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It’s in the Bag(s)

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Paul here. Yes, I’m supposed to be on blogcation, but I’m making a cameo appearance to let you know that I have an ESPN feature running today. It’s about a very cool cornhole tournament organized in Chicago a few weeks ago by our own Robert Marshall. As you can see in the animation above (which shows a certain uniform columnist executing a nifty defensive shot against Chicagoland indie-rock luminary Bob Weston, much to his dismay), I dressed for the occasion.

Special thanks to Steven Pate for the photos and animation. I now return you to Phil’s capable hands for the rest of today’s content.

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What if…

the Nationals didn’t start life with that curly-cue cap that they still wear, which still doesn’t match their home uniform font, and was instead, made to look like cap worn by the Washington Senators?

That almost happened.

Two days ago, Scott Rogers, who played the role of protagonist in this article, made mention of a prototype cap in the comments:

I’ve seen the gold-beveled W that was designed to match the original unis, and it’s a thing of beauty. A crying shame the team didn’t use it. Plus, the original Senators treatment of the curly W was superior to the slightly modified current version. And here’s where I’ll agree with you completely: I know for a fact that the Nats were forced to drop Radom’s custom-designed new W for a rehash of the Senators W by Bud Selig personally, and this was a result of the man’s lifelong pattern of historical denial. He couldn’t wish away Atlanta to rename his own franchise the Braves, but he could force the 2005 Nats to pretend to be the 1972 Senators.

Now, I thought I remembered hearing something about that ‘beveled’ cap around the time of the new Nationals uniform announcements, but I didn’t think I’d ever seen a mockup. So I asked Scott about it, and if he had any more information, and specifically, any photos or mocks. He didn’t disappoint.

He immediately shot me this E-mail:

Phil,

I was shown a rendering of the cap by Nats marketing staff back in 2005, when I wrote a popular Nats blog, but this was before the era of Me Owning a Camera Phone, so I have no images of my own. However, at least one prototype was made and photographed, being worn at RFK by a team photographer in 2005. I don’t know who snapped the photo; I grabbed it from the web and blogged about it myself, and buried deep in my archives from my blog I have the image saved without any reference to the original source. Alas! I don’t know if the red version I saw a drawing of was ever prototyped, nor whether these were planned as home/road, if so in what configuration, or whether both drawings were produced to help choose between red and blue.

An independent source of mine at the time in the Commissioner’s office claimed that Bud Selig personally vetoed this cap logo and insisted on reviving the 1971 Senators cap logo, which is what the Nats in fact wear. The story I heard was that Selig made this decision just days before the uniform announcement, causing all involved to scramble (and they were already scrambling!). That source claimed that the bevel W was designed by the same designer as the uniforms – Radom, though my Commish office source didn’t know the name – but I haven’t been able to confirm that detail independently.

Anyway, I’m attaching the real-life photo along with mockups I made based on the drawings I was shown of the same.

Best,

Scott

Awesome! Thank you Scott…you’re the best!

Is the “beveled ‘W'” any better than the curly-cue? I guess that’s in the eye of the beholder, but it sure makes a LOT more sense to wear that with the original uniforms, as designed by Todd Radom. I wonder how different the originals would have looked had Todd been informed he’d need to work with this logo at the time. Might the Nationals be wearing a home uni that more closely resembles this (only with “Nationals” instead of “Senators”) — like so (mock courtesy of Matt Malinoski).

We can only imagine.

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all sport uni tweaks

Time for a weekday set of “Uni Tweaks”

Since it’s been a while, and I won’t be back on weekends until September, I thought I’d run a few today. So, if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

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Our first tweaker is Marcus Hall, who loves him some O’s. And he’d like to fix them:

Phil,

Oh my beloved O’s.

I have included tweaks that include stirrups (Which are interchangeable with any of the unis)

The home uni is like the unis of the 90s, with the black trim along the buttons (orange trim for the black alt).

The away uni is “buff” colored — I can’t stand the road gray.

The black alt mixes a little of several of the O’s past and present black alts.

The mockups without stirrups is me playing around with an Orange monochrome and a second Orange Alt.

Marcus Hall

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Next up is Dave Lennon, who would like to bring back a certain beloved caricature for the New England football club:

Bring back Pat Patriot on the helmet with color changes to match the existing uniform color scheme. No more “flying elvis”!

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Next up is Tyler Keefe, who has a college football tweak for us:

So using the current template for the Washington Huskies, I simply made a black alternative using the same color scheme as they did for the basketball team. I have also attached the other two uni’s for the upcoming year.

— Tyler Keefe

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And finally, we have a soccer tweak from Adam Schechter:

Hi Phil and UW,

Out in the Seattle area, we love our Sounders. (Who else draws 35K+ for MLS games? No one, that’s who.) I love the green and blue kits, but those new third ‘electricity’ yellow kits makes my eyes cry out for mercy. For an improved 3rd kit, I cribbed a white retro template from the ‘net (props to Joel, its original designer who had a pretty solid throwback to begin with) and went to photoshop town on it. It’s an amateur hack job, but you’ll get the idea. Thin green pinstripes on white with blue accent and black sponsor text — simple, elegant, not torturous. Enjoy.

–Adam
Tacoma WA

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That’s all for the tweaks, concepts and revisions for today. Thanks to everyone who submitted. I’ll probably have at least one more set of these before the month is out, but keep sending them in.

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Throwback Thursday…on Steroids

Today, the San Diego Padres, who have been donning throwbacks on select Thursday afternoon games this season, as part of their Throwback Thursday promotion, will do it again.

Some teams agree to play along, while some do not. Others — well you could make the argument that these are throwbacks.

As part of a fan contest, the Friars announced they’d be wearing “vintage team uniforms from the 1970s and ’80s.” Today is another Thursday game, and it is expected they will wear the brown tops.

And just who are the Pad’s playing today? That’s right, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who wore the all black “Bumblebee” combination earlier this year. Now, a brown versus black game might not be the most visually appealing, so perhaps the Bucs will whip out one of their other bumblebee throwbacks.

Any way you slice it…it’s gonna be one hell of a colorful game.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: First up today is Jim Taggert who points out “The Winston-Salem Dash clearly lost a bet and had to wear these atrocities (Tuesday) night against the Wilmington Blue Rocks.” … Adam James sends this interesting clip about the origins of the Royals logo. … After my Colts throwback article, in which I somewhat blasély mentioned I couldn’t recall throwbacks being worn during the preseason, Marc Nucup informed me that during the NFL’s 75th season, the San Diego Chargers and Atlanta Falcons played the Hall of Fame Game on 30 July (1994) and both teams wore their throwback uniforms. Here’s a photo from that game that Marc took himself. … After Paul’s great baseball cap article on the mothership, Desi Duncker pointed out this article in the Wall Street Journal “about ‘traditional hats’ (i.e., fedoras, etc.) This actually seems to complement your article, and the message of both articles seems to be that baseball caps have become the headwear de rigueur, and although some men are bringing the traditional hat back, the prevalence of the baseball cap is impossible to ignore.” … Hugh McBride isn’t quite sure if we’ve seen this, but Flip Flop Fly Ball has been posting some really cool pixellated baseball card recreations. … Also from Hugh, “Apparently, it’s “Obscure Baseball Card Day” out here in Internets-ville.” … UW Prexy Paul Lukas notes a small item on this page notes that Titans will be wearing white for their home opener. … Jonathan Burr found a bit of an odd uniform convergence from yesterday’s Washington Post sports blog, The Sports Bog. … My new buddy, Dan Cichalski, just saw this yesterday: A photo essay of Pittsburgh’s soon-to-be-eliminated Civic Arena. The naming rights have expired, so all the Mellon signs have been covered up. … With the Padres having another “Throwback Thursday” today, Tim Stoops would like the Fathers to permanently switch back to this circa 1975 uniform. “Reclaim the uniqueness of the brown/yellow color scheme, while still looking like a real baseball uniform instead of those early 70s, late 70s and early 80s looks,” says Tim. “It’s the best uniform the Padres have ever had. I want them to go back to it so badly. I’m sick and tired of rooting for the San Diego Brewers.” … James C found a link to an article asking if Premiere League teams produce new jerseys too often: Says James, “I wonder if a rule for jersey limits would ever be set up in an American league sport? Certainly not the MLB where softball unis reign supreme.” … The “other” Mike Hersh follows up yesterday’s ticker entry with more on the conformance testing of the new Navy uniforms. … “Nobody cares, I know,” states Jonee Eisen, “but here’s a preview of the Clippers new road jersey. It’s basically their old road blue alternate inverted to red with a new collar style. Apparently the home jerseys will also be tweaked. Yes, there are Clippers fans. I consider myself one.” … Ben Henry wanted to alert us to a special poster he created of the poem “Casey at the Bat” using altered baseball card images. “It sounds weird, I know,” says Ben, “but you have to see it to know what I mean, and by the way, it’s been requested for inclusion in the Baseball Reliquary’s collection. It’s perfect for Uni Watch because not only does it use some of the most iconic baseball cards ever, but it includes many classic baseball uniforms — including a player in a custom Mudville jersey — and alters a few of them to help tell the poem.” … Check out this cool HS helmet, The Buckhorn Bucks from Madison Alabama (with thanks to James Noone). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: An Eagles “fan” was asked to remove his Redskins Donovan McNabb jersey during Eagles practice. Imagine that. … Nice little article on Gophers equipment, sent in by Chris Hodge. … Last Thursday, I posted a picture of Peyton Manning wearing a visor and asked, Is that a wedding band? Mat Orefice sent in this picture yesterday, which confirmed my suspicions. “How many players wear their wedding rings while playing? Sure, it’s probably a no-contact practice, but wouldn’t that be really dangerous?” asks Mat. It also looks like it wasn’t a one-time thing. … Tim Gleason sent in this link with only the subject line “French Rugby.” I guess that’s pretty self-explanatory. … Interesting uni-related article, brought to our attention by Geoff Baker: Redskins unis to be decided by former players? … We’ve seen the new Cav’s court design before, but Marc Sugerman found an article with opinion (and it’s not necessarily good) on the new court. … Matt Schudel found an interesting item on e-Bay: a 1964 University of Nebraska usher’s patch. … Paul Lee noticed the change in Laker replicas: purple numbers on home, gold jerseys. Paul says, “Even though this official tweak (or variation) is only being done on replicas (and not just replicas, ‘youth’ sized replicas, to be exact), my theory they might use it to gauge interest before introducing (or promoting) it to the authentic collection. I mean, if you get used to seeing them everywhere, then it wouldn’t be such a shock. Also, who’s gonna tell a kid, ‘your jersey has the wrong colored numbers on them’? Not if their parents are around!” Also from Paul, Lakers alternate logo on back of home, away and alternate women’s replica jerseys. “Now I’m sure they’re going to not only put a logo on the back of the authentic jersey someday (sooner rather than later), but also use the crappy ‘L’ logo instead of the full Lakers logo.” … What’s in a name? Nick Spehar says he likes to see the name/uni changes but usually with new teams not existing teams…then we had the Bullets. … More from our Fearless Leader: Had an item on this above, but here’s a new take — according to Paul, “best jersey story of the day.” …Laren Richardson, he with the eagle eye, noticed Mike Fontenot got traded from one dugout to the other before last evening’s Giants/Cubs game. He took the Sharpie to his spikes to turn Cubbie blue into Giants black. Looks to me like he needs a little more work. … In case you went to bed early last night, this is the first you’re hearing of K-Rod’s arrest — He fought the father-in-law, and the law won. Jackass. … And finally, I was walking to lunch yesterday when I happened upon the following painting out front of the art store next to the deli. Now, I’m admittedly not real good with math, but even I can tell that aint right.

