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There Used To Be A Ballpark Here, Part I

kc muni hed

By Phil Hecken, with Ben Traxel

As a part of the semi-recurring “old ballparks” featurette (other editions are here and here), we’ve looked back upon stadia which are no longer standing (or if they are, are not being used for baseball anymore). Today, I’m joined by “Boothill Ben” Traxel, who’ll take us back to the old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, MO. Ben presents an excellent (and detailed) examination of the old place, which will run in two segments. Today is Part I, and the second part will run in the not-too-distant future, most likely on a weekend. So, please sit back and enjoy Ben’s look at the old muni:

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Ah…Kansas City

While there may have been a number of baseball venues throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area, my focus is on the first location for Major League Baseball in the somewhat wild west. Kansas City Municipal Stadium became the home of the Athletics for a little more than a decade on their journey west.

Kansas City Municipal Stadium: Just a few facts to begin with, Municipal Stadium was constructed in 1923 with one gentle sloping mostly covered deck (17,500 seats) for a cost of $400,000. The architecture/engineering firm who designed the structure was Osborn Engineering of Cleveland, Ohio. This firm is still designing sports venues today and also is the design firm of record for places such as Fenway, Comiskey, the original Yankee Stadium, Forbes, Notre Dame Stadium, Tiger Stadium, Griffith, Three Rivers, and on and on. The double A bush league Kansas City Blues were owned by George Muehlebach, beer company owner (later bought out by Schlitz), who named the place after himself. The Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League called Muehlebach Field home until their demise in 1955. In 1937 the Blues were purchased and became an affiliate of the Yankees and so the name was changed to Ruppert Stadium after the Bronx Bombers owner. But by 1942 Mr. Ruppert had died and the name was changed once again, this time simply to Blues Stadium.

Arnold Johnson bought the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954 from Connie Mack and immediately announced the team’s relocation to Kansas City. He bought Blues Stadium, flipped it to the city for $500,000 with the promise to bring it up to major league standards. For another 100 grand the scoreboard from Braves Field in Boston was hauled in. A second deck and a few other amenities were added for $2.5 million and the place opened for the 1955 season with just over 30,000 seats.

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Now, how about an architecture critique of the actual stadium. To begin, a place has to earn its legacy through its living history. Baseball stadia are the epitome of this statement. Kansas City Municipal Stadium had a life before 1955 and I’m sure it was glorious. I was not able to see much more than a couple of photos of these early years so I’m sticking to its major league years of ’55-’72 and after.

Its attractiveness certainly cannot be measured in its outward beauty. And the comfortability index I’m sure was rather low as well. This would include employees as you can see the window air conditioners in the second story of this building. Just imagine new Yankee Stadium with window units. Hmmm, yeah times were different. Temporary bleachers set up in the outfield for Chiefs games don’t normally lead to the best aesthetic value either. No, KC Muni was not exactly a harmonic edifice.

The columns were in the way before they even put on the upper deck and were located so that most of the rows of seating were on the bad side of the gridline. The press box appeared to grow year by year until it reached the end of the grandstand and the roof of the box looked like a perfect place to watch your beer slide off on top of the unsuspecting fans below. It was simply tacked on as everything was on this place, but let’s not think this is all bad.

The front row of the upper deck was mighty close to the field. So for the rest of the upper deck seating to see the game, it had to be on a rather steep rake. While dangerous for the sauced, it made it easier to see over the big guy sitting in front of you. It gave the feeling of being in a “stadium”. There also was the process to get to your seat in the upper deck. 1. Climbing steps. 2. Walking through the tunnel. 3.Turning around to find that you have a gajillion more steps to climb. I like that feeling that you’ve had to work for your seat. You earned it.

The dugouts were rather deep but as many were at the time, had no fences, just open steps to the bench. Having players sprawled out all over those continuous stairs with no handrails just screams old time baseball. Though a batboy probably had to stand tippytoed to see from the bench, the grotto effect was certainly a plus. As was the neighborhood.

That area of the city was certainly not the most affluent, but still one that kids could ride their bikes to the back gate and wait for players to exit the clubhouse. There were houses within a homer and a half of the field, some of which still stand today.

Evaluating the building based solely on its design value does not lend to a pleasant critique. If rating on a 1-10 scale it would be a 3. This number gets raised several notches based on the neighborhood, the ballpark environment, and the A’s quirky owner, Charlie O. Finley. Overall this brings the rating to a 5. It was a slow right fielder with a .230 average and 17 home runs. It was a place that needed replacement.

The only thing I could find on the condition of the site before the first ballpark was built was that it was a “frog pond and ash heap”. The site since the stadium’s demise has not been any better. After being razed in 1976, four years after its last game, the poorly laid plan was to turn the area into a “community garden”. Obviously this was some politician’s way of appeasing the media while having no plans to actually do anything. Such were the times in the 1970’s.

Years later a slightly better sign was erected and now a subdivision of single family homes is well under way. For all the action that took place at East 22nd and Brooklyn it is rather disappointing that the only evidence Kansas City Municipal Stadium ever existed is a $300 sign.

The old Muehlebach Stadium had hosted a Negro League all-star game and World Series Championship. The expanded venue held the 1960 MLB all-star game but never an MLB World Series. Just six blocks away lies the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. It’s too bad such a wonderful part of its history, just a short walk away, has been so neglected.

A neat video about the early years of the Royals is available here and the full set of pictures are available here.

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Super job on that Ben. Thanks!

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jersey contest hed 3

MLB Jersey Contest, Day 3

Moving along, today we look at the third batch of entries in the “Design-A-Baseball-Jersey Contest” (if you happened to miss Monday’s article, refer back there for the full writeup). Another great batch today, so let’s get right to it:

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Ryan Kluever: Colorado Rockies. I integrated the "Rox" nickname. Striping is all purple, silver and black in sequence. I hate purple too but needed some color. Has a minor league flare but still clean. It sure beats the purple vests. Bonus: concept hat with “purple mountains majesty” similar to single-A affiliate Asheville Tourists.

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Anthony Krajewski: Texas Rangers. I switched out “Texas” for “Rangers” since this is a home jersey; everyone should already know they’re playing in Texas so why not rep the mascot? White piping down the middle along with white and blue bands on the sleeves break up the overpowering red that plagued this jersey before.

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Brian L. Arizona Diamondbacks. My name is Brian L and for my design i chose to do the Arizona diamondbacks. I kept their current script with their original colors. Here is my design.

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Patrick Lange: Minnesota Twins. My entry is for the Minnesota Twins. I drew inspiration from the Negro League for the center blue stripe. I darkened the cream color and used the primary TC logo on the front of the jersey for the first time in Twins history.

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Andrew Lewis: Toronto Blue Jays. The primary jersey color for the Blue Jays should be blue. This is a design based on the classic Blue Jays uniform with the current maple leaf patch and no black for black’s sake.

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Jeffrey Lewis: Colorado Rockies. New colors — blue and green, the old Denver Zephyrs color scheme — replace the hideous black and purple. A ‘fancy’ font (Oklahoma) reveals a modern depiction of the Rocky Mountains. A sleeve patch features the Colorado state fossil ”“ a stegosaurus ”“ as a mascot.

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Charles Lingner: Baltimore Orioles. Bring back the Bird! It’s a battle cry heard many times here in B-More. We want our beloved Orioles to bring back the cartoon bird..do it for Brooksie, Boog, Cakes and the Earl! Here is my take on bring back the classic bird with a modern twist.

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Scott Little: New York Mets. Mr. Red can appear on baseball jerseys, why not Mr. Met? Added two sleeve & stirrup stripes to signify the two world championships the Mets have won.

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Bob Love: Houston Astros. Hi, my name is Robert Love and the team i chose to update was the Houston Astros. the idea behind my update is i always felt the 90’s Astros script was their best in franchise history and felt that it should have been kept. However I felt the gold really didn’t really fit their identity. So i brought back the 90’s script and changed the team colors back to the original navy and orange.

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Scott Lukacs: Texas Rangers. Texas Rangers away uni.

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Matt Malinoski: Washington Nationals. I’d like to submit my Nationals tweak from May. To recap, the script is adapted from the old Senators jerseys, which matches the script “W” on the cap. Braid on collar and sleeves is blue-red-blue, which is opposite of what the current jerseys have, and colors are meant to match colors currently used on the cap.

