BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox will have a new look on Patriots’ Day weekend.
They’ll honor the Boston Marathon and the city by wearing blue-and-yellow uniforms, the colors that stretch across the finish line of the famous race.
Boston will be the first of seven major league teams to wear new uniforms to honor the city they represent. The team will break them out — with no red — on April 17-18 when they host the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox unveiled the upcoming look Tuesday on Twitter.
“Very good. I think some of the people are going to like it, some others won’t like it,” Red Sox manager said Alex Cora before the game against Tampa Bay. "If you look around the other leagues, they’re proactive, marketing not only the teams but their players.
“If you look at the NBA, it seems like they have a uniform for, you have one for every day. I’m all for it. I think this league has been lacking pushing their players out there and marketing them,” he said.
The jerseys will be yellow with “Boston” across the front in powder blue. On one sleeve, they will have a patch with the numbers “617” for the city’s area code where Fenway Park is located and appear within a racing bib. They’ll also be wearing white pants with a light blue cap with a big “B” in the middle.
It was met with mixed reviews when shown to fans at the team’s nearby souvenir store across the street from third base at Fenway.
“Why yellow?” said 25-year-old Allison Feinberg of Leominster, wearing a blue sweatshirt with red “Red Sox” letters across the front. “I think they’re a little too yellow. I don’t understand the yellow at all.”
When told it was to honor the city and the Marathon on Patriots’ Day weekend, she replied: “Ah, OK. That makes it cool then.”
Another fan liked the look right off the bat.
“I thought they were amazing,” said 29-year-old Mark Johnson, from Union City, New Jersey, who was wearing a David Ortiz road grey jersey.
“The fact that they represent the Boston bombing and just the Boston town,” he said. “I’m not even from here. I’m from New York and I come here. I think the jersey is great and it’s for a great cause.”
The Marathon, usually held on Patriots’ Day in conjunction with an 11 a.m. start for the Red Sox, was moved to Oct. 11 due to the pandemic.
“For them to use a different uniform, hopefully it’s the beginning of something cool and people can recognize these guys not because of the uniform but because of who they are,” Cora said. “This is a great idea and I’m looking forward to that weekend to wear these two uniforms.”
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