Every weekend is a retro uniform weekend somewhere. And every “refresh” of iconic brands is a chance to deal with the fashion feedback of the sports universe. Sports logo artist and historian Todd Radom, who is always our “go-to” when it’s time to talk laundry and loyalties, takes Nestor to school on fashion faux pas and retro statements of glory and epic failure.

Nestor Aparicio and Todd Radom discuss their shared passion for sports jerseys and logos. Nestor highlights his love for throwback jerseys, particularly the Houston Oilers and Baltimore Ravens, and his admiration for Todd’s work. Todd, an artist and author, shares insights on the evolution of sports uniforms, emphasizing the importance of form and function. They discuss various teams’ uniforms, including the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Falcons, and Seattle Seahawks, and the impact of nostalgia in sports. Todd also mentions his upcoming book, “The Ballpark and Beyond,” which celebrates 150 years of baseball history.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Follow up on finding a Padres, Royals, and Saints belt buckle from the 1969 collection.
• [ ] Explore the 1969 MLB merchandise catalog and share screenshots with Nestor.
• [ ] Attend a crab cake meeting in Baltimore with Nestor and discuss sports uniforms further.

Nestor’s Introduction and Personal Style

• Nestor Aparicio introduces himself and mentions his love for throwback jerseys, specifically the Oilers and Derrick Henry.
• He discusses his letter to John Harbaugh, referencing Derrick Henry’s jersey as a symbol of accountability.
• Nestor shares his prediction for the Ravens’ record and his love for the Oilers and throwback jerseys.
• He talks about his appreciation for art and his fascination with the lights of Las Vegas and the balloons of the Fiesta of New Mexico.

Meeting Todd Radom and Discussion on Throwback Jerseys

• Nestor introduces Todd Radom, a sports logo artist and historian, and mentions their friendship.
• They discuss various throwback jerseys, including the Houston Oilers and the Falcons’ Tommy Nobis jerseys.
• Nestor shares a story about watching a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game in 1976 throwbacks and how his wife was impressed.
• They talk about their mutual love for throwback jerseys and how it brings them together.

Todd Radom’s Perspective on Sports Uniforms

• Todd Radom talks about the rapid pace of new uniform designs and how it reflects our collective scrolling.
• Nestor and Todd discuss the impact of throwback jerseys in sports, including the Seahawks and Buccaneers matchup.
• Todd mentions his appearance on ESPN College Game Day and the fashion runway with the Oregon Ducks and University of Maryland Terps.
• They talk about the importance of form and function in sports uniforms and how classic designs are timeless.

Discussion on Specific Teams and Their Uniforms

• Nestor and Todd discuss various teams’ uniforms, including the Phillies, Falcons, and Chargers.
• They talk about the success of teams like the Phillies in maintaining a consistent look while incorporating throwbacks.
• Todd mentions the Arizona Cardinals’ off-white jerseys and how they have not been successful.
• They discuss the importance of success in sports and how it influences the perception of a team’s uniform.

Nostalgia and the Role of Nostalgia in Sports

• Nestor and Todd talk about the role of nostalgia in sports, particularly in baseball.
• Nestor shares his experiences attending World Series games and the impact of nostalgia on fans.
• They discuss the importance of connecting generations through sports uniforms and how classic designs are remembered.
• Todd mentions the Milwaukee Bucks’ green and off-white look and how it connects to their history.

Todd Radom’s Books and Artistic Influences

• Todd Radom talks about his new book, “The Ballpark and Beyond,” and its focus on baseball history.
• Nestor and Todd discuss Todd’s other books, including “Beginning Ugly” and “Fabric of the Game.”
• Todd shares his artistic influences and how he was inspired by classic sports logos and jerseys.
• They talk about the evolution of sports logos and how they have changed over the years.

Nestor’s Collection of Vintage Jerseys and Belt Buckles

• Nestor shows Todd his collection of vintage jerseys and belt buckles, including 1969 MLB logos.
• They discuss the rarity and value of these items and how they reflect the history of sports.
• Nestor shares his love for collecting these items and how it connects him to his passion for sports.
• Todd and Nestor talk about the significance of these items and how they represent different eras in sports history.

Todd Radom’s Thoughts on Modern Sports Uniforms

• Todd Radom shares his thoughts on modern sports uniforms and what he likes about them.
• They discuss the Utah Mammoths and the Kraken’s jerseys as examples of modern designs that work well.
• Todd talks about the importance of form and function in modern uniforms and how they should be legible.
• They discuss the impact of social media and online criticism on the design of sports uniforms.

Nestor’s Plans for Future Meetings and Events

• Nestor talks about his plans for future meetings and events, including a crab cake dinner with Todd Radom.
• They discuss the importance of community and how events like these bring people together.
• Nestor shares his love for Baltimore and the importance of supporting local businesses and events.
• They talk about the impact of sports on the community and how it brings people together.

Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

• Nestor and Todd share their final thoughts on the importance of sports uniforms and their impact on fans.
• They discuss the role of nostalgia in sports and how it connects fans to their favorite teams.
• Todd talks about his upcoming book and how it will celebrate the history of baseball.
• Nestor thanks Todd for his time and contributions to the conversation, and they look forward to future discussions.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Sports logos, throwback jerseys, Todd Radom, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Oilers, NFL uniforms, MLB uniforms, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, sports fashion, nostalgia, sports history, uniform design, sports marketing.

