Tampa Bay Rays unveil Players Weekend Uniforms

Although it was announced back in June, MLB has officially announced the Players’ Weekend event, in which they’ll allow players to don their nicknames on the backs of their jerseys. The event will take place starting on August 25th and conclude on August 27th.

The jerseys the teams will be wearing won’t be the traditional looks either as each team has their own unique apparel.

Also, on the player’s sleeve, there will be a blank square sewn in for the player to fill with the name of a teammate, coach, or someone special in their life that was important to his development.

Each member of the team was given the opportunity to select which name they wanted to showcase to the world...and there are some bizarre choices.

Evan Longoria went with LONGO, the name of which pretty much everyone refers to him by. Kevin Kiermaier has OUTLAW and Logan Morrison has LOMO, pretty straight forward.

Some certain members of the organization took this opportunity of individuality to be boring with Alex Cobb, Corey Dickerson, and Kevin Cash all wanting their last name to be what is seen. At least Tom Foley shook it up by having him first name rather than last name define him.

Then you have Chris Archer coming in here with FLACO FUERTE, Brad Miller with RAT, and Steve Cishek with... SPEEDPASS!?

Here’s a complete list, released thus far, of the nicknames the Rays chose to have stitched to their respective jersey, with the best saved for last...

Mallex Smith - MALLEX

Evan Longoria - LONGO

Blake Snell - ZILLA

Matt Duffy - DUFFMAN

Tom Foley - Tom

Logan Morrison - LOMO

Corey Dickerson - DICKERSON

Adeiny Hechavarria - LA PANTERA

Brad Miller - RAT

Trevor Plouffe - SPECIAL T

Rocco Baldelli - BALDELLI

Kevin Cash - CASH

Peter Bourjos - NEEDLER

Steven Souza Jr. - SOUZBOT

Lucas Duda - DUDE

Chris Archer - FLACO FUERTE

Jake Odorizzi - ODO

Nathan Eovaldi - EVO

Charlie Montoyo - MONTOYO

Brad Boxberger - BOX

Daniel Robertson - D-ROB

Xavier Cedeno - X

Jacob Faria - FARIA

Matt Andriese - DREEZY

Alex Colome - THE HORSE

Kevin Kiermaier - OUTLAW

Wilson Ramos - BUFFALO

Stan Boroski - BOROSKI

Dan Jennings - DJ

Steve Cishek - SPEEDPASS

Jesus Sucre - SOOKY

Jose Alvarado - LA FLECHA

Chase Whitley - BIG FELLA

Jim Hickey - HICKEY

Tommy Hunter - TOMMY TWO TOWEL

Austin Pruitt - PRUITT

Chad Mottola - MOTTOLA

Alex Cobb - COBB

Sergio Romo - EL MECHÓN

Chih-Wei Hu - WHO?

The best of the lot is certainly rookie Hu’s use of punctuation. Maybe they’ll even let him play first.

MLB had to approve of the nicknames, and it looks like some didn’t make it through the filter, according to this article on the Rays site:

Rookie Jacob Faria noted that he wasn't sure what his nickname will be.

"MLB has to approve all the nicknames, so I'm sure once it comes down to it, it will be a cool nickname all the guys come up with," Faria said. "But I won't know until I look on the back of the jersey that day."

The right-hander did know that his patch would honor his grandfather with "Avo," which is Portuguese for grandfather.

"I think it's a cool thing to let the fans know some of the nicknames we go by in the [clubhouse], and who means a lot to us, the patches," Corey Dickerson said. "There's people who contribute to our lives, us getting here. I think it's cool. It lets the fans see another side of the players. Also a little freedom picking what we want on the back of our jerseys."

Dickerson wasn't sure what would be on the back of his jersey.

"So it might be Dickerson. I don't know," Dickerson said.

Faria has an affinity for rubber... ducks, and for Dickerson it’s all in the name. Who knows what they proposed that got denied...

Here’s the MLB Press Release on the event:

Major Leaguers will let their personalities and passions shine during Players Weekend, a newly-created event taking place during all MLB games scheduled between August 25-27, it was announced today by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Players Weekend is a player-focused event that will include the players wearing colorful, non-traditional uniforms featuring alternate designs inspired by youth league uniforms. Players will have the opportunity to have a nickname placed on the back of the jerseys made by Majestic Athletic, as well as to wear and use uniquely-colored and designed spikes, batting gloves, wristbands, compression sleeves, catcher's masks, and bats.

During Players Weekend, the players will also be wearing specially-designed caps by New Era, and unique socks from Stance. In addition, players will have the option of wearing t-shirts highlighting a charity or cause of their choice during pre-game workouts and post-game interviews.