Despite not debuting their new City Connect uniforms last season until May 31, the Toronto Blue Jays ended up wearing those uniforms sixteen times during the season.
They primarily wore them on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a solitary Thursday game. The Blue Jays did not wear their CCs on either Saturday or Sunday, nor were they worn on Tuesday.
So while they didn’t really have any kind of a pattern or schedule for their use last season, this year they will be worn for every Friday night home game (for a total of 13 games).
The Toronto City Connects are definitely one of the more “out there” CC uniforms, billed by the team as “Night Mode” and certainly one which elicits strong emotions — it’s one of those uniforms where you either love it or hate it. I wasn’t especially fond of the uniform when it was unveiled, and when I ranked all the City Connect uniforms last year, it ranked 28th out of 29 teams. Only the Tampa Bay Rays were ranked lower.
The low ranking is due almost entirely to the legibility (or lack thereof) of the wordmark and numbers. The storytelling is no worse than some CCs, and there are a couple uniform elements I like, but for the most part, it just appears as a almost black uniform with a bit of blue and red splashed across the chest. The uniform looks fine from the side.
But from any kind of distance, or in any kind of shadow, it’s just not a good design.
Unlike some teams, the Blue Jays were no more or less successful overall when wearing the dark blue uniforms. Their final record was 74-88, while their record in the CC’s almost perfectly mirrored that at 7-9. I’m pretty sure the decision to stick to a home-Friday-night schedule wasn’t made with regard to the team’s record when wearing CC’s on Fridays — but they were 4-2 on Fridays in 2024 when in the CC.
If you’re scoring at home, the team was 0-4 on Mondays, 2-3 on Wednesdays, and 1-0 on Thursdays when in the CC.
I’m obviously not a fan of any CCs, but clearly they’re not going away. My own team wears their CC’s every home Saturday, so at least I know in advance what games to avoid, and now the Blue Jays are going to follow a set schedule as well.
What are your thoughts on the Blue Jays CC? I’d especially like to hear from those who like it, and why, but if you think they’re terrible, I’d like to hear from you as well. And does “your” team have a set schedule for CC use, or do they mix it up throughout the season?
Only easily readable parts of the jersey are the ads for Nike and TD Bank.
Well-designed walking billboard or poor designed Blue Jays jersey?
It can be two things.
Blue Jays CC unis suck. When I went to Toronto last year they were wearing them. I hope they don’t wear them next time I go to Toronto to see a game.
Well, at least you know when they’ll be wearing them, so you can plan ahead.
“CC uniforms, billed by the team as “Night Mode” and certainly one which elicits strong emotions — it’s one of those uniforms where you either love it or hate it.”
Some fans love it? But they are so horrible.
Based on the number of people wearing the jerseys and associated merch around the city, I think it’s fair to say that many people like them and that a good number love them.
Classic case of good fashion Jersey functionally useless. Nike has seemingly forgotten some of the basic jobs of a uniform like legibility. See the Mets road alts and Tampa. Tampa had a great and unique idea then botched the execution.
I see that in Houston as well. That Space City CC uni gets low marks here and other in so many online ‘ranking the CCs’ articles but there are so tons of them being worn at games and around town.
Well, yeah. They’re not designed to be actual baseball uniforms first. They’re designed to sell (as jerseys) to fans who have $400 just burning a hole in their pockets.
We’ve called these a “merch dump” from the get-go. Nike’s goal, apparently, is to make as much $$$ on the retail end of this one as possible. Probably a condition of their contract with MLB.
But just because a jersey is popular with fans doesn’t mean it’s any good.
Those jerseys are not out there, they just need to be thrown out.
Ugh, Friday night is my preferred night, and since the only game I went to last year was the CC debut, I wish they hadn’t made this decision.
I don’t like the Nightmare Mode jersey. Nike doesn’t care.
I would have never known that these were dark blue if you hadn’t reported it.
I think it’s terrible, thanks for asking! I don’t like the skyline, I don’t like the black pants, I really don’t like that they are completely illegible, and I really really don’t like a blue team wearing a black jersey.
Other than that they are fine.
Do the Mets go to Toronto this year? We could have a totally unreadable game if the Jays wore these against the Mets new blues.
That’s too bad, as the Blue Jays have generally had great unis and logos throughout their history. I also don’t understand the new Mets ones. Also Completely unreadable.
What an awful kit. Haven’t they learned anything from the horrid black kit the Marlins use? I’d like to be able to read numbers and names on the back.
Within 5 feet they’re probably in my top 5 for CC’s but on the field “total garbage” as nothing is legible. I’m so happy I’m not a young irresponsible man who had to spend his hard earned money on Authentic jerseys all the time. I even have a hard time spending on replica’s these days and just usually go for a nice golf polo shirt.