The concept is a good one; great, in fact: Allow major league baseball players to choose their own nicknames and have them embroidered on the back of their respective specially-designed ‘Players Weekend’ jerseys. Not only does it allow our favorite baseball heroes to show off their creative side, but it also puts them in a more humanistic down-to-earth light. But the uniform colors themselves – at least those for ‘Players Weekend 2019’ – are absolutely atrocious.

Although the visiting teams’ Players Weekend unis are a (somewhat) acceptable all black, the home teams’ are completely white, including the embroidery, which makes it nearly impossible to read their creative nicknames on the backs. They also have all white hats (except for pitchers) and all white batting helmets. Pitchers’ hats are all black because all white hats might make it difficult for hitters to pick up the ball – a rather significant issue if it happens to be a 97-MPH fastball sizzling towards your ribcage … or head.

But alas and as we all know, it’s all about the money, and MLB and the respective 30 MLB teams stand to make a fortune off of sales of these hideous jerseys and hats; this despite the fact that they would have done a lot better if the jerseys weren’t so damn ugly.

Obviously, I am being facetious when I say that these ugly uniforms had anything to do with the best team in the National League being pounded 10-2 by the best team in the American League in front of a standing-room-only Dodger Stadium crowd of 53,775 on Friday night. The truth of the matter is that the Dodgers were simply outplayed on every level.

Normally very reliable Dodgers left-hander and 2019 NL Cy Young award frontrunner Hyun-Jin Ryu was, quite frankly, as bad as the uniform he wore, black hat and all. To his credit (and unlike Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen) the 32-year-old Incheon, South Korea native did not refuse to face reporters after the game and after his first home loss of the season.

“Commanding pitches is the most important part of my game, and I obviously couldn’t do that,” Ryu said through an interpreter without making any excuses. “If you look at the pitches they hit for homers today, they all ended up in quadrants I didn’t want.”

In his brief 4.1 innings of work, Ryu allowed seven runs on nine hits, with seven strikeouts and one walk. That one walk was an intentional one to Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez (who had homered off of Ryu in the top of the third inning) and came with one out and runners on second and third in the top of the fifth inning. The idea, of course, was to set up a potential inning-ending double play.

It failed.

Miserably.

The next batter, Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, launched one of those aforementioned poorly commanded pitches 394 feet to the Right Field Pavilion for a devastating (and demoralizing) grand slam home run.

“I think it was the right choice to walk Sanchez,” said Ryu. “The pitch to Didi was a mistake. He did a good job jumping on the first pitch, and he hurt me there. I wish I made more pitches to expand the strike zone.”

As for the Dodgers offense on Friday night, basically, there wasn’t any. They finished the night with a grand total of six hits, of which only two were for extra bases; RBI doubles by Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor. They went a collective 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position, while stranding five runners on base. They also struck out 15 times on the night.

“We haven’t had many games like this,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Fortunately, it only counts as one loss. You lose a battle, hopefully, you win the war, as far as the series. We just have to turn the page. It was an ugly one. You play 162 games, games like that are bound to happen.”

Ugly indeed … almost as ugly as their uniforms.

Play Ball!

    *    *    *    *    *