History of Baseball Uniforms

Early Uniforms

• In 1845, the New York Knickerbockers became the first organized baseball club in American history. Four years later, the team adopted the first official baseball uniform. This uniform consisted of a white flannel shirt, blue wool pantaloons and a straw hat. In 1868, the Cincinnati Red Stockings exchanged their baggy baseball pants for knickers, which allowed for freedom of movement as well as showed off the team's new, red stockings.

Names and Numbers

• The 1916 Cleveland Indians were the first major league team to wear numbers on their uniforms. The idea catch on, and wasn't seen again until the 1929 New York Yankees took the field with big, bold numbers on their jerseys. Since the Yankees infamous batting order rarely changed, the number on the uniform indicated a player's position in the batting order. The fans loved the idea, and numbered uniforms remain to this day. In 1960, the Chicago White Sox and added the players' last names to the back of their jerseys. Fans applauded this idea as well, and nearly every team today displays names on the uniforms.

Logos

• As official team nicknames evolved into official team names, baseball clubs began using logos and graphics on their baseball uniforms. The Detroit Tigers started the trend by featuring a small, red tiger on their uniform in 1901. The Chicago Nationals added a small bear cub to their jersey in 1907, which prompted fans and sports journalists to call the team the "Chicago Cubs." Other teams were inspired to add colorful graphics to their home uniforms, and soon all major league clubs had team logos.

Colors

• Baseball's early years saw the big league clubs wearing white home uniforms and dark road uniforms. The 1937 Brooklyn Dodgers first broke with tradition when they adopted tan uniforms for away games. When color TVs became readily available, teams began using brighter, bolder colors. The Kansas City Athletics started the trend In 1963 with their green and gold uniforms. The Houston Astros may have ended the fad when they wore a "rainbow jersey" in 1975. The current color trend in baseball is wearing the traditional, conservative colors of the early uniforms.

Night Games

• The novelty of night games inspired new baseball uniforms. The Cincinnati Reds played the first game of night baseball in 1935, and the team took the field wearing bold red pants and a white jersey with "Cincinnati" written across the chest in red lettering. The uniform was made out of satin because it was believed the shimmery, reflective material would be a pleasure to look at beneath the lights. As night games grew in popularity, more teams designed "night-game only" uniforms.

Caps

• Early baseball had no official rules regarding headgear, and teams wore a variety of hat styles. While many teams wore straw hats, others wore jockey caps, boating caps, cycling caps or no caps at all. The Chicago teams of the 1890s wore pillbox-style hats, while the Brooklyn Excelsiors wore hats with a high, full crown. The hats worn by the Boston Americans around the turn of the century were perhaps the closest to modern day baseball caps with their close-fitted, round crowns.

Fun Fact

• The 1882 rulebook ordered professional baseball teams to use multi-colored uniforms that indicated each player's position. First baseman had to wear shirts and hats in red and white stripes. Shortstops were required to wear solid maroon uniforms. Teams were also assigned stocking colors, and these stockings were the only way to tell the teams apart. The new uniforms were dubbed "clown costumes," and this color-coding experiment uniforms were dropped by mid-season.