City Connect
I read where GOP Texas legislators want to do away with the position of Harris County Elections Administrator and go back to letting the Harris County Clerk run the local elections and the Tax Assessor Collector handle voter registration. If that happens, I really don’t see the Harris County Clerk doing things that will stifle access and turnout. She will run a robust elections office if you ask Commentary.
Trust me, the Harris County Commissioners Court will still have input.
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The Texas Rangers baseball team unveiled their City Connect uniforms and it is kind of complicated. See the featured photo. We introduced our City Connect uniforms last season and it was pretty simple. We paid tribute to NASA. Voila!
Read this from the Chron:
The idea behind Nike’s City Connect uniforms is to create something that bonds fans of the local baseball team with their home city. The Astros did it with their NASA connection in the Space City threads. The White Sox did it with a specific slice of Chicago represented in their Southside duds.
So, what city do the Texas Rangers, who just won a series at Minute Maid Park, represent, exactly?
The team bears the name of a state that has embraced the Astros during their current stretch of postseason success and plays in non-descript Arlington set smack dab in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth, two locales that refuse to embrace anything together except fighting the traffic down Interstate 30 to see Cowboys and Rangers games.
Despite all that, according to Major League Baseball’s social media posts, the Rangers’ Nike City Connect Uniforms, unveiled Monday morning, are “a jersey for all of Texas.”
Designers tried their best by throwing in some of the region’s minor league baseball background, mixing it with a little Texas history and, for whatever reason, creating a mythical creature that all combine to form something that looks like what you’d find on a select baseball team full of teenagers in the summer.
The “TX” logo featured on the caps and jersey is influenced by the gothic lettering used by the Dallas Eagles, the city’s Texas League team from 1949 to 1957. It also includes a spur as a tribute to the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, the Texas League team that played in Arlington before the Rangers came to town in 1972. The font for the jersey numbers comes from what was used on a championship medal given to the Fort Worth Panthers when they won the Texas League in 1920.
The folks who live in Dallas are really just 90 miles away from being Oklahomans, but they still have something in common with every other Texan: Unabashed pride in the Lone Star State. Besides introducing the uniforms behind the music of BigXthaPlug’s “Texas” — a legitimately good song by the way, no jokes here — the Rangers went for Texans’ hearts with a history lesson. The right side of the hat reads “4-21” commemorating April 21, which Texans know is more than just a day of regret following 4/20. It’s San Jacinto Day, celebrating the final battle of the Texas Revolution where the state gained its independence from Mexico. Notably, the San Jacinto Monument is located here in Houston, not anywhere close to North Texas. As it turns out, April 21 also was the date of the first Texas Rangers home game in 1972 and will be the date the Rangers debut the alternate uniforms.
Then, things get weird. On the right sleeve is something the Rangers are calling a “peagle.” It’s a mythical creature that blends the mascots of the Dallas Eagles and the Fort Worth Panthers, who won six straight Texas League titles in the 1920s. A mythical creature? So, similar to a World Series title in North Texas. Got it.
The Rangers, who are the 16th team to unveil their City Connect uniforms, will wear the new threads for Friday home games.
A peagle, San Jacinto Day, first ever MLB game played, two minor league teams, and a font. Us, NASA.
I think ours are cooler, but I am biased.
We play in Arlington at the end of June. Maybe one of our fans will wear the NASA uniform and take a picture with a Ranger fan wearing their new City Connect gear and folks can judge.