MLB 2022 Uniform/Logo Changes

[FiddySicks]

5 hours ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

As an Anglo Arizonan (originally from the Midwest but I've spent my entire short adult life here), not enough people care about the D-Backs. If anything a Spanish name would have probably made Anglo Arizonans more likely to keep following the team for the faux-thentic Mexican culture that all the suburban Scottsdale moms that took 10th grade Spanish seem to love more than their kids. And it might have actually won over more Hispanic fans instead of the community being split almost 55/45 in favor of the Dodgers. I can't wait for this team to move to Vegas so we can get a team with a better name down here. 2001 is a literal lifetime away for people like me, and the amount of people my age wearing D-Backs stuff is outweighed by people that wear Cubs/Dodgers/Whitesox/Angels/Twins/Brewers ect. Unless the D-Backs turn it around, they're dead in their own market

Probably the first honest assessment of the AZ market that I’ve ever heard. People down there really want to see things through rose colored glasses, but my goodness is the entire scene just straight up bleak. They have teams in all four of the big sports and their games almost always feel like going to a wake. I don’t know if it’s the heat making everyone lethargic (it’s not because ASU football pulls it off just fine. Albeit, with mostly out of towners. And they’re the only ones who actually play outside!), but AZ sports fans “getting hyped” is a sad, straight up cringeworthy experience. It’s frustrating having a town that big with that much to do and NOBODY ever gives a single :censored:. 
 

Oh, and if the D Backs ever move to Vegas (which seems increasingly likely, weirdly enough), Phoenix is never getting a team again. Why bother when it’s the spring training home to half of the league? Maybe the A’s would work, but again that’s just capitalizing on the former Bay Area residents, which is still a lot weaker than So Cal, so it’s not gonna drown out any Dodgers love. 

[AstroCree]

6 hours ago, adsarebad said:

why do that Mets black jersey have the blue piping?

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-moms-to-follow-on-social-media

 

 

That photo was from a year ago. 

 

1 hour ago, Marlins93 said:

As others have said, the Mets had a great brand identity for decades before the introduction of black ruined it.

They've done worse.

 

The black jerseys are now a once a week home alt, so there will be weeks where we won't even see them. As long as they stay away from the drop shadows that infected all the others, it'll be fine. I doubt they'll ever do that again.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

48 minutes ago, insert name said:

They've done worse.

 

The tail was bad, but it did not mar the uniform anywhere near as much as the black did/does. With the tail in the wordmark, the Mets still looked like the Mets.

[WSU151]

These shoes for Manny Machado definitely look like a pairing with the Padres' City Connect unis. 

 

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

5 hours ago, Marlins93 said:

 

I never bought into the whole gimmick that "we must have black in our color scheme because our city has nightlife." It doesn't work for the Marlins. It doesn't work for the Mets.

 

As others have said, the Mets had a great brand identity for decades before the introduction of black ruined it.

 

There's been some really interesting reporting on Mets introduction of black in the late 90's. Reportedly, the design came up with idea of New York as a "city of shadows," something I've found to be true. Even the pinstripes were supported to have black accents.

 

http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?sportCat=mlb&page=lukas/110512_new_york_mets_black_uniforms

 

But more to the second point, there's been a lot more fluctuation in the Mets identity that people probably realize. What they had when they broke into baseball, right before they added black, and what they've worn since ditching black has been the same but in between they had henley jereys, the racing stripes, an odd tailed "Mets" script. 

 

It's generally been pinstripes and "Mets" but a lot around that has shifted.

[Carolingian Steamroller]

Also the black Mets identity went through multiple phases. Originally, they were supposed to continue wearing blue caps and pins stripes at home but that shifted over the years to them wearing the black crowned, blue billed road cap. Then the snow whites with blue headspoons took over as the home uniform. In later years, the team shifted back towards the pinstripes and blue caps before finally ditching black in favor of cream pinstripes and plan snow whites at home before dropping the cream uniforms for straight white pinstripes.

[Old School Fool]

The Mets should have made an all new black jersey. I know they want a Piazza throwback deal going on but they should just eliminate the drop shadow from it and add back the blue piping to make it consistent with the rest of the uniforms.

 

I've always liked the black jersey truthfully but the addition of black to the rest of the uniforms was ridiculous.

