With MLB Opening Day tomorrow, the Texas Rangers have become the latest team to join the sleeve ad brigade.
Here’s how the ad will look on their white and royal blue jerseys:
As you are all likely aware, the Rangers, as defending World Series Champions, will be breaking out their gold-trimmed gear for their entire Opening Series against the Cubs (as well as other dates — please see the article for the full listing).
Energy Transfer has been signed as the team’s first jersey patch advertiser as part of a multiyear deal. According to Sports Business Journal, the ad “will debut with the Rangers’ season opener against the Cubs at Globe Life Field on Thursday, will be located on the right sleeve of all six of the Rangers’ jerseys. The patch will be in Rangers blue on the four home jerseys, while it will be in white on the two road jerseys.” (Emphasis added)
If this reporting is correct, and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t, this will go against current ad patch protocol, where the ad is placed on different sleeves depending upon the players handedness. This ad will break that protocol (which was established to provide maximum ad exposure, based on TV camera angles). The Toronto Blue Jays are the only other team whose ad is on only one sleeve (theirs is on the left sleeve and the right sleeve is blank).
The Rangers are so proud of their new ad, they even created a hype video:
Bringing that Championship energy.
We’re proud to announce @EnergyTransfer as our official jersey patch partner! pic.twitter.com/icfl6BBfZl
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 27, 2024
This means we’re now down to 11 ad-free teams (a number sure to lower as the season progresses): the A’s, Cubs, Mariners, Nationals, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, Rays, Rockies, Twins, and White Sox. (The other 18 teams who’ve whored out their uniforms to advertisers, aside from the Rangers, are the Padres, Red Sox, D-backs, Angels, Astros, Reds, Marlins, Mets, Cardinals, Tigers, Guardians, Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Dodgers, Giants, Atlanta, and Kansas City).
The Toronto Blue Jays also only give their advertiser the left sleeve, no switching. Also their right sleeve is blank.
My best guess is that the Texas Rangers decided the flag has to be stuck on the left based on how the wind blows and flag depiction guidance. Don’t Mess With Texas or something.
Honestly, all jersey ads are bad, I hate the MLB ads the most because they literally ruin the uniform (different sleeves are literally not uniform), but Toronto and Texas are the best of the absolute worst for keeping their look uniform despite the ads.
Thanks Mike — I’ve added in the bit about the Blue Jays. Doing this on the fly (only online for brief periods of time this week), but should have double-checked.
If you like your politics and your sports to be separate, allow me to recommend you don’t Google Energy Transfer Partners.
The owner of the Rangers, Ray Davis, is also the man who started Energy Transfer.
I googled them. NOTHING shows up about politics.
Then you need to do a bit more digging.
In 2017, ETP sued Greenpeace and other groups under the Patriot Act, accusing them of ecoterrorism. This was in relation to Greenpeace et al’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It also employed a mercenary company full of Iraq veterans as “security” at the protest sites, and their internal documents were pretty much planning war.
link
I used to work as a clerical contractor for Energy Transfer in Houston. I recall how their execs would give us group talks where they’d make a big deal about going to Canada all the time where people are reasonable, and mocking the deranged Texas politicians they met who were more fanatical about fossil fuels than the corporation itself. It turned out that the corporation itself was as bloody minded as any of them.
That splash photo makes the ad look kinda small but then I scrolled down to the photo of the blue jersey…OMG! Obnoxiously huge ad. I wonder if it will be trimmed in gold this weekend? Has any other team used a gold-trimmed ad?
I wonder if there are any Vegas odds on which team will be the last to be ad-free. My money would be on the A’s.
Gotta be. No way any Oakland brand would advertise the jerseys, and it would be super awkward for a Nevada brand to do so with the uncertainty of where they’ll be playing the next few seasons.
Would’ve guessed the Yankees but that didn’t last long
Totally agree. Still shocked the Yankees sold their sleeves—especially to a third-rate insurance company. Would have expected something like Apple, Chase, or Audi—not Starr Insurance.
