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Uni Watch

There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 15

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Our ongoing series of wire service photos has gotten me interested in the history of teletype machines. One thing I’ve learned is that the Teletype Corporation used to have a super-cool logo, which just makes me like these old photos all the more. Here’s our latest batch:

• Here’s Jimmy Foxx wearing that early-’40s Cubs uni that I love and most of you hate. And here he is suiting up before the game, which gives us a better view of the undershirt. Actually, that shot makes me want one of those undershirts!

• Not sure I’ve ever seen a photo of this 1933 Indians uni before. The gent in the photo is none other than the Big Train, who was managering the Tribe that year.

• The Tigers have had the old English “D” on their home jersey every year since 1934 — except in 1960. That’s Jim Bunning on the left.

• The Cardinals aren’t the only team who’ve used the birds on the bat design. That’s the minor league O’s, from 1938, long before the Browns moved to Baltimore.

• Toward the end of his life, Casey Stengel took to wearing this mish-mash uniform. That photo is from his last public appearance, shortly before his death.

• Here’s a fascinating factoid: If a Dodgers player was injured during spring training, he was given a different-colored cap so the coaching staff would know not to judge his performance too harshly.

• Speaking of the Dodgers, it’s worth remembering that their “LA” cap logo existed long before the Dodgers moved west. That’s Rip Collins, playing for the minor league L.A. Angels in 1937.

• Wordmarks just don’t work on sleeves. That’s Jim Bottomley, circa 1935.

• Heeeeere’s Johnny! Yes, that’s Johnny Carson in a Yankees uniform, part of a promotion in which he pitched to Mickey Mantle at Yankee Stadium. (You can see the video of this stunt, along with footage of Carson in a Jets uniform, here. Major thanks to Bruce Menard for finding this one.)

• I’ve always said that Sandy Koufax wore perfect stirrups, and that was still true in 1981, when he was doing a bit of coaching for the Albuquerque Dukes.

• I can never see enough photos of Sonny Liston. Such a compelling character, even when he was just sitting there.

• This NHL shot is pure 1981 — the helmetless linesman, the girl’s hairstyle, the guy with the cigarette.

• Speaking of cigarettes: I was admiring this shot of Rider College’s 1961 uni — super-classy, right? — for quite a while before I noticed the coffin nail in the guy’s mouth. Not so classy after all.

• I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a good view of the Reds’ 1956 Mr. Redlegs jersey. What’s the deal with his teeth? Unappealing. Also, note his upturned collar point, which is a Mr. Redlegs staple.

• Good photo-op here of Scooter Rizzuto trading a signed contract for his jersey. Interesting that it’s a road jersey, though. Wouldn’t you think they’d use the home pinstripes for the occasion?

• Mets fans won’t like hearing this, but let’s be honest: Tom Seaver has always been a bit pompous. So I got a kick out of this stop-action sequence.

And that’ll hold us for this round. More wire service pics coming soon.

Sock Giveaway Results: The winner of the soccer sock giveaway is Jeff Poole. I’ll have a really exciting giveaway to announce next week — stay tuned.

Late ESPN Reminder: Wednesday’s ESPN column went up kinda late in the day, and then I forgot to mention it yesterday, so here ’tis, just in case you missed it.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Nice job by Vince unearthing this awesome montage of old Cavs video. ”¦ Have I featured this soccer kit blog before? Eh, can’t hurt to link to it one more time (with thanks to Adam Krasner). ”¦ Who was this tequila sunrise polo intended for — the Astros’ trainers? In any case, it’s a major find by Jonathan Trapp). ”¦ Ladainian Tomlinson has gotten really amateur-looking Chargers and Jets tattoos on his legs. ”¦ A group of baseball historians has begun providing headstones for the graves of Negro Leaguers. ”¦ The stars/stripes caps will be worn by lots of minor league teams this year. And really, that’s wear this gimmick belongs. They look ridiculous on the MLB clubs, but it strikes just the right tone for a minor league promotion. ”¦ Meanwhile, the Blue Jays wore their Canada Day caps yesterday, which just made them look even worse than usual. ”¦ The Indians are promoting a Shin-Soo Choo fan club and have created a logo featuring Choo’s signature double-flap helmet (as noted by Brian Geiger). ”¦ The San Diego State football team’s locker room has its own Facebook page, complete with lots of interesting photos (with thanks to Sonny Sanfilippo). … Another throwback game based on a uniform that was worn only a couple of times back in the day: The Orioles will wear solid-orange throwbacks on August 13th, while the Rays will dress up as the Tampa Tarpons. ”¦ Good article on NASCAR’s ever-changing paint schemes (with thanks to Matthew Dowell). ”¦ Hartford Whalers gear is apparently becoming a hot thing in Hollywood.

