1927 Detroit Tigers home (w/ BIG HONKIN' TIGER ON BACK)

You voted and you shall receive.

Opening Day of 1927 was a crucible for baseball uniform development. That day, two premier teams premiered uniform elements in a place no-one might have dared to put a uni element: on their players' backs. One of these elements would go on to be a staple for virtually every uniform in sports. The other would pass into history, largely forgotten. Only a pennant race could decide.

The New York Yankees thought they were hot stuff. They were all like "oooh, we got Babe Rooooooth," and stuff. But Detroit, managed by Ty Cobb, oly had the best hitter in baseball, Harry Heilmann. And in case you thought the Bronx had cornered the market on tubby sluggers, Detroit also featured Fats Fothergill. Not to mention a young Mechanical Man Charlie Gehringer, and Heinie Manush, who would have broken the slugging record 8 times in his career had he not finished 2nd all 8 times to the man who built the stadium with the short porch.

Oh, and a, in case "Absolam Holbrook Wingo" isn't your best baseball player name ever, the '27 Tigers also had a pitcher named "Lil Stoner."

The '27 Tigers finished 82-71 on the season, just 27 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

Ultimately, it came down to the style of baseball more than the style of their shirtbacks: the '27 Yankees' strategy was murdering baseballs with just average pitching; the '27 Tigers' strategy was murdering MORE baseballs, and purely awful pitching.

Of course, Murderer's Row was wearing plain white pinstripes and player numbers on their backs, while the Detroit Tigers were toying with the idea of a big honkin' Tiger on their backs. Tell 'em Sizemore:

Major League Baseball was going to have one convention or the other: either numbers on players, or big honkin' Tiger heads. Unfortunately for all of us, posterity went with boring digits. But now you, at least, can go back to a time when big honkin' Tigers graced the backs of ballplayers big and bittle.

How boring does the Bambino look now?

These uniforms are a mix of the 1927 home and 1928 away uniforms for the Detroit Tigers. The look is mostly from 1927, one of the very few years in Tiger history when they didn't have an Olde English D on a white uniform. In 1928, the Tigers went back to the whites but put the Tiger logo on their backs.

I put 'em on both, which, like unless you're a blind umpire, you can see that already.

See?

The file replaces your Batting Practice home jersey. If you change the name of it to uniform_det_home.iff, it will replace the home whites and the players' names will be visible (but still not the numbers, there being a big honkin' Tiger on the back).

Remember, back up your original files.