Reader Leo Strawn Jr. recently sent me this photo of Pete Rose, which I hadn’t seen before. Pretty sure it’s from 1963. There’s so much going on here! Let’s go one thing at a time:
• Rose was batting without a helmet.
• You don’t often see a pinstriped vest, much less a pinstriped cap.
• Rose’s pant length and stirrups style at this point in his career were both fairly conventional — a far cry from the Big Red Machine lower-leg style he’s usually associated with.
• Note the black piping on the two armholes. The Reds’ vests originally had no armhole piping. Then they added the black piping to the left armhole in 1961, as a memorial to owner Powel Crosley. They decided they liked the look so much that they added piping the right armhole the following year.
• And then there’s that NOB. Yes, it’s below the number, but the really odd thing about it, at least to me, is the radial arch. The Reds did this for all of their subscript NOBs during this period, and it always throws me when I see it. Arching on a conventional NOB makes sense, because it follows and reinforces the shape and drape of the player’s shoulders. But arching on a subscript NOB doesn’t make sense — it just feels wrong. But NOBs were still new at the time, and subscript NOBs newer still, so there were no established rules and the Reds were just making things up as went along. (Also worth noting: That back uni number was really small.)
Meanwhile: New ESPN column today. Remember our recent discussion of gay pride uniforms? I’ve expanded upon that for this column. Check it out here.
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Foxes in Soxes: Aside from sports, I don’t watch much television these days. I’m aware that we’re supposedly in the midst of the “golden age of TV” and that I’m missing out on some high-quality stuff that I’d probably really enjoy, but I already spend most of my day sitting at home staring at various screens, so I’m not really looking to add more of that to my life.
Lately, though, I’ve somehow gotten hooked on Broad City. It’s admittedly an odd choice for me, since it’s about 20something stoners (not exactly my type), but something about it pushes my buttons. So I was happy to see the two stars, Abbi Jacobsen and Ilana Glazer, on the cover of this week’s issue of New York magazine — a rare case of me being in tune with the pop-cultural zeitgeist. Best of all, they were wearing striped tube socks, so this counts as a uni-related item!
Too good for the Ticker: I don’t mean to be all “They really knew how to design things back in the day,” but, um, they really knew how to design things back in the day. Case in point: this completely amazing bow tie advertisement that is just so right, in so many ways:
I mean, seriously, how gorgeous is that? And I don’t even particularly like bow ties! The colors, the angles, the typography, the composition — magnificent. Plus it has a sense of organic warmth that’s missing from most digital design. I want to just wallow in it. Damn. Just ”¦ damn.
’Skins Watch (a day early this week): The committee tasked with coming up with a new UND team name to replace “Fighting Sioux” is facing a time crunch. ”¦ The ACLU has sided with the ’Skins in their First Amendment claim against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Further info here (from Mike Styczen). ”¦ The debate in the Buffalo-area town whose high school teams are called the Redskins, which has going on for some time now, is continuing.
Baseball News: The Mets have uni-numbered beverage containers at spring training camp. ”¦ The Modesto Nuts will be wearing several one-off jerseys to mark their 10th-anniversary, including some “What Might Have Been” jerseys based on other names that had been suggested for the team 10 years ago (from Bryan Justman). … Pretty cool season ticket pack design for the Nationals (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ You know how the Tigers have different versions of the old English “D” on their jersey and cap? Jeffrey Sak found a Tigers shirt with the jersey version on one sleeve and the cap version on the other. “I usually see merchandise with only one or the other,” he says. ”¦ Two steps forward, one step back: Stony Brook wore striped socks and G.I. Joe caps yesterday (from Pat Costello). ”¦ Some Mariners players were wearing stirrups yesterday — but not the striped design that was supposedly going to be used this season. Maybe they’re saving those for the regular season. ”¦ LSU catcher Kade Scivicqueis has a seriously garish chest protector (from Joel Manuel). ”¦ Will Ferrell will be playing for 10 MLB teams in various Cactus League games today — and presumably wearing 10 different uniforms. ”¦ No visuals, but the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs are doing a one-day name change to the Hermit Crabs on April 24, and will wear “special jerseys saluting the loveable crustaceans.” ”¦ Here’s a jersey-based schedule for the SEC (from Jay Sullivan). ”¦ Team Europe, which is currently playing an exhibition series in Japan, appears to be using raised batting helmet logos, much like the Cubs. You can also just barely see the Netherlands flag on the right sleeve — each player wore his flag of national origin. ”¦ When players wear windbreakers under their jerseys during spring training, those windbreakers usually have plain sleeves, but here’s a shot of former Reds pitcher Orlando Pena with Mr. Redlegs and a uni number on his sleeve. And the windbreaker number doesn’t match his jersey number!
