MLB finally got the hint: fans want to see MLB All-Star Game representatives wearing their regular home or away uniforms during the game itself, and not the clown costumes they’ve worn in-game since 2021.
MLB has decided that players will once again represent their “hometown” teams for the game itself, as was the case from the 1930s through 2019.
That’s not to say that special uniforms for All-Star festivities are going anywhere.
Players selected for next season’s All-Star Game will wear a special All-Star uniform during Workout Day and the Home Run Derby the day before the All-Star Game, though players actually competing in the Derby will wear their primary home uniforms. MLB is working with New Era on the game cap for the All-Star Game. So the two parts of the MLB ASG that most people watch — the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game itself — will have players wearing their normal team uniforms.
Hallelujah!!!
There was more uniform news as well — some of it good, some of it somewhat disappointing.
First the good: changes are in the works for overall home and road team uniforms beginning next season and will include pant customization, increasing the sizing of the lettering and returning to previously used materials that the players requested.
Then the bad: According to MLB, the Players Union, Nike and Fanatics, the changes will begin in 2025 and will be fully implemented by the start of the 2026 season. There were no more specifics offered, but it sounds like MLB is giving itself a pretty big window here. Hopefully more of the visible changes (like larger NOB) will happen for 2025.
The bigger changes — like going back to the fabrics used prior to Nike to the 2024 season when they forced the Vapor Premier jersey design on teams — may take a little longer.
According to mlb.com, “Although production timelines will prevent all the uniform changes from being completed in time for the 2025 season, the road grey uniforms made from the 2023 fabric will be ready by Spring Training, and starting in 2026, all uniforms will return to using the previous materials from the 2023 season.”
But returning MLB uniforms to what the players wear everyday? Yes, please and thank you! The special ASG uniform lasted four years too long!
I’m glad to hear it, my one question is how are teams with away grays going to be handled?
“the road grey uniforms made from the 2023 fabric will be ready by Spring Training”
Looks like they (correctly) viewed the mismatched greys as top priority, which is why they’re the first to be changed. Hope to see the normal NOBs return by Opening Day, though.
Great news! I’ve never watched the HR Derby or the Workout Day (whatever that is) so the real unis in the AG is fine by me. I’d like to think that b1tching about the ASG unis in every Fans At Bat survey I submitted had something to do with this! ;-)
Interesting. So Nike is basically saying they couldn’t engineer a way to keep the road greys from showing sweat stains so they’re going back to the old fabric…
I don’t think that was as much the problem as it was that they were allowed much greater tolerances (?) in terms of difference in gray shades. They’re probably just going back to keeping the dye lots as close as possible to each other, so the tops/bottoms will be a uniform gray shade (or very close to it). I’m not sure any fabric won’t show sweat stains.
You have to admit that the sweat stains were really pronounced in the new grey jerseys.
Oh, absolutely — and if they go back to the “old” fabric that should help. I’m just saying if you match the grays better, the sweat stains won’t cause as profound a difference in color.
I, for one, am glad to hear this. Now, will players be allowed to wear alternate tops in the ASG? Or, if multiple players from a team are selected, will they be able to wear any top they want. I believe back in the 70’s/80’s that happened a few times. Most namely Pittsburgh and I believe San Diego.
And then there was the Oakland A’s.
Also, just tossing it out there, Pete Rose going Rogue for the 1979 All Star Game.
HAHAHAHA I forgot all about that!
Don’t know the answer to that. Back before 2021, I believe all teams had been wearing whites vs. grays (so regular home and road). There are now a couple teams who don’t even have gray road jerseys, so I assume they’ll have to wear alt tops. But in general, I believe they will encourage as much white vs. gray as possible.
My recollection (I could well be wrong on this) was that at some point, all the All-Stars had to wear their primary road and home uniforms for the game. I think I recall Cleveland players wearing alternates sometime in the ’90s. However, by the late-2000s or so, I’d notice that, even when a team would wear their alternates (especially on the road) to the degree that they essentially became their primary uniform, that team’s players would still have to wear white or gray at the All-Star Game (which, depending on the how little that given team wore their actual primaries, made the player look a little out of place!).
So, yeah, next year would almost certainly mean the return of alternate/non-gray road jerseys (will the Rays go navy or powder?). I can’t imagine MLB would mandate a special gray jersey just for the All-Star Game to match all the other teams.
Agreed.
I *think* one year the Marlins wearing gray jerseys for the ASG was the only game that year they wore the grays.
Not 100% sure (doing from memory here)
My first thought was, “why don’t they do it this year instead of waiting for 2025?” And then I realized that since March of 2020, time is meaningless, and I have no concept of it. Maybe it’s September 2024….maybe it’s 57th month of 2020….I just don’t know, man….
I still want an All Star Skills Competition (fastest runner, precision bunting, outfield to home relay, etc.), but this is still excellent news.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Seattle doesn’t have standard road grays. So for every ASG in an NL park Seattle players will stick out with a navy top while the rest of the team will be in their standard road grays?
