A first pitch worth arriving early for

Posted at 12:22 PM on June 28, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

I've been a big baseball fan for 50+ years but I still can't figure out whether this delivery would be legal. No matter, it only had to be entertaining, more entertaining than most of the ceremonial first pitches you see at the old ballyard.

It happened last night when a performer for Cirque Cirque du Soleil threw out the first pitch at a San Diego Padres game.

It's been a big week for noteworthy "first pitches."

At a baseball game this week, Erica Brown was invited to throw out the first pitch. She didn't know the catcher was her boyfriend, a soldier home early from his deployment.

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Comments (3)

If the gentleman from Cirque de Soleil has an interest, Ron Gardenhire is looking for bullpen help.

Posted by John O. | June 28, 2011 1:24 PM

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Well it's definitely not pitching from a set position, so is it a windup? It is, until the point when his foot leaves the rubber. From there he must stop his delivery and restart. Clearly, as indicated by his jumping and twisting motions, he did not stop and went on to make his pitch. Illegally.

I think I counted four ceremonial (read: promotional) first (read: and second, third, fourth) pitches (read: lob tosses) last night.

Posted by Kevin Watterson | June 28, 2011 4:25 PM

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Ah, my adopted metropolis, San Diego. The city where the first pitch is thrown by a shirtless fantasy circus acrobat, and the team wears military camo uniforms.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | June 29, 2011 2:42 PM

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