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Auction Action, Hockey Edition

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Latest contribution from the increasingly indispensable Mike Hersh: a bunch of listings from the latest Classic Auctions sale, most of them hockey-oriented. Let’s take a look:

• I really like this 1955 Team Canada jersey, although the color scheme and red stripes make the design feel more American than Canadian. Also, interesting how the blue yoke extends down into the armpit area instead of running as a straight horizontal panel.

• Here’s another case of a Canadian jersey with an unusual color scheme. When I first saw it, I immediately thought, “Mexico!”

• At first glace, this Russian jersey is nothing special. But the crest is interesting, the collar is extremely modern-looking for 1975, and the number font is odd enough to make me wish I could see the other numerals in the set.

• It’s one thing to have a ribbed crew-neck collar, but how often do you see a ribbed lace-up placket? Note the diacriticals on the NOB, too. Love the block-shadowed font.

• Edison got all the glory, but Tesla got the super-cool hockey jersey. Is that awesome or what? Uni Watch’s highest rating.

• And here we have something that’s earned Uni Watch’s, uh, less than highest rating. Sort of brilliant in its wretchitude. Bonus points for prompting what I’m sure will be a “What’s so bad about it?” comment from The Jeff.

• Oh man — an instant classic. Click on the photo see the inner stitching on the felt uni number. Dear Ebbets Field Flannels, please make a version of this, pronto!

• Here’s a rarity: a WHA all-star jersey.

• In the non-hockey category, I love these Reach retail displays.

• We’ve all seen NFL bobbles, but how about a CFL set? There’s another batch of them here.

