It began as a hilarious Seinfeld bit and became real life. Now, it looks like Major League Baseball‘s uniform blunder is coming to an end.
As fans know, this year Nike decided to get cute with MLB uniforms. Almost immediately, furious reaction came in from players, and fans got in on the action, too.
The complaints range from the uniforms becoming sweat magnets, the lettering being too small, and even mismatching colors in some instances.
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Nike Pledges To Fix MLB Uniforms
Nike is taking the blame for the uniform changes, at least according to the Major League Baseball Players Association memo that brings the good news about uniform changes:
“This has been entirely a Nike issue. At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.”
Oof. No punches pulled, there.
But Nike isn’t alone. Fanatics is also to blame. You may recall their Caitlin Clark fiasco. Well that extends to MLB, too. Earlier this month, both the Brew Crew and the Rangers had to push back the unveiling of their “City Connect” theme jerseys.
They did it for one simple reason: Fanatics didn’t get them the uniforms on time. Just last Sunday, Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo let it slip that the team can’t even wear their dark uniforms… because they don’t have the right pants!
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Get It Together, MLB
As if it weren’t bad enough, the Yankees doubled down by providing perhaps the worst ripoff in ballpark promotion history.
For the low-low price of just $15, fans could have an advertisement added to their junk jerseys. Yes, really.
As Bounding Into Sports’ Vincent Frank wrote of the episode:
That’s just next-level disgraceful. Are the Yankees planning on selling oceanside retreats in Nebraska and summer villas in Antarctica, too? They are bamboozling. They are hoodwinking. They are swindling. Duping and hornswoggling also come to mind. Find your synonym and place it here.
Look, it’s one thing if the fans are complaining about the lettering. It’s another thing if the players themselves are having performance issues.
Brandon Nimmo probably put it best when he said, “There’s a serious problem when a $13 billion industry is having a tough time getting pants from a worldwide industry that is supposed to be at the forefront of apparel and whatnot.”
Nike will reportedly fix the whole situation by the beginning of the 2025 season. So for now, the players and fans just have to deal with it.
In the meantime, recall that Seinfeld predicted this fiasco decades ago!
