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The Good, the Bad and the Oddly (Volume 1): A Leo’s World Special

Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone made it through their Monday in good spirits.

Longtime UW reader/contributor/author/stalwart Leo Strawn, Jr. has been busy with research of late, and he recently shared with us a tremendous article outlining night footballs, in addition to a few quizzes. Leo returns today with the first in a new series he’s calling “The Good, the Bad and the Oddly” focusing on, well, good, bad and odd baseball uniforms and caps he’s encountered over the years. I think you’ll all really enjoy this one!

Sit back and enjoy — here’s Leo:

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The Good, the Bad and the Oddly (Volume 1)
by Leo Strawn, Jr.

I’m Leo…welcome to my world!

While waiting for WWIII to start, I’ve been finishing up some articles I started years ago and cleaning out my sports photo files. I have been running across some pics that I thought I’d share that are unusual in some way. There are enough that I think will be of interest that I can do a few of these if UWers like seeing them. I also have some pics that I have questions about and hopefully a uniform aficionado or two can shed some light on these head scratchers.

Random items first.

Recently, I did a piece on white and yellow footballs. I bet you didn’t know a yellow baseball was used during the first game of a 1938 doubleheader between the Cards and Dodgers at Ebbets, on August 2. This article notes that “the dye came off the ball onto the bat after it was hit.” Sadly, I haven’t been able to find an accurate game photo. (I found a colorized photo but it wasn’t even from the correct season.) Not sure if this photo has been colorized or not but the signature on the ball is from Ford Frick who was indeed the NL President at the time.

That wasn’t the only time MLB used colored baseballs. For two A’s spring training games in 1973, the owners allowed Charlie Finley to try out his “alert orange” baseballs (be patient with that link, it’s slow to load). In that linked article, he said “the balls were tanned and dyed by Spalding” (not painted, as I erroneously thought and replied on RICKAZ’s comment on my night football article). This newspaper article (also slow, so be patient) has a game photo of the second (and last) game using the orange balls, against the Angels, but unfortunately, the ball isn’t visible in the pic. It also contains information as to why pitchers didn’t like the ball, ultimately leading to the end of the alert orange experiment.

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We’ve all seen photos of the satin jerseys worn for early MLB night games. This is a 1948 Boston Braves night jersey.

But did you know there were satin caps, too? This 1948-49 Cincinnati Reds cap was worn by Ray Mueller.

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Apparently, they didn’t have ‘snow outs’ during the 1911 season. That’s Davy Jones in the batter’s box. And, yes, that’s his real name. I imagine he got tired of jokes about his clubhouse locker! I also imagine he wasn’t too thrilled about trying to pick up the ball as he was hitting the day this photo was taken in Detroit vs. the White Sox. (Historical side note: Jones was the first MLB batter to face the great Walter Johnson. He went 0-4 with a walk that day vs. Washington, presumably 0-3 with a walk while facing The Big Train.)

I love the button-on long sleeves on this circa 1911-12 Cubs jersey. Great uniform option if you ever had to play a game in the snow.

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Did you know…? The 1961 Angels wore caps without halos in spring training and before Houston played their first regular season game in their original Astros caps in 1965, they had spring training caps with a star and an “H”, but separately, on two different caps.

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Enough of the random photos this time around, I’ll have more later. Now, on to some questions I have about mysterious jerseys and caps.

Marc Okkonen did an AMAZING job, even going from city-to-city while researching old newspapers for his baseball uniform history book in the days before the internet was the go-to source for research. (I still have a copy of “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century”, which contains uniforms from 1900-91.)

But there are uniforms he missed, like this circa 1975-77 blue-over-red combo worn by the Indians. (Eckersley played for Cleveland during those 3 seasons.)

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The following are photos of other uniforms I can’t find in the database.

