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Can’t Anyone Around Here Design a Decent Opening Ceremony Outfit?

Ralph Lauren released Team USA’s outfits for the Sochi opening ceremonies yesterday (see above), and I for one do not feel like my country is being honored. Additional photos, info, and — of course — retail prices can be found here. What a mess.

Meanwhile, check out what the German team will be wearing:

Some folks are interpreting the rainbow design as a protest against Russia’s anti-gay laws. But according to this article, that interpretation is wrong:

The uniforms were created by German designer Willy Bogner, in cooperation with Adidas and the shoe company Sioux. Bogner claims they were an homage to the aesthetics of the 1972 Munich Summer Games and said he wanted to create a “celebratory design, inspired by the great atmosphere of the times.”

That’s the oddest explanation of all because, as reader Eric Trager points out, the “great atmosphere” at the 1972 Munich Games wasn’t all that great.

Can’t anyone out there design some good opening ceremony attire? Yes, as it turns out — Canada.

Finally, in case you missed it yesterday: My latest ESPN column provides a preview of some other things to watch for at the Olympics.

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FNOB update: For a while now I’ve been aware of only two FNOBs in MLB history: Ron Jackson and Carl Taylor. But we’re about to double that total!

First up is Claudell Washington, from the 1974 A’s:

Doug McWilliams, a former Topps photographer, took that photo and remembers the details: “He added his first name because track athlete Herb Washington was also on the team. Herb didn’t have his first name added. They were both on the team in 1975, but I don’t recall if Claudell continued wearing his first name.”

A few hours after Doug sent in that photo, I heard from Jeff Scott, who provided visual evidence of Cardinals infielder Julio Gonzalez going FNOB in 1982, as you can see in this World Series clubhouse celebration shot:

Julio Gonzalez FNOB.jpg

“I pulled out a 1982 Cardinals media guide and found that there also was a Jose Gonzalez in the Cardinals’ camp that spring,” says Jeff. “He ultimately made it to the majors in 1984. Interestingly, he changed his surname to Uribe when he was traded to the Giants after the ’84 season because, apparently, there were ‘too many Gonzalezes in baseball.’ I suppose we can assume he also had a FNOB jersey during spring training 1982, although we’d need photo confirmation to be sure. Anyway, at least ths explains why Julio had FNOB.”

It’s not surprising that FNOBs are so plentiful in football (because the rosters are so large) and so rare in basketball (because the rosters are so small), but I’m surprised we’ve seen so few of them on the baseball diamond. Big thanks to Doug and Jeff for adding these two to the historical record.

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Research question: Got a note the other day from Tommy Lamme, as follows: “When I played basketball back in the ’80s, we had a home uni number (usually even) and an away uni number (usually odd and consecutive with the home number — 12 at home and 13 on the road, for example). I know the Houston Cougars also did that. Why did teams do it that way, and why did that style of numbering change?”

This has come up a few times — I know lots of high school and college teams did this. But I’m not clear on why, or why they stopped. Little help..?

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Baseball News: The cap logos that will be shown on the plaques of the six new Hall of Fame inductees are spelled out in the fourth graf of this story. Fascinating to see that two of them — Greg Maddux and Tony LaRussa — will have no logo at all. … Our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions are currently selling a 1919 Yankees jersey worn by Home Run Baker. “It is the earliest known jersey of any Yankee Hall of Famer and one of the earliest Yankees shirts to exist, period,” says Grey Flannel’s Michael Russek. “Photo-matched, sun collar, 3/4 sleeves, and unique placement of the ‘Y’ in ‘NEW YORK,’ which is horizontally centered on the button placket.” … Speaking of old baseball jerseys, I recently came across two spectacular vintage flannels on eBay — look here and here. Both are too rich for my blood, alas. … The Cubs are offering a 10-game ticket plan based on their throwback games. Is this the first-ever uni-based ticket plan? (From Jamie Uthe.) … Paul Bielewicz’s sister made a spectacular Rochester Red Wings jersey cake for Paul’s son’s first birthday. Great work, but one quibble: Based on that photo, the real jersey had set-in sleeves, while the cake had raglan. … The Red Sox will not have beards in 2014. … New college uni for Cincinnati (thanks, Phil). … Brutal new “anthracite” uni for TCU (from Mark Louis Rybczyk). … Oregon State’s new white uni is pretty sweet, although the swoosh placement on the pants is really annoying.

