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Charm City Pride, Hon

Interesting move by the Orioles, who took their “Baltimore” script, which normally appears on their road greys, and put it onto a set of home whites for last night’s game against the Blue Jays (plenty of photos here).

This was the Orioles’ first game at Camden Yards since the “empty stadium” game on April 29. That game, of course, had been preceded by two games being cancelled by the riots that engulfed Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death. So last night was the team’s first on-field opportunity to address the crisis in its hometown. Putting the city name on the home whites was a simple but effective move.

In a refreshing change from the way things are usually done in the sports world these days, the Orioles provided almost zero advance hype. The news of the new uniforms was kept under wraps until about 15 minutes before gametime, when the team issued the following tweet:

Good for them for not overselling it.

The Orioles have worn “Baltimore” at home before. In fact, they did it just last September, when they wore a stars/stripes “Baltimore” script to mark the 200th anniversary of the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” But that was more of a gimmick jersey — it didn’t even include the O’s team colors. I’m pretty sure last night’s jersey marked the first time the team went “Baltimore”-clad at home with an otherwise normal O’s jersey.

There are at least two recent precedents for an MLB team responding to a hometown tragedy by wearing its road insignia on its home jersey. The first and most obvious one is the Red Sox’s “Boston Strong” jersey, which was first worn on April 20 and 21, 2013, in the wake of that year’s Boston Marathon bombings. That jersey has now become an annual part of the Bosox wardrobe, trotted out each year on Patriots Day (which is also when the Boston Marathon is held).

The other example is one you might have forgotten about: After 19 firefighters died while combating the Arizona wildfires in June of 2013, the Diamondbacks created a home “Arizona” jersey, which they wore for a 10-game homestand in July.

The interesting thing about these jerseys is the way they turn baseball’s usual insignia protocol on its head. Most of us have been taught that a team should wear its team name at home and its city name on the road. I learned this myself when I was eight years old, when my father explained to me, “When you’re a guest in someone else’s house, you should be humble. Don’t shout your name at them — just tell them where you’re from.” (Two years later, the Mets changed their road insignia from “New York” to “Mets,” which I found very confusing and my father couldn’t adequately explain.) Obviously, not every team follows this rule, but most of them do, and my admittedly unscientific impression, based on years of communicating with people about uni-related issues, is that most fans like it that way.

But the implicit message of these jerseys worn by the Red Sox, D-Backs, and now the Orioles is that the city name can be transformed from second-tier status to something Very Special if circumstances dictate. But why wait for special (or tragic) circumstances? If wearing your city name at home makes sense in the wake of a crisis, what about on a normal day? I hope I’m wrong about this, but I have a feeling we may start seeing teams mixing and matching their home and road scripts across their various jerseys.

A few additional thoughts and notes, in no particular order:

•  How symbolically important was this jersey to the Orioles? So important that we were treated to the extremely rare sight of O’s skipper Buck Showalter wearing a jersey instead of his usual windbreaker:

• In a way, putting the city name on the front of a baseball reminds me of college sports, where teams are primarily referred to by their school names, not by their team names. In the NFL, we say the Broncos are playing the Patriots; in the NCAA, we say Illinois is playing Michigan. Wearing “Baltimore” at home kinda feels like that.

• Will the Orioles wear this jersey again tonight? I hope not. If you try to make every game special, you end up with none of them being special.

• Many people have told me over the years that they think the “Baltimore” script is too unwieldy on the road greys — too many letters, not enough space across the chest. For those of you who’ve expressed that thought over the years, what do you think of the “Baltimore” script on the home white?

• Finally, it’ll take a lot more than a nice jersey gesture to heal Baltimore’s wounds or solve its problems. As my brother mentioned to me while we were driving out to Long Island on Mother’s Day, what happened in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death had to be unsurprising, or even predictable, to anyone who’s watched The Wire. Obviously, I don’t expect a baseball team to be the savior, but Orioles COO John Angelos appears to have a more intelligent public perspective on America’s urban challenges than most of his fellow MLB execs. It’ll be interesting to see what else, if anything, the Orioles do in terms of community outreach.

