This Jackie Robinson tribute thing is turning into quite a phenomenon. At first it looked like one player per team would be wearing No. 42, except for the Dodgers, who planned to have everyone wearing 42. But now two other teams have joined the Dodgers — the Cardinals and Pirates (last item on the page) — and several other teams will have multiple 42ers, including the Cubs (Jacque Jones, Daryle Ward, and Cliff Floyd, plus Derrek Lee, who had previously been announced), A’s (Milton Bradley, Shannon Stewart, and coach Tye Waller), Twins (Torii Hunter, Rondell White, and coach Jerry White), Royals (Reggie Sanders and Emil Brown), Tigers (Gary Sheffield, Curtis Granderson, Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, and coach Lloyd McClendon), and Blue Jays (Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas, Royce Clayton, and coach Mickey Brantley). And although it hasn’t officially been announced yet, it’s a safe bet that the Yankees will have at least two 42ers: Mariano Rivera (duh) and Robinson Cano, the latter of whom is actually named after Jackie Robinson and normally wears No. 24 — the reverse of 42.
Other forty-deucers announced in recent days include Andruw Jones, Carl Crawford, Corey Patterson, Bill Hall, Orlando Hudson, Carlos Lee, LaTroy Hawkins, Jermaine Dye (second news item on the page), and Rangers skipper Ron Washington. To my knowledge, each of these players is his team’s lone 42er, at least for now.
When you toss in the other 42ers who’d been previously been announced (Ken Griffey, Barry Bonds, Mike Cameron, Willie Randolph, Coco Crisp, Dontrelle Willis, Gary Matthews Jr., Jimmy Rollins, Josh Barfield, C.C. Sabathia, and Dmitri Young), that means the only teams that haven’t yet announced a 42er for this Sunday are the Yankees and the Mariners (who’ve presumably been too busy making snow angels in Cleveland to deal with this Sunday’s festivities). If either of those teams has announced a 42er and I’ve missed it, or if there’s some other team I’ve overlooked, speak up.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Kuhnast notes that when Jackie Robinson made his Dodgers debut 60 years ago, he was wearing a zip-front jersey (additional views here and here), while his teammates were wearing button-fronts (additional view here). According to Dressed to the Nines, the Dodgers wore zip-fronts in 1946 and button-fronts in ’47, so it appears that Robbie was given an old jersey to begin his career.
And Bob Timmermann has done a bit of a research to clarify the Marc Sagmoen situation. According to an item that appeared on April 16th, 1997, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Sagmoen wore No. 42 in the [April 15th] game, his uniform number in spring training. Midway through the game, Sagmoen learned that acting commissioner Bud Selig had declared in New York that No. 42 will be retired throughout baseball in honor of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson.” A subsequent item in the April 20th edition of the Salt Lake Tribune noted, “Among that group [of players already wearing 42], only Sagmoen changed numbers immediately. He wasn’t exactly attached to 42, having been issued it only on Monday, when he was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City. ”¦ ‘I just didn’t think it would be right,’ said Sagmoen, who switched to 37. ‘I thought it would be better to retire it now. It was nice to wear it for one game, but I wouldn’t have felt right to wear it every game.’ ” So it looks like Sagmoen wore 42 only on April 15th — the same day Selig’s ruling came down — but not thereafter.
Incidentally, that Salt Lake Tribune article had an interesting quote from Scott Karl, who was wearing No. 42 for the Brewers at the time:
Karl, who like Sagmoen is white, believes he is entitled to the number he has worn throughout his career.
“I hope this will not become an issue, but I don’t want to give it up,” Karl said. “It’s my number. It’s not a number that was given to me randomly. I chose to wear the number and it has been a part of my life since I got to the big leagues [in 1995]. [Also], I feel I have a chance to be a part of something special.”
Unfortunately for Karl, in 2000 he was traded to the Rockies, where team owner Jerry McMorris insisted on keeping No. 42 out of circulation. Karl himself was out of circulation a year after that.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Shawn Green’s superscript “Y” was finally fixed on Friday. ”¦ Speaking of superscript letters, Cliff Floyd’s helmet appliqué was riding a bit high the other day. ”¦ Citadel played a serious throwback game against College of Charleston last Thursday. How serious? The umpires wore suspenders and straw hats! ”¦ Brandon Garrett notes that home plate ump Hunter Wendelstedt appeared to have the remnants of a football helmet sticker on his chest protector during Friday’s Mets/Braves game. ”¦ Wanna look like this guy? Look here. ”¦ Johnny Estrada usually wears stirrups with very little white showing. But for Friday’s game, with the Brewers wearing their ’80s retro uniforms, his hosiery was period-appropriate. ”¦ Fascinating article here about a California Little League operation that got into trouble by outfitting its teams in college-style uniforms instead of pro-style. ”¦ Over in Japan, Greg LaRocca’s using personalized batting gloves (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Kei Igawa was doing the blind man on the mound routine again on Saturday. ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Interesting bit here about Kelvim Escobar and the Angels’ new red jerseys. ”¦ Quite a few readers are intrigued by the shoes Dontrelle Willis wore on Saturday. Anyone know more about them? ”¦ Jose Cruz Jr.’s MVP-caliber stirrups were back on Sunday (with thanks to Richard Craig, who also notes that the Padres will be wearing 1973 throwbacks on May 11th).
Watching Jon Papelbon blow guys away last night in the 8th and 9th, I noticed he is wearing a cap from last year, with the grey underbrim
link
Anyone see the end of the Yanks-O’s game Friday night? As the game ends and the O’s were congratulating each other, I noticed something very odd. Some were wearing link
Is this something teams keep on hand in case of unexpected cold weather? Has anyone ever seen anything at all like this before?
I know this is totally unrelated to anything on today’s entry, but does anyone else remember the Los Angeles Galaxy promising a rebranding complete with new colors and uniforms for this season? Well it hasn’t happened yet. The only difference are the link. So are they waiting for their home-opener, their Beckham-opener, or are they totally scrapping this year’s rebranding?
The Shoes Dontrelle willis is wearing are the new Nike Huarache 2k5 baseball spikes
This year, Dontrelle is wearing a customized version of the Nike Air Huarache 2k5 baseball spike.
link
They don’t offer that color (the Marlin teal) to the masses, thank goodness.
Dontrelle has switched to high tops this year, after pitching the past few years with low tops or mids while wearing supportive ankle braces, as seen here…
link
Willis is wearing a player edition of the Nike Air Huarache 2K5.
link
There ya go.
Hi
the big question today is what uni combo will the NY Mets wear today in there home opener ,id like it to be Blue cap and pinstripes or at worst blue cap and snow white ,but whats the chances ? If the Mets are serious about wearing less black al they have to do is wear a blue cap with any one of the home whites at least 85% of the time at home. I dont mind the black so much as its part of NY National League history ,just alot less .
Les
Lets go Mets (Irish Chapter)
Srico,
I noticed one of those parkas during yesterday’s game. I only saw a quick shot of it in the Oriole dugout. My thought was a) what’s an MLB official doing asking questions in the dugout? and b) damn that’s a big logo. I guess it makes some more sense that they are players and not some random official there for a urine sample or something…
Here is an Idea for the Mets on Jackie Robinson Day, if they can get the permission from the verious people ,lets wear a Blue cap with an Orange Brooklyn “B” with our snow white home jerseys ,basically the Dodgers throwback cap but with an orange “B” instead of white.
Any Thoughts?
Les
[quote comment=”67991″]Anyone see the end of the Yanks-O’s game Friday night? As the game ends and the O’s were congratulating each other, I noticed something very odd. Some were wearing link
Is this something teams keep on hand in case of unexpected cold weather? Has anyone ever seen anything at all like this before?[/quote]
I saw that too! I didn’t grab a picture though because I didn’t want the world to see how terrible MASN’s low def broadcast looks on my big screen. The only way to get HD in B-more is to go to the game…which I will be doing at 3:05 today!
I noticed the parkas with the giant MLB logo on the back Friday night in the Pirates dugout in Cincinnati. I couldn’t see into the Reds dugout, so I don’t know if they were wearing them too.
[quote comment=”67998″]Here is an Idea for the Mets on Jackie Robinson Day, if they can get the permission from the verious people ,lets wear a Blue cap with an Orange Brooklyn “B” with our snow white home jerseys ,basically the Dodgers throwback cap but with an orange “B” instead of white.
Any Thoughts?
Les[/quote]
I don’t dislike the idea, but at the same time I think respecting Jackie Robinson means respecting your own identity by wearing your true (blue) uni’s.
If they really wanted to honor this man, throw out “CitiField” and name it Jackie Robinson Park then we can all go and hang out at “The Jack”.
Two things:
White Sox coach Harold Baines is also wearing 42, per link
Also, I was at the White Sox-Twins game yesterday, and somebody (I couldn’t tell who) in the Twins bullpen was also wearing the parka with the giant MLB logo. I thought it was as weird looking as the rest of you do.
Why not just have every member on every team wear 42? That would be quite the tribute…!
I admire Johnny Estrada for trying to be ‘period’. Unfortunately, the period he has achieved is early ’60s not early ’80s. By 1982, players were usually wearing the skintight uniforms with pant length between the knee and mid-calf and only a vertical stripe of the stirrup showing.
Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)
[quote comment=”67992″]I know this is totally unrelated to anything on today’s entry, but does anyone else remember the Los Angeles Galaxy promising a rebranding complete with new colors and uniforms for this season? Well it hasn’t happened yet. The only difference are the link. So are they waiting for their home-opener, their Beckham-opener, or are they totally scrapping this year’s rebranding?[/quote]
Can’t provide you with visual evidence, but it was mentioned on ABC’s MLS broadcast on Saturday that the Galaxy would debut their rebranding efforts once Beckham came to town.
A question regarding the Cliff Floyd note: is it correct to call the logo on the batting helmet a decal even though it’s an applique and not a sticker?
[quote comment=”68001″][quote comment=”67998″]Here is an Idea for the Mets on Jackie Robinson Day, if they can get the permission from the verious people ,lets wear a Blue cap with an Orange Brooklyn “B” with our snow white home jerseys ,basically the Dodgers throwback cap but with an orange “B” instead of white.
Any Thoughts?
Les[/quote]
I don’t dislike the idea, but at the same time I think respecting Jackie Robinson means respecting your own identity by wearing your true (blue) uni’s.
If they really wanted to honor this man, throw out “CitiField” and name it Jackie Robinson Park then we can all go and hang out at “The Jack”.[/quote]
That would be brilliant butI serpose someone has to pay for the new park they could at least call it Jackie Robinson Park at Citi Field. But wearing the “B” wouldnt be that big a departure from our identity since we represent Brooklyn anyway.
[quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
link wears a “C” as well.
Out of the Mouths of Babes…
A quick question completely off topic…My brother in law was in town yesterday, watching the Red Sox game with my 5 year old daughter. He’s converting her to a junior member of the Red Sox Nation (a dangerous prospect in a house full of Blue Jays and Yankees fans), and my daughter had a rare moment of uni-related insight:
“how come, if they’re called the Red Sox, all the guys aren’t wearing red socks?”
