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He Shoots, He Score(board)s!

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Nowadays every stadium has a high-def color jumbotron. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, though, most ballparks had conventional one-color scoreboards that displayed dot-matrix images. An artist named Peter Chen has created a series of portraits based on that old scoreboard style (you can see some of them above; there are more here). I really like them, so I asked him to give a little summary of the project, which he happily provided:

As someone who thinks a lot about baseball as seen through an artistic lens, I recently began pondering about the jumbotron images and animations I had grown up seeing (as well as mimicked in ’90s baseball video games). This gave me an urge to create player portraits similar to those flashed on the scoreboard during Hank Aaron’s 715th home run and Pete Rose’s 4192nd hit. Specifically, I wanted to create players from the ’70s and ’80s, who were the equivalent of superheroes to me when I was growing up.

The process starts with creating a black-and-white pixel-sized image in Photoshop. This is the most painstaking part of the process, as each pixel can significantly change a portrait. Once that’s completed, the image is imported into Illustrator and overlaid with a series of dots in grid format. The excess dots are removed from the grid, resulting in the final image.

The image is then printed in black onto black paper via a laser printer, which results in a black-on-black effect. Gold foil is then overlaid on top of the printed piece, and both are sent through a heat laminator. The heating process fuses the gold foil to the toner to create the final image. This is an affordable yet powerful method of printing metalics in a one-off fashion. Otherwise, it would surely be cost-prohibitive.

Interesting! Peter’s prints evoke very specific reactions in my mind. The Shea Stadium scoreboard never displayed this type of image, so I associate these portraits with the Phillies, the Pirates, maybe the Reds. As I list those teams, I realize I’m also listing donut-style stadiums that had artificial turf. When I see these images, that’s what I think of: cheesy, synthetic, ’70s-style plastic culture. Except I mean all of that in a good way, if that’s possible.

Peter sells these prints for $100 at his Etsy shop. He also has a series of really nice MLB paintings, which he sells on his web site. Great stuff all around.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

I don’t feature too many game-worn items here at Collector’s Corner — not sure why. But here’s one that caught my eye: a pair of game-worn 1970s Dallas Cowboys pants. Certainly has the tell-tale blue-green color. But notice the number of player numbers scrawled inside. There’s 70 and 64, who must have been lineman. Then there’s 49, who was probably a running back.

In non-game used items:

• More Mays for your money! Open up your wallet for this three-foot-tall bobblehead of the Say Hey Kid.

• Here’s something you don’t often see: a ticket stub for a football doubleheader. [Anyone know more about this? ”” PL]

• Luv Ya Blue! Can’t miss with this inflatable little 1969 Oilers guy.

• Look at this complete set of late-1960s/early-1970s Fleer MLB stickers!

• Volpe alert! Here we have a nice set of 1960s Detroit Red Wings thermal cups.

• You can have a killer slumber party or camping trip with these 1970s NFL sleeping bags. Feels like a Sears item to me.

• This set of New Orleans Saints gumball helmets includes the rare black version.

Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here, and you can follow Brinke on Twitter and Facebook.

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Your feedback is hereby requested: I’ve been approached by some folks who are developing a new media/publishing platform for the iPad and iPhone (with other devices to follow later). Their business model is based on the notion that more and more people are reading content — newspapers, magazines, ebooks, etc. — on mobile devices. I’m a little out of my element here, because I work at home and therefore don’t lead a very mobile device-y life — I have an iPhone, but I almost never read anything on it except for email, and I don’t own an iPad (although I’m planning to buy one tomorrow, mainly because I think I ought to learn its ins and outs if I’m gonna write content for it).

I should specify that my relationship with these new media/publishing folks will not necessarily have anything to do with Uni Watch. At present, we’re mostly talking about some of my other creative projects (although Uni Watch may enter the mix). In any case, here are my questions for you folks: Do you own an iPad? What about your friends and family members — only the youngsters? Only the oldsters? Do you read stuff on it? Do you read Uni Watch on it? What about the iPhone — do you read on that? If you do read stuff on these devices, is any of that content paid, or is it all free? If it’s a mix, is there a marked difference between the quality of the paid content and the free content?

