Papa Hops isn't just some beer-league beef with a bar name slapped on it. The 16-inch softball tournament is an annual Morgan Park institution built to honor the late Tom "Papa Hops" Hopkins and raise money for families fighting cancer, and it pulls thousands of people into Kennedy Park every summer. Barstool Chicago has been a fixture there for years, and Big Cat himself has sung the national anthem before the championship game. This year, though, the on-field results didn't match the pageantry.
Barstool Chicago broke the news that the softball squad is once again searching for answers after Papa Hops.
"Scrambling for answers" is the kind of phrase you use when a team that talks a big game keeps coming up short when it counts. Barstool Chicago has never lacked for swagger heading into this tournament, but swagger hasn't been translating into hardware, and the softball podcast beat picked up on it immediately.
That's where The Stretch comes in. The Chicago sports podcast dropped a new episode timed right to the Papa Hops aftermath, and according to the promo, the softball disappointment is only one item on a loaded rundown that also includes a White Sox sweep and MLB Draft talk. But the softball angle is the one with actual roster implications going forward.
The Stretch teased the new episode, framing next summer's plan as Big Cat personally bankrolling a 16-inch championship run.
The pitch, as relayed on the show, is simple: Big Cat is reportedly ready to pay top dollar to stack the roster with legit 16-inch talent so this doesn't happen again. It's a funny line on a podcast, sure, but it also tracks with how seriously Barstool Chicago treats this event every year. Losing at a charity tournament that means this much to the neighborhood clearly stings enough to prompt an actual spending plan.
Big Cat's Papa Hops ties run deeper than just the softball bracket, too. He's due back at Wrigley Field next Monday to pick up his check, and by his own account on the show, he's turned the appearance into its own bit — pushing for a one-day 51/49 raffle at the ballpark that he plans to personally hawk tickets for during the first few innings.
Big Cat detailed the Wrigley Field check presentation and his pitch to sell raffle tickets in the stands.
None of this changes what happened on the field at Papa Hops, but it does show Barstool Chicago isn't just shrugging it off. Between the Wrigley appearance keeping the charity tie-in front and center and Big Cat reportedly opening his wallet for next year's roster, the softball rebuild is already underway before the season's even cold. Whether that spending actually buys a championship next summer is the question Barstool Chicago will have a full year to answer.