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Spirit of 76ers: The 76ers will be unveiling a new logo set this morning at about 9:300am Eastern. I’ll have a reaction piece over on ESPN as soon as the new designs go live — link coming soon. have unveiled their new logo set. Full details here.

In other NBA news, the Bucks will be unveiling their new uniforms on June 6. I’ve seen the uniforms and like them. I think most of you will like them too.

Also: SportsLogos.net honcho Chris Creamer has seen the Raptors’ new uniforms. He described them in this discussion thread. No word yet on an unveiling date.

And while we’re at it, I’ll be breaking some major NBA news later this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow — stay tuned.

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Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie

I have a Bengals Christmas ornament just like this one of Garfield wearing a Vikings helmet, which doubles as a bank. The eBay listing says it’s from the 1970s, but I believe this is early 1990s, which is when I got mine. Now on to the rest of the week’s stuff!

• I had this very item (where could it have gone?) — a beer mug from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

• Also had this exact item: a rather abstract-looking mid-1990s Cowboys polo shirt from Nike. This was Nike’s first go-round with the league, and Dallas was their first effort, as I recall.

• Here’s a T-shirt commemorating Hank Aaron’s 715th home run. You have to wonder whether this was licensed, and did Hammerin’ Hank ever see any of that cash. Then again, the shirt maker was “Hanko,” so maybe he did.

• Some bold geometry on this 1990s New York Giants polo shirt from Apex.

• This Bobby Orr “Jigsaw Puzzle In A Can” screams 1970s. Look at that font!

• I always liked how the NFL parkas from Sears had a nice big tag inside where you could write your name, address, and phone. Of course, 1) you’d use a marker that was too fat so the lines would bleed, thus making your text illegible, and 2) if someone stole it (or “found” it, that is), that tag wouldn’t be much of a deterrent. Doubt that many Dol-fans wore these in South Florida, but there you go. More likely they’d wear this Pro Line embroidered Dolphins sweatshirt from Russell. The best.

• Here’s a baseball sticker with a nebulous marketing slogan. The Padres urge you to “Let Yourself Go!” Go……where? To the game? To the corner market?

• Never seen this before — or at least not in this combo. We’ve all seen the NFL book The First 50 Years, but did you know it also came with a poster and a two album record set?

• Speaking of NFL posters, here’s a 1969 poster of NFL posters! Very meta.

• You know that Mr. Met has Mrs. Met. But did you know that Mr. Red once had Rosie Reds? Here she is on a leather beach bag.

Follow Brinke on Twitter: @brinkeguthrie

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Uni Watch News Ticker
By Garrett McGrath

Baseball News: The Yankees will wear this Bernie Williams patch when they retire his number on May 24 (thanks, Brinke). … Royals 3B Mike Moustakas wore pink batting gloves last night because he was on the bereavement list on Mother’s Day (thanks, Paul). … “Several years ago Uni Watch wrote about red caps worn by the Dodgers coaches during spring training in the ’50s and ’60s,” Ernest Reyes says. “Well, an example recently came up for auction and I wrote about it. Recently, it sold at auction for $845.” … Ogden, Utah’s Standard-Examiner posted vintage photos of the Ogden Reds from 1939-1955 (from Ben Hatfield). … Matt Duffy of the Giants has switched his uni number from 50 to 5 (thanks, Brinke). … New batting helmets for the Oregon Ducks softball team (from Alex Allen). … The Orix Buffaloes are going to wear ugly uniforms for five home games in June and July (from Yusuke Toyoda). … “I’m in post-production on a documentary on the 1875 independent professional base ball club the Covington (KY) Stars,” says Cam Miller. “I have been researching the Stars for the last 20 years. There are no known existing pics or images of unis but thanks to the outstanding descriptions in newspaper accounts of the day, I was able to sketch out and render the uniforms and players for my doc. Here is a logo I designed and the replica tobacco cards that I’ll give out at the premiere on June 14.” … “The Cubs fixed one of my biggest pet peeves on the new video board,” Jeff Ryder says. “They poorly tried to replicate electronic “white dot” number for the batter to start the year. They have fixed this.”

