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Quick, who’s that running back? The blue-ish jersey with the white helmet, the No. 39, the U-bar nose protector, the ball cradled in the left arm — looks a lot like Larry Csonka, no?
It’s actually University of Arizona fullback Dean Schock. The photo is from a 1975 game against Utah (the Wildcats won, 38-14). Csonka was still active at that time, of course — he spent 1975 with the WFL’s Memphis Southmen but had become a star with the Dolphins over the seven previous seasons — so it’s entirely possible the Schock was a Csonka fan and adopted Csonka’s number and facemask style as a tribute. “Schock” and “Csonk” even sound similar!
That photo is part of a good slideshow from that game that reader Calvin Farris recently came across. He was interested in some other uni-notable details from the photos, but it was the Schock photo that really stopped me in my tracks. A Csonka-like lookalike!
And what were the other uni details that Calvin noticed? One at a time:
• As you can see in the Schock photo, the Arizona had a front helmet logo at the time, in addition to their wavy “UA” logo on the side. Here are some additional shots that show both logos pretty well:
• If you look at the two color photos I’ve posted so far, you can see that some Arizona players had blue facemasks and some had grey.
• Arizona had SNOB (school name on back):
• As you can see in the photos, Arizona’s jerseys had no TV numbers.
• I don’t know who this is, but it’s a hell of a photo:
———
I confess that I was not familiar with that “UA” logo until now. Looks more like “VA” to me! According to Blaise D’Sylva’s Helmet History site, it was worn in various forms from 1972 through 1976. The wavy letterforms feel almost aquatic, which seems like such an odd fit for a place like Arizona. Does anyone know more about the story of this logo? (Update: Several readers have pointed out that the logo looks like a cattle brand, which makes sense. That probably explains it!)
(Big thanks to Calvin Farris for sharing this unusually fruitful slideshow.)
Unwritten rules, continued: Yesterday’s post about baseball’s unwritten rules prompted lots of really interesting discussion. My thanks to everyone who participated!
One thing that a few people mentioned, and that I’ve also heard in other discussions about bat flips, choreographed celebrations, and so on, is this: “Athletes are entertainers, so let them entertain.”
Now, it’s true that sports are part of the entertainment industry, so the statement “Athletes are entertainers” seems straightforward enough. But it’s actually a lot more complicated than it seems. Here’s why:
• Unlike most entertainers, athletes are part of a team. That’s why they wear those uniforms that we obsess over. That’s why something like bat flipping creates the tension between the individual and the collective that’s at the heart of the “unwritten rules” debate.
• For most sports fans, competition and athletic excellence are inherently entertaining. That’s why we consider sports to be part of the entertainment industry — because people enjoy watching top-level athletes compete, with or without the bat flip. A great catch by an outfielder or wide receiver is entertaining, regardless of whether the player celebrates afterward. In fact, sometimes even the attempt at a great play is entertaining, and the heartbreak when the attempt comes up just a little bit short is part of the drama that we find entertaining.
• It seems to me that things like bat flipping are more about attention that entertainment. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive — some fans certainly find attention-getting behavior to be entertaining — but they’re not quite the same thing. Consider: Hitting a home run is entertainment; flipping your bat afterward is for attention. As it happens, attention is a commodity that translates extremely well to the internet in general and social media in particular. There’s even a term for the market in which we compete for attention: the attention economy. There’s a really good essay about that here — highly recommended.
I don’t mean any of this as an argument for or against bat flipping. I’m just trying to add some depth and nuance to the seemingly simple statement “Athletes are entertainers.” Thanks for listening.
Country Joe and the mesh: MLB umpire Joe West is famous for many things: his side career as a country music recording artist; the West Vest; covid denialism. And after working the plate for last night’s Cardinals/White Sox game, he now holds the all-time record for umping the most MLB games.
But I had never seen this photo of West in a football uniform until longtime reader James Gilbert brought it to my attention last night. Turns out West played quarterback for Elon College in the early 1970s. Here are some game shots:
Interesting! Makes me wonder what other pics there may be of officials in one sport wearing uniforms from another sport.
(Big thanks to James Gilbert for this one.)
