Surprising color on SF Giants City Connect uniforms actually based on history

The SF Giants debuted their new City Connect uniforms on Tuesday. The jerseys are meant to pay homage to San Francisco's music scene, and the surprising purple element to them is actually based on history.

When the jerseys first leaked a few weeks ago, the fact that there was purple on them seemed somewhat sacreligious. The Giants wear orange and black. Anything else just felt wrong.

However, seeing he full uniform together makes the purple a little easier to stomach. It is also interesting that this is not the first time the color purple has been featured on a Giants uniform in the franchise's long history.

Purple is not so foreign in long history of Giants organization

As Maria Guardado wrote in her article on the new uniforms, "The purple is meant to evoke the Fillmore’s stage lights and Haight-Ashbury’s posters, though it also pays tribute to the franchise’s New York origins from when the Giants briefly wore violet from 1913-17 as a nod to New York University."

The Giants existed as a New York baseball team from 1883 until the team's move to San Francisco in 1958. That is why it makes sense that they would pay homage to NYU, whose colors are still violet and black.

A website that has record of all of the team's old uniforms shows that from 1913 to 1917 the Giants did indeed have a mauve or violet hue on their uniforms. The team even had a very bold plaid uniform in 1916 that features purple. Perhaps it is for the best that the Giants marketing team did not bring the plaid back as well.

It was not until 1947 that the Giants switched to orange and black as their primary colors. That iconic combo has stuck ever since so it is interesting to see a new element on the team's uniforms.

Everyone will have their own opinions on the new look. Some will welcome it and others may never be able to accept it. Ultimately, most people really only care whether the team wins or loses, not what they wear. San Francisco had a very good record in their previous white and orange City Connect threads which were also polarizing.

Maybe the more polarizing the uniform the better the team plays. If that is the case, then there is a chance this new look will bring out the best in the Giants on Tuesdays at home.