D-Backs Unis revealed weds.

[Korkie]

Wow, from the back the look even more like the Astros. I already miss the old jerseys. I wish they could have just cleaned those up instead. I do like elements of these, but not the overall presentation, where I was quite annoyed at aspects of the old unis, but I enjoyed the overall presentation. Its weird.

[Korkie]

Double Post

[lost_limey]

Wow! Definite UPGRADE to me.

What I like:

The Home & Road Jerseys (even if there is a Nats resemblance)

The 'db' logo on the sleeve patch

The new 'd-snake' hat logo

The diamond hyphen

What I don't like:

The recolored 'A'

Using the nickname and not city monogram on the caps

The Black alt

Black numbers on the home & roads (would look better in Sedona Red)

Everything else is a wash

[CubsFanBudMan]

Nice job, Amare -- on both the coverage of the event and the athlete pics.

And you provided exactly what this community needed -- what other outlets didn't provide -- shots of the back of the jerseys. Sadly, I have to agree that the view from the back does now remind me of the Astros. Are the colors of the lettering and numbers exactly the same as the Astros on each jersey?

[luisart47]

I feel like I want to cry.

I still don't get why get rid of purple. The logos, the desing, the font and wordmark are ok. Just why ditch purple?

[josh_cat_eyes]

Love the D-Backs new look, the ducks new look is growing on me, but I hate the sabres new look. This is a year of change but I hope next year will be a year of correction!!!!

Cat Eyes - Josh

[Gothamite]

Exhibit A:

Why didn't you just use the Astros' home day alternate for the white, lol. but like I said those colors fit the D-Backs way better. Astros, go back to navy and gold!! Or even blue and orange. Brick, sand and black do not make me think of space travel or aeronautics.

Agreed. This is the best argument for a new Astros uni that I've seen in a long, long time.

[BallWonk]

Well, if you're going to look exactly like two other teams in your league, the Astros and Nationals are pretty good choices to copy. So props to that. I also think these unis look flippin sweet from the back. Nicely done with the name font, numbers, and color balance.

That said, my first impressions all boil down to, "What a mess." There's just a lot of aesthetic sloppiness going on here. As much as I like the colors and a lot of the details when considered in isolation, I just cannot consider this an upgrade.

- First and foremost, where is the distinctive diamond-pattern trim? I was never a huge fan of the old D-Backs colors, but the diamond-pattern trim on some uniform elements was one of the most distinctive, best elements used by any team in the big leagues. Any Arizona uniform change that drops the diamond-pattern trim in favor of a generic narrow triple-stripe is by definition a downgrade.

- The recolored A is a mistake. Both the dominant color (red) and the diamond shading color (black) should contrast with the color of the background on which it is displayed. On black caps and jerseys, this requires the diamond shading color to be sand, not black. On red, this requires the dominant color to be black, the diamond shading to be sand.

- The thinner black outlines on the home white is what really makes that shirt a Nationals clone. Use the thicker black outlines on the home white and problem solved.

- The upper-case logo script looks great, especially the word "BACKS". The lower-case jersey script does not.

- The new D snake is fun and more organic and naturalistic than its predecessor, but the distinctive diamondback pattern on the snake's back has become too subtle. And while I don't mind the black letter on the red cap per se, I'd like this a lot better of the snake was sand with black diamonds. That would make the diamond pattern more dominant and also make the snake look more like an actual diamondback snake, which is after all sand colored.

- No team that plays in a ballpark built with public funding should be allowed to take the civic initial off of its home uniform caps. (Nor should such teams be allowed to wear anything other than their civic name on their road uniforms. This means you, Orioles and Brewers.) Get the A back on a red home cap.

Arizona now has the uniform-design equivalent of The Phantom Menace: Something that had all the ingredients to be spectacular, but that was so thoroughly saddled with sloppy miscues that it wound up being a great disappointment. True, the Diamondbacks don't have Jar-Jar Binks, but they do have mismatched lowercase home script with a randomly shifting outline. Given a choice between the two, I might actually take Jar-Jar.

[TruColor]

I have already done this on my own forum, but someone brought up the similarity in colors between the new D-backs and the Coyotes. Here's the comparison, along with the Astros for good measure:

[Gothamite]

- No team that plays in a ballpark built with public funding should be allowed to take the civic initial off of its home uniform caps. (Nor should such teams be allowed to wear anything other than their civic name on their road uniforms. This means you, Orioles and Brewers.) Get the A back on a red home cap.

Agreed, agreed, agreed, agreed.

The only exception I'd make would be the Orioles caps. Mascot logos are sometimes okay on caps, but nickname initials are not.

[huggermugger]

If that is the case then as a taxpayer I would like everyone who receives any public assistance to also wear a shirt with my city's name on it ALWAYS. Taxes for private stadiums really is a drop in the bucket compared with overall municipal spending. And there at least is a return on the money. Do you think mayors really care about what name is on the shirt. All they care is that the tax on each ticket and parking and hat and shirt and hotdog is sent in on time.

[HeShootseyScores]

Love the new look. Definite upgrade.

You guys in Arizona enjoy Darron Sutton on the broadcast. He's a good one and will be missed by a silent majority of Brewers fans.

[hecticbro]

Exhibit A:

Why didn't you just use the Astros' home day alternate for the white, lol. but like I said those colors fit the D-Backs way better. Astros, go back to navy and gold!! Or even blue and orange. Brick, sand and black do not make me think of space travel or aeronautics.

Agreed. This is the best argument for a new Astros uni that I've seen in a long, long time.

I don't agree. I think Houston looks like the Mars Astros.

