MLB Changes 2017

[BadSeed84]

I wouldn't mind if the Phillies wore their blue hats on the road against other red hat teams. I think it would look good with their road uniform.

[Silent Wind of Doom]

3 hours ago, dont care said:

It's because for what ever reason the MLB has never required the socks to be uniform team wide, also with the stance deal they allowed for other socks to be worn still which is stupid if you ask me. For all the bad that the NBA does atleast they can get uniform sock designs and everyone wears them. The MLB looks like a mess every day they have 5 different sock patterns on the field, then you got another guy in stirrups for what ever reason, then the rest of the team wearing their pants so low they are dragging the dirt behind them as they run the bases. MLB needs to change its UNIFORM policy and fast.

 

No, no, no.  I'm well aware of the non-uniformity of 13% of the league (which is one of the thing that has been way overblown in the Chicken Little reactions I've seen to this changeover), and I've been telling others an lauding the fact that this brand is not forced on everyone unilaterally.  I'm talking about the teams (that I'd included pictures of) which have fully gone for games wearing solid socks that Stance offers, but instead wearing other brand socks.  I don't know if there's an issue with comfort.  I honestly don't know how much difference there is in the construction of these socks.  We've kinda mostly been focused on the aesthetics.

 

We've seen the White Sox wear solid black Stance socks.  Meanwhile, the Giants and Rockies are wearing off-brand logo-less solid black socks.  The Royals, Dodgers, and Mets are wearing solid blue Stance while the Cubs are wearing blank.  The Yankees, Braves, and Rays are wearing solid navy Stance, and the Tigers and Mariners are wearing blank.

 

Like I said, I can understand if they find the feel of Stance socks to not be as good as their usual socks, but the Tigers wore Stance for the whole opening series on the road without having a problem with it.  I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason.  In the end, it may just be that they feel like it, like what color the Rangers are on any given day.

 

1 hour ago, upperV03 said:

One of their team-specific designs:

 

Oh, snap.  Thanks.  I've been scouring their pictures and their introduction video on opening day.  It took until a guy came into his spot in the rotation for someone to show their socks.  They look good, and I wish more of his teammates would follow suit.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, EddieJ1984 said:

I wouldn't mind if the Phillies wore their blue hats on the road against other red hat teams. I think it would look good with their road uniform.

 

Just go with this (and matching cap of course) for the road uniform.  The current one looks stuck in the 80s, even though it wasn't even worn then.

[BBTV]

Dallas Green memorial patch:

 

[Ray Lankford]

Mark McGwire wore this in the dugout yesterday:

 

 

Presumably because the Padres don't have brown authentic gear for when they wear the brown jerseys.

[daveindc]

Padres make our brown eyes blue

 

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/columnists/kevin-acee/93006627-132.html

[upperV03]

The Astros are actually wearing their skyline socks in today's game:

[aawagner011]

MLB is jumping the ship. New Era logos. Horrific socks. Under Armour soon. Oh boy! What was once precious is now no more special than any other sport. Sad day, indeed.

[jp1409]

1 minute ago, aawagner011 said:

MLB is jumping the ship. New Era logos. Horrific socks. Under Armour soon. Oh boy! What was once precious is now no more special than any other sport. Sad day, indeed.

 

These socks are actually the worst element we've seen in the big four yet... Mismatched, garish and classless... As bad as some NFL uniforms are, these ridiculous socks take the palm.

[kroywen]

For a solid two and a half decades (perhaps more, even), MLB has had head-and-shoulders the best set of uniforms of any of the big four leagues. They avoided the worst excesses of uniforms trends in both the 90's and the 2000's - very few garish cartoon designs, no unnecessary piping or panels, no outlandish team names, and minimal manufacturers logos. Almost every team had a fairly strong identity, with a few bland but inoffensive identities mixed in. There were no 1990s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2000s Buffalo Bills, or 2010s Jacksonville Jaguars in baseball.

 

MLB, for the most part, stuck to the basics, and did it very well. It says something that the Angels' late-90s look and the Marlins' 2012 update were considered "extreme" in the world of baseball, when both of those are downright tame compared to much of what we've seen in the NBA and NHL, and even the NFL. For instance, the Angels were nothing compared to their counterparts in Anaheim, the Mighty Ducks. The Marlins were nothing compared to that football team on the other Florida coast, the Buccaneers. Hell, we rag on the Cubs for diluting their identity with that unnecessary softball-esque blue alternate, but that's nothing compared to what the Browns have done to their once-traditional identity.

 

Seems like those days are gone though. The Diamondbacks' eyesore of a rebrand was the first chip away (fortunately it was roundly ridiculed across all of baseball, it seems). The New Era cap logo and unnecessary MLB belt loop logo were both chips away. Now these Stance socks are chipping away further at what used to be a truly aesthetically pleasing landscape across baseball. And seeing those hideous socks on an otherwise traditional baseball uniform is incredibly jarring - they're two things that completely conflict with one another. Baseball uniforms are not conducive to that kind of design (I would argue nothing is, but at least it'd be less out of place on a football uniform, where we've become accustomed to some teams turning the dial up to 11 on wacky designs).

