Mallory to throw Opening Day pitch

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]Mallory to throw Opening Day pitch[/b][/size]

THE ENQUIRER


Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory will throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Reds Opening Day game April 2 against the Chicago Cubs, the Reds said today.

"When I was growing up and going to Reds games, I never dreamed I would be throwing out the first pitch," Mallory said in a statement from the Reds.

Last year, president George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Opening Day.

The club said singer Gia Farrell will sing the National Anthem. Cincinnati firefighter John Winfrey will sing "God Bless America: during the seventh-inning stretch.

The national anthem will be highlighted by a flyover of four F-16 jets from the 178th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard in Springfield.

Having the mayor throw out the first pitch is goes back to the way things were in the 1940s and ‘50s, said Greg Rhodes, director of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.

“The last few years, we’ve had higher-profile people,” he said. “But involving local and state politicians has been very common over the years.”

Sometimes, he said, one city official would pitch and another would catch.[/quote]



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