We have a lot of time to notice things that didn’t seem terribly noticeable before. That’s the beauty — or the curse — of having time on our hands. Maybe you didn’t quite see the scratch on your TV screen before; now that’s all you can see. That patch of brown on your lawn? That’s gone from “What patch of brown?” to “I must rescue my lawn at once!” over the past few weeks.
One thing that’s occurred to me is that we have a proliferation in New York of excellent logos. Many of them are downright iconic, in fact. Some of that is accrued over time. Some of them have been quietly outstanding for years. But the more you look at them — and look, and look, and look, mostly while you’re trying to win a slot in the A&P curbside pickup sweepstakes — the more you appreciate them.
Let’s take a quick spin through the leagues.
Baseball
What we have: The Yankees have Uncle Sam’s hat on a bat, superimposed against the stitches of a baseball and the name in distinctive script starting with a grand “Y.” The Mets opt for orange stitches and a white generic suspension bridge (though it sure looks like the Whitestone, nearest bridge to Shea/Citi) with, left-to-right, images in blue of a Brooklyn church, the Williamsburg Savings Bank Building, the Woolworth Building, the Empire State Building and the U.N. — plus, of course, “Mets” written in script.
Where do they rank: Look, it’s a hometown call, for sure, but both logos are certainly in the MLB top 10, and probably belong in the top five alongside Boston’s pair of red socks, Chicago’s oddly-scripted “Sox” and the Cardinals’ birds-on-a-bat. You want to argue for the Dodgers’ distinctive script (with the ascending red ball), the Brewers’ “M&B” glove optical illusion or Detroit’s orange tiger slithering through an old-English D, I’ll listen. But ours are two of the best, hands down.
Football
What we have: Despite the fact that there are some fans who clamor for the underlined “GIANTS” that carried the day in Super Bowls XXI and XXV, there is really only the simple lowercase “ny,” in white outlined by red (never, ever to be confused with the lowercase “ny” of 1975 whose font was borrowed from every high school yearbook at the time). The Jets’ generally have had the same elements at work inside a football: team name in block letter, smaller football, some version of “New York” (though the best simply went with an all-caps “NY”).
UPIWhere do they rank: The Giants’ is easily top five. The Jets struggle because there are so many classic NFL logos still in existence: the Packers’ “G,” the Cowboys’ star, the Chiefs’ arrowhead, the Vikings’ horns, the Saints’ fleur-de-lis, the Dolphins’ dolphin, the Raiders’ pirate, Pittsburgh’s ode to U.S. Steel.
Basketball
What we have: The Knicks have used essentially the same logo since the ’60s — team name in orange block letters with shadow attached to a basketball (though the old, ’70s-style shadow is still the best). The Nets favor black-and-white: a shield shape with “NETS,” a basketball and a block “B.”
Where do they rank: The Knicks are definitely top 10, maybe top five. The Nets had the best ABA logo ever, but that’s long dead. Hard to crack a top five alongside the Celtics’ leprechaun, Chicago’s bull, the Spurs’ U-as-the-spur and the Warriors (especially when they opt for the old-school “The City” brand).
Hockey
What we have: Three classics. The Rangers’ red, white and blue shield has been a classic for 100 years. The Islanders’ ode to Long Island (replete with a hockey stick as the “Y” in “NY”) is a perfect logo and so is the Devils’ (with the “J” in “NJ” being capped by a demon’s horns and bottomed by a tail).
Where do they rank: This one is a free-for-all because there are just so many great ones, starting with each one of the Original Six (the Bruins’ spoked “B”, the Canadians’ “CH” – the “H” for “hockey,” – the Blackhawks’ Native American, Detroit’s red wheel-and-wing and Toronto’s simple maple leaf). Add a few modern classics (St. Louis’ blue note, whatever that is that is the Flyers’ logo) and that’s one crowded field.
Vac’s Whacks
I must admit, in the middle of an NFL draft that seemed extra-heavy with picks and transactions that seemed to make everyone kind and gentle, it was fun to watch the Eagles pick Jalen Hurts and send three-quarters of Philadelphia into spasm.
When I think of baseball these days, I think of Dorothy turning to the no-longer scared Scarecrow at the end of “Wizard of Oz”: “I think I’ll miss you most of all.”
No one appreciates the dedication and devotion of the doctors and nurses fighting the virus than Mets legend Ed Kranepool. May will mark a year since he received a life-saving kidney transplant at Stony Brook. “I just marvel what all the people on the front line are doing,” he says. ”They put their lives on the line every day.”
It’s just a little hard to handle that after having all three in regular rotation the first six or seven weeks of this mess, we’re about to cold-turkey life without “Ozark,” “Homeland” and “Better Call Saul.”
Whack Back at Vac
Ron Gambardella: Doesn’t it seem the Taj Mahal and the pyramids in Egypt were built quicker than it has taken for the Giants to construct an offensive line?
Vac: Even though both are grizzled, thousand-year old veterans, I still feel better about the old-timers protecting Daniel Jones.
Larry Graber: I hope you and your family are well, but why and how are the draftees and their families all hugging, kissing each other. I’ve seen my girlfriend through this, but I haven’t seen any family or friends in six weeks. just curious about what you would say about it.
Vac: What I thought was especially troubling was when agents would occasionally pop up with the families. Either they’ve been adopted or scoffing at basic social-distancing guidelines.
@2170:Good diary on the draft, but for the record, “Kiner’s Korner” was sponsored by Rheingold Extra Dry in those early years. I couldn’t wait till I turned 18 to have a Rheingold Extra Dry. Murph made it sound so good. And that picture on Shea outfield wall!
@MikeVacc: Similarly, I couldn’t wait to drink Piel’s, because Jimmy Breslin did Piel’s commercials (“It’s a good drinkin’ beer!”), and that almost made me swear off beer before I could really grow attached to it.
Alan Hirschberg: Anyone who comes away from that documentary believing Michael Jordan’s six championships make him the greatest player in the history of team sports needs to Google, “Bill Russell.”
Vac: You clearly seem to forget that the NBA didn’t really start until around 1990 or so, Alan.







