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Truer Words Were Never Spoken

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Is that sweet or what? Jeff Wilk sent it to me yesterday — it’s the cover of a scorecard from an 1886 ballgame in Boston (here’s how it looked on the inside). A century and a quarter later, you could swap in a photo of Josh Outman and you wouldn’t even have to change the caption.

I was expecting to have an ESPN column today — and therefore a very abbreviated blog entry — but then the column got bumped to next week. But I’m sticking with the short blog entry anyway, because things have been kinda hectic around here lately. Full-length lede tomorrow, OK? OK — Paul

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The Dark Horse Chronicles, continued: You know what kinda sucked about yesterday’s 1962 Broncos helmet discussion? It brushed a feather against the ticklish belly of the debate without actually resolving anything and was therefore sort of a tease, that’s what. Wait, that’s what was awesome about yesterday’s post, not what sucked. It’s all about the journey, not the destination; the foreplay, not the orgasm; etc., etc.

In that same spirit of awesomeness and/or suckitude — take your pick — reader Cork Gaines has turned up this 1962 article. Allow me to quote the pertinent passage:

New owners, in charge for their first full season, changed the suit colors from brown and gold to brilliang orange, blue and white.

Yes, “brilliang” — see for yourself in the third graf.

The typo notwithstanding, let’s analyze the quote: On the one hand, it mentions orange and blue but not brown. No mention of brown! In fact, it makes a point of saying how the OLD design had brown, and how this new design is a departure from that (and look, there’s Ricko nodding his head in agreement now). Case closed!

But wait — the article says the “suit colors” have changed. Yeah, that sounds all nerdy and twee, but uniforms were often referred to as suits back in the day, at least in catalogs and by old-school sportswriters. But here’s the thing: Generally speaking, “suits” was never a helmet-inclusive term. It referred to the jersey and trousers. So the description of the “suit colors” doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about the helmet colors. It implies something, I’d agree, but that’s not gonna cut it. We need something more solid. Case not closed after all!

So what we basically have here is another morsel of tantalizing awesomeness and/or suckitude, as the case might be — and a killer typo to boot. So big thanks to Cork for moving the ball exactly zero yards down the field (and to Kirsten for the helmet animation).

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Lamination Nation — a Uni Watch “It’s a small world” story: When I’m making the Uni Watch membership cards, the last step in the process is to laminate them. To do this, I use a small laminator and these plastic heat-seal pouches. Yesterday I realized I was running low on pouches, so I called GBC, the office-supply company that makes them, to order more. It had been a while since I’d last ordered from GBC — maybe a year — and I found that my account was now being handled by a new sales rep named Pam. After she took my order, things got interesting:

Pam: So, Paul, now that I’m handling your account, what sort of business do you have?

Me: I’m a journalist. But I have a web site that has a membership program, and we offer custom-made membership cards, and what’s the point of a membership card if it isn’t laminated?

Pam: Oh, I agree, definitely! So you’re a journalist — what do you write about?

Me: Lots of things, but my main gig is writing about sports uniform and logo design. That’s what my membership program is about — it’s for readers who are really interested in uniforms.

Pam: Oh, we have a guy in our office who’s like that. He’s always talking about all the little details of the uniforms. Of course, on a scale of 1 to 10, my sports knowledge is about a minus-3, so I don’t always know what he’s talking about.

Me: Huh — maybe he’s one of my readers. You can tell him my name if you like, or the name of my web site. It’s called “Uni Watch” — you know, like watching uniforms.

Pam: I bet he’s already one of your readers. If there’s a web site about uniforms, I’m sure he knows about it. He knows about all sorts of things, like he reads Nietzsche and he goes to see burlesque wrestling. He’s a really interesting guy.

Me: What’s his name?

Pam: Kevin DeBolt.

Me: Yeah, I know him! See, lots of my readers send me e-mails about this or that, and I get to know their names. He’s definitely been in touch a bunch of times.

Pam: That doesn’t surprise me.

Me: In fact, I think he may be part of the membership program I was telling you about. Give me a second to check — yes, he is! I bet he didn’t even realize that the plastic pouch I used to laminate his card started with your company and then, in his case, went right back to your company! That’s so funny. So wait, does he sit near you? Like, is he there right now while we’re talking about him?

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Pam: He sits maybe 40 feet away from me. He’s not in today, though, because he’s on vacation. But I’m going to leave a stickie on his desk to tell him all about this.
———
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen: Uni Watch and petroleum-based office products, bringing people together. And Kevin, if you’re reading this during your vacation, we all want to know what Nietzsche would have to say about burlesque wrestling.

