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When Databases Grow Up

GUD-UWsplash

By Phil Hecken

By now, most of you are well aware of the “Gridiron Uniform Database,” the joint project between Tim Brulia, Bill Schafer, and Rob Holecko which is, as the name implies, a database which tracks all of the uniforms worn by every NFL team, by season, beginning with the 1933 season and continuing up through the present day. Truly an herculean undertaking, the GUD is the go-to resource for all football uniform reference.

Not merely satisfied with the GUD, I’m joined today by one of the founding troika, Rob Holecko, who wants to bring all you fine readers an update on the GUD, and the embarkation of a new project which seeks to do with baseball uniforms what the GUD has done with football unis. Can anyone ever outdo the foremost baseball uniform historian, Marcus Okkonen, whose work Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century appears on the MLB Hall of Fame site, “Dressed To The Nines,” is the gold standard in uniform tracking? Only time will tell, but Rob hopes to try. And after what he, Tim & Bill have done with the GUD, there is no reason to think they can’t succeed.

Here’s Rob:

~~~

Uniform Database Expansion
by Rob Holecko

As most of you regular Uni Watch readers know, a little less than a year ago, I teamed up with Tim Brulia and Bill Schaefer to build the Gridiron Uniform Database. Those of you who don’t know the backstory behind our website can read about it here, here and here, but basically Tim’s NFL research and Bill’s artwork is the backbone of our site which right now features the uniforms that every NFL team has worn since 1933. Work on the website continues, as Tim is fond of saying, “it is always a work in progress.” We were mentioned in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this week when our research showed that the recently unveiled Steelers’ 80th anniversary throwback billed as being from the “1934” season wasn’t actually worn during that season.

Initially for our site, we have used a free host, imageshack, to host our images, but there has been occasional downtime with them. We are now hosting the images ourselves. There are advantages to doing so — less down time and the graphics should load faster. Personally it will be much faster for me to update the website. Whenever a web visitor to our forum or an email notifies us of information that leads to a change, I can update it practically instantaneously as soon as Bill sends me the new graphic. For example, I only have to replace the 1945_Philadelphia.png graphic, instead of uploading the new graphic to imageshack and then replacing an address like this: https://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2402/1945philadelphia.png with an address like this: https://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5844/1945philadelphiab.png everywhere it appears on the website. (Although a program I have used – Windows Grep – has been invaluable in this respect, it is still a laborious process.) The thumbnails are now a little larger and the site as a whole should just run a lot smoother. But enough about the ‘behind the scenes’ details. Now on to some new features:

When we launched last June, we had the uniforms worn by each team every season, but not what each team wore broken down by specific week. We updated the 2011 season as it was played, week-by-week, but we never got around to adding the past seasons’ weekly uniform combos. Today, however we would like to announce (first here on *Uni Watch*) the addition of much of this research that up until now has not been available. Now you can view the specific week-by-week uniform breakdowns for every team for each season since 1950. While the pages that graphically demonstrate each team’s week-by-week combo (like for 2010 & 2011) aren’t available yet, the information is there, albeit in text form. Just click on a team’s “Week-by-week” link below its’ thumbnail, either on a year or a team page, and then you can view this data. Soon, as we continue to compile our research, we will be adding the same for 1933 through 1949. Also, under our research tab, you can see Tim’s breakdown of referee and Pro Bowl uniforms, and someday we hope to add graphical representations of those to the site as well, and also still on our radar are plans to tackle the 1921-1932 season someday.

In addition, a couple weeks ago here at Uni Watch, Tim & Bill published their 1960 AFL NOB research, and now on our site you can see, graphically, the week-by-week breakdown for each 1960 AFL team as indicated in that article. Eventually all years (1950-1959 & 1961-2009) will be broken down as 1960 (and 2010 & 2011, for that matter) is.

