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Auction Action

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As you’ve probably noticed by now from the ad in the left sidebar, our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions recently came out with another catalog’s worth of good stuff. Here are some items that caught my eye:

• Oh man, I love everything about this satin Celtics warm-up jacket. The white/gold striping, the big number on the back, the satin sheen — magnificent.

• I love that Catfish Hunter’s nickNOB included quote marks. And I love even more that the quote marks hovered over the first and last letters, instead of outside of them. I realize that choice probably had more to do with space efficiency than aesthetics, but I like the results — looks more playful, less clunky.

• Okkonen/Nines shows that the Pilots wore a very simple uniform design for 1969 spring training. Here’s one of those rare jerseys.

• If you’ve been waiting for your chance to own an Indians TATC jersey from 1999, here’s your chance.

• Speaking of the Indians, ever seen this patch before? The Indians wore on their blood clot jerseys in 1976.

• So odd that the Yankees once wore a patch with royal and gold. Yeah, okay, 50 years is the golden anniversary, but still. Also: Note that the bat is going across the “k,” instead of parallel to it. (You can click on the today’s splash photo to see a larger version of the patch.)

• I love this Fenway Park usher’s jacket. Look at that awesome sleeve patch!

• Want to DIY yourself some Dodgers jerseys? You’ll be good to go with this huge lot of Dodgers patches.

• I’ve always loved the AFL logo, but putting it on two sleeves is too much.

• Holy moly, check out this sensational 1930 Stanford football uniform. The patch-style uni number, the sleeve and sock stripes, the riveted patches on the pants, the label design — tasty stuff.

• Totally digging the 1970s typography and ring of stars on this ABA all-star jersey.

• Speaking of the ABA, I’ve always been a sucker for their red zebra jerseys.

• And we wrap up with a double rarity: a basketball jersey with a subscript NOB, and it’s on a nameplate, instead of being direct-sewn.

Want to see more? You can go through the entire catalog here.

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Keeping up with the Joneses: In case you missed it yesterday, my latest ESPN column — which is all about nickNOBs, RNOBs, JrNOBs, and the like — is available here. It prompted a lot of interesting responses, especially about players named Jones:

• At one point I mentioned that Pacman Jones managed to wear his nickname’s initial. That prompted reader Mike Raymer to point to a similar example: Chipper Jones. But does “Chipper” really qualify as his nickname? I mean, I know his given name is Larry, but nobody calls him that. His de facto first name is Chipper. I don’t feel that way about Pacman Jones, but maybe that’s because you could actually name a kid “Chipper” while nobody would ever name a kid “Pacman” (I hope). What do you think of these two examples: Equivalent? Related, but different? Discuss. (And yes, it’s pretty nice to see Chipper in stirrups.)

• John Szczepanski singled out yet another Jones of note: Deacon. But is that a nickNOB or a FiNOB? Obviously, Deacon wasn’t his given name, but I’ve never heard him referred to by anything other than Deacon. In fact, until looking it up just now, I didn’t even know what his first name was (David, as it turns out). So: nickNOB or FiNOB? Again, discuss.

• In non-Jones news, Tim E. O’Brien points out that Tank Johnson wore a nickNOB and FNOB simultaneously.

•  Fred Teigen found a jersey with a hyphenated FNOB! Did Carlson really wear it that way on the ice? (And if so, was Ann-Margret also on the team?)

• Back to the Joneses: Vinnie Dinolfo wrote in to say that Browns defensive end Joe Jones wore a “Turkey” nickNOB in the early 1970s, when he was wearing No. 80. Jones was indeed nicknamed “Turkey Joe,” and he did wear No. 80 during the early years of his career, but I could find only two rear-view photos of him from that period, and they both show him with a conventional “Jones” NOB: this 1972 footcall card and this 1973 wire photo (I had to blow up the image a bit to be sure, but he’s definitely wearing “Jones”). So I’m skeptical of Vinnie’s claim on this one, especially since I’ve never heard it come up before. Anyone know more? (Jones later left the Browns and played for the Eagles for two years before returning to Cleveland. During his second stint with the Browns, he wore No. 64 and definitely had a conventional NOB.)

• Vinnie didn’t exactly help his credibility regarding Jones by also telling me that 49ers running back John David Crow wore a nickNOB — “Goober” — in the early 1970s. That claim is clearly false, since Crow’s last game in the league was in 1968, and the Niners didn’t even have NOBs yet at that point. I’m only bothering to mention it here because maybe Vinnie got some players mixed up in his head and there really was someone out there (not Crow) wearing “Goober” in the early ’70s. Anyone know more?

