Getty Juan Toscano-Anderson celebrates at the Golden State Warriors' 2022 NBA championship victory parade.
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry took a timeout from his summer grind to spend the day at Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday. He wasn’t just there to take in the series finale between the Athletics and the Astros, however.
Rather, Curry and his wife, Ayesha, were there representing their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, which had partnered with the A’s to host more than 1,000 children from the Oakland community at the game.
It was a full day for the Curry clan, which started with Steph taking batting practice off of A’s manager Mark Kotsay. He also went into the A’s clubhouse to spend time with players and coaches before the game. Afterward, Kotsay joked that he’d be willing to insert Curry into the heart of his batting order.
One thing he definitely won’t be doing any time soon is giving Steph a spot in his pitching rotation; not after the baller’s performance in delivering the ceremonial first pitch.
JTA Slams Steph’s Botched Pitch
Juan T isn’t going to let Steph forget it 😂
Both Steph and Ayesha took to the mound just ahead of the contest to throw out the first pitches in tandem, which unexpectedly became something to behold.
For her part, Ayesha threw an inoffensive, straight-on one-hopper to Kotsay, bypassing her own catcher in the process. Unfortunately, the Warriors star fired his ball at the A’s manager simultaneously.
Kotsay may have stood at least a fighting chance to snag both balls, had Steph’s pitch simply flown true. Instead, it careened wildly outside of the batter’s box, forcing the 46-year-old to abandon Ayesha’s ball and dive into the dirt to stop the wild pitch.
For his part, Steph’s former Dubs teammate, Juan Toscano-Anderson wasn’t about to let the mishap slide. The Oakland native turned Lakers wing came in with a brutal comment about the display via Instagram, writing “@Stephencurry30 I never wanna hear you say a word again about my first pitch.”
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Steph Tried to Explain Himself
The reigning Finals MVP later lamented his pitch when he joined A’s commentators Glen Kuiper and Bip Roberts in the broadcast booth.
“All of my friends were teasing me about how bad my pitch was going to be,” Curry said, via NBC Sports Bay Area & California. “I wanted to throw some heat and when I got up there I felt the presence on my right side but I didn’t really know how I could do the release and whatnot so that’s why I went a little to the right. I’m glad he picked it up out of the dirt and didn’t make me look bad.”
Steph definitely fared better when he was at the plate before the game. Although he did get stung by his wooden bat.
“I played baseball until I was about 13, growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve got some fundamentals, but we didn’t hit with the wood bat back in then, so that was the most interesting part. I don’t know, it was like 55-60 miles-per-hour coming at me, a couple of them stung a little bit, it woke my hands up a little bit, but it was nice to just get some swings and feel like I was moving the ball somewhat.”
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