New York Yankees players went to the front office and requested that they be allowed to start wearing alternate uniforms, at least on occasion, during road games, according to The Athletic. Major League Baseball approved the team’s navy blue batting practice jersey for game use prior to last season, per MLB.com, so those are ready to go if the team decided to wear them.
“I’m all about tradition, but we’ve got a (advertising) patch on our sleeves,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge reported Wednesday (via MLB.com). “… I think we’ll always wear the pinstripes at home. I don’t think that’ll change. We’ve changed our road jersey other years. So I guess if we wear the blues, we’ll wear the blues on the road.”
With 41 pennants and 27 World Series titles, the Yankees have long been the most decorated franchise in baseball. Of course, from ownership on down, it’s also long been the one that takes itself the most seriously, to the point that sometimes it feels too uptight. From the rules on hair length and the facial hair ban to the uniforms, the Yankees rarely stray from the status quo. They are even the only team without last names on the backs of both the home and road uniforms.
The Yankees are the only team in baseball with just two uniforms: one home and one road. They are one of two teams to have not (yet?) taken part in having City Connect uniforms (there are eight teams with new ones this season), with the other being the vagabond Athletics — and if there’s no true home city, you can’t really have a City Connect uniform.
“I think we should do that too,” Giancarlo Stanton reported about a City Connect (via MLB.com). “There’s a lot of tradition here. The most iconic jersey there is in sports, pretty much. But that doesn’t mean that every once in a while you can’t change something up.”
The navy blue batting practice tops say “NEW YORK” across the chest and are already available at the MLB Shop online. The Yankees also wear those jerseys during spring training road games. It is not yet know if they will wear them in games.
In recent years, the Yankees have loosened up a bit, by their standards, in relaxing the facial hair policy and even added a jersey sponsor.