+ + + + +

Uni Watch News Ticker: I’ve been on the road for the past three days and haven’t had much time to deal with e-mail, so my apologies to any Ticker contributors whose submissions didn’t make it into today’s compendium. ”¦ While driving home last night, I stopped at a gas station whose mini-mart was offering a great uni-related discount. ”¦ I just won this groovy sign on eBay for only 20 bucks — not bad. Haven’t decided where I’m gonna put it yet, but it might end up on the wall above my desk. ”¦ Check out the great Boston Garden jackets from Bobby Orr’s number-retirement ceremony. “I’ve never seen them before, but boy do I wish I had one!” says Mike Delia. ”¦ Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan got himself a uni-themed pedicure (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ HT Adjemian notes that Joe Torre’s undershirt didn’t look very old-timer-y, and the purple wristband didn’t help either. ”¦ Lots of nice retro-styled soccer posters here (with thanks to Chad Todd). ”¦ I’m generally of the opinion that the perfect amount of back hair to have is none at all, but I might make an exception in this case (big thanks to Tim Burke). ”¦ Sean Wilson noticed an interesting nameplate snafu from last year’s NHL draft. ”¦ In a vaguely related item, here’s a video clip featuring former NHL No. 1 overall picks talking about the first sweaters they had as fans (with thanks to Anthony Emerson). ”¦ More NHL draft news: Looks like the Islanders have added a 40th-season patch (interesting that they’re putting it on the shoulder, Rangers-style) and the Sens have added an All-Star Game patch). Also, all teams used No. 11 jerseys (cuz it’s 2011, duh), but some used apostrophes and some didn’t. Also-also, the Jets — who, in case you hadn’t heard, are called the Jets now — used generic NHL jerseys (with no NHL logo on the collar, cuz that would be redundant, right?). Phil had more NHL draft coverage back on Saturday, and I’ll have more over on ESPN.com later this week, but that’s all I have time for in today’s Ticker. ”¦ Here’s a pro wrestler whose trunks look a bit like the Packers’ throwback jersey design. And sure enough, Marc-Louis Paprzyca says the wrestler, who goes by “Mr. Anderson,” is from Green Bay. ”¦ Uniform typos apparently extend all the way back to the Civil War. That’s a Union soldier from Oiho Ohio (great find by Chris Bisbee). ”¦ Update! That’s not a typo after all. As R. Scott Rogers immediately pointed out in the comments, it’s just a reverse-image daguerreotype. It’s tricky, because all the letters in “Ohio” look the same in their respective mirror images. … Speaking of typos: “ESPN’s in-race NASCAR reporter, Max Papis, had ‘Livestrong’ on his helmet and his visor,” writes Patrick Padden. “They spelled it right on the visor but wrong on the helmet.” ”¦ “This article announcing the release of Burnley FC’s 2011-12 home kit includes an interesting backstory for why Burnley’s new Puma jerseys will have 2 stripes featured on the shoulders, shorts and socks,” writes Jonathon Binet. “It has to do with Dutch soccer player Johann Cruyff and the 1974 World Cup and the removal of a stripe from his Adidas jersey. So is Puma using two stripes as a direct attack on Adidas’s three stripes? I searched for other photos of the ’74 Dutch team and, sure enough, some players have three stripes and some have two. In this photo, you can clearly see Cruyff, with the captain’s armband, wearing only two stripes, while the other players have three.” ”¦ Recent Pirates call-up Chase d’Arnaud has one doozy of an NOB (screen shot courtesy of Justin Shawley). ”¦ Dylan Buell says the broadcasters during a recent Cubs/Royals game noted that KC pitcher Bruce Chen has worn nine different uni numbers for 11 different teams. Anyone know what the record might be? ”¦ Interesting find by Jeffrey Moulden, who writes: “I was going through a box and found some 1996 articles in the Ohio State school newspaper talking about how Ohio State was going to wear black jerseys in the Michigan game. It obviously never happened, but it was good that some people were all about tradition and not commercialism.” ”¦ Here’s a video clip about how Rafael Nadal preps his shoes for match play (Brinke again). ”¦ Speaking of pregame rituals, Blue Jays reliever Jason Frasor like to fill his cap with water before each game (with thanks to Dan Cichalski). ”¦ Hmmm, a Maryland football player holding a black helmet. Anyone know more about that? (As noted by Matt Shevin.) ”¦ “Never seen this Minnesota Wild logo before, but I saw it on an officially licensed cap at my local sports paraphernalia store the other day,” says Tim E. O’Brien. “The logo doesn’t appear on Chris Creamer’s site, so I’m a bit perplexed.” Me too. ”¦ The Tigers retired Sparky Anderson’s number. ”¦ I had no idea Cooperalls were still being worn, but here’s some video of Sean Couturier, the Flyers’ top draft pick, wearing red Cooperalls in his under-17 league days check that, it’s his father, not him (still a good find by Matt Dubroff). ”¦ Marlon Byrd will be wearing a faceguard when he begins his triple-A rehab assignment. I love that he says he’s going “a little Terry Steinbach, which shows how iconic this look became (thanks, Bryan). ”¦ Jon Rathbun notes that the U.S. Military All-Stars barnstorming team has added memorial patches for Harmon Killebrew and Bob Feller.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I think of the Bills’ new uniforms. I’ll have plenty to say about them, and about all the other uni news that’s been breaking in the NBA and NHL, later this week on ESPN.com.

 
  
 
Comments (137)

    I don’t know how geeky it is, but I know that the typeface on the ‘Kids with a Uniform’ promotion sign meant you were at a Stewart’s. Right?

    I’ve noticed signs for a similar promotion at the Baskin Robbins in Styertowne (in the shopping center which once was home to Rizzuto-Berra Lanes).

    That sign reminded me of my youth little league career (which wasn’t a career).

    In the complex of fields we played on, there was a concession stand. After every game, we lined up as a team (with the coach selected MVP leading the line) and walked to the concession stand for a “free” soda.

    This was before the self serve soda machines were prevalent, so being able to get our own soda was a bonus.

    I didn’t know any place still “honored” youth players…nice to see.

    Yeah I only played two years of little league but I remember them giving us a ticket after games that allowed us to exchange it for an item. Like a soda or a corndog or something. Wow, greta memories.

    Is it possible that the Cooperall clip are actually guys playing roller hockey? The clip moved to quickly to tell for sure. Didn’t seem like much going on in the shoulder pad dept. for it to be ice hockey.

