Seeing now that there’s a paywall - I thought you weren’t doing that until or unless some regular cadence was established. Did I miss an update? I’d subscribe (I already do for IC) if I knew what I was getting.
Here's what I wrote in the "Welcome to Uni Watch on Substack" post on July 22: "All content here on Uni Watch is free for now. If things go well over the first few weeks, I may add a paywall, just so I’m not working for free."
On July 27, I published the first new free post.
On Aug. 10, I announced that the next post would be the last free one.
On Aug. 13, I published the last free post and reminded everyone that content would be paywalled going forward.
On Aug. 19 — four weeks after the July 22 "Welcome" post, and more than three weeks after the first new free post — I published the first paywalled post.
In short: Every step of the way I explained what I'd be doing, and then I did it.
If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to ask.
Wish I had enough disposable income to subscribe to everything online I find interesting ... but unfortunately, it's just not so. But best of luck with your Substack, Paul, and thanks for all the years of fascinating contant!
Speaking of non-uniform uniform elements, am I the only one to notice the "guitar strings" on the Titans new duds are un-uniform on the helmet and a bunch of their digital marketing, but perfectly even on the sleeves and pants. I asked their beat guy about it and he said that "weirdness" would not be part of the uniform when they started suiting up for games - but low and behold it has not changed as of the first preseason game.
If some of the "VZ" tributes were indeed printed rather than embroidered, that may open us to the possibility of them peeling off or otherwise becoming damaged in the course of play.
Since these VZ letterings appear to be an ad hoc venture on the part of the players involved, I'm assuming the differences are the result of the various fonts and sizes available on different ballpark sewing or embroidery machines, yes?
I think it's more like MLB gave the green light for teams to handle this on their own, so the teams' local stitching shops probably handled it in the way they saw fit.
Agreed twice, surprised it isn’t uniform and also it looks better this way. MLB could have dished out a whole bunch of little flag patches, but that would have introduced new colors on a whole bunch of hats. As is, every VZ is white or any other non-clashing color.
Once upon a time, all these support signs would have been handwritten, but that isn’t allowed anymore…forget when/why, but we were reminded of that prohibition when some players went rogue with Bible verses on Pride hats. So the embroidered looks make them look official, and the otherwise non-uniformity makes them look a little less corporate, even though I’m sure MLB gave broad approval for these VZ additions.
As a Giants fan who had the unfortunate experience of following the Pride cap/bible verse fallout, I was surprised that more of a fuss hasn't been made about the handwritten messages that have appeared on some Venezuelan players. I personally feel that one of these has more merit than the other, but in order to avoid controversy with a certain segment of fan/pundit, I expected them to enforce that policy a bit more strictly. Embroidering the VZ on the caps is definitely a way to get around this a bit, but I still expected a certain segment of "fan" to claim a double standard here.
Seeing now that there’s a paywall - I thought you weren’t doing that until or unless some regular cadence was established. Did I miss an update? I’d subscribe (I already do for IC) if I knew what I was getting.
Here's what I wrote in the "Welcome to Uni Watch on Substack" post on July 22: "All content here on Uni Watch is free for now. If things go well over the first few weeks, I may add a paywall, just so I’m not working for free."
On July 27, I published the first new free post.
On Aug. 10, I announced that the next post would be the last free one.
On Aug. 13, I published the last free post and reminded everyone that content would be paywalled going forward.
On Aug. 19 — four weeks after the July 22 "Welcome" post, and more than three weeks after the first new free post — I published the first paywalled post.
In short: Every step of the way I explained what I'd be doing, and then I did it.
If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to ask.
Got it - thanks for pointing me to those posts. I don’t always read down to the bottom of every post, so I missed that. I’ll be subscribing.
Wish I had enough disposable income to subscribe to everything online I find interesting ... but unfortunately, it's just not so. But best of luck with your Substack, Paul, and thanks for all the years of fascinating contant!
Speaking of non-uniform uniform elements, am I the only one to notice the "guitar strings" on the Titans new duds are un-uniform on the helmet and a bunch of their digital marketing, but perfectly even on the sleeves and pants. I asked their beat guy about it and he said that "weirdness" would not be part of the uniform when they started suiting up for games - but low and behold it has not changed as of the first preseason game.
If some of the "VZ" tributes were indeed printed rather than embroidered, that may open us to the possibility of them peeling off or otherwise becoming damaged in the course of play.
Since these VZ letterings appear to be an ad hoc venture on the part of the players involved, I'm assuming the differences are the result of the various fonts and sizes available on different ballpark sewing or embroidery machines, yes?
I think it's more like MLB gave the green light for teams to handle this on their own, so the teams' local stitching shops probably handled it in the way they saw fit.
I like the non-uniformity also. It’s honest. It’s kinda like the 51s for Alex Vesia in the World Series last year.
Does it look like the second Dads hat isn’t heat transferred rather than embroidered to you? Interesting outlier!
A few of them look printed rather than embroidered to me, but it's hard to be sure. I opted not to speculate.
I agree with Mike E. I like the non-uniformity of this, feels more personal, more sincere.
Agreed twice, surprised it isn’t uniform and also it looks better this way. MLB could have dished out a whole bunch of little flag patches, but that would have introduced new colors on a whole bunch of hats. As is, every VZ is white or any other non-clashing color.
Once upon a time, all these support signs would have been handwritten, but that isn’t allowed anymore…forget when/why, but we were reminded of that prohibition when some players went rogue with Bible verses on Pride hats. So the embroidered looks make them look official, and the otherwise non-uniformity makes them look a little less corporate, even though I’m sure MLB gave broad approval for these VZ additions.
As a Giants fan who had the unfortunate experience of following the Pride cap/bible verse fallout, I was surprised that more of a fuss hasn't been made about the handwritten messages that have appeared on some Venezuelan players. I personally feel that one of these has more merit than the other, but in order to avoid controversy with a certain segment of fan/pundit, I expected them to enforce that policy a bit more strictly. Embroidering the VZ on the caps is definitely a way to get around this a bit, but I still expected a certain segment of "fan" to claim a double standard here.