How did it take this long to fix a problem that was obvious before things even got started?
In case you’ve been in the dark on the MLB uniform fiasco this season, major league baseball and its players ran into quite the issue. To be transparent, the jerseys and pants were transparent… as in baseball fans could see a little bit more than they’d like to.
Yeah… let’s keep the two-ball-counts to the umpires, shall we?
The jerseys were criticized by fans and players ever since they were first introduced, and have caused problems (like one player having his pants rip right off) from the first pitch of the season. After MLB, Nike, and Fanatics insisted for months that they were just “cutting edge” jerseys that players “needed to adjust to,” they finally owned up to their mistakes over the weekend.
ESPN obtained a memo from the MLB Players Association that announced that the league would be addressing the issues that players, coaches, and literally everyone else have been complaining about. The note stated that these big ticket items, among other, would be fixed as soon as possible:
-Larger lettering on the back of the jersey to move away from the smaller, non-professional look
-Fixing the issue of mismatched tops and bottoms, where grey pants and grey jerseys didn’t perfectly go together
-Addressing the jersey’s moisture-wicking ability as many players have complained about sweat collection
The memo also went on to say that the low-quality (and high visibility, if you know what I’m saying) jerseys were entirely the fault of the manufacturer, which was Nike and Fanatics. A statement within the message from the Players Association explained:
“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…
We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants. MLB had been, and has been, aware of our concerns as well. Unfortunately, until recently Nike’s position has essentially boiled down to ‘nothing to see here, Players will need to adjust.'”
Nothing to see here? How about EVERYTHING to see here? It’s customary in sports to want your players to put everything out on the line, but you don’t ever want to see everything out on the line. And it looks as though major league baseball is finally and thankfully addressing the issue.
However, they added that the changes would be in place by the start of the 2025 season at the latest, so no real timetable was given.
Gonna be a long and sweaty August for Carlos Rodon if those changes don’t come soon…