Anyway, about the D<>Backs: This is a really positive change for them, but I too agree that it looks a bit minor-leagueish. But that could be because it's a modern baseball uniform for a team that hasn't been around for very long and never attempted to create a "classic" look. Before the '90s expansion teams (and I'm definitely generalizing a bit), very few teams in baseball tried things like using picture logos on jerseys, using non-traditionally "baseball" fonts, using cap logos that went beyond a simple letter or interlocking letters, and so on.

Since then, we've seen things open up more. So a team like the D*Backs has more options it can get away with using. Since this re-design was quite well executed, I won't complain.

The one thing that bugs me a bit is the red hat. I like the color of the hat, and I like the logo, but it doesn't look right for a black logo to be on a red hat. It looks like some fashion cap you could pick up for $40 a Lids, not a hat meant to be worn by any professional baseball team.

[hecticbro]

If that is the case then as a taxpayer I would like everyone who receives any public assistance to also wear a shirt with my city's name on it ALWAYS. Taxes for private stadiums really is a drop in the bucket compared with overall municipal spending. And there at least is a return on the money. Do you think mayors really care about what name is on the shirt. All they care is that the tax on each ticket and parking and hat and shirt and hotdog is sent in on time.

I think the mayors care about the name on the shirt because having a big-league team increases a city's visibility and improves its image, and I imagine it can help bring in more tourism dollars as well, among other things.

Of course, this debate is meaningless when talking about the Phoenix Diamondbacks.

What's that? They're called the Arizona Diamondbacks? Nevermind, then.

P.S. - I don't think this set looks that much like the Astros.

[CS85]

I think they could've done a lot more with the word mark. The D-Backs thing looks like it's either from a restaurant or a minor league team. The Red alt is cool, but the rest is, as you've all said, very Astro's Like.

[BallWonk]

- No team that plays in a ballpark built with public funding should be allowed to take the civic initial off of its home uniform caps. (Nor should such teams be allowed to wear anything other than their civic name on their road uniforms. This means you, Orioles and Brewers.) Get the A back on a red home cap.

Agreed, agreed, agreed, agreed.

The only exception I'd make would be the Orioles caps. Mascot logos are sometimes okay on caps, but nickname initials are not.

Spot on. The Astros star can stay, Oakland's A caps, and Cleveland too, much as I hate their cartoon. And the Rockies need a C cap at home and a mountain profile cap on the road, and ... See, this is why I could never be commissioner. (Aside from total lack of qualifications and all that.) I'd spend so much time at first fixing everyone's uniforms and banning dark home alternates and so forth that I'd never get around to making pickoff attempts by the pitcher count as balls 1-3, enforcing the top third of the strike zone, and reforming the playoff calendar.

(But would it kill Angelos to find a workable B to put on the alt caps instead of the O? What about the wrought-iron-looking B that's on the seat thingies at OPACY?)

[hecticbro]

I thought logo and uniform enthusiasts generally like it when teams represent their nickname at home (because everyone in the stadium should be smart enough to know what city they're in already, unless they're in Anaheim) and their city on the road (because everyone in someone else's stadium may not be smart enough to know where the Orioles or Brewers are from).

[whitedawg22]

I like the redesign overall. It sucks that they stole the Astros' colors, but the font is unique and modern without being over-the-top, and I think the colors are used on the jersey better than they are on the Astros'. When you're coming from purple sleeves sticking out of pinstriped vests, almost anything is an upgrade. The only one I'm not fond of is the black jersey with the black hat- with only the breast logo on the jersey there's just too much black going on.

[Guest]

But would it kill Angelos to find a workable B to put on the alt caps instead of the O? What about the wrought-iron-looking B that's on the seat thingies at OPACY?

Let's get the old Baltimore script back first. Baby steps.

Here's an old Boston Braves B, recolored. he problem is that they've worn an oriole for so much of their history that a B would seem odd now, like a Red Sox Halloween fashion cap.

[ZoDogg34]

Amare,

Congrats on getting to go.

I had to work at the AZ Fall League game last night. Which brings up an interesting point:

The D-Backs players in the AFL will still be wearing the old purple / black / teal gear until the AFL ends on 11/18. So, techincally I'll be the last person to announce Diamondbacks in purple, just I was the last person to announce the Montreal Expos during the 2004 AFL.

I don't like this look.

As everyone has pointed out, it looks too much like the Astros.

I liked the purple look. I never liked sleeveless jerseys, but the colors fit the team. The purple has history in the Phoenix Market with the Suns having worn purple since 1968. The purple / orange were picked for the Suns because of the colors of the beautiful sunsets we have here in AZ.

The teal and copper for the Diamondbacks were picked because of the turquiose indian goods that are found in this area, and the fact that Arizona is the "Copper State".

The first year they had a teal hat, but after that, the teal wasn't really used as much. I always liked the primary home unis the team wore from 1998-2000, with the "DIAMONDBACKS" wordmark on the front. I wasn't ever thrilled about changing to the "A" logo on the home unis in 2001, and now these are the worst.

A team needs to establish an identity through its colors.

The Cardinals are red.

The Cubs are blue.

The Dodgers are blue.

The Yankees are Navy.

These are the colors we think of with these teams.

Now the Diamondbacks will have an identity crisis like the Padres. What color do you think of when you think of the Padres? Brown? Orange? Yellow? Navy? Sand? Who the hell knows?

The Diamondbacks will have similar problems. Most of the fans will still be sitting in the stands wearing purple gear while the team is out on the field in Astros' red.

Bad bad bad bad.