The Washington Nationals invited Dr. Fauci to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Nationals Park against the New York Yankees this 2020 season. The face mask that Dr. Fauci wore, has now been inducted into The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.

The mask on display at The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum features the distinctive “curly W” and the team name of the Washington Nationals in various typographies on a red background. Dr. Fauci is a self-professed Nationals fan – dating from when the franchise relocated to Washington D.C. in 2005.

“It kind of triggered in me that kind of fierce affection for a team that I hadn’t had since I used to idolize all the Yankees,” he told the New York Times. “I just fell in love with the Nats. I don’t consider that I’m being disloyal to the Yankees. I consider it as sort of a replacement for my boyhood love for baseball, which I still have.”

The 2020 MLB season, at 60 regular-season games, will be the craziest one in the league’s history.

Dr. Fauci’s mask is an important way to tell the story of this period of the National Pastime."

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One Of The Worst Pitches In U.S. History

Dr. Fauci's pitch is being labeled as one of the worst in baseball history. He explained on the ESPN Daily podcast how it was a massive mishap:

"It certainly was a mishap on my part. I had been practicing for two days before at a walk-down that I thought was 60 feet, but was really, probably, about 45 feet," the Washington Nationals fan said. "And I was throwing and throwing and throwing, and I got it right. But only it was at 45 feet and I kind of hurt my arm because I haven’t thrown a baseball, literally, in decades."

It will be remembered for generations to come as the worst pitch in the leagues history.

 

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