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Magic Number Now Down to 162

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As you can see above, the Mets looked resplendent yesterday in their new black-free attire. I couldn’t have been happier. Here are some other uni-notable observations from yesterday’s MLB action:

• The Mets honored Gary Garter by wearing Carter BP jerseys during pregame warm-ups, hanging a Carter jersey in the dugout, and putting a giant version of the Carter memorial sleeve patch on the outfield wall. They did not retire his number, however, as had been rumored in some circles.

• The Mets also had Carter’s widow and three children throw out the first pitch — or, rather, four simultaneous first pitches. Four of Carter’s former teammates caught the pitches: Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, and Mookie Wilson. Here’s the weird thing: Straw and Mex are left-handed, but they were wearing right-handed gloves to catch the first pitches.

• Mets batboys are now wearing “BB” fore and aft. Last year they wore double-zero. (My thanks to Dan Cichalski for spotting that one.)

• Okay, sorry about all the Mets-centricity. Moving on to other teams, I’ve never understood why a team would wear a softball alternate on Opening Day, but that’s what the Braves did yesterday.

• The Marlins also wore a softball alt. Granted, they had already opened their season the night before, but it still seems a little disrespectful to wear a black alt for another team’s home opener — in Cincinnati, no less! Also: That white collar piping really looks like a necklace, no?

• Speaking of that game in Cincy, bunch of vintage base ballers showed up at in uniform.

• We got our first look at Toronto’s road grays in action. I like. A lot.

• Last year the Indians wore their cream alternates with a red cap, blue sleeves, a blue belt, and blue socks. This year all the accessories are red — except, apparently, the batting helmet.

• I know it’s been done before, but I still think it’s really weird to wear a stadium-anniversary patch on your road uniform.

• Stephen Strasburg is still the pants blousing king of MLB. Seriously, he should give lessons on how to do that.

• Speaking of the Nats, WDCW, which carries Nats games, has moved its watermark to a really annoying spot. “It’s so obtrusive and distracting that it obscures players’ faces at times,” says a frustrated Brendan Slattery. “It’s the televisual equivalent of trying to watch a game behind a pole or support beam.”

• Remember my recent ESPN column about the Padres supplying uniforms to Little Leaguers? A bunch of those kids showed up at yesterday’s Padres opener in Winfield-era uniforms.

• That game also provided our first on-field look at the Padres’ new home whites.

• I’m told that the umps are now wearing memorial patches for Marty Springstead and Harry Wendelstedt (they only had a Springstead patch for the two games in Japan), but I haven’t seen this myself and couldn’t find a photo of it.

So that’s what happened yesterday. But for some teams, of course, Opening Day is today. One of those teams is the Brewers, and reader Deb Reiser, who lives in Milwaukee, has prepared for the occasion with a really fun project:

In honor of the Brewers’ home opener being on Good Friday, I did a little uni/Easter mash-up for our tailgate: Brewers player and mascot Peeps. I had fun trying to make the uniforms as realistic as possible. As it turns out, the Racing Sausages were the most challenging — especially their headgear! I didn’t have time to make all the visiting players, so David Freese is the lone Cardinal.

Very cool, Deb — enjoy your tailgating and your ballgame today.

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Got an interesting note yesterday from reader Raymond Parrish, as follows:

For the past 15 years, I’ve played a lot of disc golf. My local haunt is a three-course Mecca built from scratch by my good friend Mike Trapasso on piece of land inherited from his family. He carved it out of the woods, and its bucolic setting prompted him to dub it “The Grange.”

All was well until last summer, when a very ominous cease-and-desist letter arrived from a law firm retained by the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, a fraternal organization for American farmers. These attorneys claimed trademark privilege on the term “grange.”

Mr. Trapasso initially thought a resolution would be relatively simple — after all, his Grange had no similarity to the fraternal farming organization, so there was no chance of confusion in the public mind. But the lawyers weren’t interested in a settlement or a painless licensing agreement and were prepared to break him through litigation. So he decided to take their offer of a pittance to offset rebranding costs and abandon the fight, renaming his facility the Blockhouse Disc Golf & Country Club.

Of course, this unwieldy name has not caught on with any of the regulars at the club (or anybody else, for that matter), so I took inspiration from Uni Watch and No Mas and created this T-shirt design. They can now be seen on the courses almost as often as flying plastic.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: No way to confirm this, but here’s a potentially major (and really disappointing) bit of news from David Almonte: “A friend of mine who works with New Era told me that this year’s ‘stars and stripes’ caps are actually going to be regular team caps with camo logos.” That sound you just heard in the background was me vomiting. … In a related item, Virginia Tech softball will wear G.I. Joe Jane uniforms tonight (from Dan Frydryk). … Hmmm, orange pants in the works for the Bears? Could be. Frankly, I think that looks pretty good. ”¦ New kits for the Charlotte Eagles (from Andrew Au). … The Dolphins are considering a logo update for 2013. ”¦ Here’s a much bigger and better slideshow of the Astrodome’s current state. “There are some old football line markers, etc., along with an Oilers sign and an old Astros sign from the ’70s,” says Clayton Lust. “But according to the reporter, those are all from the filming of Friday Night Lights and not original.” ”¦ The U.S. military wants its shrapnel-proof underwear to be more comfortable. “Because the Private’s privates must be protected,” says Chris Bisbee. ”¦ Louisiana Tech baseball wore throwbacks on Tuesday (from Josh McDaniel). ”¦ Vijay Singh has “19” printed on his ball at Augusta. “I think it refers to his number of Masters appearances,” says Steve DuHamel. ”¦ It is a sad day in the media world when the state of my Twitter feed qualifies as a news story. ”¦ Here’s a great story about John Buck’s flashy catcher’s mask (big thanks to C. Trent Rosecrans). ”¦ I don’t care about pro wrestling, but here’s something interesting from Brian Sharp: “The WWE has a YouTube channel and recently they featured Alex Riley (one of their wrestlers) showing off his prized possessions, and what does he show? His jersey and athletic shoe collection.” ”¦ Nike has signed a sponsorship deal for the 2016 Rio Olympics, but I figure there’s a decent chance an asteroid will plow into the Earth by that time, so no biggie (from Matthew Robins). ”¦ Tim Donovan spotted several Magic players wearing “NBA Green” warm-up shirts last night. Interestingly, they appear to have had their uni numbers written onto the recycling logo with a Sharpie. ”¦ Back in the Pirates’ bumblebee era, their black jerseys had plain gold lettering. But Matthew Toy was looking through the Bucs’ 1977 yearbook and found a photo showing that same jersey with white outlining on the letters and numbers. Must have been a prototype. ”¦ Speaking of jersey typography, check out Carlton Fisk’s NOB in this video clip. “Looks like it was done by pre-schoolers!” says Bob Gassel. ”¦ I’ll get around to assessing the Seahawks’ new uni next week, but meanwhile here’s something to consider: Nike says the pattern on the pants trim is based on Native American artwork, but maybe it’s just a shout-out to the Ore-Ida logo (from Robert Kahn). ”¦ The most surreal 54 seconds of your day can be spent watching this bizarre old video clip about the invention of an early football helmet. Don’t miss (from Ian Reed). ”¦ Chase Troutner spotted a car with an amusing “This is us” statement. ”¦ If you’ve had enough of Nike and/or Tiger Woods, you’ll definitely enjoy this very fun one-minute animation (big thanks to Nolan Petote):

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Kicking the Habit, Day 4: I’m on cruise control now. Frankly, this is way easier than I had expected. I’ll definitely make it through the entire week, no problem. After that, we’ll see.

