarded

im watching a 1991 matchup of florida st and miami on classic.
id have to say that some of these guys (on both miami and florida st) just look awesome in a uni.

i always thought that amp lee looked like the greatest college player of all time in his uni.
cool number, cool facemask, cool name.
link

[quote comment=”81068″]Hey, Distant Replays, I have a favor to ask. Can you please restock the MEMPHIS CHICKS t-shirt. Also, can you print it on a HANES BEEFY-T.

Thanks for listening![/quote]
try link

[quote comment=”81313″]Im sure this has been said, but i played football on that field turf shit and i hated it. I felt slower and it was a bitch to touch the ground without protectiong. I would have just quit if my baseball team had fieldturf because thats just fucking retarded[/quote]
no one said it quite like you did.

[quote comment=”81125″][quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

Wasn’t there a major league park that had that setup for a while in the 70s? I think maybe Candlestick?[/quote]

Old Comiskey, named White Sox Park at the time, had an link setup in the early 70’s.

[quote comment=”81312″][quote comment=”81044″]I am so sick of the Tom-Brady-in-a-Yankees-cap issue. Its a non-story folks. What, are you afraid Brady’s going to go play for the Yankees or something?

No one outside the stretch of I-95 between Boston and New York gives a rat’s ass.

OK, I’m done.[/quote]
Why exactly did you bring it up then?[/quote]
My rant wasn’t directed at anyone on this blog. I was feeling fed up with the coverage ESPN was giving this story. To me, its maybe a back page story in the local paper, not a national story. I should have directed my ire at ESPN.

paul y do the oakland a’s have white cleats

[quote comment=”81316″][quote comment=”81313″]Im sure this has been said, but i played football on that field turf shit and i hated it. I felt slower and it was a bitch to touch the ground without protectiong. I would have just quit if my baseball team had fieldturf because thats just fucking retarded[/quote]
no one said it quite like you did.[/quote]

That’s Great!

[quote comment=”81321″]paul y do the oakland a’s have white cleats[/quote]
Just because Charlie Finley wanted link different

[quote comment=”81306″]Hey Paul…

Whatever happened to the “Players in uniforms that mess with your mind (OJ in a Niners uniform, etc) feature?[/quote]

Gonna be my next (or next-after-next) ESPN column.

[quote comment=”81139″]By the way, the track and tennis courts you see in the picture of LIU Brooklyn are actually on the roof of the Wellness Center, a building that appears to be five or six stories tall.

Link: link

you sure thats not an old pic on google. theres no building shadow around the tennis/track area like everywhere else in the pic. Its the google pics are old though they could have built the building where that track and tennis area is.

A friend of mine that graduated from Minnetonka last year explained to me that the baseball team shares its field with the football team (it’s used as a practice field during the football season). Apparently the baseball team could not fund the full 3.5 million it took to build the complex, so the football team had to pitch in. Because of that, the baseball team agreed to let the football team practice on it in the fall. That’s why almost the whole diamond is FieldTurf.

[quote comment=”81288″][quote comment=”81258″][quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not[/quote]

I went to Penn State, we referred to WVU’s band as the band of that team we always beat.[/quote]

Nice, I didn’t realize there are a few other Penn Staters on this board. I’m a 1999 grad.

[quote comment=”81305″][quote comment=”81098″][quote comment=”81095″]How about this for strange baseball fields? Has anyone ever heard of an astroturf infield with real grass in the outfield?

link[/quote]

And I misspoke…it’s a FieldTurf infield.[/quote]

Another example: my high school, Grosse Pointe South, in Grosse Pointe, MI. FieldTurf was installed on the football field about three years ago, and I think this is the second year with the FieldTurf baseball infield. The funny thing about ours is that the first and third base lines are grass, but the baselines between first, second and third are continuous dirt. My friends on the baseball team really like the FieldTurf, and are excited that it’s been rumored to be going into the outfield soon. Of course, the state is broke, so the school district doesn’t have enough money to pay teachers, but we can install all this…[/quote]

usually this stuff is handled by the athletic boosters. my high school was in such bad shape we were going to cut all sports, but the volleyball team got one of those rubber floors to put on the basketball court “to see the lines better and offer protection for when they dive”. damn thing cost $22,000. and this is the same group that was complaining about turning the old practice football field into a soccer field, when we did half the work for it.