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Mako Mameli: Los Angeles Dodgers. this is my Los Angeles Dodgers jersey for the contest. I really like the white uniform, but I think the grey one is too boring. Dodgers’ uniform is a baseball classic, so I decided not to change much. I decided to tweak it up a bit: – LA patch moved from left sleeve to right sleeve – front number moved to left sleeve – Dodgers name across the front because I don’t like the Los Angeles script and I feel it is a little redundant with the LA patch – I changed the font for name and numbers – red number outlined in white – white stripe added to sleevs The jersey is meant to be used with blue undershirt as you can see.

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Robert Marshall: Chicago White Sox. sure this is what the sox should be wearing, but that is not the contest. for corn’s sake somebody should be wearing this 40’s look, and for the sox, more white, on a charcoal jersey, with the 70’s font. my image isn’t perfect, but i give you the white sox.

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Dan Martell: Milwaukee Brewers. For my submission I’ve decided to select my tweek of the Milwaukee Brewers. I’ve used the 1977-1978 Script logo for a historical touch, matching gold stitching down the lapel & blue buttons. Lastly, I’ve taken the Barrel-Man logo and included the team’s inception year to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

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Harry Mathews: Detroit Tigers. Detroit Tigers home jersey in grey for road games. No side view since there’s nothing to see.

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Sam McCutchin: Roosevelt Rough Riders. Inspired by the Rough Rider battalion led by Teddy Roosevelt. Also, cream color inspired by the great Phillies Alternates.

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Griffin McGibbon: Seattle Mariners. simple design, basically just added pinstripes to the mariners 95 alternates. some of the first memories i have of baseball are going to the kingdome and seeing the teal jerseys. i’ve always loved the teal jerseys as well as pinstripe jerseys. so i put the two together.

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Anthony McGuire: Cincinnati Reds. This is a uniform update for the Cincinnati Reds. This has a historical feel as it has some styling from the uniform set that was worn during Pete Rose’s rookie year of 1961. It also uses the current font styling that the Reds use. This brings back blue into the Reds color scheme but also keeps black as a 2nd accent color. I always thought it to be intereseting that most teams in the MLB have once had a red, white and blue color scheme and I wanted to bring that back to the Reds.

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James McNamara: Houston Astros. I went with a design that blends concepts from each uni set in the Stros’ (literally) colorful uni history. It’s actually almost a “retro-moderned” version of their mid-90s set. The red in the star/piping is the same shade from their current set, plus a brighter yellow to evoke Rainbow Guts.

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Craig Mudie: Toronto Blue Jays. I took the concept of city flag colour schemes to it’s logical end – the design of the uniform itself based on the flag of the city of Toronto.

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Great job again! Back tomorrow with the fourth set of concepts.

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don-hutson color 1

Colorization of the Day:

Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch.

Any of you folks interested in learning how to do colorization. How to turn this into this, or this into this even this and this into this and this?

If so, let me know, and I’ll put together a tutorial — you don’t need any special skills, just patience, patience and more patience. And those were all done with a FREE program which you can download off of the Interwebs.

Even if you just want to just want to change a helmet logo from black to green or change your favorite baseball player’s pants from cream to black, it’s all the same principle.

Let me know in the comments below.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Li’l Help? Nate Neumann hails from Wisconsin and watches alot of Brewers games and everytime they play the Pirates at PNC Park, there is this vendor who only sells to the people sitting in the first few rows of home plate and this vendor dresses up like a baseball player, including high socks. Last night, “I was watching the St louis vs Pirates game and that same vendor was there dressed up like a baseball player and for a second I thought it looked like Paul Lukas! I didn’t get a screen grab, but if you can find it, send it in!!” … Dan Cichalski sends more great stuff from the Sports Collectors Convention. … That BFBS jersey story, first linked to last week, just won’t die. Kristopher Hunt found it has more legs. … More on those male/female mascots: Mark Jones informs us the New Orleans Zephyrs (AAA) have a male and female mascot, Boudreaux D. Nutria and Clotile. … A reader who goes by rleberte asks, “did you guys notice the little baby Eagles on the shoulders of Mike Vick’s jersey — cute arent they?” … Aaron McHargue noticed during Monday’s Titans game, they showed some Titans players helping clean up West Nashville in May after the flooding. Vince Young was wearing a shirt with a picture of himself. Also, “i loved the field in last night’s game. there was no 50 yard line logo, and only white outlined wordmarks in the endzones. the only color on the field was the two (tiny) NFL logos on the 25s and the USA Football logos in each endzone.” For comparison, Aaron sent along a pic of the usual field. … Ernest Ballard says, “Looks like the Hornets changed up the pinstripes on their jerseys. No more purple stripes, just yellow/gold. … Slight correction to an item in yesterday’s ticker: Paul Bielewicz saw the Rochester Red Wings’ male and female mascots were listed as “Spike” and “Mitsy”. Their names are actually “Spikes” and “Mittsy”, as in baseball equipment (Spikes being shoes and Mitt being a glove). Spikes has been a fixture since 1997 and even appears as the Wings’ primary logo and on their hats. Mittsy was introduced a few years later, perhaps somewhere in the 2000-2002 timeframe. He continues, “I’m not 100% on this factoid, but I’ve heard the actors are actually husband and wife.” … Marc found so much to love in this photo, along with the rest of the find. … Ben Traxel sends in this pic of Brett Hull in a custom Blues jersey. … Yeah…one more out-of-state license plate thingy, from Alan Borock: Texas has a license plate for Auburn University. … Here’s another look at the Buffs throwbacks, with thanks to Evan Hassinger. … Mike Bisch found this vintage-y game-used Lions helmet from the early 1950’s. … Jim Vilk would probably wear this, but would Paul? Brinke Guthrie created that shoe using this adidas shoe customizer. … Also from Brinke, Tiger Woods fans snub his shirts as he has the worst year of his career. … Mike Edgerley advises “Get your University of South “Flordia” hoodie here!” … And finally, Chris Flinn found this bit on NBA ink.

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That’s all for today folks. Thanks to Ben and all the jersey creators who were featured today — another day of outstanding work. Back tomorrow with the fourth installment.

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If you’re only using the computer because you don’t know how to draw or come up with a clever concept, well, that’s when you end up with the Oklahoma City Thunder uniform. — Mike Hass

 
  
 
Comments (231)

    Marshall: stick with the current cap and that design’s a winner.

    Oh, wait… what the fuck is link?

    Grade: F+

    i knew you would like that. what can i say, i was being a realist, and was curious what it would look like on 99% of the ball players(i put the hose in i thought would work on the side). so when i scanned the web looking for a keystone combination to change up, i wasn’t hung up on finding one that showed the stirrups. i love the ballet at the second sack, and wanted to see the jersey “in action”, that was my priority. so i’ll take the f+ for being a traitor to the cause. i will take the fail for that.

    i celebrated a job almost finished a bit to hard last night, might not be over until thursday.

    p’apple’s gettin’ cheese steaks from philly’s best, i am for sure out today, will be up after the stats league BS tomorrow.

    A lot of very good ideas today, but few of them really spoke to me in terms of the whole “design a new jersey” purpose here, as opposed to “tweak a uniform using existing team trademarks.” Great work, in other words, that’s just not my cup of tea.

    Except for Comrade Marshall’s Bitch Sox Southsiders uni. Great uni, and an outstanding stand-alone jersey. I love the notion of someone wearing really dark gray on the road, and I also love the idea of light pins or piping on a dark uni. Combining two of my top “I wish someone would wear that” styles into one uniform, plus taking a team I hate with a uniform I already admire and making me want to buy it? Awesome work. Easily the class leader today, and a worthy competitor to Cummings’ Cardinals and Hass’ Brewers.

    As an aside, I’m surprised by how popular the Rockies have been so far. And not only are a lot of people doing the Rox, but I get the sense that more creativity and original thinking has been poured into Rockies concepts than any other single team. I mean, there have been a lot of sharp Astros concepts as well, but most have simply repurposed current or former ‘Stros logos and colors. The Colorado contestants are mostly creating entirely new logos and/or color schemes, and also breaking the mold of established jersey design. Really impressive work all around on the Rockies.

    Sorry – bad html coding on my part. That was supposed to be a strikethrough on “Bitch Sox” as a shout-out to the old Bat Girl blog. Without the strikethrough, the joke/homage really doesn’t work. Apologies!

    so you got my bribe? no, thanks man. nobody uses white as colour, and the sox have the perfect reason to do so, and it gives them a reason to use there adopted colour, black, as more of an accent, and in the “charcoal”. i thought my image was lacking in clear definition of the concept, but i like that it leaves a little to the imagination too, gets your mind’s hampster on the wheel so to speak. we need to chat sometime, sounds like we may have some uni quirks in common. how do you come down on the pirate pins of the 70’s? i bet you like ’em too. i’ll put a pair of stirrups on that fact. do i owe you a pair?

    good corn…their, and hamster…i just embarrass myself sometimes, i need to learn to edit.

