MLB's Best Uniforms, Part 2: Road Uniforms

Glamorous?  No.  Stylish?  Probably not.  Unique?  Yes.  This is Major League Baseball, where all 30 teams wear monochrome gray uniforms on the road, dating back to a no-longer-necessary routine that began over one hundred years ago.

Why do baseball teams wear gray on the road?  Way back in the day, teams on the road sometimes had trouble finding places to wash their uniforms, so they needed to use a color that wouldn't show dirt easily in the event of not being able to wash the uniforms for the next game.  In today's society, teams don't struggle as much to get the stuff washed.  At all.  But the gray color just became a dominant tradition, and there's no breaking of one of those in baseball.

Like most baseball traditions, it has caught on probably for a very long time, despite many teams going for the powder blue in the 70s and 80s and the Padres being all rebellious for most of the last decade.  But as of 2011, all teams are back in the ol' grays.  So here are the top 10 road uniforms in MLB right now:

10. Cleveland Indians

A new addition for 2011, the Indians did it right on this one.  This uniform is almost sort of a throwback, but the style still fits.  Going from the red script and more modern looking jersey to the simpler version is similar to what the Red Sox did in 2009.  But overall, the main idea with this jersey is that it's not too flashy for a gray uniform.  The Indians are strong contenders this season - now we know why.  Sort of.






9. Pittsburgh Pirates

Surprised to see this one on here?  Few give the Pirates respect for hardly anything that they've done right in the last decade because of their infamous futility on the field.  But at least their uniforms are a big win.  In fact, if they would still wear this uniform, they would probably top my list.  But just like winning, it hasn't been seen since the 90s.  In today's league full of an overload of red and blue on so many teams, the Pirates have black and yellow all to themselves.  That definitely makes this uniform all that more sharp.    





8. St. Louis Cardinals

Even when they did go powder blue in the 70s and 80s, the Cardinals never changed the template of this uniform.  The classic script with the  two Cardinals perched on the bat is one of the most recognizable scripts that this sport has produced; the main reason for why is the consistency the Cardinals have shown to it.  I don't have any records on this, but I'm pretty sure the Cardinals have been wearing something very similar to this uniform for over half a dozen decades.  The blue cap is also a nice contrast to the red overload that the home uniform is.



7. Oakland Athletics

The good old green and gold.  The Oakland A's have been playing ball for over 100 years, mostly in Philadelphia, for a while in Kansas City, and for a while longer in Oakland.  But the one constant has been that green and gold.  The A's aren't the most respected team around the league, but this uniform is one of the best because of the green.  Luckily they haven't replaced it with black like so many other teams have for their primary colors.




6. Los Angeles Dodgers

Introduced in 2007, the Dodgers road uniform is one of the few in Major League Baseball that doesn't have a white outlining on the letters and numbers.  In fact, there's no white to be found anywhere on this uniform at all, except for the cap logo.  But the Dodger blue and red combination is enough to make it stand out.  No alternate necessary; this stands alone for the Dodgers.





5. New York Yankees

Well of course, there's no forgetting the Yankees.  Like that's possible in today's league.  But in all seriousness, the Yankees deserve to be on this list, too.  The underwhelming, subdued nature of the simple 'New York' script has become more than just a uniform script; it's become a part of the branding of New York character.  Then of course, the midnight blue that colors the script, cap, and sleeves is just cool and couldn't be more surprisingly in style today.  The Yankees are the only team in MLB whose road gray uniform doesn't include the player name on the back, and rightfully so.









4. Atlanta Braves

In recent years, the Braves have favored their road alternate for the most part.  And it's a real shame.  The Braves shouldn't need to boost merchandise sales with a gem like this.  What other team ever has or ever will feature a tomahawk?  The answer, hopefully, will always be zero.  Braves tradition, like the tomahawk chopping at home games, is some of the most interesting tradition to be found in baseball.  This uniform represents it well.




