By What do Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and a teeny tiny orange rescue kitten have in common?
Well they’re all iconic pitchers who’ve made their mark in the Atlanta Braves organization, of course.
The weeks-old kitten — appropriately named ChipPurr Jones after another Braves Hall-of-Famer — “threw out” the ceremonial first pitch Sept. 15 for the club’s Triple-A affiliate, the Gwinnett Stripers.
And the little guy delivered some heat ...by trotting alongside the ball to home plate.
To no one’s surprise, ChipPurr has since gone viral, with one post about the incredible outing amassing more than 109,000 likes as of the afternoon of Sept. 19.
ChipPurr’s handler Tricia Wurmstein, who’s also the Stripers’ manager of marketing tells TODAY.com that she’s proud of his performance on the mound.
“Honestly, it went so much better than I anticipated,” Wurmstein says, laughing. “He was ready for the moment.”
Videos of the miraculous moment show the kitten following a treat from the mound all the way to home plate as Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” blares on the speakers.
Though there’s a ball in his periphery, he doesn’t interact with it at all. It’s really there for vibes.
ChipPurr’s pitching appearance was part of the team’s “Purr in the Park” night, which also included a pet supply donation drive, benefitting area rescue shelters. Fans were permitted to bring their beloved cats to the stadium for the occasion as well.
Like all pitchers, ChipPurr put in the work to make sure he delivered. Wurmstein helped him out with practice by incorporating treats into his “bullpen sessions.”
At first, she says, she positioned herself at home plate while he was on the mound in an attempt to see if he would run to her. But when she called out to ChipPurr, his trot was interrupted by the changing texture beneath him, she says. He wasn’t really feeling the pivot from dirt to grass.
“So I was like, ‘Maybe I can try and lead him with the treat, so he can directly see it and smell it right in front of him.’” Wurmstein recalls.
The rest is history.
Wurmstein says that ChipPurr came into the team’s orbit when he was spotted on a busy street a few weeks ago near the team’s home field in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
“One of our staff members happened to just be driving to work and saw him literally in the middle of the road in traffic,” Wurmstein explains. “So he got out of his car, scooped him up, and then brought him.”
ChipPurr was brought to a suite at the facility for safe keeping, Wurmstein says. And when word got around to her that there was a rescued kitten at work, the cat lover says she was swiftly on her way to meet him.
“I was like, ‘Yep, we will be keeping this cat,’” says Wurmstein, who’s been a longtime cat owner herself. “By ‘we,’ I mean me.”
As the person in charge of the team’s social media, Wurmstein says she not only began caring for the little guy, but she also introduced him to the team’s fans online. At one point, the team had an online naming poll for him, which ultimately led to his all-star moniker.
These days, ChipPurr, who’s estimated to be around six weeks old, lives at the stadium and has a whole apartment there with a ton of toys, including foam baseballs, Wurmstein says.
The proud cat mom adds that she’s got an eye on him at all hours of the day, even when she’s not physically at the field. She’s installed a camera to capture his movements, she says.
“I live literally three minutes from the stadium, so if anything were to happen, I’d be right here,” she says.
After ChipPurr starts his first round of vaccinations in a few days, he’ll join Wurmstein’s other cat for a cozy life at her home, she explains.
“I’ll start the integration process with them,” Wurmstein says of the cats. “And now that the season’s over on Sunday, it’ll be a lot easier for me to ... actually watch over them as they interact for the first time in the next couple of weeks.”
With all the attention from fans across baseball, Wurmstein hopes that his presence can help spread a simple message.
“Be kind to humans and animals alike. It’s great that we have Chipper now, but it was a really unfortunate circumstance in which we he came into our care,” Wurmstein says. “I just want to make sure that people are being kind to each other and being kind to animals.”
Now as for eight-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and 1995 World Series champ Chipper Jones? He seems pretty impressed with his young protégé.
