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Uni Watch

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[Editor’s Note: Paul is on vacation this week, but he prepared this entry for today. Enjoy.]

As you’ve probably noticed in the left-hand sidebar, our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions are currently running their annual holiday auction, which features a dizzying 2057 items. Fortunately, I’ve already sifted through the catalog to bring you the most uni-notable entries. Here they are:

• Whoa-whoa-whoa, look at this amazing 1984 Padres BP top — it’s more like a basketball warm-up! Couldn’t recall ever seeing this before, but sure enough, it’s in Bill Henderson’s guide.

• So many interesting things about this old Reds jersey. First, I wish they’d go back to using navy instead of black. Second, always so weird to see that modified wishbone-C without the point on the left side. And third, note the black piping on the armhole. 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.

• Cesar Cedeño went through most of his career without a tilde on his NOB. But he got to wear one in the early 1980s with the Reds.

• It’s funny to see how many teams’ jerseys in this auction used the old McAuliffe number font, including the Yankees, A’s, and, of course, the Red Sox.

• Here’s something that’d be cool to have in your house: an old Yankee Stadium turnstile.

• I’m always blown away by how those 1960s Phillies jerseys had chain-stitched numerals, which must have taken forever to embroider. That’s from this listing.

• Here’s something you don’t often see: a dugout jacket with FNOB. Looks more like a the lettering on the back of a boxing robe.

• This is very cool: The 1969 Mets were sponsored by Rheingold beer, which produced these keg-themed cufflinks to mark the team’s miracle championships. Love the little red mark on the calendar, denoting the date when the Amazin’s became world champs.

• Did you know that the official scorer at the MLB All-Star Game gets a ring? I didn’t, until I saw this one from 1988.

• This 1961 Browns jersey once worn by Lou “The Toe” Groza is notable for three reasons: First, note the crotch extension panel. Second, that panel has a cool little label for a Cleveland sporting goods shop I hadn’t heard of before. Third, there’s no denying that this jersey is miles better than what the Browns currently wear. And finally, it’s always fun to say, “Lou ‘The Toe’ Groza.”

• Here’s something you don’t often see: a 1968 AFL all-star jersey. I like the simple distribution of the stars — nice.

• And as long as we’re talking AFL All-Star Games, check out this helmet! What’s up with that ghosted Houston Oilers logo on the shell? According to the listing, “This is an old Riddell suspension Houston Oilers helmet that was fitted and worn by Jack Kemp in the last AFL All-Star Game in the Houston Astrodome. This Oilers helmet was stripped by the Houston & All-Star equipment manager and then he added the AFL logos for the game.”

• Shifting over to the NBA, I love this 1952 all-star uni, complete with belted satin shorts and Northwestern-striped stirrups!

• You guys know by now that I can never get enough of old basketball warm-up pullovers, and this one is particularly sharp-looking.

• Here’s a similar warm-up top, but this one is even better, because it’s from the Harlem Globetrotters.

• One more beautiful warm-up pullover, this time from the Knicks. Love that this one came from Max “Slats” Zaslofsky (which is almost as much fun to say as Lou “The Toe” Groza).

• I’m usually not as much of a fan of snap-front basketball warm-ups, but I might make an exception for this 1963 Phillips 66ers beauty.

• Oh baby, check out this amazing All-American Redheads uni. Jackpot!

• This is interesting — a Pistons warm-up jacket with the Tigers’ “D” logo on the front (jersey version, not cap version) and a cool logo on the back. Love that the car’s wheels are little basketballs.

Want to see more? You can look through all 2057 items here.

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The Ticker
By Mike Chamernik

Baseball News: Lots of people sent this in: new color scheme, logos and uniforms for the Louisville Bats. The team is ditching a dated purple and black look. … In addition to a Notre Dame football game, Fenway Park hosted a hurling match this weekend. … Readers can vote for on-field fashion awards from this year, including the best minor league novelty uniform and the player with the best socks.

NFL News: Oh jeez: Texans cheerleaders wore altered military uniforms to support the troops on Sunday (from Phil). … In this week’s MMQB column, Peter King shared his thoughts on how the NFL has bastardized its uniforms, and how the league is hypocritical when it comes to fining players for small uniform infractions. I enjoyed his take. … The Panthers started breaking in their Color Rash pants in practice (from Phil). … A reporter wore a Vikings cap to Sunday’s Ottawa-Hamilton CFL playoff game. It’s not the same league, but I’m fairly certain that journalists wearing team logos is frowned upon (from Colin MacIntyre).

