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Meet Mr. Baseball (Backs)

Lou Gehrig jersey back

By Phil Hecken

As those of you who read on the weekends are likely aware, back on June 26, I featured a website called Baseball Backs (here’s the link), which in a nutshell features the back sides of baseball jerseys throughout history (although it is not quite a complete listing). At the time, I did not know who created this site, nor what his plans for that site were.

Today, I’m pleased to introduce you to the gentleman who created Baseball Backs, Ryan Simmelink, who reached out to me shortly after that article ran. Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

Phil-

I’m Ryan, the creator of Baseball Backs, and I would like to thank you for featuring my site last Sunday. I meant to do this earlier but I was swamped with grad school stuff as well as many requests via the exposure you got Baseball Backs. I appreciate all your kind words. I also spent time updating the website as well as changed the domain to baseballbacks.com.

One thing led to another and I interviewed Ryan about his board. I’m pleased to bring that to you now:

~~~

Uni Watch: How old are you and where do you live?

Ryan Simmelink: I am 28 years old and live in Carroll, Iowa.

UW: And what’s your favorite team?

RS: I grew up close to Des Moines where the Iowa Cubs play and attended lots of games as a kid so naturally I started rooting for the Cubs.

UW: Are you a regular Uni Watch reader, and for how long? Do you post in the comments?

RS: Reading the blog has become part of my morning routine since I started reading it about four years ago. I post in the comments here and there and have been mentioned in the ticker a couple times.

UW: What prompted you to start “Baseball Backs”

RS: I started creating the Baseball Backs just for my personal use. I noticed that I really couldn’t find anything like it and wanted to share them with others who might be interested.

UW: Was it purely a hobby or did anyone ask you to design one of these first?

RS: I actually made my first Baseball Back while I was a sophomore in high school. I had just started learning how to use Photoshop and wanted to replicate my own baseball jersey. After doing some digging, I found the original Baseball Back created back in 2000. However, I didn’t start making them until August 2009.

I had recently become hooked on the iPhone game Robot Master. I wanted to make a physical version of the game to play so I decided to make a Cubs version. I then decided to try putting my name on a Cubs jersey which then led to making other players jerseys. Now, it is strictly a hobby I do.

UW: How do you do research for these? Is it all old photographs or is some of it educated guesswork?

RS: If its a jersey from 1970 to the present, I turn to Henderson’s MLB Jersey Guide. It has helped me out tremendously and without it, it would take me a lot longer to make the Backs. If its pre-1970, I look to see if a vendor, like Mitchell & Ness, has created it. I also check out auction sites for examples. I do look at old photographs and even old movies.

To help with the correct colors, I head over to The Society for Sports Uniforms Research (now ColorWerx) to see what colors I need to use. For example, I really wanted to create a 1942 light blue road flannel for the Cubs. I found several photos of the front of the jersey but nothing of the back. I found an old movie from the 1942 spring training and went frame by frame trying to get a good look. I found a decent shot of it that confirmed what I thought, white number with an outline. I had to make an educated guess that the number mirrored the front lettering of white with a blue outline.

I also recently did a 1935 Gabby Hartnett road jersey for the Cubs. I found an example of the jersey but still unsure of the font. I searched through the Chicago Tribune pictures and found they used the McAuliffe (Red Sox) font that year. Usually, I don’t spend THAT long on jerseys but this was a personal crusade.

UW: Do you have plans to expand this to all years for all teams (maybe not immediately, but over time)?

RS: I try to get as much variety from different teams for different years. In the future, I’d love to have each jersey represented.

UW: Have you ever considered turning Baseball Backs into a reference site, a la “Dressed to the Nines”?

RS: I had never thought of Baseball Backs in that light before you mentioned it. I really like the idea now that I have some more free time (I’m just finishing up grad school). Because of Henderson’s guide, it would be easy to get from 1970 on; however, it would be a lot more difficult for pre-1970.

UW: How did you create the templates?

RS: I used one of my own jerseys to take measurements of the numbers and letters. I then had to tweak somethings here and there to make it look “right”. I also used some jerseys to scan in the background textures. I used to have a different template for each type (home double-knit, road double-knit, home flannel, road flannel, home Cool Base, etc.) but decided to consolidate it into one template. My template has multiple layers that I can simply delete to get the desired background. It has a generic name and number that I can change.

UW: I love the attention to detail you have, particularly how you can almost feel the “texture.” Is there any specific program you use for that?

RS: I use Adobe Photoshop for most of the process. I do use Adobe Illustrator to create the underlying number/name shapes.

UW: How do you decide the font for the numbers and letters? Do you look at MLB style guides or do you just “know” what to use?

RS: If its post 1970, I use Henderson’s guide. Everything else, I have to do some digging through auction sites, old photos and movies.

UW: Do you have plans for teams with no #OB (number on back) — basically pre-1929 for most teams? Would you ever do backs for the Tigers (with the Tiger logo) and Braves (with the native american head)? [As of this writing, Dressed to the Nines is “down” — originally I had links to the 1928 Tigers & 1930 Braves — PH]

RS: I had never really considered it before because of the lack of name and or number. I had came across the Tigers and Braves jerseys while looking through Okkonen’s work. Those two are currently on my to-do list.

UW: What happens if someone finds a mistake? Do you have a comments section or email address on the board?

RS: I’m human and make mistakes. I do appreciate when someone nicely points out an error because I want the Backs to be as accurate as possible. I have a contact form on the website that people have used to contact me. For example, I had Rob Nenn instead of Robb Nen, wrong type of 5 on a Mark Teixeira, and radially arched names on late ’60s Orioles jerseys instead of vertically arched.

UW: How do you decide which jerseys/players to create?

RS: I take requests from people and try to create those. I also look at who has had their numbers retired, award winners, current players who are playing well and up-and-coming rookies. I also like trying jerseys that are unique and different. I also look for jerseys that have unique aspects to them, such as materials, textures and name placement.

UW: What are some of your favorite Backs that you’ve done?

RS: I really like the old pin-striped flannels. I also enjoy anything that has different fonts, numbers and colors.

