Sac Fly: Throwing Back to 1979

Last night the Phillies broke out their famous 1979 "Saturday Night Specials" - the burgundy jerseys and pants so ugly they mothballed immediately after the game. For the occasion the Phillies outfitted the Braves in their 1979 road uniforms, which thrilled me to no end.

For the occasion several Braves players wore period correct royal blue shoes: Acuna, Freddie, Ender, Donaldson, and Max Fried, to name a few.

More Braves players wore high socks and cuffed pants,

though in the late 1970's few players wore their pants legs so high.

Few Phils wore high cuffed pants.

Many novices on social media mistakenly thought these were the early 1970-s era Braves uniform made famous by Hank Aaron. The Hammer's home and road unis had BRAVES on the chest, a feather on both sleeves, and no name on the back. Later when Ted Turner bought the team he changed the road unis to read ATLANTA on the front, with the large cursive A that was later changed to match the capital A of the red-billed navy caps.

True to the era the Phillies wore zipper front jerseys.

When Bryce Harper reached first base his pal Freddie Freeman pulled down Harper's jersey zipper, revealing his navy undershirt.

These late 70's road unis were even more rarely seen than even the red-pinstriped home version. I had recently decided my next obscure jersey purchase would be the similar 1978 road jersey #27, which was the jersey Ted Turner wore the one day he managed the Braves in Pittsburgh. Perhaps this jersey will now be more available for me to order on line.

Actual 1979 jersey shows one difference:

the names on back were vertically arched.

Once again I'm posting two straight pictorials on the weekend:

first yesterday's Macon Bacon report and now these glorious 1979 throwbacks. Believe it or not I have two of my well written essays waiting in the wings to be published, that were bumped for these uniforms.