MLB 2021: What’s New in Logos and Uniforms

By golly am I ever glad that Major League Baseball is back… even if my team, once again, will play their home games in another country, it’s still a great feeling knowing that every night between now and (hopefully) the end of October I can sit on the couch, turn on the television, and watch my boys.

Times are certainly a little tricky now, as we all know, and those same obsticles have extended to Major League Baseball team logo and uniform design. There wasn’t much. Like, not a single new uniform across the entire league. Not even a new alternate! Still, there are always a few logo and uniform worthy bits for us to dig into for this, the SportsLogos.net 2021 MLB Logo and Uniform Preview piece (I need a better name for this…)

Before we get to the team-by-team changes, a look at what’s new league-wide including the postseason, All-Star Game, a new day celebrating a legend, and an on-field face covering provider.

LEAGUE WIDE

2021 MLB Post Season Logos

We’ve gotten a glimpse at just three of the 2021 MLB Postseason logos thus far, but they’re the big ones. The 2021 World Series logo was posted to a Help/FAQ section of the MLB.TV site a few weeks back:

The 2021 World Series logo shows a blue baseball doubling as a view of the Earth with a map of North America front and centre (portions of South America and an extraordinarily close Africa are also visible). White baseball stitching runs through the upper corners of the globe with the words “WORLD SERIES” on it in a sans serif typeface, in white with silver embellishments. Below this baseball world is the familiar Major League Baseball logo in its usual colours, flanked by the year 2021 in red.

The 2021 ALCS and NLCS logos were both officially unveiled by Major League Baseball as part of their announcement of a new presenting sponsor for the League Championship Round.

As always the postseason logos follow the same basic design, but there is one minor difference between this round and the World Series (aside from the name of the event, of course). For the LCS round there are two pennants on the logos — the AL flags fly to the right, the NL to the left. On the World Series logo, these pennants are replaced by a view of North America (you know, the World).

2021 MLB All Star Game Logos

The 2021 MLB All-Star Game was set to be hosted by the Atlanta Braves at their shiny, new Truist Park.

The 2021 MLB All-Star Game logo takes its inspiration from Truist Park, “from the shape of the wall medallion to the entry truss”, read the release, “from the warmth of the brick to the steel of the truss, the logo is punctuated by Atlanta’s colours of navy and red and is signed by the signature script of the Braves’ franchise.”

UPDATE: This logo was to be worn by the Atlanta Braves as both a jersey sleeve patch and a cap patch throughout the 2021 season, after Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game to Denver, Colorado the patches were stripped off the caps and covered up on the jersey sleeves. Atlanta ended up wearing the patch for just one regular season game. The Rockies have yet to release a logo or wear a patch recognizing them hosting the game.

Lou Gehrig Day on June 2

While the league has celebrated Lou Gehrig’s famous “Luckiest Man” speech with patches on more than one ocassion in the past (during milestone anniversaries), this is the beginning of a new annual tradition says the league, one which will come with a special patch to be worn by all who play on June 2nd.

We’re not yet sure if the graphic above is the patch the teams will wear (I’m not sure how they’ll embroider that photograph) but it’s the only visual that’s been released regarding this new date thus far. Lou Gehrig Day joins Jackie Robinson Day and Roberto Clemente Day as league-wide annual player celebrations.

Field of Dreams Game on Aug 12 (CWS/NYY)

Bumped over to 2021 due to the pandemic-shortened season in 2020, the Field of Dreams Game (officially called MLB at Field of Dreams) will be played between the same two clubs as was originally planned for last year – the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. We’ve no information on what, if any, special uniforms will be worn for the game but they’ll quite obviously do SOMETHING for this one, like, the White Sox would have to wear the same uniforms from the movie… right?

Holiday Uniforms

Nothing confirmed, but I’ve heard that MLB teams will be wearing some form of special on-field uniform accessory for the usual slate of holidays in 2021, this includes Mother’s Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and the Fourth of July. More details on this to come.