    Comrade, I love the Pirates pins in theory, but for some reason they don’t do anything for me in reality. I sort of acknowledge their awesomeness without actually liking them. And yes, I’ve got an order in for the new Dodgers and Rays, and every morning I bow in the direction of Cincinnati and pray that someday you’ll make New York Knights ‘rups and those D-Day socks from the contest a while back. Cincinnati is the correct direction to prostate oneself for stirrups, right, on account of the 1869 Red Stockings?

    My ever-growing list of things I wish at least one team would wear:
    – Dark roads
    – Non-gray roads, particularly pastels
    – Light pins on dark
    – Light piping on dark
    – Pillbox caps
    – 1930s-40s-style 1-inch trim like the old Grays or Cards
    – Contrast-color beltloops & rear pocket flaps
    – Soutache caps
    – Bright caps with dark brims
    – Dark cap logo on white (actually, the D-Backs do wear this)
    – Narrow-shoulder vests
    – Contrasting raglan sleeves
    – Piping that goes around the collar and the placket, not just one or the other
    – 1980-esque racing stripes like the Mets or Phillies
    – Burgundy, as a color, for teams named “Phillies”
    – Orange or yellow as a primary color, as red is to the Angels
    – Red and yellow as a color combo
    – Contrast-color plackets
    – Sleeves either longer or shorter than everyone else
    – Thick pinstripes, or just plain thick vertical stripes, or thick pins with thin borders like the Bucs
    – Patterns other than pinstripes, such as tattersall or plaid
    – Non-white monochrome home unis
    – Caps with decorations on the bill, too
    – Football-helmet-style cap logo treatments, for example like the old Angels halo, or side logos instead of front
    – Jersey with team logo on sleeves, not front
    – Horizontal stripes of some sort

    I’ve seen many of these elements in the entries so far (and my own entry tomorrow has several of them), which is one of the things I’ve really loved about these jersey designs!

    The Packers do the same thing – you’ll see it tonight on ESPN. Here’s a photo <a href="link; from a couple of years ago (the Packers were using diagonal lines in the end zone, but the sidelines and center G show what’s going on).
    It’s unfair – I’m paying regular-season prices for preseason games, I want regular-season paint!

    Three very good concepts today: Lange’s Twinkies, Love’s Astronauts and rpm’s pale hose. IMO these are all better than anything to date except for Hass’ Brewers.

    Martell had a swing and a miss. I understand Brewers fans being miffed that the name of their hometown was off the jersey for a few years (heck, due to the misnaming of my team, there’s never been an MLB jersey with “Denver” on it), but the town name simply doesn’t belong on a home set.

    The Buff photo is just sad. It’s bad enough that football pants are shorter than basketball shorts, but now football jersey sleeves are just about as short as those worn by hoopsters.

    i know that denver gets turned into colorado because of the regional nature of the teams, but i agree, can some denver team get the nuts to get their denver on?! i am just happy bawlmer finally got back to it.

    To me, the only one of today’s submissions that I would like to see adopted by the team is Lange’s Twins uni. Love the colored placket and numbers on the sleeve.

    I don’t think the Kansas City marker is disappointing in the least. It’s certainly as good as the markers left for Shibe Park in Philadelphia and Braves Field in Boston. I think we should appreciate whatever recognition is given to the old ballparks and stadiums of the past.

    I think it goes hand-in-hand with what brought us to this blog in the first place. Most (not all) uni-watchers love and respect tradition and, by God, we don’t want to see the past pissed on. Just like your local historical society fights to save from demolition a ramshackle house that Abraham Lincoln himself may – or may not – have spent a night in while passing through town… we traditionalists fight to save any and all fleeting memories of the ballparks of the past.

    What is the correct way to memorialize them? Who knows. I’m sure there are those who would say the ballparks should be preserved in such a way that two teams could step on the diamond and play this very afternoon. Others are probably content with a marker, a plaque, just *something* that proves that “there used to be a ballpark here”. Either way, if something isn’t done to remember places like the stadium in KC, those memories might be lost once their generation passes. I say kudos to the people that fight to do ANYTHING to keep the memories alive. The more, the better (obviously), but progress will always force at least some of these places to exist only on a plaque.

    Exactly. Personally, I love when old buildings are preserved. But I also recognize that buildings exist to serve people, not the other way around, and historical plaques are about the best that can be expected for all but the most exceptional obsolete ballparks. For the most part, it’s a good thing when commercial structures that no longer serve profitable purposes are torn down. Perhaps what is needed is a national equivalent of link, but in green and with the shape appropriate to the type of field being memorialized.

    Nice job by all – uni-creators and Phil and Ben too. As far as the uni-revisions go, I would love to the the correlation between the # of revisions by team, compared to the results of the best uni poll that was shared last week. My guess is that if plotted on a graph, the favorites on the poll would be inversely proportionate to the number of revisions (i think that’s what i mean).

    Yeah, Dwight, I agree: today’s site was excellent. Phil has been cranking right along, but today was especially fine.

    I’m in awe of the determination embedded in Phils’s colorization examples. I’m way too distractable and flighty, so I’ll just wait for him to post more, which I’ll then print on the handy Epson 1400 and paste on the wall of the family cabin given entirely over to Uni Watch pinups. Those Crazy Legs numbers are brilliant.

    Ben Travis’ feature on KC Municipal is golden. I love the picture of the side street near the stadium. Uni nominees? Lange’s Twins, Lewis’ Jays, Marshall’s ChiSox.

    A good day!

    Like Marshall’s White Sox concept. And big points for creativity to Mudie’s Jays. Dial up is killing me – tg I’m not a judge for something important.

    I know that buildings are just concrete and steel. I know there are more important structures like hospitals, schools and courthouses, etc,….but for some reason, I am just extremely saddened when I see “there used to be stadium here” markers. Even when a brand new facility is built right next to it or even on the same ground.

    Pictures of stadiums being torn down are just so damn tragic to me….and I just don’t mean MY STADIUMS ( Roosevelt Stadium, Union City..Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium…and yes even Shea Stadium ) but any ballpark.

    I guess in the end…they are just brick and mortar entertainment venues…….but there is just something there…that will not be there any more….

    I believe it’s the memories and the emotional investment we make in the teams who play there that make the razing of a ballpark tragic. Not many people go to school or a hospital or a courthouse because they want to, it’s more like they have to.

    I still have great memories of all the time I spent in link. I always say “Sure, it was a sh*thole, but it was our sh*thole.” I’ll never forget the sights, sounds and (yes) the smell of that place. I miss the sight of the old bleachers, aka: the “Dawg Pound” (a name which should have died the moment link retired). I miss the sound of the old wooden seats being banged up and down when the Tribe were trying to rally from behind (you didn’t get that sound at Browns games because the seats were always full). I miss the damp air off the lake adding to the smells of the stadium… co-mingled cigar and cigarette smoke, hot dogs and (of course) pee. A disgusting mix to be sure, but for some reason, it’s a wonderful memory.

    The new Browns Stadium stands on the same site, but it just isn’t the same. It’s a very nice, clean, dull facility without a whole lot of character and, true to form for all things Cleveland, not much in the way of originality (to illustrate, one need look only as far as the new “Ring Of Honor”).

    Can you imagine what it will be like when eventually Wrigley and Fenway get torned down……

    Braves Field has a large marker. The “Jury Box” and the outfield walls are largely intact.

    If I am not mistaken, the lights from Braves Field went to Kansas City, along with the scoreboard.

    While a portion of the stands and the administration office remain intact at Braves Field, I’m pretty sure the section called the Jury Box was dismantled a long time ago.

    The Jury Box is indeed gone. So are the outfield walls.

    The only parts of Braves Field that are left are the ticket office (now the Boston University police station) and the right-field pavilion. Those now make up the main stands of Nickerson Field, which once was home to both the Patriots and Boston Breakers (USFL).

    Ack, something happened when I formatted that Colorado Rockies image. The color should be a couple of shades darker:

    link

    I have to ask something… while the mountain part is obvious…and looks pretty good… what’s the deal with the secondary (dinosaur?) logo?

    i don’t want to speak for jeffrey, but i believe that’s a stegosaurus (a genus of stegosaurid armored dinosaur from the late jurassic period), whose back plates are made to resemble the rocky mountains

    or..might just be a cute mascot

    also — changed jeffrey’s image in the main article to reflect his color revision

    The Colorado State Fossil (a state “rock”, get it?) is a stegosaurus.

