No room for baggy pants in baseball

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 30, 2003 | by Jerry CrasnickBLOOMBERG NEWS

AS MAJOR League Baseball teams get ready for the season to begin in the next few days, some players are fussing over their wardrobes like Academy Award nominees on Oscar night.

Big-leaguers accustomed to roomy shirts and baggy pants are conferring with equipment managers to comply with the new look, in the first year that uniform regulations are part of the game's labor agreement.

The commissioner's office says the guidelines are necessary to maintain consistency and prevent violators from gaining a competitive advantage. Some players are dubious.

"Sometimes baseball surprises me with the stuff they worry about," said Houston first baseman Jeff Bagwell.

Baseball's new collective bargaining agreement, reached in August, includes more than three pages of guidelines on everything from helmets to footwear.

Among other things, the uniform regulations prohibit players from wearing "distracting jewelry" of any kind, and dictate that at least 51 percent of each player's shoes must be the club's "designated primary shoe color."

The guidelines include seven restrictions on pants, six related to shoes and five to jerseys. They also address the potentially sensitive issue of tributes to fallen teammates.

Last year, baseball took notice when several St. Louis players inscribed home-made tributes to pitcher Darryl Kile on their caps after he died from a blocked coronary artery in June.

This season, players will be permitted to wear tributes on their jerseys or caps "in the event of the death, or life threatening injury or disease," of a teammate. But they must first receive permission from the commissioner's office.

Sandy Alderson, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, said the commissioner's office is trying to promote uniformity while allowing players to maintain some freedom of expression.

"At some point there has to be a degree of consistency in the uniforms," Alderson said. "That's all we're trying to enforce. I think we're much more lenient than any other sport."

The NFL routinely fines players for droopy socks and untucked shirts. Two years ago the NBA fined nine players, including Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, $5,000 each for wearing shorts that were too long.

The NFL's rules are designed in part to protect sponsors. Alderson said baseball's guidelines are strictly for competitive and style reasons.

While Alderson said a player in a baggy uniform might have an edge because it increases the chances he'll be hit by a pitch, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Kevin Young disagrees.

"When they say excessive bagginess of the pants could alter the outcome of the game, that's the biggest crock of bull I ever heard," Young said.

Although baseball plans to discipline violators, Alderson didn't say whether the punishments might extend beyond fines. He said individual players or their teams might be disciplined, depending on the violation.

San Francisco's Barry Bonds, Boston's Manny Ramirez, the New York Mets' Cliff Floyd, Montreal's Livan Hernandez, Young and Bagwell were among the players who pushed the limits of what baseball considered appropriate last year.

"It's been funny in a way," Young said. "But there are certain days, when you go 0-for-3 with two punchouts, that you don't want to hear anything about your pants."