 

Those Astros' socks might be the worst things we've seen on a field of play in any of the big four professional sports since the Ducks and Kings were literally wearing cartoon designs across their chests in the 90's (and only on alternates, at that). Just hideous all around. And ruining what is otherwise a decent, traditional (albeit unexciting) uniform.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

9 hours ago, Ray Lankford said:

Mark McGwire wore this in the dugout yesterday:

 

 

Presumably because the Padres don't have brown authentic gear for when they wear the brown jerseys.

 

The superior wordmark and the superior monogram.  Very nice.

 

The only way it could have been improved would be if the "Padres" wordmark had been arched, and presented without "San Diego".  Still, it's encouraging that this design made it to the dugout.

[CitizenTino]

I don't really like any of the Stance designs, but I think I could live with them if each team had one designated on-field design* and then offered a bunch of different fashion styles that weren't for use in games.

 

Of course, that wouldn't be as much of a money maker, so I won't bother getting my hopes up. Sigh.

 

(* Unless it's that skyline sock for Houston. Under no circumstances should that debacle see the field.)

[BigEd76]

The Dallas Green patch (seen above) on the right sleeve of the home jersey

 

[Old School Fool]

9 hours ago, aawagner011 said:

MLB is jumping the ship. New Era logos. Horrific socks. Under Armour soon. Oh boy! What was once precious is now no more special than any other sport. Sad day, indeed.

 

Just wait until you see the NBA next season!

[Ray Lankford]

9 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

The superior wordmark and the superior monogram.  Very nice.

 

The only way it could have been improved would be if the "Padres" wordmark had been arched, and presented without "San Diego".  Still, it's encouraging that this design made it to the dugout.

I wouldn't read anything into it other than the Padres being cheap.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

31 minutes ago, Ray Lankford said:

9 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

The superior wordmark and the superior monogram.  Very nice.

 

The only way it could have been improved would be if the "Padres" wordmark had been arched, and presented without "San Diego".  Still, it's encouraging that this design made it to the dugout.

I wouldn't read anything into it other than the Padres being cheap

 

I am not reading anything into it.  I am just pleased that this improvised move resulted in exposure for the logos which the team has unwisely abandoned, but which nevertheless continue to define the team's identity.

[SilverBullet1929]

For whatever it's worth, I've watched every Marlins game this season and every player wearing high socks has worn the exact same design, the black sock with the three orange stripes that get thinner as they go down the leg and no logos on the sock except for the tiny stance logo. I appreciate the team sticking to one design and choosing a simple design at that and it makes me wonder if they made a team decision to do this and also has anyone noticed any other teams that have actually had a consistent sock the entire week so far? I'm curious. 

[SilverBullet1929]

10 hours ago, kroywen said:

It says something that the Angels' late-90s look and the Marlins' 2012 update were considered "extreme" in the world of baseball, when both of those are downright tame compared to much of what we've seen in the NBA and NHL, and even the NFL. The Marlins were nothing compared to that football team on the other Florida coast, the Buccaneers.

Looking back at the Marlins rebrand now, the only "extreme" thing they did was have a logo with multiple colors that reminded people of a raimbow. The uniforms themselves are actually pretty simple and traditional outside of the logo really. Any hatred of that rebrand basically just comes from 2 things... not liking the logo and/or just preferring the previous identity more, both of which are fine, fair, and understandable but neither of which really made the rebrand as extreme as some thought it was at the time. 

[TBGKon]

Speaking of from the knee down, I noticed that a lot of the Rays players BP have worn white or light colored shoes this past week.   Some guys also seem to still have the darker colors too, but not as many.

 

Does anyone know if he shoe rule was cut back this year.  I was always under the understanding that each team had a primary choice of shoe color and players had to assure their shoes were a certain percentage of that color

[Silent Wind of Doom]

2 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

For whatever it's worth, I've watched every Marlins game this season and every player wearing high socks has worn the exact same design, the black sock with the three orange stripes that get thinner as they go down the leg and no logos on the sock except for the tiny stance logo. I appreciate the team sticking to one design and choosing a simple design at that and it makes me wonder if they made a team decision to do this and also has anyone noticed any other teams that have actually had a consistent sock the entire week so far? I'm curious. 

 

Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, White Sox, Royals, Twins, Angels, Athletics, Mariners, Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, Braves, Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Rockies, Dodgers, and Giants, as far as I've seen.

 

The Tigers, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Padres have worn different socks, but with different uniforms, not between teammates.

 

80% of the league has been consistently uniform.  Although I'm unsure if the Astros wore those skyline socks together or not.  

 

1 minute ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Looking back at the Marlins rebrand now, the only "extreme" thing they did was have a logo with multiple colors that reminded people of a raimbow. The uniforms themselves are actually pretty simple and traditional outside of the logo really. Any hatred of that rebrand basically just comes from 2 things... not liking the logo and/or just preferring the previous identity more.

 

The Marlins were decried in their last decade in Miami Gardens for drowning all other colors in black and Loria's strange obsession with adding orange (a color locals considered better suited for Central Florida).  The rebrand doubled down on both of these, made a beloved feature of their identity a strange-lined swoosh that causes most concepts for the team start with "The first thing I did was fix the Marlin.  They said they'd go colorful, and then cut most of the color in their first season, if it even saw the field, instead focusing on almost entirely wearing black.  That's why people are unhappy with the rebrand.