Click photos to enlarge
What you see above, from top to bottom, are an original game-worn Brooklyn Dodgers cap, circa 1940s; a Brooklyn Dodgers cap made for use in the upcoming movie 42; and a close-up of a Dodgers cap as it appears on the 42 movie poster.
As you can see, the three cap logos are distinct — not just in terms of their graphic design, but also their physical format. The first one is embroidered, while the second two are sewn felt, but even the two felt logos don’t match.
I discussed these discrepancies at length with Mark Koester, CEO of Sports Studio, the L.A.-based company that made the big league uniforms for 42. That discussion forms the bulk of my latest ESPN column. Enjoy.
Meanwhile, in case you missed it yesterday, I also interviewed Jerry Cohen of Ebbets Field Flannels, who did the minor league and Negro League uniforms for 42. You can read that interview here.
Eye Black Raffle Winners: The six winners of the Farkas Eye Black raffle are Mike Byers, Brett Vande Hoef, Michael Gargano, Casey Shaeffer, Andy, Chalifour, and Ryan Ganimian. Y’all should watch your mailboxes, okay? Okay.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Lions may wear throwbacks this season (from Daniel Secord). … The Mets and Rockies will wear 1993 throwbacks next Tuesday (from Brian Erni). … The Cal athletic department has finally unveiled its new identity system. Use the links on the let to see the new logos, football uniforms, etc. “The equipment manager must love the fact that not all of the 1s will look alike, since the bear graphic is centered on the full number, not just the numeral,” says Tyler Johnson. … Good article about Gemini Athletic Wear, the Minnesota company that’s a leading manufacturer of college and prep school hockey jerseys (from Joe Drennan). … Good story on the Tacoma Rainiers’ seamstress (from Scott Stoddard). … That crazy FIU basketball court is done. … New kits for the Portland Thorns (from Lucas Ehrbar). … I don’t follow Aussie football and don’t really understand what “runners” are, but they’re going to change their uniform colors (from Leo Strawn Jr.). … Jackie Robinson tribute jerseys on tap for the Wilmington Blue Rocks and the Bakersfield Blaze. … Here’s a short interview with the designers of the new WNBA logo (from Stu Taylor). … Stupid Pandering Tricks, Part 1: New G.I. Joe cap for the San Antonio Missions (from Brady Phelps). … Stupid Pandering Tricks, Part 2: Flag-desecration jersey on tap for Illinois baseball (from Steve Hudgin). … Do these stripes make my ass look fat? That’s the softball team from Wayne High School in West Virginia. Never seen stripes like that on baseball or softball pants before. Also, note the QB-style play-calling wristbands (from Brice Wallace). … “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo that has made me want to throw up as much as this one,” says Kurt Esposito, referring to a shot of ’N Sync in Phillies jerseys. … A month or so ago, Michael Hersh posted his rankings of NBA team names. Now he’s back with an MLB version. Discuss. … This is interesting: Michigan wanted to switch its “no contact” QB jerseys from red to orange, so they got some jerseys from Oregon State and repurposed them (good job by Jimmy Couto). … The Round Rock Express wore very nice Austin Senators throwbacks the other night. … I think we may have mentioned this before, but just in case: Braves rookie backstop Evan Gattis bats bare-handed (from Chip Powell). ”¦ The Birmingham Barons have a cool bullpen buggy (from Keith Owens). ”¦ Also from Keith: “The Alabama softball team paid a neat tribute to recently deceased athletic director Mal Moore by donning white batting helmets made to look like the helmets the Crimson Tide wore in the early ’60s, when Moore was a backup quarterback. The number 15 represents the number of national championships won by Moore as either a player, coach, or administrator.” ”¦ New bat knob decals for the Orioles (from David Sulecki). ”¦ Uni Watch’s latest hosiery hero is Brewers rookie Khris Davis, who strode up to the plate this other day wearing these stirrups, hot-cha-cha (from Nicole Haase). ”¦ NC State senior Scott Wood tweeted a photo of all the jerseys he’s worn over his basketball career with the Wolfpack (from Brent Perry). ”¦ Small changes reportedly in the works for Arizona football (from Kyle Hanks). ”¦ New uniforms for Major League Ultimate. Note that several of the teams are using vertically arched NOBs. If a freaking Frisbee league can do this, why can’t Majestic? (From Eric Hurd.) ”¦ Painted glove specialist Sean Kane has created a gorgeous Hank Greenberg model. Also, his magnificent Roberto Clemente glove is being raffled off for charity. You can enter the raffle for $6 — details here.
