Padre ponderings?

[DallasSports]

There's nothing wrong with their current look. There's nothing great about it either. It's plain, and just uninspiring all around.

I'm all for the return of brown and yellow.

[KJTALBOT]

One of my worst moments as a logo/uni watcher is when I came down the stairs and saw a Padres spring training game on TV. They were wearing navy!! Oh the horror! I actually screamed out loud. My roommate thought I was nuts. If they do this, it will correct a historic mistake. The Padres are brown and yellow. Period.

[Fjm]

And "maritime aesthetic"??? Umm... that team is in Seattle. A lot of cities are on a coast, but the team in San Diego calls itself Padres.

Yeah but if there's one west coast city that has the right to a maritime theme, it's San Diego. Cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Oakland may be on the coast (or bay in Oakland's case) but those cities are known for a lot more than that. San Diego is known for it's strong military industry and the ocean (among other things including manufacturing and the good weather, of course, but the "theme" of San Diego is the ocean).

True, but then shouldn't their team name represent that? They already picked Padres.

I think a lot of us remember the Padres brown & yellow or brown/yellow/orange when we were youths, and that goes a long way towards why we want it back.

But also, there are 30 teams in MLB. Not one is brown. Many are navy. It would be nice for variety to have a brown team again, so why not the Padres?

As the pictures on page 2 show (at least to me), brown and gold look great if done well. No need for a brown jersey, or yellow socks, or 2-toned cap. Just a classic look with brown and gold.

[Gothamite]

Ah. It really doesn't look that similar to the current road script(even if the "O" on the old one was bigger) to call the new one a tribute to the PCL Padres. If anything, the block "SAN DIEGO" they had in the Tony Gwynn era looks closer to the PCL Padres "SAN DIEGO".

Yeah, I'm not seeing that "tribute" at all. The scripts are nothing alike.

If that's really the script they claim to be honoring, it's a huge reach.

[tajmccall]

I'm behind Kev on this one.

(let the gay jokes roll in...now)

But, yah. The current set is just fine. Its the Padres, they'll change again. Very soon.

If they do, I hope they listen to Ball wonk. Brown and Light Blue would be a GREAT change and a completely original color combination.

I also liked the Orange/Yellow/Brown. But just changing it to that now seems silly. Its best in the past, as a throwback.

I love the Padres because they always tinker, and timestamp themselves with their uniforms.

[Jungle Jim]

The 69 unis are a great set and I'd love to see them just simply adopt those as the new uniforms.

Same here, and I would love to see the Astros do the same. The late 60s - early 70s Padres, Pirates, and Astros were great uniforms! Colorful but not gaudy. Unfortunately, the Pirates jumped the gun with the double knit pullovers and elastic waistbands, but still...

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

While the set that Grubstreet posted is indeed beautiful, the set that OnWis97 mentioned is the most essentially and the most iconically "San Diego Padres":

This is the uni that needs to come back; this is the uni that I would say most people first think of when hearing the name "San Diego Padres".

For the Padres to have ditched this unique colour scheme and this immediately-identifiable font was madness.

Compounding the madness is the fact that the club threw away all of this identifiable iconography at the moment of the "brand's" height -- immediately after the club had worn this uni while winning the pennant in a gripping 1984 NLCS, and then in the World Series.

Stop the madness -- bring back the real Padres' uniforms.

[Bouj]

The 69 unis are a great set and I'd love to see them just simply adopt those as the new uniforms.

Same here, and I would love to see the Astros do the same. The late 60s - early 70s Padres, Pirates, and Astros were great uniforms! Colorful but not gaudy. Unfortunately, the Pirates jumped the gun with the double knit pullovers and elastic waistbands, but still...

Why do I get the feeling that the only people who advocate the return of these uniforms are the ones that wouldn't have to see them for 162 games a year. I would hate to see the Astros return to an orange-dominated color scheme. It was ugly 40 years ago and it's ugly now. As for the Padres, nostalgia is one thing, but let's be real here. Brown is an ugly color. There is a reason no one else wears it. Leave the Brown Padres in the past with all-powder road uniforms and elastic waistbands.

Slightly off-topic, but I am working on a DIY project to make an Astros uniform with the current font set in the old colors (Navy with orange and cream accents). I'll eventually post once I get it worked out.

[-kj]

Disgusting. The original Devil Rays laugh at this.

[OnWis97]

cesarano said:

While the set that Grubstreet posted is indeed beautiful, the set that OnWis97 mentioned is the most essentially and the most iconically "San Diego Padres":

 

This is the uni that needs to come back; this is the uni that I would say most people first think of when hearing the name "San Diego Padres".

For the Padres to have ditched this unique colour scheme and this immediately-identifiable font was madness.

 

Compounding the madness is the fact that the club threw away all of this identifiable iconography at the moment of the "brand's" height -- immediately after the club had worn this uni while winning the pennant in a gripping 1984 NLCS, and then in the World Series.

 

Stop the madness -- bring back the real Padres' uniforms.

Actually, I was referring to the following uniforms.

Home

Road

Definitely my favorite road pinstripes.

No Yellow. I know that was short lived and most think of the yellow. I like the Brown and orange. But if the throwbacks you see for sale are any indication, I won't be seeing a return any time soon.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Actually, I was referring to the following uniforms.

Home

Road

Definitely my favorite road pinstripes.

No Yellow. I know that was short lived and most think of the yellow. I like the Brown and orange. But if the throwbacks you see for sale are any indication, I won't be seeing a return any time soon.

Ah, of course. Duh on me; you clearly said 1985-1988.