NFL News: Thank you for your service? The Department of Defense has paid 14 different NFL teams a total of $5.4 million over the last four years in exchange for patriotic displays at games (from Phil and Andrew Cosentino). … Here’s a photo gallery of the Chargers rookies getting fitted for equipment (from Eric Stangel). … “I noticed that the Rams rookies were wearing a lighter shade of blue for their rookie mini camp,” Tyrell McDowell says. “Is this foreshadowing the move to LA by going back to the LA Rams original color scheme?”

Hockey News: On Saturday, Eric asked about this picture of Isles’ John Tonelli wearing a blue helmet with the team’s home white uni. The caption indicated that it was a home game on Oct. 16, 1979, at Nassau Coliseum. He had never seen this blue helmet-white uni combo. The backstory came from reader Danny Green: Before a 5-1 win over Atlanta, the Flames complained that Isles goalie Billy Smith was wearing a white helmet while the rest of the team was wearing blue. Since Smith did not have a blue helmet readily available, the Isles wore white helmets and then pounded Atlanta. Rookie Yvon Vautour scored the game-winning goal in his first NHL game”“ it was the first of three goals he would score in an Islanders uniform.

Soccer News: Gerard Pique of Barcelona is showing his impressive haul of swapped jerseys on his Twitter feed (from Yusuke Toyoda). ”¦ New home kit for Leverkusen. ”¦ Is having a good uniform important to a team’s success? You bet it is (from Sean Walsh). ”¦ Tottenham Hotspur will unveil its new home kit on Friday (from John Muir).

Grab Bag: Coca-Cola has created a line of specially designed cans with braille for blind customers (thanks, Brinke). … Here’s a collection of 50 style guides for large companies (from Ryan Patrick). … Saint Mary’s College of California has announced a multi-year apparel deal with Under Armour. … President Obama received these special Jordan IVs with the presidential seal on the tongue from Nike (thanks, Phil). … Bicycling magazine has a new logo (from Sean Clancy). … This guy is going for the worst case of logo creep ever (from Neil MacLeod). … “The Allen High School (Texas) lacrosse team has NOBs below the numbers, uses the Philadelphia Eagles’ logo, and has wings on the shoulders,” Kenneth Singer says.

 
  
 
Comments (95)

    Pretty sure you have the white/blue Islanders helmets completely backwards-why would Tonelli be wearing blue in the picture if they “wore white helmets and then pounded Atlanta”.
    Seems to me Smitty had a BLUE helmet on, the Flames complained, Smitty didn’t have a WHITE one available, so the Isles all wore BLUE and then pounded Atlanta…no?

    Interesting if that’s the reason for the blue helmets. Back in the cage wearing days, most goalies only had one helmet/mask, and so half the time they didn’t match the team. Usually they wore the dark helmet but sometimes they wore light.

    Seems funny now, when most players have plenty of extra gear. But I guess they got used to one particular helmet.

    Back when the Canucks wore yellow, for a brief stretch they wore black helmets at home because everyone hated the yellow jerseys and the black helmets were an effort to toughen up the look.

    Ya the answer to this makes ZERO sense to me as well. First off, I’m pretty sure this was more common than we think around this era. Secondly, I have a hard time believing that the other team was complaining about the color of the goalie helmet as well, as goalies who had just the masks before the helmet, would paint them in styles that didn’t even necessarily match the team, and I don’t recall any complaints then. I mean, I could absolutely be wrong, but the explanation given makes no sense to me.

    Just to be clear- I am pretty sure the reasoning is correct (I kinda sorta remember the tale being told, but not enough to verify). What is wrong is the way it is written- he has his whites and blues backwards.

    In 1979-80 (the year in the picture) the helmet was considered part of the uniform for the first time.(coinciding with the 1979 rule change requiring all new players entering the league to wear one). As the game in the picture was only the Isles third game of the season, and it being a new rule, Atlanta was probably exploiting the fact that there was no language specific to goalies, and using a bit of gamesmanship.

