The Yankees will let loose and the Mets will give their fans more (fun) to laugh about.
For the weekend of Aug. 25-27, the Yankees, Mets and all of baseball will ditch long-held tradition and allow players to wear nicknames on the back of their jerseys.
Teams have commissioned special jerseys for the occasion and the names chosen by players were released Wednesday. Even the Yankees, who have never worn names on the back of their jerseys, will be involved in this promotion — though not with their pinstriped jerseys, so they can claim those still have never been bogged down by names.
With the Yankees and Mets’ nicknames out already, here are our favorite examples from the local ballclubs.
Starlin Castro: All-Starlin
Dellin Betances: D. Dog
Michael Conforto: Scooter
Seth Lugo: Quarterrican
Yoenis Cespedes: La Potencia
Clint Frazier: Red Thunder
Ronald Torreyes: Toe
Didi Gregorius: Sir Didi
Michael Pineda: Big Mike
Gary Sanchez: Kraken
It’s part of a larger theme this weekend that will promote youth baseball. In addition to the uniforms, players will be allowed to wear custom equipment, and the right sleeve of their jerseys will have logos symbolizing their development. There also will be a space on the jerseys where players can write in a thank you to someone who helped them get to the majors.
Though the weekend is meant to promote youth baseball, players will also be allowed to support any charity before or after the game. The jerseys will be auctioned off on MLB’s website, proceeds going toward the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation.