The Chicago White Sox announced Wednesday that the team will wear their red, early 70′s-style uniforms during this season’s Sunday home games.
The retro uniforms have red pinstripes with red caps, and are best remembered as the uniforms worn during former White Sox slugger Dick Allen’s three seasons in Chicago. Allen hit 85 home runs from 1972-1974, while slugging at a .589 clip during his brief time in Chicago.
It’s a unique and undoubtedly welcome decision by the White Sox organization, and should be popular with Sox fans, especially those nostalgic for the early 70′s-era White Sox. During the years the White Sox wore red, the team was just three games under .500.
Bill Melton and manager Robin Ventura modeling the "new" retro Sox uniforms
While MLB teams have been working retro uniforms back into style the past decade, the White Sox’s move of regularly wearing a retro-styled uniform several times during a season is a new concept in Chicago. These particular uniforms should look sharp with the current team in action this season, opposed to some recent teams’ retro unis which should have stayed a distant memory.
With a tip of the cap to the White Sox brass for this great idea, let’s look at some of their best uniforms from seasons past.
One of the most iconic White Sox uniforms featured the large “S” logo, with the small “o” and “x” on the left side of the jersey. The rest of the uniform was framed by blue pinstripes, worn by the likes of Ed Walsh, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Eddie Cicotte. This uniform style was made famous by the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal, which led to the eventual lifetime ban of eight White Sox players.
The 50′s-era White Sox featured some great teams, including the 1959 pennant-winning team, with players such as Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, and Sherm Lollar. The new design brought on the now-familiar old-English-font Sox logo, with the letters laid out diagonally. These uniforms, worn by the Go-Go White Sox of the 50′s, had black pinstripes, with red trim.
The old-English font would take on a few different colors over the years, going from black with red trim, to blue, then red, and then eventually being blown up in favor of the wild late-70′s and early-80′s uniform incarnations.
The White Sox received a modern tweak to their uniforms in 1982, throwing away any resemblance to designs of the past- a very 80′s thing to do. They are remembered fondly, however, thanks to the 1983 AL-West-champion White Sox who won 99 games, but fell short in the playoffs, losing to the Baltimore Orioles, the eventual World Series champs.
Who could forget 80′s-era White Sox stars such as Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines, LaMarr Hoyt, and Ron Kittle donning the red, white and blue jerseys with the “SOX” logo displayed horizontally across the mid-section. The uniforms were the result of the team’s contest which invited fans to design that season’s uniforms. These particular unis were around for six seasons, and are best to be remembered with slugger Greg Luzinski stuffed into one.
After new Comiskey Park was completed in 1991, the White Sox took the field at their new home sporting a new look, a style that would mix the best of the White Sox’s past uniforms with a modern twist. The old-English font was back, as well as black pinstripes. The style, with various modifications over the last twenty years is still the Sox’s current uniform. The black alternative jerseys are particularly sharp.
Nostalgia has gotten the best of me here, as this is the uniform former players such as Chet Lemon, Lamar Johnson, and Ed Farmer were wearing when I saw my first White Sox game at old Comiskey Park. The original uniforms were, of course, the idea of legendary owner, Bill Veeck. The late 70′s era unis featured collared jerseys worn over the pants, and during this era, the team featured one of the best logos ever in baseball, the batter silhouette with the red circle, over the “SOX”.
These uniforms were infamous, however, when the pants were ditched in favor of shorts for three games in 1976, one of Veeck’s most hilarious, yet impractical stunts during his storied career.
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If you had to guess based on my choices for top White Sox uniforms, you could probably guess my age within a few days. That’s what makes the announcement of the White Sox retro uniforms getting regular rotation this upcoming season so great. It gives older fans a chance to reminisce about their past heroes of the game, and maybe they can see current Sox players enjoy success and make memories for new, younger fans at U.S. Cellular Field.
While the Chicago White Sox have enjoyed a rich history with some of the game’s most famous players passing through town over the years, the team has definitely had its share of unique and innovative uniforms during its long history.
-James Kries