This is an odd one and I think I have the answer, thanks to Todd Radom. This photo shows Eddie Stanky during his first year as manager of the White Sox in 1966. Okkonen only shows dark caps for that season. Not sure where I found this pic but I listed it as being from May 14 at Tiger Stadium. Todd has an article about a powder blue cap being worn on March 24 in Orlando, in a spring game vs. Minnesota, by third base coach Tony Cuccinello for the first 3 innings before switching back to his dark blue cap. That article by Radom has a Bill Skowron 1967 Topps card (in a 1966 uniform), which has been photoshopped with the cap colored powder blue, but no stripes or dark blue bill on the cap. (In the article, Todd stated that he hadn’t seen a photo of that game, so he wouldn’t have known about the stripes, the dark bill or the lettering being dark inside a white outline.)

The news story about the March 24 game on that webpage says that the Sox GM asked Stanky to model the cap for that game but he refused. I only have pics of Eddie wearing the cap (the photo below and one other) and although the players in the background of this photo are out of focus, those caps don’t match the color of their uniforms. So, if those are Chicago players on the field (the uniforms, albeit out of focus, do appear to be light blue), he must have acquiesced and modeled it on May 14 in Detroit. If anyone has any additional information on this White Sox cap (especially if the team ever wore this during a game), let us know!

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Okkonen doesn’t list this jersey among the 1962 Mets jerseys. Did he miss it or is this a 1962 Mets prototype? The lettering looks thinner and the “Y” isn’t on the placket.

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I’m not certain, but I think I screencapped this from a YouTube vid in 2016, though when I tried to find it again recently, I didn’t see it on any of the Hall of Fame Museum videos I watched. I had it marked as a Christy Mathewson jersey from a HOF exhibit. Mathewson was traded to the Reds during the 1916 season. The Giants didn’t start wearing violet (or mauve or whatever you want to call that color) until 1913. They didn’t have a jersey spelling out “NEW YORK” during the violet era until 1917, which was the last season they wore that color, and that 1917 road jersey had what appears to be a sans serif font without pinstripes, as well as being after Mathewson left NY. Also, skimming through the database, I didn’t see a single Giants jersey from the entire time they were in New York with a flag on the sleeve. Does anyone know anything about this particular jersey?

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Here’s another one: Ivey Wingo (also spelled “Ivy”, not sure which is correct) played for Cincinnati from 1915-26 and again for a single at bat in 1929. This card is from Exhibits, made in 1921, so the uniform is no later than that year. Every Cincy uniform in the HOF database shows the Wishbone C with “REDS” inside on every jersey during that period from 1915-29, and it was always a solid red Wishbone C, sometimes outlined in black, but never white with dark outline and never without “REDS” inside the C. Does anyone have any info on this jersey?

I’m sure I’ll have more odd uniforms from photos I’ve collected that I have questions about and as I run across them, I’ll post them at a later date in the hope that someone will have an answer to some of these uniform mysteries. Stay tuned…

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Hopefully you found something (at least remotely) interesting among the oddities and if you have answers to, or information on, any of the uniform questions, please share!

Until next time…

Cheers!

• • • • •
Thanks, Leo! Quite the sampling of a bunch of uniforms I’m quite certain some of us have never seen (a couple are even new to me!). I always love seeing that crazy Dennis Eckersley Cleveland combo (first shared, I believe, by Ricko more than a decade ago). Wonderful research on those as well, and you’ve answered as many questions as you’ve asked. Hopefully some of the readers can lend some insight into the unis you’ve highlighted. Looking forward to Volume II!

Readers? What say you?

 

 
  
 

Guess the Game from the Uniform


Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Dalton Connery.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

 

 

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Andrew Demers.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

 

 

Uni Tweet of the Day

Even the guys from the GUD are noticing the all white uni thing is getting out of hand…

 

And finally...

…that’s going to do it for the early article. Big thanks — as always — to Leo for another great Leo’s World! Really fun one today, Leo!

I should have a couple more articles today (plus any breaking news), including Mike Chamernik’s Question of the Week (and it’s a doozy today), so keep checking back in!

Everyone have a good Tuesday, and I’ll catch you all back here tomorrow.

Peace,

PH

Comments (46)

    I LOVE the blue over red look for Cleveland. Would have been nice to see it as an option for the CC unis or their navy alternates.

