Long-time reader, contributor, and designer Sean “Superfly” Walsh, who has been featured on UW several times, wrote me a short while ago to say he “finally finished my last of my classic baseball unis.” I run a fair amount of reader concepts so I’m bound not to remember every set sent to me, but that’s because his first set was featured back in 2021, and it was part of much larger article. (I’ll run Sean’s original concepts following the one’s he just sent, both for ease of viewing and in case readers want to comment on the prior submissions.)
Sean most recently had a redesign proposal for the Tennessee Titans, as well as for the Cardinals and Commanders, but he also did an incredible MLS redesign several years ago (Part I, Part II).
Here is Sean with his most recent Classic Baseball uni concepts, and I’ll follow that by republishing the original set sent back in 2021. Enjoy!
by Sean Walsh
To put a bookend on my previous series of old school baseball unis, I have created a couple more full sets, and a couple one-off alternates, this time centered on the blue-gray flannel worn by a couple teams in the late 60s, such as the White Sox and Expos.
DETROIT TIGERS
First up, I’ve always loved the Tigers’ old English D, and am glad the club finally harmonized the hat and jersey versions. Had they’d won more through the years, I think their “D” would be that much more iconic, like the Yankees’ “NY” logo/lettering. I’ve always liked (but not loved) their home whites, but the road grays are a mess to me, so I created a whole set focused on the “D” logo. For me, home whites should be bright and colorful, so I added orange trim to the hat, numbers and stirrups/socks, and the Tiger to the D (as on previous batting practice jerseys). The cream set retains the classic look of the old home whites, the old gray flannel set adds a vest, and the blue-gray alternate gives them a new look not previously worn in their history.
SACRAMENTO SOLONS
Growing up, my local pro baseball team was the PCL’s Sacramento Solons. By the 70s, this was either the 3rd or 4thiteration of the team (depending on your source), at least one of which still exists, and at the time, they were the Brewers’ AAA farm team (got to see Hammerin’ Hank pop balls over the left field net during batting practice in Hughes Stadium, a football stadium configured for baseball like the LA Coliseum when the Dodgers first moved). Now, Sacramento is back in the PCL with the River Cats (and a very nice baseball-only stadium), and for a year or two (maybe longer if Vegas falls through), The Athletics. It’s understandable this new owners would want to break from the past, as undistinguished as it was, but River Cats is a silly name, and if they ever want to re-brand…
The Solons wore blue more than red during their history, usually depending on who their parent club was (if any), red as a Cardinals’ affiliate and blue most of the rest of their history. I used both, but in shades not previously worn, burgundy (a color sadly missing from baseball these days) and light blue. Again, the home whites are bright, using both colors liberally on all elements, the cream set, in contrast, has the stripped-down, old school aesthetic. The road blues are a bit brighter than the blue-gray flannel, but not quite 70s, polyester powder blue, and obviously inspired by the 70s-80s Phillies road uniforms, and the gray flannel again uses a vest, without blue trim. The font was just a lucky find, not even sure how I came across it, but instantly realized that the letters with round tops (s, a, o, for example) looked like capitol domes, so I simply added the cupola to the S and had my main logo. The Sliding Capitol secondary logo is from the 50s, I redid it in roundel form, which varies by uniform.
MINNESOTA TWINS
Love the Twins’ 70s style powder blues, thought they’d look good in a 60s blue-gray flannel too (shown with the previous cream set).
UCLA BRUINS
Finally, when I think of light blue, I think UCLA. Their baseball uniforms are in same blue-gold color palette as the basketball team, my favorite being their simple, clean, light blue home pinstripes (as shown). Because I’m old, I made an alternate inspired by the 70s football uniforms, using the light blue-gray flannel as the base, and navy and old gold elements, with the old “Boston” style “B” UCLA used up until 2017, and the 60s-90s Joe Bruin logo, for a more vintage feel.
Thanks, Sean! And now, below are the original concepts Sean sent to me back in 2021 (obviously, a couple teams have changed up their unis — and one has moved — since then, so some of Sean’s references are to prior sets):
Oakland Athletics:
The first baseball games I went to as a kid were A’s games at the Coliseum in 1975, and those A’s uniforms had a significant influence on me. First, I basically wanted every team to have colored jerseys and contrasting stirrups and sanitaries like the A’s, and second, I loved the letter/logo look on the jersey, a look I think more teams should use (I think only 9 or 10 of 30 now, and the A’s, Giants, Twins and D-backs are only alts). As colored jerseys became more and more (way too) prevalent across the league, my tastes moved more to classic styles, and ironically, my favorite A’s uniforms became the vests that immediately preceded those 70’s uniforms. So after 30+ years, I think it’s time to retire the “Athletics” and “Oakland” script uniforms, as well as the “apostrophe s,” and bring back the classic “A” logo, and the classic vests, with a nod to the Philadelphia days (the white elephant patch, with no gold), the 70’s (the Swingin’ A’s patch), and the early 80s (in cream instead of white), to be added to the current green and recent gold “A’s” jerseys (just get rid of that “’s” and go back the McAuliffe number font).
