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Uni Watch

Hipster Brooklyn Jew Invades Dixie, Discovers NASCAR

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My friend Matt and I — both non-religious Jews — like to play a game called “Jews Don’t Do That,” which basically entails creating a running list of things Jews don’t do. For example: Jews don’t go hunting; Jews don’t become cops or firemen; Jews don’t join the Boy Scouts; Jews don’t play football; Jews don’t own pick-up trucks; and so on.

And boy oh boy, Jews really don’t do NASCAR.

But I struck a small blow for Yids at the track yesterday, as I attended the Daytona 500 with Uni Watch webmaster John Ekdahl (that’s him standing next to me in the photo above, with both of us wearing our noise-canceling headphones). It was my first NASCAR experience of any kind. Ek, who lives in north Florida, is a huge racing fan and has been bugging me to come to Daytona for ages. This year I finally took him up on it. (I flew down on Saturday afternoon, so I wasn’t at the track for the horrific crash that took place that day.)

The race included a bone fide Uni Watch moment: At one point Juan Pablo Montoya, who drives car No. 42, was involved in a wreck, and his car was taken to the garage for repairs. When he returned, his right door had been replaced. But the “2” from his “42” had been on the door, so his crew had to create a makeshift numeral out of white tape.

I’ll have more to say about my Daytona experience later this week on ESPN.com. All I want to day for now is that John and his lovely wife, Amy, were incredibly gracious hosts and gave me best introduction to NASCAR a Jew guy could want. Their hospitality was all the more impressive given that they’re expecting their first child in three weeks. Thanks, guys — you’re the best.

Today I’m flying home and catching up on stuff. See you tomorrow.

