Chasing Dreams in Magazines

By Phil Hecken, turning two with Larry Wiederecht

I’m rejoined today by Larry Wiederecht (“Lwiedy”), my double play partner, as today we look the pages of another All Star Game program, this time from the Midsummer Classic in Milwaukee, 1975. Although this would be the first time the Milwaukee Brewers would play host to the game, it was not the first All Star Game to be held at County Stadium, Wisconsin. That honor belonged to the 1955 Milwaukee Braves. The ’75 game was the 46th playing of the classic, and the game was played on July 15th, 1975. Additional information on the actual game can be found here. I love this really neat patch from the game, featuring the words “All Star Game 1975” in blue and gold on one circle, and the swinging “barrelman” on the other. (Although, Larry notes that the patch not worn on the uniforms, but rather was based on the press pin from that year [third row, fifth from the left].)

So, without any additional ado, let’s get into Larry’s ASG pics:

”£ Rather boring team photos (by All-Star standards). The American League and the National League. The only real uni anomaly that I know of (Vida’s all gold get-up) didn’t even show up. These came from the ’75 Series program.

ӣ Less than dramatic cover artwork by a fellow named Robert Deuel

ӣ Obligatory welcome letter from the Commissioner, Owner, used car salesman.

ӣ Nice piece on the history of Milwaukee baseball

ӣ Like in the 1972 program, Medalist/Sand Knit shows their wears

”£ No way I have Suzy Q’s in center (nice home plate, too)

”£ If you are going to use little action shots of Garvey & Cey, at least put them by their own head shots. Sutton, Seaver & Gossage were “misplaced” as well

ӣ The Hammer takes in a little USC-UCLA

”£ One of the most recognizable ad campaigns of all time. Always wondered if you couldn’t just put a bullet through the shank, though.

ӣ Hey Johnny O, can you still get a Graf/s?

ӣ Also a staple of AS & Series programs are the ring ads

ӣ With a lot of help from ChampionshipRings.net and a little deductive reasoning, I came up with the following list (top to bottom then left to right)

1971 Dallas Cowboys
1971 Utah Stars
1971 or 1972 Boston University Hockey
1966 SMU
1967 Philadelphia 76ers
1958 Baltimore Colts
1959 Oklahoma Sooners Orange Bowl
1970 USC Rose Bowl
1967 Southern Illinois NIT
1964 St. Louis Cardinals
1969 Minnesota Vikings NFL Champions
1965 Los Angeles Dodgers
1968 New York Jets
1953 New York Yankees
1972 Boston Bruins (World, not Stanley Cup Champs?)
1970 or 1971 Nebraska Cornhuskers Football
1967 St. Louis Cardinals
19?? UCLA Basketball (Pick a year)
1966 Baltimore Orioles

ӣ Finally, a nice little pullout program poster.

And that’s not all, Larry also found us some pretty nice pics from that game:

ӣ Pretty good staff leading the NL. Over 50 years of managerial experience, seven world championships and nearly a dozen pennants.

ӣ Yeah they shook hands, but they never looked at each other.

ӣ Speaking of Thurm, missing was his familiar gear. He must have borrowed from the Brewers.

”£ Don’t know how often this combo was worn, but it wasn’t often.

”£ Bernie Brewer’s sister, wife? She’s Bonnie Brewer.

”£ Don’t really know what Billy’s black armband is for.

”£ Hank’s 24th and final All-Star Game.

ӣ Yaz pinch hits with a cap insert. He even had to explain to home plate ump Bill Haller what he was wearing.

ӣ Gary Carter corrals the final out in left wearing his batting/catching helmet.

Thanks again, Larry. Those are awesome. See ya again soon when we look at our next All Star Game Program!

