A young girl pitched to The Tampa Bay Rays before Monday night’s game.
According to ESPN, 17-year-old Chelsea Baker pitched to some of the Ray’s players before their game against Pittsburgh Monday night. It was Tampa Bay’s manager, Joe Maddon, who invited Baker to the team’s field after meeting her at an awards ceremony.
Maddon was very impressed by Baker, even tweeting after her visit to the Ray’s field that her “knuckleball is real.”
Chelsea’s knuckleball is real. She hit Longo in the back. I loved it. With that pitch & her composure she can compete pic.twitter.com/m91X3rZR3G
— Joe Maddon (@RaysJoeMaddon) June 23, 2014
Evan Longoria, David Price and Jose Molina went up to bat against Baker, who threw some impressive pitches. Molina even missed a few times.
Baker admitted, “All day I’ve been so nervous about this, but when I got out here I had an awesome time and all the nerves went away.”
Baker plays on her high school baseball team in Florida. She says the late major league pitcher Joe Niekro is who taught her to throw when she was younger.
Besides her love for the game of baseball, Baker hopes by playing this sport she will be able to motivate other girls to follow their dreams.
“I want to be able to inspire other girls around the world showing them that they can do whatever they want, whether it’s a girls sport or a boys sport.”