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SPEAKERS

Todd Radom, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call it Baltimore positive. And you know, if I’m wearing my Oilers throwback, this is going to be a fun one. We have Raven scratch offs in the Maryland lottery running it better than Derek Henry and I got my Derrick Henry, I’m sporting my my love you blue, but my love you. Purple is also up for the Maryland crab cake tour, no matter their record, no matter how the bye week goes, Luke will be there. I will be there. I hope you’ve enjoyed my letter to John Harbaugh, which comes right, right from the heart, and I actually referenced this Derek Henry Jersey as a man of accountability, even if he’s fumbled the football, I think they’ll give him the football. And I think there’ll be seven and seven in about eight or nine weeks. So that’s my prediction for the head coach who hates thinks I hate him, but I don’t hate him. I love the ravens, and I love the Oilers even more, and I love throwback stuff. And I think I’ve lived long enough now that everyone who’s old enough, even if you’re not an art fart like and you didn’t have art 101, with Joyce Bucci and dude Degas and do the cone sisters. And even if you haven’t been to the Van Gogh Museum or didn’t even see the movie or anything like that, I am much more artsy and much more attracted to the lights of Las Vegas and the balloons of the Fiesta of New Mexico. Then I would lead, then I would lead to believe, and I love throwback Padres and Euler stuff. So when I met Todd Radom on the internet a few years ago, I said, this guy writes books about jerseys. He designs Super Bowl logos, Logos of teams, some of them, he’s been a partner in in recent times where I’ve hammered him and said that’s ugly, and other times, we’ve just agreed that the Houston Oilers jersey and this kit, especially with the silver helmets in the 60s, if you go back to bland, one of the all time great kits. Todd, it’s always pleasure to welcome you in from the fighting City of Brotherly Love and Fishtown Philadelphia and all of that stuff. But what really brought me to you, obviously, our friendship by week, my team sucks. We’re one in five. The World Series is on, and all of that was a week and a half ago. They did throw back. And sometimes they throw up, and sometimes they’re, I don’t know what those commanders things were the other night their throw somewhere, but then I see the Falcons running around with the Tommy nobis jerseys the other night. But what really did it for me was a week and a half ago because Chad steel took my press pass. It’s a long story. You can read about it. I’m subjected to watching games on television, and when I saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running around with Baker Mayfield, and then I saw Jim Zorn and Steve Largent on the other side, and they were, they were doing their thing. I said to my wife, I’m like, they were in their 1976 throwbacks from the first year. My wife’s like, you speaking like another language? And I’m like, yeah, yeah, they were expensive. And Tampa played in the AFC, and Seattle playing the NFC, and they play Memorial Stadium. And I went, I went to the when the Buccaneers played, and it was Burt Jones. We kicked their ass. And she’s like, and then here’s where she gets impressed, bro is when NFL red zone Hanson Scott, who I knew when he worked here. He’s like, and of course, they’re wearing the 1976 throwback. She looks at me. She’s like, Dude, you’re like, a savant or something, like, you’re stupid about this stuff. And I’m like, This is what I got to call rate him. So that’s, I guess, why we’re friends, dude. And that’s why our wives and us went to breakfast down at Blue Moon two here and had a good time, you

Todd Radom  03:35

know? And you wore a Padres jersey, a Tony Gwynn Padres jersey, brown and yellow, like UPS. You remember what I wore to breakfast? I don’t well. I you know, not a lot of people I have breakfast with are wearing a throwback Tony Gwynn jersey. But you’re right, you know, if you know, you know, as the saying goes, and those who get it, get it. And Nestor, I can’t help but think that we are in peak uniform right now our sports uniforms,

Nestor Aparicio  04:03

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it’s like cherry blossom week, right? Kind of, sort of, well, I don’t know. I

Todd Radom  04:06

mean, they move at such a rapid pace in their year round that I can’t help but thinking about having appeared on ESPN College Game Day back in I think it was 2011 and they did a fashion runway, and the Oregon Ducks and the University of Maryland Terps were out

Nestor Aparicio  04:25

there. So on the show right? They were the they were they were forward thinkers,

Todd Radom  04:30

and those were those. That was a really unusual thing. But now, the rapidity with which our teams, you know, roll out new new uniforms, it kind of reflects our collective scrolling and, you know, just the way things move.

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Nestor Aparicio  04:46

Todd, I just got to say, there’s so much I want to say to you, and now, you like, know, my wife a little bit makes it even more interesting. You’ve had a cheese steak and a and French toast, which made my tastiness

Todd Radom  04:56

count, Baltimore, Philly, you know it’s, we’re very similar.

Nestor Aparicio  04:59

We’re right on. The train tracks here we’re one tasty cake and a Schmitz and a crab cake away from fixing things and a pretzel, which also made my list, literally like for last Monday night as we tape this, there were three games on so there was two football and one baseball. And my wife looked up and she saw the mariners, and she’s like, are they wearing their throwbacks? I’m like, no, no, no, no, the throwbacks are Bruce bhakti and and the thing that was upside down, the Rupert, the Bruce bhakti and Rupert Jones thing and Floyd banister. And I’m like, she’s like, that teal. I bought a teal hat when Ken Griffey played for the mariners, and I’m thinking I sat next him in the dugout when in the Home Run Derby, and when he wore it with the hat backwards, and the kid, like all like they in the playoffs, they just mix and match. I’m expecting the blues days to look like Paul Molitor or Dave Stieb a minute and a half from now, or getting Lee. And we could talk about the rush tour too, but they just break them out anytime, right? And when you have a dozen of them, like the Diamondbacks or like the padres, you sort of do whatever you want, right? I mean, I guess because you own the closet and the markings. But I looked up and Tommy, nope is playing for the Falcons. Went red helmets. And I’m thinking, look, I’m a Jerry Glanville guy. As I wear this Jerry Glanville screwed up the Falcons when Dion came. They had such a beautiful kit go into that black, like now the red.

Todd Radom  06:31

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He never won. And you know, there’s always this, this reason to shake things up, and these days, especially, to go backwards in time, to kind of harken back to what I call, you know, a more comfortable era, some comfort food. Everybody loves a big heaping bowl of mashed potatoes. But Nestor, I’ve got to interject and say that, you know, you talked about that beautiful, beautiful matchup between the Seahawks and the bucks the creamsicles, which were reviled by most people, you know, in the the mid 90s, let’s say this

Nestor Aparicio  07:03

was powder blue. Every time I walked into the dog pound, or I walked into three river stadium, or the vet wearing this in 1987 and saying, one moon, run and shoot, they would look at me and say, What’s wrong with you wearing that powder blue and buffalo? What’s wrong with you?

