MLB Changes 2017

[kroywen]

Jackie Robinson is not going to be forgotten by the general public, just as Rosa Parks, MLK, Muhammad Ali, etc., won't be forgotten. He's completely transcended baseball (and sports in general) in terms of his cultural and social significance. The man is a civil rights icon, and his entry into major league baseball was a civil rights milestone at the very beginning of that movement. He's entered into the American lexicon, at this point.

 

(Note: not saying Jackie Robinson is as well-known or as an important a figure in American history as, say, MLK. But his entry into baseball will be mentioned in history classes for years and years to come. He will not be forgotten by future generations.)

[BBTV]

Didn't Larry Doby go through pretty much the same struggle?  Maybe the AL teams could do something to remember him.

 

i think it makes more of an impact if it's a tribute that's done every few years rather than every year, where it essentially just becomes like any other promotion that's always on the calendar.  I don't think his number should have been retired, because 1) he wasn't synonymous with that number, and only wore it for one team, 2) roughly 3000 players have worn it since, and 3) I think it goes against the principle of what a retired number is for (subjective, I know.)

 

 

[AnPheitseog]

49 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Didn't Larry Doby go through pretty much the same struggle?  Maybe the AL teams could do something to remember him.

 

i think it makes more of an impact if it's a tribute that's done every few years rather than every year, where it essentially just becomes like any other promotion that's always on the calendar.  I don't think his number should have been retired, because 1) he wasn't synonymous with that number, and only wore it for one team, 2) roughly 3000 players have worn it since, and 3) I think it goes against the principle of what a retired number is for (subjective, I know.)

 

 

Generally, i agree with what you are saying. Same reasons I think 99 shouldnt be in the NHL. But, below is the reason why im all for his number being retired across all of baseball.

2 hours ago, kroywen said:

Jackie Robinson is not going to be forgotten by the general public, just as Rosa Parks, MLK, Muhammad Ali, etc., won't be forgotten. He's completely transcended baseball (and sports in general) in terms of his cultural and social significance. The man is a civil rights icon, and his entry into major league baseball was a civil rights milestone at the very beginning of that movement. He's entered into the American lexicon, at this point.

 

(Note: not saying Jackie Robinson is as well-known or as an important a figure in American history as, say, MLK. But his entry into baseball will be mentioned in history classes for years and years to come. He will not be forgotten by future generations.)

 

[ZipperClub]

Cleveland Buckeyes @ KC Monarchs on Sunday, May 7.

[Big Yellow Flag]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Didn't Larry Doby go through pretty much the same struggle?  Maybe the AL teams could do something to remember him.

 

i think it makes more of an impact if it's a tribute that's done every few years rather than every year, where it essentially just becomes like any other promotion that's always on the calendar.  I don't think his number should have been retired, because 1) he wasn't synonymous with that number, and only wore it for one team, 2) roughly 3000 players have worn it since, and 3) I think it goes against the principle of what a retired number is for (subjective, I know.)

 

 

Yeah, Larry Doby didn't exactly have it easy, and he was only three months after Jackie. There's also no honor for Frank Robinson, who broke the managerial color barrier when he was player-manager in Cleveland.

 

I think a cool solution to give everyone their due and acknowledge all the color barriers would be to turn Jackie Robinson Day into Civil Rights Day (replacing the Civil Rights Game), leaving it on the day when the color barrier in general was broken by Robinson. AL teams could honor Doby, NL teams could honor Jackie, and managers in both leagues could honor Frank Robinson, allowing everyone to acknowledge the history;

 

In my ideal world, this would be done with sleeve patches, but knowing MLB, you'd have fifteen teams wearing 14 on their backs, another fifteen wearing 42, and thirty teams' worth of managers and coaches wearing 20.

 

It'd still be cool.

[2001mark]

Angels reds v Blue Jays blues might just be my fav matchup in all pro sports.

 

Wonder if LAA fans agree.

[Michael Bolton]

1 hour ago, 2001mark said:

Angels reds v Blue Jays blues might just be my fav matchup in all pro sports.

 

Wonder if LAA fans agree.

 

That's got nothing on Angels reds vs. Rangers reds.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

Let me tell you I was shocked when I found out there was another African American player right after Jackie literally in the same season that Jackie broke the color barrier. The way Robinson and his struggles have been portrayed I figured he was the first and only African American player for years and years and then eventually other players started trickling in over time. Having other players so soon after him doesn't diminish anything that Jackie went through but it's perplexing that we never speak of the other people who went through what Jackie went through virtually at the exact same as he did. Point is, he wasn't alone and the others deserve acknowledgement as well. 

 

Edit: did a quick search and there were 4 African American players in MLB in 1947. The very year Jackie broke the color barrier, 3 others were there immediately after him. By 1954, there were 10 total and I'm positive things weren't suddenly so pleasant for these men a mere seven years after Jackie debuted. The article I read said only one of the ten men couldn't take the abuse and voluntarily quit.  

