Black and Red (Not White) All Over
April 1, 2009 |
Kevin
Zdancewicz
It’s a shame that college baseball receives
only sparse national
television coverage until mid-June when the College World Series begins
in
Omaha. The same characteristics that make college football and
basketball so
exciting and popular are there for college baseball, but for some
reason the
national spotlight and consequently the national interest have never
been. This
is disappointing in and of itself for fans who would embrace the sport
were it
to be featured on a bigger stage throughout the season, but it’s also
unfortunate for fans of sports uniforms because it prevents people from
surveying
the diverse wardrobe on NCAA diamonds across the country. College
football and
basketball are basically on par with the big four professional sports
leagues
(yes, I still count the NHL) and with that level comes the perk of
exposure via
nationally televised games – both for the team and its uniforms. Since
NCAA schools
have the ability to change uniforms as often as they like and to wear
as many
alternate jerseys as they want, not to mention the fact that there are
lots of
institutions, college sports teams are perfect guinea pigs for uniform
design. These
characteristics carry over to college baseball, where so many unique
designs
(some good, some bad naturally) go largely unnoticed.
However, people are getting a glimpse into
the arena of
college baseball uniforms with the recent reports about baseball’s top
pitching
prospect in the upcoming MLB draft: San Diego State’s Stephen
Strasburg. Sports
Illustrated recently did a piece on the 102-mph-throwing pitcher and
the
Washington Post has been keeping tabs on him since the Nationals have
the first
overall pick in the draft this June. Anyone who has looked into
Strasburg has
come to find out that the Aztecs have a seemingly endless array of different baseball uniforms. While some are quite garish (bright
red
and black
can do that to you), none quite capture the total package like this
week’s
featured jersey. Obviously, the reason this uniform is notable is the
fact that
it pairs a black hat and jersey with black pants – a color-on-color
look that
few baseball teams employ nowadays. In addition to the colored pants,
the
featured jersey has some enormous red armpit stains that, along with the
bright red
socks and belt, just explode like a fireball when paired with the solid
black
uniform, reminiscent of Texas Tech on the football field.
In a previous column, I mentioned the tendency for
softball
teams to wear colored pants – a group that includes our very
own Virginia Cavaliers. While the major sentiment I
get when I
see those SD State uniforms is that they kind of look like a softball
team,
such a look is not unheard of in baseball. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the more egregious
offenders of
perpetrating the dark pants style, even including a black-on-black look like the Aztecs. The Oakland Athletics (check out the green-on-green
in
1973), Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and San Diego Padres were other colored-pants teams,
part of a group with plenty of members in the early 20th Century.
(Update: Add the Philadelphia
Phillies the list with an all-maroon look in 1974. Also, here's a more
realistic
depiction of
the Athletics' gold jerseys with gold pants.)
Photo Courtesy of SI.com
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