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: This one is difficult, but not impossible. The location should be easy, and there are other clues right there on the scoreboard. You shouldn’t need any hints with this one. Date, location and final score are required. Based on the comments yesterday, if you do get the answer, shoot me an email but post something like “I GOT IT” in the comments. This way, people can take guesses throughout the day. I’ll post the winner’s name and some of the good “deductive” guesses at the end of the day. Ok? Ok! Good luck. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard

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Another Uniform Tracker has answered the call. Matthew Bohman “Namhob” is a Cincinnati Reds tracker. Here’s his update:

Phil,

The Cincinnati Reds have had their fair share of uni shenanigans in the past, but nowadays they have kept it pretty standard with a traditional home, away, and softball alternate home uniform. Thankfully, baseball’s oldest franchise has avoided the dreaded away alternate and in doing so has kept many a Laundromat in business on the road. At home, there seems to be 2 rules the Reds follow: 1) the traditional “Sunday Red” is alive and well in Cincinnati and 2) for every home series, the red alternates have to make at least one appearance. The only deviation from this rule so far has been a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday series against the Astros where the Reds wore home white every game (which didn’t stop the Astros from wearing their red alternates for EVERY GAME of that series). Actually, looking through the Astros games for the first 2 months I have counted 24 away games and they have only worn their away grays twice! And one doesn’t even count as an away gray since they were wearing the Stars & Stripes hat on Memorial Day! Hint to the Astros, you are undefeated in your away grays; try them on sometime!

Sorry, back to the Reds”¦Being an excel spreadsheet junkie, I am tracking the Reds 3 different ways*: overall record by uniform, game-by-game, and per pitcher. For being an average ballclub, the Reds are .500 in both the home whites and the red alts. They’ve had some success on the road this year and it shows with a 14-11 record. As it stands, they are still undefeated in wearing anything apart from the home whites, road grays and red alts (1-0 is undefeated, am I right?). That will probably change as they are expected to get fancy for July 4th and September 11th as well as the Civil Rights game against the ChiSox on June 20th (they’ll be wearing throwbacks of the 1964 Cincinnati Reds). In the end, I predict they will finish 2-2 in the “special attire” category to remain at .500.

* As of June 1, 2009

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In case you missed yesterday’s post…a NOB research project, by UW Historian/Research Architect, Timmy Brulia:

Hello All,

This is Timmy B, the guy who created the “NFL White At Home” database that chronicles what teams have worn their white jerseys at home in the NFL since 1957, and the “Pro Football Uniforms 1933-1958” database, which describes the uniform designs for each team in the NFL and AAFC from that era.

My next attempt at a database is for all the teams that have worn the player’s name on the backs (NOB’s) of their jerseys in the “Big 4” sports of football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Specifically, when they started doing it.

Up until 1960, there was only one documented example of a team with the NOB, the defunct New York Americans of the NHL in the 1926-27 season. Then in 1960, the Chicago White Sox began wearing NOB’s on the backs of their away blouses. Later that year, the upstart American Football League featured several teams that wore them at the start of the season. From all indications, by season’s end ALL teams wore NOB’s in the AFL. The Raiders went so far as to feature the players’ FIRST name as well as their last.

When the AFL merged with the NOB-less NFL in 1970, the NFL absorbed the idea and adopted the look for all 26 teams.

The NBA, already with several teams sporting NOB’s, took a shining to the idea and also made NOB’s mandatory starting with the 1971-72 season.

Not wanting to be left behind, the NHL adopted a league wide NOB policy in 1977-78 (with ONE notable exception which we’ll get to later).

Finally the National League, in 1979, mandated that all 12 teams at least have NOB’s on the teams’ road jerseys. To my knowledge, the American League never has adopted an NOB mandate. However, the NL’s rule seems to have been “waived” or not enforced as the Ddogers went NOB-less for several years earlier in the decade.

The purpose of the database is to be an easy to follow guide as to WHEN teams started to wear NOB’s, either before a league-wide edict, or especially in MLB, when there were gaps from exactly when they first started wearing NOB’s, then dropped them, and then added them. So if you’re wondering when – say the Braves – started wearing NOB’s (1963), when did they stop, and when did they resume the NOB’s. So, as an example, the Braves entry might look like this (years may NOT be correct):

Braves: 1963-1964, 1976-current.

or for hockey:
Rangers: 1970-71 thru 1976-77 (home only), 1977-78 to date.

What I am asking of you, the Uniwatch faithful, is for your help. I think I can cover the NFL and the NHL pretty well. However, for the NBA and especially MLB, if you can send me any photo samples with some verification as to when certain teams started and/or stopped wearing NOB’s it would be hugely appreciated and I will make sure to give you props in the database with your particular contribution(s).

