By Phil Hecken
Another weekend, another NCAAFB uni unveiling. This time it was the West Virginia Mountaineers (with Nike’s anatomically correct mannequins) who unveiled yesterday. The first and most noticeable thing about these is there is no longer a gray uniform option (which can only be viewed as a positive, though I confess to thinking this looked really good). I will have plenty to say about these, but I wanted to get the opinion of a couple of alums an alum & an lifetime fan as well. I asked Jason Bernard and Coleman Mullins if they’d like to share their thoughts, and while Jason was happy to oblige, unfortunately Coleman was unable to. So, we’ll begin with Jason’s observations.
Before that, let’s take a quick look at this slick video:
Mr. Bernard, the floor is yours:
Almost Heaven
By Jason Bernard
The Good
The Easter Eggs. I love “Montani Semper Liberi” stitched into the inside of the collar in the back. This is from the West Virginia state seal; Latin for “Mountaineers are Always Free.” And I SUPER love the canary stitched into the inside collar in the front. This is a nod to the canaries that were sent into mines to detect deadly odorless gasses. The canary logo features a subtle “W” and “V”, and yeah, I need it on a t-shirt right now.
The helmets. All three feature a matte finish. The gold feels like a no-brainer, the white is simple and clean, and the blue… features a black facemask, which is lame, but at least it matches the other gratuitous black trim in the blue jerseys (and the black accessories.) I don’t hate the black trim as much as I thought I would.
The Bad
Conventional block numbers would’ve been so much better. But these days Nike thinks they have to give everyone their own font, so this is what happens. The sharp points and edges are supposed to represent a miner’s pick axe. Okay, fine. Truth be told, I don’t mind this font, except for the 2 and the 5, which are absolutely brutal. Poor Darwin Cook is going to look like such an asshole.
The Ugly
The color-contrast pits. I don’t get it. Don’t even talk to me.
Overall, I think this uniform set is an upgrade over their bumper sticker-laden sets of the past decade, and it should make for some excellent combos. I’m a fan, and I’m a homer, but I’m happy.
Thanks Jason. Now, a few of my own thoughts.
I can’t much argue with what was just said. Obviously, like many of us, I am not a fan of the giant Nikelace & pit bumperstickers, but at least Nike didn’t reprise their amateur pacifist coal-stained crap from the Backyard Brawl in 2010. And, despite the pit stains, at least there are no other bumper stickers. Also, like I said above, the elimination of the gray option can only be a good thing.
I totally agree with Jason on the new font. Why does EVERY new Nike uniform seemingly come with some God-awful new font? Sure, not every new number will look bad, but some will. While I give Nike points for “trying” to be creative, what the hell was wrong with WVU’s old font, which seemed to at least mimic the WV font on the helmets? Nothing, that’s what.
As most of you know, I love matte finish helmets, so those are a slam dunk home run big six for me. And that gold helmet? How is it they never had one of those before? And, I’m not complaining, but how come they put black facemasks on the blue and gold versions, but went with a white facemask on the white helmet?
On the good or stupid scale, overall I have to say it’s a push. There is plenty of good, and plenty of stupid too, but at least these aren’t as bad as the UNC Tar Heel unis, which were stupid on a grand scale.
You can take a look at lots of photos in my WVU Uni Set, should the mood strike you.
Big thanks to Jason for his review. So now it’s up to you — Readers? What say you?
“This is our f—- city…”
For obvious reasons, the City of Boston has been in the news quite a bit the past few days, and yesterday, three Boston sports teams — the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins — all played emotional games. Each of the three played emotional games and all of them wore some kind of uniform memorial to commemorate the events of the past week.
Lets start with the BoSox, who played at Fenway:
As you can see above, the Red Sox not only sported a special “B Strong” patch, they also had special jerseys with “BOSTON” across the front instead of their usual “RED SOX.” The reason for this, according to David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz, “This jersey that we wear today. It doesn’t say ‘Red Sox’, it say(s) ‘Boston’.” It was an emotional and stirring opening to the game that was filled with emotional pre-game festivities. Ortiz later went on to say a dirty word on television when he continued, “This is our f—– city.” If you take a good look at that pic of Ortiz, you’ll notice he wasn’t wearing the “B Strong” patch. However, when he came to bat later in the game, the patch was there.
The Royals, their designated opponents for the day, played along in solidarity. They too, wore the “B Strong” patch on their softball tops. Is this the first time another team has worn the logo of its opponent in a game that counts? (I do remember the Yankees wearing a VaTech patch — but that was a spring meetup). Anyone know?
Not only were the Red Sox wearing special jerseys, with “BOSTON” replacing “RED SOX,” they also rendered the “BOSTON” in solid red lettering, unlike their normal blue outlined red lettering for their home jersey. I have to admit, I kinda liked the non-outlined letters. (Thanks to Eric Nathanson for the screen grabs). You can read more about the game here — a game which also featured a special (but awkward) live rendition of “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, only he was singing OVER his own pre-recorded music, which made for a very eerie sounding rendition.
