In today’s Ticker, the Reds have announced a jersey advertiser, a sign that the Texans may make their red helmets their primary lids, and much more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for Feb. 5, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- No photos of the ad patch on their jerseys, but the Cincinnati Reds’ will include a Kroger patch for the 2023 season. Kroger will pay $5 million a year for their logo to appear on the Reds’ jersey.
- After making the “4+1” jersey edict official, this article takes an in-depth look at how the rule affects the Seattle Mariners, along with a discussion of the terrible kerning issues they have with their blue jersey, which they’re keeping. Paul wrote a Premium piece about that font in June. (From Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell)
- The Dodgers Miguel Vargas has changed his uniform number from 71 to 17.
- When President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch of Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, one of the secret service agents dressed as an umpire. Video here. (From Texas Trev)
- The Los Angeles Dodgers will retire the number 34 in honor of pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, during a special three-day celebration Aug. 11-13.
- Hoo-lee shit: a Montreal woman is passing along her father’s extensive collection of Expos baseball cards. 31,000 of them!
- Paul will certainly appreciate this “Catstros” t-shirt. (From Bryant)
Softball
- The Universtiy of North Carolina-Wilmington’s softball team received rings for winning the 2022 Colonial Athletic Association championship. (From Kary Klismet)
More
- Angelo State University unveiled their rings for making the 2022 NCAA Division II College World Series. (From Kary Klismet)
Football
NFL
- Apparently the data don’t lie: Guardian caps helped reduce concussions during the NFL pre-season (though not worn in pre-season games), so they’re likely going to be a fixture going forward.
- This is rich: former Steeler Antonio Brown blames James Harrison for “giving him CTE” caused by Harrison’s use of an illegal helmet.
- Computer graphics (circa 1997 Seattle/Oakland NBC broadcast) of what would become the future home of the Seahawks. (From Jackson White)
- When the Texans introduced DeMeco Ryans, they had two helmets in the room, both red. Mako Mameli asks, “Is the Battle Red version replacing the blue one as primary helmet?”
- Last year, the home team endzone (Bengals) was on the left side of the field. This year, it appears the Eagles (home team) will be on the right side of the field. (From Moe Khan)
- “A couple competing in a tailgating cook off contest added this awesome retro (Buffalo Bills) touch to their burger buns. The brand is upside down in the pic but that’s the best look I could get,” says submitter Russell Goutierez.
- Christopher Hickey says, “I can’t say I’ve ever seen this green Phillies-esque script P hat Eagles CB Eric Allen is wearing… but I like it!”
- Tweeter ATX Progress didn’t seem to recall the Dolphins Jim Jensen wearing an aqua neck roll. But a google search seems to show he wore it for most of his games. Of course, that’s really burying the lede, because the real attraction of that photo is the unique punting finish for Reggie Roby, wearing his signature wristwatch!
College
- There are some cool uni-related photos in this gallery announcing the final farewell event later this month for Hawaii’s Aloha Stadium, which is scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a new stadium. (From Kary Klismet)
- Ohio State has THE best uniforms in college football, per 247Sports.
More
- ICYMI: Paul had a great piece a couple weeks ago on vintage football helmets available at auction. Here are four more up for sale. (From Helmet Archaeology)
Hockey
NHL
- This season, we’ve seen quite a few new Alex Ovechkin bobbleheads from FOCO, and here is yet another, this time in an All Star uniform.
- Speaking of ASG unis, here’s one with an Islanders patch on a Western Conference jersey. Why is that? The reason is Bo Horvat was selected to the ASG as a member of the Canucks, but was recently traded to the Isles. He played for the Pacific Division team.
- The Washington Capitals College Series has Caps hats made in 7 school colors. 2 hats to note: George Washington University doesn’t use a mascot but a school nickname GDUB as they transition away from Colonials & Virginia Commonwealth University’s colors look a lot like the rival Pittsburgh Penguins. (From bryanwdc)
- In Friday night’s ASG festivities, Alex Ovechkin and his son wore matching unis — well, all except for the “8”s. (From Phil Hexum)
- Many have questioned the NHL’s recent handling of “Pride” night ‘situations,’ but Commish Gary Bettman feels the teams handled those situations just fine (WaPo link).
