Major League Baseball team the Tampa Bay Rays have honoured the late Australian baseball pioneer David Balfour in a game against the New York Mets.
The Rays wore blue socks for the pre-season game in Port Charlotte, Florida, on Sunday.
Balfour, the father of Rays' relief pitcher Grant Balfour, was the general manager of the Sydney Blue Sox and inspired his son and numerous other young Australians to play in America's elite MLB.
"It's pretty neat wearing the blue socks, knowing he was the GM of the Blue Sox," Grant Balfour, who spent the past few weeks with his dad in Sydney before he finally lost a long battle with pancreatic cancer, said.
Balfour died on Wednesday, the funeral was in Sydney on Friday and Grant was back with his teammates in Florida on Sunday.
He said his father was an inspiration.
"He loves the game, and knowing that he loved the game so much it really gives me a lot of motivation to want to go out there and continue to just continue my career and do a lot of things for him," he told reporters.
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