Next up, we had the Bruins, who came out wearing a “Boston Strong” ribbon:
Also a very nice touch. The players came out in special caps during the pregame skate, wearing several different caps representing various police and first responders. Here’s closer look at the ribbon/patch.
The Broons’ opponents, the Pittsburgh Penguins, also played along, showing solidarity for Boston with a different patch on their jersey. That patch shows an American flag, the Boston skyline, and “617” (which is the area code for Boston). Nice touch by the Caps Pens, as well. They also had a sticker on their helmets. (More photos here.)
Both of those games took place in Boston, which had had both of their games canceled from Friday, when parts of Boston and its suburbs were under lockdown. The Celtics took the court yesterday in New York City, playing the Knicks in a first-round playoff matchup. The Celtics also sported a patch:
The Celtics patch was a blue circle, outlined in black with gold and white lettering saying, “Boston Stands As One.” They wore it on the right side of their jersey. Pregame, the Celtics had orange shirts that read “Boston Stands As One”. More photos can be seen here.
Unlike the Royals and Penguins, the Knicks did NOT have any kind of reciprocal patch.
But Boston teams were not the only ones memorializing the recent tragedies of that city. In fact, both Notre Dame (in its spring game) and Memphis baseball also had memorials: ND on its helmets, and U of M on its field. In addition, LaTech and NM State wore BoSox caps yesterday. Thanks to Paul for those tips & pics (click to enlarge):
Unfortunately for Boston, as a city, only one of their three teams would win, and it was the Red Sox.
I’m fine with these memorials and gestures for yesterday and through the weekend, and it was a nice touch that two of the Boston opponents (those playing in the city of Boston) wore Boston patches. I have no idea if any of these teams will continue to wear these through the remainder or a portion of the season. I’d guess at least the Sox will continue to wear it (at least as long as they continue to win wearing it), but that’s only a guess.
Readers? What do you think? Nice gestures, yes? Should the Boston teams continue to wear the memorials throughout the remainder of their seasons or should they just keep them through the weekend (or next week)? Why or why not? What about the college programs? I’m pretty fine with ND and U of M, since those were decals/memorials, but I’m not sure whether I like the LaTech/NM State wearing BoSox caps. Seems like a decal/sticker/memorial would have been more apropos. Discuss.
Colorize This!
Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.
Bit bigger set today, featuring the return of Larry Bodnovich, plus one from George Chilvers and a set from John Turney.
Click on each image to enlarge.
We begin today with LarryB, who colorized the “first” MLB ASG:
Phil–
Colorized pic of first all star baseball game 1911 Addie Joss game.
Addie Joss was one of the great pitchers in baseball history. On April 14, 1911.
Joss died suddenly from an attack of tubercular meningitis at age 31. Addie was so well thought of that a benefit all star game was set up to raise money for his widow and children.
The game, which took place at Cleveland’s League Park on July 24, 1911, was between Addie’s Cleveland Naps and the American League All Stars. The all star line up was a group of the games greatest including: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Smoky Joe Wood, Walter “Big Train” Johnson, Hal Chase, Eddie Collins, Germany Schaefer, Tris Speaker, Sam Crawford and several other. The Naps had some legends on their side too, including Nap Lajoie, Cy Young and Shoeless Joe Jackson. The All Stars won 5-3 that day and the Addie Joss Benefit Game raised $12,914.00 for the Joss family.
Larry Bodnovich
Next is George with some soccer dudes playing checkers or something:
Hi PhilJust one – I’ve been busy going to FA Cup semi-finals and soon to the Final :)
So it seems appropriate to have an FA Cup picture, and this dates back to 13 February 1957 where we see Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic’s manager Freddie Cox detailing some cunning plan to his players using counters, prior to an FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur. These days teams use iPads and OptaStats, and visual displays… it was so much easier then. The counters seem to have worked, as Bournemouth beat their illustrious opponents.
The team name is interesting too. Playing all their existence in the lower levels of the Football League, Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic had their wonderful name, the longest in League history, from 1923 until 1972 when they changed it to AFC Bournemouth. And why, I hear you ask (albeit faintly) did they do that? The answer is simple – so they could be first in an alphabetical list of English League clubs. In practice most people call them “Bournemouth” and fit them into alphabetical lists exactly there – under “B”.
George
And to close, we have several from John. The first is another example of colorizing done by others, and the last three are his own:
Phil
Example of “colorization” not sure of technique.
John
Phil
Hikey Haines and “Executioners Helmet”
Not sure if it was ever worn in competition. Photo dates from 1925. Not sure of color, assume it was brown leather. Colorized and filtered in Photoshop with 1936 Kodachrome filter.
John
Phil
Artists license with colorization of helmet.
This one, I imagined the 1930 color scheme on the “executioner” helmet worn by Hines.
John
Phil
1955 NFL Championship.
John
That’s it for today. Big thanks, as always, to Larry, George & John. Lets keep those colorizations coming Uni Watchers!
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
We begin today with Marcin Niedzielski, who has tweak for the Hawks:
Hi Phil,
The Atlanta Hawks have one of the better looking logos in the NBA – the problem is they just don’t know it yet. So I removed the dated logo they are currently using and took their secondary logo as the new primary. I also removed the gray and excessive use of striping (that they were using for reasons unknown). Finally, I included gold and also took the logo, blended it with their 90’s logo completing the look. Enjoy!
Thanks,
Marty
Next up is Michael Emody, with bit of color for the Cubs roadies:
Phil,
How’s it going? I thought I’d submit something for the “Tweaks” section.
Here’s my version of the 68 Cubs road uni in darker blue with an updated walking Cub patch. Nothing groundbreaking, but a bit nicer than the current uni, imo.
Michael Emody
We close today with Ryan Altenbach who has some nice tweaks for USA Baseball:
Phil,
In honor of the big US win over Canada to advance in the WBC, I decided to retool a pretty weak US jersey. I hated the hat and how it clashed with the jersey, and the jersey seems too busy. I refined the wordmark and created a new secondary logo for the hats, made a paneled hat for the set, made the red in the set brighter, and took away the side and shoulder panel on the jerseys. Throw in a bit of decent hosiery, and there you have it.
-Ryan Altenbach
And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
OK readers — that’s a wrap for this weekend. Big thanks to Jason (and the colorizers & concepters) for all their efforts. In case you missed it yesterday, we had our review of and voting on the first two teams in the Uni Watch Fantasy Football League — if you didn’t check those out, give ’em a look-see (and cast your vote).
Everyone have a great Sunday and a good week, and I will catch you next weekend.
Peace.
“New football uniforms for West Virginia. Two word summary: hideous garbage.”
–Joe Sewash
The Bruins and Celtics patches are so much superior to the one worn by the Red Sox, which just appears like the team is trying to capitalize off the week’s events.
Thanks for the info for the Red Sox jerseys. Most surprised that the Sox were able to get the jerseys made and that MLB let them wear it. I figured they would just go with a patch/armband type thing. I personally am not crazy about that font, which if I recall was designed as a fauxback. Would prefer they used the “standard” script like the previous road jerseys, with the blue outline.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the font just the road lettering in red rather than navy? It looks like the current road font, just a different color.
You are correct, it is the same as the road grey jersey but in red instead of blue.
So… West Virginia… out of 27 combinations, I think they’ve got 8 that’ll look pretty good, and 19 that should never be worn. I also hate to say it, but I have to agree with Phil – that number font is brutal, and not in the good heavy metal way.
Nicely done Mr. Bernard! I wish i would have had time to help out, but i think you did a bangup job.
If i may, ill just hit on a couple of highs and lows for myself…
Highs – No more gray. Thank you Nike. School colors! WOO! That matte blue helmet. Nice. Although i really wish they didnt screw with absolutely everything, the matte finish on the blue helmet is pretty snazzy. While im talking about screwing with stuff, big smile here because they didnt touch the Flying WV. Heads would have rolled… And the last thing i guess i could call “good” is the restraint showed. Not many nonsensical stripes or slashes or bumper stickers. So that’s nice.
The Bad – Those other two helmets. While I would love to see one of the many white or couple of gold throwbacks, these are not something I really want to see. Those pit stains. Yikes.
The Ugly – That font. Holy shit that is horrible. As previously stated, why screw with the old font? Oh, right, because they’re Nike. Any and all of the black details.
The “Holy Shit, what have you done?!” – There is now a possibility of truly going gold from head to toe. Any Mountaineer fan knows this should absolutely never happen again. Ever.
And, The Correction – Phil, as much as I wish I was, I am not an Alum. I am merely a lifelong fan, born and raised in the Mountain State.
“I am not an Alum. I am merely a lifelong fan, born and raised in the Mountain State.”
~~~
My condonlences.
Will fix.
Haha. Thanks for the fix. I just didnt want to portray myself as something I havent achieved. I am one year from finishing my Accounting degree at The University of New Orleans. Go Privateers! Heh.
“an lifetime fan”
As long as the hats and the britches match when WVU wears the new unis, I’ll be happy.
I actually really liked the Red Sox uniforms yesterday, I wonder if they will join the rotation for the rest of this season.
Regarding Neil Diamond singing “Sweet Caroline” yesterday, am I the only one that is creeped out by this song. I mean, a 20-something kid writing a song about a 5 year-old girl? Really poor move on Neil’s part giving us the background story on that. And could someone at least given him a fucking fitted cap please? YUCK!
Apparently, Caroline Kennedy doesn’t seem put off by it. If she isn’t, why should I be?
link
For a more detailed review compared to yesterday, (see closing quote from today; thanks, Phil!) from a WVU alum and season ticket holder for 20-plus years:
* If there is a line between “clean” and “uninspired”, these uniforms define it. If they wanted generic, they even managed to screw that up. The sleeve / pit areas are wasted opportunities. The yellow sleeve trim ends up looking like a desperate afterthought.