Looks like an Austin, not Washington, Senators uni for Round Rock. Which would make sense, what with the Express being Austin’s minor league team.
Confirmation that it’s Austin, not Washington, Senators on the throwback:
link
(Aside from the whole bit where the Washington Senators never wore a jersey anything like that, and the Austin Senators did; throwbacks are often sloppy enough that resemblance isn’t proof of intent.)
A ballclub relocated from Canada helps itself to some left-behind Senators history?
That’s a first.
Are you saying that only the Frisco RoughRiders should wear Austin Senators throwbacks? (Kidding!) On a serious note, do you suppose anyone who attends RoughRiders games – or, heck, anyone in the team’s front office – is aware that the team used to be the Austin Senators?
“A ballclub relocated from Canada helps itself to some left-behind Senators history?
That’s a first.”
Touché
Today’s ESPN column is up:
link
Ah, so on the poster, which is where moviegoers and web/social media surfers will actually see Jackie’s cap in great detail, the movie studio just happens to be using the version of the B logo that MLB and New Era most commonly sell at retail but that the Dodgers never quite actually wore. And yet that particular anachronistic cap logo doesn’t appear in the movie.
Amazing coincidence, that!
The Roman version (I own) of the Brooklyn circa 1947 cap resembles the B in the 42 poster. Got it 25+ years ago and the B is embroidered w/leather sweatband/green visor(under-bill). Can’t recall what the fabric is, but not a heavy wool.
As far as I know, the last company to produce an authentic blue Brooklyn Dodger cap was Mitchell and Ness in the 1990s. Ever since, they’ve had the incorrect logo, which would make sense since MLB standardized the Cooperstown Collection logo sheets in (I think?) 1999.
I’d love to see Sports Studio’s cap merchandised, though. The patch might not be accurate, but it’s still better looking than what we get now.
New Era made a more authentic logo for the Dodgers TBTC game a few years ago. More and more Brooklyn hats are showing up with the correct logo. For some reason they also keep making them with the B that never existed.
Which game was that? I’m only familiar with link and link, both of which use New Era’s standard Brooklyn logo. Nice, but not period-accurate.
What’s really frustrating is that the Dodgers’ electronic files have a logo that’s link, but New Era didn’t use it. That means even link was closer to link.
But link is well within the margin or error of link of actual Dodgers cap. Irks me to no end when the more recent Dodgers caps, which are about as close as any modern treatment of no-longer-used logos are lumped in with link as if they’re all equally anachronistic. They’re not.
American Needle has eight or so (depending on how picky you are) caps with an accurate ‘B’, but not in a blue crown. They’re all on a white pin-striped crown.
I said it before during the NBA one and I’ll say it again now: Michael Hersh’s most-appropriate-for-location-equals-best philosophy is dumb, in my opinion. It’s such a narrow rubric by which to evaluate something like that.
I agree to a point… and some of his choices for “making sense” really don’t to me. How are Tigers more appropriate for Detroit than Rockies are for Colorado? Also, Nationals is one of the worst names in sports and the fact that the team plays in DC is irrelevant.
As I look at a sheaf of Washington Senators letterhead bearing the slogan “The National Pastime from the Nation’s Capital,” I’ll ignore that comment.
I’ve actually made peace with the Nationals v. Senators name, as the latter now implies someone who can be bought with enough special interest money… not unlike a free agent… uh, scratch that idea…
Plus, Washington Nationals is one of the oldest nicknames in American sports. Washington’s first baseball team was organized with that name in 1859, and that Nationals club went on to play a major, even decisive, role in spreading East Coast baseball mania to the Midwest immediately after the Civil War.
Oh sure, point that out… now maybe we can get some “Established in 1859” shirts to go along with those 1905 ones. Ugh.
Nationals (or Americans, for that matter) is only suited as a nickname for a team that represents the entire country – for example, casually referring to the US National Team for a global tournament like the World Cup as “the Nationals” would be acceptable.
The Washington Nationals are not that type of team, and thus the name is stupid. I don’t care how “historic” it is.