While we enjoy the upgraded website and hope you do too, there is a down side to hosting our own images. The monthly costs are higher, and we have been adverse to adding too much advertising to our site to keep the visitor experience enjoyable. While we have no intention of ever becoming a “subscriber” site or trying to make a profit off of this hobby in any way, there have been those of you who have asked us how you can help support the site. So purely to give those of you who would like to help defray our costs a way to do so, we have added a PayPal tip jar. We are certainly not actively asking for money here, just providing an avenue for anybody who wants to contribute to do so. If every *Uni Watch* visitor that really likes and gets some enjoyment out of the *Gridiron Uniform Database *that was so inclined to, were to throw us a dollar every now-and-then, it would definitely help defray our website and hosting expenses. (I was going to say something about “less than the price of a cup of coffee, but I’ll forego that.)

https://www.gridironuniforms.com/Paypal.html

Now onto a new venture. While I love the work I’ve done on the Gridiron Uniform Database, and am thankful to Tim & Bill for giving me the opportunity to work with them, I am to some extent as much of a fan of baseball as I am of football. (Well, I guess that depends on the time of year, actually.) To that end, since last year I have tossed around the idea of launching a sister site to the Gridiron Uniform Database, a baseball version, the Diamond Uniform Database

rangers

Dressed To The Nines is a great site, but it pretty much only tracks each years’ basic home & road version and the occasional alternates, and not which ones were worn when. When you throw in additional alternates, throwbacks, Latin Heritage (“El Dodgers”) jerseys, Civil Right Game jersey, World Championship gold trim jerseys, and the different mix-and-match specific combinations that have begun to proliferate throughout MLB in recent years, the Baseball On The Nines site doesn’t really tell the complete story.

I think I have found our “Tim”, the historian who keeps track of the uniforms worn, in David Taub. A few days after Opening Day Paul mentioned his blog in the ticker and I contacted him shortly thereafter and asked him to join me in this venture. David has agreed to join me and will keep a record of what teams wear each day in our new site’s blog.

Now this is where the *Uni Watch* faithful can help. We have our “Tim” to keep track of the uniform combos (David), and we have our “Rob” to run the website. (again, me) Now all we need is to find our “Bill” to whip up the graphics. Right now we are simply using some basic team jersey graphics I…err, got off of Wikipedia. While they get the job done, in some cases they are last year’s unis and they also have the annoying habit of hiding some of the alts behind others, like Dressed To The Nines does.

Also I need someone who can whip up the throwbacks and special uniforms along with adding the correct anniversary patches, etc. Whether you want to use the same template as the Wikipedia ones I have on there already and just fix the ones that new fixing and make up the additional jerseys to match those, or you want to whip up a new batch based on a different template is entirely up to you. The only requirement is they have to be somewhat narrow so I can put seven across for a whole week. The 109px x 314px size seems to work fine, but anything comparable will work. The most important thing, though, is that they all match each other and are all based on a particular template.

The Diamond Uniform Database is still in “beta” version — still working on a banner graphic with the gentleman, Mark Young, who did such a phenomenal job on our Gridiron Uniform Database banner graphics, and also not all of the links might be particularly correct yet. Depending on who becomes our “Bill Schaefer” we hope the uniform graphics will look a lot better. When it is “ready for prime time,” it will look, we hope, as nice and be as useful as the football site is. Invariably it will be pointed out in the comments that, “you have the wrong Rockies” jersey, or “your Texas jerseys don’t have the 40th anniversary patch,” etc. We are aware of that and right now we are just concentrating on having the correct uniform combos.

So if you think you have what it takes to become the “Bill Schaefer” of the *Diamond Uniform Database* and would like to make up the team uniform graphics for this new site, get in touch with me at RobHolecko@gmail.com and send me some samples and we’ll talk.

For right now we have no plans to do anything beyond just track the 2012 season, past years will be quite a daunting task with 162 or 154 games and of course something that could never be completed with 100% accuracy. (However, of course back in the old days it was mostly just home-and-aways, but still…) That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t consider some past years in some form at some point in the future, or perhaps just World Series and postseason games… or maybe a special research project from time-to-time, like working with BucTracker Jerry Wolper to do a graphical representation of the Bumblebee era Pirates research he has on his site, or something of that nature.

We hope you enjoy the new site, the Diamond Uniform Database and continue to enjoy the football site, the Gridiron Uniform Database. As always, your comments and input is always welcomed.

~~~

Thanks Rob. As you can see, the folks at the GUD (and now the DUD, although I’m not sure that’s quite the acronym Rob will be wanting to use) have been busy. Great stuff, and I want to be the first to wish you all the best with the new venture — and concepters — can you answer Rob’s challenge? You’d be doing a great service to the uniform tracking world by assisting in this venture. Readers? What say you?

~~~~~~~~~

Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

~~~

Speaking on behalf of dedicated fans everywhere…

4-28-12 d-Cab

Click to enlarge

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No Indians Logo

Rename The Indians Clevo Baseball Club Contest Update…

Got lots of great feedback from readers about the contest to rename the Cleveland Baseball team, and tomorrow I’m going to open up the voting to you to narrow it down to THREE (3) finalists, out of TEN semi-finalists — now, I’ve assembled a small crack staff to help me narrow it down, but I’m also going to give very heavy weighting to you readers. I’ve gone over the comments in the past week, and I have a pretty good idea which ten will make the cut, but here’s your last chance to weigh in. If you didn’t get to look at the nominees, you can review them from last weekend by clicking here for Saturday’s entries and here for Sunday’s entries. In the comments below, list your top three candidates to move on, and I’ll see if those match up with the tallies I’ve done so far.

On another note, the contest entries have gotten a decent amount of attention across the Interwebs. So, all you aspiring concepters, you should feel good that your designs are being seen by more than just the Uni Watch readership. Some of the mentions the contest has gotten include:

NBC Sports’ “Hardball Talk”

Yahoo Sports’ “Big League Stew”, and

Indian Country Today.

Just sayin’.

So, be sure to weigh in one last time, and tomorrow we vote!

~~~~~~~~~~

paul in duluth

Some cool stuff from Paul…

In case you missed it yesterday, the Brooklyn Nets, who aren’t set to unveil their logo (and possibly their new unis) until Monday, have merchandise on sale already in the adidas shop in Manhattan:

Those aren’t shot in black and white — those are the new Nets colors — Black & White.

Now, I’ll wait until we see the full package, including the official logo(s) and uniforms, but I like it — a LOT! I know many of you, especially those of you with an article preceding your name, will think the black & white colorscheme is boring (and indeed it may be), but boring doesn’t mean bad. In fact, if done well, this could be one of the all-time classic uniforms in the game. Of course, it could not only be bland and boring, but lame as well, so I’m not getting my hopes too high — but I laud them so far on what appears to be minimalist restraint in a league that thrives on “Look At Me” players and fashion statements. Time will tell.

~~~

Also, in case you missed it yesterday, a story appeared on ESPN by Chris Mortensen indicating that the Pro Bowl has likely come to an end. Now, I’ve written about the Pro Bowl before, and waxed whimsically about how much I enjoyed the game while growing up, but how it’s morphed into an unwatchable spectacle in recent years, with players bailing, not caring or trying, and generally making a mockery of the event. The NFL recognized its days were numbered a couple years back when they proposed moving it from its (almost) permanent home in Hawai’i to Miami, with plans to have the Super Bowl host city play host to the Pro Bowl as well, but those plans were scrapped after just one year. But viewership apparently didn’t approve, and now it’s probably gone.

In yesterday’s comments, late in the afternoon, Our Esteemed Leader whipped up a post for Page 2 “Fandom” on ESPN’s Playbook, which offers a great retrospective on the uniforms of the game. Make sure you give it a read.

~~~~~~~~~~

all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with David Firestone, who saw the new Seahawks unis, and like many of us, thought they could use a little work:

Hey guys, love the site.

I took the new Seahawk design, turned the colors back to the first Seahawk uniform, removed the black, the number pattern, and the alternate and came up with this, which I think looks so much better than the current uni.

Dave

~~~

Next up is Marcus Hall, who loves him all things Baltimore, and who thinks the new O’s unis can use just a slight tweakin’…

Hey Phil,

I’m liking the new O’s unis, but I think there are a few tweaks that should be made. For the Home and the Orange Alt, since we are now using the clown bird, I think it looks best to remove the tail on the Orioles script. Speaking of the Alt Orange, pair it with a black and orange hat. For the Black Alt, I added a neck spoon. And for the Road (and more so for shits and giggles, I changed the color from a road gray to a road cream and added a neckspoon too. I think the O’s could handle a cream colored roadie.

Marcus

~~~

We conclude with the very formal Tyler Johnson, who has some ideas for the Ducks of Anaheim:

To Phil Hecken:

This was an idea I’ve had for a long time. I like it quite a bit, but i don’t know how other feel about it. I took the current template and merged it with the previous (better) jerseys. If you notice, the stripes on the socks and the jersey match that of the previous when dealing with the order the colors go. I was actually surprised when doing this how similar their currant uniforms are to the previous ones. I left the orange stripe in there though to represent the one Stanley Cup Championship they have. They won them in the Black & Golds (& Oranges). I always liked the idea of showing off your championships on your uniforms (Islanders), so I decided this would be a good way to give a nod to the past as well as show off. This leaves room to add stripes in the future.

You will also notice that the orange stripe is in the shoulder patch. This is for the same reason. The two shoulder patches are for the two different jerseys. The “Eggplant” oval design belongs on the white jersey and the “Jade” oval design belongs on the “Eggplant” jersey.

I hope this is all the information that you need from me and I hope this is good enough to make the webpage.

Love the site,

Tyler Johnson

~~~

That’s it for the uni concepts for today. Back with more next time.

~~~~~~~~~~

round2

And now a word from the Hockey Wing…

A number of you are participating in Teebz’ Playoff Hockey Pool. I am not among you, as I no longer have a hockey team.

However, for those of you who do, here’s a friendly reminder:

The Round Two spreadsheet has been posted.

That is all.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Is the Mets/Rockies 5th inning still going on?

On that note, folks, that’s a wrap for your Saturday. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite Clevo Baseball concepts for the poll tomorrow, see if there is someone out there who can become a baseball uni guy and maybe toss a paypal buck into the GUD/DUD pool, make sure if you’re in Teebz’ Puck Playoff contest to check oot the new spreadsheet…and generally have yourselves a great day.

Catch ya on the morrow.

~~~

Gibbon teaches us that Roman gladiators began wearing black and neon green just before the end of the republic, so these are perilous times indeed. — Robert Scott Rogers

 
  
 
Comments (109)

    Love the orange crown Orioles hat with the Orange Alt. It was exactly what I said too, when I saw the unis for this year.

    Heck, replace the white-panel O’s cap with the orange-panel O’s cap, and I’d actually like their unis. Not just for the orange alt, but everywhere.

    Heck, replace the white-panel black alternate O’s cap with the orange-panel O’s cap

    (fixed)

    Great tweak, Marcus.

    Love the tweaks (I’m still calling them “tweaks”) by Marcus with one exception. I’m not a fan of an off-white (cream, eggshell, whatever) jersey on the road. I disliked it when the Astros did it in the ’80s.

    1. Nate Schimelpfenig-Cleveland Spiders
    2. Shaun Ploenzke-Cleveland Spiders
    3. Antonio Losada-Cleveland Deers

    My picks:

    Daniel Irwin, Blue Sox
    Nate Schimelpfenig, Spiders
    Justin Myslinsky, Municipals

    If you asked me to rank those three 100 times at five-minute intervals, 1) you’d have wasted eight-and-a-third hours, and 2) I’d probably never be able to give you the same order two times in a row. Whichever one I’ve looked at most recently is my favorite.

    Can I vote for myself? Because I’m going to.

    1. Daniel Irvin – BlueSocks
    2. The Jeff – Bulldogs
    3. Jeff Bahry – Rockers

    Cleveland Redesign – My Top 3
    – Jeff Bahry – Rockers
    – Bryan Molloy – Chironoids
    – Liam Burkholder – Spiders

    Cleveland unis redesign:

    Coasters – love the logo
    Daniel Irwin – BlueSocks – like the color combos and stirrups.
    Joseph Obermaier – Founders – Nice job reusing Wahoo

    CLEVELAND ROCKERS! Biggest issue anyone seemed to have was the “CR” on the hat. That is an EASY fix.

