If there was any bowl game that you would expect to have pristine field conditions, it would be the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. Alas, that is not the case.
The 2022 edition of the New York-based bowl game kicked off on Thursday between the Syracuse Orange and Minnesota Golden Gophers. They didn’t even make it to the second quarter before the turf in Yankee Stadium started to degrade to the point where it was affecting play on the field.
“Anytime you’re a lawn care company that can sponsor a bowl game with terrible grass conditions, you gotta do it,” wrote Awful Announcing.
Anytime you're a lawncare company that can sponsor a bowl game with terrible grass conditions, you gotta do it. pic.twitter.com/lKsf9yHdso
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 29, 2022
The extra irony is, of course, that the game is sponsored by a literal lawn care company. And that’s on top of the fact that the bowl game takes place in New York City, a place that is widely known for its lack of personal greenspace, especially in nearby Manhattan.
Naturally, the college football world had a “field” day with this.
“Oh wow, this turf sure has degraded a lot over 4 quarters of football. Wait, my producer is correcting me, 4 minutes of football,” wrote Sickos Committee.
Oh wow, this turf sure has degraded a lot over 4 quarters of football.
Wait, my producer is correcting me, 4 minutes of football. pic.twitter.com/aJNypRjFJp
— 🇸🇲 Sickos Committee 🇸🇲 (@SickosCommittee) December 29, 2022
“Incredibly funny that Bad Boy Mowers, a lawn care company, went from sponsoring a bowl game played indoors on artificial turf to a bowl game played on a baseball field that is actively falling apart,” wrote Rodger Sherman.
incredibly funny that Bad Boy Mowers, a lawn care company, went from sponsoring a bowl game played indoors on artificial turf to a bowl game played on a baseball field that is actively falling apart https://t.co/m4x4Z9Em1A
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) December 29, 2022
“Watching players slip on the Yankee Stadium field in the [Pinstripe Bowl] it’s a joke that any bowl game should be played in the Northeast. Kids deserve to play a bowl game in proper conditions. Yeah, I know, [Bowl Season]”> is about $$$ and TV,” wrote Chris Sciria.
Watching players slip on the Yankee Stadium field in the #pinstripebowl it's a joke that any bowl game should be played in the Northeast. Kids deserve to play a bowl game in proper conditions. Yeah, I know, #BowlSeason is about $$$ and TV.
— Chris Sciria (@csciria) December 29, 2022
To be fair, it’s still not the weirdest field conditions the Pinstripe Bowl has ever had to deal with.
