NL Uniforms of the 1970s

Whether you are a Houston fan or not, you have to respect a franchise that started it's existence with a smoking pistol on the front of their jersey, named their grass after the team (or did they name the team after the stadium?), reversed the color pallet on their jerseys before adding zippers, then pioneered a "space age" design affectionately known as "Tequila Sunrise." The progression of 1970s Astros uniform designs was a heck of a roller coaster ride. Step on board and take it with me.

The decade begins with a continuation of the 1965-69 look, the home white wool flannels bringing a little more pizzazz than the road grey. Both uniforms featured navy stirrups, navy hats with white H over orange star logo, and orange Astrodome logo patch on the left sleeve. The road jerseys had HOUSTON wordmark in navy with orange outline. The home jerseys had ASTROS in the same color scheme, but with shooting star on the left chest.

In their final season wearing the wool flannels, the Astros flip the script by reversing the colors across the board. Both the home white and road grey uniforms keep the same design and logos, but everything that was navy is now orange. And everything that was orange is now navy. From the hats to the logos to the jersey wordmarks, all the way down to the stirrups. A sign of things to come...

The Astros joined the double knit polyester revolution in 1972, in their own special way. The uniform design is the same as 1971, but with a front zipper instead of buttons. Plus, the orange shoulder patch changes to white on the road grey jerseys in 1972, only to switch back to orange for 1973-74. And not to be missed is the star logo on the orange stirrups, the awesome bullpen cart, and the excellent orange satin warmup jackets.

The advent of the polyester pullover era made bright colors a viable option for any team looking to make a splash. By 1975, yellow and powder blue had become commonplace in MLB jerseys. But, the Astros took it to a new level with the "Tequila Sunrise"j jersey featuring horizontal stripes of yellow, orange, and red from the chest down housing a giants navy star. The sansabelt pants features wide side piping and numbers on the right thigh. And the back number was housed in a giant round patch.

While the 1975 round back number patch was a thing of beauty, the players complained that it got too hot in the summer months. The Astros eliminated this patch for the 1976 season, replaced the #40 Don Wilson memorial sleeve patch with an NL Centennial patch. The leg and back numbers remained a stylized navy font. As with 1975, the tequila sunrise uniforms were so awesome, there was no need for home and away variations.

The sleeve patches go away and the fonts get more standard with white outline on back numbers. Really, this is just a good reason to post more pics of Tequila Sunrise.

Since even before their move to Milwaukee in 1953, the Braves had a very specific look and color scheme. But, recognizing the color explosion that the polyester pullover era brought, the Atlanta Braves began a transformation to "America's Team" during the 1970s. New logos, new colors, and new uniforms marked a 15 year span in which the team embraced a culture of change.

After moving from Milwaukee to Atlanta for the 1966 season, the Braves made their first uniform change in 1968. This was the uniform set that the team brought into the 1970s, featuring wool flannel button ups with navy pinstripes on the home whites and plain grey on the road. Both had the script Braves wordmark across the front, all navy numbers and letters home with red trim on the numbers and leters away. Both featured solid navy stirrups and a smiling Brave sleeve patch.

The Braves move to double knit polyester, and they make sure everybody knows it. The navy becomes bright blue, the red becomes bright red, and the grey goes away. The team wears white pants home and away, with white home jerseys and blue away (both pullovers). The team adopts two new logos, a feather on the contrasting jersey sleeves and a cursive a on the hats, which are now bright blue with white front. Plus, both jerseys get fancy fonts for the front and back numbers.

The same uniforms as the previous two seasons with the exception of font changes on the wordmark and numbers. It's a very slight change, but enough to make me want to post a few more pics.

The Braves prove that they are not afraid to try new and more colorful uniform ideas by making sweeping changes to the home whites while fine tuning the road uniforms. The home set is now white with red pinstripes and solid red neck and sleeve piping. The road uniforms switch to grey with blue trim and just one sleeve feather. The front wordmark is also changed to a cursive Atlanta. For part of 1976, the home uniforms featured nicknames for NOB.

