A little over three weeks ago, the MLB issued a warning to Cubs catcher Willson Contreras to stop wearing an arm sleeve decorated in his native country of Venezuela’s colors. If you’re unaware, the MLB has uniform policies that should belong in the 1930’s when the game of baseball was very different and they love telling players what they can and cannot wear.
The MLB wasn’t only after Contreras’ sleeve, they also went after numerous player’s cleats (including Ben Zobrist) because the cleats broke the rule of,
“At least 51% of the exterior of each Player’s shoes must be the Club’s designated primary shoe color and the portion of the Club’s designated primary shoe color must be evenly distributed throughout the exterior of each shoe.”
I’m probably the last guy to comment on how stupid this rule is because I’m all for letting players express themselves any way they see fit. Contreras started wearing the Venezuelan sleeve to support his war-torn country and that notion literally impacted nobody in the MLB front offices. However, the MLB issued Willy a statement telling him to remove the sleeve because it violated uniform policies.
Once he lost the sleeve, he started to find alternate ways to incorporate the red, blue, and yellow into his everyday attire.
🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/4EjnCaqtVN
— Willson Contreras (@WContreras40) May 30, 2018
In addition to his bats, he has since switched to an all red sleeve but that hasn’t stopped him from finding yet another way to show his support for Venezuela.
Notice it?
MLB banned Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras's Venezuelan flag-patterned compression sleeve, so now he's wearing the flag colors on his catcher's gear. pic.twitter.com/Wxr3Eh94IK
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) June 7, 2018
I’m sure the fun snatchers in the MLB offices will send another letter to Willy asking him to explain why there are hints of yellow on his chest protector. Either way, I’m a fan of him finding every loophole he can to essentially tell the MLB’s garbage rule book to go f*ck itself.