Official On-Field FOCO Face Coverings

Well, there’s already an official on-field cap, jersey, pants, and socks provider… so it’s only natural that, here in 2021, there’d now be an official on-field face covering/mask provider. FOCO gets that task, named the exclusive provider for the upcoming season after they, plus two others, provided the coverings in 2020. Each team gets a whole slew of different designs and cuts, including some options incorporating player numbers. In the example above you can see that there are even two different colour options (with the full hood designs) depending on the uniform being worn that day.

Moving on to the team-by-team portion of the 2021 MLB Logo and Uniform Preview, presented in alphabetical order. Keep in mind, not a lot this season, blame the pandemic? Blame the upcoming expected shift to a new Nike uniform cut in 2022? Either way, not a lot of news here as we head into Opening Day.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

The Arizona Diamondbacks are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first and only World Series championship this season with this commemorative logo. The Dbacks will wear special (purple!) throwbacks during the season which will feature this logo as a patch.

ATLANTA BRAVES

The Atlanta Braves ~~are~~ were hosting the 2021 MLB All-Star Game, celebrating the franchise’s 150th anniversary, and honouring the memory of two Hall of Famers crucially important to the history of the team. The Braves had already committed to wearing the anniversary and All-Star patches on the jersey sleeves and the All-Star patch on the side of the cap, there wasn’t any room left for anything else. Or so it would seem, knowing they couldn’t possibly go without noting the impact of Hank Aaron and Phil Niekro, the Braves placed their numbers 44 and 35 on the back of their cap on either side of the MLB logo. It works well.

UPDATE: Okay, so the Braves lost the All-Star Game, the patches have been removed from the cap and covered up on the jersey. We’re still waiting to see if they’ll be replacing the jersey patch with a new Hank Aaron/Phil Niekro memorial.

As mentioned the Braves are wearing two jersey patches, the 2021 All-Star Game (which is earlier in this post) and their 150th anniversary logo (seen above) going all the way back to their time in Boston starting in 1871. The Braves 150th anniversary patch includes the cap logos worn by the team as the Boston Braves, Milwaukee Braves, and Atlanta Braves, a wonderful trip through time by this very traditional franchise.

BOSTON RED SOX

The Boston Red Sox will be wearing a yellow (yes, yellow) jersey paired with a light blue cap for at least two games this April. The uniform is the first in what is a new league-wide series (though will be limited to seven teams in 2021) known as the Nike MLB City Connect uniform. Boston will debut the uniform on Patriots’ Day Weekend with games on April 17 and April 18 before switching back to their usual “Boston Strong” uniform on the 19th.

Way more information on the Nike MLB City Connect Uniform series right here.

CINCINNATI REDS

The Cincinnati Reds are just one of the many teams who will be paying respects to a former Hall of Famer this season, the Reds will be wearing a white 8 on a black circle on their jersey sleeves in memory of Joe Morgan throughout 2021.

DETROIT TIGERS

The Detroit Tigers will be wearing the uniforms of the 1920 Detroit Stars when they play as the road team for Kansas City’s annual Salute to the Negro Leagues Night on May 23rd. The Royals will be wearing the uniforms of the 1949 Kansas City Monarchs for the event.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

See Tigers, Detroit.

LOS ANGELES ANGELS

The Los Angeles Angels will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their inaugural season in 1961. The team has two logos for this, the one above with a diamond, a 60 with a red halo, the banner and a diamond (a diamond the traditional stone for a 60th anniversary, among many others), there’s a second, simplified patch which will be worn on the side of the cap. This logo will not be worn as a jersey patch.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

The defending champs will be in mourning this season as the team will be wearing two memorial patches on their right sleeve. Honouring Tommy Lasorda and Don Sutton, the Dodgers will have a blue 2 and a blue 20 both on their own black circles with TOMMY above the 2 in white, and SUTTON above the 20.