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Holiday Schedule: First, I want to apologize to all our Canadian readers for neglecting to wish them a happy Canada Day yesterday. It’s an inexcusable omission, but maybe I can make up for it by showing you this, which was at the Canada Day party I attended last night. (If you think it’s just a Canada Dry bottle, take a closer look.)

As for this weekend, Phil will have his usual Saturday post tomorrow, I’ll have my annual ode to America on the Fourth, and I haven’t decided yet about Monday (probably just open comments). Everyone have a great holiday weekend, and make sure there’s a nice, long fuse on that M-80. See you next week.

 
  
 
Comments (160)

    Re: tequila sunrise shirt. Yes, the Astros’ trainer wore those in the late ’70s.

    Re: The Rider College Uni-smoker…

    I don’t believe that’s a cigarette in that man’s mouth. I think it’s a fault in the photo.

    Yeah, if you zoom in on that Rider College photo you can see the crease of his mouth behind what looks like a cigarette…in other words its translucent, not solid. Just a error in developing the photo.

    I actually think he’s hiding the cig in his hand, and he’s blowing smoke out of his mouth – no doubt he’s smoking though

    The minor leagues should have been wearing those caps since ’08. That’s one of the issues with the MLB, they’re inconsistent with their leagues.

    Also, Paul, sort of a small entry today, no?

    Nope — it’s his legs. Those photos are screen shots I made from a video clip, and it’s definitely his legs.

    I gotta say, being a pro athlete (and an all pro one at that) One would be think he’d be able to afford a tattoo artist that would do a good job. Every one of my 14 (and counting) tats look better than his.

    The Chargers tat was done in 2001 and had the logo and “2001-” inked. He recently added the end date to that one and got the Jets logo and “2010-” on the other leg. Any chance he had the Jets tat done to match the already 10 year old Chargers tat?

    Going back to your ESPN article from yesterday – the Sharks 20th Anniversary patches looked like they were sponsored by Dos Equis beer.

    Paulie,

    The Cincinnati Reds only wore the “Mr. Redleg” shirt for one year-1956 on the road.

    I would like to request that Toronto’s Canada Day look from last night be retroactively added to the “Worst Uni Combo” list, and be given consideration for the #1 spot. I am not Canadian, nor a Blue Jays fan, but that was still so ugly it made me angry.

    Hey Bernard,

    I am a Blue Jays fan and I have relatives that live in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) but even I agree that the Jays uniform worn yesterday was their worst of all time. They should ditch all the Black from their colors and return to the Royal Blue & White. They are, after all, the BLUE JAYS.

    Cito Gaston is retiring at the end of the season, but I’d sooner see the Jays’ uniforms retired. The fewer reminders of the Godfrey/Ricciardi era, the better. Bring back the royal cap from 1993-96. Get rid of all the grey shading and the black softball tops. You want an alternate? How about a variation on the ’70s batting practice pullovers? Redesign the wordmarks, and don’t follow trends — they’ve been doing that since 1997, and still haven’t come up with anything with the personality of the original split lettering.

    And please, hire a tailor (and I don’t mean Dr. Ron) to do something with those powder blue unis. The whole darn team looks like Cecil Fielder.

