[Editor’s Note: Today we have an interesting thought experiment from longtime reader Bud Parks, who has a modest proposal for MLB that I think will spark some lively debate. Enjoy! — PL]
By Bud Parks
This may be an unpopular opinion around here, but I actually love what Uni Watch and others often derisively refer to as MLB “softball tops.” Colored jerseys inject some visual interest into the game, and you can still tell the home team from the road team by looking at the pants.
With the Mariners and Rays both recently eliminating their road grey jerseys in order to fit within the new “four plus one” rule, I’ve been wondering which other MLB teams might follow in their footsteps by using one of their existing alternate jerseys as their primary road look. I realize that might sound like the apocalypse to some people reading this, but look at it this way: If softball tops become more widespread on the road, it might result in more frequent use of home whites!
So I looked at all 30 MLB teams and, for each of them, asked this question: Should they keep their road greys, or should they replace the greys with one of their existing softball tops? As I tried to determine the answer, here are some rules I tried to follow:
- When looking at a team’s inventory of existing alternate jerseys that might be redesignated as the primary road jersey, I only considered existing “normal” alternates — no City Connects, no jerseys from the past, no imaginary concepts.
- I gave priority to preserving wordmarks or caps. For example, if the Orioles got rid of their grey jersey, they would no longer have any jerseys with their “Baltimore” script, so I decided to let them keep their greys. By contrast, the “Cleveland” wordmark on the Guardians’ grey jersey is repeated on their navy alternates, so we can (and should!) scrap the greys without scrapping the wordmark.
- None of my suggestions should be interpreted to mean that a team’s other softball top(s) would be off-limits on the road, nor am I saying that my picks should be worn only on the road from now on. They are only meant to suggest a new primary road look.
With that in mind, here are my picks for what every MLB team’s road uniform should be, based on their existing wardrobe.
American League East
Baltimore Orioles
In this case, the road grey has to stay, because the O’s don’t have any other jerseys with a “Baltimore” wordmark.
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Boston Red Sox
You could argue that the Red Sox already use their navy tops as their primary road look, because they wear them quite a bit. Eliminating the road greys from a team as traditional as Boston might seem unthinkable, but folks would eventually get used to it.
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New York Yankees 
Theoretically, either of the Yanks’ spring training jerseys would work just fine as a regular season road design. But since neither of them is an official game option, and with the Yankees being even more traditional than the Red Sox, we’ll stick with the road greys.
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Tampa Bay Rays
Easy to see why they eliminated the road greys, since they already wore navy tops on the road most of the time anyway, and no other design elements were sacrificed by getting rid of it.
Toronto Blue Jays
No other Jays jersey currently includes the word “Toronto,” so the greys survive.
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American League Central
Chicago White Sox
The Sox would probably do just fine with their black jersey on the road (and still wearing it occasionally at home, too). But if they did that, then their “Chicago” script would be eliminated, and we don’t want that to happen, so the road greys should be kept.
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Cleveland Guardians
A navy top, with the city name on the chest, worn only on the road. Textbook case of a team that could eliminate the road greys tomorrow.
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Detroit Tigers
The navy top that Tigers wear for road spring training games could work, but then their gorgeous “Detroit” script gets eliminated. Therefore, the road look stays the same.
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Kansas City Royals
Another easy option like Cleveland, where it’s a city name on a dark jersey that’s only worn on the road. Make it so!
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Minnesota Twins
The Twins plan to wear their new navy jersey both at home and on the road, and they should! But if it ever becomes the only road option, it’d look plenty handsome in that role.
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American League West
Houston Astros
Houston’s two alternate jerseys currently have “Astros” on the chest, not “Houston,” plus I’ve never liked their orange jerseys on the road anyway (it’s way too bright to be paired with the grey pants), so we’ll stick with the basic road greys.
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Los Angeles Angels
Their road greys are basically dimmer carbon copies of their home whites. Easy choice to eliminate the greys in favor of their alternate red tops.
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Oakland Athletics
The A’s Kelly green alternate keeps the “Oakland” wordmark in circulation, and it’s still a decent road option to wear every so often, though it looks better at home with the white pants. I like the darker green jersey for their primary road look, because it complements their current road hat even better than their grey uniform does.
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Seattle Mariners
The M’s wore their navy tops for over 100 games last year, so eliminating the greys was an easy call for them and won’t be visually jarring for their fan base.
