The Spirit of ’48

Very nice throwback game last night in Minnesota, as the Twins dressed up as the old St. Paul Saints and Brewers become the minor league Brewers, both from 1948. As you can see above, Rickie Weeks of the Brewers showed some nice blousing, which is the kind of thing that does my heart some good.

A few other notes from the game:

• The most unusual thing about the uniforms was that the Twins wore gray at home. According to what I’ve read, they opted to wear the Saints’ road uniforms because they wanted their local-born players, like Joe Mauer, to be able to wear “St. Paul” on their jerseys.

• The Twins wore throwback batting helmets, but the Brewers kinda half-assed it: They just removed the logo decals from their regular helmets. Still had the numbers on the back, however, which created a clash of fonts. (Also worth noting: Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy didn’t remove the logo from his catching helmet.)

• As far as I coud see, everyone went high-cuffed. The Brewers all wore beautiful Northwestern-striped stirrups, while the Twins went with a mix of stirrups and high socks.

• If you look again at that last shot, you’ll see that Chris Parmalee, at far right, was wearing his left stirrup backwards but appears to have had his right stirrup properly oriented.

• Pedro Florimon also had the “one backwards, one forwards” thing going on.

• Both teams wore the MLB logo on the back of their caps but not on the back of their jerseys. There seems to be little consistency regarding these elements in throwback games — sometimes they’re there, sometimes not.

• In a really nice touch, even the grounds crew wore throwbacks.

Finally, reader Tim (who didn’t give his last name) says we could have seen these uniforms earlier in the week:

The Twins proposed having the two teams wear the throwbacks early in the week in Milwaukee and then again Thursday in Minneapolis, as the teams were playing four consecutive games this week, two in each city.

Problem was, Milwaukee chose not to host a throwback game with these uniforms, since they felt they were wearing enough throwbacks at home already this year.

And there we are. I leave you with one final, pleasing image from the game:

As most of you know, I’m generally opposed to the corporate incursions into public space. A particularly absurd example of that has been unfolding in Atlanta, as reader Austin Gillis explains:

Atlanta has an ordinance stipulating that streets cannot be named for corporations, but they can be named for people.

Ford had a large plant in Atlanta, and the street it was on was named after Henry Ford II. Then the Ford plant closed down. Porsche is now building a new plant on the same site.

Porsche did not want to move their new plant onto a street named after Henry Ford, so paperwork was filed to re-name the street after Porsche. But due the no-corporate-street-name ordinance, it was decided to name the street after Porsche’s founder, rather than the company itself.

But there was a problem: Porsche was founded by Ferdinand Porsche, who was a Nazi. So the city of Atlanta lifted its no-corporate-street-name ordinance and is allowing the street to be called “Porsche Avenue.”

The city fathers point out the obvious, that they shouldn’t have to keep the Henry Ford name, and they shouldn’t name the street after a Nazi, but nobody seemed to ask the question about why the street had to have a Porsche-related name to begin with, instead of some generic name.

Further info about all of this can be found here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Here are the medals for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The are reportedly “the largest and heaviest Olympic medals ever,” which of course means they’re the best. … A new pizza joint in Greenville, South Carolina, is using the Yankees’ logo. “Wonder how long the Yankees will let them get away with it,” says Ronnie Poore. … There’s been some big controversy brewing up in Canada over the introduction of new mandatory box lacrosse facemasks. Here’s a petition to change the rule (from Mack Abbott). … Gorgeous striped stirrups — with yellow sannies! — for Mira Costa High School in Los Angeles (from Matt Shevin). … Twenty-three workers at a Nike factory in Cambodia were hurt, and thousands more protested, in a dispute over low wages (from Kyle Allebach). … Fun story about how two Mississippi high schools came to call their teams the Tartars and the Urchins (from Brad Jackson. ”¦ The Rolling Stones’ 50th-anniversary tour came to Chicago the other day, which explains why Ron Wood was wearing a No. 50 Blackhawks jersey (from Bob Gassel). ”¦ Eye black stickers now come in war paint-ish shapes (from Bob Nolte. ”¦ Also from Bob: New Era is now offering a bunch of caps with green underbrims and gray underbrims. ”¦ “Last week, San Francisco honored Steph Curry with the key to the city,” writes Gary Yamada. “For the ceremony, Mayor Ed Lee wore a blue blazer with the famous ‘The City’ logo. I guess he was making his pitch for the Warriors return across the Bay.” ”¦ Hmmm, maybe the Bills didn’t scrap the neck roll after all (from Charlie Pritt). ”¦ The Avs have created a Patrick Roy infographic (from John Romero). ”¦ The new Cardiff City kit, which featured mismatched shorts, sparked an outcry from fans, so now the team is letting fans choose the shorts color (from Trevor Williams). ”¦ Charles Woodson, still holding out for No. 24 but unable to get Tracy Porter to part with it, has been practicing in a numberless jersey. ”¦ Holy freakin’ moly! That’s the 1973 Pearl High School baseball team from Tennessee. They almost look like unitards! (Awesome find by Tommy Allred.) ”¦ John Antonio, who designed Clemson’s tiger paw logo, has passed away. “That obituary has a few good snippets about how the logo was made from an actual mold of a bengal tiger’s paw and of course the telltale ‘c’ in the lower-right corner,” says Benji Boyter. ”¦ The Blackhawks recently let a fan be an “equipment manager for a day.” Details in this video clip. You may be particularly amused by the bit at the 35-second mark (from Jennier Hayden). … Next-to-last graf of this item indicates that the Angels will be adding a memorial patch for Dr. Lewis Yocum, who passed away last weekend (from Brett Crane). … The name and logo for Ottawa’s new CFL team have leaked (from Matthew Walthert). … Esquire printed an “interview” with David Wright that’s actually just a stroke job for New Era. Among other things, we learn that Wright doesn’t understand the meaning of Memorial Day (from Tommy Turner). … Speaking of New Era, they just came out with a new video for the BP caps, which includes a glimpse at what appears to be two alternate Blue Jays designs (from Robert Beau Schott). … Good article on how Red Sox catcher David Ross has gotten added protection inside his hockey-style mask after recently suffering a concussion (from Joe Giza). … Salty wore a righty batting helmet while batting lefty last night (from Timothy Burke). ”¦ Here’s a look at some of the best and worst uniforms in White Sox history (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Also from Phil: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the T-shirt. ”¦ Check out the logo I’ve circled in this MLB gamecast screen shot. “It appears to say ‘America’s Pastime,'” says Ryan Mallon. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Anyone..? ”¦ Good question from Scott Moody, who writes: “Why do they still force NBA players to sit on standard folding chairs while on the bench? Out of all the pro sport ‘benches,’ NBA benches have to be the most uncomfortable, given the height of the players plus the fact they are forced to sit so close together. Couldn’t they provide the players with chairs designed for more legroom?” ”¦ This is pretty funny: John Hodgman talking about his love for the Hartford Whalers’ logo. “The best part is when he actually points out the negative-space ‘H’ in the design,” says the long-lost Hungry Hungry Hipster. “And guess who is in attendance? None other than Peter Good, who designed the logo!” ”¦ In Aussie football news, Brisbane’s fans are calling for uni changes (from Leo Strawn Jr.). ”¦ Fresno State football has announced a slew of uniform details and plans for the coming season, including a BFBS uni and helmet on Nov. 2 (Phil again). … Jockey, the underwear company, has come up with a new bra-sizing system. … That Coors Light can with the controversial logo has been pulled. ”¦ If you’re gonna go to prison, it may as well be for something good.