Dr. Anthony Fauci roasts himself after hilariously bad Opening Day first pitch

Dr. Anthony Fauci had a first pitch for the history books.

The status of the MLB season has been in flux ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States back in March. After four months, Opening Day finally took place on Thursday night with the World Series Champion Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees. Prior to the game, the Nationals had Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, throw out the ceremonial first pitch as a thank you for all the hard work he’s done trying to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Fauci entered the history books as having one of the worst first pitches ever, right next to rapper 50 Cent and Howard Stern Show producer Baba Booey. During an interview with the Washington Post, Fauci joked that the throw was off target because he was a shortstop as a young kid, not a pitcher!

“It went in the wrong direction,” Fauci said, via the Washington Post. “I joked around after and said I used to be a shortstop when I played ball as a young boy and I thought I was supposed to throw to first base.”

Fauci brushes off the jokes in stride

You can’t blame the man, he was so accustomed throwing to first base when playing baseball!

During said interview, Fauci expressed confidence in MLB’s health protocols, saying that he believes that it’s safe enough to return-to-play.

MLB, however, did have quite the scare hours before the start of the first game of the 2020 season. Nationals star Juan Soto was pulled from the season opener after testing positive for COVID-19. Leading up to the start of the regular season, positive test results were convincingly low.

Either way, you can’t really criticize Fauci for his first pitch. This is a doctor working to find an effective vaccine for COVID-19 that will allow us to return to normalcy in the near future. We’ll gladly give him a pass on his pitching form.