Negro Leagues Throwbacks Let Fans Wear a ‘Piece of History’

By striving for authenticity, brands like Ebbets Field Flannels have created jerseys, hats and shirts that are equal parts fashion statement and history lesson.

Wearing a Birmingham Black Barons hat on a recent walk through Birmingham, Ala., proved to be problematic for the comedian Roy Wood Jr. “People were literally trying to snatch it off my head,” Mr. Wood, the former star of “The Daily Show,” said of his black and red New Era throwback.

Mr. Wood, who has personal and professional connections to Birmingham, was in town for a game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field — the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country and the home of the Black Barons for three decades — as part of Major League Baseball’s effort to honor the contributions of the Negro leagues to professional baseball. The game, which was played on June 20, came on the heels of M.L.B. incorporating Negro leagues statistics into its official database, rewriting huge portions of the sport’s record book.

The game also served as a coming-out party, of sorts, for the intriguing and enthralling iconography of the Negro leagues — in the form of throwback jerseys and hats — which appears to be gaining in popularity not only among fans but also people looking for fashion options that speak to a social conscience.

For the Rickwood Field game, the teams wore reproductions of Negro league uniforms that were created for the event by Fanatics. The Giants wore the uniforms of the San Francisco Sea Lions, with navy and orange trim and a stylized bear cub adorning the torso. The Cardinals dressed as the St. Louis Stars, with simpler jerseys that featured only the home city’s name across the chest.

And fans around Birmingham could be seen wearing hats, jerseys and shirts from companies like Ebbets Field Flannels and Homage that recreated the look of numerous Negro leagues teams of the 1920, 1930s and 1940s.