Click to enlarge
Happy Birthday to Uni Watch: It was 22 years ago today — May 26, 1999 — that the very first Uni Watch column appeared in the pages of The Village Voice. It was what we now think of as the annual MLB “season preview” column, even though it appeared in late May. If you had told me at the time that Uni Watch would still be going strong more than two decades later, I’m sure I would have laughed.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait a minute, didn’t we just celebrate a different Uni Watch anniversary?,” you’re right. Nine days ago — May 17 — was the 15th anniversary of this blog (which was conceived as a supplement to the Uni Watch column but has since taken on a larger life of its own). Since the two dates are just nine days apart, there’s often a bit of confusion each year around this time. In retrospect, I should have launched the blog on May 26 so the two anniversary dates would match, but that didn’t occur to me at the time.
As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past couple of weeks, longtime reader Jason Von Stein is celebrating the uni-versary today by organizing a very special event. I’ll let him explain:
Hello, Uni-verse!
I love Uni Watch because it brings people together, no matter what uniform they wear or root for. Uni Watch also celebrates the arts. So please join us for a free celebration today, as a bunch of wonderful musical performers celebrate Uni Watch’s 22nd anniversary and also raise money for worthy charities.
The event will be live-streaming on this Facebook page. Here’s the schedule of who’ll be performing, and the charities they’ll be supporting [click to enlarge]:
The performers will be live-streaming from their homes on the event page. You’ll know who is currently performing by the red “Live” box appearing in the upper-right corner of the screen, and you’ll be encouraged (but not required, of course) to donate to that performer’s charity.
We will also be having “Stupid Sports Trivia” between performers, with prizes courtesy of Ebbets Field Flannels, Asgard Press, and others.
Feel free to interact with us during the event and tell us what Uni Watch means to you. If you like, we encourage you to wear your favorite uniform and post photos of yourself on the event page! The person whose photo has the most “Likes” will win a Uni Watch prize package that Paul has provided, featuring a Uni Watch koozy, trading card, magnet, and membership card.
We hope you’ll join us to celebrate 22 years of Uni Watch, to enjoy lots of great musical performances, and to support lots of worthy causes. Thanks!
Isn’t that nice? I’ve had nothing to do with the planning of this event, so Jason deserves every last bit of credit for putting it together. Thanks, Jason!
The Ticker
By Lloyd Alaban
Baseball News: Cleveland P Zach Plesac somehow managed to fracture his thumb while taking off his jersey (from multiple readers). … Someone on the App State team has his pants hiked up so high that they’re basically shorts (from Cole Paveglio). … New jerseys for the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League (from David Petroff). … The Eau Claire Express, also from the Northwoods League, were going to celebrate their “Sweet 16” ordinal last year for their 16th season. Since the season was canceled, they now have an updated “Sweet 16” logo for 2021, which celebrates both the ordinal (16 seasons of the Express) and anniversary (16 years since their debut) (from Lukas Hoffland). … The summer softball league for NCAA players now has a mascot. It had no mascot for its first full summer last year (from Griffin T. Smith). … New Era launched a new line of ridiculous MLB fashion caps yesterday. Reaction on social media was so harsh that the line was quickly pulled.
NFL News: New numbers for Ravens LBs LJ Fort (No. 3) and Patrick Queen (No. 6) (from Andrew Cosentino). … Patriots LB Matt Judon will wear No. 9 (from our own Brinke Guthrie). … The combination of KC’s blank nose bumpers and the Vicis Zero1 helmet’s large bumper panel has left QB Patrick Mahomes with a big white rectangle on his forehead for the past several years. But he’s been working out with the new Vicis Zero2, which has a much less prominent bumper panel (from multiple readers). … The 49ers are now using padded practice helmets (from @KD_JuanZo).
Basketball News: Jordan Brand will release a shoe dedicated to Michael Jordan’s late UNC coach Dean Smith (from James Gilbert).
Soccer News: Players for French side RC Lens received miners’ lamps after their season in Ligue 1 (from Kim Kolb). … This article looks at the effect of a possible ban on gambling ads in the UK and asks whether some clubs could go bankrupt because of it (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … New shirts for USL Championship side Sacramento Republic FC. The design is based on a 2016 April Fool’s joke that took on a life of its own. … New shirts for Turkish side Trabzonspor (from Michael, who didn’t give his last name).
Grab Bag: The New England Free Jacks of Major League Rugby will wear military appreciation-themed jerseys for their match Saturday (from Sy Hart). … New logo for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (from @MMMMBLT).
I’ll always remember getting my copy of the Voice at my fave newsstand and seeing your first column. Happy Anniversary!!
Rather than aquatic, the ‘VA’ logo has a cattle brand/ranching feel to me. Which lines up with the cowboy/dessert/west theme of the region.
Ah, good call — I hadn’t thought of it in that context, but of course you’re right!
Wow, that Csonka look-a-like photo is great. And the UA logo seems pure 70s. What a wonderful find. One of the fine charms of Uni Watch.
Re: bat flipping and the attention economy. Good article. I think after the last 10 years we can all see the problems and dangers when people become famous just because they get attention, and then fame is turned into a virtue and qualification in of itself, regardless of why the person is famous.
In the end I’d rather be recognized or not recognized for the work I did and what I contributed, not for making a spectacle out of myself whenever I had the opportunity to.
As a European, I grew up watching players celebrate, sometimes a little too much. I always saw it as harmless fun, part of the game. I agree that people should hussle for second instead of sitting there admiring a home-run what turns out to be a single. Happens in rugby too (my favourite sport), like when a player slows down as he approaches the try line, so he can show off a little, and gets tackled mercilessly. And that’s also fun, he just feels like an idiot for a minute or two. I’ve seen plenty of proper football players (my least favourite sport, after handball) roll around on the floor faking injuries and whatnot but i never saw a player go and hit another player for daring to show emotion. Are they ten? The word “snowflakes”, charged as it might be, comes to mind.
Honored to share a birthday with Uni Watch. Happy day, Paul!
Happy birthday to you!!
Happy anniversary, Paul!
A quibble on the “entertainer” issue – most entertainers are part of a team. Whether it’s a cast, a troupe, a crew, a staff, a room, most entertainers work collaboratively. Even auteur moviemakers kind of need a cast of actors to create their art. Novelists come pretty close to working solo, as do standup comedians, and some magicians. Now, it’s true that most of the entertainment “teams” I’ve identified engage in scripted performance, so there’s a difference with sports. Most theatrical entertainment doesn’t depend on the outcome being uncertain, as sports does. So perhaps the closest analog to a sports team is a comedy improv troupe. Improv is not a game, and so doesn’t have a written rule set as such, but it does operate with a surprisingly robust set of unwritten rules. The apparent spontaneity of improv arises because of, not despite, its structured foundation. Which I think is also true of sports. It’s not that anything can happen, but within a well designed rule set, the things that can happen tend to be dramatic and exciting. And I hadn’t really thought of the question of judging “unwritten rules” on the basis of whether they contribute to or detract from the structural favoring of exciting or entertaining action on the field. “Don’t swing on a 3-0 count” could maybe go either way on this criterion. Swing, and you probably put the ball in play, which is exciting and entertaining, even if you hit into an out. Take, and you maybe get a walk (not exciting) which puts more men on base and raises the stakes of subsequent at-bats and ball-in-play circumstances (exciting). Take and watch a strike, and now the count is 3-1 and you’re back in a tense pitcher-batter duel (entertaining, though frequently not exciting).
Thoughtful reply, sir.
I, too, thought the “entertainers are mostly individuals” thing was somewhat in error. You referred to moviemakers; even TV shows require a cast and crew. Truly individual entertainers, to me, seem rare, especially when at the highest levels of entertainment. Taylor Swift may be a brand unto herself, especially as a singer-songwriter, but she has a cadre of stylists, managers, stagehands, etc.
I will say this, though: In a game where the outcome is virtually decided, like the one where Mercedes hit the homer off Astudillo, there’s very little entertainment value left. One team has basically already conceded defeat. Baseball does not, and would never (maybe?), implement a mercy rule, both for the integrity of the game’s stats and the fact that you can still sell scoreboard ads and souvenirs when the score is 14-1. The ultimate goal of entertainment is to make people happier than they were before taking part in it. By this point, what will make most people who are still in the building happy is just getting the game over with. Mercedes’ action elongated the game uselessly, which did not make this particular game any better. It was the rare occasion when a home run did not make things any more exciting or better.
Typo in the second graf – “Csnok”
Thanks. Already fixed!
Regarding pictures of officials wearing other sports uniforms as players: In Ron Luciano’s book “The Umpire Strikes Back”, there is a picture of him in a football uniform from his high school days. There is also a picture of him wearing Yankees apparel that was provided by the team when his luggage got lost and he didn’t have his umpire uniform. I used to have a copy of the book, but I’m not sure where it is now. Maybe some other reader has a copy, and can share pictures?
