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What you see above is the Babe Ruth Sultan of Swat Award crown that was awarded to Ted Williams for having MLB’s highest slugging percentage in 1957. Ya think Teddy Ballgame spent a few minutes admiring himself in the mirror while wearing that beauty? When they froze his head, I hope they included the crown!

The crown is currently up for auction, as are many other awards and trinkets from Williams’s estate. Reader Bruce Menard (who, as you may recall, loves sports bling) has picked out the best bits, along with some non-Williams items:


• Here’s Williams’s 1949 MVP award.

• When Williams was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he got this ring.

• Remember the MLB All-Century Team? Players named to that team were given a gold watch.

• I like this 1956 All-Star Game pendant.

• Okay, that’s it for the Williams items. Here’s an old Thurman Munson batting helmet, which is notable for two reasons: the green underside and the lines of spun fiberglass.

• Remember how David Wells bought an old Babe Ruth cap at auction and wore it on the mound for a game in 1997? Now he’s selling it. Further info on that here.

• Here’s an oddity: a 1959 Yankees jersey with a zip-front closure.

• Back in 1914, the Boston Braves Navajo-inspired jackets. Here’s the only known surviving example.

• A while back I Ticker-linked to this infographic of NBA championship rings. But the design shown for the 1956 Warriors doesn’t match the real thing.

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Membership update: A new batch of card designs has been added to the membership card gallery (including Brian Fansler’s card, shown at right, which shows the Bears’ George Halas sleeve memorial — a rare instance in which I granted a request for a card based on something other than the back of a jersey). The printed and laminated versions of these cards should mail out later this week.

As always, you can get your own card, and also order stickers based on your card design, on the membership sign-up page.