    I wanted an animal of sorts to represent the team as a secondary logo, similar to the A’s use of an elephant or the Phillies aborted use of a blue jay.

    Strangely, the Rockies do have a dinosaur as a mascot (“Dinger”), but he’s not a stegosaurus. Which makes zero sense.

    I was totally unaware that states had official fossils who weren’t politicians.

    The stegosaurus is fine then. Carry on.

    The Rockies’ mascot is probably supposed to be a triceratops. When they were building Coors Field, they excavated numerous dinosaur bones, including the skull of a triceratops.

    Considering the state’s history with dinos (there’s also Dinosaur National Monument), they’ve got a lot of dinosaur material to work with. I like the idea of a dinosaur alternate logo.

    Golf fans not buying Woods apparel because he’s losing? Who knew golf has front-running fans?

    . . . just so long as they’re not trying to get into John Daly’s pants. FWIW yesterday I gave a friend a pair of Norwegian curling pants as a b’day present. He’s stoked to wear them.

    My dad took me to my first Royals game at Municipal Stadium in 1972, when I was seven years old. We sat in the upper deck, and I remember being very, very worried about tripping down those impossibly steep steps and falling over the edge.

    There is another reminder of Municipal’s presence that I can think of – a couple of blocks north of the site, near the original Arthur Bryant’s barbecue, there is a faded sign on an overpass directing people to “Stadium Parking”.

    That’s a cool story. I’m always fascinated by old road signs, or old road alignments, especially those that lead to some place that doesn’t exist anymore. Yeah it’s a bit geeky, but I figure on this site, I can’t be the only way that feels that way… right?

    If you like old road alignments, there’s a site by a guy who details them, along with doing some mapping. Mostly Minnesota roads…

    link

    Wow…two Minnesota-based blogs in the same thread… deadpioneers and James Lileks…what are the odds of that?

    You might also like to check out the old closed down subway stations…..very cool…the have been sealed off and everything is usually still in place…..

    Gotta love Lileks… the guy is freakin’ hilarious. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the “Institute of Cheer”: link

    Hey Ghost, any idea what overpass that might be? Is it I-70? I would love to get a shot of it.

    This shot of Shibe Park from 1956 has an oddity… the streetcar WIRES are still up but the tracks are gone from Lehigh Avenue. It’s usually the other way around as the tracks linger for decades after the wires come down and the streetcars stop running.

    link

    Love that image! Having grown up in a town where the stadium was obviously a stadium, the only giveaway to me (at least in that shot) that it was a shot of a ballpark are the light fixtures.

    Although the neighborhood was a war zone by the 70s, and CBP is fantastic, I kind of wish the Phils still played there and it was Wrigley-esque (they even had the rooftop seating first!)

    My dad grew up an A’s fan and spent a lot of time at Shibe Park.

    That environment beats the parking lots with a stadium in the middle any day of the week.

    Philadelphia does still have “Trackless Trolleys”, but they use 2 wires, not one

    link

    there were definitely tracks on Lehigh Avenue

    link

    Andrew Lewis’ Jays design is my favorite of this bunch. That and Jeffrey Cherewaty’s Astros design from a couple of days ago are the best I’ve seen so far. And they’re the closest to just going back to older versions of the uniforms.

    We talk about black for black’s sake. Me, I’m against change for change’s sake. If it ain’t broke….

    Did you guys catch Hanley Ramirez wearing his All Star Game batting helmet last night against the Mets? I just caught it fast on SportsCenter this morning and had to bring the game up on mlb.tv to make sure, but there it was…

    link

    link

    Today’s winners:
    – RPM’S White Sox…didn’t the Blue Jays try something in the grpahite gray family a few years back? Didnt look right due to the blue still in it.Could look sweet for the SouthSiders on the road on natural grass; a little out of place in parks like The Trop with 100% artificial lighting. Make sense?
    – Malinowski’s Nats…True – a repeat, but was great from the start…clean. How about some love on the sleeve though?

    Can’t wait to see Haas’s road set. You on that yet?

    Great job all –

    Frosty

    I’m on it Frosty…just trying a couple different ideas before I settle on one. BTW, I’m not too savvy with html – how do you post links here?

    I think a colorization tutorial would be pretty cool. Even just letting us know what program you use would be a big start.

    it’s called GIMP (which is short for graphic image manipulating program)…

    download is free and only takes a few minutes…start with that and, if i’ll see if i can’t put together something for next week

    Sounds like a great alternative for folks who don’t have access to Photoshop. Great find, Phil!

    GIMP is what Larry Page and Sergey Brin used to create the very first version of the Google logo.

    re: South Flordia

    Best part of the article was that it said “Some students caught the flub.” If only some of them caught it, maybe South “Flordia” should go less athletic, and more academic. :-)

    I think the strongest one today was Lange’s Twins, with a very close second going to Marshall’s Sox.

    Could the 30s-40s shoulder striping and piped or colored placket be the “next big thing”? I hope so. When I go back and look at teams with constant, traditional looks, like the Cards, Cubs and Dogers my eye is always drawn to they wore during that period.

    My vote is for the exact same two; they look fantastic. I hope that graphite White Sox jersey is number-only on the back.

    Why aren’t contrasting shoulder colors popular these days? Particularly with a dull gray road uniform, you need to get some color in there. Vests do the job, somewhat, but I’d prefer a jersey.

    The Orix Buffaloes are doing it with link in a homage to the old link. I think it’s a great look.

    I apologize if someone already covered this, but if the jerseys seen in this video are the gamers, Nebraska has changed things up for this year.

    link

    I like the look a lot. Sleeves have been disappearing from jerseys for years, resulting in the sleeve stripes being distorted or cut off, in particular when they have to remain low in order for numbers to be above them. Moving the numbers to the top of the shoulder and giving the sleeves room to move up therefore seems like a good idea. This look also harkens back a bit to the early ’70s stripes-over-the-shoulder jerseys, which were awesome.

    Let me know whether you hear anything else on this important subject.

    Why did the Huskers EVER get rid of the early 1970s “UCLA Striping”? It gave uniqueness (What other Red & White Team i the NCAA wears such a uni) character and texture to an otherwise boring and pedestrian uni?

    Nick, I agree 100%. Those UCLA stripes looked soooooo good. I have one of those jerseys framed and hanging on a wall in my home.

    Those look excellent. Do Nebraska players have to ‘earn their (helmet) stripes’ or have they just not put them on?

    That is a good question for which I do not have an answer. I will need to ask about it.

    From the set of early KC Royals photos:
    link

    Look at the “coming attraction” posted on the scoreboard.

    Damn, I would have liked to have seen that!

    -Jet

    Yeah, let’s see some photos of that day, too!

    Also of interest in that photo is that the scoreboard shows the numbers of the pitcher and the catcher. That was normal in the old days, but now it’s link everywhere, if there are even two blanks to use. Whas KC one of the last places to indicate the catcher on the scoreboard?

    Again, everyone seems to be doing a better job than some of unis (esp. alternates) the actual MLB teams have been throwing forth.
    My favorites today are Andrew Lewis’s Jays, Bob Love’s Astros and Mattt Malinoski’s Nationals – all very elegant. Jeffrey Lewis’s Rockies is top-rate (he’s right that the green should be darker), I love that font – and no purple!

    KC Municipal Stadium Dugouts ….

    Archie Manning in his first or second year was injured after sliding into the dugout at that stadium. Sportwriters in New Orleans referenced the episode for years after it happened. It set him back a bit at the time though given the team he had it likely would not have affected the win column.

    I don’t know if anybody else saw this, but last night was the Sportscenter Special, Gruden’s Champ Camp. He visisted Saints camp and reviewed last year and they showed some footage of the Saints practice facility. There was a massive NFL logo painted on the side of one building. It was the old logo! This was a glaring mistake that I noticed. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a screengrab, but it was a pretty big mistake on the Saints part

    It could have been painted before the change. (I’ll admit I don’t know how new the Saints’ facility is.)

    here ya go, chance

    i have NO IDEA if the colors of the opposition are correct — just an educated guess after having worked with b & w for a little while now…

    if you know the opponent, i’ll have timmy b tell me the colors and if need be, rework it

    also, did the pack wear canvas (colored) pants back then? i didn’t think they were gold

    Very cool – thanks!

    I’m pretty sure that by this period, the Packers did indeed wear link exclusively.

    link shows a two-tone construction, with the different fabrics showing slightly different shades of gold.

