Happy Sunday. I hope everyone had a pleasant Saturday — I am currently in Florida to attend the first league match for the Portland Hearts of Pine, which occurred yesterday evening in Naples against FC Naples. And though I’m here supporting Maine’s soccer team, I have another Maine team to talk about today.
The Maine Mariners, ECHL affiliates of the Boston Bruins, will wear the above knight’s armor-inspired jerseys this coming Wednesday, April 2nd. The promotion, dubbed Renaissance Night, is being held in support of Maine’s 988 lifeline, a suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline. This is the last Mariners one-off jersey of the season. We covered the previous ones here (just last week) and here.
Local renaissance fair performers will also be present at the game. Oddly, the photo shoot was held at Portland’s Victoria Mansion, an 1860 Italianate house that now operates as a museum not far from the Mariners’ home arena. The Victorian era is pretty far from the medieval Europe that renaissance fairs try to evoke, but then again it’s not like Portland has a 12th-century church where they could go to get a real medieval feel for the photo shoot. We’re an old city, but not quite medieval old.
Anyway, the connection between suicide and mental health awareness and ren faires seems tenuous at best. The press release for the new jersey starts with “It doesn’t take a knight in shining armor to check on your friends.” It’s a worthy cause, no doubt — the jerseys feature a prominent “988” patch on the right chest, and will be auctioned off after the game, with a portion of the proceeds going to Maine 988.
The jerseys feature several silver elements with fake shadows to look like individual plates of armor. The jersey crest has a metallic sheen, faux chipping, and dots around it to make it appear bolted-on to the “armor” below, with elements designed to look engraved beneath it. The same engraved designs are also on the sleeves, above a gold sleeve stripe. The same shade of gold is used for a stripe at the hemline.
As I said when I covered the Mariners’ Best Buddies jerseys last week, I don’t plan on turning Uni Watch Weekends into my own personal Maine Sports Fiefdom, so I do apologize about the glut of Maine sports coverage that’s occurred since I took over this role. As I said then, though, it seems as if we are living in the halcyon days of Maine sports uniforms — new alternate identities for the baseball team, more one-off jerseys for the hockey team than I can keep track of, and a soccer team whose identity has become an instant hit globally. Maybe it’s time for the basketball team to step up!
Anthony, do you have any plans to do an article on the Maine Guides, a minor league baseball team that played in Old Orchard Beach about a decade before the Sea Dogs?
Hey Walter,
It hadn’t crossed my mind, mostly because the Guides departed about seven years before I was born, and didn’t really have a super strong legacy until a few years ago when folks started getting interested in rehabilitating the ballpark in OOB. However, now that you mention it, I’ll start digging around and see if I can pull up anything of uni-note.
I read that as Seattle Mariners at first! Anyway, I’m anxious to see what the rest of the uniform looks like, especially the helmets! The jersey with its faux shadows/shading makes it look like something Mrs. Roper would wear. And I agree, having the photoshoot in a Victorian mansion is a queer choice. Couldn’t they have posed on horseback with jousting lances? Oh well, it’s good for a laugh.
Please keep up the Maine content!!
It’s genuinely a breath of fresh air instead of seeing same Major League teams, stories, and complaints!!
Please keep your eyes on the often overlooked entities as a uniform.is a uniform no matter what league!!
I think it’s pretty interesting but not really a good uniform. Way too visually busy and I suspect it’ll look really gross and disorienting on the ice.
Good cause, ugly sewater but that is not important as all of this is for a good cause. Keep up the Maine content! Really nice to read in depth coverage of a very local sports scene! I love it.
Don’t apologize for reporting about what you notice in your backyard! Keep up the great work!