TGP Trivia and Fact of the Day for April 11th, 2019

Good morning Yankees family!

On April 11, 1912, the Yankees debuted their now famous pinstripes in what was their final home opener at Hilltop Park. It took until 1915 for the pinstripes to become a permanent part of their home uniforms, though.

And it took a little longer than I would have liked, but I am forever grateful that you, my Kari Ann, are my wife. My only regret is not finding you sooner so that I could spend even more years being yours. I love you.

My Thoughts on MLB Players Weekend

Major League Baseball has drastically changed while under new Commissioner Rob Manfred but as redundant and contradictory as this sounds you probably can’t notice it too much unless you’re really looking for the change. Instant replay has been expanded, nets have been put down the first and third base lines, pace of play has been implemented, you can’t mow down the catcher at home plate as a runner anymore, spending restrictions have been implemented on teams who exceed the new international spending cap on free agents, draft pick compensation is now being bounced around for spending too much on your overall team payroll and a plethora of other changes we could talk about. Not all have been impeding though, some have been fun. Youth has been put back into the game and the game seems fun again and that will only continue later on this month when Major League Baseball has “MLB Players Weekend.” Here are my thoughts on the weekend.

From Friday, August 25 to Sunday, August 27 MLB will let the player’s personalities and passions shine like never before during MLB Players Weekend. We have already seen the new jerseys and hats being released this week as well as jerseys that will have nicknames on the back. Sonny Gray will sport the name “pickles” on his back during that weekend while Aaron Judge will be “All Rise” above his number 99 jersey number. All clubs will wear nicknames across their backs including the Yankees who haven’t had names on the backs of their jerseys in over 100 years which should be an odd change of pace, but a fun one nonetheless.

Also throughout the weekend players will be allowed to wear uniquely colored and designed shoes (which would normally violate some teams rules like the New York Yankees who only allow black spikes to match their uniforms), batting gloves, wristbands, compression sleeves, catcher’s masks and of course baseball bats. Players can also wear t-shirts and clothing to support their charities of choice during pregame workouts and postgame interviews, something else that is general frowned upon by the league any other time throughout the season.

The best part about the weekend for me, well besides bringing in new and younger fans to the game, is the patch on the right sleeve that all player’s jerseys will have on it giving the players the opportunity to write the name of a person or organization that helped in their development as a person and towards the game. I absolutely love everything about this idea and everything about this event and I truly think you should too. It gives back to the game, to the fans and to the communities in such a way that no other sport is doing right now which makes me extremely excited and proud to be a fan of not only the New York Yankees but of Major League Baseball as well. Check out MLB Players Weekend here in two weeks!

How Badly Do the Yankees Want Bryce Harper?

It’s a simple question, how badly do the New York Yankees want Bryce Harper when he becomes a free agent after the 2018 season. In life it seems like the most simplest of questions turn out to be the hardest to answer for whatever reason and this one definitely falls into that category. This is so hard to answer mainly because we still have parts of three MLB seasons to go before the question really needs to be answered and a whole lot can happen between now and then but let’s pretend the Nationals All-Star is set to become a free agent now, today, how badly do the Yankees want him and how far would they be willing to go?

I’m not talking about money here ladies and gentleman because let’s face it. The Yankees have the money and the Yankees aren’t afraid to spend the money if it means making the money. Bryce Harper is a draw to any stadium whether you want to boo him or you want to cheer him and the Yankees could give him a billion dollar contract and he’d probably double their investment in the first five years. He’s that special. It’s the other aspects of the organization that make the Yankees unique, borderline archaic but unique nonetheless, that I am discussing here.

Would the Yankees relax on their “no facial hair policy” for Harper and would they change their uniform policy to allow Harper to leave his top button or three undone as long as he mashes home runs and tracks down everything that is hit his way in center field? You have to think they would, no?

I mean I get it and I appreciate the fact that this is a storied franchise with an absolute ton of history behind it but you also have to keep us with the Joneses. At one point the team had to stop throwing money at every free agent while sacrificing the farm system year in and year out. At one point they couldn’t make up for their losses in the draft by simply throwing money at international market and at some point they had to stop letting all their big money free agents hit the free agent market because the team refuses to negotiate a contract while the current contract was up.

If Harper wants to wear a beard let the man wear a beard. If the man wants to leave a button or two undone and look like a complete slob you let the boy look like a complete slob. That’s how bad I want Bryce Harper on the Yankees but the question is how bad do the Yankees want Bryce Harper? We have three years to talk about it.