Dodgers to return names to unis in 2007

[boardname]

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/NASApp/m...xt=.jsp&c_id=la

LOS ANGELES -- At the Dodgers' press conference on Wednesday to announce the contract extension given to announcer Vin Scully, Dodgers chairman Frank McCourt also announced that starting in 2007, players' names would be returning to Dodgers uniforms.

During his remarks to the press, Scully made reference to all the new players on the Dodgers this season, and how he felt he hardly knew many of them.

"I wish we had the names on the back of the uniforms more than ever this year, especially when I get to Vero [beach, Fla.]."

Upon finishing his comments, McCourt returned to the podium and said, "We weren't going to say anything today, but when Vin Scully asks for something, you have to give it to him. So starting in 2007, the names will be back."

According to McCourt, both Scully and Dodgers vice chairman and president Jamie McCourt have been campaigning strongly for the return of names ever since they were first removed. After the press conference, Scully admitted that while he had been vocal about it, he believed that, "Jamie probably has a little more influence on Frank than I do."

The Dodgers removed the names before the start of the 2005 season in a desire to stress a team approach. At the time, McCourt also said that since the 2005 team was representing the 50th anniversary of the organization's first World Series championship, it was, in part, a salute to the Dodgers' heritage. The club first introduced player names on uniforms in 1972.

The change won't go into effect until the 2007 season due to Major League Baseball's requirement that all changes must be announced in advance of the season so that all materials, including photographs and merchandise, can accurately reflect the current uniform.

I'm happy to see them back on the roads, I thought they looked weird without. But I wish they'd keep them off the homes (like the Red Sox do), that looks really classy.

[boardname]

Guess I'm the only Dodgers fan here!

[kingssss]

Guess I'm the only Dodgers fan here!

Haha, don't worry, I'm here.

I'd much rather have names on both than names on neither. I agree it looks nice when there are no names on the homes, but I think it's a good idea just to bring them back altogether.

I think last year was a tough year to start the no name thing for the Dodgers just because they had so many new and unfamiliar guys playing.

[Cujo]

Guess I'm the only Dodgers fan here!

I'm not a Dodgers fan, but I do have a quick take.

Maybe the Northsiders should listen up and follow suit. Removing names once they've been applied is a bad move. The Dodgers recognized this and decided to slap them back on. Good call, LA.

[PackerBadger]

The Northsiders, the Giants, the Red Sox and the Yankees. (I think that's all of them.)

Every team that fails to put names on their uniforms should be fined $10,000 per player per game. Or whatever it takes. Only the idiots that run baseball would think that not putting names on the uniforms -- which every other professional team sport mandates -- is a good idea.

[WJMorris3]

If the fine would exist, I think you have to permit teams a couple of throwback games where they wouldn't be required to wear the names.

[The_Admiral]

The Northsiders, the Giants, the Red Sox and the Yankees. (I think that's all of them.)

Every team that fails to put names on their uniforms should be fined $10,000 per player per game. Or whatever it takes. Only the idiots that run baseball would think that not putting names on the uniforms -- which every other professional team sport mandates -- is a good idea.

It is SO important to mess with the Yankee pinstripes, HOW CAN BASEBALL LET THIS SLIP BY

[Hat Boy]

Every team that fails to put names on their uniforms should be fined $10,000 per player per game. Or whatever it takes.

Insteads of fining teams $10,000 for not having names on their jerseys, why don't YOU spend the $2 to buy a program?

[oddball]

Every team that fails to put names on their uniforms should be fined $10,000 per player per game. Or whatever it takes.

Insteads of fining teams $10,000 for not having names on their jerseys, why don't YOU spend the $2 to buy a program?

Good call. Yessssssssss! As a long time Dodger fan, going back to the '80 playoff vs. Houston when I was 9, I thought I'd hate them taking the names off; but I really realized how much better they looked without them. Ocasionally I'd forget who a player was, but that's why you have announcers! I realized how much names can clutter a uniform, I guess that's why the Yankees, the Cubs home, and the Red Sox homes are some of my favorites. True fans of the teams know the player by numbers because they follow the team. I've never heard anyone remember a player by what his name was on his back. I mean Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson never had names on their jerseys and yet we remember their numbers. That my two cents.

[TheOldRoman]

Great change.

IMO, the nameless jerseys didn't work for the Dodgers. The Red Sox home jerseys, the Cubs home jerseys, and the Yankees jerseys look decent because they have distinctive number fonts. Only a handful of teams use block numbers, and none of them use the same exact font as the Yankees.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, use the standard baseball numbers. They are skinny, relatively narrow numbers. They look too small for the jersey by themselves, but just right with letters above them.