stirrup sock

Until then, stirrup socks had been an integral part of the traditional baseball uniform, giving them a distinctive look.

The stirrup socks served to display team colors, stripes or team logos.

Chief among them is the players' preference for ever-tighter and longer pants, which have meant the downfall of the traditional stirrup sock.

The Houston Astros wore navy blue stirrup socks with a white star on the side.

Stirrup socks are worn on top of long socks called "sanitaries," usually white in color.

Jose Canseco has the ghost of a colored stirrup sock sewn onto his white sanitary socks.

There are still some sock companies manufacturing stirrup socks for baseball and other sports, including Twin City Knitting Company in Conover, North Carolina.

The Stars also had the dubious distinction of being the first team to replace the traditional bloused baseball trousers and stirrup socks with shorts and long socks in 1950.

The stirrup sock lacked a foot, instead having a loop ("stirrup") which fits within the instep of the foot, exposed part of the white undersock underneath.

If you played Little League, you probably remember the special feeling you had as you adjusted your stirrup socks, perhaps in exactly the same style as your favorite player.

The stirrup sock colors were also the basis of team names, including the Cincinnati Red Stockings, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago White Sox.

Other sports also use, or have used, stirrup socks, but traditionally wore a white sweat sock over, instead of under, the colored stirrup game sock (e.g. basketball, football, hockey).

This is because early color dyes in the outer stirrup sock were thought to pose health issues, as well as the fact that the inner, less expensive white sock could be changed more frequently.

If not for hosiery - specifically, the stirrup sock - there would have been no White Sox or Red Sox or Tigers (the last having been named for the horizontal yellow stripes on their stockings).

This steamy afternoon she had her rooster-comb hair and side curls tucked under a straw Stetson and was wearing 70's gym shorts, a fat naval belt with soccer stirrup socks and a pair of platform sandals she referred to as Romanesque.

Although some teams - particularly college teams - continue to wear traditional baseball stirrup socks, another option has been to replace the stirrup/undersock with a "2 in 1" combination sock that mimics the real thing, or simply to wear a single solid knee-high sock with knickers.