3. Kansas City Royals

They're not called the Royals for nothing.  The blue in this uniform, in case you haven't noticed, is quite royal.  Much like the Pirates, you probably wouldn't have thought of this uniform right away because the Royals aren't exactly the talk of the league very often.  If their farm system is as good as its supposed to be, you'll probably be seeing this uniform around a lot more often and soon.  And that's definitely a good thing; after all, royal blue is classy.




2. Detroit Tigers

From one AL Central team to the next, the Detroit Tigers made the list as well.  The Tigers' main colors are definitely orange and navy, but there is no orange at all on the home uniform.  Thankfully, orange does appear on the road uniform.  The numbers and script are outlined by orange, then white.  This just results in an awesome combination.  The orange looks powerful in the reserved role, and the navy is classic.  Plus, the Tigers are a winning ballclub, certainly a plus on the popularity scale.



1. Washington Nationals

Yep, a team that didn't exist eight years ago and a uniform that didn't exist a year ago just beat road uniforms that have been in place for over 100 years.  Introduced in 2009, the Nationals made a few edits for this season and overall couldn't have done a better job designing this uniform.  In fact, they even snuck the logo into the script.  How rare is that?  For a road uniform, extremely.  For 2011, the tan-colored drop shadow on the name and number on the back were both removed and a red bill was added to the road cap.  The results, albeit minor, made a noticeable difference.  For a team that has been known for its perennial mediocrity, there's absolutely nothing mediocre about this.








Coming Soon: posts about MLB Realignment and how to fix the All-Star Game! 

Road Trip Analysis: Chicago (AL), Kansas City

For analysis of the White Sox series, see the game recap posts below.

Sloppy series earns just one win; Royals bullpen shuts down Cubs offense late


Record: 2-4
Final Record: 31-46

A series that began mildly well for the Cubs ended highly disappointingly as the Cubs dropped the final two games of the series against a dismal Kansas City squad.

The Friday night opener was a win, but the Cubs didn't do much well in it.  Four baserunners were thrown out on the basepaths, although Mike Quade later said he had no problem with the aggressiveness.  Ryan Dempster allowed two through six innings, but an error allowed two more.  Luckily, the bullpen didn't allow anything after that.

The stories on Saturday and Sunday were very much the same.  Back-to-back home runs from Aramis Ramirez and Geovany Soto were the only runs for the Cubs on Saturday, and Chris Getz drove in the winning run in the 8th inning for a 3-2 Royals win.  On Sunday, a valiant comeback effort in the 3rd and 4th innings fell short and the Cubs trailed the entire game.  After the comeback fell short at 4-3, the Royals would add two more runs later and go on to win, 6-3.

The problem in this series was too many hittable pitches given up by Cubs pitchers.  They kept the ball down, allowing only one home run in the series, but walked at least four in each game, which set up countless RBI singles.  The offense was also mostly minimal in the two losses, stymied by an underrated KC bullpen.

With an eight game homestand that began Monday against Colorado, the Cubs were scheduled to play four games in three days against three different opponents.  Monday, originally scheduled to be a day off, was scheduled for the Cubs-Rockies rainout back on April 27.  Tuesday, originally scheduled to be just one game against the Giants at night, was scheduled to be a day-night doubleheader.  This totals to the Cubs playing the Royals Sunday afternoon in Kansas City, the Rockies Monday afternoon at Wrigley Field, and the Giants in the afternoon and at night on Tuesday at Wrigley.  

The Worst Announcing Duo in Baseball

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, who called the Yankees-Cubs game on Fox on Saturday, are the worst announcing duo in baseball.  Buck, the play-by-play man, sounded like he was narrating a funeral the entire game.  He's always been bad, but literally everything he said on Saturday had a downward inflection on it.  The two also contribute plenty to the East Coast bias that Fox is a big part of in MLB.  This doesn't make listening to these two a good experience for fans.

Fox continues to promote Buck to the top of their sports broadcasters, and he's certainly at the top now.  He called Super Bowls 39, 42, and 45 and does NFL games every Sunday for Fox.  In addition to calling MLB games every Saturday afternoon for Fox, he also calls the World Series and one of the two LCS.  But I've never seen the potential in him.  He has a professional, booming broadcaster voice, but he wastes it with a lack of enthusiasm and just a boring style.

McCarver, on the other hand, is known for some of the biggest broadcaster blunders of all time.  He often says obviously simple statements, possibly in an effort to simplify the game for the fans at home, but he just ends up looking stupid.  "One thing about ground balls; they don't leave the ballpark."  Did that statement add anything to the broadcast at all?  In context or out of context, it's too obvious to even be said.  "It's better to have a fast runner on base than a slow one."  Really?  During the 2005 All-Star Game, he said "with Guerrero, it's not so much a strike zone as it is a strike area."  During the 2005 World Series, he said "Roy Oswalt is a drop and drive pitcher.  What is a drop and drive pitcher?  He is a guy who drops and drives.  Very simple."

These pieces of 'analysis' have become infamous in the broadcasting world.  Comedy show Family Guy mocked such analysis in a episode about ten years ago.  But the irony there is that Family Guy is a Fox show, meaning the Fox producers allowed one of their comedy shows to make fun and criticize one of their top sports broadcasters.  The begging question is if Fox is willing to allow this criticism, why don't they just replace him with any of the other dozens of competent color commentators around MLB.

World Series TV ratings were the lowest of all time last year.  It probably isn't a coincidence that Buck and McCarver called the Series.  For as long as these two are in the booth for Fox, Saturday broadcasts, the LCS, and the World Series will continue to be a monotonous drone of talk about how "David Ortiz, from the Dominican Republic, can obviously read lips in Spanish."      

Crosstown Showdown: White Sox 4, Cubs 3

Alfonso Soriano steals his first base of the season,
beating the tag from shorstop Alexei Ramirez

Peavy returns from DL, wins despite ineffective start

CWS leads 2-1

It was yet another one-run loss for the Cubs, who have lost in this fashion in three of their last four losses.  A comeback attempt for the third straight game fell short and the Cubs dropped their second in a row.

The Sox got their first two runs off Doug Davis in the fourth when A.J. Pierzynski tripled home two runs.  The Sox also got a third run in the inning from a squeeze play by utility man Brent Lillibridge.  This play represents the Sox' best attempt to play smallball.  But the truth is that such a play wasn't even necessary in that situation, especially considering Lillibridge's knack for clutch plays this season.

A Starlin Castro RBI single put the Cubs on the board, but the Sox got an insurance run just a half-inning later thanks to an error by trippin' second baseman Blake DeWitt.  Of course, Davis could have prevented the run from scoring by not hitting Lillibridge with a pitch, but the bottom line is the inning should have already been over.

Incredibly, Carlos Pena hit his third homer in as many days, as if competing head-on with counterpart Paul Konerko, who actually didn't homer in this game to end his consecutive-game-with-homer streak at five.  Pena has gathered respect from all of his teammates as the calming influence as well as the defensive leader of this team, and it's great to see him catch fire offensively, too.

Jeff Baker redeemed himself for his big strikeout last night and singled home a run in the rally that knocked Peavy out of the game in the 6th.  Unlike the night before, the Cubs were very patient with Peavy, who had serious trouble locating his breaking pitches and gave Pierzynski a workout behind the plate.  His slider was all over the place, including bouncing in the dirt.  Much of Peavy's success in his career can be attributed to the fact that everything he throws, from his running fastball to his changeup to his slider, is hard, hard, and harder.  He's got a 'hot' heater and a power slider, a lethal and winning combination.  But when he loses control, everything kind of flies off the end.  The result: 104 pitches and 10 baserunners allowed through only 5.1 innings.

The Cubs bullpen was absolutely perfect on this night, throwing three innings and striking out four while allowing no baserunners between rookie Chris Carpenter, Jeff Samardzija, and Sean Marshall.  Unfortunately, the Sox bullpen almost equally as good.  Sox closer Sergio Santos has a save in each of the last two games; he has thrown a total of 26 pitches between the two games, including only three balls, no baserunners, and five strikeouts.  This, this is the definition of dominance out of the 'pen.

