Soccer Player Reportedly Sustained Injury While Throwing Out First Pitch At A Nationals Game

We all know that the ceremonial first pitch at an MLB game is one of the chest-pounding, high-risk, low-reward jobs in all of sports. Mail one over the plate from the rubber and you get a golf clap, miss the mark by several counties and you live on in internet infamy forever.

But now we may have a first pitch related concern with reports that Washington Spirit rookie and Olympic gold medal-winning soccer player Croix Bethune may have sustained a season-ending injury while tossing a fastball with the Nationals mascot, Screech (RIP Dustin Diamond) looking on.

Bethune was one of four Spirit players honored at a Nationals game late last month and she was the one who was bestowed the honor of throwing the first pitch.

A little inside but still better than Dr. Anthony Fauci's sorry excuse for a first pitch at the Nats' home opener in July of 2020 (How gross is that?).

Bethune's Pitch Reportedly Came At A Price

According to Yahoo Sports, on Wednesday —about a week after that pitch — the Spirit announced that Bethune was out for the rest of the NWSL season (their regular season runs into early November) with a meniscus injury that the team said was sustained "away from training last week."

Jason Anderson of Pro Soccer Wire then reported that the injury came during that pitch.

You may be aware that I consider myself one of the nation's premier authorities on ceremonial first pitches, so I felt it was my duty to break the video down like I was part of the Warren Commission, combing through Ol' Man Zapruder's 8mm home movies looking for answers, because the last thing I want is people backing out of first pitch duties over fear of injury.

It's tough to see from that far away, but it sure looked to me like there was a lot of motion from Bethune's trail leg. Remember, she's a high-level soccer player, so I'm thinking that the immense torque from that swinging leg may have wrenched her planted knee.

We don't know definitively yet if that's how Bethune suffered her injury or if it even happened at the Nationals game, but it does seem like it was possible.

Although, bear in mind, I'm not a medical professional, but I do dabble in my spare time…

No matter what the cause of the injury was, it's a real bummer for Bethune and Spirit fans. The Alpharetta, GA native was in her rookie season in the NWSL. And it was going really well. In 17 matches she scored 5 goals and had 10 assists. She also made an appearance in this year's Olympics in a match against Australia, coming in as a sub.