A game within a game led to players from the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds standing on the sidelines long after the national anthem ended during their Fourth of July game at Yankee Stadium. Yankee pitchers Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet, both on the injured list, tried to wait out Cincinnati pitchers Graham Ashcraft and Carson Spiers during a “national anthem standoff,” the object of which is to be the last player to go into the dugout, according to the . The standoff lasted so long that all four remained as Yankees players took the field for the start of the game, pitcher Marcus Stroman warmed up, and home-plate umpire Alan Porter indicated the stunt had lasted long enough.
A prompt from the third base umpire also did little to end the standoff. Looks like we have a July 4th national anthem stand-off going on here between the and ..
. — Max Goodman (@MaxTGoodman) Spiers went into the dugout moments before Yankees manager Aaron Boone summoned his players to avoid the start of the game being delayed. That left Ashcraft the winner.
Poteet said the erupted spontaneously after the pre-game ceremonies. “It wasn’t a normal anthem, since they had the color guard, so we were standing there a little extra anyway. We noticed they were still standing, so we wanted to see who could outlast each other.
We took it all the way to the last bit, close to the game starting. Just a little fun,” he said. “It’s a little competition within the game.
It’s probably the first on.
