Harpooned! Another White Whale

Well, this one didn’t take long.

As you may recall, last week Ricko mentioned that he’d seen the Texas Rangers wearing their powder blue road jerseys with their white home pants during a game at Tiger Stadium in 1975-ish. That case was officially cracked over the weekend by reader Bruce Genther — behold!

As you can see, Bruce added a credit line, but he got the book’s title wrong — it’s actually The Game & the Glory, not the other way around. The player in the photo is Toby Harrah. The image is definitely from 1975, since that’s the only year the Rangers wore that jersey design.

A few thoughts on this photo:

• I could be wrong, but that doesn’t look like Tiger Stadium to me. So assuming Ricko’s memory is correct, the Rangers apparently wore this combo multiple times.

• Okkonen doesn’t even show the Rangers wearing powder blues in ’75 — he’s got them wearing gray. (The blues are shown, however, in Henderson’s guide.) I don’t mean that as a dig at Okkonen, but it’s the latest reminder that we should never take online databases as gospel.

• And just to reinforce that point: If you look again at the Toby Harrah photo, you’ll see that striping on his waistband runs, from top to bottom, blue-white-red, but Okkonen has it the other way around. (A very odd footnote: From 1976 through 1982, Okkonen shows the team wearing blue-white-red waistband striping at home but the opposite sequence on the road. I haven’t yet done the photo research to verify this, but if it checks out, it sure seems like an odd choice.)

That’s pretty good mileage from one photo, no? And if you want a copy of the book it came from, it’s available from Amazon for a penny.

Bonus whale coverage!: Phil did some mighty fine whale hunting of his own back on Saturday, as he and reader Chris Geis confirmed that the Pirates had indeed worn their bumblebee-era white pinstripes at Shea Stadium against the Mets in the late 1970s, creating a rare match-up of white pins vs. white pins. If you missed that entry, I strongly urge you to check it out before going further.

If there’s one thing missing from Phil and Chris’s account, it’s a nice color photo showing a pin-clad Met and a pin-clad Pirate together in the same frame. This is the closest they came, but it isn’t completely satisfying — we want to see two white pinstriped jerseys competing against each other, right?

And now we have. Those are screen shots that Steve Presser sent me yesterday. The game in question took place on 9/10/78. The Mets hitter is Stormin’ Dan Norman, hitting the first of his 11 career homers. Note his low-cut stirrup openings, a remnant from his days in the Reds organization, where he spent the first several years of his career.

Kind of amazing that the Buccos got away with wearing white pins on the road, no? Very surprised the N.L. office green-lighted that.

Collector’s Corner, by Brinke Guthrie

I’ve finally run out of childhood photos, so from now on we’ll just use my membership card. Here’s my latest round of eBay finds:

• Here’s an awesome 1970s “Charger Power” T-shirt. Note that it’s made by Logo 7, which would become Logo Athletic.

• This 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies jersey reminds me of family trips to Florida. Always saw the Rowdies logo in every McDonald’s we stopped in. (Sent in by Jason Bernard.)

• Absolutely love the font on this Twins pennant.

• Can’t say I’ve seen this New York baseball Giants logo before.

• Great NHL Rockies pennant. Using the Cowboys typeface, eh?

• Here’s just the thing to wear if/when the NFL players go on strike.

• This really old Niners pennant will cost you, but it’s so nice, it might be worth it.

• Here’s a unique item: a great pin set of defunct NHL teams.

• Some Jets fan out there absolutely must bid on this set of helmet headphones — with built-in AM radio!

• No Mets item for Lukas this time. Instead, let’s see if he’ll go for this G-Men iron-on. [I like, but not enough to bid. — PL]

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

Baseball Rocks, 2010 edition: For the second straight summer, I’m very happy to be offering free tickets to see Wilco and Yo La Tengo playing in minor league baseball stadium. The show will take place on July 30th at Coveleski Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, home of the single-A South Bend Silverhawks. And thanks to the generosity of Wilco manager Tony Margherita, I have two pairs of tickets to give away.

I’d hope this part would be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway, just in case: Please don’t enter this giveaway unless you can actually get to South Bend and attend the show. There will be no physical tickets (if you win, your name will be on the guest list at the event, with ID required), so you won’t be able to flip the tix on StubHub or anything like that. It’s just a nice gesture by the Tony and the band, so please reciprocate by playing nice, OK? OK.

So: To enter, send an e-mail to the giveaway address by this Friday, July 9th, at 7pm eastern. Your e-mail should include your name and the answer to the following question: What other sports-related attraction — one that should be of significant interest to Uni Watch readers — is located less than a mile from Coveleski Stadium? One entry per person. I’ll announce the winner next Monday.

In a related item, Wilco is curating and headlining next month’s Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA. The lineup will include a band called the Baseball Project, featuring Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows), and members of REM doing baseball-themed songs like “Ted Fucking Williams” and “Gratitude (for Curt Flood).” Pass the Cracker Jack!

