David Wells did not hold back in a passionate rant against woke culture on Saturday.
Returning to Yankee Stadium for the Yankees’ annual Old-Timers’ Day, the two-time World Series champion lit into Nike and Bud Light for their role in today’s culture wars.
“We’re in a different world,” Wells said, with a piece of medical tape covering the Nike logo on his Yankees jersey, per The Athletic.
“It sucks. That’s why everyone should carry a gun.”
Wells said that if he were playing today, he would have cut a hole into his jersey and worn it on the field rather than feature the Nike logo across his chest.
“I hate Nike!” he said.
“They’re woke!”
Wells, 60, who compiled an 18-4 record in 214.1 innings for the legendary 1998 Yankees team, said he felt companies like Bud Light spent too much time involving themselves in politics and culture.
Asked if he would ever drink Bud Light again, which partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney this year, his answer came easily.
“Nope!”
The left-hander, who spent 21 years pitching in MLB and four with the Yankees, also ripped MLB’s culture, which he said he felt coddles players.
“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],” Wells said.
“If you’re not doing the job out on the field, and if I was a GM, I would start sending a message.”
Wells’ comments seemed to deflect blame off Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman, who has received widespread criticism this season for his role in constructing an unbalanced roster that has landed the Yankees in last place in the American League East.
He also said he thought teams should be harsher in the way they treat 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,” the former pitcher 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. I think now they coddle them too much. They baby them. … It’s up to your peers to make you better.”
The left-hander added that he thought the newly implemented pitch clock was unnecessary because players should be able to regulate themselves.
“This is analytics,” Wells said.
“They tell [players] certain things. To me, personally, it’s ruining the game because these guys don’t have free will to be themselves and go out there and find their own identity. Because they’re having an identity brought to them. There’s a game plan.”
“Our game plan was go out there and win, how are we going to do it? The best nine guys are going to play.”
