Cincinnati Reds: Time For A Change?

[Gothamite]

On 8/20/2019 at 9:25 AM, McCarthy said:

Single color on gray makes the statement that this is supposed to evoke old, golden-age feels with no extra frills, to throwback to a time when the road uniforms weren't important because the home fans literally never saw them.

 

[Citation Needed]

[Sport]

1 minute ago, Gothamite said:

 

[Citation Needed]

should've said "the design of road uniforms wasn't as important because the home fans never saw them". You don't agree?

[Gothamite]

25 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

should've said "the design of road uniforms wasn't as important because the home fans never saw them". You don't agree?

 

No, I don’t.

 

I know from contemporaneous reporting that some old teams took their road uniforms very seriously.  Bill Veeck, for one, designed all-navy blue road uniforms for his Brewers in the 1940s and took it personally when other teams literally laughed at them.  I also know that in the 1910s Pongo Joe Cantillon designed uniforms for the teams he managed, including the road uniform. 

 

Pongo Joe liked to use bold colors in his road uniforms.  Sport Shirt Bill was himself stumbling towards the very first throwback, hearking back to the 1900s when many teams used solid-color road uniforms.  That doesn’t sound much less important to me.

 

Uniforms aren’t just for the fans. They’re also for the players; “look good, play well” has been the mantra for generations.  You need to keep players buying in to the program, no less important on the road. 

 

I mean, what could give us the impression that this uniform wasn’t considered important by the Cubs?

 

 

Or this one by the Browns?

 

 

If the Cardinals didn’t think their road uniforms were important, they wouldn’t have bothered with all these details back in the 1920s. 

 

 

Yes, some road uniforms were simple.  But that shouldn’t be misconstrued as not being important to the clubs.  A lot of home uniforms were simple in the early decades of the 20th century. Simple was just a prevailing aesthetic in a lot of cases, home and away.

 

I just don’t see any strong evidence to support the notion that there was ever a time when road uniforms were considered less important because the home fans rarely got to see them. 

[Brian]

And the new uniforms they introduced STILL have the black drop shadow.  Will they ever recognize this just muddles up the uniforms?!  They wore their red alt much more last season than just home/day games, so I have a feeling these new alts will be worn whenever they want... which is unfortunate.  

[THRILLHO]

11 hours ago, Brian said:

And the new uniforms they introduced STILL have the black drop shadow.  Will they ever recognize this just muddles up the uniforms?!  They wore their red alt much more last season than just home/day games, so I have a feeling these new alts will be worn whenever they want... which is unfortunate.  

I think we saw them more than home day games because a chunk of those were taken by the throwbacks which were worn mostly for day  games with a couple Saturday night games 

[Sport]

On 11/2/2019 at 9:25 PM, THRILLHO said:

I think we saw them more than home day games because a chunk of those were taken by the throwbacks which were worn mostly for day  games with a couple Saturday night games 

 

I fear we're just a regular "Wear the alternates whenever you feel like it" team now.

 

Here's why - every step they've taken with the red jersey has been another step farther to break their own rules. When they first introduced a red alternate back in 03 or 04 it was only for home games on Sundays. They stuck to that self-imposed rule for a while, then around 2012 they started wearing the red alternates for all home day games. Then the Los Rojos jerseys came around and they wore those at night games and once or twice on the road, which is where I think they began to relax the alternate policy. Late in 2018 they wore the red alternates on the road for the first time, and last year they wore it all over the place - night games, road games, whenever. The problem with this is their best look is the home whites, which thanks to the red alternates they wear less often than the road grays. 

 

I expect them to wear these REDS script alternates even more frequently now that they've made a big push to design them to be more than just an inverse of the home jersey. 

[THRILLHO]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

 

I fear we're just a regular "Wear the alternates whenever you feel like it" team now.

 

Here's why - every step they've taken with the red jersey has been another step farther to break their own rules. When they first introduced a red alternate back in 03 or 04 it was only for home games on Sundays. They stuck to that self-imposed rule for a while, then around 2012 they started wearing the red alternates for all home day games. Then the Los Rojos jerseys came around and they wore those at night games and once or twice on the road, which is where I think they began to relax the alternate policy. Late in 2018 they wore the red alternates on the road for the first time, and last year they wore it all over the place - night games, road games, whenever. The problem with this is their best look is the home whites, which thanks to the red alternates they wear less often than the road grays. 

 

I expect them to wear these REDS script alternates even more frequently now that they've made a big push to design them to be more than just an inverse of the home jersey. 

that’s sadly accurate.  You’re right, the white home uniform is so sharp.  

[Brian]

On 11/7/2019 at 11:57 AM, McCarthy said:

 

I fear we're just a regular "Wear the alternates whenever you feel like it" team now.

 

Here's why - every step they've taken with the red jersey has been another step farther to break their own rules. When they first introduced a red alternate back in 03 or 04 it was only for home games on Sundays. They stuck to that self-imposed rule for a while, then around 2012 they started wearing the red alternates for all home day games. Then the Los Rojos jerseys came around and they wore those at night games and once or twice on the road, which is where I think they began to relax the alternate policy. Late in 2018 they wore the red alternates on the road for the first time, and last year they wore it all over the place - night games, road games, whenever. The problem with this is their best look is the home whites, which thanks to the red alternates they wear less often than the road grays. 

 

I expect them to wear these REDS script alternates even more frequently now that they've made a big push to design them to be more than just an inverse of the home jersey. 

 

My thoughts exactly.  The red alternates were meant for home DAY games at the minimum.  I know it's minor, but I hate seeing that jersey, with white accents, being worn on the road with grey pants.

 

The Reds had an opportunity to really change it up for this upcoming season.  I saw a decent amount of chatter to remove the black... addition by subtraction.  Go back to something timeless/classic and be done with it.  Embrace the red and finally ditch the black, once and for all.  I guess there's still a chance they introduce update jerseys with Nike taking over at some point this winter, but if the new red alt has black accents... then that's not a good sign for this year.

[Mitch B]

I despise the number font on the front of the current jerseys.  I'd like to see that go.