Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good Monday.
Longtime UW reader/contributor/author/stalwart Leo Strawn, Jr. returns today with the fifth part 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! If you missed Volume 1, click here, Volume 2, click here Volume 3, click here, or Volume 4, click here.
Sit back and enjoy — here’s Leo:
The Good, the Bad and the Oddly (Volume 5)
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
I’ve been cleaning out my sports photo files and have been running across some pics that I thought I’d share, along with a question or two for readers. I want to thank everyone who contributed answers and additional info in the comments of Volumes 1-4. Keep it coming!
• Last time around, Jerry Wolper at BucTracker stated the photo from this SI cover is from May 19, not May 17 or 18 as Getty Images indicates.
• Joe Werner indicated this Tim Foli Topps card was from 1982, not 1981.
• Readers Michael Emody and oliver noted the correct color of pinstripes on this 1926 Cards WS jersey are green, not blue.
One quick pic before more GBO: This was a gift from my brother who was at game 1 of the ALDS. Go Tribe!
Speaking of Cleveland, I have a mystery for readers: Does anyone know the story behind the cap that Tribe coach Tony Pacheco was wearing on the infamous 10 cent beer night at Cleveland Stadium on June 4, 1974?
Cleveland is playing the Yanks in the ALCS, so we might as well have a NY item, too. I love the lettering style on the inaugural season Highlanders jerseys. It’s a team photo, so without game pics it’s hard to know for sure, but Okkonen doesn’t pair this cap with this jersey in either season they wore these road beauties.
This is, in my opinion, the first American League wishbone C. Would love to see the Chisox wear this as a throwback.
Their 1903 jersey logo looks awesome on cool weather attire, too.
On that same subject, check out what Honus Wagner is wearing in this pic with Napoleon Lajoie that was copyrighted in 1904. The monogram reads: “PBC”. Also, not only does Wagner have his glove in the pocket of the sweater, but Lajoie has his glove tucked away in his pants pocket.
This was a great looking sweater and one of my all-time favorite caps, courtesy of the 1910 Browns.
From great sweaters to great players: Here’s the Bambino in uniforms from the Boston clubs he started and ended his playing career with, pictured here in 1919 Sox and 1935 Braves unis.
Here’s another legend in a uniform we don’t normally associate him with. The Georgia Peach wore this beauty in 1927, the first of two seasons he played for the Athletics as his career was winding down.
Here he is wearing the white elephant jersey alongside Thomas Edison and Connie Mack in this odd photo. (Insert bad taste Topsy joke here.)
One more of Cobb, this time wearing a Tokyo jersey on a tour of Japan with MLB All Stars in 1928. (Apologies for the poor photo quality.)
Speaking of Japan, this photo, circa late 1940s, shows two Yomiuri Giants players. Pants pockets in Japanese uniforms were still big enough to hold a glove at that time. Check out the number on the pants.
Also from Japan and another of my all time favorite lids: 2014 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks throwing back to their days as Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
Getting back to legends, have you ever seen Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Valentine, Steve Garvey and Bill Buckner in the same photo? By the time Lasorda became LA’s third base coach under Walt Alston in 1973, Valentine had been traded to the Angels, so those four would never all wear the same uniform at the same time again. Also pictured in this 1970 photo are Spokane Indians teammates Tommy Hutton (probably better known as a broadcaster) and Bob O’Brien who had a cup of coffee with the Dodgers in 1971.
I think we’ve all seen this Giants prototype cap on Willie Mays from October of 1957.
That close to the opening of the Giants debut by the Bay and without caps ready, it’s no surprise the people at Topps had to improvise. Their artists went to work with what they had: a Seals cap design. The birth of the Giants in San Fran signaled the death of the PCL Seals and only a few Giants in the 1958 Topps card set were actually pictured wearing their (now) classic cap. It makes me wonder if the Giants were possibly considering using this Seals monogram or something similar before they decided on a final design.
On the subject of the Giants, when they almost moved to the Great White North in 1976, Anthony Davis (who would play for the Argos that year) was pictured in a Toronto Giants prototype (first photo in the following pic). Pretty sure I saw this on UW and that led me to search for other Toronto Giants pics. The other two featured below are the Toronto Giants Metro chairman Paul Godfrey in a different prototype cap, featuring a similar “G” to the one on Davis’ cap, and a pin with a third potential logo for the team.
I have a couple of batting helmet items to wrap it up this time around. In 1976, when the Cards wore pillbox caps, their batting helmets had hand-painted stripes to match the caps. Which leads me to a question: That’s obviously not a game photo, so it’s hard to know for sure if that ensemble in the first pic was worn together in a game, but Okkonen doesn’t show them wearing those 1976 pillbox caps at home. The Cardinals uniforms and logos site, however, does show this combo in their graphics, as well as a photo of Schoendienst and two coaches (Gómez and Koenig, I think) wearing pillbox caps at home, but I didn’t see a pic of the players wearing them in a game photo. I would assume that the players were wearing them also, but since we know the A’s had different caps for coaches than players wore onfield someone with more knowledge than I have regarding the Cards would have to weigh in on this. Anyone have photos to confirm if the pillbox caps were worn by players at Busch?
