The UWFFL Heads West – Seattle & San Diego

By Phil Hecken, with Rob Holecko

We’re closing in on our last four sets of teams for the UWFFL, and because four is just too many for one day, we’re going to have two more for the penultimate UWFFL post today — and those two teams “hail” from the West Coast — Seattle and San Diego. To be precise, the teams are the Seattle Superbeasts and the San Diego Storm.

I want to thank Rob Holecko for all his work on this, and all the great submitters for taking such an interest in this contest. And now, I will turn this over to Rob, who’ll take you through the next two groups of entries, complete with polls (so be sure to view all of the entries for each team and then be prepared to vote — write down your favorite if you have to, so you can easily vote on it after each of the sections). We’ll do these alphabetically, and some submitters sent in more than one graphic. Click on each graphic to enlarge.

Ready? OK — here’s Rob:

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Greetings and salutations from the UWFFL. We are back with another group of winning designs to congratulate and another selection of teams for you to vote for. First, for those of you who maybe haven’t been around for every UWFFL column that has been running in recent weeks, I wanted to reset exactly what the UWFFL is. We’ve had a few emails from people that may not be exactly clear on this project, so I wanted to clear up any confusion that may still be around.

In March we announced the UWFFL — the Uni Watch “Fantasy” Football League. It will technically be “fantasy” football, but fantasy football done Uni Watch style. Instead of drafting NFL players and scoring points based on their performance on the field like in traditional fantasy football, teams will be facing off and Uni Watchers will vote on their uniforms in head-to-head matchups when the season starts in the fall. The best teams will make the playoffs and eventually compete in the UWFFL Bowl, while the three last place teams will be “relegated” to the minors to be replaced by three new teams from the minor leagues in 2014. We held a contest for desiging the uniforms for the twelve existing franchises which is just wrapping up this week and next with your voting. For those of you who didn’t or haven’t won yet, we’ll have more opportunities this summer for you to design uniforms for a minor league or an entirely original expansion franchise.

Also breaking news here we are thinking about also — if Phil is down with it — possibly starting up comparable hockey & basketball leagues this fall as well as baseball in 2014. Let us know in the comments your thoughts and/or interest in that. The 2013 UWFFL football season will be fourteen regular season weeks, but if we do add these other sports leagues, we may shorten it to a 10- or 12- game season and make UW fantasy sports a year-round thing with as little overlap between the four sports as possible. It’s all up to how much interest there is among everybody. Tell us what you think, and we’ll have more about these other sports later this summer!

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Anyhow it’s now time to announce last week’s winner and also bring in two more groups of teams to vote on.

First off we had a run-off for the Top 4 vote getters of the previous week’s New York Sharks entry, and the top two vote getters, Adam Cain and Robert Kramer are still in a virtual dead heat, only separated by three votes:

Therefore we will have an unprecedented second run-off for these two entries

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Vote for New York Shark submissions (2nd RUN-OFF!)
	Adam Cain
	Robert Kramer
pollcode.com free polls

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Now here are the other results from last week:

Trent Daniel’s entry for the Chicago Cyclones won by about twenty votes over Brett Callero.

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Brett, however, prevailed over runner-up Jeff Provo with his Minnesota Mustangs entry.

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And finally Wes Peters picked up another win with the Texas Timberwolves.

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Now the final rounds of voting. This week we will vote on the Seattle Superbeasts and the San Diego Storm, and next week we’ll close it out with Tampa and San Francisco.

Here are the entries for the Seattle Superbeasts. Vote below:

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Brady Ivie

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Brendan Jang

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Dan Hutcheson

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Lewis King

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Wes Peters

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Yossi Katz

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Vote for Seattle Superbeasts submissions:
	Brady Ivie
	Brendan Jang
	Dan Hutcheson
	Lewis King
	Wes Peters
	Yossi Katz
pollcode.com free polls

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And here are the entries for the San Diego Storm. Vote below:

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Adam Hainsfurther

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Andrew Seagraves

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Brady Ivie

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Brendan Jang

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Brett Callero

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Curtis Peddle

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Dan Hutcheson

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Jeff Provo

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Johnny Woods

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Wes Peters

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Vote for San Diego Storm submissions
	Adam Hainsfurther
	Andrew Seagraves
	Brady Ivie
	Brendan Jang
	Brett Callero
	Curtis Peddle
	Dan Hutcheson
	Jeff Provo
	Johnny Woods
	Wes Peters
pollcode.com free polls

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OK, good luck to the entrants this week for the Seattle and San Diego teams, as well as to Adam and Robert for their second run-off in the New York voting. Congratulations to Daniel, Brett and Wes for winning for their entries for Chicago, Minnesota and Texas respectively, and we’ll see you next week!

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Thanks Rob (and all the submitters). OK readers, you know what to do. And let the concepters know what YOU think of their efforts.

Brew Crew Redux

Last weekend, we were treated to a really wonderful writeup on the Brewers throwbacks by my buddy Chance Michaels (with whom Paul and I had the pleasure of joining at the Mets game last night, dontcha know). I made Chance promise to follow up on that experience with an additional article I am running today. He obliged, gentleman and scholar that he is — and below is that follow up. So, without further ado, here’s Chance:

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The Big Day, Part II
By Chance Michaels

Finally, the big day. One year after I first suggested that the Brewers should consider holding a Turn Back the Clock event to honor the old American Association Brewers’ first pennant, the day had come.

It was a lovely Sunday in Milwaukee, and the roof of Miller Park was open. I was joined by Paul Tenpenny and Dennis Pajot, the two regular contributors to my site. Despite the fact that we have been collaborating for years, I had never met the gentlemen in person, and so the game felt a little like I’m sure the Uni Watch meet-ups do for Paul.

My first stop was the mobile studio for Newsradio WTMJ, parked just outside the home plate gate. At about 12:10, I spoke on air with host Doug Russell, who had interviewed me for OnMilwaukee.com the previous May and started the whole adventure. We had a great conversation about fandom and history, not to mention carrying our childhood sports loyalties with us across the country (he to Houston, where he had been working until recently, me to Brooklyn).

From there, it was a quick trip to pick up our complimentary tickets will call, and with a stop at the gate to snag our commemorative Corey Hart retro uniform bobbleheads, we went into the park.

The atmosphere was fun; ragtime music over the loudspeakers and photos of the old club on the JumboTron. Before the player introductions, the team played a short historical video introducing the fans of 2013 tp the club of a century before.

We settled into our seats behind home plate (two rows behind the radar gun) and waited for our first peek at the uniforms. I was very pleased with the results.

Despite the bobblehead’s pajama look, everyone on both teams wore their pants high-cuffed, showing off plenty of sock. Almost everyone, that is: Cardinals starter Jamie Garcia, who managed to ruin an otherwise-great look. Even players known for dragging their pants in the dirt, like Ryan Braun, managed to look respectable. Cory Hart was on the 60-day DL and didn’t actually play in the game, but he looked pretty good on the bench. Completely unlike his bobblehead.

Perhaps most amazing about the jerseys was the letter on the front. Not only did they get the style right, they used felt instead of tackle-twill. Check out the texture!

The biggest concession to modern style was numbers on the back, something the original Brewers wouldn’t adopt for a decade, but the large navy block numbers were well in keeping with the uniform’s style.

The Brewers also played around with the in-game graphics: they used a block “M” for the Brewers on the scoreboard and on the back of the mound, although they didn’t change the logo behind home plate.

I was surprised to notice, as the game went on, that the Brewers had removed the decal from their batting helmets, opting for solid navy. The Cardinals wore their regular helmets.

Have to admit that I was a bit disappointed in the caps. Once it was clear that New Era’s white caps would clash with Majestic’s cream jerseys, the Brewers had decided to revert to navy blue caps (perfectly in keeping with the 1913 look). They did decide to make one concession to modernity and place a cream “M” logo on the front. I didn’t mind the idea, but New Era’s execution was a little off. Once again, they made it too large, too squat, a variation on their standard monogram that drives me up the wall every time I see it.

But that’s a minor quibble.

I had the honor of wearing an original 1913 jersey while being interviewed on FOX Sports Wisconsin in the third inning. Surely that’s at least eight of my fifteen minutes of fame used up. My pal Paul also appeared on-camera, wearing a 1943 Brewers jersey.

Of course, the throwbacks were for sale, although the cap substitution happened so late in the game that they were selling the white caps alongside the jerseys, and no blue caps were available. Interestingly, the Brewers’ were also selling team-issued white caps in the game-used section of the store; late switch indeed.

I think the Brewers really nailed the essence of the 1913 uniform. I couldn’t have been happier with the game, except of course the final score. I already have plans to pitch some new TBTC events for next year…

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Great job (again) with that Chance — good to see you at the game, and great to hear about your big day! Thanks for sharing.

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Got a small set again today, but with two of the stalwarts AND a new colorizer who took on the very first image (and the image that is used for the splash for this segment) of “Colorize This!”

Click on each image to enlarge.

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We begin today with Dillon Levi West, who colorized the splash — and it’s full size — Dillon, if you’re out there and want the full size b&w to colorize, it’s here:

. . .

Next up is Pete Woychick with a two-fer (and of course, a story):

Phil

I wasn’t able to get to this one in time for April 15; better late than never?

I almost didn’t bother with the second photo””an unidentified Tarheel player in a nondescript pose””until I thought “What if the uniform was Carolina blue, instead of white or gray?” On closer inspection, a couple of things stood out. First, I like the way the second button goes through the top of the R in “North.” Second, I’m no tailor, but that doesn’t appear to be “standard” wool flannel; it almost looks like. . .cotton?!?

Cheers!
””Pete

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And we close today with another colorizer-extraordinaire, George Chilvers. You’ll never guess the subject material:

Hi Phil””

I don’t know if you’re running a “Colorize This” this week, and if you do what day it will be on, but on Saturday I will be at Wembley watching my little team, Wigan Athletic, play in the FA Cup Final. A dream for any football supporter and one I never thought I would ever see.

So it seems fitting that I should go back 90 years for my subject to the first FA Cup Final at Wembley in 1923. I don’t know if readers are aware of the tale, but the stadium opened and the first major event was to be the FA Cup Final between Bolton and West Ham. The stadium was scheduled to hold 100,000 but so many turned up that chaos ensued. Estimates put the actual crowd at between 125,000 and 200,000. Obviously they spilled onto the pitch and there was a massive task to clear it for the game, which went ahead with crowds thronging the touchlines. It was the last FA Cup Final that wasn’t ticket only.

The iconic image of the day is a white police horse pushing the crowds back, but as this picture shows it was a big concerted effort by the British bobbies to get the playing area clear. We have here three of the Bolton team waiting, while it must be said that everyone seems quite light-hearted about the situation – I’m not sure these days crowds would be so tolerant.

Anyway – as a favour to a Wigan supporting Uni Watcher, could anyone who doesn’t have an allegiance to Man City please give a little cheer (and if it suits anyone a little prayer) for the Latics to bring home the Cup. :)

Best wishes,

George

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And that will conclude this shorter “Colorize This!” Thanks as always to George & Pete, and welcome aboard Dillon. And how about a little cheer from the UW faithful for Wigan! Lets keep those colorizations coming Uni Watchers!

That’s it for today Uni Watchers — due to the lateness of my arrival home from last evening’s Mets game, I didn’t have time to put together a “Stirrup Fridays” piece — but that will run tomorrow, so fear not.

Everyone have a great Saturday and I will catch you guys tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken

One For The Road

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“Here in Washington we know that (Redskins owner Daniel) Snyder is one of history’s all-time assholes, non-dictator division. The man does reprehensible stuff, and gets called out on it, all the time. For example, when it’s pointed out that he has made a practice of suing elderly people who cancel season-ticket pledges into penury, Snyder doesn’t take to the air and announce ‘I will NEVER stop suing doddering grandparents into the poorhouse, and you can print that in all caps’.”
–R. Scott Rogers