Ugliest Uniforms Ever
This may be the last chance I get to comment on the 1970s era Houston Astros rainbow uniforms since the Astros move away from these after 1981. There are often many lists on the internet that discuss the worst baseball uniforms of all time, for example such as this link, and the rainbow Astros uniforms are always on such lists.
These are not ugly to me. In the current baseball environment of trying to squeeze every last dime out of the fans without selling the great game of baseball itself, there are several worse examples. The Blue Jays, Brewers, and Padres all come to mind. You know the current Blue Jay uniforms were tested in front of a sample group and determined that these would get the most money in souvenir purchases, and as a result you get a boring corporate logo that is unoriginal (doesn't every sport have angry birds now?) and largely forgettable.
These Astros uniforms as shown in the Gordy Pladson card above is more interesting. It comes from a time when teams were experimenting with colors that weren't from the time of black and white TV. These colors represent what the Astros really were, a 1960s expansion team playing on astro turf (which was cutting edge then), and were named after the then current dreams of the time (space exploration). This was definetly not a team that had a history before World War II. Traditional blue and white wouldn't have worked with this team. Granted, it is now 2010, and these uniforms wouldn't look right now, but I think they are far from the ugliest ever.
Starters
| __ | TO | 696 | C | Alan Ashby | HOU |
| __ | TO | 190 | 1B | Cesar Cedeno | HOU |
| __ | 2B | Joe Pittman | |||
| __ | TO | 129 | 3B | Art Howe | HOU |
| __ | TO | 617 | SS | Craig Reynolds | HOU |
| __ | TO | 105 | LF | Jose Cruz | HOU |
| __ | TT | 828 | CF | Tony Scott | HOU |
| __ | TO | 411 | RF | Terry Puhl | HOU |
| __ | TO | 439 | UT | Denny Walling | HOU |
Starting Pitchers
| __ | TO | 240 | SP | Nolan Ryan | HOU |
| __ | TT | 782 | SP | Bob Knepper | HOU |
| __ | TT | 839 | SP | Don Sutton | HOU |
| __ | TO | 722 | SP | Joe Niekro | HOU |
| __ | TO | 642 | SP | Vern Ruhle | HOU |
Relief Pitchers
| __ | TO | 385 | CL | Joe Sambito | HOU |
| __ | TO | 534 | RP | Dave Smith | HOU |
| __ | TO | 513 | RP | Frank LaCorte | HOU |
Other Players
| __ | TT | 765 | SS | Kiko Garcia | HOU |
| __ | 2B | Phil Garner | |||
| __ | TO | 313 | C | Luis Pujols | HOU |
| __ | TO | 172 | RF | Gary Woods | HOU |
| __ | FL | 72 | 1B | Danny Heep | HOU |
| __ | TT | 844 | 2B | Dickie Thon | HOU |
| __ | TO | 597 | 2B | Rafael Landestoy | HOU |
| __ | TT | 824 | UT | Dave Roberts | HOU |
| __ | TT | 774 | 1B | Mike Ivie | HOU |
| __ | TT | 833 | 1B | Harry Spilman | HOU |
| __ | UT | Jeffrey Leonard | |||
| __ | CF | Scott Loucks | |||
| __ | OF | Tim Tolman | |||
| __ | UT | Alan Knicely | |||
| __ | TO | 253 | 1B | Dave Bergman | HOU |
| __ | SS | Bert Pena | |||
| __ | RP | Bobby Sprowl | |||
| __ | TO | 329 | RP | Joaquin Andujar | HOU |
| __ | RP | Billy Smith | |||
| __ | TO | 491 | RP | Gordie Pladson | HOU |
Minors
| __ | TO | 148 | MN | Randy Niemann | HOU |
Manager/Coaches
| __ | FL | 61 | MG | Bill Virdon (or DO 384) | HOU |
The Astros wore the rainbows in the 1986 ALCS, I think they just moved away from them as road unis too after 81.
ReplyDeleteI thought they may have moved away from them after this season because the only card I could find with them in the Topps set was on the Gordie Pladson card.
ReplyDelete