Ceremonial first pitches have been a long-lasting tradition of Major League Baseball since it first took place in 1910, and then-president William Howard Taft threw it in a Washington Senators game. Since then, countless guests have come forward to throw first pitches, marking the end of pre-game festivities. And now, two F1 stars of Alfa Romeo, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, got the opportunity to throw the ceremonial pitch at a Miami Marlins game.
There have been countless numbers of these traditions till now. While many of them have gone pretty well, the rest didn’t. Guanyu and Bottas’ first pitch became the latter. They might be two of the best drivers in all of the F1 world, but fans think their throwing arm is not as good as it could be. Which is why the baseball world is brutally criticizing them for the same.
A visit to the Miami Marlins home game became too heavy for the F1 racers!
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Even though Major League Baseball named the pitch as a perfect one, baseball fans are having a hard time believing the same. Hence, when the official Instagram handle of Formula 1 posted a glimpse of the racers ending the pregame festivities, baseball fans came over and spoke about how much they liked the pitch.
And while some of the fans became ruthless with their words, there were also some who made fun. It’s because expecting the F1 racers to throw a perfect pitch in baseball is similar to asking a fish to live on the land. Their specialty lies on the racetrack, where a baseball player might not last longer than a couple of minutes.
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Hence, considering Zhou and Bottas as racers and not professional baseball athletes, one can say they tried their best. While Bottas is a bit accumulated with baseball, Guanyu was a novice. Hence, in an interview before the game, he said, “It’s my first ever time. For me, it’s a completely new experience. So hopefully I don’t bottle it on the pitch today.”
What are the fans saying about the racers’ first pitch?
While not taking in mind that Zhou and Bottas are not professional ballplayers, baseball fans said pretty harsh things.
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Some wrote, “Is this their first time ever throwing anything? 👀”, “Their baseball throws still haunt me to this day”, “Didn’t these two even throw rocks as young lads?”, and “None of these guys know any player from the MLB haha.”
Meanwhile, the fans who turned this into fun wrote, “Bottas at the end 😂😂”, and “They throw like I drive an F1 car 😂.”
However, there are also baseball fans who loved having Zhou and Bottas in the ballpark. One of them commented, “It was great seeing Booths and Zhou at the @marlins ! It was fun!”
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By the way, how did you like the ceremonial first pitch thrown by the two racers? Let us know in the comments below!