MLB Unveils 2019 Holiday, All-Star Caps and Uniforms

It’s like the excitement of Opening Day all over again! This afternoon, Major League Baseball released 180(!) new caps, that’s six caps for each of the 30 teams in the league, that will be worn throughout the 2019 season in recognition of various holidays and during the All-Star Game festivities.

A three-headed collaboration between Major League Baseball, New Era Cap and Stance to produce commemorative caps, socks, and jersey patches to be worn. This season there will be no special jersey designs for any of the holidays, possibly due to the upcoming switch from Majestic to Nike as the league-wide jersey-provider for 2020.

This year commemorative caps and patches will be worn for Mother’s Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, and the All-Star Game

We’ll just roll through all of this in chronological order

MOTHER’S DAY
May 12, 2019

You’ll see a lot more of your team’s usual colours on Mother’s Day this year, with clubs wearing their regular jersey – just with a pink ribbon patch attached – as well as the caps retaining their standard colour on the crown and button.

An optional, mostly pink sock design is being offered to players to wear for the date, includes alternating white, pink, and dark pink stripes before going to grey for the foot.

Team logos on the cap will be predominantly pink with accenting in the colour of the cap crown, the brims of the cap will be pink – this is where most will notice that a special cap is being worn. Pink is also used for the New Era Cap logo on the left side as well as the MLB batter logo on the back of the cap.

Mother’s Day caps and socks available here

“There’s only so many versions you can do over the years, and New Era continually impresses us”, MLB’s Vice President, Authentic Collection Stephen Roche told SportsLogos.Net. “They work closely with the teams, they work closely with us. We get approvals from the teams and we get feedback, and sometimes teams will tell me ‘Hey, for next year, let’s try this'”.

Here are the 2019 Mother’s Day cap designs for every MLB team:

Proceeds from the sale of Mother’s Day items go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation as well as Stand Up To Cancer.

ARMED FORCES DAY
May 17-19, 2019

A new event now included as part of this series is Armed Forces Day, the third Saturday each May in the United States, a time “where citizens unite and honour military heroes for their patriotic service in support of the U.S.”. Established by President Harry S. Truman in 1949 to honour military members and their families, the league will do their part by wearing camouflage pattern caps and socks for the entire weekend from May 17th through 19th.

A special jersey patch, seen in the photo above, will be worn on all team jerseys for games played on Saturday, May 18th only.

The twenty-nine U.S.-based clubs will wear a shield featuring five stars, representing the five branches of the U.S. Military above alternating camouflage coloured stripes on the right side of their cap:

The Canadian-based Toronto Blue Jays will wear a similar design but with the five stars replaced with four maple leaves and a Canadian flag style pattern in place of the stripes:

“When you can do something positive and have ballparks full of military to celebrate the fact that they’re serving our country.”, Roche said. “That’s a great weekend.”

Here’s a look at 2019 MLB Armed Forces Day Caps across the entire league:

All proceeds from the sale of Armed Forces Day items will be used to support programs for service members, veterans and military families.

MEMORIAL DAY
May 27, 2019

A departure from the usual Memorial Day style of uniforms in Major League Baseball. With military members and their families now recognized during Armed Forces Day weekend, the league turns to a more subtle and mournful style of uniform to honour the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in losing their lives during service to their country.

A simple poppy patch with the words “Lest We Forget” will be worn on the upper left part of the jersey and a Memorial Day patch will be added to the sides of the caps of all teams playing that day.

Patches, jerseys, or caps used for Memorial Day will NOT be sold to the general public.

FATHER’S DAY
June 16, 2019

Similarly to Mother’s Day, the Father’s Day jerseys will simply include a ribbon on the upper left chest, powder blue for prostate cancer awareness.

Caps will feature a tie-dye style powder blue design, team logos recoloured to match, with brims in each team’s usual colour scheme. Socks use the same striping pattern as Mother’s Day but instead in various shades of blue… and yes, the Giants are going along and wearing blue like everyone else this year.

Proceeds from the sale of Father’s Day merchandise will go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation as well as Stand Up To Cancer.

CANADA DAY
July 1, 2019

Nothing new here, the Toronto Blue Jays are set to wear their red alternate uniform set for their game on Canada Day (July 1, 2019) against the Kansas City Royals.

It’d sure be swell if the Royals also wore something to acknowledge the event, as we’ve seen some visiting teams do in the past.

INDEPENDENCE DAY
July 4-7, 2019

Alright folks, we’re getting retro caps for Independence Day! To be worn across the entire Fourth of July Weekend (July 4th – 7th), all* teams will wear a throwback-inspired cap design in red, white, and blue.

*-some teams have never really changed their cap logo, so, they’re just going to stick with what’s always worked for them

Jerseys will be usual team design, the first time on Independence Day in several seasons; socks will feature fireworks along with the usual red, white, and blue; stars and stripes.

I mean just look at those caps up there… that Devil Rays cap alone. It’s a work of art.

All caps will either have a blue crown or a red one, depending on individual team preference, and feature their primary league’s logo on the right side of the cap. The MLB batter logo on the back *appears* to be the Cooperstown Collection version of the logo, I may be wrong about this, but it could be the first time it’s been worn in an actual game.

The Blue Jays, despite being in Canada, will celebrate as well with a cap featuring their original team logo, the cap still in the colours of the United States just with the flag pattern removed.

A look across the league, warning, lots of retro goodness:

“Families go the games, now grandparents can say ‘that’s the hat that I grew up with!’, to their grandkids.”, Roche explained. “

Some odd choices by clubs here, why the Orioles went with the least interesting of their franchise’s collection of logos is beyond me, but the Mariners going for the 1980s version of their logo over the trident is a neat surprise.

“New Era came to us with some of the most popular old logos. We went through and went to the organizations and said, ‘This is what we’re recommending, what do you think?’, some of them asked for changes.”, Roche recalled. “Some teams thought it was perfect, others asked if they can go back in time even bit further, to the 50s, instead of the 70s.”

Like Armed Forces Day, all proceeds from Fourth of July merchandise sales will be used to support programs for service members, veterans and military families.

ALL-STAR WORKOUT DAY
July 8, 2019

For All-Star Workout Day, American League players will wear caps silver and red caps, National League in silver and blue – matching the respective primary league colours. The design on the cap is an old-fashioned inspired crossed-bat motif with three stars and the team’s usual primary cap logo at the top in between the two bats. The 2019 All-Star Game patch on the right side.

The jerseys will be sleeveless this year, as these jerseys will never be worn in a game and only during workouts and batting practice. It’s not a first, players wore sleeveless jerseys during the Home Run Derby and on Workout Day at All-Star Games back around 2000.

Not shown in the photo above is the team logo, which will go on the upper-right corner of the jersey recoloured in silver and red (for NL) or blue (for AL).

The MLB logo on the back of the jersey replaced with the All-Star Game patch

Socks include the MLB logo holding a guitar like a baseball bat, cheering fans at the bottom, and a concert tour t-shirt style listing of all the cities in Major League Baseball. I did not see Anaheim on there.

ALL-STAR GAME
July 9, 2019

We wrap this up with the 2019 MLB All-Star Game itself, which is going with a traditional cap design featuring alternate-colour piping all around the crown of the cap, inspired by a Cleveland Indians past cap style.

As always (thank goodness!) players will wear their usual, respective, team uniforms for the game. American League clubs in white, National League clubs in grey. As has been the case since 2016, a special star patch will be worn by each player with a number indicating how many All-Star games they’ve participated in.