Red, White and Confused

So another Fourth of July has come and gone. Many of us felt compelled to demonstrate our patriotism by donning Red, White and Blue apparel. (Of course this could just as easily demonstrate your appreciation for France, Great Britain, Australia, and probably countless other countries that share that totally unique color triptych). I myself wore a natty red/white/blue striped polo shirt from Old Navy only to have someone come over to our 4th of July barbecue wearing an actual Polo version of the shirt that looked almost exactly the same, albeit his was much more expensive than mine. (I'm not sure who the real winner in that scenario was). Of course we celebrated America's independence in true Midwestern American fashion, by grilling cased meats. In this instance Hot Dogs and Bratwurst were the meats of choice. We also saw fireworks. I can tell you without exaggeration that the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

Of course Major League baseball, America's past time after all, was eager to demonstrate its love of the ol' U.S. of A as well. (At least everyone but those dastardly Blue Jays. It is only a matter of time until you follow the Expos into oblivion!). Many teams altered their caps in some ways to reflect the stars and stripes and honor our fine country. My beloved Cubs integrated a similar design into the C on their slightly darker blue caps. Here is Canuck expatriate and, shockingly, All Star pitcher, Ryan Dempster modeling the cap

Subtle, tasteful, refined. It is patriotic without being too much on the nose if you will. Across town, however, the uniform decision was a little different.

Am I the only one that saw these uniforms and went WTF? How is camouflage patriotic? It certainly insn't inherently so, unless it is actually being worn in service to your country. I don't think losing to the Oakland Athletics qualifies.
Buehrle looks like a militia member. These guys look like extras from the cinematic masterpiece "Commando" (still Alyssa Milano's finest work).


Is it just me, or does seeing a bunch of Latin American guys in jungle camo suggest more "Viva la Revolucion" than it does "Oh, Say can you see . . . " Camouflage isn’t even distinctly American (maybe that weird pixilated newfangled stuff is, but I digress). In fact major military use of camouflage was first incorporated by the British in the 19th century, the same evil empire we won our independence from. If the Sox really wanted to pay homage to American independence in military fashion, they should have gone with a uniform more in the style of Patriot Pat (minus the football, of course. That would just be silly).

Swisher seems to get that the camo alone doesn’t do it. He employs the use of ridiculous wrist bands to really bring the point home.


And of course I am making jokes, but to me this speaks to a bigger issue: confusing militarism with patriotism. The White Sox suggested the uniform was to honor U.S. troops. This sentiment strikes me as hollow. It is unfortunate that the United States has thousands of its young men and women embroiled in major military operations in two countries (don't forget about Afghanistan, people) right now. I won't get into the false pretenses under which we engaged in warfare, or the false promises of success and victory, at least not in this post. But I will argue that the correlation between patriotism and unexamined, unquestioned military action has been packaged and sold to the American people. It makes me profoundly uncomfortable that a team in my city (I would feel just as strongly were it the Cubs) would seem to unwittingly play into that “pro-America = pro-military” agenda. If Jerry Reinssdorf and Ozzie Guillen want to honor the troops the should do so not by having their athletes play dress-up, but rather by using their influence to help bring them home.