This week will probably the most prominent example of karma that we will ever see for the rest of the year, if your name is Stephen A. Smith. The host of ESPN’s “First Take”, as he announced earlier in the week, was set to throw the first pitch Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.
Prior to taking the mound, he had a moment to talk with one of the cameramen-who asked Stephen A. how was he feeling? He didn’t lie, said he was nervous. The one piece of advice he got was “don’t eff this up!”
He didn’t adhere to that advice. His pitch was pretty terrible. So much so, in fact, that fans in attendance practically booed him off the field. Stephen A. later joined the commentators up in the booth to talk about his pitch and what went wrong out there. It was all love and jokes between them all, despite Stephen A. being critical of himself:
“I was disgusted with myself, man,” said Stephen A. on YES Network’s coverage from the Bronx. “Let me tell you something…I was warming up…I was throwing strikes from 60 feet away and I got on that mound and it looked like it was a mile away…I said ‘what the hell am I doing here?’”
“I said ‘what the hell am I doing here’ and then you know, it just…I mean there’s no excuse. It was a choke job. I can do better than that. It was a choke job and Stephen A. choked a little bit.. and I just did…It was straight but damn it!”
Social media didn’t let Stephen A. off the hook though. No, they laid it on heavy with the roasts. Many pointed to Stephen A.’s hot takes on baseball. Others referenced his recent jab at the baseball community just a couple. He told the community to “shut the hell up” on his podcast, and that “nobody cares about baseball”.
The clip looks to have been deleted from his official Twitter page, but as we all know, the internet is forever. Fuzzy, the man who called Stephen A.’s show that day, posted the clip to his page.
Flip the page for Stephen A getting booed.
