Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted privately that he threw a “brick” in his ridiculed opening pitch.
“I threw a brick!” Fauci stated, attaching a smiley face, in an email to British researcher Jeremy Farrar. A “brick” is a term traditionally used in basketball to refer to a throw that does not reach its target.
Prior to the infamous toss, Fauci expressed anxieties over the pitch to Farrar, writing to him, “I am hanging in there, but it is not easy.” Just two days before the “brick” throw, Fauci stated in an email that he hopes he doesn’t “embarrass” himself, he wrote to Farrar. (RELATED: REPORT: Artificial Meat Company’s Factory Plagued By Mold, ‘Dirty Conditions’)
News outlets that had been infatuated with Fauci seemingly could not justify the botched lob. The pitch was “off-the-mark,” the Guardian wrote at the time, praising Fauci as a fitting choice given the “the current medical crisis.”
Fauci approached the pitcher’s mound mask-on despite being “socially distanced” from anyone else on the field and heaved the ball far off to his left, missing the catcher’s plate completely, a video of the moment showed.
WATCH:
Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch before the Nationals-Yankees game. pic.twitter.com/04Tbkh7Voa
— ESPN (@espn) July 23, 2020
Major League Baseball (MLB) made the contentious choice to bring the doctor in to kick off their 2020 opening game that saw the Washington Nationals face off against the New York Yankees. “Dr. Fauci has been a true hero during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title,” the Nationals declared in their official announcement.
Following the incident, Fauci seemingly redeemed himself by throwing a standard pitch at a Seattle Mariners vs Yankees game.