Today in the Ticker: The story behind a weird (infamous?) baseball card, some items from the women’s World Cup final, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for August 21, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- At yesterday’s Nationals-Phillies game in Williamsport, Pa., the Nationals’ Joey Meneses and the Phillies’ Bryson Stott had crayon- and pencil-themed bats, respectively. (From Andrew Cosentino)
- The Giants announced their ad patch for a self-driving car company Aug. 3. Since then they’ve had a losing record, averaged scoring less than three runs a game, and the advertiser has had a series of incidents affect its cars, including creating a giant traffic jam in San Francisco itself. I’m also sure that none of that means the Giants are getting rid of the patch. (Thanks, Phil)
- In this video, Cal Ripken Jr. explains how his brother Billy posed for a 1989 Fleer baseball card with the words “Fuck Face” visible on his bat knob: he’d written it on the bat himself in order to tell it apart from others and it was inadvertently used for the card. The picture was quickly airbrushed or modified in other ways once Fleer realized the words were visible, but the card also exists uncensored. (From Andrew Cosentino)
- A piece on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday criticized MLB stadium names with ads in them as characterless. (From Sam Selker)
- TV details: My brother Nate Rathjen spotted Klaus Borowski, one of the police investigators in the German series Tatort, wearing a Yankees cap in roughly Browns colors in an episode from 2006. “Sure to give someone a heart attack,” he says. By total coincidence, somebody being interviewed on the public broadcaster ZDF’s news on Friday was wearing a different Yankees cap.
Football
NFL
- If you’ve been following the saga about Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater’s number, yes, he actually did wear No. 50 in a real live (preseason) game; photos 20 and 21 are action shots. (From our own Jerry Wolper)
- Madden NFL 24 apparently launched with the letter “I” glitching in Dolphins players’ NOBs. (From John Flory)
- Somewhere out there, there is an orthopedics poster on the hip and knee that has clearly visible Packers and Bears players along with other athletes on it. (From Russell Goutierez)
College
- Ohio State gives out the No. 0 jersey as an award each year. This year’s recipient is WR Xavier Johnson. (Thanks, Phil)
Basketball
NBA
- If you’re wondering why former NBAer Dwyane Wade wore No. 3 for most of his career, he cites Allen Iverson as inspiration. (Thanks, Phil)
WNBA
- The Mystics inducted Nikki McCray-Penson, just known as Nikki McCray when playing, into the team’s hall of fame yesterday. Unfortunately she passed away in June, so the team also wore a memorial patch, gave away the T-shirts the players wore when arriving at the game to all fans, and put the logo from the T-shirts on the floor. (From @Starkman55)
Soccer
USA
- Charleston Southern’s women’s team looked like they started the season with numbers taped on and some falling off. (From Gregory Koch)
International
- The final four games of the women’s World Cup used a gold version of the tournament’s ball design.
- The goalscorer in the final, Spain’s Olga Carmona, celebrated by lifting up her shirt to reveal a very hard-to-read “Merchi” on her undershirt. She said afterwards it was a tribute to a friend’s mom who passed away recently, but it was also reported as a reference to her former school.
- England: New third shirt for West Ham United of both top tiers.
- Scotland: The 150th anniversary of the men’s national team is coming up. The Scottish Football Association posted an overview of their first- and second-choice shirts. It includes my very favorite design in the entire sport: the primrose and pink hoops worn a few times from 1881-1951, based on the horse racing colors of UK Prime Minister and president of the SFA Lord Rosebery. It’s apparently such a nice color scheme it’s included in both pieces.
- Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk qualified for the men’s UEFA Champions League again this season and can’t play European matches in Ukraine — in fact, they haven’t played in Donetsk since 2014 because of the first Russian invasion of Ukraine — so they’ll play their games in the competition at Hamburger SV’s Volksparkstadion. Last season, they were hosted in Poland by Legia Warszawa.
Cycling
- On a blog where the author does the New York Times crossword each day, the guest author of yesterday’s post included a fundraising plug for a triathlon he’s training for. It shows a picture of him wearing the Uni Watch cycling jersey. (From Joe Makowiec)
Grab Bag
- In an Australian Football League men’s game on Saturday, Brisbane’s Deven Robertson had his shirt ripped completely in half in a tackle, proceeding to play with it hanging off of him in shreds. After a few seconds he threw it away completely and briefly played shirtless before one of Brisbane’s runners brought him another one. (From Travis Holland)
- During Covid, an entrepreneur in Colorado started creating belts out of trading cards. The article shows MLB, NBA, and NFL designs, but he does other sports leagues as well as movies, music, and TV shows. (From Matthew Wolfram)
- One of Delaware field hockey’s promotions for this season is a T-shirt featuring a logo for the 25th anniversary of their stadium, followed by a mini-stick giveaway.
Comments (10)
Those belts made of trading cards are very clever!
The card belts are a very cool idea, but I would be a little cautious if deciding to order one. My wife got me one of his hockey card belts, made of all 90s Penguins, which was awesome. But, it is kind of an awkward product, and mine broke after about a month of normal use. First, I’ll say that in person I don’t think the belts look quite like they do on his site. The images seem processed to some degree, as I think they look almost like images screened onto fabric when viewed on the site. In reality, you’re definitely getting laminated cards, which look like you probably think they do. Because of the stiffness inherent in laminated cardboard there is a break in period, where it’s a bit clunky to wear. You kind of have to crease it where it bends around your waste, to get it to work. Lastly, the little loop that holds the end of the belt ripped and fell off after about a month. So, a super cool idea, but the one I got could have used some refinement.
That pencil bat is great!!!!!!!!!!
That TV Details blurb is probably the most obscure thing I’ve ever read. Love it.
I took a trip to Scandinavia this summer. I noticed a disturbingly large number of Yankees caps in non-Yankees colors.
I noticed a disturbingly large number of Yankees caps
in non-Yankees colors.Fixed it for ya
Yankees caps were hugely fashionable across the continent when I lived in Europe 2003-05. I don’t think many Europeans had any clue what the logo meant in any specific way. I mean, when we first arrived in Amsterdam, there were weekly mass protests against the then-looming US invasion of Iraq, and you’d see a hundred thousand young people chanting anti-American slogans, most of the men wearing a Yankees cap.
I took to wearing a Red Sox cap while I lived there. To locals, it read like a fashion miss, like I had a knock-off or cheap off-brand version of the trendy Yankees cap. To American and Canadian expats and tourists, it functioned like a neon sign identifying me as an American, differentiating me clearly from the average local in his Yankees cap.
Did I miss any comments about Sunday’s powder-blue faceoff between the Brewers and Rangers? Just awful.
Counterpoint: It’s a Browns cap that just happens to have the Yankees logo on it.
RE: The guy who makes belts out of trading cards. Very cool, but I think illegal as a commercial enterprise. I started down the road of making things out of otherwise worthless old baseball cards and found that the card companies will shut you down on ebay or etsy or wherever. The public might mistake your products as officially licensed, degrading their brand, supposedly.