Fauci baseball card featuring first pitch of 2020 season breaks company sales record

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s season-opening pitch was downright awful.

But a baseball card featuring Fauci throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the 2020 MLB season has nonetheless broken a Topps sales record, CNN reports.

The ToppsNow trading card, available for only 24 hours, sold 51,512 copies, USA Today reported. The previous best-seller in that category, featuring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays, sold 19,396 copies.

Fauci, an infectious disease expert, threw the first pitch Thursday as the Washington Nationals faced the New York Yankees.

The ball ended up far to the left of home plate, according to CBS Sports, which compared the throw to ill-fated ceremonial first pitches by 50 Cent and Carly Rae Jepsen.

“I don’t know if you want to call it a pitch,” Fauci said at an online event for the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week, CNN reported. “It was really funny.”

The ToppsNow trading card diplomatically credits Fauci with a “strong effort to the plate,” according to the network. Fauci, 79, is an ardent fan of the Washington Nationals.

In his role as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, Fauci has been at the forefront of the national fight against the coronavirus pandemic, sometimes clashing with President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Trump postponed his own plans to throw out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game Aug. 15, saying he’s too busy dealing with the pandemic, Politico reported.

This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Fauci baseball card featuring first pitch of 2020 season breaks company sales record."