Going Stagg

Cleveland Indians’ nameplates

Sorry I’ve been out of commission lately; last week was a crazy, crazy week. It’s over now, and I can get back into the groove of posting daily.

Back to the subject of this post. Last night I was watching the Yankees play the Indians and I noticed something I’ve never noticed before: The Indians fill in the holes in their name plates.

A little explanation. Baseball jerseys have two ways of putting names on the back of their jerseys. Directly sewing them on, or sewing them on to a nameplate and then sewing the nameplate onto the back of the jerseys. Examples:

Directly Sewn

Nameplate

Either way, here’s the picture of what I was talking about. Notice how in between the red lettering there is blue filling instead of the white, like the nameplate. I couldn’t imagine that this is easier OR cheaper.

I am very curious, but it’s doubtful I’ll get an answer. I’m not really on the “inside” of the Cleveland Indians’ organization.

As a side note, a grammar question. My roommate and I have been trying to figure out whether the correct pronunciation is “AN hero” or “A hero”. Mary, I’m looking in your direction.

All images courtesy of Uni Watch.

Hockey: A disposition

Two nights ago, I found myself watching an NHL playoff game between the San Jose Sharks and the Calgary Flames. This event happened in a Canadian bar called, ironically, The Maple Leaf. (There is a separate NHL team called the Maple Leafs [not Leaves] from Toronto.) Either way, the people there apparently cared a whole lot about this sport. Now, while I’m not one to dismiss competition of any sort, I’ve never been able to get into hockey.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. The one thing that may have separated me from them, however, is that I know exactly why I haven’t been able to get into it. When the game comes on TV, I can’t follow the puck. Seriously. The play is so quick and so bang-bang-bang that when the puck goes in the net, I have to watch a replay to see how cool (or how cheap) the goal was.

Continue reading Hockey: A disposition…

Whistle while you work

Just wanted to update everyone on what I’ve been freelancing… A nice little pro bono work for someone I like to call “my sister.”

My sister engaged and soon to be married, so I’ve offered to brand her wedding for her. I’m actually loving the ability to do the work; it’s going to be great fun. She’s given me a lot of free reign to design the thing (which is generous, albeit a little frightening for her), and I look forward to letting you all in on it when it’s done.

You can check out her current wedding site now, although it’s just got a placeholder up now. Hopefully very soon we’ll have the actual site launched. When that happens, I’ll make sure to put up a note on here.

For now, check out their wedding “logo”:

Kenny Chesney and the Gamecocks

I was reading over at Uni Watch when I came across a link on his post that was talking about Kenny Chesney throwing out a first pitch:

Kenny Chesney threw out the first pitch in Baltimore last night, and wore a bottom-hemmed Cool Base jersey for the occasion…

They were pointing out his jersey, but seeing as I come from the University of South Carolina, I took special notice of something else he was wearing: a Gamecock hat. (Click the picture for full-size.)

I’m pretty proud to see that Kenny Chesney is wearing a South Carolina Gamecocks hat in that picture. I was going to link to other versions of the logo on his site, but in doing some quick research, can’t seem to find that specific version of the Gamecock logo anywhere anymore.

I found a couple versions of on seemingly un-official sites, but nothing from their official apparel site. I don’t know if anyone knows (or cares) about what happened to it, but I’m thinking it may have something to do with Spurrier and the football team moving to being an Under Armour school. Any ideas?

Birthday Hot Spot

I was by myself in the commons the other day when a fourth grade boy came through a set of double doors. Out of nowhere he says, “Mr. Stagg! You should come to my birthday party.”

“I can’t go to your birthday party.”

“Why not?”

“Well, where is it?”

“Hooters.”

“I’ll be there.”

This kid knows what’s up.

Taking a day off

Well, I’m heading out of town. Tomorrow morning I leave for New Orleans for actual business work. HM Magazine gave me the cover story for the next issue, and I’m getting to fly out to hang out with a band (that I’m pretty sure has to remain nameless for now) and probably play Guitar Hero with them. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be back on Saturday.

University of Spurrier Carolina

This was pointed out to me on another blog, but I can’t remember which one, so I can’t give due credit (and I want to!). But this piece was written up in The State newspaper, the major newspaper for South Carolina, and especially Columbia:

Garcia back early? Coach Steve Spurrier said there is a chance suspended quarterback Stephen Garcia could come back before his scheduled return date of Aug. 15. But Spurrier declined to elaborate, adding that it was a university decision.

Apparently, Garcia (one of the nation’s top recruits—and believe me, we NEED a good QB in Gamecock land) has already paved the way to get Spurrier to lower the academic requirements for players. And with our (now former) president Andrew Sorensen gone, it looks like Spurrier is the only president USC will ever need. Not too sure what he was suspended for, but I would imagine it’s academically related.

Uncle David, what’s going on over there? Is there any truth to any of this? I’m all for good quarterbacks, but if we keep lowering entrance requirements, pretty soon we’ll be right there with South Carolina State…

via The State newspaper

Give ‘em a hand with that ad

Design is a serious flurry of inspiration. You see something you like one day, you mentally note it, possibly come back to it one day for a piece you’re working on. You try to put your own flair on it. You take what someone has already done and make it your own.

Either way, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is the company that did the most recent NBA campaign, “Where Amazing Happens”. But before that, they’ve had HP as a client since 1996 and at one point they did a version of their “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign that looks very similar to the book cover for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, the second novel by author Jonathan Safran Foer. The book cover won an AIGA award in 2005.

Design inspiration? The font seems to be making me get the icing out of the cabinet for the cake.

Would the real Apollo please stand up?

At my school I teach a theatre appreciation class. I began this class by teaching about Greek tragedy. Within this unit I was telling the story of Aeschylus’s trilogy The Oresteia. The Greek god Apollo is talked about in this piece of work. In my style of teaching, I’ll stop my lecture and answer a question from the students. I get excited when certain students raise their hand because I know the question will not be academically intelligent. This was exactly the case on two occasions when I called on this person (who, by the way, is a certified space cadet).

Now, I said earlier that Apollo was mentioned.

The question was, “Isn’t Apollo that place where people sing and dance?”

“Why yes (student’s name). It is. But that’s not even close to what we’re talking about.”

I’ll continue by letting you know that this student was not asking these questions to be funny. This student was completely genuine, which makes it all the more funny for me.

Two days later I’m reviewing with the class and the god Apollo was mentioned again and she raises her hand again.

“Yes?”

“Isn’t Apollo that guy that Rocky fought?”

I wish it was Apollo Creed that was in a trial against Athena defending Orestes’ decision to kill his mother because she killed his father after he sacrificed his daughter to stop a storm. It would make the play even crazier.

Lance Berkman has the greatest batting gloves of all-time

Today my brother and I were watching the Astros play the Marlins when Lance Berkman came up with a man on. He knocked a home run to cap off a four run fourth inning, but as they were showing him on the replays, they showed his batting gloves.

I will search as hard as I possibly can for a picture of them (and will post it immediately if I find one), but they have the Texas flag sewn into the wrist band. Now that’s awesome.