The San Francisco Giants celebrated the eighth annual “Metallica Night” at yesterday’s (May 24th) game against the New York Mets.
Per tradition, members of Metallica — including James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Lars Ulrich — were in attendance. Hetfield got to throw out the first pitch before picking up his guitar and shredding “The Star-Spangled Banner” alongside Hammett.
“It’s a tradition that we’ve missed the last two seasons, so we’re really excited for the return of Metallica Night at Oracle Park with our hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants,” said Metallica in a statement. “This year marks the eighth time we’ll take the field for the National Anthem, first pitch, and a few other pre-game shenanigans.”
It kicked off what would be a marathon ballgame, with the feisty Mets overcoming a 8-2 deficit to take the lead 11-8 in the top of the eighth inning. Maybe it was the energy of Metallica Night that made the difference, however, as the Giants would rally to win 13-12 in thrilling fashion.
Metallica are also offering up the two guitars used by Hetfield and Hammett to play the anthem last night: a James Hetfield Signature Series ESP Snakebyte Guitar and the Kirk Hammett Signature Series ESP KH-2 Guitar — both emblazoned with Giants iconography. Fans can enter a sweepstakes for the guitars that supports the band’s All Within My Hands Foundation.
In other Metallica news, the band has teamed up with Walmart for another round of vinyl reissues, this time focusing on its latter era. Load, ReLoad, St. Anger, Garage Inc., and Death Magnetic will be receiving colored vinyl represses exclusively via the retailer. The LPs hit shelves on June 17th and can be pre-ordered via Walmart.
Below you can watch the national anthem performance and Hetfield’s pretty solid first pitch from the 8th annual Metallica Night.
.@Metallica played tonight’s national anthem with City Connect guitars and equipment pic.twitter.com/a6lAkV0Db2
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 25, 2022
Always good to see our friends @Metallica 🤘 pic.twitter.com/tlCbziQl2i
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 25, 2022
