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Drivers…Start Your Engines

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[Editor’s Note: Today we have a guest-written column from David Firestone, who’s following up on a column he’d penned for Uni Watch earlier this year. Enjoy. ”” Phil]

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Drivers Start Your Engines
By David Firestone

In my last column, I focused on the driver suit, but the other uniform items that driver and pit crews wear in racing are just as important, not just for aesthetics, but for safety as well. I felt that these items should be analyzed.

First, let’s take a look at racing helmets. The helmets that racing drivers and pit crews wear are just as critical to safety as fire suits. Helmets have been a required safety feature in racing for decades, but rules on what kinds of helmets can and cannot be worn were rather lax, until Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500. Prior to the 2001 Daytona 500, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr., and Tony Roper had died in racing incidents where, at the time it was thought that even the best-designed helmet by itself would not have prevented the death in the incident. Earnhardt was known for being one of the few drivers to wear “open-face” helmets, similar to this Brad Noffsinger example from 1988. These helmets were commonplace in the 1980’s but by 2001, only a few drivers chose to wear them. These helmets had the advantage of extra visibility, but were less protective in the event of a fire. NASCAR was reluctant to regulate these helmets because at that time, they did not want to cause an accident because the driver’s view was restricted by a full-face helmet. A full-face helmet prior to 2001, such as this Kevin Lepage example from 1999.

After Earnhardt’s death, a new piece of equipment, the HANS or Head And Neck Support device was introduced. NASCAR mandated that all driver had to wear this new device, and the results have spoken for themselves. Here is a rundown on how the HANS device works, the device is worn on the shoulders, and hooks onto the helmet using a pair of straps which protects the neck, while giving the driver the ability to turn their head. The seat belt is placed over the device, and pulled as tight as possible. This is done to protect the driver in the event of a sudden head-on accident, it keeps the driver’s head and neck safe from the sudden deceleration, preventing death from a broken neck or basilar skull fracture. If Earnhardt, Petty, Roper, or Irwin had been wearing this device, their deaths could and would have been avoided.

The standard issue HANS-ready helmet is designed for driver safety, and is regulated by SFI or FIA. In addition to providing protection, the helmet has a couple of other features. In NASCAR, the most current helmets have the air intake attachment located on the top. This critical design feature helps keep the driver comfortable, by taking air from the outside of the car, cooling it, and blowing it into the helmet. Older helmets feature the air intake located on the left side of the helmet, so that the hose could be easily attached. The driver compartments in NASCAR can reach temperatures of over 150 degrees, and wearing 4 layers of fire protection doesn’t help things, so the air intake is a very necessary feature.

The visor on NASCAR helmets is a very durable clear plastic, that can be changed from clear to dark, depending on what time of day the race is. When the race will include a day-to-night transition, a dark film tear off is worn on a clear visor, so that it can be quickly removed and disposed of. The top of the visor features the helmet stripe. It is a good place for sponsorship placement, as the driver does not see out of this area anyway. One very critical piece found in every racing helmet is a microphone system. Drivers, crew chiefs, and strategists need to be able to communicate with each other, the rules mandate it. A custom paint job is always present on these helmets. Drivers also frequently wear two different helmets, one for race day and one for qualifying.

IndyCar and F1 helmets are designed for the open driver compartments the cars feature, and have special modifications to enhance driver comfort and even the performance of the car, including air boxes, and drinking hoses for the driver. The design of the helmet also has a unique significance. In IndyCar and F1, the appearance of the helmet is a part of a driver’s identity. Ayrton Senna for example, wore a helmet for much of his career that was sunburst yellow background with a light green stripe that surrounded the upper visor and a light metallic blue stripe surrounding the lower visor. Lewis Hamilton wore for a number of years a helmet with a very similar design to honor Senna who was his hero. These designs did not change even when the sponsorship they had contrasted the helmet design a bit. Sebastian Vettel on the other hand wears a helmet design heavily influenced by Red Bull, his primary sponsor. These helmets are worn by the driver with a Nomex balaclava that covers the entire face except the eyes. As the driver compartments are open, this provides extra facial protection. In many instances, the sock is attached to the bottom of the helmet.

