It’s time for the New York Yankees to join the 21st century.
With Opening Day upon us, that means more than adjusting the club’s facial-hair policy, as the Yankees have done this season by allowing “well-groomed beards.’’
That also means putting the names of its players on the backs of the jerseys and ending their status as the only Major League Baseball team refusing to do so.
Ultimately, it means paying homage to Bill Veeck.
Veeck is the one-time owner of the Chicago White Sox, a Hall-of-Fame inductee and late baseball visionary who died 39 years ago. On Aug. 9, the White Sox will give away a Bill Veeck bobblehead that should be accompanied by a history lesson.
You may know some of Veeck’s promotional stunts, which when he owned the St. Louis Browns included sending 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate in 1951. (Gaedel walked on four pitches.) Or Disco Demolition Night, which in 1979 led to the destruction of countless disco records and chaos at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
But in honoring Veeck, the Sox have wisely focused on 1960.
That season, Veeck introduced the “exploding scoreboard.’’ Pinwheels spun and fireworks exploded every time a White Sox player hit a home run.
And thanks to Veeck, the Sox that season became the first major league team to put players’ names on the backs of jerseys.
Other teams followed suit.
With the exception of the heretofore beardless Yankees, that is.
Why Bill Veeck, and why now?
This year the White Sox are celebrating the club’s 125th anniversary. That includes three World Series titles, the Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series and Veeck, who owned the team from 1959 to 1961 and 1975 to 1980.
“Bill Veeck’s whole thesis was make the ballpark experience fun,’’ said Brooks Boyer, the White Sox’s Senior Vice President of Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer.
Comiskey Park wasn’t exactly rollicking fun last season, when the White Sox finished 41-121 and set the modern-day MLB record for most losses in a season. On Elvis Night, a respectable crowd of 24,012 watched the White Sox lose 5-2. Elvis impersonators were in the building and, like Elvis in his later years, did not go hungry.
“Our food items garner a lot of attention,’’ Boyer said. “So the White Sox experience is way more than just a baseball game, and that all started with Bill Veeck back in the ‘60s.’’
Alas, “Weather Day,’’ which featured meteorological education, drew just 12,216 spectators for the White Sox’s 10-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
Well-worn theme nights include Bark in the Park and Kids Run the Bases
Veeck enjoyed beer. It’s easy to imagine him enjoying a few upon learning fireworks are still exploding at the ballparks and players’ names are on the backs of jerseys. (You know, with the exception of that one team.)
He probably would have approved of this: On April 18, the Boston Red Sox will simultaneously host the Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary and Pharmacist Appreciation.
(“Promotional nights are selected at random based on dates that field assets are available – it is very common to have multiple promotions on the same date,’’ Kate Reilly, Director of Corporate Communications for the Red Sox, told USA TODAY Sports. “No intended humor at play!’’ Sure, we believe you, Kate.)
Veeck probably could not have imagined this: The Miami Marlins were sued last year by a woman who says she slipped on dog urine during the team’s Bark at the Park event at loanDepot Park.
Bark in the Park, Kids Run the Bases and well-worn theme nights (Star Wars, Pokemon, Grateful Dead, Minecraft) fill up MLB promotional schedules in what could be described as …
“Homogenized?’’ offered Nate Kurant, who from 2015 to 2021 worked for Bill Veeck’s son, Mike, as Director of Promotions for the Charleston RiverDogs minor league team.
Kurant’s legacy in Charleston includes 3,000 bouncy balls dropping into the stadium from a helicopter. And the world’s largest silly string fight. And ‘Nobody Night,’ during which the team refused to allow fans into the park for the first five innings and claimed an all-time low for attendance – officially, zero.
How awful is ‘Awful Nite?’
The minor leagues remain the major leagues of promotional creativity. On Sept. 1, for example, the Lake Elsinore Storm will hold “Awful Nite,’’ when, according to MiLB.com, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong … Be prepared for the best, worst time of your life.’
Yet with an increasing number of minor league teams affiliated with MLB clubs, the promotional calendars in the minors have grown more bland, according to Kurant, now an in-game host for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Bill Veeck’s son, Mike, now owns the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League. He did not respond to USA TODAY Sports’ requests for comment left by phone and email. But the Slammers’ promotional calendar speaks for him.
There will be no Disco Demolition night, conceived by Mike Veeck. But May 23 will feature Disco Night.
“Dust off your bell bottoms, put on your grooviest shades, and get ready to liven up the stands with flashing lights, funky beats, and a whole lot of boogieing,’’ reads the description on the team’s website. “It’s a night of home runs and hustle – so let’s shake our groove thang under the stadium lights!’’
Surely Bill Veeck will be dancing in his grave.