    That is ice hockey and it is Coutourier’s dad for sure. You can also tell by the COoper XL7 helmets being worn that this is an old clip.

    Cooper as a company went away in the mid-90s. The infamous XL7 helmets they are wearing were an 80’s classic in bad design. Most hockey equipment experts say that the XL7 helmet was the worst piece of hockey equipment ever made. So radical…

    Correct. At 2:00 of the video, the voiceover says, “Sean’s international experience has outshone his father’s as well. Sylvain played in Canada’s under-17 program but came up just short for the world junior [under-20] team.” This goes on while the Cooperall-wearing Sylvain Couturier is on screen.

    The Civil War typo is not a typo. Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes and tintypes are reverse images. So that’s not a misspelled OIHO, that’s just OHIO seen in a mirror.

    Probably a sign of early dementia, but as a young child in Iowa, I used to like how you could reverse some words and make other words. Like OIHO, and AWOI, and IIAWAH, and USUZI. Is there a word for that not-quite-a-palindrome phenomenon?

    Anyway, those old photo types are kind of spooky when you think about it. Because they capture a positive image on a glass or metal plate, in a very literal sense you’re seeing the ghost of the person’s actual reflection in a mirror. You’re seeing them as if seeing from their own eyes into a mirror.

    For example, President Lincoln usually arched his left eyebrow, since he had a lazy left eye and had to hold his eyelid up to see. So if you see an image of him with his left eyebrow arched, as on the $5 bill, you know the image has been flipped back to its correct orientation. If you see an image of Lincoln with his right eyebrow arched, you know you’re looking at an original image, and seeing Lincoln as he saw himself in the mirror.

    “… Is there a word for that not-quite-a-palindrome phenomenon?…”

    **

    Penpalindrome.

    I noticed his uniform jacket closes “backwards” too (like a ladies coat). Thus i KNEW the pjoto was simply reversed.

    This is the reason people thought Billy the Kid was a southpaw. That one authenticated tintype photo of the Kid was reversed and his pistol was on his left.

    I think that reversed photo was the inspiration for Joe Ely’s song, “Me And Billy The Kid”:

    Me and Billy the Kid never got along
    I didn’t like the way he tied his shoes
    And he wore his gun all wrong…

    I thought I was the only one who noticed USUZI in the rearview mirror when leading an Isuzu.

    Heck with the inner stitching on the number of link, look at the inner stitching on the leaf! That’s a beaut.

    The Wild hat is from an old line of Zephyr hats called their ZLine (I think that is the name of the line). I have one for the Penguins, Notre Damem, and Ohio State.

    They’re just “fashion” hats made by Zhats. It probably came from the Marketing Dept. of both zhats.com and the league. They’re legit in the sense that the league/teams sign off on them, but they exist purely for revenue.

    link

    Here’s the one they did for the Rangers. Not a logo used by the team.

    link

    I also remember them doing a flyers one with an ‘F’ logo on the front

    Zephyr also created some of these logo variations for colleges too. In most cases, they were just “angry” versions of the existing logos, but a few schools got logo treatments like the Wild’s. Like BiggRigg and John said, they’re just fashion logos; you’ll never see it on a jersey or probably anything else (like a t-shirt).

    Agreed! I especially liked the one for Cruyff. Guy was so good they named a move after him ;)

    The Lothar Mattaus poster is screwed up. The lozenges should be in a diagonal pattern(top end pointing NW) to represent Bavaria.

    Most of the posters are hit or miss design wise, but a decent choice of players.

    They probably could have gone with a bigger image of Cristiano Ronaldo and with a different picture of Ferenc Puskás (the one they used makes me cringe), but I still think these posters are the greatest! My personal favorites are the Eusébio and the Zidane – Materazzi ones.

    I only count 10 teams for Bruce Chen: KC, Atl, Bal, NY Mets, Phi, Bos, Tex, Cin, Mon, Hou.

    And only 8 different numbers: 48, 39, 32 (Mets and Expos), 52 (Reds, Red Sox, and KC), 31, 64, 27, 46.

