The Mets patch for their first year at Citi Field is not inspiring a lot of praise.

It's a good thing some on my commenters didn't see this.

Emma Span is tired of commerative patches.

Home Run Derby looks at the history of the powder blue uniform.

Rays Index chides the Tampa Bay management for taking the new uniform announcement too far:

That's right folks. That is just day 1...with fireworks and Kevin Costner. Day 2 is even more jam-packed with F.U.N., including autograph sessions (you won't want to miss Al Reyes and Dan Wheeler at Southgate Plaza), a picnic and free backrubs from Joe Maddon*.

We like to give the Red Sox and their Nation a lot of crap around these parts for being over-the-top and throwing their greatness in our faces all the time, but when they won their second title in four years, all they scheduled was a parade on some Duck Boats. As far as we know, the only fireworks were in Jonathon Papplebon's pants.

The Baltimore Black Sox, that is. The Orioles are wearing the uniforms of the 1932 Baltimore Black Sox tonight. When I first saw the caps I thought they might be remembering the St. Louis Browns, because they had been playing like that lately. :-)

The uniform police are out in force. During Wednesday's game, MLB officials pulled Francona out of the dugout to check to see he was wearing a uniform top under his jacket. This is a league wide crackdown:

Wearing team apparel instead of a uniform top is not uncommon among coaches and managers across the majors, and MLB will fine personnel for violations.

"I got a letter warning me," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "You'd think there'd be more important things to do this time of year than do Mickey Mouse stuff like that. It's a farce, I think, I really do."

Francona said he has had good conversations with Watson about the issue and was just surprised with the timing of the uniform check.

"I have never seen anything like that before in my life," Francona said. "Middle of the game you've got the fashion police. This is incredible."

Where do I start? I suppose MLB thinks that there's a slippery slope from uniform abuse to steroid use. My college roommates and I used to joke that coaches in other sports should wear a uniform as well. We wanted to see Tom Landry in shoulder pads or Don Nelson in shorts.

Truthfully, however, Francona's lack of a uniform top bothers me. He looks too casual, like he's getting ready for the game, not in the game. (I don't like this look on NFL head coaches either, for the same reason.) Now, that's just my personal preference. How someone manages a game is much more important to me than how he looks. Certainly, pulling him out of the dugout in the middle of a game situation is the height of lunacy, and you would think Major League Baseball would know better. I'm glad baseball is concerned about the appearance of personnel on the field, but you would think 130 year after the founding of the National League they would have figured out a better way to enforce their image.

Cubbiepalooza presents a picture of the Cubs new uniform and the reason for the change.

Here's a list of the numbers the Padres will be wearing in 2006, and how the new players got those designations.

I found this going through Alex Belth's blog roll, the Baseball Uniform Database. You can fill in a form with the team and the years and get a series of pictures of uniforms throughout the history of baseball. A very cool resource.

I want to commend Garrett Anderson on his clean batting helmet. Especially compared to Guerrero and Cabrera.

The military is being honored in San Diego tonight, and the Padres are wearing camouflage jerseys. When the camera catches Woody Williams at the right angle, his shirt blends in with the crowd and his torso becomes difficult to see. It's impressive how well that works.

The Padres lead 1-0 in the second.

The Cubs have dropped the names of their players from the back of their home uniforms. As Bob Brenly commented, "They did it to confuse the new announcers!" :-)

Shaking Spears is starting a movement I can sink my feet into. Bring back the stirrup!

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Oleanders and Morning Glories is wondering about the Nationals new uniforms. Looks like they're for sale at MLB.com.

The Athletics and Blue Jays are both wearing dark shirts today; the A's are dark green and the Blue Jays look black. I find this very confusing. When I turned on the TV the A's were in the field and the Blue Jays were running the bases. At first, I couldn't tell which team was which. Rule 1.11(b) states:
A league may provide that (1) each team shall wear a distinctive uniform at all times, or (2) that each team shall have two sets of uniforms, white for home games and a different color for road games.

It's my opinion that the league provide for (2), or at least prohibit both team from wearing dark jerseys.

Dave Metz at Talking Baseball is rating the caps of the major league teams. It's all very scientific, in a subjective sort of way. Part 1 brims with talk of the NL East and Central and part 2 examines the heads of the NL and AL West.