This past week there were two games featuring uniforms from 1976. On Saturday the Indians hosted the Royals and both wore 1976 era unis. Friday the Phillies donned their rarely used and even more rarely photographed pillbox hats along with their 1976 home uniforms. They played the Brewers in their 1976 era uniforms.
Here is a card from the Indians/Royals game of starting pitcher Ian Kennedy. Kennedy led the league in 2011 with 21 wins for the Diamondbacks. After the loss to Cleveland this past week his record for Kansas City is 4-4.
As a point of comparison, I chose this 1976 Topps card of Steve Mingori. Mingori was a bullpen pitcher for the Indians and the Royals from 1970-1979. Although his overall record was 18-33 he had a respectable ERA of 3.03. The uniforms look pretty similar but the way they are worn is fairly typical for the different eras. Kennedy wears his uniform much looser and Mingori is sporting the visible stirrups.
I chose to do the Royals TBT by default. I was beaten to the punch on the other three teams by two other bloggers. Both of whom have been doing these throwback style cards longer than I have. And both of these blogs are regular reads for me.
Over at The Phillies Room, Jim has created several 1976 Topps style "Chachi" cards to commemorate this game. I took his card of David Hernandez and put it next to a 1976 Topps card of Steve Carlton for comparison. The uniforms look almost right. It looks like the Phillies logo and number were a bit lower on the jersey and Carlton appears to be wearing a black belt instead of the color coordinated belt the Phillies normally wore.
As far as that pillbox hat, I could not find a single baseball card from any year/manufacturer to feature that hat. The closest I could find was this cover of The Sporting News from 1976 featuring Larry Bowa.
At The Shlabotnik Report, "Joe" posted cards of Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers and Tyler Naquin of the Indians in their full retro unis. I paired Naquin up with a 1976 Topps card of Charlie Spikes, one of the great names in baseball. Other than the helmet which is sporting the current logo, The uniforms look very good.
I had a tougher time finding a 1976 card that showed this version of the Brewers away uniform. The best I could do was this head and shoulders shot of Rick Austin looking very 1976 in his Brewers trucker cap and "Boogie Nights" mustache.
Great Royals custom!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I saw your comment about not finding good shots of the Phillies hat from 1976, and I said "Oh, there should be something around... somewhere... um... OK, maybe not".
Thanks for the link!
Great stuff and thanks for sharing my Hernandez card!
ReplyDeleteHmm... I seem to remember seeing Bake McBride in one of those hats on a card, but maybe it was with St. Louis.
ReplyDeleteOnly the Pirates stayed with that cap style past the first season they were used.
Great memory Jim. It was on the Cardinals. 1977 Topps.
ReplyDeleteSince two of my favorite bloggers took a swing at finding this cap on cardboard, I'll throw it out there:
If anybody can find a card featuring this cap on a 1976 Phillies player or coach, I will send out ten '70 era cards from the team of your choice.
It can be a local team issue, or even a recent "retro" card (IE Archives, UD Vintage, Allen & Ginter, etc.). It just has to be an actual card.