Yankees: Jeopardy! contestants hilariously bomb NYY category
By Adam Weinrib
![NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 23: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Former New York Yankees and baseball Hall of Famers Yogi Berra (L) and Whitey Ford are introduced during the teams 67th Old Timers Day prior to a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on SeptemberJune 23, 2013 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Rays defeated the Yankees 3-1. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 23: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Former New York Yankees and baseball Hall of Famers Yogi Berra (L) and Whitey Ford are introduced during the teams 67th Old Timers Day prior to a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on SeptemberJune 23, 2013 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Rays defeated the Yankees 3-1. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/https-3A-2F-2Fyanksgoyard-com-2Fwp-content-2Fuploads-2Fgetty-images-2F2020-2F10-2F184264614-850x560-e4a48b94ee306eec62365dd6efdd5405.jpg)
The three Jeopardy! contestants who had to deal with a Bronx Bombers category this week were — ahem — NOT Yankees fans.
Being a fan of the New York Yankees is a special badge. All of us are encyclopedic, and can run through the intricacies of the team’s 27 rings at the drop of a hat.
Heck, even Yankees haters know the drill — they’ve been inundated with our history their whole lives, so they can dredge it up if they have to.
Unfortunately, none of the three contestants on Jeopardy! this week had any idea what to do with the Bronx Bombers category they were given by Alex Trebek.
Should we…should we respond to these prompts? Just put our hands up, close our eyes, and breathe heavily? After the first query, none of these were even close, and the last answer was highly embarrassing — sorry, the last “question.”
We didn't expect this category about the Bronx Bombers to bomb so hard. Oh well! @Yankees pic.twitter.com/i55Cpmj0l5
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) October 2, 2020
“This man hit the first home run at the original Yankee Stadium”? Babe Ruth. They got it. Great.
But then, for $400, Trebek asked the three bewildered book-learners who “All Rise” referred to, and they had no clue.
Not a fan of the modern game, eh, chaps? Well, then, surely you know what team Frank Gifford played for for $600. Only so many New York teams! Ahh, once again, silence. A nerd’s mortal enemy.
Unfortunately, the final two questions on a Jeopardy! board are, by nature, the hardest. So it only made perfect sense that nobody knew what center fielder had his “swan song” in 1968 (Mickey Mantle, I’d rank that a 3-out-of-10), and the trio was completely baffled by the Daily Double (!) about who stands 60’6″ away from Don Larsen’s statue at the current stadium.
Hmm … 60 feet, six inches … that length means nothing to me, so I’m just going to assume this is ALS-related social distancing? Lou Gehrig? Ugh.
https://t.co/sJzRLl2h9s pic.twitter.com/QVFGCsv5eo
— Views from 314ft (@ViewsFrom314ft) October 2, 2020
Unfortunately, after all of this, we still had to name a winner. Depressing, I know.
But, to be fair, if you asked Luke Voit, DJ LeMahieu, and Zack Britton about Renaissance art, they’d probably be just as befuddled.