Last Year's Inductee Total, This Year's Vote Count

A while ago, I had asked some of the finest baseball minds that staffer Brad and I know. Out of a decent amount of ballots I asked for, I only got three returns plus my own. Given the poor voter turn back, it was decided that 100% of the BNG vote was necessary to "enter the hall" for internal purposes only. We will also reveal the popular vote with the actual results tomorrow.

In no particular order, BNG welcomes Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Mike Piazza to Cooperstown. Just missing the cut were Jeff Bagwell, Trevor Hoffmann, and Curt Schilling. Other votes cast were for Garrett Anderson (2), Roger Clemens (2), Fred McGriff (2), Mike Mussina (2), Billy Wagner (2), Barry Bonds, Jim Edmonds, Tim Raines, and Larry Walker.

I was really surprised that Edgar Martinez of the three was a unanimous decision of those who submitted their ballot before the deadline. Griffey is expected to get or close to 100% of the votes later today, though many said last year that Greg Maddux would do the same. I would be surprised if Piazza of the three gets in (assuming Edgar Martinez falls short of the required 75%). My personal ballot consisted of both who I thought would get in plus who I would vote in with the latter as the first tie breaker if a play didn't qualify for both. I did unprecedentedly use all ten ballot votes while eight were cast by Brad. All in all, it was as much as it ever will be -  vote that has no bearing on who will in fact get voted in. Hope you know who you would vote for if baseball is your sort of thing.

-Ricky

2015 - A Year in Review

Another calendar year has come and gone. Another time for us to reflect on it showing just how much has happened since day one on May 5, 2012. All of the sudden, we're talking about yesteryear and it has only been four days. From predicting games and season using jerseys to template testing and everything in between, there were many firsts over the past year. Most notably, we enhanced our look and feel. There is a stronger identity that reflects our individuality while still retaining the traditional element. Lets have a brief into the year behind.

As we look back, we also look forward. BNG turns four in March, another year's worth of inductions into our halls of fame. Our mock baseball BBWAA voting and much more. No doubt new jerseys will come in. A new template has been implemented for use and has even made its first appearance already in the new year. Another busy year is in store and we hope you'll join us for it.

-Ricky

2016 NLL Picks and Power Rankings: Week 1

Everybody else in action next week with Saskatchewan sitting it out. Georgia will be the first of the two movers to host their first game in their new arena. I got tickets to the Bandits opener against Calgary, and by lucky chance I got two 100 level end tickets for $25 total instead of $40 each thanks to coincidentally knowing the teller next door to the window I was at. No matter, they got lazy with the jerseys but I do like the chrome anniversary logos. I'll spend one day just for that. But for now, we'll forgo the meat and potatoes.

Week 1:

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Season Total: 2/2
*Away team is above the home team; underline below arrow indicates correct pick.

Week 2:


          <    <
<    <        

Week 1 Rankings:
1. (2) Saskatchewan - Showed us why they're champs.
2. (1) Toronto - Definitely better than the Maple Laughs, even with the ACC only half full.
3. (3) Rochester - Still don't know why the logo is a hawk instead of the aircraft of the same name.
4. (5) Colorado - Seemed to struggle against the Swarm, but got the job done.
5. (4) Buffalo - I miss Tavares already and he only retired in September but still on the bench as an assistant coach, >sigh< wait... 25th season festivities will be fun.
6. (6) Calgary - Yet to get used to Riggers being down here...
7. (7) Vancouver - This team won in 2011? That declined quickly. T-Rich departure won't help any.
8. (8) New England - Did well in the scrimmage against Rochester in Buffalo last month, not that it means anything much.
9. (9) Georgia - I'm keeping the Corporal's team insight on my periphery
View Brian Shanahan's pre-season picks on IL Indoor.

-Ricky

Wing City

As has been tampered with over the past little while, I have been in the middle of Buffalo Wings themed concepts (for use of the color scheme) and the introduction plus tweaking of a work-in-progress Aussie rules template. This will be the last one in the near future, I promise. Wrong football I know, but I've had this ready for a couple days and thought it might do the job to open the year before the first full week of it.