The, I see your logic. Now, to validate your reasoning, I assume you can point us to any instances whatsoever in the history of American English in which a team representing the US of A in international play has been referred to as the “nationals.”
Unfortunately I can’t do that, as I really don’t recall any US National team actually having any sort of nickname other than the 1992 Olympic basketball “Dream Team”. We (as in the general public) really don’t seem to care too much about our national teams, do we?
Perhaps that’s a new tradition we can start. From this point forward, if I ever have a reason to refer to a US National Team, I’ll call them the Nationals.
The internets casually refers to the US national team as “the nats”. Generally, it’s “the United States”.
I just fail to see how “Nationals” is any less appropriate than “Yankees”, seeing how the Bronx franchise doesn’t represent all of the northeastern United States
The word national has political and government connotations. Nationals would work for any city but it makes the most sense for a team in our nation’s capital.
As for the Yankees, historically the Yankees are referred to the colonial northeastern US and I only count three areas large enough in that area to support a major franchise (Boston, Connecticut, NYC).
It’s like how the Rocky Mountains are more than just Colorado but Denver is the only major city along the Rockies that will have a major franchise.
We (as in the general public) really don’t seem to care too much about our national teams, do we?
Good. Nationalist, jingoist sentiments have no place in sports.
Re Mr Hersh and the name Yankees: Old Boston joke —
To someone outside the United States, a Yankee is an American. To someone within the United States, a Yankee is a Northerner. To someone from the North, a Yankee is someone from the Northeast. To someone from the Northeast, a Yankee is a New Englander. To a New Englander, a Yankee is someone from Vermont. To a Vermonter, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.
As a Twins fan/AL central rube, I was wondering how Royals and Tigers make sense for teams in Kansas City and Detroit?
Royals were named after the American Royal Livestock Show.
Also, KC was home to the Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. Not, as I was taught growing up in Iowa, the actual origin of the name Royals, alas, but a nice local connection nonetheless.
I don’t understand why there’s an implication that the Cardinals are named after the color. Those two birds on the bat beg to differ.
According to this link
the Cardinals were named after their color. I assume the birdies came later.
They did, in the 20’s. My point is that they’re no longer named after the color. The name is intrinsically linked with the birds now.
And you can’t have it one way with the Rays and another with the Cardinals. Either the new naming “motif” applies or it doesn’t.
I treated the Rays differently because they did a name change and spefically went for a change of image.
Otherwise you would have to judge the Cardinals based on the previous nicknames Browns or Perfectos.
Re: Rockies ’93 throwbacks. If I’m not mistaken their home whites have never changed…so is it safe to assume the throwback jersey will be the black one?
The only difference between the Rockies ’93 jersey and today is that they didn’t have numbers on the front. Also, the CR on the cap was a tad thinner back then.
Compare then: link
To now: link
Also — and most importantly — they didn’t have names on the backs in 1993.
Glad the Mets are bringing back the ’93 road jersey. As beautiful as the traditional Tiffany font is, I love that the script lettering has the tail going through the loop of the “Y.”
Even though the game is at Coors, the Rockies will be wearing grey and the Mets will wear white because the first game in Rockies history was at Shea.
Official photo: link
Also, to the Detroit Lions – NO ONE LIKES YOUR STUPID ASS BLANK THROWBACK UNIFORM. If you want to throwback to something, why not the uniform worn by the greatest running back of all time?
/sheepishly raising hand
I *like* the throwback, and I remember that blue hose look being popular with my admittedly small circle of sports-watching acquaintances back when all of NFL went throwback in 1994.
Well of course you like it… you’ve gotta live up to your username. ;)
I don’t know, the solid blue socks were/are kinda cool, and the NFL really has no reason for the normal requirement of white low socks… but the uniform as a whole is just boring and we’ve all seen it numerous times now. It was a cool novelty once, but I think it’s worn out it’s welcome and the Lions should do something else.
At the very least, their opponent should throwback to something from the same era. It looks far better if they’re wearing it against something like last year’s Redskins throwback than it does against any modern uniform.
Ha!
The article is light on details and I’m guessing it’ll be for the Thanksgiving game, and then, it’ll make sense for the other team to wear throwbacks too.
I know the 1994 throwbacks were plain, but I found that plainness to be a nice change of pace compared to other unis.