If you’re willing to share your thoughts regarding any of this (or about anything else relating to the iPad and iPhone as content delivery systems), I’m all ears. Big thanks in advance for helping to educate me on this subject.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: The Browns wore white at home last season, but they’ll wear brown for at least some of their home games this year. “Also, the writer of that article, Tony Grossi, mentioned on the radio on Monday morning that the team is working on an alternate uniform for the 2013 season, but didn’t have any details on the color or look,” says Nick Hatch. ”¦ Justin Morneau is nursing a wrist injury, but that didn’t stop him from wearing eye black while sitting in the dugout the other day (from Marc Bauche). … According to this article, Johnny Damon is currently wearing No. 33 as a tribute to Trot Nixon (who wore that number with the Indians) and Jason Varitek (who wore it for the Red Sox). … “My fiancé and I are big Washington Capitals fans,” writes Robert Kuperberg. “Our wedding is going to be a bit hockey-themed, with chocolate hockey pucks as wedding favors and a Capitals jersey with our name on the back serving as the guest book. Also, I proposed to her on a hockey puck.” … I wrote an article on uniform advertising for Print, which is a graphic design magazine. Not much in the article that I haven’t said before here on this site, but here’s the link anyway, just in case you’re curious. … The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is holding a contest to redesign its logo (which currently looks like this). Hunter Franks submitted this design. ”¦ Speaking of design contests, the Seibu Lions recently invited kids to design a uniform for the 100th anniversary of the Seibu Railways on a Lions uniform. Here’s the winning entry and Nike’s rendering of it (from Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ This photo of a guy dressed up as the Redskins logo has been ricocheting around the internet for a coupla days now. Anyone know the full story behind it? ”¦ Late-breaking eBay item: I loooovve the sash design on these old track uniforms. ”¦ Here are the WNBA uniforms for the upcoming season — Eastern Conference and Western Conference. “Not much change from last year,” says Kevin Brown. ”¦ There’s no softball in baseball! Or is there? That’s Marco Estrada of the Brewers, who was playing with a softball in the bullpen a few days ago (from Tim E. O’Brien). ”¦ Remember the Chargers’ unusual NOB format of having the first initial after the surname? Turns out the Browns did it too, at least once. That’s Mike Pruitt, on 9/27/81 (great find by Joe Wright). ”¦ New logo for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup (Jeremy Brahm again). ”¦ A member of Marty Hick’s croquet crew recently lost his father to cancer. So for their most recent match, they added a little strip of black electrical tape to each mallet handle. Very nice. ”¦ Can you guess which color Illinois State hoops is adding this fall? Hint: rhymes with gray (from Joel Hackler). ”¦ New basketball court design in the works for Georgia Tech. “They even consulted with ESPN about which paint colors show up well on TV, how lights can cause glare on certain surfaces, etc.,” says Britton Thomas. ”¦ For years the Phillies have had the little Liberty Bell icon on their stirrups, but not on their solid red socks. But now the Liberty Bell is also showing up on socks, but the one on the socks is positioned higher than the one on the stirrups. “I wonder if the equipment manager’s been sewing them on manually,” speculates Zach Carduner. ”¦ Special “30 years in Sydney” jumper for the Sydney Swans (from Leo Strawn).

 
  
 
Comments (135)

    To (start to) answer your question, the Browns would regularly host a doubleheader during exhibition season, with the Browns playing in the second game. Looks like they did it from 1962-71.

    That doubleheader was Aug. 30, 1969, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bears beat Bills 23-16. Packers beat Browns 27-17. Crowd was 85,532.

    Any idea if the games were back-to-back or did they have one early and one late?

    Pretty much back to back.
    Was on national TV. Both games.
    Remember watching them.

    Matthew Radican | May 15, 2012 at 9:23 am |

    Any idea if the games were back-to-back or did they have one early and one late?

    Well on the ticket in the pic it says first game was 6:30 PM & second was 9:30 PM. So there ya go.

    Yeah, it was a single admission doubleheader. Cleveland Stadium had a lot of seats to fill, and neutral site exhibitions were common in those days (although usually not in NFL cities).

    My brother and I had those NFL sleeping bags when we were kids. I forgot how cool they looked.

