From 2003 against the Pirates in solid yellow—ladies and gentlemen: your 1970s!
The pictures with formal write-ups of the uniforms in question are from Bill Henderson’s excellent MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era. Buy it here. If you’re even remotely interested in the rest of this entry, this will be the best $25 you’ll spend all baseball season. AND, he’s from the Philadelphia/Delaware County area, so his Phillies chapter is made with special care. (That’s actually a joke, I think. Each team gets an amazingly thorough treatment throughout. Yes, even the Diamondbacks.)
Check out Kyle's throwback-tastic write-up from earlier today for what he considers the Phillies' best logo. I disagree, but I like his enthusiasm. Also, notice that he's talking about a specific logo, not the uniforms of the 70s/80s in general.
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It’s 80s night at Citizen’s Bank Park tonight, and even though they've had "70s night" and "80s night" promotions for the last few years, they’ll actually be trotting out throwbacks for one of the games. For those who were always disappointed that their recent “70s nights” never included the players dressing like the team of the 70s, consider this vindication for those times when you tuned in, only to see a few “retro” graphics on the broadcast but nothing else of note except for the ballgirls wearing something like this...
This is the the third Phillies throwback game of the season (the Negro League throwbacks write-up and the write-up for the more-or-less "away" version of tonight's uniforms). Of course, Uni-Watch has their write-up today (scroll down to the Phillies logo) and they’re so gosh-darn thorough that even if I would’ve come up with these points on my own (I was working on it, I swear!), they pretty much covered everything already. I'll recap here and add some more sizzle (snark?).
In terms of impressing boring (I wasn’t sure which word to strike-thru) your friends, subtly work these factoids into a response every time someone says, “they should wear these uniforms all the time,” or “it’s so cool they’re wearing the uniforms from the 80s. These should be the new alternates.”
1) The 1984 uniform (the “target” for this 80s promotion) included a zipper on the front; the change to buttons happened with the 1987 jersey. I’m sure this is just chalked up to Majestic’s current templates not having this feature… and, anyway, as a player, I’d cringe every time I did a head first slide with a zipper all along my torso.
2) The players won’t “look” like 1984 players because they’ll be wearing the pants at shoe height or lower, the jerseys (and pants) will likely be extra-baggy, and no stirrups will be in sight (some players will actually wear them, but it’s unlikely to catch-on with more than a few guys).
3) There will probably be a Majestic logo on the uniform somewhere (check the sleeves). The 1984 uniform was made by Wilson. Yep, someone keeps track of this (from the great MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era).
4) New Era might put the “batterman” logo on the back of the hats. Judging by MLB Shop, the “on-field” hats will have it, but the “authentic” MLB Shop product does not always match what the players wear. There was some confusion about the “on-field” vs. MLB Shop hats the Mariners wore a couple of weekends ago. So just because it’s on MLB Shop and “authentic”… your mileage may vary. Also, the “P” logo on the hat is noticeably larger than it actually was on hats from the era.
5) Will they pay for the correct helmets (see the picture above)? Or will they just don their normal (and clashing bright red against maroon) batting helmets. It’s on the Phillies to pay for these themselves, so let’s see how cheap they are (or hopefully aren’t).
The Padres will be wearing their 1984 uniform which is one of those wonderful “only in the 70s/early 80s” looks. A brown pull-over jersey with yellow and orange highlight details, yellow sanitaries with brown stirrups (though it’s doubtful that the yellow sanitaries, much less brown stirrups will be visible). Of special note is that they wore white pants as part of their road uniform, which isn’t something seen anymore. Teams sometimes wear their normal pants with throwback jerseys (check out the catcher’s pants in this picture), but I’m not sure the Padres normal grey + navy pants will work with the “colors of autumn” palette of the jersey and hat.
Speaking of the hat, the geometry of the paneling is meant to evoke a church bell. The interesting detail here is that that geometry is rather unique among other teams, so each manufacturer had its own take in the “right” way to make the hat, so you’ll see noticeable variation among time periods and manufacturers (even back when they weren’t throwbacks). Check out fellow uniform-enthusiast Paul Carr’s exhaustive (in a good way) search into tracking down these variations on The Ballcap Blog. Oh yeah, it’s a four part (ongoing?) series. One, two, three, four. (note: Padres fans, I'm not sure if the hat to the right accurately conveys the exact 1984 style -- my guess is that it doesn't)
I’ll give the edge to the Phillies. I like that uniform era, where “racetrack” stripes along the shoulders and up the sides were more common, and even though the powder blues don’t really do much for me, in whole, it’s still a good look. Some people harp on the fact that the Phillies are rather staid in their uniform options - with a simple home/away strategy from 1992–2007, then home/away/alternate since then - and how they need to add a solid red jersey (derisively called “softball tops” by some), but this conservative approach makes these throwback games more notable and really makes the special uniforms stand-out.
