Bryce Harper inducted himself into the Worst Throws Hall of Fame

Bryce Harper’s helmet throw was awful. There’s no way around it. The only defense of it that can be mustered is that Harper was trying some misdirection, hoping to catch Hunter Strickland off guard before punching him in the mouth.

Chances are good, though, that Harper just straight-up Raul Ibanezed his throw, and it was embarrassing for totally different reasons.

If nothing else, it gives us an excuse to look at some other terrible baseball throws of the past. You know, so we can give Harper’s sideways helmet toss the proper context. What? We can’t just enter it into a fake Awful Throws Hall of Fame without giving you a history lesson.

We might as well start with the source of Harper’s accidental tribute. Raul Ibanez once spiked a baseball right into the ground when trying to throw it from the outfield.

You would think doing this once is enough, like, maybe something in his head would go off every time he was about to throw a baseball to keep him from doing that again. You would be wrong.

That’s not another angle from the same throw, and we have the different uniforms to prove it. Otherwise, who would believe that this happened to the same guy twice?

Ibanez was as awful at defense as he was good at putting the baseball over the fence. Just remember that last part and you won’t feel so bad laughing at all of these mistakes in gif form.

Is it the worst first pitch ever? It really might be, at least in Major League Baseball, and you could even argue that Harper’s helmet throw resembles this more than Ibanez’s spikings. Look at where this thing went:

At least Harper had some form going on before he screwed up/thought better of striking Strickland with his helmet and saw it fly sideways. This is where 50 Cent was at before releasing the ball:

Well, 50 Cent got a baseball card out of it, so there is that. Though, Harper hasn’t tried to claim that his inaccurate throw happened due to a masturbation-related injury, so maybe the card isn’t enough to make up for it all.

You could say that this is a worse first pitch than 50 Cent’s, but here’s the thing: He didn’t attempt to throw out a first pitch while wearing enormous heels.

Should Mariah have worn those while trying to throw a baseball? I’m sorry, are you saying Mariah shouldn’t be Mariah at all times? That would be far worse than her tossing a baseball a few feet in front of her.

So it’s not the worst first pitch by a rapper or even a musician, but that’s not for a lack of effort. Or maybe it is for a lack of effort. It’s hard to tell with this sort of thing.

Snoop does deserve credit for rocking superior Padres gear, however: The pinstripes with the orange is a classic look that San Diego could stand to go back to. Hey, if they pitched as poorly as Snoop did here in the new unis, would anyone even notice something had changed for them?

Screwing up throws is a long-revered art form, and we’ve previously compiled them together for your enjoyment/their embarrassment. If the five above aren’t enough for you, well, a video stroll down memory lane should help with that.