Today in the Ticker: Stirrups with flip-flops, a K-pop/basketball crossover, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for July 17, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
- The St. Joseph Mustangs, a collegiate summer wood bat team in St. Joseph, Mo., change their name to the “Tenderloins” for a few games each season. More here. (from @savagechiefs92)
- Chris Doering, a former Florida wide receiver who’s now on the SEC Network, apparently made a bet with somebody on the Men’s College World Series championship because he was on a flight yesterday in full LSU uniform. I’m willing to say that’s probably the first recorded instance of stirrups with flip-flops. (From @904craftbeerdad)
Football
NFL
- At least one observer thinks veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins is in the running for having the league’s worst uniform career, although there’s probably lots of competition.
College
- “If I’m reading this correctly, SMU’s Hayden Fry would award certain players red helmets while everyone else was wearing white helmets,” says James Gilbert.
Basketball
WNBA
- The league announced on Saturday that Phoenix will host the 2024 All-Star Game.
More
- The fourth anniversary of K-pop band CIX’s debut is next weekend and they’re leaning heavily into a basketball theme for the occasion, creating a logo, posing in uniforms, and posting a schedule graphic. (From Greg Franklin)
Soccer
USA
- The USL W League is adding an expansion team in Richmond, Va., for next season.
- This piece on some of the history of early women’s World Cups mentions that after the US won the first one in 1991, Sweden laid out their socks to spell “USA Gold” at the team hotel.
- Here’s some of the process of North Carolina’s football stadium Kenan Memorial Stadium being prepared to host a men’s preseason game between Chelsea and Wrexham this week. (From James Gilbert)
International
- England: The new Women’s Super League ball design was released yesterday.
- Italy: Two signings made in June for AS Roma’s men’s team, Houssem Aouar and Evan Ndicka, were introduced with last season’s shirt that they won’t wear. Roma’s switch to Adidas took effect July 1, as with many contracts in the sport. That thread is also keeping track of new signings’ numbers in the top European men’s leagues. (From Denis Hurley)
- Italy: Two new shirts for Bologna of the men’s Serie A.
- Italy: New second shirt for Hellas Verona of the men’s Serie A.
- Italy: Two new shirts for AC Monza of the men’s Serie A. If the motorsports people out there recognize the track in the club’s name, rest assured the club leaned into that connection this time.
- Switzerland: Two new shirts for FC Basel of both top tiers.
Auto Racing
- The two drivers on Porsche’s Formula E team, António Félix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein, had messages poking fun at each other on their halos this weekend in Rome: “Pascal Likes Pineapple Pizza” for da Costa and “António Cuts His Spaghetti” for Wehrlein.
Tennis
- Wimbledon’s new women’s singles champion, Markéta Vondroušová, already has a lot of tattoos and apparently is in the market for another one after winning the title.
- Meanwhile, if you’re unaware, tennis balls were traditionally white until it was demonstrated that yellow was more visible on TV. (From James Gilbert)
Comments (18)
The more fascinating part of the tennis ball color change is that it was proposed by a young BBC presenter named David Attenborough. Yes, that David Attenborough.
Was Finley’s idea for yellow baseballs or orange? I can’t remember.
Wish that idea had taken off, rather than the DH.
Orange.
Would have worked if he went with black stitching instead of red.
I’d also be on board with a yellow baseball.
I’ve seen yellow baseballs used in games where players have vision issues… makes tracking a pitch as the plate ump way easier and I’d be a fan of all baseballs being that color.
Just don’t let Nike design it.
The Savannah Bananas use yellow baseballs
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Doering’s lost bet was with his SEC Network on-air colleague, Peter Burns, an LSU grad.
Hopkins played 1/2 dozen years for the Houston Texans, who I regard as having good looking/under-rated/modern classic uniform sets…so, no.
OTTOMH, it’s tough to say who would be in the running for the NFL’s worst uniform career, but over in the NBA I think Allen Iverson deserves careful consideration.
Gave it some thought – Paul Posluszny had it pretty bad…started his career in 2010 wearing this:
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…ended it a decade later wearing these:
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2007…having a bad day today.
I enjoy watching CFL football games. WHen they show the crowd shots, I’ve noticed a large amount of ppl in the stands wearing blank team jerseys. It’s not just one team either, it’s ALL of them. I swear EVERY crowd shot has one fan with a blank jersey! I”m going to start documenting it but wondered if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon? Also, does it happen in NFL games and I just haven’t noticed?
I’m pretty sure the teams only sell numberless jerseys. At least several years ago when I used to peruse certain teams’ websites, I only saw blank ones offered.
As well, if you look online on one of the large national (Canadian) sporting goods stores under replica jerseys for CFL, the current available choices in that category looks to be all blank:
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Just speculation, but maybe a small part of that is a lot of movement of players year to year (though the CFL is far from alone in that) and some limited star power. Part also may be a holdover from back when a time when NHL replica hockey jerseys were very commonly sold blank in Canada (no number or name).
The younger generation of hockey jersey collectors (Facebook groups, Reddit subreddit, etc.) from what I’ve seen there seems to be more concerned with getting a player and number on jerseys – not sure if that runs more for the high number of American based members, or those that closely follow other ‘big four sports’ or if it is a trend worldwide.
Personally I own more blank replica jerseys than other, but that might be partially because most of what I’ve collected is replica minor league hockey jerseys. As far as CFL jersey, most came second hand and most, though not all, have at least numbers on them – the throwback ones for the year it was that style the others mostly have both name and number.
Winnipeg’s team store sells numbered jerseys.
England: The new Women’s Super League ball design was released yesterday.
I said this yesterday in the comments for the Women’s World Cup review:
Changing (jersey) designs every year or two…sure, okay.
I’m still bamboozled by the need to change the ball design every year, though. I know the rea$on why, and yet every other sport resists the temptation to change the basic look of its ball. Why is soccer so different?
When you’re pleased with the way your balls look, why change?
Well played PH
In addition, penalty flags in (‘Merican) football were originally white (NFL) and red (college) until each was switched to yellow.