DAILY DIRT: You have to look good to play good, right?

Daily Dirt for Friday, June 18, 2022

I’m sure you’ll have your own opinion about today’s first thought, and feel free to chime in on the Dave Clark songs in No. 3 … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 315 of The Daily Dirt.

1. The sportsscroll.com website unveiled its best- and worst-looking professional and college athletic uniforms.

Obviously, there will never be an exactly right or exactly wrong list when it comes to personal taste in a case like this, but a few of the choices were at least head-scratch worthy. What do you think

The best

1. New Orleans Saints: No. 1? The Saints’ look is not bad, and overall quite attractive, but No. 1? Nah …

2. Notre Dame football: I’m not a Notre Dame fan, but I give the Irish credit. Their uniforms are always sharp.

3. Texas Longhorns: The burnt orange look is a classic.

4. Los Angeles Lakers: The traditional Lakers unis are quality, but some of those “modernistic” combinations involving black and a deeper purple, etc., are garbage.

5. New York Yankees: I give the Yankees credit for not going the route of many teams with crazy-looking jerseys and color combinations, but the bottom line? The Yankees’ “traditional” look has become rather bland and boring, and has definitely outlived its usefulness. Gotham needs some sort of upgrade.

The worst

1. Anaheim Ducks: It’s hockey. It doesn’t matter.

2. Seattle Seahawks: I kind of like that neon look they adopted a few years ago.

3. Cincinnati Bengals: The Bengals toned down their approach to uniforms a few years ago, and for the better. The Bengals do not belong on this list.

4. Carolina Hurricanes: See No. 1.

5. Jacksonville Jaguars: Got this one correct. The Jags’ unis look like they were designed in an eighth-grade art class.

2. Here are some more crazy-sounding names of towns around the globe:

The Office Girls, Antarctica: The Office Girls are two glacial islands, also called nunataks, about seven miles away from Welcome Mountain near the Southern Ocean coast of Antarctica. 

Hotazel, South Africa: Welcome to Hotazel, where it’s hot as hell—or at least it was on the day in 1915 when a group of land surveyors assessed a farm in South Africa and named the whole place “Hot As Hell,” now spelled “Hotazel.”

Weed, California: It’s California. You shouldn’t be surprised.

Nipple Peak, Antarctica: Must be quite a sense of humor in old Antarctica (see No. 1 again, in case you forgot).

Mount Titlis, Switzerland: I’ll just leave this one alone …

3. Some more musical thoughts from the best era of sound — the mid-to-late 1960s — to consider.

Here are my five favorite songs from the Dave Clark Five (I really need a top 10 for this one):

1. “You Got What It Takes” (1967): The late Mike Smith was the lead singer on this hit. One of rock’s all-time great voices.

2. “Glad All Over” (1964): The Dave Clark Five made a record-breaking 18 appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.

3. “Bits and Pieces” (1964): Of all the British Invasion bands, the DC5 were the first to tour the U.S. in 1964.

4. “I Like It Like That” (1965): In eight years, from when the band formed in 1962 and disbanded in 1970, it sold more than 100 million records and scored 15 consecutive top-20 U.S. hits.

5. “Don’t Try Too Hard” (1970): Drummer and bandleader Dave Clark and guitarist Lenny Davidson are the only two members of the band still living.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — The omission of the Ohio State football uniforms on “the best” part of the aforementioned list must have been an oversight.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. The other Dave Clark played for Steve’s Cleveland Indians, among other teams.