Thursday, June 11, 2015

CONCEPT: What would be cool to see in 2016

With the MLB Draft being this week and the College World Series upon us, I've switched my recently football-driven mindset back to Mississippi State baseball this afternoon.  As this past season slowly rolled to its final demise, many people, including myself, lost interest in the current season itself, not to mention the uniforms.  Adidas slowly backed off also, with controversy and harsh reactions on twitter anytime uniforms were discussed, the 17 combos idea fell apart.  Combo #2 was never worn, and I still have no idea was Combo #5 was even supposed to be.  Adidas did continue their postseason trend of templated uniforms, giving them to teams like Louisville and Texas A&M.  I have no doubt that there is a Mississippi State version of those that was left on a drawing board.  Hopefully, had we been decent this year, they would have been relegated to the SEC Tournament or pregame.

Anyway, I did some digging today and after a little Photoshop worn and Vector Magic, I now have an accurate version of the 85 "Mississippi State" wordmark.  As you can see in the header and in the uniform representations used last year, I was forced to use a "close enough" version in the past.  So, with that, and with my recently acquired Starkville font, I made the below concept to show what uniforms I would like to see Mississippi State baseball use in the future:

First, go back to the pullovers with the 85 wordmark.  In 2015, the Bulldogs didn't even have a white jersey with the maroon wordmark.  They had a St.Patrick's Day pullover with the wordmark in green, a black pullover with the wordmark in black with a white outline, and a maroon button up with the wordmark in white.  Returning to the basics would be a huge step in the right direction, and I wouldn't be shocked to see it.
The White MS jersey is great as is.  The only change I would make is to remove the gray outline on the numbers and MS logo.  The Maroon MS jersey is currently a two-button faux-pullover.  I would prefer it to be a complete button-up like the White MS jersey with white piping.
The Cream and Gray unis are great as they are; no changes there.  The pinstripe unis, however, need to lose the Phillies stripes and go back to their 2013 glory.
Finally, one more less traditional, more concept-ish idea.  Out of all the jerseys above, one thing is missing: a jersey with "Bulldogs" on it.  Using the Starkville font, I created a Bulldogs wordmark and put it on two jerseys, a white one and a lead one.  The white one looks better, but is there really a need for a 4th white-based jersey?  That's where the lead comes in.  It looks better than all black, the players would love it, and it would only have to be worn 3-4 times max.  The Bulldogs have worn lead before, though the watermark MS ruined any chance it had at being decent.

These 9 unis would stay traditional while supporting up to 14 combos (gray and pinstripe pants with both maroon jerseys, plus cream hat with cream unis); we'd wear whatever templated garbage Adidas gives us in the SEC Tournament to get it out of our system, and the rest of the time, we'd have clean, traditional uniforms.

We can only hope.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

SEC Series 10: at Tennessee- L,L,L

To end the season (finally), the Bulldogs wore the Maroon 80s jersey with white pants on Thursday, Maroon MS jersey with gray pants on Friday, and the Maroon MS jersey with white pants on Saturday.




Sunday, May 10, 2015

SEC Series 9: at Ole Miss- L,L,L

The Bulldogs wore the Gray uniforms on Thursday and the Maroon MS jerseys with gray pants on Friday and Saturday.



I forgot to add the Governor's Cup to the uni tracker a few weeks ago; State lost it, too, wearing the gray unis.


Sunday, May 3, 2015

April 30-May 2: SEC Series 8: LSU- L,L,W

The Bulldogs wore the White MS jerseys in their slip-away-from-a-win 14 inning loss on Thursday night.  They wore the Maroon MS jerseys with white pants on Friday.  On Saturday, the Bulldogs, despite seemingly abandoning their 17 combinations campaign, broke out combo #15 of 17: the Maroon 80s jerseys with pinstripe pants.





Sunday, April 26, 2015

April 24-26: SEC Series 7: at Arkansas- L, L, W

The Bulldogs wore three common road combos in their weekend series at Arkansas: Grays on Friday, Maroon 80s with gray pants on Saturday, and Maroon MS with gray pants on Sunday.



Sunday, April 19, 2015

April 17-19: SEC Series 6: Florida- L, L, L

On Super Bulldog Weekend, the Bulldogs wore the Maroon MS jersey with white pants on Friday, the Pinstripe unis on Saturday, and the White MS jersey on Sunday.




Sunday, April 12, 2015

April 10-12: SEC Series 5: at Texas A&M- L, W, L

In their RPI-boosting road series at Texas A&M, the Bulldogs wore the Maroon MS jersey with gray pants on Friday, the Gray jerseys on Saturday, and the Maroon MS jersey with gray pants again on Sunday.




April 8: at Memphis- L

Though they didn't announce it as such, the Bulldogs wore combo #14 of 17 for the first time on Tuesday: the Maroon 80s jersey with gray pants.


Friday, April 3, 2015

April 2-4: SEC Series 4: South Carolina- W, W, L

The Bulldogs, in their first Thursday-Saturday series of the year, wore the White MS jersey on Thursday and the Maroon MS jersey with white pants on Friday.  On Saturday, (Military Appreciation Day), the Bulldogs broke out the expected camo jerseys for the first time.  Probably the worst, aesthetically, jersey yet, it has received less criticism due to its pretense of "honoring veterans."






Wednesday, April 1, 2015

March 31: at South Alabama- L

For the second straight midweek game away from home, the Bulldogs wore the Papelbon-era Gray uniforms.


Friday, March 27, 2015

March 27-29: SEC Series 3: Auburn- L, L, W

In their second SEC home series, the Bulldogs stayed consistent and wore the Maroon MS jersey with white pants on Friday.  On Saturday, they wore the Pinstripes, and on Sunday, the Cream unis returned, being worn with the Maroon Hat.




March 24: vs Southern Miss- L

The Bulldogs busted out the highly-anticipated road gray throwbacks in their Tuesday loss to Southern Miss.  The 12th out of 17 combos, the grays are reminiscent of ones worn during the Jonathan Papelbon era.



Sunday, March 22, 2015

March 20-22: SEC Series 2: at Kentucky- L, L, W

The Bulldogs unveiled combo #11 for their road opener this weekend, wearing it on both Friday and Sunday.  This combo was the Maroon MS jerseys with gray pants.  The other uniform worn on the weekend was the Maroon 80's jersey with white pants, which was worn on Saturday.



Thursday, March 19, 2015

March 17: Eastern Illinois- W

Combo #10 was the most memorable one yet.  In what will undoubtedly be one of my favorite unis from this season, the white pullover with the green/maroon (depending on your viewing angle) 80's script was paired with a green hat with a white front panel.  Even the batting helmets for the game were green with a white front panel.



Saturday, March 14, 2015

March 14-15: SEC Series 1: Alabama- L, W, L

In their DH SEC opener, the Bulldogs started off by wearing the Pinstripe uniforms.  After giving up 8 runs in the 8th inning of a game that looked to be heading towards a win for the Bulldogs, they changed jerseys for the second game.  This resulted in the unveiling of combo #8 of 17: Maroon MS jersey with pinstripe pants.

On Sunday, the Bulldogs, to my dismay, bucked the trend of wearing the Cream Unis on Sunday.  Instead, they debuted Combo #9, the Black Pullover with white pants.  This isn't a bad combo by any means; the white pants look MUCH BETTER than the pajama black pants.  However, it simply doesn't compare to the Cream unis on home Sundays.



Side Note- Adidas had a GREAT**** idea for an alternate cap for Saturday, which the Bulldogs wore in BP and hopefully will never be seen again.