Looking at racing gloves and shoes, the focus is primarily on safety as opposed to appearance, but sponsor logos and car numbers frequently appear on gloves. The gloves, such as these Hut Stricklin examples from 2000 are worn for fire protection and to give the driver extra grip on the steering wheel. IndyCar and F1 drivers can wear special “rain gloves” which have a rubber coating to keep the driver’s hands dry. Gloves are long so that they can be pulled over the cuffs of the driver suit as some extra protection for this area.

Racing shoes such as these Scott Riggs examples from 2004 are designed for fire protection and heat resistance, but also for durability and aesthetics. Like every other product that drivers wear, gloves and shoes are rated by SFI for safety. IndyCar and F1 drivers can wear rubber coated rain shoes for road races in the rain to keep their feet dry. Additional equipment may be used by the driver in order to keep their feet cool during the race. They are designed to match whatever color the driver’s suit is, but sponsor logos for the manufacturer can appear here as well. These shoes require special fire resistant shoe laces.

Driver Vs. Pit Crew equipment:The risk that the drivers take is very obvious, but pit road is a very dangerous place. The racing leagues do what they can to keep pit road safe, but sometimes it just isn’t enough. It is sad to say but pit crew members have been seriously injured and killed on pit road. It might seem crazy, but it was not all that long ago that pit crew members worked around very fast-moving cars, wearing little more than a custom-designed polo and pair of work pants. Now, rules mandate that pit crew members wear the same protection as drivers, including fire suits, helmets, gloves, shoes and undergarments.

There are really very few differences between driver suits and pit crew suits. The only real differences are that while drivers wear one piece suits with their name on the belt, pit crews can wear one or two-piece suits with their names on the back, in the same place as NFL jerseys. The two piece suit is to accommodate the work that pit crews do, giving them the same level of protection that the driver have, but without restricting movement. Fires on pit road are a frightening reality, whether from spilled fuel during a stop, or for the occasional crash on pit road. The crew member handling fueling equipment, the so-called gas man, typically wears a one-piece suit, racing shoes, as opposed to pit crew shoes, a full-face helmet, and an aluminiumized-fiberglass apron that reflects heat, and does not absorb moisture.

The helmets that pit crews wear are vastly different than driver helmets. Each crew member wears a helmet designed for his position. Jack men and tire changers wear open-faced helmets with large sun brims that have LED lights for extra visibility in night races. All involved have radio equipment built in.

The gloves and shoes that pit crews wear are designed with two goals in mind. The goals are to protect the crew member from the obvious risk of fire, while at the same time allowing them to preform the task they are required.

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Thanks, David. Nice writeup!

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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.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

And so, lets begin:

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We begin today with Wes Peters, who has a bunch (9 to be precise) of new looks for the Iowa State Cyclone football team:

White Gold White - Wes Peters

White Red Red - Wes Peters White Red White - Wes Peters White White Red - Wes Peters All Gold - Wes Peters

All Red - Wes Peters All White - Wes Peters Gold White Gold - Wes Peters Red Red Gold - Wes Peters

Hey Phil,

I had some downtime at work last week and decided to make some tweaks to the Iowa State football uniform. What started out as a tweak with the addition of white turned into several combinations. My personal favorites are the uniforms that use a white helmet and white pants. I don’t know if you guys think they’re good enough to make the cut on Uni-Watch but I thought I’d submit them anyway.


Wes Peters
Iowa State Graphic Designer

. . .

Next up is Roger Morrow, with four new looks for the Atlanta Braves:

Braves home alt - Roger Morrow

braves away alt - Roger Morrow

braves home - Roger Morrow braves away - Roger Morrow

Hey Phil,

Here is my concept for the Atlanta Braves. I went with a throwback style look with removing the Native American aspect to the uniform. I decided that they can change the meaning of the name by adding sleeve patches for the police dept and fire dept for the City of Atlanta and Fulton County.

Roger

. . .

We close today with Paul Lee has a kind of a new look for the Lakers:

lakers tweak - Paul Lee

Hey Phil,

I can’t remember if I’ve submitted this before, so here it goes again.

Lakers: simplified.

Paul Lee

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

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Guess The Game…From The Scoreboard

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It’s baaaaaack.

OK, readers — you know the drill (and if you don’t it’s quite simple) — you simply need to figure out what game is being played using the clues found on the scoreboard. I’m not sure if this one is particularly easy or particularly difficult. Obviously there are enough clues right on the scoreboard that if you have enough time, you can get it. Or can you?

If you solve it, as a courtesy to other readers, simply LINK (go to Baseball Reference) to the game and post that link in your comment — feel free to describe HOW you solved it, using any clues you may have gleaned from the Scoreboard.

OK? OK! Post your answer (in link form) in the comments section below. Good luck.

Last week’s scoreboard/answer (a few of you got it, others had the wrong guess): October 11, 1977.

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UWFFL Logo


U.W.F.F.L. Week 6 Update

By Rob Holecko

Here’s what’s going on in the UWFFL this week: Atlanta (4-1) and Minnesota (5-0) face off in a early season battle for big league supremacy, and while the NFL is going pink telling everyone about one particular kind of popular cancer, teams all across the UWFFL are wearing special colors and ribbons to bring awareness to many different kinds of cancers and diseases. In the minors, Sacramento and Dallas meet in a key battle out West, while Kansas City plays the first international UWFFL game ever as they face the… Barcelona Dragons of the La Lega Internazionale di Uni Watchers Fantacalcio? All this and much, much more! Check it out and vote on the uniform matchups at www.uwfantasyfootballleague.com.

Week 6 splash

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Jason Bernard


A Star is … Livestreamed

Uni Watch reader (and all-around good dude) Jason Bernard is about to get his 15 minutes…or something. And you can see him do his thing while you’re watching the next few Monday Night Football broadcasts. I’ll let him explain…

. . .

Hey Uni Watch-

During the next three Monday Night Football games (October 14, 21 and 28) I will be featured in a live streaming promotion for Bud Light on espn.com, as part of Bud Light’s “It’s Only Weird if it Doesn’t Work” campaign. Essentially, some friends and I take sides and discuss the game action, as well as superstitions, pop culture and whatever else we can think of for three and a half hours. It’s interactive ”“ you have the opportunity to vote for each of us (which directly controls a wacky “luck” machine), you can Tweet input at us (@BudLight) or you can just sit and enjoy our nonsense. To view:

1. DURING the MNF game, Go to espn.com

2. Click the NFL tab

3. A Bud Light popup will appear ”“ click the button to “Join the Show”

This is only live DURING the game. These are great guys, so it will be fun and entertaining. I’ll do my best to weave in uni-centric detail. Vote for ME!

. . .

Thanks, JB. Aight, Uni Watchers, do a brother a solid and check him out, throw him a vote. OK? OK!

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Alex Rocklein’s MLB Uni Playoff Tracker

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Well, the divisional series’ are now over, and we’re into the games they play for the Pennant. Last night, we had lots of free baseball with the Dodgers and Cardinals playing into the wee hours of the morning (at least on the East Coast). Those two will be back at it again this afternoon (with a 4:00 pm “start” time in the ETZ), and the Red Sox will host the Tigers in the late game. For those who went to bed before the game ended, here’s a hint how this one ended. Thirteen innings. Beltran drove home all three Cardinal runs.

For those who were rooting for lots of ‘colorful’ games with softball tops, well, you’re all shit out of luck. Three of the teams don’t even have a colored alt top (although the Cards do have an alternate cream-colored uniform with a “St. Louis” script they have worn every home Saturday game — so I expect they’ll bust those out today), and the Red Sox (who have a red and blue top) rarely wear those. Since the Sawks only wear the red tops on home Fridays and blue tops on road Fridays (and no games are scheduled between the Tigers and Sox on a Friday), we won’t see those. It’s basically white vs. gray the whole way (as the uniform gods intended it).

