1. Montreal Expos (Road 1980-91)
Easily my favorite uniform. I always thought of the Expos of exactly what they were to me - a foreign team. I grew up in an American League city, the Expos played in the National League - and were based in Canada. I hardly ever seen the Expos play on tv, and the only real exposure to the team were from baseball cards. Anyways - about the uniform: Their cap was different from any other team in baseball. It featured the colors of the team in a "pinwheel" fashion - royal blue in back, red side panels, with a white front embroidered with the mysterious "M" with the lower case "e" team logo. The road uniform was made up of powder blue pants and jerseys, with a red and royal blue stripe down the jersey shoulder and pant legs. The team logo was on the left chest panel, and the player number in red was on the right chest panel. Some of the names synonymous with these uniforms for me were Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, and Tim Wallach.
2. Pittsburgh Pirates - 1979
The Pirates uniforms in 1979 - people either loved them or hated them. I loved them. The self-proclaimed "We Are Family" team, lead by slugger Willie Stargell, wore these uniforms all the way to win the World Series that year. What made these uniforms so different immediately upon seeing them were their caps. A "pill-box" cap, which the Pirates officially introduced as an ode to the National League's Centennial in 1976. The cap was first designed with a mustard yellow base, with black stripes. They wore this hat for a couple of years, and then changed it to a black base, with mustard yellow stripes - a reversal of colors. The Pirates wore five different uniform combinations in '79 - changing between a yellow pinstriped uniform, black pants, yellow pants, black jerseys, and yellow jerseys. My favorite was the pullover yellow jersey, trimmed with black, white, and yellow stripes worn with black pants accented with two yellow stripes going down the leg. Some of the standout players from that team were Stargell, Dave Parker, and Kent Tekulve.
3. Miami Marlins - 2012
As part of a franchise overhaul in 2012, the Florida Marlins became the "Miami" Marlins. They got a new stadium, new players, a new manager, new uniforms and a new logo. The Marlins went on a shopping spree for a manager and free-agent players - all which ended up having disastrous results. The one positive to come of all the change was their new uniforms. The new cap logo was an oversized, white "M" that was outlined in teal-blue, orange and yellow, all traced in a flashy, metallic silver. On the upper-crest of the first peak on the "M" was a profile of a marlin. The main jersey colors of the uniforms were black and gray, but I really liked their alternate orange jersey. Some of the players that came and went in that same year were Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Heath Bell, Carlos Zambrano - along with manager Ozzie Guillen.
4. Houston Astros 1975-86
The famous Astros jerseys know as the "Tequila Sunrise" or "Rainbow Guts" were another uniform people either loved or hated. Like the Pirates "pill-box" caps, these Astro jerseys were a design that has never been duplicated in the majors to this day. The "rainbow" was made up of an orange / red / yellow spectrum that ran all the way to the chest of the pullover jersey, where the navy blue "Astros" logo was displayed over a white background. Inside the spectrum, a navy blue star was displayed. The uniform pants had a smaller version of the spectrum running down each pant leg. The team first started wearing the jersey at home and on the road, but it became their home-only jersey in 1980. Another aspect of the uniform that I thought was very original was that the players numbers were displayed on the upper-right leg of the uniform pants. J.R. Richard, Jose Cruz, Joe Neikro, and Nolan Ryan were some of the stand-out players from this era.
5. Milwaukee Brewers - 1982 (Road)
As posted in an earlier blog, this Milwaukee Brewers team stands along with my favorite MLB teams of all-time. The bright, powder blue jersey immediately takes me back to when I fell in love with the game of baseball. "Milwaukee" was scripted in cursive across the chest of the pullover jersey. The sleeves of the jersey were trimmed in royal blue-yellow-royal blue stripes. The team caps were royal blue with a yellow front panel, embroidered with the famous "Mb" baseball glove logo. Some of the best players from the Milwaukee Brewers greatest team were Robin Yount, Gorman Thomas, Paul Molitor, and Rollie Fingers.
