What constitutes a ceremonial first pitch thrower?

Our first day in Florida was a great one, although we're currently waiting to hear if my wife's parents were able to get out of Detroit because of the blizzard there. (Blizzard in late March, gotta love Michigan.)

We went to our first Tigers game, saw Gary Sheffield and Pudge Rodriguez hit home runs, but Dontrelle Willis got rocked and the Tigers lost. But the interesting thing about the game was one of the people to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. I didn't hear the name, but the description was "one of the original munchkins from the Wizard of Oz" and I also heard he was 89-years-old. After some of the other ceremonial first pitchers (there were like four, since when is that allowed?) were done and had bounced their throws, this gentleman and former munchkin star motioned to the catcher to come closer to the mound, which brought quite a laugh from the crowd. He then proceeded to throw the best strike of anyone.


It got me to thinking, if an 89-year-old who played a munchkin could throw out a first pitch, what would be a more random ceremonial first pitcher? Here's five of mine:
1. Air Bud's stunt double
2. The director of Snakes on a Train
3. The voice of Templeton from Charlotte's Web
4. Brad Anderson, creator and author of Marmaduke
5. A guy who beat Brandon Inge at pool




Food review, day one:

One of the great parts about vacation is all the different restaurants you get to try. I'll be writing short reviews of the days food for my own memory and for well, just me I guess. Today we went for mainly chain restaurants because we have a list of restaurants to try with my wife's parents once they get here.


Lunch - Steak and Shake
As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid greasy fast food. But once in awhile, it's just too hard to pass up. Steak and Shake was too hard to pass up today. I had a frisco melt, a chocolate mint shake and we shared some of the absolutely awesome fries. The burger was good, but the grease literally dripping from it was a bit disheartening. The fries were great as always. The shake was lacking in mint, but not bad overall. Once in a great while, it's good to have a little Steak and Shake.


Dinner - Panera Bread
After a great lunch, I figured a healthy dinner would be good, so I chose the orchard harvest salad. It contains field greens, crisp romaine, dried cherries, fresh pears, Gorgonzola, toasted pecans and a cherry balsamic vinaigrette. Normally I love Panera Bread, but today's choice was a bad one. I think it may have been the dressing, either I just didn't take to the taste or it was going bad. After a few bites, I couldn't eat anymore, an extreme rarity for me. Luckily, my wife had some soup and part of her sandwich I could eat. But I'll happily go back to Panera Bread in the future, I'll just remember to have things like the Chicken Pomodoro rather than the orchard harvest salad.