Always with the stirrups...

[jkrdevil]

Well, when I played in Lttle League were didn't have stirrups. We had what Greg Maddox has, then when I got to Babe Ruth I wore solid color sock. However my frshman year for hockey the socks we got had a stirrup bottom to it. It was uncomfortable and everyone on the team ended up cutting them off.

I realize the orginal point of stirrups but I don't see the point now. Now dyes aren't poisonous. The stripe on the white sock looks horrible. Just a single sock looks much better and you can stell have stripes ala the Cardinals a couple years ago with them. I don't see the stirrup last much longer, we are getting to the pint where people just coming up didn't wear them as a kid. And while knee high pants are the trend coming up now I think it will be with a single rooster and not stirrups.

[DGivens87]

How about some NFL-style uniform regs? That would be a bit too far, I suppose.

Two totally different animals, my friend...with NFL unis, u have to wear pads and gear under them, plus baseball pants are much different than football pants. Just my opinion...

if ballplayers wanna wear long pants, stirrups, long socks, i don't care. I personally prefer long pants when I play.

[no97]

How about some NFL-style uniform regs? That would be a bit too far, I suppose.

Why is it too far? If traditionalists can get the "Spider Man 2" promotion off the bases last summer with a write-in campaign, why not a write-in to demand a return to stirrups? Or at least a standirdization of the uniform pant length? We can do it!

Moose

[no97]

How about some NFL-style uniform regs?  That would be a bit too far, I suppose.

Two totally different animals, my friend...with NFL unis, u have to wear pads and gear under them, plus baseball pants are much different than football pants. Just my opinion...

if ballplayers wanna wear long pants, stirrups, long socks, i don't care. I personally prefer long pants when I play.

Not as far as socks. Proof positive, college football, where the kids can where short socks if they want to, exposing the shins... Pads have nothing to do with the length of the pant.

Moose

[OB33]

I like stirrups, but I actually prefer the solid sock (or a Mark Prior style stirrup).  The color is very pleasing, and it's a very classic look.  In particular, I've been loving Jeromy Burnitz in right field at home for the Cubs when they're wearing full pinstripes:

That's beautiful. It's just so balanced, especially with the long sleeves.

Agreed

[mac]

this year my high school team had a rule, where you weren't allowed to wear your pants high, the thing is noone had a problem with it, we all had our pants the same way down by our shoes but not under the shoes and we looked good as a team. I like wearing my pants long because it is more comfortable, if your not playing you can push your socks down and noone can tell, and if you have really hairy legs like myself than you know how annoying socks pulled up to your knee are.

The worst is those jackass kids that are on every youth team who don't think they need to wear any socks, so they put on the real short socks and then pull their pants up to their knees and they are bare calfed I hate that. When I played little league I tried to look exactly like the major leaguers. i would go to the game and see these kids on my team, their hat was backwards, their shirts was untucked, and they didn't have socks on! I hated it

[cranium]

Moose, sign me up on the petition for stirrups. Or, at least pants up a minimum of 6" above the shoe so that some sort of sock is shown.

Also,

I'm almost certain that college football mandated about 5 years ago that a team had to all wear their socks the same way for that particular game. Socks up or socks down.

[no97]

The worst is those jackass kids  ..., their shirts was untucked, ... I hated it

Great story about a game I was announcing yesterday: a kid who thinks he looks cool (low socks pulled under his shoes, his jersey slightly untucked, and his hat with no curved bill slightly cocked to the side ala CC Sabathia) had a ground ball roll up his arm while playing third. Needless to say, his "look" caused the ball to roll under his untucked jersey top, and lead to an error. Oh to be 17 again.

Moose

[IceCap]

stirrups suck, and the long socks suck. long pants are the way to go.

Wow. You make a compelling argument there, you silver-tongued devil.

its just personal taste, thats all. i just think long pants look better then stirrups and long socks. i can tell you personally i perfer to play in long pants then stirrups or long socks. again, just my personal taste. i may perfer long pants, but im not out to ban long socks,a nd if a player wanted to wear stirrups, all the power to him. i say let the individual player decide what he wants to wear, as long as its not those afful shorts (white sox). this talk about banning long pants is silly, as would any talk about baning long sox. let the players decide.

[Bernd]

^ It shouldn't be up to the players. It's a uniform. Know what "uniform" means? "Of the same form with others; conforming to one rule or mode." Individuality has nothing to do with it. Everyone on the team should look the same.

[IceCap]

^ It shouldn't be up to the players.  It's a uniform.  Know what "uniform" means?  "Of the same form with others; conforming to one rule or mode."  Individuality has nothing to do with it.  Everyone on the team should look the same.

ever heard of polite conversation?

im not saying that the players should be able to wear what ever they want, im saying they should be able to wear thier uniform pants in the way that is most confertable for them.

[mac]

^ It shouldn't be up to the players.  It's a uniform.  Know what "uniform" means?  "Of the same form with others; conforming to one rule or mode."  Individuality has nothing to do with it.  Everyone on the team should look the same.

ever heard of polite conversation?

im not saying that the players should be ablr to wear what ever they want, im saying they should be able to wear thier uniform pants in the way that is most confertable for them.

ya I agree with that, one day I may post a picture of them but I have never seen anyone with legs hairier than mine. I can't wear long socks, they hurt. If I wear long pants then I can push the socks down and you can't tell. That's why I like my pants long.

[IceCap]

^ It shouldn't be up to the players.  It's a uniform.  Know what "uniform" means?  "Of the same form with others; conforming to one rule or mode."  Individuality has nothing to do with it.  Everyone on the team should look the same.

ever heard of polite conversation?

im not saying that the players should be ablr to wear what ever they want, im saying they should be able to wear thier uniform pants in the way that is most confertable for them.

ya I agree with that, one day I may post a picture of them but I have never seen anyone with legs hairier than mine. I can't wear long socks, they hurt. If I wear long pants then I can push the socks down and you can't tell. That's why I like my pants long.

i feel the same way man.

[-kj]

Ok, in my softball league, not that many players wear baseball pants. (Only the really upper-level teams really have true uniform looks--we're not even close to them--And most of those go with shorts instead of pants, it seems.) I do, because I've had enough of ripping up my legs on the kitty litter that passes for the infields we play on... oh, yeah, and I'm a uniform geek, like everyone on this board. I'm also 6'5" and ranging around 280-290#, so I didn't have a lot of selection.

The pair I'm using this season (plain grey, to go with our green jerseys) are shorter than the pants I've used before, and come about mid-calf. I wear grey socks as a general rule, and while they're reasonably long, they would sometimes come out from under the pants. This was a tad annoying, so I went stirrup/green sock shopping... and came up empty.

A friend from Detroit happened to have some stirrups lying around, and sent me a pair of green stirrups. I've been using them since, and I love 'em. They've got three white stripes towards the top, but those get hidden by the top of my pants. And, they just plain look cool, I think. The uniform looks more complete with the green on my legs.

[RichO]

were I playing now, I'd be a low-cut stirrup guy if I could find them. Failing that I'd be solid color sock. Coming up I didn't so much try to follow the look of the majors at the time (early to mid 90s was the dawn of low pants and the faux stirrup...no invention in baseball uniform history is more idiodic than the faux stirrup). Personally, I tried following the look I'd see in the College World Series, and that's where I saw socks high.

But jeez...faux stirrups...those were the epitome of fugly...the stripe down the side of those things would stop before the top of your shoes. I had to go out of my way to hunt down proper colored socks back in the day.

[pcgd]

2 things that were mentioned. As far as I know, the Cardinals Team socks still have the stripes. Just nobody's worn them up since ankiel did a few years ago. I think another young cardinal pitcher did it at the begining of last year or the year before. I think everyone wears the solid red though, just low so you can't see it. I can't ever think of a cardinal wearing his pants up with solid red. If this were true, I've got to think they are the only team that still has stripes on the socks.

Secondly, yes the NCAA dictates that all players wear the same socks. It doesn't matter if its no socks, or low socks, or all black socks, or NFL style socks. They all have to be at the same realative level, and if you don't, they will throw a flag, even at the D3 level. I know we had the NFL style socks, and we got a penalty when a player was wearing the wrong socks or he had them down. I think it was a 15 yarder but I can't remember.

[Discrim]

funny Lukas mentioned stirrups...my first year of football and part of my second, I wore stirrups. I kid you not. About like Prior's wearing now aside from being green, although much of the time I wore em under my white socks, so most folks couldn't really tell anyway.

I'll tell ya what, I always liked em on the Cardinals and Red Sox (when theirs were striped), and I like em on Prior. Maddux, he's my guy and all but those faux stirrups (not to mention the Paleys' faux vests) need to go the way of 19-18 basketball games, the barefoot kicker and the 2-man pitching staff.

[slapshot]

NFL and NCAA referees used to wear stirrups, but now (thankfully) the socks are one-piece with stripes.

CFL officials still wear stirrups.

[VitaminD]

I was in high school at the dawn of the era where it became fashionable to wear your pant cuffs as low as possible. And I hated it. I grew up proudly wearing a lot of sock from Little League on. And I think I was one of 1 or 2 guys on my entire high school team who wore the socks high. We had these thick black socks with white and red stripes at the top; they looked good with our black pants.

And my legs are as hairy as they come, and I never saw it as a problem. I wouldn't go as far as saying we need some kind of law or rule put in place, but the socks/stirrups are part of the required uniform, they should be displayed as such.

[Grish]

Personally I used to wear high pants until I blew out a ACL and went to long pants to cover a knee brace.

On the my Pony team (13/14 yr olds) we have a rule on pants, of all up or down. Plus, the one that really gets me is kids who can not put their hat on straight.