Mets centerfielder Juan Lagares hit what turned out to be the game-winning three-run homer in the sixth inning of yesterday’s game against the Braves. As you can see in the video above (if it’s not embedding properly for you, look here), after Lagares crossed home plate he was greeted by teammate Curtis Granderson, who’d been on base, and Granderson made a big show of pointing to the orange wristband on Lagares’s left arm. He did it again when they were back in the dugout.
As it turns out, that’s because Lagares has started wearing one of those “Say No to Drugs”-style bands featuring his own likness. Here are some close-ups (click to enlarge):
It doesn’t really look much like Lagares, but that’s part of the charm of these things, right? According to this NJ.com item, “[The wristbands] work for him. He began wearing them recently and has gone on a hot streak since. His teammates say it’s the cause of his success. His performance Sunday — 3-for-5 with a go-ahead three-run home run — certainly won’t make him stop.”
(Big thanks to Eli Ganias and @SheaDugout for bringing this one to my attention, and to Mike Peters and Mark Carig for the close-up photos.)
One last time ”” calling all “Collect ’em all”-ers: In case you missed it last week, I’m taking a show of hands to see how many of you have purchased all seven of the UnI Watch T-Shirt Club’s designs so far. Knowing how many people are eligible for the year-end prize will help me determine what the prize will be. So if you’ve collected ’em all so far (and didn’t already check in last week), please use this link to shoot me a note. Thanks.
Membership update: I put a batch of membership cards in the mail on Saturday (including Mike O’Connor’s early-2000s Blue Jays treatment, shown at right), so recent enrollees should watch their mailboxes. This makes us fully caught up on membership orders.
As always, you can order your own custom-designed membership card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see how we make the cards here.
Father’s Day reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, Phil has put out the call for pictures of your dads and/or granddads in uniform (any uniform, whether it be sports, military, delivery, etc.), which he’ll as a Father’s Day feature this Sunday. Further details here. Email your photos, along with short descriptions (50 to 100 words) to Phil.Hecken@gmail.com by this Thursday, midnight Eastern.
In a related item, reader Kelly Levy is searching for photos of her dad, Harold Levy (although he sometimes went by Edward, his middle name), who was an all-city basketball player in NYC around 1956-58 and also briefly played for St. John’s and for a Rheingold brewery team. Harold passed away earlier this month and Kelly can’t find any photos of him in uniform. If anyone can help, contact Kelly here.
Boston Beefsteak reminder: For you carnivorous folks in Beantown, the Brooklyn Beefsteak is coming to Boston this Saturday, June 20, with two seatings — 1pm and 5pm — at the Cambridge Masonic Hall in Porter Square. Further info and tickets are available here.
Baseball News: I think we’ve seen this before, but once more won’t hurt: Check out this video footage from a 1977 Royals/Brewers game in Milwaukee in which the Royals had to wear Brewers road uniforms because their own unis had been stolen (from Kevin Clark). ”¦ I like the double-striped turtleneck collar in this old shot of Eddie Murray (from Tyler Kepner). ”¦ Yonder Alonso of the Padres was moved from first base to third base the other day and wore one of his brother-in-law Manny Machado’s gloves (from Andrew Cosentino). ”¦ The Red Sox put their helmet numbers on the side without the earflap. ”¦ The San Diego GOP gave presidential candidate Rand Paul a FNOB Padres jersey (from Stephen Scheffel). ”¦ An American pitcher playing in Korea has been fined for wearing a wrong-colored undershirt (from @MyKBO).
Pro and High School Football News: Not sure I’ve ever heard of an athlete saying he doesn’t want his number to be retired, but that’s the case in Dallas, where former Cowboys star Michael Irvin wants his No. 88 to stay in circulation (thanks, Phil). ”¦ The Packers played a charity softball game with pinstriped jerseys yesterday. Lots of photos here (from Nick Haering). … Here’s a ranking of the high school football uniforms in the Mineral Wells, Texas region.
Hockey News: Never seen this early Lightning wordmark before. Reminds me a bit of the old Zenith logo. ”¦ Whoa, check out the Caps player in the background of this photo — looks like he’s wearing a lacrosse helmet/mask! Anyone know who that was? (Good find by Steven Schapansky.) ”¦ Chris Creamer has created a sensational infographic showing the jersey worn by each Stanley Cup-winning team. Several great little nuances in the design, but I’ll let you discover those for yourself. Chris says he wants to make this into a poster, and he should definitely do that.
NBA News: Reader Jeff Sorensen was at a Salt Lake Bees minor league baseball game the other day and spotted someone wearing a 1990s-style Jazz jersey with the famous Hot Rod Hundley saying, “Gotta love it baby!,” as the NOB.