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Texas Rangers
The Rangers recently announced the elimination of their red tops to fit within the “four plus one” rule. Personally, I’d enjoy seeing them go back and forth between red and blue on the road. But since red no longer an option, then blue gets the nod.
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National League East
Atlanta
Their greys have looked ridiculous ever since they started wearing the all-navy hat with them. Getting rid of them in favor of their navy softball tops full-time would not only look better from a jersey standpoint but would make the hats work a lot better, too.
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Miami Marlins
Another team where the road greys aren’t worn very often, which makes sense because they’re basically a carbon copy of their home whites. Granted, it’d be pretty weird to have a team whose primary home jersey has the city name on it while the primary road jersey has the team name, but it would also be unique (although it would be nice if they could finally make the lettering on the black jersey more legible).
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New York Mets
If the Mets hadn’t eliminated their blue road alternates last year, they could have upgraded that design to be the road primary road look and eliminated the greys. As it stands now, though, their greys are their only jersey with the “New York” lettering, so they can keep wearing that.
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Philadelphia Phillies
Another team where no design element is lost if the greys go away. Their alternate red top is one of MLB’s more underappreciated looks.
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Washington Nationals
They could probably get away with making their red curly-W jersey the main road look, especially since I don’t think getting rid of their ’Washington’ script would be a huge loss. But there’s no doubt that the grey jersey pairs better with their current road cap than the red tops would.
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National League Central
Chicago Cubs
True, no other jersey besides the road greys have the “Chicago” lettering, but I think that lettering is bland and uninspired, so let’s go ahead and get rid of it. Addition by subtraction! They already wear the blues on the road a lot anyway, so let’s go ahead and make it official.
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Cincinnati Reds
Unlike the situation with the Cubs, I like Cincy’s road lettering, so we’ll keep it.
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Milwaukee Brewers
The Brew Crew already made their yellow-front cap their default road headwear. Might as well just go all the way in.
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Pittsburgh Pirates
As unnecessary as their 2nd black jersey is, it’s been one of my favorite uniform additions for any MLB team in recent years. The ’90s script looks good on grey, but it looks fantastic black-on-black. But they could probably eliminate the alternate hat that goes with this jersey and just go with their primary cap.
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St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals have no softball tops in their wardrobe, but they could go back to what they and so many other teams did in the 1970s and ’80s by promoting their baby blue alts to primary road status. This would have the added benefit of eliminating a road jersey that has the team name and replacing it with one that has the city name!
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National League West
Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona recently scrapped their primary home whites in order to comply with the “four plus one” rule and redesignated their teal-trimmed whites as the new home primaries. If they had done it the other way around, they might have been able to rearrange some hat assignments and made their black alt their new road look. As it stands now, though, the only way for us to see their gorgeous red/black hat is with the road greys, so we’ll keep those in the rotation.
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Colorado Rockies
Only their home whites say “Rockies” while both of their alternates have “Colorado.” I certainly like their purples more than their black vests, so that’s my pick.
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Los Angeles Dodgers
No softball top to choose from (other than their BP jersey), but they should at least pick a road grey going forward instead of having two options. I’m probably in the minority, but I like the “Dodgers” version (reminds me of the Jackie Robinson days), but I get why many people would want the “Los Angeles” option, since a city name on the road is usually preferable.
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San Diego Padres
The Friars’ brown tops are already their primary road look, while the “San Diego” pinstripes are technically an alternate. I say go brown all the time.
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San Francisco Giants
Let’s face it: “San Francisco” is way too long to put on a jersey and have it look nice. The “SF” initials work much better, and their black jersey already is ready to go with that look.
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Paul here. I’m one of those people who would rather see teams sticking with their road greys, but I still think this was a really fun exercise. Big thanks to Bud for coming up with it!
This pains me to even imagine happening. No team that already is within the 4 + 1 limit, should be getting rid of a grey road uni. (If they have one).
I have an even more unpopular opinion.
Keep all gray jerseys and make them the home tops. Ditch the white jerseys instead. Softball tops for the visitors, but no black on black, blue on blue or red on red lettrs and numbers. Contrast matters.
I’ve really soured on white unis, especially on a sunny day. Too bright. White should be used in a secondary manner only… letters, numbers and stripes.
