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Adios, Jorgie

jorgeposada

By Phil Hecken

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.” — Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams

. . . . .

I always dreaded the *dull time* between the end of the football season and the beginning of spring training — especially since I’m not much of a basketball or hockey fan anymore. Fortunately, a couple weekends ago Paul & I enjoyed the 2012 U.S. Curling Nationals (capped by a UW gathering, dontcha know). It was a hectic couple of days, and I was a bit squeezed for content. Fortunately, that Sunday, my new buddy Morris Levin stepped up to the plate and penned a nice little ditty about the Tottenham Hotspur. Prior to departing for Philly, and knowing about my being pressed for a lede, Heather Scott (who did a fantastic job detailing the Giants uniform history for the Super Bowl) offered to help me out with content. She did, but I didn’t even notice the article until the following Monday. Her post was scheduled to run last weekend, but the NBA ASG sneaker extravaganza (always promised to our resident sneakerhead, Matt Powers ran on Saturday, and then we had the tremendous guest-entry on NASCAR last Sunday). So Heather got bumped, but, I’m giving her due today, as the MLB will be without one of its greatest backstops for the first time since the mid-1990s: Jorge Posada.

Here’s Heather:

~~~

Adios, Jorgie
By Heather Scott

Spring is in the air, which means Spring Training to baseball fans. In Arizona, the Seattle Mariners kicked off Cactus League play yesterday against the Oakland Athletics. Today the Grapefruit League begins in Florida with seven games. But there is a void in the landscape. Although he played DH for the 2011 season, Jorge Posada will not be reporting to Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, FL for Yankees Spring Training this year. After wearing NY Yankee pinstripes for 17 years, Posada announced his retirement during the off season.

Drafted 629th overall by the New York Yankees in 1990, Jorge Raphael Posada began playing for the (now defunct) Oneonta Yankees which was part of the Class-A Short Season New York-Penn League. Posada played his first season as a 2nd baseman before he was moved behind the plate in 1991. The Yankees moved Jorge to the Class-A South Atlantic League Greensboro Hornets in 1992 where he became a full time catcher.

In 1993 he was moved up to Class AA in Carolina to the Prince William Cannons and the Albany Colonie Yankees. After only one year in Double AA, Posada joined the AAA Columbus Clippers in 1994. Unfortunately, he broke his leg and dislocated his ankle in a home plate collision, keeping him out for most of the 1994 season.

He stayed with the Clippers for the majority of 1995 and 1996, but did make a few major league appearances. The first time Jorge donned the unmistakable white with midnight blue pinstripes was his major league debut in the ninth inning on September 4, 1995 when he replaced Jim Leyritz against the Seattle Mariners. The next major league game he played in was a month later on October 4, 1995 again against the Seattle Mariners in Game 2 of the 1995 American League Division Series. He pinch ran for Wade Boggs and scored, tying the game. In 1996 he was brought up from Triple A eight times at the end of the season though he was not on the 1996 Post Season Roster.

In 1997 Posada officially replaced Leyritz as back up catcher for Joe Girardi and started 52 games. On May 17, 1998, Jorge Posada caught David Wells’ perfect game. As the 1999 season progressed, Girardi, who was mentoring Posada, began to turn the starting reigns over splitting the time behind the plate 40/60, however, Girardi remained the regular starting catcher for the Post Season.

Girardi left the Yankees as a free agent to catch for the Chicago Cubs in 2000. This opened up the regular catcher position for Posada and he won the Thurman Munson Award that year. Over the course of his career, Posada was named Baseball America First-Team Major League All-Star Catcher in 2002, decorated with five AL Silver Slugger Awards for a Catcher (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007), named to the AL All-Star Team five times (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007), appeared in six World Series Championships and winning four (1998 1999, 2000, 2009).

Over nearly two decades with the NY Yankees, Posada wore only two uniforms ”“ home and away. Both uniforms are made of heavy weight stretchable polyester knit, however, in 1994 George Costanza convinced the equipment manager to switch from polyester uniforms to cotton, but the result was disastrous, so the team went back to the original material. The Yankees were the first team to add numbers to the back of the jersey in 1929 based on the batting order. The iconic white with midnight blue pinstriped jersey and pants along with the midnight blue socks has primarily stayed the same since 1936 (although they did add sleeve piping to the road uniform during the switchover from flannel to doubleknit after the 1972 season). The away uniform remained unchanged from 1930 to 1972 when a white outline was added to the “NEW YORK” across the chest and the stripes were added to the sleeves. When other teams added NOB in the 1960s, the Yankees did not. Some have said this is because of tradition, others believe that it is because the Yankees philosophy is that you play for the team not yourself. They are also the only MLB team to not have the uniform supplier logo displayed.

Other than batting jerseys, minor changes to the uniform came when the team added a #1 for Billy Martin to the uniform sleeve in 1990 after his tragic death on Christmas Day. They did the same by adding a #7 for Mickey Mantle in 1995, #5 for Joe DiMaggio in 1999 and #10 for Phil Rizzuto in 2007.

The cap has always been midnight blue with a white interlocking NY logo on the front. In 1994 they changed from a green underbrim to a gray one, but since 2007 underbrims are black to aide in reducing glare.

In 2000, Jerry Dior’s MLB logo was added to the back of the jersey beneath the neck. It had been on the back of the cap since 1992.

In 2008 the Yankees added a black arm band after the passing of Bobby Murcer to the uniform which already had an All Star patch as well as a patch commemorating the last year at Yankee Stadium. This is the same year the Yankees wore a special hat against the Boston Red Sox on July 4. The cap had an American Flag motif inside the interlocking NY.

After the opening of a new Yankee Stadium across the street, the Yankees added an inaugural patch in 2009. They donned red caps with a stars and stripes within the NY logo three times this season, in May against the Texas Rangers for Memorial Day, July against the Toronto Blue Jays for Independence Day and on September 11 against the Baltimore Orioles.

2010 saw the loss of George Steinbrenner as well as Yankee Stadium announcer, Bob Sheppard. A patch for The Boss was on the left breast and a patch for The Voice was on the left arm. The MLB logo which was on the back of the neck also changed ”“ the red behind the bat was changed to gray. The special hats continued in 2010, however, they used a white hat with the stars and stripes NY logo. They wore these hats again on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Patriot Day.

On January 24, 2012, an emotional Posada proclaimed that “Playing for the New York Yankees has been an honor, and I could never wear another uniform … I will forever be a Yankee.