Todd Radom  07:20

Well, you know, so here you go. Talk about powder blue. The Phillies break out their powder blue.

Nestor Aparicio  07:26

They look they lost, but didn’t they lost, right?

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Todd Radom  07:31

You know, people here in this city love them. And you know clearly younger people, which is a lot of people at my point in life, love them, and they never saw them in person when they were actually in the regular rotation. But you talk about seeing the 1976 Buck Seahawks matchup the Blue Jays and mariners entered the American League as expansion brothers in 1977 it would be pretty awesome to see them out there in 1977 throwbacks, the pullovers for the Blue Jays with a symmetrical Blue Jay had right here, right and and the lettering, and the mariners with the trident. But it’s funny, Nestor, you know, an American League Championship Series, or, in the case of the Phillies, a Division Series the postseason, it seems to me, Super Bowl, NBA Playoffs. Whatever you want to talk about, should be kind of an elevated regular occasion.

Nestor Aparicio  08:27

I mean, I I loved looking up. I’m a Vegas casino when I looked up and the Phillies are playing the Dodgers, and it looked like Pete Rose and Ron say, were out there.

Todd Radom  08:37

How about the Chicago Cubs in 2016 overcoming 108 years of whatever you want to call it a billy goat curse, bad baseball, bad decisions, whatever, and they win the World Series wearing these alternate uniforms. It seemed, I don’t know, a little bit unspecial Well,

Nestor Aparicio  08:59

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I mean, it’s because you’re an artist, and so let’s get to the core of this. Because I mean, like, I’m not we could sit here and say, this is ugly and this is pretty or whatever, very subjective. And I’m glad you brought the Phillies up, because I really when I saw their bubble pee powder blues that they wore at Memorial Stadium in 1983 when they came in here with Sarge and Gary Maddox and Steve Carlton and all that stuff and the Great bodius. So for me, I and Cisco. See, I have a Cisco lescano, Phillies bubble, P 83 throwback that cease the war and old timers game here. So, like I have, I own that it’s a little big on me. I tried to get things that fit me these days, and you know, I wear that I don’t want to look like David Byrne in the talking heads. Although it’s a great movie, I would just say this, I want to get to the the art part. And I had invited rasig kind of too late to get him in here. But you guys that went to school for this and fashion and design, it struck me. Me, and I’m going to make two really weird statements, and let you be the professor in this, because I’m just a silly student who likes what I like, right? Um, the Phillies. I started thinking about a guy my age was a Phillies fan at that time in my life. I love the Phillies. I love the fanatic. I love nationally. I like fake grass, all of that circle stadiums, all things I didn’t have when I was a kid. And, pitchers hitting all that kind of stuff. I think about the Phillies, and when they went, when Schilling got there 93 and they went to the 1950s sort of Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn kind of look. I thought that that was so sexy from the baseball cards in the 50s that I you know, and I don’t think that the Phillies have ever had an ugly Jersey like I think they’ve, they’re, they’ve really done a tasteful job. They’re kind of weird, and they’re blue, and they were retro and forward and whatever, even their maroons that they bust out that look like, like spring clots, blood clots. I thought they looked they looked strong in the maroon, you know what I mean. And that being said, I see teams like the Falcons that have screwed up their Tommy nobis, or even like the chargers that have had a lot of different things. But then I see the Falcons with that ATL, that Robocop future looking thing that they wear. And I see a lot of college teams, and certainly the NBA has you and I talked at length about I don’t recognize the brands the look. There’s nothing that’s recognizable about a lot of the brands, other than the Celtics and the Lakers, that Don’t screw with it. And kind of the way the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Tigers Don’t screw with it in baseball, the mindset of an artist. And you teaching me how that ATL with young black hip hop culture and this and that, and post this and that, and who that they could sell more of that in Atlanta, then they can sell Tommy nobis, and I’ll hear that right, but, but to my old man eyes, it’s one thing, but I’m wondering all of these designs, when they literally look like ketchup or look it clashes these color rushes to a point of being, isn’t that ugly to everyone? To my mind, not just, Well, that’s a little futuristic, and maybe the kids get it, or maybe I don’t get it because my hair is too short or long, or I’m too old, or I’m not, I’m too square, like you, whatever it is. But I see a lot of things that are like weird, and still think, hey, that’s kind of cool. That’s kind I saw the brew crew thing. All the Milwaukee things I’m seeing are interesting to me. They’re not all good looking, but they’re interesting to me. You’re the artist. You’re the teacher. If I’m coming to school for this, what are you teaching me about design that makes it work these days?

Todd Radom  12:53

All right? So a lot to unpack here, but start with form and function, right? So form is about what things look like function is the fact that, you know, our uniform should be legible. Your numbers should be legible to referees and umpires and things like that. And yeah, you know, like I said, the word subjective comes to mind because our sensibilities are going to be incredibly different from someone I don’t know, 50 Years Younger or what have you. But the classics are classics for a reason. I always say that, and the timeless allure of the Yankee pinstripes, yeah, it’s associated with all that winning, but that Yankees and wine Nestor, you see people all over the world wearing that, and they don’t necessarily associate it with Aaron judge or, you know, Austin wells, or this current whatever, even a rod or Jeter or it’s a good looking mark, and it says New York. Not every team, not every franchise, has that. In the case of the Atlanta Falcons, you know, they’ve pivoted from look to look to look over the last, I don’t know, 25 years, but the fact remains, they’ve never won a Super Bowl. They’ve been in a couple, right? And so success matters a lot, and sticking with a look, I think the Phillies are a great example. In here in Philly, you’ve got people who love what they wear, and you’ve got people love the throwbacks, and they roll the throwbacks out there once a week. And you kind of have something for everybody without going too far off the grid. You know what? I mean, the Phillies look like. The Phillies, they don’t look

