Throwing out the first ball at a baseball game.
The Yankees kept an open locker for #15, Thurman Munson, since his death in 1979.
Now that they are in the new stadium, the locker is now in the museum part… it’s okay, but it seems more like an “exhibit” to me. It was better when it was actually in the locker room.
More or less yeah, but the Cubs usually (if not always) have some guest person/famous person do it.
I could be wrong about singling out the Cubs, since I live in the vicinity I have seen a lot of games, so it sticks out.
Cleveland teams ripping the hearts out of their fans year after year.
That was stolen from Florida State University. The Braves were not doing the chop during their dismal years in the 1980s.
Speaking of Florida State, Chief Osceola riding out on Renegade with the flaming spear.
I like the cricket tradition of stopping for lunch and tea, and taking a drinks break in the middle of each session of play, during Test matches.
The Haka is also awesome.
Count me as another who hates the Braves’ chop. I also think that throwing hats on the ice for a hat-trick in hockey is pretty silly.
anything that gets the crowd going, as non-american my favorites are: haka, Ireland’s call and any national anthem (provided the crowd sings it) before an international footie game, especially if it is Holland
It’s certainly one that causes some controversy amongst other nations that are jealous.
If you would like to know more do a search for “Haka” or “Ka Mate” (Ka Mate is the one that has been in use since the very early days of New Zealand rugby, and tells the story of a chief being pursued by his enemies)
It comes from our (New Zealand’s) Maorl. But please do be careful, although “native dance” broadly speaking is correct, the Haka it is actually a battle challenge - so to refer to it as a “dance” is perhaps a little demeaning.
It can / should only be performed by men and lays down the challenge to the opposing forces, as well as motivates the men for the battle.
FTR, Samoa also has a pre-game challenge that they perform - if you did a search on you tube you can probably find footage of the two teams squaring off in the last rugby world cup 
Well, it’s special at Wrigley because the practice was started and made famous by Harry Caray. They played the song on the famous organ at Comiskey in the 70s when he called games there and he would sign the song obnoxiously in the press box for his own amusement. Harry was asked to conduct it for the fans, who at the time didn’t usually sign the song aloud the way that’s typical now, but he didn’t like the idea. Bill Veeck surreptitiously put a PA in the booth and broadcast it anyways. Eventually it became an event in and of itself. When Harry left the Sox to go to the Cubs the tradition followed him and the atmosphere at day games in Wrigley really amplified the festiveness of the song. It went from a local quirk to a national phenomenon. When Harry left Comiskey the conducting stopped and they reverted to just the organ again. It wasn’t until the last decade or so that the tradition finally spread to every park.
In short, the communal signing of Take Me Out To The Ball Game is Chicago’s thing, though it’s been imitated often.
Here’s a good article about it with video.
FTR, I much preferred when Harry did it and it’s lost it’s luster with the parade of celebs.
I get goose bumps every time I see that. I want to walk through the Shankly Gates and watch a good match from the Kop at least once before I die.
Psst… post 2. 
The chops started by the guy at the soundboard are often quite lame, I’ll grant you that. Let me take you back to opening night last month, though. A two and a half hour rain delay cleared out a good half of the stadium. By the time the late innings rolled around it was midnight. Braves are trying to fend off a rally by the opposition, they’ve got men on and nobody out.
Then it starts - the fans are chopping because the fans want to chop. We’re doing it because it’s the right time in the game TO do it. Thousands of voices are cheering as one, voices rising into the misty air. There’s no accompaniment by the PA system, no music, no drumbeat, just the fans who have been at the stadium for five hours and have weathered this game to its end pulling for the home team.
THAT’S what I’m talking about. THAT’S when the chop will give you chills.
Fair, but you better believe we were doing it through the boom years of the nineties. It’s ours now, too.
Psst…the first time somebody has only needed to post their user name to make me feel foolish:smack:
Can someone from the UK explain how and why this became a tradition? Here in America, “You Never Walk Alone” is an overplayed maudlin showtune that is almost never performed unironically outside of the end of the Jerry Lewis Telethon. The fact that in Liverpool it’s traditionally sung by thousands of raucous (and frequently liquored-up) football fans is rather puzzling to me.
I know that’s what Chicagoans believe, but I doubt it. I remember communal singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” being sung at Cleveland Indians games when I was a child in the 1970s, so Harry Carey didn’t start it. I would agree that Chicago started the tradition of having a beloved but frequently drunk radio broadcaster lead the singing, and following said broadcaster’s death having a celebrity of the day lead the singing, but as for the communal singing itself, I’d say that tradition predates Harry Carey at Comiskey Park.
The show tune was covered by Gerry & The Pacemakers, a (horrible) 1960s pop group from Liverpool. The cover reached #1 on the UK pop chart, and it was traditional at the time for the stadium speakers to play whatever was on the radio at the time before matches.
For some reason people kept singing YNWA even after it dropped off the charts.
In such ways are traditions born.
It probably helps that Gerry Marsden (Gerry from Gerry and the Pacemakers) is a big Liverpool fan and attends most home matches, or used to.
The song was played over the PA prior to all that at many parks, though Wrigley’s organ installed in 1941 was probably the very first to do so as well. The point is not that it was never sung at a game, the point is that it was conducted and orchestrated from the booth and became a communal part of the game for the fans. When Veeck got the idea to have Harry conduct it it was inspired by the fact that Harry and some of the fans would sing it aloud, but Veeck wanted Harry to conduct it so that everyone sang it. Prior to that the 7th inning stretch was a time for most fans to go to the bathroom and, you know, stretch.
FWIW, the Cal (ie, University of California, Berkeley) rugby team played New Zealand at some point in the distant past (1960s or thereabouts), and brought the Kamate haka back with them. While I was a student, there was a half-hearted attempt to make it a regular cheer for football games, but it never really caught on. But I can say that I have recited it in a group. It *is *pretty cool.
My favorite tradition is Ralphie the buffalo charging onto the field before Univ of Colorado home games, with handlers hanging on for dear life.
Naw, I’m not buying that. At the bottom of the 7th fans have sung “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, communally and badly, from well before Veeck got Carey to sing into the Comiskey mic. Fans went to, and continue to, go to the restroom when they need to. 
Back to the OP, I’d second the nomination for the Ohio State’s marching band’s performance of “Script Ohio” at each game. It is quite a stirring thing to see.