uniforms they never wore

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

I would like to show a few examples of players in uniforms that they never wore during an official game.

 

Joe Garagiola in a Yankee uniform

 

Garagiola is shown with Whitey Ford at Yankee Stadium in 1973. Garagiola had announced for the Yankees from 1965 to 1967. He played for the Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs, and Giants from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. But he never played for or coached for the Yankees.

 

 

Lou Piniella in a Seattle Pilots uniform

 

Piniella was selected by the Pilots in the 1969 expansion draft, and spent the entire spring training in camp with them.  (He is pictured in the uniform that the team used only in spring training, before switching to their permanent (ha!) uniforms for the season.) At the very end of spring training he was traded to the Pilots' fellow expansion team the Royals, where he went on to be the rookie of the year.

 

 

Willie McGee in a Yankee uniform

 

McGee was in spring training with the Yankees in 1981.  He spent the season at AA, and was traded to the Cardinals after the season.

 

 

Reggie Jackson in a Mariners uniform

 

At the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle, the shipment of Reggie's Yankee uniform was delayed. While it arrived in time for the game, it was not there when the team picture was taken. So Reggie suited up in a Mariners uniform.

 

 

Hank Greenberg in a Yankee uniform

 

Greenberg borrowed a Yankee uniform for his appearance in a 1943 wartime benefit game at Yankee Stadium in his native New York.  He played most of his career for the Tigers, and one season for the Pirates.

 

 

Babe Ruth in a Giant uniform

 

In 1923, the Giants hosted the International League's Baltimore Orioles for an exhibition game right at the end of the season.  Suiting up for the Giants that day was Yankee slugger Babe Ruth, who had played for his hometown Orioles in 1914. The first notable thing about this picture is that Ruth is pictured alongside Giants manager John McGraw. McGraw hated Ruth; even moreso, he hated the style of baseball that Ruth represented, as McGraw had been a player on the National League Orioles of the 1890s who specialised in "little ball". McGraw lamented the coming of the home run, feeling that it turned baseball from a thinking man's game into a game for dummies. McGraw had been the dominant figure in New York baseball through the early 1920s, until he and the Giants were eclipsed by Ruth and the Yankees, as the teams met in three consecutive World Series from 1921 through 1923. And this brings us to the second notable thing about the picture: it was taken only days before the start of the 1923 World Series between Ruth's Yankees and McGraw's Giants, which would be the first that the Yankees won.

 

 

Jay Johnstone in a Mariners uniform

 

In one of the greatest movies of all time, 1988's The Naked Gun, Jay Johnstone is shown playing for the Mariners, a team for which he never played in real life.  This is in the scene in which Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin poses as an umpire to find the player who intends to kill the Queen.  (Spoiler alert: it turns out to be the Angels' Reggie Jackson.) 

 

The full scene:

 

 

 

 

Alex English in a Celtics uniform

 

Staying with the movies, Alex English played a character who plays for the Celtics in the 1987 movie Amazing Grace and Chuck.

 

 

Pete Vuckovich in a Yankee uniform

 

Another movie: in 1989's Major League, pitcher Pete Vuckovich, best known for playing for the Brewers and the CardInals, played a first baseman for the Yankees, a team for which he never really played.

 

 

Joe DiMaggio in a Red Sox uniform

 

Joe D. wore a Red Sox uniform in a 1946 exhibition game at Fenway Park.  The game was held at the end of the 1946 season as a tune-up for the World Series, as the American League champion Red Sox awaited the outcome of the National League race, which was to be decided in a tiebreaker playoff between the Dodgers and Cardinals. The game pitted the Red Sox against an array of American League players, including Joe D., whose Yankee uniform did not show up in time.

 

 

The DiMaggio brothers in Giant uniforms

 

At a 1962 old-timers' day at Candlestick Park, the three DiMaggio brothers wore Giants road uniforms, which were intended to stand in for the uniforms of the PCL's San Francisco Seals, for whom they had all played. (Though Joe wore a Yankee cap.) None of them ever actually played for the Giants.

 

 

Rollie Fingers in a Red Sox uniform

 

In 1976, A's owner Charlie Finley sold Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Red Sox, and Vida Blue to the Yankees.  All these players were to become free agents at the end of the season, and Finley didn't want to pay them what they would be worth. However, a few days later commissioner Bowie Kuhn overturned the deals as being not in the best interest of baseball. Meanwhile, Fingers and Rudi had reported to the Red Sox, though neither got in a game; Blue never reported to the Yankees, so there are no photos of him in pinstripes. (Rudi later actually played for Boston.)

[VandyDelphia Mike]

Here we have scrappy Duke Blue Devil Bobby Hurley as point guard for Indiana University (in the movie Blue Chips)

[burgundy]

 

 

The sections of jersey in these cards have the wordmark of the old name, but Chase Young never wore a jersey with that wordmark on it. Any image of him in the old jersey is photoshopped. Washington dropped their name between drafting Young and him actually wearing a jersey, and thanks to the pandemic there's not even any pictures of him holding up the old jersey.

 

These "game worn" jersey cards are a scam.

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Dick Williams in a Yankee uniform

 

The Yankees' first act upon moving into Shea Stadium after the end of the 1973 season was to stage a press conference announcing the hiring of Dick Williams as their new manager, replacing the departing Ralph Houk. Williams had led the A's to their second consecutive world championship in 1973; he then quit as the team's manager, fed up with owner Charlie Finley (the final straw being Finley's attempted firing of second baseman Mike Andrews during the 1973 World Series).

