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Uni Watch

There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 52

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Time for another round of great wire service photos. The first two are from Bo Baize, and the rest are from Bruce Menard. Big thanks to both of them.

• Interesting to see that Oklahoma City had a minor league team with an “Okla City” chest insignia. Really like that block-shadowed lettering.

• Remember my recent entry about the children’s book about the Little Leaguer with the oversized uniform? I thought of that when I saw this 1957 photo. The tyke is Mike Robertson, nephew of Senators president Cal Griffith.

• Another adorable kid: Babe Herman’s five-year-old son in catcher’s gear. Love the Dodgers cap that Herman is wearing, too.

•  Another athlete with his sportswear-clad kids: Jim Thorpe and family.

• And one last photo of a kid in uniform: Rod Carew and his 19-month-old daughter. Love the stirrups doubling as stockings!

• Check this out: Walter Johnson in a Dr. Pepper uniform! Meanwhile, what’s the beer brand on the jersey at lower-left — Old Milwaukee? Something else?

• This is pretty funny: Don Sutton and Toni Tennille wearing Sutton fan club T-shirts.

• Love this team portrait of the 1935 Cardinals wearing pith helmets. Also, look how the headspoon piping doesn’t extend below the chest insignia. I’ve seen that in Okkonen’s mock-ups, but this might be the first time I’ve seen it in a photo.

• I think we’ve seen this before, but it never gets old: Big Klu holding up MLB’s first-ever NOB typo.

• Here’s a rare sight: Hank Greenberg in a Yankees uniform! As you can see in the caption, it was a borrowed uni that he wore for BP prior to a benefit game to promote the sale of war bonds. Looks like the BP session wasn’t open to the public — did he really need a full uni?

• As long as baseball has existed, there have been endless attempts to define the strike zone. Love those umpires’ suits and short-brimmed caps.

• This is great: Harmon Killebrew hitting a golf ball in his Twins uniform! (Contrary to popular legend, however, Killebrew is not the basis for the silhouetted figure on the PGA logo.)

• Who’s that baserunner in the L.A. Angels uni? None other than heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey.

• Pretty easy to figure out that the guy on the right is Dizzy Dean. The gent on the left? That’s Bob Feller, wearing a Great Lakes Naval Station baseball uni (which you can get a better view of here, and here’s a color photo of a throwback reproduction).

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ESPN update: Remember my recent ESPN column on Uni Watch readers with team logo tattoos? We published a follow-up piece yesterday, and some of these tats are pretty elaborate — enjoy.

Attention Chicago-area readers: A Uni Watch party will take place on Saturday, June 7, 6pm, at Black Rock. I won’t be there, but lots of Uni Watch luminaries will be in attendance, including intern Mike Chamernik, Comrade Robert Marshall, Jimbo Huening, Marty Hick (coming all the way from St. Looie), and more. Come out and meet your fellow Uni Watch readers!

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’Skins Watch: Simon Moya-Smith, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation who happens to have a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, has written an excellent piece on why it’s demeaning for Native Americans to be depicted as mascots (from Brent Becker).

Baseball News: Two more players wearing the Mizuno belt buckle: Mets pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera the first non-Japanese player to be spotted wearing it (from Mike Engle and Troy Fowler, respectively). … Ryan Connelly’s latest DIY project: He combined the Pirates’ “P” logo with the skull/crossbones from the hat of the team’s old logo character and rendered them in plywood. “I made some Pirates stencils, traced them on. cut them out with my jigsaw, painted them, and put them together.” Nice! … Disgraced Mets equipment manager Charlie Samuels, who was booted from the team in 2010 following allegations of his involvement in a memorabilia scam (for which he eventually struck a plea bargain with the D.A.’s office), is shopping a tell-all book proposal. I look forward to the chapter on David Wright’s orange undershirt. ”¦ For reasons that aren’t clear — at least to me — Yasiel Puig was wearing a two-tone jersey the other day (thanks, Phil). … Fun little item on the guy who’s known for wearing a Mets bucket hat. … 1939 throwbacks last night for the Salem Red Sox (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Great home movie footage from the BP session prior to a 1971 A’s/Yanks game (priceless stuff Richard Paloma). ”¦ Mississippi State wore seriously ugly “Hail State” uniforms last night (from Joseh Claywell). ”¦ Joseph Gerard attended last night’s O’s/Bucs game in Pittsburgh. “This year, when the opposing team is at bat, the Bucs will show the player on a circus-like background, with a nickname based on the team or the city (e.g., Cardinals are ‘Two birds on a bat,’ Brewers are ‘The Brew Crew,’ etc.) and an ‘Established in’ year based on the team’s founding. For the Orioles, they simply use the city’s nickname, the Charm City, but interestingly enough acknowledged their Western League origins by giving them ‘Established 1894,’ when the then-Milwaukee Brewers started playing. I’d have thought they’d acknowledge 1901 (the first year of the AL as a major league) or even 1954 (the team’s first year in Baltimore) as the ‘Established in’ year, especially since the Pirates themselves acknowledge 1887 as their founding year (their first year in the NL), not 1882 (when the team actually started playing in the American Association).” ”¦ A fan at last night’s Yanks/Cubs game was wearing a Yanks/Cubs frankenjersey (from Mike Mongada). ”¦ In that same game, the Cubs logo was coming loose from Starlin Castro’s batting helmet (screen shot by Dave Rakowski).