    A google image search for “Billy Smith Mask” shows all four combinations of blue/white mask over blue/white jersey. I imagine if the story is true it is from his helmet/cage wearing days versus his mask wearing days.

    Smith stopped wearing a mask in 1978- he began wearing the cage/helmet combo at the beginning of the 78-79 season

    This rule must no longer apply. Chris Osgood wore a red cage with both home and road uniforms both of his stints with the Red Wings. What’s more, here’s a picture of him with the Islanders with a contrasting helmet: link

    I was at Osgood’s first game with the Islanders, played in Tampa. Having been acquired by the Islanders just days before, he played in a blue jersey and red pads and helmet.

    The rule NEVER applied to goalies…but it didn’t say so. When the new rule was put in, it had no language either way about goalies wearing the same as the team.

    Rosie Reds was formed in the 1960s as a defacto “ladies auxiliary” for the team. It appears that the group still exists.

    link

    That Garfield Vikings ornament is painful to look at it is so bad. I hope your Bengals one looks better, Brinke.

    At least the logo on your Bengals ornament appears to be pointed in remotely the correct direction.

    RE: Hank Aaron shirt….

    The company is Hanco (with a “c”). The M. Handelsman Co. Still around.

    Chargers rookie equipment fitting…..

    It’s always so weird (to me) to see NFL helmets without a mask on them–especially on someone’s head!

    Nice bit by the O’s, especially for the low-keyness.

    Did the Orioles remove the word “Baltimore” from certain Camden park and/or uniform bits when they were trying to lay territorial claim to the greater market, back when the Expos were still in Montreal?

    (My vague memories are not backed up by any real evidence on the BHOF site.)

    Away unis were “Orioles” until maybe a year or two after the Nationals arrived in DC. I don’t have exact years, unfortunately.

    Thanks.

    And I don’t remember their hat ever having “B” on it. (Somehow I can’t imagine it looking “right”. Sixty years of the cartoon or realistic bird.)

    Not related to anything from today, but when is the June t-shirt going to be revealed?

    The loss of Baltimore on the road jerseys, as well as any other official logos predates the move to OPaCY. As a kid (born in 71, remember the 79 series as my first real baseball) the O’s never had Baltimore on the jersey, even back at Memorial Stadium. I am sure it was for regional marketing.

    The Orioles spent 35 years denying they were from Baltimore.

    as for john Angelos, it’s nice ththat he talks about the challenges of the post-industrial city, but is he doing anything about it? In 2007 there was a story in The Nation about Peter Angelos not living up to his 2004 offer to the Oriole Park cleanup crews to make sure they earned a living wage. what did john angelos say then?

    Re: the DoD spending on the NFL veterans’ salutes, I have to wonder if any of the vets that have participated in those scenes, upon finding out about this report, feel any differently about it. I’m also wondering if any vets might have second thoughts about participating in future salutes.

    I’ve never made a big deal about regional identifiers on home jerseys and nicknames on away jerseys. I think that whole “rule” is overblown to begin with.

    FWIW, “Tottenham” is missing a “t”.

    Cleaning out my parents’ house about 10 years ago I came across a Playboy Playmate Puzzle-In-A-Can similar to the Bobby Orr one, which I think I gave my Dad as an Xmas gag gift in the mid-’70s. Wound up regifting it to my wife’s uncle.

    Basing any sort of commentary on the recent Baltimore unrest on a decade-old fictional TV show seems rather facile to me.

    I’ve always liked it when the city name is on at least the road jerseys, and it bothers me when it never appears.

    I remember a lot of people complained when the Texas Rangers’ jerseys only said “Texas” on them, but I liked it, just like I like that the Knicks jerseys say “New York” both home and away. I especially miss the Bulls’ jerseys with the script “Chicago”. I much prefer that to the case of the Angels, who could really be from anywhere.

    Just about everyone’s favorite baseball uniforms have always had the city, not the nickname, on both home and road. Can’t really be a uniform “rule” if two of the most iconic uniforms of all time violate it.

