Check out this illustration showing various Cubs players who won the National League MVP Award. A great composition, and so many great uniforms!
That wonderful illo appeared on an 8.5″ x 11″ print that was given away in the mid-1980s by Chicago-area Unocal 76 gas stations. There was lots of descriptive text on the back — along with, I’m happy to see, a little “About the Artist” section for the illustrator, Konrad Hack:
That is one of 15 prints that Uni Watch reader Darren Rusakiewicz recently came across. I’d never seen them until Darren recently sent scans of them to me. “My grandpa collected them in the 1980s,” he says. “They must’ve been a giveaway with a tank of gas or something like that. I can’t remember.” The running theme in most of the prints is the Cubs’ division-winning 1984 season in general and Ryne Sandberg in particular, so the prints were presumably given away in 1985.
Four separate artists, all from and/or based in Chicago, are credited on Darren’s 15 prints. Konrad Hack — the guy who did the MVPs illo — is my favorite. Here are the other three that he did:
Darren’s collection also includes three prints by an artist named Lawrence Salk, and I like his stuff almost as much as Hack’s. Here are Salk’s three illos:
There are also four prints by a guy named Tom Sulek. Solid work, although I found his style a bit grainier than I prefer:
According to Sulek’s LinkedIn page, he got out of the freelance illustration game in 1991 (and also worked for six years for the White Sox!).
Finally, there are four prints by Todd Doney. His style was much more stylized and less photo-realistic than the other guys’ and, honestly, not as much to my taste. Very nice compositions, though:
Doney has had a long art/illustration career and is apparently still going strong.
I poked around online to see if this series included any other prints that weren’t part of Darren’s collection. I found this Fergie Jenkins print, which looks like it was done by Salk. (Darren, if you’re reading this, you should buy that one to complete the collection!)
You can see all of Darren’s prints, including the text on the back, here. Please join me in thanking him for sharing this great artwork with us!
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More NBA leaks: The latest NBA Participation Trophy Earned designs to leak are for the 76ers and the Nets.
The Nets entry, like most of the Earned uniforms, is useless merch-dump slop. But I really like the Sixers design — a lot! I do kinda wish that the numerals either fit entirely within the Liberty Bell or, better yet, that the bell could be smaller and allow the numbers to overflow the bell’s bounds a bit more, but it’s still pretty good. How often do you see an NBA jersey without the team’s name, city, or logo on the front? Nicely done!
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Podcast reminder: In case you missed it yesterday: For this week’s episode of Unified, the recent scenario in which the Mets’ starting rotation could have featured both a No. 0 and a No. 00, which I wrote about on Monday, led us to explore various situations featuring zero and double-zero (including, as shown above, such famously zero-clad players as Benito Santiago, Jim Otto, and John Davidson). It was a really fun discussion, in part because Chris isn’t usually that into uniform numbers, but he still ended up having a lot to say!
We also talked about the Jags’ new emphasis on teal, the news that the Washington Football Team’s placeholder identity will be extended for another year, the ЯR uniforms that we think deserve to be upgraded to full-time status, and more.
You can listen to this episode, and subscribe to future ones, on Apple, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Spotify, or just use the player below:
The show notes from this episode, which include photos of most of the things we discussed, are here. Those photos also appear in the video version of this episode, which you can watch here:
Enjoy the episode, and thanks for all the enthusiasm and positive feedback on this project.
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Speaking of double-zero: After checking out this week’s podcast episode about “heroes of zero,” reader/listener Marty Stevenson checked in with this anecdote I’d never heard before:
In 1977, outfielder Paul Dade wore No. 00 for the Cleveland Indians. On second base late in a close game, he took off to steal third (he made it).
After the game, which the Cleveland won, manager Frank Robinson was quoted as saying, “I don’t know why he wears that number, but when he took off, I thought, ‘Oh-oh.'”
Hmmmm. That’s a great story — if it’s true! Sounds potentially apocryphal, but I haven’t had time to fully research it yet. Made me smile, though!
Update: The story is indeed true, at least according to an item at the bottom of this 1977 Sports Illustrated page (which was located by reader/commenter James Gilbert — thanks!).
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Photo by Matt Jones, The Daily Independent; cick to enlarge
Too good for the Ticker: I love green and yellow, and I also love stripes. But the boys’ basketball uniforms worn by Rowan County High School in Kentucky might be too much, even for me. Yowza!
Also uni-notable: The opposing team in that game — Paul G. Blazer High — was wearing TNOB:
Regarding that “Tomcats” team name: A tomcat is, by definition, male, so I wondered what the school’s girls’ teams are called. According to Wikipedia, they go with “Kittens,” which is some serious sexist bullshit — the boys get an adult name while the girls get a diminutive/infantilizing name. That should be changed.
(Big thanks to Ray Schaefer for this one.)
