With ‘Hamilton Night,’ Yankees turn the Stadium into the room where it happens
Baseball and Broadway collaborated in The Bronx, producing the most fun Yankee game of the season. And this thirst trap's all that... The post With ‘Hamilton Night,’ Yankees turn the Stadium into the room where it happens appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Welcome back to Talkin’ Gaysball where if it ain’t the prodigy of USC, Aaron Boone…
Despite owning 27 world championships, the New York Yankees have never been much interested in fun.
After all, if you cultivated a sense of joy in the stands at Yankee Stadium, that might get in the way of fans ripping a baseball out of an opposing fielder’s glove or taunting an injured player so mercilessly that his teammate tries to climb into the stands to start a fight.
Often, it feels as though the goal of the Yankees organization is to fit all 27 rings on their middle fingers.
Which makes what the Yanks did at the end of August all the more remarkable. In collaboration with the 10th anniversary of one of Broadway’s all-time inner circle legends, the Yankees held Hamilton Night in the Bronx.
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To celebrate, they unveiled a Hamilton Yankees cap giveaway, spotlighting the show’s colors with a bright gold interlocking “NY” over a black background and the iconic Lin-Manuel Miranda silhouette on the side.
Considering this team misses no opportunity to blather sanctimoniously about the tradition of their oh-so-sacred pinstripes, the Yankees did a very un-Yankee thing with this promotion: they got over themselves.
For that alone, Lin-Manuel deserves a Monument Park plaque bigger than Steinbrenner’s.
How did the fans respond to the cap giveaway? The lines outside the ballpark were even longer than the ones for the TKTS booth.
Additionally, the Gothamites brought out the stars of the show, with Renée Elise Goldsberry throwing out a first pitch and Christopher Jackson singing the national anthem.
But the best example of getting into the spirit of the evening was how New York’s graphics department dressed up the starting lineup in Hamilton costumes on the Jumbotron.
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As a team named the Yankees, this was a natural. You haven’t lived until you’ve beheld Aaron Judge decked out in Founding Father jacket and frilly ascot. Somebody tell Nike we’ve finally found the perfect design for a Yankees City Connect.
Over the years, both New York teams have brought Broadway stars to their ballparks to perform the anthem. But the success of Hamilton Night demonstrates that there’s an untapped market for musical theater collaborations in either The Bronx or Queens.
The opportunities are manifold. Playing a montage of Sooner State native Mickey Mantle’s home runs over a chorus of “Ooooooooklahoma!” should be an obvious call.
Not to be outdone, the Mets could co-brand their annual deferred payment to contractual albatross Bobby Bonilla and call it “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Night.”
Of course, with “Wicked: For Good” hitting theaters this fall, what better time for the Mets and Yankees to choose Team Elphaba or Team Glinda? (Oh, who am I kidding? The Yanks are DEFINITELY Team Wizard.)
Hamilton Night showed that the team just has to get the promotional details right and Broadway fans will show up in droves. No doubt it was also another great way to introduce more LGBTQ fans to a night of baseball.
But even though the team name’s in the title, New York won’t have to worry about holding a “Damn Yankees Day.” If they keep throwing their current defensive lineup on the field, no one in the American League will have to worry about selling their soul to beat them for the pennant.
MLB Thirst Trap of the Week
Jesús Luzardo has been a dependable mid-rotation starter for the first place Phillies all season, keeping the Fightin’s at the top of the NL East with 13 wins.
He’s also baseball’s best example of a 90s romantic comedy trope come to life.
On the mound, Luzardo pitches with glasses and he’s certainly quite fetching with them on, even while making a face that says “I’m either about to throw a slider or have an aneurysm.”
But when he takes them off, cue Sixpence None the Richer…
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Luzardo can descend our bullpen staircase in slow-mo anytime.
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The post With ‘Hamilton Night,’ Yankees turn the Stadium into the room where it happens appeared first on Outsports.
