The experiment is soon quietly abandoned. White slacks show up again in , leading many players to "accidentally" kick dirt on them. Umpire Joe Rue later recalls, "The players called us a bunch of sissies. They'd sneak up behind you and spit tobacco juice on your pants legs. Every time we'd see one of them walking by, we'd say, 'Get the hell away from me.
AL umps, given no such leeway, have to sweat it out in their full wool suits. Although the program provides umps for both leagues, it's staffed primarily by NL umps who encourage use of the inside chest protector, and therefore marks the beginning of the end for the outside protector.
The AL soon does the same. Thirty-five years later, not a single baseball fan can name a single ump by number. As game attendee Stew Thornley later recounts, "The base umpires wore white shirts and red Twins hats, while plate umpire Ken Kaiser wore a windbreaker and green shin guards over his sweatpants. Kaiser seemed even crankier than usual that night, possibly because of the sartorial snafu. Unable to bend over to sweep the plate clean, he pathetically kicks the dirt off the plate with his feet for the balance of the game.
In the postseason, the letters are replaced with the ubiquitous MLB logo. As for this season, ump attire has become the latest breeding ground for Uni Watch's arch nemesis, logo creep. Up until now, the umps had only worn the Majestic "M" logo on the right cuffs of their windbreakers. But this year the logo is appearing on the left sleeves of the umps' blue polos , black polos and black long-sleeve shirts.
Think of it as the coaching version of a throwback uni. This runs counter to what Uni Watch was told last fall by Dennis Kayser, the NFL's senior director of on-field operations, who said at the time, "Pretty much you have to wear the approved licensed apparel or else more formal attire. But nobody wants to wear the formal look anymore. Now that somebody does, the NFL is singing a slightly different tune. Not to insinuate that what they have now is not good, of course. Of course.
But isn't it a bit silly to tell a grown man that he can't dress like, well, a grown man? So I think we're comparing apples to oranges, almost. The obvious solution, then, is for the NFL and Reebok to branch out into the upscale menswear market. Any chance of that happening? Put Uni Watch down for a 38 regular. No, besides an empty stadium and a long-suffering fan base.
Here's the deal: Most vest-clad teams use plain, unadorned undersleeves. But more and more players on both teams have been going logo-less, with the roster of offenders including Julio Lugo , Carl Crawford , Toby Hall , Daryle Ward and Jose Mesa , among several others.
This issue has been around for a while, but it's gotten worse this year. The problem is that Majestic makes all the MLB jerseys, including the vests, but Nike is now making most of the undersleeves which is why undersleeves suddenly have that annoying white seam stitching this season.
If a team with a normal, sleeve-inclusive jersey wears a sleeve patch, Majestic sews it on as part of the manufacturing process. Why not? Latimer's a really nice guy, but the Rays will never get out of the cellar with that attitude. It's worth noting that the Reds and Royals used to wear left-sleeve patches too, but both clubs are going plain-sleeved this season, presumably to avoid these sorts of problems.
Of course, the simplest way for vested teams to avoid sleeve-patch problems is to wear the patches somewhere else. Back in , when most teams supported the war effort by wearing a "Health" patch on the left sleeve this was the logo of the "Hale America" fitness campaign , the Cubs wore the patch on their chest. And in , when teams wore an MLB th anniversary patch some clubs putting it on the right sleeve , others on the left , the A's wore it like this , and the Indians like this.
More recently, when most teams wore a Jackie Robinson sleeve patch in , the Reds wore it on their vest , as did at least one minor-league club.
One current team appears to have learned from these examples: the Rangers, whose Johnny Oates memorial patch is usually worn on the right sleeve but migrates to the chest on the team's alternate vest uni.
Uni News You Can Use Yet another MLB jersey snafu was narrowly avoided on May 10, when A's reliever Octavio Dotel got the call to warm up, took off his jacket and found he was wearing a green jersey while the rest of the team was wearing gray. A clubhouse attendant rushed the proper jersey to him a few minutes later.
The Buffalo Bills plan to unveil an alternate jersey on June 4. They were originally planning to showcase it during the draft, like the Lions, Giants and Cardinals did with their new uni designs. But the Bills needed some extra time to ensure that the new jersey is even uglier than their current ones. The Canadian Football League has come up with new uniforms for all its teams. Uni Watch would love to compare the merits of the new designs to the old, except that, y'know, nobody cares.
In much more important news, Royals interim manager Bob Schaeffer earns Uni Watch's highest rating for wearing real stirrups. Take the "interim" tag off of this guy, pronto! For details, look here. Follow-Ups As noted in Uni Watch's last column , the Washington Nationals recently wore their batting practice jerseys for a regular-season game. But it turns out that they're not the first team to have done this. Reader Jerry Wolper points out that the Dodgers wore their BP jerseys on July 20th, , against the Pirates Uni Watch has seen visual proof, but it's not web-linkable.
The circumstances behind this anomaly are uncleaer -- if anyone knows, or if you have other examples of teams playing in BP attire, do tell. Over in Boston, where Manny Ramirez was wearing David Ortiz's "34" wristbands for several games this season he has since stopped , Ortiz has now returned the favor by wearing Ramirez's "24" wristbands.
Good stuff, but if these guys are wearing each other's jockstraps, Uni Watch doesn't wanna know. The very first umpires wear a suit with full pants, shirts, ties, and hats. University-style caps had made their way onto field umpire heads. Boston-style caps were favored by the plate umpires who need smaller hats under their facemasks. Suits : Umpire suits were comprised of at least two components: matching pants and a jacket of the same fabric.
Pants : Once the National League experimented the uniform with the white trousers for the umpire in Baseball, the manager-umpires argued that they are tired of players kicking dirt on them and it is challenging to carry dirty pants. Then, at one point, Baseball attempted to return to the blue pants, that were colored heather and charcoal grey to camouflage any potential dirt stains and preserve the dignified suit slacks look.
Jackets : Umpire jackets were the large blazers that accommodate the significant equipment requirements. Earlier, blazers had large pockets to hold spare baseballs. Shirts : Later in the 20th century, suit-era stiff collared shirts evolved into chest predator-accommodating button-down shirts, which was replaced by more flexible poly-style shirts. The umpire wore shirts with white or light blue shade along with dark blazers over them.
Not a Big Market : The main manufacturer of plate coats made only 24 plate coats in total in a year that includes one for umpires in the major leagues who get them for free. Expensive : Buying a new plate coat was expensive in those days. It was a long time to wait for the package. It was always necessary to lug it around themselves. Only Dry Clean : Those coats can only be dry cleaned. Nowadays, the term is no longer commonly used.
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