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Getting the Red (and Blue) Out

Heat_NPC_BB_A_1

By Phil Hecken

I’m back today with Tim E. O’Brien, who recently brought us his concepts for the new Brooklyn Nets and a makeover of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tim’s been a busy beaver since that time, and he has a boatload of new concepts for the NBA. With the playoffs tipping off now, interest in the NBA is probably as high as it will ever be.

Tim will describe this below, but he’s noticed the extreme number of blue, red or blue and red teams in the NBA. Now, some of those teams are fairly iconic in uni-stature, so they should remain in their current red or blue iteration. But there are a number of teams who might improve their look simply by ditching the red or blue. That’s where Tim comes in.

Let’s see what he has in mind.

~~~

R and B in the NBA
By Tim E. O’Brien

No I’m not talking about this year’s All-Star halftime show or the Space Jam soundtrack (though, I did own it…), I’m talking about the duel epidemics in the NBA: Too much Red and too much Blue.

A while back, a few of us in the comments section noticed something significant. Specifically, how rampant red and blue are as main colors in the NBA. Here’s the breakdown by the numbers:

Eighteen NBA teams wear blue as a main color, that’s 60 percent of the league. Twelve NBA teams wear red as a main color, that’s 40 percent of the league. Now, 17 percent of the league overlap these categories by wearing both red and blue but with this possible Wizards recolorization leak and the assumption that the Kings are going to become the Royals again after their move to Anaheim, it is safe to assume that two more ‘red and blue’ teams will added to the league in 2011.

That would bring the totals up to 20 blue (67%) 14 red (47%) and 7 red and blue (23%).

That’s way too much.

In the spirit of diversity and individuality, I have commissioned myself to rid the NBA of (some) red and blue.

Now, I did come up with some rules. First, certain teams are iconic and wont be touched. Other teams are iconic but can be adjusted to move either red or blue to just an accent color. Next, teams can be rebranded but I decided not to contract or relocate any teams (with the exception of the Kings, because their move to Anaheim seems like a foregone conclusion).

With those stipulations set, let’s get straight to it:

Bobcats — (Home, Road and Alternate) — A blue team, the Bobcats uniforms take on the Marquette/Syracuse look from recent years and the blue has been replaced with brown (orange and brown is underused in the NBA). If they insist on their NASCAR unis, this uniform template allows a nice transition — (Home and Away).

Clippers — (Home and Road) — A red and blue team, I went back to their uniforms from just last year [not this new jazz] with a few tweaks: minimal blue, Los Angeles on the road and no blue alternate.

Federals — (Home, Road and MIB Alternate) — I know what you’re saying, “who are the Feds?” Well, I rebranded the Wizards because the fans hate that name and the organization is too timid to call them the Bullets. A blue team, I gave the former Wizards a very monetary themed uni, the Feds is just too good of a name to pass up for the Capitals team (and it has been pointed out to me that the MIB Alt looks like John Wall joined Slytherin).

Grizzlies — (Home, Road and Alternate) — Last time I checked, bears were brown, not blue. Replacing the shades of blue for those of brown, I kept Memphis’ uniforms pretty much intact.

Hawks — (Home, Road and Alternate) — A red and blue team, the Hawks have some history as red and blue, but their best history in Atlanta came in red, white and yellow. I got rid of the blue and went back to an old logo and an old stripe pattern (with some alterations).

Heat — (Home, Road, Yellow Alternate and Fuchsia Alternate) — A red team, the Heat may not have history with fuchsia, but Miami does. They may want to skip using their alternates though…

Jazz — (Home and Road) — When the Jazz decided to go to their new retro look, I couldn’t’ve been happier. Unfortunately, they three-quarter assed it and changed the original purple to a dark blue. WEAK. Real men don’t fear purple. I go the full retro and bring on the purple.

Mavericks — (Home, Road and Alternate) — A blue team, I tried to reduce the amount of blue while incorporating a (slightly) new logo and their awesome alternate jersey for this uniform template.

Nuggets — (Home, Road, Home Alt and Road Alt) — Nuggets of gold are gold, not yellow. And what’s more opulent than purple, the color of royalty? Certainly not sky blue. Hence my combo that throws back to an earlier time and logo.

Orange — (Home, Road and Alternate) — Another rebrand, the Sacramento Kings / Anaheim Royals (a probable red and blue team) are getting a new name: The Anaheim Orange. Fairly plain unis but pretty loud colors. Orange is a pretty underused color in a game where the ball is that color, just don’t miss my double entendre.

Raptors — (Home and Road) — I sorta modify their current red unis to go back to their “glory days” in purple (Paul hates me for sure ’cause of all this purple) with some minor changes and sans-black.

Thunder — (Home and Road) — My Thunder Bison is back (this time, with a Thunder Ball as well) and I renamed them the Oklahoma Thunder (this was a surprisingly popular request from Oklahomans visiting my site). And as Paul put it when the Thunder unveiled their unis, what is more idiotic than a team named the Thunder wearing the color of clear skies?

Timberwolves — (Home and Road) — Timber is either brown or green. Since green was already in the scheme, let’s make that the main color and push blue into the background.

Well, that’s it. Not too bad, right? A little more diversity never hurt anybody.

If you were keeping track, my tweaks make eight teams with blue as a main color (27%), nine teams with red as a main color (30%) and three and a half (LA Clippers are the half) red and blue teams (12%).

Much more reasonable, no?

Ok, now I gotta Fly Like an Eagle.