    The pants do look tan-ish link, but I think that’s a trick of the video.

    I think you’re close on the opponent – could well be link.

    Just let me know how you’d like to be credited. And then, if you ever have any more Packers colorized photos, send ’em along.

    thanks — i actually used that photo of hutson and curly as my basis — and the two-tone pants threw me (also, i orignally had them in ‘packer gold’ and it didn’t look right)…will have to readjust that pic

    credit me as phil hecken, that’s fine

    so far, that is my only packer colorization, but i do have some awesome old shots of curly, hutson and others…one of these days…

    I’ll have to check my records, but I’m not sure the numerals look right for the Cardinals of that era. If I had to blindly guess, I might take a look at the Lions as well.

    I just looked, and link.

    Don Hutson of the Packers in a 57-21 victory over the Lions in Milwaukee in 1945. Lanky, with huge hands, and playing in an era when the running game was king, he caught four touchdown passes and kicked five extra points in the second quarter.

    awesome!

    timmy b, via email, thought it was the lions as well…

    two guys whose word i’d take and then chance with the proof — beautiful

    maybe i’ll use that photo for the tutorial…

    COLORADO THROWBACK UNIS …..

    Really dislike the overly TRUNCATED sleeve stripes, I also disdain the WAY TOO LIGHT COLORED “Vegas Gold” that is really closer to White than Gold.

    Pretty lame presentation for a team with a pretty cool pre-1996 uniform history. After that it has been nothing but NIKE “Vegas Gold”/Crappy Trends/Manufacterer one-bad-idea-after-another Douchebaggery …..

    i can second nate’s sighting of a paul look-a-like as a pirates vendor behind home plate. i saw him working when the mets were in pittsburgh over the weekend. he was rocking a mix and match bumblebee set and a pillowbox cap. definitely looked like lukas!

    Today’s faves:

    Patrick Lange’s TWINS: Sweet! I love this one. Maybe just add thin red piping around the wide blue center stripe??

    Jeffrey Lewis’ ROCKIES: Fan-f***ing-tastic! Great rebranding from the logo, the letter font, the colors…wow! The secondary patch may look like a Rohrschach blot from a distance but doggone it, if the Rockies came into the league looking like this I would have been a fan from Day One!!!!

    Bob Love’s ASTROS: While I’m not crazy about Houston’s latest logo and font, you’ve at least made it palatable with their traditional colors. Perhaps a thin blue/orange stripe combo at the end of the sleeve would cap it off nicely.

    Matt Malinowski’s NATIONALS: Not reinventing the wheel here, but a clean, traditional look that serves them better than their current threads.

    Bob Marshall’s WHITE SOX: that dark gray is different and certainly seems to work with the contrasting black and white areas.

    Anthony McGuire’s REDS: Pretty good, but there are too many outlines on the numbers so that they overpower everything else on the jersey.

    A good batch today, bravo to everyone who contributed!!

    -Jet

    That PNC Park vendor metioned in the ticker doesn’t actually sell anything – he just gives the stuff away without taking any money. Last year someone got me tickets behind home plate, but a little higher than those premium seats. I watched him for a while, and he would just wait for someone to signal him. Then, he’d toss them some peanuts and keep moving. I guess if you’re shelling out that much money for tickets (close to 300 bucks, I believe), food is included in the price.

    Didn’t have my camera, or I would have taken some pics.

    Compared to the previous two batches, today’s unis were not as good. Lange’s Twins was the exception. That’s a good one and deserves to be in the final 9. Marshall’s Sox is number 2. My initial reaction was no on it, but after a few seconds it grew on me. I wouldn’t mind seeing it on the field, but it will be part of a large group fighting just to get in final 9. As a final comment, I like how Lewis worked the mountain silouette into the Rockies logo (best of several attempts so far in this contest), but I thought the colors were horrible.

    Something got seriously fouled up in the formatting with the colors. This might be better.

    link

    Or it might not!

    Trax, great job on that KC retrospective. It may not have been the best place to take in a game, but it sure looked nice when I watched Chiefs games on TV.

    Today’s contestant who should go straight to the finals is Patrick Lange. Love that TC on the jersey, and I like the blue strip.

    In a close second place, there’s a tie between Marshall’s Sox and Lewis’ Rockies. Next are Lingner’s Orioles, then Mathews’ Tigers and Malinowski’s Nats.

    I don’t have a solid opinion of Mudie’s Blue Jays yet, but I can’t stop looking at it. Guess that means I’m leaning towards “I’d wear that.”

    I guess I need Phil’s tutorial as well if I want to crank out some tweaks.

    Timing in life is interesting.
    Today a story on KC Municipal Stadium.
    And just yesterday, after many trips to Mall of America, I finally walked around until I found home plate from Met Stadium, the spot marked with a brass plate in the floor. Way off in the distance, high on one wall where the left field upper deck seats once were, is bolted a single orange chair. It’s the chair where the longest ball ever hit at the Met landed. Hit by Harmon Killebrew, natch.

    Nostalgia all over the place right now…lots of similarities in KC Municipal, Milwaukee County and Met Stadium, and watched lots of games on TV FROM KC Municipal, too.

    —Ricko

    Judging by all of the Blue Jays remakes that have been done, it’s pretty clear no one likes their current set. However, I haven’t liked any of the mock ups people have done to improve them. (I recognize a few others have.) Maybe the Jays are just hopeless!

    Maybe it’s time to contract the Jays, and expand in another market. The next contest could be everyone’s new team proposals. (Unfortunately I realize that would shift this site into Creamer Board territory.)

    ahh, the Nashville Sounds. Why did they ever change their unis? As an aside, why are there so few Pirates jerseys in this contest? Are they that bad of a franchise?

    They changed colors as they changed their MLB affiliation to Pittsburgh. The switch to black was supposedly to match the Pirates. The hole in that story is that they had been affiliated with the White Sox, who feature black also. I think it was classic BFBS.

    All they need to do is go back to the ’92-’93 unis. Or the originals. You want to relocate someone, let it be the Rays.

    They’re not hopeless – the Blue Jays had perfect uniforms in the early 90’s that they proceeded to start screwing up.

    The Blue Jays are kind of conceptually unforgiving. Their unis are either going to be perfect of a complete flop. Personally, I don’t think the Jays have ever really nailed it, though I think they’ve had a number of good ideas over the years that haven’t been executed well. Including black – they’re named after a bird with distinctive colors, after all, and black is one of those colors. I started but never finished a Blue Jays redesign myself in 2008, where my goal was to combine the things I’ve liked about various Jays designs:

    – Royal & Black color scheme from their current set
    – Sharp serifs from their 2000-2001 set
    – Lettering with thin inner lines from 1977-2001
    – Prominent display of mascot icon from 1977-present

    I’m not saying I had anything great going on, but you can kind of see where I was trying to go with this here:

    link
    link

    If someone with, you know, actual talent and vision were to take this sort of approach and competently apply these elements, the Jays could have a lasting and distinctive look that may transcend the whole “go back what we happened to be wearing the last time anyone in the States noticed we existed” curse.

    It’s the number font that made the old (’80s) Jays uniforms so great. The revision they used in the late ’90s, with the “4” open at the top, made things worse, and now they’ve got a totally uninsipired design with the Crillee font. Bring back the original look!

    Is that Memorial Stadium marker still there? I was looking at the historical imagery slider on Google Earth, and noticed in the aerial photos from the past year or so that the streets & sidewalks around the site have been redone, and the most recent imagery shows no sign or benches. Maybe the latest photo got taken near the end of the renovation and the marker hadn’t been re-installed, but as far as I can tell, that’s now gone.

    Anyone on the ground in K.C. who can verify if the sign & benches were put back in place?

    You’re right. It looks like the sign and benches are now gone on the aerial. But it looks like there is a concrete “loop” sidewalk like they might be coming back when they get the construction work done….maybe…. That’s the NW corner of Brooklyn and 22nd if anyone wants to look. If you look in the photos under “street view” the sign and benches can be seen. That Google Earth is an amazing thing. I use it all the time.

    The Twins uniform submitted today is absolutely stunning. The ChiSox charcoal unis are classsic.

    One of yesterday’s uni revision submissions had “PHILS” instead of Phillies, which reminded me of a question I wanted to pose to the UW crowd.

    What do you think of the use of abbreviated team names on unis? Three that come to mind are “Jays”, “Rays” and “D’Backs” in baseball.

    I don’t like this at all, yet somehow “A’s” or even “O’s” doesn’t bother me.

