Skip to content
 
Uni Watch

There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 42

By
Screen shot 2009-12-29 at 10.06.03 AM.png

Time for another round of old-school wire photos. A couple of these were contributed by Bruce Menard and Mako Mameli, but I found most of them myself. Off we go:

• Here’s a nice shot of Chisox coach Ray Berres giving up his No. 44 to newly signed Phil Cavaretta.

• When did the Broncos wear this uni combo? The white helmet logo and the brown pants are from different eras. And striped socks? If anyone knows more, do tell.

• We all know MLB umps used to wear neckties. But Emmett Ashford, the first black ump, also wore a tie bar. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that on the field before.

• Another one of Ashford’s sartorial details: He wore French cuffs!

• Man, the Phils’ uni numbers used to be huge!

• By contrast, look how small the Reds’ uni numbers were in their subscript-NOB phase.

• Here’s Uni Watch friend/contributor Jerry Reuss wearing a doozy of a dugout jacket.

• Rare sight here: a clear, close view of the Illinois sesquicentennial patch that the Cubs and White Sox wore in 1968.

• Here’s a new function for a Cubs cap: covering up a Siamese twin’s post-surgical scars.

• I guess if you’ve just won the Cy Young award for one of history’s greatest seasons (while pitching for one of history’s worst teams), you can wear whatever you want to your contract-signing presser.

• Back in 1969, some Cubs fans got into a bit of a row with Chief Nocahoma.

• We often see photos from the Louisville Slugger factory, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen shots from an aluminum bat factory before.

• Here’s what was left of Enos Slaughter’s jersey after his fight with Walt Dropo. (Further info on the fight can be found here.)

+ + + + +

Uni Watch News Ticker: In a surprising development that had successfully been kept off the rumor circuit, the St. Looie Cardinals are introducing a retro third jersey, based on the team’s 1932 design, which will be worn for Saturday home games. Seems unnecessary, but at least it’s a good-looking design, and they appear to be sticking with the chain-stitching. Small adjustments to the home whites and road grays are also coming, and will be announced at a press conference this morning. According to reports, the homes and roads will have “more detail to the two birds, enhanced stitching that includes an eye instead of a dot for the birds and shading to the bat that creates a sense of depth,” as well as smaller numbers on the front of the jersey. I’m wondering if that last item was prompted by the fact that the birds/bat design has been sinking slightly lower on the jersey, as we’ve documented here on Uni Watch. ”¦ In a Batman tie-in, the Tulsa Oilers (CHL) will become the Gotham City Crusaders for their Nov. 23 game. “Speaking as one of the few thousand Tulsans who actually attend Oilers games on a semi-regular basis, this promotion raises my blood pressure for a number of reasons,” says a disgruntled Michael Harris. … Paul Deaver sent me this groovy bowling instructor’s patch. Thanks, buddy! … Rex Henry notes that DC United player Chris Korb wears low socks. “It looks like he doesn’t even wear shin guards, but I’ve found a couple sources confirming that he wears tiny shin guards,” says Rex. … Missouri TE Eric Waters was thought to be paralyzed after taking a big hit against Alabama a few weeks back. His jersey and pads were cut off at the hospital. He turned out to be fine and has continued playing, but this week he will wear the same jersey from that game, all stitched up. Details in the last few grafs of ths story (from Rob Bratney). … New championship logo for the Giants. Expect to see it on a lot of merch next year (from Gilbert Lee). … Oklahoma State hoops player Marek Souček has a diacritical mark on his NOB (from Timothy Burke). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Fascinating look at the evolving culture of military medals. … Very interesting Twin dugout jacket. “Never seen that style before,” says Bruce Menard. Me neither. ”¦ New home soccer jersey for Spain (from Rex Henry). ”¦ Colorado State is changing its athletics program from Russell to Under Armour. ”¦ The Bills wore white at home last night. ”¦ Here’s something I hadn’t seen in a while: Kansas State QB Collin Klein has pockets sewn into his jersey (from Adam Lim).

 
  
 
Comments (145)

    i dunno that you’ll see that SF Giants logo on much–they did one similiar after 2010 WS and the only time I saw it was for window stickers they sold @ Chevron. Mever saw it @ AT&T or on shirts or anything.

    I’ll take it, tho.

