Fauci’s ‘First Pitch’ Mask

Donated To Baseball Hall

COOPERSTOWN –  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is now part of baseball history

The Washington Nationals-themed mask that Fauci wore to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the 2020 Major League Baseball season, ahead of the game the Nationals and the Yankees on Thursday, July 23, has been donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“I hope there’s some form of baseball this summer, even if it’s just for TV,” he said in an April interview with the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman. “I feel that strongly, one, because I’m an avid baseball fan but also because it’s [good] for the country’s mental health to have the great American pastime be seen.”

He donned a similar mask when, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, he testified before a House Committee.

“The 2020 MLB season, at 60 regular-season games, will be the most truncated in the league’s history,” wrote Isabelle Minasian,  digital content specialist for the Hall, in her article “Masked Fan.”  “In a year when the major storyline is not about what players are doing on the field, but simply that they’ve taken the field at all, Dr. Fauci’s mask is an important way to tell the story of this period of the National Pastime.