Pittsburgh Pirates unveil City Connect uniforms
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Joon Lee, ESPN
The Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled their City Connect uniforms Thursday, a yellow and black look that pays homage to the city’s bridges and exemplifies the city’s shifting from the steel industry toward medicine and technology.
“We anchored in this idea, this transition this city is going through, an evolution,” Pirates executive vice president of marketing and fan engagement Stephen Perkins said. “While the steel industry is here, this city is becoming a technology center.”
On the front of the uniform is a PGH graphic featuring a structural font meant as a nod to the city’s bridges. Each letter contains a texture also found on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, which connects downtown Pittsburgh to PNC Park, home of the Pirates.
“We wanted this to be a forward looking view of what Pittsburgh is,” Perkins said. “We didn’t want to do the obvious thing and make it look like steel or like the bridge.”
Across the uniform is a subtle pattern that features an astroid design, an iconic shape for the Pittsburgh steel industry, a three rivers shape nodding to the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers meeting and a checkered look, which is a reference to the seal of the city. On the sleeve is a patch of the Pirates “P.”
“Pittsburgh has a blue-collar, heads-down mentality,” Perkins said. “We aren’t boisterous, so the design inspiration was subtlety and trying to tell the story that the beauty is in the details, there’s more than meets the eye.”
Above the jersey’s jock tag is the phrase, “We bleed black and gold.” The uniform also features black pants, a growing trend among baseball uniforms since the start of the City Connect series in 2021. While the Pirates did look at other colors and nicknames for the city used by other teams and schools, the team landed on this design.
“We’re the only city where all teams wear the same colors. Black and gold is the city,” Perkins said. “You don’t make design decisions for design’s sake.”
The Pirates will wear the uniform Friday nights at home, debuting the look on June 27 against the San Diego Padres.
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
The Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday signed goaltender Ivan Fedotov to a two-year contract, keeping him out of free agency this offseason.
Fedotov, 27, will have a $3.25 million cap hit.
The Flyers waited nine years for the 6-foot-6 goaltender to leave Russia and join the NHL. Fedotov was selected 18th overall in the 2015 draft but remained with the Kontinental Hockey League for the next eight seasons.
Fedotov signed a deal with the Flyers in May 2022 but his attempt to come to North America that summer was thwarted when Russian authorities took him to a remote military base in the Arctic Circle for a year of service. After completing that service, he signed a two-year deal with CSKA of the KHL. That allowed the Flyers to toll his contract to this season.
After CSKA was eliminated from the Gagarin Cup playoffs, the team announced it had terminated the final year of his KHL contract but retained his Russian league rights. Fedotov finally arrived in the NHL and made his debut April 1. He appeared in three games for the Flyers last season, going 0-1-1 with an .811 save percentage.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere declined to offer specifics on how the team was able to get Fedotov over from Russia.
“He’s been through a lot in his career. He’s been through a lot in his personal life. It’s a big part of the reason why we feel comfortable. We’re excited to have him aboard,” he said in March.
The Flyers now have their goaltending tandem secured for 2024-25, with Fedotov joining 24-year-old Samuel Ersson, who also earned an extension through 2026.
Ersson played 51 games for the Flyers, who were eliminated from the playoffs in the last week of the regular season. Previous starting goalie Carter Hart took an indefinite leave of absence from the team and was one of four NHL players charged with sexual assault in London, Ontario, in January.
The London Police Department launched an investigation in 2022 after TSN reported that Hockey Canada had settled a lawsuit with a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by eight members of that team after a gala celebrating their gold medal win at the 2018 world junior championships.
Hart is a restricted free agent.
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