Pro Football News: Here’s great shot of Vikings DL Alan Page in the 1970 Pro Bowl, with the NFL 50th-anniversary logo on his shoulder and helmet (great find by Jeff Flynn). ”¦ After the news broke that Darrelle Revis was returning to the Jets, some fans went and bought old discounted Revis jerseys from his first tour of Jets duty that were still available for sale online. ”¦ Pretty wacky arena football uniforms in the X-League (from Seth Shaw). ”¦ A Texas artist came up with an interesting helmet design honoring Cowboys TE Jason Witten (from Jay Sullivan).
College and High School Football News: Vanderbilt is working on new uniforms — although, really, who isn’t? ”¦ Interesting note from Brady Graham, who writes: “When I played high school football for Lee’s Summit High School in Missouri 10 years ago, every player carried a single chain link during the week (every player is an important link in the chain, we’re as strong as the weakest link, etc.). On game days, the chain was assembled and the coach wore it around his neck during the game. It now appears that the team has incorporated this into their uniforms.”
Hockey News: Bridgeport Sound Tigers will wear Irish-themed uniforms this Saturday (from Dane Drutis). ”¦ Assorted stars/stripes pad designs for the Team USA goalies (from John Muir). ”¦ When the Avs wear their blue alternate jerseys tonight, it will be for the final time, as that design is being scrapped next season. Lots of additional info on the current state of NHL uni news here.
Basketball News: Here are all 30 NBA team logos broken down by how many basketballs appear in the design (from Mark Heggen). … Union and Northwestern Ohio went color vs. color. ”¦ Here’s something you don’t often get to see: high school hoops footage from the early 1930s, in this case from the Illinois state tourney. It includes a shot of a teen-aged Lou Boudreau, who would go on to become a baseball Hall of Famer (nice find by Ben Fortney).
Soccer News: A Houston Dynamo player was apparently wearing a blood jersey the other day. ”¦ AS Roma’s 2015-16 kits have leaked. ”¦ Last week I had a Grab Bag item about sanitation workers in Amman, Jordan, getting new uniforms because their old ones looked like the orange jumpsuits worn by ISIS beheading victims. But now that plan has backfired because the new uniforms looked too much like the jerseys worn by a Jordanian soccer team, and the team thought its players would be ridiculed for looking like sanitation workers. ”¦ New York City FC’s Mix Diskerud has a really big Yankees cap collection (from Yusuke Toyoda). ”¦ Fox Sports 1’s logo will soon start appearing on American Youth Soccer Organization jerseys — disappointing.
Grab Bag: The U.S. Navy granted permission for all past and present Navy reserves to wear their uniforms to their civilian workplaces on March 3, in commemoration of the Navy Reserve’s centennial anniversary. ”¦ Towson’s lacrosse goalie has custom gloves. ”¦ The California-based lettuce company Tanimura & Antle is reintroducing its old “T&A” logo. ”¦ Is this history’s oldest striped sock? Could be — dates back to about 200 A.D. (from K.C. Kless).
