This is one of those things that comes up a lot when you’re talking about the New York Yankees: tradition.
There’s that whole facial hair policy that’s been around, and then there’s the fact that there are no names on the backs of their jerseys.
Wondering why that is regarding the uniforms? Glad you came here for an answer.
Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert put numbers on the backs of his players’ jerseys in 1929, and funny enough, teams didn’t appear on any MLB jerseys until the 1960s. But the Yankees have always resisted to do it, partially because that’s been the tradition for decades.
It’s also symbolic, right? Because the team is not about the individuals, but rather about the whole, which is perhaps why ownership has declined to change that.
There you have it!