The Dodgers have made very few uniform changes since moving to Los Angeles following the 1957 season. However, even the tradition rich Dodgers felt compelled to make changes (especially to the road grey uniforms) throughout the 1970s. They aren't big changes, but they are certainly worth a look.

The Dodgers enter the new decade with home and away uniforms that are exactly identical to each other, except for the color of the wool flannel. White home, grey away, blue script Dodgers wordmark with red front number on left midsection. NOB and back numbers in blue. Blue hat with white interlocking LA logo

The home whites stay the same, but the road greys - in the final year of wool flannel for the Dodgers - take the biggest leap away from tradition of the Los Angeles era by adding blue and white piping to the pants, shoulders and sleeves. This is a great example of a "Unicorn" uniform - one that was worn for one seasonand then never seen again.

The Dodgers make the switch to double knit polyester with basically just a synthetic version of their 1970 uniforms. White button up home and grey button up away with blue script Dodgers and red block numbers on the front. Blue block name and numbers on the back, no trim on the pants or jerseys.

The home uniform stays the same (though the front wordmark does get ever so slightly bigger in 1978), but the road greys get a welcomed update. The grey double knit button up jerseys get sleeve piping and all blue features of the jerseys get white outline for a more 3D effect. This style jersey would last the next two decades.

The Giants entered the 1970s with the same old flannels flannels they wore during the '50s and '60s. And they were one of the last teams to transition to double knit polyester. But, the team made improvements as the decade wore on. And by the end of the '70s, San Francisco sported the franchise's all time greatest uniforms (or at least since moving west).

If you had watched the Giants at any time during their first 15 years in San Francisco (starting in 1958), you would have seen the same home white and road grey flannels with orange and black trim (on the pants and jerseys). The home whites with GIANTS in black with orange outline, the road greys with SAN FRANCISCO in black with orange trim. The stirrups and hats were solid black, the latter with orange SF logo.

The 1972 Giants wore the exact same uniforms in 1972 as they had for the previous 14 seasons, except for one thing: they upgraded the home whites to double knit polyester midway through the season. For some reason, they waited until the following year to do the same for the road greys. It is very hard to find color photos of players wearing the "unicorn" polyester 1972 jerseys, which were not the same as the 1973 set.

The Giants finally made the full switch to double knit polyester, and while they did not go all out with pullover jerseys and sansabelt pants, they did make a significant upgrade by reversing the number and wordmark colors to orange with black trim. A great quasi-psychedelic touch.

The Giants make their first foray into polyester pullovers and sansabelt with a fabulous new script Giants font on the all white home uniforms with orange and black trim. On the road, they keep the white pants, but go with a "unicorn" orange jersey with block SAN FRANCISCO wordmark across the chest and orange sanitary socks. Both jerseys have black front and back numbers, home with orange outline away with white. Also, the bill of the hat changes from black to orange.

The Giants upgrade the orange jerseys to include the same script Giants as the white jerseys. Plus, they add an awesome black jersey with orange and white accents. All three jerseys are still worn with white sansabelt pants.

The Padres joined the National League for the 1969 MLB centennial and their uniforms would define the 1970s. Using brown and yellow like no other team has, the Padres would go through numerous sets of uniforms and hats, hitting a home run nearly every time.

Being the first team in modern MLB to sport brown and yellow as their primary colors, the Padres couldn't just go with a standard grey road flannel. Instead, they had they augmented their white home flannels with two different variations of a "tan" road uniform. One had a PADRES wordmark in brown and yellow to match the home whites. This jersey was worn both home and away. The other tan uniform had SAN DIEGO wordmark and was worn exclusively on the road.

The uniforms stays essentially the same, but the PADRES tan jerseys go away and a special yellow hat with brown bill and SD logo is introduced for occasional use.

