You probably recognize the card shown above — it’s the famous Honus Wagner T206 card, the rarest and most valuable baseball card ever made. Only about three dozen are known to exist.
I recently found myself in the same room with one of those three dozen cards. It was just a few inches away from me; I could have touched it if I’d wanted. And where did this happen? About the last place you’d expect. Enjoy. ”” Paul
Question Time: It’s been a few months since our last installment of Question Time (you can see the previous four installments here), so I’m opening up the floor to a new round of questions. You know the drill: You can submit one question — and only one — on any subject, uni-related or not. Personal questions are fine, although I reserve the right to not answer questions that are too personal. (For the record, this has only happened a twice so far.) Send your question — remember, only one — here.
Radio appearance: I’ll be talking uniforms today, from about 1:30-1:45pm Eastern, on 810 WHB in Kansas City. You can stream the live audio here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Following up on yesterday’s entry about MLB going G.I. Joe for Memorial Day: It had already been announced back in March that all of MLB’s proceeds from the camo cap sales would go to Welcome Back Veterans. But when those camo jerseys started showing up at the MLB Online Shop yesterday, there was no indication that the jersey revenue would go to charity, so many people assumed, not unreasonably, that MLB was simply pocketing the jersey cash. An MLB spokesman now tells me that “100% of MLB’s proceeds” from the jersey sales will go to Welcome Back Veterans. I’ve suggested that they might want to make that clearer at the MLB Online Shop, so people don’t get the wrong idea. In any case, they can sell all the camo crap they want and donate all the money they want, but I remain opposed to the use of camo on the diamond, for reasons I’ve already spelled out many times. … Giants and Nats wore red ribbons last night. At first I thought it was for the twister victims in Oklahoma, but it turns out it had nothing to do with that. ”¦ The NFL has struck a deal that will lead to laminated play-calling sheets being replaced by Microsoft’s electronic tablets. Teams can also use iPads, but only if they cover the Apple logo. Douchebags. ”¦ Two hockey-related notes from Dane Drutis: (1) As Sweden was sealing their victory in the gold medal game on Sunday in the IIHF World Championship, players were given gold helmets for the post-game celebration. (2) During the 2013 Memorial Cup tournament taking place this week in Saskatoon, the captain of the Halifax Mooseheads will be determined based on which color jerseys the team is wearing: Trey Lewis is captain when they wear red, while Stefan Fournier has the C on the white jerseys. … New kit for FC Barcelona (from Danny Garrison). … It’s a little hard to see, but the weighted bat cuff in the Blue Jays’ on deck circle has the Jays logo and the MLB logo (from Mike O’Connor). … Here’s a pretty cool visual guide to all the cars and drivers in this Sunday’s Indy 500 (from Clark Ruhland). … New alternate football jerseys for Penn (from Evan Smith). … Here’s a video of the Rams’ rookies getting their gear (from Marcus Clowers). … Mike Kearney was at a flea market over the weekend and spotted this cool NFL mini-helmet display. … Everyone knows that Super Bowl LI should take place on Long Island (with the pregame party at LI Phil’s house), but nope. … Here’s a fun Stanley Cup infographic (From Anthony Nuccio). … The excellent Frozen Faceoff site now has a new spin-off site devoted to full-rink graphics, including ads on the sideboards. “I plan to continue this next season, and will also add some historic ices,” says site honcho David Crabtree. “This is a much slower process, as it take so much longer to research all of the ads that go into the graphics, but I think the end result is worth it.” … Pakistan, in the midst of a brutal heat wave, has issued a new dress code for civil servants, who can now go without socks (from Tom Mulgrew). … Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco talks about the team’s recent high-cuffed game in the fifth and sixth grafs of this post on his blog (thanks, Brinke). … UNC and FSU baseball went color-on-color on Monday, plus UNC went G.I. Joe. ” It’s better than most of the crap camo unis out there but still pretty bad,” says J. Fletcher. … Nike and Oregon, in their never-ending attempt to redefine stupid, have come out with — wait for it — pregame baseball shoes. I eagerly await the postgame version (from Matt Busch). ”¦ Jeremy Brahm notes that the logo for the Indian Volleyball League, which was founded in 2011, is basically a straight rip of the original FIVB World League logo. ”¦ The A’s are planning to give away a T-shirt that will apparently have a vertically arched NOB, even though the A’s have never use that style, and nobody in the bigs currently uses it (from Shaun T). ”¦ Big thanks to those of you who expressed concern regarding my job status after hearing about yesterday’s unpleasantness. Don’t worry, people — I’m fine, at least for now.
