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A Very Unusual Ticket Collection

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Meet Eric Schwartzman, a tax accountant who lives in Queens. Like a lot of people, he collects ticket stubs. But they’re not all from games he attended. Schwartzman, who recently got in touch with me when I said I was looking for people with unusual collections, has a very specific stub-collecting niche:

As you can see there, Schwartzman specializes tickets dated June 12, which happens to be his birthday (he just turned 55 last week). So his collection is sort of a “a day in the life” — his life.

I’d never heard of anything like this before. I saved all the ticket stubs from events I attended as a kid, but those stubs were essentially souvenirs from my lived experience. Schwartzman’s tickets are souvenirs from other people’s experiences — which just happened to take place on his birthday.

Schwartzman says he’s never heard of anyone else who collects birthday-specific tickets either, although he says there’s a robust scene of collectors who covet stubs from games they didn’t attend. “I know people who collect tickets from games where their favorite players hit home runs,” he says. “Some people collect Derek Jeter hits, that kind of thing. But I haven’t seen anyone else who collects their birthday.”

Schwartzman looks for tickets on sites like eBay. His goal is simple: to have at least one June 12 ticket for every year he’s been alive (he often has multiples, especially for the more recent years). He’s currently missing 1964 — the year he was born — 1967, 1968, 1983, and 2006. “Occasionally, if I haven’t found the June 12th yet, I’ll buy the June 11th or 13th.” He says most of the tickets cost less than $10 and that the most he’s ever paid was $35, for a Shea Stadium stub from June 12, 1966.

Schwartzman posts photos of the tickets on Instagram and uses the hashtag #June12baseball. He also keeps track of everything on a spreadsheet. Yellow indicates a year for which he hasn’t yet gotten a ticket, and blue indicates a June 11 or 13 placeholder ticket:

Schwartzman started collecting June 12 tickets three or four years ago. “I think it was something about measuring my life,” he says. “It gave me context, helps me understand where I fit into the larger picture.” He reaches for a ticket from the mass of stubs spread out on the table in front of us. “Here’s one from 1979, when I turned 15. Okay, what was I doing then? I was a punk-ass kid riding my bike around, because I couldn’t drive yet. I was still a newspaper boy, I was working in a supermarket. Here’s one from the 1990s — marriage, kids. It makes you think about your life. I enjoy that part of it.”

Schwartzman attended his first ballgame in 1972, when he was eight years old, but not on his birthday. He didn’t attend a game on June 12 until 1980, when he turned 16, but he wasn’t a ticket collector at that point and no longer has the stub (although his spreadsheet indicates that he’s acquired three other June 12 tickets from that year). Nowadays, he prefers to spend his birthday at a ballgame whenever possible. Often he makes it part of a birthday vacation — this year, for example, he was in Kansas City.

Along the way, he’s noticed certain things about the June 12 tickets. “For teams on the east coast, the games on June 12 are usually game 29, 30 or 31 for that season,” he says. “For west coast teams, it’s usually a higher number, I guess because they front-load the schedule for the warm-weather teams.”

As you’d expect for a guy of his generation, Schwartzman has some fairly predictable ticket preferences: He hates paper tickets, digital tickets, and tickets with bar codes; he likes the old-school cardstock tickets he grew up with. “The older stubs seem more artful,” he says. “The new ones do have some amazing photographs, but I just like the older ones better.” He also prefers tickets that have been torn, not just scanned. “When it’s torn, it feels like it’s been used. For the newer ones, I don’t even know if the person went to the game.”

Schwartzman’s collection appeals to me on a few different levels. First, I like oddball collections and the collectors who collect them. But I’m also very fond of birthdays — my own or anyone else’s. Just seeing my birthday, March 21, in print or hearing someone say it out loud makes me happy. Does Schwartzman feel similarly?

“Yes, I certainly get a kick out of seeing my birthday over and over as part of this project,” he says. “Every time I get another ticket, it’s almost like I’m getting myself another birthday present.”

Isn’t that nice? You can see more of Scwartzman’s tickets here.

