{"id":216022,"date":"2026-06-11T00:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216022\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T00:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:29:21","slug":"paul-skenes-a-sharpie-and-the-most-famous-forehead-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216022\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Skenes, a Sharpie and the most famous forehead in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

What started as a regular Little League practice in Pittsburgh<\/a> turned into a memory Bryce Blewitt will likely carry for the rest of his life when Pirates ace Paul Skenes<\/a> made a surprise stop at Vestal Field, home of Ingomar Franklin Park Little League.<\/p>\n

The unplanned visit came when Skenes spotted kids practicing under the lights on his drive home and decided to pull over, join them on the field, play catch, sign autographs and spend time with players and families.<\/p>\n

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For Bryce, the night quickly became even more memorable because of one hilarious choice that made him a viral sensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy that, like, I just blew up,\u201d Bryce said in the transcript, explaining that after a friend joked earlier in the day about his forehead, he figured, \u201cWhy not get that big space signed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

How one surprise visit from Paul Skenes lit up a Pittsburgh ballfield<\/p>\n

More: Heading to PNC Park hungry? Where to eat before a Pirates game<\/a><\/p>\n

More: From Clemente Bridge to first pitch, Pirates fans soak in tradition<\/a><\/p>\n

The video of the Pirates<\/a> star autographing Bryce\u2019s forehead spread widely online, helping turn a neighborhood baseball moment into a Pittsburgh feel-good story. Bryce also used the moment to ask baseball questions only a young pitcher would think to ask.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf he had any advice for the young pitchers,\u201d Bryce said, adding that he also asked how to recover after hitting a batter. Skenes\u2019 answer stuck with him and was in simple Skenes delivery: \u201cJust throw hard,\u201d and \u201cJust don\u2019t hit the next batter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryce\u2019s father, Brent, a coach of the Little League team, said what stood out most was not just that Skenes showed up, but how he treated every child there.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see a guy like that just step up, and I mean take his time out of his day to make a special moment for these kids,\u201d Brent said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, like, I wish there were more people like Paul in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The next night at PNC Park, Skenes <\/a>went back to being the ace on the hill, holding the powerful Dodgers<\/a> lineup to two runs over more than six innings before the bullpen let a 12\u20133 game get away; a reminder that even on nights when the final score tilts the wrong direction, his arm is already one of the most feared in baseball.<\/p>\n

For Bryce and his Ingomar Franklin Park teammates, though, the box score will never matter as much as the night before, when that same arm was just a few feet away, signing a forehead, answering questions about hitting batters and turning a regular Little League practice into a story they will tell for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process.\u00a0Learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul Skenes\u2019 surprise visit to Ingomar Franklin Park little leaguers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What started as a regular Little League practice in Pittsburgh turned into a memory Bryce Blewitt will likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[94544,51888,25251,22146,18203,73,75,74,26622],"class_list":["post-216022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-bryce-blewitt","tag-dodgers","tag-little-league","tag-paul-skenes","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pnc-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}