    Other Awards:

    Deepest Psychosis Working for the Common Good: Rob Holecko’ DUD quest.

    Most Inexplicable Absence of Adorable Canine: Jeff Provo’s Cleveland Bulldogs.

    Name Most Evocative of Small European Cigars: Nate Schimelpfenig.

    Least Apt But Most Amusing Recent Invocation of the Shade of Gibbon: R Scott Rogers.

    Most Bathetic Contemporary Example of Mighty-Islanders-Once-Roamed-the-Earth Syndrome: Phil Hecken, for the tearjerking “I am not among you, as I no longer have a hockey team.”

    Most Inexplicable Absence of Adorable Canine: Jeff Provo’s Cleveland Bulldogs.

    I’ll remember that if I ever decide to do a Cleveland Bulldogs version 2.0. In going for the almost-but-not-quite-Browns look, I didn’t think an actual canine was required. It definitely wouldn’t fit on the uniform anywhere, so it’d be purely a secondary logo at best.

    Now, I’ll wait until we see the full package, including the official logo(s) and uniforms, but I like it – a LOT! I know many of you, especially those of you with an article preceding your name, will think the black & white colorscheme is boring

    I think I resemble that remark…

    You forget that my favorite team wears black & silver with almost no white on their home uniforms. I’m fine with a simple 2 color scheme, the key is the execution. Black & white can be boring or it can look good. It all depends on the design.

    My issue with Penn State football is the lack of pants stripes and a helmet logo, not the fact that they have a 2 color scheme. The Jets & Colts also have white + one other color uniforms and they look fine, truncated loops and stupid gray facemasks notwithstanding.

    Exactly. It’s all in the execution.

    If the Nets outline everything in the contrasting color (take Alabama, for instance)
    link
    link
    then they’d have a simple yet classic uniform.

    Indeed, something similar to that could work for the Nets. I think their biggest issue is just making sure that their home white uniforms don’t look too much like the Spurs.

    Speaking of God Shamgod (best name ever?), I have heard about some young but legendary band that went by that very name. They are/were based in Omaha. Anybody from that area ever heard of them? Legend has it, they were reminiscent of the Minutemen, but they had never heard of the Minutemen. I can’t find anything about these kids.

    I tend to respect teams that stick with just two colors (NY Jets, Colts, Red Wings) and don’t feel pressured to add a third color for trim. I’m sure some of the jersey manufacturers have tried to convince them to add a third color over the years just to give the companies more options in merchandise designs. I wasn’t blown away by the Nets merch, but neither did it look horrible, in my opinion. I could see the jerseys working for them if they don’t try to do too much.

    Breathlessly awaiting a Basketball Uniform Database.

    In the meantime, though, I’ll be enjoying the Diamond Uniform Database. Thanks, guys!

    Yes, thanks to anyone undertaking these projects….and since basketball uniforms are less functional in general and more decorative than football, there absolutely needs to be a basketball version to contain all those crazy, funky designs of the 60s, 70s — and 90s for that matter, and to trace all the trends that have come and gone.

    I likely won’t leave my house for a week when the Basketball Uniform Database debuts.

    “Breathlessly awaiting a Basketball Uniform Database.”

    ~~~

    don’t hold your breath

    The DUD definitely needs a better template. That wikipedia thing just looks too jagged on the edges.

    It’s weird how even the NBA doesn’t seem to have a clue about its uniform past though. Someone really should create a database for it. I mean, heck, there’s a hockey uniform site, and who cares aboot hockey?

    Didn’t someone post in yesterday’s comments that they had been working on compiling a NBA list/database but that it was indefinitely on hold? If they included the ABA, it would be glorious!

    Yeah, that was me. It’s actually prompted me to try and get the ball rolling again, but based on how much we’d completed (I’d estimate we had 30% of post-1970 unis done) and how long it took, I would think it would be years rather than months until it’s complete. The NBA’s almost-total lack of accuracy when it comes to these things doesn’t help, as it can require hours of additional research on rosters, schedules and box scores just to determine in a uni was worn in, say, 1982-83 as well as 1983-84.

    Doesn’t help that I lost the majority of my research in a HD crash a few months back – thought I had a back-up, but it appears that was the only folder I didn’t save…

    If you could find someone to do the coding, and you keep track of the matchups, I’d be willing to do the design work since I already have a template with all of the NBA’s collar designs…

    the coding isn’t a problem, it’s getting someone to do the graphics that is the missing link. You’re the guy we need.

    I’d be very interested in helping out, I figure I could use my full template link on the team pages and then I’d create just a front view version for game by game matchups.

    Graphics weren’t the problem either – we had those sorted. It was just the time & effort needed to research & then create those graphics. There’s so little info out there, especially for anything pre-1984, that trying to discern the correct details, colours, dates on a single uni can take weeks…

    great let’s do it… Between Matt + TimE. I think we have a team. I can whip up the framework but I realize it’s a daunting task. It’s taken Tim + Bill a long time to get the GUD to where it is today, but if you guys want to embark on this, I’ll help you put it on the web. Take your time and get your research into graphics and when you’re ready, I’ll put it up.

    If you all really are gunna get this goin and flowin, drop me an email at TimEOBrien @ gmail dot com and I’d be excited to get a crackin’!

    ok well i have Tim E + Vilk’s email + if i can get Matt Beahan’s email address I will send out an email to you three when I can get online tonight after 11PM EST and we can sort of synthesize our thoughts into a plan. Anybody else that wants to help out let us know as well.

    Rob, my email’s mattbeahan @ hotmail.co.uk – don’t know if you’ll read this now (since it’s now sunday morning), but I’d like to help any way I can…

    Minimalism. I love how the lack of underline flourish in Marcus Hall’s Orioles design makes the script appear normal-sized; not visible from passing 747s. I would improve it further by wearing a black-crowned cap — with everything. Oh, the marketing sacrilege.

    And I’m loving those BROOKLYN T-shirts, especially the plain ‘B’ on the plain ball. If they stick with plain black & white I may have a new favorite NBA team.

    I prefer the word “simplicity” to “minimalism.” The latter brings to mind the System of Dress messes.

    “the System of Dress messes”

    ~~~

    those weren’t a “mess” … those were gorgeously minimalist…the problem is that the players weren’t given shorts, they were given knickers with skirt-width hems…basically “frocks for jocks” as paul wanted to call them

    but the tops? those were fantastic…nice wide shoulders instead of spaghetti straps, decent design, colors and wordmarks that, while template-ish, were restrained

    minimalism(ist) is the word…simplicity is too vague — those designs (nor i expect, will the nets be) were not simplistic…but they are minimalist

    Decent design? There was no design. It’s a plain muscle shirt with a school name and a number.

    Restrained colors?
    link
    link
    More like a Bermuda Triangle for colors. Schools enter the System of Dress zone looking like Tigger, but they come out looking like Eeyore.

    Although I’d prefer something in between, I’ll take wide shoulders over spaghetti straps any day. But along with shortening the shorts, that system needs some striping or piping or something to contrast the void that once was a decent jersey.

    every single one of those looks good

    (tops)

    i won’t argue with you if you think the pantaloons look like crap…because they do, although i never want them to return to the short shorts/long socks look

    they don’t need amorphous piping, striping and all the other crap designers can add, and they surely don’t need zubaz and neon

    And I won’t argue about amorphous piping, but *morphous* piping is a necessity when dealing with something that devoid of life.

    I lost my top ten list, but I know Nate Schimelpfenig was in the #1 spot.

    Bierbaum and either Myslinski or Losada.

    B. Molloy
    HHH
    Ron G.

    You know what I most admire about that Nets logo?: The restraint. I know how hard it must be for designers, with all of their toys and technologies, to abstain from displaying their mad skills, but look what happens when simple, clean lines and understatement are employed. One atually SEES the thing. The message is conveyed so well, instantly.

    Absolutely. So few designers seem to grasp that.