What makes Starr “third-rate”? The fact you never heard of them? They are a corporate insurer, not consumer. Their clients are CEOs, not you.
Is anyone else surprised the Phillies don’t have a sleeve patch ad yet? I know, I shouldn’t say anything – but it seems as if they changed the sleeves in order to add one and it just hasn’t happened yet.
Give it time. The minute they pulled the sleeve numbers off the jerseys, it was inevitable.
I appreciate Phil not using the phrase “whored out”!
Any chance we could retire “softball top”? Always found it obnoxious.
He did though, its in the final paragraph.
Yes — as I was in a rush, I basically copied/pasted that final graf as it’s how Paul ends his own uni ad articles (I even attempted to replicate his Mr. Yuk treatment).
I don’t particularly like the term and don’t plan to use it myself, but I was pressed for time (sorry, have a lot of family issues going on right now) and lifted that with some minor editing.
It’s actually the first “uni sleve ad” piece I’ve ever written, so I tried to emulate how Paul usually covers these.
Also have we seen the Texas blue top in the new template until now? I may have missed it but it’s so silly to break the X at the placket like that with the two tiny pieces on the left!
Eh, the Rangers are in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” paradox with TEXAS not having an ideal break.
Umm… something wrong with the Royals that I’m not aware of for them to to be named by city instead of nickname in the rundown of ad-clad teams?
No. As I mention elsewhere in these comments, I basically lifted that final graf from the last time Paul critiqued a uni ad, and that was of the Royals. I just happened to write Kansas City instead of Royals. Apologies if I gave anyone the wrong impression, and apologies this article was somewhat rushed; I’m dealing with some family issues for the next couple weeks, and I had to basically write this quickly and on the fly.
Royals are OK, but no the Chiefs. Shame.
Dude… don’t.
Halle-freakin’-lujah! Finally, some common sense about YOUR AD HERE patches: “the ad…will be located on the right sleeve of all six of the Rangers’ jerseys…this will go against current ad patch protocol, where the ad is placed on different sleeves depending upon the players handedness. This ad will break that protocol (which was established to provide maximum ad exposure, based on TV camera angles) …”
When Commissioner Manfred (the Wonder Dog)’s Office OK’d the “rotating pies’ ad placement, they unwittingly (assuming they had their wits) one of MLB’s core rules: everyone on the field needs to wear the same uniform (the example: if one player wears a cap, all players must wear a cap!)
The Mets’ players, and assorted other teams’ players, have been technically “out of uniform” with the advent of the bouncing around ad patch and team’s sleeve patch.
By the way: during the 1969 season and debut of the National League Championship Series, the MLB “Century” patch (now the MLB logo) replaced the Mets team patch on the uniform’s left sleeve. For the World Series, the Mets restored their team patch to its rightful place on their uniform’s left sleeve, moving the MLB patch to the right sleeve.
I hate sleeve ads, and they’re the reason (along with the lame rule changes) I was driven away from baseball. That said, I am glad the Orioles don’t have one. If they do ever have have a sleeve ad, it had better be Natty Bohs.
Ad patches rotating on sleeves on MLB teams may violate uniform core rules but since everyone wears different socks, shoes, undershirts, etc., its a free for all when it comes to “uniform”.
Socks, shoes, undershirts, etc…I suppose the new argument is that that is equipment, which is different from “THE” uniform. It’s a shame because that argument shouldn’t be able to work with the literal uniform shirt.
I’d have thought energy trading companies would avoid advertising on Texas baseball teams. Things didn’t go well for the one that held naming rights to the Astro’s ballpark, and I would want to avoid that association if I was a CEO.
I’m a Rangers fan and hate this so much. So, so much. It’s so trashy. Why can’t they just keep some integrity in the MLB? Do they really need the money this bad? I’m not a big Goodell fan but love him when it comes to his stance on uniform ads in the NFL.
I’m just going to pretend there is no company behind this, and the Rangers are now sponsored by Newtonian Physics. lol