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Houston Astros announce Mattress Mack will throw first pitch in World Series Game 6 at Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros rally nuns Matrress Mac Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale Minute Maid Park

Mack will throw out the first pitch on Saturday.

Photo by Sister Marie Therese OP/courtesy of Catholic News Service

UPDATE: Minutes after this story originally published, the Houston Astros announced that McIngvale will throw out the first pitch on Game 6 of the World Series.

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Ever since Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale blasted a smack-talking Philadelphia Phillies fan with a profanity-littered comeback on Tuesday, November 1 after Game 3 of the World Series, fans across Houston have rallied to his defense if his beloved Houston Astros.

That zealous support has sparked a petition on popular social justice platform Change.org. User Dean Lankford created the call to action, titled "Have Mattress Mack throw out the first pitch at Game 6 World Series," on Thursday, November 3. Since then, more than 102,000 have signed, with a goal of 150,000.

"Send this to everyone, and maybe the people that can make it happen will make it happen," Lankford writes. "With how divided we can be at times...this is a great way to come together and realize that we have so much more in common!"

Representatives for the Astros, when contacted, remind us that the decision involves more than just the team and includes input from Major League Baseball.

All this stems from a heated moment after World Series Game 3, where the Phillies trounced the Astros 7-0. As he told CultureMap, a drunk fan accosted McIngvale with "cheater" taunts. But it wasn't until the fan name checked José Altuve that Mack erupted.

“Then it was, ‘José Altuve will never make the Hall of Fame — he’s the biggest f*cking cheater ever.' I had enough of him,” Mack told us.

The city responded with a surge of support, offers to provide free security, and a host of "Gangsta Mack" memes, including a popular one that references his Gallery Furniture location.

This Gangsta Mack meme is everything. Know Your Meme

We couldn't reach Mack by phone as of publication time, but the benefactor/marketing guru/gangsta offered a sincere thank you to fans for their support — and even to the City of Brotherly Love for his time there.

pic.twitter.com/8ZZxsD3tWt
— @MattressMack (@MattressMack) November 4, 2022

Will he toss the ceremonial first Game 6 pitch on Saturday, November 5 at Minute Maid Park? We'll see, but clearly, Mack has earned some mad street cred. Here's hoping for a collab between Mack and our rap icon Bun B.

This headline has been adjusted to reflect breaking news.

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Texas shocks as 7th worst state to have a baby, new study finds

Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash

The best places to have a baby are in the Midwest and the Northeast, not the South, according to the report.

Texas might be a family friendly state, but it certainly isn't baby friendly, according to a new WalletHub study.

Texas earned a dismal rank as No. 45 in WalletHub's 2026 report "Best and Worst States to Have a Baby," which compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 31 "baby friendliness" metrics, such as affordability, health care accessibility, infant care costs, and others.

The top five best states to have a baby, in order, are: Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

Texas ranked 7th worst overall in the U.S. because of how expensive it is to have a child in the state, and because of its low prevalence of healthcare professionals for mothers and children relative to other states.

Across the four main categories in the report, Texas landed 47th nationally for its medical costs, 42nd in healthcare quality, and its baby- and family-friendliness both ranked 34th best in the country.

WalletHub says the average cost for a conventional delivery in the U.S. comes out to more than $15,700, and families with health insurance have an average out-of-pocket cost of about $2,600. The report doesn't break down state-by-state charges, but it ranked Texas 35th and 36th respectively in the national comparisons of states with the lowest costs for hospital cesarean and conventional deliveries.

The cost of childcare is another factor bringing down the state's overall performance, as WalletHub says Texas has the 23rd "best" annual cost of early childcare on average.

Here's how the report broke down the rest of Texas' ranking:

No. 27 – Parental leave policy score
No. 27 – Infant mortality rate
No. 28 – Rate of low-birth weight
No. 44 – Midwives and OB-GYNs per capita
No. 36 – Pediatricians and family medicine physicians per capita
No. 33 – Childcare centers per capita

According to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo, expecting families should consider living in the states that "minimize costs while providing top-notch care for both newborns and their mothers."

"[The best states] also continue to be good environments for parents even long after the birth, with high-quality pediatric care, affordable and accessible child care, and a strong economic environment that makes providing for a child easier,” Lupo said.

Mississippi (No. 51), Alabama (No. 50), Florida (No. 49), New Mexico (No. 48), Nevada (No. 47), and South Carolina (No. 46) all join Texas at the bottom of the list as the worst states to have a baby.