Eric Steplitus’ NBA/MLB Uni Crossover Concepts (Pt. I)

By Phil Hecken
Follow @PhilHecken

Hey everybody — Happy Mother’s Day!

This is usually where I’d be posting pics of whatever gadawful pink crap MLB decided to break out this year to “celebrate” all the Moms out there. I’m not gonna lie though, I’d rather see each and every baseball player decked out in head-to-toe bright pink, with pink bats, pink shoes, pink masks & protectors for the catchers, pink sweatbands, etc. than the alternative — which is COVID-19 induced nothing. Of course, it’d just be better if they wore regular unis and kept the pinkening to a minimum. But alas, due to the Coronavirus basically closing all of sports down, we’ll get neither today. But getting through the COVID so we can enjoy our sports and unis in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future is our jam right now.

Anyhoo…

Today, I have another set of crossover concepts, this time from a reader by the name of Eric Steplitus, who will be sharing with us some of his NBA/MLB “crossover” designs — similar to what we saw here a few weeks ago, when Chris Pirrone shared his NFL/MLB crossovers — with Eric taking NBA logos and designs and putting them onto MLB caps and jerseys.

So without further ado, let’s look at the first half of Eric’s designs…Eric, take it away…

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NBA Baseball Uniform Concepts
By Eric Steplitus

Hello, readers.

My name is Eric Steplitus, and I reside in the Metro Detroit area. Like a lot of others, I have found a lot of new time on my hands, and decided to take on a project. The premise is simple; what if teams in the NBA actually played baseball? What would their uniforms look like? All looks, fonts, color scheme from a franchise’s history was on the table.

I have no design programs, and besides designing uniforms for my college baseball team and travel ball organization, no design experience either. So working past that hurdle, the following is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy!

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Atlanta Hawks:

To me, their jersey template and colors from the early 70’s are some of the best in NBA history. There was no other direction to go but try to put those on a baseball uniform.

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Boston Celtics:

One of the more cleaner and simplistic looks in the league, their home and away jerseys were pretty easy to create. For the alternate, I used a font the team used in the 50’s.

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Brooklyn Nets:

Speaking of clean and simplistic, the Brooklyn Nets would certainly fall into that category. To liven up the set, I picked a very retro jersey template and a graffiti font that the Nets have used on alternate jerseys.

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Charlotte Hornets:

Having a unique color palette and excellent current fonts, this was an easy set to create to allow the colors to do the talking. The alternate is based off the road uniform the franchise wore in mid 90’s, right down to the mismatched pinstripes.

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Chicago Bulls:

Their look has had minimal changes throughout history. But the cursive Chicago font used on the road jerseys early in Jordan’s career was a must for a baseball uniform. Alternate based on the iconic pinstripe alternate the team wore in 97.

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Cleveland Cavaliers:

Another team who I elected to keep their current font, as it works great on a baseball uniform with triple piping. For the alternate, I chose their look from the 70’s and tap into their colors that set them apart.

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Dallas Mavericks:

In my opinion, their best colors and look was from 80’s. Those colors work great on a baseball uniform, and the Cowboy M provides one of my favorite hats and chest logos in this project.

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Denver Nuggets:

Having a few looks to their name, I elected to go the yellow/baby blue route to set them apart. Obviously knowing I needed to include their iconic skyline somehow, I chose to be bold and put it on their alternate jersey without any wordmark.

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Detroit Pistons:

My hometown team has an incredibly dated look currently, and don’t have many good looks to choose from. But they do have their lightning font that I thought worked fantastically. The second alternate was a fun take on their most infamous run in franchise history.

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Golden State Warriors:

Having tons of great looks, I elected to roll with their font from the 90’s to look best on baseball uniforms. The alternate is a fun take on their logo from 1970.

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Houston Rockets:

This was one of the more easier decisions to make, as the only option for a baseball uniform was their most famous colors and fonts in the 70s-90s for their home and road uniforms to create a very clean look.

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Indiana Pacers:

Wanted to create an A-Bar set for one teams, choosing the pacers for it was simple, considering they did their own version of that in the mid to late 80s.

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Los Angeles Clippers:

Combining the current letter logo with the cursive font of yesteryear, combining with the baby blue/orange color combo from the San Diego Clippers days create this stand alone look.

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Los Angeles Lakers:

Not much to change about a historic look. I chose the script from the 60’s for the purple alternate jersey.

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Memphis Grizzlies:

While I think their current look is adequate, the best way to give them a look that stands out was to tap into their iconic red/teal look from the 90’s.

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Alright, Eric! Thanks for sharing those. I’ll be back with Eric and the remainder of the NBA/MLB Crossover concepts real soon. Readers? What do you think?

The “BEST OF” Kreindler’s Korner

Hey guys & gals. You’ve enjoyed Kreindler’s Korner for several years now, mostly on the weekends, on Uni Watch, but with the recent coronavirus outbreak, Graig’s time is just too precious and he needs to tend to other things besides coming up with a new writeup each weekend.

So, going forward, for as long as the COVID-19 situation is bad in New York, I’m going to run a few “Best of’s” until Graig returns.

Here’s today’s offering (click to enlarge):

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Title: “Mathews”
Subject: Christy Mathewson, 1900
Medium: Oil on linen
Size: 12″ x 18″

To this day, Christy Mathewson is one of my favorite subjects to paint. He’s always been so incredibly appealing to me for a number of reasons, be it his tremendous abilities, his virtuous nature, or being the rare college-educated athlete in a sport populated by very few of them. Perhaps his matinee good looks have a lot to do with it, too – especially when they’re compared to those of the players around him on the Giants. And that’s not saying that McGraw’s men were ‘ugly’, but they had a rawness to them that was very in tune with the look of ballplayers of the era. They were hard men. Mathewson brought something very different to the bigs, aesthetically speaking.

This particular image of him dates back to before his days with the Giants. In 1899, he was signed to the Norfolk Phenoms (named after manager Phenomenal Smith, a former Major League pitcher) of the Virginia League for the 1900 season. Mathewson became an immediate success story with the Phenoms (even if his name was often misspelled as ‘Mathews’ in local papers), amassing a 20-2 record by mid-July. It was on July 17 of that year that he made his debut with the New York Giants.

At that time, he was not yet 20 years old. And I thought that the image I worked from made that abundantly clear. He clearly appears to still be in his teens, with his slick parted hair, huge blue eyes and skin that has yet to suffer the sun damage that the ballplayers of his era were known for. Combined with the crisp home white uniform, laced collar and a stylized ‘N,’ I thought it could have the makings of a really unique painting from the get-go.

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Thanks, Graig! You can (and should!) follow Graig on Twitter.

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from GoGo Sawx.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date & location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

Mystery Solved!

Reader Scott Chamberlain writes:

Hi Paul,

I remember a post on the Uni Watch blog about a photo of the Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1970s and an unidentified player with his back to the photo wearing a jacket with Sangy Jr. on it. (I have attached that photo).

Of course Sangy is former beloved Bucco Manny Sanguillén’s nickname. Manny is on Twitter so I figured he would know who would be wearing a Sangy Jr. jacket. As you can see from the attached photo of our Twitter exchange, it was Manny himself who was wearing the jacket!

He had it made up to celebrate the birth of his son. So that uni mystery is now solved. Thought you and your readers might appreciate that uni tidbit.

Scott Chamberlain

Great job Scott!

And now a few words from Paul

Hi there. Here’s a bit of news and some reminders:

• On Friday I finally received the large batch of seam rippers I had ordered nearly two months ago, so Uni Watch rippers are now full restocked and ready for ordering. If you’ve been wanting to join the #NoEra remove-ment, there’s no time like the present!

• I got soooo much positive feedback about Friday’s Uni Watch post, which featured an interview with a corporate CEO who’s been approached by six different NBA teams that want to put his company’s logo on their jerseys. It’s a fascinating look into the NBA’s ad patch program, and I really believe there’s no other place where you’ll find this type of info. If you didn’t already read it yesterday, check it out here.

• Just hypothetically, wouldn’t it be fun if this Bratwurst shirt actually existed? You know, just theoretically? If you agree, let me know.

• Supplies of the Uni Watch Pin Club’s design for May are dwindling, but you can still get yours here. It’s a super-cool auto racing design created by me and the great Todd Radom, produced in a limited/numbered edition of 250, and you can save 15% by using the checkout code COMMUNITY.

• Speaking of which, that same checkout code will get you a 15% discount on anything and everything in the Uni Watch Shop and the Naming Wrongs Shop.

• If you have a very large or very small head, we still have Uni Watch caps available in sizes 7 and 7-7-8. All other sizes and adjustables are currently sold out, although I’m told that our factory will be opening soon-ish, so we may be restocked by mid-June.

That’s it from here. Enjoy your weekend! Now back to Phil.

Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Interesting article from The Athletic, which ranks MLB’s 16 oldest teams based on how much better their current uniforms are compared to previous uniform sets they’ve worn (from Kary Klismet). … Also from Kary: This article from The Athletic delves into the origins of the New York Yankees’ notoriously strict personal grooming policies that prohibit long hair and beards. … Pay no attention to the creepy robot dog, and check out the Rangers cap (in Singapore!). From atx. … MiLB Promos asks, “Have you all seen the new @RRExpress Chupacabras hat for this season?” … Great observation by Kirby Killebrew who writes, “The inconsistency in the @Twins uniform set is so frustrating. You have 3 different fonts (throwback script, modern script, hybrid Minnesota script). 3 jerseys use gold & 3 don’t. The road grey & road navy have different piping styles. Nothing matches”

NFL News: Our own Anthony Emerson points out someone who claims to have seen the new Rams unis. Some deets: Gradient Numbers (home jersey only); Bone color away jerseys; The horns remain on the helmet, but a modernized version (like you see it on the new logo). Here’s the link to the tweet. If this is true, I think I (and maybe many of you) are going to be disappointed. … Tweeter RJL feels this effort by Da Bears “has to be the worst schedule release by any team this year.” … Check out this great video of the 1981 Uniform Reveal for the Bengals by Reggie Williams & Glen Bujnoch — wearing home & away uniforms. This interview by local TV station was done at the College Football HOF at Kings Island (now in Atlanta, GA) (from Old Time Football). … Here’s an article which predicts what uniform combos the Atlanta Falcons will wear for each game of the 2020 season (assuming, of course, there is a 2020 season). … Couple good old photos from John Turney: back in the day, they didn’t have an extra jersey for everyone, so they just used a shoestring to tie it all together, and mismatched (faded?) gold helmets for the 49ers (yes, the 49ers have worn silver helmets as well, but I don’t believe the two lighter ones are from that era). … Dan Kennedy was watching an old Brady Bunch episode and noticed these Colts and Raiders posters in the background.

College Football News: The Athletic has put together a nice piece selecting the best college football players of all time by uniform number (paywalled). It’s worth a look for the beautiful lead photo (a jersey collage) alone! (From Kary Klismet). He adds, “FYI – this article is a little over a month old, but it looks like it hasn’t been featured on Uni Watch before. I looked back through the Ticker from March 30th on and could not find any reference to it.”

Hockey News: “So with some time on our hangs with the pandemic, the Oshawa Generals have taken some pot-shots at the teams in their league,” writes Wade Heidt. “Comparing the teams to Disney characters based on their team logos/identity.” … Also from Wade Heidt, the AJHL’s Calgary Canucks have a 50th anniversary logo for the upcoming 2020-21 season. … Bardown for TSN has created a tier list of every Team Canada hockey jersey (from Blue Maple).

Soccer News: Brentford FC of England’s second-tier league, the Championship, has created a website promoting their new stadium, including a virtual tour and gallery of computer renderings of what the stadium will look like (from Kary Klismet). … Bunch of soccer kit news from Josh Hinton: The 2020/21 Juventus third kit has leaked; More images of the 2020/21 Juventus home kit have leaked; The 2020/21 Arsenal FC home kit has leaked; Scottish side Dundee FC had their away kit revealed; The 2020/21 Bayern Munich home kit was recently spotted in an Adidas superstore, confirming previous leaks; The 2020/21 Fluminense home and away kits have leaked. … What is the most iconic look in Canadian club soccer? Does one crest or logo have a New York Yankees or Barcelona kind of timelessness to it? Here’s an article which ranks the top 10 crests.

Grab Bag: “Not really uni related, but if you need some live baseball action, The Baseball Project just dropped a live album called “Live in Space” featuring a song about Larry Yount,” writes Ron Ruelle. “They dig deep with their references. Also, in the song “The Day Dock Went Hunting Heads” they rhyme “Joe Morgan” with “took one in the organ.” Solid stuff.” … Another non-uni item, this time from Jason Hillyer: “Looking at this chocolate milk carton I thought the use of ‘gable’ here odd.” … Grand Blanc (Mich.) High School is getting upgraded athletic facilities, including a new football stadium and aquatics center (from Kary Klismet). … Also from Kary: Members of the Michigan State community are making a point to promote appropriate social distancing measures in response to the coronavirus, including putting a face mask on the Spartan Statue on campus and circulating a masked version of the famous Spartan helmet logo. … Look at the mascot for Town Tennis Oizumi-Gakuen in Tokyo, the lines of the tennis court (from Jeremy Brahm).

And finally…

That’s all for today. Hope everyone has a nice Mother’s Day — if you can be with your mom (I will be cooking out for mine today!) that’s great; if you can’t I hope you sent a card, and will give her a call (or maybe even a Zoom chat, if she’s tech-savvy-ish). And I hope the weather is a bit more cooperative than yesterday. We actually had (at least in my neighborhood) two separate bouts of snow squalls (each lasting about two minutes)…and it was MAY NINTH! It was 34 degrees yesterday morning. As if 2020 hasn’t dealt us enough heartache, now the polar vortex has decided to drop down on the east coast. Oh, and we had steady 20 mph winds, with gusts that had to have hit 40 at some point, so the wind chill was below freezing. Fortunately, the forecast for today is a bit better. At least it kept the number of folks out and about down, so we can keep up our social distancing.

Everyone have a great week, and I’ll catch you back here next weekend. Paul’s back up tomorrow and I’ve got a feeling you’re gonna like tomorrow’s post a lot. Till then…

Peace,

PH