    The Blue Jays are one of those teams who got their uni right at the very beginning. They perfected it with small tweaks by the early 90’s when they won the WS – that was a uniform they weren’t going to be able to improve, because it was the perfect Blue Jays look. Ever since the organization took stupid pills and adopted the current uni-set, they have been probably the worst looking team in MLB. Hell, possibly one of the 2 or 3 worst looking teams in the history of MLB!

    Worst of all is that the Jays were in Cleveland on Canada Day. Over the past 10 years, they’ve been at home on July 1 only 3 times: in 2001, ’06 and ’09.

    Worse: in 2002, ’03 and ’04, they were in Boston, Detroit and Tampa Bay on July 1. In those first two years, they played the Expos at home — with getaway days on June 30 and 29 respectively. In ’04, they went from Tampa to Montreal, so the “all-Canadian” series was played on the Fourth of July!

    Oh well, at least Detroit was part of Upper Canada prior to 1796. And in ’07, when they were in Seattle, I guess there were some Vancouverites in the park.

    I know there are many factors that go into making the major league schedule, but surely there’s enough wiggle room to make sure the Jays are at home on Canada Day?

    This year, the Indians are in Toronto July 30 through August 1. Was there no one to advocate putting the Indians in (I still call it) SkyDome for this series, and the Jays in (I still call it) the Jake at the end of the month?

    This year is worse than many: The Jays were away on Victoria Day (May 24) as well (but at home a week later, on Memorial Day — figure that), and will be in New York on Simcoe Day (August 2, a holiday named in honour of the city’s founder).

    Unlike the team’s ownership, who are busy counting their cellphone and cable TV billions, we don’t all own 24-room winterized palaces in Muskoka (and that’s just the boat house, the main cottages are much swankier) to flee to on long weekends or national holidays. A ballgame would’ve hit the spot yesterday.

    Re: The Cavaliers video. How sweet was that floor at the Cleveland Arena, with the knotty, two tone hardwood? So much more character than today’s perfect Pergo-esque floors.

    Interesting to see the article about Whalers gear… they were usually featured in Kevin Smith movies as well, back in the day. (Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, “the Whale,” they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime.)

    I was never a fan of the team, but I’d love to see a resurgence of support to get Brass Bonanza ringing out again.

    Re: Whalers tee. Every t-shirt that Sandler wears in that movie is a shout-out to New England. In addition to the Whalers, he wears Harvard, BU, etc. The music is also a shout-out to 80s NE bands, heavy on the J. Geils.

    He also had some Whalers pennants, in addition to other teams, in Happy Gilmore. Sandler was also raised in New Hampshire. Grown Ups was shot in Massachusetts, so that was probably a factor too.

    Nah, look’s fine to me.
    We shouldn’t get so worked up about thing’s like this.
    Bad enough MLB team’s will be wearing their Patriot hat’s again.

    —Ricko

    even if it were king, it’d still be wrong

    unless that’s a contraction for “king is”

    perhaps that’s what they’re going for here

    Apostrophe catastrophe?

    Is that a dark spirit trying to dunk the ball or is the ball wearing a fake beard that’s not staying on very well? Glad to see they used the unique concept of integrating a basketball into their logo and they chose to have it professionally done by not using free clip art.

    I wouldn’t normally be so harsh in my critique, but c’mon… if you’re gonna get someone to create a logo for your professional team, at least spend a few bucks and have a professional create it, not someone just starting out or having high school art classes take a crack at it.

    Oh man, am I late to the party. I didn’t catch Jeremy’s dig till just now. Duh.

    Nice work, Ricko’s and Phil’s.

    Seriously, how many things are wrong with this?
    1. Apostrophe
    2. Inclusion of “The”
    3. Inconsistent blues
    4. Small-time team named after a state, in the same city where an NBA team plays (that is named after the city)
    5. Does Denver or Colorado have any history at all related to kings?

    Hell, ANYBODY can own an ABA team, come up with craptastic logos, and fold within weeks of the season opening!

    /heavy sarcasm’d.

    Wait… is it just me or haven’t we seen this Wire Service post before? Or have I time-travelled and forgot to get winning lottery numbers?

