BBTV

For a team called "lightning" and based in Florida, their whole identity has always felt so dreary. Why not incorporate "volt" or equivalent? Their nickname literally is a volt, and while real lightning may look more like white over a black sky, it just doesn't feel right for a team in Tampa to be devoid of all bright colors. I'm not suggesting to turn them into the Orlando Thunder, but just throw some "safety yellow" (or similar) in there.

I just love that this thread has taken so many turns that we're now talking about bridges made out of lava and dildos, and people prioritizing driving to titty bars rather than stadiums, and the person who started the whole thing hasn't even visited the site in 11 years. Obama was in his first term when this thread was started.

If you ever watch Roy Halladay games, they were mostly over in 2:15. Dude just got the ball back and pitched it again. And again. And again. I'm pretty sure he had games that were nearly half as long as some other ones that went north of 4 hours. I read a thing that said that his pace actually increased nearly each year of his career. He and Greg Maddux were the fastest workers I can recall seeing. According to this (which only goes back to 2010 - Halladay's last healthy year), Mark Buehrle was a godsdamned machine. 12 secs with no runners, 18 with runners. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-tempo?season_start=2010&season_end=2022&n=q&split=no&team=&type=Pit&with_team_only=1

The Pirates current home uniform (and all the close variations of it) is their “right” look IMO. Outside of the late 70s-early 80s, it’s mostly been their look from pre-poly even though the transition from flannel, albeit with variations as far as cut (crew neck, v-neck, button down, vest) and color (mustard vs yellow). Close enough for purposes of this discussion. The version up for debate would be the late ‘90s with the flat-topped wordmark, but I’d still count it. where they lose me is their road uniforms. There’s no “right” road uniform for the pirates. They had one that could have been iconic (the previous one) but unfortunately we’re irrelevant during that whole stretch so it becomes unmemorable. They’ve switched roads more often than any team but maybe the pre 00s cubs and pre 90s white Sox.

Between him and Ben Simons - who fell faster and who will retire first? My money is on Wentz so he can run some crazy church / gun club up in the Dakotas since he had a million times more passion for that than he ever did at getting better at football. One reason I wanted the Eagles to win the SB was so he'd have to live knowing that two of his former backups accomplished more than he ever will. I guess if he's not ready to hang it up, he could be the veteran backup the team is searching for. Can you say "awkward"? Pathetic loser.

Similar to Vancouver, the Padres also don't have a single iconic look. They have an iconic color pallet, but not any one look. I grew up with the brown-orange look that magically got recolored to navy-orange with no explanation, but can't say that either of those were the "right" look. Their current set has the potential to become their right look, but will take a while. The yellow-front caps are kinda iconic, but there's not enough memorable things that happened in those for them to be memorable to outside of SD. So no Padres player can make this list. I'd argue the Phillies have two iconic looks (if we say that the '50s are close enough to today's). Mike Schmidt doesn't belong on this list despite wearing the various versions of the swirl P - but neither does Jimmy Rollins or Chase Utley or Robin Roberts.

Vancouver is probably a team with no right uniform. That's what happens when you change it up so much - nothing can be iconic. The closest thing to me, as a guy grew up 3,000 miles from Vancouver and who never really followed them outside of collecting hockey cards, is the flying skate. To me, anything else looks odd. I grew up knowing of Pavel Bure, Trevor Lindon, Kirk McLean, NHL '94 on SNES, etc. But if someone argued that their colo(u)rs were blue and green, I couldn't argue back... but which blue and green uniform is "ionic"? I'd argue that the flying skate comes as close to "iconic" as anything they've worn. I also believe firmly (as noted in the discussion re: Bills) that teams can have multiple iconic loos. I think most people - at least those of us north of 40 - remember the (incorrectly) red-clad Patriots with the Pat logo as the Patriots iconic look before Brady made the (more appropriate) navy look iconic. Now they're in some mess. That being said, Drew Bledsoe qualifies. These uniforms are great, but ultimately unmemorable by many fans due to the eras they're surrounded by.

There's a good chance it's the same as last year's. The Phillies aren't finishing higher than 3rd in their division, and won't have Harper till around August. Replacing him with Turner definitely softens the blow, but him coming back is essentially like landing an MVP at the trade deadline so I'd expect the new lineup to be truly gelling by September and potentially get hot towards October.

I very nearly posted Jaromir Jagr in either the Gin and Juice jersey or the RoboPen, but then I got to thinking - maybe that is Pittsburg's "right" uniform? I grew up with the Lemieux uniforms (originally with the yellow alt and the numbers on the shoulders!) so I saw both cups in those, but if I close my eyes and think of the Penguins, I see mid-90s set (except for that ridiculous alt with the chest stripe that became primary). I'm 50/50 on this, but I think this might actually be both his right jersey, and the Pens:

Still need a matching white-paneled cap for home.

I think you meant to say "a poster to watch".

I need a mockup of this.