But the Divisional series, as you’ll note from Alex’ tracker, were full of softball tops. The Pirates, who lost a heartbreaking five-game series to the Cardinals, wore their black tops every day (considering them “lucky”). They even eschewed protocol by wearing the black tops at home on Sunday, when they had been wearing their 1970s throwbacks for most of the season. The Braves, who lost to the Dodgers in four, did break out their navy softball tops once, only to wear their beautiful gray tops for the series clincher.

In the junior circuit, you’ll see the A’s never once wore a gray or white top, instead going with the green tops once at home and twice on the road, and wore their gold tops for two of their three home games. If there is one team I don’t have a problem with wearing the alternate top, it’s the A’s — and seeing them in the green and gold tops brought back memories of their 1972-74 run of three straight World Series victories. I grew up with them in colorful tops, and it seems much less of a cynical, money-generating ploy than other teams. I was also pulling for them to meet the Pirates in the Series, but that won’t be happening. In the other series, the Rays and Red Sox both wore softball tops for their Friday night opener, but then went white/gray the rest of the way.

But now that we have four teams pretty much guaranteed to go white/gray (or possibly cream/gray today). Folks like Jim Vilk and THE Jeff may not be pleased, but the uni gods have spoken. For those of us who are fond of classic, traditional teams (and traditional-looking teams), the rest of the way will be uniform nirvana. For those who are easily bored by the white/gray parade…well, you have College Football to whet your appetites today, and plenty of pink from the NFL Sunday and Monday night.

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ticker 2

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz said the National League Championship Series is a match-up of the most beautiful uniforms in Major League Baseball (thanks to Riley Swinford). … That submission reminded me of another nice take on the NLCS by the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner, who notes (among other things) the Dodgers and the Cardinals are two of the three N.L. teams (the Phillies are the other) that never wear a colored jersey. … Of course, Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe will tell you Boston vs. Detroit is a pretty old-school uni-matchup as well.

NFL News: Looks like Jay Cutler wore two different shoes in Thursday night’s game against the Giants, judging by the Nike swooshes (good spot by Adam Grad). … Pretty sure we’ve addressed this before, but Andrew Cosentino noticed in this photo of the Peyton Manning goodbye presser that “the Colts helmet is the wrong color. Keep in mind that they have worn navy helmets before.” … The shoes Brandon Marshall was wearing on Thursday evening for Mental Health Awareness were actually soccer cleats, says Archie Troxel. “I know kickers typically wear soccer boots, but I’m not sure if I’ve seen a non-kicker do that before,” notes Archie. This was also noted by Elliott Bueler, who asks, “Seeing as how Brandon Marshall doesn’t typically wear soccer cleats, why couldn’t he have secured some football-specific cleats along the lines of the garish green offerings some of the Seattle Seahawks’ players have sported this year?” … Sports Illustrated has compiled a list of the eight best NFL throwback uniforms; sadly, some we’ll never see again (unless the ‘one-helmet-per-team’ rule is lifted, which is unlikely). … How does Green Bay’s ‘Frozen Tundra’ stay so green, even in January? Here’s how (from Dave Rakowski). … This has probably been covered before (by Paul) but one more look couldn’t hurt: The Bears wore a commemorative patch for Mike Singletary’s last home game ever, in 1992 against the Steelers (good find by Jeff Flynn, Jr.).

College Football News: Eastern Michigan will be wearing new helmets today when they face Army. … In news we couldn’t live without: Oregon’s cheerleaders got custom “O” contacts for today’s game against the Washington Huskies (found by Paulie Sumner). … Here’s a nifty slideshow of Oregon vs. Washington football unis through the years. … Paul Stave thinks that since UW is joining “the New Helmet per Week club, they may want to consider this version from the brief Jim Lambright era.”

NBA News: The snippet about the Chargers legends jerseys in Friday’s ticker made Taylor Berthelson think of a Utah Jazz Gordon Hayward jersey from the old mountain jersey era. Taylor also asks, “How did you not know about the Jazz Bear! The fact that he was inducted to the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006 says alot!