    You mean this logo:
    link

    I have it/saw it on a lot of merch from the 2010 team, mostly a books and trinkets and things like that. I even have a shot glass and a key chain with it on it. I don’t think I saw it on t-shirts much though.

    Yeah thats it, never saw it once ANYwhere here—maybe on street banners near the park.

    PS: Re: Cards;
    The Cardinals are the fourth team in baseball to go with the “natural” or off-white color for a jersey, according to the manufacturer, Majestic. The other teams are the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians.

    Uh……….Giants home?

    SDot is the correct one here. No photos but I personally own a Nike shirt with that very logo that I purchased at the dugout store. Plus they used that logo almost exclusively for all the giveaways at the stadium the in 2011. I received the pennant link but there was a hat and other things as well

    Better yet – the Yomiyuri Giants won the Japan League Final Series, and the LOTTE Giants won the Korean Championship!!!!!

    THERE is something to propose to a gambling book in Vegas sometime.

    OK, the Phils numbers used to be HUGE, but what the heck is that guy doing BEHIND the umpire?? No mask? No chest protector?

    I saw the same thing. It looks like he’s holding a radar gun in his right hand and a clipboard and a bag of something on his left. I don’t know why he’d be right on the field though.

    I think he’s holding a bag of balls. Way back in the day, the Cubs would station an Andy Frain usher behind home plate to serve that function. And the back wall used to be a pretty good distance from home plate at Wrigley, so what we see in the photo as a trick of perspective wasn’t really that dangerous.

    It was definitely a different time, not much emphasis on safety. Seat belt use was optional, people rode bicycles without helmets etc.

    Cub related…it was surprising to see a picture of Cub fans tormenting Chief Nocahoma in Atlanta. I thought Cub fans acting like a-holes on the road was a fairly recent phenomena.

    Now, now, bill. I attend many Cubs games at other parks. Never have I had any issues – except for in St. Louis when a drunk decided to scream profanities in my ear as I was leaving the park. Thankfully, his friends and my friend let him know that his actions were not welcome. The audacity of me to wear a Cub jersey to a game! I have, however, been witness to many of my brethren being absolutely harassed by fans in Cincinnati, Milwaukee (not too bad, seeing as though we’re neighbors), Pittsburgh, U.S. Cellular (really, really uncalled for stuff – I’m glad the interleague series are shorter), Philadelphia and Atlanta. Just because you’re fans of the home team doesn’t mean that the visiting fans start the crap. I often find it to be a very different scenario.

    Saw a Seahawks game in person vs. the Vikings a few weeks ago (1st visit to the stadium) and there was plenty of purple in the stadium. I was pleasantly surprised at the mutual respect measured. More than once, I witnessed group pictures, with arms around each other and big smiles. Never been more proud to call it my city.

    I like the Cardinals 3rd jersey, but I have a problem with home uniforms bearing the city of the team on them. Would the Yankees wear a home uniform with “New York?” Or the Tigers with “Detroit?” The Twins had an alt with “Minnesota” on it, and I always thought that was strange. It doesn’t make sense other than turning dollars in the souvenir shop.

    Would the Yankees wear a home uniform with “New York?”

    Not logo…but wordmark, hence the quotes.

    I know I was being a bit of a smartass, but I don’t see a practical difference. The Yankees have absolutely nothing on their uniforms to indicate their team name. With their uniform, they might as well be the New York New Yorks.

    Given what the Yankees and the Tigers do have on their home uniforms, you would have been okay with the Cards having the “StL” cap logo (or something close) on their jerseys?

    Agreed. The Cardinals have one of the best uni sets in MLB and the third jersey is a great addition. I know that I will be checking in on a couple of Cardinal home games on the weekends to see this one in action.

    That was my first thought. Home jerseys have your team name/logo, roads have your city. Hence why they get called the Texas Texases. Also, we already have a hat for Home-Sundays-only (used to be every Sunday but apparently ~35 hats is too much to take on every road trip). Are we getting closer to the college football color-out model, in which we’ll be expected to wear (and buy!) the right gear on the right day? Finally, we’ve made it so long without a red softball top, I really hope this doesn’t push us in that direction.

    Then there’s the Angels. Last time they had a city name on their jerseys was in the Anaheim Angels days.

