A couple weeks ago I mentioned I had received a wonderful colorization from one of our experts, Gary Chanko, but didn’t run it in the “Colorize This!” section because it contained a wonderful backstory and more. So, it’s going to serve as today’s lede. Enjoy. — Phil
The Kirst Rexall Baseball Team
By Gary Chanko
Hi Phil
Here’s a new colorization for your inventory. Of course, there’s a story to go along with it. When I started to colorize the bib overall photo I looked for a better quality image and stumbled upon the University of Wisconsin library archives for the little Two Rivers hamlet. There were more baseball related photos to be had by the same photographer, including this one of the Rexall team. Some more digging yielded enough amusing facts to piece together the story.
Gary
The Kirst Brothers, Two Rivers Baseball, and the White Orpington
You may recall this recent colorization of the Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) baseball club (c.1900) from Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The team’s bib overall uniforms are amusing but equally wacky is the dapper fellow brandishing the musket. The player next to him (on the far right) is Guy Kirst. Seated in the second row is Guy’s older brother Charles (the one with the nifty handlebar mustache), better known as C.F.
Two Rivers Trivia: the birthplace of …?
Did you know Two Rivers is the birthplace of a celebrated soda fountain favorite?
Who could have guessed this? Answer is at the end.
Guy and C.F.
Guy was a prominent citizen (standing left) and one of the leading business men of Two Rivers during the early part of the last century. (You can read about it up here; scroll down to Gus C. Kirst) He was president of the Wisconsin Textile Manufacturing Company and an executive in his brother’s local telephone company.
Flash forward a decade or more, and we find the brothers Kirst in another baseball club photo — the Kirst’s Rexall Baseball club as featured in the colorization.
C.F. Kirst, owner of the Two Rivers Rexall drug store and proud sponsor of the baseball team was also a leading Two Rivers business person. In addition to owning the drug store, he was president of the Two Rivers Telephone Company. And just like his brother, C.F. was seemingly involved in all things baseball in the Two Rivers community. Here he is in this 1915 photo (back row, dead center with the ball glove) of the Two Rivers Merchants baseball team.
Both Guy and C.F. are found in the colorized photo. Guy is in the back row, the one with the boutonnière and the snazzy, faux cowboy hat. C.F. is also in the back, sans mustache, in a sporty vested suit. (Click photo below to enlarge)
Remember those Rexall Drug stores?
You’ll have to agree the unis are fairly stylist. The colors were chosen based on the Rexall brand’s blue and orange scheme. I wonder if Rexall ponied up some cash to outfit the team? The Kirst Rexall drug store was located at 1523 Washington Street in downtown Two Rivers. Here’s a photo of the actual location during the same time period.
The spiffy belting arrangement on the pants is different from most of the other belted unis of this era. Only one of the players is wearing baseball spikes. All the others have canvas athletic shoes. Why is that?
If you were around in the fifties, sixties and even the early seventies (and can remember anything), you probably recall your own local Rexall drug store. You can still buy Rexall branded products at Dollar General, but good luck finding a Rexall drug store unless you live in the Great White North.
Who is that guy in the window?
The photograph is from the collection of Hubert R. Wentorf, a local photographer. Did you spot the reflection in the window on the right? Could be the photographer, Mr. Wentorf. The original photo is one of those Kodak real-photo post cards that were popular during the early twentieth century and sold as souvenirs, typically in local drug stores.
Browsing over the photo you find a few interesting details in the store windows. The left side window appears to have a selection of baseball equipment, perhaps for sale. The right side window has a couple of advertising placards. One of the placards attracted my interest. It’s difficult to make out all the text except for the words White Orpington.
The Peculiar White Orpington
So what the hell is White Orpington? Has to be a product you’re going to find in a drug store, right? Some miracle medicinal product? A female beauty aide? I had no clue. The other sign below indicates the they sold tons of the stuff last year. Tons of any product is a lot of stuff; might just be advertising hype knowing the population of Two Rivers was only a couple of thousand back then.
A quick search revealed the answer – White Orpington is a damn chicken! (If you already knew that you’re probably on the wrong blog site.) This breed was apparently known for its prolific egg production among other important poultry traits. So what was C.F. selling here? Eggs, poultry products, live chickens? Who knows? Can you buy eggs at CVS or Walgreens?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The Kirst Rexall Baseball Team is close – but only about 800.
Two Rivers Trivia Answer: Two Rivers is the birthplace of the ice cream sundae!
Thanks, Gary! Tremendous stuff (and wonderful colorization) as always!
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.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
First up today is Jimmy Mann who has a shit ton of Raiders helmet concepts:
Hi Phil,
It’s sacrilegious to even think about touching the Raiders’ uniforms, but I thought I might try modernizing it a bit.
