Now that I've had some time to think about it, let's have a little talk. First of all, I'm wondering why a change was needed for the "World Series" are road uniform. Like them or not (and while they weren't completely loved, they certainly weren't hated by the masses), those were the jerseys we had on when we won the 2004 ALCS. The ones we had on when the 86-year drought ended. The ones we had on when we became the only team to win two World Series title this millennium. And at the very least, we'd become used to them. It's always been the more common purchase--the authentic or replica road jersey as opposed to the home. I kind of feel bad that Kim got me a Pedroia jersey last Christmas, and now it's "the old uniform." Lots of people are in that boat. The team has done some adding lately, but not much subtracting. It's a bigger deal when you instantly make a nearly 20-year old look go obsolete. And in the case of the circular logo, they're taking away a thirty-year old logo. Granted, there's nothing radically new.* That kind of makes the whole thing palatable.

So, let's move on to the new look. The grays: First of all, I'm glad they didn't go with the "sliced S" look that permeates the '80s retro road uniforms. The team never used that look, and I'm glad they're not now. You may remember I wrote a pretty detailed history of the road uniform, and now I have to add to it that the current one puts the T in the middle (on "button alley"), meaning the BOS is slightly more bunched up than the ON, naturally. Just like they had with the recent road uni, but did in different ways before that. But note that the Dressed to the Nines people are still just ignoring the buttons, centering "BOSTON," creating the divider to cut through the S. Wrong! Just like they showed with the '08 uni. Why don't they just look at it and get it right?

And the names. I don't need a name on the back. They had the chance to remove them, but didn't. However, it appears they've taken away the panel that the names had been sitting on, going with the individually placed letters. That's definitely a step in the right direction.

But the names on the back of the alternate blue road jerseys look ridiculous. Instead of thinking of this jersey as "another road jersey which therefore must have the name," maybe they should've made it consistent with the red alternate home jerseys, and kept the names off. It should also be noted that the blues will be worn with white pants. Rare to have any white on the road. I wonder if those white pants will be identical to the home white pants. Wow, I'm sitting up at 2 AM wondering about pants.

Anyway, I kind of like the red socks on the sleeve of the grays--the 3/4 sleeve Ortiz shirt I'm wearing right now has that effect, too.


*Except for the fact that we'll actually be wearing a hat without a B on it for the first time in over 75 years. I love that sock logo--again, the "newer Woody" that started in '79 as opposed to the ones before that--and I do like it on a blue background, but the new hat looks kind of weird. When I saw a (lighter, and to me, better) blue hat with the socks on it a few years ago, I decided to make it my next Sox hat. It was close enough to the regular hat, with a logo I liked. But I never said I wanted the team to wear it! Actually, maybe if the blue was lighter like mine, I'd like it more.