$5 Yankees Game Draws Unexpected Prayer Crowd

Yankee Stadium’s minyan on May 3, 2017 Image by Courtesy Samuel Weiss

The New York Yankees played the Toronto Blue Jays the evening of May 3 in Yankee Stadium, and because of a special promotion with Mastercard, some tickets were available for only $5. According to one Orthodox attendee, Samuel Weiss, these low prices have brought some unexpected traffic to the unofficial “Jewish Quarter” of the stadium:

“Not to promote stereotypes, but it’s a 5 dollar game at Yankee Stadium and the upper deck maariv minyan has 100 people at it…” Weiss posted on Facebook. Maariv is the Jewish evening prayer — many observant men recite the prayer daily in the presence of a minyan, a quorum of 10 or more Jewish men. It seems their prayers weren’t in vain, either: the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 8-6.

According to the prayer quorum-finding site goMinyan, this group regularly meets during the 7th inning stretch next to the kosher hot dog stand. Here’s a video of a typical crowd.

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