Uni Watch DIY Project: Building a Better Bracket

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Got a note yesterday from reader Nic Schultz, who’s been working on an interesting project. “For the last couple of years, I’ve been designing custom March Madness brackets for myself and my wife,” he said. “They function like scorecards. We carry them around while watching the games and use Sharpies to track our progress.” Simple, fun, nice — right?

This year, though, Nic decided to take things to another level. His bracket for this year’s tourney are shown above. Here’s his explanation of the story behind it:

I tried to teach myself 3-D rendering through the project. I took each round and assigned it a different uniform element. So for the round of 64, I used the teams’ jersey wordmarks; 32 got baseball cap logos, 16 and eight got mascot or secondary logo marks, and the rest kinda doubled up on text.

I had to dig through online media guides, schedules, graphics standards manuals, and so on to find the vector files for all the logos, although I had to re-create some of them myself in Illustrator. The process took a lot more time than I care to admit, although few outside the uni-verse would be able to fully appreciate it.

Pretty cool. Here’s how the laminated version of Nic’s bracket looked after the first weekend of games, with his incorrect picks blocked out in red (click to enlarge):

As most of you know, I’m not a bracket guy myself (I’ve literally never filled one out), but I really like this project. My thanks to Nic for sharing it with us.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

Growing up in Cincinnati — and reader Frank Bitzer will back me up on this — Opening Day was an official holiday. The city just shut down. The Opening Day Parade was a huge deal, and when you work in radio, as I used to do in Cincinnati, you get to be in the parade, and borrow a red Z3 from a local dealership (yup, that’s me in the photo shown above). Used to be, your school would let you skip if you could produce a ticket, although I don’t think I ever tested that theory.

So with all of that in mind, let’s start this week’s CC with this nice set of 1970s Cincinnati Reds yearbooks. Had every one of these except the ’78, and I even remember copying the line drawings off the back of the ’73. Then we’ll go with this 1970s Reds belt buckle, a 1970s Reds clubhouse chair, this 1970s Reds/Kool-Aid promo bat, and this 1980s T-shirt.

As for non-Reds finds:

• Check out this cool 1970s NHL Hockey Pencil Stick Sharpener!

• Also from the 1970s, this Canadian company called Vachon marketed its own line of Expos posters, like this one from Ron Fairly.

• No NFL branding allowed in this Tony DorSETT Converse T-shirt.

• Submitted by reader Dennis Jones: Here’s a game-worn helmet from the 1982 NFLPA All-Star Game. I don’t recall there being such a thing!

• A bit of poking around on Etsy reveals a cool vintage Texas Rangers jacket; a 1970s Mets sweatshirt [looks more DIY than vintage to me ”” PL]; and this authentic LA Rams Jim Everett jersey.

• Haven’t seen one of these before: It seems that in the 1960s, at least, NFL Punt, Pass & Kick participants were given or could buy cool varsity jackets, like this one for the Niners.

• Staying with the 1960s and the Niners, how about this classy copper Niners copper plaque!

• Shane Earnest submitted something that Paul will probably flip out over: this Rawlings baseball uniform catalog, complete with fabric swatches! [Very nice, and definitely up my alley, but the lack of illustrations is disappointing. I think I’ll pass on this one. ”” PL]

• And we conclude with this nice 1970s Oakland A’s baseball bank.

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

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday I mentioned that the Yanks and Red Sox would be wearing this Newtown memorial patch on Opening Day and that “other teams are expected to get on board soon.” I didn’t realize that all 30 MLB teams were now on board (my thanks to Travis Martin for setting me straight). … Another follow-up from yesterday: I mentioned that Prince Fielder appeared to be wearing a pair of those briefs with the built-in thigh pads, but I didn’t have a photo. Now I do. Looks weird to see that on a baseball diamond, no? ”¦ Remember how the Browns were going to have new uniforms in 2014? Scratch that — it won’t happen until 2015 (from Jason Hillyer). … What the hell is this logo trying to tell us? It’s a little hard to see, but the letters are “RGS,” for Rutherford Grammar School. The photo is from 1911 (from Bill Grindler). … What’s going on here? “It’s a Diet Mountain Dew guy shooting a Sunkist basketball while being defended by a Mountain Dew opponent,” explains Brice Wallace. … Rutgers football will be wearing a Hurricane Sandy support uniform for its spring game. … Cupspiracy update from Taylor Atkinson, who writes: “I attend Iowa State University and am a marketing intern for the athletic department. This weekend we hosted the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships in Des Moines, so I worked basically as a volunteer. Saturday the championship matches were televised on ESPN. About 10 minutes before airtime, a woman ran down the media table, which faces the camera, with a large stack of the light-blue NCAA Powerade cups. She was forcing each person to pour their Coke into the cups and throw away the cans. I thought it was interesting since Coke owns Powerade. During our televised events at Hilton Coliseum, we could have any old Coke product in open view.” … FC Kansas City, a tea in the new National Women’s Soccer League, has unveiled its inaugural uniform set. This comes just a few days after another NWSL team, the Portland Thorns, stopped selling a T-shirt with the slogan “Feelin’ Thorny?,” which had drawn complaints. “I thought it was kind of strange that FC Kansas City can have a boxing gym logo on its shirts, but the Thorns can’t sell a t-shirt with a slogan that is only mildly ribald,” says Kenn Tomasch. “Because, as we all know, women can be fighters, but they can’t be lovers.” … The NHRA is inviting diabetic children to create a hot rod livery design (from Alan Feller). … New logo for the ECAC hockey championship. “They’re moving it back to Lake Placid next season after three miserable years in Atlantic City,” says Eric Sundermann. … Awesome Redd Foxx joke that I used to know, then totally forgot about, then recently heard again: “What’s the difference between a pickpocket and a peeping Tom? A pickpocket snatches watches.” … Here’s one of the best photos I’ve ever seen of Crosley Field. Check out the incline in left field! (Big thanks to Tom Farley.) … The Maple Leafs wore the blue alts on the road last night, prompting the Bruins to wear white at home. “I don’t know if there’s any special occasion going on, other than a pair of Original Six teams looking mighty sharp,” says James McNamara. … Yesterday I asked if the “A” Scott May’s jersey was missing or just obscured by a fabric fold. Now Cork Gaines has found an AP shot of May cutting down the net at the end of that game. “The ‘A’ is definitely there, so it must have been a fold,” he says. … Dwayne White recently visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and took a buncha cool pics. … Professional poker player Greg Merson likes to wear baseball jerseys at the poker table (from Tyler Schmitt). … Danny Garrison’s latest set of NFL teams recast as soccer teams is for the AFC North. ”¦ I’m not the only one who can make creative use of the term “OMFG.” ”¦ Amusing look at the lining in Jim Boeheim’s suit (from Sean Keeley). ”¦ Tons of great pics featured on this St. Louis sports history page. “It’s obviously St. Louis-based, but there are some pics featuring games of rivals,” says Chris Mayberry. “I was up waaaay past bedtime going through it.” ”¦ “My friend went to Russia, and when he landed in Moscow, this San Jose Sharks display was at the airport,” says Phillip Garza. I’m assuming this has something to do with a Russian player on the Sharks’ roster. Anyone know more? ”¦ 140th-anniversary jumper on the way for Essendon (from Leo Strawn Jr.).