MLB teams can get their old jerseys back as long as they annoy Nike and Fanatics

While see-through pants have been the talk of spring training so far, that might not matter as much to fans (at least non-evangelical ones, Woe to Cardinals Nation), as fans don’t tend to want to buy the pants the players are wearing. Maybe you’ve got use for baseball pants in your everyday life, and I’m not here to kink-shame. But it’s the jerseys that have fans a little more in a tizzy, because fans like to wear the jerseys they see on and in the park. Given that everyone knows how Fanatics works, and you’re just as likely to be shipped a dead chupacabra as you are the Julio Rodriguez jersey you ordered. So when the new duds looked like….well, duds (so very sorry) upon unveiling in Arizona and Florida, fans knew they were probably going to get something even worse for themselves. And that’s before we even get to how garbage it just looks on TV as a presentation.

There’s one team that isn’t accepting that kind of crap, and it’s the Kansas City Royals. They didn’t much care for the look of the press-on, tiny letters that Nike and Fanatics are foisting upon players and fans, and requested (if not demanded) that the full-size letters be put back on their jerseys, according to Uni Watch. The Cardinals did the same to keep the chain stitching on the logos on the front of their jerseys.

As Uni Watch points out, we only know of the Cards and Royals actually barking about the change to the much crappier jerseys, and one would hope that more teams would follow because it’s a horrible look for everyone. Or maybe teams don’t really care enough that their players will be hanging ass and dong all season and that the jerseys look like something out of a beer league because they know enough fans are going to buy it anyway. And then probably have to navigate the nightmare labyrinth that is the customer service wing of Fanatics.

But good on the Royals, for real.

Half-court winner!

This capped off the heat checks of all heat checks for Max Strus last night:

We spend a lot of time discussing how random hockey or baseball can be, but there isn’t much more of a random ending than some nutjob like Strus pouring in from half-court. That’s pretty much as big of a coin flip as it gets. But the Cavs don’t care.

Anyone think the Ottawa Senators might have checked out for this season?

Erling Haaland scores 5 goals

Apparently, Erling Haaland is a little frustrated by not quite racking up the goals at the rate he’s used to, i.e. at a celestial one:

Yeah OK, it’s Luton and it’s the FA Cup, but they’ve thrown a scare into a lot of teams this season, including City in the league. There’s that feeling of dread again. Also, since City are producing kind of bonkers numbers all over the field at the moment:

Yes, I’m sure whatever’s left of Liverpool’s squad that’s basically six guys that have full use of their legs right now is going to hold off this outfit.