Bill Lyonis a retired Inquirer sports columnist
Every sport has a ceremonial ritual designed to ignite the festivities.
In hockey they drop the puck and proceed to commit mayhem.
In football they kick off and then trade concussions with one another.
In basketball two players roughly the size of redwoods jump. Really high.
And then there is baseball, with its quaint and charming customs, perhaps the most revered of which being The First Pitch, wherein some unsuspecting soul is escorted to the mound, a fresh-from-the-box ball is placed in his, or her, hand, and he, or she, is told to throw it.