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Selfless kid spends his birthday gift cards on his little brother. Sibling wholesomeness ensues.

"If you strike out, you're paying me back!"

nickyf511/Instagram

Older brother spends his birthday gift cards to buy younger brother dream baseball bat.

Big brothers are like heroes to little brothers. Everything they do and say, they look up to. For Instagrammer Nicole F (@nickyf511), her son Sebastian showed exactly why he deserves the title in his little brother Lucas' eyes.

In a sweet video shared on social media, Nicole captured a heartwarming moment between the two brothers while out shopping. Nicole shares that it is Sebastian's birthday, and he's received a few gift cards to the sports store they are shopping at. But instead of buying himself something for his big day, he chooses to do something selfless and generous. Sebastian decides to spend his birthday gift cards on Lucas for a baseball bat that he has been dreaming of getting for a long time.

"Using his birthday gift cards ON his own bday to buy his brother the bat he has wanted for a long time," she captioned the post.

In the video, Sebastian walks towards Lucas, who is holding a baseball bat that has a cool wooden pencil design, to reveal his surprise. "Yo Lucas! I'm buying it for you," he tells his little brother, who replies, "Are you for real?" And Sebastian absolutely is. "Yeah, pinky promise!" he says to Lucas as the brothers link pinkies.

Lucas is ecstatic and hugs his brother. Sebastian has got jokes, and ribs his brother with, "You better hit though! You strike out, you're paying me back," he says with a big smile. Lucas is totally overjoyed, and says, "Thank you so much!" to which Sebastian responds, "No problem, buddy."

In another clip, Lucas is talking to his mom and can't contain his excitement. He tells her, "I'm so happy! I'll do anything to get him something if he wants something," he says, acknowledging Sebastian's generosity.

Nicole is an extremely proud parents and turns the camera to Sebastian to say, "You're a good brother, buddy." Lucas continues to freak out over his new baseball bat, saying, "It's so beautiful! I can't wait to go to practice. Final decision. It's so beautiful."

In the next clip, they go up to the store's register where Sebastian starts to pay for the baseball bat using a few different gift cards. When he's finished, Lucas gives him another big hug and thanks him once again.

baseball, brothers, birthday gift, brotherly love, older brother, little brotherWheelingu GIF by WU CardinalsGiphy

The brothers, who both share a love for baseball, clearly have a special bond. Viewers on social media are touched by Sebastian's sweet gesture:

"I’m crying. 🥹 the look in big bro’s eyes says it all. He’ll be his number one fan for life.💙 good job mom + dad 🫶🏻."

"Big bro standing a little taller after that move. 💙💙"

"Good job young man.. Good job... Little brother will remember that moment for the rest of his life!!! And I bet even hits a couple dingers!!!"

"😭 this is more beautiful than the bat!!! What kind hearted little dudes. My mom heart is bursting over here."

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Baseball legend Reggie Jackson shares how team had his back when he faced racism

"If I couldn't eat in a place, nobody would eat…"

Jim Accordino/Wikimedia Commons

Reggie Jackson played pro ball for 21 seasons.

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson played for 21 seasons in the major leagues, starting with the Kansas City Athletics in 1967 and retiring as a Los Angeles Angel in 1987.

But it was the year he spent playing minor league ball in Alabama that he opened up about in a Fox Sports pregame show at Rockwood Field in Birmingham. Jackson had played 114 games with the Birmingham Athletics before being called up to the majors, and when Alex Rodriguez asked him how it felt to be back in that place, he said bluntly that it was "not easy."

As a Black player in 1967, Jackson faced virulent racism when the team traveled throughout the South, from restaurants to hotels to fancy venues the team was invited to. He shared examples of being called the n-word and not being allowed into various establishments. He said he'd never want to go through that experience again and wouldn't wish it on anyone.

He also shared how his managers, coaches and teammates had his back during such incidents. They refused to eat where he couldn't eat or sleep where he couldn't sleep. He said they helped him refrain from responding to racist attacks when he was "ready to physically fight."

Watch him tell his story:

Here are his remarks in full:

"Coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here, the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody. People said to me today, I spoke, and they said, 'Do you think you're a better person, do you think you won when you played here and conquered?' I said, 'You know, I would never want to do it again.'

