Sharp-dressed Man

Like my favorite Texas trio says, you have to be a “sharp-dressed man.” That’s why I bought the 1959 White Sox jacket. Black wool with red banding at the top of the shoulders and “S-O-X” in Old English lettering spelled out on a diagonal across the left side—need I say more? I seem to remember a photo of Billy Pierce wearing this style. I know I’ve seen him in one from the 1940s. I have a similar one, ca. 1938, and wore it to a radio show I appeared on with Pierce and ex-Cub Randy Hundley. “Well, you’re wearing the right jacket,” Pierce remarked when I stepped into the green room. The lefthander would’ve been twenty-two the first time he wore his, the big S holding a smaller O and X inside its two loops. It‘s eye-catching, with the red wool and leather sleeves. In all, I have nine jackets from minor-league (Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals); major-league (Sox, Philadelphia A’s) ;and Caribbean (Havana Cubanos) teams. They date from 1990-2010, made in the USA either by Mitchell and Ness or Ebbets Field Flannels. The oldest I can remember buying with Clare in tow, a one-year carried into the sports-apparel-and-merchandise store on 35th Street. The one-year old has grown up to have a two-year old. Is nine enough? I guess, unless the unicorn shows up someday. It’s from 1934. Mitchell and Ness only made it for one year back in the ’90: green wool, green button, S-O-X on a diagonal with a bat superimposed. Hope springs eternal, for an item out of the team’s past if not for the team itself.