By Phil Hecken
Back again with Part III of the WFL uniform contest. If you missed Part I click here, and Part II is here. Very briefly, for those of you unfamiliar with the origin of the contest, the idea was for readers and designers to come up with a uniform for any WFL team had that team remained in existence today (you can read more here and here).
Our first weekend featured teams who had five (or more) designs submit concepts for teams. Last weekend, we took a look at (and vote on) teams for which there were four designers. Today we’ll see the remaining concepts — there were two teams with three concepters, four teams from whom two folks submitted designs, and five teams with a single concepter. Since voting for teams with two or one team is pretty much out, we’ll have voting only for the best design for teams with three uniform designers. The others will just be shown. OK? OK Let’s begin.
Florida Blazers
Gene Sanny:
No Description Given
Curtis Peddle:
Description
Thomas Felsmaier:
Description
FLORIDA BLAZERS – POLL (Vote for One):
Jacksonville Sharks
Gene Sanny:
No Description Given.
Jeff Provo:
Description
Curtis Peddle:
Description
JACKSONVILLE SHARKS – POLL (Vote for One):
And now we’ll move on to teams with two or one single concepter each:
Chicago Wind(s)
Andrew Seagraves:
Description
Curtis Peddle:
Description
New York Stars
Gene Sanny:
No Description Given
Curtis Peddle:
Description
San Antonio Wings
Jordan Reagan:
Description
Curtis Peddle:
Description
Shreveport Steamer(s)
Curtis Peddle:
Description
Connor DuShane:
Description
And finally, we move to the “single team” entry concepts.
Birmingham Vulcans
Jordan Reagan:
Description
Jacksonville Express
Curtis Peddle:
Description
Norfolk Fire
Andrew Seagraves:
Description
Toronto Northmen
Andrew Schmidt:
Description
Utah Wings
Andrew Seagraves:
Description
And there you have it folks — our final look at the WFL design contest entries.
I’d like to thank each and every person who submitted a concept for this contest, and also Aaron Johnson, who came up with the idea more than a year ago. I think it was great fun (even if it was a LOT of work on my end) and I also think the designs themselves were spectacular! Well done one and all.
OK, there were still two sets above you can vote on, so if you haven’t already, scroll on back up and do so now!
Classic Ballpark Scoreboards
I’m pleased to continue with a new weekend feature here at Uni Watch, “Classic Ballpark Scoreboards,” which are created by Gary Chanko. You probably know Gary best for his wonderful colorizations, but he has been a solid contributor for many years, and this is his new project. This segment will appear every Saturday on Uni Watch.
Here’s Gary (click on images to enlarge):
Classic Ballpark Scoreboards – Sixth in a Series
by Gary Chanko
Old Comiskey Park and Baker Bowl are the subjects of this week’s look at classic ballpark scoreboards.
Old Comiskey Park
Home of: Chicago White Sox
Last baseball game: September 30, 1990; Demolished:1991
The lollapalooza of scoreboards has to be Old Comiskey Park’s outrageous exploding carnival of lights and sound. In case you missed it or want to relive the scoreboard experience after a White Sox home run, watch this 1977 Super 6 movie footage.
Again it was the creative mind of Bill Veeck behind the design of the 130 foot long scoreboard known as “The Monster.” The Monster was created after the 1959 season. It was not a new scoreboard, but simply created by adding on to the structure of the existing scoreboard. Veeck estimated the scoreboard attracted an added 5000 fans a game during its inaugural 1960 season.
Like all the scoreboards of this era, Old Comiskey’s design experienced change over the years. This graphic illustration recreates the scoreboard layout from the seventies era.
A Few Things to Know
• A William Saroyan play, The Time of Your Life, was Veeck’s inspiration for the exploding scoreboard.
• Pinwheels from the scoreboard were salvaged and are preserved in the Chicago History Museum.
• In the 1970s a Pitch-O-Meter was installed above the Elgin clock (goodbye Longines) that reportedly gave an accurate pitch speed. It also had the capability to display the 20 second countdown between pitches, but this function was apparently never used.
• In 1982 the scoreboard received a final cosmetic and technical upgrade with the installation of Diamond Vision screens.
• The legacy of the exploding scoreboard lives on in the new Comiskey Park or U.S. Cellular Field as it’s now named.
Baker Bowl
Home of: Philadelphia Phillies
Last baseball game: June 30, 1938; Demolished:1950
While Old Comiskey Park was identified with an exploding bells and whistles scoreboard, Baker Bowl’s scoreboard, and adjoining right field wall, was best known for something quite different: soap products to end B.O. Yes, that B.O.
