MLB Changes 2017

[AnPheitseog]

37 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

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. 

On the other hand, you should always be wearing your primary at home. 

[Bouj]

7 hours ago, Ray Lankford said:

There needs to be a rule about wearing clashing uniforms. 

 

There was an "unofficial recommendation" from the Commissioner's Office (under Selig) to not wear similar tops.  Not a a hard rule, but most teams followed it.  SD/ATL/CHW notably didn't, since those teams wore their dark alts on the road almost exclusively during that time.  I think the recommendation was scrapped or ignored 2-3 years ago.

[kroywen]

1 hour ago, Gothamite said:

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. 

 

From a sheer aesthetic perspective, I'd actually prefer it the other way around - teams may only wear alts on the road. There's nothing better than the look of the home team decked out in white on a ballfield, so I'd want to preserve that as much as humanly possible. 

 

But obviously from a merchandising standpoint, that'd be a disaster. So on a more practical level, I'd absolutely agree with your proposal - grays on the road exclusively, and alts limited to use at home (and even then, preferably only a quarter of home games max).

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

8 hours ago, Ray Lankford said:

There needs to be a rule about wearing clashing uniforms. 

 

In soccer, I believe the ref has the power to order the visiting team to change its kits if the two teams' uniforms are too similar.  Baseball needs a rule like this.

[SilverBullet1929]

1 hour ago, kroywen said:

There's nothing better than the look of the home team decked out in white on a ballfield, so I'd want to preserve that as much as humanly possible. 

Agreed but with so many games in your home ballpark I think it's ok to sprinkle in alternates at home within reason and ideally with a schedule. I know the Marlins have a home uniform schedule and they wear white every game except Saturdays and Sundays so within a week they always wear their home whites 4 or 5 times and alternates just twice. More teams should have that kind of uniform schedule to make sure their whites are worn the most games possible. 

[Around the Horn]

13 hours 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...

This is why the Marlins should have a blue alternate instead of black, and completely remove black from their set except for the hats.

[Around the Horn]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

In soccer, I believe the ref has the power to order the visiting team to change its kits if the two teams' uniforms are too similar.  Baseball needs a rule like this.

I would agree with this 100%.

[WavePunter]

OR.... teams use some common sense... if you're a primarily navy team playing against another primarily navy team, maybe don't wear your navy alts (or at least check w/ the home team first).. for these 3-4 game series, it can't be that hard to make a 2 min. phone call and discuss if/when the home team is wearing colored alts.. if so, choose the games they're not wearing similarly-colored jerseys to wear yours, or wear a secondary color if you must (like rangers at royals - if royals are wearing blue, rangers can wear red.. or royals are wearing powder, then the rangers can wear their blues, etc..)

 

i'm in the camp that PRIMARIES are called PRIMARIES for a reason (and they should be white/grey).. your primaries should be worn the majority of the time (or at least half the time, at a minimum).. i also like alts, but they should generally be kept to a minimum, try to keep consistent design elements with the primaries, and hopefully be used for certain occasions (such as sunday afternoon home games)

[Sport]

15 hours ago, 2001mark said:

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

 

Wonder if LAA fans agree.

 

 

My future wife and I attended the Reds-Cubs game on saturday and she remarked how the two teams in red and blue shirts looked "generic". I equated it to one of those handheld Tiger games.

[TorontoFan0906]

8 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

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

In the playoffs, only white vs. grey in my honest opinion. It pissed me off when the Jays wore their blues for every playoff game when their unis are based off the 1992/93 design, and they only wore grey/white back then. 

[Sport]

3 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

In soccer, I believe the ref has the power to order the visiting team to change its kits if the two teams' uniforms are too similar.  Baseball needs a rule like this.

They just need a uniform czar. On the day of the game the Marlins equipment manager should have to call the Uniform Czar and ask permission to use the black jerseys, or request permission to use a jersey different from gray. It would go like this "hello, our starting pitcher would like to wear black jerseys today. Is that okay?" and the Uniform Czar would go "Uhh today today today let me check my schedule. Umm today the Padres have scheduled their navy blue camo jerseys so no you have to wear gray today." End of discussion. 

[Ray Lankford]

Allow teams to designate colored jerseys as their primaries, home and away, but don't let them wear the same jersey 162 times, Cleveland can wear dark blue at home or on the road but not both.

[tubby34]

Have the marlins worn their red-orange jerseys yet? 

[ANGELCAT-IDA61]

I think there should be a new rule where all 30 mlb teams should strictly wear their home whites and road greys only. Colored tops should be worn during spring training only. Teams like the Brewers, Cardinals, Padres, and Diamondbacks should limit their throwback home whites to twice a year. The Dodgers should pick one or the other road jerseys they wear, either the "Los Angeles" or the "Dodgers" and wear only one of those 81 games a year on the road. Same with the D'Backs, pick one of their two home whites and one of their two road greys and just wear their colored tops ( both black and Sedona red) for spring training only. Too many teams have too many uniforms during the season. Between 1987-1993, almost all mlb teams had only a standard home white uniform and a standard road grey(or powder blue for some teams) uniform and that's the way it should be.