    -Jet

    Isn’t REDS actually an abbreviation as well? Or at least it used to be. I recall seeing Red legs on a lot of old time Cincy stuff.

    link

    No, I wouldn’t count the Mets because for all intents and purposes the name they present for public consumption is “Mets”. They don’t have “Metropolitans” in their logo or any other official capacity. Mets is their official name even though it’s an abbreviation of Metropolitans.

    What I find interesting is that Boston has always had RED Sox on their unis, but Chicago has always used “SOX” except for 1987-1990, when they had “WHITE Sox” on their home unis. It’s bizarre that a team that’s been around for over 100 years has only had its full name on the uni for FOUR years!!

    -Jet

    Now here’s an interesting thread.

    Cincy’s really really old time name was Cincinnati Red Stockings, America’s first professional club unless you’re talking to someone who says that the Brooklyn Atlantics were the first professional club. Native Rhinelanders will know the specifics, but my understanding is that Red Stockings morphed into Reds (though sportswriters would employ “redlegs” for colorful-writing purposes), which changed officially to Redlegs at the onset of post-WW2 anti-communism sentiment, which changed back to Reds when people came to their senses. [There’s a funny song from the 1950s called “Hurrah for the Ssssh White and Blue.”]

    Boston decided (unfortunately!) to drop Beaneaters and go with Red Stockings and then Red Sox, and Chicago went directly from White Stockings to White Sox (I think). Team names were more fluidly and frequently changed back in the day…

    Personally, I don’t like abbreviations. Orioles is a perfect name; O’s is best employed as a synonym for the team when you’re tired of saying Orioles or Baltimore. Diamondbacks is a pretty good name, I think, and so what if it’s a little long? Bluejays is way better than Jays, and I’ll even go so far as to wish that the A’s could revert to Athletics. So sue me.

    I abominate them all, from “D’backs” to “Jays” to “M’s”–I even wish that the NY team would give “Metropolitans” a decent try-out. Though the line should probably be drawn at “Philadelphia Philadelphians,” and the “Red/White Sox” abbreviations have too much history behind them to reverse now.

    In general, though, abbreviations on the jersey are gauche and dignity-free, fit only for the kind of leagues that also give their teams collective singulars and movie tie-ins for nicknames.

    And incidentally, Connie, I seem to remember some historians claiming that the original Cincinnati Red Stockings relocated to Boston, and that the successor Cincinnati team tended to be called the “Reds” to avoid confusion with the now-BOSTON Red Stockings. The latter didn’t keep the “Red Stockings” nickname for long, though; they went through several monikers before finally settling on “Braves” (and since the old nickname had been long unused by 1901, the AL’s new Boston entry felt justified in pinching it).

    It’s interesting, because many of the individuals we’d now recognize as a team’s “owners” remained involved in the various successor clubs in Cincy even as the players were more or less reconstituted in Boston. So if all of a team’s players jump ship to another city and play under the same team name, but the owners stay behind and hire other players, where is the “real” team now? Is it where the players and uniforms moved, or is it where the owners stayed put? And tree hits a home run in the forest but can’t run the bases on account of being an immobile object, does he score?

    As a Braves fan, I’ll recuse myself from the first question. As for the second: if Bengie Molina has made it around the bases before within regulation time, so can a tree.

    There are those here who lose their sh** if a team doesn’t have its full, official birth certificate name and only that on its uniform. It’s fairly silly, actually.

    No more so than quibbling about stirrups, fonts, and colors, really. If such topics strike you as inherently trivial, I won’t call you wrong, but I might suggest that you’ve come to the wrong website.

    FYI Don’t be confused about the mention of the “double A” Blues in KC. The Kansas City Blues played in the American Association which was, along with the International and Pacific Coast Leagues the top rung of the minors. Organized Baseball didn’t establish the Triple A class until 1946.

    The whole Kansas City A’s-New York Yankees incestuous relation stunk from the head down. First, Arnold Johnson was a drinking buddy of Yankee owners Del Webb and Dan Topping. Johnson liked the thought of being a major league owner. So when the A’s came on the market Johnson, with the Yankees’ help, bought the team. Knowing absolutely nothing about baseball he turned to his Yankee buddies and asked them if they knew of someone whom he could hire as his General Manager. The Yankees recommemded Parke Carroll, who just so happened to work in the Yankees’ front office in their minor league department. The Yankees, who had been the Blues’ parent team, were in essence now the A’s parent team given the fact that they had their own man running the show. When the A’s had a young player that showed potential, somehow he would end up in pinstripes thanks to a “trade” with the Yankees. Clete Boyer and Hector Lopez are examples.

    But if a New York “prospect” was in need of some “seasoning,” he would be “farmed out” to the A’s until he had proved he was ready to rejoin the Yankees. Ralph Terry is in this category. And then you had the downright theft of Roger Maris who was traded to New York for an aging Hank Bauer.

    Ford Frick, the gutless commissioner of baseball, made absolutely no effort to stop any of these one-sided deals. The only way that the Yankees-A’s mutual admiration society ended was with the untimely passing of Arnold Johnson and the subsequent sale of the A’s to Charlie Finley.

    One can only surmise that if Johnson had lived then Catfish Hunter, along with Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenac, et al could have ended up in pinstripes and the Yankees’ original dynasty might never have crumbled.

    Excellent summary of the “Yankee farm team” era, Terry. I’ve heard bits and pieces of that over the years.

    More, obviously, is known about Charlie Finley’s time in Oakland, but he challenged the status quo in KC, too. You probably remember his Half-Pennant Porch; I read about it in a Sporting News ballpark book.

    For the uninitiated, Finley pulled the fence in — well, he built a fence within the existing fence — to replicate the Yankee Stadium right-field porch. If I recall correctly, Frick made him take it down after a couple games.

    that’s all coming in part 2, tom

    ben did a great job on the “quirks” — the amount of research he did was incredible, and had to be broken down into 2 pieces

    /stay tuned

    Good to hear, Phil. Especially since my copy of that mid-’80s TSN ballpark book seems to have gone missing …

    I believe they were pre-season exhibition games instead of regular season games. And Ol’ Charlie O went the whole route by setting up a set of portable bleachers in that little corner and actually selling tickets. Way to go, Charlie! The whole thing was actually hilarious.

    What’s the final verdict on County Stadium in Milwaukee? Does it produce the same sentimental feelings as Cleveland Municipal Stadium? It seems like most people love Miller Park, but I’ve heard some people say that County Stadium should have simply been renovated. Thoughts?

    I have great sentimental feeling for County Stadium, Dave. I saw my first game there in 1972 and was there for the final game in 2000.

    The place was crumbling at the end — probably because, once Miller Park was approved, they stopped putting money into it — but it had its own charm.

    Miller Park has better sight lines and much better amenities, but it’s a shopping mall.

    Was just out there with my nine-year old son last night. It’s definitely a mall. I cannot find any charm in Miller Park. I miss home runs landing in the seats and being able to walk around while still watching the game. I go there alot and miss the old place every time – even the rain delays trapped out in the bleachers!

    I hear ya, Kevin. My daughters are 14 and 7; I’m glad I made a point of taking the oldest to a game at County Stadium.

    But she doesn’t like baseball, so I’m not sure the memory will mean much to her. :)

    I don’t think Miller Park has better sightlines, frankly. County Stadium, though a bare-bones product of the 1950s, was a great place to watch a game. Very few bad seats in the house.

    I was thinking that last night. We had good seats, but I spent the whole game turned to the left to face the action. Really no improvement on the old joint.

    County Stadium was a great park, with seats close to the action. Miller Park is essentially a dome. It’s really not a contest…

    Put me down for another vote in favor of a colorization tutorial.

    I think I get the general idea, but tips and/or different methods are always a good thing.

    I too would like to learn how to use GIMP for colorizing. I use Recolored. You have to pay for it. I have Gimp but have no idea how to colorize with it. Recolored is good but sometimes if the picture is too bright or too dark it is had to get some colors such as red right.

    I look forward to the tutorial.

    Sorry, Larry, but when a Browns fans uses the word “red” followed by the word “right,” of course the next thought I have is “88.” ;)

    For the rest of the country:
    link

    I’m glad to see that there are a wide variety of tastes out there. I’ve seen numerous “this batch is nothing compared to the others” type-comments. Personally, I like this batch much more than #2, but still feel day 1 had the best overall options. As for today:

    #1 – Patrick Lange, Twins – Love the old-time feel
    #2 – Jeffrey Lewis, Rockies – I could see this look work on a baseball field!
    #3 – Matt Mclinoski, Nationals – Doing what should have been done since Day One.