NFL News: Here’s Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl jersey (from Aaron McHargue). … Check it out: Seahawks jersey cookies (from John Kimmerlein). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comment: The Chargers are saluting the U.S. Olympic team — but are doing so with an outdated 2012 jersey. … The invitation to some pre-Super Bowl party in New Jersey — apparently not NFL-licensed — features amusingly inaccurate Seattle and Denver helmet icons (from Robert Silverman). ”¦ A Virginia company has won an NFL grant to do further concussion research (from Tommy Turner).

College Football News: UCF is selling off its black helmets (thanks, Phil). … Virginia Tech’s Black Friday game is more than 10 months away, but there are already dueling Twitter accounts lobbying for the Hokies to wear black and wear maroon (from Steve H.).

Hockey News: “Looks like the Toledo Walleye are putting together a minor league mini-Winter Classic for December 2014, to be played at the Toledo Mud Hens’ ballpark,” says R. Scott Rogers. “Here’s the fantastic fauxback jersey the Walleye will wear.” … William Jones notes that the font used for the word “Game” in the Blue Jackets’ 1000th-game logo is suddenly all over the place. “I’ve seen it in TV commercials, at food stores, and even on a billboard near my house,” he says. “I’m driving my fiancé crazy because every time I see it, I say, ‘There’s that damn font again!’ Do you know what it’s called?” No, I don’t. Anyone..? … Oh, great — Notre Dame’s fighting leprechaun has gone GI Joe (blame Phil). ”¦ The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (NAHL) forgot to bring their jerseys for last night’s game against the Corpus Christi IceRays, so they wore the IceRays’ road jerseys — but also wore their own socks, which they did remember to bring. “I covered hockey for a long time, and never saw that happen before,” says Greg Rajan.

Soccer News: DC United will unveil their new kit on Feb. 15 (from Brian Bittner). … New set of crests for Dallas Baptist University. … “Napoli apparently decided their camo third jersey wasn’t ugly enough, so they released this crime against eyeballs,” says Yusuke Toyoda. Also in ugly soccer unis, Shamrock Rovers’ goalie jersey has a friendly ‘Unleash Hell’ message on the inside.” … Several Colombian teams have unveiled new kits, including Millonarios, Atlético Nacional, Deportivo Cali, DIM, Alianza Petrolera, and Patriotas, with Independiente Santa Fe and America de Cali still to come (all of these from Fernando Cardenas).

NBA News: The Nets’ long-rumored “Dodgers-themed” alternate uni has been released. But shouldn’t the number be red, instead of blue? … First the Kings became the first pro sports team to accept Bitcoin, and now they’re the first to use Google Glass. Key passage: “On Jan. 24, the Sacramento Kings of the NBA will become the first professional sports team ever to record and stream a live game using Google Glass. While players won’t actually wear Google Glass on the court, team members, cheerleaders, announcers, and even the mascot will from the sidelines” (from Tom Mulgrew).

College Hoops News: The uni-centric Marquette basketball documentary Untucked has debuted at the Sundance Film Festival (thanks, Phil). … Speaking of Marquette, they’ll be wearing a “Coaches Against Cancer” uni this Saturday — woof! (From John Okray.) ”¦ When you have the Blue Raiders against the Golden Hurricane, it makes sense that they’d go color vs. color, as Tulsa and Middle Tennessee State did last night (from Yogi Combs).

Grab Bag: You know the old visual cliché of a poor person wearing a barrel held up by suspenders? Here’s a good piece that explains the origins of that look (from Cary O’Reilly). … About a year ago I did an ESPN piece on Madison High School’s bizarre polka-dotted basketball uniforms. Now Tommy Allred has sent in a scan from an old Madison High yearbook. As you can see, there are good shots of the polka dot unis, but that was just the road uni. Check out the home uni at lower-right — vertically striped shorts and vertically striped socks! … Not sports-related, but an interesting article on old Atrari video game box art (from Matthew Edwards). … As you may have heard, arrests were finally made yesterday in the famous 1978 Lufthansa heist (as depicted in Goodfellas). One of the FBI agents who perp-walked the main suspect was showing some serious Under Armour logo creep. … Vans is putting out a line of Beatles/Yellow Submarine sneakers (thanks, Brinke). … Rafael Nadal’s sneakers at the Aussie Open include a little icon denoting for his 2009 AO title, and his racket bag has icons for all his major titles (from Chris Perrenot). ”¦ I was going to put this in the NFL section, but it really belongs at the end of today’s entry, so here it is: a hilarious and beautiful little cartoon that explains how football works. Not to be missed (big thanks to Mike McLaughlin):

