Words by Flobo Boyce
With another season underway, the next crop of City Connects have hit store shelves. Whether you’ve seen some of the offerings from such teams as the Diamondbacks, Marlins, or the Astros or not, City Connect discourse usually comes down to two major talking points: Thoughts about the design of the jersey, and asking why the Yankees don’t have one.
To be fair to the New York Yankees, the city-less Athletics don’t have a City Connect jersey either. However, the glaring omission of one of the greatest franchises in all of sports is something worth talking about. The City Connect alternate uniform project, shepherded by Nike in 2021 has yielded some fun results. While some entries were great, others were rather puzzling. Taking everything into account, I do feel it is a net positive. Fans have more options to express themselves, casual watchers of the game have new colorway/fashion options for their wardrobe, and we all are in on the joke that these alternate uniforms are secondary (or tertiary) to a team’s main identity. The Yankees organization seemingly doesn’t see it that way, and while some teams are on their second City Connect run, the Bronx Bombers have exactly zero to their name.
When asking Yankee fans why they think that is, I usually get two responses. Either that the current Yankee uniform is perfect, there’s no need to have an alternate jersey, or that the Yankee brand stands for tradition and it’s that tradition that forbids even the thought of having an alternate uniform at all. To me, the first point is moot because City Connect jerseys are almost always in the regular season rotation and are essentially forgotten about as an option as soon as the calendar flips over to September. As for tradition, that may be a harder sell.
I don’t need to go into detail about Yankee history, but there’s a reason why their 27 championships are a common knowledge stat to even those who aren’t big baseball fans. The Yankees have historically stood for excellence, and while they are in the midst of a championship drought now, when you have a team that’s used to winning a lot there’s no real reason to tinker with the formula.The tradition argument has looked a little shaky over the past couple of years. Whether or not you want to look at the fact the Yankees uniform now features a jersey sleeve patch, or that the team rolled back its forty-year-old grooming policy, or that they exist in the same sport as the Dodgers, a franchise that balances their tradition with modern flair with aplomb. I say there’s a way to introduce a City Connect that would reward the fans who are open to the idea without completely alienating the fans of “tradition” that aren’t.
Starr Insurance…Traditional
Taking an idea I had originally shared with the group over at the Black Baseball Mixtape Discord, a relatively modest City Connect with targeted rollout can be the best of both worlds. You don’t have to do too much to have a bold statement that stresses it’s an alternate take but can hang with the traditional home and away numbers they have now. Maybe something as simple as playing with the width of the pinstripes (or may I suggest stripes that are slightly concave), or swapping out the classic NY on the home jersey with the odd-to-describe-in-print, baseball bat wearing a top hat logo that’s been part of the franchise since the 40s.
Yeah, that’s the one. Has anybody ever asked why it’s wearing a hat?
But here’s the best part: Imagine if the team has a single, “City Connect Night” event at Yankee Stadium. There’s local music, there’s food options from all five boroughs, and all that fanfare you wouldn’t expect from the New York Yankees Organization. The team runs out and plays in the City Connect uniforms ONCE and after that game is over, they go back to wearing their traditional set until the following year’s City Connect Night. That way, everybody wins. The Yankees organization doesn’t leave money on the table with the merch sales and themed activities, pro-City Connect fans finally get an alternate option if they want to support their team in a different way, and traditionalists can pretend the night never happened.
As much as the Yankees have stood for being the class of the league, there are some fans out there who are looking at the 29 other squads in Major League Baseball and are going, “Hey, we’re the gold standard. Why can’t we do that? In fact, why can’t we do that in a way that’s BETTER than those other teams?” Questions that seem more and more valid over the past couple of years. I say it’s time to experiment.
But seriously, City Connect Night. Think about it.
