Basketball jerseys trending with Rockies' pitchers

This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

While doing their throwing programs before games, several Rockies pitchers have looked as if they were instead going to practice their three-pointers and slam dunks.

They’re wearing basketball-style jerseys, featuring black with white pinstripes, silver and purple trim, with letters and numbers that are baseball-style and purple side panels with sublimated Aztec-style designs.

Similar jerseys were seen last year on Padres pitchers during their pregame rituals. Turns out that Rockies reliever Pierce Johnson, who pitched for the Padres last season, arranged delivery of the jerseys through Freestyle Cut and Stitch, a San Diego business that reimagines custom jerseys for players in all sports in a basketball style.

The tanks are the new Rockies fashion craze.

“They’re kinda sick, right?” Johnson said. “A guy in San Diego took care of the big guys on the Padres, then Joe Musgrove ended up getting the whole team some. And we had them all in our City Connect stuff. When I signed here, he made Jurickson Profar, Dinelson Lamet and me, the former San Diego guys, those jerseys and sent them out to us.

“Now we’ve got so many new guys, I need to order some more. I’ll end up putting in an order for everybody but they take a little bit to get made. It’s something fun -- and the Nuggets winning the NBA Championship, it seems pretty fitting.”