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The century-old postcards you see at left are the basis of a new project on Permanent Record. Details here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: There are signs that the Hornets’ new name may be the Spirit or the Angels. Can’t say I’m in love with either of those. … It’s hard to see, but the White Sox have added “BMS” sleeve lettering in memory of Bill “Moose” Skowron. Kinda surprising the Yankees haven’t added a black armband for him, no? ”¦ Check out this softball uniform with a giant stitching pattern on it (from Jake Keys). ”¦ Here’s a shot of Bart Starr wearing an unusual version of the Packers’ “G” logo (from Jeff Flynn, Jr.). ”¦ Manchester City is moving from Umbro — a Nike subsidiary — to the main Nike brand. “This is terrible news, as we’ll now be part of the Nike template instead of with Umbro, which was a Manchester-based design team,” says Timothy O’Malley). ”¦ Here’s more info on Taylor Made’s entry into the hockey stick biz (from Steve DuHamel). ”¦ Really interesting article on NASA’s astronaut uniforms (from Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ The latest frontier in sports-themed soda displays: a hockey rink made of Pepsi cases (from A.J. Frey). ”¦ On Friday I Ticker-linked to a photo of a pink UGA helmet that had been tweeted by a player. Turns out it was a prank. … Hey look, a Jeremy Lin jersey made from Fruit Snacks. … The 49ers have their rookies’ helmets ready (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ New athletics logo for St. Catharine College (from Josh Claywell). ”¦ “The Steelers have given their rookies jersey numbers,” writes Joseph Gerard. “And while the team has otherwise used up the 10s and 80s for receivers, to the point that they have one wide receiver (not expected to make the roster, I might add) wearing number 3 at the moment, number 86 isn’t assigned. Wonder if this confirms that it has been removed from circulation in honor of Hines Ward.” ”¦ Good video about the crew that stitches all the jerseys for the 2012 IIHF World Championships (from Erin Walock). ”¦ The Madrid Open, which took place over the weekend, was the first tennis tournament ever played on blue clay. Further info here (from Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Here’s a really nice wool flannel vest jersey. ”¦ Miguel Cotto wore high pink socks for Saturday night’s bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. ”¦ Conor Gillaspie, who was called up to the Giants when Kung Fu Panda went on the DL, doesn’t wear batting gloves. And as you can also see in that shot, the Giants wore their Gigantes jerseys on Saturday (from Eric Stroker). … In a related item, Rockies pitcher Juan Nicasio wears just one batting glove — on his top hand. Wonder if it’s because that’s his pitching hand (from Michael Hauswald. ”¦ And in another related item, the Astros were Los ’Stros on Saturday. … Jared Buccola notes that St. John’s lacrosse wears a 9/11 perma-memorial. … Looks like Bucs first-round pick Doug Martin was still wearing his Boise State cleats at rookie camp (good spot by Marc Mandin). … Did you know Peyton Manning didn’t like wearing a red “no contact” jersey in practices? Now that he’s gone, the Colts are bringing back the red jersey for Andrew Luck. Lots of interesting info on this in this article (big thanks to Todd Usher). … Aussie rules football news from Craig Snyder, who reports that the Collingwood Magpies (now there’s a great team name) are terminating their deal with Adidas. … John Muir notes that Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist has a straight jersey him, instead of the scoop/diaper hem worn by the other Rangers. … Also from John: Matt Hendricks of the Caps wears his wedding band on the ice. … It’s a little hard to see, but Salty has a red swoosh on his red chest protector. Hard to imagine Nike producing something with a non-contrasting swoosh, so did Salty color it in himself? If so, why? And as you can also see in that shot, he’s still wearing his brim facing forward, which I believe he started doing last year (from Ryan DeFilippi). … Either Mark Buehrle was sweating a lot on Saturday or else the gray of his jersey didn’t match the gray of his pants (from William Streit). … Check this out: a high school pole vaulter who wears a helmet. Not sure of the girl’s name, but she vaults for Plaquemine High School in Louisiana (from Chris LaHaye). ”¦ Very nice striped stirrups being worn by Arapahoe High in Colorado (from Shane Nelson). ”¦ Also from Shane: Here’s a look at the “How to wear your uniform” poster in the visitors’ locker room at the Pepsi Center. ”¦ The Marlines de Boca del Río, a winter league team, have a Miami Marlins-inspired uniform. They even have an orange version. “I wonder if they have a relationship with the Marlins,” says Ryan Frazer. ”¦ Pitching match-up for this Wednesday’s Mets/Phils game: Gee vs. Lee. ”¦ Many of you probably know this already, but just in case: Lebron James is wearing a mouthguard with the Roman numeral 16 during the postseason, to symbolize the number of playoff wins needed for the Heat to win the championship. Of course, at present that number is down to 13. ”¦ Anyone know the story behind this shot of Kobe Bryant in a black Lakers alternate uni? “For argument’s sake, let’s say that this isn’t Photoshopped,” says Terry Duroncelet. “Kobe is wearing No. 8 and there are three Larry O’Brien trophies in front of him, so this must be from late 2002 (in the wake of L.A.’s three-peat). What’s even weirder is that it seems to combine two different eras: the general uniform last seen in 1998/1999 and the ‘Los Angeles’ script from the 1960s. Again, this honestly doesn’t look Photoshopped to me, but if it is, then props to the guy who did it. If it’s real, then I’m glad this design was never used.” ”¦ Several readers have noticed something odd: Although the NFL Equipment shield does not appear on Nike’s new NFL jerseys (they’re just going with the NFL logo, without the larger “Equipment” patch), it does appear on the Nike practice jerseys that are showing up in rookie training camps. Ditto for the practice shorts. Although you can’t see it in every shot, those are all swoosh-branded garments, and they’re showing up in just about every team’s camp, so I don’t think this is just leftover Reebok stock. Weird. ”¦ Check out this shot from Saturday’s Texas State/Lamar game. The weird thing is that the team in white is Lamar — the visiting team. The home team is Texas State, wearing colored tops and white pinstriped pants. “I have never seen this happen at a home team’s field unless it is a conference tournament or some strange weather-related rescheduling,” says Joshua Knudson. ”¦ Everyone knows Lou Gehrig was left-handed. So why was he signing this baseball with his right hand? (From Matt Matchell.) ”¦ New 75th-anniversary logo for the National Junior College Athletic Assocation (from Jon Rathbun). ”¦ Fun story and great visuals about the branding history of 7-Up (from Jordan Cutler). ”¦ This is really interesting: These two photos came from the same soccer game — Cork City vs. Dundalk in the League of Ireland Premier Division on Friday night. “The rain was so heavy both teams changed into their away shirts at halftime,” explains Denis Hurley. “The officials did so as well, as they had been in yellow, which would hhave clashed with Dundalk’s away, so they wore grey for the second half.” ”¦ “I’m currently writing a book about pedestrianism, a competitive-walking craze that was America’s most popular spectator sport in the late 1870s and early 1880s,” says Matthew Algeo. “I recently came across this image of a pedestrian named John Hughes donning a jersey with a corporate sponsor. The Police Gazette was a weekly sports-and-gossip tabloid, and one of the most popular periodicals in the country at the time. I can’t imagine there are many earlier examples of advertising on an athletic uniform!”

Looking ahead: Tomorrow I’ll have the results of the “Redesign the Hornets” contest. And then later in the week — I hope on Wednesday — I’ll have a post that will shed some light on the relationship between a major university athletics program and its uniform outfitter. I think you’ll find it very interesting.

 
  
 
Comments (194)

    Hey, Brian here- just wanted to say I got the card in the mail yesterday and it looks great. Thanks so much for honoring my special request and honoring Papa Bear. I had the same thought about the initials intersecting the outer stripes, but then I took another look at the new Nike uniforms. It appears the initials will look just like the card for 2012. Way to stay up to date! Just don’t google image search “Bears GSH” with the safe search off.

    Re: Gehrig

    Lots of people write with one hand and throw (or do any number of other tasks) with the other. Coincidentally there seems to be a lot of things amongst famous lefthanded sluggers. You can see from a lot of different photos that Babe Ruth also signed with his right hand, as does Barry Bonds.

    I’m not really sure why I said “there seems to be a lot of things.” I meant something like “this seems to happen a lot.” I’ve been up since 4, sorry.

    It was common for teachers (at least catholic nun teachers according to my grandmother) to force students to write with the right hand.

    I was about to say the same thing. I think pure left-handedness is pretty rare, since many southpaws I know use their right side in some instances (writing, kicking, etc.).

