There is a very small and elite list of the most momentous changes that have transformed the world of sports as we know it. The establishment of the three-point shot, the legalization of the forward pass, and now the New York Yankees wearing alternate uniforms.
There hasn’t been a moment like this in baseball since the lights went on at Wrigley Field for the first time. But the Yankees are now going to buck decades of tradition and corrupt themselves like the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball by allowing players to wear alternate uniforms. The Yankees can now wear their navy blue batting-practice tops in regular-season games, a move championed by players.
The acceptance of alternate jerseys follows an earlier rescinding of the Yankees’ famous facial hair policy.
Are the Bronx Bombers finally adapting and getting with the times? Or is the franchise abandoning its roots and getting soft?
If you ask Yankees announcer Michael Kay, he would argue that the team is making too many concessions to make players happy without the wins and championships to back it up.
On his ESPN New York radio show, Kay went in on players constantly asking for things to benefit them without producing much for owner Hal Steinbrenner in return.
ICYMI: @RealMichaelKay discusses the possibility of the New York Yankees adapting new alternate road jerseys.
Do the players deserve more rewards without providing a championship in return?
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“It can’t be a one-way street. Give me, give me, give me. Hal Steinbrenner says, ‘Well, give me a championship. Give me the 28th title I want. I’m spending $350 million in payroll. Give me that, and maybe I’ll give you other stuff.’ All I’ve seen over these years, ‘let’s make things great for the players. Let’s give the players everything they want.’ And they deserve to have great things. It’s not an easy job, but they’re well compensated for it,” Kay said. “But you pay top dollar, you have a state-of-the-art clubhouse, you travel in style, you stay in the best hotels. Ok great, that stuff should be. But the extra little things, ‘let us grow our hair longer, can we wear beards?’ Well then, win me a championship. Because if I’m going to move away from the Yankees and what the Yankees stand for, then I’m going to need something back from you.”
It has been an unusually dry stretch in the history of the New York Yankees and their 27 World Series titles. It’s now been 17 years since their last triumph in 2009. That’s nearing the longest gap between championships since their first in 1923. The Yankees went 18 seasons between 1978 and 1996 without a title.
Is it because of their facial hair or lack of alternate uniforms? Probably not. Every sports team now has alternate uniforms. The Lakers are wearing white and black. The Cowboys wear throwbacks. Even Ohio State, which is famously the scarlet and gray, has donned black uniforms to draw in more recruits. It’s hard to blame Yankees players for wanting to get in on the action, even if it’s not what Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would have done.
And Michael Kay is fine with that. He just wants the players to produce before they start asking for more from ownership.
“The players are probably saying, ‘we want to have fun like all the other teams, they have all these wacky uniforms.’ Win me a championship. Maybe that’s the deal. Win me a championship. I don’t think that’s a big ask,” Kay added.
While Michael Kay said he really didn’t care about the alternate uniforms themselves, it’s more about what they represent: players getting more and more control over decisions made by the franchise. Even as the voice of the Yankees, the longtime announcer has never been shy about voicing his opinion or letting his true thoughts be known about players. Hopefully, they don’t ask Hal Steinbrenner next for an announcer who will let them do whatever they want in peace.