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And wait, here’s one more word from Paul: I’ve had a bunch of “Meats” T-shirts printed up in gray and white. I plan to get some butcher shops and restaurants around town to sell them (they’re already available at the Meat Hook), but I’m also happy to sell them directly to you folks. Sizes: M thru XXL. Price: $13 + $3 shipping for the first shirt and $1.50 shipping for each additional shirt. To order, send the appropriate amount via Amazon Payments (for the payee address, use plukas64@gmail.com) or send a check to Paul Lukas, 671 DeGraw St., Brooklyn, NY 11217. Inquire about special rates for vegetarians and Yankees fans. Thanks.

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That’ll do it for today. I have an event I will be attending tonight, so, unfortunately, there will be no ticker Friday. There will, however, be a brand new column. If you have “breaking” news, please post it in the comments, otherwise, just send your ticker contributions to the usual address and I’ll run them on Monday.

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You get fed good food, you get first-class treatment. As an athlete, what more can you ask for? — Tony Gwynn

 
  
 
Comments (140)

    The W that Ball-Wonk err Rogers points to would not have matched the W on the road uniform.

    I originally wanted a interlocking DC cap to be the cap, but when I saw the new, cleaner-than-the-Senators, curly W I changed my position. I love it and am glad that Selig “forced it” on us. It turns he did two things right (putting a team in DC, the curly W) and everything else wrong. I love it in the script Washington on the road jerseys. We just need to hear Charlie Slowes say “a curly W is in the book” more often.

    Love those mockups. The beveled W is infinitely superior to the Nats’ version of the Walgreens logo.

    I seem to recall that the curly W was an outstretched hand to DC’s local government. The city fathers were all link the 1970s version at the press conference announcing the move.

    Same reason that “Senators” wasn’t seriously considered as the name – Mayor Williams didn’t want it. MLB still needed the District to get the stadium deal together, and this was good politics.

    As a Nats fan/obsessive – I’m firmly in the curly W camp. With all due respect to Radom and Scott Rogers, the big beveled W is just not attractive. Too gaudy, clunky and easily dates itself. Then it would have to be tied to the terrible home jersey lettering, maybe even longer than we’ve had it already. No thanks – hopefully everything will be redesigned in a more script friendly format before the 2011 season (like they did with the road unis pre-2009).

    Like WFY, I hesitated to embrace the idea of the expansion Senators look, but the area has really embraced it – baseball fans or otherwise. And Washington residents really hasn’t embraced much else in relation to this club. At the time, I would have picked the more subdued straight ‘W’ similar to versions the Senators wore from the 20s to 60s – link

    As for the team name, I strongly preferred Grays. It would have been a permanent tribute to the Negro Leagues – and where better to make an historical gesture than DC? But that was always a long shot.

    I too wanted the DC logo on the caps, and I’ve also come around on the curly W. However, while the current curly W is much superior to the secondhand crap logos that have appeared on officially licensed Cooperstown Collection merchandise since the 1980s, that reproduction logo bears basically no resemblance whatsoever to the cap logo the expansion Senators actually wore. The actual Senators cap logo, particularly the final version from 1968-71, was actually much cleaner and better executed than the current Nats cap logo. Here is the best photo I’ve found of an actual 1968-71 cap logo:

    link

    Note in particular where the loops cross at the center-bottom of the logo. The lines of both loops continue organically on both sides as they would if that stroke were made with any kind of actual writing instrument. Note, by contrast, how artificially pinched the Nats curly W is at the same point:

    link

    The curves where the loops cross don’t continue from one side of the logo to the other. It looks amateurish, like a ninth grader messing around with vector graphics in Illustrator for the first time. A much better approach would have been to have broken the line of one loop to convey dimensionality and avoid the unmatched curves, such as this jack-o-lantern pattern:

    link

    or the trash cans at Nationals Park:

    link

    Here are examples of the Cooperstown Collection curly Ws that look nothing like what the expansion Senators actually wore, and that the current curly W is vastly superior to:

    link

    link

    It’s like MLB’s merchandising team traced these logos from photocopies of photocopies of faded newspaper clippings.

    RS, you’re right that the new Curly W logo does seem pinched, though I hadn’t noticed it until you mentioned it.