Not much needs to be said about the New Era “Local Market” caps, but I was wondering if anyone had any insight into why the Pirates’ version of the cap was the only one missing local area codes to the left of the front logo. There is a local clothing brand called “412”, but Pittsburgh can’t be the only city with a local brand named after an area code, right?
I’m guessing they didn’t want to get C&D from Shop 412 who apparently has a trademark on that. Because when Pitt football rebranded, they slapped 412 on the visor for the helmets and even though it was rendered in the proprietary number font Nike & Pitt designed, they had to scrap it.
Cheers. Didn’t know the background on the Pitt football stuff. Blows my mind that you could put together a strong enough TM on an area code to keep references to the area code off other sports-related merchandise…
Those mlb area code fashion caps are so brutal. Particularly if, like me, you don’t like ancillary patches/images on caps. MILB had/has a line of legacy caps that are mostly gorgeous hats but they have some sort of commemorative logo on the side and that completely ruins the hat for me. And here new era seems to have taken that idea and increased the quantity of images while reducing the quality and relevancy of the images, and really put minimal thought into aesthetically pleasing placement.
These things are a nightmare for those of us who appreciate good design.
Seeing all these NFL number changes makes me wonder what will happen if there are no 1–19s available for a QB. QBs will look silly in 20+. Are there any provisions being taken to ensure some lower digit numbers are left available for QBs?
QBs are only permitted to wear 1 thru 19.
1-19 (or 0-19 / 00-19) is going to be crowded in a hurry with the QBs, skill positions and others vying for them.
Correct. My question is about how teams will set aside lower numbers to ensure a QB gets them. Are they required to set aside 5 digits under #20 for QBs?
“QBs will look silly in 20+.”
I have 0 problem with NFL QB’s wearing numbers up to the low-mid 20’s; I think anything above 25 may pushing it, even though it’s occasionally been done before.
John Hadl looked good in 21
Happy Anniversary, Paul.
A flip of the bat to–er…a tip of the cap to you!
I’m guessing someone in the design department at New Era is having a lousy day. In fairness to the designer and his or her idea, it’s amazing how these crappy products can fail upward. -C.
Happy 22nd “Uni-versary” Paul!
What if you compared the individualistic celebrations to instrumental solos during a song. Yes, the guitarist doesn’t need to play the guitar behind their head but it adds to the entertainment factor.
Let the kids play…
Actually, there are plenty of music fans who would consider that to be pointless showboating, similar to how some sports fans view bat flipping.
Again, I’m not arguing for or against any of this. Just saying that it isn’t as straightforward as you’re making it sound.
Happy 22nd anniversary, Uni Watch! Congratulations to you, Paul, on creating such a durable and content-rich concept! It’s been a lot of fun to have been a consumer of that content for many of those years.
Happy anniversary!
Meant to comment this yesterday but forgot – I don’t think that the problem most people have is that there are unwritten rules in baseball. Like you pointed out, there are unwritten rules in every aspect of life. I think the problem is that these specific unwritten rules are dumb. Saying that a player is no longer allowed to try based on the score is problematic. As for the celebrations, I don’t have a problem with them at all. No need to pretend you’re having no fun at all to spare the opponents’ feelings. They can handle it.
I agree. The problem is the the fact that the same unwritten rules both prohibit doing the thing you get paid to do if it might hurt your opponent’s feelings but allow or even encourage that opponent to seek physical retribution if you do. It’s stupid.
I first became aware of that Arizona helmet logo several years ago on the venerable Helmet Project website:
link
I thought it was very obviously a design born of the ’70s that has not aged well. Fun to look back at as a product of its period, but definitely not something that was designed for the long-term. It always looked more like a stylized “LA” than “UA” to me. And from what I know of Arizonans, they definitely do not want to be confused for Californians!
What I’m fascinated by is the wildcat logo on the front of the helmet. Today’s post is the first time I can recall seeing it. It looks like it might have worked better if it had been enlarged and used as the logo on the sides of the helmet in place of that wavy, psychedelic “UA.”
I’d love to see a close-up of that wildcat logo. It’s hard to make out the details from those grainy, low-res photos. As it is, it gives off a bit of a Blues Traveler logo vibe:
link
On “attention vs entertainment”:
This is purely speculation on my part as I’m not a professional athlete and never have been, but it seems unlikely to me that celebrations like bat flips would be genuinely motivated by either of those things.
