Skin-Tight Uniforms for Baseball?

Fierce or friendly?

Since we’re at the forefront of uniform reporting here at NotG, this little gem couldn’t co un-discussed. According to Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie blog, it seems the NBA will give its players the option of wearing only a skin-tight compression tank as the top portion of their uniform. The players wear the tight tanks anyway, so why not give them the option of changing it up?

This is, of course, in line with most fashion trends (and even sport fashion trends – see football jerseys), but there’s more going on here. It’s another chance for the apparel manufacturers to make more money and for the NBA’s stars to show off their physiques. Of course, they might have a problem suiting up Shaquille O’Neal, but hence the ‘optional’ portion of the decision. The NBA also is famous for tinkering with the game in the D-League and All-Star game, so this is just another example of forward thinking.

The obvious question from your NotG correspondent is if this would work for baseball. From a game play standpoint, it would make HBP decisions easier and could make swinging easier. And it would be interesting to see Manny Ramirez turn in his baggy get-up for a slim-fitting situation. But the baseball fan base is probably a little more conservative when it comes to game play and uniforms, so it doesn’t seem likely that this development hops sports.

And one last problem with the idea. Baseball players may be in better shape than they are given credit for, but there are still some outliers. Those outliers (saaay… C.C. Sabathia) might make us shudder if they put on the skin-tight tee. So, file under “maybe not.”