For purple mountain majesties...

June 21, 2012

(Editor's Note: Longtime baseball uniform expert and author Morris Levin writes weekly for Authentically Speaking.)

By Morris Levin

A long time ago, in a time called the 1990s, there were three Major League Baseball teams that wore purple in their uniforms. There were the two 1998 expansion clubs, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Both have since changed their team colors, Arizona is now a desert flavor red, and Tampa Bay went sunny and blue.

The Colorado Rockies were the first MLB team to wear purple when they entered the National League in 1993. Perhaps it was the Marlins’ full-on teal assault in 1993 that the Rockies’ black and purple on pinstripes has felt so conservative and natural through their full twenty year history to date.

The Rockies moved into Coors Field in 1995. There tends to be more nights like this in Denver then there are at other Major League ballparks. It’s the elevation and geography, and purple signage, and purple and black trimmed uniforms look real pretty under orange and blue skies.

When Denver was first selected as an expansion city, I hoped that they would call the team the Denver Bears after the long time minor league team which even had played at Mile High Stadium, where the new team would play in 1993 and 1994. I was dismayed when the baseball team was named after the defunct 1970s National Hockey League club, until I realized that they might be dressed like this. Alas – not only did they call themselves after a hockey team but they picked purple and black.

But here we are in the twentieth year of the Colorado Rockies project, and their home uni has come to be a classic.

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It's 1979 all over again, or is it? With only a couple of weeks notice to get the job done, Majestic, New Era, and MLB released the uniform looks for the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers yesterday, when the Rays will take the field as if they existed in 1979, on June 30 at Tropicana Field.

We like the concept and the lower case lettering of the cap (above).  The Rays jersey should have been white for the home team, however, we didn't get to see the back of the jersey yet, and we wonder if they will don matching batting helmets.

We do like the added element of the patch on the left sleeve, the 1979 seal of the city of St. Petersburg.

The Tigers first went with the look they'll throwback to in 1972, the same year they fell to Oakland in the ALCS, with orange trim taking over the road jersey and cap.  The pullover version was worn until 1984, the year Detroit beat San Diego in the World Series, replaced by button ups until 1993.  

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Authentically Speaking Trivia Time:What major college football program was the first to put player's names on the back of the jerseys?  Answer on Friday.

Wednesday's answer: Montreal Expos

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Also in The Shibe Vintage Sports History Blog