Things that are the way they are... just "because"

[Kevin W.]

4.Crappy uniform designs by the idiots at nike.

And Adidas and Under Armour.

[Silent Wind of Doom]

Grey road uniforms in the MLB.

God I hate grey unis in baseball. Just go with a color and make the game more vibrant and less boring.

Ow. That hurt. I've spent 90% of my time outside the Concepts board in the yearly MLB threads, so reading those two comments made my eyes nearly pop out of my head. Wasn't expecting that.

As for my "just becauses"

-What hockey jersey is worn at home and what is on the road. I mostly say this because it was switched and no one seems to have cared or argued about it.

-Three (possibly a fourth on the helmet) different Yankees logos for different applications (which causes great ire when people mix them up and use the wrong logo for the wrong thing.)

-Steelers logo on only one side of the helmet.

You haven't paid much attention. The hockey home/road color swap is debated regularly, with strong feelings on both sides. Even all these years later, it still comes up.

Huh. I guess that's down to me not being involved in the NHL threads as much.

[chcarlson23]

Most people don't watch or pay attention to hockey... Now as a huge Hockey fan, I can't really imagine why, other than you don't live in an area with a team. Does anyone know why? Specifically Non-Hockey Fans?

[wildwing64]

In Hockey every team has a different colored helmet, One form the dark and one for the light, and sometimes alt, except the Gophers men's Hockey team with gold helmets all around, the US Olympic team with Light helmets for the dark uniform, (opposite for the Miracle on Ice ) and high school teams... At least that's what I've noticed.

In rec leagues and semi-pro hockey, at least here in the UK - and even at the pro level here - it's more common to see teams with just one helmet in rotation. My local team uses black helmets even with the white jersey at home. Another team uses red helmets on a primarily navy uniform. Another uses a white helmet with a royal blue and yellow uniform.

Most people don't watch or pay attention to hockey... Now as a huge Hockey fan, I can't really imagine why, other than you don't live in an area with a team. Does anyone know why? Specifically Non-Hockey Fans?

I guess it's just not as culturally ingrained as football and baseball in the US. Here in the UK it's probably the 22nd most popular sport after soccer.

--

Here's one to add: Hockey is the only major sport in which teams displays the logo front and centre on the chest. Soccer is similar, but has the logo at a smaller size to the top left or right, so it's more like a badge.

[OnWis97]

Most people don't watch or pay attention to hockey... Now as a huge Hockey fan, I can't really imagine why, other than you don't live in an area with a team. Does anyone know why? Specifically Non-Hockey Fans?

I have had several guesses...nothing more than guesses...

• It's not a sport many people grow up playing...most people have played some baseball, touch football, and shot some hoops.
• It's not the best TV sport. People complain that they cannot follow the puck (I don't get that). Some people complain about the two intermissions, which I find funny since each 20-minute goes so fast and the end of games do not draw out forever like in basketball.
• Stars are less identifiable...Gretzky played, what, 25 of 60 minutes per game? Jordan played 45 or so of 48? Plus I think changing on the fly is tough for casual fans. One minute Crosby's on the ice then he's gone.
• Not enough scoring plays a role. Honestly, if they'd enlarged the goals (thank God they did not), and had more 9 to 6 games, that may have helped. Same game, more goals, more fans? While baseball is also a game without a lot of scoring, I think its historical roots and frequency of people growing up playing it have helped. But there are a lot of people that don't like baseball for the same reason.
• The lack of goals make people feel that hockey is "not action packed." So they think football is. I think football has more running clock than actual play. Hockey has 60 minutes of play. But the perception is what it is.

[ConcreteCharlie]

I dont get whats not to love about two guys knocking the snot out of each other. Basketball never gets even close to that exciting. (except that one time in Detroit)

[chcarlson23]

I dont get whats not to love about two guys knocking the snot out of each other. Basketball never gets even close to that exciting. (except that one time in Detroit)

Exactly! Hockey has that just like football, and its such a fast-paced, free flowing game, that it's exciting. It also has lots of historical roots, (while mostly in Canada) and the Stanley Cup is probably the greatest Trophy in sports! The atmosphere is also amazing, no other sport comes close besides baseball.

[VikWings]

Hockey being expensive to play could be another reason.

Basektball, football (touch) and soccer you just need a ball basically. Baseball you only really need a glove and can go sign up for a league.

[ColeJ]

I never understood the complaint that hockey was too low scoring to be fun. Would it help if we just made each goal count for 7 points, like football?

[Beckhamcantbendmiami]

Crests in soccer/football traditionally being almost always on the top left of the player's jersey from their perspective (and right from yours). Really want to know why.

[The_Admiral]

Hockey's too white

[C-Squared]

The Cowboys' multiple shades of blue and silver (a dead horse beaten on these boards)

But I love the inconsistencies and enjoy this outlier! Hate the Cowboys, but love their uniforms!

Back in the early 90's when their colors last matched, the jersey's blue actually looked darker than the helmet blue under certain lighting, almost black at times... innovations in television and uniform technology have made the color change obsolete, but Jerry's gonna Jerry.

[Gothamite]

Crests in soccer/football traditionally being almost always on the top left of the player's jersey from their perspective (and right from yours). Really want to know why.

It's not peculiar to soccer - putting decorations, medals, and other insignia "over the heart" goes back hundreds of years.

At some point, it became accepted practice. Symbols of office, authority or community were placed on the left breast.

Heck, there's a reason the English call those logos "badges", right?

Now that's the accepted place for ornamentation.

Apparently this aesthetic will still be popular a couple hundred years from now.