Happy Passover to all who are observing. A few of you have asked if I could link back to the piece I wrote last year about Passover “uniforms” and products. Here it is — enjoy.

 
  
 
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Comments (216)

    Re: WDCW
    It’s not a watermark, it’s called a bug…it’s supposed to be within the specs of “image safe zone”…this was hopefully an error on the broadcasters part…very simple to move.

    Looks like it’s in the old 4:3 standard resolution spot on a 16:9 HD feed.

    It’s sorta odd to be on the top of the screen though, usually the TV network logos are in a bottom corner. Still annoying, regardless.

    Weird. It looks like it could be over just a touch more to the left to make it to the corner of a 4:3 screen, it’s a little too centered. What is also odd is that the player name bug on the bottom fits a 4:3 ratio, however when the score comes on it would only be visible on a 16:9.

    The good news is that WDCW doesn’t show all that many Nats games. MASN has its problems, but it doesn’t stick the bug in the middle of the screen like that.

    MASN has a lot of problems, like being owned by Peter Angelos and the Baltimore Orioles. I bet many people don’t know that it was a corrupt bargain Selig made with Angelos *after* the Orioles owner voted no on DC baseball.

    Why Selig stood up to Frank McCourt and not Angelos remains one of the great mysteries of baseball.

    I’m hoping all the Nats follow Strasburg’s lead on pants and socks. I also hope the Nats wear a solid cap on the road next year.

    Angelos is Selig’s friend. McCourt wasn’t. Selig is a look-after-his-pals kind of guy.

    Paul, I was a sodaholic for years, until I finally figured out that caffeine gives me stomach problems. Since then the only soda I drink is Sprite, and that’s only about once a week (if that much). It keeps getting easier and it’s so much healthier for you. Keep up the good work! Best of luck to you!

    I stopped drinking soda or soft drinks of any type a few years ago ( except when part of an alcoholic beverage of course ) and do not miss it at all!

    I gave up soda on a regular basis almost 10 years ago. The caffeine was getting to me and I didn’t need the calories. Now I only drink soda when I’m on “vacation” (usually Dr. Pepper with po-boys in New Orleans), or I like to have Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry when I go to Katz’s. I had a pepsi (blech) at Junior’s last night and it’s just not the same.

    But giving up the soda…wasn’t that much of a big deal and just makes the occasional nip that much sweeter!

    Stopped Pepsi about four years ago- and I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life, believe it or not.

    1% milk..0 cal Gatorade..A&W caffeine free rootbear, and the occasional Yoo-Hoo–that’s it.

    A team named “Blue Jays” that has blue, not black, as it’s primary color… What a breakthrough!

    Love the logo and the uni’s!

    1. I think the Braves and Marlins let the starting pitchers choose the uni for the day. Atlanta’s Tommy Hanson prefers the blue alt, and I guess Buehrle is piggybacking on his preference for the black alt from his time in Chicago.

    2. Those Toronto roadies are outstanding.

    3. I like that San Diego doubled up the blue piping on their sleeves and collars, but the biggest problem is that the second level of piping blends in with the undershirt, so you don’t even see it. I wish they’d have left some white space at the edge to provide more contrast and make both stripes visible.

    Good that both the Marlins and Braves lost using their softball tops. Didn’t the Braves also debut their blue alts in the opening night game in the Nationals new park four years ago?

    Yep. Whenever I find my hatred of the Braves softening into grudging respect for the organization, I remind myself of the Braves in blue softball tops at the Nationals Park opener. That was like a medieval France-vs-England level of disrespect by Atlanta.

    The Diamondbacks wore black for the 2005 Nats RFK Opener too.

    The Nats have been guilty of the colored tops for openers though too. Hopefully, they won’t do it next Thursday.

    Good for Tommy Hanson. As the history of pajama pants proves, giving players any discretion is dressing themselves is a losing proposition for anyone who has to watch them.*

    I long for the day that my beloved Braves regain a bit of pride, and ditch the alt jerseys and road caps that they resisted manfully for so long.

    * On that note, might the PJ-pants issue ever result in a small General Agreement insertion that addresses the issue?

    I’ve never been a fan of the Braves road blue. They need to get rid of that one quick, and bring back the red brimmed cap for road games.

    The Marlins uniform set isn’t bad. I liked the old ones, but the news are decent as well. The only thing I would change about them is the number font. It doesn’t look good at all. Maybe a “Cubs” style font would compliment their jersey better.

    The Blue Jays, Indians, and Mets all looked great. The Padres uniforms are a slight improvement too.

    Regarding the Pirates’ 70s unis, I don’t know about the white detailing (but it rings a bell), but the picture definitely is for prototypes – manager Chuck Tanner is wearing 44, but his number was 7. Jim Rooker (wearing 7 in photo) wore 19 on the field.

    So the “Stars and Stripes” caps will have neither stars nor stripes? Do people no longer know that camouflage is not the national color – red, white and blue are? I blame Nike.

    But mostly, 9/11 was more than 10 years ago, so all the 9/11-inspired pseudo-patriotic phariseeism like the Stars and Stripes caps needs to stop. It was an era, and it’s over now.

    …9/11…10 years ago…needs to stop…

    I thought Paul was hoping for smarter comments on the board.

    To be fair, I don’t believe Arr was implying that we shouldn’t remember 9/11, rather that the faux patriotism (especially for profit faux patriotism, or FPFP) needs to stop.

    It’s probably because nearly all the armed services have gone with camo as the default uniform pattern–which seems uncommonly silly to me, but that’s another issue.

    P.S.: I’m no mind-reader, and don’t think it wise or right to ascribe insincerity to the people behind it: just because patriotism can sometimes take gauche forms doesn’t make it faked or pharasaical. Without impugning their motives, though, I wish they’d choose a less eye-punishing way of observing such occasions.

