The wedding for Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez will be matched only by what’s expected to take place next month in Rhode Island.
The Pawtucket Red Sox announced Wednesday they’ll celebrate the recent engagement of A-Rod and J. Lo with a Red Sox-themed party Friday, April 12, at McCoy Stadium. The bash coincides with the PawSox’s game against the Syracuse Mets, scheduled to begin at 6:05 p.m. ET.
The love fest, which will kick off Pawtucket’s 2019 “Legendary Fridays” series, comes as the PawSox honor their “50 Years Together” with the Boston Red Sox. And it sounds like it’ll be quite the extravaganza.
Rodriguez spent 13 years with the New York Yankees during his illustrious Major League Baseball career and forever will be linked to the Red Sox for his role in one of sports’ biggest rivalries. Lopez, a music icon and movie star, also has Boston ties given her previous relationship with local actor Ben Affleck.
On April 12, the PawSox will honor both A-Rod and J. Lo in a variety of ways, with some of the festivities being a tip of the cap to the 15th anniversary of the Red Sox’s historic 2004 season in which Boston defeated Rodriguez and the Yankees en route to winning its first World Series title since 1918.
Here are some plans for the evening:
— Kids (12 & under) will be admitted for free.
— Fans wearing Bronson Arroyo or Jason Varitek jerseys will be admitted for free.
Arroyo, of course, plunked Rodriguez on July 24, 2004, sparking a huge Red Sox-Yankees brawl at Fenway Park in which Varitek famously gave A-Rod a face full of mitt.
— The McCoy Stadium videoboard will show footage from that July 24, 2004 Red Sox-Yankees game, which is considered one of the most important regular season games in Boston’s storied history.
— Fans by the name of “Jennifer” will be admitted for free.
Yes, all “Jenny’s from the block” showing valid Rhode Island identification will be granted free admission at the PawSox ticket office.
— Fans will have an opportunity to touch and take photos of the actual pitching rubber toed by Arroyo when he threw the most recent of the two perfect games in PawSox history on Aug. 10, 2003.
Fans wearing the jersey of the pitcher who threw the PawSox’s first perfect game will be admitted for free, but you must look up the answer to that trivia tidbit.
— Ross-Simons, the official jeweler of the PawSox, will be on hand to inspect fans’ wedding rings so that nobody is “fooled by the rocks that our PawSox fans got” — to paraphrase J. Lo’s hit song “Jenny from the Block.”
— Affleck, a longtime Red Sox fan and a native of Cambridge, Mass., has been invited to throw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.
— Tim Tebow, who is expected to play for Syracuse, will walk up to Mariah Carey’s greatest hits for the duration of the series at McCoy Stadium — a salute to one of J. Lo’s greatest rivals.
Ready to party? Tickets for all PawSox games, including the 2019 home opener on April 11, are on sale at PawSox.com, by phone at (401) 724-7300 or at the McCoy Stadium box office.
