“It was all Pope Leo,” Marty said. “And the hat.”

Her husband agreed. “It’s very unique,” he said, pointing to his miter-shaped hat emblazoned with a Sox logo. “I wanted to be one of 40,000 people walking around Chicago with this thing on their head.”

Along with the pope hat giveaway, the night featured a fifth-inning passing of the peace, during which fans greeted one another, modeled after a ritual from a Catholic Mass. A group of Catholic school kids, whose mock conclave last year made national headlines, greeted players as they took the field. Legendary organist Nancy Faust provided the soundtrack, with songs like Billy Joel’s “Keeping the Faith,” Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and, of course, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’”

Sister Sobieck delighted fans by bouncing a baseball on her bicep before firing the ball home for the opening pitch. Before her star turn, she posed for selfies and chatted with fans. She said that she loved that so many people had turned out for the pope hat night. It was a sign that the pope can bring people together.

A few people asked her whether the pope giveaway hat, modeled after the pope’s miter, was irreverent.

“Not at all,” she said. “It’s just good fun. You know, baseball unites. The church unites. You put two good things together, and it’s perfect.”

I went to the Mets/royals game on Monday and realized that there were no RBIs, no errors; every run was scored by a home run.

Chat gpt says there have been no other games like that but I can't believe this was the first. Right? Is there a highest scoring game with only runs?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27703574

Why? Just....just why??? I know. I know. Money. Because you can't be a billionaire and not make even more money.

I'm watching spring training games. Guys!!! It's spring training! Wake up!!!

And it's the Royals vs the Guardians. Go Guards! And right now, I really like the Guardians uniforms. There's no way for me to explain the visual that would do it justice. There's a C over the heart on the front. Numbers and name on the back. That doesn't do it justice. It has this feeling of being a continuation of the Cleveland Indians 1980s uniforms, without actually being that. It's a very crisp simple look. I have two issues.

The first, is the hat. It's bright red, and it clashes with the rest of the look. Should have been a blue hat with a red trim.

The second issue I have, is this marathon patch on our sleeve. Just a random advertisement for a gas company. On a baseball uniform. WHAT THE FUCK??? WHY???

And the royals look quite sharp too. They have baby blue jersys with white pants. They contrast the baby blue jersey with dark blue helmets, elbow pads, and gloves. It all looks very organized, and clean.

.......until you see their arm. Bright red patch that says QT. I have no idea what QT is, but this patch stands out. It's legitimately distracting. At least the Marathon patch on the Guardians sleeve matches the color scheme. It doesn't stand out until they do closeups of it. But with the royals, even during pitching windups, when the camera is behind second base, that red patch on the Royals jerseys STILL stands out. You can't read QT from that angle. You just see a random red rectangle.

And since I'm ranting, I'll continue. I also don't like the auto 2nd base runner in extra innings rule. I get it during 2020. During a pandemic, it makes sense. I do NOT understand that rule still being in effect in 2025.

I'm also not a fan of the pitch clock. I don't WANT the game to be over faster. Baseball games are sometimes the only chance I get to see certain old friends. So shorter game time means shorter time to catch up with old friends.

I'm undecided on this robo-ump, but I will say I would be 100% against it if it fully replaced human umpires. I think it's good to use in the same way as a video review. Challenge the call, robo-ump confirms, game goes on. That I'm thinking I'm ok with. But if it was fully automated, that would take an element of baseball away.

And I love baseball. I want it to be the same sport I remember growing up with. Look at hockey. 20+ years ago it was a totally different sport. It was like boxing on ice. Now apparently there's a puck! And a net! and punching is highly frowned upon rather than the main attraction. And baseball has their version of this too. When you used to baserun, you used to do it so much more aggressively, with the intention of colliding with the opposing players to force a fielders choice, rather than a double play. You don't see that much these days either. It's not quite a fist fight, but it was pretty cool.

This is apparently real... And sold out

This crap from the king of steroid junkies.