And sans the silly stirrups

Most of those who do go high cuffed don't know how to blouse their pants; they just bunch the elastic around the knee. Still, I much prefer that to the pajama bottoms.

For what it's worth, stirrups originally had a valid purpose. Dyes around the turn of the century weren't color fast, so when the socks got wet, as in 90 degree heat with players sweating in wool flannel uniforms and wool stockings, the dye would run. If a player got spiked in the leg it could, and did, lead to blood poisoning. Hall of Farmer Napoleon Lajoie, and Fred Merkle of the famous 1908 "Merkel Boner" both suffered serious blood poisoning as a result of spike injuries.

The solution was to wear an un dyed white "sanitary" sock under the uniform stocking. The problem was, players in that era bought their own spikes, and usually only had one pair. Wearing two socks made the spikes fit too tightly. The solution to that problem was to cut out the toe/instep and heel section from the uniform stocking, leaving only a stirrup under the arch. Over the years, the trend was to show more of the white sani. Some players even cut the stirrup and had a strip of elastic sewn in so the could stretch the cut out section higher. I started watching baseball in 1963, so I love stirrups.

And just so you know, I was wearing baseball stirrups in 1963 and have no problems if they returned. The silly stirrups I was thinking about was the '80's fad where the straps went all the way up into the pants with no team colors showing.

As bad as those were (and they were atrocious), they were still better than the T-sock that followed.

I think it was about right when MLB briefly mandated in the late 60s that stirrups couldn't be higher than 7 inches -- a proscription which Frank Robinson immediately violated.

It's a sin what Vince Coleman was doing to those Cardinals stirrups in that picture. If the 'rrups got stripes, ya gotta show at least some of them.

A white sock with a knitted in colored stripe on the inside and outside going up to a solid stripe on the top. It looked like a "T" from the side. The stripes also didn't extend all the way to the shoe top so there was always about a 1/2 inch gap between the shoe top and the start of the stripe.

Here's a link to an example.

https://www.amazon.com/TCK-Premium-Baseball-Softball-Stirrup/dp/B01N467DC5/ref=sr_1_15?crid=2BB036WNN5M56&dchild=1&keywords=baseball+socks&qid=1573152509&sprefix=baseball+%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-15

I hope they don't go back to the hotpants, but a little shorter is good.