This is the cap the Atlanta Braves will be wearing at home on Memorial Day against the St. Louis Cardinals. For the fifth consecutive year, every MLB club will honor America’s veterans by wearing “Stars & Stripes” caps made by New Era. Just like previous years, a portion of the proceeds to each cap will be going to the Welcome Back Veterans fund. “Stars & Stripes” caps will also be worn league-wide on July 4th, and presumably on September 11th.

What’s new about the “Stars & Stripes” caps this year is that New Era is venturing away from the red, white, & blue color schemes from previous years. Caps will remain in each team’s official colors, but a digital camouflage applique will fill the team’s logo as well as the MLB logo as a nod to modern day military uniforms.

Check out the remainder of the Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” caps being offered this year after the jump.

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Home Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Home Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Road Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Road Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Home Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Alternate Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Alternate Cap

Atlanta Braves “Stars & Stripes” Alternate Cap

Last week, I experienced Nike’s new SPARQ Sensory Performance innovations in action. I have no doubt in my mind that this new approach to vision training in conjunction with all other aspects of physical training will give an edge to the athletes who utilize these advancements. What’s most interesting is that vision training can be used by athletes of all levels to increase focus, reaction times & anticipation in any sport. I could rattle off a list of athletes off the top of my head that could use vision training immediately: Ahem… Josh Hamilton… Ahem…

SPARQ Sensory Performance is a system of technologies, products and programs designed to assess, analyze and improve an athlete’s visual and sensory performance. It’s another step in Nike’s nearly 40-year legacy of delivering game-changing innovations to help athletes perform at their peak.

“Sensory training is at the cornerstone of how we can build better athletes,” said Paul Winsper, SPARQ Performance Director. “With SSP we’re able to integrate both sensory and physical training together. This performance philosophy has resonated with some of the top athletes, teams and clubs throughout the world.”

Nike SPARQ Sensory Stations

As the first step in improving an athlete’s performance, the SSP “assess” phase uses the Nike SPARQ Sensory Station, an interactive touch screen device, to evaluate athletes on 10 sport-relevant visual and sensory performance skills. The personalized station then translates that raw data into next steps for the athlete, which can guide a training program. The resulting SPARQ Sensory Performance profile compares an athlete’s results to others in their sport, position and skill level to provide a roadmap for improvement.

I underwent these tests and compared my results to all other professional soccer defenders in Nike’s database and I’ll post my results as soon as I get over my embarrassment at my scores. Welp, it seems that countless hours spent pushing pixels isn’t great for my vision or health.

Once the assessment and analysis are complete, Nike SSP provides two key tools designed to help an athlete improve: The Nike SPARQ Sensory Training Station and Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear. Athletes at any skill level can integrate both into their training programs to hone their sensory skills.

Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear

Following visual testing to evaluate different aspects of the athlete’s visual skills, a crucial tool to improve key areas is the Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear. By blocking or disrupting vision using a strobe or flicker effect that can be varied in speed, an athlete can develop quicker reaction times and motor skills. The strobe effect improves reaction time by switching between clear and blocked vision, which trains the brain to anticipate what‘s coming when the eyes are blocked. Features include an adjustable head strap for a secure fit and liquid-crystal lens technology with variable speeds for different levels of training.

“After years of tireless testing, we’ve discovered an innovative way to help increase athletic performance,” said Dr. Alan Reichow, Global Research Director of Nike SPARQ Sensory Performance and Vision. “The SSP ecosystem of testing and products allows our team to serve the athlete with a clear and actionable plan that helps them see sport better.”

The system is already proving effective. Two recent studies* showed that training with the Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobes improved:
1) The ability to pick up subtle motion cues
2) Visual information processing
3) Timing of motion

When looking at the list of athletes that participate in SPARQ Sensory Performance training, I’m not surprised that they’re at the top of their game. Kevin Durant, Larry Fitzgerald, Greg Jennings, Misty May-Treanor, A.J. Pierzynski all get an edge.

“I catch balls for a living. What I do is eye-hand coordination, so any way that I can improve my eye-hand coordination is going to be pivotal throughout my career. The Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobes are a total game changer, a training game changer. You take vision for granted, you take catching the ball for granted but the Vapor Strobes force you to focus on the fundamentals.” -Greg Jennings

Nike SPARQ Sensory Training Stations use software-based training modules to improve multiple sensory performance skills. The stations can be used regularly as an integrated part of training programs for athletes at all levels. Top collegiate and professional programs have purchased the Nike strobe eyewear and stations, with a full global rollout now in action.

The Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear is $300 USD and available Internationally at NikeStore.com. Both the Nike SPARQ Sensory Station and Nike SPARQ Sensory Training Station are available through the Nike SPARQ Sensory Training Help Desk (1-855-870-6778 or NSSTsupport@nike.com).

* Duke University Study: Appelbaum LG, Schroeder JE, Cain MS and Mitroff SR (2011) Improved visual cognition through stroboscopic training. Front. Psychology 2:276. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00276

* Southern Utah University Study: Smith, T.Q. (2011) Sensory Training: Nike Strobe (Master’s thesis). Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT.

