How Uniforms and Numbers Work at MLB Level

Hey, what's up fellas? How you doing? Manettinelli here. Okay. Today we're going to talk about uniforms at the major league level. How do you get your number? How do you get sized correctly? I'm going to give you my experience and how they did that for me. So it usually always starts in spring training. Now before we talk about major leagues from training, let's talk about minor league spring training and how those uniforms work. First off in minor league spring training, you get whatever you get, you get what you get and you don't get upset. Okay? That's what they told my daughter in preschool and that's how the Padres tell you in the minor leagues. They don't actually say that, but that's your mentality. You just get whatever. All right? So you do not walk in there and say, Hey, you know, I'd like some, some tighter pants that go down to my cleat. No, no, no. They just throw you a pair of pants and if you like it down at your cleat, it doesn't matter. They're going to throw your pants where you get tweeners like, you know, this high above your ankle, you're going to feel like an idiot. I know you need to look good to play good. At least that's what I said. You're not going to look good. So you got to figure it out. You got to use a different type of mentality. Again, especially in the minor leagues when they make you show your sock with the Padres, it was always show blue. You had to show blue. So you had to show your sock. A lot of times I didn't like that. A lot of times I hear, Hey Anto, where's your blue? And then I have to pull my pants up and then hope they fall back down again. And then you blame it on the pants. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm trying to show blue, but they keep falling down. They don't usually buy that. In the Yankees organization, they make you wear it all the way up to your knee. That actually isn't terrible. Better than the tweeners. Anyways, I don't know why I'm talking about this. Now when you go to a major league spring training game as a minor leaguer, you've seen it all before. You're going to get any, you're going to get number 97, number 99. You might, I've never seen 112, but I wouldn't be surprised if they start passing that out. Essentially the higher the number, the more you stink. Okay. And you feel like an idiot when you go out there at number 90. Now batting number 98 with his minor league two flap helmet, Matt Antonelli. And everyone laughs at you. Oh, this guy stinks. He got into the ninth inning. He's basically here so the starters don't pull a hamstring on the big leaguers. But that's what it's like when you go to the big leagues for the first time as a minor leaguer. Now let's fast forward. You're a major leaguer now, or at least you're at major league spring training. Okay. You might not be a major leaguer, but you're a major league spring training, which means, Hey, you're technically on the team for spring training. You're going to be in the same clubhouse. You're going to practice. You're going to play with all the big leaguers, all the guys you've watched on TV. And so when that happens, things get a little more serious when it comes to uniforms. Um, you don't actually get to pick your uniform number yet. You're still going to kind of get what you get and you don't get upset, but at least you're not number one 16 anymore. Now you're like number 45 or 52. I think I was 52 one year. As you get better again, the higher the number, usually the more you stink. Not always. I'm sure there's some big leaguers that have high numbers, but I think I was number 52 the first time around. Okay. But what you do get is you get the, you're able to get fitted now. So you walk into the club or the clubbies room. I don't know what you want to call the equipment room. I'm sure that's what it's called. And they measure you out and they say, okay, what kind of pants do you want? Do you want long pants? Do you want high pants? Do you want baggy pants? Do you want tight pants? And so you kind of tell them they get the tape measure. They measure you up for your pants and your shirt and all that stuff. You get a one flapped helmets and now you feel like a big leaguer instead of the minor league helmet where it's two flapped and it feels like you're an astronaut. The thing is just huge. You're like a bobble head. So you get the cool helmet and now you're feeling better about yourself. So you go out there and hopefully you hit well. And I hit okay in spring training for most years. I dominated in 2010. Didn't matter. Still got sent to AAA, but you're feeling like a big leaguer a little bit more. You're feeling like you belong. Now what happens with your major league jersey? How do you get your major league jersey number? Cause your sizes are basically going to stay the same, right? You got your sizes in spring training. If you get called up, that's going to be your size, right? Unless you put on 30 pounds. I've done that before, but that's going to be your size. But how do you get your jersey number? Well, this is interesting because this is how it happened to me. I was number like 52 or 26 or whatever I was in big league spring training, but I got called up during the season and I showed up