Hockey News: Alabama-Huntsville opened its season last night at Northeastern. The Chargers are in their first season as a WCHA member. Here’s what the new road jersey looks like. Nice! (great find by Michael Napier). … Last night, the Florida Panthers opened up at home. Aside from the Dos Equis patch, the Panthers would have worn throwbacks. According to this Miami Herald article, the league has intervened and they could no longer wear the throwbacks. Submitter Alexander Collazo asks, “Any reason as to why this happened?” … Hmmm, looks like even minor leagues are doing teasers for their warm-up jerseys (good find by Adam Walter).

Soccer News: Temple women’s soccer went bfbs last night at UConn. “Ugh,” intones submitter Gregory Koch.

College Hoops News: Looks like Valparaiso Men’s basketball will be getting new uniforms this season (thanks to Joel Mathwig), which he says are “So much better than last season.” I’d agree. … The University of California has new hoops unis for the 2013-14 season. … New hoops unis for South Carolina, with digi-camo. Here’s video (thanks to Joel Mathwig). … More uni-unveilings yesterday, with 3 new ones from Penn State.

Grab Bag: Here’s a jersey that will be worn at the Asian Gaelic Games (Hurling, *Camogie & Gaelic Football) this weekend. O’Neill’s is an Irish company that supplies the vast majority of clothing and equipment for these sports (thanks to Michael Clary). … If you scroll down in this article, to the section entitled “North Allegeheny 1982,” you’ll see this photo with the following note: “North Hills finished 6-4 in the regular season but went on to win the WPIAL championship with a victory over Butler at Pitt Stadium. During the magical playoff run, North Hills coach Jack McCurry wore a New York Yankees batting helmet. He viewed himself as the bad guy and he thought most people hated the Yankees. So why not?” (thanks to Doug Keklak). … Li’l help? Chris Castoldi writes, “I think you guys might be the only ones that could help me with a project. I have an old Pitt Panthers helmet chair. I know the helmets from this time period had Panther stickers on them for good plays. I know they’ve had several panther head logos and I’m unsure of which one to use. Any help would be greatly appreciated!” … We’ve explored many of these, but here are some neat hidden messages inside logos on the Mental Floss site (nice find by Jason Hillyer). … Nice find from Raymie Humbert on teams that wear others’ unis: This week, Florence High School in Florence, Arizona was stunned when news broke that their 38-year-old head coach Stephen McKane had died of a heart attack,” writes Raymie. “His father Bill, who had been helping coach the team, has taken over as interim head coach. Poston Butte High School in San Tan Valley, which is in the same district, has announced that it (would wear) Florence’s uniforms for (last) night’s game in a show of solidarity for the team.” … Andrew Schmitt saw this on Jalopnik, an exhaustive look at every livery for every team back to the 50’s and wanted to share. … “Even the middle schoolers,” writes Eric Bangeman, who “stopped by a park in my Chicago suburb and saw both teams wearing magenta socks.

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And that’s a wrap. Another full post, but there was lots to cover. My thanks to David for the lede article, and of course, the concepters, Rob, Alex, and all the ticker submitters.

Don’t forget to vote for Jason on MNF!

You guys enjoy a great holiday Saturday, with the playoffs and a bunch of great NCAA football to boot. I’ll catch you tomorrow with the full Sunday Morning Uni Watch rundown.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“The Chargers alt is in no way a ‘throwback’ ”“ it’s the same hideous modern uniform in a different color.”
–Chance Michaels

 
  
 
Comments (78)

    Agree. I Dodgers no hit 1-0 into Google.
    I then went through the search results and found that the game at Seattle in 2012 matched trhe score. June 8, 2012.

    link

    Here’s to hoping the Red Sox don’t break out their softball tops in the ALCS (or beyond). If that’s the case, this definitely will be a pair of gorgeous-looking LCS’s.

    Oh hey, look at that, no ‘Skins Watch.

    After yesterday, I would have posted every piece of ‘Skins news that was on Uni Watch since the start of the section, but that’s just me.

    “Oh hey, look at that, no ‘Skins Watch.”

    ~~~

    When I told Paul I’d do the weekend tickers (which I don’t mind doing as long as I’m not crushed from the week), we agreed I’d forward any ‘skins related articles to him (I send him many myself during the week anyway). We both agree they’re more impactful during the week when the readership is higher.