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So what? Sew buttons! I recently scored this great vintage cardigan. Loved everything about it but the buttons, which were molded plastic designed to simulate leather buttons (not ideal, but I could live with it) and a pale yellow/tan color that didn’t offer much contrast from the background fabric (a much bigger issue, at least for me). So I got some brown leather buttons, which I figured would match the vertical stripes, and swapped them in.
The photo above shows three of the five original buttons replaced with the new ones. (After taking the photos, I finished the job.) The new ones look so much better! Here’s another shot:
My sewing skills are very rudimentary, but it always feels good to work with my hands like this, even for something as simple as a few buttons.
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The Ticker By Anthony Emerson
Baseball News: New Mets SS Francisco Lindor wore Eddie Murphy’s jacket from Coming 2 America to Spring Training (from Mike Chamernik). … Also from Mike: Once upon a time, Earl Weaver grabbed his pitcher’s glove to prove a point to an obstinate umpire who had called the pitcher for a balk. … Here’s a look at Florida State’s many uniforms for this season (from multiple readers).
College Football News: Michigan and Northwestern have created a new rivalry trophy named after George Jewett, the first Black football player at both universities (from Mike Chamernik and Timmy Donahue).
Hockey News: The Caps wore Black History Month pregame sweaters last night, complete with a clever anti-racism shoulder patch. More looks here (from our own Jamie Rathjen and Brandon Weir). … Also from Brandon: here’s a video of Michigan State goalies discussing their masks. … Looks like Bruins D Urho Vaakanainen’s name is just short enough to allow him to have regular-sized letters on his nameplate (from @artofscorebug).
College/High School Hoops News: UNC wore Carolina Blue at home, creating a blue-vs-blue matchup against Georgia Tech (from James Gilbert).
Soccer News: New dark kit for FC Cincinnati (from multiple readers). … Toronto FC ST Jozy Altidore accidentally leaked the team’s new home kits in a hastily-deleted Instagram story. … It appears Rangers covered up their back ad with a piece of blue tape during their Europa League match against Antwerp. UEFA prohibits more than one ad on a kit during continental play (thanks, Jamie). … New shirts and outfitter for Belarusian club FC Vitebsk. “The shirts keep the El Lissitzky influences from last year’s Cup shirt,” says Ed Zelaski.
Grab Bag: The bib for pro golfer Rory McIlroy’s caddy misspelled McIlroy’s name (from @markinvictoria). … Temple University is retiring all of their owl-based logos (from multiple readers). … An Australian study has indicated that uncomfortable and inappropriate uniforms are turning some girls off from sports. … If you looked at a computer any time between like 2003 and 2013, you probably saw the iconic Windows XP default desktop. Here’s the fascinating story behind the photo, and the man who took it. … Cycling New Zealand has rejected a jersey design based on the country’s All-Blacks rugby jersey (from Gareth Hooton). … Third-tier Engligh rugby league team Keighley Cougars have become the first professional sports team to wear the LGBTQ+ Progress Flag on their kit (from Philip Brown). … New senior academy logos for the rugby union team Toronto Arrows RFC. … Graphic designer Rajie Cook, who designed the now-ubiquitous pictographs that appear all over airports, parks, and other public spaces, has died (from Jerry Kulig).
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That’s a wrap for this week. Stay safe, enjoy Phil’s weekend content, check out the podcast if you haven’t done so already, and I’ll see you back here on Monday.
2021 continues to be a banner year for MLB memorial patches, as a social media photo of pitcher Gerrit Cole revealed the team’s new “16” memorial for Whitey Ford.
As you may recall, Ford died on Oct. 8. The Yanks added a “16” sleeve memorial for him the following day and then were promptly eliminated from the playoffs by the Rays that night, so they only got to wear the “16” for one game. I predicted at the time that the memorial would almost certainly carry over to this season (there’s precedent for that, as they added an “8” for Yogi Berra during the last week of the 2015 season and carried it over for all of 2016), so it’s no surprise that they’ve chosen to do that.
What is surprising, however, is the design of the patch. The Yankees’ usual protocol is that players whose numbers have been retired are memorialized with their uniform number (rendered in black numerals, with no circle), while mere mortals get a black armband. Ford’s number has been retired, so they gave him the standard numerical treatment last October for that one-game memorial (which shared space with the “HGS” patch they were already wearing for Hank Steinbrenner):
I assumed they’d repeat that same treatment this season. But instead, they’re going with the black circle with the white “16.” That would be a fairly standard and unremarkable memorial design for any other team, but it’s an interesting deviation from the Yanks’ usual protocol. In fact, according to Bill Henderson’s jersey guide, this appears to be the first time the Yanks have ever used the black circle/number format. Who says they’re stuck in their ways? They’re branching out, getting all wild and crazy on us!
