Unexpected at a Rays game

[Brad K]

I attended Tigers at Rays Saturday April 1. Most of the jerseys fans were wearing were past Rays players, Longoria, Crawford, even a Boggs. The only current player I remember was Arozarena. Anyway, there was one real surprise for the venue.

[luckymann]

I hope you went and paid for his concessions...

[Brad K]

I wish you'd been there to suggest that.

[dsvitak]

I have my Musial jersey, for my Cardinal's games. Just sayin'.

[Brad K]

Wearing it to Rays games?

[Andy]

I think it's dumb when people wear something of a team not playing at the game, but if it's of an older player like that then I think it's cool. Especially if it's Clemente.

[Amazin69]

I hate it when people wear "throwback" jerseys that are historically inaccurate. The Pirates didn't start wearing names on the backs of jerseys until 1977, five years after Roberto was dead.

If somebody doesn't know why I'm wearing a Pirates jersey number 21 (which hasn't been worn since 1972, obviously), I'll be glad to explain. But this cheap half-copy is deeply annoying.

I can tolerate seeing a "Seaver" jersey at Mets games, by telling myself it's a 1983 version. But what is this? Does this guy have a #4 "Kiner" jersey, a #9 "Mazeroski", a #11 "P. Waner", a #20 "Traynor", a #33 "Wagner" and a #40 "Murtaugh" as well?

Booo.

(Whom am I kidding? There were probably #3 Yankees jerseys with "Ruth" on them walking around The House Babe Couldn't Fit Into, just yesterday afternoon. But it grates on me. JMO.)

[Brad K]

Funny thing about Wagner. He didn't wear 33 during his playing days because there were no numbers. He wore it as a coach.

Also Richie Hebner broke in wearing 20 but later they retired the number and took it away from him.

The stores stock jerseys but will make one to order. I've been thinking of having one made for some obscure Pirate like Gene Baker or Carlos Bernier.

[Amazin69]

Ron Necciai, surely? Or one of your Sharman Society members?

(I'm such a hypocrite. it's not as if I'd make my first Mets jersey a Terrell Hansen uni, after all.)

[Brad K]

I like Bernier and Baker because they did something notable.

[andyhdz]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

(Whom am I kidding? There were probably #3 Yankees jerseys with "Ruth" on them walking around The House Babe Couldn't Fit Into, just yesterday afternoon. But it grates on me. JMO.)

How about ANY Yankees jersey with the last name on the back. Fans proud of their history but can't be bothered to were a real jersey.

[Westheim]

The Yankees should rather drop their diva attitude and put the damn names on the uniforms. The Giants added them; does that make the AL team from New York the last holdout?

If I were to go Yankee Stadium and wore a Yankees jersey (gulp) ... sorry, almost threw up in my mouth ... anyway, and wore a Yankees jersey with #36 - how would anybody know who I'm wearing it for? David Cone? Carlos Beltran? Breyvic Valera?

Makes no sense NOT to have the name on the back if you're a fan, unless it's a retired one, unless it's #8, because they got two o' those.

[Brad K]

If I were to go anywhere wearing Pirates #91 everyone should know its for Ji-man Choi.

I wonder why he kept a high "won't make the team" spring training number.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The Yankees should rather drop their diva attitude and put the damn names on the uniforms. The Giants added them; does that make the AL team from New York the last holdout?

If I were to go Yankee Stadium and wore a Yankees jersey (gulp) ... sorry, almost threw up in my mouth ... anyway, and wore a Yankees jersey with #36 - how would anybody know who I'm wearing it for? David Cone? Carlos Beltran? Breyvic Valera?

Makes no sense NOT to have the name on the back if you're a fan, unless it's a retired one, unless it's #8, because they got two o' those.

I hope the Yankees never add names; I'm still disgusted that the Red Sox started wearing them on their road unis.

(It used to be that the National League had a rule mandating names of road uniforms, so the Cubs or Giants couldn't be pure the way the Yanks and Sox were. But allegedly the Dodgers are getting rid of names, period, so that may have changed.)

They're so damn pointless. You can't see them unless they're at the plate (since fielders are facing the plate and thus have their backs to the stands) and batters are announced over the p.a. system, never mind their profiles on the scoreboards and such.

This isn't football, where you have dozens of guys standing around after each play and you might be thinking "who tf is #62? Rosenkreuz? What happened to Abromovitch?" In continuous-action sports (NBA, NHL) the players are moving too much to read names, honestly, but I guess sometimes it's useful to be able to catch somebody in a lull on the court/ice without having to wait for the announcer to identify them or to have to remember all the numbers.

