With summer comes the baseball season and all the excitement of following a national pastime with a long history. The games and the players are closely followed and allusions are always made to great plays and champions of previous games. We may also follow with curiosity how the spectacle has altered over time and how the uniforms of our favored players have changed as well.

The first baseball teams took to the baseball field with uniforms comprised of flannel shirts with raised collar and wool pantaloons. These flannel and wool combinations remained a standard for baseball uniforms until the mid 1900’s, a remarkable detail considering the intensity of summer heat combined with the exertion of the game. A slight improvement to the comfort of the wearer may have been the 1868 Cincinnati Red Stocking’s introduction of altered pants when they developed knickers to expose their signature high red socks. Other variations that followed were the lace-up jersey versus the pullover jersey, the removal of the collar from the jersey top, giving the players a little more freedom from constraint and changes made to the hatwear worn by the players, which began as straw hat designs and were replaced by fabric hats not too dissimilar to the caps we know today.

Early baseball teams distinguished themselves from one another by the color of their stockings as opposed to distinct markings or insignia on their outfits. This did change over time as characteristics such as checks or pinstripes, monogramming, scripted lettering, numbers, player’s names, color trims, and other details evolved and were incorporated into the costumes. Over the last century the advent of television and its impact on popular culture has added to the hype of sports brands and their marketing. These influences have promoted some of the changes in the baseball uniform and extended the characteristics of the uniform further into our daily culture. Today baseball fans are extensions of their favorite teams by wearing their favored uniforms and exhibiting to the world the strength of their association with a monogram, a color, a number.

image: photograph, 1889, lace-up and checked jersey, Brooklyn Bridegrooms
image: photograph, 1890, jerseys and ties, Brooklyn Nationals

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