In celebration of Strat-O-Matic and cozy baseball sweaters

November 19th, 2023

The World Series is over and the offseason has begun. While you could obsess over your 20-team dynasty keeper league roster or spend countless hours gazing into a crystal ball, wondering where Shohei Ohtani will wind up, we have a slightly less frightening use of your time: Watch the season finales of MLB.TV's Inside Stitch and Carded.

To start things off on Inside Stitch, let's go back in time to that halcyon time when the greatest of uniform livery ruled supreme. I'm naturally talking about the baseball cardigan. 

Gabrielle Augustin, curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, breaks down the fascinating history of this woven object. We can only hope to see everyone decked out in these bad boys when those chilly spring days are back next year.

Next, a panel of MLB.com writers ranked the filthiest players in baseball. Now, get your mind out of the gutter -- we're talking about the players who are literally the dirtiest. That means the guys with perpetually grass-stained knees and who have dirt covering every part of their uniform.

You may be able to guess who No. 1 is, but how about the rest of the list?

Jake Peavy walked through his uniform history from his 15-year big league career.

"I love a road jersey because it says where you're from," Peavy said about the gray road Red Sox uniform he wore during the team's 2013 World Series championship. What made that jersey even more special was the black band on the arm, worn in memory of the people who lost their lives at that April's Boston marathon bombing.

Baseball will feel a little different next spring when Opening Day comes around and Miguel Cabrera isn't playing on a big league team. But which jersey looked better on the likely future Hall of Famer: Tigers or Marlins?

Finally, the Minors are known for their wacky and wild uniforms. But what about when the jerseys stand for something a little more important? The Akron RubberDucks have been raising money to fight childhood cancer and blood disorders every season since 1997. This summer, over 1,200 children and their families walked from the hospital and -- best of all -- the uniforms were designed by one of the patients, too.

In the year's final episode of Carded, the wax packs went wild. That's because some amazing celebrities stopped by to celebrate Topps Rip Night -- an evening to celebrate the tearing open of packs The names ranged from former and current NBA players Jalen Rose and Jayson Tatum, to comedian Kevin Hart to former Expos draft pick (is he known for something else?) Tom Brady.

Now, you may have played MLB the Show or even RBI Baseball on Super Nintendo in your past. But have you ever played the original king of baseball games, Strat-O-Matic Baseball? The game, which uses dice and player cards with a variety of outcomes based upon that player's real-life ball skills, has been going strong since it was invented in 1961.

Never played? Get caught up on the action here:

Robert Flores then matched his Strat-O-Matic lineup of current MLB Network analysts against Bob Costas' 1961 New York Yankees lineup. Who came out on top: The talking heads or the M&M boys?

Former big league outfielder Doug Glanville then joined the show to discuss his card collecting habits.

"It was surreal," Glanville said about seeing himself on a baseball card. "In the big leagues, fans start mailing you cards. That's what's cool about the fans: They send you the cards to sign, but they always send you an extra card saying, 'Oh you can keep this one.' That's how I built my collection."

Perhaps most shocking: Glanville's most important card isn't a baseball card. It was his Strat-O-Matic card.

No episode of Carded is complete without a pack rip. For that, Sean Casey and Mark DeRosa tore open some packs to see what they'd find:

For previous episodes and so much more, head over to MLB.TV.