It's a girl! Bibee does gender reveal for his brother via his shoelaces

CLEVELAND -- Tanner Bibee laced up his cleats on Friday just as like any other start. Only this time, his uniform configuration for his outing against the Orioles carried extra meaning.

Bibee made a special announcement with his cleats on Friday. He donned pink laces, as part of a gender reveal he held for his brother, Cameron, and his fiancé, Kaylin, to let the couple know they are going to have a baby girl.

Bibee is going to be a first-time uncle. Understandably, he felt some pressure leading up to Friday.

“Yeah, I was kind of scared I read the report wrong,” Bibee quipped after he tossed six scoreless innings in the Guardians' 6-4 loss to the Orioles at Progressive Field.

Bibee said his brother asked him to do the gender reveal near the end of Spring Training and sent him access to the baby’s information. Bibee was the first person to learn the couple is having a girl, and he began to make preparations. However, he ran into a bit of a hiccup: Bibee ordered pink cleats, but they didn’t arrive in time.

Pitchers don’t have as many options with their gear for gender reveals as a position player, but Bibee called a wise audible by pivoting to the pink shoelaces. They flashed well off his white cleats as Guardians TV aired them when the top of the third inning opened -- completing the gender reveal.

Bibee did have someone to keep the big secret with in the weeks leading up to Friday. Bibee and his girlfriend got breakfast with his agent during the Guardians' season-opening series in Seattle, and the baby's gender was mentioned over the course of the meal. That was as far as it went before the successful reveal on Friday.

"I threw [the laces] on the cleats and it was good," Bibee said. "I’m happy for him."