Woke is for losers, according to one of the cogs of the 1998 World Champion New York Yankees.
Pitcher David Wells returned to Yankee Stadium on Saturday as the 1998 team assembled for the annual Old-Timers’ Day and made it clear that he does not like what he sees, according to the New York Post.
Wells could have made his point by leaving it at the piece of tape covering the Nike logo on his Yankees jersey, but the long-outspoken Wells had a lot more to say.
Wells said that if he were playing today, he would have cut a hole into his jersey rather than feature the Nike logo across his chest.
“I hate Nike. They’re woke!” he said.
Bud Light, which triggered a boycott when it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, has also earned the disdain of Wells, who gave a one-word response to whether he would ever drink that brand of beer again: “Nope.”
“We’re in a different world,” Wells said. “It sucks. That’s why everyone should carry a gun.”
Wells was 18-4 with the 1998 champs, including a no-hitter. He spent four of his 21 years in Major League Baseball with the Yankees. On Saturday, he said the culture of coddling is eroding the edge needed to win.
David Wells, who put tape over the Nike logo, says Cashman and Boone aren’t to blame for the Yankees struggles
He says struggling players should be sent to the minors no matter how much they’re paid
Wells says players are coddled and babied too much now pic.twitter.com/5JI4uQ1P5g
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 9, 2023
“I think now they coddle them too much. They baby them. … It’s up to your peers to make you better,” he said.
“It always seems that the [general managers], the managers and all of that are getting fired, and getting blamed for it, and it’s the players’ [fault]. If you’re not doing the job out on the field and if I was a GM, I would start sending a message,” he said.
Wells said demotion was an unpleasant way to motivate players.
“I don’t care who it was, if he was in the stink hole — pardon my French, if you can say that now. I don’t know. But send that son of a gun to Triple-A or Double-A and send him a wake-up call,” he said.
“They did it to me. They did it to a lot of us back in the day. You’ve got to send a message. I don’t care how much money you’re making. Send a message to them and let them go sit down there and think about it. That’s what you have to do.”
Wells recalled former catcher Jorge Posada getting aggressive after Wells pitched poorly, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
“He slammed me against the pillar and got in my face, but I respected it,” Wells said. “He was like, ‘You gave up.’ And that pissed me off because I never gave up. You just get you’re a** kicked once in a while,” he said.
He said uncomfortable confrontation is part of the passion to win.
“But to me, that’s what you don’t see anymore. You don’t see the guys getting in each other’s face. And it’s not a personal thing. You’re here to win, and that’s what they try to do, and I think from seeing my perspective, looking in, they don’t have that kind of camaraderie anymore,” he said
Wells noted that he was offended at the time when former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner came in the clubhouse in person to call Wells out after a bad game, according to the Athletic.
“You need a fire lit under your butt sometimes,” Wells said. “They don’t do that, and it sucks.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
