LaRue: The evolution of MLB colors since 1962
From John LaRue at The Hardball Times on July 11, 2016:
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to obsess over baseball jerseys. I say that with full apologies to Henry Hill, Ray Liotta, Martin Scorsese, Nicholas Pileggi, and anyone else who had anything to do with the opening line of Goodfellas. Nevertheless, it’s true. I remember rifling through the team pages of the 1982 Topps sticker album and wondering why teams chose certain combinations of colors and styles. Little did I know that it would become a lifelong obsession. I’m going to turn 40 in a few months, and that means I’ve witnessed a lot of data in the world of uniform colors. Let’s dive deeper into the evolution of MLB team colors since 1962.
I’ve selected 1962 as my starting point for two primary reasons. First, the 1960s saw the rise to prominence of the color television in American homes. This was a groundbreaking trend for businesses and the ad agencies that represented them. Baseball teams have as strong a brand as anyone, so they were sure to get in on the action. Second, 1962 was the second wave of MLB expansion, meaning the data set would start off with a robust 20 total teams– 10 per league. And expansion teams are a perfect view of the way a society and a market view colors at a specific snapshot in time (witness the teal and purple barrage from 1990s expansion teams).
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-evolution-of-mlb-colors-since-1962/
Originally published: July 15, 2016. Last Updated: July 15, 2016.