    Not that you are, but don’t take the lack of a ‘skins Watch as a lack of ‘skins-news, or that I don’t feel passionately about the issue. Weekend posts are (usually) long enough without them anyway.

    Oh, no. I’m just replying in sarcasm to the plethora of people yesterday who were crying about seeing ‘Skins Watch every day. I personally don’t mind, and if I don’t feel like reading it, I skip over it, like other items in the ticker.

    I guess I must have missed that. I agree, it would make weekend posts a little longer (and some would miss some good news if it broke on the weekends)

    I’m more bummed that the “new” ticker has made it’s way to the weekend now.

    Like Paul said I treat the Skins Watch just like I do other things like the soccer section, Collectors Corner, etc… I skip over what I don’t care about reading same for the days I don’t care for the lead topic.
    Yes it’s much more difficult to skip over in the comments section especially on heated days when there’s reply after reply and a new comment on it every other comment. Those days I almost wish Paul would post 1 dedicated Skins comment and have everyone use that to point-counterpoint instead of clogging up the rest of the comments. But it doesn’t ruin my day to see the Skins stuff. I’m neutral to the whole topic so it doesn’t matter to me if the name stays or goes (I do lean towards goes but not to the point where I’d go to work and throw my desk off of the roof if they announce it’s staying). It’s a BLOG done by someone that WRITES for a living. You’re supposed to focus on and write about what you’re passionate about.

    The format of the weekend ticker will depend on the amount of submissions. There were a LOT yesterday, so you get the full, sectioned-off ticker today.

    Tomorrow looks like it will be light, so it will be the old-style ticker.

    I’ve gotten complaints from someone no matter which way I do it, but it is driven by size…when there are a lot of submissions, I’ll break it down by sport; when there are relative few, it’s the old school way.

    I just have to bust. Funny though how I tend to hate the classic and traditional looks of the sports uniforms in favor of a more modern look (not ALL but mostly). Yet when it comes to things like ticker changes or the loss of my “beloved” black bar on Google I’m one of the first to light the torches and grab the pitchforks. LOL

    “Asian Gaelic Games” just made my day. Say that out loud and just try not to hear Israel Kamakawiwo’ole singing “What a Wonderful World” in your head.

    The best bit is that it’s called the “Asian County Board”. Sure, you may well be the largest continent on the planet and have a population of 4.3 billion people, but for the purposes of GAA administration you’re just another county.

    Brilliant!

    Scott is right: “Asian Gaelic Games” is so mundialista and absurdly perfect. Particularly enthusiastic about Polynesian/Goidelic intersect. No better-liked ethnic group in the world than Polynesians, right? Next step is mutual security treaty.

    I’m just surprised yours is the second comment about the Asian Gaelic Games. Slacking on the weekend?

    The game is indeed the Mariners combined no-hitter against the Dodgers last June. link

    Looking at the final score, it was obviously a no-hitter, so I searched an archive of no-nos and looked for ones that ended with a line of 1 run, 8 hits, and 1 error for the home team. I also noticed that one of the teams was wearing blue so that helped narrow down the options a bit. Fun game.

    Shouldn’t it make us all laugh that the NFL has that ‘SAME HELMET EACH WEEK RULE’ and that like half of DIVISION I (FBS) football squads have a different helmet each week? IRONY? I guess if the NCAA was sued like the NFL was, they mght have that rule too.
    No matter how PENN STATE looks in their new NIKE HOOPS DUDS, they’ll still be a DUD on the court & I’m a PSU FAN!!!

    Great primer on auto racing helmets, David. I was just talking with a friend of mine yesterday, who is a big fan of NASCAR, had said that the HANS device would not have saved Earnhardt’s life in his particular crash. Although, I had heard/thought otherwise. What have you heard, or any opinion here?

    Just to add, I guess it was more so the SAFER barrier type system, then the HANS device that would have been more beneficial to Dale Sr. in that particular crash.

