Uni Watch

Old School vs. Nu Skool?

2009-11-07T05:43:10Z

By Phil Hecken

Uni Watch sage in the “venerable veteran” category Rick Pearson posed a semi-question/semi-statement in the comments section this past Thursday, which begat a few responses, but which really raised an excellent point or three, and perhaps something we could and should explore in greater detail. His ponderance remarked on a uniform phenomenon (both in college and the pros) whereby it seems we can readily classify most, if not all, uniforms into two distinct categories: “old school” and “new school.” Let me take you back to Ricko’s exact quote for further explanation/clarification/exploration:

I was thinking…(always a dangerous thing)…

Football unis have split decidedly into two camps
1. Traditional
2. Innovative

And that’s fine. I don’t love or hate all the unis in either category.

Maybe what we need is pick the five best looking football unis (college or pro) that DON’T have striped pants (don’t mean plain like Notre Dame, mean those with panels, piping or designs that AREN’T plain ol’ straight stripes).

Me, I think I’d vote for the Broncos home (navy jersey) version as number one. But not the navy pants. No sir, not their best look. Good colors, good design, didn’t go overboard.

A few comments followed, including some by yours truly, but we never really followed through on this idea. Nor did we ever try to rank (not that we could or should) say, the five best (and five worst) of the uniforms from each camp. While we did take a look at a very few colleges, for the purposes of this exercise, let’s focus on the NFL.

A quick look at the 32 teams in the NFL tells us that close to half fall into the category of “Old School” (or to use Ricko’s phraseology, “traditional”). We can safely list the Bears, Browns, Cowboys, Packers, Colts, Chiefs, Dolphins, Saints, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers, 49ers, Eagles and Redskins in the “Old School” category. But that’s only 15 teams. And that’s only when they (some of them) don’t wear monochrome and/or leotards.

In the “New School” (or, in Ricko’s parlance, “innovative”) camp, we find eight teams (for sure): the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Broncos, Panthers, Jaguars, and Vikings. One could argue that the Bills don’t really belong in the “new school” category — although they are so awful, they probably deserve a category of their own.

Anyway, that leaves us with 9 teams which I personally find somewhat difficult to place into either category. To wit, the Lions, Ravens, Texans, Patriots, Chargers, Seahawks, Rams, Buccaneers, and Titans all have some elements of a “traditional” uniform, but also some elements of an “innovative” one.

[I should note that I ran my list by Ricko, who really felt the uniforms I identified should be put into two camps: Ricko would move the Patriots, Seahawks, Rams and Titans to the “innovative” category, since
all have either non-linear helmet stripes, non-linear pants stripes, side panels or wear dark monochrome as pretty much their standard home uni…or a combination of those elements. The same could be said for the Bills. Rick would also put the Ravens, Chargers, Lions, Texans and Bucs into old school, since in his eyes, their logos and such are in standard postions, and they have normal striping or longstanding style trim (i.e. Chargers) on all of them.]

But really that’s neither here nor there — you can feel free to argue with our classifications — I don’t believe there’s any hard and fast rule that places one squarely into one category or the other, but certainly teams who have held onto (or permanently returned to) a “classic” uniform over the years, who have “standard” (linear) helmet, sleeve (what is left of them anyway) and pants striping would likely fall into the “traditional” category, while teams like the Cardinals or Falcons, who have opted to “modernize” their uniform with lots of jersey side panels, piping, striping, angles (also known as “bumperstickers”) and such fall into the “innovative” category.

Then we have teams that have elements of both. For example, the Patriots have side panels and a more “modern” helmet, but fairly traditional pants stripes, and they never opt for the “leotard” look. Likewise, the Chargers could probably just as easily be placed in the “traditional” category, yet whenever they wear their dark pants, they are always paired with dark blue socks, giving them an almost ballet dancer type of look. On the flip side of the coin, you have teams like the Saints who will, on occasion, breakout the monochrome leotards.

A good point to also ponder is what, really, does qualify for a “traditional” uniform? And can we limit our definition of “innovative” to the eight teams I have identified … should we include all 17 that don’t fall squarely into the “traditional” category? In the end, my categorizations don’t really matter, since even some of the traditional teams have sported some non-traditional uniform looks from time to time.

I’ve been criticized (sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly) for hating all non-traditional uniforms — while I would say as a general rule of thumb I do prefer traditional striping and combinations, I can certainly appreciate the “innovative” uniforms in their own way. But there are also uniforms out there that are simply bad — bad design is bad design — but I will try to keep an open mind when discussing the ‘newer’ uniforms and will express my love for a few of those here, following Ricko’s lead.

Let’s see what you guys think as well. Pick any football uniform, pro or college (I limited my list to the pros because it kept the list to 32 — but the colleges have literally hundreds to choose from) that would fall into the “innovative” (or “new school” or “modern”) category and show it some love. Ricko picked the Broncos, and for the home or road, I can see how this uniform is kind of cool (though no longer unique) in its own way. I sorta blame Nike and the Broncos for leading us down this new design path, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

If I had to pick one of the newer designs, I think I could grow to like the Cardinals — sure, I could do without the piping and non-linear striping, but it does kinda work. And the colors are gorgeous. And I’ve always said that this version of the Titans uniform is one of my all time favorites. Yeah — the fonts are kinda funky, the helmet has weird striping, it’s got an odd yoke and that logo probably leaves something to be desired — but the colors are fantastic and it really does look great. Powder blue and navy, (with just a tiny hint of red) work well together, and the white cleats and helmets just work.

So what about you? What are some of the really GOOD new and innovative designs out there, college or pro? Let’s build a list and see if we can’t look at the nu skool unis (because they certainly aren’t going away) and see if we can’t find some new classics. What designs can we look at today that will stand the test of time in 10, 20, even 30 years? I’m sure there are more than a few out there.

~~~~~~~~~~

As many of you know, UCLA is going to be wearing throwbacks today. According to the UCLA Bruins Blog, “1967 Heisman Trophy winner (Gary Beban) was at the Morgan Center today (Friday) for a luncheon with former teammates and donors. He spoke with the Bruin football team later in the day and will be the honorary captain for Saturday’s Homecoming contest vs. Washington.

Beban brought his 1967 jersey with him. Here are a couple of pictures of Beban with his jersey and a shot of Beban’s 1967 jersey with one of the Throwback jerseys.”

Nice! Thanks to Erkki Corpuz (via Paul) for the tip.

~~~~~~~~~~

FEAR THE SPEAR! Really? How about “The U Knows”? Are these movie taglines? Catchy phrases with which to insult your friends? How about “Good Guys Wear White” or “Don’t Back Down”? Maybe they’re song titles? Nope, nope, nope and nope.

Those are all Nike generated slogans (mouse over the models for a great laugh) they’re “giving” to the 10 schools they’ll be outfitting with “Pro Combat” uniforms and gear [late edit: as of yesterday afternoon, all ten models had some form of "slogan" associated with them -- but as of late last evening, only two did]. Paul already showed us some of the uniforms in yesterday’s article (if you didn’t see it, it’s a great read). Those slogans are (I’m pretty certain) going to appear on those super hero “special gloves” the players will be wearing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it were sewn into the crotch area as well. Just so, ya know, they don’t forget who they’re playing for. This whole “super hero” mentality is just so ridiculous. As Paul said to me, “Nike seems to have no idea how to market anything except by turning it into a comic book. Aside from being silly, it’s also *soooo* generationally exclusive — like, how is any fan older than, say, 28 yrs old supposed to take slogans like Fear the Spear and The U Knows seriously?”

I’m guessing fans over the age of 28 aren’t in this Nike demographic.

~~~~~~~~~~

And you thought baseball season had ended…not for the boys from Bub’s Pub. They’re still going strong — or so they think. I guess this is to be expected when you play fall softball in some midwestern state, right? Enjoy your Saturday Benchies. Seems like the Twins may have this to look forward to come spring, eh?

~~~~~~~~~~

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Gonna try something a little different today. This is likely one you’ll not find by going to Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac or any of the likely sources. In fact, you’re not likely to find it anywhere. But you can still solve it. And you can probably find a link to it too. Date and location are all we’re gonna be looking for on this one. Have fun. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line and help a fella out, k? Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~

Guess that’s gonna do it for today. Still trying to get used to this new fangled software Johnny Ek installed here on UW (hopefully this will self-load at 7:00 am EST), and I apologize, but I was under the weather for most of the week. Lots of good college games today, plus the usual assortment of other sports as well. And make sure you give our man on the street, Jim Vilk, a hand by choosing those top college football matchups and posting pics down below.

Tomorrow I hope to begin featuring some of the MANY NFL uniform tweaks, upgrades and concepts you folks have been sending my way for the past several weeks. Plus we’ll have the finalists in the “Worst. Uni. Ever.” poll for your voting pleasure. And the usual assortment of goodies.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Funny, I Thought Rivalries Were About Tradition

2009-11-06T14:09:41Z

The stream of info on Nike’s “rivalry uniforms” program, which was supposed to be all hush-hush, went from a trickle to a full-on projectile vomit yesterday, as Florida State caught everyone (or at least me) off-guard by unveiling the superhero costume they’ll be wearing on November 21st. There’s a very thorough and illustrative photo gallery here, so take a minute to click though it before we go any further.

A few thoughts:

• The thread pattern on the shoulders looks like the experimental Oregon State design that first surfaced back in August. Reminds me of Spirograph art, which would normally be a good thing, except Spirograph art doesn’t really belong on a football uniform.

• If we go back to that Ohio State jersey photo that was making the rounds a few days ago, we can now see the same thread pattern on the shoulders of that jersey. I didn’t initially recognize it as such — thought it was just some sort of textured surface. But now it’s looking like Nike is going to give some of the same design elements to all of the rivalry uniforms. Which means, once again, they’re subsuming the individual team identities into the larger Team Nike concept. Fuckers.

• Interesting to see that the jersey in that FSU slideshow and the one in the Ohio State photo are both No. 55. Anyone know of any underlying significance there?

• The patterned undersleeves are exactly what Phil and Ricko have been proposing lately — a way to restore sleeve graphics to a uniform that no longer has sleeves. It’d be nice if the graphics in this case were something other than a giant feather, but whaddaya gonna do. At least it’s a team-based graphic instead of some sort of Nike branding graphic.

• The way the gloves fit together like a puzzle is cool — except that football players rarely have their hands together, and the individual glove designs don’t look so hot on their own.

• A black helmet? Sure, why not, whatever, knock yourselves out.

• My favorite three words in the promo package: “padded belt loop.”

• ~~High-tech fabric, greater ventilation, lighter weight, higher breathability, moisture wicking~~ Nobody cares.

• You know people are getting tired of Nike’s antics when a mainstream newspaper like The Orlando Sentinel responds to the new uniform by publishing something like this. Sample line: “There’s this thing down the side of the pants. You’ll see. Kind of looks like a horse tail.” Read the whole thing and then get me the writer’s phone number so I can ask him to fill in for me a few times a week.

And so on. Personally, I find it difficult to take this stuff very seriously — it’s not the worst uniform in the world, but I’m here to watch a football game, not the Batman. More importantly, FSU already has one of the best uniforms in the game — why mess with that? Oh, right: Because you can.

And here’s a scary thought to ponder: Buried within this promo sheet are the words “system of dress for football.” Grreeeeeaaaaaat.

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off three cool posters. Details here

Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out Babe Ruth wearing a special uniform from a 1934 tour of Japan. Further info here (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Here’s a cool sheet running down all the Penguins’ skate details (with thanks to Dane Drutis). … I can’t believe it took a federal court case to determine that it’s OK to making paintings of football players. … Totally ingenious art project, which ties into issues of value, authentic-vs.-copy, etc., described here. … Awesome photo of Dean Meminger and Gary Brell wearing Marquette’s 1970-71 striped warm-ups. And the patch is for Apollo 11! … The Phils may have lost the Series, but they definitely have a more interesting assortment of facial hair than the Yanks will ever have (nice find by Nathan Haas). … We’ve all seen plenty of photos from old-style “base ball” games played by 19th-century rules. But Justin Lafferty recently attended one that had an extra twist, because the participants included Jeff Kent, Steve Finley (dig the botto end of the bat!), Blue Moon Odom, Spaceman Lee, Vida Blue, Gaylord Perry, and Rollie Fingers. You can see the rest of his photos from the game here. … UCLA will be wearing throwbacks tomorrow. … Good question from Cliff Murphy, who asks: Which team or league was the first to have its players wear championship T-shirts, caps, etc.? Or to put it another way, who’s to blame for this idiotic tradition? … Look, soccer without sponsors! “Normally Liverpool is sponsored by Carlsburg beer and Lyon by an online gambling site,” explains Coachie Ballgames. “However, French law bans alcohol ads and online gambling, so the net result was soccer played the way it should look, without ads.” … The Blazers will be wearing their Rip City alternates tonight. … And the Bucs will be wearing their creamsicles on Sunday. … The Rockets’ red alternate uni will make its debut tonight. That uniform and other Houston alternates are discussed in this article. … According to Greg Riffenburgh, this photo shows Michael Vick wearing the Air Zoom Vick II cleat from 2004. “That means he either has some left over, or Nike revived them for him (I’ll be they’re stockpiled),” says Greg. “Vick’s signature shoes haven’t been seen on the field in years (obviously) so I’m curious to see if he’ll be wearing any other versions of his old signature shoes in the near future.”

Homemade Earflaps Revisited

2009-11-05T14:44:36Z

I’ve written several times about Earl Battey of the Twins, who in 1963 attached a metal plate to the side of his batting helmet, thereby becoming the first MLB player to wear an earflap.

I’d never seen another player wearing an improvised flap until scrolling through yesterday’s comments, where Larry Wiederecht posted a link to an eBay auction for this 1964 wire service photo.

Wow! Never seen that before, so I immediately e-mailed the photo to uni designer Todd Radom and Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber, who’d never seen it either. Lots of info to process here — one thing at a time:

• Oliva played on the Twins, same as Battey, so the Minnesota equipment staff had some experience in making this type of helmet attachment. Which begs the question: Did any other Twins wear the improvised flap?

• Hard to be sure what the flap is made of. Metal? Plastic?

• Fascinating to see that Oliva resisted wearing the attachment because he thought it looked goofy. Forty-five years later, we’re going through the same safety-vs.-aesthetics issue with the S100 helmet. Some things never change.

• The caption mentions that Oliva grudgingly wore the flap in batting practice, but it’s not clear whether he ever wore it in a game. Ricko, can you shed any light on this?

• I have never been able to determine exactly when ABC Helmet began making helmets with real earflaps. I had always wondered whether Battey’s improvised flap in 1963 had led ABC to start making flapped helmets in ’64. But judging by the Oliva photo, that’s not what happened. Hmmmmm…

Big thanks to Larry for finding this photo — a major piece of the helmet history puzzle.

And now we have a truly ridiculous number of extra-curricular announcements (anything to take my mind off of last night’s ballgame)…

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off three cool posters from Infojocks Sports Graphics. Details here.

About freakin’ time: Many of you have asked me to give the DIY posts their own category/tag/etc. Unfortunately, we were using an old, creaky version of WordPress and had maxed out the number of categories — I couldn’t add any more. But Johnny Ek upgraded us to a new version of WordPress a few days ago and, as you can see in the right rail, our list of categories now includes “DIY Projects.” If you click on that link, you’ll get all our past DIY entries grouped together in one spot. Sorry it took so long to achieve something so simple.

Twitch, or Twat, or whatever the hell it’s called: Speaking of the tech upgrade, you may have noticed that there’s now a little “Follow us” link on the right side of your browser window. That’s because John has finally dragged me — semi-kicking, quasi-screaming — into the world of Twitter. Each new daily post here on the site automatically generates a new toot with a link to that post, plus I may occasionally flutter during the day, but I don’t expect to do it all that often (I mean, shit, this here web site should be enough of a soapbox for whatever I want to say, right?). Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, feel free to join the party.

And hey, as long as we’re talking about tech stuff: John is currently running some analytics to help us get a better grip on our traffic and readership. You can help by adding the Alexa add-on to your browser (it’s quick and painless, promise) and then filling out the little form thingie when your browser reboots. If you’d rather not, that’s fine; but if you’re willing, Firefox users can add Alexa here, and IE users can find it here. Thanks.

Beefsteak Update: This Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak event is sold out, although I’m told there may be some tickets available at the door. Keep an eye on this page for updates. For those of you who were smart enough to buy tix in advance, I’ll see you on Sunday.

Uni Watch Party Update: We’ll be gathering on Sunday the 15th, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. Ryan Connelly’s coming all the way from Pittsburgh to attend, so all you NYCers really have no excuse not to show up.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As had been rumored earlier in the week, Ohio State will be wearing throwbacks on November 21st. This photo made the rounds yesterday, although it’s unclear if that’s the design that will be used on the 21st. I’m sure someone will leak the appropriate info shortly. … Chris Douglas-Roberts has a mighty long NOB (as spotted by James Savage). … Nicole Haase notes that Marquette’s retired number banners show each number in jersey-appropriate type and colors. … Steven Tatar sent me 20 more photos from his visit to that varsity jacket factory. … The Ducks (Anaheim, not Oregon) wore camouflage jerseys during warm-ups on Tuesday, as a military-appreciation gesture (with thanks to John Muir). … It’s one thing to put a ski jump in an outdoor stadium, but how about inside the Boston Garden? Brian Codagnone, quoting from a museum exhibit at the TD Garden Sports Museum, explains: “In the 1930s, when the ski craze first swept the East, sportsman Walter Brown became obsessed with the idea of hosting a winter carnival at Boston Garden. Stumped by the cost and difficulty of importing snow for indoor use, Brown one day passed a fish market, where he noticed a handsome cod packed in ice that was ‘chopped up so fine it looked like corn snow.’ The merchant showed him his grinding machine and Brown super-sized the concept, ordering larger versions that could handle 500 tons of ice. In December 1935, a five-story ski jump was erected in the Garden rafters and hundreds of amateur skiers showed up, unaware it was intended for professional jumping demonstrations. The concept of indoor slopes and annual ski shows caught on, and were copied at Madison Square Garden and other arenas.” … Chris Paul has been wearing a captain’s “C” (here’s how it looks on the road). “David West also wore a ‘C’ for the home opener vs. the Kings (it’s hard to see, but it’s there) but he didn’t wear one during the Spurs, Celtics or Knicks road games,” says Jason Hijuelos. … Check out Henrik Lundqvist’s lastest mask design (with thanks to Matt Harris). … England’s new rugby kit is the color of the beast (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Truly sensational video clip on old hockey sweaters here (big thanks to Ethan Crooks). … Mariano Rivera wore a road BP jesey at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday’s workout (good spot by Jonathon Binet). … I’m still calling it St. James’ Park (with thanks to Matt Beahan). … What brand are these jerseys? … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. Also, note that Moe Drabowski, at far left, is wearing his jersey tucked in, even though that jersey design was meant to be worn untucked (nice find, Phil). … Eric Romain notes that Sean Avery has already worn three different helmets this season. … Bill Scrowther found some excellent old photos on Utah’s state history site. Among the highlights: three separate examples of vertical placket lettering (look here, here, and here), a Budweiser-sponsored baseball team, and some very odd basketball pants. … Check out the second service listed on this page — a cure for logo creep! How awesome would it be if a few thousand jersey owners engaged her services? (Thanks, Kirsten.) … Further evidence of how corporate footwear deals make everyone behave like douchebags. … It was a very uni-uneventful World Series, but here’s a great tidbit from AJ Chalifour: All Series long, Mark Teixeira was wearing a pink MLB logo on his jersey.

