A few days ago I posted photos of Johnny Estrada with his fingernails painted white, to make his signals easier for the pitcher to see. Reader Howard Corday then posted the following comment: “This weekend, Toby Hall of the D-Rays actually got his fingernails painted white on the mound. They brought out what looked like a bottle of Wite-Out and painted each nail in his right hand.” That got me curious, so I poked around in some recent game video and found the incident in question, which took during a mound conference on May 26. Third baseman Aubrey Huff applied the Wite-Out right there on the mound, with clearly visible results.
This is the part where I say, “What’s next, pedicures?”
Uni Watch News Ticker: Last Thursday I wrote about MLB’s new hot-weather Cool Base jerseys, which are mesh instead of double-knit and are supposedly indistinguishable from regular jerseys. Not so fast — turns out the Cool Bases have stretch gussets that look bad enough on a white jersey and even worse on a pinstriped model, as was painfully evident during yesterday’s Cubs game (thanks to David Schmitt for that last photo). … Most MLB players wore American flag cap patches yesterday, in honor of Memorial Day, although a few players were flag-free (nothing as bizarre as Miguel Tejada’s upside-down flag from last year, though). The umpires had flag patches too, which I think might be a new thing — anyone remember if the umps have been flag-clad in past seasons? Another thing that I’m pretty sure hasn’t happened before: The Padres celebrated the holiday by wearing their camouflage outfits, which they normally wear only for one game in April. … Lots of additional info here about Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond’s throwback catcher’s helmets (thanks to Steven Lobejko). … Speaking of catcher’s helmets: Amidst all the fuss about Frank Robinson replacing Matthew LeCroy with Robert Fick in the middle of an inning on May 25, most observers failed to note that Fick wore his helmet with the brim facing forward. This makes him the latest addition to our small fraternity of front-brimmed backstops (the other members of which are, of course, Jason Phillips, Kevin Cash, and Adam Melhuse). … Several readers have asked what Chad Cordero has written on the underside of his exceedingly flat brim. The answer: “Chief,” a nickname that was bestowed upon him by a college teammate. … More logo creep in college baseball (courtesy of David Schmitt): Check out the UnderArmour-branded socks being worn by USF and Pepperdine. … Wondering why the number on Hanley Ramirez’s helmet didn’t match his uni number on Sunday? OK, so you probably weren’t, but here’s the story anyway: As Ramirez was leading off the game, he discovered his helmet was cracked, so he ran back to the dugout and used Alfredo Amezaga’s helmet instead. … At some point we’ll make all sorts of Uni Watch merchandise available on this site. For now, though, there are still a few XXL T-shirts left from the Uni Watch party back in March, featuring this design. Sorry, all other sizes are sold out — XXL is all that’s available. Interested? Get in touch.