Look at the X-League logos and find the Rio Grande Valley Sol.
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Does that logo look familiar? It’s the Miami Sol from the WNBA. They just slapped a football on it.
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Things are definitely bad when a team rips off a WNBA logo!
Modesto Nuts item has a botched link.
Thanks. Fixed.
Looking at the photo of the old sock in the Grab Bag, reminded me that back in circa 200 A.D. all the hipsters were wearing colorful socks with a split big toe. Sandals dictated the style, I assume.
Here’s another pair of old socks, sadly without stripes: link
Paul, since you love texture, you’ll love those socks. They are beautifully made.
I agree, Broad City is one of the funniest shows on TV right now.
I’ve always been interested by teams that put balls or sports gear in their logos. Especially for pro teams, what’s the point? Looking at the NBA, it also seems like the many of the recent logo designs all have basketballs in them: Nets, Pelicans, Hornets, Thunder.
Was it ever broken down by sport? I’d guess football brings up the rear in iconography related to the sport, baseball’s in the lead, and hockey and basketball come in two and three. Mind you, basketball has other icons like the key, the net, the hoop, and the backboard to render graphically.
Looking at that picture of Broad City, I instantly thought of that iconic Sports Illustrated cover with NY Rangers goalies Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck together in a jersey.
There was a good discussion on uniforms this morning on WGR550 (Buffalo) this morning with Sabres President Ted Black. They discussed the Sabres retiring 3rd jersey, wearing white at home, the black & red jerseys. Interview should be up on link later today.
Lou Boudreau was quite the cager, as he also played pro basketball for the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans in 1939-40 for the old NBL. (I believe he ran the floor with another future HOFer; some kid named John Wooden.)
All work and no play makes Paul a dull boy
Re: Bow tie ad
As a professional in the ad world, I have to say I love this ad as well. Truly a golden age back then. My favorite part is the man pictured…in an all white suit at the races. Someone get his a mint julep!
So stoked to see Broad City mentioned.
From the UND article. . .
“If there is something there that interferes with your education, you’re violating the civil rights of those individuals with whatever that issues is and in this case it happened to be the Fighting Sioux name.”
This is a ridiculous standard to use. Plenty of the issues within the Native American nickname/imagery merit debate, but “it interferes with my education” is an insultingly low bar for determining if someone’s civil rights have been violated.
Not only that, but how does the name of the school’s mascot interfere with education in the first place? I think a person can earn a degree regardless of whether or not they like the name of the sports mascot. Sports are extra-curricular activities and have nothing to do with education. Heck, the act of actively supporting the sports teams is a bigger detriment to a person’s education, since the time spent at the games is time that they could be using to study instead. You want an education, great. Go to your classes on time and learn, and don’t worry about the damn sports teams.
“Not only that, but how does the name of the school’s mascot interfere with education in the first place?”
Presumably, it doesn’t.
An insensitive school nickname needn’t have any adverse effect on a student’s educational experience.
Unless that student happens to belong to the group being referenced…then it might be a bit less inconsequential.
Tell me if I’m wrong. Rose’s name on back is simply arched, not radial arched. A recent example of “radial arch” would be the mid-90’s Braves, where each letter is on a radius.
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“Arched” is an umbrella term, encompassing all varieties of word on a curved baseline. The Hank Aaron jersey is a good example of vertical arching, where all the letters are parallel.
Yep, it all comes back to me. Vertical arch is what the Braves featured.
You have a typo. Should read “LSU catcher Kade Scivicque.”
Is he wearing a wristband with a play chart on it?
“… It’s admittedly an odd choice for me, since it’s about 20something stoners (not exactly my type)…”
Best years of my life.
doesn’t the Milwaukee Bucks logo appear to have an abstract basketball in the buck’s horns?
Good lord, now I can’t unsee it! But you have to meet it halfway.
