MLB and New Era have unveiled this year’s crop of Jackie Robinson Day caps, and a few jerseys. The caps and jerseys will be worn by all teams playing on April 15, 2025. April 15, 1947, was the date of Jackie’s first major league game.
The caps don’t differ much from previous years’ editions, and will feature a special patch on the right side of the cap showing Jackie’s No. 42 atop a baseball diamond. The patch features the slogan “BREAKING BARRIERS.” Last year, the caps’ patches were slightly different, with a home plate logo containing the No. 42 and Jackie’s signature.
In addition, this year the green(!) underbrims of each JRR cap have a facsimile of Jackie Robinson’s signature.
Here’s each team’s cap, by division:
American League
AL East
AL Central
AL West
National League
NL East
NL Central
NL West
MLB also released a few JRR jerseys, and we can assume the rest will be added in short order. Here are a looks at the Guardians, Nationals and Diamondbacks 2025 Jackie Robinson jerseys. As in the past, the jerseys will be NNOB, and all have the number “42” in Dodger blue, in the font style worn by the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.
Over the past several seasons, the program has gone from no players wearing No. 42 (unless they were currently wearing No. 42 at the time of the league-wide number retirement in 1997), to a few select players wearing it, to all players donning the number for JRR Day.
I know some of you hate everyone wearing the same number, with NNOB, but as far as Bud Selig’s legacy goes, retiring Robinson’s No. 42 league-wide was arguably his greatest achievement. I’m 100% OK with teams sporting JRR’s No. 42 on April 15th. For those teams who don’t play or are rained out, however, I don’t like it when teams wear the number when it’s not specifically on April 15th. The date is important, because that’s the exact day when Jackie “broke” the color barrier in modern MLB. As much as we’re celebrating his overall achievements, the anniversary is April 15.
Thoughts on the new patch and/or Jackie Robinson Day in general?
If I’m not mistaken, the Diamondbacks, Orioles, and Guardians are all essentially new hats created specifically for this promo. Interesting that they didn’t just slap the JR logo on the side of current designs. Though it does look like a few other teams (Giants, Mets & Phillies off the top of my head) have different color squatchees than they do on their normal hats as well.
Is there a reason the Guards hat doesn’t match anything currently in their set?
The new “home” is red with blue brim. This one shows all red…
As Frankie mentioned, it looks like several teams have caps that don’t match ones they normally wear. I do not know why specifically they differ from a team’s normal home/road cap. I’m sure it has something to do with merchandising.
Atlanta has an all navy cap for April 15, does this mean the all navy road cap hasn’t yet been discontinued or is it just a cap they’re wearing for the day? We’ll have to wait and see…
I really like “Breaking Barriers” on the cap patches. It repeats the original 1997 jersey patches.
Everybody wearing #42 on the jersey, honestly I’m not the biggest fan…way too hard to know who’s who and the scorecards are worthless. Some people would refer to the Pee Wee Reese quotation of “If we all wear #42, they won’t know who Jackie is so they won’t be able to boo him.” To that, I would say, if the lack of function outweighs the nice form, then I don’t love it.
And on top of that, I especially don’t like the new Dodgers font on all the jerseys. When the #42’s were in the team fonts, it looked like the teams were tapping into MLB history. Now, it looks like they’re tapping into Dodgers history. (That’s not my original thought, I got that from another commenter here, please take a bow if that’s you.)
Not sure why, but the Dodger 42’s look infinitely better as cap patches than everybody’s number on the back. If the jersey styles reverted to purely each team’s style, then I would say “It’s as good as it gets for me, but it’s still not for me. In other words, it’s the best possible version but I still don’t love it.”
A few strange inconsistencies in the cap designs that I notice:
– Orioles cap is fully black, not the panel cap you would expect for a Tuesday home game
– Guardians cap is fully red. Cleveland is playing on the road in Baltimore, so maybe they will be mixing and matching red and navy caps?
– A’s cap has no yellow outline
– Nationals cap is red, but they’re on the road
– Diamondbacks snake-D cap has a black, not red brim
– The Rockies have the *only* cap with a differently colored brim. If they were trying to make every cap have the same color throughout, why make an exception for Colorado?
– Teams that typically have a differently-colored squatchee (Phillies, Mets, &c) have it replaced with a same-color one, with the exception of the Dodgers.
Rockies play at LA that day. The black hat with purple brim is their standard road hat, so I guess that’s why?
The patches feel like a merch feature, because when you have every player wear 42 with NNOB that is already a complete memorial, so that works. Robinson is probably one of the greatest Americans (let alone athletes) in history given the cultural significance of breaking the barrier, so doing something extra special to honor him is more than appropriate. But tacking on stuff like patches and other uniform gimmicks feels unnecessary.
What I don’t like is every team wearing the Dodgers’ style 42, it is aesthetically unpleasing and doesn’t really add anything.
Every player in 42, with NNOB, an on field memorial graphic, and constant in game broadcast stories of Jackie are an appropriate way to honor him. Agree on not doing Jackie Robinson memorial make up games, the date is important, if you aren’t playing that day you just skip the memorial that year.
I’ll always say Moses Fleetwood Walker never gets the credit he deserves, but I love the Jackie Robinson tributes. His importance to the modern game is second to none.
I love seeing every MLB player wearing the “42” on Jackie Robinson Day. It’s a cool and unique way to honor one of the most important players in the history of my favorite sport.
Sadly, I’m concerned that the Trump administration may try to put a stop to this or at least, make some noise to distract from it. I have no evidence that they’re making that kind of a move, and this is merely my speculation, but given their attempts to whitewash anything even remotely DEI-related, it seems like a possibility. Hope I’m wrong…
Are you serious? This did not happen during the first Trump administration. Secondly, Trump announced Jackie Robinson as one of the statues to be commissioned for the “Garden of Heroes” – link
Wanna bet?
link
DEI in action.
That is the kind of garbage I’m talking about. There’s no bottom for Trump and his ilk…
I’m not sure how I feel about everybody wearing 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, but I’d rather not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I do like the patch quite a bit.
The only reasonable take on JRR Day is that it is one of the coolest traditions in baseball. It should be cherished and I love what MLB has done to honor JRR’s legacy. The wearing of 42, league wide, on that day with NNOB is a solid look.
I don’t mind everyone wearing 42. Just don’t like teams having to wear dodger blue 42s. I wish all teams would wear 42 in their regular fonts
100% agree with this opinion.
Agreed, I liked how teams looked all wearing 42 in their style.
Otherwise, I like the hat tribute and would think of buying one if I didn’t already refuse to buy New Era caps.
I like the players all wearing the 42, but not all in blue Simple Block. And amen to the keeping of the one date. If it rained on Halloween, we didn’t get to Trick or Treat on November 1st.
I know April 15 is really early in the season, so it may be hard to pick a player, but what if MLB went the NFL route, and had teams nominate ONE player per year to wear #42. A player who exemplifies the vision, courage, and sportsmanship that Jackie displayed on a daily basis.
I think this would be a really cool honor for players. I know NFL players say that the Walter Payton Award is the most prestigious award in their opinion, and I think Jackie deserves the same honor.
Had a thought…what if the player honored to wear 42 had to wear it NNOB. Selflessness being a part of character. Would they do it?
would be better looking if 42 was in block but in normal team colors
The dbacks hat is interesting for a couple reasons. Last season that logo was only worn with a red brim on the Grey away jerseys. An all black version was not released in the Dbacks new uni overhaul. Also, if the jersey you posted is the one they wear, it will be the first that the home jersey is paired with the alt snake logo on the hat.
Wouldn’t mind jerseys keeping their standard name and number, but a version of the Cap patch on the upper chest.
I’ll be ecstatic when this kind of stuff has run its course. When is Babe Ruth Day? Ted Williams Day? Scipio Spinks Day? Enough please.
link
link
Cool tradition but let everybody wear 42 in their own font and color, NNOB. Whenever you think of 42 and baseball, you think of Jackie Robinson. I love the signature on the green brim of these hats and the patch is nice as well.
Cool tradition but let everybody wear 42 in their own team font and team colors, NNOB. Whenever you think of 42 and baseball, you think of Jackie Robinson. I love the signature on the green brim of these hats and the patch is nice as well.
Just to clarify.
Pander, pander, pander.
And I can find no other mention of “JRR” Day anywhere else on the internet.
Making it up as we go, I suppose.
What, if I may ask, is “pander pander pander”?
I’ve been using JRR (his full name is Jack Roosevelt Robinson) for more than a decade. And, if I may also ask, what is “making it up as we go”?
I appreciate constructive criticism, but this ain’t that.
To be clear: Jackie Robinson was an honorable man, a great American, and someone whose contribution to the betterment of MLB and society should be recognized.
I also know that my opinion will not be popular here.
Yet, in a time when both leagues were truly independent (the only interaction was the All-Star game and World Series), there was another player who went through the exact same trials, tribulations, and received the same abuse that Jackie did. In the very same season but there is little to no recognition of his contribution to baseball. I’m speaking of course of the Cleveland Indians own Larry Doby.
As for Jackie, first it was Jackie Robinson Day in Queens (not with the franchise that he played his entire career with), then it was retire his number across the game, then allow players to wear his retired number on a single day if they chose, to now mandating that all players wear 42 on Jackie Robinson Day and garish cap logos to “celebrate” the day. I don’t support the near deification of the man. I do think that it would be a greater honor for players to be able to wear 42 if they want, especially if it is because Robinson wore the number and what that means to the particular player.
I might feel differently if I wasn’t a Met fan. But then Fred Wilpon went and built a pean to the Dodgers where the focal point of the stadium was for a player who never had anything to do with the organization. It was made even worse that the picture above the entrance to the Mets Hall of Fame was of Jackie and his teammates in Dodger uniforms. Or that it took until the Wilpons sold the team to have a statue of the greatest player in franchise history put up outside the stadium. The Mets could have honored Jackie, but not in a way that diminished (or quite frankly didn’t recognize at all) their own history.
It’s also no secret that from the high point of baseball integration in the 60’s and 70s, that both the number of African American players and fans has dropped precipitously. Something that MLB has been working to “correct.” And it strikes me that these increasing “honors” to Jackie are just pandering to the African American community.
I also personally believe that the US Army integrating in 1947, at a time when mandatory military service was still a thing, did as much for civil rights in this country as a two athletes playing a game. Jackie and Larry were symbolic of giving every man a fair chance to achieve what their talent and potential allow, but serving alongside people of different races truly showed people that we are all the same, no matter our race.
There is now a push to retire #21 across the game for Roberto Clemente (another honorable man who was taken too soon). If that succeeds it will all seem to me to be pandering to the Latino community.
On the last point, you seem to be the only person that refers to him (or his day) as JRR. Google JRR and the hits are largely about Tolkien. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it. It seems forced.
The Nats aren’t home on 4/15
Yeah, I know — I was surprised the MLB store had a white Nationals 42 jersey. But that’s definitely listed as a JRR jersey on the Fanatics web site. Since that article, many more jerseys have been released, and they’re *all* home jerseys, even though several of those teams will be on the road on 4/15. Maybe they figure fans want a home JRR jersey, regardless of whether the team was home or on the road, rather than even offering a road jersey for purchase?
link
When will Larry Doby finally get his props for breaking the AL barrier?