Softball uniforms: an unresearched (brief) history

Fish pointed out that the womens softball College World Series was starting this weekend. So I replied with what Fish feels is my "sickness" -- a treatise on softball uniforms in my lifetime. Just indulge me.

It’s interesting to me but it seems that the college softball uniforms have evolved over time. I remember as a kid when it was all UCLA v Arizona every year they wore basically scaled down versions of baseball uniforms without the hat: the short sleeve t-shirt top, the polyester baseball pants cuffed around the knee, and stirrups or socks. They basically looked like girls wearing baseball uniforms.

Then in the 90’s there was this transition to a softball-unique uniform combination: either short sleeve or banded sleeve shirts (almost tank tops), shorts, and socks. You still see this uniform combination in most youth leagues and high schools, likely because it’s cheaper to buy shorts than baseball pants. I don’t know for sure, but it’s like softball was trying to create an identity of it’s own with this uniform combination.

But then in the last ten years there has been this visual backlash and a pseudo-throwback revolution where most teams now wear baseball uniforms. I prefer the baseball uniforms myself. To me it adds legitimacy to the game they are playing, but that’s a personal opinion. And to be honest, the tight pants are one of the main reasons I end up watching the games.

Wearing white pants on the road: Why do some baseball teams do it?

College and high school teams will routinely wear white pants on the road. Watch the CWS this year and you’re bound to see at least one occurrence of both teams wearing white pants. I’m not sure why exactly, but I think rules only require they wear a different color top than the home team and it is at the home team’s discretion what color to wear. My guess is it is a cost saving measure. Get two different tops, one white, one solid color, and then only one pair of pants and you just saved outfitting your entire team with two completely different uniforms.

While generally a high school/college occurrence it isn’t unprecedented in major league baseball. The best example off the top of my head is the Astros. Throughout the last half of the 70s the Astros had only one uniform that they wore at home and one the road: the classic tequila sunrise uniform:

No other team had a combination like this so they were guaranteed to always be different no matter at home or on the road. Things got weirder in the 80s as the Astros added a different away uniform, but instead of being gray, it was cream. So at home they wore white and on the road cream.



For a better visual comparison than the pictures think the Dodgers crisp home whites versus the color the Giants wear at home, that more retro, cream color. As a kid I always thought this to be weird and I’ve never heard a good explanation (I mean the Astros played in the Astrodome for pete’s sake so it’s not like they were trying to avoid wearing dark colors during the heat of the summer). They had this lack of a true “away gray” jersey up until 1994 when they switched to their current logo (albeit without the color red which was added in 2000).

On a side note, I actually had a replica tequila sunrise Astros jersey as a kid. I’m not exactly sure why, but my dad, as noted earlier, had eclectic uniform tastes so he probably bought it for me because it was so strange looking. I outgrew the jersey by the time I left for junior high and it is probably long since given away to Goodwill, but it’s hard not to remember it. In fact, I was pretty well decked out as a kid in the baseball jersey department. I also remember having a replica home Cubs jersey and a green A’s jersey. Probably a good reason I’m uniform obsessed today.

So there is your baseball uniform history lesson for the day.

(Drawings courtesy of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Dressed to the Nines)

Little Help?

Can anyone tell me why ESPN is showing College Football Live right now? It's fucking May. Spring ball is over right now. The draft is long since gone. What the hell is the point?

Oh, I see......it's Notre Dame week. Besides Regis and Lou Holtz, does anybody give a shit about ND football? I don't, and because I don't I will now change the channel.

ggrrrrr