Siera Santos botches first pitch Courtesy MLB Network
By Sam Neumann on

No matter your place in the sports media food chain, it might be time to admit that the ceremonial first pitch just isn’t for us.

Look — we’re not all Stephen A. Smith or Paul O’Neill. But most of us aren’t 50 Cent or Siera Santos either.

Santos, an Arizona native, was on hand Friday for the Diamondbacks’ unveiling of their new Serpientes uniforms. She was also handed the unenviable task of throwing out the first pitch. And it went exactly how you’d expect when someone says beforehand, “I can’t do the mound.”

Santos, who co-hosts MLB Network’s Intentional Talk with Kevin Millar and Ryan Dempster since 2023, practiced with a former catcher, Alex Avila. Perhaps she should’ve had a couple of trial runs with the two-time All-Star pitcher instead, and that might’ve prevented her from one of the all-time embarrassing first pitches.

It would never prevent her from being “petrified,” though, as she told the Arizona Republic’s José M. Romero.

“Oh my gosh, I’m PETRIFIED! You don’t understand. I am so nervous. Whenever I think about it, a wave of nausea wipes over my entire body, because you have to realize, the pressure that I’m under to not bounce it, from everyone at the network, they are absolutely going to FLAME me. Half of the network is like, “You have to stand on the mound.” The other half is like, “No, don’t stand on the mound, go in the front.” So yes, I have been practicing. Not as much as I should.

“I did practice in our little network studio, mini ballpark Studio 42 with Alex Avila, former Diamondback and former catcher, and they were so worried that I was going to throw it into one of the monitors that costs like millions of dollars and I was like, “I’ve got an All-Star catcher on my hands, I’m fine.” I don’t know if I’m going to bounce it, I really hope I don’t, but we’ll see what happens. He (Avila) did give me the best advice, though.”

But even if she did get advice from a former All-Star catcher, Santos was already putting pressure on herself. The MLB Network host knew that if she bounced the first pitch, which did happen, she would get “flamed” or “roasted for the rest of eternity.”

Well, she kind of spoke that into existence during a radio spot preceding Friday’s fortuitous events.

As it turns out, practicing in a TV studio with a former All-Star can’t prepare you for 45 feet of open space that suddenly feels like 600 when you’re aiming for the strike zone, and trying not to become a meme.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann