In today’s Ticker: New uniforms for the USMNT, more NHL/Pride developments, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for April 4, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- Atlanta will retire Andruw Jones’s No. 25 on Sept. 9.
- Cubs broadcasters noted during last night’s game that the team’s blue jersey will no longer include the National League sleeve patch, and we all know what that means.
- Military flyovers at sporting events are dumb enough to begin with, but the Brewers did one yesterday even though their retractable roof was closed.
- Dodgers OF James Outman changed his number to 33 this season, after debuting with No. 77 last year. He chose 33 on the advice of a cousin, who noted he hits better when he wears double numbers.
- The NBA’s Chicago Bulls are giving away White Sox basketball jerseys at tonight’s game. (From Bill Robinson)
- Speaking of the White Sox: It’s a bit difficult to tell from this photo, but C Yasmani Grandal’s chest protector includes a depiction of the Chicago skyline. (From Matt Davis)
- The Phillies unveiled a new, larger videoboard this season. Despite that, the team at times will make the screen appear as it did last year by projecting a fake sky and a digital representation of the girder structure behind the scoreboard. (From @PhillyPartTwo)
- Pittsburgh-based Allegheny City Brewing has brewed a new Kellerbier-style beer and named it after Pirates P Mitch Keller. (From our own Jerry Wolper)
- New York Magazine published a piece yesterday about the history of the hot dog cannon. (From Kary Klismet)
More
- The Ohio U baseball team sent out a uniform-themed April Fools’ tweet on Saturday — though true Bobcats fans, like yours truly, weren’t fooled, as they’ve recycled this prank a few times. The good news is that the Bobcats took the opportunity to unveil gorgeous new throwback jerseys paying homage to the 1970 squad that reached the College World Series (From Kary Klismet)
- Staying in the MAC, Kent State debuted light blue uniforms on Sunday. (From Bill Walker)
Football
NFL
- Bills RB James Cook is switching his number to No. 4 to match his brother, Vikings RB Dalvin Cook.
- New scoreboard in the works for the Packers. (From Bryan Martin Firvida)
More
- Members of the South Florence High School (South Carolina) football team have received their state championship rings. (From Kary Klismet)
Hockey
NHL
- The Blues will have Pride Night tonight, but the festivities will not include pregame jerseys. The Predators are also doing Pride Night tonight, and RW Colton Sissons says they will wear pregame jerseys. Meanwhile, the Jets are moving ahead with plans to wear rainbow-trimmed warm-ups for their Pride Night tomorrow.
- The Golden Knights will wear pregame jerseys promoting organ donation on Thursday.
- The former chairman of Bauer is defending the NHL’s decision to sign a outfitting deal with Fanatics. (From @Sully165)
Minors/Juniors
- The AHL’s Calgary Wranglers have a new mascot. (From Kary Klismet)
Basketball
NBA
- Cross-listed from the baseball section: The Bulls are giving away Chicago White Sox basketball jerseys at tonight’s game. (From Bill Robinson)
- Former NBAer Shaquille O’Neal sent five pairs of his size-22 sneakers to a Michigan teen who was having trouble finding footwear that fit properly. (From Jason Hillyer)
College
- Cincinnati has added the Big 12 logo to its court ahead of the school joining the conference. (From Kary Klismet)
- Dallas has opened a new outdoor basketball court at a local rec center that has this year’s Women’s Final Four logo. The city built the court with an NCAA grant that’s offered to cities that host a Final Four. (From Kary Klismet)
Soccer
USA
- New kits for the USMNT — the same template as the kits that the USWNT will wear during their World Cup run this year. (Thanks to all who shared)
- The NWSL is getting a new Bay Area team next year. Its name hasn’t yet been announced. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
International
- Scotland: To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club’s 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup championship, Aberdeen has reproduced the winners’ medals and will give them to three team members who never received one (as they were only ever granted to the team’s starting lineup and substitutes): Midfielder Dougie Bell (who was injured on the day of the match), manager Alex Ferguson and assistant manager Archie Knox. The families of three other team officials will also receive a medal. (From our own Jamie Rathjen)
- Footy Headlines has published a story that examines logo poaching in the soccer world. (From Kary Klismet)
Auto Racing
- Yesterday we Ticked an item about NASCAR driver Josh Berry’s race suit. Berry, who’s temporarily standing in for an injured Chase Elliott, was wearing a race suit with embroidered ads, even though most drivers wear suits with screen-printed graphics. Per racing expert David Firestone, most drivers now wear screen-printed suits because the embroidered suits can be quite heavy, and screen-printing technology has evolved to where the visual differences are negligible.
Grab Bag
- Fans of Ebbets Field Flannels will enjoy this profile of the brand’s founder and friend of the site, Jerry Cohen. (From Kary Klismet)
- New athletics logos for the College of Wooster Fighting Scots and the Southern Illinois – Edwardsville Cougars. (From Kary Klismet)
- Companies that want to signal their entry into the fast-growing AI industry have been branding themselves with “swirling hexagon” logos.
- The International Cricket Council has unveiled the logo for the upcoming 2023 men’s World Cup in India.
