The 2016 Mississippi State baseball season was an improvement over 2015, to say the least. The Bulldogs went from last place in the SEC in 2015 to being the outright SEC Champions in 2016. Numerous changes were made in order to achieve this improvement; probably the least important of these changes were the uniforms.
In 2015, the Bulldogs wore 10 different jerseys, 5 different hats (only the maroon hat spanned multiple jerseys), and 6 different pairs of pants (3 of which were worn with multiple jerseys), totaling 16 different combinations (17 combinations were advertised before the season- that number never actually came to fruition.)
In 2016, 3 new jerseys were introduced, but 6 jerseys from 2015 were retired. In total, 7 different jerseys, 4 different hats (3 of which were not worn in 2015), and 2 pair of pants (three if you consider that there were two versions of the white pants- one with a maroon stripe and one without- that were worn interchangeably.) In total, 9 different combinations were worn in the 2016 regular season.
There were several big surprises uniform wise this season, the biggest of which is the absence of the Maroon 85 jersey. It had just been updated in 2015, and was still used frequently in off the field marketing in 2016, but never actually saw the field. The 85 wordmark was still present on three other jerseys in 2016, but the classic maroon version never saw the field.
The second big surprise in 2016 was the elimination of gray pants except for the gray pinstripe pants that were worn only with the gray pinstripe jerseys. Traditionally, gray pants are worn by the road team in baseball games, often paired with the regular jerseys. This was the case last year, which accounted for the high number of combinations. In 2016, however, the Bulldogs never wore solid gray pants, electing to wear the white pants with the Maroon MS jersey in every Friday night game.
A total of SIX jerseys from 2015 were not worn in 2016. Two special event jerseys- the Wool Throwbacks and the (beautiful) St. Patrick's Day jersey- did not return. I've already mentioned the Maroon 85 jersey- three other more "classic" jerseys did not see the field in 2016. The white pinstripes were redesigned in 2015 and were met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction. It was not a surprise to see them retired after a single season. The cream uniforms were the only ones that remained unchanged from 2014 to 2015, leaving them as the oldest uniforms. It wasn't a huge surprised to see them left behind. Finally, the gray script jerseys were brought back for a single season in 2015. The gray pinstripes replaced them in 2016. The gray pins look great, but it was a shame to lose the classic gray script unis in the process. I think they could've co-existed.
Three jerseys were added in 2016. Gray Pinstripes were teased before the season and were eventually worn 9 times in road games, mostly towards the end of the season. The White 85 jersey returned in 2016 after a year off in 2015, but with a twist. The wordmark and numbers are inverted- white with a maroon outline on a white jersey. Finally, a second camo jersey was added, featuring an official Mossy Oak pattern. The Mossy Oak jersey was worn once, probably to fulfill a contract, and promptly never seen again.
Four jerseys from 2015 were retained in 2016. The Maroon MS and White MS jerseys were the two most worn jerseys in 2016. The two classic looks kept the Bulldogs easily identifiable for most of the season. Also kept from 2015 were the Black 85 pullovers, which debuted in 2015 and were a big improvement over the previous black jerseys. Finally, the digital camo jerseys from 2015 were unfortunately retained in 2016.
As far as hats go, the Bulldogs went from 5 hats in 2015 to 4 hats in 2016, with the standard maroon hat being the only one to be worn in both years. In 2015, in addition to the maroon hat, a black hat with a white front panel was worn with the Black 85s in several games, a cream hat was worn with the cream unis in several games, a green hat with a white front panel was worn on St. Patrick's hat, and a special hat was worn with the wool throwbacks. In 2016, no alternate hat was worn in more than one game. A beautiful maroon hat with a white front panel was worn once with the White MS jersey, a solid black hat (the same as the one was was worn in the past, as recently as 2014) was worn once with the Black 85s, and a Mossy Oak camo hat was worn with the accompanying uniforms.
As a whole, 2016 was a solid uniform season for Mississippi State baseball, but it could have been better. Some elements that were eliminated from 2015 need to be brought back (cream, gray, pins), and some elements from 2016 need to be left behind (CAMO). Bringing back non-inverted versions of the White and Maroon 85s would also be a step in the right direction.
It will be interesting to see if Adidas has special uniforms in store for the postseason this year. The last three years, Adidas has given all of its tournament teams a templated design. Expect the same this year. In 2013, we avoided the rainbow unis by only wearing them in BP. They did show up in games in early 2014 though. In 2014, we wore the template in the SEC Tournament and stuck to our regular unis in regionals. Last year, we avoided this template by being terrible and not even making the postseason. Smart move. I would expect a similar approach to 2014 this year. So if Adidas has another templated uniform for us, I expect to see it this week.
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