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Uni Watch

MLB All-Star Game Recap

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No helmet mix-ups or other uniform eccentricities in last night’s MLB All-Star Game (grrrrr), but there was still plenty of uni-watching fodder. Here’s a rundown:

• All jerseys and caps had those little stars flanking the MLB logo.

• All caps had an All-Star Game logo patch.

• All helmets had the All-Star logo on the back.

• All players wore an All-Star logo sleeve patch. But the Diamondbacks and Orioles already had a team patch on one sleeve and a memorial patch on the other, so the addition of the All-Star patch forced them to move their memorial patches to the chest.

• Lots and lots of players wore atypical shoe colors, including Max Scherzer (orange); Matt Harvey (orange); Mike Trout (red); David Wright (orange); Craig Kimbrel (red); Bryce Harper (red/gold); Joey Votto (red); Chris Sale (gray/silver); Miguel Cabrera (white); Andrew McCutchen (yellow, definitely my favorite of the night); J.J. Hardy (white); Troy Tulowitzki (can’t bring myself to say it); Adam Jones (orange); Brandon Phillips (red/gold); Jose Fernandez (orange/gold); Aroldis Chapman (red/gold); Cliff Lee (red, but not the Phillies’ usual red); Jean Segura (navy/gold); Greg Holland (blue); Salvador Perez (blue); Nelson Cruz (white); Prince Fielder (gray); Joe Nathan (white); Torii Hunter (orange): Travis Wood (blue); and some clown who ran onto the field (gray). There were a few additional examples, but I couldn’t find photos for everyone.

• Then there was Dustin Pedroia, who entered the game wearing white shoes but later changed to black. Pedroia entered the game suddenly and unexpectedly, pinch-running for Robinson Cano, who left after being hit by a pitch. So maybe Pedroia never intended to wear the white shoes for game use and changed footwear between innings after entering the game. Or maybe he just didn’t like the feel of the white shoes.

• Not a single player wore his team’s alternate jersey. It was all home whites (or home creams for the Giants and Mets) and road grays. Very nice.

• The American League batboy wore a Mets road jersey. Seems a little weird, since the Mets are, you know, a National League team. But I guess it makes sense. What else would he wear? An A.L. BP jersey?

• The Mets usually put their “NY” logo on the back of the mound. But for this game, they used the All-Star Game logo lettering.

• Our friends at Pro Helmet Decals designed an All-Star Game bat knob decal for David Wright:

I asked PHD honcho David Surlecki if he did this for any other players. His response: “You know, I thought about contacting the other teams to see if they wanted something similar for their players. But everything was pretty much last-minute, so there wasn’t enough time to do so.”

• In case you were wondering (okay, you probably weren’t, but still…), here’s a list of the fielding gloves worn by each All-Star starter. Too bad they left out the pitchers, though.

• The American and National League logos used to have 14 and 16 stars, respectively, representing the number of teams in each league. This season they both changed to 15 stars, reflecting the Astros’ move from the N.L. to the A.L. But the All-Star Game scorecard had the old logos.

Any other uni-notable developments I missed? Post your observations in the comments.

One final note: I had the pleasure of watching the game with Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber, and I can’t imagine a better, more simpatico sidekick for taking in an All-Star Game. We had fun pointing out uni-notable details, keeping track of shoe colors, yelling at Tim McCarver to shut the fuck up already, etc., all while downing plenty of barbecue and beer. It was a great time, and the capper to a sensational five-day period in which I got to hang out with Tom on three separate occasions. Thanks for everything, Tom — you’re the best.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Chris Flinn, Gary Lau, Dave Long, John Okray, Harrison Tishler, and of course Phil.)

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ESPN reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, my latest ESPN column features more All-Star Game helmet mix-ups.

A few footnotes on that column:

• Toward the end of the column, I mentioned that Mets historian Greg Prince thought Tom Seaver had worn a Dodgers helmet in the 1976 ASG but that I didn’t have any visual evidence. Not sure why I didn’t simply Google “Tom Seaver 1976 All-Star Game,” but I didn’t. Fortunately, Phil did. I feel foolish for not having included this in yesterday’s column. Anyway, judging from the uni number on the brim, it looks like Seaver was wearing Steve Garvey’s helmet.