[KittSmith_95]

34 minutes ago, Michael Bolton said:

 

That's got nothing on Angels reds vs. Rangers reds.

 

 

How was this allowed? This might qualify for worst matchup of all time. These two jerseys are way too close to one another for this to work. This is why teams need custom shades of colours, IMO. 

[Quillz]

5 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Let me tell you I was shocked when I found out  there was another African American player right after Jackie literally in the same season that Jackie broke the color barrier. The way Robinson and his struggles have been portrayed I figured he was the first and only African American player for years and years and then eventually other players started trickling in over time. Having other players so soon after him doesn't diminish anything that Jackie went through but it's perplexing that we never speak of the other people who went through what Jackie went through virtually at the exact same as he did. Point is, he wasn't alone and the others deserve acknowledgement as well. 

That's the benefit to being first, for better or for worse. Everyone else kind of gets lost in the lurch.

 

For what it's worth, Robinson stated what he wanted to see more than anything else in the majors was an African-American manager. This didn't happen until after he died, unfortunately.

[SilverBullet1929]

Marlins and Padres played a surprisingly bad uniform matchup today. It was an afternoon game in the bright California sunlight but with the Marlins wearing black and the Padres wearing their navy camo, the sunlight actually seemed to create more shadows and darkness on the jerseys and it created this super dark and hard to see matchup that bothered me all game. It was like you could glance at your TV screen and really have to take a moment to make out which team was which. Umps wearing black didn't help either. The pics I'm putting are screenshots from videos so you can understand how this looked watching it live on TV as high quality photos would actually show the uniforms better than they looked in action...

[WavePunter]

4 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Marlins and Padres played a predictably bad uniform matchup today. It was an afternoon game in the bright California sunlight but with the Marlins wearing black and the Padres wearing their navy camo, the sunlight actually seemed to create more shadows and darkness on the jerseys and it created this super dark and hard to see matchup that bothered me all game. It was like you could glance at your TV screen and really have to take a moment to make out which team was which. Umps wearing black didn't help either. The pics I'm putting are screenshots from videos so you can understand how this looked watching it live on TV as high quality photos would actually show the uniforms better than they looked in action...

FIFY

[kroywen]

3 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Marlins and Padres played a surprisingly bad uniform matchup today. It was an afternoon game in the bright California sunlight but with the Marlins wearing black and the Padres wearing their navy camo, the sunlight actually seemed to create more shadows and darkness on the jerseys and it created this super dark and hard to see matchup that bothered me all game. It was like you could glance at your TV screen and really have to take a moment to make out which team was which. Umps wearing black didn't help either. The pics I'm putting are screenshots from videos so you can understand how this looked watching it live on TV as high quality photos would actually show the uniforms better than they looked in action...

Beautiful San Diego afternoon in the bright sunlight, and we've got a bunch of people wearing black and super-dark camo out there on the field, all of whom are indistinguishable from another from a distance.

 

We've reached peak absurdity with these alternates. I've always said that Sundays are the dumbest day to have scheduled dark alternates, given that those games are (almost) always played in the afternoon out in the sunlight. I get why teams do it from a business perspective - they want alts to be highly visible during games with higher TV ratings - but having players wearing dark alts in the afternoon is terribly impractical.

[Hat Boy]

1 hour ago, KittSmith_95 said:

 

This is why teams need custom shades of colours, IMO. 

Or the Rangers could have just worn their home whites and the Angels their road grays.  That seems like a more simple solution than going alizaran crimson vs. cadmium red.

[Ray Lankford]

There needs to be a rule about wearing clashing uniforms. 

[Gothamite]

6 hours ago, KittSmith_95 said:

 

How was this allowed? This might qualify for worst matchup of all time. These two jerseys are way too close to one another for this to work. This is why teams need custom shades of colours, IMO. 

 

Or better yet, don't allow both teams to wear colored tops. Mandate the road team always in gray. 

[SilverBullet1929]

7 hours ago, WavePunter said:

FIFY

Fair point but for clarification what surprised me was how dark this looked under such bright sunlight. Total darkness emerging from such a bright day blew my mind. 

[SilverBullet1929]

I don't think having colored alts is the problem and I don't think white vs gray must be mandatory. I think the one thing that needs to be mandatory is that at least one of the teams has to be in white or gray tops. All of the above clashing uniform combos would be greatly improved or at the very least become more passable if one of the two teams wasn't wearing a colored top. 

[shstpt1]

or at least coordinate between clubhouse managers, and Home team gets first pick of jersey choice and not allow similar jerseys to be worn against each other. 

[Gothamite]

Too complicated.  NFL clubs have to agree before the season starts, that's complicated enough on s fraction of baseball's schedule with a fraction of the teams. 

 

I'd be perfectly happy with no alts on the road.  If you want to show off your latest merchandising creations, do it in your own stadium.