Ranking all 28 City Connect Jerseys

The Royals are playing competitive baseball, but where does their City Connect stand in relation to the rest of the league?

Last week Nike finally revealed the last of their City Connect jersey lines after three years. 28 teams have such a jersey, the Yankees refuse to have one because they’re too good to do anything fun or cool and the Athletics can’t have one because they don’t have a city to connect to thanks to the greed of their ownership.

Since we now know what every team’s City Connect jersey looks like, I think it’s time to rank them. I decided to do this scientifically using a rating system where I look at three things: Whether or not the jerseys look alright, whether or not the designs are actually interesting or fun, and whether the jerseys seem to actually connect the team to the city in a fun or interesting way. Each rating goes from 1-10 and then those ratings are added up for a final score and that was how the rankings were determined. In the case of a tie, tie-breakers were performed on the basis of the three factors in descending importance (i.e. if there was a tie, I compared the overall appearance rating, if that was tied, the interesting design rating, etc.)

Here are the results.

Cardinals: Total, 5 - Appearance, 1; Interesting, 1; Connects to City, 3

I promise this isn’t just anti-St. Louis bias. I actually don’t care about the Cardinals or St. Louis one way or another. But these jerseys are awful. “The Lou” is a stupid nickname that no one has ever used about St. Louis before and now will only be used in a derogatory way. The actual design of the jerseys other than the change of the cap logo and jersey looks so similar to the normal jerseys that it hardly seems worth it to have a different jersey.

I gave them an above 1 rating for connecting to their city thanks to the arch patch and the river stripes. But among the design choices are the first of many that make no sense in the City Connect line. Why is there a patch inside the collar? That will never be visible to anyone except when someone is putting it on or perhaps if they display it. An interesting jersey element needs to be visible while the jersey is being worn.

Angels: 8 - 1, 3, 4

These are another set of incredibly ugly jerseys. In my every day life I flatly refuse to wear white because it inevitably gets dirty within minutes of me putting it on and then I spend the rest of the day trying to brush dust or crumbs or pollen off of my shirt. But the only thing worse than white is off-white, because now it looks like it was white but got stained in the wash.

This jersey is supposed to remind people the beaches and fish of Anaheim. But I don’t get a beach vibe from these at all. The fish tail on the end of the “s” in the logo is a nice tough, though. And I like the halo around the A. So it’s not as bad as the Cardinals, it’s just still very not good.

Guardians: 8 - 4, 1, 3

These Cleveland unis look fine, but there’s absolutely nothing interesting about them. As glad as I am that they abandoned their old, racist nickname and logo, I am still not entirely convinced that Guardians was the way to go. It really feels like Cleveland chose the new team name based on the fact that it shared so much in common with the old one and that just feels like it was the exact wrong way to go. These jerseys don’t do anything to help.

As you can see, the designs are supposedly inspired by the Guardians of Traffic that allegedly inspired the new team moniker and...I just don’t see anything fun, interesting, or cool about that connection in the name or in the designs. Extremely bland? Extremely low score.

Orioles: 8 - 4, 3, 1

As you can see, we have our first tie. This one goes to the Orioles because they’re slightly more interesting than the Guardians jerseys.

Those of you who know me, know that I love a good black uniform. There’s something really clean and intimidating in a cool way about them. That said, this Orioles uni is just black and white. What could possibly be more boring? Sure, there’s the pop of colors in the cuffs and collar, but you’re almost never going to see those unless you wear it in a weird way.

Also, I have no idea how any of this is supposed to be associated with Baltimore or the Orioles in any way. There are things to like here, but the execution was bonkers.

Marlins: 9 - 5, 3, 1

These jerseys look slightly better than the previous two entries, but that has more to do with just having some fun, bright colors. Beyond that, they don’t do anything fun or interesting. Also, the “connection” here is with the Cuban Sugar Kings. The Sugar Kings were a minor league affiliate in the mid-1900s, but for the Reds, not the Marlins, who didn’t exist until 1997. A lot of these jerseys are supposed to tie into Latín culture in the areas the teams play in, which makes a lot of sense, but is almost never executed well. In this case, it makes perfect sense to want to highlight the Cuban culture present in Florida, but the Sugar Kings don’t seem to have been the way to go.

