Dr Fauci explains why his Opening Day pitch missed the mark

'My arm was hanging down around my shoes'

Dr Anthony Fauci has divulged why his opening pitch for the Washington Nationals to kick off the 2020 Major League Baseball season was less than perfect.

The doctor, who is the nation's leading infectious disease expert, tossed out the ceremonial opening pitch on Thursday, but his throw hit the grass and rolled short of the home plate.

Amidst some mockery and negative attention surrounding the throw, Dr Fauci explained his flawed performance to The Wall Street Journal, saying that he had hurt his arm the night before practising his swing in preparation for the tense moment.

“My arm was hanging down around my shoes,” he told the newspaper.

Dr Fauci said that as a result of the pain he tried to employ a different manoeuvre to toss the ball, with less than desirable results.

“When I saw he was so far away, I said I better try to throw a bullet,” Dr Fauci said. “And that was a mistake.”

“Instead of doing my normal motion of just lobbing the ball, which would’ve been the best thing to do, I thought: Oh, baby, I better put a lot of different oomph into it,” Dr Fauci said. “And I did. And you saw what happened.”

The 79-year-old said he had not thrown a baseball in decades, and previously told the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman that he was “quite nervous” about the pitch.

He told The Journal that in anticipation for the historic throw he spent the evening beforehand preparing with went to a Washington, DC elementary school to play catch with a local high-schooler.

He said that his arm was sore on Wednesday even after he iced, and was still hurting inside the stadium on Thursday when he threw the pitch to an audience of empty stands due to the novel coronavirus.

“I was stupid,” he said. “I should’ve warmed up for 10 minutes.”

The Washington Nationals confirmed that the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would throw the ceremonial pitch last Monday stating that “Nats superfan” had accepted the offer to throw out the first pitch.

“Dr Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honour him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our would series championship title,” they wrote in a statement.

Many social media users were quick to point out the fact that Dr Fauci was scheduled to throw the pitch rather than president Donald Trump, who is yet to throw an opening day pitch as president.

The president teased that he would throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the New York Yankees next month, hours before Anthony Fauci was due to throw the first pitch, but has since cancelled the appearance citing his busy schedule.

“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won't be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!”, the president wrote on twitter on Sunday.

Mr Trump and Dr Fauci’s relationship has become increasingly strained in recent weeks despite the doctor being one of the key members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Earlier this month in an interview with Fox News Mr Trump called Dr Fauci “a little bit of an alarmist” speaking of his attitude to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 147,000 Americans.

“I consider myself more a realist than an alarmist,“ Dr Fauci told CNN in response to the comments.