50 Cent Throws At First Pitch For Houston Baseball Team - How Did He Do This Time?

Rapper 50 Cent took the mound Friday night at Houston's Daikin Park for another ceremonial first pitch.

This time, the throw was far from perfect, but it was not as bad as his 2014 viral moment at a Mets game. The catcher was able to catch the ball.




The Queens native joined the Savannah Bananas exhibition baseball team for their sold-out Houston show.




The team plays a fast-paced version called Banana Ball. Before throwing the pitch, 50 Cent performed his hit song "In da Club" with players dancing beside him.




The Bananas are like baseball's version of the Harlem Globetrotters.




They're wrapping up their 2025 world tour this month. The 40-city tour includes 17 MLB ballparks and three NFL stadiums. More than 2 million fans have watched their 115 games so far.

The 2014 Mets Disaster

50 Cent's latest pitch brought back memories of his infamous 2014 moment. On May 27, 2014, at Citi Field, the rapper threw what many call the worst ceremonial first pitch in baseball history.




"I thought it was a joke. I really did," said Anthony Recker, the Mets catcher that night, according to GQ's oral history of the event.




The 2014 pitch sailed wildly to the left. It nearly hit team photographer Marc Levine. "It just literally whizzed by me, by my ear," Levine recalled. The throw was so bad that Mets pitcher Jon Niese's first reaction was to holler, "H########."




Former MLB pitcher Dontrelle Willis watched from the stands. "When I saw it first and he cocked back, I was like, 'Oh, no. This is trash,'" Willis said.

Learning from the Past

The 2014 incident became a viral sensation. Every bad celebrity first pitch since gets compared to 50 Cent's throw.




The rapper later joked about it in a Reddit AMA. He said the horrible pitch was because of "a skeletal muscle injury on my left shoulder from excessive masturbation."




Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen called it "juusst a bit outside," copying Bob Uecker's famous line from the movie Major League. The phrase stuck.




50 Cent took the criticism well. "If I throw a strike, nobody talks about it. If I hit the cameraman, we on CNN all day," he told MLB Network.

The Bananas Experience

The Savannah Bananas became viral stars in 2021. Their unusual games spread across social media. Banana Ball has special rules to speed up play. Games last only two hours. There are no bunts, walks, or mound visits. Players can't step out of the batter's box.




If a fan catches a foul ball, it counts as an out. The team started in Georgia's minor league stadium. They began touring in 2023. Last year, they played at MLB parks for the first time.




The Bananas played at Houston's stadium in March 2024. Former Astros stars Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt, and Josh Reddick joined that game. More than 41,000 fans attended.




Friday's pitch in Houston wasn't perfect. But it was catchable. For 50 Cent, that counts as progress. The rapper showed that sometimes the second time around can be better than the first.





























via: https://allhiphop.com/news/50-cent-throws-at-first-pitch-for-houston-baseball-team-how-did-he-do-this-time/