Design of the Times

2009-11-04T12:47:03Z

By now I’m sure most of you have seen Phil’s recent Saturday post in which he invited readers to help create a baseball uni design for a Tennessee high school. What you probably haven’t seen, however, is a comment that reader Scott Misner posted very late that night (I didn’t see it myself until Monday). It goes like this:

Hey, just want to throw out a notion here about these design-a-uni contests. It’s all fun and games to pull this kind of thing together. But people get paid thousands of dollars to do logo design and/or uniform design.

Okay, so those designers at Nike, Reebok, and the NBA often show their limited skill sets. But doing spec contest work for “goodies” devalues the design profession.

Sure, a bunch [of readers] are going to submit their designs — caring less [about] whether they get any real return value. That’s cool. Your choice. But realize it devalues the profession. And the next time a business “doesn’t get it” when you work to articulate the value of graphic design, realize you perpetuated that lack of appreciation for an art form.

Lastly, I hope you allocate that same amount of resources to your local Boys & Girls Club, YWCA, or other nonprofit programs with this type of need.

I assume Scott is a professional designer, although I don’t know that for sure (he didn’t write back when I e-mailed him to ask for some background context). In any case, his comment raises some very interesting questions. What does “devaluing” mean, especially in the age of Wal-Mart and the internet? If something can be easily devalued, does that mean it was overvalued? Is there anything wrong with doing creative work on spec? What is a fair price for design (or for any skilled work)?

I confess that I approach these questions with a certain bias, which I’ll explain like so: From 1987-1993, I edited graphic design books, and I often had to read design magazines as part of my job. Desktop publishing software was just coming into vogue at the time, and the design mags were full of articles that basically said, “These laypeople, they have no idea how typefaces work!” and “We can’t let just anyone design a pamphlet — they don’t know what they’re doing!”

Of course, many people using early desktop publishing programs didn’t know what they were doing. But it was pretty obvious that the people writing those design articles 20 years ago weren’t concerned about preserving the state of typography, or whatever — they were concerned about laypeople (that’s really the term they used) suddenly having access to the tools of the design trade. Their exclusive club was about to get a lot less exclusive. Aside from the economic implications of this, many designers at the time were clearly offended by the prospect of the rabble being able to choose their own fonts.

Over the subsequent years, I’ve noticed that designers frequently fall back on this sense of self-importance. (As an example, check out this book review I wrote in 2002.) And while I could be wrong, I sense a similar whiff of elitism coming from Scott’s post. He’s basically saying, “Don’t try this at home — leave it to the professionals.” That’s a good argument when you’re referring to, say, medicine or law. But there are good reasons not to let laypeople practice those professions — that’s why you need a license to engage in them. Maybe Scott thinks designers should have to be licensed too.

Personally, though, I disagree. I think good things often happen when beginners and enthusiastic amateurs mess around with the ideas in their heads — that’s how we got zines, punk rock, outsider art, etc. And if they choose to give those ideas away at below market rate, it doesn’t mean they’re not “get[ting] any real return value” from their work — sometimes value comes from a sense of fun, satisfaction, and accomplishment, and that’s every bit as valid as the value in a $3,000 fee.

Fact is, computers and the internet have changed the rules for creative professionals. Blogs let anyone be a published writer, YouTube lets anyone be a filmmaker, and, yes, design software lets anyone be a designer. But if someone starts a blog about uni design, does that “devalue” my work? Personally, I just see it as competition, which is something no professional should resent or be afraid of — it’s part of the creative environment. Now, granted, my work is available for free, so there’s no way for a blogger to undercut me in terms of price (at least not until I put this site behind a pay wall, which is something I hope I never have to do). But I’d like to think that my work is good enough to hold its own in the marketplace. And if it’s not, well, tough shit on me. My career isn’t an entitlement, and neither is any designer’s.

Scott’s most intriguing point comes toward the end: “[T]he next time a business ‘doesn’t get it’ when you work to articulate the value of graphic design, realize you perpetuated that lack of appreciation for an art form.” Again, this sounds fairly elitist (and note how he’s now elevated design from “profession” to “art form”), but Scott’s implicit point — i.e., giving away the store for free ultimately contributes to design illiteracy — rings true. It’s similar to my obsession with the apostrophe catastrophe, a punctuation problem rooted in “laypeople’s” use of word-processing software. In short: If you don’t have professional gatekeepers upholding some level of standards, those standards will go down the crapper.

I could go on, but I’ve rambled enough here. What do you think about these issue? Discuss. And Scott, if you’re reading this, thanks for raising these issues — excellent food for thought.

November Raffle: A guy named Jeremy Yingling recently started a design operation called Infojocks, which comes up with interesting graphic approaches to sports statistics. He’s recently begun selling three new posters, and I have one of each to raffle off. First-place winner will get his or her choice from the three poster designs; second person gets choice of the remaining two; third person gets the third poster.

To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the NEW raffle address (note that this isn’t the old raffle address or the regular Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm next Monday, November 9th. One entry per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing can send four entries. I’ll announce the winners next Tuesday.

iPod? What’s an iPod?: I’ve put one last batch of vintage indie singles up on eBay. Coming soon: a few select LPs. Stay tuned.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Mark Messier wore an Edmonton Oil Kings jacket to the World Series. Plus he appears to have become a conehead (with thanks to Chris Gundry). … I think we’ve seen some of these before, but check out these great ski jumps erected in stadiums (with thanks to Ben Traxel). … Interesting logo query from Susan Freeman, who writes: “A recent issue of SI had a photo of Jonathan Toews that showed him sitting at his locker. The Blackhawks lockers have a black-and-white rendition of Tommy Hawk, and the B&W logo really makes the facial features stand out, to a point where the war paint looks like letters. Is this a hidden signature from when the logo was redesigned in 1964? Or does it somehow say Tommy Hawk?” I’d never heard this interpretation before. Anyone..? … Yesterday I linked to this varsity jacket operation. Now the man who told me about that company, Steven Tatar, has provided a bunch of photos of the factory itself — great stuff. … Lots of great old Idaho/BSU rivalry photos in this slideshow (with thanks to Chris Salove). … When the System of Dress was introduced a few years back, remember how the Nike models were shown wearing striped and patterned undersleeves? Ohio State’s David Lighty appeared to be wearing one of those undershirts at a recent practice (good spot by Nick Houser). … Chad Cate notes that Marshall has a running back named Darius Marshall, which creates an unusual SNOB situation. … What’s that tat? Look! Lots of additional pics here. … Seattle forward Nate Jaqua had to wear a plain blood jersey after being kicked in the head and subsequently bleeding on his jersey a few nights ago (with thanks to Matt Beaudin). … Next time anyone says I complain too much about corporate sponsorships, I’m just gonna point them here (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie, who no doubt will miss Texas Stadium — that’s him in November of 1971, shortly after the place opened). … Georgia Tech usually wears white at home — but maybe not this Saturday. … Dozens of great 1940s Washington Huskies photos here (big thanks to Phil Amaya). … Here’s the Babe in a different kind of uniform (great find by Alyssa Miller).

DIYD: Do-It-Yourself Disaster

2009-11-04T21:00:56Z

[Editor's Note: Today we have an excellent guest entry by Ryan Connelly, who tells the tale of a DIY project gone horribly awry. -- PL]

By Ryan Connelly

My buddies and I started an ice hockey team and named it the Invaders. Just a low-C, high-B level team that plays other local adult/beer league teams. So of course this gave me the opportunity to design a uniform.

