By Phil Hecken
The depth and breadth of the Uni Watch readership talents and expertise never cease to amaze me. This past summer, when I ran the “Design-An-MLB-Jersey” contest, there were dozens of outstanding submissions, one of which I’ll never forget. It was for the San Diego Padres, and it came from Mark Peterson. Although he mentioned it at the time, I didn’t connect that name with Mark’s screen name, “concealed78,” who is just one of UW’s stellar commenters. More recently, he noted in the comments that he had in his possession something like 29,000 logos saved on his hard drive. And last weekend, I featured some of Mark’s stellar work in the tweaks’ section.
Once I heard about the 29K logos, I said, “I gotta interview this guy.” I have a ton of questions for the artist, but today, we’ll just take a quick peek under the hood of Mark’s car. So sit back and join me we learn a bit about the man, and how he got this way:
Uni Watch: Who are you and where do you live?
Mark Peterson: My name is Mark Peterson, I’m 32 years old and I live in the Chicago southwestern suburbs.
UW: And how did you end up with “concealed78” for a screen name?
MP: The “concealed78” screen name was something done out of haste. From 1998 to about 2003 for all things I went by the handle “mp34” (my initials and Walter Payton’s number; a tribute to “Sweetness” in every post) but due to some very heated arguments on the defunct Fanhome site, thinking I was going to get banned, I changed my s/n to “concealed” to conceal my identity & a reference to Bob Dylan’s immortal “Like A Rolling Stone”, and I stuck a “78” (my birth year) on there because I thought it looked cool, and there’s something with my generation of pairing letters with numbers, which I’m aware of the stigma.
UW: How did you get into logos and unis?
MP: This is actually a sad story. After primarily following the Chicago Bears in the 1980s I started following baseball in 1987, which I settled on the White Sox. Well I didn’t know much about baseball and in 1988, I started collecting baseball cards (Donruss specifically) and started trading them with my friends. One day I was hanging out with this one little bastard (who will remain nameless though we called him “Eee-Wee”) and I noticed on a 1987 Topps Frank Viola card a Twins cap & logo I had never seen before, and wondered what it was since it looked nothing like the one I had. I asked about the card and why it was different, so this little bastard decides he’s going to “let me” buy that special ”˜87 Topps Viola for like $3, which in those days, was like 3 weeks of allowance and a 15-card pack was like 45 cents. Collecting and trading for older cards later in that year, I soon realized to my surprise that teams actually changed logos & uniforms, and I made a vow that I would try to know as much about team histories & their uniforms to avoid getting ripped-off again. I still have that ”˜87 Viola as a constant reminder, and the few hundred cards and logo stickers I have left which were kept as pre-Internet references after purging my basically thousands of worthless 1988-1991 cards into the trash about 13 years ago.
UW: Ah…”Sweet Music.” At least he was until he joined the Mets. But I digress. Would that be why you commented once that you have over 29,000 logo files?
MP: Yeah. I started drawing logos from scratch on my first PC in 1994, and once I got the Internet in 1998, I started saving and collecting logos, pics and uni graphics of MLB, NBA, NFL & NHL teams so I would have some examples for every team. That’s one thing they taught us in Graphic Arts classes, is “never throw anything away”. The pack rat in me held up to that standard and I’m always constantly and randomly looking for better quality images of everything, and it’s all organized by leagues and teams, and if it’s a really big folder, then by logos, stadium pics, uniforms, years, souvenirs or general.
UW: And you went to college for Graphic Design?
MP: Actually I went for something else, and took a few graphic design classes along the way, which I didn’t really learn anything technical about design or the design process — either you have the ability and knack for it, or you don’t. I always had the ability to draw, though not much better than Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes-style and why is a now-buff “Kalvin” approaching his mother with an axe? — ‘roid rage of course. They told us in design class that “graphic designers are a dime a dozen”, so I eventually took up Printing Press Operation.
UW: Jeebus. That’s not quite “Benchies” but I love it in its own way.
So, anyway, uh…how did that work out for you?
MP: Well, at the time there was this new thing called “the Internet” that was catching on and that basically made catalogs, newspapers, fliers and greeting cards absolutely worthless and basically made the printing press machine irrelevant. Thanks, Internet!
UW: Meh…it’ll never catch on. So tell me about this Boston Celtics button. What was the plan with that?
MP: Well for fun I wanted to make for example, a World Series teams chart and then a NBA finals chart, and I noticed some of the logo resources I had were not very good in quality or non-existent. So I did some research, using ebay, sports auctions, online stores or random searches, hoping to find a large or decent pic of a logo or uniform that I need.