    I wonder what inspired him to take the hideous 64 for a brief time in Baltimore? Was it made up for him on short notice and he just decided to keep it for the rest of the year? I’m glad he switched.

    Looks like he was a Blue Jay for about a month. There are no stats listed, so maybe he was on the DL for his entire stint.

    November 26, 2003: Signed as a Free Agent with the Toronto Blue Jays.
    May 1, 2004: Sent to the Baltimore Orioles by the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a conditional deal.

    JTH, good find! If he had been assigned a number, but never got into a game, that would explain the discrepancy.

    Though I thought that traditionally, people who were on rosters but never played in a single game didn’t go into the books. The Cubs once had a pitcher, #32 Mark Leonette, who made the roster but never got into a game before being sent back down, never to return to the majors. That’s got to be something that eats away at you for the rest of your life!

    George Brunet wore 18 different numbers in the MLB, including such un-pitchery numbers as 4 and 9.

    Terry’s dad, Tito Francona wore 10 (wore 19 twice)…
    link
    Dave Philley wore a whole bunch, too….
    link
    How ’bout a mess of different numbers with the same franchise?…
    link

    1962 Met Bob L. Miller wore 17 different numbers — no duplications — during his career as a pitcher and coach.

    Here you go. The trick, if you’re gonna play for a lot of teams, is to pick a high enough, odd enough number so no one else likely to have it.
    Also, play in a era where they don’t say, “Here, we got this jersey from the last guy who wore it, and it fits you, so take it.”
    link

    MIIIIIIIIISTAAAAAAAH ANDERSON … … ANDERSON definitely plays up the Green Bay connection. I remember back when he was in WWE he had one move whose name sorta fluctuated between Green Bay Plunge and Lambeau Leap. In his other sports related antics, he also introduces himself a la a boxing announcer like Michael Buffer. It comes with an announcer style microphone being lowered from the rafters to the center of the ring. It’s a cool little gimmick he has going.

    Mr. Anderson is one of my favorite wrestlers. He is the TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

    I’m not sure “Warp’s” is the greatest name for a plastics company. Then again maybe it’s the best name ever.

    I suppose it’s good if your the “Warp Brothers”. Still, I may have opted for a different name.

    Nice sign though.

    Regarding the Maryland football helmet, that may be something new Maryland is doing (I’m a Maryland student, FYI). Last year, we had Three Jerseys and Three Pants, but our helmet was always the white with red script (see link). It’s been rumored that we’re getting new jersey’s this year, something exciting to say the least. Since we have such a close association with Under Armour (founder Kevin Plank went to UM and was the football team’s placekicker during his time there), we always are at the forefront of their testing and new material and products.

    I always knew Maryland had a connection with UA, but never realized the founder played there.

    Also, I find it interesting that Maryland never gets the same hype that Oregon does (about the relationship with Nike). Maybe it’s because the Phil Knight factor is so much bigger with Oregon.

    Nonetheless, I remember when the Terps first appeared in UA unis. They were certainly different at the time, but maybe the fact that they still incorporated the traditional school colors, kept them from becoming a side show… aka Oregon’s lifestyle unis.

    Oregon gets the bype because Oregon did it first, not that that makes it right. No. 2? Not so much.

    And in that story, Iconic red “Terps” script: Iconic? I always associated it with lame.

    The Tesla hockey jersey is not named for the scientist in any way, although I thought the same thing when I went through the auction site weeks ago. Instead, “Tesla” stands for “TEchnika SLAboproudá” – “low voltage technology” in Czechoslovakian. Tesla was the state-owned power company during the Czechoslovakian Communist regime, and they sponsored all sorts of sports from hockey to basketball to soccer.

    Also, the EVZ jersey is for Swiss team EV Zug.

    Considering that Nikola Tesla was Serbian, no, Tim, I do not think they shortened it with him in mind. And considering that he was an American citizen by the time he had made some of his most important discoveries in the field of electromagnetism, I highly doubt that a Czech Communist regime would trumpet the name of a Serbian-born American electrical engineer.

