Paycheck for a jersey

By Scott Antoszewski

Call it what you want, loyalty, fashion, honor, fanaticism, whatever. The odds are if you are reading this blog, you most likely own at least one, probably multiple sports jerseys. I bet each one cost a lot more than the shirt you are wearing now. Unless you are wearing a jersey now, if so, bravo!

The whole thought of jerseys and their cost came to mind today because of the Lebron James circus and secondly, because Capitals goalie Semyon Varlamov announced he is changing his number from 40 to 1. Those events made me think of all the people with James’ Cavaliers jersey, and the masses of people who own jerseys of teams that they love, with player names on them that have changed numbers or moved on long ago. My twitter feed is going nuts with Caps fans complaining about owning a Varlamov #40.

I remember the feeling of buying my first jersey. It was a Caps jersey, the white one with the Eagle on the front, and I was so proud to have #55 and Sergei Gonchar on the back. I picked him because everyone had Jagr or Bondra at the time, and I figured Gonchar would be around for a while and my wife already had a Kolzig.

I was a new partial plan holder and I wanted something to wear to the games. Less and four months later Gonchar was a Bruin, and I was initiated into the club of people who now had “throwback” jerseys. My situation got worse because Gonchar then went and signed with Pittsburgh, whom I can’t stand, so the jersey went to the back of the closet.

I feel for the millions of folks who spent their hard earned money on Lebron James jerseys, both authentic and replicas. Just think, you can sell it on Ebay for 1/3 of what you paid for it. Lord knows you should try and get some of that small fortune back. Most of those costs are licensing fees and profit.

The New Jersey Devils were selling authentic jerseys at their equipment sale a few weeks ago for $100, which is considered a deal for a jersey with no name or number, but has the heavy material and fight strap that a replica lacks.

Basketball and football jerseys are the same way, if you want the nice ones with the names and numbers stitched on, you better be prepared to part with several hundred dollars. Heck even the replicas with silkscreened names and numbers still go for over one hundred dollars, and are wrecked after several trips through the washing machine.

Players these days are so superstitious or are just plain head cases, but we love sports and are more than willing to pay the price for a jersey with their name on it. Take a look on Ebay, you can find almost any jersey you can think of there. The folks who rushed to buy Brett Favre Jets jerseys also come to mind today, heck I saw people with Brett Favre Vikings jerseys before he even announced he was going to play there. Crazy.

The only way to avoid being in this situation is to not buy jerseys at all, and that will never happen, so frame that LaDanian Tomlinson powder blue Chargers jersey, and if you are lucky he’ll get into the Hall of Fame and you won’t feel so bad.

NHL Free Agent Frenzy

By Scott Antoszewski

The NHL’s free agent signing period opened at noon on July 1. Free agency in the NHL is handled a bit differently than the other major sports.

Baseball and football players tend to take a slow, methodical approach to where they will sign and for how much. Hockey players on the other hand, sign very quickly starting almost exactly at noon.

I’m writing this at about noon on Friday July 2, we are less than 24 hours into the signing period, and as of now 39 players have signed new contracts, totaling over $270 Million in contract value. I won’t list them, since most of the players aren’t household names, in fact only one notable player is amongst the players who have signed. He is Sergei Gonchar who left Pittsburgh and signed with Ottawa. The terms are 3 years at $5.5 million per year.

Goalies have been the most active with at least five goaltenders changing teams, but the biggest fish left in the free agent pool is Ilya Kovalchuk. Rumors have him connected to the L.A. Kings, but there are also rumors that he will go home and play in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League. I’m interested to see what he chooses. The money he will get from a KHL contract will be much higher than here in North America, but he won’t be playing at the highest level. Does he want the money, or the Stanley Cup? It will be interesting to find out.

The other thing that is fun to keep track of during free agency is how many general managers sign players to deals that are way too big and make that player unmovable. It seems to happen to at least two or three teams every year. Once the player signings slow down, I’ll review the list and put a post together that deals with that issue. Free agency is the last big event of the hockey year, so I don’t expect there to be a lot of news until we get closer to training camp in September.