Fauci said baseball fans will likely be able to attend games this summer – and he wants another shot at pitching after his ’embarrassing’ appearance last year

• Dr. Anthony Fauci totally botched his ceremonial first pitch for the Washington Nationals in 2020.
• He wants a redo in 2021.
• Fauci expects that by the summer, enough Americans may be vaccinated to go to socially-distanced games safely.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is hoping he’ll be able to go see his favorite team, the Washington Nationals, play baseball this summer, even if things at Nationals Park might look a little different because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I hope that there will at least be – at least – be some limited stadium seating in the summer,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Q&A with the editor in chief of JAMA on Wednesday afternoon. 

He imagined that baseball games could be held safely by then (with some restrictions), as more people get vaccinated.

“I would hope that by the time we get into May, June, July, that we will have enough people vaccinated in the country that the level of infection would be low enough – maybe not yet total herd immunity – but low enough to say that we can go to a game, you know: wear a mask, but be seated – not sitting right next to each other,” Fauci said.

Fauci has been working nonstop, 18-hour days since the coronavirus crisis began in the US more than a year ago.

Baseball would be a welcome reprieve from his day job, he said.

“That’s one of the sources of my relaxation,” he said. “There’s a certain something, a certain rhythm of a baseball game that some people think it may be too slow, but to me it’s very soothing.”

So soothing, perhaps, that when he was was invited to throw out the first ceremonial pitch at the top of the 2020 season, he completely bungled it. (Though his image still managed to become America’s bestselling baseball card). Fauci said he’d welcome an invitation for a redo of the first pitch this year. 

“I’m hoping that they give me the chance to do that,” Fauci added, cracking a wide smile. “It was quite embarrassing.”

Check out the original footage of Fauci’s 2020 pitch fail for yourself.