Meanwhile, does anyone else think the new patch is sitting too low on Cole’s sleeve? Personally, I’d like to see a bit more clearance between the patch and the sleeve cuff.
(My thanks to @sumohuggs for spotting the Cole photo.)
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ITEM! New podcast episode: For this week’s episode of Unified, the recent scenario in which the Mets’ starting rotation could have featured both a No. 0 and a No. 00, which I wrote about on Monday, led us to explore various situations featuring zero and double-zero (including, as shown above, such famously zero-clad players as Benito Santiago, Jim Otto, and John Davidson). It was a really fun discussion, in part because Chris isn’t usually that into uniform numbers, but he still ended up having a lot to say!
We also talked about the Jags’ new emphasis on teal, the news that the Washington Football Team’s placeholder identity will be extended for another year, the ЯR uniforms that we think deserve to be upgraded to full-time status, and more.
You can listen to this episode, and subscribe to future ones, on Apple, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Spotify, or just use the player below:
The show notes from this episode, which include photos of most of the things we discussed, are here. Those photos also appear in the video version of this episode, which you can watch here:
Enjoy the episode, and thanks for all the enthusiasm and positive feedback on this project.
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Put a cork in it: I recently received a note from reader Jared Adkins, as follows:
I’m toying with the idea of upgrading my Uni Watch Pin Club display. I was thinking of seeing if an artist on Etsy (I haven’t sought anyone out in particular, this is early territory for this project) would make a cork board in the shape of the Uni Watch logo.
Before I did that though, I wanted to see if that was okay with you — and if so, if you had any artists you’d prefer me to get in touch with for said project.
Obviously, I was more than okay with it. And I knew just the man for the job: Kevin Cearfoss, whose 3D wood logos have been featured on Uni Watch a few times. I didn’t know how cork-savvy he was, but I figured it was worth a shot, so I suggested that Jared get in touch with him. “And tell him I sent you!,” I added. (I always love being able to say that.)
Kevin had never worked before with cork, but he was game for the challenge. He even produced two different designs for Jared to choose from — a flat version and a 3D version:
It was a tough call! Personally, I think I would’ve gone with flat, but Jared chose 3D. Here’s how it looks with his pin collection (click to enlarge):
It’s great that Jared has a cool new display for his pins, but it’s even better that two members of the Uni Watch comm-uni-ty have connected on this project — I love that! Thanks for all the enthusiasm and support, guys.
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The Ticker By Paul
’Skins Watch: Nike has apparently stopped using the team name “Indians” on its website (from @spiders_six). … Unfortunately, however, that isn’t stopping other parties from selling a remarkably tone-deaf Indians shirt (from Shannon Shark). … In a related item, The Athletic is holding a bracket competition for a new name for the Indians (from Kary Klismet). … The 25 Colorado high schools that still use Native-based iconography would have to make changes by June of next year or face a $25,000 monthly fine under a bill that’s been introduced in the state legislature (from Glenn Chavez). … The state of Wisconsin may provide funding to help schools finance the change from Native American team names (from Ray Barrington). … Also from Ray: Weyauwega-Fremont High School in Wisconsin has changed its team name from “Indians” to “Warhawks.” … D3 Carthage College’s teams will now be called the Firebirds, instead of the Red Men and Lady Reds (from @shwrth and Kary Klismet). … Also from Kary: The Port Clinton (Ohio) school board is refusing to act on a petition signed by over 3,000 students and alumni calling for the high school to drop its “Redmen” team name. … One more from Kary: The chief of the Cherokee Nation has asked car maker Jeep to discontinue its use of the name “Cherokee” for its line of SUVs. … Saugatuck Public Schools in Michigan are changing their team name from “Indians” to “Trailblazers.” “Another win for sensible mascots,” says John Chapman. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The school district in Marion, Iowa, has changed the local team name from “Indians” to “Mavericks” (from the pseudonymous Another JT). … The board of William S. Hart High School in California, which has been soliciting community input on whether to change the school’s team name from “Indians,” recently heard from a local Indian tribal president who said the team’s current mascot “gives an inaccurate representation of local Native American culture and tradition” (from Tim Dunn). … A California driver was pulling the old trick of using a mannequin in the passenger seat so he could drive in the car pool lane. Interestingly, the mannequin was wearing a Chief Wahoo cap (from Dante Centuori).