The Padres join the double knit polyester revolution, and they don't do it quietly. The new uniforms feature yellow button up jerseys with yellow sansabelt pants, both home and away. The pants and jersey are trimmed in brown, with PADRES wordmark at home and SAN DIEGO away. The road hats are traditional brown with yellow SD logo, but for home games they busted out the original "bell" hats featuring a bell shaped yellow front. I call these "snowflakes" as no two were alike.

The jerseys and pants remain unchanged from 1972, but now the bell hats are more streamlined and worn for all games, home and away. You can really see now why these are called bell hats as the yellow portion forms a clear bell shape. Plus, the yellow sanitary socks under brown stirrups became a full time thing.

The Padres ditch the all yellow look for a more traditional (home white and road grey) look. The interesting thing about these uniforms is that the road SAN DIEGO wordmark remains unchanged - except for a new yellow outline on the brown lettering - while the Home Padres wordmark is now an upward slanted cursive. Also, these were the only two years that the sansabelt waistband (on the road grey only) featured yellow-brown-yellow piping instead of the reverse.

Technically the 1976 and 1977 jerseys were not the same (NL Centennial sleeve patch and a slightly different style v-neck), but the overall design was basically the same. The Padres finally go pullover with the jerseys, the home being the same as 1974-75, but without the buttons. For the road, the team wore the home white sansabelt with the first iteration of the brown jersey. This one featured yellow sleeves, as would the other versions through the end of the decade.

The greatest "unicorn" (aka a jersey, hat, or uniform that was worn for one year only) uniform of all time, the 1978 Padres mix-n-match set featured three pullover jerseys (white, yellow, brown) and two sets of sansabelt pants (white and yellow). The front wordmark featured both the city and team name - in different fonts! The use of yellow and brown as both accents and main colors in amazing. Plus, the 1978 All Star Game sleeve patch is top notch.

The 1978 Padres uniforms were so awesome that they couldn't possibly last more than one season (who's idea was that, right?). For 1979 - another unicorn uniform season - the Padres went with a toned down version, eliminating the mix-n-match for an update version of the 1977 uniforms that feature the 1977 colors with the 1978 fonts. The home whites now feature yellow padres wordmark while the road brown jerseys feature a yellow "San Diego".

The Reds entered the 1970s with some very standard flannel uniforms and quickly made the transition to double knit polyester pullovers that would last them the next two decades. Being a team named after a color, the Reds used the bright possibilities of the new synthetic fabric to carve out a lasting niche in the '70s fashion scene.

The Reds carried their late '60s uniforms into the new decade with wool flannel button ups, white home and grey away. The home whites were cream colored, featuring all red accents with the C-REDS logo on the left chest and number on the right. . The road greys had the number on the left chest, under the front CINCINNATI wordmark, which was outlined in white (the name and numbers were not outlined). The red hat with white wishbone C logo would last through the entire decade.

The home whites (or should we call them "creams"?) stay the same, but a slight change is made to the road greys as the white outline is removed from the CINCINNATI wordmark. This actually happened in time for the 1970 World Series, but we are going to officially call these the 1971 uniforms.

The Reds switch to double knit polyester pullovers and sansabelt was such a success that they kept the same uniforms for the next two decades. While there wasn't much change from previous flannel look, the small changes were perfect for the era. Outside of the fabric changes and removal of belts and buttons, the home whites went from cream to a bright white, while both the white and grey got white and red accents on the collar and sleeves.

The Reds never wore these during the regular season, but the 1978 Spring Training St Patrick's Day "Cincinnati Greens" uniforms deserve special recognition. For these uniforms, the team changed all the red accents to green and added a clover on the left sleeve It has become common practice (in fact, the "Greens" would return each March 17 through 1982) for teams to wear special one off uniforms, in 1978 this was no easy - or typical - feat. Here are a few shots of the originals...