    If memory serves, there was a (rarely seen) solid white uniform with navy blue letters and numbers, the solid red uniform with white graphics outlined in navy, and the navy jersey with white+red graphics. By far the most popular combo was navy top & white pants, red over white second, and navy over red third. Whenever I see the Nationals in navy over white, I say, “Cleveland were tastemakers back in the day.”

    The flag was most likely added to the Giants jersey during the 1917 World Series. It wasn’t unheard of for a team to make changes to uniforms for the WS. That’s why the Dodgers added red numbers to the front of their uniforms.

    Yes. The Cubs modified their road uni for the 1918 Series, and McGraw rolled out the all-black Giants uni just for the Series in 1905, then again in 1911.

    To recognize the Americans fighting in the war in Europe, the White Sox also sported patriotic-themed uniforms in that World Series, including a similar flag on their sleeves.

    From what I’ve read, the Dodgers were ready to debut their red numbers for the 1951 World Series, but Bobby Thomson put an end to that. So they began wearing the red numbers on their home uniforms at the beginning of 1952.

    Maybe someone at the Reds Hall of Fame museum might have information about that uniform.

    I have many photos of that Giants jersey – I go to the HoF about once-a-year, but don’t have a full photo of the plaque for it – but the closest I have is “Following the 1913 World Series, The New York Giants and Chicago White Sox embarked on a nearly five-month world tour, visiting exotic locales such as Japan, Australia and Egypt. Christy Mathewson {words cut off, can’t make them out} in the first leg of the”

    I do not have time right this moment, but I will post some photos so you can get a look at them, if no one else has.

    Awesome! Thanks for that info, will change it in my personal database and upgrade that photo, too!

    I suspect Eddie Stanky is wearing a managers-and-coaches only cap, in the style of the white caps the Athletics/A’s managers and coaches wore after Finley switched the colors to green and gold.

    In the 1965 Kansas City team photo, Manager Haywood Sullivan and his coaches are wearing the white caps. No white caps in the ’64 Kansas City team photo.

    Notably, Okkonen’s illustrations don’t include the white Kansas City/Oakland caps in the Dressed to the Nines database, presumably because the players did not wear them.

    For the coaches, I understand, but the A’s did wear white caps on the field in 1967, at least.

    That’s coming up in Volume 2 with photos. Stay tuned…

    I distinctly remember those orange A’s balls bouncing around the infield between innings of one All-Star game. I’m pretty sure the announcers even mentioned it. If anyone has access to those early/mid 70’s ASG full broadcasts, it would be a good place to look!

    If the Astros had had the temerity to stick with the orange star on the blue cap, the five-pointed star would have become their intellectual property. Can you imagine being able to control (and be compensated for) something so omnipresent?

    Great stuff, Leo. It raises more questions than can ever be answered, I am afraid. Certainly not by me. I love that mauve lettering of the Giants and I suddenly see a connection with the Mets CC which has a hint of purple as well. Speaking of the Mets, that Wilson ad is really great. Stanky looks cool in that very light blue Sox uniform, if it has ever existed.

    Those Mets and Colts unis look like they’d be worn by coaches. They look pretty baggy for the in-their-prime players.

    ‘Course, the Mets especially didn’t have a lot of in-their-prime players in 1962.

    The photo link on that one is of Rogers Hornsby. He was Mets third base coach in 1962 and his uniform is similar to what players wore that season (fatter letters, “Y” on the placket).

    In the Eckersley pic….. I never understood the flaps that covered the laces? Was this just the style? Or was there an actual purpose (to keep the laces from coming untied if someone stepped on them)? My Dad had a few pairs of golf shoes, when I was little, that had the same thing.

    Good catch. I had spikes like that in the 70s/80s. I assume there was a reason for the flap – maybe to keep the laces from accidentally catching on something – but it was definitely the style of the day.

    A couple of thoughts:
    (1) It being spring training, Ted Kluszewski (misspelled in the cutline) probably didn’t have time to cut the sleeves off his uniform yet.
    (2) The Skowron and Stankey signatures are both legible and you know who they are. That was very common back then, but almost no ballplayers’ signatures are legible today. Just a bunch of scribbles.

