Here’s a video of Dick Fitzgerald throwing out the first pitch at a recent Mariner’s game.
From Dick’s email that I got via Frank Garcia…
Hello Everyone,
Over the past several days most of us have exchanged emails, etc. about last Monday evening at Safeco Field.
A fun event thanks to Bart Waldman, a great friend and great senior baseball player. It was Bart who made this all possible! Bart is the Executive VP and Attorney for the Seattle Mariners.
Also, thanks to Carl Harms, a teammate and The Seattle Mariner Fan of the Year last season. Carl provided the below email and website of the 1st Pitch which some of you have requested.
FYI……my catcher of 35 years, Ken Combs, called for a “change-up” which is why the itch was so slow. And because it was a change, I wanted it to be very low in the strike zone.
If you watch closely, before the pitch I dropped the baseball. Good thing there were no runners on base. A balk, right?
My son, Paul, was at the game and took a video which he sent me, but I couldn’t open it up. (Besides being very old, I’m a computer idiot.) Maybe he can also send his video to all of you via this email? I’m sure most of you younger, more intelligent folks will be able to watch it.
Besides the 1st pitch ceremony, there were around 40 baseball friends up in the second deck. Most of them play or played in the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League.
The main motivation for me to continue to play are the great friendships that I have made over the years!
Anyway, I hope you are alldoing well – and thanks for your support.
Dick/Fitz
A little Google research indicates that this isn’t Dick’s first time. He also did a first pitch 10 years ago when he was only 70. Click here for a 2005 article in a Seattle newspaper.
I met Dick for the first time in 1998 at the very first MSBL Father-Son tournament. At that point, each team had to have a father pitch for at least 4 innings. We started with a father pitching, and planned to finish strong with a son. They started with a son pitching. We were only behind by a 2 or 3 runs after 5 innings. We figured we had a good chance to come back and win when they had to go to a father pitcher. The problem was that their father pitcher was Dick Fitzgerald. He shut us down the rest of the way, and came away with the win.
Dick is one of the “good guys” in senior baseball.
You want more? Here’s another article on Dick.
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