Yesterday’s post was about America’s bicentennial in 1976. Something else that happened in 1976 was the National League’s Centennial. Several teams observed the Centennial in ways which people confused for observing the Bicentennial.
Of course, everybody knows the Pirates wore funny hats…
The Cardinals wore funny hats almost as much as the Pirates…
…and did the Pirates one better by wearing funny helmets to match their funny hats…
…The National League All-Stars wore funny hats (but not during the game)…
…The Mets wore funny hats (but not much, and the only image I could find in my collection was this shot from 1976’s Old Timers’ Day: This is Don Cardwell and Sal Maglie)…
The Reds and Phillies and NL umpires also wore funny hats, but I couldn’t find any decent images of them.
…and every team, funny hat or no funny hat, wore a “National League Centennial” patch like Manny Mota has.
Everybody but the Pirates would abandon the funny hats after the season. The following year the Pirates would add funny uniforms to go with the funny hats, and would continue to wear those up through the mid-1980’s.
The Shlabotnik Report 