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The Tugboat Captain and I found ourselves in one of Brooklyn’s more esteemed watering holes yesterday afternoon, with the Cowboys/49ers game on the tube. I immediately noticed that the two teams took disparate approaches to how they handled the striping tape going over the SpeedFlex helmet’s flex panel — solid striping for Dallas, cut tape for San Francisco. I tried to explain this to the Captain, who didn’t fully grasp what what I was getting at, so I asked the Bartender Mike for a pen and created the primitive visual aid shown above. Not exactly a major work of art, but it helped to get the point across.
In other news from around the league yesterday:
• Pinktober got off to a quiet start, with only the Chargers and Saints participating. Expect a lot more teams to get on board next week, and as the rest of the month unfolds.
• The Bears wore their “Monsters of the Midway” throwbacks. Additional photos here.
• The Cardinals wore their BFBS alternates. Additional photos here.
• The Ravens wore their “CB” memorial helmet decal, for defensive line coach Clarence Brooks, for the first time. Check that, they also wore it last week.
• Always a bit sad, at least to me, when the Chiefs go white over white, instead of wearing their gorgeous red pants.
• Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown wore Arnold Palmer-themed cleats.
• Washington wide receiver DeSean Jackson wore pregame cleats with a police tape pattern, which he said was intended to start a dialogue about police violence.
• Panthers quarterback Cam Newton had some pretty wild pregame cleats, presumably to start a dialogue about Cam Newton.
• Three teams wore white at home: the Jets, Buccaneers, and Chargers.
• Players engaging in postgame jersey exchanges included Ezekiel Ellott (Cowboys) and Carlos Hyde (49ers); Byron Jones (Cowboys) and Jaquiski Tartt 49ers; Eddie Pleasant (Texas) and Daimion Stafford (Titans); Nick O’Leary (Bills) and Jacoby Brissett (Patriots); Von Miller (Broncos) and Mike Evans (Bucs); and Demetrius Harris (Chiefs) and Leterrius Walton (Steelers).
• Here’s a list of all the players who protested the national anthem this week.
(My thanks to all contributors, including Mark Kunz and our own Brinke Guthrie and Alex Hider.)
This team was made for you and me: As most of you know, I’m very uncomfortable with the sports world’s ever-tightening embrace of the military — not because I’m opposed to the military, but because (a) I think conflating patriotism with military boosterism is both wrong-headed and dangerous, and (b) I think relentlessly celebrating one class of citizens to the near-exclusion of all others presents a distorted view of our society and a one-dimensional concept of heroism.
The Baltimore Orioles apparently agree. They’ve been playing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Was Made for You and Me” during the seventh inning stretch of Friday home games this season, and they’ve been celebrating local community heroes on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
That information, none of which I had been aware of, comes from this article, which reveals that the O’s initiatives are the work of team COO John Angelos, who sounds like a pretty interesting cat. The whole article is worth reading, and definitely recommended, but here’s a key passage:
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, major league teams began playing [“God Bless America”] as a show of patriotism. But Angelos also thought about how the Orioles could diversify the way they honored America. For instance, the team now has a program to honor community heroes at Friday, Saturday and Sunday home games.
The core of the idea was to celebrate various citizens, and not just members of the military, and pair each day with a different song (“America the Beautiful” is played on Saturdays). Last Friday, the community hero was a bus driver, Reneita Smith, who saved a group of elementary students from a burning school bus.
“People forget a lot of these stadiums are publicly funded buildings and, by law, they have to welcome people from all different walks of life,” Angelos said. “Sometimes sports can be narrowcast in the causes and groups focused on. Our idea is that everyone should be included; let’s not leave anyone out.”
Good for them. Here’s hoping other teams take notice move in a similar direction.
Now if Angelos would just do something about that goddamn upside-down apostrophe.
(Special thanks to Rex Henry for the Guthrie/Orioles photo illustration, and to Phil for arranging for Rex to create it.)
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Best Summer Ever, continued: Before we ended up at that bar yesterday, the Captain and I had our weekly Last Summer Walk on the Beach, this time at Jacob Riis Park. It was a little bit brisk, but the water temp is always a few weeks behind the air temp, so it was fine for walking in the surf. The sky was grey and the beach was almost completely empty, all of which made for a perfect escape from the day-to-day grind. It was tempting to stay there forever.
