Specialty jerseys are a dime-a-dozen in the Minor Leagues, but they’re also part of their charm. Many teams will create special one-off jerseys, later to be auctioned, which helps the clubs to cover expenses and generate a little extra revenue in the process, although oftentimes any profits are donated to charity.
We’ve seen literally hundreds of MiLB theme jerseys over the years, some of which have used comic book heroes as the basis for their design ideas. But I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a jersey that celebrates a comic strip, let alone one that reproduces some of those cartoon panels in its design. But that’s what the El Paso Chihuahuas have done.
Their new jerseys — to be worn this Saturday against the Las Vegas Aviators — will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the iconic “Peanuts” comic strips.
Per the Chihuahuas, “the jersey features Peanuts characters in comic-book style drawings, including the iconic character Snoopy, alongside the signature Chihuahuas wordmark in yellow. Paying tribute to Charlie Brown’s iconic outfit, the jersey sleeves are bright yellow with the classic black zig-zag trim.”
No matter your age, I’m sure you’re familiar with all the Peanuts’ characters (Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown, etc.), and you’re also probably aware that many of the strips over the years have been baseball related. If you ever read the comics you are probably aware that Charlie Brown is the pitcher of his team, and while they did win a few games over the years, most of them came when Charlie wasn’t playing.
But the Chihuahuas probably aren’t concerning themselves with a fictional character’s won-loss record. Their special jerseys take some elements of the characters’ dress (Charlie Browns iconic zig-zag trim on his shirts, which appear as sleeve trim), while the remainder of the jersey is made up of panels from the strip.
I grew up, as I’m sure many of you did, reading Peanuts — it was always the first comic strip to appear in the comics’ section. Per Wiki, “The strip’s original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it ‘arguably the longest story ever told by one human being’. At the time of Schulz’s death in 2000, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of roughly 355 million across 75 countries, and had been translated into 21 languages.” The final strip was published more than 25 years ago, on February 13, 2000, the day after Schulz died from a heart attack.
While I’m not a huge fan of the jersey (I think the wordmark will get lost in the background of all the comic strip panels), I do think it’s a fun tie-in, and hopefully the Chihuahuas will fare better than Charlie Brown’s teams have.
Thoughts? And as long as we’re on the subject, are you a Peanuts fan? What’s your take on this jersey?
I friggin love Snoopy.
Brilliant shirt! Love every aspect of it. It’s busy, yes, but in such a great way. I don’t live anywhere near El Paso, but I’m tempted to find one of these!
I’m not a fan of specialty jerseys but I like this.
Also not a fan of teams renaming themselves for a day, but… this would have been better if they renamed themselves the Beagles for a day. If they did, my Snoopy-loving wife would buy that jersey. And I’d wear that.
Absolutely a missed opportunity with the beagles. I don’t buy minor league jerseys because the quality of the garment is so piss poor they’d be a bad investment if they were free, simply because of the space they’d occupy in my closet for something I wouldn’t put on my body. But I almost like this enough that I’d consider it. Consider but not purchase.
I was thinking the same thing. And although he’s technically from the CA desert somewhere near Needles, Spike would have been a perfect addition to the jersey
This comes up way too often and has since well into the Paul days. This website is totally cut off on the left side on phones. The first ten to fifteen characters of every line are off screen and it can’t be adjusted. It’s getting tiresome.
I was curious about this, as I do not visit this site on my phone.
I’m on an iPhone 14 and the stock Safari browser.
When I first loaded this page, everything looked fine. Then I turned my phone to landscape, and everything still looked fine. When I turned my phone back to vertical, it was then cut-off on the left like you say.
Hmmm…
I just checked on my phone and it was okay. Hopefully if you refresh it will look better for you.
I experience that a lot as well. I have a fairly new Galaxy phone, so it’s not like I’m looking at the site on a Sidekick. Refreshing does nothing, too.
When the left side isn’t cut off, I get an ad at the top and bottom of the screen that reduces the readable area of the site immensely and forces me to close a bunch of ads if I want to post a comment.
No, mine isn’t.
I grew up on Peanuts. I learned to read on Peanuts paperbacks in the 70s. That was my first exposure to baseball, and it made me want to play little league (I wasn’t much better than CB, it turned out). I have Peanuts stuff all over my office and went to the Cooperstown exhibit years ago. I’m so glad to see this team recognize the strip in this way.
I’m not one for one-off uniforms, but MLB really ought to recognize this anniversary. An arm patch, or a hat patch, SOMETHING. Baseball was a key theme for the strip, and some of its very best strips in its very best years (50s-70s) were baseball-themed. Some may remember the series where Snoopy was approaching Ruth’s HR record at the same time Aaron was and Snoopy was facing similar death threats to Hank, Schulz’s way of shining a negative light on the horrible treatment Aaron was receiving. It’s often considered a timeless strip but those particular strips were VERY timely.
Not to mention Charlie Brown’s misspelling of maze… MAYS. And the pitcher’s mound conferences.
Yeah, MLB needs to commemorate this strip this year. How does one get Manfred’s attention? Any other Peanuts fans feel the same way?
Good grief
They could have also gone with “Spikes” and kept the Peanuts theme. For those unfamiliar, Spike is Snoopy’s desert dwelling brother, sort wears a cowboy hat, would fit El Paso.
This design would be perfect for a bike jersey. I might have to get one just for that purpose.
The sleeves with the Charlie Brown scribble are so good! I wish they would have just stuck with that. It’s more than enough to let you know what you are referencing.
Absolutely love this. I’ve been a fan of Peanuts since the late 1970s; in fact my love for reading probably came from going to the library and checking out all the Peanuts compilation books! What a great memory. And to this day I always buy one of those Peanuts daily desk calendars to keep on my dresser. A nice way to start the day.
I’ve been a big Peanuts fan my whole life. The jersey is fun, especially the yellow sleeves with Charlie Brown’s trademark zigzag. It would be better with the wordmark more clearly delineated. But it’s pretty nice for an MiLB theme jersey.
I was founding education director at the Charles M. Schulz Museum. If you haven’t been there, make the trip to Northern California to visit. It’s a wonderful place for us fans.
I love it. Will they wear a special hat as well?
Shouldn’t they all have SHLABOTNIK as the NOB?
I understood that reference!
I second that!