The Essentials: Keep 'Em Guessing In A Handmade Baseball Jersey From Seattle's Ebbets Field Flannels
The Blue Jays have pulled themselves out of purgatory, Mike Trout has made the MLB his training gym, and Miggy “The Venezuelan Vanquisher” Cabrera has notched his 3,000th fucking hit.
Yes, that nickname was made up on the spot. What? Miguel’s a monster.
Oh yeah, and Shohei Ohtani might just become the best pitcher-meets-hitter since Babe Ruth himself, especially if he keeps this up.
Pro baseball’s back for its 119th year of existence, guys, and this young season’s already looking box office.
To think it was this close to not happening, too. But let’s not morass ourselves with the minutiae of collective bargaining agreements. That stuff sucks. You know what doesn’t, though? 12 teams making the playoffs instead of 10, and we’re getting just that for the first time this post-season.
Image: Ebbets FIeld Flannels
And they say baseball’s dying, too, even though more people watched last year’s World Series than they did they did the NBA finals (plus according to Forbes, the MLB’s on pace to generate $11+ billion in revenue this season).
We’re living through the primes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Juan Soto, for Pete’s sake.
If anything, there’s never been a better time to love baseball.
So why show you a bunch of shirts from the sport’s oldest era?
Firstly, these aren’t any ordinary jerseys. Based in Seattle for over 30 years, Ebbets Field Flannels has earned their name selling vintage replicas of old-world baseball jerseys, each one cut, sewn and stitched from scratch, the old fashioned way (their famed storefront on 1723 1st Ave. was one of many small businesses that fell to the bug, but they live on online).
In fact, everything Ebbets gets made in the USA, including the company’s other main draw — their 100% wool caps, all of which feature a Kelly green under-visor in satin, no less. So widely revered is EFF that they’ve outfitted some of the game’s biggest legends, and for a few even bigger occasions; Ebbets dressed Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford at the last game played at the old Yankee Stadium in 2008, and there’s the time they dressed the Athletics and the Giants in Oaks and Seals jerseys respectively.
Technically, this post's about jerseys, but we’d be criminal not to show you at least one of Ebbets’ caps.
You’re looking at a replica of the Montreal Royals cap Jackie Robinson wore during his only season with the Quebecois club in 1946. At the time, Robinson was the first black man to sign with an all-white pro ball club. And despite deflecting a shit-ton of racial slurs, the man went on
100% wool and handmade in the US of A.
Image: Ebbets Field Flannels
While passive fans may scratch their heads at first, it’ll take everything for purists to not to throw their cash at this brand.
From the Negro League’s famous Homestead Grays to Cuba’s infamous Barbudos, every club that mattered in the game’s golden age is represented in stunning reproduction, and all jerseys are crafted from wool flannel with numbering and lettering in featured in felt. Each jersey takes six to eight weeks to make post-purchase, but it’ll pay to be patient.
“EFF” even stocks a Montreal Black Panthers jersey, a famous team of all-black players from the Southern US who packed up and joined Quebec’s legendary “Provincial League” in 1936.
Fact: Besides being one of history’s most successful indie leagues, The Provincial League was the first safe haven for African-Americans to play without getting harassed by assholes in the stands.
Another fact: Montreal also welcomed a young Jack Roosevelt Robinson in ‘46 when he did a season with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team, the Royals.
Here’s reason two for showing you jerseys that could live in a museum: With Goliaths like Guerrero Jr. and Ohtani pushing baseball past all known frontiers, you can’t deny the sport’s seeing untold levels of hype.
But to know that hype’s roots in its truest form is to go back, way back.
And if there were ever a sport whose history is too rich to ignore, it’s baseball.
That, plus how nice are those things?