College Football News: The Washington Post published a piece on big time college athletics, stating that even though schools are pulling in more money than ever, many schools are operating at a loss (from Phil). … Oregon will wear this uniform when the Ducks play Oregon State for the Civil War on Friday. … Here’s a good look at the Battle Line trophy for the game between Arkansas and Missouri. As you can see, the border bar’s color will be changed to the winning team’s primary color (from Phil). … “Georgia Tech QB Matthew Jordan took quite a beating at Miami on Saturday,” says Michael Rich. “First, he chipped his helmet decal, and then three tears opened up in the back of his jersey.” His jersey was repaired at halftime.

Hockey News: The Red Wings unveiled their Stadium Series jerseys. The will play the Avalanche at Coors Field on February 27 (from Phil). … The Blackhawks will unveil their Stadium Series jerseys today. The Hawks will play the Wild at Minneapolis’s TCF Bank Stadium on February 21.

NBA News: The Pistons will retire the jerseys of both Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups a little later this season. … Tyus Jones lost a bet to fellow Timberwolves rookie Karl-Anthony Towns, so he had to wear a Kentucky jersey to practice. Towns was a Wildcat last year, while Jones went to Duke. … John Wall is now a sneaker free agent after his shoe deal with Adidas expired. … The Clippers are planning a Hello Kitty scarf giveaway. … Marc Burgess found a photo of what looks to be an NBA pajama shirt that has NHL tags and NHL logos on the left sleeve. Odd.

Soccer News: Paris Saint-Germain will wear “Je Suis Paris” shirts and patches for two matches. More info here (from Phil). … “Rather than wearing plain black armbands to honor the victims of the attacks in Paris, Chelsea players wore black armbands with small French flags on them,” says Chris Cruz. “One problem with this was that the flags often weren’t visible, the armbands fell off (Matic at the right is missing one), and the subs (or at least some of them) didn’t have armbands.”

Grab Bag: At the University of Maryland, students have painted Under Armour logos and slogans onto the dumpsters (from Zach Spencer).

 
  
 
Comments (61)

    link

    A story from a few years ago about a reporter who was fired after wearing a Florida cap (her alma mater) to an Arkansas press conference. In this situation, the problem wasn’t that it was team apparel, but that of a conference rival. Key quote from the article: “This radio station is Hog Sports Radio. We are very biased. We support the Razorbacks 100 percent.”

    While there is nothing wrong with those Louisville Bats uniform/logo update, and I’m sure I’m in the minority when I say this, but I am so tired of baseball teams wearing navy and red. It’s just so overdone in professional baseball. It’s a color scheme that does look good, but I wish more teams would take a chance with their look.

    I’m not sure that you’re in the minority. Navy and red is definitely an overused combination. I think that the Bats’ new logo/unis look quite good, but was disappointed to see the purple go. Even though it’s my least favorite color, it had a great meaning for the Bats. Years ago, they wanted to pick a color that would appeal to fans of both the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals. Blue+Red=Purple.

    If you’re in the minority, then so am I. Enough with red and any shade of blue!

    They could have at least kept the black…they’re the Bats. Better yet, go brown! A lot of bats are brown, so be braver than the Padres and wear it proudly.

    We need a UW Design The Bats contest, pronto.

    you think its bad from a fan point of view,

    i work for an MLB supplier, hard to convince accounts that a red and blue Boston hat is different from a red and blue Cleveland / Washington / Atlanta / Anaheim / Minnesota / St Louis hat.

    So many interesting things about this old Reds jersey. First, I wish they’d go back to using navy instead of black.

    How many navy and red teams are there? I know for a fact the Reds are the only red and black one. Derivative uniforms are the devil’s volleyball.

    Seven in MLB alone currently.
    link
    As Jim notes above, ditching the black is idiotic. That would be like the Orioles ditching the orange & black, the Cardinals or Red Sox the red, or the Blue Jays the blue.

    Can we at least get them to minimize the black? The Big Red Machine never looked better than when they were just red and white. Which is also a unique color scheme in the majors.

    Okay, so I’m paying for my hasty research. I will concede the Reds looked pretty swell in 1970 when they played in the World Series. But I will live out my days in contempt of their cheap Big Red Machine pullovers. A good compromise would be their current set with all the black subtracted; I like their “La Belle Age” font.

    Weird thing about the Louisville Bats’ new look is that it all looks like Washington Nationals templates, but they are a Cincy Reds affiliate.

    I totally agree with you too. Too much red and blue all around. I quite liked the old Bats hat/logo. I may try to pick one up now that they’re “outdated”.

