Watch A Short Doc About The Infamous White Sox Shorts, Which Debuted 41 Years Ago Today

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 8, 2017 9:57PM

Like a baseball PT Barnum, former White Sox owner Mike Veeck had a long legacy of publicity stunts, from once making trades in public view at a hotel lobby to—while with the St. Louis Browns—signing a batter with dwarfism, so that opposing pitchers would have to contend with a smaller strike zone. (The infamous Disco Demolition was spearheaded by his son, Mike.) But today we remember a different bit of Veeck showmanship. It was 41 years ago today that the White Sox, under Veeck, unveiled what has become perhaps the most reviled uniform in sports: the short-pants uniform.

As author Dan Epstein mentions in a short remembrance from 2014, the team showed off the uniforms—which also featured the notorious v-neck and Buick-sized collar—to media in March of 1976, although no one imagined the players would actually wear the damned things. But on August 8 of that year, on the first game of a homes doubleheader, it really happened.

The uniforms didn't last long, although they live on "Worst Uniforms of All-Time" listicles throughout the years since. (Although for our money the New York Islanders' "fish sticks" jersey is the most atrocious fashion sight in professional sports.) The White Sox even embraced the fiasco nearly 40 years later, in 2015, when the team took the field in a throwback design, although without the shorts component. Because asking players to slide in shorts is pretty sadistic.

Relive the '70s madness above, and check out an article that Epstein penned about the shorts debacle for Rolling Stone a couple of years back here.