Pittsburgh Pirates:
One side of the family comes from western Pennsylvania, so Pirate fandom is literally grandfathered in (4th behind the Giants, Padres and A’s). I’ve always loved the Pirates 60’s vests as well, and the early 70’s old gold / mustard uniforms, (especially that hat, my all-time favorite), so I combined these elements into a new set. The hats and stirrups/socks are pretty much interchangeable (other than the gray hat), and reviving a couple old logos on the sleeves.
While the A’s and Pirates’ sets are essentially makeovers, the following are more alternates to the softball/colored jerseys proliferating the league.
Philadelphia Phillies:
No personal connection to the Phillies, the only reason I started a Phillies alternate was because I thought their 70-80s maroon (another 70’s look I love, and a color that is sadly absent from the league currently) would look good on the gray flannel, and it does, so I did a cream version as well. I like the Phillies current set, especially their cream alts, and was going to use the current logo/fonts to tie these in with the current set, but found that old English “P” while perusing the Dressed to the Nines database, and had to use it instead.
San Francisco Giants:
Love the Giants classic uniforms, not a huge fan of their orange and black alternates (don’t hate them, there just not a “color-jersey” team to me, despite their late 70’s orange and black shirts). No history of vests with the Giants, but I always liked their “SF” road grays from ‘83-93, and thought the combo would make nice alternates. The white alts have more color and stripes, the flannel, more subtle trim.
Boston Red Sox:
They’d never do it, too similar to the Yankees, but wouldn’t these be better alternates than the red and navy softball jerseys?
Baltimore Orioles:
The Orioles have flirted with an alternate “O’s” logo on their hats, I created a (semi) original Olde English “O” logo for them, with a “B” nestled inside it, might work as a full overhaul, they’ve had some form of “Orioles” or “Baltimore” script on their jerseys for all but a few years of their modern incarnation, may be time for something different.
Chicago White Sox/Minnesota Twins:
White Sox: I love White Sox current set, and their City Connect uniform was the only one that I thought actually worked, I would just add an old school flannel set, the white logo and numbers an homage to the 69-70 roadies.
Minnesota Twins: I love their all light-blue alternates, would love to see the Twin Cities logo on a cream set, instead of the red softball jersey.
To be clear, I still like colored jerseys, for some teams they work great, and this isn’t some “get off my lawn” plea for the whole league to go back to baggy, wool uniforms, just suggesting that the cream/flannel and/or vest look might provide a better alternate look for some teams, especially, though not exclusively, the pre-expansion era teams.
Love the sleeve stripes on those Giants home whites.
Change the UCLA set to say Boston or Red Sox and you’d have a new city connect for the Red Sox.
The dis-harmony of the two different Old English D’s is what made Detroit’s uniforms special. It didn’t make sense; but somehow over the years the inconsistency organically happened. The Uniform D connected the old (Greenberg) with the new (Miguel).
Now it is lost because lazy marketing won out over tradition and a quirk that used to make professional baseball uniforms special.
Agreed. And, of course, the Yankees comparison is supremely ironic since the helmet version of the interlocking NY differs from the cap version.
Vests need to make a comeback
I really like the socks you created for detroit tigers.
I’m sorry Sean, With all due respect, these are freaking terrible my friend and I plan to be very critical of your concepts sir. First of all, you are way off on the history of the uniform colors, logos and concepts for each team. Quite honestly, I don’t even recognize some of the teams in your concepts. BTW, who the heck are the Sacramento Salons and quite honestly, nobody cares.? I understand you grew up with them, but my friend, nobody cares on this forum sir. Also, I’m not certain that anybody recognizes the Orioles or Phillies logos you displayed or the fact that you just went with the “A” (e.g. Philadelphia and KC) instead of the A”s” that has been in place since 1970. In the future, my friend, please try to respect the logos, style and color of the uniforms of each team and their histories before you proceed making more concepts that you post for viewing. Respectfully sir.
Wow, respectfully not respectful. I think it’s fair to say “I prefer this” or “I’m not a huge fan of that” – but this response just feels mean.
