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The Perfect 10…10…10

10-10-10 b

By Phil Hecken, with Jim Vilk

I don’t place much *importance* in the symmetry of dates, but today is one that kind of sticks out: October 10, 2010. 10/10/10.

So, what better way to honor today than to offer up a bunch of great number 10s in the sporting world. For today’s exercise, I am joined by everyone’s favorite uniform critic, Jim Vilk, who has agreed to play along.

I asked Jim to pick his *best* number 10 in five sports: baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer. Now, I’m not much of a soccer fan, but I do know this: the best player on the team is (usually) accorded the #10. There are no restrictions on the choice for *best* #10: any level, college or pro, and any league (meaning Jim can delve deep into the USFL or arena leagues) for his candidates — there are only two conditions — they don’t have to be the best athlete ever to wear the number, but they do have to be great and they do have to look great wearing it. We’ll each give our top choices, and then you guys can tell us your own or, where we are wrong.

Interestingly enough, in my choices, there is a bit of a theme. Each athlete played for a New York team, although you wouldn’t think of him necessarily as a member of that team, nor were (except in one case) his best years with that team. But each was great, and each looked even better.

Here’s Jim:

“I may or may not be near my atomic clock when it shows 10:10:10 10/10, so if I’m not, this is the next best thing. I don’t have a special theme like Phil, but I did delve in the familiar. Your results may vary. No, they WILL vary.”

So with that, here we go:

~~~

Baseball

PH: He played for a hundred years and for a bunch of teams, but my best #10 in baseball has got to be Le Grand Orange, Rusty Staub. And that original Expos uni is the icing on the cake. Pretty memorable to a lot of Mets fans too.

JV: JV: Same team, different player. I’ll take Andre Dawson.

~~~

Football

PH:

Another guy who I saw play in a New York uniform, but who represents much better in the purple and gold, Sir Francis Tarkenton. Quite possibly the best player never to win a Super Bowl, he did #10 proud.

JV: Sure, Tarkenton, Zorn and Bartkowski come to mind immediately, but what about Johnnie Walton? He never played better than when he was with the Breakers. Coincidence? I think not.

~~~

Basketball

PH: Although he played a spell for the Cavs, this is one guy who absolutely made the Big Apple his own: Walt “Clyde” Frazier. Maybe now he’s better known for “No play for Mr. Gray” and other rhyming witicisms, but back in the day, Clyde could play. And the Knicks unis looked really, really good then, too.

JV: He was the tallest man to wear the number 10, and the recently departed Manute Bol wore it well, especially when he was with the Bullets.

~~~

Hockey

PH: Yet another player whose best days were behind him when he played in New York, one of hockey’s greatest (if not the best) #10 also may have worn the greatest hockey uni ever as well: Guy LaFleur. He looked as good on the ice as did the uni on his back.

JV: Don’t know much about the sport, but I know Ron Francis was as good as that Whalers uni.

~~~

Soccer

PH: This one might be a bit obvious, but my top #10 in soccer is definitely the one, the only…Pele. I’m more familiar with him from his Cosmos days (remember the NASL?), but he may have been the greatest Brasilian football player ever.

JV: While Pele was the best outdoors, Stan Stamenkovic was the best indoors. His jersey was great, too.

~~~

So there you have it…on 10/10/10…five each of our *best* tens, for a nice round number totaling…ten. What say you? Who are your best #10s? Remember, they have to be great, and look even better.

~~~~~~~~~~

ducktracker

Trackin’ the Ducks

UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game.

The Ducks are slowly but surely staking their claim to a BCS Championship berth, taking care of business yesterday with a tidy 43-23 win on the road against Washington State University. They went with a look of black helmet/white jersey/black pants. Oregon’s win, coupled with Alabama’s loss to South Carolina, means the Ducks could slide up to number 2 in the polls. Very interesting. Could a rematch of last year’s Rose Bowl be for the whole nine yards this year?

Our ducktracker was very busy this weekend, so there will be no writeup from him, but he has updated the tracker, below. Mike should be back with his usual terrific updates on specific additions to the tracker next weekend.

Here then, is your 2010 Duck Tracker

~~~~~~~~~~

all sport uni tweaks

Slowly making it thought the tweak backlog, but keep them coming. If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way. OK? OK! Here’s what’s on tap for today.

Those who’ve already sent in tweaks, they’re fine the way they are, but in the future, because many of you seem to enjoy elaborate write ups, can you possibly try to keep them to 50 words tops per team? (Every one I’ve received since I asked for the ~50 limit has complied so far!) Thanks!

~~~

Starting off the show is Joshua Lee, who has a few ideas for the Mets, Bills and Lions:

Hey Phil,

I’m a recent graphic design grad from UW-Stout way out in cheese country, but a few years ago I did a side project away from school, eliminating the BFBS on the Mets jerseys in addition to bringing back the full Metropolitans name. Looking at it now it could have been polished a little bit more, but what the hell, there’s always next time.

Got a version of the Bills uniform for you sans BSFBSS (that’s blue-stitching-for-blue-stitching’s-sake).

Here’s a concept for the NFC North bottom scrapers. Instead of eliminating the black I embraced the dark colors and incorporated charcoals and grays, used the previous lions logo, and used a different shade of blue only with the alts, because honestly, I think the Titans have a pretty strong hold on the baby blue. Maybe when they get back above .500 the Lions can claim rights to the color.

Cheers.

Joshua Lee

~~~

Next up is Chris Markham with an interesting idea for the Bills:

So with the Sabres coming out with their new uniforms, I decided to do a similar makeover but for the Bills. I took the Bills logo and applied the same type of nickel outlining and darker blue color that the Sabres did to their new logo.

