Pair of Sevens

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Uni Watch mascots Tucker (left) and Caitlin will be getting some extra-special catnip today, because they’re turning seven years old. That means they’ve almost caught up to me in cat years, so now we’re more or less the same age and can really relate to each other as equals when discussing important shit (the Mets, pork chops, bowling, chicks, etc.). Happy birthday, cuties!

Okay, now on to less important matters. Por ejemplo: Got a note the other day from reader Blake Pass, who wrote, “The lettering on the Gwinnett Braves home jersey is really off-center. It drives me bonkers.” Seemed like a simple enough issue — I figured I’d put it in the Ticker and that would be that. But once I started investigating, it turned out Blake had sent me down a surprisingly deep rabbit hole.

First, the basics: The Gwinett Braves are Atlanta’s triple-A affiliate. They wear a version of the parent club’s script, and it does seem disproportionately weighted to one side:

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As you can see in all of those photos, the “v” in the script falls squarely on the placket. So if the Gwinett script looks lopsided, how is the Atlanta script positioned? Let’s take a look:

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So the script on the big league jerseys is positioned just a wee bit over toward the left sleeve (as you can see, the “v” is no longer quite centered on the placket), but the real difference is that the tomahawk head extends past the end of the script and makes the whole thing feel balanced. The Gwinett jersey doesn’t have the tomahawk, and they apparently didn’t compensate for that when deciding where to position the script.

Then I thought, “Hmmm, the Braves’ new alternate jersey doesn’t have the tomahawk either. How did they handle the script on that design?” Here’s the answer:

Now the script has been shifted more significantly, with the “a” now landing flush on the placket. So they accounted for the absence of the tomahawk. And of course the front uni number adds a bit of weight to that side of the jersey, but the script still looks balanced even without the number, as you can see here:

So it seems like the Gwinett club would be better off shifting their script over so that the “a” lands on the placket. And as it turns out, they’ve actually done that — but only on their alternate jersey. Now if they could just make the adjustment on their primary.

As a footnote to all of this, it turns out that the Gwinett mascot, Chopper, wears a properly centered script in his cartoon representation, but the live mascot is saddled with the off-center script:

And as a footnote to the footnote, I’ll add that the cartoon Chopper is wearing a five-fingered glove, even though he (like most cartoon characters) appears to have only four fingers.