 

This was stupid:

 

 

[Marlins93]

2 hours ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

There's been some really interesting reporting on Mets introduction of black in the late 90's. Reportedly, the design came up with idea of New York as a "city of shadows," something I've found to be true. Even the pinstripes were supported to have black accents.

 

Sorry if I'm being a little harsh, but designers and brand managers come up with all kinds of silly justifications for their poor decisions. I don't feel any better about the Marlins' mostly black color scheme if I'm told it's some kind of reference to South Beach.

 

In the Mets' case, I have trouble justifying it because they had a rather unique color scheme in MLB. There were some missteps in its execution prior to 1998, but there really wasn't any legitimate reason to introduce black where it had never been before.

[adsarebad]

8 hours ago, insert name said:

That photo was from a year ago. 

 

They had a black jersey last year??

 

don't remember that at all!

If true, why the big announcement this year " black jerseys are back"

[Old School Fool]

Oh god, this isn't good.

 

[guest23]

17 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Probably the first honest assessment of the AZ market that I’ve ever heard. People down there really want to see things through rose colored glasses, but my goodness is the entire scene just straight up bleak. They have teams in all four of the big sports and their games almost always feel like going to a wake. I don’t know if it’s the heat making everyone lethargic (it’s not because ASU football pulls it off just fine. Albeit, with mostly out of towners. And they’re the only ones who actually play outside!), but AZ sports fans “getting hyped” is a sad, straight up cringeworthy experience. It’s frustrating having a town that big with that much to do and NOBODY ever gives a single :censored:. 
 

Oh, and if the D Backs ever move to Vegas (which seems increasingly likely, weirdly enough), Phoenix is never getting a team again. Why bother when it’s the spring training home to half of the league? Maybe the A’s would work, but again that’s just capitalizing on the former Bay Area residents, which is still a lot weaker than So Cal, so it’s not gonna drown out any Dodgers love. 

 

The problem with the pro sport sun belt expansion that began in the 90's is that a significant portion of those media markets are populated by transplants that brought their allegiance from elsewhere. Additionally the local natives that grew up in the tv generation were able to either pick any team to follow from national broadcasts or they adopted the closest franchise that had access to the local tv market despite being hundreds of miles away.  With a few exceptions, most of these franchises have be novelties or a means to bring in more popular franchises into town (ie modern barnstorming). Once generational habits take hold they often don't change quickly or change at all. If these franchises are to take hold with a new organic fan base, the youth support would be taking hold by now and I don't have the data to determine that. I am not very optimistic as I think the demographic changes and technology embedded in younger generations would make sports fandom tied to geography much less likely.

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

18 hours ago, sitboaf said:

I feel your pain, but it's very wishful thinking to assume, in the event the D-Backs move, that you'll be anywhere near the top of the list for another team. Gary "Saguaro" Bettman isn't the commissioner of MLB, Rob freaking Manfred is.

Good thing I'm leaving this state after graduation (fingers crossed), hopefully for a market that gives a about sports all the time, not just when their teams are in the finals. My freshman year at ASU I saw maybe a handful of people wearing Suns gear, now I see people wearing Suns stuff and hyping up the team constantly. Growing up I saw people wearing Vikings and Twins stuff even when we were dog :censored:. Worst fairweather fans I've ever seen. You could take all 4 teams away from the valley and barely anyone would blink. Keep the Suns and Cards, ship the Dbacks and Coyotes away. It's what needs to happen /endrant

 

 

EDIT: In all fairness I am a transplant. But of the native Arizonans I have as friends: over half don't give a :censored: about sports at all (like, more than just the average amount of people not being into sports). The ones that do care are split between other teams and AZ teams. Not a good sign for half of the Arizonans aged 18-22 I know to not care about home teams

[gosioux76]

This discussion of the Phoenix market is fascinating. I presume the conventional wisdom back in the '90s took into account the high number of cold-weather transplants and presumed that, at the metro area's growth rate,  the market would have generated enough new-generation fans to build a growing and sustainable fan base.

 

That this apparently hasn't been the case, despite still being the nation's third fastest-growing metro area, is kind of fascinating. 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

11 hours ago, Marlins93 said:

 

Sorry if I'm being a little harsh, but designers and brand managers come up with all kinds of silly justifications for their poor decisions.