Uni Watch News Ticker: Wayne’s Whoppers, continued: During the first inning of last night’s Mets/Reds tilt, embarrassingly clueless broadcaster Wayne Hagin said the Mets were getting “a good eye’s view” of Cincy starter Travis Wood’s pitches. Then he corrected himself and said, “A good bird eye’s view.” No, Wayner — the term is a bird’s eye view, and it refers to a view from overhead, not the view from the dugout. Fire Wayne Hagin already! ”¦ Hmmm, here are some words you don’t often see together (with thanks to Erik Morris). ”¦ Someone out there has figured out that maybe the world has too many baseball cap designs (with thanks to Gerry Dincher). ”¦ Excellent spot by Chris Jowdy, who notes that Yankees trainer Gene Monahan still has the team’s 2008 sleeve patches on his polo shirt. That’s the ’08 All-Star Game patch on his right sleeve, and the Yankee Stadium final-season patch on the left. ”¦ I’ve pretty much ignored developments in the UFL, because really, who gives a shit? But it’s impossible to ignore the practice jerseys — or maybe they were just tryout jerseys — being worn by the Sacramento Mountain Lions. Kinda reminds me of this (with thanks to Roarke Boes). ”¦ Mitchell & Ness is soliciting customer suggestions for which jerseys they should make (as reported by Dan Cichalski). ”¦ The A’s, who really ought to know better, are trying to revive the Braden/A-Rod feud with this T-shirt. Details here (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Professional waste of space Wayne Hagin referred to the A’s GM as “Billy Dean” last night. Fire Wayne Hagin already! ”¦ “It is not unusual to see men’s lacrosse goalies wearing sweatpants,” says Blair Thompson. “But there have been a couple Syracuse men’s goalies who, on occasion, have worn football pants, such as John Galloway and Matt Palumb. Syracuse also has a women’s lacrosse goalie who wears football pants: Liz Hogan.” ”¦ “There was a Greatest American Hero marathon on TV on Sunday,” writes Jonee Eisen. “One of the baseball-centric episodes featured two of the worst uniforms I’ve ever seen.” ”¦ Cycling note from Jeremy Brahm, who writes: “At the end of Stage 1 in the Tour de France, five-time champion Eddy Merckx was presented a special jersey by the organizers — a yellow, white with red polka dots and a green design, signifying the title for each part of the race that he had won in his career: yellow (overall champion), polka dots (mountains), and green (most consistent rider).” ”¦ Utter moron Wayne Hagin had this to say when Alex Cora went from second to third on a balk last night: “One more balk and the Mets will take the lead.” Fire Wayne Hagin already!. ”¦ Also from Jeremy: The SK Wyverns went green over the weekend — literally. The chest insignia reads, “Let’s Go Green.” Also, note that the pant legs appear to have been pressed with a very crisp crease. ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Patriots are having fans vote on Pat Patriot vs. Flying Elvis. ”¦ Alcides Escobar of the Brewers pulled up his pant leg in the dugout yesterday to reveal a Brewers-branded crew sock. Or is it an ankle brace..? Not sure what that is. ”¦ Here’s another awesome locker room photo from Warren Humphrey‘s collection, this time of Braves trainer Dave Pursley, circa 1962. Love the Lifesavers-esque stenciling on the trunk, too. ”¦ “I bought a Brooklyn Cyclones 10th Season patch over the weekend,” writes Terence Kearns. “Interestingly, it’s a combination of embroidered and printed, on twill. Never saw that before.” Me neither. Additional pics here. ”¦ Since the Rangers went to their current uni set last season, they’ve only worn their red caps with their red alternate jerseys. So it was odd last night to see them wearing the red caps — and also red sleeves and red socks — with their home whites (with thanks to Chris Mycoskie). ”¦ Insufferable bore Wayne Hagin offered this sage analysis last night: “That pitch caught all of the outside corner. All of it.” What does that even mean?! Fire Wayne Hagin already! ”¦ Jake Doyle tipped me wise to a site devoted to defunct independent baseball teams. “The site isn’t kept up to date, but it has some pretty interesting content, including logos,” he says. ”¦ Speaking of independent leagues, the Golden League has a new team in Maui this year, with some pretty rad uniforms (with thanks to Steve Krah). … Good info and video about the making of Lance Armstrong’s helmet (with thanks to Chad Todd). … René Zepeda and Justin Funderburk both note that Argentina’s front uni numbers have sometimes had a white outline and sometimes not. Ditto for the numbers on the back. Anyone know what’s up with that? ”¦ Charles Neiswender thinks Francisco Cervelli’s S100 helmet looks a bit more svelte. I wasn’t so sure about that, so I checked with my Rawlings contacts, who confirmed that this is indeed the long-promised revision to the S100. Further details soon. ”¦ Is there a term for a logo that’s shaped like the word it spells out? Matt English doodled those designs — not bad! ”¦ The NBA’s summer league is using initial-cap NOBs (as noted by Matthew Lesser). ”¦ Saw Winter’s Bone yesterday. Beautiful, bleak, devastating, superb — easily the best movie I’ve seen this year.