Call it the ultimate New York baseball sprint.
On Saturday, a handful of Big Apple baseball obsessives turned an odd scheduling twist into a full-blown citywide adventure, racing between boroughs to watch three Major League Baseball games in the span of just nine hours.
The rare setup came courtesy of the Yankees hosting a day-night doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx, while the Mets faced the Houston Astros in Queens right in the middle — creating just enough of a window for ambitious fans to bounce from Yankee Stadium to Citi Field and back again.
Brooklyn resident and devoted Mets fan Dana Nauta said she and her friend Carly Henry were instantly “pumped” when they realized the three-game New York baseball marathon was actually possible.
“She [Carly] texted me first thing in the morning and she was like, ‘It’s like Christmas morning.’ And the night before, I was so excited,” Nauta told The Post.
Still, pulling it off was no simple feat. Nauta, a Brooklynite, and Henry, who hails from New Jersey, knew that navigating the subway between the Bronx and Queens would require tight timing — and they admitted the plan “would maybe be a challenge.”
The Yankees’ opener was scheduled for 1 p.m., the Mets-Astros matchup at Citi Field was set for 4 p.m., and the Yankees’ nightcap back in the Bronx was slated for 7 p.m. That left little margin for subway slowdowns, late-inning drama, extra innings or any other classic game day complications.
“We kind of negotiated that we would be OK leaving early. We would make game time decisions on what to prioritize based on how the games were going and how the team seasons were going,” Nauta said.
To keep track of the parts of the games they missed, Nauta and Henry would watch them from their phones while in transit.
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The duo were not alone in pulling off the attempt to witness all three games, with some documenting the scramble on their social media profiles.
“Made it back to Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the 2nd!” Nathaniel Rakich posted on X, noting the “perfect” weather made the day easier “That means we missed less than 4 innings total, out of 27.”
“Start spreading the news: A tripleheader is exhausting, hectic… and unforgettable,” he posted at the end of the night mimicking the opening line of “New York, New York” which is used as a way to celebrate Yankees’ wins.
Nauta meanwhile said she and her friend repeatedly ran into a family who was also attempting the same triple play.
“They were next level because they had an actual event for a family friend at Citi Field at 9 a.m. And they went from Citi Field to Yankee Stadium, then back to Citi Field, then back to Yankee Stadium,” she said.
Catching the three games also required to resort to some more radical choices to keep the peace at Yankee Stadium.
“I did a full wardrobe change because I was wearing my [Mets infielder Francisco] Lindor jersey. I’m gonna wear a non-denominational T-shirt to sit in the bleachers,” she said.
But while several people rushed around the city to catch the games, for many others it was simply just another ballgame.
“These people don’t even know what we’re doing. We’re absolute psychos right now,” Nauta joked.
In the end, the Yankees lost their first game of the doubleheader, but won their second. The hardluck Mets also managed to pick up a W against Houston.
