The Nats uniform shirt I picked up for $20 at Marshall’s last year is now obsolete. I don’t know how I missed this earlier, but the Nats have new uniforms:

I’m a fan. I was most definitely not a fan of the old uniforms, with the cheesy 3D-ish ‘NATIONALS’ across the front and the equally cheesy 3d-ish number on the back. The only team that pulls off the long-horizontal-name look is the Cardinals, and they’ve been using pretty much the same uniform design since…well, since they’ve been around. And of course, the Nats’ old home uniforms will be forever associated with the dreaded ‘Natinals’ Incident.

The Nats did decide to continue to have ‘alternate’ uniforms, which reek of over-the-top marketing and are senseless from a baseball standpoint. The red ones at least look passable, but would you want to wear a solid dark color while playing baseball in the summer sunshine? Nope, but on weekends, that’s what the Nats will do at home. And every once in a while, they’ll wear the ‘patriotic’ uniform in dark blue with the flag motif built into the curly ‘W.’ I think it’s tacky and I know it’ll be super-hot (in the negative sense of the word).

Still, the new design represents a significant step up. The standard uniform doesn’t scream “Expansion team!” the way its predecessor did, and it’s more in line with the Nats’ classy ballpark. Next: Let’s hope there’s actual development in Nats Town and we can dump the dreaded beer tent.