NFL News: Have we ever seen the Steelers using their wordmark on nose bumpers before? (Good spot by Michael Korczynski.) … Some Bills fans aren’t too thrilled about all this Jon Bon Jovi talk (from Mark Coale). ”¦ These NFL “Ugly Sweaters” will probably end up in this year’s Uni Watch holiday gift guide (from Chris Howell).

Hockey News: If you’re a Blackhawks fan, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a pair of these team-inspired socks (nice find by Nathan Haas). ”¦ Check out the texture on this old Eveleth High School hockey jersey. The base material almost looks like fleece, no?

NBA News: The Hornets will unveil their new uniforms on June 19, with their new court design coming a week after that. Also, you look at the bottom of that sheet, you’ll see that they’re pulling the old Cleveland Browns move of importing all the stats and records from the original Hornets (who are now the Pelicans). So there’ll be no continuity in franchise records — only continuity in team-name records. What do you folks thing of that — yea or nay? (Thanks, Phil.) ”¦ The Charlotte Observer has an interactive page featuring NBA team logos through the years. “There are several notable mistakes, though, such as grouping Sonics history with the Thunder and original Hornets history with New Orleans,” says Joe Rummage.

Soccer News: New line of Japanese soccer jerseys from Adidas (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Also from Phil: New home kit for Barca. ”¦ The rest of these are from Trevor Williams: Here’s a gallery of Nike World Cup jersey T-shirts. ”¦ New kits for Roma and Chelsea. ”¦ A new report indicates that soccer gear from Adidas, Nike, and Puma contains toxic materials (thanks, Phil).

Grab Bag: An L.A. Kiss player played with a torn jersey the other night. “It was like that from warm-ups through the end of the game with no attempt at any repairs,” says Brian C. … How many stadiums and arenas can you fit inside of Daytona International Speedway? This many (from Alan Borock). … Latest Aussie football team with an indigenous-themed jumper design: the Brisbane Lions (from Leo Strawn Jr.). ”¦ Terry Crews wore a full camouflage suit on Jimmy Fallon’s show the other night (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Why shouldn’t a high school invest in a $60 million football stadium? For starters, that’s a perverse use of civic resources. But also because the stadium may end up getting closed down because it’s unsafe. … Two very promising-looking sock manufacturers came across my radar yesterday: Sock 101 and American Trench (which specializes in trenchcoats but, as you can see in the last link, also has a good line of socks). … NASCAR driver Kyle Larson’s No. 42 car will be painted silver for this weekend’s race. Additional photos here and here. And remember, today is Wednesday, which means NASCAR will be updating its paint scheme preview page, showing all the new car designs for this weekend.

 
  
 
Comments (129)

    So, as far as the Hornet records are concerned, does that mean any achievements done in any Hornets jersey will be recognized, or just a Charlotte Hornets jersey? If it’s just following the nickname, I don’t think I’m a fan. If it follows the city, count me in.

    Just Charlotte-era I believe (88 to 02)

    So first order of business, other than drafting as bust, should be retiring the numbers of Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bouges, and Del Curry. STAT!

    I’m cool with that, though Alonzo didn’t leave on the best of terms. Plus, Brendan Haywood’s wearing the 33.

    Also, if the old Hornets didn’t think of enough to retire Muggsy’s #1 before Baron Davis got it, will the new Hornets?

    Oh goodness… THE Brendan Haywood is wearing a number you want to retire? Forget it, then.

    I’m sensing sarcasm and condescension.

    Look, even if the idea of a journeyman getting in the way of a number retirement is laughable to you, it’s still a player who has to be convinced to give up a number so a team can have a ceremonial jersey raising (also, laugh it up, but Haywood’s a 13-year vet – that’s no joke). Otherwise, you potentially have a player on the floor wearing a “retired” number, which would be sort of kind of seriously awkward.

    I don’t think there’d really be that much of an actual problem. The team can tell him to wear whatever number they want to, can’t they? A guy like Kobe or Labron probably has enough pull to dictate his own number, but most other guys aren’t important enough to their team to win the “I’ll wear this number or I won’t play” game.

    Haywood’s had a nice career, and anyone who lasts 13 years in the NBA deserves respect. But at this stage, Haywood is a journeyman playing out the string. Haywood has also worn other numbers in his career including 0 and 3.

    At the end of the day, doesn’t seem to me he would be terribly averse to a number change if he can keep getting paid.