Nestor Aparicio  14:29

everybody goes off the grid with the pinks and the military, you know, like they’re the green on St Patrick’s. I mean, whatever, everybody has something funky that everybody wears 42 or Jackie. I mean, there’s all of that that goes on that is a one time one shot. We’re gonna break out Jetsons jerseys or whatever. Then there’s a whole like thing where guys like you get involved and do a whole redo, and the Browns wind up with something. Inevitably, that’s terrible. I mean, Brown’s Ana Brown, right? Yeah, Jim Brown’s jersey. Just wear that dude, yeah, I agree. I

Todd Radom  15:08

think the best thing that the Browns have done in recent years is to get that drop shadow. It’s a very subtle thing, but, you know, you close your eyes and you think of the Cleveland Browns, aside from the fact that, yeah, I mean, the tortured history with Baltimore I totally get and the fact that they are so inept and roll through the number of quarterbacks they roll through. Put that aside and think about the fact that they play where they play in the Midwest, you know, in the right and just classic. Go with the classics when you overdo things and you overthink things. And you kind of, you know, tail wags dog, from a marketing and design perspective, nothing good happens. Look at those Arizona Cardinals. There’s another franchise that’s bereft. They’ve never won a Super Bowl, right? All this stuff they roll out there in these ugly, I think, universally, kind of, I don’t know too many people who like them off white. They look like they hadn’t been laundered in a while. Jerseys. You know, what are you doing? There wasn’t a giant,

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Nestor Aparicio  16:09

the San Francisco Giants, and they see that sort of dusty look that looks great on the job. Looks like Willie McCovey or Willie Mays, right? That’s also a weird thing. The Padres had sort of an off dusty looking color my wife looked she’s like, that’s kind of a weird thing. And I’m like, well, it’s just kind of the way they do their brown right? Kind of story, right?

Todd Radom  16:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they did when they were born in 1969 but the giants are a great case, because they went back to a really retro look when they moved into the then pack Bell Park in 2000 right?

Nestor Aparicio  16:39

And bonds put that on, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, they’ve

Todd Radom  16:43

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won three World Series with that look. But you know, if you remember the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998 Buck Showalter, your Baltimore guy, a big guy with the uniforms he designed, quote, unquote, or he was very in on the process of thinking about what the new Arizona Diamondbacks would look like, and they go out there with this off white look and pinstripes and off white hats, right? So that off white thing was a very big thing 25 years ago. The Giants have stuck with it, and it works for them, and it kind of sets them apart in a very subtle way, again, not trying too hard.

Nestor Aparicio  17:19

Todd Radom is our guest. He is an artist, he is an author. He is a logo designer. He lives in Philadelphia. He’s become unwittingly my friend through Dick Girardi and cheesesteaks and art and his books and my Oilers fascination. I just want to keep going in a direction here of things I’ve seen recently, or things that maybe you’ve seen recently, the Greyhound bus thing that the Detroit Lions put on, that the silver with the literally looked like they look like Greyhound busses. I know they’re lions, and the Bengals have done the white out that. The white out thing is not just a Penn State thing or a Winnipeg playoff thing. It’s now like a thing. And the white digitization of jerseys, I know in Cincinnati, every time I bring it up there, it’s been like supremely successful there that came around their Super Bowl time. Now they’re in the dumper, so much so that Joe Flacco is probably going to sport that white jersey on Thursday night football in a couple of weeks against us. But the white thing and the silver thing, that’s its own sort of category, right?

Todd Radom  18:28

Yeah, they’re neutral colors, Nestor and you know, it’s like black. Blacks took over sports in the early 1990s right? When the LA Kings went to black, because they kind of looked like the Raiders. They did look like the Raiders, and then the White Sox get into that. And then by the turn of the new millennium, teams that have no business wearing black. What are the Kansas City Royals doing in black? What are the Oakland Athletics doing in black?

Nestor Aparicio  18:53

Everybody? Mets, the mess.

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Todd Radom  18:57

That’s right. So kind of flip the script to some degree. I kind of liked the white thing for the Bengals, because all they did was they just dropped orange. They still looked like the Bengals. And they came up with a marketing narrative about, you know, the white Bengals, and it looks cool gray and silver in the NBA, you saw a ton of teams going to gray alternate looks in the last, I don’t know, over the last 20 years, really, the the New Jersey Nets are out there in gray. The Boston Celtics go out there and gray. It’s a neutral look. It’s not like the Celtics are going to wear purple, right? God forbid. I mean, it’ll

Nestor Aparicio  19:36

never. The only thing you can do when you’re green and white to F it off is to go

Todd Radom  19:41

gray and black and black. And so the Celtics, you know, because the NBA has this, you know, very limited attention span, as you and I talked about, and you mentioned it before. You’ve got the Celtics out there wearing black, wearing gold, whatever that is. But, you know, they can’t. They’ve. To paint around the corners from an artistic perspective, a team like the Milwaukee Bucks, you know, who are? You know, they’ve settled into this green and off white thing. They’re out there in blue. What do they have? Blue like? What that should be, a complimentary color. So to get back to all they need

Nestor Aparicio  20:17

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to look like Kareem to me, or at least Sidney Moncrief, Jack, sigma, something,

Todd Radom  20:23

yeah. I mean, you know, but those that’s a long time ago, right? And you and I are going to get that reference. And it depends on what the franchise is, quite really

Nestor Aparicio  20:32

like, the 76 ers, you know, they have real heritage to wear things either Alan Iverson or but it feels like they can’t get out. I mean, every time I look up, they’re wearing some sort of Pajama that I think is weird.

