Steven Smith tries hand at Baseball for Boston Red Sox

In what could well have now become a tradition, Australia’s captain Steven Smith was seen throwing the ceremonial first pitch at a Major League Baseball game in the United States. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke did it for the St Louis Cardinals and Smith did it with the Boston Red Sox. Smith who has returned from the Caribbean after leading his side to victory in the tri-Nation series that also featured South Africa and West Indies, will head to Sri Lanka for an upcoming series, but took out time to visit Fenway Park while he was in Boston. He also met with Boston’s all-star second baseman Dustin Pedroia and tried his hands with the baseball bat. READ: Steven Smith: Pleased with the way Australia scrapped in Tri-Nation Series 2016

Thanks @newbalance for organising a fun afternoon at Fenway Park doing some batting practice with Red Sox 2nd Baseman Dustin Pedroia #NB #fenway #redsox #greenmonster

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A photo posted by Steve Smith (@steve_smith49) on Jul 1, 2016 at 7:17pm PDT

Smith’s flair and ability with the wood was evident as he striked a couple of throws. He made good connections, although could not find a home run. “He had a good swing … it was pretty cool to watch,” Pedroia said as quoted by cricket.com.au. “He looked good, anytime you can come out and hit balls like that, without doing it (regularly) it’s pretty impressive,” Pedroia further added.

Smith though, looked like he wanted to learn the art of hitting the ball with a baseball bat too, as he analysed his technique. He said – “It took me a little while to get into it, I was hitting the ball a bit more up, a little bit more like how a cricket bat should go. But I think you’ve got to hit it a bit more ‘down’, to get the backspin on the ball to get some more distance. Unfortunately I couldn’t get one over the ‘Green Monster’,” pointing towards an 11.33m high wall in left field.