Sotomayor's first pitch a strike
Associated PressNEW YORK -- Sonia Sotomayor was right down the middle with her ceremonial pitch at Yankee Stadium.

The newest Supreme Court Justice, a New York Yankees fan from the Bronx, threw out the pitch before New York beat the Boston Red Sox 3-0 on Saturday.

"She walked off, and I said, 'We'll be calling you next week with a contract,'" Yankees manager Joe Girardi recalled. "And she said she'd stick to her day job."
Wearing a Yankees jersey, she was accompanied to the field by Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. Standing a bit in front of the mound, the right-hander took the stretch position, exhaled and threw on the fly to catcher Jose Molina.

After she walked back to the Yankees' dugout, Sotomayor shook hands and spoke with Girardi.

"She talked about it was the first time she's ever played catch, and that she had been warming up," Girardi said. "And I wanted to know if her arm was sore. And when she told me, 'No,' I told her she had probably not been throwing enough then."

As a U.S. District Judge in 1995, Sotomayor issued an injunction that led baseball players to end their strike after 7½ months. Girardi was a catcher for the Colorado Rockies back then.

"We talked about it was happier times now in the game of baseball," he said.


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