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Get ready to cock your hat!: I spoke yesterday with the very friendly Libby Bibb, co-owner of the Corner Bar & Grill in St. Charles, Missouri, and made arrangements with her for our Uni Watch party — including cocked-hat bowling! — next Thursday, May 5. Here’s the deal:

• We’ll convene at the bar around 7:45pm-ish. There’s a room in the back that we can use if we want, although I’m not sure we’ll need that. Depends on how many of you show up.

• The lanes, which are downstairs, will be occupied by a women’s league until 9:30pm. We’re welcome to wander down and watch them.

• At 9:30, the lanes will be turned over to us. If you want to bowl, great; if not, no biggie. Either way, we should have plenty of time for hanging out upstairs and pin-bashing downstairs.

•  Yes, I’m aware that St. Charles is about a half-hour drive from St. Louis. So what — you wouldn’t drive half an hour for a Uni Watch party? For cocked-hat bowling? Totally worth it, sez I.

Can’t wait to add hat-cocking to my bowling résumé. See you there.

Pop-Up Magazine reminder: Tickets for the sports-themed, ESPN-co-sponsored NYC debut of Pop-Up Magazine, which will include a presentation by your friendly uniform columnist, are now on sale.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: In a move that will no doubt serve as a bottomless source of bad jokes, the Raiders have sold their stadium naming corporate-douchebaggery rights to Overstock.com. ”¦ “There are faceguards,” says Yogi Combs, “and then there are faceguards. That’s Jennifer Wolf, a player on my local high school’s slow pitch softball team.” ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Are these Maryland’s new football uniforms? ”¦ Here’s how Mets bat knobs are being uni-numerically designated this season (with thanks to Steve Hom). ”¦ The Lehigh baseball team hired Joe Hilseberg to make his signature product — the Jersey NameFrame — for their graduating seniors. As always, you can have Joe make of these for you here. ”¦ “Not sure if this is just for the playoffs or they’ve done it all season, but the Heat players are wearing special black-on-black jerseys in their official profile photos,” notes Jim Casale. “Is this the first case of a team wearing fashion jerseys for their official roster pics?” ”¦ Look at this completely awesome chain-stitching! It’s from this uniform. ”¦ How to put your money where you mouth is, Uni Watch style: Chris Cruz was so happy to see UCLA’s shoulder-stripe renaissance in the team’s spring game that he sent a note to the athletic dept., asking if the stripes were back for good. The response: “Sorry Chris ”“ the old uniforms were worn for the spring game only. In the fall, we’ll be in the new ones” — i.e., the super-stretchies with the severely truncated stripes. “I guess UCLA’s athletic dept. won’t be receiving a donation from me this year,” says Chris. ”¦ Here’s a bunch more of those Adidas college football ads. My brain isn’t in NCAA mode, so would anyone else care to play “Spot the changes”? ”¦ Latest team going with color-coded environmentalism: Chivas USA, which will have green numbers and NOBs for Saturday’s match against the New England Revolution (with thanks to Kenn Tomasch). ”¦ One of you Cubbie fans should snap up this excellent iron-on. ”¦ Here’s a new site devoted to snap-back caps. The name: Oh Snapbacks. ”¦ Check out this awesome notebook make from baseball cards (great find by Jay Sullivan). ”¦ Here’s a major treat: When Scott Haltom’s grandfather was a kid, he compiled five scrapbooks’ worth of old baseball photos, illustrations, articles, etc. Scott has begun scanning them, and here are the first fruits of his labors. If the sepia-toned images on that first page don’t excite you, be sure to click through to the next three pages of images — I think you’ll like what you see. … Ever hear of Zack Hample? He’s the guy who’s semi-famous for snagging balls at MLB games. He recently caught Mets backup catcher Mike Nickeas’s first career home run and then convinced the security guards to let him give the ball to Nickeas personally. He’s written an account of the whole experience, and it’s superb — well-written, lots of good photos, a real heartwarmer. Don’t miss. ”¦ Michael Ratta sent in this Arizona State football uni-history slideshow. ”¦ Why settle for an infographic when you can have a porcineograph? (Life-altering find by Andrew Levitt.)