• Later in the day, reader Robert Bluestein tipped me wise to another Met wearing non-Mets headwear: In the 1981 ASG, Joel Youngblood wore Bruce Benedict’s Braves helmet. Looks like it had a green ribbon for the Atlanta child murders. (Interestingly, I don’t recall the Seaver or the Youngblood helmet switcheroos, even though I definitely watched both of those games and totally lived and died with the Mets in those days.)

• Speaking of Garvey, as we were a minute ago, reader Larry Wiederecht reminded me of something I’d forgotten about: In the 1979 ASG, Garvey wore what appears to have been a spray-painted Dodgers helmet. Wonder which team’s lid was underneath that paint!

• Several readers wrote in to tell me that Lou Whitaker wore another team’s helmet in the 1985 All-Star Game. Sorry, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t so. Here’s the dealio: As you may recall, ’85 was the year Whitaker forgot his uni and had to wear a replica jersey with the uni number applied via Magic Marker. There are several web pages that say he also had to borrow a helmet, like this page, which says, “Cleveland pitcher Bert Blyleven let Whitaker wear his helmet.” But that’s demonstrably untrue — the screen shot on that same page shows a “1” (Whitaker’s number) on the back of his helmet! You can see a larger version, with the number more clearly visible, here. Although we can’t see the front of the helmet, that’s almost certainly Whitaker’s regular Tigers lid. And it sure isn’t Bert Blyleven’s.

I’m fascinated by these ASG helmet mix-ups. At the moment I’m trying to find video of the 1962 ASG, because I have it on good authority that Don Drysdale of the Dodgers wore a Pirates lid in that game. So if anyone out there has video of the ’62 ASG, and/or if you know of still more ASG helmet oddities, please speak up. Thanks.

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’Skins Watch: Here’s something about MLB’s All-Star FanFest that I missed: According to the excellent baseball writer (and Uni Watch fan) Rob Neyer, Chief Wahoo was conspicuously absent from the proceedings. Very interesting. Seems to fit with the slow but unmistakable de-emphasizing of Wahoo. Only question now is when de-emphasis will become elimination.

(My thanks to Mike Vamosi for bringing this one to my attention.)

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Just when you thought the stupid couldn’t get any stupider, there’s this: Lipton Tea will now sponsor the wave at MLB ballparks. Seriously, it’s like the MLB folks are going out of their way to take corporate sponsorship to the lowest, most asinine depths they can think of. How long before they come up with a sponsor for the oxygen in the stadium? And don’t try to bring your own oxygen in, or they’ll make you remove the label. … In a related item, Alan Kreit was annoyed by the water-branding restriction at the MLB All-Star FanFest, so he snuck a bottle of Poland Spring into the event yesterday and then took it out and drank it with impunity to see if anyone would confiscate it. “Nobody noticed,” he says. ”¦This is interesting: A Reds/Giants game that was rained out in Cincy is being rescheduled as part of a doubleheader in San Francisco. The Reds will be the designated home team for the make-up game, which means they’ll bat last and will wear their home uniforms! I’ve seen visiting teams designated as the home team before, but usually they just wear their road uniforms. Wonder what Cincy’s equipment staff thinks about this, since they’ll now have to pack a lot of extra gear just for one game (from Cary O’Reilly) … New orange helmet for Illinois. I like it. ”¦ No photo yet, but Alabama football equipment manager Matt Lesser tells me that the Crimson Tide will be wearing “a rather large” memorial decal this season for longtime athletic director Mal Moore, who died back in March. Photo to follow in about two weeks. No other changes to the Tide’s uni for 2013. … Here’s a video explaining how Brazil got its national soccer kits. “It was through a newspaper contest, and the winner was a Uruguay fan!” says CJ Hague). … Interesting piece on Nebraska football branding (from Chris Bisbee). … The Archbald Little League in Pennsylvania makes good use of the A’s colors and script (from Tom Gerrity). … Here’s a not-very-revealing teaser of the Suns’ new white uni, plus the latest tease for their road uni (from Keith Winney). … A.J. Frey asks a really good question that I’d never thought about before: “Do switch-hitters generally have different bats for when they hit righty versus lefty?” Anyone know? … Michael Clary sent along the link for this Texas Longhorns ice bucket. … Here’s an article about New Era’s creative director (from Tommy Turner). … LeBron James is buying new uniforms for his former high school (from Michael Lisi). … Every Texans home game this season will have a contrived theme — no, wait, a corporate sponsor — no, wait, a contrived theme and a corporate sponsor. Pathetic (from Ryan Lindemann). … Chicago Fire fans are being invited to design the team’s 2014 third jersey (from Phillip Foose). ”¦ New basketball court for Boise State (from Brad Iverson-Long). ”¦ Got a note yesterday from David Berger, with the subject line “Vital unreported baseball news.” The news: The Dodgers have signed a guy named Dimitri Papantonopoulos. That surname is 15 letters long — one longer than Salty’s. “Can’t wait to see that on a jersey,” says Berger. “The Papantonpoulos watch begins NOW!” ”¦ New football helmet for Buffalo. “The matte blue looks like it will pair better with the current blue on their jerseys,” says Jeff Link. ”¦ Nike has finally admitted that it needs remedial geography lessons. ”¦ New uniforms for the Japanese women’s basketball team (from Jeremy Brahm).

