Opening-day Twins uniforms

[Saintsfan]

Saintsfan: Your point about the pinstripes is interesting, and I wonder how much it has to do with the Twins playing under klieg lights at the Metrodome. I've always thought their white jerseys seem much brighter than teams playing in outdoor stadiums, and as a result the pinstripes appear more understated. I think the pinstripes on the gray away jerseys are slightly more noticable by comparison.

Maybe the lights do bring out the whiteness of those Twins unis. I wonder if there is something about being outdoors that means that the white unis get grimed up more, rather than being in an air conditioned dome? Or if that Twins uni is designed to be a bit brighter white than most?

[winghaz]

That photo of Harmon Killebrew shows why I love those uniforms from the 1960s. They looked like baseball uniforms. And the Twins were winners in those uniforms.

And, yes, winning and losing in different sets of uniforms does matter, especially for longtime Twins fans like myself who associate the uniforms they wore on opening day with awful teams. The Killebrew uniforms, on the other hand, reminds one of great teams and great players like Killebrew, Carew, Oliva, Versalles, Tovar, Allison, Perry, Pascual, Kaat ...

[spyboy1]

I am stunned at the love for the red twins cap.

Really? That's odd. To me, the red is so obviously a better cap... and more importantly, its more uniquely THEIR cap. How many navy blue caps does MLB need? The red w/ blue bill is a one-of-a-kind.

Now to me, the red cap with the blue bill belongs to the 1975 Boston Red Sox.

The Twins red cap I associate with losing, losing, losing and I never want to see it again.

[OnWis97]

I am stunned at the love for the red twins cap.

Really? That's odd. To me, the red is so obviously a better cap... and more importantly, its more uniquely THEIR cap. How many navy blue caps does MLB need? The red w/ blue bill is a one-of-a-kind.

And, I think it DOES go better with the uniform... even the current one. I'm never that big of a fan of having numbering/lettering that's a different color than all other colored parts of a baseball uni. In traditional baseball uniforms you have four areas of color placement... cap, lettering/numbering, sleeves, and sox. In general, I'd go with all four the same color, or a 2 X 2 color split. 3 to 1 looks off to me.

Interesting. I usually go for unique (Xmas Devils, brown/orange padres) and get upset when teams change to same old, same old (Black/Red NHL). And there are a lot of blue hats. The red with blue bill IS unique. But I guess it just shows how much I don't like it and my disagreement that it's the better cap. I think it's awful. I have no design terms to use. I just don't like it. And I think it looks terrible with the current uniform. In fact, I think blue would look better with this pseudo-throwback.

[gosioux76]

That photo of Harmon Killebrew shows why I love those uniforms from the 1960s. They looked like baseball uniforms. And the Twins were winners in those uniforms.

And, yes, winning and losing in different sets of uniforms does matter, especially for longtime Twins fans like myself who associate the uniforms they wore on opening day with awful teams. The Killebrew uniforms, on the other hand, reminds one of great teams and great players like Killebrew, Carew, Oliva, Versalles, Tovar, Allison, Perry, Pascual, Kaat ...

I hold some element of cautionary hope that the Twins will use a variation on those '60s uniforms when they move into Target Field. In my mind it would both celebrate the team's rich history and its return to outdoor baseball.

That said, I can't conceive of a way in which that old style could translate into a modern feel without feeling overtly retro. Does that make sense? I don't want a retro design just for the sake of being retro. I'd hope for a uniform designed for the modern era, that at the same time would bear enough resemblance to the past that the point wouldn't seem forced.

I think I ask for too much.

[BJBerthiaume]

I think the Twins are going to go retro when we move into Target Field. When people talk about Target Field, especially Twins VIPs, they talk about going BACK to baseball outside, and all the tradition, and honoring the old Twins teams with the Killer, Oliva, Carew, Kaat, etc. For this reason, I think the Twins will go with a retro uniform. They are all hyped up about how it is going to be like the old days in the Met, so I think the unis will be variations of those retro uniforms. The current uniforms are for the inside era, and the throwbacks represent the outside era.

[BallWonk]

... so I think the unis will be variations of those retro uniforms. ...

