Shades of Navy in MLB

[kevinmets]

Much is made (on the concept board at least) of how many MLB teams use navy blue...

I recently noticed that there were (at least) 2 distinctly different shades being used: the Rays, Padres, and Brewers all use a lighter navy that actually looks blue, as opposed to the rest of the navy teams that use that "midnight" color which can be mistaken for black on a non-HD TV.

I figure there's a good chance there's more than these 2 variations... if any pantone nerds want to chime in now's your chance.

[Buster]

Paging ColorWerx...

[TruColor]

...I'm getting there...

[TruColor]

I almost had this whole thing done, hit the wrong key, and blew the whole thing away...

Anyway, here's a rundown of all of the variations of Navy used in the MLB - broken down by colors used for print, and the fabrics/textiles:

1. MLB Navy #1 (Atlanta Braves):

2. MLB Navy #2 (Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners):

3. MLB Navy #3 (Milwaukee Brewers):

4. MLB Navy #4 (San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals):

Now, for the textiles...

1. MLB Navy #1 (Atlanta Braves):

2. MLB Navy #2 (Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals):

I should point out that every team using the above color calls their Navy "Midnight Navy".

3. MLB Navy #3 (Cleveland Indians, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals):

4. MLB Navy #4 (Milwaukee Brewers):

5. MLB Navy #5 (Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners):

These are official. However, what you see here may or may not apply to what is actually worn on the field. For example, I believe that the Brewers' textile Navy looks a lot lighter on TV than it does here. This doesn't take in consideration what colors New Era is using for caps.

[Gothamite]

While we wait, I think there are two distinctive shades of navy used by New Era.

There's the lighter version used by the Brewers and Indians:

and the "midnight navy" worn by the Yankees and Braves:

[McCall]

I thought the Nationals used midnight navy.

[JayJaxon]

The Yankees look almost black and the Braves 'official' files always look much lighter than what they actually wear.

[CitizenTino]

The Indians actually use BOTH of New Era's shades of navy for their hats:

[Bouj]

All along I thought the Braves' navy was darker. I have the Braves road alt jersey & the Brewers home alt jersey, both in COOLBASE. The Braves jersey is darker that the Brewers jersey, and it's clearly noticeable. The Padres & TB practically wear royal by comparison when you hold them side-by-side with the Braves. That's on Majestic for not color-matching, but then again, they took 2 years to even get 1 shade of grey in COOLBASE, so I guess it's expected.

[Gothamite]

That's a Majestic v. New Era issue. They make some strange decisions trying to match the teams' official colors to the standard color swatches.

It's not just navy - New Era has two shades of royal blue as well. Among other teams, the Brewers and Mets use one, the Dodgers and Royals use the other.

The MLB shop graphics aren't the best to illustrate this, with caps being photographed under different circumstances, but if you go into a team shop or Lids you can clearly see the various color groups.