Overall, this was a very entertaining series, with intriguing battles between the first basemen and Ozzie Guillen and Geovany Soto's catcher's mask.  The Cubs lost two of three but now head to Kansas City for a weekend series against the Royals who are only one game better than the Cubs record-wise.  They're also only 20-21 at Kauffman Stadium and have the bottom end of their starting rotation going, so the Cubs could capitalize.  After all, the Cubs will finally be playing someone at their own level.


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Crosstown Showdown: White Sox 3, Cubs 2

Rain nearly ends close game prematurely, but Cubs return from delay flat

Series tied 1-1

After the Cubs took a surprising win in the first game of the series, the Cubs came back and played another competitive game Tuesday night.

Matt Garza was unable to contain Paul Konerko and for the fifth night in a row, Konerko homered, tying a franchise record.  Garza also gave up a run in the 3rd on a sacrifice by Juan Pierre.  The Sox had an early 2-0 lead, but the Cubs came back again.  Carlos Pena homered in the fifth to get the Cubs on the board, and the Cubs loaded the bases in the 6th when the weather began to change unfavorably.  Jeff Baker, batting with no outs and those loaded bases, needed to just put the ball in play somewhere and hope to get the tying run home from third to tie the game, no matter how he did it.

On the Cubs telecast on WGN, Len Kasper even said the Cubs would be happy with a double play ball just to get that one run home before the delay could possibly end the game.  Because if Baker wasn't able to get that run home, the game could be ended as a rain-shortened final score of 2-1 through six innings.  And the way the wind was wreaking havoc didn't suggest the storm was going to let up anytime soon.  Baker struck out looking, and the umps went straight to delay before Aramis Ramirez could have a chance to bat.

Luckily for the Cubs, Ramirez got his chance nearly two hours later and drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly.  But it only took an inning for the Sox to get the run right back, Brent Morel driving it in with a sac fly.  There was no comeback this time, and the Sox evened the season series at one apiece.  

The Cubs played a hard game, although they certainly got lucky after Baker's strikeout could have cost them the game.  The pitching has done a great job of containing a powerful offense thus far, although stopping Konerko has definitely been a problem thus far.  But the Cubs offense was alarmingly aggressive, and only made Mark Buehrle throw 70 pitches into the 6th inning and didn't a single walk the entire game.  The Sox bullpen was even less unforgiving, allowing only two hits, no walks and no runs over 3.2 innings.  Patience should be the key against hard-throwing righty Jake Peavy, fresh off the DL and possibly rattled.  The Cubs need to make him earn strikes, especially because it will take some time for his pitches to start getting the full movement on them.  For pride's sake, just win tonight, please.  

Crosstown Showdown: Cubs 6, White Sox 3

Three key Cubs step up big in win over streaking Sox

CHC leads 1-0

Last night the Cubs and Sox met for the first of six games this season.  The news coming up to game time and in the 1st inning was all about Carlos Zambrano and his temper tantrum last season at The Cell, which nearly led to him being kicked off the team.  But a different Zambrano emerged, despite another bad first inning.  He gave up three in that first inning before calming down and staying as cool as the other side of the pillow for most of the game.  Through 8 innings, Zambrano allowed only those three runs.

The blow up actually came from the other side as Ozzie Guillen was ejected arguing a fair or foul call on home plate.  These disputes are rare because such an instance was very rare but nonetheless the umpire called Alexei Ramirez out after Geovany Soto tagged him with the ball which the ump thought he had picked up off home plate.  The Sox claimed the ball had rolled off and Soto grabbed it in foul territory.  Guillen, in his frustration, kicked Soto's catcher's mask towards his own dugout, prompting eruptions of laughter and hysteria from the Cubs dugout.  Even Soto, standing near Guillen behind home plate, pointed and laughed along with his teammates.

