Licensed team apparel is a big rip-off.

If I want a simple t-shirt with perhaps Papelbon's name on it, it's $30. If I want a team hoodie, it's $55. FOR A HOODED SWEATSHIRT!! It's become less and less amusing to me how arrogant this pricing is.

This is not just at the major league level, either. Pawtucket Red Sox mdse is also prohibitively expensive. Forty dollars for a polo shirt with a patch on it! Sixty dollars for a fleece pullover! I once bought a Red Wings hooded sweatshirt for $40, due to beer-impaired souvenir shopping. How fitting that I ruined my beloved sweatshirt by blowing chunks all over it!

There are other expensive team items you can buy, but t-shirts and sweatshirts seem to be the most outrageous. A plain red t-shirt (heavy duty, I guess) can be had for about ten bucks. If you're a branded t-shirt merchant, how much do you think you pay? Three dollars apiece?

The kicker is that YOU'RE paying THEM to advertise THEIR PRODUCT! And guess what? A lot of the crap they sell also contains a second logo on it... an athleticwear brand or sneaker merchant. I'm not naming names, but you know who I mean.

I own quite a few of these items. But that's it, no more. I'm gonna hack up some cardboard and make stencils and make my own damn t-shirts. It's not gonna be pretty, either. It'll be a generic, fabric-painted mess but what the hell.

Come on, everybody! Come to McCoy stadium in a handmade PawSox tee! ALL YOU ZOMBIES SHOW YOUR FACES!! YEAH BASEBALL!!!!

HANSACK!!!!!

(By the way, the new PawSox web site sucks. The old one is much better.)