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A Running Tally of MLB Teams with Mismatched Road Greys

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Good morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend and that you have your eclipse glasses ready for this afternoon.

Now then: During spring training, I wrote several times about the how the Cardinals and Phillies were having trouble with their grey jerseys not matching their grey pants. Since they were the only two teams wearing grey jerseys for spring training road games (everyone else was using softball tops), we couldn’t be sure how widespread this problem would turn out to be. But as I wrote at the time, “We’ll probably see more of this when the regular season begins and more teams start wearing their full road greys.”

And sure enough, that’s what’s happening. While I haven’t inventoried every single team’s road greys, I’ve seen enough to know that this is a widespread problem that adds yet another dimension to the Great Nike/MLB Fiasco of 2024.

The mismatched greys are sometimes very obvious to see and sometimes more subtle. The extent of the visible mismatch can vary depending on the lighting and the camera angle. A big part of the problem, in addition to the different color shades, is that the jerseys seem to give off a bit of a blue-green sheen that the pants don’t have. Tigers outfielder Mark Canha captured the situation nicely in this article, where he gave the following quote:

“You’ll notice when we play today, the grey in our tops is not really the same as the grey on the pants. It doesn’t match — this [jersey] is kind of a shiny grey, and the grey on the pants is kind of dull. They just look like different colors, slightly.”

Just to be clear: The jersey fabric has always been different from the pants fabric (well, at least in recent decades). But the old different-from-the-pants jersey fabric didn’t have the sheen. Also, as reported in my recent interview with an employee of the factory that makes the uniforms, Nike has apparently been relaxing its usual color standards for grey fabric.

In addition, as has been amply documented, the new jerseys seem to show sweat more readily than the old ones did, so that further contributes to the jersey/pants mismatch.

Here are the teams that I’ve seen exhibiting this problem so far this season. The mismatch is more evident in some pics than in others (and, in some cases, more evident in the raw image file than in the uploaded/processed version), but it’s there. All pics are from the regular season, not from spring training. Here we go:

Angels

Cardinals

Dodgers

Mets

Nationals

Phillies

Pirates

Reds

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

———

That’s what I have so far. If you spot any additional teams with this problem (or if you have better photos than the ones I’ve posted here), you know what to do. I’ll update this post as additional examples come in.

 

 
  
 

ITEM! Behold the Final Purp Walk T-Shirt

The final Uni Watch Purple Amnesty Day is coming up on May 17, with lots of activities planned that day in Baltimore. And as you can see above, designer Bryan Molloy has come up with a doozy of a T-shirt design, which leans heavily on Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” (which, of course, inspired the Baltimore Ravens’ team name). We thought the poem’s key line — “Nevermore” — was perfect for this final Purp Walk, plus we get to rhyme “Baltimore,” “2024,” and “Nevermore.”

Here’s a closer look at the design, which is full of gothic flourishes and old-timey details (I especially like the old-school magnifying glass):

I love this design so much! All credit goes to Bryan, who really nailed this one.

As you may have noticed in the mock-up image, the shirt also includes a purple version of the Uni Watch 25th-anniversary logo on the right sleeve:

In addition to the T-shirt, we’re also offering the classic Purp Walk snapback cap one last time:

Both of these items are now available on Bryan’s website. If you want to have them in time for Purple Amnesty Day, you must order by this Friday, April 12. After that, we will continue taking orders up through the end of May 17, but we won’t be able to guarantee delivery in time for Purp Walk.

As always, I’ll also be taking purple-inclusive membership card orders for 24 hours on May 17.

Big thanks to Bryan for all his years of Purp Walk merchandising collaboration, to reader Tim Cox for coming up with the idea of Purple Amnesty Day, to Scott M.X. Turner for coining the term “Purp Walk,” and to everyone who’s made this annual event such a fun date on the Uni Watch calendar. I’m very much looking forward to this final go-round.

 

 

 

Uni Watch Alum Makes Triumphant Return

Last week I mentioned that longtime Uni Watch team member Alex Hider, who for many years has compiled the Tickers that run on Tuesdays, was leaving the site due to a new addition to his family. Today I’m happy to announce that we won’t miss a beat Ticker-wise, because former Ticker-er Mike Chamernik is returning to the fold for April and May.

As many of you may recall, Mike was a Uni Watch team member from 2013 through 2017. If you don’t go back that far with the site but still recognize his name, that’s because he’s remained a devoted reader and frequently sends in items that get included in the Ticker.

Mike is a good friend and a really great guy. I got to meet him in 2015, when he joined me in Milwaukee for a Bucks logo unveiling. Here we are with SportsLogos.net’s Chris Creamer, who was also on hand:

I’ve missed working with Mike and am thrilled that he’s agreed to have one last hurrah with Uni Watch. Although it’s been a while since he’s been on Ticker duty, I know he still has the muscle memory — it’s like riding a bike. His first Ticker in this pinch-hitting role will run tomorrow. Please join me in welcoming him back to Uni Watch!

 

 

Let's Try This Again

I thought I announced a new raffle last Friday, but it seems to have vanished into the ether, so let’s try again: Bob Andrews, the man with more Uni Watch membership cards than anyone else, just ordered two more, plus he generously threw in funds to cover an additional card for me to raffle off, so that’s what we’re going to do today.

This will be a one-day raffle. No entry restrictions. To enter, send an email to the raffle in-box by 8pm Eastern tonight. One entry per person. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow. Big thanks to Bob for sponsoring this one!

 

 

Can of the Day

I usually feature vintage cans, but I figured the label design on this can of Bat Flip Ale, which my friend/neighbor/cat-sitter Jason recently brought over, is very Uni Watch-worthy.