    Not to be overly pedantic, but he has another year on his contract, so he’ll keep getting paid no matter what.

    To be overly pedantic, if he refused a number reassignment and tried to sit out, he’d be in breach of contract and not get paid.

    TH, you mean like how it’s awkward to see Greg Monroe continue to wear #10 for the Pistons even though they retired it for Dennis Rodman while he was a rookie?

    But hey, Dennis is cool with it, so whatever.

    *rolls eyes*

    The Suns retired Tom Chambers’ number when Tom Gugliotta wore it. Also, they had retired #33 many years ago for Alvan Adams. When Grant Hill came to the Suns, Adams allowed him to wear it. There is precedent for retired numbers to be worn.

    Now the Suns refer to their retired numbers as “ring of honor” not retired numbers, but the numbers are out of circulation.

    Nope, ‘Zo shouldn’t get his number in the rafters, not after pissing and moaning his way out the door (not that I’m still bitter after 19 years or anything…).

    Now, if you wanna stick Glen Rice’s #41 up there, that’s fine with me. He was one of my all-time favourite Hornets, alongside Curry, Wesley and LJ.

    Regarding the Hornets and the “established 1894” Orioles: It is getting ridiculous seeing these teams appropriating other franchises playing in other cities and other leagues and pretending that they somehow share histories. (The Washington Natinoals trying to pretend that the AL Washington Senators’ history is somehow theirs might be the most egregious, though the Cleveland NFL franchise is a close second.)

    I’ve said this before, but I’m of the opinion that the owner owns the franchise, but the history and the colors belong to the city and the fans. The Nationals are part of the Washington baseball heritage. The Browns have always been the center of Cleveland football. And Bobcats fandom has always been about longing for the Hornets.

    Yeah I was kind-of caught off guard with the Orioles. I had to look at my phone, since some of the AL teams do have a history from the 19th century when the AL was the minor league Western League, and sure enough, the current O’s franchise was around in 1894 as the original Milwaukee Brewers. They stayed in Milwaukee through the WL’s restructuring as the AL and even it’s promotion as a major league before moving to St. Louis and becoming the Browns in 1902 for the next 52 years. Other AL teams whose history dates to the 19th century include the Tigers (who come to PNC Park in August, and unlike the other teams have been in their home city for that long), White Sox (via Sioux City and St. Paul), Indian (via Grand Rapids) and Twins (via Kansas City and, of course, Washington). The other three “original 8” teams (Yankees, Red Sox, A’s) date to 1901, when they replaced teams in smaller markets that the AL dropped.

    It’s also interesting that some teams that came over from the 19th century AA like the Bucs ignore their AA history (except for maybe the Cardinals, who won a pre-modern World Series against the Cubs in 1886). and have their starting point being when those teams joined the NL. One exception is the Reds, who like the Pirates started play in the AA in 1882, but claim the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (the first professional baseball team) as their starting point, even though the Braves probably have a stronger claim to that than the Reds.

    Ultimately I think that the only true continuity is when one team stays in one city, preferably in one league. Change cities and you’re a new team — not too many Brooklyn fans stuck with the Dodgers when they went to LA.

    Nickname changes don’t count: the Phillies don’t lose the years when they were calling themselves the Blue Jays during WWII.

    I would be a little more adamant about the “same league” but these days with all the interleague play, it’s hard to say that this year’s Astros aren’t the same team tht played in the NL for decades; same with the Brewers.

    I don’t mind seeing new teams use the same colors as previous teams did, particularly when the colors have a strong association with the city. If the Steelers were to leave Pittsburgh, I would *hope* that a new Pittsburgh franchise also took on black and gold.

    But that team wouldn’t be the Steelers, and they wouldn’t inherit the Steelers’ records. They’d be a new team wia 0-0 all-time record, starting fresh.

    Mark,
    Different sport, but what do you think about MLS teams that have taken on identities from old NASL teams – Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps and San Jose Earthquakes?

    Terriblehuman, those are absolutely new teams with fresh records. The books are forever closed on a soccer league that is now defunct, and all the wins and losses have been added up.

    Wait, you’re against the Hornets because they’re adopting records that aren’t directly tied to the corporate ownership of the current team’s intellectual property and player contracts. But you’re also against the Orioles for recognizing the true fact of the continuous corporate ownership of the team’s intellectual property and player contracts?

    Which is it? Should teams maintain unbroken, continuous chains of identity tied to the ownership of their corporate assets, or not? If the Hornets are a problem, then the Orioles approach would seem to be the answer. If the Orioles’ claim to franchise continuity is a problem, then the Hornets’ approach would seem to be the obvious solution. They can’t both be wrong.

    Wow! That stadiums (stadia?) inside Daytona thing is pretty amazing! I’ve been to Daytona (for a tour, not a race) and would never imagine it being THAT huge. Crazy!!

    Ironic though that the overhead shot shows Sun Life Stadium configured for baseball, yet listed as the home of the Dolphins.

