Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Best Baseball Uniforms

I was reading ESPN.com today, and in his great weekly baseball column "Off Base," Jim Caple ranked the current Major League Baseball logos 1-30 based on his favorites.  I've decided to piggyback on this idea and rank the Major League teams 1-30 based on best uniforms.

30. Diamondbacks-They went from that unique purple/teal/gold/black color scheme they had going to uniforms that are basically exactly the same as Houston's.  Except uglier.
29. Blue Jays-Their name is the "Blue" Jays, but their primary color is black.  And what's with that grayish color?  And the logo's ugly.  This would easily rank last if not for the monstrosity that is Arizona's uniform.
28. Nationals-Pick a primary color!  If you want it to be red, that's fine.  But what's with the road uniform?  Everything's red, but the hat's blue.  It doesn't make any sense.  And the fonts are completely different on the two uniforms.  (At least the script W on the hats makes a little more sense now that they've redesigned the logo.)
27. Rays-All it took was dropping "Devil" for this team to get good.  But unfortunately, it also led to really boring uniforms.  Some bonus points for the powder blue alternates, but those points are deducted because the home and road uniforms are exactly the same.
26. Padres-What was wrong with the orange and blue uniforms that they made the World Series in again?  The current uniforms are ugly and completely unappealing.  The only redeeming quality is the camaflogue tops that they wear on Sundays to honor the military.  At least they dropped the tan road unis.
25. Astros-The black pinstriped one is OK and the primary road one isn't terrible, but all those alternate combinations have to go.  But this is the franchise that gave us the orange rainbow of the 70s and 80s, so it's definitely an improvement.
24. Rangers-The home jerseys say "Texas" rather than "Rangers," the Texas flag on the sleeves is really big, and what's with those red monstrosities?  Your primary color is BLUE!
23. Angels-It's a lot of red.  And points are deducted because of their stupid name, which resulted in the home and road uniforms being exactly the same.
22. Indians-From here until about No. 13 the order is really interchangeable.  Not horrible, but I'm getting bored of them.  Might've been lower if Major League wasn't such an awesome movie.
21. Pirates-See, the Pirates aren't last in something.  Could've been in the top 15 if not for that white pinstriped alternate.
20. Phillies-Lots of red and very boring.  Points were also deducted for the home and roads being exactly the same.  Plus I'm still mad about the Cliff Lee thing.
19. Mariners-They can't decide what they want the number font to be, which bothers me.  Otherwise, these are nice and traditional.
18. Orioles-Again, I don't really have a problem with these.  They're just not as nice as some others.  I don't like the script "Orioles" on the sleeve of the road jerseys, but kudos for resisting the urge to have orange alternates.
17. Athletics-Basically the same uniforms as Seattle and Baltimore, except green and gold.  The A's get the highest spot because of the color combo, and because they had the best combinations during the 70s mix-and-match days.
16. Rockies-I like the colors and the traditional elements, but there are too many combinations.  And the road unis have pinstripes.  And those purple jerseys are ugly.
15. Royals-Dropping the black and going back to the traditional was the right call.  It was also the right call to revive the powder blue tops.
14. Braves-Would probably be higher if not for those ridiculous red alternate home tops.  However, those are cancelled out by the navy alternate road tops.
13. Twins-I'm still not really a fan of the road jerseys, but I love the traditional elements and they'll probably grow on me.  Three alternates is too many, though.
12. Marlins-At least they've got something going for them.  They play in a freakin' football stadium with orange seats and teal walls!  After they dropped the teal hats, Florida's uniforms took a turn for the better.  I'm not sure how things are going to change when they change their name to the "Miami Marlins" next season, but the current incarnation of the team's uniforms is pretty solid.
11. Mets-Maybe a little too high, but I'm showing some hometown bias.  Would be a lot lower had they not finally decided to limit the number of alternate uniforms.  Would be in the top five if the only home uniform was the classic pinstriped one with the blue hat.
10. Brewers-I don't know why, but I really like this uniform.  Nice and simple with a classic touch.  The road jerseys should say "Milwaukee" instead of "Brewers," but they somewhat took care of that problem with the road alternates.  And they brought back the very 80s ball-in-glove as their Sunday home uniform!
9. Reds-Cincinnati was the only team to figure out how to add black to your uniform without having it take over.  (The team is called the "Reds" after all!)
8. White Sox-Would probably be higher if not for the about 20 different ugly uniforms they've had throughout their history while trying to find one that works.  But they've found one.  And the President likes the White Sox.
7. Red Sox-One of the five best home uniforms in baseball, but points deducted for the constant changing of road uniforms (and settling on something ugly as the current model).  Points also deducted for the red jerseys, the ugliest alternates of them all, and for being the Red Sux.
6. Giants-The world champs would be in the top five if not for the orange alternate tops (which rank as the fourth ugliest behind the red monstrosities of Boston, Atlanta and Texas).  Bonus points for pulling off home jerseys without names.
5. Tigers-Detroit's home uniform with the Old English D is one of baseball's classic uniforms, changed only very slightly since the days of Ty Cobb.  They've finally settled on a road uniform that matches it in simplicity and elegance.
4. Cubs-Ditto for the Cubs.  They've had some issues with the road uniforms in the past, but what they've settled on is a winner.  Which, unfortunately, is a lot more than I can say about the franchise.
3. Dodgers-Would probably rank second if not for the gigantic "LA" on the right sleeve and the ridiculously stupid experiment of taking the names off the home uniforms for a couple years.
2. Cardinals-I absolutely love the St. Louis Cardinals uniforms.  So much so that I can overlook the fact that the road jerseys say "Cardinals" instead of "St. Louis."  I don't like the "Sunday" hats, but the road version is very nice.  They also jump ahead of the Dodgers because they were able to pull off powder blue uniforms while basically keeping everything the same during the 80s.
1. Yankees-Even people who aren't Yankees fans have to agree that they have the classic uniforms in all of sports, not just baseball.  The home pinstripes have been exactly the same since 1936, and the road jerseys have had only minor changes since 1931.  That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it will always be.  Yankee pinstripes are history and tradition.  Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez wear the exact same uniform as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.  What other team can link different generations of Hall of Famers in such a way?

4 comments:

  1. love the research that's gone in to this post. you the man cliff.

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  2. The fact that Ocrappo likes the Chicago White Sox makes me hate them.

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  3. I mostly agree with this but how are the Mets, Marlins, and Rockies ranked higher than the Rangers, Angels, Rays, and Nationals????? The Marlins have the worst uniforms by far with the Rockies coming in second. The Mets are alright but the colors are kind of cheesy. I personally enjoy the fact that the Texas Rangers just focusing on 'Texas' instead of the 'Rangers' part. The Angels, Rays, and Nationals all have great simplistic uniforms with their own unique touch to them. And the Brewers are simplestic? So much is going on, on those uniforms! What's so ridiculous about the Braves' red tops? Pretty nice if you ask me.

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  4. Team name at home and city or state on road is the tradition but sometimes it doesnt work graphically. Thats wh ysomes teams have just the team name or city on both home and road uniforms.
    Texas has nice unifirm. Brewers no.
    The mets color might be cheesy but has a true
    significance so its beautiful. The pinstripes might be
    known for yankees but the cubs are the first to wear them.
    No name in the back is fine for only historical teams like
    Dodgers yankees and red sox etc. Ruth didnt need the uniform to say ruth.
    The number 3 did it.

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