The NBA draft takes place tonight which means we’ll be seeing lots of NBA draft caps. Normally, I don’t care about draft caps, which are basically just a pointless merchandise category, but reader David R., who prefers not to use his full name, has identified an interesting inconsistency in this latest crop of NBA headwear that’s worth discussing.
Take it away, David:
The NBA draft caps have fun little patches that list the years of the teams’ founding, city/state flags, shortened alternate city names, and more. I thought it was fun departure from the usual sleek-looking hats.
But upon closer inspection, there are terrible inconsistencies in the standard that was applied — if there even was a standard — for determining each team’s the founding year. Some caps get the founding year right, some list the team’s first year after the NBL/BAA merger in 1949, others list the team’s first year in its current city. It appears that the folks at New Era and/or the NBA don’t know the league’s history, or at least didn’t care about sweating the details. Or maybe the teams had their own ideas about what they wanted to be listed as their founding year.
For example:
• The Hawks were founded in 1946 and moved to Atlanta in 1968. The year shown on their cap is 1949 — their first year in the new NBA after the NBL/BAA merger.
• The Warriors were founded in 1946; they moved to San Francisco in 1962 and to Oakland in 1971. Their hat says 1946.
• The Kings were founded in Rochester as a semi-pro team in 1923. They became a pro team in 1945, an NBA team in 1949, and a Sacramento team in 1985. Their hat lists 1985 as the founding year.
• The Pistons were founded as the Zollner Pistons factory team in Fort Wayne in 1941 and moved to Detroit in 1957. Their hat accurately lists 1941 as the founding year.
• The Nets were founded as the New Jersey Americans in 1967. They later became the New York Nets, the New Jersey Nets, and then, in 2012, the Brooklyn Nets. Their hat lists 2012 as the founding year.
• The Jazz were founded in New Orleans in 1974. They moved to Utah in 1979 and their hat lists 1979 as the founding year.
• The 76ers were founded as the Syracuse Nationals in 1946. They moved to Philadelphia in 1963 to become the 76ers. Their hat lists 1949 as the founding year.
• The Lakers were officially founded in Minneapolis as the Lakers in 1947 (the NBA ignores the Detroit Gems of 1946-1947) and moved to L.A. in 1960. Their draft hat lists 1948 as the founding year.
• The Clippers were founded in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves. They became the San Diego Clippers in 1978 and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984. Their hat lists 1984 as the founding year.
• The Pelicans’ hat lists 2013 as their founding year, which ignores the franchise’s earlier incarnation as the Hornets.
• The Thunder’s cap lists 2008 as the founding year, ignoring the Sonics’ existence.
• The Spurs were founded as the Dallas Chaparrals in 1967 and moved to San Antonio and became the Spurs in 1973. Their draft hat lists 1973 as the founding year.
And so on. You could argue that they should always go by the franchise’s earliest incarnation, or that they should always go by when the team began using its current identity in its current city — but whichever standard they apply, they should at least apply it consistently.
Great work by David, who has summarized all of this in a handy spreadsheet.
The draft, incidentally, will be taking place just a 10-minute walk from Uni Watch HQ. Fortunately, I’ll be walking to a different neighborhood destination, where a much more compelling entertainment option awaits.
Click to enlarge
Hyphen hype: History of a sort was made last night in Kansas City, as Rangers pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx and catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa formed the first hyphenated-surnamed battery in MLB history. I was hoping for lots of mound conferences so we could see the two hyphenated NOBs together — hobnobbing HNOBs, so to speak — but then I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for that when I saw that Kiner-Falefa’s hyphen is obscured by his chest protector. Disappointing. (You can see both NOBs in this pregame photo, but somehow that’s not as satisfying as an in-game shot.)
Interestingly, Bibens-Dirkx and Kiner-Falefa constitute two-thirds of all the hyphenated-surnamed players who have ever played in the big leagues. The only other such player: former pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith.
As more and more modern families use hyphenated surnames, it seems fairly obvious that we’ll be seeing more players with hyphenated NOBs. And that raises a question: In the sweepstakes for MLB’s longest NOB (a mark still held by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, with 14 letters), should hyphenated names count the same as non-hyphenated names, or should they be two separate categories? For hyphenated NOBs, should the hyphen count as a letter? As a character? Not at all?
