Old-Timers' Day
Major League Baseball tradition to honor retired players
Old-Timers' Day (or old-timers' game) refers to a tradition in Major League Baseball (MLB) where a team devotes the early afternoon preceding a weekend game to honor retired players who played for the organization during their careers. The retired players play in an exhibition game, usually lasting about three innings.
The New York Yankees are currently the only MLB team to host an annual Old-Timers' Day; many other teams have hosted games in the past, and a few continue to do so on a non-regular basis.
History
According to researcher John Thorne, the earliest old-timers' game was held in 1875 at Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields. Former players, who did not have pensions at the time, organized several more games during the 19th century, often to raise money for indigent or sick former teammates.
As the games grew in popularity, teams started to organize and control the games themselves. These games variously featured reunions of specific teams, alumni of specific franchises from different eras and collections of former stars from different teams. However, as players began receiving better pay during their careers and pensions after their retirement, they had less incentive to participate and old-timers' games started to become less common.
New York Yankees (1947–present)
Through the 2025 event, the New York Yankees have held 77 Old-Timers' Days.
Precursor events
The Yankees held notable ballpark celebrations to recognize the careers of two of their all-time greats; first for Lou Gehrig on July 4, 1939, several weeks after he was forced into retirement because of ALS, and subsequently for Babe Ruth on June 13, 1948, when he was in the late stages of cancer.
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