I was playing in a tournament in Mississauga, Ontario, when I saw one of the players wearing this jersey and immediately fell in love with it, for obvious reasons. When I found the blank jersey online, I thought it was black/yellow, but when I got it in the mail I was surprised to find it was brown/yellow.

Before I go on, I should explain that I’m color-deficient, so one of the things you’ll notice is the jersey and socks being brown/yellow and the logo being black/yellow. It just adds to the “charm” of the uniform, trust me. But really, it kind of works out nicely with our black pants, gloves, and skates.

Next step — my favorite step — design a logo or two in AutoCAD. We decided on a “space invaders” theme. Here’s the game play that most of us remember, and I found this helpful image online too.

Then I started to goof around in AutoCAD. I traced the game’s wordmark, teamed it up with an invader guy, and resized the wordmark. Then I prettied it up a bit and put a spaceship-like boarder around it, to create the finished logo.

The next task: uni numbers. I played the game online for a bit until I could get to the “High Scores” screen at the end of the game because I knew it would rank at least 10 names. That way I would have every numeral to work with.

Then I did my CAD thing, outlined the numerals, and finished them.

With the logos and numbers now designed, it was time to create physical versions of them for the jerseys. I printed four or five copies of the logo outline on a plotter to scale. Then I
cut out the spaceship-like border, invader (body, arms, antennae separate), and each letter, pasted all of that onto cheap yellow construction paper you can buy anywhere, traced each element, and then cut again. Now I had logo templates to trace onto fabric.

As for the numbers: For this step I printed all the numbers to scale then cut. I wanted to use two-tone numbers (yellow with a black border), so this had to be done in two steps. The first set of cut-outs was the black outline of the number; when cut, it was obvious which number was which. But the second set was the yellow inner part of the number, and they were just basically blocks. so I assigned a letter to each shape.

Take the number 8 for example: The number 8 uses blocks “i” and “H” to make up the yellow parts. The yellow “i” block is also used in the numbers 6, 9, and 0, so no sense cutting out nine different stencils. I just cut one block and reused it for tracing. I also printed out a smaller version of the stencils and used them as a key when putting together the fabric.

After doing all of that, I had this group of stencils for the black part of the numbers, and this group of stencils for the yellow part of the numbers.

With the stencils made, it was time to trace everything onto fabric, beginning with the logo. First I traced the logo outline and cut out the logo shapes. Then I traced the invader guy, cut the invader guy into little rectangles, cut all of them out into their finished shapes (with a little “B” on one side for “back”), and organized them for gluing.

I used a template guide to line up all the yellow invaders with the black outline and glued. I followed basically the same steps for the letters. After gluing. I later stitched. When the logos were done, I followed basically the same steps for the numbers.

Now it was time to put everything onto the jerseys. I lined and centered the stitched-up logos and numbers on the jerseys, then glued them onto the jerseys, and then stitched. The front looked like this, and you can see a bunch of the backs here.

The first five were finished and look great! Then I washed one of them and … DISASTER.

I had used a heavy twill-like fabric called duck cloth — the same kind of cloth used for bean bags in games like cornhole. And to hold the numbers, logos, and letters in place (both to themselves and to the jersey), I’d used a glue that, unbeknownst to me, pretty much dissolves when washed. As the glue wore off in the wash, the stitching cut right through the material.

What a mess. And we had a game coming up real soon! So after all that time, money, and energy, I gave in. I sent the logo and the jerseys out to a local screen-printing business, picked out some old-school block numbers, and ta-da. Here’s a close-up of the front, and here’s how they looked from the back.

I think the block numbers add a certain charm to the whole jersey. Also, I’ve told the team that I’m going to make logos the correct way over the winter. It really wont take much to place the sewn logos over top of the screened logos.

This project was started around mid-April and finished up in mid-July. Looking back, I can be 110% honest when I say that I was NEVER mad when the material got destroyed in the wash. A touch let down, but never pissed off at all. Also, I had an absolute blast working on this project from start to finish! Working on the logo, finding the materials, working with the team. Nothing was ever a burden on this project, and I loved every minute of it.

Last but certainly not least, I got this completely awesome DIY of my DIY by the great artist himself, Mr. Robert Marshall. You can see it bobbling [along with some trenchant Uni Watch commentary and a perfect example of the conflicting urges to create and destroy -- PL] here.

And speaking of DIY: Paul here. Wouldn’t you like to own one of these sweaters? You can, if you have a knitting machine, because Rick Fleck recently mailed me this officially licensed 1990 knitting guide, which provides sweater patterns for all 14 NFC teams at the time. I’ve scanned the entire guide and put the page scans here. I know exactly zero about intarsia knitting, but I would love it if someone could make a sweater based on one of these patterns.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say most of you reading this probably don’t know how to knit. But maybe your significant other does, hmmm? Get crackin’, guys.

College Hoops Reminder: I’m continuing to work on my college hoops season-preview column for ESPN. So if you know of teams with new uniforms, new patches, new court designs, etc., let’s have ’em. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Really interesting article about a new skate sharpening method here. … Dozens of tremendous old Iowa football pics available in this gallery (with thanks to Rob Leavell). … Rob Nanovic notes that Maine’s football team is wearing Adidas jerseys and Nike pants. … Hmmm, White Sox hockey jerseys — interesting (with thanks to Zach Nesler). … Fascinating info from George Tvardy, who writes: “Very interesting story that has been on the sports shows here in Knoxville: Although Adidas is Tennessee’s supplier, the black alternates worn Saturday night were not actually Adidas jerseys. Story is that Mike Hamilton, UT athletic director, only agreed to the wearing of the black jerseys late Friday afternoon and UT then got a local printer to make the alternate jerseys. Since UT has the Adidas contract, they had to put Adidas logos on these jerseys so that they would not be in violation of their contract.” … Stop what you’re doing and read this absolutely essential article about flannel jersey fabric. Highly recommended reading (great find by Dave Grob). … Brian Brown has made himself a coffee table based on the old Mecca Arena court design. … Oopsie. … Latest reason to hate jersey sponsorships: If two soccer teams show up wearing the same sponsor, one of them has to change (with thanks to Terence Kearns). … Paul Wiederecht sent along a great SI spread from the 1963 Army/Navy game, with Navy wearing SOB (slogan on back). The story behind the slogan is explained here. … Speaking of old SI material, Ricko pointed me toward this great 1954 item about heavyweight sweaters. Here’s the second page of the spread, and a close-up of the short text. … The London Daily Telegraph is the latest media outlet to publish a rundown of history’s worst uniforms, except their survey consists primarily of soccer and rugby kits (with thanks to Craig Ackers). … Totally awesome vintage Chinese Taipei warm-up jacket available here. … Late-breaking Halloween submission from Mike Miller, who got a photo of a friend dressed up as Dave Dravecky. … Even better, Joe Rosenbaum dressed up as Billy Ripken. … Cleveland textiles maven Steven Tatar tipped me wise to this letterman jacket operation. “They’re the real deal,” he says. “Leather sleeves, melton wool bodies, chenille hooked tip-on letters, and chain-stitching to boot.” … A French soccer player wore the wrong jersey the other day (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Anyone know why the Coyotes wore white at home last night? … Mark Windle notes that Coy Wire appears to be missing some jersey piping. Yes, the nameplate could be covering up some of it, but not all of it. Hmmmm. … Steve Garvey + Dwight Gooden + and Super Dave + a blindfold = a really cheesy old video clip (big thanks to Steve Mandich). … Aaron Stilley has been doing some Negro Leagues research and came across an interesting item in the Chicago Defender. “I can’t tell if there was something specifically humorous about the Chicago American Giants numbers on backs, or if it was just strange that they had numbers at all,” he writes. “Would numbers on backs have been a unique sight in 1938?” I don’t think so, but I know very little about Negro Leagues uni history. Anyone..? … Kobe appears to have put on just a bit of weight (with thanks to Dwayne White).

Art Imitates Life

2009-11-03T05:12:57Z

Spent the weekend in Cooperstown, where my old college buddy Jeff Katz is now the deputy mayor. Just a short trip — drove up on Friday, drove back on Sunday — and most of it went by in a blur, which may say something about the amount of Halloween candy I ate (I think my sugar rush is just now subsiding).

Highlight of the weekend was a behind-the-scenes tour at the Hall of Fame, conducted by senior curator and longtime Uni Watch ally Tom Shieber. I’ll have more to say about that later on, but here’s a little taste, in the form of a fairly remarkable coincidence: As you may recall, back on Friday I ran these pics of Rogers Hornsby wearing a Chicago Youth League uni with FNOF. So imagine my surprise when Shieber took us into the Hall’s art storage area (basically a massive collection of artwork pertaining to baseball — some of it good, much of it hilariously bad) and I saw the painting shown above, which shows the Raja wearing something very similar to the uni he was wearing in those photos.

Didn’t watch a single minute of football all weekend, so no Monday Morning Uni Watch today — sorry, gang.

Our way of celebrating the internet’s 40th birthday: The site has crashed for the past two nights, both times at 1am eastern. Johnny Ek has been ~~gloating about the Yankees’ impending Series victory~~ burning up the phone lines with our web host to determine the problem, and the short version is that it appears to have something to do with the commenting function. So as a precaution, we’re going to shut down the comments tonight at about 11pm eastern. That’s just a Band-Aid fix, of course, but we’ll shoot for a more permanent solution in the days to come. Thanks for your patience.