“Love to. In general, I hold parties in various cities as I’m passing through them for work-related reasons, and right now, unfortunately, I have no Seattle travel plans. HOWEVER… I’m soon going to be announcing a program that will make it possible (although not easy) for people to “schedule” me for a party in their city. This is part of a larger announcement that I hope to be making in about two weeks. Stay tuned.[/quote]”

I smell a Uni Watch book tour? say it isn’t so Paul !

Didn’t Prince tell Charlie Murphy to “purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” on Chappelle’s Show?

P.S. CollinJ another southern Ohio Uni-Watch Reader here!

Santa Clara University has grass infield and Outfield, but FieldTurf in the entire foul territory.

And yes, the stadium is named for SCU Alum and current Oakland A’s owner Stephen Schott . . .

[quote comment=”81332″]Didn’t Prince tell Charlie Murphy to “purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” on Chappelle’s Show?

P.S. CollinJ another southern Ohio Uni-Watch Reader here![/quote]
What the…???? POST 79!! If that one goes uncommented then I forbid the commenting of this post. Except my comment now, uh never mind.

forgot links

and:

[quote comment=”81336″][quote comment=”81332″]Didn’t Prince tell Charlie Murphy to “purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” on Chappelle’s Show?

P.S. CollinJ another southern Ohio Uni-Watch Reader here![/quote]
What the…???? POST 79!! If that one goes uncommented then I forbid the commenting of this post. Except my comment now, uh never mind.[/quote]

Mets Fan AZ,
I wasn’t referring to the actual prince song (I dont even know if that’s in the song), I was referring to when they made fun of Prince on Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central a few years back.

[quote comment=”81332″]Didn’t Prince tell Charlie Murphy to “purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” on Chappelle’s Show?
[/quote]

link

Prince: Eddie Murphy, I’m a big fan of your comedies.

[quote comment=”81337″]forgot links

and:

[/quote]
should have linked to the link

[quote comment=”81338″][quote comment=”81336″][quote comment=”81332″]Didn’t Prince tell Charlie Murphy to “purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” on Chappelle’s Show?

P.S. CollinJ another southern Ohio Uni-Watch Reader here![/quote]
What the…???? POST 79!! If that one goes uncommented then I forbid the commenting of this post. Except my comment now, uh never mind.[/quote]

Mets Fan AZ,
I wasn’t referring to the actual prince song (I dont even know if that’s in the song), I was referring to when they made fun of Prince on Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central a few years back.[/quote]
I’m guessing that you’re younger than I am or at the very least have never seen the movie Purle Rain. In the movie Prince has Appolonia, a potential protege, purify herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. But it’s not the actual lake. I would link to it but it’s NSFW. It’s not that you missed my reference so much as that no one, not even a certain TC resident, made any comment until now.

Yes. It is because of the reality of the way the ball hits off the ground, and also because the batters box is intended to have holes, and hitting on a flat ground is not natural

[quote comment=”81328″][quote comment=”81288″][quote comment=”81258″][quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not[/quote]

I went to Penn State, we referred to WVU’s band as the band of that team we always beat.[/quote]

Nice, I didn’t realize there are a few other Penn Staters on this board.

I’m a 1999 grad.[/quote]

no wonder you were able to come through on my Marucci Bats quandry.
Just in case you didn’t know, the charges against Justin King in the fight were dropped. I’m worried about Scirotto getting suspended for awhile though, he was the playmaker on defense last year.

[quote comment=”81034″]dont the Twins or Rays have field turf as parts of the warning track? I seem to remember the announcers mentioning it during a recent Indians game.[/quote]

A promotion the Blue Jays have is that during the 7th inning stretch kids from local schools get to go down on the field for “Take me out to the Ballgame” (and the more annoying “Let’s go Blue Jays song”) and as the accompanying teacher I was able to go down to the field area also. The warning track there was just painted brown turf instead of green, with no seams. This was the first thing I thought when I saw it.

[quote comment=”81140″][quote comment=”81137″]paul in all the pictures you see the players wearing the hurache 2k5 metal cleats, why do they wear the metal on the turf?i would think you would get no traction just like in football they wear turf cleats[/quote]

link used to wear spikes on turf because he said it gave him the traction he needed while hitting.[/quote]

When Adrian Beltre was on the Dodgers and played on an AstroTurf field, he wear turf shoes while on defense and switch to spikes when batting.