~~~

Great stuff, Ryan. Shortly after that interview, I followed up with him and he had a few last things to add:

• When I first started, I had many people ask me to make personalized Backs with their names and numbers on them. I turned them down because they take awhile to make and really only one person wants to look at them. As I expanded the site, I found the need to buy a Flickr Pro account, Henderson’s guide, software upgrades and recently a domain name. Now that I see all the hidden costs, I decided to offer a free personalized Baseball Back with a $5 donation. I’m not out to make any money; just cover those hidden costs. I don’t sell any MLB Baseball Backs (those will always be free). I’m always up for requests as long as I don’t get a long list. If its a tougher one, a picture helps out tremendously.

• When I first started, I was just uploading them to Photobucket but found the quality lacking. So I decided to switch over to Flickr which is nice… high quality and the ability to see how many views. But it was missing that website feel so I decided to throw together the website at Weebly. As the number of Baseball Backs grew, I needed to organize them better than what I had been so I decided to use Google Sites to help organize the Backs.

• I’ve been doing graphic design elements since high school. My dad, a former art teacher turned principal, started using Photoshop to make sports graphics and I quickly followed suit. I took computer graphic classes throughout high school and continued on my own since. I’ve done various projects for my alma mater. I’ve also done many music posters for several musicians. Last summer, I got the chance to help out the Arizona Diamondbacks with a graphic in their D-backs Insider Magazine for Luis Gonzalez’s number retirement. I just recently did the graphics for the iPad game Immix.

~~~

Tremendous job, Ryan. It seems like you have a great future ahead of you. Thanks for your time.

~~~~~~~~~~

all-star-game-2011.jpg

A Quick All-Star Game Round-Up from Paul

Hi there. I watched last night’s game with my longtime buddy Tim Adams, who was in from Chicago. He’s a regular Uni Watch reader, but I’m not sure he was prepared for what it was like to watch an All-Star Game while sitting next to Mr. Uni Watch. We were busy catching up on this and that, not really paying close attention to the game (it’s amazing how the rest of the world fades away when you start discussing Michele Bachmann), but I kept periodically pointing at the TV and saying, “Look at that patch!” or “What’s the deal with those shoes?”

My main takeaways from the game:

• Quite a few teams this season have a team logo patch on one sleeve and a memorial patch on the other sleeve. In all of these cases except one, the protocol for last night’s game was to replace the memorial patch with the All-Star patch, and to move the memorial patch to the chest. That was the case with the Pirates’ Chuck Tanner memorial, the Indians’ Bob Feller memorial, the Dodgers’ Duke Snider memorial, the Cubs’ Ron Santo memorial, the Mariners’ Dave Niehaus memorial, and the Reds’ Sparky Anderson memorial.

