Tyrese Haliburton spent the past two years dumping his hometown baseball team in public, one jersey at a time. On Thursday night, he made it official at Wrigley Field.
The injured Indiana Pacers point guard threw out the ceremonial first pitch wearing a Cubs jersey before Chicago hosted the Brewers, taking the mound at Wrigley rather than 90 miles north in Milwaukee.
Haliburton, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was a Brewers fan his whole life. That ended in 2024, he said, when the team invited him to throw out a first pitch that summer, then pulled the offer after his Pacers eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs.
"I was a Brewers fan and then I was supposed to throw the first pitch last summer and then they X'd that after the playoffs ended,"
Haliburton said on the "The Pat McAfee Show" in April 2025. "So I said, you know what, I'm no longer a Brewers fan."
Tyrese Haliburton grew up a Brewers fan in Wisconsin. Tonight, he took the mound to throw out the first pitch for the Cubs ... against the Brewers 👀 pic.twitter.com/h4bwoFK4pl
— MLB (@MLB) September 3, 2026
It was a rough break up. Haliburton started showing up to Pacers games in Cubs and Dodgers gear, including a Cubs jersey at a preseason game in October 2025. When the Dodgers swept the Brewers out of the National League Championship Series that fall, he leaned into rooting against Milwaukee.
The Dodgers noticed. Manager Dave Roberts invited Haliburton to jump on the bandwagon and throw out a first pitch at Dodger Stadium.
"I'd like to offer him the first pitch at Dodger Stadium, and he can rock that Ohtani jersey in its rightful place," Roberts said on Amazon's "Good Sports With Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson."
Haliburton, who calls himself a baseball free agent, has had plenty of time to practice his first pitch. He tore his Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Oklahoma City Thunder in June 2025 and was out for the entire 2025-26 season. The Pacers have said he isn't expected to play again until late 2026.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tyrese Haliburton's breakup with the Brewers becomes official at Wrigley
