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Uni Watch

A Very Merry Vilkmas – The Lucky Ones (2016/17 Edition)

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By Phil Hecken and Jimmer Vilk

As you guys will remember, a couple weekends ago I did a post with Jim Vilk where he graciously decided to raffle off a number of his prized possessions. A slideshow of the prizes is above ”” if you can’t see that click here to see the show or click here to see the set.

More than 100 of you sent in entries, and now Jimmer his here to announce the 10 lucky winners. Thanks to everyone who sent in ”” I forwarded each and every entry to Jim and I know he read them all. I don’t know if he’ll be responding to everyone, but for the 10 of you listed below, you’ll be hearing from him soon, I’m sure.

Thanks again (BIG thanks) to Senor Vilk for his generous gifts. I’ll turn the rest of this over to Jimmer right now. Here’s the big guy:

. . . . . . . . . .

A Very Merry Vilkmas 2016/17
By Jimmer Vilk

Did you know a legal pad can fit 114 names on one side? Good news for me, as I had 113 Vilkmas contestants.

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I got The Wife’s paper slicer out and proceeded to cut the names to put in my can.

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What did I do with the extra piece? I wrote “The New York Knicks” on it, folded one corner and put it in the freezer…

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…and then I left it there, because this isn’t the ’85 NBA Draft Lottery! I know, it’s an old joke but it never really gets old.

Anyway, I put the 113 names in the can, closed the lid and shook vigorously before blindly drawing my first winner, then repeated the process until I had all ten. Here they are…

Cavs BFBS champ shirt:
Tim Constantin

Cavs hat (or toque, for my friends north of Lake Erie):
Dave Landesberg (who lives south of Lake Erie, so it’s a hat)

Timofey Mozgov Russian hat:
Tom Pachuta

2014-15 Cavs yearbook, picture & Finals stuff:
Riley Jauch

Mark Price pin:
Blaine Hidalgo

Tribe replica Caveman jersey:
Allan Labanowski

Columbus Clippers shirt & baseball book:
Paul Letlow

Crew replica jersey:
Daniel Ulrich

Crunch soccer cards:
Jeff Kelbach

Barons t-shirt:
Phil Tse

Congrats to the winners, and thanks to everyone for entering. It’s always nice to see the different places you’re from and the nice messages some of you included. Merry Vilkmas to all, and to all a good night!

. . . . . . . . . .

Wonderful, Jim ”” I hope all of the UW readership will take a moment to give him a big THANKS in the comments below!

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Trolling The Bolts

In case you somehow live in a cave and weren’t aware, on Thursday, the (now) Los Angeles Chargers introduced a “new” logo — which actually wasn’t really their logo at all but a placeholder (the logo won’t appear on uniforms or helmets or anything). If you weren’t aware of this, I direct you to yesterday’s Uni Watch, where Paul addressed the new logo (that isn’t their new logo) with aplomb.

You may also be aware that on social media, various teams and organizations (and even individuals) were having a field day trolling the shit out of the Chargers. And the hits just kept on coming — in an environment where horses become dead in under 24 hours, several teams even jumped on the bandwagon to troll the Chargers yesterday as well. I’m sure there are even more examples than the (many) below, but I began to curate these “Hey, check out our new logo” tweets — some of them are actually very well done. Twitter may still have fun, even if the NFL (as you’ll see in the ticker) remains the No Fun League.

Here’s a (large, but probably far from complete) sampling of the Charger trolling from the past two days:

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More Uniform Cleanup…

…from Ben Traxel

If you happened to read last Sunday’s edition of Uni Watch (click here, scroll down), you saw my buddy Ben Traxel had done a number of “clean ups” for several NFL uniforms. Ben decided to do this for Alabama and Clemson, who recently played an epic National Championship Game, and well…the results speak for themselves.

Alabama

Here’s Alabama’s uniform as it appeared in the game and here it is after Ben’s cleanup. Quite the difference, eh?:

Alabama transition

The difference with Clemson is even more dramatic…

Clemson

Here’s Clemson’s uniform as it appeared in the game and here it is after Ben’s cleanup. Looks so much better without all the noise:

Clemson transition

Thanks (again) Ben!

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UW Friday Flashback

UW’s Friday Flashback

In case you missed it on Friday, earlier this week Paul asked Uni Watch reader what you thought about NFL home teams acknowledging the road team on their fields (as the Chiefs did while hosting the Dolphins in the famous “Longest Game Ever Played” in 1971, as seen here). That’s the topic of Paul’s latest Friday Flashback column on ESPN, which has lots of additional examples, including some from college football.