~~~

Nice job with that Tim! What say you all? Did Timmer nail a long-range three or did he air-mail a shot from the charity stripe? Somewhere in between? Let him know.

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colorize this

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Very small set again this week. It’s the G&G Boys to the rescue.

~~~

Leading off is George Chilvers, who begins with this tweak of Bobby Davies of the Rochester Royals. Terry Proctor, enjoy!

Early one this week.

Hope a few more colourisers get to work – it’d be nice to see others’ efforts :)

Best wishes

George

~~~

Next up is the other half of the G&G tandem, Gary Chanko, who took on the tremendous task of the 1913 Cubs. Check this absolute beauty out:

Phil

Presenting your 1913 Chicago Cubs. This image was a killer – 25 players, ballpark spectators, chicken wire everywhere…

One positive outcome though, the Cubs finished in third place behind my Phillies.

For those interested in the individual players’ names, you can find that here:

Gary

~~~

Moving along, we have a suggestion for a colorization from Chris Bisbee — Gary Player & Arnold Palmer at the 1961 Masters:

Phil,

In honor of the Masters I’m sending in this 1961 shot of Gary Player. Hope someone likes it enough to colorize.

Chris Bisbee

~~~

Thankfully neither Gary nor George were through. Gary came back with a late-week submission that is also drop-dead gorgeous. It’s called “Boys Of Summer, 1923”

One more submittal that I always thought was a great image. The B&W original is available on Shorpy.

Gary

~~~

And, not to be outdone, George came back with a late one of his own. A cricketer. Paul, eat your heart out.

Hi Phil

Here’s a colourisation of a cricket player.

The picture dates back to 1974 and is of Ray Illingworth who was a former captain of England. He spent much of his career with Yorkshire, but this picture is of him in his Leicestershire sweater later in his career.

The original can be found here.

Best wishes

George

~~~

That’s going to do it for today’s colorizations. Huge thanks to the G&G Boys for their supreme efforts, again. I realize that George and Gary have set an extremely high bar but the rest of you colorizers shouldn’t be discouraged — there are thousands of gorgeous black and white photographs out there just crying out for colorization. If interest is there, I’ll see if I can’t get a few of the colorizers to share their techniques with the rest of us in a future column — if this interests you, please either shoot me an E-mail or express a thumbs up in the comments down below.

We’ll probably take a week off from the colorizations next weekend. If you would like to submit me something, or if you would like suggestions (I have many B&W’s saved on my hard drive) please contact me at the above address.

In the meantime, we’ll leave it “open” — for any submissions — there have been several photographs featured in the past several weeks that no one has colorized, and if you need inspiration, visit BSmile’s pages over on Baseball Fever, search the Shorpy archives, or (if they’ve fixed it) the Life Photo Archives.

OK all you colorizers — show us what you’ve got.

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

~~~

Back to the park for some extra hitting. Stay loose. Work on timing. Find…the zone?

s-bp orig

And the full-size.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks

We have another nice of tweaks today.

If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great a keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!

And so, lets begin:

~~~

Up first is Christopher Burks, who has a cheesehead idea for the Bucks:

Hey Phil,

Here is a mock up of the Milwaukee Bucks jersey with a new Packers color scheme!
I think all of wisconsin teams should switch to Green & Yellow, Green & Yellow!!

