Gold Golden Gophers

By Phil Hecken

Paul has an ESPN column today — here’s the link.

A quick break from the Olympics as the main article — So we have a short lede, brought to us by everyone’s favorite whiffleball playing Gopher-loving sexagenarian…

Gold Golden Gophers…
By Rick Pearson

Early in the doubleknit era, the Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team was most definitely golden. They had been wearing maroon pins at home, as shown here on Dave Winfield, and gray roads. But by 1973 for sure (honestly don’t know about ’72) they had switched to mono gold, again on Winfield. [Holy shit, look at the size of that glove — PH]

Golden, indeed; they won the CWS in ’73. Despite later imaginings of many, I think the early version was more Old Gold. But maybe that’s just because around that same time the football team had gone to mustard.

Anyway, when Paul Molitor got there a few years later, they most definitely wore Athletic Gold. Also had added a maroon jersey to go with them, I believe. Nice white Riddells, too.

Some sidelights…

• Winfield was born the day Bobby Thomson hit the “shot heard ”˜round the world.”

• He is the only player to be drafted by four leagues in three sports: Padres in MLB, Atlanta Hawks in NBA, Utah Stars in ABA and, though he didn’t play college football, the Minnesota Vikings took him in the 17th round.

• And this: How ”˜bout a monster bobble head of Winfield?

And now a related question (because I don’t know for sure). Is Winfield the last major leaguer to never play a game in the minors? Or is it Bob Hoerner? Or someone else?

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Thanks Rick.

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And now a few words from Paul: Hi, gang. Two items of note today: First, for reasons not worth explaining here, I’m looking for excuses to go to Los Angeles — excuses that would make for good ESPN stories. The stories wouldn’t necessarily have to be uni-related but would definitely have to be sports-related (duh). So if you know of a cool little sports museum, an interesting collector (maybe it’s you!), or any other L.A.-based subject that might make for good ESPN fodder, please let me know. Thanks.

Meanwhile, the latest entry on the Permanent Record Blog is about a museum comprised of objects that were rescued from the trash. Check it out here.

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OH!-Lympics…NO-lympics

This section will feature “lesser” Olympics stories — both the good and the bad — of the Olympic games, past, present and future (ok, maybe not future–we’ll see).

And lordy lordy lordy, do we have a bunch of good and (mostly) bad for today:

But we start off with the good — got a nice note (actually on Tuesday) after George’s article of Men’s Football (which starts today, dontcha know) ran, from reader Christian Bergara, an Uruguayan, who offered up the following:

Phil,

As an avid reader and an Uruguayan, I was very excited to see our small but historic country was mentioned today. I know it’s hard to get pics of the uniform, but you’ll see that there are slight changes. The unis are the same as the ones that are out now, but with a special Olympics shield instead of the AUF (asosacion uruguaya de futbol).

• Here you’ll see the team uniform for events, warmups, and sideline wear with a special sweater instead of the regular jacket.
• Here is a good look at the logo.
• Sweater close up.
• A good look at the “home” shirt.
• And finally the regular home shirt with the AUF logo instead of the Olympics one.

It’s nice that puma at least did something, but there were rumors of using a special throwback from 1924 or 1928. oh well.

Thanks,

Christian Bergara

Thank you, Christian!

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And some more good: Looks like there will be some Pepsi at the Olympics after all. Or, as Tyler Johnson, got this screen grab says, “Someone got through the safe zone (or put the shirt on in the bathroom).”

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The Opening Ceremonies haven’t even begun, and we already have on field controversy: North Korea women’s soccer team refuses to take field over flag dispute. That’s right, the North Korean women’s football team walked off the pitch at their Olympic match in Glasgow after their images were shown on a screen beside a South Korean flag. Oops, their bad. (H/T to Clint Richardson and George Chilvers, respectively, for those).

Geez, how tough is it to Google that? It’s not like the first 25 results aren’t virtually identical.

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Ah, but that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It seems instead Of Nike Gear, Egypt Gave Its Olympic Athletes Chinese Knockoffs. I’m not sure there is any delicious irony there, however. (H/T to Chris Flinn.)

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At least British Punk Bands haven’t given up their rebellious nature. The band “Goldblade” is set to defy trademark laws, risking criminal charges by releasing a “critical” Olympic t-shirt. Good luck with that.

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Penultimately, a bit of good ol’ American humor: Seems like Scotty’s Brewhouse in Indianapolis didn’t win their bidding war to secure advertiser rights at the Games. So, and to avoid any potential legal troubles, they have come up with a logo that is sure to evade the Olympic Branding Police:

Awesome! (H/T to Kevin Tamosaitis for that)

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And finally, in case you missed it — the ladies started playing football yesterday. Here’s a link to lots of pics.

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#NoUniAds Campaign…Day 7

This will be a regular feature on Uni Watch until the NBA rescinds it’s incredibly offensive and stupid proposal to place corporate advertising on uniforms.

