MLB Home Jerseys - Plotting to a Bell Curve!
The card from last night got me thinking about MLB jerseys. Which ones are aesthetically best? Which ones are aesthetically blah?
Rather than doing a straight up ranking, I plotted them along a bell curve. Right is "best", left is "worst". I hate to say "worst", because all (most) of these designs are still pretty cool.
The rules:
- Only use the standard home jersey. Which is a shame, because some alternates are hideous (Oakland) and some alternates are better than the originals (Arizona, Atlanta). But it was necessary to keep the thought experiment doable in under an hour.
- I went with my gut reaction on each one, giving myself about 10 seconds to decide. Afterward I rearranged maybe 3 or 4 based on seeing them all together.
I was curious to see if any biases would play out, like favorite teams, recent level of play, that kind of thing. What I found was:
- I generally like scripted fonts over block fonts
- I really must like pinstripes
- I tend to prefer a clean look and color scheme over an 'embossed' looking design
- I may have a slight regional bias to the midwest
Some highlights!
- The Padres "P" really offends me. It looks like a distorted Double Tree Hotels logo
- Astros, wow! I really dig the color scheme and pinstripes. Opinions probably vary on this one.
- I really like the Rays color scheme, but someone once pointed it out that it was nearly identical to a grocery store chain. It was eery. Wish I still had the link!
- I wish the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays and Rangers would go back to their old jerseys!
I find it fascinating how people are so love or hate, when it comes to uni's. For example... I love the Oakland alternate home uniform. I also love the old Padres McDonald's look, the Astros nuclear orange, and the Pirates pajamas. It made baseball more fun, and nowadays it's more of a serious business. If those teams made "updated versions" of those uniforms, I think it would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteAlthough, at the same time, I do like it when teams wear traditional lookin' things... like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox. I just can't stand it when teams TRY to look traditional and serious but just don't pull it off... like the Mariners. They really need to go back to the trident symbol, 'cause that was just cool. Then there's the Brewers - why on earth would anyone with the greatest possible baseball logo change to the look they usually use for the past 20 years?!? Also, the Phillies had a great logo/uni back in the 70s & 80s. The Orioles used to have a smilin' bird.
I think the lack of uniform & logo fun, is partly why kids don't get very interested in the game anymore. It's too much of an adult game now. Whereas.. well, look at the NBA uniforms and logos, they get a bit creative. Baseball's an old boring stick in the mud compared to that!
Great commentary. I completely agree about all those retros you mention, save Oakland. And the Brewers...yes...talk about the best logo ever. Once I finally 'got it', I was in awe.
ReplyDeleteAgreed regarding the 'fun' element too. And the trident. Check out this logo for a Mariners minor league team:
http://shop.theclinkroom.com/products/everett-aquasox-x-seattle-mariners
It's very clever IMO.
Smiling bird...yes.
Yes on so many accounts. Great comment.
I really want to chime in on this but am a big overwhelmed to give a concise opinion. One thing I am certain of is that the old Brewers glove logo is one of the best logos of all time, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the O's bird but might argue on the Mariners. The current "grandpa" bird the Orioles use is not near as good as their past logos.
Love the chart Dave, I would love to make one of my own but it would likely change from day to day. Only commentary on chart would be, I'd bring the Rockies/Marlins down some and move the Indians/Tigers up some.
I love uniform discussions, although if I made my own bell curve, it'd be quite different. For instance, I'd rank the Astros at or around the bottom of the list. Maybe I was just too big a fan of the 70s/80s rainbow unis, don't know, but their current uniform (and their 20 variations of it) don't do it for me. They're probably an improvement over their prior 90s look though. I like the Indians cream-colored home unis and their new road unis enough to bump them into the upper half. I just wish they'd just completely get rid of the "other" uni design, which isn't bad, but is (a) not better than the former and (b) does not even resemble in anyway the former. The current Padres look is probably the worst of all because it looks entirely corporate. They absolutely need to bring back brown! Honorable mention to the Toronto Black Jays unis, but at least those will get overhauled over the offseason.
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