New duds on the horizon?

by Phil Wood

I can't get too worked up over the Nationals not winning the Marlins' series. It was a 3-3 road trip, and that's acceptable.

I'm also not too concerned about Stephen Strasburg losing a decision at Harrisburg. That was going to happen sooner or later.

Now on to the really important stuff: with red sleeves and socks, doesn't the road navy blue cap look out of place?

Back in the day when most teams wore only a single cap style, it invariably mirrored whatever color the dominant lettering on the jersey was. With the merchandising implications of a secondary or even tertiary cap style, that changed.

Prior to the new Nats' road jersey with the script "Washington," navy was the predominant lettering color, and the cap matched perfectly. Now, not so much.

As someone who's researched and written extensively about major league uniforms - and who played a fairly prominent role in designing the 1989-94 Orioles' uniform (pre-Angelos era style) - I'd like to see the road cap incorporate a little more red.

Simply changing the bill of the cap from navy to red would help. Also, change the curly "W" from white to red, with a white outline. Or, add red piping down the seams of the crown of the cap, a la the 1963-67 Senators' cap.

It's pretty obvious that the "Curly W" is here to stay. It's all over the ballpark, and etched in stone, or at least sheet metal. The new road shirt has shown to be pretty popular, and it's my guess the home shirt will soon - like next year - look pretty similar, with a script-style "Nationals" in red-on-navy and underlined with a flourish. The Nats would have to notify MLB of their intent to change styles by the end of June, if I recall correctly.

The current Nationals' logo and uniforms were the creation of Major League Baseball, who had a week - or less - to come up with something when the announcement regarding a franchise coming to Washington was made in the fall of 2004. Someone obviously liked gold trim, but to me, it's always seemed out of place. It's gone from the road shirt, and shoud also exit the home jersey.

I'd also like to see the Nationals wear a shirt without the player's name on the back, just his number. A bow to history, if you will. Maybe a pinstripe Sunday uniform with just a lone "W" on the front. As simple as possible.

It's not exaxctly "Project Runway," but you'd be hard-presed to find many hard core baseball fans who haven't, at some point, re-designed the home team's livery.

You know who you are.