Jousting might be a national pastime in King's Landing, but George R.R. Martin seems to prefer baseball!
Entertainment Weekly has just reported that the author of the 'Song of Ice and Fire' book series hosted a Game of Thrones-inspired minor league baseball game. The fundraising event was for New Mexico's Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, which saves abused wolves.
The baseball game featured the Staten Island Yankees, who were temporarily renamed the Direwolves. The wolves were up against the Hudson Valley Renegades, who took the Lannister Lions banner.
George R.R. Martin has been a long-time supporter of Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, which is a non-profit that has rescued countless abandoned animals since 1993. Flurry, an artic wolf who is one of the organization's beloved rescues, even had the honor to walk with Martin as he stepped out into the diamond. The wolf may have been chosen to accompany Martin for the animal's resemblance to Jon Snow's direwolf Ghost.
The wolves may have affected the outcome of the baseball game. The Staten Island Direwolves defeated the Lannister Lions with an amazing 10-1 win.
The victory may have helped the fate of some characters in 'A Song of Ice and Fire.' George R.R. Martin joked in Not A Blog, "I am pleased to report that the Direwolves won 10-1, so I won't need to kill another Stark."
The author has previously announced his attendance to the ball game in his live journal.
"So I'm headed east the first week of August... for a wedding, yes, and no, that's private, so you don't get to hear any more about it..." Martin wrote. "But I am going to see my editors and publishers and agents while I am in town, and do some other fun stuff... including a ball game."
Now that the baseball game is finished, hopefully George R.R. Martin has met up with his people to finally release his highly awaited sixth ASOIAF book 'The Winds of Winter.'