"Unlock the keys to your financial future and legacy – <br />Get it now -- https://shorturl.at/nvCU5 "<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Stephen A. Smith’s ESPN Colleagues Won’t Let Him Live Down His Terrible First Pitch.<br />Stephen A. Smith wasn’t the only one disgusted with his first pitch Thursday at the Yankees-Blue Jays game.<br /><br />The “First Take” host was trolled mercilessly by his fellow ESPN colleagues after his pitch in the Bronx looked more like a bounce pass in the NBA.<br /><br />“You have got to be freaking kidding me @stephenasmith,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky wrote on X (formerly Twitter), including a video of Smith on the mound in the Bronx.<br /><br />“This is worse than I imagined and you make fun of me for running out the end zone!”<br /><br />Orlovsky was referring to the infamous play when the former Lions signal-caller ran out of the back of the end zone in 2008 in a game against the Vikings, resulting in a safety.<br /><br />NFL insider Adam Schefter compared Smith, a diehard Yankees fan, to 50 Cent, who had his own viral moment on the mound at Citi Field in 2014.<br /><br />“Stephen A. Smith’s first pitch at Yankees Stadium might rival 50 Cent’s first pitch at Citi Field,” Schefter wrote.<br /><br />The rapper threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the Mets-Pirates game and nearly hit the camera man when the ball took a sharp left away from the catcher.<br /><br />“Didn’t we talk about this this morning?” asked NFL analyst Damien Woody, while ESPN Radio’s Peter Rosenberg wrote, “Lol, the aim though.”<br /><br />Marcus Spears and Robert Griffin III, both NFL analysts with ESPN, had a good laugh over Smith’s first pitch.<br /><br />You Bot!!!” Spears wrote on X, adding a bunch of crying-laughing emojis.<br /><br />Griffin reposted Schefter’s message with a few crying-laughing emojis and a meme with a sign that read: “They finna drag you.”<br /><br />Smith, who wore a No. 2 Derek Jeter jersey, claimed his first pitch was meant to be “a changeup!” in a post on X.<br /><br />“I was disgusted with myself man,” Smith said in the YES Network broadcast booth after the pitch, adding that he felt as though the plate was a mile away. “I choked.”<br /><br />The outspoken broadcaster also claimed he was throwing strikes while warming up, and that Jeter instructed him not to botch the pitch.<br /><br />After the pitch, Smith put his head down and laughed.<br /><br />Meanwhile, boos rang out from the crowd at Yankee Stadium.<br /><br />As for the real baseball the took place on Thursday night?<br /><br />The Yankees beat the Blue Jays, 5-3, likely clinching the American League Cy Young Award for New York ace Gerrit Cole, who struck out nine over eight innings and lowered his ERA to 2.75.