Me too in the never seen it before, can’t unsee it now camp. But good gosh, look at the secondary logo:
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Where they actually put a ball under the horns to make it completely obvious.
Like the FedEx arrow, but waaaaay more subtle.
Also, it’s not a breakdown of teams based on how “many basketballs are in their design.”
It’s more like “aside from the Wizards, teams either use a ball or they don’t.”
Rose isn’t wearing a hard-shell helmet in that shot, but he is wearing a liner underneath his cap. I know this has been covered here before, but for those who don’t know: Both leagues started mandating protective headgear in the 50s, but the cap liners were allowed in lieu of helmets until 1971, with a grandfather clause for active players who preferred the liners. Bob Montgomery was the last liner-wearer, in 1979.
Nailed it, Perry. I’ve had a couple discussions/disagreements with people about this subject in the past few years – the most recent came about after the passing of Ernie Banks; I provided a dozen pics to someone and he kept saying that he just didn’t see it and that he had an actual hat from the same time period, which proved his point. Before that, it was about Frank Robinson, Bob Montgomery, Jackie Robinson . . .
So even though players and fans love the Avs’ blue 3rd jerseys, they’re not going to wear them any more because REEBOK doesn’t want them to? Who’s the client here?
Icethetics is basing their info off of the Reebok catalog. “Reebok has the Avalanche changing up their third jersey.” and from the first paragraph at the beginning of the entire article “As always, our preview is based on the planning catalog Reebok sends out to retailers in January. It typically refers to new and changing jerseys as “TBD” rather than detailing any actual designs.” The Fansided article is not reading the information correctly.
The uniform you showed with no armbands is not the same uniform. That one is from 1956 or 1957. The uniform that Rose is wearing debuted in 1961. Not exactly sure when the armband was placed on the jerseys. The uniform may or may not have been worn in an official MLB game without the armband, as Crosley’s death (March 28, 1961) was on the eve of the 1961 season. The uniform, if worn in spring training that year, would have probably been worn without the armband, but teams in that era would often wear the previous year’s uniform in spring training.
The uniform you showed with no armbands is not the same uniform. That one is from 1956 or 1957. The uniform that Rose is wearing debuted in 1961. Not exactly sure when the armband was placed on the jerseys. The uniform may or may not have been worn in an official MLB game without the armband, as Crosley’s death was on the eve of the 1961 season. The uniform, if worn in spring training that year, would have probably been worn without the armband, but teams in that era would often wear the previous year’s uniform in spring training.
Just noticing now the latest “Catch of the Day” (never really sure when it changes so for all I know it has been there for weeks). Anyway, it’s very similar to an exhibition I saw at the Tate Modern in London a couple of weeks ago by a German photographer, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg: link
They’re absolutely stunning structures but I had pretty much forgotten all about them until I saw the CotD. Glad to see someone taking up the mantle and doing a really thorough documentation of what is a thoroughly beautiful and fascinatingly bizarre phenomenon.
Little bit of an odd scene at Stamford Bridge last evening, as (1) most (but not every single) PSG player(s) wore an armband:
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and (2)some but not all Chelsea players did, albeit w/out any seeming rhyme or reason:
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Done to commemorate several French athletes killed in a helicopter crash while filming a reality show in Argentina:
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Not a fan of partial armband wearing. It loses the effect a little when the team isn’t all in.
And John Terry’s supposed to be really meticulous about pre-game preparation.
Was disconcerting, actually. An pair of Englishmen (Terry & Neville), a Serb (Ivanovic), a Spaniard (Fabregas), and a Brazilian who plays for Spain (Costa) all wore armbands for Chelsea, while the lone Frenchman on the squad (Zouma) didn’t.
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The in-game commentators never said what the armbands were for (I fast-forwarded through the pre-game), and truth be told, when I looked up why afterwards I couldn’t really see the cause for wearing them in the first place.
Who is this Neville chap you say plays for Chelsea?
