Special Teams: The Uniforms

a big game. We chronicle their seasons, sometimes the season that where a team wins a championship, sometimes they come just short, sometimes they win no games. But special teams can mean many things, and we figured something fun to do now while we're going on, we're getting through the coronavirus pandemic, and you know, we're not having sports for a law period of time, and how are we getting through things? Mainly as we wait for full seasons across

the board to return. We're gonna do something a little bit different this week. The NFL has spent most of the off season revealing new uniforms. He had seven teams revealing their new uniforms over the course of the off season, and and look the Chargers look great. Uh. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniforms look really good. They go back to the Pewter pirate concept. The New Patriots uniforms look really good. They're using the color rush uniforms. And the Brown's uniforms

look good. They have the big three stripe on the side. Some other ones not so good. You know, the Cults is a little bit lacking. The Falcons are using all black jerseys and okay, that's gonna look how it's gonna look. And the RAMS logo is the RAMS logo, which is all the way down at the bottom. So look at you soft shoeing those bottom feeders. Well, well we we have a we have a lot of bottom feeders to non soft shoes. So I figure, if I soft shoe now, it's not it's not as much of a soft shoe.

Later on you start waiting, you know, playing like um whacking day on the Simpsons where you're going out and hitting the snakes and you just start whacking these bad logos, bad jerseys right off to jump. So with that in mind, we figured, why do we do with special teams where we look at the best uniforms that some special teams war in baseball and football history, because those are really the two sports where you pay attention to the uniforms

the most. And these are now going to be an episode where it's about the best uniforms, What were the best looks that we liked, What are some of the worst looks that we liked? And then we'll get to a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and near and dear are many other people because it involves hats, because you know me, I'm a hat guy, as I wear my Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs hat as we do this podcast, because the you know, the mascot is an iron Pig, and so the logo is a

piece of bacon. I mean, that's prety cool, that piece of bacon on a hat. See, that's where it gets fun. The minor league hats because they do a lot of one off promos, and we we see promotional days at Major League Baseball, but they don't generally change their logos and uniforms completely to go for a single day minor league baseball, and we can sell a little bit of merch, right yep, get them on. I never thought that I can't believe minor league teams hadn't had that much money.

We're gonna do one off hats. You're a minor league team, you're playing short season single A ball in CANASTDA. You have enough to keep changing hats this often, but yet they do so Hey, I'm not gonna complain, but it's really really weird. Look, if you buy in volume, you're gonna do just fine. You buy enough hats. You gotta be able to have figured that out. Oh yeah, I do. See. I always had an idea where and I don't know if this works. You minor league hats are and yeah, yeah,

I got a pat in this idea. Minor league hats are like the like I think they're the greatest hats in the world. Minor league baseball hats, all different teams, all the different crazy as. They look awesome and and they're made really well. If you had, like a minor league had of the month club where I would pay say twenty dollars a month and I would get from either forty seven brand or New Era, whoever was, I would get a minor league out of the month that

they're they're specializing that month. Hey, this week, you're gonna get the Syracuse Mets hat. Okay, and you get it in your size, and it's twenty dollars a month. Now, look, these hats normally go for anywhere between twenty five and thirty thirty five dollars. So, okay, twenty dollars a month, and I get a hat, all right, that's not bad. I'll use that and I can push my collection. I can get the hats I want to and and I wind up getting a deal on it in the process.

And I think there's enough people who like hats out there where that could work. I mean, I don't know, I don't have the business model law worked up, but I think that could work. I think that can definitely work. We just gotta work on the distribution. May we've got all these other box clubs. Right, here's your Avengers box

with a bunch of you know, merchandise each month. You if you work on the hat, maybe get some decals or something small thrown in and away you go, and all of a sudden, you've got a subscription series with some products that that you roll through. I like that subscription series. I like that right there. Uh so we we'll so we'll get to that. At the end. We'll get two hats at the end. But we'll start off. Why don't we start off with the best four MLB uniforms. Now,

I will do baseball first and we'll get into football. Alright. So here's what I looked at you. I'm gonna give you my favorite four and you tell me what you think. Uniforms you like, agree or disagree? Oh cool, because I've got some great lists in my own. So best four uniforms in Major League Baseball now, in no particular order. Best four they have right now? The Cardinals baby blue uniforms. Cardinals logo with the blue that looks so sharp and so cool. Look, I just can't get enough of staring.