to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers and I was number nine, right? I got number nine. How did I get number nine? I have no idea how I got number nine. I didn't even choose number nine, but guess what? Number nine is my favorite number ever. I'd show you my jersey from Wake Forest over there. I was number nine. Actually, let me take it back for a second. My jersey number, my favorite jersey number was number six. Actually I was number six in high school. I went to college to be number six and Doug Reepy had number six and I was like, no, he's a senior. I can't get number six. What do I do? I flip it upside down and I'm number nine, you know, Ted Williams. So it actually wasn't terrible that I was able to be number nine. It became my favorite number and somehow I was number nine in the big leagues. That was like amazing. I was like, this is meant to be number nine. I'm in the big leagues. I got a hit my first at bat. Then I went 21 at bats without another hit and then I was terrible, but I was still number nine. I was excited. So that's how I got number nine. Now what happened after that? I showed up the next big league spring training. Well, I'm on the 40 man now. So I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, of course I'm going, they never, they don't send a man on the 40 man down to minor league spring training. So I show up and I go in my locker, my, um, yeah, my locker and I got number 10. I'm like number 10. Why? Where's number nine? I don't know. I don't like 10. I like single digits. I'd never want to be a double digit number. I want to be a single digit number. Uh, well, Ted Simmons, who is a really good baseball player, an excellent baseball player had become, I think our bench coach. Uh, and Ted said, Hey, I want number 10. He didn't say that to me. I'm sure he showed up and said, uh, or he said, I want number nine. I don't, I don't want number 10 or number 28 or whatever. I want number nine. Oh, this bum over here. Who's man had to know? He never heard him. Give me his number. And so, you know, it's like the, it's, it wasn't exactly like this, but it felt a little bit like, you know, you're, you're walking down the hall in school and some big, big guy, a lot bigger and stronger than you takes you. And he slams you in your locker. And he says, give me your lunch money. And then he locks you in there. And then you're banging on it all day long. And nobody finds you until the teacher at the end of the day is walking by. And they're like, what is this? I hear screaming. And then they let you out of the locker. They can't figure out your lock at first. So they got to call the janitor. And he's like a little loser here stuck in his locker with no lunch money. Anyways, that's what it kind of felt like. I got my lunch money taken from me, but at least it got taken by not just a bully, but a really, really good player. So I lost, I lost number nine. I never got the guy, never got anything. It wasn't like he was like, Hey, I'll flip you this Rolex or I'll give you a, whatever. He was just like, give me, give me your number. He didn't even say that. He just took it. Okay. He just took it from me. So I was number 10. And I continued to be number 10 until we traded for Miguel Tejada. Now Miguel Tejada was one of my favorite players growing up. I grew up with Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada. Did I say that already? Tejada, Nomar, Jeter, A-Rod. Okay. I'm sure there was more, but those were like my dudes back in the day. And so I was like, Oh man, we got Miguel Tejada. That's really cool. And Miguel came in and was like, I want number 10. He didn't ask me again. He didn't ask me. He just told the club, he's like, I want number 10. And they were like, he was like, who's this bum Matt Antonelli with number 10? Like, give me his number. And so I was no longer number 10. I was, I don't even know what number I went to. Okay. Because I got on tender shortly after that. But Miguel had number 10. And he didn't come up to me and said like, Hey, you want a Rolex? You know, you want some money? You want, you want my autograph? Nothing. He just said, give me the number. And so I didn't give it to him, but I got stuck in my, stuffed in my locker again. I got my lunch money taken. And then I transferred schools. Cause I was like, I hate this school. I get stuck in the locker every day. I can't even eat lunch. So I got sent over to the nationals and I never got to the big leagues again. So I don't even know how it worked over at any of the other teams. Okay. That's just how it worked with the Padres. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of insight. If you have more questions on uniforms, uh, let me know if you want to send me any money. Um, I could use lunch. Um, so that's all I have. Thank you so much for watching. Subscribe to the channel, give it a thumbs up, all that good stuff. We'll talk to you later. If you've enjoyed this video and want to learn more about building the elite swing, check out our new course. We have over two hours of content, almost 30 hitting drills. We break down the exact mechanics that you're going to want to implement into your swing. I've put the link in the description. If you want to go check it out.