‘Fauci flattens the curve’: Dr. Anthony Fauci opens the 2020 MLB season by bouncing first pitch

Major League Baseball was given a clean bill of health by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who threw out the first pitch at Thursday night’s season opener between the defending champion Washington Nationals and the visiting New York Yankees.

Fauci’s pitch fell short of the plate and was several feet outside the strike zone. According to ESPN, the pitch was clocked at just 17mph on the radar gun. 

‘Fauci finally flattened the curve,’ joked CBS Sports’ Will Brinson on Twitter.  

In keeping with health guidelines, Fauci bumped elbows with Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle afterwards  

At least one fan, American University professor Matt Winkler, was seen wearing a ‘Fauci’ Nationals replica jersey outside the park before the game.  

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Dr. Anthony Fauci opened the 2020 MLB season on Thursday night by tossing a wild ceremonial first pitch that bounced well before the plate and several feet outside the strike zone.

CBS Sports’ Will Brinson was one of many social media users who cracked jokes about Fauci’s pitch on Thursday 

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s pitch fell short of the plate and was several feet outside the strike zone 

Thursday’s game was an obvious departure from a typical opening day, which traditionally takes place in late March or early April. Often it is the President who throws out the ceremonial first pitch at a Nationals or Baltimore Orioles game, but that tradition hasn’t continued under Donald Trump.

Instead, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak that has reduced the MLB schedule to 60 games, it was Fauci who was given the honor of starting the pandemic-delayed 2020 season.  

A native New Yorker, who played basketball at the city’s Regis High School before attending Holy Cross in 1958, Fauci is a former little league baseball player and a die hard Nationals fans, having lived in the Washington area for many years.   

Dr. Anthony Fauci watches from the stands after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch

With ‘BLM’ stenciled into the mound, Dr. Anthony Fauci sent Thursday’s ceremonial first pitch bouncing out of the strike zone  

American University professor Matt Winkler wears a Washington Nationals jersey referring to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, in the patio of a restaurant outside Nationals Park

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has become the government’s most visible face in the battle against the virus, and polls show him as its most trusted authority as well. That’s in sharp contrast to Trump, who gets low marks from the public after ceding much of the U.S. response to the nation’s governors, resulting in an inconsistent hodgepodge of restrictions and a resurgence of the disease in many states. 

Fauci and two other top public health officials will testify next week to a House subcommittee that’s been investigating the federal response to a coronavirus pandemic still inflicting a relentless toll on Americans.  

The July 31 hearing will focus on ‘the urgent need for a national comprehensive plan’ to address the virus, committee officials said in a statement announcing the session.

There have been more than 3.9 million confirmed cases in the U.S. of COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, and more than 142,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Fauci talks with Sean Doolittle after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Thursday’s opener in Washington