Not sure what Yankee Stadium food vendors wear now but, apparently, sometime in the late sixties or early seventies they donned this far out, font-heavy number. Baseball photo historian Baseball by Bsmile shared this recently on Twitter and points out that the shirt was designed with ketchup/catsup and mustard colors.
A 2008 Uni-Watch (a site that follows sports teams aesthetics) article shares:
…Reader Paul Wiederecht has provided a wealth of interesting background info…
I saw that vendor’s shirt used from 1968-72 at games I attended. Sorry, no pics, but I think I may be able to shed some light on the shirt’s design history.
Much of the Yankees’ look during the team’s CBS ownership era can be attributed to Lou Dorfsman, who was CBS’s creative director for more than 25 years. Except for the eye logo, which was the inspiration of his predecessor, William Golden, Dorfsman was responsible for CBS’s corporate and on-air look. His contribution to graphic/interior and set/broadcast/advertising design is legendary, he set the high standard that artists like me have trying to measure up to our whole careers.
Anyway, back to the shirt: If you look here, you’ll see an example of the three-dimensional wall treatment in the CBS employee cafeteria, which was executed by Herb Lubalin (a typographer of note in his own right). You will see many design similarities [between the wall treatment and the vendor’s uniform], and similar design treatments can been seen in many Yankees publications from that era. I would not be surprised if Dorfsman used Lubalin’s design studio for many Yankees projects, possibly even this shirt.
Dorfsman sas also responsible for the “look” of the stadium — the blue seats, the use of Helvetica for signage around the building, plus he had the walls and facade painted white. My mom, who worked in the club offices from 1953-57, said the previous paint color was “[Dan] Topping money green,” which can be seen in the scenes shot at the stadium in the 1959 film “The FBI Story.”
I know I’ve gone on a bit here, but I don’t think Mr. Dorfsman has gotten his due for his efforts on this subject. If you look at Yankees material since, it dosen’t measure up…