    However, at least on my two authentic Nats caps, that “pinched” look doesn’t apply. The line stays the same width through crossing of the loop. Maybe it’s just my caps? I’ll keep an eye out for it on other peoples’ caps.

    Thanks to the foam-core nature of modern cap logos, the badly rendered angles on the curly W don’t really show up on the cap, at least not the on-field versions. The embroidery is just too thick to show that kind of detail. On flat-embroidery versions, however, it’s painfully obvious. For example, whenever the Nats do a cap giveaway with the curly W logo, you can see the mis-matched loops. Fix that detail, and I’ll be a 100 percent devoted curly-W partisan.

    Our fearless UniWatch leader comes to Chicago to toss some bags (in stirrups, no less) and doesn’t have a UniWatch gathering? It’s been a busy summer here in fly-over country. Did I miss a memo/announcement?

    Former Penguin Petr Sykora wears his wedding band while playing. I noticed it in multiple games when they’d show a close-up of him on the bench with his left glove off. Sykora’s not a fighter, so it’s not like there was really any risk of him cutting someone’s face up.

    The home Nats unis just make no sense. Regardless of the Curly W cap, they’re butt-ugly with too much bevelling and a font so blocky, it’s hard to read. The away unis are a much better font. Very… “baseball”. The thing that surprises me most is the fact they still use them 6 years later.

    BALTIMORE UNI TWEAKS: I know the team is piss-poor, but that’s no excuse for making them play in urine-soaked unis.

    SEATTLE THIRD KIT. Like it a lot. The pinstripes look irregularly spaced – Intentional? Either way, it looks good.

    SB

    Yeah, sorry Marcus… I’m not diggin’ the buff either. To me, the buff competes too much with the orange. I can see where the road grey would get old for ya, though. Everybody wears it and let’s face it… grey is a dull color.

    (I used “color” when referring to grey rather than “shade” to keep from upsetting Ricko) ;-)

    To defend the original Nats unis a bit, that blocky lettering style is very Washington. A plurality of DC’s iconic architecture was built in the early 20th century, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s, and that lettering style looks like it could have been taken directly from the facade of any of those buildings. Heck, it even resembles the two most architecturally prominent Potomac bridges! As far as “situating” the team within the specific cultural and aesthetic contexts of Washington, DC, those first uniform scripts were sheer genius. The current road script matches the curly-W cap nicely, yes, and if you close your eyes to the many ways the Nats absolutely ruin their road uniforms, it’s a beautiful script. But it’s also completely generic; that script would work just as well for a team in Wasilla or Waukegan or Wheeling.

    The original jersey scripts said “Washington, DC.” The new road script (and putative 2011 or 2012 home script) says “baseball team.”

    That said, the great virtue of the original uni scripts – their organic connection to Washington’s civic aesthetic – means that the Nats really wouldn’t lose anything leaving the original script on the scoreboard and switching to a more curly-W inspired script on the home unis. Because of is architectural roots, the original lettering will always look just fine up on the scoreboard even if the players are actually wearing something else.

    And since the beveling is the proximate cause of all the Nats current uni-ugliness, the sooner the team commits to a final switch to a curly-W aesthetic, the better. Every time I see the road unis with their blue-beveled numbers on front and mismatched gold-beveled numbers on back, I want to cry. The Nats come so close to being one of the best-looking teams in baseball, but they get so many tiny details so badly wrong that they’re easily among the three ugliest teams in the bigs right now.

    I’ve heard that the Nats want to switch to a script “Nationals” on the home jersey but are reluctant to do so because of the big bevel-block NATIONALS on top of the scoreboard.

    The N would likely be a big looping “n” like in the “Natstown” logo they started using this season.

    I’m with you. I like the curly “W” and a really like the current road grays. The white outlining of “Washington” is a very subtle reminder of the final Montreal road uniforms. I’d very much like to see the home whites use a similar script.

    As for the current home, original road, and scoreboard fonts, there are better block letter fonts that could’ve been used. For an example look no further than link link

    I’ve always thought that the Nats’ best solution for a home uniform would be to eschew the nickname altogether, and have the curly-script “W” take up the left side of the jersey, as with the Tigers’ “D” and Yankees’ “NY” monogram. Strongly suggest combining this with red pinstripes, red/white/red stripes on the stirrups, and a return to the Senators’ 1967 blue cap with red piping. Ta-da!

    Not only does the big “W” finesse a good number of otherwise tricky script choices, this design choice has precedents with both previous Washington teams (though they used a block “W” in those cases).

    David Carr with the Texans wore his wedding band during games, covered with white tape.

    Never quite figured how that tape would help if your ring finger was swollen and they had to cut the ring to get it off.

    —Ricko

    Didn’t that happen to Ray Nitschke after the Ice Bowl? I seem to recall reading about that YEARS ago.

    If there is anything more ludicrous than Selig’s dictum about the Nats cap, it’s that pic of a guy in an oversize 5950. Did he get it from his dad? that look is a travesty. Other than that, as always Pud made the dumbass move – would’ve been an elegant W. Especially w/ blue or blue/red cap.

    BTW never thought I’d the word cool modifying the word cornhole. Are you sure? Do you know what cornhole means? very dicey there dude.

    There’s just no good name for that game. “Cornhole” just rubs me the wrong way, but “Bean Bag Toss” ain’t a helluva lot better. Any way you slice it, it’s got sexual allusions aplenty.