For the record, I’m still going to request that the Phillies break out the ’89-91 road grey jersey. It’s got the maroon/burgundy, funky “p,” but ditches the powder blue.
I like the fact that one of the hyperlinks for the Padres shows the uniforms while partaking in a scrum...I went to a boxing match last night and a baseball game broke out!
Posted by: Bleue | July 22, 2011 at 06:49 PM
"For the record, I’m still going to request that the Phillies break out the ’89-91 road grey jersey." Yes, yes, yes. I've been saying this forever. Those are the best. It was Nick Leyva that changed it. He said it was bad enough that the players played like they were asleep that they didn't have to be wearing pajamas while they did it.
Posted by: MPH | July 22, 2011 at 07:50 PM
I liked that madson actually wore the stirrup socks.
Posted by: poulinsflakjacket | July 22, 2011 at 11:48 PM
Cool article! Meanwhile, I can't understand the hate for the powder blue road unis, I liked 'em!
Posted by: ThePhillyFlash | July 23, 2011 at 05:49 AM
Dear Phillies and CSNPhilly: The decade is written 1980s or '80s, not 1980's or 80's. It's plural or a contraction, not a possessive. Everything you're showing tonight says 1980's and is WRONG. Stop it. Gezus, even the bases have the punctuation wrong. Unless you're talking about something that belongs to the specific year 1980 (as in, "I like 1980's fashion scene, but 1981's"), it is NOT a possessive, it is a plural, and is written 1980s.
Don't get me started on the fact that the Phils are using a standard arch for the NOB (names on back) instead of the vertical arch they really used in 1984. Majestic fail.
Posted by: MPH | July 23, 2011 at 09:45 AM
And if the teams are all wearing uniforms from 1984, why can't CSNPhilly just simply use the 1984 logos in the graphics? And if you really wanted to get into it, use the old PRISM logo instead of CSN's. Tell them you want more, tell them you want PRISM!
Posted by: MPH | July 23, 2011 at 09:57 AM
MPH: agreed on all counts. Majestic probably doesn't have the equipment/letter stock to make vertically arched names, but that's not a good reason not to figure out how to do it for the few times teams wear throwbacks.
Also, it would've been great to see 80s-ish graphics on the TV (PRISM or just old-looking), but maybe their graphic design intern is done for the summer already.
The Philly Flash: I don't think anyone hates the powder blue uniforms per se (well, except maybe this "MPH" person!), but given the choice between the powder blue and the grey, one looks like a dated baseball uniform, one looks...like a horribly dated fashion choice. Combine that with the fact that many, many fans have latched onto the powder blues as "the best" old Phillies uniform, we uniform enthusiasts also have an implicit pact to go against the grain. But, really, they're quite ugly.
Posted by: Dan Fuller | July 23, 2011 at 02:44 PM
Krikey, MPH. Did your ma teach to lick your arse clean or something?
Posted by: Iron Balls McGinty | July 23, 2011 at 05:02 PM
you can't beat the powder blues. wish that they wore them more often, even at home.
Posted by: fcskills | July 23, 2011 at 09:24 PM
Right on, fcskills! HA!
Yo, Dan! Aww, c'mon now! The powder blues weren't THAT bad! :P Now, if you want true ugly, those mud brown road unis the Fathers used to wear insulted anyone with fashion sense! UGH!
Posted by: ThePhillyFlash | July 24, 2011 at 06:14 AM
The apostrophe is acutally correct because they're using numerals and not writing "eighties".
Posted by: Jay | July 24, 2011 at 08:54 PM
Jay, it ain't correct because it's a plurullizashun, not a possessive nor a contrackshun. You don't write "eighty's", then you don't write "80's". But the point here is that MPH is being a Major Prig Head in that stoopid snobby rant of his.
Posted by: Iron Balls McGinty | July 25, 2011 at 03:44 PM