Sal's Take On The Possible New Road Uniforms

By Sal Maiorana

April 24, 2026

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Sal Maiorana shares his thoughts on the Yankees.

Here is an edited version of Sal's latest article.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the report that came out from multiple outlets early in the week that the Yankees’ players are pushing Hal Steinbrenner to sign off on approving an alternate road jersey in the future.

When I first saw this, I was really bent out of shape because I’m a full-fledged uniform snob. You have a home outfit, a road outfit, your colors are your colors, and that’s it. I can’t stand what is happening these days with uniforms in every sport, especially in college where school colors and tradition no longer matter. Turn on any college football game when I was growing up and you knew exactly who was playing. Do that today and half the time you have no idea which teams are playing because they wear different uniforms every week, many of them not even incorporating school colors.

That trend has permeated pro sports, too, and we see plenty of it in the NFL, the sport that I cover. I hear it’s also a big thing in the NBA, but I have less than zero interest in the NBA and haven’t watched a game probably since Michael Jordan was winning championships 30-plus years ago. Now we’re seeing it in baseball with all these ridiculous City Connect pajama outfits some of these teams wear. It’s a joke.

One thing that has always set the Yankees apart is they never changed their uniform. Ever. Pinstripes at home, grays on the road. Simple. Classic. Traditional. Historic. Yankees. That’s a bridge that I hoped the Yankees would never cross, desecrating the most sacred uniforms in sports, but now they want to join the circus.

But then I saw that the third jersey, which is apparently already approved by MLB, is simply going to be the one they wear in spring training - solid Yankee blue with gray lettering NEW YORK across the front - and my blood pressure came down a little. I still don’t like an alternate jersey, but if this happens, I could live with this one because it’s simple, elegant, and is comprised of the Yankees colors. It’s basically a photo negative of the regular road gray top.

Honestly, it’s a good-looking jersey and most important, it’s not loud and flashy and cartoonish like those ridiculous yellow and powder blue abominations the Red Sox wear for Friday home games.

“There’s a lot of tradition here, the most iconic jersey there is in sports, pretty much,” said Giancarlo Stanton. “But it doesn’t mean that every once in a while you can’t change something up, especially on the road.”

Obviously, adding a third jersey is a continuation to some of the other Yankee traditions that have gone by the wayside in the last couple years - eliminating the facial hair policy and adding the Starr Insurance patch to their jerseys.

I had zero problem with the Yankees finally ending the stupid facial hair policy, as long as the players followed the rule that they keep things neat and trim and didn’t try to emulate the idiot Red Sox from 2004 when half the team looked like it was auditioning for the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar.

And I know many people were pissed when the Yankees sold out and followed the lead of many other teams when they added the Starr patch on their jerseys in 2023, but that didn’t bother me either. It’s a small little patch, it stays true to the Yankees colors, and if an insurance company is dumb enough to pay Hal $25 million per year to advertise, I can’t fault him from turning his back. Look at it this way: That revenue stream pays nearly all of Max Fried’s annual $27.5 million salary.

“I’m all about tradition, but we got a patch on our sleeves,” Aaron Judge said, the insinuation being that the Yankees have already bucked their tradition by doing that. “I think we’ll always wear the pinstripes at home. I don’t think that’ll change. But we changed our road jersey [removing white piping and trim in 2024], so I guess if we wear the blues, we wear the blues on the road.”