Listen. If Bill Walton is calling a given day “the greatest day of my life,” that’s a real day! The man has been many places and done many things. He won two NCAA championships, two NBA titles, and an MVP, to say nothing of getting married and having kids and all that type of stuff. But apparently none of that measures up to Thursday, August 8, 2019, the day that Walton jammed out with his Grateful Dead tribute band, threw out a couple of ceremonial first pitches, and, uhh, attended a Rockies-Padres game.
First came the jamming. Thursday was the inaugural Grateful Dead Tribute Night at the Padres’ stadium, and Walton joined the Electric Waste Band, a “crowd-inspired high energy improvisational rock n roll” act “featuring the music of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead,” for a two hour pre-game concert. The humongous goofus apparently worked his way into a gig playing bongos with the band, and so there he was, Thursday afternoon in San Diego, jamming on the bongos with his pals:
Next up came the ceremonial first pitch. Walton was shown on the sidelines before the game, sort of pantomiming his throwing motion and loosening up the shoulder. But the pitch itself was a real mess, short and way left. Bummer!
For most ceremonial pitchers, that would be that. After all, the show must go on. But who among those in charge of such things could possibly deny Bill Walton a second attempt? No one, that’s who. As Walton revealed during this delightful and possibly inebriated mid-game interview, his second attempt was a dang strike:
One thing Walton has not lost is the gift of gab. Poor Annie Heilbrunn tried like three times to end that interview, and at the end Walton was still cheerily shouting out the Padres and San Diego like he could still hear the roar of his concert crowd ringing in his ears. Hilariously, Walton’s thrill at just shooting the shit delayed the start of the game even more than his second attempt at a first pitch:
No one alive has more fun on a day-to-day basis than Bill Walton. He’s probably said “I am having the time of my life” at least once a day for the last 40 years, and meant it. Jam on, amigo.
H/t Dave