The Kansas City Royals hosted the Houston Astros tonight wearing throwback uniforms of the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs and the (short-lived) 1950 Houston Eagles. Both uniforms reflect the beginning of the waning days of the Negro Leagues, but important history nonetheless. In 1945, All-Star shortstop Jackie Robinson was famously signed away by the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Eagles were crumbling along with the rest of the Negro Leagues in 1950, living out a brief move from their familiar home of Newark and moving on to New Orleans before ultimately folding after 1951. I'd like to add a few observations:
-Both teams are wearing white. While intentional or not, this is actually pretty realistic as sometimes teams only had one set of uniforms. I'd imagine that road grays of the Houston Eagles were hard to find images of, if they existed at all. The image to the left is one of the only photos of the team during their tenure in Texas, a brief news release advertising an upcoming barnstorming stop in Ohio. that The Eagles in 1950 were a franchise on the decline and had only been in Houston for a single previous season.
-The matching helmets are a nice touch and not always seen in these sorts of games. Accurate number fonts also complete the look. While the Eagles wore accurate hats, the Monarchs variated slightly however, wearing a style from 1942 (the 1945 team wore solid colored caps). They look good with this jersey set however, so I'm not complaining.
-I wish the teams wore higher, looser pants and stirrups. I believe the Brewers did as much
during their tribute to the Bears about 10 years ago.
-I don't care much for the Nike/New Era logo treatment and the ad patch on the sleeves, but contrary to my purism, that is how the game looks today. I'm certain that in an alternate universe, someone was bothered by their Monarchs changing their uniform styles fairly frequently.
Ultimately, a great effort at honoring the game's past and one I wished all 30 teams would attempt. 9/10
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