MLB Jerseys

Major League Baseball Uniforms have changed dramatically over the past 160 years.The first professional team, the New York Knickerbockers, officially adopted team uniforms for the first time in history when their owner, Alexander Cartwright chose white flannel shirts with a black collar, blue wool pantaloons and straw hats for his players to wear. One can only imagine that the straw did not adequately offset the intense heat produced by the wool and flannel uniform in the dead of a New York City summer. But those materials would remain the fabrics of choice for baseball uniforms for over 100 years.In 1868, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first team to wear knickers rather than pants. The reason: believe it or not, it was to show off the teams high red socks, which had been designed by the owners wife. In 1906, the New York Giants were the first team to introduce the collarless jersey. After almost sixty years of wearing uniforms that resembled bankers outfits, Major League players were finally freed from the eternal annoyance of the collared shirt. In 1912, the New York Yankees first switched to a pinstriped uniform. It has since become the most famous uniform in all of sports. In 1929, both the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians introduced numbers on the backs of players uniforms. The Yankee numbers were designed to correspond to their starting players positions in the batting order; hence, Babe Ruth was No. 3 and Lou Gehrig was No. 4. By 1932, every Major League team had also placed numbers on their uniforms, a practice that remains to this day.In 1939, the Yankees became the first team to ever retire a players number, when they sent Lou Gehrigs famous number 4 out to pasture. Since then, well over 200 players have had their numbers retired by their teams. Most notably, In 1997, Jackie Robinsons number 42 was retired throughout the entire Major Leagues.In 1960, the Chicago White Sox were the first team to place a player's name on the back of his jersey.