    The Angels can’t put a city on theirs, they refuse to admit they play in Anaheim, and aren’t rightly in LA either.

    Rangers, Phillies, Rays and Brewers (except for the blue alternates) don’t wear city names either.

    I would love to see StL make this into a permanent gray-version road jersey. The city name still works with the bat.

    Home jerseys have your team name/logo, roads have your city.

    I don’t think that should be a rule. If everybody did that, it would be boring.

    Agreed (and agree with what most here have said) – I lived in St. Louis awhile back and got crushed every time I tried to say “city name goes on the aways” – they all said best uniform in baseball. I think its a great uni, but has long needed St. Louis on the road grays. I love this new alt, it’s beautiful, but it shouldn’t be a home alt.

    Some city names don’t render well on a uniform; i.e. “Philadelphia”.

    I’m just glad the Cardinals didn’t introduce a red or navy softball top.

    The Twins did wear Minnesota at home for several years. When they introduced their alternate jersey’s in 1997 they had a blue one for the road that said Minnesota and the infamous red one at home which said Twins. Well, when the red was abandoned after about 2 games they started wearing the blue Minnesota at home, and continued doing so for several years after before finally adding a second blue alternate which said Twins.

    And following up on the new Cardinals’ third jersey (which I absolutely love BTW):

    In the last graf, the team also announced that they’ll be wearing their red caps with red belts on the road uniforms. Not sure what will happen to the nave blue cap, but almost positive the alternate Sunday home cap will remain.

    Correction: It’s not in the last graf of the linked story, but it’s in a press release I saw on the team’s Facebook page and other Cardinal-related pages. My bad guys and girls–sorry ’bout that.

    So somebody had a huge freaking “V” on the front of their jersey long before the Vancouver Canucks?

    That’s pretty cool. I just thought it was a smug “we won three major cups” ribbon without a medal.

    In hockey, before the Canucks, the Soviets had a ‘V’ jersey. They won the 1956 olympics in that uniform.
    link

    They (and other teams) went retro for the IIHF 2008 World Championships. They decided on something very similar to their 1956 gold medal winning jerseys. link

    Those Phillies numbers were a unique font and were applied directly to the jersey in chain embroidery. The only other team that I know of that used that style were the Havana Sugar Kings aka “Cubanos” in the mid-1950s.

    And the Reds numbers were only 6″ on the back, but what gives with the regular arch below the number? A reverse arch would have looked much better. Must have had something to with the vest-style shirt.

    Paul, our friend w/ the Cardinals museum spoke about the movement for this jersey when you came out here a couple years back. Very interesting they finally agreed to have the St Louis birds-on-bat.

    What was said to me two years ago was that DeWitt and others argued that noone needed to be reminded where the Cardinals were from. Looks like the almighty dollar changed their minds.

    The Jerry Reuss photo is from 1977. It looks like a mish-mash: 1975 cap, gray pants at Three Rivers. On Opening Day, of course, link. The Pirates were still wearing those jackets link.

    Broncos pic seems likely to be from 9/7/62, first game of that season. Number 54 is my clearly dad’s favorite player, Wahoo McDaniel, who was with the Bronx in 61, 62 and 63. The Chargers’ #21 would be John Hadl in his first game with that team. That first game of 1962 was a Friday nighter in my neighborhood at the old University of Denver stadium. This appears to be a night game and it looks like it was played in a pretty small-time venue. The only visible decal is on the left side of McDaniel’s helmet. There’s clearly no decal on the right side of #62’s helmet. That kind of inattention to detail would fit in with the first game in a new set back then. Perhaps the new pants hadn’t arrived yet or were being held hostage for late payment of bills. Also #62 appears to be link in his only Denver season.

    Could be wrong, but it’s where the evidence points. Other likeliest option would be the Saturday night link on 8/17/63 also at DU.

    That doesn’t seem to make sense though, since the blue horse decals showed up before the white ones. Also – the Broncos brown pants of the previous uniforms had stripes. These appear to be plain.

    Remember, though that the socks were infamously burned after the 1961 season, and the only pair believed to still exist are the ones at the Hall of Fame.

    I also think it was that first game of 1962, and think its also the players listed above. Denver was notorious for being cheap when the franchise began. They initially didn’t even have offices or practice fields. I’d imagine they didn’t get all the helmet logos on, and their new jerseys hadn’t arrived yet, so they wore the white/brown combo with basic socks and the new helmets.