Discuss.
(My thanks to @deetee64 for pointing me toward the pregame photo of Bibens-Dirkx and Kiner-Falefa, which was taken by @sillywabbit40.)
The Ticker
By Alex Hider
Baseball News: Cleveland 2B Jose Ramirez wore his Mother’s Day socks under his pajama pants Tuesday night (from Brad). … The scoreboard at Petco Park used a Braves logo instead of an A’s logo after Tuesday night’s game (from Richard Paloma). … The Braves apparently use a slightly varied script for their letterhead as opposed to their road uniform (from Cameron Ilich). … The Nats have sold advertising space on their infield tarp to Skittles (from Max Weintraub). … Artist Daniel Duffy used the names of all the Phillies players throughout history to draw Citizens Bank Park (from @mixedmediashop). … Astros 2B Tony Kemp is selling a “Hugs for Homers” shirt, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Astros Youth Academy (from Ignacio Salazar). … Paul Bastia notes that during the Pawtucket Red Sox game last night, reliever Josh A. Smith followed starter Josh D. Smith. Unfortunately, the PawSox don’t wear NOBs. … Here’s what the uniforms looked like for the South Atlantic League Northern Division All-Star team looked like on Tuesday night (from Scott M. Trembly). … The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League will wear “Hokkaido Be Ambitious” jerseys for a series beginning July 20 (from Max G.). … The Portland Pickles wore Portland Mavericks throwbacks last night (from @I_am_orange). … Somewhat incredibly, the MLB Network’s in-studio set has home plate facing the wrong way (from Ted Zeigler). … A Phillies fan got a black eye and other facial injuries after she was hit in the face by a hot dog launched by the Phillie Phanatic.
Football News: Lost in the news about the Bears’ new orange alts was the fact that the Bears will still wear their Monsters of the Midway throwbacks for a game this season, in addition to the orange design. This story on the team’s website says the NFL “is allowing teams to wear alternate jerseys in addition to a classic jersey that was formerly described as a throwback.” Could we see more teams adopt throwbacks to take advantage? (From Bill Schaefer.) … Denver’s football stadium will be called Broncos Stadium at Mile High until the team comes up with a new naming rights advertiser (from Brad Darby). … Vikings WR Stefon Diggs is calling for the team to go mono-purple this season (from Eric Thompson). … The early-’70s Chargers had some FIOB inconsistencies with Deacon Jones and Lee White (from Pro Football Journal). … Looks like Akron will have matte gold facemasks in the rotation this season (from Jim Vilk).
Hockey News: Las Vegas’s mayor made good on her Stanley Cup bet with Washington’s mayor and posed for a photo in an Alex Ovechkin jersey — an old jersey, by the looks of it. The jersey contains an alternate captain’s “A,” rather than Ovechkin’s current “C,” meaning it was probably made between 2007 and 2009. … Lex Levy found a photo of former Leafs D Kent Douglas wearing eye black during an indoor game against the Bruins in the 1960s. … Reader Michael Bialas found a CCM hockey-branded Brannock Device at a sporting good store in Wisconsin. … Brian Wulff found this old photo of Jerry Garcia wearing a blank Canadiens jersey. … Capital One Arena is undergoing a planned renovation and is allowing fans to purchase seats and seat bottoms from the arena (from John Gagosian). … This Hot Wheels logo looks familiar, right Whalers fans? (From Hoot.)
Basketball News: Someone at Georgia Tech decided to create Photoshop images of G Josh Okogie in each NBA team’s uniform and then put the images in a roulette wheel (from Michael Rich). … Creighton’s basketball arena is getting a new corporate-advertised name.
Soccer News: Both Spain and Iran wore their away kits due to a “color clash” in their World Cup match yesterday, even though it seems their home kits hardly clashed, if at all. In addition, Russia was forced to wear solid red socks to avoid a sock clash with Egypt on Tuesday (from Josh Hinton). … Here’s a handy World Cup uni tracker, built by Zachary Labrosse-R. … If you were watching the World Cup yesterday and found yourself wondering why Morocco was abbreviated “MAR” on the score bug, here’s a good explainer (from @vovomeena and Greg Tish). … This story offers a look inside the dressing rooms of World Cup teams (from Neil MacLeod). … New crest for Lille OSC of French Ligue 1 (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … Gladbach, a team in the German Bundesliga, had their home and away kits for next season leak yesterday (from Josh Hinton). … More from Josh and Ed Zelaski: SV 1860 Munich, a third-tier German team, unveiled their kits for next season yesterday. … San Francisco City FC of the Premier Development League will wear pride uniforms on June 24. … New kit for Eintracht Frankfurt (from Ed Zelaski). … New kits for Gold Coast Inter AFC (from Icarus Football). … New kits for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Earlier leaks had shown a different jersey advertiser (from Josh Hinton).