Built in the 1890s, Baker Bowl incorporated the latest in ballpark technology at the time and was praised as one of the best. However the field was shoehorned into an oddly shaped rectangular city space and was ridiculed as a “band box.” The right field wall was only 280 feet from home plate.
The unremarkable manual scoreboard was called the “home of the thin man” in Ed Burn’s 1937 article because of the narrow space it occupied along the outfield wall. And while the scoreboard was insignificant, the right field wall was notable. It was the home of world’s largest soap advertisement!
The illustration recreates scoreboard and right field wall with that famous Lifebouy ad as it appeared in a June 1937 game.
A Few Things to Know
• Batted balls rebounded off the scoreboard’s sloped roof sometimes rolling all the way to the left field foul line.
• The right field wall height was a ridiculous 60 feet (Fenway is a mere 37 feet!). The original masonry outfield wall was only 20 feet high. In the 1920s a tin covered wooded frame and wire fencing extensions were added to moderate the balls flying over the short wall.
• The advertisement says, “The Phillies Use Lifebouy.” Legend is a cynical fan hopped the fence one night and added, “And they still stink.”
• During this era Lifebouy Soap ads also appeared on the outfield walls in Fenway Park, Crosley Field and possibly ballparks.
Next week the series moves farther west to look at Sportsman’s Park and Anaheim Stadium.
If anyone is interested in purchasing a digital copy of these posters, Gary is working on an online purchase option. In the interim you can contact him directly at Classicscoreboards@gmail.com.
EPL Tracker
Each Saturday or Sunday, Alex Gerwitz will be tracking the kit combinations (shirt/shorts/socks) of the teams in the English Premier League from the previous weekend and the current weekend.
Here is the EPL tracker for 7 – Part 2 (click to enlarge):
U.W.F.F.L. News
Division II & III Games
By Rob Holecko
We’re back for another weekend of exciting UWFFL action. Today our feature matchup sees the (3-0) Dallas Outlaws heading up north to take on the (2-1) Duluth Frost Dragons.
Long time Uni Watch viewers will recognize the Frost Dragons primary artwork, as they are an expansion team, however they feature the dragon that was a key part of the winning entry design by Brett Callero in the initial UWFFL design contest for the San Francisco Reign Fire back in Spring 2013. The Reign Fire have been taken over by new management team this season, however Callero’s design lives on in the new Duluth franchise.
In other games, the Winnipeg Winterhawks color uniforms apparently didn’t come in (sound familar?) so they are debuting a new black alt this week at home against Wichita, and in other big games, Staten Island takes on St. John’s, Charleston faces Delaware, Calgary and Seattle square off, plus there is a big rivalry game in Iowa as the Kansas City Crop Dusters break out a special one-off with a “Beat Iowa” slogan-NOB as they try to put the pesticide on the Corn.
Head on over to uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on all of today’s action.
If you’d like to compete in the UWFFL head on over to our Google+ page for prosepctive expansion teams and submit your concepts today. We’ll be back with UWFFL Premier League action tomorrow.
Uni Watch News Ticker:
Baseball News: It may be off season in the college baseball ranks, but that doesn’t mean teams aren’t thinking about 2015 merch now (thanks to Coleman Mullins). Yes, that’s Marshall and yes, one of those caps is camo. … From the “We’ve seen these before, but once more can’t hurt” file: 1978 MLB Japan tour photo, featuring lots of pill box caps. Says submitter Jeff Flynn, “Pillbox hats galore, most with 5 stripes instead of 3, a couple of years after they were used on the field. Mets, Phillies, Padres, Reds, Pirates of course, TIGERS (AL didn’t wear the pillbox hats!). Interesting that Tug McGraw is wearing pillbox while his teammates behind and in front of him are not. Plus, ever seen that Expos hat in the back left? Looks like a pillbox structure without the stripes and with a blue top! John Candelaria is wearing a completely different version of the Pirates’ bumble bee throwbacks (different font, more pinstripes). This is all National League other than the one Detroit Tiger, wonder what’s up with that. Great names in this photo too and how about that scoreboard, looks like ‘Yokohama Stadium.’ You could play a ‘find the anomalies’ game with this pic, I’ll bet I’ve missed some.” … “Morgantown Professional Baseball” is holding a “Name the Team” contest (from Brice Wallace), with “oline” voting. Some pretty brutal choices, but I love “Coal Sox” and “Moonshiners,” myself. … I wouldn’t normally ever post a photo of an infant, but I’ll make an exception in this case, and that is an amazing knitted O’s cap (nice spot by Brady Phelps). … Talk about dedicated! Our pal Chris Creamer has charted MLB wins/losses by jersey color (prior to last evening’s Royals/O’s game). … During the Royal’s/O’s game, Omar Infante was wearing Terrance Gore’s helmet. Says submitter Jared Hinton, “Trying to channel some of his speed?”
