Posted: Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 9:15 AM ET (1315 GMT)
The International Space Station will be home to the ceremonial first pitch of the 2002 World Series, the championship of Major League Baseball, Saturday evening. NASA announced Friday that ISS astronaut Peggy Whitson will throw the first pitch from the station in a videotaped ceremony that will be broadcast on television and shown to fans in attendance at Game 1, held in Anaheim, California. Station commander Valeri Korzun served as catcher, while Sergei Treschev videotaped the pitch. The pitch used a ball signed by players in the 2002 All-Star Game held in Milwaukee in July; astronauts Bob Cabana and Jim Voss, who threw out first pitches in the All-Star Futures exhibition game, took two balls, which were transported to the station on a Russian Progress spacecraft. LunaCorp, a company that has worked on a number of ISS commercialization ventures, said in a separate statement that it worked closely with Major League Baseball and Fox Sports, the network broadcasting the series, to arrange the transport of the baseballs to the station. This will not be the first time a World Series ceremonial first pitch has taken place in space: in 1995 astronaut Ken Bowersox threw the first pitch for Game 5 of the 1995 World Series from the space shuttle Columbia.

Related Links:

•  NASA press release
•  LunaCorp statement