While we’re at it, Schwartzman has two other projects worth mentioning. First, he has a “Ballpark Chaser” jersey featuring patches for all of the MLB ballparks he’s been to. Each time he visits a new stadium, he adds a new patch:

Also: For the past few years, Scwartzman has had an unusual Instagram project called MLBCapsinNYC, which is pretty much what it sounds like: He goes around New York photographing people wearing MLB team caps. On Opening Day, he took off from work just to go to several baseball bars and take photos.

“Sometimes people say, ‘What are you doing? Don’t take my picture,’ things like that,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll go up to them beforehand and ask if it’s okay. I’ll give them my card, and that usually gives me a bit more validity, like I’m not just some crackpot.”

Big thanks to Eric for sharing his collections and projects with us — good stuff.

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Winner’s circle: Interesting cross-sport move last night in Toronto, where the Blue Jays joined the Raptors’ title celebration by putting the new NBA champs’ logo on the back of the Skydome mound. Has a cross-sport team logo ever appeared on an MLB mound before? I’m thinking it probably has, but I can’t recall any specific examples. Anyone..?

There was no immediate word on whether the Jays will now be sued by Monster Energy.

(My thanks to Cino Commisso for bringing this one to my attention.)

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“Come on, blue — er, red, white, and blue”: Historically, the baseball umpire has usually been the most formally dressed person at the ballpark. Nineteenth-century umps wore top hat and tails (a uniform still used for vintage “base ball” games), and umps wore blue suits for most of the 20th century.

More recently, umping attire has undergone a casual Friday-ization, to the point where we’ve now reached — well, you can see for yourself in the screen shot shown above, which is from a California high school state championship playoff game that was played on Sunday. Yikes!

(My thanks to Al Gruwell for bringing this one to my attention.)

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Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie

Check this one out! This was a 1966 American Oil promotion to win a 1967 Mustang. (Yes, that’s Doc from The Love Boat without his glasses.) I guess at each fill-up, you’d get some player stamps and stick ’em on this sheet:

Fill out that row, get that prize. I’d guess that the Tommy Nobis and Wayne Walker stamps (win $1) were more prevalent than the six players you needed for the Mustang!

Now for the rest of this week’s picks:

• Partie D’Étoiles! This pin commemorates the 1982 All Star Game held at Olympic Stadium, won by the National League 4-1. Everyone who’d like to see an expansion team return to Montreal with this team name and logo, raise your hands. (Further reading: Todd Radom’s definitive assessment of that logo.)

• Got some more pins here — one for the 1959 A.L. Champion White Sox, one for the Chicago Blackhawks that didn’t quite get the artwork right, and one for the 1940s Cincinnati Red Legs. Big pin set here, too.

• Did you collect these coins? Topps included these in their baseball card packs back in 1971 — this is coin No. 22 for Frank Howard, his last season in DC before the Senators moved to Texas.

• Here is the classic (1971) look of the Cowboys blue jersey, as shown on this Staubach No. 12 jersey from Mitchell & Ness.

• Luv Ya Blue! Here is a matching set of Oilers buttons. But wait! One is a pin, and the other is a magnet. Officially licensed, of course.

• These “ringer” tube socks are for the SF Giants, but the seller has other MLB and NFL teams.

• Someone made a custom Saints 1969 helmet buggy, complete with the ill-fated black helmet.

• Great 1960s Mets pennant that also features the Statue of Liberty.

• Nice-looking helmets on this mid-1970s pack of NFL playing cards.

Seen an item on eBay that would be good for Collector’s Corner? Send any submissions here.

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ITEM! Mailbox story update: I recently mentioned that I was working on an article about USPS mailbox design. The article is for the excellent tech site Gizmodo (it will run as part of their design section, which is often less tech-y), and it’s now available for your enjoyment.

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KRC update: The latest installment of Key Ring Chronicles is about a leather “E” and three links of chain. Check it out here.

