Uniforms
Birds of a Feather: The Double Knits
New uniforms. Is there anything so exciting as that? The prospect that maybe, just maybe, the perfect design will be unveiled. In the 70’s a big change in the way ball players dressed themselves took place. In came the era of the double knit. Polyester replaced flannel, but much more than just material changed.
Many teams took the chance to streamline and reinvent just what a baseball uniform was. Troublesome things like buttons and belts gave way to pull-over style jerseys and elastic snap waistbands. Polyester also gave way to bold new colors, exhibited by the prevalence of the baby blue road uni several teams had, and the greens, golds, and blacks of the A’s and Pirates.
The O’s made the switch in ’71 and things get a bit complicated. So, the home uniform design didn’t 
change drastically, in true O’s fashion. The script remained the same, the buttons stayed, the little bit of neck piping stayed. The biggest change (along with the polyester) came with the new tri-color striping that appeared down the legs, around the arms, and on the elastic waistband. The caps stayed the same, and the database shows the socks changing to solid orange this year, which they did eventually, but there are photos of the O’s in the polyesters wearing the striped socks, so…take from that whatever you will. The year is most notable for one of the biggest uniform debacles ever.
The story on the street is that the all orange atrocities came at legend-hero-hall-of-famer Brooks Robinson’s request, as it related to a sports apparel business that he had a stake in. Fortunately nobody was under the delusion that they looked good and stories range from the O’s having worn them as little as once and as much as a handful of times.
The next big change came for the 1973 year. The Baltimore script was pulled from the road jerseys in favor of the same Orioles script that was on the home jerseys. The reasons for this bears some explaining. Washington D.C. had just recently lost their Senators and so the O’s brass saw the opportunity to brand the team as more of a regional entity. Many debate whether such an effect ever really took place, but in any event, Baltimore wouldn’t return to the road jerseys for 35 years.
1975 brought a new cap, the tri-color, black back, white front, 
orange bill cap. Also introduced was the orange pullover alternate jersey. A cap with an orange front was around for a scant two years. This main uniform, however, became the standard all the way up until the 1989 change. Also of some note, the O’s wore a hybrid 40 years anniversary/world series patch in 1984.
The uniforms of this era are pretty iconic. For some O’s fans they are the best. I like them as a throwback, they are dated enough so that they are good identifiers for their time, but not so much that they just look silly (a la the Padres). It’s nice to have the throwback nights for the team and to have the smiling bird logo availiable for purchase for the fans, but it remains a throwback. So while the uniform which saw some of the best years in the Orioles’ history has earned a place as a classic, it’s far from timeless, and I am nonetheless happy that it’s been changed.
Birds of a Feather: The Flannel Years
By Stephen Turk
Uniforms are pretty subjective. I think most people, sports fans and non-sports fans alike, can agree on a handful of basic generalities when it comes to what is nice, what looks good, and what works when it comes to uniforms. But those little details, the nitty-gritty things can really draw some deep division lines.
And so the discussion on the recently revamped Orioles uniforms inspires a good bit of healthy discussion amongst fans. Everyone has a perfect uniform in their head, that dream look that goes woefully unfulfilled. Indeed, I’ve spent many a worrisome hour thinking “why can’t the team just know what I want and do it?”
My perfect idea is a combination of some older designs and some things pulled from other places. I think most people have a similar situation, never feeling like any one set was ever absolutely perfect.
So here is a brief uniform history of the Baltimore Orioles. Oddly enough, though they’ve changed uniforms a good number of times, their basic design has yet in the 54, going on 55, year history of the team to really change drastically. › Continue reading