What could have been . . . Yankees Road Unis

[kenclark]

While watching the Angels play the Yankees this weekend the boys on FOX mentioned that a decade or more ago the Yankees were mulling the idea of changing their road unis to be the opposite of their home unis . . . Navy blue with white pinstripes and a white NY on the left breast.

Anyone ever hear of this or seen a proposed version of this uniform? If this had come to fruition it might have been the worst uniform ever.

[Hat Boy]

When they said "a decade or more", they must have meant 3 decades, because that idea sounds very 1970s. I could imagine that uniform on the field against a Cleveland Indians team dressed in all red.

[STL FANATIC]

I gotta think that if this is true, it's at least two decades ago when lots of teams looked that kinda gawdy.

[Frylock]

If my memory serves me correctly, this *was* a brainchild of the 1970s. The alleged reason I had heard for nixing the white pinstripes on dark navy was that it made the players look like mafia members.

[youcan'tseeme]

I think blue with white pin stripes wouldn't be that bad as a road uni, in fact it would be pretty cool, they should do it now!

[kenclark]

I'm not the biggest fan of the Yankees road uniform as it is now but this would have been terrible.

Imagine Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, and Reggie Jackson suiting up in those things.

[kenclark]

I finally found some more info about these uniforms from 1974:

http://yankees.mostvaluablenetwork.com/?p=405

From the book, Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy, and George by Marty Appel:

"For example, in 1974 I walked into Gabe Paul?s office to find samples of new Yankee road uniforms draped across his sofa. They were the opposite of the home pinstripes?they were navy blue with white pinstripes. The NY logo was in white. Gabe liked them. I nearly fainted. Although the drab gray road uniforms were not exciting, with the plain NEW YORK across the chest, they were just as much the Yankees? look as were the home uniforms. I think my dramatic disdain helped save the day and saved the Yankees from wearing these awful pajamas on the field."

[tmorss9]

I know I'm crazy, but the 1917 White Sox wore something very similar (several of the old White Sox teams had navy roads, actually), and, IMO those look really good. It's not a good look for the Yankees, of course, but a team with less tradition could try something out as an alt. perhaps???

[Gothamite]

Ugh. Awful.

They ought to be left on the drawing board, and not just because Yankee uniforms are nigh-untouchable. It's a terrible-looking design.

[doctorpeligro]

They look fine if you remove the white pinstripes and make them solid navy blue.

[hecticbro]

It would look a whole lot better than their boring grey roads.... Didn't the Tigers also wear a navy reverse of their classic home uniforms way, way, way back in the day?

[no97]

I know I'm crazy, but the 1917 White Sox wore something very similar (several of the old White Sox teams had navy roads, actually), and, IMO those look really good. It's not a good look for the Yankees, of course, but a team with less tradition could try something out as an alt. perhaps???

Dressed to the Nines shows this:

for the 1917 White Sox, but all I could find were either photos of either their throwback jerseys:

or photos of the home 1917 jerseys:

Moose

[winters in buffalo]

While watching the Angels play the Yankees this weekend the boys on FOX mentioned that a decade or more ago the Yankees were mulling the idea of changing their road unis to be the opposite of their home unis . . . Navy blue with white pinstripes and a white NY on the left breast.

Anyone ever hear of this or seen a proposed version of this uniform? If this had come to fruition it might have been the worst uniform ever.

Nah, it would have been great.

Sounds like a suit.

[SabreGuy]

Two interesting things about this picture...

1) This guy is wearing his cap at QUITE a jaunty angle!

2) I think this guy is wearing the cap that's supposed to go with the blue uniforms with the white pinstripes. Someone forgot to tell him which cap went with which uniform.

[ltravisjr]

You don't have to go back that far for the all-navy look. During the first couple of years of the White Sox pajama/collar era of the 1970's, they wore all navy road uniforms.

LT

[Shumway]

It would look a whole lot better than their boring grey roads.... Didn't the Tigers also wear a navy reverse of their classic home uniforms way, way, way back in the day?

Yeah, they had blue with white collars back in the early 1900s. You could get em in MVP Baseball videogames...not sure about 'The Show' or '2k6'

Found a pic:

1906 Detroit Tigers

[cupie]

I finally found some more info about these uniforms from 1974:

http://yankees.mostvaluablenetwork.com/?p=405

From the book, Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy, and George by Marty Appel:

"For example, in 1974 I walked into Gabe Paul?s office to find samples of new Yankee road uniforms draped across his sofa. They were the opposite of the home pinstripes?they were navy blue with white pinstripes. The NY logo was in white. Gabe liked them. I nearly fainted. Although the drab gray road uniforms were not exciting, with the plain NEW YORK across the chest, they were just as much the Yankees? look as were the home uniforms. I think my dramatic disdain helped save the day and saved the Yankees from wearing these awful pajamas on the field."

It looks like something you would wear if you were in jail.

[Korkie]

Why not a grey uniform with the dark blue NY logo w/ thin white outline. No pinstripes or anything. Basically take the home unis and make them grey and lose the pinstripes. The current roadies are so boring. Classy and traditional, sure, but boring.

[kenclark]

The current road uniforms have been around over 30 years so there is some tradition there but I think I'd rather see the uniform they had from 1931-1972. They are very similar but I prefer the boring style of the old roads to the 70's piping on the current sleeves.

1931:

1972:

1973

There is no doubt in my mind that the current home unis shouldn't be messed with but I don't think the roads hold the same mystique. Push come to shove, I don't think it would be bad to have an alt for the road (like the one described by jkorkie).

[DGivens87]

I finally found some more info about these uniforms from 1974:

http://yankees.mostvaluablenetwork.com/?p=405

From the book, Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy, and George by Marty Appel:

"For example, in 1974 I walked into Gabe Paul?s office to find samples of new Yankee road uniforms draped across his sofa. They were the opposite of the home pinstripes?they were navy blue with white pinstripes. The NY logo was in white. Gabe liked them. I nearly fainted. Although the drab gray road uniforms were not exciting, with the plain NEW YORK across the chest, they were just as much the Yankees? look as were the home uniforms. I think my dramatic disdain helped save the day and saved the Yankees from wearing these awful pajamas on the field."

It looks like something you would wear if you were in jail.

I believe Majestic put out a similar Yankee fashion jersey about 10 years ago that was just like this one, except it was navy blue with white pinstripes (in other words, it matched the standard navy blue Yankees hat.) Even though I'm a die-hard Sox fan, I have to say that it did look sharp.

Make it navy blue and honestly, if you saw one in person, it looks better than it does on paper/concept.