    Just my guess.

    Not trying to speak for the rest of GUD but…
    We’ve seen this photo before recently and most of our discussion amongst ourselves leads us to think that it must be from the 1963 Preseason game on Aug. 17, 1963 at Denver.

    The helmets having the white logo means it shouldn’t be from 1962, as was stated, since if any logo was present it should be the blue version instead as the white proceeded the blue. It wasn’t uncommon in the AFL to use logoless helmets in the Preseason so that aspect should get a pass.

    The vertically striped socks were gone by both the 1962 and 1963 Preseasons so those don’t help the cause.

    The jerseys look to be the plain whites from 1960 & 1961. Old jerseys from a season or more earlier being used in Preseason wouldn’t be news for either year also.

    The pants. Well, if these were the actual 1960-61 brown pants, which they very well may be, could very easily have had the yellow stripes removed so that plain brown wouldn’t offend as much as the old browns with the yellow stripes.

    Finally, I trust Tim Brulia. If Tim says the AFL NEVER wore white at home in the regular season, I believe him. Also, with the regular season game in 1962 (9/7) being the first ‘official’ game since making such a big deal about moving away from the brown/yellow era, it wouldn’t make sense for the Week 1 home game to still be in the brown pants and white jerseys from 1960-61. The white donkey wouldn’t fit with that line of thinking either.

    There’s one difficulty with this. In August it wouldn’t have been that dark outside until pretty late in the evening. Woudl Hadl still have been in an exhibition game that late?

    Whether in 1962 or 1963, my dad and his friend Bob would have been at the game. Dad’s no longer among us and Bob (whose 90th birthday party was this summer and included a visit from his older sister!) is terrible with visual details. I remember when he recommended my folks buy a used car that eventually became mine. Bob said it was a blue two-door Mercury, it turned out to be a brown four-door Chevy.

    However, with 1962 being his rookie year and Tobin Rote, I believe, starting for them in ’62, Hadl was likely #2 on the depth chart. If you put the current line of thinking for Preseason games into affect for 1963, it seems likely Hadl still could have been in action later in the game.

    Also, I think that with B/W photography back then, if a flash was used on the relatively bright surfaces of the Broncos’ and Chargers’ jerseys, the optical effect may have been to make the background look a little darker than it really was. Not sure though.

    link

    After reading your posts it seems more plausible that it was Aug. 18, 1962 at San Diego, especially if AFL home teams never wore white. I don’t know why the teams would still have 1961’s uniforms floating around in 1963. Seems more plausible in 1962 though.

    Problem with it being ’62 though is always going to be the white donkey logo.
    We’ve been able to track the change from blue logo to the white version and the change didn’t occur until Week 6 of the ’62 season. The question will always be one of two options for 1962…
    1 – How would Wahoo McDaniel have been able to have the white logo in the Preseason (if it was Preseason) or…
    2 – Why, when making such a celebrated break from their 1st 2 years in brown and yellow, would they wear basically their 1960-61 gear (with an orange helmet) for their Week 1 game – and wearing white at home on top of it – (if it was Week 1) and why would Wahoo have the white decal instead of the blue one that we know they started the season with?

    Sorry. I’m just more and more convinced the photo has to be from the ’63 Preseason game.

    Looking at the photo of Steve Carlton, interesting to note that one of the game’s greatest left-handed pitchers actually wrote right-handed.

    Besides the sports coat,which would look great in a thrift store today, that was the first thing I noticed. As a rightie, there is little I can do with my left hand. I have been told by my left-handed friends that when they were in school, they needed to adjust because of spiral notebooks. I’m thinking this is just a staged photo for the media.

    That Tulsa/Gotham City promotion is just stupid. It makes no sense.

    Let’s do a KISS night.
    No? Star Wars.
    No? Harry Potter.

    It sorta makes sense if there’s a legitimate tie-in, but in this case, it simply makes no sense.

    From the article in re: the Cards’ uniforms from StLToday:

    ““I’m very sensitive to that argument, that we should stay (with home and road), and that is the argument I would also make until you see this jersey,” DeWitt said. “I hope people look at this, and they remember Lou Brock or Musial playing in a jersey like this, and see all of the things from the history that embodied in this jersey, that we tried to capture.””