The Cardinals entered the 1970s like most other teams, wearing the traditional plain wool flannel button ups of the post-WW2 era. But, St Louis would quickly become the second team to make the jump to double knit polyester pullover jerseys and sansabelt pants, while keeping the great striped stirrups of the previous decades. As the '70s moved along, the Cardinals were not afraid to try new things like powder blue road colorway and sleeve numbers.

The Cardinals start the '70s with their traditional '60s wool flannel uniforms featuring white home and grey away but everything else exactly the same. No trim at all on the road greys, just a thin red stripe piping down the side of the home white pants. The classic Cardinals "Birds on Bat" wordmark across the front with red numbers on the left midsection. Red stirrups with white & navy stripes, red hat with white STL logo.

After seeing the Pirates switch to polyester pullovers and sansabelt midway through the 1970 season, the Cardinals decided to follow suit a year before the rest of the league recognized the utility of the new age fabric. The colors, numbers, and wordmark stay the same, but the jerseys and pants now have red, white, and navy trim and piping. The necklines on these new double knit jerseys are rounded like the Pirates.

The Cardinals realize that a v-neck is a much more comfortable way to go with double knits and make the switch in 1973. Otherwise, these uniforms are exactly the same as the 1971-72 versions.

Another small change that makes a big difference. For the 1975 season, the Cardinals change their road greys to powder blue. And it is magnificent! Everything else stays the same, but they do wear special pillbox hats for many games in honor of the 1976 NL Centennial season.

The Cardinals continue their trend of making small changes but keeping the basic uniform style when they move the front numbers to the sleeves for the 1979 season. Again, everything else stays the same.

Before 1957, the Cubs' home whites rarely featured pinstripes. But, by the time the 1970s came along the white flannels with blue pinstripes were firmly entrenched in Cubs tradition. The road uniforms, on the other hand, went through several iterations during the decade. One thing that remained constant throughout the '70s was the Cubs' blue hat with red lower case "c" outlined in white.

Holdovers from the 1969 season, the Cubs 1970-71 uniforms were basic wool flannel button ups with no trim. The home whites featured the round Cubs logo, while the road greys had front numbers on the left midsection, below a block CHICAGO wordmark. Both home and road had the '60s style cartoon Cub sleeve patch.

The Cubs join the double knit polyester age with a home uniform that is a pullover & sansabelt version of the 1971 set, with the addition of solid blue sleeve and neck trim. The away uniforms feature a standard grey with blue sansabelt pants along with one of the great "unicorn" jerseys of the 1970s. The grey pullover features red, white, and blue trim at the sleeves and neck, with white outline behind the blue CHICAGO wordmark. The centered front numbers are an anomaly in MLB history.

The Cubs stick with the 1972 home uniforms, but attempt to cure the "mistake" of the 1972 road greys with a more basic grey pullover look. The sansabelt pants are the same as 1972, but the double knit polyester pullover jerseys are now void of red and white. Both the wordmark and front number are now plain blue with no outline, the latter moved back to the left midsection.

The home uniforms once again stay exactly the same, while the road greys make the transition to powder blue. While the sansabelt waistband, wordmark, front number, and neck trim all stay the same, the blue sleeve trim is eliminated, leaving the powder blue to reach right out to the edge. The powder blue is definitely a colorful upgrade over the drab greys of the previous two seasons. 1976 also featured special sleeve patches for the NL Centennial and Cubs Centennial.

One more season for the original 1972 polyester home pinstripes, but the road powder blue makes one of the boldest "minor" changes in MLB uniform history. At first glance, the road uniform appears exactly the same as 1977, from the blue letters, numbers, neck trim, and sansabelt waistband, to the cartoon Cub sleeve patch. But, the addition of white pinstripes over the powder blue jerseys and pants makes a statement. The '70s were in full swing!

