MLB 2016 Changes

[kroywen]

14 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

Do we know that's true?  I thought that all teams were required to have white and gray jerseys as official primaries, which is why the Marlins bothered with a gray jersey they never actually wore.

You might be right, actually. I know back in the 70's through the very early 90's, there were quite a few teams who wore colored jerseys as primaries (not even having gray or powder blue jerseys), but that was a long time ago at this point.

 

I suppose the question is what are MLB's exact requirements in terms of road uniforms. If they require gray, I assume that they're giving wide latitude as to what is considered "gray," given the D-Backs' graphite jerseys and the old Padres' sand jerseys.

 

But there probably is some sort of "gray" requirement, especially given that the Marlins have wore their road grays in the ASG when the NL is the road team - that seems to indicate to me that, at least for the ASG, MLB is requiring teams to wear white or gray.

[FinsUp1214]

I'm in the camp that's never really been enamored by the Cubs' blue alts. They've always looked like a glorified BP to me and only ever looks okay when the matchup is a good enough color contrast (for example, vs. San Francisco). I don't think it's going to look very good in any capacity against Cleveland. It's best this whole series goes white vs. grey so it isn't a blue-fest.

[Ark]

21 minutes ago, Digby said:

Cleveland is going with #RockRed as their social media rallying hashtag, which seems a little strange given that red is the secondary color for them.

 

I think it means they'll wear this

 

 

As opposed to this

 

 

 

[WSU151]

12 minutes ago, kroywen said:

But there probably is some sort of "gray" requirement, especially given that the Marlins have wore their road grays in the ASG when the NL is the road team - that seems to indicate to me that, at least for the ASG, MLB is requiring teams to wear white or gray.

 

Even that's likely a new "rule", as alternate jerseys used to be common in the ASG.

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, FinsUp1214 said:

I'm in the camp that's never really been enamored by the Cubs' blue alts. They've always looked like a glorified BP to me and only ever looks okay when the matchup is a good enough color contrast (for example, vs. San Francisco). I don't think it's going to look very good in any capacity against Cleveland. It's best this whole series goes white vs. grey so it isn't a blue-fest.

 

I would like it if it had the primary logo and some red and white collar/cuff striping: in essence, the circa-'84 alts but with buttons. I'd even like to see such an alt with its own set of white-on-the-road pants.

 

I can't figure out what the color balance is for Cleveland, or even what it ought to be. I've made clear my preference for the Twins to be overwhelmingly navy with red trim, the Nats the same but with metallic gold, the Red Sox to have navy undershirts, and the Angels and Cardinals to be maximum red. The Indians, I can't tell whether they're primarily red or navy, neither can they, and I don't know what my solution would be. 

[SFGiants58]

4 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

I would like it if it had the primary logo and some red and white collar/cuff striping: in essence, the circa-'84 alts but with buttons. I'd even like to see such an alt with its own set of white-on-the-road pants.

 

I can't figure out what the color balance is for Cleveland, or even what it ought to be. I've made clear my preference for the Twins to be overwhelmingly navy with red trim, the Nats the same but with metallic gold, the Red Sox to have navy undershirts, and the Angels and Cardinals to be maximum red. The Indians, I can't tell whether they're primarily red or navy, neither can they, and I don't know what my solution would be. 

 

Don't you still like red and brown for the Indians (with red being dominant over brown)?

 

I think that red/brown/cream would be good for the Indians, but I'm a little conflicted about removing a color that was so important to their pre-1940's identity (given that they were called the "Cleveland Blues" for a time). If anything, I wish more baseball teams had followed Charlie O.'s lead in diversifying color schemes away from blue and red.

[The_Admiral]

I do still like red and brown for the Indians, but I can admit that a team that's been wearing the same colors for nearly a century shouldn't have to give them up while teams with less history like the Angels and Nationals don't have that pressure.

 

I really don't like the hat with the single-layer navy C on a red crown, though. No one else is doing that, but no one else is doing it because it looks so crappy.

[Sport]

We're not changing the Indians colors. They've been navy and red for as long as anyone and have as much claim to it as any other team. 