    The Orioles definitely need to bring back their orange alternates.

    That picture of the Winston-Salem Dash shows its road uniform. The home uniform is white with purple and black trim. The caps are black with a purple bill, but their helmets are black, some of them with the “Sox” logo on the front since the White Sox are the parent team. A few of the coaches will wear White Sox jackets or warmups in the dugout once in while. (I went to a game last week at the beautiful downtown baseball stadium and the visiting Blue Rocks had “KC” on their jersey sleeves, the coaches wore Royals warmups, and the catchers had “KC” helmets.)

    That new Clippers jersey is just a replica. The actual jersey has more trim and piping at the sides.

    With all due respect to the comment today that the 1975 era Padres uniforms were the best ever, I disagree. The original uniforms in 1969 were IMHO the best Padres uniforms ever.

    link

    Simplistic, unique colors not used before on a regular basis, nice letter and number fonts, nickname at home, city name on the light brown road jersey, neat brown cap with the gold “SD”. The city of San Diego 200th anniversary patch only added to the beauty of the uniform, with the MLB 100th anniversary patch only worn on the home white uniform. Scroll down this link to see pictures of the home/away ’69 jersey.

    link

    Today will be the fourth time the Padres have worn throwbacks, the third time with the inaccurate 1978 brown road jersey top, a jersey they never wore at home in the ’78 season, only white and gold at home that year. It amazes me that Majestic and the Padres can’t get this right.

    I think the ’98 uniforms they wore on the way to the World Series were the best. It’s hard to beat navy blue, orange, and pinstripes. They sure shocked the Braves the in the playoffs that year too.

    I never liked the way the NOB looked against the pinstripes of the ’98 home jersey. Like you, I liked navy blue and orange, but didn’t like the font of “SAN DIEGO” on the road jersey.

    LI Phil, I saw that all-gold uniform in person in 1978 (picture is from a game at Candlestick Park), also the gold top and white pants was a nice look that season. Sorry, to me the brown top and white pants looked better than the picture you linked. Just give me the ’69 uniforms with NOB (no nameplates, please) in brown letters with gold trim and I’d be happy. White shoes might have been overkill, but that was THE STYLE in 1978.

    Also, simply wish they could get the details of the ’78 jersey correct.

    Could not agree more. Those ’69 uniforms were brilliant – the Padres got it right the first time, and have been steadily mucking up their uniforms ever since.

    I’ve been a lifelong Padre fan (living near Toronto they haven’t been the easiest team to follow – especially in the pre-internet era!) and what drew me to the team was their unique brown uni’s in the early 80’s – so different from any other team.

    I remember how dejected I was when they moved to the navy/orange scheme in 1991 – I’ve honestly never been as much of a fan since then because uniforms just matter that much to me.

    I’ve been saying for years they need to get back to brown – navy and orange just didn’t say ‘Padres’ to me and the current navy/sand incarnation is ok (I thought the navy/orange combo was the worst) but it just simply doesn’t work for a team called the Padres. If the team was called the ‘Sandy Beaches’, then maybe….

    I did love the 80’s orange/yellow/brown uni’s they wore to the World Series in ’84 but those just wouldn’t work now (in retrospect, the radial-arched lettering looks fantastic however).

    I also loved the next uni’s they donned – the brown/orange with pinstripes and the SD logo on the road greys. I actually loved how the road greys with brown pinstripes gave the uni’s a light brown or sand coloured look without actually being ‘sand-coloured’ like the current ones.

    If they revert back to the brown uni’s though, my pick is the original 1969 uniforms. They are timeless and truly say ‘Padres’ to me. Maybe change the SD hat logo to it’s current incarnation which I think works better and maybe use something similar to the current ‘Padres’ wordmark on the home jersey, but otherwise, get it done! Love how they looked on that pitcher when they wore them as throwbacks recently (09?) – especially love the striped stirrups and the ‘cream’ coloured home uniforms similar to what the Giants currently wear.

    Great comment above: the San Diego Brewers – exactly! Their current uni’s aren’t terrible, but are too similar to Milwaukee, don’t convey ‘Padres’ to me, and gawd-dammit I hate their softball jerseys! C’mon Padres, screw the marketing execs and get back to brown – it’s unique and can be done tastefully.

    I actually agree with the original ticker poster. I saw a throwback thursday game where the Pads wore those mid 70’s unis and they looked really sharp on the field. That design done in a button-down would look great and timeless. They really need to bring back the brown.

    Lovin’ the Pats uni-tweak. I’d much prefer the original uniform all around, but if they need to stick with the recent colors and uni-design, this is a dynamite look.

    As for their original uniforms… I love the look of the red jersey, but I don’t get why the Pats chose them. Why would they want to allude to the British redcoats rather than the blue Continental Army jacket Pat wears? Maybe the AFL thought red would look better on all those new color TVs that were all the rage back then?

    The generally accepted (and sensible) backstory on this is that the Titans, Bills and Oilers all had filed their hame jersey colors with the AFL office before the Patriots did prior to the ’60 season (I believe the Oilers may have been first; right from the get-go Bud Adams had pointed to a turqoise ring he always wore and said, “We going to wear this color”).

    Someone, either with the Patriots or in the league office, realized that if the Pats were to choose blue, all four teams in the AFL East would be wearing blue jerseys, and 5 of the 8 teams in the league would be (five in blue, one each in black, gold and red).