• • • • •

I have several appointments that will keep me busy from about 8am-11:30am. Back in the afternoon! — Paul

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Comments (35)

    The SF Giants first road game looked pretty mis-matched on the MLB.tv app then I was watching the game, but going back through the photos, they don’t look so bad. The app disables screen shots, so I never could get anything.

    I second that. If you go back and look at Kyle Harrison’s start against the Padres (2nd game of the year), it’s obvious.

    I thought the Giants road uniforms matched up pretty well. Any mismatch, IMO, was probably due more to the sweat issue than the fabric dyes not matching.

    I’m not sure which was the worst Nike screw up? These new baseball jerseys, or the old sweatbox football jerseys from when they took over the NFL uniforms?

    I mean, this is just embarrassing at this point. When do they call it a day, and go back to the old template???

    I think the complete radio silence from Nike has made it that much worse.

    This reminds me of a kid who doesn’t own a suit, but does have a pair of blue pants and a blue blazer, so he wears them together to his eighth grade semi formal dance in the school cafeteria.

    The PurpWalk Nevermore shirt is brilliant as well as beautiful. However, being born in Cleveland and a Browns fan, I could never put that on. You understand my conundrum.

    I wonder if teams will start abandoning their gray tops in favor of the softball look—gray pants with a colored top.

    Good News! Welcome Back!
    If your Question Of The Week feature also returns…even better news!

    Slightly unrelated, but I was listening to the Dodgers/Cubs game on MLB TV yesterday before the rain delay. They were showing puddles forming on the on deck circles and the announcers were expressing the opinion that it looked so much better when they had the Cubs and opposing teams logos as the circles instead of the corporate sponsor. Despite a lot of knee bending to the sponsor (We love you guys, you do a great job, etc), it was still nice to hear the wistful tone of “maybe selling out every square inch has its downsides after all.”

    I’ve been looking at photos of Red Sox games, and the colors look pretty well-matched. But the difference in sheen is noticeable nonetheless.

    link

    That Purp Walk t-shirt is so nice! With the tiny crabs, the reference to the Baltimore ball park in the railing on top of all the things mentioned. Really a design classic and the Ravens should take a look at this raven for a team logo.

    The mismatched grays give me Dallas Cowboys pants vibes

    Anyone see the Houston Roughnecks coach still wearing his USFL logo’d hat in his sideline interview yesterday?

    Big big props to Bryan’s design for this year’s Purp Walk. One designer to another, this is just fantastic. It evokes so much about Baltimore, Paul’s departure from Uni Watch, and the history of the site’s previous and current logo elements. It’s pretty bad-ass.

    And Mike, welcome back!

    The Nationals road greys are the most absurd looking in sports. I mean first off, the previous road greys were great. They matched the rest of the aesthetic with the cursive. This new uniform, you have the mis-matched pants, the terrible looking jersey that’s a totally different vibe than the rest. I just don’t know what they were thinking? IDK if I’ve ever seen a team eff up a uniform so badly.

    Nike is really a travesty. From a shoe company to a multi-billion multi-faceted corporation with apparel of all types. I miss the days in MLB:

    1. When teams, for the most part (excluding of course, the Dodgers, Yankees, Expos, etc.) wore pullovers
    2. The bright and colorful uniforms of the 1970s-mid 1980s
    3. Stirrups and sanitaries. Those teams that wore colored sanitaries were very cool (A’s, Padres, Giants)
    4. Pants that went down to mid-calf. Players that go high-cuffed now have the pants WAY too high, or the pajama pants are just yuck
    5. Team were not bound to one specific uniform manufacturer, and you had teams going with companies such as Sand-Knit (excellent quality), Wilson, Rawlings, Spalding, Decente, etc.

    The stupid narrow button placket would not be an issue if more teams re-adopted pullover style jerseys, which, as an ex-baseball player from the 1980s, the pullovers were MUCH more functional and comfortable. Now, about those mis-matched colors, Nike has a history (NFL) of not handling colors correctly, let the teams contract with whomever they wish….

    Not disagreeing with you but I bet Nike (or any manufacturer) would prefer to make pullovers as they’re much simpler to design and produce. Clearly MLB and/or the individual teams do not want them.

    Maybe Nike can put some of that “sheen” on their NFL pants for teams with gold or silver pants to make them look more, you know, gold and silver?

    The Purp Walk shirt is brilliant. Outstanding work by the artist. The inclusion of the magnifying glass, “purple who get it”, “never more” are great, and the raven holding the stirrup is the chef’s kiss.

    Just outstanding.

    Mariners don’t have this problem as they don’t have a road gray top anymore. It’s either Dark Blue or “Northwest Green”. However, the pants they are wearing seem to be a much bluer shade of grey than before.

    Maybe we refer to this Nike kerfuffle with mismatched greys as (with apologies to Procol Harum)

    “A Whiter Shade Of Gray”

    The Padres’ *tans* also mismatch like the greys of other teams. It was obvious in the sun in SF at the start of that series. The tops are almost as shiny as satin, the pants are matte.

    I didn’t really notice the first time I saw the Pirates grays in the sunlight. But in lower light, it’s so obvious. I also HATE the shininess of the tops, compared to the pants. And the bunching around the sleeves…and the bunching around the NOBs. They’re only slightly better than the beer league softball uniform I have in my closet from 20 years ago.

    Watching every site that allows comments absorb this article and then blame Fanatics almost entirely for this mess is beyond frustrating. This is _precisely_ how Nike escapes blame year in and year out for their deep-rooted ineptitude.

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