maz

I called the "PGH" Around here, that's how it's abbreviated everywhere. It's the "official" abbreviation (although I know the airport uses "PIT"). So I get how it "connects" to the "city" and all, but as for the rest of the uniform... Holy "meh," Batman. I have always said, being boring and safe is better than being garish and ugly. But this is a batting practice uniform with a pattern half sublimated onto it. Then again, this team showed a ton of promise only to let us down on the field after a few months anyway. EDIT: The more I look at it, the more it grows on me, but still... I was hoping for more.

Improvement. I don't care if it's recycled as long as it's good. I wish they'd kept the outline on the shoulder/sleeve stripes, but that's no loss. Just a personal nitpick. The lack of outline on the numbers is another personal nitpick of little consequence. The numbers fit inside the sleeve stripes now, so for me that evens out. BUT THE GODDAMN NAMEPLATES. Also, I know the unform ad discussion is tired, but honestly I don't mind it anymore as long as the ad doesn't clash with the entire uniform. Some teams get it right, but both of the Pennsylvania-based teams did not.

I get to work at 3 am sometimes, and today one of the nighttime janitors was wearing a t shirt with something similar to this on it: It was a little more professional looking with what I think was a roundel instead of banner around a creature with a less "2007 Flash animation" appearance and closer to a typical minor league logo from the past 25 years. I thought the logo had "Crawdads" on it, but haven't found any hockey team with a logo resembling it. There's also a house in one part of Pittsburgh I am frequently in that regularly has the Cubs' "W" flag flying outside, and another with a Jeep in the driveway that has a St. Louis Blues tire cover.

To put these anywhere close to the edge era is absolute blasphemy. Perfect? No. The best the Pens ever had? Maybe, maybe not. There's an argument to be had. But only a little better than the edge? I am so thankful the Crosby, Malkin, and Letang era won't be synonymous with those rags. I know I've probably said this before, but if you take away red and make a few other tweaks to Vegas's uniforms, you get what the Vegas gold era Penguins always should have been.

Phil Kessel is a Stanley Cup champion again. I was rooting for whoever would cause the most gatekeeping-fueled outrage among the hard traditionalist sect of the hockey fandom, and boy did I get it. The more these people rage about it, the more I'm starting to come around and like Vegas again. To play off the lyrics of a song I have unwillingly heard too many times - rooting for the anti-hero wasn't exhausting at all. EDIT: I know they did my boy wrong, but I had to break out the Fleury Vegas shirsey today, somewhat-ironic as it is.

The games in Florida have had the better jersey matchup in terms of aesthetics, independent of the lack of of jersey ads (though that is a big plus, but I won't dip into the can of worms that's become). I'm not saying Florida's road unis aren't as good as their home set, nor am I saying Vegas's gold unis are necessarily bad (except the damn white gloves), I just think the white jersey is the better look for Vegas. If the NHL allowed color-on-color, going red vs. gold every game wouldn've looked cool, IMO.

City Connect has become Baseball Reverse Retro

Yeah, the animated boards don't bug me. It's the ice ads that drive me nuts. Hell, I'd have ten ads on the jerseys if it meant taking all ten (virtual and real) off the ice. Uni ads suck, but ads on the field of play are a bridge too far and, IMO, looks even more garage league than uni ads. And this is from someone who isn't old enough to remember the days before neutral zone and boards ads. Ice graphics should be the home team's center ice design of choice, the arena name, and other things for special occasions such as the Playoffs and the Final.

If they did then this would definitely explain why the Pirates have such a low payroll.

Good point about the shade of gold Vegas uses. Their gold sweaters have been reminding me of the yellow ones the Penguins had in the 1980's (that they half-assed bringing back for a few years recently), and their other two unis always looked like rejected Wilkes-Barre Penguins unis from the early 2000's (replace the graphite with black and keep the metallic gold with red accents). I used to joke that, "Vegas made better metallic gold-era Penguins jerseys than the Penguins did" when they first came out. Then they came out with the former-third-now-home sweaters. The pre-edge shimmer gold the Pens used seemed to be less yellow than Vegas, though, which helps. The fabric Vegas uses also separates it for me and adds a uniquely "Vegas" touch. I've always liked Vegas's uniforms (except those abominable metallic helmets), but as a Pens fan it's taken a few seasons to get past the "they look a lot like we should have" thoughts.

Forgive my ignorance (I was two years old when the Nordiques left Quebec and am a stupid American), but was the language issue that much of an thing? Is it still? I'm not familiar with Canadian politics, so I have no idea if Quebec is really that separatist or if it's just a meme at this point. It's 2023, though. They can just put an ad for Duolingo on their jerseys to promote learning French. Maybe we should just bring back the Seals! I'm sure they'll be happy to have any major league team in Oakland at this point. (I know, I know, that'll never work.)

Just play half of the home games in Puerto Rico. Worked for the Expos, right?

Go Cats, or really, whoever will p*ss off traditionalists the most.

I actually like CBJ. It's catchy. I never really minded forced three-letter abbreviations or ones that incorporate the nickname. It has to represent the team, so it doesn't necessarily have to only be the location's name. Perhaps unpopular - I think it's fine the Golden Knights went with "Vegas" instead of "Las Vegas". I guess it's due to the rule of threes - visually, Vegas Golden Knights feels like it has a natural flow. Even though "Las Vegas Athletics" has the same number of syllables as "Las Vegas Golden Knights," it looks better to me. Which is why I still agree that "Vegas Athletics" and "Vegas Raiders" look and sound strange. Since they have one-part nicknames, dropping "Las" is unnecessary.

