Rob Gronkowski “threw” out the first pitch for the Red Sox on Monday, and … who are we kidding? Gronk just spiked the damn thing.

Gronkowski, who you should never let hold your baby, just can’t help himself. If he’s given a spike-able object, he’s gonna spike it. Naturally the crowd went wild, because it’s Boston. They haven’t seen a Gronk spike in a while, and the man is a legend in that city.

This was a sneakily brilliant move by Gronk. In the age of social media the first pitch is an absolute minefield. If you’re not really capable of throwing a halfway decent pitch you’re going to be roasted into next week. So why subject yourself to the possibility of ridicule when you can just slam the ball into the mound and get mammoth applause for it?

This was absolutely the right call, and Gronk was a genius for it.