I wouldn’t mind if they went with the 1990s look, though.
I liked the throwback uniforms back when Barry Sanders and Herman Moore were wearing them, but I’m not particualrly enthusiastic about their potential return.
why not the uniform worn by the greatest running back of all time?
Because neither Jim Brown nor Walter Payton played for the Lions, dunce.
I like the blank throwback, but wouldn’t mind seeing them throwback to the mid-90’s look that they wore when the won their only playoff game since 1956.
Saddest thing about those Honolulu blues: they look AWESOME in sunlight. Too bad they’ve been cooped up indoors since the 70s
better yet, throwback to the portsmouth spartans…
link
WOW! As a native of Portsmouth, and loooooong time Uni-Watch reader, I never thought someone else would mention the Spartans. Bravo!
Tigers named after Michigan’s oldest military unit.
Here’s the link that Paul posted last week and where I got my information. link
Looking at those Ultimate Frisbee jerseys, I’m wondering why there’s a sleeve number only on one arm.
And my cynical side thinks that it’s the left arm because the Right-Handed Overlords figured that in an action shot, you wouldn’t be able to see the sleeve of someone throwing a frisbee, so they put it on the arm where it would be more visible.
I wonder if the number always goes on the left, or if it always goes on the non-throwing arm. It would be gratifying and forward-thinking if it were the latter.
This is the first I’ve ever seen a number on the sleeve. Traditionally, ultimate jerseys have never looked much like soccer jerseys, to be honest. At college and club nationals, you were required only to have rear numbers and a number on the front of the short, I believe (and everyone had to be in the same uniform).
I could deal with soccer-esque uniforms, but these aren’t good looking, so I’m not on board. I’d take some of the classic college ultimate shirts any day of the week.
AZ, Jozy Altidore’s team in Holland released their 2013/14 jersey: link
The asymmetrical collar will not stop looking awkward.
Cool; “New York” cursive script with “swoosh” makes a cameo appearance. I know I’m in the minority but I always liked those jerseys, although they would have been exponentially better without the white trim. I also prefer the ’94 variant with the number on the front.
Yes, said it above. Love that the tail and the loop of the Y intersect.
re: runners in Aussie football
If the internet isn’t deceiving me, runners are essentially assistant coaches who relay the coach’s instructions to players on the field, as the head coach isn’t allowed to talk to players while they’re on the field.
Learn something new everyday.
100% correct. A couple of times a season, a runner will interfere with play and give away a free kick at a vital time. Since many of them are recently retired players, that is always a bit of a shock.
yes, in aussie rules there are no time outs and although there are 18 players on ground at any one time, there are only 21 available to be part of that 18 at any one time, so they get tired quickly, even with frequent interchanges…also, in the event of a player going down, play isn’t stopped unless the injury is deemed very serious and/or would interfere with the flow of play…
so the runners are very valuable, as they assist coaches, assist medical staff and (runners who have no top level playing or medical experience) also run water to players during the match…
i should say “in AFL there are only 21 available”…
clubs carry a list to a match of 22 players…18 on ground, 3 for interchange, and one is a sub…so WAFL or SANFL or other leagues may have access to all 22 for the entire match…
Youtube video of Runners in Action.
link
In rugby similarly there are (or at least until recently were – I’m not completely up to date) “water carriers” who bring bottles of water for the players, and relay instructions.
The teacher of an acquaintance’s little boy asked what his Daddy did, and the little lad replied “He takes water to the tigers?”
“Oh” she said “does he work at the zoo?”
“No. He works for Leicester Tigers rugby team”
True story.
And his name was Bobby Boucher?
I had to look that one up, Phil :)
The FIU link started spawning webpages on me — I haven’t seen that in years.
Of course we use an old version of IE at work by demand of our IT folks, so that may not be true with modern browsers
Anything more on the White Sox road uni front? In addition to their surprise change in pants, they have worn their alt jerseys for both road games. This seems strange, since they rarely wore them last year, unlike under Ozzie when they wore them all the time. Is there an as yet to be revealed new road jersey that goes with the new pants?
nice work by jimmy couto chasing that story down. what a weird way to get a practice jersey. i guess mich’s equipment manager doesnt have the fine folks at adidas on speed dial…
RE: NC State Jerseys: is one of them #16(front row, next to the black one) or is it just the fold of the jersey covering making it look like a 16 instead of 15
It’s just a fold; if it were a 6, the top left corner would be sawed off rather than sharp.