NFL News: “Just watched the bit that was linked to (yesterday) morning about the Bucs and all the travel logistics,” writes John Koziel. “Found it interesting when they interviewed Brian Ford, COO of the team, the logos on the 2 helmets in the background seem to be 2 very different sizes. Hard to tell if the helmet on the right is from past years or not(can’t get a good look at the facemask color), but just found it odd.” Definitely last year’s helmet — nice spot! … NFL shoe fine update from Kyle Hanks: Bruce Irvin got fined for shoes too. He wore white ones while the Seahawks are a black shoe team. “Of course, there were lime green, navy blue, and pink shoes on the field, but apparently white is just one step too far,” Bruce says, adding, “What’s weird to me is that I know that other Seahawks (specifically Jeremy Lane) have worn white shoes in the past and I’ve never heard of them getting fined.” … Reader and optometrist Mike Hoster saw yesterday’s UW that included a piece on NFL players not named Bob Griese who wore glasses on the field. Mike writes, “A few years back, we were combing through our archives for unique vintage advertisements. (Certainly about as “fun” as an assignment will ever be in the realm of optometric publishing.) Being a life-long Dolphins fan, I was both surprised and excited to see an American Optical ad from our July 1980 issue featuring Bob Griese and Dorothy Hamill.” Great stuff! … Michael Crespo noticed that J.J. Watt’s helmet appears to have an air valve in the front of his Riddell Speed Helmet. He asks, “Do you know if anyone else has this or the reason behind it?” … Jeff Flynn spotted this ABC Monday Night Football poster and noticed that the Steelers helmet has the logo on the wrong side. Way back when and up to today, the sticker has always been on the right side of the shell only. On another note, does anyone remember “Bud Ice”? Holy shit that was awful beer. … Yesterday’s Uni Watch mentioned qb’s not gripping balls by the laces (Everett Golson). Kyle Martinek notes that on MNF, Jon Gruden talked about his camp and how they’re using laceless footballs due to the uptick in quick strike offenses in which the QB often doesn’t have time to adjust the ball to throw on the laces. … Douggie Keklak was watching Eric Dickerson: A Football Life, and got this screen grab of a serious jersey malfunction.
College Football News: Reader Joel Husenits, who comments as “Georgy” (and runs “Commie Football”), thinks that the CSU Rams should make the green and orange “Ag Day” uniforms permanent. … SI’s Fan Sided has a list of the 10 best college football team logos. … Here are today’s helmets for Indiana football vs. Iowa (h/t Andrew Lentz). … And here are today’s Purdue helmets for the #HammerDownCancer game (thanks to @Jffdmrly). And also from Jff, a look at the unis they’ll wear. … Oooohhh, check out this time lapse video of the Mississippi State grounds crew painting the field before a game — including the special 100th year of Davis Wade Stadium midfield logo (from Dustin Semore), who adds “Also: it’s shot from an angle that showcases our new seating addition in the end zone.” … From Dave Doop: the Florida Gators will be going orange/blue/blue Saturday night vs. LSU. … This is cool: here’s a story about the people that have been making the Nittany Lion mascot costume for the past 24 years (nice find by Chris Flinn). … Ole Miss will be going blue/white/white tonight (via Shelby Coker). … In addition to wearing their black jerseys with “DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY,” Army will be wearing their camo helmets today. … Looks like Marshall has finally fixed their numbers! (from Clint Richardson). If you’ll recall, they began the season with gradient numbers (which, while acceptable to the NCAA, were very hard to read). … Check out this UC Health air care pilot helmet, modified to look like a Bearcats helmet (nice spot by Doug Smith). … Some of the guys on Mississippi State are gonna have “Stark Vegas” custom shoes (h/t Michael Erhlich). … UNC will be wearing white/white/white vs. Notre Dame. … Here’s a look at the all gold unis for Iowa State, to be worn against Toledo today. … Last night, Stanford wore their all black alternates vs. Wazzu. … Also last night, UNLV wore helmets with the breast cancer ribbon (via Jesse Granger).
