Settle down, Junior

I'd rather have juniors, etc than to have teams full of siblings in prep sports. Some parents need to get a little creative.

I used to think it was cute that all of my sister's kids start with the same first initial, but working the sports desk it's those people who drive me insane the most. Seriously....Makayla and Mackenzie? Come on people!

 

Get a set of twins named Joe and Joseph and get back to me. Had that at one stop on my journalism career.

 

I enjoy the history behind names on the uniforms -- we take it for granted these days, but anyone who followed sports before the early '70s can recall when the Yankees look (no names) was the rule instead of the exception.

The White Sox were the first team to add names in 1960 (a Bill Veeck innovation). There were a few glitches at first, illustrated by this photo of Ted Kluszewski:

photo of kluszewski uniform mistake - Google Search

 

A long-lost poster approves of those White Sox uniforms with the sleeves *torn* off.

 

When Frank Robinson was the Giants' manager in the early 80s, they also had a reliever named Jeff Robinson. So "F. Robinson" and "J. Robinson" was dutifully put on the back of the uniforms, until the manager objected.

 

I remember when Ted Turner had the Braves' nicknames put on the backs of their uniforms -- "Wimpy," "J-Bird," "Knucksie" and, of course, Andy Messersmith's infamous "Channel" over his number 17.

 

As for the original premise of the thread, this has long irked me. The player's surname is not Griffin III or Smith Sr. or whatever. It's Griffin or Smith. If your son or father was also on the team, I could see it -- say, Griffey Sr. and Griffey Jr. -- to make the distinction. Other than that, it's pretentious crap.

 

The Griffey Sr./Jr. thing is still wrong but at least I understand. The pretentiousness is what bugs me most.

 

Sounds like the definition of a first-world problem.

 

I love the story I've heard about former Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard. When the NHL mandated names on uniforms, he had white letters sewn on the white uniforms and blue letters on the blue unis because he thought the names would hurt program sales.

 

One of many great Harold Ballard stories.