Jean, please accept my humblest apologies sir. I was not trying to be mean at all sir but to just provide some historical critique on the concepts he posted. I really do, appreciate all the concepts that are posted on this forum, it’s just that this one just simply didn’t move the needle. If my post came across mean, I sincerely apologize to you and to all that may have interpreted it that way my friend.
That criticism is pretty strong, but the larger point is that there have been WAY too many unni-concept posts on this site lately. This was a lot more enjoyable space on the internet when it was a daily blog with news and the ticker all rolled into one. A lot of this stuff lately feels like it’s only posted to fill in the gaps during the day.
If you don’t like the concepts, you can skip them. It’s not like Paul never ran other’s uni concepts at all. And if you consider design contests as something that contributed uni concepts to the mix, that was a regular part of Paul’s repertoire.
Phil has been a fan of uni concepts going all the way back to his early days as Weekend Editor, and he’s given designers a forum to share their work that whole time. Some of those designs have been great, and some… not so much. But isn’t the whole point of a comm-uni-ty like this that we, the readers, can also be contributors?
Do not presume to speak for me and the other longtime readers of this site, “Mike from Fullerton, CA. via Detroit,” when you say “nobody cares” about Sean’s uniform concepts. I, for one, enjoy Sean’s designs, and I appreciate the effort he put into them – and the risk he took in sharing them with us.
I, for one, DO know who the Sacramento Solons (not “Salons”) were, and I DO care about their uniform history. That was one of my favorite of Sean’s designs above, especially the font he used that created the “capitol spire” on the “S.” And, as concepts, I enjoy the classicism of Sean’s designs for the Phillies and Orioles.
It takes a lot to pour time, thought, imagination, and emotion into a creative outlet like what Sean has done. It takes almost nothing to write an ill-informed, thoughtless, scathing critique like what you have vomited into this comments section. I will side with Sean and his creative endeavors every time over your forgettable post.
Not only were your comments strong, they were tactless, even condescending. I don’t agree with every design I see here either, but that doesn’t give me carte blanche to carve them up (along with the designer) without regard as to how I come across. And if I wasn’t sure I was capable of that, I’d just keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself.
Hmmm, I know you’re just trolling, but I can’t help myself….
First, Mike, who is writing these posts for you, because you obviously can’t read.
Second, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but like so many …… people these days, you think you’re entitled to your own facts. With ONLY one exception, every element, color and concept is connected to the history of the teams presented, either directly or indirectly, so you’re in no position to “heavily critique” anything, because you literally have no idea what you are talking about, but let’s parse out your post anyway:
As BvK pointed out, it’s “Solons,” another name for senators, because Sacramento is the capital of California, the state you now live in, not “Salons” where people get their hair done (or discussed politics, philosophy, etc. back in the day in European cities, if you want to talk about history).
As I noted, the Orioles have used an “O” logo on some alternate hats in recent years, and the 1901 road uniform of the original American League Baltimore Orioles (not the current club) included a bright orange “O” on the road jersey. My modified, English style “O” is a nod to the history of Baltimore, one of the oldest English settlements in the US, the colonial charter granted by King Charles to the 2nd Baron of Baltimore, whose family colors of black and yellow are prominent in the Baltimore and Maryland flags. Indirect yes, but still historical.
The old English Phillies “P” logo I used (with some slight differences) was worn on Philadelphia’s 1925-1933 uniforms. While worn only for only those nine years, it’s still directly tied to the team’s history. The color was the maroon/burgundy used in the 70s and 80s.
Regarding the Athletics, the club wore an “A” on their jerseys and/or hats, without the “apostrophe s” for 59 years of their history, longer than the 55 years (and counting) with the “’s” so again, completely historically grounded. That being said, the use of Old Gold on ONE of my Athletics uniforms is not historically accurate, so you got me there Mike, great job.
Generally speaking, regarding the colors, the official Pantone PMS/Hex/RGB/CMYK color palettes of every pro and college team can be found in seconds with an internet search, which is what I used in every design. If those colors were slightly different after being exported out of my drawing program, converted to compressed image formats, then posted on the internet to be seen on people’s monitors, phones and tablets, each with their own picture/display setting, not much I can do about that, but pretty sure the colors are still recognizable.
Finally, my Mom always taught me, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. I know the Internet is not subject to that rule, but usually, this forum seems to go with it (mostly). Plenty of uniform concepts have been posted here, when I like something, I let the designer know, and if it isn’t my cup of tea, I don’t post anything, not my style. If someone has valid critiques or suggestions, I’m open to hear them, it’s all subjective and can be a good conversation, but as I said, you’re just trolling, and I can do that better than you too.
