MLB Baseball Players Wearing Black and White Uniforms This Weekend

Starting Friday and continuing on through Sunday, all Major League Baseball teams and players will either wear all black or all white uniforms — this includes all white or black cap logos and jersey logos to complete a total head-to-toe monochromatic match across the entire uniform.

Why are baseball players wearing all black and white uniforms this weekend?

It’s in honour of Players’ Weekend, an annual event held by the league as well as the Players Association. This year marks the third year the league has held a Players’ Weekend but it’s the first time the uniforms have been so devoid of colour — in fact the previous two seasons gave us the complete opposite with intentionally bright and colourful designs.

The Players’ Weekend uniform matchup for Yankees at Dodgers — August 23-25, 2019

“Inspired by players’ style choices when they are away from the field, the fashionable monochromatic uniforms allow for each custom accessory design to stand out more than ever before”, the league said in the press release upon their unveiling earlier this month. “During Players’ Weekend, photoshoots will be conducted with players at ballparks to highlight the standout designs, which will be amplified over social media between MLB, the MLBPA, Clubs and most of all, individual player accounts using #PlayersWeekend.”

The home team for each game received the first choice of wearing either the all-black or the all-white uniform, the road team was then assigned the opposite option. Every player was also given the option of wearing a nickname on the back of their jersey instead of the usual last name if they so desired, and yes, most players so desired.

2019 Players’ Weekend caps and jerseys available for purchase here

Caps will be all white or all black, again depending on the uniform being worn by the team, the team logo on the front also re-coloured to match the crown.

The black jerseys will have each team’s wordmark in black trimmed in silver, the white jerseys the same. Most teams will use their usual jersey logo with the exception of a handful — the White Sox have a new script and Mariners will continue with the wordmark logo that was worn across their Players’ Weekend uniforms last season.

The monochromatic look carries on to the back of the jersey for each player’s number, player nicknames will be single-colour silver.

Pitchers on Team White will be wearing a black cap with their uniform to avoid any issues with hitters seeing the ball. They will be the only position player on either side to wear a different cap from the rest of the team.

A look at each of the team’s caps:

And how they pair with the jersey they’ll be worn with:

Batters will wear a matte-black or matte-white helmet, no team logo on the front. Therefore, every game across the league will see the same helmets being used.

While all players have the option of adding a patch honouring Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs on their jersey for the weekend, nine Major Leaguers took it a step further by changing the name on the back of the jersey specifically in honour of Skaggs:

According to MLB.com, Milwaukee Brewers outfielders Ryan Braun and Christian Yelich and third baseman Mike Moustakas, Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty, Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried, and Texas Rangers first baseman Scott Heineman will wear “LOVE YOU TY” on the backs of their jerseys, rather than their previously selected nicknames, during one of the three games. – The Los Angeles Times

Skaggs was found dead in his Dallas hotel before an Angels game at Texas on July 1st.

Where we’ll really see some colour in 2019 is via the player’s custom-designed equipment, players can wear whatever colour or design they want on their shoes, elbow pads, batting gloves, bats, arm bands – giving them an opportunity to show off their personalities a little more than they usually can during the rest of the season when uniform rules are much more strict.

Several players, for example, will wear Adidas cleats designed by players who took part in the 2019 Little League World Series, they include Aaron Judge, Kike Hernandez, Justin Turner, AJ Pollack, Liam Hendriks, Kolten Wong, Joe Kelly and Ross Stripling.

Aaron Judge’s Adidas cleats – signed by all 216 LLWS players (photo via Adidas)

While Derek Holland will wear these cleats paying tribute to the classic television show The Office:

Derek Holland “The Office” cleats (pic via @mikejordan_art)

The 2019 Players’ Weekend promotion will run from August 23 through August 25th, the all-black and all-white uniforms you saw in this post will be worn for all Major League games played during those dates.

2019 Players’ Weekend caps and jerseys available for purchase here