Tag: First Pitches

See Lane Kiffin’s near-perfect ceremonial first pitch to Ole Miss QB and outfielder John Rhys Plumlee

A very good first pitch.

Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin and promised a party this weekend with “some crazy things planned” going into his team’s spring game Saturday, a.k.a. the Grove Bowl, and he kicked things off right Friday with the help of the school’s baseball team.

Ahead of the Ole Miss baseball team’s Friday evening matchup against LSU, Kiffin threw out the ceremonial first pitch, walking out onto the mound in Hulk Hogan style with Real American playing for his entrance.

But this wasn’t like some of the disastrous first pitches we’ve seen before.

Kiffin’s pitch was nearly perfect, and it was caught by John Rhys Plumlee, the Ole Miss quarterback who’s also an outfielder on the baseball team.

We’ve seen Kiffin throw a solid first pitch before, so him finding the strike zone isn’t all that surprising. But when you compare it with how others have fared on the mound for the gimmicky tradition, Kiffin’s arm stands out.

The Ole Miss baseball team is playing Saturday for a lone win in the finale of its three-game series against LSU, while the football team’s spring game is set for later in the day at 5 p.m. ET.

New episodes of The Sneak: The Disappearance of Mario Rossi are out now

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KBO team uses a boy in a bubble for a socially distanced first pitch

Different, but certainly creative under the circumstances.

The Korean Baseball Organization officially kicked off its 2020 season Tuesday, and, despite being broadcast in the middle of the night for anyone stateside, the games are already offering starved-for-sports fans what they want with home runs, wild bat flips and, you know, live competition.

The ceremonial first pitch at one of the games was awfully memorable too — and not just because there were no fans in the stands celebrating the start of the season, which was scheduled to begin March 28 but was delayed several weeks because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Before KT Wiz’s game against the Lotte Giants on Tuesday, a young boy delivered a socially distanced first pitch from inside a large, clear balloon. The balloon itself also seemed to serve as the first-pitch ball because it was decorated like a baseball, and the boy, obviously, didn’t literally throw or hand the catcher anything. (They high-fived.)

Different, but certainly creative under the circumstances. Here’s how Reuters described the scene:

Lee Raon, a nine-year-old baseball fan, stood on the mound. But instead of throwing the ball, the boy, inside a giant clear balloon, walked towards the catcher in what was called a “socially distant first pitch” for South Korean club KT Wiz on Tuesday.

And you can see for yourself what exactly that looked like…

This ceremonial first pitch doesn’t quite compare to the acrobatics, choreography or literal ball-of-fire first pitches the KBO has seen before. But — especially given the times with the world shut down and trying to stay safe while simultaneously bringing sports back — this one is still pretty unforgettable.

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