 
  
 
Comments (125)

    Saw this item on the Houston Chronicle’s website yesterday. Houston will wear late 60s-early 70s throwbacks at homecoming this season.
    link

    The article mentions and the pic shows arched lettering on the front. Are there any other instances in football that this has happened?

    Raiders/Overstock: It’s really kind of appropriate; the roster of the Raiders appears to have been filled via Overstock.com.

    ed

    We are off and running….Does this mean that we can expect “game used” DeAngelo Hall jerseys to show up on overstock.com?

    Overstock.com Coliseum that’s just cruel and unusual punishment. Everybody talks about Raisers fans like they offer some kind of otherworldly support and that they are crazy and all that. The stadium is definitely not overstocked. Stadium capaciity 63,132. Average Attendance 46,431. That’s a platry 73.7%. The only thing overstocked is their leftover tickets.

    My bad “Raiders” fans. My 2 year old was pulling me away from the computer as I typed. By the way those are the lowest attendance numbers in the league. When Al Davis passes away expect a relocation to LA if they continue in that trend. Although my personal belief is that Jacksonville gets moved first.

    I agree that Overstock.com Coliseum is a horrible name, but think that Louisville had by FAR the worst stadium names with “KFC Yum! Center” and “Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.” They may as well completely sell out and rename the town “Louisville Slugger.”

    The 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheater in Tampa is THE worst.

    Just concerts, but still the worst d-bag name for a venue.

    One corporate named stadium that a lot of people hate but that I personally like is the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, home of Providence basketball. I dont know why, i just…like it.

    Of course the best corporate stadium name hands down is Great American Ball Park.

    Those Adidas ads show Michigan’s unis having TV numbers on only 1 sleeve. They better not have messed with one of the most classic unis in sports. If they did, I may be sending a note to new coach Brady Hoke…

    What I noticed from the Adidas ads was the lack of a Northwestern ad. I find it hard to believe that they’d include FIU but exclude Northwestern. Have they switched to a different brand?

    I wouldn’t worry about it… looks like the uniforms were photoshopped onto generic players. Notice the left sleeve TV numbers for Cincinnati are backwards… Just a simple omission.

    Not to mention the number font looks mighty, mighty thin/puny.

    My guess? Just bad photoshopping.

    It really us.

    Coat-of-arms / escutcheon freaks should try zooming into the state shields that circle and flank the piggy oligarchs. Very interesting (and generally much cooler) versions of the fussy staid official versions we see plastered on state flags and bureaucratic stationery.

    Do we even have to ask what kind of meat makes up the Sandwich Islands?

    Thing’s got a typo, though: It lists Minnesota statehood as 1838, when it should read 1858.

    Also, kind of prophetic. The Porcinograph is from 1875, and lays claim to the Sandwich Islands, Alasqueue, Cuba, and Baja California. Of those, Hawaii and Alaska became states and the United States did indeed conquer Cuba.

    The coolest thing about it for me: The organizers of a national event had this made up and gave it out as souvenirs specifically to all the Southerners who showed up to their event in Boston. Imagine someone doing that today! And what would the Porcinograph have meant to a recipient, a Southerner up in Boston barely 10 years after the Civil War?

    Was the Buffalo Bills’ early buffalo brown? Was the Colts’ early horseshoe brown? Wait, they were blue on the helmets. Maybe that’s because they matched the team colors. I’m seeing a pattern here.

    Then there’s Texas with a brown logo on top of a white and orange uniform.

    There’s also the Raiders, using a logo featuring a black helmet in 1963, while wearing a silver helmet. Not to mention the Rams & Giants wearing royal blue uniforms with navy blue helmets. Heck, even in modern times now… The Jaguars – helmet is black with a primarily gold logo. The uniforms are teal, black & white, with absolutely no gold on them.

    A blue bronco makes sense. But a brown one is not completely out of the question, at least not until we find a damn color photo or complete description.

    I’m starting to think maybe the helmet color-shifted, like today’s animation gif (or like the current Jags helmet!).

    No – it’s brown. UniWatch covered this in an article on helmet decals a few years ago.

    Black is one of the Raiders’ colors. Gold is one of the Jags’ colors. The royal/navy issue can be attributed to different manufacturers making different elements of the same uniform.

    Also, I’ve never heard that the Texas helmet logo was brown. Burnt orange has a brownish tint to it, but that longhorn doesnt look brown to me.
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    I know wiki isn’t the end all/be all for info, but it sure shows that logo as burnt orange.
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    Also burnt orange.