Baseball News: The Royals and Tigers will wear Negro Leagues throwbacks on May 23. Let’s hope the jerseys don’t have the maker’s marks shown in those mock-ups (from Ryan Atkinson). … Check out this old photo of Forbes Field. Look at that sort of heart-shaped infield cutout behind second base — don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that before (from BSmile and Joe Bonavita). … The latest team to join the Atlantic League is the West Virginia Power. Additional info here. … Number switcheroo for the Dodgers, as P Tony Gonsolin has given up No. 46 so newly acquired teammate Corey Knebel can wear it. Gonsolin will now wear No. 26. … A fan in Cleveland has digitally recreated League Park, where the Indians played up through 1946 (from Jonthan Dies). … Former Yankees P Masahiro Tanaka is now with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. Here’s how he looks in their uniform. … Mets SS Francisco Lindor showed up at spring training with blue hair (from Ryan Mallon). … Speaking of Lindor, he’s also one of several Mets who’ve been wearing mesh-backed caps this week. Others include P Jacob deGrom and P David Peterson (thanks to all who shared). … Here’s the story behind the Phillie Phanatic bat that Phils OF Bryce Harper has been seen with lately (from Michael Hochman). … Louisville has worn four different uniforms in their first four games of the season, and they have another one coming on Saturday (from M. Brinston Barry). … New mono-black uniforms for D3 Pacific Lutheran. As you might imagine, that “PLU” abbreviation speaks to me a bit! … Fun article about an Ontario couple that has every Blue Jays bobblehead ever issued (from Andreas Papadopoulos).
Hockey News: The Athletic has a paywalled article about two guys who are trying to bring the Air Jordan aesthetic to hockey skates (from Mike Chamernik). … Former Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau’s new USPHL junior hockey team will be called the Hershey Cubs. If that logo looks familiar, it’s because it’s a riff on the old Minnesota Fighting Saints logo (from Ted Taylor). … The AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights have a town crier who announces goals (from Mike Chamernik). … You don’t often see overhead photos of NHL games, but there are some really good-looking ones here and here (from Andreas Papadopoulos). … The Capitals have worn four different uniforms in the space of a week (from @1995hoo).
NBA News: The latest NBA Earned leak is for the Heat. … Nets PG Kyrie Irving thinks the NBA logo should be redesigned to be based on Kobe Bryant instead of Jerry West (thanks to all who shared).
We’ve known for several months now that the Giants would be wearing NOBs on their home jerseys in 2021 — the first time they’ve done so since moving into their current ballpark in 2000. Yesterday they gave us our first peek at how that will look by posting a promotional video on their social media channels (see above).
Ordinarily, this would merit a Ticker mention or, at most, a sub-lede. But as I watched the video yesterday afternoon, I was struck by something: The radial arching on the NOBs shown in the video is bad. Like, really bad.
Some quick background: The idea behind radial arching is that the base of the letters should form a curve, like this (for this and all photos that follow, you can click to enlarge):
Sporting goods shops and professional stitchers often achieve that curvature by using a template, like so:
Simple enough, right? Here are some video clips showing this type of template in use:
I don’t know if the NOBs in the Giants’ video were sewn on by Nike or by someone connected to the team. Either way, it’s fairly obvious that they didn’t use a template like the ones in those videos, or any other method that might achieve a pleasing radial arch. Check out, for example, what they did to poor Buster Posey’s name:
Ugh — what a disaster. The “P” is much higher than the “O,” the “Y” is higher than the “E,” the letters are more flared than arched, and the whole thing feels clunky. It would be easy to make various jokes here (“Hey, of course they don’t know how to do NOBs, they’re way out of practice!”), but the Giants have had NOBs on their road uniforms all along, so it’s not as though this is something new for them.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are 16 NOBs crammed into that Giants video besides Posey’s. Most of them fly by too quickly to get a good look at them, but some screen shots reveal that most of them are astonishingly shoddy.
Just to be fair, let’s start with one that’s actually pretty good:
That’s not bad, right? Nice curvature, decent treatment of a lengthy, challenging name.
Here’s another one that’s pretty decent, or at least acceptable:
Unfortunately, it’s mostly downhill from there. Consider, for example, this one, for second baseman Donavan Solano:
Yikes! Just try to draw a consistent curve along the bottoms of those letters. What a mess!
And if you think that’s bad (which you most assuredly do!), check out this one, for catcher Curt Casali:
You’d think a four-letter name would be simple enough. But you’d be wrong, at least judging by the NOB for pitcher Logan Webb:
Look at that second “B” — are you fucking kidding me?
You might also think that “Bart” would be a simple name for a San Francisco team, since it’s also the name of the city’s mass transit system. But again, you’d be wrong:
Kevin Gausman’s treatment starts out promisingly, but then it goes off the rails at the end:
Similarly, Brandon Crawford’s is okay, or at least okay-ish, until the final letter ruins everything:
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And so on. I don’t mean to pick on the Giants (a team I generally like, and whose uniforms I’ve long admired). I’m just puzzled by how an MLB team could go public with such slipshod work. And it’s not as though the NOBs are just a background element here — they’re the whole
point of the video!
