This week in uniforms and logos: Nicknames, Ambassador Drake and sleeves
Welcome back to your weekly update in the world of sports wardrobe.
This past week was absolutely dominated by NBA news, the big newsmaker was the revelation that "The Association" was contacting members of the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat asking them to come up with league-approved nicknames.
Why? Well...
It means you're very likely to see "King James" or "The Truth" and "K.G." on the backs of jerseys instead of "James", "Pierce" and "Garnett". A few players have already come forward with their plans on what they're going to wear, Miami's Ray Allen is going with "Shuttlesworth" after his character of the same name in the film "He Got Game", and Shane Battier (who says he's not a fan of the promotion) is settling on "Shane-O" after his original choice "Batman" was rejected due to copyright issues.
While the idea, on the surface, might reek of "Minor Leagues" or "oh look, the NBA's at it again", this is far from the first time we will have seen a player wear a nickname on the back of his uniform shirt. Younger fans may recall the XFL's Ron Smart wearing "He Hate Me" on his Las Vegas Outlaws jersey in 2001, but it goes much further back and involves much more legitimate leagues.
In the 1960s we saw Ed "Wahoo" McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins and Kenny "Hawk" Harrelson of the Cleveland Indians wearing their nicknames, later on Pete Maravich took to the court wearing "Pistol" on his New Orleans Jazz jersey. The Oakland Athletics, and their ever creative owner Charlie O. Finley had several players wearing nicknamed jerseys in the early 1970s with "Catfish" Jim Hunter and Dick Allen wearing "Wampum" amongst a host of other Oakland A's players.
The most infamous case of a player wearing a nickname on the back of his jersey is courtesy loveable old Ted Turner. Ted was the owner of the Atlanta Braves, he was also the owner of the first nation-wide superstation "Channel 17" (later 'TBS'). When Ted was broadcasting his Braves baseball games across the country on Channel 17 he decided adopting the nickname practice would draw attention to his team. It started off innocently with knuckleballer and future hall of famer Phil Niekro wearing "Knucksie", Jerry Royster wearing "J Bird", and Jim Wynn wearing "Cannon" but then Ted took things a step too far.
Pitcher Andy Messersmith wore the number 17, Ted's channel number, and he wore it because Ted asked him too. Ted, the rascal that he is, decided Andy's new nickname should be "Channel" and had his name changed as such on the back of Messersmith's uniform. That meant whenever Messersmith was on the mound, facing the camera and the TV viewer was "CHANNEL 17", a big, on field walking, playing advertisement for Turner's superstation. As you can imagine MLB nixed the idea pretty quickly and Messersmith became "Bluto" for the remainder of the short lived idea.
The player to have the most fun with this idea was clearly Johnnie LeMaster of the San Francisco Giants. Frustrated by the negative feedback he would regularly receive from the Bay Area fans, LeMaster switched his name to "BOO" on the back of his uniform for a single game in 1979.
LeMaster reportedly received an ovation when taking the field with the clever jersey before fans followed the instructions and booed him the rest of the game. After that one night it was back to LeMaster on the jersey (which sounds like a nickname in itself) and the "BOO" jersey was never worn again.
So folks, you can put down your pitchforks, this isn't the NBA ushering in a new era of ridiculousness on uniforms (they'll do that next season when the jersey ad program begins). Sure, it seems a little... desperate, but whatever, it's for one game and the nicknamed jerseys will do crazy good in sales.
Speaking of jersey sales, the Toronto Raptors are on the path to increasing theirs no matter what the outcome with the announcement that local rapper Drake will be heavily involved in the clubs rebranding efforts. The Raptors have filed their application for a makeover with the NBA, paid the fees, and have begun the process hiring a Toronto-based design firm which will involve Drake, the Raptors' first and only "Global Ambassador" calling some of the shots along the way.
It's a very similar process to what the Brooklyn (née New Jersey) Nets did last offseason by having Jay-Z on board to rebrand the team. Credit whoever you want for the turnaround but within that one season the Nets have gone from being avoided like the plague to one of the top destinations for elite talent. If that transition can be replicated in Toronto, Drake can do whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned.
There will be no new name, Raptors is here to stay, but there will be a new logo, new uniforms, and a new colour scheme. Expect the new look to make its début for the 2015-16 season, the year of the Raptors 20th anniversary and their turn to host the All-Star Game.
Sticking with the NBA, the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers both unveiled their new sleeved alternate jerseys. The Warriors started the whole sleeved jersey craze last season when they wore a yellow version of their new look for three games and will continue it by wearing a white edition for six home games in the upcoming season.
The Clippers joined the party by unveiling a baby blue sleeved jersey just three days after it was leaked in a video game. The new look pays tribute to their days as the San Diego Clippers by incorporating their old colour scheme and their old nautical flags on the shorts. While in San Diego the flags spelled out "C L I P P E R S", in 2014 it'll be the much more simple "L A C" or "Los Angeles Clippers".
Moving away from basketball and onto hockey; the 2014 Winter Olympics are just four short months away and thanks to an overeager sports store employee we know what the Canadian hockey team will be wearing come February.
I can best describe them as a combination of the 1920 Olympic hockey team, the 1972 Summit Series, and, well, Petro Canada I suppose. A thick horizontal stripe (reminiscent of the Montreal Canadiens but more likely a nod to that 1920 team) goes across the middle of all three of the uniforms. The red and white jerseys have the '72-esque maple leaf in opposite colour peeking up through the stripe, outlined in gold as has been the custom with the national team since their 2002 Olympic Golds. A third jersey is also present, black with a white stripe and "CANADA" across the chest.
The uniforms also feature a pyramid of 12 golden maple leaves, presumably one for every Men's and Women's Olympic and Paralympic Gold Medals won by the Canadian hockey program. A neat little touch, a lot like how national soccer teams will add stars to their crests for every World Cup victory.
We'll end things off this week with the New York Mets who ended things off themselves by wearing a patch on their caps to honour the career of Mike Piazza during their last game of the season on Sunday. Piazza, a Met from 1998-2005 was elected into the teams hall of fame prior to that days game. The patch was a simple "31", Mike's number, inside a white circle with event and date information surrounding.
That's all for now, be sure to check back in next Tuesday.
Chris Creamer is the creator and editor of SportsLogo.net. You can follow him on twitter at @sportslogosnet.