Paul here, pinch-hitting for Phil, who’s busy today.
So: The Phillies debuted their City Connect costumes last night, and holy shit did they look awful. The stupid chest wordmark, the gradation, the dark slacks, the absurd number font — please, make it stop!
Here’s a photo gallery I put together. View at your own risk:
Here’s how they looked in action:
And here’s the kicker: Some players were wearing the sleeve patch on the left side, and some on the right. Check it out:
We all know what that means. Ugh.
The Phillies will wear this uniform for all Friday home games going forward.
The next MLB team to join the CC program will be the Mets, who have hinted that their costume will be purple. Can’t wait!
Best thing about last night was that the Phils are now 0-1 in these abominations. I never root for my team to lose but if they play poorly in them, maybe they pull the plug sooner than later on them. It happened in 1994, the first time they introduced the alternate royal blue caps and helmets. The defending NL champs lost almost every time they wore the hats and the players voted to stop wearing them. Blue hats didn’t return for some 20 years.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the opposite would happen: a team goes on a hot streak in a putrid uniform, and says, we’re too good a team to look this bad, and shit-cans the look?
Players don’t think like that, but they should. Superstition ain’t the way.
I mean holy shit those are ugly.
In 1994, the Phillies came out with a blue hat and the players hated that one. John Kruk even went on Letterman to put one through a shredder.
In a world where John Kruk is an arbiter of taste, we’re all fucked.
Definitely not how it works. The Lions played almost a full season looking like blueberries because they won a few games dressed that way. the 2015-16 Cavs won a title in black t-shirts and that look became a much greater part of their rotation going forward. The 2016 Cleveland baseball team played every single game of that postseason run, I believe, in dark blue batting practice tops.
I took the Phil approach to the Phillies city uniform and let’s just say they look awesome on the field while I detested them when they were in the underground Photo Booth. I know I’ve already bought the hat a shirtsy and I’m on my way to buying a jersey soon
I’m WITH you!! Lifelong Phils fan and these continue to grow on me! The hat’s/helmet are fire too!
Gotta say, I watched the game last night and didn’t hate them. Don’t get me wrong — I hate the whole “city connect” concept. But as far as that nightmare merch dump goes, these aren’t the worst. What WAS the worst was the way the Phillies’ broadcasters were hawking the merch through the entire game. It was a 2.5 hour commercial for Nike. That’s something nobody talks about and is way, way, worse than the unis. That was noise pollution of the worst kind, IMO.
Seconded. Coming around on the dark slacks.
Patricia Arquette isn’t the worst either.
I still wouldn’t date her.
I like the hat/helmet.
The rest? Ewww.
And purple CC’s for the Mets?
No. Just no.
Couldn’t help but notice that the Mets did not wear the BFBS jerseys/caps for a Friday night home game, as has been the SOP for the past couple of years. Could they have been shelved in favor of the forthcoming CC?
More likely a supply issue, as several other teams have experienced.
Of course; didn’t think of that.
As a Phillies fan since 1974, I can honestly say I neither love nor hate these uniforms. Given that the “City Connect program” is nothing but a shameless cash grab, plain and simple, my ability to feel anything about the actual designs is somewhat limited. The maroon and baby blue will always be a sentimental favorite because of the 1980 World Series champs; the red pinstripes are timeless and classy. I think the Phils’ current best look is the cream home alternate, and these blue and yellow CCs achieve nothing except to reduce the number of games the team spends wearing obviously superior uniforms. Thanks, MLB.
Hot take…………Phillies cream may be the best jersey in all of sports. Perfection!
Always ranked the away grays of the post-mod P era high in my best in sports list, but since they dumped the sleeve numbers and now have that standardized size Nike NOB template they’ve dropped a lot.
Still, the creams would be a great home standard over the pins, the powders, and the Philly disconnects.
I disagree, the red pinstripes are timeless, and I hate that they lose games to the creams, which should be Sundays only. Now the CC jokes have taken Fridays. Throwbacks are ok because they are used on the seldom played Thursdays, but they are playing a FOUR game series against the Pirates, and will not have worn their standard home unis once. That’s a travesty.
I’ll echo others. I’m actually rooting for my favorite team to lose when they wear these. I purposely didn’t watch the game last night because I don’t want to support this abomination. The amount of hawking and hyping the team is doing for these uniforms is gross and a clear reminder these really aren’t uniforms, but a retail product the players advertise on the field during games.
It’s funny when people who like these uniforms will say “well once you read about them you see how they connect to the city”. Which means the connection to the city only exists when you have to explain it to people, that’s not a connection.
