NEW YORK — These Yankees created a new atmosphere in their first World Series since 2009.
Baseball’s most traditional team, with a grand granite-and-limestone stadium and pinstriped home uniforms that have changed little since 1936, has added a flash of flamboyance to its accessories: the green Statue of Liberty.
“I was kind of looking for a little accent color and I think the Statue of Liberty and what it represents in the city and the state is a good one,” said Capt. Aaron Judge, who started the color craze.
New York remains the most conservatively dressed club in the Major Leagues in an era defined by displays of individuality. Yankees players remain prohibited from wearing long hair or beards under a policy that owner George Steinbrenner issued in 1976. But whether it’s wearing Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Alex Verdugo glitzy chains, or Juan Soto walking to a dembow hit with the title after his signature “Soto Shuffle,” this year’s team isn’t as stodgy as the Yankees of old.
Nothing expresses that better than all the mint green accents. It’s on cleats, chest protectors, batting gloves and slider mitts, along with wrist and elbow pads. This is a team that is happy to hear that it looks like statues – at least in terms of clothing.
Judge is the Yankees’ ultimate influencer, and when he goes green, the rest of the team follows.
Reliever Jake Cousins recalled joining the Yankees at the team hotel in Phoenix after being acquired on March 31, the fourth day of the season.
“I got on the bus, went to the back, just said to everyone, ‘What’s going on?’ and sat there in silence,” Cousins said. “And as we drove into the stadium – Judge is sitting right in the front – we got off the bus, and Judge got off first. He was waiting on the side for me and I was the last guy off the bus and Judge was standing there waiting for me and said, ‘Hey man, welcome to the team. If you need anything, I will help you. “That just shows his true leadership.”
Now 32 and likely to win his second AL MVP Award, Judge leads the Yankees to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He signed with the Yankees in 2013, made his big league debut three years later and was named the team’s first captain since Derek Jeter in December 2022.
“I’ve been in the Yankees organization for a while and I felt like I saw the veteran guys doing that, and I just wanted to be a part of that,” Judge said. “I try to continue to do that to this day and try to show our younger guys the same thing: ‘How are things going here?’, because the sooner we get these guys feeling comfortable with us, the feeling that they are part of. For this team, the better they play, the better they will help us win games.’
Yankees manager Aaron Boone cites a sense of solidarity that emerged when players began reporting to the minor league complex in Tampa, Florida, well before spring training last January. Five of the 26 players on the active roster for the AL Championship Series clincher were not with the Yankees when spring training started and were acclimating after they arrived.
To get into the tonal temperament, Nestor Cortes even had a glove made in mint with a navy blue torch, an orange Statue of Liberty flame and “Hialeah Kid” in script stitched into the leather along the back of the index finger. The left-hander contacted 44 Pro, his equipment supplier. on April 26 to place a special order.
“I said everyone here uses the mint glove or mint accessory,” Cortes told the company. “I would like to combine it a little bit with New York and see if we can put a torch into that or something.”
Graphic designer Trey Miasek went to work, and Cortes used the glitzy glove when he pitched six scoreless innings to beat Baltimore for the Yankees on June 18.
“They are known for being the strictest in the MLB when it comes to facial hair, piercings or hairstyles,” says Benny Miller, product line manager for gloves at Pro44. “It’s always a bit surprising when they all went crazy with the coin.”
Cortes later had to stop using the glove when MLB decided the flame was distracting batters, the pitcher said.
Chisholm has added to the exuberance since being acquired from Miami on July 27. The infielder is co-owner of his glove company, Absolutely Ridiculous Innovation for Athletes (ARIA), and an employee traveled to Boston with appropriately colored gear for his Yankees debut. at Fenway Park on July 28.
For the World Series, Chisholm has a pair of new gloves in navy blue with metallic gold, one with 27 flames and one with 27 pennants – the number representing the Yankees’ record number of titles.
Chisholm, whose given name is Jasrado, has influenced the music of Yankee Stadium. When he makes a mistake on the field, organist Ed Alstrom sometimes plays Kander and Ebb – “All That Jazz” from the 1975 Broadway musical “Chicago”; “Take Five,” Paul Desmond’s best-selling jazz composition made famous by the Dave Brubeck Quartet; and “Funky Nassau,” a 1971 song by Ray Munnings and Tyrone Fitzgerald, performed by The Beginning of the End, an R&B group from Nassau, Bahamas, where Chisholm was born.
“Brings a lot of swag and energy to the park every day – kind of a light and a smile,” manager Boone said. “He hugged our room and they hugged him back.