UW: And if you do?
MP: I’ll alter it if I need to, then using MS-Paint in 24-bit BMP format (which is important) and blow it up 200% to 500% or more bigger than what they will eventually be and then shrunk back down to create smoothness and hide minor errors. From here with mostly the line tool (sometimes the brush or ellipse tool) using bright colors, I’ll draw an outline. Then I’ll reduce the color quality (16-color in BMP or Save for Web custom colors GIF in Photoshop) so I can either flood the non-outline colors away or gauge them to background-white leaving only the outline colors. From here, I’ll save it back to 24-bit BMP, and start doing color & edge touch-up, fixing errors and doing pixel guesswork.
UW: I’m guessing this is fairly time-consuming?
MP: This whole process can take anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending on the complexity & difficulty of the logo or script. Then finally it’s applied into the application. Or maybe a grid version of either one would be better. Or not. Since I’m not doing this to sell shirts or make bootleg material, this is all as a hobby for fun. Some people do woodworking projects, some paint, some build ships in bottles or shake a stick. I make logos & wordmarks.
And stay the hell off my lawn.
Thanks Mark. As I recently found out, Mark tends to keep a low-profile, but unfortunately after this article appears, Mark will again (a la Ron LeFlore) be arrested for failure to pay child support.
Around the horn…
… for Opening Day.
There really isn’t anything better than Opening Day in baseball. Truly, it should be the first Monday in April, and it should be a National Holiday. So when MLB pushed the season back to Thursday this year, it just didn’t seem, or feel, the same. Still, no league does Opening Day better than Major League Baseball, and for the most part, the National Pasttime gets it right. Lets take a quick rundown of a few things you may have missed in 2011:
• There is a reason baseball is not meant to be played in March. OK, that was actually the day before Opening Day, but still…the boys of summer shouldn’t be playing in wet flakes. Ever.
• One of the things MLB does wrong is allowing teams to wear their alternates on Opening Day. Seriously. They make every team wear “42” on (or around) April 15, so why not force teams to wear their official home and road jersey, and not the softball tops? Several teams were guilty of this: Texas, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago (AL), and the Rockies, who broke out their purple for the first time since, I believe, 2006.
• My father always said I should be a ball player. I think the Mets can use a lefty reliever … think Hobbs is available?
• There is at least one reason to watch SNB with the sound on this year.
• This shit should be outlawed. Only official caps please.
• I’m pretty sure this is offensive. I’m also pretty sure that guy doesn’t care.
• I hope that’s a roadie. Nothing bothers me more than someone wearing a replica when your team is NNOB. Dude, you just saved a hundy on the jersey, take $5 of that and buy one of these.
• We got our first look at the Indians new red cap. I like it! Now just dump Wahoo and we’re good to go.
• There may not be a better baseball town than St. Looie. Aint that purdy? And I like the “Opening Day” painted onto the grass. On the other hand…
• … this Opening Week crap has to go.
• Now we know why there’s a ban on Yankee facial hair. Did Mike Mussina get really old looking with that goat?
• How many screw-ups, uniform and otherwise, will the Nats have this year? OK, that didn’t really happen, did it?
• I don’t keep track of these things, because I really don’t care that much, and they’ve gotten completely out of hand…but this has got to set some kind of record for memorial patches at the beginning of the season, right?
At last count, we have:
Phillies: The Buck brothers. Who were the Buck brothers? “Whip” and Jim were part of the Phillies ownership group.
Mariners: Dave Niehaus. He was the voice of the Mariners for almost their entire existence.
• There aren’t a whole lot of new uniforms this year. But we did get our first look at the Padres new road grays. I’m not in love with these, but they are better than what they replaced. Barely. Of course, we still have yet to see the new camo in action. Without the tan road pants, I guess they’ll wear this with the home whites? That’ll look good.
• I hate the alternate/softball top, but two teams (who faced each other last night) who both have new ones didn’t wear them: The Oakland A’s, who hope to channel the ghosts of World Series past. I grew up with the A’s wearing gold jerseys. I think I will like this one — despite my disdain for the alternate, that’s one team who should wear green & gold. The Seattle Mariners are bringing back the “teal.” It’s not really teal and they’re not calling it teal. But c’mon. That’s what everyone calls it. I am 99.9% positive they’ll wear that one at home, so we wouldn’t have seen it in Oakland anyway. Good.
Benchies
by Rick Pearson
Finally. Getting back outdoors for a Saturday softball scrimmage. About time. Then again…
And, as always, the full-size.
Just one more day… to enter Ricko’s “Design an outfit for Mick” contest — Here’s A Template. Just give the Mick a nice golf outfit (you can enter as many as you’d like) and the “winner” will receive either a signed original “Benchies” or be written into a future strip — possibly both. For full details, you can refer back to the contest. Remember, the deadline is April 3, 2011.
Uni Tweaks
We have another great of tweaks today.
If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.
Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great a keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!
And so, lets begin:
Once again, batting lead-off is Jerry Reuss, with a new twist on his MLB tweaks:
Hi Phil,
Because of the number of excellent tweaks of the Sox current uniform that have already been posted, I decided to tweak the uniform I wore in 1988. I used the red (RGB 218, 38, 75) as the dominant color to draw the focus to the center of the uniform. The dark blue (RGB 0, 28, 67) is used to highlight, frame and balance the tweak.
I made some changes to an already classically styled uniform.
1) The colors of the White Sox script and the number on the back have been inverted.
2) The front number colors have been inverted and moved from the upper part of the left pants leg to the uniform top below the script.
3) The name of the player has been added to the back of the uniform.
4) Dark blue piping has been added to each sleeve and to the outer seam on the pants.
5) The hat, belt and stirrups remain the original colors.
6) Not shown are the dark blue sleeves and the black shoes.— Jerry
Next up is Jesse Genningen, a first time tweaker with some Pro Combat efforts:
Hello,
Got a couple Pro Combat style uni designs for a couple of NFL teams. These are some of my first attempts at this, so go easy UniWatch readers!
First we have a New England Patriots design. It’s my opinion that their red throwback is the best uniform going in the NFL right now. Even with Pat the Patriot. So, for the Pats design I decided to return to that old color scheme and design, while incorporating their modern logo. The reds and blues in the logo are a bit brighter, while the uniform is essentially a Nikeized version of their throwback, with blue numbers instead of white.
Second I have a Jacksonville Jaguars design. The helmet still changes colors. I’m not particularly a fan of that, but Nike will be. But I feel that the black and teal play off each other well in this design.
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Jesse
Up next is Coleman Mullins, who is another first-timer, with a WVU tweak:
Phil,
I like to think I’m a traditionalist, so here is my first shot at a uniform concept. It’s a new look for WVU with homage to their old white helmet days.
Like I said, this is my first design, be gentle!
Respectfully,
Coleman W. Mullins
Closing down the tweak show is Ryan Mallady, who has a Seahawks & Jaguars concept for us:
Phil,
Seahawks:
1. Blue, green, and gray are The Colors of Seattle: The water, the forests, and the rainy days. Bring back the gray, including the helmet, which makes the snarling Seahawk stand out more than the blue.
2. Change the neon green to a more appropriate forest green, and feature it more prominently.
3. The alternate forest green jersey isn’t so bad now.Jaguars:
1. Get rid of the black, and bring back the gold. This is, after all, the color of a Jaguar.
2. The roaring cat on the helmet looks good, but gets lost on teal or (worse) black. Make the helmet white.
3. I like the lighter look this results in. More like a bright sunshine/Florida team (ala the Dolphins).-Thanks,
Ryan in Seattle
Great stuff from everyone today. Back tomorrow with more.
Parting Shots
That’s gonna wrap it up for today.
• I do want to remind everyone to check with your cable/satellite provider — MLB’s “Extra Innings” is offering it’s annual beginning-of-season free preview. With a full slate of games for this weekend, this should be gravy.
• There’s still that college hoop thing going on for those who care. Two games today — the “Final Four” — and if you had VCU, Butler, Kentucky and Connecticut in your bracket…well, you’re probably a rich man, or about to be. Of course, I made the mistake of picking three #1s to reach the Final Four. The only non-#1 I picked was UConn, so I’m technically still “alive” in the UW pool. Although, I ran the “scenario generator” and the best I could do is finish fourth if UConn wins it all. Go Huskies!
• Hey Tweakers — why not give Ricko’s contest a shot? Won’t take you very long and you might come up with something great. Or really, really bad. Either way, it’s a win.
Have a great Saturday folks, and I’ll catch you all on the morrow.
Rules. We need rules. None of this “I’m doing this today in honor of this, and then I’m going to do this, and then I’m wearing a lavender undershirt in memory of Liz Taylor!” — “Pushbutton”
Well, I for one, love the way that the line between home and road uniforms is being blurred. I think it’d be great if you could get a team like the Royals to wear the powder blue jersey for every game, regardless of where it’s played.
But that distinction is not being blurred, at least not with the pants. Teams at home are always wearing white pants and teams on the road are always wearing gray pants – with the rare exception of a team that wears powder blue top to bottom, as the Dodgers will do this season. That’s very different from what happened in the ’70s when the A’s would wear white pants on the road or the ’80s when the Cubs had a uniform set with white pants when they were the visiting team.
You would have loved link.
link.
maybe a one uniform approach can work for something like football as long as there is some sort of alt for tricky colour match-ups. i am mostly with you on this provo, but a 162 game schedule? that is over the top nuts, and uber boring. c’mon, don’t get caught up in your ocd man, think of the children.
The NBA Finals chart in the interview has Spurs over Nets in the 2001-02 season but I think the Lakers beat the Nets that year.
You think correctly.
But then again, you and I are probably the only ones who care…
now fixed, btw
I *thought* that B on the Phillies’ memorial patch looked familiar.
link
As a “public service” I post this every year around the start of softball/baseball season. I guess today’s the day for 2011…
HOW TO GET SALT SAINTS OUT OF YOUR HATS
(if you don’t care fo the “sweathead” look):
Use White Vinegar. That’s pretty much all “salt stain remover” for shoes is, anyway: White Vinegar with an additive to take out the smell. For about 79 cents you can buy a bottle that will get you years and years of hat cleaning.
Load it on a clean cloth (tear up an old white teeshirt) and rub the stains. Be liberal if you need to be. Won’t hurt the hat. Works on shoes for wintertime salt stains, too. Vinegar smell dissipates after a couple hours. Set the hat (or shoes) outside during that time if the smell gets to you.
Do this the sooner the better, of course.
Don’t use a paper towel, unless you want to spend time picking flakes off your hat.
And the other one…
GETTING GRASS, DIRT AND BLOOD STAINS OUT OF SOFTBALL/BASEBALL PANTS.
Find a bar of “Fels Naptha” bar soap.
link
Most good groceries have it. You might have to ask WHERE on the shelves, though.
Wet the stained are. Rub the bar on the area until a paste forms. Then wash the pants in a regular load with regular detergent, hottest water the garment can handle.
Ain’t perfect. But works better than anything out there.
—Ricko
No way. If I get dirt, grass and blood on my baseball uni, IT’S STAYING!!
-Jet
Note that while vinegar may be able to get rid of Salt Saints, if a New Orleans Saint takes your hat, you’re probably going to have to just get a new hat.
With or without glasses (without this a.m.), I can’t see this here close up stuff so good no more, consarn it.
link
Although you can “kill” a zombie by filling its mouth with salt and sewing it shut.
And three tana leaves will keep The Mummy alive, and nine will give him movement.
But we digress.
Why would anyone want to get the salt stains out of one’s hat? The very suggestion is akin to providing, as a public service, instructions on how to remove those oil stains from the Louvre’s framed stretched canvasses.
Completely agree with teams wearing their softball tops at home. One other team that looked good in their alternates were the Rangers. I think they looked pretty sharp in their red tops/red hats/white pants.
As for the Indians’ red hats, I like ’em. It seems like they are slowly moving Chief Wahoo out. When the chief is compared to the new caps it looks very childish and offensive. I cannot wait until he is completely gone.
Red hats aren’t exactly traditional with the Indians, but they do have a bit of a history with them. Wore them with the last vested set to end the ’60s.. link
and for one season early in the doubleknit era…
link
Meaning the WWII and TV eras, that is.
Rockies looked just fine too. So my rule is: Home teams can do whatever on opening day. Since any non-BFBS softball shirt displays team colors, it’s fine to represent on Opening Day by wearing team colors. I basically hate alt jerseys as a concept, but whatever. It is what it is, and it’s fine for the home team.
But the visiting team? Wear your darn road grays on Opening Day. Show some respect for the game.
And if you’re the Atlanta Braves, and your road jerseys are navy lettering on a navy jersey, never, ever wear your alt jersey. Not on Opening Day, not on any other day, not at home, not on the road. Cripes, but the Braves manage to make the Mets and the Blue Jays look like classy, well-dressed teams by comparison. Shame, since before the introduction of their current alts, I’d have called the Braves one of the two or three best-uniformed teams in baseball history.
If the teams can wear alternates on opening day, then it also would be great to see the umpires wear coats and ties on opening day also. A while back I saw a card from c.2004 of Brian Gorman in a black blazer, white shirt, and black tie. Was that just a promo, or were there games that season where the umps wore their version of “throwbacks”?
Add link to the list of teams that wore alts on opening day.
And the blue C looks terrible on that cap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Concealed78 is only 32? I thought for sure he was at least Ricko’s age.
Agreed on the blue C. Shoulda been outlined in white. Then I would like that alt look.
————-
I thought he was older, too, because I imagined him walking around with a 78rpm record (remember those?) concealed on his person.
How about a cream C with a blue outline on the red hat?
Intriguing…
phillies as well — i should have been more specific — i hate the alternate TOPS … when teams like the indians, phils, twins or even the mets break out the cream alternate UNIFORMS, that’s ok…keep the softball tops in the locker till game 2…unless you’re an athletic…the gold is my sole exception
Damn it, why the cops always be knocking on my front door?!
Yeah, 32, but 82 in spirit. No, that wasn’t a cheap shot at Ricko, but could be taken as ;)
Count me as another who was born 30 years too late.
It does seem like Jerry Reuss, Terry Proctor and I are a relatively small subgroup around here, doesn’t it. Not necessarily in terms of preferences, mind you, but, oh, the mileage.
That’s because most people your age still fear computers.
I call “stereotyping”!!!
Agreed. That new ballcap for the Indians is now the worst in MLB. If they want a red ballcap, it should be with the loved Chief Wahoo.
I like the new cap just the way it is.
I know most Twins fans don’t agree, but I’ve always loved link hat.
I really liked that whole 1986 uniform. Distinctive, clean, and a better match for the Metrodome. Liked the powder blues w/ the dark cap, too.
Except the teams that wore it sucked.
By coincidence, I just picked up that hat yesterday (47 Brand) at Lids. Its a really sweet look.
Jesse Genningen is obviously talented. I’ll bet he is kind to his mother and does not kick friendly dogs. He is entitled to all the protections of civil society.
However. Any person who prefers the Flying Elvis to Pat Patriot is an enemy of graphic goodness. I have already dispatched the Broadway Aesthetic Correction Team to intervene (gently!) in this sad case.
I don’t prefer that logo at all, I just don’t see New England ever going back to it. If they do ever get new uniforms I think they’ll either update their current logo’s colors like I did or come up with something completely new.
“But we did get our first look at the Padres new road grays. I’m not in love with these, but they are better than what they replaced.”
Um, no. The sand color was the *only* redeeming quality of this current set.
——
“…but two teams (who faced each other last night) who both have new ones didn’t wear them”
Yeah, since I have the free preview, I taped that game hoping the M’s would wear the teal and the A’s would wear the gold. Oh well, it still looked nice. Those two, as well as the Rangers, Astros, Pirates and White Sox, look good in alts. The Braves alt definitely has to go.
Meant to say “…hoping the M’s would wear the teal *or* the A’s would wear the gold.” I like colorful unis, but teal vs. gold would be taking it way too far.
movi~
yer just dyin’ to get on my bad side today aren’t ya
i definitely wouldn’t have minded the a’s breaking out the gold, but that “teal” thing is best kept far away from the playing field…especially if they’re pairing it with the all navy cap — im not sure if they’re pairing it with the teal brim, in which case, the softball top is at least tolerable on a once-a-month basis
I’d much rather have the teal brim with those alts as well.
Just so you don’t think I’m totally overboard, there are some teams who just plain don’t need an alt: Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Marlins, Orioles, Padres, Phillies, Red Sox, Reds, Royals, Tigers and Yankees.
Oh wow, I just said two orange teams don’t need an alt. At least there’s still link
Not saying the Jays and Padres are good as is, but if they link what they were link to wear, they wouldn’t need an alt.
And of course, I’m not talking throwbacks here, just alts.
is it just me, or do the Padres’ new grays look like they have a bluish tint to them?
Lovin’ the Tweak Show, as always.
Coleman, for a first effort, you knocked it outta the park! Now if the logo on your white helmet is link then it’s a grand slam.
Jerry, your Sox look a little like the Indians, but if the Tribe wore what they’re link that wouldn’t be an issue. Maybe put the front number in blue? I do like the back one in red, though.
Great stuff, everyone!
Mr. Vilk you hit the nail on the head! That’s exactly the logo I had in mind for this uniform. I can’t believe I finally made it onto the site! More tweaks to come for sure.
I must thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot.
Thanks, Jim! With the dark blue/red combination, I had numerous options to consider such as the front number and NOB in navy blue. Not bad at all! With so many teams past and present using these colors, I decided to use the combination that looked best to me – regardless of what team used what combination and when. Here’s a link that shows the original uniform in action. link
I was at Dodger Stadium Opening Day. They introduced Jerry Reuss to throw out the first pitch and there was no uni number ’41’ on the front of his Dodger Jersey. Then they announced Tommy Lasorda and there was no ‘2’ on the front of his jersey either. Tommy took the ball from Reuss and gave it to Fernando (while Reuss went behind the plate to catch it)who had no ’34’ on his jersey either WTF? EPIC FAIL!
Didn’t that piss you off Jerry?
Nothing slips past the UniWatch Nation! Yes, I was part of the first pitch ceremonies @ Dodger Stadium on Opening Day. It’s always a joy to return.
Chuck, you’re correct about the red numbers not appearing on the front of the uniform top. I don’t know why it happened. I asked about it as I noticed it as soon as I saw it. No one had an answer. I did ask to have the numbers added as I may return to Dodger Stadium for another appearance later this summer where the top may be needed.
Was I angry or upset about it? Not at all. I was more concerned about catching Fernando’s screwball!
Jerry, I think maybe Paul should get one of these to you;
link
for you to wear when returning to Dodger Stadium this summer.
Website immortality.
Is this the Giants World Series ring?
link
I love my Giants, but this hat is terrible.
Nope, that’s not it. Ring design tightly under wraps.
And that cap is a POS.
Nothing wrong with those Padre unis that a good coat of BROWN wouldn’t fix…
(and maybe a nice yellow or orange trim)
-Jet
Nothing wrong with those Padre unis that a good coat of BROWN wouldn’t fix…
~~~
you mean like this or this?
Almost.
Replace the script with the swinging friar or the lower case padres font and you got it.
Interesting take by Mr. Reuss. The 1987-90 White Sox home unis are my all-time favorite Sox home jersey; partly due to the navy script with red trim which wasn’t/isn’t that common in baseball.
It seems like every team that has red in their color scheme, most spring for red scripts or wordmarks with dark trim (Red Sox, Indians & Twins homes, Angels, Braves, Nationals, Cardinals, Reds, Diamondbacks, red Rangers ’94-’00). Count me as another who thinks the Braves’ tomahawk should go back to navy.
Had I tweaked a road uniform, I would have used the navy color outlined in red, which was the way the original road uniform appeared. Check it out @ link.
FYI: There was a gigantic mass-injection cyberattack a few days ago that looks to have spread to more than a million and a half websites.
The script directs users to install a web-based anti-virus program called “Windows Stability Center”. It’s obviously fake.
It looks like the improvements made to our site’s security have blocked it so far, but please be aware of it and immediately contact me if you see it appear on Uni Watch (webmaster[at]uniwatchblog[dot]com). Thanks!
Apparently that purple and gray field design wasn’t an April Fools joke yesterday?
link
Christ, that is the most tacky looking football field design I have ever seen. Worst of all, it was designed to lure the “Look At Me!!” generation of recruits.
Yeah, they talk about saving $101K, mind you these fields cost well over $1 million. These schools have way too much money & sure as hell don’t know what do with it.
Totally not worth the migraines, headaches & bad press IMO.
Yah, hard to believe there won’t be a “strobing” effect that might make them regret it.
In other words, don’t Fast Forward any video of a game on the field. Well, you can, but it’ll at your own peril.
Not to mention it might be just plain difficult to follow the action, even from the stands.
Wonder if such a thing has ever been tested, visually speaking, or if this is just someone’s half-assed idea of being “inventive”?
Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Oh man! I hate it, and I love it.
It reminds me of the socks I wore yesterday.
That field is f@$king awesome.
…and for the video strobing seizure thing… it’s Central Arkansas. The article says it’s an 8000 seat stadium. I don’t think anyone’s going to see it unless they’re in attendance.
That field is f@$king aw
esomeful.~~~
(fixed)
You think ESPN isn’t going to give a look at that baby?
To see the playing surface, I mean?
That’s when we could how how it tracks. And how it odd it might look at “FF”.
I loved the Mark Peterson concept jersey..dead solid perfect. Anyway we can convince the players union to make stirrups mandatory? I can’t understand why these guys are so resistant to a wonderful baseball tradition. The jammies don’t cut it and it looks like total shit.
Mark, yourlink and link renditions were stellar!
After seeing Charlie Brown plant his face in a pile of cocaine, I just had to post this again.
link
LOL
I dont know if I’ve just missed it or if it hasn’t been mentioned but did anyone get a look at the McDonalds HS All-American unis?
link
These are usually a crap shoot but I thought the repaeting ‘M’ golden arches down the side was actually pretty neat.
