In a bit of unexpected news, the MLB is finding itself in a bit of a cleat controversy. Ben Zobrist of the Chicago Cubs and Mike Clevinger of the Cleveland Indians were both recipients of warning letters from the league on “uniform regulation” violations for their choice in footwear.
Zobrist took to Instagram with an impassioned plea, arguing that the league should relax its ruling to allow him to wear the all-black cleats of past baseball icons that had inspired him:
Meanwhile, Clevinger’s violation was a bit more light-hearted in nature. The pitcher was warned for wearing floral-patterned cleats for Mother’s Day:
As you can see in the letters, there’s a lot of rulebook-citing, and even in Zobrist’s case, a referral to the players’ union to make a formal request for negotiating less strigent uniform regulations. It’s... a lot.
We’re talking about cleats! Let baseball players have some fun with their footwear. Much like many of baseball’s unspoken rules, the formal uniform regulations that the MLB keeps pointing to seems pretty needlessly constrictive in this case. If a player wants to pay homage to past icons or express themselves through their cleats, we simply don’t see the harm.
The fun police are really out here.
