One of the first things that Bob Short did after buying the Washington Senators in 1968 was to travel to Florida and sign Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams as the team's new manager, replacing another slugger, Jim Lemon (who replaced another slugger, Gil Hodges).

I was 13 in 1969 and I clearly remember the excitement when Ted Williams took the field for the first time in a Senators' uniform. Pompano Beach was abuzz with reporters. That said, I don't recall ever seeing a photo from spring training that year, and television coverage of the Grapefruit League was still a couple of decades away. So the first time I actually saw Williams wearing his Senators' uniform was on opening day in 1969 (the Senators lost something like 8-3 to the New York Yankees. It was a dreary and rainy day; the game likely would have been called had it not been opening day. The only highlight was Frank Howard getting a kiss from "Morganna the Wild One"). In his three years as manager, Williams wore but one home uniform, the one we old folks remember clearly; creme white with no pinstriping or piping around the sleeves or neck. Simple yet attractive.

So it came as a real surprise when I came across this magazine cover featuring Ted Williams in his home Senators' uniform. His home pinstriped uniform.

Huh?

That uniform was worn from 1963-1968 ('63-'67 with a blue cap, '68 with red cap). Short didn't care for pinstripes however and helped create the uniform that we remember today.

So if the Senators never wore that uniform after the end of the 1968 season, and if Ted Williams joined the Senators after the uniform was "retired," exactly why is it that Williams is gracing the June 1969 cover of Sport Magazine wearing that old uniform?

All I can figure is that this photo was taken during spring training (though the background doesn't look like anything I ever saw at the Senators' spring training complex in Pompano). Perhaps the new uniforms hadn't arrived yet and the team was forced to wear the previous years uniform.

That's certainly plausible.

However, if that's true, then Williams is wearing Frank Howard's uniform (remember, Hondo graciously gave Ted his #9) and though Williams is a big man, he wasn't nearly as large as Frank. That uniform should be hanging loose on him.

Any ideas? I really don't have a clue. I'd be curious to find out.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 7:52 PM