In today’s Ticker: A tribute to Bobby Hull, the most embarrassing social media graphic ever, and the Royals drop a big hint about powder blue throwbacks.
Uni Watch News Ticker for Jan. 31, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- The Royals tweeted a phone number yesterday. If you call the number, you get a series of recordings that strongly hint that the team will be wearing a full powder-blue throwback uni this season — perhaps on Opening Day. The Royals first wore powder blues in 1973, so this year will be the 50th anniversary of that move. (From @TrappedInIowaKC)
- With five jerseys in their current rotation and a City Connect uniform on the way, the Phillies will likely be affected by the new four-jersey “rule.” (From Kurt Esposito)
- Marlins CF Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the cover star for this year’s edition of MLB: The Show. (From our own Anthony Emerson)
- After 15 seasons, pitcher Darren O’Day has announced his retirement. In a letter posted to Twitter, O’Day shared that for the last 14 seasons, he’s worn No. 34 on the underbill of his cap to honor Nick Adenhart, his former Angels teammate who died in a car crash in 2009. (From @b_fianchetto)
- Tom Verlaine, frontman of the influential band Television, died over the weekend, and David Goodfriend sent along a picture of Verlaine in an Angels cap.
- Nats GM Mike Rizzo wore a hybrid Nats/Capitals hockey jersey in a recent promo video. (From @maybeifollowyou)
More
- Nebraska has unveiled a gorgeous new home uniform design.
- Troy will wear chrome batting helmets this season. (From Ben Whitehead)
- New uniforms for Odessa High School in Texas. (From Kary Klismet)
- One of the snow sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan is a replica of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’ stadium. (From Jeremy Brahm)
Football
NFL
- Groundskeepers are already painting the field for Super Bowl LVII. (From Moe Khan)
- New Yorkers — and especially Giants fans — were not happy that the Empire State Building was lit up in green and white to honor the Eagles the other night.
- Yesterday, KC posted one of the most embarrassing social media graphics I’ve ever seen. They edited a quote from DL Chris Jones to add in the naming rights advertiser for Arrowhead Stadium. (Thanks to all who shared)
College
- Louisville has once again sold the naming rights to its football stadium. (From Andrew Cosentino and @ACC_Tracker)
- 24/7 Sports has published a blog ranking the top 30 uniforms in college football. (From Kary Klismet)
- Nebraska has shared a video update on the upgrades to its football facility. (Also from Kary Klismet)
Hockey
NHL
- The Jets memorialized Bobby Hull last night with a No. 9 helmet decal. Hull played for the Jets in their WHA days. The Blackhawks haven’t yet played since Hull’s death and won’t play again until Feb. 7 due to the All-Star break, but they’ll presumably add some sort of memorial when their schedule resumes. A helmet decal for the All-Star Game also seems plausible. (From Wade Heidt)
- This piece about Jaromír Jágr’s brief time with the Flames in 2017-18 — his final stint in the NHL — gives a lot of insight into the oddities and eccentricities of his locker room habits. But it also includes this quote from Flames equipment manager Mark DePasquale: “He had a cross that he had blessed by the Pope, so every time he changed gloves I’d have to cut that cross out of the gloves and sew them into the new gloves.” (From Andreas Papadopoulos)
Minors/Juniors
- The Saginaw Spirit of the OHL wore Pride sweaters during warm-ups on Sunday. (From Wade Heidt)
- Teddy bear toss games are pretty commonplace at this point — but it’s not often that the home team gets shut out, leaving fans with no opportunity to toss toys on the ice. That’s what happened to Hershey Bears fans on Sunday, so they decided to start the toss with five seconds left in the third period. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
- Cross-listed from the baseball section: Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo wore a hybrid Nats/Caps sweater in a recent promo video. (From @maybeifollowyou)
Soccer
USA
- Charlotte FC revealed the name and logo of their new MLS Next Pro team, Crown Legacy FC. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
International
- England: In 2007, Liverpool briefly considered building a new stadium before scrapping the plan and staying at Anfield. Here are some renderings of that proposed stadium. (From Kary Klismet)
- England: Former Tottenham keeper Brad Friedel says the club used to charge players for new shirts if they took part in too many jersey swaps in a season. (From James Gilbert)
- Ireland: New shirt for Cork City FC. (From Ed Zelaski)
- Scotland: Cool move by Celtic FC, which is opening its stadium on Mondays and Thursdays to offer hot meals to those in need, as well as providing games and quiet areas to children so they can do schoolwork. (From our own Anthony Emerson)
- Germany: New third kit for VfL Wolfsburg. (From Kary Klismet)
- Australia: The A-Leagues are holding a pride doubleheader next month between both the Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory’s men’s and women’s teams, and all teams will wear rainbow-trimmed shirts. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
- Malaysia: New home kit for Selangor FC. (From Kary Klismet)
More
- This podcast breaks down the recent trend that has soccer players cutting holes in their socks. (From Jeremy Brahm)
Tennis
- Japanese wheelchair tennis player Yui Kamiji now has her own mascot, a wheeled bluebird named Carmy. (From Jeremy Brahm)
Auto Racing
- Motorcycle grand prix rider Enea Bastianini has a new helmet design. (From Kary Klismet)
Grab Bag
- The New York City Marathon has a new logo. (From Keith Doll)
- The HBO series The Last of Us took the extra step to use the era-appropriate logo for Cumberland Farms convenience stores. (From our own Anthony Emerson)
Comments (38)
The ’23 Spring Training hats are showing up for sale. Can the side patch get any bigger?