Chris

~~~

Next up is Tim Moore, who has a Bobcats revision:

Hey Phil,

I’ve been sitting on these for a few months, but after seeing Charlotte’s NASCAR again alts the other night, I decided I had to submit these.

My home and away tweaks tone down the uber-modern current designs and add a bit of a classic touch. The alt I’ve created implements their already classy alternate logo into a simple and clean design.

-Tim Moore

~~~

In the three spot is Charlie Charnigo, with a J-E-T-S…Jets Jets Jets tweak:

Hiya,

Going through my Photobucket I came across this Jets uni I did a few years back.

No big long story, just hate the current logo, and wanted something unique but classic.

Thanks,
Charlie Charnigo

~~~

And finally we have Mark Peterson with a gorgeous Padres tweak:

Phil,

Never really understood the 1985 Padres logo treatment that was very similar to the San Francisco Giants 1983 uniform & logo change, but did a “What If” concept on how it would have looked of a 1991-style update to the 1985 set. Had to move the Ray Kroc initials to the right sleeve to accommodate the left sleeve patch.

–Mark Peterson

Thanks everyone. More tweaks next weekend.

~~~~~~~~~

movi hoop

Parting Shots

✔ After getting rained out on Friday, the Mets and Braves wore their “42s” yesterday, in the first game of a double-dip. Have I told you this is a beautiful uniform, but with NNOB, it’s even better. Now, if Larry Jones would just start ruppin’ again.

✔ The Mets also look good NNOB. But as Mark from Shiga is so fond of pointing out…those numbers are set too damn low. They need to be closer to the collar piping.

✖ There really aren’t too many times I’ll argue with lower leg stylings. This is one time. Pants are bloused too high, the rups are black (and 7″)…and DJ is wearing hi-tops. Just not a good look.

✖ I must honestly confess I don’t really ever read “Bleacher Report.” After reading yesterday’s comments, I doubt I ever will again. Apologies to anyone who took umbrage with my critique — I actually was under the impression it was a serious sports website.

