From fairly early on, most of us have been able to easily identify a baseball uniform, or rather, the various types of uniforms and how certain accessories indicate a player's position. But perhaps we take for granted the evolution of this specialized attire and how it transformed into what it has become today.
The first known team to implement uniforms was the New York Knickerbockers--strange name, huh?--on April 4th, 1849. They rushed the baseball diamond in blue wool pants, white flannel shirt and straw hats. With such outfits, you might imagine them to be more country bumpkins than athletes, but the trend caught on nevertheless (though perhaps a bit slowly). At the turn of the century, all Major League Baseball teams were wearing uniforms.
At that point, it was a team's stockings--which extended from the foot up to the knee--that differentiated them from another team, while the colors and patterns that had been developed on the uniform were meant to identify the position they played.
Because the color of the stockings helped to identify the team, some team names were drawn from the color of the stockings--hence, teams like the Chicago White Stockings or the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They have obviously since been shortened to names like White Sox, etc., but if you have ever wondered where that tradition came from... now you know!
Around the early 1900s, three teams had begun to use the now-famous pinstripe pattern on their uniforms: the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, the Detroit Wolverines, and the Washington Nationals. An old myth suggests that the New York Yankees adopted pinstripes to make their star player, Babe Ruth, look a little slimmer, but the truth is that they had implemented the design before he signed on with them.
It wasn't long after the advent of the baseball uniform that many teams began to use two of them: one for playing at their home stadium and another for games on other teams' territory. In general, "away," uniforms were a variant of light blue, dark blue, or black and white.
In 1916, the Cleveland Indians added one feature we take for granted today: numbers. Theirs were stitched onto the left sleeve of their home uniforms (but remained absent from away uniforms for a number of years). Thirteen years later, both the Indians and the Yankees displayed players' numbers on the backs of their shirts. Within another three years, all of the Major League teams used a number to identify a certain player on the back of each uniform.
So the next time you go to your local stadium to watch "the game," try to imagine your favorite players in flannel shirts and straw hats. Seriously! Just try it. And now that you know a little background on the development of the baseball uniform, you can more adequately see what has changed and what has remained the same.
If you're looking for customized baseball uniforms, be sure to check out Shop4Teams (http://baseballuniformsale.com/) for the best in tradition and style. Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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