    Nice. Should be higher on the stirrups, too.
    link
    Always looks a little off-balance to me when it’s down by the stirrup. Especially because players are wearing their pants shorter these days.

    No Continue Reading button?

    Also, I do like your Print article. Mostly because of the link picture, because the Taco Bell Phillies looks like it says Phil Lies.

    Also, in terms of the mobile Uni Watch app, I would love it. I have, usually on weekends, been forced to read Uni Watch on my iPod. I can read it fairly well (there are some design issues from putting a web page on a mobile platform), the only thing I would request would be a better way to read the comments, in that on my iPod, I can’t tell if someone commented in a reply to someone else’s comment.

    That photo is a reminder that both Taco Bell and the Padres need to revert to their original colors.

    You know…if there were no such thing as a McDonalds, the colors and the arched M would make for a great baseball uniform.

    RE: scoreboard faces….

    Good thing there are names under most of them. Not a shot at the artist–just the medium.

    sorry, I should have said “some” of them (not most of them). they’re really damngood.

    Yeah, recognized Dan Quisenberry instantly, not by his moustache, but those eyes were unmistakeable. Now, the Royals Stadium depiction of George Brett, that was something else.

    Nice work.

    Yes, they’re outstanding. Seriously have to consider getting the Munson, Fisk and Bench versions (having played catcher and grown up in the 1970s).

    As a lifelong Halos fan, I’m seriously considering the Rod Carew. I so often see him depicted in his Twins gear, so the Angels treatment is nice. Those images are great. I think they’re spot-on.

    Gorman would be cool. There should be a Cecil Cooper one, too. I loved the early 80s Brewers almost as much as my Pirates. Speaking of which, there’s a Stargell and a Tekulve! Al Oliver would have made for one awesome trio.

    Loved the “Print” article. Those illustrations are tremendous, especially the locker stickers.

    Cheers!
    ~B

    “… Speaking of design contests, the Seibu Lions recently invited kids to design a uniform for the 100th anniversary of the Seibu Railways on a Lions uniform. Here’s the winning entry and Nike’s rendering of it (from Jeremy Brahm)…”

    Surprised how much I like ’em. Pretty cool, in fact.

    I like the fact that the LA Kings have never won or went deep in the playoffs while wearing purple at any incarnation of their jerseys…in fact, only when they have worn simply black & white they’ve done best (albeit 2 different jerseys), personally I like the Gretzky era over the current (and quick note, Kings v. Russian Penguins would have been noteworthy)
    link

    As a life-long Kings fan, I’m just glad they’re making a deep playoff run. That said, the current unis are much easier on the eyes than their last design. I’ve also noticed they have not used their alt in the playoffs. I think NHL rules allow teams to wear them. Anyway, I’m also a big fan of their Gretzky-era unis. I miss those.

    It’s also cool that the Kings have a player named King:
    link

    I don’t think whether or not teams are allowed to keep three jerseys for the playoffs. It’s more like “white plus one,” because the Sharks tend not to wear teal in the playoffs.

    Funny how the Russian Penguins jersey logo from the 90s is similar to the AHL Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins logo which came into being in the 2000s. The Russian mafia started getting involved with the minor league Pens team, which resulted in the parent club pulling the plug. My guess is that Mario and the Pens liked the Russian Pens logo enough to bring it with them to the newly christened WBS club several years later.

    Don’t forget Morneau has a history of concussions so he may be taking precautions to prevent the light from triggering a headache

    Hey Paul,

    I’ve worked on a friend’s iPad a little. Typing, if you’re going to produce full-length articles, is easier on a keyboard by far. That being said, I find the iPad to be no different than using my netbook to read stories. The advantage of the iPad, of course, is that you can turn the iPad so that you get widescreen or e-reader size to read the article.

    In short, the iPad is good if you want to use it as an e-reader, but it’s far better for other items (IMHO). Video playback for movies and TV is incredible on the newest iPad, but you don’t have a video-centric site, so that’s not a huge benefit.

    In short, the iPad is fine for reading newspapers and websites, but it really does 1000 more things that make it so much more valuable. It’s like saying “I only want an iPad for Angry Birds” – whoever says that is completely missing the whole point of the tablet computing in this case.