Actually, I’m okay with the NFL making teams covering up the Apple logo on iPads, mostly because I hate Apple. But this kind of move is old hat for the No Fun League.
I’m just curious how well they work in cold weather/rain/snow. Would you really want to use a tablet for 3 hours in late December in Chicago or Green Bay? Also, how long till a frustrated coach destroys one by bouncing it off the ground after a bad play?
Heat might be a bigger isuue. My ipad locks up if it is in the sun too long.
I’m not calling douchebag on the logo cover-up. Mainly because MS and Apple tablets are so visually distinct that nobody who might conceivably be in the market to buy one will have any confusion whatsoever that his team is using iPads instead of a Wintab. Heck, you see Apple products all the time with the Apple logo covered up – someone in Hollywood is making a small mint from the idea of making Apple-logo-sized silver stickers – and I don’t think anyone has ever had any doubt who made the product.
My question is that tablets run on battery power. Even assuming you never get a lemon whose battery can’t stand up to 3 hours of constant use, which you will, inevitably, from time to time, someone will forget to charge them all before game time. Are we really going to see offensive coordinators huddling on the sideline, chained to a little three-foot white cord while their tablet powers up?
Tablets are absolutely the future of computing, which is to say, of all human activity, at least until the inevitable collapse of modern civilization sends us all back to chalk tablets. But I’m not convinced that tablets are quite mature enough yet for this use.
Now, I can totally see someone confusing a Galaxy tab for an iPad with the logo covered.
Now, as far as battery life, Surface promises 8 hours of battery life, but that’s on the non-Pro model and it’s unclear how heavy the use is.
iPad promises up to 10 hours of web surfing or video play (also, the link tells us to keep the device between 32 and 95 degrees, so that’s an issue in Miami or Green Bay).
I assume weatherpoof covers and solar battery packs will become necessities.
But is an Android tablet allowed? I thought it was just Surface or iPad. And given that none of Surface’s 18 available apps are remotely useful for football coaching, I just assumed the whole thing would be dominated by de-branded iPads.
I’m pretty sure Otterbox makes cases for iPad that lack a window for the apple logo; if so, that solves everything but the battery life.
Yep. OtterBox, Speck, Belkin (to name a few).
re: Android
PlayerLync, the app used by Broncos and other NFL teams, is for iPad only: link
Also, I don’t think Android tablets are as prominently branded or ubiquitous as iPads are, though I assume teams would have to cover any Samsung or Asus logos on the back.
Or, add a fake Microsoft logo on a non-Microsoft hardware like they did on How I Met Your Mother:
link
Surely they’ll have their own custom apps built in. I doubt the coaches will need to sign in with their App Store accounts and browse until they find something that works.
Yeah, I’m sure there will be one or more NFL-blessed apps for Surface. But there’s nothing NFL can do to stop teams from staying with the current iOS offerings and I imagine most tablet app developers are working in iOS and Android, and don’t see a need to develop for another platform just because the hardware is NFL official.
“someone in Hollywood is making a small mint from the idea of making Apple-logo-sized silver stickers”
Conversely, you also see LOTS of Apple product placement. I love when, rather than covering it up completely, they replace it with an image of a pear or the like.
Logically, the NFL will have charging stations along the sidelines (read: fancy USB to outlet docks) and will be the excuse why the tickets/parking went up $10. I am curious to see what happens in inclement weather, but then again, half of the stadiums are domes anyway (I think).
