Tracking The Unis, Part II

By Phil Hecken

OK. On to day two of the Uni Tracking Extravaganza. If you missed part one — it’s here. Lots to get to today, so we’ll start right in.

~~~~~~~~~~

We begin today with Mike Styczen (“Mike 2”), who is the Toronto Blue Jays trackmaster.

First off, let me say that I despise the current Blue Jays uniforms. I grew up watching the Expos and then (after 1977) the Jays, my Dad took me to my first game at Exhibition Stadium about a month into the 1977 season, and then through the 80s I lived and died with Moseby, Barfield, Bell, Griffin, Whitt, Stieb, Clancy”¦ To me, the Blue Jays will always be double blue trim on white at Exhibition Stadium, blue and white trim on powder blue (and later, grey) on the road, the old circular logo, and (especially) the split numbers and letters. It was good enough for five AL East titles, two AL pennants and two World Series, its good enough for me.

On to this year’s uniforms. The Jays have worn five combinations this year ”“ white jersey (always with “J” cap), grey jersey (always with “T” cap), black jersey (always with “T” cap), powder blue throwback set, and black jersey / red “Maple Leaf” cap. The Jays were following a regular pattern ”“ greys on the road and whites at home, except for home day games (black jerseys) and Friday home games (powder blue set). They’ve broken that pattern lately by wearing the black jersey twice on the road.

The only trend to emerge so far this season is that they were undefeated wearing black jerseys (9-0, all home day games) until they started wearing them on the road last week in Atlanta. They’re now 9-2 in the black jerseys.

The complete record, by jersey and cap, is here.

I’ve been using a simple excel spreadsheet to track the whole thing. Right now I’m only recording whether games are day or night games; I had been tracking starting pitchers until I figured out the pattern. I’ve also been keeping a picture from each game, just in case I have to go back to refer to it later for some reason. A screenshot of the spreadsheet is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next up is Gregg Girard, who, like myself, is a New York Mets tracker.

Phil, for no reason, I tracked Mets uniform combinations in 1999. Since it was before the so-called “internet age” (or at least at the dawn of it), it was an incredible burden. If I didn’t watch a game, I had to make sure to catch the highlights on local news or Sports Center. When I was on vacation, I set the VCR to record the last 20 minutes of the news, and enlisted the help of a friend (and a Yankees fan at that) to serve as a backup. I was a young lawyer at the time, and the pressure of uni tracking became too much for me to handle. I gave up in the middle of July.

Fast forward to 2006. The idea of beginning the Mets Project as I called it, popped into my head in spring training. I decided it would be much easier this time around, now that the internet was there to back me up. I ended up tracking the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Somehow, I talked myself out of keeping track in 2008, but I’m making a comeback here in ’09. (By the way, if you have the data for 2008 and are willing to forward it to me, I would be very grateful.)

I am a Uni Tracker primarily because I am searching for proof that wearing one uniform combination somehow leads to an increased winning percentage. But there are other, equally important reasons. I’m searching for patterns behind uniform selection. Are uniforms selected by the day of the week? Do they stick with a combination if they have been wearing it on a winning streak? Do certain pitchers never wear a particular color?

Can certain uniform combinations lead to wins? Skeptics would emphatically deny the possibility, but “I want to believe.” Think about it; if you win a few games wearing one uniform, couldn’t there be something in the subconscious that causes you to associate that uniform with victory and cause you to play differently? When you look at the numbers, some weird stuff emerges. For example, in 2006 the Mets were a .580 road team (47-34), but were only a .333 (6-12) dressed in black. Would they have fared better if they had “ditched the black” on the road? Maybe they thought so as well, since they stopped wearing black on the road after August 17 (ironically, a win). Strangely, black had exact the opposite effect at home, where they were .667 (12-6) dressed in black, while going .617 (50-31) overall. Was there an 18 game home and away quota for black?

Turn the clock to 2007 and the Mets rule the road in black, with a .760 winning percentage (19-6) in black versus .580 (47-34) overall (meaning they were exactly .500 in grey), yet they have a losing record 8-11 (.421) wearing black at home. Unfortunately for Paul, the 2007 Mets were 3-7 wearing pinstripes and blue hats. Since they were 7-10 wearing the snow white/blue combination, it means they stunk in blue (.370). Sorry Paul.

As far as patterns, I like that the Mets have stuck with the pinstripes on Sunday theme so far this season, and I hope that continues. For me, the pinstripes are sacred, having grown up in that era. I actually prefer the white uniforms aesthetically when worn with blue hats. Although I am not as averse to the black uniform as others on the site, I would prefer to reserve that uniform””at least at home””exclusively for Friday night games. I am disappointed that the black New York jerseys have been ditched for the road in favor of the black Mets jerseys. That’s a step back in my opinion. I also live for the day the Mets were blue caps on the road, but until they close the new Yankee Stadium, that is probably just a fantasy.

There is some stuff that bugs me. For example, there was a three game road trip to St. Louis this year. The Mets wore black for all three games. That means they (presumably) packed one set of uniforms. Travel light. I get it. But earlier this month, they travel all the way to the west coast with two sets. I know that the uniforms don’t take up that much room, but it strikes me as stupid to travel with two complete sets of batting helmets. Why lug two sets across the country?

I do my uni tracking via Excel (attached). Here’s a screen print.

Note that I’ve added the “error” column since my last e-mail. I’m hoping to get something out of this, but it’s still too early (and the 5 error game isn’t diluted enough to avoid messing up the numbers).

Prediction: Santana will never wear black.

Since we’re tracking the same team, I figured you already have the totals.

Thanks Gregg! I can see you and I (and maybe Paul) will need to collaborate on another column with all of these data you have. Great stuff!

