T: Here at T&A, we are big sports fans.  In honor of Major League Baseball’s opening day, we are profiling the traditional baseball shirt, a piece of truly American style. 

Baseball shirts normally have a white body with sleeves and a collar in a contrasting color.  They are often worn are worn under a baseball jersey or with jeans if you prefer to watch baseball instead of playing it.  Baseball shirts also tend to have 3/4 length sleeves which are a little warmer than short sleeves and made it easy in the era before spandex to hold a baseball or baseball bat without your sleeves getting in the way.  They also tend to have raglan sleeves.  What is a ragalan sleeve you may ask? (I know you did)

Well….the term “raglan sleeves” come from the Crimean war.  There was a type of overcoat named after Lord Raglan, the British general in the Crimea. The garment was unusual in that the sleeves continued in one piece up to the neck, producing a larger, looser armhole that suited the one-armed general, hence the term raglan sleeve.  Raglan sleeves make it easy for our baseball heroes to move their arms around as throw and swing their arms to hit. 

Boom!  Bet you didn’t know that! (I didn’t either until I went onto Wikipedia).

Go PHILS!