Grab Bag: A Tire Discounters store in Kentucky built a Wildcat sculpture out of tire scraps and put it on display (from James Gilbert). … Canada’s Northwest Territories province uses terrific bear-shaped license plates. Beats just about any state in America, IMO (from Benji King). … This infographic is a great look at all the different suits Iron Man has worn throughout all the comic books (from @walbergLines). … The city of Dublin, Ohio — a suburb of Columbus — is holding a contest to design a new city flag (from Doug Helmreich).
What Paul did last night yesterday: Yesterday morning I went to visit my mom. On the way, I stopped at the cemetery where our family has a small plot. I stopped there in part so I could take photos to show my mom (she can no longer handle the long drive to/from the cemetery but likes to see photos just to make sure everything’s being well maintained) and in part because I like to check in there at least once every year and think about my family.
Our cemetery plot that has one of those “mothership” stones with the family name, and then individual stones for the deceased. As I’ve occasionally mentioned here on the site, our family name was originally Lewkowitz, not Lukas (my parents changed it in the late 1940s, shortly after they got married — your standard Jewish assimilationist move), and the plot was established in the 1950s by my grandfather, Charles Lewkowitz, so of course he put “Lewkowitz” on the mothership stone.
For many years, I didn’t much care about our cemetery plot. Part of it is that our family isn’t big on ritual or ceremony (religious or otherwise), and part of it is probably that I was just too young and immature to care about such things. But another part is that I felt no connection with the name on the mothership stone. I wasn’t born with that name, and I never knew my grandfather (he died when I was an infant). So at some point — I think in 2000 — I suggested to my father that we should have “Lukas” added to the mothership. He agreed, and now the mothership stone has both surnames.
I now feel a much greater connection to our family plot. Some of it is just that I’m older and care more about certain things than I did when I was younger. But a lot of it is seeing my surname up there. It’s funny how much that apparently matters to me.
The draft hats look like they are from the Boy Scout store.
Interesting stuff on the gravesite. As for where the granite is engraved, it depends on size and tradition. Some stone companies are located adjacent to cemeteries; the marker is lifted off, brought off site, engraved, then returned. Some stone companies send engravers to site. Noticing my Roman Catholic background, have been more and more multiple names on graves at Catholic cemeteries, reflecting modern life. See in Italian or other European families that may have Anglicized their names in the past.
Paul – Thank you for sharing about your visit to the cemetery. This is my wife’s first year without her dad so this past weekend we visited her father at the cemetery for Father’s Day. It was an emotional visit for her as you can imagine, but it’s good to remember those who have gone before us and the family who has left us.
I also appreciate you sharing about the end of your friendship the other day, in this current political climate it seems like that type of thing is happening more and more.
FWIW, I wonder if they asked the teams which year they wanted on the caps, with teams given the options of first year, first year in NBA, or first year in current city. Not unusual for teams to ignore history in other cities.
Fair point. I’ll add that possibility to the text.
As a designer for ’47, I can say it’s not New Era’s decision. The NBA and each team determines their established year. For instance, the Thunder and Pelicans are not allowed to reference their previous existence, including team records.
Chris, any particular reason why ’47 has gone back to having a green underbrim on most of their franchise style caps? Maybe I am in the minority, but I always felt keeping the underbrim the same color as the rest of the brim looked much better. Or at the very least it made sense to go with a gray underbrim so it is not so loud or contrasting as the green. I really don’t think I’d buy one now that they have gone back to green, unless of course the hat itself was green. Thanks!
That’s the way it should be. If a team moves to a new city or changes it’s name it shouldn’t count as the same team/history anymore. To me it’s very easy how these situations of team founding dates and history should be treated. Are you called “X”? Then you get to have the history of “X”. If not, you don’t. The Thunder aren’t the Sonics. Why should they get to keep the history of the Sonics? The Indianapolis Colts aren’t the *Baltimore* Colts. If you don’t care enough about your city, or even about just your club name if you don’t move completely out of the area (Florida>Miami Marlins, New York>New Jersey>Brooklyn Nets etc.) to keep it, you should get to keep any of the records or accomplishments that happened under that history.
For the record you shouldn’t be able to keep a nickname when you move either (I’m looking at you Dodgers, Lakers, Jazz and any other location-related nicknames that no longer made sense after a move), but that’s another argument.
So you are saying the Marlins should not retain their history because they are now called the Miami Marlins, even though they have been in Miami the whole time? I guess with the Nets their is some justification in that they changed states, even though they are in the same market.
What about the Rays should they move from St Pete to Tampa? They are still the Tampa Bay Rays, but are in a different city. What about the Angels? They’ve played in Anaheim but have repeatedly changed their geographic identifier.
I agree on the city, but not the nickname. As a fan of a team whose existence predates even the trademarking of nicknames, nickname changes feel trivial to me, and were trivial to the team’s fans at the time. The Yankees were the Highlanders for a while; the Cubs answered to White Stockings and Colts at the same time in the 1880s. The Phillies called themselves the Blue Jays for a few years in the 1940s — they’re still the Philadelphia National League team and nobody is suggesting erasing those records.
But if you change cities, you’re a new team with a new fanbase and new records. Changes in what they call the city should also be ignored since it’s the same place. Anaheim Angels = Los Angeles Angels and Florida Marlins = Miami Marlins.
Nonsense. A franchise is a continuous entity, regardless of any changes of location or changes of name. The Warriors and Kings pre-date the NBA; and their history is no less continuous than that of a team that never moved, such as the Knicks.
Keeping the nickname is the best way to show that continuity. But sometimes the old nickname isn’t appropriate (“Senators” would not have made sense in Minnesota or in Texas); and sometimes an historic local name requires re-use when a team moves in, such as in the cases of the Baltimore Orioles (relocated St. Louis Browns) and the Milwaukee Brewers (relocated Seattle Pilots).
Those teams properly regard their histories to include time spent under their previous names. In contrast, sometimes a team is so fundamentally dishonest that it ignore its pre-move history. For instance, the current Montreal Alouettes are the relocated Baltimore Stallions. Yet, unlike the CFL recognises an imaginary history in which the relocated Stallions pretend that the history of the previous Alouettes team is their own.
The main culprit in all this mucking around with history is the NFL. In the real world, the original Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens, and a new Browns team was created a few years later. An honest accounting would trat the Browns/Ravens as one franchise, and the expansion Browns as a different franchise. But the NFL decided to play “let’s pretend” with the facts of history, which led to a similar fiction in MLS (San Jose / Houston) and a far bigger debacle in the NBA (Hornets / Bobcats / Pelicans).
(We should note that the NHL regards the Jets/Coyotes as one franchise, and the Thrashers/Jets as another. Bravo to that league for doing things the right way.)
A lack of respect for the facts of history is an ugly trait.
Even if that’s true, unless I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and need another cup of coffee, the deal between Charlotte and New Orleans is that the “Pelicans” were established in 2002 despite wearing a different name at first, while the Charlotte Hornets were established in 1988, went dark, had an identity crisis as the Bobcats, and then went back to the Hornets. One transaction should have consistent results, but the Pelicans going with the year of their branding instead of establishment proves the massive inconsistency in this design project.
I’m with Mike on this. And as I noted with the extant NBL teams in my 9:55 post below, it really doesn’t help that the individual teams aren’t using consistent criteria.
Don’t let your “fandom” or “civic pride” get in the way of the reality which is, professional sports are a BUSINESS first and foremost with ZERO obligation to the city in which they play (save for the Packers)
If a company moves it’s corporate offices and even changes its name with a rebrand it remains the same company. (I’ve been through this professionally)
The Lakers, Dodgers, Colts, etc. etc. etc. ARE THE SAME BUSINESS, regardless of location whether you approve or not. If leaving certain “histories” or “stats” behind as an arrangement of relocation is negotiated, (i.e. Ravens) then it applies, otherwise, sorry and get over it, the history comes with.