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I tend to agree with Paul here – greys ought to be emphasized rather than deemphasized. That said – I’d love love love to see the gray’s base fabric look more like the old gray flannels. See for example at Ebbits Field Flannels: link
I often think the wholesale switch to color in the 1970s was in part because in 1972-73 when everybody went to doubleknits, they immediately saw how dull that gray was compared to the gray of flannel, which is really a mixture of gray, white, blue, and stuff in between.
Agreed, the gray (Grey is a name, not a color) uniforms of the 70s and 80s do look drab and dull compared with the heather gray of the flannel era. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say that the heather blue-gray worn by the White Sox and Expos was SOOO much better than the polyester versions that replaced them.
Grey is a colour in the rest of the English-speaking world, just not in the U.S. :)
Grey and Gray are both colors. Its mostly dependent on if you are in the USA or not. US uses Gray, the rest of the english speaking world generally uses Grey.
As I’ve explained many times, I prefer “grey” because it sounds/feels, well, greyer. More drab, more dreary, at least to me. YMMV and all that.
I suppose my thinking on this is more in line with the way Paul sees it: to me, “grey” is greyer. But I use both. I tend to use gray when it is a light gray, and grey when it is darker.
Of course, this is how it works in my head. This is not based on any real rules of grammar or geography.
I obvs am of two minds about this. :-)
Totally agree. It must be possible to approach the flannel mixture look with modern technology and give every team a lively gray road uniform with team color contrasts. Proud owner of the UW logo 8 panel hat by Ebbets Fields and the flannel used on that one is so rich in colors. Approaching this would be great. Use more gray crowns in road caps!
The paleness of modern athletic gray is a choice, not a technological problem. Teams and uniform makers could choose a darker hue of gray, but instead they keep choosing lighter and lighter hues until you get the absurdity of the Phillies road uniforms, which in sunlight appear barely off-white. (I used to spend a lot of pregame time at Nationals Park and got to see Phillies players up close pregame a lot thanks to the old unbalanced schedule. The Phillies effectively ditched gray as a road color years ago; if you saw a paint chip of their road uniform fabric color at a hardware story, you’d file it in the neutral-shades-of-white section.) If the choice has to be colorful softball tops versus too-light cool gray, I will grudgingly choose the softball top in most instances. Teams don’t have to wait for better sublimation technology to mirror the heather effect of old-timey woven wool fabric, they could just choose a darker gray dye.
That said, I would love to see more teams ditch gray as a road base in favor of a pastel shade of a team color. Basically, 1970s powder blue, but use a team color as a base. salmon, mint green, lilac, pale gold, peach, and, sure, powder blue. In almost all instances, such a uniform would be miles better than a more saturated softball top.
For sure jerseys could be manufactured in “heather grey” which, if you don’t know, mimics a proper grey natural fiber knit by mixing white and grey tones. If done properly (by using colored fibers in the weave rather than printing an image of a heather grey pattern on the fabric) it would look much nicer in most cases. Whenever I do a uni concept that involves a grey base, I do it with a heathered look, never flat grey.
Oakland should create white and grey versions of that dark green A’s uniform when they move to Vegas.
The Astros new uniforms have always bothered me due to the unnecessary number on the front and the clunky player names on the back,
I’d suggest all front numbers are clunky, and unnecessary. In my opinion, the only situation front numbers look good is when a team just has a left chest logo rather than a word mark. In that case numbers over the right chest balance it out.
The Dodgers red front number is fantastic and should never be eliminated.
I was thinking the xact same thing!
I whole-heartedly disagree. I believe all jerseys should have front numbers. And, those teams with left chest logos should have their numbers on the right chest at the same height as the logo, like the Reds and White Sox.
I don’t know about a blanket “all must or none must” rule. If the team lettering goes horizontal or is vertically arched, a front number would look odd (D’backs, Giants, Padres, Phillies), and a centered number even worse (1978 Cubs road V-neck). Script lettering that slants up to the right leaves enough space for a front number on the wearer’s left torso (Dodgers, A’s). A right chest monogram could be offset by a number on the wearer’s right torso (Reds, White Sox), but teams often get the placement wrong. And I think the Yankees would look awful with a front number.
I agree. Getting rid of the Red Sox road greys IS unthinkable.
