Today, we’ve got NHL number retirement announcements, rumors about a new Celtics uni honoring Bill Russell, and an update on the forthcoming Little League Classic.
Uni Watch News Ticker for August 18, 2022
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- Paul tweeted this out yesterday, but if you’re not on Twitter, you still need to see this: Willie Stargell, c. late 1960s, wearing a batting helmet with the pirate-head logo on it rather than the normal golden P. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this before? (From Samuel Barrett)
- Braves P Mike Soroka wore his MLB jersey in his first rehab appearance for the High-A Rome Braves. (From @blaboz)
- Turns out, the Red Sox and Orioles will be wearing their standard uniforms for the Little League Classic this Sunday, with only the addition of a cap patch marking the occasion. In past years, MLB had gone all-out with Little League-style uniforms. (Thanks, Phil)
- Jimmy’s Seafood, a restaurant in Baltimore, has a T-shirt design that looks an awful lot like the Padres’ City Connect uni. (From Robert L. Anderson)
- Our own John Ekdahl noticed that the Yankees’ starting lineup last night had three players wearing a number in the 90s — Estevan Florial (90), Oswaldo Cabrera (95) and Aaron Judge (99). Is that a record?
Minors
- The Aberdeen Iron Birds, a minor league affiliate of the Orioles, has a chain that mimics the Orioles home run chain. (From Andrew Cosenitno)
- Ugly scene in the Eastern League last night, as the Hartford YardGoats — Double-A affiliates of the Rockies — and New Hampshire Fisher Cats — Double-A affiliates of the Blue Jays — both wore blue jerseys. (From Forrest J. Bowick)
Football
NFL
- Cowboys QB Dak Prescott wore a Colts-ish generic uniform in a new DirecTV ad. (From Dan Gitlitz)
- The Ravens didn’t have colored in end zones for their preseason game against the Titans. (From Andrew Cosentino)
- Also from Andrew, Madden added the BaltiMOre end zone to the game, implying that the Ravens may stick with it as well. This is in honor of Ravens fan Mo Gaba, who died of cancer at 14.
Hockey
NHL
- The Jets will retire Teemu Selanne’s 13 and Teppo Numminen’s 27 this fall. Both Selanne and Numminen played for the “old” Jets, the team that relocated to Phoenix in 1996. (From Wade Heidt)
- Russian equipment manufacturer Miklin has created logoless pads for Hurricanes G Pyotr Kochetkov. Miklin does not pay the six-figure fee required by the NHL to allow their logos to be displayed during games. (From Rob Altman)
Basketball
NBA
- The Celtics will unveil a Bill Russell-tribute uniform on opening night against the Sixers. Evidently, the Celtics, Russell and NBA had been collaborating on the design. (From Jay London)
- The Lakers will retire Pau Gasol’s No. 16 on on March 7, 2023. (From multiple readers)
- Also posted in the soccer section — Celtics PF Grant Williams visited Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea, and received a customized Chelsea jersey.
Soccer
USA
- For the first time, NCAA referees will have NCAA-issued uniforms. Previously, each conference set their own referee uniform standard. (Thanks, Jamie)
International
- England: Crawley Wasps, in the English third tier FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division, are wearing a pride shirt for FA Cup games this season. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
- England: Cross-posted from the NBA section — Celtics PF Grant Williams visited Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea, and received a customized Chelsea jersey.
- Guatemala: New kits for CSD Municipal and Comunicaciones, two of the biggest clubs in Guatemalan soccer. (From Ed Zelaski)
Golf
- Tiger Woods will be the cover athlete for the new PGA Tour 2K23 video game. It is the first time Woods has been on the cover of a video game since the end of his eponymous EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour series in 2013.
Grab Bag
- Jamie chimes in with some Australian Football League news: “There were a few, um, skirmishes in the first quarter of the game between AFL clubs Fremantle and West Coast’s men’s teams on Saturday (that is a local derby). Fremantle midfielder Caleb Serong tore his guernsey in one of them and ran around with it torn for the rest of the quarter.”
- New unis for Wisconsin women’s volleyball. (From an anonymous reader)
Comments (16)
With all the number retirements, how long until the Yankees have all numbers 60- and up? Will they be the first triple-digit team?
111 would fit pretty easily.
For that matter, anything with two 1s in it would fit easily…
911, anyone?
911 should be worn only by the Fireman of the Year.
Well, adding “1” before 00 thru 99 will work relatively easily, as long as the font doesn’t include a stem on the “1.” After that, adding the “1” after 00 thru 99 (excluding 10 to 19) will… suffice.
By then, uniforms will be made with such high tech material that their design will change each inning, and fans in the high-priced seats at the game will be able to choose the uniforms they wish to see. And pitchers will arrive from the bullpen in flying cars!
They’re going to start using letters. “Now barring, Number 6A…”
From Paul’s tweet, looks like people had indeed seen that pirate logo on the helmet before. Paul himself wrote an entry on UW in 2014 about it, haha.
The Crawley Wasps jumper is one of the most well-designed pride jerseys I’ve seen yet!
The blue on blue minor-league actually had a special jersey — the Yard Goats were wearing a jersey striped to look like the Hartford Whalers.
Has a team ever retired a number for a player that never played for them, besides Gretzky, Russell, Jackie Robinson? (I know the Jets used to be in Winnipeg, but that franchise is now in Phoenix.) Neither Selanne or Numminen played for the Thrasher-Jets.
I believe the Miami Heat retired 23 for Michael Jordan.
Didn’t someone also retire a number for Dan Marino? I thought it was the Heat but I think Bam Adebayo wears #13…
The New Orleans Hornets retired number 7 for Pete Maravich, who played for the New Orleans Jazz.
The Miklin gear set is going to camp, but whether or not it sees the light of day in a regular season NHL game is something different. Goalies that aren’t under contract with a brand – and some that are – will receive at least three or four sets of gear made for them to try out in camp, in an attempt to get them to jump ship to another brand.
It was a minor crisis a number of years ago in Detroit, when Curtis Joseph came back from a rehab stint with Grand Rapids – their top farm club in the AHL – wearing Koho pads that were mainly black. At the time, CuJo was under contract with Bauer, wearing a unique set of pads that were negative images of each other. He borrowed a set of Koho pads from one of the regulars in GR, and liked them so much he bought them from the guy. I’m sure the Bauer guys were fit to be tied, but a Wings’ goalie in mainly black was almost too much for the locals. Too close to Chicago colors.
I am not a Lakers fan and I didn’t look at the stats but is Pau Gasol “number retirement worthy”? Parts of 7 seasons with the Lakers, and a nice player. Not great though. When I hear his name, I don’t find it on a level with Baylor, West, Kareem, Magic or Kobe. We’re going to run out of numbers if we further these Halls of Very Good-level jersey retirements.
Yankees retire WAAAAAY too many numbers. They’re apparently retiring #21 for Paul O’Neil? Why?
Other questionable number retirements by the Evil Empire:
9 Roger Maris
20 Jorge Posada
46 Andy Pettitte
49 Ron Guidry
51 Bernie Williams