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Pandering to the public with G.I. Joe caps apparently isn’t enough for the Orioles, so they’re gonna pander a little lower on Sunday with G.I. Joe jerseys. Embarrassing. ”¦ The Columbus crew debuted their new white kit on Wednesday night (from Jacob Kubuske). … The Orix Buffaloes will wear red jerseys with three different chest lettering colors for three games this summer (from Jeremy Brahm). … A Craigslist user in Hawaii is selling a really nice batch of vintage Japanese baseball jerseys (from Kevin, who didn’t give his last name). … Craig Sallinger, an amateur aviation buff, recently visited the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum just outside of Baltimore. Martin had several company teams — baseball, softball, bowling, etc. — so Craig took some snaps of the uniforms that were on display. ”¦ Latest reason to love Rays skipper Joe Maddon: He recently posted the starting lineup and assigned each player a superhero alter ego. Not sure if that’s why Fernando Rodney and Joel Peralta were recently spotted wearing gladiator helmets in the dugout, but I think it’s safe to say that Maddon runs a very entertaining ship (from Jay Sullivan). … Good info on the Texans’ new uni number assignments. “Interesting to discover that #49 has never been assigned in Texans history,” notes Bob Wilkins. … I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: The latest installment of Mark Penxa’s “Stealing Signs” series is spectacular. Start here, click on a state, then click on a name, and you’ll see what I mean. … Here’s something you almost never see: a baseball team with uni numbers on their caps. that’s the Rensselear High School Rams, from upstate New York (from Joe Makowiec). … I know we’d already seen one of this year’s MLB ASG BP jerseys, but I’m not sure we’d seen both of them (from Edward D. Kendrick). ”¦ Good piece on the history of naming rights (from Kurt Esposito).

Holiday schedule: Phil will have his usual weekend content. The site will be open on Monday, but content will likely be minimal. Everyone have a great long weekend and I’ll see you next week.

 
  
 
Comments (173)

    Paul, as a heads up, the pirates look like they’re going with camo jerseys on Sunday. I’ve seen pictures of legit replicas (made by majestic, correct tags for replicas – I get how ridiculous “legit replica” sounds haha) floating around, and check out their promotion for Sunday, May 27.

    link

    This matches the replicas that I’ve seen.

    I think you should submit an article to the NY Times opinion discussing how it may be ill fated for teams to wear camo style on their jerseys to honor the military. This phenonmenon continues to spread (the latest being the Orioles) because people actually think this is a good way to honor the dead and the missing. Set it straight on a bigger media platform than this?

    At that size, it looks like dueling corbas.

    I wish we would keep the military out of sports & the uniforms. Besides there’s more than one branch of it. Funny how MLB got through patriotic holidays for almost 140 years before camo unis & Stars and Stripes caps. I knew the Padres doing it in 2000 would only lead to an increased phenomenon.

    On top of everything, that is a terrible – and as far as I know, not used by American servicemen – camo pattern. Makes the Pirates look like actual, ragtag, al-Shabab-affiliated, Somali pirates. Afghan police trainees at best.

    I was actually going to make a similar comment. I work with a number of Service members on a daily basis, from army, navy, af, and the public health service. None of them have a pattern like that. I have not worked with marines/coast guard, so I can’t say for sure that this pattern isn’t used. I can say that Ive never see it, though.

    For those that don’t know, the reason we see camo at my workplace is that we are still technically “at war,” so the Service members wear their fatigues as a show of solidarity. That, I must say *is* an appropriate display using camo.

    we are still technically “at war,”

    Why the scare quotes? And which war(s) are you referring to?

    I’m not being snarky or playing gotcha here — I’m sincerely curious about the protocols at your workplace!

    I think Jon is referring to the war declared against us in the 1990s which resulted in the slaughter of 3000 innocent civilians in 2001. We will be at war for some time in places like Africa and Yeman, and possibly Iran.

    War should be a last resort, but is sometimes inevitable, especially when idiots in Yeman are trying to mail explosives to this country.

    No doubt there are plenty of bad actors out there. But if you mean the “war on terror” (or “war on Islamic fundamentalism,” or whatever we’re calling it this month), that’s a meaningless term and a war that will never be won and will never end. How does one declare victory? When does one know that the war has been won (or lost)? It’s basically just a proxy for expanded executive powers (and expanded sales of camouflage gear). If you’re *always* at war — which is what the war on terror basically means — then the whole notion of war is meaningless.

    All of which, of course, is exactly the situation in Oceana in 1984.

    I was using the quotes given the nature of our current conflicts – President Bush declared the mission in Iraq accomplished several years ago, and I don’t believe a formal declaration of war ever came down for Afghanistan. The quotes were not meant as any judgment, positive or negative, on current US engagements abroad.

    I remember it striking me as odd when I walked into a high-ranking client’s office and he was dressed in fatigues. I was later informed that in times of war it is standard practice for Uniformed Service members (to include USPHS, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and Coast Guard) to wear their fatigues while at their jobs here in the States. I recognized quickly that the vast majority of uniformed personnel in my field did wear their fatigues. I should note that it is not a requirement – I do see uniformed personnel in their more formal uniforms. But fatigues are by far more common. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise, but I think it’s pretty cool that our Service members honor each other in this way.

