MLB Concepts 2023 (Epilogue: Tampa Bay Rays v3)

[mahnkej]

St. Louis Cardinals

 

Although the Brewers are my team, I can't deny it: the Cardinals have just about perfect uniforms. Behind the Yankees and possibly the Dodgers, this is the most iconic look in baseball. Simply put, the Cardinals are what a baseball team is supposed to look like.

 

That said, the home and road looks barely change at all. I did incorporate the alternate navy blue hats with the road look, something they used to do exclusively and something I wish they did more often. The 2nd alternate hat (red brim with the full Cardinal logo) is now  used with the cream alternate jersey.

 

Powder blue alternate uniform is dropped, and an 80's-style throwback look with tri-colored stripes is introduced in its place. The other throwback is a 1950's-style jersey, with thick stripes on the sleeves and shoulders and the old-school navy blue hat.

 

[coco1997]

Been meaning to catch up on the last couple teams:

 

Phillies - Personally, I prefer the maroon and powder blue set to your second version. I'd like to see the red alt with Liberty Bell on the breast in the colors from your first version. 

Pirates - I think this is one team where the plethora of alternates works, as they all look different enough from one another. 

Padres - Looking good, though I'd prefer to see a gold alternate in the mix as opposed to two white options. Never been a fan of their camo look, but given that San Diego is such a big Navy town, I get why they wear them and why you kept it. 

 

Giants - If you're going to have two throwbacks, might I suggest a pinstriped NY Giants road uniform? The current road throwback doesn't really add anything new or different to the overall set. 

Mariners - I'll echo @Yee Yee Go 'Stros!'s praise about unifying the number style. I also really love those two fauxbacks! The '70s wordmark in particular looks fantastic on an off-white jersey.

 

Cardinals - I'd think about putting the "St. Louis" script on the road jersey and combining the Sunday alternate and 1940's throwback into one design. 

[mahnkej]

Tampa Bay Rays

 

My favorite team not named the Brewers (and pound for pound, maybe the best run organization in baseball) is a team that's gotten progressively less radical with every rebranding. They went from their bold 90's uniforms with rainbow gradients, to the less radical but still funky early-2000's green & black jerseys, to the current anodyne "Rays" jerseys. Nothing offensive about these, but nothing terribly interesting, either. 

 

Although some people hate on their current color scheme, I actually like how the navy blue & sky blue contrast with the white and gold secondary colors. I would just like to see them play up that contrast a little more. For my look, I use the same drop shadow text effect from the primary logo, and apply it to the player numbers and names. I also tweaked the number font to approximate something closer to the wordmark.

 

Road grey uniforms are changed to have a "Tampa Bay" wordmark in place of "Rays" and the navy blue alternates are tweaked to include the stylized sun logo like their excellent teal alternates. Furthermore, I simplified their home white "Devil Rays" throwback uniforms a bit, as I hate the double outline purple numbers  they currently use.  Finally, I revived a slightly tweaked version of their old forest green uniforms, which was my favorite Rays look from that era.

 

[mahnkej]

Texas Rangers

 

Great looking team, that for the most part made some nice updates in 2020. I really don't care for the cursive "Rangers" script on the home uniforms, which feels forced and doesn't work nearly as well as it does on the powder blue uniforms. But otherwise, these are a really solid set.

For my version, I switched back to using the "TEXAS" wordmark on all the primary uniforms. I also used the drop shadow effect that is currently used for the player names/numbers throughout.  Additionally, I put a small Ranger badge on the upper left breast as a nod to the team's namesake.  Early 90's home  and early 80's road throwback uniforms complete the set.

 

[WillLanigan]

Rangers mostly look good here.  One thing, though, is that I believe the team nickname should always be on the home whites, with the exception of a chest logo (Tigers, Yankees).  That said, how about using an updated version of the 90s-00s “RANGERS” lettering?  I think it would certainly work well here.  (They should’ve never gotten rid of it!)

