Mike Morin

For those wondering why the Boston Red Sox are wearing Nashua fire hydrant colors, I’m with you and decided to get some answers.

2023 has not been the best Sox season of late, so why parade as the Boston-Nashua Fire Plugs? Even non-baseball fans, like my daughter Liz, a Boston resident, asked me why they’ve changed colors.

“Can you please enlighten me-why are they wearing blue and yellow? Saw a glimpse of a game the other day and was super confused!”

You are not alone, dearest daughter. It’s actually a Nike/Major League Baseball campaign called, “City Connect.” The concept, conceived two years ago, is to honor the spirit of Patriots Day, using Boston Marathon colors to help folks make the connection.

And all along I was certain the color change was a nod to Nashua’s fire hydrant colors. If true, the gate city should take credit for the Yellow Sox 84% winning rate after donning the Marathon colors in 26 games since 2021. And this year alone, Boston is a perfect 6-0 with the alt uniforms. I doubt the intention was to use them indefinitely, but the team has a phenomenal win/loss record in their City Connect colors. Do fans like the occasional change up?

“No! Tradition dictates in the long run,” Gerard told me via social media. “Are we the Red Sox? Or are we not?” Uh, uh, uh. I’m at a loss to rebut that lawyerly logic.

From Kris, “I’d take the ugly and a run at the playoffs over the season sputtering out.” Let’s extrapolate. If Boston is a perfect 6-0 in this yellow and blue get up for a half dozen matches, they could’ve very well be 124-0 after today’s game.

Another fan, Bob Moran, weighed in: “Hey, Let them wear daffodil print skivvies if they want. Just win some games and give us fans something to root for!” Thank you Bob. Are you listening, Chaim Bloom, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer? Your paying customer, Bob Moran, says let the boys of summer wear daffodil print skivvies. Can you make a deal with Nike for this brilliant idea next season? Daffodils are yellow and bloom during the Marathon. You can make this work.

Because many Nashua fire hydrants sport the exact same color combo, I asked Kathleen Palmer, Communication and Events Specialist in the Mayor’s office, to see what the deal is with Nashua’s fire plug palate. She reached out to Fire Chief Steve Buxton, whom she hoped could shine some light on this.

“This was a color selected by Pennichuck Water at some point.  The ones on Main Street are actually black. There is a system in place we engaged in at one point, but it is no longer followed,” said Chief Buxton. The system was once color-coded to reflect gallons-per-minute flow. Not anymore. Looks to me like it’s all about the Red, I mean, Blue, I mean Yellow Sox.

Chief Buxton may be on to something. Let’s go with the Black Sox in 2024.

Mike Morin writes a twice-monthly column for the Sunday Telegraph.

Newsletter