I feel like for a thought experiment, this missed the mark. The primary criterion seemed to be preserving a team wearing city/state on the front of their road uniform with no real consideration of aesthetics. It pains me to say it because I loved watching teams return to gray on the road in the 1990s after growing up in the Technicolor 1980s but teams like the Orioles (orange or black), Rays (powder blue or navy), Royals (powder blue or royal) and Blue Jays (powder blue or royal) could all pull off non-gray just fine. But the Red Sox look better in road grays.
I would love to see a darker road gray for teams like the Angels and Phillies but stop short of anthracite. I would love to see fabric with the faux flannel look. It’s 2023, it can be done.
If you eliminate gray jerseys, should you also eliminate gray pants? Look at the Guardians. Not speck of gray on their navy jersey, so the white pants would actually look better.
Yes…bye bye bland britches!
Softball-over-white is a good road option for some teams…not all, but some.
But then what happens when both teams are wearing a softball top and white pants? What aesthetically seperates the 2 teams as the home team and the visiting team?
Would that look better or worse than this?
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I’d rather both teams wear white pants than neither…
Obviously the Phillies are the Home Team, but if you didn’t know the Phillies wear those throwbacks at home, could you honestly tell who’s the road them there? And this was a WORLD SERIES game!
Yes, I can tell who the home team is without looking at Verlander’s pants. The sea of red in the crowd and fence all suggest the Phillies are the home team. That said, I 100% agree with your point and it makes me nuts that I can’t pass a TV with a game on or flip through the channels and not know immediately who is playing whom, and where. The NBA are the biggest offenders, especially because they can change their courts in a matter of hours, further confusing things.
I recall reading about Browns noseguard Bob Golic in SI many years ago. The author wrote something like, ‘Noseguard sounds like a piece of equipment, which is essentially what Golic is. His job is to occupy blockers and clog up the middle so others can make a play.’
so noseguard should be the name of the position. Nosetackle sounds like you are tackling only one part of an opposing player,.
Would be fine with the Blue Jays getting rid of their road greys if the reason was changing to powder blue on the road full-time. Powder blues worn with the royal blue hats/trim.
The Jays had never had a gray uniform before they created the one with “TORONTO” on the front in the ’90s, had they? I think they swapped the white/blue layers on the numbers on the backs, but otherwise had always worn light blue on the road.
1989 was when they introduced grey unis. They also introduced belts and buttons for the first time with that set. Going powder blue full-time on road would be a nod to the past and original Blue Jays road look.
Wade, have you ever actually seen someone pair the powder blue jersey with the royal blue hat? It looks awful.
Yes! They did it for 81 games, every season from 1977 through 1989.
The Royals also did it. And the Brewers. And the Mariners. Shall I continue?
Different hat and jersey. Not sure why you’re being an ass about it.
The new powder blue jerseys are only powder blue and navy blue. The royal blue hat clashes terribly with it.
I guess you don’t know what “the” means. Also, pretty sure your name isn’t Wade.
Yes – wouldn’t want to mix the royal blue hat with current powder blues that have the navy trim. Thinking more along the lines of a permanent powder blue road uniform with royal blue trim to be worn with royal blue hat.
@ Charlie – not being an ass. You asked have I ever seen powder blues paired with a royal blue hat that looked good, and I provided you with 4 teams who did exactly that for years and it looked fine. Just answering your question, and your answer of different hat/uniform doesn’t change the fact that many teams did it and that it looked fine. Not sure why being disagreed with is so hard for you.
Can anyone find if the Padres wore this “SHS” memorial patch beyond this one spring training game?
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To my knowledge, not worn aside from that instance.
Not only should the Orioles keep their road greys (with an updated “Baltimore” on the front), but they should also revisit the road grey caps
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I’m down for the Phils dropping their road grays. The red jersey really pops and pairs very well with their red caps…
I consider the Phils grays as the best uniform they have…and one of the best in MLB.
The red shirts belong in ST and BP.
I’m with Chris on this one. The Red really pops on the grey, while the red on red is overkill. If the Phillies script was in white, or even grey like the mets from 2 years ago, that could be a good look. My friends who are Phillies fans debate whether they should drop the red or the cream, grey is never even suggested as an option
Acorrding to sources on the team the players love the red jersey for the Phillies and among those same players they dislike the road grays and the throwback blues
Lifelong Phillies fan and I am with Chris and the others. My Phillies gamer is a road jersey. Red pinstripes are great on the field, I feel less so off the field. The red tops scream “batting practice”. I love the home cream alts but the numbers are a little harder to read with less negative space from red/blue outlining. The throwbacks? Meh, take it or leave it.
