Minor League Baseball specialty jerseys are pretty much a-dime-a-dozen these days, and several teams have rebranded themselves based on local foodstuffs and region-centric fare. So the Lehigh Valley IronPigs will be rebranding for one game to play as the ‘Lehigh Valley Tomato Pie’, on May 23rd against the Buffalo Bisons.
Their food of choice is actually the “Philadelphia Tomato Pie,” which to the uninitiated, is roughly the equivalent of Grandma’s Pizza (a thin, rectangular pizza style, which is believed to have originated in Long Island, New York, and is characterized by its thin, crispy crust, cheese, and tomato sauce, often baked in a pan rather than on a pizza stone or oven), but without the mozzarella cheese on top.
“Tomato Pie is quintessential Philadelphia,” said IronPigs President and General Manager Kurt Landes. “Philadelphia-style tomato pie with a dusting of parmesan cheese is the best and only true tomato pie. I challenge anyone who feels differently.”
You can see how the Tomato Pie is made here:
Fresh out of the oven! We are rebranding as a staple of Philadelphia cuisine: the Lehigh Valley Tomato Pie! Jerseys, hats, and merch are available now—get your slice of history! #tomatopie #salutetophilly #ironpigs #rebrand pic.twitter.com/GR421ipPJV
— Lehigh Valley IronPigs (@IronPigs) April 2, 2025
And here’s a further explanation of the foodstuff from the team:
Tomato Pie has been a staple of Philadelphia cuisine for over a century, believed to have been “invented” in 1910, and can be found at bakeries as opposed to pizzerias.
Naturally the team will have a special cap and jersey they’ll wear for the May 23rd game.
As you can see, the cap is red, with a white crown, and features a square slice of Tomato Pie as a logo.
The jersey is pretty wild: it is red in color (the color of the sauce, natch) with white flecks representing the grated parmesan or romano cheese. “TOMATO PIE” (singular) is double stacked across the chest, in white lettering, with both words “underlined” with a crust-like sublimation. The IronPigs logo will appear on the left sleeve.
The IronPigs were “born” in 2008 (the Ottawa Lynx relocated to Allentown as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs following the 2007 season). In 2016, the IronPigs first held their now annual ‘Salute to Philly’ promotion when the team rebranded as the ‘Cheesesteaks’. Since then, the IronPigs have paid have held a ‘Salute to Philly’ promotion every year. They adopted the following identities over the years: Whiz Kids (2017), Philly Special (2018), Jawn (2019), Jimmies (2021), Wooder Ice (2022), Hoagies (2023), and Mummers (2024). The 2020 MiLB season was cancelled due to COVID.
Your thoughts?
This is outrageous, as we all know that the best and truest tomato pie comes from Utica, NY. Having said that, I would definitely purchase one of those hats.
And people call Chicago deep-dish a casserole? But in all seriousness, good fresh ingredients and good cooking should lead to a good-tasting dish. I’d try it.
A Tomato Pie sounds like the name of some nasty sex act you read about on Urban Dictionary.
LOL
Best not look up “Kenyan Tomato Pie” on UD then…
Won’t be buying any apparel, but damn! Tomato pie sounds delicious! Wonder where I’ll be able to find it in Westchester Cty. People have long questioned my sanity after telling them the cheese is the least favorite part of my pizza.
I’m waiting for someone to temporarily rename themselves “Merch Hounds”
Trenton is doing their own regional version of a Tomato Pie uniform as well.
link
Not all tomato pie is created equal. If you find yourself in the Philly burbs out near Valley Forge, get it from link
I think, in New York, we call this “red Sicilian.”
Three words: L&B. Spumoni. Gardens.
aka Rhode Island party pizza or strips
Pick some up every time I drive through from D. Palmieri’s or DePetrillo’s.
so plain, yet so good!
I saw this announcement the other day and they used a pretty decent logo where to pieces of the pizza were missing to make it into a T, which was clever. This poorly drawn cartoon of a pizza slice slapped on the hat is more laziness from MILB. They try so hard to do these promotions and alt identities but they really drop the ball on the execution of the unis in many cases.
I got heartburn just reading about this!
Looks more like pizza delivery than a baseball team. The grated cheese on the jersey is fun, though.
Tomato pie is phenomenal. Being from Philadelphia, I assumed everybody knew about it. Same for Herr’s Chips, Tastykakes, Frank’s Soda, pork roll and jimmies on ice cream.