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Show & Tell update: Objects and stories from the latest installment of my monthly Show & Tell event are now available for your perusal.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Purim began on Saturday night, which presumably explains this awesome jersey (big thanks to Andrew Hoenig). ”¦ In case you missed it over the weekend, here’s the Orioles’ very underwhelming memorial patch for Earl Weaver. … My buddy Ken Davidoff interviewed Mets first base coach Tom Goodwin last week. Goodwin was one of MLB’s grandfathered 42ers when the number was retired in 1997, and a good chunk of the interview is about that. Check it out here. … Here’s a look at what might be the Red Wings’ phantom Winter Classic jersey. … New logo for Paris Saint-Germain (from Eli Louri). … Also from Eli: Gotta love these Lego ballplayers. … Flyers winger Sean Couturier, who wears No. 14, lost one of his helmet numerals the other day (screen shot by Gregg Cook). … The Modena volleyball team in Italy has been using superhero-themed libero uniforms (from Marco Scurati). … This is interesting: a New Jersey Giants pennant! (Good find by Mark Peterson.) … “I work IT for a high school in West Texas,” says John Baugh. “The other day I was in the field house doing some computer upgrades when I spotted these two Schutt helmets. The main thing that caught my eye were the front clip structure and the extended areas of the facemask towards the top. Never seen anything like that before. A quick search on the Schutt website shows that this is the new Schutt Vengeance DCT helmet. They call the facemask a ‘raised eyebrow’ design, supposedly to reduce and disperse impact at the faceguard level to keep the plastic shell from taking on as much of the impact.” … Oregon State will unveil new football uniforms on March 4. … New lacrosse uniforms for Loyola. They wore that design over the weekend against Maryland. … Look at this awesome 1948 letter — on even more awesome 1948 letterhead — about Olympian Bob Mathias’s track suit (tremendous find by Bill Kellick). … New NASL kit for the Carolina Railhawks (from Kenn Tomasch). … This is fun: the first installment in a series of “Bobbleheads We’d Like to See” (from Joseph Williams). … The Gold Coast Suns — that’s Aussie football — debuted their new clash jumper in their preseason first round match, and so did Carlton Blues (from Leo Strawn). ”¦ Andrew Shaw of the Blackhawks suffered a torn jersey after a fight toward the end of Friday’s game against the Sharks (from Raymie Humbert). ”¦ Chris Cruz sent along some good info on Indy Car belts: “For several years the belts have shown the flag of the driver’s home nation along with the his name. But Dan Wheldon’s old suit (this would have been 2006-08 time frame) has the flag on the suit itself, as he did not actually have a belt. Danica Patrick, of course, is used to having the stars and stripes on her belt. Interestingly, she continues to wear it today as a NASCAR driver. Contrast that with Kevin Harvick, whose belt is more like that of the other drivers.” … Great footage of the Marlins’ old teal batting helmets and Benito Santiago’s No. 09 jersey in this video clip (from Thom Armitage). … No photo, but Andre Torres says Alabama State baseball player Dexter Price doesn’t wear batting gloves. ”¦ The Alabama Hammers — that’s a low-level arena football team — have a case of Oregon envy (from Dustin Semore). ”¦ Interesting info about fire hydrant color schemes here (from William Yurasko). ”¦ There’s been another federal bust of fake NFL merch. ”¦ “I am in Brazil doing field work and it turns out there is an American Football League here,” says Emilio Bruna. “They have some interesting name, logo, and uniform choices.” ”¦ Interesting story about a manufacturer of gear for cycling, triathlons, running, skiing and wrestling (from Mark Medinger). ”¦ Here’s a new one, at least to me: a Washington Ambassadors WFL prototype helmet (from Bruce Menard). ”¦ Here’s something you don’t often see: NBA jerseys with nameplate. And man, brutal lettering on Jack Sikma’s NOB (from Ryan Mackman). ”¦ Someone with a 3-D printer appears to have designed an Indianapolis Colts ice cube tray (from Adam Herbst). ”¦ Yankees first base coach Mick Kelleher is still wearing last year’s postseason logo on his helmet (from Tony Burke). ”¦ Two color-vs.-color games in college baseball: Clemson vs. Wright State and Georgia Southern vs. Indiana (from Derek Summerville and Luke Parks, respectively). ”¦ For the first time in their history, the Knicks roster has players numbered 1 through 9 (from Robert, who didn’t give his last name). ”¦ Someone please tell the MLB Network that the Blue Jays no longer use this logo (from Jason Christie). ”¦ “I updated my Blackhawks app last night and noticed they went with a CCM tag for the jersey graphic they use as the opening splash screen,” says Matt Shepardson. ”¦ Rich Paloma recently dug out some old MLB dugout lineup cards that he had collected back in the 1970s. ”¦ There’s a bit of controversy over new airline staff uniforms in Turkey. ”¦ The Penguins wore G.I. Joe warm-up jerseys last night, and their Scranton-Wilkes Barre affiliate wore flag-desecration jerseys (from Mike Slavonic).

 
  
 
Comments (95)

    As a Northerner, ditto.

    Also delighted with Ticker item #1:
    “… Purim began on Saturday night, which presumably explains this awesome jersey (big thanks to Andrew Hoenig). …”

    No NFL shield or copyright mar on the NJ Giants pennant. ???? Clearly wishful thinking by some garden-stater.

    The only articles about fake NFL gear that interest me are the ones accompanied by photos of hilariously bad attempts at thievery. You know, misspellings, upside-down or wrong logos–that kind of stuff.

    No biggie on the Blackhawks app. Actually, let me clarify. Odd move, but makes sense.
    Reebok and CCM are under the same umbrella, so even though the equipment lines are distinct, the two logos can show up together on clothing and merchandise. I own six Habs Reebok EDGE replica jerseys, and one’s tag (my white jersey) is completely consistent with what the Blackhawks app shows. Oddly enough, the one that matches is, upon reasonable belief, the oldest one. My others are from the Habs centennial, and those tags have the Reebok word mark in the non-serif, all-lowercase font, while the white one is tagged with Rbk and CCM on the label. This is consistent with Reebok’s branding identity, gradually going away from the vector logo in favor of just the word mark. Of course, nowadays, the external logos are of the Reebok word mark, and not the vector. I do not own any jerseys that showcase that.
    TL;DR: It isn’t wrong, but it certainly isn’t up to date either. Weird, but somewhat explicable.