Also, saying that the deaths of three active French sport stars isn’t a tragedy worthy enough of armbands seems really rather unnecessarily harsh.
Sorry, meant Cahill.
Not sure how I’m being “harsh.” Certainly not suggesting the deaths weren’t tragic, just that I don’t see why memorial armbands were warranted. None of the people who were killed were connected to PSG (that I’m aware of), or even connected to the sport generally. Hell, the fact that neither team felt compelled to a man to wear them suggests that very thinking.
Imagine if several non-revenue athletes at a major American university were killed. I’d expect the football or men’s basketball team would show some sort of gesture, at least a minute of silence, probably a patch/decal as well – that’s probably the closest American analog.
The victims weren’t connected to soccer, but in most countries, non-major sports are still part of the national conversation and its competitors are part of the fraternity.
We can debate the merits or appropriateness of particular types of memorial, the possibility that there’s an over-saturation of sporting memorials etc. but to just come out and effectively say such-and-such a memorial is stupid and shouldn’t have happened, while the bodies are still warm no less, seems remarkably crass to me.
The university analogy is a poor one, there’s tons of commonality in that hypothetical that doesn’t apply here. Here’s a more apt one: suppose Lindsay Vonn & Tiger Woods die in a car accident over Christmas 2014 – do the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints wear a patch commemorating them in their ensuing NFL wild-card game? I’d find it odd if they did.
I suppose it would be “remarkably crass” to say the memorial was “stupid.” I’m sure glad I didn’t do that. Sheesh.
scott,
I think you underestimate the closeness of the sports fraternity in non-American countries.
You made a subjective judgement of a decision to memorialise a tragedy, implying (without actually saying, sure) that it was stupid to do so. It wasn’t a commentary on the nature or culture of memorials, just a petty and pointless piece of bald cynicism. Yes, I would call that crass.
To add to what terrible was saying, they were all athletes who specifically represented France (whereas Tiger Woods quite famously hated Ryder Cup duty) and similarly PSG were representing France in England last night. Furthermore, the fact that it was three athletes from three different sports gave it an ecumenism that warranted a characterization as a general sporting tragedy.
Hyperbolic much, Padday? I say I “couldn’t really see the cause for wearing them” – you read a whole bunch of fodderol into that.
And the notion that PSG was “representing France” is absurd. PSG is a professional sports team comprised mostly of non-French players (particularly the front-line ones). They represent the French league, sure, but hardly the country as a whole. When Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012 using a brutally defensive style, I recall plenty of English fans bemoaning their triumph as “the death of football” and the like. Am I to suppose they were bring unpatriotic in doing so? Of course not.
What was someone supposed to read from that? “couldn’t really see the cause for wearing them, [but clearly people can memorialise a tragedy without being called out for trivialities because that would be crass lol]”? As I said, your comment was not in the least constructive or insightful, it was just cynical.
As for your second point, by that logic it would seem to suggest that by dint of the fact that over 50% of the American population don’t approve of Barack Obama’s presidency, when he goes abroad he’s not actually representing the United States. Furthermore, there’s no suggestion that PSG have to represent “the country as a whole”. As you say, they represent the French league which is part of the French sporting community and at the moment, the French sporting community is in mourning at the deaths of three prominent figures. It’s really that bloody simple.
Perry makes an excellent point about Pete Rose wearing a cap liner in lieu of a shell helmet. Several other players did as well, at least part of the time: Norm Cash, Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Taylor and Jim King of the Senators. More here: link
apparently the Hermit Crab Association isn’t too happy with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs promotion of giving away free hermit crabs to the first 1000 fans.
I am more amazed that such an association even exists.
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Vintage photos with unusual uniform quirks are amongst my fave topics on Uni Watch – great one today!
How could anyone let 15 cents come between themselves and a higher quality bow tie?
The Reds’ uniform of the early 60’s were in my opinion the best to date, especially the pinstriped caps. I thought the black piping on the vests were in memory of Fred Hutchinson.