Anyway, judged strictly on its own merits, that set is very nice also, especially the road jersey. For me it suffers only in comparison to the previous one.

[larrypep]

While the set that Grubstreet posted is indeed beautiful, the set that OnWis97 mentioned is the most essentially and the most iconically "San Diego Padres":

This is the uni that needs to come back; this is the uni that I would say most people first think of when hearing the name "San Diego Padres".

For the Padres to have ditched this unique colour scheme and this immediately-identifiable font was madness.

Compounding the madness is the fact that the club threw away all of this identifiable iconography at the moment of the "brand's" height -- immediately after the club had worn this uni while winning the pennant in a gripping 1984 NLCS, and then in the World Series.

Stop the madness -- bring back the real Padres' uniforms.

I agree that this is the iconic set. I would gladly welcome this version back, complete with white shoes, but I'm a die-hard Padres homer. I love the caps, this version from 84 (the original versions from the early 80s, NOT the abominations that New Era/Roman/American Needle has been peddling the past 20+ years) is my favorite cap of all-time. Baseball would never go for it though, and I'm sure New Era would completely screw up the caps. That's why I vote for the 69 unis, it's a simple, clean design that define "Padres". I don't like the 85-90 version simply because I hate that version of the "SD" with the taller interlocking "D", it is not the iconic SD logo that was present in the PCL days leading up through 1984 (it had a smaller "D" in the interlocking "SD").

Yes:

No:

[schtee]

Right on BallWonk, the main problem with San Diego's current cap is that it is almost exactly like the Dodgers. And that should not be.

[Jungle Jim]

The 69 unis are a great set and I'd love to see them just simply adopt those as the new uniforms.

Same here, and I would love to see the Astros do the same. The late 60s - early 70s Padres, Pirates, and Astros were great uniforms! Colorful but not gaudy. Unfortunately, the Pirates jumped the gun with the double knit pullovers and elastic waistbands, but still...

Why do I get the feeling that the only people who advocate the return of these uniforms are the ones that wouldn't have to see them for 162 games a year. I would hate to see the Astros return to an orange-dominated color scheme. It was ugly 40 years ago and it's ugly now. As for the Padres, nostalgia is one thing, but let's be real here. Brown is an ugly color. There is a reason no one else wears it. Leave the Brown Padres in the past with all-powder road uniforms and elastic waistbands.

I'm admitted an "orange freak" and the orange Astros cap is my all-time favorite. Although I'm a Reds fan, I wear that Astros cap all the time. (I'm also a UK fan who wears Tennessee stuff all the time, for what it's worth. LOL) So I wouldn't mind seeing all that orange on a daily basis, at all. As a Bengals fan, I love the orange helmets and wish they'd make the orange jersey over white pants their primary home set.

As for the brown, I could live with the Padres using primarily yellow with brown accents. The great thing about colors like brown, yellow, orange, and kelly green is that they're unique. I can understand why you'd say they're little-used because no one wants to use them, but it offers such a refreshing change from all the "classic" baseball caps: blue Yankees, blue Red Sox, blue Cubs, blue Dodgers, blue Braves, blue Cardinals, blue Mets, blue Royals, blue Twins...

[Jamikel]

Those brown, gold, and orange Padres unis don't necessarily look bad, they just look extremely dated. Whenever I see them, I think of 70's Pontiac Trans Ams.

The older brown and gold throwbacks shown are better. The use brown there makes me think of a friar instead of Burt Reynolds.

[ZapRowsdower8]

Put me in the return to brown camp. I'm all for it so long as they only go with only one of the other colors, yellow or orange. Not both, thats when you start to get into the looking too 70's territory.

At least it would be original. Lets do a quick run down of the number of cap colors in each league. I'm looking only at primary home caps.

American League

Navy - 7

Black - 3

Royal Blue - 2

Red - 1

Green - 1

National League

Navy - 3

Black - 5

Royal Blue - 3 (Counting the Mets)

Red - 5

MLB Total

Navy - 10

Black - 8

Blue - 5

Red - 6

Green - 1

Factor in road looks and it brings the navy caps up to 12 out of 30. Of course, some teams use a different color brim on their cap, but most of those are are navy and red, and the red is gone from the away cap. Baltimore is pretty original with the orange brim, the A's with green and gold, and the Rockies with the purple brim. (Is that their offical road cap now?)

[TruColor]

When we discussed this topic a couple of months ago, BallWonk and I came up with this potential color scheme:

This is slightly different than the first proposal, but IMO - is modern, yet points to the past as well.

[cappital92]

Disgusting. The original Devil Rays laugh at this.

I agree, but not becuase of the colors. The text looks horribly arched. I understand that the ability to arch with computers was non-existant in the 70's or 80's, but c'mon. It looks like a really cheap fake.

Anyways, love the numbers and colors. But I also love the original Devil Rays set and 70's Pirates, so I have a taste for garish uniforms.

[tommytimp]

I liked the early 90s All-Star Game era unis, but they were a little common. The cap with orange, Navy and white was pretty boss.

I'd agree with those who said the current scheme is OK, but I'm not a big fan of the "sand " road color at all. change it to grey or do what the 80s did and make the road uniform a white pant with the blue jersey and all is well. But keep the Friar, whatever you do.

[DustDevil61]

While brown/yellow/orange, brown/yellow, or brown/orange work best for me, if they could pull off a brown/yellow/light blue or brown/light blue/orange look, then those looks could hold a lot of potential. Brown and light blue certainly look great together, and that would be instantly unique to major sports. The Light blue/orange in a look could also be a tribute to the dearly departed Clippers.