This Week In 70s Baseball

There's so much 70s baseball love in the air right now, it's getting difficult to keep track of it all. Last night, the Houston Astros donned 70s-style "Tequila Sunrise" throwbacks (complete with crotch-accentuating uniform number on the right leg!) for their game against the Cleveland Indians — an interleague match-up that might have made more conceptual sense if the Tribe had donned their infamous all-red "World's Biggest Bloody Mary" (copyright Boog Powell) 70s unis for the contest. I'm not sure if the Astros' old orange-red-and-yellow stripes have aged surprisingly well, or if they just look good compared to the dreary 90s softball jerseys the team wears now; but even without stirrups (which would have really completed the look), this pic of Jose Altuve was so eye-catching, I had to look at it four or five times before I even noticed the broken bat. Memo to the Astros: If you guys just wanna alternate between these and the Colt 45s throwbacks for the rest of the season, I don't think anyone would complain...

And then there's the Tampa Bay Rays, who — despite not even existing in 1979 — have unveiled the above "1979 throwback" unis for their upcoming homestand against the Detroit Tigers. I know I should hate these on principle, since a) it's fake history, and b) I hate pretty much everything that's come out of Florida in the past fifteen years (including but not limited to Limp Bizkit and voter disenfranchisement), but I actually kinda dig 'em — they look to me like the result of a three-way between the '78 Padres, the '69 Seattle Pilots, and a mid-70s Whirpool appliance catalog. Or maybe I like it because it looks oddly similar to the funky/clunky uniforms I was designing for imaginary teams on the back of my sixth grade notebook in 1978.

The Tigers, it should be noted, will be wearing actual 70s throwbacks against the Rays, similar to the road jersey and cap sported above by the late, great Mark Fidrych on his 1977 Topps card. I would flat-out LOVE to see the Tigers re-adopt this look full-time, especially the fat orange-and-white "D" logo on the cap. To me, their 70s road unis were one of the few examples of the era where a classic team effectively "modernized" their road unis without looking like clowns in the process...

Tomorrow, as they've done for every Sunday home game this season, the Chicago White Sox will don their red 1972 pinstripes, as sported above by the inimitable Dick Allen. But this time, the aforementioned Mr. Allen will actually be on hand to throw out the first pitch, and veteran Chicago rockers The Ides of March — who ruled the Windy City airwaves back in the day with such tunes as "Vehicle" and "L.A. Goodbye" — will be there to kick out the horn-rock jams.

Speaking of uniforms (albeit not necessarily of the 70s variety), the topic of this week's "High and Tight" — the weekly baseball and rock n' roll column I pen for Rolling Stone online — is memorabilia, specifically the most prized stuff in our various panelists' collections. I had to give a shout-out to my very own piece of "plastic grass," as pictured below. It's a chunk of fake sod from the Comiskey Park infield, which was liberated in the spring of 1976 (and sent to me last month) by BH&PG reader Bob Kale. The column also contains some illuminating quotes from memorabilia collector/authenticator Dave Grob, who recently authenticated the 1920 Babe Ruth Yankees jersey that sold at auction for $4.4 million; part of Dave's drool-worthy personal collection can be seen here.

And on a sad note, this week marked the passing of artist LeRoy Neiman at the age of 91. Neiman was best known for his kinetic and brightly-colored paintings of sporting events, many of which were created on the sidelines while the events were actually occurring. I have to admit that (like many things from the 1970s that I now love and appreciate) I once thought Neiman's work was incredibly cheesy; hell, they gave away Neiman posters at Burger King! And, truth be told, many still do — a brief but lively debate broke out this week on the Big Hair Facebook page about the worth of Neiman's work. But like afros and Astroturf, Neiman's paintings were an intrinsic part of the 70s sports landscape, and I can't help smiling every time I see one of his paintings, like this one of Willie Mays in his Mets days...

Plus, Neiman had a moustache that might have even made Rollie Fingers turn kelly green with envy...

RIP, man. Thanks for helping make the 1970s such a fantastically colorful time.

Comments

[Joe Bonomo]

Wow, great stuff Dan.

[Douglas Holste]

Did you make fantasy team too? I did it with excess baseball cards and entries from Who's who in baseball put into a kind of expansion draft....In 1974 I had teams for Seattle, New Orleans, Washington, and Denver (I think). I think I selected the cities because they variable stadiums. Still waiting for a New Orleans team to come true. Plus any pre 1970 card was diverted into a minor league.

[Jim from Downingtown]

To complete the throwback, did the White Sox allow smoking in the dugout?