Gary SouthShore RailCats go Back to the Future

The Gary SouthShore RailCats, three-time champions of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, are getting the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and going Back to the Future. The RailCats will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic movie with custom uniforms featuring Marty McFly’s signature get-up in a June 13 game against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.

“The team asked for something that looked like Marty McFly and what he wore in the movie,” said designer Jeff Tasca of the firm Athletic Knit. “That was pretty much the only instruction. I was pretty much free to do whatever I wanted with their logo and the jersey.”

As a fan of the movies, Tasca took that creative license and ran with it. The jerseys will feature Marty McFly’s orange vest (“Hey kid, what did you do, jump ship? What’s with the life preserver?”), his denim jacket, and his distinctive blue-and-white checked safari shirt. All jerseys will have the name McFly on the back. (No word on what brand of underwear the players will be wearing, but one detail we’d love to see on Back to the Future night would be if some players went by the name Calvin.)

Even the RailCats’ regular logo was sacrificed in deference to the Back to the Future identity. “I made sure when doing up the jersey that the details were as close to his actual costume as I could,” Tasca said. “I did it up with the front logo looking like the Back to the Future movie logo. Also used a Back to the Future font for the back numbers.”

While the RailCats are only changing their jerseys for the theme night, Tasca did float the idea of baseball jeggings past the team.

“I ended up doing a set of pants for fun,” he said. “The baseball pants were set up to look like a pair of 80s-style jeans. It had the number on one of the back pockets and I made it look like the picture of Marty and his brother and sister (that he carries with him in the movie) was sticking out of the back pocket.”

The theme night will feature free admission for fans born in 1985 or 1955, an actual DeLorean in the stadium, and the National Anthem performed on an electric guitar. And if that weren’t enough, here’s this nugget from the team’s website: “Fans driving a Delorean will receive free VIP parking for the game.”

The jerseys will be auctioned off during the game to benefit the Hobart Jaycees Foundation.