Pinstripes Forever

No other uniform in all of sports is as timeless and elegant as Yankee pinstripes, which represent more than a century of class. It’s lunacy to abandon it, even for a weekend, for the sake of a marketing stunt.

Especially when the gimmick also breaks the team’s as-venerable tradition of uniforms showing only players’ numbers, not their names.

In a scheme from the players’ union and Majestic Athletic (which has the license to sell Major League Baseball apparel), the Bombers are to join every other team on the “Players Weekend” of Aug. 25-27 in wearing special nostripes outfits with nicknames above the number: “The Toddfather” for Todd Frazier, “Dub” for C.C. Sabathia and so on.

All so MLB can sell fan versions of the new duds for a mere $200.

As Yankee pitcher Adam Warren put it mildly: “From a traditional standpoint, it’s going to be weird.” He can say that again. Marketing experts say the Yankee brand is strong enough to take the hit, and that’s likely so. But the drive for ever-more revenue keeps on delivering hits to baseball, from the TV ads that lengthen games to the fiddles with the rules to get some of that time back.

All this, when the game’s timeless nature is so central to its appeal.

And we’re talking about a team that has a strict no-beard, no-long-hair policy. Tradition is a tradition for a reason.

Yankee pinstripes connect Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle to Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera to Aaron Judge and Brett Gardner. The uniform is a part of the sacredness of the game.

And its beauty: Don’t let mindless obsession with fast profits tarnish it.