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“For as long as I can remember remembering, I have always loved sports. I loved playing them, watching them and, as many of my co-workers can tell you, passionately discussing them.
“But there is one specific aspect of sports that has always fascinated me and it’s something you might not expect – the uniforms.
“Many people turn on their TV to watch a sporting event and will maybe notice what colors the teams are wearing but then not give it much thought after that.
“Not me.
“I don’t know why, maybe it’s just the overwhelming sports nerd in me, but uniforms have always piqued my interest like few things do. There are just so many minute details from the materials to the design to even how the names and numbers are applied.
“It drives my wife and mother nuts when they try to purchase a new Steelers, Pirates or Penguins jersey for me as a gift because they know I’m very particular and will be able to tell if it’s a cheap knock-off or, even worse, one of the Japanese or Chinese counterfeit jerseys (many of them not very well-made) that I see far too often in the parking lots or in the stands at games.
“I understand that there’s no practical reason for wanting to wear what amounts to an overpriced polyester shirt while watching or attending a game, but that still doesn’t make me want to don one any less.
“But it’s not just the playing attire of those who compete for gobs of money that interest me. The kid in me loves it when my sons, who now play baseball and basketball, get their uniforms at the beginning of the season. I love finding out what number they’ll wear and what their team colors will be because it reminds me of when I was a kid and how excited I was when the coach handed me that baseball uniform.
“I’m even that guy who will roll up the pantlegs of his 6- and 8-year-old kids during baseball season to show off the matching team color socks. Saying something about ‘you’ll look like real ballplayers’ always gets them on board and usually draws an accompanying eyeroll from my wife.
“It also makes me think of when I was in high school and how proud I was to walk the hallways of Mount Union Area High School wearing that blue and gold Trojan football jersey. Our team may not have been very good, but getting to wear that jersey to school each Friday still made me feel like I had earned something with all the sweat, blood, bruises and sore muscles from two-a-day practices in the August heat.
“To me, the uniform has always been a visual representation of what I love most about sports – the team camaraderie achieved within a group of people who might not ever otherwise associate. I’ve always felt proud to wear a uniform because it was tangible evidence of a select club to which I had earned membership.
“So the next time you watch a sporting event, whether it’s in front of five people or 50,000, whether it’s little kids or the best athletes in the world, look at that uniform and what it represents.
“It’s a lot more than just a shirt with a number on it.”