    I don’t doubt that their motives are generally true and pure. It’s still pseudo-patriotism. Patriotism is measured by what you do, not what you say or wear. Just as a yellow ribbon-magnet on the back of your car doesn’t actually support any troops, neither does a flag hat demonstrate patriotism. I fly the flag – actually lots of various historical American flags, depending on the time of year – from my house. My neighbor, a captain in the U.S. Army, does not fly the American flag from his house. Am I somehow the greater patriot because I make a show of the stars and stripes and he doesn’t? Obviously not. Thus with baseball uniforms. There’s just no connection between the inner sentiment and the outward display. So the outward display should stop, and baseball should go back to, you know, playing baseball.

    If MLB is serious about patriotism, then step one should be stopping the shenanigans with all these overwrought divas treating the national anthem like a power ballad and go back to letting the crowd sing along.

    Marlins not wearing their new greys – reminds me of the way I shop sometimes, I like it in the store, but by the time I get it home, I realize there’s something wrong with it (normally ends up never being worn) – Not a good sign for the Marlins greys.

    I think this has been said before, but if it’s true the Nationals have no patch for Gary Carter as someone who grew up with the Expos in the 1970’s, it makes me sad and angry they (the Nationals) have turned their back on one of their greats.

    And Jackie Robinson never played for Los Angeles, so I guess the Dodgers shouldn’t honor him either.

    The Nats feature Carter (and other Expos) on their web site:
    link

    If they can do it there, they can (and should) do it on their uniform. Same franchise.

    And Bill Terry, Mel Ott and Carl Hubbell never played in San Francisco.

    And Warren Spahn never pitched in Atlanta.

    Point being?

    That’s great!

    Btw, Paul sure is right re “Stephen Strasburg is still the pants blousing king of MLB. Seriously, he should give lessons on how to do that.”

    The road unis for the Nats (my new team; I’m moving to DC) looked darn good.

    Sorry guys, Brandon Inge is the king of the blouse pants and has been doing it longer than Stephen Strasburg. Say what you want about his K’s…he rocks the Old English “D”.

    link

    Yeah, Phil. On June 1, the erstwhile Broadway Connie will assume duties as the new boss of a DC think tank. The whole damn family is going, too.

    I’m enduringly fond of the Mets (feel better?), but I like to root for local clubs whenever possible. Nats look good, that W is sweet, and I really like ballparks convenient to mass-transit. Which is just one of many reasons to continue my profound dislike for all things having to do with the local NFL franchise with the insulting aboriginal cognomen. Capitals are OK, I guess, but the Wizards (yuck name) are undergoing close scrutiny by the Credentials Committee.

    You guys really need to get over the alt jersey thing. When a team is planning on wearing a colored jersey for a significant number of it’s games, it’s not “disrespectful” towards the team they’re playing against. Honestly, these softball tops (if you insist on calling them that) have been around for well over 30 years. They’re not special or different anymore, they’ve become a fairly regular sight on teams not named Yankees, Tigers, Dodgers or Cardinals.

    I, too, don’t really get the “disrespect” angle. I very much doubt anyone involved with the game finds it disrespectful.

    That said, those Braves alts are so ugly. Why so boring, Atlanta??

    It’s simple: Opening Day is a special day, like Easter or Christmas. That’s why there’s all the pregame ceremonies; that’s why the ballpark is draped in bunting.

    For a special day, you wear your Sunday best (even if it isn’t Sunday), not your Friday casual outfit.

    Then maybe they should designate it as their primary. But they haven’t; in fact, they’re not allowed to, because MLB mandates that road grays be the primary.

    And why do they do that? Tradition. You may not like tradition (I don’t always like it myself), but Opening Day is a day about tradition. And that’s should guide your uniform choice for that day.

    I think we can all agree that BP jerseys are less formal-looking that regular uniforms. And what does the Braves’ navy alt look like? A BP jersey. End of discussion.

    So one should follow a tradition even if one doesn’t like it?

    Granted, which jersey a team chooses to wear isn’t exactly a major issue, but “well, it’s tradition” is NOT a good argument for doing anything.

    “Well it’s tradition” is a sufficient reason for doing something in the absence of any rational reason for doing otherwise. And so the argument from tradition actually applies in this case.

    Hey, it’s not like they’re clubbing baby seals “out of tradition.”

    It’s road grays and home whites on certain occasions for a baseball game. We’re not talking about foreign policy or anything, its baseball uniforms for a few certain days, I think tradition is ok.

    Unless you can REALLY think of a great reason why on a few certain days they shouldn’t follow tradition.

    Home whites/road grays during the week.
    Alternates (one or both teams) on Fridays.
    Home alternate (pins) on Sunday versus road grays.

    “Well it’s tradition” is a sufficient reason for doing something in the absence of any rational reason for doing otherwise. And so the argument from tradition actually applies in this case.

    We’re talking about sports uniforms though. Ultimately, “because we wanted to” IS the rational reason.

    Why does any team change uniforms? Because they can/wanted to. That’s all the reason they need. It doesn’t matter if they had a good uniform or a bad uniform, they changed it because they wanted to. “Why did you switch from orange jerseys to blue jerseys?” and “Why did you wear blue instead of gray on Opening Day?” have the same exact answer.

    “So one should follow a tradition even if one doesn’t like it?”

    Anyone go to their in-laws’ for Thanksgiving despite not liking it?

    Nothing in our culture is as tradition-laden as baseball (well, the church is, probably). Considering the number of traditions MLB has just kicked to the curb in recent years, will it kill you to just go with it for one day?

    (That said, the “specialness” of opening day – or Opening Day – has been gradually whittled away over the years, what with first the ESPN Sunday Night opener and the Japan nonsense and starting on a Wednesday when exhibition games are still being played the same day. Kinda hard to make the argument that there’s a sanctity to the first day of the baseball season anymore. And then there’s the whole “elegiac symmetry of the emerald chessboard” nonsense. We do tend to romanticize things far too much.)

    That decision is left to the starter, the alts are more comfortable so they often get chosen. There’s no disrespect intended, its simply a matter of comfort and Tommy Hanson certainly looked comfortable on the mound (now if only they could give him some damn run support).

    “More comfortable”? I wasn’t aware they were made of a different material. Are they?

    Well said, Tom V and Kenn.

    For a special day, you wear your Sunday best (even if it isn’t Sunday), not your Friday casual outfit.
    So do any fans wear suits or dresses to Opening Day? Actually, I’m being serious – do any of you (or does anyone you know) still do that? Seems like a nifty idea.

    It was my understanding that the road grays are not the Cool Base uniforms, whereas the Navy alternates are. Has this changed?

    Why change for the sake of change? There is no logical reason to wear the alts on opening day besides being different.

    Sadly, chances are they did it out of douchbaggery. Lots of viewers on opening day compared to the rest of the season for most teams. Let’s trot out the alts in hopes of upping merch sales. Just a thought.

