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Uni Watch

If It Can Happen to Gretzky, It Can Happen to Anyone

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Ever since I was a kid, I’ve tried to stay up late and watch the Mets when they play on the west coast. And ever since I was a kid, I’ve usually ended up falling asleep on the sofa in the middle of the game.

That’s what happened to me last night. When I woke up at about 12:45am, I took a quick glance at my laptop to see if there had been any late-breaking Ticker submissions. Turns out I had about 20 emails — a huge amount, given that I’d only been asleep for a little over an hour. What had happened?

As I quickly discovered, there’d been an NOB typo during the USA/Belize soccer match. As you can see in the photo above, striker Chris Wondolowski was wearing “Wondowlowski” (note the extra “w”). The error was hard to miss, because he scored three goals in the first half, so the camera was on him a lot.

Someone on the USA squad apparently spotted the typo (or else just checked in on Twitter, where there was lots of chatter about the mistake), because Wondolowski came out with a properly spelled NOB for the second half:

As several observers quickly pointed out, Wondolowski didn’t score any goals in the second half, so they should probably send him back out with the misspelled jersey next time around. Or as one soccer writer put it, “So now he has to legally change his name to Wondowlowski.”

As for today’s headline, I was of course referring to this. Want to see more jersey typos? Look here.

(My thanks to everyone who wrote in regarding Wondo’s typo.)

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’Skins Watch: No ’Skins news today, but it turns out that the Mets have found a new way to stub their toe, this time by planning and then scrapping a Native American Heritage Day promotion, which was originally scheduled to be held on a date when the Braves were in town. The whole thing quickly became a farcical mess. Read about it here.

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New Sponsor Shout-Out: Longtime readers are no doubt familiar the pseudonymous Hungry Hungry Hipster (aka “HHH”), who has submitted dozens of Ticker contributions over the years, plus he also guest-wrote a brilliant deconstruction of a very famous sports photo . HHH has a new T-shirt operation, called Forward Progress, which is now advertising in our right-hand sidebar.

HHH describes Forward Progress like so:

What do you get when you combine sports, humor, and T-shirts? Forward Progress Tees! Most of our shirts are funny and sports-related, so they’re perfect for wearing to the big game, tailgate party, and sports bars. I will be adding more shirts to the online store on a daily basis, so like us on Facebook to get updates when new shirts are added.

One note about our logo: It’s a ligature of an F and a P with a negative-space arrow, and together they resemble the yard markers that football chain gangs carry.

And there you have it. Thanks for advertising with Uni Watch, HHH. If anyone else out there is interested in advertising, feel free to be in touch.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Let’s start with a bunch of college football stuff: Here’s the Longhorns’ new white jersey, along with a rear view and the pants. And here’s Marshall’s new Conference USA patch, and Oregon State’s Pac 12 patches (all this from Phil). … Yesterday I mentioned that the Blazers had changed the color and font of the uni numbers on the back of their red alternate uniform. What I failed to mention is that they’ve made the same change to the uni numbers on the front of that uni. … The Bucs will wear their Creamsicle throwbacks on Sept. 29 against the Cardinals (thanks, Phil). … Bryce Harper was wearing teammate Ian Desmond’s batting gloves on Monday night (good spot by Erik Autenrieth). … Speaking of Desmond, he shaved in the middle of last night’s game, because his beard “was weighing me down.” He joins the ranks of other in-game shavers, including Jason Giambi, Jason Kendall, and Russell Martin (from Chris Flinn and Nicole Haase). ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: New ads may be coming to the Wrigley Field clock and outfield walls. … Interesting article about changes to Canadian Army uniforms (from Andy Horne). … Whoa, look at this horrific mesh jersey festooned with MLB cap designs. Hideous but oddly compelling. … Former NHL player George Laraque was wearing a green Team Canada jersey the other day. “He’s running for parliament as a Green Party candidate, so I guess that’s why,” says Norm Johnson. … New away kit for Arsenal. Love those socks! … Brutal minor league game the other day, as the Auburn Doubledays and the Williamsport Crosscutters both wore red jerseys and caps. “The only difference was the color of pants,” says Chris Long. “Oh, and this was a doubleheader, so I thought that they would change tops for the second game, but they didn’t.” … Never seen this before: An amateur team in Cold Spring, Minnesota, has been wearing a solid-charcoal uni. “We have been getting a lot of flak in our area, as some people see these as very ugly uniforms,” says team member Reece Hemmesch. … This is pretty cool: an animated GIF of all of Chris Davis’s home runs this season (from Chris Flinn). … If you have kids who play football, soccer, or other sports that often entail concussions, you’ll probably want to check out the Centers for Disease Control’s new “Heads Up” website, which is intended to be a resource for parents. … Lifestyle pornographers Abercrombie & Fitch discourage their employees from wearing black (from Josh Wren). … More drama regarding the players who wore Nike shirts to Adidas’s Bayern Munich unveiling, and honestly, who really cares? Put all these clowns in a locked cabin, throw away the key, and then toss the whole thing in the ocean. … The Lake Geneva Generals — that’s a semipro football team in Wisconsin — have a solid-G.I. Joe uniform. Hey, after all, they’re generals! (From David Petroff.) … I’m still calling it the Shark Tank (from Adam Schechter). … Speaking of the Sharks, here’s a good article about how they got their color scheme, and more about how their brand was created (from Bruce Utzig). … Dioner Navarro of the Cubs pulled up one of his pant legs last night, revealing what appears to have been a Nike soccer sock. “I heard earlier in the year that Navarro was a big soccer fan, but I can’t identify which team these socks belong to,” says Micah Schaffer.