Seems a fair question.
[quote comment=”68009″][quote comment=”68001″][quote comment=”67998″]Here is an Idea for the Mets on Jackie Robinson Day, if they can get the permission from the verious people ,lets wear a Blue cap with an Orange Brooklyn “B” with our snow white home jerseys ,basically the Dodgers throwback cap but with an orange “B” instead of white.
Any Thoughts?
Les[/quote]
I don’t dislike the idea, but at the same time I think respecting Jackie Robinson means respecting your own identity by wearing your true (blue) uni’s.
If they really wanted to honor this man, throw out “CitiField” and name it Jackie Robinson Park then we can all go and hang out at “The Jack”.[/quote]
That would be brilliant butI serpose someone has to pay for the new park they could at least call it Jackie Robinson Park at Citi Field. But wearing the “B” wouldnt be that big a departure from our identity since we represent Brooklyn anyway.[/quote]
We represent Brooklyn Blue and Giant Orange. As much as it would be an honor to the Brooklyn Dodgers it would be slight of the New York Giants. I think that maybe we go LA Dodger style and have the entire team outfitted with “42”.
The Tigers will have 4 people other than Sheffield wearing 42. They are the only African-Americans on the team: Curtis Granderson, Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, and hitting coach Lloyd McClendon. link
[quote comment=”67992″]I know this is totally unrelated to anything on today’s entry, but does anyone else remember the Los Angeles Galaxy promising a rebranding complete with new colors and uniforms for this season? Well it hasn’t happened yet. The only difference are the link. So are they waiting for their home-opener, their Beckham-opener, or are they totally scrapping this year’s rebranding?[/quote]
Sorry I don’t have an answer for you; I remember the re-branding stories also (supposedly because Becks did not care for the green-and-gold) and have been wondering the same thing, but I haven’t heard or read anything in quite a while.
It’s hard to believe that the Galaxy would change their uni right in the middle of a season just to wait for Becks to start play.
Perhaps a UniWatch poster from LA will be able to enlighten us??
Sorry I don’t have an answer for you; I remember the re-branding stories also (supposedly because Becks did not care for the green-and-gold) and have been wondering the same thing, but I haven’t heard or read anything in quite a while.
Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas was thinking out loud a while ago (before Beckham was signed, I think) and said something to the effect of “when I think of a galaxy, I don’t think of green and gold, I think of dark blue.” A hint, perhaps?
[quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
link wears a “C” as well.[/quote]
When Barry Larkin was captain of the Reds, he link I’ve also seen the “C” on the occasional NBA uni, but I can’t recall any examples this morning…
On the ump’s football helmet sticker: I wonder if it is a lacrosse sticker instead. Lacrosse keepers wear similar chest protectors as catchers/umps plus the helmet looks more like a lacrosse mask than a football mask. I couldn’t find any examples that have that decal but the chest protectors certainly look the same.
Shawn Green sports a superscript ‘Y’, and they sweep the World Champion Cardinals. They fix the ‘Y’, and then they lose two out of three from the Braves. Coincidence? I think the Met’s equipment manager needs to put the ‘Y’ back up where it belongs!
[quote comment=”68020″][quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
link wears a “C” as well.[/quote]
When Barry Larkin was captain of the Reds, he link I’ve also seen the “C” on the occasional NBA uni, but I can’t recall any examples this morning…[/quote]
John Franco used to wear one with the Mets as well.
link
Re: the Citadel/Charleston ump throwbacks: they should do it at the MLB level too: if the teams are wearing 20s/30s/40s/50s throwbacks, have the base umps wear suits and jackets again! And for 70s/80s throwbacks, bring back the old turtlenecks, or the old Elbeco button down shirts…if they can find them…
If someone could find links to images, Id love to try a history of umpire uniforms/equipment.
When I started as an ASA softball ump twenty + years ago, both us and the big league guys were wearing the button down light blue Elbeco shirts..them with grey pants, and us with link. The professional guys went to the new mesh based shirts about 95 or so…ASA only went to mesh when Elbeco ( who also made the USPS shirts ) stopped making those kind of shirts…this was around 99-2000 or so…What is interesting is that ASA a couple of years ago introduced…yes…an ‘alternate’ uniform – a dark navy blue top and link – just like baseball! This has engendered much conversation in the softball umpiring community. The dark top/gray pants combo looks awfully sharp at night games, and the gray pants and link is a nice combination when it is very warm…there is much discussion on whether the navy blue slacks are on their way out.
[quote comment=”68011″]Out of the Mouths of Babes…
A quick question completely off topic…My brother in law was in town yesterday, watching the Red Sox game with my 5 year old daughter. He’s converting her to a junior member of the Red Sox Nation (a dangerous prospect in a house full of Blue Jays and Yankees fans), and my daughter had a rare moment of uni-related insight:
“how come, if they’re called the Red Sox, all the guys aren’t wearing red socks?”
Seems a fair question.[/quote]
Technically, they probably are, just under their overly-long pants. The better question is why the White Sox wear black socks?
All MLS teams will be brandishing a Lamar Hunt memorial patch for the entire season.
Shown link as well as a decent look at Houston’s new jersey.
Also, link a decent look at Real Salt Lake’s new Xango look.
As well as link new look, and a glimpse of their new stadium.
And link DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.
Ah that Chief Illiniwik logo is a real trouble maker…
link
The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)
When tracy mcgrady was with the magic he had a captain’s “C”. I dont think he has it with the rockets. He’s the only guy in the NBA i can think of right now
Quote
and this and this, but i found this, this, and this. Paul, what knowledge to you have on this topic? I have no pictures (help), but I don’t remember him wearing a uni so far with the cubs, and he isn’t wearing one today, for sure.
I was @ the Brewers game yesterday vs the Cub. I think the reason Lou isn’t wearing his jersey top is that he looks like he’s 8 months pregnant!!
link
These aren’t great pics but my God Lou, lay off the fried foods, huh??
[quote comment=”68020″][quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
link wears a “C” as well.[/quote]
When Barry Larkin was captain of the Reds, he link I’ve also seen the “C” on the occasional NBA uni, but I can’t recall any examples this morning…[/quote]
Thanks for the help, all, now my mind won’t be AS drifty during classes.
[quote comment=”68035″]All MLS teams will be brandishing a Lamar Hunt memorial patch for the entire season.
Shown link as well as a decent look at Houston’s new jersey.
Also, link a decent look at Real Salt Lake’s new Xango look.
As well as link new look, and a glimpse of their new stadium.
And link DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
I think it’s funny that we all bash Nike for logo creep, but no one says much about Adidas being (in my opinion) MUCH worse about it. Just look at how many places you see the Adidas logo or (more prevalent) the three stripes on every uniform. I’m as big a fan of stripes as the next guy, but does the logo need to be an integral part of the uniform? Good Lord.
The Padres also have two other retro nights on their schedule. June 22 is 1980’s night, and September 14 is 1990’s night. The pocket schedule does not specifically name what year’s uniforms they’ll be wearing on those nights.
I have no source, but I’m relatively certain I read somewhere that Arthur Rhodes plans to wear 42 for the M’s.
Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).
[quote comment=”68051″]Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).[/quote]
I don’t mind the three stripes on the sleeves, other parts of the jerseys, shorts and socks. But the little adidas logo that also appears on everything seems to be overkill.
Question: If teams like the Pirates are all going to wear 42 with no names, how will the fans and umpires know who’s who?
(I apologize if this was already covered on a another day.)
[quote comment=”68056″]Question: If teams like the Pirates are all going to wear 42 with no names, how will the fans and umpires know who’s who?
(I apologize if this was already covered on a another day.)[/quote]
It’s the Pirates. Do you know who’s who now?
[quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)[/quote]
Actually, “real” is also a cognate. “la vida real” means “real life”, not “royal life” although when you describe something using the term to mean “real” it does impart a connotation of “royalty”.
RSL also has a relationship with Real Madrid, which adds a bit of legitimacy to their name (not to mention pay for a $25mil youth training center).
[quote comment=”68007″]A question regarding the Cliff Floyd note: is it correct to call the logo on the batting helmet a decal even though it’s an applique and not a sticker?[/quote]
Pardon my ignorance…but what’s the difference?
In regards to the photo of Jose Cruz jr. Can you spot the Oompah-Loompah in the background?
[quote comment=”68035″]All MLS teams will be brandishing a Lamar Hunt memorial patch for the entire season.[quote]
The Crew had the patch mowed into the grass for the home opener. Although, I have no idea how the could have mowed the grass all in one direction to create that shape.
That’s something I’ve never really understood, is how patterns like that are mowed into fields. Anyone got any insight? I mean, how do the Red Sox create the logo in their infield? I’ve always been told it’s the direction the mower goes, but that seems way too complicated to be true.
[quote comment=”68060″][quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)[/quote]
Actually, “real” is also a cognate. “la vida real” means “real life”, not “royal life” although when you describe something using the term to mean “real” it does impart a connotation of “royalty”.
RSL also has a relationship with Real Madrid, which adds a bit of legitimacy to their name (not to mention pay for a $25mil youth training center).[/quote]
Yeah I was aware of the relationship between Madrid and Salt Lake, but the name still seems contrived (and in a sense this can be interpreted as American soccer being minor league compared to Europe with this naming relationship). There could still be a financial relationship between the clubs without having a name that is completely out of context. Seems like Madrid should have tried to uphold the tradition of the term real (there are other Real teams in Spain, but obviously none of them have leverage to do anything, and Madrid’s only leverage is financial).
Well, I just answered my own question:
link
Although, I’m still not sure how the intricate logos/patterns can be done.
I am just about tributed out. I am all for honoring Jackie Robinson, but at some point, the importance of the occasion gets lost in everyone trying to out-tribute one another.
PL — I really liked your ESPN column last week about the Master’s green jacket. A couple questions i came up with while watching the coverage over the weekend.
> Who are the guys on the course in the RED Jackets? Marshalls?
> Is it totally necessary for the guys moving the ropes for the patron walkways to be wearing HARDHATS?
ESPN is running the Jackie Robinson celebration into the ground. Every commercial there is something about “On April 15th”. I’m all for celebrations and I am in no way a racist, but seriously this thing is really getting out of hand. If I’m the only one I’ll shut up.
[quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).[/quote]
1) Back across the ocean, what does United strictly mean? Two football teams that have merged (like Rushden and Diamonds, or the Hamilton Wildcats and Tigers: Hamilton Tigercats)?
2) When someone reading off a TelePrompter says “The DC United”, does it sound just not quite natural?
[quote comment=”68077″]ESPN is running the Jackie Robinson celebration into the ground. Every commercial there is something about “On April 15th”. I’m all for celebrations and I am in no way a racist, but seriously this thing is really getting out of hand. If I’m the only one I’ll shut up.[/quote]
No, I agree with you. I love the idea of a tribute, as well as teams all wearing #42, but there’s no need to run it into the ground. It’s a tribute, not a show-and-tell.