As the new template gets broken in, the trained eye might note that two patters from the NHL's 1995-96 third sweater program. The green (home) is from the [then] Mighty Ducks and the purple clash strip is from Vancouver. Had it not been for the coincidentally similar scheme the Mighty Ducks had used then, I would've used purple as the primary color. Two unrelated things made me decide against the purple: I wanted the home kit to be green anyway, and the darker color looks better as the primary for the clash in this example compared to the original.

All in all a hard day's work with the modifications to the jumper template though the cuffs could still use some work among other things. Oft times I wonder what if design elements unrelated to other sports were brought in for use on the uniforms - of which, this would be an example. Might make a good "series" one way or another. Hope this was thought provoking on design borrowing. Remember that BNG baseball mock voting for the Hall of Fame will be announced two days from now on Tuesday.

-Ricky

New Year, Same BNG

We're amidst working on our first concept of the new year as we're glad you've joined us. As to what that concept is, I've been changing my mind. The BNG consensus (a select group of sabermetric junkies) Baseball Hall of Fame votes will be released on Tuesday, with the actual announcement on Wednesday. We hope you'll join us to see who would be in BNG's baseball hall of fame. The one difference taken into account for voting is the uniforms that they wore during various personal accomplishments though not necessarily a determining factor.

Back to the new year - it has started off seemingly okay here, and we'll take it. Though some of you may or may not know what it is from if you knw of it at all, we've heard it many times in our lives: "Here's to the new year, may she be a [-] sight better than the old one." We look forward to your continued participation here at BNG as it is as much about you as it is us, because without us there is none of you to be showcased (and you're very important people after all).

-Ricky

"All the World's a Stage"

Today end's the year on a good note for BNG! Our last member of the year has joined us (and none too soon).The hat atop my head I found yesterday. To clarify the jersey, this is the one in which the crest is outlined in the vintage white and not the plain white. A little heavy on the tags, but it is what I would expect.

On a more serious note, we hope that 2015 was bountiful for you and the next year to bring you more of the same. The next time you'll hear from us will be in 2016, so we hope that you will be refreshed. Templates for concepts I create will have a new look for the immediate future, but that is the only order of business. As for this quote: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances - and one man, in his time, plays many parts..." Simply put - aloha!

-Ricky

2016 NLL Preview and Pre-Season Power Rankings with Picks

I cant believe it's that time already! As you've seen here, both the turmoil ridden Minnesota Swarm and defending champs Edmonton Rush moved to Georgia and Saskatoon, respectively. The legendary Hall-of-Famer-to-be John Tavares retired after twenty-four seasons, the only player for the Buffalo Bandits to have suited up in at least one game in each season of the team's history while also becoming an assistant coach with the team under Troy Cordingley.

Also, the big news is that Commissioner Daniel stepped down to pursue a personal law venture, at we didn't say was who would take his place, a still vacant position. Today, I will make my decisions on who should make the playoffs and highlight the power rankings.

Courtesy of the NLL.

If anything, on would think the preseason power rankings are about who made the best moves, but with me that is not necessarily the factor. My opening week predictions have some influence in that.