~~~~~~~~~~

Next up is Jason Werth (“werthj”) who joins the ranks as another Milwaukee Brewer uni-tracker.

Phil-

Here is a screenshot of my Brewers unikeeping.

First things first, the Brewers retro uniforms are relegated to the first Friday of the month for ’09. Last year they were worn as a ‘Retro Friday’ promotion every home friday. However, the Brewers kept the Home Opener sacred and wore the standard home get-up on Friday April 10th. So the Retro gear has only shown itself once, on Friday May 1.

The most successful of the five Brewer uniforms is the standard home set (white), with a record of 11-6. The away set is 2 games over .500. The alt home is at .500 and the alt away is one game over. One loss in the retro gear.

It appears that uniforms are the decision of the pitcher. Suppan wears standard sets, Gallardo goes alt, Parra likes the alt (but has gone standard in his last two starts), Loope prefers standards, and Bush holds steadfast in wearing the standard sets. Gallardo’s only standard start was on Memorial day, likely mandated by the team with the red hats.

Please keep in mind that sinch I am not confident in using formulas, all data is added by hand and subject to human error!

I post, rarely, as werthj.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~

Moving along, we turn to Chicago’s representative, James Huening (“JTH”), who’s been tracking both the Cubbies and the White Sox. Here’s James, who’s breaking them down along team lines:

Cubs: It’s pretty much common knowledge that the Cubs’ starting pitcher decides which jerseys the team will wear for each game. It’s a policy that was in effect when Dusty Baker managed the team and it appears that Lou Piniella has retained the policy, even though the Cubs didn’t wear the blue alternates during his first season as manager.

Carlos Zambrano loves the alts. Every game this season that he has pitched, the Cubs have worn them. On the other hand, Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster prefer the traditional look. Every game they have pitched, the Cubs have worn their standard pinstriped or gray jerseys. Dempster had the “distinction” of wearing the red stars & stripes cap at home on Memorial Day.

As for the other starters, they’re a little less predictable.

Rich Harden: he’s gone with the alt on the road every time this year. At home, he’s opted for the pinstripes for the three day games he’s pitched (Jackie Robinson Day was one of them) and he’s gone with the alt in the two night games.

Sean Marshall: He’s worn the alt every time except for one home day game, which was his first start of the year.

Randy Wells doesn’t have much of a sample size to go by, but he’s worn each combination one time (pins for a home day game, alt for a home night game and in his two road night games, he went with the alt once and the gray jersey the other time). He’s the only Cubs starter to wear all four standard uniforms. As I mentioned, it’s a small sample size, but it’s possible that he prefers the traditional look for weekend games and the alt for weekdays.