    Someone, rightly so, made the decision that the new league needed a little more color than that.

    AFL games weren’t televised in color until ’64 or ’65 (or so) after NBC, which pretty much pioneered color, wildly outbid ABC for the rights after failing to get the NFL away from CBS. The first football game nationaly televised in color was the 1962 Rose Bowl (UCLA-Minnesota). On NBC.

    —Ricko

    Many players wear them, especially on artificial turf, or based on the conditions of grass and dirt fields.

    By necessity, the sole of a steel cleated shoe is a bit stiffer, too. Also, even with today’s advances, steel cleats can put a little more pressure on fewer points than some like, so I imagine many players have found the molded sole version a bit more comfortable. They spead the pressure around.

    —Ricko

    Paul…enjoyed the cornhole piece. But dude, Bob Weston!
    Made me get out my Shellac 45’s.

    That’s too overt and partisan. Plus, many Washingtonians got pretty uptight about the red/blue thing when the Nats came to town, on account of the president at the time using “W” as a nickname. (I was yelled at by Republican staffers for wearing a blue Nats cap to a lunch event in 2005, and harassed by Democrats at a candidate’s speech for wearing a red Nats cap to a rally the next fall. “But his name is Webb,” I replied in the latter instance. “That starts with a W!”)

    My proposal has been instead for the Nats to wear blue at home, red on the road during Democratic administrations, and red at home, blue on the road, during Republican administrations. No other uni changes; just the caps (and maybe socks). That’s still probably too partisan for any profit-making business to embrace, but it’s subtle, the kind of tradition that hometown fans would know about but the rest of the world wouldn’t notice.

    I’d rather they just combine the red and blue. I know some of y’all don’t like this, link but I do.

    I like the red alt tops with the red hats, but I’d also like to see the blue hat worn with them.

    And long live the curly W. Even a broken clock is wrong every now and then, and Bud got this one right. Not a fan of the beveled lettering, so hopefully the home jerseys will soon match.

    I’m sold. I hate that blue alt jersey, but I do like the general idea of the Nats mixing red and blue more. What about a blue curly W on the red cap, maybe even with a blue bill? Dark-on-bright is an underused approach for MLB caps (I think the D-Backs are the only team doing it at the moment), and nobody else is doing red caps with blue brims for game caps.

    And I’d kind of rather see a curly W on the home jersey, like the red home alt, than a Nationals script. Kind of a tribute to the original Senators, who for most of their history used the initial as their home insignia.

    I like what you said up there Jimvilk. But on Phil’s mockup, I don’t like the repetitive nature of multiple curly W’s. One is enough. Do the DC thing or something else on the shirt.

    Or maybe kelly green, cuz I’ve noticed that on most TV weather maps all states are green. That would be non-partisan. Oh, wait, someone whould say they were supporting the Green Party.

    Okay then, maybe purple, which it red and blue mixed together?

    Or, better yet, how ’bout they not even consider a media affectation, or political parties, in the process of color choosing?

    —Ricko

    You get fed good food, you get first-class treatment. As an athlete, what more can you ask for? – Tony Gwynn

    Too bad more athletes don’t see things from this point of view rather than the sense of entitlement many of them seem to have these days. Tony Gwynn always seemed to me to be the consummate professional. He took his work seriously, avoided off-the-field issues and had respected the game and his predecessors.

    I’d much prefer the interlocking “DC” for the Nats caps, with the Senators “W” a close second. I don’t like the prototype W at all.

    And this from the ticker:

    With the Padres having another “Throwback Thursday” today, Tim Stoops would like the Fathers to permanently switch back to this circa 1975 uniform. “Reclaim the uniqueness of the brown/yellow color scheme, while still looking like a real baseball uniform instead of those early 70s, late 70s and early 80s looks,” says Tim. “It’s the best uniform the Padres have ever had. I want them to go back to it so badly. I’m sick and tired of rooting for the San Diego Brewers.”

    —–

    couldn’t agree more. I was a big Padres fan from day one and my rooting interest fizzled out when they lost the unique colors…

    -Jet

    Not a Padres fan, but I always preferred the unique color scheme that franchise had, even when they added a tinge of orange in the 1980s. The Blue Jays also looked better minus the black.

    In general terms, it’s better when teams stay with their original, proportional color scheme instead of trying to keep up with the latest fad. The Diamondbacks were better off without red, and the Atlanta Falcons lost me with going to the black helmet.

    would like to see the Nats in a tricolor hat. That would solve the home/away drama and be a nice nod to their ‘spos orogins

    Phil, if the W were red or blue (or, dare I say, red, white AND blue?) then I’d say, “Yes, really.”

    link I said yes I will yes.

    I basically hate caps with white panels in front, and I was never a fan of the Expos pinwheels (though the red panels made the white panels work for me aesthetically), but I like this. With the red W and blue outline. Though it’d have to be a darker shade of navy, since the Nats are drawing their colors from the American, not the French, flag.

    I really like the blue W with the tri-color. Seems to make the whole look flow. Can someone photoshop that hat on top of both the home & away & alt unis for comparison? thx

    Was gonna suggest the same thing, SB, but on this site that’s flirting with danger…

    Rufus, I do like the Expos homage. I think someone here tweaked an Expos uni with a curly W replacing the Montreal M. That would work.

