Skip to content
 
Uni Watch

The Aesthetics of Curling in the 2014 Olympic Games

By
Curling Hed

By Phil Hecken

As promised after his seminal work on Curling last weekend, I am rejoined by Mike Styczen, who is back to discuss the “uniforms” worn by the curlers representing the various nations participating in the Olympic Bonspeil.

Now, if you’ve been following the Olympics (or even if you haven’t), you’re probably aware that the Norwegian Curlers’ pants have been the talk of the town. And they’ve certainly focused attention on the sport (mostly for good). We knew going in the Norwegians had brought nine different pairs of pants to wear, and thus far, we’ve seen six of them.

The Norwegian Men aren’t the only curlers however, and while most nations’ are fairly staid in their approach to the aesthetic, a few have gone outside the normal “boundaries” of typical curling attire. Mike’s here to give us the run-down on all that:

. . . . .

Curling Team Uniforms of the Sochi Games
By Mike Styczen

When I started curling about 25 years ago, you wore black polyester pants. If you were a hippie with a rebel streak, your pants MIGHT have a pinstripe down the out seam. That’s it. I’ve had the same pants for 25 years – there’s never been a reason to get a new pair because (except for the Norwegians) nothing at all has changed in curling attire in 25 years.

I wore a heavy polar fleece sweater, a windbreaker, gloves, and a hat. Club curling is cold – you’re out on the ice for hours at a time in unheated rinks. In comparison, curling at a high level (like in the Olympics and national championships), the curlers are playing in a climate controlled environment, reasonably warm and comfortable. And their attire reflects that – instead of the heavy gear you might expect of a winter sport, the front end (who do most of the sweeping) are usually in golf shirts, and the skips (who do a lot more standing around) are usually in windbreakers.

The World Curling Federation rulebook has a pretty simple dress code which seems primarily to require that the curlers on a team all dress the same. There was some speculation this week that the Norwegian pants might be against the rules, but there’s no basis for that as long as they’re dressed the same. The teams do seem to be making an effort to not dress like one another in any game, but the rules don’t require it.

I’ve pored through most of the photos coming out of Sochi, and below are what the teams have been wearing. Some teams aren’t getting much coverage, I might have missed a couple outfits, but I think its pretty comprehensive. As I said above, the pants are almost uniformly black, and most of the shirts and jackets are are based on national flags:

Women:

Sweden: blue, and white. By H&M.

Denmark: red and white. By Puma.

Russia: red and white. By Bosco

South Korea: yellow and black. By Fila.

Switzerland: red. Manufacturer unidentified.

Canada: red, white , and grey. By Mondetta.

Japan: blue and white. By Mizuno.

USA: blue, red and white. By Nike.

Great Britain: red and white. By Adidas.

China: yellow and red. By Anta.

. . .

Men:

China: yellow and red. By Anta.

Sweden: blue and white. By H&M. Note the rebellious pants with the single yellow stripe on the right leg.

Great Britain: red and white. By Adidas.

Canada: red, white and grey. By Mondetta.

Denmark: red. By Puma.

USA: blue and white. By Nike.

Russia: red (with incredible pants!) and white (with red pants). By Bosco.

Switzerland: red. Manufacturer unidentified.

Germany: red and white. By Erima.

~ ~ ~

Norway:

Four years ago, they were the highlight of the Vancouver games. In Sochi, the Norwegian men are back and are again the highlight of the games. They announced a sponsorship deal with Loudmouth, and announced plans to wear different pants in every game. As of Friday, they haven’t let us down (click on any image to enlarge):

_______________

468362405


norway1b

February 10: White shirts, pants with a geometric pattern reminiscent of Mondrian. A good look, especially for fans of modern art.

_______________

norway2a


Norway vs Russia 2-11-14

February 11: Red shirts with what look like painters pants. A letdown.

_______________

norway3b


norway3a norway3c

February 12: Definitely the highlight so far. Red shirts, houndstooth knickers, white belts, blue and red striped socks, po’boy hats. Awesome.

_______________

norway4a


Sochi Olympics Curling Men

February 13: Red shirts, pants based on the Norwegian flag. A solid look.

_______________

norway5a


AP_norway_mens_curling_pants_2_sk_140211_4x3_992

February 14: (First Match) Black pants with brightly coloured flowers. Ugh.