* When two of the leading selling points are something that can’t even be seen (state motto and the canary), someone should have had the good sense to say, “We can do better”.
* BFBS as the “contrast” for the blue set is gratuitous.
* Logo on right hip and Nike on left hip is out of balance, but I like the scale of the right hip logo as an acknowledgement of the clean pants.
* Helmets: Matte is modern; the jury is still out whether this is a fad, or something that will last. The new helmet logo looks slightly larger than the previous logo, which is an overdue upgrade. BFBS facemask on the blue helmet is trying too hard, bordering on aggravating. I’m not the target demographic, but I’d be fine if they would use the blue bucket with all the rest of the combinations.
* Uni font: This is a painfully sophomoric effort; downright lame! It is truly tragic people are going to have to look at this for the next God-knows-how-many years. Shudder the thought of trying to standardize this across uniform sets across other sports. Between the WVU and UNC unveilings, it makes you wonder if the real designers at Nike have been given a sabatical and turned things over to the interns.
The previous font was distinctive; Nike and WVU even managed to upgrade that font from the first failed effort when they switched from screen print numbers to twilled numbers. I’ve been a fan of the contrast provided by the double-twilled numbers on the previous white and gold jerseys. Even the gold-only, single-twilled numbers on the blue jerseys made them distinctive to WVU.
TV numbers on the shoulder are a nice old-school touch, but in combination with the harsh new font and the contrasted sleeve caps, the only word I keep coming back to is, “uninspired”. If the sleeve caps matched the base of the jersey, this almost could have worked.
* Nike-lace: Depressingly obligatory. Everyone bows to Beaverton. Given some of the recent efforts of Adidas and UnderArmor, the Nike-lace feels like a mandatory tattoo that is the most acceptable of bad options.
* Secondary logo (part 1): I’m not an ornithologist, but the “canary” logo looks nothing like an actual canary. This adaptation looks desperately close to the Washington Capital’s secondary logo. It was so sad they had to put it on the inside of the jersey, like decorating the inside of a closet. At best it could be an ornamental addition above the nameplate, or on the back of the helmet. It certainly is not something to build a larger effort from.
* Secondary logo (part 2): I’ve always been a fan of the mono-tone, full length mountaineer (a fair graphical approximation of the famous statute on campus). The popularity of this graphic seemed to wain in the 90’s, but has recently made a welcomed comeback. I realize the strong horizontal orientation makes it difficult to translate to a uniform, but if you want to go out on the edge, why not consider it for the white or gold sets.
Idea 1: Keep the contrasting sleeve caps, but fill that area with a head and shoulders version of this logo. This could have mitigated a number of sins with this entire effort.
Idea 2: Do a half helmet treatment on the white or gold helmets using the head and shoulders (similar to Boise State helmets of recent years). Keep the standard helmet logo, or use numbers on the opposite side. Don’t touch the blue bucket!
Idea 3: If you really want to take a risk, use this logo on the lower two-thirds of the front and side of the white or gold pants.
* … at least they acknowledged the mistake of the grays.
Replace “horizontal” with “vertical” in paragraph 12. Idea 3 was meant for left leg only.
Hacked-off and under-caffeinated is a bad combination on Sunday morning; lesson learned.
Very fair and well written eval. I find myself agreeing with many of your criticisms and even most of your suggestions. Definitely must disagree on the helmet treatment idea, though. There are some things you just cant touch, and the Flying WV is one of them, imo. Love, I repeat LOVE the idea of putting the Mountaineer somewhere. I really miss the rifle merit decals on the helmets, too…
Maybe it is my computer, but I thought the facemasks on the WVU gold and blue helmets looked more like a dark navy than a black. Shooting the helmets on a dark back drop does not help decipher the color.
Anatomically correct? Maybe for YOU!
The hurricane Katrina everyone is a SAINT
the FDNY caps
Sandy Hook
va tech shootings by Cho
We are Penn State even though are coaches should have been in state pen.
And now here come the chowds with BostonStrong.
I can already hear Jim Nantz and Bob Costas blowing each other to talk about “how much the city has been through and these people just don’t back down”. Oh no, did I leave Chris backbackback Berman out of the equation? He will be beyond his usual played out self this fall when the patriots open the nfl season all BostonStrongy.
I would just as soon let bigcock have his way with me then listen to another round of announcers feed on these stories.
Please gimme back my sports!
Wow. You are so far off base that it’s almost painful to read. Sports announcers aren’t “feeding on these stories,” they’re simply just discussing what most people consider to be current events. What does any of that take away from your sports-watching experience? Just mute the tv between play if it’s so unbearable. Also, to compare what has happened in Boston in the past week to the Penn State events just exudes stupidity. Your ignorance on the matter speaks to the fact that you haven’t experienced anything as earthshattering as, say, several friends and family members being within a block of explosions that killed three people and maimed hundreds of others. Or maybe you have; and you truly are speaking straight from your asshole, which isn’t unexpected.
We appreciate every gesture of support up here. Every text message from a friend who’s just making sure we’re okay. Every hug from our families that lasts just a little bit longer than it might have last week. And as much as we want to forget about these events, hearing that the whole country (save a moron or two like you) has our backs right now is what will help us to start healing. So you can take your little commentary up there and shove it right up your dickhole, scumbag.
Well…that escalated quickly
I could not have been prouder to be a Bostonian this week. Seeing ‘Boston’ on the front on the uniform may not have meant anything to the people outside of the city, and might have seemed like a uni gimmick, but let me tell you that for the people of Boston, it was extremely powerful and moving. It showed not only that the Red Sox cared about their city, but that if only for this one day, we all were one city. We are Boston, and we stand together through the toughest of times. This uniform gesture was perfect, and I hope it stands as an emblem of this great city of Boston.
What are you, a politician? Rallying around a disaster is terrific to see, but Boston is not special. Any American city would do this.
Boston always thinks of itself as the hub, so it’s natural they’re acting parochially when it comes to this, as well.
I believe the Celtics will be wearing the patches for the rest of the playoffs. Also, I think the shirts they wore are gold to try to match the colors of the link\20\167102168.jpg&w=715&h=477.
Sorry for the bad link.
link
I am not being a troll and flame me if you want, but I can’t stand the mawkish and pithy patch-tributes for Boston, or any other city for that matter. And these are not spontaneous shows of support…they are affixed because this is what is expected, and now any freaking disaster or death MUST be memorialized on a sports uniform. It has about as much feeling as saying “I love you” a thousand times to your wife. If, forbid, this kinda thing happened to St. Louis, then a moment of silence is enough. None of this civic-disaster boosterism that will just grow and grow until there is nary a clean, un-memorialized uni in sight.
What an extremely jaded view on the matter…As a Bostonian, living thru this entire situation has been difficult on every single person in this area. Its not a good feeling to not feel safe in your own hometown.
To you, it may just look like a ploy for more publicity by major sports teams…But for the people of Boston, its a display of unity that can really help people get thru this whole situation.
its really not your place to judge how a city decides to memorialize such an event.
I don’t think it’s a ploy…I am not THAT cynical, and I certainly respect the horrific situation Bostonians have lived through. However I just don’t like the rote memorializing. It’s like Boston has been reduced to its sports teams, and they have become the focal point for said memorializing. I believe the British used to call these displays “sentimentalism”, as if it were a kind of weakness, a knee-jerk irrationality. (And the Brits are as sentimental as anybody these days.) It’s just my personal taste…if I owned the Red Sox, I would do the arm-band thing and a moment of silence and all that, but the “Boston Strong” stuff is a bit too much, IMHO.
I read (or heard, can’t remember which) the other day that Bostonians only care about 3 things:
Politics, Sports & Revenge
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it might explain some things.
Good lord. Only FOUR of the SIXTEEN games yesterday featured a white/gray matchup. All the rest had at least one softball top. In the DH with the Dodgers, the O’s wore TWO (orange & black) different softball tops.
Excellent.
To my eye, these softball-top games really look bad. Thanks to Michael Emody for the excellent Cubs road uniforms and for keeping them gray and light blue, eschewing the dreaded softball tops.
Thanks, Tenz. I noticed something about the Orioles orange softball jersey: the piping is also orange and black. Which essentially equals two black lines on the orange jersey. Strange, but at least it’s link
Another set of cheers for the Cubs’ reworking. Very, very nice and desperately needed.
White/gray matchups are B-O-R-I-N-G. It’s what turned me off baseball back in the 1990’s, you couldn’t even tell what teams were playing.
The O’s wear Orange on Saturdays, and Black on Friday nights, Friday’s night game got delayed. Instead of wearing black for that make-up game, they went with their usual Orange and wore black in the night game of what became a double-header.
Leave it to Nike to screw up the one thing that really matters on a uniform…a legible number font! Nike, Adidas, UnderArmour all should stay far away from sports and league branding and leave it to trained professional designers!
Given the continuing widespread economic hardship out there and the fact that the vast majority of our country will never be able to afford college without going into debt for years, maybe decades, I’d suggest it’s time for our cash-strapped colleges to dispense with the conspicuous consumption of 27 football uniform variations and get back to every team having one helmet, one pair of pants and two jerseys.
That.
The university doesn’t pay for the uniforms, Nike provides them in return for promos and other stuff.
Moron.
Idiot.
I almost forgot
Waco
And the trees at toomers corner this Tuesday!
I’m not a fan of the Boston memorials…it reminds people that restricting legal gun ownership & uncontrolled immigration are ridiculous ideas. I’m a democrat, so when it’s all about the narrative, not logic, and this reminder doesn’t play well for my passion for late-term abortion.
How is requiring gun owners to register their firearms in a nationwide database ‘restricting’ gun ownership. And we don’t have uncontrolled immigration in the United States and haven’t for well over 100 years.
The fucktard is strong with this one.
I’m pretty sure he was just trolling… but some people do see gun registration as the first step towards eventually taking said guns away. After all – if the Evil Government(TM) knows you have “it”, they can make “it” illegal and then target you.
I question the “toughness” of the proud Bostonian if the post of a 14 yr old from his mom’s basement can upset him so.
The Astros in orange caps is the way things oughta be, but I think the time has come for them to revolutionize in the Comrade Marshall way (sorry, Generalissimo Madrevilker, two-in-ones will simply not do):
link
Is Swisher wearing a Reds shin guard?
Now I know why I always hated the Red Sox home jersey – the blue outline! The solid red looks really really good. To each their own, but to me, having the solid red at home with their current road jersey would give them an A+ set.
I hate anything that isn’t a block font for football jerseys. What I want to know is why doesn’t nike make the numbers just a touch smaller to fit within the fabric seams? Major pet peeve how they overlap the seams. I’m sure I’d still be able to read them from the upper bowl. TV is no problem of course… Funny how every other jersey tradition is fair game, but number size is sacred or something.
Number size is specifically set in the rules, IIRC; front and back numbers must be a minimum size, with the minimum size for the back being larger. This sort of limits the designer’s options.
You’re right about the rules for number sizes, but they don’t seem to care about fonts that have 1’s that look like 7’s, 7’s that look like 1’s, 5’s that almost look like a 6, etc.
If the rules were that important a lot of these fonts wouldn’t pass, but it seems that money talks so they are accepted.
With the jerseys being smaller and more form fitting, having smaller numbers seems to be a natural progression. So many lineman can’t even keep the numbers from bunching & folding under the pads anyway, making them illegible.
Today’s stadiums allegedly have better seating angles plus jumbo tv’s, so the numbers shouldn’t be so massive. I hope tv numbers disappear sooner rather than later.
Liverpool with minutes silence and armband for anne williams, one of the leaders of the “justice for the 96” hillsborough campaign.
Update: Chelsea wore black arm bands too.
So sick and tired of all of the patches and ribbons for every new disaster/terror attack/hurricane/mass shooting bullshit. How come there hasn’t been a SINGLE RIBBON/PATCH for the chemical plant explosion in Texas????!!!!!! Maybe because it happened in some buttfuck town that no one gives a fuck about.
And let’s take off the fanboy goggles and pull on some big boy pants and try to be at least a little objective on this, the majority of players could give a fuck about this, unless they make some extra money out of it.
Because that little bit never gets talked about here, the fact that there is money being made on the backs of these so called ‘tragedies’ by the manufacturers of the patches. And you can be damn sure they aren’t donating the money to charity.
Hear hear
I cant help but agree with these comments. The speed with which these decals and patches come out sits uneasily with me. Its feels like there cant be a disaster and people cant be mourned unless its marketed to within an inch of its life. A moment of silence for reflection and a black arm band is sufficient in my opinion. The tubthumping and high-fiving kinda seems over the top.
I can get behind those Atlanta Hawks tweaks Marty..Well done..Yellow should be a staple in the Hawks uni. I miss the Pac-Man logo, but that update is a little more modern and would suffice
The ATLANTA on the away unis has a nice symmetry to it, or at least the false sense of symmetry, with both of the A shaping towards the middle. Would love to see him try and replicate that look with the HAWKS on the home jersey.
Also replace ATLANTA with THE ATL, I like the concept on our alternate unis but no one calls it ATL, there is always a THE in front of it.
The Gold looks good, I loved it when they went to the red white and blue look a few years back. The gold was adopted as a nod to Tech (same reason why the falcons have gold stripes on their throwback helmets), but short of going back to the 1980s look the colors just don’t work. However Gold surprisingly works on the current uniforms, a move I would approve.
…and super.
A softball game has broken out at Shea.
Mets in blue softball tops with blue/orange caps, with the Nats in red tops with blue/red caps.
Awful.
It could have been worse. They gave out Ron Darling bobblehead (complete with invisible pinstripes). Had they been honoring a Met from the late 90s or early 2000s, they’d have used it as an excuse to use black throwbacks, just as they used black alts for such occasions the past couple of seasons.
I like the B Strong patch. I have something similar on the hood of my SAAB.
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Phil,
You referred to the Penguins as “Caps”. Nothing like bugging two fan bases at once.
GAH. So I did (now fixed).
I guess I had ‘caps’ (lower case) — headwear — on my mind from the previous graf.
Good job by Jason today. I did mention to him that I got a chuckle out of the pickaxe font. I do like the new look and am glad they got rid of gray. Sure the gray looked ok but gray for WVU was not right.
OK, the alternate caps look fine with the softball tops; the white-outlined crest matches the script and numerals. So let’s stop wearing it with the whites, mmm-kay?
