He can sing, act, (kinda) do accounting, and he can also toss a decent pitch on a Major League Baseball (MLB) diamond. Simu Liu, it seems, is something of a renaissance man.
The 32-year-old star of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings showed off his baseball chops on Sunday, tossing the first pitch at the San Francisco Giants versus the LA Dodgers.
The pitch was arguably a strike and was hailed as such by the MLB on Twitter. According to an article on MLB’s website, “Most celebrities have enough trouble getting their ceremonial first pitch over the plate. But Liu, the 32-year-old actor, writer and stuntman … delivered a strike and stuck the landing without even stepping off the mound.”
Liu shared video footage of the moment online and noted that the pitch wasn’t quite the rocket he thought it was, writing, “That pitch was like 500% faster in my head.”
That pitch was like 500% faster in my head 😜 GO GIANTS! @shangchi https://t.co/lhLXvVQzTD
— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) September 5, 2021
However, the highlight of Liu’s appearance was unquestionably the flawless backflip he busted out on the pitcher’s mound after tossing the meatball.
Following Liu’s appearance at the MLB game, Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton commented that he did the “exact same backflip” during his audition for the Marvel Studios’ film.
Liu stars as Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the story of a kung fu master who overcomes his past and becomes a hero. The film was released in North American theaters on September 3, 2021.
The film broke the Labor Day box office record in the United States, bringing in 83.5 million USD over its four-day holiday weekend opening. It made an estimated 139.7 million USD globally during the same period.
Cover image via Depositphotos
