Case of the Mysterious Baseball Uniform

Friday was a long day. Instead of heading home early for spring break, I was stuck on campus for a 1 p.m. class. A four hour trip back home to Huntsville followed the conclusion of that class. Auburn baseball opened their weekend series with Mercer Friday night at 6 p.m., on what was certainly the best night weather-wise of the entire week. I was a little down to be missing the game, simply because I was stuck in the car instead of enjoying the great weather. I was even more upset when I heard the Tigers were FINALLY breaking out the throwback uniforms for the first time this season! I got home around 6:30 or so, so I missed the first bit of the game. When I got to check twitter I saw the following picture from beat writer Jay G. Tate

Here’s a look at Auburn’s throwback unis being worn tonight (As seen on @kthompson_7) pic.twitter.com/pdLejYyXPl
— Jay G. Tate (@JayGTate) March 8, 2014

At first look I didn’t think much about it. But as I began mocking this uniform up in the template I use for the Baseball Uniform Tracker, I noticed some inconsistencies in the above picture. Take a look at this picture for a better comparison.

Check out freshman pitcher/first baseman Keegan Thompson’s jersey. If you compare his to the other jerseys you may notice that it lacks the sleeve piping right above the sleeve cuff, instead having the piping right at the cuff. It may have been a small stripe rather than piping, but it’s a little tough to notice. Another thing is that the piping/striping seems to dawn the top of the collar, which is left blank with the other uniform tops. (*Edit: The collar appears to be the same as in past years) What’s with the difference? Through all the pictures I saw immediately after the game, Thompson is the only one that had this issue. What gives?

Well, after a little digging and some inside information, it has been confirmed that Keegan Thompson was wearing a different jersey. No player wore #7 last season, so it’s possible that the #7 jersey from the year prior was lost, or the jersey was taken by the last player to wear that number and just never replaced with a new one. But that leads to another question – Why was this jersey so much different? Why wasn’t the “backup” jersey the same as the rest? Ever since Under Armour took over for the 2006 season, the throwback uniforms have looked exactly the same (the cut and “technology” may have changed some, but the design was always the same). So this jersey was obviously not an old jersey they had in the back of the shop to be brought out in exactly this situation. Could this mysterious jersey be a new top from Under Armour? Could it have been a prototype? An error jersey that just never had anything happen to it? All possibilities, just don’t think we’ll ever get an answer. Hopefully someone from the Auburn equipment team and/or baseball management could shed some light on this whole situation.

For the sake of this site, I hope we see a few more instances like this! It’s an enjoyable topic to cover, even if it drives me nuts trying to figure it all out!

War Eagle!
+Auburn Athletics