After an 11-month, pandemic-induced drought, college baseball is back and better than ever. Six of the nation's top-ten programs (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas, TCU, and Texas Tech) joined each other in kicking off the 2021 season in Arlington, Texas at Globe Life Field, the new home of the Texas Rangers, for the State Farm College Showdown. The SEC teams dominated the showdown, and Mississippi State was a part of that, as the Bulldogs defeated Texas and Texas Tech en route to a successful 2-1 weekend.
The Bulldogs debuted a new combination, broke out an entirely new uniform, and wore one familiar look over the weekend, improving upon what was already the best uniform set in college baseball.
In the Saturday win over Texas, the Bulldogs were the designated "away" team; as such they paired the maroon 85 jerseys with the road gray pants. These gray pants, featuring M/W/M stripes, first debuted in last season's series at Long Beach State. However, due to the season being cancelled a week and a half later, the Bulldogs were never have to pair the new pants with the maroon 85 jerseys. So this combination, which would've seen the field quite a few times in a full-length 2020 season, ended up making their debut in the 2021 season opening win. The graphic below depicts the difference between this new look and the 2019 maroon 85 over gray look, which featured only a single maroon stripe on the gray pants.
On Sunday against TCU, Mississippi State debuted an entirely new uniform: a cream jersey and pants featuring the script "State" on the front and double stripes on both the pants and sleeves. Like the gray "State" script uniforms that debuted last season, the cream uniforms feature players names on the back; unlike those uniforms, however, they do not feature front numbers, opting for a cleaner look instead. With the cream uniforms replacing the white block "STATE" jerseys that were worn in 2019 and 2020, Mississippi State now has a completely consistent set of non-pinstripe uniforms which feature double stripes on the sleeve and the M over S logo on the right sleeve. That kind of level of consistency- across five different base colors no less (white, maroon, black, cream, and gray)- is what takes a uniform set from great to elite.
The Bulldogs last wore cream uniforms in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Those uniforms featured the M over S logo on the left chest, thick maroon piping on the sleeve, placket, and pants, and block numbers. They were paired with both cream and maroon hats, nearly equally. The graphic below highlights the differences between the 2014-2015 and 2021 cream uniforms, both of which are fantastic in their own way.
The Bulldogs debuted a new combination, broke out an entirely new uniform, and wore one familiar look over the weekend, improving upon what was already the best uniform set in college baseball.
In the Saturday win over Texas, the Bulldogs were the designated "away" team; as such they paired the maroon 85 jerseys with the road gray pants. These gray pants, featuring M/W/M stripes, first debuted in last season's series at Long Beach State. However, due to the season being cancelled a week and a half later, the Bulldogs were never have to pair the new pants with the maroon 85 jerseys. So this combination, which would've seen the field quite a few times in a full-length 2020 season, ended up making their debut in the 2021 season opening win. The graphic below depicts the difference between this new look and the 2019 maroon 85 over gray look, which featured only a single maroon stripe on the gray pants.
On Sunday against TCU, Mississippi State debuted an entirely new uniform: a cream jersey and pants featuring the script "State" on the front and double stripes on both the pants and sleeves. Like the gray "State" script uniforms that debuted last season, the cream uniforms feature players names on the back; unlike those uniforms, however, they do not feature front numbers, opting for a cleaner look instead. With the cream uniforms replacing the white block "STATE" jerseys that were worn in 2019 and 2020, Mississippi State now has a completely consistent set of non-pinstripe uniforms which feature double stripes on the sleeve and the M over S logo on the right sleeve. That kind of level of consistency- across five different base colors no less (white, maroon, black, cream, and gray)- is what takes a uniform set from great to elite.
The Bulldogs last wore cream uniforms in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Those uniforms featured the M over S logo on the left chest, thick maroon piping on the sleeve, placket, and pants, and block numbers. They were paired with both cream and maroon hats, nearly equally. The graphic below highlights the differences between the 2014-2015 and 2021 cream uniforms, both of which are fantastic in their own way.
 |  |
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Coach Lemonis on designing the new cream uniforms, and I'm insanely happy with how they turned out. Having that level of input was a really cool experience, and I'm looking forward to even more looks coming out over the next couple years that I know fans are going to love. We're extremely lucky at Mississippi State to have guys like Coach Lemonis and Rodger Rodeheaver in charge who really care about the details and getting things right with uniforms.
On Monday, the Bulldogs broke out what has become a modern tradition: all-black, complete with the black 85 jerseys, black hat, and black pants. The all-black look remains unchanged this season; the Bulldogs have worn this exact look since 2019. Monday's win over Texas Tech did, however, mark the first time that this particular look has been worn on any day other than a Sunday. This happened because the entire weekend's schedule was pushed back a day due to ice. As the designated "away" team against Texas Tech and the designated "home" team against TCU, the Bulldogs couldn't simply swap the cream uniforms to Monday in order to preserve the "Sunday Blacks" tradition. As such, they instead pushed the all-black look to Monday, creating a rare "Monday Blacks" victory.
In fact, it was the first time that Mississippi State has ever worn black jerseys in a Monday game. Small sidebar- you can fact check this via the Hail State Unis Database, which has a record of every game since 2011, combined with the fact that black jerseys were first introduced in 2009, and Mississippi State did not play any Monday games in 2009 or 2010. The last time that the Bulldogs wore black jerseys in a non-Sunday game was in 2018, when they were worn in 3 Saturday games and a Wednesday game in addition to the 8 Sunday games. With the victory over Texas Tech, Mississippi State's "we don't lose in black" mantra is once again true, as all-black starts off the 2021 season with a 1-0 record.
On Monday, the Bulldogs broke out what has become a modern tradition: all-black, complete with the black 85 jerseys, black hat, and black pants. The all-black look remains unchanged this season; the Bulldogs have worn this exact look since 2019. Monday's win over Texas Tech did, however, mark the first time that this particular look has been worn on any day other than a Sunday. This happened because the entire weekend's schedule was pushed back a day due to ice. As the designated "away" team against Texas Tech and the designated "home" team against TCU, the Bulldogs couldn't simply swap the cream uniforms to Monday in order to preserve the "Sunday Blacks" tradition. As such, they instead pushed the all-black look to Monday, creating a rare "Monday Blacks" victory.
In fact, it was the first time that Mississippi State has ever worn black jerseys in a Monday game. Small sidebar- you can fact check this via the Hail State Unis Database, which has a record of every game since 2011, combined with the fact that black jerseys were first introduced in 2009, and Mississippi State did not play any Monday games in 2009 or 2010. The last time that the Bulldogs wore black jerseys in a non-Sunday game was in 2018, when they were worn in 3 Saturday games and a Wednesday game in addition to the 8 Sunday games. With the victory over Texas Tech, Mississippi State's "we don't lose in black" mantra is once again true, as all-black starts off the 2021 season with a 1-0 record.
 |  |
RSS Feed