Mark Mallory says hi

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I don't understand why first-pitchers don't throw a few practice tosses in private first. I once threw out a first pitch for the (defunct) New Jersey Cardinals of the (also defunct) New York-Penn League back in 2004. I threw several pitches that morning at home, then threw a perfect strike to the catcher*. (Of course, any halfway-decent batter woulda hit that ball ten miles.) Got an ovation. 'Twas fun.

Anyway, I know I'm not going to criticize Conor McGregor about anything...!

*The player who caught my pitch was actually not the Cards' catcher, but this guy, the second baseman. Autographed the ball, too.

Why on Earth was McGregor throwing out the first pitch? Were the Cubs celebrating things that were great in 2016 but are now just broken shells of what they used to be?

As bad as that was, I think there is more pride in a wildly inaccurate but relatively "fast" throw vs some of the ones where the arm action is limp and the ball goes nowhere (I'm looking at you, 50 Cent . . .).

Video of Presidential 1st Pitches, including the Opening Day tradition in Washington, DC of the President tossing the ball from the stands into a scrum of players from both teams, who would vigorously compete for possession of the prized souvenir.

At least Conor threw it far enough. I think the worse ones are throws that go about 35 feet.

Conor looks to be a pretty solid guy and that suit(though finely cut and slim fitting) doesn't seem like it would allow for a lot of free arm movement so he kind of sort side arms the throw.

It's bad, no doubt about it, but not as bad as the 50 cent "throw".

BBTF softball a few years back barely had enough players for two teams, but we managed.

then two young Brits strolling across Central Park walked onto our field without knowing what the hell we were doing. we convinced them to play a few innings, and they somehow agreed.

they could hit okay, actually, being young and athletic. the biggest faux pas I recall was when I was on first base and one of the lads was playing first base. sort of. I explained to him that he could move up several feet or back several feet, but not in my path toward second base - which, I explained, was over there to his right. he readily agreed.

I think one BBTF wag at one point said, "Hey, sorry about that whole Revolutionary War thing."
without skipping a beat, one replied, "Ah, we let you have it."

good times

Is the dirt circle around home plate of uniform size in the major leagues? I've never thought to check, but if it is...50 Cent's pitch still landed in the dirt circle, near the edge. The Cincy mayor's throw was at the outer edge of the dirt circle, but was short. McGregor's throw seems to be sailing over the outer edge of the circle on its way to the backstop on the fly.

Of course, this takes us back to whether a pitifully short throw is worse than a ridiculously overlong throw.

I say just take away all their children and be done with it.

I feel like a lot of these fails are because the dignitary wants to "throw a strike" instead of treating it like a warm-up toss on the side before a softball game.