Can the batter see the clock? In general it's a good idea and I'm glad they're doing something about all the nonsense that goes on in between pitches, however I think that in certain situations, there's a lot of signs being relayed all around to the batter and runners, and on rare occasions, that could take 8 seconds - I hope there's still a way for occasional time-outs in order to ensure the proper signs are sent and received. Also 1) MLB umpires in general seem to be pretty lazy, so I don't mind giving them one more thing to monitor, but should the home plate umpire be monitoring a clock (even if he has a vibrating beeper) and making a split-second call right before a potentially 100MPH pitch is hurled towards him? IDK, maybe it's not any different than what goes on currently, but it seems like a potentially-dangerous distraction. Maybe they should have someone else monitor it? 2) Games shouldn't end that way. I dislike different rules for different situations (in all sports) (though I like the ghost-runner rule) but maybe the clocks should be turned off for the 9th and later innings. Chances are that everyone will develop a quicker rhythm anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Apparently, Daniel Snyder banned Jeff Bezos from bidding in the private auction for the team... and it may have cost him. He's banning Bezos because he owns the WaPo, and Snyder didn't like that they exposed so much of his dirt. I'm not sure how there can be a "private auction" for an NFL team in this day and age, but apparently it's a thing. Top bids to buy the Washington Commanders fell far short of owner Dan Snyder’s $6 billion cutoff — while billionaire Jeff Bezos has been forced to the sidelines, sources told The Post. An unidentified bidder came in with an offer of around $5.5 billion by this week’s deadline, which was similar to the amount offered by 76ers and Devils owner Josh Harris, sources close to the situation said. Bezos, who’s worth more than $100 billion, was prevented by Snyder from entering the private auction though the Amazon founder wanted to participate, sources said. https://www.crossingbroad.com/2023/02/dan-snyder-is-blocking-jeff-bezos-from-bidding-on-the-commies.html

Those are blank jerseys used for spring training photo shoots: Nothing to see here (yet.)

I think Machado was higher even before this extension, but it's worth noting that Bryce Harper is currently 26th in average salary, with no opt-out, and only going to fall every year. He said he knew this when he signed and didn't really care about being the top money maker, but I didn't realize he'd be down to 26th within 5 years. Also never thought that I'd ever say that $25M is incredible value, but he's far outperformed his deal already. I can't think of more than a handful of guys paid more that I'd rather have. salary source: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/rankings/average/

If they pay Jalen (even if it's an extension that doesn't kick in till '24) and franchise CJGJ, they won't be able to afford a veteran backup who wants a reasonable salary. Eagles value backup QB as much - if not more - than anyone, but paying Hurts is going to necessitate a lot of sacrifices.

Is there even still a market for Minshew? Or did his stock bottom out too much with his terrible showing against the Saints in week 17? After his performance against Dallas (and his performance in limited starts the previous season) I thought for sure he'd get a starting job at a low-level-starter's salary this year, but now it doesn't seem like there's any options. He's obviously not a guy you're building your franchise around but could still do some good if you have a good team without anything at QB (like the Jets) or are planning on drafting a young project and need a guy for a couple of years. I'm generally of the mindset of you either have a franchise QB or you don't spend more than the bare minimum on the position until you get one, but there's a few specific situations in which that rule can be bent.

The Penguins example doesn't work because they were aligning with the rest of the teams in the city, and predates when merch was big business. A better example might be the Buffalo Sabers when they went to the goat. It was a full rebrand, but there's no reason they couldn't have done it and kept their blue and yellow. Instead they went black/silver/red, (presumably) in an attempt to be more fashionable, sell more jerseys, and be "kewl". To be fair to them - it worked! At least on BBTV, who saw the jersey in a local store (and out-of-town jerseys still weren't very common back in mid '90s) and was like "wow - I have no idea what team this is, but that's bad-ass and if I was to wear a non-Flyers jersey, that would be the one!"

I explicitly said it doesn't work with all colors. Definitely not calling for the return of the blood clot Indians unis or the all-orange Orioles.

That's cool - you specifically sought out softball uniforms. I could selectively find softball uniforms that counter your point about white pants. Neither proves anything. Put the white socks in their regular black tops / black pants and it's a perfectly professional MLB-caliber uniform. Same with the SF Giants. A few of the navy teams could pull it off as well. It's the design that looks softball - not simply that the top and bottom match.

Disagree. Matching top-bottom is a more formal / professional look - like a suit. Doesn't translate over to all sports or with all colors, but I think with baseball it's definitely fine. Though I thin high socks should be mandatory with a monochrome baseball uni.

There was also the "World League face mask", which was adopted by many high schools as well as Reggie White. FWIW, everyone at my high school that got a helmet with a World League mask ended up buying their own normal one.

I'm imagining a mob of French guys yelling this outside of MLB headquarters. Exactly. Before I had cable, these were guys that only existed on baseball cards, or in newspaper writeups, on TWIB(!!!), or on the few national broadcasts or playoffs. I loved the MLB ASG because it was literally the only time I got to see any of the AL players live, and the only time I could see all the uniforms. Even NBA and NHL, while the uniforms weren't the same, it was still the only way to see these guys all together live (before Dream Team and the NBA's marketing machine completely took over.) Even once we got cable (1992), there still wasn't internet or highlight shows outside of SportsCenter, which wasn't replayed nearly as many times as it is now. The tradeoff was that after the morning edition, we got fitness shows with Kiana Tom and Leeann Tweeden, and let's just say that a young BBTV discovered certain feelings for the first time.

For what it’s worth, here’s the version we used in ‘94. This one probably has more similarities to the Greyhound logo despite the obvious differences in shading. EDIT: Here's a Greyhound that may have been from the timeframe at least the '94 logo was in use. I really don't know - the general shape is pretty much the same and there was clearly inspiration. This logo is much closer due to the line over the front leg around the neck - but the Whippets version doesn't have the rear line, and instead has chest detail. IDK - it was most likely a stock dog that whatever company provided the decals had and they said "put that dog in front of a D". I think the current version is a way more custom mixing of vintage dog with modern D - but I really don't know. The new "D" could be straight out of a catalog for all I know.