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Absentee Weekend All-Star Report

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As you know, there are lots of rule changes for the Pro Bowl: no blitzing, no kickoffs, no rushing the punter or kicker, intentional grounding is legal, and so on. Another change, as you can see above on Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s helmet, is that tinted visors are legal. But wait, did Beckham actually wear the tinted shield in the game? Maybe not. But he definitely wore one last year. (As you can also see, Beckham was one of Team Rice’s captains and wore the league’s standard captaincy patch, with one star.)

Sorry about the “Did he or didn’t he?” bit — I was traveling all weekend, got stuck in very bad traffic getting home last night, and only caught a very small glimpse of the fourth quarter. From what I could see, it wasn’t so bad by Pro Bowl standards (although that’s obviously a pretty low bar), and definitely better than the last two years (ditto). Here’s a look (click to enlarge; additional photos here):

As for the NHL All-Star Game: See above — I was traveling, got home late, and missed the whole thing. Really sorry about that, people — I know those were the two big uni stories from yesterday. What did I miss? Did the NHL unis reflect, or glow in the dark, or whatever? Fill me in!

One thing I do know, because readers Gabe Billig and Patrick Walsh told me: ESPN’s mobile gamecast featured the old Atlanta Thrashers logo instead of the Atlantic Conference logo. Most likely they used an “ATL” code that was still pegged to Atlanta (click to enlarge):

• • • • •

Nine-pin bowling

Nine-pin bowling from Czechoslovakia around 1950's. Re-rack? Anyone?

Posted by Frank Selvag on Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Too Good for the Ticker: I love love LOVE this very short video of Czechoslovakian nine-pin bowling from the 1950s. Note that one team is wearing shorts, and even the pinboys have uniforms! Great stuff, and a very entertaining way to spend 34 seconds, trust me.

(Major thanks to Patrick O’Neill for this one.)

•  •  •  •  •

The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: Newly acquired White Sox C Alex Avila, who always wore No. 13 with the Tigers, will wear No. 31 with the Sox (from Clint Wrede). ”¦ Here’s more about the similarities between the Dodgers’ new spring training cap and the Chunichi Dragons’ cap, along with other visual similarities between the two teams (from Chris Bisbee). ”¦ X Games skier Nick Goepper wore a Reds jersey while competing yesterday. He’s a Cincy-area native who threw out the first pitch at a Reds game in 2014 (from T.J. Leibowitz).

NFL News: Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing Dept.: I liked Packers WR James Jones’s hoodie on the field, but he’s taking it too far when he wears it in a TV studio (screen shot by @TRKG12). ”¦ Panthers QB Cam Newton wore some very flashy pants as the team departed for Supe50 (from @bryanwdc). … After the Steelers/Colts playoff game in Baltimore in 1976, a plane crashed into Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. “I’d heard this story but had never seen a photo before!” says Jeff Flynn. … Can’t recall if we’ve seen this before, but once more won’t hurt: Very nice color footage of a 1943 Lions/Washington game. It includes Washington QB Slingin’ Sammy Baugh playing QB, DB, and placekick holder (from Gene Sanny).

Hockey News: Two local newscasters wore the Indy Fuel’s Garfield-themed jerseys the other day (from Barry Brite). ”¦ I’m briefly quoted in this Toronto Star article about jersey numbers. It’s mostly about hockey but also touches on other sports.

NBA News: This is an old story, from April of 2014, but I don’t recall having seen it before, so there’s no harm in running it now: The NBA Live 09 and NBA Live 10 video games featured a very odd Warriors uni that never made it onto the court (from Murddock Vorhees).

College and Youth League Hoops News: We’ve heard of the Oregon Mighty Ducks, but I think this the first time I’ve seen them refer to themselves as “Mighty Oregon.”. ”¦ NOB typo alert! That’s Notre Dame G Rex Pflueger, from last night’s game against Wake Forest (from Warren Junium). … Joeseph Bailey’s daughter plays CYO basketball and recently found herself in a color on color game. “Her team is in red and they are visitors,” he says. “Funny thing is that her team’s unis are reversible, so they could have gone white with red accents, but they chose to stay red. Additionally, my kid (No. 3) chose to wear purple/orange socks despite the fact I got her white/red and red/white socks. At least her sneaks match her uni — most of the girls’ sneakers don’t match their unis (drives me nuts).”

Soccer News: Here’s a shot of the USMNT’s jerseys being numbered and lettered (from Tim Cross). ”¦ New home unis for Juventus. “Well done,” says Patrick Thomas.

Grab Bag: “On Bruce Springsteen’s current The River tour, he is selling a replica of the plaid flannel shirt he wore on the album cover,” says Jimmy Lonetti. “Makes me think of a good question: What shirt, jacket, etc. from a classic album cover or favorite album would you want to own?” … New helmets for NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick. … As you can see on the middle helmet, Busch Beer is returning as a NASCAR sponsor. … Fusion Fight Gear — a martial arts apparel manufacturer — has bought the rights to Star Trek attire (from J Fletcher).