    There’s been talk about link for some time.

    Though looking at that graphic, I have no idea how the seats would be configured, since the regular racing seats will be ridiculously far from the action if they play football in the infield.

    But that’s because they don’t let fans drive their RVs into the stadium.

    Either get a million plus at a college game or several acres per attendee for the Jackwagons.

    The thing that jumped out at me is the fact that basketball arenas, despite their much smaller playing surface, are becoming as large as baseball & football stadia now.

    Given we’re going through the Big Arena Debate here in Milwaukee, that’s part of what interests me. I’ve made the case that we’d be better off here in Milwaukee, given our lack of mass transit options and (over)reliance on cars putting a new basketball arena in the Miller Park parking lot. If the building is going to be the same size as Miller Park, that makes even more sense.

    Minor complaint: there’s been more than a few duplicate ticker items lately. For example, we saw the new Barça kits on Monday. I realize it’s hard with multiple editors compiling tickers, but the submitters can help too, like do a simple word search on the site before hitting “send”.

    I realize not duplicating tickers won’t save that many lives, but it’s a minor annoyance that can be easily prevented.

    Check this out: Walter Johnson in a Dr. Pepper uniform!

    If only he was standing next to a “No Pepper” sign…

    I appreciate the Nike World Cup shirseys, but where’s the t-shirt version of the Bomb Pop jersey? *That*’s what I really want.

    The Wire Service feature, always a favorite, is downright spectacular today. Some of the pleasure, I guess, comes from the dopey poses and props that ballplayers didn’t think were below their dignity. The Cardinals in pith helmets (Tiger Tamers!), the umps with the strike zone box. I also like the way that the caps worn by major leaguers of the Paleolithic were often creased, folded, wrinkled and generally abused. These guys were not into fussy neatness.

    What I find weird about the Hornets/Bobcats/Pelicans situation is there is no transaction record of players transfering teams. One thing that is a consistent in any sport is record-keeping and this basically wipes some of that out. One day Baron Davis was a Charlotte Hornet, the next day he was a New Orleans Hornet. There was no transaction, no Expansion Draft, nothing….

    And yet, despite there being “no transaction,” one day Davis was playing home games in North Carolina near the Atlantic Ocean, and the next he was playing in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. Clearly, something did change between the home games in the one city and the subsequent home games in another city 700 miles away. It’s almost like fans in one city care more about and identify more with teams that play in their city than with teams that play in other cities on the other side of the country.

    Thanks for the Wire Service lede today Paul!

    I didn’t even notice the rarity of the jerseys on the ’35 Cardinals when I was editing it, I was more excited about those silly pith helmets.

    Cheers!
    ~Bruce

    Conn is OH, so close…

    “So the monkeys wouldn’t pith on his head”

    There was the line from the Woody Allen movie “Bananas” about something “being pithy” because it had “great pith”. :-)

    When I was about 13, I saw a joke in Playboy that went like this:

    The morning after the orgy, the God of Thunder awoke and saw a comely young valkyrie across the room. “Good morrow,” he said. “I’m Thor.”

    She replied, “You’re Thor? I’m tho thore I can barely pith!”

    This Hornets thing is very confusing. What do other teams do? Like the Winnipeg Jets or the Baltimore Ravens? Does Baltimore claim the records or do the Colts? Does the Winnipeg have claim on the original team’s records?

    That’s another big problem with it. There’s no consistency in their inconsistency, if that makes sense. One city/franchise will do keep the old records, but another won’t want anything to do with the former team. I highly doubt Baltimore wants anything to do with the Colts right now. This is beyond dumb.

    A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Different circumstances should produce different outcomes. Sports fans don’t live to serve the interests of the perfect consistency of the treatment of certain corporate assets. Rather, sports leagues and teams exist to satisfy the expectations of their fans.

    Granted, I tend to err on the side of demanding too much consistency. But you sort of have to start from a place of acknowledging that the case of a team taking the place of a previously departed team is different from that of a team moving to a “virgin” town or of an expansion team in a town previously unserved by the league.

    All in all, I increasingly think the Washington Nationals actually get it right: They acknowledge and pay tribute to the history of pre-Nats teams in Washington, including both American League franchises and Negro League teams, and include those teams’ records in a special section in their media guide, but the team only directly claims ownership of the Expos/Nats records and history. It took them a few years to sort that out, but it works. The Nats speak of and honor Washington baseball history alongside the actual achievements of Expos/Nationals teams and players.

    Anyway, the only people who are actually inconvenienced by Browns/Hornets sorts of discontinuities are the keepers of player statistics. And frankly, they’re under no obligation to follow the league’s pretense of transferring records. Just as a fan in the stands keeping score is under no obligation to rule something he saw as a hit an error just because the official scorekeeper made the wrong call.

    Heritage records are the opiate of the sports fan.

