Digby

Halftime and the Celtics lead the allegedly resurgent Warriors by a score of 82-38. lmao.

Much as I love a snow game, I can understand why this is maybe not a sustainable thing. LAFC coaches and players were all over the post-game saying this shouldn't have been played, though of course they said that after losing. Still, this is why I just blink and nod slowly whenever someone tries to push the fall-to-spring schedule scheme for MLS.

I thought the same. Seattle had the alternate light blue socks it turned out, but didn't really matter in the context here. Third kits aren't ONLY money grabs. I liked how the new Sounders branding looked on all the signage surrounding the pitch, though.

There have been rumblings of an NWSL rebrand in the works, so I wonder if they're just waiting til that goes through to start pushing the league as a brand itself.

One time I ordered an MLS jersey from a site that sells more youth-soccer teamwear than pro replica jerseys, because the photos on the listing led me to believe they had miraculously/accidentally stocked a bunch of sponsorless versions. Imagine my disappointment when the package showed up and the sponsor was, in fact, printed on as normal.

Love to see Denver wearing a black jersey with white numbers and dark red cuffs... while on their mostly-blue home... against the Miami Heat...

That's 3 plain-with-accent-cuffs white home shirts in 4 years for the USA (counting the women's exclusives in here), and 3 straight royal blue aways. It's always seemed silly to me to have international kits on short cycles given how rarely they're worn, and it seems even more pointless when so little changes between them. Really haven't understood Nike's philosophy with the US teams for a while now, especially at a time where I think they've done quite well for all their big international teams.

I dig that one but I think their away is my favorite color application of this gradient teamwear thing. Greenish-dark grey is an interesting color and plays nicely with the red and neon yellow combination.

Hope they didn't sell too many of those pine needle jerseys yet! Absolutely wild to go from the same sponsor for 12 years to the same sponsor for 1 match.

Personally I'd make that tradeoff 10 out of 10 times.

Any time the basketball logo rule comes up, the conversation turns into a bikeshedding of the highest order.

Not permitted inside TD Garden. Unless you buy the souvenir version at their own Pro Shop.

Phone, wallet, keys, glasses, mobile charger, meds, tampons, hand sanitizer, gloves. I mean, not all of those things at once, but some combination of 3-5 of those items seems pretty reasonable. If I need a glasses change and my mobile charger with me I'll usually take a crossbody with me instead of cramming things into every pocket I've got. The Pro level of Pixels and iPhones wouldn't even fit in one of these bags!

I'm choosing to consider this an NHL bad decision becuase I assume it's the Jacobs' fault. The Bruins have a new bag policy for home games that bans any bags larger than 6 x 4 x 1.5 inches. Even if they're clear. Only exception is, conveniently, shopping bags for any purchased items from the Garden pro shop in the train station. (I assume this is also in effect for Celtics games and concerts, but I ran into it first via the Bruins.) 6 x 4 is absolutely tiny for a bag! I get banning huge backpacks or whatever but come on, this is a nuisance.

They've all dropped today. Everyone gets a bespoke primary and a secondary in this diagonal-gradient aesthetic. Too lazy to paste all the links so here ya go: https://nwslshop.com/collections/2024-unisex-jerseys Lots of bold choices, some good and some bad. That San Diego sunset pattern jersey is the obvious banger of the year. Of particular note: Portland is back to red at home and seems to have changed its color scheme to red with lime yellowish-green. Bay FC has that navy logo but their shirts are all varying shades of grey? Seattle Reign has the classic logo back but is using a navy base with metallic gold trim, none of the dark teal or silver they had like the old days. Washington seems stuck in year two of this weird black/yellow temp scheme.

I know I keep saying this, but everything about the Ballmer-era branding has felt like them trying to galaxy-brain their way into a hypermodern brand, and I guess it didn't work out the way they thought it would. The "LA" thing, the black jerseys, the weird minimalism, the street-tough look... all gone in favor of something fairly traditional. Doesn't seem to match the usual Ballmer instincts so I can't help but think that there must be a pile of data suggesting that all the contemporary cleverness didn't quite land. Meanwhile, Ryan Smith has been left behind on the dock, bereft and confused.

