The Diamondbacks wore their “Serpientes” City Connect uniforms on Friday night, and starting pitcher Zac Gallen went the extra mile by wearing a snakeskin belt! That’s pretty cool, but there’s a little hidden storyline lurking within his waistwear, which I want to talk about today.
If you look closely at the belt Gallen was wearing on Friday night, you can see that it wasn’t just snakeskin — it was also monogrammed with his initials, “ZG”:
I was wondering if Gallen had worn this belt before. The last time he pitched while the D-backs were wearing the CC uni was on April 21. And sure enough, he was snakeskin-belted for that game as well:
Looking back earlier, I found that Gallen wore normal, non-snakeskin belts in 2022 and ’21, so he’s done the snakeskin thing just twice — on April 21 and June 16 of this year. But if we zoom in on the April 21 belt, we can see that it’s not the same as the one he wore three nights ago:
The monogram was upside-down! And why did that happen? Because Gallen is among the small subset of MLB players who wear their belts with the buckle facing to the left (a phenomenon that I examined in close detail two years ago). So here’s what I think probably happened: Gallen arranged to get a monogrammed snakeskin belt from the manufacturer but didn’t specify that he wears the buckle facing left. The manufacturer made the belt in the right-handed default style. Gallen wore the belt on April 21, complete with the upside-down monogram, but then told the manufacturer, “Oh, sorry, I should have told you that I wear my belt the other way” (or something like that), and then the manufacturer made him a new, properly oriented belt.
The most surprising thing about this is that Gallen is right-handed. Until now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a right-handed player who wears the buckle facing to the left. He’s been doing it for years, but it took the belt monogram to get me to notice it. Zac Gallen: uni-que!
Incidentally, I think all the Arizona players should wear snakeskin belts with the CC uni. For that matter, they should probably do it for every game. There aren’t many team identities that can be represented so literally on the belt, so you may as well go all the way with it!
Now we need a Detroit player to wear a tiger-striped belt! Or probably not.
I enjoyed your article 2 years ago about the belt direction, and as a left handed I always assumed it was only a left handed thing to wear the buckle this direction. I guess Gallen is the outlier.
Cecil Fielder batted right, and threw right, but did his belt like a lefty. Source: a 1996 New York Yankees World Series winner commemorative magazine I had as a kid. One of my first memories that makes me realize today I was a Uni Watcher back when I was 7 years old
Nice touch but not every D-Backs player might get into this. It makes this guy stand out and that is nice in a very team orientated sports like baseball.
Issuing snakeskin belts would go a long way to making this rather generic expansion team stand out in a crowd. Or at least a belt with a diamond pattern. That there is such a thing as snakeskin leather, and belts are a standard baseball accessory makes this a no-brainer in my book.
My 11 yr old son is like me, throws right but bats left. I was trying to help him out (speed him up) the other day by putting his belt on his baseball pants before he put them on. After he had the pants on and went to buckle the belt, he told me I put it on the wrong way. I had no idea he liked the belt buckle facing left, My buckle always faces right
Wouldn’t it be weird to wear a dead version of your team’s identity, like the snake has been vanquished?
I don’t think so. Just a quick example, some Native Americans wore parts of dead animals for years to take the spirit of that animal with them into battle.