February 26-28: vs UMass Lowell, Nicholls State- W,W,W,W

The second weekend of 2016 Mississippi State baseball was, for the most part, the same as the first weekend uniform-wise.  The Bulldogs wore the Maroon MS jersey on Friday and the White MS jersey in a double-header on Saturday.  On Sunday, they did change it up, but not in a good way.  Instead, the Bulldogs wore the digital camo that were introduced last year, and that I had hoped would not be worn again this year.

The @HailstateBB twitter account confirmed to me that there would be some jerseys and combinations that were worn last year that will NOT be worn this year.  I had hoped that the digital camo jersey fell in that category, but since it doesn't, the question is raised of: What is?

There are four jerseys that were worn last year that have not yet been worn this year: Maroon 85, Gray (with script), White Pinstripes (with the ribbon stripe), and Cream.  Out of those four, the Maroon 85 jersey is the most safe.  It is a classic look for Mississippi State baseball that isn't going away anytime soon.  Hopefully we'll see its white counterpart return this year; it was absent in last year's uniform lineup.  The Maroon 85 jersey saw a lot of time in midweek games last year, and I expect that to continue this year.  I bet it would have been worn this past Tuesday if the game had not been postponed.  In fact, I feel confident that it will make its 2016 debut in two days when the Bulldogs host Alcorn State.

The three remaining jerseys, unfortunately, are all candidates for not returning.  The gray jerseys from last year were beautiful; I really hope they stay in the rotation.  However, at media day this year, the Bulldogs showed off new gray pinstripe jerseys that will be worn in 2016.  Do we really need two gray jerseys?  Next are the white pinstripe unis, which were modified in 2016 to include a Phillies-like ribbon stripe that nobody liked.  Given that the new gray pinstripe uniform do not have the ribbon stripe, it's a safe bet that the 2015 version of the white pinstripe unis will not return in 2016.

Finally, we have the cream unis.  A fan favorite, these were the only jerseys carried over untouched from 2014 to 2015.  As such, they would be by far the oldest jerseys in the lineup come 2016.  They were frequently worn on Sundays in 2015, and given that were are two Sundays into 2016 and there has been no sign of them, the cream unis may have very well been taken out of rotation.  But, like the pinstripe unis, there is always a chance that they may reappear in an "updated" version.

Promotional Pictures: 

February 19-21: vs Florida Atlanic, South Dakota State- L,W,L,W

The Bulldogs kicked off the 2016 with some impressive offensive numbers but less-than stellar pitching performances.  The Bulldogs came out of the weekend with two wins and some good and bad signs for the season ahead.

More importantly, of course, the Bulldogs wore their first three uniform combinations of the 2016 season.  On Friday, they started off the season with the same uniform as they did last season- the "Maroon MS" jersey with white pants.  In Saturday's doubleheader, they wore the "White MS" jersey, with white pants of course.  On Sunday, they debuted a never-before worn combo: maroon hat, "Black 85" pullover, and white pants (with maroon piping and belt.)

Promotional Pictures:

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.