Our five-weekend streak of Last Summer Walks on the Beach will be broken next weekend, because we have an upstate getaway planned. But maybe we can sneak in one last Last Summer Walk on the Beach the weekend after that.
The Ticker
By Alex Hider
Baseball News: The Red Sox will retire David Ortiz’s 34 next year. That’s particularly notable because the Sox usually wait for a player to enter the Hall of Fame before retiring his number. … Lots of stuff from the final game at Turner Field: Braves gameday staff wore jerseys with numbers representing their years of service. The team also used commemorative bases during the game (from Phil). … Braves fans were given dirt from the Ted’s infield on Sunday, and it also appears that team officials removed the Hank Aaron silhouettes from stadium seats before fans could take them (also from Patrick J. Williams). … Good look at the bat decals for the Indians’ Mike Napoli (From Andrew J.). … The umpires wore mismatched uniforms yesterday in St. Louis (from Tyler Oehmen). … It’s a little hard to see, but Ãngel Pagán of the Giants had José Fernádez’s initials written in his uni number yesterday (from Martin). … Giants manager Bruce Bochy was wearing a 2013 Cactus league shirt during the Giants’ postgame celebration yesterday. … Check out this Willie McGee Topps card from 1988. The Cardinals were wearing a patch honoring 50 years of Spring Training in St. Petersburg, Florida (from Brian Mazmanian). … Redditor TwinkieFingers mocked up 2017 All-Star Game logos for every team (from Alex Nye). … Royals fan Rodney Meyer made his own 1985 World Series ring hat. … Here’s what the 2017 Instructional League patch looks like on the Yankees’ uniforms (from Jorge Cruz). … This 1982 Boys’ Life cover shows George Foster and Mike Schmidt in batting helmets with ear flaps on the wrong side (from Frank McGuigan).
Pro Football news: The BC Lions took the rare step of wearing white at home during their CFL game on Saturday (from Wade Heidt). … Check out this awesome Patriots/Bills program from 1966 (from BSmile).
College Football News: ESPN used an outdated “Troy State” logo in a graphic during Troy’s game with Idaho on Saturday (from Ryan Bohannon). … Slick lids for Alcorn State this weekend. Letters spell out “ALCORN” in the helmet’s center stripe (from Seth Shaw). … Nicholls State will be wearing solid red next weekend (from Chris Mycoskie). … Here’s a good look at Nebraska’s 3-D nose bumper lettering (from Hardy Wallbanger).
Hockey News: I fully support the NHL returning to white at home ”” but not like this: The Stars and Panthers somehow played a white-vs.-white preseason game on Sunday (from Mike Chamernik). … Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth paid homage to late owner Ed Snider on his mask Saturday night (from Kurt Esposito). … Here’s a look at the Penguin’s alternate captain’s patch before it was applied to Nick Bonino’s jersey (from Jerry). … New uniforms for the Quinnipiac women’s team. Here’s what they wore last year (from Nolan Rich).
Basketball News: When the American and Canadian national anthems were played prior to Saturday night’s Raptors/Warriors preseason game, Raptors players linked arms, while Warriors F David West stood two feet back from the rest of his teammates. … Marquette basketball players wore awesome sweaters during picture day (from Matt).
Soccer News: Juan Agudelo of the New England Revolution suffered more than just the average uni tear on Saturday (from Ben Traxel). … Pinktober unis for the West Virginia women (from C Dubya). … During yesterday’s EPL game between Tottenham and Man City, the referees changed from purple to light blue at halftime (from TB). … Here’s a shot of Norwich FC players wearing baseball two-in-ones (from Brian Mazmanian). … Lots of Mexican soccer teams have climbed aboard the Pinktober bandwagon, including Queretaro, Monterrey, Leon, Necaxa, and Chivas. Morelia added a ribbon in the center and Club America outlined their numbers in pink. There’s also a new pink-trimmed ball (from Diego Yanez).
