Cats as Cats Can

In a surprise move that nobody saw coming, least of all me, the Bobcats unveiled new uniforms last night. Very odd timing on this — why not wait until the NBA Finals are over? Anyway, you can see a good slideshow here.

A few random thoughts:

• Very happy that the Bobcats will no longer be wearing pinstripes (an element that I almost never like on basketball uniforms).

• I love orange as a trim color. Always looks good.

• I hate navy blue and sky blue used together — almost never looks good.

• That Nike-style wishbone collar looks sooooo dated. When’s the last time a team switched to that look?

• For the Bobcats’ inaugural uniforms, the off-center uni number made sense, because they were using a baseball-style chest insignia. They moved the number to the center when they adopted the pinstriped design, but now the number is off-center again. Why? Doesn’t make sense with the new chest wordmark.

• The off-center number looks even worse on the road jersey, because the road lettering is much smaller (because “Charlotte” has more letters than “Cats”), so the number looks proportionally larger, which makes its off-centeredness feel badly unbalanced.

• Speaking of the off-center numbers, someone on the Chris Creamer board pointed out a strong similarity between the new Bobcats design and the Mavs design.

• “Cats”: No. Use that for an alt jersey if you want, but as your primary insignia? No.

• Here’s the rear view of the road jersey. That’s the new logo, which we’d previously seen on a cap, above the NOB.

Overall: Not a horrible uniform, but not a particularly well-conceived one either. Feels like change for the sake of change. I loved this team’s original look. Wish they’d stuck with it.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

Did you collect action figures growing up? My favorite was Captain Action. This guy was terrific, and in fact he was the first one to be called “action figure,” so boys wouldn’t be stuck with a “doll.” Captain Action could be dressed up to portray a lot of different superheroes, and he had his own cool ride, too. I still play with him today (although Princess is not impressed). I also had a few GI Joes (this Mercury Space Capsule was a favorite), but I don’t recall sports action figures from back in the day. With that said, take a look at these Johnny U and Joe Willie figures — though Johnny looks more like Peyton Manning to me!

Here’s the rest of this week’s haul:

• Take a look at this 1976-1977 NFL calendar from Pizza Hut. Looks like Mean Joe Green was trying to unscrew Roger Staubach’s head.

• Hmmm, this glass may have “Kansas City Royals” on it, but that player sure looks like Reggie Jackson, doesn’t it?

• Ack! Willya look at this set of ABA pillows! [That is pure gold right there. ”” PL]

• Speaking of the ABA, you’ll love this serving tray. Looks to be in perfect condition.

• I always wanted one of those NFL Springbok puzzles. This one features the Kansas City Chiefs.

• A mod look to this 1970s RC Cola in-store football poster.

• The ad says this is a 1970s NFL Thermos, but I believe this is more early 1980s, judging from the helmet artwork. Either way, looks great!

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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Question Time: As you may know, the Brits have a political ritual called Question Time, when the Prime Minister answers questions from the members of Parliament. I’d like to start our own Question Time ritual here at Uni Watch, like so: Every so often I’ll invite all of you to send me questions, and I’ll try to answer as many of them as possible in a future blog entry. The questions can be about uniforms, sports in general, me, or anything else.

Nothing is out of bounds. If you want to ask what I think of Ronny Cedeño’s orange shoelaces, that’s fine. Ditto for “What’s the best way to cook a pork chop?” or even “Why are you such a big asshole?” (although my answer to that question may not be as definitive). Personal questions are fine, although I may opt to ignore any that I decide are too personal. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to get to every single question, especially since I don’t yet have a sense of how many of them will be submitted, but I can guarantee that I’ll do my best to address as many of them as I can handle.

Hard rule: Only one question per person per Question Time segment. (I’m hoping Question Time will be a semi-regular feature, so you’ll have other opportunities to ask about other things down the road.) Soft rule: I would prefer that all questions be signed with your real name, although that’s not a requirement.

So here we go: Send your question (again, only one) here. Please do not post questions in the comments. Thanks.