Paul, unrelated to this, but to the recently announced relocations of the Athletics and Coyotes to Sacramento and Salt Lake City respectively. These were relatively spur of the moment, to the extent the moves were official. Presumably the Athletics could wear a gray road uniform next year with Sacramento on it (though sounds like they wont) and the Coyotes could be an entirely different team. Doesn’t that short time frame change in uniforms negate all the nonsense about how long it takes to develop new uniforms/logos? Maybe I am cynical here, but it sort of indicates it has much more to do with merchandise inventory than the uniforms themselves or the time it takes to design them.
Coyotes exist in Utah.
And Jazz doesn’t, which didn’t stop the basketball team from keeping their old NOLA identity when they moved to SLC. I suspect anyone making assumptions right now about what they might call themselves is purely guessing.
What *does* it mean if some of the patches are on the left and some on the right? Poor production standard? Political agenda? Help me out.
It means an sleeve ad is coming, because the sleeve ads will be put on the players’ front-facing sleeves, with the team patch relegated to the other sleeve.
What doesn’t make sense to me is why the ad patch is on the center-field-camera-facing side for batters, but not for pitchers. If the idea is to keep the ad facing the center-field camera (the ubiquitous pitcher-batter shot) as much as possible, then a right-handed batter should have the ad patch on the left sleeve, which it is, but a right-handed pitcher should have it on the right sleeve. Yet despite the fact that pitchers don’t bat anymore in either league, right-handed pitchers have the ad patch on the left sleeve, which means the un-sullied sleeve is facing the center-field camera most of the time. Which I’m fine with, in the context of ad patches existing in the first place, but still.
I don’t think it’s about the CF shot for either batters or pitchers. You can’t really see the sleeve ads in long shots like that anyway. It’s more about close-up shots, like when the hitter steps into the box or the pitcher is getting set to deliver.
At least black pants are not transparent.
And they match the top.
All these City Connect uniforms suck IMO.
Is it just me, or do these Phillies unis have a feel of the “Turn Ahead the Clock” debacle?
Frankly _most_ of the City Connect unis feel like that.
Maybe some of these unusual uni and cap designs look great on a computer monitor but – whoa – who gets “last looks” prior to greenlighting a production run? So far, IMHO, the ChiSox’ City Connect full uniform is the best looking.
I can’t help but wonder if a Denver Broncos-style bonfire is on the horizon, especially if a team starts racking up Ls.
….and, if anyone hears of a uni bonfire, could we petition to include all the faux camouflage sets along with every iteration of the NY Jets’ green pants?
Beyond embarrassing. And what IS the swoosh’s obsession with black/dark colors—again—for a summer game played (mostly) in rising heat and humidity? You get the impression that not one of their northwest-based continually-failing designers ever even played the game, much less from May-September.
Maybe the adversarial owners want the players to sweat beyond normal while looking ridiculous.
I’d say it’s their desire to get as far away from tradition as possible. Baseball unis were white or gray for decades. First thing a fashion designer wants is to break away from light colors; be bold, be stunning.
I hated these when we had only seen the jersey but the whole uniform together doesn’t look too bad. I may end up buying a hat but not the jersey. I don’t like the font (or the word Philly) and the numbers look really stupid, but I like the color scheme.
It is unbelievable the way they were hawking these on the broadcast, though. They even had the “Philly” cut into the outfield grass!
I did see quite a few fans wearing the merchandise, though, so fans who are at the games must like them well enough.
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The numbers look like ancient Druidic runes. My God, who greenlights these things?!?
They give off *strong* beer league softball vibes.
Specifically, the kinda team where dudes have $100 Bruce Bolt batting gloves, a dozen sweatbands, three $500 bats per player that are deployed by situation… and everyone maxes out at warning track power while being a butcher in the field.
“They give off *strong* beer league softball vibes.”
Yes. I’m a little surprised at the number of people in here saying they “look good on the field” or “they’re growing on me.” The colors are just gross and having nothing to do with the Phillies. The whole presentation feels cheap and tacky. They look like something an advertiser cobbles together to sell products with fake baseball teams.
They’re not great, but some white pants could at least make them passable.
Where have I seen this before…?
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It’s odd how the uniform gets progressively worse from top to bottom. Cap/helmet: pretty good! Jersey: It’s ok. The font is growing on me but the numbers are way too wacky. Pants: Somewhere a police department is looking for their pants.
Great looking uniform! Always nice to see something a bit different and this sure is.
My dad — an absolute diehard Phillies fan until he passed away in 1983 — would have looked at those City Connects and said, without hesitation, two words: softball uniforms.
Awful, awful, awful. I would have loved to have been in the board meeting when this whole city connect idea came up. Hey, the Savannah Banana’s are on to something. Lets dress MLB players like clowns for a few games in the season. That’ll invigorate the most traditional fan base in all of pro sports.- Honestly, who comes up with this garbage.