Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson (L) and astronaut Garrett Reisman display a New York Yankees banner during a news conference in this image from NASA TV April 11, 2008.
(REUTERS/NASA TV)
Yankees to hold ceremonial first pitch from space
Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson (L) and astronaut Garrett Reisman display a New York Yankees banner during a news conference in this image from NASA TV April 11, 2008.
(REUTERS/NASA TV)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The ceremonial first pitch in Wednesday's Major League Baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will be thrown from aboard the International Space Station, the Yankees announced.
U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman, a lifelong Yankees fan, will throw the ball aboard the space station with video of the event beamed to a giant screen inside the stadium, where the Yankees will play their arch rivals.
Reisman took some dirt from the Yankee Stadium pitcher's mound, a Yankees hat and a banner with him to the space station, which is orbiting about 220 miles above the Earth.
The "first pitch" ceremony usually involves dignitaries or special guests who are invited to throw out a ball just before the first official pitch is thrown. The Yankees did not say to whom or at what Reisman, 40, would throw the ball.
"You'll have to wait for the ceremony," a spokesman said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Timothy Gardner and Eric Beech)
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