 
  
 
Comments (82)

    Here is a link to a NYT article that adds an interesting twist to the issue of Native American imagery use in sports. Apparently, the Mets have disappointed a local Native American group because the team didn’t want to upset the Braves at an upcoming game…

    link;

    Regarding the Mets and their Native American Night, can anyone really be that stupid to schedule an event like this when a team called the Braves is the opponent? I really think they do this shit to get attention. No one can be this dumb intentionally.

    Awful as the Redskins name is, or the Tomahawk Chop, they’re just symbols, a company name and an empty fan ritual. What the Mets have done here has materially harmed actual Indian people and organizations. There’s the $2000 downpayment, which I’m sure the Mets will be happy to refund after at least a week of negative press after they first try to keep the money. But there’s also the weeks of effort the nonprofit put into planning not only the Mets events but also the larger celebration it was to anchor. For a nonprofit, staff time is often the more valuable resource than dollars. The Mets have seriously set back the work of Indians in their community.

    I don’t go in for the whole “demand an apology!” thing that seems to dominate the American outrage-industrial complex, but the Mets have done real harm and need to make it right. Not an apology, but amends. Refund the deposit. Figure out how much the nonprofit spends in an average month and donate that amount to them. I’d add, reschedule the event, but the “fool me twice, shame on me” rule probably applies to anyone the Mets might partner with.

    Oh, and someone needs to leak the proposed t-shirt design. That’s gotta be part of the restitution package.

    Even though it was the AICH that suggested the date, it’s amazingly foolish that the Mets agreed without considering the impacts. Was that suggestion purposeful outside of the desire for the group to maximize contributions for a much-needed fundraising effort(they were facing closure this time last year)? Who knows, but somebody at the Mets should been wise enough to scrutinize the schedule of opponents and the AICH a bit more thoroughly prior to making any firm committments or obligations.

    The rank incompetence of the Mets’ front-office staff is an extremely well-documented fact by this point. For a large business operating in the nation’s highest-profile city, they are remarkably inept.

    I don’t get why it’s “foolish” or “dumb” to schedule the event on a Braves game. (After all, say all the defenders of Indian sports iconography, these team names honor Indians!) It’s just a game. What I find despicable – honestly, in terms of personal and business ethics, this is morally repugnant – is that the Mets would assume that their partners in the event would necessarily use the event as a political demonstration, despite multiple assurances to the contrary. The presumption of bad faith is really quite breathtaking. I draw no conclusions about competence, but this is not how people of integrity behave toward one another. People of good faith assume good faith.

