If you haven't kept up with Major League Baseball for the past few days, then just know this is an important weekend. For one, the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are playing a three-game set that could be a preview of the World Series. On top of that, this is Players' Weekend, which is being celebrated in part by having every team wear either an all-white or all-black uniform. The overlap of those two events has led some to question MLB's scheduling -- the Yankees and Dodgers don't play often, so why make them wear gimmicky uniforms? Like, look at this:

These are the Yankees -- yes, really. USATSI

It's not just fans and reporters who would prefer to see the Yankees and Dodgers squaring off while wearing their typical garb, either. According to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports, the Dodgers requested permission from MLB for each team to suit up in their traditional outfits for one of the three games in the series. Yet the Dodgers' request was rejected. Here's more from Brown:

To that end, according to two sources, the Dodgers asked MLB for permission to have both teams wear their traditional uniforms for at least one of the three games. They could have loopholed it for Sunday when the Yankees and Dodgers play the nationally televised night game and the weekend would be about over anyway. They were denied.

You can understand MLB wanting to protect the integrity of Players' Weekend, a three-day stretch wherein players are given more leeway to showcase their fun sides by wearing their choice of cleats and accessories and having their nickname printed on their jersey's nameplates. At the same time, the real issue here isn't Players' Weekend -- it's the uniforms chosen to mark the occasion this season.

In the past teams wore alternate uniforms that, though they strayed from tradition, were tolerable to look at. The all-white and all-black looks this year were supposedly intended to allow the players' personalities to take center stage. Unfortunately, they look like someone drained the personality from the teams. It doesn't help that -- due to an oversight or lacking foresight -- the all-white team's pitcher has to wear a dark hat to prevent the ball from blending in too much.

So yes, when we look back on this Yankees-Dodgers series -- or any of the games from this weekend -- it's going to be jarring to see those uniforms instead of the teams' standard looks. Hopefully MLB learns from this occasion and can prevent a similar disaster from occurring next Players' Weekend.