The final weekend of pre-season practice kicked off Friday afternoon with another round of intrasquad games. This time around, the Auburn Baseball team decided to partake in a dress rehearsal of sorts. Wearing game jerseys for the first time this spring, the Tigers also debuted two brand-new designs.
(image courtesy of Auburn Athletics)
With the team split into two rosters, the “Blue” team, mostly consisting of starters, donned the new navy blue uniforms.
Designed specifically to mimic the Los Angeles Dodgers City Connect uniforms, the Tigers’ navy tops feature an all-white script Auburn logo across the chest and orange numerals underneath. The right sleeve will don the orange-outlined SEC patch that’s been used for most of the past decade. The left sleeve will see an American Flag patch.
This will be the first time the Tigers have worn the US flag on their jerseys. Auburn wore flag patches on the ballcap from 2002 to 2004.
Since transitioning to the new uniform set in 2018, Auburn’s blue jerseys have featured the arching Copperplate-font Auburn wordmark on the front. The collars and sleeve cuffs were wrapped with Northwestern Stripes.
The blue jerseys were paired with another new item – navy blue pants. The Tigers are taking the Dodgers inspiration to the fullest extent. When the Los Angeles City Connect uniform was revealed in 2019, it included navy jerseys, pants, caps, belts, and socks. Auburn will do the same but have the ability to wear the blue tops with any of the other paint color options – grey, white, and pinstripe.
Players paired the white AU logo ballcaps with the new jerseys in Friday’s practice game, indicating that will be the cap of choice when the new all-navy look makes its debut for a game.
Believe it or not, the Tigers have worn navy pants before. The 1935 and 1936 Auburn Baseball squad was the last to do so. The pre-World War II Tigers sported the navy tops and bottoms with orange-crowned hats and orange stirrups with blue stripes. With the navy socks and caps, 2023 will possibly be the first time in team history to wear blue from head to toe.
The 1935 Auburn Baseball team (via the 1936 Glomerata)
The opposing team in Friday’s matchup sported new grey uniforms. The base grey color is slightly lighter than the previous set. Design-wise, it’s identical to the navy uniforms with the script in navy. The “Grey” team also sported the white AU logo ballcaps, but there’s a good chance you’ll see the standard orange logoed caps when they make their debut on the road this season.
The Baseball social accounts also showed off a new cream uniform, reminiscent of the throwback design worn from 2009 to 2018. The previous was reportedly shelved after a lack of inventory and inability to match the current rosters to the available jerseys, number and size-wise.
The new cream tops are a striking mirror to the previous look, minus the blue stripes around the collar and sleeve cuffs. Much like the new navy tops, the cream jerseys will include the USA flag patch on the sleeves.
The promotional photos the team shared showcased the orange AU logo with white stroke ballcaps. The Tigers wore five different hat styles with the previous design. With a varied and ever-growing collection of hats, may we see new combinations with the new cream threads?
The Tigers also saw the addition of nameplates to the back of the new threads. Head Coach Butch Thompson stated that all jerseys would have player names on the back for the first time since he arrived on the Plains. Auburn added nameplates to the back of the pinstripes when they saw the inclusion of orange trim in 2020.
The Tigers wore nameplates on the navy, white, white vest, and pinstripe jerseys during the Sunny Golloway era. The orange, grey, and throwback cream jerseys were left blank on the back. The Golloway-era nameplates were rendered in a radially arched manner while the newer nameplates are flat.
In addition to the new uniforms, Auburn will be wearing logos on the batting helmet. A few players were wearing helmets with a 3D AU logo on the front and a 3D SEC logo and 3D player numbers on the back. Other players were wearing their helmets from last season, with the orange and white AU logo decal, SEC decal, and College World Series decal.
The Auburn Tigers open up the 2023 baseball season on Friday, February 17th against the Indiana Hoosiers. Auburn will host Indiana for a three-game series next weekend.
A photo gallery of Friday’s scrimmage game will be uploaded later. Thank you to the Auburn Baseball program for allowing me access to the field to take photos.
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