Stirrup question

[jkrdevil]

This has bugged me for some time. What is the purpose of stirrups on a baseball uniforms. Do they have a function? Becuase if not wouldn't be easier, cheaper, and be more comfortable just to wear solid color socks.

[KCScout76]

Stripups were traditional, Tank might know the history behind them.

I remember wearing them and the bottom part moved around in my shoe, even if you pulled them up all the way (over your knees if they were stretched out).

I thought they looked good, but the function didn't seem to have a purpose, just that our coach said we had to wear them (1975-78).

[Saintsfan]

I don't know for sure but I would imagine they stopped the erm skin hugging pant legs riding up, and kept the pants neat and in place!

[AbbeyBF42]

Sturrup Story from Dressed to the Nines

The beginning of the 20th century brought about another innovation closely associated with the baseball uniform: stirrup stockings. In baseball?s early days, the dyes used in stockings were not colorfast, so a spike wound could easily get an unhealthy dose of colored dye. Wearing a white stocking underneath the colored hose would help eliminate the problem, but the double thickness of socks meant that a player?s shoe no longer fit properly. The solution, introduced during the first decade of the 20th century, was the colored stirrup stocking. The innovative sock allowed for a protective layer of material around the leg but a single thickness of material in the shoe. Since the white stockings worn underneath the stirrup stockings provided a sanitary layer of protection, they were dubbed ?sanitaries.?

During the 1910s and ?20s, players began to pull the stirrup stockings up so that a small arc of the sanitary stockings underneath was visible, both in back and in front. As players continued to pull on the stirrup stockings and the stockings began to stretch, more and more of the sanitary stockings began to show. Eventually, the white arches and colored stirrups were embraced as stocking style. By the 1940s, most big league clubs integrated the stirrup-look into the design of their stockings. Stirrups continued to rise throughout the century, peaking in the 1980s and ?90s with many players showing nothing but the vertical lines of their colored stockings.

With colored dyes no longer a health concern and the recent fashion of players wearing the bottoms of their pants low on the leg, it appears that the death knell has been sounded for the stirrup stocking. Today, the few players who choose to wear their pants high enough to see stockings are donning single-layered, solid-colored hose.

[Thunderstruk]

That is totally true and well done Abbey!!!!

[jkrdevil]

Thanks for posting that Abbey.

[AbbeyBF42]

No problemo, I'm happy to help. I just saw the topic and read your post and thought "hey, I read about that somewhere"

Abbey