    Great post. Even more than the headline I had to chuckle at the remark that Juan Pablo Montoya’s door was replaced. These cars lack doors.

    I really did get a big kick out of it. I love taking people to their first NASCAR race. They inevitably enjoy the experience and I get to answer their many questions about a sport about which they had previously given little thought. It would be like me going to a cricket match. “I know generally what’s going on here, but I am eager to understand what is really happening and have a zillion inquiries . . . .”

    Maybe I’m displaying my ignorance (on a different topic this time!), but I wonder why JPM’s pit crew felt that was necessary(if it was necessary at all)…the spotter would be using the roof #, all scoring is done electronically, and fans sitting close can’t see the ‘door’ #’s all that well either(?) when the car’s at full speed.

    If you’re sitting close to the track cars are nearly indiscernable from one another. Farther away you’ll be able to see the numbers better. Spotters I think would be tuned into their teams enough to know their car was missing a 2.

    Unfortunately the reason might have been marketing. Target is the 42 car, not the 4. And that is the side facing the crowd.

    Never been to DIS but I’ve gone to a few other 1 mile+ tracks so I know that when you are close to the track all you can see well is pitstops and pace laps(which is why sitting trackside is typically less expensive).
    I’ve seen repair jobs where pit crews affix giant sponsor logo stickers on the damaged portions of the car too.

    Could be, but there must be a fine line in there somewhere. How many times have you seen an obscured or unreadable number from rubbing the wall, tire or another car?

    Small typo with the Andrew Shaw sentence, I believe you mean to say “fight” as opposed to “right”

    The new Schutt front face clips are designed for us to remove the face mask quicker in an emergency. There are the traditional speed clips at the bottom and the top is designed to twist off the mask after the mask swings up.

    I thought they were redesigned for optimum mouthpiece holding capability. Oh wait, that was that other stupid thing from a few days ago.

    Living in the South, sort of (Dallas-area), I was thinking that a couple of the items on Paul’s “Jews Don’t Do That” would not apply as much down here. For instance, even Jews would drive pickups in Texas, right? And hunt?

    Then I ran down the list of Jewish folk that I know (quite a few, I am a lawyer, after all), and not a one owns a pickup. Damn. This is fascinating.

    A few do hunt, however. Hmm, how does one hunt without a pickup? I really need to talk to my friends about this phenomenon.

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE that one of the Brazilian football teams (aptly, the Predatores) uses a Predator mask for their logo, like from the movie. Kudos for appealing to both sports AND scifi nerds, and or potentially dodging some SERIOUS trademark infringements.

    I’m digging the “istepôs” team name. I’m not sure what it means in Portuguese, but all it reminds me of are the Springfield Isotopes from the Simpsons.

    Since I’m a sheep, I watched the last 15 minutes of yesterday’s race, just on the off chance that history was about to happen. Watching it made me wonder: Is there any reason (outside of marketing) for calling a car a “Toyota Camry” or a “Ford Fusion” in NASCAR? I mean, other than some similarities in the “face” of each car (general shape and stickers that represent the grille and headlights), do the cars on a NASCAR track have ANYTHING to do with the vehicles that sit in driveways across the country? From what little I know, I THINK that Ford makes the parts that go into the “Ford” race cars (and likewise for the other companies), but, for example, is a Fusion on the NASCAR circuit any more similar to one in the showroom than it is to a Focus?

    Hello Jimmy,
    This article might help understand how NASCAR used to be the same cars as in the showroom, then in the 80’s started to just look like the ones in the showroom until they arrived to the point of the Car of Tomorrow which looked nothing like the one in the showroom and now is going back to try to have something really similar than the showroom.
    link

    This is a timely comment. This year NASCAR moved to their “link” model. They had become a bit concerned that the car manufacturers/models were becoming indistinguishable from each other on the track. I didn’t see the broadcast, but perhaps the announcers are pushing this a little bit by trying to include the model name more often (they used to do this a little, but more often just said “Ford” or “Chevy”, I think).

