This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers' Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Vinnie Pasquantino and his now-wife Ryann were only supposed to hang out with the German Shepherd named Bear for one night.

The animal rescue shelter in Burlington, N.C., where Pasquantino was playing Rookie ball after the 2019 MLB Draft was running a special in which a family could bring home an animal for a night to see if there was a fit.

When it was time to bring Bear back to the shelter, there was simply no way Vinnie and Ryann were going to do that.

“Yeah, absolutely not,” Pasquantino said, laughing.

Now Bear is part of the Pasquantino family, and Vinnie will happily share photos of the big, lovable dog who has been with him every step of his rise from Rookie ball to the Major Leagues.

As part of Players' Weekend, Pasquantino and his Royals teammates have shown off their personalities all weekend. The idea is to showcase MLB players beyond their stats while telling their stories in a way that connects with young fans and casual followers. Each day has featured a theme, and Saturday’s was all about the causes and community efforts players support.

Pasquantino took the opportunity to feature Wayside Waifs, a no-kill pet adoption center in Kansas City, on his bat. The custom-made bat featured the organization’s logo and a painted photo of Bear.

“It’s important to me, because the two dogs I had growing up were shelter dogs,” Pasquantino said. “The dog I currently have is a shelter dog. The dogs my parents have are shelter dogs. So working with shelters is something that’s always been, for me, a main thing. The facility at Wayside Waifs is incredible. The care for the animals they have there is amazing. This is a place in Kansas City that really means something to me.”

On the last day of the 2023 baseball season, Pasquantino hosted an NFL watch party in Kansas City when the Chiefs went to New York to play Pasquantino’s Jets. A few Royals stopped by at the restaurant Pasquantino and 610 Sports Radio had rented, and all the proceeds went to Wayside Waifs.

Wayside Waifs has roots in Kansas City dating to 1940. In 2012, the organization opened the doors of a 47,000-square-foot renovated shelter, and in 2020, it completed another 20,000-square-foot renovation that included an education center and canine behavior center. Wayside Waifs cares for thousands of abandoned, abused and homeless pets each year, but it’s also a comprehensive animal welfare organization that provides animal rescue, veterinary care, humane education programs and several community outreach programs like vaccination events.

“It’s easy to support a place like that,” Pasquantino said.

As Pasquantino gets older and more solidified in his Major League career, he wants his efforts in the community to increase.

“We have all these opportunities and natural publicity from people seeing us on TV every night,” Pasquantino said. “It’s important to use that to help with the community in some way, shape or form.

“That’s what Players' Weekend is now -- try to get as many eyeballs on the things that we believe in; the things that are important to us. I hope the cameras [were] dialed [in] on our bats.”