The Pittsburgh Pirates held their annual "Negro Leagues Heritage Game" against the Cubs on Friday night at PNC Park, which could only mean one thing: some truly stellar throwback uniforms. And long before the Cubs scored six in the ninth inning for a wild 9-5 victory, the uniforms provided an interesting moment.
Pittsburgh wore the uniforms of the Homestead Grays, while Chicago chose to honor the Leland Giants -- the first black team to play the Cubs way back in 1909.
Chicago's uniforms came complete with white long-sleeve shirts to be worn underneath the jersey itself. Which is all well and good except, per MLB rules, pitchers aren't allowed to have any white on their sleeves while on the mound -- it would make it too difficult for batters to pick up the ball.
So, when Cubs starter Eddie Butler took the mound in the bottom of the first, he immediately had to call for a pair of scissors.
Butler was perfectly aware of the rule, and was ready for the impromptu tailoring. "I was not surprised at all," he told MLB.com's Carrie Muskat after Chicago's victory. "[Home plate umpire Will Little] came out before I finished the warm-up pitches, and said, 'You're not going to be able to have that.' You're not going to be allowed to wear a white sleeve."
Still, it was worth a shot: "We had to go out there and see what we could do with it, have some fun with it. We figured it wasn't going to last long. We might as well try."
Channeling Ted Turner
According to Yahoo.com, Major League Baseball will relax its uniform rules for "Players Weekend" on Aug. 25-27, allowing players to have their nicknames on the backs of their jerseys and a patch to commemorate someone in their development.
Cubs infielder Javier Baez could wear "Javy," for instance. But considering WGN is televising the Cubs' Aug. 25 game, it might want to persuade Baez to use the nickname "Channel," honoring an advertising ploy from the 1970s.
For a stretch of the 1976 season, owner Ted Turner's Braves wore nicknames on their jerseys as a marketing gimmick. Turner persuaded pitcher Andy Messersmith to use "Channel" as his nickname, even though it wasn't.
Turner's idea was to advertise the local station that televised Braves games, so Messersmith, who wore No. 17, would have "Channel 17" on his back. Unfortunately for Turner, Commissioner Chub Feeney was upset with the ploy and banned the nickname from being used, so Messersmith changed to "Bluto."
If Baez chose the nickname, he would be "Channel 9" -- the longtime station number of WGN-TV.
Baseball's elite
The eight teams -- LSU, Florida State, Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State, TCU, Florida, Texas A&M and Louisville -- in this year's College World Series have made a combined 90 trips to the CSW and have won 12 national championships.
"This isn't a CWS," wrote Tom Shetel of the Omaha World-Herald, "it's a two-week episode of Blue Bloods.
"We've come to expect, and appreciate, the underdog in college baseball. Coastal Carolina was the latest to capture our imagination.
"But Cinderella wasn't invited this year."
Sports quiz
What two teams did Andy Messersmith win 20 games with during his career?
Sports quiz
Messersmith went 20-13 with the Angels in 1971 and 20-6 with the Dodgers in 1974.
Sports on 06/18/2017