    I think using “in short” to start off 2 consecutive paragraphs negates the meaning of “in short” :)

    I might recommend not buying an iPad, since you already have an iPhone. Buy an android tablet instead.

    The apple OS is the same from the iPhone to the iPad, so you’ll already be able to work with that. But you’ll want to have some idea of how android works too, since you’ll want to develop for that as well. Apple’s not the only player in the game, and when you only build an app for one OS, it pisses users of the other off.

    The doubleheader football game was a Art Modell concept. I believe it lasted from 1962 to 1971. The first doubleheader featured the Dallas Cowboys v. Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers v. Cleveland Browns. During the Steelers/Browns game, Ernie Davis was announced as the 12th member of the Browns offensive team. This was the only time he appeared on the playing field for the Browns. The first AFL double header was in 1966 and featured the Boston Patriots v. Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers v. Kansas City Chiefs.

    Based on the images shown, the San Antonio Silver Stars are the last WNBA team to not include ads on their unis. So, does that mean Uni Watch is on Silver Stars Watch to see if/when they finally turn to the dark side?

    That WNBA jersey template just looks strange to me, with that harness-like back design.

    I’m not a fan of either the WNBA or non-plural nicknames, but the Sky, Mercury & Fever logos are great.

    Interesting that multiple teams also wear colour at home, something I’d like to see the NBA go back to.

    Boost mobile is a league-wide sponsor. The SASS play in the AT&T Center. Their lease agreement does not allow them to have other phone service ads on their uniforms.

    The racerback jerseys look better in real life than in pictures.

    Isn’t that racerback design almost evocative of one iteration of the WNBA ball?

    I have both an iPad and an iPhone, and have read the site on both at different occasions. The iPad is my weekend/nighttime PC. Actually, I have both a laptop and a desktop that have literally went months without being turned on, because of my iPad. It’s a great device. The mobile version of the site works nicely on the iPhone, if you’re in a pinch and need a Uni fix.

    FWIW, I think Uni Watch does just fine on the iPad, except for the annoying banner ad that displays lengthwise across the bottom of the screen in Safari. If there was a way to permnanently get rid of that, I’d be pleased. Doesn’t stop me from visiting though.

    I agree on all counts with Chris.

    iPad with me on the couch as I potato out.
    iPhone during the day for menial online stuff.

    Not an apple guy but I do read Uni Watch on both my android phone with a 4.5″ screen and my android tablet with at 10.1″ screen.

    As for other publications put me in the “strictly free” grouping. I tend to go directly to websites but will use certain applications like LinkedIn and Flipboard to view a broad range of content in one place.

    Uni Watch is one of the few sites that I rarely visit on my phone or laptop – I always view it on the desktop in my studio. It’s become part of my daily routine, eating my lunch and checking out Uni Watch & Cracked. For some reason, it doesn’t feel “right” unless I’m viewing it that way.

    About the double header ticket stub. The EBAY post is incorrect. It was played on August 30, 1968 in the preseason in Cleveland.

    link
    Citation: link

    Astrodome had those kind of dot-matrix videos, too, though for the players, the background was yellow. Here is a shot of Jimmy Wynn (per the number on the scoreboard).

    link

    Nice Creamer article on the Rangers’ throwback schedule: link

    Check out that Jim Merritt card – a red collared undershirt? Not something you see everyday, that’s for sure.

    Then there’s the Nolan Ryan card, from when he took a Bo Jackson liner to the face. (He’s probably glad Bo didn’t get loose on him in the Robin Ventura scuffle…)

    I remember seeing those one-color dot-matrix pseudo-portraits on the center-field scoreboard at Fenway Park in the early ’80s. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the images.

    Those WNBA unis are just terrible and should be used as a cautionary tale to anyone who’s on the Let’s-Put-Ads-On-Our-Jerseys bandwagon (I’m giving you the side-eye, Mark Cuban). Yeah, I know we’re supposed to look at the financial side of it, and soccer leagues have been doing it for years, blah blah blah, but the bottom line is: it looks TERRIBLE. And it looks cheap. And it looks tacky.
    And the sports iconography that has meant so much to many of us would be marred because of it.

