Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, took to the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of tonight's MLB season opener between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals. It wasn't pretty.
Fauci's woeful first pitch was soon being compared to other horrendous attempts, most notably being 50 Cent's awful throw back in 2014. It's been six years and people haven't forgotten about it.
Aside from Fauci's first pitch, Thursday's season opener included a moment where everyone on both teams took a knee, as ESPN's Jeff Passan points out, during a pregame ceremony where "all of the players held a long, black piece of fabric and Morgan Freeman read a speech addressing social injustice."
A bunch of Giants players and coaches kneeled for the anthem. Brandon Crawford put his hands on the shoulders of Jaylin Davis and Antoan Richardson: pic.twitter.com/2XsIg8oFjw
None of the players, however, knelt for the national anthem.
On Monday, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, three of his players—Austin Slater, Mike Yastrzemski, and Jaylin Davis—and coaches Antoan Richardson and Justin Viele took a knee before their preseason game against the Athletics.