A darker gray, maybe, but gray all the way.
Strongly disagree. Phils fan here, and the red jersey is hands down their worst look. The Phils road grays are excellent. The Phils red jersey is a prefect case of STFSTS (softball top for softball top sake). I guess it works as warmup jersey, but between the red logo on red jersey, and otherwise lack of unique elements it feels like it is there just so they can have a color top.
Count me in the group that only wants home whites (or cream) and road grays, so no softball tops work for me, but especially not the Phillies red one.
The Phillies road gray uniforms would be excellent, if they were gray. In sunlight, they’re effectively poorly laundered white uniforms. Given how poorly executed the Phillies home pinstripes are, the road uniform has the potential to be the team’s best look. Take that uniform but render it in a real actual gray or in light blue and bam! the Phillies would have a stunner of a uniform, one of the best in the 21st century NL East.
…Phils fan here. Ditch the greys!
While I’m here, I’m not a fan of their current set (home/road) circa 1992. I like the Schmidt era maroons and the late 40’s that the cream alts are based on.
I say dump every single one of the dull gray uniforms. White at home, color on the road.
How do Uni-Watchers define softball top? I always thought of it as the pullover look, similar to what many teams wore in the 70s and early 80s. I love those and wish they’d return in full force. (I mean, we don’t see football players buttoning up jerseys over their pads. Figure it out baseball!) In today’s post, softball top seems to refer to any color alternate jersey. Many of those I don’t love as much and wouldn’t choose over the road grays.
To me, it seems to mean any colored baseball jersey. I’m really not a fan of the term, personally.
At its core it’s descriptive, but as with other Uni Watch-specific terms it’s morphed into something often used derisively, as Bud says. I’ll also point out that it’s used at the expense of a women’s sport that I happen to think is really good-looking at the college level precisely because of how colorful it is.
I’ll also point out that it’s used at the expense of a women’s sport…
Actually, I think the term is based more on beer league softball, which is not exclusively women’s.
I’m aware, I mean softball at the organized/serious level.
I think it’s pretty interesting that we’ll look at a “grey v white” uniform matchup, like in college sports or the Lions’ alt greys, and roll our eyes saying the game looks drab. Then we take the same concept in baseball and think “why would someone ever want to move away from the grey look?”.
I know in large part this has to do with tradition and keeping that aesthetic of a different time, and I’m perfectly ok with that. I’m pointing this out to say how interesting it is that some of these “rules” or “guidelines” we’ve made from an aesthetic point of view can be so different across sports simply on the subject of uniform color.
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I’m sorry, there’s no reason why softball tops should even exist, let alone replace road greys. My White Sox wear them all the time too, which annoys me no end.
The fact that your team doesn’t wear white socks annoys me infinitely more.
I vote for nose tackle. In the 4-3, the inside linemen were called tackles so there is a precedent. Besides, “nose guard” sounds like a piece of equipment. The most appropriate name, of course, would be “huge obstruction.”
HO is a nice abreviation of that position Huge Obstruction. I earlier said nose guard but this argument for nose tackle makes sense. I think I will stick to defensive tackle.
Royals should go back to the powder blues on the road. They’re bringing them back this year but only for Opening Day.
This.
Baseball and nostalgia are linked for me. It’s why as a child of the 80s I generally hate softball tops but am actually kinda into teams that use other low saturation colors as grey (powder blue, the tan that San Diego has used, etc.)
I also really like the arbitrary rules that most teams follow–letters representing your city should be the only things on caps, team name at home, city name on the road, etc.
All that being said, I actually really like using weekend day games to throw all the rules out.
I think Boston’s road grays are better looking than their home whites. Their colored alternates would benefit from some trim on the sleeves and/or a patch.
Completely agree. They did have some piping when they first started wearing them.
But Boston is one of those traditional teams that shouldn’t have them at all.
I don’t like softball tops as a whole. But I can live with them as a once a week alternate for newer franchises.
Considering that the Tigers, like the Yankees, really don’t have alternates to speak of, leave the road greys in place. Remove that unnecessary white outline around the script, name, and numbers, and it’s just about perfect.
And why don’t the Braves’ caps match their navy blue jerseys? Maybe it’s lighting, but the caps look closer to the midnight blue that the Tigers and Yankees wear.
