ミカ・パーソンズとCJ・ストロードが日本野球で始球式を行う

You know that feeling when you see something on the internet, and it takes you a moment to process what it is you’re looking at? That’s how I felt when I was scrolling through X and saw a clip of Micah Parsons and CJ Stroud throwing out dueling first pitches at a Tokyo Giants game.

I think I even did that cartoon character move where I rubbed my eyes like that would correct my vision. Nope, it was real, and we’ve got ourselves a solid set of ceremonial first pitches to boot.

A quick search — and I mean quick; all I typed in was “Stroud Parsons Tokyo” — revealed that the Texans quarterback and the Cowboys linebacker are in the Land of the Rising Sun for a football camp that, according to USA Today, is one stop on a multi-stop tour across Asia.

That’s a very cool way to grow the game of football around the globe, and while they were in Tokyo, the two got the opportunity to take the mound inside the Tokyo Dome ahead of a Yomiyuri Giants game.

I have no clue what that tweet says because contrary to popular belief, I can’t read Japanese, but I can tell it’s CJ Stround and Micah Parsons and they both threw some respectable first pitches.

Now, normally when two people are on the mound at the same time they throw synchronized pitches. This helps take the pressure off of each individual.

Stroud and Parsons didn’t do that, and I respect the hell out of them for it.

The Texans signal-caller went first and threw a really solid pitch, to that dude rockin’ the double-0s. You could even hear the crowd gasp at how crisp and clean it was.

That then put a lot of pressure on Parsons to perform, and while he didn’t top Stroud’s offering, he still got it across the plate… barely.

Not a bad performance in front of a massive crowd at an iconic venue.

That’d be enough to give anyone not named John Daly (one of the all-time first-pitch greats) a pretty hefty case of the yips.