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Membership update: A new batch of designs has been added to the membership card gallery. That includes Robert Kahn’s card, which is based on the 1973 Baltimore Bullets, complete with the lowercase FiNOB. Great design request by Robert — as is so often the case, the worst uniforms make the best membership cards.

Ordering a membership card is a good way to support Uni Watch (which, quite frankly, could use your support these days). And remember, a Uni Watch membership card entitles you to a 15% discount on any of the merchandise in our Teespring shop and our Naming Wrongs shop. (If you’re an existing member and would like to have the discount code, email me.) As always, you can sign up for your own custom-designed card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see how we produce the cards here.

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The Ticker
By Alex Hider

Baseball News: The clip-on tie phenomenon on Father’s Day also extended to the minors, where Rochester Red Wings C Willians Astudillo had the clip-on (from Shane). … Speaking of Father’s Day, the Florence Freedom of the unaffiliated Frontier League went all-out (off?) by wearing “Dad bod” jerseys — basically, a photo of a shirtless man’s hairy chest (thanks to all who shared). … The scoreboard at Busch Stadium was using the Marlins’ outdated logo yesterday (from Matt Gurnow). … Yankees 1B Luke Voit was still wearing his Father’s Day batting gloves last night (from @swampfyr181). … The Royals are wearing Kansas City Monarchs throwbacks on Sunday, and they’ll apparently have batting helmets to go with the uniforms (from Alex Manners). … Here’s one we missed over the weekend: The Twins wore this sleeve patch on Saturday for Joe Mauer’s number retirement ceremony (from F.K. Yaaj). … These are the jerseys for the Midwest League All-Star Game, which will take place in South Bend this season (from Grayson Woods). … The Triple-A Buffalo Bisons are giving away Game of Thrones banners at an upcoming game (from Matt Wilcott). … The Potomac Nationals, a Washington Class-A affiliate, is giving away an Indiana Jones-themed Stephen Strasburg bobblehead on June 22. … Golfer Chez Reavie was wearing the Diamondbacks logo on his cap at the US Open on Sunday. He’s been wearing the logo off and on for about 10 years (from Douglas Ford). … Auburn uni guru Clint Richardson has a brief history of the Tigers’ use of camo caps. … Reader Brian got a blue MLB Father’s Day cap from his family on Sunday and noted that New Era neglected to finish sewing the eyelets on the crown. They made sure to include the maker’s mark, though. … The A’s introduced recent first round draft pick Logan Davidson, who was wearing home pants, a green alternate jersey, and a road cap (from Richard Paloma). … The Single-A Boise Hawks appear to have a player with an upside-down “2” on the back of his jersey (from Joshua Leonard).

NFL News: Game balls for the upcoming season will apparently include the NFL 100 logo (from Johnny O). … The Broncos will wear a “Mr. B” memorial decal on their helmets this season for owner Pat Bowlen (thanks to all who shared). … Speaking of Bowlen, when he died last week, he became the first person to ever die between election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and induction. The Hall of Fame usually only gives out jackets and rings to living inductees, but the Hall is doing a review of its policy due to Bowlen’s situation. In addition, Broncos fans have started a petition to rename the stadium after Bowlen, though it won’t happen (from Kary Klismet).

College Football News: Michigan is taking votes to determine the design for the official student T-shirt for the upcoming season (from Teddy Tran). … Looks like Syracuse will be unveiling new uniforms this Friday. If so, Phil will have a full report on Saturday (from @ACC_Tracker). … Colorado State will drop the horns for a game on Oct. 5 and wear a new helmet design to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary.

Other Football News: DE Odell Willis of the BC Lions wore custom bright orange shoes during the team’s game on Saturday (from Wade Heidt). … The Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League have made a mid-season change to their white jerseys (from Richard Martin).

