Uni watch: It's Code Red for the Pirates

New unis so hideous, they deserve their own thread. The Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled their third jerseys today, and they're so bad that I can't even come up with a smart-ass comment to do them justice.

 

None of this would happen with a Nutting in charge....






wait... oh.

 

That is el terrible. Can some Pittsburgher explain to me how the hell red even got into the color scheme anyway?

 

it's on the hot stove thread... about 7 hours ago

 

Bwhahahahahaha

 

I know it was there during the Pie Traynor days, when their colors wore red and blue. And they reintroduced it in '97 and it looked pretty good -- it was used subtly, on the bill of the cap and on the trim on the jerseys. They scrapped the red in '01 when they went to PNC Park.

Now, those third jerseys look like used maxipads.

 

Apparently, red was in the color scheme way, way, way back in the day. So it's always been there, just not used prominently, like it is here. At least that's the explanation I remember when they introduced the red-billed hats in the '90s.

 

The sleeveless look makes them even more hideous, if that's possible.

 

oh good heavens.

 

Blasphemy.

I'd prefer they bring back the old Willie Stargell/Bill Madlock unis ... afros and facial hair encouarged ...

 

Examples of Pirates in red:


1909 world charmions


1925 NL charmions


1938 almost-NL charmions (lost pennant to Cubs on Hartnett's "Homer in the Gloamin' ")


1941 not-even-close to charmions


1948 -- first year of black/gold


Just for the hell of it -- 1979

 

Here's my hastily put-together list of the best of the worst uniforms of all time, er, last 30 or so years. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, especially in the American League.

5. Padres, circa early 80s: So bad that I have suppressed any memory of them.
4. Astros - Who can forget the rainbow-like horizontal stripes that poor, poor Nolan Ryan had to wear.
3. Phillies blue away uniforms (honorable mention to the Cardinals blue away uniforms): What a fashion faux-pas but I still get tingles when I see Carlton, Rose and Schmidt, among others, wearing these on the Classic.
2. Gotta love those Pirates unis. They were intimidating. Baseball's equivalent of the Raiders.
1. Cleveland Indians. Two words: Chief Wahoo.