Four Is Enough

The Seattle Mariners caused quite a stir over the weekend when they announced that they were dropping their gray jerseys because of a new MLB rule limiting teams to "only" four uniform options for the 2023 season (not counting the City Connect because, well, you've gotta have those!).  The theory behind four makes complete sense.  White, gray, color and alternate.  Or white, gray and two colors.  The Mariners had two colors (green and navy) in addition to white and gray, as well as an alternate cream for home games that they decided to keep.  So, another one had to go, and they chose the gray.

Predictably, reaction ran the gamut.  Plenty of people criticized MLB and Nike for putting a cap on the number of uniforms a team can have.  Besides, MLB isn't the only sport to do it.  There are already caps on the number of uniforms NFL and NHL teams can wear (three), and that doesn't seem to be an issue with anybody.  

Personally, I'd love to see the NBA adopt a cap on the number of uniforms.  Because they've gotten out of control!  I don't even know how many options each team has, but it's a lot!  And I think Oregon football wears a different uniform for every game!

There are also the people who are calling the Mariners trendsetters by calling them the "first team" to not have gray uniforms, which isn't even close to being correct!  There was, of course, the powder blue era in the late 70s and 80s, which also featured those mix-and-match Pirates uniforms with the black, yellow and white pinstripe options.  Cleveland had an all-red uniform then, too.  Then, in the 80s, the Cubs wore blue tops on the road and the Astros had an off-white uniform that they wore on the road during the tequila sunrise era.

Seattle won't even be the only team that primarily wears a color other than gray on the road!  While none of these teams have made their colored top "official," the Rays wear navy, the Marlins wear black and the Angels wear red on the road more or as frequently as they wear gray.  The White Sox, meanwhile, wear black pretty often both at home and on the road.  And, in case you were worried about the Mariners playing on the road against an opponent that's wearing navy tops, they'll wear the green ones in those games.

Of course, some people also wondered why they decided to drop gray and keep each of the other three, which is a reasonable question.  They only wear the alternates at home, so you drop the green and you still have navy as an option both at home and on the road.  Or, you drop the alternates (which don't seem to be that popular with Mariners fans) and you have three color choices for road games.

MLB teams having a third jersey makes complete sense.  They're popular with fans, and it makes it so that, if they have a doubleheader, they don't have to wear the same one for both games.  I have no problem with teams having an alternate jersey or a second color, either.  The Orioles, for example, have an orange home alternate and a black road alternate.  That's all you need!

Some teams, meanwhile, only have two uniforms and like it that way.  OK, two teams.  The Yankees and Dodgers.  They'll occasionally wear something different for a special event, and the Dodgers do have a City Connect.  But, for the most part, you're only seeing pinstripes and gray for the Yankees or white and gray for the Dodgers.  (And the Cardinals have their Sunday home alternates, but no colored jersey.)

Alternate uniforms aren't going anywhere, either.  The Cardinals aren't the only ones who have a throwback look for Sunday home games.  The White Sox wear their wonderfully-bad mid-80s throwbacks on Sunday afternoons, and the Brewers used to until they updated their logo and made it a modernized version of their classic ball-in-glove.  The Padres, meanwhile, have honored the military with their Sunday camouflage tops for years.

For the most part, though, teams have limited themselves to only one or two options beyond the traditional white and gray, so it's not like everybody's gonna have this problem.  In fact, I can't think of anybody other than the Mariners who has to drop an option in order to meet the four-uniform limit.  Which is a pretty clear sign that the four-uniform limit isn't really too extreme!

It also seems unlikely that MLB will regulate uniforms beyond telling you that you can only have four.  Could they require every team to have a white and a gray, then leave the other two up to them?  Sure!  But they won't do that!  Besides, even without restrictions, we're not gonna see teams start straying from the traditional white at home/gray on the road.  This isn't the 70s, when polyester was new and teams were excited that they could actually use colors so they went a little overboard!

In fact, that's exactly what I think the four-uniform rule was designed to do.  Prevent teams from going overboard.  When the Pirates had those mix-and-match uniforms in the 70s, they had nine different possible combinations!  I think we can all agree that's a little excessive!  Also, let's not forget, Nike makes the uniforms for all 30 teams, so they might've had some influence over the decision.  And, if they did, so what?  Nike has every right to make that request as MLB's uniform designer.

So, even though they're the ones making headlines, the Mariners aren't exactly starting a trend here.  The Angels, Rays and Marlins rarely wear gray tops on the road, and a lot of other teams are pretty evenly split between gray and color.  Seattle's only unique in that they won't even have gray as an option.  And we'll see how long that lasts.  Because I've got a feeling it won't be too long.  They might even bring gray back as early as 2024.

And it's not like seeing the road team in a color other than gray will be weird anyway!  Teams have been wearing third jerseys for years!  Both at home and on the road!  It's actually gotten to the point where white vs. gray is the unusual matchup!  So, while the Mariners' decision may have caught people off guard and will no doubt bother some baseball purists, ultimately, it's not a big deal at all.