As part of their 2020 World Championship celebration, the Dodgers are wearing this blue and gold cap and jersey for their home opener, the cap also includes a 2020 World Champions patch on the side and a gold MLB logo on the back. The jersey includes a Roman numeral VII on the sleeve, representing the franchise’s 7th World title.

MIAMI MARLINS

The Miami Marlins have sold the naming rights to their ballpark, what had been known as Marlins Park since the 2012 season will now be known as LoanDepot Park (which they’re stylizing as “loanDepot park”, but we aren’t).

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

Like the Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Brewers will be paying tribute to Hank Aaron with a memorial patch on their uniform. The Brewers will wear Aaron’s number 44 in blue on a white circle trimmed in blue and gold. Aaron played several seasons in Milwaukee with the Milwaukee Braves and finished his legendary career with the Brewers in the mid-1970s.

After twenty seasons at Miller Park, the Brewers have sold the naming rights to their stadium, starting with the 2021 season their home ballpark will be known as American Family Field.

MINNESOTA TWINS

The Minnesota Twins are wearing a “MB” patch, a black rounded square with white trim, and the initials MB in white within it. This is being worn in memory of Twins bench coach Mike Bell who died in March 2021 at the age of 46, just two months after tumours were discovering on his kidneys.

NEW YORK METS

The New York Mets will throw things back to the early 21st Century, annoucing they’ll be wearing their polarizing black and blue uniforms for a handful of games in 2021.

New York will also be wearing a special #41 patch on their jerseys to honour the memory of former Met and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver.

NEW YORK YANKEES

The Yankees only had one game to honour the life of pitcher Whitey Ford last season, this year they’ll give Ford a full-season by wearing his #16 on a black circle patch on their uniform sleeve throughout 2021. Typically the Yankees honour players with just a number, sticking it on a circle is new for the team but certainly looks a lot better on the pinstripes.

OAKLAND A’S

The stadium with an identity crisis has done it again, the former Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics since they moved to California in 1966, will be known as RingCentral Coliseum in 2021.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Here’s the patch the Phillies are wearing all season in memory of Dick Allen pic.twitter.com/GikzUfM3b2
— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) April 1, 2021

The Phillies will wear a patch in memory of former player Dick Allen. The patch will feature Allen’s #15 in white on a black circle and worn on the sleeves of the Phillies jerseys.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

The San Francisco Giants will bring player names back to the back of their home and home alternate jerseys. This will be the first time since the team was playing back at Candlestick Park in 1999 that the Giants will wear names on the back of their regular home uniforms.

SEATTLE MARINERS

According to Uni Watch, the Mariners will be wearing Seattle Steelheads Negro Leagues throwbacks on June 19th vs Tampa Bay. The Mariners previously wore Steelheads uniforms in 2015 and in 1995, I’m unsure which of the Steelheads designs the M’s are planning to wear this year but someone recently Tweeted me a photo showing a jersey featuring Seattle scripted in blue on white before they quickly deleted it (sadly before I could save it!)… makes me wonder if that was the Steelheads design.

ST LOUIS CARDINALS

The St. Louis Cardinals will honour Bob Gibson with this jersey patch featuring Gibson’s #45 in red on a cream and red circle and his signature across in blue. The Cardinals have used this style for several memorial patches now and I gotta say, it may be my favourite memorial patch template in all of sports. Very classy.

The Cardinals have also introduced a new blue and red helmet with the “bird on bat” logo to be worn on Sundays at home, the new helmet matches the cap the Cards have been wearing for Sunday home games for the past two decades.

TAMPA BAY RAYS

As they did in 2019, the Tampa Bay Rays will wear their original 1998 expansion jerseys along with a re-coloured version of the original cap — the cap was black when the team first wore it back in the ’90s, now it is navy blue.

And that’s it! If you didn’t see your team up there, they didn’t do anything to their logo or uniform… at least, not yet… yes, you’re going to want to stay tuned baseball uniform fans, because there is plenty more still to come for you here in 2021.

MLB 2021: What’s New in Logos and Uniforms