NBA News: Raptors G Kyle Lowry wore a Barney throwback at the team’s championship parade yesterday (from Wade Heidt). … Golden State is already using its new logo — that photo is from an ad the team bought to congratulate the Raptors in The Toronto Star (thanks to all who shared). … Mike Delia’s wife bought a throwback Golden State Warriors knit hat that includes a “1948-1952 home uniform” tag. Of course, the Warriors didn’t show up in California until 1961. … A basketball team in Cristo Rey, Dominican Republic, wore uniforms with David Ortiz’s photo printed on them after he was shot last week (from Alex Arias). … Check out the checkerboard floor in this vintage photo of Maurice Stokes (from @HitTheGlass). … Former North Carolina PF Deon Thompson must love his former coach — he got a tattoo of Roy Williams inked onto his forearm (from James Gilbert).

Soccer News: The jerseys for the 2019 MLS All-Star Game have been released (from Phil). … New home and away uniforms for Belgian club RSC Anderlecht (from Josh Hinton and Ed Zelaski). … Forge FC, a club in the Canadian Premier League, wore black and yellow uniforms on Saturday instead of their usual orange and gray scheme in honor of the birthday of their home city, Hamilton, Ontario (from Wade Heidt). … New alternate uniforms for Portuguese club FC Porto (from Ed Zelaski). … Here’s a good look at how Nike designed and produced this year’s Women’s World Cup kits (from Phil). … Here’s a look at all of the Premier League ball designs over the past 20 years. … New second kit for Scottish team Aberdeen. The last time they wore this black/gold color scheme was the 1930s (from our own Jamie Rathjen).

Grab Bag: A diner in St. Louis has a brand new mural in honor of the Blues’ Stanley Cup win (from @2xAught7). …  Lots of stadium names throughout the country were set to change when BB&T and SunTrust agreed to merge. However, another credit union has filed a trademark lawsuit over the combined bank’s proposed new name, Truist (from Daniel Tarrant). … For the second time in a month and the third time in two years, Sports Illustrated has been sold. … These are the official ticket designs for the upcoming Rugby World Cup, which will take place in Japan (from @ohhhsourry). … Following the massacre at the Munich Olympics in 1972, some broadcasters replaced the decimal point int their graphics package with the Star of David in honor of the slain Israeli athletes (from @nordeckian).

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Research query: I’m working on a story about caps and could use some quotes from people in retail. So if you currently work at a Lids or at any other retail shop that sells ballcaps, I’d like to hear from you. Thanks.

Also: Our latest raffle winner is Sandy Dardick, who’s won a Uni Watch membership card. Congrats to him (or is it her? I’m not sure!), and my repeated thanks to Paul Bailey for sponsoring this raffle.

 
  
 
Comments (72)

    Links in “Collectors’ Corner” aren’t working (though others I tried are)

    HOF is opening a huge can of worms if it relaxes it’s ring/jacket policy now. Will this be retroactive to the families of Ken Stabler, Junior Seau and others who passed on before being enshrined?

    What a travesty it will be if a few extra jackets must be awarded to relatives of the deceased!

    Stabler and Seau were elected after their deaths. Bowlen was alive when elected, but died prior to being enshrined. Bit of a difference.

    The umpire’s jersey. I’ve seen them for sale at officials’ supply sites, but I never thought anyone actually bought them. Yeesh. Aside from being gaudy, it’s a violation of flag code.

    California doesn’t have a High School State Championship and are not aloud to play on Sundays

    The MLB caps in NYC is a neat concept. My only thought would be to engage with and get a few sentences of backstory on some the subjects. Would make it feel more like ‘baseball fans of new york’ and less ‘creepy subway stalking’.

    I thought it was an interesting sort of commentary on human psychology that Schwartzman has found that people are more likely to cooperate with having their photo taken if he presents his card.

    It’s as if we’ve been conditioned to grant a level of authority the printed word, even if, as in this case, the card was not issued by a governmental or regulatory body.

    Makes me wonder if any UW members have ever pulled out their cards to establish cred while arguing with a friend about uniform matters?

    I’m an amateur photographer and in the classes I’ve taken it’s encouraged to approach your subject and offer a card prior to taking their picture. It’s mainly an etiquette/ethics thing: it feels less exploitative/invasive if you can explain why you’re taking their picture. Plus you can offer to send it to them and grow your followers.

    I totally agree that it sounds like a good idea. Just noting that there is not really any logical reason that presenting a card should carry more weight than simply telling your subjects what you’re doing.

    Well, the card implies some accountability. It includes the person’s contact info, etc. (Which could be fake, of course, but it’s still a gesture of accountability, not just a gesture of *authority.*)

    Chris – Regarding the “creepy” comment which made me laugh you are correct it can be a bit offputting for some to know they are being photographed but my goal was to originally capture subjects in everyday moments. The cards state the name of the project and the Instagram link. I have never had anyone contact me, that I have given a card to, in order to remove a picture. I do admit I enjoy the pics where the subject catches me snapping the shot but they are not quite sure that is what I was doing. Some of my favorites are tagged with the hashtag #MLBCapsinNYSFavorite – Thanks, Eric

    Great lede, especially his caps in NYC project.

    The Blue Jays mound, I was distracted by the silly simulated strike zone. Totally unnecessary. Now, get off my yard.

    I actually checked the game video from *both* teams, hoping that one of them wouldn’t have the K zone. Alas, both did.

    The Blue Jays only made the switch this year as part of a complete overhaul of their broadcasting system to make it more modern. (Looks like Fox Sports) As a Jays fan, I prefer the old look.

    Besides Kyle Lowry wearing the Damon Stoudamire throwback, there seemed to be some love for the retro purple at the Raptors’ championship parade and celebration.

    Jeremy Lin had a purple throwback with Chinese characters:

    link

    Forget going to see the Prime Minister after winning a championship. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to visit them, rocking a purple blazer:

    link

    I’m a big birthday person. every time I see my birthday somewhere I get a little kick out of it. Like if I’m listening to a podcast and they mention something that happened on February 18, I always think “Hey! That’s my birthday! Cool!” or something like that. This is totally something I’d do.

    Like if I’m listening to a podcast and they mention something that happened on February 18, I always think “Hey! That’s my birthday! Cool!”

    Yes, exactly! I’m the same way.

    likewise. i was born on my great aunt Minnie’s birthday (December 27 FTW) and was very much her favorite

    Same feeling as well. On a related note, I once had a girlfriend who shared the same birthday as me and a baseball player we both were fans of. Unfortunately she broke up with me before we could share our double birthday.

    I also get a kick out of seeing my birthday in print, but given that I was born in the midst of Pollen Season, I’m not sure I’d want to collect things from that date. Maybe my conception…nah, that was during the blazing hot Summer… ah, my anniversary is in Autumn. That would be a good date.

    Great lede today. The only downer was that Eric’s BallPPark Chaasers jersey doesn’t Respect The Placket. Everything else makes up for it.

    Speaking of Father’s Day, the Florence Freedom of the unaffiliated Frontier League went all-out (off?) by wearing “Dad bod” jerseys
    Have I mentioned lately how much I can’t stand minor league baseball? I’m all for having a bit of fun but now it’s a race to see what team can out-stupid the others.

    1. I also get geeked up when I see something referring to my birthday. I actually keep a list of the patients I have taken care of who share my birthday. I thought it was just me. (I share my birthday with one of my nieces, and my wife shares her birthday with her twin sister and my sister.)
    2. If I had known, I would have saved a paper ticket for Eric from the D’backs/Phillies game from 12 June of this year.
    3. I remember seeing the Star of David used in footage of the 1972 Olympics but I didn’t know it was changed during the Games and in response to the murders. That’s a very nice tribute.

    Re: 1972 Olympics.

    Isn’t that clock on the world feed, not for individual countries to mess with?

    It is. And the six-pointed Star was used before the massacre, as evidenced by its use in the men’s 100 m final.

    link

    Enjoyed the ticket stub collection. Never heard of someone collecting ticket stubs for their birthday, but I know a number of sports card collectors who collect athletes who share their birthday. For example, this blogger collects cards of players in various sports who were born on February 14th. link

    The pitcher’s mound isn’t the only place the Blue Jays were showing love for the Raptors…

    link

    Paul, unfortunately you’ve got the name of Toronto’s stadium wrong.

    It’s not the Skydome! It’s Skydome.

    The “the” refers to the mound.

    Just like if I were referring to “the Madison Square Garden ice” or “the Yankee Stadium outfield.”

    Silly me. You’re right! I was so excited to see the word “Skydome” instead of “Rogers Centre” that I thought I’d pull your leg.

    I wish every sportswriter with a conscience would employ this into his or her own journalistic style guide. I’m so sick of watching some local sportscaster mention the “Franklin American Morgage Music City Bowl” or the “Camping World Independence Bowl” that it makes me cringe.

    Let’s make a pact right now to call the bowl games what they should be called…it’s not the TaxSlayer.com Bowl it’s the Gator Bowl; the Motor City Bowl is the Motor City Bowl, not the Quick Lane Bowl!

    I don’t watch NASCAR, but based on what I’ve seen in promos and their news ticker, ESPN doesn’t reference the title advertiser of their Cup series or the race. They’ll just say something like “NASCAR Cup Series at Charlotte” or wherever. I assume it’s due to corporate theater/lack of payment rather than altruistic aesthetics though

    I too, like to see my birthday in print. I feel pretty lucky to have been born on that particular date. This year, I’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of my 7th birthday, along with really famous event that happened on that day…the Apollo 11 moon landing, on July 20th.

    Interesting article. Related/unrelated: I checked out the MLBCapsinNYC Instagram page and I was surprised to see that it has 3000+ followers, but only gets a handful of “likes” for each photo.

    There is a story behind that. Truthfully the followers was regretfully artificially inflated for a two week period. I was promised organically grown followers. It was not. I then cut it off. The follower count has been dropping slowly over the last year offset by true followers. I posted a disclaimer about that back on a February 2, 2019 posting.

    As a daily reader of both UniWatch and Gizmodo Media Group sites, I’m always thrilled when there is crossover. Glad to see you’ll be getting a by-line over there today!

    Same here. I was shocked to see a uni-watch story quoted in a Deadspin article a few weeks back with no mention of it on the site that I could find.

    It was a fun piece, the USPS mailboxes,.

    Which Deadspin piece are you referring to – the one about the Blues color guard, which referenced/linked to my blog post on same?

    Yea maybe that’s it. I just recall it being a big deal on the uni watch site. I think the deadspin piece was really claiming you were the reason why the Blues eliminated the extraneous flag and I don’t recall it being that big of a deal on the site, which is nice.

    I think the Blues thing was a pretty big deal on the site!

    But Deadspin mentioning/crediting us wasn’t a big thing here, if that’s what you mean.

    I believe I’m the resident FC Porto fan, so my fan’s take on this year’s alternates is a resounding “meh” even the main kit (which hasn’t been featured in the ticker yet link) is underwhelming as far as the solid blue along top, but it’s not terrible either. I think generally new balance has been pretty restrained in their approach to soccer kits, which is a good thing. I’m just not a big fan of the yellow and blue alternate or the design on front of their 3rd jersey.

    (Not sure if you’re going to see/read comments from the Mailbox article on Gizmodo, so I’ll post here too).

    Great article! I will say that I’ve never used one of those collection bins for packages, and always just take them to the post office in case I under-paid or something. Plus I usually need to get the packaging from them anyway.

    What I’m most surprised about is why they are changing the design. I never would have suspected mail tampering to be an issue, and would have bet that it instead would be to prevent people from treating the bins as trash cans. Since people don’t mail letters at the rate they used to, I could see them just dropping trash in there, and ruining the actual mail inside. I shudder to think how many dog poop bags have been put into mail collection bins over the years….

    I noticed something interesting in Eric’s ticket spreadsheet. For the 1972 tickets one is for the Pirates vs. Royals with the Pirates as the home team. I thought “an inter league game in 72”? So I checked Baseball Reference and both teams had an off day. The Royals were traveling from KC to Boston and the Pirates had two days off (6-12 & 6-13) traveling from LA to Pittsburgh. Did they play an exhibition game on the 12th. Just curious if anyone knows more.

    THIS IS QUESTION OF THE DAY IF NOT THE YEAR!! I GOOGLED FOR HALF AN HOUR AND NOTHING YET.

    Will keep searching

    great catch, Kstate8

    Good info. It’s not listed there either. Although ten days later the Royals and Braves played in KC.

    Sorry I’m so late. The Pirates would play an annual exhibition against an American League team called the HYPO game, for Help Young People Organize. Since Pie Traynor had died months earlier, the 1972 game was the Traynor Memorial. The game summary is on the left here. link

    Fantastic! Thanks for all of the info. It caught my eye since I am a Royals fan and had never heard of this. Of course, I was four at the time. Do they still do this?

    That is funny, I have looked at that ticket countless times and I completely missed that the visiting team was an AL team. Even when entering it into that spreadsheet. I posted a pic of the ticket on May 22, 2017 to my personal IG account. Not sure if Paul posted a pic of it here.

    Watching rerun of Mexico and Cuba in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

    Mexico is in black with white, Cuba in white with navy blue. If I didn’t know who was who I wouldn’t know.

    I’m an American who’s always been a bit jealous that Mexico’s soccer uniform has been so classic and long-lived, while my country has been trying on different looks since I was soccer-sentient. So it’s a bit odd to see this, even though I know Mexico had the black with gold for ~10 years.

    (And Cuba, from international baseball, I’m used to lots of red and a fair amount of blue.)

    Siegfried from KAOS is correct.

    Also, I still have a bunch of those 1971 Topps coins

    I love the way you write, Paul, and that mailbox story is excellent. The way you describe (and really, in most of your work on design) how design should offer a feeling or an experience is so spot on. I am a liturgist as part of my job, and it’s the same type of discussions: how can we make something that is functional, beautiful, and also gives the participants a feeling or engages them in a meaningful way? The general populace seems to take this design thinking for granted.

    Not exactly a team logo, but the 1975-76′ Montreal Canadiens wore a season long patch commemorating the 1976 Olympics (which were in Montreal).

    Also, following the death of Habs legend Maurice Richard, Montreal Expos uniformed personnel wore a “9” arm patch for the duration of that season.

    Thinking of other teams that wore a season long patch commemorating an Olympics, reminds me of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

    1987-88 Calgary Flames:

    link

    1987 Calgary Stampeders:

    link

    mailbox item was nicely done

    i wonder how many folks mistakenly thought it was called the “post office” because of those posts that held up the older collection boxes?

    I really like it when a team wears throwback batting helmets with its throwback uni’s.

    I noticed Cincinnati’s starting times of 8:00pm or slightly later, for the Monday 6.12.78 game it makes sense so that it could have been aired on ABC’s MNB, but was that normal in the mid-70s as opposed to games usually starting at 7:05 – 7:35 local (Eastern) time? Was it also a way to minimize exposure to heat without having the game appear to be late into the night, being on turf and taking advantage of Cincinnati’s western location in the Eastern time zone.

    Also this scheduling of NL East in June teams also seems to have gone away by about 1982 (through 1993 with the 3 divisions implemented the next season), usually the Reds would be playing division foes from the West in June.

    Again, Michigan takes the field at the CWS with multiple coaches wearing 23. No clue on the team’s website (coach uni numbers not listed). Plus Michigan goes NNOB. What the…?

    Speaking of birthdays and sports, ESPN made a 30 for 30 about my second birthday and that just brings me lots of joy.

    This might be well known already, but I noticed a depressing piece of trivia from this article about advertising on MLS jerseys:

    link

    The Houston Dynamo are the only team in the league without a brand on the front of their shirts, and they’ll need to sell the front space before they sell the sleeve, Stevenson said.

    So a team can’t choose to put advertising on a sleeve, somewhat out of the way, unless they first desecrate the front of their jersey with a giant ad?

    I wonder what’s up with ticket to the Pirates game in 1972. It says that they were playing the Royals, but there was no inter league play back then.

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