    Ugh. I’m now reminded of a particular episode of Star Trek TNG which bothered the hell out of me. Data was playing the roll of Sherlock Holmes, and without getting into too much detail, the assumption was made that a particular person was left handed because they caught a thrown object with that hand. I wanted to slap the writers for that.

    Brooks Robinson signed with his left hand – as Normal Rockwell well captured.

    If you look at other pictures of Lou Gehrig signing things, like link and link, he is always using his right hand.

    He was probably “corrected” in school in regards to writing, but never in regards to baseball, thank goodness.

    I would be one of them.

    Write/eat/mouse/tennis right handed.

    shoot a basketball, throw a football, throw a baseball, reach for things, the phone,everything else left-handed.

    My father does some things with his left hand and some things with his right. Weirdest thing to me is that he swings a golf club right-handed but swings a baseball bat left-handed. It seems odd with the two being such similar tasks/motions.

    my grandfather wrote right handed because the Nuns beat the left out of him, but he did almost everything else lefty.

    Jay Cutler bats lefty. I don’t know why, but he does.

    I bat and shoot (hockey/golf) left-handed.

    I throw (baseball/football), shoot (basketball), and write right-handed.

    I bat and shoot left handed, shoot a basketball, and kick left handed/footed. I throw and write right handed. I also box southpaw. I used to think that was weird when I was a kid.

    Well I’ll jum in on this one!

    I’m a lefty. I eat, write, and shoot a rifle left-handed.

    But I throw and bat(baseball), shoot a basketball, and shoot a pistol right-handed.

    I use both feet in soccer, just because I love the sport enough to make the effort ;)

    Brooks Robinson writes, eats left, does autographs left, throws right. I believe the old pitcher Denny Neagle wrote right-handed.

    You could name the “Edit Button” brought to you by The Jeff

    Nah, the moisture wicking technology is just so good that it’s spread his sweat around the rest of his jersey while leaving his underarm completely dry.

    Could it be the naff job Majestic did on the grey jerseys, that the Marlins have been so loath to wear the things? The color matching of the panels is for crap.

    Pre-sweat, post-sweat, what have you. It seems to be across the board. I bloody hate the things. Moisture-wicking technology has become my grey facemask.

    My guess is they got put in the wash with the black “alt” softball tops.

    Majestic COOLBASE grey jerseys aren’t made of the same material as the grey pants, and thus there is a higher chance that the colors won’t match. All CB jerseys are the same grey, but not all the pants are the same grey (yet). Plus the grey jersey material and the underarm gussets are a different color when wet. A lot going on there.

    I used to go to the event every year with my dad that the Babe Ruth Crown was presented! It was called the Tops in Sports Banquet, and it was held in the Towson, MD Sheraton Hotel. My dad knew the men who ran it, so I would always get out of school early to hang with the players. My 2 fondest memories were going with Juan Gonzales to get fitted for his tux, and having lunch with Cecil Fielder the year he won. He brought his really chunky 10 year old kid with him who I hung out with because I was only 13 or 14. Jokingly I had him sign a baseball…wonder whatever happened to that kid ;)

    The Kobe picture is interesting… Another thing to note is that the uniform is made (or at least branded) by Nike. When did Adidas land their NBA contract? I know those have to be replicas because the NBA doesn’t allow manufacturer branding on the uniforms (which is why I think its ridiculous to think they’re really considering jersey sponsors). Is this pre-Adidas, or a Nike made “unofficial” jersey just made to be sold to the public, as seen here (sans-swoosh):

    link

    And if it is some sort of unofficial creation of Nike, how did they get permission to have the NBA logo on it? Lots of questions on that.

    link

    @Adam
    those were from a link that’s from when he first signed with nike and he wore the fashion jerseys they were pushing at the time

    Yeah, definately a fashion jersey. There were BFBS versions for pretty much all the teams, along with stuff like throwback designs in current colours.

    It was a program called “Rewind” where Nike made throwback inspired uniforms for teams using alternate colors.
    I have a Suns jersey and shorts in black with purple & orange trim using the old 70’s-80’s style with the old west font and the sunburst shorts.
    From what I recall there were other teams in the program and they weren’t all black.
    There was a Sixers version that used the old “PHILA” style that was blue & red, when the real version of this jersey was red & white
    link

    Deep in the Helfer archives, there’s a sketch of Shaquille O’Neal in a black Lakers’ uniform with purple and yellow (gold) graphics. I love it; I know it would turn Paul’s stomach:)

    “Although the NFL Equipment shield does not appear on Nike’s new NFL jerseys (they’re just going with the NFL logo, without the larger “Equipment” patch), it does appear on the Nike practice jerseys that are showing up in rookie training camps.”

    When the Ravens made the switch from Starter to Nike back in the day, they just applied Nike patches over top of the Starter logos and switched the jock tags…may be happening again.

    That is not the case. I recently ordered a pair of nike shorts from nflshop.com and they have the NFL Equipment logo on them. link

    Re: Salty’s chest protector, the swoosh was white link, so I am guessing he (or a clubbie) colored it in himself.

    Anyone else find it odd that the White Sox aren’t using the initials of Moose Skowron’s given name, WJS, in his memorial? What they’re using reads exactly like the abbreviation of a link that shall remain nameless.

    I’m sure there’s some official explanation for it but the conspiracy theorist in me smells something fishy.