    Simple color theory can explain this. Brown is simply a low value orange. It’s the same way pink is high value red. Orange and brown are the same color, just at varying degrees of the value spectrum.

    By God, Ricko, that shamrock on the famous Rudy letter jackets at Notre Dame should be GREEN, I tell you, GREEN! Oh, you mean it’s gold because the school colors are actually, uh, blue and gold, even though a shamrock is green? Hmmm, maybe that horsey is a team color too.

    link

    Okay, I give up. The horse being brown is a least as valid a notice as it being blue. Riiiiiight.

    IMPORTANT NOTE!!! IMPORTANT NOTE!!!

    Someone (Paul? One of us?) bought the The Sporting News 1962 AFL Press Guide on ebay that I linked to late last night.

    Perhaps it includes written decriptions of team unis (I know TSN featured such things for MLB in 1962; I’ve posted scans of my clippings of same here several times).

    The plot thickens…

    Most times, helmet decals are a bit darker that the jerseys, etc., they are supposed to match.

    It is, for example, really tough to find a game photo of Kansas State where the helmet Wildcat doesn’t look almost black. Needs really intense daylight sun before it starts to be obviously purple.

    This really isn’t anything new to us here, is it?

    How this relates to the Dark Horse helmet is that the blue on the helmet decal was far more likely approaching navy than it was pure royal.

    Doesn’t anybody live in Denver with some time on their hands and can go to the library and research this locally?

    What about contacting a former player of the teams wearing those helmets, or an old coach or a front-office staff member?

    A darkened burnt orange (charred orange?) becomes brown, as stated above. This makes the Texas example less of an argument supporting the brown bronco theory (the colors are closely related). No where else have we seen a helmet logo with a predominant color that is not found in the team’s color scheme. In the NFL, Pittsburgh, Washington and Arizona all have colors on their helmet logos that are not part of their official color schemes. But these colors are in supporting roles, not dominant. Had the Denver helmet been a blue horse with a brown mane, it wouldn’t be unusual. But an orange and brown helmet, with no blue, would stick out like a sore thumb on an orange and blue uniform. I just can’t see any logic to the brown horsey theory.

    I just can’t see any logic to the brown horsey theory.

    But this isn’t a logical proposition! We’re talking about a question of fact in the context of a field where we know that decisions often don’t make sense, and where we also know that the particular uniforms in question did not even fully reflect the decisions made in their design. That’s what makes this such an intriguing white whale.

    As a matter of uni design, I’m kind of intrigued by the idea of putting a simple brown logo on an orange helmet above an orange-white-and-blue uniform. Aesthetically, I could see that looking absolutely terrific. If I were running the Broncos in 1962, and that’s how my uniforms looked, I’d never have switched to a white horsey. Whereas if the horsey were blue, I’d have ordered the change to white within minutes of seeing it in action the first time.

    Always, we have to look at it from a 1962 perspective.

    Neither dark logo would have showed up worth a damn on black and white TV. It barely shows in the b&w Polo Grounds photos Phil posted last night. It’s almost certain that was the reason for the switch to white.

    1962. No color TV. No zoologically correct sentiment regarding logos (see: Colts, logo not helmet graphic, ditto for Eagles, helmets of Lions, Bills, etc.).

    As to uni design, a brown horse would have meant the only blue on the homes would have been the two stripes on the pantlegs. Yet, they thought the blue was important enough to use it for the numbers and stripes on the white jerseys.

    Arrgh, why do I keep aruging for the common sense notion. Let those who support the non-sensical (in its time) abberation put up or shut up.

    As to ORIGINAL uni design, that is, the later TV modifiction to the helmet notwitshanding.

    Ricko, you argue from a false premise: “Common sense” has no bearing on this. This is not a moral enquiry, or a philosophical debate. It is a question of material, physical fact. The horsey was either blue or it was brown, and not all the common sense or reasonable arguments or psychological insights in the world will change the color of the thing. What we lack is definitive evidence, not persuasive arguments for why the color, whatever it was, might have been chosen.

    Ricko are you so sure you’re even using a 1962 viewpoint? Helmet logos were still in their infancy. There were no rules on what you should or shouldn’t do with a helmet logo. Look at the AFL/NFL helmet history from 1960 to 1970, there were a lot of changes as teams figured out exactly what they wanted to look like in this new era. The Jets had 3 different logos in 63, 64 & 65. The Chargers used a navy bolt, then yellow, then navy, then yellow again. the Eagles went from green & silver to white & green, then back again. The Oilers went from blue to silver (then back to blue and on to white). I don’t think a brown horse was as ridiculous in 1962 thinking as it becomes retrospectively.