The logo looks some The logo of the Cardinals with the two birds in the bat looks. I mean, it's just striking when you see it on a on a jersey with the baby blue, and so you're you're kind of heartless, fantastic and hard day of Oh sure, I go back to John Tudor and the World Series against the Brewers, playing against the Brewers. Yeah, Oh that looks. That looks that's a fantastic looking uniform. Okay, I'll give

you that one, alright. I dig that one. Okay, I'll run mind past you on the on the back end, keep going all right, all right, So I'm gonna go with the the Oakland A's and they're deep green uniforms that they wear now just really catch the eye and and it goes back to looking like how they looked in the in the seventies. Look, the big bold colors

always look good, especially in Major League Baseball. You can't get too crazy with with different colors, you know, different like like in the National Football League where here's a jersey where we have seventeen colors on it. Okay, not looking so great, but that deep green the A's have that they I see that and I go, oh yeah, I'm I'm thinking back to those great A's teams of the seventies ease and even the good teams they had

in the early eighties. But just that color, the deep colors that that teams us that that are that are bold, but yet they're they're a little bit darker, but they don't lose any of their color. And that's how I feel when I look at I look at the as it's a weird way to describe it, but that deep green,

I just love that color. So much well, it gives you some of the throwback, and again some of it is remembering the uniforms from when we were kids and seeing how well those are orchestrated and executed in in return mode. Sometimes it's successful. Sometimes they just figure you'll buy anything, and I think that's been danger with no but I mean that's been the danger with a lot

of uniform changes through the years. It's just a an obvious cash crab kind of like when you were able to go in, you know, going back to hats for a second, and all of a sudden you went on and the shelves were red and green and yellow Yankees hats, right, and it's certain major League baseball team here. It's like they made no sense, but they knew that fans of the team would come up with the thirty bucks and the way you'd go. So same thing with uniforms they're lacking.

When it's all said and done, I'm gonna go with my next one, The Pirates, yellow and black with the yellow jersey the full because yellow and black looks so good, but if it's too much black, you don't get enough of the the accent. So when they have the top, that's all that's all yellow and black. That looks really good. You know that That's something I hope that you know, any any team with that color scheme, you gotta really

have a little bit more. You gotta have more cowbell, guys, you gotta have more yellow on those on those jerseys and uniforms and then you would normally have that's just gonna pop that. Oh that always wins. And my fourth I'm gonna take you by surprise a little bit because being an n L East guy I am. I'm gonna go with the Phillies. The cream uniforms with the blue star over the eye for Phillies. That's just such a great look. And your eye gets caught by the uh,

the star all the time. And it's it's not white, which you know every team wears white, but it's more like a cream color. And and that just really stands out to me that that look especially expect looking, you know me. You know, Philly's fans are gonna watch Bryce Harper do this now for the next third teen years. But but that uniform don't matter no matter who's wearing it. That is that is a really sharp look. So I'm

gonna put that as my top four. The Cardinals, baby Blue, the A's deep green, Pirates, yellow jerseys and black pants, Philly's cream with a blue star over the eye. I gotta I dig that insertion because I know that took a lot of thought and and a willingness to say that a division rival is actually doing something right and that's just being Mets Mets, and that's that's big of you. It's very big of you. I have a quick form, just gonna run through really fast. You got the Royals home.

I mean it's just classic. Yeah, yeah, the roy You have the Royal script. It looks really good. And the blue is always solid. The blue Jay's timeless. Oh and you know, and I even like when they go with the alternate with the red when they when they when they really accent the red. I like that a lot too. Yeah, so that works. The Dodgers road gray. I don't usually like the gray uniforms, but the blue logos, right, the blue logo work, and the red letter numbering works for me.

And then one that's introduced. And folks might not have seen these yet because they're they're scheduled to make their debut, but I already put them on my list. The Milwaukee Brewers road blue with gold lettering sharp as sharp as can be. So again and we'll we'll celebrate Christie Yelloch

and all those here is along the way. But you know Major League Baseball uniforms because it's also good because they're button downs, so it's not you know, they're not tank tops like you've got in the basketball world, which I don't have a body shape that should be running around in basketball jerseys. That's just I'm not long enough. I'm just not And then very difficult, yeah yeah, and

then football jerseys. I've got a bad shoulder, so you know, just trying to pull that over, just especially because you want to se media because you want to look small. It's it's, it's it's a little hurt. This is a button down, nice and easy. Uh So with our four favorite uniforms, now, let's go to our four favorite MLB uniforms of all time. Now, there's been so many and and and and you see lists of great uniforms going back to the fifties and the forties and the thirties.

I need a little more color because color always look for everybody says all the Yankees pinstrips. It's classic but is it really eye catching or is it just classic because the Yankees have always worn it. I like a little more color. My list is gonna be a little weird of my favorite four uniforms of all time. Uh, and there's a lot in common with it, so I'll kind of go through it because you'll see what's in common. Um.