"I walked into restaurants, and they would point at me and say, 'The n***** can't eat here.' I would go to a hotel, and they would say, 'The n***** can't stay here.' We went to Charlie Finley's country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the N-word: 'He can't come in here.' Finley marched the whole team out. Finally, they let me in there. He said, 'We're going to go to the diner and eat hamburgers. We'll go where we're wanted.'

"Fortunately, I had a manager in Johnny McNamara that, if I couldn't eat in the place, nobody would eat. We'd get food to travel. If I couldn't stay in a hotel, they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay. Had it not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudi, I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

"The year I came here, Bull Connor was the sheriff the year before, and they took minor league baseball out of here because in 1963, the Klan murdered four Black girls—children 11, 12, 14 years old—at a church here and never got indicted. The Klan—Life Magazine did a story on them like they were being honored.

"I wouldn't wish it on anyone. At the same time, had it not been for my white friends, had it not been for a white manager, and Rudi, Fingers and Duncan, and Lee Meyers, I would never have made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight some — I would have got killed here because I would have beat someone's ass, and you would have saw me in an oak tree somewhere."

People praised the commentators and show producers for letting Jackson say what he wanted to say without interrupting or cutting him off. Some shared that it's vital to hear this part of our history from first-hand sources, as there are Americans who forget or deny that such incidents were commonplace within current adult lifetimes. Even knowing that Black players had a lot to overcome as segregation waned, it hits differently when you hear specific details.

Jackson's story is a difficult but important reminder that Civil Right Act of 1965 changed the laws but didn't magically flip the racist beliefs that made it necessary in the first place. But it's also a good reminder that individual Americans rejecting those beliefs and standing up for racial justice is a part of our national history as well.

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Policy

Parents win fight to get young daughter a tryout with Mississippi school's baseball team

Everyone came together to do the right thing.

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

Family of little girl take on Mississippi state for baseball tryout

As the old saying goes, "baseball is America's pastime." It was so important that during the second World War, Major League Baseball executives created all women's baseball teams since most of the young men were away fighting. The blockbuster hit movie, "A League of Their Own" details this era that not only provided fans with entertainment but proved women could be fierce competitive baseball players.

One South Mississippi family found themselves in the middle of a battle they didn't anticipate when it came to the game. Their daughter Jewel has been playing baseball since she was 5-years-old on city recreational teams, eventually making All Stars and travel baseball. With the 7th grader aging out of the recreational program, she wanted to join the middle school team.

That's where the problem came in. The girl's mom, Shannon van Duijvendijk says the Ocean Springs School District refused her a tryout for the baseball team.

This is the same school district that has had girls step out of their football cleats to put on a homecoming crown after kicking for the high school team. So the decision seemed a bit confusing for the community who chimed in to support the parents petitioning for Jewel to play on the middle school team.

Jewel is one of two girls planning to try out for the baseball team that many of their male teammates are competing for. But it was van Duijvendijk's husband who was determined to make sure his daughter got to play the game that she loves.

"It was actually my husband. That sense of injustice rose up in him and he was just like 'no, uh uh.'"

The initial call came from the school's athletic director who told them that it was a state rule that girls couldn't play on the baseball team because softball was considered an equivalent. That's when Mr. van Duijvendijk started contacting every person he could find in Jackson to help get his daughter a tryout. But the quest to speak with someone on the state level proved to be futile.

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

After finding out the school's grievance policy, the determined dad emailed the superintendent who was extremely responsive according to van Duijvendijk. The mom tells Upworthy that the superintendent contacted people at the state level, eventually reporting back that Mississippi's High School Athletic Association (MSHAA) rule was unclear.

The rule from section 7.6.2 of the MSHAA Handbook reads in part, "When a state championship is offered for girls, they may not play on a boys’ team in that sport.”

As van Duijvendijk points out in her post, baseball and softball are two different sports and that ruling was made official by the NCAA in 2009. So a girls softball team would not be equivalent to a boys baseball team, according to the NCAA rules, the equivalent to baseball is baseball.

van Duijvendijk explains that the family got the most pushback from parents of softball players, which it is suspected the original complaint about girls trying out for baseball originated. There was confusion over why a girl would prefer to play baseball over softball and speculation on if the parents felt that baseball was superior.

