SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – There’s pitching in cold weather and then there’s what San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove did.
Musgrove stepped on a makeshift pitcher’s mound to throw the fast-recorded pitch in Antarctica.
“The terrain a little difficult out here. The biggest trouble of the whole event was finding the right space to do it,” Musgrove said. “Feet and feet of snow. So, trying to tamp it down enough to get a flat enough surface that’s not on a slope of a mountain that was difficult enough in itself.”
The San Diego native traveled with a few athletes from the Challenged Athletes Foundation — a local nonprofit that supports athletes with physical disabilities — to take the trip with him, including Landis Sims and Roderick Sewell.
“It’s a once in a lifetime event; surrounded by good company and people that are inspired by CAF athletes,” Sewell said.
“The bigger mission is trying to reach as many people and show as many people that we went on this trip, and we were successful. We went through some of the struggles of climbing through these feet of snow, falling down but getting right back up,” Sims said.
Another challenge, following specific guidelines, permits and regulations to even throw the pitch, Musgrove tossed an 86 mph fastball to set the record.
In a press release from CFA, the pitch is pending recognition from Guinness Book of World Records and the team onsite collected evidence for approval.
But like Sims, who also got to toss a pitch or two, the trip was about more than just how hard Joe threw.
“It was to come out here and give it a good effort. But ultimately raise some awareness and, hopefully, that are involved in the baseball world and love sports and might not know as much about CAF are going to see what I did, hear about CAF and hopefully they’ll get involved,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove’s had a lot of highs this past baseball season.
A multi-year deal with Padres, an All-Star selection and starting a series-clinching win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. This experience ranks high on that list.
“I can’t say enough about the genuine people that are here on this trip. This feels like a group that we would all love to just take this group of 180 people and go on our next vacation together. Because everyone’s just gotten along so well and we’ve all just had so much fun together,” Musgrove said.
To top it all off, there was an auction on the ship Musgrove and the crew are on to help raise some donations for CAF. One of the balls Musgrove threw and the glove he used were auctioned for a combined $9,000 for the nonprofit.