I love the Astros rainbow uniforms of the seventies. I love the way the orange, red, and yellow works together. I know that potentially when when if you told me, Okay, here's a color scheme that's gonna work, it's the orange, red, and yellow. What's next, Well, another orange, red and yellow stripe, and what's that gonna be. Well, it's kind of gonna be those colors all the way through. I'm like, oh my god, that sounds awful. But it works, you know,

the Astros uniforms. It's kind of day glows seventies ish. But I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that because it's a it's a really good look and it is something that each color stands out. No color gets lost in anything else. The orange is the orange, the red is the red, the yellows the yellow, and it's It's an anti look of many things the Major League Baseball

teams have done. No mab we have, because you know, we talked about the creamsicles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and we've had that kind of but this day glow look by the Astros was unique back then and it still is unique. I wish they'd go back to those uniforms now now. Yellow is kind of a big theme with a bunch of my jerseys because the next two one on my list the Padres brown and yellow from

the seventies. That's another sharp look. You know, we talked about the Pirates with the black and yellow, but the Padres had the same thing. I know that by the time they changed the look, fans were sick of, oh the brown and yellow. There was a big anti um image of the Padre's uniforms. Oh they look brown and yellow and people think of poop. And I mean that's really what it was. I mean it was I I don't get over why that was such a that that was such a good uniform. So then it went away

from it. But the strike, the strikingness of the yellow really work. Same thing. The A's all yellow uniforms. They wore in the sixties and the seventies. They look great too. I mean, which one are you talking about. You're talking about the green sleeve one. Yeah, the green sleeve with the yellow with yellow. That's not my worst will get to Oh you're kidding, really no, it's you gotta be hating, man.

Look what my whole thing as a lot that are just really bad or things that look like vests, things that look like vests somehow, because I got that, and I got the Reds with their vests on the list. For me, I'm here wearing a vest from home Depot. Canna help you with anything? Hey, didn't you play for the A's in the seven? Aren't you? Sal bando? Um? But I think yellow is a really is a color that is really underutilized in sports, and yellow really pops.

And I don't get white people don't don't don't wear that more. And of course my fourth just because it looks I mean, and and this is not just me, but the mid eighties Mets when they had the orange and blue stripes down the arms and all the way down the pants that cut through. I mean, that was

a really fresh look. And it still looks good now, you know, I'm surprised they haven't gone back to doing something like that a little bit more permanent, because the stripes that start from the shoulder down they look really good and then down the pants. Anytime you can accent the pants, that's a good look. Look, the Chargers do that in football all the time with the lightning bolts on. It looks awesome. But but teams don't accent the pants enough. And if you can do that, you can have something

that looks really really good. I dig that you started looking like wrestling tights. It's a good thing. Uh So I had the Astros, I have the late seventies Pirates again one that's uh a bit divisive. But when we get to the pop stars, all the pillbox hats and everything, I'm in. I'm all in the Ken Griffy early era Mariners uniforms. When you know he he's running them up with you know, uh, you know the some of those power hitting teams. The blue, the blue is brighter and

and the and the gold is that. Yeah, that was that was a nice look too. That's a great throw back a little bit. And then I would be remiss if I didn't do some home cooking because it's a culture change. I mean, we have a huge fan base, and I know the white Sox get mocked quite a bit, and they'll be on these lists for many other reasons.

There's yeah, but when you when they changed to the black silver white combinations in and it's started showing up in you know, ice Cube and and Stoop Dogg videos and became this this big cultural and iconic logo that stood all those years during the Robin Ventura Frank Thomas years. I mean that that is just a culture changer and tongues of merch sold and it just looks sharp. I'm staring at us signed Frank Thomas mini helmet right here, boy, just smiling. Know that that was a big culture change.

It was well, look how cool all black looks? You know, I mean, look how cool? Look how clear do you? Sometimes you don't need colors and you can go to the all black with a white and the socks logo on the hat. That was just the s o X And so many people wore wore that hat and bought that hat and it was it was such a big look. And that you know that that was the hat that Jordan wore right when he was playing in the minor league system. That was the look for the White Sox.