1. TORONTO: The Rock surprised me by playing better than their record showed as last year's divisional regular season and playoff champs. It happened even after Rochester won all four meetings against Buffalo. The big question is whether or not TO will platoon Nick Rose and Brandon Miller guarding the twine tent.
2. SASKATCHEWAN: Disappointing the team has to leave from somewhere after they've just won a championship. Then again, it's hardly a province over but make me miss the battle for Alberta even though it's always Calgary's province). It took ten seasons, but now the Rush find themselves looking for a third straight final and second consecutive Champions Cup.
3. ROCHESTER: As far as I'm concerned, Matt Vinc is still the best goalie in the East. Though some key players didn't show up too often, Knighthawks found themselves both second in the East and in the division final. The real test will be will their good fortune against Buffalo continue?
4. BUFFALO: Though Tavares traded his jersey for a clipboard, grabbing Daryl Veltman from Calgary via trade is good for the Bandits considering the circumstances. Buffalo needs to play better against archrivals Rochester and Toronto if they want to grab the division, regular season or playoffs. Out side of a poor 1-6 against those teams, the Thieves (I wish that name would catch on already) were 10-1 against the rest of the league.
5. COLORADO: The Mammoth are a team that is difficult for me to get a read from. I have no idea how things will go. Though the had a solid team last season, there always seems to be a pattern of finishing middle of the pack which can go in cycles from one end of the spectrum to another and back in a four or five year span.
6. CALGARY: This is not you're mom and dad's Riggers team. The 'Necks are still with some of their stars and hoping that last year was just a hiccup after that horrible first half start. But it appears that head coach Curt Malawsky is getting Sciggy with it by allowing previous back-up Frankie Scigliano to start over Mike Poulin in front of the cage.
7. VANCOUVER: Statistically speaking, the Stealth were the least stealthy team. Beside goalie Tyler Richards and forward Rhys Duch, I see a Edmonton Oiler-esque perpetual stagnation at the bottom. The franchise as a whole deserves better performance, but it may just never happen for a long time.
8. NEW ENGLAND: Leaving Philadelphia was not easy for the new franchise, as they appeared the same as they arrived - lacking star power. That surely didn't help their dismal record. Now that they're firmly nestled in Uncasville, perhaps they can see some more cash flow to make some acquisitions.
9. GEORGIA: The Aroltta/Minnesota Fan-base debacle is really what spurred the move, as we covered somewhat extensively. But everything that followed in Georgia wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Well see if they can muster a fight for the final Eastern playoff spot, but don't count on it.

Week 1:

         

  Def. by                 Def.

         

You can read the IL Indoor staff's season preview here.

-Ricky

Enjoying the Festive Period

Not quite as formal for the pre-holiday shoot (though I missed it four our Hanukkah-celebrating readers), but nonetheless a photo is a photo. Pardon the fake Latin, I was watching Cartoon Network's "Big Game" between Coyote and Roadrunner before I took the photo.

We hope that the greeting of the season has welcomed you with loved ones and significant others, as we at BNG raise a toast to you all. From Brad, myself, and the rest of the staff we wish you a happy healthy festive period. Kwanzaachristmakkah and Festivus are considerations too as well as Orthodox Christmas. These are just a few celebrations, but whatever it is, we celebrate with you in spirit.

-Ricky

RoboPenguin: The Movie

I apologize for those of you that have been closet watching (checking for updates to the BNG closet and posts). Though I've only known for two or three days I was getting it specifically this weekend, my most recent addition to the family has arrived. I'll let you see for yourself...

Look familiar? It might if you knew that this is one of the original five NHL third jerseys from the third jersey program and among the first to be mass produced (we're not counting the third jerseys from a century ago). As like many others, it is a blank. I am currently debating on a few others which I had not previously considered. I'd say something but it will likely give to much away and ruin any suspense. I will at least mention that I have sought other jerseys regarding these teams, but not one of the aforementioned. At least you are somewhat in the loop now. Stay tuned to find out!

-Ricky

Footy and the Beast

I have been working on getting a footy template for some time, and most have failed - until today, sort of. I think I've got it down. If you remember Fernando Moreno (S2dio) then you'll recall his wonderful hockey templates including the (original) one used for the Buffalo Wings from the other day. This is what I came up with, keeping in mind it is simplified.

I was hoping this would be good enough for at least the short term, but also for me to use in design competitions. I would be fine with keeping the above version available while keeping hold of the advanced version for myself at Big Footy. Here, I did a mock Buffalo Bills uniform as to say they were Aussie rules instead of gridiron football.

