Uniform Phun

Phillies history is sprinkled with uniform phun stories. This season’s players decided wear red jerseys for some road game. Normal gray roadies since 1992 were labeled boring.

When Bill Giles joined the Phillies as executive vice president following the 1969 season, he brought with him a philosophy of creating family fun at the ballpark. Weekly Tuesday morning staff meetings became quite interesting. A few uniform stories come to mind, ideas that were hatched at those meetings.

The 1972 season was pretty bleak. We went all out to create much needed fun.

While “Turn It Around Night” didn’t involve uniforms it was one of the more creative promotions. In the midst of a streak of 18 losses in 19 games, we tried to change our luck with “Turn it Around Night” (June 6). The lineup was announced in reverse order, last names first. The seventh-inning stretch took place in the third inning. The scoreboard welcomed groups not in attendance. Ushers wore their hats backwards with their nametags on their backs. Final score: Astros 4, Phillies 3.

Powder blue uniforms for road games were introduced in 1972. OK, here’s another idea to change the Phillies luck. On June 10 of that bleak season, the Phillies wore their blue uniforms for a home game. Final score: Braves 15, Phillies 3. The blue roadies never appeared again at the Vet.

Then, there are the burgundy uniforms everyone remembers. The idea was to wear them on Saturdays, starting May 19 in 1979. While getting dressed in the clubhouse, Jim Lonborg kidded Greg Luzinski, “Bull, you look like a big grape.” Final score: Expos 10, Phillies 5 with Montreal belting five home runs. The idea ended on that first Saturday night.

One burgundy uniform made one more appearance during the closing ceremonies of the Vet. As the Alumni were getting dressed in the Eagles lockeroom, Larry Christenson saw a burgundy uniform in a locker which had his name. “Baron, why me?” he yelled. “You were the starting pitcher,” I responded. “You have to remind me?” LC said.

Please understand LC and I are good friends. The exchange was all in fun. Fast forward to 2007 when I decided to retire. LC gave me a gift, a framed photo of him in that burgundy uniform.

Then, there’s the blue hat debacle in 1994. Not many remember, I’m sure. Original plan was to wear blue hats for all home day games. Winless the first three times, blue hats were last seen on April 19. In a meeting of the minds on the last Friday that month, the players volunteered to wear them for the remaining mid-week Businessperson’s Specials.

Darren Daulton said so succinctly, “The color of the hats doesn’t win or lose games. The blue hats are a lot better than those red uniforms LC told me about.”

Red, burgundy? Whatever.

(Larry Shenk)