John Krasinski invites health care heroes to throw first pitch of the 2020 baseball season

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
·5 min read

Major League Baseball may have postponed opening day due to the coronavirus pandemic, but YouTube’s most popular amateur newsman, John Krasinski, still managed to cover the first pitch of the 2020 season.

In the latest episode of his web series, Some Good News, the actor, director and lifelong Boston Red Sox fan treats five members of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center COVID unit to a trip to an empty Fenway Park, where delivers his own piece of good news to them. “Here’s the deal: I need you to do something not only for me: I need you to do it for your country, I need you to do it for baseball fans everywhere,” Krasinski says in the video. “Here we go: Throwing out the first pitch of the 2020 Major League Baseball season — the staff of Beth Israel Deaconess COVID unit!”

Besides Krasinski, the season’s first pitch is witnessed by Boston sports legend David Ortiz, the entire line-up of the Red Sox, the Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. None of them are actually in Fenway, of course: as per social distancing guidelines, they’re beamed onto the stadium’s Jumbotron from other locations.

Krasinski also remains in his home studio, arranging the trip — including a trip on what he called the “most sanitized Duck Boat in America” — remotely. After the health care workers get their throwing arms in shape, the actor reverts to his Boston accent and suggests they run Fenway’s bases. “We’re up five-nothing on the Yankees,” Krasinski says, teasing the Red Sox’s regular rivals.

In exchange for organizing the trip, The Office star has a special request: a signed baseball from the entire unit that he can display at home.

“You are so our heroes, and you’re the most lovable, wonderful people. Thank you so much. I hope it gave you this much joy in the middle of all this.” And Krasinski even finds a way to pass some joy along to all those health care heroes who couldn’t make the trip to Fenway, announcing that AT&T has agreed to cover the First Net cell phone bills of every nurse and doctor in America for three months.

Being given the go-ahead to stage the baseball season’s first pitch is a sign of just how popular Krasinski’s Some Good News has become since launching at the end of March. The first episode quickly went viral thanks to an appearance by the actor’s former Office co-star, Steve Carell.

And for the second episode, Krasinski orchestrated a Zoom reunion of the entire original Broadway cast of Hamilton — led by Lin-Manuel Miranda — that had people singing his praises.

While the Fenway trip is the highlight of the third installment of Some Good News, the episode also makes room for smaller-scale, but equally charming, stories. For example, sportscaster Joe Buck stops by to provide some color commentary over homemade videos of ordinary citizens turning ordinary household chores into edge-of-your-seat games. And the round-up of good news from around the globe spotlights rocking nuns in Liverpool, as well as an Irish movie fan who projects classic movies on a nearby building for the entire neighborhood to watch, Cinema Paradiso-style. But we’ll let baseball fans have the final word.

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC and WHO’s resource guides.

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