 
  
 
Comments (121)

    Tim McCarver is pretty asinine at best, but calling David Ortiz the best DH of all time is ludicrous. As if Edgar Martinez had never played the game. Papi is a very good player, but Edgar was one of the greatest pure hitters of his generation.

    One of the dumbest things McCarver said last night was “…Pedro Alvarez grew up growing up in Washington Heights…”

    This was recently mentioned on the BS Report. We live in the age of hyperbole. Everything is either the best or the worst, nothing can simply be good, and if you have seen it in the last 20 minutes, all the better.

    From a pure production standpoint, it’s pretty close. Martinez was obviously a better “hitter” in terms of batting average and getting on base, but Papi eclipses him in the power categories. And before anyone plays the PED card, don’t forget that Martinez’s peak was from 1995-2001, the wild west of the steroid era, including having his most prolific homer season at age 37.

    ESPN got in on the hyperbole act this morning by describing the crowd at the ASG as “the largest ever at Citi Field.” Come on – the place has been open for 4 years. It’s not like there’s a long and storied history at Citi Field (which, as we all know, should still be called Shea).

    This is already starting off to be the greatest Wednesday since last week!

    How is that hyperbole? There were 45,186 fans at the game last night. If the previous high was 45,000 – then yes, it was the largest ever. Is it terribly relevant or important? No. But it’s not hyperbole.

    Whether or not the attendance was actually the largest ever at Citi Field wasn’t my point. My point was that they framed it in a way that was supposed to make it sound like there was a long history to look back on. If it had been the largest attendance at the Mets’ home stadium in a decade, or the largest ASG attendance or something, it might be as remarkable a feat as they made it out to be. If they’d merely commented that it was the largest attendance ever at Citi Field, without saying it a tone that sounds like they’re speaking in ALL CAPS!!!! – fine, that would be interesting. But the largest attendance at a stadium that has only existed for 4 years isn’t worth the hype ESPN was giving it.

    Sorry, Scott, but we have to assign responsibility somewhere. And so I have been instructed by the Board to relay to you its expectation that you will A) Arrange matters so that The Wave is no longer seen at Nationals Park; and B) Compel the Nats to win 48 or more games during the remainder of the regular season. My family moved to DC on the assurance that we Mets fans would be able to root for a clinch winner at last. Your failure to assemble a lineup that matches the power stats of the Little Sisters of the Poor has not gone unnoticed. Metrics matter, Scott, and there are some bright young UVa students peddling their wares. Just sayin’.

    Con, the Nats are in season nine of their Five Year Plan for becoming a consistent playoff contender. If you expected better results from a Washington institution, then I’m not sure whether I should admire your optimism or pity your naivete!

    This is, after all, a town where a guy was not too long ago elected president on the promise to spend $4 trillion of a $3 trillion surplus and then we were all surprised when he left office with a $1 trillion deficit. You think we’re going to run our baseball team any better?

    Do helmet decals stick equally well to matte helmets as they do gloss helmets? I would think not, but hey, I don’t work for 3M, so how would I know.

    The bit about the Reds and SF got me thinking about something I saw on the weather channel’s web site yesterday. Maybe a new sport will have to be invented in a handful of centuries?

    link

    Look at images 25-28.

    On the one hand, 5 feet of further sea-level rise is a better than 50/50 proposition within the lifetime of anyone reading this. On the other hand, I’ve seen the playing surface of AT&T Park listed as 8 feet above sea level. So the 5-foot illo shouldn’t put water on the playing field, unless it’s a full-moon high tide. Which, fortunately for the Giants, only happens once a month.