Also, the Apple logo will probably be covered by an NFL Shield sticker. They’ll probably be one (or a team logo) on the WinTabs too, but they won’t obscure the Windows 8 logo.
The coach can just stop by the team souvenir shop and pick up one of these for his iPad:
link
Nothing looks good in midnight green…
‘Nothing looks good in midnight green…’ So true, so true.
Not sure if you’re an Eagles fan, but this news of the NFL approving stadium renovations could mean the end of midnight green:
link
If they plan on doing new uni’s it would make sense to do it all within this renovation and rid the stadium of the colour.
Also, Jeffrey Lurie just got re-married so let’s stick it to his old wife – the reason they wear midnight green:
link
Since I “have to” watch the Iggles twice a year, I really want them to go back to kelly green, silver and block numerals. They look like an 1990s expansion franchise with their midnight green, black and custom numerals. Every other Philly team is wearing something based on past uniforms.
Nothing looks good in midnight green? My British friends link.
Not the Eagles, though. They look awful in it.
But that would be “British Racing Green”…
Precisely, Joe
“…… New kit for FC Barcelona (from Danny Garrison). …”
Pretty big deal, for a coupla reasons. Barca is surely one of the best-knpwn names in world soccer and recently (until the disagreeable re-emergence of German superiority) has been the best team in the world. Key to Spain’s victory in the World Cup, etc. So any kit change is by definition big news.
The new design itself seems to be a newsmaker. Luckily, we have a deep bench of Uni Watchers who can tell me if I’m wrong, but this may be the first time that Barca’s vertical stripe look has incorporated the colors and proportions of the traditional flag of the Catalan monarchy. News photos show protest marches featuring a new nationalist-endorsed Catalan flag with a blue Puerto Rico-like triangle on the flagstaff portion of the old version, but the no-triangle red-and-yellow ensign is the real McCoy, historically speaking, and its adoption by Barca may be a nod to an increasingly separatist fan base.
Yeah, I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think Barça has ever done red/yellow away. Obviously, such an obvious Catalan tribute would’ve been a no-no in the Franco era, and I’m not sure how strong the separatist movement was pre-Franco.
Now, I like the Catalan flag motif in theory, but I really dislike the execution. Using the same stripe pattern as the home kit makes it look like a knockoff, and the yellow/red stripes feel less than big time (and more like RC Lens: link).
Barça, like most teams these days, change their uniforms every season. So in and of itself, it’s not big news.
Yes, using the Senyera as the design for the change kit is a first. Also a first is the use of a straight-up, for-profit jersey sponsor, Qatar Airways. For many years, Barça refused to have a jersey sponsor. When they did, they initially went with UNICEF, and in a twist, paid them for the privilege of having the logo on their shirts. For the last couple if seasons, they’ve worn the logo if the Qatar Foundation. Now, under the terms of that agreement, it switches to Qatar Airways.
The logo is rendered in white. Considering that is the color of their rivals Real Madrid, I thought there would be more outrage (as when Kappa added some white sleeve striping almost 20 years ago), but I haven’t heard of any.
The Qatar Airways logo is silver, not white.
Says so in the linked article.
Thanks for the clarification. I had only seen photos of the new kits on other sites. Moral of the story, friends — never completely trust your eyes.
I remember cynics saying the UNICEF sponsorship was a Trojan horse to get a corporate logo on the shirt down the road. I guess they were right.
You know, it wasn’t that long ago when both Barça and Real played without sponsor logos:
link
Somewhere I still have my program from the early-2000s Champions World matches at the Meadowlands, and the section on Barcelona leaned very heavily on the club’s refusal to sully its shirt with a sponsor.
I’ve got that one too, Chance. United-Juventus, in 2003.
Now that’s how soccer is supposed to look!
Baseball “pregame” Turf shoes are nothing new Paul. We had turf shoes back in the late 90’s for my high school team. Nike, mizuno, reebok all made them.
They’re still around. A turf trainer by any other name is still a turf trainer.
Yup, we had a team issued set every year, along with every other team in our district. It’s courtesy. You don’t want to tear up your opponent’s(or your own) facilities. Turf in the batting cages is extremely common.
These are kind of a requirement for baseball, all major leaguers wear them… needed for indoor practice, walking back and forth from game
Yep, pre-game turf shoes are about as new as metal bats. Personally, the only thing I don’t like about the ones linked today is the color. Otherwise, they’re fine.
Hey now, don’t throw logic or facts around. Then Paul wouldn’t be able to bash Nike…again. Sometimes I really wish there was another site that covered uniforms similarly to this one, but without the cynical and holier-than-thou attitude. I’ve been a devoted reader for a quite a while now and I’m almost to the point of giving up on this site and Paul’s writing. Almost everything seems to be spun so negatively, it just gets old. I just want uniform news, I don’t need an opinion on Nike or how Paul feels about our countries Military and its relationship with sports. I’m sorry, I’m ranting now. I just needed to get this out. That being said, turf shoes in baseball are a must. I used the all through high school. You can’t wear your spikes everywhere.
So, will Buddy Lazier really not have a sponsor on his car for the 500, or has he just not finalized a deal yet? Seems pretty late in the game to be adding major sponsors now.
That visual guide from Clark was great!
According to this, there’s been a few sponsorship changes for the 500:
link
“Buddy Lazier’s No. 91…also carried new backing over the weekend from Advance Auto Parts. The team has not altered the livery from its black and orange it had…, but still could prior to this weekend.”
I saw a side view rendering of the car with sponsorship on the IndyCar webpage.
Katherine Legge picked up sponsorship from Angie’s List just prior to qualifying. All cars who pick up new/additional primary or secondary sponsorship will have them displayed by race day.
Cars that are half-blank at qualifying will have decals all over them by race day at Indy. Side deals, etc. Someone will have a Conseco logo, someone will have Jonathan Byrd’s Cafeteria, someone will have Menard’s.
Think of it: back in 1997, Arie Luyendyk didn’t have that Apple logo on his nose cone when he qualified, but it did on race day when he won.
The spotters guide is nice but better for qualifying. Here’s the starting grid, basically the same set up just cars in order of starting position…link
The use of tech for play calling is way over due.
How is it teams still use a paper play book when any team could simply hire a programmer to create the playbook digitally. Add in features like shared notes on plays, coaches notes, video linking integration so players can review when they last ran the play, ect.
Is it because of “security”? I mean its easier to make copies of a piece of paper than it is to break an encrypted file or what have you.
Apparently, 90% of Broncos players had switched from paper to iPad by last summer: link
And as the article mentions, you can block access to a stolen iPad, but once a paper playbook is out in the wild, you can’t lock it.
That should be in place league wide.
it was only a matter of time before this happened.. but now it’s just gonna look funny when they use that to cover their mouths when talking to their coaches over the headsets
In theory, technology over paper is faaaar superior. I for one, am a fan of the move, but there are two things I am really looking forward to.
1. The first time we see turmoil on the sidelines followed by a post-game press conference with Andy Reid making mention of “damn gadgets.”
2. The first time Jim Harbaugh loses his f-ing mind and slams a MS Surface through the bench.
Better sync those things often.
You don’t think Harbaugh will suddenly break into dance?
link
I’m led to believe that’s what people do with Surface tablets.
I appreciate those Gino’s(?) Mini helmets being displayed Alphabetical by division.
I appreciate someone else appreciating what I appreciated in the alphabetizing of the helmets.
Our local Dairy Queen gave those away when I was a kid! I had the board and about three quarters of the helmets which, of course, are in a landfill now. It always kinda bugged me that they were misshapen to accommodate a sundae. Stinkin’ practicality! At least the trade-off of ice cream softened the blow of a flat-topped helmet.
I had quite a collection of those ice cream mini helmets when I was a kid. I got mine at a local mom & pop ice cream shop in the Buffalo area (next door to the laundromat my parents owned). I still have that Bills helmet kicking around somewhere, I should take a look for it. It usually ends up making its way to a knick-knack shelf in the apartment about one month before it’s time to pack up and move again.
