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I ALWAYS THOUGHT THERE’S something proud about wearing a team’s uniform, even better if it fits. It means you belong to something. It’s like an honor. So you have a responsibility to those wearing the same uniform. Break a rule or do something foolhardy, you embarrass the uniform. You embarrass yourself and your team. Wearing a uniform — whether you’re a cop or a coffee shop waitress — carries a responsibility and dependability. To those one serves and those wearing the same uniform. I think the reason schools promote wearing uniforms is because it promotes unity. Everyone’s equalized. That’s sort of the feeling you get wearing the Yankee pinstripes. You’re part of a special collective. The players come and go, but the Yankee uniform remains the same. And as one of the team’s announcers always says, no names are on the back. Of course, some people think the Yankee uniform can make you do things you normally don’t do. Does it? Well, it does something. It makes you realize you’re part of an amazing tradition. When I played in the minors, we wore hand-me-down Yankee uniforms. I don’t know whose old woolen jersey I wore, but Charlie Silvera was always thrilled that he wore Lou Gehrig’s old pants when he was starting out in Class D ball.  Nowadays, nobody wears baggy flannels anymore; there’s no more hand-me-downs. But anyone who puts on a Yankee uniform can’t ignore the history of it all. It’s not like another set of working clothes. When you see it, you know what you’re seeing. It’s the same pinstripes Ruth, Gehrig, Henrich, DiMaggio wore, all those guys. If every kind of uniform comes with responsibility, the Yankee uniform comes with an added kind. Don’t think every guy in a Yankee uniform doesn’t know it, either. Joe Torre played and managed a long time for the Braves and the Cardinals. He’s been in baseball almost fifty years and always says the Yankee pinstripes still give him goose bumps. When players like Alex Rodriguez come here and put on the uniform for the first time, they tell you they feel something, too. Carlton Fisk let it be known he always hated us, being a big part of the Red Sox – Yankee rivalry in the 1970s. But I always liked him. I’m partial to catchers, and Fisk was one heck of a good one. You had to like his work ethic and his being true to his sport. His rivalry with Thurman Munson only reflected his passion. You don’t last twenty-four seasons without passion for the game. Near the end of his career, he was playing for the White Sox in Yankee Stadium, and Deion Sanders was just beginning his baseball life with the Yankees. Even then Sanders showed he was sort of a show-off and self-absorbed. In one at-bat, he didn’t bother to run out a pop-up. And that really bothered Fisk, who confronted him, real angry. He reminded Sanders that the pinstripes on his uniform stand for pride. Don’t embarrass the guys who’ve worn them.
Uniforms are more than a fashion statement. They’re a team’s identity. It’s like what Jerry Seinfeld said about fans: They don’t really root for players, they root for a team’s laundry. I still like that the Yankees still don’t put players’names on their backs. The team’s identity is more important.
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Newswire 