Now the Bills already added the nickel color to the helmet and home uniforms, but I simplified their current home uniform to make it cleaner by removing the light blue piping red side panel along with bringing back the white pants. For the road uniform, I kept the navy shoulder color as the Sabres have but kept the red piping around it, removed the red side panel and added a nickel outline to the numbers as the home uniforms have.

–Chris

~~~

Our next batch of tweaks come from Johnny Bruno, who has a whole set of concepts for the (soon-to-be) Miami Marlins:

Hey Phil,

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and design my own uni for when the Marlins switch their name to the Miami Marlins. I didn’t make any MAJOR changes (kept the same color scheme essentially) and I gave it a new font and updated the logo’s, jerseys and caps. Never really had a problem with the logo’s or colors too much. I made this in paint so sorry if it isn’t that great of quality. I’m a college student and I read the blog daily.

Miami Marlins Uni Tweak

Enjoy!
Johnny Bruno

~~~

Well done fellows. Thanks to all today’s tweakers. Back with more next weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~

uni tracking header 1

2010 Season Uni Tracking

Now that the 2010 Season has concluded it’s time for all of you who have tracked your team through the entire season to send me your final tweaks. When I have a few spare hours, I plan on compiling them and adding them to the Uni Watch Archives, to be a part of the permanent record.

So, if you’ve been doing your due diligence with your team, send me your end-of-season tracking reports, and I’ll post them as a “sub article” on the weekends. OK? OK! And I promise they’ll make it into the UW archives before the year is out. Please feel free to accompany your tracking with a write up, especially if your team had any interesting trends or patterns.

~~~

Today, we have Ryan Bugaj, who tracked the Boston Red Sox this year (I don’t think he’s the only one — so if anyone else has done so, you can still send your tracking in — it’s interesting to see how different people do their graphics and spreadsheets). So, here’s Ryan with his end of year writeup:

Hi Phil:

As you requested, here is my 2010 Red Sox Uni-Tracking wrap-up report and spreadsheet.

It could’ve been a better year here in Red Sox Nation as our beloved team ended up on the outside looking in this postseason. Injuries played a major part in that as losing Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia for the season proved to be too much to overcome.

On the cap front, the “hanging sox” alternate cap made its return on September 4 (a game I attended, no less) against the White Sox…with yet another loss. A win on Sept. 24 against the hated Yankees was the only bright spot in the five instances the cap was worn. The Sox didn’t fare any better with this year’s iteration of the Stars & Stripes cap, with only a win on Memorial Day to show for it. There weren’t any throwbacks to speak of this season (too bad), so of the 162 possible games, the regular cap appeared 154 times. Pretty good for a “traditional” franchise.

On to jerseys: the home alt wasn’t much good luck for the Sox in the second half, as it went winless in the four instances it was worn. It was also the only one of the two alternates to make each of its regularly-scheduled Friday appearances. The blue road alt fared better, going .500 on the year (5-5), but it could’ve been worse: four times this season the Sox didn’t wear the road alts because the home team did. The Sox went 1-3 in those games, so had they not shown good uni sense in those games the blues would have had nearly identical records to the reds. Ugh.

And as a bonus for the alt haters out there: both the regular home and away jerseys each finished with records over .500.

So that’s all I’ve got…thanks for the opportunity this season, and I’ll see you in 2011!

-Ryan B

Thanks, Ryan. Keep them coming everyone. And thanks to all who undertook this exercise. For many of us whose team wasn’t playoff bound, or even sniffing the post season *coughmetscough*, it at least gave us a reason to keep watching the games.

~~~~~~~~~~

vilk 5 & 1 b

5 & 1

Was running late last night when Jim sent me these, so…no critiques or criticisms from me…just Jimmy in his own inimitable style:

~~~

“Honorable” Mention to Michigan Tech/Saginaw Valley State — No, not the greatest of matchups, but this is for you, aflfan. Welcome back after a long absence from the comments section.

5. UNLV/WVU — That’s right, kids, I can rock it new-school, too.

4. Arkansas/Texas A&M— If Arkansas was the home team, this wouldn’t be list-worthy at all.

3. Army/Tulane — Slap a fleur-de-lis on those Army helmets and you almost have a battle of the Superdome’s tenants.

2. Clemson/UNC — This was my #1 pick…until…

1. LSU/Florida — Thought I was going to give SEC matchups a week off, but the Gators surprised me with the orange jerseys.

And my worst matchup: East Carolina/Southern Miss — Pity — ECU has such a nice home uni.

~~~

Thank you Jimmy. Nice to see you’re thinkin’ with yer dipstick again.

~~~~~~~~~~

That’s just about it for this fine Sunday. I won’t say a word today about the softball game down in Texas yesterday.

But I will say how gorgeous the hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings was last night. Both teams went NNOB, and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick went the extra mile, wearing retro-styled gear. Nice touch.

Everyone have a great day. I don’t believe anyone is scheduled to wear throwbacks in the NFL today, but the Colts (who never announced IF they will wear the ’55 throwbacks in a regular season game) are home. Also home are the Cardinals, who I don’t believe have announced the schedule for their BFBS unis. And the Patriots, who will wear the beautiful red throwbacks again, have a bye week.

But there will probably be lots of pink today, so there’s that.

Enjoy 10/10/10. It only comes around once a century.

~~~

Two baseball teams come out wearing Orange and Blue, which couldn’t be confused by even the stupidest person in the world, and you act like it’s a cardinal sin. — Ian K.

 
  
 
Comments (204)

    He may have worn 10 longer, but he’ll be remembered for wearing 91 with the Bulls. Call it the Jordan effect, I guess.

    Talk about an assault on the eyes. Here is Perpignon (France)vs Scarlets (Wales) yesterday in the opening stage of the Heineken Cup, the European rugby club championship.

    link

    I like what Joshua Lee did w/the NYM tweak. Like a New Yorker Mag/Jazz Era illo. Kinda like J Bruno’s Miami Marlins too

    Sorry to repeat – but the NY Mets are not & never were the Metropolitans; though the nickname WAS floated as a possibility. It was the name of the group set up to bid for the new NYC franchise.

    @any and all Boston RS fans-I guess if you can’t type Yankees w/o the “hated” it’s OK for me to type Hypo-Cred Sox. You come off as the sorest winners of all time.

    It’s like they think they have the market cornered on hating the Yankees, too. I can think of five teams off the top of my head that have at least as much right, including one in the NL.

    My corner hates them. Hate the Red Sox, too. Come to think of it, I don’t like the entire Junior Circuit. I’m a designated hater.

    “designated hater”…I like that. I can’t remember the Yankees ever beating the Cards in anything….

    Ask any Cleveland Indians fans what they think of the Yankees, and then get ready to cover your face to deflect the spittle.

    “Sir Francis Tarkenton. Quite possibly the best player never to win a Super Bowl [in the Super Bowl Era], he did #10 proud.”

    On behalf of Browns fans everywhere, you’re welcome for fixing that sentence.

    On matters of less import:
    Love Joshua Lee’s Mets jersey. The Art Deco font just screams “New York,” although it may be too thin for something that’s supposed to be readable from the upper deck.

    Before someone else screams about it, I hope Mr. Lee realizes that the Lions wear Honolulu blue, which is like royal but with more green in it, and not powder blue. And of course that they were wearing it for 29 years before the AFL existed.

    Chris Markham’s Bills tweak looks good too, even with the CFL shoulder yoke on the whites. I guess what’s really holding them back is ll the red piping, not the yoke.

    Thanks for the shout out Jim. Saginaw Valley even won the game yesterday. Now if Michigan could have done the same against those ugly Michigan State Jersey’s.

    Now if we could just find Leon.

    Dawson
    That guy from “Real People”
    Clyde
    Wayne Babych
    Pele

    I am with Phil on the greatest number 10 in hockey being Guy Lafleur. Alex Delvechio comes in second.

    yes…i’ve been remiss in my welcome back’s…

    welcome back tod (sorry to hear about what kept you away, but hopefully things are back to ‘normal’ now)

    Thanks Phil. They are close. My dad is still in a rehab center a hours drive away from our house. He had a x-ray on his femur and hopefully it is healing. It happened back at the end of March. Now back to your uniform related programming.

    Hey, aflfan, welcome back!

    Always good to have someone around who knows who George LaFrance is.

    —Ricko

    I watched a bit of the Kings/Canucks game last night, something about the Kings uni, it was hard to take your eyes off of. I asked my wife what she thought, (she was not aware of it being a retro game), she immediately said, very old school colour combo and design.

    The shade of purple that Fran Tarkenton is wearing, is what the Vikes should wear today, not this glossy s&^t.

    Florda Gators should stick to orange, they are the orange grove state, their regular uni often looks like a mess to me, the orange uni solves the issue.

    You are correct, Oakville Endive,…the Vikings should ONLY wear this jersey:

    link

    Simple…clean…nostalgic…great look!

    Is it any wonder that the Vikes have not been back to the Super Bowl since they went indoors AND donned their current “eye-sores” of an uni…hmmmm???!!!???

    This link looks like a mess to you? I truly don’t know what you are thinking, but that uniform is a simple treasure compared to other schools in the country (Ark, Oregon, Miami, take your pick).

    The Gators should not stick to orange full time! Both Tennessee and Miami do that, so following them wouldn’t be good, even if the school colors are “orange and blue”.

    I was surprised to see the Gators wearing orange, but liked them as a one-off special. The orange jerseys had been forgotten since the late 80s, so this was a unique treat that wasn’t too different in design than the normal blue or white. I definitely don’t want to see them become permanent, but liked it for this special appearance. Too bad it didn’t bring a victory. They need to stay with blue for good luck.

    From a design standpoint, I would agree Florida is fine. From a color standpoint, it’s a look I don’t like. A team that goes with the lighter shade in their colour palette for their helmet color , with a darker uniforms, is actually quite rare (for good reason) In my opinion it’s a look that doesn’t work, blue pants , white jersey , and an orange helmet. (or blue jersey, white pants, orange helmet). It does look a little better , if it’s a dark blue or better yet a black. But in Florida’s case, I find it’s like they’ve done some random mix and matching, without consideration for the overall look.

    The same applies to the Edmonton Eskimos, when they go with their green pants, white jersey and yellow helmet.

    Purdue will be rockin the throwbacks next Saturday to honor the 2001 Rose Bowl team. Alas, they’ll be wearing white at home like they did when they honored the 1967 Rose Bowl team.

    They got a lot right with these, and I’ve always liked that Rose through the “P” on the helmet. Pants may be a little more “vegas gold” than the true “old gold”, but that transition started around the Drew Brees years anyway.

    link

    *blink* To honor the 2001 team? It hasn’t even been a full decade yet. Give me a fucking break.

    …right. I tend to refer to bowl games by the season they followed. My bad.

    Still… it’s only been a decade. On top of that – they lost that game. Who does a throwback game to honor a losing team?

    I say again: Give me a fucking break.

    When you only go twice to the Rose Bowl in your 100+ year history, you honor it as much as you can, perhaps?

    I’m sure they’re not the first team to honor a 10 year anniversary, are they?

    I watched the Canucks-Kings game last night. LA should wear that more often, as their normal uni set is pure dreck. Loved Jonathan Quick’s retro Vaughn gear, especially the nod to the great Rogie Vachon with the purple “double crown” mask!

    Yes, I found it hard to turn away and watch my Red Wings in white vs. the Chicago Black Hawks in red (always a great uniform match up) but the LA-Vancouver game took the cake last night. I kept looking for Marcel Dionne.

    Why are we so excited to see a team that calls itself the Kings wear jerseys with a queen’s crown on them again?

    My camera was all set to photgraph the atomic clock, but at nine seconds it went out of focus. At least I get another chance.

    Now if I can use the hair dryer to get the thermometer to read 101.0 degrees…

    Hey, where are you from again? I have this strange feeling you’re trying to tell us, but I can’t quite place it.

    I know Dawson didn’t wear #10 while he was with the cubs, but you’re saying Kingman was better than the Hawk?

    Damn. I knew that would be the controversial one. Is it too late for me to change it to Steve Lake?

    And Rudy Bukich might be ranked ahead of ol’ Peter Tom.
    link

    I mean, a Bears quarterback actually leading the NFL in passing one season is pretty, um, unique.

    (Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good triva question for anyone’s social NFL watching today: “Name a TV-era Chicago Bears quarterback who led the NFL in passing.”)

    —Ricko

    For my teams, I can’t think of any prominent Indians, Browns, or Cavs that wore #10. Even Clyde wore #11 while he was in Cleveland.

    You know, it’s funny. I never even thought about Quinn. I could only think of Holcomb, though obviously them being the most prominent proves the dearth of Cleveland talent at #10.

    Actually, Clyde wore 10 and 11. The Cavs used to have something going on between home and away unis back then. Campy Russell wore 20 and 21 as well (then he wore 4 when he came back from the Knicks). I have (had?) a picture of Clyde at home wearing 10. I’ll have to see if I still have it.

    Those Florida jerseys looked surprisingly good, didn’t they? Normally I’m not a huge fan of those really loud football jerseys but theirs worked.

    Also, I was happy to see UNLV in the top 5 – for whatever reason I really like that white/gray shoulder yoke thing they have going on. Glad I’m not alone!

    In other news, I think I’m the only person on Earth who really likes the new Michigan State uniform. I’m a sucker for that color scheme though, so I’d have probably liked just about anything they threw out there.

    Graham,

    To answer your Michigan State question…yes, you must be the loneliest person in the Big 10…absolutely atrocious…!!!

    Now here is a State uniform for the ages…

    link

    Enjoy…

    Those Spartans jerseys are growing on me as well. Shoulder yolks need to make a comeback. Tennessee should be next.

    Yep. I was looking at the George Mira photo, and noticed you’d added the Tennessee photo next to it. One of the reasons I like those bizarre Bills unis, just not quite as good as their throwbacks.

    Yeah, current Bills’ unis are a classic example of “There’s an interesting idea in there somewhere but the designer had no CLUE what to do with it…or when to quit.”

    —Ricko

    Best to wear # 10:

    Baseball: Phil Rizzuto
    Football: Eli Manning
    Basketball: Walt Frazier
    Hockey: Guy LaFleur
    Soccer: Pele.

    Thanks for bringing up Scooter.
    Definitely deserves consideration.
    As to Eli…not yet. Yeah, he’s got a ring but, still, not over Tarkenton. Not quite yet.

    —Ricko

    Lifetime OPS+ of 93? Rizzuto is horribly overrated, both by his virtue of being a Yankee and for the broadcasting career.

    I’ll say it: The Rays / Rangers game looked like shit. A playoff game that looked like a Spring Training game. I’m starting to think there should be a ‘no alternates rule’ in the playoffs. Hey, if that’s good enough for the NFL, NHL & NBA basically…

    The NFL allows alts in the playoffs. The Chargers did it a couple seasons ago.

    /and there’s nothing wrong with colored baseball jerseys

    The Jeff,

    Even Stevie Wonder is offended by Colored jerseys in MLB…

    As sung in “Fiddler On The Roof”…TRADITION…!!!

    How do you know what Stevie Wonder is offended by? Maybe he liked the uniforms of the 70’s.

    Yellow vs Orange was perfectly fine in 1979, why is Red vs Blue so horribly wrong now?

    Tradition sure is picky about which past trends count isn’t it? It’s almost like it just bends to the will of whoever is trying to use it as justification for something.

    Umm, pretty sure in the ’70s teams would avoid those matchups. Likely it was because they knew there were a lot of people watching on black and white TV. Sure, plenty of households had a color TV, but generally it was only one per household. Any additonal sets in the home were most likely b&w.

    It was fairly rare, for example, that you’d see such as the Giants and Padres going Orange vs. Yellow-Gold. Giants’ orange jerseys were road only, and the Padres would almost always wear their whites when the Giants were in town. Likewise, the Orioles would pick their spots for the orange jerseys when they were playing the A’s, because on the road the A’s wore only gold or green. I know I’ve never seen video or a photo showing any of those kind of matchups.

    Not saying it didn’t happen (wasn’t one game of the ’79 WS Orange vs. Gold? Not sure). Just that back then most times teams seemed to take steps to avoid color vs. color if they could.

    —Ricko

    Thanks.

    Thought so. Remembered thinking they probably figured the black pants would help easily differentiate the teams on b&W TV.

    –Ricko

    I am sick and tired of my team who constantly trotted out in a bland colorless black alternate (which those I can’t stand in the first place) that looks dated, and IMO clunky & a bit tacky with double outlines of black / silver trim. Didn’t matter if it was 90 degrees & sunny out, and the lighter alternates excuse doesn’t fly with a full set of Cool Base jerseys. I’d rather see a pinstripeless white alternate version of the home set instead. Color jerseys don’t work when most of the league only wears black, royal, navy & red.

    Don’t worry, The earth isn’t going to spin off its axis and tumble into the sun, but The Jeff and I are on the same side on this.

    The ’70s (with the A’s, Indians, Padres, Pirates, White Sox, Orioles and others all having colored jerseys in their designs) were a colorful and interesting time. Breaks from gray vs. white aren’t bad.

    Although the likes of Navy vs. Red (such as Ray/Rangers) are a bit much. It doesn’t take a whole lot of logistic sense to avoid such matchups.

    —Ricko

    The Braves and Giants get slammed for their atrocious display on Friday night, yet Phil won’t say a word about the Rays and Rangers. Fair?

    I’m no fan the the Braves navy (or red) jerseys, though perhaps they sould keep wearing them, since these last two big wins came in red and navy.

    Veteran announcer Dick Stockton commented both Thursday (with praise) and Friday (scorn) on the unis. His Thursday comment that both team’s unis “dated back sixty years” is only accurate in a general sense. SF has replaced NY on the caps, as the A replaced the M. And Atlanta / Milwaukee / Boston used to wear “Braves” on the road, and wish they’d change back. And ditch the NOBs.

    After yesterday’s response in the comments, Phil probably figured he said his piece, others said theirs and he’s agreed to disagree.

    I’m gonna assume Stockton MEANT “in a general sense” on account of I’m pretty sure he’s aware that the Giants used to be in New York and the Braves spent time in Boston and Milwaukee.

    So let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on that, and figure he didn’t think he needed to do a couple minutes on the finite differences that should be “duh” obvious.

    Which means he’s absolutely correct, both teams’ unis ARE essentially uni designs dating back about 60 years (longer in the case of the Braves).

    —Ricko

    David Murphy said:

    “The Braves and Giants get slammed for their atrocious display on Friday night, yet Phil won’t say a word about the Rays and Rangers. Fair?”

    it’s already been answered, but it bears repeating — i feel the exact same way about the rays and rangers as i do about the braves and giants — the matchup was a nightmare

    i kinda felt the dead horsey was beaten enough yesterday to not bring it up again

    but if it makes you feel any better:

    the rays and rangers dueling alts looked like shit

    Still wish they’d wear “Braves” on the road. Tomorrow will be the fourth straight game that both teams wear different unis.

    Can’t believe the Rangers & Rays stuck with red & navy for the second straight day.

    Oops. PC being diffucult this a.m.
    That was supposed to be an independent comment.
    (Obviously has nothing to do with this subject).

    —Ricko

    No alts in the NBA playoffs?

    Phoenix wore their “Los Suns” gear in a playoff game on Cinco de Mayo

    Detroit #10’s

    Tigers – Sparky Anderson
    Lions – John Greene
    Pistons – Dennis Rodman
    Red Wings – Alex Delvechio

    Just a slight correction. PH wrote:

    “PH: Although he played a spell for the Cavs, this is one guy who absolutely made the Big Apple his own: Walt “Clyde” Frazier. …”

    In truth, Clyde never played for the Cavs. Some guy named Walt Frazier showed up, collected a then-sizable paycheck and went through the motions while in a Cleveland uniform before getting hurt, but Clyde never played for the Cavs.

    Bitter? Who says I’m bitter.

    My Best 10’s:

    – Chad Pennington. Made the playoffs every year he was the primary starter except ’07, and had two playoff wins, one on the road.

    – Pat Ryan. Good player and down-to-earth guy. Had a great run in the first half of ’84 and a playoff win in ’86, which is one more than Ken O’Brien had, BTW.

    – Rusty Staub. Saw him late in his career as a PH specialist.

    – Rey Ordonez. Loved his defensive acrobatics.

    Admittedly, this was mostly the fault of football genius Ritchie Kotite, this haunting four-game stretch absolutely precluded Mr. Ryan’s inclusion on any lists of a positive nature.

    Even now I get a little angry just thinking about it.

    link

    Surprised no one’s grilled me yet for Johnnie Walton. Can’t argue with that uni, though.

    My other choices for football were Roy Gerela:
    link

    Jan Stenerud:
    link

    And if we’re going just by the unis, Olindo Mare:
    link

    And that just might be the college throwback I’d most like to see. Largely because it’s SO different from what the current team wears…a look so largely forgotten.

    —Ricko

    Yes sir, that’s a great uni.

    I’d like to see the ‘Canes modify that with the current colors, and slap a U on either the helmets or the sleeves. Maybe then…nah, I’d still dislike them, but not as much.

    Joshua, I think the only person who thinks those Lions unis aren’t too dark is Matt Millen. ;) Good stuff, though.

    Chris, glad you kept the yoke on the road Bills. Nice job of cleaning up what they wear.

    Johnny, love the colors and the font for your Marlins.

    Thanks, guys!

    I’ll throw a baseball # 10 into the hat. Only switch-hitter with a career batting average over .300. Second all-time among switch-hitters in home runs, behind Mantle and Eddie Murray. You Mets fans know him as Larry. In Atlanta we call him Chipper.

    Good point. When he’s done, and it’s all tallied, he’ll probably be #1 in the #10s. Plus, he wore the number for so long (whereas Dawson had to change because of changes in teams).

    Probably can blame some of his being overlooked in this discussion on TBS no longer carrying the Braves nationally, btw.

    —Ricko

    Skins wearing red jerseys with the white pants today……eh. Please tell me that the gold pants weren’t just a limited time type of thing, and that they are just going with what worked last week.

    Or, seeing as they’re playing the Packers, figuring, “Why should we both be wearing gold pants if we have another option.”

    Is there any chance the NFL stepped in and told them to stop wearing the yellow pants? (Much like they did with the 1995 Colts blue pants, which were also only worn twice if I recall correctly)

    Phil, your #10s are pretty good, and I can’t think of many others to replace them with.

    However, saying Tarkenton is better than Dan Marino (in the Super Bowl ring-less category) just doesn’t cut it! Sure Fran had more SB appearances, but Dan had the better overall career stats with so many NFL records.

    In Phil’s defense, he said Tark was “quite possibly” the best not to win a Super Bowl, meaning it’s still a subject of discussion for many.

    His and Marino’s styles were so different, and the teams Tarkenton played for during his first stint with the Vikings and in New York weren’t nearly as good as Marino’s Dolphin teams (overall).

    I think a lot of that label about “best not to get a ring” comes from the fact that at the time Tarkenton retired it most definitly was true. And the label has sort of stuck. Also because Tarkenton took his team to three Super Bowls to Marino’s one. It every well could belong to Marino, though, seeing as most of the passing records he surpassed were Tarkenton’s.

    Kinda like “GGEP”. It’s the name that got hung on that ’58 title game, so it’s gonna stay around. Even though most anyone with any knowledge of pro football knows it was more accurately the “Most Impactful” or “Most League-Changing”…but not the Greatest.

    —Ricko

    No doubt in my mind both Tarkenton and Marino are two of the all time greats, and it’s tough to say which was actually better. Statistics don’t tell the real story, because it was more difficult to pass during Tarkenton’s era, with different rules and schemes than during Marino’s era. Any of the great QBs of the 60s and 70s would have had better numbers if they played in the 80s and 90s. Conversely, had Marino played during the 60s and 70s, his numbers would not be what they are today. Tarkenton was somewhat like Drew Brees, with much greater mobility. Not a big arm, but smart, accurate, and all the intangibles that make a great QB.

    Regarding the 1958 NFL title game, even players who participated have said it wasn’t a great game, just exciting in the latter stages. Most impactful is exactly right.

    And Marino wasn’t on “That’s Incredible”.
    Earlier, I said “Real People”. Which one was it?
    I know that Herb Tarleks’ family was on “Real Families”.

    Dan Marino was in “Ace Ventura” though! Shouldn’t that push him over the edge?!

    I know Phil did indicate things were debatable, so I chose to debate it. I never saw Fran play either, so maybe he was best of his era. I was just standing up for my guy, especially since he had to do it wearing lucky #13!

    If you’re going to swept by the Yankees–again–you may as well go out sporting your ugliest look.

    Here’s my all-star 10’s based on my favorite teams.

    Twins: Earl Battey
    North Stars: Murray Oliver
    Bengals: Chris Bahr
    Sonics: Nate McMillan

    (Yes, I now reside in hockey and basketball limbo with no team to care for.)

    Meanwhile: All was right in the world last night in Vancouver. Cynics can call it nostalgia if they want, but those uniforms–and more importantly, logos!– look GOOD. Return to them immediately. White at home, too! And the goalie opting for the tan pads was perfect. Am I the only one who can stand the sight of modern goalie gear, all garish and bright?

    Glad to see someone else thought of Earl Battey among the 10’s.

    I’d forgotten that one season with the Twins he picked 13 runners off first or third. Has anyone come even CLOSE to that in recent years?

    —Ricko

    How many did Yadier Molina get in a year?

    It seems like he’s the king of the catcher pickoffs.

    Okay, something to ponder (I know I had to do some memory banks searching)…

    No browsing allowed, what college has produced the most Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks?

    (HINT: In case of two of them, one succeeded the other as the school’s QB)

    —Ricko

    Oh, crap. Was supposed to say what “colleges have” (plural). My bad.

    Alabama, also.

    Starr won two.
    Namath and Stabler one each.

    –Ricko

    Speaking of Purdue, I LOVED this uni. WAY too dull for the tastes of most people today, but cool. No white on the homes at all (like Michigan with their maize & blue that way)…
    link

    —Ricko

    And, no, they didn’t wear copper. Either the original color separation or the scan is a little red. They wore true old gold.

    Hence the 12 on the commercial Alabama mini-helmets. Not, as some have supposed, for some kind of “12th man” nonsense.

    There is another school with 3 Super Bowl quarterback, though not all winners.

    Any takers?

    Nice expansion of the point.

    I wonder (and I dont’ know the answer), does any school have a lead in Super Bowl MVP’s?

    Cuz there must be a couple with two, right?