    A few things that picked my nit this morning:

    1) FYI – the Taylor Made blog has been up and running on their site with the images and crap since we went over the use of the word “power” a few weeks ago.

    2) Lundqvist has been link since the Reebok EDGE system came out. link, and he hasn’t played as a Ranger since midway through 2010-11.

    I remember that the Rangers altered the jersey hem on all their uniforms when the Edge jerseys first debuted. Another article I read a while ago (can’t remember where, sorry) even mentioned the Rangers wore oversized Edge jerseys in order to preserve the “pre-Edge” look; straightening the hems was probably done for the same reason.

    The Rangers sadly don’t go with the hemmed jerseys anymore (with Lundqvist being the exception*).

    * – Lundqvist’s jersey had the straight hem during the regular season but when the playoffs started, I noticed it didn’t. Guess he got it straightened sometime recently.

    It was a SLAM cover:

    link

    And if memory serves me correctly, Nike made that uniform just for the photo shoot. It talked about it specifically in the article.

    Hey Paul, unless he’s got a nickname nobody knows about, I think you have an extra letter in “Dough” Martin’s name :)

    The Pepsi Center “How to dress” poster mandates compression shorts/shirts must be supplied by adidas. No trademark r-in-the-circle next to the word. ???? I found that surprising.

    Also, “adidas” is spelled in all lower case letters. Is that the way they are– like e. e. cummings? I never paid real attention.

    I think I read a long time ago that Keith Urban was trying to always promote himself as “keith urban” but after 2nd or 3rd album or so he just gave up because people in the media “refused to style it that way” as well.

    That E E CUMMINGS was allowed to get away with it was bad enough. However, to paraphrase Phil’s take on Oregon, he was the first, so he can (sometimes) get away with it. But just him.

    I can tolerate all lowercase a lot better than peOPle wHo TRy To be aLL eDGy aND Mix CaSeS liKE tHiS. Now that’s annoying.

    Nah, it’s basic respect that you call a person by the name he wishes to be called. Companies and organizations, however, are things, not persons, and so it’s appropriate to follow the rules of the language whether they like it or not. If e.e. cummings wants to spell his name like that, or if Harry S. Truman wants a period after his middle letter, you do it. If Adidas wants to put the initial “A” down, you tell it to go find a language where proper nouns aren’t capitalized and move to that market.

    Well, if Billy Ripken wanted to be called the name that was on his bat handle, I’d say no to that. Respectfully.

    Should be the other way around, in my opinion. Respect for people means you capitalize their names appropriately. Now if some business wants to go all lower case or all caps or some weird combo, it’s just a business.

    The Cork City-Dundalk game is an interesting one. It seems they decided that color-on-color would make it easier to tell the teams apart. Wish this would happen more often in the US, especially in games between teams who played color-on-color long before the current regulations existed.

    Not really down to deciding colour-on-colour was easier, it was simply down to the fact that both teams wanted to change because of how wet it was but neither team had a spare set of their normal jerseys!

    I think the odd part is that both teams were able to change. It makes sense that the home team would have extra uniforms available, but aren’t most uniform rules regarding colors in place so the road team doesn’t need to pack as much extra gear?

    Regarding the Texas State vs. Lamar uniforms, here is rule 2.02.02.02 of the Southland operating code: “Uniforms: The host institution shall wear white uniforms on the first day of a scheduled Conference series. The visitors shall wear white uniforms on the second day of the series. This provision may be waived by mutual consent of the involved head coaches.”

    I’ve never seen this actually occur, though. Normally it is waived.

    What an odd (and very specific) rule! I know conferences and such are often particular about how their schools look, but this is even further than I’m accustomed to seeing. Very interesting. Nice tidbit, Chris!

    Happens lots of time when the college teams play 3 game series. The home/away unis stuff doesn’t always apply as neatly as you might think even though the visitor plays as the home team in the second game. North Carolina and South Carolina played an NCAA Super-Regional in Chapel Hill one year and both teams wore colored softball tops with “CAROLINA” emblazoned on them and they both wore their white pants. That was kind of ridiculous considering it was a post season game.

    The Ted Williams Hunt Auction ended on 4/28. Final (live)bidding was held at Fenway Park. Lots of phone bidding going on, there’s an article here:
    link

    which mentions the Drew Brees won a couple items over the phone.

    Were about 300 people on hand, I watched for about a half hour and only saw about a half dozen folks bidding in person.

    “New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who bid by phone, bought Williams’ World War II and Korean War flight log books for $35,600 and planned to send them to The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Hunt Auctions said.”

    Very cool!
    I hadn’t heard about that.

    link

    In the practice shorts photo, the Redskins QB has Adidas branded sweatbands, gloves and a towel. Can’t see Nike being overly enthusiastic about that.

    Yeah, but the towel logo is much more eye-catching than any swooshes he’s wearing. He may be adidas-sponsored, but I think Matt’s right–when the first thing you notice about the uniform isn’t the fact that it’s made by Nike, I imagine the Swooshkateers aren’t excited about it.

    it’s only practice though, I’m sure if the league has any rules nike will be sure to address the issue once the season starts.

