This Month In Jerseys

The Jersey Club looks back on the month of February in the world of Jerseys

We would like to salute the ATP for their choice to give Canadian Milos Raonic a San Jose Sharks jersey as a gift when he won the SAP open earlier this month.





Paul Henderson is in the 2nd month of the Henderson Jersey Tour.  This month saw Henderson and more importantly his game worn Jersey from the '72 series arrive at the Air Canada Center.  Here are some of the exciting photos from the tour thus far and a video of Saturday night.  You can see these and more on the official facebook page.

 


Also, February was the 2nd Heritage Classic.  I am a big fan of these outdoor games for two reasons, outdoor hockey for no good reason other then nostalgia is more fun and you get to see fantastic retro jerseys, like the one below.

If you don't know what love is, just look at Lanny's face!

These outdoor games have also spawned a new craze which is designing new jerseys for special events like the winter classic and the heritage classic.  It used to be the case, where a commemorative patch was enough, but patches don't sell like jerseys do.  Patches vs. Jerseys, it's a debate the club will look at in the future.  I'm a patch guy as some some of these jerseys aren't great, but I think the flames got it right this year.

I got my year end bonus from work!!  With that money coming in the month of February, I think it's my duty as a Canadian to take it and my unnamed 2010 Team Canada Jersey and Crosby that shit.  One year ago Feb. 28, Crosby scored the goal which will be the most memorable goal of my life and created probably the most popular Jersey in Canada for the next 20+ years until we get the olympics again.

Finally, February is the first jersey of Jersey Club.  Here are some the jerseys in consideration for the first presentation of 2011.
1994 New York Rangers Stanley Cup Jersey (dark away), 2010-2011 Steven Stamkos Lightning (dark home), 2010 Team Canada Rick Nash, 1993 Toronto Blue Jays Road Grey.  Vote for your choice and keep following the blog for the results*

*results are not based on reader's votes.  That is there to falsely give readers the feeling of being a part of the group

Fire the team that's designing these Jerseys

The NBA All-Star game was this past weekend and with it another terrible jersey has come and gone.  After this years "attempt" I decided to look back at past jerseys to see what I could find.  Sadly, this is what google had to show me.

2010

One thing I learned from the Hines Ward pro-bowl jersey I have, is that filling a jersey with stars is probably the worst idea you can come up with. We get it they are all-stars, don't have to make it so literal.

1994
Don't know where to begin on this.  Mistake #1, a cactus is your logo.  Here's a time lapse video to see the exciting life of a cactus and why it should never be your logo.

Mistake #2, between the numbering and lettering on the back that only take up 1/3rd of the the jersey and the broken stars on the front, I would have just assumed this was a really bad Chinese knock off.

Mistake #3, no where does this jersey denote the east or the west.  This year they all became friends and were all on the same team.

When you have a jersey this bad, no one cares about the name on the back.  "O'neil!, we got O'neil here! See no one cares, nice mosaic."


2006

In comparison these aren't too bad, except this would make a better flag then a jersey.

In all fairness, it's not just the NBA, most leagues come out with bad All-Star jerseys.  They always seem to try to do too much with them like this year's NHL, why put all those weird lines in the numbers?

There's only one way to solve this, so the jersey club has already gotten to work designing next year's jerseys.  Preliminary reaction from our focus groups has been positive.

Jersey Fashion Crime

The other night I was watching the CTV Olympic Anniversary special, crying my eyes out and wiping the tears away with an American flag, when I detected a jersey travesty.

It was during a segment on women's hockey and how utterly dominant the Canadians always are. I know the ladies don't get as much respect or attention as the men, but the rivalry between Canada and the USA is one of my favourites in sports. There's always a lot of trash talking, flag disrespecting, boob comparing and in the case of the 2010 Olympics, celebratory underage drinking and cigar chomping.

Anyway, the segment focused on bum-chinned Defencewoman Tessa "The Mascot of Carnaval" Bonhomme and how she helps young girls play hockey and stuff like that. I don't really know, I was too busy scarfing Hot Rods and throwing beer cans at the screen, yelling "WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO TALK ABOUT MEN'S HOCKEY!!!????".

They were going over the Abominable Snowwoman's career achievements and how she was drafted first overall in the inaugural 2010 Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) draft. Nice work! The best part about being drafted is that you get to go up on stage and accept your new jersey, in this case, the Toronto Aeros. This is where horror struck:



It was at that point in the evening that I got so mad that I shit my pants and cleaned it with a Union Jack. I swear that most teams made up of five-year old boys have better jerseys than that. That's a jersey you skim through at Value Village and think "this is going to be here every time I come back for five years". Hell, why even give her a jersey at all? The worst part is that this was the first image of a new league whose goal is to bring legitimacy to women's hockey. It's bad enough they held the draft in what looks like Conference Room 'C' of the Burlington Howard Johnson, but then they bring out that hideous jersey to give to their top player? I get the feeling the other team's jerseys are exactly the same but with a different colour and city. The funny thing is that during the segment they showed Bonhomme helping out an Oakville youth team, and their jerseys were sssssssicck. Check out these beauties:


If women's hockey is to be taken seriously, they're going to need way better jerseys. What kind of little girl would want one of those Aeros jerseys under the tree at Christmastime? Not this little girl!

