Royals: Crown worthy or not? Best and worst KC jerseys

“Players Weekend” introduced unique jerseys to Major League Baseball and the Kansas City Royals. They may not appeal to everyone, but they serve a good purpose.

I’m a baseball uniform traditionalist. I don’t like the extra-long baggy pants; I miss the look of high-cut “stirrups” over white socks (“sanitary hose” in the curious vernacular of old uniforms) and applaud the old look creeping so incrementally back into the game.

The 2017 introduction of Players Weekend, an event featuring non-traditional uniforms with unconventional color schemes and designs, rattled my traditionalist uniform sensibilities. Who can forget, for example, 2019, when teams wore all white or black uniforms, with the “white team” pitcher wearing a black cap to minimize interference with batters picking up ball flight? (The Cubs rebelled and donned their traditional blue caps the first day).

Like them or not, I have deemed the Players Weekend jerseys ineligible for consideration here for the Royals’ worst or best. The Players Weekend jerseys discussed in this story had a useful and commendable ultimate disposition—to be sold with the proceeds going to the Major League Baseball-Major League Baseball Players Association Youth Development Foundation. I hesitate to criticize products utilized for such a worthy cause.