Here’s their record in each combination
Home/Pinstripes: 9-5* (Day: 7-2*, Night: 2-2*)
Home/Alt: 6-4 (Day: 3-2 Night: 3-2)
Road/Gray: 3-9 (Day: 0-2, Night: 3-7)
Road/Alt: 6-5 (Day: 2-2, Night: 4-3)
* Includes losses on Jackie Robinson Day — NNOB, everyone wore #42 and on Memorial Day — red stars & stripes caps.

White Sox: I’ve been trying to make heads or tails of the White Sox’ jersey tendencies. All I know is that the Sox like to wear their black alternates. A lot. In 23 out of 47 games this year, they’ve worn the alt. That’s 10 out of 22 home games and 13 out of 25 road games. In fact, they didn’t even wear their standard “primary” jersey on the road until their eighth road game because the first time they wore their gray jerseys (road game #2), they were the modified Jackie Robinson Day/NNOB/everyone wears #42 versions.

And the number of times the alt was worn could have been as high as 26, except that for three games in Toronto, the Blue Jays decided to wear their black jerseys. This forced the Sox to wear gray. That might have actually been a good move on the Jays’ part, since it guaranteed that at least one team would look good on those days.

Does the starting pitcher choose which jersey to wear? Is it Ozzie Guillen’s decision? Someone else? I dunno, but here’s what the starters have worn so far this year.

Mark Buehrle: The only time this year he’s worn something besides the alt was on opening day when he was in pinstripes.

Gavin Floyd: Pins for every home game so far. On the road, it’s been he alt for his first three starts and the gray jersey for his three most recent.

John Danks: He wore pins for his first three home starts and the alt for his most recent. On the road, he’s worn the alt twice and the gray jersey thrice. He was the starter on Memorial Day; the red stars & stripes caps were worn with the gray jerseys.

Jose Contreras: Pinstripes in his first home start, gray the first time on the road (Jackie Robinson Day) and the alt for his four other starts (2 home, 2 road).

Bartolo Colon: In his four home starts, he’s worn each jersey twice. On the road, it was the alt for the first three and gray for the two most recent.

Clayton Richard: He’s the only Sox starting pitcher who hasn’t worn the alternate jersey in game action. He’s started one home game and three road games in the traditional jerseys.

Here are their records in each combination
Home/Pinstripes: 6-6 (Day: 2-2, Night: 4-4)
Home/Alt: 6-4 (Day: 2-3 Night: 4-1)
Road/Gray: 5-7* (Day: 0-4*, Night: 5-3*)
Road/Alt: 5-8 (Day: 2-1, Night: 3-7)
* Includes a loss on Jackie Robinson Day — NNOB, everyone wore #42 and a win on Memorial Day — red stars & stripes caps.

JTH tracks with (or at least he transmitted to me) Google Spreadsheets. So, I was able to create screen grabs. For the Cubs, we have Cubs-April (1); Cubs-April (2); Cubs-May (1); and Cubs-May (2). For the White Sox, we have White Sox-April (1); White Sox-April (2); White Sox-May (1); and White Sox-May (2). If those are a little hard to follow, I apologize. But trust me, they look really good on the actual spreadsheet (you may need to get an account in order to view that, for whatever reason).

~~~~~~~~~~

Moving along, we find our Pittsburgh Pirates tracker Doug Keklak (“Kek”). Here’s what he has:

The Pirates are pretty straight-forward in their uniform trends and combinations. They have the home whites, the home pinstripes, the road grays and a black alternate jersey … a softball jersey if you will Phil!!! This season the pins are worn strictly (so far) for home Sunday games. I’m thinking in past seasons they may have worn these during day games during the week too but I could be wrong. The new black alt with matching cap (both with white outline of the “P”) are new this year and the Pirates have somewhat broke with tradition here. In the past, both with the original black alt with red brim and the God-awful red vests, these were home exclusives. This year, the alts are worn on both the home and road Friday games. The one exception to this was the game on 5/8/09 at Citi Field against the Mets. The Mets opted to wear their black tops so the Pirates went road gray and broke out the black alts the next day, for a Saturday appearance.

Therefore, trending is pretty straightforward for the Bucs. The tracking for the pins is for Sunday games and the tracking for the black alts is mostly for Friday games.

Some data:

***** Through 45 games, the team is pretty even in the road grays, going 5-6 in April and 5-6 through 5-25-09

***** The team has not played well, either at home or on the road, in the new black alternate jersey/cap combo. They are 1-5 overall through 5-25-09, winless in three attempts on the road.

***** The team has played well, 2-0, in games where special caps have been worn as they defeated Houston in the special Pittsburgh Bureau of Police caps on 4-13-09 (honoring the three fallen Pittsburgh police officers killed recently) and they beat the Cubs on 5-25-09 in the red stars and stripes caps.

My method of tracking is simply an excel spreadsheet (here’s another page) that I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Ryan “RyCo 40” Connelly designed.

Total stats through 5-25-09:

The Pirates overall record was 21-24. They were 11-10 in April and 10-14 in May (through 5-25). In April, they were 5-2 in the home whites, 5-6 in the road grays, 1-1 in the black alts (1-0 at home; 0-1 on the road) and 0-1 in the home pins.

In May, again through 5-25-09, the team was 4-3 in the home whites, 5-6 in the road grays, 0-4 in the black alts (0-2 at home and 0-2 on the road) and 1-2 in the home pins.

Overall through 5-25, they are 9-5 in the home whites, 10-12 in the road grays, 1-5 in the black alts (1-2 at home, 0-3 on the road and 1-2 in the home pins.

You can refer to me as Doug “Kek” Keklak for the purposes of the story, most folks I’m sure know that “KEK” is just an abbreviated form of my last name so no semi-anoymity there!

~~~~~~~~~~

Next up is Michael Jaworski (“mtjaws”), who is a Florida Marlins tracker:

Hello Phil,

Thanks for leading the charge for this report. Just by your emails, I can now see all the behind the scenes work that goes into all of these posts. I know they are detailed, and now I can see it from the writer’s viewpoint. Thanks for the insight.

I’ve included links to example unform pictures. Not sure if you want to use them, or find others, but there are plenty out there and I found these. And here is a picture showing my spreadsheet. The format should look familiar!

—–

The Marlins have been my favorite team since they first arrived, and I am thankful that I get to watch them nearly every day. Over the years, there have been the highest of highs, but too often, the lows hang around and the team is constantly rebuilding.

As for their uniforms in 2009, the team has three jersey options: Home white, Road grey, and Alternate black, which is worn both at home and on the road. All three are paired with the standard black cap. I quite like the color scheme, especially with black and silver as the main colors, instead of the teal of old. The teal trim is fine, and I like the current designs very much.

Since I joined this project only this week, I had to go back thru MLB’s picture gallery to see each game up until now. In cataloging the uniform usage for this season (47 games plus one 4 inning rainout), I did notice a few interesting things. First of all, there appears to be no set pattern for wearing the black alternate. Since it is worn at home and on the road, it sees lots of work, but most of them have been on the road. 15 of the 17 black jersey appearances were on the road, leading to a 8-7 record. Both home black appearances were losses too. Of those 17 black shirt games, the opponent also wore a dark colored uniform for five games, creating a color-on-color matchup. The Marlins won 3 of those. Starter Ricky Nolasco leads the starters in wearing black the most, six times. But the other seven starting pitchers have also worn black at least once, but not more than three times.

With the black alternates appearing many times on the road, the regular road greys have only appeared nine times, for a 4-5 record. Both the black and grey jerseys have been used in the next game following a loss, which was one of the two black home appearances.

The Marlins record in the white jerseys is 9-12, plus the rainout game which they were winning. In the makeup game, the Fish surprised me by wearing white for both games of the doubleheader. Arizona wore grey and red for it, so I expected the Marlins to wear black for one of the games. But maybe they stayed in white since they won game 1, and didn’t want to change for the immediate game 2. No day/night DHs here!

For Memorial Day, the Marlins wore the special red cap, and won too. Maybe it will work next time also.

