Baseball fan surprised with first pitch on US trip

A dedicated baseball fan who plays for an amateur team in England has been given an honour usually reserved for VIPs at a US club he has followed for 30 years.

John Lewis, who plays for the Torrington Riptides in north Devon, has been watching Minor League team Portland Sea Dogs in Maine as often as he can on visits the country.

On his latest trip, he received a surprise as he was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch in front of 20,000 people after a friend told the club about how often Lewis had travelled back and forth to watch them.

Lewis said he was nervous about the moment as he is not a pitcher himself, but it was "definitely a highlight of 30 years of watching the Sea Dogs".

Ceremonial first pitches are thrown at baseball games by a guest to mark the end of pre-game festivities and the start of the match itself.

Lewis told the BBC the "really big surprise" set up by a friend of his in Portland and was a "great honour" to throw the pitch at the club's Delta Dental Park at Hadlock Field before their game against the Somerset Patriots.

He explained the team are part of the nine-time World Series winners Boston Red Sox franchise and the player he threw the ball to was "potentially a future player in the major leagues".

Lewis said: "When you play amateur baseball in a small community team like the Riptides, you don't ever expect to be standing on the pitcher's mound in a proper American baseball stadium.

"I brought my Riptides player's jersey so I could wear it to a Sea Dogs game, I never thought I'd get to walk out on the field in it."

He said he fell in love with the game after watching a match while on a summer camp after he had finished sixth form college.

He said the game is "really family orientated" and is really interactive with the fans.

Riptides player-manager Jess Cooper said the rest of the club were "all a bit jealous".

"It's an amazing experience, and this is definitely a highlight of the year for the whole team," Cooper added.

"Great Torrington is the last place in the world you'd expect to find a baseball team, we're a really small team and we've been going less than two years, so for John to get up there and represent North Devon on a big stage like that is a really big deal."

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