baseball: why can't both teams wear white?

[paynomind]

Last season, I was watching the Braves play the Brewers in Milwaukee. 

The Brewers were wearing throwbacks to the Milwaukee Braves.  Here, both teams were wearing white jerseys with Braves written across the chest.

To me, this was extremely confusing.

I somehow doubt that Atlanta was wearing their white jerseys on the road.

Of course they weren't.

You can see that the M helmet guys were wearing white, the catcher in the background, grey.

[slats7]

I think it has something to do with catchers attempting a pickoff play at first, second or third and throwing it to the wrong guy.

[RVZ]

You'll never confuse the batter with the catcher. But in the arc of the basepaths the defensive team has four players. Load the bases, and suddenly there are five guys from the batting team in that same arc: three baserunners and two base coaches. In the abstract, it seems simple to tell the pitching team's players apart from the batter. But when you array nine guys, all wearing similar uniforms (like Phillies roads and Nats home unis) in little clumps along a short arc, and then demand that thousands of spectators hundreds of feet away keep track of which players are from which team, it becomes clear why it is a good idea to make the players from each team wear contrasting uniforms.

If I were emperor, I would rewrite MLB's uniform rule to specify that, on a color wheel with white at the center and every other color, including a slice of the pie for pure gray, radiating outwards from lightest to darkest, the visiting team can wear whatever it wants so long as the color of its jerseys falls in the outside two-thirds of the wheel. Gray would be fine, but it would have to be at least 33% gray, dark enough that even in bright sunshine a spectator 500 feet away would instantly discern the difference between a player in an otherwise identical white shirt and the player in gray standing a few feet apart. And that any team wearing anything other than white at home becomes the visiting team for the purposes of game and bats first in each inning.

Basically what I said a lot more intellegently.

[Alphabet Man]

ever played cricket guys? both sides wear white , however some sides like the West Indies and England and South Africa and Pakistan now have trimmings here and there but they are all white, just shades of it, like Australia wear are darker shade of white, more beige-creme colour

spot the two teams:

atleast on the TV screen they say who's batting otherwise many wouldn't be able to tell the difference

i don't see why both teams can't wear white in baseball

[-kj]

Because then it'd look like cricket and that would be lame.

[jagler]

besides the obvious merchandising/rules stuff that is the true answer as to why both teams dont wear white, annnnnyone who has ever played the game, which apparently several of you have not--especially in the outfield--will tell you that it can be confusing. try charging a rolling ball in the outfield (looking down at the grass), scooping the ball, then looking up all in a brief instant to throw to a base or to a cutoff guy. all you see is white shirts. not fun.

[hawk36]

I don't buy the whole confusing argument. Spring training games are played with both squads wearing their dark, batting practice jerseys. I can't ever remember seeing a highlight showing an outfielder throwing to a baserunner by mistake.

BUT, that being said, I think if they are going to stipulate a white vs non white look, they should enforce it for all games. As well, if a home teams wants to wear their colored alt, then the away team should be allowed to wear their whites.

Finally, MLB, let away teams wear white pants with colored jerseys (ex A's look horrible with grey pants and green tops).

[Hank Hill]

Why can't you not be so dumb?

If the players are on different teams, they have to look different so everyone can tell them apart. Other players, umpires and fans, especially young sons being taken to the game against their will who show no interest in sports. You have to help them out all you can, and having everyone dress alike isn't going to help.

What next? Tie games?

[winghaz]

Back in the olden days, when I was a kid, we ate dirt and we were thankful for that dirt.

Wait. That's my parents' line.

Here's mine:

Back in the olden days, when I was a kid, this was before kids' teams wore multi-colored uniforms so you either wore white or gray. Most of the Pee Wee baseball teams wore white (we would joke about the teams that wore gray). And white vs. white was never any problem.

When we graduated into Babe Ruth baseball, the old uniforms were so worn out so the local Lions club ordered new uniforms. But the new unis didn't arrive until the middle of the season. So, for the first part of the season, we wore jeans and T-shirts. And that's about as basic as you can get.

[The Danimal]

I've never thought about it, but I guess the answer is that you're right, both teams could wear white (or any other color).

[BallWonk]

BankWonk, i was with ya... until you consider:

...how much freaking time in baseball is spent STANDING AROUND. If, as a spectator, you can't figure out who is batting by the announcer's voice booming in your ear, the gi-normous lcd display showing his face in the outfield, and the scorebaord, then not only are you not paying enough attention to the game, you are obviously not smart enough to understand it. ...

I'm not convinced that anyone playing, or really watching the game could possibly be confused.

I would submit that actually the opposite is true. If you're never momentarily confused by the presence on the bases of guys in nearly identical uniforms to the fielders, then you're not paying close enough attention and just sort of letting the game wash over you, like you're an adult at someone else's kid's birthday party. It often happens to me when the Phillies come to town, wearing their bright almost-white-and-red road uniforms that I glance down at my scorecard or up at the scoreboard, and if there are runners on base and anyone has moved at all since I glanced away, persistence of vision will fail me and it will take me a fraction of a second to reorient myself with who's who out on the bases.

I don't claim expertise at much, but I'm second to nobody at paying attention to a ballgame. If too-similar uniforms confuse me from time to time, then the problem is the uniforms, not the observer.

Plus, even if too-similar uniforms was only a problem for casual fans, that would be enough to make them a Very Bad Idea. Most of the people watching any given ballgame are casual fans, there as much for the experience of spending an evening at the ballpark as to pay really close attention to how every fielder is playing the batter and how big a lead every runner is taking. If there is a choice between making it really easy or making it really hard for the casual fan to tell the difference between the fielders and the runners, this is not a hard choice to make. There's kind of a right answer and a wrong answer, and insulting the fans doesn't make the wrong answer right.

That cricket photo up the thread proves the point pretty well: There are even fewer runners in cricket, and a whole heck of a lot more standing around in the same place for long stretches, and even in cricket the fans can't tell who's who without help thanks to everyone wearing white uniforms.

[Bernd]

Cricket's not a good example. There are only two batsmen on the pitch at any given time, and they're only running opposite each other in one direction.

In baseball, there are as many as seven uniformed offensive team members on the field at one time, which certainly could be confusing during complex plays like a rundown or double steal.

[Alphabet Man]

Cricket's not a good example. There are only two batsmen on the pitch at any given time, and they're only running opposite each other in one direction.

In baseball, there are as many as seven uniformed offensive team members on the field at one time, which certainly could be confusing during complex plays like a rundown or double steal.

waht if you have a runner? then you have a third running at square leg, but they are similar sports, hit the ball and run (or don't run)