Globe And Mail February 23rd 1987

 Mariners changing by design

Monday, February 23, 1987

Seattle WA -- Associated Press SEATTLE The Seattle Mariners will have a new look this season - a new uniform with a new logo.

"They are so much more comfortable," pitcher Mark Langston said. "They seem to stretch better. The old jerseys used to get too tight after they were washed."

"For the logo, we wanted to use the team nickname of the M's and incorporate the feeling of a wave in the design," said Randy Adamack, director of marketing for the American League baseball club.

The Mariners have moved away from belted pants, yoke piping on the buttoned shirt front and thin blue stripes down the sides of the pants.

The colors - blue and gold on white for home uniforms and blue and gold on grey for road uniforms - remain the same.

Langston likes the way the new uniforms look, too.

"The old saying - look good, feel good, play good - has some truth to it," he said. "I'm glad we didn't get one of those uniforms with 18 different colors."

The new Mariner uniform was a long time coming. Owner George Argyros and club president Chuck Armstrong began discussing a uniform change in 1984.

David Strong, a Seattle designer, was hired to develop both the new uniform and the new logo. It was a labor of love.

"Here I was at my board drawing baseball uniforms and getting paid for it," Strong said. "But it wasn't much different from the seventh grade when I got in trouble for drawing baseball uniforms during my arithmetic class."

Strong said his goal was to design a contemporary uniform reminiscent of those worn by the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

"We felt that the fan attitude toward baseball is more traditional than toward pro football," Strong said. "We did not want anything too radical. Nothing like the (Houston) Astros, with those bright horizontal stripes. What's right for Houston is not right for Seattle."

The new Mariner uniforms were manufactured by the Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. in St. Louis. The team's caps are from companies in New York and California.