Matthew Drake Reimagines MLB’s City Connect Jerseys

Greetings and a good Sunday morning to all. Hope everyone had a fantastic Saturday.

Now that all fourteen teams for 2021-22 have unveiled and worn their City Connect (CC) uniforms, I’m pleased to bring back Matthew Drake, who has been featured many times on Uni Watch with uniform concepts in all the major sports. Matthew is here today to give share his tweaks to the 14 CC jerseys we’ve seen to this point. In some cases, the tweaks are minor, whereas in a few, he has made some serious changes.

He approached me with this after the Padres became the final team this year to unveil their uniform and wanted to share his ideas — (unfortunately) they were already completed when he did so, as I had hoped he’d have created caps and pants to go along with the jersey reimaginings. Alas, the template he used for these was “jersey” only one, so rather than send him back to the drawing board, I asked if he could give us an idea as to how the uniforms would look (ie — pants and caps), and those are all contained in the writeups below.

Last summer, after all the first round (2021) CC unis had been unveiled, I ranked them, and I’ll be doing another of those rankings (I will likely rank the 2022 unis against one another, with a full 14-team list as well) down the line.

Here’s a quick refresher on those first 14 CC unis (graphic created by our pal, Chris Creamer):

And now…let’s see what Matthew’s revised CC jerseys look like.

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Reimagining the City Connect Jerseys
by Matthew Drake

Arizona Diamondbacks

This is the one jersey where I didn’t change anything, not necessarily because love the design, but more-so because it didn’t really offer much to work with. The cap and sand pants would remain the same.

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Boston Red Sox

I don’t mind the Sox actual City jersey at all, but it simply doesn’t feel like a “Red Sox” jersey, so I went with a Green Monster-inspired design in order to keep more in line with the team’s history. The cap would be the same shade of green, with a white “B” logo & an extra white outline. They could probably just use the regular home pants with this one too.

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Chicago Cubs

I realized that the Marlins’ City Connect might actually work better for the Cubs, because the red with white pinstripes reminded me of the classic Wrigley Field scoreboard outside of the stadium. Add a little light blue to that & you get the city flag’s colors, as well. For this one, I imagine the cap would be light blue, with a red brim, & a white “C” logo with a red outline.

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Chicago White Sox

Since I added a black pinstriped alternate to the regular rotation in my concept for the Sox (@MJD7Design on Twitter to check it out), I went the city flag route for this, while keeping the Southside wordmark & using the flag’s stripes as a reference to the 80’s SOX uniforms. The cap would have a light blue crown, a white front panel, & a red brim, with the classic Sox monogram for the logo.

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Colorado Rockies

The Rockies were among my favorites of the City Connect jerseys, so I just swapped their regular logos & wordmarks in to coincide closer with the main identity. The cap would be the same as real life, forest green with a white front panel, it would just have the Rox regular “CR” logo in purple.

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Houston Astros

I made the wordmark white to stand out more, and added a “shooting star” around the front number. The hat & pants would remain largely the same.

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Kansas City Royals

Navy felt like an odd choice for the Royals to me, so I went with their classic royal blue, while adjusting the stripes & number font to match the logo better. The cap would be royal with a powder blue brim, & the same logo as the jersey.

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Los Angeles Angels

The Angels probably have my favorite jersey of them all, so the only changes are swapping silver for athletic gold, & putting the cap logo on the sleeve patch roundel. The hat would be identical to reality save for the gold halo.

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Los Angeles Dodgers

I feel Dodgers’ City jersey was pretty much a dud, so I went with a design that came directly from one of the Dodgers’ celebrity softball games. The hat would be Dodger blue with a white brim, & the LA star logo from the jersey. They’d also probably go with the regular white pants.

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Miami Marlins

Since the Cubs got the Marlins’ original red design, I couldn’t help but go with a basic South Beach neon lights theme here. The cap would be all black with the marlin logo seen on the sleeve. The pants would be black as well, with stripes matching the sleeves, blue down one leg, pink down the other.

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Milwaukee Brewers

Much like Arizona, I didn’t really love the “Brew Crew’s” design, but couldn’t really find much to change with it, either, so I just got rid of the grill logo (too Minor League, in my opinion) & added the People’s Flag of Milwaukee within the BiG logo. The cap would be navy with a powder blue front panel, utilizing the same logo seen on the sleeve, and the pants would be matching powder blue (obviously).