Oh, respectfully, of course…
Sean (superfly)
Loving the old school vibe of these. Reminds me of purist baseball.
Hi, Sean! Thanks for sharing your designs! I enjoy your classic design sensibilities and your appreciation of history. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
I couldn’t disagree more with the rude comment above. I don’t really understand what this unique and thoughtful series has to do with the slew of NFL concepts we’ve seen recently.
As for the content here – I like most of the suggestions, but I don’t like white sanis paired with non-white pants. It’s particularly jarring when the pants are cream or another shade of off-white. Otherwise, very well done, especially the stirrups and contrasting sleeves!
Thanks Charlie, I can see where you’re coming from on white sanis, the non-white sets might look better with the socks, instead of the stirrups, would probable have to see them in real life for me to know for sure.
Sean (superfly)
agreed Charlie. I like the concept and the thought/skill that Sean put into this. shows me that road gray and home white CAN be awesome when done well. definitely not the same as the several & nearly indistinguishable NFL concepts from before
also Sean, i don’t think you even need to qualify the “get off my lawn” – just because something is in line with older styles doesn’t make it worse or preachy, same with new – although both can be good or bad when thinking of design standards. irks me that age-ism seems to be the only -ism that feels ok for people to blatantly put out there and we shouldn’t have to qualify tastes/preferences in this way whether they are more old or new. i digress!
Solons are fire!!!
Sadly, UCLA’s blue is no longer light blue. It’s too bright, and now closer to royal blue than light blue. I liked their unique color of blue, but now it has just gone way too far away from it.
Agreed, I was looking at some pics of the Aikman era, for me, probably the closet thing to uni perfection ever, and I’m a USC fan.
And yet, when you think of UCLA, your first thought might be of John Wooden and men’s basketball. They rarely, if ever, wore a light blue shade (my memory fails me on those Descente uniforms they briefly wore in the 80s, which might have been a sky blue). They wore the bright blue that football wears today.
Well done on the A’s uniforms! These are the unis that the team ought to run with going forward, accept no substitutes.
I’ve been coming to UW for a loooong time. I enjoy the news. I enjoy the concepts. I enjoy the uni-adjacent conversation. I enjoy the non-uni conversation key rings, street signs, cats, food, etc.).
Healthy critique and “hmmm, I would have done this instead of that” is one thing. Being supercilious and obnoxious is completely unnecessary. I hope that comment was an aberration and does not become the norm here.
WOW— a lot to chew on here.. Allowing for the fact that Mike is a FRAUD or else he would have researched “Solon”, the larger point remains: Were I in Superfly’s shoes, how would I accept negative criticism? I went to art school (UAlbany) and endured a lot of critiques, where my art (and others’) got raked over the coals.
I’ve seen quite a bit of art on Uni Watch I consider substandard, but I keep my big mouth shut because I know that the artists and readers don’t need my negative energy. But if I want to point out shortcomings in someone’s efforts, I try to do so constructively and with a smile in my voice— because God knows, if there’s something wrong with MY artwork, I want to hear about it!
Cream Detroit is my favorite, but most fans still preferred the older D in the jersey even if it didn’t match the hat.
I love just about all of these and particularly like the Sacramento Solons’ number font, which is distinctive without being over-the-top like some fonts at the major league level are.
I also really like the contrasting sleeves on the Detroit Tigers’ road uniform. If you’re going to wear gray, might as well add some color that way. The only tweak I’d make would be to adjust the inside of the “D” so that the color of its border doesn’t fill in as much as it does now.
Please forgive me if I offended anyone on the team. I simply expressed my opinions which is what Phil asked us to do. Well noted feedback team. I do greatly appreciate your counter opinions. Please do understand I am a longtime baseball fan dating back to the early 60’s, so maybe I am out of my league here folks. Maybe this site is more younger than I am however. I am the first to tell you I love the fact that several of you have expressed your opinions I do welcome, greatly appreciate and respect all of your posts and comments accordingly. That is fantastic and you are all absolutely right. Please stand up, by all means express your opinions team!. “Superfly” I have to admit that that I did not know that “Salons” correctly spelled as “Solons: refers to “Senators”. I apologize to you. And yes, I certainly do realize that the capital of California is Sacramento. Team, please realize, that just because I have expressed an opinion that is negative, doesn’t mean it should be disregarded or be called a “FRAUD” which I personally thought was extremely funny. That was outstanding. LOL. In closing, let’s not try to be too sensitive to the critique and criticize of each other’s posts and opinions team. Your responses to my post are well noted and I will certainly take my comments into more consideration going forward. They have made be more aware and understanding accordingly. Very respectfully,