~~~

Thanks Heather! Thank God the off-season is over and finally, FINALLY, spring games are underway. That means real spring can’t be far behind and all will be right with the world, again.

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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Talk about product placement…

3-3-12 d-Sacks

And, of course, the full-size.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with Gabriel Toledo, with a old new uni for Brooklyn:

Alright even though I bleed the ORANGE & BLUE, the prospect of more hoops in NYC gets me all fired up!!

I’m sure you’ve seen the ‘leaked’ Adidas ones I’m not so much a fan.

So i think that we needa take it back to the golden-age.

TO THE AGE OF THE DOCTOR.

To me it’s a total no-brainer. 2 ABA champions, 3 final appearances, Erving’s three MVP trophies, and three scoring titles, im sorry, but YOU GO WITH THE OLD SCHOOL.

-gabe.

~~~

Next up is Justin Kline, who also has a hoops concept, this one for Rip City:

I like watching the Blazers do their thing on the court, but I’m not the biggest fan of their unis. I love what they were wearing in the 90’s, right before the Jail Blazers era, so naturally I think that they should bring them back with a few tweaks here and there, plus a home alt.

-Justin Kline

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Our final tweak (and it is just a tweak) comes from Joseph “Buddy” Walker, with a Titans uni I personally wish they would consider:

Phil,

This is a ‘tweak’ I would like to see to my Tennessee Titans’ uniforms. I much preferred it when they wore Navy blue over white at home. The team, however, has made the decision to go with the “Columbia Blue” full time at home, and I can live with that if the proper tweaks are made to negate some of the unintended design consequences.

The Columbia Blue jerseys should be worn with white pants to negate the leotard effect that is result of navy pants touching navy socks. This is a much better look overall. Also, the TV numbers on the Columbia Blue jersey should be white so they match the regular numbers (On the navy jersey the TV numbers were a different color (navy) because white didn’t provide enough contrast against the lighter shade of blue – not an issue anymore). Reverse the stripes on the white pants to match the new emphasis on Columbia Blue.

The other issue with the move to the Columbia Blue jersey is that the road jersey is no longer a white version of the home. The white jersey has a Columbia Blue yoke while the home jersey has a navy blue yoke. So I change the yoke on the white jersey to navy, changed the numbers to Columbia Blue (to provide balance and so the TV numbers matched the regular numbers). I also swapped the stripe on the Columbia Blue pants to better mirror the new stripe on the white pants. These small tweaks make the Titans uniforms look much more thought out, and I think take them from worst in the league conversations to having a very sharp, above average uni. Thanks.

Buddy Walker

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And that’s all for today peeps. Back with more tweaks, concepts and revisions tomorrow.

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Baseball is back. Spring is just around the corner. Yes.

All is right with the world again. Everyone have a great Saturday.

