MLB needs to end City Connect error immediately

Major League Baseball is doing everything possible to connect with fans and the communities. Some of these efforts, such as the pitch clock and having more action on the diamond, have worked. Other efforts by MLB should have remained on the drawing board.

Such is the case with the City Connect jerseys. Most of these uniforms have been hideous enough to make Rosie O’Donnell almost look presentable. And then, there are the Texas Rangers’ City Connect uniforms, which deserve a category all their own.

MLB desperately needs to end City Connect uniforms

Picking on the Rangers’ uniforms is a lot like making fun of the slower, weaker kid in elementary school. It is not their fault that New Era’s ClipArt team took over the jersey design and just threw symbols all over the place. It is also not their fault that the City Connect concept, while a good idea in theory, has not worked out in practicality. And it’s not their fault that whoever designed these uniforms has bad enough taste that they may have dated me.

There have been some truly terrible attempts. The Padres’ Miami Vice jerseys are bad enough that even Ray Charles covered his eyes. Bright yellow has no place on the diamond as a primary (and overbearing) colour. The Nationals’ jerseys are a special degree of awful. The Rockies look like a pack of Newports. In fact, the Angels may have the only decent City Connect jerseys, and that is just because they did not make those overly complicated or too busy. Sometimes less is more.

But that will not matter to Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball. The idea that any publicity, whether positive or negative, is a good thing is still alive and well in MLB. So what if the uniforms are horrendous – at least they’re talking about them! And maybe there will be enough people without taste out there for the league to make a few bucks off of them.

The Texas Rangers debuted their City Connect uniforms on Monday. MLB needs to stop this assault on the senses and bring back good uniforms.