    Agreed, but why are the San Antonio Silver Starz the only team without the Boost advertising? They are advertising free.

    That’s what I’m wondering… Boost Mobile signed a deal to be some sort of official partner of the whole WNBA, and to further complicate it, look at these pictures from the draft:

    No logo:
    link

    Logo:
    link

    The no logo uniform looks photoshopped to me, so the question is: why is San Antonio opting out of the Boost Mobile deal? Do they have a conflicting sponsor? When was it decided? Obviously after the draft at some point, since the draft jersey had the logo on it.

    The no logo jersey is photoshop. You can see the Boost logo on the draft jersey in this draft day video:

    link

    As suggested, the SASS lease with the AT&T Center does not allow other phone company ads on uniforms.

    So it turns out the Silver Stars play in the “AT&T Center”. And I’m guessing their contract with the arena prohibits signage and advertising for competitors.

    Great post, G.D. I agree with you 100%. The Euro-influenced uni look should never be used in North American professional sports.

    BTW- About those vintage track jerseys. Fab-Knit Athletic Manufacturing Co. was located in Waco, Texas and made the football uniforms for Baylor University and SMU in the late 1960s and ’70s. Fab-Knit also made a complete line of uniforms featuring knit-in stripes, much like fellow Texas Manufacturer Southland Athletic of Terrell. Southland is the last company I know of to still offer knit-in striping. Thank you Swooshies.

    I’ve always been opposed to advertising on jerseys, and those WNBA jerseys are the best evidence I’ve ever seen of what it’s such a bad idea. They look horrendous and really cheesy.

    I love the old LED-Looking Scoreboard portraits.

    I did something similar a few years ago when I made an illustration of Royals Stadium,
    circa 1985 – back when Kansas City had astroturf and the old LED crown scoreboard.
    I recreated the dot-pattern portrait the stadium used for George Brett.

    link

    That’s fantastic!

    They used that same dot-pattern-Brett image for most of his career. I think it was based on a picture taken in ’73 or ’74.

    beautiful royals stadium poster, chris. reminds me of thomas kolendra’s oakland a’s print.

    RyCo, you old enough to remember this scoreboard?
    link
    Those were the days, my friend. Although it was hard for my family and me to get the full effect, since we usually sat right below the scoreboard…first row, right above the part of the fence that’s open.

    Eddie Milner had the most awesomely bad dot matrix scoreboard portrait ever when he was with the Reds. When I was a kid seeing his portrait on the Riverfront scoreboard became its own little event during the game. He looked hilariously clownish.

    For my money, the worst of these portraits I saw was another Red, Caesar Geronimo. I remember thinking he looked like an ape man. I realize now how horribly racist that sounds. At the time I was like 8 or 9. Hopefully that allows me some slack.

    A sad day for NOB enthusiasts everywhere, as in soccer news Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink has decided to retire…

    link

    Glad to hear you are going for the IPad…….we have three of them in the family and do just about everything you can do on a laptop with them. Things are more accessible than on the laptop with the only drawback not having flash. I read this blog every morning on this in addition to newspapers and magazines. I will say that the “floating adbar” or whatever you call is pretty obnoxious when you are reading this blog on the IPad.

    The worst part is closing that adbar, clicking on a link in the ticker, then coming back to the main page… only for the adbar to re-appear. I’ve started trying to remember to open any links in a new tab.

    It feels petty and a little dumb to complain about such a small inconvenience, but if we are looking for ways to improve the iPad experience…

    And yeah, I do newspapers on it as well. Nothing like sitting down first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee and the “newspaper” in front of me. God, I’m getting old.

    Congrats to Robert Kuperberg! I actually proposed to my wife on a baseball, though it took some creativity to convince her why I wanted to go outside and play catch in December. In hindsight, a puck would’ve made more sense, but too late now!

    I remember the old scoreboard at the Vet, before they took it down and got Phanavision. Here’s a pic of Michael Jack Schmidt’s mug on it from the 1980 NLCS:

    link

    Reading the Print Magazine article, and mulling over those thoughts about “brand loyalty” in sports fans makes me wonder whether the concept of “rooting for the uniform no matter who is wearing it” isn’t becoming less true than it once was.

