Baseball-jersey fashion

The Worcester Art Museum spotlights baseball garb.

Photo of red, white, and orange Houston Astros jersey from 1983 worn by pitcher Joe Niekro

A 1983 Houston Astros jersey worn by pitcher Joe Niekro

Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum/Milo Stewart Jr. B-50-83 

Inspired by this spring’s arrival of the city’s minor-league baseball team, the Worcester Art Museum has mounted a new show celebrating the sport: The Iconic Jersey: Baseball x Fashion. Opening June 12, the exhibit offers more than 35 historic and contemporary shirts, along with vintage photographs and trading cards, fabric swatches, and logo designs. On display, for instance, is “Stan the Man” Musial’s 1952 St. Louis Cardinal’s jersey, featuring the team’s bird-and-bat logo, which was hand-stitched (as all the team jerseys were) by workers at the R.J. Liebe Athletic Lettering Company through 2003. There’s the splashy 1983 Houston Astros jersey worn by pitcher Joe Niekro. A simple 2017 striped white top, designed by G Yamazawa and Runaway Clothing, honors the Japanese American players held at the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming during World War II.

What about the uniforms of the new Worcester Red Sox, a Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox? On opening day at the new Polar Park stadium, slated for May 11, team members will trot onto the field sporting jerseys adorned with the iconic yellow smiley-face holding a bat and clad in red knee socks. Devised by the San Diego-based Brandiose, the logo pays homage to commercial artist Harvey Ball, born and raised in Worcester. Ball originally created the smiley-face for a local insurance company in 1963, dashing it off in 10 minutes and earning $45. Sixty years later, it’s ubiquitous, and now affiliated with a multibillion-dollar sport franchise. Go WooSox! 

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

A Harvard Art Museums Painting Gets a Bath

Water and sunlight help restore a modern American classic.

A Paper House in Massachusetts

The 1920s Rockport cottage reflects resourceful ingenuity.

Harvard Film Archive Spotlights Japanese Director Mikio Naruse

A retrospective of the filmmaker’s works, from Floating Clouds to Flowing

Most popular

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Harvard President Alan Garber Helps First-Years Move In

As a potential settlement with the Trump administration looms, Garber gets students settled. 

Explore More From Current Issue

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.  

James Muller in white lab coat leaning on railing in hospital hallway.

Free Speech, the Bomb—and Donald Trump

A Harvard cardiologist on the unlikely alliances that shaped a global movement to prevent nuclear war

Two people moving large abstract painting with blue V-shaped design in museum courtyard.

A Harvard Art Museums Painting Gets a Bath

Water and sunlight help restore a modern American classic.