✌ Everyone have a great Sunday. Peace.

~~~

Proving once again that at Purdue—as at virtually any other college campus—some kind of head is enough to satisfy most students. — Richard Pearson

 
  
 
Comments (96)

    Cool-bad or bad-bad?

    I would agree that the text is a bit too hard to read, but the colors and the idea of a money-themed uniform is pretty cool I think.

    An NBA team actually point some thought in a design theme for their unis?

    What a concept.

    So would their bench players be the Federal Reserves? (Ow, why did I just slap myself reflexively?)

    Wow that Fed’s uniform was truly awesome.

    Correcting what was obviously an auto-complete typo. A green-and-black NBA team with currency-style numbers would be huge on the merchandising front. The only question is whether it’s been long enough since the USFL that every idjit and his sister wouldn’t be all like, “So are you bringing back Curtis Bledsoe?”

    Yes. And Joey Walters will be downcourt on the fast break. I wonder, can Mike Hohensee play point guard?

    Chipper won’t be going high cuffed again anytime soon. As he explained, he’s gone back to the higher cut cleats (after trying lowcuts) and doesn’t like that look with higher shoes.

    And he’s right.

    PJ’s may not be popular, but the cricket player look beats the hell out of short pants, knee socks and clod hoppers.

    Yeah, yeah, I know. 110 years ago that was the logo of baseball. But they also had handlebar mustaches, pillbox hats and 3/4 sleeve John Wayne placat shirts with collars.

    PJ’s may not be popular HERE AT UW, I meant.
    They certainly are popular in MLB, of course.

    Good changes all around, Tim E. Unlike Alex up there I do like the Federals change. Those uniforms are top notch.

    I’m not so sure about the Anaheim Orange, mostly because I’m averse to collective team names. There’s no pirate team in the NBA; maybe the Anaheim Corsairs, Privateers, or Marauders? Or perhaps given Disney’s well known influence and proclivities in the area, the Anaheim Lawyers?

    Finally, as much as I like both Thunder logos, I was kind of hoping for link Thunderball once you mentioned it.

    Nothing wrong with making it Oranges, plural. Or how about combining the Disney/pirate theme and calling them the Anaheim Sparrows?

    Was that among the names the Kings’ legal team filed to protect? I know there were several (the story appears to have been removed from readily accessible Internet sites). They involved both “Anaheim” and “Orange County”, I know.

    I thought about oranges, but teams now usually stay away from the cutesy names that older franchises would get from their cities’ nicknames and such. Besides, Corsairs just sounds cool to me and they could go with either the pirate or the jet theme.

    Jazz, Mavs and Hawks are big upgrades. Not sure on the others, although I like the idea of Minnesota emphasising green over blue.

    I have to say though, Anaheim Orange is one of the worst team names I’ve ever heard. Sorry…

    Thanks to George for the Bobby Davies Royals’ colorization. One small point-the outline and lettering of the shield on the shorts should be Royal Blue. The ribbon is correct.

    Don’t know if it has been mentioned, but that is the first time I have ever seen an interlocking NY on Met stirrups. Very cool.

    Morning guys! Good tweaks today.

    Don’t know if anyone caught it last night but I happenened across the Nike Hoop Summitt. Surprisingly ungarrish, it was basically high school kids from the USA vs. high school kids from the rest of the world

    link

    not many good shots, but as you can see the US wore what was basically our Olympic unis, but the world team was actually kind of neat with basic black uni with different CNOFs (Country Name on Front) for each player and the flags off to the side

    Not a bad looking game

    link

    The scylla and charybdis of Unitweaks are a needle in a haystack and clown costumes. On the one hand there are tweakers who change the color of a stripe on the pants from 255 red, 180 blue, and 4 green to 250 red, 181 blue, and 5 green and ask all to hail them as masters of subtlety. On the other hand there are tweakers who put rocket packs, constellations, and the flag of the Seychelles all on a uniform’s left stirrup and contend that throwing everything and the kitchen sink at something is forward thinking. Time E. is one of the few tweakers who seems a competent enough designer to guide his designs through the narrow channel and come out the other side unscathed. I lift my glass of morning Rockstar to you my good sir.

    With today’s technology, if someone who is watching a game at the stadium or at home can’t tell who is at bat or who is playing QB, well I feel sorry for him/her. Remove all NOB’s! It would be less work for the clubhouse guy (especially if he can’t spell) and would save the team a lot of money.

    I agree wholeheartedly. Along the same vein, let’s remove the “year” from our coinage. I don’t know how much money that’ll save, but I’m sure not having to carve out a new mold every year might save a little bit of money. It might tick off collectors, but the economy’s in the tank so there :p

    A quick survey of the flags of the world shows that roughly 87% of all flags feature either blue and/or red in them. This is not proof of a larger conspiracy, this is proof of a larger truth. Red and blue are the two most successful colors on the planet. They are the two strongest primary colors and therefore have a foot in the door, when it comes to almost every other color.

    These revisions are all well and good but I think to swim upstream against red and blue is to miss the point. It has much more to do with how different colors are used. All any league needs is one or two strong identities featuring green, orange and yellow and with LA and PHX the NBA is 2/3 of the way there. Bring back the 80s Bucks and all will be well.