    …and as we all know, common sense isn’t always very common

    Okay, “common design style and atmosphere/attitude of the times.” And I’m not arguing the “whether”, I’m arguing as to the likely assumption of what color it was, to determine the benchmark…compared to the offkilter notion of what it was not.

    Call it compiling circumstantial evidence. Not enough to convict, but convincing nevertheless. The reasons for it to have been blue far outnumber the reasons for it to have been brown. In 1962. And again, I was there. I lived through it. I was watching such things as uni design, including how teams altered the way they looked for the sake of TV (b&w). Everywhere, not just in Denver.

    And I’m also trying to point out that whoever concocted the notion of it being brown was absolutely, positively NOT looking at it in that 1962 context.

    Someone theorizing that Abe Lincoln kept the Gettysburg Address short so that the media would get “lots of great sound bites” really isn’t an analyst we should trust.

    You’re right. What could I possibly know about uniforms in 1962, especially the AFL.

    “The Jets had 3 different logos in 63, 64 & 65. The Chargers used a navy bolt, then yellow, then navy, then yellow again. the Eagles went from green & silver to white & green, then back again. The Oilers went from blue to silver (then back to blue and on to white).”

    And every one you mention USES THE TEAM COLORS.
    The Jets never offered a silver jet to be realistic.
    Oilers never used a dark gray oil derrick.
    Nor the Eagles a gunmetal gray (with hints of black) wings.
    And in almost every instance, there was white involved.
    Nor the Texans a dirt-colored state of Texas.
    They were graphics…in team colors.
    Most times, ither the helmet itself, or the figure was outlined in white (as, say, the Lions eventually did on their helmets).

    Let’s look at the Bears. Did they first go with an orange “C”? No. Was white, because orange against navy wouldn’t have shown up on b&w TV. Later was changed to orange, but with a white outline.

    My contention is that, in that time, a team would not have gone so far afield as to worry about the horse being brown, especially in that Denver atomospher, when they were trying to bury the brown and cheddar as deep as they could.

    Yes, there were helmet logos with detail. The Kansas Jayhawk, Pat Patriot, the Cardinals’ cardinal, but they had…detail. The Bronco is flat art, like the Lions’ lion, the Oilers’ derrick, the Bills’ standing buffalo, the Notre Dame shamrock…

    Again, the style of times was silhouettes or figures with some detail, like the yellow the cardinal and jayhawk. Do we really think any designer in 1962 would have advocated making that Lion a tawny tan, with not detail whatsoever, on that helmet. You can say the might have. And will respond, But they didn’t. Because that wasn’t even remotely the style of the era.

    lol.
    Gee, can you tell I’m a work and someone walked up so I had to hit send before a final proofread?

    Gonna be done with this for today with this thought…

    I’m not trying to convince anyone it was blue.

    I’m trying to convince people that the knothead who, totally out of thin air and with no historic testimony to back it up (a clipping, a mention of the horse being brown to look like a real horse, a story poking fun at the Bronocs for a decal color fuck up or for the bonehead idea of keeping the brown around at all…something), decided the decal orignally was something other than blue was quite likely, and appropriately, full of shit.

    And I’m not arguing the “whether”, I’m arguing as to the likely assumption of what color it was, to determine the benchmark…compared to the offkilter notion of what it was not.

    But this is a meaningless endeavor that has zero probative value even in theory. Whatever assumption one adopts, that assumption is no more or less likely to be true for how convincing or sensible the arguments supporting the assumption are. The thing was either blue or it was brown. Neither theory has a higher burden of proof than the other: Only an artifact, color photography, or a specific, contemporaneous, primary account will settle it either way.

    I would further maintain that one who rejects the notion that teams sometimes stretched their own chosen colors to incorporate representational colors has blinkered himself to history. One can find examples of representational colors scattered around pro sports from at least the 1920s to today. Think of Notre Dame in 1959. The school colors have been blue and gold since at least the 1890s, and established as athletic colors since at least 1931, so of course the football team would never have just dropped random green elements onto their uniforms, right? Maybe such instances really are as impossibly crazy as Ricko alleges, but they happened nonetheless.