    But restraint is a valid design platform. It isn’t always about what you can jam in. Sometimes it’s about what you leave out.

    H&R Block’s green square/cube, for example. About as simple as you can get. Also about as recognizable as you can get.

    If someone wants to do the graphics and research the unis, I’ll make a basketball one too. Making the webpage isn’t the hard part. For that project, I’d need a Tim and a Bill.

    And thanks to those that contributed to the tip jar this morning. It is very much appreciated and on behalf of Tim + Bill + David, we do thank you very much, and we’ll be personally thanking you as well.

    I’m a big fan of the “new” Orioles cap, but I do not like it with the current uni. Caps like that look better with fatter stripes on the sleeves and pants. They should go back to more of the 70’s look. No sansabelt, though.

    So the Diamond Uniform Database uses templates from wikipedia, which all seem to have plainly visable Nike undershirts. The cleats are not so obviously Nike-like but has a straight line that kind of resembles a swoosh. This is a bizarre form of logo creep.

    It’s not really logo creep if it’s done for accuracy. The football site includes Reebok, Nike, Wilson, Starter and every other logo that’s shown up on the uniforms.

    The Wiki template isn’t the greatest, but the logos would still be there on any template they use.

    But Nike does not make MLB uniforms. And not all players wear the Nike undershirts. So the Nike undershirt (and cleats) are not part of the uniform. So the wikipedia images is violating both uniform purity (logo creep) and business purity (because Nike is getting a free association with MLB with all the eyeballs wikipedia brings, without paying MLB teams for the exclusive association). Unless, Nike is the official undershirt supplier of MLB, and then I would be mistaken.

    The guys who do those uniform database sites are to be commended. That is a lot of work they do. I was not aware of the Post Gazette article.

    I do look forward to the years before 1933 in the Gridiron Uniform Database. I realize it is harder to get those years correct. especially on the colors.

    Keep up the great work, Rob, Tim,Bill.

    During the week, Paul posted articles about cities possibly selling off advertising on things our tax dollars paid for. Here’s an example of a city getting uptight when a citizen changes something (yet doesn’t advertise a product or service): link

    The Nets new logo is better than OKC’s gaaabage[/Bostonian accent]. But it is also much worse than, say, 90% of the rest of the league.

    It isn’t bad, I actually like it, but it is so plain, it screams of being a secondary mark.

    I am excited about the unis, however, I think just B&W might be really cool, even if that is sort of a spurs thang (I know they have silver, but…).

    taking out OKC and the Nets themselves, that leaves 28 logos

    90% of 28 means I think the new nets logo is better than 2-3 of the remaining teams.

    Wizards and Rockets are worse, and so are the Kings and Bobcats, but both of those teams will probably have new names/logos next season.

    I think my assessment was fairly accurate.

    I think 20 NBA logos are almost in arguably better than the new nets logo,

    CHI
    NY
    LA
    LA
    POR
    DEN
    MEM
    MIA
    MIL
    DET
    PHX
    IN
    SAN
    UTAH
    TOR
    MIN
    PHI
    BOS
    GS
    NO

    The rest are either aforementionedally bad or debatable. IMO.

    Well, I do like the Bulls, Celtics, 76ers. Portland’s used to be good, before they messed with it. The Pacers had a certain charm before it was tweaked. The rest?…Eh. Yes, even the products of the ’60’s and ’70’s–the Knicks and Lakers–are not exceptional.

    We can’t argue taste, Tim. Ours are just different. I just like the execution and looks of the new Nets logo. I am delighted by its confidence in restraint and the beauty of letters and lines. When I was 10 I chose the Bengals as my favorite team based on their helmet design. And as you can probably guess, we’re not talkining tiger stripes. ;)

    1) Brent Bucker – Spiders
    2) Jeff Brown – Bulldogs
    3) Justin Myslinky – Municipals

    Last night on the NFL Network’s coverage of the draft, they cut to a reporter covering the Saints. The backdrop behind her had a fleur-de-lis that was beveled. Made me think of the recent notice of a different Steelers logo on their backdrop as well as the ire of Texas A&M fans.

