By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) – Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce showed why he makes his money catching balls instead of throwing them after his ceremonial first pitch at a Cleveland Guardians baseball game badly missed the mark on Friday.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, who is a native of Cleveland Heights, took his time getting ready on the mound before uncorking a pitch that bounced off the infield grass and ricocheted off the backstop and over toward photographers.
A smiling Kelce immediately ran over to check on Guardian’s pitcher Shane Bieber, who was crouched behind home plate but never had a shot at catching the errant throw.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who also pitched in college and is the son of a former Major League player, responded on Twitter with a slew of laughing emojis.
“Ayyy @Royals lets give him another chance. ASAP!!!” he wrote.
Mahomes is a minority stakeholder in MLB’s Kansas City Royals.
Kelce’s brother Jason plays for the Philadelphia Eagles and the pitch is sure to be a topic when they record the next episode of their podcast “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.”
The Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 in February’s Super Bowl in the first ever meeting of brothers on opposing teams in the NFL’s championship game.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
