There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 17

Mike Hersh has been our star wire photo researcher in recent months, but he’s now facing a stiff challenge from Bruce Menard, who recently forwarded me a huge stash of sensational pics. Let’s take a look:

• Check out this amazing team portrait of the 1920 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Those sweaters look kinda DIY, no? Like, what’s underneath those flag patches? (Speaking of which, note that the flags have 48 stars, as Alaska and Hawaii had not yet achieved statehood.)

• Not sure what to make of this Dodgers shot. Dressed to the Nines says the team wore a black armband for team president Stephen McKeever in 1938, but they didn’t wear the word “Brooklyn” that year. The wire photo actually looks like the 1937 uni, which was the one year the Dodgers wore green (MLB’s only green-centric uni prior to the Finley-era A’s, don’tcha know). But the wire photo also looks like a spring training shot, so they probably used the previous year’s uniforms for spring training and added the armband to them.

• Here’s Johnny Pesky wearing a Red Sox uni that the Bosox never wore. Probably a minor league uni (Pesky played for the Rocky Mount Red Sox, e.g.).

• Coupla interesting things about this shot of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby: First, Hope is wearing the rarely seen Cleveland sesquicentennial patch. Also, note the outlines on Hope’s cap — did the cap have flaps, or was he wearing an insert underneath it? (When I showed this photo to Todd Radom, he promptly countered with a better view of the Cleveland patch.)

• Check out the amazing autograph-insignia jersey worn by Rogers Hornsby at his baseball academy. That shot is from 1948, and the guy next to the Rajah is his son, Bill.

• Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before: Connie Mack in a uniform!

• Oh. My. God. That’s Ebbets Field P.A. announcer Tex Rickard wearing a sweater that simply must be DIY’d ASAP.

• Attention Robert Marshall: Please have Twin City Knitting produce a set of 1959 Denver Bears stirrups, stat. Love the pillbox-ish cap and the sleeve patch, too.

• Here’s early-’60s Chisox equipment manager Sharkey Colledge looking a bit overwhelmed by the team’s jerseys.

• Jeremy Brahm will like this one: Don Newcombe in a Chunichi Dragons uniform.

• Whoa, check out Ray Oyler wearing the Little League helmet! Not clear if he ever wore it in a regular season game.

• Gotta love this shot of ABA commish George Mikan with the ABA’s first birthday cake.

• Very nice Cincy script on Dave Bristol’s jacket. Note that even the umps were wearing the MLB centennial patch in 1969.

• Speaking of Dave Bristol, I’ve shown this shot of the Brewers’ never-used 1970 prototype before, but once more can’t hurt.

• Check out the shorts in this 1968 Knicks shot. And hey, there’s Phil Jackson!

• Here’s a rare shot of baseball commish Happy Chandler in his ballplaying days. (First person to mention a certain unlistenable 1980s rock band in the comments gets banned, so don’t even think about it.)

• The most interesting thing about this novelty photo isn’t the player’s considerable girth. It’s the buttons on the sleeves, which allowed optional long sleeves to be added or removed depending on the weather.

• I don’t know if Jim Vilk would wear this roller derby jersey, but I sure would.

That’s it for this round. But I have another batch of wire pics, from a different contributor, already waiting in the hopper.

Mark your calendars: The next Uni Watch party/gathering/etc. will take place next Saturday, Oct. 9, 3pm, at Sheep Station in Brooklyn. Scott M.X. Turner will be in attendance, as he’ll be visiting from his new home of Seattle, so all you NYC-area folks should come on down and tell him what an idiot he was to leave Brooklyn say hi.

Speaking of Scott: His band, RebelMart, will be playing a record-release show on Oct. 8 at Rocky Sullivan’s, which should make a fine start to your Columbus Day Weekend festivities.

Giveaway reminder: I’m currently giving away an original uniform painting from the Maple Leaf Productions archives. Full details here.

World record radio show reminder: Today at 6pm eastern, the radio show Seven Second Delay, which is broadcast on the mighty WFMU, will attempt to set a record by doing 60 interviews in 60 minutes with 60 guests, one of whom will be me. You can live-stream the proceedings on the WFMU site or, if you’re in the NYC area, attend the live broadcast in person by reserving a ticket.

I’ve been told that the other guests will include a kid who can play two recorders simultaneously through his nose, several cartoonists, and a butcher. You can guess which one I’m most excited about.

Uni Watch News Ticker: No photos, but Air Force will apparently have special uniforms this weekend against Navy (with thanks to Parker Burke). ”¦ As we all know, the Angels switched to this design in 1997. But look how that design was originally drawn up. I’d never seen those designs until Donovan Moore posted them on the Chris Creamer board. “These were apparently distributed to licensees before they were re-worked and replacement pages were sent out,” he writes. ”¦ Pretty cool video clip about the new NBA uniforms (with thanks to Mike Hersh). ”¦ It’s a little hard to see, but one of the Seattle players in last weekend’s Sounders/Fire match had no name or uni number (with thanks to Garrett Malcolm). ”¦ Two glitches at the Baseball Hall of Fame: A glove mistakenly believed to have been used by Joe Jackson has been exposed as being bogus and has been removed from the Hall of Fame, and a Negro Leaguer’s plaque has been corrected with his accurate name (with thanks to Peter Nash and Dave Schoenfield, respectively). ”¦ Here’s what the USA cycling uniforms looked like in last week’s world championships in Australia (with thanks to Sean Clancy). ”¦ Women’s semi-pro football team in Baltimore has pretty much ripped off the Boise State logo (with thanks to Travis McGuire). ”¦ Here’s a good view of how the Nuggets’ jersey looks with the new fabric. “No shimmer sheen!” notes Rob Montoya. ”¦ In other NBA news, Josh Jiron notes that the Lakers’ NOB lettering appears to have gotten smaller. This is a change I hadn’t been aware of, so I’ll take it up with my NBA contacts. ”¦ Decent slideshow of past and current Ryder Cup outfits here. ”¦ John Muir notes that the “Best NHL players by uni number” feature linked from yesterday’s Ticker included a shot of Pierre Pilote wearing what appears to have been ankle/skate guards in 1967-68. “I don’t think we’ve seen these in use as far back as then,” he says. ”¦ Gilbert Arenas is now wearing No. 9 (as noted by Kurtiss Dilley). ”¦ Doug Keklak got some screen shots of Bear Bryant smoking on the sidelines. ”¦ Remember the shot of the Whistling Irishman in his rocking chair? That prompted the following from Jon Helf: “Prior Game 1 of the 1971 World Series, Sandy Koufax did a pregame interview with Danny Murtaugh in front of the dugout, and Danny was sitting in a rocking chair for the interview. Koufax even mentioned the rocking chair and said that they wanted to make Murtaugh comfortable. He must have really liked rocking chairs!” ”¦ Leafs goalie prospect Jussi Rynnas has his agent’s face on his mask (with thanks to John Muir). ”¦ As you may know, they’re planning to build a big, ugly arena a few blocks from my apartment. The projected design has been revised about eleventeen times already, with each revision being uglier than the one before. Yesterday they unveiled yet another version — eww. I especially love the smattering of cars shown on Atlantic and Flatbush Aves. — multiply that by about a bizillion and you’ll have a slightly more accurate sense of what the site will be like.