In today’s Ticker: A good baseball pup, a very strange MLB player ejection, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for March 28, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- We knew the Rays would continue wearing their Devil Rays throwbacks more often this season. Turns out that they’ll be worn for Friday night home games throughout the season. (From Noah Kastroll)
- In a bizarre exchange yesterday, Phillies C J.T. Realmuto was ejected from a Spring Training game after fumbling a ball exchange with the home plate umpire. The ejection came moments after Phillies P Craig Kimbrel was issued a pitch clock violation, so the resulting hard feelings may have played a role.
- A fan at yesterday’s Dodgers spring training game had a dog with him in the stands, and the dog apparently caught a home run ball — good dog! You can’t see the pooch, but its owner was wearing a Dodgers-style jersey with “K-9” as the red front number. (From Luke McCarnan)
- Former Giants P Sergio Romo made a spring training cameo yesterday so he could officially retire as a Giant. In a nice twist, when fans asked him for an autograph, he obliged but also asked them to sign his cap. (From @SamBobLev)
- Looks like Pirates P Dock Ellis may have worn a helmet with a contrast-colored earflap in the 1971 All-Star Game.
Softball
- Good catch by Timothy Walsh, who notes that the recent matchup between the Charlotte 49ers and UTEP Miners featured a matchup of pickaxe logos.
More
- Iowa’s baseball team has taken to wearing football-style merit decals on their batting helmets. They’ve also been wearing the “America Needs Farmers” decal made famous by the football team. (From Kary Klismet)
- Auburn expert Clint Richardson has the latest on Auburn’s new uniform sets for 2023.
Football
NFL
- KC CB Trent McDuffie is hinting that he will wear No. 22 next season — a number once worn by his deceased brother and a number he wore in college. No. 22 became available when S Juan Thornhill joined the Browns earlier this offseason.
- More numbers: New Cowboys CB Stephon Gilmore will wear No. 21 with his new team.
- Check out this gorgeous color shot of a 1963 AFL matchup between the New York Titans and the Denver Broncos. (From Lee S.)
College
- Florida QB Graham Mertz, who recently transferred in from Wisconsin, will reportedly wear No. 15 for the Gators next season. The move has stirred up criticism from some fans who feels the number should be retired to honor former QB and Heisman winner Tim Tebow.
Hockey
NHL
- Here’s a really good interview with the designer who created the Sharks’ logo. (From @squareic)
- Ducks G John Gibson wore a fan-designed mask last night. (From Wade Heidt)
- Longtime sex advice columnist and LGBTQ activist Dan Savage spent the first few minutes of his latest podcast episode discussing the kerfuffle over NHL Pride jerseys. Interestingly, Savage — who, it should be said, is not a sports fan — thinks the NHL should scrap the jerseys.
More
- This new goalie cage concept uses high-tech materials to create a cage with much thinner bars, giving the wearer a greater range of vision. Looks like this concept has been floating around for about a year, but thanks to Erik Kissel for bringing it to our attention.
Soccer
International
- Canada: New home and away jerseys for Vancouver FC. (From Kary Klismet)
- Georgia: New uniforms for Georgia’s men’s national team. (From Kary Klismet)
More
- The Ontario High School (Oregon) boys’ soccer team has unveiled ring and banner designs celebrating their state championship win last fall. (From Kary Klismet)
Grab Bag
- The D.C. Metro has wrapped some of its trains and buses in a cherry blossom livery to celebrate the arrival of spring in the city. (From William F. Yurasko)
- Major League Rugby is the latest league to hop on the “city” jersey design concept. (From Eric Bangeman)
- Union County, N.J., has unveiled two new proposed seals. One of those seals will replace the current design, which depicts the murder of Hannah Caldwell by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
- The U.S. Army has introduced a new recruiting ribbon. (From Timmy Donahue)
Lacrosse
- The D.C. Metro has wrapped some of its trains and buses in a cherry blossom livery to celebrate the arrival of spring in the city. (From William F. Yurasko)
- Major League Rugby is the latest league to hop on the “city” jersey design concept. (From Eric Bangeman)
Olympics
- The D.C. Metro has wrapped some of its trains and buses in a cherry blossom livery to celebrate the arrival of spring in the city. (From William F. Yurasko)
- Major League Rugby is the latest league to hop on the “city” jersey design concept. (From Eric Bangeman)
Comments (20)
I can’t stand the Cowboys but I give them credit for allowing their legendary numbers to be worn by urgent players. 88 has been handed down from one stud WR to the next, and now they’re recycling Deion Sanders’s #21 for another elite CB. I like the historical callback.
