Aaron Judge's advice about All-Star Game attire is uniformly commended
Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Francisco Lindor of the Mets embrace prior to the MLB All-Star Game at Truist Park on Wednesday in Atlanta. Credit: Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox
ATLANTA — This year’s All-Star Game was the best one since the pandemic wiped out the event during the 2020 season.
And that became obvious well before the Pirates’ Paul Skenes even threw Tuesday night’s opening pitch to the Tigers’ Gleyber Torres at Truist Park.
What made us so sure? Call it an instant classic — from a uniform perspective, anyway.
Just seeing the All-Stars take the field for Tuesday’s introductions, lined up in their traditional jerseys — the AL in road grays, the NL in home whites — was enough to transport the baseball-adoring public back to a better time, and revive what everyone loved about the game from the jump.
Gone were the ghastly marketing-driven uniforms that littered our eyesight for the previous four years, often making it impossible to tell one player from another — unless it was the 6-foot-7 face of the sport, Aaron Judge.
It just so happens that Judge was the guy who spearheaded the movement back to the regular jerseys, so Yankees could truly look like Yankees again on MLB’s brightest July stage. Judge relayed his preference to commissioner Rob Manfred, and sure enough, baseball turned back the clock for the All-Stars.
“I just voiced my opinion on that a couple years ago, and then especially last year,” Judge said Tuesday afternoon. “That was something that was really special to me my first All-Star Game (in 2017), getting the chance to wear the Yankee uniform, go out there and represent New York.
It bothered Judge that other first-timers no longer had the opportunity. Instead, they were doomed to go out there in those garish, oddly-colored outfits, with the anonymity of merely the league name scrawled across the front.
“I wouldn’t say it was my call,” Judge said, smiling. “But I think it was a good move by Manfred to bring it back. I think it’s something cool for the fans, too. I remember as a kid, turning on the old All-Star games, and seeing all my favorite players decked out in their uniforms. So I think it’s pretty cool.”
When Judge speaks, the commissioner’s office listens. Since we’re always complaining about how MLB botches stuff like the Midsummer Classic, let’s give Manfred & Co. credit for at least correcting their original tone-deaf mistake. Judge had plenty of support, too.
Take Francisco Lindor, a four-time All-Star in Cleveland who was dying to go back since signing his 10-year, $341-million contract with the Mets. When it finally happened this season, already Year Five in Flushing, Lindor was appreciative he’d be playing in the orange-and-blue pinstriped home kit.
“I think we have one of the best uniforms in the league,” Lindor said Tuesday. “And to be able to wear it here, and represent the Mets’ organization, I’m looking forward to it.”
Pete Alonso shared that sentiment. The homegrown Met came uncomfortably close last winter to playing elsewhere for the rest of his career, and even now — with his future likely to be in limbo again at season’s end — Alonso didn’t take the uniform hanging in his locker Tuesday for granted.
“I’m really proud to represent Queens, represent my teammates and represent the organization,” Alonso said. “This organization has been nothing but fantastic to me, and to be able to represent not just them but the city of New York here, I’m really happy to do so. It’s an honor.”
While the All-Star uniform screw-up was a case of innovation gone terribly wrong, that didn’t stop MLB from further tinkering with this year’s game by introducing the Automated Ball-Strike system, or ABS, more colloquially known as robot umps. The challenge version has been under beta-testing in the minors since 2021, and was used in spring training earlier this year, with the idea of implementing ABS at the major-league level in 2026. Tuesday’s test run was the highest-profile launch to date.
“I think the ability to correct a bad call in a high-leverage situation without interfering with the time of the game because it’s so fast,” Manfred said, “is something we ought to continue to pursue.”
The challenge system, which allows the pitcher, batter or catcher to ask for a review, also provides more entertainment because the entire ballpark gets to watch the Hawk-Eye pitch-tracing image on the videoboard, like they do for a tennis match.
“For me, with the U.S. Open in New York, I love seeing it,” Alonso said. “It’s always fun anticipating, when you hear the crowd go, ‘Ooooooh.’ If there’s a borderline call, and someone uses it, I think the crowd will be engaged.”
There is one lingering issue, however, that continues to haunt the All-Star Game: getting the best players to show up for it. All told, MLB announced 81 All-Stars this season — that’s more than 10% of the active players — in order to have full rosters for the Midsummer Classic (16 declared themselves unable to participate).
With such a high attrition rate, especially among pitchers, MLB made the controversial decision to name 23-year-old Brewers rookie phenom Jacob Misiorowski — with five total starts under his belt (2.81 ERA) — to the NL roster (manager Dave Roberts expected to pitch him, too). Manfred was unapologetic about the move, even though he snubbed a few veterans with superb first-half performances.
“We have worked our way through more replacements than I wish we had to,” Manfred said. “And when I looked at the choices, I thought that the appropriate balance on this one was the excitement that was going to be generated, the fan interest in seeing this guy. Do I understand five (starts) is short? Yeah, I do. Do I want to make that the norm? No, I don’t. But I think it was the right decision given where we were.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