[quote comment=”68051″]Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).[/quote]
But Adidas’ placing the three stripes everywhere is exactly the same as Nike placing swooshes everywhere–the three stripes is their trademark; hell, their tagline is even “The brand with the three stripes.” I have no problem with placing a small logo on the jersey for branding’s sake, but the stripes EVERYWHERE (jersey, shorts, socks) is TOTAL overkill. It ruins the uniforms, in my opinion. Nike’s certainly bad, but when you have three brand-marks on one jersey (both sleeves and then the Adidas logo on the chest), it’s just way too much. The stripes wouldn’t be bad if they weren’t a logo, but it strikes me as completely out of hand and worse than Nike.
[quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)[/quote]
What about FC Dallas or Toronto FC? FC meaning “Football Club” in the traditional British parlance, i.e. link. Why then, in a North American culture that rarely, if ever, uses “football” to describe soccer, in a league with link in its name, do these clubs insist on using the FC? Perhaps to give it a sense of pseudo-legitimacy? (In defense, I love MLS and am anxiously looking forward to Toronto FC’s innaugural season…link by the way).
What I don’t understand about it all, is why is this year special in the first place? I know it’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut, but 60 doesn’t really strike me as one of the tradional landmarks that are celebrated. 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, etc…but 60? Are they going to do this every 10 years? Because, if they do, it will lose all significance. I just don’t get it. If there’s some special reason it’s been made a big deal, please let me know.
…. that means the only teams that haven’t yet announced a 42er for this Sunday are the Yankees and the Mariners (who’ve presumably been too busy making snow angels in Cleveland to deal with this Sunday’s festivities). If either of those teams has announced a 42er and I’ve missed it, ….
Don’t know if any Yankee will step up for the Jackie tribute, but they’ve got a pretty good relief pitcher who wears No. 42 every day.
This MLB auctions website is showing a Mets jersey with blue pinstripes as the opening day jersey that can be won through their auction.
We’ll know for sure in a few minutes which jersey they’re wearing!
link
.rel=”nofollow”>here’s DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
All I can say is wow…. A professional soccer player wearign elggins underneath his uniform? I’ve gotta tell you, of all the soccer games I’ve seen in my life, I have never, EVER seen that before. It looks like a bunch of amateurs playing. Looks dispicable to me. I played soccer in New York in the month of december and never wore anything but a long sleeved shirt under my uniform… in fact, any team wearing sweaty P’s (sweatpants) or anything else under their jersey/shorts were ridiculed to no end for the next 90 minutes..
[quote comment=”68071″]I am just about tributed out. I am all for honoring Jackie Robinson, but at some point, the importance of the occasion gets lost in everyone trying to out-tribute one another.[/quote]
I agree. Its become a ‘look at me’ thing for all the guys wearing the number. Sort of defeats the purpose of having numbers if every one is the same.
I remember way back when the Dodgers retired #42, they just had a ’42’ painted on top of second base for that day’s game.
Simple. Classy.
[quote comment=”68046″][quote comment=”68020″][quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
link wears a “C” as well.[/quote]
When Barry Larkin was captain of the Reds, he link I’ve also seen the “C” on the occasional NBA uni, but I can’t recall any examples this morning…[/quote]
Thanks for the help, all, now my mind won’t be AS drifty during classes.[/quote]
link too. (Never thought I’d miss those unis.)
[quote comment=”68085″]What I don’t understand about it all, is why is this year special in the first place? I know it’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut, but 60 doesn’t really strike me as one of the tradional landmarks that are celebrated. 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, etc…but 60? Are they going to do this every 10 years? Because, if they do, it will lose all significance. I just don’t get it. If there’s some special reason it’s been made a big deal, please let me know.[/quote]
Y’know, I never thought of that. Sort of reminds me of the ‘Skins 70th anniversary celebration few years back. Sorry, can’t give you an answer.
(well, maybe I can for the ‘skins: money?)
*Sigh*… Snow whites with black/blue caps. Will they never learn?
[quote comment=”68094″][quote comment=”68046″][quote comment=”68020″][quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
Initially, I missed your quote about the subscripts on Jorge de la Rosa’s nameplate (you can see it better on David DeJesus’s jersey link). That irks me too, that if you order a Sweeney jersey it won’t have the captain’s C, or if you get a DeJesus jersey it won’t have the subscript “e”. (No one’s gonna want a de la Rosa jersey, so that’s OK.)
[quote comment=”68096″]*Sigh*… Snow whites with black/blue caps. Will they never learn?[/quote]
It’s not so much the jersey, but the cap that bugs me. Very big disappointment.
Cleveland vs. the Angels in Milwaukee?
For some reason this seems like a horrible idea to me.
[quote comment=”68077″]ESPN is running the Jackie Robinson celebration into the ground. Every commercial there is something about “On April 15th”. I’m all for celebrations and I am in no way a racist, but seriously this thing is really getting out of hand. If I’m the only one I’ll shut up.[/quote]
you’re not. I almost can’t wait till April 16th, so then this could be put to rest, way overplayed, it’s a special time yeah, but c’mon, enough is enough. I’m just scrolling by the posts that are like blah blah blah is gonna be wearing #4…..I can’t even type that overplayed phrase. and No!-I’m not racist.
[quote comment=”68100″]Cleveland vs. the Angels in Milwaukee?
For some reason this seems like a horrible idea to me.[/quote]
If only County Stadium was still standing. The Indians could wear 1990’s throwbacks and have “Major League” night.
[quote comment=”68101″][quote comment=”68077″]ESPN is running the Jackie Robinson celebration into the ground. Every commercial there is something about “On April 15th”. I’m all for celebrations and I am in no way a racist, but seriously this thing is really getting out of hand. If I’m the only one I’ll shut up.[/quote]
you’re not. I almost can’t wait till April 16th, so then this could be put to rest, way overplayed, it’s a special time yeah, but c’mon, enough is enough. I’m just scrolling by the posts that are like blah blah blah is gonna be wearing #4…..I can’t even type that overplayed phrase. and No!-I’m not racist.[/quote]
Just so everyone knows . . .I’m going to wear number 42 on April 15th also. I don’t play for anyone (in fact softball season up here doesn’t start until May) I just feel left out by not “honoring” Jackie Robinson.
[quote comment=”68102″][quote comment=”68100″]Cleveland vs. the Angels in Milwaukee?
For some reason this seems like a horrible idea to me.[/quote]
If only County Stadium was still standing. The Indians could wear 1990’s throwbacks and have “Major League” night.[/quote]
They could always go to Baltimore and have “Major Leauge II” night.
I was on the freeway and saw the temperature gauge on a huge sign, it was 42degrees, the sign just announced it’s gonna honour Jackie Robinson too.
[quote comment=”68104″][quote comment=”68102″][quote comment=”68100″]Cleveland vs. the Angels in Milwaukee?
For some reason this seems like a horrible idea to me.[/quote]
If only County Stadium was still standing. The Indians could wear 1990’s throwbacks and have “Major League” night.[/quote]
They could always go to Baltimore and have “Major Leauge II” night.[/quote]
I’m just relieved that someone got the reference!
[quote comment=”68084″][quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)[/quote]
What about FC Dallas or Toronto FC? FC meaning “Football Club” in the traditional British parlance, i.e. link. Why then, in a North American culture that rarely, if ever, uses “football” to describe soccer, in a league with link in its name, do these clubs insist on using the FC? Perhaps to give it a sense of pseudo-legitimacy? (In defense, I love MLS and am anxiously looking forward to Toronto FC’s innaugural season…link by the way).[/quote]
I can respect using FC more than I can Real, because the british aren’t the only ones to use FC; my favorite team is Futebol Clube do Porto, in Portugal. Spain has Barcelona FC. Using the term football is acceptable to me, even when soccer is in the league’s name. Perhaps using Soccer Club is more apropos, but I’m fine with FC (and I prefer it to names like Dallas Burn). The use of Real is just plain wrong, because it has nothing to do with soccer outside of the fact that it’s a title bestowed on several Spanish teams. I’m totally for MLS trying to align itself more with other world leagues in terms of naming (I think all the original names, except United, are stupid), but Real is a term I am totally against using in any league other than in Spain.
[quote comment=”68050″]I have no source, but I’m relatively certain I read somewhere that Arthur Rhodes plans to wear 42 for the M’s.[/quote]
There are two articles indicating that he’d like to wear it (link and link), but I haven’t seen anything that definitively says he will wear it.
I’m surprised by the vitriol some of you are expressing about April 15th. Personally, I think it’s both fun and instructive, and I don’t think it’s a “Look at me” thing at all. We usually bash MLB for being tone-deaf, stuck in their ways, etc., but I think this is an instance when they’ve loosened up and allowed something interesting to develop. Is it good or is it stupid? I think it’s clearly good.
As for “Why this year, what’s so special about the 60th anniversary?,” I think it could just as easily have happened last year, or next year. They’ve been doing Jackie Robinson tributes (with cap patches, sleeve patches, field logos, etc.) on April 15th for 10 years now. This just happens to be the year that Ken Griffey asked if he could wear No. 42, and the whole thing snowballed from there. And I think it’s pretty obvious that it will now become an annual thing, every April 15th.
[quote comment=”68064″]In regards to the photo of Jose Cruz jr. Can you spot the Oompah-Loompah in the background?[/quote]
No.
How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)
[quote comment=”68112″]How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)[/quote]
Hell, I’ll go tomorrow… I don’t have any significant plans (I am busy Weds and Thurs, though). Remember, the Brewers now play real baseball… we don’t get to see the American League that much.
Anybody know where I can get the home or alt versions of the mid-90’s Brewers jerseys shown in link
I am a brewer and would love to get my hands on a bunch of these for my staff.
Sorry about the sloppy link… didn’t the old server have an “edit” option?
[quote comment=”68071″]I am just about tributed out. I am all for honoring Jackie Robinson, but at some point, the importance of the occasion gets lost in everyone trying to out-tribute one another.[/quote]
AMEN.
Flags (national and state), yellow ribbons, blue ribbons, pink ribbons an on and on and on. It’s too much and because of that it’s lost all meaning.
Can we get rid of God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch too? I really hate that, there I said it.
[quote comment=”68118″][quote comment=”68071″]I am just about tributed out. I am all for honoring Jackie Robinson, but at some point, the importance of the occasion gets lost in everyone trying to out-tribute one another.[/quote]
AMEN.
Flags (national and state), yellow ribbons, blue ribbons, pink ribbons an on and on and on. It’s too much and because of that it’s lost all meaning.
Can we get rid of God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch too? I really hate that, there I said it.[/quote]
I agree, without being too political, it’s unnecessarily jingoistic, and I’ll leave it at that.
[quote comment=”68119″][quote comment=”68118″][quote comment=”68071″]I am just about tributed out. I am all for honoring Jackie Robinson, but at some point, the importance of the occasion gets lost in everyone trying to out-tribute one another.[/quote]
AMEN.