Other than that, the Marlins seem to mix up the uniform choices, and haven’t found great success in any of them. The black alternates appear often, noticably more frequent than grey on the road. Who knows how the rest of the season will shape up, but I’ll keep a tally on it. Thanks.

—–

Feel free to reply if you need something else, and also edit out stuff if I rambled on too long. My name has appeared in the ticker before, so you can use both it and my username in the writeup. Thanks again, Phil.

~~~~~~~~~~

Checking in next is Tobin Hodges (“Bizzle”), who is a Texas Rangers trackmaster:

My method is very simple: I watch the games on a pretty regular basis and have attended a couple already. Every morning when I come to work, the first thing I do is update my spreadsheet on the night game before (sad but awesome that UniWatch is first priority over my work). Typically I just use my memory and recollection of the game to fill out the spreadsheet. Here is the pertinent information:

Jersey

Cap

Starting Pitcher

Result

The Rangers have used 6 uni combinations so far this season and, looking at the uniforms, they do not have any more “sensible” possibilities for more (barring throwbacks, specials, etc.) unless they do the unthinkable and wear the Red jersey with the Blue cap and vice versa. It does get pretty hot down here in July and August so I wouldn’t rule out stupidity due to heat exhaustion. The most interesting part of this has been the lack of use for the “traditional” greys and whites. The rangers have worn one of their alternate jerseys for 28 of the 46 games and have only worn the greys 8 out of a possible 23 road games. The blues have been worn 20 TIMES ”¦ again ”¦ 20 TIMES. I like the blues so it doesn’t bother me so much. You can tell that they feel better in those jerseys because they will switch to those jerseys when they lost a bad game or strung together a couple of losses. The other oddity is that when they wear their new Reds (which was being reported they would only do about 15 times) they wear them for a whole series. I have noticed around here in Arlington that they are promoting promotions with these jerseys i.e. Red Out Weekend or Josh Hamilton Red T-Shirt jersey giveaway. Again, I’m kind of ok with this because I think they look sharp. However, this sort of takes the whole “starting pitchers choose the jersey” theory and there has not really been a trend in that regard. All in all, Rangers are playing better than expected and it’s been fun. Only gripe is put the team name back on the Whites a la Nolan Ryan script era.

My nickname on the off chance I do comment is Bizzle. Unfortunately, funds have been a little tight for me and my family right now and I am not a member but it is actually on the list of things to buy in the next month. So you can refer to me as Tobin Hodges = Bizzle if you like. Let me know if you need anything else and thank you for the opportunity to contribute.

You’re awesome at what you do Phil.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next up is ChiScott who tracks the ChiSox…

Hi Phil. You can just refer to me by the nickname ChiScott.

I use a basic Excel spreadsheet. I record the game number (with an asterisk if I was in attendance), day, date, home/away, home/away, opponent, win/loss, score, record, division rank, games back, winning/losing pitchers, starting pitcher, and uniform type, which is color coded to best represent the particular uni. I also color-code the rows for wins (green) and losses (red).

For a team that has quite a reputation for experimenting with different uniforms throughout its history (some were…eh…much more successful than others), the modern version of the Sox have been pretty conservative, uni-wise. They’ve worn the same home, road and alternate uniforms since the 1991 season (the exceptions being a vest version of the official home uni which was adopted in the late 90’s and eventually dropped last year, the occasional throwback unis honoring a particular team from the past, and the “Halfway to St. Patricks Day” unis, which are basically the official home white uni but with the color green replacing the black pinstripes, black logo and black cap).

Staff ace Mark Buehrle almost always chooses the black alternate jersey for the team when he is pitching, whether at home or on the road – the main exception being opening day. I’m not aware of any of the other starting pitchers expressing a preference for a particular jersey.

As far as I can tell, the Sox seem to have a rule against wearing the alternate black jerseys for “major” event games. The official home and road uniforms are worn on opening day and during the post season (the home vests made an appearance in the first game of the 2005 ALDS, but throughout the rest of the 2005 and 2008 playoffs and the 2005 World Series, the Sox wore the official home and road unis).

Although, in the past they would wear the black jerseys on Sundays, the current Sox do not wear any particular uniforms for certain days of the week (such as the “Sunday specials”) or for day games in general.

2009 White Sox W-L by Uniform:

Official Home (white pinstriped jersey/white pinstriped pants): 6-6
Alt. Home (black jersey/white pinstriped pants): 6-4
Official Road (gray jersey/gray pants): 4-7
Alt road (black jersey/gray pants): 5-8
Memorial Day (red cap/gray jersey/gray pants): 1-0

[Results are current through Friday, May 29.]

