All-Star Game announcers, managers praised return to team uniforms

The 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game marked a return to the long-held custom of the players in the game wearing the uniforms of their teams instead of a customized American League or National League jersey. For Joe Davis and John Smoltz, who called the game on Fox, it was a return that couldn’t come soon enough.

As Tuesday night’s All-Star Game returned from commercial for the bottom of the sixth inning, fans were shown at one of the gift shops at Truist Park.

“I’m glad that folks can get All-Star gear and they should go there and buy it all up right now,” Davis said. “But how sweet is it that players are wearing their teams’ uniforms again?”

“I’m telling you, it’s one of the coolest things,” an agreeing Smoltz added. “Think about the young kids that didn’t know that they could do that. Because we grew up watching it. And now it’s back. We get to pick out and not wonder who and where they play for.”

Joe Davis: “How sweet is it that the players are wearing their teams’ uniforms again?” #MLB #AllStarGame pic.twitter.com/IxCrC1F9bE

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 16, 2025

During the seventh inning, Davis and Smoltz interviewed the game’s two managers, Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees and Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both skippers agreed.

“Doesn’t it look right, Aaron? We’ve got everybody in our own uniforms here,” Davis said.

“Amen,” Boone replied. “It’s so good, isn’t it? It’s so good. Thank you, baseball, for fixing that little snafu we had there for a few years.”

“So good,” an agreeing Roberts said.

For most of the All-Star Game’s history, players have worn their team’s jersey. But from 2021-2024, players wore customized jerseys for that year’s game, usually in the colors of the host team. That was generally an unpopular arrangement. Near the end of the 2024 season, it was announced that All-Stars would once again wear their regular team uniforms for the game itself. For other events around the All-Star Game, such as the Home Run Derby, players wore the customized jerseys.

“IT’S CAL RALEIGH’S SEASON! IT’S CAL RALEIGH’S DERBY! 18 HOME RUNS IN THE FINAL! AND CAL RALEIGH JOINS KEN GRIFFEY JR. AS THE ONLY MARINERS CHAMPIONS, AND BECOMES THE FIRST CATCHER IN 39 YEARS TO WIN THE HOME RUN DERBY!”

Kevin Brown with the ESPN2 call. #MLB #HomeRunDerby pic.twitter.com/c1BvlVdUqo

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 15, 2025

It’s a happy compromise and a welcome return to tradition.