{"id":475485,"date":"2025-10-05T08:52:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475485\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T08:52:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:52:39","slug":"two-days-before-she-died-her-adoring-teammates-said-the-perfect-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475485\/","title":{"rendered":"Two days before she died, her adoring teammates said the perfect goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘We never lost a match because of her’Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

After 14 years of faithful service, one of the most important members of a south Manchester baseball club has taken his final lap.<\/p>\n

Just two days before he sadly passed away, Ribby was given a guard of honour at Wythenshawe<\/a> Park, where she has been mascot for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The proud pooch gamely made her way across the diamond, flanked by players and supporters of Manchester Baseball Club as she finally called time on a career as the side’s official good luck charm.<\/p>\n

Ribby, a spaniel, was even named after the baseball term – RBI, Run Batted In.<\/p>\n

Stay connected with our City Life newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

He had been had been part of the club since he was 12 weeks old – attending matches, training sessions and tournaments across the UK.<\/p>\n

Ribby and his teammates at Manchester Baseball Club<\/p>\n

Quickly becoming known for retrieving foul balls, he saved the club \u201ca small fortune\u201d in equipment costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hardly ever lost a baseball because of him,\u201d said his owner, Johnny Creelman.<\/p>\n

Ribby even travelled abroad with the team, joining them at the 2014 European Championships in Holland. \u201cHe was our kid, so he had to come everywhere with us,\u201d Creelman added. \u201cHe was well-known amongst so many in the UK baseball community, but I suppose – really – he was an international mascot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guard of honour at Ribby’s last appearance<\/p>\n

Creelman said: \u201cMy wife and I don\u2019t have children so Ribby was that for us. It\u2019s been really hard since he passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find ourselves looking for him at home and realising he\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guard of honour provided a fitting farewell for the mascot. Footage from his final appearance with the side shows him walking steadily across the grass, cheered on by teammates, and even members of the opposition.<\/p>\n

Ribby with his owner Johnny<\/p>\n

\u201cOne club member had suggested rolling a ball to him, like a ceremonial first pitch,\u201d Creelman recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I said I\u2019d rather have a guard of honour for him. Luckily, he had enough energy to do it \u2013 he walked through on his own steam. I\u2019m there in the video. I had the dark glasses on, because it was pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his memory, the club is now fundraising to install benches at Wythenshawe Park.<\/p>\n

Ribby even travelled abroad with the team, joining them at the 2014 European Championships in Holland<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a little plaque that says, \u2018Sit and enjoy the game as our dog did.\u2019 That\u2019s exactly what Ribby would have wanted,\u201d said Creelman.<\/p>\n

Organised by his fellow teammates at the Manchester Baseball Club, Ribby\u2019s fundraiser<\/a> is currently live on Gofundme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We never lost a match because of her’Content cannot be displayed without consent After 14 years of faithful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[933,748,690,393,4884,2465,16,15,2313],"class_list":{"0":"post-475485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dogs","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wythenshawe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115320713870483243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}