~~~~~~~~~~

Another Florida Marlins tracker, Dwayne White checks in with this:

I didn’t know when you wanted this, so I sent it in the attachment as an Excel spreadsheet.

But the totals are as of and including the 5/26 game:

Pinstriped home: 9-12

Black Alt: 8-9

Gray road: 3-5

Red cap w/Gray road: 1-0

I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Keep up the great work!

~~~~~~~~~~

Another responder is Mike Vamosi (“vmos”), who is a self-admitted, low-tech Kansas City Royals tracker:

Thanks! My way to track is just being a die-hard Royals fan who knows during day games )that start before 3 the team wears their Powder or Royal Blue tops. Everything else they wear white or gray or traditional uniforms. I just use a piece of paper and put a tally mark next to what the outcome was for the game that day. Low tech but effective.

Mike Vamosi or Vmos

~~~~~~~~~~

Also checking in is Brandon Davis, who has been keeping dibs on the Oakland A’s:

Keeping track of the Oakland A’s

My method of tracking is simple. After each game, I record the overall win/loss in a text file. I keep track of date, jersey worn, jersey material (although this has been hard to identify so I haven’t broken down W/L that way), the starting pitcher, whether the team won or lost, and whether or not there was anything special about the uniform that day.

The A’s uniform sets are simple: home white uniform with green and gold cap, black home alternate jersey with white pants and black cap, gray road uniform with solid green cap, and green road alternate jersey with gray pants and solid green cap (last season the green alternate became just the road alternate when the new style of black jersey was introduced). Through May 26, the A’s are 11-9 in the home whites, 0-3 in black, 3-6 in gray, 3-7 in green, and 1-0 in the Oakland Oaks throwback. They lost on Jackie Robinson Day and won on Memorial Day.

With the Oakland Oaks throwback, Jackie Robinson Day (42 higher, no nameplates), and the red hats, the A’s have worn seven combinations. They are scheduled for a 1929 throwback game against the White Sox in August so that will be at least 8. If they wear Stars and Stripes caps on July 4 they will be on the road so that would make 9. The A’s also wore the pink ribbons on Mother’s Day and will likely wear blue ribbons on Father’s Day.

The starting pitcher chooses between the regular jersey or the alternate (white or black at home, gray or green on the road) unless there’s a promotion – white on Opening Night, Jackie Robinson Day was at home so they wore white (they wore gray on the road last season), Mother’s Day pink ribbons, etc. Last season this was an issue on June 4 when Justin Duchsherer wanted to wear black but the team made him wear green at home because it was the “Get Your Green On” promotion. The A’s also tend to wear “Sunday Whites” although rookie Trevor Cahill botched that up the first home Sunday of the season – Easter Sunday no less – by wearing black. He was charged with the loss in the 1-0 game. The team has worn white on their other 3 home Sunday games (they’re 2-1 in those games). As for records by pitcher, the A’s have a winning record with just one current starter. It shouldn’t be a surprise to fans of Uni Watch that that pitcher is Josh Outman (2-0), with the A’s going 5-2 in his starts. Outman is 3-1 in the whites, 1-1 in gray, 1-0 in green, and has so far thankfully shunned the black jerseys. In fact, only two pitchers have gone with the black jersey: Cahill twice and Sean Gallagher (sent to AAA after). The rarity of the black jersey is interesting since the A’s chose to add the black helmet and dispense of the all-green road helmet that matches the road cap (instead wearing the gold brimmed helmet on the road).

If I’ve skipped something, let me know. Also, if anybody wants to start up mid-season they can go to the daily MLB wraps and check the photos to make up for lost time.

~~~~~~~~~~

Wow. I think our work here is done. We’re going to call it a weekend for the Uni Tracking now. Thanks again to everyone who has participated so far. If I missed you, contact me as I’d love to have your tracking when we do this again, sometime after the All Star break, when the real uniform trends (and surely, there will be some) will emerge. Until “Round Two”, then. How about a nice round of applause for all our Uni Trackers, both yesterday and today! We have some incredibly talented and dedicated folks on this board. Kudos to one and all.