    Marlins Park, though, sits at 5 feet above sea level, and unlike many other coastal cities, Miami cannot be protected from sea-level rise with floodgates, dikes, or other engineering tricks such as are being proposed for New York. (Where both Yankee and Citi sit more than 15 feet above sea level, and so are likely safe until the 2200s.) Hopefully, MLB has contingency plans in place to relocate the Marlins to Montreal if either the Greenland or Ross glaciers fail.

    If that happens, I wish Jeffrey Loria (or one of his descendents) would still be owning the team. How hilarious and ironic would it be that he drove the Expos into the ground and then is forced to move back to Montreal?

    Love the site, but I’ve got to ask–how in any way could a “right-handed bat” differ from a “left-handed bat”? It’s a round club. Maybe they put the trademark on the other side of their right-handed bat than their left-handed bat? Maybe I’m missing something here, but I don’t think so.

    I don’t get your question. It doesn’t have sides. Perhaps round was the wrong word. I’m just really curious what could possibly be the difference between a right-handed bat and a left-handed bat.

    Some guys shave their bat handles a little to fit the shape of their hands a bit better. Reversing the grip would make these customizations backwards (upside-down).

    The only difference I can imagine is the weighting and placement of the cork.

    A hitter might feel stronger from one side and use a heavier bat from that side of the plate.

    He might feel more like a power hitter from one side and a slap/singles hitter from the other, etc.

    I asked Tom Shieber about this last night as we watched the game. He said some switch-hitters do indeed use different bats for differing sides of the plate, although most use the same bat.

    I imagine that one reason for using a different bat from the off side of the plate might be a difference in strength. Maybe some switch hitters need to use a lighter bat. Try as world class athletes might, it’s still possible that the dominant side might be a little stronger than the other side.

    Difference in strength or perceived strength, sure. With asymmetrical knobs, a relatively new innovation (though one with roots deep in the game’s pastoral past), you’d need different bats as well. And also stance; if you’re more comfortable closer to the plate, or more forward in the box, on one side or the other, you may want a different bat on that side.

    I am of course not a pro ball player, but during high school I was definitely a high contact-low power left-handed hitter and more power right-handed hitter, so that does make some sense.

    Paul, having played golf with noted Mets-killer Chipper Jones several times, I asked him about that. He definitely used different bats depending on whether he hit lefty or righty. His righty bat was 1 or 2 ounces heavier and maybe 1 inch longer.

    Being a Phils fan, I’m supposed to have a dislike for Larry. However, that’s way cool!

    Scott, I was a teaching pro at a private golf club in Atlanta for several years. I’d have him and several of his teammates out on our closed days to give them a little privacy (and to get in his wallet).

    As Paul said, bats can be different weights, lengths, the handle can be thicker or thinner, the balance of them can be different. Most switch hitters will say they don’t swing the same way from both sides (and for virtually all of them, statistics will back that up- most have more power or a much higher average from one side). While I’m sure most major league hitters could essentially grab any bat off the rack and go hit, they are all very specific about what they order each year.

    I’m sure some just use the same bat, but I would think that some do not. Just curious if that actually exists.

    Good stuff. I guess I misinterpreted the ticker item initially, and was thinking of how could the physical object of a bat be left-handed or right-handed. Like golf clubs or gloves. I appreciate the comments section on this site. People communicate instead of insult.

    Paul,

    Thanks for the link of the list of gloves. I’ve been focusing a lot lately (read: developing an OCD level obsession) on players gloves as I watch games. Just something about the leather, different colors, shapes, ware factor, various models, etc. I’ve always been an A2000 guy, but I am a fan of the gold Rawlings logo gloves that gold glove winners have as well. Always thought that was a neat little way to ‘gild the lily’. Anyway, that link was a great inclusion and thank you for supporting my habit. ENABLER!!!!

    ENABLER!!!!

    Uni Watch’s new slogan: “Enabling Your Obsessions Since 1999.”

    Of course, you folks all help to enable MY obsessions, so it works out nicely….

    I just like looking for the Rawlings logo. I don’t really know that much about gloves. But when I go buy one, I try on the Rawlings gloves and find one that I like.
    (This is not an ad. Just a personal preference.)

    What do you think about many players having their names embroidered on the their gloves?

