USA gymnast Ragan Smith breaks out acrobatic first pitch at Rangers game

Ragan Smith, an alternate on the gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team in Rio, threw out an acrobatic first pitch yesterday at the Texas Rangers game.

USA Gymnast Ragan Smith finally showed America how you successfully throw out a first pitch. When a ceremonial first-pitch is in the news it’s usually somebody like rapper 50 Cent throwing a heinously bad ball into the dugout. Or maybe it’s because of another rapper, Snoop Dogg, who almost took out a couple fans and a cameraman with his toss to the backstop. I’m not trying to pick on rappers here but, c’mon guys!

This time, it’s because Smith put her own twist on the ceremonial first pitch, or should I say flip. . . :

https://twitter.com/Rangers/status/769971261678256129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Deceptive pitching is nothing new to the Rangers as starting pitcher Cole Hamels owns an American League best 2.67 earned run average. I’m not sure that the pitch thrown by Smith would fool any major league hitters, but the flip certainly would catch their attention.

Amazingly, Smith isn’t the first woman gymnast to throw out a pitch with this much style. Fellow gymnast and 2012 gold medalist, McKayla Maroney, did something similar in 2014. You can be the judge as to which was better, I’ll just admire both.

Although Smith didn’t compete at the Rio games and receive the attention that “The Final Five,” did, she still saw the spotlight for a different reason:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIxmR6-j8mG/?hl=en

Smith (4’6″) is pictured here next to Los Angeles Clippers forward DeAndre Jordan (6’11”). If there ever was a picture to sum up the difference between gymnasts and basketball players, this may be it.

In my opinion, rappers need to start taking notes from USA gymnasts and maybe add a flip for their next pitch. Actually, if they can’t throw a baseball straight, how are they going to do a flip? Scratch that idea.