    “which jersey a team chooses to wear isn’t exactly a major issue …”

    You’re right. Paul should shut this site down now.

    Sadly, chances are they did it out of douchbaggery. Lots of viewers on opening day compared to the rest of the season for most teams. Let’s trot out the alts in hopes of upping merch sales. Just a thought.

    ——–

    They are preferred by the pitchers who are the ones who decide whether they go with the alternates or the regular grays. The road grays are practically the alternates and have been the past 3 seasons. Additionally the Braves are on tv every game a game in 2010 against the Pirates was the first time in 10 or so years plus a majority of their games were broadcast nationally on TBS from the 80s up until 2008 (or was it 2007?). By now everyone knows about the Braves alternate, in fact the gray aways would be more likely to pop out at someone who doesn’t normally get to see the Braves play on the road at this point.

    I like the road alts, and love the away hats, I wouldn’t be too hurt if they did away with the alts, but I would hate to see the hat go (I know this is an unpopular stance, I like having a contrasting home and away hat).

    look at how upset big baby lukas got when The Jeff got the best of him i read your “end of discussion” in the voice of a little boy getting mad and taking his ball and going home.

    you’re opinion, regardless of what you might believe, is NOT fact, lukas.

    the day THE gets the best of paul will be a cold day in hell indeed

    yes, it’s opinion (as is pretty much anything regarding uniform fashion) that BP/dark alts look like shit

    but it’s about as close to fact as one can get…there are few truisms in baseball, but one of them is YOU DON’T WEAR YOUR ALTS ON OPENING DAY

    it’s been that way for a while

    the braves seem to have a history of busting out their dark blues on opening days as well

    the braves seem to have a history of busting out their dark blues on opening days as well

    …doesn’t that make it traditional? ;)

    Jeff, they’ve had NHL road white/home color for some time now. Is that tradition as well? I can answer that for you if you need me to.

    Just being a smartass to annoy Phil, Tom.

    But seriously, “traditional” in sports uniforms is sort of an “eye of the beholder” thing, isn’t it? The Dallas Cowboys could start wearing blue at home this year and for the next 30 years it’d still be an abomination to everyone who grew up watching them wearing white.

    The — Why do you suppose you don’t see alternates in the All Star game?

    Probably because it’d be just little bit confusing to have red, blue and black jerseys on one team and *also* have red, blue or black jerseys on the other team. When you’re playing the game, you kinda need to know who your teammates are at a quick glance. It wasn’t *that* long ago that the NBA had players wearing their own uniforms, resulting in a multi-color vs white game – but multi-color vs multi-color is a bit much, don’t you think?

    Regardless, that has nothing to do with whether Opening Day should be white vs gray or white vs blue.

    I will be SHOCKED if the White Sox don’t wear their black alternates today in Arlington.

    And I’m ok with that. The Sox are a historically bizarro-uniform team. They have no qualms overhauling logos, uniforms or color schemes.

    The Sox wear their black alt tops at home and on the road more than their regular home and road tops. That’s what they do.

    Now, they didn’t wear the black tops in the ’05 WS. If you aren’t willing to wear a top in the WS, then you shouldn’t wear it on Opening Day (although, perhaps there’s just rules against alts in the Series). But I don’t think the Sox shouldn’t wear the black today, rather, I think they shoulda been true to themselves in the ’05 series and worn the black tops at least once at home and on the road.

    Some teams have a strong identity in their alternate tops (though, the Braves are NOT one of those teams). I think that is a tradition worth honoring.

    “Lukas Sucks! Lukas Sucks!”

    I love when he gets all pissy and takes his ball home because someone actually stood up to him and proved him wrong!

    So according to Paul, it’s traditional to wear chief wahoo every year for opening day!!

    Paul can’t be proven wrong on his opinion. It’s an opinion.

    And if you hate him so much, leave and don’t come back. We wont miss you and you wont have to get worked up every time you read his opinions.

    “The Sox wear their black alt tops at home and on the road more than their regular home and road tops. That’s what they do.”

    Still doesn’t make it right. Quite frankly as a White Sox fan, I think the black alternate is ugly (the double trim on everything is WAY too bulky), the sleeve stripes are dated & way too fat; is played-out and vastly overexposed. The idea that it’s lighter in material & more comfortable doesn’t hold water when it’s sunny & absorbing all that sunlight & above 80 degrees in the Summer – home & road Cool Flo jerseys took care of that nonsense. Their home & road jerseys are decent & serviceable to be worn most of the time. No reason they should keep trotting out that black fashion rag so much.

    I love the black tops. I mean, it’s just my personal preference but I think they’re great.

    The home and road look fantastic too, the Sox don’t have a bad jersey, but I think the Sox need to live up to their reputation and change up their jerseys and color scheme.

    The reason the White Sox didn’t wear black during the World Series was…superstition. They started the playoffs wearing the faux-vests, and swept Boston. They wore them in Game 1 of the LCS against the Angels, and lost. They switched to the regular pinstripes, and won the next four. They swept the Astros in the Series. They were undefeated on the road, wearing the gray. In short, they were respecting the streak.

    “the Sox need to live up to their reputation and change up their jerseys and color scheme”

    I’d be all for ditching the black & silver scheme. It was a trendy scheme of the times & was neither traditional. But wearing the black alternate more for the sake of wearing an alternate? No dice.

    Any White Sox fan should detest any excess usage of the color black (especially black socks) given the team’s historical past.

    “You guys really need to get over the alt jersey thing”

    No. And I just love how a non-baseball fan is telling baseball fans what to think. You don’t just “understand”, simply. Sick and tired of it. Leave us baseball fans alone.

    You need to get over white jerseys & gray roads & face masks existing, and stop being an agitator in arguing for the sake of arguing.

    Those two ladies in the vintage long dresses and hats included in the picture of men wearing the Old Style Cincy uniforms are kind of…….. hot. As in attractive. Man, I must be getting old.

    No Happy Easter? Come on now, haha.

    Also, love the Mets going no black, but seeing David Wright with the black batting gloves and black sweatband on his forearms wasn’t as cool:
    link

    Hopefully he changes it up.

    I think the umpiring crew in last night’s Dodgers-Padres game had the Marty Springstead memorial patch (can’t remember if they also had one for Harry Wendelstedt).

    The Mets looked great in their black-free uniforms but everything isn’t fully black-free yet: SNY is still using the black/blue Mets logo.

    “… this bizarre old video clip about the invention of an early football helmet”

    I didn’t know Gus Frerotte’s grampa invented the football helmet!