    “Neither theory has a higher burden of proof than the other:”

    Bullshit. All things considered there is every reason to believe it would have been blue. The suggestion that it was brown comes out of nowhere, and offers no accompanying evidence whatsoever to prove the uni design was anything but typical of the times, or in any way untrue to, or inconsistent with, the team’s highly public posture of a total re-branding using orange and blue.

    If we want to contend that Abe Lincoln juggled teacups while delivering the Gettsburg Address, the burden of proof will fall SQUARELY on us. It isn’t up to the rest of world to prove he did not.

    By God, Ricko, that shamrock on the famous Rudy letter jackets at Notre Dame should be GREEN, I tell you, GREEN! Oh, you mean it’s gold because the school colors are actually, uh, blue and gold, even though a shamrock is green? Hmmm, maybe that horsey is a team color too.

    link

    This gold shamrock just shows you — along with the buffalo, the horseshoe, and even the dolphin (which is gray in real life) — that just because it made sense for a horse to be brown doesn’t mean it was. Rather, it was probably in the team color. Anyone who is wasting time arguing the other way should probably be gazing at the prez’s birth certificate.

    I mentioned that helmet shamrock as an example of flat art.

    But, might as well offer a reminder that in ’62 Notre Dame had worn (and still continues to wear, for that matter)…wait for it…green jerseys from time to time.

    A helmet shamrock in green wasn’t meandering away from their color palette.

    Oh, wait that’s what it was, the ’62 Broncos were using the universal symbol for “Horse”. Goes back to cave paintings, for pete’s sake. People would have rebelled and cried foul had it been anything but brown.

    That’s why no one gave it any special notice.

    Can’t believe I didn’t consider that.

    Red, white and blue American flags.
    Green shamrocks.
    Brown horses.

    Time-honored representations all. Not to be messed with without good reason. ;)

    And the lettermen’s jacket has a GOLD shamrock on a blue background. Notre Dame’s official school colors are blue and gold (unofficial color is green).

    For many years I thought Notre Dame’s colors were green and gold, because that’s all they wore for a period in the 1970s. And green jerseys in football goes back to at least Knute Rockne.

    Paul, that was maybe just a teensy bit brusque.

    Perhaps you could use the textual equivalent of a robotic telephone voice telling you how much the entity you’re calling values your services. You’d just press a simple keyboard function, which would then print out something along the lines of

    “… Hey [NAME], Paul Lukas here. I know that not every reader can find the time to keep up with all the items discussed here. Some of UW’s most faithful contributors skip a day or two, particularly if there’s been a death in the family. So even though the subject matter you suggest was covered — covered exhaustively, as a matter of fact — in a recent posting, I want to assure you that your participation is most welcome. Keep those comments coming.”

    I like how that old scorecard includes a period after “Offical Score Card” (not to mention that its rendered as two separate words) and capitalizes the word “Complete”.

    Cuba as sausage. Beautiful.

    Also, among the groups the author designed the porcinograph for were the Richmond Knights Templar. Surely the key to finding the Grail lies within the piggy.

    For the Cubs iron-on … that was the front of my absolute FAVORITE t-shirt from age 8-10. I may need to get it.

    As for the Corner Bar & Grill … I’ve only eaten there one time. Good stuff, indeed. There’s a location (Big Bend and Dougherty Ferry) about 2 miles from my house, and there never seems to be an open space in their parking lot.

    For an “abbreviated” main entry, another solid UniWatch. A good way to start my day.

    So was your “Style Is Everything” cover boy the inspiration for the Broncos’ original socks?

    Probably stating the obvious here, but does everyone see that the united states makes a pig itself (face around ohio, nose is maine, tail wraps around alaska, legs go out to hawaii & cuba. Incredible.

    More and more slowpitch pitchers (yes, even in mens’ leagues) are wearing these…
    link
    Shinguards, too. Modern composite bats are so alive that it’s fricking dangerous to pitch. Against some hitters it’s no thrill playing 3B, either. My bat, for example is tested to 125 mph. Ever try to react to a 125 mph line drive from only 50 feet away? 70 feet at third.

    I saw a third baseman take one in the mouth that glanced off his glove. Doctors had to wait two days for the swelling to go down before they could put in the stitches. 279 of them.

    This particular mask is a GameFace (www.gameface.com). There are dozens of slow-pitch pitchers AND infielders in my area that wear them, myself included. I wouldn’t play on the infield without it.

    As an umpire, Rick, that bat should be banned outright. ASA standards say that bats that test above 98mph are illegal due to safety issues. What kind of lead pipe are you swinging?