    Love the “bags” article. Weather permitting, I need to get out my game this weekend. Marshall, you’re a real artist. An edible corn trophy? Brilliant!

    And I really love that Sounders tweak! If you took off the sponsor name, I’d not only wear that, I’d buy that.

    the key is to cook the trophy after it is initially set fourth as the brass ring, because trophy corn tastes so so sweet.

    With the news of Chipper Jones’ possible career-ending ACL injury, I am left to ponder where the Yankees will put a tribute patch on their uniform.

    wow

    these

    link

    and their current traditional ‘Roads and they go from dressing unwatchable to fabulous

    well done

    God, those look great! I would definitely wear them. Would absolutely become my most favorite uni in all of baseball! Thx guys.

    I always thought the Nationals in Expos’ colors and font would work on so many different levels: red, white, and blue, franchise history, etc. (I was the guy who asked that the mockup be created). In fact, I wrote the Nationals’ ownership in 2009 suggesting they look at the mockups on Uni Watch. Still waiting for a reply. Oh well.

    Similarly, those 1969 Padres’ unis were the best use of that brown and gold color combination. Even works for the roadies. Simple and elegant.

    I miss those Thanksgiving Day games when everyone wore throwbacks, not just the Cowboys.

    Looking forward to seeing that. Love the idea of testing out uniforms(alts)during the pre-season.

    I can’t imagine an NFL player going into a game in a helmet he hadn’t worn before, gotten used to.

    —Ricko

    “… in which I somewhat blasély mentioned I couldn’t recall throwbacks being worn during the preseason …”

    How quickly link.

    (Sorry if this was already extensively covered; can’t get to the comments every day.)

    Why don’t the Pirates ever throwback to the first set of double knits? Always with the bumblebee set.

    We may see the double knits next year, but those jerseys just weren’t as colorful as the bumblebee set. I’m surprised we didn’t see them in 1991 or 2001, but those jerseys should be well received when they do come out.

    So far as I know, they never have thrown back to those, even for anniversary of the 1971 championship. I can’t tell you why.

    For tonight, thanks to Ronny Cedeno for showing appropriately high-cut gold stirrups as the last batter of the game.

    That white Sounders/XBoxes kit is really, really nice. I was in Seattle this past Saturday and saw a lot of folks walking around in Sounders gear for the game that night, and unfortunately that included several of those lime green retina-searing monstrosities.

    And whoever it was up above that said the Padres got their uniforms right at the very beginning was right on. They have gotten worse and worse over the years.

    I love the curly W, but man, it belonged to the Senators. The Washington Senators. The Nationals blew it…or Bud Selig blew it for them. A missed opportunity to start fresh. Another missed opportunity.

    Having said that…that beveled business is bad news. Had they gone with the W logo without the beveling, or wordmark without the beveling, it would’ve been…well, acceptable. Good riddance if and when the beveling it goes. There is no place for that clunky, computer generated beveling on sports logos. And that interlocking DC looks so…so… un-natural and heavy. It makes my eyes hurt. And RS, while I appreciate your thoughtful analysis, and I am a huge advocate of team aesthetics representing some cultural/historical aspect of the region they play in, I don’t care if that clunky font has even the slightest resemblance to the city’s early architecture, it’s just awful.

    Meanwhile…yes to the return of Patriot Pat. I could live with that uniform.

    And the Padres had it right in ’69. So subtle and right. Brown splattered all over the place does not look good.

    “Splattered” being the key word. Mix that with yellow and it’s just bad news all around.

    Those ’69 unis were extremely nice. I think the problem at the time was that it was a pretty common (read: boring) look for the times in which they were living.

    Paul Lee actually took the time to formulate a theory based on one hastily put-together computer mockup of a customizable jersey? Dude, it’s just an incorrectly done Photoshop job. The team is not rolling out some new line of jerseys for kids only with purple numbers. These kinds of lazy mistakes are made all the time on teams’ websites, in this age of Photoshopped fake jersey pictures we live in. You can’t trust anything you see on-screen that isn’t a bona fide picture of an actual lettered jersey.
    Sorry if I seem harsh, but I’ve seen people pointlessly speculate over stuff like this before, like that Vikings Harvin jersey last week. It’s giving the team way too much credit, when it’s really just a lazy and poor Photoshopping job and nothing more.

    Also, David Carr wore his band as someone else mentioned, and the tape over it was just to get rid of a hard edge that could get snagged on another player.
    link

    He now wears dainty gloves, which along with his teeny weeny shoulder pads make him the sissiest looking QB in the league:
    link

    Pat Patriot is fine on a retro t-shirt or something, but he’s a terrible helmet logo. I didn’t even know what he was until I was old enough to go to the library by myself and find close up photos of the helmet in books and magazines. I just referred to the Patriots as ‘that team with the triangle blob on their helmets.’ If you can’t draw the helmet logo fairly accurately from memory, it’s not very successful, in my opinion.

    Re: What if…the visitors “what if” hat for the Nationals reminds me of the ones the team DID wear in the mid 30s and late 40s to early 1950s (white with red beveling).

    See here:

    link

    I like the Curly W myself for the visiting unis, but a red version of the above with a white W and gold beveling for the home uni might be just the thing.

    Just stating a fact, although such things do seem to get in the way a lot around here.

    —Ricko

    My compliments on the Nats hat writing today. Loved it.