• The one exception to this rule was the Twins’ Harmon Killebrew memorial, which stayed on the right sleeve even though the left sleeve was occupied by a team logo patch. I guess they decided that the “3” would’ve looked weird if worn on the chest.

• In addition, the Tigers’ Sparky Anderson memorial was allowed to remain on the right sleeve. Why? Because the Tigers don’t normally wear a patch on the left sleeve, so that’s where they put the All-Star patch.

• A bunch of players wore these really annoying blue-soled Nike shoes. Is this the new Day-Glo? Whatever, let’s hope we never see those again.

• The little stars on the caps were worn by the umpires as well as by the players, which seems like a bit much. At least they didn’t wear the jersey stars.

Meanwhile, speaking of the All-Star Game, back on Saturday I mentioned that A’s pitcher Gio Gonzalez had worn his All-Star sleeve patch on Friday night. To my knowledge, no other ASG participant had worn that patch prior to last night, so what was the deal with Gonzalez? I learned the answer on Monday while talking to A’s equipment manager Steve Vucinich, who I was interviewing regarding a completely different issue (one that will be covered extensively in my ESPN column tomorrow). He brought up the Gonzalez patch on his own, like so:

I wanted to tell you about that Gio thing, the All-Star patch. I didn’t go on that road trip to Texas — I had four days off for a family reunion. Now, Gio never wears the gray [when he pitches]. Even if the rest of the team went out there in gray, he’d probably wear something else. But he was gonna take the gray jersey to the All-Star Game, so I figured I’d put the All-Star patch on his gray jersey while we were still in Oakland, before the road trip — that way I know it’s taken care of, I don’t have to worry about anyone else dealing with it.

But then the tragedy in Texas [with the fan falling out of the stands and dying] happened on Thursday night. And they decided that the black ribbons that they wore the next day, you couldn’t really see ’em against the dark green. And it was Gio’s day to pitch, and he said, “Okay, I’ll wear gray.” So all of a sudden he’s out there with the All-Star patch, because I’d already put it on his jersey. I was actually expecting MLB to call me about it, but so far you guys are the only ones who caught it.

Thanks, Steve. For the record, Gonzalez gave up seven runs in four innings that night, so I don’t think we’ll see him wearing gray again anytime soon.

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guthrie.png

Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

Already going through All-Star Game withdrawal? Then you may enjoy this selection of ASG patches. If, on the other hand, you’re ready to move on to other things, check out this week’s haul:

• Paul submitted this sensational wheelchair basketball jersey.

• Here’s a 1970s Atlanta Falcons down vest in good shape.

• Check out the waistband on these 1980s Eagles shorts. Looks like it could double as a girdle!

• Get your 1984 Kamloops Junior Oilers iron-on patch here.

• Staying with hockey for a moment, Bobby Orr and Bernie Parent grace the cover of this mid-’70s NHL sticker album. [That’s one killer cover illo. Would love to see some of the interior pages. ”” PL]

• I love that 1970s MLB poster series where they recycle images of other players. Case in point: That’s clearly Pete Rose, not a Padre.

• And for Paul, a collection of Mets yearbook posters and a T-shirt showing Mets uni history.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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Benchies Beginning logo

Benchies from the Beginning
By Rick Pearson

For nearly three years, “Benchies” has been appearing most weekends at Uni Watch. While Bench Coach Phil fills in for Paul Monday through Friday during August, we present a retrospective. New strips will continue to appear on weekends. For further background, here’s the “Benchies” backstory and bios on the regular Boys of “Benchies.” Enjoy.

And here’s today’s strips (one for yesterday, and one for today):

7-12-11 d-benchies 2

~~~

7-13-11 d-Benchies 3

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HPH for UW

A few words of “Thanks”

As most of you are no doubt aware, my father (that’s him on the right) passed away on Monday, after a prolonged illness. He had suffered from a number of ailments over the past few years, beginning with a disease called MDS or Myelodysplastic Syndromes, a group of bone marrow diseases; he also almost died from West Nile Encephalitis, which he may have contracted from a mosquito bite while out golfing with me. Eventually the MDS morphed into leukemia, which finally claimed his life, after a valiant and protracted fight. He was my best friend, the guy who taught me how to catch, throw and hit, who became my tennis and later golf partner, and eventually, towards the end just my bridge partner. He touched my life in so many countless ways, and others as well, and I will miss him greatly. But in the end he was suffering terribly, and as hard as it was for me to say “goodbye,” I know that he is now in a better place.

I wanted to extend an extra special note of thanks to the entire Uni Watch community, and especially our fearless leader, Paul Lukas, for all your kind words and thoughts. Paul’s column yesterday, and all the ensuing comments and e-mails I received, brought a tear to my eye, and a warmth to my heart. The Uni Watch community has always been wonderful, and will continue to be so, and the tremendous outpouring of support you provided to me cannot be adequately repaid. You are all a special bunch of crazy guys and gals with a passion and dedication, and I truly, TRULY mean it when I say “Thank You” for everything. You’re making it much easier for me (and my family) to make it through a very difficult time, and for that I am eternally grateful.

