The Yankees will hold their 66th annual Old Timers Day on July 1, and they announced the invitees a little earlier today.
Many of the usual suspects, obviously: Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford and Goose Gossage. Among the new faces: Sterling Hitchcock, Stump Merrill, Gene Monahan, Matt Nokes and Tanyon Sturtze. Yep. THE Tanyon Sturtze.
I kid, but that’s pretty cool. It would be pretty easy for the Yankeess to skew these sorts of events to only the past greats or those only associated with their many winning teams. But bringing in dudes like Nokes, Hitchcock and Sturtze suggests pretty strongly that the team, unlike the press that follows it, doesn’t differentiate between “true Yankees” and the rabble.
As far as the team is concerned, if you ever wore the pinstripes, you’re a Yankees Old Timer. And there’s something nice about that.
