Bell-bottoms can go away, but retro uniforms should stay

Tuesday, April, 21, 2009; 8:41 PM | 0 | | Print

Wearing a circa-1975 Houston Astros design, Tech defeated No. 12 Clemson on Saturday.

Share


TOPICS: retro uniforms baseball astros

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The baseball uniform styles of the 1970s made it hard for some to hold in their lunch.

Topping the indigestion-inducing list might have been the Houston Astros.  

This was a team that took its name from the space program and played in the first domed stadium, dubbed "the eighth wonder of the world."

Wonder would be the appropriate word when the Astros broke out their newest uniforms, introduced prior to the 1975 season.  

The final product not only displayed horizontal stripes, but also ultra-bright multicolor stripes - emulating a rainbow and/or different flavors of a Popsicle.  

Houston had a fair amount of success in the eyesore unis, winning a pair of National League Western Division titles.

Somehow, the parallel rainbow connection stuck until after 1986.

However, they have risen again in an unlikely venue.  

Virginia Tech baseball head coach Pete Hughes - a big fan of retro jerseys - made these uniforms a part of the team's wardrobe, supplanting the "Astros" on the chest with "Hokies." The throwbacks were donned on two promotional occasions at English Field - and, like Houston's major league club, emitted favorable results on the field.

First, on "Disco Night" - March 21 - Tech took down No. 3-ranked Georgia Tech, 9-5.

The Hokies would be just as successful in their second venture with the jerseys. Against Clemson this past Saturday on "'80s Night," Tech took command from the early goings, ultimately beating the No. 18 Tigers by a score of 7-3 for its eighth consecutive victory and clinched its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference series win.    

Could the Hokies' recent trend of positive play be a direct product of what they wear? Probably not. Talent overrides coincidence.   

But what is certain is that Tech played some of its best games while wearing one of the worst looking jerseys ever seen on a diamond.  

They represent everything that is wrong with baseball fashion. But in the end, they fall under the "it's so bad, it's good" category. And that's why I can't get enough of them.

What the retro uniforms from the 1970s and '80s lacked in sense they made up for in uniqueness.  

Continue Reading: 12 Next » 

Leave a comment 0 Comments Write a letter to the editor