Photo : John McCoy ( Getty Images )

In an attempt at adding a “fun” new twist to Players’ Weekend, MLB revealed earlier this year that every team playing in a game over these couple days would wear a nearly monochromatic uniform, with options of white and black. Beyond the simple problem that the color scheme makes it difficult to see the nicknames on the backs of players’ jerseys—the original wrinkle that made this weekend very mildly interesting—the outfits also had the unintended effect of making every player look “like morons,” as Cleveland manager Terry Francona put it. Joe Maddon wasn’t a fan either.


No match up exemplified these issues more than Yankees-Dodgers. A series that should have been thoroughly enjoyed because of these two powerhouse clubs squaring off against each other was somewhat soured due to the fact that some of the best players in baseball came out looking like this:


What sucks about this in particular is that both of these clubs have two of the most iconic jerseys in baseball, and neither will get to showcase those classic looks this weekend. This was an opinion that Yankees manager Aaron Boone shared after Friday’s game, per Yahoo Sports.

“The one thing I would say — you know, Dodgers-Yankees, I feel like it would be cool that … this isn’t necessarily the best weekend for us,” he said Friday afternoon. “I think having this matchup and to have them in their uniform and us in ours. But that said, I think this is another one of those things, over the course of a long season, that is neat that MLB does.”﻿



But while Boone kept things pretty diplomatic, the Dodgers tried to be more proactive with what they thought about the these outfits, and asked MLB if they could get away with using the normal uniforms just once, according to Yahoo’s Tim 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.﻿




It’s not a surprise that MLB stuck to its guns with regards to preserving a gimmicky marketing ploy, and it’s hilariously on-brand that it came at the expense of ruling against a significantly better idea staring them right in the face.