    Submitted, for your approval: A. Yes, I do like those orange Bears’ pants, and now I will prepare for the true believers to storm my house with pitchforks and torches. I might not like them in a couple months, but I’m accounting for the novelty factor. B. The Winfield-era Padres’ softball tops are just about my favorite; it’s the way the Windsor Bold “San Diego” arch harmonizes with the bell-shaped outline of the raglan sleeves and that fat yellow V-neck trim. The ’70s at their best. C. Is it just me, or are the Nats beginning to look too much like the Cardinals? It’s the curse of being just another navy & red team. D. Judging from those prototype Pirates’ jerseys, it seems the white outlines compromised the legibility of Pittsburgh’s Fancy Block script; all the crannies and counters got filled in.

    There’s nothing wrong with liking the Bears in orange pants. They are faux-retro after all, as the Bears did wear orange pants in the distant past.

    I don’t really think they need to wear them, but I love having the option in Madden. It’s a game, EA should let me play with the uniforms too.

    “EA should let me play with the uniforms too”

    ~~~

    sounds like they should include a box of tissues for you with each new release

    I agree. Since Madden ’11’s uniform editor was weak as hell, I’m hoping the next one coming out will be much better.

    I don’t know how I’ll feel about the orange pants. I wonder if it’ll look any way decent paired with the blue jersey and blue socks.

    Leave the orange pants in Denver. It’s not a bad look, per se, but it’s a look that the Broncos own.

    And if you’re on #springbreak, stop posting on here and go get drunk already!

    Do the Broncos really own it? I mean, really, they only wore orange pants for 2 seasons. The Browns and Bucs both wore orange pants for longer periods of time. The Browns seem to be content with just wearing white, and the Bucs are pewter & red now…. It seems like the Bears could try to take possession of that look now if they wanted to. (Not saying they should, but…)

    I mean Blue helmet, white uni, orange pants. That’s the look they own.

    The Browns and Bucs could both wear orange pants, but no one would confuse them for the Broncos, not so with the Bears.

    …friggin fraggin… that’s 6 seasons for the Broncos in orange pants, not 2.

    Still, if the Bears started doing it now, they *could* own it. If anything, the Bears just need to drop the orange jersey – that’s more of a Denver thing than the pants.

    The NFL’s rules seem to be a bit inconsistent. The Bears had the orange jersey as an alt for a few years, then they wore the 40’s throwback for one season, then went right back to the orange alt. What happened to that 5 year rule?

    I believe the 5 year rule only applies to your regular home and road designs and the logos/colors of the team. Though I could be wrong.

    Shame on you Tim, telling a high school to get drunk on #springbreak (not that I would regardless).

    I more agree with THE on the Denver Mannings owning the orange jersey, but Da Bears could get some orange pants mojo going, if only for two or three games.

    It would look better, IMO, with the blue jersey/socks, and maybe a solid blue stripe. I’m actually really interested to see that on field if they decided to go that route.

    “sorry, thought you were in college”

    ~~~

    because he’s more mature than you?

    I’m actually curious about the orange pants as well. It not only highlights the distant past but also affirms the team’s connection to the University of Illinois.

    “but also affirms the team’s connection to the University of Illinois.”

    If it’s a bridge to UofI football, the bridge should be burned to the ground, blown up and then pissed on.

    The last thing I want to think about when watching the Bears is the consistent mediocrity of that godforsaken joke of a program.

    Happy Stirrup Friday! In honor of it being the first stirrup Friday of the season, I am going with these vintage beauties: link

    I know nothing about them other then the auction indicated they came from an estate sale of a woman whose father played baseball back in the 1910s & 20s.

    I think the Braves wore their road alts in their home opener against the Pirates a few years back, if I’m not mistaking. I think it was 2008, the first year of those alts.

    Sorry to your friend, Paul. That’s a pure case of the Grange’s legal department bullying your friend and abusing its rights. He would have won that case, probably in summary judgment before any kind of trial, but they threatened him with the cost of a trial that never would have happened because they knew it wasn’t worth the time or money to him to fight.

    As someone who wants to go into IP law it disheartens me to see attorneys act that unethically simply because it’s easier to bully a layperson than tell their bosses what the law actually is.

    I hope the estate of Red Grange read about this bullying, because they could be in the crosshairs.
    I would assume the Brooklyn Grange will be sued, if they haven’t already been served with papers.
    I forwarded this case’s info to a lawyer friend. He wonders why lawyers have a bad reputation… this is a perfect example of where the reputation comes from.

    As somebody has been practicing for a bunch of years, two thoughts:

    1. There’s no such thing as a slam dunk. You can’t say stuff like “he would have won that case” because its never, ever that simple. Stuff comes out in the course of a file that you can’t predict, and at the end of it your rights are determined by a judge who might never have heard an IP matter before. There’s a good reason why just about everything settles.

    2. I don’t throw the word “unethically” around. You can choose not to practice in a certain way, or choose not to represent certain clients who you think are bullies, but that doesn’t make those who do represent those clients unethical. Zealously representing clients isn’t unethical on its own.

    The Marlins change to a new deco-ish font and use all those rainbow bright border colors, but look….

    link

    …They look like grim death. One of the most depressing uniforms in the league.

    Look at that Blue Jays roadie, how that blue shines and excites, expresses something. You want to look at it….

    link

    The Marlins?: You don’t even know it’s there. It is nothingness. Stupid, stupid design.

    I happen to like looking like grim death, but I’d tend to agree. The Marlins really blew it with the new uniforms. They have so many different colors and they barely use them. It’s not right.

    When they were unveiled and in isolation, I quite liked them but after seeing them in action against the Reds… well, my opinion’s changed. I don’t mind the wordmark, I don’t mind the colours but the size of everything on the black jersey is atrocious. The cap M, the sleeve, the chest. They’re all competing to see who can be the biggest and it’s really exacerbated on a dark jersey.

    “I happen to like looking like grim death”

    ~~~

    to the complete surprise of absolutely NO ONE on this board

    I’m no fan of the Marlins’ new aesthetic, but if you’re going to do that, DO NOT INTRODUCE BLACK INTO THE MIX. It’s a brand-new design, and yet the black caps and alt-jerseys look just as unnatural and intrusive as the Mets’ and Reds’ black accessories ever did.

    So true – you’ve got the GLORIOUS Blue Jays on one end…and then there are the Marlins. As soon as I saw that black was still a dominant color in the new design, I figured they’d end up wearing it nearly all the time, just like they used to. They will continue to be a dreadfully depressing looking team.

    That said, Toronto has gone from the absolute WORST uni in the league to top 5 status.

    The Marlins website has a really nice shade of blue-almost aqua,but not quite-that they should have used instead of black.

    Re: Marlins white collar piping looks bad, it kind of separates the head from the jersey, in an uncomfortable way.

    3 of the 4 Frozen four teams wear dark red (Not sure if burgundy or maroon) and athletic gold (although Boston College is going with a vegas gold look). A colour combination that should be in the NHL.

