The MLB’s Players’ Weekend is back this weekend for its third year in a row (after a five year hiatus), and still has yet to listen to the fans’ desperate requests to bring back the beloved player nicknames seen on the back of Players’ Weekend jerseys from 2017-2019.
As a Brewers fan, I remember when Josh Hader closed out games with “Haderade” written across the back of his jersey and Travis Shaw’s “Mayor-DDC” jersey along with so many other great ones that cease to exist nowadays. I’m sure you can too.
Those nicknames and jerseys were exactly what made the original Players’ Weekend so special and it’s glaringly obvious it’s missed. Players don’t even wear alternate uniforms anymore, it’s the same old home, away and City Connect jersey cycle that fans have seen enough of.
Players are left to express themselves with equipment that’s so small that on television and even in-person it is impossible to interpret. Viewership isn’t generated from a designed cleat or bat seen on Instagram. It’s from the jerseys that are visible in every part of the game.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to see a player hit with a bat designed like a pencil or a crayola crayon, but nothing will ever appease the fans and players more than jerseys like Rich Hill’s “D. Mountain”.
It’s a stigma that’s surrounded Players’ Weekend since its return in 2024, with it annually celebrated that the weekend doesn’t contain nicknamed jerseys anymore.
On Instagram, the account “dugoutreport” with over 219,000 followers, posted an array of previously appreciated jerseys from the original Players’ Weekend era alongside the caption “MLB is doing ‘Player’s Weekend’ once again WITHOUT what came to be almost everyone’s favorite part – the nickname jerseys.”
When CBS Sports asked MLB Deputy Commissioner Noah Garden about the decision to not return with the nickname jerseys in 2024, Garden said “Not this year…Maybe you’ll see it in another year.”
Garden even said that both he and the players loved the nicknames being included on the back of the jersey but they wanted to do something different. Their version of different was providing less.
In the current day, Players’ Weekend grants the players a chance to design their own cleats and fielding gear that won’t impact, influence or impede an umpire’s decision to call balls, strikes and outs.
The designs of equipment used each day will be influenced by three overhanging themes, those being off-field interests, causes and appreciation. If you plan to attend or watch any of this weekend’s games, be on the look out for special commemorations through your respective teams broadcast’s, in the stadiums and on their social media channels.
As for now, baseball fans must patiently wait for when Garden and the rest of the decision makers around Players’ Weekend decide it’s time to return to the one thing that seemed to generate audience interest.
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