[KDubK414]

^File that under things I just noticed for the first time. I read something about the TV show, The Shield that said for the first season or so the actors playing the uniformed officers and wardrobe department had the proper LAPD badge and proper placement over the left breast. But when the LAPD actually saw the show, they had to change the badge a bit and switch sides so as not to be disrespectful to the actual officers.

Edit: I also love hockey! And you always see a spike in interest around the Olympics, as well as curling, which I also love! Also, who hasn't played at least NHL '96 on the Genesis or Super Nintendo? I sure as hell did. The Avs were my team!

[ConcreteCharlie]

^File that under things I just noticed for the first time. I read something about the TV show, The Shield that said for the first season or so the actors playing the uniformed officers and wardrobe department had the proper LAPD badge and proper placement over the left breast. But when the LAPD actually saw the show, they had to change the badge a bit and switch sides so as not to be disrespectful to the actual officers.

Edit: I also love hockey! And you always see a spike in interest around the Olympics, as well as curling, which I also love! Also, who hasn't played at least NHL '96 on the Genesis or Super Nintendo? I sure as hell did. The Avs were my team!

The one where you could make their little heads bleed?

[Silent Wind of Doom]

Huh. Whenever I affix things to my chest, I always go stage right. Maybe I've been doing it wrong all along.

As for hockey, here's the reasons I think I have trouble with it:

It is low scoring. Now, how is that more of an issue with hockey than baseball and football, which also aren't really that high scoring much of the time? Those two sports have incremental changes. In an inning, two men can get on base, one can steal, and the inning can still be left without a run scored. While no scoring happened, there were still events and progress. In football, every play is making progress forward, or at least meant to. You get closer and closer, can make a huge play that gets everyone on their feet, and still not score. However, again, there was progress and it feels like something happens.

To get from one end to the other of a hockey rink can literally take seconds. When no goals are scored, it just feels like the puck is being hit back and forth without anything being accomplished. I find the same problem with soccer.

There's also the fact that in both of those sports, scoring can be done in a variety of ways while in hockey to the casual observer it feels like the same thing every time.

Now, in the playoffs, things are different. With there being more on the line, and things being ramped up, it's a lot easier to watch, and the fact that scoring can occur at any time makes the sudden death overtime one of the more thrilling times in all of sports. But when there's nothing on the line with two months left to play, it's just harder to watch.

[colinturner95]

Huh. Whenever I affix things to my chest, I always go stage right. Maybe I've been doing it wrong all along.

As for hockey, here's the reasons I think I have trouble with it:

It is low scoring. Now, how is that more of an issue with hockey than baseball and football, which also aren't really that high scoring much of the time? Those two sports have incremental changes. In an inning, two men can get on base, one can steal, and the inning can still be left without a run scored. While no scoring happened, there were still events and progress. In football, every play is making progress forward, or at least meant to. You get closer and closer, can make a huge play that gets everyone on their feet, and still not score. However, again, there was progress and it feels like something happens.

To get from one end to the other of a hockey rink can literally take seconds. When no goals are scored, it just feels like the puck is being hit back and forth without anything being accomplished. I find the same problem with soccer.

There's also the fact that in both of those sports, scoring can be done in a variety of ways while in hockey to the casual observer it feels like the same thing every time.

Now, in the playoffs, things are different. With there being more on the line, and things being ramped up, it's a lot easier to watch, and the fact that scoring can occur at any time makes

As hockey player of 16 years, I can pretty much agree with all this. Except when you play the 2 time defending high school national champion. They can score early and often.

[Gothamite]

File that under things I just noticed for the first time. I read something about the TV show, The Shield that said for the first season or so the actors playing the uniformed officers and wardrobe department had the proper LAPD badge and proper placement over the left breast. But when the LAPD actually saw the show, they had to change the badge a bit and switch sides so as not to be disrespectful to the actual officers.

I don't think it was disrespect so much as intellectual property. The LAPD has a copyright on their distinctive badge so they can control its use.

But moving the shield to the opposite side? Is there a single police department that wears theirs on the right breast? I guess they wanted a visual cue that these weren't "real" officers.

[KDubK414]

File that under things I just noticed for the first time. I read something about the TV show, The Shield that said for the first season or so the actors playing the uniformed officers and wardrobe department had the proper LAPD badge and proper placement over the left breast. But when the LAPD actually saw the show, they had to change the badge a bit and switch sides so as not to be disrespectful to the actual officers.

I don't think it was disrespect so much as intellectual property. The LAPD has a copyright on their distinctive badge so they can control its use.

But moving the shield to the opposite side? Is there a single police department that wears theirs on the right breast? I guess they wanted a visual cue that these weren't "real" officers.

The uniformed officers originally wore realistic LAPD-style badges over their left breast, which is standard in the real Los Angeles Police Department, as it is symbolically over the heart. After criticism from the real LAPD over the show's depiction of corrupt cops, the badges were replaced with less realistic badges which were worn over the right breast, starting midway through the first season.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0286486/trivia?ref_=m_tt_trv_trv

[KDubK414]

^File that under things I just noticed for the first time. I read something about the TV show, The Shield that said for the first season or so the actors playing the uniformed officers and wardrobe department had the proper LAPD badge and proper placement over the left breast. But when the LAPD actually saw the show, they had to change the badge a bit and switch sides so as not to be disrespectful to the actual officers.

Edit: I also love hockey! And you always see a spike in interest around the Olympics, as well as curling, which I also love! Also, who hasn't played at least NHL '96 on the Genesis or Super Nintendo? I sure as hell did. The Avs were my team!

The one where you could make their little heads bleed?

Yes, that would be the one, as featured in a scene in Swingers.