There is a controversy regarding the lack of purple LSU baseball jerseys

LSU baseball has closed out their four-game opening series in Baton Rouge with a 4-3 win over Central Arkansas. In doing such, the Tigers wore their home white jerseys for a second time. It's an excellent look for Jay Johnson's team, but many fans are disappointed LSU didn't wear purple tops on Monday.

Oddly enough, a purple option was not among the jerseys LSU baseball showed off before last Friday's first pitch. That is unusual, considering the Tigers wore purple jerseys considerably during 2023's national championship-winning season. Indeed, there's a problem and we might know the cause.

Thanks to some internet sleuthing, it appears that LSU baseball received purple jerseys on an incorrect template from Nike. X (Twitter) user @benhsec referred to a video posted by the LSU baseball account on January 27.

In the video featuring Tigers' players at work during practice, catcher Hayden Travinski is wearing what appears to be LSU's purple jersey at the four-second mark. However, Travinski's jersey is button-less and looks to be on Nike's pullover jersey template. Another notable flaw is the erroneous purple jerseys are missing the American flag above each player's nameplate.

One might assume the button-less purple jersey seen in the video is for practice. We doubt that's true, considering players rarely wear jerseys during practice. Practice jerseys are also typically bland and lack the twill stitching and patches. Nevertheless, what Nike sent the Tigers in purple is only suitable for practice wear.

We assume Nike has yet to deliver the proper purple tops to Baton Rouge. We wonder if LSU purple jersey production delays are related to recent reports that the sports apparel giant is behind on MLB alternate jersey production due to material shortages.

February has been a poor month for Nike and baseball uniforms. Fans and players have voiced displeasure regarding the quality of Nike's MLB jerseys for the 2024 season. Such gripes include thinner material, smaller nameplates, and inconsistent sizing.

Regardless of MLB's jersey situation, we hope Nike comes through, and we get the LSU baseball team back in their purple-over-white look soon. The Tigers wore white jerseys for game one on Friday, pinstripes against Central Arkansas on Saturday, and gold tops for Sunday's blowout win against VMI Sunday.

LSU Uni-Tracker on X (Twitter) was the first to investigate "purple jersey gate." It remains one of our favorite social media accounts, and we thank them for their service.