Players Weekend has been really popular since 2017 when it first started, but in its 3rd edition the weekend long event will be slightly different from the past two years.
Fans and players have embrace this sort of “Baseball holiday” and they enjoy it because players get a chance to show a little more of what their personal style looks like and some others take the opportunity to make it about something more than baseball.
MLB revealed that the teams will be wearing monochromatic uniforms in order to allow for each custom accessory design for the occasion to stand out more than ever before.
This year the event will be taking place from August 23-25 and the list of the names that will be on display for the event had been released.
Many of the nicknames were no surprise to the public like Pete Alonso’s “Polar Bear” or Gary Sanchez’s “Kranke”, but Oakland’s third baseman Matt Chapman is using this opportunity to do something more than just show his personal style.
Martin Gallegos, the A’s MLB beat reporter share the Players Week nickname list on his Twitter and was promptly asked to explain what was the reason behind Chapman’s nickname, which Gallegos explained through a series of tweets:
Matt Chapman honoring his Fullerton teammate, Nick Hurtado, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 21 after a battle with bone cancer. https://t.co/XsSWrpJs45
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 6, 2019
Later on Gallegos share a little more of the touching story:
Matt Chapman on choosing Hurtado for Players’ Weekend: “I know it was his dream to play in the Major Leagues. He never got that opportunity, so I figured it would be the best way to represent him, to get his last name on a big league jersey and play a game in the big leagues.”
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 6, 2019