A club I was with had some doe-ray$-me problems going into the season, seeing how sponsorship didn’t materialize like expected. So, the equipment manager and a few bright lights in the front office decided to go on an economy kick… and uniforms were at the top of the agenda.
The new uniforms came in late during the first month of play… in fact, we almost lost two games because we had a mixture of home and away uniforms that we ended up playing in. We had an abundance of away bottoms and an abundance of home tops…. Sooooooooo, the uniform that we took the field in for those games were a bit odd to say the least.
One hot sticky afternoon, we arrived at the club house and found the new uniforms, a stark white, hanging in the lockers… but no names… no numbers ….no nothing! Out came the magic markers and .. presto!!! Instant numbers. All in all, things didn’t turn out too bad, considering we
picked the equipment manager off the floor when he saw his brand spanking new uniforms being marked up with ZORRO JUMBO MARKERS. And the numbers looked pretty good .. even though we did the job ourselves without lights. It was a hot sweltering day and the old stadium locker room lights were like tanning bulbs.
Only one problem… nobody counted on the different styles and colors of underwear that shown through the shear uniforms…cheapies that they were. And for those guys that didn’t wear any but the good ole basic three strap… you know…. it made taking the field even more interesting. And none of this came to light until our guys took the field and the crowd started a chorus of whistles and laughing.
Our trainer nudged our batting coach who was sitting next to me and said..” you’re not going to believe this… take a look!.”
As our batting coach ran out to get the guys off the field… he got all the way to the first baseline when it dawned on him that he too was in uniform… and he was wearing the stuff that had creative designs on them, things that his wife had gotten him for their anniversary.. I was told later. The look on his face when he realized… was priceless.
Three days later the coaching staff was summoned “upstairs” for a meeting with THE GUY. As we sat along a conference table… expecting to receive our severance checks, when one of the owners and his secretary comes in and says with a big smile, “BRILLIANT, ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!! That uniform gag went over great. We picked up a new line of advertising boards all over left and right field!!
However, a week later, a letter from our league office … thought differently.
