Jay-Z reportedly texted Stephen A. Smith after his terrible first pitch at last night's Yankees game. According to Smith, the rapper texted him a picture of an article discussing Smith's picture with a collection of sad face emojis attached. "He's supposed to be my guy," Smith said sadly. Furthermore, Derek Jeter reportedly told Smith "don't mess this up" before the pitch. After the pitch, Jeter called Smith back and told him to claim he was playing "cricket not baseball".
Smith has attempted to deflect criticism of his terrible first pitch at last night's Yankees game in a video posted this morning. In the video, Smith is seen to a child in catcher's gear near the dugout. This was presumably the warm up for his first pitch. However, there are just a few problems with the video. Firstly, Smith's form is just terrible for a pitcher. Secondly, he appears to be much closer to his catcher than the pitcher's mound is to home plate. Thirdly, and most importantly, just because you through some strikes beforehand doesn't mean your first pitch didn't suck.
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However, Jay-Z wasn't the only person dunking on Smith. "Brother, man, I love you, dog. But I could not believe what I saw. Listen man, I don;t know if anyone who has called in today has actually thrown out a first pitch. I have thrown out a first pitch, at a Cubs game. I walked up to the mound, I'm actually 10, 12 years older than you. I leaned up back, I put some pepper on it. What you did yesterday...oh my god," Steve Harvey said during a minute-long rant at Smith.
What has made this incident all the more funny is just how confident Smith has previously been about acing his first pitch. Earlier this year, Smith went on a mini-rant on First Take in which he extolled the perceived excellence of his hypothetical first pitch. "I would throw a strike," Smith told his co-hosts back in July. However, no amount of practice throws is going to make up for the fact that Smith choked about as hard as the Yankees have this year.