Right. I don’t think Tampa Bay has them either? (Doing this from memory)
Yes, a big “Hallelujah!!!” for the All-Star Game unis decision!
Since the next Midsummer Classic is in Hot-lanta (take 2, after they had the 2021 game pulled because of the previous year’s voting issues), I would love to see the Braves in mixed unis — definitely the red, not so much “the A” CC, though that cap design might work for a little glitz. I hope that MLB will continue with some All-Star distinction with the players’ caps, and even the belts.
I’m brainstorming, for good or bad: Maybe even have all the player caps with the Bravos’ CC triangle panel? Still have some fun with it all — the Texas-styled, players’ team-colored caps were nice and seemingly popular based on my online browsing — but the return of the players’ team unis will definitely return the game to the All-Star look we love.
Seems like they chose to announce this good news today before everyone sees those Strauss helmet ads tomorrow and flips out!
A return to normalcy… the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Harding administration (TFPIC)!
Wonderful news! I am so glad they are going back to that wonderful tradition that I enjoyed so much.
Rob Manfred can do something right? Never knew that.
Interesting that the PR blowback from the 2024 Nike mess was so bad that they decided to announce these changes for 2025, rather than just implementing them quietly.
What about the narrow plackets? An annoying detail that serves no purpose. And what about going back to RESPECTING THE PLACKET in positioning team names?
I haven’t seen the press release, but “fabric” and “template” are obviously the key words.
Reverting to the old Majestic fabric (which Nike was using thru 2023) will fix the color issues, but not the placket issue.
Reverting to the old Majestic fabric *and* template (which Nike was also using thru 2023) would fix everything.
And can we lose the golf shirt sleeve ends and return to proper sleeve piping (soutache)? Or am I expecting too much?
Will agree with you here, that’s one of several little changes that I didn’t think would bother me at first but as I kept seeing it I kept thinking of how ridiculous it looked. Like was it that much of a cost savings for Nike to mandate this as part of their template?
I find it kind of jarring anytime I see old footage and see how large the NOBs really were. I guess I’ve adjusted to these new NOBs fairly well?
I’ve adjusted to them just fine, not least because my team (which doesn’t really need NOBs, but that’s another story) has a super-long-named player who looks silly in the old large NOB font size.
I just hope more than anything that they fix the positioning of the NOBs and move that useless MLB logo back inside the collar, where it belongs. This season with everything shoved downward, it looks so bad, and will look even worse if they go back to big NOBs without fixing that.
I’m in the minority but I prefer uniforms to be uniform. All these different colors makes the game look like someone dumped rainbow sprinkles on the field.
I understand this business decision by MLB because each advertisement company patch will have to pay extra for the showcase showdown exposure which maybe 20% of television viewers are watching but MLB will get paid billions by commercials and television commercials and networks.
It’s a very lucrative business decision, brilliant.
I think you nailed it.
Externally, MLB will spin this as “listening to players & fans” or whatev.
Internally, tho? ASG sleeve ad surcharge, baby!
That makes no sense. Why couldn’t they just sell a 1-game only ad for the previous NL and AL uniforms?
If anything, that would be easier than trying to extort more money out of the teams’ current advertisers.
“Why couldn’t they just sell a 1-game only ad for the previous NL and AL uniforms?”
Because then they couldn’t publicly sell the “listening to players & fans” aspect of returning to the traditional home/road unis.
I wonder if the real reason the All Star game is going back to the teams jerseys was that the sales of the All Star jerseys were disappointing.
If sales were large enough, it wouldn’t matter what the players or fans thought, they would keep forcing the players to wear them.
It’s 100% got to be that. I do see fans with ASG jerseys sometimes on TV. However, the only circumstance under which I can see buying an ASG jersey would be if my team hosted the game. I have a 1999 ASG Fenway jersey. It’s a really cool jersey, vest style. But it’s like, cool vintage at this point. I suppose if Fenway hosted again I’d buy the jersey, maybe. But no other reason.
My biggest question is, are they returning full on to the 2023 template, or are they keeping the current template, just making it in the 2023 fabric? So like will the other visible changes remain, the lower Batterman logo on the back, the collar and sleeve seams? The perforated numbers for some teams?
Having special uniforms just for “workout day” and for guys who attend the home run derby but AREN’T participating in the derby seems like the most convoluted variation they could come up with. Please also don’t have a special All-Star Game ballcap clashes with the teams uniform, that is almost worse too.
I think they had it best when there was a special uniform for the Home Run derby and then the usual uniform for the game itself with ASG patches. But they seem desperate to have it both ways now and will likely result in a new kind of mess.
Glad the regular uniforms for ASG are back. I do not mind a special hat to go with it.
This year’s NOBs were too small.
When the White Sox introduced NOB, they were bigger than most teams since.
This news offset just a day later by ads on batting helmets in playoffs
Any word on if the Phillies could return to chainstitching with these changes?