Todd Radom  20:47

Well, it’s interesting. The Sixers that you reference are running back the Allen Iverson black 2001 look. And that team, of course, went to the NBA Finals. They get smoked by the Lakers, right? I

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Nestor Aparicio  21:01

tend to game three that that tournament.

Todd Radom  21:05

Yes, people love that look. And, you know, it’s relatively recent nostalgia. It’s associated with Iverson, who’s such a, you know, you throw the word iconic around so much these days, but he really is an icon, especially in this city. So that look, which represents a moment in time, and it’s really smart for them to, you know, form a narrative. They’re about around it. They’re not just throwing that out there for the sake of throwing it out there, but they’re celebrating a nice round number with it, with that with with running that thing back. And I think it’s, it’s going to be about the only thing interesting with that franchise this year, Nestor

Nestor Aparicio  21:40

Todd Radom is here. He gets my attention when, let’s see it’s bye week, World Series is going on. I mean, you are a baseball first guy. You’ve how many World Series games have you attended? I got to think 100 right? At least

Todd Radom  21:54

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not that many. But my first World Series game I attended as a fan was in 1977 with my father at Yankee Stadium game one against the Dodgers. I

Nestor Aparicio  22:03

mean, in the Reggie hit that night,

Todd Radom  22:06

none that was game one. Yeah, it would have been pretty awesome to be at Game Six, but, you know, you can only do what you can do. And the most recent one I attended was game five at Yankee Stadium last year against the Dodgers. And that was kind of epic. So I’ve been to a lot of them. Let’s

Nestor Aparicio  22:22

just put that way, yeah, I added mine up. I’m somewhere in the 40s or 50s and and they haven’t I mean, the Baltimore ones, I was in 79 and 83 and that’s all the rest of them have been other places. And like, the I was in Toronto, then, like, Joe Carter hit the home run in 93 and, yeah, just, I think of all these incredible moments being in Atlanta with the Yankees and lay Ritz in the home run like and that’s what where the magic is made here, right? And in the postseason, we talk about the jerseys and how they look and how it makes us feel, and all of that stuff. I went to Dodger Stadium as Janet Marie’s guest about four weeks ago and watched Yamamoto pitch, and I sat downstairs and saw the grandeur of the Dodger brand, and thought, Well, boy, the Orioles have trouble. No one, no wonder they can’t, you know. I mean, look at how much money is here and how rich it is. But it is a great time of the year to celebrate Seattle, Toronto, Milwaukee, other places being involved, and just seeing all of the Brewers fans in different gear. And I haven’t made it to Seattle yet to look around, but they got a whole bunch of different looks too, that they can go through. It’s a celebration. And I think I saw that 11 years ago in Kansas City, when I was there for the ALCS, when the Orioles played out there, just seeing all the George Bretts and all the willie Wilson’s and all the, you know, the Freddie pot tech feelings and the tears in the dugout when I was a boy. It is a time for guys our age. I call us all white guys, but Trump doesn’t think I’m white. Trust me, I would say that all the memories come back and and they’re good about it. I was sitting at Cooper’s the other night, and they’re showing throwbacks to ALDs and ALCS and other matchups. It’s a time of nostalgia for anybody that loves baseball. And my team’s not in it, right?

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Todd Radom  24:08

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, listen, baseball gets knocked because of the fact that it, it leans so heavily into its past and into nostalgia. But the other side of that is they do it so well. And to your point, you know, baseball, like no other sport, to me, connects the generations. So seeing those, you know, brewers jerseys, the Brewers haven’t been in a World Series since 1982 when they are in the net in the American League, the only world series that have they’ve ever appeared in. I kind of love this, this part of the postseason right now, because to see those fans in Seattle who have never been to a World Series Milwaukee, yeah, the Dodgers are the Dodgers. But, you know, every plot needs a villain, and you’ve got Toronto who hasn’t won in, you know, a generation. So I think there’s some really fun story lines and the uniforms to people. Like you and I, at least, are the through line that connects all of that in the stands, at least. All right,

Nestor Aparicio  25:05

listen, when I get you down here for a crab cake one day, and I’m at Cocos on November 5, one day I’ll get you down here at resig at Coco specifically because we’re sick. Is my co host with a K at Cocos, because he lives a block away. So and we talk about these things and like, look, I wish I people could come back in an hour, and I’ll still be bitching about John Harbaugh and accountability, and the team will still be one in five, and like, and Luke will be there. But I love doing this. And if you’re watching out, and I would give a plug to our YouTube channel for all of the 1000s of subscribers we have, thank you. And anybody watching on Facebook, this is going to be visual. So if you’re on the radio, Thompson, so last time we got together, you know, I collect these crazy belt buckles, right? So I have, it’s my rock and roll thing, and I picked up a couple of really rare ones in recent days. I still have a few left. I got to get. And I was started to collect the football belt buckle. So I’ve held up the Atlanta Falcons one, and I had my Baltimore Colts. One was my original one, and I’ve now collected in this series. I’m missing Denver, New Orleans and buffalo. This is 1971 Okay, 1971 NFL properties. All right. I went into a rabbit hole, as some of us can do. Add on the E, B, A, y, all right, you’re familiar with this. You’ve been

Todd Radom  26:23

down. I think so, I think. All right, so.