    Yes, great work again David!
    As for Earnhardt’s crash, I think a more modern headrest might have spared his life:

    link

    A HANS alone probably would not have been enough, and a SAFER barrier may have helped.

    Great article on Earnhardt’s death and its’ impact on NASCAR, including his views on some of the safety initiatives which may have saved his life:

    link

    The Colts have used that helmet logo on the podium and interview wall for some time now, it’s not a blue helmet it’s a stencil of a helmet on a blue background.

    The uni-gods continue to give World Series titles to teams that forgo wearing softball tops. I think you have to go back a decade to the 2003 Marlins to find the last team sporting a dark-colored top in the World Series to win the championship. In fact, I’m not even sure any of the titlists since then have worn a softball top at any point in the postseason, which might be bad news for Boston fans (though perhaps the jinx only applies to games in the Fall Classic).

    Speaking of “classic, traditional teams” … this year will have the second straight World Series with two pre-expansion-era teams. The last time that happened was 1995-96.

    What I don’t understand is why NFL teams don’t just keep throwback helmets on hand for practices so that players can break them in. I mean, come on, it’s as simple as wearing them in practice. Now I’m not a proponent of brain injury in any way, but this stupid concussion ruling is ruining the NFL for me. I want Bucco Bruce, I want Pat Patriot, I want the old star on the Cowboy helmets, the mock-leather Packer helmets, Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing the old Gastineau era Jets helmets, or even the Titans helmets, but noooooooo.

    Geez, it makes you wounder whether people watch football because they like the sport or if they watch football because they like looking at laundry (didn’t Seinfeld once say something like that?)

    I’ve been a fan since the 80’s of a team that right now is one of the 3 worst looking teams in the NFL (uniwise and playing). But I still love my “beloved” Falcons. I don’t care what they wear although I still want to see them put the current logo on the 1st Glanville era BLACK uniforms and drop the current red clownsuits.
    Sometimes I wonder if people even watch the NFL to enjoy it as a fan of 1 team anymore or if I’m the only one in the US that actually cares about the game and doesn’t play that damn fantasy football. MY team is MY team. Not a bunch of guys I drafted plus the QB and the defense that plays the Jaguars every week.

    That’s why we invented the UWFFL, so we could play fantasy football that’s just about the uniforms. I quit playing regular fantasy football about ten years ago because it messed with my rooting for my Bucs, when I had a player starting who was playing against them.

    I remember cheering for Aaron Brooks scoring a touchdown against Tampa Bay, even though it gave the Saints the lead, then back to regular fan mode and cheering for my Bucs. I said screw that. I’m a Bucs fan.

    I think it’s just a matter of time before training camp holdouts have their agents going to the media with their fantasy numbers as the reason they need a new contract.

    What I don’t understand is why NFL teams don’t just keep throwback helmets on hand for practices so that players can break them in.

    They did. Teams always practiced in throwback helmets for a week or 2 before a throwback game. The NFL has decided that wearing multiple colored shells is somehow a safety issue, though they have yet to actually show us any data to back that up.

    I think Cutler’s shoes are the same.

    in this photo you can barely see the orange mark of the beast on the inside of his left foot:

    link

    Inside orange and outside navy on each foot most likely.

    Also…anyone who doesn’t recall football players wearing soccer shoes obviously hasn’t watched many games on artificial turf, esp. in ’70s and ’80s.

    I recall seeing clunky black-bottomed ‘turf shoes’ and the occasional high-top sneaker wearer but not soccer cleats (except for kickers, some of whom only wore one shoe on the field during the ’70s/’80s).

    Yep, its the same shoe, Nike Alpha Pro 3/4 TD, its just that the swooshes are customized to the Bears colors, a player PE for Cutler. And the late Sean Taylor, safety for the Redskins, wore soccer cleats all the time on the field as has DeAngelo Hall. Its not a huge gathering, but players from the NFl have definitely worn soccer cleats on-field.

    Look through photos of Super Bowl IV (Colts-Cowboys) and the non-grass SB shortly thereafter. I suggest SB games cuz photos are among easier to google.

