Skip to content
 
Uni Watch

A Look at Who Wore Green for St. Paddy’s Day

By

Click to enlarge

Lots of green for St. Patrick’s Day yesterday, but by far the best development was at Padres camp, where everyone wore green caps — except for pitcher Dennis O’Grady, who celebrated his Irish heritage by adding a green jersey and green socks to the mix (see above). Kudos to him and to the Padres equipment staff for this maneuver.

The other MLB teams fell into one of two categories. First were the teams that wore green caps:

Then there were the teams that went the extra mile by wearing green jerseys along with their green caps:

Some additional notes: The Tigers put shamrocks behind the batter’s boxes. ”¦ The bases at many of the games were either green or shamrock-stamped, but I didn’t keep track of all of those. ”¦ The New Balance-sponsored players on the Mets wore white cleats with green trim. ”¦ For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Nats also wore green caps on March 16. ”¦ Teams that couldn’t be bothered to wear any green included the Angels, Blue Jays, Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Twins, and Yankees. ”¦ And then of course there were the A’s, who wore green because that’s what they always wear.

Of course, MLB teams weren’t the only ones wearing green yesterday. Here are some teams in other sports and leagues that used their uniforms to mark the holiday (I’m sure this list is incomplete, but it at least gives you an idea of what was going on):

College baseball: Furman (green jerseys), Mississippi (green caps), Mississippi State (green-trimed uniforms), TCU (green caps), Texas Tech (green caps and green sannies), Virginia Tech (green caps, undersleeves, and socks).

NHL: Blackhawks (green warm-up jerseys), Bruins (green warm-up jerseys with a Gaelic-style name/number font), Canucks (green warm-up jerseys with NOBs and numbers honoring the late Pat “The Big Irishman” Quinn), Devils (green-trimmed throwbacks), Flames (green warm-up jerseys), Penguins (leprechaun-themed Twitter avatar), Predators (green warm-up jerseys).

Minor league and junior hockey: Kalamazoo Wings (green ice), Orlando Solar Bears (green jerseys), Regina Pats (green jerseys, with “St.” added to the team name).

NBA: Nothin’. Surprising, given that the Knicks, Bulls, and others have worn green in the past.

College lacrosse: Hofstra (beeYOOteeful green helmets).

There’s another group of people who wore green unis yesterday: Uni Watch readers, several of whom sent me photos of themselves wearing the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club’s March design (if you can’t see the slideshow below, click here):

Finally, uni designer/historian Todd Radom has written an excellent piece on the history of teams wearing green. Highly recommended.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Jesse Agler, Tony Anderson, Andrew Cosentino, Drew Gardner, Brinke Guthrie, Aaron McHargue, Jerrod Wheeler, Jim Wooley, and of course Phil.)

•  •  •  •  •

T-Shirt Club reminder: The Uni Watch T-Shirt Club design for April, inspired by Jackie Robinson Day, is now available, with all of my profits going to the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Full details here, or just go straight to the ordering page.

We had our biggest ever one-day sales figure yesterday — thanks to everyone who got on board.

• • • • •

NCAA bracket contest: In case you missed it yesterday, intern Mike Chamernik has set up our annual NCAA bracket contest. To enter, go here and use the password Uni15Watch. If that first group maxes out on the number of entrants, here’s a second pool (same password).

Scoring will be as follows: 1 point for a correct pick in the 1st round, 2 for the second round, 4 for the third, 8 for the fourth, 16 for Final Four games, and 32 for the title game. The winner will win a prize from my freebie bag.

• • • • •

Baseball News: St. Pius X High School in Houston has an “SPX” chest insignia that’s basically a White Sox rip-off (from Zach Williams). ”¦ No photo, but a note on this page indicates that the Marlins have a new team plane that will carry the team’s logo. ”¦ New bat knob decals for the Biloxi Shuckers. ”¦ Awesome find by Todd Radom, who appears to have unearthed the spiritual forefather of Mr. Met, Mr. Redlegs, and all other baseball-headed cartoon mascots. ”¦ Reds 1B/OF Donald Lutz has new bat knob decals that celebrate his German-American heritage. ”¦ The Braves announced a new deal with Comcast by posing with jerseys with red NOB lettering, instead of their usual blue (from T.J. Sigler). ”¦ What might be the biggest jersey ever, worn by someone from a “Fat Men’s” team, was recently featured on Antiques Roadshow (from Patrick O’Neill). ”¦ No photo, but I noticed during yesterday’s Mets/Marlins game that Marlins OF Reed Johnson, who’s worn stirrups for pretty much his entire career, was wearing solid socks instead. Hope that’s just a spring thing. ”¦ Ridiculous new “Red Storm” uniforms for St. John’s. ”¦ A Pirates spokesman has confirmed for me that the team’s matte black helmets, which have been worn during spring training, will be retained for the regular season. Not sure I’d want every team to do this, but I really like how it looks for the Buccos. ”¦ The South Pointe High School Stallions, from South Carolina, have this weird Denver Broncos-ish logo, which appears above their back uni numbers. Looks more like an abstract smudge (from Craig Lucas). ”¦ New red jerseys for Louisiana Tech. ”¦ The Yankees got a bit mixed up between their BP caps and game caps last night. ”¦ Ernie Banks will be featured on the Cubs’ tickets for Opening Day.

