Pittsburgh Pirates mascot joins players in pregame standoff

Baseball is a sport that contains multiple battles within the game as a whole. The most obvious is the battle that is every individual at bat. Sometimes, those battles even spill over into the pregame festivities. Just ask the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With the Pirates finishing up a series against the Oakland A’s, they decided to have a little standoff, refusing to return to their dugouts after the national anthem. That’s become a relatively common thing to do, as a lighthearted battle to see which player can stand there the longest, even if it did lead to multiple players being ejected from a game between the Red Sox and Phillies this season.

Playing at home, Pittsburgh wanted to find a way to win this standoff, though, especially when their good friend the Pirate Parrot stepped in to help.

This is more than just your ordinary standoff! pic.twitter.com/HSxvx78fTQ

— MLB (@MLB) June 7, 2023

Pittsburgh’s mascot stood shoulder to shoulder with several Pirates players. Their goal, stand for the national anthem longer than anyone on the A’s was able to. However, one by one, the Pirates stepped away, including the Pirate Parrot, allowing Oakland to get away with winning the standoff.

In a way, that set the tone for the entire game, which Oakland ended up winning 9-5 after jumping out to a 7-0 first inning lead. Had Pittsburgh won the standoff, it may have been an entirely different game. At the same time, the A’s really did need a win after what has been an awful and depressing start to the season.

In the end, the Pirate Parrot was the second to last to give up, with the umpire trying to break up the standoff.

Pittsburgh Pirates player’s wife hospitalized after a raccoon attack

Travis Swaggerty, an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, recently announced that his wife had to be hospitalized. That’s because she was attacked by a raccoon and is now battling a rare blood disease.

“My wife Peyton heads to the Mayo Clinic (with Sutton and her parents and nana) after being attacked by a rabid raccoon over a year ago and a lot of guesses and medicines have been thrown at her,” Swaggerty wrote.

“She’s now been diagnosed with an extremely rare, painful blood disease that has completely taken over her body. It has riddled her with unresolved pain and problems and completely taken her quality of life away from her. I wanted to share this to ask for support and prayers for her, along with reminding everyone to not take anything for granted in this life, especially the little things. Her faith and trust in God has never wavered. Please take the time to pray for her if you feel compelled to and for the doctors to give her some comfort, and ultimately a solution.”

In his post, Swaggerty also praised his wife for how good of a mother she has been to their child.