    Pretty much everyone on the field i SB IV is wearing either adidas or Puma molded sole shoes, originally designed for soccer but used for both soccer and football with the advent of “AstroTurf”.

    And in the 90s, I think it was a fashionable thing to wear soccer cleats – it’s hard to tell, but link.

    ESPN GameDay at U of Washington prior to Oregon game.

    Nice sign in bkgd…
    “PHIL KNIGHT WEARS JORTS.”

    Ricko, I also like sign – 7253 uni combos O championships…using the Oregon logo as the zero.

    Mexico unveiled their new kits for the World Cup(that is assuming they even make the World Cup) and I have no idea what Mexico and Adidas were even thinking. The socks are absolutely hideous. The whole thing is pretty awful. It’s like their designer decide that 1991 was a great year for fashion. link

    link

    Strangely enough, as a huge Mariners fan the first thing I noticed about the photo was the Safeco Field hand-operated scoreboard. But then I tried to second guess myself and say, “well a lot of stadiums probably have ones that look like that. Besides, when would the Dodgers play there?”. And then I looked at the actual score, and I remembered it pretty easy from there.

    I agree that the Dodgers and Cardinals both have great uniforms. However, both have number issues that annoy me. For the Dodgers, they used to have a white outline on their rear numbers. On the road, it added a nice outline against the gray. At home it was a bit unnecessary since the uniform is white, but it added a bit of thickness and texture. They removed it a few years ago on both jerseys and did not change the blue number thickness, leaving it looking thin and cheap. A small detail that mars a great uniform.

    As for the Cardinals, I know Paul interviewed their President who improved many details on their uni, but I don’t like the tiny front numbers he picked. The Cardinals always had link and I find the new ones wimpy.

    I still think the wordmark could be raised up more and the red on the road needs to be a 1 year thing with them going back to navy next year.

    ”I still think the wordmark could be raised up more and the red on the road needs to be a 1 year thing with them going back to navy next year.”

    Agreed.

    Didn’t both the Cardinals and the Phillies wear powder blue uniforms instead of gray back in the 70’s and 80’s?

    For some reason I’m not hating the gold trim on Oklahoma as a nice contrast. On Texas though it looks horrible. The burnt orange is too close to the gold and washes it out. If they wanted to do trendy colors for the game Texas would’ve been better doing the GFGS or pick an “anthracite” or something like that to stand out better.

    link

    June 8, 2012. ESPN has a list of every no-hitter ever thrown. Started going down the list of 1-0 no-hitters and found Dodgers at Mariners on that date, as Seattle had the 1-8-1 line. Also, looks like blurred Dodgers pitchers heading from the bullpen to the dugout in the foreground.

    Liability..this is why you won’t see throwback games anytime soon. Either that or NFL teams are just too cheap to add another uniform and helmet set.

    link

    Florence/Poston Butte update:

    One of our local high school football shows has video of the game. Gesture aside, it’s probably one of the ugliest AZ high school football games this decade. Poston Butte came out in an orange-white-red combo (their normal colors are orange and navy blue), while their opponents Marcos de Niza were wearing their typical gold-brown-gold home uniforms.

    link

    How could Oregon look so good last week and then come out this week and look like this?
    I wish they broke out this week’s top last week but other than that it looked amazing. This week? Not so much. Couldn’t we see the yellow pants instead of going mono-white again?

    Georgia Tech wore their alternate whites from last year (same uniform worn against VT in the opener last year but with Gold helmets this time around) in their game against BYU tonight.

    The Cardinals wore red jerseys for one game: August 28, 1999 vs. the Braves. There was a period when the team consistently wore its red BP jerseys for spring training games, but the 8/28/99 game is the only time they wore red during the regular season. It wasn’t a BP jersey, but an actual knit made for the occasion — a shirt-off-the-back game with money raised going to MDA (there is an MDA patch on the sleeve).

    I was at the “Guess the Scoreboard” game! However, I wouldn’t have caught but a single glimpse of the hand-op board, since we were sitting directly above it, in the bleachers.

    Strange but true: after the 8th ended, there was a minor exodus for the exits. FOR SHAME, PEOPLE.

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