The Lunatic Fringe

Well, with all the crimson colors in the World Series, you’d think that Pantone had picked a reddish color for the color of the year.

Seriously, though, it’s not a tough bet.  There’s far too much red in baseball.  Just look at all the teams who use red as one of their primary colors, broken down by the relevancy of their colors:

Part of the Identity:

Boston Red Sox – Ironically, in today’s baseball, so few players show their socks.

St. Louis Cardinals – I don’t know why teams from the turn of the 20th century thought small, residential birds were great mascots, but okay.

Cincinnati Reds – Senator McCarthy’s least favorite team.

It’s Relevant Since It’s Patriotic, I guess:

Washington Nationals – I sometimes think that the blue gets a little under-represented, but clearly the Nats are relevant for this color.

Texas Rangers – You know, since they were law enforcement.  And this used to be a Washington team  These days, the Rangers feature blue more than red, which is ironic since Texas is a pretty red state.

Philadelphia Phillies – Philadelphia was a pretty important city in the revolution, though I’m not sure it’s so All-American anymore.  But, how else do you color a Phillie?  Though, it seems their primary color is green.

Toronto Blue Jays – Canada’s flag has red, although this (yet another) residential bird is blue.  So, red and blue.

Everyone Else:

Arizona Diamondbacks – I suppose red is better than purple and teal, but why not try to, I don’t know, use colors like an actual diamondback?  It’s be a truly unique color combo, other than when the Padres are wearing their camo uniforms.

Atlanta Braves – I wonder how the various Native American nations would feel about their apparent colorization turned to vaguely American patriotic colors.

Cleveland Indians – See above.  Also, the red for Native American mascots seems even worse considering the flap about the Washington football team.

Chicago Cubs – Another early team, so I guess they get dibs on the primary colors.  Also, why is red so often paired with blue?

Los Angeles Angels – It wasn’t as bad when they were mostly blue, though the Disney-fied color scheme was a uniform low-point.  But what color do you make Angels otherwise?

Minnesota Twins – What does red have to do with twins, anyway?

That’s 13 of 30 teams, nearly half of all of baseball using the red color.  And to think, it used to be much worse before the Houston Astros switched from their former red color to their current orange.  That’s right, four of six NL Central teams used red as a primary color…and a fifth, the Pittsburgh Pirates, are no stranger to the color.

So, yes, red is a tad overused.

But it’s still better than seeing Dodger Blue in the World Series.  Yes, it is.