    The black lakers jersey was made for a slam magazine photoshoot with kobe and nike trying to convince the lakers to have a black alt. Only one that was made. Its all explained in that issue

    I’ve been shooting pictures the past few years for a local weekly and have shot plenty of track photos. In high schools, at least in Wisconsin, if helmets for pole vaulters (male and female) isn’t required, it sure is encouraged; I don’t think I have seen any vaulters without one.

    Same in Minnesota. All the vaulters wore them but I’m not sure if they were required.

    Anyone else think Starr’s odd G helmet looks like the Chicago Bears C with a horizontal addition to transform it into a G?… Look at the left side, that pinched part, I don’t know the proper name, looks exactly like the well-known C for Chicago.

    Either that or I went a little heavy on the whiskey in my coffee today.

    It’s called a “Wishbone C”.

    What’s remarkable to me is that he’s wearing it on a leather helmet. A prototype?

    Jeff Flynn, Jr., where the hell did you find it? I have to ask: any context?

    RE: Pole Vault Helmets – A few years ago when I was a HS Track and Field assistant coach the head coach wanted to add pole vault (the track did not previously have the equipment), but the company holding the school’s insurance policy said they’d void the policy unless anyone competing in the pole vault wore a helmet. We went with very similar “skateboard style” helmets to the girl in the picture.

    Thanks for the lead item today Paul!
    That Ted Williams Auction had some really interesting stuff…nice to see that some of the proceeds are going to The Jimmy Fund (I hope it’s a large percentage).
    Cheers!
    ~Bruce

    Generally I’ve found if it’s a large percentage going to charity, they announce it’s a large percentage going to charity.

    “… Back in 1914, the Boston Braves Navajo-inspired jackets. Here’s the only known surviving example…”

    ***

    Whoa. If you didn’t click on the link to the “surviving example,” do yourselves a favor and try it. One of the greatest garments ever, seriously. Could be the coat-of-many-colors that Joseph wore in the scriptures…

    “… There are signs that the Hornets’ new name may be the Spirit or the Angels. Can’t say I’m in love with either of those. … ”

    ***

    They are both awful. Grotty.

    If they put a gun to my head I’d say call them Angels. It’s plural and I think it’s a name no one ever dreamed of calling a basketball team. Come to think of it, I actually like it, which means no way in hell will it be used.

    One on hand, they both kinda suck. On the other, they both would seem to tie in nicely with the football team. I suppose I’m ok with either one IF they use a black & gold color scheme. If they stick with their current colors, eww.

    Black and gold would be nice, but “Spirit?” Gahhh. That sounds like an expansion WNBA team. I’m not a Hornets (or basketball) fan, but I do like the idea of all the teams having halfway decent names. Spirit and Angels are both pretty awful.

    Of the two, I prefer Angels, but yeah…I hope they consider some other options first.

    is the arena football team still playing? the name fits too well to waste on a AFL team.

    The ONLY thing for NO to do is get “Jazz” back from Salt Lake City, where there isn’t any coming out of the Tabernacle, and give them “Hornets,” which belongs in the Beehive State. Any other suggestions are ludicrous.

    I don’t know if you’ve been taking a tally or anything, but count me as not a huge fan of the “click to continue” thing. It’s not terrible or going to cause me to stop reading or anything, but I would rather it not be there.

    Count in me in the fan camp.
    It makes it easy to skim through the front page, if you happen to be looking for a particular post. It’s easier on the RSS feed, and it encourages people to stumble across the comments, if they didn’t read them previously.

    yeah….not a huge fan either. I got used to reading the article and then clicking the link which would refresh the comments and take me directly to them. Now I have to hit an extra button and hit refresh before reading the comments.

    I know, link.

    It looks like it’d help with slow loading, but I’d be concerned with two issues… 1.) Some people may just skim the top part and not be interested in particular topic and not bother to rear the rest and miss out on ticker or other stuff….(I know today I realized that might happen after I read the top part and went into the comments and just now realized I never went back and read the rest of today’s entry)

    2.) What effect does it have on the search? I know yesterday somebody had commented about asking if Royals had wore powder blue at Cleveland (or something like that) so I searched for ‘Royals tracker’ got a few hits for “Mike Vamosi, who has been tracking the Royals”, but after about ten minutes of trying to find it I gave up. The link that should have gone to an October 2010 entry took me instead to a January 16, 2012 entry, so I tried to find it by looking by date through the archives, but that didn’t work so well either. The problems with the search function may be unrelated to adding the jump break, but it doesn’t seem that it would help if you want to Ctrl-F and find something on a page of entries if the whole entries aren’t there. But I usually have a hard time finding something old, the archives only get you to the end of a month going back, and if you’re not sure what day something was on it’s very hard to find. Especially if you want to find something that was mentioned in the ticker, but you’re not sure when it was.

    Not trying to be a complainer, just pointing out something that hopefully might constructively help the site. I like to browse old stuff on Uni Watch and be able to refer back to it easily.

    Ugh BFBS. It looks like they’re standing for Iraq or Egypt or Syria (or Trinidad) or something. This Gooner is quite disappointed. The 2010-2011 design was perfect–UEFA really needs to come down with a five-year rule for kit designs.