“It’s just business” has never been an acceptable response to anything on this website. Here’s why:
link
“Get over it” is never a strong intellectual position to take, either. It usually means you can’t be bothered to actually engaged with the issues at hand.
Not agreeing or disagreeing with your points regarding franchise relocation. But I’d like to see a higher standard of discussion.
Also, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, sports teams are not the same as other businesses, because they are civic entities as well as business entities. That’s why we care about them so much; that’s why we discuss them on sites like this one.
All excellent points Paul.
I think there is a pretty simple way to talk about franchise relocation and their histories in past cities.
The trophies and records may always belong to the organization, but if they move to another city they simply are not celebrated by the new fan base as fond memories. They are just historical facts that the new city has no emotional connection to.
The Lombardi Trophy from Superbowl V may belong to the Colts in Indianapolis, but it is celebrated and remembered by fans in Baltimore.
Fun detail in those pics of Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman: the stars-and-stripes mezuzah on the door of the mayor’s office.
The Goodmans — Carolyn and Oscar, the very popular 3-term mayor that preceded her in office — are apparently very involved with the ciry’s Jewish community, but it still seems ballsy to put a mezuzah on the mayor’s door, don’t you think?
I don’t think it’s that ballsy. I can’t imagine there are too many people objecting to it.
RE: The hyphenated last names. What I am wondering as these become more common is, what happens when a person with a hyphenated last name gets married? If it is woman do they ditch in favor of their husband’s, which would seemingly fly in the face of their parents reasoning for the hyphenated name to begin with, or would the woman make it a double hyphen? In the opposite scenario, would a woman take on her husbands hyphenated last name when they get married? What happens when two people with hyphenated names get married? And what do they name their children? Maybe some readers have experienced these situations?
I remember reading about a Scandinavian country where this became popular and after one generation it can’t keep going. If these players have kids that marry, their kids would be
Bibens-Dirkx- Kiner-Falea
Two generations and you get 8 last names.
Good on Dublin, Ohio for understanding and respecting the importance of proper vexillology in their flag design contest.
You just wanted an excuse to say, “vexillology”! (And I don’t blame you one bit.)
Giving someone a hyphenated surnames are certainly a way to be different, but there are real negatives with this practice. Many forms and identification cards have a limited amount of space, to say nothing about simply signing a check.
Has it occurred to you that people have lots of reasons for hyphenated surnames and don’t do it just to “be different”?
It is hard to imagine anything more personal, and less anyone else’s business, than what a person chooses to call him- or herself.
That goes whether your name is John Smith, Chad Ochocinco, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Letting players wear hyphenated names is definitely a slippery slope. Actually any of these “look at me” names need to be watched closely.
If it is their legal name then fine, but anything else should be strictly prohibited.
If it’s someone’s legal name, how exactly is it a “slippery slope”? A slope down toward what? Are you aware of any hyphenated name that was *not* someone’s legal name?
I’ll say it again: It’s hard to imagine anything more personal, and less anyone else’s business, than what a person chooses to call him- or herself. That goes whether the name in question is John Smith, Chad Ochocinco, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“Are you aware of even one single hyphenated NOB that was not the player’s legal name?”
1 example: Tony Brooks-James (Oregon RB)?
link
From a 2015 article (interesting reading BTW):
link
“…decided to add the Brooks so that his name would honor both his mother…and his father. He hasn’t legally changed it but has considered doing so.”
He may have since gone through the formal name change process?
That, I agree, is nonsense. Ditto for the MLB catcher (I think it was Russell Martin..?) who added his grandmother’s first initial to his NOB some years back.
But if we simply stick to the standard of “legal name only,” then there’s no problem — even if the legal name is hyphenated, or Ochocinco, or whatever.
Strictly prohibited? Why? What standard is being upheld? What actual impact is there other than someone being satisfied with what’s on their own back representing themselves?
I say this as someone who’d rather their be no names on jerseys whatsoever. But if someone owns anything, it’s their name.
I just fear if you start letting people wear a hyphenated name just because they want to honor their grandmother or something, you have started the path to Players Weekend.
Look at soccer where players are already wearing nicknames on their jerseys.
It can happen and it probably will.
I just fear if you start letting people wear a hyphenated name just because they want to honor their grandmother or something, you have started the path to Players Weekend.
