It’s arguably the worst first pitch in baseball history, and rapper 50 Cent knows it and still thinks about it all these years later.
The date was May 27, 2014. Rapper and entrepreneur 50 Cent was promoting his latest album and I’m guessing someone within his PR team thought it would be a good idea for him to throw out the first pitch before the Mets-Pirates game that night.
The lefty Curtis Jackson made such an awful throw that I’m not even sure if he was aiming at the catcher or the photographer he almost hit.
It’s been over three and a half years and 50 still gets taunted by people about this crime against our most beloved sport. He spoke to Newsday’s Neil Best recently and talked about his infamous first pitch and how he’s still surprised we talk about it.
"“Listen, no one warned me,” the Queens native said. “No one said: ‘Risk versus reward!’ I would have kept my [expletive] in the stands. This is never going away.”"
It’s hard to argue with that, to be honest. On TV, throwing the first pitch looks relatively easy. I mean, you’re throwing a ball, how hard could it be?
At a stadium like Citi Field, however, with thousands of people staring at you hoping you fail, it’s a bit more of a challenge.
Cent hasn’t gotten over the immortality of his unique moment though.
"“They have baseball cards with me throwing the pitch – real baseball cards that they made!” he told Newsday. “I go, ‘Wait a minute: Who cleared this?!’ Whenever baseball comes up, there is no one worse than me, as far as throwing out a pitch.“I had no idea that throwing a bad pitch would be so big. It was coming across CNN! ESPN, CNN, I was like, whoa, not the way I want things out here at the moment when I’m getting ready to run this music and I’m on CNN and it looks like my arm’s broken. I’m like, ‘What the [expletive] happened to me?’”"
Next: Should the Mets go after Starlin Castro or Josh Harrison?
Sorry, 50. Baseball lore lives on for years, decades, and maybe even centuries. You may not have ever played in a game, but as far as I’m concerned, your first pitch should live on for the rest of time. But hey, at least you’re not Carly Rae Jepsen.