Plus, it’s college so there wouldn’t be a 6.
This may be a dumb question, but what kind of “play-calling” is there in softball that would necessitate those wristbands? Especially on defense?
Multiple variations of bunt coverage and other defensive shifts. Also, probably helps to know what pitch is being delivered in order to defense it correctly. In softball, the type of pitch tends to determine in which direction the ball may be hit.
We coaches tend to use multiple variations of verbal signals to call out the different defensive alignments. The cards tend to be switched out of the wristbands quite frequently, especially when playing against a team for the second or third time.
hello everyone.
my four-year-old will be starting tee ball soon here in brooklyn, ny and i have to get him some baseball pants. so far, i have only been able to find the hideous “relaxed fit” youth baseball pants.
does anyone in the NYC area know where i can get him some proper pants with socks and stirrups? i can’t have my boy looking like a fool out there.
thanks!
Try Gerry Cosby & Co, outside of MSG or link
If they don’t have small sizes they can probably point you in the right direction.
don’t know about new york, but here in ohio i have located a second hand shop that frequently gets all kinds of baseball and football pants of various sizes/styles…i would imagine there are shops like this one all over the place…
and the pants usually only sell for a couple of bucks each…
might be worth a shot…
Cool – my four-year-old just started teeball at the Dean Street Playground. I’d be interested in this as well, also for his brother who just started baseball in Prospect Park.
Regarding the article about Michigan’s use of Oregon State unis, I noticed that the writer asked why they repurposed Nike unis instead of going to an Adidas school such as Tennessee or Bowling Green.
My guess is that it might have to do with Michigan’s contract with Adidas expiring in 2015, and the school may be considering a return to Nike. Since there’s link, Michigan may be looking to go in a different direction with its next contract.
I don’t know, it seems more likely that Brady Hoke still has contacts at Oregon State and they were the one school that could whip up a reddish jersey ASAP.
With regards to Michigan, I’m guessing they went with orange QB jerseys instead of red because of a certain rival college that wears scarlet & gray?
That makes sense, except you have to ask why they’d been using red before. I think terriblehuman’s explanation is the best answer. It might just boil down to a Skype/Yahoo/AIM/Facebook conversation. Maybe Michigan Guy wanted to do something different and Oregon State Guy was complaining about having all these leftover jerseys they can’t really use… and there ya go.
My question is, how many teams DON’T use different practice jerseys for QB’s? They’re primarily used so that QB’s don’t accidentally get hit in practice, but I know the Steelers link–they’ve used white for link for about 10-12 years (they used to have black for offensive players but switched because of the heat) while all defensive players link As far as I’m aware, they’ve never had a different jersey for QB’s in practice.
Michigan actually flat out admitted the red was ditched to avoid the Ohio State connection. As for why Oregon State, a few people have reached out to me and mentioned that not only did Brady Hoke coach at Oregon State in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but the Oregon State Athletic Director was at Michigan for almost 20 years. My guess is that one of those connections caused the call, if not, probably someone in one of the equipment rooms from one of the teams has a connection. As an equipment manager myself, I know that every equipment manager knows pretty much every other equipment manager.
Paul likes sports and loves cats … will this be his favorite website EVER?
link
That site is not one which Navin Johnson would frequent:
link
Those Oriole bat decals are certainly an upgrade from “Fuck Face”!
From what little i can see i really like the Cal uni update. Looks more simple, and i didnt see any stupid “claw marks”. Those numbers are going to suck though. The number 1 isnt going to be the only problem, though. I know off the top of my head that 6 and 8 will have the same problem.
I may be in the minority, but I like the thick yellow collar on the football uniforms. Liked them on the Texans too.
Why they went with a “half-collar” on the basketball unis is beyond me. Such a dumb look.
Won’t all numbers have this problem?
Take any number – let’s use 7:
If you’re the number 7 – then you’ll have a bear centered on that number.
If you’re number 71, you’ll have the bear aligned in the center and the left half of the bear will be in the 7.
