Red Poppy Flower Patches to be Worn Across MLB for Memorial Day 2023

Major League Baseball will once again pay tribute to those who lost their lives while serving in the United States Armed Forces with a special patch worn on player uniforms.

For all MLB games played on Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 2023, players will wear a red poppy flower patch on the front of their jerseys; the patch will include a black banner reading “Lest We Forget.”

This will be the fourth time Major League Baseball has marked the U.S. Memorial Day holiday with a poppy patch, previously doing so in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Prior to 2019, players would wear green and camouflage-themed caps (and sometimes jerseys); this practice has since been moved to Armed Forces Day weekend, held one week prior.

The patch design differs slightly in 2023 compared to the previous three times the poppy was worn — the leaves have been removed, and the shape of the poppy has been adjusted considerably. You can see the differences between the two designs in the graphic shown above.

(UPDATE May 29/23) Disregard the entire last paragraph, It looks like last year’s patch ended up being worn today:

Rollin’ with Royce.#TwinsWin | #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/JwJKhZlvPT
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 29, 2023

These patches will not be sold at retail to the general public.

***Aaron Judge with a poppy patch on his Yankees jersey on Memorial Day 2021***

The origins of the poppy being worn to remember those lost at war can be traced back to the poem “In Flanders Fields,” penned by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian poet, physician, and World War I soldier. In the poem, written in 1915 following the funeral of a friend who had been killed in combat, McCrae makes references to the poppies growing over the graves of fallen soldiers.

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
“In Flanders Fields,” (excerpt) by John McCrae, 1915

Poppies are commonly worn by the general public, most often in Canada and the United Kingdom, throughout the first eleven days of the month of November leading up to Remembrance/Veterans Day on the 11th.

The league has also created two logos to mark the Memorial Day holiday, in the past we’ve seen clubs wear the circular patch on the side of their caps but, as of the writing of this post, it is not clear if this will happen again here in 2023.