Totally agree, including the arched subscript NOB. Only complaint is how the proportions of the jersey number & NOB; the former should’ve been somewhat larger and the second somewhat smaller.
Today’s ESPN column is up:
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Dismissing from the conversation teams with actual rainbows on their everyday uniforms, my first instinct was to cite the U. of Hawaii football team. In 1998, they went from “Rainbow Warriors” to just “Warriors” to disparage a perceived connection between them and LGBT causes. Pretty much the opposite of what you were looking for, and recently they’ve seen the error of their ways.
Ironic too, since Hawaii was the first state to recognize same-sex marriages, I think.
Hutch died after the 1964 season.
Thanks for the Orlando Pena pic! When I was born in 1970 my uncle gave me a baseball glove. I forget the brand, but it was an Orlando Pena model and it is what I used until I turned 10 (when I got a Tommy John model). Pretty strange that an infielder used pitcher signature gloves, but they were good gloves.
Ray Ratto from CSNBayArea on the league’s wish for uniform advertising:
And commissioner Adam Silver, who is pro-plutocrat by contract, told Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune that he found it “fascinating . . . it got almost no attention” when players in this year’s All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest were wearing a Sprite logo on their jerseys. “That goes to show that, while I understand what the notion of NASCAR-like uniform conjures in fans, there is a tasteful way to have relatively small branding added to the jerseys that would provide additional value to our sponsors and the league.”
In other words, it will be your fault when the Warriors’ jerseys lose the sawed-off Bay Bridge tower look at replace it with the Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers logo, or worse, just the disembodied howling head of Joe Lacob in the place where the bridge was —- because the team’s currently dignified look really isn’t in keeping with the “relatively small branding added to the jerseys that would provide additional value to our sponsors and the league.”
In other words, this is Adam Silver’s first official icky moment as commissioner. You’re forgiven if you feel like soaking your head in a vat of hand sanitizer.
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The people who are for keeping the Lancaster nickname use the phrase “Once a Redskin, always a Redskin.” But that argument is taking a funny turn.
When a student goes to their high school, they are a Redskin. But when they go to college around Buffalo they become a Griffin or a Bengal or a Bull. Outside of the area, it’s other names (Buckeye, Wolverine, Nittany Lion). They find diversity. Then they realize there are more important things out there than a high school nickname.
A lot of the residents who want to keep the Redskin name, though, never further their education. They want to keep the name because it was all they had. They graduated as a Redskin, and now their kids are going to that school.
So on one hand, you have white, heterosexual, Christian males (top of the food chain) who are typically crying that they’re the real victims. But it’s slowly turning into class warfare.
While the Redskins’ use of their name may be legally protected under the First Amendment, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s not offensive and shouldn’t be changed. The Ku Klux Klan, the Westboro Baptist Church, and various other hate groups are all also protected by the First Amendment. However, I’m sure if some team tried to adopt a Klansman as its mascot and have a guy in a white hood and robes burn a cross at the 50-yard line before every football game, it would be rightly decried as highly offensive and racist. It would be 100 percent protected by the First Amendment, but that wouldn’t provide a justification for its existence. It’s the same with the Redskins’ nickname. Is the Redskins’ nickname offensive? Absolutely. But the First Amendment still applies, and the government should not be permitted to revoke the trademark on the grounds that it is offensive.
It isn’t the first time the ACLU has fought for free speech they vehemently disagree with, and it won’t be the last. A few years ago, they defended the right of a high school student in Connecticut to wear an anti-homosexuality shirt to school on Day of Silence, which is an annual event dedicated to fighting homophobia. The ACLU acknowledged they found the shirt highly offensive and that the beliefs expressed were completely against their mission, but pointed out that he was still protected by the First Amendment.
