Manatees set first pitch record
At 6:55 p.m. Saturday night, Karl Bohne threw out pitch No. 4,218 to eclipse the former record of 2,052 pitches thrown by the Madison Mallards, a college wood-bat league team that established the former record on Sunday, Aug. 14.
Bohne was the successful bidder in a fundraiser to benefit Nick Catechis, a Rockledge High School baseball player who was seriously injured in a car accident three months ago; the final first pitch ball netted $400 for the fundraiser.
Both the Palm Beach Cardinals and Brevard County Manatees players, as well as the umpires for the game, participated in the record-setting event. Manatees starting catcher "Sweet Lou" Palmisano caught the final stretch of pitches before the game began.
The Manatees and Imperial's Hotel and Conference Center agreed to the promotion last March in an effort to beat the record set by the 2002 Daytona Cubs of 1,160. The team ordered a sufficient amount of personalized baseballs with the date and sponsor's logo to set a new record, and then not two weeks ago the Mallards shattered the Cubs' record, forcing the Manatees to not only change the scheduled gate opening time from 2 p.m. to 10:30 a.m., but scramble to find at least another 900 baseballs.
Appleton, Wisc. native Doug Lopas, who is the team's head groundskeeper at Space Coast Stadium, threw pitch No. 1 at 10:44 a.m.
Manatees general manager, Buck Rogers, was the general manager with the Daytona Cubs when the previous Minor League Baseball record of 1,160 pitches was set.
"We planned this event last March during Spring Training and when the Mallards raised the bar two weeks ago, it caught us off-guard. I challenged our staff to put the event together and they answered the call," he said. "Even Mother Nature cooperated as Hurricane Katrina came into Florida south of us and moved away from the state before heading north, giving us an absolutely gorgeous day for the fans to set this record. Next year, we'll do it again as another team will certainly beat this mark."
ESPN Radio 1060 of Melbourne, Fla., provided witnesses to the action and maintained a count of all pitches thrown.
The Manatees are a member of the Florida State League, a 12-team Minor League Baseball League based entirely inside the state of Florida. Space Coast Stadium and Viera are located approximately 20 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast.