What’s so special about the gloves shown above? They’re made of synthetic materials — microfiber, specifically. No leather whatsoever. They’re made by a Cooperstown company called Carpenter. Some minor leaguers …
Category: Equipment/Accessories
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane …
Yesterday was Super Sam Fuld Cape Day in Tampa, as the Rays gave away superhero capes to all kids in attendance (and apparently to at least one adult). As you …
The Day When Every Team Should Wear Powder Blue
There’s no getting around it: The pink Mother’s Day accessories look a lot better when you’re already wearing a pastel tone to begin with. At the other end of the …
Ada Outtakes
My article + video about the making of the Super Bowl footballs in Ada, Ohio, is up now on ESPN. For today’s blog entry, I wanted to show you a …
Mouthguardian Angel
People often tell me, “I’ve spent years looking at sleeve stripes [or facemasks, or collar styles, or pork chops, or whatever], but I’d never really thought about them until I …
Cross-Dressing
There’s been a fascinating development over at IPFW — that’s Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, whose teams are called the Mastodons (love that). They have a player named John Peckinpaugh, who’s …
The Boy with the Arab (Chin)Strap
We’re gonna be talking about NFL helmets today, so let’s start with a quick recap of the league’s rules about helmet branding: Players can wear any safety-approved helmet they want, …
As Much Purple as You Will Ever See on This Site
Not the most uni-notable season opener, but it had its moments, especially the revelation that the Revolution Speed helmet doesn’t mesh too well with the Vikings’ horn decals (although, as …
The Bewildering Browns Banned Bat
By Phil Hecken While searcing for something else, I came across the rather odd picture you see to your right. It turns out that the picture, and an accompanying article, …
How Hard Can It Be to Measure Ten Yards?
Last Friday I wrote about a 1950s gadget designed to more accurately measure first downs. It turns out that reader Mako Mameli is interested in such devices, so he shared …
Up Pere-Scope!
Mike Hersh recently sent me a bunch of new wire photo submissions. I’ll be cobbling them into the latest installment of our wire service series soon, but today I want …
In Which I Stare Way Too Hard at Lots of Men’s Legs
Way back in April, I asked readers who wear pajama-style baseball pants to tell me why they go low-cuffed. The responses were extremely informative, and I’ll finally be making use …
Hot Enough for Ya?
We’ve all seen MLBers wearing windbreakers under their jersey during spring training, usually with those telltale collar points peeking out over the jersey collar. But there’s another kind of windbreaker …
Podcast? No — Scotty Pods’ Cast!
Just when I thought I was gonna have the biggest (or only) Royals story of the month, they had to go and fire Trey Hillman yesterday. Just my bad luck. …
Going Green xo Blue
By Phil Hecken One of my great pleasures in serving at Paul’s Bench Coach is getting to meet (either in person or through the magic of the Interwebs) many of …