    I have asked this several times and gotten no response…is this done only at the factory before the glove is assembled, or can they embroider a name on a pre-formed glove?

    I don’t know if that can work…doesn’t the needle have to go through the medium and come back up? When I had a jacket embroidered, they put a hoop on it and had to pull it tight.

    Found this, which seems to make sense…

    “its not possible to embroidery a finished glove. If you understand sewing you know that you have to have the needle on top and the bobbin case on the bottom, can’t get that in a glove. I have on rare occasions disassembled the entire thumb side of the glove, put name on thumb part and rewelted, turned, added rolling binding then relaced, not a job for a beginnner. The one easy chance is on a conventional buttom lap, they are fairly easy to remove, sometimes I add a name sometimes I add a oval label.”

    link

    Also saw a video of a company embroidering a glove and it was on a cut piece of leather before it was made into the glove.

    On Steve Garvey’s all-star painted helmet, I suppose it could be shadow, but I’d be willing to bet I see the Taco Bell crown of the 1970s Padres helmets under that Dodger/Cubbie blue.

    Possibly Orioles or Blue Jays as well. Blue Jays could be it, since he would have already been painting over a predominantly blue helmet.

    Garvey’s helmet is probably a Seattle helmet painted. The game was in Seattle and the Mariners had started wearing a white panel on the front of their batting helmets as a part of the All-Star Game celebration. It had the ASG logo on the helmet too.

    link

    I’ve often wondered about bat boy uniforms. I’ve always assumed that a road team just brings them along with them and then suit up the bat boys at the stadium that they’re visiting. This might explain why the AL bat boy wore a Mets uni. Because no single team was visiting, so the regular gear wasn’t there and the Mets just gave the visiting bat boys the road unis.

    Posted this pic a few months back in the column about former Orioles batboy Jay Mazzone, which shows him wearing a blank jersey & “AL” cap. Since Memorial Stadium didn’t host an ASG during his run, presumably the pic is from the 1969 ASG at RFK Stadium.

    link

    Another commenter mentioned that the batboys at the 1971 ASG in Detroit wore “American League” and “National League” jerseys, although no pics of same.

    My boss (well, an executive here now, so several org layers above me) is Bat Boy #2. One day he saw me reading this site and pointed me to this article. He says Paul is a “great guy.” I think he approves of my lunchtime reading choice.

    There are very few shots of batboys anywhere. I guess if they’re doing their job it means they’re grabbing the bat and getting the hell out of the way. If they show up in a lot of photos, it could be a problem. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was a kid, the batboys at Comiskey always wore the White Sox road uni. That’s why I liked seeing the BB in the Mets road uni – it had a traditional feel and the fact that everyone wore gray or white – well, that was cool.

    When the Sox went to blue road uni’s in 64, then it was quite noticeable. Now, I was just a kid (yeah, I’m older than dirt) but I’d point it out to people and they’d tell my dad, “You’ve got a strange kid there.” Somewhere I have a photo of a Sox road batboy running sprints with the players at Comiskey, but this link on short notice. I also found an all star related bb pic from link At least that’s what it says.

    Paul, you should have the pull to get a hold of Steve Garvey about that helmet backstory.

    Arr Scott’s comments from yesterday regarding Matt Harvey:

    “it’s unfair to the league if World Series home-field rides on Mets pitching. If [Matt Harvey] throws a single scoreless inning, it’s an OK stunt for the home crowd. If he allows so much as a runner on second, it’s a travesty!”

    Harvey did both of those in the first inning!

    That’s the thing when you joke about baseball: More often than not, the game will have the last laugh!

    So the good thing is, the Mets weren’t responsible for screwing things up for the NL. The bad news is, the ASG seems to prove that the minimum number of Washington Nationals players required on a roster to ensure that their team is shut out, is two. Which explains a lot about the Nats season so far.

    How clever and creative of Bryce Harper to use a Marucci custom wood bat in the outfield and no glove. I’m also pretty sure that Yadier’s 34-inch glove is just outside of the legal specifications.

    It says so right on that list that you referenced:
    link

    Typo…it’s Archbald Little League, not Archibald. There really is no “i” in the name!

    Paul,

    I love all the ASG helmet switch-ups!
    So regarding Drysdale wearing a Pirates helmet in ’62: which ASG should we be looking for? There were two played that year: Washington and Chicago (Wrigley).

