With Mets and Yankees team presidents Sandy Alderson and Randy Levine at his side, New York City mayor Eric Adams officially announced the change of the private sector mandate on Thursday at Citi Field, allowing unvaccinated New York athletes to compete in games within the City.
Adams then signed the order, officially clearing Kyrie Irving and any unvaccinated Mets and Yankees players to play in home games.
“We have to be on the field in order to win, Adams said. “We were treating our performers differently because they lived and played for home teams. That’s not acceptable.”
Under the previous mandate, New York-based athletes weren’t able to compete in home games, but visiting players were allowed. The controversial nature of the mandate was brought under further scrutiny when the Key2NYC mandate was lifted, allowing Irving to sit inside the Barclays Center and watch the Nets play, but was still unable to compete on the court. That changes as of Thursday.
“This is about putting New York City-based performance on a level playing field,” Adams said. “Day one as mayor, I looked at the rule that stated hometown players had an unfair disadvantage for those that were coming to visit, and immediately, I felt we needed to work at it. but my medical professionals said ‘Eric, we’re in a different place. We have to wait until we’re at a low area and we can reexamine some of the mandates.’ We’re here today.”
Despite players no longer needing to be vaccinated to compete in the City, the mandate for other private employees will not change, and Alderson clarified the difference because of the nature of the MLB Players Association. But other Mets employees are still required to be vaccinated, and in a few cases, per Alderson, employees did not receive a shot, and were terminated.
“The players are unionized and are sort of outside the scope of our mandate just by virtue of our relationship with Major League Baseball and the Players Association,” Alderson said. “Everyone involved with the Mets, including scouts who are not residing in New York City…everybody is required to be vaccinated.”
Levine was asked about the players that could have been impacted by the previous mandate, and still the current mandates in Toronto, which will forbid unvaccinated players from playing there. In particular, Aaron Judge’s name was brought up, as Judge has been rumored, but not confirmed, to be unvaccinated, a topic which he stayed mum about when asked earlier this month.
“We encourage everyone to be vaccinated…I’m vaccinated,” Levine said. “Everybody in Yankee management is. We stand behind vaccinations. What Aaron Judge does and how he speaks is up to Aaron Judge. Just like if somebody asked you what you’re situation is, you should talk about it, not having other people talk about it.”
But the change to the mandate does save Levine’s Yankees from dealing with losing unvaccinated players for at least half of the season.
“On behalf of the New York Yankees, I want to thank you, Mayor Adams, for making this courageous decision, and the way you made this decision,” Levine said.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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