Grab Bag: Looks like Stance socks have made their way to the golf course (from Josh Gibson). … Did the Ryder Cup add champions patches to the US golfer’s hats before the press conference, or did they just give everyone new hats? (From Jason Reid). … Good look at the history behind the University of Texas’s colors (from Phil). … Lots of racing notes from David Firestone: Pinktober has made its way to the racetrack, F1 Drivers Valtteri Bottas and Marcus Ericsson played some hockey with the Montreal Canadiens this weekend. Also, Bottas’ helmet includes a visor tear-off paying homage to his native Finland. … The Fairfield, Conn,, Police Department has a new Pinktober cruiser (from Jim Brunetti). … Here’s a TED Talk about poorly-designed city flags (from C Dubya). … The Yale golf team’s logo shows a bulldog carrying a golf club. Or at least that’s the idea — it actually looks more like the club is impaled through the pooch’s mouth (from P. Costello).
Happy Rosh Hashanah to all who are celebrating the new year. Shanah tovah!
WTHIGOW Carson Palmer’s number? There’s some bizarre tracing of the 3:
link (the picture Paul posted above)
There’s also photo #8 in the Cardinals-Rams gallery (I’m having issues linking it). Is that a digital photo error or something funky with the jersey?
There were numerous AZ players with their numbers like that. The field did not look in good condition, so I was trying to figure out if it was from the field or the black rubbing on the inside of the number or what. A lot of them from the back side looked like they were ripped just because of how it looked on TV. Would really like to know what caused this issue.
“Always a bit sad, at least to me, when the Chiefs go white over white, instead of wearing their gorgeous red pants.”
I think the late Lamar Hunt also favored the red pants so it’s appropriate the Chiefs got routed last night.
Possibly because the Redskins wore theirs last week, and the Chiefs might be anxious about the similarity of their uniforms.
I’ve read multiple times Mr. Hunts favorite was the all white look going back to the Texan days.
I think Andy Reid is “wearing the pants” on the Chiefs based on success wearing a certain uniform combo. They got hot at the end of last year wearing white on white and won the Chiefs first playoff game since 1993 over the Texans. Since that success, they lost to the Patriots and now got destroyed by the Steelers wearing white on white. That should end the superstition about white on white being lucky.
I agree the Chiefs white jerseys with red pants is one of the best uniforms in the NFL. No other team wears red pants in their standard uniform.
Looks like the base umpires are wearing their short-sleeved jackets. The plate umpire is in a shirt.
Nothing new or unusual here.
While a weird combo, it is technically not mismatched. MLB sets forth uni protocol for the umpires – the plate umpire chooses color and the base umpires have choices to match. I don’t understand the logic behind the plate umpire choosing polo blue if it is chilly enough for the base guys to be in coats (or the smocks), but it is an approved combo.
Slight correction, the Canadian Grand Prix took place in June, and Bottas and Ericsson skated for the Canadiens prior to that.
I was unaware of this prior to this weekend.
The Ravens wore the decal against the Jags last week
link
link
Oh, I missed that. Thanks, Joe! I’ll remove that item from today’s text.
Proofreading: “That’s particulalry notable”
Fixed.
The ‘A’ on an NHL sweater stands for alternate. I know it’s nit picky, but it’s pet peeve of mine.
Also, the helmet sketch gave me flashbacks to that Ah-ha video from the 80’s.
Fixed.
Interestingly, this marks the end of an era for the Penguins. The rounded, oblique C and A first appeared on their 1996 alternate jerseys, and were carried over to the Vegas gold jerseys, but now that they’ve gone full throwback-style, those versions of the letters are now retired as well.
This has been something of a “white whale” for me – that these letters were retained from what was supposed to be the font for the numbers and names on the 1996 third. I recall seeing it displayed on TV back in 1996, but I have never been able to turn up any evidence of it online.
I always thought it stood for Admiral when I was younger.
The Angelos narrative always excludes the bad faith they’ve had with the Washington Nationals, their fans and the District of Columbia. They extracted (there is a stronger, potentially libelous word that is sometimes used) the majority of the Nationals TV rights days before the 2005 season began, a corrupt bargain.
Once the Nats TV rights, the hastily launched a cable channel to put them on and conveniently didn’t get it on DC cable systems until the end of 2006 season. Thomas Boswell called it “killing the baby in the crib.” Even though they have over 75% of the Nats broadcast revenues, they are suing MLB and the Nats to keep from having to pay the annual fees back to the Nats. It’s been going on for four years now. That cable channel by the way, has limited original programming and a pretty clear Baltimore bias.