Continuing the jersey sponsor ad discussion from yesterday – the difference in mentality is due partly to the difference in economic models.
In North American leagues, salary caps and max salaries keep wages down, while amateur drafts and revenue sharing level the playing field to varying extents. In European soccer, it’s more every man for himself, and if you want to be able to purchase the best players, you have to maximize every possible revenue stream.
Obviously, not every cent of sponsorship revenue goes back to the team, but that extra $50 million in kit sponsorship can go towards acquiring a world-class player or two. Corporate logos on jerseys might seem like cynical profiteering, and it is, but it also directly contributes to competitiveness.
Very much so. The basic irony at the root of much of US vs European sports culture: American sports are socialist oligarchies. European sports are capitalist free markets.
Leagues, certainly. But certain clubs in Europe are community-owned like the Packers (the socio-owned teams in Spain such as Real Madeid and Barcelona, the 50+1 rule in Germany).
Yeah, that’s the weird paradox – the economic model is more cutthroat capitalism, yet supporters see teams as a communal property (even when it’s not owned by the fans) and bristle at the term “franchise”.
“Community owned” teams are actually more purely free-market capitalist entities than the oligarchic sole proprietorships or limited partnerships that dominate American sports ownership. Real may call them “socios,” but in America, we know them as “shareholders.”
What makes American sports teams – not leagues, but 90% of the individual teams across all major pro sports – socialist is the ownership of their means of production. If the government builds and owns the factory where you create your product, you are a socialist enterprise. Stadiums are the factories where sports teams create their product. I don’t throw around the word “socialism” casually, like it seems every idiot in America does these days, but when a government finances and owns a stadium used by a privately owned professional team, that is socialism. The team that moves into a publicly financed and owned stadium ceases to be a capitalist enterprise and becomes a socialist enterprise. The worst kind of socialist enterprise: One where the public pays the capital costs, but private individuals pocket the profits.
“The worst kind of socialist enterprise”.
Couldn’t agree more.
When did publicly financed stadiums become the norm in the United States? What was the first publicly finanaced stadium? I’m thinking it was the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Professional sports in North America are a high stakes version of a lemonade stand: mom and dad buy the sugar, lemons and Dixie cups, and little Sally and Johnny keep all the revenues.
One of the myths is that a publicly financed stadium is an investment in the community, with Coors Field cited as a prime example. It just doesn’t happen. The area around Minute Maid park is pretty much a ghost town. Prudential Arena in Newark looks like a spaceship, landed in the middle of the Apocalypse. Owners understand that once the building is up, no one is going to hold them to any neighborhood improvement commitments.
Manchester City might be an exception. They play in a publicly financed stadium in England. The club is investing a billion pounds into development around the stadium, and they’re paying to increase the seating capacity to 60,000. If every NFL team were willing to invest a billion and a half dollars into underprivileged areas around their stadia, I’d be all for publicly financing.
(NB: The City comments are a little self-serving. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find City, my favorite club, lovable. Just this year, they’ve entered into business partnerships with Nike and the New York Yankees. They might as well require all the players to grow Hitler mustaches.)
I believe West Ham will be another corporate welfare beneficiary when it moves into the Olympic stadium.
And to your larger point, I think a lot of people (often intentionally) confuse cause and effect. For example, the Carolina Panthers building a downtown stadium didn’t transform Charlotte, as the ownership would have you believe. NFL awarded the franchise to Charlotte because the city was a banking boomtown and already undergoing change.
Prudential Arena in Newark looks like a spaceship, landed in the middle of the Apocalypse.
You should seen Newark a decade ago!
Charlotte is a great example.
There’s an old story about the guy with a magic stone: when he adds it to boiling water, it makes soup. He gives a demo to some villagers. They’re all gathered around the boiling pot, peering in. The guy says, “This would be even better if we added some potatoes.” Someone gives him some potatoes. And it goes on and on: onions, carrots, meat, barley. The villagers sample the finished product, amazed that a stone could produce such a delicious meal. And they pay big bucks for the magic stone.