 

For the home white primary the Indians should wear a blue hat with red bill at home with red everything else (undershirts, numbers, belts, and socks). On the road grays they should wear all blue hats with blue wordmarks and numbers with blue undershirts, belts, and socks. It's basically what the 2005 Nats were doing except the home hat stays blue. Their experiments with the red block C caps were ill-advised. 

[Around the Horn]

15 hours ago, kroywen said:

The Copy Clear infringement case is pretty legitimate. It was clear that they ripped off the shape and dimensions of the Cubs' C, and the text was placed in a very similar position to the "UBS" in the Cubs' logo.

 

The one about the "W" logo is completely frivolous and asinine. They're not even a similar design, and I don't think I've ever seen the Cubs' W placed in a circle. This is pretty much tantamount to the Cubs saying "we're copyrighting every sans serif capital W."

I agree. Its just as ridiculous as the Cubs trying to block the MTA in New York from using this symbol for a new route debuting in a few weeks.

 

I'm pretty sure they are only doing this because they are in the World Series, and if they weren't in the playoffs, they wouldn't have bothered.

[Walter Sobchak]

My ideal Indians look:

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, McCarthy said:

For the home white primary the Indians should wear a blue hat with red bill at home with red everything else (undershirts, numbers, belts, and socks). On the road grays they should wear all blue hats with blue wordmarks and numbers with blue undershirts, belts, and socks. It's basically what the 2005 Nats were doing except the home hat stays blue. Their experiments with the red block C caps were ill-advised. 

 

Okay, I'm with you on the home half but not the road. Would you go radial block or cursive? For piping, might you go with the red-white-navy on Thome's pants up there (but curiously not his jersey)? That could be a pattern to call their own going forward. I can't get on board with the road greys being that drab, though. I know white outlines have fallen out of use, but red-navy-white numbers/names could work for the Tribe given a dark enough grey base. 

 

I'd go with this for the cap. I like it better than Wahoo as a cap monogram. I find it kind of funny that people want to take Wahoo off the hats because it's offensive but then go back to the hokey '70s scripts/monogram with the generically "primitive cultures" lettering. 

[Sport]

29 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

Okay, I'm with you on the home half but not the road. Would you go radial block or cursive? For piping, might you go with the red-white-navy on Thome's pants up there (but curiously not his jersey)? That could be a pattern to call their own going forward. I can't get on board with the road greys being that drab, though. I know white outlines have fallen out of use, but red-navy-white numbers/names could work for the Tribe given a dark enough grey base. 

 

I'd go with this for the cap. I like it better than Wahoo as a cap monogram. I find it kind of funny that people want to take Wahoo off the hats because it's offensive but then go back to the hokey '70s scripts/monogram with the generically "primitive cultures" lettering. 

 

That the pants piping was different from the rest of the uniform always bugged me so I'd use that piping on the jerseys which would set them apart from the Red Sox and others who use single red piping. It'd also be a modern approximation of the stripes they wore in "Major League", except not all huge and 80's looking. Maybe about the size the current Blue Jays use would be perfect. 

 

I agree about the 70's lettering. What an awful idea that would be to bring that back. Aside from it being the font version of why Chief Wahoo's gotta go it also just doesn't look good. 

 

I'd go with this script as is at home

 

 

and then this on the road, which is their 90's road script with the colors flipped and I eliminated the white outline. That's close to what Minnesota's doing right now with their road greys, but whatever the striping and blue numbers will set them apart.

 

and for the cap logo I'd take the block C and attach a couple feathers ala the Redskins or Utah's logo. When I'm not being lazy I'll take a crack at this as I've not liked how some others have executed this same idea. 

 

[The_Admiral]

I think the Major League script is my favorite road script style for them: the radial block is boring, and something feels off about the tailed script, whether its the computer-designed sterility of what you expect to be an organic style or just the fact that the uppercase C is so tiny. I dunno. But I mocked it up with red outlined in navy and white and it looked way too much like the Twins. 

[leopard88]

9 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I think the Major League script is my favorite road script style for them: the radial block is boring, and something feels off about the tailed script, whether its the computer-designed sterility of what you expect to be an organic style or just the fact that the uppercase C is so tiny. I dunno. But I mocked it up with red outlined in navy and white and it looked way too much like the Twins. 