Flags (national and state), yellow ribbons, blue ribbons, pink ribbons an on and on and on. It’s too much and because of that it’s lost all meaning.
Can we get rid of God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch too? I really hate that, there I said it.[/quote]
I agree, without being too political, it’s unnecessarily jingoistic, and I’ll leave it at that.[/quote]
Agreed.
On a Uni Note, will the teams be selling off their numerous 42-numbered jerseys after the game (and presumably giving the proceeds to charity)? Or will they tear off the numbers and re-use them?
[quote comment=”68110″][quote comment=”68050″]I have no source, but I’m relatively certain I read somewhere that Arthur Rhodes plans to wear 42 for the M’s.[/quote]
There are two articles indicating that he’d like to wear it (link and link), but I haven’t seen anything that definitively says he will wear it.
I’m surprised by the vitriol some of you are expressing about April 15th. Personally, I think it’s both fun and instructive, and I don’t think it’s a “Look at me” thing at all. We usually bash MLB for being tone-deaf, stuck in their ways, etc., but I think this is an instance when they’ve loosened up and allowed something interesting to develop. Is it good or is it stupid? I think it’s clearly good.
As for “Why this year, what’s so special about the 60th anniversary?,” I think it could just as easily have happened last year, or next year. They’ve been doing Jackie Robinson tributes (with cap patches, sleeve patches, field logos, etc.) on April 15th for 10 years now. This just happens to be the year that Ken Griffey asked if he could wear No. 42, and the whole thing snowballed from there. And I think it’s pretty obvious that it will now become an annual thing, every April 15th.[/quote]
My problem is primarily this; there seems to be more emphasis placed on appearing to honor something than actually honoring it. Barry Bonds is a total creep and liar, but he “honors†Jackie Robinson by wearing his number. That’s crap, and the second they said everybody do this the gesture lost, it lost all of its meaning. I am absolutely certain there are baseball players that honor Jackie Robinson by doing things in their own lives that would honor his memory, regardless of their race. If some effort was made to single those players out, it would honor them and Jackie. Just letting everybody wear his number however is nothing more than a PC sop, regardless of how well intentioned it is.
And another thing, why doesn’t Larry Doby get credit for anything? He joined the Indians not all that long after Robinson began playing for the Dodgers. The American and National Leagues were much more distinct entities back in those days, and Doby no doubt encountered the same ill treatment (and therefore demonstrated the same bravery and character) as Robinson.
Doby was also the second black manager, following another Robinson (Frank). But does he get mentioned or honored? Barely and rarely.
I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly? And why doesn’t anyone wear them now?
[quote comment=”68091″].rel=”nofollow”>here’s DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
All I can say is wow…. A professional soccer player wearign elggins underneath his uniform? I’ve gotta tell you, of all the soccer games I’ve seen in my life, I have never, EVER seen that before. It looks like a bunch of amateurs playing. Looks dispicable to me. I played soccer in New York in the month of december and never wore anything but a long sleeved shirt under my uniform… in fact, any team wearing sweaty P’s (sweatpants) or anything else under their jersey/shorts were ridiculed to no end for the next 90 minutes..[/quote]
I agree, I played college soccer in upstate NY, and a few NCAA tourney games a few miles from the Canadian border in November, and noone EVER would think of wearing full leggings. Compression shorts under the shorts, but out of view, sure, but never full length tights. That is pretty pathetic. The temperature was 30, not -30.
[quote comment=”68127″]I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly? And why doesn’t anyone wear them now?[/quote]
I think I remember seeing the Expos in the late ’60s or early ’70s. Maybe the Phillies too. Those “recollections” come from baseball cards of that era.
[quote comment=”68127″]I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly? And why doesn’t anyone wear them now?[/quote]
I think that the Phillies wore them well in the ’70s, and perhaps even the ’80s.
[quote comment=”68124″]On a Uni Note, will the teams be selling off their numerous 42-numbered jerseys after the game (and presumably giving the proceeds to charity)? Or will they tear off the numbers and re-use them?
And another thing, why doesn’t Larry Doby get credit for anything? He joined the Indians not all that long after Robinson began playing for the Dodgers. The American and National Leagues were much more distinct entities back in those days, and Doby no doubt encountered the same ill treatment (and therefore demonstrated the same bravery and character) as Robinson.
Doby was also the second black manager, following another Robinson (Frank). But does he get mentioned or honored? Barely and rarely.[/quote]
Two good points. All those jerseys ought to be auctioned off and the proceeds put into MLB’s link or the link.
Actual uni note: Why is link wearing metal spikes on the green concrete at The Vet?
Also, I wanna say Paul Pierce wore a captain’s “C” at some point, but I can’t find any evidence.
I noticed link on Friday and made note of it to my girlfriend, for no better reason than the fact that she was sitting next to me when I noticed it, and of course I got the What’s-Wrong-With-You look…
[quote comment=”68091″].rel=”nofollow”>here’s DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
All I can say is wow…. A professional soccer player wearign elggins underneath his uniform? I’ve gotta tell you, of all the soccer games I’ve seen in my life, I have never, EVER seen that before. It looks like a bunch of amateurs playing. Looks dispicable to me. I played soccer in New York in the month of december and never wore anything but a long sleeved shirt under my uniform… in fact, any team wearing sweaty P’s (sweatpants) or anything else under their jersey/shorts were ridiculed to no end for the next 90 minutes..[/quote]
i don’t think the wearing leggings during a match is bad at all, Pascal Chimbonda, of Tottenham Hotspur FC regularly wears gloves and leggings for each of his games…
and, i myself often wear leggings under my shorts and soccer socks, it works quite well!
On another note, did anyone see Colorado Rapids new stadium?…the roof seems absolutely useless…it covers luxury boxes(which are already indoors) and it doesnt cover any seats…it probably wasnt cheap but seems to be there only for decoration
1980s it is.
link
Today’s Pirates/Cardinals game, Yadier Molina was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt under his jersey… When he went to bat, the hood stuck out over his name plate. Looked like a little kid who needed to wear his jersey to school on Opening Day. Not that I’d have any experience with something like that.
other played out sports things…
1. sportscenters 50 states in 50 days theme song, “life is an open road” by bryan adams. this 2005 summer tour had me going crazy… especially that a canadian sang the theme song to a usa tour…
2. chevrolet’s “this is our country” by john melloncamp promos… did chevy buy all the commercial time for all college and pro football for the 2006-07 season?
3. digger phelps “tie-lighter”
4. ups whiteboard commercials… did they buy all of the commercial time since the superbowl? i hate that guy, his stupid drawings and his lame comments. “let’s give him shorts, its gonna be a hot one.”
the floor is open to others…
Sorry to stray from the Jackie Robinson conversation, but does anyone happen to have a high-quality football (American, not soccer) uniform template? I’m looking for something in EPS or AI, but TIFF may work too. Thanks.
I can respect using FC more than I can Real, because the british aren’t the only ones to use FC; my favorite team is Futebol Clube do Porto, in Portugal. Spain has Barcelona FC
That’s fine because it’s a language issue, not a cultural one. FC is appropriate with the Portugese “Futebol Clube” because it is culturally and linguistically correct. It also works in Spainish because the language is right. North Americans rarely use the term “football” to describe soccer. It just seems that perhaps “SC” would be better suited to a culture that uses the term soccer…although, admittedly, that would be completely lame.
And, yes I realize the irony of using the term “kit” in a post that admonishes North American teams for using pseudo-British sports terminology
[quote comment=”68131″][quote comment=”68124″]On a Uni Note, will the teams be selling off their numerous 42-numbered jerseys after the game (and presumably giving the proceeds to charity)? Or will they tear off the numbers and re-use them?
And another thing, why doesn’t Larry Doby get credit for anything? He joined the Indians not all that long after Robinson began playing for the Dodgers. The American and National Leagues were much more distinct entities back in those days, and Doby no doubt encountered the same ill treatment (and therefore demonstrated the same bravery and character) as Robinson.
Doby was also the second black manager, following another Robinson (Frank). But does he get mentioned or honored? Barely and rarely.[/quote]
Two good points. All those jerseys ought to be auctioned off and the proceeds put into MLB’s link or the link.
Actual uni note: Why is link wearing metal spikes on the green concrete at The Vet?
Also, I wanna say Paul Pierce wore a captain’s “C” at some point, but I can’t find any evidence.
I noticed link on Friday and made note of it to my girlfriend, for no better reason than the fact that she was sitting next to me when I noticed it, and of course I got the What’s-Wrong-With-You look…[/quote]
I know that look. I get it all the time. Most recently for the Direct TV commercial with Charlie Sheen.
[quote comment=”68127″]I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly?[/quote]
The link.
Lots of info on zip-front jerseys link (although the article mistakenly says the last zippered team was the 1990 Phils).
Just to clear up something from the comments yesterday. The LSU baseball game hat is not the one that was linked yesterday. link They also have an alternate hat that is white with purple text and a purple bill.
LSU, especially the baseball team, looks great in purple. I don’t care what Paul says.
[quote comment=”68114″][quote comment=”68112″]How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)[/quote]
Hell, I’ll go tomorrow… I don’t have any significant plans (I am busy Weds and Thurs, though). Remember, the Brewers now play real baseball… we don’t get to see the American League that much.[/quote]
Not sure why Milwaukee either, probably because they have a retractable roof and are guaranteed completing a game. I was thinking they should have kept the series in Ohio and played in Cincinnati. But they are expecting bad weather there too.
Does anyone know of any series shifting to neutral sites? I remember the Angels played the Yankees at Shea Stadium when there was damage to Yankee Stadium. I know there were others can’t remember.
I was at the Royals-Tigers game on Saturday (a balmy 29 degrees at game time!), and after the 1st inning, the Tigers relief pitchers, coaches, etc. jogged from the visiting dugout to the bullpen. They were all wearing dark blue (or black) parkas with the giant MLB logo on the back.
“real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?
In today’s pioneer press out of st. paul, MN, mike redmond, the twins backup catcher, talked about why he likes using all “the old school stuff”:
I like the old-school stuff. I like the old-school helmets. I think nowadays with all the new equipment and new designs everything is flashy and high-tech. The younger players haven’t been around for the old-school Houston Astros jerseys or even the Twins’ old helmets. I think those are cool. We still wear them (when he catches in games). I like that stuff. I’m big on not forgetting the past and remembering the guys that came before us.
here is a link
[quote comment=”68065″][quote comment=”68035″]All MLS teams will be brandishing a Lamar Hunt memorial patch for the entire season.[quote]
The Crew had the patch mowed into the grass for the home opener. Although, I have no idea how the could have mowed the grass all in one direction to create that shape.
That’s something I’ve never really understood, is how patterns like that are mowed into fields. Anyone got any insight? I mean, how do the Red Sox create the logo in their infield? I’ve always been told it’s the direction the mower goes, but that seems way too complicated to be true.[/quote]
Brian,
I worked on an estate fr a couple summers for a guy who demanded alternate lines on all 60acres of his estate…. it is just the pattern of the mower, pretty simple really. It does however, take FOREVER
[quote comment=”68145″][quote comment=”68127″]I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly?[/quote]
The link.
