By Phil Hecken
While soliciting column ideas from readers, one of the first to approach me was Jeremy Brahm, who is probably familiar to all of you as our “Pacific Rim Correspondent,” and who finds odd and unique uniforms from all over the world, but the Asian Pacific is his specialty. So when Jeremy reached out with the following, I was intrigued. Here’s what he said to me:
This will be a strange idea, but I have gathered info on this already.
In the UK, there was a sports drama called “Dream Team” which lasted 10 years on SkySports and has recently finished broadcasting on Fox Soccer Channel. I was a fan of the show, but sometimes the storylines were a little strange, such as players getting sick from Turkey dinner on Christmas and cannot play on Boxing day. Also, the numerous plane and bus crashes, etc. I always called it “Team Chaos” but in reality of the show it was called Harchester United.
The show’s premise was to show the life of the team, on and off the pitch. Players not playing well, managers trying to improve the team and the player’s lives (meeting women, drinking, fighting with teammates, etc.).
What was different about this show was that the production team with the help of SkySports who happened to have Premier League TV rights was to use actual game footage and then place the team inside of it. How do they do that? With video editing and choosing a color that is not prevalent in sports, PURPLE. Now they would use white and orange as road colors, but the teams uniforms did change over the years and even had different sponsors as well.
So with that, I said, “OK, sounds pretty interesting.” I also knew that with a certain shade of dark blue/red being the primary team color, running something like this during Paul’s sabbatical was probably for the best. Here’s Jeremy:
Flying Purple Dream Teamers
By Jeremy Brahm
As Uni Watch readers have found over the past five years, I have diverse interests in International sports but also culture as well. In today’s article, we are even going to go a little off the beaten path and look at a British television show called “Dream Team”. For those of you who have never heard of the show, it is about a fictitious soccer team called Harchester United and the show was broadcast from 1997 to 2007 on SkySports in the United Kingdom. Even though the show is no longer being produced, it is still being broadcast in the UK, but also on Fox Soccer Channel, for those of you who can get that channel. However, FSC just finished the 10th season of the show this spring so I do not know if it will be rebroadcast in the future or not.
When I first saw the show on Fox Soccer Channel, it was in 2004, which was broadcasting the end of season 2 from 1998. Originally each episode was only 30 minutes long, probably to make it easier to fit in the sports television time schedule. Eventually it reverted to an hour long show. The plot of the show is to follow Harchester United, or the Dragons, through an entire season of matches, week to week and even showing the politics of team ownership, player movement, and players off the field lives. Some of the stories have car accidents, plane crashes, bankruptcy, divorces, cheating, and even murder.
But the main reason I am writing about this show is that it did have some uniform issues throughout the run of the show. Due to the team being of a fictional nature, the choice of team colors was obvious, make them a color that no one uses. So, the home uniform was purple, road games were usually white, but sometimes special road matches had orange uniforms.
Now you may ask, why would a television show need these colors for the uniforms? Well, this is where computers come in. In order to reduce production costs for the show, in this case not travelling to every ground in the Premier League to film the players running around, the producers worked with SkySports to utilize their old film or video of the opposing team that they would play. So if Harchester were playing a road game, the opponents would be in their home uniform. Computer animation engineers would then delete the uniform color of the visiting team, say wearing yellow, and make them white to match Harchester’s colors.
Even when Harchester would be playing a home game at the Dragon’s Lair (actually Millwall FC’s the Den), the sign boards around the field would change every episode. If you knew the sponsors or layout of the stadium, you could guess which stadium the match was played in.
I can only find most of the home uniforms because many of the shots for the show are based on home games of course.
Season 1. The show started following the youth team of Harchester United. Solid purple, with white trim on sleeves and shorts. Dream Team logo in black on chest. Made by Pony.
Season 2. The show shifted from the boys to the first team and even a run to the FA Cup Final in which the Dragons win, but the captain of the team is killed after taking the trophy. The owner suspected his wife was having an affair with a player (not the captain), but he was in the line of fire. Solid purple, with white collar, white sleeve and white side stripe on shorts. Le Coq Sportif came in as the sponsor of the team.
Season 3. Star player Luis Amor Rodgriguez leaves the club and after a win in Amsterdam, a plane carrying two players crashes on the way home. Add white shorts and white socks. But the goalkeeper in the middle is in Adidas gear.
The man on the left of the front row is Andy Ansah a former professional player with teams below the Premier League. You may not recognize him, but if you saw any of the Nike ads for the World Cup last year, he was the “choreographer” of the soccer scenes.
Season 4. A fight for the club between Prashant Datani and Lynda Block eventually turns to murder while the club tries to get back into European competition. Add big white collars to the uniform and go to purple socks.
Do you recognize this man?
That is Eddie Moliano, I mean Ed Saunders of ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition and formerly of National Bingo Night.
He studied carpentry in the UK as a fall back career if acting did not work out.
Season 5. Changed team logo. A new owner, owner almost marries Lynda but leaves her at the altar. Team has a bus crash on the way to the airport to the UEFA Cup final. Lose the collar.
Season 6. Another new owner of the team. Jamie Oliver the star goalkeeper has completely lost his mind and holds his team hostage during the final match of the season. Notice the official Premier League fonts for the uniforms and the changed Dream Inc. font.
Season 7. Another new owner who won ownership of the team with a lottery ticket. Added Chinese characters to the Dream Team for Chinese market and to go with it a Chinese player. The Dragons get relegated to the Championship. Flaired collar design. Plus the multiple lines, but not seen in this shot.
Season 8. The Dragons win promotion back to the Premier League after a playoff. However, the manager accidentally kills the club’s greatest player Karl Fletcher. He then crashes into the team coach when the cops are after him, killing much of the team. Changed to Valsport from Le Coq Sportif.
After the team was relegated to the Championship (one step below the Premier League) changed to name and number fonts on the uniform.
Season 9. New team logo and another new owner with a twist. The owner is not known, but he is one of the player’s on the team, Casper Rose and he has put together a team with his half-brother as the team manager (who does not know that he is related to him) and his adopted brother Eugene (who is also his half-brother). He is again accidentally murdered, by the manager in the hotel. This is the only shot that I can find for Season 9 and Casper is the man in the shot.
Dropped the uniform manufacturer though.
Season 10. The team has a new coach and owner, plus they have brought in the “Tire Boy” who was in the Harchester youth squad and was put in the game by the manager who had killed his half-brother. Back to an all purple look. But here they are in white socks.
It is not often that a television show lasts 10 years, let alone a sport focused television show. Even as the stories and the players changed over the years, so did the uniforms.
Thanks Jeremy! That’s probably the last time for a long time we feature a team with that particular shade on Uni Watch.
Ricko’s Mea Culpa…
Ricko was *pretty upset* (TPFIC) about inadvertently omitting the San Francisco Giants from yesterday’s White Shoe article, he wanted to make up for it today. Here’s The Rick:
My Bad.
Uh-oh. In the course of putting together yesterday’s piece on white shoes in MLB, I totally forget to include the Giants.
When that omission was pointed out yesterday in the comments it opened a proverbial can of bait. In the year or so the Giants wore white cleats, did they wear them only on road? Only with orange sanitaries? Only with orange jerseys?
Okay, near as I can figure the white shoes WERE worn only with orange sanitaries. But in the course of digging in the Ricko Files I found more than I remembered.
Yes, the combo of white shoes, orange sanis and orange jerseys was primarily a road uni, as seen on Vida Blue and Jack Clark while the homes were white over white with white sanis and black cleats.
A black jersey was added to the mix in ’78, and by golly the white shoes showed up at home, too. This 1978 photo clearly is a home game. Even if we didn’t recognize Candlestick, we can be certain the Astros didn’t play at home outdoors. And there they are…orange sanis with white shoes. At home. But with the black jersey.
In the years after that, the combos apparently were varied, but the white shoes were gone. Here are Blue somewhere on the road, Clark at Shea in ’80, and Chili Davis in ’82 in black with in black jerseys with black shoes, and Chili again, this time at Wrigley, also in ’82 in orange jersey with black shoes.
What can we conclude from this? Tracking unis on both sides of the Bay in the late ”˜70s-early ”˜80s must have been an adventure.
Indeed — thanks for the update Ricko!
Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie
* Ditch Flying Elvis. This is the classic Pats look on this bobble feller here.
* It’s well established 60’s Browns QB Frank Ryan is an egghead — this ad proves it.
* Nice photo for sale of the 60’s NFL logos.
* Here’s a terrific 1987 Giants World Series sweater. Problem? They never made it to the Series. Oops.