Check out the Friday Flashback here.

Enjoy!

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Uni Watch Reminders!

Raffle reminder: Paul here. I’m currently raffling off a $100 discount code for use at IceJerseys. Full details here.

Design contest reminder: I’m also currently accepting entries for a “Redesign the Chargers” contest. Full details here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Baseball is one of the slower sports when it comes to embracing technology and innovation, but it appears one innovation may soon be making its way to the bigs: catchers’ helmets with headsets (similar to what the NFL uses). The technology is being tested in the college ranks. If it works, don’t be surprised if you hear about it being tested by the pros soon. … FSU baseball will have some new footwear this spring (from Christy). … Check out this photo of the 1917 Brooklyn Royal Giants, an Independent Negro Baseball Team (including future HOF’er Louis Santop) Fantastic uniforms! (thanks to Bruce Menard). … Hey New Yorkers (and NY area residents): if you needed a reason to come to the Queens Baseball Convention (January 28th at Katch in Queens) besides Paul’s always-awesome uniform panel (featuring PL, plus the awesome Todd Radom, Bill Henderson, Russ Gompers, Jon Springer, Nick DiSalvo, and even me), here are 11 10 more reasons to come on down. … If you’re like most human beings, and you’ve always wanted to see a behind-the-scenes timelapse video of a complete field renovation, today’s your lucky day (from Iron Pigs). … WHOA! Check out the sleeve patches on this Indians jersey, circa 1980. That photo and one more come from here (nice find by Michael Mariniello). Paul was quick to provide the explanation. … Former Carolina great and 2009 Rivals.com National Player of the Year Dustin Ackley will have his No. 13 retired in a ceremony during the UNC-Virginia Tech basketball game on Jan. 26 at the Dean E. Smith Center. Ackley is set to become the fourth player in program history to receive this unique honor, joining Dave Lemonds, B.J. Surhoff and Andrew Miller (from James Gilbert). … Yan Gomes has given new Indian Edwin Encarnacion No. 10 (thanks to Mike Chamernik). … Check out this early Brandiose hand-drawn lettering for the Reds official team typeface (from Brandiose). … Looks like Youngstown State will have camouflage uniforms this season (thanks to Robert Hayes). … Seats in the Braves new ballpark will feature a tribute to Hank Aaron (via Ballpark Digest). … New uniforms for App State baseball, which look like they’re taking a page out of the D-Backs road uni playbook (from Steve Uhlmann). … Presented without comment: “outfit for sale at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Nashville. Braves uniform with red and blue Yankees cap” (from Andrew Dyrdal). … New uniforms for Coastal Carolina (from Mark). … “I know they’re only ‘fashion’ but the Rockies just added a dark gray hat too with the darker purple,” says Robert Hayes.

NFL News: As you’re likely aware if you’ve watched any games (Falcons, NCAA) in the Georgia Dome this year, the Falcons are constructing a stadium right next door. Here’s an interesting article about how owner Arthur Blank is trying to “rebuild” the neighborhood around the stadium. … This is cool — check out this story of Ottis Anderson wearing his practice pants all the way to Supe 25 (where he was named MVP, dontcha know). From Chuck Loads. And OJ himself says, “It’s all true.” … After all the kerfuffle with yesterday’s “it’s our logo but not really since we’re not going to use it for anything,” it seems as though the LA Chargers have changed their colors to powder blue and gold (thanks to many) on their social media accounts. … Of course, as of last evening, the Chargers may have ditched the “new” logo altogether (from Frank McGuigan). … Which is par for the course, I guess, for the NoFunLeague (h/t JonYe West). … “Spotted this driving past LAX today, kinda grainy but it’s a Charger helmet on this private plane,” says Jonté Robertson. “Possibly Spanos 👎🏾👎🏾 At least he avoided traffic.” … The LA Rams introduced their new head coach, Sean McVay, by giving him a jersey with his name and a number on it (thanks, Brinke). … Whoa — check out this screen cap of Ken Stabler with a HUGE smiley face on the back of his helmet, from This Week in Football, circa 1971 (great grab by Ken Purdy).

College Football News: When a football recruit takes an official visit to a college campus, it has come to be expected that a cookie cake will be waiting for him in his hotel room along with other snacks and beverages. And since everything in college football recruiting becomes a competition, the cookie cakes have, naturally, taken on a life of their own (from Jason Hillyer).