To close, as promised, the NHL exception for 1977-78. In 1977, John Zeigler took over as NHL President, succeeding the long tenure (30 years) of Clarence Campbell. One of Zeigler’s first actions was to mandate that all NHL teams get with the program and affix NOB’s on the team sweaters, both home and away. 17 of the 18 teams complied, with no problem. One did not. The Maple Leafs owner, the crusty Harold Ballard, refused to follow the edict. They went half a season before Zeigler finally said to Ballard, put ’em on or be fined. Finally, Ballard complied, by having blue NOB’s on the away blue sweaters! Zeigler, said, “Not funny” and then was ready to clamp Harold with some fines. At last, some time in late February, Ballard and the Leafs followed orders, but only for the blue jersey, with white letters. However, Ballard said to Zeigler, I will not do it for the home whites as he had an iron-clad clause with the Maple Leaf Gardens program printers NOT to adorn NOB’s on the home jerseys. Zeigler relented but ordered Ballard to comply fully starting with the 1978-79 season, which he did.

Thanks and again any and all help will be appreciated!!

You can reach Timmy by emailing him with any info.

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Last FINAL Call For the RPM Stirrup Club: Got a note from Robert Marshall, the bobble boy. “phil, could you give a last call on the oriole stirrup, and make mention this weekend that i sent out this email to people that contacted me, and that if they didn’t get this email, that they should get in touch with me again? i think everyone is on here, but maybe i missed someone. i will be placing the order tuesday, so get in before then, i will not order extras. and they take tck 2 weeks to manufacture, so you should have them in less then 3 weeks from tuesday.” So, here’s that last call:

1) Cost $11 per stirrup. We will go through paypal, and use his rpmarshall art email address. Mr. Marshall does not intend to profit from this, but he doesn’t want to lose either. One of you sent Robert a payment for $10 (that is fine, don’t send him an extra 1$, you can work it out on the next pair), and those paypal bastards took $.60. but the breakdown is this: $7 for stirrup/$1 shipping from tck/$.50ish per envelope/ $.50ish paypal/$1.75 shipping to you (he just shipped a pair 1st class)=$10.75, which leaves $.25 for Robert’s gas/time/cover overruns, and he thinks that is more then fair. So, if you want 3 pairs, Robert will know by the $33 total. Make sure you give him a shipping address through paypal if you can. Please make this as easy on him as possible.

2) No, you are not obligated to buy every stirrup. They are calling it a “club”, and it would be nice if people were “generally” in, but nobody is in a must buy position. Robert will continue to add to this email list, and you will get emails every time they go for another ‘rup. If you want off the list, tell him, and he will take you off. Sure, you may occasionally get duplicate info, but it is easier for him to just have a general email to all involved, and not respond individually, he does not want to turn this into a job, he just want to get us all the stirrups we want :)

3) Clearly the next three ‘rups are the red sox, cardinals, and a’s, a popular, yet distant third choice. Robert provided this graphic with some other possible upcoming rups, most were suggested, others he just added to round out the image. He says we knock out the mlb’s first, then go from there, but we might mix in a crazy one here or there. Also the opening size will vary, this first pair is a 5″, and Robert has a feeling people will be happy with this size, it shows sani without getting crazy (staying classy), but we will more or less match the opening to the era. Or if 24 people get in, he can order twelve (min) 5″ and twelve 7″, he will make as many people happy as he can.

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From The Jeremy Brahm files: Bunch of stuff from UW’s Pacific Rim Correspondent today: Here is a picture of the new Speedo LZR Hybrid swimsuit. This one is being made in Japan … Who says golf is dull? Japanese LPGA Golfer Sakura Yokomine is bright in the rain. While Megumi Kido, well it says on her shirt. I Love Golf. Or Chie Arimura hearts golf … Here is a pdf of the FINA swim cap guidelines for the 2009 World Championships. And the Rules in press release … Yowsa! Check out this photo of the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) Lotte Giants … And finally — Remember the Expos helmets with the odd panels? How about this from the defunct KBO Sammi Superstars in 1984. Awesome Jeremy.

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A brief candle; both ends burning…An endless mile; a bus wheel turning…A friend to share the lonesome times…A handshake and a sip of wine

So say it loud and let it ring…We are all a part of everything…The future, present and the past…Fly on proud bird — You’re free at last.

The above is for a friend. Everyone have a good Sunday. Peace.