MLB Dress Code?

Yes, but Az, they had more advanced air-conditioning in those days.

 

Poor Liebling! Perspiring in his seersucker!

 

As those of you who have met me know, I am, to be polite to the verge of lying, a casual dresser. But I always would have passed this code easily. And I doubt MLB cares much if reporters wear shorts on 90-degree days, as long as they are preppy enough, anyhow.

 

Its not so much a complaint, for me, as it is a discussion of where an organization's power over the press begins and ends. ESPN, a broadcast partner, dresses a sideline reporter in a provacitive outfit. Does she get tossed and banned? Or does the $$ talk?

To me there are 700 hypotheticals where this looks bad or doesn't work. I think MLB has no business thumbing its nose in this direction despite the fact that it would never be thumbed at me.

Just saying that people who question this are arguing for muscle shirts and flip flops is over-simplification.

 

The only times I wouldn't have were on 95-degree days covering summer training camp at a BCS-conference school. The reason was because I wore leather, well-kept flip flops on occasion, along with "legal" shorts and a collared shirt.

 

I think a good comparison would be restaurant critics.

Many restaurants have a dress code. They seem to be able to reasonably enforce it. Critics, presumably, follow said code. They don't work for the restaurant, either.

As far as the code being nebulous or difficult to follow, just because it isn't easy to draw absolute bright-line rules doesn't mean that the code is impossible to enforce. Lots of rules are standards/guidelines more than they are rules, even laws that are enforceable criminally ("Don't drive recklessly.").

Guys: You can handle this.

 

Jimmy, we can move the needle 10-15 degrees. Won't matter.

Anything that would lead to someone getting called on a dress-code "violation," I am more than confident that the clothing would be at least questionable. The governing body (MLB) can't afford to make an issue out of something that isn't close to being an issue.

 

Don't worry. In 20-30 years, it will be so hot outside that every team will have to build a dome out of necessity anyway.

 

The back of my last MLB press pass, from September, already says,

THIS CREDENTIAL MAY BE REVOKED AT ANY TIME WITHOUT CAUSE.

so I'm unclear on the additional level of worry.

 

^^ This.
Years ago a certain PR guy for a certain baseball team that BYH looooves took me aside and asked if I'd tell the female TV reporter who was in the clubhouse that her dress wasn't appropriate. At that moment she was also grabbing a soda from the players' fridge, but the PR guy was reluctant to say anything to her because he feared being accused of something untoward. I said it wasn't my place to say anything to her -- I'd never even met her, and I'm not the den mom -- and I think he eventually ended up calling her station manager. It was all very awkward.

 

Zubaz. You definitely should've went with Zubaz.

I wear leather sandals a handful of summer league baseball games I cover. When I was just out of college, I wore sandals a lot covering games. In hindsight I regret it. It's amazing how much more respect I get from people when I went to good leather shoes, a pair of dry cleanable pants and a collared button-up shirt compared to what I wore when I was young and stupid.

(Well, I'm still young and stupid. But decidedly less so.)