    As opposed to the early part of the century when by my count nearly a quarter of the association (7 teams) were using purple. Now there is NO natural explanation for that. During that same time period there were maybe seven other teams in all other pro sports combined using purple.

    Now that is a disturbing trend/anomaly. Blue and red? You’ll find those same trends whereever you look across the globe. Good luck with that one.

    “As opposed to the early part of the century when by my count nearly a quarter of the association (7 teams) were using purple. Now there is NO natural explanation for that.”

    Red and blue make purple?

    So… the world as a whole is rather uncreative when it comes to color choices. I fail to see why we can’t strive to change that.

    I wonder how much of that is related to British, French, and Dutch colonization, since they all have red white and blue flags and at one point owned about 87% of the world amongst them.

    Bingo. And not just colonization: Many countries have simply drawn inspiration from the Brits and French (and later the United States, whose flag is a direct descendant of the British flag) as the modern world of nation-states with representative flags has evolved.

    When France was in the colonization business, wasn’t their flag just white with gold fleurs-de-lis (link)? I believe the current red-white-and-blue tricolor was developed for the French Republic to replace the fleurs-de-lis flag of the Kingdom of France. I think there is similar issue with the flag history of the Dutch flag which once include orange instead of red.

    France had colonies until the 1960s. The first major colony it lost in a war of independence was Haiti in 1804 and it didn’t reach the height of its power until the turn of the century.

    The orange stripe in the Dutch flag became red in the early 19th Century, when the Dutch still controlled large tracts in Africa, South America, and the East Indies. It didn’t start giving up its holdings until after World War II, just like France.

    Loved most of these jerseys. I thought i was the only one who noticed the abundance of red/blue/white jerseys. The feds jersey was a little too bland, but I loved the Thunder remakes (they look way too much like the knicks now)

    yellow/orange are extremely underused

    Just a thought, but with the Grizzlies playing in FedEx Forum, would they really allow a brown uniform?

    Except, of course, Memphis is the home and HQ of FedEx so a change to brown – uni or arena name – is not going to happen. It’s about marketing folks…

    While I like the Memphis Midnight Blue and Beale Street Blue as colors, I agree that Grizzlies aren’t blue. I really liked the mock-ups of the home and alternate, but the roads would make everyone look like giant turds. Use Grizzlies Gold for the roads and we might be onto something.

    It’s interesting…

    Most of your concepts don’t work in my mind (Heat, Bobcats, Thunder colors for example).
    BUT I love the Federals concept. As a Washintonian and life long Redskins fan, I think Federals would be the only name that could work if we have to change;. And those colors as well. What a concept!

    The cricket photo is great!

    I was driving down a two lane road in Fort Bend County, Texas this morning, when I came upon a cricket pitch. It’s in the middle of nowhere, hard up against a storage facility for port-a-potties on one side, and a half-built subdivision on the other. It looked like it was all Pakistani or Indian guys, every single one of them dressed in classic white, white shoes, white pants, and white v-neck sweaters. Beautiful. In the middle of nowhere. It was like Field of Dreams, with flat bats and wickets.

    I guess it makes sense that there would be a cricket pitch there, given the recent influx of South Asian immigration into Houston.

    Sorry, but I’m not a fan of O’Brien’s Bobcat reworks. The colors duplicate the Cleveland Browns, and I doubt any franchise really wants to go in that direction for either the look or the on-field performance. As I commented on the post for Tim’s OKC Thunder concepts, the NBA franchise in Charlotte needs a complete makeover. Start with switching from Charlotte to Carolina and dropping the lame Bobcats nickname. Perhaps go with a full NASCAR theme. What about only using white and black as the primary colors with some minor ascent color (perhaps silver)? Could the checkerboard pattern be leveraged more such as using his NASCAR alts minus the brown and orange with more black (and silver)?

    With DJ Carrasco’s (sp?) stirrups, shouldn’t the “NY” be in blue and orange to match the cap? Or Blue with white outline and orange drop-shadow if they go with the black softball tops?

    Black with a plain orange NY was used by the New York Giants, but never by the Mets.

    I’m sorry, but the redesigned Bobcats unis are fugly. I agree with the comments about the Cleveland Browns look. Really?

    As a former Bobcats STH (moved away), the problem is that they moved away from the orange (agreed that it’s a color that is underused)to blue as the primary color. I have a feeling MJ is not fond of orange.

    Also, didn’t the Blazers used to feature orange and black but now are red and black?

    I don’t think the Trailblazers were ever orange (you may be thinking of the Buffalo Braves). link says the Trailblazers have always been red.

    I would have rather seen the Bobcats go to orange & white (tho impossible by today’s standards) and rather go to say orange with red trim.

    Slight critique of the basketball uni’s:

    Why so many with side panels & stripes? I never understood why teams would break up a jersey that looks completely different sideways. I think the Nets were the only team who could ever pull that off & make it look good.

    Favorite ones:
    Hawks, Grizzlies, Jazz, Nuggets. The Mavs is a good idea but I think it needs more traditional elements, and green should never directly touch blue.

    I’d make the Clippers either powder blue & red or powder blue & orange, and drop the fuchsia on Miami – it’s searing. That Thunder color scheme seems familiar. But no amount of work could save the Timberwolves – they need to blow up & start over. If anything, I’d probably make the Heat a black & Athletic Gold-only team; with zero white accents anywhere. And I might be crazy, but I think the New Orleans Hornets should blow up their uni & go to the Saints color scheme; or at least black & copper.

    Oooo, powder blue. Intimidating… :D
    Just kidding. Love the Clips, it’s just that if they want to exude the Chicago Bulls’ level of threat, they better start winning some more games!

    New Orleans should keep their colors: just move back to Charlotte already! MJ: buy the Hornets and sell the Bobcats already. Seattle needs a team and Louisville/Kansas City/Nashville/Vancouver/Sacramento (if they bolt) wants one!

    Guess you had to be there. Back then, for kids that age, we didn’t have cool lowcuts. Steel spikes weren’t legal in Little League, and molded soccer shoes weren’t around. So we trooped out there, most of us, in basketball shoes. Which, of course, we made sure were black for baseball. We knew we didn’t quite look like the big leaguers. We looked like kids playing ball. The hightops were a dead giveaway.

    So when I see that look it makes me think of Little League. Always will. Childhood impressions are tough to shake.

    Here’s another vote for stirrups with high tops. Far better to my eye than the pajama style regardless of the shoe.

    I really like most of the NBA tweaks. I think its time we do the same for MLB. Seriously how many teams have red and blue in their uniforms today? Navy and red seems to be this most popular combo. It’s time for a little variety.

    I’ll give you the change in Hawks colors, but their new Hawk head logo is great, and I don’t see them willing to change back to a cartoon hawk head any time soon… btw, thanks for referencing my Photoshop of Josh Smith in the red ATL unis. Haha… that publicity photo was of him wearing the whites (the year before the reds came out) and I was mocking up what a red ATL uni would look like. I was correct in my assumptions!

    The Dominique Wilkins era unis were the coolest, even if the team wearing them never got far in the playoffs.

    Tremendous job with the colorizations guys!
    Love Gary’s version of the 1913 Cubs. I’m sure it took a lot of work…but hey, at least they were monochrome!

    Cheers!
    ~BSmile

    I love Gary’s 1913 Cubs work too — awesome!

    Do you have a higher-resolution version? I want to make it my desktop background.

    I think my iMac is 1680×1050, so that’s ideal, but the bigger the better! (Original too, if you’ve got it.)

    I used to have a picture of Jimmy Archer and another member of the Cubs of that era as my background, but the resolution was 1024×768 and looked great only on my 12″ laptop, which had that screen size. Trying to upscale it just didn’t work.

    But I love that dark blue Cubs look — they should go back to it! And your colorization is just perfect.

    As a former resident of Orange County, I think the Maloofs should actually use “Orange County” in the name. Anaheim itself isn’t the only or even primary population base you’ll be drawing from. It’s Irvine, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, etc., that is to say it’s the entire county.

    And don’t use Los Angeles in the name. Separate yourself from the Lakers and the Clippers.

    The other option is to use “California”. If the Warriors can get away with “Golden State”, then why not? Then the “Corsairs” name I saw suggested above would actually be alliterative.

    As for the unis, using orange as a primary color is not a bad idea, but don’t use it as the team name.

    Could be confusing, as there’s an Orange County in at least 8 states (and one in China). Plus it would alienate potential San Diego fans.

    Honda Center/Anaheim officials stipulate the use of Anaheim in the team name. After the LA Angels of Anaheim fiasco, I don’t think the Maloofs would want to stir the pot.

    Is anyone really going to confuse them with Orange County, New York? There’s also a Washington, Missouri, but I don’t see people confusing it with DC.

    The thing that would alienate San Diego fans is the use of Los Angeles. Although it’s not like San Diegans have any great love for the city of Anaheim. That’s more of an “eh” reaction.

    As for the stipulation, you’re probably right, but having lived there I find it lamentable.

    I was thinking more along the lines of Florida, but any casual basketball fan would know that there are only two pro basketball teams in the Sunshine State.

    I always get confused when people say they’re going to Washington, and I make a point of asking them to clarify. But that’s just me :)

    I’m guessing that because of San Diegans’ likely indifference towards the name “Anaheim,” the Maloofs also trademarked “Anaheim Royals of Southern California.”

    Calling them “California Royals” would be reminiscent of the old “California Angels” days, but it might not rub our Northern California neighbors (particularly the Kings/Royals’ former city) the right way.

    I think they should move back to Kansas City, Cincinnati or Rochester, and maybe we can get the Hornets instead. No reason, but I think the Hornets are doing better than the Kings.