I wasn’t aware of this being a chronic Giants issue until now. Has the problem been hiding in plain sight all along and we all just missed it? In an attempt to answer that question, I looked up some photos from a September 2020 road game. While the curvature isn’t as steep as I might prefer, the letters generally look fine:
So the problem appears to have been unique to yesterday’s video, not a larger systemic issue.
I was going to conclude by saying something like, “The Giants should know as well as anyone that it’s not that hard to get a pleasing radial arch — all they have to do is look at the front of the jersey.” But the video concludes with a front-view shot that’s almost as bad as the NOBs:
Ay yi yi — look at that “N”!
Well, it’s still spring training. Let’s hope the Giants whip their lettering game into shape in time for Opening Day.
(My thanks to Bill Henderson for the template photo, and to Bryan Redemske, Andy Davis, and @ayyyynick for the template videos.)
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Speaking of NOBs: Meet Nancy Panagiotopoulou, a forward on the Illinois women’s basketball team. As you can probably guess from her surname, she’s from Greece. And as you can see, they’ve gone with some seriously compressed typography (and some very nice radial arching!) for her 15-letter NOB.
But wait! It could’ve been even worse — or better, depending on your point of view — because her full name is actually Nancy Panagiotopoulou Andritsopoulou! But they’ve omitted the “Andritsopoulou” from of her jersey. (Perhaps someone familiar with Greek naming protocols could tell us more about this..?)
Still more NOB news: As you may recall, Mariners infielder Dee Gordon announced last September that he was changing his NOB to Strange-Gordon, in honor of his late mother. (His legal surname has always been “Strange-Gordon,” but he initially decided to go with “Gordon” as his professional name after a minor league P.A. announcer botched his name.) The 14-letter NOB, plus the hyphen, plus-plus the Mariners’ three-color NOB lettering, plus-plus-plus Strange-Gordon’s slender frame, combined to create one of history’s all-time clunkiest-looking NOB treatments:
The good news is that Strange-Gordon became a free agent after the 2020 season, so we won’t have to see that Mariners treatment of his NOB anymore. The bad news is that he signed with the Reds, whose NOB lettering isn’t much better than Seattle’s:
Maybe the Mariners and Reds could learn something from Illinois, eh?
(My thanks to Josh Claywell, Mike Nessen, and Jason Scherer for their contributions to this section.)
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This was mentioned to me this morning, but Vandy showed Kumar Rocker throwing a slider and a cutter yesterday. In the video below the second pitch is identified as a “cutter” at 91 mph. The first is an 84 mph slider. Another interesting wrinkle to yesterday’s starts. pic.twitter.com/AFcQ4bm62g
Finally, something that isn’t about NOBs: Check out the video clip above, which shows Vanderbilt wearing mono-black a few days ago. Since the backstop is also black, pitcher Kumar Rocker and his catcher were hard to discern. It all gives new meaning to the term “camouflage uniform.”
A similar situation unfolded yesterday for Texas State, which also went mono-black against a dark backdrop. There’s presumably a batter in there somewhere:
(My thanks to Trevor Lytle and Colton McWilliams for these two items.)
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The remove-ment expands to knitwear As you can see above, Uni Watch reader Brian Pidgeon really likes Stargell stars. What he does not like, however, is the annoying New Era maker’s mark, especially the one on his new Stargell-style knit winter hat. But he knew just what to do:
“It’s the first time I’ve tried it on a knit hat,” says Brian. “The fabric is tough to work with without getting snags, and I ended up with a few holes. But since it’s dark fabric, you can’t really see it even when I put it on. Even with the holes, it looks much better now!”
Nicely done, Brian. Congrats on breaking this new ground in the remove-ment. #NoEra
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The Ticker By Lloyd Alaban
Baseball News: Mets P Taijuan Walker confirmed that he’s wearing No. 99, instead of his preferred double-zero, because the Mets’ mascot, Mr. Met, wears No. 00 (from multiple readers). … Some cap inconsistencies in Cubs camp (from Phillip Tutor). … Phillies RF Bryce Harper showed up to practice yesterday in very Philadelphia-themed attire. His shirt says “Clearwooder,” a reference — in a Philly accent — to the city of Clearwater, Fla., where the Phils spend spring training. His toque says “Jawn,” which is a placeholder word for anyone or anything in Philly slang (from @PhillyPartTwo). … Blue Jays SS Bo Bichette wore custom cleats with “BO FLOW” on them for practice yesterday (from Ryan, who didn’t give his last name). … Twins DH/RF Nelson Cruz wore teammate Miguel Sanó’s pants at practice yesterday. Sanó is much taller and bigger than Cruz, which made for some entertaining photos (from @bivlo). … A priest in St. Paul, Minn., is auctioning off his baseball card collection — valued at an estimated $25,000 — for charity (from Anthony Nuccio).
