“The Yankees are, in many ways, the last vestige of old-time New York as New York has always liked to see itself: a stubborn belief that there is no other city. THIS is the city.”
—New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro
SPRING AFTERNOON, YANKEE STADIUM, THE BRONX, AND THERE’S only one place to be: in the 99 Burger line. There are a few dozen of us, some out of breath from sprinting upstairs to Section 223 the instant the stadium gates opened. Everybody in line is wearing a jersey with the number 99 on it. No. Really. Everybody.
The 99 Burger is two four-ounce patties of Wagyu beef, American cheese, dill pickles, caramelized onions, and secret sauce on a brioche bun. The sauce is actually not so secret; Yankee Stadium executive chef Matt Gibson appears on the giant video board before games to show how to make it. But still. A small pennant with 99 on it is placed on top.
The 99 Burger can be had for the bargain price of $19.99.
The one catch is there will only be 199 of them sold today.
There’s a buzz here like this is the line to see Hamilton.
“I can’t believe we made it,” one woman is saying to her boyfriend, and he nods happily and wordlessly—you get the sense that they’ve tried and failed before. See, the 99 Burgers will be sold out long before the Yankees game ends; they always are, because the 99 Burger is much more than an overpriced New York delicacy. The 99 Burger was created in honor of the most important Yankee since, well, in a long time.
He’s No. 99 on your scorecard and No. 1 in the hearts of Yankees fans. He’s Aaron Judge.
Judge wears the odd baseball number 99 in part because it was the first number given to him at Yankees spring training—Judge is a sentimental sort—but also because all the good jersey numbers were already gone. The Yankees already have retired every single-digit number, one of those numbers twice:
No. 1: Billy Martin
No. 2: Derek Jeter
No. 3: Babe Ruth
No. 4: Lou Gehrig
No. 5: Joe DiMaggio
No. 6: Joe Torre
No. 7: Mickey Mantle
No. 8: Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey
No. 9: Roger Maris
Those are not all of the Yankees’ retired numbers. In all, the Yankees have retired twenty-two jersey numbers—no other team is even close. (The St. Louis Cardinals, who have a pretty high opinion of themselves as well, are second on the list with thirteen retired numbers.) No team in sports celebrates itself quite like the Yankees. Then again, they have a lot to celebrate: The Yankees have won twenty-seven World Series titles, they have won forty pennants, and they have fifty-eight former players, coaches, owners, and general managers in the Baseball Hall of Fame, with twenty-one wearing their cap. No other team can match them in those categories, either.
What is it that Faulkner wrote? The past is never dead.