    —Ricko

    UGA has at least two with Jake Scott and Hines Ward.

    If Tark had ever won one, we’d have three…

    California: Kapp, Morton, and Ferragamo (before he transferred to Nebraska)

    Also I believe Gale Gilbert holds the record for most Super Bowls as a backup.

    News on the Illini and Cheif Illiniwek:
    link

    Look at the f’in dictators at the UofI:
    they don’t want their trademark used, they don’t want anyone else to use it, or refer to it, and to pretend it never existed. Aside from living in the repressive state, I have no connection to this school. The name of the state, for crying out loud, refers to the “Illini” or a collection of tribes who ruled the area at one time. Now: the state refers to the Illini, the school refers to that same name, the team names refer to that same name . . . but a group CANNOT refer to that name?!?

    I’m not really sure where you’re going with this one, but it sounds like a pretty standard trademark protection type of cease-and-desist to me.

    If you’re clearly referring to the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and using their trademarks to do so that’s quite a different thing from making some oblique reference that could be interpreted as the Illinois Council or the Illini Amtrak route or whatever.

    Y’know, kinda like the reason you hear commercials that promise tickets to “THE BIG GAME IN NORTH TEXAS THIS FEBRUARY” for one lucky winner.

    “THE BIG GAME IN NORTH TEXAS THIS FEBRUARY”

    That the one where some people whose initials are JJ (and maybe BG) kinda figured the Cowboys would just automically be participating, being “America’s Team” and all, but it isn’t looking like quite such a sure thing thesedays?

    —Ricko

    Wow, it just occured to me how appropriate it is that the new logo for the game looks like a chrome-coated dick.

    Haven’t been around much this week or for the next week to two weeks due to PC repair. Using my wife’s.

    Having said that, I have pretty much written off my NFL teams this year. The Niners are oh-and-5, and Dallas is just a mystery.

    The SF Giants, tho, are a different story. This team has incredible pitching. We could seriously win the NL. The WS is a different matter.

    The Colts have the WORST uniform in the NFL. I simply cannont look at them any more. Awful. And ONLY because of the truncated stripes.

    Thankfully, I’m getting the Packers-Skins opposite them, so I have an appealing alternative, both visually and content-wise.

    And I’d really like to be checking out McCluster and the Chiefs, too. But, for the uni-conscious the Colts really are getting to be tough to watch. I switch to their games, but those teeshirt jerseys are still there. The “Great Vector” can stick it. They could figure out a way to make the “loops” work…but then we wouldn’t notice the manufacturer’s revolutionary jersey technology, would we (eyeroll).

    —Ricko

    Oh, lord. Switched over for a second to a shot of Dallas Clark on the bench wearing something that looks like a 1970’s kids’ Colts jersey “available exclusively at Sears, just like the pros wear.”

    —Ricko

    They now print the stripes on Colts youth jerseys to match those stretchy shirts. My kids have one and its the dumbest thing I’ve seen all day.

    The Rams stripes, though not as wide, do a good job of giving the appearance of going all the way around. IT CAN BE DONE!

    Rams various combos are under rated IMO.

    Agree about Rams. Can’t think of another team wearing navy and old gold that doesn’t use a gold helmet. Nicely individual.

    But for the horns on the helmet, an argument could be made that the basic elements of the Rams unis would be a great look for Navy…even though Navy does have a horned beastie as a mascot.

    Question: When did the gold side panel on the Ramns’ navy jerseys go away?

    —Ricko

    I don’t know, and I hadn’t even thought about it until now. But they sure do look better without them.

    I still wish the Bills had originally opted for red & silver, instead of the semi-Lions look with royal and silver. I know WHY they did, but wish they hadn’t.

    Really sucks when you can’t rewrite uni history.
    Oh, wait, it happens all the time these days, doesn’t it.

    —Ricko

    Please note there are two links there; one on “silver,” another on “britches”.

    I also loved the Missouri unis in the “britches” photo.

    —Ricko

    My bad on that, I should’ve put another space between the words. Try as I might I couldn’t find a color photo of Sir Francis in the red-and-silver.

    As far as I am aware Georgia is the only school to date to produce two Super Bowl MVPs.

    At the time I hated those plastic iron numbers, but always liked them appearing slightly oversized.

    The Vancouver-LA game is yet more proof that teams don’t have to dress like circus clowns, despite what Reebok thinks.

    Phil’s at a street fair for his job this afternoon. Just emailed him, asking if he had shoes with bells on the toes or something. Or if maybe he was playing the lute.

    He answered from his phone.

    “Still there. This sucks.”

    So let’s not beat him up too badly. He isn’t able to watch Hakeem Nicks and his Giants having a big day today.

    –Ricko

    oh yeah…

    just got back…was supposed to only work 12-2, but ended up working until almost 5

    not that i was planning on seeing much of the g-men, but got totally effed over

    and what do i get on the tube when i get home? f*ckin cowboys and titans on cbs and professional poker on fox

    heard the giants did pretty well tho

    i am an avid fan of lacrosse, played it growing up tried out for hte pros. my membership card is actually the colorado mammoth of the NLL, now i havent been following the nll but i looked today , a team called the Swarm have some super striped jerseys and pants… link

    here’s the link…
    link

    Yes, I love the navy ones (keep forgetting to pick up one of them). Been noted here a couple times, but still underappreciated.

    This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It?s the old what goes around comes around routine.

    Tonight’s episode of The Simpsons is about Bart’s Little League team. Judging by the promo spots they’ve been running on Fox, the players are all shown wearing stirrups.

