The Stars are Out: June & July 2024

 

In the interim between the last Stars are Out post and this one, Topps actually decided to bring back their First Pitch insert set. Unfortunately they only made it a 5 card set. So...I still have a reason to do Stars are Out customs. Nice effort, though.

So let's start with one of the obvious ones. Last month Snoop Dogg stopped by a Brewers game and everyone lost their minds. He threw out a first pitch, sat in the broadcasters' booth and watched an Elly de la Cruz home run, it was huge. I kinda love that this guy's just able to laze around and do whatever he wants. He's at the Olympics now cheering on the US team, he's having a ball. Good for him, honestly.

Speaking of this current moment in US sports history, this is an awesome one. Brittney Griner had a rough run of things for a few years, had a whole ordeal being trapped in Russia, finally came back and got right back to business in the WNBA. This has been her homecoming year, and I'm glad she's been able to be back at this level. The D-Backs fans must have given her a warm welcome when she threw out a first pitch. 

Marcello Hernandez, the latest SNL cast member to get big less by being funny and more by being conventionally good looking, has become a big part of MLB's Beisbol initiative, being a Latino baseball fan who has enough presence to engage the latinx community and bring that audience in. He's done the Celebrity Softball game two years in a row now, he's in ads by MLB, and the Marlins decided to bring him over and have him do a first pitch. He's from that area of Florida I think, he loves the game. I kinda wish he had a better Marlins moment to boast about but there ya are.

Speaking of honestly,

When Bad Boys: Ride or Die [spoiler alert: they rode] came out, the Marlins rolled out the red carpet for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for making Miami a cultural superpower again in the 2020s. I did not see similar activity with Eddie Murphy at a Tigers game when Beverly Hills Cop 4 came out, but hey, the Bad Boys movies actually feature in movie theaters, so I kinda get it. Lawrence was the one who threw out the first pitch. Clearly his career isn't where Smith's is, but he's also never assaulted a comedian for makistarred in Suicide Squad. 

Speaking of the summer in movies, Tony Hale was in Inside Out 2 this summer as Fear. I obviously know him best for roles in Arrested Development and Veep, but he's been getting a lot of high profile roles onscreen, which is very good. He's a naturally funny guy, and he deserves the Disney money. He does seem very worried about where his Globe Life Field first pitch is heading, and if memory serves it didn't cross the plate. 

Jason Alexander famously made baseball news earlier this month when the Yankees had a George Costanza bobblehead giveaway that was frigging gone by the time I got to the stadium that night [I personally blame MTA]. I did love his response to the bobblehead, he seems very touched by the admiration for his character. His baseball loyalties lie elsewhere, as he and documented Cubs fanatic Joe Mantegna combined for a joint First Pitch at Wrigley late in May. I love how seriously Alexander takes acting, and how much more of an actor he is than a pure celebrity. 

Also in the category of rad Cubs first pitches, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, flicker of picks and scowler of audience members, did one at Wrigley. A cousin of mine is close with his son I believe, and he's told me stories of texting Nielsen on the runway heading to New York. Nielsen's apparently a cool guy, which isn't surprising. Also, for the record, I have seen Cheap Trick live, like 20 years ago, and they are, in fact, that awesome. 

I think Gordon Ramsay opened a new restaurant in Boston this summer. Obviously he's not from Boston, Hell's Kitchen would be a much different show if he cursed people out in a Boston accent rather than a British accent. But he was in town, and the Sox gave him the ball because they too like over the top television villains. I like the fact that it's clear that Ramsay plays up the anger for the cameras and when he's giving people criticism in competition shows he's just direct more than anything, and he's actually a decent human being at the end of the day.

We'll end on the two first pitches they rolled out for the London Series

I think the Mets' rationale was to get a famous New York resident who wouldn't be out of place in London. Hence Matthew Broderick, who's routinely doing something on Broadway. Broderick got to rock Mets colors, which must have been a wake-up call to Cameron Frye, and represent Queens, which is very fitting. This is very much a classy pick more than anything. 

So Philly went for the flashy pick:

Rob McElhenney is not only a red-blooded Philadelphia sports fan, and he's not only beloved in the UK thanks to his Welcome to Wrexham series, but there's literally a running gag on his show about how he's always wanted to play catch with Chase Utley. So for the second game of the London Series, Mac got to play catch with both Utley and Bryce Harper, with wife Kaitlin Olson nearby, and it was as fun as you'd expect. I kinda love how embedded into Philly culture McElhenney, and the Always Sunny cast, have become, and this is just the next step.

Hopefully there'll be some more fun ones in the next few months.