Calling all sports fans! Please take a moment to check out this new website, The Sportsfan Journal; written by 2 of my good friends, Ed Maisonet III & Kenny Masenda. I’ve know these 2 cats for a few years now, and I believe their form of journalism is a refreshing take on sports. I find myself reading their articles more than I do from the mainstream sports media on the bigger websites. Take a look for yourself here.

I’m always amazed at my design students who walk up and jam out a logo in 30 minutes and call it done. That’s not possible to have a solid mark so quickly. There are brands that are still adjusting lines over the decades; as is the case with these new changes to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ primary logo.

The primary changes for 2012 are:

-the leading script into the ‘o’ of ‘Dodgers’, it’s there in 2010, it’s gone in 2012

-the ‘D’ in ‘Dodgers’ also had a slight change, specifically the curl in the 9-o’clock region of the logo, it’s much shorter in the 2012 edition

-the flight lines of the baseball have been corrected

What do you think? Do the new changes help? Do you even notice?

The Braves may have lost last night, but we won our fantasy baseball league. The final match-up wasn’t even close! Yeaaa… we some big talkin’ fools now!

Congrats to the Braves for reaching the 10,000 Franchise Wins milestone over the weekend. Only the Cubs & Giants have more… not for long! Let’s go!

I can’t put my finger on that specific point in time, but there was a point where playing 8-bit Nintendo games, listening to 90′s alt rock, & watching reruns of Saved by the Bell became desirable, and ironically cool activities again. I’ve recently fallen back in love with baseball, and that obsession has led me back to card collecting. When I’m at the store these days, I look for a display and grab a few packs of Topps 2011 baseball cards. The last time I opened a pack of baseball cards, prior to this year, was probably 1992.

Topps, who are celebrating their 60th Diamond Anniversary, have made card collecting fun for people nostalgic of the past, as well as any casual fans of present-day baseball. Like most people, going into this season I knew a few players that are considered stars of the game. I also had a some prior knowledge about most of the Atlanta Braves, and my hometown Texas Rangers.

I think Topps realized there has been a significant gap between the baseball fans of yesteryear, where a large percentage of fans were into card collecting, and today’s more casual baseball fans. Topps’ 2011 collection does a great job at rekindling the nostaligia.

After the jump, I’ll highlight some of my favoirte things that Topps is doing this year.

The regular cards feature spectacular photography on ultra-glossy card stock. Having worked in the print industry for many years, I get excited over these kinds of things! Don’t hate! Also, I love that the Texas Rangers team card features a photo the team celebrating after beating the New York Yankees to a pulp, leading to the franchise’s first World Series appearance. I said, “Don’t hate!”

Since it’s Topps’ Diamond Anniversary, they’ve outdone themselves with variations of player cards. To me it’s both funny and ridiculous to get a David Ortiz card that is “prism’d the f*** out“! This gimmick seems to make more sense on grocery store bicycle stickers or a Pokemon card, but I’ve never seen this done to a baseball card before, and I’m all for it!

I’ve definitely never seen anything like a commemorative team patch embedded in a baseball card before! This is definitely something that is harder to get. I’ve opened over 40 packs of baseball cards this summer and have only scored one of these guys, but I love the idea. You can also score randomly inserted baseball cards autographed by current players and legends, or even cards with a swatch of game used jersey, baseball, glove, or bat. This definitely raises the excitement factor when opening a pack!

My favorite cards are these Kimball Champions Baseball Card Inserts. The insert set consist of 100 mini-sized cards measuring 1-15/32″ X 2- 11/16″. The set recreates the 1888 Kimball Champion cards which are highly sought after vintage pieces. Nevertheless, I love how they have a colorized photographic portrait of each player coupled with an illustrative action pose on the same card. These cards are super small, but they paint an epic scene. Plus, how can you be mad at getting a Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, or Jackie Robinson baseball card? You can’t!

At $1.99 per pack, Topps 2001 Series 1 & Series 2 packs are available everywhere and they’ve definitely brought me more fun lately than over-paying for a blind box vinyl toy. Ahem… KidRobot, I’m talkin’ to you!

Calling all sports nerds! You need to check out Chartball.com and their amazingly designed info-graphics; charting championship seasons of MLB, NBA, & NFL franchises. These posters are visual candy for graphic designers & sports fans alike. Printed on uber-glossy paper, and measuring at 24″ x 36″, they are the perfect gift for any fan wanting to uniquely-commemorate the year their team won it all. The only drawback is that the posters ain’t cheap! They’re $42.95 ea + $9.99 shipping to wherever you are in the US. Tell us your thoughts! Would you spend roughly $53 for special wall piece?

Here’s a direct link to the 1995 Atlanta Braves History poster.

Most people who know me know that I’m a total sports junkie and I’ve been completely engrossed with baseball this summer. This is what my workstation currently looks like. I’ll design on my large monitor and stream baseball games on my extra screen. I don’t see much of the in-game action, but I’ve found that I enjoy listening to people talk about strategy more than spinning the latest indie rock jams. What’s wrong with me?!?

Holler at me if you’re an obsessed fan too! I’m always down for catching an Atlanta Braves game and I’d gladly welcome any advice in regards to my fantasy team. No joke, this MLB.TV package has been the best $99 I’ve ever spent.