My recurring series on famous people throwing out the first pitch at MLB games continues, and I was able to find 10 fun subjects for the first two months of the season.
It should not shock you that I'm starting this post with Jason Kelce. The man has epitomized Philly sports for damn near a decade, and is now making the leap to full-on sports personality. It's upsetting to me that until this decade, because he's a defenseman, Kelce didn't have many football cards, or even a proper rookie card from Topps. His brother Travis got one, clearly [and I'm keeping that pretty damned safe], but not Jason. This should do the trick, Jason throwing one out at a Phils game early on in the season. It's clear this city still loves him, and always will.
Brock Purdy, despite getting the 49ers to a Super Bowl, has gotten so much backlash from NFL fans, because they think that anybody could have gotten this Niners team to a Super Bowl, and it's clear because he didn't win it. I call bollocks on that, I think Purdy did a lot right this year, and there's a lot to him that couldn't have been done with, like, Jimmy G or whoever. But the SF fans seem to appreciate him, as they should, and he got a warm welcome to Oracle Park to throw one out.
Similarly, Amon-Ra St. Brown was on my fantasy team this past year, and I'm extremely satisfied with how well he did. The Lions really have something with this guy, and he's been terrific ever since coming up. He also seems genuinely great for the fanbase. I wish I could say that about everyone who did well for my fantasy this year, but uh...my kicker isn't exactly popular with fans right now. Anyway, St. Brown's a Lions hero, the Tigers fans love him as well, and he's in one of the Tigers' City Connect uniforms, which ended up being a theme for this post.
Rob Gronkowski knows who he is, and I like that about him. He's made a name for himself playing the idiot, and those insurance ads work because he plays right into it. He's also, y'know, an insanely talented TE and a Boston sports legend. I think that gave him the leeway to do a spike for a first pitch, seen here. He could toss it into the outfield and they'd still love him there.
Since it's been SIXTY YEARS since his debut, the Giants invited Masanori Murakami, the first ever Japanese player to play in the MLB, back to throw out a first pitch. That's genuinely awesome. I think about how much Murakami paved the way for, people like Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani and Shota Imanaga owe their careers to him. And San Francisco's such a progressive city that it had to happen there, and they probably gave him an overwhelming round of applause.
Similarly, the Dodgers have had a history of being very kind to Japanese and Asian players, and it's resulted in a nice fanbase there from Asian emigrants. This also means the occasional Japanese actor can throw out a first pitch at Dodger Stadium, as Shogun, Bullet Train and...Lost Season 6 actor Hiroyuki Sanada did in April. Sanada was described, circa his Lost stint, as 'Japan's actor to Harrison Ford', and thankfully now he's getting more roles that really showcase his excellent acting skills.
I've been prone to do customs of Jeopardy champions on here, because I'm that kind of nerd. I think I've done ones of Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Amy Schneider, and now I've done one of Ben Chan, who was a recent Tournament of Champions finalist, and a self-professed Green Bay Packers fanatic. He was a really fun player who deserved better luck, and I'm glad he got his chance from the Brewers here.
Here's another City Connect first pitch. For the debut of their NYC-centric grays, the Mets figured they should hand the ball to a local rap legend, namely Busta Rhymes, who was huge in the late 90s and early 2000s. He seems pretty stoked to be a part of this, as he's a New Yorker through and through.
Similarly, Noah Kahan, in his landmark debut record, wrote a lot of songs about growing up in a small town in New England where everybody knows everybody. Moreover, he wrote a lot of songs about wanting to LEAVE a small town in New England where everybody knows everybody. But the Stick Season and Dial Drunk singer/songwriter is true to his New Englander roots, and got a hero's welcome in Fenway. It's odd, because Kahan's music isn't technically country because he's not from the South, but I file him in the Springsteen/Billy Joel category of 'country music, but for people from the Northeast'. Cause the songwriting mentality is pretty much the same. Happy he's having his moment, though.
We'll end on a fun one. I started watching The Bear earlier this year. God what a great show that is. Excellent writing, character development, storytelling, music. Insanely relatable story about a restauranteur trying to make it happen in Chicago. They film in Chicago, and it's a very Chicago cast, and rightfully the cast is welcome anytime they want in Wrigley. I think Ebon-Moss Bacharach did a 7th Inning Stretch, Matty Matheson definitely did a first pitch, and they're all there for filming, so they're easy to get pretty much. So here's Lisa Colon-Zayas, longtime character actor [she was in United 93!], finally getting her due playing Tina, one of the most intriguing and ultimately likable characters we see in that kitchen, getting a nice applause in Chicago. I love that. That's gotta feel great.
Look forward to more of these hitting the blog after another month or so of first pitches.
Always a fun post!
ReplyDelete