 
  
 
Comments (108)

    It’s used in baseball situations a lot. Two examples off the top of my head:

    Busch Stadium: link

    Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball:
    link

    That’s the typically exaggerated – well, false – spin Fox News is putting on it. What the State Department actually said was,

    wearing conspicuous Team USA clothing in non-accredited areas may put your personal safety at greater risk

    Which is to say, outside of secured areas, which includes not only athlete residences and competition venues but large swaths of Sochi and its environs, wearing conspicuous USA clothing makes you slightly more likely to be a target. Which is something any American who has ever traveled to any foreign country other than Canada already knows full well.

    Spin? Exaggerated? Did you even read the article? Or is that your default reaction when you see a Fox News link? Or, if it’s not reported on MSNBC, it has to be a fabrication or embellishment? False? C’mon.

    Point taken: I assumed that your description accurately reflected the framing of the article, which I skimmed for the quotes. Fox’s framing was in fact fair; your description of it was exaggerated.

    For the record, I avoid cable news networks in general, including MSNBC, because I do not enjoy being propagandized at by anyone. Don’t assume that just because someone doesn’t like being lied to by Roger Ailes, he therefore drinks Rachel Maddow’s Kool-Aid. Not everything in life is a left/right struggle.

    Also not from the article:

    Athletes are advised to wear Team Canada apparel outside non-accredited areas and end every sentence with “Eh?”.

    Our government security office always tells us when traveling, domestically or abroad, to not wear anything conspicuous that would identify you as a) a government employee and/or American citizen, depending on the volatility of your location.

    Just an more serious version of “dont wear away team jerseys at another stadium”

    I quite fancy the German outfits. They may be colorful, but why is that automatically a bad thing? They have a clear design aesthetic and cut to them, and there’s obviously a concept behind it.

    However, the USA? What a mess is right. It’s like 3-4 designers threw up on fabric. No design concept (unless that concept is “busy”), and no cohesion. Ralph Lauren is a turd with his recent work. Time to transition to Alexander Julian… if he can do the Hornets and Tar Heels, he can do USA.

    You know what isn’t a good idea? These sweaters. Just because the whole ugly Christmas sweater (or just ugly sweater thing, since I’ve heard people having “ugly sweater” parties more recently) is in full bloom right now doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to copy that for the international stage.

    As Jerry once told George Costanza… sweatpants tell the world “I give up. I can’t compete in normal society. I’m miserable, so I might as well be comfortable.”

    That font in the Blue Jackets logo has been all over the place for years now, mainly in the baseball world. It’s been all over SABR publications and baseball books, for example, for at least a decade. I think it’s just breaking out of the baseball ghetto into mainstream ubiquity.

    And whoever names the typeface for us will be my hero of the week. It’s been bugging me for like eight years now.

    “”…the real jersey had set-in sleeves, while the cake had raglan.”

    Gotta be the first time in history that sentence has ever been used! :)

    Odd/even numbers on basketball unis allowed officials to signal someone’s number and have no ambiguity about who it was. The number of fingers on each hand were why neither digit was greater than 5.

    I don’t know if this rule is still in place, but I remember in high school (and even in church league games) it was exactly as BurghFan describes.

    That IS true, but doesn’t explain why Player A would have one number at home and another away.

    Rick Barry wore #2 AND #4 (I can’t remember which one at home and which away) because #24 was taken when he got to the Rockets.

    But I don’t know what the rationale would be for high school players having different numbers home and away.

    The idea was that the home team would have even numbers and the road team would have odd numbers. When the referee signaled to the scorer’s table there was no doubt as to who the foul was called on because there would be only one #13. The Rick Barry situation does not apply to the reason high schools had different numbers.

    So… all home teams wore even numbers and away teams wore odd? What years was this the practice?

    I thought perhaps it was cheaper/easier for smaller schools to order a sequence of numbers. I know that even in 1999 our pro women’s football team just ordered a “full set”. As for odd vs even, maybe it saved washing them so they would last longer.

