New Photo of Brooks Robinson in the 1971 - 1972 Orioles Alternate Orange Uniform

Thanks to this photo on ebay, we have another picture to add to the small group of shots of the Orioles in their infamous all orange uniforms from 1971 and 1972:


If you take a close look at the picture, you can see that this isn't the Orioles usual uniform from the late 60's - early 70's. The stripes on the arm are much wider, the stirrups are solid black, and there is a small white stripe running down the pants leg. This is the rarely seen all-orange uniform that only made a small handfull of appearances in 1971 and 1972.


Unfortunately the picture is black and white so you really don't get the pumpkin effect, but it is nice to see a new photo come to light showing the rare alternate uniform.

The back of the photo provides the details regarding the picture:


The date on the back of this photo from the Baltimore Sun archives indicates the photo was taken on September 16, 1971 and used in the following day's newspaper with the caption that Brooks Robinson is shown hitting a grand slam homer. The handwriting indicates that the Orioles were playing the Yankees.

Sports Illustrated in their September 27, 1971 issue confirms the opponent was the Yankees in this article written by Ron Firmrite talking about the upcoming ALCS between the Orioles and the A's and how it may end up looking like "a ladies softball game":


The SI article also included a photo, which just happens to be Brooks Robinson being greeted by Paul Blair and Frank Robinson after the grand slam pictured above:


According to Baseball-Reference.com, Dave Johnson was the other runner on base at the time.

This is the same photo used in Bill Henderson's MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era to show an example of the uniform:



Based on the information on the back of the photo, I went to the Baltimore Sun archives to find this article from September 17, 1971 which explains that this was the game when the Orioles unveiled the alternate uniforms, and gives a detailed description of how they look:


Even though its B&W, we can add this photo to the small collection of the Alternate Orange Uniform photos, including these two great shots from Steve's Baseball Photography Pages:




as well as a few other B&W pictures:




UPDATE: Thanks to MP34's comments on this blog and Concealed78's comments on Uni Watch, it turns out there are some additional photos of Brooks in the all Orange uniforms on the Getty Images site.

The first set of photos appear to be shot for an article about Brooks (perhaps about his involvement with the uniform through his sporting goods company) since Brooks appears to be the only person in the Stadium and the locker room. Another possibility is that they were shot for promotional purposes to promote the new uniform.








The second set of images is dated April 1972 and indicate that they are from a game between the Orioles and the Indians:



These 2 pictures from April 1972 in Cleveland appear to be shot from the same game as the 2 color pictures from Steve's Baseball Photography Pages (which also identify the pictures as being from April 1972) as well as the 3 B&W photos of Brooks, Boog (notice the railing in front of the first row of seats is consistent with the railing behind the color picture of Brooks batting), and Jim Palmer (notice the empty seats behind Palmer appear to be similar to the color picture of Brooks at 3rd).

If I had to guess at the date of this game, I would say it was played on April 22, 1972. According to Baseball-Reference.com, this game was played on Saturday, with Jim Palmer as the starting pitcher. Brooks Robinson hit a double in the game, which is consistent with this picture which appears to be Brooks leading off 2nd:


The attendance for the game was 2,643, which seems to be about right based on the lack of spectators in the stands.

I appreciate the comments from both readers pointing me to these pictures. Thanks for helping me add a few more pictures to the collection!

UPDATE 2/2011:

I've got a few more pictures to the all orange collection. Here is Earl Waver:


The back of the photo shows this was from the same game as the Brooks Robinson photo at the beginning of this post:


We've also got Frank Robinson, who hit career home run #501 that night:


This article that appeared the day after the Orioles debuted their new uniforms shows the mixed feelings that the players had about appearing in all orange:


UPDATE 3/2012:

Thanks to Ron, we've got 2 more pictures from the Baltimore Sun archives to add to the collection of the all Orange Orioles uniform.

We've now got a picture of Bobby Grich


as well as an individual shot of Dave NcNally in the all orange uniforms:


According to Ron, these pictures are from the 2nd game of a double header against the Red Sox at Memorial Stadium on September 28, 1971.

Thanks Ron for passing along these 2 pictures!

Also, I had come across this picture of Don Buford that I have been meaning to post:


And finally, here are better shots of the pictures of Jim Palmer and Boog Powell which originally appeared in The Sporting News that I had posted earlier:




These last 3 pictures are all from April 22, 1972 in Cleveland.

UPDATE 11/2012:

We've got 4 more pictures to add to the collection taken at the April 22, 1972 game.

Now we a picture of Davey Johnson

and 3 of Merv Rettenmund:

UPDATE 6/2017:

3 more pictures to add to the April 22, 1972 game, this time in color!

Another color picture of Brooks Robinson

and 2 color pictures of Merv Rettenmund: