The Cincinnati Reds have unveiled their new uniforms for the 2007 season. I would have preferred a pure re-adoption of the 1968-71 style, but it seems to me that they got close enough:
Pros
Much less black!
No more pinstripes!
No more sleeveless jerseys!
Minimized trim flourishes – I like the discrete piping
Cons
The red third jersey. Why the hell do we need a third jersey anyway? Stick with traditional home and away togs.
The new lettering style is not too bad (I would have preferred a hand-drawn design instead of computer-drawn), but what’s with all the drop shadows? Yech!
The black bill on the away cap. Away with black!
Pants cuffs bunching up at the ankles? Bring back traditional stirrup stockings! For pete’s sake, the team is named after the color of its socks – you should be able to see the socks!
I’m with you on the high socks. The Cardinals make all the minor leaguers wear them, so when they get called up they usually keep them (witness Anthony Reyes.)
Of course, they’re not even wearing real stirrups when they do. It’s all those colored stripe socks, or even worse the faux one-piece stirrup socks.
I think you’ve all pretty well nailed it. The font isn’t that disgusting, but the shadows don’t look right. I’m glad to see much less black. I’d like to see the end of dark jerseys at home. If you’re home you should wear white, if on the road you should wear grey.
Not a Cincy fan by any stretch, but I’m always interested to see teams changing their uniforms.
I just wanted to say that I can’t STAND grey uniforms for away games!!! I know it’s traditional and all that but now that there are so many baseball games on cable every day it is getting harder and harder to tell teams apart. Bring back more color!!!
For example…I’m a Royals fan (insert joke here) and I long for the days of the powder blue away unis. You definitely knew you were playing the Royals when you saw that color on the opposition.
OMG, these are a HUGE improvement…I hate those sleeveless jerseys! Never understood that at all.
I have to imagine the players won’t be wearing their pants so baggy at the ankles, but I agree that it would be great for real stirrups to come back. My favorite ball player is Greg Maddux, and one of the things I love about him is that he is Mr. Traditional Baseball Guy. The Cubs have a tradition that the starting pitcher gets to decide whether they wear the traditional pinstripe or plain gray jersey, or use the alternate Cub blue jersey (do other teams do this?) You will never, ever see a picture of Maddux in that blue jersey. (Contrast with Carlos Zambrano, who you ONLY see in the blue jersey!) Maddux also wears stirrups. He looks like a real ballplayer to me!
In my view, Maddux’s stocking style is not quite traditional enough. His stirrups are pulled up too high and the cuffs of the pants completely covers the upper part. As a result, instead of a stirrup stocking, you get a white sock with a blue stripe going up each side. The stirrups should be worn low, showing only a semicircle of white in the front and back.
I agree about the Royals – powder blue for away games. But old, traditional clubs like the Reds, Yankees, etc., should wear the traditional grey on the road. White, red, and grey should be the only colors that appear on a Cincinnati uniform.
But I completely object to the dark colored jerseys worn as “third jerseys” – very amateurish. And the pants should have the same color scheme as the jerseys – I hate the two-tone effect.
Totally agree with you about the colors, though…red, gray, and white ARE the only colors that should appear on a Cincinnati uniform! And I greatly dislike the white/gray pants and dark jersey look, as well.
Eh. I don’t tend to mind the alternate jerseys, although I am convinced that they use them just so they can make more money from the replica sales. But the sleeveless jerseys were terrible. There was no way to make those look good.
Well, I certainly long for those days performance-wise, I didn’t think those were the Royals’ best road uniforms. My favorites are the gray with dark blue (Royal blue?) script within a white outline. They wore these in the early 1990s.
My favorite uniform ever in all of professional sports was the first Marlins road uniforms. he way that Marlin wrapped around the “F”, the shiny teal border between the black lettering and the gray background…beautiful. To describe it in words doesn’t do it justice.
Hey, who can forget the Mariners’ teal alternate jerseys, with matching cap? I think Griffey Jr. called it the “clown suit”. (Dangit, I can’t find a photo.)
Of course, they can’t help but look better than the old Houston Astros or the 1970’s San Diego Padres. (scroll down a bit to see the Rollie Fingers photo)
