What Were They Thinking?

I turned on what I thought was tonight's Phils-Braves game and thought that I had accidentally tuned into ESPN Classic and was watching a 25-year-old game. With the Phils down 3-0 in the fifth inning, I half expected to see Warren Brusstar, replete with a mouthful of chew and a cap precariously perched on his afro, warming up in the bullpen. Unfortunately, I have to report that instead the recent fad of turn-back-the-clock (remember the so-named Topps cards?), retro nights has run its course, with these two teams deciding to hold 1976 night. They draped an American, with just 13 stars in a circle a la the Bicentennial, in the center field stands.

The Phils wore their crimson pinstripes with fat script "P" with the opening in the "P" forming a baseball with red seams. The Braves, their classic sky blue unis with white sleeves adorned with cartoon Indian (they predate "Native American") headdress feather and blue caps with the white panel in front surrounding a small letter "a". What next, will the Pirates hold an Enrique Romo night with every player wearing a different combination of black, yellow, and/or pinstripe pants and shirts and those pillbox, striped hats with the merit stars? How 'bout the all-crimson Indians vs. the all orange Orioles? There's something wrong with all-polyester, pullover uniforms being dressed up as historic.

With #27 Damian Moss for the Braves pitching to #9 Tomas Perez for the Phils, I did think that I was watching Rick Mahler (or Mickey Mahler or maybe Gustav Mahler) pitching to Manny Trillo. I saw Marlon Anderson wearing #8 go back for a ball at second and for a second thought that Joe Morgan was back in uniform-until Anderson got to the ball unfortunately. Seeing Phils coach John Vukovich and manager Larry Bowa back in the uniforms that they wore during the Phils' 1980 World Championship run did almost feel historic. Hey, we Phillies fans have to take what we can get.