    Watching a rerun of the semi right now and the Eagles look very sharp, the white inset stripe still pops quite nicely. The Golden Gopher’s helmets never sit well with me for some reason.

    Seeing pictures of the Mets wearing pinstripes with not a single ounce of black in the picture is like getting new glasses. All of sudden things look bright and clear and you wonder why it took so long to get there.

    Strasberg has to be using military style blousing straps….looks to perfect to just be rolled under and up.

    Just a comment about yesterday’s Culinary Corner:

    This technique will work in the reverse order if you want it to arrive sizzling to the table. A lot of restaurants began using a related technique for their steak and lamb preparations about 10 years ago; cooking the meat to a uniform medium rare sous vide in an immersion circulator or in a slow-cooking alto shaam oven and simply browning the outside to serve (often in butter so that the Maillard reaction is more from the milk proteins in the butter and not as much from the meat proteins, leaving more un-coagulated protein in the meat and less gray).

    Even when cooked the traditional way, steak in a restaurant will usually be rested after cooking, and then flashed with a broiler or a grill so that is sizzles when served but still benefits from having rested. Try doing your slow cooking first and just searing the steak (either with the blowtorch or by any other means), and you should be able to have the dramatic presentation previously lacking.

    Also: I have to politely disagree with your view that more thoroughly cooked meat has its quality rendered moot. Don’t you think you can taste the difference even in a braise prepared with quality meat versus cryo-vac’ed grocery store meat?

    Don’t you think you can taste the difference even in a braise prepared with quality meat versus cryo-vac’ed grocery store meat?

    Up to a point. But a lot of the flavor from a braise comes from the braising liquid and all the other things you add to it. A steak is just unadulterated muscle, so the flavor of the meat itself is the main flavor you’re tasting (unless you slather it with flavorings and/or sauces, in which case, again, there’s little point in getting high-quality meat, because you’ve reduced the steak to a condiment-delivery device). And once you go past medium-rare, you’ve basically reached a point of diminishing returns.

    did anyone else subconsciously replace mets with “meats” when they read this article?

    I’ll echo what “carolingian” and “interlocking” said above about the Met and Bluejays. And add the Nationals uni to the list, especially when worn CORRECTLY like Mr. Strasburg is.

    Those unis are beautiful. Damn.

    See, it’s not that hard to do. You teams like Atlanta and the Marlins with your stupid, ugly black softball tops, are you at least taking note? Are you even seeing how repulsive your unis look next to these?

    -Jet

    Oh, trust me–the fans do. The only ones who like them are the players and the marketing departments.

    From the “We Don’t Care If It’s Readable, We Just Want To Pander To You” Department, please to enjoy, the Minnesota Stars’ new uniforms:

    link

    Oy.

    Well those are… interesting.

    /the only “football club” in Minnesota are the Vikings. American soccer teams need to quit with this “FC” bullshit. Maybe that works in Europe where Soccer = Football, but when the league yo play in calls itself a “Soccer League”, you’re not a god dammed “football club”.

    MLS teams can and do compete under the umbrella of organisations that explicitly have the word “football” in their titles, so they’re football clubs.

    And it’s not like the US is the only country where the sport is known by two names. Look at Italy. A number of clubs (Inter, Juventus, etc), use the F.C. appellation; others (Catania, Milan) use “calcio” (“kick”), the name of an ancient Italian ball game played with the feet, and often used by clubs to regain lost commercial and trademark protections. Even the league itself is called “Lega Calcio.”

    The Padres continue to be bland and nondescript. How can they take the field in those unis when something like THIS is in the same stadium??
    link

    Maybe it sounds like I’m contradicting myself because I just complained about softball tops in the previous post, but ANY iteration of Padre brown (with the exception of perhaps the all-yellow togs) is a major win in my book. Those 4 kids laughing in Winfield Padre unis is my picture of the year. That’s screensaver material. Man, THAT’S baseball!

    -Jet

    I’m working on a Padres re-design that I’m not sure will ever be finished, so might as well describe it:

    It’s inspired by the later St. Louis Browns uniforms, with an off-white and brown that both kind of mimic an old monastic homespun.
    * Off-white uni with minimal brown piping
    * Brown “PADRES” arched across the jersey front in an uncial typeface
    * The original “swingin’ monk” goes on the left sleeve, natch.
    * Brown stirrups/undershirt
    * Cap has an off-white crown, brown button/squatchee & bill, and a brown “SD” monogram in curvy uncial letters–interestingly, they mesh & interlock quite well.

    As w/the Browns, one could also add a small touch of orange here or there.

    Those would be sharp, though I’m more partial to gold trim, rather than orange. Looking forward to seeing them.

    The off-white crown might not be a good idea. A season’s worth of dirt, sweat, etc. might make it look really nasty.

    What The said about the off-white. The bigger puzzler is what to do about the batting helmet. A mostly white or off-white helmet would look pretty bad, but I’d like to be more creative than solid brown … the Reds’ solid-color helmets always looked wrong when they were rocking the “ice-cream man” caps in the ’90s.

    And then there’s the road uni. I don’t like the idea of a grey crown, but solid brown would be mighty dull. And I’m not sure on whether the road unis should even BE grey, or some *slightly* different hue. The drawing board calls…

    The Redes did use an off-white batting helmet during the 60’s that looked nice.

    I would still love to see a solid-brown cap in MLB by the Padres. I like the idea of a gray crown cap, but only if it’s of a heathered gray variety. Solid gray just doesn’t work.

    Helmets, you really can’t have a white or gray one, it would look too weird; especially with bulky ear flaps.

    Orioles appear to be going with their normal homes today, instead of the usual Black Friday unis.

    link

    perhaps “that decision is left to the starter, the alts are more comfortable so they often get chosen. There’s no disrespect intended, its simply a matter of comfort.”

    or does that only apply to the braves?

    I’m sorry its a Friday Night thing, Black on Fridays nights, Orange on Saturdays normal homes on Sundays. They typically wear the normal duds for day games on Fridays.

    By the way, I don’t see it as disrespectful to wear away alts, or alts for that matter on opening day, if a team wants to wear one of their approved uniforms they should be allowed to. Especially if you hold the contention that the alts are worse looking, if that is your line of thinking then the only team they are disrespecting is themselves.

    And that is the Braves approach to the away uniforms, the choice goes to the starter, the starters overwhelmingly choose the Navy alts. There is no disrespect in that, they aren’t wearing the unis to spite the other team they are wearing them because that is the one they prefer, if that offends you, you need to get some thicker skin.

    Hey all. Been an avid reader of this site for several years now and this is my first time commenting. A different site was having a ‘calling all first time commenters’ thing and verily my enthusiasm overflowethed. ;) Cheers everyone.