_______________

Norway Pants vs China 2-14-14


OLYMPICS-CURLING/

February 14: (Second Match) Red, white & blue zig-zag patterned pants and white shirts. A terrific look.

_______________

As a lot of people have pointed out, the Norwegian shirt design is based on the national soccer team, and their brooms have a design based on the Norwegian flag.

. . . . . . . . .

Thanks Mike! I know I am loving every second of the curling (and as an American, I pretty much only get to see it once every four years, unless I go to the US Curling Nationals — a trip I hope to make again this year with Paul). I’ve watched almost all of the Norway matches (they can be streamed live, dontcha know, so you don’t need to be lucky or awake at 3:00 am EST to see them). And except for the black flowery pants, I’ve loved every pair they’ve worn.

After streaking out to a 3-0 start, the Norwegians have dropped to 3-3 and are in danger of not qualifying for the four-team pool that will win gold, silver and bronze. For the sake of aesthetics, I hope they get on a roll (pun intended) beginning today.

Please give a big hat tip and virtual clap to Mike for researching and finding all these pictures (I know it wasn’t easy). And give him a follow on Twitter @mstyczen. OK? OK!

Olympic Rings line

olympics-skeleton-helmet-pic-2


This Is Insane Skeleton

Another very cool sport one only sees about once every four years is the sport of Skeleton. It’s kind of like luge, only instead of flying down an iced track at 80 mph on a sled feet first, on one’s back, the inventors said, “hey, this isn’t dangerous enough — let’s do it FACE first.” Or maybe not. But basically skeleton is luging face first.

But here at Uni Watch we’re more concerned with the aesthetics of the sport, rather than the sport itself, and one area where skeleton excels is the helmets. There is actually a very fine article contained in the Hamilton Spectator on this, so give that a quick read.

The twitterverse has been all agog over the Norwegian Curlers pants (and with good reason), but the skeleton has also received some prime tweets. Here are a few of the better ones (in no particular order):

Beautiful (and sometimes very scary). If you’re interested in reading more (or seeing more photos), many of those tweets contain links to additional articles or galleries on the sport.

And if you’ve been watching the Skeleton (it’s run from Feburary 13 and concludes today), you’ll know it (like most Olympic sports) contains characters and stories. One of the pretty amazing ones was the comeback and silver medal win by Noelle Pikus-Pace, who missed Torino (2006) after a training accident, missed the podium in Vancouver (by .10 seconds) and came back from retirement (following a miscarriage).

If you’re awake at 9:45 EST, the Men will complete their third run, and the final run is scheduled for 11:15 (ET). Definitely worth the look-see, if only for the helmets.

Olympic Rings line

all sport uni tweaks

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 Cody Schmelter, who has some ideas for the Atlanta Falcons:

Atlanta Falcons Uni Redesign - Cody Schmelter

Hey Phil,

I don’t really like their Falcons, but I REALLY don’t like their uniforms. From the odd shaped pants “stripes” to whatever is happening with the sleeves in the armpit area, it is just bad.

I decided to try to take their great throwback look and blend it with some of the more modern elements of their current jerseys:
-Making black the primary home jersey, with red being the alt
-Keeping all three colors on the sleeves, but make it make logical
-Keeping current logo on a black helmet, but add a stripe
-Traditional leg striping
-Striped socks, because uni-watch love

I know I broke the NFL’s one lid rule, but threw in the red helmet for some more variety.

C. B. Schmelter

. . .

Next up is Frank Mompoint, with, well, this:

BFBS LSU - Frank Mompoint

Hey Phil,

I present you LSU’s first black jersey. I feel like the Bengals have been wearing the same uni since the dawn of time and decided to spice it up. Its not a true black out jersey either, i just took the home uni and flipped it around.

GEAUX Tigers,

Frank Mompoint

. . .

And we close today with Jason Greening with this Broncos, um, fauxback:

Broncos redesign - Jason Greening

Phil,

During a conversation on Reddit about uniforms, I mentioned I wondered what the Broncos ’65-’66 uniforms would look like with the ’68-’96 helmets.

And then after I did that, I wondered what they aways would look like with the orange pants we wore in ’68-’71.

This was the result.

