Stephen A. Smith’s “First Take,” er first pitch, did not go exactly as planned.
The ESPN host and personality got the honor to throw from the mound at Yankee Stadium before Thursday night’s game against the Blue Jays.
Let’s just say Smith won’t be quitting his day job and taking home any Cy Young awards anytime soon.
Wearing a No. 2 Derek Jeter jersey, Smith went all the way to the pitching rubber and kicked the dirt a bit before getting ready for his throw.
Smith, who said on “The Michael Kay Show” earlier Thursday that he was nervous about the pitch, went into a windup and had some decent mechanics, but his pitch bounced about 10 feet in front of home plate, drawing some groans and boos from The Bronx crowd.
The diehard Yankee fan strolled toward home plate, first putting his head down before picking it up with a sullen look.
Jack Curry on the YES Network pregame show broke down the pitching performance.
“I’ll give the pre-pitch routine an A-plus,” he said. “A lot of swagger going to the mound, rocking the Jeter jersey. It all looked good until the actual release of the ball. And, Stephen A., I feel for you.”
After the pitch, Smith posted a video on X and said: “It was a changeup!”
“I was disgusted with myself man,” Smith said in the YES booth after the pitch, who said when he went on the mound that the plate felt like it was a mile away. “I choked.”
Smith also relayed on the YES broadcast that Jeter had instructed him not to mess the pitch up and that he was throwing strikes in his warmups, though it did not go as planned.
Kay, however, jokingly reassured the TV host that some in the organization might call Smith’s pitch a splitter.
Smith did rationalize and said that his pitch did not reach the low ranks of 50 Cent, whose 2014 Citi Field first pitch ranks in infamy as one of the worst.
But, either way, it doesn’t seem like the Yankees will be calling his number out of the bullpen anytime soon.