    Lou Brock or Stan Musial never played in a jersey like this. Just sayin’.

    And DeWitt was not in favor of this idea till recently…

    His comment Brock and Musial is just a way to get fans to like the jersey.

    I love the Cardinals 3rd jersey, How long before they make a grey version and it becomes the regular road jersey? I would also love to see them wear a red alternate again.

    Again? When have they worn a red alternate? I’ve only ever seen that in spring training, and those were BP jerseys.

    Long overdue change for the Cards, they should have had this design decades ago. Another tasteful change would be the Phillies having “Philadelphia” in script for their road jerseys.

    Thankfully, the Cardinals know how to do an alternate jersey. Like the Phillies, they understand that an alt jersey doesn’t have to mean a softball jersey.

    I had a Twins jacket like that when I was a little kid (late 60s). Except it didn’t have the red collar. I had forgotten about it until I saw that post. Thanks for the memory.

    I remember those Twins jackets (and the Twins should use the star dotting the “i.” They were made locally by Butwin Sportswear of St. Paul. Butwin owner Irv Butwin (who I knew since we were a Butwin dealer) claimed he made the first-ever snap-off basketball warm-up pants in the early 1950s for the hometown Minneapolis Lakers. He called them “Easy-Don” as in easy to put on. I could believe him because in all of the old catalogs I’ve seen from the mid-to-late ’50s until the mid ’60s no company except Butwin showed this feature.

    I hate to break it to you, but the Cardinals have link they are dropping the chain-stitching on all jerseys.

    “All three of the jerseys that the Cardinals will wear next season feature more detail to the two birds, enhanced stitching that includes an eye instead of a dot for the birds and shading to the bat that creates a sense of depth.”

    I presume they’re talking about the new textured-stitching technique seen on the link unveiled this time last year.

    Where does that say they’re not doing chain-stitching? “Enhanced stitching” could just as easily mean “enhanced chain-stitching.”

    Look at the photo of the new jersey in that photo (esp. the bat) — sure looks chain-stitched to me.

    But whatever. We’ll find out soon enough.

    I agree with you Paul. Only the birds have the enhanced stitching. The “St. Louis” and the bat are still chain-embroidered. To put all-Swiss embroidery on a jersey for word marks would be too heavy, especially given today’s lightweight knit fabrics.

    I just spoke with the person who does our embroidery. She told me that in the trade that the enhanced embroidery is referred to as “3-D Puff” or just plain “Puff.” This is because a thin layer of a puffy material is placed on the garment before the stitching is applied. This is why the feathers on the Blue Jays and Cardinals garments have a layered look. Looks really nice close-up.

    The photos clearly show chain-stitching on all three jerseys.

    But major problem: the new alt has a headspoon and sleeve piping, but lacks the distinctive old Cardinals piping down each shoulder and sleeve connecting the placket piping to the sleeve-end.

    The 1932 Cardinals used piping (sometimes referred to as soutache), not the 1/4″ braid shown on the new top. And 1932 was the last year for “St. Louis” on the shirts. The over-the-arm braid was worn from 1940-1950 and never with “St. Louis.”

    The photos we’ve seen, including the team’s official announcement video, show chain-stitching. Theories:

    1. The Creamer board members don’t know what they’re talking about.

    2. The Creamer board members are right, and what the club is showing us and the press are prototypes using chain-stitching and they’ll be replaced when the 2013 jerseys go into production. (Problem: The new jersey is on sale to the public right now, and it has chain-stitching.)

    3. The Creamer board members are accurately repeating a Cardinals staffer who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. As in, since the new script is not just chain-stitching, but also includes high-tech puffy bits and blah blah blah, the team exec, in typical marketing fashion, is saying, “No no, it’s not chain-stitching, it’s a new, advanced process.” When, in fact, it’s chain-stitching plus a few square inches of the new process.

    My money would be on #3.

    I watched the live reveal and I’m pretty sure DeWitt specifically mentioned chain stitching on all three jerseys. From the up-close looks, the certainly still look chain-stitched.

    Here’s a promo video that shows close-ups of the alternate: link

    Beautiful touch on the Giants’ championship patch: it says “World Champions”, as it ought to.

