When I wrote yesterday about the Rays’ new road greys, I mentioned that the team was poised to possibly set a new uni-related record. Here’s the situation: Entering play yesterday, the Rays were in first place in the American League East, and their magic number for clinching the division was two. They were scheduled to play a split doubleheader against the second-place team, the Yankees, and the new greys were slated to make their on-field debut in the nightcap game. So if the Rays lost the first game but won the nightcap, they would clinch the division during the new road uniform’s inaugural game.
As you can probably surmise from that image shown above of third baseman Junior Caminero, that’s exactly what happened.
While I haven’t done any deep research on this, I think it’s safe to say that this is the first time an MLB team — or, most likely, any Big Four pro team — has clinched a division, league, or championship title, or even a wild card berth, while wearing a uniform for the first time. Or to put it another way, the Rays’ new road uni has just set the record for the fewest on-field appearances (one) for any uniform worn in a clinching game.
All of which leads us to an obvious question: Which uniform(s) previously held that record?