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SportsLogos.net poobah Chris Creamer attended Tuesday night’s Mets/Jays game in Toronto and noticed that Mets outfielder Jose Bautista had something that looked an awful lot like a smart phone in the back-right pocket of his uniform pants. I’ve never heard of a player having his phone with him on the field (and I believe phones are specifically forbidden in the dugout). Hmmmm.
Speaking of the Mets, the addition of the American flag patch on the right sleeve prompted them to move their Rusty Staub memorial patch to the upper-left chest for the past two days:
The Mets will likely do the same thing with the Staub patch for the All-Star Game, although that will probably affect only one player, who will probably be pitcher Jacob deGrom.
I believe the Mets are the only team that retained their memorial or commemorative patch for the stars/stripes costumes. The Cardinals, for example, did not wear the Red Schoendienst memorial patch, and the A’s, Marlins, D-backs, Rockies, Giants, and Dodgers all scrapped their anniversary patches.
Interesting that the Mets went the extra mile while everyone else chose not to bother. But hey, the Mets have to lead the league in something other than bullpen implosions, and I guess patch attentiveness will have to suffice.
Other notes regarding the stars/stripes designs:
• As many readers noted, the Angels’ jerseys were particularly bad, because the letters and numbers were nearly illegible (click to enlarge; additional photos here):
• Umpire Chad Fairchild, who worked the plate in yesterday’s Yanks/Braves game, had a stars/stripes mask (click to enlarge):
• And speaking of the Yanks, Tuesday’s game marked the first time all season that skipper Aaron Boone wore a jersey, instead of a pullover.
(My thanks to Ryan Bower, Andrew Lavan, and Mike McLaughlin for their contributions to this section.)
Membership update: Four new designs have been added to the membership card gallery (including Erik Gamborg’s tequila sunrise treatment, shown at right). I expect to send the current sheet to the printer next Monday or Tuesday, and I currently have four slots open on that sheet, which means you’ll get your card very quickly if you sign up now.
Remember, a Uni Watch membership card entitles you to a 15% discount on any of the merchandise in our Teespring shop. (If you’re an existing member and would like to have the discount code, email me.) As always, you can sign up for your own custom-designed card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see how we produce the cards here.
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KRC update: The latest installment of Key Ring Chronicles is about a washer with the word “Pignose” imprinted on it. Check it out here.
Your chance to own a piece of Uni Watch HQ: I need to lighten my load prior to moving in with the Tugboat Captain later this summer, so I’ll be holding a stoop sale and open house sale on Saturday, July 21, commencing at 10am and continuing throughout the day. I’ll have a lot of stuff available for sale out in front of my house, and I’ll also be selling some stuff literally off the walls of my apartment.
I’ll be selling books (including a decent number of sports-related books), footballs, some kitchen-y stuff (including a really good ice cream maker), some hardware/tools-y stuff, the cat if she doesn’t stop mewling at 4am, lots of collectibles (and I mean real collectibles, not the crap that shows up at most yard sales), and a whole lot more. It’s gonna be epic, so mark your calendars.
The address is 671 DeGraw St. in Brooklyn. See you there/then.
The Ticker
By Alex Hider
Baseball News: The Nationals are holding “Cat-urday” on Saturday, but unlike their “Pups in the Park” day, the team is not allowing fans to bring their cats to the ballpark (WaPo link) (from Tom Turner). … Speaking of the Nats, these are the cleats that RF Bryce Harper wore for the July 4th holiday. … Ryan Braun celebrated the Fourth with these cleats (from Megan Brown). … The Reds launched their Fourth of July fireworks from a team-branded barge on the Ohio River. … Tigers P Michael Fulmer had a visitor on the mound last Friday: a butterfly (from Paul DeMay). … Devin Johnson spotted fans wearing Rockies/Avalanche frankenjerseys at Coors Field on Monday. … The Cubs gave away Hawaiian shirts before their game on Tuesday (from BSmile). … The logo in the Johnnie Walker ad at Yankee Stadium is carrying a baseball bat and a ball (from Tyler Johnson). … The Trenton Thunder, a Double-A affiliate of the Yankees, wore 1994 throwback jerseys and caps on June 30 (from John Cerone). …The Lakewood BlueClaws, the Class A affiliate of the Phillies, will play as the BruceClaws on July 28 for Bruce Springsteen appreciation night (also from John Cerone). … The Dayton Dragons, the Class A affiliate of the Reds, wore stars-and-stripes unis on Wednesday. … Same for the Lansing Lugnuts, the Class A affiliates of the Blue Jays. … The Buffalo Bisons, the Triple-A affiliates of the Jays, dressed up their field for Independence Day (from Chris Ostrander). … The Potomac Nationals will wear these jerseys for “Art in the Park” night on Saturday. … Marc Viquez found this advertisement for a contest to design the St. Paul Saints cap logo from the early ’90s. Great find! … A youth baseball team from Seabrook, Texas uses the old Houston Colt .45s logo (from Ignacio Salazar). … The Mariners recently had a streak of wearing six different uniforms over the course of six games: June 27 (road grey), June 28 (blue road alternate), June 29 (green alternate), June 30 (TATC), July 1 (cream throwback), and July 3 (stars/stripes) (from Tim Dunn).