Hockey News: With the passing of former NYC police officer Steven McDonald earlier this week, the New York Rangers created a triple digit jersey to honor him. The jersey includes the Rangers’ 90th anniversary patch (from LevityNYC. … Here’s a look at the AHL AHL All-Star Classic jerseys (from Paul). … The LA Kings will be sporting the infamous “Burger King” sweaters during warmups today. … Last night Tampa Bay Lightning wore throwback unis for Martin St. Louis’ jersey retirement (from Jared Knight, CB and Will Shima respectively). … Here’s a bit more on that. … “During the ceremony and in the pregame warmups, the current Lightning players wore 2004 Lightning jerseys (Cup year) w/ St. Louis #26 patch on upper left chest,” says J Mac. “During the game, they wore their black 3rd jersey, which honors the cup year, with St. Louis #26 patch.” … Yesterday was Friday the 13th, so the Wheeling Nailers used this for their profile pic (nice spot by Matthew Farrier).

NBA News: The Portland Trailblazers will be wearing beautiful 1977 throwback uniforms on January 25th. They’ll be playing the Lakers that night (no word if the Lake show will play along with their own throwbacks). … Shocking that the NBA would promote a page featuring people wearing NBA jerseys as fashion “statements” (as opposed to pure fan gear). Wonder if this has been the intent all the time. … The Atlanta Hawks wore their awesome Pete Maravich throwbacks last night. Funhouse got some grabs. This game was on in my gym’s locker room (without sound, but with captions), and the few minutes I caught had some uni banter — and one of the announcers asked the other if he “liked” the unis (Atlanta was losing at the time), and the other remarked he thought they were a “Hardwood Classic Money Grab.” Awesome. … Here’s some more on those Hawks throwbacks (thanks, Brinke). … The Utah Jazz apparently wore a brutal uni last night (from Dennis Kelly). Here are some game photos (from Zachary Loesl). … Also from Zachary: A color on color (Kings vs Cavs) game; also going color vs. color were the Rockets and Grizzlies. Zachary also included more photos from the Atlanta Hawks throwback game.

College/Other Hoops News: Here’s a pretty good article detailing several Michigan State University alternate jerseys throughout the years. … As reported in yesterday’s ticker, the Cincinnati Bearcats will be wearing a “throwback” uniform on February 4. Of course, there are some differences between the throwback and the original (from Doug Smith). And here are some additional photos of the uni. … In case you missed it: the U wore some tremendous throwbacks Thursday night (that link includes a nice gallery). … Looks like there will be a bunch of uniform unveilings for the Big South today (from Fletcher Jones). … “I was at our high school game in Tennessee and the team we were playing were wearing these uniforms,” says Adam Childs. “They are Nike but I have never seen a back quite like this. First the rare double zero. Second it barely fits. But mostly the back arm hole comes to almost a right angle in the back. Much different then say Michigan’s Nike uniform. Didn’t know if you had seen that before.” Interesting — I (Phil) saw this tweet yesterday, and it seems the same “angle” is on these unis as well. … WVU hoops went throwback yesterday. Throwback plane, that is (from The Smelly Hobo). … Dean Smith’s first UNC team (’61-’62) had uniform numbers on socks. Those were not present on ’61 team (from James Gilbert).

Soccer News: Benfica fans want the club to put this emblem back on their jersey. They’re hoping retweets will help (from Mike D). … The Baltimore Blast will be wearing these first responder jerseys today (from Jimmer Vilk). Here’s the front. … The Pumas (Liga MX) have officially released their third kit (from Josh Hinton). … Also from Josh: The 2017 New York Red Bulls “RBNY” (MLS) home kit has been leaked by the club.

Grab Bag: You may be aware that there is an upcoming “Women’s March on Washington” slated for January 21. The author of this article argues the march needs “passion and purpose, not pink pussycat hats” (from Tommythecpa). … For all you numismatists out there: For the first time ever, there will be a black Lady Liberty on a coin. … “Although it’s not sports related, thought you’d be interested in this,” writes Mike Edgerley. They took the Kraftwerk (a ’70s German electronic band) “Man Machine” theme to another level! … Here’s a pretty cool look at the evolution of the Xavier “X” (from LargeTimHortons). … Some women’s volleyball news from Jeremy Brahm: A player from a visiting team from Poland, Kinga Drabek, had an unpleasant situation in the second set. She had to change her jersey in front of 1,302 spectators in the gymnasium, all because of an error in the protocol of the match. … Check out the new pro cycling jerseys for 2017 (from Craig Ackers). … The U have now put the Miami skyline on their track unis (from Jason Huber).

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And that’s it for today.