The Cubs finally make their first change to the home white pinstriped polyester pullovers. But if you weren't paying close attention, you probably missed it. The two changes involved making the red circle around the Cubs logo on the left chest thicker, and adding the same red circle to the sleeve patch, which now features a slightly meaner looking cartoon Cub. The road powder blue pinstripes get the same sleeve patch, plus names on the back of the jerseys.

The Expos joined the National League in 1969, sporting probably the greatest combination of bright colors, revolutionary hat design, and amazing logo in sports history. They really didn't have much reason to make any changes during the decade, other than the switch to double knit polyester in 1973 and a slight change in front number color for 1978.

There is not enough room in this format to list all the superlatives about the first decade of Expos uniforms. For 1970-72, the wool flannels are worn, white at home and powder blue on the road. The sleeves feature thin blue and red piping, front number (on right chest) and back number are both solid blue fancy font. The legendary "Meb" logo is on the left chest with "expos" wordmark in solid blue font below. The hat features red sides, blue back and bill, and white front with the same Meb logo.

In case you didn't think the 1969-72 Expos uniforms could be improved upon, the teams' switch to double knit polyester (a year later than most of the league, I might add) makes for a more vibrant white at home and powder blue away. In addition, the road jerseys add a white outline to both the front and back numbers. And for 1976, the home jerseys get a special Montreal Olympics sleeve patch.

The change for 1978 is very slight, but I'll take any opportunity I can get to throw out some more great examples of Montreal Expos uniforms. For the 1978-79 seasons, both the home whites and road powder blues get a new red front number in addition to names on the back of the jerseys - solid blue for home, blue with white outline away.

The Mets were slow to join the polyester pullover revolution, not going full pullover until 1982. But during the '70s, the team from Queens did make several minor changes that built towards their '80s excellence. Shiny letters & numbers, as well as contrasting name plates were only two of the under the radar touches that made the Mets of the '70s worth a look.

After their miracle run to the 1969 World Series championship, the Mets weren't about to make any significant changes to the uniforms. Other than the elimination of the 10tth MLB anniversary sleeve patch, the wool flannel uniforms were basically identical to 1969. Home white featured blue pinstripes and script "Mets" wordmark above number on left midsection. The road greys featured a fancy block NEW YORK wordmark over the same left midsection number. Both had logo sleeve patch.

A switch to double knit polyester did not usher in any changes to the actual design of the Mets uniforms. All numbers and letters are blue with orange trim (slightly larger on road greys than home pinstripes) and the hats are still the traditional blue with orange interlocking NY logo.

You thought the Mets were going to really go crazy during the mid '70s like most of the rest of MLB, right? Well, the Mets idea of "mixing it up" was to change the wordmark on the road greys to match the script "Mets" of the home pinstripes. What is a little less noticeable on these road jerseys though, is that the blue tackle twill for the numbers and letters seems to be shinier than before.

The Mets finally make the move to pullovers, but once again refuse to go all in. Not only did they keep the belted pants, but they left two buttons at the neckline on the jerseys. Also added was a blue/orange piping at both the neck and sleeves. The numbers and wordmark are the same as the previous seasons, but one really cool addition happens for the 1979 home white pinstripes. The team adds a nameplate on the back in solid white. Against the pinstriped jersey, this is just a great contrast.

The Phillies decided to change their look during the 1970s, updating their uniforms along with their new Stadium. While they kept the home pinstripes, very little else from the 1960s survived into the new decade as the team changed the logo, the fabric, the primary color, the jersey fastener, the away jersey color, and more. Heck, by 1975 they had even dropped the chain stitching that was such a big part of their look for a quarter century.

The 1970 Phillies were a study in contrast. Originally scheduled to move into the new Veterans stadium by mid-season, the team had a new look with a new P logo, darker red (maroon) colorway, and racing stripes ready to go. Unfortunately, the stadium opening was delayed until the following season. But the new uniforms were unveiled at midseason anyway. So, the 1970 Phillies sported two sets of very different wool flannel uniforms, both home white pinstriped and road grey.

