The Yankees finished their game at 3:30 p.m. on April 20.
Then, for five Yankees, it was off to Madison Square Garden for the 6 p.m. nightcap of the Saturday doubleheader, though this time they were just spectators.
Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt sat courtside for the Knicks’ 111-104 win over the 76ers in Game 1 of their playoff series. Anthony Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton went together a few nights later for Game 2.
“It was sick, bro,” Schmidt said.
“Super dope,” Stroman said.
“Amazing,” Torres said.
The Yankees’ schedule does not often give them free nights in New York. But when it does, and the Knicks are at the Garden for however long their playoff run lasts, there likely will be at least a few Yankees in attendance.
“It’s so hard,” Stroman said. “I haven’t checked the schedule yet, but once we have a day game or something where there’s an opportunity, we’ll get back in there. But our schedule makes it damn-near impossible to get to much.”
And it’s not just the NBA playoffs they’re interested in.
“We also want to make the Rangers a run, too,” Schmidt said.
“We want to go,” Cortes said. “They had invited us the day after to go to the Rangers [Game 1 vs. the Capitals]. But it was a one o’clock game and [the Rangers] played at 3. If they had played at night, it would have been perfect. But whenever we have a chance, I’m sure we’ll go.”
Soto looked ready to go, leaving the clubhouse that Sunday wearing an Artemi Panarin jersey. Stroman, after his start on Sunday in Milwaukee, was also wearing a Rangers cap. Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu also have been known to make an appearance at Rangers playoff games: The trio went viral for chugging beers at the Garden two years ago.
The Yankees are still five months away from making their own potential playoff run, but they are embracing the Knicks’ and Rangers’ runs and soaking up the atmosphere while they’re at it.
“I think you kind of know, but to feel it is something different,” Stroman said. “It’s definitely a different energy that we would love to have in The Bronx this year. I feel like it’s the biggest home-field advantage.”
Though some may have their own allegiances as fans — particularly Cortes, a diehard Heat fan who was hoping for a Heat-Knicks Eastern Conference Finals (the Celtics erased that idea Wednesday night) — the experience of watching pro athletes as a pro athlete is unique.
The Yankees players sitting courtside may not be basketball savants (or hockey for that matter), but they do have some insight on the physical and mental preparation it takes to play at that level.
“The perspective completely changes,” Schmidt said. “When I was younger, I might be watching a game, I’m just looking at the cool plays and this and that. But now, even sitting up close the other day, being able to watch the minute details of how they move around as a team and what each player is doing individually when they’re iso’d out. You just pay attention to the details a lot more and you really appreciate the details a lot more. You see things and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is what makes them really good.’
“A lot of fans, even in baseball, you watch a game and you don’t really know, there’s so many small games within a game. Watching that in other sports is a lot of fun now. That’s why I’m a big sports fan now because you see similar mentalities and it’s almost like a peek behind the curtain. You know what they’re thinking when they’re out there, so it makes it a lot of fun.”
Stroman, who regularly talks about being in tune with his own body, appreciates that perspective as well.
“I’m very cognizant of the body and how guys move,” Stroman said. “So seeing those guys, what they do is pretty special.”
As for how they get the tickets? Cortes said players will sometimes ask their agencies or buy the tickets themselves. In this scenario, the Knicks helped them out.
“The Knicks like to promote other New York athletes going there, so it was one of those things,” Schmidt said. “The opportunities arose like that and they wanted us to come out. Me, Stro and Nestor were already talking about it and then Soto and Gleyber were talking about it, so it was like, let’s just all go together. And they sat us together.”
“Just to bond with the team, get a night, go support some other New York sports,” Stroman said. “I feel like that’s the Mecca of basketball, too, so to watch a basketball game there is the best place.”
And sitting courtside comes with its own perks. Cortes described it as something of a who’s who, looking around and realizing, “Oh s—t, this guy’s there, this guy’s here.”
The coolest celebrity he saw at Game 1?
“I know him by Marty Byrde from ‘Ozark,’” Cortes said, referring to Jason Bateman.
Stroman, the Long Island native, said the Garden courtside experience is “hard to beat.”
“It’s one of the better experiences in sports,” he said. “I feel like you get spoiled when you sit courtside. But yeah, just to be able to see top-level athletes running, jumping. To be on the court, you really feel the flow of the game and you really feel like you’re just kind of in the game. It’s definitely my favorite place to enjoy a sporting event.”
The Yankees’ Blake Perkins fan club
While playing for the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate in 2022, Blake Perkins lived in the basement of Anthony Volpe’s family household, affectionately known as “the dungeon.”
Two years later, Perkins is out of the dungeon and making an early-season impact in the major leagues — just not for the Yankees.
Perkins, who split 2022 between the Yankees’ Double-A and Triple-A teams before becoming a minor league free agent, is now the Brewers’ starting center fielder. The 27-year-old switch hitter crushed a two-run home run against Luis Gil in last Friday’s 7-6 win over the Yankees and is batting .277 with a .815 OPS across 23 games this season. His 1.1 bWAR is the fourth-highest on the Brewers.
During the summer of 2022, when Volpe was living at home and playing for Double-A Somerset, Perkins, Max Burt and Austin Wells were his roommates who took up residence in the basement.
Last weekend’s series against the Yankees in Milwaukee served as a reunion of sorts.
“He’s doing well and he’s proving to them that he can play,” Wells said. “That’s what we were all trying to do back then, and he’s doing it now. Unfortunately, it’s on the Brewers, but it is what it is. It’s in the big leagues.”
Wells was a midseason addition to the dungeon that summer after being promoted to Double-A from High-A Hudson Valley. He and Perkins shared a room in the basement that had only a half-window, but it was a luxury to be able to stay with the Volpes.
“It was awesome. It felt like we were back in college,” Wells said. “I’d get to come home every night after games and watch TV, hang out and then have the nice Volpe family cooking us breakfast and making sure we always had food and everything we needed. It was the best, honestly.”
After batting .246 with an .813 OPS, 15 home runs and 21 steals between Somerset and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that year, Perkins became a free agent for the second time in his career and signed a minor league pact with the Brewers. He was called up for three stints in the big leagues in 2023, batting .217 with a .675 OPS across 67 games, before winning a job this spring and enjoying some early success.
“[What stood out was] how much he cared about his teammates and his ability to go out there every day and play at a high level,” Wells said. “I think they’re seeing it over there now. It doesn’t matter who’s on the mound, he’s going to go out there and give you a competitive at-bat nine times out of 10. That stood out to me back then.”
Want to catch a game? The Yankees schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
The right stuff
Clay Holmes is off to a terrific start to the season, recording 10 saves and not allowing an earned run through 15 innings.
But his five-out save on Wednesday night in Baltimore may have been the best stuff he’s flashed while in pinstripes.
“[Wednesday] night was pretty special,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think his slider’s to a point now to where it’s gotten better and better and is truly a real complement to his sinker.
“[Wednesday] night was pretty electric on both fronts from a sinker and slider [perspective]. Considering the game and who he had to roll through, he’s had some pretty good stretches for us, but [Wednesday] night in a vacuum was pretty impressive.”