People in Houston were in fits of ecstasy yesterday, because the Super Bowl, the biggest stone of all, is being plunked into our pot of boiling water. It’s insane.
Cort, in fairness, the Super Bowl is one of the few events that brings in enough tourist dollars (true OUTSIDE investment) to justify the usual sinkholes that are publicly financed stadiums.
That doesn’t make it right that Harris County tax payers plunked down eight or nine figures of their tax dollars to pay for Reliant Stadium, but it makes up for it.
I concur with Arrrr Scotty,
Welfare for the wealthy and the war on the poor.
When a city invests hundreds of millions to host the worst kind of socialist enterprise: One where the public pays the capital costs, but private individuals pocket the profits.
Shameless, and sadly most profitable in the short term if you are a say, an owner of a baseball team in new digs in Miami.
I should say, I’m not necessarily saying the American model of socialist pro sports is a bad thing, or wrong or anything. I’m OK with stadiums being part of a city’s public infrastructure alongside libraries and roads and whatnot. I just find it interesting that Americans embrace a dictionary-definition form of socialism for their sports, whereas those notoriously pinko Europeans embrace a model of free-market capitalism that’s cut-throat even by American standards.
Is there a more odious man in all of sports than Jeffrey Loria?
The problem, of course, is that they are generally so much higher on the priority list than are other parts of the infrastructure. If we were as eager to update our bridges, libraries and schools (I teach in a “portable classroom” that’s older than most NFL stadia) then I could buy this argument. However, we’re told that a stadium lasts only 20 years, but that our bridges should be good for 50.
Add in the noxious presence of advertising that doesn’t benefit the financier (the municipality) and I find myself almost always opposing stadium projects. Build more Memorial Stadiums and Soldier Fields, and I could get back on board.
Debates about new pro stadiums, regardless of who’s footing the construction bill (it always is the taxpayer who ultimately pays), usually end one way: the construction of a new stadium to either keep an existing team in town, to lure one away, or to win an expansion franchise.
It was Miami’s and Miami-Dade’s publically elected officials who agreed to the terms of the lease and funding for the park, and it was they who insisted on the location, wasn’t it?
Loria, of whom I’m not a fan, may have no shame but his motives and decisions are not the only ones to blame.
I can tell that the Stanley Cup infographic is outdated by a few years, just by the team logos – the Kings (who’ve also won), Thrashers (now Jets), Sabres, Oilers, and Lightning all need to be updated.
re: Surface Tablet deal
Curious to see the ratio of Surface tabs vs masked Apple logos on the field. It’s not like you can’t tell it’s an iPad without the apple.
That said, NFL is a good get for Microsoft, which is struggling with sales. Then again, did NFL sideline presence do anything for Motorola headset sales?
“It’s not like you can’t tell it’s an iPad without the apple.”
Spot on. I’ve never been a big Apple fan (tho my job requires me to work on one), but there’s no mistaking their product. They have always done an excellent job at making their hardware stand out in a crowd.
As racing fans know, Monaco GP is this weekend. Many drivers have begun to show details of their one off helmets for this particular GP.
Here’s Alonso with puzzle pieces naming each of its 32 wins to date link
Then Checo Pérez with some casino motiffs
link
Daniel Ricciardo with gold and silver motiffs and a Monaco view link
link
link
And Grosjean with another Monaco motiff link
Racers also held their usual football (soccer) match against the Prince’s team and here you can see a picture Massa uploaded link while Bianchi took a break to play with his phone or text someone link
Great day everyone. I’ll keep posting other driver’s helmets as soon as I get links
Jean Eric Vergne, who last year wore a helmet to honor Elio de Angelis, will be honoring Francois Cevert this year. link
Grosjean, added a wider view of his helmet with the french colors link
The Stanley cup infographic doesn’t include the kings as teams that have won the cup
I’ve mentioned a few comments above that it’s outdated.
The hockey rink ads is not totally correct. The Canadiens change the sideboard ads between periods.
didn’t quite catch the “Ads are approximate” below each pic, eh?
