On Monday, the Chicago Cubs hosted Big Ten Night when they played the Houston Astros, and in honor of the event, Sparty, the mascot of the Michigan St. Spartans, was on hand to throw the ceremonial first pitch. The Cubs' official Twitter account sent out a picture of Sparty posing at Wrigley Field on Monday:

In honor of #BigTen Night at Wrigley Field, @therealsparty from #MichiganState threw the ceremonial first pitch: twitter.com/Cubs/status/25…

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 2, 2012

Big Ten Night is a promotion run by the Cubs to support and celebrate students, alumni and fans of the Big Ten Conference. Sparty was chosen as the mascot to throw out the first pitch because Michigan St. managed to sell the most tickets to the games, and with those tickets came a Cubs hat in the colors of Michigan St., which is a pretty cool thing to have.

There will be another Big Ten Night on Tuesday, though it's unclear if the runner-up will throw out the ceremonial first pitch or if Sparty is doing double duty, but that game (also against the Astros) is at 7:05 p.m. ET.