Do you have a link? I don’t see anything/can’t find anything…
Yeah, I just did a pretty exhaustive search and I’m not finding any 2023 ST caps.
The only things I’m finding are for this style:
link
link
…which I’m like 99.999% positive aren’t going to be worn on-field. These look more like fashion ST caps.
Not finding anything like those which Paul reported on last week.
link
They should call them “shaming rights.”
Jones actually said GEHA field under his breath in the quote. It was a joke.
That Jagr story is a great read. Highly recommended.
I shouldn’t be upset when I see corporate naming shenanigans, it’s just a part of sports now. But this Arrowhead Field still makes me irrationally angry.
Agree….10000000%
“The Jets memorialized Bobby Hull last night with a No. 9 helmet decal. Hull played for the Jets in their WHA days.”
– He briefly played for Winnipeg in the NHL, as well.
Hull famously played for the Hartford Whalers from 1980-81, teaming up with Gordie Howe. I wonder if the Hurricanes will mark his passing as well?
While a nice gesture…lest we forget, Hull played not 1 shift for this Winnipeg NHL team (aka-the former Atlanta Thrashers).
Giants fans may not have liked the Empire State Building honoring the Eagles–but the building’s management would never get to deploy the green-and-white scheme if they had to wait on the Jets.
Because it would need to be black and green.
Any information on what wordmark the Eagles will use for their Super Bowl end zone? the “old” one or the new one they’ve been using this season?
I would think the new one, as it is used at home.
Beat me to it, but yes, likely the new one: link
Thank guys,
That’s what I was thinking to but, you never know with the NFL sometimes!
I’ve actually warmed up to the new Eagles wordmark as the season went along.
Chris Jones actually said “GEHA Field at” in his quote. It was a joke.
Actually, he said it *after* he said “Arrowhead” — not the way they put it in the graphic. They could have quoted him verbatim, but instead they adjusted the quote to fit the branding guidelines.
This year’s The Show cover looks more like a handbill for a local art show than a Major League Baseball product. Shouldn’t they be doing baseball things on the cover, as opposed to….showing off their gold necklaces in the middle of a Mardi Gras nightmare? Would maybe make a great cover for The Fashion Week ’23 but it fails at being very baseball IMHO
I’ll always be the last one clamoring for more baseball jerseys, but what is the exact rationale from Nike about limiting MLB teams to only four?
Obviously its economic, is there a strong drop in reciprocity when the number of jerseys surpasses four?
I also found it odd that the Empire State building was lit up in Eagles colors.
Figured that whoever is charge of lighting must’ve been an Eagles fan.
Lee
No, it was pre-scheduled. Later that evening, it switched to red and yellow for the Chiefs.
I find it amazing and brilliant that the Cardinals wheel their field in and out of the stadium.
but the grass has issues that were hopefully fixed. A lot of injuries occurred on that field.
The Blackhawks don’t play until Feb 7 due to the all star game. No game tonight.
Fixed.
At least Louisville is going with a Naming Rights sponsor that is local to Louisville, and actually has some history to the site of the stadium.
I wouldn’t put the word “rule” in quotes to describe Nike’s four-jersey edict. Or call it a policy instead of a rule, if the fact that it’s being imposed by a manufacturer rather than the league is at issue. Sure, enforcement of the rule isn’t immediate or universal, but a phase-in with exceptions is commonplace for similar types of rules. They’re implemented and enforced, except when they’re not, and they’re still rules. See for example the no-spitballs rule, the wear-a-batting-helmet rule, the no-uniform-changes-for-three-years rule, and so on. They all had rolling implementation or exceptions, but they were still rules. Or policies, if one prefers that nomenclature.
The four-jersey thing is more formal and comes with more consequences than a habit, but those consequences are not imposed by the state as would be a law, so by HLA Hart’s taxonomy, it’s a rule.
Thank you for linking to the photo of Super Bowl field painting in progress.
Nice to see larger Super Bowl logo images as well as a more colorful and locale specific logo. Hopefully little by little we’re moving in the right direction as far as Super Bowl logos are concerned. Moving away from those dreary gray logos of the last decade.
It’d be nice if we could go back to huge SB logo at the 50 yard line and team helmets or at least team logos at the 25’s.
Powder blue….opening day?! I was already planning on being there, woahhh….I can’t wait! Lets Go Royals!
Here I thought Louisville would have sole the rights to Adidas.
SOLD
Does Crown Legacy FC come in a blue velvet drawstring bag?
The ref should have to pull the game ball out of a velvet bag instead of taking it off a pedestal before each match.
The sponsor of the Louisville Stadium traces its origins to a railroad that existed well into the 20th century. Incidentally Beyonce will play at the U of L stadium.
That Nebraska baseball uni is suh-weet.
Can we all agree that there is a major branding issue with soccer in America?
MLS, USL, and USSF all call it soccer, but it seems like every team that joins MLS or one of the other tiers calls themselves “Blah Blah FC”. I think the branding undermines potential interest in soccer, fandom or participation. “These folks don’t even know what sport they’re playing? Football or soccer?”
But the real reason it irks me is because of the snobbery that it’s loaded with. “If you’re really good at soccer, you’ll call it football.” Or “if you’re really into soccer, you’ll call it football!” Both of these are non-sense. There’s no issue with calling it a different name than the rest of the world. And with the success of our national teams’ and the growth that is happening, it would make sense to align under one name, even if we’re the only folks who use it.
Here’s an example of the NA 34 on Darren O’Day’s cap:
link
With the angle of his body when he pitches, I thought it would be more noticeable, but with silver writing on a dark underbill, the light has to hit it right for a good look.