NEWSLETTER
You know the whole no-beard-no-long-hair thing the New York Yankees still do in 20-freaking-22? It feels like a vestige of a time long gone by, and I don’t just mean that it’s a stupid, antiquated rule (though it is). What I mean is it feels like it’s a rule that was in place a long time ago, and then just never got changed because it kinda got stuck. Surely, I have thought to myself at times, the current Yankees aren’t still such stodgy old farts that, had they the choice to implement the rule today fresh and anew, they wouldn’t actively choose to do it again. Right?
Well, I’m not so sure. That whole org might be populated by humorless ogres.
How DARE they:
Yankees were 'embarrassed' by Staten Island team's Pizza Rat promotion https://t.co/cAk4PvQtoI pic.twitter.com/2VctbBxmqF
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) January 1, 2022
From the Post’s article:
In a June 15, 2018 email, Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost said the club had “absolute distain” over the now-defunct Staten Island Yankees’ decision to honor the infamous rodent who went viral pulling a grimy pizza slice down a subway staircase in 2015.
Trost suggested the promotion would tarnish the 27-time world champ’s image.
“Regardless of the fact that it is to be used during the 2018 season on a limited basis, the STATEN ISLAND YANKEES’ ballplayers, drafted by the New York Yankees and part of the New York Yankees’ player pool (and future New York Yankees players) are to be publicly displayed in ‘Pizza Rat’ uniforms and hats,” Trost said in the email to Staten Island Yankees President Will Smith.
“This is not only an embarrassment to the New York Yankees franchise, it flies in the face” of earlier contracts between both sides.
First of all, Pizza Rat was – and is! – a beloved New York institution. Show some respect for the rodentian king of the east.
Second of all, if your minor league affiliate wants to have some harmless, humorous fun, you need to chilllll out. It’s a joke. It’s silly. Major League Baseball is already beset by way too much self-seriousness, so sometimes minor league baseball is the refuge for the weird and wonderful. The Pizza Rat promotion was exactly that. It was stupid and funny. Let it be stupid and funny. Most organizations don’t do enough stuff like this!
Third of all, this is coming out only because of Staten Island’s lawsuits about the loss of affiliations in MLB’s reorganization plan. So while it’s entertaining to joke about the Pizza Rat promotion, it’s worth remembering what was lost for these minor league clubs. It’s also worth wondering what other DARK SECRETS are being hidden by humorless Major League organizations.
In the end, there is at least one silver lining here: at least Pizza Rat can finally grow that goatee he’s been wanting for years …