* Lookit these 70’s suede (of course) NBA sneakers. Are these Pony? No branding.
* Remember the NBA Buffalo Braves from the 70’s? Here’s a real practice jersey for just 1.5K.
* I’m including this 40’s-50’s baseball jersey solely because the team is the “Moosejaw Mallards.”
* And finally, from PL, this curious auction- described by Paul as a “Giant f*cking sneaker.” That about says it all.
Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.
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.” This week, more or less, we focus on Ol’ Eddie.
And here is the full-size version.
Uni Watch News Ticker (compiled by John Ekdahl): USA Today had an interesting article on what players have to do to retain their numbers after switching teams (Dan Cichalski). … Dan Cichalski: “Lehigh Valley IronPigs held a Halloween night promotion on Sunday (July 31, so three months until Halloween) and wore black jerseys with white skeleton designs on them.” … Rafael Furcal still has his Dodgers bat knob decal on his bat (David Sulecki). … New Miami Dolphin Reggie Bush is wearing #8 in training camp (Stu Kushner). … Here’s a preview of Oregon’s new Pro Combat uniform. … Northwestern is asking fans to help them choose their new basketball court design (Russ Chibe). … Kerry Petit: “I was thumbing through some books over the weekend at a local bookstore, and I happened across the attached color photo of the infamous LSU purple pants worn in 1995 vs Kentucky. The picture can be found in Scott Rabalais’ book The Fighting Tigers 1993-2008 and is copyrighted by LSU Sports Information.” … Forman: “I visited some friends in Chicago last week and stumbled upon a store near Wrigleyville showcasing multiple helmets, including what looks like a Jaguars prototype helmet.” … The Chicago Bears will be the first NFL team to use Riddell’s new RipKord™ Shoulder Pad Technology. The new pads aim to reduce the amount of time it takes emergency personnel to remove the equipment after spine, neck or head injuries. (Christie Shein). … Who’s up for a lingerie basketball league? (Ronnie Poore) … The WNBA will be wearing pink uniforms for Breast Health Awareness Week August 2-9 (Kevin Brown). … Kosuke Fukudome wore the wrong batting helmet in the 1st inning, but had swapped it out for the correct one in the 4th inning (Jim BC). … 27.19% of Uni Watch visitors have something in common. Can you guess what it is?
“To a certain degree, much of the criticism of the Pro Combat line is unfair. We tend to judge the Pro Combat uniforms in terms of design, and judged thusly Nike comes off not merely as failures, but as the absolute stupidest people in the industry.” — R. Scott Rogers
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Information on the new Maryland uniforms – looks like they’re going to go NNOB and make the school/state more pronounced.
That’s Doctor Frank Ryan, thank you very much. ;)
Even if I was changing to a number I liked better, I’d try to get something out of a guy like Chad Ochocinco. He has to have 85 or he looks like a fool, so Hernandez is in a much better bargaining position. Get a new car out of it or something.
Hernandez didn’t want anything – just gave it to him since it’s just Hernandez’ second season. The news stations around Boston interviewed some fans with Hernandez jerseys, and they said they’d just get the new jersey anyways.
Something tells me that he’d just change his name again if he couldn’t get 85 for whatever reason.
“He has to have 85 or he looks like a fool,” Um, yeah, I don’t think the guy who did this: link
This: link
Or This: link
needs any help looking like a fool.
Like saying, “Bozo really shouldn’t’ve invested in Freddie Mac, it makes him look silly…”
Hernandez wore 81 in college. when he got into the NFL, a certain guy on the Patriots named Randy Moss (remember this guy?) had 81, hence why he did 85. Now that Moss is gone, Hernandez is all for moving back to 81, freeing up 85 for Chad.
Hernandez should’ve had Chad Patriot make a donation to a charity. It would have been a win-win situation.
I’m not saying he wanted to get something but didn’t. I’m saying he should have taken advantage of the situation. It’s not like Mr. 8-5 can’t afford some incentive. Even if you don’t want it, why should you give away something there’s a demand for?
Uh…because it’s the right thing to do. Maybe we should applaud a pro athlete for not being greedy instead of saying he should have leveraged his position for personal gain.
The right thing to do? Really?
These are professional football players, they are ALL leveraging their positions for personal gain. That’s why there is no such thing as a “hometown” professional football player anymore.
Postscript on the 1977 S.F. Giants kerfluffle: Mets are playing a doubleheader at Candlestick, I’m at home watching on WOR. First game, Giants in white home uniforms. Second game, Giants in orange road jerseys (which at the time said “San Francisco” across them), causing Ralph Kiner to remark that they looked like the contemporary Orioles’ uniform. Can’t say for sure whether the white spikes (thx, Monty) were worn, I have seen at least one ’77 photo with orange shirt/black spikes. At any rate, Candlestick was a dump, there were big patches sewn, quiltlike, into the Astroturf, and there was steady rain falling. It looked like a very inhospitable place. But I sure loved that “San Francisco” lettering.
Great work today, Ricko, and great info Walter (and Geeman, below) on teams wearing different unis for doubleheaders!
I had the same reaction as Ralph Kiner when I saw the pics Ricko posted, looks too much like the O’s…
-Jet
The O’s never wore black in those years, but Henderson’s guide shows a black Orioles BP jersey that is the reverse of the orange jersey — and, you guessed it, looks a lot like the Giants’ jerseys.
I recall the Orioles’ orange jerseys as a somewhat rare sight, certainly by today’s standards. The Giants completely ditched the grey roadies favored by the O’s.
That plus the white kicks/orange socks, and I never thought of one when seeing the other.
Candlestick is still a dump.
Great stuff this morning, Ricko.
I remember seeing the Giants play a home doubleheader in 1982 and there were two pictures in the paper the next day, each one with the Giants in different jerseys (white and orange). Joe Morgan was in one of them. He had a great year and kept the Dodgers out of the playoffs on the last weekend of the season.
My memory of that picture of Vida pitching at Shea was off. The orange jersey had “Giants” on it, not “San Francisco.”
Someone needs to do some retro uni-tracking for those late ’70s and early ’80s Giants teams… :)
My memory also failed yesterday on thinking that McCovey wore a black jersey at the 1980 All-Star Game. I checked, and that game was played in L.A., so the N.L. was home and the Giants must have worn white. The Giants played at L.A. the Sunday before the Tuesday All-Star Game, and they were black on the road. McCovey was honored at the game, because that was his last season. Hence the confusion.
I also remember Miss South Carolina, from Clemson, winning some world beauty pageant that week, and you can take that to the bank.
Speaking of Vida @ Shea, that’s where he is in that photo of him taken “somewhere on the road”, the clue being the 80s era pennant on the OF fence.
In that era – the age of doubleheaders and doubleknits – the Orioles would always wear their white jerseys for one game and their orange for the other at home twinbills. I attended so many Sunday doubleheaders – long lazy days in the bleachers.
Clarification in that I did not see the doubleheader, just highlights of it on TV and photos in the paper. It was June 1982, maybe against the Braves.
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How pissed would Paul be if that’s NU’s court next year? haha
The all purple one is obnoxious but that’s kinda why I like it. Something out of Welsh-Ryan has to attract attention, lord knows it’s not the Wildcats.
Also, if that’s their court, the ‘Cats need to wear purple at home and send a copy of each home game to Boise State. haha
All of those court options stink. I would vote for none of them. Although the purple one would be interesting simply for the novelty factor.
I have to laugh at the possible FAIL on the Northwestern court designs.
IIRC, the three point lines in men’s and women’s basketball are the same distance starting this season.
You would think an academic school like NU would get this small detail right.
As over used as “fail” is, they’re also adding a no-charge zone, which it doesn’t look like NU took into account.
That “NBA” sneaker was not a Pony or any other brand. NBA was a brand that was marketed by Kinney Shoes in my area in the 70’s, maybe some other shoe stores in other areas. They had a 4-stripe adidas knockoff and then might have adoped some other patterns like the one in Brink’s entry. Notice that that is some sort of running or fitness shoe – not a basketball shoe. Quality was somewhere equivalent to Thom McAn’s Jox. MPowers may know more than I do about this brand.
If I recall correctly, that Jaguars logo (on the helmet) was their original chosen logo until Ford (owner of Jaguar) objected because the logo was too similar to theirs (or to their hood ornament). Too bad, as that logo is far better than what they later chose.
Agreed, and the prototype uniform was superior to what the Jags have worn since then. The original uniform had the leaping jaguar across the shoulders and sleeves, which I thought was a clever design concept.