If you’re the number 17, you’ll have the bear aligned in the center and the right half of the bear will be in the 7…
And what about the number 17 versus the number 27 (or 71 and 72) – since the 1 is narrower than the 2, are the 2 and the 1 put in the same place on the jersey or is the entire number centered?
If so, there need to be additional numbers printed for those that have a 1 in their uni number versus those with wider numbers…
Looks like there could be a sub-UW job, like Ducktracker, to keep up with all of the Cal players and all of the number fuck ups they have this year…
Yeah… it sounds like a major pain in the ass…. unless they can apply that bear pattern after the numbers are already on the jerseys. They’ve got 5 different versions of each number (single, before a 1, after a 1, before a not-1, and after a not-1). There’s a lot of potential for screwing up.
I have a question: will these Cal fb jerseys be considered kosher in light of the NCAA’s new uni rules for this season that state that jersey numbers must be “of one solid color”?
link
That’s a really good question. The numbers look pretty solid from a distance, so hopefully they pass. If not, then the NCAA needs to stop making stupid rules.
Yeah, or teams could just actually adhere to one sold color for their numbers.
Phil, that is CRAZY talk!
Fans sitting in the park during the game at Busch Stadium tomorrow night will have a chance to take home Stan Musial’s balls:
link
Direct link:
link
Will they defrost in time for the game?
Sorry, I thought we were talking about Ted Williams.
Japanese baseball team Rakuten Golden Eagles are having an Andruw Jones bobblehead day on Sunday
link
Has an MLB player who moved to Japan ever been immortalised as a bobblehead so soon?
New Youtube video from the Viking’s equipment manager discussing their upcoming new unis. He confirms they are getting away from the modern look and going back to a more traditional design. Based on the teasers they’ve released I’m optimistic these are going to be pretty cool. Looks like they’re going with darker shades of both purple and gold (less yellow than before) which seems like a good move.
link
Well… let’s just hope they actually match the purples on the helmet & jersey. That’s the one thing the current uniform had going for it. The blatant color mismatch on the throwback uniform they’ve been wearing in recent years looks absolutely horrible.
the vikes’ purple mismatch is based on actual history…
link
Yes, I am aware of that – it’s just like the Rams & Giants having navy helmets and royal blue jerseys back in the 70s-90s. The mismatched colors looked like shit then too.
Actually, the Vikings lightened their gold, making it more yellow-y and less orange.
link
link
I didn’t know this until they changed it, but they used to use the same shade as the Packers.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo that has made me want to throw up as much as this one,” says Kurt Esposito, referring to a shot of ’N Sync in Phillies jerseys.
Aww what a charming vile bigoted thing to say and attitude to have.
How cute.
Your parents must be SO proud of you, as they obviously raised SO well.
Please explain the bigotry. I have to see how this accusation is rationalized. I’m quite certain any answer given will be used in textbooks for years to come.
Maybe with a surname like Esposito, this is more settling to Kurt’s stomach (add them to your musician list too?):
link
Yes, they have NKOTBOB too:
link
I can’t tell if Kurt’s upset because he’s an NSync fan who’s also a Mets fan, or if he’s a Phillies fan who’s also BACKSTREET BOYS FAN 4 LIFE.
Two great days of interviews – very interesting.
One quote from today’s interview should be engraved and framed – “We always strive for authenticity, but we have to live in the real world”.
Indeed – the use of felt instead of embroidery is entirely defensible on the grounds of “shows up better on camera.” They clearly did about as good a job as possible recreating the stitched logo in felt. Bottom line is that they’re depicting history, not recreating or reenacting it.
The cap logo is small beans for a medium where, for example, completely fictionalizing the ratification of the 13th Amendment into a Bizarro World opposite of the truth is considered within the bounds of “artistic license” in a historical drama.
The guys who made the Dodger caps for the movie worked on 61*? That explains evrything. The only thing I thought about that whole movie was how stupid the Yankee hats looked wiith the jersey version of NY on the hats.
link
Re Arched text on the Ultimate jerseys…
I’m pretty certain those are sublimated which is much easier to do custom anything than tackletwill like MLB uses. You’d have to custom cut twill for every players name vs. hitting the print button.
That may be…. but we are talking about a league in which players make MILLIONS of dollars. Surely, if you can afford to pay the players that much money, you can afford the extra expense of cutting letters for the uniforms.