I'm glad it turned out okay. While it probably isn't the best, it does look better than the template you're used to seeing here for other footy concepts.  Tell me what you think of the template and how it compares to others you may have seen. We look forward to it.

-Ricky

Winging It

You all will see from Saturday that I put use for the Buffalo Wings as my re-branded fantasy football team. I decided to create a hockey relevant design on the premise that it is a roller hockey team and academy. This is a little simpler, but it works just as well.

Again, I decided that this color scheme was in need of love. However, I used the light green instead of purple as the primary color. The lack of purple on the white jersey may have hindered the jersey itself more than the overall concept, but it is better than having the pants in the light green or white. Arm striping may have been the difference to make it look somewhat better, but what you do to one you must do unto the other. Overall it would still be a little tricky. In any event, I'm confident on the premise of the colors I was given.

-Ricky

It Only Took Sixteen and a Half Years...

The title, well... I think it would make more sense to a non Western New York English speaker. We used to have a professional roller hockey team, the Wings, who now have a youth league. They had a logo change to reflect the change. The Buffalo Wings eventually stopped competition due to both leagues going defunct (not concurrent with each other). Being the home of wings, many in the English speaking world call them "Buffalo wings" while on the contrary, the local community calls them "chicken wings." Even the motto of its birthplace, the Anchor Bar reads "home of the original chicken wing."

As some of you may recall, I made a spoof of a set of Buffalo Destroyers jerseys in the late fall of 2013 for Robert Griffin III, who was the opening week quarterback for a fantasy football league in which I was competing. Well it went from one month trial league through a friend in 2012, to me still getting updates despite that, winning the league, me commissioning a new one that led me to the above concepts, progressively posting worse records and now setting the worst record in league history of one to two wins out of fourteen pending tomorrow and Monday. So I decided that a change was in order, but nobody voted in my new nickname poll in our league forum. Other choices were based on other sports teams that had generic enough logos based in Buffalo (Sabres, Stampede, Gamblers, and Gladiators). Even though it has a small sized half a puck in it, the puck isn't defined enough but was not the deciding factor. I wanted to utilize the under-used color scheme of purple and light green.

The lime green and the purple were back and forth as to which was the alternate, I figured green since this will already stand out and the green becomes more flair. Maybe it'll be better than the Seahawks one day jersey...

-Ricky

Flo Rida Panthers?

Okay, maybe not so much about Flo Rida owning the team, but the big news from last night is that the NHL will stay committed to the Florida Panthers. To further implement that, the team's rebrand will keep the current color scheme. This is not wholly surprising, though I personally was not leaning either way. Let's go to the way-back machine and see what has spawned of this from my personal concepts.

Both concepts were submitted for the same HJC competition in the summer of 2012 in which all participants were allowed up to two entries to create new alternates for the team. The first was based on their most recent set of alternates, except with the lighter blue as the primary and the darker blue as secondary compared to the other way around. I liked how they did the numbers for it and HJC founder Ryan like them even more (an attempt for brownie points, before he added additional staffers like myself).

This second one here saw me bring the original navy team jersey back slightly altered for the Reebok cut of template. I have wanted better use out of the crest that I chose. Looking at Jovo's "A"  over the hear, it's not centered the same as the number on the opposite side but you should still get the idea. Neither of these won though the latter probably had a much better shot. I hope they continue to keep the crest logo as an alternate. I'm sure that one of the original jerseys will be brought back for commemoration, but only time will tell.

-Ricky

Laziness or Uncertainty?

I'm quandaried over whether or not the Buffalo Bandits rushed their design because the new anniversary stuff looks a bit lazy just slapping the logos on the pre-exiting jersey or they had no ideas what the commemorative jersey(s) should look like. As a result, we got this...

I like the idea of the logos, But since the NLL doesn't do real patches anymore, it's kind of pointless. And we've all seen how stupid the forward facing shoulder patches look league-wide. I'll give these an a for effort (in logo), but failure in execution (of uniform). Overall, generally disappointing, unlike the throwback from season twenty (which can be seen our our closet tab). Tell us what you think below!