NFL News: A TV commercial currently airing in Pittsburgh features former Steelers RBs Rocky Bleier and Jerome Bettis wearing Steelers jerseys — Bleier’s made by Reebok, Bettis’s by Nike. ”¦ “I am a fan of ‘skin tear’ tattoos, which show the skin “tearing” to reveal a graphic underneath,” says Joseph Gerard. “So I decided to get a skin tear on my upper left arm with the Steelers’ sleeve striping revealed ‘underneath’ the skin.”

College Football News: Jon Gruden had some choice words for Oregon’s neon uniforms — while wearing a neon shirt. ”¦ How awesome is this: unicyclists in full football uniforms!

Hockey News: The Red Wings practiced yesterday at Joe Louis Arena, where the ice had been outfitted for the Big 10 hockey tournament. ”¦ Here’s another case of an NHL player wearing a football facemask. Not sure who that Stars player was, though. Anyone..?

NBA News: As you know, Adidas announced on Monday morning that it won’t seek to renew its apparel contract with the NBA. But word I’m hearing through the grapevine is that the league wasn’t thrilled with Adidas and was planning to solicit bids from rival suppliers. So Adidas’s announcement was apparently a pre-emptive move to save face — sort of a “You can’t fire me, I quit!” thing. ”¦ Rapper 2 Chainz, who’s from Georgia and is a big Hawks fan, now has his own Hawks jersey T-shirt (from @holycalamity). ”¦ The Raptors’ purple dinosaur throwback is a top seller (thanks, Phil).

College and High School Hoops News: “Former Michigan basketball player Jordan Morgan recently Instagrammed a Throwback Thursday photo of himself playing basketball as a kid. “Check out Michael Jordan’s jersey on the backboard,” notes Michael Hersch. ”¦ Here’s a breakdown of the NCAA tournament teams by uniform manufacturer. ”¦ Lowell High School apparently had at least two players with triple-digit uni numbers back in 1956 (from Joe Lovallo).

Soccer News: NYC FC sold out of scarves at their home opener. ”¦ Here’s the ball design for the 2015-16 Champions League finale. ”¦ “I saw this image promoting MLS on Sky Sports,” says Todd Richard. “They clearly Photoshopped Robbie Keane’s jersey onto Steven Gerrard. MLS clubs aren’t wearing the American flag patch anymore, and it is missing the fifth star above the crest, so Gerrard will never actually wear that Galaxy shirt.”

Grab Bag: Another cricket player is trying out that new helmet attachment thingie. ”¦ This is fascinating: The ad exec who came up Nike’s “Just do it” slogan was inspired by firing squad victim Gary Gilmore’s last words (from @SoCalMindset). ”¦ Mark Willis, who I interviewed two years ago in the wake of his excellent soccer/baseball hybrid jersey project, has a great new project: state-themed T-shirts. He’s done five of them so far, with five more in the works. Really nice stuff. ”¦ “I recently entered a sock design contest over at Sock 101,” says Thomas Qualls. “They just posted the finalists, and my tequila sunrise design made the cut.” Let’s give the lad some votes, shall we? ”¦ Here’s a video showing 75 years’ worth of Delta Airlines flight attendant uniforms. ”¦ Under Armour has quietly been enmeshing itself into the fabric of Baltimore’s civic and governmental culture, the latest example of which is that the company is giving UA boots to Baltimore firemen (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Nike has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by a photographer who claims that the company’s Jumpman logo was taken from one of his photos (from Andrew Cosentino). ”¦ A Pennsylvania high school has to change its school crest because it included the Olympic rings. The International Olympic Committee put the kibosh on that (from Brian C.).