[quote comment=”81345″][quote comment=”81034″]dont the Twins or Rays have field turf as parts of the warning track? I seem to remember the announcers mentioning it during a recent Indians game.[/quote]

A promotion the Blue Jays have is that during the 7th inning stretch kids from local schools get to go down on the field for “Take me out to the Ballgame” (and the more annoying “Let’s go Blue Jays song”) and as the accompanying teacher I was able to go down to the field area also. The warning track there was just painted brown turf instead of green, with no seams. This was the first thing I thought when I saw it.[/quote]

That kind of defeats the purpose of a warning track, doesn’t it? The whole purpose of the warning track is so that an outfielder can know that the wall is near as he’s looking up at a fly ball. If there’s no texture change, there’s no warning.

hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance!

[quote comment=”81343″][quote comment=”81328″][quote comment=”81288″][quote comment=”81258″][quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

I’m not[/quote]

I went to Penn State, we referred to WVU’s band as the band of that team we always beat.[/quote]

Nice, I didn’t realize there are a few other Penn Staters on this board.

I’m a 1999 grad.[/quote]

no wonder you were able to come through on my Marucci Bats quandry.
Just in case you didn’t know, the charges against Justin King in the fight were dropped. I’m worried about Scirotto getting suspended for awhile though, he was the playmaker on defense last year.[/quote]

Yeah I saw that. The charges against 3 other players were dropped too. Only Scirotto and Chris Baker are left. Scirotto was the man last year. I was down at the Outback Bowl when he had a huge game.

[quote comment=”81354″]hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance![/quote]
Living in Minnesota, but growingup in Chicago I’ve noticed Minnesotans put extra sylables in everything. To them no can be pronounced no-wa, so they could insert Ta-wins for the lyric.

[quote comment=”81356″][quote comment=”81354″]hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance![/quote]
Living in Minnesota, but growingup in Chicago I’ve noticed Minnesotans put extra sylables in everything. To them no can be pronounced no-wa, so they could insert Ta-wins for the lyric.[/quote]

I would have guessed “Twinkies,” myself.

[quote comment=”81354″]hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance![/quote]

At Shea, we just say “root root for the home team”, nothing fancy.

I go to Bellarmine Prep in San Jose and our baseball field is all grass except for the foul territory and the bullpen. (sorry no pics). The other odd athletic field is our Soccer/Lacrosse field which has a giant white “B” in the middle which isnt a problem for soccer but a huge problem for lacrosse face-offs (link)

[quote comment=”81084″][quote comment=”81018″]

The Orioles wear their Black Alts. on Friday home games. And NO Ditch the Black here.[/quote]

I am petty, but it drives me nuts how it seems like many of the people that post on this site don’t really get Paul’s “Ditch the Black” idea. The reason Paul wants the Mets to get rid of all the black on the uniforms is because black isn’t one of the ballclub’s colors. It has nothing to do with the color black itself.

I don’t think Paul would ever suggest the Orioles get rid of their all-black jerseys (even though they are hideous–sorry Minna) because black is a standard color the Orioles have used as part of their color scheme for decades.

On the other hand, the Mets basically “whored” themselves out in the late nineties to what was popular and what sold merchandise at the time, and they did so by adding black to the colors of the uniforms. That’s the part that Paul, and I, and certainly lots of other fellow readers and Mets fans are saying.

Please, UniWatchers, get this through your heads![/quote]

That’s not completely true. Our illustrious host stated for the record late last season that he also disliked the black jerseys based on color, not just idealism. I remember this very candidly because it was in response to a comment I made. Sorry.

[quote comment=”81056″]i am probably really late on this, but do the golden state warriors and washington wizards have the same numeral typeface? everytime i see either team, i think that washington just has a boldface version of GS’s numbers…[/quote]

The two are very similar…
link

link

[quote comment=”81142″]It seems like in the late ’80s and into the ’90s natural grass was making a real comeback, as most newer stadiums were choosing to use it over the old astroturf, but the new field turf is definately taken over. C’mon! I know the artifical surface has to be easier to maintain, but is anything better than a natural playing surface?

I’d be interested to hear what atheletes (at any level) who have experience with both surfaces perfer to play on. If I ever was one, I’m certainly not much of an “athlete” now, and personally don’t have any experience playing on the newer artifical surfaces.[/quote]

I played high school football on natural grass, with one road game every year at a significantly richer (Catholic) private school in our district, who had FieldTurf. I gotta say, the FieldTurf was all well and good, but you can’t beat a good grass surface.

Did anyone notice that the Minnetonka High School logo is the same as the University of Minnesota? Send out the letters, sick the University lawyers on them.

[quote comment=”81014″][quote comment=”81011″]The link of the Frontier League (independant minor league) play on field turf.[/quote]
Wow, it’s pretty weird to see a soccer field on the baseball diamond (look at the pic at the bottom right).[/quote]
link.