Lots of info on zip-front jerseys link (although the article mistakenly says the last zippered team was the 1990 Phils).[/quote]
I wonder if the ’86 Phils had anyone who could get a goddamn base hit with runners on base, ’cause that’s apparently beyond the reach of this year’s squad.
[quote comment=”68158″][quote comment=”68145″][quote comment=”68127″]I’m curious – which was the last MLB team to wear a zip front jersey regularly?[/quote]
The link.
Lots of info on zip-front jerseys link (although the article mistakenly says the last zippered team was the 1990 Phils).[/quote]
I wonder if the ’86 Phils had anyone who could get a goddamn base hit with runners on base, ’cause that’s apparently beyond the reach of this year’s squad.[/quote]
They didn’t.
What I don’t understand about it all, is why is this year special in the first place? I know it’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut, but 60 doesn’t really strike me as one of the tradional landmarks that are celebrated. 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, etc…but 60? Are they going to do this every 10 years? Because, if they do, it will lose all significance. I just don’t get it. If there’s some special reason it’s been made a big deal, please let me know.
This will be the last year Rachel Robinson (Jackie’s widow) will be involved in the ceremonies. MLB can’t afford to wait until the 75th anniversary to do something special while Mrs. Robinson is still alive and/or in good health. I believe that is the significance and the reason behind having all the big tributes, special logo, etc. for the 60th. There will always be a celebrated “Jackie Robinson Day” (the Dodgers have lobbied MLB to have every April 15th be a Dodger home game, but this is probably the last year Rachel Robinson will be involved. Hope this kinda answers your question.
[quote comment=”68035″]All MLS teams will be brandishing a Lamar Hunt memorial patch for the entire season.
Shown link as well as a decent look at Houston’s new jersey.
Also, link a decent look at Real Salt Lake’s new Xango look.
As well as link new look, and a glimpse of their new stadium.
And link DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
Does Addidas make those? ;-)
[quote comment=”68151″]”real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?[/quote]
Maybe you didn’t notice, but one of your so called “quadruple A” teams won the World Series last year.
Did it get explained exactly WHY the Pirates and Cardinals get to wear all 42s? What’s their connection to Jackie Robinson?
Keith Hernandez always wore spikes because he wanted the traction in the batters box. He says in his book it was tough to run around the bases, but he survived.
Frank
if someone is looking for a zipper jersey to buy you can find it link
They let multiple guys wear #42, the umps better be careful the teams don’t swap out hitters behind their backs, like the Moondogs or many of the masked wrestling teams used to do. I can see Elijah Dukes coming up with the ski mask claiming he’s Ben Zobrist or Dioner Navarro, then batting again as himself without it.
..or you can buy a game used jersey from link. David Wright must be Superman.
woops, meant Moises, but how can it game worn already?
I think it would be cool if the Dodgers wear the old link cap on the 15th. They also need to take a look at link who’s got the link down pat. Complete with low stirrups.
speaking of the Masters, i think uniwatch needs to devote some love for the Masters fashion show this weekend. surely everyone saw ian poulter’s fedora obsession?
link
[quote comment=”68164″]Did it get explained exactly WHY the Pirates and Cardinals get to wear all 42s? What’s their connection to Jackie Robinson?[/quote]
Any player can wear 42 this Sunday. The Cards and Pirates decided to have all their players wear it — a team-wide salute. Nothing wrong with that (plus it should make for some very entertaining photos).
[quote comment=”68151″]”real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?[/quote]
If i recall, the Defending Champs this year is a so-called “Quadruple A” team.
As for Adidas v Nike…Which is better: UCLA football unis or Oregon? I find the stripes make just about every shirt (especially soccer/football) look cooler. Admit it, the NBA refs look sportier with the stripes on their sleeves, rather than a plain, ugly, grey shirt. The only thing i would change is using the old-school trefoil logo rather than the new logo.
And I wish every league had a Uniform Commissioner. Every time the Mets wear the black hat, they should be fined. “Oh, they’re honoring NY basball history” is nonsense. The NY Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers STILL EXIST. They’re the same clubs, just in California. The ONLY reason the Mets started wearing black is because they wanted to cash in on the trend of trying to look “Gangsta”. Which they don’t.
[quote comment=”68171″]woops, meant Moises, but how can it game worn already?[/quote]
Obviously they put it up prior to the game
[quote comment=”68109″][quote comment=”68084″][quote comment=”68042″]The only MLS team that I really dig uni-wise is DC united. Not a very gimmicky name and nice clean design (I especially like that they only use a crest and not the team name emblazoned across the front).
I think I ranted about this last year, but I’ll bring it back. I think Real Salt Lake is the most ridiculous name for an American team. Real is Spanish for “royal” and it’s a title bestowed on teams by the king of Spain. It’s a stupid, stupid name for an American team and a lame attempt at having a European soccer name. That’s my rant for this year :)[/quote]
What about FC Dallas or Toronto FC? FC meaning “Football Club” in the traditional British parlance, i.e. link. Why then, in a North American culture that rarely, if ever, uses “football” to describe soccer, in a league with link in its name, do these clubs insist on using the FC? Perhaps to give it a sense of pseudo-legitimacy? (In defense, I love MLS and am anxiously looking forward to Toronto FC’s innaugural season…link by the way).[/quote]
I can respect using FC more than I can Real, because the british aren’t the only ones to use FC; my favorite team is Futebol Clube do Porto, in Portugal. Spain has Barcelona FC. Using the term football is acceptable to me, even when soccer is in the league’s name. Perhaps using Soccer Club is more apropos, but I’m fine with FC (and I prefer it to names like Dallas Burn). The use of Real is just plain wrong, because it has nothing to do with soccer outside of the fact that it’s a title bestowed on several Spanish teams. I’m totally for MLS trying to align itself more with other world leagues in terms of naming (I think all the original names, except United, are stupid), but Real is a term I am totally against using in any league other than in Spain.[/quote]
I can see your point Phil. However there is a link relationship between Real Madrid and Real Salt Lake (RSL). Real Madrid has come to Salt Lake to link an link. RSL link with Real Madrid this past off-season. And Real Madrid has link every other year starting in 2008. I am by no means an RSL or Real Madrid expert. I just live about 3 miles from the link. See that spec by the mountain in the background? Yeah, that’s my house.
Or how about pseudo?
[quote comment=”68082″][quote comment=”68051″]Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).[/quote]
But Adidas’ placing the three stripes everywhere is exactly the same as Nike placing swooshes everywhere–the three stripes is their trademark; hell, their tagline is even “The brand with the three stripes.” I have no problem with placing a small logo on the jersey for branding’s sake, but the stripes EVERYWHERE (jersey, shorts, socks) is TOTAL overkill. It ruins the uniforms, in my opinion. Nike’s certainly bad, but when you have three brand-marks on one jersey (both sleeves and then the Adidas logo on the chest), it’s just way too much. The stripes wouldn’t be bad if they weren’t a logo, but it strikes me as completely out of hand and worse than Nike.[/quote]
AMEN!!! adidas sucks, long live the swoosh!!
[quote comment=”68137″]other played out sports things…
1. sportscenters 50 states in 50 days theme song, “life is an open road” by bryan adams. this 2005 summer tour had me going crazy… especially that a canadian sang the theme song to a usa tour…
2. chevrolet’s “this is our country” by john melloncamp promos… did chevy buy all the commercial time for all college and pro football for the 2006-07 season?
3. digger phelps “tie-lighter”
4. ups whiteboard commercials… did they buy all of the commercial time since the superbowl? i hate that guy, his stupid drawings and his lame comments. “let’s give him shorts, its gonna be a hot one.”
the floor is open to others…[/quote]
Re: UPS commercial
You should’ve mentioned how much I hate that song now, and the irony of UPS using a song by a band called “The Postal Service”.
How about Chris Berman’s nicknames in general? Sometimes they’re funny, but when you watch a whole hour of them (like last night’s Baseball Tonight) it gets SO played.
FC Dallas’s FC stants for Futbol officially according to the team
And i didnt see an answer to the LA kit deal so if i missed it im sorry,
but the team is waiting for the arrival of Beckham to switch to the new kits
some say that they will be or closeley resemble link (whole collection link)
btw go fc dallas!
As for Adidas v Nike…Which is better: UCLA football unis or Oregon? I find the stripes make just about every shirt (especially soccer/football) look cooler. Admit it, the NBA refs look sportier with the stripes on their sleeves, rather than a plain, ugly, grey shirt. The only thing i would change is using the old-school trefoil logo rather than the new logo.
WHAT?!?!? Nothing was wrong with the ref shirts to begin with, before link.
Oh, and for every UCLA vs. Oregon, there’s a link vs. link basketball jersey (and the Purdue jersey looks OK, too). Win some, lose some.
I like the whole team wearing the #42 approach to the tribute to Robinson. The tribute should clearly honor the one who wore the uniform, not the one who wears the uniform as part of the tribute. By including all players and coaches on the team, the tribute remains focused on Robinson.
Unfortunatly, the conversations surounding the teams that select an individual or sub-set of players to wear the #42, will focus on who is wearing the tribute and how was the selection made, not Robinson.
I was at the season finale for the Capitals on Saturday (or as I like to call it, the last in a long line of suckfest games this year) and they kept showing a teaser for the new unis. They had the current “Dome” logo with red, white and blue shooting out from around it and the words “Change is coming”…..it is pretty much a fact they are going back to the old colors, but as for a new logo…nobody seems to know.
[quote comment=”68003″]Why not just have every member on every team wear 42? That would be quite the tribute…![/quote]
I’ve only read this far, but I agree with Rich. Let’s go whole hog and have EVERYBODY (including umps) wear 42. Now THAT would be fun.
I’m drooling over the Citadel/College of Charleston throwbacks. They are outstanding.
[quote comment=”68096″]*Sigh*… Snow whites with black/blue caps. Will they never learn?[/quote]
Aparently not, Its not having the Black that bothers me but why cant we just wear blue caps most of the time at Shea ,esp. the home opener
Les
[quote comment=”68163″][quote comment=”68151″]”real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?[/quote]
Maybe you didn’t notice, but one of your so called “quadruple A” teams won the World Series last year.[/quote]
One series does not make a superior league. In 2006, the American League compiled a 154-98 record against the National League in interleague play. I commend the Cardinals for beating an extremely error-prone and highly overrated Tigers team in October, but in head to head competition, the AL was clearly superior last year.
correct me if I’m wrong, but are the NHL and MLB the only leagues with outright retired numbers, even though it’s not 100% in baseball as there are a few players still wearing 42.
I personally don’t care about basketball, because I find the sport a little lame. They call too many fouls that most people can’t even see.
