Abaseball uniform is a type ofuniform worn bybaseballplayers,coaches andmanagers.
Most baseball uniforms have the names anduniform numbers of players who wear them, usually on the backs of the uniforms to distinguish players from each other. Baseballshirts (jerseys),pants,shoes,socks,caps, andgloves are parts of baseball uniforms. Most uniforms have differentlogos andcolors to aid players, officials, and spectators in distinguishing the two teams from each other and the officials.
Baseball uniforms were first worn by theNew York Knickerbockers Baseball Club in 1849.[1] Today, sales ofreplica uniforms and derivative branded products generate large amounts of income forMajor League teams throughmerchandising.
TheNew York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to wear uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849, in pants made of blue wool, whiteflannel shirts andstraw hats.[1][2]
The practice of wearing a uniform soon spread, and by 1900, allMajor League Baseball teams had adopted them.[3]
By 1882 most uniforms included stockings, which covered the leg from foot to knee, and were used to differentiate one club from another. The uniforms themselves had different colors and patterns that reflected the differentbaseball positions.[4]
In the late 1880s, theDetroit Wolverines andWashington Nationals of theNational League and theBrooklyn Bridegrooms of theAmerican Association were the first to wear striped uniforms.[5]
By the end of the 19th century, teams began the practice of wearing one of two different uniforms, one when they played in their ownbaseball stadium and a different one when they playedon the road. It became common to wear white at home and one of gray, solid dark blue, or black on the road.[3] An early example of this is theBrooklyn Superbas, who started to use a blue pattern for their road uniforms in 1907.[3]
In 1916, on theNew York Giants' road uniforms, purple lines gave their uniforms atartan-like effect, and another kind of road uniform was a solid dark blue or black material with white around this time. TheKansas City Athletics' home and road uniforms were changed byCharles O. Finley in 1963, to the colors of gold and green.[6] Some teams used light blue for their road uniforms from the 1970s to the early 1990s.[3] Early striped patterns developed into long stripes along the length of the uniforms, calledpinstriping. This was first worn on some major league baseball team's uniforms in 1907, and the pinstripes were then widened in 1912, so that the crowd could see them more clearly.[3]The Chicago Cubs were wearing pinstripes in 1907The Brooklyn Bridegrooms used checked uniforms in 1889, and brought them back in 1907 (as the Superbas) and 1916–1917 (as the Robins).[7][8]Satin uniforms were developed by several teams including the Brooklyn Dodgers for night games, as the sheen of the fabric was more reflective and thus easier to see.[7] Pinstripes were commonly worn on the uniforms of theNew York Yankees. Legend had it that the stripes were adopted to makeBabe Ruth look slimmer,[9] but since the Yankees had already been wearing pinstripes a few years before Ruth played for them in 1920, the legend is most likely a myth. The Yankees' pinstripes on their home uniforms soon became a team symbol.
In 1916, theCleveland Indians became the first team to add numbers on their uniforms, positioned on the left sleeve of the home uniforms only. (Okkonen, p. 36, p. 120)[3] In 1929, numbers were first added on the backs of uniforms by the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians. By 1932, all major league baseball teams had numbers on their players' uniforms.[3] TheBrooklyn Dodgers, in 1952, became the first baseball team to add numbers to the fronts of their uniforms.[3][7] In 1960, theChicago White Sox were the first team to place players' names on the back of their jerseys, doing so on their road jerseys; within a few years, this practice became almost universal in MLB, though to this day the Yankees have only worn names on their uniforms forPlayers Weekend, a discontinued event (2017-2019) where alternate uniforms with nicknames were used.[10]
In most parts of the world,numbers are no more than two digits long; however, Japanese players who are on their team's developmental roster have three-digit numbers. Major league teams typically assign the highest numbers (#50 and above) in spring training to the players who are not expected to make the regular-season roster; hence the lower numbers are considered more prestigious, although there are many veterans who wear high numbers anyway. Two Hall of Famers who wore high numbers areDon Drysdale, who wore #53 for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, andCarlton Fisk, who wore #72 for theChicago White Sox (reverse of the #27 he wore with theBoston Red Sox; Fisk also was theAmerican League Rookie of the Year in 1972).
