Yankees Old-Timers will play baseball, not softball
Former Yankees great Derek Jeter during the team's 76th Old-Timers' Day ceremony at Yankee Stadium last season. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Yankees are playing hardball now. Or at least their Old-Timers will be.
They are bringing back the much-beloved baseball game — not a softball game, as had been previously reported — on Old-Timers’ Day next month, a source confirmed to Newsday on Saturday.
The Yankees have not held a two- or three-inning baseball game featuring their former players on Old-Timers’ Day since 2019.
This year’s 77th Yankees Old-Timers’ Day will take place on Aug. 9 before a game against Houston. The club previously planned to hold a softball game featuring former players on that day, according to a source, but that plan was never announced and was met with derision by some fans and former players.
The Yankees did not hold Old-Timers’ Day in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held from 2022-24, but without a game. The last two seasons included an on-field Q&A, which did not seem to capture the attention of the fans quite the way seeing the retired stars play in a just-for-fun game used to.
The return to a baseball game was first reported by NJ.com.
Former Yankees captain Derek Jeter will not be attending this year’s Old-Timers’ Day after appearing at the previous two. Jeter had been seen as an impediment to holding a baseball game because he reportedly did not want to suit up. At last year’s event, Jeter denied that he had any sway over the Yankees’ plans.
“They’re not going to see me hit again,” he said last year. “No, I would be afraid I would hurt myself. But that’s not saying the reason there’s no game is because I’m not playing. I don’t make those decisions when it comes to whether there’s a game or not. So why are you asking me?”
The Yankees have not yet announced the list of players who will be attending this year’s event.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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