The Giants announced last year that they would start wearing names on the backs of their home jerseys during the 2021 season. Players wore
the new ones during photo day on Tuesday at Scottsdale Stadium and the
team's social media account gave a first look on Twitter:
The nameless cream jerseys were a favorite of former owner Peter Magowan, who viewed them as an homage to the team that arrived in San
Francisco in 1958. But the game has changed significantly, and in recent
years the Giants started talking about making a change they felt could
help more casual fans get to know players.
The Giants used an NL-record 64 players in 2019 and had 45 different players put on their jersey over 60 games in 2020. This spring, they
have 72 players in camp. Manager Gabe Kapler said last week that players
were asked to wear their jerseys during workouts for the first few
days. During an appearance on KNBR over the weekend, Mario Alioto, the
club's executive vice president of business operations, told a story
about another team executive watching a father and son at the ballpark.
They were standing in the tunnel outside the home clubhouse and the
young boy excitedly said "that's No. 8" as Hunter Pence walked by in a
jersey with no name on the back.
"Part of what we need to do is introduce our game to a whole new generation of fans," Alioto said. "I know there are many folks -- and
I'm one of them at times -- that are traditionalists and go back with
the old days of baseball, but I think we also need to be cognizant of
introducing our game to a new generation of fans.