I was a wee bit busy during the month of April so I completely missed the original post with the J”BC”J interview. Even if I had visited the site that day, I probably would have just skimmed it.
Thanks for reposting it at a time when I truly had a chance to peruse it. That was a great read.
Thanks, Jimbo. I’ll confess to being really, really happy with the way that one turned out. Glad you like!
COTD: A rabbit hole you definitely want to enter.
Stunning.
Saw it yesterday and Oh. My. God. Also a bit of a personal trip, since I kind of speak Dutch but haven’t had that much chance to use it in almost 8 years.
Makes me want to go back in time to the 1990s and replace every single damn one of those “Successories” posters that were such a fad in American offices with one of these vintage safety posters. Particularly the really trippy Dutch ones.
Not much to dislike about this photo of Carlos Beltran from last night, right Paul?
link
Nice! Too bad about the shinguard and knee brace, though.
Whoa, check out the cast on the ump, too!
It looks like he’s got padding on his back (and maybe chest?), too. I’ve never noticed that before.
Pre-game shoes? That one puts the WTF-o-meter beyond the redline.
i was watching the nba draft lottery last night. they have all the teams logos on display. it occurred to me how horrible to suns logo is. “phx” needs a rebrand.
their unis and logo are horrible. the new court design is fine. but what was wrong with the unis from the 90s? those are sweet.
The Suns are coming out with new unis for the 13-14 season, I believe.
really? that’s great
I know you love to find any new reason to hate Nike more, but pre-game shoes have been a part of baseball for 50 years. Here’s a pair from Johnny Bench: link
While I disagree with most of your hate towards Nike, I do certainly understand it, but when you go out of your way to take jabs at them you merely match them in douchebaggery.
Just out of curiosity, what about that auction listing indicates to you that those shoes were pregame shoes?
“1970s Johnny Bench Game-Worn, Signed Turf Shoes” leads me to believe that they were worn during a game (or games).
And even if those were specifically worn during pregame activities, I really don’t think it’s an apples-to-apples comparison to the ticker item.
The fact that I’m a college baseball coach, was a college player, am the son of a former college baseball coach, am the brother of a former college baseball player. I’ve been around the game for 30 years. I’ve been wearing “turfs” my whole life. Nike may call them “Pregame” shoes but it’s the same thing. They used to call them Diamond Trainers. Reebok calls them Trainers. Nobody (especially a catcher, who spends most of his time on the dirt part of a turf field) wears turfs in a game. They’re made for batting practice (or PREGAME activities). Nike did not invent them yesterday. They’ve been part of the game for decades.
Johnny Bench played quite a few games at every position on the field except for pitcher, shortstop and second base.
And due to the fact that he played his home games on turf at Riverfront and played many, many road games on turf at 3 Rivers, Veterans, Busch and the Astrodome, I’d say there’s a fairly good chance that those “game-worn” shoes were actually game-worn.
Oops. Forgot to include Olympic Stadium.
Today’s ESPN column is up:
link
Apostrophe catastrophe in the hed.
Never mind. Brainlock. Read it too fast.
MEET THE MET’S,
MEET THE MET’S,
Step right up and greet the Met’s!
Bring your kiddies,
bring your wife;
Guaranteed to have the time of your life
because the Met’s are really sockin’ the ball; knocking those home runs over the wall!
East side,
West side,
everybody’s coming down
to meet the M-E-T-APOSTROPHE-S Met’s of New York town!
Oh, the butcher and the baker and the people on the streets,
where did they go? To MEET THE MET’S!
Oh, they’re hollerin’ and cheerin’ and they’re jumpin’ in their seats,
where did they go? To MEET THE MET’S!
All the fans are true to the orange and blue,
so hurry up and come on down –
’cause we’ve got ourselves a ball club,
The Met’s of New York town!
Give ’em a yell!
Give ’em a hand!
And let ’em know your rootin’ in the stand!
Come on and MEET THE MET’S,
MEET THE MET’S,
Step right up and greet the Met’s!
