First Take Crew Rips Stephen A. Smith to Shreds for His Abysmal First Pitch at the NY Yankees Game

Ahmad Austin Jr.Sep 22nd, 2023, 1:47 pm
 

The moment First Take began on Friday, it was clear the episode would be focused solely on Stephen A. Smith’s disastrous first pitch at the New York Yankees game the night before.

“So I’m gonna be completely honest,” Molly Qerim said at the show opened. “I have no idea what we’re talking about on the show today, from the bottom of my heart — I was very busy booking guests last night, all night. I’ve never went so hard in the DMs last night — except that atrocity that happened on the mound. I don’t know what sport you were participating in, but it was supposed to be baseball.”

For Smith, the pitch couldn’t have come at a worse time. Just the day before, he drew the ire of baseball Twitter when he doubled down on a questionable take about Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani. In the days leading up to the pitch, he bragged to anyone who would listen that his favorite team asked him to do it.

Then, Smith — who chose to throw from the mound as opposed to in front of it — couldn’t even reach home plate with the throw.

Bart Scott told Smith he “let Black American down,” while Ryan Clark noted that Mina Kimes “had a much better first pitch” than Smith.

While Smith initially tried to argue the ball thrown straight in the dirt was the “perfect 0-2 pitch,” he later admitted that he choked under pressure.

“So prior to that, I’m warming up — and they let me warm up in front of the Yankees dugout and they go to 60 feet — and the guys there were great. They were telling me what to do,” Smith said. “And I’m literally throwing strikes.

“RC, Bart, I walk up to the mound and I literally went like this: ‘Holy you-know-what, what the hell am I doing here?’ Because I looked and I was like, ‘That ain’t the damn 60 feet I just finished practicing.’ It felt like it was a damn hundred yards away.”

Qerim wasn’t exaggerating when she said she was busy booking guests all night. Steve Harvey, Shaquille O’Neal, and even Smith’s older sister were among those who called into the show to roast him for the effort.

Making matters worse was the fact that on the very same night, the mother of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brusdar Graterol threw the first pitch on the West Coast. Unlike Smith’s pitch, hers was absolute perfection.

Watch above via ESPN.

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