    I know UH wore the evens at home, odds on the road, in the Don Chaney era. Could it be possible that it was a idiosyncratic rule, applied by some conferences, and not others?

    I idolized John Havlicek when I was a kid, and wanted to wear #17, but I couldn’t, because the highest number you were allowed to have was #55. I often wished for a mutant ref, with seven digits on his right hand.

    It would be like wearing white at home. If everybody knows and follows the convention, it always works. In fact, your white jerseys would have even numbers, and your colored jerseys would have odd numbers.

    Someone with access to ancient basketball publications could probably find some articles about the system being adopted. I’m guessing that as various forms of technology made it easier to identify players, the odd/even system just faded away.

    BurghFan, thanks for the info. I always wondered why teams did that. Makes sense.

    I teach at a high school in Oregon so I’m going to take a look through some filing cabinets in our locker room. I know at one time there were some old files in there. Maybe I can find an old rulebook.

    Lebron, if you’re going to (inappropriately) use the Broncos and Seahwaks logos on helmets…..JUST USE THE REAL HELMETS!!!

    Why go through the trouble of doctoring up clipart helmets with the (illegal) logos???

    I view the site on an iPod usually. This morning I saw the site before today’s post and everything was normal. After today’s post it reverted to mobile mode. Clicking on the desktop button didnt switch it to desktop view. Not sure if its just me.

    Switch to desktop, refresh, then make a comment, works for me every time. Oh, and you may need to clear your cookies.

    However, I also read/post on a Blackberry, not an iPod. That may negate everything I just told you.

    Maybe it’s just me…. I see no connection in the Nets/Dodgers jersey whatsoever.

    It looks like a referee shirt.

    Yeah… it’s kinda dumb. Hell, since the stupid thing has sleeves, they could have made it actually mimic a baseball jersey, instead they did that.

    There is a Men’s Club lacrosse team out of Brooklyn called the Dodgers…The guy who manages the team, Rudy Martinez is on the Mexican National Lacrosse team.

    Their uniforms are pretty sweet and are a play on the old Dodgers logo:

    link

    link

    link

    My favorite aspects are the helmets:

    link

    Bridge Decal:
    link

    High School Basketball Even/Odd Reasoning: BGHS did this when I attended in the 1980s, and the explanation I was given was it made it easier for referees – IF both teams followed the protocol. When this was the case, simply calling a foul against #13 left no question who was being identified. If memory serves me correctly, they also didn’t have any numbers higher than 5 – again to make it easier for a referee to signal numbers (if only Antonion Alfonseca could have been a high school referee …)

    Baseball Jersey Packs: This is at least the second year in a row that the Cardinals have offered jersey GIVEAWAY jersey packs. Per their website: “Features Batting Practice Pullover, and 5 Replica Jerseys; including the Alternate Molina Jersey with Central Division logo, Kids Wainwright Jersey, 1964 Gibson Jersey, Patriotic Jersey, and Home Jersey with NL Champions logo, plus access to purchase 2014 Postseason tickets.”

    The other thing to consider, especially in high schools, is a financial reason- I played soccer in high school, and my white home jersey was one number, and my (sorry, Paul) purple away jersey was another. There was no special reasoning or rule behind it, it was just a situation of what jerseys were still usable, and were in my size. The schools would use the same jerseys for as long as possible before having to buy a new uniform set.

    The opening ceremony pants are kind of tragic, but the sweater is awesome. It’s loud in content but conservative in form. Shawl collar! And the loud elements are all knit into the sweater, rather than being printed or sewn on. Makes it nicely textural. It’s got stars and stripes, but they’re broken up in a way that doesn’t have the appearance of having cut up an actual flag to make the garment.

    My only real complaint with the sweater is that it’s an $800 designer item, when Canada’s slightly better link is a more reasonable and practical $275.

    The USA’s closing ceremony outfits are much nicer and feature a great striped pea coat, but again unlike their Hudson Bay counter part the jacket is $800

    link

    The Astros had a “big & bright Friday night” ticket package last year for home Friday games, when they wore their orange alts.

    That lede image is exactly what should be expected when the Olympic team is outfitted by a company whose product typically ends up on the clearance rack at Sears.

    As a Cardinals fan, I’m a little bitter that TLR isn’t going to have the STL logo on his cap in the HoF. He managed in St. Louis longer than in Chicago or Oakland–in fact, looking strictly at the number of games won and managed, over half came here. He also won 2 of his 3 World Series titles in this town.