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San Diego Padres

I was hoping the team’s reveal would shed light on why they chose such bright colors, and while the connection with Mexican culture is a cool direction, I wish they embraced it more in the actual design, which is what I tried to do with the wordmark & logo. I’m envisioning the hat having a white crown, a sea foam green right panel, a pink left panel, and a yellow brim.

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San Francisco Giants

I tried to give the Giants a more classic design by going with an off-white base like their regular home jersey, darkening the orange to “International Orange” to better match the Golden Gate Bridge, removing the “fog,” & finally adding their elegant “San Francisco” script onto a jersey. The cap would be International orange with an off-white “SF” logo.

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Washington Nationals

It was weird to me that the Nationals’ City jersey was inspired by the cherry blossoms but the pink was barely visible, so instead I made the whole jersey pink, while adding some striping reminiscent of the Nats’ main jerseys. I think an off-white cap with a pink brim, & a pink “DC” logo, would look good with this.

• • • • •

Thanks Matthew! I think we can all agree that the CC program has been hit-or-miss (and how many hits and misses depends on personal opinion — I’m sure many of you disagree with the ones I like and dislike), so Matthew’s tweaks offer a nice new perspective. Love to have your thoughts on these in the comments below!

A Uni-Centric Summary of the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup Parade

[Editor’s Note: Today we have a guest sub-lede from Colorado resident {and ticker stalwart} Kary Klismet, who will bring you up to speed on the Stanley Cup Parade recently held for the Colorado Avalanche — PH]

by Kary Klismet

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks in the Denver area since the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last week. And it’s been equally eventful from a uni-centric standpoint for those who Get It™. As a Denver resident, Avs fan, and avid uni-watcher who took part in some of the celebrations, I’ve collected all the uni-related news I could find to provide a report. (Perhaps it’s a bit after the fact, I’ll admit, but my travel schedule over the 4th of July weekend and a busy work week afterward pushed this back several days. And besides, we here in Colorado are still in the afterglow of the championship, so it feels timely to us!)

The city of Denver, which had already decked itself out to cheer on the Avs during their playoff run, gussied up its downtown even further in preparation for a parade and rally on June 30th to honor its newly crowned champions. City officials put up temporary street signs commemorating the Avs’ title, painted burgundy and blue lines on the streets to mark part of the parade route, and hung a huge championship banner from the City and County Building.

The Avs’ own celebration started a few days before the parade. It included a stop by Coors Field on June 29th, where Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog threw out the first pitch ahead of the Colorado/LA Dodgers game while wearing a Rockies jersey with his name and number on back. Meanwhile, a Denver couple got an unexpected opportunity to celebrate with the Stanley Cup when it was inadvertently delivered to their house instead of Landeskog’s nearby address.

The parade and rally included plenty of uni-notable moments. The event attracted a vast throng of approximately 500,000 Avs fans bedecked in jerseys and other team apparel, turning downtown Denver into a sea of burgundy and blue. Among those fans were Colorado governor Jared Polis and Denver mayor Michael Hancock, both of whom wore Avs jerseys with the number 22 on them. Meanwhile, Tampa mayor Jane Castor made good on a bet with Hancock and donned an Avs jersey to acknowledge their victory over her hometown Lightning.

The players mostly wore either their white road jerseys or their locker room championship t-shirts to the parade. With so many fans similarly outfitted, it created an interesting moment when Avs defenseman Bowen Byram jumped off the firetruck he was riding on to high-five fans. Police mistook him for a fan and tried to escort him back into the crowd until spectators convinced them he was part of the team.

One player whose attire deviated from most of his teammates was center Nazem Kadri. He wore a t-shirt with the phrase “Too Many Men,” a reference to his controversial game-winning goal in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final.

In addition to the Avs and their fans, the city expanded the parade to include several other local teams who brought home championship hardware of their own recently. The University of Denver (who won the NCAA Division I men’s hockey title in April), Denver East High School’s boys’ hockey team (who won state and national championships this spring), and the Colorado Mammoth (who just won the National Lacrosse League title), were all invited to participate in the festivities.

All in all, the celebration lived up to expectations and matched the city and region’s jubilation at the Avalanche’s first Stanley Cup championship in 21 years. Considering the Avs have already dropped the trophy twice since winning it, let’s just hope it survives to be given to next year’s champions! (For more photos of the festivities, click here and here.)