Changes:
–Three-Stripes down the middle. The double outer-stripe inscription reads: “Commitment to Excellence”
–Facemask, Nose & Tail Bumper Colors with extruded Wordmarks.If you choose to run this, it’s thought I’d leave it up to you to pick out your favorites from the bunch! There’s definitely some designs in there I’m not a fan of if I’m being honest with myself. My personal favorites are: 13, 11, and 01. A lot of people liked the All-Black options too though.
Thanks!
Jimmy M.
Next up is Marty N., with some hoops concepts:
Hello Mr. Hecken,
It’s been a while sir since I’ve sent one of these but here is a concept I partially finished (sorry only have one jersey design for now.)
So now that a certain pre-historic movie is about to make a comeback, I thought I’d give Toronto a comeback of it’s own with the team doing so well. I did away with the current color scheme and went with a NHL Jets look/Blue Jays/Canadian color scheme (sorry Alternate Clippers jerseys).
The beaver, an under utilized creature in sports, was the logical choice with it being the nations animal. I tried to go with a classic font (a baseball feel to the font). Hope you and the readers enjoy.
Also, not to toot our own horns, but I think the Hawks may have been visiting your page when they went back to the pac-man design. See the design attached I also sent and you had on the page over a year ago!
Marty
And we close today with Bryan Moss who has some new looks for the Tennessee Volunteers football team:
Hey Phil,
Some Nike Mach Speed Tennessee Uniform Concepts for next year! This is for the uniform concept section on Saturday/Sunday. If you could leave some feedback it would be great!
—
Roll Tide
Bryan
And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
Uni Watch News Ticker:
Baseball News: “This is Sedgwick High School in Sedgwick, Kansas and check out the uniform combination,” writes Tanner Liby. “Tri-colored hat, unusual pant striping, and digital camo underarm stripes. Very weird combo.” … Reader Brady Phelps says, “Kinda doubt these bad boys are MLB issued.” … Here’s an interesting throwback: The Brewers’ Double-A affiliate moved from Huntsville, Alabama, to Biloxi, Mississippi, for this season, but the new stadium isn’t ready, so the team’s playing several games on the road. David Clemons explains that since the owners still had a lease for the old stadium, the current series is being played back in Huntsville and Friday night the Shuckers even wore Stars jerseys and auctioned them off as a fundraiser for the local Alzheimer’s Association. … Interesting logo for the Blue Jays on yesterday’s Indians’ lineup card (nice spot by Aust). … Here’s what the NY Mets Memorial Day cap looks like (h/t Nick Schiavo). … Mizzou baseball wore some nice throwbacks yesterday (via Thomas Schmied). … Yesterday was Joe Werner’s six year old daughter’s first softball game. He writes, “I was ecstatic that the league issued proper high cut pants, so purchasing some red sanitaries was a moral imperative. I also added a red belt.” … There is some writing on Edison Volquez’s glove. Reader Matt Larsen says, “Looks like ‘Eylin Editsha’ but I’m not sure. Google was no help.” Anyone know what it says? … Looks like Padres’ outfielder Justin Upton wears green, digi-camo batting gloves (from Jared Buccola). … Yesterday the San Francisco Giants debuted their new black alternate tops. More photos here.
NFL News: The disdain for the new Forty Niners new black alternate uniforms has been palpable. Here’s a great comic strip expressing many of our own thoughts (from SF Lunatic Fringe). … Reader Aloysius Cummings IV noticed on this YouTube tape the 49ers have standard classic three stripes on the side (that is at the 1:48 Mark against the Chargers). then at the 2:50 mark “they have Red Jerseys but most of them do not have stripes when they play New Orleans.”
Basketball News: Arkadikos BC is a small Basketball club located in Northern Greece which from next year will be competing at “Basket League”, the highest level of Greek Basketball league. The teams arena consists of 1000 seats and as its uniforms are full of ads, notes Zak Ioannidis. Their logo appears to be a cheap imitation of the respective one of the late era of NJ Nets. “Hail to European Basketball!” he adds. … This is awesome: Conrad Burry has created a NBA Playoff bracket circle.
Soccer News: In yesterday’s Liverpool v. QPR match, both Liverpool (h/t Joseph Young) and QPR (h/t Joe Dewsbury) wore black armbands. Why? QPR player Rio Ferdinand’s wife passed from cancer early yesterday. Here’s more on that. … According to JK Chaney, Sport direct accidental unveiled the Celtic FC home kit early, before Monday’s presser. … Another orange vs yellow matchup happened on Saturday: Huddersfield wore their yellow third kit at Bloomfield Road for their final match of the season, versus the “Tangerines” of Blackpool (thanks to Callum Johnson). He adds, “Sadly, the match was abandoned shortly after half-time, due to a pitch invasion by Blackpool fans protesting against the club’s owners.”
Grab Bag: “I described the recipe for Derby Pie (screw the assholes in KY!) to my wife, and she was quite intrigued, so she attempted one (yester)day,” says Joe Werner. “I will let you know how it turned out.”
