--- title: Thousands of Fans Participated in Longest First Pitch Ever description: Over 2,000 fans helped set a new record at the Kansas City Royals season home opener on Sunday with the longest first pitch in history. canonical: https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-04T19:24:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:21.032Z og:title: Thousands of Baseball Fans Participated in the Longest First Pitch Ever og:description: It spanned more than nine miles og:url: https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thousands of Baseball Fans Participated in the Longest First Pitch Ever twitter:description: It spanned more than nine miles twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Thousands of Baseball Fans Participated in the Longest First Pitch Ever  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 4, 2016 7:24 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 4, 2016 7:24 PM UTC More than 2,000 fans helped set a new record at the Kansas City Royals [season home opener](http://time.com/4268232/vintage-baseball-photos/) on Sunday by lining up to complete the longest first pitch in baseball history. To kick off the Royals’ [opening day](http://time.com/4268232/vintage-baseball-photos/) [World Series rematch](http://time.com/4096126/world-series-kansas-city-royals-new-york-mets/) against the New York Mets, a ball was tossed over nine miles through the streets of Kansas City all the way from Union Station to Kauffman Stadium, reports [KSHB.](http://www.kshb.com/sports/baseball/royals/kansas-city-participates-in-longest-opening-day-pitch-ever) To participate in the [Relay the Way](https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelayTheWay?src=hash) event, fans donated to Kansas City’s [MLB Urban Youth Academy](http://mlb.mlb.com/community/uya.jsp) in Kansas City, raising $100,000 for the organization. **Read More:** [Watch a 108-Year-Old Woman Throw Out the First Pitch](http://time.com/3954900/first-pitch-oldest-woman-seattle-mariners/) The pitch took four hours to complete, with 10 seconds allotted to each person to catch and throw the ball without dropping it. Participants said they enjoyed the sense of camaraderie that was present throughout the day. “It was just fun visiting with other Royals fans here,” Pam Hahn told KSHB. “We are all just one big family, and it was just fun visiting with everybody in line.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/"},"headline":"Thousands of Baseball Fans Participated in the Longest First Pitch Ever","datePublished":"2016-04-04T19:24:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:21.032Z","description":"It spanned more than nine miles","url":"https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","Baseball","MLB","Kansas City Royals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4281064/opening-day-longest-first-pitch/","name":"Thousands of Baseball Fans Participated in the Longest First Pitch Ever"}}]}] ```