This may be taken as blasphemy but the Yankees need to do a minor update to their road grays which haven’t changed since Reggie Jax was battling Billy the Kid. Eliminate the outdated sleeve stripes and the white trim on the New York lettering, which can then be slightly enlarged. Also replace the black letters and numbers, as well as the caps, with the original dark blue. Then be the first MLB team to employ the faux-flannel material and you’ve got an amazing Mantle-era style roadie that millions around the world will buy.
I’d take this exercise a step further.
The Yankees road greys are some of the dullest in the league. Their home pinstripes are arguably the most iconic uniform in sports. Get rid of the designation and wear the pinstripes fulltime. In a day and age of “branding” the Yankees have one absolutely iconic look and now all the road fans and every image taken has them in it. Most teams have colored alternates they prefer to wear at home anyway, and most markets advertise the Yanks coming to town almost equal to their own team being home.
UW readers really need to start specifying “in NORTH AMERICAN sports”. There are plenty of soccer jerseys that are more iconic globally than any North American uniform.
First off, I would eliminate the A’s dark green for kelly green, including the roadies. Also, I’m not tied to the city/state for the road. Not saying they should be eliminated, but everyone knows what city/state each team is from.
I’m for getting rid of all gray, pants included. I loved the 70s and 80s uniforms with no gray at all, like the Pirates, Giants, Cardinals, Cubs Braves, etc. My alma mater, Clemson University, has not worn gray in almost 50 years. When I was a high school baseball coach, my teams didn’t wear gray.
Any MLB uniform with a sleeve ad should be eliminated, be it home white, road gray or colored. Nice exercise though and I found myself nodding in agreement until the flannel comment with its nice mixture of hues. Choose flannel-like gray and every team should have a gray road uniform (and hat).
Rays, A’s, Mariners, Rangers, Brewers and Padres I kind of like the softball jersey on the road. (I might have a different opinion if I followed an AL West team, though!) Anyone else with a headspoon I’m neutral on. The color tops for the Cubs, Angels and Red Sox look like ST/BP jerseys to me. And the Marlins just need to start over, or adopt the City Connect look.
I know this will mark me as an old man yelling at clouds (I’m not…OK, I’m old but changes in the game, except the dumb Manfred Man rule, are fine by me) but there is something extremely satisfying to me to find my seat in a ballpark and down one foul line is a group of players stretching/running wearing white or cream and down the other is a team in gray. I dislike all the softball tops. I can’t explain it but that’s my take.
Oh, and I know it’s been said many times but whatever possessed the Marlins to OK a uniform that makes their wordmark impossible to see? It’s just terrible.
The alternate black jersey should flip-flop the cyan and black for its names and numbers.
Being a lifelong Ranger fan, I wish they would have scrapped the greys (grays?) and kept the red tops. But since they did keep them, I wish they would use the red Rangers across the front instead of the blue. I believe it looks a lot better. JMHO
I’m not for applying the same rules to every team. Certain teams ought to have grey road uniforms (Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers), others should use bright colors (A’s, Astros, Pirates), certain teams should wear pullovers (Blue Jays, Brewers, Rays) others look good in belt/buttons (or in the Phillies’ case, zippers), some ought to limit themselves to two uniforms (Mets, Cubs), others benefit from having lots of them (Cardinals). Pastel blue uniforms look good on any team with royal blue as a color (Kansas City, Rangers) but the 1970s White Sox looked good in blue with red graphics. One size does not fit all, and baseball is the better for it.
While not in the rules that Paul laid out, my preferred Angels looks would be the following (assuming going back full time to California Angels is out of the question, which was my favorite look).
1. Home – current (minus the redundant A sleeve patch and in favor of a modern version of the state logo)
2. Alt home – throwback Angels pull over sans belt
3. Road – current Red Alt (with new sleeve patch)
4. Home/Road Alt – throwback of the navy CA Angels
Just to clarify: Bud’s rules, not mine!
This veneration for softball tops leaves me troubled.
Look at the beauty that is the Detroit/Baltimore road uniforms. The gray serves a purpose beyond just identity — the gray helps the white outlines/piping/striping pop so much more to accentuate the dark blue/black and orange.
Rather than ditch grays, I would challenge teams/designers to come up with more compelling road uniforms (Looking at you, Guardians) to keep gray road unis a part of baseball fashion.