    An aside for my fellow fans of world football: I have become a big fan of soccer over the past decade; so I know that soccer fans around the world would not understand this. In soccer, each country has its domestic league; and that league’s winner is the champion of that country. It would be ridiculous to claim that the champ of one league is the “world champion”. (The title “world champions” is actually bestowed on the club which wins the Club World Cup, in which the winners of each continent-wide tournament participate. But thas tourney is new, and is still not very prestigious.)

    Baseball is different. The Major Leagues do not constitute the U.S. domestic league (or even U.S./Canadian domestic league); they constitute the highest league in the world. Every other leagues, even if it is the top league in another country, is a minor league. (Which is why Ichiro Suzuki was the AL Rookie-of-the-Year in his first year in the Majors.) So the champions of Major League Baseball champion are legitimately the World Champions.

    Not only is saying “World Champions” correct; it also sounds right. The latter-day fad of saying “World Series Champions” is an example of creeping kiddie-speak, just as is referring to Major League Baseball as “em el bee”.

    Even though “World Series Champion” and “em el bee” make me cringe, I’m under no illusion that they are going away. However, it’s nice to have a break from at least the former. Good job to the World Champion Giants.

    The only difference between saying “MLB” and those others is that it just wasn’t done until very recently. People simply said/wrote “Baseball” when they meant Major League Baseball, as in “Baseball commissioner”.

    People have for a very long time referred to other leagues by their letters: “In the NFL and the NBA they do (such-and-such); but in Baseball they do (some other thing)”. And even “AL” and “NL” are longstanding usages.

    But only in the first decade of the 2000s did the kiddies start to say “em el bee” when they mean Major League Baseball. (Some of them now even say “the em el bee”.)

    Ferdinand, I thought I was the only person who was driven nuts by this. When I was a kid in the ’80s, we said “NL” and “AL” sometimes but never “em el bee”. The two leagues as a whole (and really, they’re separate leagues, with separate rules, separate schedules, and separate presidents, who just happen to meet up after the season) were called “the majors” or “the major leagues”.

    1) any significance to the 8:40 time on the clock in the giants’ logo?

    2) love the cards’ st louis jersey, especially how the s curls around the bat

    3) chris korb’s low socks go against the current trend of soccer players pulling socks up over the knee. has anyone else noticed that as football players have shortened their pants, soccer players are pulling up their socks?

    Wow…good catch with the 8:40!

    I looked up the box score for Game 4.
    link

    They list the start time as 8:00 PM (Eastern), but invariably the actual start time may have been a few minutes later. Time of game was 3:34, that puts the end of the game around 11:40 Eastern Time…subtract 3 hours and there you have it 8:40 Pacific Time. The time that they actually wont he World Series.

    That right there is the uni-design detail of the year. Man, I hope the Giants wear that patch on their sleeves all season long in 2013.

    I also just read on Chris Creamers site that the Cardinals will switch to red caps on the road.
    “What hasn’t been announced yet but is expected to be today (based on reports from numerous reliable sources of mine) is the elimination of the navy blue “STL” caps on their road uniform. The Cardinals have worn the navy blue caps with their road uniforms since 1992”

    link

    Oh my God, say it isn’t so. That navy cap is the single best element of the Cardinals’ uniform–one that they should’ve worn at home as well (with or without a red bill). And now they’re planning to be tediously monochrome 100% of the time, rather than just the 50%? They’ll look nearly as bad as the Phillies in their road uniforms.

    If there’s any justice or balance in the universe, maybe the Phillies or Nationals will jettison their red caps in compensation. But I doubt it.

    Yeeeeeeeeaano. Cardinals should wear red caps, undershirts & belts. I never liked that Sunday cap, either. Looks like a cheap gift shop bandana. Cardinals are red, 12 other teams wear navy caps, etc etc.

    You know what might be cool? Navy StL caps with the new creams, red otherwise, and 86 the two-tones to the clearance rack.
    //You know what else would be cool? Stirrups. A man can dream.

    Shortly after the reveal Jason Motte tweeted Jon Jay and Daniel Descalso asking if they were going to change their “high sock Sundays” to Saturdays or just adopt them for the whole weekend. So it’s good to see that Motte’s first reaction was “hey, these would look. Great with stirrups,”. Maybe the whole team will jump on board.