    As for Maddux, while I can understand the argument that he played 10 season in Chicago and 11 in Atlanta, so it’s close to even, I’m pretty sure he achieved greater renown as a member of the Braves. Three of 4 Cy Youngs there, actual postseason runs (even though they rarely culminated in a title). Maybe I’ll always remember him as a Brave because I was a kid in the ’90s, but it seems a little odd to me.

    Yeah, I’m a Braves fan and a little ticked about Maddux. I’ll get over it, since I’m sure most fans will remember his accomplishments with the Braves over what he did as a Cub. But with Glavine and Bobby Cox a part of the class, I think it just seemed a foregone conclusion he would also be a Brave.

    I agree with you about LaRussa, as well. However, I’ll concede that this might be the best thing for the Hall to do when a guy had long stints with multiple teams. Either way, somebody is going to feel slighted.

    Hoping that whoever is in charge of creating Maddux’s plaque does a decent job. Otherwise, the plaque will look as tacky as one of those unlicensed bubblegum cards where team names and logos aren’t allowed to appear.

    I’ll admit, I didn’t click this link – but I saw a Maddux quote yesterday saying something along the lines of he and his wife grew up Cubs fans and didn’t want to disrespect Chicago. Or something like that.

    Here’s what Maddux had to say:

    “My wife Kathy and I grew up in baseball in Chicago, and then we just had an amazing experience in Atlanta with the Braves. It’s impossible for me to choose one of those teams for my Hall of Fame plaque, as the fans of both clubs in each of those cities were so wonderful.

    “I can’t think of having my Hall of Fame plaque induction without support of both of those fan bases, so, for that reason, the cap on my Hall of fame plaque will not feature a logo.”

    link

    Yeah, HOF plaques are strange. I’m a huge A’s fan but I agree with you about LaRussa. If I were a Cards fan I’d want to see that cap.

    The criteria seem to be pretty personal. For example, Catfish Hunter spent two-thirds of his HOF career with Oakland — and only one good year with the Yankees — yet went with a logo-less cap (too).

    Then there’s the Mel Ott HOF plaque. 22 years, all with the New York Giants, and yet his plaque has his image wearing NO cap at all!!

    Ralph Lauren/Polo created a train wreck with the USA uniforms. Whatever happened to simplicity? Those are just god awful.

    actually the Toledo Walleye will be playing TWO outdoor games. December 27, and January 3. They have 2 jerseys unveiled for the occassions too, heres the other:
    link

    As was previously mentioned, the Font in question is Brothers (I think specifically Brothers Bold) The Cardinals used it for the branding of Busch Stadium III.

    I have to say I’m pretty dumbfounded by the supposed Munich connection to the German team’s outfits as well.

    The visual/aesthetic call-back to Munich ’72 actually does make sense. This may help:
    link

    The difficulty comes in the impossibility at this late date of viewing those Olympics in any other context OTHER THAN that of the horrific massacre that took place at them. Which is unfortunate, because it overshadows the tremendous optimism with which the host-dubbed “Happy Games” were anticipated, or the athletic brilliance that featured (e.g., Olga Korbut, Mark Spitz, virtual unknown Dave Wottle doing, well, the impossible – and then forgetting to remove his ubiquitous baseball cap on the medal stand). And once Avery Brundage made the ill-fated “the games must go on” decree the affair degenerated into just plain weirdness (the U.S. basketball team being robbed, the imposter who entered the stadium at the end of the men’s marathon), which if anything increased the bitter aftertaste the world was left with at their conclusion.

    For those too young to know of Dave Wottle, I suggest this:
    link

    … no, that doesn’t help at all. And it still doesn’t make much sense to me. I think my problem with it, aside from the problems with the 1972 event itself, is that it’s a summer event being commemorated at a winter event, in a completely different country, and at an unusual interval (42 years).

    That’s not to say I didn’t find the story informative in and of itself; I just can’t seem to connect the context to what the present team is doing.

    That’s fair.

    But the point scottrj makes is that the 1972 Games WERE such a friendly, happy affair…right up to the point where they became a tragedy. In fact, the attitude of everything being free and easy could very well have contributed to lax security that enabled the terrorists to do far more damage than they might have otherwise.