White Sox: 11 - 6, 1, 4

There just isn’t a lot to say about these jerseys. They look exactly like one of the White sox alternates except with a different cap logo and different text on the jersey. As far as city connection, I was about to give them credit for the south side when I asked a friend who knows nothing about baseball where they would assume Southside might be in reference to and they said Boston. It seems like the south side of Chicago isn’t all that notable outside baseball circles.

Rangers: 12 - 5, 3, 4

The dreaded off-white rears it’s head again. But in this case, it does make me think of dusty trails. I also saw some people complaining about the font used for the TX logo seeming to be old English, but somehow it also screams Texas to me, so I gave them some extra credit for that. These still aren’t good uniforms, but they are doing more than any of the previous entries to at least make me feel something about the area they come from.

Cubs: 13, 4, 1, 7

Another bland, bland entry. Look! It’s navy blue! That’s not a uniform color anyone has ever done before! Also, we changed Cubs to Wrigleyville! Whoopdeedo. These just barely edge out the Rangers jerseys because Wrigleyville is so definitely tied to Chicago and the Cubs. Honestly, having that be the only distinction that makes these stand out above the Rangers makes me question the whole system a little bit, but I’m too far to go back now.

Dodgers: 13 - 6, 3, 4

Good news for all of the teams rated below the Dodgers, this is actually their second City Connect jersey after the first one - another that tried to connect to the city’s Latín population by simply being all blue and changing the jersey text to Los Dodgers. I couldn’t tell you how this one is trying to connect to the city at all. It’s also one of many jerseys we see where there is an aspect that is completely invisible from a distance. What you probably can’t see on those jerseys unless you click into the tweet and expand the image is a bunch of red and blue dots all over the uniform. Something about the stars or the galaxy I think? Also, if you can see it, you probably think your monitor or phone screen is dirty. That’s certainly what I thought!

As noted before, my problem with white shirts is that every speck of dust stands out so visibly on them and makes me constantly brush at them. These kinds of dots are like pre-loading the jersey with dust that can never, ever be brushed off. These jerseys are giving me a panic attack just thinking about them. Let’s move on.

Atlanta: 14 - 6, 5, 3

I actually like these jerseys a little. I wish they had less white in them, but that’s definitely a personal preference thing. They’re a massive improvement over the questionable team logo and name that would normally appear on their jerseys. The sleeves are rad and I like the “The A” logo, even if I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone ever call Atlanta that, even after living there for more than a decade. That, incidentally, is why this uniform doesn’t rate any higher.

Giants: 15 - 5, 3, 6

Please make sure you read the embedded tweet above. That story cracks me up and I can absolutely see how they reached that conclusion based on the image.

These jerseys get credit for having the Golden Gate Bridge on the sleeves, but otherwise, they’re just a very boring white and orange with a slight fog effect on the jersey logo. Would have been cooler if, like some of the better jerseys, they’d leaned harder into the city imagery and put it all over the front of the jersey instead of relegating it to the sleeve.

Pirates: 15 - 7, 2, 6

The Pirates win a tiebreaker with the Giants simply for using more color and texture on their jerseys. They lose points in the interesting department because there is no way you’re going to be able to see the neat jersey textures from any kind of distance and because I don’t know what the heck PGH is supposed to stand for. I thought maybe it was the airport designation, which in recent years has become a fashionable way to refer to cities, but that’s just PIT.

Diamondbacks: 16 - 5, 4 (6 if you’re Zac Gallen), 7

These are another of those jerseys that tries to connect to the local Latín population and I’m just not sure if the execution is there. Admittedly, I think they at least do it better than the Marlins or the first Dodgers iteration. I love Gallen wearing a snakeskin belt with his. I do wish they weren’t off-white. Not every place that has sand needs to have an off-white jersey. Come on, y’all.

Mets: 15 - 6, 4, 6

You can see that an effort was made, here. I like evoking the train tracks with the coloring and stripes. I dislike that the stripes themselves are train tracks that aren’t visible from any kind of distance. I also really like the lettering of the NYC on the front. It does feel like something’s missing, though.

