As we inch into the final months of 2020, the changing of sports seasons has become yet another reminder of the weird times we live in. This week, the NFL was forced to alter its entire schedule as more players tested positive for COVID, Major League Baseball is preparing to finish off its truncated season with a muted World Series, and the players of Internet League Blaseball are reeling after the Charleston Shoe Thieves were beaten to a pulp in a surprise, post-season match-up with the Shelled One’s Pods.

Okay, that last one sticks out a little.

Since its launch in July, a game called Blaseball has dominated a corner of the Internet that has become obsessed with its weird take on America’s pastime. In the world of Blaseball, the teams have names like the New York Millennials and the Kansas City Breath Mints, players are regularly incinerated by demonic rogue umpires, and an enormous squid called “the Monitor” manages the Hall of Flame. Also, games are occasionally interrupted by raining peanuts.

“A lot of our fans are really interested in the game for the cosmic horror elements, for the absurdity — not so much for the baseball,” said Sam Rosenthal, the creative director of The Game Band, the video game studio that created the side project-turned-internet sensation.

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