    As a pitcher and third baseman, I live for the comebacker. I’ve been hit, bruised, injured, and still have a mark on my right shin from a liner right back at me, but you learn how to react quickly: pitch, three steps back, act like a shortstop.

    One of the pitchers we play against wears so much armor, it’s a wonder how he even takes the field.

    I’m all for safety, but I like to be able to move on the field as well.

    Different tolerances for 55-and-over.
    It’s the only place a Miken Ultra II is legal.
    And, in that age bracket, they’re everywhere.

    We need to sick the green movement on composite bats. You know what’s a renewable resource? Wood. You know what’s not? LIterally everything that goes into a non-wood bat. Plus, wood is a carbon storehouse. Cutting down a tree and then turning that tree into bats and then planting a new tree is actually a form of carbon sequestration. Every new wood bat represents a few ounces of CO2 that’s not in the atmosphere. As long as you don’t burn the bat, and who burns baseball bats?

    (I don’t know or care if this is actually true. It’s plausible enough, and I’m willing to grasp any straw that helps turn the tide against non-wood bats.)

    Switch to wiffleball. You can recycle the bats and balls, correct? A lot safer to play, too.

    As long as we’re takling about environmentally-friendly alternatives for long shafts of wood, look what came in the mail Yesterday: (link)

    They’re ///Ahead drumsticks (and yes, that’s my hand holding the stick), and they differ from other sticks because they feature an aluminum handle and rod, polyurethane sleeves (the outer shaft), and nylon tips. The sleeves and tips are replaceable. This way, you’re not replacing the entire stick, you just replace what you need to replace.

    UPSIDES:
    >Sticks last 5X-7X longer than conventional wood sticks, saving YOU money.
    >Lack of hesitation towards hitting hard on the drum kit.
    >Supporting a relatively underrated brand (leading sticks are made by Vic Firth and Vater [both of which I’ve used])
    >They’re lightweight, the feel like wood sticks, and even SOUND like wood sticks when you click ’em together on a count-off.
    >They look pretty badass B)

    DOWNSIDES:
    >Expensive. They cost $30 for ONE pair, but keep in mind that these are designed to last up to 7X longer than a wood stick.
    >The aluminum handle can, and half of the time, WILL give you blisters if you leave the handles uncovered. Grip tape is HIGHLY recommended (it makes a BIG defference). If you don’t partake in grip tape, then gloves are also a great alternative.

    I highly recommend these to anyone who’s a serious drummer and is tired of breaking sticks. And the best part? They feature NO wood, which means less trees cut down for the sake of the Creative Arts, and more trees for the environment… and our Juiced-up men in the Bigs B)

    You see it more and more in girls fast pitch. When working girls tournaments, it is rare to see a P or 3B NOT wearing one anymore…

    Snapbacks? Didn’t we used to call those “adjustable” when we were little? And didn’t everyone with an adjustable cap always look to the kids with fitted hats with just a little bit of envy? Is this a case where the hat industry said “Hey, ‘adjustable’ has a negative connotation. Why don’t we come up with some other term that will make people think they WANT an adjustable hat?” Were they sitting in on the high-fructose corn syrup meetings?

    They make adjustable hats with velcro now too, so they probably had to come up with the new name to differentiate the two styles.

    Was that the cap “industry” who came up with the name, or collectors?

    Haven’t perused his site yet, but snapbacks haven’t been a significant part of Major League sales since the late 1990s – as Jeff said, they’ve been replaced by velcro almost entirely.

    I can’t stand the thought of Maryland going to the helmet in the picture linked above…even if it’s not an official picture. We can’t take that chance!

    We must save the Terps Helmet!

    link

    I hate the dark jersey/dark pants combo. And I hate the way that the numbers are trimmed in gold. When our red and gold are next to eachother, it does something weird to the red…makes it more orange.

    I loved our red on white uni that we’ve had since UA started making the Terps unis. That was a classy, classy unis set.

    Why are we trying to be Oregon? We should be trying to be Michigan, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Auburn…teams that have a very clear visual identity. Not changing it up every couple years. Not pleased….that being said…it could have been worse.

    Also, I agree with Walter. The M/flag helmet was sweet. I like the script Terps…but visually, that M/flag logo was better than some NFL helmets.

    Regarding the awesome little baseball card notebooks,

    [quote]Finally a good use for all those 1989 Topps Chris Sabo cards. Erin Zam is making and selling these really solid notepads that would be great for any baseball fan. She takes old 1950′s baseball cards and slices them down the middle so that the front and back of the same card is used as the cover for each notepad. She glues the cards to thicker stock and fills up the pads with varied types of paper to keep it interesting[/quote]

    Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder how hard it is to slice the baseball card in half like that?

    I don’t know if it’d be that difficult on older cards. Prior to the early 90’s when cards started getting glossy coatings, they were pretty much just layered cardboard. If you’ve got a card with a fraying corner, it’d probably pull apart easily enough with a bit of razorblade assistance.

    I’m tempted to try it… but then again, I’d rather not destroy any of my old cards.

    Ok, this whole “embracing the bad guy” thing with the Heat stops right now. Its one thing for people to call them the “NBA Death Star” but seriously enough is enough. None of this Stormtrooper stuff.

    Zack Hample has got himself a great little site going over there. Very well written and very interesting reads. Found myself spending some time enjoying that this morning as it provided a much appreciated esacpe from even more discussion of brown vs blue. I was so hoping that would, like the stroms that blew threw my neck of the woods yesterday, pass on over.

    Many thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones in the chaotic weather in the south over the past week or so.

    Sacrilegious, yes, but it seems teams that supply equipment would recoup some costs, and players who have their own endorsements would make extra $. Seems like it would be cheap, yet disgusting. lol

    They have me wondering, “Where’s the black?” You’d think if they were going to go to these lengths, they’d at least use team colors. /sarcasm

    Love this retort to the rebranding of the ASU athletic program. Ouch and touche.

    Since immersing themselves on the sports branding landscape for the last 15 years, Nike has proven to be “experts” in the business of imposing their will on unknowing collegiate athletic departments across the country. At ASU, the fixing of what is not broken (in this case the iconic endearing Sparky mark), and replacing it with a lifeless cold corporate “trident” mark again proves Nike to an unwanted trespasser in the world of sport bran identity.

    Given their “respect the past — represent the future” credos ring hallow when you view the complete and utter design demolition of the previous ASU/Sun Devil athletic program. Nike has again and again proven adept at using their brand DNA-speak to camouflage their graphic design shortcomings.

    The incredible and continued growth of UnderArmour and Adidas/Reebok is not surprising when you bear witness to the extermination of the beloved “Sparky” and introduction of the “Trident”, a symbol more synonymous with Neptune and the fables of aquatic folklore but certainly not of a Sun Devil!

    Epic failure by the Nike Organization!

    The funny thing is that the Mets bat knob image is from Zack Hample’s blog, so it’s like he got a two-fer today.

    So, thanks to UniWatch Blog, I got inspired. I make wallpaper schedules for a White Sox fan board (when I’m not colorizing photos for here). The last two months, there had been so much talk about the beach blanket uniform from the 80s, that I decided to make a retro wallpaper.

    link

    It combines my love old old uniforms with my childhood obsession with baseball cards.

    So big news on yahoo. Apparently EA sports has leaked the new bills uniform. Oh wait didn’t Paul release that weeks ago. oh well now there’s an actual look at what it may end up being rather than just our speculation.

    IMPORTANT NOTE!!! IMPORTANT NOTE!!! IMPORTANT NOTE!!!

    Someone (Paul? One of us?) bought the The Sporting News 1962 AFL Press Guide on ebay that I linked to late last night.

    Perhaps it includes written decriptions of team unis (I know TSN featured such things for MLB in 1962; I’ve posted scans of my clippings of same here several times).

    The plot thickens…

    I’m at work, so I had my Dad text me what color the Bills’ 1st round draft pick jersey was. He replied with “buff color is navy blue”. So I guess they didn’t have a brand-new physical jersey in time?

    Anyone notice that the Giants jersey that they gave to Prince Amukamara on the stage was the old version with the red triangle on the collar?

    Watching the Cardinals – Astros game tonight and just saw a quick shot of injured Cards reliver Brian Tallet in the Dugout with no jersey on. He was wearing a dark (navy or black) undershirt with a giant Nike weightlifting logo on the chest. I couldn’t see if there was a number on the sleeves, but it does seem to suggest that the Helton/Stewart style undershirts are being worn by teams besides the Rockies.

    RE: Cam Newton’s UA pin…

    They make him take it off right before he gets his Panther’s jersey…you can see him take it off very quickly with one hand which makes me think it was magnetic too…24 second mark of this video…

    link

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