True, except that vertical arching is also, and objectively, inferior design for a NOB. Names are words. Words are written using letters. Letters are symbols that represent particular sounds with particular patterns of lines. And the human eye and brain are really good at recognizing patterns even when those patters are rotated or flipped, as they are in radial arching. We are not as good at recognizing patterns that are sheared, as they are in vertical arching. Rotate the letter M 60 degrees, and you have the letter M. Shear the letter M by half as much, and you have a meaningless tangle of lines.
Plus, this really isn’t an arts-and-crafts gallery. It’s a baseball field. Difficulty of hand-crafting on the NOB isn’t actually an asset. A NOB that can be cobbled together from stock letters and sewn onto a new jersey in 5 minutes better fulfills a jersey’s functional purpose than one that requires hand-cutting of letters and an hour or more of prep time. Better fulfilling the object’s functional purpose is a fancy way of saying, “superior design.”
Though obviously the whole problem is even better solved by eliminating NOBs entirely. They’re wearing foot-high numbers. Nobody is confused about who any of them are!
Another circumstance where we may blame the presence of softball and alternate jerseys, if you ask me. In days of yore, a callup or new trade only needed two shirts made up. Today, a new player on the Mets has to have FIVE of the fuckers rendered, and that cuts into the time when artisans can create an appealing arch of customized letters. I still haven’t heard a good excuse why basketball can’t do vertical arch, the lazy lima beans.
“Today, a new player on the Mets has to have FIVE of the fuckers rendered…”
~~~
I have a very simple solution to that dilemma.
Contract the Mets?
Can we at least agree that riffs on our favorite teams’ uniforms are fine, only they really don’t need to be worn by the team, on the field of play.
They wouldn’t even need to make shirts up for the players if they just told them they could choose only from the numbers available in their size, as in amateur leagues. And, of course, NOBs shouldn’t even exist, which would save the equipment managers a lot of work.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo that has made me want to throw up as much as this one,” says Kurt Esposito
Aw, Kurt, don’t be a hater, be an appreciator!
I’d say the movie people should have put “artistic” quality aside for the caps in favor of authenticity. An embroidered Brooklyn “B” is better than the felt one.
That seems kind of misguided – with costume design, it should be about how it looks, not what it is. It’s like telling a foley artist not to use household items to simulate the sound of boots crunching in the snow.
Misguided? No, just opinion. Why do people always think they should challenge opinions, just because they disagree. There is no statement of fact here.
And there’s a difference between sight and sound.
Three golfers are wearing the same exact Adidas shirt with black pants in the Masters today: Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, and Jason Day.
How difficult would it have been to purchase some Brooklyn Dodgers caps from New Era or Stall & Dean for the 42 movie? Such a screw-up country we live in.
link
Whatever Joe Kapp wore is what the Minnesota Vikings shouls change their jersey back to. One badass dude good old #11.
Nebraska revealed its new basketball court design this afternoon.
link
Can I safely assume that there was a nod to a wonderful Kinks album today? If so, I’m digging it.
Ding-ding-ding — winner, winner, chicken dinner!
I knew not to believe everyone when they said…
You Can’t Win.
Mal Moore was part of 10 National Championships as a player, coach, and administrator at Alabama. The 15 is for the total number of championships that Alabama likes to claim they have.
No, Moore has 15 total championship rings. He has one as a player for the Crimson Tide and six as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under both Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings. During Moore’s time as athletic director Alabama won three national championships in both football and women’s gymnastics, as well as one each in softball and women’s golf.
OMG the new UConn logo has been unveiled and it looks EXACTLY like the unused Quebec Nordiques wolf logo from 1995.
Show the new logo to ANYBODY and ask them what it is and undoubtedly they’ll say it’s a wolf. It has absolutely ZERO resemblance to a husky dog!
it looks EXACTLY like the unused Quebec Nordiques wolf logo from 1995.
That was my first reaction too. Although I’d say it’s more “evocative of” that logo than “exactly like” it.
Not even close to exactly.
It looks like the Husky I owned.
Not exactly.
Nordiques yes, but what about New Mexico?
link
Great interview with Sports Studio. To be honest, I’m surprised (pleasantly) at the effort Hollywood has made to get the details right.
“Rockies will wear 1993 throwbacks”..
throwbacks? How about inaugural uniforms.