Today is Mother's Day, and MLB teams are wearing pink to raise money for breast cancer charities and general awareness.
Generally, as a Yankees fan, I believe that unless it is the traditional uniform, it should not be worn. I also have a certain level of cynicism when it comes to variations in uniforms. Yes, I am looking at the New York Giants and the uniforms that come out once a year that I am sure are designed to get me to buy a different jersey.
People on Twitter today were complaining about the uniform changes. Some seemed rather general, “Don’t mess with tradition.” One person mentioned pink washing. Basically, there is some devil in the details about the promotion and marketing of pink ribbon events. This can really apply to any charity or event.
For instance, one big campaign has the following terms and conditions "..now through [end date], spend $10 or more and xxx will make a one cent donation up to [$x total campaign cap]."
In other words, if you spend $100 it is still a 1¢ donation. Spend any money after the [$x total campaign cap] is reached, but before the [end date]. No donation. So you may think that you are taking an action which results in a donation, but it does not. Or a really minimal donation at best. (As an aside, if you look at financial reports, the [$x total campaign cap] may work out to be a minuscule portion of the total advertising. It would seem a company is getting more than [$x total campaign cap] worth of publicity. )
To be clear, I am not saying that it is not a good thing that they are raising funds for, or bringing awareness to, various causes. I also understand business – if a company can leverage a charity campaign they often will. But it is something to keep in mind. Of course no charity or company will ever be perfect, and most will be subject to criticism at one time or another.
Anyway, the person bringing the pink washing up was subject to some questioning. Basically there was the general tone of the wrong place, wrong time to bring up the concept.
All that being said, I am not sure how MLB or the teams handle all of this in terms of donations. I took a quick look, but did not find anything. But in general it does not strike me as a money grab. I have been around enough people who have dealt with cancer – patients and their family members and friends. This includes athletes. On the player level, from my experience, they wear it for all the reasons that one would hope for – to show support, love and respect.
Though not my personal cancer, I know many who have had breast cancer or have breast cancer. I have a breast cancer charity on my uniform for my friend. What happened today is fine. If the point of a particular tweet is that the uniforms should not be changed ever, even for this, I will respectfully disagree even though I believe the Yankees pinstripes are sacrosanct. There are some days for which a special uniform is called for. Today was such a day.
@iTRI4aCure
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