It was black Jack McDowell all that. I agree. We had that all the way through the farms system too, Like that became that I'm with you. I'm with you on that. But however, when we want to talk about the worst uniforms of all time, there's a lot I'm not a fan of, like the Devil Rays first uniforms, which are like blue and light blue and green and yellow. It looked terrible. I mean, there's a lot of the Florida Marlins all teal look bad when they first started

with that. But what's funny, I had that as third on my list? Did you really? Yeah? And I was. It wasn't going through and looking up lists or it was just memory remembering the trading cards going Those are just so bright and terrible. But I'm sorry, buddy. The worst uniforms I've seen the mid seventies when they wore shorts and you had shorts coming you look like you look like a team that you were. It was it was a Beer League team going out to play. We're

all wearing the same shorts. And not only that, I wear I wear shorts every day. Yeah, but there's where then you're playing baseball and shorts you're slides. That's part of the appeal. And shorts were terrible. Man. I'm still trying to get one of those game or jerseys though. No, seeing the jersey were just as bad. They're expensive as hell. Did you are just as bad because you had like the big long collar, like you were wearing a jacket under it. No, come on, No, that was the collar

they as soon as the game was over. The dark blue collar was awful. It was I felt like when guys in the seventies and eighties would wear the jersey, they wear the big warm up jacket under it when it was cold in the spring and they would have to put the collar out. I feel like that's what the white socks jerseys looked like. And I said, who said this is a good look? Who thought this is a good idea? I mean, this jersey looks bad. You've got grown men wearing shorts. They can't be happy about that.

No one's gonna want to slide because they're gonna wind up getting cut up all the way. I can't believe that actually made it out. Come on, he was a carnival barker guys trying a bunch of gadgets. But one of the things they're lamenting in Chicago coming out of the pandemic is that they'll have to shut down the homage to old Chamiskey and shower that's out there. I mean, that's what Bill was all of that, right, So so it was about game, you know, the exploding scoreboard, all

those other things that that he brought to the game. Yeah, the record demolition night right when they just shot all the records doll and all that craziness and chaos and just marked another anniversary of that that you know when you when you add it all up, I mean this was just part and parcel for the owner that he was something a little different. So there you go. There's our best baseball uniforms now of all time and our

least favorites of all time. Coming up next, we get into the National Football League, the best and the worst. Does your team make it on it? Find out? Coming up next right here on special Teams, We've just given you our favorite MLB uniforms in our least favorite MLB uniforms shorts. Uh. Now it's time to get to the National Football League and our best four uniforms of all time and our worst four uniforms of all time, best uniforms of all time. I'm gonna go here. I got

my four and this is a list. I don't think he's ever gonna change. I don't see anybody having uniforms that get better than these four. And here's a hint, that's a hot take. Here's a hint. The Chargers powder blue comes in at number five because there's uniforms as good as the Chargers powder blue looks and it looks awesome. Right. Their uniforms this year are gonna look phenomenal. Right, the color Rush uniforms look good. Oh, the yellow pants look fantastic.

Look to you know. We we talked about the uniforms coming into this year that we liked from the from the team so far, but right now all time. They come in at fifth for me because my four favorite uniforms of all time in the NFL. Number one the Rams blue and white from the late sixties, early seventies. It's the look they tried to go to the past few years before they had that crazy ass redesigned for this year, and I don't know why that didn't work.

The blue and white looked so good, and it was such a cleaner looked and you know it's it's the blue and the yellow and the RAMS logo they've had for a long time. It was it was very colorful. And I'm not saying it didn't like the Rams uniforms before they made the change, but the white and blue just really strikes you. You know, it hits you and you go whoa, especially when you see as much white as the Rams had on the jersey. You know, the blue numbers back in the sixties and seventies were just

kind of there. It was very machine like. It didn't look like it was a very you know, expensively put together uniform, a lot of bells and whistles on it. But sometimes less is more. And the blue and white worked really really well together, especially the blue and white

helmet that start like the most about it. Look at you blue and simplicity, and the helmets the key like without the helmet, it's it's almost the colts too, integree now now that the sea is for cookie colts of of but you know, just some of those Peyton Manning jerseys say so I'm running around in for years. But the the blue is is certainly a different shade than

you're used to seeing in in modern uniforms anyway. So yeah, going back to the evolution, I love that we're seeing more and more details, uh, and love online just showing the evolution of uniforms. And you loved the more interviews with people like what the hell were you thinking when you did different things? But these are classic, no question.

I've already talked about the Buccaneers creamsicles, which the bright orange is so so few teams do something like that, and I get that that's polarizing a little bit, little bit too much. Hey man, we're back in the sixties. But I love the Buccaneers cream circles. And I like the Dolphins what they had in the early seventies, the deep awkward green that let the orange really pop because it's only a tiny bit of orange on those jerseys,

but that deeper awkwad green is is, you know. And for me to say that as a Jets fan, I gotta say, like a Dolphins uniform, that's something. But that always stood out to me, you know, the Bob Greasy Larry Zanka. That was a really well thought put together and I always wanted the Dolphins to go back to

that color because it looks so good. Look at you once again you're grabbing one of your division rivals and showing them some love because you know what, those jerseys were clean, because your defenses weren't touching any of those guys, so like I could see it without the grass stains, uh and problems and the paint coming up. No, uh, those those are certainly a beautiful look, a good color once again, you know the base of it. I gave

