Monday Morning Uni Watch, Summer Edition

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were an unusually busy time in the uni-verse. Here’s a rundown:

ITEM! More Warriors-osity: We had previously seen a mock-up of what the new jersey would look like, but here’s the real thing — I like, although I wish we could see a rear view. Meanwhile, here’s the new floor design. I like that too.

ITEM! Cubs have lost played a shitload of ballgames: Saturday was apparently the 20,000th game in Cubs history, and they marked they occasion by wearing a rather underwhelming sleeve patch. Is this the first time a team has celebrated this type of milestone on its uniform?

ITEM! Rays are my new favorite team: They wore the striped stirrups again on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s game was particularly notable because the entire starting lineup wore the striped hose. The big question now is whether they’ll pack them along for their upcoming road trip, which kicks off tomorrow night at Fenway.

ITEM! NHL stands for “new hockey looks”: Had we seen the Wild’s 10th-anniversary patch before? If so, I missed it. And that’s just one of the news flashes from the NHL draft, which has also provided our first official looks at the Isles’ new road jersey, the Kings’ new throwback, and the Sharks’ left-sleeve anniversary patch in situ (if just barely). I’ll have more to say about all of these, along with some other NHL developments, later this week on ESPN.

• ITEM! Throwback-o-rama: As many of you are aware by now, there were several throwback games over the weekend, including Brewers/Mariners, O’s/Nats, and the seizure-inducing spectacle of A’s/Buccos. Let’s take a closer look at some of these:

• For the Brewers/M’s game, the MLB Network played along by using throwback logos — I like that. Similarly, for Oakland/Pittsburgh game, the A’s TV production featured 1970s-style graphics. (My thanks to Sean Robins and Kenn Tomasch for the screen shots.)

•  The Nats/O’s game featured what reader Casey B. aptly refers to as “the prettiest wild pitch ever.”

• One of the oddest sights in that A’s/Pirates game was Daric Barton, whose stirrups showed through the little window thingies in his high-top cleats. (Disappointingly, one of his teammates went with two-in-ones.)

• The Pirates’ caps featured two black stars, presumably meant to evoke Stargell Stars. But as someone on the Chris Creamer site pointed out, there was never any such thing as black Stargell Stars — they were always gold. When worn on the gold caps, they were placed on the black bill.

• One thing the A’s always get right for these throwback games: They have their coaches wear white caps (although I don’t think that’s a throwback do-rag in the second photo).

• Finally, there had been a lot of discussion as to whether the A’s had ever worn gold-on-gold. We had long ago established that Vida Blue wore that combo in the 1975 All-Star Game, but was that the only example? No! In yesterday’s comments, reader Matt (who didn’t give his last name) came up with this 1974 Topps card. I think it’s still safe to say that solid-gold was a rare look for the A’s — and hence an odd choice for a throwback game — but at least we now know it wasn’t just an All-Star Game one-off.

+++++

World Cup Sock Giveaway: In honor of the World Cup, Stephen Wong has designed a series of soccer-inspired socks, and we’re going to give away a pair to one lucky reader. To enter, send an e-mail with your name, mailing address, and preferred sock design to the giveaway address by this Thursday, July 1st, 7pm eastern. One e-mail per person. I’ll announce the winner on Friday.

+++++

Collector’s Corner, by Brinke Guthrie

Photo: Prob’ly summer ’75, Mariemont High School, painting the newspaper logo [Your school paper was called ‘The Warpath’? — PL]. Note cool digital watch.

Okay, our latest eBay finds for your consideration:

• Ah, the ’60s Falcons look with the gold stripe.

• Very interesting backstory on this White Sox jersey.

• Here’s a neat sticker album for “Today’s” 1971 Minnesota Twins and “Today’s” California Angels. [I had the Mets version of this when I was a kid! Don’t know what happened to it, alas. — PL]

• If it’s a Smuckers MLB mini-helmet display, it’s got to be good.

• Kids, let your mom do the ironing for this Giants transfer, OK?

• Speaking of the Giants, here’s a nice 1960’s placemat from spring camp.

• Adidas ABA Americana sneakers were just the best.

• Want some lung cancer with your football? Then you’ll love this Packers ashtray.

• Can never get enough of that NFL bedspread goodness.

• Hey, you’ve probably seen this SI cover showing Jim Taylor with his white-striped single-bar helmet. But you probably haven’t seen this photo.