Minors/Juniors
- The OHL’s Sudbury Wolves retired Marc Staal’s number on Friday night. The design of the banner for the rafters is interesting. The banner does not depict the striping of the blue and silver jersey Staal wore. However, it matches the other retired number banners of earlier players who wore the green Wolves uniform with the Northwestern stripes, except Staal’s banner is in blue. (From Wade Heidt)
- The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters played as the Cleveland Lumberjacks this weekend, and retired Dave Michayluk’s No. 27 last night. A nod to the old IHL franchise in Cleveland. (From Wade Heidt)
- Also yesterday evening, the Evansville Thunderbolts wore Rugrats sweaters. (From sterl haggard)
Basketball
NBA
- Here’s an interesting story about the ongoing mystery of who is inside the costume of the Denver Nuggets’ mascot, Rocky. (From Kary Klismet)
- The NBA recently unveiled the uniforms for the 2023 Jordan Rising Stars tournament, which takes place during All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City on Feb. 17.
College
- Yesterday’s game between UConn and Georgetown featured lots of rolled up pants. (From bryanwdc)
- This photo album commemorating 50 years of the University of Arizona’s McKale Center has several great uni- and arena-related shots. (From Kary Klismet)
- The Virginia Tech Hokies wore maroon uniforms at home for their annual “Maroon Out” game yesterday. UVa wore their white uniforms on the road. (From Al Jones)
- Iowa and Illinois played a very pleasant looking color vs. color game yesterday. (From Patrick Pfingsten)
- Brown women have new uniforms. Submitter Jim Pericotti asks, “Aside from the Cubs, is there any other team that uses the ® with their wordmark or logo on their uniforms? Seems unnecessary for the team’s game apparel, especially since the wordmark on the court’s baseline is unbranded.”
- WKU has retired Dwight Smith’s jersey.
- At halftime of Wednesday’s game, Villanova will retire the No. 1 jersey of two-time NCAA national champion and 2018 consensus National Player of the Year Jalen Brunson (scroll to bottom).
G League
- On February 7, the Wisconsin Herd will wear Black History Month jerseys featuring portraits of prominent Black Americans.
- Hoops star Tyler Herro had his jersey retired by his alma mater, Whitnall High School, in Wisconsin.
More
- The student mascot for Washington (Ind.) Catholic High School sang the national anthem while in full costume before a game last week. (From Kary Klismet)
Soccer
USA
- On Friday, the San Diego Sockers used R2D2 jerseys for field players and the goalkeepers wore the Darth Maul top. (From Jonathan Greene)
- Check out the special captain’s armband for the Vancouver Whitecaps, designed for their Women and Girls in Sports Day, in an exhibition match with Charlotte yesterday. (From Wade Heidt)
International
- Germany: Borussia Dortmund player Seb Haller was found to have testicular cancer. His team adjusted the center circle. (From Jeremy Brahm)
- The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) will stage a global launch of Jamaica’s new football uniforms on Monday, February 6, at 4:00 am (Jamaica time).
Cycling
- A bit lengthy, but important (from Bernie Langer): “This is incredibly niche, but also incredibly Uni-Watch (sic). Earlier you posted in the ticker about cycling team EF’s mismatched socks, and the twitter account dedicated to tracking which riders wear the correct socks on the correct foot. It appears there’s a ‘controversy’ now. In all the press photos when the kit was released, the lighter colored sock was on the left, matching the shoulder panels on the jersey. However, the team has two different types of socks; regular socks, and aero socks. The aero socks actually have L and R letters labeling the correct foot – except they’re the opposite of what was in the press photos. American Neilsen Powless today came in second place in a stage of an early season race. The @efsockcheck account noted the socks were on backwards. Powless replied that no, he went by the L/R markings on the socks. Team director Jonathan Vaughters chimed in. The @efsockchck account noted that all three of the team’s wins so far this season have been with the socks on the correct sides.”
Grab Bag
- A high school swimmer from New Jersey was disqualified from a race for wearing an American flag on his cap. The flag was fine, but it was “too large and in violation of competition rules.” According to the DQ’ed swimmer’s father, the flag was ‘0.2″ too large.’
- Check out this special brew developed for “National Marquette Day.” (From Ty Ferrin)
- The following 7 items are from Kary Klismet: (1) The mascots for this year’s Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands are two sea turtles — one live, one costumed — both named “Solo.”
- (2) New athletics logo for Arkansas Tech.
- (3) The student newspaper for Toronto’s York University has run a profile of the school’s costumed Lion mascot, Yeo.
- (4) Kellogg Community College in Michigan has a new costumed mascot.
- (5) Colorado is creating a new license plate design to commemorate the state’s sesquicentennial in 2026 and is inviting the public to vote for their favorites.