I really kinda like ’em…

Jason M. Greening

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

Olympic Rings line

**Today’s Ticker was compiled almost entirely by Paul (Thanks, Buddy)**

Baseball News: Hmmm, is that a throwback Orioles script on Buck Showalter’s jacket? (From Jack Krabbe.) … Nebraska wore a tequila sunrise-ish design for its season-opening game (from Logan Herrmann). … The NCAA has suspended eight Wichita State baseball players for ordering non-sports-related Under Armour gear from the school’s discounted account. … Check out this shot of Reggie Jackson. “The interesting thing is Jackson is wearing the 1968 A’s uniform (“Oakland” across the front was 1968 only), yet his batting helmet has the A’s logo with the apostrophe-s, which wasn’t worn on the cap until 1970,” notes Rich Paloma. … AJ Pierzynski showed up at Red Sox camp with a Rangers bag (from Ilena Hardesty).

NBA News: Tomorrow’s NBA All-Star Game is — like virtually any other NBA-related event these days — an occasion for players to gripe about the spread of sleeved jerseys. … Check out this GORGEOUS 1956 ASG Program (big thanks to Todd Radom). … Bit of a scare at one of the ASG competitions last night, as several readers tweeted there were “ads on the back of the jerseys.” Turns out they were Team Webber and Team Hill ‘patches.’

Soccer News: “Some folks in Nashville created a supporter-owned (à la Green Bay Packers) football club for entry into U.S. Soccer fourth division, NPSL, and called it Nashville F.C.” writes Leo Strawn, Jr.. “The name is lame, but the logo is very creative: The crest is shaped like a guitar pick, with the letter “N” representing a record spindle for 45s.”

College Hoops News: New uniforms today for Duke and Kentucky. Note that these aren’t just “Hyper Elite” — they’re “Hyper Elite Dominance.” If you can say that shit with a straight face, you’re way ahead of me. … UNC’s women’s team wore pink on Thursday night (from Mitch Barbee). … Here’s a rare sight: Syracuse wearing navy blue, from the 1975 Final Four. … Small note on this page indicates that CMU’s women’s team will be wearing “sparkly new platinum uniforms” today.

Olympics News: As you’ve probably heard by now, the U.S. speed skaters are going back to their old suits after Thursday’s reports of the fancy-shmancy new suits having a design flaw. Further info here. … Here’s a look at all the bizzaro outfits worn so far by NBC figure skating analyst Johnny Weir. … It wouldn’t be a Winter Olympics without new Jamaican bobsled uniforms. … The Canadian hockey team wore its black uniforms yesterday. … Buried within this piece about Fashion Week in NYC is the following: “While [Ralph] Lauren’s runway show didn’t include any of the U.S. Olympic team uniforms he designed, he did come out at the end wearing his Team USA boots.” … As you might expect, the Olympics are a busy time for trademark lawyers, who police everything from counterfeit T-shirts to unauthorized window displays. … Good story on hockey equipment being featured at Sochi.

Grab Bag: Big congrats to our own “Collector’s Corner” columnist Brinke Guthrie, who was profiled yesterday on the Tennis Identity site. Lookin’ good in that Adidas gear, Brinke! … New World Cup soccer kit for Mexico. … Hooters has filed a trademark-infringement suit against a Florida escort service that, among other things, ran ads featuring girls in Hooters uniforms. … Here’s a fascinating look at how some popular products might look if their package designs were stripped down to a minimalist level (from John Dankosky). … There was a federal court ruling yesterday regarding a Nevada elementary school’s uniform policy. … You can now get a coffee cup shaped like the Apple logo. … New logo for 24 Hours of Le Mans. … Good survey of sports mascots that have gotten makeovers (from Kurt Esposito). … Small note on this page of NASCAR news: “[Michael] Waltrip will honor [Dale] Earnhardt by wearing a tribute helmet in this year’s [Daytona] 500, in part because it marks the first time Earnhardt’s trademark No. 3 will be raced in the [Sprint] Cup series since his death.” … The city council of Brantford, Ontario, is going back to the drawing board after residents reacted very negatively to the city’s new logo.

Olympic Rings line

And that’s going to do it for today. If you’re wondering where the UWFFL was today, due to the inclement weather, the UWFFL BCS National Championship game has been postponed until next weekend and UWFFL will return then.

Big thanks (again) to my Canadian friend, Mike Styczen (seriously, give the man a follow @mstyczen) for his curling wrapup (and wonderful instructional last weekend).