    Thanks for advocating for more color diversity in sports uniforms. There’s been an attempt by many in recent decades to aggressively campaign to eliminate all but a few conservative color choices and I think it’s been to the detriment of sports and especially to their appeal to young kids who are going through the years when they’re most likely to get hooked on a sport for life. Texas Longhorns in burnt orange, Houston Oilers in sky blue, San Diego Padres in brown, Denver Broncos in orange, UCLA Bruins in powder blue, Houston Astros in orange, Georgia Tech in gold jerseys, L.A. Lakers and Kings in purple, Tennessee Volunteers in light orange, Kansas City A’s in kelly green and gold, Miami Dolphins in aqua, Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Seahawks combining blue and green — these things catch your eye, you remember them and they give an identity to what might otherwise be a team you couldn’t place or keep track of. I accept that more than half the teams are always going to be blue, black or red, but I think the sport benefits when maybe a third of the teams do something different and distinctive.

    I remember seeing a documentary about the formation of the New Orleans Saints (called “When the Saints,” which aired in my market in late 1967) and they actually had to get permission from the Pittsburgh Steelers to use a similar color scheme. I wonder if any league today could possibly enforce that kind of limitation based on a notion of quasi-distinctive color schemes.

    The Boston Bruins made a big stink over the Pittsburgh Penguins’ wish to move from double-blue and white to back and gold, but they clearly couldn’t stop the Pens…

    Mike, the Bruins actually went so far as to file a formal protest with the NHL about the Pens switch in colors in January of 1980. Boston made the illogical argument that because they were part of the Original Six, that no other NHL team should be able to use black and gold. Of course, that’s laughable, since the Rangers had no issue with the Capitals color scheme.

    The Penguins simply told the NHL black and gold had been a part of professional hockey in Pittsburgh dating back to at least 1916, i.e. the Yellow Jackets. As expected, the NHL sided with the Pens, since Boston had no case.

    Cubs player Barney rockin’ stirrups. Better yet, the sportscaster giving him some love for it! Score one for the old school!

    I actually don’t mind the Rockies’ vests, though I think they should wear them (a) on the road, and (b) without NOB — those three-layer names are a classic example of NOB ugliness. Check out how the Ms, Us, and Ws have the outermost layer “filling in” and looking hideous. Use NNOB, or a single silver layer.

    And Phil, thanks for the shout re: low-riding numbers! I’d love to know what caused this modern scourge.

    Cubs Barney looking good high-cuffed and stirrups. Castro high-cuffed too. Maybe these young guys can get something started here.

    Nice concepts, Tim.

    Put me in the approve column regarding the Federals. The number font is awesome. And I like the Federal Reserves.

    Recycling the USFL name shouldn’t be a problem. Last I checked, Colorado’s MLB franchise is doing OK with the NHL name. Houston’s NFL franchise has recycled the Texans’ name, too.

    One question, why have the Clippers never stitched their letters on a jersey singly? I’ve always loathed that massive amount of white within the C. That’d be a sharp logo w/o it.

    Draping the Jazz and Nuggets in purple is sharp looking, and the T-Wolves in green is attractive.Taking the Hawks back to their Maravich striped look is a good move.

    For my money, short of the Celtics, the Grizzlies already have the best uniform in the NBA.

    There’s no massive amount of white (or red) within the current incarnation of the Clippers’ logo on the jersey.

    link just cruising through the pirates wikipedia page. I have never personally seen this logo used. Has anybody ever seen this on a jersey or around the stadium?

    Yes and yes. That seldom used alternate logo has been around for many years, I recall first seeing it in 1998.

    Don’t know if it’s been mentioned here, but the Pirates did change the font style of their nickname this year according to the Chris Creamer site. The current ownership may be planning on some kind of logo change in the future, the visibility of 1997 logo has been reduced in recent years.

    The simple gold “P” is pretty much the standard logo these days for the Buccos. You hardly see the 97 primary logo at all.

    I have to respectfully disagree. But diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.

    BTW, can I make a request? I’ve left several comments on your site regarding Lakers and Bulls jerseys. It’ll make my day if you were able (and willing) to illustrate them :) :)

    Sincerely,
    Paul Lee

    Speaking as a Texas fan originally from Ohio, I have to say that the one writer was right that Michigan has the best helmet in the NCAA.

    Today is the first day this season the Rockies have decided to wear the black vests. Interestingly enough, Todd Helton’s black underneath t-shirt is personalized, giving him his own “football jersey TV numbers” look as seen link.

    Interesting. It seems back when the Mariners had a vest option that Junior Griffey would often wear his own shirt underneath, unlike his teammates who wore a team-issued undergarment.

    The Reds too. Back then, they used to have a sleeve patch for the undershirts, which Junior Griffey would never seem to wear because his Nike undershirts never had the patches. So later, the Reds eliminated the patches so everybody could match Griffey.

    Quick Update:

    For those of you that liked Sunday’s NBA tweaks, I’ve updated my Basketball Concepts page with all those unis. If you so choose, you can now go there and grab copies of those concepts at a much higher resolution.

    Enjoy!

    link

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