Players flip their bats after home runs because it’s fun for them and fun for their teammates. It’s a release of emotion that relieves some of the tension of competing at a high level. Players were flipping bats in empty stadiums last year, and I doubt they were thinking about entertaining the folks watching at home on Fox Sports Ohio or whatever when they did it. Obviously, this doesn’t mean anyone has to like it, but the idea that it’s just a “look at me” thing seems silly. He just hit a home run, people are already looking at him!
I have a feeling fans and media put more thought into this than the players themselves. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is kind of funny to me that batters letting the bat go with a slightly upward trajectory instead of just dropping it generates this much controversy.
That Sacramento Republic FC shirt is the best kind of uniform “storytelling” – it’s a relatively organic expression of real, actual team and local culture. Kudos!
I think we need a deep dive into those New Era hats. Those are too awful to just sweep under the rug. It’s lovely that the Rockies’ hat has a beer mug on it, but it also needs a bong or a pot leaf, or at least they could sneak “420” in with the area codes. So my question to baseball fans around the country… what cliche is missing from your team’s hat?
Space needle and an airplane for the Mariners hat.
A bag of golf clubs on the Padres’ hat.
Happy Anniversary! May your days be filled with uninterrupted and high-speed internet access.
A busy workday kept me form participating in yesterday’s debate about unwritten rules, and I will likely have only limited time to engage in today’s continuation of that debate. But for what it’s worth, here’s my 2 cents on the subject:
I like Paul’s analogy to the unwritten rules essentially highlighting social mores that expose indulgences in, among other transgressions, one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins. I’m generally fine with most celebratory displays that don’t hurt the team and seem to have emanated from a place of spontaneous joy rather than prideful boasting. It may be a fine line at times, but it seems like sports should have some room for a bit of harmless self-expression.
The obvious flip side of that is when a player’s self-aggrandizement does hurt the team. Examples include the Rickey Henderson
home rundoublesingle Paul cited to yesterday, or the Cowboys’ Leon Lett being stripped of the ball by Don Beebe of the Bills in the Super Bowl because Lett slowed down to showboat on his way to scoring a sure touchdown. There should be some way to discourage those sorts of behaviors, although it seems like that kind of discipline might be best handled internally within the team.All that said, I have every bit as much problem with the self-appointed “enforcers” of the unwritten rules as I do with those who transgress them. A pitcher deciding to plunk every batter whom he thinks has “shown him up”? Unconscionable. Adding the element of physical harm into the mix is far worse than whatever harm was done to his pride by the offending batter. Those sorts of “enforcement” actions invoke their own violations of the Seven Deadly Sins, including Pride (once again), Wrath, and Envy.
Happy Anniversary!
Thank goodness for this place I call home.
Days like this I think about the players who seem no more…
Ricko, Teebz, The Jeff, etc.
Days like this I think about the players who seem no more…
Ricko, Teebz, The Jeff, etc.
Hear, hear! There are several old-timers whose contributions in the comments section I miss. In addition to your list, I’d include Connie, terriblehuman, and DenverGregg in that mix, too.
That said, It’s great to see many long-time readers still engaged in commenting – yourself included, Marty!
Thanks.
Dare I add Joe “BC” Johnson to the list?
I Miss The Jeff.
“Act like you’ve been there before” is attributed to a number of authors, but every time batflips, endzone celebrations and the like come up, that’s the quote that goes through my head.
Not sure what to make of the constant LeBron Flops….
U of A Alumnus here (Class of 2002) – Yes, I can confirm that wavy UA Logo harkens back to the land-grant roots of the University, the Ag Roots in the state and in fact does very much resemble a Cattle Brand.
It has mixed reviews and thoughts from the Alumni – Those who like throwback logos and those who prefer the standard block ‘A’ logo (which has not changed much since the “Revenge of the Nerds” white Block A was modified to its current graphic)…My personal opinion is it is a neat little historical point in the Wildcats’ Uni/Logo History.
Love the photos, Paul – Great stuff…
BEAR DOWN!!!
Re celebrations: Too many of today’s athletes think that dignity is overrated and sportsmanship is lame.
And humility is absolutely unheard of.
