HOUSTON – Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the founder of Houston’s Gallery Furniture, said his opportunity to throw out the first pitch in Saturday’s ALDS opener between the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins was canceled due to the intervention of a national competitor.
Appearing in a video on X/Twitter, McIngvale spoke about how he was asked to throw out the first pitch.
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Mattress Mack talks about being canceled from throwing out the first pitch because of MATTRESS FIRM. pic.twitter.com/Dy1tAxsxix
— @MattressMack (@MattressMack) October 7, 2023
“Quite a honor, I threw out the pitch in game six last year against the Phillies and even better yesterday was Reggie Jackson, who is a consultant to the Astros, “Mr. October” a great friend of mine called me up and said I needed to get there early and warm up,” he said.
McIngvale said he received a call from the Astros before the game however. He said the company Mattress Firm, a national sponsor of Major League Baseball, would not let McIngvale throw out the first pitch.
“They said they weren’t going to let me throw out the first pitch,” McIngvale said.
He said this isn’t the first time the company has gotten involved in McIngvale’s appearances.
“Last year in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, I was scheduled to be a judge of the police dog competition. There’s a police dog, my friend Constable Mark Herman, it’s part of his unit, the police dog is named Mattress Mack, he catches criminals and does drug sniffing, so I was looking forward to going out and judging Mattress Mack,” McIngvale said. “Mattress Firm was a sponsor of the rodeo too and they said no you can’t judge the dog show, really?”
He said he has a message to Mattress Firm.
“There’s plenty of business out there for all of us, what we need to do is promote bedding, promote a better night sleep, not snipe at our competitors,” McIngvale said. “Let’s all be better than that and Go ‘Stros!”
Mattress Firm sent a statement saying they don’t determine who throws out the first pitch.
“While we love being the Official Sleep Partner of Major League Baseball, we don’t determine who throws out the first pitch. We’re here to help Astros fans crush their sleep, not their dreams. Go ‘Stros!”