
Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday.
Before we get into last evening’s Home Run Derby (HRD), I want to let everyone know that a very special guest will be re-joining Uni Watch later this morning, in the 9:00ish hour, and you won’t want to miss it. So please be sure to check back here then.
Now then.
As has been the custom for the past several years, HRD participants have been wearing their regular home uniforms, with special All-Star Game caps. Needless to say, each and every participant looked better last night than their respective American and National League teams will tonight. Not every HRD hopeful wore his team’s ASG workout caps, but several did. I actually kinda liked those.
Here’s KC’s Bobby Witt:

You’ll note Witt was wearing a weird set of socks (a sort of brownish-green pair of Stance socks, with sort of a floral print design). He wasn’t alone. The Cleveland Guardians’ Jose Ramirez was also sporting them. These are apparently supposed to resemble cowboy boots (or cowboy boot design — YMMV).

Here’s a closer look:

The remaining participants were basically all low-cuffed, although Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna had his pants tailored in 1990s style, showing off what looked like dark blue socks. Is this a clue as to the socks the NL will wear tonight?

Several players had special bats for the Derby, such as the Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson.

If teams have a logo patch, it was worn on their rearward facing sleeve, while normal team ads were removed from their front-facing sleeve. Those were replaced by sponsor ads specific to the Derby.

Here’s a closer look at that ad, if you’re interested.

I mentioned I liked the caps, but I was surprised that the striping pattern on Texas’ cap was reversed (red/white/blue vs. blue/white/red) from the sleeve stripe colors.

Non-Derby participants, such as players and the HRD participants’ pitchers (and the bullpen catchers tapped for HRD duty) all wore uniforms with their teams’ regular ad patches (if applicable).

Not every baseball was a standard “white” one — a special magenta and white bonus ball was thrown. This was, of course, a nod to the game’s advertiser.

Prior to the big league Derby, there was also a High School HRD held last night. Players wore a uniform that closely resembled the Texas Rangers’ City Connect uni. Those who went high-cuffed wore red(!) socks, a look I rather enjoyed.


Those who wore caps for the High School HRD wore the Rangers’ CC caps (and pants), but they had custom cream jerseys which simply read “High School Home Run Derby.” The jerseys were pullovers. Those jerseys were not quite ad-free, as the patch featured a small ad for a credit card company.

As is now pretty much de rigueur, every player wore a custom belt.

We still don’t know what pants either league will be wearing with their “AMERICAN LEAGUE” and “NATIONAL LEAGUE” jerseys tonight, but we did get a first look at the ASG jersey on actual people — in this case several kids who gathered around the players during breaks in the action. I believe — although I still can’t quite tell for sure — the jersey the National League will wear is midnight blue (although it could be black). Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Here’s a good look at the underbrim of the Dodgers ASG cap. Note the sublimated star pattern.

There was an entire circle of cameras set up surrounding the batter’s box, just on the grass outside the circular dirt at home plate.

Like last year, kids in the outfield hoping to shag some non-dingers were wearing billboards for the event’s advertiser.

Jeez, what’s worse…the pajama look or those gawdawful socks?? Can it be that damn hard to wear a decent uniform? Apparently so.
That company just needs to stop with that bullshittery they’re doing with all these stylized socks. They should stop trying to be the focal point of the uniform.
Those horrendous brown Stance socks have been showing up in my Instagram feed for about a week or so, with little to no explanation in the caption. Ugly and unnecessary!
I don’t hate this year’s ASG caps for most teams, but perhaps ironically, the one I do despise is the Giants cap. Most other teams’ caps look pretty good.
Surely those socks are supposed to look like cowboy boots?
They are supposed to. And don’t call me Shirley.
link
November 23, 2022. Bruins-Panthers.
The navy socks that, noted human garbage stain, Ozuna is wearing are just Atlanta’s standard color of sock.
RE: Rangers AS cap. It appears the format for the cap is the team’s primary color on the bottom stripe, secondary color on the top stripe. I know the Rangers have had a blue or red identity crisis throughout their history, but I think this season they are a blue team, so the cap’s stripe colors make sense.
Some of the custom bats were pretty cool. Alec Bohm’s had what I think are poker chips with his teammates’ numbers on them, in the font that the Phils use for their uniform numbers.
The Rangers’ CC set would be a little less heinous with red socks
I don’t always agree with Bryce Harper, but in this case, he Gets It – link
GTGFTS
17 Jul 1988 apparently right after Israel Sanchez strikes out Rich Gedman looking to end the sixth inning.
From the original image caption:
Royal’s (sic) left fielder Bo Jackson takes refuge from the near 110-degree heat and the Red Sox by ducking behind the scoreboard on Fenway Park’s Green Monster wall for a drink of water and a towel, borrowed from the scoreboard crew. The Red Sox defeated the Royals 10-8 to sweep their four game series.
Is there any correlation between that anthem “singer” and the National League all star jersey? If you dress bad, you do a bad job. That anthem performance mirrored what that horrible jersey would sound like.
Vladdy Jr wearing Teoscar’s Blue Jays jersey was a nice touch.
***PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT***
Did you listen to the National Anthem for the home run derby last night?
Go get your hearing checked.
Damage may have been done.
I didn’t see any of the Derby but I can imagine it must have been a thrill for those high school players to be there. Might have been a once in a lifetime event for them.
I know that in the day and age of YouTube shorts no one can bare to sit through anything longer than 15 seconds, but having the batter on the clock just isn’t as good as it used to be. I know they changed the format a little and added the non-timed bonus this year, but that’s just one step in the right direction. Just eliminate the clock already. As a Dodgers fan I’m glad Teoscar won, but some of the best derbies came pre-clock: Griffey, Thome, Hamilton, etc.
As for those cowboy boot socks, when I saw Witt introduced, I first thought he was bringing the amateurish football bare-legged look to MLB. Yuck.
All Star caps suck. Anthem singer checked herself into rehab. Highlight was at least they wore home jerseys.