    One thing I observe is that the prototype (great shot and I bet I know who did it) seems to be well worn. You would think it would look brand new.

    The Nats franchise has been a text book of how not to run a baseball team but I think the one thing they got right are the caps. Maybe I would have gone with the DC one but I like the curly W caps. Even though it is a mismatch for the home whites. Change the whites not the caps.

    I also think any Padre uniform with even a trace of brown are some of the worse ever.

    I think teams should have a primary and a single accent color. Pirates = black, gold, A’s = green, gold, Mets = blue, orange..etc….

    I really don’t like what the Rangers do with Blue and Red. They should stick to one color. I think either uniform looks great…although I prefer blue..I just think that is more traditional for them…. red is more of a 90s scheme..

    Anyway, thats my 2 cents…

    Yes, I think in most cases that’s the best approach. The A’s, Royals and Mets should never have used black at all in their uniform styles. In some cases it’s ok, red has been a minor part of the Pirates color scheme for many decades, but the red vest was a disaster.

    Red appeared only in some versions of the logo once the Pirates changed to black and gold in the late ’40s. Yes, they have had wore navy and red as team colors, but red didn’t appear on a black and gold uni until recently.

    —Ricko

    Yep, I should have clarified my statement, I was referring to the logo with the red scarf, which has been around for many years.

    Think we were saying the same thing. Elevating a color that’s involved just to flesh out a logo or something to a full-fledged uni color almost always isn’t advisable.

    Imagine the baseball or football Cardinals in, say, yellow headgear just because the bird’s beak is yellow.

    And I still say there’s a distinction between “team colors” and “other colors that happen to appear in our logo or in a graphic of some sort” that many don’t seem to get, or make.

    Pale yellow for the Rays, for example.

    —Ricko

    Awesome post about the Nats caps, had never seen the prototype before. It looks like the cap idea that Radom proposed is “inspired” by what ended up as the font utilized on the jerseys. It’s interesting to see all the different variations of the “Curly W”. Would love to see a re-post of the one that was done by Paul when the Rangers wore Senators throwbacks, and exactly what constitutes the W logo. From what I’ve seen, New Era uses 2 distinctly different W’s for Senators caps and the closest one is actually the current W on the Nats caps. American Needle’s is not based on actual on field versions, as far as I can tell.

    Heard somewhere today the New York Nets will be changing their nickname for the 2012 season. Any suggestions?

    Back from a Las Vegas vacation. Punch up the site, and I see…….an animated PL.

    A NEW standard for the main artwork has been set.

    As I watch this game with the Royals wearing their beautiful home whites….it’s hard to believe that it was Kansas City that gave the Yankees such a hard time for around 10 years! From roughly 1975 to 1985 almost all of my baseball memories involve George Brett, Dan Quisenberry, etc….

    Team isn’t and hasn’t been good in 20 years….but still love the uni….home whites…

    And some sort of beast goes by in the background.

    Shouldn’t this be submitted to MonsterQuest?

    —Ricko

    Ooops, those are about this…

    “Back from a Las Vegas vacation. Punch up the site, and I see…….an animated PL.

    “A NEW standard for the main artwork has been set.”

    So the Padres sprung for brown helmets, but again the Pirates stick with the black helmets:
    link
    Other than that, veeeerrrry nice!

    Jim Vilk | August 12, 2010 at 12:01 pm | Reply
    “And long live the curly W. Even a broken clock is wrong every now and then, and Bud got this one right. Not a fan of the beveled lettering, so hopefully the home jerseys will soon match.”

    Even a broken clock is right every now and then. Duh.

    Question: If anyone watched the Padres-Pirates game earlier, did any of he Pirates wear actual ribbon stirrups or just 2 in 1’s?

    Just watched the highlights on here,
    link
    but couldn’t tell.

    I get that my team is bad, but twice in the article, they’re referred to as “the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates.” No need to rub it in, now.

    Or are the going to add “The Lowly” to the jerseys?

    Darn this newfangled comment format. Just saw this to answer your question, Kevin:

    BurghFan | August 12, 2010 at 10:26 pm | Reply
    “For tonight, thanks to Ronny Cedeno for showing appropriately high-cut gold stirrups as the last batter of the game.”

    Nice. I’ll look for a photo of that.

    Slightly off topic, but… I know where to get 5 inchers, but does TCK also make one off ribbon stirrups? Very, very interesting.

    rpm used to give the option of 7″ rups but i believe it became too big of a hassle to keep things straight. so that went the wayside. the indians beer riot rup was 7″ and i think the current astros rup is as well. they aren’t quite the ribbon look but can be hiked up fairly high.

    Regarding the Nationals’ cap logo, I wanted–and still want–the interlocking “DC”. The old Senators only had one winning season with the “curly W,” and the Nats surely wanted to avoid anything that stood for losing, so if it’s true that Selig forced them to wear that “curly W,” that’s one more strike against him (along with the ’94 season, the steroid era, and the tie in the 2002 All-Star Game).

    Since I don’t know the address to send info for the UW blog ticket, here’s a sneak peek of the Arizona Wildcats’ new football uniforms

    link

    I rather watch Tiger have a train wreck than seeing another grinder pull a one off win out of his hat. Can you really expect a Graeme McDowell or Louis Oosthuizen to win another major? And as bad as Tiger is playing, Phil Mickelson should have replaced him as the new Number 1 but Phil has somehow managed to play worse than Tiger.

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