Royals: 16 - 8, 5, 3

And here are the Royals, smack in the middle of the pack. I like that an effort was made to evoke the fountains of Kansas City in the lettering, but the execution absolutely misses. They only look like fountains if you already know they’re supposed to and you kind of squint. Some people complained about the navy blue instead of the royal or powder blue, but if they’d gone that rout, these would have looked too much like unis they already had. How about a royal purple next time, instead? Let’s just be different.

These unis do give us this, though:

Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Reds: 17 - 9, 5, 3

Again, with a black uniform which automatically gets a couple of points for me. However, in this case we’ve got black lettering on black jerseys. How are you supposed to know who they are if you’re not standing pretty close? One of the key aspects of a uniform is that it identifies your allegiance. If all you can see is black, you have no idea who they’re with.

Red Sox: 18 - 7, 8, 3

Kudos to Boston, the first team to get City Connect jerseys, for choosing an absolutely banger color combinations that we don’t normally see. These would get a much higher score if they were doing anything interesting other than the colors.

Twins: 19 - 4, 8, 7

The last team to get a City Connect jersey, the Twins are being panned some places because up close, the jerseys look like cheap polos. However, from a distance they absolutely invoke the rippling of water they’re supposed to, so I’ll give them some credit for that. I also like the state logo with the northern lights and star on the cap, though I’m baffled by the choice to include an absolutely atrocious outline of Lake Minnetonka on the underside of the cap bill. There’s also another neck tag. Stop putting details on the jerseys that are only ever going to be seen by the person wearing them!

Mariners: 20 - 5, 5, 7

At first glance, these are pretty dull. But the font of the city lettering on the front is nice, even if I don’t understand why they decided to go all lower-case. I also like the repurposed trident on the cap. These aren’t great, but they’re solid.

Tigers: 20 - 7, 6, 7

These get me with the awesome blue/black combination and the tire tread texture which is visible and distinct both from up close and from further away. The caps are a bit dull, but these are solid uniforms!

Nationals: 20 - 7, 8, 5

I don’t think anyone outside of Washington associates the city with cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are as Japanese a thing as there is. And, in fact, the Cherry trees in DC were a gift from Tokyo’s mayor back in 1909. Kinda makes me miss the days when countries would give gifts to other countries instead of just to other world leaders.

So, yeah, the connection isn’t strong, but at least the choices here are bold. I can’t hate them.

Phillies: 20 - 8, 7, 5

Those Liberty Bell caps are fire. The font is unique. The uniform jerseys feature a gradient color, which always looks cool.

Astros: 21 - 7, 5, 9

This is a case where the designers found a way to really latch into a city identity. Houston is Space City and has been for decades. The cap design is really cool, too. I don’t really care for the blue they use or these would rank higher.

Padres: 24 - 8, 10, 6

Now we are into the truly good uniforms. Where the Angels completely failed to evoke beach, the Padres nailed it with bright colors that absolutely feel at home in a California beach scene. The colors on the city name evoke a neon sunset and the font on the numbers in unique, too. Just great stuff here.

Brewers: 25 - 7, 8, 10

If these jerseys had nothing going for them except the baseball grill, that would be enough. However, they have a fun variant of the team nickname and use a font that evokes nostalgia for 70s and 80s baseball. The light blue and yellow is a great combination that is both similar and different enough from their usual colors to feel like a great fit.

My only complaint is that I wish I was as ripped as that mannequin.

Blue Jays: 25 - 8, 9, 8

See, this is how you do it, Giants! The Toronto skyline proudly on the front of the jersey with some fun electric colors. Including the maple leaf in the cap logo is terrific, too.

Rockies: 29 - 9, 10, 10

And here, again, a bold choice to highlight the landscape. The Rockies are in Colorado and named for the mountains, so here are the mountains on the jerseys in a fun and exciting way! Green is a new color for them and that forest green suits the design well. Easily identifiable and visible from both near and far.

Rays: 30 - 10, 10, 10

These are pure perfection. The color and texture of the uniforms. The unique logos that suit the Tampa area. The bright colors. I literally bought some Rays merch and sent it to my family to give me for Christmas because these designs are so perfect. Do I like the Rays? No. Did I need to have these excellent design elements in my home? Absolutely.

I desperately hope the next iteration of City Connects for the Royals features bold design choices more like these last few entrants.