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Is There A Conspiracy To Prevent Dirk Nowitzki From Throwing Out A World Series First Pitch?

After winning the NBA championship earlier this year, Dirk Nowitzki threw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game. Now that they’re in the World Series for the second straight year, the Rangers were interested in Nowitzki reprising that role. But he won’t. (Major League Baseball itself has to approve first pitch throwers for the World Series, an extra step not in place for the regular season.) And according to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the NBA’s ongoing lockout might be a reason why Nowtizki got the cold shoulder:

Sources told ESPNDallas.com that — with the NBA in the midst of a lockout that has spanned 111 days — at least some hesitation stems from the idea that MLB executives want to stand behind their basketball counterparts and have notified the Rangers that they can’t bestow first-pitch honors on an NBA player.

If true, this would make MLB look…sort of ridiculous, we think. Separate sport, separate labor fight, it’s the NBA’s business. This is purely a matter of bringing out a local icon for a big moment to fire up the home crowd. MLB spokesman Pat Courtney, though, denied the labor struggles have anything to do with the selection process:

“MLB absolutely denies that any part in selecting the first ball pitcher had anything to do with the current labor situation in the NBA. You want the club’s input in what makes sense for them and then we talk about what makes sense for the team and a good broad-base national appeal.”

Courtney went on to say that having such a quality pool of first-pitch candidates was “a nice problem to have,” and it makes us really curious to see who actually throws out the first pitch at every game played in Texas. How many better candidates are there than Nowitzki? Did MLB just think he wouldn’t have enough pull outside the Dallas area? Sure, the actual quality of his previous first pitch wasn’t great, – but hey, all the more reason to bring him back and see if he’s improved.

If some misguided show of solidarity with NBA higher-ups is the reason Nowitzki isn’t returning, that just wouldn’t be fair to the guy. And if it’s for some other reason…well, he’d still be getting a raw deal. You won’t find many more beloved figures in the Dallas area – and make no mistake, the first pitch thrower should be someone with ties to the area – than Dirk Nowitzki. We’re not sure who’ll get the honor instead, but we know one thing: if it’s not Nowitzki, it better not be anyone from the NBA.

AP photo, via