    In point of plain, simple fact, “at war” does not refer to “the war declared against us in the 1990s.” Anyone holding that view is advised to read two documents: The U.S. Constitution, which in Article I vests the power to make war in the U.S. Congress, not in whatever cave-dweller or Panamanian tinpot chooses to declare war on us; and the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), by which Congress exercised its war power and both authorized and instructed the president to wage war against any person, group, or nation found to have been responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11.

    Those two documents are the basis for the military acting on a war footing, including symbolically wearing camo BDUs at almost all military installations and flying the First Navy Jack instead of the peacetime Union Jack as our naval ensign.

    Paul is right that the AUMF contained neither a sunset clause, nor any plausible method for the executive to declare the AUMF’s mission achieved. So until either the president or the secretary of defense declares that al-Qaeda is defeated, which is to say, “never,” military personnel will be “at war” and so required to wear camo BDUs no matter how far removed they are from any theater of operations.

    There is the possibility, I suppose, that when “combat operations” in Afghanistan are declared to be at an end in 2014, DoD will quietly start reverting to peacetime symbolic practices. But probably not under President Obama, and certainly not under President Romney.

    If I owned a baseball team, I’d do a military-uniform salute the RIGHT way. Stitch ginormous, gold-braided epaulettes onto the jersey shoulders, peaked caps (or the still-awesomer kepi!), and a sash. Maybe jodhpur pants (properly elevated & cuffed, of course).

    And a swagger stick for the manager.

    During World War Two, Japanese baseball teams abandoned the traditional English lettering on their uniforms for Kanji characters. They also abandoned traditional baseball caps for Japanese-style kepi, like the soldiers wore.

    Funny how when one country militarizes its sports uniforms, it feels jingoistic and wrong, but when we have ballplayers showing up in camo, it’s supposed to make me proud to be an American, where at least I know the hot dogs will cost me six bucks.

    That Fenway usher’s jacket at only around $100 seems like a steal.

    “She’s a beaut Clark, a real beaut.” – Cousin Eddie

    Tim E. O’Brien points out that Tank Jones wore a nickNOB and FNOB simultaneously.

    Tank Johnson might be upset at being called Tank Jones.

    You also snuck an extra O into Jeff Carlson’s last name (“Carolson”).

    Not that I approve of it, but the FNOB on the Carlson jersey is because they had more than one Carlson brother, sort of how the Howe boys had it in Hartford.

    Camo hats…awful.Camo uniforms…beyond awful. This goes for the horrendous “flag” hats as well. The Orioles have been losers for 24 of the last 26 years, all we’ve had is the history and the uniform to fall back on. Now we get the atrocious (and incorrect) O’s hat and this travesty. Thank you MLB and Peter Angelos. No nuance on the interwebs-just anger!

    Weird how the Oriole bird gets spared of the ugly camo treatment & on its beak & brim link.

    The double trim is just too much. They really need to fix that black stitching on the cap & do clear vinyl threads.

    There’s no guarantee that they wear those for every holiday (it may be limited to just the hats for July 4th and 9/11), but let’s say they do, that makes 159 games where they are wearing their normal set, and they look damn good in their normal set.

    Now say you want to throw out the black unis when it comes to them looking good (hard to argue against that). That drops the number to 134 games where they wear one of the best sets in the MLB. That’s assuming that they play all of their Friday games at night (they have 26 Friday games this season only one of which so far has been played in their regular home unis, meaning at most they will wear the black jerseys 25 times this season).

    Also they are in first place at the moment, and that’s with injuries that have forced them to call up players prematurely. They’ve got one of the top SS prospects (Machado) in the minors right now as well as one of the best Pitching prospects (Dylan Bundy). I get being skeptical that they will be able to keep it up (2005 started out great too), but in a year where they have gone back to their best look, the team is playing extremely well and sustaining it through hardships you are complaining because the O’s will wear camo unis in at most 3 games…

    Say what you want about the uniforms and hats themselves (I’m not a fan of the camo but I did like the Stars and Stripes hats for teams that have red white and blue in the color scheme, everyone else should have had some sort of patch applied like the All-Star Game patch is as its obvious slapping a flag on there doesn’t work), but the net profits go to the Welcome Back Veterans Fund. If raising awareness for a cause like that (considering re-adjusting to civilian life can be the toughest part of being a soldier), means that in 3 games a special hat will be worn then so be it.

    Turns out that the MLB might not have the same policy with the jerseys that they do with the hats. They don’t mention it on the page for the jerseys, this doesn’t mean they don’t do something similar (not every team has a camo jersey so they wouldn’t have a sweeping policy for them).

    The hats, as ugly as they are, serve a non-superficial purpose as well.

    My hope is that the Orioles organization (as well as anyone else, other than San Diego, adopting the camo this weekend and possibly later) have their own charities and organizations they will be donating to.

    Paul, typo on the Celtics jacket entry- the big number on the bac(k). That’s a really cool jacket.

    As far as Chipper and Deacon. I would have to list them under nickNOB. Even though their nick names are their common names, it’s still not their true first names. If you consider those their first names, then what happens to David and Larry? You just can’t pretend they don’t exist. The fact is Deacon and Chipper are nick names, so they must be designated as such.

    If we start ignoring rules and overlooking things like this then what will become of us? Society will collapse. Dogs and cats will get along. Hell, as recently as yesterday Paul was defending Nike in the comments. Things are getting crazy. Boarder-line pandemonium even. The needle is so far in the red we are on the verge of going plaid.

    “A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet”, and a name other than your truly given first name would still be a nick name. I just referenced Bill Shakespeare for a sports uniform topic, a pretty high accomplishment if I may say so myself.

    Maybe those Mayans were onto something with the 2012 end of the world thing after all.

    How should we refer to legally changed names?

    What if Tom Seaver had worn “T. Seaver” or “Tom Seaver”? Tom isn’t his first name, after all — it’s his middle name.

    Actually, that’s not right either. His middle name is Thomas, not Tom. So is Tom a nickname?

    Given how many people prefer to go by their middle names, and thus end up going by nicknames derived from those middle names, I’d call it “Preferred NOB” or “PNOB”.

    No, Tom is a middle name. So it would be MNOB, or MiNOB if MNOB is already taken. It is what it is. A first name is a first name, a middle name is a middle name, and a nick name is a nick name. I am trying to apply the ‘KISS” formula here.

    Tom is derived from Thomas, so I would still consider it his true middle name. Just like how my name is Michael or Mike. Mike is still a version of Michael. A little bit of a gray area, yes, but I still would consider shortened versions of proper names true first or middle names. There is no form of David in Deacon and no form of Larry in Chipper. I would even go so far as to say Dick is still a true proper name if someone’s name is Richard. But that is the limit. Why would I allow that? Because everyone knows Dick is a shortened version of Richard. The vast majority of people had no idea what Deacon’s and Chipper’s true first names were. That’s the difference maker.

    Take the “Paul” for example. There is no shortened version of that name, so anything anyone else calls you besides Paul or Lukas is a nick name. But a Joe is a Joseph and a Joseph is a Joe, that is unless someone is only a Joe to start with. Confused yet?

    Why is Dick an acceptable or even “normal” shorthand for Richard? I’ve never understood where that came from, but I’ve never cared enough to really bother researching it.

    So what about elongating one’s name? My given is Jon, but many of my friend’s call me Jonny. (Yes, still no H). Is it a nickname?

    I got every bit of it Mike. I’ll thank my barista on Monday.
    Chris (don’t call me Christopher)

    “Why is Dick an acceptable or even “normal” shorthand for Richard? I’ve never understood where that came from, but I’ve never cared enough to really bother researching it.”

    Beats me, Jeffery.

    The Jeff:

    And “Jack” for “John”. Never understood it, and neither did my dad… who’s name is John and went by “Jack”.

    “And “Jack” for “John”. Never understood it”

    Never heard of that.

    I always considered Tom a “nickname” of Thomas. But after looking it up, I guess it is not technically. The only name I can find is ‘short-for’ which isn’t really a name at all. But you can then go with the amusing

    SNOB

    link

    i don’t think the O’s camo unis look all that terrible. they could have been a lot worse. so keeping that in mind those are pretty tame

    Well, I think all Orioles caps are pretty awful right now. But I actually like the Nats camo cap. I don’t object to the camo; I object to using the camo to signal tribute to the military as such, especially on Memorial Day, which is NOT a holiday dedicated to honoring the troops. It’s a holiday for honoring our war dead. It’s a solemn holiday of remembrance and decoration, and the whole camo thing is about playful frivolity. (Well, it’s actually about the mercenary sale of merchandise with zero regard for patriotic or troop-honoring sentiment, but if we play along with MLB’s bullshit about how much it just loves the troops, then the camo becomes a celebratory design element on a holiday where celebration is manifestly inappropriate.)

    These are reasonably fun fan caps. Should never be worn on the field, and should never be associated cynically with Memorial Day. They remind me of the black-logo hunter orange Twins cap I saw once and didn’t buy and have regretted for years.

    Aside from kind of liking the camo in the Nats cap – again, not for wearing by actual players – I also think it’s a nice proof-of-concept that the Nats should wear a navy, not white, logo on the red cap:

    link

    Would set ’em apart from the Phillies, if nothing else. Or maybe even wear the white W at home and a navy W on a solid red cap on the road.

    I tend to agree with Tony, they could’ve been a lot worse. I am by no means a fan of camo on uniforms in general, but when I saw the mention of the O’s going G.I. Joe, I envisioned a full-on camo uniform with orange Orioles script. When I saw the white jersey with a relatively simple camo fill to the script I was relieved. I may change my opinion when I see them on the field however.

    I like the Orioles jersey as well. Having the digital-camo contained within the script and not covering the entire jersey actually works and looks really nice.