- (6) New employee uniforms for British-based bank HSBC.
- (7) Here’s a story about the origin of the University of North Carolina’s Tar Heels team name. (Thanks, Kary!)
Comments (22)
Proofreading: the date at the top of today’s Ticker entry reads February 4th instead of February 5th.
D’OH! Thanks Kary. Now fixed. ::eye roll::
Brown women have new uniforms. Submitter Jim Pericotti asks, “Aside from the Cubs, is there any other team that uses the ® with their wordmark or logo on their uniforms?”
They’re guarding against all those counterfeit replica Brown women’s basketball jerseys they’re expecting to flood the market. ::eye role::
All that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this turn into a bigger uni trend as the merchandising tail increasingly wags the dog at every level of sports. I hope I’m wrong.
Proofreading: McKale Center. And that was an excellent photo collection, Kary.
Fixed. Thanks.
Wait, you mean it’s not named after Kevin McHale?! ;^) Thanks for catching the typo, Greg, and glad you enjoyed the photos! I’m a sucker for old sports photo collections like that.
Really bad call on the Mariners’ part. Should’ve gotten rid of the cream it’s very out of place. Use that as a throwback from time to time that “doesn’t count.” They can still sell it, people will still buy it. But to be without a road grey is absurd, road grey is a baseball tradition.
Oh and yeah, fix the font on the navy alts (I guess navy roads now) to match the other sets.
well yeah…or, ya know, they *could* ditch the navy jersey with the terrible kerning issues. Those creams are awesome…better than any of their regular unis.
This was from the Mariners front office that they were “required” to wear the Northwest Green on Friday and “must” wear the cream fauxbacks on Sunday. Guess those two with blue jersey and home white were not going away. And Nike will roll out CC soon in ’23.
The Mariners have a “jersey” (uniform) protocol, but it comes from no one but themselves. That’s fine and that’s their prerogative. But there is nothing in the MLB “rules” prescribing said protocol. The new “4 + 1” dictum from Nike-LB is a mandate restricting all teams to 4 jerseys + the CC uni. So the team decided to eliminate the gray and the powder blue BP jersey. That was their choice; they most certainly could have elminiated the blue in favor of the gray, if forced to go from six to four jerseys. MLB/Nike didn’t mandate which jerseys to eliminate, only that they be kept to a maximum of four (plus the CC).
One team I’m really curious about the 4+1 rule effecting is the Nats. Based on what they wore more last season, I’m assuming the 2 Nationals script uniforms are staying, with the white becoming the primary home, then you have the red logo on the chest alt, and probably gone are the white logo on the chest primary home, and the white American flag W logo on the chest gone which is good because that one was dumb aside from on the 4th of July.
I’m really hoping the Texans don’t make the red helmet their primary. The red look is their worst in my opinion.
Changes are coming to the Texans, that we know (I for 1 will always like the current branding-and still pray they don’t adopt anything resembling the look of the Oilers), but I really hope elevating the shiny alt helmet to primary isn’t part of the plan. Matte it, then maybe.
The team that needs a full-time red helmet is the Falcons.
Mixed emotions about the impending demo of Aloha Stadium. Not the most pleasant place to sit on a hot day, but I was mesmerized by the moving grandstands, like the ones at Mile High in Denver. Are there any remaining stadia that have the repositioning architecture?
Year after year, I would agree that Ohio State’s uniforms are the college gold standard. Other schools stumble on greatness by chance, but after a season or two they fumble it away. A good example were Bowling Green’s Cleveland Browns uniforms, but now they look like crap.
The Expos’ baseball card story was already in the ticker earlier this week, and this particular link to it got the headline wrong. The woman selling the cards isn’t from Montreal – she’s from New Brunswick and lives in Guelph, Ontario.
Teams are really selling out their sacred uniforms for a mere $5 Million a year? Pathetic.
Horvath is also changing from 53 to 14 in NY, as 53 is in use.
link
Horvat is also changing from 53 to 14 in NY, as 53 is in use.
link
Last year, the home team endzone (Bengals) was on the left side of the field. This year, it appears the Eagles (home team) will be on the right side of the field.
The league has been inconsistent on that over the years, except for one very long stretch.
1, home team on left.
2-6, right.
7-44, left.
45-53, right.
54, left.
55, right
56, left.
57, right.
I was reading the details of end zone placement thinking who in the world would do the deets on this? Then I saw the Jimmer’s name and realized. Yeah, that’s about right.