The death of the former Al Qaeda leader was announced during a game between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies in 2011.
May the 2nd (2011) was a the day when the death of Osama bin Laden was confirmed but because of the time difference in Pakistan where he was shot dead by a US Navy Seal team, his death was announced on 1 May in the US. The death of the Al-Qaeda leader was confirmed during a Sunday night MLB game between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
A fan reacts after the Mets won the Major League Baseball (MLB) American League Division Series playoff gameSARAH YENESELEFE
In the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Mets leading 1-0, the Phillies tied the game on a Ryan Howard hit. However, as the double play ended, announcer Dan Shulman announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a shootout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Fans of both teams, who totaled 45,713, stopped paying attention to the game with the groundbreaking news and tuned into details on how the former Al-Qaeda leader was shot dead at his Pakistan compound.
Both Phillies and Mets fans joined together to chant “U-S-A-, U-S-A-” on multiple occasions with the reaction from the stands causing confusion for players of both teams who were unaware of the reason for the cheers and thought their team had beaten another team in an international game.
Players from both sides only discovered the news midway through the ninth inning with the game taking 14 innings to end in a Mets win, but the significance of the game was of little importance.
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