Having a celebrity or politician throw out the ceremonial first pitch is a long-standing tradition in baseball, with varying degrees of success — strike… dribbler… fan hit by pitch… Olympic gymnast Simone Biles did a perfect aerial cartwheel before throwing a perfect strike. William Howard Taft was the first US President to toss it out in 1910. Rapper 50 Cent hurled the spheroid way, way, WAY outside the plate. Oh well. But as far as we know, no one has yet thrown out a southern Italian plastic curd cow’s-milk cheese ball.

07.14.26