J.J. McCarthy Throws Out the Worst First Pitch in Minnesota Twins History

Minnesota Vikings spring training training camp is still over one month away and rookie pitcher quarterback J.J. McCarthy is already making history. On Tuesday night at U.S. Bank Stadium Target Field, the former Michigan stud threw out what has to be the worst first pitch in Minnesota Twins history.

J.J. McCarthy throws out possibly the worst first pitch in Minnesota Vikings or Twins history

It was a first pitch so bad that, for a long time, the only video we saw surface of this disaster was an upper deck press box shot from Declan Goff (SKOR North), who happened to get his phone up in time to watch it all unfold. Without him, I’m not convinced this first pitch would have been anything more than a fairy tale lost to history.

For an hour, there was no 3rd person pitcher’s view or close up alt-camera angle for social media. Nothing on either of the Twins’ or Vikings’ accounts… Then, finally, they knew there was no choice. As Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards once said so eloquently, “send da video”.

I will cut McCarthy a little bit of slack because he has never played baseball in any organized fashion, at least not anything that has been reported. His first sport was hockey, if you remember all of the pre-draft articles and background stories that dropped about how good he was with a hockey stick in his hands.

Still, there’s no excuse for this throw. As a professional athlete, especially one who throws with that same arm for a living, you can’t miss your target by 5-10 feet, even if the ball you are used to is shaped completely different. Dallas Turner, whatever, you are lucky McCarthy was there to one-up you.

Maybe this was an issue of overconfidence, which would still be mildly concerning. There have been enough horrible first pitches that have gone viral to know that you need to throw a fair amount of practice pitches beforehand.

It’s OK to bounce it a tiny bit short, or make the catcher jump, lunge… whatever. Throw it slow, throw it fast. Stand in front of the mound, if you have to. All of those things are acceptable. Just do not completely miss the catcher by 10 feet… like our new quarterback did.