Wednesday marked St. Patrick’s Day, which mean several teams around sports, particularly MLB spring training, will don green uniforms, caps or socks to commemorate the Irish holiday.
Many believe that the Cincinnati Reds were the first team to take the field in green uniforms back in 1978, but the history of the green uniform actually dates back all the way to the end of the 19th century.
It was the Philadelphia Phillies, in 1899, who were the first franchise to wear green uniforms on the field for St. Patrick’s Day.
A newspaper clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer reads that the Phillies startled fans in Charlotte, North Carolina with their “new sweaters trimmed with green.
“The collar is of a hue the like of which has never been seen on this side of Ireland, and ten, to accentuate it, there’s a band of green running all the way round.”
There is some debate as to whether or not these Phillies sweaters qualify as “St. Patrick’s Day” uniforms, though.
The reason why they wore green was actually because there were their new uniforms for the 1899 season, which they decided to appropriately debut on St. Patrick’s Day.
The Phillies would ditch the green the following season, though.
It would not be until 1978 when Reds GM Dick Wagner decided to surprise everyone with green uniforms for the day where it would become an annual tradition.
The surprise publicity stunt caught everyone off guard and the Cincinnati Enquirer headline the next day read, “Confused Yankees Can’t Find Reds, Bow to Greens, 9-2.”
Two years later the Astros would follow the Reds’ lead in wearing green and the Phillies, the “first” team to do it, returned to their roots in 1986.
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