Tony Vitello says Tennessee Baseball will retire 2024 black alternate uniform
The black alternate uniform Tennessee Baseball wore in the 6-5 win over Texas A&M in Game 3 of the College World Series championship series in June is being retired, head coach Tony Vitello said this week on ‘Vol Club Confidential’.
Tennessee isn’t completely going away from black uniforms — the Vols wore black hats with an interlocking UT logo, black jerseys with Vols in block orange letters across the chest and white pants — but will have a different version in the future, based on Vitello’s comments.
“The one thing that was a tough decision,” Vitello said on the show, “was what to do with the black tops that we wore this year. And we’re going to retire those. So you’re the first to hear that, including all of our players don’t know. We’ll retire those and see what we do with them, if some of the guys can take one of those home with them.”
“(They) will still be in play for sure,” Vitello added. “We’ll just kind of get a copy cat of the uni for this coming spring.”
‘When you win the final game in that uni, it’s hard to get away from that’
Vitello was asked in a question submitted by a fan on ‘Vol Club Confidential’ which Tennessee uniform combination is his favorite. He immediately went to the black alternate uniforms before settling on the cream set the Vols wear on Sundays at home.
“The best uni combo is a little bit jaded because the black and white has kind of been the favorite of a lot of people,” Vitello said. “When you win the final game in that uni, it’s hard to get away from that.
“But baseball is a tradition-based sport. There’s a lot of rich history and cream kind of has that flavor. And then Sunday is such an important day.”
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Tennessee getting lighter version of cream uniforms
Vitello said Tennessee players wanted to wear the black alternate at home in Game 3 of the Knoxville Super Regional against Evansville. But it was a Sunday home game, so the Vols stuck with their tradition.
“As we talked about it, our guys wanted to wear black that day against Evansville,” Vitello said. “But a lot of times, or in SEC series, how you’re going to end the week comes down to Sunday. So that cream has got a couple symbolic meanings for me.”
Tennessee will also be getting a new version of the same cream uniform, only made with a lighter fabric.
“Fortunately Nike has kind of boosted our deal a little bit,” Vitello said. “So we’ve got a new, more modern material coming in that uni and some others, too.”
