Stephen A. Smith Couldn’t Even Get His First Pitch To The Plate At Yankee Stadium

Stephen A. Smith has made a career out of critiquing the best athletes in the world, but on Thursday night it was his turn to get put under the microscope when he threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.

The ESPN talking head strode out to the mound confidently but was doomed from the start by his ego as he insisted on throwing his pitch from the top of the mound rather than in front of it. Over-confidence has claimed many a first pitch thrower, as throwing off of the mound is just a completely different feeling than throwing off of flat ground, and Smith was no different. He wound up and delivered a ball that barely made over the grass to the dirt, bouncing 10 feet in front of home plate in a rather pathetic effort that even he was disgusted by.

If you don’t pitch regularly, it will almost always lead you to dirting the ball and that’s exactly what happened to Stephen A. It also should come as no surprise that hubris was Smith’s downfall on the mound on Thursday evening. I’m sure Smith will have some fun with his effort tomorrow morning on First Take, but it really started with the decision to go to the top of the mound — and I hope they call Mad Dog in to roast him before he heads to Arizona to get “sauced.”