A Uni Watch Look at the 2023 MLB Home Run Derby

Hello! MLB’s Home Run Derby was last night. Although it’s just an exhibition, it’s also a better-looking event than the All-Star Game that it’s supposed to be promoting, so let’s take a look.

As has been the case for several years now, the Derby contestants all wore their standard home jerseys and pants, along with the Derby/workout caps, which are similar to the teams’ primary caps but have a  star added to the crown and embroidery added to the side:

Here are some additional notes from the event:

• Participants wore a Derby/ad patch on the pitcher-facing sleeve (that was the left sleeve for seven of the eight participants) and, where applicable, a team patch on the other sleeve:

• The patch outlier was Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, who’s a switch-hitter. They formatted his jersey for a lefty, with the Derby patch on the right and his team patch on the left, making him the only participant with that orientation. But as it turned out, Rutschman took some of his Derby swings left-handed and some right-handed (!):

• Only one participant — Mets first baseman Pete Alonso — came from a team that currently wears a sleeve ad. Since Alonso had the Derby patch on one sleeve and the Mets’ regular logo patch on the other sleeve, he did not wear the sleeve ad (which I assume would also have been the case if any of the participants had come from, say, the Padres, Red Sox, Cardinals, etc.). But Alonso’s pitcher, coach Aaron Myers, did not wear the Derby patch (neither did any of the other Derby pitchers), so he did wear the Mets’ usual sleeve ad:

• You know how the U.S. flag is always supposed to have the union facing forward and the flag fluttering rear-ward? I’m not sure if the Texas state flag is subject to that same protocol. But if it is, then pushing the Rangers’ left-sleeve patch over to the right sleeve resulted in Rangers outfielder Adolis García wearing the team’s state flag patch backwards:

• Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena wore cowboy boots for his introduction (but not while batting):

Randy’s boots are BACK. 🤠 pic.twitter.com/yU2CRRBgDu

— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 11, 2023

• Players who went high-cuffed wore All-Star Game socks:

• Some players wore their regular team-colored belts, but others wore a teal/white belt with a compass-shaped star on the loop (which I assume we’ll be seeing a lot more of in tonight’s All-Star Game):

• It’s a standard joke that being the Derby catcher is the world’s most pointless job. There were at least three catchers sharing that task last night. I couldn’t find a listing of who they were, but I figured out that they were Astros bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte (who wore Mariners gear over his ’Stros uni), Phillies bullpen catcher Brad Landers (ditto), and Mariners bullpen catcher Fleming Báez:

• As always, it’s awesome that they let kids hang out in the outfield and shag flies during the Derby. But is it really necessary to have each kid wear an ad for a telecommunications company on their chest and their sleeve and the side of their cap and (in some cases) their back? Turning children into corporate billboards is so gross:

• In an inexplicable blunder, ESPN mistakenly stated that Derby champ Vlad Guerrero Jr. is “Cuban-born” (he was actually born in Montreal, and his parents are Dominican):

• There’s also something called the High School Home Run Derby, whose participants got to wear better “American” and “National” jerseys than what the MLB All-Stars will be wearing tonight:

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I think that’s it. If there were any other uni-notable details that I missed, feel free to post them in the comments. Thanks!

(My thanks to Twitter-er @Steibfan37 for the Guerrero screen shot.)