Everyone has their preferences, mine happens to be adidas. I used to like nike, until everything they touched turned to ugly
oops. link
[quote comment=”68189″]I like the whole team wearing the #42 approach to the tribute to Robinson. The tribute should clearly honor the one who wore the uniform, not the one who wears the uniform as part of the tribute. By including all players and coaches on the team, the tribute remains focused on Robinson.
Unfortunatly, the conversations surounding the teams that select an individual or sub-set of players to wear the #42, will focus on who is wearing the tribute and how was the selection made, not Robinson.[/quote]
I second this. I also agree with Paul–what’s with all the anger? If you don’t like the commercial, MUTE it. That’s what I do with everything but the show I’m watching. Sometimes, if I’m watching a sports game (especially with Madden or Buck/McCarver), I mute during the game. If you can sit through multiple commercials with the creepy Burger King king, you can stand a commercial giving props to a great man. Overplayed? Of course. That’s the business side of things. However, showing Robinson some love once a year is not making too big a deal of a historic event.
Is it too bad that some others like Larry Doby get left out? Yes, but there’s no need to take that out on Robinson.
P.S. Does anyone else find it amusing that Robinson’s day is being celebrated on Tax Day? Anyone?
Oh, the whole Adidas v. Nike debate–I think most of us go on a case-to-case basis. Very few people on this site (Paul included) bash Nike across the board or give Adidas a free pass.
“Highly Overrated”??
This ain’t college football, my man. No BCS. No ratings. The Tigers had to beat quite a few teams AND proceed through the playoffs to get to the World Series.
[quote comment=”68202″]Oh, the whole Adidas v. Nike debate–I think most of us go on a case-to-case basis. Very few people on this site (Paul included) bash Nike across the board or give Adidas a free pass.[/quote]
I concur. Nike gets it right with Penn State and USC, for example.
Altho i get a feeling that in the background, the Nike designers think, “I wish they let us ‘personalize’ USC! We could integrate a Sequin System into the numbers!”
[quote comment=”68082″][quote comment=”68051″]Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).[/quote]
But Adidas’ placing the three stripes everywhere is exactly the same as Nike placing swooshes everywhere–the three stripes is their trademark; hell, their tagline is even “The brand with the three stripes.” I have no problem with placing a small logo on the jersey for branding’s sake, but the stripes EVERYWHERE (jersey, shorts, socks) is TOTAL overkill. It ruins the uniforms, in my opinion. Nike’s certainly bad, but when you have three brand-marks on one jersey (both sleeves and then the Adidas logo on the chest), it’s just way too much. The stripes wouldn’t be bad if they weren’t a logo, but it strikes me as completely out of hand and worse than Nike.[/quote]
I agree… Liverpool, Chelsea, the Rapids, all look way worse with those infernal three stripes busying up the unis, especially the long sleeves. But the worst is Newcastle United. When the main feature of your unis is vertical stripes, adding the Adidas stripes just completely ruins the look.
[quote comment=”68195″][quote comment=”68163″][quote comment=”68151″]”real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?[/quote]
Maybe you didn’t notice, but one of your so called “quadruple A” teams won the World Series last year.[/quote]
One series does not make a superior league. In 2006, the American League compiled a 154-98 record against the National League in interleague play. I commend the Cardinals for beating an extremely error-prone and highly overrated Tigers team in October, but in head to head competition, the AL was clearly superior last year.[/quote]
Last I checked they play for the trophy, not a meaningless record
[quote comment=”68132″][quote comment=”68091″].rel=”nofollow”>here’s DC United’s Fred, and Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni sporting leggings under their unis in 30 degree weather.[/quote]
On another note, did anyone see Colorado Rapids new stadium?…the roof seems absolutely useless…it covers luxury boxes(which are already indoors) and it doesnt cover any seats…it probably wasnt cheap but seems to be there only for decoration[/quote]
It covers most of the seats, at least on the east side where I sat (across the field from the luxury boxes). Maybe doesn’t cover the very front rows but I was covered in row 10.
[quote comment=”68200″][quote comment=”68189″]I like the whole team wearing the #42 approach to the tribute to Robinson. The tribute should clearly honor the one who wore the uniform, not the one who wears the uniform as part of the tribute. By including all players and coaches on the team, the tribute remains focused on Robinson.
Unfortunatly, the conversations surounding the teams that select an individual or sub-set of players to wear the #42, will focus on who is wearing the tribute and how was the selection made, not Robinson.[/quote]
I second this. I also agree with Paul–what’s with all the anger? If you don’t like the commercial, MUTE it. That’s what I do with everything but the show I’m watching. Sometimes, if I’m watching a sports game (especially with Madden or Buck/McCarver), I mute during the game. If you can sit through multiple commercials with the creepy Burger King king, you can stand a commercial giving props to a great man. Overplayed? Of course. That’s the business side of things. However, showing Robinson some love once a year is not making too big a deal of a historic event.
Is it too bad that some others like Larry Doby get left out? Yes, but there’s no need to take that out on Robinson.
P.S. Does anyone else find it amusing that Robinson’s day is being celebrated on Tax Day? Anyone?[/quote]
Good points Minna, especially about the Burger King king…that thing scares the crap out of me. BK needs to go back to the commercial that had Brooke Burke in it.
Also, tax day is actually April 17 this year (due to the 15th falling on a Sunday). Nit picking I know…
Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.
[quote comment=”68148″][quote comment=”68114″][quote comment=”68112″]How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)[/quote]
Hell, I’ll go tomorrow… I don’t have any significant plans (I am busy Weds and Thurs, though). Remember, the Brewers now play real baseball… we don’t get to see the American League that much.[/quote]
Not sure why Milwaukee either, probably because they have a retractable roof and are guaranteed completing a game. I was thinking they should have kept the series in Ohio and played in Cincinnati. But they are expecting bad weather there too.
Does anyone know of any series shifting to neutral sites? I remember the Angels played the Yankees at Shea Stadium when there was damage to Yankee Stadium. I know there were others can’t remember.[/quote]
In 2004 The Marlins and Expos Played two games at U.S. Cellular field when Hurricane Katrina was hitting Florida.
[quote comment=”68215″][quote comment=”68148″][quote comment=”68114″][quote comment=”68112″]How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)[/quote]
Hell, I’ll go tomorrow… I don’t have any significant plans (I am busy Weds and Thurs, though). Remember, the Brewers now play real baseball… we don’t get to see the American League that much.[/quote]
Not sure why Milwaukee either, probably because they have a retractable roof and are guaranteed completing a game. I was thinking they should have kept the series in Ohio and played in Cincinnati. But they are expecting bad weather there too.
Does anyone know of any series shifting to neutral sites? I remember the Angels played the Yankees at Shea Stadium when there was damage to Yankee Stadium. I know there were others can’t remember.[/quote]
In 2004 The Marlins and Expos Played two games at U.S. Cellular field when Hurricane Katrina was hitting Florida.[/quote]
It was actually Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Katrina was August 2005.
I touched on this last week, and I’d like to flesh it out a little now: MLB, and particularly the AL teams, should be recognizing Larry Doby in the coming months. Here’s my reasoning — none of it should be construed to diminish Jackie Robinson’s legacy at all.
The line on Robinson is that he broke the color barrier. But that’s really not the case because Robinson simply wasn’t empowered to do so. Only owners, GMs, and coaches have the power to sign players, put them on rosters, and send them out to play. Branch Rickey broke the color barrier. Certainly innumerable black players would have jumped at the chance, were it presented to them.
Robinson’s real achievements were (1) being an excellent ball player — everyone knew he’d have to be outstanding to get any credit, and (2) enduring the abuse that was heaped on him daily without snapping. I would argue that the latter is the true accomplishment.
Which brings us to Larry Doby, who integrated the AL a few weeks later. There was no interleague play, so he was the first black player to pass through all those ballparks. Surely he was treated no better. And I haven’t seen anything to indicated that the carried himself with less dignity than JR did. So then didn’t he accomplish the same feat?
It’s easy for MLB to pat itself on the back with this I-am-Spartacus moment, but baseball is ignoring the fact that there were two leagues to be integrated. With Robinson, the job was only halfway done.
Let’s not forget #14, OK?
does anybody else think that the 60th anniversary is kind of a random number for all this hooplah?
like i have no problem honoring jackie robinson on ANY occasion but it seems like to me MLB is using this great man’s legacy as a publicity stunt
if this were the 100th anniversary that would make sense
but this is the 60th. is all this gonna happen on the 70th? and the 75th? and the 80th? and the 90th?
seems like a cry for attention to me rather than a tribute to one of the most revolutionary atheletes in the 20th century
i know its not really uni related but anybody else see where im coming from?
[quote comment=”68085″]What I don’t understand about it all, is why is this year special in the first place? I know it’s the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut, but 60 doesn’t really strike me as one of the tradional landmarks that are celebrated. 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, etc…but 60? Are they going to do this every 10 years? Because, if they do, it will lose all significance. I just don’t get it. If there’s some special reason it’s been made a big deal, please let me know.[/quote]
I’m pretty sure it’s because of this “there aren’t many black people playing baseball” mass hysteria thats going on. Every channel has something about it. If they don’t want to play they aren’t going to play. Just because there is a Civil Rights game and being knowledged about Jackie Robinson isn’t going to make them play. It’s ridiclious, it’s getting ran into the ground, it will eventually alienate someone or some group or just drift away.
[quote comment=”68214″]Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.[/quote]
As long as overrated gets us an link I’ll take it from here to the end of October!
[quote comment=”68221″][quote comment=”68214″]Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.[/quote]
As long as overrated gets us an link I’ll take it from here to the end of October![/quote]
Agreed! If anyone was overrated comining into this year it’s the Phillies. It’s a long season though, we’ll see. I especially loved the “Jimmy Rollins” Chant in the eigth.
[quote comment=”68186″][quote comment=”68137″]other played out sports things…
1. sportscenters 50 states in 50 days theme song, “life is an open road” by bryan adams. this 2005 summer tour had me going crazy… especially that a canadian sang the theme song to a usa tour…
2. chevrolet’s “this is our country” by john melloncamp promos… did chevy buy all the commercial time for all college and pro football for the 2006-07 season?
3. digger phelps “tie-lighter”
4. ups whiteboard commercials… did they buy all of the commercial time since the superbowl? i hate that guy, his stupid drawings and his lame comments. “let’s give him shorts, its gonna be a hot one.”
the floor is open to others…[/quote]
Re: UPS commercial
You should’ve mentioned how much I hate that song now, and the irony of UPS using a song by a band called “The Postal Service”.
How about Chris Berman’s nicknames in general? Sometimes they’re funny, but when you watch a whole hour of them (like last night’s Baseball Tonight) it gets SO played.[/quote]
Funny link to many of Bermam’s link
[quote comment=”68218″]I touched on this last week, and I’d like to flesh it out a little now: MLB, and particularly the AL teams, should be recognizing Larry Doby in the coming months. Here’s my reasoning — none of it should be construed to diminish Jackie Robinson’s legacy at all.