And that’s going to do it for this fine first Sunday in the merry, merry month of May. Big thanks to Gary for the wonderful colorization and backstory, as well as the concepters and those of you who e-mailed and tweeted for the ticker. Catch you guys next weekend.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“(I)t’s my nature to be harsh. I like to come out with guns blazing and mixed metaphors…then back it off a quarter-turn.”
–Uni Troll
In regards to the pile of Raiders helmet concepts…. the guy on the logo is wearing the same helmet as the team. Therefore, if you change the helmet color, you have to change the logo too or it looks wrong.
Exactly!
Man United/West Brom also wore black armbands yesterday. Rio Ferdinand played for United before going to QPR.
Still researching his glove but it is EdiNson, not Edison:
When he was signed by the Rangers in 2001 at age 17, he went by the name Julio Reyes but his name was revealed to be Edison Volquez after an immigration crackdown in 2003. In 2007, he asked the Rangers to add an “n” to his name after checking his birth certificate to find he was born Edinson.[27]
googled “edinson volquez daughter evilyn” and found this. that takes care of one of the names on there. still researching the other.
A native of Barahona, Dominican Republic, Volquez resides in Santo Domingo during the offseason with his wife, Roandy and twin daughters, Eylin and Aylin, who were born November 5, 2013. among qualifying National Major League season in 2015, after debuting for the Texas Rangers in 2005.
I saw the same thing. I’m wondering if it’s her first and middle name.
apostrophe question in basketball news section
“The teams arena…”
teams or team’s?
One team, so “team’s”
The whole sentence is on life support:
“…The teams arena consists of 1000 seats and as it’s uniforms is full of ads, notes Zak Ioannidis…”
The 49ers’ jersey against the Saints seem to be the warm-weather jerseys they had in those days. The game in that highlight was outdoors at New Orleans on artificial turf early in the season so the potential for hot weather was high. They also wore those for the 1973 opener at Miami, which also played on turf at that time. Other teams such as the Vikings and Bears had similar jerseys that did not have stripes and featured just numbers.
Never knew that.
Now, any idea why, when John Brodie is warming up at the 16:33 mark, there is an upright piano on the sideline?
Excellent colourising and brilliant research, Gary. Really well done!
Moving subjects, if any of you aren’t aware of the odious actions that led to the Blackpool protest yesterday then read this
link
Ditto, great work Gary!!
That Kansas HS player literally embodies everything wrong with baseball. The uniform – the chest logo, the armpit stripes, the camo – is just the start. The overdone eye black just takes it up a level or ten.
Coming from the 40 year old who probably never played a varsity sport in his life and has nothing better to do than bag on high school kids.
And this coming from the 19-year-old who probably never considered the study of uniform aesthetics until his local team’s jersey was criticized on UniWatch.
And high school players don’t normally design their own uniforms. So other than the eye black strangeness, nothing in that mess could reasonably be deemed the fault of the player. Unless I miss my guess, MJ’s negative response is directed at the adults responsible for the bad look, not at the kids on the field.
But please, tell us more about how you don’t Get Itâ„¢.
I’m on this site every day. I’m sorry I’m not a “uni troll” like you. And you’re wrong. We chose our jerseys but have no control over the pants. I’m sorry everyone in the world of high school sports is not as smart as you or as concerned with how we look. We play to win games not look cute.
My mistake.
But if you read this site regularly, then you know that evaluating sports uniforms is a daily thing here, regardless of the level of competition involved. Why would you take that as a personal affront?
No offense was directed at the players’ character, or at their on-field ability. The only sentiment expressed was a dislike of the outfits…which, again, is the entire idea behind this site.
“We play to win games not look cute.”
Then why do you care what we think about your jersey?
”Baketball”?
It’s a new cookery programme on TV
Fixed.
Two Rivers Trivia Answer:
Two Rivers is where the Dragon Reborn was raised. Also Two Rivers grows some of the finest tabac this side of the Spine of the World.
Was watching the IIHF game between Norway and the U.S. Noticed the iron-on ads on the front of the referees, so thin the stripes showed through. But worse as the Skoda logo on the U.S. Sweaters, just terrible.
Really like the white Raiders helmet.
I know what a White Orpington is and I love sports! I used to sell baby chicks, hence my inside knowledge.
Break out the Chanticleers and Wyandottes and lets get scratchin’!!
Awesome! I knew a Uni-Watcher would have knowledge of White Orpingtons.
sacrilegious and blasphemy. leave the raiders alone. forever. i only wish there was a raider concept amnesty day like the purple amnesty day regarding membership..
you could get them all out of your system for 24 hours. it would be the only day i wouldn”t visit all year.
I like the idea of adding a thin stripe to each side of the center stripe, but having a slogan printed on them just seems like a modern-day college gimmick.
Raiders helmet concepts look “badass” as the kids say, that organization needs to check these out.
But I agree with keeping the guy on the helmet wearing his original, kind of like how Pittsburgh still has the same Penguin but with new duds.
Direct link for that comic: link