Atlanta pitcher Dylan Dodd made his second big league start yesterday. As several observers noted, his NOB looks sort of like DODO … or DOOO … or OOOO … or pretty much any combination of D and O.
The situation was the same on his road jersey when he made his MLB debut last week:
Putting more space between the letters would probably help a bit, but the real problem is the font (known as Athletic Block), which has extremely similar treatments for the D and the O. Dodd would be better off if he played for a team with a curvier NOB font, like the Padres or Phillies:
Even the Mariners’ much-maligned navy jersey NOB font would at least make Dodd’s surname easy to suss out:
So if Atlanta really wants to do a good deed for Dodd, they should either change their NOB font or else trade him to a team with a font more suited to his name.
Has this problem ever come up before? According to baseball-reference.com, there have been three previous Dodds in big league history. One of them — Pirates second baseman Ona Dodd — played in the pre-NOB era. As for the other two, they both had cups of coffee in the bigs: Tom Dodd played eight games with the Orioles in 1986 and Robert Dodd pitched four games for the Phillies in 1998. Given their very short careers, it’s somewhat amazing that I was able to find rear-view images for both of them:
Hmmm — it’s tough to be certain because of the angle, but even that Phillies NOB doesn’t look great. So just to be safe, Atlanta should probably trade Dylan Dodd to the Yankees. In the meantime, they should really give him No. 00.
I *get* where you’re coming from, but I had to chuckle at this one. Perhaps it was more TFPIC than it comes off. Even after reading Keith’s tweet (which REALLY does make the NOB look like OOOO), the solution to his NOB-legibility problem — either changing the font or trading him to a team where his NOB would be more legible — has a well-needed Swiftian feel. Well played!
To be fair, I read his name as “Dude”.
Dood! What’s mine say?
Sweet! What’s mine say?
Dood! What’s mine say?
I wonder if it would help if Atlanta still used vertically arched NOBs. Probably not, but it would still be nice to have some NOBs of that style again.
Another solution would be for Atlanta to stop doing NOBs. Apart from the native imagery, I think they have a very nice traditional, clean design on their jerseys. I think the NNOB would be much more aesthetically pleasing though. We get a good look a this on Jackie Day.
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I have to disagree. In fact, on every single ground except aesthetics (which is certainly important), it’d make far more sense to get rid of uniform numbers and have only names on the back of jerseys. Outside of maybe the very most iconic one or two guys on the roster, does the player’s number communicate any information to even the most passionate home-team fan?
I’d love to see every team stop using NOBs and the Braves would be a great candidate given how easy their big bold red numbers are to read. At least they use a thin one-color font for their NOBs so that the number stands out more. The teams with three-layer numbers who also insist on three-layer NOBs look terrible.
To me, MLB’s most confusing NOB was relief pitcher Matt Blank who played for the Expos in 2000-2001.
Imagine how the ordering for the lettering on his jersey went down:
“We’ve got that new pitcher getting called up from the minors tonight, so we’re gonna need one Blank jersey.”
“Why wouldn’t he get a name on his jersey?”
“No he does, it’s Blank.”
“So you want me to make a blank jersey?”
Blank was originally drafted by the famously NNOB Yankees. Unfortunately he never broke through with them, otherwise he would’ve been the first Yankee to wear a NOB.
Reminds me of a story I heard long ago of a California driver who requested a personalized license plate and wrote “none” in the field on the form for 2nd and 3rd choices, since they only wanted their first choice. Weeks after receiving a NONE license plate, they discovered they had multiple warrants out for their arrest because California cops were writing “none” on tickets for cars without license plates, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines were now automatically assigned to their car.
That’s great. Similarly, I always wanted to name our Rec Softball team BYE. We’d have won every game by forfeit when the other team failed to show, thinking they had the night off.
As I said on Twitter yesterday, this just shows that Atlanta is crying out for a return to vertically-arched NOBs.
I’m not sure it would make much of a difference!
I think it would help on the first D if the arching pulls that lower left corner into into a sharper point. Of course, then it might end up looking more starkly like “DOOO.”
Our own Scott M.X. Turner just mocked it up for us:
Pretty much the same problem, I’d say.
Reminds me of a license plate I saw once, something to the effect of B88BBB8.
Which reminds me of the old calculator trick of typing in “55378008” and turning the calculator upside-down…
Like this?
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The NFL Block Varsity of the 1980s had small serifs on the “D”; see the Giants and 49ers of those years (or what the Niners wear today). There is your solution.
I had a substitute teacher a long time ago whose last name was “Do”…Mrs. Do.
If she was on the Braves and chose “00” as her jersey number, her jersey would look like this:
______
DO
00
______
Think about it, won’t you?
I remember seeing a game on TV between the Red Wings and the Sabres in 1993; I wasn’t particularly familiar with Buffalo’s roster, so I was surprised when I saw #8 in white, blue, and gold with an NOB that appeared to read “BOOGER”. Then I think either Dave Strader (RIP) or Mickey Redmond mentioned Doug Bodger by name, and I realized I had misread it.
The new Braves numbers look like a downgrade from the Wilson numbers they had used for years until last year I believe. You can see the difference in the serif on the 6.
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I hadn’t watched the Braves this year and hadn’t notice this until you brought it up. But a little thing goes a long way.
I’ve always lamented the fact that had Miroslav Satan ever played for the Devils, it would have been the best selling NHL jersey of all time.
That NOB would work for Sean Doooooolittle on Players’ Weekend
As it just so happens, I caught a replay of Justin Turnbull’s no-hitter from 2021 and was fixated on Akil Baddoo’s NOB. At first glance it looks like “Baddod.”
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Yep. That’s me. I quote a fan as I was standing on first base after my first career hit, “OOOO! WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT?”
The Orioles should have given you number 00!