SF Giants will return player names to home jerseys in 2021

The 2021 San Francisco Giants will have names on the back of their uniforms when they take the field at Oracle Park.

The Giants haven’t put names on their home jerseys since they moved into their ballpark at China Basin in 2000. Since then, the stadium has gone by four names (Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, AT&T Park, Oracle Park) but fans haven’t seen the players’ names on the home cream uniforms.

Even on the orange or black jerseys sometimes worn at home, the Giants don’t currently use player names.

Giants president Larry Baer told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins that the change has been accepted by MLB and will be in effect for next season.

Baer said former owner Peter Magowan was the man behind the choice to remove player names when the Giants opened Oracle Park.

“When we built the ballpark, we wanted it to be an ode to a great era of old-time baseball,” Baer told Jenkins. “We had the ‘knothole gang’ feature (fans gathering behind open-air fences to watch the games for free), the asymmetrical dimensions and the same cream-colored home uniforms the Giants had when they arrived in 1958 — with no names.”

Baer also noted that making such a change was less likely during and in the aftermath of the team’s three championships between 2010 and 2014, for fear of jinxing the success. With the team’s recent downturn, 2021 is a perfect time to make the change.