Sometimes you can fight City Hall, or in this case, Major League Baseball.
Back in February, we told you about how the league had asked the Houston Astros to alter the look of one of the throwback jerseys the team was planning to wear this season to celebrate the team’s 50th anniversary. The problem: the jersey of the Houston Colt .45s — the original name of the Astros — featured a smoking pistol..
But now, thanks to fans and gun enthusiasts who expressed their displeasure with MLB’s naked attempt to airbrush baseball history, the suits in New York have changed their minds. So when the Astros take the field at home in Houston on April 10 against the Braves and again on April 20 against the Dodgers, they’ll do so in uniforms that look exactly like the ones the team wore in its inaugural season in 1962 — complete with a depiction of the Colt .45 Peacemaker, which is also known as “the gun that helped win the West.”
According to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart, the team got the word this week that the league had decided that the decision on the uniform should rest with the team and the team alone. With the clearance in hand, it was a simple decision to give the fans what they were clamoring for. At this point, most writers would give MLB some points for seeing the light, but in this case, I’d rather give a pat on the back to the folks who took the time to pressure the league into doing the right thing.
Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.