This Just In

According to the Washington Nationals' Facebook fan page, Zack Greinke rejected a trade deal with the troubled baseball club from the District of Columbia, and instead signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Wisconsin-based club also picked up former Blue Jays starter Shawn Marcum in exchange for second-base prosprect Brad (?) Lawrie.

What does this mean? This means I can make diving catches in front of the girls in my Zack Greinke Kansas City Royals road jersey (I'm just kidding).

Fashion Faux Pas!

In case no one knows I collect MLB gear during the season. So it helps to know which baseball teams are making any alterations to their uniforms and logos during the off-season. If you are like me, then you bought the black Oakland Athletics cap with the white "A's" with the yellow and green trim just days before the team announced they would drop the black jersey and hat -_-

Cleveland, Minnesota, and Washington are set to make changes as well.

The Indians made two changes to their line of 2011: A new hat and a new road uniform. The hat I don't really care for, because it is a scarlet hat with a navy block letter "C". However, their road uniform deserves a closer look...

Some teams are going for that vintage look to their uniforms, and going with either the cursive script with the "swoosh" below the team name, or block letters such as Cleveland here. I almost gave the Indians a pass, but I couldn't get past the patch sown below the left shoulder. Chief Wahoo and I have a history, and in today's world of "political correctness" the sight of a red-faced, big grinned native American evokes feelings of embarrassment. Why would anyone wear that on the street? Why would anyone wear that here in Canada while knowing of the history and hardships of First Nations' peoples in the twenty-first century? The same could be said for the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Redskins, but talk about the latter never goes beyond talk and debate about the former grows only when the team is good and receiving national exposure (ie. 2010 Playoffs). The Atlanta Braves received a similar kind of stigma, but "Braves" is a term given to brave warriors, and that please most if not all skeptics. Going back to the jersey, I would only like the new look if someone sown Chief Wahoo on some other jersey, and not mine.

Speaking of taking fashion on the road, Minnesota unveiled another in a long list of baseball team jerseys to wear in 2011. It's like the Twins' navy alternate jersey went out on a date with the new Twins road uniform from last year, fell in love, got engaged, married, and had this for their first child. Minnesota plans to wear this for some of their road games, and the old navy alternate jersey will make appearances at home games.

Finally, I only like Washington because their logo is the best in all baseball: A simple pretzel W ^_^ However, when I saw these...Maybe it's my monitor, or maybe it's the Wranglers o_O Gone are the DC secondary logos, the gold trim on the numbers, the all navy baseball cap, and any resemblance to real baseball players. These are what you wear in beer league softball, or perhaps to a "Ninety Nine", which is where I'm sure half of these players ended up. At least the block letter "Nationals" is gone from the home white jersey the team used to wear, but the designers went too far replacing the DC in the patriotic jersey with another W; this one looks less threatening and more clownish than its predecessor, but fans will only see it in action on holidays.

Well, at least the Royals and Pirates didn't do anything drastic to their uniforms...except impersonate real baseball players during the 2010 season. When authentic gear from a last place team is on sale, you take it!

P.S. The San Diego Padres opted to change the base colour of their road uniforms from khaki to grey. Otherwise known as the "bow-tie" shirt, it required the matching khaki pants which are impossible to find either online or on Earth.