- The U.S. Space Force has completed “fit-testing” its new uniforms, which had previously been criticized for their loose-fitting pants.
- If you use the desktop browser version of Twitter, you may have noticed yesterday that the bird logo at the top of the screen was replaced by the “Doge” meme — i.e., the image of a Shiba Inu dog, which has become the face cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who once juiced the Dogecoin’s value by mentioning it on Saturday Night Live, had previously joked that he would replace the Twitter logo with Doge. In response to the update, Dogecoin jumped in price by 20%.
Comments (26)
That sucks that the Cubs are ditching the National League patch. That was one of my favorite parts of the uniform.
Glad I bought my blue Cubs jersey years ago. I agree the National League logo was a really great addition. Especially since no other teams did it.
It was venerating the past. It had to go.
“Cubs broadcasters noted during last night’s game that the team’s blue jersey will no longer include National League sleeve patch, and we all know what that means.”
Manfred is replacing National and American Leagues with Western and Eastern Conferences.
The fact that this is a better outcome than the real answer is telling.
I can’t say I’m excited for the Uni Watch “I Miss the National League” t-shirt
“Cubs broadcasters noted during last night’s game that the team’s blue jersey will no longer include National League sleeve patch, and we all know what that means.”
– The Cubs are moving to the American League?
“most drivers now wear screen-printed suits because the embroidered suits can be quite heavy, and screen-printing technology has evolved to wear the visual differences are negligible.”
– where, not wear
It’s annoying and desperate that the patches have to swap sleeves based on “handedness.” But I hate that teams are ditching single patches instead of just swapping them. Cubs’ NL and Phillies’ numbers are better on mismatched sleeves than no sleeves at all!
Has the chairman of Bauer EVER ordered from fanatics?
Royals moved their crown patch too. I will obviously be on the arm not facing the camera….grrrr
Military flyovers are pretty cool in person, but you are entitled to your opinion.
Yes they are. And they barely go out of the way from their normal practice runs.
Love military flyovers! Have seen a bunch at Camp Randall Stadium and few at Lambeau Field too. That one at Miller Park looked really cool I bet the tailgaters loved it, even though fans inside couldn’t see with the dome closed for the day.
When I saw Josh Berry’s fire suit, I instantly thought that it was an older model, possibly borrowed…as is sometimes done with interim drivers…from a crew member, Elliott, or maybe even Dale Jr.(he drives for JR Motorsports in the lower-tier series, and has quite I collection IIRC).
But I came across a video that shows Berry’s name on the waistband:
link
I would not be surprised if the advertisers ‘suggested’ a new fire suit be issued, rather than Berry just wearing a generic off-the-rack one.
Can’t wait for team naming rights too! It will be great to watch the Boston MassMutualTM Red Sox play the Chicago DraftKingsTM Cubs in the Eastern Conference Finals! Wow! What a great fan experience–so great, I’d be willing to pay 150% more for tickets! (sarcasm obvs) These teams and their advertisers are just clueless. When have I ever bought anything that was marketed to me? Maybe it’s my older millennial nature or my Gen-X older siblings, but didn’t “selling out” used to be at least frowned upon? We had generations that rejected advertising replaced by generations that believe in branding over all else. Just look at music criticism. You’ll hear all about the backstory, fashion, and how “revolutionary” the artist is for reason X, Y, Z, but the actual music and musicality never gets accurately described and is mostly presented as just a boring detail. Then you actually listen to the music and most of the time it fucking blows. Really sad.
I dislike the Cubs blue jersey, perhaps because there are no words on the front.
Same reason I love it! Looks very much like those 1908 (or whatever year) dark unis with the “bear in C”.
My favorite Astros uniform from their misbegotten pinstripes period was the white alt with no pinstripes or lettering, just a red star on the chest.
Would you like it more if worn exclusively on the road with white pants and the all-blue cap?
I would.
Ha, that bit on the Phillies scoreboard, if true, pretty much confirms what myself and others here have speculated, the added scoreboard space will just be used to animate ad space that was previously static.
Though I was unaware that the giant Phillies wordmark on top of the scoreboard was coming down. Curious as to what they did with it.
Like everything else, the old letters will likely be packed up and sold for profit.
The national soccer teams gave Nike a mulligan to do better than the crap they made the teams wear during the last iteration. And they did no better. The NOB font I saw for the women’s kits are at least unique if not better. But the triangles at the color, the design, everything is just horrible. You would think Nike would have done more for their homeland…
Predicted to a T that the new video boards are a farce. All of the new digital space is just used for digital ads. Rarely, if ever are the new video boards used at their full capacity to project one huge video.
Nice to see SIU-Edwardsville replacing that beaver head logo that they’ve been declaring a cougar for the last decade.
Was not aware of the old logo…
OMG! How could a designer think it was a good idea to call this a ‘cougar’????
link
Thanks for pointing that out!
For the record, I believe that Footy Headlines piece about badges (we don’t really say “logos” in soccer – shame on FH for continuing the mistake) was itself poached from a Twitter headline that originally appeared here on the Ticker.
Great story about Shaq hooking up that Michigan teen with some of his shoes.