But there was no feeling of one sport being superior over the other. In fact, in van Duijvendijk's social media post she writes, "I know a lot of people don’t understand why she chose to play baseball instead of softball, I didn’t for a while either. In the beginning I tried to convince her so many times to make the switch."

Jewel was so steadfast in her determination to play the sport van Duijvendijk says could see it in her eyes. That changed everything for the mom when it came to her support of Jewel's love of the sport. Right now, softball isn't even a practical switch.

"She has never played softball and doesn’t even own the equipment necessary to play the game. We have nothing against softball and we have so much love and respect for the girls that do play it, but that is not the sport she plays."

Curtesy of Shannon van Duijvendijk

Thanks to the determination of a dad who saw his daughter encounter an injustice, a mom who would do anything to support her and a superintendent that was intent on hunting someone down to clear up the rules–Jewel gets to tryout. Now that's what you call teamwork. As for Jewel, she's been playing with the boys since she was old enough to pick up a ball, she just wanted a chance to show them what she can do.

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Joy

Surprise finish in Savannah Bananas 'baby race' is the most adorable sports moment ever

No one predicted how this race was going to end.

@Austin Usher/TikTok (used with permission)

Imagine trying to calculate the odds on this one.


If you want to see the most hilarious race in the world, line up a group of crawling babies across from a parent and say "Ready, set, go!"

That's exactly the scenario that played out at a Savannah Bananas baseball game, and the result was one for the record books.

If you're unfamiliar with the Savannah Bananas, you're in for a treat. Think Harlem Globetrotters, but with baseball instead of basketball and with even more silliness and shenanigans. The athletic skill is there, make no mistake, but the primary goal is to entertain. And goodness, do they win on that front every time.

The players dress up. They dance. They sing. They play baseball. And in between all of that, they have whacky contests like this baby race.

Who knew a minute of babies crawling could be so riveting…and with such an unexpected outcome?

@thesavbananas

Is this the greatest comeback of all time?! 📸: @Austin Usher #savannahbananas #bananaball #funny #foryou #cute

"The race was the most unexpected highlight amongst all of the other wacky Banana highlights," the man behind the camera, Austin Usher, told Upworthy, "We laughed from the moments the babies sat without moving until the very end. No one expected the come from behind win like that, it was the loudest crowd pop of the night for sure."

People loved the surprise win that no one saw coming, especially from the babe who seemed to spend most of the race trying to help out a buddy.

"Me explaining to my wife that we lost the house because I bet on a baby race," wrote one commenter.

"This baby race is a life lesson. Success will come to those who remain focused even if you are a late starter," wrote another.

"The baby that won spent half the race encouraging his lil friend to run:)) gave up on him and still won," offered another.

"That baby was so sure he wanted to help his friend out. He tried twice. TWICE!!! Very intentional child," shared another.

The Savannah Bananas have as unlikely an origin story as that baby's odds of winning the baby race. The team was founded in the fall of 2015 as an attempt at bringing baseball fans back to Historic Grayson Stadium after minor league baseball had left Savannah. At that time, they struggled to sell any tickets and the owners even had to sell their house to keep from going under.

After they named the team the Savannah Bananas in February of 2016, they made national news. But local folks weren't sold on the silly name and told them they'd never sell a ticket.

Not only did they end up selling out their first game, but they've sold out every game since—over 200 of them. They have also grown in popularity immensely, boasting over 8 million followers on TIkTok alone. And with "kenergetic" at-bats like this one, it's not hard to see why:

@thesavbananas

Baton Rouge, your Kenergy is 10/10 💛🙌 #savannahbananas #kenergy #imjustken #oscars #kenough #ryangosling #geauxtigers

Is it really baseball, though? Yes and no. It's definitely baseball, but with a few twists. Here are the 11 rules of "Banana Ball" that set it apart from a traditional baseball game (besides the costumes and dancing and acrobatics).

You can follow the Savannah Bananas on TikTok and Instagram.

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