While most players will go with nicknames like Aaron Judge with his “All Rise” jersey, there are some players like Brett Gardner, who will take the field wearing a Yankees jersey with his own name on the back.  Thus ends the Yankees’ 114 year history of never having a player’s name on the back of their jersey.

It is always odd the Yankees never allowed their players to have their own names on the back of their jerseys.  In fact, it was the Yankees who started the whole concept of player numbers on the back of their jerseys.  In 1929, in an effort to make the team more marketable, the Yankees assigned uniform numbers to their players.  The numbers corresponded with their spot in the lineup with Babe Ruth wearing the number 3 and Lou Gehrig wearing the number 4.  With Gehrig’s illness, the team also engineered the concept of retiring uniform numbers.

It was the White Sox who added the names on the back in the 1960s.  In the 1970s, the Braves briefly went with player nicknames on the back instead of surnames.  That all ended with Ted Turner took advantage of a marketing opportunity by having Andy Messersmith wear a jersey that said “CHANNEL 17.”  (Uniwatch)  Channel 17 was Ted Turner’s cable station.

Through all of this, the Yankees stuck with no names on the back.  They stayed that way even with George Steinbrenner doing all he could do to bring the best free agents to Yankee Stadium.  He would change the famed dimensions of the House That Ruth Built.  He would go all-out to sign the best players money could buy with Reggie Jackson perhaps being the first big fish he landed.

Still, George didn’t relent on a few things.  He didn’t relent on the grooming policy. He didn’t relent on the names on the back.  He didn’t relent on the pinstripes.

Two of those three fall this weekend with the Yankees taking the field for the first time since 1912 without their pinstripes.  The jerseys will also have names on the back.  But hey, at least players like Clint Frazier and the like will be well groomed. It’s a good thing too because at the moment that grooming policy is just about the only thing separating the Yankees from the rest of baseball.