The Mets have a new St. Patrick’s day uniform this year, that was posted a week ago on the Mets Twitter account:

Here is the front of the Jersey, and the back.

Staying with recent trends, the Uniform this year is based off of the Mets Batting Practice Jersey, rather than a normal jersey. I actually really like the idea of making an Irish Jersey off of the Mets batting practice jersey since the two other prominent colors on the BP kits are orange and white. So replacing Blue with Green, makes a really nice looking Irish Uniform.

It is difficult to make something inherently not classy like the BP uniform look class, but I think the Mets pulled it off here.

Tweet

The Dodgers have a minor change to their uniforms for the 2012 season by adding a new patch that celebrates the 50th season of Dodger Stadium:

It’s not a surprise that this is a nice patch. In the last decade, the Dodgers have been known for making nice patches. Good work like always.

Tweet

It isn’t a surprise that there are a lot of teams with circular logos in baseball. It make sense, a baseball is circular, and a circle is a shape that is aesthetically pleasing, so a lot of teams use it in their logos and patches. Over the last 5 years or so, a lot of teams as they have redeveloped their uniforms have included a new circular logo in the set. These new patches don’t include teams like the Mets, Cubs, or Yankees, who all have logos based on a baseball, so their primary logos are going to be on a circle. Rather a new crop of teams have started, or reinstated and joined other teams who take their primary logo and place a circle and border around it:

Baltimore (Home and Away)
DC (and another)
Pittsburgh (Although I don’t know when they wear this)
San Francisco
Toronto (Although not a patch, just their new primary logo)
Boston
Minnesota (Only used in 2010)
Oakland 
Texas
Seattle
Los Angeles  Angels
San Diego

In that above list, Baltimore, DC, Minnesota, Angels, Toronto and San Diego were definitely added within the last few seasons. If I had to guess, the circle with border feels older, retro, even if it isn’t and the majority of uniform changes we have seen in the last few seasons have been to make uniforms feel more like the older days. Some other trends include that currently, there are no teams in the AL Central that have a circular path while every team in the AL West do have one.

Tweet

The Padres made a good amount of changes to their uniform set this year including updated logos. An aspect that has plagued the current Padres set is a multitude of colors, fonts, and lack of simplicity. For the current upgrade, they decided to make things simple and the result is plain, but pleasant:

Team Logo Patch
Home Sleeve Patch
Away Sleeve Patch
Home Jersey
Alternate Jersey
Away Jersey

At the end of the day, these are changes you either love or hate. I like when teams use less colors in their uniforms, and make the jersey’s similar, so I’m for this. If you recall, this has actually been a soft transition for San Diego. Their away uniforms used to be sand color with that really odd writing of San Diego across the front. Last season they kept the font, but made the uniforms a more traditional road gray. This year they updated the font. It looks more typical now, but that is not a bad thing.

I do find it interesting how many teams are now doing the circle patch on the sleeve for the primary logo. The Orioles have two different ones for home and away that they started using a few seasons ago, and the Nationals introduced last year. I’m going to start to look at how many teams actually use the circular logo.

Tweet

A minor uniform change and a new patch comes to Kansas City this season as the Royals get ready for the 2012 season. As you already know, the Royals will be hosting the 2012 All – Star game. With hosting an All-Star game comes a new logo, and of course, a new patch.  I’m a pretty big fan of this patch design. It really plays on this idea of royalty with the drapes and the font. Also the giant shield is a great motif of the scoreboard out of Kansas City. It is a nice, smart patch with a good design.

In addition to the new patch, the Royals updated their alternate jersey.  The Royals actually have four jerseys including the Powder Blue Alternate and the Navy Blue Alternate. This year they made two major changes to the Powder Blue set. They updated the color of the jersey to look more like the Powder blue of old. Last year the alternate had a navy blue writing. This year it has white writing with a blue outline. I liked the old jersey, I like this jersey too. These are minor upgrades but they make the set much stronger.

Tweet

This season, the Houston Astros will be celebrating their 50th anniversary, so as custom for big anniversaries, they will have a new patch for this upcoming season.

Before we get into what they are changing, if you are a very observant baseball fan, your reaction should be something along the lines of, “I know the Astros franchise started in 1962, which is why the 50th anniversary is this year, so why did they celebrate their 45th anniversary two years ago?” The answer to your question is that in 2010, the Astros celebrated 45 years of being the Astros, originally they were the Colt .45′s. I honestly cannot think of another team that would do something like that, knowing that two years later, they have the 50th anniversary. Does this mean in a few years they will celebrate their 50th again?

Anyway, the Astros are going to celebrate their 50th with a new patch:

I’m a big fan of this patch. It’s simple but includes a lot. There are examples of insignia and motif from several different eras on the patch. Overall, it is very nice, however missing a Colt .45 reference, which then goes back to my earlier rant.

Tweet

The Boston Red Sox are celebrating a major anniversary this season as Fenway Park turns 100 years old. As custom in the MLB these days, the Red Sox will be sporting a patch for the occasion:

It’s a good looking patch. It boasts a clean face, team symbol and purpose. It fits with the font of the team and the motif of the park. Overall, a very good modern representation of a park that holds strong tradition.

Tweet

The Miami Marlins had one of the most dramatic change in uniforms this season. The uniform change comes with a new stadium, a new team (hello Jose Reyes) and a new team name, the Miami Marlins, formerly known as the Florida Marlins. One of the key aspects of the makeover is the change of the color scheme from green and a little bit of black to orange and little bit of black. The new logo uses the same Marlin as before, but instead of it on an “F” it is now on an M. Anyway, some pictures:

Home Jersey

Road Jersey

Orange Alternate

Black Alternate

Hat

An interesting trend is that only the Orange Jersey says “Marlins” on it. They are really pushing this idea of “Miami”, probably to build a renewed sense of team identity, which is a good idea. Overall, I actually like the uniform. It’s not something I would like my team wearing, but it is an upgrade over what the team used to have.

Hope you like your new uni’s Jose.

Tweet

On Tuesday we took a look at the new uniforms for one of the AL East Teams, the Baltimore Orioles. Today we will take a look at the new uniforms of another AL East Team, the Toronto Blue Jays.

Before we look at what they have become, it is a good idea to remind ourselves where they are coming from. This is what their uniforms most recently looked like. This year the Jays are trying to go back for their old style look by changing their uniform and the logo. Take a look:

Home

Road

Alternate

Back Name/Numbering

Hat

Outside of the Mets, this is my favorite upgraded uniform set for the 2012 season. What helps is that the Jays had a really bad uniform set before, and this one is just fantastic. It goes back to a classic look, a classic primary logo and a classic script.

It also shows how “retro” is really forcing its way back into baseball. The Nationals retro-ed their uniforms last season, the Indians have been going through a retro-fication, the Orioles did it to their primary logo and the Mets did it to their whole set. It’s a good look for the league.

Tweet

The team I grew up geographically closest to made some upgrades to their uniform set this winter, and it looks good. Over the last 6 years or so, the Orioles made two major changes to their uniform set. First, they added a Black alternate uniform to the set. This color works for the Orioles (unlike the Mets, or a lot of other teams that try to do this) because the Oriole Bird itself is Black and Orange (foreshadowing for later). The more recent change was to change the name on the away uniform from “Orioles” to “Baltimore”. Baltimore is a city with a lot of pride, and generally, away uniforms should have the city name on the front.

The Orioles made some minor changes to the uniform for 2012 by correcting the some fonts, like “Baltimore”, but they really made three, huge changes to the uniform set. First they added in a new alternate uniform:

Source

So now the Orioles have uniforms that match the colors of the Oriole bird. The downside to these uniforms is they are not as unique as you would have guessed. The Giants have an orange alternate and the new Miami Marlins do as well.

The next two major changes can be seen on the same image:

Source

The Orioles are going back to a cartoon bird (new design) which has always been a fan favorite. They are also going to a pinwheel style hat for home games, which is nice, unusual and generally awesome. To end this tour of the 2012 Orioles Uniform, here’s the new sleeve badge:

Source

Up Next: The 2012 Blue Jays Uniforms which we’ll take a look at on Thursday.

Tweet