Monday Morning Uni Watch

Screen shot by @Pandorasdad; click to enlarge

Now that the A’s season is over, the Raiders finally went with the gold 50 yard line markers yesterday. And as you can see above, the gold numerals — like the Raiders’ conventional white yard markers — had black outlining. Much better, I’d say, than the non-outlined numerals being used by most other NFL teams.

And that wasn’t the only field alteration made yesterday by the Raiders. They also added the old AFL logo to their end zones. I like.

In other notes from around the league yesterday:

• The Ravens wore mono-black. As you can see in that shot, the Browns wore one of their less objectionable combos (it helps when they actually bother to wear socks that contrast with the pants), although the pants are still a joke and the jersey stripes also remain problematic.

• Teams wearing white at home included the Titans, Bucs, and, of course, the Cowboys.

• As you can see from that Cowboys photo, the Patriots wore navy on the road. They’ve now worn navy for all five of their games this season. That streak will presumably end next weekend, when they’re slated to play in Indianapolis.

• The Giants/Niners game had barely started when someone on the Niners — I think it was running back Carlos Hyde — sustained some major helmet stripe damage.

• If anyone is going to have cleats with silver soles, it should be a member of the Raiders.

• This is odd: A bag on the Chiefs’ sideline carried the franchise’s old Dallas Texans logo.

• But what really knocked me out was the cheap pink sunglasses.

• How bad has Pinktober gotten? So bad that even the Eagles’ end zone logos were trimmed in pink.

• Pinktober also infected some of the footwear on NFL Countdown.

• Hmmm, do sideline personnel always have their names on their vests?

(My thanks to all contributors, including Willie Gabel, Scott Mason, Eric Wright, and of course Phil.)

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Decipher this: I had breakfast at a diner yesterday and, as you can see above, was presented with the best, most endearingly illegible check ever. I’ll give a complimentary Uni Watch membership card to whoever can correctly decipher the most of it (please post your decipherings in today’s comments, not on Twitter or in an email). Here’s a hint: Some the items listed are shown in this photo. Another hint: The meal was consumed in northern New Jersey, which should help you identify the meat in that photo.

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New design contest: In case you missed it over the weekend, Phil announced a new design contest to repaint an old ambulance and tranform it into a Detroit Lions tailgating vehicle. It’s a great challenge, and there will be prizes for the winners. Get the full story here.

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The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: You’ve heard of addition by subtraction? Here’s a case of subtraction by addition: A little birdie informs me that all MLB teams will start wearing the silhouetted-batter logo on their rear belt tunnel next season. The logo will appear in the same team-specific color scheme used for the logos on each team’s jerseys and caps (i.e., the A’s version will be green/gold, the Mets’ version will be blue/orange, etc). Aside from being a classic case of logo creep, this move will have tailoring implications for at least one team: the Tigers, who’ll have to replace their rear belt loops with a tunnel in order to accommodate the logo. ”¦ Currently up for auction: one of Brooks Robinson’s old stubby-brim batting helmets (from Charlie Charnigo). ”¦ A fan at yesterday’s Royals/Astros game apparently had a case of divided loyalties. ”¦ Not uni-related but interesting: With Mets SS Ruben Tejada knocked out of the postseason with a broken leg sustained during Game 2 of the NLDS, the Mets have replaced him on the roster with prospect Matt Reynolds, who’s never appeared in an MLB game. If he appears in one of the subsequent NLDS games (or in the NLCS or World Series, should the Mets make it that far), he’d become the second player in history to make his MLB debut in a postseason game. The first, according to Elias, was Mark Kiger of the 2006 A’s. ”¦ For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Cubs had breakfast yesterday on the field at Wrigley, which led to the odd sight of Kris Bryant at the omelet station behind home plate (from Dave Flapan). ”¦ Buried within this article about California public schools no longer being able to use “Redskins” as a team name is the following: “[Gov. Jerry Brown also signed into law a new measure that will] ban professional baseball players from using chewing tobacco on the playing field of major league stadiums [in California].” ”¦ New G.I. Joke uniforms for Duke.

College and High School Football News: Crazy helmets for Deerfield Beach High School in Flordia (from Jason Johnson). ”¦ Mount Union went GFGS on Saturday (from Tom Pachuta). ”¦ Inconsistent NOB fonts for Louisiana Tech. ”¦ McNeese State has been wearing SNOB. ”¦ As most of you know, many college rosters are so big that there are often multiple players wearing the same uni number. It’s kosher as long as they don’t line up on the same side of the ball, but it sometimes presents problems for special teams, where same-numbered players may end up on the field at the same time. If that happens, one player has to don a temporary jersey with a different number. Here’s video of a Kansas State player shedding his tearaway temporary jersey after a special teams play.

Hockey News: Several readers noted that the NWHL, whose inaugural season began yesterday, is going with subscript NOBs. That’s a fairly common move for women’s leagues, because of the longer hair. ”¦ “Always fun to see the French language on the ice for NHL games,” says Dustin Semore. “Don’t see it often from Ottawa, but they have ‘Mise Au Jeu 2015,’ instead of ‘Face-Off 2015.'” It appears in English on the other end of the ice.

NBA News: New socks for the Thunder (from Meredith Wills). ”¦ The Wizards played an exhibition game last night against the Brazilian team Paschoalotto Bauru, whose uniforms appear to have been a heavy influence on the Hawks’ new design (good observation by @cdublin).

Grab Bag: Here are all 40 EPL home/road kits ranked, from worst to first (from @YanksUnited). … Pretty cool piece on how the costume for the new Supergirl TV show was designed. ”¦ New name, logo, and livery upcoming next month for Malaysia Airlines. ”¦ Faaaascinating infographic on the physical evolution of the modern rugby player. ”¦ Pinktober volleyball uniforms for Phil’s alma mater, Garden City High School on Long Island.

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Photo by Mary Bakija; click to enlarge

What Paul did last night over the weekend: The photo shown above was taken at Ramapo Valley County Reservation in northern New Jersey, where I spent most of Saturday afternoon hiking. Hadn’t been there before but really enjoyed the trails — a good mix of rocky and hilly, with lots of lakes, rivers, and cascades along the way. I’ll be back.

The hike was part of an amazing weekend road trip that also included lots of yard sales, a North Jersey beefsteak, watching Saturday night’s Mets/Dodgers game at an American Legion hall, some nice stops in Harriman State Park, a stop at New Jersey’s (and, hence, the world’s) best deep-fried hot dog emporium, and some very, very good company. If I could draw up two perfect autumn days, this is pretty much what they’d look like. Thanks, TBC — you’re the best.

As good as my weekend was, tonight may end up being even better. Which leads us to”¦

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Play ball! Tonight the Mets will host their first postseason game in nine years, and I’m lucky enough to have a ticket. Even better, I’ll be joined by three of my favorite Mets fans: Mets Police honcho Shannon Shark, Mets by the Numbers impresario Jon Springer, and our own L.I. Phil Hecken. Can’t think of three better guys to share the game with — should be a great time. Let’s go Mets!

As an aside, remember my recent experiment with putting capers on a hot dog? I liked that so much that I plan to bring some capers to the ballpark. Full report to follow.