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“The Ripple Effect” Causes a Splash in Twins Win

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Happy Weekend! Hope you’re all as happy as the Minnesota Twins and their fans were last night. In front of their biggest crowd this season, the Twins debuted the “Ripple Effect” City Connect uniforms and celebrated a 6-5 walkoff extra-innings victory.

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You might have noticed in that video that quite a few players from both teams were wearing yellow/gold shoes. Twins catcher Christian Vázquez was not one of them. He wore blue shoes, but he had some bright yellow catcher’s gear on, as you can see in this shot just before gold-shoed Shea Langeliers hit a grand slam off of yellow-shoed Simeon Woods Richardson:

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Then there was this at-bat, where Mitch Spence, in white shoes, served up a triple to Byron Buxton. Buxton was…uh, all over the color palette, wearing his usual red glove, elbow guard and shin guard…and pink shoes.

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After losing his helmet while sliding into third base, you could see he also had a red Twins headband.

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And here’s a better shot of the colorful Byron Buxton:

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So how did the “Ripple Effect” unis look? Right away they passed my first and most important test: I CAN SEE THE NUMBERS! Unlike Toronto’s “Night Mode” nightmare, Minnesota’s numbers and the M*N logo stood out quite nicely in this game. The cap logos, the loon patch, and the ripples on the jerseys…

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….weren’t as noticeable from a distance. I had high hopes for the loon when news of it first came out, but that was my biggest disappointment once the final product was revealed.

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I really like those socks. In fact, I really liked this uniform. Would I want it to replace what the Twins normally wear? Absolutely not. However, I’m ever so slowly coming around to the idea of occasionally wearing something different. I still don’t like *any* holiday or special-cause uniforms (thankfully I won’t be watching baseball tomorrow!) but something like this, done well with functionality in mind as much as fashion…I’ll allow. I know, it isn’t team colors, and a few years ago that would have irritated me to no end. A team’s throwbacks sometimes aren’t the same colors as their current unis, and yet we almost unanimously applaud teams when they wear those. I’ll have more to say about this in the future, because I have an idea for a think piece that keeps swirling in my head. For now, I’ll close this part of today’s post by focusing on the visiting team. Oakland, along with the Yankees, did not take part in the City Connect program. As usual, they looked great in their road grays.

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They did wear something different last night, though. See that little patch on Mitch Spence’s cap? That’s the MLB Play Ball patch. According to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, “The PLAY BALL initiative (www.PlayBall.org) is baseball’s collective effort to encourage young people and communities to engage in baseball- or softball-related activities, including formal leagues, special events and casual forms of play.” This month teams are having Play Ball weekends, so don’t be surprised if you see more of these patches pop up on other teams’ caps.

That concludes the initial 28 City Connect uniforms. The Dodgers will be the first team with a CC 2.0, and we should be seeing those next weekend, if all goes as planned.

 

 

 
  
 

The Voice of the Uni Watch Fan

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Back when Phil covered the unveiling of the Twins City Connects, reaction in the comments section ran the gamut from loving to hating it and everything in between. As expected, because no one’s ever going to please everyone.  Anyway, here are some of the comments that caught my eye:

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I agree with all of that, especially the last part. Mr. Puck and I weren’t the only ones thinking double:

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The next two weren’t as constructive in their criticism. They were spot on, though, and funny.

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A Little More Baseball, College World Series-Style

 

The Twins weren’t the only ones celebrating a walkoff victory yesterday. The first two games of this year’s Men’s College World Series ended similarly, with North Carolina edging Virginia 3-2, and Tennessee scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth to come back against Florida State, 12-11. The first game was a real looker, with the pinstriped Tar Heels matched up with the Cavaliers in orange jerseys.

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The only problem with this game is the same one I had/have with the KC Royals’ powder blue jerseys. Carolina Blue and white, by themselves, don’t show up very well in bright sunshine.

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In the dugout, they look fantastic. Out on the field, they need a dark outline around the letters and numbers. Virginia, on the other hand, looked good in any light…although they need to a better job of Respecting The Placket.

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The second game featured another team with really light colors, and they did the right thing. Tennessee outlined their orange details, and they showed up much better.

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The Volunteers faced an all-garnet Florida State team, which actually looked alright.

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Wasn’t too crazy about the name being in garnet. At least they had gold numbers.

Two more games today. Kentucky takes on NC State, and Texas A&M plays Florida.

 

 

 

 

And Finally...

That about wraps it up for today. Tomorrow is, of course, Father’s Day, and I have the honor of continuing Phil’s decade-long tradition of showcasing the readers’ Dads in Uniform. Tomorrow is also the day of the inaugural UFL championship game, otherwise known as the Battle for the Silver Parentheses.

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The UFL trophy is shown in St. Louis because that’s where the game will be held. And if this graphic is right, it’s going to be a great looking game between the Birmingham Stallions and the San Antonio Brahmas.