Football News:UNC freshmen have received their uni numbers (from James Gilbert). … @PaperStadiums’s latest creation is a model of Notre Dame Stadium, complete with Touchdown Jesus (from our own Brinke Guthrie). … Mark Whipple made smartphone wallpapers showing every helmet Pitt has ever worn (from Sebastian Smelko).
Hockey News: With the debut of the Capitals’ ЯR uniforms last night, F Alex Ovechkin has now worn 10 different Caps uniforms in his career (from Casey, who didn’t give his last name). … Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy’s new mask changes colors based on the temperature (from John Muir). … This is very cool: A Hurricanes fan is keeping track of the team’s record by knitting a scarf with different colors based on different game outcomes (from @Benji_91).
Basketball News: Although next month’s NBA All-Star Game is taking place in Atlanta, rather than in Indiana as was originally planned, the league is still selling Pacers-themed All-Star merch, presumably because there wasn’t enough time to get new merch in the retail pipeline (from Alex Ladd). … Syracuse women’s is going mono-pink on Sunday (from Jakob Fox). … Color vs. color for St. John’s and Villanova men’s last night (from James Ballow). … K-State wore their mismatched purple/lavender throwbacks last night.
Soccer News: Everton cleared an initial hurdle of government approval to build a new stadium over the next few years. Here are some renderings. Their current home, Goodison Park, has one of the last surviving stands designed by Archibald Leitch, who worked on several English and Scottish stadiums in the early 1900s (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … Also from Jamie: The Portland Thorns and Timbers have a new ad deal. … Speaking of the Timbers, here’s a detailed look at their new kit (from @ThatRodneyGuy). … The logo for Chicago House AC of the National Independent Soccer Association has been revealed (from multiple readers). … Broadcaster beIN Sports is taking legal action against Turkish side Fenerbahçe after the club wore shirts that disparaged the network. Here’s a closer look at the shirts (from Greg Franklin).
Grab Bag: Here’s a piece on religious headwear and sports (from @mikeobs). … The New England Black Wolves of the National Lacrosse League are relocating to Albany, N.Y. (from Wade Heidt). … Also from Wade: Calgary’s curling bubble has a logo. … The Ottawa police chief has banned officers from wearing “thin blue line” and other patches (from Timmy Donahue). … Here are the newest AFL Women’s Indigenous designs: This picture shows all eight Victorian teams. The two on the far left (Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne) and the far right (St. Kilda and Richmond) are new, the four in the center have already been revealed. Separately, here’s Gold Coast (from our own Jamie Rathjen).
Reader Jeff Ingalls recently came across a 10-minute film called Oskee Wee Wee, which is about the local frenzy surrounding the 1967 Grey Cup game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The film is fun and worth watching (see embed above), and it’s loaded with interesting visuals. Here are some highlights I singled out:
• it was a good-looking game, with both teams wearing excellent uniforms. Naturally, I’m partial to the Ti-Cats’ excellent color combo, hoop-striped long sleeves, and gigantic rear helmet numbers, but the Roughriders were no slouches either with their green jerseys, double-striped shoulders and sleeves, and Northwestern-striped socks:
• The Ti-Cats were also celebrating Canada’s centennial that season with a special helmet logo. Oddly, they were the only CFL team to do so:
• The officials, unlike their NFL counterparts at the time, did not have exposed stirrups. Also, note that CFL penalty flags are red, not yellow:
• Another detail about the officials: Their black cap brims featured a curved line of white trim. I love this detail — looks so sharp:
• The CFL ball had odd striping at the time — or at least it seems odd to me:
• Rare sight in the crowd, at least for 1967 — a fan wearing a jersey:
• There’s a brief glimpse of the Roughriders’ cheerleaders, who mainly looked cold:
• The movie also provides some footage of a Miss Grey Cup beauty pageant that took place before the game (emceed, I’m pretty sure, by a young Peter Jennings, who isn’t identified by name but his voice is easy to recognize). Each CFL team had an entrant:
• The CFL was still marking the end of the game by having a guy fire a gun (shooting blanks, obviously). Not sure if the NFL was still doing this in 1967:
Update: Reader/commenter Tim Brown says the NFL didn’t discontinue marking the end of each half with a pistol until 1994. I had no idea the ritual persisted that long!
• Finally, I’m not sure what was going on here, but it’s from the Tiger-Cats’ postgame victory celebration in their locker room:
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And there’s a lot more. I definitely recommend watching the film — it’s a fun diversion.
(Big thanks to Jeff Ingalls, who deserves all the credit for this one.)
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Placeholder to stay in place, apparently: The Washington Football Team, like any other NFL team, has its own website. But it also has a separate site devoted to the team’s post-’Skins rebranding. A statement recently added to the home page of that site indicates that the team’s new identity will not be ready to go until 2022, and the same statement was emailed to fans over the weekend.
So the Washington Football Team will apparently be with us for at least one more season.
