What the Well-Dressed Shortstop Will Wear - June 3, 2009

 

Today is National Tailor's Day; a day dedicated to the good people who sew and fashion our clothes so that we always look our best.

On such an occasion, our minds turn naturally to that most American of outfits, the baseball uniform, for it was on this day in 1849 that the New York Knickerbockers became the first baseball team to wear them.

In the century-and-a-half since, the uniform has undergone many changes: pants have been both tighter and looser, as well as shorter and longer. Sleeves have been long, short -- and even non-existent. Materials have changed, from flannel wool to polyester to today's poly-cotton blends.

While some teams have maintained the same look for decades, others seem to change with the seasons; sometimes bland, sometimes colorful -- sometimes downright bizarre.

While many of us have a mental image of how baseball players are supposed to look -- mid-calf pants, stirrup socks and sanitaries (usually, but not always, white), and short jerseys with colored undershirt -- that combination has all but disappeared in recent years, though some younger players are trying to restore the classic look.

Believe it or not, there are some folks who are obsessed with this kind of thing; who create spreadsheets to track the various uniform combinations their favorite teams wear.

But let it not be forgotten that all those variations on uniforms are cash cows for Major League Baseball teams, who schedule games saluting individual players, Negro League teams, or who "turn back the clock" to wear modern versions of vintage kits -- all in the hopes of selling replicas to fans.

Unfortunately or (fortunately), the teams' ability to salute the past exceeds their ability to predict the future. A 1999 multi-team promotion that "turned the clock ahead" gave teams the chance to wear some designer’s idea of what ballclubs would wear "in the future:" the far-away year of 2021. The event provided fans with a bizarre collection of jerseys that made the teams look less like professional athletes than an assignment on Project Runway.

But for every giant compass or silver helmet that the future may (or may not) hold, traditionalists can rest assured that pinstripes and team names rendered in script will never go out of style.

Suggested Sites...

National Baseball Hall of Fame: Dressed to the Nines - historical archive of every uniform ever worn by every major league club. Uni Watch - Paul Lukas's blog dedicated to the obsessive study of athletic aesthetics (meaning "uniforms"). Wikipedia: Baseball Uniforms - history of how the modern uni came to be. Mitchell and Ness - manufacturer of authentic and replica uniforms for Major League Baseball and other sports. Ebbets Field Flannels - maker of reproduction minor league and Negro League uniforms.