Professional wrestling at a Minor League Baseball ballpark, right as the Minor League season is ending and wrestling enters that weird lull period between the summer and WrestleMania? This is relevant to my interests.

In an event I probably care about more than anybody in the world, Pennsylvania-based promotion Chikara pro wrestling took a trip to FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Double-A Reading Phillies, for a charity event benefitting Baseballtown Charities. The R-Phills are no stranger to wacky happenstance at the park, and this is no exception. It happened last month, but indescribably-talented Zia Hiltey shared pictures from the event on her page Zia Shoots Wrestling and I felt compelled to pass them along. Two major reasons:

1. I get way sadder for the Minor League season ending than the Major Leagues, because the MLB off-season is full of speculations and winter talks and more or less the same amount of baseball news. When the Minor League season ends, the Screwball costume just sits in a shed somewhere until summer comes around again.

2. Chikara’s biggest event of the year, King Of Trios, is happening this weekend. I’ll be there along with Destiny and over 20 With Leather commenters for a loosely-organized picnic thing before the Sunday show, so if you’re anywhere near the Easton, PA, area, get down to these shows and have some three bean salad with us, or whatever.

If you don’t like wrestling at all, trust me, you’ll still love the ridiculousness of these photos. Wrestling ants! Guys dressed like ice cream! With Spandex podcast guest Icarus getting a swirlie! MARTY JANNETTY!

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Back in January, we shared with you a video introducing Minor League Baseball’s best (and possibly worst) idea ever: a Baseballtown All-Star Home Run Derby organized by the Reading Phillies to include a points-based obstacle course in the outfield, a party for fans in the infield dirt while the home run derby was happening and a jazz musician squatting and playing rockin’ acoustic guitar in front of home plate. I think we all assumed that between January and July, someone would go, “hey, let’s just do a normal home run derby and not kill anybody with baseballs”.

Thankfully, nobody said that. The Baseballtown Derby happened IN REAL LIFE earlier this month, and it’s almost as glorious as you imagined.

Highlights include pop-flies into the dinner party, a man with a baseball head and a monster’s body catching balls in the outfield and a guy on an ostrich getting pissed because he missed a line drive. Oh, and at one point a home run hits a dunk tank in the outfield and dunks a spectator. Who do we have to put in charge to get the MLB derby to look ANYTHING like this?

[via Reading Phillies on Facebook]

During Saturday’s game in Reading, R-Phils outfielder Jiwan James scaled the wall to rob Bowie Baysox slugger Jonathan Schoop of a home run. The crazy thing about it is that he doesn’t catch it with his glove … he loses his glove completely and comes down with the ball in his bare hand. It’s one of the best (and most serendipitous) catches you’ll ever see, topping SportsCenter’s top plays and turning a double-A minor leaguer into an online sensation.

The only problem is that with the modifier “online” comes skeptics, and YouTube refuses to believe he caught the ball.

Theory 1: He trapped it.

ball definitely hits the wall…if you constantly hit pause and play at Around the 7 second mark of the video, you can see the ball go past his glove, and hit the wall at around the 8 second mark…hard to see, but its there (user chosen1soulja)

Looks like it falls into his chest and he either traps it against the wall and grabs it on the way down or he catches it off of his chest on the way down for the grab. (user pjfan14)

Theory 2: The ball he caught was a fake.

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It’s not really fair to say that a Minor League Baseball team with a performing, five-member mascot band and a hot dog vendor who is half ostrich has “lost” their mind, but it’s safe to say the Reading Phillies have been consistently out of it for years and the Baseballtown All-Star Home Run Derby is the next harrowing step of their descent into madness. Picture of me at a school desk in R-Phils Mascot Band bassist Bucky the Beaver’s home unrelated.

Anyway, Reading is either trying to make the concept of a home run derby as chaotic and dangerous as possible or throwing in with Mutant League Sports, you decide: they’ve put a dunk tank, a crane, a trampoline and a “gaff ball picker-upper” in the outfield affixed with any number of unfortunately-placed interns that will earn you “hundreds and hundreds of points” if you hit them. Believe it or not, a teenager hanging from a crane with a baseball glove trying to catch fly balls isn’t the worst idea: 500 fans are going to be IN THE INFIELD having a VIP party with food and drinks and crafts and what-the-hell-ever-else while the Eastern League All-Stars hit home runs over them. There’s a net, you see. A net I’m sure will keep pop-ups from reigning down on the head of some dude elbows deep in ribs, or onto any of the various fire-related or electrical equipment they’ve got set up.

And THAT’s not even the worst idea: Grammy award-winning jazz guitarist David Cullen will be sitting in front of home plate, playing guitar as guys hit home runs over him. Nothing says “sports fun” like a guy getting brain damage while trying to pluck his way through f**king Woodsongs, I guess.

If you’re in Reading on the 10th of July, go to this and send me a report. Try not to die from a fly ball to the dome between point A and point B.

[via Buzzfeed]

When you’re a professional mascot known for a gigantic beer belly, it’s probably not a good idea to go around climbing on the thighs of old people. The Phillie Phanatic did just that at a Double-A Reading Phillies game and now he has a woman with two broken knees all up in his business, which kind of reminds me of my old ‘field hockey in gym class’ days.

The Philadelphia Phillies’ mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, stepped on a woman’s thighs while climbing through the stands at a Reading Phillies Minor League game, exacerbating her arthritis and necessitating knee replacements, the woman claims in Philadelphia state court. -Courthouse News Service

I’m just surprised that the Phanatic’s getting sued and it doesn’t have to do with the ATV he’s been shredding on for over a decade. He almost ran me over back in the Veterans Stadium days when he used to roar through around the bowl of the concourse between innings, but that’s probably because I was as tall as a safety cone, and who doesn’t like hitting one of those every once in awhile?

Unfortunately for the Phanatic, this lady’s probably just trying to take advantage of a lovable mascot who just wants to jump around and distract you from the Phillies’ pitiful excuse for a minor league system. I bet she’s been waiting around for the suitable culprit to blame her knee woes on so she can finally get that knee replacement surgery she’s been needing for the past 5 years on someone else’s dime. I would know, I’ve been trying to get someone to sit on my cat for years. Maybe I should invite the Phanatic over. Read the rest of this entry »