Texas City Flags

What's the nickname of the state of Texas? Having lived there, I know it's known as the Lone Star state. Of course, you don't need to live there to know that or have learned that.

The five pointed "nautical" star, though, is the symbol for Texas, and studies have shown that by putting either the star or the outline of the state on products you're trying to sell will increase sales by a definite percentage. The Dallas Cowboys logo is the star. One of the original flags, the Burnet Flag, is a solid blue field with a single large white star (it was showcased here a while ago).

So, is it surprising that the three largest cities in Texas use some form of the single, five-pointed star as the dominant image of their city-local flags?

What are the three largest cities?

1. Houston, with a variation of the Burnet Flag:

2. San Antonio, which centers the Alamo in their star, with the field split between red and blue:

3. Dallas, with multiple stars within the star within the city seal within the star, and a horizontal splitting of the red and blue:

To clarify, San Antonio is bigger than Dallas, but not bigger than the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area. Ft. Worth has its own flag and population though, so I stand by my post.

Miami Dolphins Finally Change it Up

The Miami Dolphins have finally decided to change their helmet design, the first major upgrade in their team's history. They did move the head of their dancing dolphin out of the circle, but is that really major?

Here's their proposed new helmet design, and while it isn't as cool as the experimental one I posted about a few posts ago, it's pretty cool on its own:

It's both dynamic and classic, it doesn't deviate too much from what they already have, and if the announcement was fake, then fans of logo design wouldn't be put out too much. It almost makes me wish I cared about the Dolphins.

Bulgaria and Hungary: Decemberween Colors

I wrote an amalgamation post a while back about different flags and how they're similar to great degrees, things like two island nations from the Caribbean and the major European vertical tri-bands.

During all that hub-bub (if you care to call it that), I lost track of two horizontal tribanded flags that use the same colors: red, white and green.

I have one friend who is half Bulgar, and a different friend who is half Magyar. According to the history books, the Hungarian flag dates back further than the Bulgarian flag, but that's likely do to the fact that the Magyars, while the last ethnic group to settle in Europe proper, were established as their own kingdom before the Bulgars were able to break away from one of the many other Altaic overlords where Eastern Europe meets the Asian Steppe.

First, here is the Bulgarian flag (and a shout out to Diana Mircheva):

And here's the Hungarian flag (and a shout out to a former roommate and full time Magyar, Jimmy Berlow):

There's no real relation that we can tell right away between the colors, besides those colors being used by many groups for many reasons through the years.

Nice Jerseys from Ebbets Field Flannels

Ebbets Field Flannels is a baseball (mostly) jersey making company who specializes in old-school accuracy, and this attention to detail is seen in their pricing. They have so many teams that I'd either never heard of or had heard of but hadn't really ever seen the jersey. Whatever. If you like jerseys, or at least at looking at jerseys, you'd love this site.

Here we see the only integrated team in the Southern Association (for a long time), the Atlanta Crackers. The name sounds funny, but it implies wheat cracking, and there have been plenty of teams nicknamed Crackers or Black Crackers.

Compare the color scheme and script writing to the current day Atlanta Braves team, the team that in 1965 put the final kibosh on the Crackers minor league team:

I like this jersey, but it isn't so old. It's from a Japanese team that has since changed their name. I like the Astro Boy patch on the left arm:

The solid blue is what drew me to this Indianapolis Clowns jersey. Well, that and #5 was the Hammer's number. The Clowns were like the Harlem Globetrotters: a barnstorming team that traveled and played communities' best teams, usually winning. They were a Negro League team during the death gasps of the various organized leagues known today as "the Negro Leagues." They survived a few years past the integration of the Major Leagues, into the fifties. It was during that time that a teenage Hank Aaron played, and this is what he wore (Hank's currently my favorite living old-timey player):

The idea that you could "Commies" on your jersey makes me laugh. This was a team from the 1920's that were known as the Commodores:

Here's my Seals collection. The San Francisco Seals were one of the two SF teams in the old PCL (along with the Mission Reds) and one of my favorite old designs. I identify with the old teams from the Bay Area, and the Seals had a few things going for them: pinstripes and Joe DiMaggio. These pictures show the various things that Ebbets Field Flannels do: caps, jerseys, jackets, and T-shirts. (I guess this entire post is basically a commercial for their site.)