    They are “stock” cars, after all. Part of the idea is (or was) that you could go into the showroom and buy the car you saw on the track. The old saying was “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” and I think they’re trying to return to that a bit.

    Things got really silly when Ford did away with the T-Bird (coupe) and teams had to racing a “Taurus”(sedan):

    Street version:
    link
    NASCAR entry:
    link

    I think there was a NASCAR “strictly stock” series in the 1940’s (since customized and high performance parts were in short supply after WWII?), plus in those early years there was a convertable series too.
    To comply with NASCAR’s rule that only production models could be entered in races, many manufacturers in the 1960’s up through the early/mid 80’s released limited edition street versions of what would later be some of NASCAR’s most recognizible models (i.e.: the Plymouth SuperBird and Ford Torino Talledega).

    NASCAR used to require that 500 units of an engine or a body style be built for over-the-counter use before it could “legally” be run on the track. But the manufacturers had ways around the rules. For example the Ford Torino Talladega (and the Mercury Cyclone) body style was just a simple modification of the front nose piece that went on the Torino fastback. Ralph Moody of Holman-Moody designed the feature by creating a downward slope on the piece on an English-wheel metalworking tool. He then installed a flush grille and took a rear Torino bumper, cut it in two and welded in a section so that it would fit and you had a Talladega. All of the Talladega front end parts came out of H-M’s Charlotte, NC shop. All of the NASCAR Talladega bodies that FoMoCo teams (H-M, Petty, Jr. Johnson, the Wood Bros.)used came from H-M. They funneled just enough parts to the Atlanta Ford plant so that enough “street” ‘Degas could be built. Were there 500 each street ‘Degas and ‘Clones built? “Official” production numbers say yes. The truth is “maybe.”

    Just an FYI, this Jew joined the Boy Scouts at a Troop based out of a Synagogue. The Scouts even have an award, the Ner Tamid, specific for Jewish Scouts.

    link

    Cool.

    No joke: Several Jewish friends and I all agree that our parents never wanted us to join the Scouts because the idea of kids wearing that kind of uniform reminded them of the Hitler Youth.

    In my case, I wasn’t forbidden to join the Scouts, and I did in fact sign up for Cub Scouts, but I didn’t like it and quit after two months. My Mom later told me she was relieved that I quite, because of the HY association.

    OK, gotta go to the airport now.

    Heard the Kinkster explain once that there wasn’t a TOTAL lack of cultural overlap between Jewishness and being Texan: “Both tend to wear their hats indoors a lot.”

    Loved the Lego baseball players, very creative, but I only guessed Andre Dawson & Dennis Eckersley w/o looking

    C’mon, you didn’t get Pete Rose? The hair, man, the hair!

    [Teasing. I only got Rose, Eckersley & Johnson without looking. That was Randy Johnson, I hope. And I’d already seen Valenzuela on Twitter.]

    I find it offensive that the 1993 Marlins highlights in the ticker are labeled “LAD@MIA” by MLB. A) historical accuracy – there were no Miami Marlins in 1993, B) Why on earth would they sully that wonderful footage of the beautiful Florida Marlins uniforms by associating it with the abomination that is the Loria Marlins? Shameful.

    RE: Brazilian football….

    Surely, I’m not the only one who noticed the Corupá Buffalos have done some International/Intersport logo “borrowing”, am I??

    Jew don’t do that. That’s funny. Please come back to Minneapolis for another get together. Bring your entourage with you.

    Holy crap. As if the Griffons weren’t playing ugly enough basketball. Now they’re going to wear those horrid things?

    Love it that Paul attended the Daytona 500. But calling Daytona (or most any of Florida for that matter) “Dixie” is an arguable point among Southerners. Regardless, the South was certainly well represented at the race. That is some serious cultural immersion. Bold move Paul, bravo (or mazel tov, if you prefer)!

    calling Daytona (or most any of Florida for that matter) “Dixie” is an arguable point among Southerners.