NASCAR must have “had a friend who lived two blocks from the marathon” and then NASCAR “got all scared and shyt” but now feels “Boston strong”.
What a bunch of sheeple!
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“Roush Fenway Racing (the 16, 17 and 99), which is half owned by the same group that owns the Red Sox and Fenway Park, will donate $100 for every lap their team leads during Sunday’s race to “The One Fund Boston,” which was established this past week to help people most affected by the tragedy. On Friday, Hendrick Motorsports (5, 24, 48, and 88)announced machinist Andrew Collier is the brother of slain MIT police officer Sean Collier.”
And Michael Waltrip Racing (who carried the Newtown ‘sponsored’ #26 @ Daytona) is one of the leaders in NASCAR’s outreach/support when tragedy befalls those outside the racing community.
Sheeple? Not at all.
Waltrip also felt a particular connection because he ran the Boston Marathon in 2000.
I think Jason’s analysis on the new West Virginia uniforms was spot-on. There are definitely some flaws with the look look, but it is a big improvement over the previous collection. I’m glad the gray set is gone, especially; there was nothing about the grays that I liked.
Here is a screengrab of Browns vs Rams title game. Maybe same play colorized by John??
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Just noticed the Rams d line arrangement in this one.
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Few more of Browns Rams
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Something about those 1983 White Sox unis just feels right. I can’t pinpoint it. Somehow I think the large blocks of bright red against crisp white and navy blue seems to work. You don’t see large color blocks on a baseball uniform, especially today.
Make no mistake the look is dated as can be but the concept of using colors like that is something that needs to find a way to be translated into the current era.
Tyler Flowers is wearing a red helmet behind the plate again today. I can’t tell if it still has last years throwback logo on it. But all of his Sunday equipment is red, probably carried over from last years Sunday gear. It makes sense that he’d want to keep the same helmet.
The 83 White Sox used red catcher’s gear. Flowers needs to get a navy helmet with a red brim for Sunday.
Here’s a shot of Flowers link
I think it’s kind of cool. And these uni’s have tuxedo stripes, albeit red and navy.
Pirates looking GREAT today at PNC wearing the Clementes!
How are the penguins and steelers so good and the bucs such crap?
#PITTSBURGHSTRONG
You just took 3 games from the best team in baseball and are a half game out of first place.
Maybe they’re not the best team in baseball anymore…
And he probably means that over the past couple decades (how long has it been since the Bucs were above .500 for a season?) the Pirates have sucked.
Maybe this is their year…
Unfortunately, it’s an ownership more concerned with pocketing the proceeds from the luxury tax, rather than re-investing the monies into the organization towards winning. Completely against the spirit of the tax, and bad for baseball, their players, and Pirates fans.
As a WVU alum, I am mortified at that font to the point that I might mail my diploma back to Morgantown. However, I can find one possible reason for changing the font. If you look at Mizzou’s new uniforms, the number font is almost exactly the same as last year’s WVU font. Since it’s one of Nike’s Seven Deadly Sins for two schools to have the same font, WVU’s numbers had to change. However, that still doesn’t excuse the abomination that is that number set.
Dustin, I’m from WV(Hinton) and a WVU grad too. Sadly, universities don’t care if you send the diploma back. The only mail they bother to read are envelopes that contain a donation.
If you’re a devoted fan like me, you will join me by setting your couch on fire tonight as that is the best way for us mountaineers to get our points across!
#COUCHFIRESTRONG!!!
Couple old school WVU pics
From late 60s I think around 68 or 69 and from the 50s with blue and actual gold.
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Outstanding. Thanks for sharing, Larry!
To me the WVU canary is too reminiscent of what happened with link, erstwhile mascot for University of Denver. In that case, a pioneer-themed mascot became a target for current academia’s pathological hatred for its cariacaturized versions of the past. Because the mascot was an individual (presumably) white male, he was deemed to be racist, sexist and a personification of several other highly imaginative thought-crimes against contemporary ideology. Denver Boone was replaced by a bird, the Pioneer Hawk. Seems like the first steps toward the same type of thing back there.
No, Denver Boone was a “cute” mascot. Cute mascots got replaced by “tough” mascots. Or, mascots that weren’t specifically male (with the increase in women’s teams). Then replaced with letter logos or wordmarks.
I’d like to believe your version, but it doesn’t jibe with the facts. Denver Boone was brought back in an unofficial capacity, but then . . .
“On March 13, in the wake of what he called ‘considerable controversy’ . . . Chancellor Coombe told the DU community that Boone was again being banished – this time for good. When he’d studied the issue in 2008, Coombe wrote, ‘It quickly became clear that Boone was a polarizing figure that did not reflect the growing diversity of the DU community, but rather was an image that many women, persons of color, international students and faculty members found difficult to relate to as defining the pioneering spirit.’ And the compromise to allow Boone to be used as an unofficial mascot representing the school’s past had simply not worked out.” link.
