Martin Maldonado celebrated Father's Day by adding a tie to his catching gear
When it comes to sports uniforms, baseball stands out for how formal players dress for games. In addition to full length pants and button-down shirts -- which already puts baseball uniforms in the upper echelons of sports fashion -- baseball players wear belts on the field. Belts!
For Father's Day, Royals catcher Martin Maldonado decided that the best way to celebrate dads was to make his uniform even more formal. He took the field with a clip-on tie!
This HAS to be a first. Martín Maldonado is sporting a tie over his catcher's gear and it's incredible. 😂#AlwaysRoyal | #Royals pic.twitter.com/My74ZhE1Vz
— FOX Sports Kansas City (@FSKansasCity) June 16, 2019
“I just wanted to do it for all the fathers out there, the family members, the friends, the girlfriends," Maldonado explained after the game to MLB.com's Jeffrey Flanagan. “The names on it were friends, their nicknames, my dad was on it.”
Maldonado wasn't the only catcher to wear a tie Sunday. Pirates catcher Elias Diaz also joined in.
Elias Diaz isn’t starting today but his Father’s Day chest protector has a tie stitched onto it. This would be neat to see behind the plate. -RI pic.twitter.com/Ry6GHnG5A5
— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) June 16, 2019
In a great celebration of Father's Day, Diaz entered the game to catch in the eighth inning.
Our best guess is that these ties were a display of solidarity with all the dads out there who trudge to the office five days each week and put in the ol' nine-to-five. Hopefully Maldonado and Diaz were able to avoid spilling sunflower seeds on their ties during between-innings breaks.
Eric Chesterton is a writer for MLB.com. He is an appreciator of the stolen base, the bunt against the shift and nearly every unconventional uniform design. He eagerly awaits Jamie Moyer's inevitable comeback.