you Jets a nod. I like nineties Jets. Oh yeah, yeah, you know the j E T s with the jet Yeah. And that was a good green too. That was a good green to the Jets that I wish they would go back to that color. Like, yeah, it's a lighter green, right, not as punchy in the face green, so a little muted. The cream skulls and powder blues are certainly gonna be

on there, uh, no question about it. H And I really like the Patriots of the eighty four to ninety two when you're you're talking about the red with the

blue accents. Uh and then obviously, uh, you know path Patriot up on the No, that's a sharp look to the Patriots went back to those a few years ago, and I don't know why they didn't keep them, because that was They're kind of going back to them a little bit now with the color Rush uniforms, but I don't know why they didn't keep those, because that that I remember, that was really popular, you know, because look, the Patriots uniforms, to be quite honest, the silver what

they used for the majority of the Tom Brady era. I mean, they were just okay, you know, I mean exactly, they were just kind of there's there's nothing Houston and one I just wanted to give an honorary mentioned too, because it's really not been worn much at all. But when bred Farr was running around for the Vikings that all purple look, purple pants, ball, purple works, All purple works just in my world, well yeah, well yeah, you

kind of have no choice, you know. You. Oh, and you know the Emeritus is also the uh the legendary Houston oilers. But we you and I, you know, wax poetic about that forever, right, because that's my fourth one on my list is the baby Blue with the red combination. As much as I like the charges powder blue, the oilers were sharper, you know, with the Oil Derek. It was you know when when you're a little kid and you start watching football and you start watching sports, your

eye goes to teams with colors. Look like, why did I grow up a Mets fan instead of a Yankees fan? My dad was a Yankees fan. I should have been a Yankees fan. But when baseball was on TV when I was a kid, the Yankees were look black and white, right, it was black and white, okay, But the Mets are in bright blue and orange. And I just liked watching

those colors on the screen. And I think sometimes that's why we picked teams we do, because when we're little, we're watching these teams all the time, and then you you get familiar with them and you watch them and look, I admit that's how I became a Mets fan. I mean, I wish I didn't, But the Oilers. That was the

same way. When I first really started watching football, the Oilers were a perennial wild card team in the late seventies early eighties, and it was you get to see these these big, bright, baby blue jerseys running on the screen, and and they would flash with the red and the like I said, the Oil Derek, and they had the lovely love You Blue songs and they would play the Oilers theme song, which was awesome, and I was hooked

into that forever. I mean that was I mean that was a look that you know, of of all my looks that I like in in the National Football League, I think that Oiler's jersey maybe my all time favorite. There you go, Now, we gotta go find you one on the open market. I really one of I want the hat with the oil derry. I want to get a fitted baby blue hat with the oil derries. And because every time I look for one online, they're gone,

Like you can't have been sold out. I know we've been looking for as a tan and for years because you know what, we we still do celebrate a lot of holidays. You're like family, uh at this point, and trying to find you something nice. But other than going and get walking around Houston and maybe stealing one off somebody's head and hoping get fit, I've had no success yet. Hey can I see that hat for a second? Yeah? Sure, see you? And then you often run away. Well, why

do you think I've been training? Night? Maddie and I get out and we we kick the soccer ball around we're doing sprints. I mean, Quadzilla is coming back in a big way, and part of it is to maybe pill for a hat or two along the way. All right, there we go, let me write that down on the street. Don't let him wear your hat? All right, let me get that right there. Uh. Now you get to the worst uniforms of all time. And there's many I don't like,

but there's one that stands out way more than anybody else. Right. I'm not a big fan of the Panthers. I've never been a fit. They're they're black and blue. I've never been a big fan of the Titans. Just have too much blue. Uh, it looks like it doesn't go together. The Jaguars have had a tough time figuring out the black gold teal. But anytime I see video and I see the Seahawks with the highlighter uniforms, I always say, that's the worst look I've ever seen. That is the

absolute worst look. Nothing ever brings me back to it. It's not a look that I see and go, well, maybe if I get used to it. For ten or twelve years now, every time I see the highlighter uniforms, I go, that's terrible. I that's just that's just that's just terrible. I mean, by all the uniforms, I don't like that one is like so far at the top. It's like saying Jerry Rice is the best wide receiver in NFL history, and everybody else is like way behind.