    Looking at some of those new NHL jersey designs, I can’t stop noticing that stupid manufacturer logo right on the collar, with the name and number below it. It totally throws off the balance of what’s on the back of the jersey. With the NOB under the number, it might work, and with the NOB above the number and the logo below it, it could also work. But as it is, it looks like garbage.

    “Hartford Whalers gear is apparently becoming a hot thing in Hollywood.”

    Well, all good things must come to an end, I guess.

    Young Johnny Carson and George W. Bush: separated at birth?

    And man, Ladainian Tomlinson is in trouble if he ever signs with or is traded to another team. Don’t these guys ever think tattoos out a little better before the ink has dried? Guess not.

    Strictly out of curiosity, what ever happened with the “design your own stirrup contest” (or something close to that name)?

    Speaking of stirrups…At least one of the Rays was wearing those striped babies with the road grays last night…instead of with either the navy or power jersey (sorry no screen grabs, perhaps Phil the Seacher of Searchers can ferret out an image).

    Looked really great. Far better than with either of the alts.

    —Ricko

    Amazing how that splash of sock color brings those dull Tampa roads to life.

    Re: the Jay’s Canada Day uni, isn’t a white hat against the rules anyway? Should have enforced that one and spared them some dignity.

    White long sleeves are (and that’s been “bent” from time to time).
    Not white hats.

    —Ricko

    Ed Hinton’s article on NASCAR advertising rings true. People identify with a driver and the color of the car. Similar to that with sports teams logos and uniforms. Now with sponsorships being for 1/5 or 1/3 of the races, it is confusing for fans who literally have to look for the numbers of the cars to remember who is driving it. That is unless they are a huge fan of a single driver and know all of their sponsors.

    In Formula 1, to me they make a big mistake in not allowing a difference between the designs on the two cars, excluding the wings on the camera which are in different colors.

    I don’t have a problem with how F1 does things. The camera mount isn’t the only way to tell the cars apart, since you can see the driver’s helmet. Personally, I prefer the “F1 look”. When you look at other series (Indycar, ALMS, etc.) A number of the multi-car teams have the same livery, with very little difference between them.
    Part of the problem with the cars in the Nascar series changing is the amount of money it takes to run a car for the full season.

    I think that page illustrates the multitude of paint schemes quite well and the reasoning being the ever changing colors. More paint schemes = more die cast cars = more $

    Sort of. In reality, though, teams want nothing more than a full-year sponsorship. That’s where the big bucks are. That’s why you never see Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon with anything but Lowes and DuPont respectively.

    I’m glad Paul linked to the article. It really is difficult to find your favorite driver on some races. For one, there’s no central place this week’s paint schemes is listed. (Jayski does a good job covering it, but it’s not like I’m going to go there and memorize it every week.)

    I happen to follow Tony Stewart. I swear there have been races where I didn’t realize he was running his white/blue Burger King car until the 20th lap.

    link

    Note how the Cyclones SnS cap gets the stars and stripes concept exactly right: One letter is all stripes, the other all stars. In the bigs, all team are using a single SnS pattern that flows “underneath” the insignia with no rhyme or reason. Completely destroys the form and shape of the cap insignia. Whereas the Cyclones cap preserves the form of each letter in the insignia, and by doing so actually makes the stars-and-stripes stronger and more impactful.

    True, but that’s because it’s red and white stripes on a white cap. And since the C is on the right side of the insignia, it would be filled with red and white stripes using the MLB template for SnS caps, so it would be just as lost, only moreso because the B would also have a lot of red-and-white stripe action too. So it’s still better than it otherwise would be, and it would actually be pretty good if it were outlined in white on a navy or red cap like the ’08 and ’09 styles.

    Re: Tequila sunrise shirt- back in in high school I worked for the football team as a student trainer. I had a Sandknit shirt just like that except it was black with gold striping like the Pirates’ pillbox hats. The material was a very heavy polyester. It really wasn’t a very comfortable shirt.