    At the big-league level, although I prefer to see city name on the road uniform, I don’t think it really matters. It’s not like any sports fan ever has to ask, “Where do the Rays play?” But for minor-league teams in all sports, I sort of feel like there ought to be a closer connection to the local community. I tend to think minor-league teams ought to wear the civic name on at least one uniform, and if it’s a baseball team, I much prefer city-initial caps to mascot caps.

    What ‘just about everyone’s favorite baseball uniforms’ have the city and not the nickname on home and away? JusttheYankees? The Cardinals uniform always ranks 1st in most ‘best’ polls and they only just added a St Louis one as ana lt jersey–for home–last year. It’s never struck me as denying where a team is from not to have the city name on it. Definitely not in the case of St Louis and not at all for Baltimore either.

    True fact: The “D” doesn’t stand for “Tigers.” Also, “Yankees” doesn’t start with an “N”.

    The Cardinals prove the “rule” false in the other direction – they’ve long worn the team name home and away, and people generally love the Cards unis.

    I would say there’s a stronger connection between the major league club and the community as compared to minor league teams. In terms of teams like the Cards and Phillies not having city names on their road uniforms, it’s a mistake, but something which happened so long ago it became tradition.

    Many pro sports teams do have the city name on uniforms because of that pride. In the case of the Rays, the previous set did have the “Tampa Bay” on the road unis, but this was when they were the Devil Rays. When the uniforms changed with the nickname, having the new nickname on all jerseys(except the ugly fauxback), made sense.

    I basically agree. The thing is, a Brewers jersey sort of stands for the city of Milwaukee in the eyes of anyone who has even a glancing familiarity with American pro sports. Whereas a Kernels shirt doesn’t necessarily say “Cedar Rapids” even to local residents, precisely because the minor leagues are so much less well known. That’s kind of why I’d prefer to see minor-league teams wear, and sell merch with, the civic name.

    Well, that and the fact that most minor-league facilities are publicly financed to some extent, so teams sort of owe it to the public to represent the community that underwrites them.

    This used to bother me INTENSELY when the Richmond Braves payed here…their uniforms were an exact replica of the parent club, with nary any evidence that they called Richmond home. The Flying Squirrels, though jokier in name and a level down, do a FAR better job in representing the city on the away uniforms.

    I’m from the Eastern League area, and I couldn’t agree more about that idea of separation visually, especially for geographically close parent and minor clubs.

    The Reading Phillies have a different motif than the parent club. Now if they’d only kept their railroad-based logo, which I loved, instead of changing to the “Fightin’ Phils”, which I don’t.

    The Yankees had block “Yankees” on the road greys for a stretch in the ’30s, after having settled on the NY interlocking logo for the home pinstripes for some time.

    My own consideration is that a wordmark, in block or script or fanicified (think Diamondbacks), is different from a pictograph or a letter logo. (I will cede to a higher authority, however.)

    Then we get into the combo logos (like the Florida Marlins), a whole nother kettle of fish, let alone the Brewers ball-in-glove or my beloved Expos logo with the hidden letters in it.

    Thanks, Thresh; I had forgotten about those. And they played the Cubs in the World Series a few times wearing them!

    Didn’t the Dallas Stars recently have “Dallas” on the black (home) jersey and “Stars” on the white? I think it had a lot to do with white being thought of as the home jersey. Not that they screwed up, but more like a move in anticipation back to white at home, or maybe they figured this is what the fans want?

    The Sacramento Kings had the city name at home and nickname on the road a few years back.

    Practical concerns can dictate design. There’s a reason “Philadelphia” doesn’t appear on any jersey; the word is too long.

    San Francisco has more characters, including spaces, than Philadelphia and it appears on a jersey.

    I expect basketball and baseball teams to have one set of graphics for the light-colored uniforms and a different set for the darks. I feel that to be value added and a sign they didn’t give the design staff the day off. It’s cheating, in a way, to use the same script home and away. Hockey and football are picture-oriented, rather than word-oriented, so I’m more lenient with them.

    LOL at the notion that people who watch a fictional TV show have a deep, intimate understanding of the deep-seeded socioeconomic issues of the city the show takes place in.