    They perpetuate the fantasy that a team is part of a community’s fabric, possessed by its fans if not actually owned by them, and not a business venture. That business is driven by its consumers’ need to feel connected to a community, to Something Bigger Than Themselves. Retaining nicknames and colors and Holy Records feeds the fantasy. In reality, it’s just fantastically paid, fit young men, dressed in flamboyant clothing and performing for our entertainment. Sometimes they please us. Frequently, they don’t. In the long run, it’s just a reason to buy hot dogs and yell at strangers.

    Sports – any sports – isn’t the Siege of Northampton, and the records ain’t exactly the Magna Carta.

    In the long run, [sports are] just a reason to buy hot dogs and yell at strangers.

    This right here is what’s known as “a glorious sentence.”

    Also, the rest of Cort’s paragraph is a spot-on reminder of the cold corporate nature of pro sports. Love your teams, root hard for your boys, but don’t ever lose sight of the fact that this all exists to make a bunch of money for a bunch of folks who aren’t you.

    The only thing Baltimore wants of the Colts is for their championships and HOFers to be listed under Baltimore Colts in the HOF not that other city. Johnny U never played in Indiana.

    It’s all about whatever the league decides. In the case of the Colts, my understanding is that the records moved to Indianapolis along with the team. The Ravens are actually considered an expansion team, so their history starts in 1996. The Browns, according to history, were inactive from 1996-1999 until the new Browns started play. The Pelicans/Hornets thing is just ludicrous.

    That stat thing with the Hornets/Bobcats/Pelicans is just stupid. What’s next, do we go and digitally edit the old game footage to eliminate the visual history of the New Orleans Hornets? We’ll all just pretend they’ve been the Pelicans the entire time?

    Follow-up on possible Bucks color change posts from yesterday, did you notice the pin the new owners daughter was wearing? link

    “did you notice the pin the new owners daughter was wearing?”

    ~~~

    Not until you pointed it out…

    As much as I’d love to believe that the Bucks are going back to their best logo ever (or, even better, a link), Mallory Edens has been wearing that pin since their first press conference. It’s on her cap link.

    That’s the same press conference where her father was wearing a pin of link, which we talked about at the time.

    Both pins appear to have come out of link.

    So I wouldn’t read too much into it. Sadly.

    Well, they changed the color scheme on the website. You put 2 and 2 together and, obviously, you end up with 200.

    Interesting that Jim Thorpe would be mentioned today, as I was processing paperwork just yesterday for someone from Jim Thorpe, PA. It threw me off, and made me wonder how many U.S. cities are named ON PURPOSE on behalf of an athlete.

    link

    It’s not a player’s namesake, but for the two years that the Cowboys played the Bills, the town of Buffalo, Texas (halfway between Houston and Dallas) officially renamed itself, “Bluestar, Texas.”

    Love that depiction of the stadiums/arenas inside of Daytona. Most of those facilities either paid for or subsidized by the taxpayers of Florida. I think I will print out that picture, hang it on my wall, and have it available the next time one of those billionaire owners asks for a handout. I sure hope Steven Ross follows Uni Watch!

    Can’t wait for the meet up in Chicago. Black Rock is an outstanding bar. Good choice.

    dont know if this has been mentioned, but Arsenal are changing to Puma from Nike after 20 years with Nike, so Nike made this patchwork of previous designs which will eventually end up in the Arsenal museum

    link

    As long as baseball has existed, there have been endless attempts link. Love those umpires’ suits and short-brimmed caps.

    Me too, but I’m also intrigued by the American shield patch that ump is wearing on his shoulder.

    I’ve something very similar in link, also taken in Minneapolis but three years earlier. Anybody know what these patches were for? This is all post-War, so it doesn’t seem to be related to a Hale America. It also doesn’t appear to have been an American Association thing, at least I’ve seen pictures where the umpires link, though that’s admittedly inconclusive.

    Has anybody seen these on umps in other leagues about this time?

    Thanks! I love that one too.

    But no, that gentleman on the right is Milwaukee Brewers manager Nick Cullop. The link was taken on April 24, 1947.

    The Minnesota Historical Society has an unbelievable archive. They have 1.5 million negatives in their collection that they’re currently cataloging and posting — I just helped them identify some Brewer players in a 1951 photo.

    Regarding defining the strike zone, certain vintage baseball teams will play with a set of rules from the 1860s-70s which allowed for the batter to define whether he wanted his strike zone to be high or low.

    Besides the Z and X blunders in Big Klu’s uniform, what’s up with the clipped tops of the U?

    -Jet

    Wow – great catch.

    Looks like they made the “U” by chopping the top stroke off an “O”.

    They really were kinda making the process up by the seat of their pants, weren’t they?

    Re the 1957 photo of Mike Robertson: based on the presence of the AL 50th-anniversary sleeve patch, the young man is wearing link (The man behind Robertson is wearing a link)

    The photo looks to have been taken at Tinker Field in Orlando (Filley Motors was a long-time car dealership there). Given the Griffith family’s proclivity for “making do” and passing uniforms down the farm system chain, I have to wonder how long they’d been hanging onto the ’51 jersey Mike is wearing.