 
  
 
Comments (60)

    Like the proprietor of this joint, I think green’s a wonderful color, and so most of the caps looked pretty good to me… Plain white on green especially, which means that I’d spend some dough for the Nats’ cap of yesterday. The curly W is one great letter.

    By the way, here are some images of me celebrating yesterday:

    link

    The Nats cap seems to be white outlined in blue:

    link

    A change from previous years, when the Nats had white outlined in red. I’ve got the red-outlined version, which I wear every spring. The blue outline looks much nicer to me, even though I am a fan of red and green as a sports color combo. (Man, those Devils throwbacks look good.) Just don’t wear the green Nats cap when walking near the Israeli embassy or travelling on El-Al:

    link

    Oh, you’re right, Scott, about the outlining… Actually looks black to me, but no matter: whether it’s black or blue, it’s very thin, and not bad at all… Btw, as someone who has lived most of his life in Boston and NYC, I was surprised (though in no way disappointed) to see the relatively low incidence of green-wearing in Natland…

    Pink Nats caps are much more common in Natland than green. Back in the early years, the default gamewear of couples at RFK was the gal in a pink Nats cap, the guy in an authentic or replica [other team] cap. The Nats fan base has grown from the distaff side of the ledger. Once the heterorooting couple has children, the household becomes fully Nats-supporting on account of in baseball, kids root for the home team, and only the most cold-hearted Phillies fan of a father can maintain his own rooting interest against his son’s or daughter’s.

    s someone who has lived most of his life in Boston and NYC, I was surprised (though in no way disappointed) to see the relatively low incidence of green-wearing in Natland…

    Reminds me of how my wife, who grew up in the Northeast, was surprised that Columbus Day isn’t a big deal in D.C. (or anywhere else in the country). St. Paddy’s is like Christmas to New York but like an early Cinco de Mayo elsewhere.

    Even better for the Pirates than the matte black would be a matte gold batting helmet. The flat color would give it the vintage feel they’re going for in their most recent gold chapeau.

    Not sure who that Stars player was, though. Anyone..?

    According to the Twitter conversation there, it was Blake Sloan.

    That is journeyman Blake Sloan in the pic (his Twitter handle was in the conversation).

    How about link? Lanny McDonald and Bryan Trottier both are sporting the face protection!

    There was some discussion yesterday of who benefits from the single-supplier contracts that are now so prevalent.

    Decades ago, uniforms were just more equipment that teams bought from sporting goods suppliers. There was no logo creep on the uniforms, and there was no consumer market for replicas. As people started wearing athletic wear in non-athletic situations in the late ’80s and early ’90s, teams and companies started looking at ways to exploit that market. Manufacturers started paying teams to supply them with uniforms that featured their logos.

    There were a couple of “problems” with that. Rights to less popular teams were worth less, which created (or exacerbated) imbalances within leagues. And in the mid-’90s NFL, any company who had a deal with one team could sell replicas of every team, so that you could go through a mall and see the local team’s jerseys with any of a half-dozen sporting goods companies’ logos screened on the sleeve.

    So leagues started cutting overall deals with manufacturers. For the sportswear company, it gives them the exclusive right to sell replicas, from “authentic” on down. That exclusivity makes the rights valuable enough that even the popular teams do well, while the less popular franchises don’t fall further behind in revenues. Aesthetic considerations? Only we care.

    “And in the mid-’90s NFL, any company who had a deal with one team could sell replicas of every team…”

    o_O

    I never knew this. How did such a bizarre arrangement ever come to be?

    I’m guessing that to outfit one team, you had to become an official league licensee, and once you were in, you had rights to all the teams. Remember when the league link (and then reached its own agreement a little later)?

    There were some random companies making jerseys back then: Russell, Apex One, Logo Athletic, Starter, Puma and maybe Champion too?

    “St. Pius X High School in Houston has an “SPX” chest insignia that’s basically a White Sox rip-off.”

    …and a mess!

    Yeah, they overlooked the fact that “Sox”, being a proper noun, has only the “S” capitalized. Trust me, I had a huge argument with a guy over this. But S.P.X. are initials, and should all be capitalized. They would have done better to adopt the beach blanket jerseys.

    So much to love in that Lowell HS pic beyond the 3-digit numbers. Namely, the integrated crowd (black, white & Asian). Also, the school’s Native American mascot appearing on the cheerleader’s megaphone. Winds up Lowell HS is in the San Francisco Bay area and, shades of Stanford, changed its mascot from “Indian” to “Cardinal” in 1988.
    link

    Now the “Centennial” appearing beneath the jersey number, combined with the two-digit number on the shooter’s shorts, gives it away that the addition of the third-digit was to commemorate the school’s 100th anniversary. What’s NOT a dead giveaway, though, is the identity of the shooter, who is future NBA/ABA mainstay Tom Meschery:
    link

    Crazy man, crazy.

    Now the “Centennial” appearing beneath the jersey number, combined with the two-digit number on the shooter’s shorts, gives it away that the addition of the third-digit was to commemorate the school’s 100th anniversary.

    Ah, good analysis. I hadn’t connected those dots!

    Alas, they didn’t extend the triple digitry to the shorts, which is how I came to the same conclusion….

    As an Athletics fan, I still wish they’d return to the Kelly green and yellow from the glory years of the 70’s… Bright is better than dull to me.

    Mariners and Brewers should return to bright blue and yellow too! Too much dark blue/navy in MLB!

    I’d agree with you on each individual team you name, but not all of them together. Much as I prefer bright, I value variety even more. There are enough hues and shades out there that aside from some red-white-navy and red-white-royal doubling up because America!, no two teams should have the same colors. So if the Mariners go to royal and yellow gold, I’d want the Brewers to keep navy and metallic gold.

    A’s back to Kelly? Absolutely. But their dark green looks fantastic, as a color, so I’d like some other team to adopt it. I always liked how the Rays wore dark green and blue back in the day, or green and brown could work for the Padres. Or my true green dream: The Red Sox swap navy for dark green but otherwise keep their uniforms and logos exactly as-is except for the color swap.

    Re: Rays.

    While it’s true they did incorporate a thin stripe of blue on their predominately green set (underrated and very good), I never really thought of them as green/blue during this time. Just, what shade would we call that…forest? I would 100% support a return to this colorscheme (albeit with a different wordmark).

    I’m with Scotty here — too many teams adopting the same “unique” look (or colors) ruins it for everyone. Teams who had a ‘signature’ look at one time and have strayed from it should return to it — embrace it, own it. Pads: brown & gold; Astros: rainbow guts; Pirates: mix & match black & gold; etc. Some team not named the Mets should even embrace pullovers, sansabelts and racing stripes. Etc.

    Funny how many teams we think of having a signature look created those identities in (or near) the 1970s. Coincidence? The Me Decade was a colorful decade.

    “Funny how many teams we think of having a signature look created those identities in (or near) the 1970s. Coincidence? The Me Decade was a colorful decade.”

    ~~~

    I won’t disagree but there are also teams who created their ‘signature’ look decades earlier and who basically have kept that look (Tigers, Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees) and others who’ve returned to (a slightly) modified decades old look (Phillies, Giants, Mets). I was simply pointing out teams who once had a “look” they could call their own (garish as it may have been) and jettisoning that to join the bland, boring or just shitty uni movement.

    With you up to your mention of the Phillies. Signature look? Ask ten baseball fans to picture a team wearing mostly red. At most, three of them will be imagining the Phillies, and only because two of them will actually be Phillies fans. The one truly “signature look” that the Phillies can be said to own is burgundy. Ask ten fans to picture a team wearing burgundy or maroon, and nine of them will be imagining the Phillies. (The tenth will be a D-Backs fan who’s confused about what to call various hues of dark red.)

    What’s disappointing is most teams discarding the unique in favor of the bland torched their ’70s-era signatures. The decade wasn’t all bad!

    Re: Yankees Spring Training cap mixup:

    Gary Tuck (the bullpen coach seated to Joe Girardi’s right) has always been wearing the standard midnight navy Yankees hat for pretty much all of spring training thus far.

    Seeing how good so many of the St Pat’s green caps and jerseys look demonstrates just how starved MLB is for green clad teams beyond the A’s.

    Reasonably the White Sox, Phillies, and Rays could all go with green full time. It just boggles the mind that teams can seems to reserve emerald for one and only day out of year.

    * Sky Sports promo for MLS – Besides the outdated jerseys, they also put a Manchester City player in a NYCFC jersey

    * 2 Chainz t-shirt: so glorious

    * Origin of “Just Do It” – I’m sure sweatshop workers can relate

    “Origin of ‘Just Do It’ — I’m sure sweatshop workers can relate

    Just Do It – Or Else!
    Just Do It for Little or No Pay.
    Just Do It in Unsafe Working Conditions.