    True, there have always been superstar athletes, and guys like Ted Williams and Bobby Orr surely had fans who weren’t born Boston sports fans. But now it seems even more complex than “favorite team/favorite players.” Some players are Nike players and some are Adidas, and it seems to matter more now that Lebron is wearing Nike than that the NFL is. Combine that with the rise of fantasy sports and the other forms of sports gambling that have always been around but are also proliferating, and I wonder whether the uniform matters as much as it always has.

    I still think there would be a negative reaction to ads on big 4 uniforms (certainly there would be one from me, personally) but I really do get the feeling that the reaction would be less negative than it would have been years previous.

    Reading that Print article, I started to consider a couple of uni watch topics people have been discussing lately together.

    If the unthinkable happens and ads begin to appear on uniforms in U.S. major team sports, what effect would that have on racially insensitive team mascots?

    Would, say, Disney be interested or comfortable in having Chief Wahoo appear next to their wordmark? I wouldn’t think so.

    Maybe that’s what’s needed to really effect change with these insensitive team names… large corporations threatening to pull their sponsorships.

    And speaking of Art Modell’s pro football doubleheaders:

    link

    Not quite as nice as the one in post, though.

    Not every stadium has a jumbotron. Notre Dame stadium still has “mini-trons” that can only display a couple of lines of text.

    link

    The current Busch Stadium has one of those scoreboards on the exterior of the stadium. It’s usually just for words, and the box score of any games in progress. But after they won the World Series in 2006 it repeatedly showed video of the last out and I got to spend the whole winter watching the Cards win the series in single-color while I drove over the bridge from Illinois on my way home from work.

    “It was purely by accident that the Browns wore white-on-white for 16 games last year. They chose to wear white jerseys at home to honor the tradition of the greatest Paul Brown years. It so happened that each of their opponents on the road chose to wear dark jerseys. So that put the Browns in white for each game for the first time in their history.”

    Ummm…maybe since the team returned to the NFL in 1999. But according to link, the Browns also went an entire season wearing white in 1973, 1977, 1986, and 1995. They also went all-white for the 1972 regular season, but was stuck wearing the brown jerseys in Miami.

    That only documents home games. If they played at, say, the Cowboys, they would’ve been forced to wear their colored uniform.

    According to GUD, from what I can tell, perhaps 73 was all white, but you would have to talk to the GUD guys about that.

    Yes.. this will page will show the breakdown of home and away for the Browns:

    link

    Also, beware some of the years, like 1995 and 1986, for example, you’ll note “Only Worn In Preseason” above the brown jersey, so they did only wear white in the regular season, but you would have to go to 1973 to see when the absolutely only wore white the whole season, preseason included.

    Scroll to the bottom to note 2, where it says “The following teams wore their white jerseys for a whole season (preseason games not included)”. THAT was what I was referencing. Doesn’t matter anyways. The Browns could play in their birthday suits, and they will STILL get swept by the Steelers this year.

    Are Peter Chen’s prints and paintings officially licensed by MLB? If not, can he still legally make money off of using all those team logos?

    Also, he is using the names and likenesses of many retired players and one active player (Pujols). If he doesn’t have a license to use those names and likenesses, won’t he get sued?

    As someone who practices in this area of law and who has spoken to MLBPA counsel, the artist would need to cover his butt else there is a high risk.

    As a high school pitcher, I warmed up with a softball before each and every start. Throw with it for about 10 minutes before starting my normal pre-game throwing routine, and all of a sudden, the baseball you have to throw during the game feels like a weightless golfball.

    i wish i could tell you that andy fought the good fight, and his catcher let him be…i wish i could tell you that – but warming up with a softball is no fairy-tale world…

    he never said who did it, but we all knew…things went on like that for awhile – a pitcher’s life consists of routine, and then more routine… every so often, andy would show up with fresh bruises…

    the catchers kept at him – sometimes he was able to fight ’em off, sometimes not…and that’s how it went for andy – that was his routine… i do believe those first two games were the worst for him, and i also believe that if things had gone on that way, that game would have got the best of him

    When I see these images, that’s what I think of: cheesy, synthetic, ’70s-style plastic culture. Except I mean all of that in a good way, if that’s possible.

