MLB The Show 22 Astrology Uniforms, Part 1

Before I bought my copy of MLB The Show 2022, I did some research on how to transfer over the saved custom astrology teams that I built in MLB The Show 2021. Long story short, I couldn’t figure out how to do that (let me know in the comments if there’s something I’m missing), so the next best option was to upload all of my created logos to the online logo vault. That way the most labor-intensive part of making the uniforms would already be done.

I had help in terms of making all the easier decisions because I saved a video of all the various create-a-uniform settings. Since I didn’t end up getting around to posting YouTube recaps involving all 12 astrology teams, I’m presenting this video here, along with some commentary if you want to follow along. The first six signs on the karmic wheel are below, with the final six coming next week.

Since the primary color associated with Aries is red, I modeled their uniforms after the Philadelphia Phillies. Their home uniforms have the same pinstripes, the basic white-on-red cap design, and even the numbers on the sleeves. Since Aries has such an established sports nickname – the Rams – I decided to put that name on the home jersey, with “Aries” on the away jersey, both in a characteristic Phillies-style cursive script.

Taurus is known for a deep forest green color palette, which was easy enough to replicate by referencing the Oakland Athletics. However, I had to create a different green for their secondary color, since the game doesn’t have a preset for the kelly green that the A’s use on their alternate jerseys. Even though Oakland uses cursive script on their real-life jerseys, I opted to go for a big block letters, which seemed appropriate for a team nicknamed the Bulls.

With yellow as the Gemini color, it seemed natural to model their uniforms after the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was drawn to the cutoffs they wore in the mid-late 2000’s, mostly because of the placement of the team logo over the left breast rather than the team name across the chest. While the “Gemini Twins” is a strong name with baseball precedent, I felt it would be confusing to see the name of a real-life MLB franchise on the jersey of an astrology team. For the away jerseys, I used the game’s goofy Comic Sans equivalent font, since I see Gemini as a playful enough sign to take the graphic design joke.

One cool thing about uploading my custom logos to the MLB The Show vault is that you can see how many other users download them. Most of them averaged between two and five downloads a piece, but I’m proud to say that the logo of my “home” sign Cancer Crabs was the most downloaded of the bunch with over 50 downloads! That fact probably has more to do with the fact that the logo looks like a sideways “69” than with any astrological implications, but it’s still nice to see the Decapods represented.

Cancer’s main color is silver, which is tricky to find a reference for, since all MLB teams use gray on their standard road uniforms. I decided to model the Crabs after the White Sox, since their black and white color scheme is the closest to having silver/gray as a primary color. Plus, the left-breast logo format allowed me to avoid writing “Crabs” on their jersey, even though the Charlotte Stone Crabs were an actual minor league team. Using black for their away jerseys breaks the format I had established of primary color jerseys over gray pants, since otherwise it would have been a rather boring gray-on-gray.

There are two MLB teams that have a Leo-themed orange and black as their primary colors, but I chose to model the Lions after the San Francisco Giants rather than the Baltimore Orioles – partly because no Leo I know would be caught dead wearing a goofy-looking cartoon bird on their hat. The big fat retro stripes on the sleeves and sleek angles of Font 10 are much more in keeping with the Leo aesthetic. Speaking of fonts, the Lions are the third of four teams to have their actual nickname printed across their home jerseys – tune in next week to see the fourth!

Out of all 12 astrology signs, Virgo is the toughest to settle on a nickname. The color scheme was fairly simple: I combined Boston’s navy blue with Kansas City’s royal blue. Those colors go so well together (better than the two shades of green on the Taurus jerseys) that I made Virgo the only sign to employ a two-color cap design. But I ended up putting “VIRGO” on both the home and away jerseys (with a cool flowing banner and different color schemes), because I admit that I’m at a loss as far as what to call them.

Virgo’s symbol is the virgin, so I originally called them the Maidens (an unfairly gendered reading, based on cultural connotations). I later used the nickname Playaz (as you can see in the video), as a play on the sexuality associated with the concept of virginity. But, as Chani Nicholas explains in You Were Born For This: Astrology for Radical Self Acceptance, “In the ancient world, the term virgin referred to those who belonged to themselves, not to someone who never had sex.” I considered going with Flowers, since the cover of my other favorite astrology themed book Astro Poets represents Virgo with a hand holding a flower. But I might lean on the color scheme and call them the Blue Sox, or more simply, the Blues.

Last time, I thought I would take a break from my reverse-chronological trip through FABL history in favor of building astrology rosters to go with the uniforms I’ve been describing. But it turns out I had time for one more season, the last of the fabled Expansion Era.