The Many Birds of the Bird City

Atlanta's sports teams in the recent past have been known for their birds - the MLB's Braves could qualify with a Blackhawk reference but does not, the NFL's Falcons and the NHL's former Thrashers. But this design is for the other birds, the NBA's Hawks.

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What a bird's-eye view we have here! What if we did an infrared concept of this, then you'd get a real bird's-eye view!

-Ricky

Heating Up

I made a color switch, the road color is the new alternate and vice-versa color. I wanted a simple look for the Miami champions.

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Tomorrow that will leave the Altanta Hawks. Saturday will feature my entry for the HJC contest on the re-branding of the Minnesota Wild.

-Ricky

Orlando (a Team in Progress)

Buffalo Nickel Graphics (right-click me, then click "open in new tab"!)

In it's shorter 23 season history just coming out of it's infancy and teen stages into the legal stage of life, Orlando has had subtle changes during each of its re-branding eras. With their current look, I say it's the best yet, but the NBA messed up their look again. While their current sets aren't horrible, some changes do need to be changed. As my set isn't the perfect or best solution, I do feel it is an upgrade.

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Tomorrow will be Miami, since I don't want to end the division with them.

-Ricky

Capitol with a Capital "DC"

A rather quick post but I have nothing to say other than yesterday and today's posts may be the best in the entire NBA.

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The re-branding of the Wizards two seasons ago was the best yet! May this cease the identity crisis in the nation's capitol.

-Ricky

From Charlotte to . . . Charlotte

How 'bout them Charlotte Hornets I mean Bobcats. If only that were actually the case. George Shinn's reputation slowly eroded before the move to New Orleans for the Hornets and subsequently caused decline in attendance despite the hoopla of a basketball frenzy city. At the same time, the lack of luxury suites at the Coliseum was in dis-accord with Shinn. The result was Charlottes move to NOLA following the 2001-02 season.

In the mean time, the NBA promised Charlotte a new team in time for the 2004-05 season. Among bids for ownership included Larry Brid surfaced, but Robert L.Johnson of BET and his ownership group including the rapper Nelly became the first African-American owned franchise in the professional American sports leagues.

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The Michael Jordan era only began in the summer of 2010 and so far he isn't doing very hot. In fact, his team finished with the NBA's worst record this past season . . . But that's impossible when we only associate greatness with Michael Jordan, right? No Matter, maybe the new look they unveiled will put the past behind them. This was done to kind of help them out, but they already put the new equip out.

-Ricky

Off Day

I'm taking the day off, but still writing a post. Getting ready to finish the weekend, the NBA Southeast Division concepts start piling in tomorrow.

-Ricky

Swan Song for Springfield

The club hockey team isn't going anywhere, but their last three jersey sets are. This are what they look like:

Older home jerseys

Older Road jerseys

 

Blanks of the above

Details of the above 

Newer old home jerseys

Newer old road jerseys

Note the Colorado styled jerseys, I got one maroon one and one white at 2 for 35 as opposed to 20 dollars each. The older ones are also embroidered compared to screen-printed.  The maroon one is number 31, the white is the 19 pictured above. That's it for now.

-Ricky

The Three Cavalleros

It's something that I thought the Cavaliers had that I liked by it was never actually used. I decided to find out where my inspiration came from. It was from the jerseys used between 1975-81, when navy was not a part of the color scheme. I thought I did remember the tri-checkered color jersey hem and cuffs in the 2000s but was mistaken. So I gave it a try anyway.

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It was great to give new identities to the central division teams. Tomorrow I will be presenting Springfield college jerseys that are for sale, two of which I purchased. Details tomorrow.

-Ricky

New Fallujah or Bust

Before anyone takes sides on the title, I am mocking a reference made by nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh on the "Malice at the Palace" (of Auburn Hills) in 2004. Anyway, since this is a blog based out of the Buffalo area, today's Pistons set will feature the likeness of hall-of-famer Bob Lanier.

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This was a great way to challenge the use of only three colors. Although the color navy is also included in their color scheme as an alternate color, I was not able to find a good place for it. That leaves Cleveland on deck for tomorrow.

-Ricky

A Hundred Bucks to One

Passing the buck isn't always easy; and for that, Milwaukee is our next selection. This one is great for playing with the color scheme with a combination of dark red, hunter green, and dark green. It was tricky at first but I got it. The alternate is my favorite of the set, the shorts are retained for each jersey.

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Also I got two new Springfield College hockey jerseys at a tag sale by my boss (it is a club not varsity sport). That gave me the chance to see the entire set, so I will include pictures of the two different home and road sweaters! Bye-bye.

-Ricky

Bull Chicago

I wanted to continue my NBA jersey making, so I stayed within the central division to present the Chicago Bulls. There are a few teams that could pull off real pinstripes on their uniforms, Indiana and Chicago are two of them, some other sets will see the addition of the stripes, we'll see those later.

