Kentucky pitcher Connor Mattison threw a pitch that was so wild it prompted the announcer to uncork one of the great baseball movie lines on Sunday.
Appearing in the second inning against SEC opponent Florida on Sunday in Gainesville, Mattison lost his grip on the ball, which flew toward the top of the backstop.
“Juuuust a bit outside,” chirped the announcer on ESPN’s SEC Network.
The impersonation was an homage to the reaction of Bob Uecker’s tipsy Harry Doyle in the comedy classic “Major League.” Harry was hitting the sauce and the optimism hard as Charlie Sheen’s Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn made one of many off-target throws.
Mattison’s pitch went viral, but he managed to get out of a bases-loaded jam in that inning without a run scoring. (He still allowed 2 in the game.) Florida won, 9-6.