[quote comment=”81341″]
I’m guessing that you’re younger than I am or at the very least have never seen the movie Purle Rain. In the movie Prince has Appolonia, a potential protege, purify herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. But it’s not the actual lake. I would link to it but it’s NSFW. It’s not that you missed my reference so much as that no one, not even a certain TC resident, made any comment until now.[/quote]

MetsfanAZ, if you are referring to moi, it’s because *mumbles under her breath*, I never saw the movie. I am not a Prince fan, and I don’t like movies in general. I had nothing to add to your comment, but I am glad you’re still typing (and not turning the whole board italicized even if you misspelled Paul’s favorite color). I kid because I love. I have been guilty of making the board bold several times, but I usually do it at one in the morning when no one else is around.

[quote comment=”80982″]man i got post zapped!

oh well

tonight i went to the 3AM showing of spiderman 3 in the IMAX (unbelievably badass by the way for all you fellow spidergeeks)

but in one scene spidey takes off his boots and it turns out he wears stirrups![/quote]

I said the same thing yesterday

[quote comment=”81354″]hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance![/quote]

We don’t get all fancy-like. We just root for the home team (Twins).

Natron, thank you for baring your, uh, Minnetonka knowledge for the board. You’re going to be there Friday, right? What are you wearing (That IS NOT a pick-up line!)?

[quote comment=”81376″]Did anyone notice that the Minnetonka High School logo is the same as the University of Minnesota? Send out the letters, sick the University lawyers on them.[/quote]

Well, the logo looks more like the Michigan logo to me. Besides, Minnetonka has deep pockets and many of our good athletes come from there; I am pretty sure The U doesn’t want to muck up that relationship.

Burrill, good to see ya back.

Turf: I know the artificial stuff is better, but you can’t beat the look of the real thing.

link

Hancock logo in the BP

[quote comment=”81088″][quote comment=”81011″]

I can’t believe someone else knows about the Paints field.[/quote]

…or even the Frontier League in general. How’s this…my hometown Evansville Otters totally pwned your Paints for the championship last year. Long live the Frontier League![/quote]

Wow another Evansville reader! Sweet!

i don’t have a pic, but Preston Wilson was wearing the striped stirrups tonight for the Cardinals. He looks much better than Anthony Reyes. I just can’t get past that stupid flat brimed hat.

[quote comment=”81289″]i dont know about the baseball field, but i played most of my HS lacrosse career on field turf. Its nice in the spring, but it gets brutally hot in the summer and you feet roast in your cleats. I love playing on it, but it does tear bare flesh

Those pink gloves are for girls. and they sell to.[/quote]

Did you get real FieldTurf lines or painted lines for lacrosse? My high school had four sets of lines: White for football, yellow for soccer, painted blue for men’s lacrosse (nearly impossible to see; in one game the refs just switched to girls’ style out of bounds rules), and painted red for women’s lacrosse. Our track was black (one of the school’s colors, which made running on a hot day that much worse) and since the JV and freshman football teams practiced on our baseball field in the summer and fall, there were yard lines burnt into the grass year-round (not to mention nasty divots until they washed away with the rain).

Indiana St. also has the Astroturf infield/grass outfield combo…

link

[quote comment=”81354″]hey everybody,
this is not related to today’s posting, but i figure this group would know better than anybody i know. at most (probably all) major league stadiums, the crowd sings “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. every crowd (probably) replaces the lyric “root, root, root for the home team” with the name of their team or a variant of their team’s name. i live in detroit, for example, and we sing “root, root, root for the tigers“. so here’s the question: what do the crowds sing in cities where the team name is only one syllable? i know the cubs become the cubbies and the reds become the redlegs, but what about the a’s (athletics seems like a real moutful), the mets, the twins, and the braves? are the names just extended to two syllables (“root, root, root for the meh-ets”)? i’m really curious to know. thanks in advance![/quote]

For the A’s we sort of stretch it into two syllables . I’ll try my best at representing it in text: AAAAAAA-aaaaaaaze!

In other news, does anyone follow horse racing? I always enjoy the different silks the jockeys wear. It seems the sport could have easily sold out to sponsors. Like, instead of DominicanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s jockey wearing the black fleur-de-lis silk, he could be wearing a Bank of America logo. Thank God itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s still traditional. The silks in general would be an interesting Uni Watch subject, IMHO.