It’s the same here. The Redskins’ nickname is highly offensive, but the trademark restrictions are still unconstitutional. Dan Snyder has a right to free speech just like everyone else, and that includes a right to use a hateful nickname to refer to his football team.
The problem with this is that it creates a false dichotomy – either the Redskins’ nickname is protected by free speech, or it’s offensive and should be discontinued. The two are not mutually exclusive. It IS protected by the First Amendment, but that doesn’t automatically make it OK, at least on an ethical level.
The Redskins use of the name is absolutely protected by the First Amendment. That’s not in question, and that’s not what the Redskins are litigating or what the ACLU is supporting. Rather, the Redskins are arguing that it’s unconstitutional for the government to establish standards of propriety when granting trademark protection. Which is a form of government-authorized limited monopoly.
This latter point would be an expansion of currently accepted First Amendment jurisprudence. It would overturn nearly two centuries of established law on the matter. Such a ruling would tend to preempt any conceivable content-based limitations on trademarks. So if the Redskins win this First Amendment argument, and the First Amendment argument is actually applied as a general principle by the courts, then the American Nazi Party could trademark the swastika, and the Ku Klux Klan could trademark a term like “N—er Killer” for a line of merchandise, and a porn studio could trademark cartoon genitalia, and so forth.
Note that many commercial actors do business without any trademark protection at all. There is nothing stopping Dan Snyder from doing so with regard to the Redskins name. And even without trademark protection, Snyder would still enjoy significant legal protection for his team’s name and logos in the marketplace. Those are generally applicable laws, so the First Amendment clearly applies to the enforcement of such laws.
Point being, the right to free speech is not the same thing as a right to special government privileges for your speech. A trademark is a form of government subsidy. The First Amendment does not oblige us, the taxpayers, to subsidize Dan Snyder’s business. We can’t stop him from calling his business by an offensive name. But we can refuse to involve ourselves in his use of the name by granting him a valuable commercial monopoly.
You’re absolutely right, and the ACLU makes that point in the article. They say (paraphrasing) that the name is offensive and ought to be changed, but that it’s not the government’s job to force a change.
The problem with being a free speech advocate is that it puts you on the company of some pretty odious people. Popular speech and popular ideas don’t usually require free speech protection.
Regarding the Pete Rose pic, insanely tiny numbers on baseball uniforms were not rare as recently as the 1970s. One of the Big Red Machine’s trademarks was how the player name dwarfed the numeral on the back. The Tigers and Indians had the same problem.
Oops, initially put this in the wrong place… Today’s ESPN column is up:
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I thought it odd to see the article posted in a center-justified format, but then I found that there are a few other articles on ESPN.com posted this afternoon that are also center-justified, which suggests that somebody on their end screwed up.
Sorry, meant Cahill.
Not sure how I’m being “harsh.” Certainly not suggesting the deaths weren’t tragic, just that I don’t see why memorial armbands were warranted. None of the people who were killed were connected to PSG (that I’m aware of), or even connected to the sport generally. Hell, the fact that neither team felt compelled to a man to wear them suggests that very thinking.
RE: the Pete Rose picture – Colorize that!
While I tend to take the Reebok retailer solicitations with a grain of salt (it was speculated a couple of years ago that the Habs would make some sort of change to their uniforms that ended up never occurring), it’s nice to get some items confirmed – such as link.
That truly was one of the worst hockey uniforms ever. Though, like I said back in 2013, if that had been done by the Nashville Predators, it probably wouldn’t have garnered as much negative attention. It’d still be a bad jersey, but we’d see it as “Hey, it’s the Preds, so whatever”. Instead of a “turd burger”, it could’ve been the “Caped Elvis”! (Did Elvis ever actually don a gold jumpsuit/blue cape combo? Does it really matter?)
Whats on Cubs pitcher’s hat? #22
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Bud Light cases in Quebec include Expos merch… more than 10 years after the team ceased to exist. The pinwheel cap isn’t quite a throwback, the caps never had the team name.