The Hidden Message Of This Girl In A Royals Visor Giving A Ball To Some Kid In A Jeter Shirtsey

Here's how MLB captioned the above video, which appears heartwarming and nurturing and fuzzy and cherubic: "Young Royals fan in pigtails gives foul ball to young Yankees fan not in pigtails."

This, pretty plainly, is horseshit. The girl sports a Royals visor, yes, but look at her shirt: "New York Yankees." (The Yankee information ministers must have left it on by mistake.) Look at her mother, also wearing a Yankees shirt. The Yankees fan, as seems to be the case so often, is wearing a Jeter shirt. He also has the most styled coif we've ever seen on any Kansas City-based elementary schooler.

He's a ringer—well, actually, they're all ringers. Super-secret double-agent moles, if you will.

What's the message here? It's one of hegemony, both economic and masculine. Yes, the Yankees are wealthier, but the "Royals fan" knows she should give the ball away anyway. Why? Well, it's the Worthington Law, see? We have more money than you, so we are better than you, and you are obligated to defer to us. Don't you understand noblesse oblige? It's a Roman concept. Don't worry about it. Anyway, look at this handsome kid. See him. See Jeter? You must be convinced! Look at that, you are!

But it was all pure stagecraft. We know that, now. But the next time they might not be so sloppy.

Video via @MLB.