    It was more my eyes than my monitor….Instead of Iraq they’re celebrating the Netherlands, which is fitting (might as well rename the club Van Persie FC while we’re at it). The design, though, is a perfect example of more-is-less.

    According to the press release, “the playing kit features a blue hoop detail inspired by the home kit socks worn in the 1930s under legendary manager Herbert Chapman.”
    Also: “Chapman was a modernising tactician, advocated the use of numbered shirts and white balls, and also made significant changes to the Club’s kit for the 1933/34 season. In that year white sleeves were added to the previously all-red shirt and blue hoops were also introduced to the socks. Chapman’s rationale for these innovations was he wanted to maximise player visibility, making it easier for his players to pick each other out on the field of play.”
    Hopefully that makes it better. I’m a Fulham fan, so I’m not particular about Arsenal’s kits, as long as they’re red with white sleeves.

    I’ve seen photos of Arsenal with navy and red striped socks; Nike is just applying it to the sleeves for a sort of symmetry. Not too bad; I don’t think it will last beyond next year.

    The red and navy stripes will remain at elbow height on the long sleeved shirt.

    If they wanted to pay homage to “the home kit socks worn in the 1930s under legendary manager Herbert Chapman”, they should have given the players hooped socks.

    Otherwise, I like the kits, but thumbs down on that detail from this Arsenal season ticket holder.

    Damn, I was beaten to it. Looks nice and it not only the new kit, that logo in the background is new too (though it won’t appear on the shirt). Is it my imagination or is that logo meant to be like an underground station?

    Pole vault helmets were mandated by the NFHS for many years. Two springs ago there was a mid-season rule change in which they were no longer required. In fact, the Pole Vault Coaches Association discourages their use. The added weight and thickness puts more stress on the brain stem if you land on the back of your head. There also was no real consensus on whether the helmets provided any real safety, since most kids were using skateboard helmets which were not tested for this purpose.

    Update to the first comment of the day: Scott designed the GSH card that way because the lettering *does* touch the outside stripes on Nike’s new jersey design:
    link

    imagine that, i’m amazed you were right after all paul. and i am twice as flabbergasted that jeff corrected you.
    (eye roll)
    that being said, i wouldn’t be shocked if you could find examples of both since they put gsh on there. sort of like the way i argued with a buddy some time in the early/mid 90’s about how illinois wore ‘illini” on the side of their helmet and he said, no, it always says “illinois”. i was like “no way, illini, always illini”. he said “lay down the crack pipe…”, and so on and so on just like we all dance here(keeping in mind neither of us was an illini fan, and the net wasn’t there to check instantly on a phone, or even a computer). as it turned out we were both right and wrong, at one point or another it said both, i was historically accurate, he was currently accurate.
    hugs and kisses,
    link

    Need your help guys. As some of you may know, Chelsea FC is set to sponsor Sauber F1 Team from the next GP. Does anyone remember if any other sport team has sponsored another sports team in a different sport? And I’m not talking about clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid having a soccer and a basketball team, just sponsorship?
    Thanks for your help

    Red Sox owner John Henry also owns a big hunk of Roush Racing…in ’08 the Sox sponsored Carl Edwards’ #99 for a race at Loudon NH:

    link

    Back in the early days of the NASCAR Truck Series in the late 1990s, there was an NHL-sponsored truck. link, though it needs some work; it looks like it has no engine, and I think that’s the hood sitting upside-down on the back of the truck.

    Former Redskins (that’s right…I said it!) coach Joe Gibbs had a limited partnership with the NFL and his NASCAR team back in the ’90s IIRC. His drivers would wear crash helmets painted exactly like the NFL teams at the time:

    link

    I think the closest the NFL ever came to a full car-sponsorship was a one-race deal the year Gibbs was inducted into the Pro Football HOF, though that may have been a bit of self-promotion(not Gibbs’ style!) or the primary sponsor’s way of marking the occasion:

    link

    i like spirit. anything is better than hornets.

    hopefully we’ll get the new NOLA name and BKLYN jerseys by the NBA draft.

    Oddly, “Charlotte Hornets” was a last minute replacement for “Charlotte Spirit”; a good trade since Charlotte Spirit sounds like a low-tar cigarette.

    I’ll tell ya something else I learned about Babe Ruth. He wasn’t really a Sultan!

    I don’t like either of those names being floated for NOLA. “Spirit” sounds too much like a WNBA name on it’s own. Spirits of St. Louis worked in the ABA for obvious reasons. Angels is lame too, there is already an Angels in pro sports. The other dupe names have all been around for a very long time and/or have strong local connections(exception being the Florida/Carolina Panthers, both founded around the same time). I don’t get what Angels have to do with NOLA.

    And why on Earth would that Mexican baseball team copy THAT Marlins design? Knockoff of a design that was lifted from 8 other things. Real original Boca del Rio…

    Have no photographic proof but the Campeche Pirates (Piratas in Spanish) had the exact same logo as the Pitssburgh Pirates albeit no permission to use it. The same happened with the Mexico Tigers (Tigres in Spanish and since relocated to Cancún) who had the same tipography that the Detroit ones and the same image of a tiger walking accors an M(instead of a D).
    Now that the MBL (Mexican Baseball League) has been added to the MLB international site (happened a couple of years ago) these teams rebranded their logos but I can’t find anything from before.

