{"id":115004,"date":"2016-07-28T09:06:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T13:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=115004"},"modified":"2016-07-28T11:31:39","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:31:39","slug":"500-uconn-alums-converge-new-yorks-citi-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/07\/500-uconn-alums-converge-new-yorks-citi-field\/","title":{"rendered":"500 UConn Alums Converge at New York&#8217;s Citi Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, more than 500 UConn alumni attended UConn Night at Citi Field to watch the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in the second game of a doubleheader.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it says a lot, and I\u2019m really encouraged by it,\u201d said UConn athletics director David Benedict. \u201cWe need to build the passion in our fan base not just locally, but regionally and nationally. I think the fact we had 500 people there tells me that we do have a passionate fan base and that, when provided the opportunity, we\u2019ve got fans that are willing to come out and support UConn. This was a great event, and we\u2019re going to continue to mobilize our fan base in New York as much as we possibly can.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>It was great to share a special night with UConn Nation in our home away from home \u2013 New York City. <cite> &#8212 Jim Penders<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Before the game, UConn baseball head coach <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uconnhuskies.com\/sports\/m-basebl\/mtt\/jim_penders_391114.html\">Jim Penders<\/a> had the honor of throwing out the first pitch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always like being around UConn Huskies in any environment,\u201d Penders said. \u201cTo be with 500 Huskies in the Big Apple cheering on the Mets was extra special. We have more of our former players competing in the Mets organization than any other club, and so many of our alumni are in the New York metro area. The Wilpon family and their organization have always been great to our program. It was great to share a special night with UConn Nation in our home away from home \u2013 New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dan Toscano, chair of the UConn Foundation\u2019s Board of Directors, was Penders\u2019 catcher behind the plate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say we\u2019re New York City\u2019s team, and I think that proves it,\u201d Toscano said.<\/p>\n<p>UConn has a strong alumni presence in New York City, most recently hosting head football coach Bob Diaco during his road tour to chat with several local alumni networks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fans watched the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals during UConn Night in New York City, UConn&#8217;s &#8216;home away from home.&#8217; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":115025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1712],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[175],"class_list":["post-115004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 14:16:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115004"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115034,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115004\/revisions\/115034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/115025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115004"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=115004"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=115004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}