the decline of western civilization (if western civilization were stirrups)

blame george hendrick. i do. when i played little league, we would stretch our stirrups so you would only see the skinny part. by the time i was playing in high school, it was cool to show some of the stirrup top, or even as little of the skinny part as possible. the point is, we wore stirrups and we showed them off. today, few players show anything above the cleat.

let's review the demise of the stirrup.

here's jackie robinson on his 2008 topps stadium club card, showing a lot of stirrup. pants stop at the upper calf, with minimal stirrup and a lot of full width material. classic.


fast forward about 20 years, and we find a lee lacy 1973 topps card. lee has his stirrups stretched a bit, but you can still see some of the full material below the pant leg, which looks to be hitting at mid calf.


10 years hence, we find ron roenicke on his 1983 fleer card.the pants look a tad bit longer than lacy's, and there is no full width material to be seen. only the skinny part.


4 years later or so, we see the collision of generations on steve garvey's 1987 fleer limited edition card.garvey wears them like lacy did in 1973, but john kruk's stirrups look like an extension of the padres pinstripes. plus, his pants are reaching the lower end of the calf.


a year later, on his 1988 topps card, george hendrick dares to wear the full length pant.

you can actually see a tiny bit of the stirrup at the ankle where the shoe is lower, but for all intents and purposes, hendrick could have been wearing argyles. when i first saw this, i was horrified.

20 years later (i am skipping the derek bell years), we find blake dewitt on his 2008 upper deck first edition card.

this just looks sloppy. these look like the unwashed shrink-to-fit 501's i used to buy. this is progress?

a special note goes out to juan pierre and others who maintain the full stirrup look, either in tribute to the negro leagues or just because it looks right.

it is very much appreciated. maybe there's hope for civilization yet.