Minor leaguer gets Ronda Rousey baseball tickets every game

DES MOINES, Iowa, July 21 (UPI) -- What started as a joke could be an affliction for one Chicago Cubs minor leaguer.

Anthony Giansanti began leaving a ticket at will-call for UFC fighter Ronda Rousey for fun. He said he wanted to get a laugh from his teammates when he did it the first time. But the 26-year-old kept the shtick for every game that the Triple-A Iowa Cubs partake in.

On Monday, Giansanti tweeted: "@RondaRousey 7 pm in Des Moines, Game 2. One ticket at will call. #Everyday."

Rousey recently fired a verbal jab at Floyd Mayweather, who has a documented history of domestic violence, after beating him out for an ESPY award for best fighter. She said she wondered how Mayweather felt to be "beat by a woman for once."

"I left her a ticket one day, just hoping the guys would look at the pass list and get a good laugh out of it," Giansanti told MMAFighting.com. "They said, you should tweet that ... it's funny. So I did, and the first one got some love and then I tweeted it again. Then that made it like an on-running joke."

Rousey has an August 1 bantamweight title fight against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.

"The part of the plan was to get a few laughs," Giansanti told MMAFighting.com. "I don't know. I think that would be cool, but I don't expect her to or anything. But it would be cool. It would be a good ending to the story. I guess if she came I'd have to ask her out on a date, right? I've come this far."