Tomorrow is a big day, as it’s the annual Matt Powers All Star Game Sneaker Preview AND the next phase of the Lewis & Clark design-a-uniform contest. You won’t want to miss any of that. Plus a surprise. Promise.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“Man, the US men are bad at curling this morning. I blame the lackluster pants.”
–R. Scott Rogers

 
  
 
Comments (54)

    With all the attention Norway’s pants have gotten, I’m really surprised there weren’t any imitators this year. I mean, surely someone could have at least worn Zubaz, right?

    Did you see the Russian men? They’ve out-Norwayed Norway.

    Also, Zubas are crap pants. Loud styling and fun, sure, but they’re barely functional as sitting-on-the-couch sweatpants. The thing about Norway’s pants since 2010 is that they’re not just loud, they’re also quality pants that are highly functional for curling.

    Ack. I did skim past Russia, my bad.

    I liked the original Zubaz. I don’t know how the quality is on the resurrected new version, but the originals held up well enough for me. I wore them fairly regularly throughout high school without any problems. I guess you might not want to be on ice in them since they were a bit thin, but you could always wear actual sweatpants under them if that’s an issue.

    The Chinese uniforms are made by Chinese company Anta. They are primarily known stateside for signing Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo to lucrative sneaker contracts.

    Thanks!

    I was struggling with this one – the logo looked familiar, I was looking at Diadora and Brooks and Li-Ning and none of them looked right.

    PHIL: can you update the main text?

    I have to say, I am very disappointed with the Olympic hockey uniforms. Watching the US Russia game this morning. Why does Russia have wings on their uniform? The US shield is too small. Also from yesterday, why was Canada wearing black??! Terrible.

    Russia has wings because the national symbol is a two-headed eagle. And Canada has been wearing black as a national color alongside red and white on and off for a while now. The US shield is way too small, and I’d prefer less black from Canada, but this particular Russian getup might be the class of the tournament. Looks much better in action than in uni-unveiling static shots.

    That Nashville F.C. is lame for a number of reasons. First, the name: having a supporter owned situation does at least make it more like an actual club, but do people in Nashville call it “football”? By my count, the word “soccer” appears 24 times in that article vs. just once for “football” (and I think even then it is referring to American football). Also, there’s the general problem that “F.C.” is just a lazy cop out with the sole purpose of suckling on the teat of European naming tradition. The logo too seems just a little derivative of Real Madrid’s. Also, there’s the apparently mandatory scarfs.

    However, I can almost forgive all of that for what are two very sharp looking jerseys. The patterns, the colours (although the instagram filter might be playing tricks) and the collars are all very nice. Top marks for the jersys, everything else though is ultra-stupid.

    The names of MLS clubs really annoys me also. We should either follow the rest of the world and take “Soccer” out of the league name or just own it completely and stop it with the FC thing.

    The problem is though that “the rest of the world” don’t call it football. Variously they call it football, fútbol, Fußball, jalgpall, sepakbola, piÅ‚ka nożna, لُعْبَة كُرة القَدَم, サッカー etc. In other words, the sport should be called whatever makes the most sense linguistically and culturally to the given context. “Soccer” makes sense in a context where “football” already has a popular meaning. “Soccer” is used in parts of Ireland where “football” refers to gaelic football. The whole reason this “football” vs. “soccer” thing even exists is because of snobs who just want a reason to bash Americans over the head because they feel that they have an inherently inferior sports culture. It’s nothing but vain condescension. Anyway, the use of the term “football” as meaning a game where an ovoid ball is predominantly carried has much deeper historical roots than use of it meaning a game where spherical ball is predominantly kicked. Even the Football Association in England first adopted the rules of Rugby college (carrying) before changing to the Cambridge (kicking) rules.

    It’s not always vain condescension. Personally, I just think “football” is a shitty name for a sport in which the ball is almost never touched by a foot, and when it is, it’s usually intended to give the ball to the other team. “Gridiron” would be a better name. Also a tougher-sounding, more American-shaped word.

    The (American) sport has evolved from the days when feet were more involved, but the name is established. If you and I discuss “soccer” or “football”, we know exactly what we’re talking about. As Padday suggests, there’s no need to change that to conform to some other slice of the world. Similarly, as much as I like the Dutch name “honkball”, there’s no good reason to change what we call baseball.

    There is a strain of research which claims that “football” refers not to a game played with the foot, but rather a game played on foot. Also, since when have sports names had to make literal sense? There have been no baskets in basketball for almost a century, water polo features no aquatic horses and the skeleton features no more than usual skeletal involvement.