    I just cannot believe how horrible the Braves pants wrinkled over their shoes looks in the pic of their lineup. How can it be allowed? Is MLB insane or blind? Would someone please explain what the players are thinking? Do they think its hip to pants a foot too long? What has happened to taste?

    And this time take your candy wrappers with you. Throw them away. Why should I have to clean up after you? I’m REALLY sick of that “old man” critisism . Do you think the Braves pants look good? If you do say so. Or are you scared of being called an old man if you don’t?

    Sounds like the early 70s, sorta…

    “I just cannot believe how horrible the Braves tight pants look in the pic of their lineup. How can it be allowed? Is MLB insane or blind? Would someone please explain what the players are thinking? Do they think its hip to wear pants so skin tight they look like ballet dancers? What has happened to taste?”

    Not criticizing you, Jim, just saying things are cyclical.

    I’m not scared of being called an old man, I’m 24 and I look like I’m 16.

    But no, I don’t think pajamas look good, but I also realize it’s a comfort issue for many players, and I can live with that.

    Listen, I have pretty hairy legs, and when I wear socks that aren’t no-shows – link – my leg hair getts pulled and pushed by the socks and eventually starts to hurt/bug me. I can last a couple of hours, but after that, I need to take the socks off like a MFer.

    I can imagine baseball players feeling the same way, and frankly sometimes function is more important that form.

    Ricko, I never criticized the tight pants of the 70s, I liked it. Some things look good, others don’t. I didn’t see you say you like the wrinkeled look. Why are people SO AFRAID to say anything about young people’s taste? I got it all when I had long hair in the 60s. Police harrasment, threats of violence. That’s not going to make me afraid to speak my mind now. My friend teaches high school and says they are all idiots. Its the fault of parents, mostly baby boomers, who are too afraid of being called old to tell their kids to put down the video game and do something.

    Your legs aside, I don’t think the long pants are funtional. I saw an outfielder trip over his pants going fo a ball. Recently Willie McGee convinced a young Cardinal that wearing tight pants allows you to run faster, less wind resistance and interferance between the legs and the pants.

    I wasn’t disagreeing.
    Just got a bit of deja vu.

    The pants of today probably have gone TOO far in the length department. But they really can’t get any longer, so I suspect a new look will take hold soon. Probably the short baggy pants with high colored sock (Ian Kinstler-style). To my experience, anyway, that is the other most comfortable way to wear baseball pants.

    Ok, now you’re actively trying to sound like the old man stereotype.

    You completely missed Ricko’s point. One generation always* hates the younger generation’s trends. Part of that is simply BECAUSE the older generation hates them.

    You did it with your long hair, now kids are doing it with their skinny jeans. This current generation of major leaguers like the baggy pants. You don’t. Oh well. There’s always hope for the next generation.

    link
    link

    And people like you always say our music sucks, or our clothes are stupid or that our uniforms are all wrong. Your parents thought the exact same things. Get over yourself, you’re not the greatest generation, no one is, we all make the same mistakes.

    *Not literally always, but you know what I mean…

    with apologies to mr. charles daniels…

    so, jim…both you and ricko were one of them “long haired hippie type pinko fags” (as sung in uneasy rider)?

    totally agreed on the long pants (what were people thinking with bell bottom blues, either?)…

    styles change, true…but when form doesn’t follow function, and you TRIP over your stylings (like wearing jeans without belts that fall down past your ass)…then you’ve pushed the envelope a wee bit too far

    each generation will try to define a “look” this is their own, but at least up until a few years ago, the look didn’t preclude one from actually performing ones duties

    some things still (and will never) don’t look right to me — floods on pants and dress shirts untucked

    but now if you tuck ANY type of clothing into your jeans, well…just…don’t…now matter how much of a slob you may have looked to a generation past

    There is a great baseball movie from 1953 on TCM today at 6:45 P,M (5:45 central) called Big Leaguer, starring Edward G. Robinson. It’s set at the New York Giants rookie camp. There’s plenty of early 50’s uni goodness-striped stirups, white crowned caps, company team jersys- with more than a few pinned numbers on the backs (PNOB?). The N.L. anniversery patch pops up now and then. There’s also enough 50’s sport shirts and baggy chinos to fill up a really cool vintage store.

    Favor needed:

    Anyone here have the art skills to make a tiny logo for a blog of mine? It can just be an image and some stylized font kinda smooshed togther. If so I’d ‘ppreciate it, email to brinke at hotmail dot com, thanks!

    Surprising that nobody pointed out the fact that the Mets wore solid white pants during BP and switched to pinstripes for the game. Not a Mets fan, so I’m not sure if that is standard practice for them, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a team utilize “BP Pants” before.

    a recent licensing agreement has precluded any other catchers from wearing a painted mask other than Buck and now-retired Greg Zaun.

    any information on what this licensing agreement is?

    As a Dolphin fan, I’m both terrified and excited about a possible change in uniform/logo next year.

    I hope they go traditional…and if they go radical, hopefully it won’t go the “Tampy Bay Bucs” route and lose their traditional identity.

    The “traditional identity” is nice to revisit once a year, but I don’t think Buc fans – the people who actually would care about such things – really lament the current identity.

    At least this one doesn’t.

    I just hope the Dolphins *finally* match that wee dolphin’s helmet and the team helmet up, logowise

    It’s a Miami dolphin. And a football playing one at that.
    But not necessarily one of THE Miami Dolphins.
    THE Miami Dolphins are, y’know, human.

    It would still be cool, for one point in the ‘Fins history, to see a helmet with the M on it.

    I bet you that if the dolphin actually suited up and played for the team, he might be a better Quarterback then Henne.

    In that Madden ’13 link if you look at the Ray Lewis image that shows his leg, you’ll notice that the socks are white with black/purple/black striping. Think that’s what they’ll be wearing this year?

    The numbers are inaccurate on that throwback uniform too (they were identical in font to the ones used by the Diamondbacks before they switched colors, and had 2 outlines as opposed to the outline and drop shadow, the game unfortunately has the same numbers you see on the uniforms now.

    More on the Stars’ uniforms, which have more things attached to them now than a guy wearing magnets running through a curio shop:

    link

    with regard to the magic’s uni numbers being written on their nba green warmpups, that is consistent with what they do for their regular warmups…at least the road versions. i was lucky enough to sit on the court last week when they visited the knicks, and i was directly next to the orlando bench. the ball boys had all the warmup shirts laid out in front of my feet, and as a friend and i contemplated whether or not we could get away with stealing one (since there were many times when no one had an eye on them), we noticed that each shirt had a uni number written on the front in black sharpie. we had the best chance of stealing big baby’s xxxl shirt, which would have been a hell of a score, but we ultimately chickened out.