(My thanks to Nate Rathjen for bringing this to attention of his brother, Jamie, and to Jamie for then alerting me.)
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Oops and double-oops: The Undefeated yesterday published a big illustrated timeline showing notable moments in the history of the integration of sports. As you’d expect, it includes an entry for Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the NHL. As you can see above, that entry mentions that O’Ree’s No. 22 was retired by the Bruins last week.
Just one problem: The Bruins announced nearly two weeks ago that O’Ree’s number retirement was being postponed to next year, so fans could be on hand for the occasion.
For good measure, this item about the retirement of O’Ree’s No. 22 is accompanied by a photo of him wearing No. 25 (one of three numbers O’Ree wore during his time with the Bruins). In fact, the timeline includes three photos of O’Ree in which his uni number is visible, and they all show him wearing 25, not 22.
That said, the timeline feature is filled with great photos and good info — worth checking out.
This is a 63-page booklet called The 1959 Chicago Cubs Story. But what’s with that Reds cap on the cover? True, the Cubs did wear the wishbone-C at one point in their history, but not in the late 1950s. How did they get that wrong? And then there’s that Phillies cigar logo at the bottom — yet another National League team! What, no Dodgers or Giants references?
Here are the rest of this week’s picks:
• Tommy McDonald was the last NFL non-kicker to play without a facemask. Was he also the last to appear maskless on the cover of Sports Illustrated, as shown on this October 1962 issue?
• Got some nice Cincinnati Stingers glassware here. First, this set of four with the team logo and WHA skater logo in team colors, plus another glass that includes the WLW logo — that’s the radio station that carried the games.
• Speaking of WLW, they also carried the Reds (and still do). With that in mind, here are some 1970s Nu-Maid cups that include the Reds Running Man listening to a radio.
• One more glass here, but this one is for Yogi Berra’s restaurant. The glass includes the famous Yogi-ism “It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over,” and the inside bottom of the glass reads, “It’s Over!”
• Check out the artwork (both teams wearing colored jerseys?) for this October 1942 edition of The Open Road for Boys magazine (more on them here). This issue included “Winning Plays Diagrammed by Big-Time Coaches,” and “Army-Spy-Mystery Stories.” Just 15 cents at your neighborhood newsstand!
• This is a framed Dizzy Dean kite that the seller considers a “Holy Grail” item. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Pretty pricey, in any case, but interesting!
• This card certifies that the bearer is a charter member (No. 7!) of the new 1967-1968 Philadelphia Flyers Fan Club, with all rights and privileges, etc.
• Frank Mahovlich was voted one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players, and is obviously in the hockey Hall of Fame. So when he put his name to this 1970s promo booklet, Hockey Tips: How to Improve Your Game, it’s a sure bet he knew what he was talking about.
• Here we have a 1940 hockey game called “Hockey Game.” The game maker, Somerville, put a lot of thought into that one!
• Snoopy and Woodstock are featured on this 1970s Denver Broncos sweatshirt. But rather than “Joe Cool,” Snoopy’s known here as “Joe Bronco.”
Got an item to include on Collector’s Corner? Tweet submissions to @brinkeguthrie
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Culinary Corner: I like pasta fine, but I’ve never been a pasta expert or connoisseur. So I had never heard of bucatini — essentially spaghetti-like tubes with a hole down the middle, like a drinking straw — until two months ago, when I came across a brilliant and highly entertaining article about the “great bucatini shortage of 2020.” (I linked to that article here on Uni Watch when it came out. If you haven’t already read it, it’s the best thing you’ll read today — trust me.)
After reading the article, which basically said bucatini was the most awesome pasta ever (assuming you could find any, which was tricky, what with the great bucatini shortage of 2020 and all), Mary and I figured we’d better try it.
After weeks of fruitless searching, we recently located a few boxes of Barilla bucatini (very pleasing to say), which we were excited to try a few nights ago. We didn’t want to overpower the highly touted pasta, so Mary made a very nice, very simple tomato sauce, which we figured would allow the bucatini’s virtues to shine through.
And it was … fine. Like, there was certainly nothing wrong with it — a very nice pasta dinner! But there was also nothing particularly special about it. The article suggested that the holes running through the pasta tubes allowed the bucatini to achieve great sauce saturation, or something like that, but we didn’t perceive that at all.
Are we missing something? Is Barilla an inferior brand of bucatini? Anyone..?
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The Ticker By Alex Hider
Baseball News: New number assignments for the Mariners. Of note, P James Paxton, now in his second stint with the team, is wearing No. 44, as the No. 65 he used to wear is assigned to P Casey Sadler. Oddly, coach Jarret DeHart is also currently assigned No. 44 (from Tim Dunn). … Chipper Jones is working with Atlanta this year as a hitting consultant and will wear his retired No. 10. … Reader Mark Lackinger found these White Sox jersey napkins on eBay. … Ian Frost notes that during the 1998 game where the Diamondbacks famously walked Barry Bonds with the bases loaded, the TV graphics included a misspelling of Mark McGwire’s name. … This MLB.com piece has a detailed list of bobblehead promotion suggestions for every team (from Brinke). … New uniforms for NC State (from Kary Klismet). … This FanGraphs podcast opens with a rant on college baseball uniforms and an interesting discussion about the effect of bullpen visibility (from Rob Krosley). … Couple of good-looking color-on-color college matchups yesterday featuring powder blue unis: Ole Miss/Texas and Louisiana Tech/LSU (from Griffin T. Smith and Chris Mycoskie).
NFL News: Reader Luke Larson sent in this hand-drawn mockup for a new Bengals look. … Colts WR Michael Pittman says he won’t give up his No. 11 for newly acquired QB Carson Wentz, who previously wore that number with the Eagles (from Mike Chamernik). … Also from Mike: ESPN’s Mina Kimes has an opinion on which QB numbers are the best. … Peter King’s column yesterday included a photograph that showed a Rams player with what appears to be a cross on the back of his helmet (from Jerry Wolper). … Check out this nice-looking Browns ice sculpture. Big fan of the old wordmark (from @tonsoffun57).
College Football News: Notre Dame won’t be included in the revitalized version of EA Sports’s college football game. AD Jack Swarbrick says the school will skip the game until the NCAA establishes ground rules for how players will be compensated for their name, image and likeness. … College football reporter Matt Brown talked about name changes regarding Dixie State University and the Valparaiso Crusaders in his newsletter (from Mike Chamernik). … Deion Sanders, now the head coach at Jackson State, has a bunch of uniform rules for his players (from Ted Taylor).
Hockey News: The Blackhawks have released the days they’ll be wearing their ЯR uniforms (thanks to all who shared). … The logo on Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer’s hat was upside down during Saturday night’s outdoor game (from Danny Forrest). … The Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL will play as the Sioux Falls Fighting Wiener Dogs on Saturday in honor of the team’s annual wiener dog race promotion. But what’s with all the head-on views? If you’re going to call yourself the wiener dogs, you gotta show a side view so people can see how long they are! (From Mike Miller.) … Newly acquired Devils G Aaron Dell will temporarily wear this mask design — a vinyl wrap — while his regular mask is being painted (from John Muir).
Basketball News: The Jazz’s Earned design has leaked. … Here are the NBA uniforms that are still undefeated thus far this season (from @SacKings_Unis). … This video recaps some of the attire and pieces of equipment the NBA has banned through the years (from Don Martinez). … Hector Cendejas notes that at one point the Lakers’ retired number for Gail Goodrich had a vertically arched NOB — a style the Lakers never used on the court. That photo is from 2000, and the Lakers have updated their retired numbers since then. … Rockets C Justin Patton will wear No. 26.
College and High School Hoops: Oregon debuted new green uniforms last night (from Jakob Fox). … During the 2019 NCAA tournament, Fairleigh Dickinson’s mascot gained viral infamy when he lost his head during a dance contest. Since then, the student who was portraying the mascot that day has earned a walk-on spot on the basketball team (from Kary Klismet). … Check out the striped socks for the 1946 Lakota High School (Kansas) basketball team! In the front row at far right are reader Richard Catalano’s twin great-uncles!
Grab Bag: The Scotties, the women’s Canadian Curling Championship, had some pandemic-related supply chain issues when trying to order stones for this year’s tournament (from Mark). … More AFL Women’s Indigenous designs, for Melbourne and Brisbane (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … Jamie also sends along something he noticed at work: The French organization that collects social security taxes, Urssaf, has a new logo. This is the new one and this is the old one. … The next three submissions are from Kary Klismet: German beach volleyball duo Karla Borger and Julia Sude will boycott a tournament in Qatar because of the country’s ban on athletes wearing bikinis. … The student newspaper for Everett Community College in Washington has celebrated the 79th birthday of the school’s Trojan mascot with an infographic showing its evolution over the years. … The city of Bath, Maine, is planning for a new logo and slogan. … Just as Uni Watch covers athletics aesthetics, RT Foote says Liturgical Arts Journal covers the aesthetics of Catholicism. “There’s a daily dive into a new, newly discovered, or obscure topic with lots of great pictures and explanations, and links to related pieces.” … New F1 livery — barely changed from last season — for Red Bull Racing. … Some Black American troops in World War I were temporarily assigned to fight with the French army and wore a combination of American and French uniforms (from Phillip Tutor).
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Our latest raffle winner is John Horn, who’s won himself a Uni Watch membership card. Congrats to him, and thanks again to Zach Spencer for sponsoring this one. — Paul