The problem is that the current uniforms are a modernized variation of the old uniforms. The current script maintains the general look-and-feel of the old script, except without all the crappy details of the actual lettering. The distinctive elements -- the shape of the T, the tilt, the underline -- are all there, but modernized. The only other way to do this would be to adopt a more scripty lettering, but that would be nearly impossible to pull off without becoming a generic reproduction of basically ever other team with connecting script. The Twins don't need to look like Kansas City ripoffs.

So if the Twins really want to go "retro", all they need to do is make the script blue with a red outline instead of red with a blue outline, get themselves a matching script for the road uniforms, and call it a day.

[spyboy1]

Now I see the Twins wearing their Final Season Metrodome patch on their road greys, when I was told they would only be wearing them on their home jerseys.

Check out this link at shop.mlb.com

http://shop.mlb.com/family/index.jsp?categ...1452357.1452810

No dome patch shown on the Throwback alt or the road jerseys but that's not the case.

[mania]

This seemed like the appropriate thread for this.

Suggestions for the new Twins uniform

I agree with most of these, although the majority is likely going to piss BallWonk off.

[BallWonk]

Suggestions for the new Twins uniform

I agree with most of these, although the majority is likely going to piss BallWonk off.

I agree with at least half of the suggestions, too. And I'm glad to see the issue of uniform redesign being raised in Minnesota.

However, the first and most important suggestion for any team considering a uniform/logo redesign, or a name change, or really any alteration of any element of its identity, is this:

1. Don't listen to the fans.

Because when it comes to aesthetics, people are idiots, and we're dumber the more of us you get together. Most of what informs most of our preferences about the uniforms of the teams we care about is, and there's no other word for it, stupid. I don't except myself from this judgment. But the truth is that most fans' uniform preferences are based on nostalgia of one form or another, and nostalgia is necessarily a stupid emotion. So please, teams, don't listen to us, at least not as a group. And especially don't listen to anyone who writes in or for a newspaper, because the only people with lazier, stupider opinions about sports uniforms than the mass of us average fans are sports reporters and bloggers.

[AndrewG70]

This seemed like the appropriate thread for this.

Suggestions for the new Twins uniform

I agree with most of these, although the majority is likely going to piss BallWonk off.

Slightly OT -- one thing the article mentions is that the Twins now have only one navy alternate -- the one that says TWINS -- and can be worn both home and away. The Mets also made a similar move in making only one black alternate (one too many black alternates IMHO -- they would look much better in royal blue). Did MLB finally make a rule mandating that teams may have only one alternate jersey of a particular color (no more nearly identical alternates in which the only difference is the nickname/city name on the front)?

[Billy B]

This seemed like the appropriate thread for this.

Suggestions for the new Twins uniform

I agree with most of these, although the majority is likely going to piss BallWonk off.

Slightly OT -- one thing the article mentions is that the Twins now have only one navy alternate -- the one that says TWINS -- and can be worn both home and away. The Mets also made a similar move in making only one black alternate (one too many black alternates IMHO -- they would look much better in royal blue). Did MLB finally make a rule mandating that teams may have only one alternate jersey of a particular color (no more nearly identical alternates in which the only difference is the nickname/city name on the front)?

I think this is just the preference of the team to not have two alternates of the same color. As far as I know, the Astros still have both red alternates. I think the Twins said that they were having trouble selling the road alternate, and that was one of the reasons they dropped it for this year.

[Bouj]

This seemed like the appropriate thread for this.

Suggestions for the new Twins uniform

I agree with most of these, although the majority is likely going to piss BallWonk off.

Slightly OT -- one thing the article mentions is that the Twins now have only one navy alternate -- the one that says TWINS -- and can be worn both home and away. The Mets also made a similar move in making only one black alternate (one too many black alternates IMHO -- they would look much better in royal blue). Did MLB finally make a rule mandating that teams may have only one alternate jersey of a particular color (no more nearly identical alternates in which the only difference is the nickname/city name on the front)?

I think this is just the preference of the team to not have two alternates of the same color. As far as I know, the Astros still have both red alternates. I think the Twins said that they were having trouble selling the road alternate, and that was one of the reasons they dropped it for this year.

There hasn't been any grumblings about the Astros dumping either of the brick alts so they only have 4 uniforms. SInce they only wear the home version on Sundays, there won't be any way to know before this Sunday. And considering that the brick alts are the owner's favorite jersey, don't expect them to go anywhere.