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Grading ceremonial first pitches from current and former Bucs players

river wells
·3 min read

It’s opening day, and there’s baseball in Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Rays are set to host the Detroit Tigers for some MLB action on Thursday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, so that got us thinking — of all the former and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers players who got the opportunity to throw out a first pitch, who did the best? So we at Bucs Wire did the natural thing: We rounded up as many videos as we could of current and former Bucs players throwing a first pitch and graded them on the result.

So without further ado, here are five opening pitches from current or former Buccaneers at the Trop and our opinion on how they did:

Rachaad White: C

Rachaad White’s pitch didn’t go wild, which is a huge plus right off the bat (ha, get it?). It had some decent velocity on it, but it was a ball — as you can see, Rays mascot Raymond really had to get down low for it, so there’s certainly room for improvement. Overall, a solid first pitch for the running back Tampa Bay expects to be its lead bell cow in 2023.

Jameis Winston: B+

Winston was a pitcher at FSU, so it makes sense that his ball velocity would be the fastest of anyone on this list. He sacrificed aim for his speed, though, and his pitch went way outside the strike zone. It didn’t end up going wild, though, which is a plus, so we’ll rank it a letter grade higher than White’s for the added zip from the mound.

Derrick Brooks: C

Bit a slower pitch from the Buccaneers’ Hall of Fame linebacker here, and it goes high outside as our catcher has to stand up for it. This one mirrors Rachaad White’s pitch in a way, but as we’ve previously stated, the ball not going wild is enough to warrant at least a passing grade — we gave Derrick a solid C here.

Darrelle Revis: A-

Revis is the first (and only) former Buccanneer to throw a strike, so that’s an A in our book. He really lacked velocity here, but hey, he’s not used to throwing the ball — he’s far more accustomed to intercepting it. All in all, a great debut for Revis before playing his only season in Tampa Bay, where he’d get a Pro Bowl nod for his efforts.

Martin Gramatica — B

The Super Bowl-winning Bucs kicker did a really neat volley and kick with a soccer ball before throwing his pitch, but we’re not gonna count that in his grade (it was cool, though). Gramatica had a surprising amount of velocity on the ball, but it went high outside and to the left. The catcher was able to nab it, however, so he passes with flying colors with one of the best pitches on the list.

Honorable Mention: O.J. Howard

This pitch is very hard to track down on the internet, but we were able to find this image of the immediate aftermath. We’re not sure exactly how fast he threw this ball, but seeing as how the catcher had to stand all the way up and stretch his arm outside, it may have been just a little bit outside.

Story originally appeared on Buccaneers Wire