Why I am less of a fan, the one who like the cartoon bird cap?
The Angelos family are ruthless but afraid of regional competition. Perhaps they don’t believe in the Baltimore market and that might not be unreasonable, yet they wrap themselves around the Baltimore and Maryland flags. They are naked underneath. John Angelos, like his father, is a fraud and a coward.
This is all very interesting, but it has nothing to do with the issue at hand in today’s post. Let’s please not go down this road today. Thanks.
Paul,
As a Marquette grad, I saw those sweaters around campus all the time. All varsity athletes, as far as I know, get those awesome varsity sweaters.
The stripes around the collars and wrists were removed for a while I believe around 2006
I stopped at a Speedway* store on October 1st and the female employees were all wearing pink. I mentioned that they all looked ready for Pinktober and all three lit up and said they LOVED the word “Pinktober.”
* link
The white-on-white game between the Stars and Panthers was a neutral-site game in London, Ontario. So I guess both teams thought they were the designated road team in this case?
I don’t often post on weekends, so I wanted to give a shout out to the University of Michigan for putting vertically arched titles on their jerseys. It’s a style that seems to be losing currency of late, so good on the Wolverines!
Robinson (#33) of the 49ers and Williams (#83) of the Cowboys both wore black, non-NFL equipment towels yesterday. Coincidence or part of a protest that hasn’t been publicized?
Good spot. Here’s visual evidence:
link
Robinson (but not Williams) raised his fist during the national anthem prior to the game.
Apparently David West has been silently protesting during the anthem for years – link
Anyone else have a problem with the navy blue not matching on the Chicago Bears helmet vs jersey? Tough to watch!
Are the t-shirts being delayed at all?
What t-shirts?
Do you mean the T-Shirt Club soccer design? Did you not receive yours yet?
I haven’t received mine yet. Still saying it was delivered.
If you haven’t done so already, send an email to link, and feel free to cc me on it.
If you don’t get satisfaction from that process, let me know and I’ll look into it. But for now, start by going thru the proper channels at Represent.
If anyone else has had trouble with the soccer shirt, please let me know. Thanks.
Michelson was the only one I noticed wearing a different hat at the press conference after the round. However, I didn’t notice it because of the champions patch on the right, but rather the New Era logo on the left side. The hats that the rest of the players were wearing, the ones they wore on the course, did not have the New Era logo.
Just did a quick search and found this photo. link
In the photo you can see that Spieth and Mickelson’s hats both have the New Era logo on the left side and Patrick Reed does not.
Not important to the story but figured I would add some more info. After his jersey ripped, Juan Agudelo got his backup jersey which happened to be long sleeved instead. He later scored a goal. After the game he ran to the supporters section and threw the jersey into the crowd.
*the ripped jersey
“Presumably to start a dialogue about Cam Newton” lol
I have no problem with the playing of “God Bless America” in and of itself. My issue is with teams insisting that fans honor the song as they would the national anthem. Which, for me, is removing my cap, since I’m already standing. It *is* the seventh inning stretch, after all!
Although I differ in my opinion about “God Bless America” (I think it’s a horrible song), I also have a problem with people treating it like it’s the National Anthem. Even worse is at Ravens games they play the atrocious “God Bless the USA” (aka “Proud to Be an American”) while walking the colors to the center of the field. The entire stadium stands and takes off their hats. I silently protest this each and every time by sitting quietly and reading the free gameday program.
Our opinions don’t differ as much as you’d think. I, too, think it’s an awful song. But if I got bent out of shape over every bad song played at sporting events, I’d be in a straightjacket.
Oh, and I wouldn’t stand or remove my cap for “God Bless the USA” either.
The Twins used to play the Greenwood song back when I lived in Minny and attended a lot of games, and it always felt like fans treated it as sort of half patriotic, half camp. Which seemed appropriate. It’s a ballgame; it’s supposed to be fun. Among the many, many awful things about “God Bless America” is its unavoidably mawkish seriousness and maudlin sincerity. Irish funeral dirges are more fun to listen to.
The Orioles thing reminds me of my first grade classroom, where every morning students took turns choosing which of four patriotic songs or the Pledge of Allegiance the class recited that day. It was a bummer to have your turn come on Friday, because “America/My Country Tis of Thee” was always the one nobody else would choose Monday through Thursday.
