13-year-old Nick LeGrande will toss out the 1st pitch before tonight’s #Athletics game… From 1,800 miles away. twitter.com/Athletics/stat…

– Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) June 12, 2013

How exactly is that possible, you ask? TECHNOLOGY!

From the full USA TODAY story:

In a unique marriage of technology and baseball, 13-year-old Nick LeGrande will throw out the first pitch from his hometown of Kansas City, Mo., with the help of a telerobotic pitching machine.

LeGrande, a fan of both the A’s and the Yankees, suffers from aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder that induces fatigue and has rendered him unable to attend games with live crowds.

Instead, he will be joined in a miniature stadium by relatives, friends, doctors and former Little League teammates as he activates an app that will control the pitching machine on the Coliseum mound. The app will track LeGrande’s movements and will allow him to both throw the pitch and see where it goes.

Well that’s kinda awesome. Let’s just hope this robot has a better, uh, robot arm than the one that threw out the first pitch at a Phillies game a few years ago.

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UPDATE: Here’s video of Nick’s first pitch.

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