George Mason University Athletics

Mason Baseball's First Pitch Dinner

The Patriot Club hosts the annual First Pitch Dinner in January or February prior to the start of Mason's baseball season. The fundraising event is the program's cornerstone initiative that provides funds for capital projects for the baseball team. The First Pitch Dinners have made an impact with recent upgrades to the baseball stadium. In 2017, a $1.3 million baseball stadium renovation project was completed with brand new dugouts and a major league designed fence and a brick backstop. Phase II of the capital funding project will provide Spuhler Field with a new scoreboard.


First Pitch Dinner Keynote Speakers

• World Series Champion Manager Dave Martinez was the keynote speaker at the 2018 and 2020 First Pitch Dinner, presented by Sandy Spring Bank. Martinez guided the Washington Nationals to the 2019 World Series championship, the first in franchise history. The Nationals defeated the Houston Astros four games to three to win the World Series. The road team won every game in the series for the first time in World Series history. In 2018, he participated before his first season as a Major League manager for the Nationals. 
• George Brett, Kansas City Royals Vice President of Baseball Operations was the keynote speaker at the 2017 First Pitch Dinner. Brett, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 after receiving 98 percent of the votes, is one of four players in MLB history to record 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and a career .300 batting average. A three-time batting champion, Brett is the only player in Major League Baseball history to win a batting title in three different decades (1976, 1980 and 1990). The Hall of Famer began the day Mason baseball's afternoon practice at the field house. Brett spoke to the team before pitching some soft toss in the batting cage and holding a session on hitting. 
• In 2015, the First Pitch Dinner honored Kansas City Royals baseball brass and Mason alums Dayton Moore, JJ Picollo, Lonnie Goldberg and Ken Munoz on January 23, 2015. The four baseball alums are the architects behind the Kansas City Royals team that made a historic run through the playoffs before falling to the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series. The Royals last World Series and playoff appearance was in 1985. 
• Washington Nationals radio play-by-play broadcasters Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler spoke at the 2019 First Pitch Dinner, moderated by baseball historian Phil Wood. Slowes, an original play-by-play voice of the Nationals, joined the club Feb. 24, 2005 for Washington's inaugural spring training broadcasts.  He called the first pitch in club history and is known for his trademark tag lines, "Bang-Zoom go the Fireworks," and "A Curly 'W' is in the books," after Nationals victories. Jageler joined Nationals broadcast team in 2006 and enters his 14th season with the club.  Before joining the Nationals, Jageler was the radio and television voice of the Pawtucket Red Sox of the Triple-A International League.