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Wednesday, April 08, 2020

The Emperor's New Clothes

Yesterday's leaked photos turned out to be the Falcons actual new uniforms. By themselves the jerseys aren’t too bad, It’s the way they’re paired with the pants (and solid hose) is the big disappointment. I was prepared for the worst. This is just about it. While the “demographic” who actually attends games will like these changes, I could care less for the jersey / pants / hose combos they’re going with.

Jersey / Pants / Hose
Black / Black / Black (home)
White / White / White (road)
Black / White / Traditional (throwback)
Red / Black / Black (color rush)
Black / White / Black (home alternate)
White / Red / Red (road alternate)
White / Black / Black (road alternate)

Hate the solid hose. In the past most NFL teams wear socks that are white on the bottom with a team color up high. The best looking have stripes. For the most part only for color rush games did teams wear solid hose. All black or all white hose worn with the same color pants look like yoga pants. I’m not a fan. Put some stripes on those hose! The single red pants stripe is also weak. Hard to see on the black pants, and too thin on the white pants. Still, the pants are an upgrade over the old ones.

The jerseys, by themselves, aren’t too bad. The busy old sleeves have been eliminated and the collar looks great plain. I can live with the ATL wordmark on the front, though it’s larger than any other team’s. I like the red nameplate on the white jerseys. The red stripe under the arms will rarely be seen, and may actually prove slimming for the big linemen. The number font isn’t unlike their predecessor, and the right shadow the same. Love how the numbers are huge, especially in back. Overall the jerseys are simple, which is an upgrade.  

Sure the red jerseys that fade to black tails are hideous, especially coupled with black pants and hose. But these are the color rush uniforms, which sometimes aren’t even worn once.
The throwback uniforms remain unchanged. Last year the Falcons wore throwbacks in three of their eight home games. This year with all the new uni combos, we’ll be lucky to see them twice.   

I’m okay with the “satin black” helmet and silver facemask, and the 30% larger Falcon decal. Too big is better than too small. The facemask color is an upgrade, but if you’re going with all black uniforms why change from black masks, which blended with the helmet. I like the silver mask because it’s close to the old school grey masks of yesteryear. They changed to silver to be futuristic, but I’ll take it.   

When the Falcons last changed uniforms back in the Michael Vick-era, they sometime wore black jerseys and pants. After a year or two these disappeared, and the team stuck to red jerseys and white pants. My hope now is the black pants will soon fade away. We’ll see how the red pants look with the white jerseys, though I’m a fan of white over white.  

I wish they’d take into account their opponent’s uniform when choosing what to wear. Wear the throwback against teams with traditional uniforms like the Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs, Bears, 49ers, Redskins, Packers, Colts, or Raiders. Not wear so much black against other black teams (like the Saints).  

I’m not surprised by the changes.  Disappointed? For sure. Change out the hose, and ditch the black pants, and these changes aren’t too bad. I hate the all black home uniform. Hopefully the black pants won’t last.

Braves: I hear someone is going to televise the game when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. Tonight MLB Network televised game 4 of the 1991 Twins/Braves World Series.
 
Since Monday I’ve been pouring over a list with over a thousand orders on it. Hope to finish today. Plenty of work to do. Yesterday Ceil took all the masks she’s sewed to her ministry The Table. On the way back she stopped by Whole Foods. M worked yesterday until 8 pm and today he went in at 7 am.

Tuesday: cheesy grits for breakfast, ground beef quesadilla for lunch, and for supper C baked a chicken, made sour cream potatoes, and tossed a salad. Hallmark Channel movie and bed.
 
AL KALINE  [SABR Bio] [NYT Obit]  was the first player inducted to the Hall of Fame who had ever come to bat as a designated hitter. Born in Baltimore 19-Dec-1934, his first AB as a DH was 05-Apr-1974, exactly 45 years ago yesterday (Sunday). He managed a walk in 4 AB. Elected to the Hall in 1980. In his second full year as a player, he led the AL in total bases, hits, batting average, and led the majors in hits and average. That made him the youngest batting champ in history. Playing for Detroit, his only team in his 22 MLB seasons, he .340 in 1955, the same year he had 200 hits and 321 TB. Only he and Ty Cobb had 200 hits in a season before turning 21. His batting title in 1955. When the season ended, he was 20 years, 330 days old. Ty Cobb also won a batting title at age 20 hitting .350 in 1907, but Cobb was born on December 18, making him one day older than Kaline when he won. His OPS of .940 led the league four years later.
 
He played more games as a Detroit Tiger than Ty Cobb. Played 2,834 G for DET. Cobb played 2,806. Both had 22 years as Tigers. The first-ever right fielder to be honored with a Gold Glove for his defensive excellence. Won ten Gold Glove Awards overall. From 1959 to 1962, he played in seven All-Star games, twice as a starter. For his career he was named an All-Star an amazing eighteen times including his final season at age thirty-nine. Although he never won an MVP, he finished second twice; in the top five four times; in the top ten nine times and received at least one MVP vote an astounding fourteen times. See here for MVP votes. Kaline had more home runs, bases-on-balls and sacrifice flies than any Tiger who ever lived - 399 HR, 1,277 BB & 104 SF.
 
Detroit General Manager Jim Campbell said he would consider trading him to the San Francisco Giants, but only if the offer included Mays, Marichal AND Cepeda in return. He once scored twice in a World Series inning. Kaline and two teammates each scored twice in the 3rd inning of the 6th game of the 1968 WS. He increased his batting average in each of his four years in high school: from .333 to .418, to .469 before finishing up his senior year at .488. Much of his approach to the game was based on ten minutes at age 18, when Ted Williams shared some batting advice fundamentals with him. His manager as a rookie in 1953 was Fred Hutchinson who arranged the meeting with Williams.

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