 

Depends on the definition of poor decision.

 

From the Mets organizational perspective, the 14 years of black uniforms was a likely a success.

 

I recall them being reasonably popular in the early going. Certainly popular enough that the throwbacks have been a success.

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

3 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

That this apparently hasn't been the case, despite still being the nation's third fastest-growing metro area, is kind of fascinating. 

I know people born in Arizona that consider themselves Minnesotan, Wisconsinite, or from Chicago because their parents are from there and they support the Vikings/Packers/Bears/ect. instead of the home team. Arizona has less state pride than Iowa and the Dakotas. City pride for Phoenix is mostly constrained to ":censored: Tucson." Idk if it's transplant markets or if AZ/Phoenix area is just uniquely unable to garner civic pride. Either way it's weird

[FiddySicks]

Phoenix is the strangest place I’ve ever lived. I moved there sight unseen (like, the first day I ever stepped foot in the state was the day I moved there), and it was absolutely NOT what I thought it was going to be. I came from a small mountain town so I saw a population of 5 million people and I was expecting (foolishly) like, I dunno, a real southwest version of New York City or something childish like that. Instead, it was just a bigger, angrier, more relentlessly hot version of Reno. Everything was a dollar cheaper, but everything was also worse, somehow. 
 

I just remember most people I came into contact with there being angry, sweaty, and depressed. In a weird way, that mentality sort of translates to how they root for their teams. It’s like, even when things are going well and the fans are engaged, the whole thing still just feels somewhat exhausted and traumatized. Needless to say it wasn’t a place that really helped my mental health. And I didn’t really bounce back from that until I decided I had enough with Phoenix come my second summer there and moved to Seattle (Where I lived in the house right next door to where Ted Bundy started his killing spree. With another CCSLCer). Endlessly fascinating city compared to Phoenix. 

[guest23]

1 hour ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

Good thing I'm leaving this state after graduation (fingers crossed), hopefully for a market that gives a about sports all the time, not just when their teams are in the finals. My freshman year at ASU I saw maybe a handful of people wearing Suns gear, now I see people wearing Suns stuff and hyping up the team constantly. Growing up I saw people wearing Vikings and Twins stuff even when we were dog :censored:. Worst fairweather fans I've ever seen. You could take all 4 teams away from the valley and barely anyone would blink. Keep the Suns and Cards, ship the Dbacks and Coyotes away. It's what needs to happen /endrant

 

 

EDIT: In all fairness I am a transplant. But of the native Arizonans I have as friends: over half don't give a about sports at all (like, more than just the average amount of people not being into sports). The ones that do care are split between other teams and AZ teams. Not a good sign for half of the Arizonans aged 18-22 I know to not care about home teams

 

If you want to live in a town that's passionate about sports go somewhere COLD. It's no coincidence that sports towns with reputations of having the most fair-weather fanbases have the best year-round climates in the country. It's literally in the name.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, FiddySicks said:

(Where I lived in the house right next door to where Ted Bundy started his killing spree. With another CCSLCer).

Wait, Ted Bundy had a partner in crime who's a member of the CCSLC?!

 

(I did always get "serial killer assistant" vibes from Lee.)

[Carolingian Steamroller]

1 hour ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

I know people born in Arizona that consider themselves Minnesotan, Wisconsinite, or from Chicago because their parents are from there and they support the Vikings/Packers/Bears/ect. instead of the home team. Arizona has less state pride than Iowa and the Dakotas. City pride for Phoenix is mostly constrained to ":censored: Tucson." Idk if it's transplant markets or if AZ/Phoenix area is just uniquely unable to garner civic pride. Either way it's weird

 

I have a cousin who grew up in Phoenix (her father is a Chicago transplant) but spent many summer here and considered herself more a Chicagoan to the point where she eventually moved here becoming indistinguishable from any other Lincoln Square lifer.

 

We in Old Northwest send a lot of people to Arizona because our winters are good and truly miserable but we tend to get people back over time because our summers cannot be beaten.

[MJWalker45]

5 hours ago, Old School Fool said:

Oh god, this isn't good.

 

And the only difference for Father's Day will be the baby blue instead of pink.