The Art of Ant Volume VI: Baseball Cards (Part I)

Uniform Concepts and Tweaks

Time for more Uni Tweaks from the UW readership.

I hope you guys like this feature and will want to continue to submit your concepts and tweaks to me. If you do, Shoot me an E-mail (Phil (dot) Hecken (at) gmail (dot) com).

Most people don’t know the name Sidjakov, Berman & Gomez, Associates (or SB&G Partners), but are familiar with their work: Ghirardelli Chocolates, Embassy Suites Hotels, Diet Coke, and Motel 6 are clients.

In the sports realm, they are best known as the designers of the San Francisco Giants’ uniforms of the 1980s. At the time, the Giants were a flailing franchise in a decaying stadium, actively pursuing a relocation. With the new uniforms, a reset button was pressed: Traditional-looking without citing any previous Giants’ uniform. The main features were a cap with an orange monogram, curvy, florid chest script, Helvetica numerals on the back, a grey uniform bearing an interlocking “S.F.” on the left breast, and an adaptation of of football Northwestern stripes on the jersey cuffs and pants. The reviews were glowing, mentioning the trick of looking long-established while being entirely new. As ’80s motifs went, it was a classier alternative to the contemporary “racing stripe” fad. Even John Fogerty was impressed, inviting SB&G to create the cover of his “Centerfield” album.

A favorable first impression is a marvelous thing. What is done using that impression can be a different can of worms.

SB&G’s next sports client were the San Diego Padres. who themselves were looking for a reset. Owners of the team made it clear they were pursuing a hard turn from the pop-art uniforms for which the team was known, for dropping gold from their palette, and for adding pinstripes. Hopefully, the new look would remind onlookers of the St. Louis Browns, the only other MLB team to use brown and orange.

An odd thing happened: The 1984 World Series. An upstart San Diego team punched its way to the N.L. West crown, then defeated the favored Chicago Cubs in the National League playoffs. The team played before an unprecedented audience before succumbing to the mighty Detroit Tigers.

What greeted San Diego fans in 1985 had an awfully familiar ring: A cap with an orange monogram, a curvy, florid chest script, Helvetica numerals on the back, and a grey uniform bearing an interlocking “S.D.” on the left breast. SB&G had been unmasked as a one-trick pony.

Not helping things was an inability of the Padres to build on their success, and a new brace of fans around the country who believed the old, splashy uniforms were better.

In the multiverse, SB&G follows their San Francisco triumph with a team from another state in another league. The Fickle Finger of Fate comes to rest on the Chicago White Sox, a team then notorious for creating and tossing aside identities like hand towels. I tried to follow established SB&G trademarks without being derivative. Did I succeed?

Here’s my rendering of an orange 1975 Astros’ uniform. In one of Paul’s pieces, a Houston road uniform was alluded to by Jesse Caesar and Gary Rollins, but it never passed the discussion stage… until now! I have to admit I like it better than versions I used to draw where the white fabric was replaced with grey. The orange hat would have been overwhelmed by the blast of color so I worked up a navy version not unlike the current cap.

Here is a second angle of the 1975 Astros’ road uniform I sent you. Among other things, I show how the rear number is handled, I substituted white cleats for the black ones Houston wore that year, and cobbled together a navy and orange hat to better contrast with the copious orange fabric.

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Rick Wallace.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

Guess the Game from the Uniform

Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Jimmy Corcoran himself.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

And finally...

…that’s going to do it for the early lede. Big thanks (and welcome back!) to Ant for sharing his latest project with us.

In addition to Mike Engle’s Ticker, there will be several additional articles today (including more divisional MLB uniform previews), so you’ll definitely want to keep checking back today, all day.

Everyone have a great Wednesday, and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow with the full MLB 2025 Uniform Preview.

Till then…

Peace,

PH