Over at ESPN’s Sportsnation site, they’re having a tournament-style contest to “determine” MLB’s best uniform. The outcome is determined by fan votes, so it’s nothing more than a popularity contest, but that’s no excuse to not get over there and make our O’s the winners.
I just learned about the “Battle of the Unis” this morning (I try to spend as little time watching ESPN as possible) so I’m a bit late to the party. The good news is that the O’s have already “upset” both the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals.
UPDATE: The O’s beat the Tigers and are now up against the Yankees in the AL Final. Here’s the link to vote!
I say “upset” because the goofs who put this bracket together obviously have no taste, giving the Birds the 13th (!!!) seed out of 15 AL teams.
Their logic:
Always liked the orange-and-black scheme, but the white-paneled cap is a bad, bad look from the ’70s.
Ex-squeeeeeze me??
Au contraire, ye anti-Baltimore, tasteless ESPN fools.
The cartoon bird is GORGEOUS, and the retro look of the white cap, while not something all teams could pull off, is incredibly aesthetically pleasing.
Luckily, Jim Caple doesn’t get to do the voting.
In Round 1, where the O’s smashed Houston with 79% of the vote, here’s Caple with some more hate:
The Orioles would stand a much better chance if this were the late 1970s and early ’80s when their white-front cap style was in fashion and the Astros were wearing rainbows.
In Round 2, the Birds downed Kansas City with 62% of the vote.
Great battle between Royals blue and the Orioles’ vibrant orange. And you know Buck Showalter will make sure their caps are on straight.
Apparently this guy has never seen Pedro Strop pitch.
Right now, in Round 3, the O’s are currently leading the #1 seed Detroit Tigers 53-47. Go vote!
Will the Tigers eat the birds? Or will the Orioles fly away to victory?
Caple just seems to be mailing it in at this point. Guess he drew the short straw to end up with this assignment.
Anyway, O’s/Tigers is one game in the final four of the AL, with Boston/New York in the other. While it would be great for the O’s to upset the #1 seed, it’s tough to imagine their Cinderella story not coming to an end against the Yankees or Red Sox, who both not only sport classic uniforms, but who have millions of bandwagon fans all over the world who love them some ESPN (aka the Yankees/Red Sox/Cowboys/Heat/Lakers/Steelers/Patriots channel).
Surprisingly enough though, as of this writing there have been 62,474 votes in Yanks/Sox, just slightly more than the 62,088 in Tigers/O’s.
So who knows, maybe the O’s will be able to advance to meet the NL finalist (Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs, or Dodgers).
It looks like the contest doesn’t take alternate uniforms into account, which is a shame. For my money, the O’s orange jerseys with white-paneled caps is the best look not only in baseball, but in sports.
Yes, this is nothing more than silly fodder for an off day, but it is an off day after all, so what else do you have going on? This beats reading about how the O’s just lost two in a row to the freakin’ Padres, right (more on that later, for you masochists)?
UPDATE: The O’s beat the Tigers and are now up against the Yankees in the AL Final. Here’s the link to vote!
