Uniform goodness

The Orioles uniforms as of 2020

It used to be simple. In American professional sports, each team had two uniforms: home and away. A team might update their look (color scheme, style, or even logo) every so often, but in a given season, you had two choices. Those days are long gone.

Though this trend is true in every sport, I'll stick with baseball as the classic American pasttime. Though an Orioles fan, I enjoy watching the sport in general, and I admire the classic look many teams sport. (I previously blogged about a few of them here.) And I've been pleased with the recent trend in uniform changes for the Brewers, Phillies, and Padres in particular- more on them in a moment. But back to the uniform explosion.

I'm not quite sure when it happened- and it probably differs from team to team- but in recent years, the available uniforms for most clubs have skyrocketed. Now a given teams may have 4-5 choices in their standard rotation- plus more on special occasions (like Memorial Day) or for other singular events. Though each team still has labels like home and away, their 'alternate' jersey options can see frequent usage. It can be confusing, but it's also kinda fun. Here are a few teams or special looks I've been enjoying.

City Connect Uniforms

Introduced last year by Nike, these jerseys express "the personality and communities of the team's home city." They released these for 7 teams last year, and have 7 on deck for this year. The list of the 10 released so far, with pictures and one writer's ranking for each, is available here (which I just quoted). The two I like the best so far: the Astros (space-related heritage) and Nationals (cherry blossoms and Georgian lettering):

Turn Back the Clock Choices

If you're familiar with your team's uniform history, you might be surprised to see them don the jerseys of yesteryear from time to time. This website shows the "turn back the clock" uniforms teams wore in 2016, for example. Note that some teams' choices didn't go back far- wearing what they did only 20 years ago- but others go back many decades, and some even wore uniforms to honor the Negro League team of that city. My favorite from the choices shown on that site: the Detroit Stars:

Another turnback favorite of mine: since 2018, The Phillies have been wearing their old maroon & powder blue jerseys for Thursday home games:

Uniform Updates

Aside from City Connect and Turnback uniforms, I've appreciated 'recent' (in the last few years) uniform changes some teams have made. 

The Baltimore Orioles are my number one team, and I was delighted when they went back to a version of the 'happy bird' on their hats in 2012 (after 23 years of donning the 'ornithogically correct' bird that was nowhere near as fun).

The San Diego Padres went back to brown and yellow, which I find a unique and fun combination. I especially like the swingin' friar on their sleeves. You can see all Padres uniforms from history here.

The Milwaukee Brewers modernized their jersey in a way that paid homage to the Brewers' teams of old while bringing them into the modern area with a fresh look (the cap with the yellow splash is especially cool). I also like the Wisconsin patch on the sleeve.

I already mentioned the Philadelphia Phillies. They have quite the logo history (I imagine all teams do). They've had these digs for a few years, and I love them.

Everyone has an opinion on this subject- this site ranks all MLB uniforms in 2020, with nice graphics showing the options. There's a lot out there. A lot of uniform goodness.