Long Pants & Button-Ups: Inside the MLB’s Uniform

By Melissa Hart
Updated: October 14, 2021

Uniforms are an important part of professional sports. They help articulate a team’s identity, as well as facilitate performance. An ideal uniform is specifically designed for a particular sport, allowing mobility, accessibility, and, in certain situations, enhancing safety.

In some cases, like the Olympics, a uniform infringement can be a costly mistake. In other cases, like with professional soccer leagues in Europe, there’s more ‘wiggle room’ in terms of length of pieces, advertising rules, and color.

Clearly, uniforms help players perform better, fans identify with their team, and officials regulate play fairly. But there’s one getup in pro sports that still baffles many: the MLB. The North American league is one of the oldest in the world; it should come as no surprise that the traditional garb of long pants and button-ups is more austere than other leagues.

Still, the uniforms are odd. After all, baseball players will spend around three hours in the grueling summer heat for most regular-season games. Though not as physically demanding as football or basketball, athletes are expected to stand in the sun and make lightning-quick reactions at the drop of a dime.

Factors like heat and conditioning aren’t arbitrary, either. If extreme enough, the weather will influence MLB picks from pundits who cover all thirty teams. So why the long pants? Why the elbow-length sleeves? And will the MLB’s uniform ever change?

Gradual Changes

The MLB got its start in 1869, which doesn’t just make it the oldest sports league in North America, but also the world. For reference, the English Premier League or what was once called the First Division and is now one of the most popular competitions in the world, started in 1888.

Accordingly, American League and National League uniforms were conservative. Prior to the formation of the AL and NL, the Brooklyn Knickerbockers Base Ball Club of New York City created the first prototype: a flannel shirt, wool pants, and a straw hat.

Over time, pants were replaced with ‘knickers’, which were calf-length. Pinstripes came after in 1888 and were followed closely by checkered uniforms the next year. Over the next decades, teams began to wear the same color, with numbers and logos on each jersey.

As such, MLB uniforms gradually evolved. Materials became more lightweight and breathable, designed exactly for long summer seasons. Caps became billed hats, which offered players better protection from the sun. And shoes became cleated, offering runners more traction around the diamond.

But the pants never got shorter than knickers and jerseys never transformed into t-shirts. Why not?

An Emphasis on Professional Sports

The MLB isn’t the only league resistant to uniform change—and for good reason. Just like with the NFL, players continue to wear uniforms that closely resemble kits from a century ago. There haven’t been major updates for safety reasons. In both the NFL and MLB, players will do a fair amount of sliding.

Long pants protect from rashes and burns, which often take a long time to heal in the middle of a season. They also protect the body from metal cleats worn by baseball pros, which can also become dangerous in a sliding situation.

Aside from a daring expose from the White Sox in 1976, the variation in pants has only slightly changed; in the early 2000s, many pros opted for baggier pants, which drew criticism from other players and fans. For them, the emphasis wasn’t just on safety, but also on style.

As a sport with a long history, baseball ‘traditionalists’ find that pants are a more professional look than shorts. Back in the early days of the league, fans wore suits to attend games. The sport was considered an austere affair, and many fans want to keep it that way.

This pertains to shirts. Unlike pants, there’s no safety reason that most MLB teams continue to wear a button-up. It’s pure tradition, at this point. In fact, the MLB doesn’t have a specific rule pertaining to pant length or shirt style. The league’s rule simply requires that all teams wear uniforms that are identical in terms of color and style.