    As for Griffin McGibbon’s Mariners option … please pull this from the site immediately. It’s not the best of them all, it’s not the worst of them all – but it is a crime against the eyes that I could somehow see the Seattle marketing department forcing onto a MLB ball field if they get the chance.

    Outstanding entry today about KC Municipal Stadium!

    I was in Seattle recently and went to the Lowes that sits on the site of old Sicks stadium. The only evidence I could find that there was ever a ballpark there was this little display case in the front entrance

    link

    Supposedly they have the basepaths marked off somewhere inside, but I didn’t see it.

    As for today’s design entries…

    I love that simplified Nationals uni and agree it’s what they should have gone with out of the gate.

    Marshall’s ChiSox is a beauty. I’d be curious to see it in flannel gray rather than charcoal, though.

    One of the few sports things I love more than uniforms is ballparks. The older the better, so a UW entry on Lost Ballparks is right in my wheelhouse. Keep ’em coming, please.

    In June 1994, I took a trip to Missouri to add to my ballpark collection. The day I was in Kansas City for a Royals game, I found the Municipal Stadium site.

    link

    Brooklyn and 22nd is the intersection pictured in the photo at the top of this page.

    Great post, Boothill Ben!

    I just wanted to second this post, and also add parks that are still standing but are dis- or under- used. Loeb Stadium in Lafayette, IN, springs to mind. Hosted various minor league teams, now just holds high school and the Colt World Series.

    While we’re talking about plazues, I came across a bit of information when I was writing the piece on Jarry Parc.

    Delorimier Stadium, the home of the Montreal Royals and the site of Jackie Robinson’s first professional season, is now the site of an elementary school, and there’s a plaque commemorating Robinson’s achievements.

    link

    link

    I remember the Montreal Royals. The first Rochester Red Wings game I ever saw in person was on August 20, 1959 at Red Wing Stadium (later Silver Stadium) against the Royals. Some southpaw with jet-black hair named Lasorda pitched for Montreal that night going six innings in a 3-2 loss to Bob Keegan of the Wings. As Tommy was heading to the Royals’ clubhouse after being removed he passed right in front of our seats. I knew of him from listening to the radio broadcasts of Red Wing games every night. So I said something like “Good game Tommy.” He smiled and gave me a wink. From then on I’ve always liked Tommy Lasorda. I recently found the game story and box score from that night in an on-line edition of the Montreal Gazette archives. I treasure that finding.

    Just over a year later I attended the final game that the Montreal Royals ever played in the International League. It was September 11, 1960 as the Wings won. The Montreal franchise was sold by Walter O’Malley, moved and became the reincarnation of the Syracuse Chiefs who are now the second-oldest team in the IL (50 seasons) behind the Red Wings (112 consecutive years in the league).

    I loved those Redskins uniforms and especially that helmet with the feather. The ‘Skins are playing the hated Noo Yawk Jints. Rochester TV showed the Giant games on one channel and my Browns on the other. Battle lines were clearly drawn. To this day I’ve never cared for Chris Schenkel because he was the Giants announcer on CBS. I can still hear his scrawny voice. “Field goal try by Summerall is good! The Giants win!” He was not as obnoxious as John Stirling but he was right up there.

    Could Phil or someone pleas ecolorize that shot until you get the tutorial up?

    Could Phil or someone pleas ecolorize that shot until you get the tutorial up?

    saw that and was instantly thinking the same thing…

    that might take me a couple hours — if i have time tonight, i’ll give it a shot —

    if anyone else wants to give it a whirl, please be my guest

    They got #32 and #49 correct. But #42 should be Paul Warfield, #44 Leroy Kelly and #48 Ernie Green. Does anyone see a pattern here?

    I would love to have a colorization tutorial posted to use. That would be great.

    Only thing greater would be for someone to post images of the Playboy Bunnies vs. Radio Disc Jockeys game that was promoted on the electronic scoreboard in one of the KC Municipal Stadium photos linked.

    Completely unrelated to the post today, but I’ve noticed the Lakers have appeared to make some tweaks to both their home and away jerseys. On NBAStore.com, the customizable jersey option features their home gold with purple numbers instead of white, and their away purple with gold numbers instead white. Check it out:

    link

    link

    link

    link

    The last link is just a custom preview of what a Kobe Bryant home jersey will look like.

    Honestly, I like this look better. Has a more vintage feel to it. BUT, this change is not reflected in the NBA style guide, so it may be false (or the guide may have been created before all the little tweaks NBA teams have been making this year due to the material change).

    that is beautiful — seen it before, but i could look at it all day

    it’s one of those rarities, not just because it’s color, but because in his entire time with the yankees as a player, ruth never wore the interlocking NY on his chest…so anytime you come across one of those photos (i’ve seen a few) with that logo, it’s a clue that the photo was taken after his NYY playing days

    Any know what happened to the uni the Babe wore that day. He died 2 months later, so I will assume its the last uni he ever wore….PLUS its the got the interlocking logo…..

    Check out the rups…..

    The bat Babe leaned on that day is (or was?) in the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, Iowa.

    I believe that those lockers behind Babe are also in the HOF in Cooperstown. I know that Lou Gehrig’s is.

    Phil,

    Yes, I am also interested in a colorization tutorial. Thanks! And of course, I’m looking forward to seeing how the UniWatch community reacts to my Tigers road jersey in tomorrow morning’s entry. Thanks again for putting this contest together.

    No. I’m sure an actual Mets fan (I think there are a couple who post here from time to time) could explain, but Mets is not short for Metropolitans.

    There was once a link baseball club commonly referred to as the Mets, but the current franchise has always just been the Mets.

    My greatest memories of Municipal Stadium come from the Chiefs and their wonderful field maintained by George Toma. The alternating shades of green were exquisite. When the Truman Complex opened with their artificial turfs, everybody knew that George’s talents would be squandered. Fortunately, he stuck with Kansas City but shared his natural turf knowledge with others, esp. as a consultant with the Super Bowls. Eventually, Kansas City came around and replaced the turf in Arrowhead and Royals Stadium with the real stuff and George was back in his element.

    The Flickr set brought back a lot of Charlie O. memories: The Pennant Porch, the mules, the orange baseball and the jack rabbit ball delivery system. I was an A’s fan at the time, and basically was on board with most the changes, especially the color uniforms.

    Mostly, though, the A’s were last-teams through the Johnson era, but people knew Charlie was pretty savvy when it came to baseball talent. Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Sal Bando, Reggie Jackson were all home-grown talent. Then just as they were ready for The Show, Charlie took the A’s to Oakland.

    Thank goodness for the Kauffman family, which really put a good product on the field. The Kansas City Star, a couple Sundays ago, had a great story about how what could have been had John Scherholz not left the Royals for the Braves. Ahhh, what might have been. ….

    count me in for a tutorial… btw, not only great baseball uniform concepts on parade the last couple of days, but some incredible artistic talent as well!

    Regarding the vendor at PNC Park, I brought this to Paul’s attention back in April 2008, as can be seen at the end of this article: link

    The pic is here: link

    first and foremost, bootHEEL ben, that was outstanding today. and very personally topical seeing as pineapple moves next week, and i follow about a month later. my first thought was i hope there is still some structure left, maybe i will get my wiffleball league started on that site, but as i got to the end, wa~wa…tuba blurt on that idea.

    okay jerseys today, and i will obviously not comment on my submission, and pretend it is not there. i agree with the various comments that say today’s was a relatively weak batch. i thought we had more strong .8 then any other day, but the 1 candidates were lacking, so i will say no 1’s today at the clubhouse turn. i liked linger’s (a)o’s and little’s mets as “fashion” jerseys. love’s astros was nice in the olde colour scheme, and malinowski’s nats is a what they should wear jersey for sure. i consulted pineapple on some that i considered for the .8, bust sorry lewis’ rockies-“looks gay”(i liked it), and brian L’s dbacks-“nobody can make that crap look good”(but i thought you did). pineapple say’s mudie’s jays was “unique, and creative”(i hate raglan, but i am deferring today), and we both agree that lange’s twins was sharp, even though i don’t in general like the heavy stripe down the middle and around the collar, i personally think it looks like someone is spooning a mouthful of head soup. but for whatever reason, this one seems to work. and we both liked martel’s brewers for it’s use of yellow, it is uber sharp(i think closest to a 1 today). although pineapple added, “what’s with all this crappy number fonts that everyone is using?!” (agreed, .8). so as of today…
    1~callahan(cards) haas(brewers)
    .8~lange(twins) martel(brewers) mudie(jays) cummings(rockies)
    on the outside needing some help~gough(orioles)
    …good luck alain

    that’s the way it usually read to me. but i do like lange’s version.