    Really? Florida was part of the Confederacy — I’d think that would be enough to qualify for Dixie status right there.

    Oh no sir. Being part of the former Confederacy and being culturally Southern are two different things. For example, parts of Kentucky and Missouri and West Virginia are very Southern, but were not part of the CSA. OTOH, South Florida (no, Daytona is not South Florida) especially is culturally more like the Northeast than the rest of the geographical South. But that can also be said for enclaves like Cary (“Catchment Area for Relocated Yankees”), North Carolina and to an extent for portions of cities like Atlanta.

    This is of course, a very different, non-uni related topic. We could even get into the definition of what a “Yankee” is to Southerners (it is not a New Englander).

    Again, major props for going to the big race! Can’t wait to hear your take on it.

    Right, but we’re not talking about “being Southern”; we’re talking about what qualifies as Dixie. Like, would you really refer to any part of West Virginia, no matter how culturally Southern it might be, as Dixie? I sure wouldn’t.

    Florida, however — and especially northern Florida (I flew into Jacksonville) — sure seems like Dixie to me.

    I wouldn’t call any part of the South “Dixie” (that’s a Yankee term). But do I consider parts of WV, KY and Missouri the South? Absolutely!

    I agree Jax is probably culturally Southern. Miami? Boca? St. Pete? Not so much.

    Re the use of the term “Yid” – this has been a topic in the UK for some time as Tottenham supporters use it as a point of pride while others use it in a derogatory manner. This was brought up again recently when Tottenham fans were attacked in Lyon.

    link

    link

    link

    The west ham chairman sent out a letter to supporters askingvfor civility tonight v spurs.

    Last year American Israel Racing attempted to qualify a Toyota (adorned with the Star of David) for the Daytona 500 but they were not successful making the race:

    link

    AIR was founded by 2 Christians BTW.

    They raced at Martinsville. I was there, wasn’t sure what I was seeing until I looked it up. But yeah, the Magen David has been raced around a NASCAR track. Evangelical Christians (found largely in the South) are often big supporters of Israel.

    I’m not too sure if Martinsville hot dogs are kosher, but they are best I’ve ever eaten!
    Also, I think dragster Kenny Berstein is Jewish (he used to own a NASCAR team and his cars won some races).

    Love the Reggie/Billy bobble head! Some nice other suggestions in the comment section.

    As I said there, here are a couple that would be fun:

    Joe Niekro with half a hardware store in his back pocket

    The Babe eating a hot dog in uniform, mustard stains on the uni shirt

    Weaver on his tippy toes, cap backwards, in the face of say, Ron Luciano – both heads bobble ready

    2 Bouton ones:

    1. Him in his Yankee uniform, pitching, cap about to fall off

    2. Him in a Pilots uni, knuckleball grip on the ball, notepad in his back pocket

    Bouton writes about Fritz Peterson ( I think) swallowing his chaw on the mound, and barfing it up – THAT would be an awesome bobblehead

    Ahead of their unveiling party tonight, the Houston Dynamo have released their 2013/14 kit. No new sponsor yet.

    link

    *Rant warning*:
    When the team scheduled the public unveiling, I was initially very excited. It’s a very nice treat to witness something that, as a fan of the team, wannabe writer, and Uni Watcher, I value as highly important. A public unveiling serves many purposes, but there’s no point if you’re going to let the air out of the room before it fills up.

    Save everyone’s time and energy. The team obviously put the photos up early in the day so no one would show at the “unveiling” to express any sort of dissent. Whoever added to the weed out process by scheduling the unveiling for a downtown venue at 5 p.m. deserves a raise.

    It’s disingenuous and smacks of not really giving a damn about the visual identity. I’ve made peace with adidas changing the shirt every other year; it’s a cash grab, and I do not comprise the entire target market. Some will like it, some won’t. However, to disguise it all as a giant PR move – “look at how we’ve let the fans in!” – should perturb anyone who supports the team.

