June 17, 2005
Baseball Fashion
I just ran across a King Kaufman article in which he explains why he's rooting for Nebraska in this year's College World Series. Turns out, it's the socks.
In the piece, Kaufman briefly traces the history of the stirrup sock and bemoans its recent decline (although ESPN seems to have detected a renaissance). The Nebraska uniform doesn't even feature the stirrup socks, just the horizontal stripes reminiscent of earlier stirrup socks. King's reaching a bit here, I think.
But hey, I share his enthusiasm. When I was 11, I had the meanest, tightest stirrup socks in Little League. I was a string bean of a kid, so I had pants that fit would my waist but came down just below my knees. Then, taking the largest pair of stirrup socks I could find, I'd crank them up as high on my leg as they would go, Willie-Stargell-style.
So just for fun, here's a gallery depicting just a glimpse of the wide variety of stirrup socks through baseball history. Rolling your mouse over each image will reveal the player's name (see if you can guess who's who, first).
Awesome pics! You'd think that "uniform" meant "the same", but I guess that's part of the appeal of baseball: players can tweak their uniforms, teams and screw with the outfield walls, individuality is embraced.
I'm with you that the socks should be up high (Nick Johnson!) and there should be a fine for wearing your pants down *over* your shoes (Manny Ramirez anyone?).
Posted by: Matt Bucher at June 17, 2005 10:20 PMAs far as uniform individuality goes, my favorite was Pete Vuckovich. I remember watching him pitch in the World Series in what looked more like a wrinkled pair of pajamas. This picture doesn't do it justice. He always looked as if he had just rolled out of bed, plopped some nasty old cap on his head, and brushed most of the potato chip crumbs off his uni before shambling out to the mound.
Posted by: ken at June 19, 2005 09:33 AM
Bless you. Socks are bestever. Greg Maddux, who goes unmentioned in the Kaufman piece, is obsessive about his stirrups, to beautiful result (see here: http://jensbaseballgalleries.com/Maddux/Maddux3.jpg). Also, of course, Zito, who you've included.
I might add, as well, that another thing that is pleasing in general about watching the CWS is the neatness and tightness of _all_ aspects of the uniform.
Posted by: Hillary at June 20, 2005 10:23 AMOh, except Maddux get singled out in the ESPN Page 2 article for wearing the "totally bogus" socks with the sewn-in stripe.
And I'm suspecting that there are certain aspects of the tightness of collegiate uniforms that you appreciate more than others.
Posted by: ken at June 20, 2005 10:37 AMThat is unfair, Ken. What aspects would be less appreciable in a tight uniform? Especially on such adorable and fit dudes. College baseball has no El Guapos, or at least they are rare.
Re: Maddux, perhaps so, but it looks darn good.
Posted by: Hillary at June 20, 2005 01:19 PMYa, that was a cheap shot, apols., especially since you're a bona fide baseball fan. There are some women who enjoy watching baseball for the same reason that some men enjoy watching women's tennis. For the real sports fan, those reasons are ancillary.
Posted by: ken at June 20, 2005 02:53 PMSeriously. They're just a nice bonus. Did I have a problem with the Braves dumping Mark DeRosa, despite his eye-candy qualities? I _so_ did not. The team comes first.
Posted by: Hillary at June 21, 2005 09:19 AMBen-Lag
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