6. Tampa Bay Rays - Turn Back The Clock
In 2012, the Rays introduced a throwback uniform for a "Turn Back The Clock" game vs. the Detroit Tigers (who wore the 1979 version of their road uniforms). The Rays uniforms were immediately dubbed as being "Faux-Back" because the franchise was not around in '79 - they started in 1998, as the Tampa Bay "Devil" Rays. The uniform was almost a exact duplicate style of the 1978 San Diego Padres road uniforms, and just used the Rays colors of navy blue and sky blue instead of the Padres brown and yellow. In the circular part of the "a" in the Rays logo across the chest was a cut-out of a lemon - an ode to the Citrus State. Players' numbers and last names were displayed in bright yellow. The Rays cap was a tri-panel design, with a lower-case "tb" logo embroided on the front. Like the jersey, a cut-out of a lemon was placed in the circular part of the "b" on the cap. This uniform was an instant classic for me, and I thought it was very original for a team to "Turn Back The Clock" to year in which it never existed. This uniform is now listed as an official "alternate" uniform for the Rays.
7. Baltimore Orioles - 1966-1989
The caps that the Orioles wore with this era's team uniforms made the O's a childhood favorite team of mine. The uniforms varied in styles through these years, but the colors remained the same - orange, black, and white. The cap was tri-colored, with a black back, orange brim, and a white front - embroidered with the famous "cartoon" bird. The bird was a caricature of an oriole bird, bearing a wide smile and a Orioles cap. I always found it comical whenever long-time Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who was famous for being short-tempered, would argue and scream at umpires while wearing a cap with a smiling bird on it. The Orioles brought back a more stylized version of the cartoon bird in 2012. Some of the Orioles who I identify with this era are Weaver, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken Jr.
8. Seattle Mariners 1977-85
Although I can name less than a handful of Mariners players from this era, this uniform and cap has always remained one of my favorites. The cap logo started as an aggressive looking 3-pronged spear (later which I learned was called a "trident") fashioned in the way of the letter "M". In 1980, Seattle was the host of the All-Star game, and the team celebrated the occasion by adding a star behind a newer version of the "M" trident. The Mariners wore this star logo on their caps until 1986. My favorite Seattle uniform from this era was their road uniform. Powder blue pullover jerseys, with powder blue pants. The jerseys and pants had thick royal blue and bright yellow stripes running down the shoulders and pant legs. Across the chest was "Seattle" in navy blue, outlined in yellow.
9. New York Mets (1982-86 Alternate)
To me, there isn't anything eye-catching about these uniforms. I do think that this is one of the rare times a team "made" the uniforms, though. The royal blue, pullover jerseys trimmed with an orange-white-orange stripe combination were a nice break from the tradtional Mets uniforms. "Mets" was scripted across the jersey in white, trimmed in orange. These batting practice / road alternate jerseys were usually worn with white pants, pinstriped in royal blue. The cap logo was still the traditional Mets "NY". Some of the "Amazing" Mets from this era were Lenny Dykstra, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Keith Hernandez.
10. Philadelphia Phillies (1983)
No list of favorite uniforms would be complete without pinstripes. My favorite pinstriped uniforms are not the famous New York Yankees though. The 1983 Phillies wore white uniforms covered in maroon pinstripes, with maroon stripes down the shoulders and pantlegs. The jersey had the Phillies logo on the left chest, and the player number on the right chest. The jersey was not a pullover, or a button-up - it had a zippered front. The Phillies caps were solid maroon with a white "P" logo. The '83 uniform was not the first time the Phillies wore pinstripes or zippered jerseys, but the reason I chose this particular year was that the jersey had a patch commemorating the Phillies 100 years in professional baseball on the sleeve. Players from that year included Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, and Tug McGraw.
After making this list of my favorite uniforms and caps, I see a couple of different patterns that I seem to like. The most obvious one to me is my love of powder blue uniforms. Several teams switched from the traditional road uniform in gray, to a powder blue road set in the 1970's and '80's. At the height of the powder blue trend, 11 different teams used the color for their road uniforms. This was the era of baseball in which I grew up in, and I recall my youth everytime I see the old powder blue uniforms. The powder blue trend is slowly (hopefully) trying to make a comeback- both the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays have an alternate uniform using the color after a long absence. The other pattern that I like are the ballcaps with the different color panels, brims, and that are white-fronted. The pinwheel and tri-paneled caps add creativeness to each team that wears them.
Each season, I look forward to any changes teams may make to their uniforms. New logos and uniform colors can give baseball teams new identities, and when the older uniforms and cap designs are retired it creates a another great piece of baseball nostalgia.
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