 
  
 
Comments (63)

    Proofreading: “Panthers QB Cam Newton wore some very flash pants” Is that supposed to be ‘flashy’, or am I just old?
    “says Patrick Thomas>”

    but I don’t recall having seen it before, so there’s no hard in running it now: The NBA Live 09 and NBA Live 10 video games featured a very odd Warriors uni

    harm

    Mighty Oregon has been a team slogan for the Ducks the last few years. It’s on the inside of their football jersey collars as well.

    Still love the old Pit Crew shirt I got in school that put the lyrics to the fight song in the silhouette of a basketball on the front. Alas, Google proved fruitless.

    The two biggest uniform moments were for the kids of some of the players.

    San Jose’s Joe Pavelski’s kid had the standard “Pavelski/8” nameplate, while the Sharks’ Brent Burns’ son had “Lil Burns/88” on the back. One of John Scott’s daughter had “Daddy/28” on her Arizona jersey, never saw the back of her sister’s Coyotes jersey.

    Ok, yeah, Dierks Bentley had a customized Nashville white jersey for when he broke into the shootout competition, but he’s not a little kid so, eh.

    Burns & Pavelski’s kids were also wearing link (or at least they’re Flames-like socks). I’m guessing those are the socks their team wears.

    Nice footage from the 1943 Detroit vs Washington game. Notice during the opening kickoff, a Washington player deliberately trips the Detroit returner.

    Digging the Lions / Washington Football Club video – couldn’t help but notice the jersey numbers on Washington’s #42 – holy moley! The numbers on the back are almost up to his neck.

    …. Jimmy Lonetti. “Makes me think of a good question: What shirt, jacket, etc. from a classic album cover or favorite album would you want to own?”…

    Either Richard Roundtree’s jacket from the ‘Shaft’ soundtrack or Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ raincoat.

    “What shirt, jacket, etc. from a classic album cover or favorite album would you want to own?”

    A shirt of Neil Young’s “Tonight’s the Night” album cover, as worn by Ronnie van Zant on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Street Survivors” cover. I had one about 8 years ago, but it was misplaced during a move.

    Maybe not classic enough, but I still have my R.E.M. “Automatic for the People” t-shirt with the cover on the front and the back cover on the back.

    (And I’m not the same size I was in high school.)

    Yeah, I don’t think this is what Paul was going for here. There is no clothing depicted on the album cover.

    link is on that album’s cover.

    Re: the Springsteen flannel, wasn’t there a post Paul had about John Fogerty doing pretty much the same thing? Not sure why my mind jumped to that so quick.

    Yes, several years ago. Fogerty calls it his “Fortunate Son” shirt. I mentioned it here on Uni Watch and then wrote about it for my “One-Man Focus Group” column at The New Republic:
    link

    Not wanting to sound cynical but since adidas is now putting their three stripes down the side of next years shirts instead of on the shoulder and down the arms, I don’t imagine the pin stripe added to Juve’s white stripes was to help their three stripes stand out better.

    My first thought as well. $65 is a lot for a flannel shirt but after exchange holy crap.

    I’m briefly quoted in this Toronto Star article about jersey numbers. It’s mostly about hockey but also touches on other sports.

    The numbers players like nowadays clearly reflect the passage of time. When they were impressionable children, their heroes were Gretzky, Lemieux, Mogilny, Bourque, et al; who chose *their* numbers because the low numbers of *my* heroes had mostly been retired.

    The most interesting uni-related aspect from the NHL was that both white teams won the semifinal matches so the Pacific Division players switched to black uni’s for the final. Obviously this was a brand new format, but it got me wondering if anything comparable had happened in professional sports before where players had to switch uniforms in the middle of an officially sanctioned league event. That also means they had to produce home and away uni’s for all the players even though they might not have ever needed to wear them on the ice.

    Indy Fuel players had to change jerseys in the middle of a game just the other day:
    link

    More famously, the Vikings changed jerseys in the middle of a 1964 game against the Lions. Details here:
    link

    Actually, that is not what happened.

    The Atlantic Division wore black in the first game and won.
    The Pacific Division wore white in their first game and won.
    For the finals, both teams switched to the opposite color jerseys.

    The only division that did not get to wear both of their jerseys for either the intros or a game was the Metropoloitan Division. They only wore the white jerseys.

    What a lazy post. You might as well just have hung a “Gone Fishin” sign up and resumed tomorrow.

    Not lazy — just unavailable. As I stated, I got home late, and I apologized for the slipshod coverage. I truly am sorry, Ryan.

    Ryan,

    You will be receiving a full refund plus a 10% loyalty bonus. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for it to post to your account.

    So a plane crashed into upper deck of Baltimore Memorial Stadium and structure did not collapse!

    Here’s an accounting of the incident. Pilot had buzzed the Colts practice field in the past and other establishments in Baltimore. Key excerpt: Earlier in the day, Kroner, who had recently been fired from his job as an MTA bus driver for “unsatisfactory work performance,” . . . You think?

    link

    Memorial Stadium was an impressive mound of concrete. A little prop plane wasn’t any danger to that behemoth.

    Also, I am SO old. Not only do I remember the cut in from the next playoff game showing the plane crashed into the seats, but I think of Camden Yards as a “new” ballpark.

