Uniform horror: pink, baby blue, camouflage, now nicknames. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?

"The horror! The horror!" ... movie Apocalypse Now (1979) based on Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”

Joe DiMaggio cropped from a posed picture of 1937 Major League Baseball All-Stars in Washington, DC., 7 July 7, 1937 by Harris & Ewing [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Nicknames on Yankees’ Backs? What Would the Bambino Think?
By BILLY WITZ AUG. 9, 2017 nytimes.com

For nearly a century, the Yankees’ uniforms have remained distinctly uniform: white with navy blue pinstripes at home, traveling grays with navy trim on the road. They are the only major league franchise that has never placed names on the back of their jerseys at home or on the road...

For the Yankees, it is a point of pride that Babe Ruth did not dress much different from Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly or Derek Jeter.

But later this month, the Yankees will play a home series against the Seattle Mariners looking like something else altogether. As part of a Major League Baseball-wide “Players Weekend,” from Aug. 25 to 27, the Yankees will wear an alternate uniform with a script “Yankees” across the front, gray caps and — take a deep breath here — the players’ nicknames on the back of their jerseys...

It will also be the first time the Yankees — the only franchise to never have veered away from buttoned jerseys — will wear pullover tops.

In addition to the uniforms, players will be allowed to wear individually designed spikes, batting gloves, wristbands, compression sleeves, catcher’s masks and bats. And each uniform will have a blank patch on the right sleeve for players to write the name of a person or organization that was instrumental in his development.
________________________

There follows a bunch of drivel from branding experts who stand to make money telling the Yankees that it's a good idea to dilute the Yankee brand, which includes rejecting a $2 million a year deal to sell the name of the new Yankee Stadium to some corporate entity. To the Yankees that money didn't match the branding cache of the name Yankee Stadium.

There is also a repeat of Bryce Harper babbling about baseball being a tired sport. Maybe if assholes like Harper didn't jerk around between pitches the game would have some flow.

Did Masahiro Tanaka leave Japan and join the Yankees in 2014 to play the fool? Was he one of the eleven players on an advisory committee that considered this nonsense? Was Mike Trout, the greatest baseball player on the planet? Was Aaron Judge, who according to the Times article, simply wanted to put his last name on his back for this silly promotion but was cajoled by Todd Frazier, a Yankee for three weeks, into playing the fool, too.

It's not golf. It's a team sport in which team members dress the same. They are supposed to look alike in their uniforms. A UNIFORM is NOT an expression of individuality. Wake the heck up.

The New York Yankees should refuse. Let the league and/or players association sue. I hate the pink, baby blue and camouflage uniforms. Nicknames is ridiculous. Recently some Yankee players have worn white shoes with no admonishment.

It's bad enough they wear different socks. The word uniform has a meaning. Meanwhile they're allowed to jerk around interminably between pitches, which sucks the life out of a game. It's easier for the commissioner to ignore that and have them play ill conceived dress up.

And ironically, it won't attract young people. They're long gone.

Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Wu wu wu
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Jolting Joe has left and gone away
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
______________________

Joe DiMaggio? I'd settle for Derek Jeter speaking up.