In case you missed it: I had a short column about World Series rings posted on ESPN on Friday afternoon. You can check it out here.

Sponsor Shout-Out: As you may have noticed, our old friends at Distant Replays have rejoined the ranks of Uni Watch advertisers. It’s a slightly different operation than it was before, but DR founder Andy Hyman is still on board (plus he’s now blogging), and it’s great to be working with him again. Welcome back, Andy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Great article on former college football powers, with some wonderful old photos, here (with thanks to Mike Prospero). … Very unusual NOB here — a nickname in quotes plus a surname with a tilde (great find by Shane Bua). … The Alaska Aces went with a Halloween uni on Saturday (with thanks to Reggie Kennedy). … Check out the very odd helmets worn by Denmark at the B-Group European Championships (interesting find by Stefan Schubert). … Surprisingly accurate-ish Dolphins uniforms shown a little more than halfway through this South Park clip (with thanks to Jacob Reed). … Here’s a weird one: a Mizzou jacket with a Marlins-esque insignia (with thanks to Ben Traxel). … Interview with the guy who designed the World Cup trophy here (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: a great site devoted to 1800s soccer uniforms and a wonderful 1906 Austrialian football illustration. … Not sure why some Lakers players were still wearing the Opening Night championship patch for Friday’s game against the Mavs. It was only a couple of players (I think just Artest and Odom); everyone else was patch-free. Trying to find out what’s up. … Joey Rubino notes that Alex Goligoski went without his collar laces on Friday. … In a related item, Brooks Simpson points out that Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask used to wear collar laces but more recently has gone without them. Same goes for his white jersey. … Many readers noted that Michigan linebacker Kevin Leach’s nameplate was missing on Saturday, plus he was wearing No. 10 instead of his usual 52. … Indiana TE Max Dedmond had a decal glitch on Saturday (screen shot courtesy of David Teigland). … More coverage of Carey Price’s mask design here (with thanks to Stephen Sickles). … Back in March, I published this ESPN column about DIY jerseys. One of the featured DIYers was Aaron Stilley, who had made himself a KC Scouts jersey. Now he’s made a mini-Rangers jersey for his son. “I based the design largely on this jersey, which looks pretty much like what NHLuniforms.com lists as the team’s 1928-1941,” says Aaron. “One detail I didn’t attempt was the white collar.” … “Ryan Swope is a WR for Texas A&M,” writes Glenn Stern. “He normally wears No. 25, but he also plays special teams, and there’s a defensive back, Jordan Pugh, who is also No. 25. So on special teams, Swope puts on a different-numbered jersey with NNOB. I also think it has a special zipper on the side so they can get it on and off. In that last photo, note his No. 25 helmet and his ‘Swope’ nameplate showing through the NNOB jersey.” … Warren Humphrey sent along two awesome Reds photos: This one shows equipment manager Bernie Stowe putting uniforms in the Cincy locks, circa 1969, and this one shows an unidentified seamstress working on the 1972 Big Red Machine uniforms. … Man, I gotta travel to Greece, at least judging from this butcher’s market photo recently taken by my friend Anne Gant. … Things that happen roughly every two months: I eat a salad, the Rams win a game, and some newspaper publishes an article about how the local team’s uniforms are laundered (with thanks to Michael Becker). … Notable Halloween costumes: Nathan Haas saw someone dressed as David Wright (complete with Gazoo helmet and sadly appropriate NOB), and Eric Bennett played softball dressed as Oscar Gamble. … Hmmm, maybe this color-on-color thing isn’t such a great idea after all. … Two eBay finds I haven’t seen before: a 1984 Olympics staff uniform and a vintage roller derby uni (for only 20 grand!). … Cole Jones has completed his decade-by-decade survey of the North Stars’ and Stars’ uniform history. It starts here and then you can follow the links for the subsequent entries.

Worst. Uni. Ever. – The Nominees

2009-11-03T05:12:29Z

By Phil Hecken and James Huening

The long awaited “Worst. Uni. Ever.” nominees were submitted (both in last weeks comments as well as dozens of e-mails) and now, James is ready to bring you your selections in a knock-down, drag-out poll format. After receiving literally hundreds of nominees (many of them the “usual suspects” but some we never expected), James has devised the following poll, the link to which appears below. We’ve broken them down into nine categories, the winners of which will “face-off” shortly thereafter in a cage death match to find the absolute worst of the worst, as voted by you. Sounds complicated? Not really.

Simply read James’ descriptions and the pictures of your worst uniform nominees below, as broken down by category. We’ll take the top vote-getters in each category and have them all go up against one another. So with that, lets take a look at each of the nine categories, followed by the poll. James takes it from here:

~~~In the Major League Baseball (MLB) category:

1. First up we have the Cleveland Indians and their solid red uniforms that were worn from 1974 to 1977.

2. Next are the Houston Astros‘ beloved “Tequila Sunrise” uniforms.

3. This one’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser: the New York Yankees’ venerable pinstripes.

4. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ original unis.

5. The 1997-2000 Anaheim Angels.

6. Finally, the 1978 San Diego Padres.

~~~Our next category is the National Football League (NFL):

1. Our first contestant is the Buffalo Bills.

2. Joining them are the Cincinnati Bengals.

3. We go back to the dawn of the AFL for our next nominees, the original Denver Broncos uniforms, which have been on display this season as throwbacks.

4. And of course, we have the Seattle Seahawks and their new alternates.

~~~The National Basketball Association (NBA) is well represented:

1. Starting with the Atlanta Hawks’ 1995-99 uniforms.

2. Staying in the mid-to-late-90s, we have the Cleveland Cavaliers

3. The Detroit Pistons

4. The Houston Rockets

5. The early 90s and the Philadelphia 76ers are not to be forgotten.

6. We’ll head back to the mid/late 90s for the NBA’s two Canadian Representatives: the Toronto Raptors

7. And Vancouver Grizzlies

8. This decade is not completely off the hook, as you can see from the Washington Wizards’ recently-retired alternates.

~~~Plenty of National Hockey League (NHL) unis got nominated.

1. We start with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and their whimsical “Wild Wing” alternate.

2. Staying in California, but going back farther in time, the California Golden Seals had a look that seemed as though it was inspired by UCLA football.

3. Moving to the present day, we have the Atlanta Thrashers alternate.

4. Back to California for the Los Angeles Kings and their “Burger King” jersey.

5. The Nashville Predators and their mustard-colored alternate that was worn from 2001 to 2007 are up next.

6. Next, let’s see the New York Islanders and the “Gorton’s Fisherman” jersey.

7. Back down south for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their 1996-99 alternate.

8. Our only Canadian nominee in this category is the “Flying V” of the Vancouver Canucks.

9. And rounding out this category, the Phoenix Coyotes alternate some refer to as the “Picasso” sweater.

~~~Our next category is for Short-lived Uniforms, whether they were intended to be permanent and scrapped after a handful of wearings or they were intended only to be worn once.

1. We’ll lead things off with the Baltimore Orioles and the orange jerseys and pants they wore for two games in 1971.

2. Joining them are the Chicago White Sox “short pajamas” that were worn in 1976. Nobody really seems to be able to agree on how many times they were worn. Most accounts have them being mothballed after a single wearing, but some say they were worn as many as four times.

3. Next up, the New York Mets and their “Mercury Mets” outfit that was worn as part of the Turn Ahead The Clock promotion in 1999.

4. The Philadelphia Phillies gave us the “Saturday Night Specials” for one game in 1979.

5. The only non-baseball nominee in this category is the Dallas Mavericks “trash bag” alternate uniform worn for a single game in 2004.

~~~We’ll turn to the Minor Leagues now:

1. Starting with the American Defenders of New Hampshire whose regular uniforms feature a camouflage motif.

2. The El Paso Diablos wore yellow, pinstriped uniforms with red pillbox caps in the early 1980s.

3. Our final nominee here is the 1980 Tuscon Toros According to an account I read, the back of the jersey was turquoise.

~~~There are way too many college teams out there to really pinpoint the worst one, so we limited things to the “big two” — NCAA Divison I football and men’s basketball:

1. First, we’ll have a look BYU football’s 1999 redesign

2. Next up, we have Florida A&M football

3. Turning to basketball, NC State’s “leotard” experiment makes an appearance.

4. It wouldn’t be a worst uni poll without Oregon football’s “diamondplate” mix & match set.

5. We’ll close out this category with a pair of football teams dressed from head to toe (or head to knee, at least) in orange: Syracuse

6. And UTEP.

~~~Now we head to the world of Soccer.

1. First, we have the Caribous of Colorado from the NASL. Their innovative jerseys featured fringe.

2. The early days of MLS gave us the Kansas City Wiz (who later became the Wizards).

3. Our third and final soccer nominee is Team USA for their 1994 World Cup unis.

~~~Our final category is Miscellaneous Pro Football.

1. From the CFL’s south-of-the-border expansion days are the Memphis Mad Dogs.

2. The Orlando Rage represent Vince McMahon’s XFL.

3. And we’ll wrap things up with another nominee from Orlando, the 1991-92 Orlando Thunder.

