The Black Watch

Was reading the fan reaction to the Black Watch uniforms Tech will be wearing Saturday against Notre Dame. First off I’m happy they’ll be wearing the throwbacks. They’ll be the best-looking uniforms Tech will wear this year. One self-decreed Tech uniform “expert” quickly called them Tech’s greatest-ever throwbacks, obviously forgetting the mustard jerseys the Jackets wore back in Calvin Johnson’s day. Looks like adidas is rolling out throwbacks for several of their schools, including Arizona State (good) and Indiana (bad).

 

Many fans pointed out the Black Watch GT logo and helmet stripe had to be earned. A defense-only award. Now the whole team will wear the uni. Back in the day that GT defense gave up an average of ten points per game, only 132 points all year. In the last two games Tech game up 121 points, This year Tech’s defense is giving up ten points per quarter. Not sure this is the best time to be honoring a great defense. Kinda like in Brian’s Song when Brian Piccolo was in the hospital with cancer. The Bears dedicated the game ball to Piccolo. When Gale Sayers presented the ball to Piccolo, the ailing running back reminded Sayers that when you do something like that, you’re supposed to win the game.

 

I was never a big fan of the Black Watch uniforms. That year the team wore plain gold helmets with no logo. Black face masks and jerseys. Gold pants. Kinda a dark look. Too much like Wake Forest, Vandy, Purdue, Army, Navy, Notre Dame, and Central Florida. Tech’s signature white jersey and gold pants used to be unique. Back then Tech wore high white socks pulled up to their knees, and white shoes. We’ll see if Tech copies that look. These days players wear their pants pulled up high, with their bare knees exposed, and the tail of their undershirt untucked, hanging down low for an opponent to grab (smart, huh?).

 

Still say Tech should’ve waited to wear these throwbacks against another school, since the gold helmets, dark jerseys, and gold pants will look just like Notre Dame. Better to wear white helmets so freshman QB Jeff Sims can spot his receiver easier. It will be a good-looking game to watch, with both teams wearing old-school unis. Bet the Irish will still look better. Pretty sure NotreDame@GT will be on ABC, so you should be able to see it.

 

_{Week 7 ESPN Total QB Rating}

_{1. 97.0 Justin Fields Ohio State (one game)} 

_{2. 96.6 Mac Jones Alabama}

_{6. 92.7 Kyle Trask Florida}

_{8. 86.6 Trevor Lawrence Clemson junior}

_{9. 86.5 Stetson Bennett IV Georgia junior}

 

_{33. 73.1 Bo Nix Auburn}

_{38. 66.6 Sam Howell UNC}

_{51. 61.9 Cornelious Brown Georgia State}

_{59. 57.9 Jarrett Guarantano Tennessee}

_{73. 47.6 Chase Brice Duke senior}

_{80. 43.3 Shai Werts Georgia Southern}

_{85. 39.6 Jeff Sims GT 85th out of 99 QB’s.}

 

GEORGE BRETT  [SABR Bio] was the first Hall of Famer to spend his entire major league career with an American League expansion team. Played for KCR 1973-93  (Robin Yount [MIL 1974-93] also qualified by going into the Hall that same year, 1999, but with 103 fewer votes than Brett, so Brett was first. Edgar Martinez also qualified later [SEA 1987-2004]). Brett holds the career records for that team in hits, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, total bases and bases-on-balls as well as at least twenty (20!) additional offensive categories. Baseball-Reference shows him as the career KCR leader in 28 different offensive categories. The cherry on top was the Gold Glove he won.

 

Brett and a certain switch-hitting, All-Star pitcher were teammates in high school. Brett attended El Segundo High School in the suburbs of Los Angeles with Orioles pitcher Scott McGregor. His brother still holds an impressive postseason record. Ken was the youngest pitcher to appear in a World Series game at 19 years 20 days old for BOS in the 1967 WS G# 4 08-Oct-1967. That’s nearly 14 months younger than Don Drysdale was when he appeared for BRO in the 1956 WS G#4 07-Oct-1956.