style was pioneered by the Angels in 1997 and was also worn by the Blue Jays. A

WITH THE NRL PREMIERSHIP BATTLE SEEMINGLY A RACE BETWEEN THREE, WE GIVE THREE REASONS WHY CRONULLA, MELBOURNE AND NORTH QUEENSLAND CAN ALL WIN THE TITLE AND ONE REASON WHY THEY CANT.CRONULLA (1st, 16 wins, 2 losses)Three reasons the Sharks can win the premiership* The Sharks lead the competition with the best attack (26.7 points per game) and have emerged as the leagues most entertaining side.* They have won 15 in a row - just the fourth team in history to win 15 or more in a season - and you dont do that unless youre the real deal.* James Maloney. The Sharks five-eighth is on the cusp of winning his fourth straight minor premiership and has been the catalyst behind their title charge.Why the Sharks cant win the premiership* Penalties. Shane Flanagans side have given away the most penalties of any side this year (8.2 per game) and the 11 they gave away against Newcastle on Sunday blighted a great win.MELBOURNE (2nd, 15 wins, 3 losses)Three reasons the Storm can win the premiership* Their Fijian Flyers. Suliasi Vunivalu leads the league with 17 tries while Marika Koroibete isnt far behind with 10. Their high-flying ability gives the Storm another dimension and when theyre unable to break down their opposition defence, they simply bomb for their big men on the wings.* Defence. They have conceded a miserly 208 points in 18 games this year giving them the NRLs best defence. They are also yet to concede more than 20 points in a match in 2016.* With just three losses this year, they are on track to set a new club record for fewest defeats in a season. Their current club record, excluding years they were struck from the record books for salary cap cheating, is six losses in 2011.Why the Storm cant win the premiership* Do they have enough of an x-factor outside the Big Two of Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk to lead them to a title?NORTH QUEENSLAND (3rd, 12 wins, 6 losses)Three reasons the Cowboys can win the premiership* Clean sheets. They have held their opponents to zero on four occasions this season, making them just the sixth side in premiership history to do so. Three of those sides (2013 Sydney Roosters, 1982 Parramatta Eels, 1917 Balmain Tigers,) went on to win the grand final.* Consistency. Amazingly Paul Green managed to keep his premiership-winning 17 together. And when they ran out against Canterbury last Thursday, only one player - suspended winger Kyle Feldt - was missing from last years grand final team.* Jason Taumalolo. The New Zealand lock has been a beast, averaging 165 metres and playing all 18 of his sides games. When the voting went behind closed doors, he was the co-leader for the Dally M Medal.Why the Cowboys cant win the premiership* Sharks and Storm hold a mental edge. The Cowboys have lost to both sides this year, giving their opposition the ascendency.Wholesale Authentic Jordans .1 million pounds ($61.2 million) on Saturday, giving the beleaguered English Premier League champions a major lift. Cheap Air Jordan 2 China Wholesale . The veteran safety was a starter for the Bengals from 2008-2012. He totaled 41 tackles and three interceptions while starting all but four of the 13 games he played last season. http://www.cheapjordanschinawholesale.com/cheap-air-jordan-1-china-wholesale-77e.html . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout. Wholesale Jordans Online .Y. - Free agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, fresh off winning the World Series with Boston, reached agreement with the rival New York Yankees on a seven-year contract worth about $153 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday night. Cheap Air Jordan 4 China Wholesale . It just didnt show when he hit the ice. Berra made 42 saves and Kris Russell scored at 1:32 of overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night.Weve seen a wide array of Major League Baseball jerseys this season. Home jerseys, road jerseys, alternate jerseys, throwback jerseys, camouflage jerseys and special designs for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and more.But theres one type of jersey we havent see very much of -- the vest. Thats because there are only two vest jerseys currently in use by MLB teams: the Colorado Rockies black alternate vest, which tends to be worn about once a week, and the Arizona Diamondbacks cream throwback vest, which is worn for Thursday home games.Vest jerseys have always been popular here at Uni Watch HQ -- theres something nice about the colored undershirt sleeves matching the colored socks, at least for players who cuff their pants up high -- so its a little sad that there are so few of them currently in rotation. Granted, you wouldnt want to see every MLB team go