• Today’s Mets item for Lukas: Have a Rheingold lager (extra dry) while following those Amazin’ Mets. [Oh, please — like any serious Mets fan doesn’t already have a full set of those. — PL]

• And as a bonus, look at this Mr. Met plaque. Get that e-snipe locked in, Paulie.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

+++++

Culinary Corner: No recipes from me this time. Instead, I defer to the folks over at The New Yorker, who recently published my second-favorite recipe column ever (I’ll tell you about the first one some other time). Enjoy, and/or be depressed.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Reading Phillies wore baby blue throwbacks the other day (with thanks to Gary Dincher). ”¦ World Cup weirdness: One of Denmark’s players was forced to color in part of his socks with a marker (big thanks to Mike Kemezis). ”¦ Shaq and Dwight Howard, eat your hearts out. The original caption: “Orioles right fielder Frank Robinson reveals a Superman shirt to the New York Yankees’ Curt Blefary during batting practice. Before the series, Blefary told his teammates that they could overtake the Orioles because they didn’t have a big “S” on their shirts” (big thanks to Jack Krabbe). ”¦ New turf design for Oregon football, including another glimpse of the new Pac 10 logo (with thanks to Alex Peerenboom). ”¦ Joe Alvernaz reports that the uni numbers on Adidas’s rugby jerseys are often peeling off or missing altogether. “I have noticed this for years, typically in the first game or two a team plays in a new set of jerseys,” he says. ”¦ The Portland Timbers, whose new logo was greeted by a chorus of disapproval when it was unveiled two weeks ago, have already updated the design, and have also released some secondary marks (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ I didn’t get a very good photo of it, but I swear the scoreboard photo of Ruben Tejada makes it look like he’s had his eyebrows done. ”¦ Spotted this guy in a cool Sir Saint tee over the weekend. ”¦ New road kit for Sunderland of the EPL (with thanks to Jesse Spector). ”¦ Over at the NHL draft, teams were having their first-round picks pose in jerseys with No. 10 (you know, for 2010). But the Stars took it a step further by adding an apostrophe to the uni number for goalie Jack Campbell. Never seen that before (great catch by Brooks Simpson, who also points out that Florida’s first-rounder, Erik Gudbranson, had some nameplate issues). ”¦ Tiger Stadium is gone, but the field is still there — and it’s surprisingly accessible (with thanks to Dave Murray). ”¦ The Charlotte Checkers have moved from the ECHL to the AHL and are now affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes, which of course means new uniforms. ”¦ Dan Cichalski found a great old photo of Babe Ruth. “What I found particularly interesting is that it looks like he’s in a pinstriped road jersey, with ‘New York’ across the front, which the Yankees only wore in 1916-17 — when Babe was still in Boston,” notes Dan. “Of course, it could be a barnstorming uni, like the old Bustin’ Babes design.” That photograph, incidentally, comes from this great Flickr set of old ballpark photos. ”¦ Sports cartoonist Willard Mullin’s name has come up a few times here on the site lately, which prompted Richard Stover to send me the following note: “In 1972, WBZ Channel 4 in Boston was awarded the rights to broadcast the Red Sox for three years, and they produced this cool schedule to promote their new sports programming. The schedule had a Mullin cartoon for each team in the division except, unfortunately, the Indians — I’d like to see what kind of un-p.c. treatment he would have given the Tribe.” ”¦ A.J. Burnett used A-Rod’s batting gloves on Saturday (good spot by Ryan Farrell). ”¦ Here’s a good round-up of the new EPL shirts (with thanks to Coachie Ballgames). ”¦ The Springfield Cardinals wore “patriotic” jerseys on Saturday (all photos courtesy of Kate Sutter). ”¦ Why Paul Loves Wisconsin, #573: these awesome Packers needlepoint coasters, which showed up in my friends Julie Lindemann and Johnie Shimon‘s Flickr stream. Julie explains: “It’s from a place called Samantha’s, which in Valders. It’s a beautiful old-timey tavern that serves family-style meals on Sundays. Though it’s in the town where I went to high school, I’d never been there until Johnie’s parents insisted we all go for Father’s Day. They had the nifty Packers coasters with all the drinks along the bar. Not sure if you can tell, but they’re the type with that synthetic yarn woven through a plastic mesh.” ”¦ Many readers noted that Argentina was wearing their home shirt with their away shorts for yesterday’s match against Mexico. I don’t know enough about soccer to know if this is a common thing — is it? ”¦ Pretty cool throwbacks for the Seibu Lions over the weekend (thanks, Jeremy). ”¦ Not sure if this is a case of uni-based rookie hazing or just an honest mistake, but when Tigers pitcher Andrew Oliver made his MLB debut the other day, his “i” wasn’t dotted (great spot by Tom Marquand). ”¦ “Chico State Normal School started out as at teaching college in the late 1880s and is now California State University, Chico,” writes Jushua Knudson. “Here are some great photos of the school’s 1900 baseball and 1902 softball teams.” ”¦ Quick, who was the last Chicago Bull to wear No. 23 before Michael Jordan? Answer: Mike Bratz. “He played 15 games for the 1982-83 Bulls, and that’s the only action photo of him I’ve ever seen,” says Warren Humphrey. ”¦ As you all know, the Phils wore road uniforms for last weekend’s three-game series against the Blue Jays. Morris Levin attended Sunday’s game and reports that ticket takers were greeting fans with, “Welcome to Toronto!” … With Senator Robert Byrd’s death last night, this uni-based photo has surfaced. Never seen that one before.