The Best: When I did this a couple of years ago I decided that the classic 70s and 80s uniforms were tops just because so much good baseball was played in them. I’ve changed my mind on this. While a team having its glory years in a given uniform is a plus in its column, it’s not enough to carry the day. Not that the design is bad. Actually, just before the peak of the Big Red Machine, the Reds wore that same basic design in a button down. Small difference, sure, but taking it out of the realm of the pullover makes all the difference, so I’d give those the edge. The current uniforms look a lot like that, but I’d take away the red piping along the buttons and some of the fancy font work to give it that clean look that the early 70s models had.
Worst: 1936 was something of a disaster, as were the vests, though the Reds probably did that look better than any other team that did it (vests are always a negative). There should be a special place reserved in uniform hell for a team with a color in its very name that forgets to use that color prominently, and to the exclusion of all other non-white and non-gray options. Such as when the Reds experimented with black and blue.
Assessment: The Reds have always looked sharp. Cincinnati is a conservative town. Keep it neat and professional like they usually do, and everything will be just fine.