    But your point is well-taken, and anyone who can’t think of Munich 1972 as being anything other than horrible can’t really be blamed for it. I’ve been to the site, been to Connollystrasse and to this day it’s solemn.

    That doesn’t make it untrue that there was a sense of great optimism and friendship in the “Happy Games,” it just makes it something that was overshadowed by what happened. And, as it’s best we never forget, it’s probably best we don’t try to evoke the feelings that were in the air prior to September 5, 1972.

    Considering everything that’s going on with Russia right now and the massive amount of concern going into the Sochi games… well, maybe Germany’s just trying to bring happy back.

    I just have a nagging feeling it’s not going to fully work, though. I’ve had misgivings ever since Sochi was announced, simply because of its proximity to the disputed region of Abkhazia, one of the hotbeds of the ongoing troubles between Russia and Georgia.

    Only towards the aesthetics, I can see where the rainbow-ish idea could come from (one such example being): link

    These uniforms were probably designed in part because the German committee thought they would be trying to bring the Olympics back to Munich for 2022. Instead, the public voted against a potential bid back in November (see: link). It’s logical to think that if they were in the process of making a bid for those games, they’d want to have some positive recall back to the ’72 games, not the clearly obvious, overshadowing one. So, if they want to change the narrative, even slightly, maybe this is an okay way to start trying for it?

    Late to the dance here but looking at the pic of the Cubs cap posted from fanfest it looks like maybe there are not switching to the BP cap material for all caps. Seems to be like the game caps that they have wearing.

    Great football video!

    One of the parts that stuck out the most to me was in their explanation of the playoffs. The artist chose to present the brackets vertically:

    link

    Made me wonder why I don’t see this more often, it’s pretty cool to visualize the teams fighting to reach the top of the mountain or something.

    Any thoughts?

    I’d have to rip thru old Goal Magazines, (I have a ton of Whalers programs 80’s)but didnt some of the Sutter brothers play together, if memory servces Rich and Ron with the Islanders, had FNOB

    “… You know the old visual cliché of a poor person wearing a barrel held up by suspenders? Here’s a good piece that explains the origins of that look (from Cary O’Reilly). … ”

    First Uni Watch link to the Paris Review?

    “… Speaking of old baseball jerseys, I recently came across two spectacular vintage flannels on eBay – look here and here. Both are too rich for my blood, alas. … ”

    Oh, drat. C’mon, Paul, you’d never regret scooping up that first, super-fabulous jersey, the one with “Coles Co. Farm Bureau” on the front and — note sublime misspell — “Coles Cumberland Quality Srevice” on the back.

    I expect we’ll be seeing more logo-less Hall of Fame plaques in the future. First they took the choice out of the inductee’s hands. Now they’re taking the next step which is to not visually identify the inductee with any team if he spent significant portions of his career, and/or made significant contributions, and therefore could plausibly be identified, with more than one team. And there are more and more players being inducted who fit that description.

    Am I mistaken about this? My understanding is that they don’t let the players choose anymore (hence Gary Carter entering as an Expo instead of a Met), but now I’m link that this was Maddux’s and LaRussa’s choice.

    Here’s Jeff Idelson, President of the NBBHOF, from that article:

    “The Museum staff works with each inductee by suggesting an appropriate logo option, or no logo at all. For those whose most compelling contributions clearly took place with one team, a logo makes sense. For those whose careers were built significantly among multiple teams, not having a team logo is equally acceptable. Regardless of the selection, a Hall of Famer belongs to every team for which he played or managed, as well as every fan who followed his career.”

    Allrighty then.

    “a Hall of Famer belongs to every team for which he played or managed, as well as every fan who followed his career.”

    Except Tom Glavine, Mets fans don’t want him.
    (Yes, I’m still bitter.)

    Considering that Catfish Hunter was the last modern player without a logo on his cap – and that happened more than a quarter century ago – the Hall has obviously created a new policy. Don’t think it’s a good policy, though, as just about every player could theoretically go logoless.

    The whole thing would be moot if they just didn’t include caps on the plaques. The cap may be part of the uniform, sure, but it’s not the uniform that’s being inducted, it’s the player.

    That Toledo Walleyes cream jersey has me seriously rethinking my long-standing policy of refusing to pay ridiculous prices for polyester hockey jerseys…

    -Jet

    … there was supposed to be a “/sarcasm” tag at the end of the last post, but apparently putting inside made it get treated like a real tag.

