Dressing Up for Games

This afternoon after a morning of writing and yard work and then more writing in the early afternoon, I turned on the TV to one of my favorite channels, the MLB Network. And MLB was broadcasting the fourth game of the 1969 World Series that pitted the Mets vs. the Orioles, of which I caught the last 15 minutes.

In the past, I've stumbled upon old pictures of baseball games and broadcasts of old games. And I've always been fascinated by how people used to dress up for sporting events. In the past, I had usually thought of that practice being firmly entrenched in our culture until the 60s came about.

So I was surprised when a Met hit a foul ball to the right field and I saw some shots of the stands, and there in '69 most of the men were in sport coats and ties, and the women were in dresses and some had fancy hats, at least in the lower echelons of the stands, the good seats. I didn't get to see the upper decks since I only caught the last part of the game.

Unlike games in the 40s and 50s, I didn't notice any men wearing hats, but in the late 60s, people were still dressing up for games. When did this practice of dressing up for game die out I wonder? When was the tipping point?

Nowadays at least, you have all kinds of people dressing for comfort, especially on college campuses where some students seem to revel in dressing like flippin' slobs. And when I've gone to pro baseball games in the past, fans are dressing "up" in their team's gear, not in coats and ties and fancy dresses.

The exception I can think of, however, is college football in the South ~ how people in Greek organizations dress up in formal attire for football games. It's a big deal. You'll see shaggy headed frat boys in sport coats and ties sweating away during games as sorority girls show off fashionable sundresses and outfits.

My one disclaimer is that I don't know if this is predominant across all of the South. I've just seen it first-hand at Bryant-Denny (Alabama) and Vaught-Hemingway (Ole Miss), and I've seen such attire being worn in the stands when I've watched games on TV played in Starkville, Athens, Auburn, Columbia, and Baton Rouge. I'm not clear on whether this Greek formal attire phenomena also happens at Kentucky, Vandy, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.