The whole changing-names-when-relocating thing just got more interesting considering we are going to have a "Las Vegas Athletics" eventually. That's gonna sound really weird, but the Athletics have been around for over 120 years, wearing that name in three different cities. Do we keep that 120 years of history alive into city number four, or find a name to fit Vegas better? (I think "Athletics" is generic enough you can put that anywhere, personally)

This video from August of 21 gives some perspective into how the Thrashers organization did do a lot to pwn itself. Though, at the same time, I used to work with a guy from Atlanta. He didn't even know they used to have an NHL team until I asked him how much people cared about it. Also, FWIW, 15 of the last 23 Stanley Cup Finals - roughly 2/3rds - have featured a "non-traditional" market. Tampa Bay, Nashville, Vegas, and Dallas were all in the top-10 in attendance last year. You can swap Nashville for Carolina this season, as of a December article in The Athletic. HockeyDB shows Vegas dropping out of the top-10, with Tampa and Carolina only being bested by Montreal, by the end of this season. A Sports Business Journal article from just yesterday shows that only Dallas (less-than-one-percent decrease) and Tampa (no change) have not seen an increase in average attendance from last year among "non-traditional" franchises (not counting the Arizona State University Coyotes).

Dear, Carolina Stop right there. Keep that. Throw the black unis and "Canes" script in the trash where they both belong, bring back the white version of the classic uni, and leave it alone.

It depends. Dodgers, Giants, Raiders, Chargers, Rams... those all work fine. When it annoys me is if the name has a unique connection to the original city. Then I am against it. I mean, imagine: the Dallas North Stars. Then again, we have the LA Lakers and Utah Jazz...

Remind me again where all of this outspoken vitriol against Pittsburgh came from? I just have never been able to understand it.

Forgot all about that one. I changed my mind, bring that back.

And facing them is exactly why I'm not all that disappointed in the Pens likely missing the playoffs. It's almost better than what could very well be a repeat of the 2013 Eastern Conference Final. I mean, if you can't even beat the Chicago Blackhawks... And while it does feel weird to likely miss the playoffs for the first time since I was in the 7th grade, the past few years' first round exits haven't felt all that different, especially the sweep by the Islanders a few years ago, or losing a best of five to a 12th-seed Canadiens. In fact, wasn't the first round in the 2020 bubble technically not considered playoffs? If so, the loss to Montreal in that tournament already ended the playoff streak three years ago. Ehh, whatever, it's been a good run. Can't be mad at all. Just feels weird to be a kid when a run starts and about to turn 30 when it enda. I don't wanna be part of the "Fire the GM!!1!!1" mob, but maybe...

I think that's actually a rather popular opinion around here. Like I said before in this thread, royal blue is an overrated color choice. The Brewers have one of the best uniform sets in baseball right now, just as they are. Only gripe I have about their set is the cap with the yellow panel on the front. Otherwise, don't change a thing. The dark blue is part of what I consider an overall well-done modernization of their classic uniforms. Hell, if I could change Pitt's colors to what the Brewers currently wear, I'd do it in a heartbeat. --- I've gathered I have probably the most unpopular opinion RE: the Astros around here. Today's Astros > 70's Astros > 90's Astros > 00's Astros To sum up how I feel in as few words as I can: The Astros certainly could look better, but they also haven't looked better.

The truth is in the middle. There's nothing wrong with trying to make something from the past better. I can understand why digging up an old look feels uninspired to some people. Personal example: Are the Pens' unis great? Absolutely, some of the best there are. But... it felt like "91/92 dress-up" for a few years. As someone who grew up in a fanbase that idolized those first two cup teams, it wasn't until they won two more cups in these unis (kinda) that it began to shake the "throwback" feeling and feel more "current." It looks good, and people love them. If they never changed their primary unis ever again, nobody would complain, and rightly so... but that is not to say there's no possibility of something else being just as good. They just don't want to pursue that, and that is okay too. There is inherent risk with trying something new, so I also totally understand wanting to play it safe and keep with what works for the sake of not missing the boat entirely, as well. There are merits to both of these methods. I've always leaned more towards the side that likes to see (thoughtful) change, but if it ain't broke, you don't have to fix it. In the end, as long as the team looks good, whether it's a new or old look, what does it matter?

So instead of going back to their best look, they decided to split the difference between it and their current "it looks like crap, but it's ViNtAgE!" look instead. Actually, if the nameplates still don't match, I'd say they are less than half of the way back to where they should be. At least the sleeve numbers will fit inside the damn stripes.

Which is sort of what I mean. I always thought BFBS was referring to the specific 90's trend, but I feel like a lot of people lump everything into that category and arbitrarily hate it. I actually think, if it was done right, the Reds having black accents would look just fine. The Flames looked fine with black accents. I was in a debate in another thread about the North Stars benefitting from adding black. I suppose you're right that RFRS is just as much of a case-by-case thing. My thing is, unlike black, it is not a neutral color. So, it seems harder to justify doing it, and harder yet to do it well. Especially when it's bright red. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the mid-90's slanted Blues jerseys. But, at the same time, I wonder like everyone else, "why?"