Wouldn’t the Jags have done well to use the pattern of dots and crescents from their insignia on their uniform? It’s the only thing shared between the prototype logo and the one they wound up using. Just sayin’…
I wish i knew how to post the pics here, but…..
in MY opinion the Jax Jags original logo and the car logo were NOT overly similar. yes, they were leaping jaguars, but their front legs and other features were very different. I guess one man’s cat is another man’s cat, if the first man says so and has a lawyer.
NYTimes has an article up about a link, mentions include the “All Americans uniform” and this amazing link.
It has always bothered me how from 1987-1990, the White Sox jersey script and the World Series logo script were just a *little* too similar to one another, especially in the eyes of a Cub fan!
link
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The NBA shoes in Brink’s entry are not Pony or any other manufacturer’s brand. “NBA” brand was sold in Kinney Shoe stores in the 70’s. They had a 4-stripe copy of adidas and might have introduced some other stripe patterns later. The quality was about equivalent to “Jox” sold by Thom McAn’s, which wasn’t good. MPowers may know more about this than I can recall. Interestingly, Kinney Shoes spun off Foot Locker in 1974, and while Kinney went out of business in 1998, obviously Foot Locker is still around.
It’s a good day for Gogol Bordello.
link
they are a fun band to listen to!
Nice recap of the Harchester United kits, Jeremy!
If I’m not mistaken, you could actually purchase them in the UK during the original run of the show.
The ability to use game footage in that show always amazed me, when you consider a show in the US like Playmakers can’t even make it through a year without the league up in arms about the content. Most of the stuff in Dream Team was pretty over the top, but a lot of it probably did cut close to home with the FA (gambling on games, the womanizing, etc.)
Used to be able to buy Dog River hockey jerseys from Corner Gas too. And seems to be all kinds of link merch for sale.
I caught the show a few times. Love soccer…hate soap operas. That’s essentially what it was a soccer soap opera. The footage of the games was always interesting because it was sort of dated due to all the big players now being gone form the sides they were playing.
On American TV, the show Coach was originally about the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles, who were also primarily a purple football team.
Far fewer instances of players/coaches/owners murdering one another, or dying in plane/bus/car crashes, in Coach than Dream Team, apparently. Though once Coach moved on to the NFL, the ownership situation was about as odd as in the British show. Just with less bloodshed.
Coach should have never jumped to the pro level. The fictional college team was realistic enough, but an NFL team in Orlando was just silly.
The real question is, which uniform/identity set was more offensive, the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles, or the Orlando Breakers? As punishing as the purple is, the Breakers’ wordmark is simply unforgiveable.
I’ve seen a few episodes for Dream Team and its pretty much a soap opera for men imo. The game action shots were awesome though. Also I dont remember on Coach them ever showing them during a game, but that might just be bc i was a little kid
I think Coach used either recolored Minnesota Gopher footage or USFL footage, but I’m not entirely sure. I didn’t really watch the show that much.
Re-colored (or color-filtered) Minnesota Gopher footage. Minnesota State uniforms were purple with orange trim, easily transferrable from the Gophers maroon and gold.
Watched the Sox and Indians last night. Cleveland’s road uniform is really sharp. It is simple and traditional, much like the Cavaliers’ new uniforms. They ought to go with one comparable home uniform and lose the split uniform personality they now have. Leave the Chief on the sleeve.
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Completely agree. Make ALT 1 (cream uni w/ block “Indians” across the front) the everyday home kit & you’ve got yourself a winning combination. Never been a fan of the script “Indians,” & now the team has the perfect replacement.
It’s a damn shame that we can’t get a show like Dream Team on the air here in the states without the league that it is supposedly representing getting it pulled.
For those that haven’t seen it, Playmakers was a show in the same vein as Dream Team, only about american football instead of soccer. It was a fantastic show on ESPN (with some great takes on uniforms), but the NFL threw a fit about how they depicted the life of a football player and the way the team was run and threatened to pull the NFL from ESPN if they didn’t kill the show. There was only one full season, but it’s one of the better shows (and definitely the best sports show) that I can remember being on TV.
Better than Sports Night or Friday Night Lights? I have my doubts.
How about shows that weren’t mainly sports shows but that had a lot of sports in them? I’ll throw out Magnum PI, which featured amateur sports of one sort or another about every third episode. (Magnum doing extreme triathlons and extreme water sports, T.C. coaching youth baseball, basketball, and football, all the leads playing beer-league softball, and a number of episodes where the mystery of the week centered around pro athletes, horse racing, or sports teams. Plus, Magnum being an Al Kaline fan was a plot point several times.)
