time off

Baseball-uniform history repeats itself, one handcrafted jersey at a time.

High-end vintage baseball apparel may be a pricey niche market, but a one-of-a-kind jersey, hat or dugout jacket isn’t an everyday item. Founded in 1988 by Jerry Cohen and Lisa Cooper, Ebbets Field Flannels, in Seattle, Wash., custom-makes first-rate, handcrafted, historically correct reproductions of gear from big-league teams, the independent minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, and Latin
American teams.

A Brooklyn native, Cohen heard all the old stories about Ebbets Field and the Dodgers from his dad. “As a kid, I played like everybody else, but I liked the history. I bought baseball cards just to see the uniform changes,” he recalls. In 1987, Cohen wanted a genuine baggy flannel baseball shirt, but he couldn’t find one. “I became obsessed,” he says. “Eventually, I found someone who had warehoused authentic fabric from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, bought a roll at a time [and] found a contractor who could make a pattern and shirt—first for me, then for my friends.”

Cooper came on board to handle the production and receiving end. “I wasn’t a baseball fan, but I was detail-oriented,” she says. “I learned on the fly.” The two set up a small, highly specialized company streamlined to custom-make jerseys, hats and dugout jackets one at a time, not by the hundreds. But after Sports Illustrated ran an article called “When Flannels Are Made to Order,” about Cohen and the company on July 31, 1990, everything blew up. “I had blisters on my hands [from] picking the phone up. I couldn’t talk by the
end of the day,” Cooper says.

Spike Lee was one of Ebbets’ first celebrity customers. David Letterman wore one of their jerseys on the December 1, 1995, cover of Entertainment Weekly Magazine, and interviews with other prominent magazines followed.

It was overwhelming. “People think we’re a conglomerate—we’re not,” says Cooper. “We are a tiny group of five or six working at making this happen, enthusiastic and scrappy.” The company doesn’t even use a public relations firm.

Just as he always has, Cohen spends days in archives, at historical societies and with collectors, uncovering astonishing old stories, letterheads and artworks. He reproduced the 1937 Ciudad Trujillo baseball jersey after discovering how Rafael Trujillo, then dictator of the Dominican Republic, made sure he had the best team in the Caribbean: Trujillo raided the Pittsburgh Crawfords, taking Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, among other star players. Then, just in case the players needed additional encouragement to win, he sent his army to the baseball field. No wonder the team only lasted one season.

Cohen also worked on the 50th anniversary shield for the sleeve of this year’s Los Angeles Dodgers uniform. In September, the Chicago White Sox will turn back the clock, outfitted by Ebbets Field Flannels. “We typically do around a dozen ‘Turn Back the Clock’ games for minor or major league baseball teams each year,” Cooper says. “Certain teams will keep their uniforms for a number of years and take them on the road. Other teams, more with the majors, know which they can auction for charity.”

According to Dave Eskanazi, a frequent customer, collector and vintage-baseball aficionado, “There may be other people who do this, but no one does it better, with such aesthetic precision. It is worth every cent.”
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LISA HOLDEN is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.