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Names on the back of MLB jerseys


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The red sox' font is so distinctive you can tell its them from behind too.

It is now.

Back in the 70s, the Angels used the exact number font. I'm pretty sure they went nameless for much of the 70s as well, and sharing the same color scheme, it was probably not out of the question to confuse the two teams if you only saw them from behind.

Back in the 30's and 40's, just about every team used the "Red Sox" font at one time or another. The Yankees stopped using it in the late 40's but brought them back for their 50th anniversary uniforms in 1953. The Dodgers had also done away with them in the late 40's / early 50's but brought them back for one year in 1962. Even the Red Sox ditched it on their road jerseys in 1969 and again in the mid-80's. The Angels actually used the font at their inception in 1961 and kept it through the late 70's - both with and without names.

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I like the way names look on the Cubs jerseys. I don't care if I need to know who they are already, I just think it looks good from an aesthetic standpoint. Oh, and having TWO blue jerseys so they can still be nameless at home for Zambrano starts is ridiculous.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Also, isn't it about time SOMEBODY made the Yankee$ follow the rules on uniforms? They're the ONLY AL team w/o names on the roads, and the ONLY team in MLB w/ no Majestic logo on the sleeves and pants.

That beckons a GREAT trivia question.

Who was the first player to be the ONLY player in an All-Star game NOT to have his name on the back of his jersey?

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I like the way names look on the Cubs jerseys. I don't care if I need to know who they are already, I just think it looks good from an aesthetic standpoint. Oh, and having TWO blue jerseys so they can still be nameless at home for Zambrano starts is ridiculous.

Well, I'd rather they dump the blue alltogether, but that's just me. At least they're wearing it less this year than they have...

And as far as having two blue jerseys, I don't think it's as ridiculous as, say, the Astros, who have:

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and:

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Moose

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There's definitely no need for a rule on this, at least not until after MLB institutes a rule requiring the two teams on the field of play to wear contrasting uniforms. Then we can talk about regulating jersey names. But it's totally OK for teams to differ on this point. Nobody is hurt by a team wearing its names, and numbers alone are quite adequate for identifying players.

That said, if I had a team, they'd wear names and numbers on the road, numbers only at home. I don't think names on uniforms look bad or anything, but I do think no names looks better. And the uniforms would only have numbers on the front if the numbers could go on the left side beneath a cross-chest script. If the team wore only a logo of some kind on one side, then no number on the front. A number on the left below a logo is unbalanced, and a number on the right side opposite (or, worse, opposite and below) a logo just makes the team look like it's playing beer-league softball.

Oh, and if my team had pinstripes, which it probably would not, names would definitely be sewn onto a non-pinstriped plate. Jersey names are already hard enough to read at any distance; no need making it harder by sewing the letters directly onto vertical stripes. It's nice to look pretty and all, but good design isn't just about looking pretty. If your goal is to make players easier to identify by putting their names on their jerseys, then you have to be willing to sacrifice a little bit of pretty for the sake of readability, or else you shouldn't bother putting the names on at all. Where a uniform has a definite and important function, that function needs to drive form, not the other way around.

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This "it's okay to not have them at home because everyone should know their players" thing is CRAP.

First, that's accounting for such a small amount of fans. For the teams that do have the names on their back, honestly, how many fans around the stadium are close enough to read them? Not very many.

Secondly, where are most of the fans watching? It's not at the stadium, it's on the TV. That's why teams should have names on ALL their jerseys. Don't try and tell me there's enough graphics on the screen either, because all the time (well, when I'm watching the Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, or Giants) I'll see a guy on base or in the field or something who is a rookie or just someone I don't recognize, and I have no idea who they are. You see the fielding assignments at the beginning of the game and the batters when they're up, but all the time during the game you see players without their name listed underneath. It's nice to be able to just read it off their back.

It shouldn't be required, it should just be common fan courtesy.

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The announcers and the graphics do a fine job of keeping me informed of just who are the Yankees I don't know.

Now, that won't help somebody who's watching the game while doing something else, but we shouldn't dumb down the sport to the level of people who can't be bothered to pay attention. :rolleyes:

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The announcers and the graphics do a fine job of keeping me informed of just who are the Yankees I don't know.

Now, that won't help somebody who's watching the game while doing something else, but we shouldn't dumb down the sport to the level of people who can't be bothered to pay attention. :rolleyes:

There's plenty of good reasons why someone might not see a graphic for the short time its up, and the announcers...well...I tend to pay attention to them usually, but I miss a name occassionally, and some announcers are so bad that (1) they miss a name themselves, or (2) they aren't worth paying attention to.

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