Not because of “cute”, but because of ideological intolerance.
That is just plain wrong. It would have been bad enough if they just decided that he wasn’t intimidating enough but the actual reason is sickening.
I was speaking of “cute” mascots in general. The DU administration comes off as way too sensitive, and a bit silly.
Long time reader, first time commenter. I just wanted to point out that the New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution played Saturday and both wore black armbands with “BOSTON” written on them to support the city. The Red Bulls wore them on their right arms and the Revs on their left arms. Photos here:
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0:44 of this Video shows each member wearing the armbands on their teams respective side and the Red Bulls’s Banner saying “United for Boston”. 2:39 has a great shot of the armband on NYRB Goalkeeper Luis Roble.
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Alas, The Red Bulls won 4-1 over the Revs, so Boston was 1-3 on Saturday.
Who knew there were so many WVU Uni Watchers!? Awesome stuff.
LET’S GO…
Mountaineers!!
Sad to see the White Sox wearing belted pants with their ’83 throwback jerseys, they should be wearing sansabelt pants. The Pirates and the U of Michigan wear sansabelt pants with their terrific pullover jerseys. Do it right.
Apparently the players were provided with the option of belted or sansabelt pants, and they chose to wear belts (for *comfort*).
How secure are/were the sansibelt pants? I could see a player opting for whatever they felt was going to stay up. Anything that reduces excuses is OK with me.
Albert DeSalvo threw out the first pitch today at Fenway the day after Neil Diamond leads “Sweet Caroline”.
#bostonstrongler
I want to hate that West Virginia look. I really really do. But I don’t mind it. It’s better than what they had.
My only complaints with it would have to be the insane font, the use of matte helmets which is a fad that still needs to go away, and the white pants. Ditch the white pants and keep the other two and it’s a huge improvement over what they’ve had. Kind of hard not to be. But it could’ve turned out much worse.
The victims of the Marathon bombing are those that lost their lives, limbs, or were somehow damaged by the carnage. Then there are the families who are burying children or siblings, or facing helping a family member through rehabilitation. Boston is not the victim. The actual victims are from a number of states and countries. The remembrances belong in the myriad of observances taking place without the chest thumping of a sports arena, such as the interfaith services, or those at your own church.
the 2 cents of a WVU alum and uniform fan….
*like everything but the black, unless you are a school that organically uses black as a school color and they are few and far between black should never be used, plus black and blue is the worst combo of black and another color….
*on that note why didn’t unc just use the dark navy on their unis not black it would have been sweet and represented the schools dark vision while being true to the blue, nike is smart but also real dumb
Quick note on the Red Sox patch. Catcher Jeff (?) Ross had one on his catchers mask on the back plate. Can’t find a photo.
David Ross, former back-up for the Braves, signed a pretty sweet deal considering he would be one of 3 catchers (though Napoli has been moved to 1B/DH)
Where can I order stirrup socks for the son of a friend as he plays little league? He’s in second grade. I’ve overlooked the ads before. Now I need a pair. Got to start him off right. There’s hope, since he chooses not to wear the pajama look, but goes high cuff. thanks.
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So it looks like the Chicago Bulls and the Brooklyn Nets did the color on color thing. I normally side with Camp Ricko instead of Camp The Jeff, but this looks fine!
I read somewhere that the Bulls had to give their OK for this to happen. Red versus black is a nice contrast, so it’s fine that the Bulls agreed to the Nets’ request (they want to wear black throughout the playoffs, it appears).
I know it’s only because they’re playing the Phillies but the Cardinals look so much better this series in the navy hats. Please bring them back full time on the road Cardinals!
The 50’s Phillies had the “Whiz Kids”. In 1975, the SF Giants had Al Michaels & the “Friz Kids”: link
I have nothing but sympathy for everyone affected by the Boston Marathon Bombings. But as I’ve said here before – this whole business with “B Strong” is inappropriate. Why do the Red Sox insist on making it all about them? The “Boston” on the front of the home jersey is cool, but I feel that the Celtics’ patch is more fitting. At least it’s in the colors of the Marathon. If they end up using that jersey more than once and start selling them, ALL the money should go to the victims. If they only use them once, they should be auctioned and ALL the money should go to the victims. “B Strong” feels like a cheap marketing slogan.
“Next is George with some soccer dudes playing checkers or something”
I thought at first it was Subbuteo (link), but maybe it’s just a better Verizon of a chalk talk
Sigh
I really wanted it to be Subbeteo
More to “soccer dudes playing chess or something?” Seriously? Are non-soccer fans’ views on the sport so narrow that they don’t see the similarities between every other team sport?
They are obviously drawing up plays. Calling this chess is like saying basketball coaches are drawing pretty pictures on clipboards during a time out.
Come on.
Pic of the new Iowa Wild jersey for next season link
Farm Team is moving from Houston to Des Moines.
Foreshadowing of what the new Minnesota Wild road jersey will look like?