[TorontoFan0906]

On 4/14/2017 at 5:21 AM, daveindc said:

I think Cleveland's C is a solid, classic, and yet currently unique (in MLB) look that is becoming more and more recognizable. Over time, it'll be as recognizable as the "boring" C of the Cubs and the Reds. There's no need to throw feathers on it, or make it look like a Native American carved it in. Some say a white outline can be added, but I think it looks sharp just the way it is.

 

Holy hashtags...

 

[Michael Bolton]

3 minutes ago, tubby34 said:

Have the marlins worn their red-orange jerseys yet? 

 

They still wear them for each Sunday home game. So far they've only worn them once this year.

[CardsFan79]

They wore them on April 16th vs. Mets.

 

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/mets-vs-marlins/2017/04/16/490278?#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=490278

[SilverBullet1929]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

My future wife and I attended the Reds-Cubs game on saturday and she remarked how the two teams in red and blue shirts looked "generic". I equated it to one of those handheld Tiger games.

What is this "future" wife stuff? If she's with you at the ballgame and she's discussing uniforms with you, you should have already married her by now. That was two days ago, get on it man! 

[Silent Wind of Doom]

Oh, yeah.  In that massive message I posted, I forgot to address Jackie Robinson day.  I was originally very against it, preferring the way they did it before with the teams letting players who were affected by this issue and wished to celebrate wore the number.  Of course, that opens up a lot of problematic issues ("What, a white guy can't celebrate Jackie's legacy?!") and in practice I do like seeing how much better uniforms like the Angels' look without a name on the back.  I'd say they should go with a black 42 on their sleeves.  Two pieces, not just a large patch.  Simple, neutral, respectful.

 

11 hours ago, Gothamite said:

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

 

9 hours ago, Gothamite said:

If you want to show off your latest merchandising creations, do it in your own stadium. 

 

You want blue at Wrigley?  Because that's how you get blue at Wrigley.

 

8 hours ago, kroywen said:

From a sheer aesthetic perspective, I'd actually prefer it the other way around - teams may only wear alts on the road. There's nothing better than the look of the home team decked out in white on a ballfield, so I'd want to preserve that as much as humanly possible. 

 

Then you've got the A's yellow in cloudy Seattle or Minnesota instead of under the California sun, the Mariners wearing teal in front of people who don't care, and Braves and Phillies wearing throwbacks in front of another team's fans.

 

We need a balance.  I think the best option is a regular schedule, with the road team changing in event of a clash.  Up to three days of the week set for alt days, sometimes with seperate alts for whether you're home and away that day.  Whites and grays for the All-Star, opening day, and most playoff games.

 

I think one thing we can say is a positive to all the special event uniforms is that at least they're white and gray.

 

5 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

This is why the Marlins should have a blue alternate instead of black, and completely remove black from their set except for the hats.

 

You want to keep the black hats but get rid of the black everywhere else?  Without the black lettering, numbers, and socks, the hat would clash as much as wearing a red cap over a navy alt.

 

4 hours ago, WavePunter said:

OR.... teams use some common sense... if you're a primarily navy team playing against another primarily navy team, maybe don't wear your navy alts (or at least check w/ the home team first).. for these 3-4 game series, it can't be that hard to make a 2 min. phone call and discuss if/when the home team is wearing colored alts.. if so, choose the games they're not wearing similarly-colored jerseys to wear yours, or wear a secondary color if you must (like rangers at royals - if royals are wearing blue, rangers can wear red.. or royals are wearing powder, then the rangers can wear their blues, etc..)

 

i'm in the camp that PRIMARIES are called PRIMARIES for a reason (and they should be white/grey).. your primaries should be worn the majority of the time (or at least half the time, at a minimum).. i also like alts, but they should generally be kept to a minimum, try to keep consistent design elements with the primaries, and hopefully be used for certain occasions (such as sunday afternoon home games)

 

I think the problem in the end is that the way things work now, nobody knows.  Not every team has a schedule.  Many are subject to the whims of the pitcher.  Others are based on the time of the game.  I'm sure at least half of the teams just shrug and let it happen naturally.  If you were to call an executive or higher up at the team, they'd probably tell you they find out when the team takes the field, or chide you for focusing on that when all they're focused on is winning.  Who knows what probably differs from team to team depending on how they figure it out, so you can't just call the same employee at each team and organize this.  You'd have to form a system to organize this or create new job positions.

 

Maybe the equipment managers have the best scoop, but even that may be a last minute decision, not coming until the unis get hung up in the locker.

[Sport]

2 hours ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

What is this "future" wife stuff? If she's with you at the ballgame and she's discussing uniforms with you, you should have already married her by now. That was two days ago, get on it man! 

She's good people. Our wedding is scheduled for this fall. Going as fast as I can.