It's like the Seahawks and that's the absolute worst and everybody else's way behind. Yeah. That that certainly makes any list. I have two that stand out for me, and I'm gonna, you know, go after my own team for a minute. One unfortunately they do use a ton and and the other really wasn't either. Uh, there's plenty of candidates in our history. But the color rush Jaguars where they had that blended helmet yeah in the front, and then had that because it wasn't gold, it was like a mustard, right,

I mean this was like a gray poupon yellow. Wait wait wait wait mustard. Yeah. I mean we'll make sandwiches and have some fun ard. But then you had mustard jerseys and mustard pants. Yeah, too much mustard a black to highlight them, but otherwise just that that color was just awful. Best way to ruin a hot dog. Too much mustard anything, but too much Mustard, we have to catch up. Well, you first shouldn't need hot dogs. They're an abomination. Um hot take right there, no hot what

that's all everybody eats the games or hot dogs? Just bury the lead. Class it up, people of other fair anti American hates. How dare you? How dare you? What's your other one? Mr? Mustards? The other one goes to the well. They look like uniforms from medieval times. And that was when the Bears had those uh gladiator like throwbacks. Oh you know that's the thing is like a crest on them and terrible. There were so many bad throwbacks that teams just wore like a few times in the nineties.

I'm not going to count those, like I'm not going to count the Steelers they look bad. The Packers ones look bad because it was uniforms. You can tell. It was like, listen, we decided to do this, Okay, so just where the uniforms a couple of times and shut up about it, and the players are like, okay, that's fine. There was some look at that bumblebee though I want one of those jerseys, I don't. I think you would

wind up getting stung by a lot of bees. They would all get be drawn to that color and you would wind up getting stung, and you would say, I can't wear this anymore. I just thought I'd get a Hines Warden and put it on my wall or something, maybe an old Casey Hampton, because you know how I can celebrate the career of Casey Hampton. True, well, usually Casey Hampton and Trey Burton are guys you talk a lot about on our shows and and and I'm I don't have to yell about him. Oh that's true. Oh wait,

so that means no more Trey Burton talked this fall awesome. No, No, I'm still gonna flame him for the failings of one Mitchell Trabiski. Oh okay, so it's gonna be he was part of a tapestry of failure executed from from Matt Naggy on down and that it's it's not all Mitchell's fault. I'm not absolving him from all the sins. But Trey Burton and Adam Sheheen are no help alright, So let me write this down. Harmon, gonna blame the guy no longer with the team for a future that hasn't happened yet,

got it? Okay, great. Uh so those are our favorite NFL uniforms and our least favorite NFL uniforms coming up next. Yeah, we'll get into some hats, and the best minor league hats with a special honorable mention to one hat that was warned specifically one year in Major League baseball. Have that coming up next right here, Special teams, the special uniforms. Continuing on special teams, the special uniforms you've given you our favorite and least favorite, and Major League Baseball, the

National Football League. Now let's get to something that really has its own subculture going on wherever you are, and that is the best minor league baseball hats. Now, it's it's hard to talk about the best minor league baseball hats of all time, because of my goodness, you have

literally thousands of hats to choose from. But I will say this before you get into these hats, I want to say I have a special honorable mention for the pillbox hats that Major League ace ball war back in nineteen seventy six, right when it was the three stripes around the around the hat and it just looks so good. The Pirates kept wearing it, and that looks so sharp.

Because then Willie Stargel came up with the Stargel Stars and he started putting the stars in the back of the helmets, kind of like in college football and Ohio State and different teams to put stickers on helmets when for players do specific things like score touchdown or make a sack or you know, this was what the Pirates did back in the late seventies. Yeah, they had a great uh um segment of the baseball Bunch that I had to seem just about a week before we sat

down to start talking hats and uniforms. If you can believe that, where he had Johnny Benches there and all the kids are asking Willie Stargel if they can get some love and and some some stuff for their their hats, and he's like, man, I don't give that away. You know what I like? All these kids are looking at

like jerk. You know what I liked was that whenever you see something like that, and I used to think this when I was a kid, I would look at and go, okay here because the stars would go on the hats when you hit a home run, RBIs whatever it was he did something good, you could always tell when someone was in the field. If they I would always want as a kid. Oh, this guy stinks. He only has like three or four stars on his hat. That guy's great. Look at all the stories he got

it is at Dave Parker's got all those stars. That's awesome. Oh this guy, he's terrible. Like guy still have a job. He must be some stars. He's some guy just up from the miners. He's got like one star. They probably gave it to him because they felt bad that he's got no stars on. Uh. So I do like the pillbox, although I will say wearing the pillbox because I have

a Mets pillbox hat. It's tougher to wear because it doesn't stay straight like you think the top of the hat would stay straight, and it kind of collapses in, so it makes it a tough hat to wear depending on the shape of your head. But it still just looks so good the way the pirates warm, and it was so different from anything baseball did. I wish they