The three keys to winning the game for the Cubs were Zambrano, Starlin Castro, and Carlos Pena.  Castro knocked in the first three runs with a two-RBI single and a solo homer, and Pena gave the Cubs the lead for good with a big three-run homer to the right field bleachers off a stumbling Gavin Floyd.

Carlos Marmol, who puts the fire in fireman, aka closer, gave up singles to catcher A.J. Pierzynski and center fielder Alex Rios just to give Cubs fans a headache before retiring Mark Teahen and left fielder Juan Pierre.

This win was huge in my opinion.  It proved that the Cubs' improved competitive play against the Yankees wasn't a fluke, and that they can hang around with an American League team.  Also, the current Chicago fad of hating on the Cubs takes a big hit with every win they get over the White Sox.  It's as if the bandwagon shrinks, if even just a little.

Homestand Analysis: Milwaukee, NY Yankees

Record: 4-3Final Record:  29-42

Although the Yankees slowed down the Cubs in the last two games of this homestand, the Cubs overall played much better baseball, even in the losses.  Fans also arrived in sellout or near-sellout fashion on this homestand and the Cubs definitely benefited from it.  The Cubs are still only 16-22 at home, but their play at Wrigley could heat up with the weather and fans.  

A pumped Carlos Marmol pumps his fist
after getting the save Friday against the Yankees

Against Milwaukee, team chemistry was evident as the team came through with two clutch wins in a row.  Ryan Dempster shut down one of the top offenses in baseball in the Brewers' offense, and Darwin Barney scored the only run of the game in the first game and the Cubs won 1-0.  On Tuesday night, the Cubs trailed late but rallied and won 5-4 on Starlin Castro's walk-off single.  Although the Brewers took one on Wednesday, the Cubs offense came back and put on a show Thursday, scoring 12 including homers from Carlos Pena, Kosuke Fukudome, and Alfonso Soriano.  These three wins sent the first place Brewers to Boston having barely hung on to first, and shocked at these losses.

The Yankees came to town on Friday for the first time since 2003 and second since the 1938 World Series.  The rare matchup attracted national attention, just like the Cubs-Red Sox series in May.  And the series couldn't have begun any better for the Cubs, who put together their most complete win of the season in the opener with Doug Davis surprising everyone including himself in limiting the most powerful offense in the league to just one run over seven plus innings.  Early runs were put on the board, and Reed Johnson saved the day with an amazing diving catch robbing Robinson Cano of extra bases late.

However, the Cubs would lose tight games in the late innings on both Saturday and Sunday.  Perhaps the lack of being able to close these games is due to the fundamental difference between these teams.  The Yankees were just teetering on the edge of breaking the game wide open pretty much the entirety of Sunday night, it seemed.  Putting in rookie Chris Carpenter to face Nick Swisher with two men on in the 8th was just what the Yanks needed to finally come through.  Not the greatest call on Mike Quade's part.  Swisher homered for the first three of six runs that allowed the Yankees to pull away in the 8th and 9th inning on national TV.

Curtis Granderson follows through on an
extra-base hit late Sunday at Wrigley.

Overall, signs of progress have to be looked for from this homestand.  Although the Cubs should have won six instead of just four games, the last two games against the Yankees were no pieces of cake, either.  So the fact that the Cubs played competitively for most of the game is a good sign.

Attendance for the three game series totaled over 126,000, which set an all-time Wrigley record for attendance in a three game set, beating the previous record of almost 125,000 set in July 2007 against the Astros.  Friday and Saturday's attendance both were over 42,000, a mark that hasn't been reached since the 2007 and 2008 playoffs.  But Saturday's attendance, 42,236, surpasses all three of the home playoff games from those two seasons.  Because the bleacher expansion of 2006 added about 3,000 seats to the ballpark, that number also surpasses all of the 2003 playoff games.  This means that Saturday's attendance could be the largest in decades, although I don't know how many.

The improved play came just in time for the series with those evil White Sox, who lost the first game last night 6-3.  Watch for the next couple weeks to decide the season for the Cubs, who will need to determine trade deadline status soon.