    The majority of the Tesla’s work as a company went into creating cheap electronics and devices that rarely, if ever, were updated or upgraded. They started as a company named “Elektra”, but became Tesla in 1946 and focused almost solely on making cheap, inexpensive electrical devices.

    What? That picture is awesome. If I were the hottest closer in baseball at the moment, I would probably be taking pictures of my toes, too.

    Just out of curiosity, why the ticker correction on the daguerreotype but not on the Cooperalls?

    Maryland’s new uniforms will feature a black helmet. Heard they will be having black, white and red. Black I believe will be the primary home based on screenshots from NCAA Football 12 video game.

    link

    I hope this isn’t iconic due to the two in ones. Still don’t know why they can’t figure out how to extend the stripe a little lower on those. It’s not brain surgery. The bottom of the stripe shows up every frudgin time.

    Those are two part socks, of course, and that’s where the two parts (anklet and tube) meet, not unlike where the stirrup and tube met on old-time socks. To get a longer stripe would require a knit-in stripe on the anklet, too. That also would require precise alignment in the joining of the two parts.

    In other words, not worth the expense.

    That’d be my quess, anyway.

    I think the Cooperalls shot is the current prospect’s father, from back in HIS junior days.

    I keep waiting for a story…

    “Nike condemns Boston mayor for not understanding Nike can do what it wants and we’re supposed to buy their rationalization for it.”

    What they expect, apparently, is something like our acceptance of the notion that oil really does just coincidentally happen to get more expensive right before major driving holidays, the three-day weekends and such. Call it the “Oh, okay, if you say so” model.

    Sorry….I try to keep up each day but it’s been difficult with some new additions to the family.

    “… Sorry….I try to keep up each day but it’s been difficult with some new additions to the family…”

    **

    No excuses, Shaftman. Get your priorities in line. So what’d you have, quints?

    I think it’s safe to say that Boston’s mayor would be just flat out disgusted and appalled at link.

    I, for one, don’t give a flying rat’s ass whether Nike or anyone else wants to stick drug references on t-shirts.

    A. First Amendment
    B. It should be legalized anyway.
    C. It’s a freakin t-shirt. If you don’t like it, then don’t wear it.

    It comes down to what we (the societal “we”) see as things that are appropriate for corporate giants to appear to be promoting. And whether or not some things should be legal or not, the fact is that right now they ARE illegal.

    I’m sure a t-shirt saying…
    ANNUAL PEDOPHILE PICNIC.
    BRING THE KIDS.
    Nike

    …would engender some wrath.
    And saying, “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it” wouldn’t make the marketing approach okay. Or the expressed sentiment acceptable.

    Seriously question for the legally versed among us…

    Are advertising and promotional materials considered expressions of free speech and thereby protected under the First Amendment?

    I’ll ask also, Is there a distinction between the rights of an individual and the rights of a corporation? Do First Amendment rights apply to both, or only to individual rights, human rights? Or, because a corporation is, financially speaking, a “legal person”, is it entitled to all the same rights as an invididual?

    Question of some controversy. Of course political ads are highly regulated speech and many have held that first amendment freedom of speech should be especially strong for political speech. A recent discussion on non-politcal commercial speech at link, though sadly not at Bob Loblaw’s Law
    Blog, which seems to be pining for the fjords.

    I believe the SC answered that in the Citizens United case last year.
    link

    Big Brother can you spare a dime?

    The Supreme Court.
    “Protecting Big Business’ right to elect officials since…”

    More evidence of my contention that the political right sees this republic as based essentially on a compact between Business and Government with the People at a distance, but getting involved sometimes if necessary…and the politcal left sees it as a compact between the People and Government with Business at a distance, but getting involved sometimes if necessary.

    Over simplistic, of course, and not saying either postion is right or viable, just that it appears to be their respective philosophies.

