We all love to see players be themselves and do what they love best on and off the field. Major League Baseball held its annual Player Weekend for only the second time ever last weekend (August 24-26). These three days showed us all types of equipment designed and used by the players, and everyone’s nicknames were sewn onto where their actual names usually go.

The best nicknames were the ones that really fit the player wearing it, like Shohei Ohtani, wearing SHOWTIME. Ever since Ohtani was signed by the Angels, everyone said it was showtime in any city he was in. Last year, all of the attention was on Judge with ALL RISE as his nickname, but this year it was all on Pujols, who went with THE MACHINE. Gerrit Cole was COLE TRAIN, Mookie Betts was just MOOKIE, and, finally, Chris Sale was THE CONDUCTOR for the weekend. The name that stole the show was not a name at all, but one of emojis. Brad Boxberger made his nickname a puzzle for us by having a box and a burger on his back.

Like I said, it was not just nicknamed being showcased – players were also using their own equipment. For example, Todd Frazier wore cleats that were The Godfather-themed, while Bryce Harper went for a more abstract design on his cleats and bats. Speaking of bats, the color was everywhere as players put their creativity on the bats that they would use. For example, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo had two halves of a heart on each of their bats.

To top off all of this, the uniforms worn that weekend had a sort of throwback theme. They had the modern logo with a secondary color scheme, meaning everyone had only two colors and nobody was wearing white. Why this change? This was all done so the teams could sell more jerseys and add a new logo on the sleeves. It showed a progression of a bat swing, but the person gets taller and taller. This represents how players start in Little League and move throughout the Minors to the Majors. It’s a great lesson to teach – with hard work, determination, and a passion to keep driving forward, you can achieve your goals.

Amidst all the festivities that came with Player Weekend, baseball is still a sport that you have to constantly fight to be on top. This lesson was made clear in Florida. The mighty Boston Red Sox were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays who, at the time, had just swept the Kansas City Royals. In the third game of the sweep, Blake Snell, one of the best pitchers since the All-Star Break, dominated with his fastball, which struck out eight and allowed only one run. Thanks to the total domination by the Rays, outscoring the Sox 24-5, Boston was 0-5 on Player Weekend.