With players reporting to Arizona and media days well underway, the return to baseball and the MLB is here for fans and players alike. As the MLB season looms on the horizon, Nike has announced the MLB franchises set to receive City Connect uniforms for 2024, and among the selected teams, the Cleveland Guardians have been granted the opportunity to showcase a new design. This comes after the team officially rebranded from the Indians to the Guardians on November 21st, 2021. In this article, I aim to articulate what the city of Cleveland, or at least my perspective, hopes to see in the City Connect uniforms.

First and foremost, it’s crucial to steer clear of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and any branding associated with it. This theme has been exhausted over the years, and the last time the MLB implemented special branding for Cleveland, they utilized the guitar for the 2019 MLB All-Star Game. While that logo was acceptable and fit well on the jerseys, let’s explore something new and invigorating, akin to the Cavaliers’ Cleveland Metro Parks jerseys from the 2022-23 season.

Cleveland Cavaliers x Cleveland Metroparks 🌳

Presenting our 2022-23 City Edition Jerseys, designed by @DanielArsham.

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 10, 2022

Moving away from rock and roll branding, one innovative idea is to embrace Cleveland’s title as the “Forest City,” a designation not utilized by any major sports teams in Cleveland. The jersey could incorporate similar branding to the Washington Nationals’ cherry blossom jersey, a design that gained popularity. Picture tree leaves instead of cherry blossoms, or perhaps a subtly darker navy outline of trees behind the Guardians’ script wordmark.

Another idea, which admittedly inspired this article, is to revive one of the most beloved uniforms in Cleveland baseball history. Featured in the movie Major League, as shown below, this uniform could serve as a fantastic way to connect the city’s baseball history from older to younger fans alike. Reintroducing a universally loved uniform that holds cultural significance due to its association with one of the most popular sports movies would make sense. While we are on this jersey, one design difference I would prefer from the one shown below, is to keep the hat simple, and in that, use a throwback logo such as the block C that the team used under the “Indians” name before again, switching to the guardians. Id also much prefer to keep the colors the traditional red, white and Navy and move away from adding another color to the Guardians color scheme for the season, much like the jersey shown on the right.

Guardians ‘Major League’ inspired city connect jersey concepts: #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/rekkWkG50i

— Sarah 🏀 (@sarahknowsball) May 24, 2023

While I mentioned that this uniform inspired this article, why? Guardians media day recently took place, where players were seen sporting outfits reminiscent of the era in which Major League is set. The official Cleveland Guardians X account posted images of this event. While it might be speculative, perhaps they are hinting at the potential return of a uniform from the late ’80s to ’90s. The media day images, featuring players in seemingly out-of-place clothing, could be for in-game graphics and skits when they wear the City Connect, Major League-inspired uniforms. Alternatively, it could simply be a post that got baseball-deprived fans excited about the prospect of their favorite uniform making a comeback. Only time will tell what the MLB, Nike, and unfortunately Fanatics have in store.

Happy photo day! 😅#GuardsSpring pic.twitter.com/7SDNpCM3CB

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) February 22, 2024