    “Mighty Oregon” is the title of Oregon’s fight song, which is why they’ve got it on the shooting shirts and on the inside collar of the football jerseys. The last line of the chorus reads “On to victory urge our heroes of our Mighty Oregon!” Thus the title of the song and the reference on apparel.

    Album cover attire: link shirt/tie combo.

    Also:

    We’ve heard of the Oregon Mighty Ducks…”

    I have honestly never heard them referred to as Mighty Ducks. Fighting Ducks, yes, but the only Mighty Ducks I’ve ever heard of are the team from the movies and the former name of the NHL team in Anaheim.

    I’d like whatever the guys from Slint are wearing on the “Spiderland” cover.
    I like mysteries. And I need new trunks.

    Album cover attire:

    Not even a “punk-rocker,” but my first thought was a Ramones’ leather jacket.

    Instead I’ll settle on the other white shell toe Adidas rocked by the other Kings of Queens on their link. Add on the black jacket/black Kangol combo and you’re looking tougher than leather.

    How can I take that article about the dodgers new caps seriously? It was posted two days ago and stated that “Spring Training is a few months away.” Pitchers and Catchers report in 18 days people! Thank God!

    I love that the photo of the plane in Memorial Stadium is by Walter Iooss. I think he’s responsible for just about every memorable sports photo of the last 50 years. Definitely worth looking into his catalog of work.

    Album cover:

    The mismatched tie dyed shirt and pants worn by John Sebastian on the cover of his Cheapo Cheapo album

    In my younger days, I would’ve loved to don the leather jacket from the “Ghost of Cain” album by New Model Army.

    link

    My wife was watching the Grease Live program on Fox last night. I thought the 1950s football uniform worn by some cast members were pretty well done. They looked a lot like 49ers but with white helmets.

    New use for “Mighty Oregon”. A sports team wearing 100 different combos of overdone, silly-looking uniforms? That’s “Mighty Oregon” of them.

    The Philadelphia Phillies have announced they will wear red uniform tops at home for 6 mid week home games. This is the first time they’ve worn single color uniform tops since 1979.

    link

    Are you talking about the Saturday night specials? Because even though that was a garish color, the tops and pants matched. To contrast, it looks like we’re on track for softball tops in Philly, and that’s too bad.

    Album Cover:

    I’d want the coat worn by Ringo on the cover of Abbey Road, which is the same type of coat worn by George Harrison on the cover of the Hey Jude album.

    link

    This may have already been covered, but I feel like the NHL missed an opportunity by only creating a light and dark sweater for the All-Star tournament. Given the Predators color scheme, each division could have easily had their own unique color sweater and not have had it affect the game. White, navy, gold & grey would have worked as long as the grey was dark enough to create contrast with white. Oh well.

    MLB has the new flex base jerseys, including regular season authentication, up for sale:

    link

    A couple of interesting notes:
    -The spring training jerseys, including patches are on sale.
    -The only Yankees jersey available is the ST jersey. No road, and more importantly no pinstripes.
    -Other teams (Mets, Phillies, Brewers) pinstripe jerseys are up. Can’t see the side panels on any of them, but the stripes don’t continue down the weird shirt-tails on the back for whatever that’s worth.

    Others may have pointed out that the UO’s fight song for the last 100 years is “Mighty Oregon”. The phrase “mighty Oregon” is a key part of the song. Folks who don’t know all the words can hum along or fake it and then sing “mighty Oregon” every time it comes around.

    The basketball team uses all kinds of phrases on the warm up shirts. Things like “Bend Your Knees” and such. “Mighty Oregon” is just another fun phrase.

    A few years ago Chip Kelly’s UO football team began to use the phrase “Win The Day” (shortened sometimes to “WTD”). This phrase has really been embraced by the program and is used extensively. Interestingly, the phrase was “stolen” (not intentionally) from another 100 year old fight song, this one of Pac-12 rival Washington State.

    Re: Busch on Harvick’s car

    This will be the first year in MANY years that Budweiser will not be present in NASCAR. A-B decided to bring in Busch, and pull Budweiser.

    Anyone notice and identify the logo on the lower right portion of the NHL all star sweaters? Addias? Couldn’t make it out from shots I’ve seen so far.

    Some interesting picks for desired album cover art clothing. I didn’t really have a pick when I posed the question to Paul but even though it is very nondescript I would go with Paul Westerberg’s jacket on the cover of the Replacements Let it Be album.

    I didn’t really have an answer to this question, but I just remembered that I always loved Johnny Thunders’s boots on the cover of So Alone:
    link

    Let the purple tie brigade begin! George Stephanopolous is rocking a Cursed Color complimented with tiny white polka dots.

    If you didn’t watch any of the 1943 Lions/Skins footage Paul links, check it out:

    – color vs. color
    – straight-ahead FG kickers
    – goal posts on goal line
    – old-school scoreboard
    – fans sitting all the way down to field level
    – funny moment at 19:15 or so
    – Note at end says that Sammy Baugh set “unbreakable” NFL record by throwing for four TD’s AND intercepting four passes!

    Great find. Amazing film quality.

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