They usually look pretty awful,

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The few minutes that Mariano Rivera spent speaking with Ryan Bressette and his family in an interview room beneath Kauffman Stadium forged a memory sure to last them a lifetime. Perhaps for the Yankees closer, too. Rivera spoke with more than a dozen members of the Kansas City community before Saturday nights game against the Royals as part of a farewell tour. Rivera has been meeting with folks in each city the Yankees visit after announcing in March his intention to retire after the season. Bressette fought back tears after speaking with Rivera, posing for a photograph with his family and getting a signed ball from one of the greatest relievers in baseball history. By now, their story has become well-known. Bressettes family was returning to Overland Park., Kan., from a trip to Florida in March when a massive display board inside Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama fell on Heather and three of her boys. Heather was injured along with 9-year-old Tyler and 5-year-old Sam, while 10-year-old Luke was killed in the accident. "I was in tears seeing this family, the father breaking down and the wife crying," Rivera said afterward. "This happened not too long ago." Heather Bressette broke both her ankles and her pelvis in the accident, and spoke to Rivera from her wheelchair. Tyler and Sam were there along with their other brother, Joe. "You know, its a special moment," said Ryan Bressette, who was a batboy for the Royals when he was kid, back in their glory days of George Brett and Willie Wilson. "Its nice to know that players do care about giving back to the community," he said. "Never in my wildest life could I imagine meeting Mariano Rivera." Jonas Borchert didnt know hed have a chance to meet Rivera, either, until Joe and Kristen Borchert brought their son to the ballpark on Saturday. The soon-to-be 15-year-old from of Lees Summit, Mo., has Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. A pitcher on his youth baseball team, hes undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment and for a while the cancer was in remission, only for it to return recently. "Jonas was an outstanding pitcher in his league," Kristen Borchert said, adding with a smile: "He was like the Mariano in that he could close out a game." Last summer, Royals players Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer met Borchert during a visit to Childrens Mercy Hospital, and decided to wear green bracelets in his honour during games. Jonas Borchert said it was "crazy, weird," when Rivera said he was inspired by him. Ricky Hernandez, who is in a wheelchair, attended with his father, Ricardo. Ricky helped start a baseball league from a field his family built in their backyard, and that story is leading to the building of a permanent "adaptive" field for kids with disabilities. Sam DiGiovani and Tony Ross represented the Bishop Sullivan Center, which helps Billy Butler of the Royals with his "Hit-It-A-Ton program" to fight hunger, and Joe and Tom Giavagnoli came in honour of their late father Paul, who developed one of the first mechanical pitching machines. Paulo Ramirez attended with his son, Juan Carlos. It was Paulo who founded the areas first Spanish radio station and several other small businesses, and has worked tirelessly to provide job opportunities for immigrants who do not speak English. When asked whether the intimate meet-and-greet was something that Rivera hoped other players would emulate, the Yankees reliever shrugged his shoulders. "Its not something I try to do for others to do it," he said, "but I tell you what: Its something that every player should experience, because its just wonderful to say thanks. "The feeling you get from it, it will change your life, because theres so much out there we dont know," Rivera added. 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From filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes), The Price of Gold revisits the saga that rocked the figure skating world ahead of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games: the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, and the plot that led its way back to her rival Tonya Harding. Replica Air Max . Hargreaves began his career in 2008 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has played with the Edmonton Eskimos and last season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Wholesale Air Max . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. The Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly have new uniforms in the works. No launch date has been announced, although the earliest and most logical time frame would be for the new look to be ready for the start of the 2017-18 season.But why should we wait that long? We recently challenged Uni Watch readers to redesign the Timberwolves threads. Here are some of the best and most interesting submissions we received. In each case, you can click on the image to see a larger version of it.Best overall concept: Paul Crary and Ian BabineauThis entry is, admittedly, a bit of a ringer. Paul Crary and Ian Babineau originally came up with their concept last fall -- not for a contest, but just because theyre passionate Timberwolves fans who thought the team could benefit from a new look. They created their own website and Twitter feed and generated a bit of buzz among the teams fan community. So they had plenty of time to refine their idea and didnt have to work under the same time constraints as our other entrants.But this concept is too good to ignore. For starters, in an era filled with snarling mascot logos, Crary and Babineau dared to put as much emphasis on timber as on wolves, with really strong results. The repeated use of stacked triangles -- sometimes to create trees, sometimes to create a wolfs face, sometimes to create a snowflake pattern -- is ingeniously simple, and the designs are embedded with additional symbolism, as illustrated in this animation:Its a really clever concept, especially compared to the default wolfs head approach. You can see more on Crary and Babineaus website.Best Golden State-style design: Brian CarlsonThe Warriors have one of the NBAs most interesting uniform designs, and Brian Carlson was clearly drawing upon that for his Timberwolves submission. It may be derivative (and he would have been better off putting the team name on top and the state name on the bottom, instead of the other way around), but it works!Carlsons road design is pretty sharp as well. If a wolf is going to be howling, hes going to be doing it at night, right? So heres a rare case in which a black uniform feels like a logical design choice instead of a lazy cliché.Best NBA-ready logos: Jesse NunezThe NBA has gone bonkers for roundel-based logos in recent years, so Jesse Nunezs proposed logos would fit right in. Some people may like this approach more than others, but you have to admit that these designs feel very much in tune with the leagues current design sensibility, and look very official as a result.Best no-frills design: Matt HarveyStraightforward, traditional designs are often overlooked in uniform competitions, and you could even argue that a rrelatively young franchise like the Timberwolves shouldnt go with a classic-style uniform.dddddddddddd But if they wanted to go that route, they could do a lot worse than to use Matt Harveys design, which feels like a more mature, grown-up distillation of the teams previous looks. His green and black alternate uni concepts are handsome as well, although it might have been nice if he had cut loose with a more adventurous concept for one of them.Best use of W and M: Dom Veurink The letters W and M are essentially inverted versions of each other, and they can also stand for Wolves and Minnesota. So Dom Veurink came up with a nifty stylized W logo for his home jersey and then flipped it upside-down for his road jersey. Not bad! (And while were at it, Sandro Tagliavini devised an MW mark that doubles as a wolfs head.)Honorable mention: Wolves howl at the moon and NBA team logos almost always include a basketball, so Daniel Richardson came up with a logo concept that combines the moon and the ball. Needs a bit of work, but its a good concept. ... Most of the logo concepts we received showed a wolfs head either snarling directly at the viewer or pointing upward, in full howl. Joel Jenson got his logo to stand out from the pack simply by showing the wolfs head in profile, pointing forward. He then included an upward-howl pose for one of his secondary logos -- a smart approach. ... Neon, volt, electricity -- by any name, fluorescent green and yellow tones are all the rage these days. They usually look pretty awful, but Greg Koch managed to harness them to surprisingly good effect in his logo package and his home and road uniforms. The only problem is that the combination of navy and neon feels too Seattle Seahawks-ish. ... As usual, Tom Bierbaum submitted drawings that included great designs for opposing teams. Check out his concepts for the Washington Wizards and Oklahoma City Thunder (who would change their name to the Bolts in Bierbaums alternate universe). ... John Richardsons uniform concepts look like theyd be right at home in the old ABA. ... Tom Kyles black alternate uniform is suitably spooky.Want to see more? You can check out all of the submissions we received here.Paul Lukas will have more team-redesign contests soon. 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. ' ' '