Football News: The folks over at Pro Football Journal looked at the different shades of blue used for the Broncos helmets in 1976 and 1977. … The Montreal Alouettes will begin wearing the second of four helmet designs they’ll wear this season — the “French horn” logo — beginning on Friday. That means no more wing helmets (from Wade Heidt and Moe Khan). … Temple will unveil its new uniforms on July 12 (from @UntilTheNight). … Penn State dressed up the Beaver Stadium field for the July 4 holiday (from @PS977 and William F. Yurasko). … New number assignments for the Florida Gators (from Moe Khan). … We all know the Steelers don’t use front helmet numbers during preseason games. Turns out they also didn’t use them during 1987 strike games (great spot by Adam Prince).
Hockey News: Blues C Ryan O’Reilly will wear No. 90 with his new team, meaning RW Nikita Soshnikov needed to change numbers. He’ll now wear No. 86 (from Jake). … Cross-listed from the baseball section: Devin Johnson spotted fans wearing Avalanche/Rockies frankenjerseys at Denver’s Coors Field on Monday. … The Chicago Wolves have a page on their website dedicated to the evolution of their team logo (from Steve Johnston). … Disco Beaver from Outer Space was a National Lampoon movie that was released on HBO in 1978. During one scene from the movie, a vampire shows up at a “hockey game” — or a very campy version of a hockey game. The movie uses game footage of a Leafs/Islanders game, but one of the players interviewed after the game is wearing a Rangers jersey (from David Firestone). … Back in the early 2000s, the Milwaukee Bucks’ staff had their own beer league hockey team. Check out their logo (from @cooperjd88). … Monday’s Ticker had an item about the uniform numbers for new Penguins Matt Cullen and Jack Johnson. This article delves a little deeper into how they ended up with those numbers.
NBA News: In their story about Boogie Cousins signing with Golden State, The Daily Beast photoshopped Cousins into a reverse-imaged Warriors jersey (from Rob Krosley and Jim Bob). … The Jazz are hosting some Summer League games, and are getting some more use out of the alternate court (from Luke). … The Today Show used an Adidas-era Lakers jersey in a graphic about LeBron James on Tuesday (from Shawn Baker). … Looks like the Mavs will, in fact, add the appropriate accent marks to Luka Dončić’s NOB (from Everett Corder). … Cross-listed from the hockey section: Back in the early 2000s, the Bucks’ staff had their own beer league hockey team. Check out their logo (from @cooperjd88).
Soccer News: Croatia’s keeper has been honoring a late friend by wearing a shirt with his friend’s photo under his uniform (from Mark Coale). … This graphic gets into the chemical makeup of the World Cup balls, jerseys and more (from James Gilbert). … Another World Cup graphic; this one breaks down the cleat matchup between Tuesday’s England/Colombia matchup (from Josh Billman). … This may have been Ticked before, but Manchester United’s new jerseys have reportedly leaked (from Charles George). … Fleetwood Town of English League One released their new home kit on Tuesday (from Mark Gillingham). … Couple of kit releases from Josh Hinton: New home uniform for West Brom of the English Championship, and San Antonio FC of the USL’s new third jersey. … New away kits for Dundee FC of the Scottish Premiership (from Ed Zelaski). … New keeper kit for Wycombe Wanderers (from Gabriel Hurl). … New kits for the Scottish Premiership team Rangers (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … Watford’s away kit has leaked (from Josh Hinton).
Grab Bag: Here’s a listicle that ranks the “15 most patriotic jerseys” (from Phil). … Also from Phil: Here’s a good video that explains the meaning behind the jersey colors at the Tour de France. … Want a super extensive ranking of Wisconsin sports logos? You got it (from Joe Westphal). … Wimbledon still insists on referring to female players by their marital status (NYT link).