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Whatever you do tomorrow, have a great Father’s Day. I’ll see you in the morning before I go see my dad. Take care, everyone!

 

 

Comments (20)

    I am old school and almost 60, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when I say I really dislike the City Connect program. With that said, the Twins CC looked much better than I expected. The colors looked well together. Although white would be much better, the royal pants didn’t look as bad as I expected and much better than the dark pants so often used by other teams. The awful looking side patch on the hat wasn’t as distracting as I thought. If MLB is going to have a CC program, these would be one of the better ones.

    As for the CWS, Florida State looked like a bottle of ketchup. Absolutely awful, especially considering all their other uniforms look great.

    The 10,000 Lakes patch was something I was paying attention to, as I thought it was an unfortunate choice. While I still don’t like it, I similarly thought it didn’t look as bad on the field as it does in isolation.

    “The loon patch looks like the logo for a state-owned Middle Eastern airline.”

    You know what it DOESN’T look like? A loon. I really like the logo from a strictly aesthetic standpoint, but I would never have guessed it was supposed to be a loon if I hadn’t been told.

    I am not thrilled when new CC uniforms unveiled. My position is unwavering. CC should be sold as fashion jerseys. This stuff should not grace an MLB diamond. Feels like minor league promotion uniform stuff. It isn’t team colours. At least if it is a throwback and different colours, it used to be official team colours.

    It borders on minor league promotions…no, I won’t go that far. It’s vaguely reminiscent of minor league promotions.
    If Manfred League Baseball goes full minor league with food-based unis and one-day “rebrands” (or even worse, oat milk promotional unis), I’ll just flat out ignore them.
    I get where you’re coming from. I was there too. But folks want something different, and I’m trying to meet them halfway here.

    I’m pretty sure all tems wore the cap patches. It’s a league-wide initiative this weekend.

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    Yeah the unis didn’t look bad. The ripple effect is not very noticeable on the field and looks more like they sweat in weird places. It probably would have worked without the ripple as well.

    It has the same Mets problem though in that it doesn’t look like the team. Nike needs to make more of an effort to tie these back to the teams.

    It seems they are purposefully trying NOT to tie them to the teams, in an effort to sell jerseys to people who aren’t fans. It’s a weird way to promote your league, but I’m sure the twenty-something marketing MBA who thought of it knows what they are doing.

    The Tar Heels don’t need to use an accent/border color but they really should use sewn-on letters and not plates for the wholly unnecessary NoB…that goes for all teams that go pinstriped.

    It’s very ugly when having accessories not in the uniform color. Red and pink with the CC unis. Come on!

    Some players don’t want to buy extra gear in the CC palette. You can see navy blue and Northwest green being worn by the mariners last night, who were wearing their CC royal blue and black.

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    Love the idea of highlighting some comments from the comm-uni-ty in the main post

    The only things the Twins were missing were a seltzer bottle and red rubber clown noses.

    I wonder how many of them can fit in a bullpen cart.

    The guy getting the Gatorade shower in the main picture looks like a bad Elvis impersonator.

    Lifelong Twins fan here. One other uni-notable part of the game that our TV crew pointed out is that all the Twins position players and starting pitcher went with high cuffs. (The bullpen guys didn’t get the memo, I guess.) Even though I dislike this as a Twins uniform, the high cuffs do make for a better look, so kudos to them.
    My opinions after seeing these uniforms in action were mostly unchanged from the unveiling. I don’t like them, I don’t like city connects in general, but they certainly aren’t as embarrassing as other teams’, so I guess that’s a minor victory. Buxton’s (and others’) non-matching accessories did stick out like a sore thumb and that was one of my big takeaways from watching the game. Under normal circumstances I would be disappointed a player wore clashing accessories, but I don’t blame them at all in this instance. It’s a flaw in the CC system.

    The ripple design never really worked for me. The effect of having the differing patterns is that it essentially creates differing shades of blue throughout the jersey. Looks pretty weird. And the solid pants make it an almost-but-not-quite matching situation, which I guess is the theme for baseball pants and jerseys this season.

    Carolina Blue and White is all that UNC needs in any weather conditions. After all, if God weren’t a Tar Heel, why else would the sky be so beautiful with those colors? A tiny bit of black for the tar on the heel pops when that logo shows up but give Nike an inch and we’re back to BFBS. This is the look – though I agree with eliminating name plates for the NOB.

    I think the Twins CCs looked pretty good! Blue and yellow is a good combo, pretty Swede look you might say… I do wish they’d used the loon logo on the jersey front though, I prefer it to the MN logo, that one is too generic.

    The Tar Heels and Cavaliers plus the Vols looked much better than the Twins and the Seminoles (who should have played each other in the Nike Eyesore Series). I like the Twins hat but now that I see it on the field it has too much going on without it being very legible. The rest of the uniform is a waste of textile.

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