vest-clad (the St. Louis Cardinals, for example, have never worn a vest and probably never should -- they just dont feel very vest-y), but its a look that works for certain clubs, and theres definitely room for more of it on the diamond.Which team came up with the idea of a vest-based uniform, anyway? That would be the Chicago Cubs, who wore a sleeveless alternate jersey in 1940. The idea was that the vests would be less constricting and allow greater freedom of movement.The following year, the Cubbies took things a step further -- several steps, in fact -- by eliminating their sleeved jerseys and going fully vested. They also added a blue road vest (MLBs first powder blue uni, dontcha know) and a white shoulder yoke to their blue undershirt, which created an interesting visual effect. The 1941 style has been preserved for posterity in this spring training video clip, one of the best documents of the early vest format:The Cubbies sleeveless experiment was short-lived, as they went back to wearing conventional jerseys in 1943. It would be more than a dozen years before another team took a vested interest: the 1956 Cincinnati Reds (or Redlegs, as they were then called due to the McCarthyite scare). Cincy stuck with the sleeveless format, in assorted designs, for 11 seasons before reverting back to sleeves.The Reds roster happened to include the ideal spokesman for the vested look: first baseman Ted Kluszewski. Big Klu liked to show off his sizable biceps by ripping the sleeves off his red undershirts, making him MLBs first truly sleeveless ballplayer.The Reds faced a bit of a vest-based problem in 1961, when team owner Powel Crosley died. MLB protocol at the time called for the addition of a black memorial armband (the advent of memorial patches was still more than a decade away), but how do you add an armband to your jersey sleeve if your jersey doesnt have sleeves? The Reds solved that problem by adding a black border to their left armhole -- the first vest memorial. (After one season, they decided they liked it so much that they added it to the other side -- not as a memorial, butt just as a design element.dddddddddddd)Unlike the Cubs, who stood alone as MLBs only vest-clad team, the Reds soon had company, as the 1957 Pirates, 1962 As, 1963 Indians, and 1968 Orioles all climbed aboard the vest bandwagon. This period can be seen as the Golden Age of Vests, and even included MLBs first sleeveless World Series champions, the 1960 Pirates. The Golden Age didnt last, as all MLB teams had gone back to wearing sleeves by 1972. But there was a sleeveless renaissance -- a Silver Age, if you will -- in the late 1990s and early 2000s, fueled in part of the alternate-jersey craze, which allowed teams to include a vest in their uniform rotation without fully committing to the sleeve-free look. At least 14 teams -- the Angels, Blue Jays, Devil Rays, Diamondbacks, Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Pirates, Rangers, Rockies, Royals, Reds, Twins, White Sox -- wore vests during this period. The Silver Age also brought two more vest-clad World Series champs: the 1997 Marlins and the 2001 Diamondbacks. But the Silver Age soon ebbed as well, and now were down to the Rockies and D-backs as the only remaining vested teams. Why have vests fallen out of favor? Some of it has to do with the natural ebb and flow of on-field fashion, but theres another factor to consider: merchandising. Fans are less inclined to buy vest jerseys, so teams are now less inclined to wear them. That wasnt an issue back in the Golden Age, because jersey retailing didnt yet exist.One possible solution to the problem: the faux vest, which is basically a standard jersey with contrast-colored sleeves to simulate the vest format. This style was pioneered by the Angels in 1997 and was also worn by the Blue Jays. And heres something you might not know: The Dodgers were planning to go with the faux vest style for their road jerseys in 1999. Prototypes were made, promotional merchandise was manufactured, and the design even appeared in video games and in the 1999 MLB Style Guide. But the Dodgers got cold feet and scrapped the idea before the start of the season, so this jersey never made it onto the field. The faux vest isnt as satisfying as a real vest, of course, but the contrasting sleeves produce a similar visual effect and would probably be enough to overcome the usual consumer resistance to vests. Could that be enough to lead to a Bronze Age? Stay tuned.Would you like to nominate a uniform or uni element to be showcased in a future Friday Flashback installment? Send your suggestions here.Paul Lukas had this Simpsons song stuck in his head while working on this piece. If you liked this column, youll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '