Mariners Debut Seattle Steelheads Throwback Uniforms in Photo to Honor Negro League Team

The Seattle Mariners are debuting their Negro League-inspired throwbacks for Sunday's game against the Cleveland Guardians.

The team announced in January it will have "Steelhead Sundays" for every home game at the end of the week. In conjunction with the celebration, the Mariners will wear jerseys that honor the Seattle Steelheads:

"The transition makes the Mariners the first MLB team to feature a Negro Leagues uniform as part of its regular uniform rotation," MLB.com's Daniel Kramer wrote. "It's also paired with a significant community investment, as the club is launching the Steelheads Community Fund and committing $500,000 to support Black-led baseball and softball organizations and related community initiatives across the region."

The Steelheads had a brief existence. They competed in the West Coast Negro Baseball League, which folded only months into its inaugural season in 1946.

"I mean, I think I know a little bit about the Negro Leagues and I was totally unaware that these cats existed on the West Coast," former Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims told Andscape's Clinton Yates in 2023. "I mean, it was a piece of history that, like a lot of things in American history, was sort of buried."

There was so little historic evidence of the Steelheads that the Mariners said they made an "educated guess" as to the team's jerseys when they took part in the 1995 "Turn Back the Clock" celebrations.

Local historian David Eskenazi subsequently found a photo of former Steelheads star Paul Hardy, which provided an accurate design template. The Mariners have since worn throwbacks that are more era-appropriate.

First baseman Josh Naylor enjoyed seeing the uniforms added to the regular rotation.

"That's one of the coolest uniforms I've ever worn," he said at the unveiling in January. "This is so cool. Having the privilege of wearing it is, it's awesome."