~~~~~~~~~~

ticker 2

Uni Watch News Ticker: (compiled by John Ekdahl) Those new South Carolina football uniforms look even worse in real life than they did on the video game (thanks to Beau Franklin). … As Patrick Walsh points out, it’s familiar tradition in the World Cup to wear stars over your crest to represent the number of times you’ve won. The U.S. Women’s team wears two stars and the men’s Brazilian team wears five stars, as seen here. But, Brazil’s women’s team has never won the World Cup and yet wears the five stars like the men’s squad. As Patrick says, “It’d be pretty weird if the US men’s team rocked the two stars that the women earned”. Agreed, and I think they’d receive a fair amount of trash-talking for it. … Joe Mauer’s personal logo makes an appearance in his latest Gatorade ad (thanks to Mike Sambuceti). … Inter Milan will be wearing new home kits for next year. … Mack Abbott attended a recent minor league baseball tournament and noticed this odd jersey. “They looked more like BP jerseys or something that would have been better suitied underneath a vest.” … Uni Watch never passes up the opportunity to show some sharp-looking stirrups (thanks to Steve Foster who attended a Mountain Collegiate Baseball League game). … Cort McMurray snapped a great picture of New Era’s hat blocking machine on a trip to their headquarters in Buffalo. … Check out this video (3:00 mark) of the New York Golden Blades wearing white skates during the ’73-’74 season (thanks to commenter Jet). … Zack Nichols has noticed that the University of Wisconsin bookstore is now selling their team’s football jerseys without sleeve stripes, possibly to distinguish themselves from Nebraska. “Every year the replica jerseys have sleeve stripes. I don’t think this was an accident.” Thanks, Zack. … Jon Helfenstein put together some great shots of the 1971 All-Star Game. … Larry Bodnovich wonders whether Denny Fitzgerald was the last player to wear a leather helmet with no facemask in 1960. … Thankfully, Paul is both on vacation and doesn’t play golf (sent by Ben Traxel). … So, I think most of us are aware that Harry Potter is immensely popular and a multi-hundred million dollar (pound?) behemoth. Obviously, the next logical step is to take over Minor League Baseball. That shot is from a Fresno Grizzlies game, and this promotion is for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Thanks to Melanie Worstell and Matthew Robins, respectively. … Some Wyoming fans are worried their football team might be going full Nike-Oregon. It seems like a false alarm. That team is clearly labeled “WYO”, which I believe is between “ATL” and “PHX”.

~~~~~~~~~~

“No words can describe the feeling. Tears seem to be the best way to deal with it. I know he is in a better place now, where stirrups are never worn backwards, and no logo creep is visible on any uniform.” — Mike Obie

 
  
 
Comments (96)

    Stay strong buddy. You’ve got all our support.

    And one more All Star note: Much like the Twins jersey, they double patched on the right sleeve. They had the AS logo with the Orioles logo.
    Can’t find pics of it now though…

    The O’s are one of the few teams that wear team logo patches on *both* sleeves (script on the right, that circular “Orioles Baseball” patch on the left). That’s why they had to double up.

    What kind of “minor league baseball tournament” was Mack Abbott at? Minor league teams don’t play tournaments, so I’m puzzled by that reference.

    Maybe he meant to type “beer” rather than “minor”.

    I’ve never heard of a minor league tournament either.

    There are also no ads on the stadium fences, which are almost always part of a minor league ballpark.

    Phil, my thoughts are with you and your family. I couldn’t imagine life without my father.
    -Walter

    baseball backs! still reading the interview (really cool, by the way). i have to say that when i first learned about ryan and his site a few years back, i took a shot and asked him if he could possibly do a 1960 danny murtaugh back (for a few obvious reasons to me). i thought for sure he’d put it on the back burner because murtaugh was just a coach, not a really high profile player. ryan turned it out in about 2 days and it’s been my desktop wall paper ever since! love going to that site and poking around! great job ryan, and thanks for sharing phil

    link

    Sure do… I should have put bench in front of coach. I was trying to get the point that it doesn’t matter how “small” someone is.

    I realize Danny Murtaugh was a manager – World Series winning in fact. I was trying to get the point across that it doesn’t matter if someone is a superstar or simply a bench coach; as long as they wore the jersey, I’m more than happy to make a Back for them. Looking back, it does seem rather confusing.

    Brazil’s Women’s team has 5 stars for their 5 South American Championships. Yes its stupid to wear them in a World Cup but they reference those, not the Men’s Team’s world cups.