Grab Bag: I don’t usually get too worked up about what rock bands wear, but on Friday night I saw Ex Hex, who made my favorite album of 2014, and the onstage attire offered a lot to like. Bassist Betsy Wright wore a denim jumpsuit, fishnets, and Chucks, while frontwoman Mary Timony had a gorgeous vintage sequined sweater, which turned out to be two great tastes that taste great together. ”¦ Remember our discussion of bread clips vs. twist ties, which I later wrote about for Bloomberg BusinessWeek? A brewpub in Seattle is currently featuring what appears to be bread clip artwork (from Korey Traynor). ”¦ Jeb Bush, who’s expected to officially announce his White House bid today, released his new campaign logo yesterday. ”¦ I’ve occasionally seen players in various sports wearing uni-numbered socks, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player wearing one numeral on one sock and the other numeral on the other. That’s WR Stefanie Engels of the New York Sharks, a women’s semipro football team. As you can see, her teammates have their own ideas about hosiery (from David Dyte). ”¦ Love this old label design for Touchdown Brand lemons, with a lemon substituted for a football (big thanks to Daniel Klempner). ”¦ Yesterday was Flag Day, so The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article about the use of the flag on sports uniforms. ”¦ Good article about French female Muslim soccer players wearing hijabs (from Mark Coale). ”¦ Cyprus Airways is defunct, but its logo and trademarks are now up for sale. ”¦ Lovelovelove this chart showing different kinds of screws (big thanks to @Univers47). Interesting NOB font for the Serbian U20 soccer team.
The Pirates wanted to retire Pie Traynor’s 20, but he wasn’t willing, so Richie Hebner wore it until Traynor died in early 1972, then switched from 20 to 3.
Jim Loscutoff of the Celtics didn’t want to retire his either. They kept it in circulation and when they retired it for Dave Cowens they honored Loscutoff by adding LOSCY to the retired number banner. I can’t think of anyone who wore a number (executives* and guys who played before numbers don’t count) who had his name retired.
*For the record I’m opposed to “symbolic” number retirement, like the Celtics retiring 1 and 2 for Walter Brown and Red Auerbach.
Good for Juan Lagares. Nice to see him promoting a positive message in a fun way. I think so many athletes forget that they are role models whether they embrace that or not.
What positive message?
“What positive message?”
~~~
Why, “Keep GOD First” of course.
Yeah, like I said.
I don’t see “look at me and how religious I am” as a Positive Message(TM). He’s more subtle than Tim Tebow though, so I guess there’s that.
I don’t think he’s saying “Look at me and how religious I am.” It’s a fairly subtle message.
His mind is not for rent…but perhaps his wristband is.
(In a fairly subtle way.)
Man Rush is all over this place these days.
It was a great Rush show in Chicago on Saturday!
Nice to see the MJ statue decked out in a Blackhawks sweater!
Good article about that show, Dave. It’s a shame they skipped those ’80s albums, though; you’d think that “Marathon” would have found its way into a set like that, at least.
As for Lagares’ wristband, this may be pretty much nothing. Maybe more information about it will become available in time.
Thanks, Uni Troll! I know they’ve played a lot of the ’80s stuff on recent tours. But I was really hoping for something. But they did play a lot of stuff not heard in decades. Overall, I loved it.
Now, in a uniform sense, would have been cool for them to break out the kimonos for 2112!
Nice to see a roadie in a Hawks sweater on stage at one point!
Without going into other issues… he’s pointing at a picture of himself. If that’s not “look at me”, what is? It’s only subtle because it’s small.
I’m not finding any additional information on the net concerning this patch. Are we sure that it has anything to do with drugs?
The text just says, “Keep God First.”
Ok, apparently I misread the description.
“…Lagares has started wearing a one of those ‘Say No to Drugs’-style bands…”
It should probably be “wearing one of those,” though.
Maybe God gets first crack at the drugs?
I’m with you. I like everything about his wristband, especially the message.
How is Lagares “keeping God first” if it’s his own likeness that appears above the admonition on his wristband?
Juan Legares is God???
You never see them together.
There are a bunch of those wristbands going around baseball.
link
Khris Davis wore one earlier in the year: link
I would add “playing a Gibson SG Bass” to Betsy’s list. I don’t see enough of those.
Cool bass, but because most of them are short scale you don’t see many people using them. I think they did make a 34″ scale version, but it would probably be too neck heavy to be practical.
Gibson has an unfortunate history with basses. For whatever reason, they’ve never produced a model that you could say much more about than “mildly well regarded,” and they’ve made some outright lemons (the semi-solid EB-2). Hard to figure why they’ve so consistently conceded the field to Fender over the years.
They are locked into their history. All of the old designs aren’t very good, but no one wants a new design like the Modern EB basses from a year or so ago. The Thunderbird is probably their most popular, but limited to the rock market.