Nestor Aparicio  26:27

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And they know what I like, right? They know what I buy. The algorithm has me up in and stuff started popping up. And I think this was the first one I saw, and I’m going to show it to you, and you’re going to say, Wow, so this popped up on my screen. Yeah, it is a San Francisco Giants 1969 Yeah, logo, and I saw that, and I’m like, these look like the 1971 Sears. And robot cattle. I found the catalog for the 70 ones in the mid 70s, and they made different ones in 78 the 78 are a little different. So I could the 78 have they were made with lead, lead jeans le, and they were they’re made a little smaller, and they’re made a little more glossy. So the 78 are different. Course, there wouldn’t have been a wouldn’t have been a 71 Buccaneers because they didn’t exist, right? So the 69 baseball series, I went into the rabbit hole, and I thought, Hmm, wonder what I’ll find and how cool it will look. So I then immediately found the I found three of these that I bought at the same time, much more affordable than you think. I got an Orioles and I got a St Louis Cardinals, and the Cardinals logo is so sort of weirdly old that it feels 50s, but it’s a 69 Lou Brock, but feels much more Stan, usual, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Todd Radom  28:02

And the Cardinals, you know, a very traditional organization, Nestor, right, especially at that point in time. But I look at that 1969 Orioles, you can’t help but think of the World Series, even if you and I didn’t, I have no memories of it. I was alive for it. But those are great looking and they bring back so many memories. And I first thing I thought 1969 a huge licensing and souvenir year for baseball, because baseball celebrated its 100th anniversary, and they had patches on the every team had the patch. Just about every team had the patch. The pirates didn’t wear it. They had sleeveless jerseys at that time, right? So the pirates didn’t wear it.

Nestor Aparicio  28:45

But I have a 69 Aparicio powder blue, white sox Jersey, and it has the patch, has the Major League Baseball player on it,

Todd Radom  28:54

right? Seattle pilots,

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Nestor Aparicio  28:57

I’m wondering if there was a Seattle pilots, one made, I’m holding up the state of Ohio with the Indians guardians logo, we can’t talk about anymore. And this the Sparky Anderson, Big Red Machine. So like when I hold this up, and I hold this up, it’s like the 1970 World Series is coming together, and it’s raining out and Earl Weaver’s talking ish the Sparky. So I have these on the wall, and they have it like 20 bucks, right? So, and I feel like maybe one day they’ll be worth 1000 bucks. I don’t know, but I’m having fun with this. But I did want to show you the 1959 Go Go socks World Series at so I found the White Sox, yeah, and the Dodgers with the red. And I learned that they since went away from the red flaming baseball and went to more of a blue trail in the flames. If you go,

Todd Radom  29:54

nope, nope, it’s still red. It’s been updated though

Nestor Aparicio  29:57

it’s less rain or something like. That it looks different. Yeah, it’s

Todd Radom  30:01

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a little streamlined, made more modern for the 21st Century. Let’s put it that way, for digital use. And you know, you talked about going with Janet Marie Smith, getting a tour of Dodger Stadium. I’ve done that too, just fascinating, and she’s brought back so much of the history, which was literally like stowed away in the basement. But Nestor, I want to, I want to point out that to me, the first thing I noticed when you held up the the Orioles and the and the reds, look at those logos, and look how kind of silly they are, and they’re cartoonish, right, fun, right? Our sports logos got really mean and intimidating at a certain point which I can pinpoint. But another, another discussion, where

Nestor Aparicio  30:45

is that? Tell me you’re teaching me, I think

Todd Radom  30:51

by the mid 90s, all these expansion teams and franchises that move wanted to look at all the angry animals, the Vancouver Grizzlies of the world, and the Blue Jays that we’ve talked about how they went from, you know, kind of a cheery bird to a very intimidating bird. And it’s interesting Nestor I’ve talked to, and I’ve gotten to know the guy who was responsible for that first Blue Jays logo, great, great guy named Richard Walker, and he said that the original blue jay that glint in the eye. Lee seems a little innocent, but it’s about, it’s about like a spark of something, a little light bulb going on there, right? That’s

Nestor Aparicio  31:29

very Canadian, right? That’s very Canadian, very Canadian. They sneak up on you, right? Yeah. And

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Todd Radom  31:34

it’s a great logo. I’ve got it. I’ve got an autograph of his on my wall behind

Nestor Aparicio  31:38

me. You know, it’s funny, man, the Seahawks were 76 logo. That’s a pretty nasty looking Seahawk, right?

Todd Radom  31:43

That’s gonna come at you, man. It’s based on an actual piece of native art in a museum up there. So it has a great story behind

Nestor Aparicio  31:52

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it, dude, you’re so smart. Tom radham’s here. He’s an artist, and I have, and I’m I’ve learned my 57th birthday was yesterday, by the way, happy birthday to Jim Palmer, because today’s his birthday. So we celebrate. He’s always the day after me. It always works that way, the same every year. And I think I’ve learned that I am attracted to bright, shiny objects. I’m like a shark in the water, you know what I mean. And things to me like seeing this, this white sock, which looks more Bill Melton to me than Luis Allen. It’s the day. It’s Dick Allen, it’s goose Gossage, it’s Bill Melton. Yeah, I would agree with that, right? So they’re all associated, but, um, I did wonder aloud, because a lot of these belts, I haven’t found them. Okay? Um, don’t tell anybody. There’s a Rangers one and a twins one that I’m going to be getting before the week’s over. I have seen the Milwaukee Brewers one, but I have not been able to purchase it. I have never seen whether. I’ll give you some teams, Astros, Braves, Royals, pilots, Seattle pilots. But I wondered if the Phillies one existed and what it would look like, logo wise. And I found it. And, dude, I found it on the actual belt. So the Phillies one is the bubble pee. It is maroon and not bright candy red. So I have this one, and I have an Oakland A’s one over here. I have a beautiful Detroit Tigers. You know, hold on. I’m gonna pull these up for you rating because your books plug your books, and I’m gonna get more of these belt buckles Go ahead.

Todd Radom  33:26

So the big the big story is I have a new book coming out on April 28 2026 and it’s called the ballpark and beyond. It is an illustrated celebration of 150 years of baseball history, a lot of great little stories, including something about Camden Yards and something about the 1890s Baltimore Orioles, right in your wheelhouse in both instances. So that’s forthcoming, and I’ll be, I will be shilling that as the as the months go by and as we get closer to pub,

Nestor Aparicio  34:00

you know what? You’re such an old nerd about sports. You just went 1890s Orioles on me. I took you all over the city of Baltimore in my car. I took you everywhere. I took you past Memorial Stadium. That’s now the Y. I mean, you wanted to see you wanted to go to Hopkins. Your wife’s an art fart. So like, you want to see galleries, and like we did all of that stuff. We had, we had French toast, which was in my top 12, I think, on my tastiness, you know. So I took you to one of my great places. I didn’t think to take you over to the original Oriole Park, which is now a brewery. And it’s literally, we went right by it. It’s by the Hopkins campus. It’s where it burned down on the Fourth of July in the 40s all of that. It is literally a little homage to the pre Memorial Stadium Orioles, but it’s got modern stuff in there too. And here’s the thing that’s the coolest thing. Are you ready? So we’re going to take you there. We’re going to drink beer that my buddy John Spurrier, dreadlocks, man, he brings Ray. Eight bands down there. He lives a couple blocks away. His wife is Odette Ramos, our Councilwoman, whom I love. She’s our Latina Councilwoman who’s anti ice, except in drinks. And so you can get an ice and a drink there, and then we can walk back into the gaming room. If I tell people this, if it gets out, there’s gonna be a line. They have the rush pinball machine. So when you played a pinball machine there, you know, it just play like and when it goes through, it’ll play fly by night. It plays free will. It plays song, it plays big

Todd Radom  35:38

money. I’ve never heard of a such a pinball machine. That’s amazing.

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Nestor Aparicio  35:41

So yeah, so you can drink at the old Oriole Park and play the rush pinball machine. Maybe here’s some Reagan, usually, some really pretty co EDS there from Johns Hopkins. And so it’s nice. So I have a few more logos. Todd radham is here. He writes books. He’s got another one coming out next year. He’s plugged it. Anything else you want to plug. I mean, plug your old books right.

Todd Radom  35:59

Beginning ugly, my loving homage to some of the most air quote, questionable uniforms in the history of Major League Baseball, that’s still in print. So

Nestor Aparicio  36:07

I’d want to ask you, what the ugliest jersey? Wrote a book on the ugliest jerseys. Yeah. I mean, well,

Todd Radom  36:11

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you can’t just have one, right? There are a bunch of them. And then fabric of the game, which I co wrote with my buddy in Toronto, Chris creamer from sports logos.net which is a look at the NHL and how every team in the history of the NHL got their name and

Nestor Aparicio  36:28

their looks, including the Hartford Whalers ignada, not

Todd Radom  36:32

only the Hart whalers Nestor, but the the the Quebec athletics of the very Beginning of the league, the Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1920s the Quebec Nordiques, the Philadelphia Quakers, a one year franchise during the Depression. It really every franchise in the history of the league. The Oakland seals go down the line. Oh,

Nestor Aparicio  36:54

but you just, you just, it’s like you’re reading my script. It’s like we got so one of my dearest friends, by the way, I have text with Barry trots this morning, so I’m coming up to Philly to see him when the predators come in in a couple of weeks. But my original, my OG wasn’t trotsey, even though we’re the same age, and I love trotsey, and he’s going to Hall of f in famous or Weaver, would say. But jeanco was my original mentor in hockey and my original coach, I had Marvin Lewis on this week, who was my original football mentor. We did an hour of how to rush the quarterback this week on the air. So please find all that at Baltimore positive. But UBI, when you google Gene ubriaco And you google image, the picture that comes up is the Oakland seals hockey card, yeah, and I always tease him with that, because who would know what they look like, or the Seattle pilots. I had Kenny Maine on. He grew up in Seattle. He went to six, six state. It’s s, I, C, K, apostrophe, s6, stadium. People be hearing about that, because the mariners are in and the pilots, and the pilots became the brewers and like all that. But nonetheless, Todd, I, you know, I go down to trap with all this, but I do want to show you these cool 1969 I’ve gotten a few more. So I’ve got pirates, I’ve got tigers, I’ve got Yankees, and I got a perfect Yankee one. It’s so beautiful I have not found the original red sock one, although the Red Sox made one in 2004 that looks the way it would look. But I do have an Oakland A’s one, but I haven’t found padres. I haven’t found Royals. Is there a point where Major League Baseball back then might not have made maybe the saints opted out of the NFL, and there I just will never find a saints one, or that the Padres or the Expos were not established enough, or the pilots to have even made these things.

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Todd Radom  38:46

All of those are out there. Nestor and I just look to my left because I have and I’m going to find this, and I will text you an image of it. I have a catalog from 1969 with all of this MLB merch. I need a screenshot of that for sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I’ll get it to you. So you know, there was this very concerted licensing effort. The NFL was way ahead of things, as they are, with most things in terms of generating revenue, and they started pushing stuff out in terms of stuff, right, licensed stuff in the early 60s. MLB started to catch up in the late 60s, and in 1969 again, 100th anniversary of Major League Baseball, they pulled together their resources as individual clubs. Answer is, all of this stuff is out there, the Blue Jays. Interestingly enough, when they came on in 1977 they were not part of that licensing agreement because they were Canadian. I don’t know why the Expos were in and the Blue Jays were out, but the Blue Jays went with a private label licensing division, basically, and they sold so much stuff in Canada when they first came, came on the scene, they were generating gobs of revenue. Um. And they, you know, eventually joined the whole, the whole thing, those things are out there, Nestor, well, the backs of all of

Nestor Aparicio  40:07

these belt buckles that I have all say, orbit, the H i orbit company, they, they were the ones that made the belt buckles for baseball, football. And, by the way, I’ll throw this at you too, and this will be your homework here, because I picked up a couple of. I don’t have any of the hockey ones there are. There’s a New York Rangers and an Islanders and a buffalo sabers as well. But I have since picked up these on the era. And this is the crate. This is the craziest one here. This is the Sacra. Sacramento Kings were in Kansas City, Omaha. Yeah, it says Kansas City, Omaha, like the capital, bullets were a thing here for a minute as well. But I did pick up the Knicks because I thought it was just so attractive and so cool with the basketball these logos are just Todd you’re an arty you grew up into this, and probably were your whole life. Was inspired by one of these logos or some Oilers jerseys, a lot of them, again, when you were a kid seeing the original logos, it’s a marvel. Who these artists? Because it does sort of look like Snoopy and peanuts, right? I mean, the style of it, right? Yeah.