You yourself said that if it’s their legal name, then you have no problem with it. So I ask again: Are you aware of even one single hyphenated NOB that was not the player’s legal name?
You’re peddling a solution in search of a problem.
“I just fear if you start letting people wear a hyphenated name just because they want to honor their grandmother or something, you have started the path to Players Weekend.”
And thus endeth the world?
Re the Northwest Territories license plates… Tennessee had some fun with the shape of their plates until the Feds standardized the 12×6 rectangle. link
Although it’s not much of a stretch to turn a rectangle into the actual shape of the state of Kansas, they used to trim the upper right corner of the plate so that the plate was, indeed, an actual representation of the state:
link
link
Later they kept the full rectangular shape but colored the upper right corner to still give the representation of the state’s shape:
link
Too early for the “I’m still calling it Broncos Stadium” t-shirts?
That would violate Paul’s stance on using team nicknames on those shirts. This already came up with Tiger Stadium.
A solution to the problem of an excessively long hyphenated surname is to use only the final portion of that name. That is the strategy employed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, formerly of link, currently of link.
“Excessively” implies judgment, which seems really inappropriate here.
Also, why use the second part of the name instead of the first? (More to the point: Why not use the whole thing? Plenty of ways to do it — double-decker, smaller type, etc.)
The only judgement was about the available room on the shirt. A name the length of “Oxlade-Chamberlain” could not fit on the Texas Rangers’ jersey; and it would be too long for the link, as well.
Smaller type for players with long names is possible in baseball, of course (and is an approach which the Rangers ought to employ for all their players, quite frankly). But that wouldn’t be possible in the Premier League, where the numbers and names come in one league-mandated style, leaving no room for the Ox’s entire name on his link and link shirts.
And a double-decker arrangement would have somelink.
Only the Ox himself could tell you why he decided to go with the second part of his surname on his shirts. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s Liverpool teammate, link, uses the first part of his hyphenated surname on his standardised league shirt, but uses the entire thing on the shirt he wears in the Champions League, in which each club controls its own number and name design.
What about Alex’s Liverpool teammate, Trent Alexander-Arnold? The England World Cup squad video referred to him by his hyphenated surname. Will they start treating his last name like a single name, like some players that are only called by one name, usually their first name?
Alexander-Arnold uses both names on the back of his kit, whereas Sergei Milinkovic-Savic (from what I can tell, anyway) wears his first name on the back.
Except for the two examples we’re talking about here, every player with a hyphenated NOB I can think of off the top of my head in soccer – which is at least 10 or so – wears the full name. At best, they’re sometimes referred to with intials as shorthand.
Calvert-Lewin from Everton wears both names
One of the reasons that home plate is facing the wrong way, is that the MLB logo would be facing against the grain when seen onscreen.
This is likely just an aesthetic choice to make it easier for the viewer and not to have their logo “up-side-down”.
Here’s a really crazy, radical idea. I know it sounds nuts, but just hear me out: What if they oriented the plate properly *and didn’t put a fucking logo on it?*
Nah, that’s too wackadoodle.
nah…too logical. I am sure in their style guide it reads they have to have the logo onscreen a minimum of 3 times.
The hats appear to be consistent with how the teams list their establishing years on other merchandise, such as these shirts… with the sole exception of the Pistons. They normally list 1957, but their hats are featuring 1941, so not only are the hats acknowledging the team’s Fort Wayne history, they’re the only one of the five extant NBL franchises whose hat date acknowledges their pre-BAA/NBA existence.
I believe that the hyphen should count as a character, and I believe that hyphenated and non-hyphenated names should have separate records. It wouldn’t be minutiae if there weren’t minutiae within the minutiae.
I definitely agree that there should be separate records, but respectfully disagree about counting the hyphen. If the records are separate then every counting the hyphen is just adding one to the number of letters to everyone in that category. I could be dissuaded if there were multi-hyphenated names but I have never seen that.
link Or, just go to the NBA Store, and search T-shirts for “vintage arch”… should get 31 results, since for some reason the Sixers have two listings, even though the shirts appear identical.
… and that was supposed to be a reply to my 9:55 post.
I get what you mean about getting older and having your surname mean more. I have a surname that is a common word, but it is not pronounced the way it is spelled (note, it makes it very easy to weed out telemarketers).
By coincidence I found a copy of our family tree yesterday, and the original spelling made more sense. Somehow, letters got changed, added, dropped, and switched. I imagine some of the transposing was due to the record keeping in the early 1900s. But, when you see the original spelling, the pronunciation makes way more sense.
The jersey the LV mayor is wearing is a knock-off. So easy to tell for Caps jerseys because the “c” in capitals is severely distorted. I live in Maryland and see them all the time around here, drives me insane
Here’s a really crazy, radical idea. I know it sounds nuts, but just hear me out: What if they got rid of the Phillie Phanatic, so he doesn’t put fans in danger with all his hot dog antics (and I’m not just talking about the meatsticks)?
Nah, that’s too wackadoodle.
Phanatic’s a** in the jackpot, for sure.
Agreed!!
Let’s get rid of all the asinine MLB mascots (especially the local one, “Fredbird”).
Do they really add any value? Must the public be entertained/stimulated every single moment?
Mayor’s Caps jersey is a fake
I really liked the Lille logo with the Great Dane and the flames on the shield they just unveiled a few years ago.
link
I just thought they’d wait until next decade to change it. Geez, they switch them out a lot, don’t they?
link
Love seeing the NWT license plate on the road. They’ve been using the Polar Bear design since 1970. (link)
Also, the founding year thing is nails on a chalkboard for me. MLB does the same thing (e.g. A’s founded in 1968 instead of 1901).
I like the number font they used until the ’80s. And it looks like they didn’t imagine having more than 20,000 cars in the whole province!
The hyphen should definitely count as a character; it’s taking up space and making the jersey look clunkier, so it counts. (The Rangers in particular, with that font that looks so terrible for NOBs but great with numbers, should just go NNOB on all their uniforms.)
What I’m wondering about is why the “thinner NOB font” has disappeared from baseball so thoroughly in recent years despite there being more and more players that could use it. After the discussion of umpire arguments yesterday, I went and found the Terry Collins incident on Deadspin, and I couldn’t help noticing that Noah Syndergaard’s uniform looks awful because they couldn’t be bothered to get the correct 1986 NOB font that he should have had.
Thanks for sharing about your family name. My own family’s lore says that my great-grandfather and his brothers ran booze from Canada into upstate New York during prohibition, and they made a lot of money (well, except for my great-grandfather). Once they got out of the business, they all changed their surnames in order to avoid the revenuers. Don’t believe anyone landed in jail, so it must have worked!
Question: are the monument and stones made of Barre gray granite? It would seem so from the photo.
No idea what the monuments are made of, sorry.
The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters logo looks very similar to the logo used by the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League. The only difference is the style of the star. See link
The Harwich Mariners have recently taken to using a modified version of the 1980s era Seattle Mariners logo:
link
I find it unsettling to see my own family name on a gravestone.
But its important too. I don’t want to get too philosophical, but the idea of memento mori is an important one to me, a good daily reflection. Seeing your own name on a gravestone is a reminder we don’t often get anymore
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I hope this lady has a kid that makes it to a major league: link
A NOB of Keihanaikukauakahihulihe’ekahaunaele would be impressive.
FYI – a shoutout to Paul this morning on 670 AM-The Score-Chicago (Bernstein & McKnight Midday Show). They referenced – and read – a few excerpts from yesterday’s Umpires’ Ejection Reports feature. Good stuff!
Oh, nice! I trust they left out certain words….
Yes, edited for content!
Las Vegas Mayor Goodman’s twitter photo looks JUST LIKE a blond Linda Lavin.
I think hyphenated names should be a separate category from non-hyphenated in any “longest name” consideration.
And just some trivia that I believe has gone unmentioned: NY Ranger Mats Zuccarello’s last name is actually Zuccarello-Aasen, but the latter name isn’t on his jersey because it doesn’t fit.
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I wonder if there are any surnames in NHL history past Zuccarello when lined up alphabetically. This guy could alternate between his two surnames and possibly have both the beginning and the final entry in the NHL all-time register!
Not a huge basketball fan but I always thought the Warriors began as the Syracuse Nationals, moved to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia Warriors and then onto San Francisco To become the San Francisco Warriors.
No, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia and became the 76ers. The Warriors started on Philadelphia, then moved west.