Soccer News: Last night, Landon Donovan played in his last International Friendly, and he was given a jersey comprised of all the USA jerseys he’s worn in the past. Here’s another look at that shirt. If you’re interested, you can read more here.
Grab Bag: Couple funny ones from Brady Phelps: First, check out this perfect unfortunate logo placement over Capitals Head Coach Barry Trotz’ head. Also from Brady, a New Hampshire man has Patriots logos and the Super Bowl trophy tattooed on his head; he subsequently moved to Florida and was arrested. You can read more about that arrest on the Smoking Gun. … Douggie Keklak writes, “In the category of ‘stuff that may only interest me’ my alma mater Johnstown High School is playing a game with Westmont Hilltop tonight in which they are throwing back to Joe Johns Junior High and Southmont High School (two now defunct schools). The article also states that Johnstown will throwback to the school district’s two other closed junior high schools in the next few years. These are the same two teams that did a throwback game using the schools from the movie All the Right Moves a few years ago (that movie was filmed in Johnstown).” Pretty cool! … D-baggery reaching the highest levels? Apple is now reportedly going to remove all Bose equipment from its retail stores. Here’s a bit more on that (thanks Paul!). That article notes, “There has also been some controversy over NFL players being fined for wearing Beats by Dre headphones after the NFL signed an agreement with Bose that barred players and staff from wearing any other brand of headphones while on camera.” Of course, Apple bought Beats a short while ago. … Andrew Eichner noticed the Susan G Komen Foundation is partnering with a company that makes fracking drill bits to make pink bits. “No joke,” he says. “Here’s one article about the ridiculousness of it.” … Alex Hider notes For The Win has an article about hidden meanings in sports logos. Almost all of this is stuff that’s been seen hundreds of times before, except for No. 9. “When discussing the NFL shield logo, they show a version I’ve never seen before. It’s a post-2008 shield with pre-2008 lettering (the “L” still has the curl),” he notes. … Check out this YouTube video for the 2014-15 Calgary Flames Home Opener Ice Rink Graphic (From Sunny Moon). … Finally, here’s a first look at Baylor’s new home white hoops unis (via Erik Davila).
REMINDER!
Paul is running a Nolan Ryan raffle (for one of two autographed copies of The Nolan Ryan Beef & Barbecue Cookbook and a bunch of Nolan Ryan bobbleheads). Details are in the bolded link above.
And that’s going to do it for this fine Saturday. If you didn’t already, make sure you cast a vote for the WFL redesigns (two to vote for today). Big thanks to everyone who participated in the contest — there were some truly outstanding designs, and to Aaron for the idea! Also, big ups for Gary, Adam and Rob for their segments. If you’re watching the NCAA football today (and you know you are), and you see a game worthy of the 5 & 1, shoot Catherine an e-mail at UW5and1@gmail.com. Based on the few uni combos we’ve seen already previewed, there are probably a few good…er, bad…candidates already!
Catch you guys tomorrow.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“His grammar and sentence construction, not to mention his grasp of logic, are absolutely Palinesque.”
— terriblehuman
I’m slightly surprised no one copied the Miami Sharks from Any Given Sunday and called them the same franchise as Jacksonville. Heck, the league in the movie could have been the same with a new name… it did co-exist with the NFL in that universe.
After this weekend’s WFL voting, will there be another round or will there just be winner for each design/team?
Why would we need another round? Unless all of the winning designs are going to join the UWFFL…
Maybe it could serve as a mini UWFFL?….WFLUWFLL.
Or maybe to determine the favorite overall design.
I have something in mind, but it probably won’t involve week-to-week voting on games, I think the UWFFL has enough of that. We just folded Division III because there were too many games to vote on to keep people’s interest as it is.
The most interesting thing about that helmet tattoo story is that they guy even included the green dot in the tattoo!
Holy shit!! Is that Chuck Tanner wearing a Braves jacket over the often seen black/gold/pinstripes look??
It doesn’t match the Braves jacket that Niekro(?) is wearing on the right of the photo. Maybe it’s a Japanese jacket.
Regarding the giant Lifebuoy sign:
I read somewhere that someone brought a sign to the Baker Bowl which read: “The Phillies use Lifebuoy soap and they still stink”.
The top ten college logos list solid, except for the Georgia G – A school that borrows their logo from an NFL team shouldn’t be featured.
Greatly appreciate the weekend content but the ticker has been a bit long-winded lately.
Why wouldn’t Apple remove Bose from its stores…and all non-Beats brands for that matter?
