The Best: The Blue Jays came out of the gate in 1977 with a bird’s head smack dab in the center of the jersey. And you know what? I liked it! No, it wasn’t totally sharp in an absolute sense, but it’s certainly better than anything they’ve worn since. It has character, and it’s pretty unmistakable. And I liked their old powder blues too. The newer teams that came up in the age of powder blues tend to look pretty good in them. Yes, I know they’ve brought them back as an alternate, but they should be a road jersey. The gray roadies still look wrong to me, even after all these years.
The Worst: I hated the caps with the big maple leaf they wore in the Roger Clemens era, but I really hate the “Jays” lettering on the current duds, especially the black alternates. Like so many teams searching for a sartorial identity, the Blue Jays have settled on something that is simply generic. If you were making a movie about baseball and couldn’t get the rights to use real major league teams, you’d come up with something that looks a lot like what they wear these days.
Assessment: If they’re not going to embrace the big Jay head in the middle of a pullover shirt, they should at least try to do something memorable and maybe even a little audacious. What they have right now is so blah.