T-Shirt Flashback: 1996 World Series
I was 15 years old when the New York Yankees won the 1996 World Series. Growing up cheering for the Yankees, Jets and Knicks, this was the first championship that I truly experienced as fan. Yes, the Rangers had won the 1994 Stanley Cup and I skipped school to go to the parade, but I was a marginal hockey fan at the time. Though I did manage to pick up this t-shirt at the parade:
But baseball…I LOVED baseball…and I adored the Yankees.
After recently re-watching the 1996 World Series video, which I owned on VHS and now on DVD, I recalled memories I hadn’t thought of for years, despite the fact that I wear this tshirt at least once a week, 13 years after I got it.
There are a number of reasons why I keep this t-shirt in the rotation and none of them have to do with comfort (although my goodness is it soft after at least 1,000 washings). The main reason, which essentially the other reasons are derived from, is that the back of the t-shirt, as advertised on the front, has the entire Yankees team roster from 1996, broken down by field position.
You can click on the picture above to get a better view of it, although there are some zoomed shots that I had to take because certain names had to be singled out from this shirt. Every Yankee fan knows that 1996 was Derek Jeter’s rookie year and also saw the appearance of youngers Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada…well, make that Andrew Pettitte and Jorge DePosada:
While certainly there are some doozies that we’ve all since forgotten were on the team at some point (Ricky Bones, Mike Aldrete, Jim Mecir), the important names are of course there, from Bernie Williams to Tino Martinez to Mariano Rivera.
A fantastic t-shirt for a fantastic team. While I have other World Series t-shirts, as well as a small collection of other championship t-shirts from relatives who thought I would appreciate having six Chicago Bulls championship t-shirts, this one is the cream of the crop and the inaugural selection of the KingMorland T-Shirt Flashback.
