There are many people inclined to discuss the minutiae of sports uniforms. On Friday, that included the Texas Rangers’ local television broadcast on Bally Sports Southwest, where they brought up the “kerneling” (actually, kerning) of the Seattle Mariners’ jerseys. Here’s the discussion of that from play-by-play announcer Dave Raymond and color analyst C.J. Nitkowski:
“The distance between letters, like, the font, right?” pic.twitter.com/P6tas08tGT
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 23, 2023
“One issue with Seattle, there’s this thing, called kerneling?” “Say it again?” “The distance between letters, like, the font, right?” “What’s it called?” “Kerning, kerning.” “That’s right. …I learned a handful of new words from you in our seven years, put that one down.” “Yeah, kerning, it’s that space between letters? It should be uniform, right? When you look at Haggerty’s name on the back, the H to the A, there’s too big a gap. And they do that, they have this problem, maybe it’s their schtick, maybe it’s a Seattle bit that they do, where they like to make the back, the jersey looks so goofy. The names are just laid out terribly. And frankly, it drives me nuts.”
For reference, here is the jersey in question:
The jersey:
[This is the best shot I could get.] pic.twitter.com/0y5fZWcny9— mo.designsthings (@mo_klos) September 23, 2023
That’s quite the unusual thing for a local broadcast to take exception to about an opponent. Especially when they don’t even get the typographic term correct on first reference. But, sure, people have all sorts of opinions on jerseys and how names are displayed on them, and it makes some sense that broadcasters sometimes have those thoughts as well. And that’s certainly not the most tangential subject that’s come up on a broadcast. So, sure, if Raymond and Nitkowski don’t enjoy the particular kerning on the Mariners’ jerseys, that’s their prerogative.
[Chris Creamer on Twitter]
