grandstand plays

Noun

grandstand play (plural grandstand plays)

1. (idiomatic) A successful play or other manoeuvre during a sporting competition in which one or more players shows off unnecessarily in order to entertain or impress the spectators.
   • Instead of throwing it to center, however, she tried to make a grandstand play and threw it the entire length of the gymnasium to the waiting forward.1916, Hildegard G. Frey, chapter 8, in The Camp Fire Girls at School
2. (broadly, idiomatic) An action or stratagem that is excessively dramatic or sensational and that is intended to appeal to members of the public or to a particular audience.
   • "He goes strike-breakin'. Grandstand play, that's what I call it. Gets his name in the papers an makes all the skirts he runs with fluster up an' say: ‘My! Some bear, that Roy Blanchard, some bear.’"1913, Jack London, chapter 12, in The Valley of the Moon