    Those Skeleton helmets are amazing! Love ’em. Also, that Reggie Jackson pic must be from spring training, where a mix of uniforms happened a lot back then. Maybe there was an A’s intersquad game that day. Interesting pic!

    Spring training, where they’ve have worn whatever they had lying around, makes sense.

    Or maybe, since it’s Topps, some airbrushing happened.

    I thought of Topps artistry too — but if so, it’s *much* better than their typically horrid airbrushing of the time (even adding a reflection on the bill).

    I’d bet that someone just got cute with “apostrophe s” decals: they’re much closer to the ‘A’ than the later version, the apos itself is rounded (the later A’s one is blocked) and the helmet — slightly bluish green with a single white ‘A’ — is standard ’68 issue.

    That’s obviously not what Reggie looked like in 1968 — probably 1972 or possibly 1971 when he could get away with a mustache in spring training. He probably would have had a gold helmet in 1968, no? My guess is that Finley was too cheap to let them wear new uni’s in spring training so he made them wear ones that by then were a few years too old. He probably didn’t bother to recycle them in the minors since they had “Oakland” across the front instead of just “A’s”. This apparently wasn’t an unusual thing. Here’s a shot of Tony LaRussa with a 1971 cap and 1968 jersey: link

    It’s also not hard to find pics of A’s players with black cleats into the early 1970s — but usually in posed photos or spring training. I’ve always assumed he gave the players one pair of white cleats for games so they used black out of necessity the rest of the time.

    But the apostrophe cap was around in some form before it was adopted by the team officially. I don’t have it handy, but I once spotted an apostrophe cap in the crowd in what I think was a shot of Casey Stengel Day in Oakland (1968), probably in the 1969 yearbook. It was either a time traveler, or they were using it on souvenir caps before 1971. It really jumped out at me.

    For the guy with the Bronco throwback that always wondered what that combo of the 2 uniforms would look like…. wonder no more:

    link

    Let me be the first today to say, curling is about as much competitive “sport” as the shuffleboard courts in South Florida. In fact, I imagine those courts are as chatty and competitive as the curling pavilion at the Olympics.

    Ridiculous. Complete lack of athletic competition, hence, not a “sport” but a “game.”

    Darts! Foosball! Shuffleboard! On down the line…

    PS, maybe they should play cards while they’re at it? Or, yard darts? Bocce? Any other Olympic “game” allow for absolutely no physical fitness from its participants?

    Rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, archery… all take levels of physical fitness. Curling is just a waste of time at the “games of the Olympiad.”

    So? It’s entertaining, and that’s what the Olympics are about, unless you actually think that winning more medals somehow makes the country better. Besides, does it really look like any of the curling teams are morbidly obese or something? They may not be pinnacles of human fitness, but they aren’t exactly lazy pigs either. And really, archery? You only need to be strong enough to fire the bow and have a good eye. It’s not exactly a physically demanding event.

    If you don’t like the game, then don’t watch it.

    sport noun – an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

    – – – – – – –

    Well, at least the curling does share one aspect with sports like bowling, golf, ping-pong etc…. there actually is a quantifiable score unlike some events in the Winter Olympics that are “scored” by judges like figure skating and certain snowboarding events. I don’t really consider figure skating or, for instance ballroom dancing like on Dancing With The Stars, as much of a sport as curling is.

    And I dare say there is also more skill in something like curling than than there is in something like skeleton where you are barely moving your head, arms and torso in conjunction with aerodynamics to speed around a luge track at 80 mph. I can see how a curling stone that winds up closer to the center of the bullseye is better than his opponents that is a few inches farther away. I have a hard time saying out of two guys that went around a luge track at 80 mph, the guy who was 0.03 of a second better than the other guy is “that much better”. Sports that have a quantifiable score that is the result of a certain skill set is more of an athletic competition than just “who down and went around the fastest”.

    I’m not saying that timed sports like that don’t require athletic ability, they certainly do. But things like curling, bowling, croquet, golf… just because they can also be done by overweight middle-aged guys while drinking a beer doesn’t mean they aren’t sports, too. There can be a lot of physical exertion in foosball, too, so I guess it is a sport as well.

    Come to think of it I guess sex also could be considered…. (never mind)

    A curler does more physical activity, over a longer period, and with more continuous and sustained activity during a single curling match than does an average player on an NFL roster on game day. True fact. So if curling is not a sport, then we can close the books on the game of gridiron football, too.