    Thanks! I love that one too.

    But no, that gentleman on the right is Milwaukee Brewers manager Nick Cullop. The link was taken on April 24, 1947.

    The Minnesota Historical Society has an unbelievable archive. They have 1.5 million negatives in their collection that they’re currently cataloging and posting – I just helped them identify some Brewer players in a 1951 photo.

    Color outs are mostly fine if the home team is actually wearing the same color jersey as the fans shirts. It only becomes stupid when you have the home team in white, giving out royal blue shirts, and the road team is wearing royal blue.

    “Native Americans: We’re not your mascots” By Simon Moya-Smith, was interesting but as a Cleveland Indians’ fan of long standing I think he misses the point. To me the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, KC Chiefs, Washington Redskins, etc, aren’t about Native Americans at all. They are just sports teams, nothing more. I think it is wrong to take something as a demeaning insult when no insult, let alone any demeaning, was intended. Believe me, if I wanted to demean and insult someone, I’d do it directly and there’d be no mistake about it! The names were taken from our common American history and are just as popular names for team identification, just like the name Pontiac is used to identify a car brand and Indian is used to identify a motorcycle brand. The Native American people themselves are completely beside the point. Speaking personally, as a Cleveland Indians fan, while walking to Jacobs Field in 1997 on the way to game 4 of the World Series, something I had waited my entire life to be able to attend for my Indians, I had a protester jump in my face and yell “RACIST!!” at me. Hey, I’m just a baseball fan, just like the Indians are just a baseball team.

    To me the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, KC Chiefs, Washington Redskins, etc, aren’t about Native Americans at all.

    I agree. A team that names itself after a certain group of people, and whose mascot is an illustration of someone from that group of people, and whose fans sometimes dress up as members of that group of people, and whose fans also do war whoops and “chopping” motions ascribed to that group of people, has nothing at all to do with that group of people.

    Yup.

    Understanding that I’m doing the opposite of preaching to the choir (ie arguing with a brick wall), if you’d read Smith-Moya’s article he wrote, “Today, we are lawyers, doctors, teachers, business owners, professional athletes, artists, and maybe your neighbor next door. We are proud to be Diné, Lakota, Choctaw, Crow, Cherokee, Ojibwe, Cheyenne, Navajo, Zuni, and many more.” In other words, they aren’t dressing up and doing war whoops, chasing buffalo and scalping white people any more. I never said they were, and by dressing up doing war whoops and cheering for my favorite baseball team they weren’t any concern of mine at all. In closing, I think that Native Americans have real problems, primarily poverty and poor eduction. Rather than address those real problems, some small portion of them would rather pursue a merely symbolic victory over a mere professional baseball team’s symbol. To me, that is a complete waste of their time. YMMV.

    I think that Native Americans have real problems, primarily poverty and poor eduction. Rather than address those real problems, some small portion of them would rather pursue a merely symbolic victory over a mere professional baseball team’s symbol.

    Why do you assume that a person addressing one issue is somehow incapable of addressing another? The two are not mutually exclusive, except in the false binary construct you’ve created.

    The Native American people themselves are completely beside the point.

    Do you realize how demeaning that statement is to anybody who identifies as a Native American?

    From the article “People have been conditioned to ignore racism directed at Native Americans.”

    Clearly this is true regarding Patrick Mackin’s comment.

    Well, you know, Native Americans have bigger problems than sports mascots. So if you really care about their plight, you will continue to use slurs and caricatures that dehumanize them.

    People who speak out against racist language and imagery are The Real Racists.

    “if I wanted to demean and insult someone, I’d do it directly and there’d be no mistake about it!”

    ~~~

    Good to know.

    WHile I respect the guy’s article from the Native American perspective, he was loose with some facts like the word squaw for instance. Here is a university anthropology department write up on where it came from. The author wants you to believe it is vagina when it is not that at all. link

    Next, he has problem with the nickname Indians. The Carlisle Indians too? It was a Native American school with that nickname. Does that make that ok? To be clear, I think Redskins needs to go like Chief Wahoo needs to go but Indians needs to go? Not necessarily.

    “The Native American people themselves are completely beside the point.”

    Clearly. And that’s the problem.

    Phil – you’ve been hacked somewhere. Just got this email (with .com elements modified):

    from: Phil Hecken
    reply-to: link

    to: link

    date: Wed, May 21, 2014 at 7:06 PM
    Hello,
    How are you doing? I am sorry for reaching you rather too late due to the situation of things right now..I’m stranded in Istanbul, Turkey and had my bag stolen from me with my passport, mobile phone and personal effects therein. It was a terrible experience for me thank God the embassy has just issued me a temporary passport but I have to pay for a ticket and settle my hotel bills with the Manager before leaving.
    I have made contact with my bank but it would take me 3-5 working days to access funds in my account, the bad news is my flight will be leaving very soon and but i am having problems settling the hotel bills. Please let me know if i can count on you i promise to refund the money back as soon as i get back home
    Regards,
    Phil

    Thanks, Gregg.

