As the story goes, the MLB suggested to the Padres that they marry their past and present by taking yellow/gold from their past and combining it with their bland blue of today when creating their All-Star logo. The Padres agreed and created yet another color combination for a franchise that didn’t need another one. This one is mercifully only supposed to last one season, but one never knows. The announcement frustrated me to no end because of what could have been.
Fortunately some good came in the form of the All-Star home run derby jerseys. They were stylized caps and jerseys that mimicked the Padres of the late 70’s and early 80’s and they were glorious brown and gold with a touch of orange. The unique Padres colors took over the ballpark and all the festivities that led up to the big game. A year ago Executive Chairman Ron Fowler told us of his hopes of seeing a “sea of blue” in the stands and I’m happy to report it did not happen. The stands were filled with true Padres colors instead.
This season the Padres put their toe in the water by appeasing fans with modernized brown uniforms at Friday home games. This week the Home Run Jerseys cannonballed into the All-Star Game and made a big splash.
San Diego's brown and gold helps set MLB All-Star merchandise record https://t.co/TO0Q47CXws
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 14, 2016
Darren Rovell reports that the brown and gold merchandise outsold all other All-Star Game merchandise in the 16 years of recorded history. Sales increased 36% over last year and twice as many caps were sold!
"The brown and gold was embraced by people in San Diego as well as visiting fans, as evidenced by the popularity of the batting practice cap, which had those colors with the different team logos," Blinderman said.
Give us what we want Padres, it’s late, but it’s not too late. Bring back the brown every day.
Some slammed the gold & brown as ugly, but stores -- flush with merchandise Sunday -- had little left on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/a4lMSUnWiG
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 14, 2016