Digby

Mallory Swanson tore a tendon in a friendly and the USWNT will not be making it three straight World Cups.

Oops, I said “cities” when I should have said “metropolitan statistical areas”, I’m sure Minneapolis and St. Paul have twice as many Drake concert attendees as Philadelphia.

I personally cannot fathom very many cities than can support more than one 18k arena. Feels like NYC and LA and that’s it. That’s always been the flashing warning light about this Sixers idea to me. How do the Twin Cities pull it off?

As I remember it, the Rays had that fauxback hat (navy with gradient sting ray logo) first, and then they brought back the whole jersey a couple seasons later to match that hat’s era-mashup style, maybe?

I’m sure they will but new CBA means he’d have to take a 40 percent paycut to do so, not to mention trade a no-drama, well-run team that he knows (and gives him literally whatever he wants, including games off for his kid’s birthday) for a soap opera trainwreck of a front office. If Tatum leaves I think it’ll be an end-of-career journeyman thing the way they let/pushed Paul Pierce out in his later years. Or if STL gets an expansion team ever. re: the disaster show Mavericks, Luka has his flaws (and hasn’t been accountable for them) but this is 100 percent on their front office, which has somehow got off scot-free for making bad decision after bad decision (both on and off the court). The Luka move has obviously worked out but they’ve not done anything else to lead him to success — failure at assembling a coherent roster, failure at having a good coach.

Little late of the Mavericks to start tanking with two games left, but...

I thought those were both excellent. I've generally been happy with USA fonts for the past two decades, apart from maybe the current cheapo-local-print-shop job and the bubbly ones they launched the new crest with. But like... just pick one and stick with it. I know the modern game demands that each uniform only ends up getting worn like 8 times max but at least common fonts give a little more consistency to the brand.

Just has me longing for the days of national teams keeping the same font for multiple kit cycles. One of my hobbyhorses, I know.

KAWS is a pretty big name in certain circles where art and streetwear and hip-hop mix. I tend to think of him as “what if Jeff Koons was a hanger-on of Kid Cudi” which I do intend as an insult. That said, it’s a logical collab for a jersey with this team and, wordmark aside, I like the end result. Surprised more NBA teams haven’t tried a full jersey print a la soccer jerseys (or the 90s) …yet.

Surprised there hasn’t been a KAWS collab already but makes perfect sense for the Nets to be the ones, with both trafficking in the modern art currency of understanding a reference. It’s kind of a fun design but it’ll get old when it’s worn for 18 games on an equally gaudy court, I’m sure.

To my earlier point: during tonight’s Celtics broadcast, after a DraftKings sponsored segment, Mike Gorman (who deserves better than this) says to the studio guy Tom Giles, “Can I ask you a gambling question?” only for Brian Scalabrine to awkwardly butt in “Nope. You can ask me though!”

Must tamping things down and resetting. Just a simple home/away setup plus one alternate, as a treat. But nothing too out there. (Too late for April Fools?)

Alas I should have clarified, a snapback. And ideally a vintage one but decent condition ones rarely go for cheap on eBay. Maine loves its Sea Dogs!

I have a feeling we can guess the answer.

I'm also a fan of classic Marlins teal (though I remain upset that I have yet to find a black/teal Portland Sea Dogs hat from that era). Beyond the color, though, I don't have a lot of affinity for the design. The serif fonts are corny and dated, the marlin logo itself is kinda funny but falls into the same trap as Baltimore's bird hat of the era, being too realist to work well in its context. Either of their current wordmarks/logos might make for a decent mashup with the teal to get the best of all worlds. It's just a little confusing since -- leaving aside the design critiques of the newer identities -- they've been leaning so hard into a Miami aesthetic (neon and Art Deco and nods to Latin culture) but the original teal era feels so General Florida Burbs aesthetic to me, particularly of that 90s era when the traditionalist snowbirds from the North really flew in.

Can't think of something more quintessentially Celtics in this era than losing to the Wizards' bench but beating a full-strength Bucks by 40 (shoulda been 50) in a 3-day span.

There are some nice designs in here -- loving the setups for Canada, England, and that Portugal terrazzo look -- but Nike's continued insistence on the knit pattern stuff is ugly and distracting. More broadly, I am really tired of the insistence that we now need an entirely new kit set when the last kits were worn, like, in five games apiece. Two-year cycles are plenty, men's and women's teams wearing the same designs works great, how far can we push all of this before the oversaturation becomes unprofitable?

eh I really like that Minnesota shirt so much less with the full kit. Confusingly, feels like the all-white actually makes the cool color elements get overwhelmed and stand out less. NYCFC wore their away kit to New England on Saturday, which I don’t remember seeing before. This photo implies that the navy zigzag might’ve posed a problem but it was fine in practice. I actually preferred the bright contrast.

Active players being pitchmen is bad, the constant commercials are bad, but the current worst thing about the legal app gambling to me is the way all the media members have supposedly become gambling experts overnight. The analysts who've been around for years suddenly framing all their analysis through the lens of the odds. It's not even ads, it's just become one and the same with the content of the programming itself. Just a total abdication of whatever regulatory framework we should have had here.

They look nice here but it also looks almost post-processed to me. I found the orange-heavy looks of the modern Astros ever to look kinda dingy, oftentimes... an awkward halfway between bright vibrant orange and UT burnt orange, I guess? Tough when you play in a dome most of the time.

The Equalizer reported a couple weeks back that Orlando is retaining last year’s white away jersey but with black shorts as the preferred complement for menstrual reasons (and black numbers for visual reasons), but in that same piece they let slip that as of 2024 the NWSL won’t have a rule about mostly-white kits, which very much hinted at more change kits that are “light” but in various colors. Presumably more similar to what we’re seeing with this year’s new MLS kits. Kind of an L for Nike to be late on this one but points to a better design future for the league (and, in fairness, NWSL is in much better shape design-wise than it was in its early years, Reign excluded).

Yes, he totally did and I still remember him that way. Kind of his thing, wasn't he also the Baseball Hall of Fame secret voter for Deadspin back in the day? America loves a supposed mole.

We've kind of evolved into a lot of natural primary-rival pairings, especially in the Eastern Conference. Especially with expansion seemingly West-focused, we'll have to start pairing Nashville and New England for Rivalry Week out of lack of better options for either. Start ginning up the fake grievances to get this one cookin'.

I think it’s a nice fauxback. Doesn’t need the “The”, of course, which is a silly concession to the eyeroll parts of the program. The sleeve graphic is the only thing that really lets this down. Feels like they just wanted to avoid the cultural fight of using the feather again, so they came up with this as a replacement, but it looks too off… like a really poor knockoff of the real thing. The Nikespeak can explain it however they’d like, but that’s how it reads to me.

Didn’t realize how much I didn’t miss him popping up in my usual feeds until now. Always hard to take seriously people who capitalize “The Media” in general but especially when they are, well. Very important to expose the scandal of hiring TikTok exports to run your brand TikTok. Middle name “Sherwood” explains a lot.