Iowa Dad's Baseball Obsession Makes Pitcher Famous Again

When Bob Laures and his son Eric drove to Cooperstown's Hall of Fame a few years ago, they started playing Immaculate Grid to pass the time. Bob mentioned Kyle Farnsworth as an answer, and Eric responded with the question every baseball dad dreads: "Who the heck is Kyle Farnsworth?"

That moment became a running joke. But it also led to something remarkable.

Bob pinned Farnsworth's Baseball-Reference page as his browser homepage. Every time he wanted to check a player's stats during his daily Immaculate Grid games, he'd land on Farnsworth's page first.

And Bob plays Immaculate Grid a lot. Like, 20 to 30 times every single day at lunch.

That adds up to roughly 10,000 visits to one retired pitcher's page in a single year. All from Waverly, Iowa, a town of just 10,500 people.

The result? When Baseball-Reference released their 2025 most-searched players map, Kyle Farnsworth topped Iowa. Not current stars, not hometown heroes. A pitcher who retired 12 years ago and never even played for Iowa's MLB team.

Farnsworth himself was baffled. "I was trying to figure out how or why that came about," he said over Zoom. "I have done some deer hunting up there, but wouldn't think that would make me the most-searched old, washed-up baseball player in 2025."

The numbers tell the story. Farnsworth ranked ninth overall in Iowa searches, just behind Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. In neighboring Illinois, where he actually pitched for the Cubs? He ranked 833rd.

Baseball-Reference couldn't confirm Bob was the sole reason, but their analytics revealed something telling. A small Iowa town ranked third in traffic to Farnsworth's page, trailing only major cities like New York and Chicago.

Sunny's Take

Bob calls himself an idiot for accidentally making this happen. But really, it's a beautiful reminder of how one person's passion can create unexpected ripples.

His son Eric figured it out when he saw the year-end map. "Kyle Farnsworth. Smack dab in the middle of the heartland. There's no way this is a coincidence."

Farnsworth was touched by the attention. "It's an honor to still be remembered," he said.

Bob promises he won't change his homepage. So if Farnsworth tops Iowa again next year, we'll know for sure: one dedicated dad in Waverly really can make a difference, even in the most wonderfully absurd ways.