Paul – Great opening line in your first at bat opening article. “Time was when a baseball team’s uniform was, y’know, uniform …
The Random College Athletes account on twitter had a pic of Ed Hochuli as an LB at UTEP recently: link
Paul,
Happy Anniversary! I say this with the upmost regard, I cannot believe it’s been 15/22 years. I found you through Page 2 and the blog has been a daily part of my life the entire time – to the point where I’m shocked it’s been so long. I can’t even recall at this point not reading during my lunch each day.
Did you ever think you’d be hitting these milestones? Going back to the blog’s founding how long would you have considered “a good run”?
Thanks, Scott! Honestly, three or four years (for the whole project, not the blog) would’ve been a big success in my book. Never imagined the project would be so durable!
The wavy feel of the UA logo feels like the way a cat’s tail waves and sways. I don’t know what tone of the Wildcat logo was at that time, but it reminds me of some of the more playful cat logos and personas, a la Pink Panther or Mr. Jinks or Top Cat from Hanna Barbera.
The U-bar is my second favourite piece of athletic equipment after the waffle board goalie blocker.
Here’s my two cents on the “athletes as entertainers” topic:
In the world of pro wrestling, wrestlers generally take on a persona of a “face” (good guy) or “heel” (villain). I think that sometime athletes in other sports also enjoy playing the “heel” role and becoming the guy that opposing fans “love to hate”. They know that showboating or over-celebrating gets under the skin of some fans, and they love to hear the boos and read the negative press.
So in this sense, breaking the unwritten rules, drawing too much attention to themselves, or even playing “dirty” does add to the overall entertainment factor for fans, giving us more reason to become emotionally involved in rooting for or against certain players or even teams.
They should have this kind of reaction everytime New Era puts out these holiday /specialty hats for teams, and maybe we would see less of them.
Happy anniversary, Paul! Thank you for being a part of my day every day for the past dozen or so years. Yesterday’s excellent piece showed that, like Nolan Ryan, you still have your fastball, even after 22 years. Congratulations and here’s to 22 more!
Aw, thanks, John — much appreciated!
1-19 (or 0-19 / 00-19) is going to be crowded in a hurry with the QBs, skill positions and others vying for them.
Country Joe and the mesh!! A+ subheadline.
Thanks, Mike. I was hoping someone would appreciate the pun!
The Fixin To Die Rag has been in my head all day
Really late to the ‘unwritten rules’ party, but just had this thought. Everyone talks about Babe Ruth and his alleged calling his home run as part of the whole mythos. If a player were to do that today, would they be considered showboating or whatever? I was really into baseball in the late 90’s-late 2000’s, largely during the Pedro/Manny/Big Papi era in Boston. The ‘idiots’ team was super fun and full of personality. I kind of view baseball now as being devoid of personalities and I think part of it are the ‘unwritten rules’ of how players talk/act. You want sportsmanship but you also don’t want to sanitize a sport and just have a bunch of automatons just going through the motions either.
Showboating is after the fact. The “called shot” was a mano-a-mano challenge.
Happy Anniversary, Paul! You might have liked a store that used to be in Scarsdale, called “Big League Threads”; it was Uni Watch before the internet.
This is the first place I visit in the morning and the last place I go at night! I feel at home, here.
If you had another site, only dedicated to music, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me! Sounds ominous, I know. But I have always respected your opinion.
Thanks, Walter. This place wouldn’t be the same without you!
Late to the party today; usually start my day with Uni-Watch. Growing up in Arizona, and living in Tucson for five years; it is known locally for Arizona fans as the “snake logo.” Obviously didn’t last but would be a fantastic throwback despite the Desert Storm era (the current digs should be burned and default to Desert Storm-which is a clean look). That shade of blue pops! Absolute treat to see today. Arizona football isn’t a front page program although during my high school and college years UofA had quite a respectable program. Great to see the Wildcats in the forefront today.
Unsure about baseball; personally I think unwritten rules are dumb. Either write them down or leave players be. Beaning the next batter or a pitcher in a future game and potentially shattering their bones or jaw and ending their career seems like a disproportional response, petty and childish at best.
Reminds me of what supposedly used to happen in basketball. Dunking used to be frowned upon because it was seen as dissing the opponent, and players would retaliate and take them out the next time they dumb and could potentially break their necks if the dunker ended up flipping over due to a push, shove oe hard foul during a dunk. Imagine if that trend had continued. Players should be treated like NFL quarterbacks: people that intentionally and blatantly target any opposing player should be suspended and banned if it continues. Same with any manager that orders a retaliation. If they don’t like it, then find an office job.
Rant over.