The
New Britain RockCats Shirt
What
it means to me: I like that this is a Twins farm team,
but mostly it’s one of those quintessential minor league team names that follow
the pattern of Aspect Of The Area +
Random Monosyllabic Animal. This
one is especially perfect, because I don’t even know if Rock refers to their
area being famous for certain rocks, or for the genre of music.
What
I want it to project: This shirt ought to say that I care
about sports, but not so much that I always need to represent a team that I
actually follow, or even a major league team.
It should also say that I somehow have connections to get apparel from a
place you may not have heard of or at least don’t know where it is. The connections I have, of course, are simply
to the big league team…
The
Story: In one of my best purchases of the winter, I went
to TwinsFest™ for the usual excuse to look over apparel and merch I’m probably
not going to buy. But mostly just to get
psyched about the Twins. In the farm
system section, I chose this one over a Fort Myers Miracle hat, which honestly
would have been cool, but I didn’t think they were worth my time as an A ball
team. The only other choice was a
Rochester Red Wings T-shirt, but since we’ve changed Triple A affiliates twice
already since I started following the team, doesn’t seem like a great
investment.
Loyola
Marymount T-shirt[1]
Um…
Why…?: It actually means something to both me and Mike
B. Even though the team is not a
contender anymore, we became enamored of the team when we watched ESPN 30 for
30’s “The Guru of Go”, which was mostly about that late ‘80s team that made a
huge run. It’s just so amazing that a
guy could go so unrecognized for not so much revolutionizing a sport, as
turning it in to something else. That’s
what he did with the game of college basketball. This team had could not be beaten at full
strength and they wouldn’t have been at all if not for one of their star
players, Hank Gathers, dying on the
court. That’s what he did. And his good friend Bo Kimble then shot the
first of every pair of free throws in the NCAAs left-handed in honor of him-
and made every single one. So Mike and I just have this code for gushing
over the whole thing which will come up either whenever there’s something about
that team even tangently in the news or if I’m wearing the shirt.
So…
Who…?: The whole story is that I got it from a guy at my
church who was giving them away to volunteers for some charity run that I ended
up not even volunteering at but my mom did and of course they got drenched in
the rain which I hear happens every year at this particular thing. [gasp] But suffice it to say, about the least I’ve
ever earned a T-shirt.
Carbon
Leaf T[2]
What
Is That?: I have loved this band since I first heard them
when Marty downloaded a bunch of (illegal?) music onto my laptop my sophomore
year of college. They sat there
unlistened to for several weeks, as I was too busy judging them by their
name. But when I did, I loved every
album. Bought the third one that I
couldn’t listen to, and have since bought 2 ½ more albums from them (they
recently release a legitimate half album, which of course, I bought). And last fall it worked out that they were in
town, and I was available to go to one of their shows. Alex Hennen didn’t really know them, but he
knew I liked them and informed me they were playing. I was panicking in the weeks leading up to
it, while we still didn’t have tickets.
And when Al got them with a week to spare, I was both psyched and
offended. (How are they not popular
enough to be sold out at this point?!)
The show was everything it ought to have been and more. This wasn’t the first concert T I have, but
it will be the last one I own, if I have my druthers.
What
I Want It To Project: In
the most hipster way possible, I want it to be a band you haven’t heard of, but
maybe you have, in which case you’re cool.
The
Decision: I
had to decide at the concert between this one and a white one. I’m normally not much for black shirts, but
this was a good decision. It’s kind of a
European fit, and I’m less of a European size now, so I’m glad it is black and
therefore thinning. But the design is a
cool one, too, though not one I’ve seen on any album covers. Kind of got a gothic thing going on, which I
respect.
Israel
Coke T (retired)
Why
I Like It: This shirt, red like the product it endorses,
essentially embodies what I’m about. I
love Coke, and I love travelling. Having
a Coke shirt from another country is really one of the most American things you
can do, in that you are showing off what another country has made of an
American establishment. It is
imperialism at its finest. But on a less
cynical note, I simply enjoyed showing off that I appreciate the language and
culture of another country, whether that’s what other people actually got out
of it.
What
You Should, Too: At the very least, I wanted people to
get my love of Coke, one side of one of the great nonexistent debates in our
society, up there with Burger King or McDonalds. The fact that it’s from another country shows
that my experiences in another country may have been relatively superficial,
but the country that I went to was deep enough that there’s no reason to
expound.
The
Story: The marketplace in the Old City of Jerusalem is
where some of the most intense haggling I’ve ever encountered occurs. Later on in the trip, my haggling skills
would get more polished, but I remember the first deal they offered at this
particular t-shirt shop was pretty reasonable. So I made sure to get a Coke
shirt, because it was truly one of the experiences I will remember most fondly
about the place. It ended up being one
of the few times I’ve actually worn something on a trip that I bought as a
souvenir. I would later wear it to a
party at the house of my Jewish cousins (he married into the family), where his
mom explained to me what the Hebrew literally translated to. As she went from right to left (it being
Hebrew), I was disappointed to learn it pretty much just wrote out Koh-Kah
Koh-Lah, phonetically. Why? They could call it whatever they wanted? I guess the Israelis just thought it meant
something to maintain its authenticity, even if they couldn’t understand it.
[1]
What
I’ve concluded about why I don’t have any soccer gear is the simple reason that
it’s not something that’s that important to me.
I have a couple basketball shirts, many Twins shirts and a bunch of
Packers stuff. I still feel comfortable
enough with the stuff I do like, that I’m okay knowing a little less about the
sport than those I watch it with. And
their being able to answer any questions I have allows me to enjoy it that much
more. I know enough about baseball,
football, and more recently basketball, that I can watch those sports on my own
and appreciate them. I just don’t think
I’m at that point with soccer yet.
[2] …As many shirts
as I have, there are still a fair amount that I wish I did have. I recently acquired a shirt for an alcoholic
beverage I actually enjoy, Magic Hat #9, which I got at Bonnaroo. The closest thing I had to that previously was
a free Miller-Liteguard shirt from a promotion they were doing at a bar
downtown. I hate Miller Lite. But I would like any Leinie’s apparel. Another shirt I don’t have is any soccer
jersey. I might have to get a USMNT shirt
for when we go down to Kansas City this fall.
I also wouldn’t mind getting a Seattle Sounders kit. They’re my unofficial adopted MLS team, as
I’m not going to cheer for a Chicago team, and I really like the city of
Seattle. But I would probably get an
Aston Villa jersey above all, as they are my first team, a Premier League team
(hopefully for a while), and their kits are pretty awesome, too.