    Back in the 1940s, the Supreme Court ruled that “commercial speech” is generally not protected under the First Amendment. That is, it is a kind of speech that Congress may make a law to abridge. (And we thought the First Amendment said “Congress shall make no law.” Silly us.) In later rulings, the Supreme Court has backed away a bit, the bottom line being that government may regulate, but generally not prohibit, and almost never prohibit by prior restraint, commercial messages, and in any event it must have a very good reason to do so and no other less intrusive means of achieving the same goal.

    The ruling in Citizens United extended First Amendment protection to political speech by corporations, not commercial speech. Congress (and the legislature of any state) remains free to regulate advertising in ways that it would never be permitted to regulate, say, newspaper editorials.

    SNIBH — Shaved Name In Back Hair — that just leaves one with nightmares. . .

    Just wondering, why the ticker correction on the daguerreotype but not on the Cooperalls?

    Regarding that logo, there’s a hat company out there that takes (for instance) a school team name and embelleshes the concept a little bit. I remember a cornhuskers hat with a cartoonish type fella coming out of a cornfield or something, this Wild cap looks like it runs along the lines of what they do.

    God no. No, it wouldn’t. It looks like a cheeseball Zephyr hat logo. Which is exactly what it is.

    in the Nadal video, something looked odd. Was a pic of a former champion upside down? Was that an Australian joke?

    Not QUITE iconic. The two centermost white stripes should be wider than the outermost two.

    Does looks great though, largely because on both the tube and stirrup versions the stripes are properly positioned near mid-leg. Not far too high—encircling the the calf—as on some socks (cough; Giants, TC Knitting).

    Pretty sure these are backwards…
    link

    Hard say, modern manufacturers tend to make the stirrups the same length…which makes them look backwards when worn (the back one looks lower than the front). I know because I have a couple pair of the newer socks and it drives me nuts.

    the replicas of the new Bills jerseys look horrible! the numbers look too fat, the sleeve stripe looks way off and HOLY SHIT are they shiny!

    A bit more information on the Maryland re-design plans —

    link

    link

    (note: these are not the confirmed final designs)

    In short, the athletic department wants to stress ‘Maryland’ over ‘Terps’ to show more affiliation with the state. Shame they’re killing the nice and popular Bobby Ross/Friedgen eras ‘Terps’ script. Under Armour wants a more radical design to be more like Nikegon.

    Shorter, they’re going to be atrocious.

    Why does the Saskatchewan Roughriders bobble say “Raiders” on the jersey? Were they called the Raiders at some point? Love the site, keep it up!!!

    link

    It’s as if the leaf fell from the tree and drifted gracefully in the autumn breeze until it landed, softly, upon the T….and stuck.

    Too good to be real.

    More uni shenanigans in DC. Let’s play the latest edition of “Spot the Error” in Davey Johnson’s new portrait: link

    Before answering, please note that this “new” portrait is quite possibly actually from November of 2009, when Davey Johnson was first hired by the Nats as a senior adviser.

    Apologies for the false alarm–I didn’t consider that.

    Though while researching this further, I did stumble upon the fact that the Nationals online store is still hawking last year’s link. Which I guess may make some sense since he won’t pitch in 2011. On the other hand, Bryce Harper hasn’t played for the Nats yet this season, and that hasn’t stopped them from offering his big league jersey for sale…

    They probably just made a boatload of those Strasburg jerseys after his initial success and need to sell them off. At least they’re on sale – and they sell 2011 Strasburg stuff as well.

    Quite alright — just trying to stick up for my Nats, whose uni-foibles, I grant you, haven’t provided folks with much reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.

    They probably just made a boatload of those Strasburg jerseys after his initial success and need to sell them off.

    They absolutely did, but it boggles my mind to think that they might still have leftovers, since my purely anecdotal experience is that the Nats managed to sell a Strassburg jersey to literally every man, woman, and child between Glen Burnie, MD, and Charleston, SC. Seriously, you’d go to Nats games in ’09 and ’10 and see entire sections where every fan was wearing Strassiah merch of some sort. How could the Nats have possibly made too much of something that achieved that extraordinary level of market saturation?

    It’s like, the good news is that we’ve just sold our new product to all 7 billion human beings on the planet. The bad news is that we ordered 14 billion from the factory.

