Cracked Dying

Citrusy History Mystery

Last August, I published my “One and Done” column on ESPN.com, which was devoted to uniforms that were worn just a couple of times. My timeline of such uni designs included the following entry:

1971: Brooks Robinson, who’s moonlighting as a sporting goods executive while playing third base for the Orioles, convinces team management to have the O’s suit up in solid orange uniforms supplied by his company. The team humors him for two games before the solid orange getup is put out to pasture.

GameStats: Wings 2: Aces High Cheats, Reviews, News
GameStats has the largest collection of Wings 2: Aces High trailers, screenshots, cheats, walkthroughs, release dates, previews, reviews, soundtracks and news.

My source for that info was this page from Bill Henderson’s MLB Game-Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era CD, which, as you can see, indicates that the all-orange ensemble was worn twice in 1971 — once at home and once in Cleveland. I generally trust Bill’s info, plus I had two other resources that seemed to confirm that the orange design was only worn in 1971: First, there was this photo (probably taken in 1971, since it shows the “Big Four” of Palmer, McNally, Dobson, and Cuellar, each of whom won 20 games in ‘71), and then “Dressed to the Nines” (whose database shows the orange uni appearing only in 1971).

Aces High (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“2 Minutes to Midnight” (1984) “Aces High” (1984) “Running Free (live)” (1985) … “The Trooper” ? “2 Minutes to Midnight” ? “Aces High” ? “Running Free (live) …

GameSpy: Wings 2: Aces High
GameSpy is the most complete source for Wings 2: Aces High trailers, screenshots, cheats, walkthroughs, release dates, previews, reviews, soundtracks and news.

Welcome to Aces High II
Aces High II: Version 2.10 Patch 2 Released. The 2.10 Patch 2 release of Aces High II is ready. … voting to determine the next plane to be added to Aces High. …

Great white sharks

But last Friday, Steve Dewing’s awesome baseball photo site featured two O’s-in-orange pics I’d never seen before — look here and here — and as you can see, they’re both dated April of 1972.

Had the Orioles actually worn the orange design in ‘72 as well as ‘71? Maybe they just wore them at the tail end of spring training? Maybe Steve didn’t date the photos correctly?

I wrote to Steve to ask what he could tell me about the pics. Here’s what he wrote back:

Since the slides are stamped “APR 72″ and were shot in Cleveland [based on the stadium background], I can only guess they were shot in the series that the Orioles played in Cleveland on April 21-23, 1972.

I had another person tell me that the O’s planned on wearing them at home during Friday and Saturday games in 1971. Because of Boog Powell’s objection, though, they only wore them about 10 times.

IGN: Wings 2: Aces High
IGN is the ultimate Wings 2: Aces High resource for trailers, screenshots, cheats, walkthroughs, release dates, previews, reviews, soundtracks and news.

The month/year stamping on slides doesn’t always tell the story, though. For example, it’s not unusual to get slides stamped with “October” because they were shot at a September 28th game and weren’t developed until October 1st or later. But in the case of these images, it’s unlikely they were shot in 1971 and sat for 6 months before developing, especially knowing who the photographer is/was (for several reasons, I can’t discuss who took the photos on my site).

I suppose the date-stamping machine at the film developing place could have just gotten the year wrong.

Hmmm, lots to chew on there. Were the orange uniforms worn just twice, or as many as 10 times? Just in 1971, or possibly in ‘72 as well? When were the Cleveland pics taken?

A few thoughts:

Note that the center photo on Bill Henderson’s page refers to a Sports Illustrated caption indicating that Brooks Robinson had just hit an orange-clad grand slam. Brooks hit only one salami over the course of 1971 and ‘72, and that was in this game — 9/16/71, in Baltimore. So that’s one confirmed date for the orange uni.

After that game, the O’s went on a road trip that included a stop in Cleveland on September 24-26. If they were experimenting with the solid-orange design, it seems plausible that they’d wear it on the road trip immediately following the uniform’s home debut.

On the other hand, I’ve had second thoughts about this photo. Sure, it could’ve been taken late in 1971. But it probably wasn’t taken at that Sept. 16th game in Baltimore, because none of the pitchers

Related posts: Allure

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.