With the new stadium ready to go, the Phillies went exclusively with the new logo and uniform style introduced in mid-1970. Both home and road uniforms featured maroon racing stripes with new P logo (including "baseball laces" inside the P) chain stitched on left chest and number on right chest. The jerseys were still wool flannel, white with red pinstripes at home and grey away. The grey had a slight blue tint to it, similar to that of the Royals and White Sox of the era.

The Phillies enter both the double knit polyester and powder blue era with a bang. The home jersey is the same as the 1971 (white with red pinstripes) model, except for the change in fabric. The road uniform changes both fabric and color, with the polyester now a bright powder blue contrasted against the deep red (not quite fully maroon yet) with white outlined numbers and logo.

The Phillies were somewhat unique in the fact that it took a full two years between when they changed their home and away jerseys of the mid-'70s. For 1973-74, the home jerseys stayed the same as the previous season (red pinstripes on white button down) but the road powder blues made two major changes that would stick around for over a decade: a slight change to the P logo eliminating the center line; and the addition of a zipper in place of the jersey buttons.

The road powder blues stay the same, but now (in 1975) the Phillies decide to make the same changes to their home white pinstripes by adjusting the P logo and adding a zipper. The interesting part of the Phillies look from the 1970s and '80s is the "red" colorway that seemed to get darker (maroon) as the years rolled along. In the '70s it was mostly still more of a deep red. By the '80s, it was full-on "burgundy." And for one night in 1979, it would really get interesting...

As discussed above, the Phillies would keep their mid-'70s uniforms all the way through 1986. But, the team did add a "Saturday Night Special" uniforms for 1979. It was an all burgundy version of their regular uniforms meant to be worn on select Saturday nights during the 1979 season. However, on May 19, 1979, the team got destroyed by Montreal while wearing the special burgundy uni's for the first time. Players and fans alike complained, and the uniforms were retired after only one use.

There are four teams that led the way in revolutionary uniform design during the 1970s: The A's; Padres; White Sox; and Pirates. The Pirates have a special place in Polyester Pullover lore as they began the decade by introducing the first ever polyester (nylon) uniforms, including the first pullover jerseys and the first sansabelt pants. They then ended the decade with the first full-scale "Mix-N-Match uniforms combination. It was a wild ride that changed the uniform game forever.

The Pirates entered the season with tradition from the 1960s, wearing wool flannel vests over black sleeves while playing at Forbes Field. Home white and road grey both featured the same black and yellow trim with PIRATES wordmark over front number on left midsection. On July 16, the team moved into their new digs at Three Rivers Stadium, introducing the nylon polyester pullover jerseys and sansabelt pants with gold/black rounded neckline and wide gold/black/white sleeve bands.

These uniforms were the same as those worn during the second half of the 1970 season. They included a mustard/gold hat with black bill, as well as multi-colored stirrups. The team wore a special "21" sleeve patch during the 1973 in honor of the late great Roberto Clemente.

The uniforms were basically the same as the 1975 version, with the addition of the NL Centennial sleeve patch and gold/mustard pillbox hat with black bill and stripes. Several NL teams would introduce pillbox hats for the 1976 season, but only the Pirates wore them full time. And only the Pirates kept them around past the '76 season. The color would change though (to black or yellow), so the 1976 Pirates mustard pillbox hat is a highly sought after unicorn hat.

The Pirates solidify their place in the uniform Hall Of Fame by introducing the first full-scale "Mix-N-Match" MLB uniforms. With options for yellow (now bright yellow rather than mustard gold) or black hat, yellow or black stirrups, yellow, black or white jerseys and pants, there were 36 total options for the team on any given gameday. The white "Triple Pinstripe" jerseys and pants were particularly revolutionary with the pattern featuring two black pinstripes surrounding a yellow pinstripe.