Peanut Butter outdoes Air Bud at SGDQ '24 (Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB)

07/05/2024 10:56 AM

Ain't no rule that says a dog can't speedrun baseball.

This week, Minneapolis has played host to Summer Games Done Quick, a seven-day speedrunning marathon to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. As part of the festivities, last night saw a fervent crowd rooting against the Twins.

That's because the game was Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB, and the speedrunner controlling the Mariners was Peanut Butter.

Peanut Butter is a dog, and a very good boy.

To counter preemptively those who would argue a dog lacks the sentience to speedrun a video game, permit me to explain the setup: his owner, trainer, and co-runner, JSR_, built a custom controller (along with his friends Crispy and Maya) that allows Peanut Butter to press an oversized button upon a command.

The crowd had previously showed their enthusiasm for the upcoming speedrun by hitting a financial donations goal to rename the players on both teams. As such, the Twins feature celebrities such as Jimi Hendrix, George Lazenby, and Cotton Mather, while the Mariners' lineup includes (along with the titular Griffey) Bobson Dugnutt, Ken Gruffey, and T. Rnsrghts.

During the game, the enthusiasm reached crescendo after crescendo, the crowd chanting "LET'S GO PB!" (clap-clap-clapclapclap) and "WHO'S A GOOD BOY!" (clap-clap-clapclapclap), and late in the game starting a brief Wave from front to back of the auditorium.

And as for the result of the game?

Well, the goal was to win a game in under 30 minutes, but I don't think whether that was successful or not is for me to spoil. The only one spoiled was Peanut Butter, and deservedly so.

After all, he is a very good boy.

(SGDQ '24 runs through July 6 and can be watched live on Twitch. Watch the full Griffey MLB run below:)