Breanna Stewart Throws First Pitch on “New York Liberty Night” at Yankee Stadium

By: Gabe Zoda

Breanna Stewart (Left) and Jazz Chisholm Jr (Right) jersey swap before Stewart's first pitch at Yankee Stadium. Photo courtesy of MLB

New York sports has been buzzing over the past couple of days with the New York Knicks advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA, the Subway Series in the MLB and the New York Liberty beginning their title defense. Sunday Night was a night for continued celebration as the Yankees hosted a “New York Liberty Night” where Breanna Stewart threw the Ceremonial First Pitch.

As Stewart walked to the mound, she was greeted with a roar of cheers from both Yankees and Mets fans alike, uniting the rivals for a moment “To hear everyone in the crowd cheering for us, Yankees fans, mostly, and Mets fans,  just shows what we do as the Liberty as a whole”. 

Breanna Stewart took the mound (with her ring on her non throwing hand) and threw a strike to the plate with her teammates behind her, which she said was important to her.

“Having the team behind me was really cool, it’s something that they [The Yankees] don’t usually do. what we did was special because of them, what we’ll continue to do is going to be really special” Stewart said. 

(From Left to Right) Rebekah Gardner, Marine Johannes, Kennedy Burke, Isabelle Harrison, Jaylyn Sherrod, Nyara Sabally and Breanna Stewart. Members of the 2025 New York Liberty. Photo Courtesy of SNY

Stewie said “I had to throw from the rubber” and noted how nice the Yankees dugout was. 

Breanna Stewart, a New York Native, grew up a Yankee fan and said her favorite memories were watching Derek Jeter and A-Rod. She talked about the sustained success and the championships won as well.

Each fan with a special event ticket received a New York Liberty x Yankees hat that featured the Yankee logo in Seafoam green and a New York Liberty logo on the side.

New York Yankees x New York Liberty hat given to Special Events Ticketholders at "New York Liberty Night". Photo Courtesy, Gabe Zoda.

Breanna Stewart is also looking to make the New York Liberty more like the Yankee and their winning culture saying “Hopefully, when people see Liberty fans from afar, they're like, 'that's New York,' just like they do with the Yankees because the hard work, the grit, the way we fight through anything, but also the way we have each other's backs is going to be different than anywhere else”

Since it was the Subway Series, Stewie was asked about Rivalries and she declared the Aces as their rivals. Healthy rivalries are important in all sports, and the WNBA has seen an unhealthy one recently with the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever. Stewart said that a line was crossed with the words from the fans and outlined what a healthy rivalry looks like:

“Our fans are booing Vegas, and when we got to Vegas, we're going to get booed and similar situation to what you're going to see here tonight... when fans were turning their backs on Soto”

And of course, the Yankees had to win, and they did. Breanna Stewart said “this is a big one” and the fans showed out, A huge 6 run bottom of the 6th Inning capitalized by a Cody Bellinger Grand Slam led the Yankees to victory as they took the Subway Series two games to one. 

The New York Liberty continue their title defense on Thursday, May 22nd, when they take on the Chicago Sky at 8pm. Make sure to follow all of SSN’s Liberty Coverage @SSN_Liberty on X