This chart suggests that 50 Cent’s first pitch was indeed the worst ever

Was 50 Cent’s ceremonial first pitch at the Mets-Pirates game this week the worst EVER, as everyone is saying? Yeah, probably.

That’s according to a highly unscientific study of first pitches we conducted at Wonkblog this morning. We watched a whole bunch of YouTube pitch videos and plotted them, to the best of our ability, across a strike zone diagram, using the tried-and-true “eyeballin’ it” method. You can see the results above.

50 Cent is indeed in a league of his own in terms of his ball’s horizontal distance from home plate. It’s a bit of a toss-up whether his pitch is farther from the plate than Carly Rae Jepsen’s pitch last July, although it’s difficult to compare the two since Jepsen’s pitch hit the ground about halfway there.

Among other entertainers, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian both embarrassed themselves far less than 50 Cent. Snoop Dogg pretty much nailed it in 2012. Tara the Hero Cat delivered the ball right over home plate, although she had assistance from her owner.

Fictional and extinct figures (mascots, mostly) also made it closer to the strike zone than 50 Cent. A lack of functional arms didn’t stop T-Rex from outperforming the rapper.

Moving on to politicians and government officials, Sonia Sotomayor and Bill Clinton both made respectable showings. George W. Bush nailed it right down the middle in 2001. But Barack Obama? The less said, the better.

Christopher Ingraham | May 29 at 2:24 pm