Chiefs TE Travis Kelce ‘spikes’ ceremonial first pitch in Guardians’ home opener

CLEVELAND — There is no doubt that Travis Kelce can catch a football. His throwing ability may be a little shaky, though.

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Kelce, tapped to toss out the ceremonial first pitch for the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener on Friday, botched the throw, which looked more like a football spike than a baseball strike, ESPN reported.

Kelce, 33, born and raised in the western Cleveland suburb of Westlake, confidently strode to the mound at Progressive Field, accompanied by his mother, Donna Kelce, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. Then, he bounced his throw to Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber, according to the newspaper.

Kelce immediately sprinted toward Bieber and hugged him near home plate.

“I definitely scared him a little bit,” Kelce said, according to the Plain Dealer.

Kelce has plenty of experience spiking the ball, with 69 regular-season touchdown catches and 16 in the postseason, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. As for passing, Kelce has attempted three passes in the regular season during his career, completing one.

In the 2021 playoffs, however, Kelce completed the only pass he attempted, a 2-yard touchdown pass to Byron Pringle during the fourth quarter of the Chiefs’ 41-21 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the wild-card round.

The first pass he ever attempted, during his rookie season in 2017, was intercepted.

Kelce’s performance on Friday brought a comment from his quarterback with the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes.

“Ayyyyyy bruhhhhhhhhh,” Mahomes wrote in a tweet that was punctuated with laughing and skull emojis.

Mahomes’ position as Chiefs quarterback is safe. And so is Kelce’s -- as long as he sticks to catching the ball.