    I wonder if the folks at Warner Bros./Cartoon Network/Hanna-Barbera ever got wind of the (now defunct) Edmonton Capitals logo:

    link

    Angels and Saints go together. I’m guessing that’s why Angels is being considered, since Tom Benson is the owner of both teams.

    I think they should keep the Hornets nickname. The NBA is known to have teams that relocate keep their nicknames despite having no local connection. (see: Utah Jazz) My money is on Spirits, just for the simple fact that the NBA can buy out the Silna brothers’ NBA TV contracts in exchange for the Spirits nickname.

    But on the other hand, the NBA is also known for teams moving and changing their names as well…
    SEE:
    Buffalo Braves – San Diego Clippers
    Cincinnati Royals – Kansas City Kings
    Seattle Supersonics – Oklahoma City Thunder

    And sometimes they even STAY in a city/region and change their name.
    SEE:
    Baltimore Bullets/Capital Bullets/Washington Bullets – Washington Wizards.

    Seen some practice jersey shots now–and the swoosh facing forward looks strange to me. I always thought it should be shown as that, but now, I find it awkward. Probly just me.

    Also:
    Harbaugh still wearing Reebok stuff.

    in regards to Henrik Lundqvist, you can see its a stupid swooped hem, He has it sewn up under the jersey. Most of the rangers did this when the awful new design came out. If you look closely you can see the doubled under area.

    Yeah, and you know, they make team versions of crocs- which I didn’t know. I just push the little logo into the hole. Got a black pair, too–I keep daring my wife I’ll wear one black and one orange, along with my knee-high orange socks, or my black pair with the orange stripes.

    Even worse. Crocs are crocs and I just can’t see myself in them.

    Knee-high orange socks, on the other hand…

    Best Catch of the Day yet. Well – from the few times, I’ve remembered to click it.
    That kind of branding is infuriating.

    The Kobe jersey was apart of Nike’s “rewind” series. Nike did fashion colors as well as the normal team colors.
    a couple other examples:

    link

    link

    Whats the deal with this new continue reading button that has been showing up in the last few days?

    Also just wanted to let everyone on Uni Watch know that I have began the ambitious journey to get the Rockies to wear stripped Stirrups on the field. Just got my first 12 custom pairs in the mail yesterday and I will be attempting to get as many players to wear them as possible during the next home stand, in two weeks. I haven’t mentioned the project here very much, but only because I wanted to save Uni Watch from becoming a spectacle of my shenanigans. Wish me luck, I’ll need it.

    More info on my idea, and all the people who have already told me to give, up can be found here.

    link

    link

    Jake

    Whats the deal with this new continue reading button that has been showing up in the last few days?

    A way to compress the home page a bit, since some of our posts are very long, which had forced some of our advertisers’ ads waaaaay down the page.

    I realize it adds an extra click to the experience, which is a small pain — I know. Still an experiment at this point.

    Quoting Paul from Friday’s comments:

    Something I’m experimenting with. A lot of the entries on the site are very long, which means (a) our home page has loooong rivers of text, which doesn’t look good, and (b) some of our advertisers’ ads are pushed way, way far down the page. So for a few days I’m going to be trying that “More” function, which is common on many other sites.

    It really only affects you if you’re using the homepage. As I noted in the replies on Friday, I do think the new format is helpful, as it helps you locate the preceding days’ articles a bit faster (especially when some articles are really lengthy bits of prose and/or rather photo-laden).

    I usually just come here from when the link is posted on Facebook anyway, or else I click on the title to pre-load the comments before even reading the article. But that’s me.

    bet dimes to doughnuts for a project like that you could have gotten them at cost from somebody.

    At first I didn’t like the extra click but understood the rationale for it. Also, f you want to read the comments, you’re going to make the extra click anyways. It’s really just a matter of when to make the click.

    Yes, but now you click and when you’re done reading the article you must refresh to ensure that the comments are updated.

    If we had a comments section that continuously updated then I would have no problem with the “click to continue”.

    Notre Dame isn’t related to Ireland in any way shape or form. The irish their name refers to we Irish-American Catholics who played for the football program.

    As an Irish-American, I hate these cleats because I hate Notre Dame and pretty much everything they stand for. They do not represent my people’s homeland any more than some jackass who wears a “kiss me, I’m irish” t shirt on St. Patrick’s Day.

    This presents and perpetuates a fictitious link between Ireland and some holier than thou college in a terrible part of an overwhelmingly terrible state (and I went to college in Indiana…) while simultaneously belittling the struggle of the Irish Independence movement, which persevered through decades of oppression to earn the right to raise the tricolor.

    Noting that the game is in Dublin, a fact I neglected to note, changes some of my fairly harsh criticism.

    I *somewhat* redact my last graph.

    My father went to ND, and played under Knute Rockne, so I’ve got some loyalty to the place. But those shoes. Oy. I like a football team featuring the Irish tricolor as much as I like a football team sporting the stars and stripes, which is to say not at all. Flag motifs are OK for national teams, I suppose, but not for university or pro teams and definitely not for teams from another country.

    The Madrid Open, which took place over the weekend, was the first tennis tournament ever played on blue clay.