    Those two hockey sweaters featured in today’s ticker — Canada national team, 1955; Univ Toronto, 1930s — are among the best looking uni tops I’ve ever seen, in any sport. Wow.

    Five minutes ago, both items were closed for bidding. The winner (I presume) of the ’55 national team sweater bid $6,903. The winner of the UofT shirt bid $862.

    Paul mentioned that he loved that ’55 sweater, but was a little surprised that the colors and stripes seem so American. [Or “Usonian,” as Frank Lloyd Wright thought we USAers should call ourselves.]

    The UW contingent from up north knows this story better than I, but back in 1955 Canada was not yet a red-and-white country. Blue was used a lot in iconic imagery, mainly because the Great Britain Union flag — which constituted the upper quarter of most Canadian flags, and appeared on the official seals of most of the provinces — was blue-red-white. PM Lester Pearson decided in the 1960s that Canada should have its own ensign, and appointed a committee to design it. Their product was quite pretty: two thin vertical blue stripes at both the leftmost and rightmost portions of the rectangle (symbolizing Pacific and Atlantic), with a large white central stripe at the center of which were placed three red maple leafs (maple leaves?). Parliament actually improved that design, I would say, by changing it into the flag we know today. Imagine: a legislature doing a good job on aesthetics. Anyway, Canadians and foreigners alike quickly adopted the red-and-white. And — bien sur — the Quebecois then went strictly blue-and-white. The official Quebec flag — white cross on a blue field, with a fleur-de-lis in every corner — is based on the French flag flown by Montcalm at Quebec and Rochambeau at Yorktown (sweet revenge!). I wish the Quebecois had used the lilies more sparingly — maybe just one in the upper-left quarter — but it’s still a pretty sweet emblem. On y va!

    Of course, Quebec actually came close to seceding from Canada
    in more recent times. Had that occurred, it would have been fun watching the Quebec national hockey team take on Canada’s best. What a war on ice that would have been, especially during the Vancouver Olympics.

    It looks like the lowercase d in Chase d’Arnaud’s name is just an upside-down P.

    I’ve never seen it done that way before. I’ve seen smaller capital D’s, and actual lowercase d’s, but never just a capital P flipped over.

    Agreed. Another reader sent me an e-mail about that earlier this morning. I’ll be following up on it in tomorrow’s Ticker.

    Someone’s probably already pointed this out, but I screwed up with my ticker item. It’s not former No. 1 overall NHL picks, it was the POTENTIAL No. 1 overall NHL picks. Sorry, I just typed the wrong thing. A correction is likely necessary, and I take all the blame.

    “Here’s a pro wrestler who’s trunks” should be
    “Here’s a pro wrestler whose trunks” instead.
    This seems like something short of an apostrophe catastrophe; perhaps just an apostrophe mishap.

    It appears that the civil war photo is a mirrrored image, thus reversing the “Ohio”. I say the because the gentlemans coat and the traditional orientation of the buttons, for a mens coat his buttons are backwards.

    I noticed on the second set of the CFL bobbles that the Saskatchewan team is referred to as the Raiders. I’d never seen that before and can’t find any other reference to this nickname. I wonder if the manufacturer took some liberties or if that was an alternate moniker.

    Charlie Sheen’s last “goddess” has moved out, ditched him.

    Ooo, don’t you hate when that happens?

    Poor guy, sitting there alone, saying, “California Penal” over and over and laughing, remembering better days.

    Re: the Maryland black helmets

    Here’s a screen cap of an all-black Terps uni…presumably from an EA game as well?

    link

    My guess is the traditional red jersey/white pant w/ white helmet & script Terps will be the default ‘home’ set (like the one Paul posted a couple weeks back, where they’re rubbing Testudo’s nose link )…and then all kinds of combos (a la Oregon) as well.

    From the first pic above and the one that has the yellow jersey (someone else posted that earlier in the comments), I was dreading the new unis. But from the pic Paul posted (with the red jerseys that had the turtle shell print on the shoulders) I was relieved that it might not be THAT bad. The striping/piping isn’t out of control…decent uniform.