    Nice promo on Planetizen for a certain webmaster’s Candela Structures project.

    link

    Slightly off uni-tangent, but…

    I clicked on the link to the Candela website then clicked on the link to Paul’s bio on this blog and read this: “Whereas most people see the Wizard of Oz, Lukas is much more interested in the man behind the curtain.”

    I think it could be taken a step further in that Paul’s the guy who’s interested in the curtain itself… is it flannel or does it feature any chain-stitching?

    It’s not a repeat, except it sort of is, just barely.

    I did mistakenly publish this one about 10 days ago (meant to revise it but accidentally clicked the “Publish” button instead of the “Update” button), but I quickly realized my mistake and took it down. It was only live for about two minutes. I guess you saw it during that small window.

    Oh, thank God… I thought I was in a Twilight Zone episode. I couldn’t get over that nobody else had commented on it, and now I know why. I saw behind the curtain.

    I was wondering the same thing, so you weren’t the only one. I just hadn’t taken a look at the post until now. I was scrolling the comments (which I don’t normally read) to see if anyone else noticed it. I think I read it on Google Reader, which pulls the RSS feed and stores it even if the original post is pulled.

    I think Canadians are okay with both terms. Canadian football (CFL) started play last night. Toronto (especially) being a very cosmopolitan city with lots of Euros in its population, probably is okay with football to describe what Toronto FC plays. Maybe outside of TO they’re more likely to use “soccer.” Not sure. But their governing body, like ours, uses the term “soccer” in its name and not “football.”

    FWIW, I believe the Australians are another major group of folks who use “soccer” (their national team is the Socceroos) because THEIR football is the type played by the Geelong Cats and Brisbane Lions. And, incidentally, one of the major stadiums in which Australian Rules Football is played….the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. So there you are.

    make that Derby County- guess I was going to say Derby County’s old stadium was The Baseball Ground

    Side point, I heard recently that “soccer” is actually a nick name coined in Europe.

    Association Football -> ‘Soc Football -> ‘Soc -> and for some reason adding an -er to the end for “soccer”

    The (potentially apocryphal) story goes something like this:

    football > The Football Association > “Association” Football > Assoc. Football > soccer

    The game was football. The group set up as the first league was, naturally, The Football Association. The brand of football played there was “Association Football,” which became “Assoc. Football” which somehow became bastardized (as so many things do in our language) to “soccer.”

    It may not have gone that way, but that’s one story. It may be kind of like the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge explanation that is made up to explain the etymology of a certain word I use too often.

    Re the comments on the IL Orioles jerseys: the SA’s New Orleans Pelicans also put birds on a bat on their jerseys for a time, coinciding at least in part with their years as a Cardinals’ farm club.

    Is that a bottle of Three Philosophers I see behind the bottle du Soda Gingembre?

    …and became quite petulant in the process. I wanted to scream at the TV in my best Sam Wyche, “You don’t live in Argentina, you live in Brazil!”

    Not a Dutch fan, but hats off to them. They played more beautifully than their opponents, who used to play “the beautiful game.”

    Red and blue are not complementary colors. Blue/orange, red/green, yellow/purple are the classic complementary colors – ie, colors on the opposite side of the color wheel.

    There must be examples of other complementary color-on-color matches at some point, but I can’t think of any. Just not all that many teams with orange or purple shirts, and I believe that FIFA regards red and green as insufficiently contrasty to allow both in the same match. Though solid green vs. red-and-white stripes may be possible; has Nigeria ever played Paraguay? Not the World Cup, but here’s what that would look like:

    link

    The second match is one as well.

    Uruguay in traditional light blue over black and Ghana in their change strip of red with yellow stripes over red.

    Wrong. Happened today. Orange v. Blue(Ned. V. BR.)

    And RS Rogers: What the hell are you talking about. Turn on your TV. But thanks for the 3rd grade reminder on the color wheel.