    That Wisconsin Jersey is most likely a QB practice Jersey adidas sells. Russell Wilson wore #16 with NC State so that’s my bet despite the fact Wisconsin wears green for their QB jerseys.

    On the Wyoming stuff, everyone worries what “Nike is going to do” but unless you are a team like Auburn, Wisconsin, Oregon, etc, the companies aren’t going to give you anything custom. 75% of the teams that are sponsored by Nike and adidas are ordering out of a template catalog. Since Under Armor only has a few teams its hard to tell and Russell is 100% templates from what I can tell. Now Wyoming with the unique colors may be somewhat custom ordered instead of off the rack, but all of those uniforms are Nike templates and those are ordered by….the team!

    So that’d be like the US men wearing 4 gold stars for their various CONCACAF championships? Stay classy, Brazil. Honestly, that explanation seems worse than just wearing the men’s stars. Especially since the women so perfectly uphold the Brazilian men’s ethos of poorly organized individual brilliance and cheating.

    The explanation I’ve heard (was a few years ago and can’t remember where) is that the CBF (national association) uses the crest with the 5 stars above it for every national team. stands up judging by pics of the beach soccer team that has won that world cup 13 times (link) and the U-17 team that has won that world cup 3 times (link)

    My guess would have been that given the lack of interest in and support towards its women’s team shown by the CBF, that they wouldn’t have bothered going to great lengths to make separate jerseys (sans stars) for the women, that they would have just ordered a boatload of the same jersey with the stars and told the women to wear those (like hand-me-downs that were never worn). But I don’t know if that theory would stand up to scrutiny (and they’ve obviously been personalized, and, for all I know, they’re not the exact same jersey).

    But it is kinda dumb, I guess, if it’s for anything other than a World Cup title (in which case, only the US, Norway and Germany would have stars at all, right?). Club teams wear stars for league titles (even though they can win bigger or other championships), I guess there’s no hard and fast rule about what your stars have to represent. Just kinda odd when you’re the distaff version of the most successful national team ever.

    Maybe I got bad info on the women’s team….made since cause they won 5 South American Championships.

    If the 5* crest is considered the national standard across all Brazilian soccer programs (beach, women’s, juniors, etc) that seems like a mess unto itself. Yes the men’s national can be considered the “top tier” of Brazilian soccer as far as global recognition, but it seems really weird to me that every level is allowed to represent that success. And also that women and juniors are expected to recognize the men’s accomplishments instead of potentially representing earning their own. One hypothetical I’d proposed in the original e-mail was…had the Brazilian women gone on to win this World Cup, would the men wear a sixth star? Chances are, 100% not at all.

    The 5 stars are not accoutrements of the uniform, they are part of the logo of the CBF, so that’s why it’s on the uniform of every national team. This is also true for the 4 stars in Italy’s crest, but I don’t think it’s the case for any other country that has won the men’s World Cup.

    The WYO, ATL, and PHX references got me thinking – and maybe I’m the first person to wonder this, or maybe not…

    If Atlanta uses ATL on their third jersey shouldn’t they be either legally or morally obligated to change it to ALT?

    (Wish I had the ability to Photoshop a rendering of that.)

    At least “Wyo”, as opposed to “Wyoming”, has some history with the team from Laramie, that being a prominent part of their team song “Ragtime Cowboy Joe”. I like the yellow jersey, white pants combo. Weird to see two different white helmet looks and it makes one wonder if there will be players with the wrong Cowboy Joe logo in any game where they use the white lid.

    Phil – I’m sad for you that you don’t have more time with your Dad, but I’m glad for you that you had so many great times with him. You’ll make him proud.

    Can’t understand the fascination with airport abbreviations, and now state abbreviations. But then, a lot these days escape me.

    That said, Wyoming’s duds aren’t as bad as they could be, given the school color hand its been given. Still, these combinations are getting out of hand. The white helmet is fine. Why add an alt with stripes? If money is burning a hole in your pocket and you absolutely have to have an alt helmet, I can’t quarrel with the brown on brown helmet.

    I liked the old Laker and Warrior basketball unis with the team name running down the side of the shorts. But the translation to football doesn’t do it for me.

    Some misses in that Wyoming uni set(s), but I agree that the matte brown helmets are pretty cool. I’ve always liked their odd color scheme, so some of those looks aren’t too jarring in my opinion. Also nowhere near as radical as Oregon’s liberties with non-school colors. The brown helmet/white jersey/brown pants look will be pretty sharp on the road.

    I like the brown on brown look. I wish they would have had a yellow hat to go with the yellow on yellow.

    The alternate white helmet is worn with the yellow jersey (or at least that’s the only game they wore it with last year). They’ve worn all those parts before except for the white jersey and the brown helmet.

    I don’t know why they haven’t opted to get the pro combats with internal shoulder re-enforcing, but other than that they look good considering the color scheme (and the alternate white helmet works if limited to once a year use with the yellow jersey). If they got rid of the piping it’d look even better. I wonder if the old white jersey is gone or if they are just electing not to show it off.

    proof they’ve worn certain options before:

    link

    Great pictures in the link to the 1971 All-Star game. Interesting, that Dock Ellis. Seems that his weird, flocked, Pirates helmet was for a lefthanded batter and not a righty. One of his teammates, probably, but you never know with Dock. Might have been “trippin” on something.

    One funny thing I noticed was that Luis Aparicio was billed in the on-screen graphic as being with the Chicago White Sox, despite the fact that he was clearly wearing a Boston Red Sox uniform. It’s not like he’d just been traded that week or month, either, as he’d been acquired by the BoSox in December, so he was selected for the 1971 ASG as a Red Sock. Somebody in the NBC truck wasn’t paying attention…

    Surely he’s wearing white sanis. The photo looks like it they might be black. Ugh!

    I dunno, it looks to me like that black could be part of his shoe, and he’s wearing solid socks, not stirrups.

    funny that after i typed: “not much of a ‘rups person” that my link to UW went bad for about 15mins. kept trying to refresh and got a blank screen. ;-)

    I think too much emphasis is place here on stirrups when stripped socks look (almost) as good. Given that it is definitely uncomfortable to have a stirrup under your heel I think we should face reality and settle happily for stripped socks and high cuffs. There would be no discomfort and maybe, just maybe, the players would obey a rule requiring them. If not suspension without pay would convince them, I’m sure.

    Yeah, there hasn’t been an MLB-wide rule governing the styling of stirrups and the length of pants (other than the curretn one now forbidding the pant from extending to under the shoe heel) since…well, never.

    Individual teams, yes. MLB, no.

    So, good luck with that.

    Phil – I don’t get the chance to comment much these days even though I still read daily. What better time to comment than now? I’m sorry for your loss. You and your family are in our thoughts. Your father sounds like a wonderful man.

    That was a nice little piece on your dad, Phil.
    I hope you find this funny, and by no means disrespectful.
    But… when that picture of your pop first started scrolling up, I was expecting a segment from Terry Proctor.

    someone needed to point out to Bochey last night not to wear a black T under his jersey–you could clearly read GIANTS thru the front.

    Phil-

    Good to see you back!If it is any consolation to you and your family my company is working hard to cure MDS and all of the other blood cancers that take people much to soon.

    Not sure if anyone else noticed that FOX cut to a shot of the MLB logo on the outfield wall last night when Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were discussing the passing of Harmon Killebrew. Talk about two guys that need to get a clue;)

    I also notice that Andre was not “Breathing Eithier” last night did MLB put a halt to that too?

    From Hal McCoy’s July 1 column:

    “It is pretty much accepted that Killebrew was the model for the baseball player depicted on the Major League Baseball logo, and while it is disputed by some, I asked Killebrew that question and he said, “Yeah, it is my understanding that it is me, but I don’t know why they chose me.”
    That’s an easy one, Killer. Check your stats and check your reputation. They couldn’t have picked a better guy.”

    Killebrew sincerely believed he was the basis for the logo, but he was mistaken.

    Scroll down a bit to see my longer comment addressing this.

    I dont really see how it can be anybody, its not like the NBA logo with Jerry West, it looks like a normal batting stance.

