Dr. Fauci's Opening Pitch Is A Swing And A Miss According To Reactions on Twitter

Dr. Anthony Fauci tossed out the first pitch at Major League Baseball's opening day face-off between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees. Appropriately kicking off the bizarre evening, which featured cardboard spectators in the stands, Fauci's pitch was, um, a little outside.

Frankly, it's not that surprising. Dr. Fauci's hands have been tied up for the last few months, what with the global pandemic and all. Those don't usually leave a lot of room for practice.

Anthony Fauci, First Pitch Mechanics. pic.twitter.com/QxszDQJDuu

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 23, 2020

Twitter user reacted in mass to mock Fauci's right-handed toss that landed nowhere near home plate, with jokes that were straight down the middle. Flatting the curve ball, socially distant pitches and an aversion to "catching" anything were all in play. Check out some of the best reactions from Twitter:

The dude doesn't want people catching anything. Respect the consistency. https://t.co/TyBeeH44sJ

— Nikolai Joseph (@nikopotomous) July 24, 2020

Anthony Fauci being bad at sports makes me trust his science more https://t.co/u21qYnpzWX

— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) July 24, 2020

That pitch was as accurate as any of the advice he’s given over the last 5 months. What a clown show. https://t.co/FnAw6t0dwj

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 23, 2020

Fauci needs to work on flattening that curve ball https://t.co/JMDaDl3Fch

— Queen of AnCapistan (@syd_viciously) July 23, 2020

Dr. Fauci believes so much in social distancing that his pitch was at least six feet from the plate. https://t.co/qy77jLL8yb

— Frank Pallotta (@frankpallotta) July 23, 2020

Pretty savvy of the epidemiological expert to throw a first pitch that kept social distance from the catcher. https://t.co/8DHFUGf4wI

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) July 23, 2020

By video analysis, appears to have frozen shoulder associated with arthritis and a rotator cuff tear. Unlikely to return to throw again this season. Hope he is OK. https://t.co/qxagLxELLr

— David J. Chao – ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) July 24, 2020

That’s one way to flatten the curve.(I’m sorry) https://t.co/6t2W4E0eZY

— Scott Garrard (@ScottyGZone) July 23, 2020

This is why Elementary school Physical Education is essential. #PhysEd https://t.co/UkGRewlkq3

— Chris Stewart (@ChrisStew17) July 24, 2020

how America handled the virus: https://t.co/r5TD0bADIM

— Ryan Greene 📷 (@RyanCBS4) July 23, 2020

Similar jokes also made their way to Reddit, where a post by jcepiano received more than 109,000 points in less than 24 hours.

Dr. Fauci is so serious about the pandemic, he threw his opening pitch so nobody would catch anything from r/nextfuckinglevel

Let's be real here, though. Everyone has a bad day sometimes:

In fairness, this man has 2 Cy Youngs. https://t.co/TTpaHuZ3PM pic.twitter.com/MlLZyYB2Pw

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 24, 2020