ERIC MENCHER / Staff Photographer
While working out for the Sixers, Dionte Christmas got a close look at the club's now-discarded logo. Returning to the glory-days logo is a sign the fan-challenged team is grasping at straws.
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Morning Bytes
Sixers' logo change is a sign of desperation
Logos, uniforms, and team colors are like basketball games.
The fewer turnovers the better.
The Sixers' recent decision to return to their glory days logo, savvy as the change might be, is a telltale sign of desperation.
It's not pleasant being the No. 4 team in town, especially when it doesn't look like that status is going to change anytime soon.
One can almost hear the voices in the marketing meeting that produced the decision.
"We're not selling merchandise. We're not selling tickets. We're not winning games. What can we do?"
"Hey, I know, let's try a throwback logo."
Maybe they'll get lucky like the Phillies. In 1992, the Phils abandoned their Brady Bunch-era uniforms and reverted to the classic pinstripes and P. Their timing was perfect. Classic usually works in baseball.
Or maybe, if this week's draft doesn't work out and the civic souring on pro basketball continues, the 76ers' new logo will come to signify another bad stretch for the 76ers.
The best-run teams have a sense of themselves, one that symbols and colors can neither enhance nor alter.
The Yankees. The Canadiens. The Celtics. The Packers.
In good times and bad, they've had sense enough to resist superficial changes. Check out the teams whose merchandise sells best. You'll find those four perennially among the leaders in their sports.
Meanwhile, franchises like the Marlins and Rays change logos, uniforms, and colors as frequently as bullpen lefthanders. It's a habit that helps explain why their fan bases are shallower than Tony Siragusa's analytical skills.
I wish the 76ers well. And I won't miss their old logo. Never could figure out what the heck it had to do with basketball, Philadelphia, or common sense.
I'm looking forward to an era when the Sixers no longer have to constantly change coaches, GMs, rosters, and logos.
They owe us one.
A bad Open. For all those who defended Bethpage Black's revamped and "fairer" setup as a U.S. Open venue, I have two words for you:
Lucas Glover.
You have to go back a long time, perhaps to Orville Moody, or maybe Dick Mayer, before you'll find a less likely, less compelling Open champion. And when the Open doesn't produce a worthy champion, it's often the course's fault.
Also, throughout the week we kept hearing, ad nauseam, about the great New York golf crowds. Apparently greatness in a golf fan is determined by how loudly and obnoxiously one can bellow "YOU DA MAN!" and "GET IN THE HOLE!"
Of course, all the boorish fans at Bethpage weren't New Yorkers.
On Saturday, one loudmouth kept booming out that old Veterans Stadium mantra, "Everybody hits. Wahoo!"
NASCAR note of the week. There's something about the resume of Jerry Gappens, GM of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, that suggests he needs a little career counseling.
Gappens drove a hearse, became a sportswriter, and now runs a NASCAR event.
What's next, blacksmith?
America's got problems. Yes, as the title of the soon-to-debut summer TV show that NBC hyped endlessly during its Open telecasts proclaims, America's Got Talent.
We may not have enough engineers, medical researchers or literate high school graduates, but, dammit, we've got talent.
Talent, in TV terms, means thousands of knuckleheads lining up to display their stupid human tricks before mindless millions who find them entertaining.
Five more things I don't get.
1. Why Miami still has a baseball team.
2. Why Brian Westbrook couldn't have had his operation the day after the season ended.
3. Why the Flyers can't resist a head case or troublemaker.
4. Why players like Tyreke Evans go through the charade of attending college for one year.
5. Why every sport doesn't have a Johnny Miller to do color.
A throwback. Anyone else notice the guy sitting behind home plate and reading a newspaper during Tuesday's Phillies-Rays game?
This was interesting on a number of levels:
1. I haven't seen anyone read a newspaper on TV since Larry Mendte left the air.
2. We now know cell phone wavers aren't the only nincompoops in camera range.
3. I know the score was 10-1, but there have to be better things to do while occupying a seat that probably cost you close to $100.
4. Can I borrow the funny page?
Five interesting facts from July's Golf magazine.
1. According to Duffy Waldorf, pairing a chardonnay with chips and guacamole is a "zany match."
2. I'd stop missing four-footers if I'd only stand up straight, rotate my elbows inward, rest them on my rib cage, tilt forward from the hips, and rest the putter directly beneath my eyes. Great, but I'm going to need a memory course to remember all that.
3. According to the article "What is Your Golf Personality?" I'm a cross between Bill Murray and Murray the K.
4. I already know how to "Erase a Bad Ballstriking Day." Bring your own pencil.
5. Boo Weekley's 3-wood is a Cleveland Launcher, 15-inch, Aldila VooDoo XVS8 graphite shaft, X-flex 42.75-degree graphite. I think Harry Vardon played the same club.
Contact staff writer Frank Fitzpatrick at 215-854-5068 or ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com.