    yea I remeber when you did an article on this, I think it was on ESPN? Anyways, i can say its based on me, because i have a similar batting Stance LOL.

    It can’t be Harmon. Look how pointy logo guy’s nose is. Mr. Killebrew had more of a bulbous nose.
    link
    Plus he’s facing the wrong way…

    far and away the best aspect of the wyoming uniforms is that helmets. the throwback logo is tremendous, but the brown and yellow has to go. horrible

    Not sure if this was previously discussed in the comments, but I found myself yelling at the TV twice during all-star game festivities:
    1) During HR Derby – Nomar made a reference to somebody hitting a Killebrew-esque HR and it being a fitting reference b/c it hit the Killebrew mlb logo. ugh.
    2) During the game I think it was a conversation about Killebrew and they panned to the same mlb logo. double ugh.
    Both ESPN and Fox promoting the misnomer.

    Sigh. Do we have to keep going thru this? Apparently we do.

    Killebrew was sincere but mistaken. I broke that story myself in 2008:
    link

    The Associated Press confirmed it a few months ago:
    link

    Jerry Dior, the logo’s designer, has always made it very clear that the logo was not based on Killebrew. In fact, his assignment was specifically to create a “nondescript” figure (he always emphasizes that term, most recently in a phone conversation I had with him over this past weekend).

    If you want to believe in a myth, stick to Santa Claus. This one has been debunked, and a good man’s word (Jerry Dior’s) is being sullied every time the myth is repeated.

    That was a very nice write up about your dad. It literally brought a tear to my eye. Good dads are priceless and it sounds like yours was one of those. Sorry for your loss.

    For anyone in the NYC area…..

    does anyone know of a store where I can purchase a size 8(FATHEAD LOL) St Patrick’s Day Philadelphia Phillies hat?

    Thanks

    Billy V

    Billy- Try Olympia Sports. Not sure if they have them in the city but I know they are here in Westchester if you feel the need to take aride on Metro North.

    That WHA footage was pretty nice. The Cougars had one of the more interesting designs, with three sets of stripes on the shoulders as well as the waist and sleeves. The only element I’d take away would be the front jersey numbers. I’d love to see a modern team try out that striping…

    Forget the Golden Blades’ skates – how about those jerseys? We’ve never seen anything quite like that in the NHL, though it does kind of look like it could be adapted to the Edge system. Too bad they only lasted 24 games before moving south to Cherry Hill, NJ, where they scrapped the Blades jerseys in favor of recrested New York Raiders’ orange and blue uniforms (which stuck with the franchise when they moved to San Diego).

    Don’t know if anyone else picked up on it, but at the 3:07 mark, the Golden Blades and the Houston Aeros are playing dark on dark jerseys. I’m assuming the GB’s are the home team. Hard to make out the center ice logo.

    South Carolina’s uniforms are garbage, the video game rendering of them grew on me (from absolutely horrendous to terrible), now its back to my first impression.

    Great tribute to your dad, Phil, I know most of can relate heavily. My heart goes out to you and your family.

    Alex Morgan of the US WNT is wearing a hot pink bra (it can bee seen through the white jersey), she scored as I am typing this, so I imagine the image could be captured from a replay if you feel it’s UniNews-worthy.

    No I don’t normally look to see what color bra the WNT is wearing but its impossible to ignore one of this color.

    No, I think those are separately-made jerseys for the Brazilian women’s team (with a more “feminine” cut). Moreover, their change jersey is a lighter, almost turquoise, blue (by contrast, the Brazilian Under-17 boys team wore the traditional royal blue change jerseys).

    They wear the five stars to signify the five Men’s World Cup wins — just wait three years; everyone in Brazil will be obsessed with the “Hexa” (getting that sixth star).

    I am a WYO native and I can tell you the alumni and fans will not be thrilled with the new uni’s. They threw a fit when the bright yellow was relpaced a few years ago with a more traditional “Prairie Gold” aka Vegas Gold. I appreciated that look, but it was shunned and subsequently changed back a few years later. Change does not go over well with UW alumni. That being said, I LIKE the new unis and I will tell you why. It will attract kids. Look, getting athletes to go to a college that is 7200 ft. above sea level and frozen 9 months out of the year is not an easy sell. Plus, the town itself is not easy to get to. You have to fly into Denver, drive 90 miles to Cheyenne, and then drive another 50 miles down I-80 to get to Laramie. At least now when a recruit makes that trip he will have some interesting uniforms to check out. Hey, we can’t all be Penn State….

