Today in the Ticker: A reader’s Frankenjersey gets on Twitter (and not from us), a typo that might be good luck, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for Nov. 20, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- “Here’s a very nice short video on MLB team cardigans that approaches the topic partly from a knitting perspective,” says Clint Wrede.
- “Lots of great photos in this list of one writer’s favorite old defunct MLB ballparks,” says Kary Klismet.
Minors
- You might remember that a possum had to be dragged off the field during the Texas Tech/TCU football game two weeks ago. The Double-A Arkansas Travelers have a swamp possum mascot named Otey who visited for the Texas Tech-Central Florida game on Saturday. (From Kary Klismet)
- The Single-A Lake Elsinore Storm have new logos. (From Kary Klismet)
More
- Baseball United — that’s the new pro league in the Middle East and South Asia — released its All-Star uniforms. (From Marcus Hall)
Football
NFL
- The Broncos installed a new field, which made its debut last night. (From Kary Klismet)
College
- We already have a uniform combo for tomorrow: Western Michigan’s white/grey/grey. (From Brandon Weir)
- After Saturday’s USC/UCLA color vs. color game, one writer thinks that there should be a lot more of those. (Thanks, Phil)
- Reader Thad Balkman was at Saturday’s BYU/Oklahoma game and has degrees from both schools. He got a friend to make a Frankenjersey (on the left) for both teams, took that picture with someone else wearing a different frankenjersey on the sideline, and also had an Oklahoma reporter notice and question his jersey on Twitter (yes, the NOB is “Boomer Cougar”).
- Also posted in Baseball: You might remember that a possum had to be dragged off the field during the Texas Tech-TCU game two weeks ago. The Double-A Arkansas Travelers have a swamp possum mascot named Otey who visited for the Texas Tech-Central Florida game on Saturday. (From Kary Klismet)
Hockey
NHL
- Bruins G Linus Ullmark paid tribute to the team’s former goalie Gerry Cheevers — and some other Bruins players whose names can be seen around the top of the cage — with his mask on Saturday. (From Wade Heidt)
- Reader Mike Priest thinks there were two different versions of the Islanders’ fisherman jersey in the two seasons it was worn. “It’s most (only?) noticeable on the last ‘S’ in Islanders,” he says. “The first year, the border follows the contour of the S, and the second year, the border is straight with a weird flare at the top of the S.”
Minors/Juniors
- The Junior A British Columbia Hockey League’s Langley Rivermen’s colors are now dark blue and white, but they somehow have a new burgundy alternate. (From Wade Heidt)
- In the same league, the Penticton Vees wore throwbacks to a former identity, the Broncos, for the 50th anniversary of their 1973 championship. That created a color vs. color game with the Victoria Grizzlies. (From Wade Heidt)
More
- The UK’s Elite Ice Hockey League’s Nottingham Panthers played their first game on Saturday since the death of their player Adam Johnson, an exhibition against their league-mates the Manchester Storm. Both teams’ jerseys were tributes to Johnson. We mentioned yesterday that the Panthers would also be retiring Johnson’s No. 47.
- PWHL teams skated for the first time on Friday, although they just have generic practice jerseys in several different colors with the league’s logo, white nameplates, and no numbers.
Basketball
College
- Virginia’s women’s team debuted a new orange uniform yesterday. I believe it may be the school’s first uniform with a “Hoos” script. Opponents Oklahoma wore white on the road.
- Bradley’s men’s team will debut a Peoria-skyline alternate on Dec. 2. (Thanks to all who shared)
Soccer
USA
- NWSL champions Gotham FC came under criticism last week for not holding a parade or anything else to celebrate their title, if only to reward their fans that stuck with them. They’ve only made the NWSL playoffs three times and have finished last or near-last more times than that, including last season. The team ended up apologizing and said they would try to set something up in the offseason, which turns out to be tonight.
- The boys’ team at Long Beach HS in New York got state championship rings. (From Kary Klismet)
International
- England: Manchester United hosted yesterday’s Women’s Super League Manchester derby at Old Trafford, only the fourth time the women’s team has played there in front of a crowd. That led one writer to call for WSL clubs to be “braver” in hosting games at their men’s teams’ stadiums, basically to normalize those games instead of passing them off as special events. Only two WSL teams, Leicester City and Bristol City, play all league games at their men’s teams’ stadiums.
- France: The men’s national team scored 14 (!) goals against Gibraltar while wearing bleuet armbands on Saturday, except for captain Kylian Mbappé, who did not go for the double-armband look. (Thanks, Anthony)
- Ireland: Two new kits for Cork City of both top tiers.
- I imagine most non-soccer people here don’t know that Palestine is a member of FIFA with a home stadium in the West Bank — although they can’t play there right now, obviously — and is currently participating in Asian qualifiers for the 2026 men’s World Cup. The men’s team displayed a Palestinian flag and wore black and white keffiyehs, a nationalist symbol, before their first qualifier on Thursday.
- Meanwhile, Israel’s men’s team’s latest two games were Euro 2024 qualifiers that were moved to Budapest. Before both matches, fans displayed pictures of Israeli hostages.
Cricket
- On the topic of normalizing women’s sports teams playing in larger venues, Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League is doing just that next weekend, going to three of the country’s larger stadiums.
Grab Bag
- Oklahoma State won the Division I cross country men’s team championship this weekend. Coach Dave Smith’s hoodie had “State” spectacularly misspelled. “Maybe it’ll be good luck from now on,” says Jonathan Sluss.
- Not quite Can of the Day, but Pizza Box of the Day: Somewhere there is a Wiffleball-themed pizza place. (From Marty Hick)
Comments (13)
IIRC, North Carolina and N.C. State have played color-vs.-color games – in both football and men’s basketball (James Gilbert, can you recall particular years? Asking because I cannot right off the top of my head). But some blue-vs.-red matchups have occurred here.
Looks like the flare on the S was done to make it symmetrical with the flare on the I on the Islanders Fisherman logo. Interesting to see that kind of a running change.
Isles made the fisherman logo much smaller the second season as players were complaining about it interfering with their play. Might have something to do with it
Edit note: Link to the first Fisherman logo is broken.
Misspelled is misspelled on the OSU hoodie item. Meta!
Fixed.
I Miss The Vet.
OP@CY makes Memorial Stadium easy to forget I suppose.
I’d like to see more color vs. color too.
NCAA – certainly in bowl games with enough contrast and probably trophy games, rivalry games.
NFL – color vs. color but only in the playoffs. Make it special.
NHL – same, just in the playoffs.
The Whiffle Boys Pizza place appears to be in southern Illinois, near Missouri and Kentucky at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Place looks like fun – next time I’m driving to Kentucky, I might try to get a pie there; should only add a couple of hours to the drive.
I’d like to see more color vs color in football, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a contrast jersey being introduced so we don’t have to see the Nebraska vs Wisconsin type of uni match up where if you’re flipping around you easily lost track which team is which.
Fanatics is this year’s Naval Academy uniform theme for this year’s Army-Navy game. They’re honoring the submarine corps (aka Silent Service).
link
*Fanatics has
RE: Color on color. No. Please no. I’m still trying to figure out why we have things in place, sometimes for over a hundred years, and someone comes along and thinks a change is necessary.
PS: Shout out to Marcus Hall. He’s a good one.