    The strawman being…the notion? Because I’m not the one who set him up to tear down, in this instance.

    I think you’re overblowing it by suggesting Paul thinks watching ‘The Wire’ gives one “deep, intimate understanding of the deep-seeded socioeconomic issues”.

    What I inferred was that the show gave a window into how complex and fucked up the city was at so many levels. I think you’re putting words into Paul’s typewriter by suggesting he meant any more than that.

    So, it doesn’t give a “deep, intimate understanding of the deep-seeded socioeconomic issues”, but it does give them a “window into how complex and fucked up the city was at so many levels”?
    That’s a distinction without a difference.

    What straw man? Paul said the outrage following the incident was no surprise to people who watch The Wire – implies that “people who watch a fictional TV show have a deep, intimate understanding of the deep-seeded socioeconomic issues of the city the show takes place in”

    No level of difficult socioeconomic issues ever justifies what we saw in Baltimore that Monday evening, it actually damages the cause of peaceful protesters.

    The people burning down a community center designed to help that community and helping themselves to fur coats could have cared less about Freddie Gray. And justice isn’t what we what it to be, facts matter.

    @Adam N.

    That’s what you inferred, and you’re taking it too far, I think.

    @Gusto4044
    It’s easy to tell people to not do bad things, and yeah, people shouldn’t do bad things. And I agree looting and destroying property, on its own, is unproductive. But I’m coming around to the idea that maybe you *do* have to destroy a community before the rest of the country pays attention.

    But my guess is that we’re not going to see eye to eye on this issue before completely hijacking this comment thread. I don’t expect you to agree with me, but I don’t think it’s a total waste of time to read what Ta-Nehisi Coates has written about the Baltimore riots (and rioting in general).

    Although “deep-seeded” does make some kind of metaphorical sense, I think the term you’re looking for is “deep-seated.”

    Big fan of the idea of Running Ben. Not a fan of all the black lines in the actual Running Ben logo. Make that navy blue, or more of a grey, not black, and I’m on board. And the new secondary, with the 76 inside the stars, seems off to me. I’d rather see the full text of 76ers with the little circle of stars above the 7, as the simpler mark. Still, it’s another surprisingly good NBA logo redo.

    I do wish they would use it on the uniform – it would look great on the side of the shorts.

    Are the Sixers tweaking their shade of blue?

    link

    The blue in the new logo looks more subdued, a little greyer.

    With the 76ers, the only thing I would change is the amount of stars in the primary logo. There should only be 4 for the NBA Championships that the organization have won.

    I have a feeling they won’t have to worry about winning another title for a few years. And if they do, hey, it’s a good problem to have.

    I tend to agree. But if you continue the stars around the circle where it currently says “Philadelphia,” you’d get an additional 7 stars for a circle of 13. So the 6 stars are just maintaining a consistent pattern with the 13-star circle elsewhere in the logo.

    Any word on whether the D-League Delaware 87ers will pick up the new logo? And who would they use instead of Ben Franklin? Caesar Rodney maybe? Or Joe Biden?

    Thomas Collins, who as president of Delaware (when Delaware called its governor president) saw to it that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. Basically just take Ben’s glasses off. And a mascot named Tom Collins!

    Looks like that high school lacrosse team also uses a shadowed version of the Seattle Seahawks number font… so their uniform is a mashup of the Eagles, Seahawks, and Oregon Ducks.

    While that high school’s logo is a screaming eagle, a cursory comparison will show some differences. Maybe not enough to win a lawsuit, but different. First, it’s facing the wrong direction. Second, the beak is at a different angle. Third, the beak is separated more than the NFL team has it. Fourth, the eye has different accents. Fifth, the top of the head is significantly flatter and elongated. The neck feather don’t look all that similar either. So, other than they chose to use an eagle figure as their logo, it’s quite a bit different than the NFL logo.

    Those Baltimore home whites look crisp. So what’s the turnaround time to make new unis like that and outfit an entire Major League team? It seems like a bit of a task to me, but I’m sure the major manufacturers can crank out a set in a few days if they just have the right design.

