In an apparent MLB first, the Orioles and Nationals announced today that they will both wear their City Connect uniforms when they face each other this Tuesday night in Washington. They’re calling the promotion “Cities Connected” — an apt phrase for the two nearby municipalities.
The Nats unveiled their cherry blossom-themed CC uniforms in 2022 and have announced that the design will be retired after this season.
As for Baltimore’s CC design, it debuted last year and has had two design alternations since its launch. First, the sleeve cuffs were modified, and then the original black pants were swapped out for white pants this season.
Although this will be the first CC vs. CC game, it will not be the last, as the Rays plan to wear their newly unveiled CC costume for road games on June 15 in Atlanta and Aug. 7 in St. Louis, with the home teams also going CC-clad in those games.
Kinda buried in the Tampa Bay Rays uniform release — they’ll be wearing them on the road twice for a couple of all-City Connect uniform matchups.
The first is June 15 at Atlanta where we’ll see the Braves and Rays face off in these uniformshttps://t.co/e98UG2TcLF pic.twitter.com/zkhfah1NJo
— SportsLogos.Net (@sportslogosnet) April 29, 2024
For those who don’t follow the Mets, they have now worn the City Connects two additional games that were not on the original schedule. The broadcast booth says the pitcher is choosing what to wear and because the players love them, the Mets could technically wear the City Connects for every home game if they want. Alas, the Mets are already 0-3 in them.
One can only hope they figure out the baseball gods are trying to tell them something…
The Nats have one of the most city connected of the City Connects those cherry blossoms! The Orioles, despite the neighborhoods graphic don’t seem to connect as well. But the overall design is growing on me!
I share the same sentiment. I feel that the Natinals NAILED their design (save for the airport designation-esque “WSH”). Dem O’s CC design eventually grew on me.
I doubt Baltimore completely ditched the black pants. I expect the original black pants will still be worn more often than not.
I also expect Baltimore to wear their regular black pants for this specific game, since they’ll be on the road and the Nats already have cream/white pants for their City Connect.
I agree. They already wore them once this year against the Brewers and the black over black would make more sense than going white pants on the road.
Is there some reason they couldn’t wear gray pants with them?
Saying this for those who don’t follow the O’s — the team wore the black pants for the CC’s first appearance this season, then wore white pants (for the first time with the CCs) the second time. I am hopeful that is the new standard, but it’s also possible that it was just Corbin Burnes’s preference and that the black pants are still in the rotation.
I really disliked the Nats CCs when they came out. If only I had known how much worse it would get!
I wish there was more contrast between the two unis, dark gray vs. black isn’t terribly interesting. But that being said, these are two of the better-ish designs going against another, better this than Phillies-Brewers or something.
As a Nationals fans, I’m really disappointed that team will be moving away from this CC design after the season.
Is it perfect? No. But the Cherry Blossoms are such a special part of the city’s charm, especially with the pandas no longer at the national zoo.
The fanbase LOVES the uniform, so moving away from it seems like a slap in the face, especially with the team’s visual identity currently all over the place. I feel like any new design will be a significant downgrade.
UNLESS, hear me out, pink uniforms
Who is bread financial? The amount of ads on this site have gotten out of control. Especially for a site that hates uniform ads. I can barely even look at an article.
Paul, you’ve mentioned the Orioles’ switch to white pants with their City Connects a couple of times on the site and implied that it was a definitive/permanent change for 2024 but I’m not so convinced. They actually HAVE worn the black pants this year—on April 12th against the brewers. Since their first Friday home game of the season was rained out, we have a City Connect sample size of 2 games. 1 with black pants and one with white.
I need Tampa Bay CC vs. San Diego CC
Tampa Bay Rays poking fun at the City Connect storytelling
link
Didn’t the Giants and Dodgers once play each other in San Francisco with both teams wearing their CCs?
surprised it took this long for a CC vs. CC matchup. Should be more of them. Angels vs. Dodgers. Braves vs. Rangers. Rays vs. Marlins.
The road team is supposed to be forbidden from wearing white pants, so is there going to be made an exception for this? If not, they would wear the black pants for this game.
As much as I like that Nats jersey and hat this matchup is horrible. Grey versus black looks yech.