The Big Cubs First Pitch Experience
“Sold!” the Illinois Symphony fundraiser auctioneer shouted, and I realized I had just bought 4 box seat tickets to a Cubs game, and would throw out the first pitch.
No big deal, in the scheme of things. But Wow!
I’ve been a Cubs fan for 70 years, and have always wanted to throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game! So you can understand why I was pretty excited!
Getting Ready
I soon found that people generally feel that throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game is a big deal. “Wow! How did you get to do that?!!!” “Boy, that’s the treat of a lifetime.” “We’ll be there!”
When 45 of my family and friends said they would come to the game, it was beginning to seem kind of important, if you know what I mean.
And then the trouble began. I hadn’t thrown a baseball in a couple of years, and it was shocking what age had done to my arm and my ability to throw a strike from 60 ft 6 inches.
It was harder to release the ball correctly. Hold it too long and you bounce it – let go too soon and it flies high!
“This shouldn’t be happening,” I thought. “I came within a sprained ankle of making the 1951 Illinois State University baseball team.”
“Well, not something that can’t be fixed with arm strengthening and practice,” I allowed, and began to do just that.
Tim Jankovich, the ISU basketball coach with Cubs first pitch experience, didn’t help.
He just had to mention the 14 inch high mound that throws you off, trouble finding the right release point when you’re tight and haven’t warmed up, and the effect of being in front of 40,000 people.
Then my neighbor said he had choked throwing a White Sox first pitch, and bounced it past the catcher to the backstop.
And Hal Lanier, ex-major league player and manager who was managing our local Cornbelters baseball team, said “Throw it from out in front of the mound.” When I rebelled at that, he retorted, with a hint of age prejudice in his eye, “Then throw it high.”
I realized that I needed to do a whale of a lot of positive imaging if I was going to throw a decent pitch.
The Big Day
The big day had finally arrived! After eating breakfast off of special menu entitled “Phares O’Daffer First Pitch Breakfast Menu,” I thought my family had planned a pretty great way to start the day.
Inside Wrigley field, my grandson Henry had made a sign, which read “My grandpa only pitches strikes!” I’m not sure that was what I needed right then, but I appreciated the sentiment behind it.
It was time. Harriet gave me an encouraging word, and I walked confidently through the crowd to the Cubs on-deck circle, with my bright Cubs shirt and hat, and my white shorts.
As I walked with my daughter Sue and son Eric–tossing my ball in my glove– toward the correct aisle, we heard a nearby person a few rows above the walkway ask, “Who is that guy??” I was beginning to wonder that myself.
There were three other people that day throwing out the “first pitch–” two women and a football player for the Indianapolis Colts. The two women were first, and I was relieved when they both bounced the ball to the catcher.
Here it Comes!
As the announcer said, “Phares O’Daffer will throw out the first pitch” over theloudspeaker, I walked confidently to the mound, pounding the new ball they had given me in my glove. I could hear my wife, kids, kids spouses, grand children, and friends cheering, and I saw our daughter Sara doing the video.
On the mound I got into the stretch position, and motioned to the catcher – the Cubs rookie Tony Campana. I was ready to pitch.
Maybe it was the positive imagining, but as I walked out onto the field to the mound, I felt pretty relaxed. I wasn’t nervous, but I was in sort of in a state of enjoying the moment and just doing it.
Raising one leg, I threw that pitch right toward the catcher (or so I thought).
OK, it was a little to the right of the catcher, and as the crowd said “oooh” he did have to make a quick move right and high to catch it.
But it went there on the fly, with pretty good velocity for a senior citizen, and he did catch it.
No bouncing the ball in, like a Cubs first pitch Ronald Reagan made when he was President. He requested, and got, a second try. At least I didn’t have to do that. And I did pitch from the mound.
It would have been a nice gesture if the football player had thrown his high and wide, but he proceeded to pitch a perfect strike.
But given the response I received from all my family and friends, you would have thought my pitch had been a perfect strike too. And maybe, symbolically, it was.
Basking in The Glory
As I walked back to my seat, not one, but two women asked me for an autograph! The first said, “ You must be somebody important to throw out the first pitch! Would you autograph my daughter’s baseball?” I think I had a very big smile when I wrote “Ike “Lefty” O’Daffer” on her ball.
I think the second lady simply was nuts over autographs. She would probably have asked one of the Peanut Vendors, should he have wandered by.
Also, as I walked back, several people said “nice pitch!” I checked each one to see if they wore glasses.
Later, in the 10th inning, with Campana on second and the bases loaded, Jeff Baker hit a single over third base and won the game for the Cubs.
I like to think that the Cubs “starting pitcher,” Lefty What’s His Name, brought them good luck.
Phares O’Daffer, aka Ike “Lefty” O’Daffer July 24, 2011