Boston Red Sox jersey history through the years

The Boston Red Sox have some of the most timeless and classic jerseys in all of baseball. Here’s a look at how they changed over the years.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had more than a slight obsession with sports uniforms and logos. This fascination continues to the present day and isn’t just limited to baseball. However, since baseball has always been my favorite sport, I’ve always focused on the visual aesthetics of its logos and uniforms more than basketball, football, and hockey.

Within Major League Baseball, there are some teams whose uniforms are pretty much perfect. The Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Cubs wear timeless, classic uniforms that have remained unchanged for most of the last century. However, some of those teams have tweaked and modified what they’ve worn for short periods of time throughout the years and the Red Sox are no exception.

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the uniform history of the Red Sox. Before we begin, I’d like to come right out and get it out of the way by admitting that I’m a traditionalist and a purist when it comes to baseball uniforms. I believe that teams should only have two uniforms: home whites with the team name on the front and road greys with the city name on the front.

(Here’s a bit of trivia for why road uniforms are grey: in the early 20th century it was much more difficult for teams to find laundry facilities while on road trips. Grey uniforms didn’t show stains from dirt and sweat as much as white uniforms and so they could be worn more before needing to be laundered.)

I like short pants (just below the knee) and high, solid colored socks. I like stirrups but I was never as much a fan of them, whether seeing them on major league players or wearing them myself as a kid. Obviously these days long pants are more common and those are tolerable to me as long as they fit well.; I’m not a fan of the baggy “pajama pants” look that some guys preferred (looking at you, Manny Ramirez).

I also really dislike all of the alternate jerseys most teams wear, and that includes the Red Sox. We’ll get into why later on, but to me it looks like they’re wearing batting practice jerseys during games and it’s gotten out of control in recent years. It used to be only for Friday games, but now they wear them multiple times a week because they it to “starting pitcher’s choice” as to what jerseys are worn each game.

Finally, I’m only going to include the everyday uniforms the Red Sox have worn; no special occasion or holiday uniforms like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Player’s Weekend, and the like will be discussed. These are nothing more than merchandise grabs by the league and uniform makers and I don’t consider them part of the official uniform sets. (I told you I was a traditionalist.)

Without further ado, let’s get started.