One Fan’s Experience with Jersey Addiction

I assumed that lots of people wore jerseys at home while watching televised games. Didn’t think it was odd until Paul raised the questiion. I wear an Oilers jersey almost every time a watch a game on TV. Ditto for my Eskimos jerseys – at the home games, & at home for watching the road games on TV. My kids do as well …..just thought it’s what you do.

Sure, I wear a Nats or Twins (or Expos or Senators, depending) jersey to watch – or more often, listen to – a game at home. I always figured that was pretty normal behavior. They’re just polyester shirts, right? Doesn’t one normally wear a shirt around the house?

Where I maybe go off the rails is that my wife is really into the ABC Family teen drama “Switched at Birth.” It centers around the extended family of a fictional former Royals player in Kansas City, so I scoured the inter webs and picked up a used 2002 Royals road vest for a shade under $30, and so I usually throw on that vest for “Switched” when it’s on. Part of the charm is that it’s pretty much the worst Royals jersey ever, with the block lettering and black drop shadow. But I’m not completely nuts – I haven’t actually put “KENNISH 62” on the back of the jersey! Yet.

Thanks for the link to the A’s video. I LOVE seeing the Coliseum outfield any time without Mount Davis.

NBC used to have a show called Whitney. On one commercial, she questioned why guys wear jerseys at home, likening it to if she dressed up as a dead hooker to watch SVU.

That being said, I wear jerseys at home usually only for football, not baseball or basketball. I also wear Jeff Gordon shirts on race day.

Perhaps the Levi’s circle-R is cropped because when viewing the tag on a pair of jeans or a shirt, the tag is sewn into a seam and it usually looks cut off?

I know I’ve written about this before; I’m ambivalent about the use of lower-case letters in NOBs. As someone who has always made a living off of the English language (as a sportscaster, English teacher and attorney), I think it’s worth discussing, but there are conflicting considerations that make it difficult if not impossible to have a universal rule.

Start with the fact that lower-case letters in NOBs, where they can occur at all, almost invariably occur with foreign prepositions, viz., the Spanish/French/Italian “de” and the Italian “da” and “di”(abbreviated to “d'” in French and Italian when the noun begins with a vowel), all of which translate to the English “of” and/or “from.” The English/Gaelic “Mc” or “Mac” prefix has a similar meaning, viz., “son of” (which, if you think about it, is really the same thing).

My first inclination would be to simply render all NOBs in ALL CAPS. That would at least be consistent. But there are a couple of problems that come up, not the least of which being that the Latin prepositions and the Anglo-Saxon prefixes appear and are treated differently in normal case usage.

For one thing, names beginning with Anglo-Saxon prefixes always start with a capital M (e.g., McCain not mcCain; MacDonald not macDonald), whereas names beginning with Latin prepositions sometimes don’t (e.g., could be DeWitt or deWitt; DaRosa or daRosa), and also sometimes incorporate a space between the preposition and the proper name (e.g., deGrasse, DeGrasse, de Grasse or De Grasse), meaning sometimes the preposition is a separate word and sometimes it isn’t.

Then we have other Anglo-Saxon (German/Dutch/Scandinavian) like “van,” “von,” “van der” (or “vander”), “van den,” etc., which essentially have the same appearance variations as the Latin prepositions (e.g., Van Wyck, VanderKelen, von Schiller, den Dekker, &c), although they almost always have spaces between the preposition and the noun.

The fact that these kinds of surnames can be rendered in so many different ways makes it hard for typographers to come up with a consistent rule for how to deal with the leading prepositions and prefixes in situations where capital letters would otherwise be called for.

Personally, I think using lower-case letters on an NOB would look fine for names beginning with capitals, like “McBRIDE” or “MacTAVISH” or “DeSHIELDS” or “DiPOTO.” But I don’t think what the Mets are doing with “d’ARNAUD”, “deGROM” and “den DEKKER” (i.e., rendering the preposition in lower case and the noun in ALL CAPS) looks good.

I think “D’ARNAUD” would look fine, because the apostrophe separates the preposition from the name. Same with “DEN DEKKER”. The problem is a name like deGrom, which not only starts with a lower-case letter but has no space separating the components. “DEGROM” doesn’t really look right, merges the preposition with the noun into a single word which it isn’t, and might lead those who see it to mispronounce it as “DEGG-rom”. “DE GROM” looks good but is incorrect. “DeGROM” is also technically incorrect but may be the best compromise.

I think using small caps instead of lower-case for a name like deGrom would look better on the jersey. All in all I’m just not sure there’s an ideal solution.

I probably spent a good hour in Herman’s each time I was at the Smith Haven mall growing up just staring at all the hockey equipment, tennis stuff for a little while, back in the 80’s. I ended up working along side the guy who came up with the Herman’s logo many years later. (And after really looking at the logo and caring about it I decided it wasn’t really in my taste.)

