For years the MLB has tried to keep plaid out of the sport. Many team uniforms are pinstriped and fields are mowed in striped, checkered and argyle patterns, but why not plaid? The answer… bagpipes. Bagpipes an instrument synonymous with plaid could have been the official instrument of Baseball. All of your favorite tunes, like “charge,” “take me out to the ball game” and “we will rock you” were all originally played on the bagpipes until 1921.

The league’s first commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis (commissioner 1921-1944) had a deep hatred of bagpipes. Landis’s parents wanted nothing more for their son to grow up and travel the country with circus playing the bagpipes. Kenesaw Landis had a different set of aspirations Landis wanted to be a successful judge. When Landis dropped out of Logansport High School to pursue a career in law he also dropped his bagpipes like a bad habit. From that day on Landis set swore off bagpipes and anything that reminded him of them. Landis went on to have a successful law career prior to baseball.

When Landis became commissioner his first order of business was to eradicate bagpipes and plaid from baseball. As part of this uniforms could not be plaid and fields could not have the appearance of plaid.