The Blue Jays had the best uniform worn for the July 3 games, due to them wearing their regular uniform and rocking the white front panel caps.
link
Official Fireworks barge of (the) Cincinnati Reds…guess they forgot the “the”
I believe the object in Bautista’s back pocket was a cheat-sheet of sorts, likely defensive hints. TV close-up of him in the outfield during Tuesday’s game showed him looking at it between pitches/batters. Can’t recall how large it was though..! ♂️
Came here to post this as my guess as well. I don’t have proof, but that’s where my mind initially went a la golfers with course notebooks in their back pockets.
I would agree it is this. Been watching Jesse Winker in the OF for Cincinnati this year, and he’s been going to his card a lot in his back pocket.
That Bucks beer league logo is terrific! That and the Steeler’s helmet number are great finds.
Looking at that picture of the Dončić uniform, only thing that comes to mind is how bland those Mavericks uniforms are.
That, and the inevitable appearance of an insipid “Luka Dončić’s name, EXPLAINED” click-bait video.
Whoever did the edit for those Blues jerseys for that Twitter post put a really odd-looking 86 on Soshnikov’s jersey.
Ah, the 4th of July – If you aren’t lock step in line with exploiting the flag on anything and everything, someone is bound to accuse you of being un-American or even someone who hates our country/military… Happened to me yesterday. A co-worker was literally wearing the American Flag in shirt form and I made a very NOT SERIOUS but funny jab (and a nod to Evel Knieval) that he was going to jump a line of buses on a motorcycle later in the day. He snapped back that I was probably one of “those” un-American types who voted for that liberal “you know who” – It got political THAT FAST. Here he is, desecrating the flag/breaking flag code by wearing it as a garment and I’m the un-American.
Ignorance rules this country. Happy 5th of July!
Ignorance is comedy (not talking about your line to your co-worker).
Funny or not, I was just cutting up since we were both at work on a holiday. (I chose to wear a plain blue polo) and he’s dressed like Apollo Creed in Rocky. (which is the line I now wish I went with) – Somehow I was the un-American yesterday.
I’m with you pal. The flag code isn’t difficult. Don’t wear it as clothing.
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On it.
“West Brom of the EPL”
They were relegated, so it should be “English Championship” instead of EPL.
Also, Dundee’s new second kit is blue, but they already wear (dark) blue in a league where three of the remaining 11 teams also wear blue. Looks a bit useless.
Actually, I applaud the Angels for choosing their red jerseys for the holiday jersey crapfest. If your jersey is going to look like crap anyway, why not go all out? So the letters and numbers were illegible. How are those any different than the other jerseys? They all have legibility issues.
Here’s a prime example of how dumb all of the holiday jerseys are. Normally, the Dodgers have red front numbers on their jerseys. For their July 4-ish (cause, hey, why not wear them on July 2 and 3, too, right?) jerseys, the front numbers were blue. I thought red was a color of the American flag, but I guess I was wrong.
So are we done for the year? No more special occasion league wide uniforms?
Players Weekend.
Well, crap.
Just throwing this out there…
I went to the orioles game on Saturday and got an Orioles Hawaiian shirt in a size XL! I would love to get one of the Cubs Hawaiian shirts in an XL if any one would want to trade!
Nice to see Penn [State] installing soccer-style dugouts (the blue things along the sidelines) in their football stadium, but how long until someone hits their head on the roof coming onto the field?
I don’t think those are the roofs of dugouts. They might be storage boxes for equipment.
Those Trenton Thunder jerseys are *not* 1994 throwbacks. The hat is correct for the era.
Here’s what they wore in 1994:
link
Friday night will see the “French Horn” adorning the side of a Montreal Alouettes helmet for the first time since 1973. Briefly worn from 1970 to 1973 during the Als’ short foray in green and red uniforms:
link
It is an abstract rendition of a skylark’s head but does kind of remind people of a French horn instrument. I concur with a statement a read about it, the “French Horn” blows.
I will always be on board with an Alouettes uniforms redesign. Until this season, I would have said bring back the vintage blue uniforms and logo from the late 1970s.
However, that has changed a bit after seeing the return of the classic red wings on the helmet for the first few games this season. Saw them live and up close during their visit to Vancouver. The red wings looked sweet and would work again as their permanent helmet with a modern, fixed rendition of an Alouettes uniform.
link
“Briefly worn from 1970 to 1973 during the Als’ short foray in green and red uniforms”
Great photo. Alouettes president / CFL Commissioner / Senator Larry Smith in pre-renovation Exhibition Stadium.
Those Trenton Thunder jerseys are *not* 1994 throwbacks. It has the correct wordmark, but they never wore that thing pictured. The hat is period-correct, though.
Here’s what they wore in 1994:
link
Hey, Penn State — nice try, but your flag has 14 stripes: 7 “white” and 7 “red”.
Nice catch!
Hey Paul – any chance you’d go through the hassle of eBay (or similar) to sell some of your stuff? I’d bet that I’m not the only reader who would be interested to see what’s up for grabs and possibly pay a premium for the Uni-Watch provenance but I’m about 500 miles away.
I hear ya, and I appreciate the interest! But I’m hoping to avoid that, because I don’t want to deal with packing and shipping a bunch of individual items during what will already be a stressful time period. Definitely want as many things as possible to be cash-and-carry. But we’ll see what’s left after the sale on the 21st — stay tuned.
If you know someone here in NYC, send that person as your purchasing agent!
I believe the phone-like thing in Jose Bautista’s pocket is a shift card.
Those ‘Lanche/Rockies Frankenjerseys are particularly bad because they’re not even typical mirror-image ones… were 4 jerseys wrecked for this???!!
Those Avs/Rockies Frankenjerseys are the same ones that have been around for the last 10-15 years (Patrick Roy/Larry Walker) #33. The name type fonting on them (both team name and player name on back) has always been wrong and they’re absolute garbage-looking. In keeping with Denver tradition, (ie vertically striped socks), all these “Royker” jerseys should be rounded up and publicly burned/sacrificed in a bonfire.
They’re probably fairly old -I’ve seen them before. The gag is that Patrick Roy and Larry Walker both wore #33, and taking Roy’s entire NOB and LKER from Walker is pronounced “walker.” The uncentered ROY makes me think this was a giveaway, and didn’t actually come from 4 jerseys.
They were sold in stores……used to work with a guy that bought one. It was ridiculous-looking even way back then.
“You’ve ruined a perfectly good jacket.” – Marge Simpson “Ah, incorrect Marge, two perfectly good jackets.” – Homer …
If there’s one good thing about these July 4th jerseys, it’s that NOB teams have the names in one layer, which makes the number pop put more and looks much better on players with long names.
Boogie Cousins is a center, not a guard.
I’m waiting to find out how many “early birds” you get for your garage sale. I have a feeling it’s going to be epic, to say the least. Would love to get a crack at what you have available but you won’t have any problem moving it on the 21st. Best of luck!
I’m thinking of imposing an early-bird surcharge. If you show up before the official start time, everything is marked up 20% for you!
the Angels’ jerseys were particularly bad, because the letters and numbers were nearly illegible
Their regular red-on-red jerseys aren’t very legible either. Really wish they’d scrap those.
And although I’m fond of my country I can’t stand the stars & stripes unis. Really glad I don’t continue the July 4th tradition of my childhood where we went to a ballgame. I couldn’t sit through nine innings of such tackiness.
Can’t stand any of the other “special” unis for that matter.
One white, one gray, one team-color alt. That is it.
Ditch the gray and have only white and color! (And a throwback for us NNOB/tradition partisans.)
Sorry…to clarify, any jersey of mine would be NNOB. I shouldn’t have assumed that…
“The Nationals are holding “Cat-urday” on Saturday, but unlike their “Pups in the Park” day, the team is not allowing fans to bring their cats to the ballpark (WaPo link).”
I can not help but wonder if this will lead to some sort of litigation.
Cat owners are not a protected class.
What a bunch of gussies.
(mirror the first letter to see what I mean ….)
I agree that does seem really unfair!
What is even more distressing is the shirts have 09 as the number instead of 9. Seriously?
They have no retired numbers in DC and 9 was not retired in Montreal either.
Didn’t see it mentioned here, but the Phillies July 4th jerseys and pants were plain white, a color they don’t wear. The home alternate is a cream. Also, the neck and collar trim was plain red, instead of blue/red/blue.
You’re correct about the collar trim being red, but the jerseys were most definitely cream and not white.
Maybe it’s just me, but the MTL Alouettes “French horn” logo looks a little like Donald Trump in profile.
Proofreading:
lots of collectibles (snd I mean real collectibles
Somebody up at Penn State needs to count the stripes on the US flag again.