They now fully own. Beats….they don’t sell. HP or Dell computers there either.
KW
I was about to post this. Sure, maybe its partly related to the weird Beats/Bose NFL thing, but it seems about as likely that they stopped selling a direct competitor at their flagship stores because that is a normal thing for a company to do, and the timing just seems odd to those who follow the uni-verse.
You expect brutal choices in any modern “name that team” vote. Frankly, three excellent names out of ten is a better-than-average ratio. The only problem is that it risks splitting the vote of people with taste between Canaries, Coal Sox, and Moonshiners and letting one of the seven crap names sneak through. Though they don’t show results, so the team has clearly already chosen a name (or maybe two names and they’ll give some weight to the fan input) and the vote doesn’t really matter.
Yep, this is a pretty standard list. When Scranton/WB had a contest two years ago, they had ‘Black Diamond Bears’ as a finalist. Morgantown has Black Diamonds and Black Bears. The D’Backs were the final word on baseball nicknames that play off ‘diamond.’ Black Bears is too generic, and there are plenty of other bears already in MiLB. It didn’t work for Yakima, and probably wouldn’t stand out in WV either.
Canaries is a great name, but it is already used by Sioux Falls of the AAIPB–formerly of the Northern League.
Coal Kings is too close to Clinton Lumber Kings for my liking, but Coal Sox is fun…are fun?
Energy and Wonder are instant throwaways.
Wild Ones is a total wildcard. I can’t think of another nickname in sports remotely similar to this.
Moonshiners is fun, but also a little corny. There was a huge backlash when the Arkansas Travelers unveiled their redneck possum logo, and I wonder if Morgantowners might be similarly embarrassed by the ‘Shiners.
Muskets might not go over well, but it’s a nice minor league name.
My top three are Coal Sox, Muskets, and Wild Ones. The latter only for the sheer weirdness of it. “Let’s go see a Wild Ones game.” “He’s my favorite Wild One.”
Washington, PA, which isn’t all that far from Morgantown, WV, already has a Frontier League team called Wild Things. Hard to imagine Morgantown going with Wild Ones for that very reason.
Good point about the Wild Things. Those two nicknames are similar in a word-for-word sort of way, but Wild Things is more of a simple adjective/noun combo.
Wild Ones is a vague concept more akin to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, for lack of a better comparison.
To put it another way: the idea of going to see the Wild Things makes a kid smile. The idea of going to see the Wild Ones makes a kid scratch their head.
That Detroit Tiger is the late great Aurelio Lopez, aka Señor Smoke. He wasn’t traded to Detroit until 12/4/78 which gives me some doubt that this picture was taken in 1978.
On A.J. Watt’s helmet – I didn’t realize that Riddell had that optional inflated forehead pad on the Speed helmets. I know that back in the VSR-4 days equipment managers could add these for players with either fitting issues or concussion issues – for example, Steve Young wore a VSR-4 with the inflated front pad at the end of his career – you could see the inflator under the helmet stripe.
I suppose this goes back to the original HA-9 helmets from the late 1960s (the ones with both air inflated and liquid-filled padding). It was an option on the later 70s/early 80s “Micro-Fit” that could be added above the pre-inflated front padding (like on a PAC-3 helmet). Riddell changed their padding around 1982 to a solid foam block for the forehead pad (M-155 inflated, WD-1 pre-inflated, etc.) they still kept the inflated forehead pad as an option.
Watt’s is the first Speed helmet I’ve seen with this, but I have also seen this inflator on the earlier Revolution models.
Of course Apple is getting rid of all Bose stuff. Bose is suing them over Beats.
They don’t sell Dell computers either…has nothing to do with lawsuits.
When will the voting for the WFL contest close?
Also, I really, really like Jordan Reagan’s Vulcans helmet. Big logos bisecting two-tone helmets… will that be a new trend?
Probably do a wrap up next weekend.
I think that Expos pillbox hat has three red stripes (hoops?).
link
I would like to try to get into the UWFFL, but my email isn’t letting me have a google plus account. Is there any other way I could get in?
Well I could have you send us graphics by email, but many of the day-to-day activities of the league (teams posting updates, etc.) are also conducted on the G+ pages, so I don’t know how involved you could get in the league if you can’t use G+.
Can you sign up for a Gmail account to use G+?
Can’t get a screengrab, but the Missouri Tigers’ mascot is wearing a jersey with a 2014 Cotton Bowl patch on it
On the baseball all-star picture, check the pants on that guy in the Giants jersey.