Thank you Bryan! Honestly, I don’t watch much TV outside of sports, but I was hooked on Playmakers.
It was a great show, that didn’t phone it in with the unis. For some reason, I thought it was on HBO, but now that you mention it, it was ESPN.
what does TPFIC mean?
“Tonight, Phil f**ks insane clowns.”
Tongue Firmly Planted In Cheek.
LMAO! bernard, wouldn’t it then be “ENPFIC?”
Just your average picture of Teddy Roosevelt with a sharkface mask eating a Red Sox (of all teams) player. link
Shark week, its amazing what you do to us. Even presidents that have been dead for 90 years still get excited about it.
I’m still wondering about the Lingerie Basketball League.
Jenny McCarthy’s sister is already the breakout star. link
I looked at the website. Hugely depressing. From the few photos, the players looked like reasonably skilled players, wearing something that looked like a cross between French prostitute gear and the trussing for a large rump roast. There was a desultory air about the whole thing — the games appear to be played in the same junior high school gym that my 1978 Police Athletic League team called home, with roughly the same number of spectators. These are young women who just want to play ball, willing to endure whatever indignity befalls them, in hopes of becoming the female Kurt Warner (“lingerie ball to the WNBA — Only in America!”)
I wonder how many marginally talented male ballers would take to the court in Frank N. Furter costumes, if they got a regular paycheck and believed that it might just lead to a shot at real basketball. Probably quite a few. And that doesn’t make it right.
Awesome article Jeremy. I know what i’m going to try to find online tonight…
That second Oregon picture is a photoshop. It’s made from this ad for some Nike cleats: link
Was Dream Team any good? Well, I assume a lot of people watched it because it ran for ten seasons, but would you say the show is worth watching? If so, I might try and find it.
I actually enjoyed it. The storylines were usually way over the top, but it was fun, mindless television about my favorite sport.
Thanks for the comments about today’s column. I am not saying that Dream Team was the best show, but it was a show that needed time to follow all of the plots. Many characters lasted only a season or two, but each character did not feel like, “why are they in the show?” once you started to follow it you got hooked.
Clearly wasn’t a bad show either running for 10 seasons. Thank you for reminding me of it. And thank you for always bringing stuff from the non big 4 sports to our attention
Uni Watch getting a shoutout on one of my favorite CFB sites today as Saturday Down South discusses the Pro Combat uniform phenomenon.
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Ricko: “What can we conclude from this? Tracking unis on both sides of the Bay in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s must have been an adventure.”
Vida Blue pitched for the A’s through 1977 and the Giants through 1983.
I know. That’s how I know the black jersey with white shoes at Candlestick had to be ’78 at the earliest. What I wrote was a little garbled on that, I guess. Or didn’t address it at all.
What I wasn’t able to determine, just because I flat-out didn’t time last night, is what year the white cleats first appeared. In ’77 or not til ’78 when Vida arrived? Where they only a one-year thing?
I’ll repeat this (assuming the answer is still valid) just because it’s such a great trivia question…
Last switch hitter to be AL MVP?
Vida Blue. Before the DH.
Great question. He was a great athlete. Had amazing stats as a high school quarterback in Louisiana as well as a pitcher.
I’m sure the Giants wore white shoes when they debuted their orange SF jerseys in 1977. I remember seeing them when they visited the Mets in that outfit, either on TV or in photos. The black jerseys came in ’78, and until yesterday I didn’t know they wore white shoes and orange hose with them on occasion.
“I’m sure the Giants wore white shoes when they debuted their orange SF jerseys in 1977.”
That’s what I remembered, too, but Okkenon shows black cleats home and road for ’77, so I wasn’t sure. He missed on shoes color quite often, though, so hard to tell.
Either way, between the A’s and Giants of that era, the uni tinkering in Bay Area MLB was off the chart. Or at least would have required a really BIG chart.
Let me clarify that they wore white shoes with the orange jerseys. Can’t say it was the same for the home whites; just don’t know.
They had white spikes in 1977. You can take that to the bank. There’s a Baseball Digest in my possession (trust me) with Willie McCovey on it wearing the orange “San Francisco” jersey and the white cleats.
