Taylor Lewan's brutal first pitch at Busch Stadium on Thursday, June 5. Photo credit: Bussin’ With The Boys on X
By Sam Neumann on

If Taylor Lewan was aiming to channel his inner Rick Ankiel, consider it mission accomplished.

But the former Tennessee Titans offensive lineman turned podcast extraordinaire and sports media personality wasn’t trying to look like 50 Cent or MLB Network’s Siera Santos. And yet, we can chalk up Lewan’s attempt on Thursday night in St. Louis as one of the worst first pitches in recent memory.

He and his Bussin’ With The Boys co-host Will Compton threw out the respective first pitches at Busch Stadium on Thursday. Compton threw his right down the heart of the plate. As for Lewan, he launched one right into a crowd of onlookers huddled near the on-deck circle, sending 6-foot-5 Cardinals reliever Kyle Leahy sprawling from his crouch behind the plate.

Just a tad bit outside.

Naturally, Lewan became instant sports media fodder. First Take wasted no time clowning him, with Stephen A. Smith leading the charge, all the while conveniently forgetting his own brutal first pitch. And to pile on, Peyton Manning made sure to roast Lewan in a group chat with the Bussin’ With The Boys co-hosts.

To his credit, Lewan didn’t run from it. He joined The Rich Eisen Show on Friday to face the music, own the moment, and relive the pitch so bad he dropped down and cranked out some push-ups beside the scene of the crime.

“I get on the mound yesterday and there is not an ounce of fear,” Lewan told Eisen. “There’s not an ounce of anxiety. If anything, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Time to show them what kind of multi-sport athlete I am.’ And then that sh*t has to happen? Tom Brady’s gotta see that. Steve Hutchinson’s gotta see that. My white knight, Jake Long, has to go and see that.”

“I’ll say this: listen, we gotta take full accountability,” Lewan continued. “I don’t know if the kids are still listening, but kids, that was horsesh*t. That was terrible. Everything about it. People are like, ‘It’s very much like the 50 Cent video.’ It is exactly like the 50 Cent video. And then I gotta watch First Take, Stephen A. Smith, $100 million man, he laughed a little too hard.”

2025 has been a big year for Lewan and Compton. The duo signed a three-year, $30 million sponsorship deal with FanDuel, officially took Bussin’ With The Boys independent from the Barstool Sports umbrella, and added Clay Matthews III to the mix.

But none of that was enough to save Lewan from spiking a first pitch into forever infamy.

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