    Cheers!
    ~B

    I hate to say it about what the Texans are doing by having a theme every game, but I can quickly see this escalating to every team every week, and I mean in a year or two all teams are doing it. They might start off like “dress like a pirate” game or something until all the games are sponsored with incredibly asinine themes like “Southern Health presents Football Cares, the Cowboys at Texans.”

    With only ten home games a year it’s the sport that can probably do it.

    But I really have to ask, I don’t know how much Lipton is sponsoring the wave for, but is there really a return on investment there? Is there really a ROI for a lot of the dopey things that a company sponsors? Or do all these companies just have such massive amounts of marketing and donation money laying around that it’s more of a donation to the team with the agreement that you call the wave ours?

    I hate to say it about what the Texans are doing by having a theme every game, but I can quickly see this escalating to every team every week, and I mean in a year or two all teams are doing it.

    Eh, maybe. Remember, the Texans have a long history of sponsored games. They’ve been doing “Battle Red Day, Sponsored by corporate war criminals Halliburton” for years now. But nobody else in the league followed their lead on that. I’m not so convinced that this will catch on.

    Getting your logo on the Jumbotron = $$$ for the sponsor, I guess. Or maybe just being able to put the MLB logo on a box of tea proclaiming it as the official wave sponsor is deemed to make me select that box over Luzianne #NotGoingToHappen. That is probably the result they are looking for since it would be hard to force all ballparks to coordinate naming of the wave on key and putting a Lipton logo up as it happens.

    While the basic question of what’s the conversion they’re chasing seems, um, problematic, it seems most likely that the sponsorship would take one or both of two possible forms:

    1. Sponsorship messages outside of the ballpark, as you propose. Lipton packaging being marked “Official Tea of the Wave” or whatnot, and/or TV ads premised on downhearted fans drinking tea, getting their spirits up, doing the wave, and spurring their team to greatness.

    2. Between-innings scoreboard ads encouraging people to actually do the wave.

    Now, what Step 2 for either of those to translate to Step 3: Profit is, is beyond me. But I think those are the plausible Step 1s.

    As long as a sponsorship for the wave or for the white-out t-shirts keeps advertisements off of jerseys and off of the field I have no problem with them.

    And BTW there sorta already is an official sponsor for the oxygen provided at your favorite sporting event.
    link

    “As long as a sponsorship for the wave or for the white-out t-shirts keeps advertisements off of jerseys and off of the field I have no problem with them.”

    One has absolutely nothing to do with the other, except that it might actually go the other way: the more inured to ubiquitous sponsorship, the more likely they’ll start selling space on the field and uniforms.

    I thought with Adam Jones shoe/sock choice last night he looked eerily similar to the Orioles mascot.

    I know Chipper Jones used a black bat from one side of the plate and a brown one from the other. They were different weights and the colors made them easy to identify.

    That would have made sense, but it doesn’t look like it was consistent from season to season what color was what side.

    I hope Dimitri Papantonopoulos makes it to the bigs before Vin Scully retires. That is a match made in heaven…

    Not only is each Houston football game getting its own sponsor, but each touchdown is for an individual resident.

    (apostrophe catastrophe)

    link

    Don’t know if this has been mentioned, but Nike apparently can’t tell North Carolina from South Carolina, and put a map of SC on a Carolina Panthers t-shirt, with the type “NC”.

    Then again, if the North Carolina legislature has its way, there won’t be any difference between the two Carolinas before long.

    Gah. I did text searches for “Panthers” and “Carolina” and somehow, I didn’t see it with “Nike”. “Remedial geography lessons” was going to be my next search.

    Personally, I think North Carolina should rename itself, “South Pennsylvania”. You know how many native Pennsylvanians live in North Carolina now?

    On a related note, I went on Nike’s web site and looked at the other state-themed t-shirts. Carolina isn’t the only one they messed up:

    link
    link
    link

    In the former two cases, the teams play in New Jersey. I know the Jets have at least their corporate offices in New York City, but don’t the Giants have their offices in New Jersey as well?

    As for Washington, not only do they play in Maryland and have their offices in Virginia, but there’s something a little more obvious that D.C. residents will be quick to point out: D.C. ISN’T EVEN A STATE! Seriously, I think Nike needs more than a remedial geography lesson.

    Of the other T-shirts, to Nike’s credit they did place the logos of their respective teams in their approximate location. That I’m not going to nitpick on, since they were only approximate. Kudos to them, though, for using the old Saints “State of Louisiana” logo for the Saints shirt.