    I don’t mind blue and red as such, but it does feel like a “default” color scheme unless it ties specifically into the team’s name. But it’s kind of fitting for the Bats, whose new identity, colors aside, is also all about “default baseball team.” A definite upgrade from their previous uniforms, but they’ve just gone from a low D to a middling C.

    Color schemes baseball teams need to use more often:

    Red and green
    Blue and green
    Brown and blue
    Royal and black
    Red and gold
    Burgundy and anything
    Brown and anything
    Dark gray and any bright color like yellow or orange
    Pastel green, lavender, or blue as the “light” color in a two-color scheme
    Pink.

    arrScott,

    I agree with all of these except for:

    brown and anything – I would go for brown and orange or yellow but that’s about it. I don’t brown goes too well with other colors. (I guess I would have to see the combination to know for sure)

    pink – rather not see it

    pastel green, lavender or blue – maybe a dark navy, pastel blue might work.

    I would especially like the blue and green combo.

    Brown and light blue.
    Brown and tan (I’m picturing a Tequila Dustcloud instead of Tequila Sunrise).
    Brown and light green…could work if you’re going with a woodsman theme.
    Just brown and white.

    Ha! To show that there’s no accounting for taste, brown and either orange or yellow are my absolute least favorite potential brown combos. Dark brown and lighter-than-navy blue is a fantastic color scheme; it gets trendy in design and decorating about once per decade. Brown and red can also be fantastic, though you’ve got to take care with the darkness/brighness of each. Brown and green work really nicely together in my book, too.

    I’ve done some concepts with pastels, and very light blue or very light green work really well with any vivid, saturated color. Saturation is an under-used axis of color contrast in sports. Teams rarely stray from either hue or darkness contrasts, but pastels, if chosen carefully, can make saturation an effective, visible basis for color contrast on a uniform.

    Agreed with brown and white, but mainly on account of single-color-plus-white being hugely underrepresented in MiLB, so any teams adopting a single color would be a good move.

    Scott,

    It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been completely wrong about something! You may have sold me on the 2nd uni. If brown is the dominant color, I could begin to like it. Not so much with the blue as the dominant color.

    We seem to have wandered off-topic but I’ll contribute my .02: The most underused color scheme in baseball is red+yellow. That is almost criminal.

    Royal and gold is a criminally underused combination across all pro sports. Nobody uses it full-time in MLB, the NFL or the NHL. (No, link, you don’t count.)

    ^^^This.

    The Rams need to bring it back, and if the M’s made their Sunday alts their regular unis, you’d have it. Not sure about tiddlywinks anymore, but I don’t think anyone in the NBA does it either.

    One of the best colorschemes out there, and as Spanks said, criminally underused.

    Angels. They need to ditch the red. Royal caps/helmets with yellow halos? Yes, please.

    re: altered military unis on cheerleaders

    Isn’t this really just live pin-up and is there anything inherently wrong with that? I’m not active- or former-military, so I can’t speak for them, but if WWII is any indicator, the troops certainly didn’t mind imagery of lovely girls in glammed up uniforms back then. Speaking as a man, I’d definitely feel appreciated if cheerleaders wore sexed up versions of my uniform (sexy business casual?). Hell, one of the prominent advertisers on this site is a pin-up artist. Is his art more acceptable because the jerseys aren’t altered or something? Do the socks match? Are there stirrups? Where are the pants?! Come on…

    If there are military men on here that are more qualified to respond to the cheerleaders than me and feel differently, I’ll defer to them. I guess my main point is – can’t we just appreciate this for what it is and not whine about every little thing. They’re cheerleaders for crying out loud! It’s cheesecake, and I like it. At least it’s not shoe-horned in pink or camo accents!

    There’s a pretty significant difference between wearing a baseball jersey and wearing part of a military uniform you didn’t earn.

    Or at least there should be. But perhaps the effect of all these GI Drag shows was to erode that distinction and reduce our nation’s uniforms to just another set of costumes.

    Which is another excellent reason to hate these events.

    I hate to feel like I’m speaking for Paul, but my guess is what was distasteful is that it happened at a football game. No, I am not a military man.

    that panel has a cool little label for a Cleveland sporting goods shop I hadn’t heard of before.
    Blepp-Coombs! That’s where I got these pants:
    link

    Before I worked at the Coliseum, my brother took me to a Cavs game there. I got to take part in a free-throw contest between quarters, and I ended winning on the last shot. Got a watch, a restaurant certificate and a $10 certificate to Blepp-Coombs. Everyone in my section also got a free pizza, so I got a nice cheer from them as well. For years I kept asking my brother to take me to the store to redeem my prize, but he never got around to it. Six years later I had my driver’s license, so I went myself. The guy in the store laughed and said “You might be one of the first people to bring this in.” He still redeemed it, and I still have the pants.