    Also, Netherlands were wearing a jersey with their flag AND THE BRASILIAN FLAG ON THE CHEST!! I have never seen that treatment before in soccer–one off jersey for an individual match + wearing the opposing team’s flag!!??!@#$%^&*(

    Looking for a shot of it now…

    That’s the Dutch tradition. I believe the Czech Republic did the same at the last World Cup.

    Oh, man… I used to love seeing the Astros’ trainer come out in that link.

    I could certainly be misremembering, but I think they stuck with that for a while after they’d ditched the tequila sunrise unis for the rainbow-shoulder ones.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Kenn: I’m still trying to find something right about link.

    what’s wrong with the 180 degree crown or the blue basketball arising from the bp oil slick?

    While the apostrophe is grammatically incorrect, at least it’s not backwards. Does that count as something right?

    “I used to love seeing the Astros’ trainer come out in that tequila sunrise golf shirt.”

    Those are most definitely some sweetness. Would this be a candidate for inclusion into the wardrobe of Mr. Jim V.?

    The Casey Stengel mish-mash photo link reminded me of the Gaylord Perry jersey that he seemed to break out of the closet for a number of events there for a while. link

    Another home run wire service edition! Did that odd wordmark on the 1930’s Reds uni cause you to overlook the stripe-a-licious stirrups?!

    -Jet

    I can’t believe I’ve never seen that 1956 Reds “Mr. Redlegs” uni shirt before. The cartoon looks weak with all those thin lines, especially when you’ve got a bold number on the other side of the chest. These cartoon characters a la Mr. Met do not belong on a baseball jersey, and I guess they figured that out if it only lasted one year…

    -Jet

    Thanks Ricko, seeing both together reaffirms my thought that the cartoon is weak, with thin lines. Looks great on a yearbook cover, not so great on a jersey. I much prefer the bold “C”.

    -Jet

    Talk about compelling… that Sonny Liston photo is of him in the back of a paddy wagon on Christmas Day! Wow…

    About that Colorado King’s logo…

    If you look at the crown closely, there’s a little cross in the center. Could be the owner is a devout Christian and dedicated his team to Christ. Hence, the “The King’s.”

    Not out of the realm of possibility. The IBL had the Colorado Crossover (get it, CROSSover?). They were owned by Crossover Ministries:
    link

    Don’t know if it’s the same ownership or not. I’ll have to check.

    Re: Tequila Sunrise Polo Shirt….I went through my Topps sets and found only one Astros team picture, link, that showed the trainer wearing the polo shirt.

    In link from the 1976 set, he is wearing a jacket with the old Astros logo. But what’s more interesting is the stirrups on the batboy in front. They have stripes. I never realized they wore striped stirrups, ever. link doesn’t show any stripes.

    Yeah, you can see a hint of a stripe on the second guy from the right in the first row, too.

    Nice to see a team photo with no Jammies.

    the whole team actually DID have those striped rups the first season (or at least part of the season)…but, as was the style of the time, everyone pulled em up so high they appeared to be solid blue

    /do you blame them?

    Missed the opening of the CFL (where’s the uni review, Mike Styczen?), but the NFL Network is showing these games:

    Thursday, July 1: Montreal at Saskatchewan, 7 p.m. ET
    Saturday, July 10: Calgary at Hamilton, 1 p.m. ET
    Saturday, July 17: Edmonton at Saskatchewan, 4 p.m. ET
    Saturday, July 24: Edmonton at Winnipeg, 6 p.m. ET
    Saturday, July 31: Hamilton at Saskatchewan, 6 p.m. ET
    Friday, Sept. 10: Calgary at Edmonton, 9 p.m. ET
    Friday, Sept. 17: Calgary at Saskatchewan, 9 p.m. ET
    Friday, Sept. 24: Montreal at Winnipeg, 8 p.m. ET
    Friday, Oct. 1: Montreal at Calgar, 9:00 p.m. ET
    Friday, Oct. 8: Edmonton at Hamilton, 7:30 p.m. ET
    Friday, Oct. 15: Hamilton at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. ET
    Friday, Oct. 22: Montreal at Hamilton, 7:00 p.m. ET
    Friday, Oct. 29: Montreal at Toronto, 7:00 p.m. ET
    Friday, Nov. 5: Calgary at Winnipeg, 8:00 p.m. ET

    CFL AND Arena Football? Ricko, have you called your cable or satellite provider yet?

