Harvey Fleming throws first pitch at M’s game

OK, so Avista Utilities employee Harvey Fleming didn’t throw heat when he was given the honor of tossing out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game.

But the fact Fleming got to throw out the first pitch still was pretty cool.

Fleming, a longtime M’s fan from the North Side, drove to the Aug. 14 game against the New York Yankees with his dad, Jerry. He arrived as your average face-in-the-crowd fan, but he left the envy of the 46,530 people in attendance.

“When I came in through the turnstile, confetti flew out of the sky, a band started playing and the (Mariners’ mascot) Moose was there,” said Fleming, a 46-year-old maintenance worker. “I thought maybe there was a radio promotion. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Fleming was told he was being recognized as the Mariners’ 50 millionth fan in the team’s regular-season history. One of the prizes was to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Fleming, who said he gets to a game about once a season, was trotted onto the field and unleashed his one-and-only pitch off a Major League Baseball mound to Seattle pitcher J.J. Putz.

“It bounced out in front of the plate. It wasn’t a very good throw,” Fleming said. “I had to walk out in front of how ever many fans there.”

Fleming also was given three baseballs; two autographed by Putz and another by M’s second baseman Bret Boone.

The club also moved him and his father to third-row seats behind first base, which beat sitting in their originally assigned upper-tier seats.

The only thing he didn’t like for his view was the final score: Yankees 6, Mariners 4.