And now, a personal note from Paul:

It’s important that we keep making our voices heard: Call the NBA’s publicly listed phone number (212-407-8000), ask for Adam Silver’s and/or David Stern’s office), e-mail deputy commissioner Adam Silver at his his publicly listed address (asilver@nba.com), and tweet to @NBA with the hashtag #NoUniAds. Do it now.

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#NoUniAds

Mad as Hell…: Good Old Mad Magazine ran a really funny (of course, it’s Mad, duh) story on NBA jersey ads we’ll soon be seeing. Actually, it’s more memorable for the photoshoppery (and which can be seen on the left side of the page next to this — click to enlarge). Great line, “with this new revenue stream, maybe the league can finally pay LeBron a proper salary.” Yes, because he’s not going to be the first billion dollar athlete (is he already?) without this.

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Gay Discusses “Last Taboo”: Ok, now that I have your attention, here’s an article which appeared in the venerable Wall Street Journal and authored by Jason Gay, who sounds like he’s channeling Paul when he laments that, “Sponsors invade nearly every inch of the action””uniforms showcase swooshes and trefoils, sideline billboards sell beer, banks, soft drinks, cable providers, season tickets, movie sequels, vacation destinations desirable and miserable,” and then intones, “But there’s still a slice of taboo territory in U.S. sports: the uniforms. Though it’s already partially claimed by the logos of apparel companies, the uniforms of sports like baseball and football have, to date, been spared the sprawling adverts that are found in European soccer or Formula 1 teams or even upon local Little Leaguers.” (H/T to Robert Silverman, who adds, “Some pointless grandstanding towards the end, but he makes some of the same points y’all have.)

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A plea from one of our own: And finally, one of Uni Watch’s readers (I forgot who — so if you started this, please take a bow) is getting the word out on Reddit. Sadly, some of the commenters are not so averse to adverts on the unis as we the faithful.

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I’m still receiving lots more reader submissions to the NBA, so I’ll post some more today. Great work people! Keep it up (and keep sending me your letters and any non-form responses):

Chris Weber:

Dear Mr. Silver,

We’re not Europe. This isn’t soccer, or golf, or NASCAR. Find other ways to increase revenue, but PLEASE do not deface your league’s jerseys. You’ll ruin them and bring about a plague that will foul every major sports league in this country. Part of the charm of cheering for our favorite teams is the fact that we all get behind our teams, regardless of our personal preferences when it comes to the products we like and/or buy. By intruding on this otherwise clean space on a jersey, you forever contaminate it. I ask you again, please reconsider this shortsighted proposal. Remember when you were a kid, and how it was the team name on the front that mattered most? Sadly, something tells me you’ve forgotten all about that in your quest for the almighty dollar. I hope I’m proven wrong.

Regards,
Chris A. Weber

Rich Friedman:

Hello. I vote no on uniform ads.

I already resent the adidas logo on what I buy, and I really don’t want to become a (or watch) walking billboards.

I don’t think that I will be buying much in the way of NBA merchandise with ads any time soon.

Sincerely,
Rich Friedman

Christopher Smith:

The decision to allow advertisements of non-NBA companies on the game uniforms must be reversed. I will never attend, or watch, another NBA sanctioned event if this is allowed to happen.

Christopher Smith

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OK folks — that’s it for today’s update. DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT. We will not stop until the NBA has rescinded this douchebaggish proposal — you know what to do. More reader pleas tomorrow (and hopefully I’ll finally get to those non-form replies that some of you are receiving). Keep the faith! And don’t forget to hop on Twitter and tweet “@NBA — #NoUniAds” (and feel free to expound upon that — you’ve got 140 characters to play with).

Thanks to Tim E. O’Brien and Chris Giorgio for the image in the upper right of this section!

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“Benchies” first appeared at U-W in 2008, and has been a Saturday & Sunday feature here for the past two years.

. . . . .

How odd, something actually smells good around here…

Click to enlarge

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Reminder: Paul is on summer break until Aug. 23. Phil Hecken is handling the weekday content and John Ekdahl is running the show on weekends; contact info for them is available here.