    And furthermore, it’s disturbing that the Mets would care if some attendees did, say, hold up anti-Braves signs. Ow, so poor little Atlanta might have its feelings hurt? Whoopti-fucking-doo. You know what? They’re the opposing team. Someone shows up at your ballpark to shout at them? Great! The local folks you’ve invited to your game to help their charitable efforts, those are your customers and your community. Their interests, their feelings, not those of your professional competitor, are what you should be concerned about.

    The more you think about it, the more it raises the question: When did Jeff Loria buy the Mets?

    I wonder if there was a reply from AICH when the Mets asked them months ago to explain in writing why they selected a Braves game for “N.A.H.D”.
    Perhaps the Mets expressed concerns about “unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event” (i.e.: drunken NYers wearing warpaint, headdresses, etc, looking to star in viral videos?)to AICH officials privately prior to last week?
    The Mets were correct, allbeit in hindsight, in recognizing the potential for conflicts in messaging and public displays; AICH offered no assurances (were they in a position to do so?), may not have complied with clarification requests(which may have fueled speculations?) and appears to have been less than forthcoming with their promotional plans for the day as well.

    I do agree that the Mets were correct in hindsight about being concerned. There was definitely the potential for things to go very wrong.

    Why they didn’t recognize that from the start is incompetence, that they suddenly started to change the arrangement and couldn’t find any amicable resolution is ridiculous (but expected from this Mets fan.)

    After thinking about this, I do hope this becomes a big story and Mets fans who show up protest on there own. That’s a big middle finger to both the Braves and the Wilpons.

    “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” – Albert Einstein

    The second sentence mentioning the new advertiser gives him an extra H, unless of course the educational program 4H is involved, which would be odd.

    So the Mets celebrated Indian Heritage Day by breaking a treaty. Perfect, when you think about it.

    You falling asleep on the “coach” in the middle of the game made me crack-up. Thanks, I needed that this morning.

    “New ads may be coming to the Wrigley Field clock and outfield walls.”

    Jeez! Next you’ll be telling me they’re putting lights in!!

    By the way, I can’t for the life of me remember who it was, but some baseball player within the last several years started a game with a beard and progressively shaved down to a goatee, then a mustache, then clean (I think). Does anybody remember who that was?

    I would have bet anything Dioner Navarro was wearing Arsenal socks, but I can’t find any that look like his.

    And I’m with you, Paul. I was asleep by the 5th inning of the Sox-Mariners game last night. I can never stay up when they make the west coast swing. Pretty bad for a 26 year old.

    From the color scheme, Navarro’s socks look more like Barcelona’s socks than Arsenal’s.

    I don’t know, I don’t see any of the thin blue hoops on Navarro’s socks, but it isn’t the best picture quality, so maybe.

    Man, Chris must be getting a lot of stick from all the other Wondolowskis in the world. He’ll never live that extra “W” down.

    I’ve been meaning to comment on this – but as a “Yank”, I’m really surprised that it seems every day there is a post about a Premier League team (and teams in other top European leagues) getting a new uniform. It seems that every team has a new kit every year. Is that the case?

    I always thought that it would be the league most likely to maintain their history, tradition, and, alright, “brand” over the years.

    Perhaps not.

    Yeah, they definitely do a refresh every year at this point. The so-called “change kits” are always dramatically changed, but the primary shirts only get minor tweaks, so they maintain the “brand” but give people something different enough to go out and buy, I guess.

    Let’s take my fave team, FC Porto, for example. In 11-12, this was their kit link and for the upcoming season, they’re like this link

    They maintain their primary identity of blue and white stripes, but change the look slightly each year, sometimes making thinner stripes and sometimes making thicker ones. The look changes, but the brand maintains itself, I think

    Uniforms used to change every other year, but I noticed in the late 90s and early 00s that a few European clubs (Juventus and Barcelona come to mind) were changing every year. Now, even the lesser Premiership clubs do NKEY (new kits every year).

    Yeah, there used to be a rule that Premier League teams could only change kits every 2 years, so they used to alternate between kits in order to introduce a new one each season. Now most teams introduce at least 2 new kits a year.

    It’s even trickled down to the lower leagues – my hometown team, the non-league Kidderminster Harriers, have brought out new home & change kits every year for the past few seasons (although they’re half the price of the equivalent EPL kits).

    Kidderminster Harriers. That, right there, is one of the great team names of all time.

    Damn skippy, Arr. Of course, it has nothing to do with the local area or its history, but it’s hard to come up with team names related to either the carpet industry or drunken violence…

    Hands down, Bill Caudill still has the best in-game shave in baseball history.

    FYI – The link for the Forward Progress Tees Facebook takes me to a UW article on Tecmo Bowl

    ” … Interesting article about changes to Canadian Army uniforms (from Andy Horne). … ”

    Extremely interesting, at least to me — erstwhile professor of military history and ongoing student of Canadiana — and probably to some of our northern brethren. The uniform changes may be less significant than the nomenclatural changes, basically a reversion to “Royal” this or that, and “regiment” instead of “land force,” etc. From my vantage, the current government is keen to appear strong, defenders of the True North and its enviable military traditions. But it’s more rhetorical than real. After lots of chest-thumping over Arctic sovereignty, for example, the government hasn’t really done much to establish a robust year-round military capability. I don’t mean to politicize a sports uniform site, but I do think what we have here is a governmental analog to a sports franchise that’s can’t make the playoffs anymore but wants to keep up fan support through throwback jerseys, a Hall of Fame, and lots of retro references to the Glory Days. Talk like Diefenbaker but deploy like… well, you Canadians can fill in that blank.

    You might be right.

    On the other hand, a lot of changes are about restoring traditions and pride that were largely destroyed in the Trudeau-Chretien 1960s-1990s with the unified forces and the pretty much complete destruction of our ability to wage any kind of war.

    Besides, no matter what we do militarily, our armed forces are going to look puny living next to the greatest fighting force ever assembled. I’d argue that our standing military is just about the right size and strength for our weight on the world stage and is compares pretty well to other comparable countries – just not the U.S.

    Right, but Canada has a growing range of asserted interest even within the North American/Arctic sphere that seem to outpace its actual military capability. As the Arctic opens to commercial exploitation, whether extraction or transit, Russia will increasingly ask anyone asserting contrary sovereignty, “You and what navy?”

    “Look at our lovely shoulder tabs” will not be a persuasive response to Moscow’s challenge if Washington continues to take a hands-off approach to Canada’s northern territorial-waters claims.

    I got the new NCAA 14 football game.

    They have the NCAA flag logo instead of the American logo for the conference.

    We’ve been over this. The AAC logo will be patched into the game, as will the new Sun Belt logo.

    Justin Bieber takes a picture of the Stanley Cup while standing on the Blackhawks logo on the floor of the locker room.

    It kinda combines logo placement with the Native American imagery issue…interesting.

    link

    Wow, that cap jersey is pretty bad. And it’s definitely not from the 1990s, as the seller claims (though, really, that’s no surprise that someone on an auction site would get the years wrong).

    The first thing I noticed that put it after the nineties was the Brewers cap, which is the design introduced in 2000. Then I noticed the Expos cap, which moved my estimated time frame to no later than 2004. The Angels cap then pushed it up to no earlier than 2002. Then I finally realized the Blue Jays were represented by the red-T cap, which was their primary cap in 2003, so the jersey most likely comes from that year.

    C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) tweeted at 10:33am (or so) that Delegate Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa) was talking on the House floor about the Washington Football Club’s name.

    Right now, I don’t have anything other than that. But I’m sure that the video and transcripts will be available some time soon (tomorrow? couple of hours?).

    Nobody said there was “legal action.” But elected representatives have a unique ability — and, arguably, the responsibility — to speak out on current issues of public interest, especially social justice issues.

    It doesn’t mean anyone’s about to draft legislation; it means someone is speaking out. That’s part of how public opinion is shaped, and how a “choice,” as you put it, is then made.

    It looks like Jesse Bignami (@jessebignami) is responsible for Chris Wondolowski’s (Wondowloski???) NOB error. He and SI writer Grant Wahl (@grantwahl) tweeted about it.