    Ditching the navy caps, a key uni element of a primary uniform, would be huge news, much bigger than the unveiling of an alternate, in my opinion. I like the navy caps but I think either look would be fine for the Cardinals.

    The most noticeable thing about the jersey when you see a player wearing it is how much higher and more appropriately placed the wordmark/birds on bat are.

    One issue that has plagued off-white uniforms, more in hockey than in baseball is the clash between the off-white on the jersey and white on accessories (like goalie pads and hockey gloves, in cases where the team hasn’t gotten gloves to match). I was worried about this for the Cardinals new jersey with the white on the hat logo, but it isn’t noticeable in the screen shot. In fact, the uni color doesn’t look all that different from white in that shot.

    I should say that while the caps would be bigger news, the jersey is certainly more exciting. Agree with someone above that they should have added the vertical striping down the shoulder.

    My Brewers uniform design is totally going to beat yours Chance & I’m not even a Brewers fan! ;)

    I really wish they wouldn’t go with the PANT piping on the side for the alt’s. Leave the piping on the jersey I would say. I have never been a fan with pant piping and have been fond that the Birds and Dodgers have been the few teams that have not adopted the standard MLB pant pipes.

    Here’s what I remember about the picture of me flipping the snowball. The Pirates wore the 1976 uniforms during spring training of 1977. When we returned to Pittsburgh, we saw the new sets of uniforms hanging in our respective lockers. We were told before the morning workout the day before the 1977 season opener that we couldn’t wear the new uniform(s) (remember, we had ten different combinations!) until we took the field on Opening Day against St. Louis.

    My 1976 jacket was packed somewhere I couldn’t find it. So, I just grabbed the new jacket and made my way to the field.

    Mr. Reuss, good hearing from you about the snowball picture, I have a question for you regarding the 1976 pillbox hats.

    I have a yearbook for that 1976 season which shows photos from what I believe to be spring training, and some of them show the mustard pillbox hats without any striping. It’s remarkable how bland those hats looked minus the striping. Obviously, that was a very long time ago, but I was wondering if you recalled those plain mustard pillbox hats. Looking at it from the outside, it appears management wasn’t happy about the hats, and decided to add the three circular stripes prior to the 1976 regular season. Thanks.

    I have that same yearbook and spotted the photos you mentioned. I don’t recall seeing them back in the day but they were ugly in the pictures. The pillbox-style hats were never my favorites, anyway.

    I went ahead and submitted one. I’m surprised it even got posted, seeing as how I committed a MAJOR oversight. (See if you can spot it.)

    Anyway, if you think you can do better, you can download the template as a JPEG. I recommend using Photoshop.

    Where do people get the logos from? I didn’t see anything too wrong with your entry Ben, maybe the name & number might have been right justified? Hell, I’m almost blind in one eye, so I’m probably full of it!

    Korb’s socks are consistently that low and would not cover a standard-size shinguard placed over the shin. So what does Korb do? He tucks his shin guards around the side of his calf. Every once in a while a ref’ll make him adjust either the socks (which have to cover the shin guards completely) or the shin guards themselves (to cover the front of the shin).

    I find it interesting that ML teams, including my hometown favorite Giants, created a “rustic” white jersey to recall days past. I think the reality is that the old jerseys were made from materials which were nearly impossible to manufacture and maintain “whiteness”, as opposed to the modern fabric which is almost sanitary.

    I’m going to be talkign to Cards president Bill DeWitt III in about two hours, about the new uniform. If anyone has questions, let’s have ’em.

    As if you haven’t already thought of this…..Address how St. Louis should be on all of their away uniforms and what was their reluctance other than the obnoxious “People know the Cardinals are from St. Louis…..” (I’m a Cubs fan, so I’ll leave my questions at that….)

    Paul, if you could find out the status of the Sunday alternate cap, that’d be cool…don’t think that one’s been addressed yet. Also if there are any plans to incorporate the St. Louis birds on bat into a future road jersey.

    Paul,

    It has been said that there was some talk over the years of putting St Louis on the Away jerseys but they never have because of the previously mentioned “People know the Cardinals are from St. Louis…..” so why come out with this logo now and why on a Home jersey when clearly that should be on the Away jerseys?

    How about asking if they’ve ever considered putting some piping/striping back on the uni, either a la 60’s or 70’s.