    On the black helmet…I do like the maryland flag treatment on the back of the helmet, though. Kind of cool.

    Contrary to what the Maryland football website instructs, I cannot “fear the turtle”.

    Can we all agree that the term “Fear the (insert team mascot)” has been overused?

    It was bad enough when ASU (Nike) released the “Fear the Fork” shirts, but now I’m supposed to feel the menacing power of the turtle?!

    I was “on board” with the FSU Fear the Spear campaign, but after that, I can’t find it within myself to fear any other mascot or their accessories. Certainly not a fork or turtle.

    “Fear the Turtle” has been a UMD slogan since at least the late 1990s. Far as I can tell or remember, the Terrapins are the origin of that particular sports trope. If the slogan has been overused, it’s the rest of the world, not Maryland, that’s been overusing it.

    Harvard now says: “Fear the color that’s more or less a deep red, lying somewhere between Scarlet and Burgundy!”

    When was the Bud Ice “Fear the Penguin” campaign? Since they were an NHL sponsor, it leaked over to the Penguins. (Like “Fear the Turtle”, it’s more silly than anything else.)

    Can we all agree that the term “Fear the (insert team mascot)” has been overused?

    Can we all agree that the whole notion of a team’s branding being based on fear, terror, pain, destruction, etc., is overused and pathetic?

    How about this: We’re a good team — we play hard, we execute well. We know you’re playing hard too. That’s why we play a game — to see who’s better. We respect you, and we know you respect us. May the better team win.

    Oh, right, not comic book-y enough…..

    But in Maryland, the whole “Fear the Turtle” thing started out at least partially tongue-in-cheek. Nike isn’t kidding around with its whole “pro combat” BS, but there’s always been a measure of self-effacing irony around the decidedly non-fierceness of the Terrapins. It’s the one thing that keeps U of Maryland from being completely insufferable like the rest of the ACC. Well, that and the fact that the Terps pretty much suck at all sports.

    I give Maryland a pass because (A) it was original at the time; (B) there’s nothing scary about turtles, which is the whole point here; and (C) Blue Öyster Cult was a lot fresher in memory when the slogan debuted, and “turtle” has the same number of syllables as “reaper,” so the slogan works as a sort of auditory pun.

    “Can we all agree that the whole notion of a team’s branding being based on fear, terror, pain, destruction, etc., is overused and pathetic?

    How about this: We’re a good team – we play hard, we execute well. We know you’re playing hard too. That’s why we play a game – to see who’s better. We respect you, and we know you respect us. May the better team win.”

    ~~~

    i knew the mothervilker was sending you some of his homemade kool aid, but i wasn’t expecting you to drink it ;)

    seriously though…isn’t sports all about who has the biggest congressman weiner and all other attitudes, like sportsmanship, camaraderie, and just well…fun…

    are now derided, mocked and otherwise shunted aside?

    it’s not enough for your opponent to be “better” but any and all tactics, including fear, intimidation and “you may be able to beat me fair and square, but im gonna make sure you feel pain and suffering regardless” not only are not frowned upon, but expected?

    isn’t every ad campaign, from nike to under armour (especially UA) all about how it’s a “war” and “combat” and not simply an athletic contest?

    Hey Paul,

    Your brief bio on your ESPN profile has your old URL listed. I thought you might want to update it.

    link

    **(I know that the old URL re-directs to the correct site, but I’m sure you’d want to get that fixed)

    FYI…the term “Team Canada” did not come into existence until the 1972 Canada/Soviet series. It sounded very strange at the time, now it’s commonplace for any Canadian team.

    Concur with what Connie said, blue was not out of place on older Canadian uniforms. When Canada fought in two world wars it was under our old Red Ensign flag, which, as she mentioned had blue in the Union Jack field.

    The jersey with the lace-ups is so cool looking! I’d love to own that one.

    On a completely different note, if you’re in need of a hockey goal or net, check out my website. Bighitbattingcages.com

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