But yeah, it’s a minor pet peeve of mine if folks don’t make some effort to dress team appropriately when going to a sporting event. It doesn’t need to be a jersey or a hat, but at least a t-shirt in a team color or something. It can even be an accent color or something, wear an orange t-shirt to a Met’s game, it works for me.

And maybe it’s because going to a baseball game was always a special occasion for me. We grew up on eastern LI so going to a ball game was only a once or twice a year thing most likely. If I was a season ticket holder I’d probably think differently and not care, but as a special occasion I would try to make an effort. And it’s the same now. I wear my jerseys to hockey games, and team apparel to NASCAR races, they’re few and far between so why not?

I believe Carl Hagelin’s visor is similar to what several other players do. It’s worn to protect the facial bones (especially the orbitals). Usually they find the visor distracting right in from of their eyes so they’ll wear it propped up to provide a little extra safety without going open face. At least, this is what I’ve been told.

Considering a lot the comments the last two days regarding appropriate ways of showing support for the military, this picture just posted on twitter should spark some debate.

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My name is Austin, and I am a jersey addict. Specifically, I am a soccer jersey addict. I started designing sports logos and sports uniforms when I was about ten, and I started playing soccer shortly thereafter. I was 13 when World Cup ’94 was in the United States. My soccer coach once gave out a World Cup Program after a practice, and I was the lucky recipient. I spent hours looking at the jerseys – and several more hours designing jerseys. I fell in love with Belgium’s World Cup ’94 jersey, and it was the only thing I wanted for Christmas. That’s where it all started. Jerseys were the intersection of the sport I loved and the hobby I loved. I had to have it…and more.

My collection started at a trickle, as ecommerce in the late 90s wasn’t quite what it is today. Entering college, I think I had under 10 jerseys. Then I discovered eBay. Suddenly, I could buy second-hand versions of the jerseys I’d wanted to buy in the 90s. I could buy jerseys from abroad that weren’t even available on American soil. I would visit the websites of every team in England to see if they had a jersey that was worth tracking down. At one point, I think I was getting a jersey a week.

I am now 33. I have roughly 180 jerseys. I’ve been collecting for more of my life than I have not been collecting. Since a brand new jersey runs about $80, and teams get new jerseys every year, you might think I am broke. Thankfully, that is not the case. I’ve at least had the sense to set some guidelines for myself. I never pay full price. Never. If they change every year anyway, that means that the price gets slashed drastically about nine months from their release date. On average, I would say I pay $40 per jersey.

Also, once you have upwards of 180 jerseys (or enough to wear a different one for six months), it gets to be pretty obvious that there are some jerseys you aren’t going to wear anymore. There are certain styles that aren’t really conducive to being seen in public. As such, I seldom buy striped jerseys anymore. I never buy jerseys with an abundance of sponsors (like you might see in Central America or Scandinavia), and I usually try to avoid sponsored shirts entirely. I never jerseys with names and numbers on the back. The good thing about many jerseys is that they have a reasonably casual feel to them (as far as jerseys go), but that kind of goes out the window when the shirt has a name and number on the back. Given these constraints, I would say I currently buy about eight shirts a year. I feel I’ve at least got a good grasp on my addiction.

There is definitely something geeky about being 33 and having a collection of any kind, let alone a collection of jerseys. There’s something geeky about wearing them. But at this point, it is who I am. I wear them (with discretion – I have the sense to notice a jersey-appropriate occasion from one that is not), and they’re worth something. I even have an insurance policy on them. I am a graphic designer that specializes in identity, and to the extent that I have an identity, it is, like it or not, that of “the guy who wears soccer jerseys.” I’m comfortable with that. And, thankfully, my wife is comfortable with it, too.

I know I’m a day late for the QOTD (don’t get home from work til midnight) but I’m shocked that no one mentioned the Blue Jays mid-2000’s look. Loved everything about them – though the current remix of the old style is a top look as well. But their alternate/BP cap with the T on it may be my favorite hat in MLB history. Beautiful.

The Angels have announced that they will be wearing “special military jersey[s]” on Saturday for Armed Forces Day (this is the actual day referenced in one of the posts above:

“On Armed Forces Day, the Angels will honor all those who have served our country past and present with a special pre-game military ceremony. In addition, the Angels will wear a special military jersey in recognition of our Armed Forces.”
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Are these the same jerseys they’re going to wear on Memorial Day or is there something extra “special” about the ones they’ll wear on Saturday?

As far as I can tell, the first time a sports team militarized its uniforms was during World War II, when Japanese League clubs replaced their normal baseball caps with kepi, and substituted all uniform markings with the insignia of various Japanese Army and Navy units.

I’m sure that it was done to Honor The Troops.