    “does “Chipper” really qualify as his nickname? I mean, I know his given name is Larry, but nobody calls him that.”

    ~~~

    i can confirm that during the late ’90s and early aughts, mets fans did indeed call him that quite often, often in chant…

    ‘lah-reeeeee’…’lah-reeeee’

    sometimes his given first name and last name were used with a middle name borrowed from boston fans who inserted said middle name between “bucky” and “dent”

    as my buddy used to always say…”What grown man calls himself Chipper?” always made me laugh, so now I too chant “Lah-reeeee” whenever he’s at the plate.

    Mike Piazza said he could never call a grown man, “Chipper” as well…

    It was a cute one-liner, but using the same logic, I always wondered if he could call a grown man, “Yogi”?

    Coincidentally, Yogi’s real name is Larry (Lawrence) as well…

    ‘Larry’ is a name that reached its sell-by date in about 1950. Surprised there’s anyone younger than me with it. Must be a family thing.

    Given a choice of Larry or Chipper, I’d be Larry Jones.

    Bleacher Bums at Wrigley have been doing it since his rookie year. You could hear the chant clearly throughout the park. It used to spread around that park like wildfire. He had to like it after a while, it was really amusing.

    His father’s name is Larry, that’s why he doesn’t go by it. As for the well overdone chant in Flushing….get a winning team or get a new heckle. It’s lame. And he owns you.

    Agreed. I’ve never hated Chipper, always respected him. Hate what he does to my team, natch, but that’s what great players do. I don’t find him to be an objectionable character per se. As such, I’ve always been a little embarrassed by the “Larrry!” chant.

    “he owns you”

    ~~~

    you got that shit right…fuckin guy named his kid “shea” he enjoyed our park so much

    i do agree with paul, though, in this regard — never hated him and secretly wished he’d been a met, because despite killing my team for years, i always respected the hell out of him

    in fact, the only time i completely disagreed with him was after the braves beat the mets in 1999 (fucking kenny rogers) and he told the media something to the effect of, “ok new york fans, now you can all go home and put on your yankee gear” (since they were to play the yanks in the world series)…not only was he wrong, but that comment pissed me off so much i actually DID root for the yanks to beat him JUST because of the backhanded shot he took at new york

    he and john rocker never did understand new yorkers

    It’ll be interesting to see what the Mets (& fans) do when he makes his last appearance in NY in September.

    And don’t forget the “Joey” chants for Albert Belle.

    I’m a White Sox fan and I remember that well, until he became “our asshole”.

    Man that sucked. I still wouldn’t cheer for him when he was on the Sox. That signing was the worst form of hypocrisy.

    “The Jeff gives me an idea…”

    ~~~

    if i had a nickel for every time i heard that

    you could call me nicholas nickelby

    No camo on those socks? WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?!?!?!?

    /end ostentatious display of jingoistic ignorance

    Excellent ‘rups! Your photos are an tremendous Friday tradition – thanks for sharing ’em here.

    Sorry, I haven’t played GIjoe since I was a kid…

    Thank you for the kind words, and I welcome anyone and everyone to post their own Stirrup Friday pictures.

    Right on Phil. I was just going to say that Mets fans sure liked to call him Larry. I wonder what his mom calls him? I guess finding that out would settle this once and for all.

    As much as I love the superhero alter egos, I think good ol’ Joe kinda dropped the ball by not giving Shields “Capt. America”. Just MO.

    There was an article in the Houston Chronicle this week, that might shed some light on the names. As Will Rhymes was coming to after being hit by a pitch and passing out, a trainer asked him, “Do you know who you are?” He replied, “I’m Batman.” Another Rays player is sporting some sort of extreme sideburns, and his teammates have taken to calling him Wolverine.

    Madden is riding the crest of that superhero wave, which is, like most things he does, pretty funny.

    link

    Just want to say that today’s lead story — Auction Action — is just the kind of material I drool over. The puddles on the keyboard are a problem, but it can’t be helped.

    My experience is that when Paul says “I love…” or “I’m digging…” (which he does a few times this morning) the object of his ardor is almost always a most excellent thing. That Celtics jacket, the Fenway ushers’ patch, the ABA All-Star top, etc. Fabulous.

    This reflexive confidence in Paul’s taste is, I should add, confined to The Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics. Not quite so sure about some other stuff.

    This reflexive confidence in Paul’s taste is, I should add, confined to The Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics. Not quite so sure about some other stuff.

    Conn, your words are hurtful.

    Does this mean you don’t like the Bleeding Knees Club?

    I take it back. After sober consideration, I must say that I absolutely love you and everything about you.

    Pork, chicken thighs, and steak cooked medium-rare? Hard not to agree with that kind of taste.

    For anyone interested in stadium machinations, here is the email the Vikings sent to season ticket holders the other day.

    Final Minneapolis City Council vote is today. Expected to pass, 7-6.

    link

    “On behalf of the entire Vikings organization, we want to say THANK YOU. We’ve always known that we have some of the best corporate partners in the NFL!”