    Hopefully no tennis player will pull a Boise State and wear all blue there.

    Michael Waltrip (driver/owner of the #55 Cup car)had a Junior Seau memorial decal on his ride at ‘Dega:

    link

    No one has mentioned the interesting coincidence (not irony) that when Charlotte was originally awarded an NBA expansion team in 1987 (?), its name was the Charlotte Spirit. Eventually they became the Hornets and moved to New Orleans, where one of the possibilities for its renaming is….Spirit.

    Also, doesn’t St. John’s lacrosse have a permanent 9/11 memorial in part because of The Guy With The Red Bandanna? Didn’t he play lax at St. John’s?

    The guy in the red bandana was Welles Crowther and he plaid lax at Boston College.

    I dread the possibility of something called the New Orleans Spirit. Hence alternatives:

    New Orleans Musketeers
    New Orleans River Kings
    New Orleans Dukes
    New Orleans Tigers
    New Orleans Cornets
    New Orleans Rollers

    New Orleans Catfish
    New Orleans Pelicans
    New Orleans Brass
    New Orleans Gold

    New Orleans Brass
    If they win the title, would they get a brass ring instead of gold?

    I can see the first headline concerning a front office move: “Brass brass hoping to shore up backcourt in the draft”

    I kid, but I actually like the name.

    Jim, Connie, walter,

    I like all of yours better than “Spirit” or “Angels”. Sheesh, all the unbelievably cool imagery around N’awlins (culture, food, music, geography, even politics) for material and those are the best they came up with?

    Zydeco, French; which the phrase means “these salty beans are making me thirsty!”.

    ‘New Orleans Cornets’

    I find this amusing since it only changes one letter & costs a LOT to rebrand a team. From the article:

    “…this takes around 2 years once you get your ducks in a row, plus it requires a multi-million dollar fee to the NBA, plus the expenses of the rebrand itself”

    I’d prefer “Spirit” only because “Angels” is already taken by another team & I don’t like it when modern teams borrow names from other established teams & leagues even tho this one borrows from the old ABA Spirits of St. Louis.

    A bit off topic, Did anyone download the style guides from the site that was posted a few months ago? That site is offline now and I need one. Thanks!

    The pole vaulter isnt from Plaquemine. They are the green devils

    The Green Wave are Ponchatoula High

    damn, you are right. I was the one who emailed the picture. My bad, not Paul’s

    I would almost wear those.

    So far, I’ve only had one quibble with the new show: the theme song and the accompanying video are just WAY too fast. Slow that down a bit and you’re good to go. Aloha.

    Gary Cooper brushed his teeth right-handed in Pride of the Yankees. Until today at snickered at that. Maybe MGM had it right!

    Two or three years ago, Manchester City signed a ten year deal with Umbro. Umbro is a subsidiary of Nike, but it’s managed to maintain its own identity.

    They are cancelling that deal, to go with Nike, because Nike is recognized as world-wide brand, and they aim to make City gear as popular as stuff from Barcelona or Man United.

    As a City supporter, it’s just one more small step away from the team’s historical identity. Sort of depressing.

    Can’t it be that the move from Umbro to Nike is due to City’s success this year. They are one win away from being champions of England and going to the UEFA Champion’s League for a second straight year, which, by the way, will have an all Adidas final matchup between Chelsea and Bayern?

    Let me get this straight.
    Lebron doesn’t need just one win in the playoffs. Not two. Not three. Not four or five. Not…

    Sitting here watching the Mets-Phillies, and I think the Phillies need to get rid of the numbers on the left sleeve. I know it’s a unique design element and all, but it just doesn’t look good. Put them on the front of the jersey, or just get rid of them altogether.

    It’s the balloon font lettering & numbers that sucks. It just looks too cutesy-poo for a classic look.

    The Phillies should bring back the link look for a reprise or the link with a solid red cap & a gray uni version of the home. Tho I do like that diamond sleeve logo, too.

    Orange Hats Caps Held Hostage: Game 29
    link

    The season has lost its new-car smell, and we still haven’t seen them. Might be time for some political pressure.
    link

    Didn’t realize the Marlins were coming to Cleveland on the 18th, 19th and 20th. I’m half tempted to go and take a big sign with me.

    Ugh, Braves are wearing their shitty-ass uber navy gift shop rags against the Blue Naked Bears.

    Bah – you can’t even see the navy numbers on the pitcher because it’s so dark. From a distance it looks like a solid dark navy top. Awful.

    why would i like softball tops?

    i do like outlined numbers and wordmarks, but on a baseball squad, i want to see white vs. gray (or powder blue, or cream or sand…but something where the tops and bottoms match)

    if the braves broke out navy pants (like say, maybe 2-3 times a season) with those navy tops…count me as a fan

    blue tops with white (they never wear them with the white pants, do they?) or gray?

    nope…not a fan

    “you can’t even see the navy numbers on the pitcher because it’s so dark”

    ~~~

    holy crap, i just saw highlights of that game

    when did the cubs install lights? or were those just cars in the parking lot providing the glow

    I am thinking that odd Kobe jersey was a replica for fans because I remember pro skater eric koston competing in the x games in San Antonio while wearing it and everyone booed him in 2003. Classic times

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