Play ball

I enjoy looking at this kind of young woman immensely, but I cannot understand what it has to do with baseball. Why do they have these people pitching the first ball? They surely won't be as good as one of the professionals, even if they work in threes!

Negative NancyToday  02:59 pm JST

I enjoy looking at this kind of young woman immensely, but I cannot understand what it has to do with baseball. Why do they have these people pitching the first ball? They surely won't be as good as one of the professionals, even if they work in threes!

Just like how there are opening ceremonies in Olympic, World Cup, etc., "ceremonial first pitch" is part of baseball's opening ceremonies. It is a long-standing tradition in baseball, where they invite a public figures like singers, actors, models, athletes, comedians, politicians, and many others, to throw a ball, sometimes balls, to mark the start of the game. In US, they even invited president or former president to do the ceremonial first pitch, like Obama for example.

Why do they have these people pitching the first ball? 

It's called a "ceremonial first pitch"

The practice of having ceremonial first pitches dates back to at least 1890

Sports is full of such "ceremonial" things...such as the national anthem being played..."the seventh inning stretch" where people are encouraged to get out of their seats for a stretch, "the ceremonial puck drop" in hockey...etc...etc...etc..

There's more to the entertainment of professional sports than the actual game...it adds to the "festive" atmosphere of the occassion

Nothing beats jeans and a t-shirt.

I enjoy looking at this kind of young woman immensely, but I cannot understand what it has to do with baseball.

Who cares? These girls were gorgeous! I'd be happy to watch them play with the balls for three hours instead of MLB vs NPB.

(Yes, I know what ceremonial first pitch is.)

Gorgeous and attractively choreographed, ceremonial?? times are changing who was the hitter supposedly concentrating on the knuckle ball?