Photo by Daniel Norin
Quite often, you will see a soccer coach standing on the sidelines looking sharp in a nice suit, or the head coach of an NHL team prowling about behind the bench decked out in dapper attire. But a suit, often seen as a symbol of power, hasn’t translated over to all head coaches and managers in all sports, of course.
MLB is a prime example where you will see managers decked out in a team’s uniform rather than a suit and tie. Why is this? Why don’t we see baseball head coaches come charging out of the bullpen to scream at the umpire, dressed like they are ready for a wedding or a business meeting?
Really, the last thing that bettors are interested in when looking at MLB odds is what the manager is wearing. It’s about form, stats and odds, and bettors can find top betting sites for MLB through the Legalbet bookmakers rating system which is based on analysing features and offers of betting platforms. As some curiosity still remains about what baseball managers wear, here we look at the reasons why suits are simply not part of the style.
All Down to Tradition
Baseball is steeped in tradition, and that plays a part in why head coaches in the sport wear what they wear, which is a team uniform. That’s because back in the early days, it wasn’t uncommon for a coach to also play on the team.
That dual role would obviously have discounted them from ever wearing a suit. They weren’t going to sit around on the bench in their best dress and then suddenly peel it off Superman-style to reveal a uniform underneath when it was their turn to bat. So what the manager wore was all about practicality.
Even though throughout the years, managers in the sport moved away from also playing, wearing the team’s uniform was already fully ingrained at that point. So it is something that simply stuck and why it’s common practice to this day.
Purpose of Unity
It is so ingrained in baseball culture, that it’s something that would be hard for a manager to give up as well. Seeing one pull on a suit to attend the game would immediately put a spotlight on them, and it would give the outward appearance of them being separate from their team of players.
It can easily be said that sports teams thrive on connectivity and togetherness. So if their leader is “one of them” so to speak, because of dressing the same way, undoing that could bring a psychological disadvantage.
There is the counterargument, however, that leaders should command respect, and a suit is the go-to attire for that. Plenty of sports coaches do wear suits and have successful trophy-winning careers, and you just have to look to basketball and soccer for that.
So non-suited managers in baseball are simply more about tradition than actual purpose. If it were the other way around, dressed-up MLB managers would be a common sight.
Have There Been Exceptions in Baseball?
One of the game’s most famous figures, Connie Mack, who is the winningest manager in the history of the MLB, was known for wearing a suit. He always looked formal, but that was likely more of just an era thing through the 1940s and 1950s that he was a part of, more than a choice.
He was also the team part-owner of the Philadelphia Athletic, so he had a bigger role than just managing, which meant that the suit fit that dual-identity role better. This actually caused some complications because of dress rules while acting as manager.
In the suit, Mack couldn’t get out from the dugout onto the field, and if he wanted to contest anything, the umpire had to come to him.
Will We Ever See MLB Managers Suited Up?
It’s fairly unlikely that things are going to change in baseball. Uniformed managers are just part and parcel of the game now, fully ingrained into the culture of the sport. There would be too much of a spotlight in this day of social media scrutiny if anyone tried to shake up the status quo.
It would simply be such a huge distraction that it wouldn’t be worth it. Individual expressions of style aren’t the baseball way, as any new custom-designed jerseys just go out to the entire team, so there’s no way to stand out with sartorial elegance.
In Conclusion
The fact that MLB managers avoid wearing suits is essentially a nod to history and traditions. It came about through a convenient necessity with dual manager/player roles common in the sport. As with most traditions, they are very hard to break.
