MLB’s stance on Willson Contreras: A missed opportunity

Players wear it on their sleeve. It’s designed into their shoes. Their fielding gloves and batting gloves are emblazoned with it: country pride as expressed through style and as a reflection of their personality.

The practice is the same for most Latino players, whether they are from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panamá, Colombia or México.

It’s part of what makes the World Baseball Classic and the Caribbean Series so exciting. Players can express that pride through their performance and their appearance. Last year’s WBC, in particular, was alive with a vibrant, Latino style of play.

Last season’s Players Weekend, which allowed players to use nicknames on the back of their jerseys instead of their surnames for the first time in baseball history, gave fans a taste of how players express that pride through the redesign of uniforms, nicknames and their equipment. Latinos felt free to outwardly show pride in their homeland without hesitation.

But after a letter Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras received this week, one wonders if that’s about to change.

Too much flavor?

On Tuesday, Contreras told the media that teammate Ben Zobrist was not the only Cub running afoul Major League Baseball’s uniform dress code.

Contreras also received a notice from the league for not being in compliance with the uniform code. The offending article was the arm sleeve he wore bearing the Venezuelan flag.

For the Cubs’ star young catcher, the arm sleeve is more than a stylistic choice or an act of pride in his homeland. As he shared last year, he wore the Venezuelan arm sleeve to express support for those back home in the midst of a political turmoil and suffering from an economic downturn that has resulted in inflation eclipsing triple digits.
Contreras is not alone.

Many Latino players have expressed pride in their homelands through their cleats, gloves, batting gloves, tape on their bats, and on arm sleeves.

The Minnesota Twins’ Eddie Rosario proudly sported cleats with the Puerto Rican flag designed onto them. San Francisco Giants outfielder Gorkys Hernández also sports a Venezuelan arm sleeve.

These gestures help them add a little flavor – sabor in Spanish – and share with their fans, friends, and family the national connection, whether they are at the ballpark, watching a live broadcast, or perusing their social media postings.

Reaching Latinos and Millenials

Over the past few years, MLB has been experimenting in interesting ways to attract a younger demographic and extend its brand internationally. MLB announced in March that it would broadcast 25 games on Facebook Watch – a decision that broadened the league’s  potential reach among millennials who are regular users of social media platforms. It also created access for fans internationally to see MLB games.

Latinos arguably represent the largest segment of international baseball fans who are likely to watch those broadcasts. The success of last year’s Players Weekend was rooted in the ballplayers being able to express their personality and style through the nicknames on the uniform as well as their gear. Fans were drawn to social media, in part, to see how their favorite players altered their game-day gear and equipment.

For many Latinos, that weekend was another moment to express their national pride in unique ways.

More than Style

Latino players continued to engage in this practice well into the postseason. Players marked their caps with “Pray for PR” to remind fans about the continuing efforts to help Puerto Ricans  dealing with the impact of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Contreras kept wearing the Venezuelan arm sleeve to signal to his countrymen that they are on his mind and to prompt other viewers to ask: “What is that arm-sleeve he is wearing?” so that they could be aware of the ongoing political strife in Venezuela.

For these players, it’s more than style. It also delivers a message that does more than entertain. It can also educate while drawing more fans and younger fans to the game.

It’s an experiment worth continuing.

Featured Image: Photo illustration by Andres Martinez.

Inset Images: Photos by Jean Fruth/La Vida Baseball