The Shred on Threads #1:

Photo Common Courtesy to: Major League Baseball

The Introduction

For those of you who were not able to get over the first bump, aka the riddle, of this nonestop trip down the uniform highway, it’s completely OK! It is from a baseball movie called "The Natural," which I highly recommend watching when you can. The movie’s theme song is what this team uses when their players hit a home run, aka being “gone”. People would argue it was not a full orchestra, but you be the judge by clicking here. For the first official rendition of this column, it’ll be about one of two Major League Baseball teams that calls the Lone Star State its home: the Texas Rangers!

By the way, a quick disclaimer for the way this column will be organized. I’ve noticed as I have started to get a head start on the analysis of the future columns, I have seen that there are teams coming up where there are not uniforms I’d like to bring back from the past and for those that I’d like to, I’ll just specifically mention those somewhere in the analysis portion which is now labeled “The Shredding of the Threads.” I hope you enjoy it and let the shredding begin!

The Shredding of the Threads

I have a love-hate relationship with colors that the Rangers don. I hate them due to the fact that red and blue are the two most commonly used colors for all professional sports teams. However, I love it because the shades used to resemble the colors on this state’s great flag. This may be a little biased considering I was born and raised here, but who cares? It’s my column! 

In terms of their current set of threads, which can be seen in the graphic, they’re actually brand spanking new to the 2020 season. If you’re a fan of the team, or just know professional baseball in recent years, you’ll notice that it is generally the same aside from a couple of changes. The main change across all sets is that there are three different colored stripes at the end of the sleeves and on the sides of their pants. These colors—blue, white and red—represent the colors on the Texas state flag. The only exception to these is their blue jerseys, in which baby blue replaces the blue stripe.

The next change is in their home whites. What once said "TEXAS" across the chest as it does on their road and two of their alternate jerseys, now is replaced with a very nice "Rangers" script. This is making a return from the time they were used from 1984-93 with some improvements. In my eyes, it is a nice change because as much as I am a fan of consistency in uniforms, just having one name across all the uniforms seems very dull and boring. That’s coming from a guy who is a giant Texas Longhorn fan, where they’ve had the name “Texas” on their uniforms longer than I have been alive.

In terms of their ball caps, they are basically the same with the only change being their red hats. In the past, the red caps were the inverse colors of their blue caps, with the “T” and all. This year, their red hats were changed to a red cap and blue bill with a weird secondary logo they introduced along with the new uniforms. This logo has the state of Texas outlined in blue with the white letters “T” and “X” on it. Obviously, this was done because it is the abbreviation of the name Texas, but with the way the logo looks, it appears strange to me, although I cannot pinpoint exactly why.

The last newest addition to the uniform sets was the introduction of the baby blue,or powder blue, uniforms. These are by far my favorite uniforms in the entire set. The way the color just pops and has the traces of their primary and secondary team colors in the sleeves and pants striping. I enjoy how they put the “Rangers” script on the chest over the western style “Texas.” To top it all off, pun intended, I love how the team went as far as to add a baby blue hat to make the entire uniform complete. 

In Conclusion...

Despite the small things I dislike, I love the majority of this uniform set. But the one aspect that really puts this entire set above most of the future analysis that I will do, is the baby blue uniforms. I wish they wore them more often than they currently do which is currently only worn at every Sunday home game. I do enjoy the tri-colored striping that is at the end of the sleeves and on the sides of their pants across the set. In the end, it is for these reasons why I am giving this uniform set a…

7.8/10

I hope you all enjoyed this week's column. Stay tuned for the next "Shed on Threads" which will consist of a uniform that has two shades of blue and two shades of gray.