    Apparently, the less-than and greater-than signs get treated as code by this site’s comments system no matter how you use them.

    That’s sorta how HTML works, Rob. ;)

    Anything inside GT/LT symbols become code.

    Things like <— look a little different (that's an arrow).

    I find it a little odd that the swoosh on the oregon state uniform is black and the swoosh on the pants is orange. I can’t recall seeing any uniform where the jersey and pants are the same color and the maker’s mark is a different color on each.

    The St Louis Cardinals have been offering a “Jersey Pack” for awhile now, it’s one of their 10 game ticket packs:

    “Features Batting Practice Pullover, and 5 Replica Jerseys; including the Alternate Molina Jersey with Central Division logo, Kids Wainwright Jersey, 1964 Gibson Jersey, Patriotic Jersey, and Home Jersey with NL Champions logo…”

    Re: Brooklyn “Dodger” Nets: Wondering if it’s possible that there’s a NBA rule where the color of the numbers on the front of the jersey have to match the color on the back.

    That Atari artwork piece is tremendous, and begs a question. With such fantastical realism now permeating games, movies, and all media really, are we forgetting how to use our imaginations? Active minds vs. passives ones, etc. Interesting stuff. To me anyway.

    I had a couple of dozen atari cartridges. Would love to have them now to make a frame for and have as “artwork” in a guestroom or something. Those cartridges are certainly a good definition of the time period.

    There’s a related notion (The Uncanny Effect) positing a correlative effect between enhanced video game verisimilitude and user dissatisfaction with same. Basically, as this layperson understands it, that the more realistic a game becomes the more annoyed the player gets because it’s not even MORE realistic.
    link

    Just my 2 cents but I thought Roots did a great job with the USA uniforms back in 2002. Nice look, use of colors. A classic.
    I still wear my Roots USA 2002 Olympic sweatshirt and it’s held up well over 12 years.
    Too bad they can’t do them again.

    Amen. got link off of ebay a couple years back. Love it, wear it regularly. One of the favorite “jerseys” in the collection.

    (only thing I dislike is the giant “Roots” written on the chest… but I’ll deal)

    I thought the Roots outfits were nice. But I also thought it was very odd to have the American team outfitted by a Canadian company.

    The guys who founded Roots were American. They formed the company and have since moved to Canada but they were born in the USA.

    The Vancouver Canadians (the short-A Northwest League affiliate of the Blue Jays) announced a revised logo today (the C’s now has a larger “s” and a leaf as the apostrophe), a new alternate logo featuring a Mountie with a bat (!) and some uniform revisions.

    It looks like it’s still being formally announced, but some photos are appearing on their Facebook page. Here’s link. I’ll check if their website gets updated accordingly later today.

    The RCMP controls their image and logo pretty tightly. If the Canadians didn’t get a license, that jersey may never see the light of day.

    link

    Not sure; there may be a grandfather clause of sorts since the old 1960s Vancouver Mounties were part of the Pacific Coast League and the C’s have sold some Mounties gear in the recent past.

    Now I get the why so many alt jerseys for the Cubs. 10 decades + 10pc ticket assortment (original, no extra crispy) = lots and lots of jerseys. I would love to know the economics of this.

    I like how wacky the Olympic ceremony outfits are each time as they mean nothing. Let them go as crazy as they feel as you’ll only see them twice.

    Love the barrels and suspenders piece!

    But what about this part? “We arrived, somehow, at the question of Gilligan’s Island, and I said, There must be a minor indie band called the Professor and Mary Ann. I looked it up. And I still literally cannot believe there isn’t.”

    The writer was mystifyingly unable to research a very easy-to-find thing, even though she found multiple pieces about the obscure history of the barrel-and-suspenders trope. Because there is a band called Professor & Maryann (link).

    Nothing to do with todays entry and probably already stated here months ago BUT something that really annoys me (maybe a pet peeve?) I picked the Maple Leafs Winter Classic’s on NHL 14 they were good, the players with brown gloves but the goaltender’s pads which should’ve been brown were blue and white..ugh
    Also Maple Leafs current sweaters were 100% incorrect. The numbers outlined in silver and names in (don’t know what the font is called) circular letters instead of their current “square” letters, same with numbers.
    Absolutely terrible, I had to quit the game.
    Next game I picked the Isles.

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