The line on Robinson is that he broke the color barrier. But that’s really not the case because Robinson simply wasn’t empowered to do so. Only owners, GMs, and coaches have the power to sign players, put them on rosters, and send them out to play. Branch Rickey broke the color barrier. Certainly innumerable black players would have jumped at the chance, were it presented to them.
Robinson’s real achievements were (1) being an excellent ball player — everyone knew he’d have to be outstanding to get any credit, and (2) enduring the abuse that was heaped on him daily without snapping. I would argue that the latter is the true accomplishment.
Which brings us to Larry Doby, who integrated the AL a few weeks later. There was no interleague play, so he was the first black player to pass through all those ballparks. Surely he was treated no better. And I haven’t seen anything to indicated that the carried himself with less dignity than JR did. So then didn’t he accomplish the same feat?
It’s easy for MLB to pat itself on the back with this I-am-Spartacus moment, but baseball is ignoring the fact that there were two leagues to be integrated. With Robinson, the job was only halfway done.
Let’s not forget #14, OK?[/quote]
So let’s have all players on NL teams wear “42” and all players in the AL wear “14”. That should solve the problem, honor two great men and give the kids of this generation a great history lesson.
[quote comment=”68225″][quote comment=”68218″]I
So let’s have all players on NL teams wear “42” and all players in the AL wear “14”. That should solve the problem, honor two great men and give the kids of this generation a great history lesson.[/quote]
That is so inspiringly simple, no wonder MLB didn’t think of it.
Everytime I try to quote just a section of a post I screw it up. I want to save everyone from scrolling though 2 or more screens of previous posts and just quote the part of the post that is relevant to my comment, all cool and Lukas-like. But every time I try, it either looks like I’m quoting myself or I’m posting the other comments as my own, OR it’s all italicized. Or worse…
Just saw the video highlights of the aforementioned butt-whuppin and I’m guessing that the black caps goes back to the “our jacket is black so we need a black cap”. So ditch the black jacket. What kind of flawed thinking is that? “Let’s worry more about what we look like in the dugout than we do on the field.” ???
Can’t find if this has been posted, but the ISU Cyclones are going to go for a more gold look next with help from their fans. They are letting them vote on it this summer once they get a few designs finalized…
This whole #42 business is stupid!!!
I respect Jackie Robinson immensely, but I really go annoyed that Bud made each team retire #42.
Why not retire the first number for all ethnic groups? Why pander for just one?
Now, any player can wear #42 for the night. This is absolutely insane. Whatever happened to the good old patch?
[quote comment=”68223″][quote comment=”68221″][quote comment=”68214″]Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.[/quote]
As long as overrated gets us an link I’ll take it from here to the end of October![/quote]
Agreed! If anyone was overrated comining into this year it’s the Phillies. It’s a long season though, we’ll see. I especially loved the “Jimmy Rollins” Chant in the eigth.[/quote]
Bah. Great Phillies bullpen, too. . .
I just realized that I’m all messed up. Native Philadelphian . . . now living/working in the NYC area. . . and now dating a Braves fan.
[quote comment=”68232″][quote comment=”68223″][quote comment=”68221″][quote comment=”68214″]Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.[/quote]
As long as overrated gets us an link I’ll take it from here to the end of October![/quote]
Agreed! If anyone was overrated comining into this year it’s the Phillies. It’s a long season though, we’ll see. I especially loved the “Jimmy Rollins” Chant in the eigth.[/quote]
Bah. Great Phillies bullpen, too. . .
I just realized that I’m all messed up. Native Philadelphian . . . now living/working in the NYC area. . . and now dating a Braves fan.[/quote]
Your girlfriend is a smart woman.
[quote comment=”68231″]This whole #42 business is stupid!!!
I respect Jackie Robinson immensely, but I really go annoyed that Bud made each team retire #42.
Why not retire the first number for all ethnic groups? Why pander for just one?
Now, any player can wear #42 for the night. This is absolutely insane. Whatever happened to the good old patch?[/quote]
A discussion in this area could start a war.
quote comment=”68206″][quote comment=”68202″]Oh, the whole Adidas v. Nike debate–I think most of us go on a case-to-case basis. Very few people on this site (Paul included) bash Nike across the board or give Adidas a free pass.[/quote]
I concur. Nike gets it right with Penn State and USC, for example.
Altho i get a feeling that in the background, the Nike designers think, “I wish they let us ‘personalize’ USC! We could integrate a Sequin System into the numbers!”[/quote]
I trust that adidas already has mock-up of 3 stripes around Notre Dame’s helmet, too. They’ll just sell it as a aesthetic design element, right?
[quote comment=”68217″][quote comment=”68215″][quote comment=”68148″][quote comment=”68114″][quote comment=”68112″]How many Clevelanders are in Milwaukee? Or how many are going to drive out to Milwaukee for a HOME game?
Sheesh. That’s a bad idea.
(It’ll have a crowd reminicant of a Serie A game from this year.)[/quote]
Hell, I’ll go tomorrow… I don’t have any significant plans (I am busy Weds and Thurs, though). Remember, the Brewers now play real baseball… we don’t get to see the American League that much.[/quote]
Not sure why Milwaukee either, probably because they have a retractable roof and are guaranteed completing a game. I was thinking they should have kept the series in Ohio and played in Cincinnati. But they are expecting bad weather there too.
Does anyone know of any series shifting to neutral sites? I remember the Angels played the Yankees at Shea Stadium when there was damage to Yankee Stadium. I know there were others can’t remember.[/quote]
In 2004 The Marlins and Expos Played two games at U.S. Cellular field when Hurricane Katrina was hitting Florida.[/quote]
It was actually Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Katrina was August 2005.[/quote]
No, in fact, it was link.
[quote comment=”68223″][quote comment=”68221″][quote comment=”68214″]Tigers overrated?! don’t think so. More like the Mets are.[/quote]
As long as overrated gets us an link I’ll take it from here to the end of October![/quote]
Agreed! If anyone was overrated comining into this year it’s the Phillies. It’s a long season though, we’ll see. I especially loved the “Jimmy Rollins” Chant in the eigth.[/quote]
Jimmy Rollins hopefully learned a lesson today. Baseball is a game that is too humbling for you to make boasts and guarantees. His whole “the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL” spiel was stupid.
The Phillies have been picked to be the favorites for a few years running now, and they always find a way to, how to I say this, not finish first year after year. I remember in the early to mid-90’s the Mets did the same stupid thing: They would sign a few big name free agents, proclaim themselves the team to beat, and then sit at home at the end of the year while the Braves won yet another NL East pennant and marched on to the playoffs.
You’re the “team to beat” when you win something. When you’re paper champions like the Phillies, nothing that guys like Jimmy Rollins say matters, because you actually have to go out and win the games to back it up. And thus far, they’re not.
Hi
Kansas City showing the Toronto”where more black than”Blue Jays how a uni should look, well I serpose the Royals need to do something right.
Les
today in the pirates Cardinals game Adam LaRoche wore a ski cap over his regular hat….link
[quote comment=”68102″][quote comment=”68100″]Cleveland vs. the Angels in Milwaukee?
For some reason this seems like a horrible idea to me.[/quote]
If only County Stadium was still standing. The Indians could wear 1990’s throwbacks and have “Major League” night.[/quote]
They should do it seeing this week as the “Wild Thing” Edition of Major League comes out on Tuesday.
Does the arc of the “NEW YORK” on the Yankees road unis look very staight compared to previous seasons ,It just looks very staight across the jersey.
Les
[quote comment=”68248″]Hi
Kansas City showing the Toronto”where more black than”Blue Jays how a uni should look, well I serpose the Royals need to do something right.
Les[/quote]
Um … thanks? Anyway, I just noticed that Toronto catcher Gregg Zaun is wearing a blue wristband, and it’s the most blue he’s got on him. Wouldn’t be a problem if his team name didn’t have the word BLUE in it. Jeez.
And link get my vote for awesomest Royals road uni ever, which is saying something, because they’ve had some link link link road unis.
[quote comment=”68253″][quote comment=”68248″]Hi
Kansas City showing the Toronto”where more black than”Blue Jays how a uni should look, well I serpose the Royals need to do something right.
Les[/quote]
Um … thanks? Anyway, I just noticed that Toronto catcher Gregg Zaun is wearing a blue wristband, and it’s the most blue he’s got on him. Wouldn’t be a problem if his team name didn’t have the word BLUE in it. Jeez.
And link get my vote for awesomest Royals road uni ever, which is saying something, because they’ve had some link link link road unis.[/quote]
Those baby-blues are one sweet road uni.
[quote comment=”68207″][quote comment=”68082″][quote comment=”68051″]Adidas, in my opinion, is much more subtle than nike and works its way naturally into the design, instead of placing swooshes all over the place. Branding is important, and adidas for the most part doesn’t compromise look of teams (although I wish both adidas and nike moved away from the template system).[/quote]
But Adidas’ placing the three stripes everywhere is exactly the same as Nike placing swooshes everywhere–the three stripes is their trademark; hell, their tagline is even “The brand with the three stripes.” I have no problem with placing a small logo on the jersey for branding’s sake, but the stripes EVERYWHERE (jersey, shorts, socks) is TOTAL overkill. It ruins the uniforms, in my opinion. Nike’s certainly bad, but when you have three brand-marks on one jersey (both sleeves and then the Adidas logo on the chest), it’s just way too much. The stripes wouldn’t be bad if they weren’t a logo, but it strikes me as completely out of hand and worse than Nike.[/quote]
I agree… Liverpool, Chelsea, the Rapids, all look way worse with those infernal three stripes busying up the unis, especially the long sleeves. But the worst is Newcastle United. When the main feature of your unis is vertical stripes, adding the Adidas stripes just completely ruins the look.[/quote]
adidas, in football kits, stops the design of the kit at the collar bone so that they can have their three stripes on the arms. this doesnt matter for solid collored kits, but for striped (and maybe hooped but i dont know of any adidas hooped kits), alot of the kit isnt striped.
see newcastle
link
AC Milan
link
Now notice how nike does it:
Juve
link
and the most beautiful of all
Inter Milan FC (notice how its FC but in Italian football is calcio not football or futbol or anything that starts with an f)
link
adidas’ necessity for putting the 3 stripes on the sleeve destroy the look of the jersey much more than the swoosh does. its not subtle and it takes away from the kits. look at the same teams without an adidas contract:
newcastle:
link
Milan:
link
[quote comment=”68026″]On the ump’s football helmet sticker: I wonder if it is a lacrosse sticker instead. Lacrosse keepers wear similar chest protectors as catchers/umps plus the helmet looks more like a lacrosse mask than a football mask. I couldn’t find any examples that have that decal but the chest protectors certainly look the same. [/quote]
Its probally not. Lacrosse and baseball have totally different eqipment.
Baseball chest protector
link
Lacrosse Helmet
[quote comment=”68099″][quote comment=”68096″]*Sigh*… Snow whites with black/blue caps. Will they never learn?[/quote]
It’s not so much the jersey, but the cap that bugs me. Very big disappointment.[/quote]
I think the snow whites are the bad part. For my money, the snow whites and the road blacks are far worse than the others. The black home alternates arten’t even as bad.
