Bill Veeck introduced two major innovations to baseball in 1960.
The first —Comiskey Park’s famous exploding scoreboard — received more notoriety then, and that fame continues to this day. In an age of constant bells and whistles drumming into the ears of fans, many actually are aware that the concept of fireworks (and, yes, bells and whistles) after home runs largely originated with Veeck.
The second innovation, one that few fans credit the clever owner for developing, was the concept of putting players’ names on uniforms.
On March 13, 1960, Veeck unveiled his idea, one that has impacted nearly every team thereafter, not only in baseball, but across all sports.