    Phil, i am very sorry for your loss, situations like this are always tough. Just remember the good times you had with your Dad, and remember he is always with you.

    With Warm Regards,
    Chris.

    Phil, I’m very sorry about the passing of your Dad. I hope the happy memories of your times together will soon outweigh the sorrow of your loss.
    -Dan

    Thanks to Baseball Backs and The Fleer Sticker Project for giving me two reasons to be happy about today’s entry:
    link
    link
    Great job, guys.

    Purple sand? Cool find, Trax.

    As for WYO, stop telling them they need to get rid of their school colors. The only thing they need to do is get rid of the regular jerseys with the crap on the sides. Keep the gold WYO jersey and the brown pants with COWBOYS on the leg. I prefer the white helmet with no stripe, but as someone else said, if you *must* have an alt helmet, that brown-on-brown one’s pretty good.

    There you go. Not only should we not build our house on the site of a cemetary, shold never build where a winery once stood, either…
    link

    Perhaps Trax will send us a photo of him wearing his purple stirrups in one of those bunkers? Oh, wait, his shots never find the sand, do they.

    SC fans aren’t crazy about the new unis either, but nobody asked us.

    More technical info from the official unveiling is in the link. There are better images and a couple of interesting points about practical changes to maintain color consistency across sports, the accommodation of linemen’s knee braces, and the elimination of the double ring belt buckle.

    link

    I like how they try and make the stripes mean something when they are actually random and completely nonsensical (if they were actually trying to make them look like what they claim they did a terrible job at doing it).

    And then there’s the bit about changing the font:

    “The word “Carolina” across the chest and numbers have been changed to the typefaces introduced on the basketball jerseys last year. “Carolina” is in a bolder, stronger typeface. The same letter and number styles will be used on uniforms on all Gamecocks teams, so all the school will have an easily recognizable look.”

    Basically they ditched a generic font that looks good in favor of a generic font that looks bad (mainly in the numbers). Easily Recognizable would be using the font the baseball team uses for the hats/wordmarks, that’d be recognizable and unique, what they have switched to is not.

    At least they didn’t touch the helmets.

    Based on much of last night’s ASG footwear, has Nike now declared red and bright blue to be universal (or maybe neutral) in baseball, as they have neon yellow for basketball and lacrosse, and both that and orange for soccer?

    Or do those soles have, like, goldfish in them or something that makes them just too cool?

    just guessing about the baseball ASG footwear: turquoise is a color commonly associated with Arizona and the desert, maybe Nike was “rewarding” the all stars with their Arizona ASG cleats.

    I suppose maybe. But they looked pretty stupid when they didn’t come close to matching a team’s uni color combination.

    Mostly, it indicates that players are essentially taste-free. You’d think they say, “These’ll just look dumb with my uniform.”

    But I guess if it’s aboout ego/status such considerations are irrelevant.

    I don’t get into baseball cards like I used to, but I always buy a box of the Allen and Ginter set when they come out every year. They have some pretty unique items to go along with their retro-themed baseball cards.

    Nowadays, you can pull a card with an autograph on it, a bat relic, or a jersey relic. Pretty cool to own a little piece of history in my opinion. I know others don’t share my thoughts on that subject… but anyways.

    This year, for the jersey relics for players from the Tampa Bay Rays, they “jersey relics” seem to be from the Rays sweet plaid jackets they worse last year:

    link

    And the card:
    link

    Preds player Blake Geoffrion tweeted a pic of a yellow jersey. It kind of looks like his first name is Reebok.

    link

    What are the chances that two people from the same small college in Iowa make Uni Watch on the same day. Ryan Simmelink (obviously), and then Melanie Coulter Worstell (Uni Watch News Ticker). Nice work to both of you. Way to represent NWC.

    Ryan, I never knew you did the baseball backs thing. Love it.

    Sorry about your loss, Phil. The Uniwatch family is full of great people like you and Dad.

    As for that Joe Mauer Gatorade clip, I think that little moment is set/filmed at the Marlins stadium. I’m not sure if the Twins have ever visited Joe Robbie Stadium, but that’s what it looks like to me. The Marlins’ World Series banners are hidden.

    link

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