San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove just set a new world record, and he traveled all the way to Antarctica to do it. Musgrove and Landis Sims, a 16-year-old varsity baseball player born without hands and feet, went to Antarctica to raise awareness for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. As part of the trip, Musgrove set out to throw the fastest pitch ever recorded on Antarctica, and he did just that.
With Padres teammate Sean Manaea catching for him, Musgrove wound up and hit 86 mph on the radar gun. The pitch is still pending official recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records, but Musgrove is set to become the owner of a very unique record.
Joe Musgrove is now poised to become a world record holder!
— MLB (@MLB) December 6, 2022
He threw the fastest pitch on the coldest continent on Earth, an 86-mph fastball in Antarctica. pic.twitter.com/9wJ5kmJU3j
Sims also got to throw a couple of pitches to Musgrove, and he topped out at 44 mph before getting applause from everyone in attendance.
Between the trip to Antarctica and the opportunity to raise awareness for an organization like the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which helps physically-challenged athletes achieve their goal of playing sports alongside able-bodied athletes, Musgrove said he will never forget the experience.
"This trip exceeded every expectation I had, man," Musgrove told MLB.com. "There's so many moments throughout this trip that I'll never forget, and the group of people that we came with couldn't have been a better collection of people. I'm just very, very grateful that I was given the opportunity to come on this trip and to try to make a little bit of an impact."
Musgrove is coming off an All-Star season with the Padres in which he posted an 2.93 ERA with a 1.083 WHIP while recording 184 strikeouts in 181.0 innings of work.
