While the offseason for baseball rolls along, many of its stars are hitting the links this week at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Florida for the first-ever Pro Cup, apart of Pro Rivals Open.
The team-oriented event is set to feature four groups of 12 from the four major sports: baseball, hockey, basketball and football.
Each team features a slew of championship-winning hall of fame talent, including Jerome Bettis (Team FTB), Ryan Getzlaff (Team HKY) and Ray Allen (Team BKB) all representing their respective sport.
As for team baseball, John Smoltz will be team captain while Joe Carter, Tyler Clippar, Josh Donaldson, Brian McCann, Kevin Millar and other past players compete to become the first-ever Pro Cup Champion.
“Yeah, I’m very excited to picked for the team,” said MVP 3B Josh Donaldson. “The experience is going to be pretty cool. Haven’t played in a Ryder Cup type of format before so I think it’s gonna be a great experience for everybody and a little bit better for us.”
Other players involved also chimed in on the excitement surrounding this event including Stanley Cup Champion for the Anaheim Ducks, Ryan Getzlaff.
“It is man,” said Getzlaff when discussing on the hype around the first event. “You know what, the whole experience has been great so far. Overwhelmed with the amount of detail that went into preparing for it, and we’re really excited to get going.”
Even while the competition will be ultra competitive across the three-day tournament, the amount of camaraderie that is surrounds the weekend is there as players get to share the tournament with fellow teammates and colleagues in their sports.
“If you take a poll of all the guys about what they miss about playing, it is the clubhouse,” said Donaldson. “Being in the clubhouse and this experience, they are actually kind of doing like a clubhouse format to where each team has their own clubhouse and kind of area to relax and hang out and I think it is unique in that way, and everybody is looking forward to that.”
As the event kicks off its first rounds of golf, there is an expectation and foundation for GM Nick Clarke that tour will only continue to flourish following this first Pro Cup.
“Yeah, I’d say the future is exciting,” said Clarke. “This is the very inaugural tournament, right. The very first one. I think as we continue forward and we’re making some exciting announcements later this week on what’s to come in 2025 with some of our individual sport tournaments, it’s going to continue to grow. Our goal is to continue to capture the attention of not only the golf enthusiasts and fan, but tap into that passion point across the board of a fan, you know, and to be able to come out and see their favorite athlete, personality, et cetera, in an environment that they’re not used to and that they don’t traditionally see them. So for us, our growth is we’re launching with the Pro Cup. We’re going to have four individual sport tournaments in 2025. So you’re going to see current athletes from that sport going head to head with those retired athletes in that same sport and I think that’s where you’re going to really start to see a lot of great golf and great content come out of it.”