Who says this hasn’t happened already? I refer you to last years link. PS I know this is late at night and no one will read it.

A little bit of blue beauty here, involving link, though it’s from this year’s spring training, he’s wearing an off-white version of the last cap and the article talks about him finally picking up his Order of Canada honour 23 years after he was awarded it.

[quote comment=”81083″][quote comment=”81043″]My alam mater linkin Louisville, Kentucky (Chris Burke, Paul Byrd…but who wants to be a name dropper) just installed this same set up on their new field. I was shocked at first, but considering the amount of rain the area gets during the spring, this should save 5 rainouts a season.

On thing I hate is the use of brown turf to “simulate” where the dirt would have been. I say use dirt or green turf.

link
link[/quote]

Ryan D. I guess there is another Louisvillian reading Uni Watch. All though Green and White is a better uni combination then Green and Yellow. LOL.[/quote]

I, too, hail from Louisville. Unfortunately, though, I had to settle for purple as one of my school colors. I went to Male. At least we had good ol’ fashioned gold to balance it out.

Minna, I haven’t been totally absent. There have been many days I’ve read only the post without getting down to the comments, and other days I’ve read the comments but had nothing to add. So I’ve been around for the most part. Just quiet. (I’m on the computer a lot these days thanks to my photography, but somehow, even though I’m working at home, I find it harder to keep up with the comments now than I did when I held a regular office job. Odd.) But EMU’s baseball field made today’s topic relevant for me.

Oh, and I wholeheartedly prefer real grass over turf every time. Football, baseball, whatever. It’s all better on real grass. For that reason I am not overly excited about the new turf football field here, just as I was not excited to see Michigan put turf in Michigan Stadium. It’s just not the same.

At least the high school soccer program has its own separate grass field. I’m told they’re going to continue to have their own field, rather than using the football field, so soccer will continue to be played on real grass.

[quote comment=”81250″][quote comment=”81218″]

I was in the Pride of West Virginia….we would refer to the Blue Band as the Blow Band…seemed appropriate to me[/quote]

Taking the “band geekiness” up another notch:

Chad G or Mike . . .either of you brothers of KKPsi?[/quote]

Not KKPsihere, but I am TBS.

[quote comment=”81415″]Indiana St. also has the Astroturf infield/grass outfield combo…

link

Oh, and please not the stirrups on almost all of the players there!

Also:

link

Damn. That should read please NOTICE the stirrups.

[quote comment=”81490″]Damn. That should read please NOTICE the stirrups.[/quote]
Yeah, that kind of changed your meaning a little. Those are some damn fine lookin’ unis.

[quote]had a meeting yesterday so i missed all posts from noon on… just finished…
some points…

dpnation, yeah its a good thing cuz im the niketalk guy, but its a good thing cuz, lets just say, you posess many of the characteristics that are pleasing to the heterosexual male. that adds to the allure…
hating dook, loving nike, into athletics, on this site, this is a great core…

many years ago, when i was young, ignorant and superficial, i had this listing of girlfriend criteria… its quite funny.
1. college educated
2. funny- can make me laugh
3. can make 7 out of 10 from the free throw line
4. can throw accurately from short to first[/quote]

HAHA apologies for just getting to this now, I just got back from riding my bike up and down a few mountains in Tennessee.

I’ll totally one up your list:
1. I just got accepted to my first choice business school last week. I missed college, apparently.
2. well, that’s hard to prove. So let’s skip this one. But I’m totally freakin hilarious, obviously.
3. free throws were my specialty – at least 80%, IIRC. And in highschool I even got to tip off, cause despite my guard-height I got hops for a white girl!
4. I never played short.. but I was an all-met catcher. I’ll show Peyton Manning who really has the laser rocket arm.

[quote]Get a room, you two.[/quote]
I’m a classy broad. He’d have to buy me dinner first. And a pair of Eric Haze Dunk Lows.

And unrelatedly, I feel like uni-watchers would appreciate this..
This might give away my age (or lackthereof), oops. Please note the vertical arch on my link. It’s got link on the other side. It was quite the Home Depot weekend project.

i just read the site from a couple of days ago, funny thing is Westside high school in omaha has the same field. I actually got to play around on it on Christmas day a couple of months ago and almost sent in some pictures.

Only difference is that the Omaha diamond does not have dirt for the mound of the batters box.

Juan Marichal played for the Red Sox in 1972.

I just snuck onto my community centers new football/soccer/baseball fields that they are still remodeling. Its all field turf and sure enough theres no dirt on the baseball fields whatsoever.

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