~~~

“You know who should be called the Fighting Sioux? The team representing the four-year university we established for the Lakota peoples when we took their land and herded them into desolate concentration camps. Oh, right, we didn’t establish universities for them. Whoops!” — R. Scott Rogers

 
  
 
Comments (59)

    For all the people speculating yesterday on why the Sixers cut the Wilt court into 20,000 pieces: so there’d be one to hand out for each of the 20,000 seats in the FU Center. (It was one of the all-time great giveaway items.)

    Better they cut up an old court than say, an old baseball jersey or Babe Ruth jersey or bat for tiny swatches on a baseball card – which I find as total blasphemy. Personal artifacts should be preserved and/or put in a museum, not destroyed for trading cards.

    Maybe cut bats into small cross sections for memorial fishing bobbers. Wouldn’t that be great.
    (eyeroll)

    Totally agree! There are so many fakes out there as well, the market’s tainted.

    This news item would make a GREAT SNL Weekend Update Joke-off…I’ll get it started…

    That’s one piece of court for each piece of ass.

    Ever wonder if the same guys who think we’re weird of caring about uniforms would think it’s “so cool that a girl knows all that stuff about sports”?

    Good job, Scotty (may we call u “Scotty”?).

    Rick, That is a great response question to Paul’s anonymous hate mail the other day. I’m guessing that guy may be afraid of girls.

    It was probably a designer’s mom, maybe a designer over at Nike? Or, the purple monster Barney? He’s had enough of that elitist hatred for purple, you know.

    Yes, great job on the summary.

    The Yankees have such iconic uniforms it’s easy to forget that there have been many small changes, even if only one-offs and memorials.

    Well done.

    A great pic…but keep in mind that all the pics from Shorpy originate from the LOC. Go and explore for yourselves: link

    You’ll find treasures like this: “Three base ball stars here for the World Series. L. to R: George Sisler, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb”
    link

    what are the odds either cobb or babe…or both…spit in his hand before shaking the other?

    Titans tweak isn’t bad… but you need to change the helmet too. To me, that’s their biggest problem – the emphasis on the lighter blue with a helmet that still has very little of that color on it.

    The light blue helmet would work. I think maybe the darker blue would work better because it would match the shoulder yokes, and you would keep that navy in the color scheme.

    Since they refuse to put red anywhere on the uniform besides gloves.

    Great writup Heather. I was a Columbus Clippers batboy from 1994-1995 and gotta tell you, Posada was one of the nicest guys on the planet. I wish I could say the same of the other guys. However, Jorge wore the majority of his time with the Clippers, this uniform, which is superior IMO, to anything else they’ve worn since.

    link

    That’s a nice minor-league uni for its era. But the elements are very much of its era. link, on the other hand, is an absolutely timeless design and one of the best minor-league uniforms ever. Much as I want to loathe anything to do with the Yankees organization, and much as I do believe that the actual Yankees uniforms are massively overrated and actually not all that good – not even top 10 for me in MLB right now – those Clippers unis were absolute beauties.

    Then the Bowden-era Nats came along and wrecked the Clippers like Vandals sacking Rome. But man, for about a decade there, the Clippers were the class of the minors, uni-wise. Used to catch a game every year or so when driving between DC and Minnesota; always stopped in Columbus on the way back.

    I like the earlier Clippers jersey and logo better. On the newer version, the logo is just too busy.

    As a Yankee fan and a former catcher, I am sad to see the departure of not only Jorge but Varitek as well. I never really Tek but things will not be the same with those two backstops behind the dish.

