Brewers vs. Brewers

.
Hmmm, what have we here — a Brewers intrasquad scrimmage, perhaps?

Nope. It’s from a Brewers/Royals game that took place in Milwaukee on June 12, 1977 (the box score can be found here). Most of the Royals’ uniforms and equipment were stolen prior to the game, forcing most of the Kansas City players to wear Brewers road uniforms. An account of the theft is presented in this article, the key section of which reads as follows:

The Kansas City Royals had everything but their bats stolen from their County Stadium clubhouse early Sunday morning. ”¦

A thief — or thieves — broke into the Royals’ locker room at the Milwaukee ballpark and absconded with 53 Kansas City uniforms, 20 gloves, 10 pairs of baseball shoes, and 15 warmup jackets. All but seven of the Royals were forced to wear the Brewers’ blue road uniforms.

Brazen! But the statement that the heist involved “everything but [the Royals’] bats” is clearly false, because the Kansas City players still had their own batting helmets:

[There’s an additional article about the incident here.]

There’s nothing new about a team having to make do with makeshift uniforms after its own gear was lost or stolen, of course — I once wrote an ESPN column that chronicled many similar examples. But I’d never heard about this Royals/Brewers game until now, which just goes to show how this type of event could fly under the radar back in the day. If something like this happened nowadays, everyone would be all over it and it would immediately be documented as a notable chapter in uni history.

And how did we find out about it just now? Because reader Matthew Hackethal recently purchased the complete 1977 season of This Week in Baseball on DVD, and it happened to feature a little segment about the Brewers/Royals game (including Mel Allen saying, “A Brewer flying out to … a Brewer. How about that?”). He then did a bit of googling and found the newspaper article that I referenced above, and was also nice enough to send along some screen shots. Nicely done, Matthew — you’ve single-handedly added to the lore of the uni-verse.

+ + + + +

Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

First off, Collector’s Corner would like to congratulate the 49ers and Ravens for making it to the Super Bowl. That brings up a personal query: Anyone know if Nike sells the black Jim Harbaugh sweatshirt at retail?

Now, let’s lead off this week’s CC with some reader submissions:

• From Caleb Collier, we have this nice-looking Browns pullover by DeLong, which makes great stuff. Seriously, if you’ve never heard of them, their quality is outstanding. Don’t know if they still make NFL-branded stuff, though.

• Harrison Tishler says there’s something wrong with this Detroit Red Wings jersey. Look closely and maybe you can spot it.

• Mike Clary sent in these fantastic-looking 1966 Packers Mobil Oil prints.

• Here’s a great set of 1970s NHL posters for the Bruins , Canadiens, and Rangers. [Wow, I really like those. ”” PL]

• Stick it to ’em, Capitals! Great slogan, and that Bullets sticker is nice too.

• Climb into this 1970s NBA sleeping bag covered with team logos.

• Want fries with this 1970s retro Padres jacket?

Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

+ + + + +

Uni Watch News Ticker: It’s official: The Sacramento Kings are moving to Seattle and are expected to reclaim the SuperSonics name and colors. ”¦ Iowa hoops wanted to have the whole team wear “Street” NOBs, to mark the 20th anniversary of former player Chris Street’s death, but the NCAA put the kibosh on that idea (from Jack Coyier). ”¦ If you look at this fight between Zenon Konopka of the Wild and Cody McLeod of the Avalanche from Saturday night, you can see that McLeod got such a grip on Konopka’s jersey that he started to tear the number off of it (from Nate Hill). ”¦ New lacrosse gear for Hofstra (from Connor Wilson). ”¦ The sails on some sailboats were recently turned into an art exhibit. ”¦ New basketball uniforms for Binghamton (from Benjamin Ramos). ”¦ “University of North Dakota goalie Zane Gothberg has a picture of former UND goalie Ralph Engelstad on his mask,” says Derek Martin. “Both Engelstad and Gothberg are from Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Engelstad donated millions of dollars to build the greatest hockey venue in the world, the Ralph Engelstad Arena, in Grand Forks, North Dakota.” ”¦ Bill Russell wore a Celtics cap to the Presidential inauguration yesterday but was mistakenly identified as Morgan Freeman by TV talking head George Stephanopoulos. ”¦ The power of a uniform: As an experiment, and to draw attention to some little-known history, an Orange County Weekly reporter spent a weekend wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe. Makes for interesting reading, but I’m disappointed that they didn’t use the headline “White (Supremacist) Like Me.” ”¦ Who’s that in the Columbia football uniform? It’s none other than beat hero Jack Kerouac! ”¦ Sub-zero temperatures in the Twin Cities prompted the Twins to put some sweaters on the statues outside their ballpark (nice job by Brian Ites, who braved the chilly weather to take those photos). ”¦ Speaking of the Twins, they’ll be wearing St. Paul Saints throwbacks at some point this season (from Jim Lonetti. ”¦ The Blue Jackets tried a bit of GOB during pregame warm-ups for last night’s home opener — that’s groveling on back. Faulty grammar to boot, as there should have been a comma after “You” (from Rob Holecko). … “The Dodgers are spending millions not only on payroll but also on improvements to the 50-year old ballpark,” says Jerry Reuss. “That picture was taken from the press box directly behind home plate, looking down the third base line. The Dodger dugout remains intact, but you can see how much dirt was removed between the dugout and the second level of seats. That area will be the new home clubhouse, indoor batting cages, and many other updates to bring the park into this century. Stan Kasten believes the park will be ready Opening Day.” ”¦ Tons of new Japanese soccer uniforms from the indefatigable Jeremy Brahm, including Kawasaki Frontale (home and road), Consadole Sapporo, Mito Hollyhock, Thespa Kusatsu, JEF United, Matsumoto Yamaga FC, Avispa Fukuoka, Sagan Tosu, Yokohama FC, Gamba Osaka, Tokyo Verdy, Montedio Yamagata, Fagiano Okayama, Vortis Tokushima, and the women’s team NTV Beleza. The amazing thing (and I mean that in several senses of the term) is that Jeremy sent each of those updates to me in a separate e-mail. ”¦ More from Jeremy: Check out the progress bar animation for the French Athletic Federation’s web site. Pretty cool. ”¦ And still more from Jeremy: New uniforms for the Japanese women’s national team sevens rugby team. ”¦ Here are 50 alternate logos for the Rolling Stones (from Lou Sherwood). ”¦ The latest proposed alternate name for the Redskins: Potato ’Skins. “That graphic has been popping up on walls and various other things around DC,” says Ben Fortney. ”¦ Here’s a pretty interesting photo of the Richmond Tigers’ (Aussie football) jerseys being printed via sublimation. “Sports have come a long way from wool shirts with sewn-on felt numbers,” says Leo Strawn. ”¦ “I’m a big Angels fan, and I’ve heard from the team store that the Angels are discontinuing the road grays and going with red for road games,” says Jorge Martinez. I haven’t heard anything about that, and the MLB Style Guide still shows the Halos’ road grays, but I’ll try to get confirmation or refutation.