Good morning, and happy Juneteenth! Hope everyone had a good weekend, as I did.
Now then: The last time the Royals wore their full powder blue throwbacks (including the pants, not just the jersey) was on Opening Day. At the time, they said the plan was for the full powder blues to be one and done, but fan response was so positive that they also said there was a chance they might be worn once more. That’s what happened yesterday, as the Royals decided that MLB’s pale blue chromatic theme provided the perfect opportunity to wear the powder blues. Additional photos here.
In other Father’s Day uni news:
- The Royals weren’t the only team thinking about how to coordinate their wardrobe with the holiday. The Rangers also decided that Father’s Day was the right time for their powder blues:
- The Rays also wore light blue. But first baseman Yandy Díaz seemed to be mixing Mother’s Day with Father’s Day:
- The weirdest development came in Boston, where the Red Sox wore their City Connect uniforms. That makes sense, because that uni includes a lot of light blue — but MLB had already announced that the team’s Father’s Day cap would be based on their primary cap, not the CC cap. That resulted in a very strange jersey/cap combo, although they did wear their CC batting helmets (additional pics here):
- I had been told that there were no Father’s Day socks this year, but that apparently meant that there were no retail socks, because plenty of players wore them on-field (even though it often looked ridiculous). Here’s a sampling:
- But some players, like Angels pitcher Tyler Anderson, wore their teams’ usual socks instead of the holiday hose:
- As usual, the Brewers went the extra mile by rendering all of their batting helmet decals in holiday colors and adding a side decal to match their cap’s side patch:
- Astros skipper Dusty Baker, who usually wears wristbands featuring a rendering of himself, switched to a new design with a depiction of his dad:
- Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud wore a blue mask, as did most plate umpires:
- As you’d expect, some players wore Father’s Day footwear. Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.’s included a little hang tag, which he left on during the game (sort of the shoe equivalent of leaving the sticker on the cap brim):
- Speaking of Atlanta: In a move that isn’t uni-related but still seems relevant, infielder Charlie Culberson’s dad was supposed to throw out the first pitch yesterday, but that plan was scrapped when the team DFA’d Culberson shortly before the game. Ouch.
If there are any holiday gear developments that I missed, feel free to post them in today’s comments. Thnaks!
(My thanks to Ignacio Salazar and Shane Linville for their contributions to this post.)
The Royals need to make those glorious powder blues their permanent road uniform.
Amen to that!
The truth!
Looked quizzically at Ronald Acura Jr.’s shoe tag, trying to figure why he was wishing us a bad Father’s Day. Thought, well, we can’t all be blessed with good fathers. Then I blinked and saw he wished us a “rad” Father’s Day. Do the kids still say that?
I thought rad was only famous during the BMX Plus era.
as a kid…
that’s probably being said ironically. I don’t think I’ve ever used “rad” unironically
Judging by the hang tag, it looks like a Nike thing. How rad.
Is Travis d’Arnaud wearing his old blue-and-orange Mets gear in that photo, or am I hallucinating?
It does look that way!
It sure looks that way but I don’t think so. He wears a similar (though not identical) protector with the Atlanta CC unis; also, if you look at Acuna’s shoes, they seem to have the same (or similar) faux-camo pattern as d’Arnaud’s protector. My guess is this gear was created specifically for Atlanta’s “Nike” athletes for Dad’s Day.
This is Nike’s Father’s Day gear for the catchers. The Yankees catcher in the late game wore the same gear.
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Came to say that so did Adley Rutschman for the Orioles.
The Royals and Rangers did it right yesterday.
They both nailed it.
The Rangers always wear powder blue on Sundays, but in my opinion, looked better than normal yesterday either the royal blue Father’s Day cap instead of the usual powder blue one.
Agree! Love the powder blues, but the powder blue cap is overkill!
“The Rays also wore light blue. But first baseman Yandy Díaz seemed to be mixing Mother’s Day with Father’s Day”
Pretty soon, we’ll just have Parent’s Day.
Call me a traditionalist but I am looking forward to a few weeks of uninterrupted regular baseball uniforms…oh no, July 4th is coming up.
The Red Sox are now 18-4 in yellow. They aren’t really my cup of tea, but it’s getting harder to dislike them!
White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal had a full blue catching set. Sorry for the crappy pic – had to screen grab a video:
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Where’s my father’s day cake, Bedelia?
Similar to the Red Sox, the Padres had some hat roulette too. They wore their Sunday home camos, which normally gets paired with a brown/tan SD hat and brown/tan batting helmet. Instead, they wore the brown/yellow/blue father’s day hats. But unlike the Red Sox, the Padres wore a completely different brown/blue batting helmets instead of their military Sunday brown/tan batting helmets.
What they wore on Father’s day Sunday
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What they normally wear on Sunday
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I went to the Yo La Tengo show in Boston last night. I wore a Uni-Watch t-shirt—coincidentally, considering today’s subject matter, it was the Powder Blue shirt from the 2015 T-Shirt Club. I was secretly hoping Ira Kaplan would see it from the stage and think “That’s my boy Paul!!!” ;)
Also—before the show started, a guy in the crowd walked by, saw my shirt and said “Uni Watch!” I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but if he reads this: Thanks for the shout-out!
Very cool, Ehtan — hope you enjoyed the show!
As a football player in high school and college back in the 1970’s I took great pains to coordinate my uniform. White socks and cleats, matching wrist band depending on home and away uniform. I shudder to think I could walk out on the field wearing the clown suits that baseball and basketball have turned up here the past few years and it is getting worse.
Mariners did the opposite of the Red Sox. Sunday Home games are normally in the cream/blue/yellow. However they wore the regular home whites because MLB chose their standard blue hat for Fathers’ Day treatment.
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Here’s Cal Raleigh, catching, wearing a much more faint shade of blue with his catcher’s gear
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And a better view of Yasmani Grandal and the Ump.
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The Padres wore powder blue logos on their batting helmets.
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Yandy Díaz has been wearing pink accessories (shoes, sleeve, belt) pretty consistently this season, regardless of Mother’s/Father’s Days.
Not sure if there’s a particular reason why, or if it’s just because he likes them, but it certainly makes him easy to spot on the field.