    It is indeed.

    Tell you what…I liked the cookie cutter ballparks. Yeah, the turf was bad, but that was it. OK, except for the Vet. That place was just a crap hole.

    I’m with you, Jim. I have a soft spot in my heart for the cookie-cutters. They weren’t pretty but they were so…well…. multifunctional!

    Good ol’ Riverfront….

    link

    Taco-flavored Doritos are also cheesy, synthetic, ’70s-style plastic culture but I won’t hear a word said against them.

    Got some of those in the vending machine in the cafeteria here at work…

    that’s the flavor the bell should have used for their shells

    Those Dallas pants were probably worn between the years 1978-1981. There’s no green “hue” to them at all. Lay them next to a pair of modern-day pants and there’d be no comparison, color-wise.

    Earlier pants had more of a charcoal hue. Those do look like late 70s when the pants looked more baby blue than anything.

    On closer inspection, I’m going to go out on a limb and say those aren’t Cowboy pants at all but more likely Tennessee Titan pants. Take a look here:

    link

    Same striping, the blue much brighter than the Cowboys were in the late 70s, which is probably closer to this:

    link

    The closeup view of the Medalist Sand Knit tag reads “link“. (At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the script part says, but the team name is in bold capital gold-thread sans-serif letters.)

    Yes, that’s the pants for the auction in today’s Collector’s Corner. Copied the image link from the eBay listing, which redirects to Photobucket.

    Was wondering why in Hell Tony Armas was wearing derby hat with the A’s logo? Then I looked a photo of him…NOW I get it. Pretty cool idea.

    I am not sure if this counts as uniform related: link

    Get ready for 15 years of this type of stuff.

    As annoying as those are, the regular, non-Griffin versions of those “Team Speed” socks are even more so, because they evoke the worst of the RBK EDGE aesthetic – stripes only going halfway around, and piping that serves no functional purpose (considering the Griffin socks get by just fine without that piping).

    Pretty common practice for pitchers to stretch their fingers (especially, split-finger pitchers)with a softball in the bullpen. Also has the effect of making the real baseball seem lighter as someone already mentioned. I think I recall seeing a picture of Jose Contreras using one to stretch his fingers – he could throw a splitter with a softball. I’ll look for it.

    The last line of the attached article indicates that the 49ers helmet cart is still somewhere in the bowels of Candlestick. They need to break that out while they say farewell to the ‘Stick.

    link

    Your link got screwed up somehow (don’t know how “sacbee” can go to “sachee”, unless you tried typing the address manually…). link

    “thank god almighty…

    Pirates Marlins Baseball

    …they’re free at last”

    –Jim Vilk
    15 May, 2012

    Orange Caps Held Hostage Are Free!!
    link

    It took until Game 36, but now the orange caps can link

    Hopefully it won’t take another 36 games or longer. If it does, I’ll be back…but for now our work is done.

    They are wearing black helmets, though. Not pleased about that, but I’m not going to push it. It’s still a victory.

    Since I joined in on the e-mail campaign, I wrote them a thank-you note for wearing the Orange caps! You can too!

    link

    nice mike!

    now, if we can just persuade the ‘stros to go back to the shooting star, our work will be complete

    Just sent my note to them.

    now, if we can just persuade the ‘stros to go back to the link our work will be complete

    (fixed) (completed)

    now, if we can just persuade the ‘stros to go back to the RainbowGuts, our work will be complete

    /fixed ;)

    But they’re still wearing the black helmets… come on Miami, don’t tease us.

    Hot damn, the Marlins look awesome with the orange accessories! And you know what? It actually looks like the Marlins. (Or maybe that’s just the empty orange seats at Old Joe Robbie clouding my judgment.)

    And no, they don’t look like the Marlins when they wear black, despite the history. When you used to wear teal and you have orange available, the blackout really does come across as “blah blah black team.”

    Lincecum CleatWatch:

    NO idea what he is wearing tonite. Trying to find out.
    GUTHRIE on the mound tho, for the Rocks.

    Dan Quisenbery? No way. It’s the engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise-Montogomery Scott himself! :)

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