Fastball

Pittsburgh Pirates Mascot Involved in Hilarious Anthem Stand-Off with Oakland Athletics

A fun National Anthem standoff broke out at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Wednesday as the Pittsburgh Pirates hosted the Oakland Athletics. This one involved the Pirates mascot. Luckily, no one was ejected.

Brady Farkas

Pittsburgh Pirates Mascot Involved in Hilarious Anthem Stand-Off with Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates Mascot Involved in Hilarious Anthem Stand-Off with Oakland Athletics /
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Who's to say that a game involving the 13-50 Oakland Athletics can't be fun?

Some fun broke out on Wednesday afternoon before the A's and Pirates took the field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh as the Pirates mascot was involved in a National Anthem standoff.

The Anthem standoff has become one of the more fun things in baseball pre-game routine. You don't see it every day, but when you do, it's sure to get a laugh.

Especially when a big, green mascot is involved. You can watch below:

Now, let's examine a few things:

1) The Oakland Athletics won the Anthem standoff which is surprising. The players risk fear of ejection for partaking in the standoff too long and holding up the game, but the mascot can't really be tossed, can they? I would have thought they would have had more willpower.

2) Kudos to the multiple A's players that held out. Usually, these end in a 1-v-1 standoff but this one involved multiple A's players holding their ground.

Sadly, that's the only fun the Pirates have had today. At the time of this posting, it's 7-1 Athletics in the bottom of the fourth inning. Oakland scored seven runs in the top of the first inning.

If they are able to hold on, which is always a question given the state of the A's pitching staff, they'll move to 14-50. 

A loss would drop the Pirates to 32-29, which would be significant because they entered play on Wednesday just 0.5 games out of first place in the National League Central.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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