I don’t understand how anyone can be upset with Florida for allowing (or assigning) players to use the #15. It was clear as soon as Tebow graduated that they weren’t going to retire the number and it was up for grabs for anyone who wanted it. It has been used multiple times since Tebow by players at different positions.
I’ll forgive the folks who maybe don’t recall Eddy Piñeiro, Loucheiz Purifoy, or some others wearing the number in years past… but did the folks complaining not watch at all the last two seasons when Anthony Richardson wore it? He’s kind of hard to miss.
Amazing point! I had not even paid attention to the fact Richardson was wearing ”Tebow’s number”, which to me means that his number wasn’t off-limits to begin with. That said, I admit I didn’t watch much Florida football the last few years…
I don’t know if it’s entirely accurate to call Dan Savage an LGBTQ activist when many transgender people have had a couple decades of longstanding issues with him.
This is like saying Malcolm X wasn’t a civil rights activist because some people in the movement had longstanding issues with him (which they certainly did). Few if any social movements have been based on unanimity.
Florida doesn’t retire numbers, so I have no problem with them giving 15 to a player. I read that Florida did have numbers 11 and 55 retired, but when Steve Spurrier (who’s 11) was head coach he brought back these numbers so they had no retired numbers.
The Buffalo Sabres had their Pride Night last night. Ilya Lyubushkin was the lone practice jersey non-participant, allegedly due to his family in Moscow’s safety. Captain Kyle Okposo stood up for him. Take that for what it’s worth.
But sadly, the social media discourse surrounding the night went about as well as you’d expect. “Hocky is for everyone” couldn’t be more inaccurate, given the replies to any post on the topic. Gross.
“Check out this gorgeous color shot of a 1963 AFL matchup between the New York Titans and the Denver Broncos.”
Isn’t that from ’62…and didn’t Paul and a UW contributor play a role in determining that the 1st version of that Broncos helmet logo was blue?
And the Titans became the Jets in ’63, right?
Yep. That was the one and only Rick “Ricko” Pearson.
It is 1962-September 30th to be exact. Titans became the Jets with green units in 1963. Before 1962 Denver wore brown and yellow with the infamous vertically striped socks.
Unis not units. Damn autocorrect.
THE D.C. is well known for their cherry blossoms and the Washington football team missed a great chance of renaming their team, somehow affiliated with this nature spectacular.
Started out as a joke but the biggest opportunity they missed was remaining the Washington Football Team. The name inexplicably worked by the end and I would’ve liked to see them keep it and the whole look, it was very classic.
Dan Savage is 58. Lots of old school liberals are actually that, liberals. Live and let live. I’m an older Millennial and even 10 years ago would’ve been considered very socially liberal. But Gen Z progressives have just become so forceful and moved away from the “live and let live,” attitude of true liberals (at least, liberals as I knew them growing up), the NHL thing has become an example. It really has become the “wear the ribbon” episode of Seinfeld come to life. You can’t force people to believe something. You can’t force “the right opinions,” on people. At this point the jersey situation is just a mess that does more harm than good for everyone. Just encourage players to take their own individual action and I’m sure plenty will.
I love the Rugby ATL city jerseys. They should’ve rebranded with “Georgia Peach” as their primary color – it’s unique in the league and unique to the state as well.
If he can make the « Uncage » cost effective, it seems like it could be useful in a lot of applications. I wonder if it could translate to catcher/umpire masks, football cages, etc.
I’m not saying that Dock Ellis is not wearing a helmet with a darkened earflap, and I assume that he had one of his own and didn’t need to borrow one, but team mate Vic Davalillo’s helmet did have a fair amount of padding that may have obscured the yellow if caught at just the right angle:
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Another example @ 5:35 of this ’71 WS video:
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Nice work, Chris. Hard to be sure either way, but that sure is a lot of padding that Vic had!
This discussion, in a nutshell, is pretty much what I think of when I think of UniWatch! This comm-uni-ty is amazing!