Hockey Shirts

Hey fans!

Check out this nice little article on LEAFS JERSEYS courtesy of the Toronto Star.

For breakfast today I had a bacon and egg sandwich with tomato and lettuce from this cafe in the building I work at. I'd give it 3 Ray Bourque Bruins Jerseys out of 5.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Jersey Club

The Alaska Aces will be wearing this jersey tonight for Valentine's day.  It shows that even ugly things deserve love once a year.

Jersey Club Salutes....

....Calvin Broadus!

Calvin Broadus has been working under the names "Snoop Doggy Dogg" and simply "Snoop Dogg" for the last 75 years, earning a living by making and performing rap music all over the world. The Jersey Club is a proud supporter of his entire career, but is especially fond of his love of hockey jerseys, that created a whole new element to the hip hop gentleman's wardrobe.

Snoop ushered in a new generation of jersey style when he rocked two beauties in his 1994 music video for "Gin & Juice", a song about two girls who literally get sipped up by Snoop and tha Dogg Pound while rolling down the street, smoking endo.



The first jersey featured is a 1992-95 era Pittsburgh Penguins away jersey #94 with "GIN AND JUICE" across the back. I much prefer this road jersey to the home version due to the "PITTSBURGH" across the front. I like this style because it's unique to hockey jerseys and I like unique things such as black gum.

The second jersey featured is a real beauty - an AHL Springfield Indians, circa 1994 (their last year of existence), #00 with GIN AND JUICE on the back. Since the Indians were the farm team of the Hartford Whalers at that point, the jersey features the Whalers then current colour scheme with that classic Indians logo.

The indian has the same bone structure as the Dogg himself

When I was a kid I'd occasionally be bored enough to watch TSN's "Rinkside", a show no one asked for that featured all the latest news from a league no one cared about. So when I saw the Gin & Juice video at age 12 for the first time I recognized the jersey right away and immediately respected Snoop as a jersey connoisseur and deep hockey fan much like myself. I was pretty much wrong, as Snoop wears jerseys because they look cool and represent the colours of the gangs he's affiliated with, but hey, I also thought Carla from Cheers was attractive when I was 12, so no big deal.

Throughout the years Snoop has continued to rock hockey jerseys as part of his style profile, being a frequent visitor to Anaheim Ducks games. I don't know when they actually shot "Gin & Juice" but this 1993 video of Snoop on the Arsenio Hall show may predate it. Here's Snoop wearing a beautiful Leafs jersey, #1 with SNOOP (probably) on the back:



Arsenio Hall. Snoop Dogg. Eazy-E diss track. Leafs. This combination basically summarizes the things I liked in high school, except Arsenio Hall.

Check out this excerpt from an interview Snoop did with Jersey Club approved citizen Narduar the Human Serviette, where he explains why he wore the Leafs jersey:

Snoop Dogg, speaking of wearing stuff and jerseys, I saw that you were wearing a Maple Leafs hockey jersey in 1993 on Arsenio Hall.
Yeah, 'cause the Maple Leafs remind me of a chronic leaf and I was representing that, you know what I'm saying? I didn't know the Canada flag was so close to the chronic leaf; I just liked the way it looked so I was representin' and it was blue.

Duh.

The interview continues with some great tidbits about hockey and jerseys:

But that's amazing. That's some O.G. hockey stuff, like '93, reppin' the Leafs.
I was reppin' the Leafs. I was reppin' the Penguins. I was reppin' the Oilers, everybody. I was the first rapper to wear hockey jerseys in videos, onstage, everywhere I went. That was my look, you know what I'm saying? 'Cause I was trying to do something that was different, and I respected hockey 'cause hockey is a tough sport and it takes a real man to play hockey, so I was trying to be different by doing that.

Snoop Doggy Dogg, what about the movie Black Ice? Willie O'Ree [first black player in the NHL], that hockey movie!
I really wanted to do that movie. I hope they do it, man. Willie O'Ree, I had a chance to meet him and he's a great guy, you know what I'm saying? And very in-depth. He was one of the greatest guys to ever slide across that ice, you know what I'm saying? He paved the way for a lot of these hockey players that are doing what they're doing, so I'd really like to see that story come to life.

Snoop, one of the times I was trying to talk to you is when you were doing Hockey Night In Canada. I was trying to get down to L.A., but you were busy doing Hockey Night In Canada. What do you remember about that? You rapped on Hockey Night In Canada to Bob Cole.
I mean, that's what it's all about, man. I mean, Snoop Dogg is an international individual who loves people, and people love Snoop Dogg for who he is. I can connect with any world or any realm of people, and hockey is a great sport, and I fell in love with it and once I fell in love with it, I started to get more into it, so whenever they call on me to do things, like interviews on Hockey Night, why not?

And you did that rap to Bob Cole, which is great. That's equivalent to Monday Night Football. That's big, Hockey Night In Canada.
Yes, sir. That's what I do. You know what I'm saying? I'm big Snoop Dogg.

And all international individuals love you, Snoop!

Here's the full interview, with Snoop wearing a LaMarcus Aldridge Blazers jersey:



If you've never watched Narduar interview Snoop, there's like four others. In the one above he teaches us that if you microwave your joint for 11 seconds, you'll get better results.

Calvin Broadus, for bringing hockey jerseys into the world of hip hop, the Jersey Club salutes you!


Next time:

It's not going to be about Tupac. I just wanted to put up this picture. Sick.

Jersey Day

When you are a kid there are 3 days that are probably your favorite.  Christmas, Halloween, Jersey Day.  Actually, it's still the same when you're an adult if you are part of the jersey club.  For those however that only know about the first two, I will explain Jersey Day.

Jersey Day is the day that your little league team gets their uniforms for the year.  Your meshback adjustable hat, itchy polyspandex pants, socks with annoying stirrups and of course your jersey. 

When you first start playing tee ball the excitement is all about the colours.  You are just hoping that you get that blue and white and you can pretend you're the Toronto Blue Jays, and even more you are hoping that you don't get the colours of your most hated teams like the Oakland Athletics, because hall of famer Dennis Eckersley sucks. Then when you get your number you quickly think about what player on that team shares your number. 

Once the tee ball days are done and you make the big step to baseball and a small step to becoming a real man, Jersey Day becomes all about the number on your back.  You have to get the number of your favorite player and you will do anything to get that jersey, even if it means ignoring the cries of your coaches to leave the bigger jerseys for the bigger kids.

Now not everyone on the team can be Joe Carter or Kelly Gruber so sometimes you have to freestyle.  If you're playing baseball, pull a Justin Morneau and wear a number from another sport like 33 in honour of Patrick Roy.  Or pull a Gretzky and instead of wearing Gordie's 9 you just double that up and wear two Gordies.  Finally, if you get a number of a player you don't really like, like #2 before the Schenn days, you just make it your own, it's the beauty of Jersey Day.

None of this really changes when you're an adult playing in a beer league.  The only difference is that you get to design your own jersey, but you still fight to get your number, and of course you still compare your jerseys to the other teams because you have to be the best.  That way if you lose to a bunch of jerks, you walk off the field with way cooler jerseys, what's more important?

The ultimate level of Jersey Day is what some call draft day.  If you are getting drafted and waiting to hear your name, you can't wait to find out what team you're going to go too.  When they do call your name, what do they hand you? Your very own jersey and a hat to match.

What jersey would you rather have? A personalized national team or a personalized home team?

Jersey Blog from the iPad - celeb jersey spotting

This is an experimental post so forgive the subject matter.

Just so you know the subject matter here is this picture:



Let's debate what makes a great found picture on the Internet. I say this is a great find because,

A) it pertains to this blog because of the throwback angels jersey
B) it's a picture of fallen rap star and soundtrack guru Coolio
C) someone drew a picture of Coolio in charcoal as a tribute of some kind and hung it as a backdrop during this seemingly impromptu performance. I say impromptu because clearly Coolio hasn't been hired to give a legitimate performance in well over a decade.

Is this a good find? Discuss!

~A~

I didn't watch the post game celebrations but...

...did Aaron Rodgers somehow also defeat Edge during the Superbowl?

And is Clay Matthews his new manager?

I like my jerseys like I like any other shirt

Every human on Earth has the right to certain choices and preferences -- they choose a religion, a political stance, a favourite Jonathan Brandis movie and an ideal sauce combination for their fast food profile. Mine happens to be ketchup, pickles, lettuce, tomato and onion, with mustard recently making a strong push to join the starting five. Somewhere down the line, a man, or a masculine female, must decide how it likes its jerseys. The Jersey Club, an exclusive organization who is presenting the words you're currently reading while hopefully on the toilet or while in transit to buy a jersey, is a group of like-minded enthusiasts who all agree on what makes a good jersey.



So without further Apu, here is what the jersey club looks for in a jersey:

1. "It's a real"

Wearing a jersey is satisfying for many reasons, including wanting to pretend that you're part of a professional sports franchise and showing your support of the team by wearing the most expensive piece of apparel the team offers. It is for these reasons that the club only supports real jerseys, or league-approved replicas.