Controversy over major league baseball teams' newly redesigned uniforms erupted during spring training in 2024. Major League Baseball debuted a slate of new uniforms that were designed byNike and manufactured byFanatics. Many players were upset with the way the jerseys looked, saying that the smaller numbers and letters made them feel as if they were wearing replicas. One player complained that the team name on jerseys for thePhiladelphia Phillies was off-center. Concerns about the new uniform pants included the observation that tucked in jerseys were visible through home white pants. In response, Nike issued a statement saying that "We will continue to work with MLB, the players, and our manufacturing partner to address player uniforms."[11]
Caps, or other types of headgear with eye-shades, have been a part of baseball uniforms from the beginning.[12][13]
From the 1840s to the 1870s, baseball players wore various types of hats, or even no cap at all, since there was no official rule regarding headgear.[14] Examples included full-brimmedstraw hats such asboating caps,jockey caps,cycling caps, and flat-topped caps.[12]
TheBrooklyn Excelsiors was the first team to wear what would later become the modern baseball cap, with its distinctive rounded top and peak, in the 1860s.[12][15] By the early years of the twentieth century, this style of cap had become common, but some teams occasionally revived the flat-topped cap, such as theNew York Giants in 1916 and thePittsburgh Pirates as recently as during the1979 World Series.[3] Over time, the peak has enlarged slightly to further protect the player's eyes from the sun.[16] More recently, players have worn hats with fold-down ear flaps in cold weather.[citation needed]
In the late 19th century, soft but durable leather shoes were the preferred choice of baseball players.
In the 1970s, asartificial turf became prominent ondeveloped countries' baseball fields, modifications to footwear became necessary.[17]Detachable spikes became popular in the 20th century, as they helped players to avoid slipping, especially on turf, but they were banned in 1976.
In the 19th century and the first part of the 20th, baseball shoes were commonly black in color. In the 1960s, the Kansas City Athletics began wearing revolutionary white shoes, a tradition carried over when they moved to Oakland. Since then, some teams are wearing colored cleats corresponding to their team colors. For example, thePhiladelphia Phillies andSt. Louis Cardinals now wear red cleats, theChicago Cubs and theLos Angeles Dodgers wear blue cleats, and some of theSan Francisco Giants players wear orange cleats. In recent years, however, players are now allowed to wear cleats regardless of team color, and often customize them as a form of self-expression.
Inspired by theCincinnati Red Stockings, the stocking colors of teams in the 1860s onward were a principal device in distinguishing one team from another (hence team names such as theChicago White Stockings,St. Louis Brown Stockings (or Browns), etc.). Except for a few "candy-cane" varieties (particularly by theNew York Giants,St. Louis Cardinals andWashington Senators), striping was quite minimal during the 1920s and, in contrast, a revival of other sorts in the early 1930s.[19]
By the 1990s, new styles of close-trimmed pants legs made it possible for players to wear pants that ran clear to the shoetops, in lieu of the traditionalknee-breeches style that had prevailed for generations. This led to a violation of the literal concept of a "uniform", in that different players on a given team might wear knee-length and full-length pants on the field at the same time. Players such asManny Ramirez took this fashion trend to an extreme, wearing loose-fitting pants whose legs nearly lapped under the heels of the shoes. Some, such asGary Sheffield, even developed straps that hooked under the cleats. Meanwhile, players such asAlfonso Soriano continued to wear the traditionalknee-breeches, though most of these players still lacked the traditionalstirrups.
By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, nearly all players wore either traditional knee-high socks or pants that covered the shoetops and contained no elastic in the bottom. Such loose-fitting pants were called "pro-flare", as they are worn by most major league players. However, a few older players, likeDerek Jeter, wore pants that stopped right at the shoes, like the style of the late 1990s/early 2000s.
In recent years teams that wear throwback uniforms usually outfit themselves with stirrups or knee-breeches, to simulate the look of a particular era. In addition, some teams began to wear stockings with stripes. Examples include theTampa Bay Rays sporting Columbia blue and white striping on their navy stockings, theSt. Louis Cardinals with navy and white stripes on their red stockings, and theSan Francisco Giants in black stockings with orange stripes.
From the beginning,graphic designs were used to identify teams. Often an Old English letter was worn on the chest. This style survives with theDetroit Tigers and their gothic style "D" on their home jerseys and caps and theAthletics, who currently have an Old English "A" on their caps and their alternative jerseys.
As official nicknames gained prominence in the early 1900s (in contrast to media-generated and unofficial nicknames of prior generations), pictorial logos began emerging as part of the team's marketing. Some early examples include a small red tiger on the black cap of the 1901 Detroit Tigers, as they were officially the Tigers from the beginning; and a bear cub logo on the Chicago Cubs shirts by 1907, as that unofficial nickname was then adopted officially by the club.
In another famous example, the Boston Americans (an unofficial designation that merely distinguished them from their across-the-tracks rivals) adopted the Nationals' abandoned red stockings in1908, and have been theBoston Red Sox officially ever since then.[20]
By the 1930s, nearly every team had distinctive logos, letters or the team nickname on their home shirts, as part of the team's marketing. The trend of the city name on the road jerseys continued. In recent years, with team nicknames being so strongly associated with the clubs, logos that were once only used at home also turned up on road jerseys, in place of city names.
Baseball is unique among team sports in that a team's non-playing staff (includingmanagers,coaches,bullpen catchers,batboys, andball boys) wear the same uniforms as the team's players, with their own assigneduniform numbers; this is an vestigial remnant of when players on a team often held a dual role of being aplayer-manager.[21][22]