[quote comment=”68097″][quote comment=”68094″][quote comment=”68046″][quote comment=”68020″][quote comment=”68010″][quote comment=”68005″]Sadly, I just noticed Saturday that the Kansas City Royals does the interesting link like hockey teams do. Are they the only professional non-hockey team that does a Captain patch like this? That patch isn’t available via their shop (as well as De La Rosa’s weird looking nameplate (Sadly, my Google Fu is failing me, I can not find a pic for him)[/quote]
Initially, I missed your quote about the subscripts on Jorge de la Rosa’s nameplate (you can see it better on David DeJesus’s jersey link). That irks me too, that if you order a Sweeney jersey it won’t have the captain’s C, or if you get a DeJesus jersey it won’t have the subscript “e”. (No one’s gonna want a de la Rosa jersey, so that’s OK.)[/quote]
The Reds used to do it with Barry Larkin.
i emailed the LA galaxy about their color change, i guess their pr guy, nick mann, emailed me back, he said that theyre going to change them over the summer, but no colors are decided yet
Never seen this one before: In today’s Pirates-Cards game, Jack Wilson and Adam LaRoche both wore stocking caps over their baseball caps.
[quote comment=”68255″][quote comment=”68253″][quote comment=”68248″]And link get my vote for awesomest Royals road uni ever.[/quote]
Ditto, but I’d like to see the script in powder blue.
[quote comment=”68270″][quote comment=”68255″][quote comment=”68253″][quote comment=”68248″]And link get my vote for awesomest Royals road uni ever.[/quote]
Ditto, but I’d like to see the script in powder blue.[/quote]
Make that script ON powder blue.
The astros finally wearing road greys this year.. last year they almost always wore red tops for almost every road game,especially during the 2nd half of last season…
Talk about ditch the black . . . the Reds road unis look good, but they are wearing the link . . . as good as the home (and road) unis look, this hat nearly ruins it all. they also need Mr. Redlegs somewhere on the road uni
[quote comment=”68273″][quote comment=”68270″][quote comment=”68255″][quote comment=”68253″][quote comment=”68248″]And link get my vote for awesomest Royals road uni ever.[/quote]
Ditto, but I’d like to see the script in powder blue.[/quote]
Make that script ON powder blue.[/quote]
I think that would blow my mind.
[quote comment=”68213″]]
Also, tax day is actually April 17 this year (due to the 15th falling on a Sunday). Nit picking I know…[/quote]
Damn, Matthew S. Leave it to you to ruin a perfectly good rant. I had a feeling that I should have looked that up before posting the tax day comment.
Shaftman, I really like your idea of the NL wearing 42 and the AL wearing 14, but I agree with Metsfan that it’s way too simple for the MLB to pick it up.
A blurry view of the Twins’ new sleeve patch honoring announcer Herb Carneal, who died last week. It features a microphone and the name “Herb”.
[quote comment=”68262″][quote comment=”68026″]On the ump’s football helmet sticker: I wonder if it is a lacrosse sticker instead. Lacrosse keepers wear similar chest protectors as catchers/umps plus the helmet looks more like a lacrosse mask than a football mask. I couldn’t find any examples that have that decal but the chest protectors certainly look the same. [/quote]
Its probally not. Lacrosse and baseball have totally different eqipment.
Baseball chest protector
link
Lacrosse Helmet
[/quote]
Am I the only one that doesn’t think that’s even a sticker? Maybe it’s just a really worn chest protector that has taken some licks over the years. It doesn’t look like a sticker at all.
[quote comment=”68169″]..or you can buy a game used jersey from link. David Wright must be Superman.[/quote]
Obviously that picture is of a stock photo. That auction was up for a week already. They didn’t even wear those jerseys on opening day! They wore the all white jerseys. I guess they figured showing a jersey was better than a “COMING SOON” sign, but they could at least have gotten the jersey right.
[quote comment=”68263″][quote comment=”68099″][quote comment=”68096″]*Sigh*… Snow whites with black/blue caps. Will they never learn?[/quote]
It’s not so much the jersey, but the cap that bugs me. Very big disappointment.[/quote]
I think the snow whites are the bad part. For my money, the snow whites and the road blacks are far worse than the others. The black home alternates arten’t even as bad.[/quote]
The snow whites don’t bother me at all. In fact, since the Mets were supposed to be a combination of the Giants and the Dodgers, I don’t know why they went with pinstripes (actually, I know why; they based them on the Yankees’ pinstripes), since neither the Dodgers nor the Giants used pinstripes. Their uniform from the outset should have been the snow whites (similar to the road grays). I guess you can make the argument that the black technically is a uniform color, since they were based on the Giants.
My whole thing is that the black alternates are fine if they’re used as alternates; unfortunately, in the past they have gotten into this habit of wearing them for stretches at a time.
[quote comment=”68007″]A question regarding the Cliff Floyd note: is it correct to call the logo on the batting helmet a decal even though it’s an applique and not a sticker?[/quote]
Nope. An appliqué is not always the same as a decal, though the terms are often used interchangably. A sports decal is, plainly, a 2-D sticker. The appliqué, in Floyd’s case, is appears to be a sewn or raised patch with a sticky backing applied (hence the term) to the helmet.
Best example I could find, link (note the subtle striations in the red “C” and the tell-tale shadow inside the top curve of the C). I’m nearly positive that this is the case for most of the Cubs’ batting helmets, although the majority of the league seems to don the flat decal. As a Cubs fan, I recall a patch (or merely raised) appliqué appearing on the North-Siders’ helmets for several years now.
Man, that all sounds ridiculous. But I’m nearly positive that it’s true.
So I saw this earlier watching the pregame for the Cubs game. Bears kick returner Devin Hester threw out the first pitch and sang the 7th inning stretch wearing a number 23 Cubs jersey with his name on it(Sorry no Pic). Now, just last year, the link. Is this common? Lovie Smith was also there and was wearing 07 on his jersey referring to the year obviously. Couldn’t Hester have one of those?
big deal. hester wasn’t actually playing in the game wearing 23.
The Diamondbacks’ uniforms are making me crazy tonight. The “a” in D-Backs, half of which is on each side of the front of the jersey, is not matching up on any of the players’ jerseys, and it looks like crap.
I recall Paul mentioning this issue when photos of the new Arizona uniforms were released months ago, and not I cannot stop staring at and being frustrated by them.
not uni related, but a good guinea pig for the is it good or is it stupid test. im a cubs fan, so im a bit biased, but here is what i believe to be the stupidest ad campaign of all time:
link
Anyone catch the banter about 42 on the ESPN game tonight?
They were talking about how Jeter wasn’t even going to think about wearing 42 because of Rivera.
Kind of like that guy at work who everyone likes and parks in the same spot every day, and no one even thinks about taking his spot.
Made me think though, isn’t Cano going to sport the 42?
And ESPN killed it, there is no doubt in my mind that if there wasn’t an ad for it every 2 minutes I would be behind this. All I know is this, there is more stuff on the ESPN homepage than the MLB homepage, you tell me who is behind this? The part that gets me is that next tuesday ESPN will be onto the next story while there still are less black people playing baseball.
Damn it, the Giants gave up 2 hits and lost… it better not be that type of season.
didnt get a chance to read through all the comments so not sure if this was brought up or not, but in todays pirates cardinals game at least three pirates were wearing ski caps over their regular caps, chris duffy, jack wilson and adam laroche
Paul,
Interesting note about Johnny Estrada’s stirrups. He went to the College of the Sequoias whose uni pics I linked about a month ago. I am sure he learned the style there.
I didn’t notice until today, but A-Rod seems to be wearing his pants like this
Fantastic.
Iowa State finally listened to UNI-Watch and has in fact turned to the fans to help with the new football uniform designs. There was a Uni-Watch article about the same thing last summer, and the funniest thing is that I emailed Jamie Pollard the athletic director telling of the article, and what does he do months later? He puts it in the hands of the people.
Yes BABY!!.[/quote]
But Adidas’ placing the three stripes everywhere is exactly the same as Nike placing swooshes everywhere–the three stripes is their trademark
I have to disagree with this. Nike does place it’s logo everywhere – but only once per item (not including shoes). Adidas has the same amount of logos, then adds the useless stripes everywhere. Thank goodness the NBA made them not put them on the uniforms. It’s bad enough on the refs and all of the warmups. Think about how much better the NBA All Star uniforms would have looked without the stripes (sorry I don’t have a pic).
I think the snow whites are the bad part. For my money, the snow whites and the road blacks are far worse than the others. The black home alternates arten’t even as bad.
The snow whites don’t bother me at all. In fact, since the Mets were supposed to be a combination of the Giants and the Dodgers, I don’t know why they went with pinstripes (actually, I know why; they based them on the Yankees’ pinstripes), since neither the Dodgers nor the Giants used pinstripes. Their uniform from the outset should have been the snow whites (similar to the road grays). I guess you can make the argument that the black technically is a uniform color, since they were based on the Giants.
I always thought that the Mets uniforms were meant to honor the New York baseball that came before them, not just the New York National League baseball. From what I have heard, they wore the blue for the Dodgers, the orange for the Giants, and the pin stripes for the Yankees.
I was thinking about the ISU jersey change.. Assuming they keep the road white, that means they’ll have white shirts and gold pants on the road. Iowa has white shirts and gold pants for the road. Red Tops and Gold pants could look horrible too.
The padres still insist on wearing their alternate.
Now up to
Home: 1
Road: 0
Alt: 5
Camo: 1
[quote comment=”68322″]I didn’t notice until today, but A-Rod seems to be wearing his pants like this
Fantastic.[/quote]
He wore his pants like that through all of spring training, and for every regular season game so far, starting back on April 2nd.
[quote comment=”68151″]”real baseball”?…is that what you guys are calling quadruple A…oops…I mean the National League now?[/quote]
Actually we call it home of the reigning World Champions.
The red suck!!!!
the red sox suck***
I’m surprised by the vitriol some of you are expressing about April 15th. Personally, I think it’s both fun and instructive, and I don’t think it’s a “Look at me†thing at all. We usually bash MLB for being tone-deaf, stuck in their ways, etc., but I think this is an instance when they’ve loosened up and allowed something interesting to develop. Is it good or is it stupid? I think it’s clearly good.
And what better way to celebrate how far we’ve come since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, then to have the Rutgers women’s basketball team come out on April 15th and all throw the first pitch at the same time at that all-time American icon Don Imis? Hit him in the balls girls and make him feel it but good.
This is a great country.
Iowa State finally listened to UNI-Watch and has in fact turned to the fans to help with the new football uniform designs. There was a Uni-Watch article about the same thing last summer, and the funniest thing is that I emailed Jamie Pollard the athletic director telling of the article, and what does he do months later? He puts it in the hands of the people.
Yes BABY!!.
This is an horrific idea.
Hey, Iowa State, let a professional sports uniform branding designer do the heavy lifting okay and leave the fans in charge of cheering on the Cyclones…