Cubs focus-grouping a rebrand?

[Bouj]

Just for clarity's sake, the NL patch was a part of the current blue alt only. So about 1997 or 1998. (I swear the blue was just a BP in '97 when the rest of the curent set was released, but... I can't remember for sure.) The 1980s blue road had the "mad Cub" patch, and in the 1984 NLCS, the NL East Champs patch, but that's it.

And the "Cuba" script note is interesting. It's had staying power for something that only appeared on unis ffrom 1994-96. I believe the Iowa Cubs still use it. I have a soft spot for that jersey and like the blue outlined in red, but I'm not sure that's the direction to go.

Basically. The 1997 BP jerseys used the walking cub on the chest (negative space filled-in with white), but the NL logo on the left arm (I think they may have moved it to the right arm to match the alt jerseys later on). However, the BP jerseys had some wonky block font on them. They wore the BP jerseys a time or two during the regular season to change their luck during what was a historic losing streak to start the season. They didn't wear the BPs during games after mid-April. I'm pretty sure the blue game jerseys (with the proper font) actually appeared sometime around August or September of 1997. I don't know if they were originally intended to be part of the package or if the Cubs requested them midseason because the players liked the look of the BP set.

I remember the blue alts being unveiled before the '98 season and then wondering late summer if they were ever going to wear them...they rarely did that year.

You must be thinking of 1997. They rarely wore them in 97, but 1998 was the Race to the Asterisk between Sosa and McGwire, and the Cubs wore the blue alts pretty regularly that year.

According to Henderson, the current blue alt was introduced in 1997 (along with the NL Patch). They wore a very similar BP from 1997 to 2002, except it was mesh, not doubleknit.

[TruColor]

Here's an official graphic from 1998:

[briandean315]

Seems to me that navy may very well be a part of the future for the Cubs. Here is a Darwin Barney bobblehead they plan to give away this season.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Or gold.