[mahnkej]

On 8/9/2023 at 11:50 PM, Yee Yee Go 'Stros! said:

Rangers mostly look good here.  One thing, though, is that I believe the team nickname should always be on the home whites, with the exception of a chest logo (Tigers, Yankees).  That said, how about using an updated version of the 90s-00s “RANGERS” lettering?  I think it would certainly work well here.  (They should’ve never gotten rid of it!)

Thanks man, and yeah, I do like the 90's version of the Rangers as well. Thanks for the idea. Here's an updated version with that style of lettering:

 

[mahnkej]

Toronto Blue Jays

 

Second-to-last team is the birds north of the border. The Blue Jays are simply gorgeous, one of my favorite looks in the game. So no real changes to the primary set. Powder blue alternates are tweaked a bit, I used a lighter shade of blue closer to the early 90's shade and added a new tri-color hat to pair with it.

 

The red-and-white home alternate uniform (aka the "Canada" look) is also changed up a bit. I used the "Toronto" wordmark across the chest and used a white front panel on the hats to more closely approximate the Canadian flag. Finally, the throwback jersey is modified version of their underrated late 90's vest jerseys. I always loved that maple leaf cap logo, it was the next best thing to their classic look and vastly superior to subsequent iterations.

 

[loxley44]

Why the 1999 Blue Jay set rather than resurrecting the 2004 anthracite Toronto set?   

[mahnkej]

On 8/12/2023 at 6:51 AM, loxley44 said:

Why the 1999 Blue Jay set rather than resurrecting the 2004 anthracite Toronto set?   

I always thought that anthracite set was trash, to each their own though. Only part of that era I really liked was the cap logo.

[WillLanigan]

Jays look good.  Only thing I will say is that I can’t stand how they use bright (royal) blue on three uniforms, but navy on the powder.  I feel like their regular shade of blue should work across the board, in theory at least. 

[mahnkej]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:44 PM, Yee Yee Go 'Stros! said:

Jays look good.  Only thing I will say is that I can’t stand how they use bright (royal) blue on three uniforms, but navy on the powder.  I feel like their regular shade of blue should work across the board, in theory at least. 

Royal blue definitely doesn't look bad; IDK,  I just feel like it lacks a little something. Maybe I'm crazy. Here's the royal blue version and navy blue version side-by-side:

 

[mahnkej]

Washington Nationals

 

Today's the day! Last team up (for now at least) is the Washington Nationals. I may still make some additional tweaks and/or variations, but for now I plan on this being the end of the thread. 

 

The Nats are pretty solid overall, I love that they made their alternate uniform their full-time home look a couple years back. Easily their best set, IMO, so I stuck with that style throughout. Road uniform is tweaked to include navy blue wordmarks and player names, to match the home jersey. Red and navy blue uniforms are mostly unchanged, with the only real difference being that I kept the striping pattern consistent throughout. Socks get a new design based on the DC flag.

 

Home throwbacks are a cream version of the Homestead Grays from the Negro Leagues, which I absolutely love. Although Pittsburgh can technically lay claim to the Grays as well, the Grays actually played the majority of their home games in DC the last few years of their existence. For this reason, I think this would be a cool addition to the Nationals' set, rather than just another Nationals or Senators throwback. Road throwback look is a classic powder blue version of the Montreal Expos, which are honestly just impeccable. *Wipes away manly tears of nostalgia for what could have been*

 

Big thanks to everyone who checked this thread out, and thanks especially to everyone who offered constructive feedback. It definitely made this project more enjoyable, and 100% helped me improve the final product. The support is much appreciated! 

 

[mahnkej]

Epilogue: Arizona Diamondbacks 2.0

 

Fresh off their improbable World Series run, the D-Backs recently announced four new uniforms for 2024. While I definitely get the appeal of adding teal into the look full-time, I would have preferred to see them move in a different direction. Teal works great as a tertiary color on the home/black jerseys, but it looks a bit forced on the road/red jerseys. I think desert sand works better as the tertiary color here. 

 

On the plus side, props to them for getting rid of the D-Bags D-Backs wordmark and switching to using the stylized "A" or full "Diamondbacks" scripts instead. Both look much cleaner than their predecessors. I also love the switch to a light sand/cream color for the home uniforms, which feels like a definite improvement over using plain white.

 

For my version, I went back to using desert sand as the main trim color, as I think it goes well with the primary red and black colors. Road uniforms also switch to a darker sand color instead of gray, similar to what the Padres used to do. Red and black alternates are mostly unchanged (again, with desert sand substituted in place of teal).

 

White alternate uniform is switched up to include a modernized version of their old-school wordmark, with teal as a tertiary color. These are basically a mix of all three D-Backs uniform eras. And  finally, their popular pinstripe throwback jerseys are brought back into the mix. There's definitely an argument to be made to just using these full-time, as the fans absolutely love them. But that's a conversation for another day.

 

[mahnkej]

Epilogue: Arizona Diamondbacks v3

 

In this version, the DBacks uniforms mostly stay as they currently are, with a few tweaks to the road and alternate red jerseys. I also included a version of their "Serpientes" City Connect uniforms, so that their beautiful shade of desert sand isn't killed off completely. 

 

[MCM0313]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:29 AM, mahnkej said:

I always thought the anthracite set was ugly AF, to each their own though. Only part of that era I really liked was the cap logo.

I liked the grey home hats. Naturally, they almost immediately stopped wearing those. 
 

The de-emphasis on blue drove me crazy. Had it been grey hats and blue everything else, that could’ve worked. But the pointless use of black made that set suck big time. 

[mahnkej]

On 12/8/2023 at 12:06 PM, MCM0313 said:

I liked the grey home hats. Naturally, they almost immediately stopped wearing those. 
 

The de-emphasis on blue drove me crazy. Had it been grey hats and blue everything else, that could’ve worked. But the pointless use of black made that set suck big time. 

Very good points. I can't find the original post, but a while back I came across a Blue Jays concept where the designer used a lot of those same ideas, and it actually looked really good. I'll probably sketch up something along those lines eventually.

[mahnkej]

Epilogue: Chicago White Sox 2.0

 

In this version, the White Sox switch back to their 80's-style throwback uniforms full-time. Old school "Black Sox" style uniforms and a new all-black, white-pinstriped uniform in the same style as their City Connect jerseys are added in as secondary looks.

 

[jbird669]

6 hours ago, mahnkej said:

Epilogue: Chicago White Sox 2.0

 

In this version, the White Sox switch back to their 80's-style throwback uniforms full-time. Old school "Black Sox" style uniforms and a new all-black, white-pinstriped uniform in the same style as their City Connect jerseys are added as secondary looks.

 

 

I love the stripes on the black jerseys and the 1917 set. Wish they'd go back to that. I cannot stand the 1980s unis. So plain and boring. 

[coco1997]

Nice job on the Sox. If it's within your abilities, I'd consider converting the home, road and navy jerseys into pullovers. The '80s license plate style unis with their big, horizontal stripes don't really work on a traditional, button down template. As a general comment, try to shrink the size of the jersey numbers, if possible.

 

Keep up the good work!

[mahnkej]

Epilogue: Washington Nationals 2.0, aka Montreal Expos resurrected

 

Pretty straightforward concept, in this iteration I revived the Montreal Expos franchise and introduced my own take on their iconic jerseys. Home pinstripes and road gray uniforms stay mostly as they were, while the other uniforms get some tweaks. New red alternate jersey is paired with a red hat featuring a blue fleur-de-lis logo. The royal blue alternate uniform uses white script with red outlining for the city and player names, while a white home alternate uniform (designed in the same style as Washington's current home jersey) is added as a fifth option.

 

Player numbers are tweaked to be the same style as the current Nationals uniform (rather than a standard block font) and the fleur-de-lis is incorporated as an accent on the socks. Finally, their gorgeous 80's powder blue uniforms are added as a "throwback" option.

 

Realistically this post was just for fun, as I don't see the Nationals leaving DC anytime soon and there's probably better expansion options than Montreal should MLB look to expand in the future. However,  it's just fun to think about what could have been. 

 

More throwback fun will be on the way with the D-Backs & Rays soon!