    So far about 12 people (if not more) have informed me of this and I’ve already taken steps with yahoo to change & strengthen my PW. Hopefully it was a one-time thing. Just delete and ignore.

    As long as we’re talking about Turkey, my grandfather was fond of complaining that we were “running around like a bunch of whirling dervishes,” which, as I think about it, is as objectionable (if more obscure) than calling us “wild Indians” or “drunken Irishmen” or “dumb Polacks” or any one of a number of colorful, ethnically-based insults he kept in his quiver.

    It was a different time.

    The Greenpeace report about toxic chemicals in soccer gear provides a nice contrast to this link

    my 2¢ on histories…

    if charlotte now claims pelicans history in charlotte when they were the hornets, does that mean the pelicans are going to claim the jazz history before the move to utah…it’s only fair…and equally as stupid…

    if the orioles claim back to the 1800s and these other franchises are claiming history when there is a gap (browns, jets, now hornets) of no team, then that means cincinnati reds are indeed the oldest professional baseball team and should be allowed to claim their history beginning in 1869…

    If a fancy High School football stadium is a perverse use of public funds, then aren’t fancy new or expanded college stadiums just as much a perverse use of public funds? Or, the stadiums built for pro franchises with public funds? From a point of view, all stadiums built with public funds can been seen as a perverse use of public funds not just this high school stadium.

    Taking the Browns/Hornets technique to its illogical conclusion, I hereby propose that all history books be edited to note that the United States appeared out of thin air the day the constitution was signed. (For future scoreboard purposes, I propose “USA: Est. Sept. 17, 1787.”)

    Of course, all British history & traditions will remain in England.

    If nothing else, students throughout the nation will appreciate not having to waste time learning about the Declaration of Independence, as the US didn’t exist prior to 1787, and as we all know, nations that don’t exist can’t declare independence from nations they’re not connected to, anyway.

    Looking over photos of the TBTC weekend, I was struck by the sliding glove Jean Segura link.

    I’d never seen this before, but apparently Brett Gardner’s been wearing one link. It’s a little like link Scott Podsednik was wearing a couple years ago.

    I’m all for histories/records of team staying in the same place, as long as the team names are the same. It makes more sense that the current NHL Winnipeg Jets would share the records of any other NHL team in Winnipeg called the Jets than to say that the Phoenix Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets are the same thing. Bobby Hull didn’t play for a team called the Coyotes or in Phoenix, Walter Johnson did not play for a team called the Twins or in Minnesota, and Alonzo Mourning didn’t play for a team called the Pelicans or in New Orleans, so why would you put those records together if you had the option to transfer them to the city and team name those players played under.

    The Pelicans/Hornets thing is more complicated, because the name traveled with them for a period of time, but doing this to the records makes it easier for the fans, which is something the leagues all say they are operating in service to right?

    If you’re favorite restaurant moved across town, then changed its menu and its name, would you think of that as the same restaurant? Especially if someone bought the rights to the old name and recipes and opened up a new place across the street from the old one?

    “If you’re favorite restaurant moved across town, then changed its menu and its name, would you think of that as the same restaurant? Especially if someone bought the rights to the old name and recipes and opened up a new place across the street from the old one?”

    THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Franchise history was once sacrosanct; it’s disgusting that this is no longer so. F-you, Cleveland Browns, for starting the trend of playing “let’s pretend” with the facts of history, and encouraging others to spit in the face of objective reality.

    Charlotte Hornets / New Orleans Hornets / New Orleans Pelicans are one franchise; and Charlotte Bobcats / Charlotte Hornets are another franchise. This doesn’t mean the Bobcats/Hornets franchise cannot pay homage to the memory of the Hornets/Pelicans franchise; but they are two separate entities, and ought to be treated that way. (Which is the way the NHL is treating the new version of the Winnipeg Jets.)

    There is one right way to handle the records of a relocated team: the way the NBA’s Pistons, Lakers, Royals/Kings, and Warriors did it; the way the NFL’s Cardinals, Redskins, Rams, and Colts did it; the way the NHL’s Flames and Scouts/Rockies/Devils did it; the way Major League Baseball’s Braves, A’s, Browns/Orioles, Dodgers, Giants, and Senators/Twins did it. (Side note: look up the all-time pitching leaders for the Twins’ franchise; the leader in most categories is Walter Johnson.)

    In other words, the right way to handle a relocated team’s records is the way it was done in every single instance up until the f-ing Browns set their toxic precedent.

    Franchise history was once sacrosanct

    Eh, if we can stop treating franchises as objects of worship, then I think it’s a step in the right direction. Franchise histories should never be sacrosanct, just like logos shouldn’t be sacred.