Cleveland renaming contest reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, Phil’s contest to rename the Indians is moving along nicely. If you scroll down a bit on that link, you can vote for your favorite designs among the semi-finalists.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Stay classy, Nike. ”¦ Adam Jones of the Orioles has been going high-cuffed lately, and he talks about it at the 0:25 mark of this video (big thanks to Jack Krabbe). … Good piece about how Nike lettered up the jerseys at the draft. … New kit for the Leicester Tigers (from Josh Jacobs). … Sporting KC fans are upset because the team doesn’t have a jersey sponsor. “The perception is that only teams that are ‘good enough’ or ‘interesting enough’ get sponsors, so it is a mark of pride to have your team turned into a billboard,” says Patrick Runge. Sigh. … Good query from Dan Dove, who writes: “With the NFL expanding offseason roster limits to 90, a few teams will run into the problem of not having enough numbers to issue. For instance, the Panthers only have two numbers right now they can give to Luke Kuechly — 51 and 59 (90-99 are all taken). 51 is retired for Sam Mills, so 59 seems like the logical choice. But what if they draft or sign another LB? Do they temporarily switch a starter’s number to 51 or give the retired number to a guy unlikely to make the team?” Dan points out that several teams have more than ten retired numbers, including the Bears (13), Giants (11), and Niners (12), so those clubs will presumably come up against this problem soonest. … Mike Frick was backstage at the NFL draft and got this shot of the draftees’ hat sizes. … Betsy Flood of the Iowa women’s track team wears a captain’s “C” (from Jesse Gavin. … Eric Wright has noticed a tiny adjustment to the Titans’ jersey that the rest of us missed: In the past, the colored shoulder yoke extended all the way down to the base of the sleeve, but now it stops just above the sleeve cuff. … Jerry Layne’s memorial patch for Harry Wendelstadt was upside-down the other day (from Evan Stein). … Here’s another one of those QBBOB jerseys — that’s QB busts on back (from Kellen Dargle). … The Lightning have put up an infographic that breaks down, among other things, the uniform Steven Stamkos was wearing for each of his 60 goals this year (from Nick Hanson). … I’m quoted at length in this article about Texas A&M’s football uniforms, plus there’s a sidebar that’s basically a monologue, or maybe a soliloquy, by me. ”¦ Here’s Vanderbilt’s SEC championship ring (from Lee David Wilds). ”¦ Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar has been wearing teammate Yuniesky Betancourt’s shoes (screen shot by Clayton Snodgrass). ”¦ Here’s a video of Niners equipment manager lettering up the jersey for first-round pick A.J. Jenkins’s press conference (from Peter Whiteford). ”¦ “A high school near my hometown in Indiana recently had a student die in a car accident while driving home after her softball game,” writes Derek Linn. “To honor her memory, the team didn’t just wear purple ribbons (purple was her favorite color), they actually went out and bought purple jerseys, even though their school colors are navy and orange. They also painted her number on their cheeks.” ”¦ Really interesting article about color names. No mention of athletic gold, alas, but still good stuff (from Tom Mulgrew). … Yadi Molina, who normally goes pajama-pantsed, went high-cuffed the other day (from Caleb Yorks). … You know how MLB teams all have that “How to wear your uniform” poster in the locker room? According to a report that Kevin Gee saw on the MLB Network, the Marlins have a full-sized mannequins instead of the poster. ”¦ Also from Kevin: Matt Downs didn’t have the Astros’ 50th-anniversary cap patch on Saturday. ”¦ The Japanese Trampoline Assocation has a fun logo (from Joba Chamberlain Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Kudos to Bryce Harper, who wore stirrups and mostly-plain black cleats in his MLB debut on Saturday. ”¦ The problem with these new fabrics is that they’re often too transparent (from Steven Brown). ”¦ Oregon football unveiled new jerseys, similar to what they wore in the Rose Bowl, for their spring game (from Desmond Jones). … Chris LaHaye spotted a St. Joseph’s Academy softball player wearing work gloves instead of batting gloves over the weekend. … Rutgers football will reveal new uniforms tomorrow afternoon. … New research data has led Hockey Uniform Database honcho Andrew Greenstein to revise his assessment of what the 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates looked like (from Tim Brulia). … Two soccer notes from Jon Forbes: (1) New away kit for Bayern Munich. (2) New home kit for Rangers. “Like rivals Celtic, they’re making their sponsor logo smaller and placing it under the club crest,” says Jon. “The kit is paying tribute to the 1972 Rangers squad that defeated Dinamo Moskva to win the Cup Winners’ Cup. ‘1972’ is stitched on the inside of the collar.” … Phil had a good assessment of the new Utah State football logos and uniforms, including a slideshow of all the new looks, in yesterday’s entry. If you want more, here’s a video of the new gear, a timeline of Utah State logos, and the official logo slick, including Pantone colors, for the new design. Plus there are new designs for the basketball team, the student rooting section, and the football field and basketball court (my thanks to Brian Watts and Karson Kalian for their contributions). … Justin Hatfield spotted a vendor at Coors Field with some serious blousing. … A black matte BYU helmet is floating around the web. No idea if it’s legit. …Adam Villa recently toured the Louisville Slugger factory in Kentucky. “They were hard at work making those ridiculous pink bats for Mother’s Day, and the tour guide mentioned that they were switching to a neon pink this year instead of the previous Pepto Bismol shade,” says Adam. “Photography was prohibited on the tour, but I couldn’t resist grabbing a photo of the side-by-side comparison of the pink bats. No word on whether the blue is changing for Father’s Day.” ”¦ Gregg Cook reports that Erik Gustafsson of the Flyers has been wearing mismatch uni numerals for months now: The 6 is clearly smaller than the 2. ”¦ Speaking of the Flyers, Jaromir Jagr wears gloves with no logo creep (from Steve Werner). ”¦ Ben Zobrist of the Rays wore a right-handed batting helmet for a left-handed plate appearance yesterday (from Christopher Mycoskie).