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The story of how the Phillies’ City Connect jerseys leaked — and why the players were glad

The team will unveil their new look on Friday against the Pirates.

The Phillie Phanatic shows off the Phillies' City Connect jersey next to a photo of Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper. The team will debut their new look tonight.
The Phillie Phanatic shows off the Phillies' City Connect jersey next to a photo of Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper. The team will debut their new look tonight.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer
    by Gabriela Carroll
    Updated 
    Published 

The Phillies’ City Connect jerseys will make their long-awaited on-field debut on Friday night.

The City Connects were only officially unveiled last Friday in a big event at Citizens Bank Park. But the jerseys have been around for months now, after a leaked Zack Wheeler jersey appeared on eBay in January and ruined the surprise.

“Good job,” Bryson Stott told Wheeler, per MLB.com. “Way to post it on eBay. You could have posted it on Facebook and nobody would have seen it.”

So how did the photos leak? Like so many of these stories, it starts with a shipping container and ends with someone cutting open an unloaded box and taking something for themselves — sneakers, jewelry, or maybe even an unreleased Phillies jersey. Here’s more from Todd Zolecki ...

The Phillies heard that somebody at PortMiami had grabbed a Phillies City Connect jersey from a box, not knowing the significance of it. The person took the item home, plopped it on their kitchen counter, snapped a photo and posted it on eBay.
If this person had opened a different box and grabbed a Wheeler powder-blue jersey instead, nobody would have been the wiser.
But everybody noticed, including the authorities, presumably.
Todd Zolecki, MLB.com

And so when they were officially unveiled, many, including the players, already knew what to expect. The light blue-to-navy gradient with yellow accents honors the Philadelphia city flag, and other Philly details include the Liberty Bell cap (with the skyline on it) and the ‘LOVE’ patch on the sleeve.

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The jerseys have gotten mixed reviews so far, with some praising the unique design, especially the hat, but many didn’t love the font, specifically on the numbers. The Phillies will wear the City Connect jerseys at every Friday home game this season.

The leak, however, turned out to be a good thing for the players, Wheeler told MLB.com. It gave them extra time to order their own matching cleats, batting gloves, and other accessories, ahead of Friday’s game.

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“It’s good we saw it,” Wheeler said. “It gave us a head start.”

The Phillies are lucky to have their City Connect jerseys at all. Multiple teams, including St. Louis and Seattle, per Kyle Corwin, have struggled to get their alternate and City Connect jerseys shipped due to manufacturing complications with the changeover to the new jersey template, the latest in a long line problems in Fanatics first year of manufacturing MLB’s uniforms.

Philly fans will get their first look at the jerseys in action on Friday night.