BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Just because: Baseball legends in ‘one-color’ uniforms

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Just because: Baseball legends in ‘one-color’ uniforms - CBSSports.com

My little league team had powder blue uniforms with burgundy stripes. My fashion sense is still scarred.

Scientists trained in such matters long ago proved that the 1970s were nothing more than a 10-year Saturday night. It was when illegal street drugs were wholesome, restorative and often shiny. It was when a raging venereal disease was nothing more than a harmless socialization ritual and a signifier of the good life. Grammarians of the day defined the future perfect tense as extending no further than four minutes from that very minute (e.g., “In four minutes, I shall have been dancing for four minutes,” went the lyrical refrain from no fewer than 16 chart-topping hits.)

It was also the era of the single-colored uniform. No one, it turns out, was spared.

Jim Furtado Posted: November 19, 2012 at 03:02 PM | 17 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: history, uniforms

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1. Gazizza, my Dilznoofuses! Posted: November 19, 2012 at 03:55 PM (#4306133)

Just Because

2. JJ1986 Posted: November 19, 2012 at 04:11 PM (#4306143)

I think the A's yellow one looks kind of good.

3. Jolly Old St. Nick Done Jumped The Ship

Posted: November 19, 2012 at 04:11 PM (#4306144)

I'm not sure that the Alternate-Jersey-Of-The-Week Club that many teams seem to subscribe to today is all that much of an improvement over the 70's, as bad as those uniforms were.

4. Charlie O Posted: November 19, 2012 at 05:09 PM (#4306198)

I liked the A's yellow road uniform with the sleeveless jersey they wore through 1971. Finley called it "California gold," as I recall. When the A's had a home double header, they sometimes wore the white uniform in the opener and the yellow one in the nightcap.

I thought the all green and all yellow uniforms worn later in the 70s were awful. Fortunately, they weren't seen often. They almost always wore white pants (even on the road) with the green or yellow jersey. The all-white uniform was worn only for Sunday home games.

5. Fred Lynn Nolan Ryan Sweeney Agonistes Posted: November 19, 2012 at 05:35 PM (#4306232)

I guess I just love horrible uniforms.
I loved the circa 1980 Astros "Skittles" uniforms, and I love every horrible variation on green / gold / black / white (shoes) the A's run out there every year.

6. puck Posted: November 19, 2012 at 07:36 PM (#4306306)

I don't think those uniforms look as bad as last night's Steelers throwbacks.

7. OCF Posted: November 19, 2012 at 08:01 PM (#4306315)

To get the full effect of those Pirate yellow uniforms, you have to find a picture of Willie Stargell.

8. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: November 19, 2012 at 08:15 PM (#4306328)

"I look like a blood clot"

9. BDC

Posted: November 19, 2012 at 09:15 PM (#4306349)

I thought of this dynamic yesterday at the Cowboys game, where I showed up in my usual Negro League baseball cap and neutral shirt – and was surrounded by fans dressed in Cowboys navy or Browns brown – and I realized that at Rangers games people wear a promiscuous sea of red-white-and-blue because the Rangers don't have a single color, thanks to the desire to sell shirts in as many colors as possible, and that therefore I can go to a Rangers game in any color I choose, as long as it's not too obviously the opponents'. There's something to be said for solidarity, but also something to be said for neutrality.

10. Pat Rapper's Delight Posted: November 19, 2012 at 09:41 PM (#4306369)

To get the full effect of those Pirate yellow uniforms, you have to find a picture of Willie Stargell.

Done.

11. Lassus Posted: November 19, 2012 at 09:47 PM (#4306373)

GODDAMMIT

12. Cooper Nielson Posted: November 19, 2012 at 10:26 PM (#4306407)

That was fun. Nicely done, Dayn.

13. the Hugh Jorgan returns Posted: November 20, 2012 at 12:05 AM (#4306528)

Yep Lassus, I got stung also.

I too appreciate the abject ugliness of some of those uniforms. That O's one looks like something that should be flying over the parliament building in the Netherlands.

14. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: November 20, 2012 at 01:08 AM (#4306547)

and I realized that at Rangers games people wear a promiscuous sea of red-white-and-blue because the Rangers don't have a single color, thanks to the desire to sell shirts in as many colors as possible,

The desire to sell shirts only partially explains it in the Rangers case. Even during the days when they had only road and home jerseys, they never seemed to be able to settle on whether red or blue was their primary color.

And while there are a lot of things I like about 70s/80s baseball (the mix of offenses, the effect of turf on the game, cocaine as the drug of choice, etc.) the uniforms were not one of them. And this creeping return of powder blue on Friday nights or Sunday afternoons is something that ought to be nipped in the bud right quick.

15. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: November 20, 2012 at 01:29 AM (#4306551)

And while there are a lot of things I like about 70s/80s baseball (the mix of offenses, the effect of turf on the game, cocaine as the drug of choice, etc.)

you left out these

16. Pat Rapper's Delight Posted: November 20, 2012 at 01:51 AM (#4306556)

you left out these

And these.

17. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: November 20, 2012 at 02:22 AM (#4306560)

you left out these

And these.

My "etc." was intended to cover a lot of ground, both vertically and horizontally.

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Just because: Baseball legends in ‘one-color’ uniforms - CBSSports.com

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