Rob Gronkowski, the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneer tight end, is known for many things on and off the gridiron, but perhaps the most iconic thing that Gronkowski is known for is spiking the ball after scoring a touchdown. The celebration became synonymous with him and, in many ways, touchdown celebrations in general.
Gronkowski is obviously a fantastic athlete; however, he is not a baseball player. One of the traditions of major-league baseball is to have a celebrity come out and throw the ceremonial first pitch for every game. Often, these individuals are celebrities or star athletes of other sports. Sometimes, the first pitch does not go as planned and can be rather embarrassing for the celebrity and especially athletes who excelled in other sports. ]
Gronk wasn’t about to that risk.
Rob Gronkowski Adds His Own Twist to the First Pitch
Before Monday’s Boston Red Sox game, which is in the same area where is Gronk played most of his career with the New England Patriots, Gronk was asked to throw the first pitch. Although I’m sure he could have thrown a great first pitch, he wanted to make it memorable, and he certainly did that.
Instead of just throwing the pitch out like any other person would, he decided to take the ball, look at the catcher, and instead of throwing it to him, spike the baseball into the pitcher’s mound and let out a loud yell similar to how he did when he played in the league.
Social Media Goes Crazy Over the Pitch
In total, well over 1000 first pitches are thrown out in the MLB every single season, and only a handful of them are memorable. Even though it’s early in the season, it is very possible that Gronk Kowski has already thrown the most memorable pitch of the year despite it being an early afternoon game.
After the pitch (or spike), social media quickly picked up the video and started to post and re-share it. Big names like Adam Schefter, the MLB Network, Barstool Sports, and almost every other sports media picked up the pitch. They essentially celebrated the unique and very on-brand pitch that Gronkowski had throughout. If you’d like to see the pitch, you can see it below.
How Gronk throws out the first pitch – so good. pic.twitter.com/xHyEs1mxvE
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 15, 2024