Also of note was Austin Rivers wearing his dads Hawks jersey for the dunk contest, pretty cool…
…now uni-watchers, commence with the BFBS bashing
…actually, now that I take a second look at it and realizing reebok is the manufacturer, I think that piping is the reebok zig-tech style… which for some odd reason I find more douchey than if it was the golden arches? i dont why
That picture of “Hawk” Harrelson confirms it…1969 was the best year for MLB uniforms. Wish MLB would get rid of softball alternates entirely. Why not a more traditional look for alternates (i.e., one of Mark Peterson’s tweaks would be terrific as an alternate for the Padres)
Jerry Reuss showed up on an MLB retrospective the other day.
I’d totally forgotten that he was to be the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter in 1981, but hurt his back (I believe it was), so Tommy Lasorda handed the ball some 19-year-old kid named Valenzuela.
(This is where the guys who didn’t witness it tell us that “Fernando-mania” wasn’t really that big a deal).
Hats off (a poorly rendered gold front panel Padres hat, preferably) to concealed78!
I have been a fan of his concepts and get off my lawn crankiness for years.
Thanks, TC!
How about two real McCoys instead? ;)
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I need to get me a better camera. Look at that sharp cut of the front panels! The Athletic Gold button has been long neglected in reproductions.
Mariners “teal” goes by “Northwest Green”. A dog is still a dog no matter what you call it….It is for Monday and Fridays home games. One thing interesting is the inter-league with Florida (Miami) Marlins this year at Safeco. Should have been in Sun Life(wtf?)Stadium. U2 gets the weekend, so the Marlins are home team in Seattle those games. Get to see the roads in Safeco. Please make it the grays!
What the Nike golfers will wear in the upcoming MastersL link
The White Sox road grays are one of the best looking in baseball IMO, yet they continue to wear the black tops most of the time. Whats up with that?
Seeing as we often discuss weather and it relevance to sports, this might be interesting…
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Well, THAT wasn’t supposed to HERE.
Buehrle has a preference for the black alts; Danks, Floyd & Jackson seem to follow suit. And Jake Peavy, well that’s a sad story.
I could see wearing the black tops on a cold sunny day like today, but in the middle of August in 90+ degree heat, eesh it makes no god damn sense.
If I was in charge, I’d get rid of all the solid black socks ASAP, and go to something like link on the outside of the stirrups of course.
Just for fun on the “stirrup” issue.
With each passing year as I surf from MLB game to MLB game, I’m struck by how dull and “uncolorful” the PJ look makes watching (not really speaking of closeups now), how it makes quickly identifying teams not easy, and how far stirrups went in both respects.
This is HUGELY quick and dirty (been meaning to do it for a while, just as an exercise), but here is how the National League looked in 1957 (you might even want to squint to get the point I’m getting to)…
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Here’s how the team would have looked in PJs…
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Little bit easier to tell the teams apart with stirrups, huh.
Goes for the ribbon-stirrup era, too, because there was always a fair share of players who still showed plenty of stirrup sock, with or without striping.
And here are both graphics together…
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ok…maybe because i’m kind of nut about ‘rups, but i could instantly tell those 8 teams just from their ruppage:
DODGERS>CUBS>REDS>BRAVES
GIANTS>PHILS>BUCS>CARDS
was thinking about how the kids today think unis are boring and why teams need the colored tops — back in the day, you had plenty of COLOR in baseball — it was called caps, sleeves and stirrups…and your shoes were any color you wanted as long as it was black
now…with everyone wearing PE hitops, in various colorways (which look like shit, and look even worse with stirrups), we have long pajamas to focus the eye solely on the look at me shoes, instead of the look-at-the-team socks
The vastly overwhelming majority of all the instantly discernable (from a distance) team differences are from the waist up now.
That’s why (despite many who hated them), the Twins’ road pins were at least “interesting” if not particulary colorful.
Today it’s a lttle like watching games in a gym class where everyone’s wearing either white or gray sweatpants.
That’s why I can tolerate the dark tops. Once in awhile. And never on both teams.
Nothing but white and gray, in this era with no visible stirrups around, would be brutal day after day after day after day…
True, and it would be more interesting visually, if some teams had the monochrome option.
Although, as Phil has shown in sans stirrups mockups on the monochrome issue, that’s not always much of a treat, either.
I think a few of those teams were wearing their alternates because the games were being played on a Friday and many teams wear alternates on Fridays.
Maybe. Or maybe they just wanted to look cool on Opening Day. I can’t really disagree with them, since I don’t really have a problem with “softball” tops on most teams.
Also, put me down as another who doesn’t really like the new red Indians hat. It’s the right idea (it’s time to retire Chief Wahoo), but the blue C on red hat just looks drab.
I think I gave them too much credit as a bunch of teams (Pittsburgh, Atlanta) are still wearing their alternates today.
so…there are four MLB games going on right now
atlanta at warshington = 2 softball tops
minnesota at toronto = blackjays
chisox at indians = blacksox
pirates at cubs = blackbucs
four games … 5 softball tops
Six, if we count the Royals in powder blue vs. the Angels, which we should.
Unless they’ve officially added powder blue as a team color (have they?), that’s nothing more than their ’70s alternative to gray being worn as a home jerseys.
absolutely…totally missed that game…this EI is baseball nirvana…i forgot the royals/angels
the royals REALLY need to excise the powder caps
Surprisingly, I agree.
And if they want to keep that powder jersey they need to make the numbers royal just like the TNOF. In that bright sunlight the numbers were getting washed out on my little screen.
As I said earlier, the Royals look too good to need an alt, but if they’re going to have one it should be royal blue.
White Sox are wearing their white sock sleeve patch instead of the hat logo. I thought they had made that change this year. Great to see the Sock patch back. No need to replicate the hat in multiple locations, especially at the expense of such a cool patch.
The change was only for the road grays, not the black tops.
Don’t know how to link to a screen shot from his match in Key Biscayne, but I noticed that Rafa Nadal wore that ugly antifreeze yellow/green color that Nike is determined to cover the world with. Yet another reason to hate Nadal…
this?
I hope the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo NEVER goes away. I wouldn’t mind if we never see the scripted “I” again though.
Amen on the Wahoo. I don’t hate the scripted “I” but there’s just not spot on the roster for it.
Very interesting that the White Sox have gone with the black tops two days in a row. The Sox had been promising to wear the grays more often this season which was the purpose of redoing the sleeve patch on that jersey. Yet, the new gray jersey has yet to make an appearance. I’m holding out hope that cooler heads have prevailed and they’ve pulled the iron out of the fire and decided to keep the old sleeve patch.
That whole Indians cap is just wrong.
That red cap looks like something from a bad 1970s softball league. That should have had a white outline around it at least. Or a blue bill on it, or a white letter with blue trim.
Yea, it looks very cheap.
Thanks for the rundown on the 2011 MLB patches.
“I hope that’s a roadie. Nothing bothers me more than someone wearing a replica when your team is NNOB. Dude, you just saved a hundy on the jersey, take $5 of that and buy one of these.”
Not to mention the wrong number font…
Yahoo.com says “college team’s cool military camo helmets”…
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You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me. STOP supporting this crap already!
Nope! As long as there are veterans like myself that 100% support these types of tributes, it will continue. The money goes Ohio National Guard Family Readiness and Warrior Support Program, LiFE (Learning in Fitness & Education) through Sports Program, and the Ruth and Jesse Owens Scholars Fund for these multi-cam Buckeye helmets. Outstanding job, Ohio State!!
Haha, I knew you’d reply to this. To each his/her own I guess… I’m glad the proceeds are going to great causes, but I still hate them.
Uh, I don’t think your personal feelings on the matter (or veterans’ feelings on the matter in general) have much to do with whether or not it will continue.
Agreed. They’re after our wallets, not our hearts.
I didn’t even know Butler had white uniforms (of course they do, but seriously, I think this is the first time I’ve seen them thanks to VCU being an even lower seed).
I forgot they wore them once before, against Old Dominion in the “first” round. Tonight was the last time, because they’re the lowest-seeded team standing and will wear the BFBS unis (which I’d still wear) Monday.
/But then again, you and I are probably the only ones who care…
You, I and tonight’s record-breaking crowd of 70,000+, that is…
I really hate this trend of colored college turf.
-Greenie
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fucking k-rod
ok…45 minutes later, you can “put it in the books” … with k-rod vulturing the win … after blowing the save
JY’all see dis? That ugly Oregon Court decided the game link
Way to Duck things up, Oregon…
Hey, if it looks good, who cares how it could affect the actual playing of the game, right?
Wow. Yeah, Creighton TOTALLY got screwed out of the chance at being #101 this year. Or is it #125?
Actually, our own Hemogoblin has a piece on why being #101 does matter:
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Re: this “Nats error” fraud [“- How many screw-ups, uniform and otherwise, will the Nats have this year? OK, that didn’t really happen, did it?link “] you can easily tell it’s an upside-down image, looking at the Nats’ scoreboard, through the fence.
This might be slightly off-topic…
How can a link end up in a health insurance commercial of all things? It’s downright un-American (but it’s a fantastic commercial).
This isn’t really uni related, but is the women’s final four court beautiful or what!?! It’s got the old school lane, old school font on the baselines. If it didn’t have a massive final four logo at halfcourt it would be just about perfect!