Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a pleasant Wednesday. For reasons not worth elaborating, I had a terrible week, culminating in the cable box in my living room (yes, I still have cable) giving up yesterday afternoon and needing a replacement several hours later and then took care of it. After contacting tech support for several hours, the new box isn't working properly. As a result, I wasn't able to watch any significant portion of the NLCS while preparing today's articles (which was probably for the best). Unfortunately it's just one thing at a time, but I hope I can at least sort out the TV situation at some point today.

Well then. Here's to today's lede.

There's some excellent uniform news this morning. The New Orleans Saints will unpack their throwback jerseys when they take on the Denver Broncos tonight on Thursday Night Football. The announcement was of course made via video:

Retro uniforms for Thursday ⚜️#Saints | @Verizon pic.twitter.com/ygI1FbrwCP

– New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 16, 2024

So it's another Throwback Thursday game, except unfortunately the Broncos will be wearing their new blue helmets and white jerseys (last night they hadn't announced what pants they'll be wearing – but I'm hoping for orange). I'm not sure a Saints throwback would look very good compared to Denver's “Orange Crush” throwback (although it would provide a Halloween feel), but at least the Saints will be wearing their nicest outfit of all.

I've been pretty brutal with the Saints' clothing choices this year (they haven't worn their regular gold pants yet!) and especially their inexplicable desire to be all solid black at home and all solid white when out and about. Even their only Color Rush game this year (on the road in KC) is basically solid white. But the transgressions so far will at least be mitigated tonight when the Saints do it Finally look like saints.

When it comes to black running backs, the Saints have been one of the most inconsistent teams in terms of effort. They have worn them exactly eight times since 1994. Here are these wearing options.

Tonight will mark the team's ninth time wearing the throwbacks. I've argued here before that the Saints should spruce up their current jerseys and use the retro black jerseys, along with the CR jersey and pants, as the basis for future new jerseys. Of course, as you've probably already noticed, the gold tone of the current helmet doesn't match the old gold of the jersey numbers, sleeve stripes or pants.

Matching the helmet to the retro gold may be easier said than done, but if Vanderbilt can do it, so can the Saints.

There may be another reason why the Saints should use the throwbacks as the basis for a new uniform. Of the eight times they have carried, they have only lost once. So their record in these games is 7:1.

Here are the dates, scores and opponents:

9/18/94 Defeated Buccaneers, 9-7 (win)
10.2.94 Defeated NY Giants, 27-22 (win)

01.12.02 Defeated Buccaneers, 23-20 (win)

09/26/11 Defeated Texans, 40-33 (win)
11-6-11 Defeated Buccaneers, 27-16 (W)

12-4-16 Lost to the Lions, 23-13 (L)

11/20/22 Defeated Rams, 27-20 (W)

12-10-23 Defeated Panthers, 28-6 (W)

As I have said many times, it is not the jerseys that win games, but players and fans are often superstitious (or at least a little superstitious) and attribute success or failure on the field to the jerseys. So the Saints should wear these as often as possible, right?

Regardless of their excellence while wearing these uniforms, I think most of us would agree that this is one hell of a good looking uniform. Aside from the gold/gold discrepancy, these are basically the uniforms I picture in my head when I think of the Saints.

I'm not sure when the decision was made to wear the throwbacks for this game, but the Saints have not committed to it. A few days ago, the team called for a blackout and tweeted a photo of a player wearing the team's regular helmet and jersey. I'm sure the team knew they would wear throwbacks at the time, but they didn't use a photo of a player In setbacks.

Fans attending Thursday's game:

WEAR BLACK ⬛️

Story: https://t.co/CXbrmG3OTI pic.twitter.com/kbFj5Anvrm

– New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 14, 2024

In addition to wearing the beautiful throwback uniforms, the Saints will also enshrine longtime QB Drew Brees in the team's Hall of Fame tonight. We'll see if the fans all wear black like the team requested.

I know we've been talking a lot about the Saints lately, but I expect most of you will agree that the Throwbacks are by far the team's best jersey (and if you disagree, would I'd love to hear why). And do you agree with me that between the CR varsities and the throwbacks, the Saints already have the makings of a superior uniform set? I argued that they should also modify their black replacement helmets to recreate the 1969 preseason look, add the gold tint to the gold helmets and go. And for those who like black pants, they could add a retro set of them. That would give them two helmets, two jerseys and three pants (gold, white, black). If they need a replacement, they could introduce a gold jersey, similar to the one-game wonder they wore against the Vikings in 2002. Done and done.

Your thoughts?

Tracking MLB Playoff Jerseys

MLB Playoff Varsity Tracking

Longtime readers know our long-running MLB playoff jersey tracker Alex Rocklein has covered every jersey worn by every single Major League Baseball playoff team/game over the past few seasons, and I'm pleased to announce that Alex is returning for the 2024 MLB Playoffs. With the expansion of the Wild Card (to six teams – three in each league) in 2022, his graphics have become more complicated, but they're still great. I recently did a question and answer session with Alex and his playoff tracker.

There was only one game on the schedule last night, and the Mets wore their BFBS jerseys and caps while the Dodgers wore their classic road grays. And you can probably figure out what happens if you cross the college gods. The black-clad Mets were defeated 8-0 by the Dodgers, who now lead the NLCS at 2-1. I can guarantee The team will wear their Game 4 pins today. The game begins at 8:08 a.m. (ET), while the Yanks and Guardians continue their series today at 5:08 a.m. (ET) in Cleveland, with the Yanks up 2-0. The Americans will be in street gray. The Guardians are so far 1-0 in the red jersey and 1-1 in the white jersey. I suspect they'll be wearing the white tops tonight; As of 11:45 last night, the team had not yet announced a starter, but all signs point to it being Matthew Boyd. Boyd started in ALDS Game 1 against Detroit and the Guardians wore red tops – so if Boyd starts, I think they will wear red tops. If it's anyone else, then it's white tops.

I will have an updated tracker every weekday from now until the end of the 2024 World Series.

Guess the game based on the scoreboard

Guess the game…

…From the scoreboard

Today's scoreboard comes from Fred Nash.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I post a scoreboard and you simply identify the game pictured. In the past, I don't know if I did that always completely amazed you (some are easier than others).

Here is the scoreboard. Try to identify the game (date and location and final result) in the comments below. If anything notable happened during the game, please add it (and if you were at the game, bonus points for you!):

Please continue to send these in! Feel free to send me any scoreboard photos (with replies please) and I will keep them running.

Guess the game by the uniform

Based on a suggestion from a long-time reader/contributor Jimmy CorcoranWe've introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch that's similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), except this game asks readers to identify the game by the uniforms worn by the teams.

As with GTGFTS, readers are asked to guess the date, location and final result of the game based on the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should relatively easy to detect, while in other cases it can be quite difficult. It will normally be a visual cue (something strange or unique about one or both uniforms) that allows clear identification of one and only one game. In other cases, there might be something significant about the game in question, such as the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy's original suggestions). It's up to YOU ​​to find out the game and date.

Today's GTGFTU comes from Jody Parker.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

And finally…

…that's enough for the early lede. I'll definitely have at least two more articles this morning (and at some point Anthony will have a guest article about his favorite hockey team introducing a new replacement player today), and hopefully more, as long as I can manage to fix the broken cable box problem in a timely manner. Please keep your fingers crossed for me because I could use some good news this week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday and that I'll see everyone here again tomorrow morning.

Peace,

Ph