    My two thoughts on this:

    1. People who say curling isn’t athletic usually haven’t done it. It is a heck of a lot more athletic than it looks. And the way its played in the Olympics – with very hard sweeping on every rock for 10 ends – is very hard. I would challenge anyone who says its not a sport to try it out, and to enter a bonspiel where you’re playing 60 or 70 ends over a weekend, and report back.

    2. Yes it can be played half-assed. You can play it while drunk at your local club. Thats as relevant to Olympic curling as beer league softball is to the World Series.

    I have only curled once. The following day, I discovered muscles in my legs that I didn’t know I even had — or, rather, they made their presence known in the form of incredible pain. Anyone who says curling isn’t athletic need to look past the John Shusters of the world to the guys doing the sweeping.

    Norway’s curling uniforms with the houndstooth pants are the best of the bunch.

    Wonder if they considered carrying the front striping over to the back of the shirt and echoing that on the right side to make it look like a pair of suspenders; or would that be too much?

    The Showalter pic is interesting…the jersey on the player is the modern Oriole script, which I find amateurish…Showalter’s jacket appears to be the link…and the patch on his jacket uses the link

    Just go back to the link

    How do we solve the mystery of Showalter’s jacket? I need the collective intelligence of this site to help me.

    We know that Majestic makes on-field jackets…and they use a certain template for all teams. Buck’s jacket looks different in construction. Also it has a vintage script that Majestic does not normally use. The easiest explanation is that he somehow obtained a 1980s-80s vintage jacket and had the anniversary patch applied. This would imply though that Buck has a heightened uni-intelligence and went out of his way to use the old script when I’m sure they could have just handed him a standard jacket.

    Another possibility is that he or the Orioles asked Majestic to produce this throwback jacket. A key question would be is it one of a kind or will the rest of the team also wear them at some point?

    Another possibility is it is a throwback made by a company other than Majestic. Would that be frowned upon by MLB?

    What do you guys think? Any other possibilities?

    This photo in this story confirms the throwback script…also shows the Orioles right sleeve patch that debuted in 2009 I believe, adding to the mystery.

    That new Mexico kit is hideous. Looks like they just threw one together after the USMNT saved their ass from elimination.

    T.J. Oshie on being a hero – “The American heroes are wearing camo. That’s not me.”

    Hmmmmm. Evidently Oshie doesn’t watch a lot of other sports, because then almost all NFL, College football/basketball, and MLB players are “heroes” many times throughout their season.

    As for Buck’s jacket there’s a couple of things to be considered:
    That jacket is not vintage, but is something new. Most of the vintage Orioles Jackets in the style of that era were satin and had short collars. The cut of this jacket is just like the ones that Buck has been sporting for the last few seasons right down to the short sleeves.

    As this year is the 60th Anniversary of the Baltimore Orioles (which is why their original word mark is on their anniversary arm patch) this is no doubt a special 60th anniversary jacket Buck is wearing. My only question now is will it be made available for purchase, or is this just for the team/Buck?

    Good points…it does seem to be cut the way Buck likes it. Videos I have seen of spring training show only him wearing it BTW…other coaches are wearing a different jacket. Does the Buck stop there?

    Phil – If looking for streaming video or archived curling games, the site below has some links. Some are “geo-blocked” and not readily available for non-Canadians (TSN ones for example) but others aren’t (TESN for example).

    link

    link

    I just wanted to point out two things in this photo of the Norwegians.

    1. The radio on the back is the curler wired for sound, for the broadcast. I’ve been wired for sound exactly once in my curling life and it is frightening if you’re not used to it – curling is as profane as any sport and being wired on live tv is a little intimidating. I’m sure these guys are used to it.

    2. The thing on his broom is a stopwatch. Elite curlers will time the rocks (often from hog line to hog line) to get a sense of how fast the ice is moving so that they can adjust their deliveries. I think most curlers still use an ordinary stopwatch, but the ones on the broom are getting more popular.

    link

    How will CC Sebathia’s weight loss affect the number of pin stripes he wears. I remember Paul’s ground breaking report on that and perhaps an update?

    there are several examples of the reggie Jackson uni in the 1972 topps set including vida blue and reggie. may have been a spring training thing for 1971.

    MLB 14: The Show revealed some new screenshots today. In one of the pictures it appears (unless I just haven’t been paying any attention to logo changes) Majestic has a new logo on the sleeves. link

Comments are closed.