    Even better if we can stop conflating “franchise” with civic sports identity. The Hornets never belonged to the owners – the fans in Charlotte did. The Shinns just owned the offices.

    Seriously. People are talking about the right of billionaires to continue to tout the history produced in the cities they greedily abandoned like it’s canon law.

    OK, forget “sacrosanct”, with its religious connotations. (I’m a militant atheist, anyway!) I mean to say that people once understood that franchise lineages trump all. This was the case until the NFL messed it up with their unconscionable deal with the Browns.

    The whole thing is just a matter of an honest accounting of the facts of history. The original Hornets are now the Pelicans; and the new Hornets were once the Bobcats. This is an objective fact, regardless of the NBA’s decree about its make-believe universe. (The NHL gets this straight with the Winnipeg situation; so it’s not too much to ask for the NBA to get it right also.)

    To excuse the re-writing of history is a terrible thing. Of course, the naming of sports teams is a trivial expression of this sentiment. But the sentiment itself is a bit scary, as it illustrates that reality just doesn’t matter to some people. It’s no wonder that so many people believe things that have no basis in reality, and that rational argument is so often futile.

    Language aside, I think we overvalue the importance of franchise.

    Here’s where I see it. Art Modell and George Shinn abandoned their roles as stewards of their city’s sporting identities. Modell rightfully didn’t take the “Browns” name to Baltimore, and NBA shouldn’t have allowed a well supported team to leave in the first place, and certainly not take the colors and the name. The franchise is just a license to operate a sports team, not the team itself.

    Think of it this way – Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar mean nothing to the fans of the Baltimore Ravens and everything to the fans of Cleveland. Likewise the LJ/Zo/Muggsy triumvirate is a Charlotte basketball memory, not a New Orleans one, just as the New Orleans playoff run with Chris Paul means nothing to the fans of the original Charlotte Hornets. This isn’t rewriting history – it’s putting history in the hands of people who are the rightful owners.

    Don’t forget that the Dodgers held a Roy Campanella Night in LA; and that the Braves have a statue of Warren Spahn in Atlanta. This is precisely as it should be, because those players are legends of those franchises.

    Of course, it’s great when a new team in an area commemorates the memory of a city’s previous team. The new Hornets can (and should) honour the players of the old Hornets. I’m sure the new Winnipeg Jets are doing the same thing.

    But doing that does not require acting as though the new team actually is the old one. For instance, the Mets pay homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers, while clearly acknowledging that they are a separate franchise. Hell, the New Orleans Hornets honoured Pete Maravich of the New Orleans Jazz!

    Again, please realise that denying the true lineages of franchises wasn’t even an issue before the expansion Browns debacle; until that point, everyone understood the actual history of teams even when they changed locations and/or nicknames.

    The NFL’s creation of the expansion Browns after the original Browns moved to Baltimore did not require the fictionalising of history, just as the expansion Washington Senators were always considered a different franchise to the original Senators who had moved to Minnesota.

    Failing to acknowledge the facts of the lineages of franchises is indeed rewriting history; to call it something else is just playing word games. And this dishonest practice says something ugly about a culture that’s willing to endorse it.

    On the Hank Greenberg picture: According to Kevin Rozell at Zell’s Pinstriped Blog, Greenberg didn’t just wear the Yankee uni for batting practice; he wore it in the benefit game as well. And that game might have precipitated Greenberg’s departure from the Tigers a few years later.

    Rozell says that, in early 1947, Tigers’ owner Walter Briggs saw a picture of Greenberg sitting in a clubhouse with a Yankee uniform on his lap. From the site:

    “Soon after this photo was released in the newspaper, Hank learned that he had been traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates over the radio airwaves. He didn’t believe it until a telegram was delivered to him. It read: ‘Your contract has been assigned to the Pittsburgh Baseball Club of the National League. We wish you good luck.’ The photo really infuriated Briggs and he let him go without investigation. They would later find out that the picture was taken years ago during Hank’s service in WWII.”

    link

    Didn’t Riddell’s contract end as official helmet? I bet most teams will start putting the team name on the nose bumper.

    The thing I don’t like about this Hornet’s nest is that they are starting off with new uniforms and an updated logo/colours. The whole mystique of why this happened (a marketing demand, wanting to return the Hornets to Charlotte) is because of the original uniform, logo, and colour scheme! Down to the width of the stripes, the order of the alternate stripe colours, the overlap v-neck, the font…

    Charlotte fans already had friggin basketball; they wanted the BRAND.

    If they really believe that there is more money in starting with a new scheme, then they’re doing it wrong IMO. I would have milked the old stuff for 2-3 years minimum, THEN considered a re-brand.

    With the Raptors going retro this year (and some other teams as well) it would have been great to watch. Marketing cohesiveness LOL. Can you imagine Sterling being told what that means? He’d start mumbling about Magic Johnson and the conversation goes south… After Champion left, the NBA got sloppy.

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