    Thought I’d throw in my two cents about the military medals article in the ticker and the Cardinals uniform. I’ve always thought it was a bit odd to see a pile of ribbons creeping up under collar in uniform, especially if there’s a pin/device that goes over them. I agree that many of those awards are merely for not screwing up completely. A few other countries’ militaries are much worse about it, believe it or not. You could be looking at an officer candidate and think they’re an admiral. However, I’ve also seen many US enlisted and officers choosing to wear their top 3 highest-ranking ribbons instead of their entire rack of ribbons, a la the portrait of Eisenhower in the article. It’s usually not modesty, though; it has more to do with ease of putting the uniform together. That huge rack of ribbons is a pain to align and fasten correctly. I’m in the military, but I don’t do the top-three ribbons since I don’t have many ribbons anyway :)

    Anyone else think the retro “St. Louis” jersey would look great as a road gray uniform with the faux-flannel look used by Univ. of Maryland basketball in the past week?

    In order to truly appreciate the ribbons on a serviceman, the correlation between amount, rank, and number of “v’s” is imperative.

    Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps (E-3) with 9 ribbons including a medal with a combat v and a combat action ribbon? Stud.

    Colonel with a ton of ribbons with no combat action ribbon but a bronze-star WITHOUT a V? Just another paper pusher serving as further evidence that we suffer from MacArthur Syndrome.

    We need to take our notes from the Brits: If you didn’t serve in a SPECIFIC CAMPAIGN, and If you didn’t do something in war, you don’t rate a medal; simple.

    I have 13 ribbons in 8 years thus far, and the only one that I legitimately earned is a Bronze Star (with V) and Combat Action Ribbon (2 awards), and the 2 campaign medals denoting my specific service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Everything else is just fluff. Global War on Terror Service Medal? No shit, I’ve been in since 2004, that goes without saying. National Defense Medal? NO SHIT, I joined the military, but truth be told, I’ve yet to actually “defend the nation,” so again, stupid.

    Therefore, by my count, I earned 4 medals, but I have to wear 13 (Good luck getting away with wearing only your senior 3 and being below the rank of Colonel haha. Ike does what he wants; I don’t have that liberty, though luckily, I rarely HAVE to wear a uniform other than cammies, and never wear it unless I’m forced to).

    At the time of my reply, the person I replied to made sense. Turns out when I come back, I’m replying to a person discussing the Cardinals haha.

    Oh well, message remains the same, most of our medals and awards are gratuitous and not at all consistent, that Bronze Star with a V that Patreaus got was for big blue arrow things, but meanwhile, I’ve seen guys carry their wounded buddies across the street while under fire and wounded themselves get a medal 2 below the Bronze Star.

    Crap… ENOUGH of the military commentary for one week please! I come here to GET AWAY from it.

    Just like pregame ceremonies, a simple flag with a national anthem will do, similarly, with sports uniforms, the post 9/11 flag on the back of a helmet will do just fine thank you very much; I go to events to GET AWAY, not be reminded of dead friends.

    Nevermind, my reply placement made sense afterall; I really need to fully read these things before I post eh?

    Regarding the Jerry Reuss snowball photo…Are we sure that Dave Parker’s coke didn’t fall out of his pocket somewhere down the rightfield line?

    Someone else doesn’t care for the rotating Oregon unis…..
    link
    (but I disagree with her hating on sunflower seeds)

    Chris Fowler just tweeted the Oregon Duck’s head went missing as it came off during a skydiving stunt today.

    So I work at a teen center and two of the kids who go there, both middle schoolers, tried to tell me that the Cardinals, Vikings and Panthers all have awesome uniforms. When I tried to tell them otherwise they asked who I thought had the best uniforms. Niners, Packers, Bears, Chargers, Washington. They only agreed on the Chargers and said the rest were awful. We’re in serious trouble if this is our future people.

    I wouldn’t worry about what kids like in uniforms. Kids grow out of these sort of things. For instance, when I was a kid I liked soccer and the NBA.

    Did I miss it mentioned anywhere that the Hoosiers changed their arm stripes this year? I think they had the full striping last year but on the ESPN highlights I saw it looks like they now have a similar kind of vanishing stripe look that the Knicks have and a weird cut to the jersey. A terrible picture from the Sam Houston game. I’m sure others can find better examples.

    link

Comments are closed.