On the weekend of August 25th to the 27th, Major League Baseball announced a new event called “Players Weekend”, where players get to wear nicknames on the back of their jerseys and let their “personalities shine through”.
Players will wear custom jerseys for the event, and will use that weekend to honor those who were influential to their development in reaching the Major Leagues.
For this event, the Yankees are going into uncharted territory; for the first time in 115 years, the historic franchise will wear names on the back of their jerseys. But they won’t wear just any name; Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, for example, will be known as “All Rise” and “Kraken”.
All of the jerseys will be donated after the weekend and 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation, which focuses on improving the caliber, effectiveness and availability of amateur baseball and softball programs across the United States and Canada.
“Any time you can benefit and help people out in any way, that’s what we’re here for, to inspire people and help people out,” Judge said regarding the Players Weekend event. “We’re all blessed to be in this situation to play Major League Baseball. Anything we can do is pretty rewarding.”
Here are the following nicknames the Yankees chose for Players Weekend:
Aaron Judge: All Rise
Gary Sanchez: Kraken
Aroldis Chapman: The Missile
Luis Severino: Sevy
Masahiro Tanaka: Masa
Didi Gregorius: Didi
Starlin Castro: All-Starlin
Jacoby Ellsbury: Chief
Chase Headley: Head
Clint Frazier: Red Thunder
Todd Frazier: The Toddfather
Dellin Betances: D-Dawg
Michael Pineda: Big Mike
Brett Gardner: Gardner
Aaron Hicks: A-A-ron
David Robertson: D-Rob
Austin Romine: Ro
Ronald Torreyes: Toe
Chad Green: Greeny
CC Sabathia: Dub
Jordan Montgomery: Monty
Adam Warren: Rocket
Sonny Gray: Pickles
This isn’t the first time Major League Baseball altered the official jerseys for a cause. In 1999, MLB had the “Turn Ahead The Clock” event, where 22 Major League Baseball teams donned what they believed baseball uniforms would look like in the future.
Regarding the nicknames, IÂ would have gone in a different direction for a few players. David Robertson could have easily been “Houdini” given how many times he successfully gotten out of jams. I would have tweaked Aroldis Chapman’s nickname and called him the “Cuban Missile”. And regarding Gardner, I’m humored he decided to go with his just his last name; personally, I would have went with “Gardy Party”. Then again, Gardy parties do get a little crazy to the point where players end up losing their teeth, so I could see why he decided not to go that route.