    Shouldn’t take long. All you need is a set of blank white jerseys (which Majestic already has, obviously) and a set of road scripts (ditto), plus the letters and numbers for the back (ditto). I’m sure the whole thing could be done in a day.

    Given that Garfield didn’t debut until 1978, and that the Bengals stripes seen on Brinke’s ornament didn’t show up until 1981, I definitely agree that those aren’t from the 1970s.

    Sounds like they’re only using the original copyright date of 1978 for Garfield merch, which manages to confuse a lot of people… or, at least, a lot of eBay sellers. A cursory search of “Garfield 1978” there turns up a lot of items that are clearly not from 1978 (hint – if Garfield has huge eyes and is standing on his rear two feet like Snoopy, then it’s not a 1978 Garfield product!).

    Correction for the baseball section of the Ticker: Ogden, Utah, not “Ugden.”

    Many people have told me over the years that they think the “Baltimore” script is too unwieldy on the road greys – too many letters, not enough space across the chest. For those of you who’ve expressed that thought over the years, what do you think of the “Baltimore” script on the home white?

    The elephant in the room is still the kerning disaster between the “L” and the “T”. But otherwise it looks nice.

    Paul,

    Do you think alternates such as the Padres “SD”, the Nationals “DC” or Giants’ “SF” jerseys, if worn at home, can have as much impact as a home version of a “San Diego”, “Washington” or “San Francisco”.

    I think all of those could look good, but I don’t think they’d have the same *emotional* impact as the spelled-out city name would have on a home uni.

    call me crazy, but the rams unis on the right of that image: all navy top and bottom with plain white numbers, rams wordmark and swoosh, paired with the navy and gold helmet is a damn nice look! there is definitely something to be said for a classic look. sure, nike (and others) pushes the envelope with little design touches that sometimes work out (i like the seahawks shoulder stripes/blades/whatever) but there is something to be said about letting the team’s graphics package and color scheme speak for themselves. and that something is: it’s a timeless jersey that a city can rally around. i think if the rams went full navy with no striping on the pants or sleeves, unlined white numbers and workmark, and navy socks with bold white stripes, and kept the current helmets, or added some subtle white shading on the outside of the gold horns, they’d have a totally unique look that would stand the test of time.

    Do you mean white socks with navy stripes?

    Otherwise, you’d mostly just end up with the navy blue version of this:

    link

    Not very nice.

    This story has been told before here at U-W. In 1992, the Seattle Mariners were sold to Hiroshi Yamauchi (of Nintendo in Japan), who became the first non-North American majority owner in MLB history. The sale was contentious and controversial, for reasons that seem silly (or even sillier) 23 years later. Mr. Yamauchi’s act of kindness saved the team for Seattle and the region.

    The sale closed in mid-season and, for the their very first home game in the Kingdome afterwards, the Mariners wore, one time only, special home jerseys with “Seattle” on the chest, rather than “Mariners”. The gesture was quite touching, given that the Mariners had been rumored to be leaving town many, many times in their first 15 years of existence.

    I hope Paul’s breaking NBA news coming out later in the week is not the announcement of ads on the uniforms. #NoUniAds

    Paul, your father’s “humble” explanation is very interesting — I never heard it rationalized that way. As a child, I just remember thinking it made sense to have nickname at home and city on the road (and I still prefer it that way today). When you’re at home, almost everyone there is also from Pittsburgh, so use your nickname to distinguish yourself from the other local teams. And on the road, wear your city to tell people who you represent.

    In light of that revelation about NFL teams being paid to “salute the troops”, is it possible that the DoD is paying for all of that ugly camo gear in MLB?

    Simon Trinculo, in The New Conspiracy Handbook Volume 2, speculated that all the “salute the troops” promotions were actually paid for by the military. Turns out conspiracy theories are sometimes true!

    Is there anyway around the annoying starbucks video ads that seem to take over the page? Once they start playing, I am forced down to them and can’t scroll back up. This has probably been covered in the comments, or in the normal posts…but I don’t always get a chance to read everything like I once did. Darn workplace actually working me harder!

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