I remember that one. White Pumas, if I recall correctly. Probably with a black logomark and orange laces.
Ooops. Other way around. Orange logo, black laces…
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Yeah, but what’s up with that helmet? They had a black and orange helmet and cap when they debuted the orange jerseys in 1977.
After the 77 season, it appeared the A’s were going to move to Denver. Meanwhile, the Giants were working on an
agreement with the Oakland Coliseum officials to play around 30 – 35 of their home schedule in Oakland. I always wondered if that was the reason the Giants changed their orange jersey from having “San Francisco” on it to “Giants” & introducing the black alternate (just like the A’s having a green jersey & a gold one.
Here’s a link to what I found to be a very thoughtful column in the “Winnipeg Review” regarding the new Jets logo:
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The piece was written by John K. Samson, the lead singer and songwriter for Winnipeg’s own The Weakerthans (who are simply amazing). I think his perspective is quite germane to some of the conversations that take place on this site, in particular those that involve sports and the military. No matter your take, I though some of you might enjoy reading it.
Sorry — *thought* some of you might enjoy reading it.
The Weakerthans are the best band to come out of Canada in years. Reconstruction Site is a masterpiece. And he’s right. It’s strange that a team would expunge the stogie on a Tampa Smokers throwback jersey, for fear of causing offense, but it’s OK to militarize your team logo.
Nobody does the whole “athlete as warrior” schtick more aggressively than the NFL. It’ ain’t war, guys.
Good piece.
He’s spot-on about the new Jets logo, as well as sports and the military.
Thanks for posting the article, but I must disagree with the author, he appears to be the type of person who has a political agenda when it comes to sports logos. Musicians, actors, and writers are certainly entitled to their opinion, even if that opinion isn’t well informed.
Some of the people who commented on that article in the link pointed out the fallacy in his argument that somehow the Jets logo is pro military. By extension, that also means any fan of the New Jersey Devils believes in Satan. Any fan of the Carolina Hurricanes believes in the destructive, killing power of those storms. And any Edmonton Oilers fan must glorify all aspects of the oil industry.
Sorry, just don’t see the connection, it’s just a sports logo at the end of the day.
FYI…I sent in the Oregon link yesterday!
Here’s the thing about Oregon, they’ve (Nike) have hit a wall with them. They have been so extreme, that pretty much everything they come up with at this point, just doesn’t surprise anyone.
Short of coming out in unis made with real duck feathers, or helmets crafted from Oregon grown pine trees, Oregon is a lot like the state fair…it’s fun to see that people will wear anything…but that eventually wears off, then it just kinda becomes sad.
Well, I came across something rather interesting while scanning my baseball cards to enter into a database on Access.. The 1993 Studio set, which has the player’s history rather than stats. Dante Bichette lists his pet peeves as ties and stirrups.
Just thought I’d mention that.
Just saw the unveiling of the 2012 MLB All Star logo. Being from Kansas City, I think this game is going to be huge for us. Not only to show how great our facilities are, but to show that for being a small market city, it really is a great place. As for the game logo, I think it looks pretty great. I don’t have a link for it, but I’m sure the pictures will be making the rounds soon enough.
Gotta love the crown from the scoreboard being a part of the logo. Now if they only would have included something for the fountains…
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Logo link.
I’m gonna have to say, good but could have been great with a little restraint. Seriously, if that’s the patch, it’s gonna be HUGE. Can I just have the middle piece?
Computerized graphics have ruined the designing of new sports logos. It’s as if they just can’t resist adding on elements…because they CAN.
I’ll give the logo a C. Why are there banners coming out the sides?
our local class-A affiliate, and hometown of Lucille Ball, is wearing special jerseys to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth:
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After a classic Falcons jersey last week, I guess the Jammers had to go with something wild this week…
those are absolutely atrocious uniforms! I know there is a local connection, but surely they could’ve created a better way to have a tribute.
Found this via Puck Daddy, but Icethetics has the exclusive re: Ottawa Senators’ new “heritage” jersey for their 20th anny.
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The 2012 All Star Game logo for MLB has been revealed.
“has been revealed” is highlighted when you move the arrow over it, but the link’s not working for some reason. Try link:
Dammit… -_-
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Just go to link
Oh dear.
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I’m sorry if I missed it on here already, but Marlon Byrd had some jaw protection on his helmet against the Pirates tonight.
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