Bring your kiddies,
bring your wife;
Guaranteed to have the time of your life
because the Met’s are really sockin’ the ball; knocking those home runs over the wall!
East side,
West side,
everybody’s coming down
to meet the M-E-T-APOSTROPHE-S Met’s of New York town!
Of New York town!
I’ll ask my mom to put on the curb the 40,000 cards I managed to collect when I was a teenager with nothing better (or legal) to spend my money on.
That way, MY collection will vault past Burdick to become the second-largest publicly available. And what an exciting collection it is!
Come on by, one and all, and SEE my famous 1989 Topps #233 Gregg Jefferies Future Star card! WONDER why Doug Jones is holding a flaming baseball in his 1991 Score #884 Dream Team card! FAIL TO RECOGNIZE Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa or Barry Bonds on their cards from 1990!
From Biz of Baseball’s Maury Brown:
@BizballMaury:
“Bernie’s Barrelman Ale” selected as name for a new beer created in a partnership between the Milwaukee Brewers and Leinie’s [Leinenkugel]. Available Mon.
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Nice Stanley Cup info graphic but it shows the Buffalo Sabres as a past winner of the cup and I don’t believe they have won it ….Jus’ sayin….
They should have won it.
Stinking Brent Hull was in the crease. IN THE CREAAAASSSE!
The Buffalo Sabres are one of the numerous sports franchises which has never won the ultimate prize. But even worse are the St. Louis Blues, who were part of the 1967 Expansion Six, and haven’t even reached a Cup Final in over 40 years. When they did, it was a product of winning the Expansion Six side of the league, which guaranteed a trip to the Finals back then. Fortunately, the NHL fixed that problem with the next wave of expansion(including Buffalo).
Braves and Twins wearing BP caps today in-game.. strange to see the Bravos in anything but red-brimmed, blue caps with a white A. Any significance??
The only way it would make sense to put SB LI on Long Island would be to also require Vegas to host SB LV.
Mets finally wearing proper caps with white alts. ‘Bout frickin’ time.
Great pairing with the Reds too. That road kit gets better every time I see it.
Paul, can you once again remind us where you purchased your eyeglass frames? I think you’ve posted a link in the past, but I can’t find it. Thanks.
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Thanks Paul! I’ll be getting my next specs from them!
The baseball card collection at the Met is fantastic. Its one of the great museums of New York. The fact they even have this makes it even cooler. Well worth the trip.
Deadspin is reporting that ESPN is shutting down Playbook. Does this mean you too Paul?
Uni Watch and I are still part of ESPN.com. No worries.
Once they switched to Playbook from Page 2, the amount of content was seriously lacking – same 5 stories under the categories for a week at a time.
Anyone notice that the Indians wore their non-Wahoo capped home set yesterday for game 1 of a series, on a Tuesday night?
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The Carolina/FSU color on color game was nice! I do like the subtle camo on UNC. From far away it looks like clouds. Too bad more players didn’t go high cuffed and UNC just used solid navy for their socks. If they would have gone SF Giants Carolina Blue three stripe with white outlines of the stripes that would have been sweeeeet!
How will they be able to read the tabs in sunlight? I can’t read mine when outside. Does the surface have some special screen?
One of the daytime radio/satellite guys actually said (and laughed about it) “bloggers being a part of ESPN but bringing $0.00 to the company, just doesn’t make sense for this company to keep them on board”… People on their high horse talking shit like that is annoying. People like that should retire.
The statement itself isn’t wrong. If you’re not bringing any value, you don’t deserve the gig (although I’d argue that value can come in many forms other than the monetary form).
Anyway, are you saying he was talking about that uniform blogger guy?
(It’s funny: Many people have no idea that I was already an ESPN columnist, and a longtime journalist, before this here blog was launched. The column gave birth to the blog, not the other way around.)
That Portland-Halifax photo looks like a First Round Western Conference match up Blackhawks – Wild.
Also, the left-handed Moosehead player is giving much love to his logo by posing for the photo as a right-hand shot.