TOPPS created a baseball card commemorating Fauci's first pitch on Opening Day.
Dr. Anthony Fauci's first pitch on Opening Day didn't go quite as planned, but that didn't stop a record-setting number of fans from purchasing his baseball card.
TOPPS turned Fauci's pitch from the Nationals-Yankees game on July 23 into a baseball card, which set a new record with a print run of 51,512 copies. It was printed as a TOPPS NOW card, which commemorate specific events and are only sold for 24 hours.
The previous record was set by a Vladimir Guerrero card that sold 19,306 copies.
In the picture, the ball is seen leaving Fauci's hand before it sailed away from the plate. Many people were pleased to see the Nationals fittingly selected Fauci, the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to throw out the first pitch amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, plenty of jokes were made after his wild pitch.
Fauci took it all in stride and even poked fun at himself the following day.
"It went in the wrong direction," he told The Washington Post. "I joked around after and said I used to be a shortstop when I played ball as a young boy and I thought I was supposed to throw to first base."