    The NBA pyjama top appears to have NHL logos on the right sleeve (left in the picture) – Flames, Predators, Blackhawks and Caps.

    Red Wings jerseys look nice. Still upsets me that teams have played in MULTIPLE Winter Classics while some good market teams (OK St. Louis) has not been in one.

    Understand Florida or Stars not having one, but St Louis is known to get cold too!

    The Red Wings jersey is a terrific Dubuque Fighting Saints alt.

    As for St. Louis, how much does weather matter? The average high temp on January 1 is 40 degrees. St. Louis never has an average high temp below freezing. I know you don’t need the air to be below freezing to make and maintain ice, but the Winter Classic in Washington was a bit of a mess thanks to the sun on the ice and above-freezing air, but I think that was mostly about the sun.

    Stadium Series.
    “Heritage Classic” is all-Canada.
    “Winter Classic” is so far an annual event on January 1 (hope it stays that way–over-saturation always leads to fatigue and bad endings despite a quick cash cow, and on a selfish reason, it feels like NBC’s birthday present to ME and I don’t want my birthday present diluted), and has throwback “old time hockey” connotations.
    “Stadium Series” is just a limited run of playing outside, with one game per home team (can’t forget the Rangers’ extended residency as the road team at Yankee Stadium).

    Mildly interesting that Arkansas has a chance to capture 3/5 of ‘MIMAL’ (link) with a win over Missouri.

    The Battle Line trophy shares their northern border and they’ve already captured ‘The Boot’ (link) in the LSU game.

    Paris Saint-Germain will wear “Je Suis Paris” shirts and patches for two matches.

    I think there’s a little confusion there – those are definitely link (the sponsor logo has been replaced with the phrase “Je Suis Paris”), but I don’t see anything about special patches. The link shows their link.

    This is so much better than link, which was just to add “Je Suis Paris” in small letters below the badge.

    As an aside, speaking of the badge, do I miss link.

    A few mistakes in that description accompanying the Groza jersey. First, he didn’t get the nickname “The Toe” because he was a straight-ahead kicker in a world of sidewinders; he got the nickname in the late 40s, when EVERYONE kicked that way. He got it for his skill, not his style. The first soccer-style kicker appeared in the AFL in 1964, in the NFL in 1966 (the same guy, Pete Gogolak), just before Groza retired. Soccer-style kicking took over gradually over the years; the last straight-ahead guy didn’t retire until 1986.

    Second, he wasn’t always a kicking specialist; he also played offensive tackle until 1959, when he was 35, retired for a year, then came back as a kicking specialist through ’67.

    I have a Tony Gwynn version of the San Diego batting practice jersey that I bought through Mitchell & Ness a few years ago. Unfortunately they no longer produce them.

    I find the Red Wings Stadium Series uni unfortunate.
    I don’t mind the over-sized sleeve numbers, I like white gloves, and I am glad they kept the red & white simple without accent shades.

    The modernized D isn’t my cup of tea, but the diagonal front stripe stopping on the side seam and not extending to the back of the sweater is something off a bad 90s roller hockey jersey.
    Tiny word marks on collars are gimmicky, redundant, and busy up the collar area that already has a captaincy patch, a reebok logo, and NHL shield.

    As a reporter, I’ve worn caps with logos from different leagues, different sports on my job and it’s never been something that’s frowned upon by anyone. Maybe the same sport could be some issue but that’s minor.

    I’ll probably be kn the minority, but j love those Blackhawks jerseys, especially the shoulder yolks/collars.

    The way that jersey is constructed…I think it lends itself to reproducing the Hawks’ original Art Deco-influenced black and white striped sweaters.

    Okay, the Bats are my hometown AAA team, so I have my thoughts on the new look. The main logo, baseball seams on the sleeves, & road unis are the good parts. The script ‘Louisville’ w/ bats dotting the i’s is beautiful! Too bad they’re road unis & we’ll never see them at Slugger Field. As for everything else, HATE the ‘LB.’ HATE the ‘BATS’ font on the home unis. HATE the number fonts. But most of all, HATE THE NEW COLOR SCHEME!!! The purple was WAY more unique, red & dark blue is just so generic & bland. There is NO GOOD REASON to change to this scheme. It was chosen because of the rival Louisville/Kentucky fanbases here, combining the respective red & blue into purple. So there, that’s as fair as I’m going to get. Overall grade: C+. The little touches are very nice, but the overall scheme ruins those nice small tweaks.

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