    Navarro definitely wearing Barcelona’s new home socks. Venezuela wears adidas, and their red is a darker burgundy color.

    link

    I really like that Cold Spring charcoal uniform. Not sure the cap works with it, though.

    I know it’s been talked about on here before, but it’s too bad MLB teams don’t use varying shades of gray for their away uniforms. I think any team with a predominantly red color scheme could make charcoal work for them.

    I generally agree with the anti-G.I. Joe sentiment, but my Sarcasm Meter is giving me an odd readout when I try to interpret whether or not you’re saying it’s OK for a team named the Generals to go camo. Personally, given the team name and all the stars they have on their uniforms, I think it’s fine for them and even a tad clever. It’s everyone else that does it that gets on my nerves.

    Just to clear up where I stand: I think simply naming yourselves “the Generals” does not suddenly confer upon you the ability to play dress-up soldier. Not without critique, at least.

    Oh Abercrombie and Fitch…
    You’re one of the reasons I don’t want my kid to grow up to be your version of “cool”.
    For the record, I’m wearing a black pocket tee before 5:00. Dipshits.

    Those charcoal colored baseball uniforms really are a thing of beauty, I approve.

    I’m pretty sure that the “l” in “Wondolowski” was originally an “l with stroke”, the Polish “L” that has a slash through it. “L with stroke” is pronounced as a “w” sound.

    I’m pretty sure that “Wondolowski” is actually pronounced “Vondowovski” in Polish.

    So the “w”, while wrong, may not have been all that wrong.

    Rock on, Cort. We may be idiots, but some of the brothers around here know some shit.

    Please give me an English phonetic rendering for the names of the Solidarity-leader-turned-President and the pre-papal guy who became John Paul II.

    Lech Va-Wen-Sa

    Karol Voy-TEE-wa

    I spent freshman year at BYU, wearing a Solidarity button. (I think people thought “Solidarnosc” was a division of Word Perfect, or something — Eastern European trade unions were not prominent on the Provo radar in 1981.)

    My maternal grandparents were Polish, with some Lithuanian on my gran-pa’s side. The only Polish they taught me was “Daj mi buzi,” which means “Give me a kiss,” and something that sounded like “ushen sob-ya,” which we were told means “Sit down and shut up,” but which probably is a lot more sweary.

    We were an affectionate family, in our brutal way…

    Regarding the Bayern Munich-Adidas-Nike Kerfluffle, Philip Lahm, the player that is making the big stink in that article, is an Adidas athlete. So anything said by him is a complete farce because he is just another Adidas guy towing the company line pretty stupid if you ask me.

    Also, I was at the “Wondow”lowski game and didn’t notice. Too hard to read his name from that far away(Although I was only about 5 rows back in the supporters section.)

    Most interesting q/a in that Sharks interview:

    What’s the story behind the Sharks logo?
    We created depth with the Shark coming out of the triangle, which demonstrates Bay Area geography with San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. It was the first multidimensional logo.

    I haven’t pulled up Creamer’s site yet, but the FIRST multidimensional logo? I find that hard to believe.

    That MLB mesh jersey says in the description it is from the 1990’s, but it has to be from 2003. Thats the only year that the Blue Jays used the T with a bird grabbing it logo.

    That begs two questions:

    How cool is it that Team USA features a player who’s half Kiowa, half Polish? American, What A Country!

    And, since this is Uniwatch, What does Wondo think of Chief Wahoo, The Screaming Warrior, and that football team in Washington?

    Arse’s yellow-and-royal is a throwback to their ’70s and ’80s alts, but back then they wore solid yellow socks. The stripes are a first for this combo.

    RE: soccer sock worn during baseball game…Arsenal wore a maroon and yellow sock in 2010-2011, so it is possibly that sock.

    It’s real late for me, and the quality isn’t the best in the pic, so I cannot really make the determination from “the mark of the beast” on whose sock it is. We only see the “mark” and a color or two. Not the whole sock. So, it’s not like it could be anyone’s sock…or no one’s.

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