It was touched upon in a previous post, but there's been a recent proliferation of Chinese knock-off jerseys making their way around the sports world. The jersey club does not support these jerseys, because they're not real and because they make fans look like Cheapy T. Pennypinch, a notorious jersey trafficker who was executed in 1927 after he sold President Roosevelt a fake Babe Ruth that was made out of copies of the Great Gatsby.

2. Stitched

An example of "stitching". Notice the stitches.

The jersey club prefers jerseys that contain stitched lettering and numbering, as opposed to those which are heat pressed. It's the same reason why the jersey club supports homemade burgers over frozens and real breasts over just about everything else. Don't get me wrong, if the pros started heat pressing, we probably would too, but if the pros start heat pressing I'm sure pink champagne in water bottles and mandatory on-ice apologies wouldn't be far behind.

3. Named



A jersey without a name is like a iPod without Tarzan Boy. That being said, your Jersey Club does own several no-names, but that was before we all got together and talked about it. Anyway, a named jersey places the jersey within a specific time period and announces to the world whether or not you support a cool dude, or a stewed prude. For example, if I see a guy with a Cam Neely jersey, I will approach him and congratulate him. On the other hand, if I see a guy with a Daniel Alfredsson jersey I will openly mock him in front of his children and try my best to transfer some sort of stain onto the material of the jersey. Personalized jerseys are also generally supported. I once saw a guy at a Jays game with "TURD" across his back. Either he has the funniest last name of all time, or he's the funniest guy of all time.

4. No Ottawa

The Jersey Club will never purchase the jersey of team from Ottawa, even if that team's captain was Batman.

Stay tuned next time when I explain how we like our meatballs prepared!

5 Worst Jersey Mistakes

In anticipation of the many typos and grammatical errors I expect to make in my entries on this blog, I thought I would submit my first entry to the Jersey Club as the 5 worst jersey mistakes to make it to a professional game (yes by mistakes I mean typos, not buying a regrettable jersey).

Starting it off at number 5. San Francicso

Between the two names on this jersey you think the more likely mistake would come with the player's name Eugenio Velez. But let's give Majestic the benefit of the doubt.  The Giants weren't always in San Fancisco, they used to play in New York, oh that was back in 1957? When did this happen? April 2010?  Well 1 out of 25 players isn't bad.

4.  LA Angees!

This one isn't really that bad, in fact I like the sound of if it, sounds like a nick name, plus when your team name is as long as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim your bound to screw up one of them.

3.  Nayv?

This one might be the worst, only because it's inexcusable.  First of all, they screwed up 25% of the name.  Secondly, it's the NAVY.  Good thing is they are still in college and still have time to learn how to spell the name of the school they go to.  I bet those Army boys are having a good chuckle at this.

2. The Grate One.

Oh man, there is just no good reason for this.  It's the great one, and you screw up his jersey?  This is a classic mistake that you might expect if you were to buy a knock off from China (which we will discuss in future posts).  There is a better pic of this somewhere on the internet and I encourage you all to go look for it.  I'm sorry if this one mad you sad, I can only offer this to cheer you up.

And finally #1.

I don't even know where to begin.  This to a Toronto sports fan is blasphemy.  I'm going to point fingers straight at the Atlanta Braves.  First you hang the flag upside down in '92 and now this in '94?  You say Torontno, I saw Torontyes.


Maybe one day I will compile the best jersey typo this.  Until then, here's a sneak peak at one that will be in the top 5.

Jersey Club Blog: GO

First blog posts are always an awkward pile of garbage so let's just pretend this blog has existed for years and treat this entry like any old entry on this, your favourite jersey/sports blog.

What does everyone think of these new Tampa Bay Lightning jersos? I for one am into the change. I'm all about simplifying when it comes to jerseys and these jerseys are simple. Maybe overly so, but at the very least I feel like they're an improvement - especially over these brutal 3rd jersey monstrosities. Some may not be into the more super hero looking style of logo, but lets face it, this is not a classic team with a ton of heritage that needs to treat their logo as this sacred symbol of hockey nostalgia. Sure they end up looking like the Tampa Bay Flashes but tell me a blue version of this little soldier wouldn't make one adorable mascot:

That all being said, the better logo appears on the shoulder patch, despite being a shameless addition to the NHL's growing obsession with putting their logos inside of circles and then having the team name in another concentric circle outside of the original circle. Confused? Sorry. Just look at this:

So it's a nice logo but it's also really too much especially considering 4 out of 5 of them also appear on blue/baby blue jerseys. Guys I know these logos are classy looking but there are OTHER CLASSY LOOKING THINGS. Some that immediately come to mind are: A glass of scotch, Rebecca De Mornay circa 1989, and the Lady Byng trophy. So let's get working on THAT logo is what I'm saying here.

First entry done. Hooray!