Pirates southpaw Andrew Heaney’s pitching mechanics come with a bizarre side effect

There are plenty of reasons a baseball game can go into a delay – weather, injuries and groundskeeping issues, just to name a few. Now, we can add wardrobe malfunctions to the list.

There was a brief delay in the sixth inning of the Pittsburgh Pirates' 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs Thursday at Wrigley Field when Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney had a minor shoelace emergency. As the veteran southpaw was setting up to pitch to Seiya Suzuki, he paused and gestured at his shoe to indicate that the lace had, well, exploded.

As Heaney tore the old lace out, a Pirates staffer rain a new lace out to him on the pitcher's mound. It only took about a minute for Heaney to redo his laces, at which point the Wrigley Field crowd gave him a slight (and perhaps somewhat sarcastic) cheer.

Pirates southpaw Andrew Heaney’s pitching mechanics come with a bizarre side effect

Believe it or not, this isn't an uncommon occurrence for Heaney. It happened once earlier this season, in fact, when he had to re-lace in the middle of his April 17 start against the Washington Nationals. The culprit, he said, is his pitching mechanics.

“If you go watch the video of how I throw, I just drag the top of my foot,” Heaney told Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. “Just eventually sheers apart.”

There’s not much Heaney can do to avoid it, either. He already replaces his shoelaces after every start, and New Balance even sends him a 50 pack to help him get through the season. He did add that his shoelace mishaps tend to occur more frequently during day games, when the air is drier, but Thursday's 7 p.m. ET start evidently wasn't late enough for Heaney to avoid the unavoidable.

Despite the loss, Heaney put up a solid outing against the Cubs. The 34-year-old allowed three earned runs on four hits and no walks while striking out seven over six innings in his 14th start of the season. He now holds a 3.33 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with a 3-5 record in 2025.

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