    All that’s missing are some quotes about various elements ‘reminding the players of their home field advantage’ and some spiel about how the fabric is that much light- oh wait, it’s already in the linked article. You can say what you want about MLS being a ‘Mickey Mouse’ league, but they certainly pull off a uniform unveiling like all the other big leagues.

    Depends on your philosophy. I’ve accepted that in order to compete with other sports, soccer has to do jersey sponsorships. There aren’t natural stoppages in play and clock to run a commercial. However, if I could pick up last year’s jersey (which I’m partial to) sans sponsor, I’d do so in a heartbeat.

    I wasn’t saying that to be a dick — I understand that soccer teams need ads on jerseys because they have no other revenue streams and all the clubs in foreign countries have them. It’s like a badge of honor. If you don’t have a sponsor, you ain’t shit, right?

    Not sure how the comparison to UW, which gives its content away for free and does actually rely on ad revenue, is comparable, but hey, you want to make that comparison, you know it’s false.

    I didn’t say you were being a dick.

    The whole “content for free” gig gets old. I’m a blogger just the same. I give away my content for free with no sponsors. My blog probably doesn’t generate nearly as many visitors either…oh well.

    People don’t HAVE to charge for their webcontent. There’s no mandatory fee for people to run blogs. So, the comparison does exist. In order for MANY soccer teams to survive, they have to go with a jersey sponsor. While it may be unfortunate to some, and it may be great for others, it’s kind of the same scenario for bloggers that feel the need to “give in to” advertising.

    They all do it for survival AND cash.

    Phil, I also didn’t mean to say it like you were being a dick. It’s a legitimate question. I was just expanding to demonstrate a certain level of knowledge on my side, and inform anyone reading through the commets who may not Get It® with respect to soccer jersey ads.

    In a perfect world, we’d have a classic, but unique kit (see: last year’s sunburst), and there would never be a sponsor. However, I’ve found over time that I’m not so opposed to sponsors as a concept as I am to specific sponsors. Greenstar Recycling? Amigo Energy? Kind of lame. The team may need the money, but I’m not going to sport the jersey. Yet I have no issue wearing the Standard Chartered logo on my Liverpool replica.

    Random/Worthless question, since your friend, John Ekdahl, lives in north Florida, does he happen to be a Jaguars fan?

    You’re looking at straight city limit population, I believe. This is misleading because Jacksonville is the largest city in the country (not in Alaska) by land area. I think it has over 700 square miles within the city border, which is massive.

    Look at metro markets. Jacksonville is smaller than Oklahoma City and just above Memphis.

    I’m a Giants fan, but I’ve adopted the Jags since moving here. Definitely root for them and attend some games.

    The team has a lot of local support. Certainly much more than the media reports. There weren’t any blackouts last year (and I believe the two years before that as well). Ticket sales have been steady.

    I grew up on LI but never got to an NFL game and never really followed it. I live in Orlando now and have a friend in Jacksonville who’s had Jags season tix since he moved there in 02. So he invited me once in 03 and I’ve been a Jags fan since. Actually the games were blacked out in Orlando this year, never had that happen before even thought they sold out. We get every freakin Bucs game on Fox still and only the away Jags games.

    John – it was nice hearing from and you answering questions from today, big thanks for what you do for the site.

    Nope, It must be his second time. link Looks like it’s just the first time I’ve noticed them this season. Odd to me that the leg pads are the only thing he’s updated from last season, maybe the glove and waffle board aren’t broken in yet…

    chag Purim sameach Paul! what’s your favorite hamentaschen flavor?

    I work at a Day School and plenty of kids had jerseys as costumes….had to restrain myself from my usual uni habits to teach

    Changing the subject from Purim and the Daytona 500… For a few years, the Rockies have been using a very cool logo for spring training, where they replace the mountains normally in the logo for a desert motif. They are using it again this year, I have seen it on bus stops and billboards around Phoenix.

    link

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