Another of my all-time favorite caps are Angels caps with halos. When I was searching for videos of early 1961 Angels games to find clues as to exactly when they first wore the halo on their caps, (it wasn’t in their inaugural game at Baltimore), I stumbled upon this video from the first of two 1962 ASGs, showing Billy Moran wearing a helmet with a halo. (Screenshots are the first two pics in bottom row, below.) Because that 1962 video was so fuzzy, I looked for more evidence for halos on the helmets and found photos from 1961 (entire top row), 1963 (Albie Pearson, in color) and Jim Fregosi from 1964 playing for the AL in the ASG, when it appears they had abandoned the halos on helmets.
From the looks of it in the Pearson pic, the helmet halos were painted with a metallic silver paint to make them reflect light so they would look like…halos!
If you have any color photos of these Angels batting helmets, any 1976 Cardinals photos where they are wearing pillbox caps at home or any 1903 Highlanders game photos, please share!
That’s all for now. World Series edition on deck.
Cheers!
Readers? What say you?
Wonderful stuff, Leo! Thar Cards pillbox hat is so great. I cherish my Daiei Hawks 1992 happy coat and icecream helmets (one with the bird head design, the other the brown hat with arched orange FDH lettering). I miss old Heiwadai stadium, think I went to 3 or 4 games there.
Does anyone know the story behind the cap that Tribe coach Tony Pacheco was wearing on the infamous 10 cent beer night at Cleveland Stadium on June 4, 1974?
I think the Indians had coaches’ caps for a short time when those uniforms first came out.
I had never heard of that, but it looks like you’re 100% correct. Already found a couple of photos to share next week.
Thanks!
Yes that’s correct, the team photo from 1974, has all coach’s with same striped hats. Interstingly enough those caps worn in team photo from 1974 for Tribe with red jerseys, are not listed in Dressed to Nines as a uni combo that year.
We believe the Cardinals Pillbox hats were worn during 1976 games, but not the entire season, more likely on certain days. We don’t have written sources to explain how it was worn. But take a look at the Ted Simmons photo at the end of the 1976 page, you can see the pillbox cap under his catching mask. link
That’s a road game though. Question is did they wear them at home.
Yeah, appears that the Cards only wore the pillbox caps on the road in 1976
link
GTGFTU: 10 Dec 1989, Week 14 – Cowboys at Eagles. Eagles won, 20-10, in the first game after QB coach Doug Scovil died of a heart attack the previous day. They would wear the black tape on their helmets the rest of the season.
My all-time favorite Cowboys’ uniform!
One of the most creative uni-memorials ever.
Those Braman-era kits…ehh, they’re ok.
Lasorda, Garvey, Buckner and Valentine together for a photo? It’s 1968, when they were with the Ogden Dodgers in Utah. link
Nice!
Believe the scoreboard is from Fenway, 10/1/78. Last scheduled game of the regular season. Cleveland’s Waits had beaten the Yankees, which combined with the Red Sox win over Toronto, dropped them into a tie for the AL East and forced a playoff between the Red Sox and Yankees the next day.
Thanks, Cleveland!
Signed,
The 108 year curse.
I was watching last night’s Red Wings-Rangers tilt and during intermission I flipped over to the Jets game on MNF. I then realized that the Rangers, Jets, Nets and Yankees all had home games last night. Add to that the Isles and Mets were on the road and the Giants had a home game on Sunday. What an incredible two days for Gotham sports! I’m wondering how often something like this has ever happened.
Great job Leo, especially on the pillbox caps. I’ve always been fascinated by these in an amusing sort of way. I almost bought a Pirates one when I was in Pittsburgh a few years ago but I passed. And thanks for the pic of the St. Louis Browns cap. Also one of my fave logos/caps!
Double edged sword that none of those NY home games were in the same municipality and only three were in the same state.
That Willie Mays photo from October 57 also might include a prototype jersey, since the last time the Giants wore headspoons was 1948. It could be a minor league jersey, or a creation from the shop that made the cap.
It was a bold move for the Giants to play in pleated slacks, as well.
“Here’s the Bambino in uniforms from the Boston clubs he started and ended his playing career”
Name 2 other HOFers who started and ended their careers in the same city, but with different franchises.
Mays (New York) and Aaron (Milwaukee)
In addition to Mays and Aaron and Ruth, Rogers Hornsby started with the 1915 Cardinals and ended with the 1937 Browns. Not sure why he usually gets left out of that particular trivia question, but he does.
Hornsby didn’t have the personalities of Mays or Aaron. He played for several teams as opposed to Hammer’n’ Hank and Say Hey. He wasn’t a get along to get along player….traded after winning St Louis first WS. The next Traded away after hitting after .361 and 125 rbi’s….then next year traded away after hitting .387 and 307 total bases..Hornsby was today’s version of Bonds without PED accusations but claims he was a longer who played for Hornsby first….Cards, Giants, Braves, Cubs, and Browns 2nd.
Great talent and deserves being mention with Mays and Aaron. Just not in the same level of grace and dignity.