    That’s where I’ll be doing most of my viewing, although a friend of mine does have NFL Network.

    That Aussie Rules football is excellent as well. Gotta say, I think that and the CFL are more enjoyable than the NFL these days. Go ahead and lockout the ’10-’11 season. I’m covered.

    I’m right here!

    I’ve been watching the preseason previews, internet, etc. and I’ve only seen two pieces of uniform news: the Saskatchewan Roughriders 100th anniversary alternate, and the Blue Bombers 80th anniversary alternate:

    link

    link

    I think the Bombers are wearing theirs tonight against Hamilton.

    What else to tell you? I hear the NFL Network is showing CFL games this year

    link

    Edmonton has the Grey Cup this fall.

    Vancouver is playing in a temporary stadium on the site of old Empire Stadium for a couple of years while they put a new roof on BC Place.

    Not much to preview this year I guess

    Sorry for the braincramp – I somehow missed the part about the NFL Network in your post.

    Great game last night for the first game on the NFL network – a Grey Cup rematch (Montreal vs. Saskatchewan) that went to overtime.

    I think the only other thing I heard was the Riders changed the facemasks from black to white. Yay!

    Thanks for keeping your eyes peeled, Mike. Looking forward to seeing the Lions outdoors at home this year.

    pflava said:
    “The Blue Jays are one of those teams who got their uni right at the very beginning. They perfected it with small tweaks by the early 90′s when they won the WS — that was a uniform they weren’t going to be able to improve, because it was the perfect Blue Jays look. Ever since the organization took stupid pills and adopted the current uni-set, they have been probably the worst looking team in MLB. Hell, possibly one of the 2 or 3 worst looking teams in the history of MLB!”

    Amen!

    I’m also with those who can’t figure out why the Jays weren’t playing in Toronto yesterday. That’s as bad as the unis they trotted out with in Cleveland.

    From the “you learn something new here almost every day” department: I never realized that Jimmie Foxx played for the Cubs.

    Hardly his best days, obviously. And to make matters worse he had to wear the brutal vest uniform.

    Beautiful! I think why this uni works for me is that the red predominates on the uni shirt – names, numbers, piping and the Indian logo — yet the cap is black (or dark navy?) with just the red brim. This contrast really gives the entire look an aggressive edge – imagine if the cap was all red? I don’t think the uni would have quite the impact…

    -Jet

    That’s the same reason the all-navy hat with the current roads looks so dippy.
    And, yes, the old tomahawk was navy.
    As to the patch, even it its details are wrong, it has a lot more dignity than either the screaming Brave or Chief Wahoo, that’s for sure.

    —Ricko

    it is nice…i much prefer the “black” (or is it just really, really dark blue?) tomahawk

    sleeve patch? yeah, not so much

    better than this thing tho

    I believe it’s a very dark blue tomahawk. At least that’s what it is on my ’57 World Series Braves replica jacket from M&N.

    Is that a cap or batting helmet? To me it looks like a helmet. I don’t see any evidence of panels or vent holes. It also appears to be flocked.

    Uruguay (nice anthem, by the way) and Ghana underway.

    Ghana has the same red and yellow unis from the US game. Pretty sure I heard the Univision annoucer say “McDonald’s” when describing the teams in Spanish.

    Uruguay in the blue over black.

    The front uni numbers for Ghana have moved from center chest to the right shoulder area. Paul noted that the white number got lost in the yellow stripe, now it is much more visible on the plain red shoulder.

    From USA-Ghana match

    link

    Also, any idea what font Ghana is using for its numbers and lettering? I’m totally digging it.