But in baseball, there's literally only one batter at a time. And with only 9 players in the lineup at any moment, you should probably be able to know all the numbers anyhow.

I loved most of Bill Veeck's innovations, but not this one. Occasionally the teams go back to being classy (the Brewers did it for a while, IIRC), but it never lasts. Bravo to the Pinstripers for holding fast.

(It's truly pathetic when teams don't even sew the individual letters onto the unis, but just put a damn name tag across the back, a sea of white blotting out the pinstripes.)



I mean, check out this styling 1986 Doc Gooden jersey! The name totally doesn't look like something Dwight's mom hurriedly affixed before little Doc went to sleepaway camp, nope!



Compare and contrast with some guy wearing the other half of my PIN-code on his back. Of course, since there's no name I have no idea whom he might be, but still.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

And with only 9 players in the lineup at any moment, you should probably be able to know all the numbers anyhow.

At any one point, there's 780 players on MLB rosters. That doesn't count the giant field hospitals of the IL, and that doesn't count those that are non-rostered, but travelling with the team on the other end of the continent in case of a starting-pitcher-suffers-terrible-nailcutting-accident, those that are on the AAA shuttle, and never mind that all the other uniformed personnel that sometimes changes numbers as players are promoted, are dumped, or traded.

So, sorry, no, I should not know who's #27 on any AL West team anyhow.

I picked that one intentionally, because I know Mike Trout wears that. But on the Mariners? The A's? Beats me. The A's are as anonymous as it gets anyway.

Edit: Because I was actually curious...

Angels - Mike Trout
Astros - Jose Altuve (IL'ed, though)
Athletics - nope! (retired for Catfish Hunter)
Mariners - nope! (apparently worn by Jesse ******* Winker last year)
Rangers - nope! - sorta: Tony Beasley (3B coach)

[Westheim]

Only tangentially related to this thread, because I stumbled over it while reading various things about uniform numbers on Wikipedia last night:

Upon joining the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1999 season, Brian Jordan gave third base coach Fredi González a Harley Davidson motorcycle in exchange for number 33, while Juan Pierre bought a motorcycle for manager Grady Little in exchange for the number 9 on the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007.[30] In a less lucrative transaction, when Mitch Williams joined the Philadelphia Phillies in 1991, he bought number 28 from John Kruk for $10 and two cases of beer.[28]

That's the most John Kruk story I have ever heard.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

I hate it when people wear "throwback" jerseys that are historically inaccurate. The Pirates didn't start wearing names on the backs of jerseys until 1977, five years after Roberto was dead.

If somebody doesn't know why I'm wearing a Pirates jersey number 21 (which hasn't been worn since 1972, obviously), I'll be glad to explain. But this cheap half-copy is deeply annoying.

I can tolerate seeing a "Seaver" jersey at Mets games, by telling myself it's a 1983 version. But what is this? Does this guy have a #4 "Kiner" jersey, a #9 "Mazeroski", a #11 "P. Waner", a #20 "Traynor", a #33 "Wagner" and a #40 "Murtaugh" as well?

Booo.

(Whom am I kidding? There were probably #3 Yankees jerseys with "Ruth" on them walking around The House Babe Couldn't Fit Into, just yesterday afternoon. But it grates on me. JMO.)

I agree 100%. My Musial jersey is correct for the period, and could have been a jersey that Musial wore. I only saw him play a couple of times, but he ranks right up there with my other favorite players.

[Pelican]

I guess I align with the historically-accurate side of the debate. Shibe Sports in Philly has awesome period gear. The cap pictured is from the Phils’ 1938 Season. I wear it when playing that Season sim. [I also stand up for the seventh inning stretch while playing out games in OOTP. Don’t judge me. It’s good for circulation and avoids cramps.] I got a blue 1938 A’s cap; but Mrs. Pelican (Alison) thought the cap was custom-designed for her (due to the “A”), and has been wearing it ever since (adjustable, thankfully). Now, don’t anyone spoil the (unintended) surprise.

I also have a reproduction Philadelphia Stars Negro League team cap. Blue with a red script P - not like the cursive P the Phils have used in several varieties. People ask if that is the new Phillies cap, and I get to explain what it is, the history, and why I wear it. And of course, once in a great while, I get a thumbs-up from a knowing fan.