Why don't the New York Yankees have their last names on their jersey?

Answer 1

Big Yankees Fan <3

The yankees arent selfish! they like to be known as a whole not as individuals.

The Yankees realize that Baseball is a team sport and value the importance of teamwork and unity. The club believes that by putting the names on the shirts you are placing unneccesary attention on individuals rather than the team as a whole.

The Yankees were the first team to ever wear numbers. They did so to remember who hit where in the batting order. Hence the Babe being 3 and Gehrig 4. It was adopted by other teams and eventually became more of a way of identifying the players on the field more easily. Putting names on the back of jerseys kind of defeats the purpose of a number at this point. Most teams wear their names all the time. The Yankees never wear their names. The Red Sox only have their number (not name)at home only, on the road they have their name on their jersey. There might be another team or 2 that does not wear names at home, but it's very rare.

Also, by having only numbers on the backs of the jerseys, fans were forced to pay for programs to know who was batting when...it was a way for the stadiums to make money. The Yankees never adopted this trend, and instead stuck with tradition.

A brasher reason also exists, having to do more with how the Yankees saw themselves. It was said that when asked why they never put names on their jerseys, one team executive responded, "because we are the New York Yankees, and everyone knows who we are"!

Answer 2

In 1929 the Yankees became the first team in sports to put numbers on their jerseys to identify the players. These numbers were originally assigned based on the order in the batting lineup. This is the reason why Babe Ruth was #3 and Lou Gehrig was #4.

They have never put names on the back of their jerseys, even when other teams started to do it in the 1960s.

One of the major reasons they don't put names on the back is the tradition of never having them on there. Also, it is the idea that no one individual is bigger than the team, that they are the Yankees and not individual players.

Answer 3

Because a long long time ago [ guitar strum ] "Ma Ma miss American pie drove the shevvi to the levy but he levy was dry. No it was actually a mistake. When base ball was first invented the person who printed out the shirts had a disability which meant that he couldn't spell properly. Consequently he couldn't spell a players last name so he asked for all the shirts for their first names. Another reason is that one player wrote on the back of a team mates shirt his nick name and the manger of this team thought it would be a good idea to have all there last name printed on the back of their shirts so fans knew who was who during a match.

Answer 4

It is tradition for them to not wear their names on the backs of their jerseys.