I love baseball. I love the history of the game. I love going to the ballpark. I love the uniforms, past and present. Especially past. I love throwback uniforms. So, when I noticed this year that the Dodgers were taking fan votes to decide what the team would wear for a throwback uniform, I was giddy. School girl giddy. Although, to be honest, I didn’t think too much of it, because generally speaking, teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox…even the Lakers and Celtics are teams that can wear throwbacks and you won’t even know it, that’s how little their uniforms have changed over the years. In fact, sometimes they need to accessorize so that the fans even know they are looking at throwbacks. Nice shorts!
2007- Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images
Anyway, after looking into the Dodgers throwbacks a little further, I was stoked to see that these were not your average throwback jerseys…these are legit. Here is where you can vote for which Brooklyn jersey the Dodgers will wear for 6 games in the 2011 season. Voting is still open until Thursday, Feb 17th! Here is a great writeup on the uniforms at a very good Dodgers blog, Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness (@MikeSciosciasTI). Below are the options.
Whenever I talk uniforms, you can bet I’ll be mentioning Paul Lukas’ UniWatch Blog (@uniwatchblog). His readers are obsessive about uniforms and I love it. As for the Dodgers, the 1911 Road uni block B on the left is so old school Dodgers that most people have never even seen it before. The vertical name down the chest is pretty cool, or CNOP (city name on placket) for you Uni dorks out there. (I’m one of them) However, the tiny pinstripes are really what turned me off with these jerseys. Pinstripes are for Yankees. Period. So, my decision was down to the 1931 Roads and the 1940s Road Alternate. Like most people, the 1940s royal blue just looked too much like the Royals, but once you read closely, you can see we’re not just talking regular jerseys. Satin baby. Here’s a UniWatch colorized look at them.
As fun and crazy as the novelty of satin would be… looking at these 1931 Roads, they are just too cool. I love the hats, the classic Brooklyn B, mixed with the old school block B on the jersey… and those stirrups…just perfect. I’m sold. My vote is going to the 1931 Road uniform. Another UniWatch colorized look at them.
So, as you can tell… I’m pretty excited about throwbacks. Living in San Diego, my absolute favorite part of the 2010 baseball season was going to Padres games for Throwback Thursdays. In what I thought was a brilliant marketing move, the Padres moved back the Thursday day game start times to 3:35pm when they were previously 12:35pm and had some cool promos to go along with it. The second I saw the Dodgers were doing this fan vote to pick jerseys, I thought to myself in my marketing mind… wow, the Padres beat the Dodgers at something. The Dodgers are obviously one of the most storied franchises in all of sports… an iconic team, with an iconic look, and generally, they stay well ahead of the curve in all things baseball. However, if you remember, last year, the Padres fans were able to vote for the teams 2010 Thursday Throwback uniforms. Here’s an old link here. So, the Dodgers are actually copying the Padres marketing team by letting the fans have a say. Good work, Padres. Trendsetters.
Well, we know what happened, the vote was so very close… blah blah blah… so Padres fans were the winners here, because the team decided to go with both the 1984 white jersey and the 1978 brown jersey. Both amazing throwbacks. Amazing. Below I’ll put up a few pictures of past Padres throwback games, in fact, UniWatch reader Tim Stoops has a slideshow of the 2010 1970’s Retro Night here.
Note: amazing stirrups (via UniWatch)
The Padres made the Throwback jersey announcement at FanFest last year…and FanFest 2011 is coming THIS Saturday, Feb 12th. So, now my friends, we’ve come full circle. I looked for the 2011 Promotional Schedule… nothing. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Instead, I pulled up and checked the 2011 Padres Schedule because I wanted to mark my calendar with all the Throwback Thursdays at 3:35pm, you know, my FAVORITE part of last season. Gasp! There is only one Thursday day game, and it’s July 28th vs. Ariz at 12:35pm. What the hock? Then, luckily, I saw that there are still 3:35pm games, but they’ve been moved to Wednesdays…6 of them by my count. Hmm…Throwback Wednesdays? Phew, close call. That really doesn’t have the same ring to it, though, you know the whole alliteration thing. Time to investigate. So, I went my source at the Padres, (stop freaking laughing… I have a source!) and he told me that the fan reception of Throwback Thursdays in 2010 was NOT as good as they’d hoped it would be and he thinks they are only doing one throwback uni game this year. WHAT!? ONE!? I need to stop and take a deep breath, because my ears and my mind are not communicating and I’m having trouble comprehending what I think I just heard. woosah…woosah… WHAT!? Are you freakin’ kidding me right now? Padres, if that’s true, if you’re only have one throwback game this year… I’m so pissed at you right now I want to explode. So pissed. Seriously, whoever made this decision… whatever sunuva penny pincher decided to take away the coolest thing that fans have going for them… I want to take you, smash you up into a tiny ball… and stick you inside of that T-shirt cannon launcher that the Swingin’ Friar carries around, and I want to launch your cheap ass into the atmosphere.
Seriously, when are San Diego sports teams gonna get it? Collectively, the Padres and Chargers have the sweetest throwbacks in all of sports. The 1984 Padres jerseys and the 1960’s powder blue Bolts jerseys, as a team, absolutely CRUSH all other cities in their combined awesomeness. Seriously, I’m praying that I’m wrong, that my “source” is messin’ with me, because I will totally put my blogging street cred on the line to be wrong on this one. 
I want to be wrong. Argh!! I’m so pissed. So, Padres, good work, you were the trendsetter for the Dodgers having a fan vote for some sweet throwbacks. They knew your idea was awesome, so they are running with it. How’d you respond? By blowing it. YOU BLEW IT! Why? Why would you do this Padres? I really hope you have some tricks up your sleeve for this Saturday, because otherwise, I’m gonna be walking around looking to pick a throwback fight. Frick, I really hope I’m wrong and I have to do some big apology because, right now, I’m so mad I can’t even contain myself. Burgleflickle! (no making up words.)