To mark the team’s 50th anniversary, the ever-colorful Houston Astros will be bringing back Houston Colt .45 jerseys for two April games and sport other retro unis throughout the year.
The team will don the jerseys at their April 10 and April 20 games at Minute Maid Park. The jersey, worn when the team was named the Colt .45s in its first three years of existence (1962-64), included a pistol below the name “Colts” across the chest of the uniform. There was an issue with the team proposing the throwback: MLB isn’t too thrilled with gun imagery associated with its teams, and MLB officials had to sign off on its usage. The Astros don’t hide from the Colt .45 history — it’s prominently displayed in the history walk at Minute Maid Park — but the team has never embraced it in recent years on the marketing front.
“We made this decision for a number of reasons,” said Astros owner Jim Crane. “We listened to our fans, who were almost unanimously in favor of wearing the original jersey. We wanted to honor all of our past uniforms during this special 50th anniversary season, and we felt it was important to be true to the tradition of the franchise.”
When it comes to uniforms, the Astros may have the most colorful history among any MLB team, first with the original .45s look and then with the brightly colored, vaguely beer-league look of the original Houston Astros. In fact, the team has enough old jersey designs in the books to run a promotion called “Flashback Fridays,” where the team will wear a different uniform from its past each Friday home game.
Image courtesy of the Houston Astros.
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