Mark WiedmerRumor has it that back in the day, when Lamont Paris was still a grade-school baseball phenom in Findlay, Ohio, rather than the head basketball coach of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he was a pretty fair pitcher.
And so it was that Monday evening, along with “Sport Talk” radio show Hall of Famers Patrick “Nature Boy” Tocco and Wesley “Wild Thing” Williams, Paris tossed one of three ceremonial first pitches prior to the Chattanooga Lookouts’ game against the Mobile BayBears at AT&T Field.
Just for the record, not only did all three men deliver strikes, at least by former major league umpire Eric Gregg’s generous standards, none of them damaged the bare hands of Lookouts bench coach and former major leaguer Darren Bragg, who bravely squatted behind the plate without benefit of a mask, chest protector or mitt.
“I’d give me an A-minus on location,” Paris said afterward as he prepared to join his Mocs players in the stadium stands. “I’d probably give me a B-minus on speed, but you have to factor in the fact that the catcher wasn’t wearing a glove.”
Listen to the Mocs players after their first pickup game of the summer and you’d assume Paris would give them an A for both performance and effort.