I have a couple of questions about MLB socks with Stance now being the official supplier. Are players required to wear Stance socks? Watching the Mariners I see the annoying logo’s for Stance and MLB but while watching a different game (can’t remember which) there were no logos. Also, does Stance do the stirrups as well or just the socks?
At present, teams are wearing a mix of new and old socks, depending on their supply. As of next season, I’m pretty sure it’ll just be stance.
At present, Stance does not make stirrups. That may change by next season, however.
Your website is terrible for viewing with an IPad. Once I select and go to a link, I can’t come back to the site and select another link. I need to leave the site and come back on to the site to select another link. Takes way to long to view multiple links so I just give up. This was a problem before, then seemed to go away, and now is back.
I look at the site on an iPad all the time, and I’ve not experienced that.
Today sees the inaugural season opening of the Chinese Arena Football League.
There are six teams in the league, and thus far, all the teams look like Color Rash. The Qingdao Clipper is royal, Shenzen Naja is traffic-cone orange, Dallan Dragon Kings are battleship gray, the Shanghai Skywalkers are light blue, the Beijing Lions are black, and the Guangzhou Power are white.
The helmet designs are very basic; little in the way of helmet striping, and the helmet logos are small without much in the way of contrast.
Check out the twitter feed, (at)ArenaFLChina, for pictures and videos.
Re that Boys Life cover, you will also notice that Foster’s hat has the wrong “NY” design for the Mets. All these years later I still remember that cover, and noticing that.
Also, Brett’s jersey has an “s” detached and (apparently) floating way off in space and Yaz has a neck like Allison Janney.
Most of the cap logos are wrong. Some, like the NY, seem like understandable simplifications. The art is done with a relatively thick line, so the real Mets cap logo might not have worked. Whereas the Phillies and Brewers logos look like the artist maybe saw each team’s cap once and was drawing from faulty memory.
Concerning the outdated Troy logo used on the ESPN broadcast, ESPN does that for every school during all their football broadcasts. They have the main, current logo and then in the background somewhere, they have an old, retro logo used by the school in the past.
I wish the Reds had used that steamboat motif in their actual ASG logo last year rather than that stupid hipster mustache.
Sorry for the confusion on this, but the baseball 2 in 1s worn by Norwich City, are you referring to the socks, which look like stirrups over sannies, or the Toronto Blue Jays-style numbers on the kits, which look like two numbers in one?
The socks.
“Here’s a shot of Norwich FC players wearing baseball two-in-ones”
Those are not baseball socks. They may remind you of two-in-ones, but that doesn’t make them so.
Alert! Looks like the game show Jeopardy! will have a baseball uni category tonight:
link
Potentially exciting, although I suspect it will end up being disappointing. There’s no way they’ll get into serious minutiae, the show’s questions (OK, actually answers) are often phrased in a way that makes them easy to solve even if you don’t know anything about the category.
“Who is Paul Lukas, Alex?”
Level of question we’ll probably see: “This team’s iconic hat logo is based on a design by Tiffany & Co.”
Level of question I’d like to see: “In a bid to boost ticket sales for the 1963 season, this team adopted solid-color pants and jerseys,’ or, “This was the first, and to date only, major-league team to wear plaid uniforms.”
“This team’s iconic hat logo is based on a design by Tiffany & Co.”
That is way, WAY harder than your average Jeopardy question.
It’ll be more like this: “This team, colloquially known as the Bronx Bombers, has an iconic hat logo based on a design by Tiffany & Co.”
And then the contestants will know it’s the Yankees even though they had no idea about the Tiffany connection, which is how Jeopardy usually works.
Texas’ shade of orange should be called terra cotta. This is the first year I can recall the hue being decorative owing to the shiny decal and tackle twill on their football uniforms. It now looks like copper, instead of caramel.
Whatever happened to full cages in the NFL? OL and DL even wear face masks traditionally worn by RB’s years ago. I miss those bad ass full cages! Google image an old pic of LT……now that’s what I’m talking about!
Re: This team was made for you and me – yes, thank you – it needed to be said (written).
A Canadian/hockey perspective takes it further in song here:
link