For the most part, ceremonial first pitches are wholly uninteresting in the world of Major League Baseball. Honorees run the gamut from celebrities to local heroes to relatively anonymous people but, every once in a while, true magic occurs. One of those instances happened on Monday in Boston when Steve Aoki strolled to the mound to deliver the opening offering before a matchup between the Red Sox and the Houston Astros.
The video is worth a thousand (or more) words.
Steve Aoki with an all-time bad first pitch pic.twitter.com/DcdWheNOph
— RunYourPool (@RunYourPool_) May 16, 2022
The worst first pitch in baseball history now belongs to Steve Aoki
pic.twitter.com/Bjy3C6d3mu
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) May 16, 2022
This is an immediate hall of fame entry in the worst first pitches of all-time, simply because of where the ball landed. Aoki never seemed particularly comfortable with where his setup began, for some reason starting on the upslope on the back of the mound, but, as soon as he begin his move to the plate, there was an elaborate wind-up which probably was not the best idea.
From there, the angle set Aoki up for a disaster, and the ball’s trajectory got out of control with haste. In the videos above, you can get a glimpse of the horror and/or amazement from the patrons in attendance at Fenway Park, but onlookers probably just cannot get enough of this video. The debate will rage as to whether this was truly the worst of all-time since, well, Aoki at least made it to the plate, but it was a sight to behold.