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I don’t mind saying that yesterday’s entry, about the 1976 Braves’ nickNOBs, was a doozy. If you missed it, check it out here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Check out the award patches on this Ravens practice jersey. The top patches are the “Arm and Hammer” award, which is for strength and conditioning — they’ve been giving that out for years. I don’t recognize the lower patch design, though. Anyone..? (From Brent Coulson.) … Here’s a good discussion of Native American mascot debate as it pertains to some Connecticut high schools. … In a related item, I’ll be discussing Native American mascots and logos tomorrow morning, between 9am and 10am eastern, on Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live program (you can use the “Listen Live” link in the left sidebar to hear the streaming audio). They initially asked for Phil, because of his recent Redskins and Indians renaming contests, but he’s not available tomorrow morning, so I’ll pinch-hit. … It looks like Arkansas baseball coach Dave Jorn is wearing a Nike windbreaker, but an anonymous reader knows better. “That’s a Majestic Cool Base Convertible jacket,” says our source. “Nike doesn’t make a jacket with contrasting sleeves. The low logo on the right sleeve is to covers the Majestic logo.” … Look at Phil Rizzuto with his sleeves rolled up. He’s wearing the uniform of the Norfolk Naval Training Station baseball team, circa 1943 (from Mike Hersh). … Former NFLer R.C. Owens passed away yesterday. This obit includes a uni-notable detail I hadn’t been aware of: “Owens was also a pioneer in the use of gloves for pass catching during cold weather games. This was a practice that he developed during his years while playing for the College of Idaho. 49ers’ coach Howard ”˜Red’ Hickey discouraged Owens from the practice of utilizing gloves, saying, ‘This is the NFL, son'” (from Andrew Berthelsen). ”¦ Eli Manning did a promotional appearance at a Dunkin Donuts outlet yesterday and wore a Reebok jersey with no NFL logo for the occasion, which should piss off several different sets of people (from Jason Mattina). ”¦ Quite a bit going on in this shot of Alexei Ramirez, what with the pregame cigar, the knee pads exposed by the inside-out pants, and what’s the logo on that T-shirt? (From Ryan Connelly.) ”¦ Remember those ugly jerseys that the Brewers will be wearing for Italian Heritage Day? Here’s the cap. That’s gonna be one horrendous-looking game (from Sam Lam). ”¦ Bobby Kutzendorf, who pitches for Aurora Christian High School in Illinois, has a sharp look (from Lincoln King). ”¦ We’ve previously noted that Rangers backstop Mike Napoli has been wearing black catching gear, because he likes the look. But I didn’t realize he’d gone so far as to wear a BFBS helmet. That’s kinda fucked up (screen shot by Josh Best). ”¦ Aaron Rich notes that English soccer player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain only has “Chamberlain” on his jersey. Should we call that TNOB, for truncated name on back? … I had previously shown the American League’s All-Star BP cap, but I don’t think I showed the N.L. version. They’re both displayed here. … If you’ve ever been to the Mt. Rushmore visitors’ center, you may have seen the photo of the baseball team comprised of workers who created the mountain monument. I recall seeing it on my visits to Rushmore in 1997 and 2000, but I never took a photo of it. Fortunately, Jonathan Mayer did. ”¦ Here’s what the Mavs’ draft cap will look like. Other teams to follow soon, presumably (from Stu Taylor). ”¦ Speaking of caps, look at the MLB logo on this Mariners cap. That extra border of stitching isn’t normally there, is it? (From Andrew Edwards.) ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: I love the early use of the wishbone-“C” logo by this Cherokee basketball team. ”¦ Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose gave a nice shout-out to Uni Watch last night. I wasn’t listening at the time, but Robert Silverman was, and he provided the following transcription: “By the way, if you’re interested in uniforms and uniform history, there’s a great web site called Uni Watch. They dig up the most amazing things… It’s a great web site. He’s got some pictures on there… the stuff Paul Lukas, who runs the site, finds are just amazing. Great site.” Nice. ”¦ Pretty hilarious item about how the Yankees lodged a uni-based protest against the White Sox in 1976. Entertaining reading (from Mike Kingery). ”¦ After Lucas Duda homered in yesterday’s Mets/O’s game, teammate Justin Turner unbuttoned his jersey to reveal, uh, something. Looks like “Buches,” right? And that’s exactly what it is — explanation here (screen shot by the long-lost Mike from Queens, T-shirt decoding by Phil). ”¦ Rays reliever Joel Peralta was ejected from last night’s game against the Nats after umps found pine tar in his glove. ”¦ A high school football team in Florida is using the Atlanta Hawks logo (from Mike McLaughlin). ”¦ New kit for Plymouth Argyle (from Bob Williams).