Your Random D-Back Uniform: Father’s Day

Arizona Diamondbacks v Philadelphia Phillies — Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

With Father’s Day coming up, let’s take a look at the (short) and unsuccessful history of the Diamondbacks’ Father’s Day uniforms and caps.

I will be sincere here: this article was intended to try out what I could find out on the different MLB “special event” uniforms as a step up to what is my favourite uniform subject: the 4th of July gear. This was a nice tryout since the special MLB kits haven’t been around for that long.

Ever since its inauguration in 2016, Father’s day in the MLB has been associated with the color ‘blue’ (how original). Being it a specific “male” celebration day, if you allow me to call it that way, Father’s day has also been connected to raising awareness about prostate cancer. MLB has always donated the sales of the specialty caps and apparel emblazoned with the symbolic blue ribbon to certain cancer foundations. A nice detail.

Maybe you’d think all Father’s Day uniforms are or were alike in MLB, but that isn’t the case, and it’s the reason why I decided to show the Diamondbacks ones.

2016.

In 2016 the Diamondbacks played the Phillies in Philadelphia on Father’s Day and ended with a 5-1 win, with a beardless Archie Bradley going 6 innings.

The Diamondbacks wore quite a dark grey uniform, graphite like, which was in line with the dark grey away uniforms they were showing off in the 2016 season. It had just some blue lettering on it to distinguish the special occasion. The Phillies’ uniform wasn’t very special either, but different with some blue lettering on a complete white outfit.

The cap was pretty much similar, with a dark grey and a blue A. On “paper” the uniform looked a lot better than it played out in the field, and personally it looks like a missed opportunity here. MLB was probably shaking off their rookie Father’s day designs.

2017.

The Phillies make up for a good Father’s Day recipe as in 2017 they were once again our opponents for the special occasion. Just like the year before the D-Backs sneaked out of Philadelphia with an Archie Bradley win, although this time as a reliever, with a Fernando Rodney save after Rey Fuentes homering in extra innings to take a decisive 5-4 lead.

Grey looks good on Robbie Ray (but he still gave up 4 runs in 5.1 innings) but the uniform hardly changed from the year before as it was still a dull colour and a boring outfit altogether. The cap improved though, and MLB made some more work of it to have it stand out. A light-blue-ish cap with a graphite-grey visor was a much needed improvement.

2018.

No Phillies, but still the NL East: the New York Mets were in Arizona for this special day and took care of Brad Boxberger whose meltdown allowed the Mets to achieve 4 runs in the 9th inning resulting in a 5-3 win for them.

No special jerseys no more for Father’s day in 2018. Maybe sales lagged behind expectations? Try designing something decent! The decision to wear the grey tainted home jerseys didn’t look that odd though combined with the special Father’s day goodies.

The cap on the other hand once again improved in appearance regarding to the year before. The combination of black and blue worked well, making the blue less greyish and more blue-ish, while the black numbering of the shirt returned in the black A on the cap. A nice combination although the Arizona A didn’t really stand out either.

2019.

Once again the D-Backs had an opponent from the NL East on Father’s Day, but this time it were the Washington Nationals. It was a day to forget. Not only because of the disappointing outfits, but also because of the 15-5 defeat in what would be an Archie Bradley spot start. After giving up 4 runs in 1.1 innings, his cries for a role as a starter would be over.

The Father’s Day uniforms were a disappointment as well, as much as the game itself, as MLB once again decided to not design a special uniform for this special event and stuck to a washed up blue colour for the cap, a step back from the 2018 one. At least the Diamondbacks had a detail of wearing blue belts, but the combination looked weird with the regular away outfits. Yep, Father’s day 2019 was a big Diamondbacks disappointment in each aspect of the game.

2021.

Last year the ailing Diamondbacks got a visit from the Dodgers on Father’s day. Yikes, what a gift you’d say, but the Snakes gave somewhat of a battle, going down 9-8 although 6 runs came in the 8th after trailing 9-2.

Los Angeles Dodgers v Arizona Diamondbacks

Maybe you would think that the Diamondbacks at least wore a disco blue number on the jersey to honour all fathers? Nope, that formed part of last year’s outfit, but the cap was a “special” Father’s day cap where the special addition was some “blue powder” over the logo, if we have to believe the media, because if you look at some high resolution pic, I still have troubles finding the blue powder on the snake.

2022.

So, what have the ingenious designers invented for this year’s edition of Father’s Day? Let’s say it is a mix of 2016 and 2019 versions, where the graphite-dark grey cap has returned and the A has a washed-up blue pattern again. But, hey, to make it a bit different the bottom part of the visor will have the same blue wash-up colour…so every time you look up to your cap you might get visions of an X-Ray of your denture. See for yourself in the MLB Shop! We will see how it plays out on field, but I guess this will be the last time we dedicate time to Father’s day uniforms and caps on this site.

Conclusion.

It all didn’t start that great and the trend is going from bad to worse.