    That Cubs jersey with the buttons that only go part way down… why isn’t that a thing? Nobody wears their jersey open past those few top buttons, so why even have them? And think of the weight savings! And no more placket to disrespect! I’m really surprised that has not been tried in decades.

    Is it just my eyes playing tricks on me, or does that Cincinnati uniform actually have “REDS” stitched in white barely visible inside the C?

    Maybe it’s a logo variant that was designed for a darker uniform but ended up getting used on a grey?

    Good eyes! I didn’t see that.

    Just had a conversation about b&w photos from the mid-30s and earlier with a couple of the GUD experts and I learned that colors photographed oddly in b&w because of the film used. This could be one of those instances. Will have to ask their opinion.

    Oh, that’s a good point about the film.

    Maybe the photo was taken with a red filter that washed out the red (the cap logo looks a bit faded too) and made the black outline stand out more.

    I’m new at commenting, so if I need to post a GTGFTS somewhere else, please let me know.
    But that scoreboard is from the greatest tennis match ever, the 1980 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Final, in the final game, which Bjorn Borg won to win the final set 8-6 and the last of his fifth straight Wimbledon championships. Saturday, July 5, 1980, Wimbledon, England.
    I was 13 and was intently watching the match, was waiting for it to end so I could devote my daily 30 minutes to throwing my Pratt (KS) Tribune paper route. I usually had my route done on Saturday by 11 a.m., and our Saturday deadline was 3:30 p.m., so I had no problem meeting the deadline, but my customers were used to having their papers earlier. I don’t think I had any complaints, other than by my parents trying to get me to do it. But I was glued to that match and knew it was something special. McEnroe, who won that 4th-set tiebreaker 18-16 to force the fifth set, would avenge the loss on July 4, 1981, over Borg.

    Correct! And yes, the comments section is where you would place your GTGFTS and GTGFTU guesses.

    Love the Leo articles, and also missed the one on the yellow footballs – I’d read about them but only seen a photo once before. Always fun to see how football, like soccer, rugby, basketball and AFL, could’ve gone with a less natural color for the ball. But for some reason traditional brown came back as the default when lighting got better.

    Belatedly, curious when baseballs went from brown to white? I’m guessing it was 19th century, but was it before the National League?

    Good question. I know I have some 19th century pics, so will look into that and maybe have something to share for next baseball season.

    Cheers!

    Ebbetts Field Flannels is, or recently was, selling a repro satin Cincinnati Reds hat. I bought one. I have to keep reminding myself it isn’t a Cleveland hat though!

    Would be nice if the O’s would TBTC and wear Browns uniforms at least once a year.

    Love the powder blue White Sox cap. If they sold one, I’d buy it today, even tho I have put my White Sox fandom on hiatus until there is a new owner.

    The guys at Gridiron Uniform Database enlightened me on some black & white photos from the mid-30s and earlier. Evidently, the film used in those early days didn’t read color the same way we’re used to with more modern black & white film.

    I just asked them if they could figure out what’s going on in that photo of Wingo. Even now that a few readers pointed out that REDS is inside the Wishbone C (which I couldn’t even see), I’m certain it can’t be that it was white lettering.

    Based on earlier conversations I had with them about b&w football unis from this era, it’s possible the dark in this photo is red and the light (almost white) lettering and jersey Wishbone C are royal blue.

    When I get an answer, I will let readers know.

    Regarding the New York Giants jersey, the Chicagology site has a page about White Sox world tours during the 1910s and it includes this photo: link
    It’s White Sox and a Giant player in Tokyo in 1913, and it looks a lot like the jersey in question, though I can’t make out the flag on the sleeve. Special uniforms for world tours were a thing then.

    The LA Angels first ever game was April 11. 1961 in Baltimore. Film of the game shows that their caps did not have halos. Angels won the game 7-2. The halos were added shortly thereafter.

    Never liked the too-literal take of those halo-ed caps…and I conveniently forget that they were/are anything but the California Angels.

Comments are closed.