    I thought it was interesting the the SnS Caps for the minor league teams have a colored NewEra logo on the left side above the ear but the MLB caps don’t. Just like the authentic MLB caps dont have the NewEra logo but the “novelty/fashion” caps do have them. I’d have to guess then that MiLB teams have the NewEra logo on their hats all the time as well, huh?

    Yes. Every New Era cap has the flag logo patch on the left side, EXCEPT for the Major League authentic caps. And even then, the New Era logo has mistakenly appeared on the occasional one-off hat, e.g.: the White Sox Halfway-to-St. Pat’s or the Padres salute-the-troops before it became a full-blown alternate.

    Incorrect. For reasons unbeknownst to me certain Cooperstown Collection caps do not have the flag logo on the side,(check out the caps at Mickey’s Place in Cooperstown for an example) but the recent “Coop” collection ones do.

    Don’t know if this has been brought up yet, but has anyone noticed on YouTube the little soccer ball icon on the bottom right of the video player? It’s not on all the videos, but I’ve seen it on quite a few today. Try this one.

    Absolutely mesmerized by the Wire Service today. My god that Orioles minor league jersey blew me the fuck away. Too cool. Absolutely love that Jim Bottomley photo as well. Jim’s cap is bitchin’.

    Teletype’s logo is brilliantly simple, and very germanic Bauhaus in some ways. The three circles that make up the T, love it. Speaking of Bauhaus, I love this Bahaus inspired Obama poster. I don’t know what it says, so eek, but it’s cool.

    link

    My German is way rusty, but it’s something along the lines of:

    Pressa = the name of some press exhibition/convention type thing.
    Köln Mai bis Oktober 1928 = Cologne May to October 1928
    Weltschau am Rhein = Worldview on the Rhine

    If there are any real krauts reading, please feel free to correct me.

    Photo of Team Ghana link with the numbers on the shoulders.

    And my son thought link was hilarious during the Ghana/USA match.

    I think he would have scared the hell out of me when I was 6 years old.

    I spent some time at various Cape Cod Baseball League games recently. Here’s a photo stream that shows some of the team unis and field settings, etc. A great and relaxing way to enjoy the alleged national pastime: link

    Suggestion, is there any way to darken the background of the posts column, to help differentiate between specific posts? Maybe, just a shade will do the trick. It’s just the light baby cyan blue background is blending with the white too well.

    That old Cleveland Cavaliers video is a hoot! I’d completely forgotten about Steve Patterson, the UCLA champion center the Cavs got – as opposed to them getting Kareem or Walton. At least Patterson said he was happy to come to Cleveland because it was the big leagues.

    The video also points out a small error in the Cavs’ design of the Hardwood Classics uniforms from that era. You can see from the game footage at about the 4:38 mark that the uniform shorts had a sword on the side panel. The recent throwbacks didn’t have that. The brief game footage at the very end looks like a game against the Wilt/West/Baylor Lakers which was very interesting to see.

    Perhaps this is the throwback that the Colorado Buffaloes will be wearing this season to honor the 20th Anniversary of their National Championship team: link

    Perhaps that should be the PERMAMENT uniform when they move to the Twelve Pac.

    Who is the 1963 New York Jet lineman with the
    missing front teeth in the Johnny Carson clip?

    I love this TV spot.
    link

    Mostly because I think they must have had so much fun making it.

    —Ricko

    Alouettes had a 122-yard TD last night.
    And the blue pants make a ridiculous uniform even ridiculouser.
    link

    —Ricko

    I’ll disagree – the Riders could stand to lose the black trim and the Reebok piping.

    Their throwbacks (just green and white) are perfect.

    “best uni on the gridiron”

    you mean on that gridiron for that game…

    kinda tough to be worse than the als

    Great game.

    Good to see Wes Cates (Cal. U of PA grad) still playing well. Good to see those white facemasks, too.

    The Alouettes could look worse. A little ridiculous, but I’d still wear those.

    I really enjoy these wire service photos. The Big Train in Indians is awesome. And I am one of the ones that likes that Cubs uniform.

    I’ve been trying to find a color photo of the 1941-42 Cubs light blue vest… anybody know where I could find one?

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