Ranking the Top 10 Uniforms in Baseball

I could watch baseball all day, no matter who’s playing. But it’s always nice when one or both of the teams has a cool jersey. One jersey I have really liked is the Rays’ powder blue alternate uniform. Using that as the Rays connection here, let’s rattle off that top 10 uniforms in baseball. This ranking is based purely on how good the uniforms look in my personal opinion and irrational sense. Here we go.

10. Diamondbacks Black Alternate

I like the Diamondbacks black alternate because of the sharp contrast between the maroon and the black and white. Had to put one black uniform in here, and this one is the best.

9. Braves Red Alternate

I love the Braves red uniforms because it’s a nice color red with the cool black hammer running through the upper portion and also the pair of gray stripes. The red stripes on the pants are also unique.

8. Brewers Dark Yellow Alternate

I like to think of these uniforms as wheat-colored, which is cool considering they’re the Brewers, and it’s a color that you don’t see too often. The dark yellow fits naturally with the brown Brewers logo and is the perfect go-between from the brown to the white.

7. Marlins Orange Alternate

The orange-white-black combo is nice, and the bubble lettering is something that you just don’t see in baseball right now outside the Marlins. This uniform certainly stands out, and while the black uniform is just crazy, I actually like this one.

6. Athletics Yellow Alternate

The Athletics’ yellow on green is such a familiar uniform and it’s cool that they flipped it and hinted back to their 70’s glory years in the process. The black “A” (blocked mostly by Weeks’ glove in the picture above), hints to an old-time feel for even before the 70’s, appropriate because the Athletics have been around (in some form) since the 1860’s. I also like that they stuck with their usual hats for this uniform because it makes the green jut out more.

5. Rays Powder Blue Alternate

Powder blue is a relatively common color, popularized by the Royals, but the Rays primary colors fit in perfectly with powder blue.  The blue and yellow of the “Rays” and the hats fit in  perfectly with the powder blue. After featuring some bizarre uniforms throughout their history, the Rays made a nice choice going for powder blue for their alternate beginning in 2010.

4. Diamondbacks Maroon Alternate

The only team with multiple uniforms on this list is the Diamonbacks. So many teams in baseball have red uniforms, but the D-backs go with a darker red with the nice, sleek gold-lettering for “D-backs.” The Diamondbacks have had great uniforms for a while, and right now is no exception.

3. Giants Orange Alternate

You may have noticed the absence of a lot of the “traditional” baseball teams here. The Yankees have never worn an alternate uniform (notice that every uniform on this list is an alternate), while the Dodgers have almost never done so as well. Even the A’s above were just hinting back towards a previous uniform. But the Giants were unafraid to innovate and they came up with a nice uniform here. The Giants went with a darker orange compared to say the lighter orange of the Marlins above, nodding to the orange of their hats, and its nice to see their secondary color “break out of its shell” to be the primary color for this uniform. The black and orange looks great, and the Giants get a lot of bonus points for breaking off from their old-time baseball brethren on this one.

2. Rockies Purple Alternate

The Rockies’ purple uniforms have become iconic. They feature a color that no other team uses and that fits in perfectly with their usual black. The Rockies also feature their usual cool lettering. What I also like about this uniform is how it’s so different from anything else in baseball yet nods back to traditional uniforms with its pinstriped pants.

1. Mariners Turquoise Alternate

These uniforms are so simple, but the solid turquoise color makes the uniform the best in baseball. The only time I’ve ever stopped chatting about a game to talk about an opposing team’s uniform is when the Rays played the Mariners (James Shields allowed 8 runs in that game, so I don’t think I’m doing that again). The Mariners usually have a relatively boring greenish secondary color in their uniforms (is it really turquoise as well?) but this turquoise certainly juts out. The sleek silver “Mariners” also sticks out. The Mariners may have a bad team right now, but don’t question their alternate uniforms.

And those are my rankings. Did I miss any great uniforms? Am I completely out of my mind? Feel free to respond in the comments or tweet me @RobbieKnopf.

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(All images credit US Presswire.)