Giants jersey? Methinks you’re referring to Chuck Tanner in the Pirates jersey.
The Landon Donovan links show two different jerseys.
I’m a tad annoyied that the hidden logos in sports does not mention that the F1 logo is also designed to look like a flag, which is the universal communicator in auto racing
I thought my dad was cheap. We had regular 8mm movies, not Super 8. Now I see from the link to the Comiskey Park exploding scoreboard that there were Super 6 movies? 6?
I really need to proofread my entries before I submit them to you, Phil. Thanks for sharing!
The MLB Japan Tour took place in 1979. The photo shows Padres Ozzie Smith & Roger Craig in their 1979 road “San Diego” jerseys.
Just want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to come up with a WFL uniform concept, you did a great job and brought back some good memories.
Thank God my father isn’t alive to see the NY Stars again, I think it would give him nightmares, in 1974 at Downing stadium he threw 6 interceptions against them, the worst game of his career. After the game we drove to my grandparents house in New Jersey, my grandmother was Italian and a great cook, she had food ready for the King as he came in.
He told her he just threw 6 interceptions and was too depressed to eat, he then sat down and ate four meatballs a plate of spaghetti and a loaf of bread. I guess the King’s depression wasn’t as bad as we thought?
The next day he was reading about himself in the NY Times, ever the optimist he looked over at me and said, “The King is in good company Jimbo, Joe Willie once threw 6 interceptions too”
Stanford looked atrocious last night in matte black helmet with shiny red decals, black jersey, black pants, black socks and white shoes. What I’ve seen so far today looks terrific by comparison.
Wait ’till you get a load of Oregon.
Sorry, but damn that looks good!
Have to disagree. Oregon looks terrible today. But you know how much I despise all white on the road.
Cardinal was awesome last night. I love that look.
Bear looks good against Horned Frog. Frog should have worn the purple britches
if you look closely the expos pillbox hat has red stripes.
RE: the 1978 MLB Japan tour photo – Dave Parker and Chuck Tanner are also wearing completely different versions of the yellow jersey. The regular-season jerseys had single-color (black) PIRATES on the front; these have white outlines.
Doh -got it wrong. It was the black jerseys that didn’t use the two-color lettering.
That lettering had white trim. Not as heavy as on these jerseys, but it was there.
Wayne – You posted before I refreshed.
Are the Utah Wings the same franchise as the San Antonio Wings? Also the Norfolk Fire? Shouldn’t they be up for vote against the other designs of the same franchises?
And for the Birmingham Vulcans, can we “write-in” the UWFFL Birmingham Vulcans? They should have been entered against the red-and-gray “hand-colored” design.
Purdue – Who let someone in the highlighter’s room?
Alabama/Arkansas – Best Red/White vs White/White/Red matchup.
Love the Penn State Road Unis…basic white with blue. Perfect.
Not much of a fan of the jersey worn but I LOVE the blue pants on Michigan tonight. Although I’d love to see them only worn on the road (full time). Their opponents could take a note from that. Blue pants on the road would be a huge improvement over their horrible practice gear look they always wear. Home and away.
And why does Baylor football wear the Vegas Gold type shade when everything else from Baylor is more of a gold shade? It drives my OCD crazy.
Two comments:
1. Another notable thing in the picture of the touring Major League team in Japan is the wrong number font on Joel Youngblood’s jersey. Compare the varsity 1 on his jersey to the correct block 1 on John Stearns’s jersey. (From 1962 through 1977, the Mets used block numbers at home and varsity numbers on the road. When they changed to the 3-button pullovers in 1978, they switched to block numbers on all uniforms. But erroneous varsity digits continued to appear on the road jersey from time to time up through 1983.)
2. That hybrid NFL logo was used on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” a few weeks ago.
link
I’m probably the only one here that finds this interesting (unless Olbermann is looking at comments today) but I found a nugget in the Ed Burn link. It basically credits the short field and scoreboard at Baker Bowl for Chuck Klein’s offensive prowess. And be darned, looking at his splits on Baseball Reference, he was probably onto something. Who knew he hit .068 better, had a .064 better OBP and slugged an amazing .152 better at home. I guess while metrics weren’t tracked as they are now, Burn still saw something a little fishy with Klein’s numbers.
Though none of the Braves are wearing them, there were Braves pillbox hats at the Japanese All-Star game. I remember watching this game on HBO. Phil Niekro was being interviewed by a Japanese reporter who was wearing a Braves pillbox hat.