Nick LeGrande, a 13-year-old boy suffering from a rare blood disorder called severe aplastic anemia got to throw out the first pitch at Thursday’s MLB game between Oakland and New York, even though his condition prevents him from attending games.
LeGrande wound up and threw the pitch in a mini-stadium at the Kansas City headquarters of the high-speed Google Fiber project, Deeplocal. Meanwhile, at Oakland Coliseum 1,800 miles away, a pitching machine on the pitcher’s mound tracked LeGrande’s motion via a Google app, and tossed a pitch toward home plate in sync with his delivery. LeGrande watched on a screen as the robot released his pitch.
The pitch was a ball.
Read more about the Google Fiber project and watch a video of the pitch at Fast Company.
Brief Take: With this clever stunt, MLB promoted itself as both a technological innovator for a new era, and as a humanitarian organization that takes incredible strides to make every fan feel good. And all with a single pitch.
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