Thanks again to Jimmer Vilk for another round of generosity, and to Ben Traxel for “cleaning up” the Tide & Tigers. With college football all over, I’ll have some roundups on the season from my Uni Trackers tomorrow, but it’s NFL Playoffs, Puck & Hoops until the first throws of Spring Training. I’ll catch you guys tomorrow, but until then…

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“Aren’t there now 3 pro teams in LA?

Rams
Chargers
USC”

— Tim Dunn

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Comments (30)

    What a fun surprise, to see my name in this morning’s post.
    Thank you Jimmer for your generosity. South of Lake Erie I will wear my Cavs toque as a hat, but when it gets icy I’ll convert it back to a toque!

    Already came across a couple of items, so it looks as if there will be a 2017 edition as well!

    As much as I quite like the Kings purple those blue throwbacks are some of the best in basketball.

    That game could only have been better if it had been blue on blue with the Cavs navy alternate.

    Love those Kings throwbacks. When I started following basketball in the 1980s, this is what the Kings wore. I loved them because they were unique. At that time, they were the only team wearing the nameplate below the numbers on the back. Other teams had done it in the past but it had been otherwise been abandoned by that time. I do not mind that look on a basketball jersey.

    This look is making a comeback on third uniforms, throwbacks and the All-Star uniforms. I would be all for if a team like the Kings decided to be bold and wear the nameplates below the numbers on the regular home/road unis. It is likely frowned upon by the league and is not an option, but is it prohibited in the NBA rule book? My understanding is that there must be a nameplate on the back that is a certain height, but I don’t think it specifies that it has to be above or below the number.

    AFAIK the rules only say that the players name must be 2″ high on the back of the jersey – so under the number would be fine.

    goody goody gumdrops.

    who won this years paper football game? i had the boy -35.5, and over 140 on the total.

    In other black lady numismatics news Viola Desmond will be the first Canadian woman on Canada’s currency. Will be on the $10 bill in late 2018.

    Will be some shuffling around to whose on which banknote (MacDonald to be on the $5 bill, Laurier on a higher currency) but gone will be William Lyon MacKenzie King and Sir Robert Borden.

    link

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    in an environment where horses become dead in under 24 hours

    I think that one died in 12. Especially since it wasn’t *that* bad. In the powder and yellow it looks quite nice.

    it appears one innovation may soon be making its way to the bigs: catchers’ helmets with headsets (similar to what the NFL uses)

    What could possibly go wrong?
    (rhetorical)

    That game could only have been better if it had been blue on blue with the Cavs navy alternate

    Um, no. The wine & gold made for great contrast. Plus the navy alts, while less hideous than the BFBS alts, are still hideous.They should be added to the pile of burning Chargers jerseys in San Diego.

    If Dustin Ackley is the fourth player to have his number retired by UNC, then it isn’t a “unique” honor. It may be rare, but not unique.

    No Fun League? I might actually start watching their games again if they became the Narcissism Forbidden League.

    Don’t know why, but every time I refresh the site takes me up to Mr. Traxel’s cleanup project. Which reminds me…hi, Ben! Long time no hear.
    Oh, and there’s one more thing: once all that stuff gets taken off the jerseys, that leaves room to make the numbers larger.

    Hey there Vilks – I agree, bigger numbers. NCAA basketball is just as bad with the stickers and I suppose the NBA with the new ads coming will soon join the fray. Blech!

    Does anyone else think it’s hilarious that the Hawks wore their blue & green throwbacks last night, the night before the Seahawks, another blue & green team with Hawks in the name, come to town to play the Falcons?! Poor timing Hawks, poor timing.

    Thanks. I was tempted to send the Knicks that Cavs champions shirt, since who knows when they’ll ever get another one of their own…

    OMG re OJ Anderson wearing practice pants. I remember as a kid thinking his pants didn’t look right (didn’t seem to fit quite right or something). Now, the rest of the story. Thanks Paul!

    Was there meant to be a link in the baseball ticker item on the Build-A-Bear Workshop?

    Proofreading on the 2nd hockey ticker item:
    “AHL AHL All-Star Classic”…

    Hi Jim! What a nice surprise to see that a pretty cool T is coming my way. Thank you!! I think back to the 70s when my aunt told me I won a baseball jacket that had the 3 round mlb logos on each side. Oh I wish I could remember what all the teams were besides the Yankees and A’s. I wore that proudly and I will wear the Barons T proudly. Phil

    Why would you remove team insignia on the “clean up”? Should’ve taken the paws off of Clemson’s shoulders too if you were going to do that. Did all of that for the argument to make numbers bigger. Man, old people and uniforms do not go well together.

Comments are closed.