The "slobification" along with the "pussification" of our once great society are related to the general moral degradation in all aspects of life. As for baseball managers wearing uniforms I think that is mostly tradition as there have been many player-managers in the history of the game. Originally it was a way for owners to save money on one salary but some player-managers certainly contributed back in the day. Tris Speaker won a World Series as a player-manager, Pie Traynor was an all-star. Rogers Hornsby was player-manager for 5 teams in his career. The last player manager was Pete Rose in the mid-80's. But it wasn't rare before the days of super mega contracts. Don Kessinger, Joe Torre, Frank Robinson, were all player-managers.
Also in baseball the managers and coaches do stuff on the field before games. Even the real old guys will hit fungoes and shag flies, and pitching coaches throw with pitchers. As absurd as it is to think of chain-smoking pot bellied Jim Leyland wearing a uniform the actual thing is that managers/coaches don't wear uni's anymore that I can tell. They all wear warm-up jerseys, not game jerseys, those loose fitting, multi colored shirts look even worse then a uniform jersey but along with pitchers between starts, and guys on IR, baseball seems to have segregated the actual game uniform to guys who will actually play.
I can't think of an example of a player-manager in another major sport. I do remember reading once that in the 1950's the Detroit Red Wings had both their goalies injured in a game and so the trainer put on the pads to finish it out!! Hockey in the 50's, much more casual then it is today.
Leyland and his coach