~~~~~~~~~~

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Today’s scoreboard is pretty easy. There will be no clues. In fact, this shouldn’t take long at all to figure out. I want the date, the location, and the final score of the game in question. And, if you were yesterday’s winner, you’re automatically banned from guessing again, since you’re obviously too good at this game. Plus, I already owe you a Coke.

Ready? Ready. Guess The Game (and remember: date, location & final score).

~~~~~~~~~~

The UW Stirrup Club? UW Bobblehead Guru Robert Marshall has a public service announcement (pardon his punctuation, and capitalization, or lackthereof): “the day my coed softball team’s stirrups came in the mail last week, i casually mentioned in the comments, that perhaps we should have a UW stirrup club, and i have gotten more then a few emails on the subject. so let’s try to put something together, we can use the site advertiser, i have used him in the past. we can do this a few ways, but let’s start it like this, i want this stirrup — it would be ordered in an adult size with a 5″ loop, but i like mine to show minimum sani. most of the players honoured on this site wear a 7″ or 9″, i think that is too much sani, but next month someone else chooses the stirrup style and size, and if that person wants to get all george hendick, that’s cool with me, i am still in. as far as cost goes, they run $7 plus shipping(min 12), then i have to turn around and ship them to you, i am setting myself up for a headache, but it is all about the ‘rup, so let’s just say they are $10 this month, and go from there. you want the oriole? send me an email to rpmarshallart.com with “stirrups” in the subject line, say you want in on the old school oriole, and suggest a stirrup for next month, we will work out the payment later if enough people are down. there you have it, a UW stirrup club.

~~~~~~~~~~

This and That: Game ON … Nice view of the Final’s Patch on Sid the Kid and some Red Wings … Um…ok — seems like that story is missing something … Can anyone make out what those brass knuckles say? … Superman commits regicide … Hey White Sox trackers — be ready to update your “tracking sheets” because, according to this article, the Sox will sport five special uniforms this season in addition to their traditional home and road uniforms … Jeremy has his own cereal? … Well — there is at least one Michigan team that doesn’t wear the ‘flying wing’ design on their helmets — and I like it … Yesterday I told you they would, and today they have: Cavemen unveil new unis (I’d say there’s more cons than pros to them) … If you want to participate in the “Ron Jeremy Lookalike Contest,” please raise your hand … Watching the NHL playoffs this year brought some reminders of when Hartford was a major league sports town — wait, hockey’s a major sport? … It’s aight — you’ll get that ring in 2010 with the Knicks — in the meantime, maybe you and Nike can come up with a new puppet commercial … He’s tall … A Carrollton couple attending a Texas Rangers game for their anniversary was shocked when the Rangers nearly ejected the wife for foul language. It wasn’t what she said. It was a word on what she wore, which she argues was not a cuss word … OK — so the White Sox and the Kansas City Royals did the Negro League throwback thing yesterday, complete with period appropriate helmets and footwear — ok — so they didn’t have batting helmets back the, but c’mon, fellas, ya coulda done better than this (KC was representing the 1924 Kansas City Monarchs and the White Sox wearing the garb of the 1926 Chicago American Giants) … and I’m NO fan of pinstripes on roadies, but this just shows how good a team could look if they wanted to go with a solid dark uniform … You have Cleveland Browns questions, right? Well, if you did, here’s some answers … And, making sure there was at least one softball game on the docket this Saturday, the Braves and D-Bags entertained the picnickers … They gotta wear red socks, right? I mean they’re called the Red Sox, right? Man that looks like shit … and continuing the tradition of not quite winning the big one, the Hawks do Chi Town proud.

~~~~~~~~~~

And because I’m feeling saucy, I’m giving you a bonus Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. This one is a bit tougher than the one above. Let’s see how you do with this one. Ready? Ready: Guess The Game (date, location and final score, please).

Have a great Sunday folks.