Major League Baseball has recently contacted two Cubs players for fashion trends that the league are not big fans of. Earlier this week, they sent Ben Zobrist a “written warning” when he stated that he was going to wear his all-black PF Flyer cleats to commemorate a time in baseball’s past when all-black cleats were the norm. An ode to the past if you will.
Zobrist received a written letter from the MLB as a “warning” to which he promptly responded via his Instagram.
Now today, the fashion police are back at it and their new target is Willson Contreras. Reportedly, the MLB has reached out to Contreras and told him that he can no longer wear his customary Venezuelan arm sleeve that he’s worn honor his home country. Willy started wearing the sleeve last July and apparently the MLB fun police has seen enough.
Willson Contreras was told by the MLB he could no longer wear his arm sleeve that represents his home country Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/ve6HIALDQD
— Cubs Live (@Cubs_Live) May 15, 2018
I’m all for trying to keep players to look a certain way but when you take all the individualism out of the game, it absolutely kills the fan base. What 5-year-old kid is walking around talking about how neat and boring his uniform is or the fact that he has no arm sleeves or custom cleats because they’re too flashy?
Kids love flash.
And with the new MLB fashion police stepping in to threaten professional baseball players individualism, you can bet your ass that the next generation of baseball fans will take notice of this.
The MLB has swung and missed big time with this new approach to policing players appearances. In a game that has so many great personalities and story lines, the league steps in to squash any form of self-expression that players choose to exhibit.
So in short — you suck, MLB.