Kicking Off a New Era of Weekend Uni Watch

[Deputy Editor’s Note: Today we have the first-ever entry from Jim Vilk, who will be taking over the weekends from me beginning this June. It’s ALSO Jim’s birthday today, so please be sure to wish him a HAPPY HAPPY down in the comments below. I’ll be back at the end with some quick words. Enjoy! — Phil]

You probably weren’t expecting me yet, so…SURPRISE!

My original plan was to hit the ground running on June 1st with a Blue Jays’ City Connect debut review (here’s one person’s guess as to what that *may* include). Phil, on the other hand, thought it would be a good idea to warn…er, prepare… you for what to look for in the weekends to come. So, let’s use Paul’s question-and-answer format where I ask myself some anticipated questions. We’ll begin with…

What makes you think you’re qualified to become Weekend Editor? Weren’t you the old JimV19 who used to submit uniform concepts in colored pencils?

Indeed, I was JimV19 in the comments all those years ago. I didn’t consider myself a design expert then, nor do I consider myself one now. I look at uniforms from the perspective of a fan, pure and simple. Of course, some design concepts are so obvious that you don’t need to be an expert. If you can’t tell what team is playing and/or you can’t tell who the players are, then that uniform has failed its most basic function. I always will point out those things. Mostly, though, I’ll give you my opinion and hope that you’ll understand why I like or dislike something. And I’ll try to see where you’re coming from if you don’t agree. As for other credentials, I have a Mass Media – News degree and I’ve worked for a few newspapers, covering everything from county politics and murder trials to high school sports. I also called play-by-play and color commentary for Akron Zips sports, as well as for local high school football and basketball. I’ve been with Akron’s Seeing Eye Radio, a reading service for the sight-impaired, for almost as long as Paul’s been doing Uni Watch. We started a sports podcast recently, which has been great fun. And yes, I do sneak in some Uni Watching during those shows. But to answer the initial question, it’s not that I think I’m qualified. Phil does, so let’s humor him and see where this goes.

You’re not just going to show off your DIY projects all the time, are you? I’m going to miss Paul’s journalistic excellence.

1. Phil will give you lots of journalism to go with his other features.
2. I can do journalism when I need to, and I will dole out my projects sparingly. I would like to share others’ DIY projects even more than mine. I also plan to do more think pieces and tell some stories.

What will the weekend format be like? Lots of little posts throughout the day, or one big post as it was in the past?

I intend to bring back the big (but not huge) morning post. Paul and Phil understand I don’t have the same amount of time they have, so they told me to set it up however I want. Some days I’ll have more time than others, but I can’t guarantee the constant flurry of posting that they’ve been giving you lately. Once college football season comes, though, Sunday Morning Uni Watch should be the same as it has been.

Next, I pulled some questions from the Ask Phil Anything article.

1) Do you have anything against the color purple?
2) If you are fine with purple, is there another generally used uniform color that you dislike greatly?

As you can see from the featured photo, I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with the glorious color purple. That’s Yours Truly doing one of my favorite things in the world: kicking field goals in the snow while wearing my DIY Fred Cox early-1970s jersey. As for colors I could do without, I’d go to both extremes of the spectrum. I just can’t wrap my head around the obsession with Whiteout and Blackout uniforms. Very few teams (the Colts, Auburn, and the Namath-era Jets, off the top of my head) can pull off an all-white uniform. And aside from the Baltimore Ravens, I can’t think of anyone else who should be wearing head-to-toe black. There are a lot of colors in between. Use them!

Paul every now and then threw in a post on a different type of minutiae — not uniforms but something within the phylum as it were. Do you have plans to do that as well?

I’d love to go off-topic every now and then with some off-the-wall obsessions…IF the Uni-verse will allow it. Things have been ramped up so much lately that I’m afraid the news won’t let me stray too far.

In general, you and Paul seem to have similar takes concerning uniforms, but are there some big areas that you differ from Paul? An example might be something like Paul prefers stirrups, and you don’t…and I believe Paul is against wearing team merchandise.

Stirrups…sorry, I really don’t need them. I prefer solid-colored socks or the ’70s white socks with colored stripes. Team merchandise? If it’s affordable, I’d wear that. And I do. Also, while Paul and Phil think unretiring the number 42 once a year is Bud Selig’s best idea, I think it’s his absolute worst…especially since EVERYONE wears it.

• What are your favorite/least favorite big four uniforms?
• Do you love green and yellow uniforms as much as Paul?
• Do you believe the worst uniform without an ad is still better than the best uniform with an ad?

*By the “big four,” I assume you’re talking football, ski jumping, cricket and volleyball, right? Yeah, yeah…I know what you mean. As for *your* big four:

Football: Kansas City & Indianapolis (NFL), Michigan & St. Louis (UFL), LSU & Nebraska (NCAA). My all-time favorite without a doubt is the 1972-74 Houston Oilers.

Least favorite: Philadelphia or Washington (NFL) and Louisville (NCAA).

Basketball: Timberwolves, Bulls and Spurs (regular unis only). My all-time favorite is either the 1981 Kings or Rockets, or the Stepien-era “Richfield” Cavaliers. For college, it has to be classic Villanova double blue. Least favorite: the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers Game 7 uniforms…I’ve never been so angry watching a team that I was rooting for as in that game.

Hockey: Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild (current), and Quebec Nordiques (all-time). Least favorite: any Flyers uni…especially their Stadium Series ones. Go Pens!

Baseball: Early-70s Pirates (even though they didn’t wear V-neck jerseys). Least favorite: the Chicago “White Sox.”

*Green and yellow? Love it. Not my favorite combo, but it’s up there.

*If you’re asking would I rather watch a whiteout vs. blackout MACtion game versus a CFL contest, I’d have to say I’ll take the ad-strewn CFL game. I’d prefer a third option, though.

We see a fair amount of community-submitted content on the site now…Is the plan to have that continue moving forward? In general would you prefer we send in stuff like that as it is created, or will there be occasional “calls for content”? Additionally, any chance you are looking for more volunteers to help with the site in various roles? As strong as the comm-uni-ty is, I’m sure there are plenty that would be willing to help on a consistent basis, but I wanted to throw my hat into the ring as well.

A lot of the stuff that Phil featured will follow Phil to the weekdays. As I mentioned above, I’m definitely looking for anyone’s DIY submissions, since that’s an area that’s near and dear to my heart. No matter what the sport is, if you have something interesting I’m open to your input!

Are you a cat person or a dog person? (Or both or neither, and any plans to share pet pics?)

I’m a bird watcher. If I had to have a pet, it would be a cat. My youngest child does have a stuffed cat named Snowball, which I tend to photograph in different poses.

She could be part of a new Mascot Watch…

I feel I know almost everything about Paul’s life…parents…how he grew up…job history…residences…pets…favorite color…love life…trips. It is almost funny. I feel I know very little relatively about you. Will you reveal yourself like a band-aid, gradually, or not much at all?

We’ll see. Basically, I work four nights a week, so I’m kind of out of it until the weekends. Then I spend time with The Wife and our three kids, catch up on work around the house, and I try to visit Dad whenever I can. What little free time I have is spent kicking field goals and tweeting about it.

What’s your Favorite band and taste in music…and cans?

I can’t narrow myself to one favorite band, but for the last five years I have been obsessed with the Jackie Gleason Orchestra. My other favorites are Level 42, Duran Duran, and most Yacht Rock bands. My general taste in music is, the smoother the better, although I’ll listen to a lot of stuff, including country and polkas. And if the Weeknd, Ed Sheeran or Travis Kelce’s fiancée are on the radio, I don’t turn the station.

Cans? Give me a ’70s or early-’80s beer can. And until Spuds McKenzie came along, I was a huge fan of ’70s and ’80s beer commercials. Very classy.

Any favorite NCAA or NFL teams? Along that same line, what athletes were you a fan of growing up?

My favorite college basketball team is Villanova. Partly because of the uniforms, and partly because of John Pinone and Ed Pinckney. The moment I saw Pinckney in December of 1982, I told my brother (the basketball expert in the family, who laughed at me) that the Wildcats would win the NCAA championship in his senior year. Two and a half years later, The Greatest Prediction in Sports History came true! As for football, I may be an Akron Zip but usually I root for unis. So Nebraska and LSU are at the top of my list. I’ve been an on again-off again Steelers fan, and I also root for Indianapolis, Kansas City and Green Bay. My favorite athletes were Willie Stargell, Julius Erving, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, and most straight-on kickers of the 70s and 80s.

Anyway, that’s probably more than enough about me for now. Hopefully we’ll have some fun together in the weekends to come. If you have any ideas or suggestions you can reach me on I’m Still Calling It Twitter at @JimVilk. See you next month!

 

• • • • •Phil here. Thanks Jim and (officially) Welcome Aboard (and Happy Birthday!)

The Ticker will follow this article, so be sure to check back shortly for that. And if there is any breaking uni news today, I’ll try to get a new article up as soon as possible. Everyone have a great Sunday!