What uniform do the Royals perform best in?

Uniforms are, essentially, just a simple visual tool in order to more quickly tell which players play for which team. Every team wears uniforms, baseball teams included.

Baseball is also an extraordinarily superstitious sport. Minor things can be good or bad omens, and fans and players alike latch on to little things like a Rally Cat/Monkey/Squid/Mantis/Kitten/Orangutan/Squirrel/Cthulu.

So it is with no great surprise that uniforms can be a part of superstition. Some players like certain uniforms over others, and sometimes entire teams can be superstitious. Though it is not baseball, the Denver Broncos gave in to superstition in their most recent championship, and it worked. The Broncos have been to eight franchise Super Bowls. When wearing their home orange, from 1977 to 2013, their record in those games was 0-4. In 2015, the Broncos were the ‘home’ team and could have chosen to wear their home orange uniforms. They did not, opting instead for their road whites, and won the game to bring their non-orange Super Bowl record to 3-1.

The Royals haven’t been particularly superstitious in regards to their uniforms lately—in the playoffs in 2014 and 2015, they didn’t even bother wearing a single alternate—but it got me thinking. In which uniforms do the Royals perform the best?

Thanks to the nifty sites uniformlineup.com and sportslogos.net, we can look at what uniform was worn on what day by Kansas City this season. There will be six categories:

White

Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images

The standard home uniform, which is usually worn on evening games at Kauffman Stadium.

Grey

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The standard road uniform, usually (but not always) used at night.

Powder

Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

The alternate home uniform, usually worn on weekend day games at Kauffman Stadium.

Blue

Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The alternate road uniform, usually (but not always) used on day games.

Gold

Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

These home alternates are only worn on Friday games at Kauffman Stadium.

Special

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Varying uniforms commemorating holidays or other events.

Here are the results, from worst winning percentage to best:

• Grey: 18-23
• Powder: 6-6
• Blue: 7-7
• Special: 9-9
• White: 18-16
• Gold: 7-4

Gold and white is the winner! Interestingly, though, the Royals are pretty even across the board. Only the grey road jersey is a fair chunk above or below .500.

Some other uniform tidbits:

• Kansas City did not win a game in their blue road alternate until June 10
• The biggest streak of games with the same jersey is five; the Royals wore their road greys from July 24 through July 29.
• The biggest streak of games in which the Royals wore a standard alternate was three, done at home once in May and once in June
• Kansas City scores the most runs per game (5.4) in their blue road alternate; they allow the fewest runs per game (3.7) in their home gold alternate

Now that we’ve established that the Royals don’t have a particularly bizarre relationship with any of their uniforms, we can all rest easy. That, or petition the Royals to include an all-powder away alternate like the olden days. Either way is fine with me.