 

That's it!  There was something about that script that has always bothered me, but I could never put my finger on it.

 

I agree about the Major League script.  Even though the Indians have been using the script wordmarks since 1994, I still picture them in the Major League uniforms.

[Rj0498]

Interesting because when I think of the Indians I think of two things either their modern day home jerseys or their uniforms from the movie even if the Indians were right in the middle of their dork age I still remember those unis most of all

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

I find it kind of funny that people want to take Wahoo off the hats because it's offensive but then go back to the hokey '70s scripts/monogram with the generically "primitive cultures" lettering. 

 

 

This wordmark is not so much "primitive cultures" as "Old West".  It is a superb mark.

And the cap logo is even better.  It can stand on its own, even without the accompanying wordmark.  This cap would complement any uniform style, including the current one; it is, by far, the best cap the team has ever had.  

 

All single-letter logos used by other teams have something special about them.  The Reds' C is a wishbone; the Cubs' C is a semicircle; the Pirates' P has those flared corners; the Philies' P has a hand-drawn aspect (and the Schmidt-era P was even nicer, with those smooth lines); the Tigers' D has old English magesty.  

But the Indians' C has absolutely nothing going for it; it is completely devoid of character. From an aesthetic standpoint, it is an embarassment.  The cap with that logo looks like it was perfunctorily selected out of a catalogue by a half-asleep JV coach.  A logo as undecorative and unimaginative as the block C being used on the cap of a Major League team is pathetic.  

The C in the above picture is the appropriate cap logo for the Cleveland Indians;

[TheOldRoman]

 

11 hours ago, FinsUp1214 said:

I'm in the camp that's never really been enamored by the Cubs' blue alts. They've always looked like a glorified BP to me and only ever looks okay when the matchup is a good enough color contrast (for example, vs. San Francisco). I don't think it's going to look very good in any capacity against Cleveland. It's best this whole series goes white vs. grey so it isn't a blue-fest.

 

The Cubs' blue alts are some of the worst in baseball. Like you said, they look like BP jerseys (and are basically the exact BP jersey the team has worn for the last 20 year). My biggest issue is that the logo is so, so awful. It's an absolute garbage logo, and it's used in place of their iconic primary. There's nothing wrong with their primary logo. They need to use it more. It's akin to the Red Sox coming out with an alternate jersey with the socks on the chest, taking the place of other iconic marks, except their sock logo is merely underwhelming and not awful. Put the primary logo on the chest and throw some kind of striping/piping on it.

 

And they really should replace the alt logo with something more similar to the ones they wore in the '60s though '95. And yes, the road grays are bad, but not "I can't believe a franchise that's 140 years old is wearing this crap" bad. Go to something similar to what they wore in the '60s, make a blue alt with the primary logo, and wear it no more than once a week.

 

As for the Indians, their uniforms were perfect in the '90s. Thanks to the admiral, I now notice that the C in Cleveland was too small, and I can't unsee that. However, the set was great other than that. The Indians, like the Marlins, should turn the clocks back to 1995 and take the batteries out. It's good that the Indians found their way back to a respectable look after the awful silver era and the slightly less bad era which followed. But their homes and alts are still worse versions of the '90s set. Just go back to that and admit you made a mistake.

 

[Ray Lankford]

22 hours ago, the admiral said:

I do still like red and brown for the Indians, but I can admit that a team that's been wearing the same colors for nearly a century shouldn't have to give them up while teams with less history like the Angels and Nationals don't have that pressure.

 

I really don't like the hat with the single-layer navy C on a red crown, though. No one else is doing that, but no one else is doing it because it looks so crappy.

I like it because no one else is doing it. Add a white outline and you've got the Red Sox. In fact, I'd take it a step further and take the white outline off of the blue alt jersey.

 

I do wish they'd add a red bill though.

[Thomas]

I believe  the Indians are the only team that uses nameplates on their jerseys.  Anyone know why the hell they do it !?

[The_Admiral]

Why do you separate exclamation points from their sentences? That's done in French but not English.