It’s nice to see that collectors are enjoying the knit articles as of late and looking for information. This is why MEARS remains committed to researching and writing. I got an e-mail from a collector about a week ago that read:
“Dear Dave,
Really enjoy your column. I have a question about Tiger’s uniforms from 1976. I seem to remember the Tigers wearing a special patch in 1976, but when I looked at the Baseball Hall of Fame online uniform collection, they only list these patches for 1976.
Dressed to the Nines: Parts of the Uniform-Patches and Armbands
1976 Boston (AL): 200th Anniversary of Massachusetts Statehood
1976 All League Clubs: 100th Anniversary of the National League
1976 Chicago (NL): 100th Anniversary of Chicago (NL) Franchise
1976 Philadelphia (NL), Oakland (AL): 200th Anniversary of U.S.A
Could you tell me if the Tigers wore a special patch in 1976? If you have a picture of what they wore, could you send it along?
Thanks so much.
Evan Granger”
Evan asks a neat question and as much as I love the Dressed to the Nines On-Line reference, there are some gaps or limitations based on how the uniforms are portrayed. As such, I will take some time to layout some images and references for all the clubs that wore special patches in 1976. As you can see, the Tigers are not listed, but the uniform caricatures for 1976 do show a patch being worn. Images of this 1976 Tigers patch are plentiful in the 1977 Detroit Tigers yearbook.
The Cleveland Spirit of 1976 Sports patch worn by the Cleveland Indians is not listed either. It is not shown in the caricatures because of the angle of the figures.
The Boston Red Sox wore the 200th Anniversary of Massachusetts Statehood in both 1975 and 1976, but only on the home uniforms.
The Montreal Expos did wear a special patch in 1976, but it was to commemorate the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, not America’s Bicentennial or the 100th Anniversary of the National League.
Once again, on line references are an invaluable tool, but I continue to urge collectors not to limit their research efforts to the internet simply because it is easy. If you collect a particular team, consider investing in a run of yearbooks. While I don’t collect Detroit Tigers as a team, I did recently pick up a great run of Tigers yearbooks (1969-1985) on E-bay for around $75.00. Without getting to far off topic, I have to say that the Tiger publications from the period are wonderful with respect to the images they have.
For Evan and others, I hope this article has been of some help or value.
As always, collect what you enjoy and enjoy what you collect.
MEARS Auth, LLC
For questions or comments on this article, please feel free to drop me a line at DaveGrob1@aol.com