-Ricky

(Not Another) Logo Induction

Thanksgiving once again is upon us in the US, which means at BNG that the Logo Hall of Fame announces its ten inductees. As you may recall, last year almost saw nine entries as a near tie would have promoted such a decision. That was not quite the case this year.

As noted, the new BNG logo is present with the diamond pattern from our design sheet behind the logos, while keeping the roundness of the top both to compliment the logo and to keep the "nickel" ripple shape in the background. Any you've never seen or forgotten about for a long time? Glad to jog your memory. All else, glad to introduce them!

-Ricky

The Duck Pond Rides Again!

I've been meaning to use the generic MLS Adidas template I made but it just never happened at a convenient time and several projects crashed. This one, however, didn't. The only thing I can say about the featured team's principal sponsor at their home venue is that I haven't driven or rode in any of the current company's vehicles and I've never consumed a  product from the previous company. Of course I'm talking about the building on Katella Avenue in Anaheim. The then Arrowhead Pond was probably the most unique name for a sporting venue as it didn't use a traditional suffix (arena, stadium, etc...) in it's official name, that is until Honda bought the naming rights and the Pond (as still affectionately know today) became a Center. This facility became the inspiration for the away kit of the following concept.

Without knowing the history of the team, this may not make sense. It is not uncommon nor common that hockey teams are given uniforms in other sports in design only. But has most of the hockey elements still intact fused with soccer (MLS-specific in this instance) elements.The star above the logo is their Stanley Cup win from 2006-07. The diagonal stripe pattern is based on the original uniforms but with current colors. The current MLS numbers and font were actually a fluke as I was using them to test font size and decided that it fit the logos I used nicely. The customized three stripes along the shorts and shoulders are the renown (for good or bad) brand identity of Adidas (which may soon hold both NBA and NHL jersey manufacturing rights). The 1993 below the back collar is the first year of play for the team 1993-94 and the bottom half of the white jersey we've discussed.

I'm glad my first one us out of the way. The white was challenging to add something to the breastplate in which I first thought of sublimation, which failed miserably as I only had one idea for it that didn't work at all. Second was to find a way to make gold be prominent without making it the color of the jersey - I had nothing for that. Then we arrived at the current solution. SO with that, the first concept in a while. Hopefully we'll have a quick turnaround with another appearing here very soon.

-Ricky

Comment Ça Va?

Not knowing how bad the situation may get, I bet there will be many people even in the sports world who will be reflecting on yesterdays events. We send blessings and condolences to those affected from those circumstances.

-Ricky

Solemn Thoughts

We all know what today is...

...Thus we won't say more other than thank you to all who have risked their lives for us.

-Ricky

The Rise of the Desert Dog from the Dead

As you may be aware, the Arizona Coyotes don't have an alternate jersey anymore while adding black to their set. I like that addition but it is not at full potential. The team is nearing it's 20th season in the desert and might be saving the alternate as an anniversary jersey. Given that, I tried to do the unthinkable.

Granted, the sand as a road jersey could be tricky and a little plain looking compared to its home counterpart. As for the "acid trip" ("desert dog") jersey, it could be transitioned well by using the black in place of green but the original could rear its head out too. As for the choice of primary logo, I feel the full body logo is more suitable for being the crest option. The numbers that have been used for the new jerseys are better than the old, but I don't currently have those, so I took the letters from the Thrashers and the numbers from Seattle's MLB team. I'd love to chat more, but class is in ten minutes. Here's something to consider though, what if the green (or even the purple) come back?

-Ricky

The Boo-ffalo Head

Since there has been a lot of escapes prison breaks over the past several months, I wanted to tell you about the little fortune teller that escaped from prison. He was a small medium at-large (too son?). Enough of that. The bewitching hour is near. So we're joining in on the festivities.

This also means that the Logo Hall of Fame selection will be following suit. We will as always alert you of the finalists and then host the induction for American Thanksgiving.

-Ricky