He might be able to throw a punch, but he sure can’t throw a baseball.
UFC star fighter Conor McGregor threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field on Tuesday before a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Minnesota Twins. To say he missed the strike zone would be a gross understatement.
McGregor, wearing a tight blue-checked suit, threw the pitch at least 20 feet to the right, hitting a small retaining wall. The ball careened to the other side of home plate, forcing the catcher to run to retrieve it.
Conor McGregor, Mechanics. pic.twitter.com/j1brsqFFXx
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 21, 2021
Said Yahoo: “What’s wild about McGregor’s first pitch (besides the pitch itself) is that we already knew he wasn’t much of a thrower, and yet he thought that this sport might be different. McGregor drew chuckles in 2018 when he met up with the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, which led to someone putting a football in his hands. The resulting throw resembled a shot put more than what you usually see from a quarterback.”
Conor McGregor’s form may not work for throwing a football but we can confirm that it works for launching a @MonsterEnergy can at @NateDiaz209 pic.twitter.com/q2Cm28txI4
— The Rush (@therushyahoo) October 14, 2018
So we suggest McGregor stick to throwing punches.
Little does he know that he has forever joined an elite club of people who have thrown terrible first pitches.
Dr. Anthony Fauci
The nation’s top immunologist attended the Washington Nationals vs. New York Yankees in 2020 (when he was famously photographed with his mask down below his nose).
Fauci, who was a member of then-President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, took to the mound to kick off a pandemic-marred baseball season. But the 79-year-old wound up and fired the ball — missing the strike zone by at least 10 feet, the ball even falling short of the dirt around home plate.
Just a bit outside!!! pic.twitter.com/pf7hA99z3n
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 24, 2020
50 Cent
The rapper oozes confidence in everything he does, but he didn’t acquit himself well when he took the mound in 2014 for a New York Mets vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game.
Like McGregor, he missed the plate by a mile, only to the left. He nearly hit a photographer with the wayward toss but laughed it off, breaking into a wide smile. Little did he know that he’d made the list and the clip would be played for years.
Michael Jordan
The Greatest Of All Time in the NBA, Jordan was also a solid baseball player, playing both sports professionally.
But when Jordan took to the mound at Wrigley Field to throw to slugger Sammy Sosa in 1998 — while wearing a Sosa jersey — his throw wasn’t close, soaring way over the head of the catcher.
Carly Rae Jepsen
The “Call Me, Maybe” singer had thrown a strike for the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game in the 2013 season. But her second first pitch attempt later that year in a game between the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Houston Astros is the one everyone will remember. Jepsen wound up just fine — then threw the ball directly into the ground about 10 feet in front of her.
https://twitter.com/kroos_nico/status/1285736648316248064
Baba Booey
No list would be complete without the pitch by Gary Dell’Abate, longtime producer for “The Howard Stern Show.”
In the 2009 game between the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates, Booey didn’t just miss the plate, he actually hit the home-plate umpire, who was standing off to the side, right in the chest. And for more than a decade, Stern has never let him forget the moment.