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MLB’s Latest and Greatest Hosiery Hero

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These have been rough times for those of us who love baseball stirrups. MLB’s longtime stirrups king, Chris Paddack, has been out for nearly a year after Tommy John surgery; Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil, who won the MLB batting title last season while going stirrups-clad, has committed hosiery heresy by returning to the ranks of the pajamists this year; and pitcher Pablo Lopez, who was a committed stirrups stalwart during his years with the Marlins, has switched to regular socks now that he’s with the Twins this season.

Fortunately, a new stirrups standard-bearer has emerged. And who is this new hosiery hero, this sultan of sock? None other than Angels relief pitcher Jimmy Herget. Those are his stirrup stylings shown at the top of this page, and here’s a full view of him:

Nice, right? Even better, Herget has a herky-jerk delivery and a nice follow-through that really shows off his lower-leg stylings, as you can see in these video highlights:

Herget has been kicking around the majors for a few years, but for some reason he escaped my notice until now. As it turns out, he’s no stirrups-come-lately guy — on the contrary, he’s been a committed stirrups devotee for many years. Here’s a look back at his hosiery history, dating back to his college days:

University of South Florida

Herget played college ball at USF, where he wore stirrups:

Minor Leagues

Herget also wore stirrups throughout his minor league career, as seen in these pics from his time with (in sequence) the Round Rock Express, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the Louisville Bats, the Billings Mustangs, and the Daytona Tortugas:

In addition, Herget played for the U.S. team in the 2017 Futures Game — where, of course, he wore stirrups:

Cincinnati Reds

Herget made his big league debut with the Reds in 2019. He maintained his hosiery habits, even obtaining retro-striped stirrups for a throwback game:

Texas Rangers

Herget was eventually waived by the Reds and claimed by the Rangers, whose famous blue/red identity crisis allowed Herget to explore both sides of the team’s color equation:

Los Angeles Angels

In 2021, Herget moved to the Angels and continued wearing — well, you know:

In 2022, while still with the Angels, Herget upped the ante by adding Northwestern stripes to his stirrups — navy stripes for the team’s basic uniforms and white stripes for the City Connect uni:

———

That brings us up to date. A very impressive lower-leg résumé for Mr. Herget! I’m hoping to interview him soon, so stay tuned for more.

Update: I wrote this piece a few days ago and missed the news that the Angels have sent Herget down to Triple-A — dang. Here’s hoping he gets recalled soon. Godspeed, Jimmy!

(Special thanks to Phil and reader Ron Roza for bringing Herget to my attention.)

 

 
  
 

ITEM! Big Purp Walk Update

I’m happy to report that things are coming together nicely for this year’s Purple Amnesty Day, which is now about three weeks away. Here’s the latest up-to-date info:

  • I will be heading down to Greenville, N.C., on Tuesday, May 16, when the East Carolina University Baseball team will be hosting Campbell at Clark-LeClair Stadium. ECU will wear their powder purple uniforms and I will throw out the first pitch while dressed from head to toe in purple.
  • Uni Watch readers who want to attend the game can purchase discounted tickets for sitting in ECU’s outfield “Jungle” seating area.
  • The game starts at 6pm. Shortly before 8pm, I will leave the game and go to a nearby bar, Coco’s, to host a Uni Watch gathering. Readers watching the game can go with me, or they can stay until the end of the game and come to the bar later. It’s also fine if you want to skip the game entirely and just attend the party. The bar has promised to come up with some sort of purple drink special for us.
  • ECU’s live purple-costumed mascot, PeeDee the Pirate, will visit us at the ballpark. I’m hoping he’ll come to the Coco’s gathering as well, although that’s not yet a certainty.

In addition, designer Bryan Molloy and I have once again collaborated on a Purp Walk T-shirt, and I don’t mind saying that it’s a doozy. Since ECU’s teams are called the Pirates, we decided to have a purple pirate making me walk the plank over a purple sea (infested by purple sharks!). Here’s a mock-up, along with a closer-look at the design:

Fun, right? I’m really happy with it!

We’re offering two ordering windows for this shirt:

  • If you plan on attending the Purp Walk festivities in Greenville and want to wear the shirt, or if you just want to receive the shirt in time for Purple Amnesty Day, you must order it here by the end of this week.
  • If you want to wait until Purple Amnesty Day itself, we will also take orders on May 16. (Purp Walk is usually on May 17, but we’re observing it on May 16 this year because that’s when ECU has a home game.)

If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to be in touch. Thanks!

 

 

Can of the Day

We had one of these in our house when I was growing up, and I thought it looked cool even then. Really nice design on the side, too:

Comments (30)

    I love that this year it will formally be Purple Amnesty Day (Observed), as if it was affected by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968. “We’re tired of the Purp Walk being on a different day of the week every year. Let’s just make it the Tuesday after the third Monday in May.” And great shirt illustration!

    Hey, it’s about time the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was applied to a Uniform Holiday!

    Yinz really outdid yinzselves with this shirt! Just ordered one to have it to wear the day of.

    Kudos to Hegert for keeping style alive!

    I love the stirrups, but the black Northwestern stripe just seems out of place for some reason.

    I am a massive proponent of everything Northwestern Stripe. I would suggest 3 color in this instance. Red base with a Navy middle stripe and white for the side stripes or reverse. If the team uses three colors for the uniform then use them for the stirrups.

    You’re right. It’s navy. I took a quick (too quick) look. White would’ve looked better.

    As a football official, I wore the Northwestern Stripe for years until we went away from knickers and to the black pants. Those socks are the only part of the old uniform I miss.

    So upset I decided to re-enter the workforce this year and miss what may be the best Purple Amnesty celebration yet. I will be ordering this shirt to wear in honor of Purple Amnesty (observed).

    Great call, Steve.

    Obviously The Franchise is wearing them a) cuffed and b) at mid-calf, with c) smaller openings, all of which are … to my eye … much more aesthetically pleasing. I’ll never advocate for socks over stirrups, but those who go high-cuffed today tend to wear their cuff (or elastic) much higher on the leg — almost to the base of the knee. For a stirrup to work with that high cuff-point, it basically needs a 7″ (or even higher) cut-out. To my eye, that shows too much sani. Seaver’s got a lower point of cuffing, which allows for more stirrup and a smaller sani opening. *chef’s kiss*

    If you’re going to your pants in the Herget style, it *almost* makes more sense to simply wear socks (aesthetically).

    I’ll never begrudge anyone who wears stirrups in this day and age, but man, a lower cuff-point and a smaller sani opening and that would look even better.

    As somebody who, like Herget, is a stirrups wearer who’s on the lanky side, I can attest that it’s actually pretty challenging getting the look right. Until last year, I’d mostly been going with a full length pant leg which took a fair amount of blousing to get high enough on my leg to show the striping on the stirrups. That generally looked good, but that amount of blousing actually makes it a little uncomfortable to wear. From time to time I’d blouse less, leaving the cuff lower. While this was more comfortable, it couldn’t be worn with any of my striped stirrups, which seemed a waste.

    Last year, I switched to the shorter pant leg like Herget uses and this was a bunch more comfortable to wear, but always felt like a little more leg than I’d like to show, especially after blousing.

    Now, I’m just an amateur working with whatever pants I can find at retail. If Herget wanted to, I’d wonder if he could talk to the team equipment guys about getting an intermediate length pant leg that could give the benefit of both worlds?

    Black shoes are why Seaver looks great in that pic. Red shoes w/ red socks make any player look like Ronald McDonald.

    All hail Jimmy Herget, Hosiery King of MLB!

    Also, anyone else get strong Kent Tekulve vibes from Herget’s pitching motion and physical build?

    link

    Like this guy’s style! The perfect stirrups with the stripes & the Jordan 1 spikes, beautiful.
    Also digging that USF version of the Uni Watch Tequila Sunrise shirts. This post was pure gold from the glory days of an 80s childhood.

    Herget’s stirrups are beautiful. His style unique. His stats haven’t been great lately, and as a result, the Angels sent him down to the Salt Lake Bees.
    Let’s stay tuned into photos of him from that team.

    Sadly, I had him on my fantasy squad and in that world, I needed to cut him. I’ll pick him up if his stirrups get me major league statistics again.

    Going off on a tanget:
    Today is the first time I’ve seen the Texas Rangers red cap/powder blue pairing (they still use a powder blue cap with those uniforms, right?). If every Ranger dressed like Herget did in that example photo, I’ wouldn’t mind seeing that look full-time for away games – even if they too closely resemble the early 70’s White Sox roadies…a team that was ill-suited in powder blue and historically had a much worse identity crisis. I’m OK with the Rangers being a red AND blue team, maybe due to my fondness of the bi-color cap they were born in, but never considered them to be a ‘true’ powder blue one, even though they wore those regularly for a while way back when.

    Now that the Twins have a whole new wardrobe, I’ll be interested in seeing Chris Paddack’s new collection of stirrups…especially now that they’ve inked him to an extension after his Tommy John recovery.

    I was going to suggest Teoscar Hernandez of the Mariners as one who’s regularly with stirrups, and in doing some research noticed something odd yesterday. He changed sock treatment mid-game..

    A picture from the 4th Inning shows him high cuffed with a full sock
    link

    A picture in the 8th inning shows him high cuffed with stirrups…
    link

    And also oddly without a shin protector he normally wears while hitting…
    link

    Weird.

    I think more often than not he goes with the mid shin cuffs and two-in-one faux ribbon stirrups (as in the last link). I appreciate it for being different but it wouldn’t be my favourite look at all. The true stirrups only seem to get a look in with the Sunday alts.

    Though I know factually I’m wrong, I’m getting a gut feeling that Paul secretly likes purple :)

Comments are closed.