Also! The real problem with road grays are pajama pants. Beautiful stirrups and sanis completely alter the look and feel of the road gray.
Great piece Bud! I love coloured jerseys and don’t have a problem with most greys, so I enjoyed this exercise immensely!
First off, I really love this piece and the conversation behind it. In my mind, the efficacy of greys/grays is really in what the other colors are. Orioles’ orange looks really good next to gray. Blues tend to be muted out and look less nice.
Well done, Bud! Have to confess that you & I may not agree on much where this topic’s concerned … but you obviously put a lot of care into the idea, made the article really interesting, and what more could one want from a thought experiment?
For the Giants, I agree that “SAN FRANCISCO” is too long to look good on a jersey, but I don’t like the interlocked “SF” either (as a rule I don’t care for merely using the cap logo as a jersey crest, the A’s being an exception). How about “SAN FRAN” in block lettering on the road grays, ala the Sixers going with “PHILA” on their uni back in the day?
The skill of the designer determines whether SAN FRANCISCO or PHILADELPHIA looks good on the front of the jersey. What is indisputable is the GIANTS uniforms won’t look like the SAN FRANCISCO uniforms. I’d like to see the lettering of the 1977 jersey on the 1972 uniforms. Philadelphia is more of a poser: I’d like to see it written in LUZINSKI vertical arch across the front.
Got to disagree. I hate “PHILA” for the Sixers and I am a lifelong Sixers fan. I would hate “SAN FRAN”, and I would think people in San Francisco would revolt over “FRISCO”, as I would if “PHILLY” wound up on a jersey here. We need to do away with abbreviations and airport codes. Stop the insanity.
the chicago in red lettering on blue would work for the cubs…..same for the white sox, white chicago script on black would do the trick.
The Dodgers rarely wear the script LA (my favs) roads anymore. I hope they never wear the blue tops in the regular season. Those are awful IMO.
I dislike the “Los Angeles” script — much prefer “Dodgers”
But agreed they should never wear a solid blue top — ESPECIALLY if it’s their CC “Los Dodgers” mono-blue garbage.
I don’t agree with all assessments in this piece, but many for sure. The only thing I would add is that teams should not be afraid to match the pants either.
I love an all black or all navy uni (top and bottom) and the reds have worn red pants at one point and the pirates yellow pants and black pants and I think they both looked great. The a’s also had a yellow pants era. The Phillies had maroon pants. Teams should take more “risks” with their looks. I’d be happy to see the mariners go full teal, or navy top teal pants, I’d happily see the Rockies go white top purple pants (they’d have to ditch the pinstripes for that to work, though). I’d love to see the orioles go back to an orange top and bottom.
don’t forget this: link
although it would have to say “Guardians” now
absolutely!
i’m not going to say all teams should get crazy with the color, or any team that’s done it in the past should bring it back, but it would certainly be nice to see teams trying a little harder. in many cases, i find the color tops to be the least desirable option (despite it being a nice looking “shirt”) because it is simply paired with the teams dual white or grey pants
I definitely prefer the “Los Angeles” road jersey for the Dodgers. I like the sleeve piping it has.
I like some of the softball tops, adds a little contrast to the game. Hate it when both teams go softball top. Saw the Braves and Tigers Wednesday in spring training and it was brutal (but it was ST so no big deal.
Wish more teams wore white or gray hats. The Tigers gray spring training hat they hat a few years ago with their road grays was a sharp look.
Trend I am really worried about creeping into MLB is the mono look that has infested high school and college ball. A lot of all red, all navy and all all black uni’s that look awful.
agree on the hats for sure. there are plenty of teams that cold dabble in a white, or grey lid, or even a pinstripe crown.
As for my Red Sox, they need to ditch the Blue and Red Jerseys. Tradition should mean somerhing….Home white and Road Gray…..Keep the Green jersey for St. Paddy’s Day. Oh and ditch those FUGLY city connect atrocities while you are at it.
More color, more often (as long as it’s not mono-colored matchy-matchy tops and bottoms (ala the O’s orange debacle in the 70’s)! The away all-greys always make me think that they were invented because washing machines weren’t standard equipment on the road. Time to move on from that dingy color.
Phils and Cards should wear light blue on the road. The red looks so fabulous on the light blue, I almost forget I’m a Cubs fan.