The caps vary in years, and of these two, I prefer the second, the dark navy and white only:

Here's the jersey with the script. Out of all the Seals jerseys they have on their site, which is many, this is my favorite:

They make jackets and coats as well. I've been eyeing this one for a while. It makes the best sense considering our weather here (in Southern California) and how it's light wool with button fasteners:

The last thing I have here is a nice shirt from an old PCL team from my Home City:

I didn't intend to advertise for EFF when I started this post. It just happened like that. These were some jerseys and shirts I'd been sitting on, forgetting why I snatched up the pictures in the first place.

I imagine I might use a jersey from their site again, or from time to time, just to illustrate a specific point. That's why I had the in the first place...I just forgot the reason why.

Whatever.

I respect quality, and what they--Ebbets Field Flannels--do is quality.

Iroquois Nation

When Benjamin Franklin was on the council to come up with an American style Magna Carta, a set of rules by which to be governed, what turned out to be the Articles of Confederation, the forerunner to our  Constitution, he didn't have to look to far.

The Five Nations, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, were nearby and had just such a document. In fact, Franklin cribbed the juiciest parts for the Articles of Confed., and the Constitution retains the structure and pattern. The Constitution is more "American" than we ever knew.

Here's a the Iroquois Nation's current flag, a pretty classic design:

The Iroquois Confederacy competes in lacrosse as a nation, and is respectfully ranked.

New Orleans Reclaims a Bit of Heritage

The NBA franchise in New Orleans, currently named the Hornets, has opted to change their name to the Pelicans as early as next season. The Hornets, as a name, is mostly associated with Charlotte. I once wrote a  piece about team names and places, and the association of the name "Hornets" and the city of Charlotte dates back to the middle 1700s.

The NBA team that was founded in Charlotte in 1988 moved to New Orleans in, what, 2002? So far the most important thing accomplished by them is to show that Oklahoma City can support an NBA franchise (the Hornets moved to OKC in the aftermath of Katrina).

So what do we have? The Hornets, as a name, will likely be moving back to Charlotte, replacing their current "Bobcats" moniker, and that makes sense. The current Hornets will become the Pelicans, and again, that makes a sense. Here's a mock-up of what the logo COULD look like:

Now, their logo most likely won't ever look like that, but that looks pretty cool. I've read many fans comments who thing that the Pelicans as a name is stupid, or lame, and should be something fearsome. Like a Wizard, or a Buck, or a Celtic, right? Some people say that the team in Utah, the Jazz, originally from New Orleans, should send their name back to the Big Easy. Other people suggest that they should have chose something else, like the Brass.

"Pelicans", though, goes way back with the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Here's a vintage T-shirt from their long-standing OG minor league team:

And here's one of their jerseys. The Pelicans won many pennants in their own league throughout their existence. Minor league baseball returned to New Orleans a few years ago, but now they're called the Zephyrs.

Living where I live now, in Southern California, I've had the opportunity to go to the beach and watch the pelicans hold court, the largest and most regal of our sea-birds. Their dive-bombing for fish is a great sight and like watching a highlight reel from a nature show. When it's feeding time, it's on.

Anyone who's ever seen a dive-bombing pelican would never complain that they'd make a lame mascot.

A Pair from Middle Earth

Tolkien's Middle Earth has been realized in the flesh of grass and rocks and mountains and canyons in the Southern nation of New Zealand, but anyone familiar with the Peter Jackson trilogy knows that information.

Today I bring two flags from the Down Under's cousin.

One is the symbol of the All Blacks, the name given to the national teams from New Zealand, and it'll look weird here wit the black background:

The Silver Fern. I'm not totally clear how the silver fern, or here, what looks like a white fern, became the symbol for all New Zealand international sports teams, but it is. If you ever see a silver or white fern on a black field, rest assured you're looking at something associated with kiwis (the affectionate demonym for a New Zealanders).

Here's the next, one I came across a while back randomly and snatched it up:

This is called the Maori flag, the flag for the indigenous Australnesian peoples who inhabit the islands of New Zealand. I think it looks pretty cool. (Also, it may look cool with the black background.)