 

Finley decided to take the unprecedented step of holding his resigned manager, who was signed for 1974, to his contract. Even though Finley was no longer paying Williams, he claimed that he could prevent Williams from working for another team (thus further demonstrating why Williams was so eager to leave a job at which he had been extraordinarily successful). The American League president upheld this claim, despite the usual practice of a team cancelling the contract of a manager who resigns, and leaving that manager free to accept other work.

 

Finley said that he would allow Williams to take the Yankees job only if the Yankees sent the A's two players. The Yankees refused, and so the deal with Williams fell through. The team instead turned to Bill Virdon, who had been fired by the Pirates in 1973 after having managed them to the 1972 divisional title (and who, as a Pirates player, had hit the ground ball that injured the Yankees' Tony Kubek in the 1960 World Series).

 

Finley's spitefulness evidently cooled, as he let Williams take over the California Angels during the 1974 season.

[M4One]

Russel Westbrook and Serge Ibaka

 

[eastfirst107]

Eric Lindros wore a Nordiques jersey on a Quebec talk show a couple of years back. 

[GriffinM6]

Came across these pics last night on College football twitter. Here's Trevor Lawrence on some recruiting visits to Tennessee and Florida.

 

I'm sure there are plenty of other guys who were elite CFB players you could add to this thread. 

[Discrim]

The example that came to my mind is an admittedly obscure one...my alma mater, Case High, has seen three baseball players make it to the majors.  Giants fans are pretty familiar with the first of the three, Duane Kuiper; the second guy was a pitcher named Eric Rasmussen, who I was admittedly unaware of until just now; the youngest of the three is former Pirates backup catcher Jason Jaramillo, who I was in the same graduating class as.  The Phillies drafted him twice, the first time out of high school and then again out of Oklahoma State, and he initially was in their system, going as high as AAA before he was traded to the Pirates, with whom he made his big league debut.  The last time I was inside Case's fieldhouse, I'd noticed they had some jerseys on display on one of the walls overlooking the basketball court, one being Kuiper's Giants jersey, another being Jason's Phillies jersey, which he may have worn in a spring training game (he was on the Phillies' 40-man roster before he was traded) but never wore in a major league game, as he'd only ever see big league action with the Pirates.

A related, even more obscure example are Jason's older brothers, Lee and Frankie, who each spent time in the Brewers system but never went past A ball...but they did make it to Miller Park as extras in Mr. 3000...one of them was an Astros infielder, the other was an infielder for another team, it's been a while (I'd read about it in the newspaper, I've never watched the movie) so I forget which was which.  Neither brother was ever in the Astros system, though Frankie had been drafted by the Rangers...

 

...aaaand down the rabbit hole, TIL that a young Buster Posey was also an extra in the same movie...

[Bomba Tomba]

On 10/17/2022 at 9:20 PM, GriffinM6 said:

Came across these pics last night on College football twitter. Here's Trevor Lawrence on some recruiting visits to Tennessee and Florida.

 

Took me a while to realize he was wearing 18, not 16

[BBTV]

^ that's actually a cool jersey IMO... except for the SEC, T, and Nike logos soiling the area above the number.  And then whatever is up on the shoulder.  Looks ridiculous.

[Discogod]

 

The only time Allan Houston wore the Pistons' teal unis - he'd sign with the Knicks a couple of weeks later.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:36 AM, Discogod said:

 

The only time Allan Houston wore the Pistons' teal unis - he'd sign with the Knicks a couple of weeks later.

 

While I am pleased to see contribution to this thread, I wish to point out that the intent is to show guys in uniforms of teams that they never played for (or, in one case, managed), rather than in uniform designs that they never wore for teams that they did indeed play for.

 

That's why I didn't include a photo of Joe Rudi in a Red Sox uniform alongside Rollie Fingers, after both had gone to the Red Sox from the A's in the same ultimately-cancelled trade. Neither player ever wore that Red Sox design in a game. But Fingers never played for the Red Sox at all, so he qualifies for the thread; whereas Rudi eventually went to that team several years later, after it had switched to a different uniform design. 

[TheRealPepman]

On 10/22/2022 at 9:36 AM, Discogod said:

 

The only time Allan Houston wore the Pistons' teal unis - he'd sign with the Knicks a couple of weeks later.

Reminds me of two Phoenix Suns instances: Caron Butler (2013) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (2020)

[GriffinM6]

Luis Arraez modeled the Twins' new navy alternate jersey in November when they unveiled their new uniforms. He got traded to the Marlins in January.

 

[johnnysama]

While Tom Seaver did wear the Mets racing stripe "home jersey", I think this counts, as in 1987, the by-then 42 year old  Seaver faced off againts Mets minor leaguers, and then retired; he's wearing this one year only style road uniform.

More deets here: https://njbaseball.net/tom-seaver-1987-mets/

[johnnysama]

 - A new entry - when the late Hank Aaron's jersey number #44 was retired by the Braves in 1977, they gave him a jersey that was the successor to the last look he wore for the team.

[VikWings]

Fanatics pretty much has a whole collection of stuff that fit this thread:

 

[OnWis97]

In the below link is a picture of Kirby Puckett the day he announced that he had to retire. He's in a home jersey with a name on back. He never had a name on his back on the home jersey when on the field, as the Twins were just about to start their first season with that feature on that jersey.

 

 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/MNTwinsZealot/status/1546914341651374084