    NNOB does look so much nicer. In this day & age of media info oversaturation, scoreboards & tickers, we really don’t need NOB in MLB.

    Baseball uniforms look much better with NNOB. It’s a much cleaner, less congested look. It would be nice if more teams did NNOB, at the very least, with their home unis.

    I like the unis.. but hate the red hats, i prefer the blue hats with the red C much more.. though i do wish the C had a white outline

    I actually really like that there’s no white outline on the C caps. The navy cap with an outline looks too much like this link

    Watching Jake Peavy interviewed on the White Sox pre game show, a half-hour before first pitch. He’s wearing the gray road jersey.

    There was a story last year (I think it was from Brooks Boyer, the Sox’ marketing VP) that said the Sox were going to wear the gray more. Perhaps with a new manager, they can implement this policy.

    Boyer was the one who said that the Sox would wear their primary jerseys more often because fans commented about the team wearing the black ones too often.

    So, naturally, they wore black for both the season opener and the home opener last year.

    It’s possible that Ozzie just told management to go fuck themselves.

    On the MLB Gameday, it shows the Rangers in link.

    I hit the submit comment button then looked back and realized I had just repeated exactly what you said… so for sake of diversity:

    Immaculate

    “i had better pizza in new york”

    ~~~

    at least the ad is truthful

    the Orioles are using a “home” batting helmet today (color block style to match their cap). did they have these in spring training?

    they kept it simple in ST, but they announced their batting helmet intentions the day they unveiled their uniforms, they will match their hats (though they did not mention what they will wear with their black alts).

    Maybe someone can field this question- Are MLB players authorized to wear the low crowned New Era caps in games?

    I would say yes. If you look at pictures of Ichiro, it appears as if he wears one. My guess is that most players don’t even realize it’s an option, or they just don’t care, so they don’t ask.

    FYI: pro wrestler Alex Riley is the son of (fox?) broadcast Kevin Kiley and was a decorated High School and College QB.

    Not sure if it has been revealed, but has Nike NFL revealed the attire for the coaches? Curious to see if Nike has made a special black top for Coach Jim Harbaugh.

    Yeah I wondered the same. Him wearing a polo shirt would look strange. I bet he’ll have something that looks -just- like last fall’s look.

    Watching the Rockies/Astros intros and the Astros S&C coach is wearing a shorts version of the home pinstriped pants. Never seen that before.

    I see he has the road greys, too.

    link

    My son plays in a Cal Ripken league that uses Majestic’s Team MLB uniforms. In the past they were always a season behind so when a team would update you would still have the kids in last season’s looks. Not really a big deal…they are just kids. But this season, for some reason, the Blue Jays still have the black Blue Jay jersey, BUT…here is the odd part. The kids got the new logo hats. Talk about a bad look. I am at a loss on why Majestic would not just issue the black Jays hat with the black jersey. My son plays for the Rangers, and what Majestic does for them is take an artistic liberty and they produce Rangers jerseys not Texas jerseys. Here is the link…although it does not show the hats. link

    Maybe they are burning through the last of the stock but there are not enough hats to match the shirts (though I don’t know why they would print an abundance of shirts knowing they were going to be changing, unless they had the prints in abundance).

    The one season I played Little League (before I returned back to soccer year ’round), I was on the Diamondbacks I tried to convince my coach to get us the Snake D logo because we were not the Arizona Diamondbacks, I was disappointed when the A hats came in. Are the Rangers hats the regular ones (with the T?)

    Also I noticed they have the old marlins look (Teal and everything) did they get the new caps as well or did no one in the league get that team?

    I don’t know. I think the Marlins are a T-Ball team this year so I doubt I will see them. I know in our league only 3 names are not used this year. The Brewers (beer is bad) the Indians (don’t wanna piss anyone off) are never picked. And the Mariners were the odd team out this season. I like that they have throwbacks too, but a shame they do not have the Expos and the Pilots.

    Pittsburgh Power in camo tonight vs. Iowa. military appreciation night. jerseys actually look sharp. I like

    Hey Paul–you say that MLB “mandates” road greys as the teams primary uniform. Is that a new(ish) rule? Does that mean that IF you have grey unis they must be the primaries?

    Back in the 70s and 80s many teams didn’t even have ANY grey uni options (Padres, Pirates, Giants, Astros, Cubs etc.)

    Could a team today abandon grey altogether as many did back then? Or is having a grey uni mandatory?

    I don’t know if or when that became an official rule (that grey must be “primary” road), but I seem to remember the first time I ever saw the Cubs wear grey, during their road opener in 1990 (and I was a regular WGN Cubs viewer from 1986-92 or so) that Steve Stone or somebody said something about it was “a new league rule” that was why the Cubs changed their road uni from blue to gray.

    But then again, the Expos were still wearing powder blue in 1990, while the Phils changed from powder blue before the Cubs, so maybe not.

    So either

    Paul,

    How come no mention of the new MLB helmets?

    You can see one in the linked picture picture of the new Jays aways.

    link

    I’m assuming they are a new slimmed down s100. They look pretty good. Only slightly bigger if anything.

    There’s an Arena Football League game on NFL Network right now, and the New Orleans VooDoo’s jersey numbers are REALLY hard to see. I don’t know if it’s just my TV, but the numbers are red on a black jersey and from far away it’s very tough to make out what the numbers are. Red on black is pretty uncommon in sports and now I can see why.

    Either the problem is my TV, or the lighting in the arena is poor. Or there is just not enough contrast between the red numbers and the black jerseys.

    This is probably one of the best photos EVER posted on this website. Look how happy those kids are, the sheer joy of that age, attending opening day, basking in the sunshine.

    link

    I liked the O’s old 70s and tri-colored helmet’s better than this year’s version. Even if they were less like tghe hats.

    The Mets in pinstripes, blue caps and no black, along with a win – A very good Opening Day!

    Obviously no fan of the Braves, but I’ve always liked their standard home & away uni’s, especially the red-billed caps. The alt jerseys and caps are a sad step backwards in the class department – They look bush league.

    After looking at the photo of the Braves lined up for introductions (looking like kids who had raided their dads’ closets for pants) and then the photo of Steven Strasberg, my wish is for young Steven to be a trend-setter among ball players from Little League to Major Leagues. Maybe he could at least visit other clubhouses and give some lessons in how to wear baseball pants.
    (Now we have to get him some stirrups and sanitaries!)

    Did anyone else notice that the 50 in the Mets 50th aniversery logo uses the same typeface as the Nationals’ old uni numbers?

    I doubt there is anyone listening at this point, but re the comment made earlier about why there are no MLB alternate jerseys worn during the All-Star Game. Kudos. That is why it is the best All-Star Game around. Who cares if it counts, it looks good! (Besides, they have the home run derby for the sales/marketing $$$)

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