had kept them more than just a seventies season. But still, you know, you got pillbox hats at the stripes around you know what season it was, you get it's hearkening back to the early days of Major League Baseball where other teams would wear those all the time, like that was a look like in the in the teens and the twenties and the thirties, you know, pillbox hats would go all over the place. Now you're gonna go buy

a butt run of those. As soon as you and I are done talking about hats, you're gonna be buying another stack of them. I know you, I know how your brain works. Oh I love hats. Uh So the best minor league baseball hats, and this is I'm looking at the hats that are current slash within the last couple of years. Is where I'm gonna go for my my five favorite hats in minor league baseball. A right

number five, number five, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. It's a big, thin, angry pelican that is on the front of the hat and they have like eleven different looks. It's it's like the Chargers in their uniforms. Like here, my I mean you want to go and look, go, Okay, Myrtle Beach Pelicans. They have okay, the one, two, three, they have all gray, they have gray and black, they have blue, and they

have blue and black. They have blue and yellow, they have yellow and white, they have yellow, white, a little bit of blue. They have this. They have like eleven different looks. But still the angry pelican on the front of a hat looks pretty good. Anytime you get in you get an an animal or a bird that generally isn't angry, and you make it angry, it can either look really great or really bad. The angry pelican looks

pretty good. Well. That pelican's tremendous. Remember the failure of the New Orleans Pelicans, and they had that scary as mascot that he's like to keep away from. I mentioned the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. The hat I'm wearing today, which is a great hat because it's a piece of bacon across the front. I mean, that's that's classic right there. I mean, part of me feels bad. I'm like, okay, it's the pig, but it's the Iron Pigs or the mascot.

But then it's bacon on the hat and it's a little weird, but still it's a hat, you know, and it's and it's the Iron Pigs, and it's the nickname. So I'm okay with where in a plus, I really like Bacon. I mean, I really really like bacon. That's good. Yeah, I like that. I like their basic logo too, though, Jason, I mean because it's it's like a terminator pig. Yes. Oh, it's a very angry looking pig. Yes, that's another one

that works well. And angry looking pig because you think that big and just I think that big could kill anybody. That might be one of the most if we did it. If instead we did a most powerful looking mascot episode of Special Teams, I'd have the iron Pig definitely in the final four. Oh, now you're talking. I like that. Uh. The other ones I like and this is this is not me being a hometown thing, but the Staten Island Yankees Cannoli's hat. I mean that's you know, the pizza

rat hats are fun. You know, they're the a hat for the rat that eight the pizza. But the fact that you can make a hat and you can make it a cannoli, which is an Italian pastry and it's just like a picture, it's like a cannoli but with a face coming out of it, like it almost looks like Mr Peanut, but it's a canoe. And I know many people would see that and go, I don't know what a cannoli is. Okay, Well, cannoli is its cream inside of it's it's fried dough and you move it up.

I mean when you can make a big piece of food part of your thing, just like the lee high out with the bacon. But this is you know, this is this is a lesson. That is a pastry. You can make a cannoli look pretty good and pretty appetizing. And you know me, I'm I'm half Italian. I could wear a cannoli on my on my hat even though I'm not a Yankee fan. I'm from Staten Island. I could wear that hat. I'm okay with it. Leave the gun, take the cannoli. Everybody knows what the cannolis. But these

are my two favorites, without a doubt. And and I can't. I keep looking for the right size and these and I haven't found one yet, but the Frisco rough Riders with uh Swinging Teddy, which is Teddy Roosevelt's I mean, you have a former you got a former president on the front of a hat, and that's pretty good, you know, because he had the rough Riders all throughout Texas and Frisco decided to make them, uh the mascot there. You have to read a history book or go to high

school and know what the rough Riders were. But the but just I mean, the smiling Teddy is pretty good too, with the big sunglasses and the and the hand and the big tom selleck uh brush mustache. But the swinging Teddy is better. But look, I'll go either one with either one of Teddy Roosevelt on the front of a hat, that's pretty good. Well, you know, Danny, you make people

understand how important Teddy Roosevelt. That's right. We're gonna learn about Teddy Roosevelt through a minor league baseball at How does that sound? Kids? You know what? You can spark anything. People started learning about history after they caught a couple of catchy tunes from Hamilton's Where do we turn to

in our book? Mr? Smith? No, We're gonna go to m i LB dot com on your computer, okay, and you want to scroll down Smiling Teddy scroll down, scrolled down, scrolled down, Go Pad, go past the Dayton of Dragons, scroll down, Evansville, scrolled down, scrolled down. Okay, stop right there at Frisco stop at the rough Riders. Uh. And my other favorite, the Montgomery Biscuits. When your logo is a biscuit and you can make the mouth a pad of butter, that's genius. I mean, that's like I don't

need to do anything else in my life. I designed the greatest hat because I made a biscuit into a logo and a mascot and a pad of butter. Is the tongue stands the test of time and one of their best sellers for years now. Those are ones that are always out. It's so hard, Like any time I look, you know, every month or two for Montgomery Biscuits, frisk they don't have them. They have the other ones, which I'm like, why do I want one that says f