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This set is definitely inspired from then 90s black alternate jerseys. I took away some of the pinstripes to less crowd the jersey for a more simplistic look. Pinstripes on any white jersey I feel would have been a disaster, so I left it blank. More on the NBA Central tomorrow!

-Ricky

Columbus or Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends to the north! Hope everyone is enjoying their Columbus Day here as well.    I will proceed to sally forth an NBA series as I had put forth a retro looking Pacers set as new. I will continue with the Central Division and the ensuing weeks will feature the other two divisions in the East. The West will follow in the three weeks after that.

My Pacers concepts from a few months ago can be seen above . . . Else-wise, you will see the team I will first unveil tomorrow.

-Ricky

The Anni-verse is Golden

Continuing on the TR thing, you can see everything Nats Presidents Races at this link.

In other news, we celebrated my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary a few weeks early. It is at the renowned Mansion on Delaware Ave. in the Downtown district of Chippewa. Just past New Era's world headquarters, The Mansion is not far away from the famed Millionaire's Row on Delaware Ave.

A fantastic event with the family can never be beat. I travel to Springfield at 9:15 AM, so expect a late post as I clock in around 5:30 PM - all times eastern.

-Ricky

Astro-nomical

Another leak blunder, this time in the great state of Texas. Houston made the boo-boo and Chris Creamer got to explain the scenario on their behalf. The link can be found here. Meanwhile I suppose the next surprise is that there will be games held at the Astrodome again on special occasion - just kidding.

No matter, prep is well underway for an important event which will be under wraps until tomorrow.

-Ricky

Whaling, Whaling Over the River Blue

Friday became the day for the keyword XL. Not meaning the roman numeral 40 or the shirt size, but the center which might be in it's final season of use for anything. That comes with the current HJC contest which I decided to take more time with. Also I am leaving for home today so I can be present to celebrate a surprise party for someone - details on Sunday.

I have decided to take multiple Whalers teams and incorporate them - except for Pucky the Whale (the simplest of the three). Pucky was required to be used by guest writer Jets96 as at least a secondary logo on at least one jersey - so I did just that and nothing more. That is because I hate Pucky with a passion and subsequently why the other two logos were incorporated along with the familiar "Fin-tail" logo. The logo on the third jersey is taken and recolored form the OHL's Plymouth Whalers and the recolored home/road patch is the alternate of the Connecticut Whale of the AHL.

The basic design is taken from the final alternates used by Atlanta before moving to Winnipeg. The retro jersey now has a colored yoke as well as different colored striping with the same pattern from the original.it is also (obviously) "Edge-ified" by current Reebok standards.

I will soon be travelling home for the holiday weekend, so have a safe weekend if you will not have access to a computer during that time.

-Ricky

Ode to Teddy Roosevelt

For those who don't know, The Nationals have a presidential race just like the sausages in Milwaukee and the pierogi in Pittsburgh. Since its RFK debut in 2006, Teddy Roosevelt hadn't won a single race in 525 races. He was even featured in an E:60 documentary from a few weeks ago. I too have been a fan since day one.

Yesterday at Nationals Park history happened. In this season of firsts for the Nationals, TR finally won a Presidential Race - oddly enough before the Romney-Obama debate last night. It was the last regular season game of the year in Washington yesterday afternoon.

It even made the front of the USA Today sports section! That in itself is impressive . . .

-Ricky

Taro Says

Anyone remember Taro Tsujimoto? He was the fictional pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the late stages of the 1974 conference call draft - the 11th round specifically. In the mean time, it's been a while since I've heard "We want Taro" at the Center but I had this to say following his 'rookie card' picture. This mystery man looks a lot like a really young Pat Lafontaine (who at that time would have only been 9 years old and wasn't drafted until the '83 off-season).

Both of the above were created by me. Fore-though the may "Taro" sightings, he remains to be a fictional character. Maybe we'll at least see him in the video games where you can bring back the greats in one of the 2013 2014 games.

-Ricky

Cream of the Crop

It's tacky Tuesday and today's concept is a doozie. But first there is more jersey news out of the NBA. The new Nuggets alternate combines the past and the present. The yellow alternates feature the "skyline" logo but only in navy and baby (double blue).

I took the "Creamsicle" era of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an experiment with crazy color concepts. The color is actually "Florida Orange" and dearest outline is the number font I used. That number font could also potentially work with the current scheme.

Steve "Chugger" Dietrich will be inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame with ceremonies at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto as there is no physical Hall of Fame. He was named Bandits General manager one week before his nomination after serving as Toronto's goaltending coach for two seasons having followed his retirement from playing. That will be visible at NLL's website.

-Ricky

Prepping for the NLL

Big stuff coming up, not only concept-wise but NLL as well with the draft tonight at seven then same time tomorrow will be Steve Dietrich's hall of Fame induction.

Tomorrow's keyword is cream. Wednesday's will be "XL" and I'm debating Thursday and Friday. Short and sweet today - that is all.

-Ricky