The Rays have a road gray again, it debuts Tuesday against the Yankees, and it is the best thing in the closet

Tampa Bay revealed a new gray road uniform with TAMPA BAY arched across the chest in a gradient running light blue into green into yellow, the ray mark beneath it, and navy piping, navy swoosh and a navy helmet with the TB ray. The club framed the set around its commitment to the community.

It is the first traditional road gray the Rays have carried since 2023. They abandoned it and have travelled in the navy and Columbia blue alternates ever since.

It also answers the criticism we have made twice about this wardrobe: the Columbia blue alternate has worn a small sunburst on the right chest instead of a wordmark since 2022, and we called it a gorgeous colour wearing almost nothing. This one puts a full arched wordmark back where it belongs.

It debuts Tuesday, September 22, in the second game of the doubleheader against the Yankees, with a week left in the 2026 season.

I absolutely love these. An A from me. I hope they move in this direction as their main road and their main home, or the white version of these, and I am happy the Rays are going this way.
Jake Daneshgar

Source: @RaysBaseball·Full breakdown and grade→

More from the wire

3:35

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NFL

ESPN's new Monday Night Football scorebug

ESPN soft-launched a new NFL scorebug and graphics package during a Raiders vs. Texans preseason game in August, and it is now the look on Monday Night Football. It is a long, flat bar with the team logos at each end on team color.

ESPN says the package will keep evolving through the season and will be the base for its graphics at Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, on ESPN and ABC. That is ESPN's first Super Bowl.

We grade the scorebug a B-. In our ranking of every NFL TV broadcast, Monday Night Football finishes last overall with a D+.

It's an improvement over years past, but I think it's still boring. They got rid of the neon yellow theme and went to a more simple look. It's just very boring and doesn't have a lot of personality. B-.
Jake Daneshgar

Source: NewscastStudio·Every NFL TV broadcast ranked→

3:30

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College

Cal reveals a Grateful Dead helmet for the Grateful Bears game against Wake Forest

Cal Football posted its Grateful Dead helmet on Monday night: a gold shell with the Cal script inside a Steal Your Face skull, a tie-dye blue center stripe with a white lightning bolt, and the dancing bears on the white rear bumper in blue-gray, pink, orange and green, with Oski in a CAL sweater in the middle.

It is for the Grateful Bears theme game, which Cal says celebrates the band's 29 shows at the Greek Theatre on campus. Cal (3-3) hosts No. 21 Wake Forest on Saturday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. Pacific on ESPN2. The jersey and pants have not been shown yet.

Those are awesome, they get an A+ from me. I love the Grateful Dead colored bears on the bottom to go along with the Cal bears, with just a nice pop of color. I'm a real sucker for teams that keep their main colors and then throw in colorful details.
Jake Daneshgar

Source: @CalFootball·Cal uniform schedule→

3:30

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MLB

FOX has a new MLB scorebug for the NLCS, and it knocked FOX out of first place

FOX debuted a new MLB scorebug on Sunday for Game 1 of the NLCS, a 2-1 Brewers win over the Dodgers in Milwaukee. FOX's MLB account posted it during the game as a "New scorebug for the NLCS!"

The old bug put the team abbreviations over big faded team logos with a white center panel. The new one drops the abbreviations and the big logos for small team logos next to much bigger scores, and the center panel with the inning, count and outs is now black. The pitcher and batter bars and the 3D bases carried over.

We had FOX at No. 1 of 6 national MLB scorebugs with an A+. The new bug gets a B+, which ties Netflix, and Netflix takes the top spot because FOX's change made its scorebug worse.

It's not terrible, but I'm very disappointed in the change. The sections where the team names and team logos go got significantly worse, with the logos smaller, and I don't like that black space in the middle now either. B+.
Jake Daneshgar

Source: @MLBONFOX·Every national MLB scorebug ranked→

2:10

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College

Kentucky goes black helmet, white jersey and black pants at Oklahoma

Kentucky posted a "new look for week seven" on Tuesday: a black helmet with the blue interlocking UK logo, the white jersey with KENTUCKY and the numbers in blue, and black pants with a blue and white side stripe and a blue UK on the hip.

It is the third different helmet in three weeks for the Wildcats, after the chrome shell at South Carolina and the Power K throwback against LSU. Kentucky (5-1) plays at Oklahoma on Saturday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

Source: @UKFootball·Kentucky uniform schedule→