TAMPA, Fla. -- Several members of the Yankees may look different as they sport “well-groomed beards” this season, following this week’s alteration of the organization’s longstanding facial hair policy. Some of their games will sound different, too.
Start spreading the news: the Yankees will no longer play Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York” after losses, a club spokesperson confirmed on Sunday. Instead, a rotating selection of Sinatra songs will be played, none of which will be “Theme from New York, New York.”
The first selection was Sinatra’s “That’s Life,” which accompanied fans to the exits after Sunday’s 4-0 Grapefruit League loss to the Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The changes will apply to games in Spring Training and at Yankee Stadium.
The playing of “New York, New York” after Yankees games dates to 1980, after principal owner George M. Steinbrenner heard Sinatra’s 1979 recording at a Manhattan nightclub. After playing a cassette tape to test the song at an empty Yankee Stadium, Steinbrenner dashed off a letter to Sinatra’s representatives.
“Sinatra wrote back and said that he would be very pleased to have the song played at the stadium,” John Fugazy, the Yankees’ marketing director of that era, told The New York Times in 1980. “After one game, I noticed people were standing in the aisles at their seats listening or singing the song. And this was after the team lost. The song makes you feel like you’ll win tomorrow anyway.”
Before the days when Sinatra’s vocals accompanied the end of each Yankees game, organist Eddie Layton had played fans out to 161st Street with a series of jaunty numbers. For a brief period, Liza Minnelli’s version of “New York, New York” alternated with Sinatra’s, sometimes played after losses. The team also experimented in the mid-1990s with a Sinatra/Tony Bennett duet of the song.
Now, each time Sinatra’s voice is heard singing, “King of the hill, top of the heap,” you’ll know the Yankees just added one to the win column.