R on it? Or are are for rough Ride? Give me something with Teddy Roosevelt on Give me someone a biscuit on it. I mean really, if you give me a good hat with food on it, I'll probably buy it. I mean I'm pretty good. I'm so easy. Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Because my favorites are let's see, a biscuit, president bacon, a cannoli, and a Pelican. I don't know what they all have in Roosevelt was not a small man. He liked and and and get to work. So you got that.

And if that iron pig that I described before, think about it, that was the pig that the kids on Lord of the Flies were chasing. Right, think about how literature changes forever. Uh, couple that, I wanted to mention, why you do that to Piggy? Sorry spoiler alert. I mean it's not like he you know, he's not like he makes it out of there. Well, he had a good run, he had glasses, he had the glad. He needed the glasses. Ralph wouldn't have made it without him

in the glasses. You take down the beast fad for Peggy. Now you just why he's really just brought me down right there, buddy, Now let me bring you back up. All right, bring me back up because because we're gonna go with Scavengers of Food, we've got two honorable mentions for our trash Panda is the Rocket City Trash Band? Does you you know you have been talking up the

trash Pandas for so long. It's a hell of a logo because I mean it basically, you had a bunch of kids saying I like rock kids, guardians and they put him in a trash the trash panda, you know, reference and guardians in a way. You go the rabbits, right, bud Rabbit? Who's the rabbit? They think that the Quad City River Bandits time to go be the captain, which sorry, I just want to run rocket lines. Now, don't press this button. I am crutinous. No no, no, no, don't

press the red button. Sorry, good buddy. Clearly he's the captain and the ship. Yeah, on the captain and the ship. So you have the river guy's leg. Oh I didn't really need the leg. How was it? I was just kidding around? Was it funny him hopping around after he gave you the leg? All right, I'm sorry, Now I'm done. Now I'm done. Go ahead, Quad City River Bandits, which is you know, with the kerchief over the face of another raccoon. I'm just ready to rob you. So you

have that, Um, you have the flying squirrels. That's right, double a for the giants. Oh yeah, flying squirrels are cool because they have it. They have the big logo where they're actually flying and you can see like it looks like a cape that he's wearing, but it's really the underarm of the flap of skin. Yeah, it's it's much better because he's he's much tougher than Rocky the

Flying Squirrel Fain call. He's like on steroids. But my favorite is now, um it's a low a affiliate of the White Sox in Kannapolis and they are now the Cannonballers. They used to be the Intimidators that were owned by Dale Ernhard at one point, but they are now the Cannonballers. And you've got the big baseball head and the goggles on like he's just been shot out of a cannon. The Kannapolis Cannonballers sounds like a team from The Simpsons that the Isotopes are gonna play. Let's go see the

Kannapolis Cannonballers. But believe it or not, there are several teams named the Isotopes out there as well. Well, yeah there are. And the ice Stopes is a pretty good hat. But now it's like so many people have it have like it's cliche. Now it's not cool anymore. Can I give you one more? You can the Biloxi Shuckers, all

the clam it's the clam. I'm away for the Brewers. Well, going back to the food thing, well, yeah, I mean, well we you know, if it was something where I just had to pick all my favorite food and then you know, maybe the lists would be different. But you know, as long as we have food represented pretty well, and I think this tells you a lot about you and I. Well, it really does speak to the show we've been doing on Fox Sports Radio for some six and a half years.

As as we sit and talk about our favorite worst uniforms of all time, and the fact that you and I both like hats, we could go down that rabbit hole for another forty five minutes on hats. So there it is. Special teams. The special uniforms are favorites in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, a little bit of specialness with the r specialness if that's the word. But I just made it up. I have an English degree from Syracuse, uh, and the specialness of the best

minor league baseball hats. I'm Jason, he is Mike. Our show is The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday, ten b into two am on the East seven to eleven on the West coast. Like I said, we like to get to play with

the format a little bit here on Special Teams. Coming up next week, we're back to special teams from specific seasons in sports, after having this fun little run here about when there were no games or special uniforms, and something that we're going to see a little bit more of as we continue on with our Special Teams podcast. If you want to hit us up with your own ideas, Twitter at how about a fresca Mike at Swollen Dome, we'll talk to you next week. Before you go, rate

and review the show. Whether you're listening on I heart Radio, i heart radio apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us a rate, tell us you like it. We will love you forever and ever and ever ye Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.