Clothing baseball’s gold, from the Brooklyn Dodgers to Roberto Clemente

All ‘Merican strike out
By Tempe Nakiska | Fashion | 27 May 2014
Above:

Montreal Royals: Jackie Robinson

When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field in Jersey City for the Montreal Royals on 18th April, 1946, he became the first player in history to break the baseball colour line. Next season, he started on first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers – the first major league team to break the racial barrier and shatter its glass ceiling.

Over a hundred years later, baseball fanatic Jerry Cohen came across a warehouse of archival baseball flannel dating from the 1940s – pre Robinson; pre baseball’s step into the sun. Cohen bought a bolt and started Ebbets Field Flannels, a company rooted in the threads that act as emblem for mid-20th-century American baseball culture – from Robinson and Roberto Clemente to Fidel Castro, whose fixture on the US baseball scene from the early 60s on set the foundations of Cuba’s own underground-to-mainstream sporting trip.

Tomorrow, the Milwaukee Brewers step onto Wisconsin’s Miller Park in new Ebbets jerseys, the new addition to a line up that includes the Seattle Mariners, Brooklyn Dodgers, Minnesota Twins and Montreal Royals. In advance of the game – and off the back of these gold archival shots – Jerry Cohen reflects on the then and now of a sport that boasts some of the deepest roots out there.

The 1954-55 Santurce Cangrejeros lineup: (from left) Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Buster Clarkson, Bob Thurman and George Crowe

The 1954-55 Santurce Cangrejeros lineup: (from left) Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Buster Clarkson, Bob Thurman and George Crowe

Tempe Nakiska: What is baseball’s legacy?
Jerry Cohen: In the U.S. baseball began to be ingrained in the culture during the Civil War. It became a passion that entwined individuals, families, and cities. In times of war and depression it allowed people to escape their troubles. In the earlier parts of the 20th century, baseball had very little competition from other professional sports, and was played at all levels: amateur, scholastic, semi-professional, and professional.

TN: What is the power of the sports emblem?
JC: It is a way to bind people to a team or city, and in our case a way to connect people to history. A good emblem is a pictorial synopsis of the essence of the identity of a team, it’s history, and what it represents. Obviously not all emblems achieve that.

Montreal Royals: Jackie Robinson

Montreal Royals: minor league team of Jackie Robinson

TN: How has the sport and its uniforms changed with the advent of technology?
JC: I would say technology has had a mixed effect on design the same way it has on music: it has put tools in the hands of designers and graphic artists, but the resulting designs don’t necessarily stack up against the best of the past, which were had-drawn and executed with much more simplicity and elegance.

TN: I hear your father’s passion for baseball played a big role in the formation of Ebbets. What stories come to mind?
JC: Well, the obvious stories were the tales of Jackie Robinson’s exploits and courage both on and off the field. That’s something that made a big impression of me as a five or six year old.

TN: What teams have you dressed over time?
JC: We have dressed many teams in major league baseball, including the Seattle Mariners, Dodgers, Twins, Royals, Indians, and this week the Milwaukee Brewers…

The Milwaukee Brewers play the Minnesota Twins tomorrow, Wednesday 27th May at Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both teams will be wearing Ebbets.

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