    The Canucks should come out with a Green Alt. It would go great with their pant stripes and socks.

    Also, the Bulls wore Green Sleeved Alts on March 9th. I think it was their last home game before the holiday

    Here’s something, take a closer look at the image from Padres camp yesterday.

    Not only is O’Grady wearing a different jersey and socks, he’s also wearing different pants!
    link

    He’s wearing the previous Padres pants with gold and blue stripes not seen since 2011.
    link

    Re: Pat Quinn night

    Back in the ’80s, when Quinn was the Canucks boss, I wrote him a letter asking him to change the team jerseys back to the blue and greens. This was when they still had the awful yellow home jerseys everyone hated.

    He (or someone in the office) wrote back saying he liked my idea (I’m sure a stock response), but that such a change is expensive and he felt most fans would prefer the money put towards player development to improve the team. How times have changed.

    Something else is going on in that Padres’ picture.

    Not only is O’Grady wearing a different jersey and socks, he’s also wearing different pants.
    link

    Those are the previous Padres’ pants which had gold and blue stripes not seen since 2011.
    link

    I think this was mentioned on Uni-Watch a few years ago, but my high school–Gateway HS in Aurora, Colorado–was forced to remove the Olympic rings from its logo by the USOC back in 1983.

    The Celtics wore green and gold sleeved jerseys a few days ago, which I think were their St. Paddy’s design last year.

    This is fascinating: The ad exec who came up Nike’s “Just do it” slogan was inspired by firing squad victim Gary Gilmore’s last words

    I’m no strong proponent of capital punishment by any method (firing squad included), but this seems like an odd way to describe Gary Gilmore. The term “victim” seems better applied to Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell, the two people Gilmore was convicted of murdering. At the risk of verbosity, I might suggest “convicted murderer Gary Gilmore’s last words before his execution by firing squad.”

    this seems like an odd way to describe Gary Gilmore. The term “victim” seems better applied to Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell, the two people Gilmore was convicted of murdering.

    Didn’t realize the term could only be applied to one or the other.

    I didn’t say the term could ONLY be applied to Gilmore’s victims – just that it is BETTER applied in the one context over the other. Can one consider Gilmore as a “victim” in some sense? Perhaps. A victim of a brutal upbringing? Sure. A victim of a society’s unjust criminal punishment regime? I suppose so, depending on one’s perspective on capital punishment (and the propriety of firing squads as a method for carrying out that punishment).

    To me, however, it was slightly jarring to see Gilmore, a convicted murderer whose crimes are not in doubt, described as a “victim,” as if that was the most accurate shorthand descriptive for him. It has the effect of brushing over the crimes that resulted in him being sentenced to death in the first place.

    One’s views on capital punishment aside, there’s little basis for complaint about the propriety of the method by which the punishment was applied in Gilmore’s case. He chose execution by firing squad, remember.

    I don’t know if it was mentioned, it wasn’t listed in the list of St Patrick’s Day stuff..

    While it wasn’t yesterday, it’s worth noting, the Pittsburgh Penguins wore St Patrick’s Day Warm-Ups over the weekend. They were away at New Jersey yesterday and they wanted them for the home crowd. These were especially neat as they had the player names translated to Gaelic.

    link

    Sabres did the basic shamrock jerseys on Monday, their last game before the holiday.
    link

    The Mariners did, in fact, wear green caps yesterday. You may have mistaken them for their teal hats?

    Trying to find photo evidence to prove this…I watched the broadcast, so I am pretty sure I am correct.

    I’m usually ready to jump on the Olympics organization and their normal trademark over-reach, but this one seems pretty reasonable, for once. Now what am going to get worked up about this morning?

    The green on the Pirates caps was so dark, I thought it was just the standard black until the 7th inning or so!

    Also, as “SPX” baseball units go, none have yet to best my design for the Small Press eXpo softball game unis ten years ago.

    link

    I looked up Olympia High School here in Orlando, FL. Currently their crest does not have the rings, but others/prior ones do.

    I wonder if “the committee” got to them too.

    The Hartford Yard Goats.

    I remember any number of AA and A and unaffiliated baseball teams in my home state.

    Can this work? Would it take a uniform of such incomparable greatness to take this name and make it possibly work?

    I’ve seen 12 year old travel softball teams similar to St. John’s Red Storm jerseys.

Comments are closed.