Rookie players and support personnel dressed as Batman characters pose with manager Joe Girardi. (AP)
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com
09/20/09 9:50 PM ET
SEATTLE -- In the middle of one of their most important trips of the season, the Yankees found a way to have some fun out West. As in, Adam West.
The Yankees hazed their rookies as an annual rite of passage after Sunday's 7-1 loss to the Mariners, with this year's theme paying homage to the campy 1960s Batman television series.
Mark Melancon donned Batman's tights and blue cape, Mike Dunn suited up as The Riddler and Ramiro Pena was uncomfortably fitted for a Catwoman outfit.
Jorge Posada deadpanned that the image of Pena wearing a leather bodysuit was "tough" to handle, and asked Pena if he had any lipstick. Pena responded that he probably needed some, as meows echoed throughout the clubhouse at Safeco Field.
"You look like Halle Berry, man," Derek Jeter said, grinning.
The players returned to the clubhouse to find their clothes stolen and held hostage for the entire flight to Anaheim, forcing the players to leave the stadium in their new costumes and go through security at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
"This is hilarious," Melancon said, adjusting his yellow tool belt. "It's sweet, except these gloves. It's going to be hot."
Dunn might have been the most comfortable of the group. His Riddler costume, complete with white gloves, a green mask and a hat adorned with question marks, was made of a silky pajama-like material.
"I think some of them were pushing to get me to be Mr. Freeze," said Dunn, whose shaven head would have fit the character well.
But it was Pena whose portrayal of Catwoman, sauntering from his locker toward the center of the room, stopped traffic and prompted giggling players to whip out their cell-phone cameras.
"What the
heck is that?" Mark Teixeira said. "That's absurd."
Three other members of the club's support staff also took part in the cast -- video coordinator Anthony Flynn played Robin, massage therapist Lou Potter was the Penguin and radar-gun operator Brett Weber wore The Joker's makeup.
Upon arrival in Anaheim, CC Sabathia has volunteered to take the rookies out for dinner -- on the condition they are not permitted to change back into their street clothes.
Last year's Yankees theme was the Village People, as several rookies were forced to march out of Fenway Park dressed in the garb of the 1970s disco group. In 2007, players were given roles from The Wizard of Oz as they left the old Yankee Stadium.
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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