    The Wilfs really need to sign Crash Davis to help work on their cliches.

    Not that it matters, but it looks to me like Joe Jones is wearing “J. Jones” on the trading card. There’s a big distance from the J to the S if that’s just “Jones”, and the bit of white lettering after the J visible above his left ear doesn’t look like an O…

    Going to Twins/Tigers game tonight with that Hockey Blog in Canada guy.

    Damn, wish I had time to get a sign made for him…

    PLAY HARD, MEN.
    TEEBZ IS WATCHING.

    I’ll be there, camera in-hand, to capture all of Prince’s pajama pants action.

    Speaking of Prince, I know there was outrage over him not wearing stirrups when they threwback against the Pirates, but I have pretty solid lower legs, and I find some of the stirrups can be snug. Judging by his size, maybe they didn’t have any that fit him when Pittsburgh supplied the uniforms?

    In any case, looking forward to seeing Rick tonight, and I’m pumped to see the Twins (hopefully) down the Tigers. Oh, and Memorial Day fireworks after the game! Beauty ending to the night!

    Man, I’ve been looking to buy that Cleveland Spirit of 76 patch FOREVER. I need it for my blood clot jersey.

    “the all blue version of this years S&S tribe with Chief Wahoo on it looks really weird especially repugnant”

    ~~~

    fixed

    More lovely, fanciful, colorful, intoxicating ABA goodness.

    I am convinced, more than ever, that the zenith in sports aesthetics was reached in the 1970’s with that league.

    Like a comet that raced across the sky and disapppeared, leaving traces and particles behind for our pleasure. I mean, look at the number treatment on that All-Star jersey!

    Did you know the ABA also was the league that introduced official shirts/sweater, etc., for things such as the stats crew at games?

    I know firsthand, and from stories I was told in the early 70s, that the ABA made a conscious effort to be more fun, more info-oriented (kept far more extensive stats than the NBA, for example; pretty sure they were the first to track turnovers, blocked shots, steals, etc.) and more visually interesting…beyond just the red, white and blue ball, mind you.

    I believe it was Leonard Koppett of the New York Times who once wrote that while the ABA may not have been major league, it forced the NBA to BECOME major league.

    Anyone interested in the ABA story should grab a copy o “Loose Balls”, the oral history of the ABA given by the players, coaches, execs, owners, nnouncers, etc. Awesome book. A bit of uni-info, but two points that really stick out:

    1. Nobody ever got around to copyrighting the iconic ABA Red-White-Blue basketball. The execs chose the ball to help the league stand out, but never reserved the rights to the design or colors. Millions were lost to the league and owners at the time, and one could guess that tens of millions were lost over time.

    2. The Spirits of St. Louis wee on the verge of closing their doors and had already made the decision to leave St. Louis and relocate to Utah to replace the then=bankrupt Utah Stars when ABA/NBA merger talks heated up. The franchise were on their last legs, and when merger talks truly got going, the owners sent in an attorney that literally wore down all f the others with threats of lawsuits and blocking the merger if the St. Louis owners were not taken care of. The final result was a cash payout worth TWICE the sale price of the NBA Buffalo Brave, AND an award of 4/7ths of the annual TV payouts to each NBA team forever – “in perpetuity”. Each surviving, merger ABA team must give 1/7th it’s annual TV money to the St. Louis owners – the Silna brothers, FOREVER.

    The St. Louis guys made out pretty well – no players, no coach, no rent, no gym, not even a basketball – and each year they get 4/7ths a share of the TV money. WOW !!!!

    Well said, Seattle! I’m feeling faint from viewing that red striped referee shirt!

    -Jet

    How about Ichiro Suzuki? Does/Did anyone else have their first name on the back of their uniform? Pretty unique…

    Paul, saying that Pacman is different than Chipper seems… dare I say it… racist.

    You say that they’re different because nobody would ever name someone Pacman but they would name them Chipper. No white person that you know would ever name a child Pacman but maybe an African-American in Atlanta, where Pacman is from, would actually name their kid Pacman.

    Point taken.

    But even if we accept that argument, I still think the two examples are different. Chipper Jones, for example, is listed on the Braves roster as “Chipper Jones” — always has been. When he comes up to bat, the TV network puts “Chipper Jones” on the screen. It is his de facto name.

    But Pacman Jones is listed on the Bengals roster as “Adam Jones,” as you can see here:
    link

    And when they put *his* name on a TV graphic — well, I’m not sure. Anyone know? But I think the roster listing is telling.

    Pacman used to be referred to as Pacman on the roster when he was in Tenn but after his legal brushups he switched only to Adam Jones.

    I imagine most times there’s something of a distinction between a family nickname you got before you could walk and a nickname you didn’t get until you were old enough to go into a strip joint.

    Actually, Pacman Jones got his nickname as a child:
    link

    But for years he was still, at most, Adam “Pacman” Jones. Chipper was never Larry “Chipper” Jones (at least not during his professional career) — he was just Chipper Jones.

    Again, Chipper was/is Chipper’s de facto name (just as “Babe” was George Herman Ruth’s de facto name); Pacman is Adam’s nickname. I think there’s a difference.

    Wasn’t specifically referencing Pacman, but certainly using strip joint access as a reference point owed to his being in the discussion.

    Hoo-boy, there’s a lot of gray area there.
    Pacman Jones got his nickname because as a little kid, he’d guzzle down all the family’s milk like Pacman.
    Justin Chamberlain decided that at age 7, he liked his cousin Joshua’s nickname, and wanted it for himself. “Joba.” Lots of time between learning to walk and getting into a strip club.
    But speaking of “middle initials” (comment from earlier in the day), it registers just like a FINOB to me. Some families have naming traditions whereby the first name is the same, but the “name” is the middle name from the git-go.

    Jesus. Didn’t say was an absolute.

    Just saying there are family/kidhood nicknames and there are nicknames that come around later in life, and the latter sometimes have a look-at-me, smart-assery component that the kidhood ones do not.

    Prior to his brush-ups with the law, I was completely unaware what Pacman’s first name was. I was aware that Pacman was a nickname, but I believe they only started to refer to him as Adam “Pacman” Jones after the legal incident. On his return to the field, he announced that he would now go by Adam, as a sign of maturity. I believe sports media complied with his wishes, but added the “Pacman” in the middle to avoid confusion.

    Wouldn’t it be great if Pacman Jones and Atari Bigby were in the same defensive backfield?

    Lots of possibilities there for a cool nickname, like how Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy were called The Firm.

    I’m thinking with Pacman and Atari playing together you could call them “The Arcade” and make jokes about them getting your “quarter back”.

    “I’m white and I’d name a kid Pacman.”

    ~~~

    the best argument for birth control i’ve heard in centuries

    I guess I’d chime in and say I see no difference between Chipper and Pacman. I’ve only known both by those names (not being a fan of any teams they’ve played for, and therefore not knowing much about them.)

    I don’t know if that 50th anniv. Yanks patch was intentionally royal blue or if it just faded over time, because if you look at that picture of link, the blues in that patch match the navy/midnite blues of the rest of his uni… Either way, that bat’s totally fakakta…

    That’s a little weird. I don’t think navy blue would turn into royal blue by any normal means. Color fading doesn’t usually work that way. What would cause navy blue to turn into royal blue without also turning the red into a lighter shade?

    The few times I’ve seen a vintage example, they’ve link.

    That’s a bizarre patch all around. As you note, Paul, the hat/bat is at an angle to the “k” rather than lying over it. But what’s really odd is that they apparently sewed the patch with the <a href="link text centered, so the “Yankees” script link up a steep link.

    That’s interesting. The one black & white shot appears to show the patch being an obviously lighter color than the Yankees’ normal navy, while the other one seems to show a matching color. Is it possible that both a royal and a navy version coexisted?

    So the Yankees wore a “50th Year” patch in 1952…

    link

    …and wore a “100th Anniversary” patch in 2003:

    link

    By “50th Year” I think they meant “50th Season” because the 50th anniversary was actually 1953.

    In regards to these types of patches, are year, season, and anniversary often used interchangeably? It seems like these terms could be easily confused with one another if they do have distinct meanings.

    That’s interesting. The one black & white shot appears to show the patch being an obviously lighter color than the Yankees’ normal navy, while the other one seems to show a matching color. Is it possible that both a royal and a navy version coexisted?

    That seems a little complicated. More likely that lighting conditions (or development conditions) made the colors look a little different in the prints.

    The WLAF had arguably one of the most memorable (for all the wrong reasons) nickNOBs of recent times with William Perry’s short-lived comeback in London in 1996:

    link

    That’s what he wore on the field. Haven’t been able to find game pics or video, though.

    On the Indians’ patch: Didn’t all teams wear some variation of that for the Bicentennial year?

    Also, on an unrelated note, I found it funny that one of the ads (at least today) is for the NFL’s Nike store, considering Paul’s dislike of most things Nike. :)

    No. All *National League* teams wore the N.L. centennial patch (which certainly had a patriotic-ish design but was not about the nation’s bicentennial per se):
    link

    The Phillies and A’s wore bicentennial patches:
    link

    Algorithms aside, 20th Century Fox still places ads for their movies in pubs that have given the studio’s work bad reviews, y’know.

    The ads are generated based on each individual user. I would see different ads than you do, assuming of course that I didn’t have them blocked in my browser. In addition to that, they’re often based on keywords, so Paul’s negativity towards Nike is irrelevant. A page that mentions Nike 5 times is a page that mentions Nike 5 times. It makes no difference if 4 of those 5 are followed by the word “sucks”.

    In his book Instant Replay, Jerry Kramer refers to Deacon as “Davy” Jones.

    The most interesting thing about the Rays/superhero picture is that Carlos Pena was batting leadoff.

    Seeing that Catfish Hunter jersey in the auction reminds me of how righteous those numerals were – broad, expansive and unlike other jersey numbers of the day. Anyone know what font that was?

    -Jet

    Paul,

    Love the Catch of the Day! I am a big fan of maps, especially antique and reproduced antique maps (read: in my price range). I have a couple nice ones framed in my office. My wife doesn’t understand this and aways asks why I would want to frame maps. The only answer I give is, “I think they look cool.”

    Amen, Mike. I love maps so much I based my career around using them (I’m in the geography/GIS field). I have no less than four framed maps in my one-bedroom apartment.

    Now all you need is a catchy song that will put you…

    [takes off sunglasses]

    …on the map.

    Yeah yeah, I know.

    I want to name my band The Continents.

    This way when we call it quits, headlines will read, “The Continents are breaking apart.”

    Then when we release our comeback album, Pangaea, headlines will read, “Continents reform, create Pangaea.”

    My dream band name was always “Those Russians”, as with Tim E. O’ for the delicious effect it would have on headlines and conversations. “Did you see the show by Those Russians?”

    Problem is, “Those Russians” is a terrible name for a ukulele-infused ska act that mainly covers country & western tunes, which is pretty much the niche my musical “talent” rests in. Or maybe it’s the best name for that act, and it’s just a terrible act. Same result either way.

    Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but in the Rensselear High School Rams photo with the numbers on the hat, #11 has two different colors for the numbers. The first is orange and the second is white. Go to picture 3 and you can see it more clearly. The other player has both numbers orange. Randomly odd.

    Yeah, after I hit submit, I noticed it made it seem like I was talking about the hat numbers, but was referring to the uniform number.

    Pretty sure Howard Cosell used to say “David. Deacon. Jones.”

    Chipper’s as much of a nickname as Pacman.

    I know this is a little late, but just to shed some light on the “Tank” Johnson FnickNOB, it resulted because there was another T. Johnson on that Bears team, link. Normally the Bears just used first initials to differentiate players with the same last name, like link and link or link (sic) and link . And if I remember correctly, they let Tank use “Tank” because it was shorter than Terry. And the weirdest part was that this all took place in the 2006 season and all of these players could be on the field at the same time since they all played defense.

    Oh – nice. Wonder why they chose that instead Te. Johnson or To. Johnson

    Because the old NFL NOB rules dictated that FNOB’s be used if FiNOB’s were the same, i.e.: Paul Lukas and Peter Lukas (never just Pa. Lukas and Pe. Lukas).

    I can’t believe no one has mentioned that Jeff Carlson was one of the Hanson Brothers in the movie Slap Shot. Is this common knowledge to all Uni Watch readers?

    Also, I watched an episode of The White Shadow last night with scenes of a color-vs-color basketball game. One team was orange and the other was royal blue. Since The White Shadow is a show about a high school basketball team that aired from 1978 to 1981, I’m sure there’s TONS more uni-notable moments from this series.

    After a quick YouTube search, here’s an orange vs yellow basketball game from The White Shadow:

    link

    And here’s the show’s intro. At the very beginning it shows that the high school team’s coach was a player for the Bulls until he got injured. It’s tough to see what other NBA teams he’s playing against. Are they just generic uniforms? Here’s the intro:

    link

    link

    This field can’t actually be real, can it? Maryland does some ridiculous things for attention but a black field in their early season games would be brutally hot.

    Bringing attention to the troops on their holiday? Offensive! They should spend more time on their socks stripes!

    A lot of communities use Memorial Day to honor both the dead and those who are still serving. What’s your problem with that?

    i’ve never heard that

    ever

    and i don’t generally like to cite wikipedia for anything this important, but this article should serve as a primer for what memorial day stands for

    there is nothing wrong with honoring those who serve today, and who are veterans

    but that is absolutely NOT what memorial day is about

    Giants and Cubs will wear 1912-era uniforms in SF next weekend. One Cub gets to use an actual Jamie Moyer-worn game jersey.

    Well that’s a completely random and unconventional uni idea. If they did the “Wish You Were Here” album, would the jersey actually be on fire?

    ‏@Marlins
    Tonight’s uniform update: Black jerseys, sleeves, socks & cap. White pants w/ black piping. Note: first time the Fish wear this combination!

    I presume its come up before, but i forgot to mention yesterday that wtestler/afl star wahoo mcdaniel had “wahoo” on her jersey when he played for the jets in the mid 60s.

    Still, my favorite hyphenated name in football and one bruising back for the University of Utah/Pittsburgh Steelers/Jacksonville Jaguars has to be Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala.

    In the NFL he had FullNOB:
    link

    at the U of U it was shortened to just Ma’afala on the back if I remember correctly. I can’t find a photo of it now. Are there many instances of shortening of last names on back of jerseys in sports?

    Should be Full Last Name on Back as opposed to a truncated last name on back.

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