The Uni Watch e-mail address is being auto-forwarded to Phil, so any Ticker submissions or story ideas sent to that address will go directly to him. If you have a question or comment for Paul, go ahead and send it in, and Phil will make sure Paul receives it. We’re particularly interested in keeping up-to-date with college football uniform unveilings, so definitely keep submitting those. Thanks.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: “Bayern Munich CNOB” says Kenny Loo (that’s Chinese Name on Back). More photos in this slideshow). … The Phillies ballgirls have pinstriped shorts to match the home jerseys they wear. “Good little detail” says Marc Bauche. Anyone know if they have matching outfits when the Phils wear their alt creams? … According to Mark Gonzales, “Not all Seminoles are happy with FSU still using them as a mascot.” … The controversial London Rippers of the Frontier League is no more. They closed up shop Tuesday (thanks to Yancy Yeater). … Robbie Biederman thought it’s pretty interesting to see a picture of MJ wearing Nike’s but not Jordan’s. “This picture is clearly a few years into the Jordan brand,” he notes. … The 1st of the 2 games in this 1969 highlight video is AU and UGa matching off color v. color. “I’d love to see them bring this back. But maybe not with the groovy highlight music,” says Brad Warner. … The Charlotte 49ers have unveiled a new white helmet. … Lucas Arland forwarded a photo of the new Ball State football jerseys floating around Twitter. … From Jake Elwell: “Nice Uniwatch moment in the appendix of Tim Wendel’s masterful new narrative of the 1968 MLB season, SUMMER OF ’68: Willie Horton leaves the Tigers in 1977 and goes on to play for the Indians, A’s, Blue Jays, Mariners, two years in the PCL and one in the Mexican League. ‘Through it all, he still wears the same batting helmet from his Tigers’ days, which he repaints at each stop.'” His google search confirms. … Remember those Look at Me! “Play Like a Champion Today” gloves adidas came up with for ND? Well, they’re kinda stupid and flawed with the current design (thanks to Chris Mahr). … Andrew Horne states, “Dwayne Greer, a Valparaiso, IN native and fan of my alma mater – Valparaiso University – made a series of helmets showing the history of Valpo football. The second pic feeds off of Paul’s posts on brown-clad uniforms.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Staal bros. will wear their initials on their jerseys in Carolina but the Schenn’s won’t do the same in Philly. … Matt Benz thinks St. Michael-Albertville (a Minneapolis suburb) did a nice version of the old Brewers glove logo. … More from yesterday’s comments: Fascinating — On August 3 at 7:10 PM, the Los Angeles Dodgers will hold their first-ever “Star Trek Night” at Dodger Stadium. Ooooh…and look, here’s the shirsey (my money is on Jim Vilk saying “I’d Wear That”). … A reader who goes by the pseudo-email-nym of “Sunsplash7777” asks, “Nike in 2011? The Eagles acquired punter Mat McBriar from the Cowboys earlier today. However, this publicity mugshot shows McB in what appears to be a Nike jersey with the 2011 NFL Equipment shield neck patch.” …Wayne Edward Koehler noticed I referenced a release about the Dunedin Blue Jays wearing throwbacks on July 28. “What the release doesn’t show is the uniform which was displayed on the Jays’ Facebook page.” That’s SWEET! … Long time reader Dave Feheley offers his first submission: “This is at the Bauer Pro Camp. I don’t think it’s an optical illusion, but they couldn’t get these guys the same nameplate width or stroke weight on the numbers? Is nameplate width for shorter names somehow based on jersey cut/shoulder pad size? It looks like the top left and right corners are the same distance from the seams on both jerseys.” … Uni changes for Penn State? Long-time reader, frequent submitter and big JoePa fan Larry Bodnovich draws our attention to this article, in which Penn State football coach Bill O’Brien “has talked to Nike about changing Penn State’s plain blue and white uniforms, a staple of the program for decades under former coach Joe Paterno. He also said he’s looking to put names on the back of the jerseys.” Two different PSU message boards reacted to the rumors. … Kyle Shaner reports on more announcer uni banter: “On the Reds TV broadcast, Jim Day just said Brandon Phillips wore his pants high-cuffed once, but his mom told him to stop because it looked bad. He was going high-cuffed in the dugout tonight (he had the night off), but Day said he won’t go with that look on the field.” I don’t like to say bad things about people’s moms, but shit. … Last night the Lehigh Valley IronPigs played their first-annual Christmas in July promotion and the jerseys were auctioned off at the end of the game to benefit charity (if the dude in the black helmet looked familiar — it’s because he’s Ryne Sandberg, HOFer). Big thanks to Jon Schaeffer
(Manager, Media Relations & Broadcasting for Lehigh Valley IronPigs for that shot).

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There you have it…another one in the books. We’re going to keep running the “long form” (no “click here to continue reading”) UW today and tomorrow to judge reader feedback (which was largely positive yesterday). If you like (or dislike) it the “old” (full post view) way, let us know in the comments below. Enjoy the footy today. Tomorrow I’ll be back with a “summer Friday while Paul is on vacation” favorite and bring you the first of several articles from my buddy, and guest writer, Morris Levin, who has a really special lede planned. Trust me, I read it (and prepped it, coded it, etc.). It’s gonna be good.

Everyone have a great Thursday!

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“If you had read closely, I said, ‘casual Hurricane fans probably will confuse the two Staals’. If you want a dickish jab, I’ll make a comment about reading and comprehension skills in the south.”

–UW Hockey Wing President, Teebz