That would be a sharp look too, the light blue they're using is more saturated and green-ish than the powder that Memphis uses/was generally more in vogue during the double-blue-everything era of the league. But with the only team currently pairing navy and red being the Wizards and their very specific design language, I don't think what the Clips chose here is necessarily an issue either. (But it is very Twinsy.) Plenty of options for alternates that aren't as unhinged as the usual City looks.

Really surprised by this turn for the rebrand. It's much more of a throwback to classic Clippers than I expected with the script wordmark; I thought we were trying to forget about those decades of unpleasantness. Main logo looks more like an obnoxious superyacht than any sort of clippership, which seems fitting. But the fonts are nice. Overall package is astoundingly logical and not galaxy-brained for a modern NBA brand.

Is it true that the Property Brothers Extended Universe sucked up enough flippable houses in the GTA that it actually contributed to the property value spike?

Probably not too many folks watching Concacaf Cup action tonight but I just finished the New England vs CA Independiente (Panama) match and it was Concacaf-y as hell. Chiefly concerning the broadcast, on something crash-prone called Tubi, a one-man booth of a man named George who I'm half-convinced they just pulled from outside the stadium. His highlights included: - Initially stating that Dave Romney is no relation to Mitt, but then changing course and mentioning four times that actually yes, he is somewhere from a third to fifth cousin, exactly which is unclear - Repeatedly pronouncing Andrew Farrell's name like Pharrell, the producer/pop star - Sharing his research into Panamanian soccer, including threats of an upcoming strike (again he said this four times) and that the league uses conferences, like the NBA does (not like the MLS does...?) - Rapping Mike Jones lyrics when DeJuan Jones touched the ball, only to conclude the bar with "Ah, my rapping sucks" - Coining the nickname "Bobby Wood, up to no good" - Incorrectly announcing Chancalay's goal as his first as a Rev - Sharing that he would drop his mic and walk away if his brother was substituted into the match (literally what?) I maintain once again: MLS's efforts to kill off all the public-access vibes of the North American game are gravely misguided and need to be stopped.

The nonprofit that stewards Boston's Emerald Necklace parks is suing the city over the plan to renovate the Franklin Park stadium for an NWSL team because they're mad the planning process is going too fast and because it would reduce the number of opportunities for schoolkids to play football there. I'm biased, wanting an NWSL team in this market, but I tend to think it's a good deal to get a decrepit public facility fixed up, NIMBY mucking-up is unreasonable to getting anything done, and that we shouldn't be encouraging kids to play contact football anyway. Strange bedfellows indeed, when the fundraiser-gala environmentalist set is suing the city's most progressive administration ostensibly in defense of black neighborhood kids (to get TBIs).

I think using those fairly thick pinstripes, in a second green and also a blue, is altering the visual perception of the base shirt green in most instances. One of those reasons that I felt like the rebrand and the shirt redesign were progressing without talking to one another.

I didn't bother watching the actual All-Star Game, I almost never do unless the halftime show is interesting. Still think the Elam Ending is worth bringing into regular-season overtime. But IDK, the concept of All-Star Games across any sport feels a little pointless to me now... it's not the 90s anymore. I don't even think the "competitiveness" angle is worth the pearl-clutching. Of course it's meant for the content and entertainment! What else should it possibly ever be? The LED court was also predictably annoying and distracting. Did anyone notice that the camera lingered so long on the overhead of the court during Jaylen Brown's first dunk attempt that they forgot to cut back to him for said dunk, and we totally missed it until the replay? Really excellent production work from TNT there.

IDK, I think there's simply too many light blue shirts in the league right now. Particularly with Adidas's insistence on one single template and repeated design motifs, this feels like an unnecessary regression in terms of individualized designs for teams. Not every team needs to do a municipal flag kit, also, but if Atlanta must do so, I will also note that their flag is a medium-dark blue and a deep, mustardy gold.

I don't even remember it happening in real-time, but when I read again about it years later, I kind of assumed it was an idea planted by John Henry staring into an overleveraged abyss before the pink-hat-era cash cow really took off, and before they figured out how to get concerts and football and obscure Irish field sports into Fenway on every other Sox off-day.