OK, So It Wasn’t “Perfect”

Last weekend — the middle Sunday of a holiday weekend, so many of you (understandably) didn’t read — I ran a post on what I considered the most patriotic uniforms for the three major sports, plus hockey.

One of the uniforms I selected, for basketball, was the 1972 New York Nets, and in that section I mentioned that somewhere there existed a photo of me wearing a uniform I “created” — as a seven year old.

Well, sure enough, in the (few) comments, one reader did say he’d be interested in seeing that photo.

And, sure enough, with some digging, I found it:

I’m pretty sure I’m about seven (which would put that photo in the 1973 range, and the 1973-74 season is when the Nets added Dr. J. to their roster), and as you can see, I didn’t *quite* get the uniform correct. I don’t remember what happened last week, much less almost 50 years ago, but I am fairly certain my mom wouldn’t allow me to add the full red stripe or the blue panel…but clearly the effort was there. I have no idea why I chose #1 (then or now), but I knew no player wore it. So I didn’t want to be Dr. J. — just a member of the team!

How’s that for some UWing bona fides!

I know we occasionally run photos of us as kids in our unis, but did anyone ever “make” their own? If so, what team and did you model it after any particular player? Love to hear from you (in the comments below or in an e-mail).

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Chris Taylor.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date & location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

“Colors” of the B1G

Got an e-mail earlier in the week from reader John Marmet, who made the following observation/statement…

Phil,

I’m not a designer and don’t know the proper terms, but the introduction of the 2 new schools to the B1G appears to be the addition of uniforms of a different color palatte. The Gold pants are seen on Minnesota, but the USC red is different than the 4 or 5 other red schools and the UCLA blue is nowhere to be seen.

I don’t know if anyone has intelligently discussed this, but the new schools’ uniforms are just not B1G colors. The addition of Rutgers, Maryland, and Penn State oddly enough had B1G colored uniforms.

Do you see this too? Is there a greater discussion of conference colors and styles generally (SEC vs B1G vs Pac12)? The Big12 uniforms maybe closest to the B1G? Is this due to midwest simplicity? Ha!

always the best,
-John

John attached the following graphic (a mix of Ethan Dimitroff and Dennis Bolt’s templates from our SMUW Power 5 trackers):

John brings up some interesting points. While I’d always thought of the SEC in particular as having a lot of dark red colors (maroon, burgundy, crimson, etc.), I never thought of the B1G as having any semblance of color-congruity, unless you count the large number of schools with red (but that’s not just a B1G thing, many schools wear red). In fact, red may be one of the sole unifying colors of the conference. After all, you have Sparty with green, NU with purple, and Illinois with orange — all unique colors to the conference. Illinois and PSU may share navy blue, but no one would ever confuse them. If anything, I’d say USC (cardinal and gold) are actually colors closer to what other teams in the B1G predominate in, and the metallic gold worn by UCLA is at least somewhat close to that worn by Purdue. Only the “UCLA blue” seems to be an outlier.

John definitely raises some fun uni-related questions though, perhaps worth further exploration down the road. Until his e-mail, I’d never given much thought to a “conference color” (other than my SEC example), but now he’s got my mind reeling. Do any of the other conferences have a “color”? Have you ever pondered something like this?

Design contest countdown: Paul here, reminding you that the deadline for our latest design challenge — which is to create a set of MLB All-Star uniforms — is this Wednesday, July 13. Full details here.

Okay, now back to Phil with the rest of today’s content.

Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Well, it’s official: The ASG jersey “leak” I reported on yesterday has been confirmed. Of course, since teams don’t sell pants, we still don’t know what color(s) each squad will wear, but I’m sticking with my call of white for the NL (home) and anthracite for the AL (road). … A local Pittsburgh brewery using the Buccos pillbox design for their merch (from Troy Caldwell). … If you think MLB’s ASG unis are bad, CPBL unveiled the uniforms for the 2022 CPBL All-Star Games (from CPBL Stats). … Here is the home plate marker for Griffith Stadium, home of the Washington Senators from 1911 to 1960, lies in a hallway inside Howard University Hospital (from Pasttime Co.). … The New York Mets retired Keith Hernandez’ Number 17 yesterday. They mowed it into the outfield grass, put a huge logo on the home run apple, raised it to the rafters, and wore a very meta sleeve patch to mark the festivities. Here’s a bit more on Hernandez and what he meant to the Mets. Even Mr. Met got into the spirit (from Mr. Met). … Here’s how he came to choose #17 following his trade from the St. Louis Cardinals (h/t Texas Trev. … In honor of Hernandez, Pete Alonso went full stirrup. … You can watch the entire whole retirement ceremony here if you really want. … The Twins’ Devin Smeltzer knows how to wear a uni (from Squatchee on Top). … Juan Soto has a new good luck charm-chain. … Tim Dunn notes that Mariners pitcher Paul Sewald was forced to change to a different colored glove in Friday night’s game, because the glove he took to the mound originally was deemed to be gray in color by the umpires, gray being a color which is not allowed by rule. He adds, “Sewald was forced to use a different (color) glove. He has used this Gray glove on many occasions before. The Mariners had claimed that the glove was blue.” … We’ve seen old letters written on team stationary before, but this one, from a former player may be the funniest (from Brian Spiess). … The Brewers honored the 8-year-old boy who was paralyzed in the Highland Park shooting earlier this month at their game Friday night. The Brewers hung a No. 22 “Roberts” jersey in their dugout. … Texas Trevor notes, “Through the Astros mesh jerseys, you can see ‘ALLSTAR’ on Craig Biggo’s undershirt and what looks like ‘Practice makes perfect’ on Art Howe’s undershirt”. … Oh, check out this 1957 All-Star Game Program, which took place Busch Stadium, St. Louis (from Bruce Menard). … Love these!: Myers Park Trinity Little League’s (Charlotte, NC) all star teams have a look similar to the Braves of the mid 70s (from Brian Weingartz).

Football News: It being the off-season, there isn’t much NFL uni news these days, so ForTheWin has decided to do a ranking of all 32 NFL home team uniforms. In a (misguided, IMO) bottom of the list, the New York Football Jets sit at #32. It might be hard to argue with the Chargers at #1, but there’s some serious shade being thrown at what we all consider the “best” (Packers at Number Seven? C’mon man). … Another article takes a look at every team’s best and worst uniforms (historically), which is much better (relatively speaking), but even that contains some head-scratchers.

Hockey News: Here’s a cool old ad for Emery Worldwide, featuring 21 teams in the NHL, including the Nordiques, the original Jets, the Whalers & the North Stars. Submitter Paul Allan adds, “I’ll say this, the Canucks sweater from this era has grown on me & NYR, MTL, CHI, BOS, NYI should never deviate. Is Emery Worldwide still in business?” … ICYMI: the Moose Jaw Warriors (love that name) have a new logo (from Mark Samcoe).

Basketball News: Believe it or not, there was once a time when WNBA players had signature shoes. That hasn’t happened for over a decade. But that’s all about to change now (WaPo link, soft paywall), with Elena Delle Donne and Breanna Stewart about to have their own signature shoes (from Tom Turner).

Soccer News: It was color on color at the Netherlands v. Sweden match Euro 22 (from Victory Cheeseballs). … There is a new home shirt for Legia Warsaw (from Ed Żelaski). … The Portobello Football Club have introduced a new away kit (from Portobello Football Club). … Mexico’s World Cup green jerseys pay homage to Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. … Michael Zoid asks, “Any idea what the logo is on this pride flag (seen at the @HoustonDynamo game)? [Twitter says its a “Surge supporters” group]. … Apparently Cristiano Ronaldo’s uncertainty has delayed a Manchester United kit launch video (from Texas Trev).

Grab Bag: Here is a very cool thread about the Ferrari logo Scuderia Ferrari will be running this weekend (from Russ Flynn). … Poland Men’s Volleyball player Lukasz Kaczmarek’s name was already falling off when he entered the match in the second set yesterday (from Jeremy Brahm). … Here’s some photos of a Russian helicopter with a logo of what looks like a gator in a baseball cap. Submitter L.J. Sparvero adds, “Could this be a squadron insignia? It looks more like a minor league baseball logo. I have no idea what it is.”

Uni Tweet of the Day

I’m not sure if this is good or stupid…

“They should never have given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army.” @MargaretAtwood #ATLUTD pic.twitter.com/OT8dQTs5su

— Terridactyl ⭐️🖤♥️🖤🤍🦡 (@terrinh73) July 9, 2022

And finally… that’s gonna do it for me for today and for the weekend. Big thanks (again) to Matthew Drake for sharing his CC jersey tweaks.

Everyone have a great Sunday and a better week and I’ll catch you right back here next Saturday.

Peace,

PH