    Sorry to be THAT GUY, but a lot of the designs on DUD are wrong. The Nats have not once worn their blue hats at home, the Astros have never worn their red hats with red jerseys, and the Marlins have yet to wear their orange hats.

    The uniforms are from wikipedia. Alt uniforms are shown with alt hats on that website. So when an alt is worn with the primary cap (as in your examples), there is no image for that exact combo. It seems the DUD is going with the jersey and not the cap in those instances.

    This is why they are asking for help making graphics.

    exactly …. I meant to be clear that current graphics are “placeholders” mainly to just keep track of which color worn, etc. I will be fixing miami’s hat with orange jersey (should be black) but other things, like brewer’s blue road alt says “Milwaukee” not “Brewers” aren’t able to be fixed with the current graphics at my disposal.

    This was the exact comment I was expecting, even though I felt I was fairly clear in the article about it.

    i’ve fixed a few, but i don’t want to spend a whole lot of time changing things that are just gonna get suplanted by new graphics anyway.

    Ditto. I was surprised at how awesome I thought it was!
    //Let’s face it, Mighty or not, the NHL Ducks are aubergine and teal, full stop.

    Regarding the new Brooklyn Nets identity, there is none. What we’re all looking at is a black & white version of the Oklahoma City Thunder logo. Void of a concept, character, or professionalism. It is likely this logo was chosen out of a catalog, which means if any other team put their name or initials on the logo it would mean the same thing.

    Graphic designers everywhere are mourning over this missed opportunity by the NBA. They are without a doubt, the ugliest and worst branded league in the world.

    “I am not among you, as I no longer have a hockey team.”
    Is that why the Islanders wore black this season?

    Thanks to the Diamond Uniform Database, I learned that the Marlins have actually worn their gray roadies this season. Nice work! On April 20th:
    link
    link

    Not sure if this was previously covered (my apologies if so), but Andrew Greenstein on nhluniforms.com has confirmed that the 1928-29 Pirates wore BLUE and gold for that season. Kudo to Andrew for that gem.

    Details here: link

    While I’m at it, I must take this time to personally thank Paul and – in particular – Phil for supporting our GUD site. We so appreciate all of the interest and comments, whether GUD or bad. So many of you have helped us with finds and discoveries.

    I plan on some research at Canton in a few weeks to find as much as possible on the 1920 – 1932 era of NFL uniforms, which will be daunting.

    Thanks again, UW faithful. You are amazing!

    The GUD week by week page is pretty indecipherable. No idea how to read those entries.

    please be more specific… do you mean the week-by-week chart for a year like, say 1982, or the week-by-week graphics for 1960. if you mean the chart, then yes, I was remiss in not including Tim’s key, which is, from L-to-R, helmet, jersey, pants, socks, shoes, followed by the week numbers that combo was worn.

    i was going to redo them all, but they are only until we get all the graphics, and we figured most people with this level of interest could bust the code. But yeah we could’ve put a key.

    I’m referring to this page (just as an example, they are all similar):

    link

    I cannot make any sense of what it is trying to tell me.

    I’m interested to see what the Nets will do with black and white. I’m assuming that we’ll see some gray in there, too.

    The Raiders certainly make black and silver look good. But this is presumably white and not silver.

    It’s a bold move on the Nets’ part to go this route. I’m sure it’ll be interesting. If Jay-Z is in charge, then it has to be, right?

    if anyone is interested, bryce harper is making his MLB debut and the game is gonna be on the MLB channel

    looks like he’s wearing stirrups…

    Just saw that. If those are real stirrups he in my new favorite baseball player. Leave it to a JUCO kid to break out the stirrups.

    My top 3 would be:

    Blue Socks – Daniel Irwin
    Chironomids – Bryan Molloy
    Spiders – George Teaford

    I like the idea of an orange paneled alternate cap for the Orioles, but make the squatchee (top button) black so it matches with the orange paneled caps they wore back in ’75 and ’76.

    America’s long nightmare continues.
    link
    Twenty games into the season and still no orange Marlins hats.

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