True. When sized up to bass-guitar dimensions, most of Gibson’s signature guitar designs are either a) awkward, or b) too damned heavy.
Thank you Michal Irvin for saying you don’t want your number retired, even if it is for Michael Irvin related reasons.
Number retirements are out of control and sooner or later teams (hello, Chicago Bears) run out of numbers to retire.
Put up a Ring of Honor and let the numbers live on. Let a new player try to live up to a legend’s number, like Irvin says Bryant is attempting to do.
I agree. As I’ve said many times, I prefer the Toronto Maple Leafs system of honoring (okay, honouring) numbers rather than retire them. The only two that are retired have tragedies associated with them, and even one of those (6) was back in circulation for a while when the original owner, Ace Bailey, wanted Ron Ellis to wear it.
I’ve seen a lot of those number-socks in the basketball league I work for. It gets even more interesting for the kids with single digits. If a player was #5; his socks would read “|0| |5|”.
Fine finishing flurry this morning:
“…Lovelovelove this chart showing different kinds of screws (big thanks to @Univers47)…”
Thanks, Paul (and Univers). I love it too. Why? What makes for its wonderfulness?
” Int(e)resting NOB font for the Serbian U20 soccer team…”
There’s a lot a political / historical narrative embedded in that quasi-Cyrillification of a player’s name spelled in the Latin alphabet. Pan-Slavism lives!
The black turtleneck with the double orange ring was fairly typical attire for Orioles players in that era. E.g.:
link
link
OK, maybe this one will work better
link
Those turtleneck were worn from at least the 60s through the 80s.
1964 Topps
link
1986 Topps
link
Esposito is posing with a billboard that popped up before they were officially awarded the franchise. I remember seeing it on the expressway outside town.
Paul, you’re gonna kick yourself on the brain cramp. Jim Loscutoff wanted the Boston Celtics to keep his #18 in circulation, so they did, and retired it for Dave Cowens later down the road. That’s why “Loscy” is in the rafters.
I hope the Cowboys retire Drew Pearson’s number.
Chicago Tribune had a very cool interactive graphics piece today showing the change Blachawks’ goalie attire/equipment over the years
link
NBA Finals research question. The Cavs have worn their yellow uniforms at home in Games 3 and 4, which means if they don’t wear white in Game 6 they will not have worn white at all in the series. Other than the Lakers (for obvious reasons), has any team ever gone an entire NBA Finals without wearing white? I cannot think of any off the top of my head, but I could be wrong.
Looking at the list of NBA finals matchups and cross-referencing with sportlogos.net, it looks like Golden State Warriors did it in 1975, for the same reason as the Lakers – having no white jersey. As far as teams having a white jersey and wearing an alternate instead… I think Cleveland would be the first.
RIP Garnet “Ace” Bailey. I know the Kings miss you.
Thought this might be more appropriate here, instead of in tomorrow’s ticker:
Mikey Brethauer has an link for that early Lightning wordmark.
The Jeb! logo is the D-Backs home script of the 2016 presidential election. When you try so conspicuously to avoid saying a word, you just wind up reminding people of the word you don’t want them to think of. Also, punctuation where you don’t usually see punctuation. (Presidential campaign logo, baseball jersey.)
I think we’ve seen this before, but once more won’t hurt: Check out this video footage from a 1977 Royals/Brewers game in Milwaukee in which the Royals had to wear Brewers road uniforms because their own unis had been stolen (from Kevin Clark).
Not usually one to toot my own horn, but we have seen it before: link
i had never noticed this before, but i was watching that TWIB link today fromm 77, and the very last image in the closing credits before the mlb logo and the last note buuuuuuum shows an astros player wearing the one and done 1976 tequila sunrups. not eggsaladly mind blowing or anything, but most of us didn’t even know they existed 5 years ago, yet it was right there all the time. TWIB shows the way again.
How About That!
Cabs need to seriously consider wearing their good looking road jerseys instead of their ugly alts if they manage to force a game 7. They are offending the uni gods which the ugliness.
Since I know we’re always keen on color vs. color contests, here’s one that was always a possibility for a couple of seasons in the 70s but I never saw, but video proof it happened, courtesy of Paul linking to a TWIB episode that made me binge watch TWIB. From 1977, Baltimore vs. Cleveland, orange vs. red – at about the 4 minute mark
link
The Tampa Bay Lightning wordmark reminds me of the Johnny Lightning cars I had as a kid (and later the reissues and an overgrown adult kid) … It was also the logo on Al Unser’s Indy 500-winning cars in ’70-71 …
Just watched MLB tonight. Can someone please break into the Mets Clubhouse and burn those ugly camo uniforms?