There are weird baseball moments, and then there’s Single-A baseball in April.
According to Uni Watch.com, a wonderfully minor league moment unfolded Wednesday night in Hickory, North Carolina, when Salem Red Sox reliever Michael Sansone jogged out of the bullpen wearing… the wrong jersey. The lefty, poised to secure a 12–3 Salem lead over the Hickory Crawdads, encountered a minor issue: while the rest of the team donned their navy alternates, Sansone was sporting the bright red version.
It made for a jarring sight—like he wandered in from the wrong dugout or accidentally suited up for batting practice. It’s unclear how the mix-up occurred, but in the Carolina League, laundry mistakes and jersey roulette are commonplace.
Rather than shrug it off, Sansone did what any good teammate would: he literally took the jersey off a teammate’s back and swapped it out mid-game. No big league clubhouse manager. No backup uniforms in a trunk. Just a quick change behind the mound, and back to business.
The Crawdads’ social media team chimed in with a shrug, and their broadcaster, Brian Rushing, leaned all the way in. “In Minor League Baseball, it happens,” Rushing deadpanned on the call. “Sometimes you forget a jersey, so you’ve got to pull another one on. It just becomes part of the territory.”
Chalk it up to another day in the minors, where the games count, but the rules—and the wardrobe—sometimes get a little fuzzy.
Sansone is a 25-year-old left-handed pitcher from Cheshire, Connecticut. He began his professional career in 2022 after signing with the Tampa Bay Rays as an undrafted free agent, making his debut with the Florida Complex League Rays. A standout at Fairfield University, he’s posted a 10–9 record with a 3.09 ERA and 125 strikeouts over 119.1 innings in the minors.
Hopefully nothing similar will occur when the Boston Red Sox debut their new City Connect jerseys on May 16th.
UniWatch’s Phil Hencken outlines some instances of Major League players sporting the wrong uniform in his Thursday report on the story.
Red Sox Prospect Goes Viral for Full-On Uniform Fail