USA World Baseball Classic Jerseys

[TSM]

And one final thought...why does Italy wear blue? Soccer, baseball, whatever they wear blue. However...blue is not in their flag.

Not all national colors are reflected on flags. Flags are often political symbols, separate from historic and ethnic traditions.

Azure blue is the color of Italian national teams because it was the livery color of the Kings of Savoy, the last royal house of Italy. The Republic was created in 1946 but the tradition of wearing blue persevered. Blue is also used on the Presidential flag of Italy and on the badge of the Italian Football Federation:

I am not quite sure on the Japanese soccer team, but apparetnly they just chose blue "simply because". Accodring to the Japanese Football Federation, it symbolizes youth.

One of the most famous cases is, of course, the Netherlands: all of their sports teams wear orange. It is the Dutch national color and used to be featured on the flag, but was replaced with red because it was easier to notice at sea.

Hockey teams often use black to augment their national colours, mostly to avoid the monochromatic look or to solve the "pants color issue" (hockey teams usually don't wear light-colored pants). Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Latvia all supplement their national colors with black. Austria does the same, but for a different reason: black is associated with the German tradion and is also found on the Austrian soccer kits.

[rmackman]

And one final thought...why does Italy wear blue?  Soccer, baseball, whatever they wear blue.  However...blue is not in their flag.

Not all national colors are reflected on flags. Flags are often political symbols, separate from historic and ethnic traditions.

Azure blue is the color of Italian national teams because it was the livery color of the Kings of Savoy, the last royal house of Italy. The Republic was created in 1946 but the tradition of wearing blue persevered. Blue is also used on the Presidential flag of Italy and on the badge of the Italian Football Federation:

I am not quite sure on the Japanese soccer team, but apparetnly they just chose blue "simply because". Accodring to the Japanese Football Federation, it symbolizes youth.

One of the most famous cases is, of course, the Netherlands: all of their sports teams wear orange. It is the Dutch national color and used to be featured on the flag, but was replaced with red because it was easier to notice at sea.

Hockey teams often use black to augment their national colours, mostly to avoid the monochromatic look or to solve the "pants color issue" (hockey teams usually don't wear light-colored pants). Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Latvia all supplement their national colors with black. Austria does the same, but for a different reason: black is associated with the German tradion and is also found on the Austrian soccer kits.

That's about as good an anwer as I could find! Thanks.