VT Hokies Pay Tribute to NY Yankees

An award-winning sports broadcaster with the YES Network, Nancy Newman hosts Brooklyn Nets Pre-Game presented by Fanduel Sportsbook and New York Yankees Batting Practice Today presented by Audi. She won one of her four Emmy Awards for hosting the latter program. Nancy Newman has covered the Yankees in some capacity since 2003.

Although it was the off-season for the Yankees, there was still live sports at Yankee Stadium in December 2021. The Virginia Tech Hokies played the Maryland Terrapins in the 2021 Pinstripe Bowl on December 29 and paid homage to the MLB franchise with an orange-and-white Yankees logo on one side of players' helmets.

The bond between the two organizations began in May 2007, when the Yankees donated $1 million to the Hokies Spirit Memorial Fund following the devastating Virginia Tech campus shootings on April 16 that resulted in 32 fatalities. Virginia Tech president Charles Steger threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Yankees game against the Boston Red Sox on the same night the donation was made.

The Yankees visited the Virginia Tech campus the following year to play an exhibition game against the Hokies baseball team. Stars like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada were among the Yankees players who signed autographs for Hokies players and fans.

Brooklyn Nets and Adidas Partner

A five-time Emmy-winning broadcaster, Nancy Newman joined the YES Network in 2003. In addition to hosting the pre-game show Batting Practice Today on Yankee game days, Nancy Newman hosts YES pre-and post-game shows for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.

In November 2021, the Brooklyn Nets announced a multi-year partnership with Adidas to engage local youth through basketball. The Brooklyn Nets Basketball Academy aims to support basketball instruction for young people in Brooklyn and beyond, drawing on the support of Adidas to provide a variety of merchandise and equipment.

Originally founded in 2016, the academy has invited more than 30,000 children to attend more than 450 events. The new Adidas partnership should help expand the program’s impact. To commemorate the launch of the Brooklyn Nets Basketball Academy, second-season Nets player James Harden hosted a basketball clinic for more than 130 young people from several community organizations. All attendees received a Brooklyn Nets Basketball Academy presented by Adidas t-shirt and a ticket to a Nets game against the New York Knicks at Barclays Center.

Baseball Hall of Fame After Pandemic

Nancy Newman is an Emmy-award winning sports journalist and studio anchor for YES Network. In addition to covering the Brooklyn Nets, she has won awards for her coverage of the New York Yankees, who celebrated the entrance of five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter into the Baseball Hall of Fame in September 2021. Among her duties Newman hosts the Official Magazine Program of the New York Yankees “Yankees Magazine” and the shows’ cameras had a front row seat to all the Major League Baseball HOF Induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, NY. The event and coverage was a spectacular coronation of Number 2, “The Captain”.

Derek Jeter was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020 in an almost unanimous vote — all but one of the voting sportswriters voted for him. Jeter would later make a jibe about the one vote against him, saying “Thank you to the baseball writers — all but one of you — who voted for me.” The induction day ceremony had been initially delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting audience size and was even slated to be a television-only event until it was rescheduled in September.

The ceremony was attended by fans who gave the all-time Yankees hit leader a standing ovation before sitting down to watch a video marking the passing of 10 Hall-of-Famers who had died in the 26 months since the last induction day. Fans expressed relief at finally being able to celebrate after such a long wait and welcomed Jeter ,as well as Larry Walker, Ted Simmons, and the late Marvin Miller.