    I’d give a pass for those examples – stadium location aside, they are the teams of New York and Washington, D.C. If NYC or DC didn’t exist, there would be no Landover Redskins or Hudson County Giants. They’re the teams that represent those cities and located within the cities’ metro areas.

    Also re: the Whitaker story, why would Blyleven, an American League pitcher at the time, even have a batting helmet? Strange that the story would claim that.

    The Jays wore their home uniforms in Philadelphia in June 2010. The series got moved from Toronto to Philly because of the G20 Summit. The road trip continued on to Cleveland, so they had to take both sets of uniforms on the trip.

    Yup, I can’t believe I forgot about that when I read Paul’s comment in the post. I was at one of those games…

    Same thing happened between the Marlins and Mariners a couple years ago. The series was moved from Miami to Seattle. I believe the Marlins wore their link for all three games.

    I looked back at yesterday’s comments and another reader confirmed Greg Holland’s socks. It looked like he was wearing plain white tube socks, not baseball socks at all. If anyone has the game recorded, it was while he was warming up.

    Oh, right, I meant to mention that in today’s post. And the reason we saw his socks is that he had hiked up one of his pant legs and was stretching out the cuff to make it looser/baggier. Ugh….

    Link doesn’t seem to be working for me.

    How much tailoring goes into a baseball uni? Chris Sale’s looked like it fit poorly. His pants were flying up at the bottom like he was wearing slacks. I was joking with my wife that they don’t have uniforms that long, but also that skinny. Or do they?

    Pappis Cissé’s discomfort with Newcastle’s predatory lender sponsor on religious grounds has been mentioned in the ticker before, but things done got escalated – he pulled out of training because of the dispute: link

    He’s offered to wear an unbranded shirt or one with the name of a charity, but the club has refused to compromise.

    There was a good BBC special recently about Muslim players in the Premier Leagueand one of the topics was players having to wear sponsored kits for gamblimg and usury companies.

    It seemed like Buster Posey’s batting helmet had a blue shine during the game. Is that standard? I thought their batting helmets were black.

    The Reds/Giants game was originally scheduled for July 4th. Do you think they’ll wear their G.I. Joe uniforms?

    July 4th featured flag-desecration caps (not G.I. Joe uniforms). And yeah, they might have to wear them, thanks to the recently passed legislation requiring at least one sports-based salute to the military or the flag every single day.

    I believe that the Reds wore the 4th of July caps the following day against the Mariners.

    Of course given my inablity to recognize that the All-Star game switches from league to league every year, as painfully exhibited in my post yesterday, I very well could be wrong.

    Did anyone notice the funky grip-tape on David Wright and Prince Fielder’s bats last night. I do not think i have seen that before.

    Anybody else catch the pitcher in the AL bullpen last night pulling up his pajama pants and showing that he was wearing low cut white socks? I couldn’t get a picture and I forget which team it was, but that’s the first that I’ve seen someone wear pajama pants and not have the normal socks underneath.

    Greg Holland. Already discussed a bit higher up in the comments.

    About this:

    that’s the first that I’ve seen someone wear pajama pants and not have the normal [baseball] socks underneath.

    Well, it may be the first time you’ve literally seen it, but most of the time we have no idea what’s going on beneath the pajama pants. For all we know it’s common to wear white crew socks like Holland was doing.

    Is that a possible leak of the new Pirates logo in the pictures within the New Era Creative Director feature or is it simply a logo I don’t recognize?

    I got my driveway paved yesterday and the paving co. sliced my cable wire grrrr, causing me to miss the All Star Game last night for the first time ever! grrr x 2.
    It took the cable company two attempts to get everything back (Internet, TV etc.)
    Today they finally figured out how to fix the problem.

    Never again will the number 42 be worn by a player in MLB at the All Star Game. Pretty interesting to me..
    I guess I thought there would’ve been something written about this fact.

    Several years ago when the G20 summit forced the phillies blue jays game to be relocated to philadelphia for the entire series, the blue jays remained the designated home team and wore they’re home uniforms the entire series.

    Umm, there was a gigantic Indians banner at fanfest with Chief Wahoo on it.

    deal with it. Wahoo and the Redskins are staying. End these stupid “skins watch” stuff. There is nothing to watch anymore

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