Everyone knows Stephen A. Smith “the Sports Analyst,” but not everyone knows Stephen A. Smith “the Athlete.”
Currently, the 55-year-old gives his fiery sports takes all throughout the day on ESPN, and even hosts his own show where tackles topics outside of the sports world.
Back in the day, Stephen A. was a college athlete, playing basketball for Winston-Salem State University. Though his time there might not have been incredibly successful…
But the past is the past, and even though his professional sports career didn’t pan out, his professional career within sports media had made him one of the industry’s biggest stars.
That’s why he was asked by the New York Yankees to throw out the first pitch at their game tonight, and Smith happily accepted.
He’s taken some criticism over the years for not knowing or watching a ton of baseball, but that didn’t stop him from getting out there and throwing out the ceremonial pitch in the “Big Apple.”
Smith went out there, pin stripes and all, and launched the ball towards home plate…and it bounced probably 15 feet short of the plate:
Props to Stephen A. though, at least he threw it from the mound. There are a lot of people that would throw from just in front of the bump, and at that point, you might as well not throw the pitch at all.
Smith rushed to X (formerly Twitter) to defend himself, saying:
“It was a changeup.”
If that’s what he wants to call it, I guess that’s okay, but those on social media weren’t letting him off that easy:
About as bad as his takes on baseball
— Ben (@HowUBenFeller) September 21, 2023
Dude thinks he’s playing Cricket
— FTA Sports (@advisors_team) September 21, 2023
No wonder why he doesn’t watch baseball, he can’t even throw one haha
— SFGiants 49ers Analysis (@49ers_SFGiants) September 22, 2023
Yikes that was awful
— Alex A (@havoc_000) September 22, 2023
Solid one-hopper
— Tom Blake (@Tomblaker19) September 21, 2023
