Hail Satin: The Brooklyn Dodgers Briefly Wore 'Rapturous' Shiny Uniforms Under the Lights

Did you know about this shiny piece of Brooklyn Dodgers uniform history?

When ballparks started being equipped with lights for night games in the late 1930s and 1940s, teams were looking for new ways to promote nighttime baseball. A few of them, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, experimented with satin uniforms, the idea being that the reflective fabric would make the players more visible under the lights.

"Remember, lighting systems in the 1930s and ’40s were nothing like today," Tom Shieber, Senior Curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, told Gothamist. (The museum has several of the old satin uniforms in its collection.) "So the satin uniforms were about making night baseball more attractive to fans, but also about making the game more functional for the players, so they could see each other better."

While satin was new to baseball at the time, Shieber notes that it was already being used for basketball shorts and softball uniforms. "In basketball, you're indoors, under the lights, and softball was usually played by people after work, again under lights. So baseball was just following what other sports had done."

The Dodgers — still playing at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn at the time — were among the first teams to try out the satins. In 1944, they added a set of powder blue satin uniforms to their wardrobe. It would be fair to say that the shiny blue attire was a striking look by the visual standards of the day — or any day:

In February 1944, the NY Times (calling them "jockey suits") wrote, "As for the new night uniforms, it seems likely that the Brooklyn fans aren't going to recognize 'Dem Bums.' Home suits are of white satin, with royal blue piping... For the road the suits are a light blue satin with white piping. The light blue will appear as royal blue under the lights." They added, however, that "the Ebbets Field lighting system is undergoing a complete renovation and, according to [Branch] Rickey, 'will be restored to its original candle power' before the first night game" By May, they reported that: "Those who have seen them call the new uniforms rapturous, even if the Brooks may be taken for some good-natured rides."

Later in the 1940s, the Dodgers added a white satin set, as shown here on the legendary Jackie Robinson:

The Dodgers also apparently had some royal blue satins made, although there's no evidence that they were ever worn on the field. They may have been prototypes that were later rejected, or a manufacturer's samples:

The Dodgers long ago moved to Los Angeles, of course, but they still like to honor their Brooklyn heritage. In 2011, they revived the powder blue satin design as a throwback uniform, but in contemporary polyester fabric instead, which sort of defeated the whole purpose. Even worse, they wore the throwback uniform for a day game (additional details here):

The Dodgers weren't the only team to go the satin route. When the Boston Braves — forerunners of today's Atlanta Braves — added lights to their ballpark in 1946, they also debuted a white satin uniform. Shieber, the Hall of Fame curator, says a newspaper account at the time disapprovingly described the look as a "slithery uniform of white satin which shined like lingerie in a department store window." This critique was apparently of no concern to the Braves, who continued to play nights in white satin for the next two seasons.

Some other teams explored the possibility of satin uniforms and had prototypes made but never wore them on the field. The St. Louis Cardinals have one displayed at their team Hall of Fame.

It's not clear what the players thought of the satin uniforms (although it's a safe bet that the equipment staff probably hated having to clean them). In any case, the fad had died out by the end of the 1940s. Seven decades later, they now routinely show up on "worst uniforms" lists.

Satin threads weren't the only thing baseball executives tinkered with in an attempt to jazz up night games. Shieber says teams also experimented with orange balls and neon lighting on the foul poles, and there was even talk of coming up with a way to illuminate home plate. But it's the satin uniforms that had the biggest impact, at least for a few years, making for an unusual chapter in baseball history.