This logo wasn’t a team logo, but rather a patch worn in the 1945 season by several major league players who had served in World War II to signify and honor their service.
Archive for May, 2010
Classic Sports Card of The Day
31
May
Eddie Grant, shown in this 1911 baseball card, was the first major league player killed in action in World War I. He was Captain of the 77th Infantry Division, and was killed by an exploding shell on October15, 1918.
NHL – remembering the Golden Seals
26
May
When flamboyant Oakland A’s baseball owner Charles O. Finley decided to expand his sports empire by purchasing the NHL’s Oakland Seals franchise, he immediately transformed the team into the California Golden Seals and outfitted them in uniforms that matched the colors of his highly successful baseball team, right down to white skates to match the A’s unusual white baseball spikes. Imagine the “figure skater” jokes these players had to endure from players on the opposing teams….and you know hockey players are especially brutal when they get a chance to question their opponents’ manhood.
Classic Team Logo of The Day
26
May
The Oakland Seals were one of the 6 expansion franchises added to the NHL in 1967. They weren’t very successful, and the flamboyant owner of the Oakland A’s baseball team decided to buy them, and transform them into the California Golden Seals. This is their logo (complete with gold and green colors to match the baseball A’s).
Classic Sports Card of The Day
26
May
The 1956 Topps baseball cards included both a profile picture of the player and an action shot on the front of the card. Unfortunately on this Henry Aaron card the player sliding into home plate in the action photo is actually Willie Mays.
NFL – AFC South
21
May
The biggest question in the AFC South every season is who is going to challenge the Indianapolis Colts for supremacy in the division? The Colts, although they’ve become the “Atlanta Braves of the NFL” by dominating their division but only winning one Super Bowl, are still the favorite in this division. The Houston Texans are a chic pick every year to overtake the Colts because they have a roster loaded with great, young talent, but they almost always seem to find creative ways to get at or near the .500 mark by season’s end. They had their first winning season last year by finishing 9-7 and that seemed to set off a celebration that they have arrived. I see them disappointing their fans by staying the course and being mediocre as usual, possibly costing Gary Kubiak his coaching job. The Tennessee Titans are the real threat to the Colts’ dominance. They rebounded after a horrific start last season to make a run at the playoffs but came up short. The resurgence of Vince Young at quarterback coincided with the team’s rebound, and I feel they will be ready from day one to make a run at the division title this year. Veteran coach Jeff Fisher will have his team ready to go. The Jacksonville Jaguars are always a competitive team and will probably pull a couple upsets that affect the final standings in the division, but no matter how you slice it they appear to be the weakest team in the division and should finish last.
Classic Team Logo of The Day
21
May
This is an old logo of the Minnesota Twins from the 1960s, shortly after they began existence in 1961. They were the old Washington Senators until after the 1960 season but were then moved to the Twin Cities. Politicians in Washington were upset over the move, so baseball put an expansion team in Washington the same season as the Twins were born, and they became the “new” Washington Senators. Ah, the pleasantry of the musical chairs games of professional sports franchises. The Twins had a bit of success during the era of this logo, with stars like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Bob Allison, Tony Oliva, and pitchers Camilo Pascual, Mudcat Grant and Jim Kaat. They won the AL pennant in 1965 but lost to the Dodgers in the World Series.
Classic Sports Card of The Day
21
May
The 1961 Fleer card of The Big “O”….Oscar Robertson, one of the NBA’s all-time greats. He starred for the old Cincinnati Royals for 10 years before moving on to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he teamed with a rookie center named Lew Alcindor (we know him now as Kareem Abdul Jabbar) to bring an NBA title to that city.
NHL – Playoff update
20
May
The NHL playoffs have been a crazy ride so far this season, especially in the Eastern Conference where the 2 bottom seeds wound up playing for the conference title. The Philadelphia Flyers are amazingly back from the dead and in control of their series with Montreal so far. Since trailing 3-0 in game seven in their previous series, the Flyers have scored 13 unanswered goals in coming back to win that game, and posting back-to-back shutouts over the Canadiens. That’s back-to-back shutouts with a journeyman backup goaltender playing. Michael Leighton has played well since taking over in the nets for Philly, but I feel the team’s success is more a product of the players’ smothering defensive style around him. They’ve protected him well, keeping the Montreal shooters outside and around the edges and clearing the sightlines for Leighton to make saves by bulldozing any Canadiens’ players that dare try to block his vision. That’s usually a recipe for success in the NHL playoffs, along with timely scoring. In the West, The Chicago Black Hawks have continued to be road warriors, winning twice in San Jose to open the series and extend their road playoff win streak to seven. San Jose has a horrid history of playoff failure, and even though they’ve advanced to the final four, all it took was losing those 2 home playoff games to the Hawks to bring out the critics once again. The Sharks are still a powerful team and I expect them to win in Chicago and make this series competitive, but it is starting to look like the Stanley Cup final will again be a battle between an “Original Six” team (Chicago) and an “Additional Six” team (Philadelphia).
Classic Team Logo of The Day
20
May
The logo of the old Chicago Cardinals NFL football team, from 1958. The Cards only played one more season in Chicago – after the ’59 season they were moved to St. Louis, partly because they were a dismal team completely overshadowed in the city by the powerhouse Bears, and partly to block out the fledgling American Football League from grabbing the St. Louis market. They had only moderate success in the gateway city, eventually moving on to their current home in Arizona.