Before the Philadelphia Phillies even wear their City Connect uniforms in competition, it must be said that this particular MLB alternate uniform scheme has not been fully embraced by fans. Moreover, opinions vary wildly with each new design.
For example, last summer ESPN’s Joon Lee ranked the already unveiled City Connect uniforms and picked the Colorado Rockies' mountainous design as No. 1 despite mixed reactions from the team’s fans. This struck me as wildly off since the design looks like a cross between a Coors beer box and a pack of Newport cigarettes.
Such controversy was likely anticipated, but people are still buying this alternate gear. Fans in Philly definitely are — they were sporting their new threads at the Phillies' recent road series against Washington.
So, more than a few people are willing to overlook one very odd touch on an otherwise not-entirely-awful uniform. This flaw involves the number 7, as Tim Kelly of Phillies Nation noted on X after last week's release.
And a quick glance at the number on the back of shortstop Trea Turner’s planned jersey should cause you to say, “What is that — half a 2 or half a question mark?”
No other reaction is proper.
The “7” in the City Connect font is … something. pic.twitter.com/EjuqOCFeJZ
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) April 5, 2024
Oh, well. This character, surely the result of a computer-generated font design, will mar the jerseys of Turner (7), starter Aaron Nola (27), and reliever Nick Nelson (57). No biggie.
I’m not at all conversant with how the fan cash from these designs is divvied up by Nike, MLB, the teams, and the players, but if the players get any of it, Nick Nelson is probably a bit annoyed. He isn’t quite as well-paid as Turner or Nola.
All that said, the Phillies' City Connect uniforms are growing on me, even since I typed “not-entirely-awful uniform” above. The design is a homage to the official city colors, blue and yellow. It involves, more specifically, “midnight navy and Neptune blue,” with golden yellow and white touches. “Philly” in an appropriately feisty font is spelled out in white on the front of the jersey, and the jersey’s two blues fade into each other in a sensible way. The pants are midnight blue as well, with yellow piping.
The midnight blue hat involves a simple but new Liberty Bell/city skyline design flanked by small gold stars.
In design school, this uniform would probably get an A-. It’s not as nice, to my eye, as the Nationals' City Connect uniform, and you can’t put your star players into jerseys with symbols from another galaxy on their backs. However, the Phillies' new alternate uniform pieces will likely sell.
The hat’s really very nice and could be the second-best City Connect hat behind the Astros’.
The Phillies will wear their City Connect uniforms for the first time this coming Friday against the visiting Pirates.