And So It Begins

Interesting situation last night in Cleveland, as the Red Sox played the Indians. As you can see, the Bosox acknowledged the Boston Marathon bombings by hanging a jersey in the dugout, but check out the black armband Shane Victorino’s left sleeve — looks like they just used a thin strip of elastic. That’s what most of the Red Sox wore. Sometimes the elastic was stretched so thin that you could barely see it. But Dustin Pedroia must have used multiple loops of elastic, because his armband was thick. Then there was starting pitcher Felix Doubront, whose armband was on the other sleeve — presumably so as not to interfere with his pitching arm — and sewn on, not elastic.

The Indians wore black armbands too. Pretty sure all of them were sewn onto their right sleeves.

In other uni-related responses to the Marathon bombings:

• Keith Yandle of the Coyotes, who’s from the Boston area, wrote “Pray for Boston” on his skate on Monday night (from ).

•  The Yankees played “Sweet Caroline” during last night’s game against Arizona.

• The Louisville baseball team wore flag-desecration uniforms yesterday.

• A reader who prefers to remain nameless was one of the yellow-jacketed volunteers at the Boston Marathon. “I had driven about an hour west, toward home, when the bombs went off,” he says. “It’s impossible for me to watch the footage and see other people in those yellow volunteer jackets at the finish line and not feel dumbstruck by fate (in the case of other volunteers) and pure random luck (for me). I’m not much given to public displays, but I’ve added a ribbon to my jacket.”

Meanwhile: New ESPN column today — the results of the “Redesign the Vikings” contest. Enjoy.

(My thanks to Scott Davis, Raymie Humbert, Michael Kinney, Tom Shieber, and Paulie Sumner for their contributions.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Jaguars will unveil their new uniforms on April 23. … Weird scene in the second game of yesterday’s Mets/Rockies doubleheader at Coors Field, as both teams wore 1993 throwbacks, but the Mets were in white and the Rockies were in gray, even though the game was in Denver — a nod to the first game in Rockies history, which took place at Shea Stadium. One inaccuracy in the Mets’ throwbacks: They wore their current orange-squatcheed caps, which is wrong, because the Mets didn’t switch from blue to orange squatchees until 1995. ”¦ UCLA football coach Jim Mora had more to say about the team’s jersey striping the other day. It came in the form of three separate tweets, which string together like so: “More on the UCLA Stripe; it is part of the fabric of the jersey, not an insert, but it takes a 2nd layer to include it. Not functional or comfortable to have 2nd layer under armpit. Adidas working on technology to include a rubberized paint that will allow us to extend UCLA Stripe. We all know how important it is to our fans and we promise to keep pushing. Adidas has been great.” While the explanation is unsatisfying, you don’t often see a coach get his hands dirty with this kind of uniform detail. Good for him (from Jamie Belz). … The Reading Royals — ECHL affiliate of the Washington Caps — are wearing Caps-themed jerseys for their playoff game this Friday (from John Muir). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Before Monday night’s Mets/Rockies game was snowed out, the Mets tried to get some work in. ”¦ “Here’s a fantastic idea,” says Phil. “Next year for JRR Day, the 16 original teams wear the unis of their first black player. How great would it be to see St. Louis Browns and Philly A’s unis?” ”¦ Really awful G.I. Joe uniforms for Southeastern Louisiana baseball. ”¦ Southern Miss will unveil new football uniforms today (from Joe Bearden). ”¦ Here’s something you don’t often see: an NFL player — other than Reggie Roby — wearing a watch. That’s Charles Tillman. “I know there’s no contact in these practices, but still seems odd,” says John Koziol. ”¦ The NHL plans to have six outdoor games next season. ”¦ A fan in Atlanta improvised his own 42 jersey (from Mike Kingery). ”¦ Speaking of 42, we’ve seen this before, but it’s worth repeating around this time of year: Here’s an infographic showing the last player to wear 42 for each MLB team (from Britton Thomas). ”¦ MLB isn’t too happy about Carl Crawford’s mismatched shoes from Monday night. ”¦ Tyler Kepner was looking at the cover of the Marlins’ 1993 media guide and was struck by a revelation: “I guarantee that player is a reverse image of the Alan Trammell SI cover from after the 1984 World Series. The distinctive Tigers belt loops are a dead giveaway. Of course, the Marlins had never played a game prior to the 1993 season, so they had to swipe some image, I guess.” Sure enough, he’s right! ”¦ This is interesting: color home movie footage of tbe Dodgers, including Jackie Robinson, prior to a game at Wrigley Field in 1947 (from Greg Trandel). ”¦ Blue Jays pitcher Josh Johnson began last night’s game against the White Sox with the Newtown memorial patch from Opening Day still on his jersey. “It was gone by the second inning,” says David Taub. … New flight attendant uniforms for Qantas. “Reminds me of the Miami Floridians of the ABA,” says Peter Leech. … In a related item, here’s a slideshow of vintage United Airlines uniforms (from Jim Walaitis).