    Jason Varitek’s retirement reminds me of a question I occasionally ponder. What is each city’s most sacred uniform number?
    For instance, #33 is probably the most sacred uniform number in Boston. Retired for Larry Bird, worn by two significant championship captains (Varitek and Zdeno Chara), and also worn by Kevin Faulk, who was a significant contributor to the Patriots’ Super Bowls. But you’d have an OK argument for #4 in Boston: retired for Bobby Orr and Joe Cronin, and worn by Adam Vinatieri, who had a bunch of clutch kicks to win Super Bowls.
    I’d nominate #24 in Seattle, for Ken Griffey, Jr., Dennis Johnson, and Shawn Springs.
    Who else do we have?

    For Pittsburgh, #21 would be the most famous number spanning across all generations. One of baseball’s all-time greats, both on and off the diamond.

    In hockey, right up there with Gretzky, Orr, and Howe, would be #66, Mario Lemieux.

    Football would have two numbers. #33, Tony Dorsett, one of the best college football players ever from Pitt. Tougher call for the Steelers, but I’d go with #58, Jack Lambert.

    Chicago – 23

    Robbin Ventura – CWS
    Devin Hester – CB
    Ryne Sandberg – CHC
    J.P. Bordeleau – CBH

    I can;t think of anybody for the Bulls though…

    I could’ve sworn there was some dude for the Bulls who wore 23. I guess I’m wrong cuz now I can’t remember.

    I’m not one for controversy, but a something on equally great catcher Jason Varitek seems appropriate. The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry has reached the end of an era, and Sox fans deserve some coverage, too. Nice job to Heather though.

    Neither team deserves coverage. And this isn’t an election, fair air time needn’t be necessary.

    Paul and Phil are New Yorkers, and while they may be Mets fans, at least Posada wasn’t a gawd damn sawk.

    Go White Sox. Scratch that, I feel dirty. YAY Hockey season.

    If there is something there for Jason write it up. If you care that much about it. This is equally as much about the fact that in his career Posada wore very few uniforms.

    if either the tim or the donald wants to do a retrospective of unis on tek, you know how to reach me

    Regarding those leaked Brooklyn Nets logos, I like link only it’s more Kings than a Nets feel. The link is nice
    , third from the left top right is perdy sweet.

    Heather, that is really a fantastic retrospective! Playing for over two decades with the same team and playing well. These days, that is truly a mark of great distinction.

    And your essay also made me (and this is difficult to write…) appreciate and admire the Yankees’ steadfast resistance to change an iconic uniform. Their only mis-step through the years was adding those stripes to the road grays.

    They oughtta switch to that faux flannel material, then rectify the mistake.

    “They oughtta switch to that faux flannel material, then rectify the mistake.”

    ~~~

    totally agreed…imagine if majestic could make this with just block “NEW YORK” across the front?

    The only negative in that is that, given that the “cricket trousers” look has become the norm in MLB, most Yankees would look like they were wearing sweatpants right off the shelf at WalMart.

    Otherwise, yeah…definitely.

    Forget sweatpants/pajama pants. They should go back to the entire team wearing high socks! Now that is a good looking away uni.
    link

    Based on precedent, that of course is entirely up to the individual players or Yankee management.

    A very good piece, but just one nit-pick. The Prince William Cannons were in the Class A (or “Advanced A” as some say) Carolina League. The team in Woodbridge, VA has never been a AA team.

    Two things: Whomever writes the Brewers’ lineup card has fantastic handwriting and I love the fact that (I assume) Norichika Aoki’s name is in Japanese

    link

    I would assume Ishikawa’s name isn’t in Japanese because he is American born. Not sure though.

    speaking of the yankees…wait

    the MLB channel is showing the gd yanks and the gd phils…

    despite not liking either team, it’s BASEBALL

    so, im loving it

    Honestly, if that was the only choice, I’d stop watching baseball.

    Fortunately, unbeknownst to the national networks, there are 26 other teams than the four that producers are aware of, and all of those teams’ radio broadcasts are available via the MLB At Bat app. Listened to the Rays/Twins game today. Plus, not only did I get to avoid seeing the Phils and Yanks, I got to avoid seeing teams playing games dressed in their hitting rehearsal smocks and beanies. At this point in the year, baseball is better on radio.

    This may have been posted and discussed earlier. If so, Sorry. Graphic design contest for Jeremy Lin t-shirts.

    link

    Do any of you have the link to that website where they had all sort of templates for football jerseys? it was a few weeks back.

Comments are closed.