Hey, remember when 50 Cent threw out the first pitch at Citi Field in 2014? Of course you do.
In case you don’t (for whatever reason), here’s a brief refresher.
Yeah, it wasn’t great.
Anyway, during an interview to promote his new movie Den of Thieves, 50 Cent talked about the first pitch, how he shouldn’t have done it, and a possible redemption in the future.
“Listen, no one warned me,” the rapper/actor/businessman from Queens said. “No one said: ‘Risk versus reward!’ I would have kept my [expletive] in the stands. This is never going away.”
He also had no idea just how iconic his terrible pitch would end up being, expressing shock that it has been featured on baseball cards (and of course, national news networks).
“They have baseball cards with me throwing the pitch – real baseball card that they made!” he said. “I go, ‘Wait a minute: Who cleared this?!’ Whenever baseball comes up, there is no one worse than me, as far as throwing out a pitch.
“I had no idea that throwing a bad pitch would be so big. It was coming across CNN! ESPN, CNN, I was like, whoa, not the way I want things out here at the moment when I’m getting ready to run this music and I’m on CNN and it looks like my arm’s broken. I’m like what the [expletive] happened to me?”
As for *why* his first pitch was so bad, 50 Cent blamed his excitement level, claiming that he had actually practiced throwing before heading out to the mound at Citi Field on that May day.
“I’m like, this is what happens when the fanfare and the energy of the people is involved and you start trying to get fancy and try to throw the ball harder than you have to,” he said. “It just was the worst pitch ever . . . I had pitched before. I rehearsed. I practiced. I threw the ball a little bit.
“I was throwing like, ‘Oh, man, I’m about to throw a strike, a hundred miles an hour.’ But that [expletive] damn near killed a cameraman!”
But he’s not throwing in the towel on potentially throwing out another first pitch – he wants redemption.
“I have to redeem myself at some point,” he said. “Maybe if I get out there and throw a really good pitch they’ll let me go a little bit.”
I’ll give him credit here – at least he’s got a sense of humor about the whole situation and isn’t taking it too seriously. Some people might bury their heads in the sand and insist it was a damn fine first pitch and anyone who thinks otherwise is insane.
As for him getting another chance…well, considering how underwhelming the Mets will likely be in 2018, there shouldn’t be an issue with them bringing him back. Shit, maybe he could eat some innings for them coming out of the bullpen.
[Newsday]
BABABOOEY!