First Pitch (OT)

Best first pitch ever: Kim Ye-Lim of South Korea. Retire the trophy. (She's a figure skater, can you tell?) And although the spin is the main attraction, that's an elegant throw she made, too. Obviously a talented athlete.

And this must be one of the worst. This is more like what would happen if I did it!

There should be a name for the opposite of a "bucket list": all the things you know absolutely for certain you will never do. Bungee-jumping, own a jet, do a backflip on solid ground, read Proust—and to those, I could add "throw out a first pitch."

Carly Rae Jepson is a singer, I found out, and also a good sport. She was laughing at herself. And apparently she was nailing it in practice; she just tightened up at showtime and failed to release, that's all.

Mike

Book o' the Week:

Ernst Haas: New York in Color 1952–1962. "When Haas moved from Vienna to New York City in 1951, he left behind a war-torn continent and a career producing black-and-white images. For Haas, the new medium of color photography was the only way to capture a city pulsing with energy and humanity. These images demonstrate Haas's tremendous virtuosity and confidence with Kodachrome film and the technical challenges of color printing."

This book link is a portal to Amazon.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jim Arthur: "I walk around my local park almost every day and over the years I’ve found a few baseballs rolled up under bushes, etc. I kept the first few but now I just chuck them out into the nearest diamond to be found by some lucky kid. Eventually it occurred to me that I should try my hand at pitching again since I have these few baseballs stashed in the back of my Jeep. (I was the star pitcher of my Little League team when I was 10 years old.)

"I unearthed an old softball glove from the back of a closet and began using one of the pitching practice areas in my local park...and as a potbellied graybeard I’ve received a few double takes.  :-)  These practice areas have a mound, home plate and a large rubber sheet covered in chain link serving as a backstop. I started extremely slow because my arm is now 50 years older and I’m in sad, sad pandemic shape, but I found that my accuracy came back almost immediately.

"I’ve fallen into the habit of throwing balls once or twice a week as a fun distraction and now I think I’d be pretty good at throwing out a first pitch…if I was famous. This new bit of activity and break in my routine has prompted me to restart my old habit of daily stretching and light weight training. I must say, I feel great. I don’t know why I wasn’t exercising throughout the pandemic. For anyone who like me just sank into their couch or computer chair over the last few years I can highly recommend a little spring time activity. Just start very slow. My approach was to design an exercise routine that assumes I’m ten years older than I am."

JTK: "Re 'There should be a name for the opposite of a bucket list.' There is Mike, there is. And it rhymes perfectly with bucket list."

John Cecilian: "Dont know if this link will work for you but don't give up on the possibility of throwing out the first pitch. My business partner loved the Cubs her whole life and circumstances came together for her doing just that in their World Series year, and you can see the joy she had being on Wrigley field and throwing out a first pitch. Thought you might like this."

Mike replies: Impressive!

Comments

[MikeR]

Yoga!

Garbage bucket list?

[Bob Burnett]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNri9u4uqU

Worst first pitch. Mayor Mark Mallory of Cincinnati. 2007.

[Justin Ting]

Always liked McEnroe’s: https://youtu.be/UlUh5x4AZsE

[William A Lewis]

I don't like baseball. At its best, I consider it to be nearly literally deadly dull. Now if we could make Kim Ye-Lim's throw the baseline and require all pitchers to be better than it? Now _that_ would be a game actually worth watching! ;)

[cormackphotos]

Speaking of worst first pitches, this one might also need to be considered (at least from a photography viewpoint):

https://youtu.be/izCgv4pFYaQ

[Craig Stocks]

There is the opposite of a bucket list, it rhymes with bucket but starts with an F.