Todd Radom  41:11

And like, you know, if you’re in 1968 and you’re going to design a logo for the New York Knicks, very different world in terms of how it’s going to be used. But you know what? What do you put on there? Nestor, what is a knick or basketball? It’s a basketball. And now I’m thinking of having had lunch with Walt Fraser probably about eight years ago. What an amazing guy. I’ve got a picture of him and me, and he’s got his two NBA championship rings, the only two championships the Knicks have ever won, of course, why? Baby Clyde, yeah, what, when? And he’s wearing a coat that looks like an upholstered

Nestor Aparicio  41:46

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every time he’s next to Kenny Albert, I say, Kenny, you’re just, you’re underdressed dog, you know, like, literally,

Todd Radom  41:52

you know, coolest guy in the world, right? And a very good guy, too.

Nestor Aparicio  41:56

Oh, legendarily, all right. So it’s not often that I hold Nick’s logos up, but when I do, it’s for Todd Radom. His books are available. He is available. He podcasts and says things and designs things. Can I this last question for you, because we’ve done a lot of complaining here. You’re always very generous with your time. When my football team is one in five, we’re in a bye week, and I want to talk about something that’s on my mind, which these jerseys and logos and all this stuff’s on my mind. Have you seen anything lately that you love? Have there been a couple of things that like, Oh, I haven’t seen that. I love that because I’m I kind of want to do that with you. I want to be on the lookout and text you a thing and say, I’ve never seen that before, but it looks good. Well, it’s

Todd Radom  42:39

interesting you say this because, you know, we can all hate on anything new. Everybody hates everything new. And our tortured civic dialog, particularly online, basically means that, you know, people pile on to stuff. But I got to tell you, I like the Utah mammoth. I like the name of the Utah mammoth. I like the logo. I like the colors. I like what they’ve come up with. And so, you know, it’s a very visible example, but I kind of like it.

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Nestor Aparicio  43:07

Yeah, I see the Kraken play, and it looks like an NHL jersey. It doesn’t, it doesn’t look like it belongs in the California roller skating League. You know what? I mean? I love it. I think it’s great.

Todd Radom  43:17

The colors are awesome. It looks like Seattle, right? The colors look like Seattle in the same way, to a lesser extent, the mariners look like Seattle. All

Nestor Aparicio  43:26

right, if I find a Supersonics belt buckle, I’ll let you know.

Todd Radom  43:32

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Jack sigma, slick watts with the headband. Man,

Nestor Aparicio  43:36

what it had? That logo had everything, right? Had the cityscape. I mean, it looks like, it looks like a Frasier Crane commercial, right? Like, yeah,

Todd Radom  43:42

exactly. You see the lettering and the whole thing. Nestor, real quick, one of the little chapters that I have in my forthcoming book talks about the birth of the Internet for baseball, how we watched baseball, how we got scores. The mariners were the first professional sports team in North America to come out with a website. And what they did was, their plan was to give players email addresses out to fans, the equivalent of writing a letter to them. Probably not such a good idea.

Nestor Aparicio  44:13

Well, I mean, somebody’s handling the inbox. I don’t know how they would have done that for each hero, though you know,

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Todd Radom  44:18

you know Ken Griffey Jr in 1994 Can you imagine

Nestor Aparicio  44:22

just Jay Buhner alone? Everybody loved Jay? Yeah, absolutely. George Costanza, absolutely. Todd. Random is here he is, author, artist and logo designer. Is designed super logos and all sorts of things that you’ve seen. And he’s our friend from the fighting city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I will be attending some concerts in future dates and eating cheesesteaks. And I found an unbelievable cheesesteak Italian beef joint, and of all places, in Wilmington, Delaware. So I’ve got a new joint and new reasons. Dollars to pass through, and I only have to go over to Delaware bridge, so right on this side of the bridge. And I put that out on the internet too. Hey, Todd, you’re making me hungry for throwback football, and you, by the way, I heard that the Oilers aren’t wearing or the Titans aren’t wearing the Oilers because they’ve just gotten their ass kicked too much. So we won’t be seeing these. I just hope that I see Derrick Henry and purple running for more yardage than we have lately, because crappy football stinks even more than crappy baseball, especially one after the other. We’re struggling down here. Todd, ever since you came in this summer, it’s all falling apart, man, you’re blaming me. You’re blaming me. I’m not blaming you, dude. I mean, I only blame you when the Orioles wear those orange whatever that thing

Todd Radom  45:40

is, cones, the pylon

Nestor Aparicio  45:41

look, they look like pumpkins and not like in a good pat Dobson, Mike quay, are kind of way so those are what we call throw ups, not throwbacks. So Tom Radom is here. He is our defending champion. I appreciate him coming on. There will be crab cakes at some point for him, for you, for me, I’m going to be a Cocos on the fifth of November, we will have Raven scratch offs to give away courtesy of our friends at the Maryland lottery. And of course, our friends a Curia wellness and foreign daughter sent me out for tastiness, where I had things like a Philly pretzel at the Philly pretzel factory on day 27 so I did the countdown because we are 27 years into this, and I’m still trying to do good programming during bye weeks, especially when they’re one and five. We are W NSD am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking logos and jerseys and fun and throwbacks and throw ups and how the Ravens can’t wear the flying bee anymore. That’s a long story. Still makes David Modell very angry.