~~~Whew. There you have it. YOUR nominees for the category of “Worst. Uni. Ever.” Only one can win, but you can help narrow it down by voting in the poll below for your worst uniform in the nine categories. Once we have those nine, we’ll resubmit them to you so that we can, once and for all, determine what is the Worst. Uni. Ever.

On to the poll then: GO HERE FOR THE WORST UNIFORM EVER NOMINATIONS POLL.

Thanks again to James Huening for working on this and for coming up with the poll format. We’ll keep the nomination poll open for a week, and have the “playoffs” for the worst ever uni shortly after that. Thanks in advance for your participation!!!

~~~~~~~~~~Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Hokie dokie. Got a football scoreboard today, which comes from reader Billy Duss. Not sure about the difficulty level on this one — kinda one of those “you had to be there” or have seen the game to get it. But we like that here. Definitely one to make you think about it. As always, please find a LINK to the game, which you can post down below in the comments, and not the game itself. As always, date, location and final score, if possible. Ready? Sure. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.

~~~~~~~~~~ Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:

5. Texas/Oklahoma State — A real orange bowl, eh?

4. Tulane/LSU — Green Wave a little too green, but that light blue redeems them.

3. Temple/Navy — A wise old owl didn’t need to tell me to add this to the list.

2. UCLA/Oregon State — My color palette special of the day.

1. Ole Miss/Auburn — Nothing scary about this Halloween matchup at all.

And the worst matchup of the day: San Jose State/Boise State– At least the field looked nice…

~~~~~~~~~~ UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game. And what a game it was yesterday. Your #10 Ducks took the #5 Trojans behind the woodshed (are we sensing a pattern here?) and basically put a lock on the PAC-10 and punched their ticket to Pasadena…for the Rose Bowl. Look for them to really move up in the rankings now. Only disappointment was the Ducks outfits — no new carbon-steel helmets, nor black and orange (what — they’d look too much like another Oregon school?) for Hallowe’en. Anyway, Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker. Thanks Mike!

~~~~~~~~~~Ah…yesterday we got to meet Mike’s cousin, Mongo. Well, today, the big guy is back with more of his unique brand of humor. Mongo’s humor that is:

More Mongo

Still More Mongo

Remember, Mongo only pawn in game of life.

~~~~~~~~~~Bit of a “special” treat for you, since yesterday was Hallowe’en. Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, put together a special assemblage of Hallowe’en-inspired college football games for us that took place. Here ya go:

Happy Halloween matchups.

5. Miami, Fla./Wake Forest

4. Cincinnati/Syracuse

3. Grambling…uh, I mean Georgia/Florida

2. S. Carolina/Tennessee

1. Coastal Carolina/Clemson

Spooky…thanks, Jim.

~~~~~~~~~~And finally, in case you missed it, the Montreal Canadiens trotted out their barberpoles yesterday. Beauty, eh?

Good stuff there. Thanks to Jim & Rick & James & Mike and everyone else along the way. Don’t forget to vote for the WORST UNI EVER nominees. You can even post your guesses as to who you think the nine finalists will be in the comments, if you want.

And for all you uniform designers, and wanna-be designers, if you missed yesterday’s column, be sure to check it out — a chance for you to design a baseball uniform, logo and cap!

One legacy game today: Titans (Jets) versus Dolphins — should be cool to see the fish in something other than dropshadow for a change — you’ll be reminded how good they once looked, and could look again, if they wanted to make that look permanent. Game IV of the World Series tonight. Don’t forget to push your clocks back, if you haven’t already! That extra hour of sleep is so awesome, no? Of course it is.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

Design-A-Uniform Contest

2009-11-03T05:12:39Z

By Phil Hecken

You guys will recall several weeks ago I ran a “Design-A-Cap” contest, for Coach Jerome Nemanich and his Sartell Sabres, and the results were outstanding. Reader Marc Walls saw the original contest, and thought our fantastic readers could do the “Design-A-Cap” one better — to wit: Design A Whole Uniform!

Here’s Marc’s original e-mail to me explaining his idea:

Love the work you’ve been doing on the website. I really enjoyed the design a cap idea for today’s column. I saw that you had proposed a design a uni option. I think that’s a great idea, and if you’re interested I’d like to offer the school I coach to be the team you choose.

I am one of the baseball coach’s at Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee. We are looking to undergo a complete redesign, including possibly a new logo.

Here’s the catch, which I think will make it fun for uniwatchers. Our colors are purple and gold! I’ve tried with no hope to come up with uniform designs that use the purple in a way that isn’t awful, and I could really use everyone’s creativity. Our current hat is solid purple with the Chicago Cubs “C” in gold.

Intrigued, but semi-swamped with weekend entries, I did respond to Marc, who then got back to me with more of the guts of the idea, as well as a few pictures from which to base the uniform redesigns:

Our high school is planning to undergo a complete redesign of our uniforms over the next year. I’m going to make some requests, and attach some pictures to show what the team has had in years’ past.

The school has been using the same hat design for the last 20 years, the Chicago Cubs “c” logo in yellow on a white outline. The hat is solid purple. We are probably going to keep that logo, but are looking to add a few alternate logos. I’m hoping the savvy guys at UW can create some great logos for us to use. Here’s what we’re looking for:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

If we decide to use any of these designs in the future, we will definitely work out some kind of payment for all of your hard work.

* The parameters: colors are purple and gold, which I know is hard enough, without including the black.

Marc included four photographs to emphasize his points above:

“Purplemesh” … “Purplemesh 2″ … “Grays” … and “Yellowmesh”.

I got one last e-mail from Marc this week, with one or two points he wants to stress:

While we are looking for uniform ideas, we would also really appreciate any logo redesigns and cap designs. That’s almost as important as the uniform designs. And like I said, we will gladly contribute some goodies to everyone who works so hard on those mock-ups.

Well there you guys have it. Another reader has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging you to come up with not just a new cap and logo redesign, but a whole uniform redesign as well. I’m not sure what “goodies” Marc will be able to provide to the contest winner(s), but we’ll worry about that when we get there.

So, anyone who is interested, the “rules” are basically the same as the “Design-A-Cap” contest: Take Marc’s ideas and put them into cyber-reality. Just remember the “guidelines”:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

*The parameters: colors are purple and gold.

As with the Design-A-Cap contest, I would ask that when you have your design(s) ready, please send them to me and put as your “SUBJECT” line: Design A Uniform Contest. You can also E-mail me at that address if you have any questions. I won’t set a hard and fast deadline, but I’d expect the contest to be open for at least two weeks — so try to have your submissions to me by the weekend of November 14-15.

If you don’t have any “blank” templates, a few designs can be found here, here, here, and here, or you can simply google “baseball uniform builder”, which will provide ample ways to customize a baseball uniform. There are probably a bunch of other blank uni templates out there too.

OK? OK. Don’t disappoint us Uni Watchers! After seeing those Sartell Sabres Cap designs, I know how great your entire uniforms, caps and logo designs will be.

~~~~~~~~~~Well, folks, in case you missed it yesterday, Uni Watch Prexy and ESPN Page 2 columnist Paul Lukas had a great piece on World Series Rings. Paul didn’t get to upload the column to the main article yesterday, since by the time it was released, he was on his way to Cooperstown. I hope there’s some stuff for him to do up there. Check it out if you didn’t get to read it yesterday — really great, and timely article.

~~~~~~~~~~Dipping into the E-mail bag again, got one this week from Dave Magruder, who has done some fascinating research regarding NFL alternate and throwback uniforms, and the frequency with which they have been worn. Obviously, with the “Legacy” uniforms, and the tremendous number of alternates out there (as well as several teams throwing back this year), Dave wondered which teams were the least guilty of this. Here’s what he found:

~~~“Last night as I was thinking about the widespread use of throwback and alternate uniforms in the NFL recently. It made me wonder: How many teams have NOT redesigned their uniforms, or worn alternate/throwback uniforms since 1995? In other words, how many teams have retained the exact same look and uniform set for every game?

“(Obviously, I thought 1995 was a good starting point since it is still recent history, and most NFL teams wore throwbacks to celebrate the league’s 75th Anniversary in 1994).

“You may be surprised by the answer. From 1995-2009 there is not a single team that has retained the same uniform set for literally every game. All 32 teams in the league have either redesigned their uniforms, worn alternates, or worn throwbacks at some point since 1995. There were four teams that came close to retaining the same look throughout this period, though. I have outlined them below:”

Packers: Green Bay has diverted from their traditional uniform set only twice since 1995. This occurred in 2001 and 2003 when they wore throwbacks as mandated by the league for Thanksgiving Day games.

Colts: Indianapolis donned league-mandated Thanksgiving throwback uniforms in 2004. (Note: Colts have also changed their look in a couple minor ways. The team wore blue pants for several games in 1995–no longer a part of the team’s wardrobe– and permanently switched from a blue to a gray facemask).

Chiefs: Kansas City sported the same uniform until this year’s AFL Legacy celebration.

Raiders: Like the Chiefs, Oakland’s steak of uniform consistency was broken by league-mandated AFL Legacy celebration.

“As you can see, these teams were mostly eliminated for use of throwbacks that were mandated by the league, instead of issued by the team itself. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find that there is literally not a single team in the NFL that has survived the alternate/throwback/redesign craze.

“Thought this may interest readers. Thanks for all your hard work on this blog.”

~~~Thanks Dave! That’s very interesting. Only four teams (and even they are not immune) seem to have escaped the alternate/throwback craze. Not surprisingly, those four also ranked very highly on our recent home and road uniform surveys (results of the road poll here). Obviously, when you have a uniform that works, you don’t mess with it. Wish a few other teams would take a page from their books. Great stuff there.

~~~~~~~~~~Teepee for your bunghole? Oh…wait — that’s Cornholio, not cornhole. Good thing Milwaukee’s finest David Frost (”Frosty”) has some schweet cornhole game boards he’s designed. I’ll let Frosty explain:

Very sexy…not trying to be a whore or anything, but I gotta tell ya – I got done with them last Thursday, took them to my kids’ baseball tourney in Charleston this past weekend…the compliments and inquiries – wow! There’s Packer fans everywhere!

So what exactly did Frosty design? Check ‘em out: here, here and here.

I’m guessing those are supposed to be Packers boards? Probably no significance to the numbers either.

Thanks Frosty!

~~~~~~~~~~ Cleaning out the cupboards today, I wanted to feature a Mets Uniform Redesign (is it me, or do we seem to have a lot of folks clamoring for the Mets to redo their unis? Don’t worry, we won’t be having any “Fixin’ the Mets” full entries this year — that’s what Spring is for, no?.) Anyway, reader Laurence Holland missed the last batch of uni-tweaks, but wanted to send along his Mets redesign concept, so without further ado, here’s Larry:

Hi Phil,

I know the moment may have passed, but with all the buzz about a possible Mets redesign for 2010, I thought I’d pass along my two-cent contribution. I first mocked up a cream-and-pinstripes combo over the summer, when the Mets rocked the oversized-NY throwbacks, so I was very happy to see that it might come to pass. I also tweaked the rest of their uniforms, the idea being to make them simple, classy, traditional, and black-less.

A couple of notes: the racing stripe on the away grays is supposed to be a little more subtle than the original ’80s version, though my ham-handed photoshop skills couldn’t really convey it. And the all-blue alternate with the blue-and-white trucker-style cap isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best I could come up with. Consider it a concession to merchandising reality.

Anyway, please do with this what you will. From my lips to Jeff Wilpon’s ears, eh?

Thanks Laurence. Next up is Bill Jones, who also missed the last “uni tweaks” but had a “Rays” tweak he wanted to share. Here’s Bill:

Hey Phil,

I love the uni tweaks! I know I’m late, but I did this almost 2 years ago had some trouble finding the MS paint file. I thought it was pretty good though, so I wanted to send it to you.

PL has mentioned that he liked the TB Devil Rays unis that featured green as a primary color. I too liked this design, and although I don’t completely hate it, I think the newer Rays unis are too sterile and flat out boring. I did, however, like the introduction of light blue, so I combined that with the deep green. I think it’s a handsome combination, one that is original and nicely captures the tropical feel without the use of aqua/teal (Does the world need more aqua? I think not!)

A couple notes…

For the logo, I kept the actual Ray that the team currently features as a sleeve patch. I also took the liberty of changing the team’s name to the St. Petersburg Rays (maybe it’s just me, but I think calling teams “Tampa Bay” is lame…the cities are Tampa and St. Pete, “Tampa Bay” is the body of water between them, and the Rays play in St. Pete). Besides, how can you argue with that two-tone interlocking S-P (for the hat), and the sweet “St. Pete” sleeve patch? I like the idea of calling the team the “St. Pete Rays”. Also, for that jersey, you may be thinking “what is going on with that that neck trim?” Well, think of the early 90’s Royals jerseys…

I’m proud of this one … and I never got around to it, but I totally envisioned a powder blue road uni (with the dark green hat…it would be killer!). Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

–Bill Jones (not the gumball helmet guy)

Good stuff Bill. Thanks again to all who have sent me their uni concepts. I expect some time in the near future to begin running your Football Uni Tweaks, so if you’ve sent me something, it’s-a-comin’ — and if you want to send me some NFL tweaks, drop me a line.

~~~~~~~~~~Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK, another “apropos” scoreboard today. Shouldn’t pose any difficulty at all. But we’re winding down the major league baseball season so today’s game should reflect the timeliness of the year, no? Of course it should. Most of you, if you’ve been paying attention to events on the national stage, should be able to “name the game” (although, probably not the date) just from site. The rest of you may need to hit Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet. You gotta hit them anyway, in order to provide the link to the game. So, here we go: Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.

~~~~~~~~~~The boys are back for a little football today, (could Mick possibly wear more sweatbands, btw?), and Mick is about to make the acquaintance of one of Mike’s relatives. The things you learn about your friends when you meet a member of their family. So…enjoy the beginnings of a serial benchies:

Meet Mongo

More Mongo

~~~~~~~~~~That’ll do it for today. Hope you guys, especially all you designers (and wanna-be designers) out there really go to bat, no pun intended, for the Wildcats and Coach Marc Walls. If the ‘design a cap’ nominees were any indication of the incredible talent in UW-land, then I’m sure we’ll get some amazing entries for the full-blown “Design A Uniform” contest. Remember, send me your submissions to me, or email me if you have any questions about the contest. Take the last train to Clarksville — I’ll be waiting at the station.

Game 3 of the Fall Classic and lots of college football today — and surely there’ll be some interesting uni-matchups for Jim to choose from. Don’t forget to post some of your suggestions in the comments. There will be at least ONE color-on-color matchup (and maybe more) — with those colors to be black and orange. How fitting.

Hey — how does a monster score a touchdown?

Easy, he crosses the ghoul line.

Have a safe and Happy Hallowe’en everyone.

The Sweet Science Never Looked Sweeter

2009-10-30T14:37:40Z

Today is the 35th anniversary of a seminal sports event: the Rumble in the Jungle, which pitted George Foreman against Muhummad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. And No Mas honcho is marking the occasion with some serious gorgeous video animation.

Some quick background: Most of you probably think of No Mas as a T-shirt brand, but it’s actually a multi-faceted media project — a project that was born out of Isenberg’s fascination with Ali. That fascination eventually blossomed into Isenberg becoming an official Ali licensee (you can read more about the unusual route he took to that destination here), and he’s used that connection to commission three short animations to commemorate the Rumble anniversary.

The first one, called Zaire, is by watercolorist David Rathman and is sort of a gray-wash time capsule that juxtaposes iconic Rumble sound bites with Rathman’s spectacular brushwork. You can see additional stills here, or just watch the video below.

Next up: Round Zero by oil painter Jerome Lagarrigue. No Mas describe this one thusly: “Lagarrigue draws inspiration from Ali’s own zoological poetry (’I done wrassled with an alligator/Tussled with a whale’) in exploring Ali’s mental and spiritual transformation in the moments before the bell sounds round one.” OK, so that sounds a tad pretentious, but the imagery is magnificent, all the more so when you see it in motion. Check it out:

The third video is by pen-and-ink illustrator James Blagden, is a hoot. As you may know, James Brown was headlining an all-star soul concert in Zaire that was organized in conjunction with the Rumble (and was also the subject of a recent documentary). So with the Godfather of Soul and the Greatest of All Time having been in the same place at the same time, Blagden has imagined a fictitious showdown between the two of them, set to JB’s “Cold Blooded.” Dig:

Great stuff, three great takes on a seminal event, and three potent reminders that boxing is still the most aesthetically potent sport of them all. Chris is going to be making some of the original animation artwork available for sale, and there may be an exhibit at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. You can keep track of all that news on the No Mas site.

I love these short films, and I certainly don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but I do feel a reality check is in order regarding the Rumble. To wit: It was a bad fight, and a boring one. Forget all the When We Were Kings mythologizing and just watch the fight. If you do, one thing quickly becomes apparent: Foreman looks like an amateur. No balance, no leverage, no nothing. Watch how he often he has his palms awkwardly extended and open in front of him, like a two-bit street pug. He doesn’t even look like a credible slugger — more like a third-rate Tough Man contestant. Seriously, there are multiple points in the fight where it’s embarrassing to watch him. Meanwhile, Ali’s rope-a-dope tactics, while canny, make for a snooze of a bout. Even the eventual knockout is unsatisfying — more of a cumulative meltdown than major punch-and-drop.

And yet the legend of the Rumble has endured. Why? (1) Foreman had built up an aura of invincibility in his previous fights, so the result was seen as a huge upset. (2) This was the fight in which Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title, something that had only been done once before (by Floyd Patterson, don’tcha know). (3) Ali, as was his habit, used the buildup to the fight as a backdrop for addressing powerful themes of race and culture — particularly powerful in this case, since the fight was in Africa. (4) Fight fans love epic themes, even if they’re more rooted in myth than in fact, and this fight had lots of powerful thematic elements. (5) “Rumble in the Jungle” is a catchy slogan.

None of which makes the No Mas videos any less compelling. Like I said, I’m just trying to provide a nugget of reality amidst the mythmaking.

Finally, one interesting uni-related note from the Rumble: Referee Zack Clayton wore zebra stripes — not something you often see in the boxing ring.

Bonus Column: I’ll have a short piece on World Series rings up on ESPN today. I won’t be around to add the link when it goes live, but it should be at this URL (that link will give an error message until the piece goes live, probably around 12:30pm eastern).

College Hoops Home Stretch: I’m currently working on my annual college basketball season-preview column for ESPN. Compiling one of these columns for college sports is different than doing it for one of the pro leagues, because there’s no central database of all the new uniforms, no league PR office or single manufacturer to go over things with. Basically, it’s a free-for-all, so I just try to stay alert and keep track of all the new designs and patches as I become aware of them.

Here’s what I have so far: Alabama, Auburn, Cal, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Creighton, Georgia Tech, Grand Canyon, Iowa State, Kentucky (rumors of something Lebron-ish, but no confirmation yet), Louisville, Miami (Ohio), Missouri State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio U., Oregon (I think — not yet confirmed), Pacific (alternate uni for the Dec. 9 game against Cal), Pitt, San Diego State, South Carolina, UNC (1957 throwback), UNLV, Utah, Vanderbilt, Washington (new black alt), Washington State, and WVU (black alt).

I’m sure there are others I’ve missed — not just new uniforms, but also patches, court designs, etc. — and that’s where you come in. If you know of any college hoops unveilings not listed above, or if you become aware of any over the next week or so, please speak up. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The single-bar facemask lives! That’s our old friend Scott Player, now plying his trade in the UFL (with thanks to Doug Keklak and Mike Rigby). … The 49ers are changing who gets to wear the green dot on defense (with thanks to Mark Snider). … Some great uniform shots in this video tribute to the late NHL ref Bill Chadwick (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … England’s new rugby kit is my favorite color, with a poppy thrown in for Armistice Day (with thanks to Michael Orr). … Striped stirrups sighting in yesterday’s “Family Circus” (big thanks to Vernona Elms). … Insert joke about one white hockey glove here (with thanks to Mark Snider). … Not uni-related, but if you wanna see something really beautiful — I mean really beautiful — click on the embedded video here (thanks, Kirsten). … You’ve heard of FNOB, but how about FNOF? That’s the Raja, of course, wearing a Chicago youth organization uni (great find by Paul Wiederecht). … Good article about early Red Wings mask history here (with thanks to Tim Shay). … New uniforms for the Jacksonville Suns. … For next year’s April Fool, maybe I’ll start a rumor that the Seahawks are gonna be wearing this (bizarre find by Matthew Weber). … New World Cup kit for Ivory Coast. I don’t like that diagonal shoulder treatment, but I love their new crest (with thanks to Coachie Ballgames). … Tremendous batch of old 1940s Washington Huskies photos here (big thanks to John Doodigian). … According to the fourth graf of this story, Avs goalie Craig Anderson once “lived in Sweden and inserted a double-s in the middle of his surname to to fit in. When he played for the Blackhawks, he had an incorrect [double-s] spelling on the name bar of his jersey until the NHL, as he says, ‘questioned the legality of it.’” I don’t like to post watermarked Getty photos (and I ask that none of you do so either), but you can see the single-s and double-s versions of Anders(s)on’s Blackhawks NOB if you go to Getty’s main page and search on “Craig Anderson 2003 Chicago” (with thanks to Paul Richard Cook). … I like socks as much as the next guy — probably more — but this is going overboard. … I’m heading to Cooperstown later today and will be there throughout the weekend (good place to be during the Series, right?). See you on Monday.

The Shirt Off His Back

2009-11-03T05:20:05Z

[Editor's Note: Today we have a guest entry from Thomas weeks, who had a remarkable uni-related encounter on the streets of New York last week. -- PL]

By Thomas Weeks

I’ve always been a fan of hard work. For that reason, the only two NHL players whose jerseys I own are Adam Graves’s and Jed Ortmeyer’s.

I don’t need to tell you anything about Graves, but you might not know too much about Ortmeyer. In five-plus seasons, he’s scored 15 goals, but he’s a hard worker who kills penalties and never gives up. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in August of 2006 but returned to the Rangers lineup just four months later. The following season he was a finalist the season following his embolism for the NHL’s Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy, given for dedication to the game. He’s also been honored by the Rangers by twice winning the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, for outstanding commitment and hard work on and off the ice.

For these reasons, I purchased a Jed Ortmeyer #41 Rangers home jersey. He even signed it for me, at an event for Rangers advertising sponsors that I happened to get tickets for. This has been one of my favorite jerseys to wear to Madison Square Garden.

After wearing my Ortmeyer jersey to last Thursday’s Rangers/Devils tussle, I was walking out of the Garden when I was approached by a group of Swedish tourists. They spoke in half-broken English, but I barely made out one of them saying, “I would like to trade my sweater for yours. My name is Ortmeyer.”

He was wearing an authentic Frolunda Indians sweater (the team Henrik Lundqvist played for before he was drafted by the Rangers), with sponsor patches and all. I had no second thoughts. I took my jersey off right there on Seventh Ave. and handed it to a complete stranger. We thanked each other in our own languages and draped our new sweaters over our heads.

Like Jed Ortmeyer, I too pride myself on hard work and making good decisions. I hope I have made that man named Ortmeyer as happy as the man named Jed Ortmeyer made me.

========
Culinary Corner: Paul here. I was down in Baton Rouge last weekend, working on an ESPN story that you’ll be hearing about shortly. Most of my “research” involved spending Saturday afternoon tailgating with a bunch of LSU fans. There was a ton of food — chicken, shrimp, pork chops, three kinds of sausage, blueberry pie, etc., etc. — so I was surprised to see that someone brought along a pack of Oreos. Seemed like overkill.

And yet, and yet. As we cooked throughout the afternoon, it occurred to me that the Oreos seemed a bit lonely in their sterile plastic package while the rest of the food was basically having a party on the grill. Why not let the Oreos join the party? Why not indeed. I took two of the cookies out of the package and placed them on one of the grills, where they fit in just fine. Then I put the lid back on the grill and went to find myself another beer.

About three minutes later, the Oreos were hot and slightly soft, and the creme feeling had developed a nicely caramelized edge. I tried one of them — deeeee-lish. Sweet with a smoky undercurrent, mmmmm. I offered the second cookie to one of the other tailgaters and rushed to put a few more Oreos on the grill.

Soon I was being hailed as a genius, and we were running low on Oreos. Which just goes to show that anything tastes better when it’s fresh off the grill.

Membership Update: Birthday boy Scott Turner just whipped up a bunch of cool new membership designs. In addition to Dan Bardin’s Blackhawks Winter Classic throwback, shown at right, this batch also includes two orange alternates — Orioles and Dolphins — our first Kansas City Scouts design, and Ed Westfield Jr.’s odd choice of infinity as a uni number.

As always, you can see the full gallery of membership cards here and sign up to get your own card here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Virginia Tech will be wearing this orange-centric outfit for tonight’s game against UNC. … I’ve written several times about the pinned-on uni numbers in the 1934 All-Star Game (if you want the full story, begin here and then go to the “Cold Case File Revisited” section of this column), and now Don Sherman has come up with some photos I hadn’t seen before — look here and here. … Good white-at-home article here (with thanks to Craig Friday). … Faaascinating article about an old Negro Leagues stadium in New Jersey here (major thanks to Baroness Karen McBurnie). … Good breakdown of NBA team names backstories, with some swell photos to boot, here (with thanks to Tom Griffith). … Excellent piece on the mud used to rub up baseballs here (with thanks to Matthew Keegan). … NHL.com is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jacques Plante wearing the first goalie mask with a series of articles on mask history. The first installment is here, and be sure to check out all the additional multimedia links — good stuff (with thanks to Michael Blinn). … The All Blacks have been told to cover up their tats for a match in Japan (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Super-cool optical illusion on display here (nice find by Kirsten). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Great home movie footage from a 1952 WVU/Wash. & Lee game — with both teams wearing solid-color uniforms — here. … Dylan Buell’s local coffee shop held a dog costume contest. One guy had a dog named Tressel, so he dressed him as Jim Tressel, and another guy dressed his dog as a Maple Leaf (here’s the view from the other side). … Utah will be wearing black uniforms this Saturday (with thanks to Chris Buttgen). … New hoops uniforms for South Carolina. There’s some video footage of the new designs in action here. … Zak Koval has spotted a little bracelet being worn by Lamar Odom and Luke Walton. Definitely not a Livestrong. Maybe titanium? Anyone know more? … Amazing behind-the-back football pass here (with thanks to Brandon Creeger). … Dozens of cool old Phils/Yanks photos in this slideshow (nice find by Douglas Hirschman). … Scott Turner notes that the base of the “P” decal on the Phillies’ batting helmets extends all the way down to where the brim meets the rest of the helmet. Never noticed that before. … As many, many readers noted, Cliff Lee was once again squatchee-free last night. … The Heat retired Tim Hardaway’s number last night.