    by the way, from day one, i like the allison phillies as a .8 addition. p’apple is going day by day giving her 2 cents, this is priceless crit on everybody, she is ruthless!! then she pipes in in with her chi~caw~go manner,”if i had to fix somebody, i would fix the damn mets. first off all they need to drop the black, what the hell is that, black. they have great colours, what the f…”

    ”if i had to fix somebody, i would fix the damn mets. first off all they need to drop the black, what the hell is that, black. they have great colours, what the f…”

    you best treat that lady right, now, robert

    that’s a keeper fer sher

    as long as she comes home from the super market with popsicles, i want a grape popsicle. or fresh fruit paletas, those are bomb~poptastic too.

    that’s the wa~wa part, yes. but the tuba blurt is the sort of fart sound not included in “sad trombone”. after the first wa wa, just blurt. maybe i should find an example.

    how about a design a jersey tutorial because using crayons and colored pencils suck

    I was looking for some help… I am on the alumni board at a D-3 school, and we were floating the idea of having the baseball team wear a throwback jersey for a big event this upcoming season. We don’t have any definite plans yet, but folks were looking at me to see how much it would cost and how feasible it would be to pull it off. Can anyone point me in the direction of folks who would be able to work on a 1930s style baseball uni?
    Thanking the uni-watching crew in advance,
    dag
    link

    Gotta say, James McNamara’s concept is by far my favorite submission out of any I’ve seen yet.

    I love Lange’s Twin City concept, that thing looks amazing. Just wish rpm hadn’t made the soup spoon comment, now I can’t get it out of my head!

    Not so in love with Lewis’ Rockies. Good concept, but I think Curry’s version is executed better. This has too much going on…and what’s with the dinosaur???

    Also not digging Mudie’s Jays idea. Do we really want baseball jerseys to start looking like the Buffalo Bills?

    that style is head soup, but his works, except the two red stripes on the sleeves, i can do without those, turned a 1 into a .8, made it a tad fashion jersey. the fact that i liked a head soup at all is a testament to it working.

    speaking of crit, i like yours, one of my two 1’s at this point, but what is with the eagles style odd size stripes? do you just like that look? surprised that didn’t bother more of the ocd’ers here, and it didn’t kill it for me either, i am more curious. did you just think it would be too close to the 70’s brews without that tweak. care to let me in? just trying to look at this contest as a wall crit where we say what we like and don’t then defend. what say you on the sleeve stripes? do you think the sleeve patch has any bearing on the love? is that what you started with? or was it the script? or colour? i do love that colour scheme for the brewers.

    All stripes are not created equal I guess. As blue is my primary color and yellow is the accent, it just seemed right to give more weight to the blue stripe. But that was definitely one of the last things I did…it started with the wordmark.

    On yours I really enjoyed the charcoal palette with the white Chicago wordmark. Worthy of your .8 I think. I docked it .2 points for having the thick white piping collide with the nice white type. Maybe if it was black or much thinner I wouldn’t mind it so much. I have the same problem with the Braves home unis.

    sorry, just back from umping, you prolly won’t see this…

    excellent retort, big points. and that all makes sense too.

    i would agree with your cit of mine, the soustache “collision” could be problematic, that is something that should have been addressed. i didn’t take the time to make sure they didn’t come together in the example, i just used the font as is.

    I too have always liked looking at the old stadiums. As kid I loved looking in the old Pirates program that had the 8 National League stadiums in the back. I had never been to Kansas City. I first saw a game at Forbes Field.

    Interesting column.

    RE: M/F mascots at baseball games
    Are these mascots at every game or ‘special’/some games?
    I ask ’cause there is Mrs. Met and Phyllis Phanatic, the Green Guy’s Mom who is at his ‘B-day”, mother’s day, etc.? does anyone know?

    It’s color-color night in Arlington. Rangers in red, Minny in navy.

    The home team is wearing “TEXAS.”
    The away team is wearing “Twins.”

    heh

    Ben, thanks so much for the story on Municipal Stadium. I can’t wait for part 2. While most of my childhood was spent at the Truman Sports Complex (we had season tickets to the Royals and Chiefs), it was at Municipal Stadium that I attended my first game. I wasn’t quite one when my parents and grandparents took me to a game. It was during the first season in ’69. And I went to many games there with my dad and grandpa before the move to Royals/Kauffman. I remember my favorite players. Cookie Rojas(I had Cookie tennis shoes), Paul Schaal, Fred Patek (a family favorite), and Lou Piniella. I loved to yell “LOOOUUUU” when I was a kid. There was a clock on the light tower in LF and I knew that Lou played by the clock. And my dad always got us tickets as far out in the LF upper deck so I could be by Lou.

    I go down to the old site of the stadium quite often when I am home. Now, mostly for the BBQ at Arthur Bryant’s at 18th and Brooklyn. And I drive by the benches and sign often. Last time I drove by they were still there. It was around a year ago. I drove through that new neighborhood to see if there were any other markers. None that I saw.
    Incidentally, the high school that you can see in the overhead view (kinda behind home plate area) is where Royals Gold Glover Frank White went to school.

    Once again, thanks for the memories.

    Thanks kst8cat. By the way, I’ll be making it to three Wildcat games this year (MO ST, Mizzou, and Colorado). You?

    That article was indeed fun to write about. Part 2 will have some really fun stuff to banter about. The only remnant I’ve heard that is still visible is what a reader said earlier today – don’t know who but look above somewhere. Evidently there is still a “Stadium Parking” with an arrow or something still painted on an overpass around there. I’ll need to find that next time I’m up there – or send RPM on a hunt to get a photo since he’s moving that direction.

    Ben, I doubt that I will get to any football games this year. I usually get to one when I am home for Thanksgiving but the last three games are on the road this year. I really would like to go to the last Nebraska game at home. I will probably get to hit some basketball though. Especially the games at the Sprint Center. Hopefully Duke and definitely UNLV. I think I will be able to go to the games after new year at Bramlage.

    I saw that post about the “stadium parking” sign. I would love to know more about where that might be exactly. The only overpass near Bryant’s would be I-70. I could easily pay a visit while on a BBQ run to Bryant’s. Have you ever seen the Monarchs pictures there? They are pretty spectacular. Very cool to see the real thing.

    nah…you’re not too late

    i think there was quite a call for it…it’s coming

    Really diggin’ Patrick Lange’s Minnysoda Twin Cities uniform. Nicely done throwback.

    The Chisox dark gray is the beat I’ve seen. Fine work, it has my vote if it makes the tip
    9.

    Ben, that was great. I had never much thought about that stadium until today…so why do I bemoan its loss? It looked beautiful in my eyes.

    Patrick’s Twins and rpm’s White Sox stand out from today’s uni sets.

    But I do like both Andrew’s and Craig’s Blue Jays concepts, as well as Scott’s Rangers and Matt’s Nationals…they are all superior to what those teams wear now.

    Speaking of Municipal Stadium, any pics exist (preferably in color) of Reggie Jackson as a KC Athletic?

    highly unlikely

    reggie was a mid season callup in 67 (june 9), and began playing pretty much full time in 1968, by which time the A’s had already moved to oakland

    he didn’t even have a rookie card until 1969 (so there are plenty of photos of him in the 1968 old english “OAKLAND” uni), but i’ve yet to see anything of him wearing a KC uni

    the baseball card photogs wouldn’t have taken one (or most likely wouldn’t have) and you’d pretty much have to hope the team took one or a fan maybe did in 67 — he had 135 PA’s (118 ABs) so i don’t know if this kept his rookie status in 1968…but regardless, a photo of reggie in a KC uni may be a new white whale

    I haven’t read all of the comments today, but just wanted to check in to say that I LOVED Jeffrey’s Rockies unis. The green may be a bit bright for my taste, but the new logo demonstrates an underlying creativity that is incredibly impressive. I also LOVE the incorporation of the Stegosaurus as a secondary logo/mascot. In addition to the provincial relevance, the Stego definitely aesthetically coheres with rest of the Rockies branding. Really inspired stuff and probably my favorite thing to emerge from the contest thus far.

    Love Jeffrey Lewis’s Rockies re-design — but gotta get the Stegosaurus on the hat!!! (Steg’s back plates and the mountains of the uniform design are a nice parallel).

    By the sheer number of Blue Jays’ entries, the Jays really do need to change their uniforms (preferably back to the original design). Don’t like the angry bird thing they have going now.

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