    It’s amazing how so many cartoonists, graphic artists, illustrators, etc. continue to include stirrups when drawing baseball players. A testament to how people continue to think of stirrups as “how a ballplayer is supposed to look.”

    Well, the Devil does need an advocate (and being a hack cartoonist of sorts), I’ll offer that maybe it also could be…

    “When dealing with a broader audience, depict what most people think baseball players still wear.”

    On most cartoon football players we still see sleeves and knee pads in their pants, and on basketball players we still see, well…knees. None of those are typically the case in acutal play anymore, of course.

    (I’m just being, I dunno, puckish today. Been sick all week and finally feeling a bit better. Feel free to ignore me.)

    :)

    —Ricko

    There was also a bit in this episdoe with Mike Scioscia (sp?). He was riding a roller coaster with Bart when his red Angels cap flies off only to reveal…a white Angels cap underneath.

    This is called many things: the powers of ten, Eames Day, 42 Day, etc. Some are simply calling 10/10/1910 day, or ten days Diez Diez. It’s one of those rare calendar that nobody really knows how to explain, but for some reason, we are all fascinated by it.
    link link

    #25 for Tampa Bay, Talib, is really testing the uniform police of the NFL. Dude is wearing high pink socks.

    Can see them here. First play, in fact.
    link

    (And I still say most of this NFL stuff is magenta, not pink).

    —Ricko

    One interesting note on the Jonathan Quick mask, it also had ears and hair coming out the side painted on it to look like the way Rogie Vachon looked in the original.

    Just 10 minutes ago I picked up this link back issue to flip through. Probably hadn’t picked it up before due to the horrible cover photo. Anyway, surprisingly I found this (bottom right) link inside on page 37!

    the candela rendering in that book is cool, but im pretty sure the ones on the water were never built — they planned on it, but i think only the ones on land were actually constructed

    Phil is correct — the ones on the floating docks were never built. But that image, which was widely circulated over the years, gave many people the mistaken impression that many more of the structures had been constructed. It threw off our own initial research, until we eventually puzzled out the truth.

    I believe that magazine contacted us shortly after the exhibit opened last summer, although I forget the details. I think Kirsten dealt with them (since she’s an architect).

    Magazine is May 2009. The caption gives credit to you both and it was pretty cool to “out of the blue” run into it. I’ve wondered since the beginning, is it pronounced “Can-dell-uh” or “Candle-uh” or something else?

    That was the epitome of the local commercial art. It may even replace Flea Market Montgomery (It’s Just Like a Mini-Mall) as the benchmark.

    I have actually always liked this look: link

    I think their roads are quite nice too, but the light blue w/dark blue shoulder yolk and dark blue pants is one of my very least favorite looks in the league.

    You know the orange streamers at the top of the goalposts (to show the wind direction)? It’s reached the point where I just saw an end zone shot and instinctively expected the streamers to be pink. Like, how’d they forget that one?

    Good one jimvilk. I bet it does fade to a nice dirty shade of pink.

    I was wondering, breast cancer awareness is pink, what color is prostate cancer awareness? And did it get some nonfootball month like April or something?

    No goalpost streamers in Detroit but the goalpost base had a wrap on it with pink on top & bottom. My girlfriend (works at a cancer foundation) and I were discussing what other parts of the uni they could turn pink. I suggested the Rams horns or the eye of the Lion and then we just got carried away.

    Surprised to find out there are no streamers on the indoor goalposts. Is that the same for all domes, or just Detroit? I just assumed it was standard procedure to have the streamers anyway…you know, in case the air conditioner starts going haywire, or if Traxel had too many jalapeno nachos at the Edward Jones Dome…

    Question for Terry Proctor (or anyone else that can help),

    What is the actual name for the heavy knitted, mock-turtle-necked heavy duty sweatshirt/warm-ups popular in the 1960s and worn by coaches and players in pre-game? Lou Holtz at Notre Dame was one of the last high profile coaches to wear one.

    I feel that there may be a certain item term to describe those particular tops and that I can not even begin to shop for them, or attempt to purchase one, without finding that specific term. I even considered having a set made — but I have not found any current manufacterer listing them in their catologues. If you know of anyone still manufactering them, I may get a set made.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks, Nick Varrecchio

    Crap.
    link

    Perfect timing, but I must have moved. The test shots had no glare on them.

    Well, there’s always next month on the 11th…with no flash.

    Played croquet downtown today. It was interesting to see the “watchers”. Some of them wanted our beer. Imagine that.

    i like the trees, you know? i like the way that the trees are on mountains, all the different…the way the trees are

    I’ve bit my tongue all night.
    I totally thought that LI Phil would have picked the flowing locked one. What can I say… he likes the Isles better than the Rangers.

    This is going to be a first for the team. Used to be they had good uniforms when they were good and bad uniforms when they were bad. Now they’ll be bad but have good uniforms. It’s confusing for us simple midwestern folk.

    I think this color scheme is a downgrade from the last one. I know there are reasons to change, and to reference some previous uniform, but in a simple comparison, I prefer the last ones to these new ones.

    Wish I had a picture. I wore #10 for the Lions Club in Civic League baseball in 1978 as an 8 year old. White unis with blue pin stripes. Blue stirrups with white northwestern stripes. That was my first year. Not a good right fielder.

    Good job on the Miami Marlins tweaks.
    Always loved the LA Kings all purple (they called it ‘Forum Blue’ back in the day) roadies. Not as crazy about the all gold home unis.

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